Some facebook stats

Some numbers to close out the year... I have 120 "friends" over on Facebook. Of these, 45 are women while 75 are men (assuming they all are who they say they are). I have personally met 115 of them, while 5 are accepted more or less on faith. They could be aliens or figments of my imagination for all I know.

There is a surprisingly high number of Lutefisk eaters among them; 93. There are 27 unwashed, garlicky foreigners out to get Norwegian jobs & women; 15 from the USA, 2 from England, 2 from Ukraina and 2 from Sweden. Canada, Israel, Poland, Russia, Switzerland and Thailand have 1 each.

I wonder how much will have changed a year from now.

Quote of the Day

Not to know the events which happened before one was born, that is to remain always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.
- Cicero

Quote of the Day

You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and you say that WE are the ones that need help?
- Dan Barker

Quote of the Day

Don't eat yellow snow.
- Frank Zappa

Quote of the Day

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.
- Adam Smith

Quote of the Day

It is the individual’s task to differentiate himself from all the others and stand on his own feet. All collective identities... interfere with the fulfillment of this task. Such collective identities are crutches for the lame, shields for the timid, beds for the lazy, nurseries for the irresponsible.
- Carl Jung

Quote of the Day

Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we can not entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners.
- Edward Abbey

Quote of the Day

A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!' cried a cheerful voice. 'Bah!' said Scrooge. 'Humbug!'
- Charles Dickens (from "A Christmas Carol")

Quote of the Day

What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer... If I could work my will,' said Scrooge indignantly, 'every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' upon his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!'
- Charles Dickens (from "A Christmas Carol")

Quote of the Day

Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms.
- Hubert Humphrey

Happy Festivus!

A happy Festivus is heartily wished to all readers (both of you)!

Quote of the Day

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
- Thomas Jefferson

Quote of the Day

I once played a sheriff who thought he could do the job without a gun. I was dead for twenty-seven minutes of a thirty minute show.
- Ronald Reagan

Quote of the Day

"I know what you’re thinking... Did I fire six shots or only five? To tell you the truth, I forgot it myself in all this excitement. This here’s a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and it can blow your head clean off. Now, you must ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?"
- Clint Eastwood in "Dirty Harry"

Quote of the Day

You can get a lot more done with a kind word and a gun, than with a kind word alone.
- Al Capone

Quote of the Day

It is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks. It is legal and lawful to own a shotgun or a rifle. We believe in obeying the law.
- Malcolm X

Quote of the Day

After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.
- William S. Burroughs

Quote of the Day

I count religion but a childish toy, and hold there is no sin but ignorance.
- Christopher Marlowe (from "The Jew of Malta")

Quote of the Day

What do I care what impression I make on people? It's because we waste our lives caring about what others think that most of us remain morons.
- Colin Wilson

Quote of the Day

If God doesn’t destroy Hollywood Boulevard, he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.
- Jay Leno

Quote of the Day

I never work out. If God had meant us to do, he would have put diamonds on the floor.
- Joan Rivers

Quote of the Day

Sometimes I lie awake at night and ask "Why me?" Then a voice answers "Nothing personal, your name just happened to come up."
- Charles Schulz

Quote of the Day

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
- Benjamin Mays

Quote of the Day

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
- Winston Churchill

Quote of the Day

If it is committed in the name of God or country, there is no crime so heinous that the public will not forgive it.
- Tom Robbins

Quote of the Day

The successful people are the ones that can think up stuff for the rest of the world to keep busy at.
- Don Marquis

Quote of the Day

Democracy encourages the majority to decide things about which the majority is ignorant.
- John Simon

Quote of the Day

I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way.
- Carl Sandburg

Quote of the Day

"Charles, get the rifle out. We’re being fucked."
- Steve MacKintosh in "Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels"

Quote of the Day

A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.
- Dean Acheson

Quote of the Day

I seldom think of politics more than 18 hours a day.
- Lyndon B. Johnson

Quote of the Day

He who begins by loving Christianity better than Truth will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end by loving himself better than all.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Quote of the Day

Beware of programmers who carry screw drivers.
- Leonard Brandwein

Quote of the Day

Every man over forty is a scoundrel.
- George Bernhard Shaw

Quote of the Day

You know when you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.
- Paul Sweeney

Quote of the Day

She was nothing more than a mere good-tempered, civil and obliging young woman; as such we could scarcely dislike her, she was only an object of contempt.
- Jane Austen

Quote of the Day

A kleptomaniac is a person who helps himself because he can't help himself.
- Henry Morgan

Quote of the Day

Over-seriousness is a warning sign for mediocrity and bureaucratic thinking. People who are seriously committed to mastery and high performance are secure enough to lighten up.
- Michael Gelb

Quote of the Day

If lightning is the anger of the gods the gods are concerned mostly with trees.
- Lao Tse

