2010 in review
Note from blogwriter: it’s gotta be said, the peeps at WordPress know how to flatter their blog owners and make ‘em feel special :) The below arrived via email today.
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 58,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 7 days for that many people to see it.
In 2010, there were 11 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 387 posts. There were 25 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 3mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.
The busiest day of the year was May 17th with 466 views. The most popular post that day was froggy cuteness at the Pearl.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were search.aol.com, google.com, bigextracash.com, weheartit.com, and 74.125.67.100.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for frogs, random, abstinence, pictures of frogs, and beethoven.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
froggy cuteness at the Pearl March 2009
15 comments
Aliens, Bible and Beethoven March 2009
random train of thoughts June 2009
2 comments
On abstinence February 2009
now only dust mites inhabit my digs April 2009
1 comment
Moving to Weebly
May 5th 2010
I’ve now set up shop at
It’s quick, easy and cool. I’ve grown somewhat weary of standard blogging, so I moved, to get a fresh start as it were.
First I did what it says below, and then I did what is says above! Who knows where I’ll end up! :)
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January 15th 2010
I am moving my blog to
Reason? Mainly bc I don’t want to pay to have a non-static new page / tab under steinunn.wordpress, and this Weebly can do for me. I am a bit apprehensive abt it as I don’t know anyone abt Weebly … but I’m having much fun adding multiple blogs under the one url, blogs about different things (blogs as in not-static pages), so as long as I am having fun it’s all good, right?
Cheerio; you know where to find me!
Xx
Tracy has the most beautifully coloured hair.
And here we are together.
I am sporting my bothered bushybrow Playmogirl look, as I generally do in photos (you have to see my hands&arms to understand the Playmo-reference), but I am willing to embarrass myself like this in hopes that someone sees this picture, recognises Tracy, and gets us in contact somehow.
Please! Pretty pls!!?
Here are peoples’ comments on mbl.is’s commentary on the interview. Most folks, I included, thinks he did a fine job. Not once did Paxman manage to talk all over him, which is what he is so good at. He’s a tough one, that Paxman, which is why people like him. Weird how he very disrespectfully referred to the president as just “some president”, though.
Paxman didn’t really have a come-back on the fact that, though the governments of countries like France, Holland and Ireland, and other EU countries, have trusted the people of their nations to vote on important issues in national referendums, Britain’s governments have never shown its people this trust.
Said president Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson:
In Britain the parliament is sovereign; in Iceland the people are sovereign.
More foreign media on Icesave
mbl.is quotes foreign journalists, a few of whom actually understand the actions of the people
and its’ president.
The citizens of that most placid of countries, Iceland, … backed by their president, have found a characteristically polite and restrained way of disputing an obligation to stump up large sums of cash to pay for the arrogance and greed of other people. They are right. We should listen to them … but it seems unlikely that we will.
- TimesOnline, commentary by Roger Boyes, and plenty of comments!
- The Independent , business commment by David Prosser
- Financial Times, article by John Kay, above.
Further on the Icesave debaucle
Iain Martin of WSJ knows his stuff. Well, he sounds like he does, though some of the 
commentors don’t agree. I don’t really know the facts about the deposit protection which a certain James Baldwin writes about in his comment (under 3) ). It’s an important fact, but of course, if it’s correct, it’s utterly disgusting and unfair – those in this world who have dosh and deposit it in banks are protected and get their money back – from whom? From me, who have no money. Why? How is that fair?
Among other things, Iain writes:
At the height of this cheap money boom, savers abroad were attracted when offered high returns from the odd-sounding Icesave (think about it and it sounds like your investments could easily be frozen at any point). But in the crazed excitement of those years, savers in the Netherlands flocked to open accounts. And for the British it also looked too good to be true, with savings rates guaranteed to be above the Bank of England’s base rate. The problem for everyone involved was that it was too good to be true.
In Britain, the Icesave business was positively welcomed by the government in good times and regulators failed to spot that it was woefully under-capitalised. When it collapsed, the British government, along with the Dutch, decided to bailout its citizens with money in Icesave. They didn’t have to do this; those who had placed money in an institution rooted abroad were all adults who should have been aware of the risks. Of course, the governments only paid up because it knew that it was vulnerable to the charge that its regulatory regime had failed. They then set about claiming back the money with menaces from Iceland. Until yesterday the tactics were working.
