what am i doing?

I have been YouTubed...

2012-02-11T15:15:00.000-09:00

My students got sneaky one day and took this video... Then the posted it on YouTube... Thankfully, most of the students are working and it shows me working one on one with a student....

How the Bear Lost His Tail

2012-02-10T07:44:00.002-09:00

So Cool....

2012-01-24T07:47:00.002-09:00

Homemade, DIY Star Wars...

iLife and iDVD and New Macs...

2012-01-20T15:42:00.001-09:00

So, I made some iMovies on my new MacBook Air. Figured I would burn some to disc for family. I go up to the Share menu on iMovie and select iDVD.... Nothing happened because new Macs are not coming with iDVD.

According to Apple, DVDs are obsolete technology and everything is going to be on the internet. Never mind that many people do not have fast internet access. I guess I have no problem with that, but at least make iDVD available as a free download from the internet or AppStore. No, Apple decides to continue making iDVD available only by purchasing the retail version of iLife for another $50.

It took about 45 minutes of waiting and arguing and transfers, but I did succeed today in convincing Apple to send me a copy of iLife for free so I can install iDVD. It was surprisingly difficult, they must be dealing with this with other people because they had also sorts of horrid ways for me to procure iDVD. (Installing it from my employer's iLife disks, purchasing iLife at full price, etc....)

Anyway, the iLife suite is what makes the high initial price of a Mac bearable. I hope Apple is not chipping away at iLife and using obsolescence as an excuse (iWeb is also not preinstalled and only available in the retail version of iLife). I fear soon there will be no iLife, but eventually a pay-per-app scheme via the AppStore for all applications even on full blown macs... It is going to make me reconsider my computer purchases in the future because then I will just be buying hardware. Might as well then just buy cheaper hardware.

Thanks to those that posted about this at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3336026. Register your opinion with Apple here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/idvd.html.

Lamborghini Gallardo

2012-01-16T09:54:00.001-09:00

Here is a video of driving a Lamborghini - what a nice car. Did it in Las Vegas with Exotics Racing.

50 Miles is Dumb

2012-01-09T10:21:00.001-09:00

After probably insufficient training, I ran my first (and last) ultra marathon of 50 miles near Las Vegas at Lake Mead. It was Running from an Angel by Calico. I finished 19th out of 44 with a time of 8:43:20. The first 40 were not too bad, but the last ten were ugly. I couldn't stride out, my feet hurt and I had to fight muscle cramps for the last five miles.

Fisher kicked my butt and ran a 7:30. I suppose it helps to run 120 miles in a week in preparation compared to my measly 60...

Slaaviq

2011-12-25T07:47:00.000-09:00

Slaaviq is a Russian Orthodox Church celebration. They have a slightly different calendar than our regular calendar and they celebrate Christmas over the course of maybe a week instead of just one day. They have a daily procession that follows a star from house to house where they sing and eat and share gifts.

Finally... A Respectable Candidate

2011-12-05T12:52:00.000-09:00

Finally, a Republican that doesn't pander to the lowest common denominator, a Republican not afraid to speak the truth and give into fear mongering.

Google Video to YouTube

2011-11-29T07:25:00.000-09:00

Google has an obsolete product (kind of?) called Google Video. I guess it was to be a YouTube competitor before Google purchased it. Anyway, if you uploaded videos to Google Video, they are now offering a very simple way to migrate videos to YouTube. More information here. Now I can have all of my videos in one location. I forgot about some of the ones that I had posted....

FTC FCS OMG

2011-11-25T17:13:00.000-09:00

Last year, I spent a bunch of hours trying to get the FCS and Samantha module to work together. I never succeeded and just had my students practice with bluetooth.

Thankfully, FTC posted the above video that really shows the whole process from setting up the router, flashing the samantha module, running the FCS, and even mentions using the samostat program to debug.

Unfortunately, I wasn't smart enough to get it to work the first time, so I plowed through a bunch of internet searches to figure out where I was going wrong. Below are a few of the things that I botched and may help you out as you try to set up and use the Samantha module.

- You don't need to hold in the red button forever. You can let go.
- The flashing process isn't fast. It takes maybe a minute. So, don't be impatient and expect to get the Red-White-Blue-White-Red immediately. I got tired of waiting and thought maybe the initial flutter of lights was the flashing process and gave up.
- Somewhere I read, DO NOT NAME YOUR SSID/Network FTC_FIELD. I did at first, maybe that led to problems.
- You cannot be connected to any other networks (ie. your internet should not work). Disconnect from them.
- If you are still having problems, then run the samostat program on your brick. You will need to locate it in the Samantha Field Control System/Labview folder on your computer. Open it in LabVIEW and download it to the brick. When I ran it, I saw I was having an encryption/password problem. I decided to go through the whole process from the beginning choosing a new network name and password. Then everything worked!

Here are some other videos that I found... wish I found the troubleshooting one earlier.

Smashing Pumpkin Reissues

2011-11-11T08:36:00.000-09:00

What I have always wanted! More! The Smashing Pumpkins are finally reissuing with previously unreleased their first two albums. Kind of spendy at $30 each, but I suppose it is just a matter of time before I breakdown and buy them. I am really interested in the Siamese Dream era unreleased tracks. I never wanted that album to end. You can buy the new discs from www.smashingpumpkins.com. If you do, then you will also get some unreleased digital downloads.

Shaft Encoders

2011-11-04T07:44:00.001-08:00

I made a new video for shaft encoders since the Move Distance block in LabVIEW has changed slightly. It really isn't all that different from the previous Move Distance block used in my previous video on the subject... All my robotics videos are available for download from here.

Kuiggluk Robotics T-shirts Fundraiser

2011-11-02T14:16:00.000-08:00

I took it to the next level in screen printing this past weekend. I have only printed single color t-shirts before. This time, I increased the complexity by doubling the colors and therefore the screens needed to print the shirt. It really increased the difficulty since I was a little careless. For example, I didn't remember to include marks to line up the screens. I then had to adjust the screens over and over till they lined up. Otherwise, they turned out alright.

I think that the fumes from heating the inks are probably toxic. I didn't feel very well after printing maybe 80 shirts over 12 hours.

If you would like to support out high school robotics teams and purchase a shirt, let me know. We are selling them for $15. Proceeds go to cover parts for robots and snacks for while the students build and program.

Simple Conveyor Belt Program

2011-10-28T07:39:00.000-08:00

Whipped this up to inspire my students for their robots. All my robotics videos are streamed on YouTube, or can be downloaded here.

Catapult Math

2011-10-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

I was inspired by the book, The Art of the Catapult: Build Greek Ballistae, Roman Onagers, English Trebuchets, and More Ancient Artillery. In it, there is an onager. I built one. I don't know if it is particularly impressive, but I had fun. I shot some eggs from it and made a movie for math class about parabolas...

Only In Alaska?

2011-10-17T07:49:00.000-08:00

So, last night I get a couple of phone calls about bears. Guess there were three bear sightings on the south side of the village. So, this morning we have a late start for school due to bears. It isn't light till maybe 8:30 or 9:00. So, the goal is to have the students not come to school in the dark and run into a bear.

Southwest Alaska was even in the news, on NPR this morning. Listen to their story about the Pebble Mine and its potential effects on the salmon. I would point out that I can think of nothing more important to the people here than the salmon. It is the main food source. It is what the people spend their summers catching and preparing. They eat it everyday.

In The News

2011-10-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

One of my class projects got picked up on YouTube and written on by one of the local news organizations.

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/our-alaska-yupik-abcs

A New Robotic's Season

2011-10-01T14:54:00.000-08:00

So, I am trying to get my teams ramped up and started for this year's FTC robotics competition. I made a few videos to try and highlight the new LabVIEW for NXT. These videos along with the older videos are all posted here.

Dhoom

2011-09-26T16:56:00.000-08:00

Another of the movies I bought when in Mumbai was Dhoom. Actually, it was a two pack. It also included the sequel, Dhoom 2. It was slick and sexy, but not nearly as entertaining as Dabangg. It felt like the movie was trying too hard to be cool and competitive with Hollywood films. I think that the characters and plot suffered and were kind of flat.

The sequel, Dhoom 2, is about the same as the first. I did find it humorous that it started in Namibia. I would have probably stopped watching both of these movies if it wasn't for the musical numbers/dancing in them. I especially was impressed by some of the dancing in the sequel. I wish I could do some of those moves.

Sewing

2011-09-21T07:19:00.002-08:00

So, I had some buckskin leather left over from my beaver mittens and decided I had better use it up. I lost one of my Cabela's chopper mittens that I loved. In the process, I needed a liner and figured I could also use that material to out do the neck gaiter's that I have purchased. They are so key when it gets cold.

My neck gaiter is about 6 inches taller than the ones I have seen, bought. I can't wait to try it out this winter. I had been using two neck gaiters simultaneously, hopefully this one will be sufficient by itself. Maybe, I should make a second so when it gets wet and frozen from exhaling I can swap it out.

I have a pair of beaver mittens, they were my first go at making mittens. They are a bit small and I wish I had used a thicker liner. I will still wear them, but I wanted some mittens that can get banged up and dirty and not feel bad about it. I enlarged the pattern that I made from the book Secrets of Eskimo Skin Sewing.

My hands (and feet) get cold pretty easily. I doubled up the fleece material for the inner liner.

I slightly enlarged the pattern for the leather. That way there wouldn't be any bunching of the liner inside the mittens. Sew them inside out. Then turn them right side out when finished. The thread is artificial sinew from MaineThread.com, Maine Thread & Machine Company. It comes in 4-ply, I separate the individual strands and sew with those.

They may not be the prettiest mittens, but I think they will do the trick. I also sewed on some loops so that I can clip them to my overalls or coat. I don't want to lose them on the tundra hunting caribou.

