brykmantra.com

You mean there was a Celtic Heritage Festival and I wasn’t informed?? It’s going on this weekend, and the only way I found out is that The Wife happened to be checking the Sheltie Haven website (that’s the group we got Molly from) and saw that they’re having an adoption event at the festival.

Oh, well, there’s always the North Texas Irish Festival next March … and in December, there’s Irish Christmas in America (and “holiday art faire”!)

Of course, since I found out that my genetic heritage is probably more Icelandic in origin — how about a nice Nordic or Scandinavian festival, huh? Or do I have to go to Minnesota for something like that?

I’m too far behind on posting the tiny things of life, so I don’t have the luxury of doing one coherent post tonight:

I get misty … : Chances are … that Texas-born Johnny Mathis turns the Big Seven-Oh today.

Our blogging buddy (and fellow soldier in the Adoptee Wars) Pamibe got so inspired by my tales of participation in the Genographic Project that she sent in her own cheek swab, and today she got her results back: She’s in Haplogroup H, a predominantly European people, according to the National Geographic site.

I told her she needs to dig deeper into the message boards, though, because the NG site at first told me my origins were Balkan, but further research and marker comparisons led me to origins in Scotland and Iceland.

There’s nothing wrong with being Bulgarian or Romanian of course … but the prospect of having the blood of Vikings is SO cool.

But of course, any information at all is better than nothing, which is what most adoptees have in the way of a genetic heritage: A big huge honking NOTHING.

That’s why living in the age of easy DNA analysis rocks so much. Pam and I and thousands of others might have the many doors of the Adoption Bureacracy slammed in our faces, but they can’t stop us from climbing in the window of Science.

(All together now: “Science!”)

And speaking of The Motherland, I’ve been meaning to check out other modern Icelandic music (there’s more than just Bjork, you know), so tonight I’ve been listening to the Takk, latest album by Sigur Ros.

It’s really enjoyable. I see it as the kind of music I like to listen to during cool evenings (now that we finally have some) tinkering with my Linux computer in the garage or on the patio. (The Lost in Translation soundtrack also serves that purpose well.) It’s very light and spacy, every evocative.

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Okay, that’s all, now let’s get some rest.

Coolness! Finally!

A full week after the start of Fall we finally got some cool weather today — lows in the high 50′s last night where I live.

It’s about freaking time: After we got short-changed from Hurricane Rita — not one stinking drop of rain made it our way, after the near-flooding that was predicted — we’ll settle for a break from near-100 temperatures.

My lawn might live into winter after all.

Best of all, the cool breezes today have been invigorating, especially after a couple of months of stepping out of the house into a pizza oven.

And now here’s some more cool topics:

What do you get when you accidentally leave a pear in a cooler with some dry ice? If you’re neurobiologist Galen Kaufman, you look at the end result as the prototype for Fizzy Fruit, a line of fresh fruit that has been given a carbonated kick.

Fizzy Fruit is not available to the public now, being sold to school cafeterias before it’s unleashed on the general market.

I haven’t posted anything about My Ancestral Homeland in a while, so this seems like a good time: Iceland photo pool on Flickr.

There was a riddle on Lost last night, one used as a pass-phrase: “What did one snowman say to the other snowman?”

It’s actually a fairly old joke; I won’t tell you the punchline in case you want to stay in suspense, but if you really want to know it you can find out the answer here.

BTW: Someone noted on message boards that Hurley told that joke to somebody last season (although I don’t remember it); does this mean he’s the one for whom the pass phrase is meant?

This is for Yay Kim: Penguin games!

Maytag is famous for its commercials showing their supposedly “lonely” repairmen — that is, repairmen who don’t have anything to do since Maytags don’t need fixing.

All I know is that we keep our local Maytag guys hopping — we’ve had them out to fix our ice maker three times in the past seven years; good thing The Wife got an extended warranty, huh?

