The Frying Pan

Jolenealaska

19:01

Yep. but the requirements to enlist are strict. So, nobody starts basic completely out of the realm of "physically trainable"

Faheem Mitha

@Jolenealaska Did you have much contact with Alaskan Malamutes? I might have asked this before.

I mean, in the course of your professional work.

Jolenealaska

@FaheemMitha it's really funny that you should ask that.

That the malamute is our state dog is really laughable. The dog that is famous in Alaska is the Alaskan Husky.

Tom W

The strictest fitness requirements that I'm aware of over here are for the Parachute Regiment. There is a 1.5 mile run as part of initial assessment, for which the paras require a time of 9:30 in order to not be rejected outright as untrainable

That's before basic training

Faheem Mitha

@Jolenealaska Oh. I watched a film about them. They looked like really attractive dogs.

Jolenealaska

I have known a lot of Alaskan Huskies, including winners of the Iditarod just after they passed the finish line.

The Siberian Husky and the Malamute are beautiful dogs, but they aren't common here at all. Certainly I've known many of them, but I've known a lot more Alaskan Huskies.

Faheem Mitha

19:05

Eight Below

Eight Below is a 2006 American adventure drama film directed by Frank Marshall and written by David DiGilio. It stars Paul Walker, Bruce Greenwood, Moon Bloodgood, and Jason Biggs. It was released theatrically on February 17, 2006, by Walt Disney Pictures in the United States. The film is set in Antarctica, but was filmed in Svalbard, Norway, Greenland, and British Columbia, Canada. == Plot == In 1993, Jerry Shepard (Paul Walker) is a guide at an Antarctica research base under contract with the National Science Foundation. UCLA professor, Dr. Davis McClaren (Bruce Greenwood), arrives at the base...

That one.

Jolenealaska

@TomW Good grief that's slow :)

@FaheemMitha I've seen that.

Faheem Mitha

Actually, that sounds decidedly brisk, but I'm not much of a runner.

Isn't the human limit for a mile sprint around 4 minutes?

Jolenealaska

I missread...

Tom W

I can manage about 8

Faheem Mitha

@Jolenealaska It's a good film.

Jolenealaska

19:07

@FaheemMitha That's right, I was totally wrong.

Faheem Mitha

@TomW That's pretty good. I doubt the best runners on the planet can do much below 6 min.

@Jolenealaska Ok. No criticism intended.

Are the Alaskan huskies as handsome as the Malamutes?

Jolenealaska

@FaheemMitha Alaskan Huskies have no confirmation standard, so they're not particularly pretty dogs.

Faheem Mitha

@Jolenealaska Oh.

Jolenealaska

they are just nuts for running and pulling sleds.

Tom W

@FaheemMitha nah, there's a network of weekly 5k runs across the UK and a handful of people every week come in sub-17 minutes, and that's on muddy fields. It's definitely achievable. Not for me, obviously. When I was doing it I tended to come in around 25

Faheem Mitha

19:11

@Jolenealaska I don't quite understand why dogs would like doing that.

Jolenealaska

in order to graduate from basic training we had to run 2 miles in a set period of time. My time was 16:30, not bad but not great.

Faheem Mitha

I didn't see "Eight Below", but the dogs in it struck me as ridiculously good looking. And I'm not especially a dog person. But maybe they just found specially attractive jobs. It's a HW film, after all.

Jolenealaska

These are Alaskan Huskies:

Faheem Mitha

If you are used to HW, one of the striking things of watching European cinema is often the actors look just like regular people. E.g. BBC productions, which used to be very down to earth about how their actors looked.

Though maybe that has changed. Europe is becoming very colonized culturally.

@Jolenealaska Hmm, yes. They don't look especially attractive.

Jolenealaska

This is my favorite dog mushing picture of all time. The musher went on shortly after this picture was taken to finish the Iditarod as the youngest finisher of all time, just after her 18th birthday. No dogs or musk oxen were injured:

Faheem Mitha

19:16

So is that big sled race a big deal in Alaska?

Cerberus

Four heads, really? That rightmost head must belong to some other dog. Everyone knows four heads is unheard of.

Faheem Mitha

@Jolenealaska So what is happening there?

@Cerberus Maybe there is a three headed dog in there somewhere.

Cerberus

Must be.

Jolenealaska

Just what it looks like. The dogs were on a practice run with their trainer, Melissa Owens. They ran into a herd of musk oxen and the dogs freaked out.

Faheem Mitha

Oh. I see.

Jolenealaska

19:19

Look at the golden brown dog at the very left of the photo. This came very close to becoming very bad.

Melissa got her team under control, and off they went.

Melissa had a passenger who took the photo.

Cerberus

The blue-eyes looks just like me.

Jolenealaska

:-) Hi @Cerberus

Cerberus

woof

Jolenealaska

You ought to see them when they're just getting ready to start a run:

Faheem Mitha

@Jolenealaska since the Iditarod starts in Anchorage means that you have probably seen the race start, at least.

Jolenealaska

19:24

Yes, I have been at the real start and the ceremonial start several times.

I've also medically treated dogs just after having won the Iditarod. Two of Lance Mackey's

Lance Mackey

Lance Mackey (born June 2, 1970) is an American dog musher and dog sled racer from Fairbanks, Alaska, who is a four-time winner of the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest and four-time winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. == Career == In 2007, Lance became the first person to win both the Yukon Quest and Iditarod in the same year. This feat was considered almost impossible by many and is considered one of the most impressive feats ever by a musher and he was nominated for a 2007 ESPY Award based on his performance. He also won the Veterinarians' Choice award after winning the 2007 Yukon Quest and said...

dogs developed aspiration pneumonia at the finish line. We treated those dogs for about a week, they were helicoptered in from Nome.