Quote of the Day

Don't be so humble, you're not that great.
- Golda Meir

Quote of the Day

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
- Mario Cuomo

Quote of the Day

I like to browse in occult bookshops if for no other reason than to refresh my commitment to science.
- Heinz Pagels

Quote of the Day

Every exit is an entry somewhere else.
- Tom Stoppard

Quote of the Day

It is easier to be a lover than a husband for the simple reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day than to say pretty things from time to time.
- Honoré de Balzac

Quote of the Day

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.
- Ansel Adams

Quote of the Day

Truth does not demand belief. Scientists do not join hands every Sunday, singing, "yes, gravity is real! I will have faith! I will be strong! I believe in my heart that what goes up, up, up must come down, down. down. Amen!" If they did, we would think they were pretty insecure about it.
- Dan Barker

Quote of the Day

One should forgive one's enemies, but not before they are hanged.
- Heinrich Heine

Insanity

Remember the incident where I got reamed in the ass last August? Some woman in a jeep/SUV plowed into the back of my car in Oregon, and I had to change vehicles north of Eureka, even though all that was wrong was the safety belt had twisted itself and there was a small dent in the back bumper... yeah, that incident.

I got word from her insurance guy yesterday that he'd cut a check to Hertz for almost 12,000 dollars. They had totaled the vehicle for that little dent. My head is spinning with the sheer insanity of it. The insurance agent agreed, but according to him new parts were so expensive they would cost more than the car was worth. I wonder how much that poor woman's insurance premium has gone up after the incident.

For your viewing pleasure - the dent that wrecked a perfectly good Jetta:

Quote of the Day

Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.
- Bernard Berenson

Quote of the Day

The only people who say worse things about politicians than reporters do are other politicians.
- Andy Rooney

Quote of the Day

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
- Isaac Asimov

Quote of the Day

You know, a lot of girls go out with me just to further their careers ... damn anthropologists.
- Emo Phillips

Quote of the Day

Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it.
- Lao Tzu

Quote of the Day

I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.
- Thomas Jefferson

Quote of the Day

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that the only distinctly native American criminal class is Congress.
- Mark Twain

Quote of the Day

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.
- Harry S. Truman

Quote of the Day

We Americans live in a nation where the medical-care system is second to none in the world, unless you count maybe 25 or 30 little scuzzball countries like Scotland that we could vaporize in seconds if we felt like it.
- Dave Barry

Quote of the Day

In America, we have a lot of freedoms. One of these is the freedom to burn the flag. But we also have the freedom to own guns. And if you try to burn my flag, I'll shoot ya!
- Johnny Cash

Quote of the Day

In an American election, there are no losers, because whether or not our candidates are successful, the next morning we all wake up as Americans.
- John Kerry

Quote of the Day

Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Reykjavik

I've been taking pics from Reykjavik, but haven't posted any as I knew I'd be taking them all the way until we left today. I've also included about half a dozen pics of the Blue Lagoon, which I didn't go into for fear of getting harpooned.

All pics.

I believe this statue is of Ingolfur Arnarson, the first permanent settler on Iceland. Ingolfur was kicked out of Norway for participating in a blood feud.


Not sure what is here today, but on an old picture in a cafe the structure housed a small shop.


Heh. Næsti bar. It's pronounced just like "nasty". We ate in several "næsti" subways and had lots of immature fun with that. The word actually means "next".


They have some nice, old buildings here, but I wouldn't recommend Reykjavik for the architecture.


One of the main shopping streets.


A Christmas display to compete with the worst in America.


You can see the Hallgrim's Church pretty much everywhere in Reykjavik. Very practical.


The very special lava landscape around the Blue Lagoon.


Vivek and Siri risking death by harpoon.

Quote of the Day

There are only two occasions when Americans respect privacy, especially in Presidents. Those are prayer and fishing.
- Herbert Hoover

Armannsfell

After the waterfall, we decided to drive towards the huge mountain plateau of the National Park, but we only got a couple of kilometers down the road before a big information board told us we had to go back; rental cars had no insurance up in the highlands. We did get in a few nice pics of the mountain right in front of us, which I believe is called Armannsfell.

All pics.

This mountain wanted us dead, of that I am sure.


Siri said that whenever she saw a big, snowcapped mountain like this, she was filled with gratitude that she was not on it.


It was a sentiment I shared.


The sign banishing us from the mountain.

Quote of the Day

Democracy is a process by which people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.
- Laurence Peter

Öxararfoss

The time has finally come for pictures of the actual waterfall Öxararfoss, which flows with water from the river Öxara. Again, this river comes from the American tectonic plate and falls into a lake on the Eurasian tectonic plate (the previously mentioned Thingvallavatn). My head is spinning at the thought of it all. It is not a very big waterfall, but it is absolutely stunning in all its wintery prettiness, Have a looksee.

All pics here.

Sho, sho purdy.


View downstream.


So damn nice.


The higher fall. Note the pretty icicles.


Close up of the lower fall.


