Google Voice, Skype, and Wireless Carriers

I came to Juneau with a Verizon cell phone and service.  Although Verizon is not a carrier in Alaska, they are partnered with Alaska Communication Systems to provided extended service.  This means you can make calls, but other services were limited:

• You cannot use data service, including picture or video texting
• In-coming calls go to voicemail after 3 rings
• You cannot update your phone
• Backup assistant (for your contacts), and probably other applications, won't work
• You cannot activate a new phone with the same service

Unfortunately, I had just gotten a new contract right before moving so I was stuck for a while.  Initially I tried to get Verizon to resolve some of these issues, but this went nowhere and a lot of time was wasted.  After putting up with their crap service for about a year, my phone started physically falling apart at the hinges.  I tried to convince the customer service rep and his supervisor that they should let me out of my contract because I am not getting the same service as everyone else.  They wouldn't budge because as of 2 years ago or so, they no longer guarantee service outside of the original contract area.  That must have been in the fine print somewhere. 

I was pretty furious after the call and began looking into my options here in Alaska.  By now I didn't care if I had to pay $100 to terminate - I just wanted to get rid of Verizon.  I checked out all of the carriers located in Alaska - AT&T, ACS, and GCI.  At the end of the day though, I had no intention of getting into another contract with any wireless carrier.  I just wanted a no-contract, pre-paid phone service.  The downside to getting one of those was that I could not port my phone number to a pre-pay phone.  I wanted to avoid changing phone numbers

I started looking into other options - Skype and Google Voice.  Skype would have been the best choice since they had variety of call services and user friendly interfaces.  You could also buy phones designed to specifically work with Skype.  The downside is you could not port your # to Skype.  You could, however, port your number to Google Voice (GV).  GV is actually pretty feature rich for a free service.  It has just about all of the features I really needed, as well as the capability to forward my calls anywhere.  One thing that was not clear to me though was how to make calls using the computer, or how I would get a VOIP phone working with GV.  I eventually found out how to use Gmail to make calls from, but it was not a convenient way of making calls.  So here's the solution I came up with:
- Port cell number to Google Voice
- Cancel contract and service and complain to BBC to get termination fee waved (it worked)
- Get pre-paid AT&T cell phone and minutes for emergencies
- Get Skype-in number, subscription, and Skype phone for use while at home
- Forward my GV number to office, skype, and cell
- Use office phone or skype when possible to make calls
- I chose not to forward text messages to my cell, but texts sent to my GV number are sent to my Gmail.  I can easily reply to texts by replying to the e-mail.

The result of all of this is reachable practically everywhere on my old number except when I get no reception while hiking.  Since majority of the time I am at home or the office, my pre-paid cell usage is kept to a minimum.  I could potentially stretch the $25 pre-paid minutes to the max 90 days that it is valid for.  The Skype phone was a bit overpriced at $60-70ish, but I find it quite convenient to use it since I don't have to be logged on to the computer to use Skype.  One year's worth of Skype-in number and US service (unlimited calls) came out to about $60 with the promotions going on.  Assuming I use $25 in pre-paid cell services every 90 days, the first year average phone costs per month is about $20. 

This setup probably won't work for those who spend a lot of time outside of home and office, or those who are attached to their data service.  For me though, it works quite well and I am very happy not to be relying heavily on a wireless carrier service.

Winter Anchorage

A musher and his dogs take off for the start of Iditarod

Last weekend Brad and I went to Anchorage for a much needed time away from South East Alaska.  That Saturday was also the ceremonial start of the Iditarod dog sled race and we thought that would be a neat event to see.  In addition to Iditarod, we enjoyed a walk on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, some Fur Rondy events, moose sightings, and more.

Tony Knowles Coastal Trail

The Tony Knowles Coastal Trail is a 11-mile stretch of paved trail running from downtown Anchorage South along the coast.  It is a multi-use trail and in the winter, cross-country skiing is very popular.  We saw runners and dog walkers too. We walked about a mile up to Westchester Lagoon, which is a great area for skating in winter. 

Westchester Lagoon is a skater's heaven in winter

Moose Sightings

Seeing moose wasn't exactly on our agenda, but we saw our first while walking along 4th Street in downtown.  Apparently they are fairly common in Anchorage and the surrounds.  We also saw a moose chilling in the snow right next to the coastal trail. 



