Inktrails from Alaska

Day 3: One American-Made Gift A Day

Today's gift is made by local Fairbanks artist Sue Cole, a multi-talented gal who not only works in textiles but is a marvelous watercolor artist as well.

Be sure to click on the pictures to see the images full size.

Sue makes hand-marbled silk scarves, among other lovely items.

Contact Sue to place  an order. Phone: (907) 456-3635. Email her at akartisan at gmail.com. (You know how it is really written, I changed it so she wouldn't receive a bunch of spam.) Prices are far more reasonable than you would think! I will update with a price as soon as I have that information.

Day 2: One American-Made Gift a Day

If you missed the first post, go back and read what we are up to here. Basically, if we each buy a measly $64 worth of made-in-the-USA gifts for The Holidays, we can create thousands of jobs.

Don't know what to buy? That's what I'm here for: to remind you of the cool things that are out there.

There are plenty of arts fairs that go on at this time of year. Artisans and craftspeople, artists of all kinds have wonderful things to show you, and, they hope, sell to you.

Over the years I've received several lovely ornaments that can be used as Christmas tree decorations, or part of a mobile, or just an accent around the house.

Hallmark tries to market their mass-produced (probably in China) Christmas ornaments as so very special. But what is more special than an ornament hand-made by a local artist? Each of the pieces on this page probably cost less than something from the Hallmark store, yet each piece is unique.

Handmade crystal ornament that was given to me as a gift from a student. I've long since lost the original tag, but it's very pretty, don't you agree? It's real crystal, not plastic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was giving away some items on freecycle.com, and when the woman picked up her items, she gave me this lovely, handmade paper crane ornament.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And my favorite, the chickadee that is carved and painted wood. This was given to me by a friend.

 

So you see, not all ornaments have to be Santa, or elves or religious figures. Though they can be those things, too. Head on over to the next arts fair you hear of, and see what you find!

New Series: One American-Made Gift A Day

Let's help jump start the economy. Can you committ to buying American-made gifts this year? ABC News reports that if each of us spent just $64 on American made goods during our holiday shopping, the result would be 200,000 new jobs.

To this end, I am posting one excellent gift per day until Christmas. One gift that is made in the USA.

Today's gift is delightful Ghiradelli hot cocoa mix. This is the real deal, folks. You will never go back to tje cheap stuff with its fake chocolate.

You use less than what is on the directions, trust me, this stuff is strong! I also add some sugar, especially if I put a spoonful in my coffee. There is very little sugar in it.

I think frosting made with this would be awesome. If you buy it for a friend, you're going to want one for yourself.

It comes in regular Chocolate flavor, and the Chocolate Mocha flavor.

Retails in Alaska for about $6. It's going to be cheaper most other places. I find mine at Safeway.

Thoughts on the "Batman" Shooting in Colorado

It has been a few days since James Holmes, a young man who was a brilliant, budding scientific researcher, dressed himself in black body armor from head to toe, took four guns and killed and injured dozens in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater.

Bullets in a darkened theater delivered by a man dressed black must have been absolutely terrifying. I hate to think of the children who have to live with this for the rest of their lives. I weep with the parents and families of those who killed, and of those who will never be the same for their injuries.

It bothers me that the news stories rarely take into account the victims who survived. These kinds of stories often bring out the black and white dichotomy. Black: the man with the gun, the dead. White: the unharmed and the survivors. But it's not that simple.

The victims who are lying in intensive care at this minute, even those who are not in ICU, but wounded, will sustain physical injuries that may take away their potential almost as cleanly as the gunman took away the entire lives of those who died. These victims will have psychological hurdles, PTSD, any manner of emotional problems to deal with on top of that. Are they lucky? I don't think I'd feel lucky, even though others died. Would you look forward to life as a quadriplegic?

What if you were one of the people who escaped physical harm? Depending on who you are and your state of mental matuity and health, would you be just fine, totally okay? Of course not. I know I'd be afraid of the dark, afraid of crowds, and afraid to go to the movies. Some may barricade themselves at home. Some may need extensive counseling to be able to function on a day to day basis. Some may commit suicide. And some may adjust and be able to move on with their lives.

I don't know these people, but the aftermath of this thing will go on for decades for most of them.

