Last Regular Weekly Update

This will the last regular Weekly Update for a while. I am definitely unsure as to the direction and participation of this blog over the summer. I will keep writing but as of yet this blog has only been about my severe social isolation as a teacher out in an Eskimo Island in the Bering Sea. This summer I will be surrounded with friends, family, camping, festivals, late nights and good times.

Luckily Life itself and its plethora of bountiful lessons have guided this blog thus far, so I have no doubts it will continue to provide insights a plenty.

MUSICAL ARTISTS OF THE YEAR: I have decided to compile a list of all the artists of the week for you so that you can see the breadth and width of the music one would require to survive a winter alone:

Madeleine Peyroux
Etta James "The Essential Discs"
Blue Turtle Seduction "Deep Sea Rodeo"
James Brown
The Velvet Underground
J.J. Cale "Naturally"
Bob Marley "Songs of Freedom"
Santana "Lotus"
Tom Waits
Flowmotion
Bjork
Corinne Bailey Rae
Devendra Banhart "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon"
ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra) "Roses and Clover" or "Fly Between Falls"
Beach Boys "Pet Sounds"
Jill Scott "Experience Jill Scott 826+"
Arcade Fire "Neon Bible" and "Funeral"
Sigur Ros "Takk" or "( )"
Jack Johnson "Sleep Through the Static"
Belle and Sebastian "Tigermilk" and "If you're feeling sinister" and "Dear Catastrophe Waitress"
Robert Plant and Allison Krauss "Raising Sand"
Coldplay
Jon Butler Trio
Levon Helm "Dirt Farmer"
Hot Buttered Rum "Live at Wintergrass 2007"
Yonder Mountain String Band "Live at NWSS 2007"
Galactic "Coolin Off"
Umphrey's McGee "Anchor Drops" and "Safety in Numbers"
The "Velvet Goldmine" Soundtrack
The "Once" Soundtrack
Vampire Weekend
David Bowie "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust"
The Cure "Greatest Hits"
Paul Simon "Rhythm of the Saints"
Xavier Rudd "White Moth"
Kale Iverson
Eddie Vedder "Into the Wild" Soundtrack
Citizen Cope "The Clarence Greenwood Recordings"
Jimmy Buffet "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean"

After looking at that list of musical heavyweights that cross all genres and styles I realized I only showed you about half of my musical preferences. That should be a good start for you to update your own personal life playlists though right?

OLD SCHOOL PHRASES OF THE YEAR: Same deal check out all this old American language we're working to save here on RW:

"Okey Dokey"
"Yes Siree Bob"
"Wise Acre"
"I'll be back in two shakes of a lamb's tail"
"Holy Crow"
"My Lucky Stars"
"You Betcha"
"Gee Willickers"
"Crime-a-Nitly"
"Gets My Goat"
"Davenport"
"My Moses, Mary and Joseph"
"Bull Pucky"
"Can I be Frank?"
"Horsing Around"
"Supper"
"Every Tom, Dick and Harry"
"You can betcher Bottom Dollar"
"Pal"
"Monkey Business"
"Cotton Picken"
"My Goodness Gracious"
"Cryin' Shame"
"Great Caesar's Ghost"
"Madder than a March hare"

WEATHER HERE ON NUNIVAK: The Locals are saying this is an incredibly late break up out here, we are still sitting in a circumference of ice in the ocean, although the river is starting to give. Its still a now comfortable 33 deg F and the wind still gives the air a bit of nip. We have been getting some fog here and there, some rain, and believe it or not, it is freaking snowing outside RIGHT NOW. Man, crazy... It gets light out around 5 and the sun sets after midnight. Tack on the pre/post sun and we're lookin at about 20 hours of light right now, sleep is a problem.

ART UPDATE: I'm not making excuses, but I haven't been very creative lately due to all the cleaning, packing, grading and finishing up the year...sorry.

CLUSTRMAP/Readership Update: We are steady at about 20 readers a day and just hit 2800 site hits since halfway through February. NICE WORK FRIENDS...We'll see what happens with readership this summer, but lets keep this awesome online community going okey dokey?

Days Left Till Washington: 3...Oh hellz yeah.

Last Thoughts: So much cleaning the last three days. My house is starting to shape up. My classroom is blank and desolate and my Alaskan belongings packages in reused grocery cardboard boxes. To think I came here with a backpacker pack, an army duffel bag, a school pack, and two mailed boxes. Wow now I have about 6 boxes of crap sitting in my living room.

I also can't believe how far this blog has come since August of last year. I didn't even know what I was doing or what it was all about but now my blog has a weather ticker, a music player, link lists, my personal music player, several charitable interactive links, sunrise ticker, a Jambase concert finder, and all my artwork for the year.

I feel so grateful to have all you new cyberspace friends and supporters. I am also grateful for discovering this blogging medium to help me work through my struggles and document my metamorphosis in life. Reflection is so important and now I have a whole year of my life intricately documented for the future.