3-26-16

What causes a person to "believe" in something?  This started out in my head with the political deal going on with the presidential primaries.  Without watching the news, and mainly having facebook as a gauge on this, how do we come about our opinions so strongly?  There are people, very few I'll admit, that are "friends" with me on facebook that completely love the Drumpf guy for president.  I've come soo close to just "unfriending" them on there because of their love of that guy, and of course my disdain for him.  I like to think its smart, that I've not done it, just to force myself to listen to the opposing views.  An old friend of mine from my twenties, who with her boyfriend at the time that later became her husband and then ex-husband posted a deal on there that said in a picture with the background of an atomic bomb going off...mushroom cloud and all="we made peace with Japan in 1945, its time we make peace with ISIS".  So the post was suggesting that the United States use nuclear weapons to destroy a "terrorist organization".  So many questions.  Like is there actually an  "ISIS"?  I mean wasn't it Al-Queda last year?  What about the Taliban?  Think about it how do you actually know a chair, is actually a "chair".  Of course you know its a chair because everyone your whole life has called that thing you sit in a chair.  Who is to say its not a car?  Of course that's not really a great example because it's just a label we put on an item to "label" it for common communications.  Or is it ?  Someone, or some organization just places a label on a very loosely defined group of people, and declares them the turds of earth.  Think about how easy that is these days.  Its hard to question something when they supposedly have "journalistic integrity" about or maybe they just keep broadcasting day in and day out with the only info you can get.  People will believe what enough other people (basically) tell them to believe.

3-22-16

Surfing...

I went.  Joe emailed me, suggesting he would be going surfing.  I think the exact words in his email were " quit crashing boats and go surfing".  For the record no boats were crashed, I've got no idea where he is getting that from.  The sailboat that I was training on Sunday, maybe.   I came in a little hot to the dock and Mike had to jump out and slow the boat down before hitting the B-boat (the rental power boat).  The next two times I didn't even come close, they were perfect, however Mike insists I come back and do it again with more wind, and someone else as crew so I could direct them properly and not rely on Mike to do the things I should be telling someone to do.  The rental 22 foot Catalina Sailboat has no engine.  So part of the sign off is being able to sail it to the dock in the harbor, sailing it to the mooring in the harbor and doing a "man overboard" drill.  Its a bit of challenge to bring a boat under sail to a dock without damaging stuff.  Its all about timing and when to "dump" the wind from the sails, then there is all the crap going on in the harbor too, I guess.  B boats moving around, private sailboats doing weird stuff, the 3:30 ferry departing, and the wind does funny stuff.

Back to the original point.  I went surfing.  Joe never showed up.  I went out there alone fully expecting him and Christen to be right there.  They didn't show, but two strange guys showed up whom I'd never seen before.  They told me they were from the NOAA ship.  In the harbor for the past few days sat a 250? foot, white coast guard looking ship with the NOAA insignia.  I gave them the "whats up" on how to line themselves up for a wave, but it was mostly small tonight, and they didn't have big boards.  They didn't seem to really care though, it seemed they were happy to be off the ship and dong something.  Two guys mid to late forties, with wives and kids at home it seemed.  I mostly eaves dropped on their conversation, while trying to catch the few waves that were there.  These were guys who spent most of their time at sea.  I say that because late in the evening, one of them paddled after a wave, and as he did all these purple fish swam around him.  I was farther out, but they headed right at me too.  It was kind of strange.  Then a bunch of flying fish started flying by all of us, like maybe 50 of them, then one of the fish I call "needlefish" (they are long and skinny), about 2 foot long and as thick as a cucumber goes flying by using his tail to propel him wildly on top of the water for about 40 ft.  The two NOAA guys were getting a little sketched out by all the bait fish running by, so I had to tell them what they call the "break" we were surfing.  Oh yea, the "shark pit".  The one guys looks dead at me all wide eyed and says "are you fucking serious?!".  They both headed in.  I was smiling.  I still have all my limbs.

March 18, 2016

yea....I completely missed St Patty's day...oh well..

here is ..whatever.

We played our ultimate game tonight.  I don't know if you've experienced what endorphins can do ...but that's what that game and all that running does for me...it just makes me feel really good.  When I first got here over a year ago, it was hard to not gain weight....all the beautiful free food ...and so much of it....and in the beginning there wasn't so much to do.  Beach Volley ball on Sunday mornings at 8am...that was about it for a month.  Then surfing, then possibly scuba...then softball......then kiteboarding....then I sold my scuba shit.....then wakeboarding..oh and I forget to mention that ..like the article in the local paper said "Ultimate has now become a staple athletic activity on Kwaj...(oh yes..I am completely responsible for that).....Now, well now I get so busy I don't take the time to eat, because there is so much fun to be had... have trouble keeping weight on..and trouble making it to  the gym.

