1. Last work morning of the year at Vísar today — really enjoyed the 9 months I’ve spent with the great people here so far. Looking forward to having a break before running a whole bunch of surveys in the new year!

  2. How to watch a film, Háskolábíó style:

    • Pay 1550IKR for a ticket
    • Watch 20 minutes of adverts
    • Watch the first 45 minutes of the film
    • Wonder what happened to the projector when the screen goes blank mid-sentence. Realise it’s an intermission. In a film. In a cinema. With adverts.
    • Watch another 15 minutes of adverts, or optionally escape into the popcorn-vending zone
    • Settle back in and watch the rest of the film
    • Exit out of the opposite corner you came in from, optionally expressing surprise when it turns out you just walked out of the back door, into the rain and cold. Hastily put your coat on and reorient yourself. Watch out for the puddle.

    Tjarnabíó is like this too. Not that it isn’t well-priced or enjoyable, but… there are some optimisations which could be made here.

  3. Recorded an unnamed tune yesterday + saw for the first time today = easy tune name! Lights In The Sky:

    Want to play it? Have a peek at the sheet music.

  4. Noticed the Big Tower Of Light Pollution, then a smudgy green cloud, which turned into the northern lights. They really are astonishingly beautiful.

    Watched for 30mins from Arnarhóll. Harpa and the peace tower looked pathetic in comparison to even the weakest of the shimmering curtains.

  5. Terrible copy in KEF:

    Sign reading: One of the few airports in the world which is both tax and duty free, meaning up to 50% off city prices. Experience Iceland. This is Iceland at it’s purest. Come and Experience Iceland.

    Duty free shopping is Iceland at it’s purest? Seriously? May as well jump back on the plane without leaving the airport then.

    Banner above checkouts reading: Worth The Experience

    Apparently the experience of buying aforementioned duty free goods is so bad that signs are required to reassure you that the goods are worth it.

  6. Spent the morning caving with Snorri — the world under the lava fields is even crazier than the surface!

    The texture of the caves (or more accurately lava/magma tubes) is extremely different to the water-formed caves back in the UK. There is a crazy mixture of jagged edges and smooth edges, caused by the magma cooling at different rates.

    The layered structure of the systems is as obvious in macro as it is close up — the smallest rocks have clearly defined layers, as do the caves themselves. Often it looks like the roof is in mid-collapse as one layer peels off another; on a rock shelf pieces of smooth ceiling rock lie centimetres from their original position.

    Although it looks scary to have pieces of ceiling lying around, in reality this is all pretty much frozen in place, as most of the collapsing will have taken place within a year after the cave’s formation, thousands of years ago.

    The colours are as striking and numerous as the shapes. It’s a pity they’re all locked up where light seldom reaches — caves are colour prisons.

  7. Fresh out of the oven: Kanilsnúðar!

    They’re a little small, I think I need to make double quantities next time! Or, roll the dough thicker and make fewer.

    I followed this recipe. The Hjartasalt really does puff them up nicely!

  8. @benwerd I learnt a little more about Iðnó — it’s currently a culture house with performance space and a restaraunt, but it used to be the place where craftsmen were trained. The name is pronounced ith-ner, and is shortened form of “craftsmanship”.

  9. Playing with trying to show bus timetable intervals:

    Where the number at the top is the (contrived) bus number, the numbers in pale yellow are the hours between which the bus operates and the numbers in stronger yellow are the intervals at which the bus visits the station. An attempt to improve on the original (not pictured).

  10. Checked into Gullfoss, Iceland.

    : photos + location in the same note. Currently photos are email upload only. Other possibillity is to derive location data from EXIF metadata