Everything and nothing

It is said that when you have no point – use Powerpoint. As this is not an option when blogging I will instead serve up a mix-matched jumble of observations that I have found wandering aimlessly within my brain this past week.

I have often speculated what it would be like to live in a vacation spot like Orlando. On your way to work you must thread around hoards of sunburnt people on vacation, all wearing Mickey Mouse ears and a camera-necklace. Nine to five drudgery amongst the carefree and super jolly. I will soon get this information firsthand.

It can be beneficial to a country looking to boost its presence on the international scene to have big celebrities come for a visit. They bring along the occasional paparazzi and photographers and tidbits about the trip sometimes end up in the gossip columns where they reach an enormous audience. It does not hurt when the celeb is a major movie star and intends to throw a big birthday party in the country in question, inviting everyone who is everyone in showbiz to attend. But sometimes such visits can end up a bit differently than party planned. Because you see sometimes the celebrity is slammed with divorce papers and pretty much after that all of the photographs feature a big frown and the lavish birthday party ends up being attended only by a bunch of empty party hats and the confetti. The superstar = Tom Cruise, the country = Iceland.

Iceland has often been chosen by film directors for shooting scenes where „odd“ landscape is required. Well, maybe often is not quiet the correct word here and the reader is asked to replace the term with „a few times“. But this has been increasing and if I am not mistaken it has to do with tax being lifted from a big chuck of what the movie studios spend here. Which is true to form, everywhere in the world any sort of industry or endeavor other that being a citizen will qualify you for discounted taxes. Normal people are the only smucks paying full price when it comes to taxes. Something to do with countries typically not being on the market for more citizens, while they all want more revenue. It is what it is.

In other news, the National Ocean Service of America has issued a statement noting that there is no scientific proof for the existence of mermaids. Now this came as a big shock to everyone, not least to Daryll Hannah. But all is not lost as there was no mention of mermen. This flicker of hope is however quite weak as mermen will soon be of Do-Do stature with no mermaids around to propagate. More space for fish I guess. And good for Iceland then.

In some circles Iceland is pretty unpopular at the moment because we are fishing mackerel like crazy in our fishing grounds, mackerel that other countries say belong to them. The reasoning on the mainland is that these fish are only passing by Iceland, in swimming transit to Europe where the nets eagerly await. Apparently the mackerel schools have changed route due to the warming of the sea, probably enticed by the rich plankton feeding grounds surrounding Iceland. When you swim around the globe in a nonsensical pursuit of more sea you tend to get famished. I must note that the mackerel must swim constantly as otherwise it sinks, it has no swim bladder. Shoddy biological design work.

So, the Icelandic reasoning is, that if you are a fish that enters our territorial waters and eat our plankton - which coincidentally our regular fish should be fattening up on - we will eat you. But this is not a popular argument elsewhere. So as to be fair I am sure the other side has a side. But I tend to take allegiance with Iceland and have thus not familiarized myself much with the opposing arguments. To me it is enough to see the ocean almost boiling with this fish and it just seems proper to go get it, any worthy fishing nation finding itself in such circumstances mans the boats and gets fishing. And I am pretty certain if the tables were turned the Icelandic cod would not be let alone were it to venture into other countries fishing grounds. But an argument is never only one sided so to be fair I emphasize that I am sure there are other points out there. They just don’t sound very convincing. Maybe they lose their power in translation.

On Friday it is suitcase time yet again. In two weeks I will be attending Thrillerfest in NYC for the first time, and doing so in good company as Stanley of Michael Stanley and Annamaria Alfieri will be there as well. As will some other writers, of course. I am really looking forward to this, despite not remembering if I booked a hotel or not. But even more fun will be visiting my sister who has now moved to Orlando as the itinerary involves a detour to her new place of residence.

As she will be working I can play the tourist and get in her way, sunburnt, wearing Mickey Mouse ears and a camera-necklace.

Yrsa - Wednesday