Sunday, October 07, 2001

Is it just me, or does locking a bunch of kindergartners in a boiler room seem like a Fundamentally BAD Idea? Boiler rooms are creepy, scary, noisy, semi-dangerous places. (They are fairly well-ventilated, though, if they're built to code.) Unless, of course, there's another adult (or two) in there with them... And what on earth can one person do, standing out in the hall, weaponless? That is, of course, based on the assumption that there will be people walking around looking to visit harm on anyone else they encounter. It seems to me that it would be far more intelligent to barricade oneself in with the kids and pretend there's no one home if someone knocks on the door. (Or to be issued weapons, but I guess that's kind of an impossibility.)

But then, the VA public school system didn't -ask- _me_, and they couldn't possibly care any less as to what _I_ think anyhow.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:50 AM |

This is a webcam perched on the mall near my house. It's looking at the hotel that Seldovia Native Corporation is building in the parking lot. While I realize that the Dimond Center -is- the _biggest_ mall in AK, it's certainly -not- as upscale as the Fifth Avenue, nor is it nearly as large as malls in -other- major metropolitan areas. People have explained to me the -why- of building it there, but I still don't get it. I'm just odd like that, I s'pose.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:09 AM |

And here's a shot of the second-to-last exterior addition to the mall. I'll see if I can find the movie-theater stuff...

Is this an ugly exterior or what? (Actually, it's no so bad in person.) I think it was raining when they took this picture.

If you squint, you can see the movie theater. It's the black/dark brown bit between the two beige-ish parts.

Ah! Unit Company did the addition to Providence! This explains the gorgeousness. (The Dimond Center addition was in the '80's. They've hired new architechts since then.)
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:26 AM |

I'm going to do excerpts, here, but if you wanna read the whole sad thing, here you go.

It's a melting pot of cultures - Eskimos and Indians who first ventured into the area 6,000 years ago, Russians who came for fur, prospectors who searched for gold and adventurers who turned a city of tents into a major crossroads for the world.

First of all, the Natives were here far earlier than that. Secondly, it's not -that- big a melting pot, at least from the Native/Whites standpoint. This city has a _LOT_ of Issues when it comes to race and the whole Whites Vs. Natives thing.

[...] with 18,000 Eskimo, Indian and Aleut inhabitants, Anchorage is the largest Native village in Alaska.

Pardon me, but what -are- you smoking? 18,000 is far too large for the designation of 'village'. It probably qualifies as a 'group' or 'corporation', though.

Rimmed on three sides by a rugged mountain range and two long arms of Cook Inlet, Anchorage stretches more than 50 miles from the fjord-studded Turnagain Arm to the southeast to a centuries-old Native village in the northeast

And that 'centuries-old Native Village' would be...? What? It's probably Eklutna (ee-klewt-nah). Turnagain Arm is not 'fjord-studded'. Ressurection Bay and Prince William Sound are 'fjord-studded'. Whittier is 'fjord-studded' (because it's in... PWS!). However, the Municipality -is- huge. In fact, I believe that Eagle River is within the Anchorage Municipality.

The city is located as far north as Helsinki, Finland, and as far west as Honolulu, Hawaii

Helsinki I'll give you, Honolulu I argue with. AK's on ADT/AST, Hawaii's an hour...ahead. I think. I'm no good with the ahead/behind concept, all I know is that when it's noon here, it's 11:00 AM there.

Anchorage International Airport is served by 30 foreign and domestic air carriers with more than 150 flights each day.

And that's not counting in the cargo flights! Now you can see why it was so -weird- not to have planes in the sky for a week.

Anchorage enjoys a moderate climate, comparable to the Coastal Northwest in the spring, summer and fall, and to Rocky Mountain resorts in the winter. Spring and summer days last more than 17 hours; winter and fall about 9.5. Anchorage receives about 15 inches of precipitation each year, mean seasonal snowfall 69 inches.

Sort of. It depends on where you are. In Southeast (Sitka, Juneau, Wrangell), it's Pacific Northwest all the way, right down to the rain and the big trees. Here, it's a lot drier, and our trees are much smaller, for the most part. The interior is drier and warmer in the summer, but horribly cold in the winter. Above the Arctic Circle, they get snow every month of the year.

Spring days are slightly shorter, increasing in length until there's about 18-20 hours of daylight in the summer. Then they start getting shorter, until there's only about 5-7 hours of light. Lather, rinse, repeat. Why isn't snowfall counted as 'precipitation'? It falls out of the sky, doesn't it? We got more rain than was nomal this year. We also had more rain than was normal last winter, too.

