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The server is getting worked pretty hard, but if you can get in, this is a pretty funny duet from Bush and Kerry.

Also: LOOK OUT!!!!!!

Anybody else cheer for the bull in these things?

And finally, found following links from JustWide I give you this. What the hell?

do you have your sugar frosted coco-bombs? here’s some ‘toons for the saturday morning cartoon club!

bueno the bear is rad. check out the forever comic, feel the love.

you must watch LEGO SPIDERMAN, it is the awesomest awesome that ever awesomed.

oh, and also, some shameless self promotion. i started a cartoon site. since it’s still in the birthing stages, let me know if you guys think i should make any changes to the navigation or anything.

So it’s all about leaving when you got the opportunity. Joe Thorton got the opportunity, he’s going Swiss. Maybe he knows something we don’t already know?

And the best news from the music industry that I’ve heard since… well since ever… rot in hell for the pain and suffering I have indured from your crap.

P.S. Welcome back Slanty, we missed you.

Well, living in Inuvik is certainly not boring. For those of you not familiar with where Inuvik really is, well, it’s in the boonies. We are above the arctic circle, so people often say “north of 30″. Inuvik is the furthest north in North America that you can drive on a road. In the winter, everyone drives on the river to get further north. Basically it’s oil and gas, mining, and government money given out to the Natives that keep the economy going. I have a region the size of Ontario to deliver health care to 10,000 people with 50% of the population in Inuvik and 50% spread out in small communities accessible by plane or boat only.

I must say that it’s never boring up here. Closest I can say is that it feels like the Twilight Zone. Given the 24 hours of sunlight a day, I haven’t seen darkness since I left home. Freaky to get used to. Everyone puts tinfoil on their windows to try and make a sleep wake cycle. Honestly, if I didn’t have a watch on, I wouldn’t know what time it is. Most people don’t really care either. It is not unusual to see a 3 yr old out riding his tricycle at 3 am. Basically, the kids just sleep when they get tired and go outside the other times. Just last week, a new guy woke up and 1 am and thought he had slept in and that it was 1 pm, so he showed up to work at the hospital at 1 am to work.

After getting used to the midnight sun, the weather also plays with your mind. Last weekend it was 33 degrees with no wind for 48 hours straight. And don’t forget, since the sun doesn’t go down, it doesn’t cool off for sleeping either. Basically you need a fan and I went even further and soaked a t-shirt in the sink and put it on for sleeping and turned the fan on. That is the contrast with yesterday, when the clouds came in and it snowed. Today it’s 7 degrees and windy. As I said, really freaky.

Another thing to get used to are the bugs. In town, it’s not too bad. If you leave town it’s nuts. Seriously, I have a MEC bug shirt and spray on deet when I go hiking and it’s crazy. The sound of the bugs swarming you is pretty disturbing. It sounds like hail hitting your roof. When I walk and my arms are swinging slightly, my arms literally hit dozens of bugs with every step. The black flies are evil bastards. They will take chunks of your skin off and then you bleed for hours. People up here refer to deet as “the dope”. So it’s not unusual to hear someone say that they are doped. I think it means that the bugs are getting high and cant bite you. But then I am not really sure and too scared to ask wtf they are talking about. People that live in town and work outside of town basically get out of the shower in the morning, dry off, and spray their whole body from head to toe. It’s easy to see how some people have literally gown psychotic out in the bush because of the bugs. Of interest, the weather report is accompanied by the bug report up here.

Food is expensive. In winter a liter of milk is 8 dollars. I paid 30 dollars for some oranges, apples and a couple of peppers. In the winter you can’t buy fresh veggies or fruit and have to live off of canned stuff. The diets are pretty bad up here too. Many inuit children are fed chips and pop because both are easy to store, don’t go bad, and they don’t care.

Alcohol is a pretty big problem up here. This tends to be the drug of choice. Some like to sniff gas or glue, some drink deet, sterno, or aquavelvet. There isnt any rice wine up here though. Some of the smaller communities are so-called “dry” but this just means that if you want a 40 ouncer, it will cost you 200 dollars instead of 30 dollars. I see lots of people stumbing all over the streets after the bars close. IV drugs and cocaine aren’t around though. Suicide is huge up here. Almost everyone has at least one relative that has killed themselves.

Given the social issues, it’s amazing that everyone is so welcoming and friendly up here. There is always lots to do. The hospital has a slow-pitch team that plays several nights a week, a soccer team, and there is even pick up ultimate on Thursday nights. The gym is open 24 hours and is huge (we all have swipe cards). Lots of hiking and most people lend their cars out all the time to drive south to go river tubing or down the Dempster highway.

Anyways, that’s enough for now. Look for the next instalment on igloo churches, crazy internet access, pizza hut, and stilts…

We’re back. Code has reverted to whatever we had the last time I backed up, which apparently was far too long ago. Probably a bunch of things are broken. Excuse my mess, we’ll recover eventually.

I noticed ahat all the posts are from 2003. Looks like LSD flashback. Now that Slanty is up, I will have to start posting about living north of the arctic circle. Lots of weird stuff.