Timothy James

NunatsiaqOnline 2011-02-08: NEWS: Could iPad save the Inuit language?

2011-03-19T15:12:00.001-07:00

NunatsiaqOnline 2011-02-08: NEWS: Could iPad save the Inuit language?:

Pasch Dissertation Published by ProQuest

2010-12-14T20:01:00.001-08:00

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Inuktitut online in Nunavik: Mixed-methods Web-based strategies for preserving Aboriginal and minority languages

by Pasch, Timothy James, Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, 2008, 311 pages; 3345576

Abstract:

The Canadian Arctic, long considered an isolated frontier, has become an area of contention and amplified media attention. The recent unblocking of the Northwest Passage shipping routes for the first time in human memory has created a global movement toward appropriation of the Arctic. In order to ensure the environmental health and sustainable economic profitability of this environment while avoiding its destruction through misuse, it is essential that the knowledge of those who know it best, the Inuit, be communicated in the strongest manner possible. Nevertheless, the opinions and voices of the Inuit are too-often overlooked when International policy creation is considered. During this tumultuous period when the voices of the Inuit need to be stronger, more focused, and more united than ever before, the traditional language and culture is eroding in response to foreign language media influx into the area.

During the 5 years preceding this research, the Internet has arrived in the Canadian North and the Inuit of Nunavik are actively participating in social networking, linking the communities together more closely than previously possible. Many of these online communities, however, are designed in English and optimized for English users. Inuktitut online is additionally fragmented through disconnects in fonts, software optimization, and hardware design. This research focuses on technological means for the creation of networks and tools designed to encourage Inuktitut use, preserve traditional knowledge, and more strongly connect a new generation of Inuit for the purpose of resistance to global pressures for unsustainable appropriation of the land and resources.

Based on a Mixed-Method Case Study design, this research incorporates a survey given while living in the community of lnukjuaq, Nunavik, in addition to Content Analysis, direct observation, and interviews. Research questions focus on the use of social networking in the Arctic, language use online, and the potentiality for increased use of Inuktitut on the Internet. Data was analyzed using SPSS and atlas.ti software and triangulates results for validity and reliability. Results demonstrate the extent of problems and hindrances regarding Inuktitut online and the research proposes nine policy recommendations.

Advisor:	Chan, Anthony B.
School:	UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
Source:	DAI-A 70/01, p. , Jul 2009
Source Type:	Ph.D.
Subjects:	Canadian studies; Mass communications;Information science
Publication Number:	3345576

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UW Title VI Report mentions Pasch

2010-12-14T19:08:00.001-08:00

A University of Washington report on $17.2 million in Title VI (foreign languages and international affairs) grant renewals from the U.S. Department of Education focuses on UND Assistant Professor of Communication Timothy Pasch’s Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship in the Canadian Arctic.

http://uwnews.org/uweek/article.aspx?id=60709

Oct. 7, 2010
New grants keep UW at top of schools receiving Title VI funding

By Catherine O'Donnell
News and Information

Tim Pasch, who studied the Inuit people of northern Quebec while a doctoral student at the UW, poses with an inukshuk, a stone landmark made by the grandfather of his Inuit foster brother.

Grants totaling $17.2 million will fund all eight Title VI National Resource centers in the Jackson School of International Studies for another four years. The money comes from the U.S. Department of Education, which in May also awarded $1.57 million to the Foster School of Business to continue its Global Business Center.

According to Resat Kasaba, who became director of the Jackson School in August, the National Resource awards put the UW ahead of 43 other institutions in number of centers per school. The UW is tied with the University of Wisconsin in number of centers, and is second only to that school in dollar amount awarded.

Title VI money supports learning of foreign languages and international affairs. As many as 500 graduate and undergraduate students will receive full scholarships to study a foreign language.

Tim Pasch, who obtained a doctorate at the UW and is now an assistant professor of communication at the University of North Dakota, had a Title VI fellowship to study the language and culture of the Inuit people of northern Quebec. "My academic program has been enriched beyond my expectations," he said.

Other uses for the funds include public lectures, seminars for K-12 teachers and specialized courses.

The two oldest Jackson School centers -- the East Asia Center and the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies -- are each 100 years old. The newest one, the Center for West European Studies, was founded in 1994. Other centers are Canadian Studies, Global Studies, Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

"The UW's success in this round of Title VI competition is testament to the University's deep expertise and leading national and international role in global studies," said Steve Hanson, vice provost for global affairs.

The Global Business Center, one of 33 federally funded centers at business schools around the country, makes possible such things as MBA study tours, exchange programs and the Certificate of International Studies in Business.

The new money from the Department of Education will also help fund 32 new Business Center initiatives particularly important to the Pacific Northwest. They include a workshop for small and medium-size companies on doing business in China and a series of conferences on energy-based economies.

About 30 percent of Foster School undergraduates study abroad each year. The center aims to increase the number to 50 percent by 2014.

"Global Business education is critical to the future success of our students and to U.S. competitiveness," said James Jiambalvo, dean of the Foster School.

Site Updated

2010-12-04T14:35:00.000-08:00

The site timpasch.com has been significantly updated as of today, December 04, 2010.
This corresponds in part with the end of a particularly eventful year.
Now employed at the University of North Dakota, my activities can be found on the Curriculum Vitae embedded on the site, along with Professional Statement.
As always, I can be contacted via the contact page on this site, or via email at
timothy.pasch@und.edu

Timothy J. Pasch, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Communication
University of North Dakota
Merrifield Hall Room 218
276 Centennial Drive Stop 7209
Grand Forks, ND 58202-8380
timothy.pasch@und.edu
206-391-0890 cellular
701-777-2128 office/fax

Working on a writing workflow

2009-05-04T08:48:00.001-07:00

I'm working on a book chapter. I'm still trying to organize my writing workflow so that it's streamlined, fast and stable. Unfortunately, although there are lots of software packages available for writing and research, they don't always play well together.

Endnote has been a thorn in my side for some time. Their upgrades are very expensive and it crashes Word 2008 (Mac) on a semi-regular basis. It's much better on the Windows side (Word 2007). I've tried using my Windows 7 Vmware Fusion guest for word processing (for those who haven't tried it, it's great to run both Windows and Mac at the same time!) but it's still clunky and slow for me to move files between the two OSes.

The most exciting tool for my writing lately is called Scrivener. It's a fantastic writing tool that's something like Ableton Live for Audio, you can easily drag and drop sections of your manuscript to create a more cohesive narrative. I find this flexible writing system very powerful and it allows a much more forgiving style of organization than Word.

Word, in general, while still looking very slick, is such a behemoth of a program, takes a while to load and crashes far too often for my liking. I prefer light and fast applications. Bean is another great option, but doesn't offer reference tool integration.

I've been experimenting with Bookends which apparently plays very well with Scrivener. This seems to be an excellent solution. Some of the power users are exporting from Scrivener to LaTeX and rendering there, but I don't think I'll go that route for now as I've seen how complex TeX can get at times. This week I'll keep writing in Scrivener and experiment with inserting references using Bookends.

The last thing I want to mention is the program Papers, it's a fantastic tool for grabbing journal articles but it's been frustrating me a great deal lately due to its clunky browsing system. It's impossible for me to add new tabs even though the developers say that it should be possible! I may have to reinstall it and see what happens...