Iditarod - The Last Great Race (History)

The Iditarod sled dog race was established in 1973 to save the dog sled culture and Alaskan Huskies.  Historically, dog sleds were used widely in transportation around Alaska, particularly in the Native villages. The Iditarod trail is a reconstruction of the freight route to Nome, and the mushers must travel from checkpoint to checkpoint as they did back then.
The race began this year with a ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage on March 3rd.  On the following day there is a restart in Willow.  The mushers and their dogs will travel to Nome, which is about 975 miles from Anchorage. 

There are several other dog sled races in Alaska, but Iditarod is probably the most popular one. Dog sled races are also held outside Alaska, including other countries, but Alaska remains the world mecca for dog sledding.

Iditarod - Ceremonial Start

Dogs waiting by their kennel

We only had a weekend in Anchorage, so we only caught the ceremonial start, which begins at 1000 on 4th and D.  We got to 4th Street right around 9 and realized we were behind the Start line.  We saw a few dogs and their mushers waiting next to their mobile kennels.  It wasn't quite what we expected.  We both thought there would be a frezy of dogs everywhere, but it was a bit more organized than that.  Each team of dogs were spread apart, and each dog in a team were usually separated from each other also.  After walking down the street some we ended up with a spot right behind the Start line along the fence.  We almost thought we had a great place to view the race from, until all of the VIPs who were allowed inside the fence started blocking the view.  We moved on past the Start line on 4th and eventually found a spot along the fence after pushing some kids away (just kidding - they were already leaving).  When the race started, each musher got an intro before taking off.  There were 66 racers total, and a team took off in intervals of two minutes.  This was also unexpected, as we thought all teams would take off at once.  If you think about it thought, that would probably just lead to a tangled mess of dogs and sleds. 

Excited doggies rearing to go

We watched several teams taking off before we started getting cold and deciding we had enough for time being.  Having our hotel nearby at the Westmark was pretty convenient since we could just pop in to warm up and rest when needed.  We went back out again to join the festivities and had a reindeer sausage for lunch (it was yummy). 

Fur Rondy

Fur Rondy is Alaska's annual winter festival that runs the week before Iditarod.  We were in town only for the last couple of days of it, so we didn't see much.  We saw the snow sculptures from the competition (and ice sculptures from a competition back in January).  Unfortunately some time has elapsed since they were first carved so the sculputres had all been weathered down a lot.  Probably the most interesting event we caught was the Running of the Reindeers.  This is Alaska's version of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona.  Runners here dress up in costumes though, which help make it more interesting.  Btw, our celebrity sighting of the day was Bristol Palin.

The women's heat taking off...

... and the reindeers running after them.

Japanese Restaurant

Aside from checking out the events and walking around town, we also did some dining and shopping.  There's a proper Simon's mall on 5th Street in downtown.  Although I went with a half-empty suitcase, I was a bit disappointed to realize there's really nothing I need from a 'mall'.  The clothes I wear these days aren't fashion items of any sorts.  For food, my favorite place to eat was Kumagoro's Japanese Restaurant on 4th Street.  You can't get decent Japanese food in Juneau, so I was really glad to find this place.  Their sushi was fresh and tasty, and they offered variety of other Japanese dishes.  I also had miso ramen one day and ice cream with red bean for desert.  Their prices aren't cheeap, but is comparable to other restaurants in town.  One sushi place I really disliked was Urban Sushi Spot.  They took 2 hours to deliver to our hotel around the block, and the sushi was tasteless and the rice was hard.

The Visitors Centers



There are two official visitors centers in downtown Anchorage, both right across from each other on 4th Street.  One is in a small log cabin (above) and only has a few brochures.  The other is in the Federal Building and requires going through security to get in, but well worth the visit.  They have much more information there and have a small exhibit on Alaska wildlife and culture.  They also show short films that give you some history of Alaska.  I saw one on Alaska's wildlife, the 1964 earthquake, the Klondike gold rush, and Denali. 

Looking forward to another visit...