Macbook - Stuck DVD

2011-09-12T12:06:00.000-08:00

A student came in with a computer that wouldn't boot. They had a dvd stuck in their macbook and it was just spinning and making a horrid noise. I searched the web and came across many solutions that didn't work. As a last resort, the following did work http://www.silvermac.com/2006/dvd-stuck-in-macbook-pro/. I stuck some thin cardboard in the drive and kept the disc from spinning. The drive then spit it out. Now the computer boots up!

DIY T-Shirts

2011-09-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

Last school year, I printed the t-shirts for my robotics teams. It went pretty well, so we decided to print up some shirts for the cross country team and sell them at the meet we are having today. I whipped up the above design and burned the screen. We got together and printed about 40 shirts in three hours last night. Thank God someone brought pizza. I think they turned out alright. Let me know if you feel the need to support a middle of nowhere cross country team. More details on printing at http://aarontkennedy.blogspot.com/2011/02/kuiggluk-robotics-t-shirts.html.

Dabangg!

2011-09-06T12:13:00.000-08:00

I watched a terrible, terribly awesome, movie last night. I bought it while I was in Mumbai and finally had a chance to watch it. It has everything that I find entertaining in it. It is called Dabangg which I believe means "fearless". Essentially, the movie is about a bad ass cop that does things his own way. He takes out the bad guys, has great dance moves, loves his momma, and gets the girl. There are tons of action sequences and things borrowed from other movies (a few Matrix-like dance moves, he even channels the Hulk at one point). The one thing that I didn't get was whether or not the movie was campy intentionally or not. Either way, it was hilariously awesome.

First Moose Hunt - Unsuccessful

2011-09-06T10:25:00.001-08:00

I went out camping and hunting moose on Friday. We got back Monday afternoon. It was really nice to get out of the village and escape the pull of work and monotony of the village.

The first night out, I didn't see anything. However, we were hunting as a group and one of the guys shot a moose around 9:30pm. It was huge and was a lot of work to cut up. Fortunately, they had planned ahead and brought out a four-wheeler and sled to haul the meat. It probably took us two or three hours. It made getting up early the next day to sit out a little difficult.

The weather was alright. It drizzled and rained off and on, but never really, really hard. I was also prepared with rain gear so it was never a problem. Even the temperature wasn't too bad. During the day it was probably around 60 degrees. It obviously cooled off during the night. Sitting out though and not moving much does make it difficult to stay warm. Each day, I never got rid of any layers, but kept adding a new layer. The first night I wore jeans, rain pants, wool socks, rubber boots, t-shirt, hoodie and rain coat. By the time I left, I was wearing jeans, rain pants, wool socks, rubber boots, t-shirt, hoodie, rain coat, long sleeve t-shirt, and a long sleeve compression shirt.

I had even more clothing in reserve in case it got much colder, but I didn't need it. However, I wasn't nearly as prepared in terms of hunting equipment. I didn't even bring my new gun because it just doesn't feel sighted in well enough. I borrowed a gun, a stool, binoculars (I have some, but someone has them), knives (mine is getting too dull), and a sleeping mat for under my sleeping bag. Part of my sighting in problem, probably comes from my difficulty with holding steady. It gets worse the more I fire, since my gun has some kick. When I went out to sight it in, I fired about 35 rounds and still have a bruise on my shoulder. So, if the opportunity presented itself, I needed a stand for my gun for a bit more support. I made one out of sticks and grass... It was something to do, you can't day dream all the time.

I sat out Friday night, Saturday and Sunday morning and evening, and Monday morning. In all of that time, I only saw moose once. I might have even missed it because they were obscured by some high grass. I got tired and decided to stand up and stretch. It was then that I saw a cow and a calf. They were getting some water from a pond. I then noticed that there was two more moose beyond them. I grabbed the binoculars and tried to get a better look. I couldn't even tell that one of the moose was a bull because of the distance and his tiny little horns. I watched and wondered what to do. I knew one of my party was much closer. Sure enough, about a minute or so after seeing them. He shot at the bull knocking it down. It got up and started walking off. He fired again, knocking it down.

I don't know if it makes up for not seeing any more moose, but Monday morning was gorgeous. The sunrise painted the sky the purest powder sky blue with oranges and pinks. It then blasted the meadow bringing contrasting, dark lush green with almost neon bright green grasses. It was so nice, made me want to take up painting again. It warmed my face which provided some respite from sitting cold and cramped.

When I got home, the work wasn't done, even though I was ready to crash. We shared the moose that was shot. I got a front quarter and some ribs. It took a few more hours cutting up the meat, bagging it, and then cleaning up a very messy, bloody kitchen. The moose steak last night made up for it.

ANYTHING is Possible in Mumbai

2011-08-19T07:16:00.001-08:00

First day in Mumbai, I got blessed. I was walking down Colaba Causeway. Happened past a little Hindu temple and a priest/monk in an orange robe stopped me. He put some little white sweets in my hand and wrapped a red and yellow died string around my right wrist (not that dirty ol' left hand). We chatted a bit and he prayed that I get married.

A little more odd and I think unpleasant, a guy comes up to me and seems concerned. "There is something in your ear." I think bug and try to remove this bug from my ear. I feel nothing. He gets closer and seems to want to help me remove it. He reaches for my ear. He is putting something in my ear. Removing it, a metal needle-like object, he shows me some ear wax on its tip. I am a little thrown off, enough that he manages to get back to my ear again and remove some more wax. The man then shows me this little kit that he has strapped around his waist full of tissues and cotton and some kind of bottle with an eye dropper. He wanted to clean my ears. I told him no way. He was pretty insistent. "No. No. No." I don't want someone sticking something resembling a needle in my ear. I didn't want to pay either.

The food in India was really good everywhere I went, flat bread or rice with vegetable curries or chicken curries. I was always worried that I not use my (dirty) left hand. It is considered dirty, but you can actually use it. You just can't bring it to your mouth. Hopefully, people were only staring at me because I was often the only non-Indian eating in these places.

One evening, I was drinking some tea while waiting for my meal. The restaurant had a cafeteria style seating arrangement. A random Indian guy came in and sat across from me at my table. He also ordered some tea. We greeted each other and he asked where I was from. I got my meal and at some point the man got up and moved to a different table. Eventually, he left. I never paid attention to whether he paid or not. Turned out that he didn't. The waiter assumed that he was with me and that I was paying. I pointed this out when I got my bill and asked why there were two teas. I told him that I didn't know the guy. They were cool about it and removed the drink from my bill. They seemed pretty surprised by it as well.

All my taxi drivers were pretty interesting, probably have to be to survive and keep you sanity with the traffic in Mumbai. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but with all those temples and religions I didn't give much thought to vices. I was informed that ANYTHING is possible in Mumbai. One of the first taxi drivers asked me if I liked Mumbai girls. I really hadn't noticed, probably said I didn't know. Wrong answer it seemed, he put it to me another way. "Are you ***king the Mumbai girls?" No. I think he maybe wanted to take me out to the red light district.

Another taxi driver I had was even more persistent. He even seemed to get mad a bit when I interrupted him to tell him I was not interested. Thought I could save him some effort. We happened to drive by the red light district. He informed me that these girls were dirty. "These girls are just for looking, but if you want to do something then I know some nice girls. They are 18, 19, 20 years old. For 130 rupees they will take in the mouth, take it in the front, take it in the back." Later on he asked me what kind of poison that I take. I said, "Poison?" He said, "Hash, marijuana, opium, etc. Tourists like to smoke opium. When they smoke it, they will be ***king all night long." At some point, he elaborated on the system for finding a girl for doing something. He said something about someone putting out a red light. Then all these girls, maybe 10 to 15 will come out and line up. You then take your pick.

The red light district is in/near the Muslim section of Mumbai. The traffic was not stop and go, it was mostly stop. Bikers were darting in between vehicles. Since we were mostly stopped, the pedestrians would just cross anywhere. The taxi driver informed me that he was driving more conservatively because he was a Hindu and I was a foreigner. He said that if he even barely bumped a biker or pedestrian then 10 to 15 men would come and beat us up. It was stressful when he was driving all aggressive, this didn't really help me out any.

I ended up staying at the Salvation Army in Colaba. It, like Mumbai, was dirty and smelly. However, I still had a great time. Every day, people were coming and going, lots of French, German and English. We would go out for dinner. We would go out for drinks. Kingfisher was pretty much the main thing to drink, a very light beer. Similar perhaps to a Stella Artois. Beer (and really alcohol in general) was expensive. Not quite to the level of American prices, but when you are backpacking it takes its toll. Actually, Mumbai wasn't all that cheap in general. That with the dirtiness and the pace of the city is probably why most backpackers didn't spend much time in Mumbai. A couple of days and they would move on.

Kanheri Caves

One of many carvings at Elephant Island

However, there were some real gems around Mumbai. There were some beautiful caves carved out by monks to the north and on Elephant Island. The ones in the north, Kanheri Caves, were Buddhist caves. The ones on Elephant Island were caves carved out by Hindu monks. Not only did they enlarge the caves to make them larger and liveable, but they also cut cisterns to catch rain water and sculptures of their various gods.

The modern day temples were also beautiful. I visited some Hindu temples, including the Hare Krishna temple. However, I probably enjoyed the Jain temple the most. It was very colorful and besides the various sculptures and decorations, I enjoyed the messages in some of the scriptures that were posted in English.

I spent so much money in Mumbai, not just on food and drink. Every taxi driver would try and convince you to go to the store of a "friend" before they dropped you off at your hotel or where ever. They would say, "Oh, just go and look for ten minutes. If you don't want to buy, no problem." The first couple times I was tempted and they knew it so they just pushed till I gave in. When you go into one of these stores, there were usually more employees than customers. They would follow you around and pull out samples and samples of things you wouldn't even want. With so much attention and so much effort exerted, you started to feel bad if you didn't buy something, not to mention that there were gorgeous bronze statues, sandalwood statues, silk rugs from Kashmir, silk scarves, carved and painted marble plates, jewelry, and so on.

