Eventful past couple of days

Yup.. as you guessed I'm shamelessly lying in the title of this post. Not much happened.. not much at all.. :)

The first weekend of August, for those of you that don't know, is the weekend before the "Frídegi verslunarmanna" (the following Monday) which is the day where all the shop-girls and -boys get the day off. Somehow this day-off translated to the rest of the nation and now everybody in Iceland gets the day-off. Crazy Icelanders..

This weekend is the renowned "icelandic alcohol consumption and partying weekend" where numerous out-door festivals are held (the biggest of them all in the Westman Islands, a group of islands just of the south-cost of Iceland). Each year every youngster grabs a tent/sleeping bag/raincoat and a supply of alcoholic beverages (usually in such a volume that it would be considered a year-supply in any other civilized society) and goes to anyone of these "festivals". This behavior results in a traffic-chaos and usually cost several people their lives each year (as well as other alcohol-related accidents). So these past four years I made it my policy not to partake in this insane behavior and just stay in the city for the weekend.

So this weekend I just stayed home, invited myself to a dinner at mom's.. twice!, went to one out-door concert which was held in the Reykjavik Zoo (which is just a bunch of farmyard animals.. no giraffes or anything.. still fun though..) and just did almost nothing. It was so sweeeet :) and I didn't die or anything.

My girlfriend is only two weeks away from handing in her final paper for her undergrad diploma so I have nothing to do (but stay out of the house) so if you aren't doing anything either.. give me a call, I'm always up for a coffee/walk/talk/biking/hiking/movie.. just about anything..

Yes	No
Out-door activities	Sitting indoors playing a stupid computer game!

WoW!

Well this week I've been working from home. Just haven't been able to get myself to go to school for work... I don't know what I was thinking working full-time at school in the summer also.. you just need a break from this environment in the summer.

As to help me with my shit-this-sucks mood a good friend of mine gave me his 10day guest pass for World of Warcraft (a relatively-new massive multiplayer online game from Blizzard). I've been playing for these past five days and I have to admit that this game is just awesome. First impressions are great and then it just gets better :) Much more fun than the previous MMO-game I played (which was Eve-online, which basiclly just bored me).

I just love the multiplayer aspect of the game, the developers really made an effort in making sure that communicating and teaming up with other players is as seamless and effortless as possible, and has a huge gain. Previously in similar games I usually just soloed the game but now I find myself much often grouping up with other players to be able to finish assigned quests/missions. Which I think is just the essence of a game like this, getting people to work together towards mutual goals. Also something I was not used to (having not played Everquest) is that when you meet other players (same or different class/race) just walking past them in the world they usually help you out by casting on you their beef-up spells (beef-up spells are spells that give you enhanced abilities as strength, intelligence etc.). This is something that I didn't expect but is a good indication of the over-all playing atmosphere in the game. So now, when I pass some one I check their status and if needed throw a couple of spells their way, why not :)

Another great thing is that the game is just one big instance (that is everybody is playing in the same world at the same time, although dungeons are an exception). Thus you have the opportunity to influence other players (as with the beef-ups before). That is the reason why you usually aren't fighting some monster alone for a long time. There is kind of a general rule that if you see a low-level player fighting a high-level monster that is obviously going to kill him (although death is not a big problem in this game) you usually join in and help with the killing. Just a spell or two, an arrow or bullet. It's a nice thing to do and gives you a sense of comradeship.

After this 10day trial I'm currently using is over I'm going to buy the game and if somebody wants to try out the 10day pass I get with it just mail me. :) Although not being an expert in games I rate this one high on my scale and very likely to be the game I'll still be playing a year from now.

This summer is my awesome MMORPG-summer

Stupid kids...

It's amazing to stumble across web-pages as these, that have had the "Under construction" text for up to a year (or even more).. jezzz... if you're not going to open it.. stop paying the domain fee. This is usually what you get when you hire some dumb-kids to do this work for you (along with an endless supply of irritating gif animations... stupid kids..)


Fjölvi Publishing

Anyways.. I'm working outside today.. or as I like to call it "Working out!"