This was just a short trip to get a taste of Anchorage in winter.  They received a near record-breaking amount of snow so it was pretty.  It was also interesting to walk around neighborhoods with a wall of snow about 3-4 feet high on either side of the sidewalks.  A lot of the main attractions surrounding Anchorage are best visited in the summer months though.  While there's not a whole lot else I'd care to see in Anchorage (perhaps except the Anchorage Museum), I do want to visit the towns, parks, and glaciers surrounding it.  I'm hoping to take a week out this summer to do a combined Anchorage/Denali/Fairbanks trip.  If anyone wants to join, let me know!

February Update

Glacier chunk on frozen Mendenhall Lake

Shortly after our Haines trip, my dad left Juneau.  I don't think he had too much fun since it rained everyday (literally) and he didn't really have anyone to talk to but me.  I'm glad we got to spend the couple months together though.  It would've been a very long winter without him. 

Soon after he left, my husband came back home after spending some time in England visiting family and volunteering with conservation groups.  He had just missed our last dump of snow, which was about 18".  It was pretty in the woods but messy on the roads for a while.  Now all of the snow has mostly melted, and the sun is out a lot more these days.  At the very least, it's not raining nearly as much as it used to. 

We had couple of windy days though and one happenned to be on a day I was supposed to fly out to Fairbanks.  The plan was to stay at the Chena Hot Springs to see the Aurora.  The flight ended up getting cancelled, which led to the entire trip being cancelled.  It was a bit of a bummer.  We have another trip planned in early March though, to Anchorage for the Iditarod ceremonial start.

The most unfortunate news of the year so far though is Millie's chip fracture, which requires surgery to fix.  She has been limping for sometime, and after seeing two morons, I finally got a conclusive diagnosis and a treatment plan from vet #3.  She is actually scheduled for surgery the weekend of our Anchorage trip, but fortunately we can board her at the animal hospital while we are away.  The surgeon is a visiting specialist, so it could be 3-6 months for another surgery opportunity if we missed this one.  Shortage of medical care for animals (and people), is one of the downsides of being in a remote place like Juneau.  I suppose there are places much more remote than here though.

Not much else to report as of the moment.  This long weekend will be spent relaxing, enjoying walks, perhaps snowboarding, and playing Skyrim.

Oh, btw, saw a Pygmy owl today on a walk.  Got about 5 feet from it!!!  I need to remember to start bringing my camera with me everywhere I go.  You never know what you will see.

Haines, AK

My dad wanted to ride the ferry while he was here, so I decided to take him to Haines.  I had never been there, and it was one of the shorter rides at 4.5 hours.  (Sitka is 4.5 hours too, but I had already been there.)  It was a morning ride, and the weather wasn't that great so the views were only ho-hum.  They also left the lounge lights off, so I couldn't do any reading unless I went to the cafeteria.  (Remind me to bring a head-lamp on my next ferry ride.)

Although the ferry ride was uneventful, Dad seemed to enjoy Haines a lot.  I had no idea what we would do there in the winter, but since we got lucky with the sunny weather, we drove up and down Alaska Highway every day.  We did it initially for the scenery (jagged snow-capped mountains all around) and eagles (it goes right through an eagle preserve), but we saw a moose on our first day so we just kept going back looking for more.  On our second day I blurted out that I wanted to see one crossing the road, and I wanted to see a bull moose (we saw a cow on the first day).  Probably not even 5 minutes later, we came up on a bull moose and a cow crossing the road!  I didn't bring my good camera so I didn't get great shots, but we were pretty stoked to see them.  We watched them for a bit and moved on.  On the last day, we though we had exhausted our luck with the moose, but on the way back we saw a cow and her calf crossing a river!  We again watched them for a bit before moving on.

Canadian border on Alaska Highway 7

One thing I did not realize was how close Haines was to the Canadian border (~44 miles).  Next time I'll have to bring a passport and health certificate for Millie so I can cross over.  I would like to do the Skagway-Whitehorse-Haines loop sometime.

Aside from the drive around, we did very little else.  The town itself was buried in about 3 feet of snow so we couldn't really find a good place to do much walking.  On the last day we did find a trail that supposedly goes to Chilkoot lake, but by then we had to go catch the ferry so we didn't go too far.  Probably better for poor Millie though, who now has a fractured elbow and is on forced rest. The view of the river along the trail is very nice though.  If I go back, I would like to see what is at the end of that trail.

The population of Haines is 1800 according to the 2000 census, but I wonder how many of them actually stick around for the winter.  There wasn't a whole lot going on.  We found only 3 restaurants in the whole town (one was near the Canadian border) and no stop lights.  While we got lucky with sunny weather, this could have easily turned into a disaster.  We could've been stuck hanging out in our motel for 3 days if weather was bad.  Definitely would recommend visiting in the summer for those who are coming from far away.

First Snowshoeing Experience

I got my snowshoe too late for the November dump, but we finally got some snow again this week so I took my dad up Salmon Creek trail today.  The trail is a nice wide one, with good fluffy snow, and  snow covered trees all around us.  We even had a bit of blue skies and a view of one of the mountains along the way.  It was a much needed reminder of why I came to Alaska.  Snowshoeing wasn't as hard as I expected.  It's definitely easier to walk on snow than without, and mine were light enough that I hardly felt like anything was on my feet.  I did trip over one foot or another a few times though.  Being the trailblazer might have made it more difficult, but luckily couple people  have been up on the trail before us and had somewhat of a path started.  I think we had cleared it even more for the people behind us.  Dad wasn't up for going the whole 2 miles one-way to the power house, but we did most of it.  He'll probably take it easy tomorrow so I'll grab a fitter friend and try another trail hopefully. 

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Removing 'Win 7 Antivirus 2012' Virus

Ho ho ho.  I got a merry f***ing Christmas present from the internet - the 'Win 7 Antivirus 2012' virus.  I have no idea hwo I got it or why my Anti-virus software didn't block it.  I wasn't on any kind of a dodgy site, so my best guess is I accidentally clicked on an ad on Facebook that dropped this bomb on me.  Regardless, the damage was done and I couldn't do squat on my computer.  All of my shortcuts (e.g. Windows Explorer, Task Manager, Windows Firewall, Internet Explorer, etc.) only took me to the a pop-up from the stupid virus who kept telling me my computer is infected and I should purchase the full version of 'Win 7 Antivirus 2012.'  Gotta hand it to them, as it looks almost official.  If it weren't for that fact that I hadn't downloaded any Windows updates and that it broke everything on my computer, I may have almost believed it was a real Microsoft product. 

Since I had difficulty openning anything, I had to open Task Manager by the menu item from Ctrl-Alt-Del.  As I looked at the things that were running, sorted by either CPU or memory usage, I noticed one program, ihv.exe, that looked suspicious.  Looking at its properties, it was described as a Profiler Script, created right about the time all this shit started happenned.  It was located under C:/Users/Diana/AppData/Local.  I killed the two instances of ihv.exe running in Task Manager, removed the file, and emptied the Recycle bin.  This stopped the virus pop-up but all of my shortcuts were hosed.  Instead of repointing everything, I restored my system to yesterday's configuration through Control Panel -> Recovery.  This fixed all of the short cut problems and now everything seems to be working fine.  I'm running the McAfee virus scan now as a check, but hopefully that took care of it.

Btw, Microsoft has a forum answer here on how to remove it also: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-security/how-do-i-remove-win-7-anti-virus-2012/5957f0ae-a956-43d8-821b-2e2ea226859f.  I didn't read it all, but there's a lot of info there that may help you too.

A Trip to the ER

On November 29th I removed a Mirena IUD that I've had in for almost a year.  Two days later, I started my period, and few days later, it started getting really heavy.  So heavy I could barely keep up with the flow.  I worked from home for couple of days because of this.  I called the doctor on the 8th day after the removal and they said heavy bleeding was normal.  Two days later, I called again and got the same response, but was told I could come in to get blood pressure checked if I would like.  This was Friday.  By end of the day, I could barely vaccuum a whole room without having to sit back down again.  I was told the bleeding would last 7-10 days.  It was the 9th day of bleeding so I thought I'd give it another day to see how it goes, so I didn't go in.

On the 10th day, a Saturday, I could barely stay standing for a minute.  I couldn't possibly fathom how it was 'normal' to lose so much blood.  I got hold of the on-call doctor at my practice who urged me to go to the ER given how much blood I had lost, and the fact that I feel faint.  My dad is still here with me, so he took me to the ER at Bartlett Regional Hospital, the only ER in Juneau.  He drove me to the doors, got a wheelchair and wheeled me in.  I thought I'd be there a while so I grabbed couple of books before going... but I couldn't be bothered to change so I went in my PJ's.  I could also barely manage to brush my teeth.  I had to sit while brushing. 

