Sunday, November 30, 2008
Indiana Jones IV
Well, that rather 'jumped the ark' early on, didn't it?
It was one of the films on the flight and as I hadn't seen it yet I thought it might be a good thing to watch.
Oh dear. I'm now looking forward to IJ V on the grounds that these are clearly the anti-Star Trek movies in that only the odd-numbered ones are any good. At least it kept my mind off the couple in the seats next to me who really should have got a room.
I'm now sitting in Wetherspoons awaiting my sausage and mash and enjoying a bottle of Bulmers. Ahhhh...
Sent með Blackberry frá Vodafone
0 comments
It was one of the films on the flight and as I hadn't seen it yet I thought it might be a good thing to watch.
Oh dear. I'm now looking forward to IJ V on the grounds that these are clearly the anti-Star Trek movies in that only the odd-numbered ones are any good. At least it kept my mind off the couple in the seats next to me who really should have got a room.
I'm now sitting in Wetherspoons awaiting my sausage and mash and enjoying a bottle of Bulmers. Ahhhh...
Sent með Blackberry frá Vodafone
0 comments
Saturday, November 29, 2008
On my way
I'm currently sitting in the departure lounge at Akureyri airport watching the snowploughs clear the runway. At least I can occasionally see them when they cross in front of one of the windows that isn't snow-covered.
I feel a little over-dressed for this journey. Jacket, coat, hat, gloves, hiking boots (yes, I do own a pair) and so forth because you don't venture out here witgout them. Somehow I can't see me needing them in Brussels, although the boots might come in handy for tromping all over the battlefield at Waterloo. :)
A woman at the table next to me is doing crochet with bright orange and lime wool. I'm pretty sure I've seen her aroung the university (although without the crochet). It makes me feel far less self-conscious about breaking out the embroidery.
Sent með Blackberry frá Vodafone
0 comments
I feel a little over-dressed for this journey. Jacket, coat, hat, gloves, hiking boots (yes, I do own a pair) and so forth because you don't venture out here witgout them. Somehow I can't see me needing them in Brussels, although the boots might come in handy for tromping all over the battlefield at Waterloo. :)
A woman at the table next to me is doing crochet with bright orange and lime wool. I'm pretty sure I've seen her aroung the university (although without the crochet). It makes me feel far less self-conscious about breaking out the embroidery.
Sent með Blackberry frá Vodafone
0 comments
Friday, November 28, 2008
A new low-cost airline
I see that IcelandAir has become a low-cost airline. :(
One of the reasons I use Icelandair, other than the fact that it allows me to avoid the cattle market that is Stansted Airport, is that their standard of service is rather higher than that of Iceland Express. Or at least it used to be. Iceland Express is, as I have believed for a long time, a low-cost airline in everything but cost and IcelandAir seems to be heading the same way.
The cost of a normal flight to or from Iceland hasn't changed, but suddenly the meal, headphones, blankets and pillows are all available for purchase. I dread to think how they're going to handle boarding because the organisational level at Keflavík is somewhat less than at many other European airports. Now if you want the old level of service you have to pay for it.
Take a flight from Manchester to Keflavík. The lowest cost flights after Christmas are on Monday 5th January. The cheapest seats (Economy) are £75, but if you want a ticket that will allow you to make changes (at a 50% penalty) then it's £206 for Economy Flex. No frills so far. If you want a meal then it'll cost you £228 for an Economy Comfort seat, although this also gives you a wider seat. Business class is £319. The entire front half of the aircraft is filled with these wide seats, thus drastically lowering the numbers of passengers you can actually get on a flight.
I think that they've screwed up. I think that the original idea was to persuade all of the rich Icelanders that they should sit in the upmarket seats. Unfortunately the kreppa is going to make a mockery of that plan as people just can't afford to take all of those shopping trips out of the country any more. Yes, people are still taking flights out of Iceland, but the only people coming into Iceland are tourists. According to the news items I've read in the local press more people are considering working abroad than ever before; up to a third of the workforce is seriously thinking about leaving, including me.
It will be interesting to see how this all pans out. I only realised that there was a service reduction when I read my rearranged ticket, which talks about meals being available for purchase. Ah well, I suppose this means that they'll get less of my business in future. Whatever happens.
2 comments
One of the reasons I use Icelandair, other than the fact that it allows me to avoid the cattle market that is Stansted Airport, is that their standard of service is rather higher than that of Iceland Express. Or at least it used to be. Iceland Express is, as I have believed for a long time, a low-cost airline in everything but cost and IcelandAir seems to be heading the same way.
The cost of a normal flight to or from Iceland hasn't changed, but suddenly the meal, headphones, blankets and pillows are all available for purchase. I dread to think how they're going to handle boarding because the organisational level at Keflavík is somewhat less than at many other European airports. Now if you want the old level of service you have to pay for it.
Take a flight from Manchester to Keflavík. The lowest cost flights after Christmas are on Monday 5th January. The cheapest seats (Economy) are £75, but if you want a ticket that will allow you to make changes (at a 50% penalty) then it's £206 for Economy Flex. No frills so far. If you want a meal then it'll cost you £228 for an Economy Comfort seat, although this also gives you a wider seat. Business class is £319. The entire front half of the aircraft is filled with these wide seats, thus drastically lowering the numbers of passengers you can actually get on a flight.
I think that they've screwed up. I think that the original idea was to persuade all of the rich Icelanders that they should sit in the upmarket seats. Unfortunately the kreppa is going to make a mockery of that plan as people just can't afford to take all of those shopping trips out of the country any more. Yes, people are still taking flights out of Iceland, but the only people coming into Iceland are tourists. According to the news items I've read in the local press more people are considering working abroad than ever before; up to a third of the workforce is seriously thinking about leaving, including me.
It will be interesting to see how this all pans out. I only realised that there was a service reduction when I read my rearranged ticket, which talks about meals being available for purchase. Ah well, I suppose this means that they'll get less of my business in future. Whatever happens.