The Coffeehouse Experiment: Day 7 (last day)

For the last day of the Coffeehouse Experiment I (finally) decided to go to Núðluhúsið (the noodlehouse) for dinner with a couple of people. We then where going to visit the Pakistani/Azjerbajan coffee house that was just next door, but when we finished dinner then we discovered that it was closed. We then decided to just walk down town and grab a cup of coffee on the way and maybe a nice desert.

Ended up going (again) to Te og Kaffi, where Kári and Rannveig left me and Solla after a nice (and excessivly large) slices of cake. So the two of us just decided to grab a beer and walk downtown, that ended with a lot of stops and a LOT of beers/bitchpops.

Fun night out, although short for myself (came home around three-ish), but fun :)


Well so all good things must come to an end, and so does this experiment... but that doesn't have to be a bad thing, since then we have room for other new and exciting things to do :D

p.s. I've just installed WoW (World of Warcraft) and holy freck it's kewl.

p.p.s. Why humans are better than robots

The Coffeehouse Experiment: Day 6

Well the trip to Sufistinn yesterday was relaxed and nice, actually just showed up there alone. Which was very nice since I had brought a book with me to read. Had a Cappuccino and read through the "World of Warcraft: Game Manual" hehe... A friend of mine gave me his 10 day guest-account that came with his boxset and I decided to try this new massive-multiplayer online RPG out. First impressions are vveeery good :)

After sitting and reading my "book" for a couple of hours I wanted to try out the WOW game and asked the waitress if there was a wireless internet access there, but there wasn't.. damn damn... ended up calling a couple of people asking them if they knew about any hotspots in 101. Ofcourse I only had to call Solla "the woman of answers" :) and she pulled a hotspot pamphlet out of her Mary-Poppins-like purse :) The choice came down to two places Kaffitar and Te og Kaffi, and since I liked the atmos in the latter I ended up there again this week :)

Although I discovered that I couldn't play WOW at any of the popular hotspots in Reykjavik I spent some quality time chatting on the internet and fixing my website (which is now IE-bug free.. hurray!). Here are lists of hot-spots around Reykjavik for OgVodafone and Siminn

So tonight is the last day of this experiment and I have no clue as to what to do for that last day :)

The Coffeehouse Experiment: Day 5

Well a pure coffee experience yesterday when I went to Te og Kaffi on Laugarvegur. For the first time in these past five days I finally got a decent cup of espresso-based coffee. The best, even better than the other gourmé coffee house in Reykjavik "Kaffitar" (which I think has lowered it's standards considerably for the past year or so...) Got a great cup of Cappucino for only 290 and believe you me it was tasty, wheres the same cup costs 350 at Kaffitar.

Also there was a nice ambiance in this small café, quiet music so you could actually have a conversation with your friend without screaming your lungs out just to be heard over the washout pop-whore cd-track currently playing. Nice lighting and friendly staff (which is so rare to encounter in Iceland.. getting good service here is almost impossible). It was so nice that we stayed for some time, bought something to eat and drink and ended up spending much more than I had originally planned... but I'm rather willing to spend more where it's nice and cosy though it's a bit more expensive.

Well only two days left of this experiment, which is going rather well I have to say. Alot of people have taken time to participate and meet with me at some of these places.

Tonight we'd better have this more intellectual and sophisticated so I'm thinging about going to the little coffee-house Súfistinn which is on the second floor of the bookstore Mál og Menning on Laugarvegur. Grab a hot cup of coffee and a good book and let's talk literature :D

Súfistinn at 19:00 tonight

The Coffeehouse Experiment: Day 4

Well the days just zoom by, fourth day already. This time my girlfriend, Rannveig, joined the coffee-house crowd and we met Styrmir and Solla at Vegamot. Not quite a crowd but hey, good people make good company... :D

I haven't been to this coffee-house in years and was kinda surprised to discover that they're more of a restaurant now, and actually serve hellagood food. Best chicken that I've had for sometime now.. :) We sat outside for a while since it was >20deg outside, although when the shade hit us it got to cold to be outside (it's the classic thing here in Iceland).

