MEAT

This guy is on a mission to document his adventures in weird meat. I realize that I am culturally influenced into a barf reflex when i read his blog and see some of the pictures, but there's something about putting a creature in your mouth that's trying to bite you back that just doesn't appeal to me. Rus, on the other hand, thinks it's very cool. I am quite proud to say though that I was able to eat rotten shark meat in Iceland and he wasn't. HA! 2 points for me.

A book about books...

The author, an avid book reader, challenged herself to read one book a week for a year; not always an easy task for someone who is a mother and a full-time job-holder. This is a sort of diary of that year. I'm just in January but it is a surprisingly good read. I know it sounds horribly boring; reading about someone who is reading, but I have enjoyed it so far. I can relate to her and her frustrations and experiences. I like that she doesn't think she's a highbrow intellect or literary elitist. So this book sits by my bedside this week, along with squarefoot gardening and mexico guidebooks. I had been in a reading rut, where everything I picked up either irritated or bored me, until I got more interested in nonfiction and realized that I'm just heading into a nonfiction phase. I guess that means I don't need or want to escape the real world as much??

better than the zoo

We toured the pet stores in lethbridge with our kids yesterday. It made us too late for a wedding dinner and we missed out on the food and comradie, but we were having so much fun. One of our daughters was literally shaking with excitement at the mice scurrying in their cages. It's better than the zoo in some ways because it's free and you can cuddle the rabbits and let the birds hang out on your arm. Too bad Rus exudes something that makes animals aggressive. He was bit by a furious little albino hedgehog!

The Dorking Gap Affair!

I came across this book and just loved the title, in my head I had some good ole poking fun at the Gap kind of fun:
"The Dorking Gap Affair"

Turns out that it's actually some kind of "Mycroft Holmes Adventure" novel. Mycroft Holmes is Sherlock Holmes' brilliant older brother, apparently. Who knew?
So say the title with an English accent and maybe it will make sense.

pride and prejudice chick

i saw the new pride & prejudice. i liked it (even kierra knightly). the book (and the movie) is one of those impossible love stories that guys might find cheesy, but every woman secretly wishes for. who wouldnt want a loving family with a pile of sisters to support you. who wouldnt want to spend their days perfecting their artistic talents, in a mansion with servants to do the dirty work. who wouldnt want a lonley troubled millionaire to fall desperately in love you. especially one with the phattest side burns ever.

Rooftop Gardens

I have always loved this concept. What a great use of space. Just imagine a world where every flat-roofed building had a garden on top.

griffin and sabine

I finished the rest of the 6-logy... hexlogy... hexology... whatever. The trilogy in six parts (see post below titled "the end"). I think my brow was furrowed in agitated concentration the whole time. It took a lot of effort to stay focused on the story. The interaction between Griffin and Sabine became more intense,complicated, and mystical as another couple, Matthew and Isabella was added to the correspondence. I can't say that the story itself would stand on its own, as it was fairly ambiguous and confusing at times. It was the illustrations and the presentation that brought it to life. My imagination was exercised to the limit, which was agitating at times (hence the agitated confusion), but ultimately good for that part of my brain that has become lazy. phew! I'm reading something a little more obvious next.

The Concert

I´m still at loss for words over the Depeche Mode concert last weekend in Copenhagen. I admit that I have not been to many big concerts so I don´t have a lot of comparison but this one was just fabulous.

I did not take these pictures I got them of http://depechemode.com but they are from this tour. The stage was fantastic and Dave Gahan is just a maniac. The crowd just responds beautifully to him. I was not close to the stage but I could see it very clearly from the side and I saw the screens well and I had a wonderfull time watching the crowd interact with the band.

They started with songs from Playing the Angel
which I´ve come to like very much, and then
moved on to older songs, I got chills all over my body when they started "Walking in my shoes" which has not even been one of my favorite songs. The crowd (including me) went wild during predictable songs like "Personal Jesus" "Never let me down again" and "Behind the wheel"and "enjoy the silence" and ofcourse they where amazing.

The high point for me though was after the first encore when Martin Gore performed "Shake the disese" acommpanied only by keyboard.

He was so incredable, it was like he put his heart and soul into it. I´ve never seen or heard anything like it. He is just an incredable preformer.

Music just is not the same when played live, I had epiphany about the meaning of some lyrics at this concert and before you ask, I have not been taking any drugs.

