ALASKAN, WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES: PART 2

Well, I hope that everybody had a good week.

HEY, BABY! WHAT'S SHAKIN"???

As most of you are probably aware of, I am a nerd. Yes, it is true. I am a science geek of a high order. If it has to do with an earth science, I want to experience it. Tornadoes are still my favorite. But the fact remains that I have not experienced all that Old Ma' Nature can throw at us.

Well, I can cross another one off the list. Monday morning, at 10:42 AM, I experienced my first earthquake. It was cool!!!! I was sitting in my office reading an article with my arms on the desk and all of the sudden I felt the desk moving back and forth underneath my arms. WHOA!!! It was not a very major earthquake. Just a 5.2 on the Richter Scale, centered about 130 miles west of Fairbanks at a depth of 27 miles. But it was so cool! Man, I want to experience another one. It was very, very interesting. Here is the link to the official report:

http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/Seis/recenteqs/quakes/2001155_evid474/evid474.html

JAN CURTIS

The gentleman who I have the privilege of working with, but unfortunately only for a little while longer, is Jan Curtis. Some of you may remember me mentioning his work. He is one of the most world-renowned photographer's of the Aurora. He is very famous around Fairbanks. We went up to the director's office so that I could meet him. Inside of the office, two pictures were hanging on the wall, both of them his. National Geographic is using two images of his in the November issue. He was featured during a show that played on The Learning Channel. One of his pictures is being used by the US Postal Service as a stamp...I could go on. He is the reason that I am here, actually. I am his replacement, or part of his replacement. He is moving back down to "the States" at the end of the summer.

Here is the link to his website:

http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/Curtis/curtis.html

GO TO THIS WEBSITE!!!!! It is well worth the time.

BY ANY OTHER NAME... (some thoughts)

"Please. Call me Gerd." I have had that said to me several times, both last year and this, as I worked up here in Alaska. Gerd refers to Gerd Wendler, my boss, who is a professor here at UAF.

I guess it is my "nice-ness", the true downfall of Midwesterners (according to Garrison Keillor) that prevents me from feeling comfortable saying that to Dr. Wendler...err...Gerd. And this isn't the first time I have run afoul...

Mr. Farhlander

Mr. Phil Farhlander was the instrumental music teacher at Minden High School from 1973 until 1997, and he taught ALL of the Hartmanns (Warren, Linda, Keith, Karen, Ruth, and me). When my parents moved to Minden, Phil and Nadine were their neighbors and good friends. Yet, I cannot, for the life of me, bring myself to call him Phil. I risk spontaneous combustion if I were to try it.

Mr. and Mrs. Bill, Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, Mr. and Mrs. Petersen, Dr. and Mrs.Grossardt, Mr and Mrs. Needham, Mr. and Mrs. Kuehn, et al... All of the parents of all of my friends...can I blame my parents for this...for making meuncomfortable? I suppose that it started as a form of respect toward my elders, but these are folks that I have known for a long time now, and I am no longer a little runny-nosed kid, I am a big runny-nosed kid with a career. Am I supposed to call them by their names now? What is the best way to proceed? AHHH!!!

John (Jay) Roggenkamp Yup...my brother-in-law. He is married to my sister, Karen. And I have always known him by Jay. That is how I was introduced to him when I was young, and that I what I always called him...heck, that is what Karen calls him. You can imaginemy surprise when I was chatting with Bill at the Wrestling kiosk, right next to Jay and Karen's Creative Trains kiosk at the Mall of America (www.creativetrains.com). Y'all know that I worked there for 6 weeks this spring, right?

Anyway, I was talking to Bill and I mentioned that "Jay" had told me about this or that at the mall. Bill looked at me with a confused look. "Who is Jay?" WHO IS JAY!?!?! Then it dawned on me...Bill knows a John Roggenkamp, not a Jay Roggenkamp. The same thing goes for all of the other workers at the kiosk pod on South 3. And it was reciprocal, too. They would mention John, and my grey matter had to work a few nanoseconds of overtime for me to figure out what was going on...weird.

Other notable inclusions... Dr. Price, Dr. Mena-Werth, and the rest of all of my professors at UNK.

Anyway, I just thought that I would share that will all of you. I wonder if anybody else has this problem. Let me know. We should try to obtain government funding to study this, or to set up a support group. We can take turns holding up pictures of notable figures and calling them by their first name, like calling the Queen "Lizzie".

Of course, if I want to pursue this, I will need to get some time off from Dr. Wendler...damn. I need to work on that.

INJECTIONS D'HUMEUR

So a man walked into a bar, and sat down and ordered a beer. He sat and drank it. All of a sudden, he heard a little voice say "Nice tie." He looked around and didn't see anybody. "That is a cool shirt, too." said that voice. Again, he scanned the room, noticing that it was just he and the bartender. "I like your hair that way!" the voice said.

Finally, the man timidly asked the bartender "Do you hear that voice?"

The bartender replied, "Those are our peanuts, sir. They're complimentary."

GOINGS ON

Well, the first pitch of Nebraska's first-round College World Series game was just thrown. Listening to the National Anthem on the internet radio brought back many memories, mainly when the Railmen Drum and Bugle Corps played the Anthem at the CWS back in 1993. Can it really be 8 years since I was a corps rookie? Man, I am getting old. Which segues, rather nicely I might add, to the fact that the 2001 drum corps season starts tomorrow with the Menasha, Wisconsin show. Madison, Colts, and Pioneer will all be there. I am going to miss corps a lot. Kristen Clark, my dear friend from UNK, started her age-out season with my other alma-mater Bluecoats from Ohio.Their first show is next weekend.

Well, I heard from a few of you, but not nearly enough. So, hit that reply button and let me know how you are.

Brian "www.deet-is-my-friend.com" Hartmann