Hey, lookie there

It snowed yesterday! I guess it doesn't seem particularly early for snow, considering it's already been snowing back in Wisconsin, and I do remember a few "white Halloweens" from my childhood. What is starting to feel a little strange is how short the days are getting. We're losing arond 5 minutes of daylight a day, and the sun's coming up around 10am and setting around 7pm. It's stange to wake up after Sara's already left for work, and have it still pitch dark outside. Though it is nice not to have it still light out at 10:30 or 11 at night. Makes it hard to get to bed at a decent hour, that's for sure.

Anyways, just wanted to post a picture of the snow :-)

Moderately productive, as weekends go

I'm in at school, playing online while Sara does her Sunday evening lesson planning, so here are a few pictures from this weekend as long as I have a couple minutes...


Christina and Carey were both in Bethel Friday night, so we had Bailey over for a little bit of dogsitting/playtime with Loki. This shot just happened to catch them in a fairly, um, playful moment. They look downright evil, don't they? I think it's the red background. But don't worry, they're still friends...


See, I told you...still buddies. So they hung out and wrestled and slobbered on one another most of the night. A little the next day as well. As for Sara and I, we were on call to help pick people up from the airport. Which was good, because I had yet to really drive the school boat (mostly because I'm a chicken, and have far, far too little experience driving boats considering where I was born and raised), and this was the necessary push I needed to get me comfortable behind the wheel of the thing.


See? That's me, driving. Not a big deal, I know. But I got over that little hump of actually *doing it*, you know? And you know what? Pretty easy. And fun, too.

Oh, and we finally built shelves yesterday, too. No pictures of them yet ('cuz really, how interesting is that? Just shelves on a wall), but they turned out pretty nicely, if I do say so myself. We had gotten the materials in Bethel way back when and had been basically waiting to get up the motivation to get into the woodshop and get them done, and for some reason inspiration struck Saturday. Now that they're done, I'm looking for a new project already...thinking about turning an old door that's just sitting off its hinges in out apartment into a table...or an island in the kitchen...or into fold-up counter space....or we'll see ;-)

And oh, before I forget, I have a link to post, too. Here's a story I found linked on Drudge from the L.A. Times, regarding the possibilities of bird flu migrating from Asia into Alaska through the villages in this area of the state. Interesting stuff, but mostly I'm posting it because it's a national article about this area, with pictures and descriptions done by, you know, an actual, professional writer-type person.

Takedowns and tickets

Well, hello there. How's it going? Yes, I know it's been over a week. Sorry 'bout that. Let's see, what's been up lately?

Well, first let me explain this picture you see to the left. Last weekend Nunapitchuk hosted a wrestling tournament. Very cool. Wrestlers and their coaches flew in from various villages (and Bethel, of course) for the two-day event, stayed in classrooms at the school, had a good time, and...oh yeah...wrestled. Now, I've never been a huge fan of wrestling. Unless you count the period of time back when I was, oh, in elementary school, when my brother and I watched professional wrestling (ah, the glory days of the Junkyard Dog and the Bushwackers). But anyways, yeah, honest-to-goodness wrestling never appealed to me. Maybe it was the unitards, maybe the sweaty, groping dudes. I don't know. But in the short time I was there on Saturday afternoon watching the kids' matches, I have to say...very cool. It was neat to see some of the kids who are, how shall I put this...not the most behaved, engaged students...really doing something they enjoy, being intense, caring about something. I dunno, I might put sports on a slightly higher plane than some, but to me it's about more than phy-ed and an excuse to travel on weekends, you know? Plus, watching matches that I actually cared about (considering I knew some of the kids from subbing), I was able to really get into them, and as such started to understand the rules and the scoring, etc. More interesting sport then I previously thought, I'll give it that.

Anyways, another reason it was cool was that it brought a lot of people in to town that Sara hadn't seen in a while, and others we had seen recently but that it's always good to see. Some of the wrestlers from Quinhagak (the village she was in the last 2 years) were students of hers, so she got to see them again, which I know she enjoyed. Huzzah.

Let's see, what else? Oh, we got our tickets mostly taken care of for getting back to Wisconsin for the holidays. It's going to be an adventure, of course...but it always is, I guess, so at least we know what to expect. I'll be flying back a little early with the dog, to save both a little cash and a little headache that would ensue with both of us traveling, with Loki, a day or two before Christmas. This way, we figure, I can deal with the dog and not be rushed (in case weather causes problems for dog-flight), and Sara can hop on whatever plane is going the right direction without worry about such issues, seeing as the earliest she can possibly get out of here is the 22nd. Like I said, it'll be an adventure, but hey...that's how it goes.

Other than that, not much to report from the not-yet-frozen tundra. Days are getting noticeably shorter, but no sticking snow so far. Don't worry, pictures of Loki romping through the white stuff are surely not far away...

ESPN Article

Okay, I can't remember if I posted this when they ran part one (and right now I'm too lazy to go back and check), but here's part two of an ESPN story on the Barrow Highschool football team. Pretty sweet.

