alvin's blog

Alaska weather report: I haven't written much here lately, as I've been busy launching my new Mat-Su Valley Programming website (see Palmer and Wasilla, Alaska website design), but strong winds have absolutely been pounding on Palmer, Alaska for the last 72 hours or mo

Summary: Joe Miller's legal challenges cost the State of Alaska $268,000.

It looks like the costs for the state of Alaska to defend itself against the Joe Miller senate campaign challenges were approximately $268,000. An Anchorage Daily News story on the Alaska state budget overrun included this blurb:

Elections normally cost the Law Department no more than $200,000 annually, but this fiscal year, which began July 1, the cost of defending the state on election matters had exceeded $467,963 by Dec. 31.

Looking for some "geek" Valentine's Day gift ideas? Look no further than my "Valentine's Day geek gift ideas" list, with a selection of cool geek gift ideas from ThinkGeek.com, and some "luxury" chocolates from a French chocolate company. My Valentine's geek gift ideas include:

Dan Rather's Lisa Murkowski story: Wow, this line from Dan Rather's Huffington Post article on Lisa Murkowski just blew me away:

As for Joe Miller, Murkowski told us she might not have challenged him at all had he been more gracious during her concession call.

Wow. Of course we don't know if that's true or not, but if so, had Joe Miller just been a little nicer, Ms. Murkowski may not have run her now-famous write-in campaign for Alaska Senator.

Alaska's Marmot Day: In the Lower-48, February 2nd is "Groundhog Day", but in Alaska, thanks to the former governor and another Republican from Wasilla, Alaska, February 2nd is Marmot Day. This day was just put into effect last year (2010), and at this point it essentially doesn't mean anything.

It seems that Alaska doesn't have many (any?) groundhogs, so in an effort to have a day that is a little more meaningful here, this day in Alaska is "Marmot Day", apparently because we have a lot of marmots.

I haven't figured out exactly what Radio Free Palmer is, but I just learned about them when I saw that they offered free internet access at one of the local coffee shops (Vagabond Blues).

According to their website, Radio Free Palmer:

Free Function Point Analysis software: This post isn't too related to Alaska, except for my new domain name: Sleetmute.com. Sleetmute is actually the name of a very small town in Alaska (see Sleetmute on Wikipedia), probably most famous for being about 200 miles from the fictional Cicely, Alaska in the tv series Northern Exposure. But for me, Sleetmute is something else: A free Function Point Analysis software tool.

I don't mean to make light of recent deaths in Alaska in any way, but people in Alaska have died in a variety of different ways lately. The recent deaths include:

This is very disappointing to read, there was a murder in Trapper Creek, Alaska last night. The Anchorage Daily News reports that a Trapper Creek man, age 37, shot and murdered his neighbor, Robert Carey (age 66), and also shot his wife, Verna, who survived the shooting.

Sorry I haven't written much here lately, I've been busy, busy, busy. The most important news for this website is that I'm moving. I signed a lease on an apartment in Palmer, Alaska, and I'll be finishing the move-in process this week.

Somewhere around here I have a photo of the awesome view from the new apartment in Palmer ... wait ... here it is: