This past week has been alot of fun. Went on three hikes and a helicopter tour. Helicopter tour was sweet but Raven has the pics from that so here's a few choice shots of Denali in it's fall bloom from our hike Sunday. Get the Heli pics up later.







Less than 3 weeks to go! See you all soon!

Holy crap! Is it true? Is the internet actually working? It is true! Atleast for now. Most of the the time it's broken. Like the treadmill I was running 3 miles a day on that doesn't work anymore, or like the drink machines that were broken for 5 days straight, or the cloudy and particle filled tap water, and everything else here.

I'll admit it, I've hit my limits here. Princess sucks. The food is terrible, the lodging dirty, and they take care of their employees so long as it's within budget. Did I mention they love lies and half-truths to cover for why everything sucks? But why would they care if their employees leave? For everyone who quits there's 10 international workers eager to fill the void.

Bright side is only a month and 3 days left until I'm home. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before or not but I'll be coming home on Sept. 20th. Leave Anchorage at 1:10am and should be at Tampa International by 4pm.

Unfortunately, however, it's only a month away from my birthday. Meaning I'll be stuck in this shit hole. I hope you all know that means a 'welcome home/birthday' party is in order. I'm expecting wondrous gifts for both. Like a new car with a trunk full of guns and candy. Awesome!

Here is a few shots from when we rode the train from Fairbanks...



See the buildings with the red roofs? That's where I work.

Wow, I haven't updated in like half a month...sorry guys. Our lead has been gone lately on family emergency and that means I've been having to go into work an hour early every day. So now I get up at 3:30am everyday! Yeah, in Tampa I don't even sleep until past 4am. Also been trying to stay in shape by running 3 miles a day on the treadmill so that's also been taking up some time everyday.

In follow up to my last entry, we did go to Fairbanks back on the 19th. Didn't go to the eskimo olympics like planned but we did get some stuff at wal-mart as well as had pizza for the first time in God only knows. Took the train back which was awesome because there were only 2 other people traveling in the Princess cars with us. Whole train to ourselves.

Week later we took a van with some fellow employees back to Fairbanks to see the new batman movie. It was pretty good but still wastes batmans martial arts prowess. It seems more Bond than Batman in this new film. Watch the film and at the part when the forearm spikes on batmans armor fly off and stick in a nearby wall I thought for a split second it was Q giving James Bond some new gadget. Also note I said Batman's armor...what's wrong with just some spandex like in the good ol' days?

This past weekend we went to a 40 below room and got to feel what negative 40 degrees is like. We got to throw boiling got water in the air which is sweet because it turns to powdery snow instantly upon exiting the cup.

Also got my level 2 service recognition today. Woooohoo for resume fodder!

Trying to get to fairbanks this weekend. It's about as far away as Orlando is from Tampa and with no car it's an incredible pain just to get us up there for a weekend. Hopefully it will all work out and we'll be able to get there in time to catch the final day of the WEIO. That's the "World Eskimo-Indian Olympics" for those of you who haven't played Metal Gear Solid. We'll miss the ear pull though. Darn.

Anyways, last update I talked about going on a tour and going on a tour is what we did. To Jeff Kings husky homestead. He's a 4 time (4 time? I think?) winner of the Iditarod. The Iditarod is a huge dog sled race that spans over a thousand miles. A somewhat informative mildly entertaining lesson on the Ititarod is all we got, but for the price of free can I really complain? I do feel bad for the people who had to pay for it though. Only good part is we got to play with puppies. I got a small little black puppy that kept whining and trying to crawl out of my hands. Well, too bad, I'm bigger and stronger than puppies so they have to sit in my hands and deal with it. Jeff King I didn't care for much. Seemed kinda like a jerk who really wanted to sell his book. And by sell his book, I really mean he just wanted you to buy it and leave him alone. I think I'll go on Amazon and give it a bad rating.

Anyways, not much else happening. Hope all is well in the lower 48.

First of all, I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July and I hope alot of crap got blown up in the name of American Independence.

Here are the rest of those pictures from Horseshoe Lake...

