New site

Just letting everyone know that I've decided to discontinue this blog. I set up a site on MSN Live Spaces, and I'm having a lot of fun with that. You are all welcome to visit there and keep up on the news.

Talk to y'all soon.

Helvutlen

Pirates and Emperors

Found another great clip at TayTV.com. It's based on a book of the same name by our friend, Noam Chomsky.

Enjoy.


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Amazing Launch

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Are you ready for the Challenge?

Frustration

I'm learning to appreciate a certain individual in my past much better lately. That person is Egill Gunnarsson, the director of Silfur Egils (the choir doesn't exist anymore, but I know that there are many old members with fond memories). I supposed I just never appreciated the amount of work and frustration and disappointment that goes into directing a choir on a regular basis.

Here I am, the night before my men's choir rehearsal, trying desperately to find new music. I thought I had it all sorted out, in fact I know that I did. I had all three pieces chosen a few weeks ago, I think I did it just after the last performance. But then I got an email from one of the counter-tenors (the last one), telling me he wouldn't be able to make it. Which leaves me with three pieces for ATTB and no A.

But hey, things have been looking brighter on the romantic front, so I suppose I shouldn't complain. I've suffered with enforced celibacy long enough, I think.

Oh, one more point that I almost forgot to mention. I bought my first copy of 'The Weather Makers' today to give away as a gift. Joseph (my dear cousin) was in town, and we had a great visit, as usual. On the way to work this morning, I asked him to stop at McNally Robinson and picked one up for him. That makes one copy given, and the original leant out once.

Onward!!!

what a drag

Well, things have been rather exciting lately, despite the fact that I've made no progress on sharing copies of 'The Weather Makers'. I did lend my copy to E____ (someone that I should probably tell more about later), but that's it so far. The main reason for that...? Bank issues.

I won't bother boring you with all the details. Suffice it to say that the bank reversed 2 cheques without calling me. Then, when I had rewritten the cheques and transferred money in to cover them, they took a double loan payment and reversed them again. When all the smoke cleared, the charges from SCU and my apartment management company added up to over $150. If SCU hadn't given me a temporary overdraft, I wouldn't have had enough for my rent.

The weekend was very entertaining, in a painful sort of way. I was supposed to go out with a couple of friends/co-workers for a game of golf after the Singer's dress rehearsal. One of them cancelled, so the other person and I decided to just get some dinner. There has been something brewing between her and me (I think), and this was our first time doing something outside of work.

It took us a while to choose a restaurant, but we decided on one at the Forks. We walked in, found out there was a wait of an hour, and decided to sit in the lounge. On our way through the restaurant, we bumped into a table of people from work who had met for a going-away party. That would have been enough to start some healthy rumours, but it gets even better than that. The people at the table were all from the old department that we both worked in previously, and included her ex-boyfriend whom she has not seen outside of work since they broke up. Couldn't have been more perfect. The evening did go well, and we rented a movie to watch at her place, but I felt a bit wierd about trying anything after the restaurant fiasco.

Why can't this stuff ever just be easy?

rollin', rollin', rollin'

Well, the first copy of The Weather Makers has been purchased. I went out with Ange for breakfast on April 1 and bought a copy of that, along with copies of Besieged for David and me.

Weather Makers is fantastic... a bit scary (okay, a LOT scary) but I think it has a lot of good information, critical information. And it would be foolish not to do anything.

I liken it to Descartes argument of the wager. Either God exists, or he doesn't. If he doesn't, it really doesn't matter whether you believe in Him or not, the outcome is the same. If he does, though, then the results of your beliefs become much more critical. Same thing with climate change, either it's happening or it isn't. If it isn't and we work to clean up the environment and get rid of carbon, it'll have little or no impact (other than giving us a cleaner environment). If the climate is changing, and we choose to do nothing, we might end up destroying the planet's ability to support life. Bit of a no-brainer.

I haven't decided when I'm going to purchase the next copy. Likely in the next month or so. I got my raise the other day, and it should more than cover an extra book or two per month. And just think of the potential impact!

