Everything is so delightfully low-budg here...

As Gov. Palin justifies her veto of more than 26 mil clams aimed at an energy efficient infrastructure, and I read comments about people bagging about their tax dollars being mis-allocated...I realize a cultural anomaly up here...passable is ok here...if it works, it works; even if it is mediocre. They really don't pay much in the way of taxes at all...no sales tax, no state income tax...and though the cost of living is a little higher, most people get by on less.

This leads me to the fab commercials here. People do not pay for advertising...or rather they pay for the time slot and then stick some home video schlock in there and expect it to sell...and it does.

Let me tell you- media producers not from here would be well out of their element. They woud make some well-written, nicely shot commercial, stick it on the TV, and then no one would respond because it was too well done, and is therefore for snobs, and automatically too pricey. I am not sure if this is something I find to be nice, or something I find to be horribly irritating.

I must say I love the old man from the Mattress Ranch commercials.



There are several others...all of them equally fantastic...and rediculous...

But the point is, this is something that I find to be somewhat bizzare. Grand Rapids is by no means a huge market, but it is not small either. I think the quality is pretty consistant with other media markets I am familiar with- Milwaukee, Chicago, South Bend- they all have fairly good production quality. We are not too far beyond forcasts with magneted partly cloudy slap-ons.

I don't say this to be bitchy at all...after all, does the average person get something different from a doppler image in real time than they get from magnets on an alaska-shaped white board? I don't really understand the weather patters here to get a radar image anyway...at home I do...so I see a big difference from newscast to newscast. The wider question, however, is how much added benefit do we get from spending more on fancy commercials and news production. I mean...are we paying so much more in overhead to pay for ads that its not really worth it? Clearly in Alaska the answer is yes. At home I am not so sure...I do like shiny things...but I am also kinda cheap...like a dutchman...you learn it up there in Dutchville...Maybe we are all just buying in to some cultural projection that doesn't or shouldn't exist.

WTF

Today I saw a moose on Elmendorf AFB and didn't have my camera. That is all.

Mixed feelings are gone...

In my life to this point, uncertainty in myself has not been a problem for me. I had 5 minutes of uncertainty when I chose a college, maybe a minute and a half while deciding to break up with someone over their parents, and like, .2 seconds when I was buying my first car. In this regard, this moving 4,000 miles away business was the most uncertain I have been about anything ever. Days and days of uncertainty- hard to deal with when you are so unacustomed to the feeling... I know that it was the right choice though- I had to get away from there- I just wasn't ready to emotionally accept it. Now I am- and I have. Good riddance- see you when and IF I am ready to come back. Uncertainty, thou art banished from my life forever.

Meanwhile, Alaska is quite lovely. I have never lived near mountains, or even really been near mountains this large. Oooohh! Ooooh! For the first time on this blog...photo courtesy of me!

Flew in last night at like...11:30 and Mo picked me up. I knew it was going to be light still, but actually experiencing it was a little bit strange. Flying in near sunset over the mountains was just beautiful because everything reflects the shades in the sunset.

I could not sleep on the plane because I was looking out the window the entire time. We flew right over Glacier N.P. in NW Montana, too...lovely as well. Tragically the Colorado Rockies were obscured by clouds, but no matter.

During that part of the trip I read a very interesting graphic novel, which is not typically a format I enjoy, but this was an exception. The Photographer is a true story about the man who had the nerve to follow the first medecins sans frontiers (Dr.s w.o Borders) into Afghanistan during the 1986 war with Russia, and definitely into harms way...good book- pick it up, enjoy.

Today Mo and I took a little walk down by the coast and up the trails into downtown. There are a lot of magpies here...and cormorants... who have a somewhat unpleasant call. More on that later.

4 More Days...Please Recommend Plane Literature...

As I sit here in my office for the first of 3 12-hour shifts this week...I have decided that I really cannot wait to get the hell out of here. No amount of re-organizing that I can do can make this place look good, and the staff keeps screwing up and getting pissy with eachother..and you know what? I don't really get paid enough to deal with it. So I'm taking the summer off. How nice for me.

That does not really mean that I am not having mixed feelings about leaving still. I love my job most days. I love my co-workers...most days. I hate that sometimes my job overlaps with other departments that I may not want to see for personal reasons...but that is beside the point.

Basically because of a slew of very strange circumstances, I find myself, for better or worse, with absolutely no responsibilities to anyone other than myself. So why not go to Alaska. Actually on some strange level I feel like everyone is doing it. It's the new trendy locale for college grads hoping to avoid responsibility for just a few more months...and get really nice crispy tans. I am hoping I can get a really nice crispy tan. Kinda like this....

Ok maybe not this extreme...but I am looking at the average UV Index for the area..and it's definitely tannable. Now for the weather up there...

Dear Alaska-

Do you think that you could consider getting into the 60's up there next week? I am thinking it would be a very nice welcome for me. OKTHNXBUHBYE.

Mags

I say this after my mom warned me that my Dr. warned me that I have some pre-cancerous spots on my face..or rather just one...but who cares- thats what sun block is for...and there is UV protection in my makeup...that I never wear...I'll buy some sunblock. Some day skin cancer scars will probably be some huge fad and if you are over 20 and havn't had a suspicious mole-ectomy, you will be clearly uncool...

I am told by a fellow tweep that Alaskan Amber is something to be admired, so I am getting pretty excited about the beer scene up there too. That's all for now...if you stumble upon this posting I'm taking suggestions for excellent plane reading...I don't do sappy..so please no jodi picoult or teusday's with maurie guy...blegh...no thanks. I'll pass on Into the Wild too...

Sorry for the long time between posts everyone...

I only had college graduation and finals and training staff and a break-up, many drunken nights and moving to deal with- so no excuse for my absence.

I spent all day yesterday applying for jobs in the Anchorage Area and talkin' to Mo (my roomie up there) about all the stuff we were going to do. Our place is like three blocks from some major trail networks, and I think I am going to buy a bike...though my lack of insurance may scare me out of that.

Some promising leads on the job front. Not too worried there. Gear tested my hammock this week and that worked great, so I'm hoping to do some light camping and backpacking. We are definitely going to do Denali and probably a day cruise to the Kenai Fjords? We'll see. I've been woefully negligent in paying attention to the politics up there.

I think the thing I am looking forward to the most is taking my own photographs. I am so ready for this trip its not even funny at this point. This city is finished with me for the time being. Dependant upon my job up there and how much I love it, I will be back, but I'm not trying to think too far in the future for now. It's just not time for that.