J. Jason Lazarus Blog

So, Freshens Smoothie Company opened a location on campus this last week. For those unfamiliar with UAF’s dining services, it’s been holding back for years now trying to insure nationally-recognized brands don’t infaltrate its cafeteria-style offerings. Nana, a native corportation, partnered with Sodexco and Marriot to bring the food that we have now, yet they’ve refused before now, short of bringing in Starbucks coffee (not a Starbucks store, they just serve its coffee), to bring in fast food offerings as many major colleges have. In fact I really have to wonder why they’ve decided to allow this company, of all those out there, to come in. The Chancellor is apparently on this kick about health and wants to add healthier options to our snack machines and this smoothie shop only seems to be another way to insure you’re in good with that change. But, is it good?
Yes, yes, yes and another resounding yes. We don’t have a real smoothie shop in Fairbanks so this is a real welcomed change. The closest smoothie shop we have is this rinky-dink thing in the mall that does everything else and smoothies - not that great, but not that bad. To have a real, commercially sound option is a welcomed change. Why am I such a proponet of handing over food services to multi-million dollar fast food conglomerates? Cause you’re allowed to go into Subway, Taco Bell and McDonalds and say, to their face, that they got your damned burger, sub or taco wrong - or that it tastes like crap and you want another one. You’re allowed to because we have specific expectations out of brand name locales - a taco from Taco Bell in Kenai is going to taste the same as it does in New York City. That’s the appeal to it - specific expectations. With local, or even regional, companies (or in this case, cafeteria food suppliers) can’t promise consistantcy even between its currently employed staff much less the staff hired next fall - I’ve seen the size, ingredients and preparation of Wood Center Burritos flucuate so dramatically through the years that it’s sickened me at times and brought me to wanting to hug the cook at other times.
So where have they decided to plant this shop? In the “new” bookstore. For those that don’t know, UAF bookstore has completely flopped backwards - texts are now located upstairs in the larger section along with art supplies and the UA Technology Store while the basement now offers pleasure books, magazines, sundries, drinks and now Smoothies. Yum.

So I finally got done with the fifth book in the Narnian series - been a while because I’ve managed to keep myself quite socially and physically busy and my time at work to read is significantly limited compared to this time last year. Oddly enough, I’m still really enjoying the books - although many would classify them as children’s books, I guess their sense of awe, interesting and intriquing storylines and ease-of-read almost make them intoxicating to me. It’s not a chore to actually read them as so many more adult-oriented or thought-provoking books may be. Although this series is far from lacking thought, it’s easy to ignore most of the overwelming Christian overtones.
But, because of one of my recent finds at Barnes and Noble, I’m taking a break from C.S. Lewis and diving into Sun Tzu.
It’s intriqued me lately how this book continued, for months on end, to be on the top ten list in iTunes Music Store Audiobook downloads - so I figured I would give it a try. As it is, the book is apparently suggested reading for Corporate Excutives worldwide - might help me learn how to climb the ladder while ensuring that I eliminate all my enemies *muahhaha* *ending sarcasm* I’ll hope that it’ll provide some insight and possibly aid me in not letting the small things bother me in life. Yes, I’m searching for self help books and I find Sun Tzu, riiiight.
So, I finally broke down a few weeks ago and bought the newer version of Burnout - Burnout Revenge. Yet another racing goodness - well, blow-em-up racing goodness. God only knows that my interest in a straight-forward racing game would never last 15 minutes. Been having Mike over at least twice a week to play it - I’m already over 40% of the way through. Definately a different game but still much better than its predessor - much harder, though. I’ve gotten to about 65% on Takedown and intend, sometime, to go back and finish it - yet the polish of this newer game seems… irresistable for the time being.
So because Deanna hasn’t ever watched it, for the last week we’ve been watching two to four episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion every night. Now, those that don’t like Anime, don’t roll your eyes. I can’t stand most anime myself - although open-minded to quite a bit, I rarely purchase it - and this is one of the few examples. The artwork, storyline and thought placed behind this series is exquisite and worth a watch from anyone who is iffy about wheather anime is worth their time. In fact, Deanna is bloody hooked. I had to pry her away from watching throughout the night the last few of em.
Other than that, been enjoying living downtown more and more. The fact that I’m almost a stones-throw from the library has made reading a much-enjoyed pleasure - although reading in the house rarely works because there’s so many distractions, it’s nice having the library to lounge at - or McCafferty’s - which I’m now convinced makes the best damned Mocha in town. Anyways, enjoy the rest of your weekend, don’t have too much fun guys!