A thousand words...

Yeah, don't really have much to post, so I thought I'd share some pictures. It started snowing last night and into today, but if what I hear is true, it's doing the same in Wisconsin this week, so we're really not all that ahead of the curve. Just wait a few months, though...I have a feeling I'll have some good winter pictures and stories by then!

Anyways, to the pictures:

Here's one I just liked, taken while walking the "long way" home from school one evening. Sun setting over the village and all, I just thought it was a nice shot.


If you'll humor my "outdoorsman" fantasies, here's one of me from last week, taken while we were out fishing. I've been taking my shotgun along in case any ducks or geese decided to fly too close for their own good. Mind you, I've gotten exactly zero so far in the few times I've been out, but I just felt it necessary to pose a bit for this picture considering I am, you know, in Alaska and everything.

Here's an obligatory picture of Loki, demonstrating one of his newly aquired hobbies...climbing on top of the couches like a mountain goat. He doesn't really do anything onced he's up there, just looks around and comes back down, but I think he's really just testing our limits and seeing what we'll let him get away with. Sara says his recent...excitement...is normal, "puppy adolecence", but I'm starting to wonder if he's not just slightly retarded.

And! As a special bonus (lucky, lucky you), here's a link to a video of what happens when you purchase neoprene boots for your dog to protect his paws from the ice and snow when it gets to be real, honest-to-goodness winter in Alaska...and you try to put them on him for the first time. It's not that he hates them, so much, as it is that he doesn't know what the heck is going on. Sorry about the goonish laughter from behind the camera, days can be long and entertainment is at a premiuim. That, or I'm just going a little crazy up here. You can decide.

Randomness

Hey there! Not much of a post here, sorry about that. Much of my week has consisted of watching my teams lose...The Packers got blown out in the second half Monday night (and the next day released Ahmad Carroll, thank god), and then the Twins have played flat and lost their first two ALDS game the last couple of mornings. I'm the kiss-of-death as a fan. I'm aware of this. It's how it works.

Anywho, here's a picture from last weekend before all the losing started! Peter, Jenny, Sara and I went out fishing Saturday evening. We weren't out long, as we had gotten out pretty late, but it was a good time despite the wind and rain. Ran into some kids that were out hunting and chatted a while and got some tips on spots to try later, and had another bit of excitement involving the river and a finicky motor. Everything was fine, but I'll admit to a brief moment of thinking "here we go again..."

Otherwise, all's well here. Sara and I went on a bit of an online shopping spree the other night. Nothing extravagant mind you, all entirely necessary and reasonable purchases (well, ok...maybe the Twins Division Championship shirt was a bit of overkill), but it does make for a daily dose of excitement while walking to the postoffice. Between Amazon, Target, Cabelas, MLB.com, and others, the odds of each day being a little like Christmas rise quite nicely. And opening that PO box and seeing that little yellow ticket is always a highlight of the day.

Oh, in other news...looked at the forecast yesterday, and supposedly there's a chance of getting snow in the next couple of days! Woohoo!

And, it's PFD day! :-)

Mental exercise

Ready? Close your eyes. (Okay, so you can't really do that and read, so just pretend.) First, picture a livingroom coffee table. Nothing special, and a little messy with a coffee cup, newspapers, and a book or two scattered upon it. Then picture on that coffee table, a bunch of plastic containers of beads, maybe half a dozen or more, each with, oh, a couple hundred tiny colored beads. For craft projects, that sort of thing.

Then picture a dog. A nice dog. A happy dog. A dog that's rarely shown any indication of being the canine embodiment of the mischievous being from whom he derives his name. If you have trouble picturing such a dog, just scroll down. There are pictures.

Anyway, then picture coming home after a couple hours away to find said dog happily asleep on the couch, but all the plastic containers from the coffee table chewed up and on the floor, with the thousands of colored beads they contained liberally scattered about the living room carpet. The two in-process projects chewed to shreds, with beads and traces of thread spread about on both couches.

Yes, it would have been a good idea not to leave such things within easy reach of a Lab less than one year of age. The thing is, he's never really showed an interest in chewing such things, or anything really, since we've moved up here. We thought we were safe, that he was sufficiently occupied by his own toys, and that the days of ever needing to put him in his crate while we weren't at home were past. At least I did.

Alas, Loki has earned his name. And through carelessness I earned a few hours last night, and again this morning, plucking beads from a thick pile carpet to save as many as possible before resorting to the vacuum cleaner.

Lesson learned.

More random pictures

Well, as long as I'm posting today, I might as well post a few more of the pictures I've been sitting on, dontcha think?

Last week we took a ride over to Akiuk to pick up Sara from an ELD training day and to visit for a while. This is a view from Sara R.'s front steps. The pic didn't really turn out too well, but it was a pretty nice sunset nonetheless.

There's a group of puppies that have been hanging around near the school dock the last week or so, and Jenny and I were trying get them to play with us before we went to Akiuk. Unfortunately, they were pretty leary, but I got a picture of one poking it's head out from under the boardwalk.

