Mon Mar 9 17:30:30 AKDT 2009

Friday night I took a break from doing laundry to go check out Jeremy Kane's show at the State Museum.

Ian and I went up Eaglecrest all day Saturday. I felt pretty lucky with a foot of fresh snow and lots of sun! The highlight of the day was definitely West Bowl.

Sunday I rendezvoused with Erin and Matt at Heritage for a meeting of the Physics Book Club. We're discussing Warped Passages right now.

Tue Mar 3 10:31:10 AKST 2009

Saturday morning Alicia and I mutually motivated each other to get out of bed and go snowboarding at Eaglecrest. Kirsa joined us as well and had her first-ever snowboarding lesson, exciting!

Sunday I couldn't resist getting up early and going again (despite staying up late Saturday night to watch Defiance). This time the crew was Ian and Sarah (both rocking skis)

and me on the single-plank. I had a mostly elastic collision with a tree branch. I came out with a bruised and scraped cheek but otherwise fine.

Sunday night I went to check out Eating Alaska an hour-long film about what it means to eat locally by Ellen Frankenstein (a Sitkan!). Then afterward went to Zen for my friend Steph's birthday. Good times.

Mon Feb 16 20:44:43 AKST 2009

This past Friday was laundry day, so I have nothing to report in the way of an exciting Friday night. I made this playlist for Valentine's Day which was distributed to a select few.


Valentine's Day afternoon Kirsa and I stopped by Auke Lake to take a few pictures.


Sarah made these delicious cupcakes, with everyone's initials written in huckleberries.


This wooden dress made by Dave Walker won the Wearable Arts Show later that night.


Sunday I went up Eaglecrest and snowboarded for as many hours as I had slept the night before. Matthew Brody took a break to dig a snow pit at the Eaglecrest MET station.

Thu Feb 12 11:50:44 AKST 2009

2π is such a nice number! I took this panorama from Channel Drive (a.k.a. the DIPAC dock) on my drive in to work this morning.

Thu Feb 5 16:36:14 AKST 2009

I might be one of the luckiest people in the world.

The view out of my office window at NSRL:

Fri Jan 30 14:04:57 AKST 2009

What's the hurry Juneau?

I often wonder as I see other drivers pass me on Egan Highway (AK-7) whether or not it's actually worth it to tempt the JPD (who issued 8441 citations in 2007) and speed on the short downtown-valley commute. How much time could I actually save?

Google Maps calculates the driving distance from the intersection of Riverside Drive and Egan to the intersection of 12th Street and Egan to be roughly 8.3 mi (my odometer confirms).


View Larger Map

If we assume we don't have to accelerate, decelerate, or stop for any lights on the way then calculating driving time at the speed limit is easy.

Distance/Rate = Time, so 8.3mi/55mph = .15 hours

Converting hours to minutes, that's just over 9 minutes.

So how does speeding compare?

8.3mi/70mph = .12 hours, that's just over 7 minutes.

So, even if you were to speed at 15 over the limit the entire way you would still only save yourself two minutes if you were lucky. With the exception of medical emergencies I don't know of anybody in Juneau who won't forgive you for being a few minutes late. If you wanted to save yourself a whopping 5 minutes you would have to travel 100mph the entire way without stopping. In my opinion, it just isn't worth it. Especially if you're endangering the life of the occasional pedestrian, bicyclist, or unicyclist. :)

In the case of medical emergency, chances are you'll have to sit in the Bartlett waiting room for a good two hours before you receive any assistance anyways. But that's another entry.

Sun Jan 11 23:50:22 AKST 2009

And the snow fun continued all weekend!

Saturday was a late-night trip to Fred Meyer for cheap sleds with Sarah, Ian, Jenny, and Chris who just got back in town and then lots of spills and thrills at the Home Depot Memorial Sledding Hill. Wish I had pictures to share!

Then early this afternoon there was nordic (or cross-country, if you prefer) skiing out on Mendenhall Lake. Adrienne, Alicia, Ian, and Sarah came along for this trip. So crazy to be skiing where I had been kayaking just a few months before!

This evening Kirsa, Alicia, Sarah and I crashed Josh Jones and Dave's joint-birthday at the downtown Bullwinkle's. It was a nice way to wind down after a weekend of playing in the snow.