First the relief, then the confusion and anitcipation

Hey there! Amazing I am not posting this blog in the middle of the night as my other posts have been! Progress? Yes! I have finally upgraded my computer at home from an old Gateway (bought about 10 years ago by my brother, who sold it to another brother, who gave it to my father, who lent it to me in 2003 when I started taking classes again while working at the school). Now I have a brand spanking new iMac! All I can say is WOOOOWWEEEEEE I am impressed! My daughters are now frowning at me everytime they are home asking, "When will you be done with your homework?" It is cause for a lot of smiles, laughs (they love the photobooth) and some frowns when they are not on the computer. I think I will do another slideshow to show you guys the funny pictures.

Skip - If you don't mind emailing me on the how-to's of installing windows into here - I need it for my CIOS class. If I had windows in my old computer can I use the installation disk for this? I am so confused with the limitations and extentions of programs. I know I used to have the product code with three - I think - different sets of numbers in it that may have gotten lost when i moved back home. Do I need to buy a new package? I don't know where to start and with my class already past the "lets get this started" stage I don't have much time to set this up without lagging too far behind.

This is my first Mac and since I got this my brother has said "yup, I think I am getting me one too." It takes some getting used to but its not as hard to adjust as I thought. In preparation of my internship year I have also invested in a MacBookPro that just came in today. A big thing getting both at once but I think its worth it.

Seeking Brightness and Harmony

As I list and relist my priorities and attempt to rejuvinate my motivation I closed my eyes and pictured a clear blue sky with a bright beam of sunlight warming my face... In one of my moments of doubt I realized one of the reasons why I was able to do so much as a teenager was that I was never told that what I was doing was impossible. I knew things were challenging but I looked at each assignment and duty and knew in my heart I could do a good job - a great job with attention to detail and that was all that mattered. During this past week I have allowed a tiny dent to my consentration and had a moment of stalling, a few cases of computer freeze-ups right in the middle of an elluminate live session, a text book delay that the bookstore "lost," but with the things I could control there is progress. I needed to write it somewhere that I will trust Him to continue to guide my general direction of where I am going and concentrate on the little duties I have in front of me. As long as I have that ray of sunshine in my mind to calm my senses I am good for now. One of these days I will get someone to paint my office into a nice mountainous scene with a blue sky... well back to details.

Correction on Panraven story link and a word of caution when reading articles

First here is my corrected link to Panraven:
http://www.panraven.com/mylife/ViewStory.epage?sp=102707

I would like to caution those that read articles of places or people they are unfamiliar with to see who the author of the article is and have an idea of the level of "marketability" the author is aiming for.
For example there was an Article that Skip references to in his comment on my first blog of today that has a few major misrepresentations that I would like to address: 1. The picture on the top of the set of three pictures is not anywhere near our village or region. 2. Russian Mission has regular scheduled flights by a number of airlines daily into the village - we are not accessible only by charter. 3. Our land is very similar to Fairbanks in the summer - we do not have a lime green carpet of moss and lichen on our land. 4. The Yukon River is not clear blue- it is a big river with a lot of sediment, so it is actually brown. 5. Youth suicide in Russian Mission is not yet a problem in our village. To date we have had two suicides by adults. God willing that will be the only ones. 6. Our village has more than one road.

As in any other research, looking at a variety of sources is necessary to get the gist of what is written. The author was not from Alaska, and the focus of the article was to embellish the projects to get more funding for the grant used.

Subsistence, School and Rain

Good Day to you all, I hope this blog finds you all dry and organized. I say this because the rain outside is really putting a puddle into my enjoyment of our season. It is so soggy out there!! The wind and rain has prevented us from going out to subsist and its put a real damper to my mood. Speaking of subsistence and school Skip has asked us to comment on how the schools relate to it.
Since my childhood the policy of excused and unexcused absences have sort of made full circle. When I was in elementary school in the 1970's we were allowed to go with our families for fall and spring camp, although not many families regularly participated in those migrations by that time. I can remember two or three families that did that every year and a few that decided to go out one year. In the late 70's to early 80's the policy was gradually reduced at a point to less and less absences were allowed. I can remember in the late 90's to today a student is formally allowed up to 5 excused absences over a school year - NOT SPECIFIC TO SUBSISTENCE - but encompassing everything from sickness, medical appointments, family emergencies to subsistence activities. Do not quote me on this because I have been away for about 4 years from my Home School position,and even while working in school this has varied so much that I could not state the current policy without having it in front of me to read. Having said that - the Russian Mission School has for many years reconnected many children to subsistence activities in a very direct manner. Not many schools will actually have class time in a camp setting, or have the students physically help catch fish for the school and community, or many other various subsistence activities.

Regardless of the high technical and modern aspects of our communities we live many many miles away from others and most of our nutritional resources are all around us. Even compared with other villages in the region, our ability to travel to the more urban areas take longer than most. We don't have huge stores with wide varieties of groceries brought to us from all over the world, and even if we did the prices for those products would be very high due in large part to shipping and handling. We can't sit and wait for someone to actually bring those things to us. We do have local stores that offer basic needs - flour, sugar, salt, oil... These are brought to us by airplanes, sent "bypass mail" and the cost of shipping and handling is added to the price you see at the store. Some families order their own groceries, but we do not all rely on this outside source for sustenance.Frankly I don't know of many people who would want to be in that position.

The school recognizes that - and also recognizes that the nutritional value of what we have subsisted on is higher than processed food. Throughout the seasons there is something to gather that is better for ones health than what can be found in the stores. I thank the school for their program, one that does not attempt to ignore or look down on our activities but rather highlight and join in our harvesting and desire to pass the skills and knowledge needed to gather these resources to the younger generation.

For a detailed review of the local school's activities, Google Russian Mission School subsistence. Although I know the basics of what they do, I am not in a position to accurately report what they are doing. I can say that they strive to continue with close consultation and participation of the local community and have a group of elders who come in regularly to help guide the students in their educational studies. Throughout the years this has made the school a part of the community and not a place next to it.

Sense of Russian Mission Movie Project

After hours - maybe DAYS of trying to upload my movie into blogger I called up my neighbor to use his internet service and successfully uploaded the video on myspace after unsuccessfully attempting to upload it into here.

As it is I am just glad to get it in cyberspace as proof that I did do the assignment, even if it doesn't show up here.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=17563140

My Sense Of Place Book Russian Mission

Here is the link to my sense of Russian Mission. I don't know if it is a good thing or a bad thing to focus not on the actual village but what my family and I do in and around the village. I am sorry some of the pictures had low resolution. I did not have the time to go and find better captions of the same shot. I would love to go back and add a lot more chapters and put more detail in later on...who knows - it shows some potential to being a great way to portray what we do here in the "wilderness" of Alaska. Now we can say "See - no IGLOOS, no penguins"

http://www.panraven.com/tellstory/ShareStory.epage?sp=S30524

Here is my Sense of Russian Mission slideshow project. I did not know we had to put titles on the slideshow and do not know how that could be done


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.