Prayer Tree Rug

I ended up buying tea, spices, incense, silk scarves, some wall hangings, and a silk rug. The rug is hand knotted with a fancy design on it, a prayer tree with birds. I had no intention of buying something so expensive. I have no idea how well I bargained. I didn't really even bargain that hard. The guy said it took someone nine months to work on it. The price I ended up paying seemed quite inadequate to compensate someone for that amount of effort. My bargaining skills were really indifference to buying a rug. It is a beautiful rug, though. I am hanging it on the wall, I can't bear to walk on it.

Buying Spices from Crawford Market

If you are ever in India and wanting to fly, make sure you have printed your itinerary. They have guards checking papers and itineraries before you even get to the ticket counter. If you can't prove you have a valid flight, they don't seem inclined to let you in. I should know. I missed my flight. I showed them my itinerary and they saw that I missed my flight. They wouldn't let me in to talk to the ticket counter. How am I supposed to leave India? They did let me make a phone call to Qatar Airways. They weren't open and had no more flights till the next day. They didn't seem all that inclined to help me find another flight anyway. I told the guards that I wanted to talk to another airline. They said to wait. They came back with a guy that I assumed would escort me to a ticket counter. No, he was a taxi driver. I was kind of curious where we were going. Turns out this taxi driver had a "friend". His friend runs a travel agency. I don't know if this was the best option, but by this point I wanted to get on my way. So, I bought a ticket for that afternoon to JFK.

NAM 2011

2011-08-18T07:24:00.000-08:00

Taxis are now N$8.

In the north, the first taxi driver I had told me to buckle up. (Subsequently, most taxis told me the same.) Guess the government has been cracking down with more checkpoints. There have been a lot of accidents. There was a terrible accident between Windhoek and Swakopmund. The Namibian printed a picture of a bakkie that threw its passengers onto the road. The picture showed the people lying on the road...

Money is still flowing. Buildings and renovations are going up everywhere. Unfortunately, they are building a hideous new museum adjacent to the old church in Windhoek (on the site of the controversial German statue that they moved.)

Where did all the China shops go? I maybe saw one in downtown Windhoek.

I bought a pretty decent sized goat for N$500 in the north.

I don't know if I was out of practice, but I had a hell of a time crossing the street in Windhoek. Maybe there is more traffic?

The combi rides now cost N$170 to get to the north from Windhoek. They still don't queue…

Beer prices have gone up. It is like N$12 to 15 for a dumpie in Windhoek. It was N$12 for a big 750 ml Tafel in the north. It was so tasty.

There is a 5 star Hilton in Windhoek now. Even if you don't stay there, you can go to the sky view bar. Nice.

There is a really good Owambo restaurant now in Katatura, Xwama. You can get yourself some oshifima, oxuxwa, omalodu, etc. Ough, iyaloo!

For those that know the Game Center in Oshakati. It is growing. The good news is that the Oshana bottle store is still there. It has moved over a bit and is now better than ever. THEY STILL HAVE CASTLE MILK STOUT! Iyaloo, nda pandula unene. Onda hafa nai.

My tate is no longer a teacher. He is now the Honorable Councillor of the Ongwediva Consituency.

And oshikundu still gives you strength.

Yup'ik is Difficult

2011-08-15T07:20:00.002-08:00

Music Videos from Namibia

2011-08-12T07:15:00.001-08:00

Onda aluka kuNamibia nale. Onda talelapo nookaume vange. While there, we also worked on some new music videos. This time I didn't do all the work, but helped Kinzzo learn how to make the music videos himself. I hope to see a bunch of videos from him into the future. Here are a couple of the best and the rest are on youtube...

I helped Kinzzo with this video, his first video that he edited.

With no help at all from me, Kinzzo's first video that he filmed and edited.

I filmed and edited this new video by DJ Rambo.

View all of the music videos from Onamutai and Northern Namibia.

Grandma's Marathon

2011-06-19T11:35:00.001-08:00

I am going to Boston!

Bad River Blues

2011-06-15T23:10:00.000-08:00

This is the first song I have written and put to music. It is called Bad River Blues. Kuiggluk, the village I live in, translates to bad river. I don't know if it is any good, but it captures for me what the couple week period of the ice breaking up on the river is like. Yes, I need some help sprucing up the guitar...

Download badRiverBlues.mp3

That Time of Year

2011-06-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

School has been done for a few weeks, but I have been hanging out in the village waiting for the salmon to run. Everyone is most looking forward to the king salmon. People catch them by putting out set nets, stationary nets anchored to the bank of the river. They also drift net. This is where you set out a long net across a portion of the river anchored to the boat. You then just drift down river and hope the fish swim into the net.

People caught fish last weekend, probably the first pulse of fish. Everyone said they thought the fish would really be running this weekend, but I went out with Larry on Friday and Saturday and we almost caught nothing. We did three drifts friday afternoon, three drifts yesterday morning and three more in the afternoon. We caught a total of 6 fish. I guess the fish aren't running yet. Maybe everyone got over excited, people do say they don't run till the middle of the month.

The Magic Tour Company

2011-06-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

I studied in London for a semester in 2000. I also did an internship with a little tour company, The Magic Tour Company. The page is still up that I made, but their email bounced. Sad. I had a good time running around London and having "meetings" in the pub around the corner. Thanks Rob.

Sensor Videos

2011-05-25T09:35:00.000-08:00

I have made a bunch of videos in the past to help local schools get a grip on the programming needed for FTC robotics. Just added two videos on sensors, the color sensor and accelerometer. I don't know if they are helpful, but I know that I would like to see my teams incorporate some more sensors next year. I would really like to see them use a color sensor to make a smarter autonomous program. The accelerometer sensor and program might have been more useful for this past season, Get Over It...

First Catch: Duck

2011-05-24T09:26:00.000-08:00

I went out duck hunting for the first time ever a week and a half ago. I guess it was a slow day, we saw few ducks and when we did, they were far off. I did manage to shoot one that was fooled into landing by our decoys. I think it is called a blue bill.

I gave away my first catch as is local custom, but really, I just didn't want to deal with it. We were out in the wind for like nine hours. We got back at around eleven and I was tired. Still, it was pretty fun to be out of the village and appreciating the surroundings. The clouds were beautiful, almost surreal. At one point, I wish I had got a picture, I had a view of the mountains with a view of the moon looking large, framed between painterly clouds.

Speak Your Mind

2011-05-23T08:12:00.000-08:00

I was reading the Delta Discovery and came across a piece by Les Kramer. I don't know him, but I really liked what he had to write. Here is a bit of it, read the rest here.

There seems to be an obsession today that perpetual happiness is attainable and everyone has it, except us. And that has made therapists very wealthy and sent our suicide rates through the ceiling.

In generations past, as shared by our elders, there seemed to be a clearer understanding of the mystery we call happiness. Armed with a faith that gave them an understanding of the eternal, there was a quiet shared knowledge that life was often cruel and always short. Their watchword was never really “happiness,” but serenity.

While speaking with an elder in the village of Chevak, his comment was that what we believed regarding serenity or being satisfied was a perfect fit with what the missionaries and the bible teaches. We understood that life was only a brief journey to the eternal where real joy and happiness would be attained.

Somewhere along the way that vital insight was lost. Instead we find today a giddy orgy searching for the grail of momentary happiness. Whether the search is centered on an accumulation of stuff, in gratuitous sexual rutting or in an artificial drug and alcohol induced high, disappointment is inevitable. People were not necessarily better off in the past. But their expectations of what the world offered were far more reasonable than today. They knew and accepted that sadness, pain and eventual death, came with the package.

Even the greatest of our human gifts bring with them inevitable pain and tragedy. The joy of our beautiful families also means the grief of loved ones passing. Our own accomplishments fade like cheap trophies and the end is always staring us in the face.

After many years in life and my few years in “Bush” Alaska, I am firmly convinced that the single greatest tragedy of our time, as shared by our village elders, is the loss of faith. Without faith life can neither be understood nor properly lived. I’m told of a Yup’ik elder who was asked by his son if there was anything worse than losing your sight. The elder thought for a moment and then said, “Yes! It is much worse to lose your vision.”

I’ve always associated vision with faith. As an anonymous author wrote, “A person who loses possessions loses much, a person who loses their friends loses more but a person who loses their faith loses all.”

Kuiggluk Sunrise

2011-05-13T13:01:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful morning, except for the light seeping into my room waking me up at 5:30. Sunrise was at about 6:08 am. Sunset was at 11:30 I think. Sleep is getting a little thinned out.

At least it was pretty, many shades of orange, pink, purple and blue. There was even ice from the break up upriver floating down stream. It was moving pretty quickly. I hope that we can avoid a flood.

Kuiggluk River Sunset

2011-05-10T12:34:00.000-08:00

The weather here has been gorgeous. It is a bit brisk in the morning, usually around freezing. Then the sun comes out and warms everything up around 50F. The only difficulty is that the sunlight is taking up a very large portion of the day. Sunrise must be around 6:30, with light seeping into my bedroom before 6am. Then, the sun doesn't go down till maybe 10:30 or 11:00pm. It is 10 o'cock in the evening and it feels like 7pm.

These remind me of those art projects we did in elementary. We would color a piece of paper with a bunch of colors. Then you would paint over the colors with black paint. Finally, you would scratch away the black paint to reveal the underlying colors.

Me gusta!

2011-05-05T18:49:00.002-08:00

Beading

2011-05-02T12:58:00.000-08:00

So, we had a culture program at our school last week. It involved lots of Yup'ik dancing, story-telling, and crafts. They had beading in my classroom and I was too lazy to move so I stuck it out and learned how to make beaded bracelets.

The cultural activities lasted a couple of days, so I had lots of free time. I finished four different bracelets. Three of them were one style and the last was something different. The following picture is some brief instructions for one of the styles. Maybe I will show Lovisa and Ndakulilwa how to do it when I go visit this summer.

I think that the students got a kick out of watching me make bracelets. It is typically a female craft. Some boys popped in to do a little beading, but I was the only one that stuck it out. One community member came in and said, "Let me see what you are doing, I have never seen a man bead before."