( Click here to see more! )

Haven't done too much since we took that hike. last few days off have been pretty lax as we are both very tired from working all the time. You'd think one would be very excited to go out and explore on one's day off...but when it's the only day off you have and you are limited by your lack of vehicle you become content with just staying in. Sad really, but now my trip here is more about making the bucks than seeing Alaska. We are trying to do a tour today though. Going outside has also sucked recently because there so many spruce beetles outside that land on you. These things are nasty and have nasty bites. They are such a problem they were front page news in the Fairbanks newspaper. I took this picture of me outside to show you how bad it is here...

Yeah, seriously, that bad.

In other news, I got a black pin to put on my vest at work which is the first level customer service recognition pin. Don't I feel all special.

So when I get back who wants to road trip with me to New England? I wanna go I-95 to St. Augustine, Fl then continue up to Boston then jump on U.S. Highway 1 and continue on to Portland, Maine. I kinda want to start at the St. Augustine Lighthouse and end at the Portland Head Light. Light house to light house all the way across the East Coast. Come on, you know it sounds cool!

Anyways, hope everyone is doing great! Miss you guys!

Here is Horseshoe Lake. More pictures to come once the connection isn't so bad.



This is what I'm here for.

After over a month Raven and I finally had a day off together. We decided to finally go into the park. Denali National Park for those who don't know why the area we are in is a tourist destination. We took a small hike to a place called Horseshoe Lake. Very beautiful place. You are gonna have to wait for pictures, as I'm lazy right now. Having worked ten straight days I think I reserve the right to be lazy right now. We saw three moose during our venture into the park. One by the park entrance that we we're really close to and another with a calf feeding in Horseshoe Lake. The mother and calf we saw from far away though (probably a good thing as mama moosen are very aggressive). Unfortunately I only have video of the moosens, no stills. That being said you might not be able to see until I get back. Had also planned to hike up Dragonfly Creek but just to get to the creek is approx. a five mile hike in itself. Raven and I decided against it and came home for a bit of rest. And real quick; Yes, I know moosen is not the correct plural for moose. Leave it be.

In other news, happy Father's day. In other other news I finished yet another book and am about to start on the first of the Dragonlance series at the recommendation of Steve and Tori (mainly Tori I think). Sorry Gwen, Game of Thrones isn't here yet.

Next, a favor! If anyone has a moviestop close by, please pick me up a copy of Undisputed 2 and mail it to me. It's like $6 last time I saw it and I will gladly send you cash or check in return. And if anyone wanted to do the same with a copy of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, that'd be rad. Once again, I can reimburse. We are about to beat Sands of Time and I want to Raven to see the next PoP game.

Miss you guys!

Been here over a month and just now finally got around to going on a tour. Raven and I went on a jeep safari on the Stampede trail. The same one from Into the Wild (no, we didn't drive to the famed bus). Here's some pics. Hopefully a video soon to follow.


Awesome, I know.


Me out in the tundra.


Raven...doing the Monkey King pose? I dunno.


Our jeep. We had to give our jeeps callsigns for when we talked with the guide over the radio, and our jeep was most definitely "Team Velociraptor"


Oh, and at work today I got a "Extra Mile" card filled out. It's cards guest can fill out when someone does a really good job. It was a blind lady who I helped the day prior and she came back to get my name so she could fill one out. I felt specials.

Anywho, I'm doing well I hope everyone back home is doing ok too.

Yes, I actually really do have something visual this time around. And no, I didn't break the internet...yet. I have alot more pictures but wanted to see if I could actually get these up first before I resized and uploaded anymore.

Anyways, first two were taken today. The snow is getting less and less atop the mountains and things are begining to look alot more green. Wish I would have had my camera with me on my way to fairbanks last week. Missed some awesome pictures. I digress, PICTURE TIME!





This pic is from a couple weeks back, but it's my snazzy uniform for work. Black with navy and khaki...not my idea. We seriously have the worst uniforms out of all the different departments.




Well, in some other news, me and Raven have made some hoola hoops out of irrigation piping. Fun times.

All the good things aside, I about drop kicked the Homestead staff two days back. Sometimes they are just such bitches. I won't go into all the details but I will say I had to go take a walk and remind myself why I'm here so I didn't run back inside the employee housing and jump over the main desk and start headbutting people. I know the reason they work here is because they don't have good enough customer service to be with guest at the lodge, but they still need customer service while dealing with us employees. Granted, we are all employed by the same company but it's their job within the company to meet our needs at employee housing. Just because we could be considered "co-workers" within Princess doesn't mean they can be lazy and rude. If I come home early, it will be because I couldn't stand the housing situation.

