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Hi Clayton!

You have a kick-ass site.. thank you for making dead time at work more interesting. I find many of your pictures absolutely breathtaking. I have never seen close-ups taken to this level before, fantastic work. Y’know, I would not have written to you in this comment-fashion, but since I couldn’t find your email, this will have to do.

I’m a girl from Iceland. I studied in the states, and was asked a lot of (mostly REALLY ignorant) questions about Iceland. It seems to be a common belief that we live in igloos, ride dog-sleds around and eat whale-meat straight from a rottening corpse on the beach. *Ehm. As exciting as the myth may be, we’re actually pretty civilized up here ;) However, we did live in holes in the ground up until about 100 years ago, though. I shit you not, it was a very poor and harsh society. Icelanders also believed in all sorts of hidden people back then. (No wonder - if I lived in a hole in the ground, I’d probably believe in elves too.)
Anyway, anybody with a shred of patriotism praises their own country. That doesn’t make me, nor Iceland, special at all. However, I do have an eye for photography, and I’ve put together a site with amazing pics my country. The pictures are taken by various photographers, including myself (being only an amateur, though - actress by profession) both local and international. Having kept an eye on your site and your works for some time now, I belive you might find some of these pictures kinda neat. If nothing else, it may change the way you view Iceland (not having any idea what you think of it, currently, so accept my humble apologies if I’m underestimating you.) The downside is that my only means to web-space was at msn-groups, so some of the pictures are unfortunately resized and not in their original quality. But it’s still worth taking a look. Please drop me a line if you’re interested (or bored to tears at work), and I’ll happily send you the link.
:)
Keep up the fantastic work and the random brainfarts, - I’m lovin’ all of it.
T.

Most americans are extremely ignorant when it comes to geography outside of the US boundary. It is guaranteed that within 5 minutes of telling any given american that I lived in Switzerland that they will ask something like “Wow - so how are things in Sweden?” Always Sweden - guaranteed. (After all, it IS where Swiss cheese, Swiss chocolate and Swiss bank accounts come from, right?)

Ugh.

You’re right, Sam - unfortunately. I had a campus orientation when I came to study in the states, where we were given a tour around the dorms. On this tour, the campus guide explained a R-E-F-R-I-G-R-A-T-O-R to me as well as a T-E-L-E-P-H-O-N-E until I couldn’t keep my mouth shut any longer. I explained to him (ever so sarcastically) how grateful I was for this tour, since in Iceland, we all use buckets with string in between to talk to our neighbors in far away igloos. To highten the irony, Iceland has the highest private cellphone-ownership-rate in the world. And speaking of geography, I heard that the US senate was seriously considering a bill that would eliminate ALL geography from US elementary schools! How utterly tragic… Let’s hope it doesn’t pass.
T.