Ragnar, the budding photographer :-D

I'd like to introduce to you a budding young photographer. The photos here are courtesy of my young'un who has just started posting his photos on Flickr ;-) As you can see from below they're quite good even if I do say so myself. And the one to the left is the compulsory one where he takes a pic of me taking pics ;-)




On an equally selfcongratulatory atention seeking note... what am I saying, I AM a blogger after all ;-) anyways, have just set up camp on Myspace and wondered if any of you (working under the assumption that there are any of you) have a profile there and if so....
"would you like to be my friend" smile :-D
(why do suddenly feel 6 again??)((oops just read it again, this time with a homicidal maniacs voice and I'm scaaaary))

Gunnella revealed ;-)

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Mandy Patinkin

Of late I have become hooked on the CBS series Criminal minds, about a team of FBI profilers and their cases, spiced of course with breakdowns, romantic interludes, the cute childlike savant with his personal problems and the prerequisite geek/nerd girl with glasses heading the computer lab. Just the mere flirtatious interplay between her and the “handsome” cop makes it worth watching.
Took me a while to place the head honcho though, Mandy Patinkin. Recognized him of course from “Dead Again” but it was a while before I realised he was the gorgeous Ignito Montoya from Princess Bride.
"My name is Ignigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepaire to die" sound familiar at all ;-) ?

Anyways, whilst browsing Youtube (the glorious) I came accross this spoof ad for a set of cd from the series ;-) It's gross yet at the same time it's soo great ;-P If you don't have an overly sensitive stomac and like me enjoy forensic anthropology (Bones), forensic science (CSI) and geeky savants (NCIS) then by all means give yourself a minute and watch!


Afterwards I went further a-brousing and found amongst others, Mandy (who names their son MAndy??) singing naked, cat's in the cradle and Supercallefradjelisticespiallydocious in Yiddish.
Oh and he was in "Elmo in Grouchland" as well ;-)

Funtime

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Just look at those eyes ... minor proud mum syndrome here ;-)

Just look at those eyes ... minor proud mum syndrome here ;-)
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

Afterschool clubbing

Today was family day at Elenas Gakudou (afterschool club) which involved loads of sports, bento lunch with all the parents standing up and praising their kids one by one, the third year graduation and a few performances. The performance I chose to video tape was their rendition of Arigatou, a popular J-pop hit here ;-) Pretty catchy don't you think?

Took a rather nice set, if I say so myself in the gym, one for instance showing the kids fascination with Elenas hair ;-) As well as a number of the kids around... Note the one where the siblings are pulling at each other and Ragnars friend is in mid jump..Love this camera and what it can do sans flash ;-)

All in all pretty proud of my self, can't say I enjoy going to things where I know there'll be tons of people, none of which I know, having no real understanding of what the day is all about, ..not much improved once there due to language filters (it's no longer a proper barrier) ;-) and having to hang about looking enthusiastic, properly interested and ... well you know... but I guess it all comes with the "mum" title ;-) ... Anyways I had on my black leather jacket and my giganteous camera so I was allright ;-P allbeit a tad out of place....

English is a Crazy Language, author unknown

Let's face it -- English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one loose tooth, 2 leese teeth? One index, 2 indices?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preacher praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo or a truck by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways? Lift a thumb to thumb a lift? Table a plan in order to plan a table?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can a person be "pretty ugly?"

How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another. Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who *are* spring chickens or who would actually hurt a fly?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on. Why is "crazy man" an insult, while to insert a comma and say "crazy, man!" is a compliment (as when applauding a jazz performance.)

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.

Gorgeous isn't it ;-) ? It's one of those things I've come accross repeatedly online, always just that wee bit tweaked making it an example of that which is circulated by e-mail is alive, vibrant. The computerised form makes it possible for people to add and tweak things as they forward them just as they do with jokes or legends, but which was impossible to do with photocopy lore......

Such poise and power

Was invited to a taiko recital this weekend where a friend was playing. The two pics I chose to show here I felt represent the poise and the power of the experience... anyways, for those in the dark the word ,taiko (太鼓) means simply "drum" in Japanese. Outside Japan, the word is often used to refer to any of the various Japanese drums (和太鼓, 'wa-daiko', "Japanese drum" in Japanese) and to the relatively recent art-form of ensemble taiko drumming (sometimes called more specifically, "kumi-daiko" (組太鼓).


Such poise and power
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Loved how this player kept all but her hands absolutely still,making the hands blurredbut the rest of her in focus. A definite boon when trying to photograph in low light situation sans flash ;-)


You really need to look at the photo in it's original size to appreciate the powerful stare going on here.

Sappy, inconsequential ponderings, .....in welsh

I’ve always appreciated my quiet moments in the morning, much preferred getting up half an hour earlier just to be able to read the paper and eat breakfast quietly, and there is nothing that I find as irritating than being woken up harshly, it will literally spoil my mood for the whole day… Well after this pointless comment, all I wanted to express was my delight at the comfortable domesticity of this morning, Halldor sleeping in ( I slept in yesterday) the kids having washed and eaten and were now quietly doing their thing in the livingroom, Elena practicing her piano (I love headphones!) and Ragnar reading a book on fossils. Sun shining outside, spring in the air and literally birds chiping on our balcony, yikes I’m sappy. And of course once the kids had been kissed goodbye, and they left for school with a smile for me and bickering with each other (hey it couldn’t be all picture perfect could it) I get down to work…well o.k. blogging

Oh and this whole post should be listened to with a welsh accent seeing as I was watching Torchwood (Dr Who spinoff series) well into the night and they have such goooorgeous welsh accents admittedly Cardiff not Aber but still ;-) On that note I bid ye farewell…