I’ll miss:
Trees: I make a lot of jokes about the North American slash and burn style of urban sprawl but there are a few trees here if you know where to look and a lot of trees beyond the city. Iceland has a tree deficit but they cherish the trees they do have. I’ll notice the lack of trees.

My kids: I would love to take my children with me but this first trip will be short and very low budget. I do hope to take them with me on the next trip

Not much else: You don’t know what you’ll miss until you are gone.

I’ll Not miss:
Automatic transmissions and intersection creep: Between automatics (slushboxes) and that irritating creep that is common it will be a pleasure knowing that most folks either drive a stick or at least learned on one. I believe you drive better when you must pay some attention to the gearing and less to phones, food, and foolishness.

The heat and stagnant air: When it gets hot here it gets miserable. There is a very noticeable increase in the number of hot days and the awful feel of the air over the last few years. It will be refreshing to feel much cooler temperatures and some of the cleanest air on the planet.

Water with a taste unlike water: One of the things I’ll very much enjoy in Iceland is being able to drink the tap water without fear or disgust. The water here is promised to be safe but I also expect water to be just water. And swimming, that same pure water is in the outdoor pools in Iceland and that will be a pleasure. Note to self, a sulphur smell is apparent in the naturally heated hot water so get used to it.

The song remains the same, big box stores: We have lost and continue to loose the sense of community and the uniqueness of the corner bakery. I get little comfort knowing that the big box store and fast food joint in one place is exactly the same as the next one. Just because I’ll have trouble pronouncing the name and knowing right away what I want to eat I’ll take comfort in the small town feeling I think I’ll get from most places in Iceland.

Suburban \Sub*ur”ban\, a. [L. suburbanus.]Of or pertaining to suburbs; inhabiting, or being in, the suburbs of a city. “Suburban taverns.” –Longfellow.

Suburban villas, highway-side retreats, . . . Delight the citizen. –Cowper.

Source: Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

To me suburban is neither urban nor rural. Rather like a multifunction electronic device that does none of its functions very well. Actually suburban is a lot more urban than rural. Seen any trees that can shade more than a flea lately?

But wait! The suburban nannies have a plan, create greenspace and call it a naturalization project. Lovely.

Ok, so there is a greenspace area next to a local park. Parks here are large empty areas that while offering a place to play soccer and walk the dog they have no trees or anything to write home about. Here is one view of nature in the city:

Lovely isn’t it? There are some old growth trees, grasses, and even wildlife. Step back a few steps and we get:

Still not bad but what is with the fences? Oh, this is part of the drainage system. OK that is fine, better to keep the drainage system green and natural looking. So what if I want to walk in this nature? Let’s step back a little more and see why that isn’t going to happen:

Oh! Now I get it. It is a greenbelt area kindly provided by Mississauga and it is to be kept natural. That means we put a fence around the whole thing so we can only look at it and put a giant sign up so we know what the heck it is. So that is what tall grass and real trees look like. I might see a bit more without the fence and sign but hey, this is the suburbs.

Imagine loading up a card which is then debited as you use it for all the various transit systems. No more change, tokens, transfers, and paying again when you switch systems. Imagine going from the commuter diesel system to the electric subway without buying another ticket. Imagine going from the suburban bus system to the train and then to the subway and finally to a street car and all you do is swipe your card each time. If the timeline is accurate we can expect to do this “around 2017″. Yeah right, that means we’ll talk about it again in 2017 and start building it, maybe.

Most of the world has moved to this bright idea a long time ago. Most of the world pays the majority of the cost for the systems from tax dollars so that the commuter has a cheap way to get around. Contrary to the whining it is a benefit to the car drivers because each transit rider is one less car on the road. There are 100,000 reasons that 100,000 people can give for why they drive instead of using transit. Fine, just allow the other people a means to get around that doesn’t always involve a car. It isn’t all or nothing and the transit isn’t about poverty. But we don’t get it, the politicians speak from the same place I fart, and I believe little until I see it.

And to be really useful it will take the buy in from all the other systems. And that is not a sure thing and no doubt will cost the rider more than it does now but will certainly be a little more convenient. Woopdy doo. Here’s a hint to the city fathers, I no longer live in, work in, or visit your fine city except under very rare circumstances. The transit system that was once wonderful is now a broken down expensive shell of its former self. Driving is not even close to being an option for me. Call me up in 2017 and maybe I’ll come take a look. By then I should be listed in the Icelandic phonebook (listed by first name order as is the custom).

One thing that makes me crazy is the lack of shade. Why plow down every tree to build yet another desert expanse of houses only to plant little trees afterward? The trees will take decades to grow past the artificial look they now have and it seems they plant a type of tree that never ever provides shade for more than a lucky bug that happens to find it. Even in the parks where one should occasionaly find some shade you only find skinny little trees that look all the same.

I guess it is a nice fit that in addition to ticky tacky houses we also get ticky tacky trees and ticky tacky food. It all matches and all is tasteless. Perfection I suppose.

“What do you do if you’re lost in a suburban forest?
.. you stand up”

The natural world is composed of every shape and direction. But our world is mostly of right angles. The shortest path between any two points and all that. We will add alternate directions if we have to and sometimes for aesthetics. Shapes can give strength and replace the bulk and weight of 90°.