All in all I would very much like to see more integration between these tools, with easy drag and drop reference management between programs. I want my citations to appear correctly no matter what program I use them in, with stable and light Word Processors providing backup. I hope that the Papers/Scrivener/Bookends system will work out well. The final export will probably be to Word but we'll see.

As always, any suggestions/comments very much appreciated!
Tim

Teaching a Class today

2008-08-05T08:21:00.001-07:00

Today I'm teaching a class that I'm excited about, it's called
"Hacking your Mac for Academic Research".
I've been looking forward to this one, it's focusing on Word 2008 for Mac and Endnote integration, the new program called "Papers" for finding research on the web, and a lot of other tips and tricks I've learned while conducting research. All together we'll focus on:

Word 2008
Endnote X1
Iclip
Copypaste Pro
Papers
Skitch
DevonAgent

I've got a Powerpoint, I'll throw it in the downloads section.
I've been busy but as soon as I finish a big project this week I'll start with the video screencast tutorials of some of these great apps!

Until next time :)

Test of MarsEdit

2008-07-23T20:56:00.001-07:00

It has been a very exciting few months in Seattle. Just on the software front, I've discovered Screenflow, very powerful screencasting software, DevonThink Pro Office for scanning and achieving the goal of a paperless office, and MarsEdit, for blogging! These three packages are simply amazing. I'm teaching a course on using macs for academic research in August, and I will create screencasting tutorials then.

Net Neutrality Concerns Increase

2008-06-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

This is my first entry into the new website blog. I have been trying to make a site for quite some time and have finally felt comfortable enough with the software to begin. It is my hope that this site will generate interest in my projects and put me in touch with individuals and groups sharing similar interests and goals, facilitating collaboration.
Please feel free to contact me using the 'contact' page!
This site will become a central hub for my projects, and will eventually host audio, video, and the webstore. The podcasts will also be hosted on this page. Enjoy!
-Tim

Arctic Sovereignty Debate

2008-05-28T16:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/05/28/arctic-nations.html?ref=rss

Arctic nations will 'follow the rules' in North Pole sovereignty debate.

I am concerned about this Arctic development, as the ‘rules’ that will be followed will invariably be concerned with the economic developing of the signing nations at the expense of the natural resources, culture and environment of the Inuit.

It goes without saying that this land is the hunting ground of the Inuit people.

The main explanation for development in the region is summarized here:

“Interest in the region is intensifying because global warming is shrinking the polar ice, and that could someday open up resource development and new shipping lanes. A U.S. study suggests the region may hold 25 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas”.

Although Canada signed the treaty I am interested in whether the Inuit delegation, including the Makivik Corporation in Nunavik, are involved in this treaty. I will investigate.

Tim Pasch

Update

2008-04-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since my last entry, work on the dissertation is progressing well, and I am working on a publication opportunity with Barbara Endicott-Popovsky, director of the Center for Information Assurance here at the UW.
Life in Seattle is excellent, the rains are slowing and spring is definitely here. The possibilities with technology are vast here in the Pacific Northwest.
My concerns for the environment continue to grow, and the prices of gasoline continue to climb, which is definitely a blessing in disguise.
On the technology front I am running VMware Fusion in a Macbook Pro, for the first time using WIndows successfully inside a UNIX system.
I have created a working partition of Ubuntu Linux and am exploring there. The most exciting thing is that I can now run SPSS, Nvivo and Eviews in a Windows Partition on my Mac, making research seamless and preparation for publication much more streamlined. This is a great thing as my life right now is all about publications!
Otherwise, family life is great and I must stay focused on writing the dissertation- it seems endless but slow progress is the key.

Conference a success!

2008-02-02T23:44:00.000-08:00

The conference was a success. I was very impressed by the experiences of the panelists. Mark Stenge in particular spoke eloquently about the plight of the Marshall islands and all those who live on atolls. Global warming and climate change is affecting us all so far, however for the Inuit and those living closer to the land, the impact is felt much more greatly. Carl Sander from the Burke Museum did a wonderful job organizing, Dr. Stevan Harrell from Anthropology moderated very well, and Terry Williams from the Tulalip Nation brought everything full circle with his powerful teachings concerning the importance of respect for our watershed and realizing that we are all still connected to the Earth- no matter how little some of us may still be aware of it. Qingxia Yang from Tibet spoke of the changes in her native region since her childhood, and they have been dramatic indeed. I am putting my Keynote slide presentation in the downloads section for archival, please feel free to take a look.

New site is up.

2008-01-31T12:05:00.001-08:00

My main site is now officially up! The address is
www.timpasch.com
I will be continuing my blog there, however thanks to a new program called MarsEdit I hope to be able to post the blogs here on blogger as well as on my site.
I have been lazy about writing lately however now I hope to begin 2008 with newly inspired writing.
As I have a dissertation to finish I will be writing non-stop...perhaps this practice will assist in motivating me to start early every morning!

Focus the Nation Conference tomorrow

2008-01-30T14:00:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the Focus the Nation conference at the University of Washington. This is a big event for us at the UW- we are joining over 1000 other campuses in our discussion and search for solutions to Global Warming and it's repercussions. I will be presenting at this conference specifically about the impact of climate change on Canada's Northern Communities. It promises to be an important day for Climate change awareness nationally. I've dropped the program for the UW in the downloads section.

Site is up!

2008-01-29T01:53:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally was successful in uploading the site today. This was not an easy task, and after the site posted, there was a whole series of technical issues to work through. While there are still so many details that I am not happy with, at least the structure of the site is in place, and I can add edits later.
Today, in addition to working on the site, I was attempting to overclock my main studio computer. This is an art form, as I discovered, and there is a whole litany of tricks, techniques and equipment designed to achieve this goal of getting more speed than you should out of a computer. Unfortunately I pushed things a little too far and for a while I felt like I had destroyed everything. It turns out that I lost a hard drive however.
Luckily it wasn't a critical one and I should be able to restore most of the data. I learned my lesson though- no more overclocking for the time being.

First Entry

2008-01-22T18:52:00.000-08:00

Go North, young man | Arctic sea ice, Climate change, Northwest Passage | TerraPass: Fight global warming, promote alternative energy

2007-10-10T17:27:00.001-07:00

TerraPass, a carbon credit based sustainability energy broker (you can offset the carbon emissions from your vehicle or flights through their services) has posted this article on the state of the arctic thaw and the 'no-longer-fabled Northwest Passage'. As I saw in Nunavik, not only language and culture are changing, but the entire geography and way of life are being altered. Now more than ever the Inuit are relevant on the International Stage as the peoples most visibly affected by climate change.

Here's the most recent post from the TerraPass blog:
Go North, young man
by Adam Stein

You may have heard that the Arctic is disappearing. Sea ice is at the lowest level ever recorded. Last month, a chunk of ice the size of Florida (!) disappeared in the span of six days. Polar bears are officially screwed. The no-longer-fabled Northwest Passage has opened up several decades ahead of schedule.

I mention all of this depressing news so that I can bring your attention to the exploits of Ben Jervey, a friend of TerraPass and author of the much-loved Big Green Apple guide to eco-friendly living in New York. Ben right now is on a small boat somewhere north of Greenland, exploring firsthand the effects of climate change in the Arctic.

