J. Jason Lazarus Blog

8-26-2005 - So I know that this sounds really bad and cheesy but I am in shock today because I was unaware of yet another Heather Nova album coming out. For those that know me for years, you know how much I love Heather Nova and have strived to add anything of hers to my cd catalog. This unfortunately does get a little harder because much of her stuff is EU-only. Nonetheless, God Bless the Internet - I shall get her new album “Redbird” soon. About a year ago I finally downloaded “Storm” off of iTunes because I was unwilling to pay the insane import price and yet again I’m stuck in the same perdictiment - this time there is no iTunes option. I’m still trying to figure out why, if you’re going to release your album on UK iTunes, you wouldn’t on US iTunes. Weird. Nonetheless, Heather’s been oddly on my mind for the last two days because I’ve been jammin’ out to her on my iPod for a while now. With work starting, I’ve got a reason to use my laptop, iPod and iTunes more and I’ve realized that I’ve been neglecting my Heather Nova music. As Curt a few months ago on his blog, you realize that you don’t pay attention to certain albums nearly as much as you used to when you were only using cd’s - but I question this - at almost 300 cd’s, I couldn’t pay attention to all my music even in cd format. I suggest that my iPod lets me rediscover music after a few months, and in this case a few years - and all at a touch of my thumb. Well worth the $279 if you ask me. Nonetheless, while listening to Heather last night I realized that I was missing three of her albums - I had never transferred them into iTunes - which shocked me. Once my most played albums, some of them were oddly missing. After adding them I’m sitting just a few songs under 3000 and right at 9.4 days worth of music in the palm of my hands. How can you complain about that? I know that it sounds weird me saying that I have neglected some of my music as if it has feelings - but I believe conversely that I’ve been neglecting my emotions by not playing it - neglecting those that were first explored with many of Nova’s cd’s. You’re talking to the guy that, as a kid, thought that he neglected his favorite stuffed animals if he didn’t sleep with them on a semi-equal basis. It’s not a big leap for a child to believe that inanimate objects have feelings - so it’s not a big jump for, in a manner of speaking, that a adult believe that he’s neglecting himself from not listening to the music that used to inspire him the most.

On other things, I’m going to Kennicott / McCarthy for Labor Day weekend with my dad - for three years I’ve wanted to go and I’m finally getting to go. Although I’m going to have to take it easy after my dad’s surgery the idea of being able to hike for two whole days just makes me giddy - not to mention going down yet another road I’ve never gone on in Alaska. At this rate I’ll run out of roads within the next two years and have to start flying places.

Oddly enough I’m looking forward to the beginning of school this next week. Although it means much more work for me in the coming weeks it also means that the day will slide by compared to the limping by it’s currently doing. Additionally it means that the Pub will be open! Although I hate to be characterized as a alcoholic there’s some poetic justice to having a pub less than a eighth of a mile from your front door. Literally across the street. *sniffles* It makes me happy!

8-21-2005 - So this weekend has been one heck o a nutty one - Jack and I went on our yearly man-trip (don’t know what else to call it) and we had a great time - managed to cover 1300 miles in 32 hours, pretty darned impressive. We had someone grand plans that didn’t nearly materialize as much as I had hoped but nonetheless the weekend still ended up being a great one. We drove all the way to Homer on Friday morning (started at 1am) and took a side trip to Hope - a little town down a 16 mile dead end road. I can now officially say that I’ve been to Hope. Not much else to say about Hope. It’s small. yup…small.
Went to Ninilchik on the way down to Homer and photographed a good portion of the town. I’ve got digitals up already on my gallery - mind you, most of the digitals were taken my Jack, can’t take credit there. They’ve got some really awesome views of the inlet with Illiamna in the background - got some great pictures of their graveyard and the Russian Orthodox church. Got into Homer early afternoon and really enjoyed ourselves - shopped some, found a hotel and went to the Salty Dog Saloon as well as Don Jose’s for dinner. Ended the night not even opening the three growlers (1/2 gallon jugs of beer) that Jack and I had between ourselves from the Homer Brewing company - but we did drink some at the hotel’s bar.
Next day was spent driving back, being stuck in traffic on the way back up because of a damned parade happening on the ONLY ROAD OUT OF THE KENAI! Also stopped by my mother-in-law’s for a while to pick some stuff up and then we drove back toward Anchorage. We stopped into Whitter, actually got to go INTO the Buckner Building and really enjoyed ourselves. I’ll talk more about this all in a travel log as soon as I get it done. We ended the night by going to Anchorage, shopping a bit and going to Chilkoot Charlie’s - only the best bar in Alaska! Then we drove home - all the way home… *sigh* I’m still recovering. Anyways, look at the gallery, don’t complain about dark images cause my digital sucks - and hope and pray that I actually start scanning in my 35mm’s cause if my motion shots come out from the Buckner Bldg it’s going to be awesome!

