Mountain Nomad Chronicles

It's begun..

The wife and kids have begun their move.  They took the Greyhound (am I jealous? I don't know) to Whitehorse in the middle of night, getting them in at 4:30, then flying out to Vancouver in the evening.  I'm on my own now for a few days.  Man, I hate moving, but we just keep doing it.  I feel abit lonely, but still there's much to do.  About 20 partially filled boxes note the living room.  Night.

Neko Case Performance on Letterman

One of my favorite albums of the last year is Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood.  Neko Case has been a prominent artist on the altcountry scene for awhile, but although I have a couple of her previous albums, they were just so-so for me.   Her latest offering, however, really pushes my buttons.  A few weeks back I visited her website and noticed that she was scheduled to appear on Letterman on June 17th.  I made a mental note to watch, which I forgot of course until tonight.  Disappointed, I checked around to find a review of the performance and found the performance itself on YouTube.  Golly Gee, I love the internet.  Check it out.

YouTube - Neko Case - Maybe Sparrow (Letterman)

Modern Bedroom Storage

Check out this new innovative way to intergrate bedside storage from IKEA's 2007 collection.

MoCo Loco: Malm Headboard

9 Reasons to Return

In less than a week, we will be leaving the Yukon.  I'm crossing my fingers that the move goes well - that the U-Haul truck doesn't break down.  Although I'm really excited to return to Vancouver, I leave with some regret of things I didn't see and do.  So here's a list that will spur us to return if only for an extended visit.

1. Hike the Historic Chilkoot Trail
2. Hike in the Tombstone Mountains
3. Visit Dawson City
4. Cross the Arctic Circle and visit Inuvik
5. Visit Skagway
6. Ride on the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry
7. Visit Denali National Park
8. Bring a sign to the Watson Lake Sign Post Forest
9. Soak in the Laird Hot Springs

Podcasts: University Lectures

Here's something that turns me on...university lecture podcasts that you can subscribe to.  Many top universities are offering the lectures from select courses to the public via podcast.  Some you can just listen to the audio, while others offer the video of the lecture as well.  You can visit the course's website to find out what the reading material is in order to really get into it.  Of course, no credits are offered, but that also means that you don't have to write the papers and take the tests either.  I find myself interested in courses I never would have taken in school like physics and anatomy.  It would also be helpful for prospective students to give them a taste of the material.

Someone's complied a list of courses they found...

List of Academic Lectures Podcasts

Some that I have found...
UC Berkeley's podcasts
Colorado State Chemistry

Photoshop does the movies

Although I don't recommend the movie "Sin City", it ah....seems to be one of the coolest looking films ever.  Learn how to change any photo into a slick comic with this great Photoshop tutorial.  It would probably be doable with GIMP, a free open source Photoshop alternative.

Sin City Style - Tutorial Seeker

Anatomy Lessons

So my wife was doing a word game today with her class.  The students were given preselected letters and they were instructed to arrange the letters into a word for a body part.  One of the words she wanted them to figure out was "SPINE".  The first student who thought that he figured it out thought his teacher was pretty gross.  Can you figure out what body part he discovered?  Well, the class had a good laugh and "SPINE" will not be added to the activity in future years. Oops.

Bush mocks blind man

Bush puts his foot in his mouth again. 

Best Week Ever » Blog Archive » ICYMI: Bush’s Blind Item of the Day

We are now a carless

We are now a carless family of four.  I delivered our beloved(not really) Jeep to its new owner in Whitehorse yesterday and took the Greyhound back home.  Maybe I'll start a new blog once we are in Vancouver about family life without a automobile.  Anyway, the bus trip was interesting....ripe smelling travelers and a really obese man wearing two pairs of jeans.  Really nice opportunity to do some podcast listening, though.  The five hour ride took me through several episodes of Diggnation, some talks from IT Conversations and some Paste Culture Club.

IT Conversations: T. Colin Campbell - Changing the World One Bite at A Time

In praise of craigslist

Searching for an apartment in Vancouver whilst living in the Yukon, I have really come to appreciate the greatness of Craigslist.  Craigslist is a real-time web classifieds site.  It is really plain and simple, which adds to its magic.  The ads are organized into categories and listed according to order submitted, newest first. When hunting for a hot commodity such as housing, this is a great feature.  The listings are of course searchable, so looking for a keyword helps brings up only the listings you are looking for.  And it's free, of course.  Many people have cited craigslist as being a major force in the weakening of newspapers as craigslist popularity has decreased papers' classifieds revenue.  That makes me abit sad, but I think Craigslist is golden.

Craigslist

Apartment Hunting 101 [via Lifehacker]