The trip is part of Cape Farewell, a project that “brings artists, scientists and educators together to collectively address and raise awareness about climate change.” Cape Farewell has a pretty amazingly slick web site that ties together a ton of video and written content, including Ben’s personal blog charting his trip to Greenland and beyond by sailing vessel.

It’s got polar bears, ice bergs, Northern Lights — the whole Arctic enchilada. Check it out.

Go North, young man | Arctic sea ice, Climate change, Northwest Passage | TerraPass: Fight global warming, promote alternative energy

Arctic thaw opens fabled trade route

2007-09-16T19:34:00.001-07:00

Arctic thaw opens fabled trade route: "Science & environment: The Arctic's sea covering has shrunk so much that the Northwest Passage has opened up for the first time."

(Via Guardian Unlimited home | Guardian Unlimited.)

Arctic melt opening up Northwest Passage

2007-09-16T08:52:00.001-07:00

Arctic melt opening up Northwest Passage: "PARIS-Arctic ice has shrunk to the lowest level on record, new satellite images show, raising the possibility that the Northwest Passage that eluded famous explorers will become an open shipping lane."

(Via Toronto Star.)

Record sea ice loss opens Northwest Passage

2007-09-15T13:23:00.001-07:00

Record sea ice loss opens Northwest Passage: "Sea ice in the Arctic has sunk to its lowest level since satellite record-keeping began, fully opening the most direct route through the Northwest Passage."

(Via CBC | World News.)

NPR : Nations Jostle for a Share of the Arctic

2007-09-10T06:11:00.001-07:00

NPR : Nations Jostle for a Share of the Arctic: "

CLIMATE CONNECTIONS
This article is just one of many articles starting to flood the international media about the Canadian Arctic. This last week in particular has seen a flood of news stories concerning the plight of the polar bear and the vastly underestimated scale of melting ice in the North. Although the polar bear may be an easily identifiable posterchild for Arctic warming, the case of Inuit lands being despoiled through international use of the Northwest Passage are just as critical. Since returning to Seattle from Nunavik I have been taking time to digest all the experiences and have begun organizing my thoughts, it took me a while to get used to things again; my memories of my Inuit family and experiences on the land are very strong and vivid in my mind. Here's another article concerning NOAA's opinion.

NOAA Affirms Sea Ice Will Shrink in Half: "Summer sea ice will probably recede 300 to 500 miles off Alaska's north coast by 2050, compared to the 1980s when ice packs were only 30 to 50 miles off the coast, and decrease to half the size. Mammals dependent on the sea ice, such as polar bears, and fishermen will suffer. Federal scientists compared computer simulations of how warming would affect sea ice with 20 years' of observations.

(Via Wired News.)

Inuit Wedding in Inukjuaq

2007-08-16T09:21:00.001-07:00

I was invited to an Inuit Wedding reception in Inukjuaq, and we left home for the event around 6pm. It took place at the Anglican Church in town, and when I arrived there were already about 50 ATVs outside the building. I entered and took in the scene, it was very different from any wedding reception that I had attended before. The bride and groom were seated at chairs at a table facing the crowd, but the guests were seated on the floor (pews had been removed) and everyone was eating seafood with gusto. The fish (mostly char) had been removed from the community freezer and were still frozen, so there were several axes scattered around the room to use in chopping good-sized pieces off the fish, or for chopping off heads or tails. Sea Urchins were also in bowls in the corners. There were also bowls of Western foods, spaghetti, meatballs, salad, fruit, juice, and banana-bread. It was a wonderful combination, the atmosphere was very welcoming, people were all smiling and passing food around, I congratulated the bride and groom in inuktitut and was gracefully thanked, it was a wonderful evening and a very colorful event!

The last few days in Inukjuaq

2007-08-16T08:50:00.000-07:00

The last few days in Inukjuaq have been passing pleasantly, the family walked up the mountain outside of town yesterday, it was a long walk, about 5 hours there and back! The mountain has "Inukjuaq" written in syllabics up there, and there is an inukshuk on top where we gathered around, drank Inuit tea and talked. Even grandmother walked all the way up, very impressive! The view from the top was amazing, like looking out over the grand canyon, a vast open space with valleys and lakes spread out all around. There were hawks circling overhead and the wind was whipping so hard we took refuge behind the stones.
I noticed so many different types of mushrooms, berries, roots, a herbalist's dream. The grandparents told us about legends of the caribou (they used to be the rulers of the world until the spirits knocked their teeth out!). We saw several complete caribou skeletons on the way up the pass, including one with pelt still on its head and bones. There were several crevasses that we had to avoid while climbing and descending, it would be most treacherous to climb if these were disguised by ice and snow.
On the way down we were attacked by flies, we fled off in all directions, I had to cross a small swamp by jumping on the stable rocks, the insects were in clouds, finally made it through and we all met at an Inuit graveyard, Christian crosses but all handwritten names in Inuktitut, we paid our respects and returned to the boats needed to cross the channel and return home.

Day 5- Sunday

2007-08-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

Day 5 Sunday

Today we hear over the CB that heavy rain is coming and we need to return back if we don’t want to be stuck on this part of the Hudson for a long time. We pack camp very early (start at 5am) and we are ready to leave with all meats dressed and packed for travel by 730. We check the nets and get some more fish for the cooler on the way back, there are 3 nets to check, J* works very hard in the cold morning water, he is quiet and a hard worker and has a gentle way about him and he is the best hunter on the team. We begin the trip back, this is very difficult, waters are very rough and crash on every wave, soon backs and bones hurt and this continues for several hours. We stop at grandparents’ for a break, this is a welcome respite and we are grateful for the tea and bannick. They accompany us with young I* who is 10 and shows me his new rifle, a .22, very impressive). We relax for a bit before heading off again for the next leg of the return journey, this is a long trip, and I am shown and taught Inuktitut words for the geography on the way back. Seeing the houses of the Inukjuaq community was wonderful, we return before 3pm, then we unload for about an hour. I return back to my Inuit family, utterly exhausted, looking in the mirror I have grown a scraggly beard and am sunburned, but feel that sense of happy deep exhaustedness that means when you lie down you breath a big sigh of contentment…I must say that a shower was very welcome,I take a long rest, download some pictures, and after a few hours walk up the hill to the satellite dishes where I can jump on an internet connection, I spend a few hours up on the hill hood up against the wind checking my email, this has been a wonderful week. I will begin my survey data collection next week and take some time here in town before possibly heading out on the land again.

