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five questions (dec 2021)
December 06th, 2021
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1. How far in advance do you like to start planning things?
This is quite variable. Speeches and presentations that don't
require slides? Those I prefer to work on very briefly before
I have to perform. The over-prep and dwelling on it increases my
stress and doesn't make the delivery any better. But if I'm
prepping a larger project or something that requires lots of
pre-work, steps, 3rd parties, etc, then I try to get that done and
out of the way as early as possible. For instance, my trip to
visit family in the states next year is already arranged and
everything booked except the plane tickets (since prices are time
dependent).
2. What do you hope happens in 2022?
I would really love it if the vaccination levels across the globe
help us bring COVID to a long-term managable level that doesn't
result in waves of hospitalizations and deaths. The cascading
effects of that would be huge and wonderful. I also hope 2022
brings some nice moments with the family. The kid is at a great
age right now and I'm really enjoying all the time we get to spend
together.
3. What challenges have you recently overcome?
Hmm, I'm not sure. I've been fighting a sleep disorder recently
and while it's not quite overcome, it's very close. I hope that
wraps up soon.
4. Seasonal traditions you're most excited about
I'm a big christmas music fan and listen to it year round, but
especially on repeat during this season. It brings be happy
memories and sets a wonderful festive mood in the home. It reminds
me not to work too hard and to spend time with the family.
We've adopted several Icelandic traditions and added them to our
own family ones. We leave a shoe in the window for each of the
Yule Lads as they come to visit leading up to Christmas. They are
thirteen trolls that visit one-a-night on the days leading up to
Christmas Eve. Each has his own personality and will usually leave
a little treat in your shoe if you've been good. If not, you might
find a rotten potato in there instead. Wit has a bit of a beef
with Door-Slammer, but they're making up. Last year he left Wit
fake cat poop in his shoe.
What else? Hmm... We have our stockings and tree set up of course.
I put the tree up and Leah and Wit do the decorating. Then I put
the star on top and it's all set. Presents slowly appear day by
day leading up to the big day.
Santa is a big deal here still. Wit knows that the real Santa is
not the guy he sees at the malls. We've explained that he lives in
Finnish Lapland above the arctic circle, which is why people refer
to his home as the North Pole. We've seen the videos of him at
home with his reindeer pulling the sleigh. We've also discussed
how different cultures celebrate on Christmas Eve vs Christmas
day, meaning Santa has 2 full nights to travel the globe, plus
time zones to take advantage of. With proper planning it's
basically 3 days of activity to get it all done, and only in
predominantely Christian areas. Not such a big deal as the stories
make it seem. Wit also knows that Santa doesn't wrap his presents.
He leaves them loose by the tree.
Finally, we exchange books on christmas eve in the faux
jólabókaflöð tradition. The term actually refers to the publishing
industry going cray-cray and releasing everything at once here for
the holiday rush, but somehow it got memed into this make-believe
story about Icelandic Christmas Eve. In reality Icelanders open
their presents on Christmas Eve, not just books. Still, we liked
the idea of it and since we still open presents on Christmas day,
that lets us do the book & chocolate celebration the day before.
There's one other tradition here where people all go out for a big
Christmas feast. It's usually done via work, but there's family
groups and friends groups that go out as well. Restaurants have
a special menu for it and seats book up in August. Sadly we've not
been able to try this yet as it's been shut down the last two
years due to COVID.
5. Are you good at directions and maps?
Yeah, pretty good. I've got a great direction sense in the wild
too, but I get turned around in cities.
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