March 15, 2016

This Trump pseudo Hitler deal is really worrying me....however on a side note...

I'm at Ted and Sarah's for my last night of house sitting in "town" on Kwaj.  In a few weeks I'll get another month long house sitting gig..well more of a dog sitting deal with one of my kiteboarding buddies.  I absolutely love dogs.  I'm not like many though, my dogs never really got any discipline, any training.  The great dane and my neighbors dog didn't really need any training.  They understood English.  I could take them in town and walk them around with no leash for blocks from my rental to the park.  They stopped at every corner when I said hold up, it was actually pretty amazing those two dogs.  I don't know if my neighbor actually knew I took their dog in town like that.  He was over my house more than theirs I think.  I never really shut the door in the summer so he just came right in, and in the winter I never latched the door so he could push it open, and he did.  I found out too that Guiness, my dane, went over to their house too in the summer.  Mike worked from home.  Apparently Guiness would get hot in my place, which didn't have any air conditioning, and go over and "knock" on their back door  around eleven, Mike would let her in and she would crash on his kitchen floor until around 2pm, then "ask" to be let out, and go back to my place.

3-12-16

I went to one of the beaches Oceanside tonight.  The moon must be close to the earth but on the other side because the tide was extremely low.  It hasn't rained out here much for months, so the humidity that clouds the view of the stars is gone.  The stars were much better than they have been, more  like how I expected them to be on an isolated island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  Looking up reminded me of being in a snowstorm in the states.  That's how it looked, except there were brighter "snowflakes" dotting the sky randomly. 

They say, sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon makes you feel insignificant. I'm sure it does, I've not had the experience. It cannot compare to our galaxy, to the rest of the.....universe.   I'm not completely up on the celestial deal, but I'm pretty sure most of what I saw tonight .....millions of stars.....and maybe a planet or two were all in OUR galaxy.  Rumor has it, that there are billions of galaxies out there.  BILLIONS. For perspective...... the nearest star that I can see is allegedly 4  "light" years away.  Meaning it takes 4 years for the light of that star travelling at 186,000 miles per SECOND to reach my eyes sitting on a beach on an island in the middle of the south pacific.  THAT star is in our galaxy, and there are billions of galaxies out there.  Billions.  We are a bleep.

March 10, 2016

The jellyfish known as the "Portuguese man o war" are coming into the lagoon heavy from the east.  I always thought they were a near death kind of thing.  That's not the case.  They do burn like hell, but unless you end up in a swaggle of them, you live.  Swaggle, yes, my own word.  We spent a day out here at the beginning of my contract arguing the names of other species in a group.  The best one had to be a "parliament of owls".  It went on for a while.  A gaggle of vultures, a school of fish, pride of lions, herd of elephants, army of ants, pod of whales, pack of wolves......it went on like that.  We never did get to "Portuguese man o war".  I'm sure no one has a name for a group of them, so "swaggle" it is.....

3-9-16

Wednesday, 9th of March....

It's funny how we all fall victim to worrying about the small stuff.  Maybe, at least in the States, we are all sold a pack of lies.  A friend of mine, great girl...native Hawaiin, told me once before I got out here, that the Marshallese are lazy people.  My response at the time was ..."they are island people, that for generations grew up with nothing to do but sleep, fish, have sex and sleep....of course they are lazy."  She didn't agree with me, being a very hard worker herself.  Now a year after that conversation, I wonder if the island people don't have it right, and we in the states toil around "living to work" instead of "working to live".  They (the Marshallese for generations) didn't need to spend as much time as someone in a northern climate might have to to survive.  They had so much more time not having to prepare for winter.  So they sat around and enjoyed life, enjoyed each other, and got really really good at laughing and smiling.

March 8, 2016..

Tuesday, March 8th

A couple I know, went on vacation and allowed me to "house sit".  House sitting out here isn't like it might seem back home.  It's more of a generosity by the house "owners" (no one actually owns a house on this island) given to someone they trust and like.  It's actually a huge huge compliment they have given me.  The last time I did this a few months ago, it was more of a necessity because they had a dog, a great dog, but still a dependent that needed cared for while they left for a few days.  They left the fridge stocked with stuff I love.  Avacados, oranges, dark meet chicken, and a few other items I'm not able to purchase because we just recently lost priveledges to the only grocery store on the island. 

It's nice.  Its very spacious, and just behind my kiteboarding buddies place, and just down the alley from the other kiting buddy. 

Here's a video from last weekend.  We made it up to Bigej (pronounced just like Fiji with a B).  The sand bar is mostly gone due to the winds shifting, but it was still great.