-

Day 4- Saturday

2007-08-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

Day 4 Saturday
This morning the mosquitoes are so bad I don’t want to leave the tent. I am told that an amaruq (wolf) was spotted over the ridge at sunrise. There are fresh caribou tracks on the beach. We put on our waterproof and bee-keeping insect gear and head out early, checking nets, and this day is spent cruising the coastline looking for caribou and fishing. The nets are full today with many iqaluqpiq and codfish. We do not see caribou but not from lack of trying, we cruise for miles along the beautiful coast, scanning for antlers and signs. We have language class in the boat today and I learn a lot of vocabulary. We catch some fish, one char gets away after being on the hook, to universal dismay. I am taught local geography, we stop at an island for tea, I am shown goose eggs but these are not taken as the geese are already developing inside. I am shown the herbs that are used to make Inuit tea and there is an arctic spider, very big and I take a picture, they are not sure if it is poisonous. We drink tea, it is bitter but good, we head back on the water, find a mussel bed and harvest some of them, there is target practice but no real shooting, they cannot find the tuktu this time! My guides are berated for not shooting that buck when they saw it…everyone laughs good naturedly but there is some seriousness in it too, the chance was there and they should have taken it they say. We return to camp and we have many, many fish today, nets are again full, we have about 6 big char and many more codfish just from the second checking, the 5 geese left, the one duck and we are in good shape. Everyone wants to try the fire-cooked way, this time we make a really big fire, it is indeed a lovely bonfire, we stand around as the northern lights come out again, there are shooting stars, as the fire dies down we wrap 7 fish and 7 potatoes in foil, we have 3 big char and 5 codfish, the fire is so big that there are plenty of embers, I let them cook slowly for about an hour, the smells are delicious, when they are unwrapped it is like ‘presents’ everyone laughs, we eat with our hands right on the rocks, we gorge ourselves, the steaming char cooked in its own juices on the fire in the cold air was very very nice. Grace was said over the food but it is eaten not with quiet reverence but with lip smacking finger-licking appreciation, the pleasure taken in food here is almost sexual, the animals killed with your own hands and eaten in the same way, there is no distance between you and your food, you take it from start to finish and I think that the Inuit appreciate their food very intensely. We sleep deeply and everyone is completely full for the first time.

Day 3

2007-08-13T12:23:00.000-07:00

Day 3 Friday
Nothing like the smell of fresh naphtha in the morning, tea is made inside the tent, tastes great, I miss my Seattle coffee but this tea is fortified with plants and herbs found by aunt S* yesterday, very nice and fortifying. We are told that it is time to move camp, the conditions here are too windy, we need a calmer place to hunt caribou. In record time the camp is taken down, tents loaded in canoes, everything packed up, we check the nets, jackpot! 2 ducks (in the net) 2 arctic char, 1 is huge and cheers all around, 5 codfish, one duck is released as it is a mother, the other’s neck is snapped with practiced ease, it goes under my feet, codfish are casually thrown in the bucket, char are treated like gold and heads smashed repeatedly before bringing on the boat so that if they drop they will not get away. We stop back at grandfather’s house to bring char, we arrive like heroes with all these fish, celebration, inside the home, on the floor, the char is cut with uluq knives, each chunk of meat is cut into chunks and eaten raw with gusto. Tea is made, everyone loves heavily sugared tea. Grandparents take their time teaching me how to say every object in the house in Inuktitut and laughing at my attempts, this is a fun game (for them!). I get some rainbow trout jerky as a present, bright orange color, delicious and chewy. We’re all full and ready for the journey ahead. I asked the elders questions related to my research, changes that have occurred in their lifetime, they told me about ‘English voices’ (TV/Radio) changing things for them, they are worried about I* their grandson, they want him to grow up in the old ways. They spend a lot of time with him for this, he will stay with his grandparents for the whole time that we are on the land. Grandparents say ‘we are worried about Inuktitut’.
After I while I get hot and take a walk alone, along the beach there are many signs of death, caribou antlers, bones, skulls, a massive ribcage (beluga?), shattered sea urchins, and the theme of life/death comes back again, instead of hiding death, it is celebrated here. Hawks circle overhead and loons: (many) I like that sound very much.
I am called to the boats, we are ready to leave, one last thought that I had on this leg of the trip, about language, about how hard it is to get foreign language TV/news/programming in the US and Canada (I pay 24.95 per month to get one word of Japanese on our TV, the French channel is similarly priced, ditto for Chinese), but English is heard on every single TV and radio I hear up here. I think of what I am told, that current media realities are "realism", this can’t be changed, and hear about idealism of the academy, but I would infinitely rather hear the silence and peacefulness and Inuktitut that I hear today than the English-language advertising that assails me when I head back to town. When I asked my tupiq-mates how they felt about being Inuit, they said “lucky”. When I asked where they would rather be, in town or on the land, they all said “on the land”. We head off on the boats and wave goodbye to the grandparents.

We are on the water for another hour, we turn a corner, suddenly L* shouts tuktu! They point, I see nothing, they point frantically, I still see nothing ☺ My guides see everything, they recognize every birdcall, but I am clueless, we round a corner and finally I see it, a big buck, with a full set of antlers, a prize catch, my guides deliberate, they decide there must be more in the area and choose to head back to camp to tell the others (this will prove to be a sore point for them for the rest of the trip though…general consensus afterward being that they should have shot it immediately). We arrive at camp and everyone is excited, even before camp is set we head out to find the caribou but it has escaped! Everyone is disappointed and we return to camp to find it set up, we lay out nets again, this campsite is very beautiful, a sheltered bay, not windy, but I learn that no wind up here means mosquitoes, more than I have ever seen, bigger, meaner, in clouds and they do not ‘shoo’ off, I am told that dogs left chained to a post have died from mosquitoes when they cannot run away…I am given a beekeeper’s hat to protect my face and all skin must be covered…I am tired and a bit discouraged by all these insects, it’s hot today, I retreat to the tent and take a nap.
I am awakened by the call for hunting, I get up and get waterproof, we head off and look for caribou, I am handed a .243 bolt action rifle with scope to familiarize myself, there is a 10-gauge and 12 gauge shotgun and numerous .22 longrifles, an impressive armory. I shoot the 10 gauge in practice, it is the most powerful weapon I have ever shot, I am told that it will knock me out of the boat if I accidentally pull both triggers at the same time and to be careful. I am impressed by the care that goes into the weapons, these people treat these tools with respect. Also I realize that no meat was brought on this trip, the only food we eat is what we catch, making the hunting even more important. As food is so expensive up here, especially meat, community members are also depending on what is caught during these expeditions to put in the community freezer and on the table.
There is frantic activity and the boat veers off towards an island where I see nothing. We beach and J* is off like a shot running up the hill. The two girls also start running. I hear “Go! Go! In Inuktitut, and find myself running up a hill chasing two girls, J* already having reached the top and over out of sight, not knowing where I am going or why I am there, just running feeling immensely stupid. I puff up the hill much slower than these athletes, I reach the top and there is J* holding two goslings by the neck, they are still alive, he is very happy and proud, the girls are running chasing goslings around the rocks, L* yells “atii!” jolting me out of my stupor, I run after the girls, I catch up with beautiful M*, her face beaming, looking for all the world like a covergirl from teen-beat magazine, kneeling on the jugular of this gosling and crushing the life out of it, her friend Li* is running chasing another one, L* spurs me on and then I spot one, cringing in fear under a rock, and here is where a change came over me, there is a big difference between seeing a cute, cuddly fuzzy baby goose as a pet, and seeing it as dinner, with your friends depending on you, and I chased that gosling along the rocks until I caught it around the neck. They yelled at me to wring its neck, I must say that I have never done this before, I spun it around, and it was still screaming out, and then I realized that I was just making it suffer, and then I spun it the way I should have done in the first place, and the bones just dropped out, it went limp in my hands and twitched before going still. And here another change came over me, at first when I was holding it before it died, it was warm and cute, and I felt affection, but after it died, I felt the blood running and it got colder, and I felt revulsion as I think we do for dead things, but I wanted to feel like the Inuit do, and I urged myself to continue feeling love for it even though it was dead, and not to hold it as if it were a cold clammy dead goose, but to hold it as a lover would and cherish it because it was going to feed the family. And my grip changed from a harsh grip to a softer grip and I carried it back to the boat where we had 5 of them, making this a very successful afternoon. Everyone was elated. I saw a full caribou skull with antlers on the beach before we left that island that day.
We got back to camp, everyone very pleased with our catch, there are 2 char and 3 codfish in the nets. I speak with S* about her experience growing up in Resolute Bay on a government outpost (this is one of the most northern communities of them all, except for maybe Grise Fjord?) she tells me of walrus and arctic tern and that it is a truly cold place there. I believe her ☺ I also tell her my plan that I want to cook come fish and meat on a fire tonight, I feel the need for something cooked, we have wood as there is a wrecked cabin here (wood is rare as we are above the treeline), so I make a fire, this is a big event even for the girls, fires are rare, I make a small fire, we have some tinfoil that we can spare, I wrap some fish and the goose I killed in foil (S* prepares it for cooking in record time, feathers/insides gone in about 5 minutes), we wait until the wood burns and only glowing embers are left, I put the foil-wrapped fish and goose in the coals, the sizzling smells attract the whole camp, curious at this way of cooking, then the Northern Lights come out, as we open the packages, the goose is cooked perfectly in its own juice, I distinctly remember the girls tearing away at that goose like lusty vikings, everyone was impressed but there was not enough for everyone, we decide that we will have a bigger feast cooked like this tomorrow. I felt good having contributed to the community, it felt good seeing people eating what I had killed, a kind of pride.

