28 September 2005

Temperature this morning when driving into school: 39 F
Precipitation Today: Rain mixed with snow
.

Weather man tells me we're in a Alaska, and I think I believe him...

My big hope is that as winter weather sets in, the climate starts to exhibit some of its infamous aridity, and the mud and wet molds go away like they're supposed to.  It'll be a big bummer if we brought Indiana's muck with us.  

Bummer to me, not to the makers of Benadryl.

On a more serious note, this week Meghan's had a couple of her occasional but regerettably not infrequent headaches, and they were preceded by some occular manifestations this time.  So we're thinking it might be time to get her into a doctor for some migraine treatment.  We also think we need to get her over to an eye doctor to make sure she's not putitng more strain on her eyes with a couple-year-old prescription and working with computer screens and paperwork so much of the day.

I myself have taken to wearing my glasses regularly again for reading.  I had stopped because the problems caused by the arterial occlusion in my left eye made them pretty pointless since that was my worst eye to see with anyway, and the glasses can't help it anymore.  But the volume of reading I'm doing is leading to general tiredness of the right eye, too, and my hope is that the glasses will take the edge off that.  Reading is pretty exhausting for that left eye, though, despite its poor utility in the task.  I might try covering it while I read so it doesn't waste its effort trying to overcome the distortions -- but I also don't want it to atrophe and get even worse.  So I'm probably stuck with tiring it out, at least for now.

Classes are kicking it into full gear.  Got my first mid term coming up (take home exam for Structures) and presentations are starting to creep in.  Next Tuesday I have to distill Tylor's omnibus Primitive Culture into a five-minute summary for Structures, and the following Thursday I'll be leading an AnthRel class on shamanism, priests, and healers.

Now I'm actually a real student. :)

NickC---

26 September 2005

Today's Useful Fact from Human Osteology #1: If you're going to fall from heights, don't try to land on your feet; your best bet is to land on your side and let your arm take most of the compressive force.

Today's Useful Fact from Human Osteology #2: While there are a lot of things you can tell about a blow to the cranium from a fracture pattern, you cannot the shape of the object used, thanks to the nature of the bone structure there and the way it fractures.
.

Goodnes oh goodness, no more alibis; I'm just horrible about updating this place.  I think I get intimidated because so many days I don't honetsly have any time to get on here and then I feel like I need to catch everyone up on everything, and I think that's going to take too much time.  I'm a coward, I get it. :)

There are a variety of little updates around the whole site today and through this week, various quotes and peronality test results, etc..., so make sure you click around and have fun.  These updates have been too far and between to waste by only reading my 'blog!

Meghan had to go to training last week in Denver, CO, so that was kind of a drag for a few days.  She was "only' gone Wednesday through Friday, but that's more than enough!!  :-p

And, yeah, I know, other married couples often have to spend more time apart than that, and that's crummy, but it doesn't diminish my own crummy experience with it! :-p

Actually, Meghan had a heck of an adventure, too.  Something happened with the alarm on Wednesday morning, and she was supposed to be taking off at 7am, but I never heard the alarm or else turned it off in my sleep, so we were both pretty freaked out when I woke up with a start and realized it was 6:45am.  Oh my!!!  We threw on clotches, grabbed her bags, and sped to the airport, which is thankfully right on our side of town.  I dropped her off at about five 'till 7 and they were good enough to call ahead when she was going through security and hold the plane for her.  Whew!

The excitement didn't end there.  Next day she tried to take a taxi to the training, but the taxi driver got confused and took her twenty minutes out of town before she realized they were probably going the wrong way.  They made it, training  went well, but then she came down with a 24 hour bug, and didn't sleep good at all.  Next day, not feeling even slightly good, she went to the airport after training to fly home and found out her flight to Seattle (where she would connect to Fairbanks) was cancelled.  After some scurrying around, they got her re-routed through anchornage, and she still managed to get home by about 1am, still not feeling very good, but very much glad to be home.

Let's see...  What else is going on...  Our fantasy football league started up this weekend.  There are a few thigns pendning on the Monday night game still, but it looks like Meghan's gonna clan Jason's clock and would have whooped any of us this weekend.  I should squeak by Dad, but mainly because he was really stung by the bye week and some bad advice from me.  And Tiffany should beat  Sunbeam pretty comfortably.

Hmmm...  Mainly it's more homework, lots of reading and starting to gear up for projects, and I'm preaching again this weekend.

I won't set the bar too high or else I'll get intimidated and won't keep up with the 'blog like I intend to.

Peace out!

NickC---

15 September 2005

Tennesee Titans Turnovers: 3
Tennesee Titans Missed Field Goals: 1
Tennesee Titans Total Scoring: 7.

 

Normally, I would print out the documents because I read and comprehend off paper much more readily than I do off a computer screen.  Unfortunatley, since these are PDF's, they kill the printers in the grad room and bog down even the printers in the library.  

So I had this great idea: I'd find a PDF-to-plain-text converter program.  I found many which were reasonably priced, demo'd a couple on some PDF files I had laying around on my tablet's hard drive, and was pretty satisfied.  So I went into school the next morning planning to purchase one for $12.95 and then convert a bunch of ERes class work and go to town.  At the last minute, I noticed a fine print dislaimer on the software.  "Note: this will only work on PDF files with embedded fonts."  I had a sinking feeling what that meant, and demo'd the conversion on an ERes file.  Sure enough, there were no embedded fonts.

Apparently, in order to speed up the scanning and posting process to be able to meet professors' last minute demands as best as they can, the library staff scan the documents in basically as images -- no fonts, no highlighting allowed, no editing allowed, etc...  So no conversion progam will be able to touch them.

That means I'm back to working off the screen and taking notes on separate paper -- and that means I'm working slowly and inefficiently for my brain.

Well, that's a mere sample of the side issues which are going on.  Nothing really to do with professors' assigning ogre-like tasks; more to do with being an old man going back to school in a young man's world.

Interesting presentation on Friday.  olarship.  More on my classes as the week unfolds.  I hope to get the schedule thing worked out so that I can update the 'blog and the rest of the website closer to daily.

Oh, I posted a highly appropriate new quote on the quotes page of the website.  :)

Apart from classes, I did end up preaching again this past Sunday. The associate pastor was scheduled to preach now that he's back from the north slope, but he had an irresistable invitation to go out hunting this weekend (the open of moose season) and asked if I could pinch hit again.  I did so gladly, and I think it went well.  

Well, that's not a very in-depth entry again, I know.  Hopefully as I master this scheduling issue, I'll be able to keep up better and get more detailed entries.

NickC---

10 September 2005

Things I learned on CSI: There are 206 bones in the human body and if you can't tell if something is bone or rock, you can lick it.

Things I learned in Human Osteology: Tehre are 206 bones in the human body and if you can't tell if something is bone or rock, you've probably never seen or felt either bone or rock.