2 comments
Thursday, November 27, 2008
No SCA event for me
There is a blizard going on outside.
This has made the roads amost impassable - certainly impassable enough that I have no intention of trying to drive 250 miles along them at night to get to the international airport. AirIceland (the inland wing of Icelandair) admitted that it's extremely unlikely that they'll get anything off the ground tonight, which means that tomorrow they'll need to cover both the day's passengers and squeeze today's delayed departees.
I phoned them at about 16:00 when I got a text message from them telling me that the next announcement relating to the flight would be at 18:45, and the woman on the end of the phone was audibly relieved when I asked if I could change the flight to Saturday. No problem whatsoever.
Next call - Icelandair. The woman there was very helpful but the company regulations weren't. Their policy is to put you onto the next possible flight; if that's no good then you just have to take the hit on changing the booking. In this case it was pointless just getting onto the next flight because I'd have to rearrange all of the other flights and spend the night at Heathrow and then arrive at sometime on Saturday, which is getting expensive. Instead I had to rebook the flight for Sunday morning at a cost greater than the original cost for the single flight... but this is okay because it's a business flight not a pleasure flight, which means that I'll be reimbursed for it. I phoned the admin chap at work about it and it turns out that I'm not the only person who'd had to do that today. I wonder if the university has insurance against these things?
And thinking of insurance, my next action was to phone BMI to cancel the flight tomorrow and to inform them that I only needed the London->Brussels portion of the Belfast->Brussels flight on Sunday. Tomorrow's ticket was non-refundable but I'd had the foresight to take out the offered travel insurance with it. Cue one call to the insurance company who are putting the necessary form in the post for me.
So I'm here for another two nights and don't need to pack garb in my suitcase. By the time I'd finished sorting things out it was too late to go shopping so I'll have to do a little of that tomorrow but I'll be going into the office anyway. I suppose I'll have a bit more time to work on some Christmas presents I've got in the craft pipeline.
I am, I admit, a bit peeved by this change of plan. I was looking forward to this weekend for all sorts of reasons - the chance to see various people again, the opportunity to do a class in leatherwork and to teach my classes in embroidery and cryptography, and what was due to be my first scriptorium. But as my local friends tell me, travel in Iceland is always a little unpredictable between October and April.
Hmm. I've just looked at the latest update and it appears that they're going to try to land three planes within fifteen minutes of each other in about an hour and a half. So they'd be trying to squeeze 7 planeloads of people onto 3. They might just do it if a lot of people have, like me, altered their plans.
*Sigh*
Just my luck. I might have made it after all, but having made all of the changes I can't reverse them because the phone lines are only open during normal trading hours. So I could have waited to see if I'd get onto a hypothetical late flight, in which case if it flew then I'd be okay, but if it didn't then I wouldn't be able to phone the appropriate companies to change anything. I can't win, can I? :(
3 comments
This has made the roads amost impassable - certainly impassable enough that I have no intention of trying to drive 250 miles along them at night to get to the international airport. AirIceland (the inland wing of Icelandair) admitted that it's extremely unlikely that they'll get anything off the ground tonight, which means that tomorrow they'll need to cover both the day's passengers and squeeze today's delayed departees.
I phoned them at about 16:00 when I got a text message from them telling me that the next announcement relating to the flight would be at 18:45, and the woman on the end of the phone was audibly relieved when I asked if I could change the flight to Saturday. No problem whatsoever.
Next call - Icelandair. The woman there was very helpful but the company regulations weren't. Their policy is to put you onto the next possible flight; if that's no good then you just have to take the hit on changing the booking. In this case it was pointless just getting onto the next flight because I'd have to rearrange all of the other flights and spend the night at Heathrow and then arrive at sometime on Saturday, which is getting expensive. Instead I had to rebook the flight for Sunday morning at a cost greater than the original cost for the single flight... but this is okay because it's a business flight not a pleasure flight, which means that I'll be reimbursed for it. I phoned the admin chap at work about it and it turns out that I'm not the only person who'd had to do that today. I wonder if the university has insurance against these things?
And thinking of insurance, my next action was to phone BMI to cancel the flight tomorrow and to inform them that I only needed the London->Brussels portion of the Belfast->Brussels flight on Sunday. Tomorrow's ticket was non-refundable but I'd had the foresight to take out the offered travel insurance with it. Cue one call to the insurance company who are putting the necessary form in the post for me.
So I'm here for another two nights and don't need to pack garb in my suitcase. By the time I'd finished sorting things out it was too late to go shopping so I'll have to do a little of that tomorrow but I'll be going into the office anyway. I suppose I'll have a bit more time to work on some Christmas presents I've got in the craft pipeline.
I am, I admit, a bit peeved by this change of plan. I was looking forward to this weekend for all sorts of reasons - the chance to see various people again, the opportunity to do a class in leatherwork and to teach my classes in embroidery and cryptography, and what was due to be my first scriptorium. But as my local friends tell me, travel in Iceland is always a little unpredictable between October and April.
Hmm. I've just looked at the latest update and it appears that they're going to try to land three planes within fifteen minutes of each other in about an hour and a half. So they'd be trying to squeeze 7 planeloads of people onto 3. They might just do it if a lot of people have, like me, altered their plans.
*Sigh*
Just my luck. I might have made it after all, but having made all of the changes I can't reverse them because the phone lines are only open during normal trading hours. So I could have waited to see if I'd get onto a hypothetical late flight, in which case if it flew then I'd be okay, but if it didn't then I wouldn't be able to phone the appropriate companies to change anything. I can't win, can I? :(
3 comments
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Laxness - but not the literary kind
I've been a bit lax about updating this journal recently - my apologies.
Blame the winter. And the kreppa. And work. Sometimes it's difficult to come home and write something that's either interesting or, at the very least, not entirely same old same old, miserable miserable miserable.