They closed with a beautiful rendering of "Goodnight lovers" after 3 encours

The bottom line, best concert I´ve ever been to
magnificent band I might quit my job and follow them around. It´s all your fault Rus if you hadn´t given me that "Construction time again" tape I would still be sane.

I think this might be close to the order of the songs

> Intro> A Pain That I'm Used To> John The Revelator> A Question Of Time> Policy Of Truth> Precious> Walking In My Shoes> Suffer Well> Damaged People> Home> I Want It All> The Sinner In Me> I Feel You> World In My Eyes> Personal Jesus> Enjoy The Silence
encore> Shake The Disease> Just Can't Get Enough> Everything Counts
encore #2 Behind The Wheel> Never Let Me Down Again>
encore #3 Goodnight Lovers

gone to Copenhagen

I like penguins, tourists look for them all the time in Iceland which is really funny.
Anyway I´m gone to Copenhagen to see Depeche Mode in consert tell you all about it when I get back on Monday.

worst hairdo ever

Here's proof that this handsome young man does not wear a toupee, it's just a really bad combover.

the end

I know that sometimes a mysterious and unresolved ending for a story can be part of the writer's "artistic vision" but I get so frustrated when the end is left open for me to figure out for myself. I can't decide whether or not I should accuse the writer of getting out easy or whether I should respect their "vision" for the story. I just read the Griffin and Sabine trilogy by Nick Bantock. The presentation was entertaining (a collection of postcards and letters between Griffin, a postcard artist, and Sabine, a stamp designer who has visions of Griffins art). I hope this doesn't spoil it for anyone who has yet to read these but at least there were only two main options for the outcome. Either Griffin was insane the whole time or they finally got together. I haven't decided yet which one I have chosen.
Update: Lucky for me I just discovered that the trilogy actually continues for three more volumes...what kind of a trilogy includes 6 volumes??? So at least I haven't spoiled these for anyone...
(click on the picture for a larger view of one of the postcards)

challenges

I read the second book in a graphic novel series by Michel Rabagliati about a young guy named Paul, living in Quebec in the 70's. (I couldn't find the first one, Paul in the Country, and the third one, Paul Moves Out, is on its way)
Paul's job is as a camp counsellor for underprivileged and dilinquent kids. He starts out being scared of the woods, impatient with kids; pretty much defeated. He ends up falling in love with the kids, learns to rock climb and canoe and generally creates great memories for himself.
This just got me thinking about some of the times that I have felt defeated and overwhelmed (a prime example being when I start a new job). Because I didn't give up, I learned great things, made friends, improved my life. It makes me really regret the times that I have given up and potentially missed out on some amazing experiences.

my favorite author

recently i've found some time to read again and my first choice is Pearl S. Buck. here you can read a small essay she wrote on something dear to my heart. i like her for more than her books, but also for her life. she adopted over seas which is a dream of mine, but more than that, she recognized the need for foreign adoptions and she started her own adoption agency, all the while writing fabulous books about china and it's unique culture. her books are historically and culturally accurate given that she spent most of her childhood in china. i also love her because she presents the feminine role so compasionately and sympatheticaly. my favorite book is "pavilion of women". as one of my heroines, i named my van after her; the pearl.

Audrey Niffenegger

I remember the thing I really loved about The Time Traveller's Wife was how she would describe one of the characters making art. It was just so lively. Now that I have read The Three Incestuous Sisters, it makes sense that she can so vividly describe the visually creative process. This picture is from one of my favorite scenes in the book, when Clothilde gives her nephew (who is still just a fetus in her sister's womb) flying lessons.

piano man

I went to see Jon Schmidt last night with my piano teacher. He is a pianist and composer, started composing at age 11. It may seem strange that I would voluntarily pay to go see a pianist, but this guy is good. He's young and entertaining and not at all what I expected. He didn't wear a suit, he wore a t-shirt and pants. He did a Dana Carvey song about broccoli. He plays a mean piano, making good use of every key. He can get so many different sounds out of a single key. There has probably been plenty of people throughout history that have been able to do that but I think this guy has a little more fun with it.

I´ve been reading some very good things about The Three Incestuous Sisters. Lis have you read it yet? I remember you talking about it some time ago. It´s really interesting to know that it took the author 14 years to finish it. I was reading in Locus http://www.locusmag.com/ that she actually started The Time traveler´s Wife as a way to procrastinate on finishing The Three Incestuous Sisters.

opening a can of worms?