This past Tuesday we noticed the ice maker wasn’t producing, so, first things first, I went to the store and got a sack of ice.

Then I removed a piece of ice that was lodged in the machinery, and slowly but surely it started being productive member of society again.

Check this out: Evil Abe’s Army on Ebay — an evil penny that’s conspiring to take over the world. Scroll down and look at all the “updates” and developments, including the recruitment of four President statuettes to help fight the malevolent coin.

(Via Presurfer.)

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Check this out as well: No Zildars! “Zildars may once may have been Humans, or at least are Humanoid replacements for actual Humans who have may be taken by Aracleon forces. [...] Examples of Known Zildars of past and present includes Former American President Gerald Ford, Xfiles Creator Chris Carter, Wonder Woman Lynda Carter, Scientist Stephen Jay Gould, Athlete Peggy Fleming, Author Louie L’Amour, Former First Lady Ladybird Johnson … Actor Mel Gibson, Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs, Celebrity Courtney Love, Business Tycoon Donald Trump, Talk Show Host Joan Rivers, and most professional hockey teams including the coaches.”

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Thursday was the 3rd annual Pee Wee Herman Day in San Francisco — and I missed it.

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Continuing Flickr addiction update: I uploaded pictures of: Our backyard thermometer showing 118F (it wasn’t that hot, the thermometer malfunctions), a frosty bottle of Iceland Spring (Iceland!) water, and Buddy Holly’s grave. The latter was a photo I snapped in 1993 when my cousins from Austin were in Lubbock and wanted to see where Holly was buried.

“Willie Nelson takes Reggae turn, mon.” And Walmart pressures his record company to take the cannabis leaves off the album cover.

I just got a copy of the album at a really fair price, so I’ll let you know how it sounds.

In other psychoactive news:

Company pulls pot-flavored suckers off the market.

(Via Look at This.)

“Hemp dog treat high in nutrition.” Get it? It’s high in nutrition — get it??

Teens more likely to try marijuana in the summer.

Idle hands, meet devil’s workshop.

North Dakotans back hemp as industrial crop for state.

And what post of mine would be complete with the Obligatory Iceland Reference?: A Stoner’s Guide to Reykjavik.

This is the kind of bits-and-pieces post that I used to do on my old blog — in fact, I still do, because even though I have this domain name and an actual hosting company, I lack the presence of mind to stop posting there and give this blog all my attention …

But never mind that: That was there, this is here:

Out of this world: A couple of weeks ago, when all the flurry was being made about Google Earth, Google’s new satellite photo browser, I tried to download it but they had suspended downloads because of overpopularity. Today, now that the hubbub has died down, I finally got through, so I’ve been playing with that for a good part of the day.

The picture above is of my hometown and surrounding area, up in the Texas panhandle; click it for a larger view.

I think two words sum up this picture: Pivot irrigation. That’s what’s making all those cool circles in the landscape. (Useless trivia note: July is National Central Pivot Irrigation Month in Canada! Ah, those wacky Canadians …)

Anyway: In a lot of the Google Earth photos you can make out individual houses, but in the photos for my hometown, and The Wife’s as well, the houses and streets are just a blur. That’s also true for cities in Iceland (you know I’ve been on an Icelandic kick lately, so you know I had to check it out).

Conflict of Interest?: I sent in my first submission to BoingBoing: “Wired Magazine says ‘Re-subscribe or we’ll ruin your credit!’”

Whether or not they print it is another matter, since Xeni Jardin, one of the main BB posters, also writes for Wired, and posts clips from Wired News and current Wired issues several times a week.

Will BoingBoing give equal time to bad news? Or will a conflict of interest be revealed?

For the record, Wired is my favorite magazine, as anyone who knows me can tell you, and I have a feeling that Xeni and the rest of the editorial staff and contributors are as embarassed by this as the subscribers are miffed.

BTW: If they do print the story, and if they give me credit for it, it’ll be the first big test of my hosting service’s ability to handle me being “slashdotted“.