As of tomorrow I'm off travelling again for a week and a bit. After work tomorrow I fly down to Reykjavík to stay overnight with M and then on to Belfast for Yuletide University. I've sorted out my classes (one embroidery, one cryptography) and managed to pack both garb and business attire as on Sunday I head off to Brussels for five days on my Erasmus exchange. I've never visited Brussels before so it should be quite interesting. I believe that the university I'm visiting is very close to Waterloo so I'm hoping to pay a visit to the battlefield. Perhaps I should pick up one of the more recent Sharpe novels at the airport... :)
When I mentioned Belgium at fencing tonight the talk was, naturally, of cherry beer and chocolate. Mmm... chocolate. Then I realised that I would be in the ideal location to hijack one of the chocolate tankers! Unfortunately I don't think that I could eat a whole tankerful of chocolate on my own so I may have to put that plan on the backburner for now.
0 comments
Blame the winter. And the kreppa. And work. Sometimes it's difficult to come home and write something that's either interesting or, at the very least, not entirely same old same old, miserable miserable miserable.
As of tomorrow I'm off travelling again for a week and a bit. After work tomorrow I fly down to Reykjavík to stay overnight with M and then on to Belfast for Yuletide University. I've sorted out my classes (one embroidery, one cryptography) and managed to pack both garb and business attire as on Sunday I head off to Brussels for five days on my Erasmus exchange. I've never visited Brussels before so it should be quite interesting. I believe that the university I'm visiting is very close to Waterloo so I'm hoping to pay a visit to the battlefield. Perhaps I should pick up one of the more recent Sharpe novels at the airport... :)
When I mentioned Belgium at fencing tonight the talk was, naturally, of cherry beer and chocolate. Mmm... chocolate. Then I realised that I would be in the ideal location to hijack one of the chocolate tankers! Unfortunately I don't think that I could eat a whole tankerful of chocolate on my own so I may have to put that plan on the backburner for now.
0 comments
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Stuffed
I'm feeling quite stuffed.
I put it down to a large plate of scouse - accompanied, of course, by pickled red cabbage - followed by a bowl of very creamy rice pudding, both of which I made myself. Proper baked rice pudding, that is, with a skin on top. Mnom mnom...
There's currently a battle going on between my stomach and my mouth over the rice pudding. I'm feeling far too full to eat another mouthful of the stuff, but it tasted so good that my tastebuds are screaming for more. So far the stomach is winning but the tastebuds feel as if they are planning a blitzkreig at midnight snack time. They may yet be victorious.
0 comments
I put it down to a large plate of scouse - accompanied, of course, by pickled red cabbage - followed by a bowl of very creamy rice pudding, both of which I made myself. Proper baked rice pudding, that is, with a skin on top. Mnom mnom...
There's currently a battle going on between my stomach and my mouth over the rice pudding. I'm feeling far too full to eat another mouthful of the stuff, but it tasted so good that my tastebuds are screaming for more. So far the stomach is winning but the tastebuds feel as if they are planning a blitzkreig at midnight snack time. They may yet be victorious.
0 comments
Saturday, November 22, 2008
A week in pictures
Teaching week 12, during which several things happened
This was created using the Historic Tale Construction Kit - enjoy!
0 comments
This was created using the Historic Tale Construction Kit - enjoy!
0 comments
Friday, November 21, 2008
Lego envy
I am suffering from Lego envy.
No, I haven't seen a new kit that I Must Have (although I still rather fancy this, this and this, and am quite jealous of S, who owns this. Nor is it that I really must update my Lego Mindstorms to the NXT version (I've got the old yellow processor brick version).
Instead I have become addicted to Irregular Webcomic, a daily strip predominantly created using Lego figures, 28mm gaming miniatures and toy dinosaurs. The author has a PhD in physics and regularly uses it to knock holes in films big enough to sail a Death Star through; the Laws of Thermodynamics as applied to Coruscant were particularly amusing. In the last 48 hours I've managed to get through the first 500+ of 2100+ strips. I am determined not to subscribe to the RSS feed until I've got through the backlog; at this rate I should get there early next week. But more impportantly, I want a collection of Lego figures like his!
These things have regularly had me laughing out loud. That's very welcome at present.
0 comments
No, I haven't seen a new kit that I Must Have (although I still rather fancy this, this and this, and am quite jealous of S, who owns this. Nor is it that I really must update my Lego Mindstorms to the NXT version (I've got the old yellow processor brick version).
Instead I have become addicted to Irregular Webcomic, a daily strip predominantly created using Lego figures, 28mm gaming miniatures and toy dinosaurs. The author has a PhD in physics and regularly uses it to knock holes in films big enough to sail a Death Star through; the Laws of Thermodynamics as applied to Coruscant were particularly amusing. In the last 48 hours I've managed to get through the first 500+ of 2100+ strips. I am determined not to subscribe to the RSS feed until I've got through the backlog; at this rate I should get there early next week. But more impportantly, I want a collection of Lego figures like his!
These things have regularly had me laughing out loud. That's very welcome at present.
0 comments
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Miniproject #3 completed
This one is the exemplar for my blackwork class at Yuletide University the weekend after next.
It's a mini-sampler showing 16 (count 'em!) different pre-1600 blackwork fills used within a simple Icelandic rose pattern (also pre-1600). I've made it up as a scissorkeep on 20-count hardanger fabric (I'd have preferred 32-count linen but it was what the local shop had in stock) but it could equally be made up as a small pincushion or a motif on a handkerchief or napkin. The nice thing about this is that there are so many different variations (over 40,000 I think, allowing for rotational symmetry and that it has two copies of the design, one on each side) so no two are likely to be the same. Given that I'm not expecting 40,000 students that means the finished pieces will have unique designs.
And yes, I know that it's blue not black. 'Blackwork' was often done in red or blue, in which case it was also known as 'Spanish work'.
I did have a minor crisis the other evening while working on it and wondered if I should do something a bit larger but perhaps less complicated but blackwork isn't particularly difficult and besides, we seem to focus on beginners classses - this will be a beginner to intermediate class I think.
Now I'm off to have a nice hot shower. I'm feeling smelly all and sweaty after 45 minutes of concentrated drills at fencing tonight. Mmm... shower...
1 comments
It's a mini-sampler showing 16 (count 'em!) different pre-1600 blackwork fills used within a simple Icelandic rose pattern (also pre-1600). I've made it up as a scissorkeep on 20-count hardanger fabric (I'd have preferred 32-count linen but it was what the local shop had in stock) but it could equally be made up as a small pincushion or a motif on a handkerchief or napkin. The nice thing about this is that there are so many different variations (over 40,000 I think, allowing for rotational symmetry and that it has two copies of the design, one on each side) so no two are likely to be the same. Given that I'm not expecting 40,000 students that means the finished pieces will have unique designs.
And yes, I know that it's blue not black. 'Blackwork' was often done in red or blue, in which case it was also known as 'Spanish work'.
I did have a minor crisis the other evening while working on it and wondered if I should do something a bit larger but perhaps less complicated but blackwork isn't particularly difficult and besides, we seem to focus on beginners classses - this will be a beginner to intermediate class I think.
Now I'm off to have a nice hot shower. I'm feeling smelly all and sweaty after 45 minutes of concentrated drills at fencing tonight. Mmm... shower...
1 comments
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Incoming...
Christmas is clearly approaching.
All of the signs are there. The long nights and shortening days, the arrival of this year's catalogue of all of the books in print this Christmas (which always delights and amuses me), the appearance of colours lights in the windows of the apartments and houses nearby... even I have caved in and hung a comet-shaped collection of lights in the kitchen window. Although I do keep thinking about the advisibility (and amusement value) of an illuminated Elder Sign - would anyone recognise it, I wonder?
Another sign of approaching Christmassiness is that I today gave my final lectures of the semester, the ones where I go over an example exam paper. It's now just marking courseworks and exam scripts. And writing the module on operating systems, which has fallen to me given that we're losing a member of staff at the end of the year. It's been a bit of a nightmare reorganising the teaching for the next 18 months but I think I've got it sorted. Assuming that none of my remaining staff falls off a mountain or under a bus, that is.
0 comments
All of the signs are there. The long nights and shortening days, the arrival of this year's catalogue of all of the books in print this Christmas (which always delights and amuses me), the appearance of colours lights in the windows of the apartments and houses nearby... even I have caved in and hung a comet-shaped collection of lights in the kitchen window. Although I do keep thinking about the advisibility (and amusement value) of an illuminated Elder Sign - would anyone recognise it, I wonder?
Another sign of approaching Christmassiness is that I today gave my final lectures of the semester, the ones where I go over an example exam paper. It's now just marking courseworks and exam scripts. And writing the module on operating systems, which has fallen to me given that we're losing a member of staff at the end of the year. It's been a bit of a nightmare reorganising the teaching for the next 18 months but I think I've got it sorted. Assuming that none of my remaining staff falls off a mountain or under a bus, that is.
0 comments
A load of pollocks
The other day I came across a very strange thing on my way to work - a bucket of fish.
The bucket was sitting in the snow by the main door to the building in which I work. It contained two fish, both of which had already had their head removed and had been gutted:
This is not the sort of thing I expect to see - even if we do have a fisheries division within the building. Unfortunately my fish recognition skills go about as far as goldfish, angelfish, clownfish, other fish so I had no idea about these.
A couple of days later I found myself sitting at coffee with H from fisheries so I asked him about them. He seemed quite amused that I should ask and explained that this happens from time to time. One of the local fisherman comes into harbour with a catch that contains tagged fish so he drops them off at the university so that the academics can work out what to do with them. The fish in question this time were pollock, both of them well over 50cm long sans head.
This is possibly the strangest thing I've seen related to the fisheries division here. It has surpassed the large fish tank in the wet lab that was full of sick cod being nursed back to health and the dried remains of tubeworms from the local shallow volcanic vents. I suspect that the pollock also underwent further investigation - quite possibly after heating and seasoning with salt and herbs.
0 comments
The bucket was sitting in the snow by the main door to the building in which I work. It contained two fish, both of which had already had their head removed and had been gutted:
This is not the sort of thing I expect to see - even if we do have a fisheries division within the building. Unfortunately my fish recognition skills go about as far as goldfish, angelfish, clownfish, other fish so I had no idea about these.
A couple of days later I found myself sitting at coffee with H from fisheries so I asked him about them. He seemed quite amused that I should ask and explained that this happens from time to time. One of the local fisherman comes into harbour with a catch that contains tagged fish so he drops them off at the university so that the academics can work out what to do with them. The fish in question this time were pollock, both of them well over 50cm long sans head.
This is possibly the strangest thing I've seen related to the fisheries division here. It has surpassed the large fish tank in the wet lab that was full of sick cod being nursed back to health and the dried remains of tubeworms from the local shallow volcanic vents. I suspect that the pollock also underwent further investigation - quite possibly after heating and seasoning with salt and herbs.
0 comments
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Christmas hampers
We used to have Christmas hampers when I was small but we haven't had one for years.
What brings the subject to my attention was that I recently received the Fortnum & Mason Christmas catalogue in the post. They've got my address because I have before now sent foodie gifts from them to people who have everything (like my Dad). Not that I'm planning to do that this year, given the exchange rate, but it's certainly interesting to see the catalogue.
It was also interesting seeing other members of the Shire flicking though it and being astonished. Once I'd explained the idea of the Christmas hamper, and why an ex-pat like me would (historically) want an F&M hamper they were quite fascinated by the whole thing. The fact that the hampers start at £50 (the Taste of Fortnum's hamper) and go up to £25,000 (the Snow Queen hamper, with free delivery by the F&M horse and carriage within the M25) was deemed quite curious. Particularly when I translated the prices to króna - the Snow Queen works out at 5 Mkr, an amount which the banks just would not be happy at me spending outside the country right now (chance would be a fine thing!). The central bank has imposed a limit on overseas spending and although the 'official' exchange rate is roughly 200 kr to the pound once you get over a certin limit it goes up to 300 in order to limit the use of the country's meagre foreign currency reserves.
