Icelander

Another weekend is upon me... What to do... what to do...?
I seem to have aquired some beer out of habit so I guess I'll just improvise from there on...
Have a great weekend...!
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Went to the factory yesterday to pick up my work outfit... Yes, it's all about manual labor this summer... Strutting around with a helmet in 50 degree heat (Celcius (Farenheight would be so much better though))...
Since I'm around liquid aluminium which is 950-1.050 degrees hot, my outfit is made of flame retardent pants, flame retardent shirt, flame retardent t-shirt, flame retardent socks, flame retardent shoes and flame retardent underware (I suddenly started thinking of the "burning loins" joke from Friends)...
The thing is "liquid aluminium" is not the same as "fire"... There was a guy who worked with me who had a drop of aluminium fall into his pocket... without stopping, the drop went through his pants, through his underware twice and again through his pants without him notising anything... My own shirtsleeves were speckled with holes after a few months (but I luckily didn't get burned that often)...
I don't know were I'm going with this entry... well... basicly... I think it doesn't matter if I wear "flame retardent" clothes or "flame retarded" (p.s. isn't that slang for a dumb gay guy?)...
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Got my grades yesterday... I liked them even though I did have a little (tiny) higher average last semester... But of course that means there is only one thing to do... ... Blame my teammates... ... Oh Yeah...!
... ... No...! How could I...? I worked with the best this year... We booted buttox... together... ! I couldn't have done anything without them...
So I just want to thank officially the people I worked with last semester for a good job and for great times... Especially one person (you know who you are) who collaborated with me very closely on, not one, but at least 6 assignments...
Thanks again... and I miss you...
Looking forward to our future projects if you can be bothered to work with me again...
I'll bring some scripts back (if I can ever be bothered to get started writing them instead of an online journal)...
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Had a smooth shave yesterday... I just had this sudden idea that maybe before I start working in an aluminium factory, it might be wise to make my face less flammable...
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I got to visit today the company I will start working for next week... Do some paperwork, get some stuff, piss in a cup... Yeap... Standard procedure here... especially since I will be driving a 20 ton truck the size of a bus inside a factory with 5 tons of molten aluminum... trust me, you don't want that to spill...
So, no Stoners aloud (and I don't mean people from that band)...! Luckally for me (well it wasn't luck, just smarts) I never did any drugs (too preoccupied with my beer (and that's all I ever need (and a few shots))) so I'll test perfectly... um... if my blood isn't thinned out by the alcohol from last night...
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I just talke to the Bloodbank today and they said I can finally make a deposit...
After being in Canada I usually have to wait for a while... First there was that SARS so people who visited Canada couldn't donate... Then there was that Mosquite fever thingy last fall so when I came back at Christmas I couldn't donate... but now luckilly I can give whenever I want because apparently living in a -30 degree area kills off anything exept a hangover...
So, now I'll be tapping off a pint of blood for a good cause... or maybe we'll go three in and chip in for a whole pitcher...
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Oh man, it's been a lazy week since I've been back (almost)... I've just been reading and reading and reading (and reading)...
I swept through a few science magazines I've missed these last months and finnished two novels... It's about time I got some mental stimulation... I've just been giving "output" these last months, but now I'm finally getting "input" (welll, input which is not alcohol)...
I really really (really) recommend the last book I read, The Da Vinci Code...
How good is it...? Well, let's just say I would like to adapt it into a screenplay... and I always said I would never (never) write anything that wasn't my own idea... so that means it has to be a good book...
But it is already adapted now by Akiva Goldsman who won an Oscar for the adaptaion of A Beautiful Mind... The movie will be out next year and is directed by Ron Howard (director of A Beautiful Mind)...
It will probably be a good movie, but as we all know much will be left out... especially since this book is full of detailed and amazing information on history, art, math, astrolgy, religion and more... It's also one big mystery, with puzzles, riddles and more and keeps you thinking the whole time... The most intelligent book I have ever read...!