Ok, first of all I consider myself a Christian.
I was looking at the "Church of the flying spagetti monster" website and I thought it was hillarious. To me it is a joke, I was not offended. http://www.venganza.org/ I´m curious, are you guys offended? I read some of the hatemail the site has gotten and I just can´t belive that some of those people call themselfs Christians.
I was thinking that maybe I was not offended because the ID theory stuff has not been an issue here in Iceland.
The seperation of Church and State is not a fact here. When I was little just about everyone I knew belonged to the national church. Still today when you are born you automatically belong to it unless your mother belongs to a diffrent religion. When I met Rus in 1990 I had never met a person that I knew to belong to a diffrent church then me, although in theory I knew they existed. (and I guess I had already met alot of people that did not, seeing that I was in Canada at the time, I had just never discussed it with anyone)
When I was in elementary school we had Christianity as one of the subjects and I don´t remember ever having been educated in any other religion in school although I´m sure we must have talked about them at some point. (Now Icelandic schools don´t have christianity but sociology and teach about all the major religions, someone must have complained)
When I was prepering for my confirmation when I was 14, I remember my priest getting very upset when we asked him about darwin and creation. We where studying evoluton in biology at the same time and my biology teacher told us his belive which I realize today was very simular to intelligent design theory. I remember being facinated and I think we all where at the time because we (my whole class) was prepering for confirmation at church. My priest could not handle those questions and banned them from our studies. I think it probably did more damage to our faith than not.
So what am I missing here? Should I be offended and am I just a bad Christian.

we got the cronicles of narnia for christmas and i've strted reading them to the children. i'm surprised that they will sit through a whole chapter at a time, but they were written with a compadable perspective. i just wish i would have bought the books before the major motion picture came out.

the kite runner

My current reading material is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It starts out in Kabul, Afghanistan in the early 1970's. The main character, Amir, is the son of a wealthy businessman and has a servant his age named Hassan who will do anything for Amir. The funnest time in their lives is the winter when they have huge kite competitions. The whole neighbourhood sits outside to watch as hundreds of kites are flown in the sky. Participants must cut each others kites so that they fall, and then they chase down and catch ("run") the fallen kites. The winner is the last one flying and he/she must run the last kite that was cut to bring home as a sort of trophy. The copy I'm reading has the green cover but as I was googling for an image of the book, I came across this other tan one. It really caught my attention because it suggests the main incident of the story, the turning point in Amir and Hassan's life. It kind of gave me the shivers because it's not a pleasant incident at all.

taggarama

So, I have been "tagged" by Aisy (right of way). I am supposed to share five weird things about myself. I have to say that my first thought was "I hate these things". But then I felt an obligation to follow through with it and then it became a challenge and then I started enjoying it. However, I am going to rebel a little and not tag anyone else.
#1: I can't swim. Well, I can swim in the shallow end of a pool but I have never ventured into the deep end or jumped off a diving board. When I tell people this they are either shocked, amused or disgusted. Where's the sympathy!?
#2: I am a mutant. When I was born, my two smaller toes on my right foot had not yet separated. There was bone, they were just stuck together by the skin. For reactions, see #1, although my husband thinks it's pretty cool. They are separated now.
#3: I'm not a Canadian citizen. I guess that's not really weird but it does set me apart sometimes because I can't vote and do certain other things that require citizenship. I have never wanted to be a politician anyway. I would like to be able to vote but I would have to lose my Danish citizenship for that and that is something that I don't want to give up, because I am able to work anywhere in the EU, if the desire and opportunity to do so should arise.
#4: I can spin wool and weave tapestries. Although I am not very good at it (it has been at least ten years since I have last tried) and I don't have the patience to pursue it, my mother taught me to spin and weave. For some weird stuff on spinning doghair and such, see Ninjutation's post in Popscoff.
#5: I sincerely enjoy living in a small town in southern Alberta. This might not seem weird to those who don't know me well but to those that have known for a long time, they would never have thought this would happen. Although I spent my childhood equally in rural and urban communities, I thought the city was where I belonged. Turned out I just needed to find what I was looking for before leaving for something more peaceful. I didn't know it at the time but what I was looking for was the truth about life. It came to me in the best form possible: a husband in the church, followed by a twin pregnancy.

Ok so I know that I said I wouldn't tag anyone but I think I wanna tag Phyllis Sweetwater(the epitome) after all, mostly out of curiosity and because I know she has some weirdness up her sleeve and this is the sort of thing that would suit her personal blog.