Obviously I haven't mastered the schedule thing yet. Honestly, the workload isn't that horrible.  It's just that while I'm trying to get the work done, I'm also trying to figure out the best way to do the work.  For instance, UAF used a great system from DocuTek to accomplish something I once recommended the TUFW library try with Blackboard (but at the time we had too many other things going on with the library to pursue it) -- electronic reserve for required course readings.  Well, the only downside to the way that the ERes system works at UAF is that the documents are posted as PDF files (Acrobat Reader files, in other words).  In case you've never heard my rant, PDF = bloat.  There is rarely a reason to post something in that format rather than rich text or another file format which preserves formatting but doesn't result in large files which are slow to download, difficult to read  and unholy to print.  

Normally, I would print out the documents because I read and comprehend off paper much more readily than I do off a computer screen.  Unfortunatley, since these are PDF's, they kill the printers in the grad room and bog down even the printers in the library.  

So I had this great idea: I'd find a PDF-to-plain-text converter program.  I found many which were reasonably priced, demo'd a couple on some PDF files I had laying around on my tablet's hard drive, and was pretty satisfied.  So I went into school the next morning planning to purchase one for $12.95 and then convert a bunch of ERes class work and go to town.  At the last minute, I noticed a fine print dislaimer on the software.  "Note: this will only work on PDF files with embedded fonts."  I had a sinking feeling what that meant, and demo'd the conversion on an ERes file.  Sure enough, there were no embedded fonts.

Apparently, in order to speed up the scanning and posting process to be able to meet professors' last minute demands as best as they can, the library staff scan the documents in basically as images -- no fonts, no highlighting allowed, no editing allowed, etc...  So no conversion progam will be able to touch them.

That means I'm back to working off the screen and taking notes on separate paper -- and that means I'm working slowly and inefficiently for my brain.

Well, that's a mere sample of the side issues which are going on.  Nothing really to do with professors' assigning ogre-like tasks; more to do with being an old man going back to school in a young man's world.

Interesting presentation on Friday.  olarship.  More on my classes as the week unfolds.  I hope to get the schedule thing worked out so that I can update the 'blog and the rest of the website closer to daily.

Oh, I posted a highly appropriate new quote on the quotes page of the website.  :)

Apart from classes, I did end up preaching again this past Sunday. The associate pastor was scheduled to preach now that he's back from the north slope, but he had an irresistable invitation to go out hunting this weekend (the open of moose season) and asked if I could pinch hit again.  I did so gladly, and I think it went well.  

Well, that's not a very in-depth entry again, I know.  Hopefully as I master this scheduling issue, I'll be able to keep up better and get more detailed entries.

NickC---

5 September 2005

Days of Class, Week One: 2
Days of Class, Week Two: 4
.

I'm doing pretty bad about keeping the website here up-to-date.  Still trying to figure out how to manage the various tasks, chores, and activities of life with our schedule these days.  My classes start at ~ 11:30 every day and go past 17:00 at least three days a week.  Then there's TA work, tons of reading for class, independent learning required for my overall graduate program, working out, household chores, and trying to have time to just relax with Meggie once in a while.  It's not overly much; just a matter of figure out what timeslots to plug what into.

There was an interesting presentation on Friday afternoon in the anthropology department.  Normally I wouldn't peg a colloquium on the topic of mushroom gathering in the Alaska burn zone as something which would capture my attention, but it relaly did.  Apparently, morel mushrooms only grow in the burnzone of forest fires, and since last year was a record year for fires in Alaska, this year was a bumper year for morels.  I won't go into any more details because I don't want to scoop another student's research, but if you ever get a chance to read up on the culture of "circuit pickers" who travel the country picking, buying, and seling mushrooms and other forest products, you should.  It's a complex, multifaceted sub-culture well worth knowing more about.

I think there's a chance it might come acorss from my 'blogs that I'm not happy here in Alaska, maybe that I even wish we'd not come, and it's important to me that you not get that idea.  All uncertainties about what to make of the town and its people, all stresses about scheduling and how to get things done, all frustrations with systems which seem almost designed to be inoperable -- all these things are things which will pass, things which I must work through and try wrap my mind and emotions around.  But they are not things which create any real depression or dissatisfaction in me.  Too, even if, after a year or two, we decide Alaska really isn't for us, I would never regret coming out here.  I know that this was the right thing to do, and I know that even if it ends up being only a short stop-off point in the career of our lives, it will be well worth it, and I would always regret not taking advantage of this opportunity and always be left wondering what it would be like to live in Alaska.

In that spirit, I think it's important for me to close this 'blog entry with  something really nice to say about Alaska.  A lot of folks from the midwest you hear talking about fall in Alaska say that they don't really care for it.  (And, yes, it's fall here; the leaves are changing and falling -- and we've had a couple of frosts.  I had to scrape the windshield once last week, too.)  Anyway, these midwestern folks quite reasonably miss the rich reds and oranges and range of colors you get back home.  It's true, the birch trees and all turn pretty much the same shade of yellow, but I think autumn is quite beautiful here.  On a distant scale, the foot hills are given an exquisite sense of depth to them by the mixture of yellow deciduous trees and dark green conifers which retain their full hue still.  And up close, the white trunks of the birches sear through the swath of yellow, and the evergreen branches poke through here and there to interrupt the field, while the underbrush turns a fiery red.  All very pretty; I don't miss the leaves of Brown County at all.

NickC---

30 August 2005

Hours 'till school year opens: ~ 41 hours
Hours I've been registered for classes: ~ 17 hours
Hours I've had a UAF login/e-mail: ~ 0.5 hours
.

It's very nice to be registered for classes.  I met with my interim advisor yesterday and got his approcal for the classes I thought I probably needed to take, so I'm officially on my way. I finally have an e-mail address, too, as well as a desk / cubicle in the graduate TA room in Eielson.  And we've had a couple of TA meetings with Dr. Shannon and the the other two TA's for ANTH 100x.  Things are finally starting to happen.  Maybe tomorrow I can even get a student ID card!

What's next?  A parking decal????

This will be a pretty random 'blog today as I'm actually squeezing it in amidst chores, but I wanted to get some kind of update out there for everyone.  The sermon went well on Sunday.  I wasn't too nervous and the people we're too hostile, so all in all it was what I'd hoped for... There's a change I might be preaching again this upcoming Sunday. Pastor David is still out of town and Pastor Pat was slated to preach in his place, but he was asked to go out on a labor day weekend (i.e. open of the moose season) hunting trip with an old friend he hasn't seen in a while.  We'll see how it shakes out.  Like everything in Alaska, I'm sure it will shake out in it's own sweet time, not necessarily when I'd like it to.

On Saturday we went out to try and find some real Alaskan wildlife.  We though the Large Animal Research Station would be a good place to do that, but turns out you have to pay for a tour to get up even to the fences of the areas the large animals are in, so that didn't happen.  We'll probably go back this weekend, more prepared for that.  Still, we got to see some nice scenery on the drive...