Anchorage is an easy city to move around, thanks to the original grid laid out by railroad engineers in 1915. Lettered streets run north-south and numbered avenues run east-west. To find east, look for the Chugach Mountains; to find west, look for Cook Inlet.

No it's not no it's not no it's not! *Ahem* All right, the grid-thing holds true, as long as you stay downtown, between about Fourth Avenue and L street to about Ninth Avenue and L street. You go any further than that, and roads stop going in straight lines. They curve. They go up and down hills. (A large portion of downtown is surprisingly level, for some reason.) They also stop having number and letter names. The streets start out as one road and turn into another.

And actually, a much better stratagey than 'look for Cook Inlet' is 'put the mountains directly behind you and you'll be facing west'. Why? Because, with the exception of parts of downtown, Government Hill, and certain sections of high Hillside, You. Can't. See. The. Inlet. Trees, buildings, the curvature of the earth, all of these things conspire to hide the water, which naturally congregates at the lowest point in the land.

The Runzheimer index ranks Anchorage food costs as similar to those charged in Atlanta, Las Vegas and Boston. Dress at most Anchorage restaurants is as formal or casual as you feel.

I'd really like to know how old this article is, bcause -wow-, is that wrong. You can get food -far- more cheaply in Vegas than you can here. And there are some places that charge inordinate amounts for -local- seafood, comparable to those prices you might expect for fresh Alaskan seafood in those three places. They've got the dress right, though. I'd not recommend wearing paint-spattered Carhartts to dinner at Top Of The World or The Promenade cafe, but if you wanna, go ahead.

You can buy a piece of Alaska at hundreds of stores that offer everything from iceworms in a can to exquisite ivory carvings. For an unusual piece of Alaskana, check out gold nugget and porcupine quill jewelry, Native baskets, mukluks, salmon leather wallets, jade and soapstone carvings, luxurious furs and a strange-looking knife called an ulu.

Or you could just stop along Turnagain Arm and pick up a rock for free. The State won't appreciate it, but hey. It's cheap. Oh, and by the by? Gold nugget jewelry is ugly; mukluks are kind of stereotypical and chintzy; and an ulu is only 'strange-looking' if you're a moron. It's 'practical-looking' if you know what it's used for, and why they're so important. Furs are expensive and available almost anywhere. The carvings, baskets, and quillwork are your best bets. (Or there's the rocks, -or- you could just take pictures.)

The centrepiece of Anchorage nightlife is the 170,000-square-foot Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, in the heart of downtown.

*Snerk* Okay, whatever you say, buddy... Actually, it sort of -is-, at least in the winter. In the summer, there's not as much going on, there. And tickets can be outlandishly expensive.

Across from the center is Egan Civic & Convention Center, a block-long expanse of curved glass with nearly 40,000 square feet of space for conventions, meetings, trade shows and special events. In the lobby, which is open daily, are several spectacular examples of Native art, including "Eskimo Spirit Carvings" in the east seating area, "Volcano Women" sculptures in the west conversation pit and the colorful "Beaded Sky Curtain" hanging over the west escalators.

Actually, all the curved glass is part of the lobby. The convention space itself has no glass in it, which is both practical and annoying. Practical because the heating bills in the winter would be horrendous, annoying because there's no natural light in the halls. The art is beautiful, though, and worth braving the hordes of tourists (or the snow and ice) to look at. And the west escalators are the ONLY escalators in that building, thank you.

A short drive south of downtown Anchorage takes you to the Z.J. Loussac Public Library, 36th Avenue and Denali, a dynamic blend of cylindrical shapes and geometric forms that features a special Alaska section, auditorium and municipal assembly meeting chambers. On the library's lawns stands an elegant ice fountain designed by Carl Nesjar that produces spectacular frozen formations in the winter.

...Except that the fountain is kind of broken, and mostly just collects snow. I have no idea what's wrong with it, I just know that it hasn't ever worked quite right. The idea was this: these two big harplike forms sit outside and get snowed on. Hot water is pumped through the forms until the snow begins to melt. The forms are allowed to cool, and then the snowmelt freezes again. (Additional water may or may not have been added.) By the time winter was about 3/4 done, there were supposed to be fantastic ice-caverns and spires out front of the library. I've only seen it once, and it -was- very cool (heh), but it doesn't happen all that often.

