6 MONTHS OUT

It has been (almost) six months since I embarked upon this
little journey called a career, and I have a few
observations that, while novel to me, will no doubt strike
most of you as relatively moot and generally general.

I guess it is kind of interesting, these little (or
interminably long, depending upon your perspective) emails.
I write these as some sort of quasi-journal, because I have
found that my ability to conduct a regular journal for
myself is about as scarce as non-freezing temperatures up
here. So, these email essays, for better and for worse, are
the result.

E.B. White wrote:
"The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the
childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything
that happens to him, is of general interest."

and

"I think some people find the essay the last resort of the
egoist, a much too self-conscious and self-serving form for
their taste; they feel that it is presumptuous of a writer
to assume that his little excursions or his small
observations will interest the reader."

When I read these passages in the Introduction to a
collection, "Small Comforts", by fellow Alaskan Tom Bodett,
it struck me as quite descriptive, especially descriptive of
myself. Why is it that I write these little blurbs of
semi-literate, sometimes humorous, but largely and painfully
normal observations?

Who knows?

I just hope that you all enjoy reading them as much as I
enjoy writing them.

Well, Alaska. Hmm, where to begin? The Last
Frontier..365,000,000 acres of hunter green love. The state
in which I live is kind of different. Those of you who have
been here know this. Those of you who have not (Shame on
you!) can imagine what this state is like.

Being the egoist that I am, I have found that Alaska is very
much like Nebraska, as any Nebraskan is bound to do. Well,
not JUST like Nebraska...take away the caribou, oil,
mountains, dog sleds, a ferry system, an endless parade of
cruise ships, endless nights, endless days, tundra,
permafrost, the salmon run, glaciers, ice fog, head bolt
outlets, bears, Denali, ice climbing, snow shoeing in
October, the Permanent Fund, and subsistence fishing...if
you get rid of all of that, add some corn and cows, you have
a mimeograph of "The Cornhusker State".

No, on a sub-conscious level, I feel very much at home
here. I like it. The "feel" is similar. The pace of life
is quite similar here in Fairbanks as it is in Kearney, the
town of about comparable size where I went to college. The
rush "hour" lasts about 30 minutes, the theatre has crummy
movies (for the most part, more on that later) and we have a
bigger city that looks down on us, which is fine, cause we
think they are all a bunch of jerks anyway.

Anchorage, or Los Anchorage as we call it, has much the same
feel of Omaha or Lincoln does to a small-town Nebraska boy
like me. I like the cities fine. They have nice stuff like
hockey, and good concerts, and better bookstores, and really
fantastic people like the Jordons and the Winbingers, but
like many people from "real" Nebraska, we would be just
about as happy if the Missouri River would do us a favor and
lop off Omaha...let Iowa have the headache.

Of course, we here in Squarebanks are the butt of our share
of jokes at the hand of the "hip, with-it, erudite
urbanites" that live in Anchorage. They think that because
they have more urban sprawl, more McDonalds, and taller
buildings to obstruct their mountain views, that they have
one-up on us freaks up here in the boondocks.

Well, I know that speech of this type is dangerous, inciting
rancor between the "classes", and is assuredly nothing new.
Remember the editorial in the Daily Nebraskan (The
University of Nebraska Lincoln Student Paper) last December
when it was announced that then-President Clinton would
speak at *gasp* Kearney, and NOT Lincoln?!?!?!

"But...but...WE have the FOOTBALL team?!?!" (An actual part
of UNL's argument was that Memorial Stadium should be more
attractive than our "stupid and historically insignificant"
Archway Memorial to the Pres.)

Well, that set off a bunch of hooey to and fro, back and
forth. Semi-literate emails and insults, bragging and
lying, the usual suspects.

It doesn't matter that some of live in the country and some
of us live in the city...it is nice to compare so that we
know how much better than the other guys we have it, right?

Besides, we all know who really is better off, don't we...

MONSTERS, INC

Great movie...go see it, everybody go see it. It is a work
of genius. Great premise, great animation, funny story, good
action. I saw it Monday night, and I am tempted to go see
it once again. I think you would all like it.

VOTE

I need more people to vote for the name of my car. Go!

http://www.qsl.net/kc0hoj/bmh/contest.html

Email those votes to me, pronto!

SOME SAD NEWS

I got word last night that a friend of mine from school,
Nicole Wendland, passed away of a rare disease. She was my
age.

Nicole and I were not not what you would call close
friends...we were both in band. We didn't really hang out
that much, or have any classes together. We had many mutual
friends in the Honors Program and Music Dept. Nicole was
just one of the hundreds of people you meet at college that
makes the whole messed up experience of higher education a
little bit brighter. Her smile and laugh were there at the
right times...just part of the UN-Kearney tapestry. She was
attending the University of Nebraska Medical Center where
she was working towards her M.D.

I regret that we lost touch after she graduated and I
graduated. I don't remember the last time I saw her...it
just seems to me that 24 is much too young an age to have to
be concerned about these type of thoughts. Of course, there
is no right age for this, it just isn't right.

Well, there won't be any INJECTIONS D'HUMEUR, for obvious
reasons.

Take care, all. Please take care. Have a wonderful
Thanksgiving.

-Brian