I'm not at all tempted by the hampers myself, although I do think that the idea of the chocolate chess, draughts and Jenga sets are rather fun. Except that I really don't eat enough chocolate to make them worthwhile. What would be more useful would be a Tesco ex-pat Christmas hamper service - you do your 'shopping' online and they then send it out in a big Tesco hamper. Now that would be an excellent service.
0 comments
What brings the subject to my attention was that I recently received the Fortnum & Mason Christmas catalogue in the post. They've got my address because I have before now sent foodie gifts from them to people who have everything (like my Dad). Not that I'm planning to do that this year, given the exchange rate, but it's certainly interesting to see the catalogue.
It was also interesting seeing other members of the Shire flicking though it and being astonished. Once I'd explained the idea of the Christmas hamper, and why an ex-pat like me would (historically) want an F&M hamper they were quite fascinated by the whole thing. The fact that the hampers start at £50 (the Taste of Fortnum's hamper) and go up to £25,000 (the Snow Queen hamper, with free delivery by the F&M horse and carriage within the M25) was deemed quite curious. Particularly when I translated the prices to króna - the Snow Queen works out at 5 Mkr, an amount which the banks just would not be happy at me spending outside the country right now (chance would be a fine thing!). The central bank has imposed a limit on overseas spending and although the 'official' exchange rate is roughly 200 kr to the pound once you get over a certin limit it goes up to 300 in order to limit the use of the country's meagre foreign currency reserves.
I'm not at all tempted by the hampers myself, although I do think that the idea of the chocolate chess, draughts and Jenga sets are rather fun. Except that I really don't eat enough chocolate to make them worthwhile. What would be more useful would be a Tesco ex-pat Christmas hamper service - you do your 'shopping' online and they then send it out in a big Tesco hamper. Now that would be an excellent service.
0 comments
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Economics humour
The Icelandic economy is a joke, right?
Whether you agree or not may depend upon your nationality and the current status of your savings, but the situation here has naturally become the source of many jokes. IceNews has just published a few of them so I thought I'd share my favourite one with you.
The hot air balloon
A man in a hot air balloon notices that he is losing height. He then notices a woman on the ground so lowers his balloon a little further and calls to her: "Excuse me! Can you help me? I promised to meet my friend and hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The woman answered: "You are in a hot air balloon which is hovering at a height of ten metres, between 40 and 41 degrees north and between 59 and 60 degrees west."
"You must work with computers," said the man.
"I do indeed," answered the woman. "How did you know?"
"Well," the man replied, "All that you just said is technically right, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with the information, and am therefore still lost. It's fair to say you've not really helped me at all. If anything, all you have done is made me even later."
The woman replied: "Ah, you must be a politician."
"Yes," the man said in surprise. "But how could you know that?"
"Well," she said, "You knew neither where you were, nor where you were going. Only hot air has got you to where you are right now. You actually admitted you don't have a clue how to sort out your situation, and you expect people below you to sort out the problem for you. And you are now in the same situation as when we just met, but now all of a sudden it's my fault."
Not that this just applies to Icelandic politics and economics, of course (apart from the lattitude and longitude, that is). The events of the last month have persuaded me (if I needed any more persuasion) that there are inept buck-passing politicians all over the place.
1 comments
Whether you agree or not may depend upon your nationality and the current status of your savings, but the situation here has naturally become the source of many jokes. IceNews has just published a few of them so I thought I'd share my favourite one with you.
The hot air balloon
A man in a hot air balloon notices that he is losing height. He then notices a woman on the ground so lowers his balloon a little further and calls to her: "Excuse me! Can you help me? I promised to meet my friend and hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The woman answered: "You are in a hot air balloon which is hovering at a height of ten metres, between 40 and 41 degrees north and between 59 and 60 degrees west."
"You must work with computers," said the man.
"I do indeed," answered the woman. "How did you know?"
"Well," the man replied, "All that you just said is technically right, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with the information, and am therefore still lost. It's fair to say you've not really helped me at all. If anything, all you have done is made me even later."
The woman replied: "Ah, you must be a politician."
"Yes," the man said in surprise. "But how could you know that?"
"Well," she said, "You knew neither where you were, nor where you were going. Only hot air has got you to where you are right now. You actually admitted you don't have a clue how to sort out your situation, and you expect people below you to sort out the problem for you. And you are now in the same situation as when we just met, but now all of a sudden it's my fault."
Not that this just applies to Icelandic politics and economics, of course (apart from the lattitude and longitude, that is). The events of the last month have persuaded me (if I needed any more persuasion) that there are inept buck-passing politicians all over the place.
1 comments
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Introducing...
... Teachingwoman!
I'm going to have to get a shirt with a big 'T' on the front after this one. When one group of my students left I wished them a good weekend (practicing my limited Icelandic). One of the students replied with goða helgi, kennari. At which point I started wondering whether kennari changed depending on the gender of the teacher. It doesn't, Á explained, as it's not gender-specific and is a masculine noun. The gender-specific form would be kennslukonur = "teaching woman". Ah yes, I can see it now - most of the time I am a mild-mannered, rapier-wielding weirdo, but at certain times of the week I mysteriously transform myself into Teachingwoman.
Faster than the local network. More powerful than a 386 processor. Able to leap logic gates in a single bound.
Look! In the front of the lecture room!
It's a chair. It's a whiteboard. It's Teachingwoman!
***
As I've been writing this with National Geographic on in the background I've been distracted by one of the strangest choral works I've ever heard. Scene - large blue steam locamotive powering across the savannah to the accompaniment of full choir singing:
This is the train from Bloemfontein
Mighty workhorse of the African plain.
