Great day, busy week, Sept 29, 2016

I might have a spear gun, much like I have a surfboard, but my skill level at either may never qualify me to call myself a spearfisherman or a surfer.  Ok, so no one calls themselves a "spearfisherman", that's like a caver calling himself a "spelunker"...very nerdy.  It's more used as a verb than a noun.  So it will be a long while before I tell someone "I'm going spearfishing" because what I really do is go snorkeling while holding a spear gun and see how deep I can free dive with it.  Occasionally, I pull the trigger while its pointed at a fish.  Occasionally the spear hits a fish.  To date though, my tally is 1 in 6.  1 "jobfish" to 6 misfires.  Maybe my use of the word "occasionally" is stretching the definition, which of course I have to look up.  So it says "every now and then" or "once in a while" so I'm golden! 

Tonight, after work at 5pm friends invited me out to go spearfishing.  These friends, who as you may know, have to remain anonymous due to the small island community and all that that entails.  These two know what they are doing.  We go Oceanside just outside one of the passes.  At the marina here, and during the boating classes the "passes" are only named a "pass" if a boat can go thru them.  Usually a boat that can handle the ocean a bit.  My  Hobie can go thru most of the areas between the islands on this atoll at a decent mid to high tide because it has a really shallow draft of say a foot.  I don't really trust the Hobie in the open Ocean, although I will have it out there someday soon.  Anything with more than 2 feet of draft at mid to high tide should probably use the "passes". 

So we go out in a 12 foot inflatable Zodiac deal, toss the anchor and one of the guys gets in to have a look.  A quick look under the water and he proclaims "this is a good spot".  I jump in and see some big fish that I have no clue what they are, except kind of big, and I proclaim using my vast knowledge of the sea gained in Ohio..."yea this is a good spot".  The last of our third jumps in and less than 3 minutes later a "dogtooth tuna" appears about 45 feet down.  This ....this makes me right as a "second motion" even though I used all of my Ohio Sea knowledge to proclaim this spot a "good spot", this Dogtooth Tuna has given me "street cred" (not).  So "3rd guy in" goes down and thinks about shooting it, but runs out of air before getting a shot off. Ok, well, the 40lb fish did swim away with a bit of a strut.  So I go down, with the spearfishing equivalent of a BB gun, to shoot the equivalent of a whitetail deer. 

The difference between spearfishing and hunting a whitetail is huge.  Not to dismiss the great white deer hunter, but deer hunting is so much easier than hunting a dogtooth tuna with a spear gun.  Especially if you cheat and use a game camera, or even worse feed them apples all year in front of your game camera.  Sorry...LAME.  Ok, I am dismissing the great white deer hunter (that uses a game camera and a rifle or shotgun slug).  Make it sporty, track them, shoot them with a bow and arrow.  You have to be close for that.  Diligence.

So a few of the bigger differences are:  Whitetail deer live on ground like we do, and not under water.  Yes, they both breathe oxygen, but its just different....I think a big difference is at least these days, is if you shoot a whitetail deer, it dies and that's that.  You don't have random bears that recognize the distress of the deer coming running from who knows where and try to steal the deer from you.  In fact, you don't have these bears patrolling the woods right before you shoot the deer.  You shoot the deer, its over.  Oh, I just thought of another one.  If you shoot the deer and don't kill it, you track it, breathing oxygen, over the hills and all till you find it all dead or whatever and you end it.  You shoot a tuna that's kind of big 40lbs or so, 45ft below the water and 45 ft from the air you need to keep on keepin on.....if you don't kill it, it dives.  So you have your gun tied to a spear that you just shot a very strong fish with that happens to live in a place where you can't.  He dives, you go up with you spear gun.  Your spear gun has 50 ft of line....you almost make it to the top holding your spear gun attached to something you had no business shooting.  So close.  The spear gun stops letting you go up at about 5feet from the surface.  Your giant free diving fins are no match for the panicked tuna.  You lose your speargun. 

The other problem is of course having a shark show up with a panicking fish in the water.  Sharks panic when fish panic.  They go a little weird.  They bite stuff that's in the water....like spear guns and stuff until they figure out what's panicking and take a real bite.  Bears ...well we don't have many of them around whitetail territory...don't do that.

I made this all dramatic and all, but the real truth is ...you just go out to "the drop off" and snorkel with a spear gun.  See what swims by.  Sharks show up, sharks leave.  Don't shoot a fish, if you can get close enough to shoot one, if a shark has been by recently.  Actually shooting a fish isn't so easy either, the ones that know they taste good are very skiddish.

just thoughts....now that I've had time to think...and be surrounded by people who have time to think....

Sept 21? 2016..

So I visited a friend out here who was watching the old Moses movie with Charlton Heston (sp?).  As the movie went over the Egyptians enslaving the Jews to build all their stuff, my friend made an odd comment.  He/She said "See that's bullshit, that the Jewish people want equality.  It's the same bullshit that black people want equality here, they just want power over other people, otherwise they would be complaining and bitching about the  Chinese, the Taiwanese, the Marshallese, the Indians, the ..............fill in any other sets of people that are "enslaved".  There was more to her/his ideology on all of it, but that part kind of stuck with me, as I hadn't really thought about things that way.  So She/he was saying ...if the oppressed race really wanted equality, they would want equality for all".  I told him Muhamed Ali is the only one I could think of (because of my ignorance of history) that has spoken out in the way he/she is speaking of.  Ali, protested the Vietnam war saying that ....I found this online............

Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?
No, I am not going ten thousand miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would put my prestige in jeopardy and could cause me to lose millions of dollars which should accrue to me as the champion.
But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is right here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality

There's more to his speech/quote....but it matched the argument against "if they truly want equality they would be fightin for other less fortunate races equality..."   I love that speech, and the strength of Muhamed Ali, and the strength that all dark skinned people in the US have.  My friend is white, and maybe there are only a few like Ali, putting the rest of the oppressed front and center.  I'm guessing there are more less notable.....than again...the media is controlled by rich white guys.

Maybe some day we'll figure out that people with green eyes aren't any less than people with blue eyes...nor less that people with ....brown eyes......its sooo stupid...its a color.....

Middle of Sept...but...............birthday pictures

Ok, so I hide my birthday from everyone.  It's not a big deal to me, and well, the facebook thing involves a few hundred birthday wishes from people who are more acquaintances than friends.  It just seems a little disingenuous when its announced by facebook because you posted it there.  So I don't have it there.  However, my old neighbor, great lady and great friend, made a post on my "page" saying happy birthday.  Several of the good people out here that I play Frisbee with, Ted and Sarah, picked it up from last year, and somehow used my conversations against me to figure out exactly how old, and what week my birthday was.  That is not disingenuous.  It's extremely nice....and they would try to get the exact date out of me, in what they thought were not obvious ways. 

I had no idea.  It was a great surprise, here are the pics.....

Dorina said....everyone kiss Ben....

So many great people....I could tell a great story about most of them, the rest, well its just waiting

They think I'm a hippy....and I love that...whether I am or not

The surprise was...Dorina wanted to have a volleyball game at the beach ..she would light up the court and I would bring the light up volleyball.  I was headed down there, and thought for a second that no one would be there, they are probably bowling or something....and then thought "no one invites me to stuff" for a second, then thought , I don't really care cause I'm too tired to do stuff on Saturday night and I want to get up early Sunday"...then...well this...

Alex...and Frisbee stud Aaron

Sarah , Caitlyn, and Dorina......key elements for this night that I am thankful for

long exposure.....light up volleyball

Caitlyn and Dorina.....in their creation....

Taneka and I.  I do love this girl..and her spirit

yep....great night

Middle of Sept...but...............

Ok, so I hide my birthday from everyone.  It's not a big deal to me, and well, the facebook thing involves a few hundred birthday wishes from people who are more acquaintances than friends.  It just seems a little disingenuous when its announced by facebook because you posted it there.  So I don't have it there.  However, my old neighbor, great lady and great friend, made a post on my "page" saying happy birthday.  Several of the good people out here that I play Frisbee with, Ted and Sarah, picked it up from last year, and somehow used my conversations against me to figure out exactly how old, and what week my birthday was.  That is not disingenuous.  It's extremely nice....and they would try to get the exact date out of me, in what they thought were not obvious ways. 

I had no idea.  It was a great surprise, here are the pics.....

Dorina said....everyone kiss Ben....

So many great people....I could tell a great story about most of them, the rest, well its just waiting

They think I'm a hippy....and I love that...whether I am or not

The surprise was...Dorina wanted to have a volleyball game at the beach ..she would light up the court and I would bring the light up volleyball.  I was headed down there, and thought for a second that no one would be there, they are probably bowling or something....and then thought "no one invites me to stuff" for a second, then thought , I don't really care cause I'm too tired to do stuff on Saturday night and I want to get up early Sunday"...then...well this...

Alex...and Frisbee stud Aaron

Sarah , Caitlyn, and Dorina......key elements for this night that I am thankful for

long exposure.....light up volleyball

Caitlyn and Dorina.....in their creation....

Taneka and I.  I do love this girl..and her spirit

yep....great night

Middle of September.....2016 - Cabbage Rolls

So...a white guy who has been here for a while told me a story that was told to him by the Marshallese guys he works with.  Yes, back to the vagueness, mostly because I don't want to expose the white guy, and I don't want other white guys making the Marshallese laugh so easily.  Its a resource out here that I am keeping to myself.  Those last two sentences are only because I am white, the Marshallese don't have those hang ups.  That being said....the story goes something parallel to this:  There was a guy who found a hole in some Ladies house over there and was staring thru it one night, checking her out.  I don't know what the Marshallese Police look like but they caught the Marshallese guy looking thru the hole, and called him out.  He said "I was looking for cabbage rolls"....the cop laughed and said "No more cabbage rolls".  I spent the last few days saying the parallel to "No more cabbage rolls" to some of the Marshallese that work around me.  Without knowing them you can't really understand their laughter, their smiles, their energy.  They have the best laugh, the best smiles, and they offer them up so easily, it is their best resource, well, at least that's  a big one in my eyes.  So I spent the day smiling, because I got to make the Marshallese laugh a lot...and smile

9-7-16

I do nice things for the Marshallese.  It starts out because I'm just nice, because its obvious the position I'm in versus the position they are in.  Then it gets a little historical.  We screwed them over, well, we were the last ones to do it, but we overachieved.  In the end the system we (the good ole US) set up for them left them screwing each other, much like we screw ourselves over, without really realizing it.  My kindness towards them, ends up being because they are incredibly nice, fun, smiley, happy people in spite of everything they have to know we have done to them.  Its been generations, but they know, and they still just treat you individually.  If you are nice to them they are nice to you.  Don't take this wrong, I'm not near as selfless as I wish I were, but I respect the hell out of them...and maybe that's as much as my hypocritical self will allow ........sigh