Anyways, other than the temptation to bring the roundhouse kick of justice down upon these people, everything else is going alright. I got switched from Cabin to main gift shop which I was kinda against. But atleast now I can talk to people. I mainly got switched because I open the store some days and they need me to stay in main for that. Speaking of opening main gift store, last two times I opened people have been lateto work, leaving me to open and work by myself :/. Don't mind really, but I've also been lucky and had slow mornings those days. But overall I work with a bunch of good people. I just wish we'd get some decent candy in the back room.

Well, hope everyone is doing alright in Florida land. Colorado land too (for the one person that applies to).

My goodness. First of all, if you are reading this and don't have me friended on LJ...

Congrats. Congrats to you LJ people too, but these family and friends have to keep checking back and there is usually nothing of interest. Anyways, apologies again. It's just I've been so busy. Like, more busy than working two jobs at x-mas in the mall. And sadly so much is taken out for taxes, board, food, and plane ticket I'm not getting a whole lot of cash. But atleast there's scenery, which is the only reason I would like to stay.

As much as I miss friends, family, kung fu, old job, ps3, burger king, etc. etc. I can totally manage with parting with them for the time being. However, living here at the employee housing makes me want to come home so fast. People who run this joint drive me up the wall. Internet not working? Update: it's not a crappy setup, it's us. We use it too much. That's right, the internet that never works is broken because we all use it too much. Atleast that's their new excuse. And they couldn't fax my jury duty excusal because the door to the office was locked. What about the keys? That's what I said, but they kept repeating "Can it wait until tomorrow?" Well, yeah, I guess it could. I'll swing by tomorrow in my fork lift so I can get your fat ass moving. I could go on about this subject for awhile but then I'd be here all night, don't wanna break the internet or anything! Oh, and they shifted me around at work too. Same old story. More responsibility, same pay, less fun. Lame-o.

On a lighter note me and Raven got a PS2 and MGS Essential Collection and that is a very good thing. Anyways, it's late, gotta go to bed. Hopefully I can update again soon.

Jeebus. It's not really news anymore, but the internet still sucks. Going into Fairbanks wed. and gonna try to pick up a wifi booster. Anyone know about these devices? Speaking of my travels into town, I get to see it. Yes, it. Indiana Jones and he Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Then I'm gonna eat at Burger King. It'll be the greatest thing to happen since I've come to Alaska.

I promise I have pictures and videos. It's just a matter of getting them online. Just loading websites takes several minutes so I don't even want to thing about uploading 100mb movie files until they get off their asses and fix this internet issue.

Work is going alright. Still working about 50 hours a week and have little time for anything but work, sleep, and eating. Good news is I'm gonna start having grand adventures soon. Next day off is devoted to Indiana Jones, but after that gonna try to rent a scooter and go into Denali Park, drive an ATV, go on a "Jeep Safari", go kayaking, take a helicopter for a glacier landing, etc. etc. Been so busy with nothing to look forward to, and now finally getting stuff planned. Rock and roll, I'm back to being excited to be here again.

Still though, I miss everyone. Hope everyone is doing well. Also, to my friends who have LJs, updating my own journal is enough time as it is so I haven't read anyones lately. Fill me in on what you're up to in the comments or message me. Special shout out to O-town peeps. Booking tickets to O-town is like $50 bucks cheaper than booking to Tampa. So, it got me thinking after all this work I should take an Orlando vacation. Visit you guys and save a bit o' coin, which I'll gladly put up for gas in exchange for a ride to Tampa. Just an idea!

One more thing, almost out of books to read. Any suggestions?

So, the internet situation still has not improved. First they said it would be fixed last weekend, now this weekend. Still, no wifi in my room. Been too busy to actually get out and take cool vids or pics. The vids I do have simply take waaaaay too long to try to upload onto youtube. Can't even use Skype or even make text entries as often as I'd like and I'm really getting irritated at the living situation here. People who work at the employee housing (Homestead) are uncaring, at best, and a bunch of rude [explicative deleted] at worst. Apparently, Courtesy, Respect, Unfailing In Service, Excellence (C.R.U.I.S.E., get it? Teehee) wasn't part of their training. Also, for it being like in the 40s and 50s here, room gets hot as Hell. I normally sleep in just my pajama pants. Good lord do I miss being able to crank up some Central Air.