8-18-2005 - Just started work this week so my updates are going to be kinda sporadic until I get a lot of pre-school-year work done. Positive news: got a great raise! Also - managed to finally finish the San Fran Trip (May 2005) page - go to Roadtrips to see it!

8-8-2005 - Wow. Has it ever been an interesting last week or so. I am completely in awe at how well this summer has turned out… even with the bad news that I dealt with this last week, it’s been a interesting season. All will be revealed:
First of all, of coarse most of you know that I’ve been on this “diet” of sorts for the last seven months. Well I’d have to say that it’s hard as all hell to lose weight when you’ve got so many good opportunities to eat great food. I haven’t really gained any back but I sure haven’t lost any either. I’ve been fluctuating between 27 and 32 lbs off my December ‘04 weight and with the semester starting up again soon I’m looking forward to having no excuse not to go to the gym. We’ll see how much that works! Nonetheless, I digress. I was looking online a few days ago about caloric intake after seeing a commerical about McDonald’s Chicken Fries. What I was guessing has happened within the last few months is that the suing of McDonalds has subsided since it’s added several more healthy alternatives to its menu - subsided enough that they can start introducing even more artery-cloging concoctions. Enter Chicken Fries. Nonetheless, Calorie Count didn’t have the most current count up for these new menu accessories, so I started roaming toward other things - including the amount of calories you burn when you do anything from completely mindnumbing activities to more… strenous ones. After some research I found something utterly fantastically ironic. It takes as much “exercise” (I use that term lightly) to sit and watch television as it does to kneel and concentrate on the all-mighty. Yes, while all those catholics in the world are being good on Sunday in church and all, believing that being active (eg away from the TV) is better for you - in fact it is not. 68 calories define praying to God - 68 per hour. 68 per hour define my worshiping of the television as well. How silly church going indivduals must feel now to know that God isn’t saving them from dying of high cholesterol anymore than the television is. Notice how all those keenly written commericals always point the finger at couch-potatoism rather than the other, equaly-as-guilty culprit, CHURCH. No “Get out of that Pew and live life” campaigns? Whynot? The site refuses to mention the keen difference in the different types of praying you can do - even though they are so keen to mention the differences between walking aimlessly and walking with some kind of purpose (there is, however, a difference in how many calories you burn). No - no mention of “Praying in a boring white church” vs. “praising Jesus in a southern African-American church (i.e one you actually DO praise God in)” vs. “praying - or faking it - at a jerry fallwell heal-the-poor marathon pray-a-thon” - no, apparently all praying is created equal - the same, boring 68 calories per hour. Is this why there are so many atheists in this country? Have they figured out that working out is much better for your body than praying? It really makes you ponder.
ANYWAYS - went back out to Cleary Mine last week and had a great time. Actually found the place this time due to my new map even though I did manage to get dirtier than the last time. Very, very creepy out there. Those that went with me as well as myself were consistantly worried about the boggieman. We kept on hearing things in the woods that were… apparently not there. With a setting straight out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre mixed with the creepiness of Delieverance, it really got your imagination going. I’m still surprised that we didn’t find a dead body while we were out there. Got some great photos - going to have to upload some of the three rolls of film that I took while I was out there but I do have digitals already uploaded to my gallery . Seriously, God bless my gallery. I love it.

This last week the fair started. I try my best every year to not only save up money for the fair but also truly enjoy myself at it - something that has been quite hard in years past. This year things actually turned out well and I really did enjoy myself. I’ve already gone twice and I’m planning on at least another two times out there - if not three. I bought a season pass to eliminate not only the hassle of having to wait in line every time for a damned ticket but in the hopes of saving some money. We’ll see if it actually does save me something. Nonetheless, my students and I entered quite a bit in the fair - together we managed 13 ribbons - only 2 for myself. In fact, most of the students performed better than I did which I’m glad that that happened. I think it’s been a great experience for all who entered. Deanna managed to rope a theme ribbon and a 2nd place in her needlework - a 3rd and a 2nd for my work. Next year I’m planning to enter even more than the 5 that I did this year.
This weekend we managed to do another hiking trip and this one was a blast. Even though I plan to have a writeup for it sometime soon (yeah as soon as I get up that San Fran one), I’ll give a little taste of it to ya now. We went down to Denali and actually drove into it until the road stops for public traffic - right there is the Savage River and we hiked around there for a good 5 hours. Loved every minute of it, got to get within inches of ptarmagin and ground squirrels, marmots and pikas. Great time and well worth it. We also went out to Nenana and actually through the town - once again something I haven’t done in my 9+ years in Alaska. Went to the old Cemetary there as well - I tell you, creepy as all hell. Very, very creepy. I think I’ve decided that some of my gallery work (whenever I manage to get myself into a gallery) will be my cemetary work. My Valdez Cemetary stuff came out great (some of it is at the fair) and my Nenana stuff will most assuredly come out as well. Wish me luck! Some of my Savage River / Nenana Trip can be seen in my gallery as well.