The Yellow Book

Tomorrow is Halloween. It's all about Halloween here, now. Since October 1st, shops have been making special offers on big bags of Halloween sweets, costumes, pumpkins and decorations. And there was an article in today's Scotsman about Halloween and how it's changed over the past 20 years, and how it's so commercialised and stuff. How the traditions have changed - they've been infected by the American trick-or-treat traditions we see on TV and in movies. Not being from a culture in which Halloween is celebrated, so far all I know about the traditions is, in fact, what I've seen on TV and in movies. From the USA. But from this Scotsman article I learned that here, kids used to (and apparently in some places they still do) go door to door trick-or-treating, but instead of just demanding sweets, they sang and/or told jokes. That's kinda like the Ash Wednesday tradition in Iceland!

But of course everybody knows the real story behind Halloween is ancient pagan ritual, which you can read about here, among other things.

Anyways. On Saturday the family went together to a Halloween party at another Icelandic family's house. (btw: the house was incredibly nice!) Three other Icelandic families were invited, two of whom we know well. As this was a Halloween party, we were encouraged to wear costumes. Not everybody did - in fact there were only two who really made the effort; Hildur, mother of two boys, dressed up as a bat (or perhaps Dracula; I'm not too sure!) and Sigrun Ugla, as a pumpkin. Yes. Mom and Bjorgvin could not resist when they went to ASDA on Saturday when they saw the most adorable toddler pumpkin costume, and bought it for her. Surprisingly, she really liked it, and didn't even want to take it off! I didn't want to wear my Rogue costume again - it really didn't feel right to be dressing up as a superhero to go to a small family party, at 4 PM on a Saturday! So I decided to just try to do my make-up as "Goth" as I could; lined my eyes with black eyeliner, used my black eye shadow on the whole of my eyelids, put on lots of my black mascara, powdered my face with my lightest power, and then I put a bit of blush on my cheek bones. And to top it off I put on a dark purple lipstick (whic I haven't used since 1999, when I got it for Christmas, nota bene), which unfortunately turned way pink when I added some gloss on top, to make my lips, well, glossier. Then I dressed only in black, and wore black earrings and necklace. When we got to the party, everybody - as was to be expected - complimented Sigrun Ugla on her cute pumpkin costume, but then the host said something about how people didn't bother to wear costumes; there were only Hildur and Sigrun Ugla, and then one og Hildur's sons wore a cape. I was afraid that the guests - the ones I wasn't too familiar with, as well as the hosts, might have thought I was just like that. That I was all about the black. I cleared it up later on, and they actually seemed a bit relieved. Don't know why, though. I'm sure Goths are just as nice as other people!

Ah well. Enough for now; I'll tell you more about Hallowe'en tomorrow or Wednesday or Thursday or... Whenever I can be bothered!

QotD: Cordelia: "I know my ABC's, my history, I know who's President, and that I sorta wish I didn't." Angel

-: Trina illustrated her blog at 23:05:-

Friday, October 27, 2006

Aren't mom and Bjorgvin pretty? And by the way - that photo is neither photoshopped nor taken in a studio; this is actually what the weather was like on their wedding day!

-: Trina illustrated her blog at 23:24:-

Matti in the middle

A couple of years ago I posted a picture of Matti, my lil bro with his sisters, and now another one has been taken, as he's gained 2 sisters since then (one half and one step), and this pic's a lot better as well.

From left to right:
Briet, 8 months; Dilja, 9; Aldis Maria, 22; Sigrun Ugla, 2: Ua, 3; Matti; and me in the front.

