Waking up too early yet another weekend. Not bad though, spent last night learning how to properly tie a bow tie. Go Me. It was a bit embarrassing at last year's Con to have to ask strangers if they could help. No such begging this time round.
After my weekend in Copenhagen, it's natural that I should want to finally finish one of the books I got for Christmas, the biography of Jón Sigurðsson Iceland's number one freedom fighter. With the pen of course, we've never had people spilling blood for us. It's hard to wrap one's mind around how things were then. He was born in 1811, left his home in Iceland's West Fjords to study aged 18, left for Copenhagen when 22, leaving his fiancee and didn't return to .is until he was 34, then marrying the poor woman, forty she was by then, and travelling to see his parents for the first time in 16 years. It must be saids that there were better travellers and the probable syphilis must have helped in him not wanting to go home to get his wife-to-be. No wonder she's a bit bitter on that photo taken after they got back to .dk

Went into shop in clear weather, came out 15 minutes later to a completely white world. In other words, it was snowing heavily. Supposed to continue like this over the weekend. The weekend should be fun. More after it happens. Copenhagen report to happen tonight.

A week and a half has gone by, and it's been a fairly eventful week and a half. The short version is that I now have a nice notebook computer, a new printer, a wireless (and wired) LAN at home and now all my computers can access each other and the 'net. Also I went to Copenhagen. The full travelogue must wait a bit, since I'm doing other stuff atm. But there are some very nice photos waiting to appear on my web.

Just back from seeing Daredevil at the end of a pretty good day, good sleeping, including an extra couple of hours in late morning, so not me, some Angel goodness, a United win in the early afternoon, bringing a cake (bought in a bakery, I may be a good cook, but a hopeless baker) to mum'n'aunt's for afternoon coffee, watching Arsenal lose while doing mum's taxes (the former more than making up for the latter), then steak'n'beer at TGI's at a mall before going to see Daredevil. I think that proves the case for daygoodness, don't you think?
Daredevil's a good movie, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's a comic book movie so don't expect Dogma style realism or anything, but it's great fun. It looks good and sounds good. I'm not feeling as enthusiastic about it as I did when coming home from seeing Spiderman, but since I'm now watching Spiderman again (didn't finish watching a few nights back and when Angel came he usurped Spidey's place in the DVD player) I have a feeling that DD might have a bit more re-watch power. Kirsten Dunst edges it over Jennifer Garner, but only just.
For those who want me to be more artistic in my movie going, I'm planning to see The Hours, and possibly About Schmidt. Gangs of New York and Chicago are also on the possibly list. Maybe I'll manage a movie-going-week, haven't gone to the movies since TTT disappointed me.

Darn good dinner last night, good to see Árni and Ingibjörg again. Late night and sleeping in (Björnstyle, this means until 7.20am) meant I drove to work in daylight. This felt unbelievably wonderful. Coming home from work, the postman was about to drive off when I knocked on his window asking him if he'd come delivering to me. This was indeed the case. Yay! Means I can watch great stuff tonight, and am spared a trip to the post office tomorrow. Have already started on Angel, season 3.

OK, US House of Representatives has now officially gone nuts. Renaming French Fries as Freedom Fries. *sigh* What next? Declaration of war against France too? Due to olfactory terrorism by garlicy means?
On much happier note, I'm now almost back to full health, fvo full. Tonight some friends who live in London but are back home visiting are coming to dinner. Was about to say "And in just over two weeks I go.." when in fact it's actually Friday next week that I go over to Copenhagen. It's over twenty years since I last went, knowing the Nonni books by heart (adventures of an Icelandic boy in 1870s Copenhagen) and more or less using them as guide books. This time I'll do some sightseeing and see the pubs I didn't go to then, where 19th century Icelandic intellectuals plotted for independence while drinking away their life.
A smidgen of information I just came across on alt.fan.pratchett: The Clan MacDonald visitors
centre in Glencoe has appointed a Campbell as a manager. Apparantly some people are not happy. On the other hand, it shows how far things have come. More about the massacre of the MacDonalds by the Campbells at Glencoe. I could think up analogies with today's major cultural and national vendettas, but then again, so could you.

The Daily Telegraph is readable, does good football reporting and has been a major contributor of foreign news to the Icelandic daily Morgunbladid (rightwing, surprisingly enough). And to realise the freakishness going on you only have to read today's leader.

In truth, this is not really about the UN, but about the tendency of the Labour fringe always and everywhere to oppose the projection of British force.