The afternoon was very nice, we sat and chatted and afterwards I checked out the huge bookstore across the street. Actually found a book I bought and have started reading. It's a collection of modern Japanese short stories, called "Modern Japanese Stories" hehe original right ;)

"Edited by Ivan Morris, a recognized authority on Japanese literature, Modern Japanese Stories: An Anthology is a volume of the highest quality and fidelity. The anthology also contains a long critical introduction by the editor tracing the development of modern Japanese fiction, introductory paragraphs to each story giving information about the author and the story's cultural context, and a selected bibliography of modern Japanese fiction available in English translation." [more]

I'm rather excited to start reading this one ;), half-way through the introduction...

I can't quite put my finger on it but there is something I just really love about bookstores.. I just go in one and I don't notice the hours just flying-by :D. Books are fun!

This afternoon at 21:00 I'm going to Te og Kaffi on Laugarvegur, which I have high hopes towards since it's one of the o-so rare coffee-houses in Reykjavik that doesn't allow smoking! Hurray, finally my clothes wont stink of cigarette smoke afterwards! :D ... besides it's supposed to serve a wicked cup of espresso ...

The Coffeehouse Experiment: Day 3

Well time sure flies when you're having fun. Yesterday was one of the best days in Reykjavik this summer, weather-vise anyways, and thus it was humanly impossible to stay indoors behind a computer screen. So after having tormented myself for a few hours staying in the AI-lab and wallowing in self-pity since my "awesome new AI search idea" wasn't all that awesome when I tried it out, I decided that enough is enough and skipped out early. Actually dragged a fellow labmate and a good friend with me out and we walked together home. On the way home we walked across Miklatun, which is a huge park centered around an art gallery in the (almost)middle of the city. Recently there was an beach-wolley ball court built there, with the beach-sand and everything ;), so we decided to check it out and ended up playing beach-hackysack (since the net was quite low.. stupid kids). Nice hour workout I'd say...

So for day three of my CE experiment I met a few people in Kaffibarinn, which is a popular coffeehouse on Laugavegurinn (the main strip). The only reason for picking this place is because it is a hotspot (has wireless internet) and we wanted to share some music.. geeks! hehe..

It ended up just being just me, Solla and Gunni for the second day in a row.. but they're fun people to hang around with so it was the best :D

Edit: well after a lot of angry messages and "That's so lame"-emails I've decided to change the coffee house for this afternoon to Vegamót, so it's at 19:00 at Vegamot, nice since you can get something to eat there for a reasonable price right! :D At least I will be!

p.s. If ever in Edmonton, Canada. Don't forget to check out my friends Chris's new coffee house Hulbert's (when it opens that is) owned by two of my favorite Canadians, and thus it's guaranteed to be a nice little place and I assume that they especially welcome coffee-needing Icelanders, right? ;)

19:00 at Vegamót tonight

The Coffeehouse Experiment: Day 2

Well as an explanation to my English readers (both of them) for yesterdays entry, was in a hurry and my English writing abilities still aren't sufficiently good enough so that I can just write fluently about the things that are on the top of my mind.. :) but that's all getting better right? hehe..

So this weekend I decided to do a little informal social-experiment kind of a intro-/outrospective thing. The deal is that I must spend at least two hours each day goofing-off in a coffeehouse in Reykjavik Central. Last Sunday was the first day of the experiment and it went quite well I have to say (although I drank considerable amount of relatively-cheap beer and had work in the morning but..) Met a couple of my friends and we just goofed-off :)

Yesterday was day two of this interesting experiment and the coffeehouse I decided to visit was a place I am ashamed to say that I haven't seen before and it's one of the oldest coffee houses in Reykjavik. Mokka Kaffi (Mocca Café) is located on a sidestreet from the main shopping street here in Reykjavik. It was opened in 1958 and has been a refuge for Reykjaviks artists through the years. My impressions are that it's small and cozy, I'm going there again.

I was joined by two friends of mine Solla and Gunni and we drank coffee/pops and talked, which was very nice :) This experiment is turning out to be much more fun than I expected.

