“You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals.” – Booker T. Washington
Category: Personal Page 2 of 14
I remember the cold ’81-82 winter well, working the planes outside at Anchorage International in a string of below -20°F nights. One night was -33°F. But the previous winter, my first in Alaska, had a melting spell, like ours yesterday, but longer.
Anchorage’s winter temps are much warmer than interior Alaska’s because of the ocean’s warming affect.
ANCHORAGE (KTUU) – 2019 will enter the books as the warmest year on record for Anchorage. The average temperature for the year is 42.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The previous “warmest year” was 2016 with an average temperature of 41.9F. In fact, the five warmest years for Anchorage have occurred in the past six years. The records for Anchorage go back to 1954. …
Anchorage had a record year overall, breaking the all-time record high on July 4 by hitting 90 degrees. The previous record had been 85 degrees set on June 14, 1969.
I grew up in Minneapolis, where KTIS was the Christian station; though, I didn’t listen much (not spiritually alive). Here, Brewster talks about touring with Steve Perry (lead singer of Journey), ’94-’95, and why he quit.
[Tithing isn’t biblical according to the New Testament. Now we’re supposed to be led by the Holy Spirit, not the old covenant law.]
Currently, I’m blending 75% Colombian (medium roast) with 25% French roast (dark), which Costco has locally roasted at Steam Dot in Anchorage. I ran out of a wonderful African roast that I also added. Costco got rid of their roaster, and thus all of their specialty coffees. Steam Dot bought their giant roaster, but continues only three of their blends. Colombian is very good. None are organic.
I store them in the freezer, most often vacuum packing them first in jars.
Instead of cream, I add generous amounts of coconut cream that I get from a local Asian market.
Ground nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice from Frontier Coop (available locally at Natural Pantry) tops it off.
We live 2.5 miles from what I’ve been told is their 2nd most profitable Costco store. They bought Toys-R-Us next door, and are planning on joining the two buildings with an enclosed walkway, which would make it the largest Costco in the world, I am told. One manager still has to approve the project. They’re already using Toys-R-Us in other ways.
Some interesting ideas in this short video:
Amazing roller coaster graphics; though, not my favorite music. They call it “old time” where my parents were/are from in New Ulm, Minnesota, southwest of where I grew up in the twin cities. My uncle played the concertina in his polka band, which is this sound.
Belugas are smart.
I’ve seen them a number of times here in Alaska. One time was very special, when a group surprised me by swimming very close to me as I was photographing on the shore of Turnagain Arm years ago.
I’ve been taking cold showers for about a year, and sometimes baths, after discovering Wim Hof. Our tap water temperature in Anchorage, Alaska is ideal:
- Winter: 41º Fahrenheit (5º Celsius)
- Summer: 46º Fahrenheit (8º Celsius)
Dr. Berg recommends 20 minutes, but that’s probably for water that’s not as cold. Wim Hof says at least 3 minutes.
I wrote a sincere thanks to Paul Speer on his Facebook page:
One of my favorite albums of all time. Thank you, Paul Speer! You and David Lanz did something very special here. The entire album is awesome!
Also, I have the Natural States VHS video that I absolutely loved, and was hoping for it to come out as a DVD. Paul Speer writes back regarding the quality of the video currently:
All were shot on 16mm film so they pale compared to hi def today. The first videos I uploaded were 11 years ago and youtube had restrictions on file size so the quality isn’t very good on those.
NS and DV were released on DVD but again, because of the source material, the quality isn’t so good. Unfortunately, we don’t know what happened to the original film or first transfer to video otherwise it would be possible to create a much better version in hi def.
Paul says everything was filmed in Washington state except for the second video, filmed on the California coast. I asked Paul how he and David created this masterpiece.
We’ve been interviewed many times about the project. The visuals were shot first by Jan C. Nickman and he did a rough cut of each piece that we started to compose to. Once we had the song structures, Jan would update the visuals so they were tighter with the music. After we finished recording, Jan did the final edits to blend seamlessly with the music. It was a time consuming back and forth process but well worth it, IMO. Of course, as we worked we had no idea if it would be a hit or a dud. We just did the best we could with what was available.