Typically, in Yup'ik culture you are supposed to give away the first of anything you catch or make. So, I will be giving the bracelets away. Besides, I am not much of a bracelet wearer. I already have someone in mind.

What am I doing?

2011-04-13T07:10:00.000-08:00

This is the end and I really feel the love. I posted some things for sale. I get a phone call, "What else are you going to sell?". I see how it is. I don't know how I am going to feel when I part from my one true love. We had our hard times, but she never let me down.

Snowmobile Haiku?

2011-04-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

to three step mountain

follow frozen tundra trail

on old snow machine

on frozen mountains

frosty, wide open freedom

indy four-forty

a tundra sunset

cold evening yet gold, pink sky

longing for warm home

Ventura Speaks on Libya/Foreign Entanglements

2011-04-04T16:15:00.008-08:00

Feast 2011

2011-03-21T07:49:00.000-08:00

So, my roommate and I had our third annual feast this past weekend. Locals typically have reasons for their feasts, but even if we had no reason we would still throw a feast. We actually did have a reason this time, my roommate caught his first caribou in December. I guess this was his first catch feast.

We had a pretty good turn out, probably about as many people as last time. We had some competition though, the weather was warm and clear and there was another birthday feast somewhere in the village. I would guess that we had something like 60 people show up. Some people showed up twice. One person even showed up to eat three times.

We started cooking and baking on Thursday night. We did a lot more on Friday night, not getting to bed till maybe midnight. Then it was back up at 7am to be ready to serve people at noon. We were ready right on time, but I guess that wasn't fast enough. Some kids were pacing around our house probably starting probably at 11am.

Our food turned out alright for the most part. I wasn't very pleased with my banana bread. The bananas I used weren't quite ripe enough and it really affected the flavor and consistency of the bread. I had thought that I would be alright, someone told me to freeze the bananas and that would make them ready for whenever when I would use them. The ones that had been ripe/ready were still ready when frozen. The ones that hadn't been ready when I froze them were still not ready when I thawed them out. Thankfully, my cinnamon bread turned out really nice.

Here is the full list of what we had...

Corned Beef and Cabbage x 2(Franklin)
Meatloaf x 4 (Franklin)
Cherry Pie x 3 (me)
Pumpkin Pie x 2 (me)
Cinnamon Bread x 4 (me)
White Bread x 1 (me)
Wheat Bread x 5 (me)
Banana Bread x 6 (me)
Caribou Chili (me)
Caribou Stew (me)
Chicken Noodle Soup (Franklin)
Corn (Franklin)
Jello (Franklin)
Tuna Noodle Salad (me)
Black Berry Akutaq (Helen)
Cranberry Akutaq (Cindy)

The only changes I would make would be to watch the soups more closely to keep them warm and maybe make more pies. The pies went quickly. Maybe have cookies as a back up.

I think most people enjoyed the feast. Some ladies even turned our living room into a practice place for their church singing. Maybe it wasn't the most relaxing time trying to get ready, but it was nice to sit down, chat, and laugh with people from around the village. We don't do enough of that.

Disarmed

2011-03-16T07:43:00.000-08:00

March 15th is the close of the caribou season in this area of Alaska. So, this past weekend, my roommate and I headed out onto the tundra again in search of caribou. We had heard that the herd was last seen in the valley behind Three Step Mountain, so that is the way we set out.

It probably takes about an hour or so to get out to Three Step. Once we got there, we took out our binoculars and would search around for any caribou. If we didn't see anything, then we would move on to a new location, usually high ground to search again.

This time, Franklin was the first to see the caribou in the distance. It wasn't a large herd like in December, but a small group of maybe 15 or 20. The ground behind Three Step is very bumpy, full of tussocks. So it is very difficult to go quickly and catch up with the caribou. You are not supposed to chase after the caribou when you are on your snowmobile anyways, but you almost have to a little. This time of year is especially difficult because the caribou are so edgy from all the hunters around. In December you could get within about a 100 yards, but this time they seemed to keep a distance of about 200 yards.

There were a lot of hunters out. We probably saw no less than 30 hunters out and around this valley. There were so many hunters that it was feasible enough for the Fish and Wildlife state troopers to be out there patrolling. Franklin got stopped. I thought he was chatting with some people, so I rode up. The two troopers then disarmed me because I was wearing my rifle across my chest. I have never been disarmed before. I was going to give him the gun, but I kind of had to put my hands up and the guy took the gun himself. The guys were pretty serious and armed themselves. I think Franklin said they were carrying AR-15's. Fortunately, I was entirely legal so they gave me back my gun and there were no problems. The one funny thing was that when he gave me the gun back, he didn't put the safety back on... (Not a big deal since he had taken the round out of the chamber, but still.)

I had missed some opportunities earlier to catch a caribou, but as I headed back after being stopped by the troopers I came across a wounded caribou. Someone had shot it through the hind leg, but never finished the job. It was standing there out in the open all by itself. It isn't as exciting of a hunt, but you can't let an animal suffer like that. So, I caught that one.

Anyway, it was a good trip. I hadn't been out for a long ride in a long time. I have been having problems with my clutch. I am currently using a clutch from some other machine. The clutch was modified for my snowmobile by a guy in the village. It is rideable, but it isn't a perfect fit. There is a lot of vibration, I ordered a used one, but it still hasn't come. I decided it was worth the risk and went out anyway. I just had to get out of the village and do something not related to school. I love my snowmobile, it never lets me down and gives me all sorts of adventures.

Pi Day!

2011-03-14T09:24:00.000-08:00

I have finally succumbed. It is Pi Day and we are celebrating it in my math classes. I think we need a bit of a break from linear equations, trigonometry, proportions, etc. Hopefully the students will appreciate a lighter day with a little bit of pie. My lesson plans are at http://www.lesson-connect.com, they are all pretty similar. Here is the Algebra Lesson Plan.

Kuiggluk Robotics T-shirts

2011-02-01T17:45:00.000-09:00

I have never printed t-shirts before, but I purchased a t-shirt printing machine from http://diyteeshirts.com/. I figured that it was about time I used it (I put it together last Thanksgiving). My robotics teams have a regional competition this week so I thought we should have team t-shirts. I had the students make the designs and I put them together into an overall design.

diyteeshirts.com has a pretty good starter package. Even more importantly it comes with some good videos about how to do each step. I was afraid I would botch something along the process and it wouldn't work. However, each step exceeded my expectations and I managed to print the shirts over the course of the weekend.

The following picture is of the press set up and ready to print. The final picture is one of the t-shirts. I did wash mine and it not only survived, but looked just like how it went into the wash. Overall, a big success.

Bogus Creek 150

2011-01-23T18:54:00.000-09:00

Friday was the start of the Bogus Creek 150, a sled dog race. It starts in Bethel and then follows the Kuskokwim River 75 miles to Bogus Creek where it turns around and returns to Bethel. A teacher at my school has the Betchya We Can Dog Kennel and he had a local guy race his dogs. My roommate and I decided to follow them up river and help out a little bit.

So, after school on Friday, I rode my snowmobile into Bethel to watch the start of the race. I then met up with them back in Kuiggluk where we followed the river up to checkpoints in Akiak, Tuluksak, and Bogus Creek. It was really cold. I don't know what the temp or the windchill was on Friday, but my hands would go numb and immobilized after a minute of exposure. It actually seemed much warmer on Saturday morning when we arrived in Bethel. The radio said it was -19 F with a windchill down into the -30s. Then again, by that time I was probably not completely functioning.

Anyway, it was really cold going up river into the north wind. At Akiak, the dog sled teams and handlers were out in a wide part of the river exposed to the wind. It was cold. I was wearing more clothing than I have ever had to before. I was wearing a compression shirt, long sleeve shirt, t-shirt, flannel shirt, hoodie, winter jacket, tights, snowpants, insulated carhartts, wool socks, my big boots, two neck gaiters, a face mask, beaver mittens, a beaver hat and goggles.

After Tuluksak, the river narrows and there are a lot of trees to block the wind. It was so much nicer of a ride. It was also very scenic. Too bad it was night, it probably would have been quite beautiful in the light. When we got to Bogus Creek, we stopped for about four hours. It is in the rules that the racers have to have a four hour layover there to rest and feed the dogs. We arrived there before midnight and were able to leave around 3:30 am. I was warm and awake, but by the time we got back to Tuluksak I was starting to get really tired. I was following and my eyes were starting to lose focus when they weren't drooping shut. I started to get worried I would crash my snowmobile if I fell asleep. Fear wasn't even enough to keep me awake. I kept feeling my eyes close and then would shake my head to open them.

I was really afraid of falling asleep after Tuluksak on the way to Akiak. I probably was actually sleeping at points. Fortunately, we made it through to Akiak. It was cold there still, but not as windy as it had been. We waited for our team to come through, just like we did at every checkpoint. Then when he had gone, we would race ahead to the next checkpoint. Actually we didn't go that face since riding slow was better than getting there and standing in the cold.

When we finally got back to Kuiggluk, about 17 miles from Bethel, we hopped in a pickup to get to Bethel and watch the finish. Our team came in second place, the best finish yet for Betchya We Can Dog Kennel.

My Mac

2011-01-13T07:22:00.000-09:00

I have been having problems with my mac. It is a white 13 inch laptop. I got it in the end of 2006 and I have abused it. The first symptoms were some keys would occasionally stop working. Usually, a restart would fix the problem. Then, the mouse started flaking out, the clicking wouldn't work. It was as if the clicker would stay depressed.

I was able to fix the problem for a time by using a technique where you insert some paper between the battery and the underside of the trackpad. However, the fix eventually failed to work.

I checked around and found that some people were able to replace the keyboard. I was able to find a refurbished one for pretty cheap, $50, from OWC. They also had DIY videos for various tasks. I didn't find one for the keyboard, but I did find a video from another site, http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Manuals/13-inch-Macbook/Macbook-Repair-Top-Case-Trackpad.m4v. It was pretty easy. I would only recommend that you keep track of the screws. They are all different sizes. I mixed them up and it made it more difficult when putting it back together.