What message will savers in large countries draw from this for next time there is a boom? That they needn’t ask too many questions about apparently easy returns, because if it goes wrong then their government, or their fellow taxpayers, will bail them out. The bill can then be sent abroad and bullied out of foreign taxpayers. Thus they learn the wrong lesson and forget caveat emptor, or buyer beware.
It sounds harsh, but it’s true!
His article today is called Iceland should ‘ave stuck to fishing. The Icelandic mbl.is rewrote his story here, you can also see bloggers’ views on it.
President’s veto
Today at 11am my co-workers and I watched a live broadcast from the president’s home (not a palace, just a home on a nearly-island) where he announced that he’d not sign the bill to pay the Icesave debt.
Media in Iceland and all over the world has gone mad over this, and it’s of course only bc Britain and Holland are involved. British and Dutch people lost money due to Icelandic bankers’ recklessness, while the then government turned a blind eye.
I, and about a quarter of the Icelandic nation (or was it a quarter of those eligible to vote?) understand that the money
We are good enough to be dumped on, given unfair debts that are ours and other such crap, but how about giving us our constitutional rights - the power to choose?
must be paid. The terms of repayment right now are ridiculous and utterly unfair, we were abused and forced into agreeing with the terms the big leaguers wanted. Iceland is so screwed. Again, I don’t have the word to describe it.
Most are saying that we, the nation, understand the government’s obligation to repay the money lost due to idiot risk-taking uncaring self-serving bankers and a scary sleeping government, and we just want to renegotiate the terms.
Our politician are busy busy telling everyone that it’s not that we don’t wanna pay – we’re gonna pay! – but new fairer terms (as much as unfair can be made fair) must be negotiated. On telly a political lady last night (didn’t see it, dunno who) re-stated the meant-to-be scary point that as a little fish in a big pond Iceland, this tiny nation, needs to bend over and take it bc those who are bigger and better want it that way. Bullshit. Our government is sulking and sucking up to Britain and Holland. The Icelandic government does not care what Icelanders have been asking via protest etc.
I, in my naivety, consider it only fair that we, the real & actual individuals with personalities, feelings, homes, families, debts of their own, pets, studies to tend to etc, individuals who make up this nation, none of whom did a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. to lose the money of the Dutch and British people, are excused from shouldering the burden of paying them back, as we never had the money, didn’t benefit in the slightest, didn’t cheat or swindle anyone, and do not currently or ever have the money. It was never ours! It was never us! We’ve been framed, and our current government is actually agreeing that yes, despite not having anything to do with it we shall let the little guy bleed.
One could even argue that as we, most every individual of this island nation, didn’t force anyone to invest their savings in Icesave, then why should our futures be doomed – and I do mean doomed as once you have no money and no credit and apparently no big-nation friends, you lose business, you lose your decent standard of living, chance of education, need I go on? – bc we pay people who were free to do what they wanted with their sums and they took a risk on Icesave?
On mbl.is you can see some of the media who took the news and ran with it – most are saying “Iceland won’t pay”, which is not what this is about. The law the president didn’t sign is still valid, but it won’t be put in effect unless the nation votes it into effect. I may seem to contradict myself – I don’t want to pay a dime, but it seems like that is gonna happen anyway, but with renegotiated terms.
My first referendum coming up!
aljazeera even covered it!
Rúv news tonight.
The voices of people in the street – I stared long and hard at the furred-up lady today (00:28) as I walked from work, bc her getup is hideous, and now she’s on telly!
Stöð2 news tonight and Stöð2 “Ísland í dag” – had to dodge this little twat several times downtown, he and his crew really wanted to talk to me! Nah, not really, which is sad bc I had my answer all ready: “Don’t care what you are asking, I refuse to be seen on trash tv!” This show is horrible, they introduce every new clip with “humour” and smiles, be it books by people who just died from cancer or the annual New Years race; they are tasteless little hosts, and make me cringe. She’s beautiful though. He’s tiny, slightly shorter than I. Just a boy! :)
Sea lion mystery solved
I don’t know about you, but I am most certainly relieved.