Tonight I'm going to have coffee at one of Reykjavik's most popular hangout places Kaffibarinn (the Coffee-bar) at 19:00, being CS-people we are going to have a small music-sharing moment. I'm bringing my laptop and Solla is bringing hers since I wanted to "listen locally" to some songs she has in her iTunes library *wink* :D would be fun if everybody brought their libraries, it's fun to discover new music...

Com-on and join us guys (or you mom if you're the only person reading this blog? *smile*) it's fun and it shure beats sitting home in front of the tube all night!

Húsafell og opin félagsfræðitilraun

[Sorry no English this time, since I write Icelandic faster]
Frábær útileigu-afmæli um helgina hjá Braga og hinum fjórum fræknu félögum hans í Húsafelli. Við Rannsa sóttum Styrmi seinni partinn á laugardaginn og lögðum á leið úr bænum (eftir að Solla þynnkudolla hætti við að koma með). Verð að viðurkenna að það var nú talsverð rigning á leiðinni og Styrmir jó-jóaðist á milli þess að gera gott úr málunum ("Þetta verður fínt maður.. erum með tjald") og missa sig í móðursýkiskasti í aftursætinu yfir vatnsmagni og vinhraða sannfærður um að við myndum aldrei komast lífs af úr þessari raun.. og hann var sá eini okkar sem var vel búinn með 3-piece poncho regnföt, fást nú á Essó stöð nálægt þér á 100kall.. !

Í Húsafellinu beið okkar þetta líka eðal-afmælis-partí, hin frábærasta producering í alla staði. Með gríðarfínu partítjaldi, gashiturum (fyrir hinar kulvísu stúlkur í hópnum), spítalagrillum og sumargríni.. og svo stytti bara upp :) Veislan stóð langt fram undir morgun með síhækkandi volumi í græjunum, og ekki voru bbq-pulsurnar hans Braga neitt slor rétt eftir miðnættið *smjatt*.

Við skelltum okkur svo bara frekar snemma í bæinn, Rannslan keyrði þar sem að hvorki ég né Styrmir (sérstaklega Styrmir) vorum í engu ástandi til að stjórna nokkurskonar ökutæki... Hristum af okkur leifar þynnkunnar og grillbræluna úr hárinu með sundlaugarferð í Borgarnesi og með sveeeeeiiitum hammara í Hyrnunni eftir á.

Frábær laugardagsferð og ég þakka Braga kærlega fyrir mig...



Á öðrum nótum þá ákvað ég í mestu þynnkunni á leiðinni heim að standa fyrir óformlegri intro-/outro-spectívri sósíal tilraun alla næstu viku. Hún felur í sér að eyða a.m.k. 2 klukkutímum goofing off á kaffihúsi í miðbæ Reykjavíkur. Þetta er einstaklega opin tilraun og væri ég glaður ef sem flestir myndu sjá sér fært að taka þátt í henni með mér :D

Fyrsti dagur tilraunarinnar var í gær og hófst hún á Prikinu, en þar mætti ég og hitti Kára og Árna og við skemmtum okkur býsna vel (hátt skor á goof-off skalanum). Og ekki skemmdi fyrir að prik-bjórinn var á 300kall fyrir 10 ;)

Í kvöld verður tilrauninni haldið áfram og nú á kaffihúsinu Mokka á Skólavörðustígnum (þarna beint á móti háspennu) mjög spenntur að sjá hvernig það fer :D


Afmælispjakkurinn

Eygló vígaleg með skæraskærin

HUNDRAÐOGEINN!!! maðurinn

Eldhress og horfum til framtíðar :)

Farið að síga í suma og liggur við gráti þegar biðin eftir grillmatnum ílengdist.. kúturinn

Afmælisbörnin (með grænuhúfurnar) og performerar kvöldsins

Menn mis-hressir daginn eftir.. :)

Camping for the soul

Yup going camping this Saturday, attending a friends birthday party in Húsafell (Housemountain.. hehehe, a must to translate, right?), two hours drive and then the ritual: pitching of the tent, slapping of the bbq-meat, emptying of the beer cans and singing loud, long and lousy.. :D It's gonna be a blast!

Keeping it real! Westzide...