Day 2

2007-08-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

Day 2.
Thursday- We wake up to heavy rain and wind, rain batters the tent and wind vibrates the taut strings, a strange and wonderful music. Not one drop enters the tupiq, it does not move in the wind. We are on a plain, these are strong winds. I reluctantly go outside for a call of nature, I am battered by this weather, I am glad to get back in the tupiq, my tent in Seattle would not last in this, flexible tent poles would bend/snap. I sleep again, the rain stops. I go outside, lovely colors, water so clear and fresh. We walk up the hill, brother J* shows me the inuksuk his grandfather made, a small one, big views of the countryside. Tracks on the beach say ‘tuktu’ caribou. I am told there are mammoth bones near the lake 3 hills over. We check the nets in full waterproof gear, I am told seriously to not get wet whatever else I may do. I am told never to walk alone, I hear the word amaruq a lot (arctic wolf). Gulp ☺ we check the nets, 3 codfish, 1 iqaluqpiq- Arctic Char! We eat raw char cut into strips and niritsaijuq (bannick) bread, wonderful. Today we are told that the weather is not good for tracking caribou so it is a fishing day, we spend the day fishing on the rocks, wind gusting, beautiful rocks everywhere, salt spray. Fishing all day, we catch many codfish, we are hungry, the day passes, I am called for ‘snacktime’, what to eat?, L* is wading with a net, I see the girls laughing as they smash something against the rocks, I am handed an urchin, instructed to throw it against the stone, it shatters after several tries, the orange part is good to eat, in Japan they call it ‘uni’, this is a delicacy! I have never enjoyed it in Japan but here in the frigid water it is just delicious, I eat with gusto, we feel great. I pass a dead seagull, I am told it was shot ‘qukutimut’ (with a rifle, for trying to eat the drying char). We catch mussels, eat them raw as well, they are lovely. L* catches a fish I recognize from diving as a stonefish, I know these are very poisonous in tropical waters, I yell out in warning, am looked at like a lunatic ☺ apparently in the North these are good to eat…oops
Some caribou soup is delivered to the man’s tent where I sleep, it is delicious, the first meal for today, until we catch more food we won’t have a real meal, I feel strangely strong although the food has been scarce, the water is so fresh and the urchin and mussels were very fortifying. I sleep again so comfortable in the tupiq. Before sleeping I am told why we (whites) are called ‘qablu (bushy eyebrow) naat (fat gut)’. I fit the bill perfectly! :)
I woke up very early 4am, went outside and looked around, the moon was out, stars going on forever, very clear and fresh air. I am dreaming a lot and thinking clearly up here!
I slept again and these tupiq are toasty.

Expedition Day 1 (last Wednesday)

2007-08-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

Journal Entry- Hunting Expedition Day 1.

Wednesday- today is a waiting day, J* and L* are anxiously watching the weather. I am told to prepare, we don’t know when we will return. Noon, and word goes out that we leave soon. Buzzing activity, we meet on the beach with a small army of little ikajuqti (helpers). We leave to cheers, over to the lake to fill huge bottles with drinking water. 3 hours on the water, a stop for a tea break. We practice grammar, today the 'najaq/kisiani' forms (if/then), it’s so hard! We are 10 on the trip, in 2 boats. C* the leader calls a stop for a tea break, we disembark, A* the little baby inuk girl is so cute in parka, teenaged girls M* and I* see an arctic hare, I run up clumsily to film it, they look at the big qablunaat disdainfully and whisper behind cupped hands. Little brother IO* fishes, gets his lure stuck in a rock, cool older brother helps him get the lure out. Tea is delicious, Bannick bread even better, we speak Inuktitut over tea, the wind is whipping, raining a bit, it’s very cold.
After another hour we pull into a small inlet, grandparent’s house ☺ they have a nice boat, they meet us at the beach, toothless grins, Inuktitut only, I tell them I want to catch many arctic char (iqaluqpiq) they double over laughing for a good 2-3 minutes at the qablunaat, everyone smiling, they like this funny qablunaat…some other hunters arrive at this waypoint after their expedition, they are fully equipped with hip-waders, they have much meat.
We depart for the next leg of the voyage, we are moving north along the Hudson coast, we travel another hour at least. We set nets before arriving, rocks on both ends, blocking off an inlet, hoping for char. we finally arrive at the campsite, we disembark but it’s getting dark we must work fast. I have never seen a camp set so quickly, wood is cut and my first view of ‘tupiq’ inuit tents: the first word I learned but I never thought they would be like this, semi-rigid structures, wood beams inside and outside, supported by rocks, ultra heavy duty canvas and skin, these are nomadic moveable houses, they are 100% stable in the heaviest winds and very warm on the inside. They are nailed through the canvas onto the wood for extra support. There is no dinner, we have not caught anything yet. We have some bannick waybread but this is important and we have to save it. The tupiq is warm, we are exhausted after the rough open water travel, we sleep quickly and deep.

returned to inukjuaq

2007-08-12T19:12:00.000-07:00

we got back today from 5 days in the wilderness along the Hudson coast. tomorrow I will post the stories. here are some pics before I collapse into a deep and long sleep :) qanuinngittuq nakurmiik