Jackson, Mississippi

2011-01-09T14:55:00.003-09:00

I met up with some friends and ran the Mississippi Blues Marathon in Jackson. I was impressed by the race packets. The volunteers were helpful, friendly, and welcoming. If only I ran well, it would have been the perfect marathon. I got blisters on the balls of my feet, it is difficult to maintain decent form and speed if every step hurts. At least, I have another state crossed off the list.

We had a really good time post race. It did take us some time to find places to eat and hang out, Jackson does not really have anything open on Saturday afternoons. I guess most businesses cater to the weekly 9 to 5 crowd. We had lunch at Fenian's Pub, maybe the only local place open. However, we had much more fun later that night when we returned to Fenian's Pub for some live music. The Amazing Lazy Boi band was good and the Mississippi girls were amazing.

St. Louis

2011-01-06T13:27:00.000-09:00

I am in St. Louis visiting a friend. I like to think that we have taken our daily adventures off the beaten path just a bit. Since I have already seen the Gateway Arch and done the Anheuser-Busch tour, all the better.

Yesterday, we maneuvered through the city via public transportation. First, we visited the soldiers' memorial and museum in downtown. We just happened by it. Then for lunch, we went to Crown Candy Kitchen. I had a decent turkey and bacon sandwich, but the best part was the chocolate malt. Maybe the best I have ever had. A bus and some walking then brought us to Piekutowski's, a store specializing in european style sausages (mostly polish). My friend had heard that the pope had come and eaten some of their sausages, but the lady quickly corrected him. Someone came and bought the sausage for the pope. I purchased some sausage to take back to Alaska. I am sure it will be wonderful with some cabbage and potatoes.

We did some more walking and tried to go to Schlafly Bottleworks for a brewery tour. Unfortunately, they only do them on the weekends. We did stick around for dinner. I tried out their meatloaf. It was okay. It didn't compare to the best meatloaf in the world, Dot's in Austin.

This morning, we went to the history museum. It was alright, but it needs more work. They had lots of interesting artifacts and material, but there was not much flow or cohesiveness. It seemed like they thought various topics were important, so they threw them all into one room. You couldn't walk around and weave a story out of the displays.

St. Louis has the largest population of Bosnians outside of Bosnia. The came back in the 90's due to the war. So, we figured we would try to find the Bosnian part of town and try out some Bosnian food. We eventually found the area, it had a Bosnian grocery stores, a newspaper, restaurants, etc. We had lunch at Bosna Gold, the first Bosnian restaurant in St. Louis. I tried the goulash. It was okay.

Tonight, we are going to some place called the City Museum and then to see some live blues.

Why bother?

2011-01-02T20:49:00.001-09:00

Maybe it is the poor performance of the Vikings this season, but I am glad the season is over. I don't even know if I want to watch any more football. What I would really chalk it up to would be poor officiating, even poorer rules, and the media coverage.

Maybe by the rules, the hit that took Sydney Rice out the game in Philadelphia should not have caused a fine. However, when we watched the play and the subsequent replay, it clearly looked like Asante Samuel had no intention of tackling Rice. He didn't even have is arms out to wrap him up and tackle him. He turned himself into a projectile, head down, and proceeded to try and hit Rice as hard as he could. He knocked Rice out the game and he wasn't able to play today in the season finale. I thought the NFL was trying to protect players? I want them to play, but it really bums a fan out when your team's players can't make it the whole season because everyone is trying to knock each other out.

What is worse, it seems to me that the NFL just keeps making the problems worse. What are the root causes of hits like these? I would say it is the equipment. The equipment enables players to hit harder and not feel as much of the impact. There wouldn't be very many spearing incidents if all you had was a leather helmet.

I would also say that the various rule changes are aggravating the situation. When you make it virtually impossible to defend the pass because the NFL has changed the rules to promote scoring, the defense is left with only the ability to hurt the offensive players.

Actually, I am disappointed by the results, but I am not sad that we brought Favre back. I think he did the best he could considering all the injuries and incompetence of Childress. Which brings me to the final reason that I am tired of football, the media coverage is so biased. All it takes is for the Packers to win one game and the analysts just start gushing how great they are. The Packers just squeaked into the playoffs. I will give that they are a decent team, but they aren't going to win the Super Bowl. Sure they have had injuries, but so has every other team. They aren't on their third string quarterback. They have a good receiving corp.

I don't know.

Caribou Hunting

2010-12-20T13:10:00.000-09:00

My roommate and I went out caribou hunting for the first time this season. Usually, we try to go with locals, but we felt pretty confident about going to where the caribou were rumored to be. So, we got up early on Saturday and ate a big breakfast and packed. There is a lot of preparation since you don't want to get out there and get stuck and die for a lack of gear or food. We pulled sleds behind our snowmobiles with extra gas, tents, sleeping bags, food, tools, etc.

Good thing, I brought extra gas and spark plugs, my snow machine ran rough and ate up more gas than was usual. I have been struggling with water/ice in my lines. My spark plugs have been becoming black really quickly. I was actually starting to get concerned that I wouldn't have enough fuel. I made some changes and I used two thirds as much gas on the return as opposed to going out.

Even though it was really foggy, we did come across some tracks and feel that they were pretty close. Hunting for caribou is kind of a luck thing. You either come across the herd or not. Typically, you go to the top of a hill and use binoculars to spot them off in the distance. Fortunately, we were following a trail and all of a sudden I saw the caribou up ahead in the fog.

Some other people had passed us a bit earlier and had already taken their shots. Franklin came up and shot one right away. I am always hesitant. You want to get as close as you can, but if you get to close, the caribou will move off. Usually, I get closer, but this time I took a longer shot. I saw the caribou go down.

It was so foggy and the caribou's coloring matches the environment so well that I almost went right by the caribou I had shot. I learned last time to pull the caribou into the sled and then rejoin your party before you start cutting it up. It is much more pleasant to cut it up together with others to help.

We got a lot of meat from our two caribou. We even gave a bunch away to widows and other non hunters. It is a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. I can't wait to make some caribou stew!

Brain Training

2010-12-06T13:18:00.000-09:00

I finally broke down and bought and read my first running book, Brain Training For Runners: A Revolutionary New Training System to Improve Endurance, Speed, Health, and Results, by Matt Fitzgerald. Almost kind of impressive considering how long I have been running and how many marathons I have done. The book is pretty good. Better than I thought it would be. I guess it shows my desperation with where my last marathons have gone with respect to time that I finally broke down and read one.

The book contained things that I have been doing, but need to emphasize more: pillar strength, plyometrics, and more speed workouts. It also contained some things that I didn't know or wasn't doing. Primarily, I have tended to add more speed workouts as I go as opposed to doing them right off from the beginning. His rationale seems to make sense, push yourself from the start. Get used to running hard and dealing with it.

Another thing that I have been incorporating more into my running because of the book is thinking about my form. I have always done plyometrics, but I haven't consciously focused on my form as I was running. I have started focusing on engaging the lower abs, getting my knees up and running more compact. It helps that I have already moved to using Nike Free 3.0 shoes. I have found that I feel better long as I do long runs.

Perhaps the best part is the thorough training plans for races of different lengths. I have been helping out with high school cross country for the last few years and wish we had these as a reference when planning out schedules and practices.

So, I recommend the book. Guess I will have to breakdown and read Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen also...

Childress Is Gone!

2010-11-22T12:41:00.000-09:00

Wilf finally did what he should have done some time ago, fired Childress. This espn article pretty much states all the reasons I have never liked Childress.

Accuscore and Madden Simulation

2010-11-19T17:31:00.000-09:00

Finally, a computer generated prediction I agree with. The Vikings have been picked as favorites a few times in road games by Accuscore. I don't know how a team with such a poor record is picked to win on the road.

Anyway, we are at home and playing the Packers. I think the Packers are overrated and that they are coming too our house. The Madden simulation picks the Vikings and Accuscore picks the Vikings if Favre, Harvin and Sydney Rice all play. We will see the predictions are right or if there is an Accuscore curse. I got these predictions from www.espn.com.

Accuscore again...

2010-11-14T09:23:00.000-09:00

I don't know why, but I am always intrigued by the Accuscore predictions on ESPN.com. However, I haven't been impressed by the few times I have bothered to pay attention to the results. My team seems to be always picked to win and then they always lose. This isn't me going and finding all the mistakes. I keep posting pictures of accuscore here before the game, excited that they pick my team to win. However, I think that everytime so far my team has lost.

Let's try this again. I hope we win like they predict. The Vikings really need this road win if they want to make it to the playoffs.

Magnetic Sensor

2010-11-13T11:00:00.000-09:00

FTC, First Tech Challenge, has released their new challenge for this year, Get Over It. I have already mentioned that I made some new video tutorials to get my students started. They are hosted on YouTube and one of my personal pages.

I just added a new, short video introducing the magnetic sensor.

Vikings, Childress, Moss, Favre....

2010-11-01T16:56:00.001-08:00

Anyway this season turns out, I am happy that they brought Favre back. It was an all or nothing bet and I am fine with however it turns out with respect to Favre. I don't think that there is any doubt that Favre is working his ass off out there. He is a star, he may be past his prime, but he is giving us a shot. The interceptions come with the package.

Childress on the other hand is inept. Play calling is horrid. His leadership of the team is also probably nonexistent at this point. Especially after what he pulled today.

Remote?

2010-10-30T10:01:00.002-08:00

In geometry class, we have been working on angle relationships in triangles. Specifically, we were looking at the Angle Sum Theorem and the Exterior Angle Theorem. The definition of the Exterior Angle Theorem says, "An exterior angle is equal to the sum of the remote interior angles". The students already know and recognize interior, but were unfamiliar with the word remote. So I described what it meant and mentioned that some people think that we live in a remote location....

I guess that UPS would agree with that assessment. I have been waiting a while for my new running shoes to come in the mail (about a week). I tracked the package and this is what it had to say...

The address is in a remote area and deliveries are not made daily.

