back scratcher? back scratcher!

Category: dribblings

woody02 

check out this fat-ass woodpecker. he’s as big as a duck.

complete filth.

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28. Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indriðason

Category: 50 Books

I think this is book #5 in the Erlendur series, but don’t hold me to that. It’s the first one I’ve read. It’s Icelandic crime fiction. I didn’t feel lost reading this even though I hadn’t read #1 – 4.

I loved the three detective characters. I liked that they were just coworkers and not best friends, no love-interest involved, just straight-up police procedural.

I know next to nothing about Iceland, but this book kind of educates one in some of Icelands social concerns. Immigration, for one. The book took it from all sides from racism to peaceful coexistence to the ones who don’t have a problem with immigrants really, but who are afraid that their Icelandic culture will disappear (this seemed to be older people). It was fascinating. Plus: murder mystery.

Another thing I was fascinated with the the whole Missing Persons thing. According to the book, people go missing in Iceland so much that it’s not a big deal to the Icelanders, it’s just a part of life. I guess their terrain is all fjords and bogs and avalanches and blizzards and volcanoes or whatnot. They weren’t nonchalant about it, but it seemed like they would suffer the loss quietly or something. Very interesting.

I will say this for the solving of the crime, I was disappointed in the who dunnit. It comes pretty close to breaking the You Can’t Just Make Up New People at the End and Be All, “They did it.” Rule. So boo on that.

Also, the Icelandic names were much harder to deal with than say, the usual Swedish stuff I read. Part of it was that the names were kind of similar so it was difficult for me to keep up with them at first. There was Erlendur and Elinborg. Sigudur Oli and Sigirdur. You know it’s confusing when the immigrants’ names (Thailand) were easier to keep up with.

I can’t wait to read the next book, Hypothermia.

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Aquarius

Category: dribblings

i’m sorry, but you will now have the song from Hair in your head all day.

aquarius02 

okay, i did not make that shape up. i know you think i did, but think again. if i had made up a shape it would have totally been something juvenile like a penis or a pac-man or a chicken and NOT some one-armed, kite-headed pegleg pouring water out of a lop-sided bucket. i hate that the powerline is in the shot, but it makes me laugh that it looks like he’s watering the tree. in fact, the tree is blocking some of the “water”.
like it matters.

so this was taken in the backyard and i was facing south, i believe. about 9:30pm.

i know that Aquarius is in the zodiac, but i’m not a zodiac nerd, and therefore cannot tell you a thing about it. i want to say that in Greek mythology he’s got something to do with flooding the earth, but maybe i’m getting him confused with Poseidon.

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oatmeal

Category: dribblings

i mentioned to Laura that i’d been eating more oatmeal recently, and that they have this tasty kind with cranberries, apples and almonds in it. also the oatmeal reminded me of that old Weekly, The One About Oatmeal, and the hilarious graphique Laura made for it. she suggested that since it’s Tuesday i should link to that one. oh hey, AND it’s October! It’s the Weekly’s birthday anyway. good call, Laura.

The One About Oatmeal

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for the bird nerds

Category: dribblings

cygnus02 

all right, so there’s the damn bird. it just so happened to be right above the house when i went outside this evening (around 8:30pm) making it the easiest constellation to capture.

the bright star at the bottom is Vega.

Vega is very bright; brighter than Polaris, which i did not know until tonight, but apparently our North Star isn’t even in the top 20 brightest stars. what kind of slacker pole star is this?

Anyway Vega is the 2nd brightest star in the night sky in the northern hemisphere, and that impresses me.

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phabulous phrase #117Y6.90

Category: dribblings

Gore Vidal Sassoon says so much ado about nothing

there is a whole second part to this, but it’s so crazy i was too embarrassed to post it.

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stars upon thars

Category: dribblings

casseopeia01

the clear autumn nights are good for night pictures.

mr. fleegan used some kind of app on his droid phone and all he has to do is point it at the sky and it shows what constellations are right there in front of you. it’s like magic, only with science.

mr. fleegan was pointing it at Jupiter and asked which constellations i wanted to know about. i pointed and said, “that one!”

“which one?”

“the zig-zaggy one.”

“aren’t they all kinda zig-”

“the one by the tree.”

“are you sure that’s even a-”

“of course it is. look at it. it has to be something.”

“it is something. it’s Casseopeia.”

“sweet!”

“sweet?”

“yes! i’m glad it’s Casseopeia.”