Inukjuaq 3

2007-08-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

It’s Wednesday morning, I have taken to writing these entries in the mornings, I have been sleeping very well, and deeply, but feel very tired at the end of the days, there is a lot going on, but slowly ☺ Yesterday morning I woke up to a nice smell, it was naqitsajaq, unleavened flour cakes, delicious. Older sister J* is making a hat for my son, with his name in syllabics. I gave her a colored scarf from Montréal, she twirled around, a true Inuk runway model ☺ we worked on Inuktitut pleasantries and conversations, as when I meet the grandparent-elders on the land, they understand no English at all. We talked about the difference between “Inuktitut” and ‘inuttitut”, she told me that when talking about language, it’s Inuktitut, and when something is ‘like inuit’ (for example, an object), it’s better to use Inuttitut. Some say that the Nunavik dialect is known as Inuttitut and other dialects as Inuktitut, however I think that I will use the ‘Inuktitut’ when referring to language from now on, that’s what everyone recommends here.
The seal meat that I ate raw yesterday was ready for the next stage, so into the pot it went, it’s time for boiling. It will be ready for lunch. Brother stood next to the window for a long time. He is watching the winds, judging when we can go hunting. His verdict for today is that the winds are too strong. Today will be a waiting day. I really like him, he is a very quiet person, but when he speaks there is always a sense of humor and intelligence. This morning we went over some pronunciation, he smiled a lot, happy to help, I’m glad that he’s my Inuit brother ☺ (I am not using names on purpose for their privacy).
It’s cold out today, time for many layers, and after breakfast I went over to the public library that Andy Moorehouse and Donat Savoie made. As I approached a young boy came up with a big smile, not saying anything, he wanted to slap hands, we did high-fives and slapped hands, then spoke in Inuktitut, it went well, learned his name, age, and that he was going biking, but his bike was gone, he had to wait? (I think he shared his bike). He was happy. I went on into the library and was very impressed! A beautiful, large building, light shining inside, lots of books, and many computers.
I met B*, he is assisting in the library, but was happy to see me, all eyes went over to the qablunaat, (ie, me) ☺ I noticed that the room was relatively full of computers, there are about 20 modern Dell computers in the room, with a large router to handle all of the internet connections. No one was reading books, everyone was online. Most of the computer users were young, no one was over 20, and many were under about 12 years old or so. As I walked past the screens, I could see the “BEBO” logo almost everywhere. Music was playing, everyone was typing furiously away. No one was reading books, only a few magazines. The books in the library are for the most part in English, after that there is an extensive French section, and the Inuktitut section is very small, mostly academic texts and journal publications. There are no books on Inuktitut grammar (I looked for a long time). The English books contain a mix of literature and popular books, there is a good selection, French books seem to be literature-based. The connection was painfully slow, due to the demands on the server.
I spoke with B* about the system, he feels that the systems are infected with spyware and because of this have become very slow. I will check out the virus protection on the computers tomorrow.
I was able to get a few emails out, but there wasn’t enough bandwidth for any kind of image upload. I will try again from another server if I can find one.
I need to investigate Bebo, and find out why it is so much more popular than Myspace and Facebook here. Also I would very much like to see what people are putting on their Inuit Bebo sites. I will keep my eyes and ears open. I wonder how much Inuktitut is really being used on the sites…and whether a localized Inuktitut social networking site would assist with language retention.
After leaving the public library I proceeded to the Northern store, I wanted to see what they had, I was attacked by blackflies, they were very persistent, taking chunks out of my head (bald), I couldn’t shoo them away, they were very skilled at their work. I made it to the Northern store. Inside I was stupefied by the prices, I don’t think that I have ever seen prices to beat them, 7.50 for a jug of milk, juice at 6.50, bottles of water for 3.75, boxes of cereal for 6.50…what I was really interested in were boots, when the weather clears (maybe tomorrow), I will be in the boats and wading in the waters, fishing, working nets, moving in mud/slush, I have been checking out the Inuit boots, they are long waders, waterproof, with sub-zero insulation and reinforced soles and toes. My boots will not cut it in this environment. I am happily surprised to find an excellent selection of beautiful Canadian boots, Kamik and Baffin brands, exactly what I need, and the prices are very low! I think that the necessities are cheap but any imported luxuries are taxes and priced to match. I bought the Kamik Hunter boots with insulated thermal socks (Kodiak). I feel much better knowing that my feet will be warm, cold feet can lead to sickness, and it’s hard to dry socks and feet once they get wet. I was very happy to have these boots. I saw Andy Moorehouse briefly outside the co-op.

Upon returning home we ate boiled seal with blubber…the blubber is really good, so tender and juicy, I was taught not to eat too much, but to match the meat with a small amount of fat, it was really lovely, the seal meat next to the bone is just amazing. There is caribou in the community freezer, we will have that tomorrow if we don’t go camping. There was also immakpalijuq, fish cakes, like Japanese kamaboko but nicer, using white river fish, and frying with flour, it was amazing. We spent time on syllabics after dinner, and wrote out our names, and went over the standard introductions again, I was tired when the sun went down finally but it was already after 1030, I slept around midnight.

Today the weather is fantastic and J* says that we can go hunting ☺ this is very exciting, I am glad that I have my boots, I showed them to Jimisi, he said they are good, they are the same boots that he uses ☺ this morning I read over my vocabulary, many of the meanings are different, when I said “ aakkuluk” everybody roared with laughter, it’s supposed to mean “what a sweet little thing” in my book but it turns out I just declared by undying love…hmmm… ☺