Salmon Fishing

2010-10-25T07:15:00.000-08:00

I already wrote about this, but here is the video for it.

Robotics 2010

2010-10-23T14:32:00.001-08:00

I had to make videos last school year to help my students and the students in other schools in the district ramp up and compete in the FTC Hot Shots. Over the summer, I made some more videos. I tried to address some shortcomings in the older videos and provide more of an introduction to LabVIEW. Check them out here.

New Running Shoes

2010-10-21T16:22:00.000-08:00

So, I am gearing up to run a marathon in a couple of months in Jackson, Mississippi. I figured I had better get some new running shoes. The ones I have right now have some miles left on them, but I don't want to do what I did last time and have to run in shoes close to blowing out. I waited to long before a race to replace my shoes.

Anyway, this will be my third pair of Nike Free. The first was the Free Everyday. My second pair was the straight up Nike Free v5.0 or Run+, I am not sure. I didn't know there was some reasoning to the versions. I thought it was a way to keep track of the iteration or models. It turns out according to http://barefootrunningshoes.org/, that the numbers are a scale measuring the "barefootedness". A 1.0 being really barefoot and 10.0 being a typical running shoe.

I had planned on getting the same shoe as before, but I figured, "What the hell, might as go all the way." So, I ordered Nike's most barefoot shoe, the 3.0. We will see how it goes. I am a little concerned about less sole. Not because of support, but I do a lot of winter running including running on the frozen Kuskokwim. A thicker sole will mean more warmth. That is the real reason why I could never switch to Vibram FiveFinger Shoes. I need my toes together to keep each other warm.

Beaver Mittens

2010-10-17T11:52:00.000-08:00

I have already made a beaver hat. It is awesome. I would have frozen my ears off by now, more importantly I would have given up on hunts, riding my snowmobile, or going outside during the winter. The problem is that my hands are now the weak link, they are the first part to get cold. So, I thought that I needed beaver mittens.

Just like my beaver hat, I used Edna Wilder's Secrets of Eskimo Skin Sewing for the template and basic instructions. Read my really brief overview of how I did it. I cannot wait to use them while I go snowmobiling this year. I wish the river would freeze and we could get some snow.

Another prediction...

2010-10-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

Accuscore was wrong for the Twins game (granted it gave only a 51-49 edge). Let's see if human beings are better. Here is another 51-49% edge for the Vikings, but from a sports nation poll. After the sweep of the Twinkies, a Vikings win would be really nice. Especially on the road.

It has taken too long, but....

2010-10-10T10:52:00.001-08:00

It has taken too long, but I finally have a useable version of my web application I have talked about for sometime. http://lesson-connect.com is a tool for writing, storing, viewing, and sharing lesson plans. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Minnesota Sports

2010-10-06T14:23:00.000-08:00

Big day/week in Minnesota sports. The Vikings have acquired Randy Moss to help pick up the passing game. The Twins host the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs. Surprisingly, according to the statistics that AccuScore uses, the Twins are slightly favored...

Projectile Motion Videos

2010-09-19T14:39:00.001-08:00

This past summer, I worked on a couple of potato guns with the intention of trying to motivate my students when we get to the quadratic formula, etc. Along with these videos, we are going to be working on projects during the school year. I also want my students to choose a topic they field like they are experts in and make their own videos. Then I will have a way to introduce many topics the next time I teach them. Not to mention that they would really have to think to make the videos.

And yes, I know I did take some liberties with the math (ie. wind resistance, not compensating for the eight of the gun from the ground when shot at an angle...). I wanted to keep it as relatively simple as possible.

3rd Annual Kuiggluk Fun Run

2010-09-11T13:51:00.000-08:00

It has been rainy and wet for weeks and weeks. I had figured it would probably be miserable yesterday for the Kuiggluk Cross Country Meet followed by the Third Annual Fun Run and Walk. However, the day was clear and warm and we had a lot of fun.

Our team is struggling without the leaders we had graduate last year. However, we have some good runners coming up. So, we did not have any high school boys running in the varsity race. The few we have were ineligible. So, it ended up that the fun run was probably more competitive than the high school races. I took first again in the fun run for the third year in a row. My time was 20:20 on a 3.4 mile course. I could have probably put down a better number, but the competition was back of me by at least a minute.

Fun Learning Videos?

2010-09-08T08:17:00.010-08:00

I am slowly starting to roll out some videos that I will use in my classes. I plan on using them either as a way to introduce a topic or even provide an example for a project or experiment that I want my students to do. Students will need to also document their experiments with video, so I need examples of what I expect. Anyway, what do you think?

I Just Wanna Make Love To You

2010-08-28T14:03:00.001-08:00

I have enjoyed Willie Dixon's song, I Just Wanna Make Love To You, for some time. I think I first got into it when I noticed that the Violent Femmes' song, Gone Daddy Gone, referenced either Willie Dixon or Muddy Waters. I can't recall. Or maybe it was when I finally picked up a Muddy Waters album and was all confused when some lyrics sounded familiar.

Anyway, at some point I went on iTunes some time ago and downloaded all the covers of the song I could find including Etta James, the Rolling Stones, and Mungo Jerry. I really enjoyed Etta James and Mungo Jerry. The Rolling Stones' version seemed kind of tame by comparison. Actually, I did skip downloading Foghat's version because it definitely felt lacking compared to the others.

Earlier this week, someone was actually listening to the Foghat version and I felt the need to educate them in the earlier or better versions of the song. I started first with Etta James and then with the others I mentioned. Then I figured I had better get more educated myself and returned to iTunes and wikipedia to get more information.

I have just downloaded some more covers and some of them are really good. I have listened to a version by Louise Hoffsten like five times in a row. The ending kills me. The other three versions I downloaded are by artists Charlie Wayne Band, Deja Blues, and John Fred & His Playboys. They are alright, but not as good as the others.

Anyone know some other really, really good versions?

And Another One (State) Bites the Dust

2010-08-03T06:06:00.004-08:00

This is how it felt the whole way...

New marathon added to the list, Grizzley Marathon in Choteau, Montana - ten states.

The Smashing Pumpkins

2010-07-25T08:22:00.000-08:00

Well, I don't know how Pumpkin the Smashing Pumpkins are anymore with just Billy, but they are putting out a free album one song at a time. Hopefully, it will be as good as Machina II which was their first free album. Below are the current tracks. You can even download the tracks from www.smashingpumpkins.com.

Marathon Update

2010-07-24T15:26:00.005-08:00

View Photos from Deseret News Marathon and 10K

New marathon added to the list, Deseret News Marathon in Salt Lake City - nine states.

Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura - Second Season!

2010-07-23T08:52:00.001-08:00

I enjoyed the first season of Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura. Thankfully, TruTV is picking it up for a second season. I never read the book, but maybe I will have to pick it up.

If you haven't seen the show, you can download the episodes from iTunes. The one thing I would say about the show is I hope it is a little less History channel in format. Also, they should provide links in the show to the documents they use to support their theories. In other words, let's have it be a little more information and a little less "entertainment".

Projectile Motion

2010-07-21T21:23:00.000-08:00

I recently picked up the book Backyard Ballistics hoping to find some projects to do in math class. We do a lot of lecture, working of examples, and homework. I want to incorporate a semester project or something to make the class more interesting.

Most things in this book are super cool, but also leave me a bit wary of doing them in class. However, I will think up something. In the meantime, I built the two potato guns in the book. One is powered by hairspray and the other by air. I took some video of them and will try to use the videos in my math class when we do related topics like formulas (d = rt), parabolas, etc.

Both guns work really well. Till I get the video edited, here are some short clips to see how they work.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

2010-07-15T10:27:00.002-08:00

The Minnesota Twins are playing their first season in their brand new ballpark. No more Metrodome. They are currently very difficult tickets to get, short of going to a ticket broker (read: legal scalping). I hate scalpers! So, I broke down and bought some tickets from stubhub for next Tuesday's game against the Indians. What a rip off, but what can you do when you are short on time and really want to see the twinkies play?

The Twins have (via some other website i think) a way to view your seats online. It is pretty cool and helps you decide what to purchase. Check out the view from my seats. Hopefully, the Twins can snap out of their funk and beat the White Sox this weekend and especially the Indians when I get up to the Twin Cities.

Update: The Twins took three out of four games from the White Sox, but dropped their first game last night to the Indians. Hopefully they will win for us tonight.

Kuigglugmiut

2010-07-03T00:41:00.001-08:00

Over the past year or so, I have been helping the local Yup'ik cultural group make a webpage, Kuigglugmiut Tegg'utait. The goals being to encourage the youth to participate and learn about traditional culture. Also, I think it can act as a repository for the knowledge of elders. It is starting to get some more stuff on it, including some video of elders. Some of it you need to speak Yup'ik and some of it you don't. Enjoy.

If the video above doesn't stream, download it to view it from Internet Archive.

Drift Netting

2010-07-01T13:26:00.001-08:00

So, it is summer and in the village that means subsistence fishing. I went around letting people know that I wanted to go drift netting for salmon. Everyone was like, "Oh yeah, I will come get you when we go." Though it felt like for every ten people that said they would take me, I would only actually get out once.

I first got out with the husband of a coworker. We had a good time. We did two drifts and pulled in about 30 fish (see above picture). Most were king salmon. I then got a chance to go to their fish camp and see how they prepare and smoke their fish.

I then went out with Josh and his brother a couple of times in the last two days. I went out fishing with him last year as well. On Tuesday, we didn't have too much luck and only caught maybe four fish in four drifts. Then last night, we went out at about 1am and only had to do one drift. They had switched to a smaller net (smaller "holes") for more of a chance to catch the more common/predominant chum. Kings are ideal, but they would probably "bounce" off the net rather than get tangled. Their mom wanted lots of fish to cut, I guess.

We didn't even drift that long with the net. We could see buoys bouncing up and down, indicating there were fish struggling. It probably took us more time pulling in the net and freeing the fish than we waited drifting. Josh and I pulled out 112 fish from the net. It was a lot of work, but still pretty fun.