OK, that's it for now.  More later, perhaps.  I'll bug Meghan and Sunbeam to update theirs, too. ;-)

BTW -- the descriptions of the classes I'm taking are posted on the, "What we do," page.

NickC---

26 August 2005

Cost of Gas: $2.51/gallon
Cost of 1/2 gallon Milk: $1.99 -- $2.99
Cost of $0.79 nachos at Taco Bell: $0.99
.

Ah, it's good to be re-connected to the world...  By the way, there may be some material on the site, including the previous entry in this 'blog, which is from late July but was written off-line and never able to be up-loaded, so be sure to look for that, as well.

So I suppose after a month away from the internet and this 'blog, I'd be better off starting with reflections and thought on Alaska and life as I now know it rather than trying to tell all about the trip.  I think the rest of the pit-house should help let the light in on that, anyway.

I'll start with the obvious.  What's Fairbanks really like now that we're here?  Good question.  It continues to elude me after only a few weeks. The city itself, the people who live here, the natural environment...  Everyone always talks about Alaska about being big and overwhelming, so I sort of planned on being blown away.  Instead, I'm left grasping for little threads to pull together and not coming up with much.

I think partly it's an effect of the degree of remoteness we're dealing with here.  I'm sure I expected Alaska to be more or less a colder extension of the experience we had in Wyoming, and Fairbanks to be a northern version of Laramie or Cheyenne or something like that.  There, isolation seems to take on a sort of universalizing character: the winds sweep through and the skies go on forever, makign you physically feel a part of a broader piece of the world; people are forced by conditions to depend on one another.  Here, however, isolation is individualizing.  There is almost no wind and foothills loom all around, leaving you feeling physically surrounded.  And, as a friend who shall remain anonymous described it, meaning a warning and nothing offensive about the city or the people he loves, "The whole city sends out a signal, 'I don't need you.'"  Rather than create an atmosphere of dependence and sociability, the Alaskan interior's isolation creates more a feeling of self-relience almost to the exclusion of others.

Compounding this, in the lower west, your remoteness allows you escape into the wilds.  Here, the remoteness leads to such a loss of and cost of services, that your wanderings are more limited.  So, unless you're going out to your cabin in the bush, you pretty much stay in town.  There is an emphasis on outdoor life, but it's harder to exerpience that life without more resources at your disposal.

Too, Fairbanks feels like a much bigger city than one might expect. While lacking major business or inudstrial complexes, it is still the center for all the villages in the interior.  This makes it a hub of travel and activity at all hours of the day.  (While I've yet to see anything that comes close to a traffic jam, I've also nevertheless less never gone a minute without hearing vehicle noise.)  Statistically, the ~ 30k population figures for Fairbanks are also quite mis-leading.  Between the traffic from the village, the high percentage of military and college families (often not counted as population), and the fact that a majority of residents live technically outside of city limits, means that only the ~ 120k population figures for the burrough begin to give you an idea of the size of the town.

The size also leads to sometimes furstrating situations in which you're dealing with the impact of remoteness (higher expenses, slower turn-around on delivery of service, less reliable connectivity to the rest of the world), but without the actual experience of remoteness you might expect to go along with with it (fewer people, less car noise, lower automobile emissions).  

Lastly, it seems as if there's a major identity problem here.  People here are desparate to distance themselves from images of igloos, eskimos, snow, gold-mining, and all those other stereo-types -- but haven't really found a way to assert an identity apart from those things.  There's the cold, and there's moose hunting...  things like that...  But there's not much, "Hey, this is how you can tell I'm an Alaskan."  The folks are feircely proud of being Alaskan, but don't seem to have a good, comfortable communal identity in that.

It's important to stress that none of this means that I don't like Fairbanks, Alaska, or the people of this area.  It only means that I am still very much struggling to understand this place, let alone how I feel about it.

Well, I should wrap up  now so that I can get the up-dated website loaded on the server and e-mail folks to let them know we're back up and running.  Just a couple of really quick notes on what's going on in my daily life.  On Monday, I meet with Dr. Shannon and one of the other TA's for 100x to talk about what's going on with the class.  Hopefully soon I can meet with my advisor and get registered for fall classes and get my student ID card and all that, but he's just back from a trip to Wales and Russia, so I don't know how quickly he'll be swinging back into action.  And, last big note I can think of, this Sunday I've been tapped by Pastor David to preach a sermon in church while he and Pastor Pat are both out of town.  (David's at a conference and Pat's coming up on the end of a work shift on the North Slope.)  

More on all that later; I need to finish updating the other pages and get uploading so I can go get the dishes done before I pick Meghan up from work. :)

Out!!

NickC---

30 July 2005

Home of the NHL'ers
or
Help stop the spread of dutch elm disease.  Don't transport firewood..

Not sure where to even start reflecting on this trip, but perhaps just a word about this whole international travel in Canada thing.  I realize I'm a spoiled American, and that travel here really isn't bad, but fellow spoiled Americans should be warned: odds are, you're better off driving most of your way across country in the US rather than Canada, if you're heading to Alaska.  The Canadian highway system is decent, but it's not an interstate system.  The Number 16 (TransCanada Highway) passes through towns, so it can be slow-going at times.  

Gas is really expensive here and can be difficult to find for someone used to truck stops and travel centers at regular intervals along a highway or gas stations at each end of a highway passing through town.  Pay at the pump is a rarity in western Canada, and stations are cramped, often with full service but pay-inside arrangements.

Road signs are smaller than Americans are used and less frequent, and often only reflect one or two of the several names and/or nubmers by which a road is designated. Warning signs about exit lanes are also less frequent, so you have to be pretty eagle-eyed.

Like I said, it's not bad, but it's a lot more stressful for a frazzled American travel accustomed to the Interstate System in the states.  God bless Eisenhower and his legacy!

Probably worth some reflection on the places we've traveled.  Indiana really is prettier than we Hoosiers give it credit for.  It's fairly flat, but there's a lot of variety in trees and bushes that give the state a very green and alive, especially south of Fort Wayne or so.  

I don't much care for the scenery of Illinois.  Especially south of Peoria or so, it always looks messy to me or some reason, and the skies almost always seem to be cloudy and grey, even on a summer day which is sunny in Indiana and north Illinois.  I think it's probably the influence of St. Louis dragging it down.

Wisconsin was really pretty once we got to the Dells.  Actually, I was surprised by the hills north of the Dells.  Very cool mid-western wilderness and farm land.  Would be fun to go camping there, no doubt,

The parts of Minnesota we drove through were frankly pretty boring.  A few areas had a touch of the wetlands and lakes which make the eastern part of the state (which we didn't drive through) so great by reputation. But most of the St. Paul --> Fargo route was pretty un-spectacular.