Next up, a book reccomended by some Sheridan College teachers... "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls"... About how a handful of men (Coppola, Scorcesi, Speilberg, DePalma, Lucas, Altman) revolutionized filmmaking in hte 70's and made the rebirth of American Cinema... Who is the father? We don't know... No-one wants to take a bloodtest...
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A late blog today...
I was busy working on stuff all day, from taking apart and fixing computers, designing an ad for a newspaper and then spending the evening playing pool with friends...
I actually wasn't going to write today, but since I was online checking my mail I might as well say something... Oh, I love checking my mail... The exitement of getting 47 letters a day from complete strangers offering me products I don't need...
Anyway... I'm feeling so tired... My sleeping pattern is still kind of funky since those last waking weeks at Sheridan College... Add to that two sweet European beers in the evening and I'm as sleepy as a hibernating bear on decaf coffee...
Good night...!
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The events of my weekend were as followed...
On Friday I went out with a few good friends for a drinking session at a home and then downtown... It's a standard custome to drink as much as you can before you go to bars since you're paying almost 11 bucks for a beer when you finally get there...
It was actually a slow night since the biggest drinking group is university students and they are all cramming for finall exams and essays... so we had to call it a night early, around 5:30am... bummer...
On Saturday I went at 2:00pm to a bar with my brother (on his birthday) and his friends to watch an English Football match... you call it of course "soccer", but it's football... "soccer" is what English football hooligans do to there girlfriends when their team loses (they sock'er)...
We drank for a few hours before we went back to my brothers to get ready for the party... then we did party... and then went downtown... we only stayed out till 6:00am since I was hanging around with a bunch of guys in their early 30's with women and children at home (not that they are whipped) and I save quite a bit of cash by splitting a taxi with them back...
All in all it was a decent weekend... Cheers to that... My team even won the football match... We were watching Liverpool agains Manchester United... My team (Liverpool) scored 1:0 in a pretty boring game... I don't mind who wins or loses though... I just prefer Liverpool since it's the birthplace of the Beatles... I mean, why should I give a rat's ass about if 11 english strangers win or lose to another 11 strangers... I'm in it for the company... oh... and beer of course... oh... and the beer... of course...
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Well, as expected I didn't write online all weekend... I didn't have time on Saturday and spent Sunday nursing a hangover... Too much danish beer and danish shots... I drank shots from a type of alcohol called "Ákavíti", which comes from the words "Aqua Vitae"... and as anyone good at latin languages will tell you, "Aqua Vitae" means something like "Water Of Life"...
Strange since it killed off most of the people around me... "Aqua Morte" should be more fitting... But I was still standing and managed to check out the night life (but of course)...
Here is some more alcohol useless trivia...: Wiskey also means "Water Of Life" and Vodka means "Little Water"... My theory is that they gave it a innocent name like that to get chicks to drink it and get them hammered... Just like there is no Ice-Tea in a "Long Island Ice-Tea" coctail... Oh, the desperate things men try... I guess telling jokes has never worked...
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I just want to let people know, I'm quite an active writer... usually trying to post some stuff here every day... but... on weekends, I quite often don't write... I usually just hang around and chill...
So if you don't see any postings on weekends... don't worry that something bad has happened to me... it's actually the opposite... a good party happened to me and I need to rest it off...
Cheers to that... and have a great weekend...!
Skál...!
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I've only partied once since I've been back... It wasn't even that much of a partying... we just called it quits around 4:00am...
But tonight.... ooohhh.... Tonight...! me and all my friends are going out for a decent night on the town... barhopping untill he break of dawn, and then some more...
And tomorrow... OOOOooohhhhh...!!! Tomorrow...!!! That's my brother's birthday... and he's having a party...!
To decribe my brother... Just imagine me and all my party stories... multiply that by 10... Then add that he started a few years younger then me partying... then add he's seven years older...
If my stories could fill a book... his would fill a library...!
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Yesterday was a yearly Icelandic holliday called officially "The First Day Of Summer"... It's always sometimes late in April... The thing about The First Day Of Summer" is that it's always the most ironic day of the year...