BTW too: I first read the story on Sploid.com.

Game on: Speaking of BoingBoing: Check out their list of time-killing games — especially if you’re at work while you’re reading this.

Maybe it’s just a subconscious reaction to this searing Texas heat, but I keep finding more cool stuff about
Iceland. Bear with me, please, while I get this out of my system:

Elves in Iceland!

Elvis in Iceland!

Last week, Bruce Springsteen went into the Reykjavik Airport during a refeuling stopover and put on an impromptu concert for the night staff. That was a nice gesture.

Iceland is being considered as a stand-in for Iwo Jima in Clint Eastwood’s new WWII movie, Flags of our Fathers.

Learn Icelandic in 10 minutes.

OnTheRuntur.com, the blog of an Irishman in Iceland.

Three Sisters guesthouse in Reykjavik.

Irish pubs in Iceland.

I’ve been reading some of the 14th century saga of Grettir the Strong that I found on Project Gutenberg, and it’s quite fascinating. Check out this exposition at the beginning of Chapter 14, where they’re just now getting around to introducing the title character:

Asmund Longhair now set up a large and sumptuous household in Bjarg, where he maintained a numerous retinue and became very
popular. His children were as follows: The eldest was Atli, an able and accomplished man, tactful and easy to deal with; he was much liked by all. His second son was called Grettir. He was very hard to manage in his bringing up. He spoke little and was rough in his manners and quarrelsome, both in words and deeds. He got little affection from his father Asmund, but his mother loved him dearly. Grettir was a handsome man in appearance, with a face rather broad and short, red-haired and somewhat freckled; not very precocious in his youth. There was a daughter named Thordis, who afterwards married Glum the son of Ospak, Kjallak’s son from Skridinsenni. Another daughter was named Rannveig; she married Gamli the son of Thorhall of Vineland, and they dwelt at Melar in Hrutafjord and had a son named Grim. Glum and Thordis had a son named Ospak who fell into a dispute with Odd the son of Ofeig, which is told of in the “Saga of the Banded Men.”

Wow — they oughta be making mini-series out of this stuff.

After the movie yesterday we went into Barnes & Noble, and I found a total of one book on Iceland: The Rough Guide to Iceland.

I bought it, of course, so plan on seeing lots more Iceland info in the future …

A couple of weeks ago when I first started my Iceland research ( which, in case you’re just tuning in, just might be my ancestral homeland!) , I had also found an unrelated DVD on Ebay that I wanted (Futurama Season One), and the seller was also offering Volumen, a DVD of Bjork’s music videos, so I ordered it at the same time so it could piggyback on the shipping charges. I thought it would be interesting to see more of the work of my possible countrywoman.

The DVD came in this week and I’ve been watching it … and I must say, it’s been quite a head-messing experience. It also inspired me to pick up a couple of her albums really cheap.

But before I go into commentary on the videos, let’s find out a little more about this fascinating artist:

She was born Björk Guðmundsdóttir in Reykjavík on November 21, 1965 — meaning that she’ll be the big four-oh in a few months! She was one of seven children.

This afternoon she headlined the Japanese version of the Live 8 Concerts.

Here’s the 1997 Raygun interview, which includes her comments on her suicidal stalker.

Some loved it, some hated it, but her 2000 starring vehicle Dancer in the Dark was definitely different.

Here are the lyrics to all her songs, a timeline of her career, her official site, and lots and lots of pictures.

See fan sites here, here, and here.

And of course no discussion of Bjork would be complete with a mention of the Swan Dress from the 2001 Oscars. There have even been a couple of tribute figures made of her wearing it, here and here.