Looks a bit lonely now.
When as a little girl I got my Playmobil circus, complete with trucks and animal transport for the lions and their cubs, and 2 stunning sleek sealions (they did tricks with this red ball), I learned there was a difference between sea lions and seals. Actually, I think I just learned that there is such a thing as sealions. Or wait, I might have known bc we went to the zoo alot, but anyway – I remember learning the difference between the two somehow in connection with my Playmo circus, and it was fun:)
I also had native Americans on horses, and little kid Playmo-people, and I mixed it all together, which was fun, so perhaps I am not clear on what stuff came with what.
But looking up Playmobil stuff now I see how it’s all changed. Evolution, I’m all gung-ho about it, but I don’t like the new pudgy Playmo-people, and I most certainly don’t like the direction they’ve taken with cutesy pink fairies and little Playmo-kids who have pets! Just get a pet, you lazy kid! Also the outlandish ghost-whale (with canon!), Wolfrider with assorted crap, etc, are just not in the spirit of Playmobil, as I interpret it. Playmo is real life shrunk into little lithe plastic beings, as in zoo and “indian” stuff, not real as in “my Playmo-toy is my proxy guinea pig keeper!”, or completely unreal like “look at my ghost-Playmo pirate ride his underwater carpet“.
With this last picture I’m actually starting to like what I see on this here Playmobil site :)
Wars in the Land of Fire & Ice
It was a solemn, respectful, hopeful meeting when the petition was handed over to the pre.
War 1: numbskulls & nitwits take on InDefence
Over 60.000 people have signed a petition for the president of Iceland not to sign the government’s proposed law in which we, the people of Iceland, take on the debts of a few businessmen-adventurers and bankers, and thus become trapped in the pit of ridiculous debt for generations to come.
It’s absurd to make us do such a thing!
It’s only fair that the debtors pay their own debts, right? Of course right.
This petition and the people behind it are called InDefence.
Now some obscure group has started a petition, with 845 signatures so far, in which they ask the president to sign the law for it to pass. It’s a bit funny in a way bc this is the president’s job, to sign laws, and they’re hyped up abt signing a petition to ask him to do what he routinely does. We, yes I’ve signed the InDefence petition, are asking the president to do what he can but doesn’t routinely do as there normally is no need, which is to veto a law. He can, as I recall, only do this once though with each law.
Do you think he reads through all the pages? He'd better take them seriously!
InDefence handed 55.000 signatures over to the president yesterday, and since then many more have added their name to it.
The media in the Nordic countries and Britain have caught wind of the new petition, as you can see from this link. It’s a big mess. The most embarrassing outcome will be that the president, who is a bit of a wuss, won’t do a thing, and we will end up deeper in shit than ever before, all so we can remain buddies with the nations of the world.
This is what we’ve been threatened with – that the nations of the world will shun us if we don’t “shoulder our responsibilities”. Define “shouldering”, “our” and “responsibilities” first, then let’s talk.
And no, they will not shun us. We are not important enough neither to be heard nor shunned. We just tag along. Always have, always will.
War 2: me vs bossy bird-loving neighbours
One of my kittens, Nala, has discovered hunting. Real hunting. She is currently inside on curfew, and is hunting a red Quality Street wrapper in a manner hitherto unseen, so violent and odd is it. She’s got her front paws stretched up on the scratching pole and with her face turned upwards she is chewing with her jaws on the wrapper (pls don’t choke!); she’s gnawing it to death most violently. Ninjai is watching, in awe.
She’s a cat. They do this. It’s normal. Ninjai is the abnormal one for not hunting; though she does ‘hunt’ wrappers and such like it’s quite clearly more play than do or die.
Yesterday I had to leave for my mum’s bday dinner so I went outside to get Nala. Catching Nala is trickier than catching, say, a well trained dog, which is good and bad. Good bc I am glad she’s a real happy and active cat, bad bc it’s annoying. To make a long story short, I didn’t see her but I did see a woman walking into a corner, then I saw Nala running away from the corner, and the lady walking behind her. Nala came to me and when I finally caught her she had a shiny bell on her collar. A bell! I was so surprised that I checked the name-tag to make sure the cat was mine. I turned and asked the lady if she’d just placed a bell on my cat’s collar, and she said no. Then she proceeded to walk into the very building owned by crazy power hungry bossy bore Kristín who runs the co-op. She’s so bossy and intrusive, and I am pretty sure, though I do not have proof, that she is behind this stunt.
