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| Weekend relaxation | ||
In most ways, this weekend has been very relaxing for all of the family. Egill started his journey towards not using a nappy during the day today and he wasn't too happy when he wet himself twice. But it's only the start of a longer journey and he was quite happy when he was asked if he wanted his nappy after just over 2 hours. By then he'd already wet 2 pairs of pants and trousers, but it's a learning process, one that I know he'll pass eventually, even if he's quite stubborn about that darn potty. He just wails when he's put on it, completely refusing to put anything in it. Like getting used to not having a nappy on, he needs to learn to come to terms with it and we're happy to ride the storm  I took the day off from work on Friday. There was a staff meeting at Egill's kindergarten and Kolla was at school taking an exam, so the responsibility of being at home fell to me of course. It was a good day though, both of us enjoying being together immensely. Yesterday was another relaxing day, with Kolla going with her sister Linda to a concert in Reykjavik, seeing one of the old Icelandic superstars strutting his stuff with his friends for almost 2 and a half hours without a break. I wish I could have been there too, but unfortunately it wasn't possible. Still I'm happy that Kolla could make a day of it and hope we can get an extra ticket to a concert at my workplace on October 1st, because the band is worth seeing over and over again. And of course here are a couple of samples of their genius: Turning towards football and how my beloved Liverpool are performing in the English Premier League. Yesterday saw them play host to Hull City, or the Tigers, as they're affectionately know in their home town. But their performance was more resembling tame pussy cats than their more ferocious cousins. The Reds were running rampant in their counterparts' penalty area and ended up beating their opponents by 6 goals to 1, with Torres scoring a magnificent hattrick, Babel getting 2 goals and Steven Gerrard getting one goal from an attempted cross. Hopefully that bodes well for the rest of the season. |
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| Hard pressed | ||
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No it's not me who's hard pressed. It's more to do with the fact that since Kolla started school, she's bogged down by endless assignments, which she enjoys doing, but sometimes one can a bit too much of a good thing. But we look at it in a positive way, since this is something that can only benefit her in the long run. When she finishes this current stint, she'll go to university and try for her BA in Icelandic and English, heading for getting licensed as a registered translator. Personally I'm thrilled for her, even if this is a hard term she's going through, but funny enough, she's happier than I've seen her in a long time. Having a challenge is obviously something that spurs her on and long may it continue, within reason of course Egill has started his kindergarten, as I said in my previous entry, and he loves it. I picked him up yesterday and the look on his face when he saw his dad was like nothing else. He was surprised and incredibly happy to see his old man, not that I'll ever admit to being old yet. And you shut up there in the back  Despite my not bothering to watch any football recently, I know that Liverpool beat Burnley in the English Premier League today, by 4 goals to nothing. Benayoun netting a hattrick and Kuyt rounding it off. Seems like the team is starting to move now and Reina's comments recently about the team having a hard time breaking down stubborn defenses seems to have lit a fire in Benayoun, if nobody else. This coming week will see me start trying to use the bus from here to work, something I have no idea how it will fit together. But it's worth trying, since I only have to pay a nominal fee for the bus card and then I'll be riding for free from here to Reykjavik. I just hope that the bus rides will coincide with each other, so I won't have to take a 45 minute stroll from where my first bus stops to my workplace. The only positive idea about that would be my being unable to avoid shedding a few pounds But until next time, be good to yourselves and your loved ones. |
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| Hanging my head in shame, or what?? | ||
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The reason I ask that is because I haven't put in an entry here since January, despite pretending that I'd have a reason to keep on blogging here. But regardless, I'll try to do better from now on, considering that we have moved our home 7km (about 4 miles) closer to my place of work. The move is a very practical one, with Kolla going to school again, Birta has a much shorter ride to school on her bus, Ingimar changed schools for one that's smaller and not as much chance of him being bullied as much and finally Egill started going to kindergarten last Monday. The adjustment period is now over, something that only took about two days before he was ready to play ball full time and enjoy their services. My summer vacation has now come to an end, so I'll start working full time on Monday. I planned to play a whole lot of golf during the summer vacation, but I couldn't get through as much as I wanted, since we had a whole lot of things to tackle during summer. Today is also Kolla's 39th birthday, to which I have to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY, and coincidentally my mother is celebrating her 67th birthday and my old grammar school teacher is celebrating her 65th I think, I'm not entirely sure about that though, but I reckon it's a close guesstimate anyway (I can't be arsed to log onto facebook to check  )I tried going out to play some golf this morning with my friend Jon, but unfortunately we got literally blown off the course. There was no chance to control the ball when we hit it, the wind just took anything that went into the air and flung it wherever it pleased, usually into some dreadful situation, if not off the course. But the summer has been very good for me handicap wise, since for the first time in many years I took a good leap in lowering my handicap this year. One round saw me put together a round of 69 shots, thus lowering my handicap from 6.1 to 5.1 in the process. That's where I'm sitting now, not expecting any more from this year. That's all for now, maybe I'll be more prolific from now on, seeing as there's going to be at least some events going on that are worth mentioning. Current surrounding sound: Tom & Jerry having fun in some cartoon. |
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| My human revolution | ||