“why?”

“i thought it was going to be something boring like Cygnus.”

“why is Cygnus-”

“it’s a swan. i hate birds. you know this.”

“wow.”

“but Casseopeia! i mean, that’s something.”

“uh huh.”

“she was Andromeda’s mom, remember?”

“and why do you know that?”

“from Clash of the Titans. she was Ursula Andress’s mom.”

“let’s find that one.”

“jerk.”

casseopeia03

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2nd Amendment

Category: dribblings

gun01 

HOW DID I END UP AT A SHOOTING RANGE THIS MORNING?

Lord, have mercy on this anti-gun hypocrite.

Uncle Dan, you’d be proud of me. I fired an AK-47.
more than once. i was only able to hit the giant wall of dirt, but i think i get points for not dropping it.

gun04

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Jar City

Category: dribblings

I’m reading a book at the moment called Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indriðason. On the cover of this book is a gold stamp that states: CWA Gold Dagger Award-winning Author of Jar City. So I was all, hmm, Jar City? Why does that sound familiar?

Turns out it  sounds familiar because Netflix was all, “You seem to like the Nordic shit, try this.”

Oh Netflix, how well you know me.

So I watched Jar City. The books are Icelandic, so I’m assuming the movie was too. It takes place in Iceland, anyway. The plot is perfect for Iceland (or any other cut-off region with a small population, I guess.) because it deals with a genetic disorder and blah blah blah you can see how that would only work in a place like that and impossible for say, anywhere here in the U.S.. So I was fascinated by that.

Unfortunately, the only thing I will probably take away from that movie is this one part. And it had nothing to do with the plot or murder or anything important. And as soon as it happened I realized this and that I’m a stupid, spoiled American white girl. Which is fine, I can’t change any of that. But still, you don’t like to think of yourself as shallow or whatnot and maybe I should explain this a bit better so you can see what I’m talking about.

There’s a small part in the movie where the main detective guy, Erlendur, goes through a drive-thru type food place. The girl at the window recognizes him and he orders “the usual”. I get why this happens. It establishes that he’s a single guy who rarely gets a home-cooked meal. He eats a lot of take-out food. It works, right? Let’s move on, he’ll take the food home and eat it by himself, probably straight out of the container or something, right?

So he orders “the usual” and i’m all, ‘gotcha, the usual.’

then he adds, “a sheep’s head.”

then i was all, “wait, did he just order a sheep’s head? like a sheep’s head? the head of a sheep? Oh, it MUST be some kind of crazy european meat pie or something, and NOT like a, sheep’s head. right?”

no. the girl hands him half of a sheep’s head wrapped in plastic.

See what I mean about my American White Girl snapping her head up?

Then the movie shows him going home and eating it. And he doesn’t eat it standing at the kitchen counter either. no, he sits on his couch and unwraps this half of a sheep’s head, which I assume to be a boiled sheep’s head?

I’ve never seen a boiled sheep’s head, because I live in the 21st century, but i don’t know any other way you could cook half a sheep’s head in such a way that it would remain on the skull, you know?

And the eye.

I was all, “Jesus H. McGillicuddy! The least they could’ve done is remove the eye before cooking it!”

because there it was staring up at him. and it was all kind of smooshed, milky-white, and congealed (from the boiling, I’d guess) like some kind of fatty-cheese mass. I was horrified, until he opened up this pocket knife and removed the gelatinous eye mass AND THEN ATE IT. Then I became inconsolable. I yelled at the screen.

Jar City sheep eating scene from bob cluness on Vimeo.

I cannot tell you how grossed out I was by that, and I’m ashamed really, because the other parts that I’m supposed to by shocked and grossed at, like the jars of all the specimens? or the very graphic corpse they find? Nothing. No biggie. Dead bodies? a dime a dozen. Who cares? But a guy eating a sheep’s head like it’s an ear of corn at a July 4th picnic? And I lose my shit.

I’m sure it’s some kind of delicious, traditional Icelandic food or something. And the eye? It probably tastes like Christmas day for all I know. But as soon as that scene happened I knew that no matter what else happened in that movie that is the only part I’d remember.

Hi, my name is Jaimie, but you can call me Whitey McCrackerson.

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file under: You’re Old Now

Category: Uncategorized

the most disappointing part about taking an adult multi-vitamin every day (other than they are the size of a high-top sneaker) is that they are not in the shape of the Flintstones’ car.

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