Fairbanks isn't that bad. It's a dry cold (the tundra is technically a desert) which I'll take over Anchorage's 6 months of slush anytime. We also don't get much snow because it's too cold to snow most of the winter, so you don't generally have to worry about getting snowed in or stuck in your driveway. I've lived in Arizona, and I waaaay prefer 50 below to 110 above. There is the light to consider. We're just below the arctic circle, so during the middle of winter we only get an hour or so of sunrise/sunset before night falls again. Conversely during the summer the sun only sets for an hour or so, which I really enjoy, but many people need blackout curtains in order to sleep. The cost of living is higher, (I think a plain bean burrito at Taco Bell is $1.59 now) but the average pay is higher to compensate, and each resident gets a yearly bribe from the oil companies of between $1,000 and $3,000 which helps a lot, especially for people with a bunch of kids. That being said, Fairbanks is not the prettiest place in Alaska (Homer is) being far enough from the big mountains that you can only see them on a clear day. It IS literally the best place on the planet to see the aurora though, as Fairbanks lies directly below the effected area of the magnetosphere. This means that when you see it, the aurora stretches from horizon to horizon, rather than being only in the North. If only they hadn't installed that blinding street light right outside my bedroom window As far as the isolation, I really like living on a tiny island of civilization in an endless sea of wilderness, rather than the other way around. _____________________________________ You said "near" Fairbanks Tom, where were you exactly? _____________________________________ If you can live without plumbing or running water you can rent a dry cabin for around $350 mo I know several people who live in dry cabins 6 or 8 miles out of town and ride bicycles to and from work year round. But, yeah, other than roughing it you would want some savings to get you started, and military stipends have F*CKED housing prices for the unenlisted. Our 80 year old, 2 bed 1 bath cabin, is a steal at $1200 mo. We lucked out, as our landlady has been friends with my wife for years, and specifically didn't want to rent to the military. [edit] Coincidentally if you have any background in medicine or film making, Alaska is in desperate need of trained professionals in those fields, and you could live quite comfortably.
Filmmaking? How so? (I'm a writer/filmmaker, with a B.A. in Media Communications and a Film Studies emphasis.) ~Belisarius
Studios filming in Alaska can currently receive massive tax breaks if they hire a crew of Alaskan residents. The problem is that there are basically no trained film crews in Alaska. The university is offering a new film program in an attempt to produce qualified graduates (and my wife and I are both considering signing up) but right now anyone with existing experience ought to be able to get a well paid job with ease, providing that they don't mind working under difficult conditions in remote locations. I'm not sure how long you have to wait to claim residency however. Hopefully less time than it takes to qualify for oil money. [edit] Details: http://www.onlocationvacations.com/2010/11/17/what%E2%80%99s-next-for-filming-in-alaska/ "Currently about 30 productions have pre-qualified for the state subsidy that allows producers to recover up to 44 percent of their spending in the state." Including “The Grey,” with Liam Neeson and "Everybody Loves Whales" with Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski. I have two couches and three air mattresses
I was stationed at Eielson AFB, about twenty miles down the road from Fairbanks. I totally agree with you about taking -50 over the heat. I have said something similar ever since returning to NJ/NY. I would say I would take -30 in Alaska to 30 degrees here with the humidity any day. Have a question, is Reflections the strip club still there? When I was stationed there, we would go there often. What is funny, I'm a professional Video Editor and my wife is a Doctor. However I have no plan on returning to Alaska to stay. I may want to visit one day, take my wife and kids around where I use to go. I could never live there again, just to much for me.
I don't suppose the Alaska film industry is in need of visual effects artists and/or visual effects facility IT guys, by any chance? For I, too, would take 50 below over heat as well. Plus LA sucks...
Lol! Now I feel bad for talking smack about what military stipends have done to the housing market here [edit] I see you already told me this back on page 53 too. My bad. "Infections" yeah. Still there somehow. The good strip club is on the other end of Airport road btw. Too bad. We need doctors desperately. My wife works at a clinic and they've been flying doctors up from Seattle every week for nearly a year since their last doctor retired. If they are you'll have to get past me first ...but I'm actually far better with stills than I am with video. Producing a single image is 90% pleasure, 10% fighting with the software. Producing animation is the opposite in my experience, but that's probably just an indication of my lacking software knowledge. I got a bit of help from my kid brother on the Enterprise contest as he graduated from a real art school as opposed to a giant arctic research facility which happens to offer a class in Maya. It was a real eye opener. I have a handle on the basics, but so often I do things the long way around when there was a quick and dirty tool specifically for that purpose that I simply never knew existed. ...I do wonder if I could get work making movie posters or other promotional material. I've been thinking about getting into book cover art too. I think I'd be good at it, and there are so many people self publishing now...
If they are going to announce the top 25 this week (like they said they would) then today is the day. I'm not holding my breath though. Anyone care to speculate on my crazy theory from earlier:
Hmmm, shanghai'ing doctors from other states to come to Alaska. There's a tv show in that somewhere. And I doubt they would announce on a friday.
*filmed in Washington state. "30 Days of Night" was filmed in New Zealand It might not have been overt, or even entirely intentional, but it would be a sure way to stop up the works if CBS didn't see the option they wanted. Another thought would be that Cryptic wanted a particular design exclusively for themselves, and therefore didn't put it in the top 25, but that happened to be the design CBS wanted for the Enterprise, so CBS was like "Why didn't this one make the cut?" Just idle speculation. CBS might own all the designs Cryptic produces anyway. I have no idea what kind of relationship CBS and Cryptic actually have, and weather such underhanded omissions would be excusable, or even noticeable from CBS' perspective, but such tactics would be easily deniable as a difference in taste anyway. [edit] It seems more probable that CBS and Cryptic's art leads simply can't agree who the winner should be, and no one is willing to yield. ...Were that the case however, you'd think they'd still have sent emails out and announced the top 25 by now, so perhaps it's more likely that all the finalists are in contention (all are of acceptable quality in Cryptic's perspective for the purposes of this speculation), and CBS' position is one of raw, unfocused irritation with the very prospect of letting the fans design the Enterprise F, augmented by disappointment with the how the contest was executed, rather than disapproval of any particular design(s). One wonders how CBS was talked into this in the first place (I'm eternally grateful to whoever came up with the idea and was able to sell it btw), and we've seen evidence of conflict regarding how official the winning design will be. [edit] I'll give you an example. These are the Deviant Art selected finalists for the Eve Online contest: http://news.deviantart.com/article/133308/ Please note that the Tornado was NOT a finalist when these were announced. Fan reaction was so negative that this entry was disqualified to make room for the Tornado (which won.) All entries here: http://browse.deviantart.com/contests/2010/eveonline/ Now compare those to the finalists selected by the Eve developers themselves for the "Final Vote" (actually a second, separate contest with entries re-submitted from the first.) http://www.evecontest.com/finalvote/ -narrowed down to the top 20 by the fans (literally the 20 closest to the top of the page.) The difference is pretty dramatic to my eyes, and there may be a similar clash of aesthetic ideologies between Cryptic and CBS. We may be waiting a very long time, especially if CBS demands that all 25 of the finalists meet their criteria rather than Cryptic's.
Don't you think that is a little, oh I don't know... Maybe a little over the top? Now, on the other hand, if we politely gather to protest and tell CBS how things are going to go down, than maybe we can make a little more headway.