Behind Reykjavik

Reykjavik from the back.

Home of the ‘Fraid

image from Gratisography

One of my favorite things about freelancing is that I don’t have to commute. I always feel that beginning my day with the rush of making myself presentable, finding everything I’m going to need for the day, getting out the door and to the bus stop on time to spend 45 minutes in traffic uses up most of my energy for the day.

Once each week, I do work in an office downtown, and that once-weekly commuting day reminds me how much I love freelancing. Last week, it also reminded me of an experience I had forgotten in the haze of travel exhaustion and jet lag when I got home from Iceland in July.

Anticipation

 

The geysir Strokkur erupts at regular, frequent intervals. And yet, the wait can seem endless and full of anxiety. What if this is the time the geysir fails?

Words of Summer

Photo from http://gratisography.com/

In English we say “busy as a bee,” but in Japanese the industrious insect is the dragonfly. Whatever simile you want to use, I’ve been a working bug – as evidenced by the fact that I haven’t posted to published work since April! As the list that follows will demonstrate, that’s not because I haven’t been writing, it’s because I’ve been too busy writing to write about it. There’s a lot of work here that I’m proud of – and I’m proud of how much work there is here. I hope you find something you like.

Less traveled by

I took this path in Reykjavik’s tiny woods. Has it made all the difference? Poetic turns of phrase aside, sometimes it’s hard to know which choices really matter.

Wickedly Funny Count Ory

Barry Banks as Count Ory in his hermit disguise
Jacob Lucas photo c/o Seattle Opera

I don’t know where to start. During the pre-performance lecture and during the performance itself, there were so many things I wanted to say. But now it’s the next day and I only have a couple of hours before I have to move on to the next thing, and I don’t know where to start.

Well, if I have to provide a TLDR for Count Ory, I guess I would just use this video, below the fold.

Magic Eight Ball

Sometimes wisdom comes from the strangest places.

Laxness Library

There are built in bookcases throughout Gljúfrasteinn, the home of Nobel laureate Halldor Laxness. This library is about the size of a walk-in closet. I love the way he filled his home with books as much as I love the words that fill the pages of his books.

Unseasonably Opera

People like to pretend that seasons and weather have no impact on our modern, urban lives. Despite climate-controlled offices where America indulges its addiction to workaholism and despite the encroachment of year-round schooling, that attitude is completely false.