QotD: Michael Moore: "Do you like living here?"
Canadian: "I like it very much."
Michael Moore [notices his T-shirt that reads "I *heart* NY]: "And your T-shirt?"
Canadian: "The T-shirt, too." - Bowling for Columbine

-: Trina illustrated her blog at 22:20:-

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Nostalgia on ice

I like ice skating. And as I don't get a chance to do so often, I enjoy it all the more the very few times that I am in the vicinity if an ice skating rink when it is actually open, or on the rare occasion that the Pond freezes over enough to be able to carry a dozen ice skaters - which nowadays only stays frozen for two or three days in a row at a time. This happens two or three, perhaps more, times over the winter months.
Ah, I remember the good old days of yore, when we would head out to the Pond in the cold afternoon, wearing woollen socks and mittens to match, carrying backpacks with our skates, spare socks, cups and thermos filled to the brim with hot chocolate. We would sit on a bench by the Pond while we put on our skates - which was sometimes a bit hard on account of the thickness of the woollen socks - and then shoved the shoes and the backpacks underneath the bench. It didn't even occur to us that they might be stolen or vandalised; this was Iceland in the nineties, after all! (Things have changed now, I've heard.) Sometimes we would wait for each other - help each other step down onto the slippery ice without falling. Needless to say, we often fell. Usually, the snow, whether it was a thin veil or deep snowdrift, had been cleared off a small part of the (relatively) huge Pond, for skaters. However, the biggest un was skating through the snow, outside of the cleared part. Then we would dare each other; who dared skate farthest from the clearing. There are two little islets in the middle of the Pond, and the aim was to get there, but we seldom ventured further than that, because the ice was often thinner out there. And of course we did not desire it to break underneath our weight - all 30± kilogrammes.
When we'd get hungry and our fingers and toes were finally on the verge of turning into ice cubes, we'd take a short break to skate back to the bank, sit on the bench while drinking the hot chocolate and eat our sandwiches and chocolate biscuits. When we had thawed out, we'd stumble back to the Pond and sskate until after dusk - which in Icelandic winter starts at 4-5 PM. We often stayed until five minutes before dinner time (which was, in my home, flexible back then) and when our parents' hair had started turning grey with worries. This we were, of course, oblivious to. You must also take into account that this was before the age of mobile phones becoming a commonly-owned device, let alone the huge NMTs that were in the possession of probably about 10% of the population - maybe less. I still remember the first time I saw an NMT (mobile); I was eleven and was having a sleepover with my then-best friend, and we were to babysit her two younger sisters while their father went somewhere. He showed us his NMT and told us the number - I remembered it (the number i.e.) for about a year after, even though I never dialled it! I'm funny like that; I used to have an exceptionally goot memory for telephone numbers. I remembered my old friends' numbers for years (though I've forgotten them now) after I dialled them for the last time. I've got a harder time learning new nubers now. I blame mobiles, with their phonebooks and speed dial and stuff The only numbers - ten digit numbers I should say - I've learned by heart in the last year are my own mobile and our home number. They're both very simple and logical.
But I digress hugely. Back to the ice skating. When we finally dragged our exhausted selves back home (up a slope!), we might or might not receive a bit of telling-off; not because our parents were mad, but because of the aforementioned grey-hair-inducing worries. We felt no guilt, naturally. And although the day might have been below-zero (centigrade) cold, memories of dusk-dare-snow-skating were created that would warm my heart for many of the odd seasons of nostalgia.
Cheesy, I know, but bear with me - nostalgia season has started!

QotD: Mrs. Bennet: "Now she'll have to stay the night. Exactly as I predicted."
Mr. Bennet: "Good grief, woman. Your skills in the art of matchmaking are positively occult." [Mrs. Bennet giggles]
Elizabeth Bennet: "Though I don't think, Mama, you can reasonably take credit for making it rain." - Pride & Prejudice (film)

-: Trina illustrated her blog at 20:22:-

Friday, October 20, 2006

I want more!

-: Trina illustrated her blog at 00:33:-

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Drunk

I have just drunk two litres of Sprite Zero. I have no control. I lack self-discipline.

QotD: David Abbott: "You were right, she's alive!"
Darryl: "Righteous."
David Abbott: "But her family is going to turn off her life support."
Darryl: "Not so righteous." - Just Like Heaven

-: Trina illustrated her blog at 22:50:-

Garfield-Style

-: Trina illustrated her blog at 01:08:-

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

National this, national that

According to last weekend's Scotsman, this week is the National Chocolate Week in the UK. To celebrate, I bought some Green & Black's Organic dark chocolate with whole cherries today. And like a true lover of chocolate, I've already finished it.