Speaking of Fargo, there were some cool old farm buildings in North Dakota, but the eastern part of the state, through which we were driving,was not to my taste at all.  It seemed like it was really really flat, but still in most places lacked the great horizon and high sky which can redeem that sort of great plains monotony.  I'll grant that some of the fields were still pretty, though.

Manitoba, once we'd gotten about an hour past Winnipeg was amazingly beautiful.  I'm a sucker for wet lands, and they're all over the place in the province.  Not to mention, some really fantastic hills and a few glimpses of great horizon.

Saskatchewan in the east was much the same as Manitoba, and I quite enjoyed that, though the middle was more like North Dakota, and I didn't so much enjoy that.  

Alberta is a province which still escapes me.  It has a lot of rolling hills, a lot of sweeping horizons...   But for some reason, my first impression when I think back on it is, "Eh."  Not sure why.  Maybe it'll come to me.  

British Columbia.  Wow.  We've only driven in BC for about six hours or so, but it's been pretty amazing.  The rockies and their so-called foothills are just beyond compare for mind-blowign scenery.  And where else can you be driving on a highway and see not only hawks, ravens, and deer, but moose and a bobcat, too?  The rockies are wonderful to drive in, and BC is crammed full of 'em.

The trip has been so crazy it would be hard to say it's been fun.  All the ordinary stresses of moving and leaving friends and family have been compounded by the frustrations of trying to learn how to travel in Canada, silly as that sounds.  Still, we've had our good moments.  (Like sitting outside eating corn dogs at the Chief Buffalo truck stop in Minnesota, pulling over to take some pictures in Alberta, things like that.)  And our adventures.  (Like the thunderstorm which literally drove us into a parking lot in Edmonton to wipe down our windshield with napkins, and our total inability to find Highway 43 this morning.)  And I think when we look back on it, we may regret the rushed pace we've kept up, but we'll still think fondly of it. That's usually what happens with nostalgia over frustrating trips.

Thank God.

NickC---

27 July 2005

Well, I'm not going to dwell on U-haul day.  It was pretty tense, but we got most of what we needed done done, and we got to pack most of what we were hoping we could, plus some more.  Sure, it it about 92 out with 95% humidity. Sure, Meghan and I respond to this sort of stress in totally opposite ways.  But with God's grace and my parents  help, we got packed yesterday and this morning.  Whew.

Only two real glitches today, apart from stresses over last-minute packing.  First, the Blazer wouldn't start.  The battery was totally and utterly drained. And, of course, it was pouring rain for both the last minute packing and the Blazer's not starting.  Dad jumped the battery with his truck, and it was good to go.  We think maybe the U-haul electrical stuff shorted it out somehow, so I unhooked all that tonight before retiring.

The other glitches was that the route which my Dad and I concocted to save time to avoid Chicago ended up adding like 150 miles or so to the trip.  Doesn't seem like much but when it changs 12 hours into 14 hours of driving, it feels like it.  Oh well, live and learn..

Last thought for tonight: dont' stay in the Motel 6 in St. Cloud.  It's nasty.  I don't usually even mind smoking rooms, but this entire building reeks of stale, nasty cigarettes.  And the ceiling above the shower has tiles which are black with mold and mildew.  And the carpet has mildew stains.  And the first floor rooms in this building, except for Room 1, start with 3xx.

NickC---

25 July 2005

Days 'till we pick up the U-haul: Uh, one.

So when I said the 28th in the last 'blog, I meant the 26th.  I was looking at the wooden calendar on the wall by the outside door in the living room and didn't realize that the slider tiles hadn't been re-arranged for July yet.  Oops.   So, U-haul day is tomorrow and pull-out on Wednesday morning, bright and early.  Pretty insane around here.

I should have been updating my 'blog long before now, but ever day has pretty much been the same.  We didn't even end up getting out to the fair, unfortunately.  We still have a few things we want to do before we leave and that sort of thing, but we've been pretty wrapped up in the pursuit of housing. It's been a pretty miserable time, but there are few lights at the end of the tunnel right now...  We're working on two possibilities, one which would be with university housing and would not allow us to bring Sunbeam with us.  The other, with an apartment complex where David and Marci know the management; that one would let us bring our kitten and might entail our helping out around the complex some.  

We should know more about that by the end of the day.

Today, Meghan's dad and grandparents are coming to visit.  In fact they'll be here any minute, so I'll sign off for now and try to write more later.

NickC---

25 July 2005, pt. 2

We worked out a basic itinerary plan and I posted on the, "Move," page in the, "Adventure: Us" section of the Pithouse website, along with Google map links for each of the main travel points in our trip plan..

The days will be long, but audio book swill help it pass the time, I hope. Audio books and bathroom breaks.

Looks like we'll probably not be going with the university housing.  We did get approved finally, and I really appreciate Belinda's work on our behalf.  But it looks like the apartments that David and Marci are referring us to will let us take Sunbeam with us pretty inexpensively.  Since we appear to have that choice, we're going with the option that lets us have our kitten. :)

Meghan called Aunt Kim for advice on travelling with Sunbeam.  Aunt Kim was very encouraging about it, having met Sunbeam once before and being an excellent vet with a great heart for pets and pet owners alike.  She recommends that we let the cat have a bathroom break at least every eight hours or so and that we do it by letting her use the litterpan inside the car.  That's great, because I wasn't comfortable with the idea of putting her in a harness to use the pan outside and risking her running away 1800 miles from either home.  She said not to worry about sedatives, but that if she seems to get a car sick after a well we can give her a portion of a small dose of dramamine non-drowsy.

Not sure how much they'll sock us with lodging plus pet costs once we get into the Yukon and all that, but we'll deal with that once we get closer.  I have the first two nights' hotel reservations, and right now I'm planning on doing it in small steps like that so we have the flexibility to adjust the itinterary if we want to go shorter on some particular day.

NickC---

17 July 2005

What's the point of a rainforest level of humidity without the rainforest?

Now we're trying to get everything taken care of before we head out.  I'm tentatively thinking that the 28th will be our pull-out day, or at least our stuffing the u-haul day, but there are still some odds and ends to work out, and we theoretically don't need to be there absolutely until the 7th, assuming we don't want to roll into Fairbanks at 7:30 am on the 8th, in time for me to drop Meghan off at work and then take our stuff to wherever we're going to end up living..

Among preparations, there's the final sorting and re-packing or boxes, making sure we have a solid set of "must go" boxes as well as "maybe" boxes and so forth.  Meghan and my mom have been working on that, and been doing some good miracles with a few of our more hastily thrown together boxes from the previous move.  Hopefully we can make sure we have everything we need plus room for our broken-down assemblable furniture, the futon from Meghan's old house, and our bikes.  We should be able to have suitaces, guitars, computers, etc... in the Blazer ("Mr. Green Truck"), and our clothing vacuum bags and some other protected, flexible stuff in the rooftop carrier.