Computers == Easy

Today's word is "Flabbergasted" and for a good reason!!
Yup now it's finally official, all this computer-scheit is so fcuking easy a 9 year-old can do it. Was reading slashdot this morning and saw a link to a Seattle based news page that published a story about a 10-year-old girl from Pakistan that took the Microsoft Certified Professional exam. WTF! Is this damn exam this easy or am I this mind-numbingly stupid? Christ!
This girl, Arfa, was invited to the Redmond Microsoft campus that is just outside Seattle and there she met with Bill Gates and other execs at Microsoft where she discussed various things with them including, how to make CS more appealing for women, self-navigating cars and satellite-technology. Although Microsoft was not willing to hire someone at her age, she gets an internship in a few years.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit... now I'm fkucing gonna have to take this MS-exam and if I fail it's nothing but suisuide! Stupid Pakistani damn damn..

... anyways.. Congratulations *blah blah* yeah real accomplishment.. *blah blah* you are a real inspiration *secretly wishing bad things*.. yeah you make us all want to work extra hard *who wants to loose his job to an 8-year-old?*...

Stupid child-prodigies.. should be some kind of a law!

Talking about elks?

More funny stuff at wulffmorgenthaler.com

Birthday parties are the best

Hella-fun weekend, where invited to a birthday-garden-paryt at Ragga, a former CS-classmate of mine. She and her boyfriend put up the bbq in their humongus backyard and bunch of benches and voila.. perfect bbq! Inherently the icelandic climate is outright hostile to these kinds of gatherings, but there is a simple solution for that problem... BEER! By the third one I didn't even realize that i was sitting outside *hehe*. But eventually the party had to move inside.. women just aren't made for below +23deg environments... ;)

Most of the former/current CS people showed up (some later than others.. people have to golf hehe!) but the evening/night it was great fun.

Happy birthday to the birthday-girl and thanks for a great party! :D



The birthday-girl

oops a chain-related accident.. well at least he still has beer :)

Yup...

That's some teeth you've got there.. ;)

And a hairy chest..

... no more room on my server for more images.. damn damn..

New suit for the fatman

Due to long lasting and irritating problems with the layout and look of my website I finally decided to give it a good overhaul and redesign the whole thing. I just don't know what I was thinking with that last design.. what a piece of shit!

The biggest changes in this update are:

1. Much nicer single-page layout
2. The comments are now visible on the blog page it self
3. A bit more vertical space (stupid constraints removed)
4. Google search :)

I actually kinda like this layout alot.. maybe for the next couple of months..

It's in a kind of a "Beta" stage still, although all of the blog entries display correctly. I haven't fixed the static html links at the top yet (and the search is scheit). But tell me what you guys think. Better? or worse?

Viðburðarrík helgi

Okkur Rönnslunni var boðið í þetta líka frábæra afmæli hjá Kára skólafélaga mínum á föstudaginn, og ekki sakaði að hafa slíkt með suður-amerísku ívafi. Smakkaði þar einn súrasta drykk *bókstaflega* í heimi.. eintómar lime og svo suðuramerískt áfengi sem minnti helst á tequila (Hiklaust lægsta ph-gildi sem ég hef innbyrgt í langan tíma.. án þess að telja með ananas-daginn hrikalega). En mér finnst alltaf eitthvað svo magnað við áfengi sem keypt er í annari heimsálfu.. just love it.. er einhvernvegin mun fljótara að klárast en ÁTVR sullið ;). Komst að því í leiðinni að það er þvílíkur plús að vera fæddur að sumri því ekki þarf maður þá að hafa áhyggjur yfir að fá einhverjar djöfulsins lopapeysur í afmælisgjöf.. ákvað því að halda upp á það með því að færa Kára afmælispakka með sumarþemanu "drullaðu-þér-út-að-leika-maður!" Jójó-bjór-supersoaker-kindadolla.. gerist ekki betra :D

