News

I'm a little behind schedule, but nonetheless, I am getting my new computer programming and web design business set up in Palmer, Alaska this month. The business is currently named Mat-Su Valley Programming. The reason for the delay is that some of my websites are doing so well, I need to upgrade my web servers to keep up with the increasing traffic. The devdaily.com website gets millions (and millions) of page views every year, so it's usually the big one, but my other websites are doing very well also.

A funny thing related to my recent move to Palmer, Alaska is that last night as I was moving some boxes around, I lifted the lid of the boxes to see what exactly I was moving, and I laughed when I saw the contents.

Right before I moved to Palmer -- and I do mean right before I moved -- life found me in Anchorage, and whenever I'm in Anchorage I go to the big Title Wave used bookstore. On this particular trip I was interested in buying used movies, and that's exactly what I found in that box last night, the used DVDs I bought and forgot about.

2011 Iditarod news: A great thing for an Alaskan newbie like me is that the torrential winds of the last few weeks have finally subsided. Living in Palmer, Alaska, I woke up this morning to things I haven't heard in several weeks, including the sound of airplane engines at the local airport, and neighborhood dogs barking.

In addition to the latest Iditarod news, here's one more great piece of information: The hurricane-like winds have stopped just in time for the Iditarod. I noticed last night around 10 pm that the apartment wasn't making all the usual noises, so I stepped outside, and sure enough, the wind had calmed down, and the flags on the flag pole two blocks away were just hanging on the flagpole.

Whoops, which reminds me, here's a video of the Alaska wind action from a few days ago:

2011 Iditarod news: Wow, do I have a lot to learn about the Iditarod. It turns out this morning (Saturday) is just the ceremonial start of the Iditarod in Anchorage, and even more importantly (for me), tomorrow morning (Sunday) is that Iditarod restart in Willow, Alaska. That's extremely good to know, because I was getting all ready to head out to Willow later this morning to watch the restart, lol.

2011 Iditarod race news (Updated): I've been digging around trying to find information about shuttle buses and parking for the Willow, Alaska 2011 Iditarod restart, and ... (updated) ... the iditarod.com website just put up this Willow restart page, with information on parking and shuttle buses.

Here's the abbreviated 2011 Iditarod shuttle bus info:

As I try to learn more about the 2011 Iditarod sled dog race, I just found a little bit of information about the race restart in Willow. It sounds like the first part of the race from Anchorage to Willow, Alaska is largely ceremonial. They just get everyone up to Willow, and the real racing begins from there.

Here's a quote from an article I just found on the MSNBC website:

I've been meaning to write for the last few weeks that the gasoline here smells very different in the winter, specifically when I'm first warming up my car. At first I thought there might be something wrong with my car, but I've noticed that my neighbor's cars produce this same "winter gasoline" smell -- it smells like the glue or "dope" my dad used to use when making model airplanes -- so I decided to research it a little bit.

As part of this whole ongoing Alaska winter thing, I was just thinking that this is easily the longest winter of my life. As part of that thought process I thought I'd share a list of all the places I've lived before. Each of these places has definitely had a shorter winter than Alaska, and in places like Texas and Alabama, a much, much shorter winter.

Sorry I haven't written about the Alaska Iron Dog 2011 race much lately, but I've come down to Seward, Alaska for a vacation, and I've been trying to avoid computers. But I just got online and saw that the race has ended after days of horrible weather, so I thought I'd write a quick note here.

The winner of the 2011 Alaska Iron Dog race is ... drum roll here ... the winner is the Huntington/Olds team, the same team which won the race last year. They came from behind to defeat the Palin/Quam team by about six minutes, and claim the winning prize of $50,000.