By the time the nurses wheeled me into the ER I was scared and emotional.  I started crying, but sent my dad home since Millie needed to be walked and looked after.  Once in ER, the docs checked my heart rate, which was high.  Apparently this is the first sign of significant blood loss since your heart has to pump harder to get the blood around.  The next sign is low blood pressure, but mine was still normal.  Then death... yikes.

The ER nurses hooked me up to an IV to thicken my blood and lower my heart rate.  They then took my blood to measure my hematocrit, or percentage of actual red blood cells in my blood.  This number generally hovers around 40% for women, and mine was 18!  I lost over half of my red blood cells.  I was then told by the ER doctor that a transfusion was absolutely necessary.  If I don't, it would take months to recover that much red blood cells naturally, and I would remain ill until then and remain at risk of dying.  I initialy resisted the idea based of fears of complications with transfusions that existed in the past.  However, after some reassurance of the improved screening process these days, I consented to the treatment. 

Although the doctor was able to treat the symptom, no one knew why I bled out so abnormally.  An x-ray and pelvic exam showed everything was normal.  I am also relatively healthy.  Their best guess was that somehow my hormones got seriously out of whack so they gave me a small dose of progesterone, the same hormones that were in the Mirena IUD.

I got my first pack of blood in the ER.  As I sat in the ER getting treated, all I could do was cry.  I blame it on the whacked hormones, but I could not stop.  The slightest thing, such as worrying about whether my dog was happy, would set me into tears.  I did not want my dad to see me this way so I asked the nurse to let him know how I was doing.  However, my boss at work did come to visit me, and she was very supportive and understanding.  She stayed until I was admitted to the hospital, where I got a proper room with a comfy bed, window, TV, and private bath. 

By the time I was admitted, I'd finished receiving my first pack of blood and felt slightly better.  It was dinner time by now so I got a nice meal of fried chicken and mash.  Then two more packets of blood, which took until 1am or so to go through.  Dad stopped by a bit later on, and I spent the evening watching TV or reading.  I tried to sleep, but the nurses kept coming in every hour to check my vitals.  I finally got uninterrupted sleep at 2, but was woken around 5. 

It seems the progersterone I received finally kicked in and slowed the bleeding on the second day.  Another set of blood tests showed I was still anemic, so the doc ordered another round of transfusion.  I spent the morning watching men's figure skating, and rest of the day watching Law & Order reruns.  Despite the circumstances, it was kind of nice being in the hospital.  There was no way I could relax at home with Millie running around.  The nurses were also at my beck and call at the push of a button.  Since I was hooked up to the IV and needed help with every little thing, I kept pushng the button.  They would come on the speaker and ask what they could do for me.  Often it was one of, "I need to go to the bathroom", "my IV is beeping", "can you close the door please?" 

I was released from the hospital about 4:30 on Sunday.  I felt pretty good, as I was told I would be.  The effect of a transfusion is immediate.  I was given a prescription of progesterone to stop the bleeding, but by Monday the bleeding had nearly stopped so I never took any of it.

That night I took a much needed shower.  Once out though, my lips started itching and swelling.  I called the doc, who suggested taking benadryl.  The itching subsided by swelling didn't.  I slept fine that night, but soon as I woke up the next day I broke out into hives all over and my mouth area swelled.  I felt a bit of swelling in my throat that scared me.  A dose of benadryl helped.  I went in to see my usual doc later that day and found out a reaction to transfusion can happen up to 48 hours after.  They were naturally concerned about the swelling I experienced in my throat, so they prescribed some steroids to keep handy just in case.  They urged me to take one that day, and to take the rest as needed.  I took couple more benadryls before going to bed.

By Tuesday my bleeding had stopped and I was no longer reacting to anything.  I felt fine.  Fortunately I was working from home this week to do an online training course.  I got out a little early this week, and by Wednesday, I was out taking Millie for a walk.  Today I did my usual four mile walk with her and dad, and did just fine.  I feel as fine as ever. 

It's hard to believe just a week ago I was nearly on my death bed.  If it weren't for all of those people who donate blood, I may not be here right now.  To all of you who donate, thank you for saving my life and of others like me who may not have survived without it.