Þrátt fyrir gott föstudagskvöld þá var laugardagurinn hiklaust hápunktur helgarinnar þegar góðvinur minn hann Atli og Bryndís gengu í hjónaband. Frábært brúðkaup í alla staði og gaman að sjá vini manns "verða gamla" hehe..(úff pressa) Þau giftu sig í Dómkirkjunni í Reykjavík og var athöfnin mjög skemmtileg undir stjórn biskupsins sjálfs og ekki vantaði góða tónlist í athöfnina. Fimm rokkprik fá þau fyrir frábæran útgöngumars (er ekki líka orðið hálf-ömmulegt að vera alltaf með þetta hefðbundna?). Veislan var svo haldin í félagsheimilinu á Seltjarnarnesi (hvar annarsstaðar!? *bros*) og var það ein besta skemmtun sem ég hef átt í langan-langan tíma, endalaus skemmtiatriði hjá gestum og ættingjum. Magnaður dagur og gaman að geta fagnað honum með vinum (gömlum og nýjum). Til hamingju með daginn elskurnar mínar :*

Taking it a bit to far

I think it must be some kind of a sandbox-related-childhood issue.. ? *smile*

Last but not least

Fcuk'edy fcuk!
Just spent almost an entire week sick as a dog. Got finally so fcuking bored of my new unconscious-life that I decided to fcuk-it-all and just show up for work.

Regretting that decision more and more with every passing minute...


But these last days did not go totally to waste, lying around and just feeling over-all sorry for myself. Although I made a couple of "this is my last breath just called to say I love you"-phone calls to loved ones, my major achivement is that I finally wiped the hard drive and reinstalled windows on my trusty IBM thinkpad. I bought it few months before I started my undergrad and it had followed my through all the good/bad times with the initial setup. I have to admit it, deleting the primary partition felt like I was pulling the plug on a loved one and it took me some time to get to terms with myself afterwards. But all that vanished like a fart in the wind when I discovered that after the reinstall that my old I-hate-you-and-your-slowness-you-are-ruining-my-life laptop had a sudden burst in performance. :D And I almost fell in love all over again... but only almost... nothing still compares to my lovely-looking powerbook *sigh*.

Well back to my (quote)work(/quote)...

A revolutionary method

Thank god for Apple and their wonderful product iPhoto, without it I wouldn't remember a half of the things we did in Canada.

Hint: If you ever get a digital camera, I recommend adapting the usage-pattern I've termed "Jonas's method". Funny results are guaranteed. It is as follows:
1. Grab a nearby camera, preferably with a large memory card (>256MB)
2. Press the little on button and get ready (perhaps with a deep breath etc..)
3. Go into a photo-frenzy where you try to fill up the memory card in the least amount of time, preferably by taking multiple pictures of everybody and everything in your immediate vicinity.

I've got numerous funny-as-hell pictures in my album taken using this method :) I'm currently only a lowly apprentice of Jónas himself, trying to master this ancient art.

A moral dilemma

... it is as I never went to Canada... this sucks!

Instead of working on starting my thesis work I decided that writing some AppleScripts and installing cool Mac apps would qualify as a time well spent.

Growl is one of the coolest apps for Mac I've seen (so far). A global notification handling system is a concept much needed in the Windows world and it is nice to see such a great implementation of such a system as Growl is. It had been bugging my for quite some time that I couldn't globally control iTunes in a clean fashion (e.g. without a mouse driven menu-bar program). I finally found a nice program that could create hot-key macro sequences (and wasn't overly complex and slow), Keyboard Maestro. It had a couple of built-in functions to control iTunes but I couldn't instantly rate the songs with out switching to iTunes, which was what I desperately needed.

So after discovering that I could execute my own custom AppleScript code I found some nice implementations that I could use to control iTunes as I liked. But the coolest thing in all this is that the Growl system can also be controlled via AppleScript and thus I was able to create hotkeys that switch between songs/show current song info and quick rate them meanwhile displaying all the info I wanted to see on-screen for my viewing pleasure :D

This small banner, displaying the song info, rating and album art, slides up at the bottom of my screen stays for 2 secs and then slides down again. Kewl eh?


Here are the AppleScripts I used:
CurrentTrackInfo.scpt
Rating0.scpt (Added this one to the ones that came with Growl)


Today I love my Mac but... mixed feelings toward this hunk of rock I'm living on have surfaced recently...