I heard on Ras 2 - Icelandic radio station - online yesterday, that today, October 17th, is National Blog Day in the UK, and all people there were encouraged to blog about their day. OK, so I have neither heard nor read anything about this day here, but I am going to blog about my day nonetheless.

So here goes:

I got a haircut - just a trim, though the hairdresser also blow-dried and straightened my hair first, - returned the DVD I rented yesterday, The Ballad of Jack and Rose - think Lolita without the road trip and without the gross pedophile sex vs. The Village without the old-fashioned clothes and beliefs, not to mention the terror of the fictional monsters, - and bought The Scotsman, Diet Pepsi and some chocolate. Also did a tiny amount of German homework. Cooked stir-fry with beef, green and red peppers, mushrooms, kidney beans and some kind of tomato sauce.

That's about it.

QotD: Bethany: "You're saying that having beliefs is a bad thing?"

Rufus: "I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier." - Dogma

-: Trina illustrated her blog at 21:59:-

Monday, October 16, 2006

New pictures!

So I went to visit Anna in Aberdeen on the weekend, and here are the pix!

-: Trina illustrated her blog at 23:58:-

Doing it Garfield-style

The spider I mentioned in the second to last post is still dead on the floor, flattened. Seriously; there's not even any goo or spider-guts, only the black spider-shaped spot. Like the spider in Garfield, the one he's always swatting with the newspaper, only this one was flattened by a video tape. Funny. I'm going to take a picture of it and post it here as soon as I can be bothered. Right now I'm sitting in bed, underneath the duvet, and just cannot even get up. It's just too comfy.

QotD: Carrie: "You can't make friends with a squirrel. Squirrels are just rats with cuter outfits." - Sex and the City

-: Trina illustrated her blog at 22:36:-

Friday, October 13, 2006

My first youtube video!

Yes, I've put together my first video and uploaded it on youtube. My digital camera has a video feature, but you can only take for 30 seconds at a time, and it's silent, but at least it's something! It wasn't until recently that I realised that I can use the Kodak EasyShare programme to edit videos together (there it's called "splicing" - a word I've never heard before myself. You?) and even add music. So today I "spliced" together all the short videos that I took of the End of Edinburgh Festival 2006 Fireworks (3. September), cut out the bad parts, and added music, which just happened to be the exact same length as the video! Here it is:

When I had uploaded it on youtube, I saw that there are many videos of the End of Festival Fireworks and mine is nowhere near the best of them. Look at this, for example. This has got the bangs and everything, and you can even hear the music that the orchestra played - I had to listen to it on the radio because I was too far away.

QotD: Willow: "Is there anything that you don't know everything about?"
Giles: "Synchronized swimming. Complete mystery to me." - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

-: Trina illustrated her blog at 19:36:-

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Spiders and a list

Taking care of myself - feeding myself and waking myself up in the morning, i.e. - has been going quite well so far. (Mind you, tomorrow is Friday the 13th, so if I were superstitious I might be worried...) But the first evening didn't go seamlessly. I hat leftovers from the Thai take-away we had on Monday, mixed with leftover fries/chips from Sunday. Oh, no problem with the food. It was delicious and I ate almost everything that was left. So there's no coconut chicken rotting in the fridge. But as I was sitting on the couch in front of the TV eating - first time in a while that I could watch an entire Two and a Half Men episode (it's always on at 18:30, the fixed dinner time in this household) - I saw something large with eight long legs scuttling from underneath the couch. I was astonished and creeped out at the same time. Regular readers might know that I do not like spiders at all. And there one was, large and scary, on the living room floor, hesitating for a moment, as if to dare me to come step on it. Unfortunately, I wasn't wearing slippers. But I couldn't just let it get on with crawling around in my house; it could go anywhere! So slowly I stood up, looked around for flat, heavy items, settled on a Treasure Planet video, aimed, and slammed it down onto the spider. I still don't know if it managed to escape or if it got flattened under the Treasure, because I haven't dared to pick up the video. I know. I'm a scaredy-cat, and I do know that the spider is supposed to be way more frightened of me than I am of it. Well, it must have been scared shitless, then. Well. This is not all. Maybe it was the same spider, or perhaps its mate that ended up in a dirty glass in the sink the next morning. Yup. I came downstairs to have breakfast, and looked in the sink at the previos day's crockery leftovers. And whaddya know: there was some curled up leggy creature floating on top of the small amount of water that was in the tall glass. I squinted and looked hard and tried to figure out what it was, until it hit me; this was a spider. Dead, thankfully, so I had no problem washing it down the sink drain. But really, am I being watched by some sort of a spider Big Brother, and when/where I least expect and/or want (OK, I'd never actually want a spider in my bed, but you get my drift, yes?) they throw a couple of eight-legged freaks at me, or something?