And what of James Holmes? I strongly suspect that he had a psychotic break with the onset of schizophrenia. He's the right age, it often hits in young adulthood. It's not something he could control, and as brilliant as he was, eventually it started controlling him. I heard that he'd started counseling, and I'm sure he was struggling with it before it took over his life and he lost touch with reality. Perhaps he would have committed himself if he had known ahead of time how bad this was going to be.But I bet, being so smart, the thought he could manage. And unfortunately,  he was wrong.

I'm interested to find out what his parents have to say. It has been reported that at first, ABC news thought the "James Holmes" that was responsible for the massacre was a different "James Holmes" associated with the Tea Party. I think it was this that caused James Holmes, the student's mother, to call ABC and tell her who she was. I suspect this quote is out of context of a conversation where ABC is trying to make sure that this time they have the right person on the phone, a person related to James Holmes, the shooter. And so she says, "You have the right person." She wasn't saying that the police have the right person, her son. She was saying, "You have the right person," the mother of James Holmes the actual shooter. I could be wrong, but this makes much more sense than the way it was reported.

There is a possibility that she knew something was seriously wrong with her son. But being so far away from him, he in Colorado and she in San Diego, it is doubtful that you can blame her for anything. She probably had an inkling something was wrong. Mothers are like that. Or maybe she was already getting ready to go see James, perhaps he'd made an alarming phone call and she was already making plane reservations. Who knows? But you can't blame her. Until very recently her son was a brilliant student.

What I'm getting at is there are no Bad Guys. No Jokers. No one to blame.

Holmes was secretive, quiet, and outwardly nice, if a little "off," the days before the shooting. When someone is psychotic, it's not always visible. Someone as smart as he is can fool a therapist. Can "pass" among us. It's only when people walk around talking to invisible friends out loud that we really see it. As far as the reports go, James Holmes was acting socially inept, but not unpleasant.

Schizophrenia doesn't make someone a killer. In fact, schizophrenics are more likely to commit suicide than any other crime, according to the federal National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). See this link for more information: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/schizophrenia/are-people-with-schizophrenia-violent.shtml  .

Our local theater is now saying they are going to be scrutinizing everyone who comes into the theater. Well that's stupid. James Holmes came in through the back door, he didn't stand in line in his body armor and carrying all those guns and buy himself a ticket. He sneaked into the theater through the back door emergency exit. We, the theater goers, are being blamed. This is absurd.

Everyone in that theater is a victim. There is no blame that can be assigned. We want to, oh how we want to assign blame! It's a horrendous, nightmarish thing and it makes me cry. I wish that James Holmes had gotten help, had committed himself, or that someone had figured out what was going on with him. Likely this thing came on him slowly and it was too late by the time he was completely out of touch with reality.

Nothing is left but pain and sadness. Pray for everyone in that theatre, including James Holmes. Including the parents and families of every single person there, those who lived, those who will survive, and those who won't.

One last thing. There was a campaign years ago in the 70s when public service messages ran on television. The text was simple: Practice Good Mental Health. It was up to the viewer to figure out what that was. I took that message to heart and began reading (extremely helpful book: Your Erroneous Zones by Dr. Wayne Dyer), getting counseling, and learning how to keep from destructive mental habits, to pay attention to stress and negative thinking. To get help when I needed it.

I can't help but wonder if we need a renaissance of this sort, to encourage people to take care of themselves emotionally, not just physically. No one ever mentions how powerful our thoughts are. Your thoughts and your emotions are who you are. We live inside our heads.

I grew up with a mentally ill parent who never got treatment. I suffered. I vowed never to be like that parent, and I never have been, thanks to that public service announcement. So all of you, ALL of you, take a good look at yourselves and take care of yourselves. It's important.

Don't think I'm saying that this sort of thing could have avoided the theater massacre. I doubt that it would have made a difference. Schizophrenia is a physical illness that no one can cure, and no amount of counseling can "fix." But other emotional problems that can become serious, such as phobias, OCD, depression, violent acting out, and lots more, can be headed off at the pass if you can recognize what's healthy for you and what's not. We can all learnt to take care of ourselves, and each other if we all practice good mental health.

Time for the Liberry Music Festival!

I'll be playing some music at the Liberry Music Festival, which includes my favorite food in the world, which is PIE. It starts at 2 at the Golden Eagle Saloon (all ages welcome) and continues on until midnight or so. There's a square dance in the evening, too! I'll be playing before and probably after the pie auction. It's a ball, come on down!