This is the train from Bloemfontein
Off to Scotland, home again.
My mind is boggling. It would have to be to come up with the Teachingwoman spiel.
0 comments
I'm going to have to get a shirt with a big 'T' on the front after this one. When one group of my students left I wished them a good weekend (practicing my limited Icelandic). One of the students replied with goða helgi, kennari. At which point I started wondering whether kennari changed depending on the gender of the teacher. It doesn't, Á explained, as it's not gender-specific and is a masculine noun. The gender-specific form would be kennslukonur = "teaching woman". Ah yes, I can see it now - most of the time I am a mild-mannered, rapier-wielding weirdo, but at certain times of the week I mysteriously transform myself into Teachingwoman.
Faster than the local network. More powerful than a 386 processor. Able to leap logic gates in a single bound.
Look! In the front of the lecture room!
It's a chair. It's a whiteboard. It's Teachingwoman!
***
As I've been writing this with National Geographic on in the background I've been distracted by one of the strangest choral works I've ever heard. Scene - large blue steam locamotive powering across the savannah to the accompaniment of full choir singing:
This is the train from Bloemfontein
Mighty workhorse of the African plain.
This is the train from Bloemfontein
Off to Scotland, home again.
My mind is boggling. It would have to be to come up with the Teachingwoman spiel.
0 comments
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Bridges
I've found a wonderful new way of wasting time.
A couple of weeks ago I was looking for a new online game to play, being in need of a bit of a distraction from other matters. Something that didn't necessarily involve having to talk to anyone. Perhaps something in the problem-solving field.
What I came across was Bridges, and implementation of the Japanese Hashiwokakero puzzle. You have a square grid upon which are a number of 'islands', each of which bears a number. The aim is to join the islands together with 'bridges', the number of bridges being the number written on the island. I've settled to doing the 15x15 normal as my general purpose time-waster for now, although occasionally I'll stretch myself to the 25x25 versions.
The site also contains a number of other fiendish puzzles. Shikaku is quite fun and straightforward once you pick up the trick. Sudoku is sudoku. Nonagrams are a bit tricky; Light Up and Slither Link still... ahem... haven't revealed their tricks to me yet. But I'll beat them eventually.
No matter what the alternatives are, though, it's Bridges to which I keep returning. It's brainless - in a good way.
0 comments
A couple of weeks ago I was looking for a new online game to play, being in need of a bit of a distraction from other matters. Something that didn't necessarily involve having to talk to anyone. Perhaps something in the problem-solving field.
What I came across was Bridges, and implementation of the Japanese Hashiwokakero puzzle. You have a square grid upon which are a number of 'islands', each of which bears a number. The aim is to join the islands together with 'bridges', the number of bridges being the number written on the island. I've settled to doing the 15x15 normal as my general purpose time-waster for now, although occasionally I'll stretch myself to the 25x25 versions.
The site also contains a number of other fiendish puzzles. Shikaku is quite fun and straightforward once you pick up the trick. Sudoku is sudoku. Nonagrams are a bit tricky; Light Up and Slither Link still... ahem... haven't revealed their tricks to me yet. But I'll beat them eventually.
No matter what the alternatives are, though, it's Bridges to which I keep returning. It's brainless - in a good way.
0 comments
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Sub-Arctic insomnia
We have winter.
We have snow (again - it thawed for about ten days).
We have clear starry nights and aurorae.
We do not have sun in the mornings.
This final factor is causing its usual problems - sub-Arctic insomnia - hence it being 1am and I'm still wide awake and watching a History Channel programme on methane clathrates and the firestorms they might create. In spite of my dusk/dawn clock my body still doesn't want to wake up until about 08:30-09:00... then go to sleep again at about 02:00. Grr...
I'm going to go and get a mug of hot blackcurrant and try to relax into said science documentay. Tomorrow I think it may be time to return to the valerian tablets.
0 comments
We have snow (again - it thawed for about ten days).
We have clear starry nights and aurorae.
We do not have sun in the mornings.
This final factor is causing its usual problems - sub-Arctic insomnia - hence it being 1am and I'm still wide awake and watching a History Channel programme on methane clathrates and the firestorms they might create. In spite of my dusk/dawn clock my body still doesn't want to wake up until about 08:30-09:00... then go to sleep again at about 02:00. Grr...
I'm going to go and get a mug of hot blackcurrant and try to relax into said science documentay. Tomorrow I think it may be time to return to the valerian tablets.
0 comments
Monday, November 10, 2008
Goodbye...
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Another project completed
I think that this is large project #4. Or possibly #5, as I may have lost count.
This is a gift that I'd hoped to complete earlier in the year but which got caught up in a whole pile of SCA stuff and work stresses. All I need to do now is to iron it and then send it to a friend in the UK who's going to take it to the framer in Carnforth for me so that I can go and collect it as soon as I get back for Christmas. Unless I frame it myself and take it in hand luggage... which might just be possible, I'll have to check. Actually, given that it's a sensible shape I might even be able to do that with the help of a trip to Hobbycraft. Hmm...
It's taken about 12 hours of work over the weekend to complete it which, together with the previous work and the 4 hours to make the original pattern probably comes to about 50 hours of work. I often lose track of how long these things take, which can be tricky if I'm asked what sort of insurance value to put on them (it has happened - I was lost for a figure).
My next job is to design a small blackwork design that could be used as a scissorkeep, pin cushion or Christmas decoration ready for the class I'll be teaching at Yuletide University. This shouldn't take too long, although I'll make it up as a pack. I gave a similar class (with a much larger project) about five years ago so I can re-use the general notes from that.
0 comments
This is a gift that I'd hoped to complete earlier in the year but which got caught up in a whole pile of SCA stuff and work stresses. All I need to do now is to iron it and then send it to a friend in the UK who's going to take it to the framer in Carnforth for me so that I can go and collect it as soon as I get back for Christmas. Unless I frame it myself and take it in hand luggage... which might just be possible, I'll have to check. Actually, given that it's a sensible shape I might even be able to do that with the help of a trip to Hobbycraft. Hmm...