Battlestar Galactica

2010-06-29T12:13:00.001-08:00

So, my roommate and I don't have antenna or cable to watch television. We do have a TV, but we just use if for watching DVD's. I try to not watch too much television, but sometimes you just get too tired to do anything else.

Besides movies, we have been picking and following classic(?) TV shows. We started with my complete collection of MASH and watched every episode. MASH is awesome and we typically go back to watch it. It was my roommate's turn next and he picked up the complete X-Files. I had always wanted to get into the X-Files, but I missed the early seasons when it came out originally and without that background just never stuck with it.

It was my turn next and I didn't really know what to go for. I don't know how or why I thought about Battlestar Galactica. Maybe Amazon.com recommended it and the blonde won me over. We are a little deprived up here.

Battlestar Galactica was great. It was non stop action, suspense, cliff hangers, and twists and turns. There were great characters. Some I started off liking and ended up disliking. Some won me over. Others were solid all the way through.

Probably the coolest part was not the sci-fi and battles, but the underlying discussion of current events and issues: terrorism, torture, religion, etc. The funny thing was that the show didn't come down on one side or the other, but mostly showed that each issue is incredibly complex and has valid viewpoints on both sides. Both sides for better or worse are a part of humanity.

So I totally recommend Battlestar Galactica. I wonder if the original series is any good?

Suicide attempts less likely in men with higher IQs

2010-06-05T14:01:00.001-08:00

I came across an article on CNN about research that connects suicide attempts and IQ. I could not read this article without making the immediate connection to the Bell Curve. I read this book last fall and have been meaning to write something about it here. It is an amazing book. I know that some find it controversial, but I found that it presented important ideas and backed them with good science. Granted that correlation research does not guarantee causation, but it is the best research we have.

The book can essentially be distilled down to a few important points. First, American society is starting to move towards a caste system based on intelligence. Second, intelligence is largely heritable and is strongly correlated to life events. Meaning those born with a low IQ tend to experience more teenage pregnancies, require more social services, etc. Those with high IQ tend to find more success: more consistent employment, etc. Finally, if you put the first two together then there is the concern that if the high IQ portion of society decreases and is separated from the rest of society that there will be a divergence of needs and goals by the different levels of IQ. Also, if the low IQ portion of society grows too fast, perhaps society will not be able to provide social services for them.

The Bell Curve is much more effective at making its points. I strongly recommend it.

Yuraq, Yup'ik Dancing

2010-06-03T20:37:00.003-08:00

If the video above doesn't stream, download it. To learn more about Yup'ik dance, you could try YouTube. That would probably be better than watching a bunch of white people do an Eskimo dance...

Yup'ik Multicultural Class

2010-06-03T12:17:00.003-08:00

So, I am taking a Yup'ik Multicultural Class because I need it for my license. We are reading mostly from Frank Andrew's book, My Legacy to You.

We also have to do little cultural art projects. This class would have been more useful two years ago when I had just moved here. Either way, I guess I am getting some more insights.

This Summer's Marathons

2010-06-01T19:41:00.003-08:00

So, I finally pushed the button and registered for two marathons this summer. Both of these will add to my state total. Also, the first one drops like 3,000 feet in elevation so maybe I can actually qualify for Boston. Who is going to join me?

Bingo

2010-05-27T16:30:00.002-08:00

I went to bingo in Bethel for the second time ever. The first time I went (last year), I won a $1,000 in their last game of the night called Indian Star. To win the Indian Star, you need the following.

Last night, I went in late and bought a sheet for each of the last four games for a total of $10. Again, the second to last game was Indian Star with a pay out of $1,000. I thought for sure that I didn't have a chance of winning at all. I spent most of the time teasing and joking with the people around me.

Eventually, I noticed that I was down to three numbers left. I said, "There is no way I can win this again." However, I got two more numbers. As I was waiting on the last number, some other numbers were called. I thought I was going to get stuck with an almost bingo. Then my number came up. I rechecked all of my numbers to make sure I made no mistake and called bingo when the number was announced.

They counted out and handed me a monster stack of cash. All of a sudden the girls all wanted to be my best friend. Even this cute girl I had been looking at started looking at me. An old woman from the village came up a gave me a big hug. I wanted her to stop because she was choking me.

I have been doing better at playing bingo than playing the stock market. I have money in the markets, but have not had as good a rate of return as in bingo. I figure that I have probably spent $200 on bingo in the past two years, but have raked in more than $2,100 in winnings.

Marathons

2010-05-25T21:50:00.013-08:00

I have been meaning to do this, but here is a map of the marathons that I have ran so far. A long way to go to 50 states.

Steam

2010-05-10T20:06:00.003-08:00

So I was finally invited to steam here in the village. It is not like a sauna, actually it is, but think extreme sauna. The steam building was separate from the house. It had two parts, the outer dressing area and the steam room.

The steam room floor is actually above the stove, the stove being recessed down below because heat rises. The actual dimensions of the room couldn't have been much more than 6 feet by 6 feet and 3 or 4 feet high. It would have been very cramped had there been more than just me and the guy that invited me.

It was hot when we went in and I started sweating. I guess that is not good enough, Yup'iks must really want to feel scorched. He poured a few cups of water on the stones and with each one it got hotter. I had a towel over my head else my the skin on my face would have probably burned as bad as my knees and arms did. They were the most exposed. It felt like my skin was burning. Pretty quickly I started to see pink splotches on my skin. It didn't take too long before I ran out.

We did this three times. I learned to really cover my ears and face. I also learned to not move, moving made the burning sensation worse. I was taught a word in Yup'ik, pukduk(spelling?), meaning keep you head down.

It took a while, but the burn marks eventually went away. The last ones went this morning. I don't know what I think about this steaming. I probably will have to try it again. The scary thing is that I think some families steam harder/hotter. I am actually kind of afraid which is kind of funny since the whole point is for it to be relaxing.

Feast

2010-05-02T18:57:00.008-08:00

So up here in the village, they say it is their culture to have feasts for important life events: first catch of caribou, seal, etc. They also have them for remembering people that have passed on, birthdays, etc. Last year, Franklin (the roommate) and I threw a first catch feast since I had caught my first caribou.

This year, we didn't have a good reason, but thought it good/fun to throw another feast. The following was our menu.

Wheat Bread x 5 loaves (me)
White Bread x 2 loaves (me)
Cinnamon Bread x 3 loaves (me)
Banana Bread x 3 loaves (me)
Pumpkin Bread x 3 loaves (Cindy)
Yup'ik Fried Bread (Helen)
Caribou Stew (me)
Chili (me)
Salmon Chowder (Franklin)
Chicken Noodle Soup (Franklin)
Agutak (Cindy)
Potato Salad (Franklin)
Tuna Noodle Salad (me)
Kool Aid (Franklin)
Jello (Cindy)
Pie x 4 (me)
Spaghetti (Franklin)
Fruit Salad (Augusta)
Baked Salmon x 6 filets (Franklin)

We had about as many feasters as last year, probably about 75 (a tenth of the village?). There were a lot of men out hunting for geese and women out ice fishing. So, I guess that we had a pretty good turn out. We had enough food, perhaps we had too much soup. Probably could have gone with three pots and been safe. Otherwise everything else turned out right.

We told people that we had no reason for the feast and to their understanding we didn't. Most of them looked extremely perplexed that we would have a feast for no reason. However, we did have a reason or at least I did. A feast is a way to get out into the community, a way to interact with people. Salmon season is coming soon, maybe someone will invite us to come fishing with them.

Snowing Again

2010-05-02T09:48:00.003-08:00

It is snowing again. It is the second day of May and all our snow was just about gone. The river is close to break up. We thought spring was here, but now we have probably gotten about three inches in the last 24 hours.

Well if you can't beat it join it. Maybe I will have to take my snowmobile out for a ride later if it keeps snowing.

Update: I did make it out, but not for very long since I didn't feel like putting in a bunch of gas to keep my machine running. I had been trying to run it down to fumes so I wouldn't have to siphon if off when I stored it.

Anyway, despite being short, I ride in the snow, feel the wind on my face and splash through some hidden slush puddles. It felt great and almost made me wish winter could stay around longer.

Robotics

2010-04-26T16:01:00.002-08:00

So, I have been teaching a robotics course. I made a bunch of boring videos up that my students were using. I don't know if they were effective, but we did manage to build and program the robots in time for the local competition.

The game that the robots were competing in is called Hot Shots. The goal being to go around and gather balls for scoring different goals (of differing difficulty and value). I was actually coaching two teams and both teams did pretty well. I had been wondering if they would build anything in time, but they did more work in the day before the competition than they had in two months. You can see in the video one of the teams, 3497A.

What I have been reading online?

2010-04-06T21:11:00.002-08:00

I had a little time this past weekend and did some more surfing than usual. Normally, I just visit a handful of pages: banking, news, stuff for school. However, I may make a little time occasionally read the following blogs: And I Am Not Lying and The Sassy Curmudgeon.

Most of the posts are interesting and readable. Here are a couple of odd posts: Stephen Hawking and Jim Carry and the B List.

Make Your Own Avatar

2010-04-04T21:07:00.002-08:00

I am working on a little side project, but in the process I came across this page that will help you make a little cartoon version of yourself, an avatar. It is called Face Your Manga. What do you think, does this really look like me?

Caribou Breakfast Tacos

2010-03-27T10:26:00.002-08:00

Caribou breakfast tacos with a little egg and potatoes. A little Tapatio adds a little kick.

To The Mountains

2010-03-21T17:13:00.003-08:00

Yesterday, I went on the longest snowmobile ride of my life. We left at 10 am and didn't reach home again till 11pm. I can tell you that I won't be taking another trip like that for the rest of this winter (which is starting to give way to spring).

I went with a Yup'ik teacher, Willie, from my school. I think that he is fairly well regarded when it comes to hunting. We headed to the mountains to hunt bear. The route we took started off familiar to me, over Birch Hill to the mud hut and around Three Step Mountain. After that, it was all new to me. We headed over more tundra on a less and less established trail till we were making our own trail into the mountains.