I'm also working 48 hours a week and getting up at 4am every day. Job is simple enough though. I get so bored I end up brining in books. Already done with King Solomon's Mines and a few chapters into Into Thin Air. When you do all the math at how much is getting taken out for taxes, airfare, board and food it's kind sad at how much we actually walk away with in the end for how much we work.

Enough complaining though! I keep coming up with big plans for fun adventures and will tell you more when I know more. As soon as we get a chance to go in to Fairbanks Raven and I are gonna make some hula hoops with irrigation tubing. RAD!

Ok, I gotta be up in five and a half hours so I gotta go.



Hope everyone is doing ok. Much love,

Brett

Oh man, about time! I've got a few pictures uploaded!



( More under the cut! Click me! )

I will try to upload more along with video later. This internet thing is killing me. Also what's killing me? No Indiana Jones product tie-ins. There will prob never be another Indy movie and the fact I can't be a consumer whore for it this time around upsets me. I get back right after my birthday...so you should all get me crazy Indiana Jones stuff and give it to me for my birthday. Any tie-ins with the new CGI Star Wars movie too...what can I say, George Lucas owns part of my soul.

Ok, enough complaining. So, first day for guest is today, and I'm off. Awesome because pretty much everyone else is working. I'm gonna be working 6 days a week opening the clothing store 5 out of those days and opening the main gift store my other day. 6am - 2:30pm except when I open main store, then I go in at 5:30am. Had a mini-picnic with coworkers yesterday by a big lake with the mountains behind it. Didn't have my camera, but it was beautiful. Even more so because the lake was mostly still frozen over. Co-workers seem really cool too. I'm enjoying myself so far, but I miss alot of you guys.

Oh, also, since this internet thing is unreliable if anyone wants to mail me a DVD I'll burn my videos to it and send it back to ya. Address is further below! Hope everyone is doing ok!

Can't spend much longer on the computer but all is well. I had wanted to post a few vids but due to issues with youtube and internet I'll prob just have one that's uploading now. This limited internet thing is starting to piss me off but other than that everything is ok. On the plus side, UNLIMITED Trix and Cinn Toast Crunch. Got the phone number here, anyone is welcome to call and leave me a message.


907-683-1560

So I read the Speed Racer movie was terrible. On one level I'm sad, on the other it's what I expected. Anyone seen it? opinions?

Also, if someone could dl and send me the song "Exactly" by Amy Steinberg it would be greatly appreciated.



P.S. - Please mail Snickers Adventures bars...


Update Video of the day canceled. I've been waiting for hours for it to upload and it's taking too long. My back hurts from sitting here and I'm hungry. Sorry, I'll have to bring my still camera next time because those should upload faster

Hey everyone! It's my second full day in Alaska. Not much time to talk and I'll be updating more once they fix the wifi (on a public computer currently). I'll have details and hopefully vids about my travel and first few days of work here. All I can say right now is it's in the high 40's here and the landscape is absolutely beautiful. Everyone should have come with us here. Simply amazing.

One other thing real quick. I can get mail AND packages sent to me here at the Homestead (employee housing). Here is what you write on the envelope...

Brett DuBois
C/O Princess Homestead
PO Box 420
Healy, Alaska 99743

Also, front desk phone number is 907-683-1560, there you can leave me a message



Alright, gotta go to work soon.

Got Skype today so if anyone wants to talky talky with me in Alaska add my user name. Terminal_Odyssey.

Fire spinning from going away party under the cut!
( CUT! )

Two and a half weeks to go. Craziness. I work this upcoming Fri (18th), kung fu test Sat, work following Sun (20th) then Sat the 26th and that's it. No more work until I start in Alaska. Plenty of free time to get some hang outage done. Lemme know!

I'm leaving May 4th at 6:26am. Twelve hours later (if there's no delays) I will be in Anchorage, Alaska at 6:26pm Tampa time, which is only 2:26pm in Alaska.

It's hard to believe it's less than 2 months away. Excitement.

Picture of my new purchases (boots and jacket) along with my gloves I bought awhile ago. Jacket was on sale for $50 from $200 and boots were $30 from $50 (I doubt their super quality, but that's ok).

( Picture here )