We're also working on making sure Meghan has all the professional wardrobe and accuterments she needs to feel comfortably and confidently prepared for her new job.  Clothes shopping is neither of our favorite activity.  Shopping for a PDA is not so bad. ;-)

And, importantly, we're trying to take care outstading maintenance details on Mr. Green Truck.  Next up, some noise in the rearend that's hopefully just something pretty straight-forward like a shock absorber.

Today I also got to some yardwork, trying to help Mom and Dad get the trees and stuff into shape while I can still do that.  Cut a ton of branches off the Willlow Tree to clear most of them off the roof o the garage and get rid of the worst overhang growth from where winter ice storms distorted the way the branches hang and buds could grow.  And then I went through tried to cut back most of the worst overlap in the southern row of trees.  Hopefully they still provide a good hedge but now look like distinct trees once again.  I need to do a little more wrap up there and hit the front yard like the good kind of tornado tomorrow or Tuesday evening.  

Plus the fair just started today so we need to get out and checkout the livestock houses!

Let me just wrap up by saying that it's strange how you go all summer waiting for some idea of the time-frame you're under, some clue to the pace of your next step in life -- and then when you finally get the clue you've been waiting for, the timeframe is, well, now.

Whew, I'm tired. :)

NickC---

13 July 2005

Originally posted on Tripod, moments after the last one

WOOHOO!!!!

I knew she could do it -- she's the best!!! :-D

NickC---

13 July 2005

Originally posted on Tripod

NickC---

6 July 2005

Regular gas: Alex -- $2.29; FW -- $2.47

I suppose in some ways where Ieft off yesterday might seem pretty self-obvious.  "Oh, so you're saying, Nick, that we relate to something better when we know more about it.  Really?  Amazing!"

Not quite where I was going, though.

I don't know how well my analogies always translate to the way other people think anyway, but here's the central question.  I could easily learn more about many of the people who died in London than I know about Jason's friends.  Yet learning that material wouldn't have the same "realism-ing" effect.  Why is that?

To me, the analogy works like this.  The news is data, like basic algebra with variables.  Learning more about the people involved is like putting in numbers.  Suddenly it corresponds to life, and the significance can be felt and understand.  But knowing someone who knows the people suddenly makes it a story problem, something that can be incorporated into my life.  After all, I can directly identify with Jason's friends.  Meghan and are among them, and are friends with others of his friends.  So the tragid death of Jason's friends is something I understand in a very personal way.  But, like with story problems, something I have a harder time working out and analyzing.

Well, enough philosophizing for the moment.  Today I got to do some demo with Dad.  There's an on-going project to redo parts of their bathroom, and I've been pitching in some to help where I can while we've been here.  Today we were getitng things started for the replacement of the old medicine cabinet with a newer, larger one.  Hammers, a reciprocating saw, and several pounds of dust and debris.  Woohoo!

Incidentally, Dad finished the effort this afternoon while Meghan and I were gone.  New medicine cabinet is in and looks nice!

This afternoon we went up to FW to help Tiffany and Eli help Jason and Bethany move a load into their apartment and then go out to to dinner with the whole gang.  Spent the first couple hours battling headaches and asthma from a gas leak in Jason and Bethany's oven.  Jason and I pretty much identified the problem pretty much right off at about 14:00 and by about 15:50, the maintenance guy had also figured out that there was a leak in the feed for the oven so gas wasn't even getting to the pilot light down there.  The appliance guy only works M -- F, so Jason just had him shut the gas off to the oven for now.  Ah, the adventures of moving in...

NickC---

6 July 2005

Number of dead in London bombing current tally: 49

There were several things I had planned on 'blogging about yesterday -- the reporters in the CIA undercover agent disclosure case, for instance.  And there are other things I would normally have written about today -- we just saw the Fantastic Four movie.

But today I find myself haunted by the fact that our good friend Jason learned at lunch that he lost two friends in the London bombing.

The world is no smaller than it ever was; I really dislike that particular metaphor.  But we are certainly in greater and more frequent contact and closer relationships with people around the world.  For some reason it fills me with a special horror to realize that Jason, here in Fort Wayne, IN, lost two friends in a terrorist attack a quarter-world away.  Not soldiers, not travelers, not anyone you normally worry about as they are apart from you.  Just locals.  Folks who live their lives over there just like he lives his here; folks about whom Jason probably never gave a second thought about their safety. Think about this, too: Jason himself knew a full 4% of the fatalities in this attack, and he's never set foot overseas.

I suppose as a history major such things shouldn't surprise me.  And as a technology worker (for a little while longer), the impact of the internet, communications, and travel shouldn't have a particularly novel terror or sadness for me.  Nevertheless, they do, and while it's not shaking me or depressing me, exactly, they are preoccupying my mind a bit.

Ever the wannabe philosopher, my mind is also busy trying to make sense of this impact on me.  Why is it that this situation bothers me in such a personal way?  And in general, why is it that the tragedy in London should somehow be more real to me, just because someone I know knew two of the victims?

I really hope this doesn't sound cold, so bear with me if it starts to.  I suspect it's sort of like algebra.  Algebra is in many ways easier to work out and analyze when left in variables and formulas.  Yet few of us *relate to* (become mediate with?) "x + y."  Throw in some numbers, some actual data and we can relate to it more, "1 + 2."  Change it to a story problem and it may be more difficult to work out, but it become something that either draws on internal memories or else at least helps us relate to it in a personally conceivable way, "1 apple + 2 more apples."

There's a lot of that here.  Now that I have more personal data for the London tragedy, it's harder for me to analyze, but I can't help but relate to it more truly.

NickC---

6 July 2005

Miles to go before I sleep: ~ 0.00852272727

Got this CNN article from Meghan in my e-mail today.  Pretty silly stuff, really, when you look at the logic they're using.  The headline says that pediatricians say that abstinence isn't sufficient.  What they actually go on to say is that teaching abstinence itself isn't enough, because teens can still end up pregnant once they start having sex.  Sounds like it's not the abstinence that's the problem...  After all, they're getting pregnant from sex, not from abstinence, no?  The implication (or outright statement sometimes) is that it's inevitable that teens will start having sex, and it's in that mindset that most abstinence teaching also takes place.  The idea of abstinence is not, "saving yourself until you feel ready," or "waiting until your'e really in love."  What teenager smitten in hot, furious puppy love doesn't feel like they've found, "the one."   And then what's left to save?  Abstinence is not having sex.  Abstinence is a flawless profelactic and a perfect protection against STD's.   Abstinence until a committed marriage with someone else who has practiced the same restraint is a highly effecitve lifestyle for minimizing and controlling these risks.  Teens not having sex is a pretty great way for them to not have babies or get sexual diseases.

