Alaska Photos

Well, I had some time tonight so I worked on the photo galleries. Picked out some photos that were taken here in Alaska since 2004 (when I got my digital camera) and organized them into three galleries – 2004/2005, 2006, and 2007. I added some additional graphics to the ‘Photo Gallery‘ page to (hopefully) make the navigation easier. The load times of each gallery remain longer than I’d like but the flash/shockwave design does make things easier on the backend for me so, while I’ll still tweak it, I’m happy with the result so far.

On another topic, I just got my raise which was effective nunc pro tunc to last October. Got the F-A-T treasury warrant in the mail today. Now I’ll be able to pay off my truck several years early and buy a case of beer to celebrate my position as a government lackey using the public for my own benefit.

You wanted it, you got it.

After some people kept bothering me about my past photo galleries not being accessible after the site re-design, I’ve added a new ‘Photo Gallery‘. While not yet complete, you can take a look at the new Flash-based photo gallery design that all of the photo galleries will soon employ. The Philippine gallery is up and running so enjoy the photos and give me some feedback if it isn’t working quite right.

let’s remember old times

Got back from our trip to Fairbanks last Sunday. Stayed right downtown and arrived in the morning so we could see some sights around town and take a visit to the university for the museum and to buy myself some new UAF gear.

We stayed at a downtown hotel the first night after visiting my favorite bar in the entire world – Ivory Jacks – and eating a great lunch and savoring a cold beer.

I still can’t get over how much Fairbanks has changed. The massive influx of more army soldiers and the army families has really made a difference in how the town looks. But, I was very happy to get out to the other side of town – Goldstream Valley – and take in all the rustic cabin-dwelling goodness that still exists there.

On Friday night we saw some old friendsat the Pump House. Kept everything low-key because they’ve got small children (Thank God for babysitters). It was good to be back there despite the cold temps (it was -10 Saturday morning) at such a late time in the winter.

I was also able to find some other places in Fairbanks that haven’t changed much – the Large Animal Research Center (aka the Musk Ox Farm) – which really fit the bill of what I needed that day. Out in the snowy woods just north of UAF on a hilly road with too high of a speed limit were the musk ox. Huddled together against the windy conditions, eating their lunch.

The next morning we saw the World Ice Art Championships and drove over to Chena Hot Springs to spend the night. I’ll talk about those adventures later. When we came back I took the long route from Chena and drove out to Fox and gazed with sad eyes at the Howling Dog, the site for many nights of debauchery and drunkeness.

I had such a great time up there despite the massive amounts of big-box stores now dominating an entire side of town because there still remains more of what Alaska means to me then in any other town in the state. The hills, the snow, the cold, the dog sled signs, the bars, the desolate stretches of woods with cabins. It will always be home to me no matter how long I must continue to live in Anchorage.