Alaska Blogs from.... Texas?

Ya know, I had been rather... ummm... unimpressed by my little blog here and it's efforts to share something of Alaska with people. I figured I was falling way short of any hope of conveying Alaska to others and have sort of had a "Why bother? Someone else can do it" attitude about it as a blog about Alaska. Same with my Alaska ATV blog.

Until I just did a Google for Alaska Blogs. :::pounds head on desk::: Do you realize there are blogs about Alaska out there written by people that apparently live in Texas and are writing about Alaska because.... well... I don't know why. It sounds like they visit or were moved up here for a while or something. Not sure exactly. But Google has said: "A humorous look at life through the eyes of a newcomer in the last frontier." - yet the blog seems to be by a fellow living in Texas? I went back and checked the first couple of posts, back end of '04 start of '05 and it seems like he had just moved to Alaska back then, and somewhere along the way has now ended up in Texas writing a blog about life in Texas that says it is about Alaska. :::slowly blinks a few times:: Say Whhhhhaaaat?

::shakes head:: Okay, so maybe leaving views of Alaska to others is not such a hot idea after all. :::chalks up "Talk about Alaska and educate the masses about it" on the "to-do" board:::

It can be scary to hear questions about Alaska from people in the lower 48 (that's all you American's that are not from Alaska or Hawaii - Hawaii is just Hawaii). Some of my favorites that I have personally encountered include:

"Do I need to get my money changed before I go, or can I have it changed up there?" - Fellow talking to my dad in Arizona. I'm not sure what he was going to have his money changed into, but I would suggest U.S. currency.

"Do I need a passport to go to Alaska?" - This was by the same fellow about 10 years before you needed one. Last I heard you only need one to go through Canada, not if you're flying. U.S. to U.S. here people, they know yer allowed in if the plane never touched down outside the U.S., right? Unless you plan to hop the flight mid-way at cruising altitude?

"Why won't you share your advanced technology with everyone else?" - Very serious guard at Universal Studios that was convinced Alaskans were in a conspiracy to keep their advanced technology for surviving in the cold away from everyone else. He did not believe me that I dress in Winter in Alaska same as I dressed while visiting Universal Studios in California. He also had a very scary description of what moose look like. :::shivers at thought of having that munching on the apple trees in the yard:::

So, I will start being more sharing about what Alaska is like, let people know about things here from an Alaskan' POV. Mine may not be the best suited, but it's better I'm thinking than the POV of a Texan talking about Texas on a blog that says it's about Alaska. ::shakes head::