Not much happening here

The reason is my new Photography site where I´ll put my ponderings from now on.
I hope to revive my kayakblog in the summer and if you speak(and read) Icelandic here is my family blog in Icelandic

Have a good summer

An End

Well this school term has come to an end. It was very rewarding, some things more interesting than others as expected. I am currently leaning more towards the photography side of the Photojournalism coin but that can change in the new year. Next term looks very promising with many interesting courses.
I am becoming more interested in larger formats after seeing Photos from a guy who shoots landscapes with a large format camera. Its a slower process than digital of course, only one exposure at a time, but the rewards are stunning.

Days go by

Been totally swamped with life, school, and other things. School has been very interesting and now the first semester is coming to an end. It has been fun and I have learned a great deal, both in photography and writing.
Went job shadowing at the Times Colonist the other day, great experience and fun to see the insides of a newspaper.
As part of a class assignment I went to a council meeting at the Victoria city council, very different from Iceland, not as formal and less council members even though Victoria is twice the size of Reykjavik.
We have not touched the kayaks in 2 months, school has been to hectic, Isol´s courses are very hard and a lot of work to submit. She is doing very good, and is getting better by the day.
The kids are adjusting to life in Victoria very well, Oscar is already correcting his parents prononciation of words. Isabella understands english but is taking more time speaking it.

Weird Jobs Part I

Scrubbing fish, weird eh! At 17 I took a job at a fish factory. I was a small cog in a big line with salted fish being the end product. It started with guys getting big piles of cod on a table, gutting and sending them on to a machine that cut their heads off. Then there was the fillet guy, branding a shiny, long fillet knife slicing and hacking with precision, kind of cool looking. Then there was me. Clad in a white rubber apron, with a strange, white, oversized toothbrush in my hand ready to do some scrubbing. My job; scrub the blood clots out of flesh of the fish, to make it look nicer.
A fish beautician.

Sea of Sand

Hotels, motels, sand some sun, the road seems endless. It’s the desert, hot and dry, empty, vast. The cruise control set to 80mph and the world whizzes by. The rows of trucks on the right side of the interstate, chuck along. Slither like a smooth eel made of metal. We pass them all and as we pass they blow their horns and it feels like being on the sea, sea of sand.

Argh

Had a night out yesterday, Isol and I went downtown and had dinner at an Indian restaurant, very good Indian food. Afterwards we went to a movie, The Wickerman, fun flick strange ending. When we came back to our car there was glass everywhere, someone had broken into it by smashing the driver-side window. There was nothing of value in the car, except for a cheap lcd screen that acts as a second monitor for a portable dvd player. That was gone but nothing else. I really don’t care about the monitor, or even the cost of the window it’s the hassle I hate the most. I have found out today that I can’t get this repaired on a Sunday (should be lucrative on a Sunday, I mean Saturday nights must be the nights to break auto glass).
Now this was a very annoying experience but it does not top our encounter with the “security” guard at the car park. When informed of this incident he kind of shrugged and said, “oh really”. When asked what was the procedure in such circumstances he replied, “well, call the cops or sumpthin´” and went on to say it was not their responsibility. Then I asked if he could sweep up the glass or lend me a broom to do it myself as I did not want to get a flat tire in the bargain and he responded, “no I cant really do that” like a stone wall. Well we were not expecting him to pay for this or do something drastic, heroic or going out of his way, but we were expecting some help, information or advise and maybe a broom.
Well we have learned some lessons, park the car in the street at night, don’t take the car downtown on weekends (good points: drink beer) and take everything out of the car before expeditions into the wild downtown of Victoria on weekends (tongue in cheek) always have a broom in the car.

Days go by

Wow, how time flies. I feel like I got here yesterday but already a month and a half have gone by and somehow I just missed it. We have been very busy getting everybody ready for school, settling in and figuring out all the little details that hide them selves until the last moment. We have not done some things we were going to do but this is just life I guess. We are very happy with everything here, everybody is very helpful and things are going along smoothly. It’s just so many things to think about and figure out. I guess life will get to some kind of a calm after this month.
Routine can be dull and bothersome, but sometimes its what you need at least in between the adventures.
I started school last week, its very interesting a lot of people to meet and a lot of names to remember, it will all come with the hot water as we say in Iceland.
I will use this venue to post some of the assignments I have to do in school, both writing and photos just to see if it will get some response and by that I guess I can judge if they are any good, boring or just bad.