I spend a lot of time trying to get lost, but this is difficult because I have an impeccable sense of direction.  I enjoy traveling to new cities to explore and write little stories about. I have a collection of these and they are all quite silly.

Ever since I moved to California I have been obsessed with earthquakes.​ I found the USGS site for recent earthquake activity that is updated every minute. You can look here >> Quakemap​ to see all the little earthquakes happening every day.

I went to graduate school to become a secondary English teacher and I found myself growing more and more patient. I am no longer an angry person (except on the freeway...) and I do not judge people quickly or definitively​ like I used to.  My students have taught me so much about life, the world around us, and myself.

Sometimes I turn off my phone and computer and take the train up to the City (San Francisco) in the morning. I do not talk to anyone for the entire day. It's lovely to escape and become instantly anonymous. I ride the buses and trains and sometimes write down interesting things I see or take a photo and write about it later. Then I return home after eight to twelve hours. I think of it as reseting my brain when I feel like I'm drowning in papers, responsibili​ties, social obligations,​ family issues, etc.

I love Iceland and the language, although I cannot speak it as well as I thought I could once.  I really miss the landscapes, the people in Akureyri, and skyr. God I ate so much skyr.

I keep a cigar in a little toy bathtub near my sink. If you can name what song those two things are in together, let me know!

I really would love to have a good penpal from somewhere else in the world with whom I can exchange letters and things in the mail.

I am not looking for a romantic relationship​.

Birds, words, and nerds.

More random interests: maps (Google Earth is another current obsession), cacti plants, the desert in general, jigsaw puzzles, word games, taking trains to new places, letterboxing​, charcoal drawings, postcards, collage, calligraphy,​ poetry, running, creating mysteries, wigs, theater, writing.

If you are interested in sending and receiving postcards from all over the world, Postcrossin​g is a really well set up site.
​
Here is a link to the world's population and many other interesting facts updated every milisecond:  World​ Clock​

Bjork, Andrew Bird, Animal Collective, Dan Deacon, Thanksgiving​, Akron/Family​, Wu-Tang Clan, Wilco, Son Volt, The Mountain Goats, Panda Bear, Tujiko Noriko, Cibo Matto, Cut Copy, Portishead, Gonzales, Jandek, Beirut, Electrelane,​ Burial, Motoro Faam, Public Enemy, The Walkmen, Deer Tick,  Cex, The Boats, Flotation Toy Warning, Nobukazu Takemura, Radicalfashi​on, Worrytrain, Goldmund, Dr. Dog, Eluvium, The Eurythmics, Girl Talk, Melodium, Of Montreal, Freaks, Radiohead, Troubled Hubble, Iggy Pop, Badly Drawn Boy, Blonde Redhead, CocoRosie, Add N to (X), Regina Spektor, lots more...

Last.fm​ is an awesome little site that lets you keep track of what you listen to and helps you find new bands and artists according to what you like. I have found a lot of great music this way! You can find me on there as oedipa_maas.​

Amelie, Rushmore, North by Northwest, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life, My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, Rebecca, Repo Man, Escape from New York, Fight Club, How to Steal a Million, Trainspottin​g, The King of Kong, The Royal Tenenbaums, Stand and Deliver.

Here's a link to my favorite drunken movie critic: Filthy​ Critic

Blake's 7, Red Dwarf, The Young Ones, Monty Python's Flying Circus, House, and old UFC fights from the 80s before they started making so many stupid rules.

The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon,  Housekeeping​ by Robinson. Stories by Borges, Calvino, and Barnes.  Poetry by Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Jorie Graham, Robert Hass, Charles Bukowski.