[If I might interject a reflection on a less significant topic... yyWhile KRS-One and BDP may have forever answered the question of where rap rules the roost (Bronx and Brooklyn) in silencing MC Shan, Marley Marl and the rest of the Queens crew, there still remains the quetsion of why rappers from Phillie like Kool Moe Dee and the Fresh Prince always sounded like they had worse white guy rhythm than atual white rappers like the Beastie Boys.  Yikes!]

Hot and stuffy in the house...  Something to be said for the idea of spending all summer camping and all your time out in the open air.  Aaaahhhh.....  BTW, I haven't forgotten about uploading pictures, but I'm pretty out of it with allergies tonight so it may not happen until tomorrow.

NickC---

7 July 2005

Julie says... "It's prophylactic, not profelactic. Spelling aside, you're absolutely right."

Nick responds... "Oops.  I knew I should have spell-checked before I uploaded the updates to the 'blog.  Actually, it's a little known fact that typing errors and sloppy spelling are a sign of brilliance. The brain works too fast for the finger to keep up.  Still, neatness counts, and sloppy typing is very much un-neat."

7 July 2005

Julie says... "What about getting tongue-tied?  Is that a sign of brilliance?  My brain is faster than my mouth."

Nick responds... "Considering the proximities involved, I would think it would be far more difficult for the brain to outpace the mouth.  After all, the fingers have to look a farther distance in order to see what they're going to do, then turn back around to face the right direciton to do it.  All far more complicated.  The mouth, on the other hand (er....   well, you know what I mean......) has barely to look out of the corner of its eye (uh...  yeah...) to get the idea, enabling it to respond much more quickly. So for the brain to race beyond what the mouth can keep up with would require a much more tremendous effort from the brian.  So, huzzah, Julie!  Your brilliance has exceeded my own.  Sounds like your brain is ready for the Tour de France."

5 July 2005

No. of dead junebugs in the window sill: ~ 55

Big holiday weekend kept me away from the computer for the most part.  Between daytime excursions and letting Meggie play Dungeon Seige on Paleotablet as part of her own vacation fun times in the evening, updating the 'blog wasn't likely to happen, but all in  a very worthy cause.  Before I update you on the latest from our world, be sure to go over to the links page and check out the pages there.  My dad has spent a ton of time tinkering with his and he as a 'blog of his own now, so look into it!  Also, be sure to click around the Pithouse website because we've updated a lot of pages recently and will be updating photos very soon (like tonight or tomorrow, hopefully).

[Quick update during lunch, just to explain my absence, so there won't be much reflective in this particular 'blog...]

On Friday night, we went out to Wal-Mart and picked up a couple of cameras.  We made use of some gift cards and some gift cards and some cashflow and took the plunge, since hopefully our photography will someday soon become part of our livelihood and it's already a major part of our lifestyle.  I picked up a Canon Eos Rebel K2 (a nice 35mm SLR, my first with autofocus) and Meghan got an HP 4.1 mp digital camera.  Those purchases shaped the rest of our holiday weekend, as we spent several hours on Saturday out at Mounds State Park trying them out, drove down on Sunday afternoon to Brookville Lake, and took a couple hours' drive through the country environs of Madison County on Monday early afternoon.  All that capped off by the 4th of July show at the Anderson Speedway (figure 8's, schoolbus figure 8's, a rollover ramp, and the great fireworks show in Indiana).

OK, time to get back to work!

NickC---

29 June 2005

Regular Gas: $2.169

Past few evenings were full of various activities, including dinner last night with Meghan's mom and her brother Colin, some kind of something on Monday, and running to the credit union on Sunday night.  But never fear, I did notice amidst all that the supreme court closed session with a multitude of decisions, and how better to end lunch than to reflect on some of those decisions?

[No, we didn't watch the president's presentation last night; we were driving back from Fort Wayne; and, no, we didn't listen to it on NPR either.  I'll be honest; I know as a politically interested person I should listen to these sort of things, but the glut of news coverage these days and advance information slash analysis ensures that someone who reads and listens to a sufficient amount of news pretty much know what politicos are going to say before they step up to the microphone, and that makes it hard to get excited about press conferences and addresses.]

So, yeah, the Supreme Court  closed as it usually does; kind of like people always win gin games in the motion pictures: card, card, card, card, three cards, "Gin."  Game Over!  Here are some of what they hit:

• They affirmed the court's right to hold the reporters in the CIA leak in contempt in order to compel their identification of their anonymous sources.  On the one hand, I'm not sure that revealing the identity of someone who treasonously leaked the secret id of an undercover agent really does all that much to hurt the profession of journalism.  I mean, really, is it a big loss to the free press if they can't get future opportunities to be complicit in the destruction of the American intelligence network and imperiling of an innocent woman's life? Just the same, on the other hand, I'm not terribly comfortable with the idea of holding the press in jail to compel testimony.  Too, shouldn't crack federal investigators be able to figure this out on their own?

• The justices also rules on two, "Ten Commandment," cases.  In one, they ruled a TC monument as acceptable because it was part of a broad display of historical influences on the development of law.  In another, they ruled a posting of the TC as an establishment of religion, and therefore unacceptable.  I have libertarian impulses all over the map on this one.  After all, I don't think a posting in a court room really equates to an act of congress respecting an establishment of religion, so I think federalism suggests that this is out of the jurisdiction of the national government.  Yet nevertheless, what *is* the point of these TC cases?  It's not secular forces who want them posted; it's religious groups.  Do these groups really want them posted as historical curiosities?  No, they want them posted as acknowledgement of what they argue is the basis of our law and our society in God's law and word.  That is certainly religious intent, and raises the question of what that sort of activity has to do with the civil court system.  And let's face it -- how many of the commandments have found their way into American law?  It's not even illegal to commit adultery, let alone to covet or to worship graven images. Moreover, whose Christian faith is either bolstered by seeing the Ten Commandments when they walk into their local courthouse, or vice versa?

• File sharing...  The court issued a unanimous decision in regards to the latest case of copyright infringement using peer-to-peer file sharing software.  The ruling, weaker than has been described in a lot of press coverage, did not actually speak to the guilt or innocence of the P2P software makers, only said that, yes, it was a legitimate legal matter and worthy of a trial to consider the possible wrongdoing of those who make software and market it by encouraging its use in violations of copyright.

Well, I must get back to work now.   In the meantime, remember to look out for Zombie Dogs!

NickC---

25 June 2005

Can you imagine?  Take the best of Columbo, Cagney & Lacey, and My Two Dads, mix them together, and you have the greatest entertainment possible...

Last night, Meghan and I were thrown a going away party at Chris and Jenny McCormick's house.  It was awesome!  Their house was beautiful as always, Josh and Grace well-behaved and adorable, and the food Jenny cooked was out-of-this-world fantastic.  The ping pong was good, too, even though I didn't do so well.  At least I did a good job helping put the net up. ;-)  And, I suppose, for not having touched a ping pong paddle in four years and considering my recent vision problems in the left eye, I carried myself reasonably well.