Moving on.

It has been brought to my attention that on account of my always listening to my iPod, as opposed to the radio or my stereo, my mother is slightly worried (or something like that) because she doesn't know what kind of music I listen to anymore. Well, mother, since we now can access the internet at home, and you might therefore take a look at my blog, I've decided to make a list of the musicians that I listen to the most at the moment - also the ones by whom I have more than 1-2 songs on my iPod. With some I've posted a link, mother, so you can listen to some samples!

The list is in alphabetical order, but my very favourites at the moment are in italics:

Alanis Morissette, Avril Lavigne (I've got memories, OK!?!), Backstreet Boys (ibid), The Beatles (DUH), Ben Kweller, Bon Jovi, Britney Spears (so lame that she's cool...), Bryan Adams, Buffy - Once More with Feeling soundtrack, Celine Dion, Dolly Parton (Jolene and 9-5!), Elton John, Emiliana Torrini, Eric Clapton, Frank Sinatra, The Fugees, Gavin DeGraw, Grease soundtrack, Green Day, Iron & Wine, John Lennon (post-Beatles), Katie Melua, Keane, Kelly Clarkson (no matter how cheesy she is, her voice is brilliant and some of the songs are catchy!), Lauryn Hill (old-ish stuff), Lene Marlin, Letters to Cleo (10 Things I Hate About You, anyone?), Madonna, Mariah Carey (pre-nervous breakdown), Maroon5, Michelle Branch, Moulin Rouge soundtrack, Mook (little-known and unpublished), Mushman (ibid), Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, No Doubt, Norah Jones, Pall Oskar, Pall Rosinkranz, Peggy Lee (Fever! Yeah!), Quarashi, Queen, Ragnheidur Groendal, R.E.M., Robbie Williams, Rod Stewart, Rooney, Sheryl Crow, Simon & Garfunkel, Sister Act 1+2 soundtracks, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Spice Girls (yeah yeah yeah I know), Sting, Thorunn Antonia, The Thrills, Travis, Vonda Shepard (remember Ally McBeal?).

So that's about it. I've got lots more fantastic favourite songs, one-hit-wonders mostly - i.e. bands and artists who only hit me with one wonder.... But the list is way long enough already!

QotD: Lane: "How are you doing, Kirk?"

Kirk: "Great. I'm loving this blackened Cajun bread Luke made for me. I didn't even ask for it."

Lane: "It's burnt toast, Kirk. You don't have to eat it."

Kirk: "But I'm loving it. And look, I've been mixing black ash with the runny eggs. Goes great with the fishy-tasting bacon." - Gilmore Girls