Lava rocks wrapped up in pretty, white clothing.


Lava rocks on the banks.

Walking between continents

After the visitor center, we drove on and very soon came to a sign for Öxararfoss, a place I'd read was possibly the best to see the rift between the continents. Allow me to elaborate a little more about this rift. Iceland is relatively young in a geological perspective; a mere 17 million years. It is made up of matter that has come out of the rift between the European and the North American tectonic plates over millions of years, and this rift goes through the whole country; it sort of straddles the two plates. In the area around Thingvellir it's very visible and probably nowhere more so than at Öxararfoss (axe falls).

Iceland is growing by a few millimeters every year, as earthquakes keep tearing the two continents apart and the area around Thingvellir is hit by minor quakes quite frequently. I am given to understand that it is a rather invigorating experience to stand between the continents when such a quake takes place (read: I'd soil myself with terror). In the following are pics from my walk to and from the waterfall, where you can see lots of cool canyon stuff. This island cries out for more movies!

All pics.

Overview of the whole 1 km walk to the waterfall.


View down the first canyon. That's Europe to the left and America to the right.


View back up the first canyon.


View of canyon number two. Again, Europe to the left and America to the right.


The very edge of the American continent rising up out of the ground. I'm getting goosebumps as I write this.


The last stretch to the waterfall is a wooden walkway through a third canyon.


In the middle of the picture sits a grouse. This is back at the first canyon.


I have no idea why the Icelanders put fences around their vast mountain areas. If anyone is so fucking stupid as to wander out there without taking the necessary precautions, it's Darwin's will, good people.

Thingvellir National Park

Saturday has mostly been spent in or near Thingvellir National Park. As mentioned previously, we drove up there on Thursday but the weather was so bad we couldn't see anything, and decided to return to Reykjavik. Today has been windy but visibility has been a lot better, as you will see. First, some pics from the area around the Visitor Center.

All pics here.

Thingvellir. On this plain, the early Icelanders would gather in summer to debate and vote. The Icelanders claim it's the oldest Parliament in the world.


This is where Europe (right) meets America (left). Iceland is made of stuff coming up from the deep where the two tectonic plates meet. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.


Me almost being blown over by the hurricane strength wind. A Japanese family that came after us had three little children who were holding on to the railings for dear life.


The lava flow has made lots of interesting patterns in the rock.


Upon arrival we got something of a shock. A driverless car was backing out of a lot and slowly making its way to a ditch on the other side of the parking lot. Fortunately it didn't seem to have any damage to it. But THAT was how strong the wind was. Afterwards I experimented with our own huge Toyota - no handbreak, no gear - and it was slowly rolling backwards after a few seconds. Gaaaah.

Pics from the road II

Some more pictures from the various Icelandic roads we've been on these past three days.

All pics.

There was this stretch of road where the clouds were insane, both in coloration and shape.




Windswept. I took this pic from the car. It covers some of the area I tried to shoot when I was being blown around Friday.


Mount Hekla, an active volcano down south.


35 and 37 kph. 32 is the limit for hurricanes. Whimper.


Pwetty mountain in the wind.


Wind blowing dust and pebbles off the mountain. We saw (but couldn't get a pic of) water being blown up from a stream about 20 meters off the road, and onto the asphalt.


Structures built into the lava rock.


Some pwetty horses along the way.




Getting it on.


Vivek's comment: "I'm not in the mooooooood".

Pics from the road I

These are some pics from the various Icelandic roads we've been on so far. The gallery will probably be expanded in the next two days. Some observations on traffic here in Iceland: A very high percentage of cars here have something wrong with one headlight. I estimate that maybe one in five cars have one light either completely dark, weakened or shining like a supernova. I don't know if changing lightbulbs is an expensive operation or if the Icelandic just don't give a shit, but it's definitely a characteristic of traffic over here.

Except for the major roads in and out of Reykjavik during the very height of rush hour, there is nothing resembling jams here. We've been going on major routes both north and especially south of Reykjavik, and traffic has been light. There just aren't enough people in this country to clutter up the roads. So far, it seems motorists are fairly polite and we haven't seen any insane driving (apart from our own).

The landscape here is crazy, although the weather has kind of made the whole country seem a bit grey these past two days. Now, there are stretches with boring, flat grasslands, but there are also big glaciers spouting wild waterfalls; there are fields of old, molten lava; tall, snowcapped mountain passes; winding roads and clear, blue lakes; there are deep valleys where the only signs of life are the hardy Icelandic Horse and some very windswept sheep. In short, we're in complete agreement that this island is both absofuckinlutely brilliant and that the scenery is calling out for a lot more movie shots. Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, take heed!

All pics from the road(s).

This windswept fella was staring at us as we slowed down to take pics.


We'd just crossed this river.


A few hours later we crossed this river, which was full of drifting ice.


Waves frozen in ice.


Ice rapidly moving downstream. It was so effin cold and windy here.