It's taken about 12 hours of work over the weekend to complete it which, together with the previous work and the 4 hours to make the original pattern probably comes to about 50 hours of work. I often lose track of how long these things take, which can be tricky if I'm asked what sort of insurance value to put on them (it has happened - I was lost for a figure).
My next job is to design a small blackwork design that could be used as a scissorkeep, pin cushion or Christmas decoration ready for the class I'll be teaching at Yuletide University. This shouldn't take too long, although I'll make it up as a pack. I gave a similar class (with a much larger project) about five years ago so I can re-use the general notes from that.
Labels: embroidery
0 comments
Friday, November 07, 2008
Cartogrammetry
So what's that then?
If cartography is the art and science of drawing maps, then cartogrammetry is the art and science of creating cartograms - maps in which a mapping variable is used to replace area. The geometry of the map is then distorted to show information related to the mapping variable.
For instance, in this week's big election the standard map of red and blue states looks something like this:
This, however, doesn't actually represent the number of votes cast. This can be shown as a cartogram, replacing area with voter population:
But even this approach only shows large-scale data; votes are only counted at the state level. If you create a cartogram at the county level you get something like this:
These maps use the voter population as their thematic variable, where the region is coloured depending upon whether the county voted Democrat (blue) or Republican (red). This is still a simplification as it only provides a first-past-the-post colouring method. To see the true nature of voting across the US you need to use a wider coding pattern - the extent to which any county voted Democrat or Republican can be shown upon a colour continuum stretching from 100% (pure blue) through a range of purples to 100% Republican (pure red) gives a far more representative display of voting patterns:
No, I haven't just spent two days creating interesting visualisations; that's what Mark Newman at the University of Michigan has done. All of the maps are from his page on the 2008 elections. I can see me using these in next semester's data visualisation module, together with some of the many varied and interesting maps from Worldmapper, a site dedicated to global cartograms.
Come to think of it, if I can find some cartogrammetry software I have some ideas for other things that might take well to this sort of visualisation approach. Hmm...
2 comments
If cartography is the art and science of drawing maps, then cartogrammetry is the art and science of creating cartograms - maps in which a mapping variable is used to replace area. The geometry of the map is then distorted to show information related to the mapping variable.
For instance, in this week's big election the standard map of red and blue states looks something like this:
This, however, doesn't actually represent the number of votes cast. This can be shown as a cartogram, replacing area with voter population:
But even this approach only shows large-scale data; votes are only counted at the state level. If you create a cartogram at the county level you get something like this:
These maps use the voter population as their thematic variable, where the region is coloured depending upon whether the county voted Democrat (blue) or Republican (red). This is still a simplification as it only provides a first-past-the-post colouring method. To see the true nature of voting across the US you need to use a wider coding pattern - the extent to which any county voted Democrat or Republican can be shown upon a colour continuum stretching from 100% (pure blue) through a range of purples to 100% Republican (pure red) gives a far more representative display of voting patterns:
No, I haven't just spent two days creating interesting visualisations; that's what Mark Newman at the University of Michigan has done. All of the maps are from his page on the 2008 elections. I can see me using these in next semester's data visualisation module, together with some of the many varied and interesting maps from Worldmapper, a site dedicated to global cartograms.
Come to think of it, if I can find some cartogrammetry software I have some ideas for other things that might take well to this sort of visualisation approach. Hmm...
2 comments
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
A new time for fencing
In response to popular demand, fencing practice is now on Wednesdays.
We even had a new fencer, H, who already does tae kwando and so already has a lot of the necessary mindset and athletic ability to pick things up quite quickly. Oh, and his speed makes him a very suitable opponent for En.
We've now settled back into a reasonable training routine. The session is effectively an hour and a half long so we do an hour of drills and then a half hour of sparring putting the new material into action. Over the past few weeks we've looked at the parry-riposte sequence focussing on attacks to the head. We have quite a large difference in heights between fencers so the principle that any low attack can leave you open to a headshot has a lot of appeal to some of the fencers... and the others recognise that they'd be prime targets for such moves so they need to be able to defend against them.
Today's fun drill was line the defenders up against the wall so they can't retreat and then make them parry and riposte in response to a head shot. We've got as far as attack, parry, riposte, dodge this week so next week we'll go for attack parry, riposte, parry, riposte. During the post-drill sparring only hits to the head count. It's proving reasonably effective so far but I think I'm going to have to do some very slow by-the-numbers work again just to make them really focus on getting the parry-riposte as a smooth action.
I think that I'm also going to have to start planning a whole training regime rather than picking a new topic every few weeks. Parry-riposte was probably the highest priority (given comments from other fencers at COLD and Raglan) but I have yet to deal with feints, beats and tempo. It's also turning out that I'm spending all of the time on Italian so I'm going to have to run some completely seperate sections on Spanish for the small group of interested fencers... but I think that the Spanish classes may have to wait until after Christmas. Ah, the perils of being a professional educator - you try teaching anything and you end up sitting down and planning it as if it was a set of lectures. :)
One advantage of the method is that it's not putting too much strain on my shoulder or my elbow. I'm certainly looking forward to a hot shower right now but neither joint is feeling too stressed, and this is most definitely a Good Thing.
0 comments
We even had a new fencer, H, who already does tae kwando and so already has a lot of the necessary mindset and athletic ability to pick things up quite quickly. Oh, and his speed makes him a very suitable opponent for En.
We've now settled back into a reasonable training routine. The session is effectively an hour and a half long so we do an hour of drills and then a half hour of sparring putting the new material into action. Over the past few weeks we've looked at the parry-riposte sequence focussing on attacks to the head. We have quite a large difference in heights between fencers so the principle that any low attack can leave you open to a headshot has a lot of appeal to some of the fencers... and the others recognise that they'd be prime targets for such moves so they need to be able to defend against them.
