Je Suis Prete.... gotcha!

(Gosh, I hope I remembered the conjugation right from high school French)

So, last night after getting home, I went back to the books. One of my side projects lately has been putting together a database application that ties together all this lore I've been trying to pick up over the last God knows how many years ... this fiddle tune came from such-and-such a place, around this time when that was happening, and oh isn't that interesting... - that kind of stuff.

Mostly, I just got tired of remembering the gist of something I read once upon a time, and not having the book at hand to look up the details. (Yes, scatterbrain doesn't begin to cover it some days. I definitely got my Mom's ditz gene - but being forced to rekey it all into the DB sure helps it stick.)

So anyhow, last night I was in the depths of Clan Fraser history - the "headman" family daddy's line was attached to back in the day, best we can tell. I still have more than a few bits and bobs in Hunting Fraser tartan about from the events we used to go to in Appalachia, and a clan badge or two in the jewelry box. Which was why when I got to the bit about The Lovat Scouts something was eerily familiar.

Who knew... the OG snipers of the modern world are distant kin. I mean, when I think about it, a common ancestor makes sense, as much as riflery and just sheer cussedness are longstanding traditions in the Appalachian hills as well. But it is a cool tie to find nonetheless.


I might have to go play with a rifle sometime soon as a tribute.
Not to mention learn the tune.

Thanks for the traditions, distant cousins. C'mon over sometime and we'll trade ya grits for porridge and swap fiddle tunes. :)

Book Corner

So, "Flying Buddy" loaned me a little novel y'all wanting a taste of Alaska might like. Seems there's a lady up here who likes writing stuff with a local flair... from reading most of the series, he says she seems mighty fond of the troopers. :)

The book is Breakup, by Dana Stabenow. Basically "the adventures of amateur detective and plucky heroine Kate Shugak in the middle of Denali Park." (Note to those Outside, "Park" in this context means something entirely different here than a strip of combed grass down the block from the elementary school. More like "9500 square miles of mostly wilderness that will make you dead if you're stupid... and sometimes just when you're unlucky.")

So, that said, on to the book.

The bad... there's a definite "Mary Sue" feel to the lead, the "mystery" isn't so much a mystery as a nasty situation essentially spelled out halfway through the book, and there's a lifetime's worth of improbable risky events in the first chapter or two.

In other words, this isn't a book you'll be reading for the plot.

However, unlike say Northern Exposure or some people's movies, the quirky Alaskan culture is communicated pretty well in this one. From ground looped cubs to homestead caches to the politics of corporation dividend time... the zeitgeist of bush Alaska comes across pretty well here. So if you've always kinda wondered, it's worth the few dollars for the ride.




Oh, and one more thing - unrelated to the story, but to clear up one misconception the book leaves. Bears will be bears, and that's understood. It doesn't mean they aren't hunted down and killed once they get a taste of human meat... even if the human was asking for it.

Hope for the libertarians

In the midst of all this economic nightmarishness, I wanted to post a little glimmer of glee that's been floating around techie circles this last week or so.

Google tells China to straighten up and fly right

The summary of the story has made it to the popular press. China tried to peek in Google's servers to snoop on some Chinese folk. Google said "nu-unh" and removed all their search filtering, have started delaying products, and are otherwise retaliating.

More to the point, Google is deciding how involved they're going to be there, not the other way around.

That's right. A private company, that didn't even exist fifteen years ago, in an industry that didn't exist a generation ago - now has the confidence to talk smack to one of the lead runners-up for superpower status on this little ol' ball of blue.

Now I'll be honest - I'd been tiring of Google left-coast PC for ages, and finally got sick of 'em with the '08 election, and their own little "look how awesome Obama is" preplanned searches on their homepage all through the thing. I skipped for Bing as soon as I saw it did as good a job and wouldn't proselytize to me.

BUT.

If you like the idea of say Neal Stephenson's claves, or the waning of State power... mark this week on your calendar. This is the week a company told a country to stick it.... and got away with it.

It may have happened here and there before... but for good or ill - it's gonna happen again, and likely more often.

Hike! Hike!

Well, that's one more from the "do before I die" list done... I finally got the chance to run a dog sled!

See, late last year as the first snow started to fly, I asked the guy at work if I could have a ride sometime. It always seemed so quintessentially Alaskan that it would be silly to be up here and not try it once. "Sure," said he "just wait till the trails get good and I'll let you know."

He mentioned a ride on the sled could get... aromatic.. at times, as the dogs are trained to just "let fly" when they need to attend to nature's call, and the debris has a way of peppering the sled. Cheery.

So anyhow, last week he asked if I still wanted a ride.

"YES!" said I.

"Good," said he - "there's a race this weekend. You're in it."

Ummm..... so yeah.

Training consisted of learning four commands ("hike, gee, haw, whoa" - pretty self explanatory) and being shown the ice brake, the ice hooks, and the sliding "slow up" mat. And that was pretty much it. Oh - and don't let go of the sled or lines if you have to check on a dog.

And that was it. Me and three Siberians and a sled.
Then it was just time to wait for the start.


Yes, it was a rush!

We didn't place at all well I'm afraid - once out of sight of Daddy the dogs wanted to trot more than run - at times I was pushing as much as they were pulling. All in all though, it was still a blast - especially on the downhill runs. I can see why folks still love to do this!

Best of all though.. one more of those truly unique human experiences out there I can now check off and say "hey... I know what that's like."

Gosh is this a fun ol' world to play in! It's like a giant amusement park, that no matter how long you live, you'll never run out of new and exciting things to try. :)