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Today, Ted S, Brent and I packed up and headed for Kwethluk to deploy their new Open Directory server. First we brought up internal DNS and configured recursion back to the central DNS server in the district office, and then configured the new X-serve as an OD replica. It all went pretty smoothly, and then we spent the afternoon migrating quite a few members of staff from local user accounts to new mobile OD accounts which was slow, but effective.

Kwethluk is a smart village, and a good size school, and was nice to get out the office again and feeling like we were really accomplishing something. Getting a good number of users running off the new server was good too, and we’re planning on returning to Oscarville to bring some more of their users online as well.

Driving along the ice road to Kwethluk, a mile or so out of town we came across a rather interesting marker:

The rear of the sign read ‘April Fools’, so nice to know there’s a little good humor going on

Heading back to Bethel this afternoon, the ice road started getting busy with a number of cars on the road. Still felt a little weird being on the river doing 40-50mph in a truck!

When we got back in to Bethel I saw Dean and arranged to meet up tomorrow evening to check over new apartment and get the keys for moving in. Will try to head to city board and utilities to get water + sewer and electricity set up tomorrow (along with paying the quite outrageous deposits…) and plan for telephone to be switched over and see if I can grab DSL with them too. Am wanting to ditch cable completely as new apartment has Dish Network for TV, and GCI is already expensive for internet service really, although good, and will have extra charges if I’m not taking cable TV and stuff with them. Nuts to that!

Made it home to Bethel okay earlier with all my food making it along with me. Was glad I chose to get all my alcohol shipped back so I didn’t have to mess with mailing any dried foods back, so brought one rubbermaid of meat products and another of dried food / sauces with me as checked baggage. Very excited to be getting keys to new apartment tomorrow if I get time, especially with some good stuff being flown in from Walmart bush order in the next week or so too. Not that excited to be back to work though.

The last few days in Anchorage have been pretty good. On Saturday I met up with Tim to stay at his house in the Muldoon area. Was nice to have some company, know he enjoyed it too. We headed out to the ice hockey on the evening where the Aces won 2-0 to lead the first round of the playoffs 2-0 after winning on the Friday evening. The remaining games are down in Utah starting tomorrow. We got good seats behind the net where both the Aces goals were scored.

I’d also been for a wander down by Point Worzanof on Saturday as the tide was out and got some good photos looking across the inlet. The ice is breaking up pretty much right round the area, leaving big chunks of ice stuck in the mud along the shore. This is looking across to downtown Anchorage with the Chugach mountains behind it:

On Sunday I took a walk around Connor’s Lake area. The lake itself was still pretty much frozen over, but gave so good views across to the Chugach range and Flat Top mountain:

Monday I met up with Damond for lunch which was really nice. I’d needed it after Friday. He’s always so encouraging and full of energy and enthusiasm. He’s hoping to get all the paperwork sorted to become a fishing in the Kenai area this summer, and took me back to his house to teach me the basics of casting with a fly rod and then making up flies. Would definately like to get out this summer fishing, and was a good few hours. I then skipped down to get an eye exam since on Friday it had highlighted a little weakening in my left eye. I’ve been struggling with eye strain a little recently, and was offered glasses even though it’s a pretty mild prescription on the lenses. Since the insurance will cover it all, I got a pair, and am surprised how much of a difference they make. I never really thought I had problems, and the exam didn’t point to really needing them, but they do sharpen things up quite a bit:

I knew years of constant computer use would catch up, am impressed I’ve gone so long without them, and hopefully these will help keep down on the strain so they don’t get too bad. To make up for it, I then went to Gold Rush and got 4 cases of beer shipped back to Bethel. Should last a week or so…

Am sat at the airport waiting to fly back to Bethel at the moment making the most of internet, was weird not having it really for 3 days at Tim’s. Did figure out mobile Gmail access via my cell phone which helped, but was late last night before I even thought of the idea. Nice to know for the future. Yes, I’m that sad and get withdrawl symptoms Seems like a clear afternoon, so flight should be on time and fairly smooth.

My flight in to Anchorage last night was uneventful. Wasn’t busy at all, so we weren’t crammed in to the ‘departure lounge’ such that Bethel has, and then was quiet on the plane with plenty of free seats so no-one next to me. Anti-social much ? I got a rental car no problem, not as expensive as I expected for a 5-day rental with all the extra fees + insurance. Puffin Inn is louder than I’d hoped for, though my room is right next to Spenard Rd., but for a little over $50 a night I can’t complain. Am meeting up with Tim tomorrow and staying with him the rest of my trip as he’s flying in this evening for a week and has a house in town. Hockey tomorrow night beckons us.