Inukjuaq 2

2007-08-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

As I got off the plane, I was wondering whether I would be met at the airport by my contacts from Avataq. The small plane had made me feel sick to my stomach on several occasions in the turbulence and I was feeling woozy. There were 3 other Qablunaat who disembarked and all the other passengers who got off were Inuk. Everyone was met warmly, I saw lots of young children slung traditionally over the back wrapped in swaddling, they looked a lot warmer than I was ☺ As I explored the small airport reading the job announcements from Makivik I was greeted by Nancy Palliser from Avataq! I was relieved, got my bags and we went outside, I saw a small army of Honda ATVs loading passengers, everyone was speaking Inuttitut. Nancy led me to her Jeep Cherokee and we loaded up, she drove around Inukjuaq giving me my first view of my new home. It is a very attractive place with colorful houses and everything seems to be right on the Hudson Bay or the river. The air is so fresh it tastes so good. She dropped me off at my new family’s house., a wonderful house!
I have an Inuk mother and father, they are off on the land, my younger sister has 3 children, older brother returned from hunting yesterday with a seal and good fish. Younger brother has started to get interested in stylish clothes, he looks shyly at me but we have not yet spoken. Older sister teaches Inuttitut at the school. Everyone speaks Inuttitut at home.
I told them in Inuttitut that I like seal, (I have never tried it but want to), immediately the knife came out, the seal meat was removed from the freezer and chunks of raw seal began appearing on my plate. The frozen seal tastes fantastic, texture like raw maguro or horse sashimi in Japan, but richer, very deep tasting, I felt much better after eating the seal.
We spoke a lot, younger sister can speak English, no one speaks French (ouiouititut) (from the French oui, oui!) very well, surprising as this is Nunavik northern, Québec. I am impressed again by the health and fluency of Inuttitut but dismayed that many of the Inuktitut patterns that I memorized are not understood, I am corrected in some of my pronunciations, laughed at, make adjustments, need to rememorize and relearn the differences in the Inuttitut (Nunavik) dialect.
My head is pounding and I need to lie down, I slept for an hour and woke up feeling better. Younger sister and her friend are talking about Bebo, this is social networking, I ask if they like computers, I am impressed by their knowledge, they like msn.ca for chat and yahoo mail, but Bebo is how they stay in touch and get to know other Inuit from other communities, they do not like myspace, bebo is the way to go for them, but they cannot type in syllabics on bebo they say, they use English or typing in Inuttitut using romaji/roman keyboard. They both seem very computer literate. They are watching a US channel on TV. Today: Mccain drink packs, barbie@ Mattel, Fritos, skateboard contest sponsored by fruit roll-ups, Much Music, divas, Avril Lavigne.
Got out my down jacket and went outside, younger brother Jamisi is having a cigarette (I can see tobacco is very popular here, I see many packs of Du Maurier cigarettes, I learn that these cost $14 per pack). I ask him if he wants to take a walk, we walk to the shore together. Arctic Chat nets are drying on the beach, canoes are stacked along the water’s edge, each has a 40 or 50HP 4stroke outboard engine. He tells me that many rifles (qukiuti) are stored in the sheds, he has scopes, he uses shotguns for ducks, he can shoot more than one duck at a time. He tells me headshots are best for seals, seals float in the fall and sink in the summer *, I wonder how this can be so, I am told that this is due to the varying fat content. I learn that we are to go on hunting expeditions together when we go ‘camping’. I learn that camping here is much different than camping that I am used to, here is means a hunting expedition, we may not return for a while. I am excited, the sun is setting, the colors are very beautiful, I am told that northern lights are good here in the winter. The air is so fresh, breathing is a pleasure. Two boys ride up on their bikes, they are happy to see me, they want me to take pictures of their stunts, they cheer in Inuttitut, they do some radical jumps, they are fearless, one crashes, laughing and shouting, these are happy boys. We take a walk around town, he shows me the radio station, I notice the huge satellite dishes. I see the museum, Avataq and Makivik offices, school, community center, we pass the stores (co-op and Northern, co-op is cheaper), children everywhere! Riding up to me with curiosity, I am asked for gum, I don’t have any, ‘then I hate you’ shouted by a grinning girl, everybody laughs, I yell ‘thanks’ in Inuttitut, this generates roars of approval by the children, bicycles all over the place, this is great fun. We pass a carver Jamisi tells me not to buy yet, there is much better work around. We move to the museum, I will visit soon. I am shown the library, then Avataq, a boy yells in Inuttitut, jamisi laughs loudly and well, I love the way that Inuit laugh, it is very deep and pure, I ask what he said, it was ‘doesn’t he have eyes?”, I am wearing sunglasses at 9pm, the light is very bright, I laugh too, humor is found everywhere here. Jamisi observes everything, but we don’t speak often. When we do speak, it is short and to the point, but always with shining eyes, I am reminded of Japan, conversations with Watanabe, always deep but with few words, this is a spiritual place I can feel it. We pass the church, I ask if everyone goes, I am told ‘not really’, perhaps church popularity has waned? In our Inuk home though there are many Christian pictures and relics. I need to look into this more.
We see a figure working on a deck, Jamisi tells me that it’s Andy Moorehouse, the former mayor of Inukjuaq who Donat Savoie told me about. I had been hoping to meet. We greet each other warmly, he remembers my email, I see this is a man of skill and education, He radiates strength and confidence, he looks as comfortable hunting as he would be negotiating with politicians, this is a leader. I congratulate him on the library, he says it was a difficult project, but that it is operational, Internet running, Inuttitut books available for my research. This is excellent news, I will be able to access my surveys on Catalyst at the UW.
We return home, there is more food waiting, chicken, garlic honey, this is good meat, everyone relishes meat, sucking fat off fingers, I am bone tired, up since 430, it is still light outside, but late, I sleep with clothes on, don’t remember falling asleep.

Inukjuaq

2007-08-07T12:13:00.000-07:00

Journal Entry- Monday August 6, 2007.

I am here in the airport at kuujjuaraapik. It is raining, our Air Inuit plane is being refueled for the trip to Inukjuaq (Inujjuak). The atmosphere in the cabin was jovial, like a party. I spoke in French with a young female police officer who has been stationed in Nunavik for two years, then with a health worker, and then I tried my hand at Inuttitut with several Inuk who were watching a movie in front of me. That got a lot of attention, right away three of her friends started laughing at my attempts, but it was a lot of fun. I experimented with some verb endings (tutit), and that brought gales of laughter, as I was told that there was a second meaning to this word and that they would not explain it to me ☺ their meaning was clear though and I blushed furiously, they didn’t seem bothered in the least. I think that I am in for a real education in Inuttitut, I am looking forward to meeting the Avataq members in Inukjuaq and seeing the library that Donat Savoie told me about.
I can see the coast of the Hudson Bay behind me, it’s cold out. I am glad that I brought heavy jackets.

It’s morning on Tuesday, 6:21am. I woke up early this morning, exhausted last night but amazed at yesterday’s events. I’ll sum up what happened after we took off from kuujjuaraapik yesterday. Once the place was refueled we were told to make our way back to the aircraft. As we were walking to the DC-8 a qimmiq sled dog mounted a female right on the tarmac and began furiously copulating. This caused everyone to erupt into gales of laughter. As we began climbing the stairs, the dogs stood end to end but were stuck together. The Air Inuit staff tried to get them away from the plane but they yelped and ran under the landing gear. After I boarded and sat down we could hear their yelps of discontent as the technicians tried unsuccessfully to catch them, we were watching the pair of painfully connected dogs crashing against the wheels, all the while the Inuit onboard were announcing comments in Inuttitut that caused the whole cabin to shake with the laughter and back slapping … It took about 10 minutes to get the dogs off the runway (there were many). After the plane took off (Anne-Marie*) and I spoke again about her police duties in Povungnituq. Often calls involve domestic quarrels, but a main concern of northern officers is weaponry, hunting culture leads to easily available high-powered rifles with scopes. She said that bulletproof vests are not regularly worn, while they would stop a shotgun blast, rifles still penetrate. She was just beginning a 4 month contract, she told me about the philosophy of Canadian police forces in the north, I was impressed with her community spirit and positive attitude. She will be away from her family the whole time, the only way to return south is for a prisoner transfer. I enjoyed our conversation and said goodbye after we landed at Inukjuaq.
(Just an aside- at the airport, I saw a man with an OMS technical diving shirt at the airport in Montréal. I spoke with him and his friend asking them about scuba in the north. Turns out that they were the directors of Nunavik Arctic Adventures and just getting their new cold water technical scuba program underway. They are based in Povungnituk and invited me to dive with them. An unexpected opportunity).
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Heading North

2007-07-26T22:57:00.001-07:00

I am in Toronto, and on my way to Montréal tomorrow morning on the VIA train. I am getting very excited about my trip to Inukjuaq in Nunavik, Arctic Québec. I will be meeting with members of the Avataq Cultural Center in Montréal who are helping to arrange my host family in Inukjuaq. I am nervous but excited.
I have just received notice that the Tusaalanga website is launched! This site is an absolutely fantastic reference for Inuktitut grammar and conversation. I have also heard that their team is working with Microsoft in developing Inuktitut localizations for software and hardware. These are exciting times for Inuktitut on the Internet!
My survey concerned with questions about current Inuktitut use on the Internet, and social networking in the Arctic, is in its final stages of development. I look forward to working on it further during the train ride tomorrow.
More to come-
Tim

Some recommended Mac Software

2007-04-04T18:58:00.000-07:00

I've been a Mac User for quite some time, and there are some applications that I would like to share.