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This first video should cycle through the entire playlist automatically.
Otherwise, the rest of the videos are below this one.
Keith Green had a big impact on my life. He was only four years older than me, and actually became a Christian about the same time I did, ’74-75. He died at only age-28. It’s absolutely incredible what he, his wife Melody and their friends were able to in just seven or eight years! Melody says in the film they were in Woodland Hills, a suburb of Los Angeles.
Praise God they were able to attend Ken Gulliksen’s rich, Holy Spirit anointed meetings right away, which was the start of the Vineyard movement. I didn’t find a church I could relate to until 1981, when I moved to Alaska and found Abbott Loop.
I listened to all of Keith’s music, and still have all of their “Last Days Ministries Newsletter” issues.
His legacy was so big, the vision and momentum, that something was seriously lost when he died in 1982. Christianity moved forward for awhile, but then floundered. The Vineyard movement fizzled out in about 1991. [Our church was autocratic, and the founder never did fully repent or reconcile. Anyone who said something was considered anathema. We were like the church of Sardis in Rev. 3:1-6, having a “‘reputation’ for being alive, but….”]
Keith wouldn’t have put up with the world taking over the church like it has. Hardly anyone today seems to have his passion for doing whatever God wants no matter what — “no compromise.”
This story is wonderfully told by Melody, their friends, and the great people who once were Sparrow records, which was later bought out by a secular label. Christian music was wonderful in the ’70s and ’80s! It’s so spiritually dead now. Keith would have never put up with that, and he ended up giving his music away for donations of any amount. He wanted to make sure the world didn’t compromise him through the love of money, and fame too.
I wonder what the world would be like now had Keith not died so early. He showed the impact that one sold-out man for Christ with great friends can do.
Today’s ‘Christian’ radio stations in America like K-LOVE won’t even play even one of his songs. That’s how sad and pathetic ‘Christian’ music has become — deadsville. This needs to radically change. Instead of “no compromise,” their message is “go to sleep;” “Jesus loves you no matter how much you willfully sin and don’t repent or reconcile.” That’s ‘Christian’ music today, and what is preached from most pulpits today too. Churches have almost no holiness, no presence of God, no passion. We have fake churches right now almost everywhere. Keith Green would freak! Imagine how Jesus feels right now with almost everybody doing their own thing, and acting like it’s okay.
Quite a story here! We need to get serious. We need to live no compromised — which is just normal Christianity, the way it’s always supposed to be.
ABOUT THE FILM
This film was apparently released in 2002. This version is the best quality I could find online, and ends at 1:02:25, where it repeats part of it again, strangely. So it really is only an hour long.
A magnificent flock of about 150 geese just flew over our yard, just above tree level. I heard them coming, talking to one another and maybe us, so I got in position to see the amazing spectacle as they approached, completely surrounding me with clusters of less than 20, flowing together in one large group, led by one? Or do the leaders take turns? I wonder if their software has been updated lately so they can make the long journey south soon, without a glitch. It snowed yesterday, with white now becoming leaves and green grass again.
Trump tweeted:
Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices. Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others…….
…..Censorship is a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police. If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of salt, or don’t watch at all..
….Too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen. Who is making the choices, because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made. Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out!
I used to work a few hundred yards from here.
At the very end of this short video, UPS freighter tails can be seen. Our NW Airlines cargo facility, where we did all the transloads, used to be between UPS and the trees showing behind the tails.
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From: ADN, 7/28/18
Rest of the story and video HERE
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Video: Bear sprints past parked planes at Anchorage’s airport
At first, James Batman thought a black, furry dog had sprinted by him at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, near where FedEx parks its cargo planes.
“Then I looked back again and saw it had no tail….
The bear had gotten into the area by burrowing under a nearby fence, said Trudy Wassel, division operations manager at airport. Airport staff had since repaired the area.
Wassel said the airport has two, full-time wildlife biologists to handle wildlife issues.
“We take it very seriously,” she said.
The airport borders Point Woronzof and Kincaid Park, areas where it’s not uncommon to see black bears, said Ken Marsh, a spokesman at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
“You must be willing to do something you have never done before to get to where you have never been before.”
