the babbling one ;-)

Love this feeling when things just start to come together, when I am reminded of why exactly I want to be a folklorist and see all the potential out there so clearly!
As you can see I’m in the third stage of prepairing, it’s weird, Halldor just commented upon the fact that I always follow the same routine. I do the research part, which I incidentally love, then comes intensive reading involving grumpyness, followed by a period where all is being matured in my head, all the ideas are coming together linked by previous scholarship, this is the part that he feels the most seeing as I’ll start rambling on about the weirdest subjects once we’re in bed and my mind seems to spring to live. Last night subjects included the bloody mary narratives’ connection to menarche, the increase in supernatural blame in what used to be morale stories of late and wondering whether 2001 had anything to do with that and movies and tv as non fixed text due to fan communities mixing genres, editors editions being published and different countries snipping parts off before public viewing….. yeah I know: "poor Halldor" ;-)

Anyways better get back to work seeing as I’m finally on a roll here ;-) Maby I’ll even make it to the actual writing stage…. Fingers crossed! Oh by the way, just read an amazing article by Carl Lindahl on ostension and it made me wonder if any of you (in particular my American readership) have heard of the Mal ojo and the egg?

Easter getting closer...

Playing with the closeups
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Old but new... you know you're ..

You know you are living in 2006 when............

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the
screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

12. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

13. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

14. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

AND NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.

Go on, forward this to your friends. You know you want to.

The trembling wannabe scholar ;-)

Thank you so much for all your positive feedback to my last post ~big smile~ !!

I'm really sorry about the lacakage of posting of late, these days I'm panickly reading up on urban/contemporary/modern legend scholarship and trying prepare a paper I'm supposed to be giving at the end of the month at by far the most prestigious assembly I'll ever have addressed. So panicking is an understatement, I fully realize that it's good experience for me, that I can do the job and that all will go well, but still there is this riveting doubt about my own competence, or rather lack thereof. The more I read the less I feel I actually have a premise upon which to base my observations, that my subject is not really worth addressing and that I'm building a subject out of nothing, so one wee terrified scholar here. Then upon reading the programme I find that quite a number of the scholars that I'm quoting will actually be attending so .... major worries .... I know I'm being silly and am now duly kicking my butt into gear and to just tackle it ;-) Hey isn't blogging a great way of talking to oneself without appearing too crazy ;-P (not that anyone that knows me has any doubts about me in that department)

This message is brought to you by the brand new Sony Vaio ;-)

Paris for President....

Being wholly non pc here ;-) Loved this t-shirt featured below and if you click it you can see an animated collage featuring Paris' many expressions.....or not ! It's worth it just to be scared ;-P

A very happy wee person :-D

Wow, Thursday a week ago was amazing!! So why is she blogging about week old events you might be asking yourself,.. well it´ll all become clear in due course. First let me apologize for my severe lack of posting, in part due to having been busy as a bee with my studies...

Anyways, on Thursday I went to school, fully braced for bureaucratic hassle, delays, having to haggle and be insistent and nervous as hell about meeting my PhD supervisors all for the first time, well to cut the tale short the day turned out to be fantastic to say the absolute least!!!

First of all I arrive after my 4 hour train ride into town, the train is delayed as usual and I, having only an hour and half to do all the registration stuff before the meeting, scurry up to the office to fetch a letter my supervisor had promised to leave for me there. Needless to say I turn up, the office is closed and once I find someone to assist me it turns out the supervisor hadn´t actually left the letter at all ;-) Good start ehi?

Well that´s when things start getting fantastical….off I trotter to his office, he´s there a tad surprised over my early arrival, quickly writes me another letter, over to the office I go absolutely sure it´s going to be closed and I´ll be needing some document or another which I don´t have, but alas no, much to my surprise I am greeted warmly, the lady quickly and surely registers me, gives me extra three weeks to come up with the fees and sends me over to the computer centre. There I´m in for another shock as there is a gentleman just waiting to be of service, and in mere 5 mins gets me an account, library access, takes my picture and hands me my student card with a confidential grin about having given me my name as an e-mail address, something normally only reserved for faculty. And I wasn´t even showing any cleavage!!