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Now, about those music videos: These have got to be some of the best videos ever. Most of them are strange, and some are downright extra-weird, but their all very interesting, and they’re all reality bending. Take for instance “An Army of Me” (whose song was used in the Tank Girl movie, locgially enough): it starts out with her driving this really, really huge tank/truck, with these huge moths on the front grill. She pulls up to a curb, gets out, and opens the hood, the inside of which is lined by these brown, broken teeth. A green vapor emergeds from under the hood, and a man dressed in western-style leather climbs out and jumps to the ground. Suddenly, Bjork realizes she has a toothache, but luckily there’s a dentist’s office right in front of her. She rings the bell and is shown in — and finds that the dentist is this big black gorilla. He tells her to lie back in the chair and open her mouth, and she does, and he sees a large dimaond, almost 2 inches in diameter, on her tongue. He takes the diamond out and starts to walk away with it, but suddenly there are two Bjorks and they are both wrestling him to the ground for the diamond, which keeps getting bigger and bigger. She ties up the gorilla dentist in the chair and escapes with the diamond, which is now about two feet wide. She puts the diamond under the hood of her truck, and instantly the broken brown teeth become white and whole. She then pulls out a time bomb and goes into a museum, where there are apparently more of her running around. She goes up to one art installation which consists of a young Asian man lying on a table. She places the bomb and runs out of the museum. The bomb goes off and the letters S-E-U fall off the sign, leaving M-U_____M. She goes back in the museum and everybody is either knocked out or dead, and all the art is in shambles, but the young man besides whom she placed the bomb is alive and awake and sitting up. She runs up to him and hugs him, at which point the camera pulls in close, the shot freezes on her faces and goes to monochrome, and she begins crying diamonds. The End, and they all lived weirdly ever after.

And that’s not even the strangest video of the bunch.

But seriously, you can check out all of the videos on the Volumen DVD and more at Bjork’s QuickTime Gallery. My personal favorite is Human Behavior; I guess I’ve always been a sucker for papier-mache moons orbiting tiny Earth-like planets with a guy in a bear suit standing on top.

I also enjoyed Bachelorette and Spike Jonze’s It’s Oh So Quiet (filmed several years before he hit it big with Being John Malkovich). There’s also a video by Ren & Stimpy animator John Kricfalusi, but be warned that it is seriously … messed … UP.

Anyway, I’m quickly becoming a crash-course fan; check out some of the above information and maybe you will be too …

I’ve mentioned that I had my DNA tested for National Geographic’s Genographic Project, and that people in the database that had the same genetic markers as me (Haplogroup I) report that their ancestors came to this country from Scotland and Iceland.

It would be okay to be Scottish, but what really intrigues me is that I might be of Icelandic origins. After all, it seems like every other person in the U.S. has Scottish blood, and even Swedish and Norwegian descendancy is common — but I don’t often hear of people saying that they’re of Icelandic heritage.

I decided then, to see how much I could find out about my possible ancestry — so let’s take a tour of Iceland!:

The capital of Iceland is Reykjavik, whose greater urban area has a population of about 182,000, just less than that of Lubbock. The entire country of Iceland has a total population of about 300,000 — just a bit more than Corpus Christi, Texas.

Iceland has the second-longest life expentancy, after Japan.

Meet Miss Iceland 2005!

Meet the President of Iceland!

Icelandic Cuisine, Viking Feast 2005, and the Pagan Food Holiday.

The American Style Restaurant chain in Iceland features the “Bacon Borgari M/ Fronskum Og Coke!” See the complete menu in English here.

For that matter, Iceland also has Burger King and T.G.I.Friday’s franchises.

The history of Icelandic cinema, and a list of Iceland-related videos on Amazon.

Download a text file (a mere 174K) of seven Icelandic short stories, in English, courtesy of Project Gutenberg.

A New York artist has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study Icelandic fashion and design.

The first European to set foot in North America was born in Iceland: Leif Ericsson.