Summertime Skin

With all the nice, warm weather, and all the bathing suit photos on Facebook, I think it's time for my favorite beach cartoon. It just says it all.

And The World Turns To Ice

The bizarre weather just keeps coming.

Since around 6am this morning it started with freezing rain and as I type it is midnight and the rain hasn't stopped yet. It's so bad that Fairbanks has basically shut down.

I didn't take this picture and I don't know who to credit, but a friend in this area posted it.

This is why no one should go out driving.

Want another example? How about this?

 

Photo by Tabitha Omeilly. This is Ballaine Road from the top of the incredibly steep hill. It's looks less steep than it really is. In reality that hill is a real killer.

The freezing rain continues to fall, and the temperature keeps hovering around 32°, which means the ice is as slick as it could possibly be. If the temperature would drop to say, 0, or -10 then it would give a the roads a chance to dry out and the ice wouldn't be so slick.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to have to plug in my damn freezer again. Once again, these temperatures are very anomalous!

On the upside, the snow is now wet enough to make a snowman!

The dogs haven't seen it yet, but I bet they kind of freak out about it. If I'm stuck home again tomorrow I'm going to make a SnowDog, or a SnowMoose, or maybe a wife for this snowman.

Change "Pioneer Park Back To ALASKALAND!

It started on Facebook and has taken off like an arctic hare!

Here is the link to the petition: Change "Pioneer Park Back To  ALASKALAND!

If you are an Alaskan, ex-Pat Alaskan, and agree, go sign it! Please be sure to note that you are Alaskan if you have a non-Alaskan address. The petition will be presented to the Fairbanks Northstar Borough and the City Council.If you are not Alaskan and have never been here, please do NOT sign it. We appreciate your concern but this is a local, Alaskan issue and the Borough only wants to know what the Alaskans think.

Why go back to using that name? If you even have to ask, go read my funny Ole story, below this instead!

Reasons most often cited:

1. There are hundreds, if not thousands of Pioneer Parks all over the US and Canada. It's a very generic name. I searched Google and found 3 MILLION hits on "Pioneer Park." The first five pages list park after park after park in town after town after town. All of them "Pioneer Park."

2. It sounds like it celebrates White pioneers, instead of our whole population.

3. Fairbanskians grew up going to Alaskaland, it's the name we love for the good times we have had there!

4. Almost no one ever calls it Pioneer Park! We all call it Alaskaland!

May 13, 2010

I'm still amazed at the outpouring of agreement that we really should change the name of our park back to Alaskaland. My office neighbor just dropped in to tell me she's proud of me and that she is so glad that people are getting together over this. I'm finding that it cuts across all boundaries: politics, religion, money. It doesn't matter who you are,or what you do: every person I run into says they want the name of the park returned to Alaskaland. And now they all stop and tell me about it!

I started the Facebook Page some time ago, and it now has 1, 772 members and counting. Then on May 11 at 2:03 am, having had too much coffee that day, I decided it was time to write the petition and get going on this issue. By 3:30pm the same day there were 189 signatures, by 6:30pm there were 207. We are now nearly to 300 and still adding folks. I'd like to hit 1,000 by Sunday. Tell your friends and neighbors about the petition. 

My brief spot on Channel 13 took the most inflammatory thing I said and put that on TV, which is what news organizations sometimes do. The announcers thought the twist to the story was that the petition is online. Well, maybe they haven't been online for four or five years? There are oodles of petitions on the internet and have been for years. But that's okay, because I am glad they thought it was important enough to cover.

Inflammatory? What I said was the "r" word. I said the sign is racist, in that it celebrates the white pioneers but not our whole community, which is diverse.

In simple terms, what bothers me about the name "Pioneer Park" is that we went from having a name, Alaskaland, that included everyone, to a name that only included a select set. I think this was not intended to be racist by the FNSB, but in essence, that's the way it worked out. I don't think the Borough thought this through but I don't think the intent was anything but well-meaning.

Our community takes care of each other. We are all in this together. If you see someone walking on the side of the road in the winter you stop and ask if they need help, same thing if you see a stalled vehicle. Until recently. we rural folks left our cabins unlocked in case a hiker or snow machiner needed shelter from the cold. It's a small town in a harsh climate and we need each other.