A seed

I got an idea, see? And I think it's a workable one, maybe even a good one. Dare to dream, could it be a great one?

If any of you have read Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point, you'll know that he makes a pretty strong case for the societal effects of certain types of individuals. He calls them Connectors, Mavens and Salespeople. I won't go into detail here, other than to recommend the book. I bring it up because it gave me the glimmer of an idea.

I'm a Connector, you see. Just a few words will suffice to describe Connectors, they're those people we all know who just seem to know EVERYBODY. No matter where they go, they always seem to run into at least one friend. I've always been that person - I don't know why, and I'm not complaining. In fact, I just realized that the blog phenomenon is one of the best things that could happen to us Connectors. Now we can reach all our network of friends with ease.

But I'm digressing again.

Knowing that I'm a Connector, and realizing what an influence they can have over society, I've decided to take the Spiderman approach to it all. With great power comes great responsibility, and there are things that I can accomplish through my connections. At least I hope.

Here's the crux of the matter. I know that the situation with the climate is getting very bad, and we all have to take ownership and help out to change that, or quite frankly, we're doomed. Just a few days after reading The Tipping Point, I heard an interview on CBC with Tim Flannery, the author of The Weather Makers. I haven't read the book yet, but he made a lot of sense on when he was talking. I've decided to read the book, and, if it's as good as the critics are saying, and as effective, I plan to start buying additional copies and giving them away to friends and acquaintances. Maybe I can assist in spreading this important message.

Well, that all sounded very righteous and noble. I do really mean it, without any bluster. I just wanted to document the plan as it grows. Who knows, maybe you'll be the next one to get one. Let me know if you are interested.

Hiati - that is so not a word!

K

#1 - I'm sick of doing this in Icelandic.
#1a - Actually, I'm just sick of having a rule that this should be written in Icelandic, because obviously I'm not doing it in any language. Let's hope this fixes that.

#2 - I was thinking maybe I should wait and make it a full year with no posts, but it turns out that the last one was in July 2005, and I kinda want to write something right now.

#3 - I don't really know what I want to write, and I'm hesitant to put in anything about personal stuff. Would be very unprofessional of me to write about Convergys and frustrations here, and the same goes for the singing and choirs. Honestly, I think the main motivating (or un-motivating factor) is that I wouldn't want anything to come back and haunt me.

You know, that kind of gets me thinking. When I was a kid, I used to read those 'Choose-your-own-adventure' (TM) style books, and I'd always try to hold my last page, in case things didn't turn out the way I'd hoped. But of course, I have to make a string of decisions and hold multiple pages to have a safe path back. I've often thought of that as a bad sign, showing my inability to make decisions and stick to them. But now I wonder if maybe it has some positive effects. I do have the tendency to hedge my bets, to cover my ass. I try to think of as many possible outcomes and interpretations before I do or say anything.

Of course, that brings me back to the fact that that behaviour has really hurt me when trying to find a romantic partner. I go a bit overboard, especially when the emotions are running high, and get too invested. So I plan out the conversations and choose the ones I want to have based on the scenario I've imagine. Sometimes I wish I weren't so thoughtful and careful.

Þá leggjum við í 'ann

So, tomorrow is the big day. Finally we get to go on the big tour to Taiwan and Japan. Það er ekkert smá spennandi, get ég sagt ykkur. Og ég er orðinn virkilega spenntur fyrir að sjá þetta heimskórmót. Ég veit að við verðum ekki neitt merkilegt miðað við aðra kóra þar, en mér er sama um það. Ég vil bara hitta þetta fólk og læra af því.

Jæja, en það er víst ekki sniðugt að vera að skrifa ímeil langt fram á nótt rétt fyrir ferð. Best að fara að hvíla sig aðeins til að vera ferskur í fyrramálið.

Wish me luck. Ég mun reyna að skrifa eitthvað hér á meðan ég er að ferðast. Kannski myndir... who knows...?