By this time I´m quite elated and having made such good time run to the library to try to find books for my upcoming paper, but alas my card still isn´t functional and hence I can´t take any books out, again my lucky stars are shining as one librarian upon hearing where I live and my difficulties in returning tomorrow, just pulls me aside, quickly manually adds me to the system and literally winks at me ;-) I find all the books I´m looking for (a miracle in itself) and head for the meeting, now getting seriously worried. Needless to say the meeting went amazingly, they were very positive towards my research and seeing as I’ve already taken the MA are giving me full exemption from attendance courses (saving me tons of money as well as hassle) and to focus upon furthering my Japanese as well as reading related articles for the next few months, i.e. just to have fun ;-D

So could the day become any better? Yup it sure can! When I finally made it home at midnight (another 4 hours train ride) and quickly checked my e-mails there were two that stood out. One was from the Icelandic student loan company (generally referred to as the devil incarnate due to their unflinching evilness) offering me an exemption from repayments on earlier loans this year due to low income (duhh I´m a student mother of two!) and the other e-mail was to inform me that on one of my countless wanderings unto movie magazine sites and taking part in all the routine competitions, I´d actually managed to win something!! And not just something wee like a t-shirt or a DVD set but a brand new Sony Vaio dual centrino technology laptop :-D Not kidding you. Hence the no blogging about it earlier in order not to tempt fate and jinx the whole process.

But now it´s here, brought in earlier this morning and understandably all reading and studying went out the window as the new gadget was prodded and probed ;-D

I don´t know what to call it, lucky star, an angel dropping in for a visit or collected karma points but that day definitely felt like someone out there had decided to make it a special one for me :-D I´ve started my PhD, the student loans issue has resolved itself and I´ve just been literally "handed" a new laptop computer..
*happy happy spring dance*

I am such a geek and a show off ;-)

Flickr, the photosite I so enjoy, has this thing where they pick out the most interesting photos posted each day and post them on a separate page. Strangely the standing is always fluxuating so a picture that had the ranking 30 yestarday might be 400 today or simply no longer on the list.
That aside it is always fun to see ones own photos on there ;-) Hence the showoffedness ;-P
Below is a collection of my images that are currently on the interesting list, if you however follow this link and type in Gunnella you can see my current standing, which may be completely different...if you yourself have a flickr account you can also check if any of your photos have made it in there... I like my gadgets ;-D


1. The answer is blowing in the wind, 2. Eilean Donan reflected, 3. Eilean Donan in the chilly mist, 4. Concentration, 5. Edinburgh Castle as a mere backdrop ;-), 6. Enjoying the January sun in Leith, 7. Sloan street reflected, 8. Leith yet again, this time at twilight,

9. Edinburgh Castle stained glass windows, 10. Beauty below north bridge, 11. on board Austrian air, 12. Urquhart castle on the shores of Loch Ness, 13. Amazing graffiti at Anagnina Station in Rome, 14. This seemed to me to be "the" essence of Denmark, 15. Sunny weather in Leith, 16. Jun 2004 - Iceland´s Flag,

17. His head in a Bucket..., 18. Graveyard set, 19. A lone cone, 20. The westman islands in the far distance, 21. The lady by the tower :D, 22. Sumarfri 2004 - a hallway to a mysterious land ;-), 23. The moon ship.. and a sunset/rise, 24. St.Peters reflected,

25. Colourfest in the rain, 26. Templars in Temple, 27. High upon a church spire he sits and ponders the city below - An Edinburgh view, 28. Last minute Christmasshopping under a canopy of lights, 29. Jan 2004 - up north in Iceland, 30. Eilean Donan, 31. Lightplay above Njálsgata in Reykjavík, 32. Highlands yet again ;-),

33. Follow the white rabbit - Iceland National Day, 34. Deep fried Mars Bars - only in Scotland, 35. Playing with a balloon in the bath ;-), 36. The view over to the Castle on a misty morning, 37. Reflection in a Leith pub, 38. Eye to the sky...o.k. corny I know ;-Þ