The name Alaskaland reflects our community spirit, our caring and cooperation with each other.

I strongly suspect they did not do a search to find out how many Pioneer Parks exist already. Perhaps if they'd done so a different name would have been chosen or Alaskaland would have kept its name.

Alaskans! Stop the Daylight "Savings" Time Madness!

This first Monday of DST I'm now getting up in the dark. I've been there. Done that. Am tired of it. I've had enough dark, thank you very much. All winter I've been getting up in the dark. I don't need to sacrifice my daylight for Daylight "Savings" Time.

The benefits of DST are often said to save energy and money. Not in Alaska. It's cold. I have to start my car up (after plugging in in for at least a few hours) when it is cold, before the day warms up, which wastes energy, big time. I have to turn on lights to see what I'm doing. Instead of being a big boon, it's a big pain in the ass.

Light is coming back at a rate of 7 minutes per day. By June 21st we'll have nearly 24 hours of daylight. We don't need DST. It doesn't make sense here.

During the winter it gets dark, and we lose light until we have only around 2 1/2 hours of official daylight a a day. Changing the time isn't going to make the sun shine longer.

Some small group of business people feel disadvantaged because of our time zone, and want DST to make their contacts with the Lower 48 work better with their schedules. Look folks, we all live in this time zone. Grow up. If you need to call the East Coast by a certain time then you get up and make sure you call them by the required time. If you can't deal with that, then maybe you need to move back to the Lower 48. 

When I have had to call Ireland I get up early and make the call. That's an eight hour difference. I'm sure you folks can handle a four hour difference.

When DST was invented there was no internet. Communications now are cheap and easily accomplished even with most cell phones. There is no reason for every citizen of Alaska to suffer because some business person can't get it together to call Outside at the right time.

I urge everyone to call their representatives and ask them to stop this madness. Watch this space for a petition.

Marijuana a "Performance-enchancing" Drug? Get Real!

Iditarod Launches Drug Testing of Mushers

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Every human competitor now running the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will be tested for alcohol and illegal drugs on the trail for the first time in the history of the 1,100-mile race - a change defending champion Lance Mackey believes is directed at him.

"I know for a fact," said the three-time winner.

Mackey, who has been open about using medical marijuana on the trail, on Tuesday was among the early front-runners in the race, which began with 71 teams Sunday in Willow. (Please click on the link to read the whole article.)

Mackey Seeks 4th Win in Iditarod Sled Dog Race

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Both knees are shot, injected with synthetic cartilage until he can have surgery next summer. His right arm is still healing from a major operation to fix a staph infection. He continues to deal with other side effects of cancer. (Please click link above to read entire article.)

If anyone has a use for medical marijuana it's Lance Mackey. He's a certified, card-carrying user of the same, and with good reason: he's a cancer survivor. If it were me with all the physical issues he has right now, I'd be home eating popcorn and watching movies. But Mackey is a doer, not a watcher. Even though he is allowed to take his cancer pills, which contain the active ingredient in marijuana, he isn't going to. He says he can't take the chance. I agree.There would be no way for the drug testers to distinguish between the pills and actual marijuana use, even though it's legal for Mackey to use marijuana.

From what I can tell the Iditarod is one mean, nasty, cut-throat race, where people lie and connive to get others thrown out of the race. I've seen it in years previous and I'm sure we'll see it again. Four mushers have complained that Mackey's use of marijuana gives him an edge. Right. Marijuana, it just makes you super strong and fearless, able to stay awake for hours on end, right? Yeah, right. You can go for extended periods of punishing physical activity with marijuana, right? It's laughable!

How many people do you know who use marijuana so they can sleep at night? So that they can deal with the nausea caused by cancer drugs? How about ADD people who self-medicate with marijuana so that they can stop being so hyper?

How many people know guys who still live in their parents' basement and smoke dope and watch video games in between shifts at the nearest convenience store? I mean honestly, marijuana is the most NON-performance-enhancing drug of them all! It's the most non-motivating, pro-layabout drug. Come on, Iditarod folks, this is a joke.

The rules for the Iditarod state that mushers will be tested for illegal drugs. But Mackey's use of marijuana is legal.

The whole thing just stinks. And I applaud Lance Mackey for being an incredibly persistent person who is rolling with the punches with so much more amiability than I would have in his circumstances.