Willie was pulling a lighter plastic sled with his gas, other gear, and free space to put any meat we would happen to get. I was pulling a wood sled. That was a mistake. It was too heavy and sank much too easily. We didn't make it to far into the mountains before I kept getting stuck. My machine's track would end up just spinning in the deep, loose snow and couldn't get enough traction to pull the extra load. Usually as soon as I would undo the hitch, I could move forward to a better spot. Then I would have to go back for the sled and pull it myself. Normally, not a big deal, but extremely difficult and tiring when you keep sinking in the snow up to your knees or waist. After a few times of this, I gave up and left the sled to be picked up later on.

Unfortunately, there really wasn't that much snow. We haven't really had much here this year and a lot has melted because it has been warm. So there were lots of trails that were bumpy tussocks covered with moss or lichen. When we were on the mountains, we were crossing really rocky terrain. What proved even worse were all the little trees (maybe four feet high) that we had to run over to get anywhere. Willie said that most years there is enough snow to cover the trees so you would ride right over them. However, this year we punched through them. I got stuck probably a handful of times because I started pulling Willie's sled and would get caught or hung up on these trees. I pulled his sled so he could break trail more easily.
By the end of the day, I probably got stuck at least ten times. It was not easy getting the machines unstuck. Sometimes we had to tip them over and pack down the snow beneath them to give better traction. Other times, we had to pull the snowmobiles bit by bit in a new direction and hope we could get them out. I was worried I was going to get run over, sometimes one person would push and drive the snowmachine and the other would pull on the front skis. We never wanted to get stuck because of the work involved, but it did make me feel less stupid/incompetent when the more experienced rider also got stuck. Willie probably got stuck about a handful of times.

It wasn't all torture. I probably learned more tricks for better riding my snowmobile. Also, the day was warm and the sky was really clear. Perhaps more clear than I have ever seen it here. I was able to see Three Step Mountain way before I normally would have noticed it. Even on the return trip last night, I was able to see the lights of Bethel and Kuiggluk way in the distance. It was really reassuring after having been out all day.

We didn't see any bears, but I did see four moose and probably a thousand ptarmigan. Too bad we hadn't been moose hunting. We saw them before we even got to the mountains and they were so close that even I could not have missed at that range. These were the first moose I have seen in this area (I have seen a moose before in Anchorage and Fairbanks).

If we determine a successful hunting trip as one where we fill our bag limit, then we definitely failed. We were not able to find one bear or den. However, if we determine a successful trip as one where you don't die, have some fun, and learn a few things. Then we definitely had a good trip. Still, it may take me a while to recover and ask to go on such a crazy trip.

Running With The Reindeer

2010-03-02T20:12:00.012-09:00

I needed a break from the village, so I headed to Anchorage for the weekend. Kind of a spendy trip, but worth it to run with the reindeer.

If the streaming video isn't working, you can download the video also. Click here.

A Successful Hunt

2010-02-07T08:24:00.004-09:00

Last weekend, I went on my second successful caribou hunt. This year wasn't nearly as dicey as last year when it was warm and the ice was melting. However, it was still quite a trip. Especially, since I was a little more on my own than last time.

I went out with a group of about five snowmobiles. We started from Birch Hill at about 11am and headed towards the mud hut and eventually to Three Step Mountain. The ride was pretty good, just enough snow, and pretty smooth till the mud hut. However, the closer you get to Three Step, the paths are not as good and you have to go over the tussocks on the tundra. We had heard and eventually found a large herd of caribou behind and to the left of Three Step.

I don't know how many caribou there were in the herd before it dispersed, chased by the hunters on snowmobiles. Maybe a couple hundred? At first it broke into two large groups running in opposite directions. Then as we chased, they broke into smaller and smaller groups. I was following someone, but then worried that I was affecting their hunt. So, I looked around and decided to chase one of the few groups that I could still see.

I couldn't go very fast because of the tussocks. I would give chase on the smaller group till I would be about a hundred yards out or so. Then I would turn my machine off to hopefully not spook them as much as I would get ready to take a shot. However, that didn't seem to help as they would start trotting off immediately. So, I would catch up again and not turn my machine off and then throw my gun up to get a shot. The first few times I was too hesitant and would watch the caribou I had in my sights show me its butt and start running away. I finally got the point where I said to myself, "Ride up and get close. Keep the machine one. If you get something resembling a shot, take it because you are heading farther and farther out onto the tundra away from the group".

So I finally, I got close, threw up my gun and shot. I took down a young bull with the first shot, but he was only wounded. I took some more shots, only aiming for the head because I didn't want to waste the meat. I hit him twice in the head. The last did the trick.

I was far from the group and it didn't occur to me that I should just pull the whole caribou into my sled and meet up with the others. I wish I had. That is what all the Yup'ik did. They took their kills down to a frozen pond with clean snow to skin and quarter them. Here I was far off worried, that they didn'tk now where I was, rushing through the skinning, gutting, and quartering.

We eventually made it back to the village probably after 6pm. It was a lot of fun, but also pretty stressful. I am surprised that my snowmobile (a '91 Polaris 440) didn't come back in pieces from the ride out on the tussocks. I also didn't fancy leaving the sight of the Yup'ik that I was hunting with. While I was cleaning the caribou, I was imagining being left behind and being found by Search and Rescue. I have been thinking about investing in GPS.

I Was Counted

2010-01-31T14:30:00.002-09:00

The census has started and it starts in Alaska. Since winter is the easiest time for travel since the rivers are frozen, the Census Bureau gets a head start in Alaska before the spring thaw and villages get harder (and more expensive) to visit. Noorvik, AK was the first village counted.

I was counted today. I think the rest of the country will be counted later, starting in March.

Kuiggluk, AK

2010-01-24T11:51:00.002-09:00

I found this description at http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/dca/commdb/CIS.cfm?Comm_Boro_name=Kwethluk. For more current up-to-date stuff, check the new cultural website, Kuigglugmiut.

Archaeological evidence from a nearby site indicates that the area has been occupied since prehistoric times. The name Kwethluk is derived from "Kwikli," meaning "river." In the late 1800s, families from four villages on the Kwethluk River joined others living at the site. In 1889, an Eskimo lay worker for the Moravian Church was stationed at the village. A measles epidemic struck the village in the late 1890s. The Moravian Church built a chapel in 1896, followed by a Russian Orthodox church in 1912. Discovery of gold in nearby creeks in 1909 attracted prospectors to the area, but the finds proved disappointing, and most were gone by 1911. One placer deposit, discovered on the upper Kwethluk River, delivered a small yield and was worked until World War II. A Moravian orphanage was established three miles upriver. A BIA school with teachers' quarters was built in 1924. In 1939, the villagers owned 31,000 reindeers, used for food and skins. A tuberculosis epidemic at this time tragically reduced the population. A post office was established in 1947, and a Native-owned store opened in 1948. An airstrip was cleared in 1956. Snowmachines replaced dog teams in the 1960s as the principal form of winter transportation. The city was incorporated in 1975. A federally-recognized tribe is located in the community -- the Organized Village of Kwethluk. The population of the community consists of 94.8% Alaska Native or part Native. Kwethluk is predominantly a Yup'ik Eskimo village that practices a subsistence lifestyle. The sale or importation of alcohol is banned in the village. During the 2000 U.S. Census, total housing units numbered 199, and vacant housing units numbered 46. Vacant housing units used only seasonally numbered 33. U.S. Census data for Year 2000 showed 175 residents as employed. The unemployment rate at that time was 15.76 percent, although 54.43 percent of all adults were not in the work force. The median household income was $25,417, per capita income was $6,503, and 29.52 percent of residents were living below the poverty level.

Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura

2010-01-12T09:37:00.001-09:00

Watch live streaming video from trutv at livestream.com

I have been downloading episodes of Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura from iTunes. It is an interesting show. To be honest, I don't know what to think about it. If it wasn't for Ventura, I probably wouldn't watch the show, or if I did, not be swayed by some other unknown presenter. I respect Ventura and had hoped that he would run for the US Senate seat in Minnesota. He could have done much the same job there that he is doing with this show, blowing the whistle on crap that the government is doing.

So far, I have watched the episodes on the HAARP project in Alaska, mind control of soldiers, global warming, and 9/11. I do not spend much time looking into conspiracy theories, but I was familiar with all of them except for HAARP. I don't know if I agree with the theories put forth in each episode, but they are plausible. Unfortunately, if they are true, they reflect a much more sinister world/government than I have tended to believe. I was already pretty cynical.

I do have a couple of issues with the show. First, I have a problem with the format. The show is a lot like many of the shows on the History channel, very repetitive. You can break down the portions between each commercial break into three parts: review, new information, and preview. So during a 40 minute show, if you cut out the repetition, you probably only really have a 20 minute show. So not only is it insulting to one's intelligence since it is so redundant, but it wastes a lot of time that could be given over to providing more depth.

Second, I hope that they will start posting more information, especially documents or links to documents found under the Freedom of Information Act at the official site. I am assuming that Ventura is doing this show to inform his fellow citizens and make the government more responsible to them. The best way to do this is to inform the public and give them the proof they need to lean on the government.

I hope that the show does well and that there will be another season. Perhaps, it will get better as viewers give input. I am curious to know if it is getting good ratings.

MacBook Fix

2010-01-11T11:39:00.002-09:00

I have had intermittent problems with my old and beat up MacBook with portions of the keyboard failing to respond. Fortunately, I just found a site that described, diagnosed, and provided a solution. I hope they have this issue fixed in newer versions. i would like to replace mine sometime during the next year and a half.

Alaska State Troopers

2009-12-23T11:34:00.002-09:00

Maybe some of you would like to see where I live, here is a video from National Geographic about Alaska State troopers. It is an interview with the head village police officer, Max Olick, about the village and crime. It is not a particularly positive video, but you see a bit of the village. The village is small, so I have been everywhere in the video. I have even walked around in the new jail.