Local Moose Closeup

We had another “only in Alaska” experience today we thought you might appreciate. This moose cow and calf show up at our house periodically, but this is the first time we have captured them on video.

We were also able to pass along this picture of the moose via Twitter.

Fairbanks Cold Snap

Cold air has settled over the Fairbanks area in the past several days, sending temperatures near 50 below zero in outlying areas. Lows at our house only reached 35 below due to our elevation above average terrain. However, my drive to work is mostly down hill and the closer I get to town the colder it becomes. Journey with me into the ice fog on this morning’s commute.

I’m am planning to use a portion of this video on Inside Alaska, a site I maintain for work, which is why I mention it near the end. If you are interested in other things about our area, head over there and take a look.

Time to Upgrade

This site was long-overdue for a design upgrade, which we succeeded in bringing to it late Christmas evening. Those who follow us on Twitter will know that I am a big supporter of WordPress, and with the recent release of version 2.7 most older themes became, not obsolete, but definitely less useful. I had customized a theme called fSpring back when I was on WordPress 2.1-something and hadn’t done an upgrade since. These months of neglect opened a few security holes that I have been eager to fix.

Thanks to the folks at CodeScheme for the original layout, which I am continuing to modify. Next I will be working on some new photo functionality, reformatting of a few past articles and minor alignment changes. Other than that, the redesign is finished and the security issues are resolved. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Our Typical View

Several weeks ago, before the snow piled up another seven or eight inches in Fairbanks, I decided to get some video of my walk to the mailbox. This mundane task is made special because of the location of our new house, which overlooks part of Fairbanks and has a view of the Alaska mountain range.

The main feature of the view that afternoon was the sunset behind the mountains. It seems every sunset from this vantage point is amazing! I wish the quality were better, or that you could come view this wonder of God’s creation yourself!

Merry Christmas 2008!

The photo above was published on our Photo Blog this evening. You may download the full-size version there.  Merry Christmas from the Harper family!

Daily Harper Photos

In an effort to share photos in a more timely and efficient manner with friends and family, we set up a Harper photo blog back in August. For a while we were publishing a new image every day; that is until we moved, experienced a phone company mix-up and were without an internet connection for almost a month. Now we are back in regular-posting mode, although with three small children and a busy church and work life we can’t promise anything.

In the same tradition as our daily devotions, the photos will come at as steady a pace as we can manage. Simply click the next or previous buttons at the bottom right to peruse the entire collection. Posts are also tagged rather clearly, so you can visit entries featuring specific subjects or members of the family. If you’d rather have each new photo sent via e-mail, just type your address in this form and click the confirm link that shows up in your inbox.

By the way, even when we are not posting new photos or blog articles on a regular basis, we are always active on FriendFeed. Click to Latest tab at the top right of this site to see what’s happening on an almost hour by hour basis.

New FriendFeed Widget

Much of our online activity of late has been made up of brief comments and links on the four social networking services that make up our FriendFeed. This service aggregates all of one’s internet publishing, placing it into a single, fairly straightforward feed and making it possible for visitors to keep up with what one is doing, reading, viewing or writing on a literally minute-by-minute basis.

I will be placing the above “widget” in a prominent place on this site as soon as I have the opportunity to think it through. Until then you may view our FriendFeed at any time by visiting FriendFeed.com/MissionaryBroadcasting.

Denali National Park

After a few stressful months at the office with little opportunity for time off, we decided to take a break last week and drive two and a half hours down the Parks Highway to Denali National Park and Preserve. Deborah and I have enjoyed several previous visits, but realized recently we hadn’t made the trip in nearly five years. The girls had a great time, and were especially interested in seeing “da wiver” (the river; see below). They had three opportunities on the way, as we crossed the Tanana and Nenana rivers and concluded our trip on the banks of the Savage River. They were very impressed with each sighting and kept asking for more.

Our Denali 2008 photos are now posted in the Gallery so you can take a look at some of the scenery we enjoyed. There are also a few pictures of Deborah, Hannah and Elisabeth taken along the way. Wind and rain kept Stephen mostly bundled in his stroller, but if you look closely you’ll likely see him (his blanket) in the background on one shot near the Savage River. Let us know what you think!

Obey Your Parents!

A particular passage of scripture is examined around our house more than any other these days; Ephesians 6:1 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.” With three children under the age of three, we find ourselves quoting/teaching it nearly every day of the week. During a recent family devotion time we captured the following audio. Click play or download below to hear how well-acquainted our girls are with this topic.

Download Obey Your Parents!

Now on FriendFeed

A few weeks ago I registered for a Twitter account, mainly so Deborah could keep up with what I was doing throughout the day at the office. Twitter is a microblogging application that asks “what are you doing?”; to which you can reply with a maximum of 140 words. I began posting with a Firefox add-on called TwitterFox. It is a great little program that appears in the bottom right corner of my browser, allowing me to type a quick note  while I work, which posts to my Twitter page immediately.

While I felt these notes might be of interest to those visiting this site, I have had difficulty finding a plugin for WordPress that does an adequate job of displaying them in my sidebar. In my pursuit to find just the right method, I came across an implementation on a tech site I often read called Scobleizer. Prominent blogger Robert Scoble shows all of his latest web activity via a service called FriendFeed. It captures and displays all his new entries in chronological order, whether they are from a blog RSS feed, a Twitter or other microblogging account, a Flickr photo stream, or a myriad of other social networking platforms.

Need a translation for any of this? Just visit our new FriendFeed and you should easily figure out what I am talking about. Here is a list of the various ways you can now stay connected with Missionary Broadcasting.com:

• Subscribe by RSS
• Subscribe by E-mail
• Our Twitter Account
• Our FriendFeed

Hopefully I can get a more Scoble-like sidebar application running within the next few weeks. Right now I have put in a request with our web host to upgrade the software we need to make it happen.