The thing is, usually the weather is quite decent this time of year in Iceland, but as soon as "The First Day Of Summer" comes, we usually get freak rain showers, frost, snowstorms or hail... It has been an ongoing joke for many years that on "The First Day Of Summer" people go downtown to parades and all sorts of outdoor fun is planned around the city but the weather is always crap, even though we have had great weather before the day... things just change over night... Then the day after the weather is great again...
But this year was different... we actually had great weather the whole day and it looks like the weekend will be awesome too... That's the wierd thing about Icelandic weather... to paraphrase the great genius Forest Gump: "Icelandic weather is like a box of chocolates... You never know what you're going to get"
On a side note... Here's a classic Icelandic joke told to all tourists who visit...
Q: What do you do if you don't like the weather in Iceland...?
A: Wait 15 minutes...!
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I know it might sound kind of corny, but since I've been back, I've been trying to eat as much Icelandic food as I can... I've had good fish, then later a good meal of lamb, and then salted lamb, hotdogs from lamb meat (they are soooo good) and burned lambs face... As you can see we're very big on lamb meat here...
I know it's sounds kind of disgusting eating lambs face (espacially burned (hey, if you know of any better way to get the hair off, you tell me)) but it's really good... but I don't eat the eyes or brain, just the tounge... Still the younger generation doesn't like it that much... thinks it's old fashioned... Maybe if we call it McFace it will catch on...
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Well, I'm back to my normal routine... It usually involves sitting around coffehouses all night with friends drinking... um... beer...
You see Icelandic coffehouses aren't like those sterile Tim Hortons and Starbucks... It's more like a bar and has a great athmosphere (if you don't mind smoke thicker then most soups)...
The coffee you get isn't also in those plastic or paper cups served by the gallon... you get desent coffee"cups"... And there is no "roll up tp win" on those cups like at TIm Hortons... trust me, I tried, and I friggin chipped my teeth...
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It is sooooo boring traveling half (or 1/3 actually (maybe less)) of the world alone... Especially if you have to take more then one airplane...
I wake up in Toronto, dogtired at 7:00 AM after a good goodbye party (Thanks again guys in Sheridan for a great time)... My good (actually "great" fits better) friend Cindy drives me to Pearsons Airport at 8:00 where I have to wait for more then two hours before my flight...
For those who have never traveled by air (especially to U.S.A.), then I must tell you that the airport inspection sucks beyond anything else... You stand in line after line at many checkpoints where delays pile up easilly, mostly caused by people with coins in their pockets or who have tied their shoes on so tight they can't get them off... Then you have to flash your passport to anyone wearing a uniform, even janitors and garbagemen...
I get on the plane and have to wait their for the longest time because some new delay... probably because some people were wtill tying there shoelaces in the terminal... Then I fly to Montreal... Because of passport controll and customs to U.S.A. I have to pick up all my luggage (which is the size of two baby elephants) and drag it through the whole airport because naturally the two gates you have to go between are always as far apart as possible, porbably because airport authorities think that you become so tired carrying all your luggage that you don't have the energy to hijack a plane...
I go through inspection after inspection in Montreal designed by people with a foot fetish (everyone has to keep taking off their shoes)... Now I am half an hour late for my plane to Boston... I barely make it in time out of breath after running through the whole airport with other people... they were going to Boston this weekend for the huge Boston Marathon, but after this huge airport run they thought: "Why run so far again tomorrow... Let's hit the bar..."
I fly for an hour to Boston... There I have to get from Terminal C to Terminal "Last Letter In The Chinese Alphabet"... When I get there, there is no-one by the check-in for IcelandAir because I am six hours ahead of my flight... My wait with my luggage by the check-in went soooo slowly (a few galaxies burned out)... Then I once more go through many inspections again designed by foot fetish people and have to wait an eternity for the last plane to leave (new galaxies were born and died out again)...
But I finally got on my last plane for the trip where beautiful (BEAUTIFUL!!!) ladies served me golden drinks (Icelandic "Gold" beer) all the way home... Then everything was O.K....
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Here will the rantings and ravings of one Ragnar Eythorsson (a.k.a. Iceland or Icelander) be published...
Correct spelling is optional...!
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