I got a bunch of shopping down at Walmart – thankfully their bush order department is back up + running so I could simply drop it off with them to get mailed back. Makes it easier than packing everything up in rubbermaid’s myself and paying $17 a piece with the postal service. I think I might get a bottle or case of beer or 6 now I can have it shipped back direct from Gold Rush too. Food shopping I’ll leave until Monday or Tuesday. I also got to enjoy the delights of Dairy Queen, something definately missing in Bethel, as well as picking up a pay as you go cell phone from AT&T. I’m sick of playing phone tag with friends trying to catch up when I’ve been in Anchorage the last few times, and as much as I hate them out in Bethel, is at least vaguely useful here.

Today brought the end of a dream though, at least for the foreseeable future. Actually, I ripped out a whole bunch of text here I spent ages writing. I think I needed to try and get it out, but don’t necessarily want to post it. Anyways, I couldn’t be issued a medical certificate for flying due to another medical appointment earlier today so the whole idea of staying in Bethel over the summer and learning to fly is out the window. Raises more questions as to the validity of staying in Bethel in general now unfortunately.

I still have options aside from learning to fly – have thought about aviation maintenance for quite some time (both UAA and UAF offer courses), and studying digital arts and design is ever growing in appeal with a view to doing more with my photography. I want to try and get the green card renewal all square before getting back to thinking *where* I want to be. I know I just have too many things I’m trying to juggle all at once, at least having some things taken away lessens the load. I keep this quote in my head a lot too.

This post jumped around a lot. I need some sleep and the knowledge I can go get 8 cases of beer shipped out to me tomorrow…

I got a bunch of mail today, partly as I hadn’t been to check my box in a few days I got some large format prints of a few photos, some of which I’m not happy with as the colours are just horrible (Snapfish may well be getting an e-mail expressing my displeasure for what they charged), along with a stack of medical insurance stuff from the chiropractic treatment. I think I’m fairly squared up on that as downed a good chunk of change last week whilst I was there. I just don’t understand the billing over here, is so different to back in England. Am dreading needing to get a prescription for anything as that becomes quite a paper-chase. I did tell Dr Chris today during my session that yesterday was the first time in months, if not longer, that I’ve got out of bed without some kind of lower back pain. Only lasted a few minutes until the little niggles came back, but is noticeably improving.

I also got three letters from the immigration services. One was a nice letter that was re-routed from Tunt telling me my green card was expiring and I better do something about, the second was a receipt of my renewal (so I guess negated the first letter…), and the third is an appointment for biometrics in Anchorage for next Tuesday. Need to see Ted at work tomorrow as I’m flying in this Thursday evening for some medical stuff on Friday anyway, so will try to extend with a couple of vacation days and come back Tuesday evening instead. At least gets everything out the way until I’m called in for an interview. Processing times based on their online service center is about 6 months. Timing on biometrics appointment could have been a lot worse though as $500 just to go in for fingerprints is silly – least it will only be a $75 change fee on flights, and just need to find someone to mooch a place to stay in the meantime.

After a week to recover, some photos from Cama’i The Tundra Drums has some awesome photos as well by Beth Skabar. I have a couple of rolls of 35mm still to develop, one of which was from down by the stage, whereas all my digital photos of the dancers were from in the booth. But, this was setup on Thursday evening – Pat up setting up one of the 4 banks of lighting:

By Friday afternoon, we pretty much had everything up and running. From left to right – house lights controller, main light bank controllers, programmable coloured light bank controller, video distribution switches, three MacBooks for stage backdrop data projectors, Yamaha audio mixing deck, 4-way video display for arena video cameras, and main stage video camera (think that’s all about right!):

On with the show. Chefornak Dancers from Friday evening:

Scammon Bay elder Mary Ann Sundown. Trying to be creative with this photo – we projected video of young kids, elders, interesting dance routines on the stage backdrop during the performances:

A young dancer with the Yuraret Dancers group:

The Akiuk Grizzlies:

Who had an awesome little kid that stole the show everytime he was up there! This was his third encore on Saturday:

A close-up of the Emmonak drummers providing the music for their dancers:

Beth creatively figured out a shot of ‘the crew’ – rather than something squeezed in to the sound + light booth, us on the delightful steps up + down to the booth (where all out equipment had be hauled to + from as well…). Pat, the ringleader; Tim, head chef; Marty, farm boy from South Dakota that took a wrong turn for the weekend; and me, problem causer + slacker:

And finally, to close off the festival on Sunday evening, Kaluiarmute Kinguliarit:

I’ll probably have a few more to go on Flickr, and hopefully get round to developing the 35mm films pretty soon too. Overall, Cama’i really was great fun, and Marty is seemingly all set for coming back up from South Dakota again for it next year! He’s either very brave or very foolish (probably a combination!).