Daily News from Iceland: The headlines as I’m writing this include: Excavation in 1973 lava field reveals intact houses; higher prices predicted for groceries; Icelandic artist receives Carnegie award; The Last Farm wins Grand Prize at Spanish film festival. And Midsummer Night in was celebrated Friday in Reykjavík:

… There was magic in the air at the midsummer night festival in Laugardalur in central Reykjavík, held late last night. Eight hundred people assembled in the family park close to the open door swimming pool at Laugardalur. The pool was open and admissions were free.

According to Icelandic folklore, cows gain voices and seals take off their fur at midsummer night. At midsummer night, the dew is said to be particularly wholesome, and stones are imbued with magical powers.

Books, videos, and maps for travelling in Iceland.

Over 8700 Iceland photos on Flickr.

If my ancestors were from Iceland, why did they come here, and when? There’s a good chance that the reason was the 1875 eruption of Mount Askja, which devastated the island nation’s economy and was a major factor in the emigration of 20% of the population in the remainder of the 19th century.

Iceland’s present economy? I’m glad you asked (the boldface accents are mine):

Iceland’s Scandinavian-type economy is basically capitalistic, yet with an extensive welfare system (including generous housing subsidies), low unemployment, and remarkably even distribution of income. In the absence of other natural resources (except for abundant geothermal power), the economy depends heavily on the fishing industry, which provides 70% of export earnings and employs 8% of the work force. The economy remains sensitive to declining fish stocks as well as to fluctuations in world prices for its main exports: fish and fish products, aluminum, and ferrosilicon. Government policies include reducing the budget and current account deficits, limiting foreign borrowing, containing inflation, revising agricultural and fishing policies, diversifying the economy, and privatizing state-owned industries. The government remains opposed to EU membership, primarily because of Icelanders’ concern about losing control over their fishing resources. Iceland’s economy has been diversifying into manufacturing and service industries in the last decade, and new developments in software production, biotechnology, and financial services are taking place. The tourism sector is also expanding, with the recent trends in ecotourism and whale watching.

The Iceland.com bulletin board. VirtualTourist’s Iceland Forum.

Lights, camera, Iceland: Some big Hollywood films were filmed partly in Iceland, including Batman Begins and Die Another Day.

Icelandic Folk Tales, including the myth behind the national crest of Iceland:

The four Guardians of Iceland, one for each quarter, of the country are described in an old tale telling of a magician
who was sent by King Harold Gormsson of Denmark to investigate the country prior to invasion.

He came to Vopnafjörður (Fjord of Weapons) on the East coast and a huge dragon approached him, accompanied by reptiles, worms and lizards.

He went west and south and came to Breiðafjörður (Wide Fjord), where he was approached by a huge bull which waded into the sea and made loud noises, the bull was accompanied by by a large number of spirits.

He went from there and south of Reykjanes (Smoke Peninsula) and wanted to take land at Víkarsskeið (The Sands of Vikar), but was approached by a huge rock giant whose head was higher than the mountains and carried a large iron staff, and he was accompanied by a host of other giants.
Then the magician went east along the south coast, where he could find no landing places. Thus the intentions of the King of the Danes came to naught due to the efforts of the Guardian Spirits of Iceland.

This story is embodied in The Seal of Iceland, where the Dragon represents the Eastern part, the Bird the Northern part, the Bull represents the Western part and the Rock Giant the Southern part.

Is Iceland an “occupied nation“?

The 1972 World Chess Championship in Reykjavik between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky — the tournament that set off chess fever in the United States. Fischer became an Icelandic citizen earlier this year.

Iceland boasts the world’s oldest functioning legislative assembly, established in the 10th Century.

Icelanders in America: A breakdown by state of Icelanders in the U.S.

The Icelandic Canadian Home Page has dozens of links about people of Icelandic heritage in North America, like the Icelandic Club of Seattle.

Icelandic folk music.

The Icelandic sheepdog.

The Icelandic military: The Coast Guard.

The island of Grimsey is the northernmost part of Iceland, and is intersected by the Arctic Circle. Even though the population is less than three hundred, there are several lodging houses, and visitors can get a certificate for having crossed the Arctic Circle.