I was lucky enough to be invited along fishing for a few hours with a couple of the teachers this weekend. We were able to get a couple of decent pike (notice I say "we"...I caught exactly zero, though I did get a good follow). Trust me, once I bring home my first good pike (or goose or duck or whatever), more pics will follow. But for now, just a story of a good few hours out on the water.

Fear and Loathing in a Classroom

Wow, I certainly let this slide for the past week or so, haven't I? Oops. My bad.

So, like I was planning on telling you about a week or so ago, I had my first experiences in the substitute teaching realm, and really, it wasn't so bad. You see, for a long, long time, I've known that at some point I wanted to become a teacher. The key words of that sentence being "at some point". I'm not sure if it was more of a fear of simply being on the other side of a classroom, fear of not being taken seriously, or something else akin to plain old scaredy-cat-ism, but I'd always been able to justify putting it off in my head. "Oh, I'll wait 'til I have more separation in age between myself and high school students" was my primary mental delay tactic for the last 5 years or so, combined with the lack of desire to go back to school to get my education training, etc. You see, in my last year of college, I developed a severe allergy to the daily transportation of a backpack full of books, brought on by an acute case of doing so for the vast majority of my, at that point, 22 years of existence.

But anyway, none of that mattered a week and a half ago, as apparently the only formal requirement to become a substitute teacher here is a high school diploma. And a willingness to not, you know, set the classroom on fire if the kids start to misbehave. Which, as you all probably remember from your own school days, would be a distinct possibility on a day when the regular teacher is out and a sub is there in their place. Lucky me.

So my first three days of subbing were for a high school English teacher, doing mostly reading and writing classes, with a "Living Skills" hour and a study hall (called Phase Catchup here, if I'm remembering correctly...long story). The first day was a bit of a challenge, meeting with quite a bit of limit-testing behavior by the kids. Now, I have no idea what they thought of me, but I feel like after I established that I was pretty much in the "don't mess with me, I won't make things tough on you" camp, things went pretty smoothly the next couple days. I was learning probably just as much as they were on a daily basis, with my primary lesson being as simple as: School laptops are to Students as Crack is to....well, people who like crack, I guess. All in all, I had a pretty good time on the high school side of the building, and at the end of the day Friday when they asked me if I could come back last Monday, I was happy to say yes.

When I got to school Monday morning, however, I was mildly terrified to find I would be shifting over to the other side of the building...the elementary side. I was to be a wrangler of 5th graders for the day, and looking at the sub plans laid out for me, I am not ashamed to say I was far more frightened than I was with the high school kids. You see, there are some I've talked to, Sara included, that prefer to work with younger kids, the logic being they are more respectful and more likely to listen to an adult when the adult wants them to do something, having not yet developed that well-documented teenage rebelliousness. I, in my very, VERY short experience, feel exactly the opposite. Older kids know already (for the most part) how they're supposed to behave and what kinds of behaviors are acceptable or not in a classroom. If they're misbehaving, it's by choice, and it seems to be more a matter of convincing them (either logically or by threat-esque methods) to knock it the hell off.

But again, I repeat, I likely have no idea what I'm talking about, having all of, what, 30 hours now in a classroom? And by the way, let me just say I've got a whole new respect for all teachers as of this fall. Long story short, even the day in the elementary class went well, and despite one nasty fall involving tears and an ice pack in gym (remind me to write a little about the game "Bat" later...really quite interesting), and some mild frustrations with a particularly, um, special student, it was a fun experience and a good way for me to get over my initial fear/nerves/whatever.

So we'll see, I guess.

Technical note

Yes, I realize I still owe you guys a post on my first experience with subbing last week (plus Monday of this week, as it turns out...), but this is just a quick post regarding my triumphant return to the mystical, addicting land of MSN Messenger. Or rather, in reality, the short-livedness thereof.

As you may be aware if you've been online the last few days, I discovered over the weekend that dispite MSN messenger being blocked my the school's filter, the "web messenger" site still worked on my computer. So, after having given up on being able to easily keep in touch with a lot of you (email is a little harder for my brain to process, at least quickly...I know, I'm retarded), I thought I'd discovered a way around it and would be able to get on for a little while most days.

Well, it was working earlier today...ask Aaron, we talked a little about Trivia this afternoon. Alas....as of 5 minutes ago when I opened my computer to sign on here at school, the site is blocked. Nice. Mind you, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, and iChat work just fine. It's just MSN that happens to apparently arouse the rath of the internet peoples of the district. Figures. Oh well, I was doing fine without it, so I'll get back into that mindset. Just irks me that I thought now I'd be able to use it once in a while is all. So sorry guys, I tried. If you're looking for me, email, or log in to your old yahoo or aol accounts and try to find me...

UPDATE: Well, as of Thursday night, it's working again. Weird. Random...but I'll take it when I can get it :-P Well nevermind that...it let me on for about 10 minutes, then crashed my browser and now it's blocked again. Sweet.