So I’m sure most of you, least those that watch Southpark, know that Issac Hayes has decided to leave the show because of Matt and Trey’s inability to cut some slack to some key religions of the world - mainly, Scientology. Issac, a follower of the “faith”, decided to leave after they had made a mockery of the belief much the same way as they did to the Mormon religion only a season before. Where followers of every other religion have been pretty muted about Southpark’s consistant religious jabs, Both Tom Cruise (although he won’t admit it) and Issac Hayes have openly complained about Matt and Trey’s lack of respect for their “faith”.
So in their traditional fashion they drummed up a new episode within a week of Issac offically announcing he quit that did a good job of insuring he wasn’t ever going to come back. Killing him off wasn’t enough, neither was calling his character a child molester. You’ll just have to watch to see.
All I have to say is that it’s pretty damned hypocritical when you work for a show for 9 years that makes fun of every other race and religion, sometimes brutally, and you continue to participate until they make fun of your own kind. Give it a rest, Issac. You can’t tell me that Scientology is any less laughable than any other religion out there - if not more. Boo, Issac Hayes, boo.
Kyle’s Eulogy sums it all up - this being pulled from CNN:
“We shouldn’t be mad at Chef for leaving us,” the eulogy concludes. “We should be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brains.”
Although they do introduce a new character at the end of the show, it’s not much of a spoiler to tell you that the kids are without a Cafeteria Chef. One might suggest that they call up Jim Hensen and see what the Swedish Chef is doing - would be quite an interesting addition to the show, with Kenny being the only character in the show that you have no clue what he’s saying, this addition would at least give him someone to… relate to.

Ok, so I’ve kept away my frustration too long on this topic. Most of you know what I’m talking about when I say “The Bridges to Nowhere” - most recently brought to light during the Hurricane Katrina disaster last August. When the national government was looking around for a way to fund rebuilding efforts in the area some numbskull realized that Alaska was getting “way too much money” for these two bridges in “the middle of nowhere”.

$1 billion *Correction: less than 500 million* was allocated from federal funding for these bridges. Although I agree such a pricetag is steep, these bridges were far from going to or coming out of “nowhere”. First, the Knik Arm bridge. This bridge was to be an effort to connect Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city with a population of 300k, with another access route. Currently there is ONE road that leads south of Anchorage and two (directly next to each other) that leads north. There are NO other access routes short of plane, train or boat. The bridge was an effort to connect directly to downtown Anchorage over a 5 mile strech of glacial residue & river and connect it to a seemingly remote area on the other side. Currently, the northern access route takes you over 70+ miles of road looping around the outer edge of the tiny penninsula Anchorage is on, driving you through several 50k+ suburbs (Wasilla, Eagle River..) and then on the way to Fairbanks. The bridge would subtract over 40 miles, if not 50, off of this route by eventually connecting up to the existing highway that loops through all those small towns (aside from Eagle River & Wassilla there’s several 10k to 5k towns on the way as well).

Who lives at Port Mackinzie? According to the CNN interview they did up here in Alaska a few months ago, nobody. Yet, as we speak, that area is becomming EXTREMELY QUICKLY, yet another suburb of the Anchorage/Wasilla/Palmer/Eagle River metro area - with a population of 350-450k. Drive through the area and condos are poping up everywhere. Yeah, nobody, indeed.

As for the other bridge I don’t know nearly enough about the Southeast to really mention anything - short of the fact that access to ANY town, any island and anywhere down there is severely limited. We remain the only continant-connected state that you cannot drive to it’s capital. You can ONLY fly or drive to it. Any efforts to increase access to the area should be met with strong approval.

So, as this whole issue was coming out in the news months ago, news networks and politicians chewed out Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young for holding on to our money when people were in dire, desperate need. Some NW US Sen/Rep even said that he’d be willing to fork over all of his state’s federal transportation budget just to help Katrina victims rebuild - granted, coarse he said this after the money was in his greedy hands being spent so there was “no way” to give it back. Our monolithic states of Texas and California didn’t budge on their transportation budgets and nobody even tried to pick on them. Barely ANY states lost anything when it came down to the wire - yet, the decided, just to screw us, to take the federal earmarks off of our funding requests. Oh yes, we’d get our money, but we wouldn’t get it dedicated for what we wanted - it would be left up to our local and state leaders to decide where it went.

A small digression - New Orleans being under water isn’t anything new. It is an absolute tradegy that so many people died and blame can be placed at ALL LEVELS. But everyone’s firstly blaming the federal government for not acting faster, blaming them for not providing funds to fix the levees earlier. Last I knew, New orleans has been like this for 200 years. If their local, regional and state representatives couldn’t muster federal support for rebuilding them in that amount of time somebody should’ve been able to figure out that maybe they should pay for it themselves rather than hold out until a real disaster happens. Furthermore, if all else fails, something tells you that it’s not a good idea to live on dry land that’s below sea level. As much as I enjoy the mountains you wouldn’t see me live on a side of a volcano - and such as that is a disaster waiting to happen, this was as well. People every few years manage to find their homes flooded because they live in a flood plain, such as the Mississippi basin. People in Southern California refuse to move away from landslide prone areas. Coastal towns are now worried about the threat of tsunami. These things happen and sometimes they happen unexpectedly - but a good portion of the time there’s a big red siren going off saying this isn’t the best place to live - and people choose to rebuild when some places are just going to get mowed over again. Whynot spend rebuilding money first on preventative measures - better levees, better flood control, buy up flood-prone farming areas and turn them into intentional flood plains - require subdivision builders to have disaster aversion plans in case of a landslide - have real retaining walls - etc etc! Why waste your money “sticking it to mother nature” by rebuilding in an area you know is unsafe?? I know it’s human nature to presevere in the presense of unsurmountable odds but there’s sometimes where we really should just forfeit.