George Orwell once called it "the peculiar masochism of the English Left": a readiness to side with all manner of villains - the IRA, the Soviet Union, Saddam - provided they are anti-British. Every previous Labour prime minister has had to face this tendency down - a tendency that can make the governing of the country a formidable test.

Excellent. I knew that there had to be a subliminal reason I oppose the war. Now I know it's that I'm anti-British. A load off my mind, that.

This is what happens when you're watching television with the sound nearly off, half-asleep and reading at the time. The side panel fiasco was apparantly due to the off-track adventure Michael had. Anyway, there are still 16 races left to win. Am now re-reading Hamilton's The Reality Dysfunction, the first book in his 3000+ page Night's Dawn Trilogy, saving The Years Of Rice and Salt as a treat. That trilogy is actually more than worth this first re-read. It's easier than the first slog through and just as good a read. For once the lenght is well justified, the ideas and world building good and more or less consistent. Still ill.

Half an hour ago I'd settled on "The best team with the best driver driving the best car wins. I fail to see a problem" as this entry. Flying wings put paid to those intentions but I still see Michael Schumacher winning the F1 championship this year. Hopefully the F-2003GA will be a great car. Still a wonder that both side panels managed to rip off. One could be put down to failure in assembly, two looks like a design fault. Better luck next time. Still ill.

Back to normal! My hair is now dark again. The blonde thing was an interesing experiment, but not to be repeated... As an added bonus, I stopped by a bookshop afterwards and got Peter Hamilton's A Quantum Murder which I read some years ago at the library and subsequently bought the other two books of the Greg Mandel trilogy. So maybe some think I shouldn't buy it, having already read it, but there's something so pathetic about having two books of a trilogy on my shelves. I also got Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt which is finally out in paperback. So an enjoyable weekend of sorts is ahead. Of sorts since I'm currently battling a sore throat, which made me have to go home early yesterday and miss the morning off work. And if you've reached this far and are wondering why this is in English, well, I decided that this blog thing was something I'd keep on doing so I'm telling my international friends about it.

A big welcome to all my wonderful co-workers

Kominn úr ítölsku. Alltaf sama fjörið... Aldrei þessu vant var ég búinn að læra heima, það er ekki verra. Saltkjöt og baunir í hádeginu, þannig að það skaðaði ekki að ég komst ekki í mat til mömmu!

Það er eitthvað mikið að í toppstykkinu þegar draumar manns snúast um að vera í innanhúsfótbolta, trompast þegar argentínskur samherji gefur á mótherjann Ricky Villa svo sá síðarnefndi geti skorað og aflað sér meiri peninga í efnahagskreppunni í Argentínu, og vera svo gráti nær þegar maður kemst að að annar samherji manns er hetjan manns (nei mér fannst það bara í draumnum!) hann Mick Channon væri með manni í liði??? Ef þetta hefði nú verið t.a.m. Bryan Robson... Og svo skoraði John Deehan sigurmarkið fyrir mitt lið.
Annars þetta með Ricky Villa er örugglega tilkomið vegna greinar sem ég sá um helgina sem líkti öðru marki Ryan Giggs móti Juve við mark Villa í bikarúrslitunum '81. Bæði góð mörk gerð frábær af slökum varnarleik og mikilvægi leiksins.
Afmælin um helgina voru fín. Svo var bollukaffi hjá mömmu á sunnudaginn. Þarna um helgina var ég að hitta gríska kærustu frænda míns í fyrsta sinn og frændann í fyrsta skipti í eitt hálft ár. Þau voru á landinu vegna afmælis mömmu hans. Við fórum að auki við fleira fólk á pöbbarölt á laugardagskvöld. Allt hið besta mál.
Annað sem gerðist um helgina nefni ég ekki að öðru leyti en því að ég veit fyrir víst að ekki eru allir Liverpool aðdáendur par ánægðir með að liðið þeirra skuli vera að spila Wimbledon bolta.
Komst að því í gær að ein mynd sem ég hef uppi á a.f.p. myndasíðunum mínum hafði verið sett inn í einhverjar umræður á vefnum, þótti fyndin mynd af nördum með lófatölvur og var notuð til að gera grín að einhverjum öðrum þessum ótengdum. Var helst til of mikið álag á vefinn minn...

Verulega gott kvöld í gær. Fór á óperuna, hin besta skemmtun, vel sungin. Nokkrir drykkir fylgdu í kjölfarið en ekki þannig að til vandræða væru nú í morgun. Engin vinna og rólegheit, en tvær afmælisveislur á eftir. Góð byrjun á helginni.