The first episode of The Amazing Race — Season 6 took place in Iceland.

The genealogy site Cyndi’s List has a whole page of links of resources for finding Icelandic ancestors, including Mapping the Icelandic Genome, which is exactly the kind of thing that got me into this research.

And last but not least: Bjork!

You can find more information on this great fascinating country at Iceland.com, I Like Iceland, IcelandTravel.com, the Lonely Plant guide (including an excellent map,), the Wikipedia entry, and the CIA Fact Book entry.

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Ha — That was fun! Of course, when I get more genetic testing done, and compare the results against more databases, my ancestors might not turn out to have come from Iceland after all …

But hey, I’ve learned a lot of new things about a part of the world, and researching a land of glaciers is a pleasant diversion on these 100 degree Farenheit days in Texas.

Then again, I just might be descended from Vikings …

In case you’re just tuning in: In my previous post, I told about how I participated in the National Geographic’s Genographic Project, in which ordinary rabble like you and me could send off $100 and a cheek swab and get back a souvenir roadmap of the lands where our primitive ancestors drug their knuckles in their endless journeys trying to get away from each other.

If this doesn’t sound too exciting to you, it’s because you’re not adopted. Even ancient mammoth trails are better than nothing when you are your only known living genetic specimen currently on this planet.

As my results, I discovered that my people (“my people”! I’ve waited so long to say that!) enjoyed travelling about as much as I do — which is to say, not at all — since they averaged, in the 20 millenia since their particular genetic trademark emerged on the Arabian peninsula, about 0.05 miles of forward movement per year.

My people!

Anyway: The study showed them ending up in the Balkans, but said that I could find out more information int the study’s databases at FamilyDNA.com.

So that’s what I did, and here’s what I found out: Among the respondents in the study, the ones with exact matches to my “12-Marker Y-DNA” had ancestors that were distributed most heavily in these countries:

Scotland – 10
Iceland (!) -8
England – 5
Ireland -4
France – 3
Germany 3
Norway- 3
Unknown – 19

Hmm, ya think there’s a lot of other adopted people doing this?

So check it out: Scotland is in first place. That might explain my predilection toward the British Isles — and all things Celtic in particular. It might also explain why I have a soft spot for shelties and border collies.

I still get woozy at the thought of haggis, though, so maybe not.

Still … maybe I need to pick up one of those Utilikilts at next year’s Irish festival, just to see how it feels …

On second thought, maybe not . There’s such a thing as too much ventilation.

Anyway, I digress.

Look at second place: Iceland! I could have Bjorkish blood in my veins!

That’s a scary thought.

It really starts to get interesting when we get to the one-step-off matches:

England – 60 (!)
Germany – 12
Iceland – 11
Scotland – 10
Sweden – 6
United Kingdom (?) – 6
Unknown – 153

Wow, Jolly Ol’ England blows ‘em away in the second lap! Germany pulls slightly ahead of her previous position, just ahead of the former front-runners, with most of the rest of the world still back at the first turn (including Ireland, with only 1 match). (And what’s up with “United Kingdom”, since there are listings for England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales available? Do Shetland and Isle of Man have that many people almost matching my profile?)

But wait, there’s more! Let’s move on to Two-Step Mutations:

England – 106
United Kingdom (?) – 29
Scotland – 27
Germany – 20
Ireland – 17
Iceland – 11
Unknown – 233

Well! That tells me … um, I’m not sure what it tells me. I just know that exact matches are strongest in Scotland and Iceland, but in the near-misses, England comes on strong.

Does this mean that my ancestors were in Iceland, then migrated to England, then here? Or is it the other way around?

Or does it mean nothing of the sort?

I guess I have to do more reading on the subject.

Or if any of y’all out there know about this genetic science and can clue me in a bit, I’d appreciate it.

I’ll be continuing to post anything else I find out.

In the meantime … Cheerio, old chap!