I believe that was the year he won both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod. That made him a pretty big hero around these parts.

Cerberus

Nice eyes.

Jolenealaska

You can kind of tell from those eyes that the dog is a nut!

@ElendilTheTall why do I keep seeing you pop in here, but no messages? What's up with that?

The wiki says that Lance won both the Yukon quest and the Iditarod in 2007, so that isn't the year that his dogs came to my clinic. I was already in Chickaloon by then.

ElendilTheTall

19:40

Weekend. Busy.

Jolenealaska

Are the little angels in bed for the night?

I move tomorrow and I'm not quite ready for the movers, story of my life - I'm sitting on my ass procrastinating.

Faheem Mitha

If there was a procrastination competition, I believe I would get at least an honorable mention.

Jolenealaska

just now, all of a sudden, the font has changed in my browser.

weird. A couple of other things are strange too, brb

Cerberus

@FaheemMitha And I!

Jolenealaska

19:58

How odd, even after restarting, Firefox looks weird.

I can't believe that it has taken me this long to get into Game of Thrones.

ElendilTheTall

You're procrastinating now about moving tomorrow. I can believe it's taken you this long.

Cerberus

Touchée.

Jolenealaska

Shut up!

Cerberus

Hehe.

You are no worse than I...

Jolenealaska

I'm already thinking I'm going to pay for one more day of rent here, because I have a lot to do and the movers can't promise that they will finish tomorrow. There is a conflict in the schedule of some kind. but when they move my hutch I should be able to get my title which means I can go to the DMV and register my car! (hopefully)

If the title isn't exactly where I think it is, I am probably going to lose my mind (what's left of it)

this answer needs one more upvote:

46

A: Why are there so many 47s?

Reports indicate that this began with TNG writer Joe Menosky. Menosky is a graduate of Pomona College, where the number 47 is a campus supersition: The number "47" has held mystical importance for Pomona students for almost forty-seven years. Two different stories about its roots exist. Campu...

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

47

A: Why are there so many 47s?

Reports indicate that this began with TNG writer Joe Menosky. Menosky is a graduate of Pomona College, where the number 47 is a campus supersition: The number "47" has held mystical importance for Pomona students for almost forty-seven years. Two different stories about its roots exist. Campu...

Jolenealaska

21:01

I am really liking Ayra.

Cerberus

Hmm one extra day of rent should be manageable?

How much time do you need to finish up your preparations for the morrow?

Jolenealaska

it's not so much really that I have a lot to do before tomorrow, it's that I have a lot to do tomorrow. There just isn't enough day to get everything done.

my move-in appointment as it is at 11am, I have to go to the bank as soon as it opens at 9, when my stuff is delivered sometime after noon, I need to find my title and go to the DMV and register my car.

Meanwhile I'm scared my landlord will do something like have it towed if the car remains a day past rent I have paid without license plates.

I'd rather just sneak off like a thief in the night and not have to talk to her.

Cerberus

Really? I thought your landlord was nice?

Why the bank?

I haven't been inside a bank for years.

Jolenealaska

21:16

because I have to pay my first rent with a cashiers check tomorrow and tomorrow is the day that I get my direct deposit from Social Security.

Cerberus

Ah, I see.

At least it's not cash!

I remember having to pay the first month in cash for several houses.

Jolenealaska

plus I just need to talk to them about closing that account, because I have already opened a new one which will be much more convenient... But I owe them overdraft protection...it's complicated.

On October 1 (the day we get the Alaska permanent fund dividend) my life will become considerably less complicated.

I'm just treading water until then.

The landlord and I have had a falling out I'm afraid. She is very young and adversarial when she doesn't need to be. I just want to avoid her.

She's not evil, just very, very young.

Cerberus

A fund? Divided among all Alaskans?

Hmm what was the falling-out about?

Jolenealaska

yes, all Alaskans get money in October.

Jun 28 '14 at 20:34, by Jolenealaska

It's called the PFD, Permanent Fund Dividend

We have disagreed about a few things during the past few weeks, most notably the definition of normal wear and tear.

I have offered much more than I would be ordered to pay (my entire deposit of $1000) for the damage that I have caused (accidentally, but I didn't have insurance). She is pitching a bitch because"her guy" is quoting more to restore everything to brand-new condition - I didn't move into the Taj Mahal.

The blinds, for instance, are four years older than they were when I moved into the place four years ago. Among other things she is saying that I owe her for new blinds.

Stuff like that

Cerberus

21:47

Hmm I see.

Don't give in too much: there is probably not much she can do.

A lawsuit would cost her more than she could hope to gain.

But of course be friendliness incarnate.

$1000 is nice.

Jolenealaska

I don't plan to give in any more than I already have; I think she is probably too scared of me to pursue the matter. Besides, I do believe she would lose if she tried.

but still, I'd rather not have the goodbye conversation.

Cerberus

Understandable.

When I burned down my house, I wasn't too eager to talk to my landlord.

Who was a bit of a jerk anyway.

Jolenealaska

:-)

I had forgotten we had that little bit in common.

I had to laugh at the Arnold Schwarzenegger video I posted earlier. He's making fun of his career by blowing stuff up and narrating it. For instance, he says there's no need to organize your closet if you have a hand grenade. BOOM! No more closet.

Cerberus

22:06

Wise.

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