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800-pound boulder falls off truck in Rosemount, killing mother and daughter from Shoreview
A boulder estimated to weigh 800 pounds fell off the back of a truck in Rosemount [Minnesota] and struck a car going in the opposite direction, killing a mother and daughter from Shoreview. …
Scott estimated the boulder was about 3 feet by 3 feet.
I’ve been a member of REI since the early ’70s, when I started backpacking and canoeing.
I’ve had my homemade best-of songs from The Call in my car’s CD player for at least two years straight — ‘everywhere I go,’ literally.
Michael Been, lead singer and bass player died in 2010.
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I’ve been dreading this, and tried to see if the planes could fly westerly when winds allow instead, to give us a little break at times. Unbelievably, the airport only has instruments on one side of the east/west runway (FAA’s decision), which need to be always used because some airlines unnecessarily require pilots to always use IFR instruments even on bright, sunny days.
Two of the officials in the conference call will also be affected by the noise because of where they live. They were frustrated nothing could be done. I left the conversation dumfounded. FAA and a few airlines’ ridiculous rules have left us in a one-way pickle.
Is this project even safe? As I write this, the wind is officially a strong crosswind from the south at 20mph, since planes can only take off to the east and land from the east.
What if crosswinds or tail winds are even stronger? I was told there is no workaround solution, and that planes will likely not be able to land at the military base. Landing in Fairbanks appears to be the only option, which is 260 miles by air and 360 miles by bus (if passengers have to be transported).
In Anchorage, it’s always sometime in May, and the green is so pretty!
I was greatly impressed with Renaissance while in high school, and was able to see them at the Minnesota State Fair playing in a small pavilion to only about 25 people. I couldn’t believe my eyes, standing right in front of one of the greatest bands and most people just kept walking down the path without coming inside — for free.
Jon Camp is still my favorite bass player — having such a soaring, majestic style — a one-of-a-kind! Some compare him to Chris Squire of ‘YES,’ but Jon has always moved me more.
Annie Haslam has a 5-octave voice, and still sings incredibly at age-70: (music video) Renaissance – ‘Carpet of the Sun’ with Chamber Orchestra
Renaissance’s style was elegance, standing tall like the Redwoods; though, some of the lyrics were a bit dark, and were written by another lady, who seemed to be occult influenced. This concert has a great, upbeat feel, unlike some of their studio LP albums, like “Turn of the Cards,” which I still remember buying at the record store at 66th St. and Penn Ave. in Richfield, MN, while living in nearby Bloomington.
I must have heard them on KQRS, the progressive rock FM station that I was often glued to. They never played the same song in a 24 hour period, and had real DJs playing real vinyl LP records, sometimes entire albums. What a treat!
I’ve always been impressed with their song, “Mother Russia,” but didn’t know until hearing Jon Camp’s intro here that it’s about Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the imprisoned truther, author.
Uplifting concert here!
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I remember being amazed by this and even humming it when it came out in 1974, when electronic music was just getting going:“Fahr’n fahr’n fahr’n auf der autobahn.”
KQRS FM in Minneapolis, which I was glued to, would play this extended version on a real turntable.
About ten years later, I drove the Autobahn.
Catchy tune!
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<Command +> also makes print larger in web pages.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZqv6GlVPLY
How To Make Things Bigger on Your Mac
Published on Jul 7, 2010
I grew up in the ’60s and ’70s watching ABC’s Wide World of Sports, which began like this:
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Waiting to get in — Sam’s Club east in Anchorage, Alaska — first day that everything was 50% off — at 5pm.
Back of the line are the people left of the trees! Inside, the register lines were another two hours — all the way to the back wall!
Mom is to the right of the corner of the building in the light blue coat, hand raised, chatting with a nurse.
Former NWA coworkers: Tommy was to the left of the flag (red hat). And I saw Don S. inside!
January 17, 2018
Olympus E-PL5
Anchorage south location — everything is now 75% off.
January 24, 2018
Olympus E-PL5
Anchorage south location — everything 75% off except tires, owned by a third party vendor.
January 24, 2018
Olympus E-PL5