Happy Census Day!!

First question: I've heard this a lot lately, but really, whose idea was it to have Census Day on April 1? I mean - people aren't exactly focused on April 1. They're either too busy scheming, or too busy looking over their shoulder.



That being said, it's still HUGELY important to fill out and send in the census!! No - I don't work for the government. But I do know how directly funds can be affected depending on the census. So I'm poking all my Native peeps many, many times to send it in especially!! It will determine Native health care funds, housing funds, population counts determining legislive power, and MUCH MUCH MORE!!



Okay, that's only the first of many annoying personal PSAs I'll be doing. Just FYI - Alaska is WAY behind the nation in getting their forms back - DEAD LAST.



So other big news:



I FINISHED MY BOOK!!!



WOOOT!!



And - because I didn't explain this fully enough to one person, who thought I was excited about reading a book - I finished writing my first book!



Which is why I'm back blogging. I promised I wouldn't blog, paint, or do a host of other thing until I was done, so I've jumped back on the horse. Incidentally, painting is not as easy to get back into after so long off... little rusty. Hoping blogging will be less so.



So... anything happen in the last few months? :)

Where YOU been?

Okay, I got another "We're worried about you!" e-mail.

I haven't posted in two months, and I haven't actually wanted to stop completely, but I did mention before about a big project.

So, the big project is a BOOK. I received funding from an awesome organization to finish my book, and I must say that between the book, the crazy hours at work, andlife, basically, I had no energy for anything else.

The book still isn't finished, but I certainly hope it will be soon. And I'll probably be talking about it soon, too. It has EVERYTHING to do with Native culture, and am going between being excited and terrified about it.

In any case, I do plan on picking up the posts here over the holidays.

Alaska Real turns 1!

A year ago today I began this blog - and so sorry to be cliche, but oh - what a year! I coudn't have dreamt up half of what happened this last year.



I learned a lot from this little experiment, and will continue it further. The last several weeks have been a flurry of activity for me personally, and I hope to be gone for a sizeable chunk of the summer. Some of my focus needs to go to exciting new things happening in my own life (okay, a whole heaping bunch of my focus.) But I do want to tweek the blog a bit, and really define what should go into it - and not neglect it so poorly as I have lately (though I might add, I've also neglected sleep and healthy stress levels as well.)



I got into this to get an Alaskan Native voice out there, a perspective on things both mundane and elevated. Some of my goal for this year is to get MORE. I would love for Alaska Native guest bloggers to post on here, and hope a whole lot more Alaska Native blogs will get notice, and begin.

Happy Birthday to me! And here's to another year...

New look, and a few pieces of news

Experimenting with some improvements to the blog, including a bit of a change in the look. Let me know what you think!

And a few bits if you're looking:

The Immoral Minority has a post up about Palin's new rural advisor.

Mudflats has a post about the Alaskan Marie Antoinette of the moment, regarding rural energy.

And some of the post-mortem on Palin's AG pick, Wayne Anthony Ross, who was rejected in an historic vote for Alaska, the Juneau Empire reported on which of the Southeast, and Juneau, legislators that voted. This was quite telling (representative) of the mood of Alaska Native citizens about Ross:

Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Haines, and Sen. Albert Kookesh, D-Angoon, both spoke out against Ross on the floor.

Both are Alaska Native, and Kookesh said the Native community could not support Ross "because of the past history and dealings with this gentleman."

All of the Native legislators voted against confirming Ross.

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