I just spent the last two hours of my life watching Alaska specials on PBS. This is what I learned.

1.) The Pipeline... it SUCKS.
2.) Bush life... not so bad. I'd live it.

Elaboration: The first show detailed the process of construction of the Alaskan Pipeline. For a TV special, it was surprisingly less bias than I thought it was going to be... but no matter. My thoughts still remain the same. It is an ugly, ugly scar. Sure, we have more oil, but in the long run, that only delays the inevitable. We will run out some day, and what will we be left with? The rusted pipes ($8 billion dollars to build might I add) of so-called "economic independence" will lay as ghosts among the landscaped beauty that will outlast them. I hope. I can't really describe in words the sad image of Alaska's great scar, so I will find one online.


You can't tell me that's not terrible. I don't care if we got immense amounts of oil. The 1,300km Trans-Alaska Pipeline stretches across the Arctic tundra, over and under more than 800 rivers and streams, and through three mountain ranges... staining, both figuratively and in some cases literally, every place it cuts through. (Note: Yes, I realize I'm not even from Alaska, nor have I been there yet... but I might move there, and I have an opinion, and that's what blogs are for: Nonsense.)

The second special, reaffirming my opinions formed by the first, was about life in the Alaskan bush. There is an elderly couple who have been living near the Chinitna Bay (accessible only by plane) for the past 30 years. They are almost completely self-sufficient and surrounded by some of the most beautiful natural elements one can imagine. Basically, in short, that would be sweet and I want to see these landscapes in person...


Wouldn't you want to go there? I would go, and probably never want to leave... good thing I'm going to move there (there being an unknown somewhere in Alaska)!!!

Later days, more Alaskan experience.