Nobody puts bells on my kittens but me!
I bought collars with bells on them but the bells were so loud that I figured my cats would go deaf, and then I also figured that though I am not really into killing per se (I do eat meat others have killed) the bird population surely needs culling, and who’s gonna do that except the cats? So I took the bells off.
Ninjai, as I said, is a darling and just plays for 2-5 mins near home and then comes in for a cuddle with me. On occasion she’ll stay out veeeeeeeeery long (she gets the opposite/extreme gene from me) but she just plays on her own or with Nala, never with other cats and never with the birds. Sometimes with butterflies. She eats them.
Nala is a whole ‘nother story. Today, after she’d spent a record 3 hours outside without coming in to check on me or give a status report like she always does, I went out to look for her, bc I was going to go out. Then I sat down to write this … anyway, couldn’t find her anywhere. The last I’d seen of her (out my kitchen window) was her puttering about in crazy Kristín’s garden right opposite me (where the “I no put bell on cat” lady went), while Kristín was spreading joy in breadcrumb form to the dull-coloured birds of the heavens; some of the crumbs had been roasting overnight on her grill! For the love of birds, lady!
Nala checked buckets with bird feed and stood by for some actions, being her usual inquisitive and playful self. Kristín saw her, I saw her see her. And that’s the last I saw of her.
As I said, I went out to get her, and I went into Kristín’s garden, and even checked her basement, where a window was open, but no Nala. After 20 mins of walking about, I went inside, and just to check one more time, I looked out my bedroom window, only to see Nala jumping around in said Kristín’s garden! I went out again, and by this point Nala was high up in some foliage-filled hunting grounds, but she came down, as she always does when she sees or hears me. She’s not that hard to catch, she does come near me when I call, and finally gets duped into getting real close. Silly cat:)
She didn’t have a new bell on. But I have a theory, which only a crazy paranoid cat woman could come up with, but so be it: she was being ‘detained’. Unlawfully even! Or else she would have come to me earlier. And she would have come inside a few times to check on me, like she always does. She loves it, she gets so excited – she comes in, searches for me, then stops and looks at me until I go wild in a kiddy-voice and say nice things to her (Nala, dugleg stelpa, ertu svona mikið úti?, er gaman úti? dugleg stelpa!!), then she runs to me and we have a moment of tenderness, then she’s out the door again. This is routine, okay? So she was being detained by ‘someone’, and when they heard me calling for her they let her out. When I walked with her in my arms (held real tight so she couldn’t escape) I heard laughing and talking from the other side. Sign of paranoia, or sign that I am right?
They are maltreating my Nala, placing bells on her and detaining her, to save the birds. I myself might actually very well have thought of putting a bell on this little lioness of mine but I will not stand for anyone else meddling with my cat like that! Especially not if it’s she whom I suspect, the infamous wicked witch of the co-op.
It’s on, lady!!
While this was all going on Ninjai paid the hermit neigbour upstairs a visit. I am glad he doesn’t mind, he thinks she’s the cuter of the two and gushes about her whenever we meet!, and she thinks she’s all that and then some, too, so it all works out. She is sitting with me now licking her long fur a bit sheepishly after Nala managed to fight her off the shelf where Nala likes to lie and Ninjai has taken to lying lately. Nala, yeah, she’s something else. She wasn’t being mean, but she’s something else:)
Gleðilegt ár!
Completely by accident - or was it? - my first petrol purchase of the year came to ISK 2010. How bizarre, eh? I was aiming for ISK 2000, which would give me approx. 4-4.5 drops of petrol and get me nowhere, but one always goes a bit over and this is what I got. Never happened to me before. The ancient seeers inform us that this is a good sign for the future. Yay!
1) This is what I look like when I haven't even gone out the night before. Yikes! 2) When and how did my nose get so crooked? Never mind - it's all uphill from here:) Happy NEW YeAr 2010!!