Lots of great people were in attendance at the shin-dig -- my parents, Seth, Amber, and their grey ("blue") great Dane puppy, "Green-boy" Connor; the McCormicks, obviously; Jason, Bethany, Tiffany, Eli, and Amanda; plus Rob and Vickie Linehan.  The cream of the remaining crop, I tell ya, considering we already had the party with Meghan's side a couple weeks ago.

Highlights (apart from the food) had to include my Dad, Seth, and me messing around on banjo, acoustic bass, and six-string guitar respectively.  We didn't get through a whole lot of songs, but we had a blast trying.  The spirit of Willie Nelson was strong in the McCormick basement for a while; and Eli and me playing pingpong while the rest of the crew played a circle game of catch with a twelve lb medicine ball.

It was just cool to have so many of our good friends together and just having fun together one last time, since we're down to probably 3 -- 6 weeks left in Indiana, a lot of those busy ones.  

No matter how satisfying it is to move my life back in the direction of anthropology or how exciting it is to be moving to Alaska, it's also sad to be leaving so many great people behind.  Some people it feels like we've only just started to get to know, and it's hard to believe we're already moving on.  It's a lot easier in these days of the Internet, I know, but it's still a lot to consider...

[Quick update on the half-court front.  We pretty much solidified on a ten point game at this point, and we switch courts once someone hits five points.  Also, my dad was watching for a little while and mentioned that the game is very much like one he and Uncle Ralph used to play in their basement with bowling pins and a ball.  Cool!  The lowlight of the evening's sport was when in a second game I went up high for a ball Meggie had popped up and I spiked it right down into her face.  It was a hard shot that knocked her glasses into her eye.  She's okay, but a little bruised up.  :-( ]

One last, brief thought.  I was talking to Jenny at the party last night and as I described the move and how I felt about it, I described it as, "unreal."  I think the reason I mentioned was probably pretty accurate to: I'm preparing to move some place I've never been, unlike anyplace I've ever been.  It's hard for there to be much reality to that.  I'm looking forward to it, but it's going to feel so different once we get there, and I have no idea how different...

NickC---

23 June 2005

Getting ready to hand the tablet back over to Meghan...

More half-court tonight (read the previous 'blog, below, for the scoop on what that is), followed by some tai chi.  Good backyard workout for about an hour.  Lots of fun, lots of exercise.  I picked up a couple of kickballs today so we could improve our equipment and play it the old-school way.

[Brief side-bar interjection.  Have you read about this?  It's a supreme court ruling in which O'Connor, Rhenquist, Scalia, and Thomas all dissented. While it's silly that the local TV news (WISH-TV, Channel 8 out of Indy) headlined it as, "Hear why it's now easier for the government to take your land," I must admit that I'm incredibly uncomfortable with this ruling which now expands eminent domain to allow state governments to seize property not for their own immediate use but to hand over to private corporations or foundations who are apparently advancing the state's interests.  Not only is the immediate issue disheartening, but that sure muddies the waters.  And to think people were calling the Alexandria city government Commies when they started tagging people's houses to make them clean up trash accumulating in the front yard...].

Back to important matters: half-court.  Because we were playing with a kickball, and playing for our second night, we refined some rules and ideas about gameplay.  Seth and I probably covered some of this the first time around, but we didn't exactly document it.  Now I'm recording all this for posterity!

Foot-blocks.  It's okay to dribble with the feet, block the ball with the feet, and possible even advance the ball with the feet to get some momentum going, but it's not at all okay to kick the ball the across the half-court line with the feet.  The ball is to be propelled  in game play by the bat alone.

Goal-tending.  In order to keep scoring lively and gameplay fast, the players cannot crowd the goal.   When lining up "in position," they should be no closer to the goal than halfway from the half-court line.

Stop-ball.  It's a stop-ball when the ball is standing still because it's been blocked, spun, or has come to a stop against an obstacle.

Serve-ball.  It's a serve-ball when the ball is standing still because of a score or because it's mired out of bounds.  A serve-ball can be picked up and moved into the field of play by hand, though it cnanot be served from the hand or from a toss from the hand.

In-position.  Players must assume stances "in-position" at either a stop-ball or a serve-ball.

Spun.  A ball is spun when a strike from a bat gets a little more grip and so counters the active spin on the ball and puts a reverse spin, causing it spin in place and effectively lose all its momentum.

Another possible rule?  Another thing rolling around in my mind is the possibility on a limit to full strikes.  What I would think is appropriate might be to allow unlimited dribbling, but only three full strikes (counting a pop-shot as a single strike).

NickC---

23 June 2005

Finishing up lunch in the Galleria....

Last night I got to introduce Meghan to quite possible the most intense backyard sport ever: halfcourt.  Invented, as far as I know, by Seth and me sometime ~ 1990, it's kinda like the best of rap music: it bites off all the best of what's already out there and interpolates some of its own clever twists.

Ok, when I say, "invented by Seth and me," that probably means I bullied the poor guy into doing it and we changed the rules as we went to reduce bruising, bloodshed, and balls lost over the fence.

Anyway, it starts off sorta like field hockey, but with whiffle ball bats and kickballs rather than hockey sticks and field balls, because we tended to play our games with what we had on hand and could adapt.  (I'll have to tell you about playing tires sometime.  That was an enduring classic!)  We named a couple of spaces as goals, and went to it.  But then we realized that whacking away at kickballs with whiffle ball bats as we chased each other around, we were probably gonna end up hitting each other more than anything, so we defined a line, halfway through the yard as uncrossable.  A bat could cross it, but not a person.    We quickly discovered that this increased the speed and intensity of the game, because there were more long shots, and so more diving for the ball, more crazy attempts to hit a ball in midair, and all the good stuff that makes backyard sports something beautiful to participate in.

Last night, Meghan and I didn't have any kickballs, so we used whiffleballs.  Not as fast, because the grass slows them down more, and not as much air play, but still fun.  

As it stands, here are the  rules for halfcourt in the Corduan backyard.  Adapt to your own circumstances. :)

Equipment: Two yellow whiffleball bats.  One kickball.

Playing field: The backyard, played lengthwise.  One goal is defined primarily by where the raspberry bush used to be.  The other goal is basically in line with the cement block of the back porch.  The court is divided into half by an invisible line which runs from the willow tree to the rosebud.   Playing equipment may cross the line, but players may not.

Play: The ball is served in one of two ways.  It may either be stroked from a still position on the ground, or it may be popped into the air by a sharp rap from above and then propelled forward in an airborne fashion.   The ball is retrurned and counter-returned until one player scores by hitting the ball into a goal.  The ball is then served again.  Play continues until exhaustion ensues or dark overwhelms.

Scoring: Basic scoring is one point for each goal scored.