Today's fun drill was line the defenders up against the wall so they can't retreat and then make them parry and riposte in response to a head shot. We've got as far as attack, parry, riposte, dodge this week so next week we'll go for attack parry, riposte, parry, riposte. During the post-drill sparring only hits to the head count. It's proving reasonably effective so far but I think I'm going to have to do some very slow by-the-numbers work again just to make them really focus on getting the parry-riposte as a smooth action.
I think that I'm also going to have to start planning a whole training regime rather than picking a new topic every few weeks. Parry-riposte was probably the highest priority (given comments from other fencers at COLD and Raglan) but I have yet to deal with feints, beats and tempo. It's also turning out that I'm spending all of the time on Italian so I'm going to have to run some completely seperate sections on Spanish for the small group of interested fencers... but I think that the Spanish classes may have to wait until after Christmas. Ah, the perils of being a professional educator - you try teaching anything and you end up sitting down and planning it as if it was a set of lectures. :)
One advantage of the method is that it's not putting too much strain on my shoulder or my elbow. I'm certainly looking forward to a hot shower right now but neither joint is feeling too stressed, and this is most definitely a Good Thing.
0 comments
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Arthritic...
...elbows?
Over the last couple of days I've noticed that I have ongoing discomfort in, of all places, my elbows. Elbows? What sort of a ridiculous place is that? While I am (slowly) coming to terms with the fact that my hands are gradually seizing up with arthritis (hence the nice new mittens) I certainly wasn't expecting to have it extend to my elbows. Bah.
Actually although the weather last week made my hands a bit on the tender side it has now warmed up again to the extent that the roads are clear and we just have huge heaps of snow causing major visibility issues on certain junctions. It would be pleasant to have a gentle winter this year... though I must admit that the snow does make the world a lot lighter.
A second disadvantage is that the university car park - never the most even of surfaces - has returned to its normal winter state of a collection of water-filled holes within a mud-bath. The ice has some positives in this respect, as it means that at least we have a flat and moderately horizontal surface until it melts.
You may have guessed that not a lot has happened today, hence my meandering around topics of little importance. Days like this happen and, although they are very welcome in some respects, they do make blogging rather more challenging. Particularly if you want to avoid the obvious topic of the day. :)
2 comments
Over the last couple of days I've noticed that I have ongoing discomfort in, of all places, my elbows. Elbows? What sort of a ridiculous place is that? While I am (slowly) coming to terms with the fact that my hands are gradually seizing up with arthritis (hence the nice new mittens) I certainly wasn't expecting to have it extend to my elbows. Bah.
Actually although the weather last week made my hands a bit on the tender side it has now warmed up again to the extent that the roads are clear and we just have huge heaps of snow causing major visibility issues on certain junctions. It would be pleasant to have a gentle winter this year... though I must admit that the snow does make the world a lot lighter.
A second disadvantage is that the university car park - never the most even of surfaces - has returned to its normal winter state of a collection of water-filled holes within a mud-bath. The ice has some positives in this respect, as it means that at least we have a flat and moderately horizontal surface until it melts.
You may have guessed that not a lot has happened today, hence my meandering around topics of little importance. Days like this happen and, although they are very welcome in some respects, they do make blogging rather more challenging. Particularly if you want to avoid the obvious topic of the day. :)
2 comments
Monday, November 03, 2008
Big decision
I took quite a big decision today.
I agreed a change of residence. I've been in this place now for almost three and a half years, and while it was plenty big enough for me alone it's certainly not big enough for me, a shire and the stuff I've accumulated over the last four years (although, thankfully, the accumulated stuff is nowhere near as bad as I'd accumulated before coming to Iceland).
The house I'll be moving to is about 20 minutes drive out of town (which is nothing compared to the daily Dunfermline-Edinburgh South commute I did for a few years) and I'll effectively be house-sitting it for my former boss and his wife who are moving back to the UK at the beginning of January. Given the recent economic collapse there's no way they'll be able to sell it for a few years and so I'll be renting it at a lower price so that there's someone they know in it.
It's a little more expensive than the current place but when you consider that the current place is a one-bedroom apartment of approximately 40m2 and the new place is a six-bedroom house of at least five times that floorspace I think it's a good deal. After all, I've always fancied a house with enough spare rooms that I can put the sewing machine up in one and leave it there, out of the way but ready to use whenever I need it. Fortunately it's part-furnished, so I should have enough things like sofas and tables to be able to do that sort of thing relatively easily.
Oh yes, and it comes with Sky. I went over for dinner last night and during the pre-meal socialities we listened to the Archers. I'll be able to wake up and fall asleep to Radio 4 once again - hurrah! I think it'll also pick up freesat so I may even have real television again (although I refuse to get too excited about that just in case).
1 comments
I agreed a change of residence. I've been in this place now for almost three and a half years, and while it was plenty big enough for me alone it's certainly not big enough for me, a shire and the stuff I've accumulated over the last four years (although, thankfully, the accumulated stuff is nowhere near as bad as I'd accumulated before coming to Iceland).
The house I'll be moving to is about 20 minutes drive out of town (which is nothing compared to the daily Dunfermline-Edinburgh South commute I did for a few years) and I'll effectively be house-sitting it for my former boss and his wife who are moving back to the UK at the beginning of January. Given the recent economic collapse there's no way they'll be able to sell it for a few years and so I'll be renting it at a lower price so that there's someone they know in it.
It's a little more expensive than the current place but when you consider that the current place is a one-bedroom apartment of approximately 40m
Oh yes, and it comes with Sky. I went over for dinner last night and during the pre-meal socialities we listened to the Archers. I'll be able to wake up and fall asleep to Radio 4 once again - hurrah! I think it'll also pick up freesat so I may even have real television again (although I refuse to get too excited about that just in case).
1 comments