Snow Time in Edinburgh :-D

Yay, got woken up this morning by a cold footed young one exclaiming loudly "It´s snowing, it´s proper snowing" ;-) So all got up, dressed (always a good idea ;-) and went downstairs to our little cubicle of a garden to play :-D

. .
Snowballs were thrown, Halldór pretended to be threatening ;-P and then duly got dragged into making a snowman :-D

. .
The snowman got made, admittedly a rather splotchety fellow due to how little snow there actually was and then got his very own Mohawk courtesy of Ragnar (a subtle hint to me I´m guessing seeing as he´s been asking for a blue mohawk for ages now ;-)
So all in all a great day followed by Wallace and Gromit, the curse of the were rabbit, Prins Polo and hot chockolate :-D Funny how much enjoyment mere snow, frozen water nota bene, can induce and how quickly the mundaneness of it after decades of Icelandic weather dissipates to give way to fun, fun and more fun :-D

The budding young photograhper :-D

The budding young photograhper :-D
Just gave my son my jenoptik, my first digital camera. It´s one of those where you have to hold it very still as you snap and more importantly your subjects have to hold very still as well ;-) I think it´ll be good practice for him and he´s loving it :-D

Love the contrast between the spring and winter... an eternal battle

Love the contrast between the spring and winter... an eternal battle
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Video time

Went on a videoclip rampage this morning, can you say extreme lazyness.. ;-) And found the above as well, the real life Simpsons Family, The autistic basketball champ, funny home videos, the amazing David Bell (with his amazing abs ;-) and this laugh out loud collection of cats ...... I´m not shying away from getting any work done now that ester has left am I ;-P

Hæ hó jibbijej og jibbijej

O.k. the apartment is looking moderately presentable, there are clean sheets on the guest bed, the visa card has been rubbed expectantly so as to procure some non existent cash and tons of brochures for ghost tours and underground walks are sitting on my desk.

Sounds like all is ready ;-) Now all I need to do is go pick up Ester at the train station, what could go wrong? (whoooosh, the eerie sound of fate deciding I´ve just been too damn tempting ;-)

Yay, I´m getting my first visit since moving here, no, admittedly parents and sibling extraordinaire have come and gone, but no friends have availed upon my hospitality, the closeness to the shops, the multitude of pubs and the sheer joy of my company up until now…

So planning to visit the castle, finally make it to look at the underground maze that supposedly spans the entire old city and is supposed to be haunted to the rims, pubs, shops, university appointment, food, beer, food, beer….. is there anything I´m forgetting? Any suggestions :-D Ahh yes, to have fun, relax and enjoy the visit, promice photos but probably not much blogging ;-)

*note to self, no thinking about that paper you´re supposed to be giving at the folklore Society in London in barely a months time which you haven´t really started!

Holla Back New York City - If You Can't Slap 'Em, Snap 'Em!

This is such an incredibly cool site :-D It is literally a sharing ground for all those harassed in the street by creeps (needless to say ;-).

The site, which has already recieve some acclaim as well as news coverage, features Women (generally) sharing cameraphone snapshots as well as the story of the drooling creeps they´ve encountered and just won´t leave them alone.

Launched in October, the Holla Back Web site receives postings beyond the confines of New York with stories from India, Korea and even a Mormon housewife. Originally conceived at a Manhattan bar in September, Holla Back NYC developed out of the personal stories of its founders and the newly realized power of camera phones to document street harassment.

A dark dank Edinburgh night

Edinburgh, at least our area, is really intriguing at night due to the ultra yellow light they have in the lampposts. The light adds this eerie surrealistic feel to everything especially when it´s been raining and the cobblestones are glistening reflecting the light.

This is the general feel I got every morning as I´d set out for University at 5 in the morning, nary a human about, all quiet and this age old historical city watching me ;-)
No... no overactive imagination at play here at all ;-)

Bad Humour ;-)

A Sad Passing ...

It is with the saddest heart that I must pass on the following news.
Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment community.

The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71.

Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin.

Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs.Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch.

The grave site was piled high with flours.

Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded.

Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times he was still a crusty old man and was considered a roll model for millions.

Doughboy is survived by his wife, Play Dough, two children, John Dough and Jane Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly dad, Pop Tart.

The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.