Here is a finder replacement I like a lot. it is very powerful.
Path Finder
(www.cocoatech.com)

1) Lightswitch (a very powerful Alt/Tab replacement)

2) Maxmenus (by the same guys at Proteron! very cool)

3) Speed Download.
I am just starting to scratch the surface of this app but it is really slick. Full Path Finder integration, Growl integration, browser plugin integration, and FAST

4) Growl Growl alerts you when registered apps do something...sounds simple, and works really well. bubbles pop up when Path Finder does something, speed download starts and ends, works with quicksilver, skype, newsfire (my favorite RSS reader), and many more. very cool

5) Visage lets you customize your startup screens, boot menus and login windows. This lets you put your address on a startup/bootup screen if you ever lose your mac, many more uses as well= invaluable.

6) Macaroni automates unix maintenance forever. I used to use macjanitor but this is way cooler.

7) little snitch is a great little firewall utility

8) Salling Clicker lets you control your mac via bluetooth from a distance with a cellphone

9) Saft for Safari adds a whole lot of functionality

10) Airport 801.11n enabler for mac. Type ENABLER into the applestore search field and the $1.99 download window will appear. This will allow your Intel-Based Macs to access the MUCH faster 801.11N networks. Better range, better speed, (more than double!)
Mac

some more things to check out-
quicksilver
1passwd - a very useful password generator that integrates directly with Safari, Firefox, Flock, Omniweb, and more.

Endnote X.0.2 difficulties for Mac

2007-04-04T18:57:00.002-07:00

I have been having some trouble with Endnote X.0.2 for OSX today. Here I thought that all the bugs would have been hammered out since I first bought this package, yet lo and behold here's another.
Turns out that in the 8.0.2 update of Endnote for Windows they caught this bug and repaired it

-Locating terms with "Go To" command now scrolls automatically to each occurrence of the term.

unfortunately, in the OSX version, it still seems to not have been repaired!

One of my techniques for having all my references on hand for my dissertation writing and general exams, is to copy extended summaries of important passages into the 'notes' field of Endnote. When I want to cite a reference, I can quickly call it up in Endnote, search for the relevant passage, drag it into word, and cite it for auto bibliographic creation. At least in theory...

turns out that to find a reference in Endnote, you press "apple-F"...that brings up the reference.
Then, you doubleclick on that reference to enter it. From there, you unintuitively have to use the keystroke "apple-J" to "GO TO" the relevant term inside the reference.

Unfortunately, although the apple version will highlight the term, it won't scroll to it! So, you have to manually scroll through the enormous passage until you just happen to spot the highlighted part (or not). HUGE PROBLEM. I'm hoping for some reply from Thompson or someone on the web...I hope that they will have this fixed before May!
T

Qualitative Software- atlas.ti and Nvivo7

2007-04-04T18:57:00.001-07:00

I taught an introductory seminar on QSR's qualitative software package Nvivo7 last week and it was a very good experience. I have been quite interested in the differences between atlas.ti and Nvivo, and wondering which package I would pursue for this summer's fieldwork. After trying them both and weighing the pros and cons I feel strongly drawn to Nvivo7. The interface is really elegant and I was impressed with its ease of use. It's a Windows only application however, PowerPC Macs being pretty empty in the qualitative scene...but with Intel-based Macs and Parallels running Windows XP in a window, you can run Nvivo without a hitch on a Macbook, to the best of my knowledge.

One of the nicest things about Nvivo is the concept of nodes. After you import your documents, you scroll through them and code by highlighting and using the right mouse button extensively. I like coding 'invivo", creating nodes on the fly, and datamining the words and phrases looking for trends.

The search tools are really extensive, with the possibility of finding words "near" other words or nodes, allowing you to track how often words and concepts are used in certain documents...the possibilities are very exciting without a doubt!

Inuktitut Lesson

2007-04-04T18:56:00.000-07:00

Today during our Inuktitut course over Skype, Mick Mallon and I worked on concepts of hunting and searching for caribou, seal and ptarmigan on the ice.
The morphemes that we reviewed today were: qauji- "discover", and
-si- VM [Z[ "discover in the sense of come across an animal"

like when you say
"tukisijunga" , I came across meaning, or "I understand",

you can also say "tuktusijunga" or, I discovered a caribou. (junga/tunga is the 1st person article, "I").

tuktuliaqtunga uses the morpheme "liaq" which is "looking for", another common verb maker used in hunting.

Solution for TomTom cache errors on Palm OS

2007-04-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

I have been dealing with errors on the Palm OS for quite some time when running TOMTOM Navigator 5 and 6. Even though I have been able to free up a lot of internal memory in the Treo 650 using the Japanese program PowerRun
I still got the message "DB Cache memory full", upon which TOMTOM would not load. It required a soft reset at each occassion, an irksome problem.
I tried using dbcache DbCacheTool
also coded in Japan, however this was never really successful in freeing up the cache memory.
Today I finally discovered what I feel is a relatively stable solution to this issue-
I am using a new release of Resco's Locker Link
to keep the apps that I use most often locked in RAM (including Navigator!),
and I am using a new application that I discovered today called flushit! to clear out the internal cache and free up plenty of space for GPS navigation.

I am absolutely thrilled with this new .prc file, it is simple yet elegant, a little rough around the edges I admit (screen flickers at times when clearing out the NVFS), yet the results are undeniable. I can now start TOMTOM without resetting the unit, saving a great deal of time.

as an addendum, I am floored by the new upgrade to TOMTOM Navigator- version 6 is a huge upgrade and the map of North America, while huge at 1.4GB, is a momentous achievement by the Dutch company. The fact that I can navigate to Canada and back without changing maps, and that there are points of interest for every city in the United States and Canada, is almost incomprehensibly cool.

First Postings

2007-04-04T18:54:00.001-07:00

Today at CSSCR I worked with a client who had to export data from Catalyst (The University of Washington web tools system) to SPSS. She had a lot of data from the surveys and some of the replies were pretty lengthy. When she tried to export her data from Catalyst directly to SPSS (.sav), it came through somewhat corrupted, with the strings split up into several pieces.
After several attempts to merge the variables within SPSS (using merge and aggregate commands), I decided that it would be much easier to work in Excel and import those files into SPSS. Catalyst exports easily enough into Excel, and we were able to get nice, predictable results in those files.
Attempting to import the Excel files into SPSS gave us a nasty shock however, when SPSS continually found those files to be empty!
I had a thought and we moved the dataset into the consultant's systems where we have StatTransfer installed. I loaded the set into the StatTransfer and converted the data directly into an SPSS file.
That .sav file loaded perfectly into SPSS (v.13) and the client was on her way, ready to go.
A convoluted but ultimately sucessful job- I am going to investigate the matter further, and see if Catalyst has had any troubles with SPSS exports before.
-TJ