alvin's blog

If Sarah Palin can be blamed for increasing a level of violent talk in public that may have contributed to the recent tragic shooting in Arizona, can she also be blamed for a customer in Wasilla, Alaska threatening to "shoot everyone" at the local MEA (Matanuska Electric Association)?

On a recent trip to the Wasilla MEA, I noticed they had built a new wall in the front lobby. When I asked about the wall, I was told that an irate customer had threatened to "shoot everyone", and the wall was then built as a response to that threat.

I'll skip all the details for now -- you can read them in the link below -- but the important thing is that over 150 malnourished Siberian Huskies and Alaskan Malamutes have been rescued from a negligent breeder in the Mat-Su Valley here in Alaska, and these dogs could really use your help. This includes thirty potentially very cute, furry, cuddly little puppies.

Sorry I haven't taken any time to post updates here lately, I've been very busy. I'm trying to finish getting my "How I Sold My Business, A Personal Diary" book fully published online. Hopefully that will be completed soon, but it will most likely be offline most of the day today.

Sorry I haven' taken much time to write here lately, I've been very busy with two projects that are occupying most of my time.

December 27, 2010: I believe the Gin Gin 200 dog sled race is the first Alaska dog sled race of 2010. I don't know too much about it yet, so I'll just share this link to the Gin Gin 200 website, and start reading more about it myself.

I'm short on time once again, but this article in the Anchorage Daily News strongly implies that Joe Miller's legal battle for the Alaska Senator position has been primarily bank-rolled by a conservative Senator from South Carolina named Jim DeMint. According to the article, Joe Miller has raised $250,000 since the election ended, "most of it from DeMint."

Alaska Senate election news: Alaska's Joe Miller just lost his Alaska Supreme Court battle on all counts. The Alaska Suprement Court issued this statement regarding Mr. Miller's legal challenges:

"We affirm the decision of the Superior Court in all respects," the justices wrote in an order handed down early Wednesday afternoon. "There are no remaining issues raised by Miller that prevent this election from being certified."

My Alaska Bridge to Somewhere project: While nobody has asked me what bridge I'd like to build in Alaska, my first choice is -- and has always been -- a bridge to make it much faster to get from Anchorage to the Kenai Peninsula. The current long drive around the Turnagain Arm is certainly nice for first-time tourists -- especially if you don't mind getting in a caravan behind a slow-moving RV until your head explodes. But after you've been down that road a few times, what you really want to do 98% of the time is just get to the Kenai Peninsula.

Some how I managed to go through the day without noting that yesterday (December 21, 2010) was the Winter Solstice. For Alaskans -- and anyone suffering from SADD -- this most importantly means that the days are no longer getting shorter, and are indeed now getting longer. On December 21st we lost about another six seconds of sunlight, but starting on December 22nd, we're gaining about five seconds of sunlight per day.

Unfortunately I don't have a good zoom lens for my Pentax K-x camera, so I wasn't able to get any great Alaska lunar eclipse photos last night. But, I did manage to eek out this small photo, and if you click on it, you'll see a much larger (4.4 MB) photo of the very clear Wasilla, Alaska sky last night: