50/50

There is, apparently , some sort of law in Iceland that domestic animals are not allowed to be out in the countryside over the winter. For this reason, some sheep up in the north are going to be round up and shot, just for having the nerve to be able to survive on their own through the winter. I wonder if perhaps Icelanders fear the image of roving flocks of sheep, akin to the herds of American buffalo or African elephants, stampeding whole villages? I of course think the sheep should be left in peace, for goodness sake. Plus it even seems like kind of a good idea, to leave the sheep out there, so that if a polar bears floats this a-way, they will have something to eat. It can be like a fastfood stop off for polar bears, who will then have the energy to get on their way back to their natural habitat.

is to get a 25 page summary of my dissertation done before Friday. That should definitely be doable if I keep myself focused. I think the most important thing in issues like this actually is to have a goal, and to feel like everyday you are making a little bit of progress towards that goal.

In the movie Minority Report (and indeed in many futuristic movies) advertisements are digital projections that accost a person walking down the street; in that film they even do a retina scan to get your personal file and target the ad just to you. Now, of course the technology has not gotten that sophisticated yet, but here in Iceland they are certainly trying their hand at the "super distracting" advertisement. Not just images of barely clad bodies--advertisers have been exploiting sex appeal for a good 60 years. No, I am talking about how much the ads are animated, for lack of a better word. It is like a powerpoint presentation or something, with the text floating in from the side, the image morphing, changing color, all within the little box that should just be a nice photo and some simple text. These are ads on websites and blogs, of course, digital media. They are especially sophisticated on visir.is and mbl.is. It is a surecut case of razzle dazzle. And thus I inc...

This year, the residents up here at the base will be having Trick or treat again. I think I'll try to see what I can scare up tomorrow by way of candy and decorations. Always so fun to have the neighborhood kids knock on the door.

I have extolled the virtues of Kaffi Tár here before, and I shall not waiver in my enthusiasm for that brand, especially the lattes they make on site. Really good. I was such a fan of the lattes that I started also buying their beans and grinding them at home to make my own espresso drinks. But then I got sort of cheap and thought perhaps if I bought the Ethiopian medium roast beans, instead of the proper espresso beans, I could grind some of them for my drip coffee maker, and some of them for my espresso press (some mornings I like coffee, other mornings I like espresso). Problem is I can never quite get the grind right for the drip coffee when I grind it myself. It is either too course or too fine for the drip machine. And though the Ethiopian beans are not bad in the espresso drinks, it is not the same carmelly flavor one gets with espresso roast. So the other day at the store I thought maybe I should take a lessen from the pagebook of my wonderful grandmother, and buy the kind ...

I have complained before in this blog on the nature of the California Proposition system, which basically has voters vote directly on legislation drafted by special interest groups rather than having law makers draft and ratify laws. But I was reading something today about the dearth of qualified politicians here in Iceland, and that of course is a matter of considerable concern to everyone here. I think the banking crisis made Icelanders begin to question not just the fitness of bankers in this country but also the politicians, or anyhow, the lawmakers. Those are actually two different things, which the California system very clearly points out. Though I find the proposition system cumbersome, I was realizing today that I also find it fascinating. I always want to read through them all, including the fine print for issues I cannot decide on or care a lot about. On the other hand, politics--anything from elections for student body president to local mayoral elections to national electi...

Iceland has a high-tech system where all the different civic agencies share a common database, or at least that is what I thought. (Such a thing is generally frowned on in the United States, and quite rare, since of course Americans like to think what they are up to is none of the governments business.) I was enthusiastic about the streamlining of bureaucracy such a move represents. Whether it is something I am doing wrong or not, weird ghosts keep entering the machine in relation to my kennitala at least. My address spontaneously gets changed back to the first one I had in Sandgerdi now and again, and each time I call around to find out why or how, everyone just says, "Well, it is right in our system." Now my kennitala is not coming up in the database for the menntamalaraduneyti (cultural ministry) which means I cannot apply for a grant I need to apply for. Gaman af þessu.

Just a boring dissertation update, but I have to say that yesterday was a great day! Really great! A dissertation, like any project, is this huge thing and there are so many, many ways to begin and develop it. And of course there are a lot of aspects to this subject and I know that, I know the temptation is there to just try to talk about everything I know! But yesterday, it just got really simple. All of a sudden, I realized a dissertation is not like an essay. In an essay, each paragraph, each section, has to be carefully crafted so that the argument anticipates the next paragraph, the next section. The same train of thought has to be maintained throughout, and the evidence presented in such a way that the reader follows the flow (this anyhow is how I like to do it...wink). So I was thinking the dissertation was like that too, that I had to have each chapter building on the same line of evidence as the one before, so that at the end I got to some magnificent conclusion that no one co...

I got an email today from an old friend from highschool, and we were reminiscing about those days. And it occurred to me that perhaps it would be worth blogging about my highschool. American schools are of course really variable, some have a lot of tax revenue if they are in a wealthy area, so the schools are in good shape and there are enough well-qualified teachers to give a real quality education. This is absolutely not always the case, because Americans react very badly to the idea of wealth being "redistributed." Anyhow, my highschool was one of the good ones, in fact the year I graduated we were listed as one of the top 100 highschools in the United States (including both public and private, if I remember right, so it really was quite the honor). One thing that got us that recognition was our "humanities core" program. A group of 50 or so of us (out of a group of 250) that were high achievers (not just good academically, also the best musicians, best drama kid...

Johanna is in Sweden now, talking up Iceland's application to join the E.U. Now, as my readers will surely suspect, I have all sorts of opinions on that matter, but I must say one thing I really like about the EU is their quality control measures. Some of these seem to be less uptight than the US measures, like say for medicine, where the US Food and Drug Administration just takes forever to get a new drug approved. But other things, like ergonomic designs of desk furniture, is much better. The EU's Lighten the Load campaign has been diligent about discussing, researching, considering alternatives, and trying to find solutions to a problem that a lot of people do not seem to take very seriously. Though these regulations may be cumbersome, the idea is that only those companies that are diligent about improving the quality of life for their employees should be in business. So this is one reason among many that I am hoping Iceland joins the EU. The chairs here at Arni Magnusson...

Yesterday, my friend Koleen and I experienced one of those "we don't know what an Icelander would do" sort of moments. Her son had been playing with a boy from school, they came home to her house. She asked when he was supposed to go home, and he said he had no curfew. She figured this happens in Iceland. So she gave him dinner. And they did homework together. And then it was time for her son to go to bed. At this point, the little boy announces that actually, he does not know how to get home. At which point, Koleen calls me. Well, first she tried to call the number she had from school for this kid's family, but no one answered. She told me all this, and we both sat there for a minute, wondering what the social expectation is in Iceland in a situation like this. Was she supposed to let the boy stay over, give him jammies? Would the boys parents freak out if she did that, call the cops on her? Or would they think that was normal? Anyhow, I said to her that I thought ...

Growing up in California, the movement of the (white) settlers across the plains, over the rockies, to the shores of California was omnipresent. I mean it was so much a part of my early imagining, I am sure it forms a core metaphor for all sorts of my ideas. We make the joke in California that we live "out west" and everyone else is "back East", we still say that today even though of course California is far from a wilderness frontier anymore. In the opening segment to Little House on the Prairie  there is a short scene of wagon coming down a hill, and of course to anyone who grew up like I did, this instantly evokes an entire narrative whereby settlers moved out across the plains. I was always sure that the moment being depicted was the moment when Pa first chose the spot of land. He came over the hill side, and he said, "This looks like a good spot." He made that decision because he had the knowledge and experience to know what to look for; somewhere wit...

Found out that my sister is going to be joining us for Thanksgiving down in Southern California, which is really exciting. Surely there is room at the table! I may even put out a proper setting for her, she likes that sort of thing. We both collect China sets.

I do not suppose on a day when Iceland made international news for its treatment of an American company that I can, in all good conscious, simply ignore this. So, on the off chance anyone hasn't heard, the company that had three MacDonald's franchises here in Iceland has told MacDonalds that they would like to keep the buildings, keep the style of food, keep the same sort of packaging and staffing styles, but use Icelandic produce in the food, to cut back on cost (plus they will probably taste better). Well, to MacDonald's this means they cannot insure quality control (plus I think the franchise thing is sort of a scam, like Jenny Craig - only $10 for 4 weeks, but you have to buy all of your food there too!). Anyhow, MacDonald's said no, said you can't use our name any more if you do that. So, the company, being Icelandic, said, "Well, how about we change the name?" (because being MacDonald's here was not really doing them any favors -- Americans are n...