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Many people will ask, what the smeg is he on about. Well, the thing is: For far too long I've been a floater of sorts, despite being a raving loonie and rather inventive when it comes to verbal monkeying around. It's just that I've reacted to situations and people, instead of being proactive in any given situation. But all of that is about to change drastically. I'm fed up being a passenger in life and I want to seize the day, so to speak. So with that in mind I'm going to start from tonight by practicing my Buddhist chants with more energy and more enthusiasm than ever before. I'm going to learn the entire Gongyo, even if it kills me. I'm going to read as much as I possibly can from the writings of Nichiren Daishonin and do my utmost to understand his philosophy better as well as deepening my faith in the Mystic Law. In tandem with all of this, I'm going to do my best to get through reading more of the writings of current SGI president Daisaku Ikeda and see if I can find some of the writings and musings of previous presidents, Makiguchi and Toda. This philosophy, along with the religious acumen, from what I've been able to tell, is the only religion that relies solely on common sense and a mixture of wisdom and intelligence. The original energy blast, from when we had our universal creation (i.e. the Big Bang), has never become diluted, lessened or vanished. It's simply changed form, creating all those astrophysical phenomena we see in the sky, along with the ones we can't see; all sources of energy that we can put to use here on earth and hopefully elsewhere, as time passes. That original source of energy is, as far as I can understand, the Mystic Law. It never goes away, no matter what we do, it simply changes form and keeps existing, whether we want it to or not. It may elude us at times, but that's only natural, with our senses being so dimmed and diminished by our comfortable lives and technological advances we've taken into our service. But when we least expect it, it will hit us in some way. Volcanic eruptions, Tsunamis, Earthquakes, Flash flooding rivers, forest fires and many other disasters are only some of the destructive forces of this original energy. What we fail to realise is that a lot of the positive forces are just as strong. They just hide better, so we don't notice them until we start checking history. The humanitarian movements, the abolishing of slavery in the western hemisphere (at least by law), the rise of freedom of speech in most countries in the world, even though some governments try their best to suppress it to the best of their abilities. All kinds of positive technological advancements are also worth a mention. So you can see that energy, The Force, God or the Mystic Law, or whatever else you worship, is more or less the mental manifestation of that original energy. Fortunately most of the human population on earth is just a normal being, hoping to earn a living and provide for their families. It's the fundamentalists that give religion a bad name, especially those that promote death and destruction. Those can be found in just about every religious sect in the world. I'm happy to have found a religious path that promotes the value of life, assisting those in need and all of the other beautiful ideas; it's just that we pursue that path by empowering ourselves first, so we are capable of helping others. Kolla has been helping out a friend of hers for the past few weeks. He's been suffering from really hard and heavy bouts of depression and mental pain, pain so severe that sometimes premature death becomes a plausible way to escape the pain. I've been doing my best to support her, but even if I'm a rock at the moment, it's entirely possible that a rock will start to disintegrate, even if the process is slow. So to strengthen me as a rock, I decided to look for guidance from one of our Danish guests, at the seminar we attended on Saturday. The guidance he gave me was not only what I needed to hear, but also what I wanted to hear, which is extremely rare. So by following the guidance and also by pursuing my musical aspirations further, I'm going to try to become the rock that Kolla requires. Even if chips start peeling out of the rock, I'll just add more to the other side of the rock, to keep the strength and firmness that she wants and needs. So far she's been doing a great job, but she's started to show the signs of wear and fatigue, so I really have to be ready so she can lean on me as needed. The practice of the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin will help me be that rock and the wisdom of Daishonin, along with all three presidents of the SGI will complement it nicely. |
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| Happy New Year | ||
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And I plan to make it the best ever. I have no clue as to how to do it, in the current financial climate and my current state of brokeness, but I'll still do it. I still have a job, I still have my family and love them to the moon and back. That love is still growing, so you can expect it to reach Mars and back on Monday and then keep expanding outwards after that. I'm about to take on the role as co-admin on the phpBB based forum at Geđheilsa.is, since one of the admins there doesn't have a strong enough grasp of English to work all of the nuances of the board. So far he's done well, considering his handicap with English, but he needs more assistance and that's where I come in. I'm not going to be anal about rules and regulations there, as that's not what I'm needed for; it's more to do with the technical side of things. To my delight, Liverpool are still sitting at the top of the English Premiership, where they really belong after all those years. I'll be waiting in anticipation for every result of theirs through to the end of season, when they'll hopefully celebrate their 19th Championship. You bet I'll celebrate too Now for something far more serious. Something so heinous it's almost impossible to contemplate in this day and age, or is it?? The Israeli military, acting on orders from their government, is bombing the Gaza strip to smithereens, ignoring completely that most of the people there are innocent civilians like you and me. And what is the world doing about it?? Fuck all, that's what they're doing. No resolution can be passed against them in the UN Security Council, due to the US vetoing it immediately. No government in the western hemisphere is willing to break all political and/or economical ties with Israel, because they don't want to get on Big Brother's bad side. And my own government, the Icelandic one, is keener on forming yet another committee, than actually doing anything about this. I call all nation leaders to shoulder the responsibility of resolving this and fucking break off all ties with Israel. While the latter behave like the proverbial bull in the china shop, they should be ostracised from the community of nations and told to go and fuck off when they want respect or business from somewhere. The general public in Israel surely can't deserve this kind of idiotic governing. Too bad that common sense never seems to have any place in politics. Currently fuming at those war mongering idiots.  |
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