Last night was the K300 Kids Race, a chance for 13-17 year olds to race a 7-dog team 10 miles up to the Hoffman fish camp for a 30 minute layover of hotdogs and beans before racing back to Bethel. 9 teams raced and everyone seemed to have fun. I rode up to camp with Bev Hoffman in their truck which was the more comfortable way to arrive! This was 2nd + 3rd place mushers coming in to camp:

A little while later, Alison Dahl coming in to camp:

The dogs seemed to enjoy a bit of a rest after running through the soft powder snow:

Although these two guys didn’t need quite as much of a dusting off:

The camp itself was pretty well set up, with Crowley providing the food + drinks. The family were cooking up hot dogs and beans, with juice on hand too. Everyone seemed to enjoy the bit of a break and hanging out.

Rested and warmed up, the mushers then turned round to head back to Bethel. This is Clarence Kalistook pulling out of the checkpoint:

Back in Bethel, Williann Evan was the first musher back, winning by a little over 20 seconds:

There were a few close finishes, including Moses Nick and Shawn Larson in 5th + 6th:

A very nice evening to be out playing on the river, this is Megan Stanton pulling in to Bethel:

Finally, a group shot of the all the kids that took part in the race:

Hopefully there’ll be a Sunday fun run or two yet before spring break up, as I’ve really enjoyed the K300 races recently. I’m in Anchorage next weekend and maybe the weekend after, so might miss any that are put on, though have at least made the most of what races there has been. Other than the Spring 50 I couldn’t get to on time, have got to all the other races Good times!

“Er, I’ve never driven the road to Oscarville, but I’m pretty sure this is taking us off the river to Napaskiak, Ted”…

We got there in the end, and spent a frustrating number of hours rebuilding what should have their new Open Directory replica due to yet another IP conflict. 6+ hours later and no lunch, we finally finished, but only let us set up one teacher bound to the directory. Was nice to get out the office to a village though:

Oscarville itself was about as expected, an awful lot smaller than Tunt. I think there’s only about 40 people or so live there. Didn’t make me miss living in the villages, though did make me wonder how different things may had been to only have been 10 minutes out of Bethel and with a couple of other villages less than that distance away too.

Coming back, less than 200 yards out of Oscarville Ted dumped us on a little snow drift After shovelling a snow out the way of the wheels and with Ken and I pushing, the truck popped right out and off we went again. Thankfully we’re not heading to Kwethluk tomorrow based on Ted’s driving, though has at least given me plenty of ammunition for winding him up for a few days at least!

On Tuesday I threw a sick day. I felt like crap after all the business of Cama’i, and had picked up a nice chesty cough. Having no heat all Monday evening didn’t help. But, I picked myself up and was back in work today. I did have our Apple engineer threatening to wrestle me to the ground and give me a double wet-willy (he’s a big bloke, I wouldn’t have fought back) after spending an hour troubleshooting mobile Open Directory account synchronization problems off-site when the personal firewall is up. Bizarrely, log in sync worked, just not on demand, scheduled, or log out. A smile about April Fool’s didn’t cut it, but he saw the funny side of it, and was actually quite interesting and gives us more to poke around with as to when the firewall is actually brought up and if the log in sync runs differently as a result. Tomorrow I’m being allowed out the office again to head a few miles downriver to Oscarville to deploy their new Open Directory replica which should be good fun.

This evening was the K300 Kids Race, a 20 mile round trip race up river to the Hoffman fish camp and back, with a 30 minute layover for hotdogs, beans, and juice. I snagged a ride up in a truck with Bev Hoffman (I promised my chiropractor I wouldn’t bounce and shake along the river on a *snowmobile*, didn’t mention anything about a *truck* ), and got some good photos over the layover whilst grabbing a hot dog and juice to boot. All the kids had fun, and I’ll try to get some of my photos up here tomorrow. Have processed most of them and passed a few on to Casie for the K300 site, but too tired to edit them down for here tonight.

But, was quite weird tearing along the river in a truck, first time I’ve headed on to the ice road other than on a snowmobile. Was good fun, even with our little spin! A few miles down to Oscarville tomorrow should be cool too.