Is a geek a nerd?

For those of you that always wondered what a "nerd" is, or where the word comes from, here is the page for you.

Artistic obligations

This has been a good month for Inari artistically. First, she had two pieces accepted into the "64th Parallel" juried exhibition, which is basically a competition between artists in the interior. One of her pieces received an honorable mention award for being one of the best pieces in the show.

Currently, the MFA (Masters of Fine Arts) students are displaying their work at the university's gallery. Inari has two pieces there, one of which is featured in this weeks edition of the student newspaper. Check it out, but ignore all the typos.

Being married to an artist makes me feel a little inspired to become more artistic. Since I clearly can't paint or draw "fantastical images", I've resorted to photography. Here are a couple of photos that I've taken recently. Can you guess what they are? (The second one is probably easier to figure out than the first.)

Cut off from the world

Yesterday we received a reminder of how isolated we are from the world. There are two fiber optics cables leaving Fairbanks; one heads towards Valdez, the other towards Anchorage. The cable to Valdez was damaged last week when a major storm system (a "chinook") blew into the state and caused major flooding. The second cable was accidentally cut during construction. Whoops! The result is that we had no internet access and no long distance phone service. They managed to repair the cable yesterday evening, but still, it makes you wonder what would happen if there was a major disaster. Apparently our line of communication with the rest of the world is quite fragile, and at the same time there are only a few roads leaving from Fairbanks. One heads south to Anchorage, another to the Yukon Territory or to Valdez, and the third goes straight to the Arctic Ocean.

Thank you Anna, for making such wonderful cookies

Our local Fred Meyer (grocery store) has recently expanded and diversified its international foods section, which means that we now have a steady supply of Anna's gingerbread cookies.


Though they may not be as tasty as Inari's grandma's gingerbread cookies, finding them at the store was still a cause for celebration. To make sure that I no longer have to import them from the United States, I've decided to single-handedly make it worthwhile for Fred Meyer to keep selling them - since my discovery I've purchased one box of cookies per day! Now I'm just hoping for pickled herring, Finncrisp, marzipan, ...