Saturday, May 05, 2012

Impending Midnight Sun (and other sundries)

It seems to be an annual event - feeling nostalgic for the old days of updating this blog.  A few April posts in each of the past two years make up the entirety of what's been put down here in that time.  The itch is still there, however, and we'll see if it sticks this time round and becomes something more frequent.

Apropos of nothing, at the end of this month I'll be making my way back to Iceland - 13 years (and a handful of weeks) after my first visit.  The idea I have is to try and keep a running record of my visit.  This may prove difficult because there's no way I could hump my tank of a laptop along with me.  It must weigh six or seven pounds and has a 17" monitor.  Not what anyone would call portable... at least in this day and age.

So, the question is, do I invest in a new device?  The old tank still functions well enough although she is beginning to show signs of aging.  The DVD drive couldn't read a recent disc I'd purchased (Næturvaktin, Season 1) and the start-up time is quite slow among other warnings/annoyances.  I've got about three and a half weeks before I leave to make a decision.  Cost effectiveness seems to be the biggest factor at this point.  It's more than likely any recounting of my trip will be done in bulk upon my return home.

Outside of that I see there have been some changes in the Blogger interface since the last time I posted.  Of course, the first thing I did was spruce up the look of the page.  Just made a few, quick adjustments to update it  a bit and I welcome any feedback on the scheme (colors, fonts*, layout, &c.).

Looking forward to checking out the new features.  If it's easier to post content with the updated interface perhaps it will be easier to post in general.  Or perhaps I'll be here in May 2013 saying the same thing.  Who's to say?

That's it for the other sundries.

As for the impending midnight sun, the Iceland jaunt encompasses an extended Thursday-Monday weekend from 31 May through 4 June. Confession: while it won't yet be a full midnight sun while I'm there, with a sunset around midnight and sunrise somewhere in the 3:00 a.m. hour, it'll be pretty close.  No matter, I'm looking forward to whenever the Sun sets and rises... because it will be much different from what I'm accustomed to.  And I must say that's fun.  And also why I want to return during winter to experience the other side of this heavily weighted coin of the Sun.

This is the Hotel Reykjavík Centrum where I'll be staying.  Based on reviews, it seems a pretty good choice.  It's in the old city center on one of the oldest streets in Reykjavík - Aðalstræti.  After viewing maps and reading reviews, it appears to be a short walk from the action but just far enough to be insulated from the cacophony of early morning street revelers... especially beneficial when you're not one of those cacophonous revelers.



Okay, that's all for this revival.  This is a terrible attempt but, "Þakka þér fyrir að lesa þetta." (Thank you for reading this.)

More to come about/from Iceland for sure... well, perhaps.




*I chose a font called 'Rock Star' (I think) for the title because it closely resembles my printed handwriting.