-: Trina illustrated her blog at 20:20:-

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Change of plan

It has been a while now since I decided I wanted to go to Copenhagen University next year to study literature. In Danish. Danish has always been among my favourite school subjects (it's just the language itself!) and therefore I have done fairly well. I have actually missed it a bit since I moved, but watching Finding Nemo dubbed in Danish has helped some (sooo funny!). So I figured since I have already sat my Danish final exam and done fairly well, I could pick it up again in no time, if I were to move to Denmark. I still don't doubt that. However. With my mother's constant badgering about deciding what I want to do with my life, and finally making me agree to study to be a teacher after I get my BA - because that's really the only thing you can do with a degree in literature; teach, she says - I started thinking harder. If I were to study in Denmark, while all the lectures would be in Danish and that probably wouldn't be a problem once I got settled it - hell, I've heard of people going to uni in Sweden with no language basis whatsoever, not even Danish, so why couldn't I do this? - I'd obviously have to write essays in Danish; I may be well competent in "skoledansk", but writing uni-level essays in the language? I don't think I'm quite ready for that. Also, according to the course description on ku.dk there will also be reading material in English (no problem!), German (getting there) and French (excusez moi?). Yeah. I think that the fact that I don't have any French exams might be a reason for my not getting in. And besides - reading heavy literary theory stuff by some French philosophers, in French? Am I taking too big a bite out of the apple?

So I reconsidered. And I have come up with a new plan. Although this plan will not involve me being away away from everybody I know and love, in a foreign culture, I would be tackling something I can actually see myself succeeding in.

English.

I've decided I want to study English at the University of Iceland, and after that, barring my thinking of a new and better plan during the three years of study, study to become an English teacher - in Iceland of course. Maybe I could be a translator. That would be fun, I think.

I mean, who am I kidding? Here I am, writing in English. I speak English every day (OK, seeing as how I live in an English-speaking country I couldn't exactly avoid it!). I pretty much only read in English. I watch (and listen to) TV and films in English. Hell, I've even more than once and more than twice caught myself thinking in English.

You see, mom suggested I'd study Icelandic as well, which would improve my chances of getting a teaching job, since that subject is compulsory for the 10+ years of kids' schooling. But I was adamant that I did not want to study Icelandic at uni; I'm not even sure I could, because I'm missing two whole years of college Icelandic! But mom said, "Oh, you'll be fine - you've always been good at it, you know the language!" I tried to explain that it's not really the same as learning a foreign language. Besides. For all my alertness to grammatical and spelling errors and dative syndrome, I am not interested in it.

Which is when I realised it: What subject was I always good at at school, and could actually see myself teaching happily? It's obvious. And since I've been looking at the course descriptions in the online HI syllabus, it looks very much like something I would like to learn. It really combines all my interests concerning the language; grammar, linguistics, literature, the history and cultural history of the English-speaking countries, and there's even a 2nd/3rd year elective in creative writing!

Can you spell out M-Y T-H-I-N-G or what?

QotD: J: You do know Elvis is dead, right?"
K: "No, Elvis is not dead: he just went home." - Men in Black

-: Trina illustrated her blog at 16:18:-

Friday, October 06, 2006

"No, madam, I never eat muscatel grapes"

This is such a funny quote, especially in the context - it's from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce, and perhaps, though I'm not sure, a direct quote from The Count of Monte Cristo. You see, the main character is imagining that he's the Count, and he says this to his love Merdeces.

Yes, Mrs Maciver keeps on saying I'm a good student. This is because I wrote 8 pages of detailed notes - basically I fleshed out my notes from classes - for the first homework assignment, which was indeed to write notes on the first chapter of the aforementioned book. In my edition of the book, a Penguin Popular Classic, the first chapter is... 67 pages, I think. So no wonder the notes were so long. Anyway. This pleased Mrs Maciver, and she also thinks it's "amazing" (her word, not mine!!!) that I'm doing Advanced Higher English, because English is not my native language. But really, it's not as much English as it is literature, which is totally my thing. Although I think I could do even better if it were the linguistics and grammar and stuff of the language - which they don't even teach the younglings here - because of my stellar education in Iceland.

What I find strange, though, is that Mrs Maciver is so happy about how I'm doing, even though I don't participate much in the class discussion; when I'm asked a question, I often am not sure what to say. I am, however, an excellent listener and note-taker, which I believe is the key to my so-far-success. I just hope I'll get better at thinking for myself!

QotD: Sheryl: [after Frank tried to commit suicide] "I'm so glad you're still here."

Frank: "Well, that makes one of us." - Little Miss Sunshine

-: Trina illustrated her blog at 22:35:-

All Hallow's Eve