On Good Friday, 1964, a massive earthquake measuring 9.2 on the Richter Scale ripped through Southcentral Alaska. It was the largest tremor ever recorded in North America, releasing 80 times the energy of the historic San Francisco quake of 1906. The massive shock and seismic waves killed 131 people in Alaska and the upper Pacific coast. Thousands of people lost their homes and businesses as entire blocks crumbled and a subdivision fell into the sea. Residents rebounded in record time, and within a year, Anchorage's first high-rise hotel started reshaping the skyline. The story of the Good Friday earthquake is recounted in interpretative displays at Earthquake Park near the airport.

Tremor. No, a little baby quake of 2.5/3.4 is a -tremor-. '64 was a -quake-. Ask anyone that lived through that day and they will tell you that while every earthquake makes them twitchy, none of the temblors since have been quite like that day. *Blink* I wonder if that was the Captain Cook hotel?

Dining
Sourdough Mining Co. is located off International Airport Road between the Old & New Seward Highways; 907-563-2272. A casual Alaskan atmosphere featuring the best in charbroiled steaks, fresh Alaskan seafood and slow cooked barbeque. Famous home-made corn fritters, fresh baked sourdough bread and unique cocktails.

Y'know, there are many other establishments. Humpy's, The Snow Goose, Orso's, The Promenade (_amazing_ burgers, good clubs, the -best- fries you can find downtown), the restaurant down in the railroad depot whose name escapes me, Top of The World, Josephine's, Club Paris, Arctic Roadrunner, The Peanut Farm, and a dozen other places. Of course, perhaps they expect visitors to ask their concierge for recommendations. *Shrug*

Aleyeska Resort, a first-class destination resort

Alyeska. -AL-yeska. The -y- says 'e'. Al-ee-eskah.

All right, that's enough of that. I think I've established that it's annoying and wrong. *Snerk* Personally, I think the best way to see -any- place is to visit someone that lives there. They'll know most anything you want to know, and if they don't, they know where to find out.

I'd love to play tourguide, sometimes. I look around and think, "Ah! I wanna show Scrubby!" or, "Reesa would love that!" We may not be as metropolitan as some places (hell, we're practically a backwater compared to -most- major cities, in some catagories), but we've got a few things that no one else has. The mountains. The air. Homer. Mammoth Music. Big fish. Moose in the back yard, bears in the front (well...okay, only if you live way up Hillside). Hillside. Birchwood, Palmer, Glenallen. Denali. -Denali-. Good food and strange people; local crafts and specialties; hockey and baseball. (Minor league, sure, but it's a version of pro!) We have lots of hockey, actually: university-level, the Aces, there's an adult league, and of course junior and high-school levels, too. We even have high-school football, which is a pretty big deal for almost everyone but me.

Best of all, though? It's beautiful, here. This is my home. I don't know why anyone would want to live anywhere else. (Well, I say that -now-, but watch me whine when it starts snowing!)
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:45 PM |

You know, I've been past this house a number of times. I always thought they were just...I dunno, too rich and too bored or something.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:48 PM |

That link found here. If you want to find something here in town, this might be the place to start... (Well, if you don't have the Yellow Pages handy, anyhow.)
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:50 PM |

I now have the Rondy theme stuck in my head. And the picture is a fairly inaccurate one, only in the sense that I don't ever remember it snowing during the parade. I'm sure it has, though.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:59 PM |

Look, I love Boy Meets Boy as much as anyone else, but please. Please. _PLEASE_ for the love of -God-, _why_ must she promote the idea that tattoo parlors will ink the inebriated? Any reputable shop will flat-out refuse you if you're pissed. Granted, the chicks running the shop seem to be completely unethical anyhow, but still. It's just not a good idea to run around promoting the stereotype.

And I'm not going to go into the whole 'college students only live to get drunk' attitude, either. I'm hungry and should not be allowed to rant in this condition.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:17 PM |

I -sooooo- need to lower my standards in order to get another job... But I won't! Because I am a lazy, shiftless little weenie that much prefers to be coddled and doted upon than living in the real world or being a Responsible Adult. So there.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:28 PM |

Flaming Sushi (yeah, I know) at eBay

Magical Girl (which has the largest number of doujinshis I think I've seen in a while)

Pineapple69

Animegination (or something like that.)

Can you tell that I'm coming into money, soon?
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:43 PM |