And let me reitterate, I am eternally saddened by the lost of thousands to all of these natural disasters but I realize that rather than insuring there’s more victims for the next big hurricane, shouldn’t we first worry about additional preventative measures? Spend billions on building levees twice as strong and twice as tall and THEN rebuild!

And so back to the Bridges to Nowhere - now it’s been left up to our local and state officals as to how we’re going to break up all this money we’ve got. After all the hard work that was done by the supporters of these two projects to insure that we get the money, now our local officals have turned into Carrions. Too lazy to make an effort for federal funding that would actually net money for our local projects, our vulture-like local politicans are picking apart the money for these bridges for their own localized projects rather than keeping it together and getting these bridges. Rather than being known as vultures to local voters, these local politicans will be known as those proud individuals that made sure that there was money for this or that local project - rather than a lazy shit that waited for the money to land in their lap and decided that they should spend it on something other than themselves and something that would insure their next election season went smoothly.

Although it could be debated whether Alaska needs these bridges, my biggest tiffs are these: We were targeted when no other states were when it came to Katrina funding. Nobody has truly asked why Louisiana wasn’t setting aside enough budget to deal with its own levees. Federal money, in both cases, our bridges and their levees, is a perk and shouldn’t be expected for nessessary projects. When earmarks were stripped, the plan was ruined and rather than blaming the federal government, all we can blame is our own representatives for being lazy and slothfully opportunistic.

Oh Blissful day! Barnes and Noble is open! It opened at 6pm on Tuesday for a preview opening (of which i went to) and was open offically the next day (of which I went to as well!) - so nice to know that you could easily fit all the bookstores in Fairbanks in this one bookstore - and then some! So nice to know there’s somewhere I can reasonably expect that books will be when I go in looking for a particular one!

And speaking of which, a few weeks ago a friend of mine came up to me and we were talking about B&N coming in and how they were a Gulliver’s supporter. They touted that Gulliver’s “could and would order any book you ever want” and thus, they were as good as B&N could ever be.

What kind of reason, or excuse is that? Bookstores are supposed to HAVE books, not order them. I think that’s the problem with bookstores in town previous to B&N opening, people are accustomed to just “waiting” for books to get to Fairbanks as if this is the 1920’s and we’re still waiting for deliveries of Serum via dogsled. Even Waldenbooks rarely actually has the books you’re looking for - hell, I couldn’t even find a classic literature section in that store anymore, looks like it was taking up too much space - guess trashy romance novels needed another shelf. Get with the times and move your damned store to a larger location and actually carry a wide variety of books that doesn’t smell like old lady. Titlewave’s managed to get that shitty smell out of their used selection.

People in Fairbanks are accustomed to waiting for everything - not that I don’t mind a long, drawn-out dinner once in a while, but there’s just some things you shouldn’t have to wait for.

So apparently the Fairbanks Grassroots movement has gotten the idea that the community needs to band together and reopen Into the Woods.

For those that don’t know, “Into the Woods” was a hippie-esque bookstore at the foot of Campus Hill that became a staple of the wandering hippy subculture. Skip class, walk aimlessly down the hill, get a cup of Joe at CCH and wander through the stacks at “Into the Woods”. The few times I went into ‘woods I was met at the door by a rude angry woman that apparently hated high schoolers and ran the place as well.

Well, there came a time when ‘woods decided to stop paying rent. UAF, the landowner of this plot of land that ‘woods sat on, was overly generous, letting ‘woods get, from what I remember, 3-6 months behind on rent. At the 6-month point, UAF said leave.

Hippies cried everywhere.

Of coarse, let loose the visions of UAF as a multinational conclomerate of head-hunting 1984-esque robots on a mission of public mind control. Trust me, I heard more about “the MAN trying to get you down” that year than I ever heard in my high school literature class while discussing both Wells’ and Huxley’s versions of the future.

The hippie subculture sprang forth with an amazing amount of lackluster support for the little bookstore that could - staging protests and signing petitions to save the bookstore. They said that all UAF was doing was trying to kill the “college community” (of which there really isn’t one) just to “put up a wal-mart”.

To this day there’s still not a Wal-mart at the bottom of the college hill.

To this day the point still stands, ‘woods didn’t pay their rent and the “man” did the right thing and told them to pack up and leave.

Now the plan, according to a grassroots newsletter, is to open ‘woods somewhere on the Parks Highway. I never liked ‘woods and the way that the community, or subculture, embraced it’s plight for survival when it failed to pay rent month after month sickened me even more.

ugh.