The interesting thing about our right sided perspective is that the lines become delimiters. Some of those lines are meant to be delimiters that we must pay attention to such as the lines in the road and the boxes at intersections. But the lines are not natural law so we still have discretionary choices. Seeing the choices that some people make is an interesting and often frustrating ritual of daily life. One person might show an oblivious state of mind and another might show greed. Some might even show both, a dream state at a very bad moment.

Some people might in turn wonder where my head is at. Not at the times when I must interact with others such as the intersection or in traffic, I think I am considerate and safe; it is those times when I am only interacting with the environment. Example is on a back country road and I have a clear view and have actually looked ahead. The lines that split even a curvy road are then only hints about where the road is, not necessarily where I must be at all times. I use the space and try to flow. It isn’t a series of directional changes that happen suddenly. Look ahead, behind, and all around the right angles of life.

There is a wonderful tradition of cooking talent on the rock. But ex pats and fussy eaters can have a frustrating time. But all can be had if one is willing to pay a small fortune. Or just give in to the traditions and eat like a Viking.

The growing season is very short and unpredictable, green house is the best way but is expensive. But after all that the Icelander is proud of their culinary skills and boasts a high proportion of organics and natural foods. Many things have always been done the tried and true organic way and continue to be that way. Even the freakin hot dogs are organic compared to the mystery rat we call hot dogs. But things are changing.

The pressure is on to emulate the North American expectation of any item at any time at a price that doesn’t fluctuate as much as it might even a few years ago. And we expect the food to look like the marketing photos and be a shiny pretty colour. And we want it sweet it would seem. Dammit, I can’t even find an ear of corn that isn’t sweet now.

I’ll assume that the likes of Monsanto and other evil doers are already on the island giving out promises of a bountiful supermarket. And cheaper too to be sure. Pest resistant, high yields, and a million other promises. But I say Whoa! Listen to the countries to your east before going the way of the west. Don’t let them patent your food. At least make labeling laws that identify genetically modified food. We didn’t insist loudly enough here and now most of the food is GM. People don’t even know it, or don’t care, or I don’t know what it is but there are so many reasons to not like this shit that no amount of corporate spin can change my mind. Mega dam projects are easy targets of criticism but to me the food I directly ingest every day is a much more important consideration. Don’t let them do it, I beg you. You’ll regret it someday. But maybe I’m just crazy that way since it doesn’t seem to bother most people. At least wait until I’ve made a few visits and tasted real food in the land of dreams.

Last night I came across a reply to a forged return address spam message that made me rethink my already low confidence level of the consumer. This came from a health professional at a large organization. She apparently received a spam/scam and wondered if it might be real before sending their money to the scammer. This person used their work email which included the privacy notice. jeez

I received a check for 4,588.67 and your <company name> logo was on the letter that I received with the check claiming that I won 250,000.00 and I was to deposit this check and then send 2,900.00 for taxes.

Are you aware of any contest that works this way, and are you involved with this North American Millions Jackpot prize thing?

Is this legit?

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But I’m tired. There is so much content that you can be overloaded. Or you start to wonder if it is even healthy sometimes. A few sources are outright ignored for reasons other than so called bias. Cnn (sic) is one of those sources that I can’t watch for more than a few seconds except on very rare occasions. But that is an ancient story, they lost my interest some time before O.J. Others are used for comic relief, again, for only a few seconds. And a few comedy sources are better outlets for serious news. There is a lot of irony in life.

When you add up the time spent soaking up media rays instead of solar rays you might wonder; why? So last year I made a new rule, no more than 7 minutes of news per day, from any media format. I began to cherish those minutes. So much content and so many formats that I never had a regular schedule for it. Some days I might use up 5 minutes by reading every newspaper at the coffee shop. That only left 2 minutes for all other sources. Each day was a decision on what to take in and what to discard or ignore. Does The Daily Show deserve to be counted toward my minutes? Yes and no, it depends on the day and if I happened to come across it. There were no longer any daily schedules or hard rules about any one source or another. I felt I had even more diversity than before.

And a funny thing was noticed. I was not missing anything I needed to know. I was still getting the news. All of it. At least what I’d consider news. I was never the person that sat in front of the live news crime of the week century waiting for something to happen. I don’t feel left out if I hear about the white Bronco car chase a day later than you do. And I only needed 5 seconds of my life to find out about it. But I was scouring the planet for anything of interest. So now I was limiting myself to seven minutes.

And now something else has been noticed. Seven minutes is too much on many days. In a past life I could spend hours and now I am lucky to get seven minutes. It is funny what you notice when you step back. Redundancy, speculation, preaching, marketing, mass hypnosis, diversion, magic, mirrors, nausea, ad nauseam, and on and on. And always the marketing. You can’t buy or look at anything without the marketing for more.

So the new rule, is, no more rules. If I go weeks without hearing a goddamn thing then great. If something actually happens I’ll know somehow. And some days I might spend a few precious minutes soaking up the daily grind.

They used to say, 500 channels and nothing to watch. Well, 500 NEWS channels and nothing newsworthy. Or, little more than 7 minutes worth on any given day.