Well, I have tried to avoid blogging about this topic. When I lived in Washington D.C., I heard a lot about the International Monetary Fund, witnessed the sit-ins around it in the mid 1990s, talked to anthropologists that hated it and anthropologist that loved it (well, the World Bank ). The problem is that the World Bank does not differentiate between the huge global corporate enterprises it is involved in and the individual, regional impacts they have. They have a one size fits all solution, instead of understanding that there are lots of local variables to take into account, and that never is it a simple ban on this or a green light on that for all countries or all projects. Anyhow, Iceland is on the IMF schedule finally, and so it should be interesting to see the outcome of that meeting. Starts the same day as the World Series, which I think officially makes October 28th it a red letter day!

Icelandic carrots are different than American carrots in that they do not come to a point at the end. Instead of looking like a tapered candle (see photo), Icelandic carrots are equally thick at the top and at the bottom, and this isn't the way they are cut. I would guess it is because the ground is shallow or something. Still, I think it is incredibly cool they are grown here at all, and was happy to have them with my meal of meat and potatoes. All very nutritionally well rounded!

One friend of mine is currently an au pair (live in babysitter) in Berkeley. The daughter of a friend here in Iceland is an au pair in Italy. One of my Icelandic friends is thinking about trying to get an au pair from abroad when her second baby is born. These are all of course wonderful opportunities for both the host families and the au pair. One friend of mine (well, a relative of a relative who I have known for a long time) was an au pair in the United States and became basically the adopted daughter of the family. Five years later she is still living with them, and they are helping her pay for her college. I have mixed feelings about this, in a way it seems (and honestly no offense meant to anyone, just a thought) that this is some sort of voluntary form of human trafficking. Kind of like adopting babies from China (again, no offense). It is a system whose apparatus is only possible on the backs of a vast globalized network sustained by petroleum based travel, I mean just to b...

When I first started the PhD program at UC Berkeley, there were others in the department who were almost done, but had not filed yet. And I was in a pretty good position, since I already had a Master's. I just had to learn to read Latin and German, plus develop my reading lists, all the while taking courses. I look back on it now and it seems like wow how did I manage (especially considering I gave birth to Palmer 1 year into the program!). But I did manage, I took the PhD qualifying exams in May of 2007. "All" I had to do was write the dissertation. The example of those who were ahead of me in the program--their reading lists and hearing about their dissertation topics--was extremely inspiring and helped very much. Now of course their example is a little bit less helpful on an intellectual basis--my dissertation is obviously my own--but I know anyhow they are people I can count on emotionally, since they certainly know what I am going through. In the mean time other ...

Well, Dave and Palmer are in Georgia now for a week. I am happy they will get a chance to see Dave's mom, Jackie, and Dave's sister. But of course it means I will not get to "see" Palmer all week. Even if I call there, I know I will get a two minute "hi mom" before he goes to run off (a telephone without a video function does not hold his interest very well!). Anyhow, keeping my finger's crossed this makes me more productive this week instead of less, as I try to keep myself busy.  Sorry for a bummer of a blog entry. 

Icelandic television has always bought television shows in sindicate, except just in the last few years with things like 30 Rock and Jay Leno, which only air a day later than they do in the United States. Still, what is missing here is the sort of marketing extravaganza which accompanies television shows in the United States, both to hype new series, to boost ratings for sagging shows (like when ER went live for some episodes), or just to feed on the popularity of a show (often just before it goes into sindicate). The funny thing is though, that sounds a lot more capitalistic and cynical than it feels in practice. In practice, all of this has a wonderful emotional dimension to it. Television shows are the way that many Americans manage to have small chat with one another over the office water cooler (because we have nothing else in common). Like the equivalent of gossiping about the neighbors, gossiping about Ross and Rachel makes people feel connected. I have never been a big TV w...