Alternative Rules: Certain boundaries may be determined to be out of bounds (for instance, the willow tree to the north, the house to the east, the hostas to the south, and the picnic table to the west).  If this is done, serving may take place after any out-of-bounds strike.  Scoring could also be adjusted to increase the intensity of the game by scoring 2 points for a goal and 1 point for getting the ball out-of-bounds, forcing both players to chase after the ball on every hit.

NickC---

17 June 2005

Heard an interesting story on NPR's, "Day to Day," over lunch this afternoon.  Mike Pesca did a timely and insightful piece on Megan's law.  As an increasingly assured Libertarian, I've always been aware of the concerns about this law as an infringement of privacy.  As someone who believes in redemption, I've also appreciated that laws like this in some ways rob a person of his or her right to assert a new reformed lifestyle and to reap the rewards of that hard-earned, refreshed moral standing.  But as someone who also believes in the necessity of living with the outcome of choices, I've also known that these are the risks a person takes when they commit a sexual (or other) offense, and that's all there is to it.  You could even argue that there's something salutary in suffering through the humiliations and frustrations post-redemption.

But Pesca's piece brings up another aspect of the law I'd never really considered.  Once a parent gets the information, what does it serve them?   Do they warn their kids about the perpetrator and introduce them to the idea of an immediate evil among them?  Do they act differently to protect their children?  Do they go about life normally, armed with the knowledge but not acting on it?  Beyond even the personal scope of the intimate, internal struggle each parent equipped with that information must suffer, what is even the range of uses of the information?

As I was contemplating this, I reflected on something I'd jotted down in a philosophy journal I was keeping during a graduate course a couple years ago.   It was in the context of some Hegelian reflections on sharing secrets, specifically a turn I took on the topic of sharing another person's secrets.

"I was reflecting this evening on the question of secrets again, and I wondered, What of secrets which are not self-speech. What comes of telling another man's secrets? I cannot say him. I can speak of him, for that is objective, but I can only say myself, for that is subjective.

Even so -- if self speech has the power of negation, is it of self-negation or other-negation? When I authenticate myself through an act of will, it might be said dialectically that I and my intention are cancelled and subsumed into the "new," more authenticated self. It is natural that the type of negation correspond to the object of the act. Since the subject is the content of the speech, then it must be the self which is (contradictorily) negated.

If the sharing of secrets or self-saying is self-negation, then my utterance of another man's secret is not an attempt at mere negation but an attempt to assert myself into the role of initiating his self-negation, the most intensely subjective control a man has.

Upon reflection, this cannot be, for when I say myself I am the content but not the object. If it is the object which is negated in the movement, then it is the listener who is destroyed. When I share another man's secret then, I am (a) robbing him of an opportunity to assert / authenticate himself; and (b) infringing on his subjectivity by killing in his name. Therefore if no ethics bound on self-authentication, sharing another man's secret would be a three-fold act of assertion.

Half-baked and quarter-understood philosophical ideas and jargon aside, the basic idea as it relates to this Megan's Law topic is this: is the real result of Megan's Law the preparation of parents and protection of children, or is it actually the further punishment of the offender by sharing his or her secrets and thereby asserting ourselves over the offender and robbing the offender of some measure of humanity.

Now, I'm not sure I'm saying that's bad.  Whether I believe strongly in the rights of the accused or not, I'm no light touch when it comes to punishment of the convicted.  As a parent I would likely take a great deal of satisfaction in asserting my authority of some creep or pervert in my neighborhood.

But perhaps it's time for a little honest study of Megan's Law to make sure we know why we're doing what we're doing -- and to make sure it's the best and most effective way of doing that.

NickC---

9 June 2005

 It's indisputable that urbanization, population growth and modern technology have robbed us of most experiences of true remoteness.  Certainly, few Americans experience in their everyday lives anything which approximates the sensational isolation in which most of their forbearers commenced life in the town or area they now call home.  It is difficult for any of us to appreciate either the romance of the land which called white folk to spread ever further across the land, and which compelled so many of those who preceded white folk either into mobile lifestyles or into ways of life which included frequent wanderings and forays in the country.

Yet, to think that any experience of that remoteness is out of the grasp of modern Americans would be hasty.  I suffer from no Jack London syndrome wherein I find the only true way to live is in the violent clash of man and nature facing off for life.  Nor do I in any great way fall prey to the wilful ignorance or downright villainous simplification of life which comprise the ignominious romance of the so-called, "Noble Savage."  But just the same, even in my own limited travels I have experienced both the wonder and peacefulness of natural solitude and the gut-wrenching awareness of myself as potential victim of nature with few human-crafted resources to call upon or surround myself with.

I've often experienced small portions of this in fairly accessible situations.  I grew up near Mounds State Park in Anderson, IN and was able to get a taste for solitude standing around the mounds on quiet days with few other park visitors. I experienced a greater portion of it on my first truly solo camping track at the Backbone in Iowa, where the state park was nearly empty and I had no companions to help me figure out what the creatures were who snuffled around my tent at night.  Meghan and I experienced another step when we camped at Horseshoe Lake near Collinsville, Illinois for our honeymoon.  Though it's very close to east St. Louis, the campground at the lake is on an isolated peninsula, practically an island, and one night were caught there in our tent in the midst of a horrendous after-hours thunderstorm with no others nearby and no ranger on duty in the state park.

Last summer, though, we took a trip out west, and in Wyoming we experienced a great deal of this solitude.  I'm sure I will return to the subject in later 'blogs so I won't dwell on specific adventures, but there we did truly experience both extremes: awe as we sat in a place where we saw and heard no people, only Creation at its quietest and most magnificent; and fear as we contemplated our utter aloneness at times and our inability to rely on anyone else or anything other their our supplies ad our own ingenuity, should something unfortunate happen.

I was reminded of all this today as we drove up to Meghan's grandparents' cottage near Au Sable and the Big Twin Lakes in northern Michigan.  You get off I-75, head through Frederic, and then there's nothing.  Occasionally, a dark house, sometime a passing car.  But, generally, the sort of place where you know that a car emergency would mean a lot of walking and a lot of looking out for coyotes.  The sort of place where it doesn't take much imagination to conjure up bandits in the woods or bears stepping out into the road.  And you drive 25 minutes deeper into that, and end up here, in a nice split level cottage with no hope of wireless Internet and neighbors that you cannot hear or see because of the woods which envelope you.

And then you're struck.  Struck by the beauty of the serene northern pine forest.  Struck by the attraction of the nature and lured by its promise of calm, patient inspiration.  Struck by the inability to talk to friends on IM or a cellphone.  Struck by the need to rely on yourself so much if anything were to wrong.  Struck by the magnificence of the pines and threat of the thunderstorm.

And then you know that there are still glimpses, available to anyone who looks, of that sometimes bucolic and sometimes hostile natural world and natural way of life.

NickC---