Silflay Hraka

Fishing Report

I seem to have an hour or two free, finally, though that won’t last once I get home. I have to say that of all the things I missed while out on the beach, blogging wasn’t one of them. I can’t say that I was very surprised at that. The actual act of post creation seemed increasingly onerous the week or two before I left. At the time I blamed it on the drudgery of creating both daily posts and future posts, though when it came down to the “Blogging for the future” stuff was way more enjoyable. My problem lies in the fact that I tend to grasp at some formula as a panacea for whatever problem I feel that the blog is having at the moment. Lack of content? Two posts a day, one about the war or politics, and one about something else. Lack of outgoing Links? Carnival of the Vanities. After a while it stops feeling organic, and I switch to some other formula. I’m going to to try to abandon that, see if I can get back into the space I was using when I initially started . I’m thinking of ripping out comments and traffic tracking, and I spend way too much with those each day, and they don’t really add that much.

Enough of that. Here’s the fishing report, like you care anymore about it than you would about my various ways around blog block.

I went down on Monday, after an hour or two of walking around the house looking for stuff that might come in handy. After packing my third bottle opener I decided that if I hung around the house any longer I would end up stuffing the entire house into the Explorer. The trip down was uneventful, chiefly characterized by my panicked speeding in the last half- hour of the trip, as I attempted to stuff 45 miles of two lane country highway into 30 minutes. (I ended up stuffing it into 38 minutes, which was good enough to save my ferry reservation). Note to self; Durham to Cedar Island is a minimum 4 hour trip, even if you do know the back ways. Once I was actually on the Island, I spent another half hour trying to find the house. Even though I actually turned down the road to it more than once, each time I looked at the vista before me and decided that there was absolutely no way this could be the correct route, even though that is what the map insisted. This experience was replicated by every one of the 11 of us who eventually showed up. Had someone physically decided to hide the house, they could not have done a better job. It was the combination of the actual road condition (extremely rutted), an the optical illusion of it ending it front of a much newer house than the one we were staying in.

The Soundfront Inn itself is….huge, and made entirely out of wood that looks likely to burst into flames at any second. Literally the first thing I did was test the fire alarms, before I unpacked, before I even opened a beer, if you can believe that. I was calculating escape routes in the event of fire from the moment I walked in. I shouldn’t speak too ill of the house, though. I calculate escape routes everywhere. I don’t remember whether to blame this on being a parent or on 9/11, but I still do it. My other big occupation on Ocracoke was how to escape a tidal wave should one come along, and I revised my plans 5 or 6 times a day depending on my location.

So it was a tinderbox, but with alarms at least, and you could see the light house from the back yard. Hell, I coulda thrown a rock and hit the lighthouse. And it was huge, and cheap, if a bit architecturally upsetting. It appeared as if there were, at a minimum, four separate additions to the original house, none of which were intended to be anything other than functional. I was finding new rooms two days after I arrived. Wouldn’t want to stay there in the summer, though, or with women. No heat or air conditioning, and the mosquitos were everywhere outside. The first few minutes of any trip out were spent killing them in the car, and the ruts in the road got larger and wetter with ever passing day. It’s not a place to stay at if you have bug issues, or do not possess a 4WD.

That said, it was a palatial well-appointed mansion compared to what we were used to from previous trips. I’ll probably book it for next year.

Update: That does say “Fishing Report” up at the top, doesn’t it? Well, Monday they were fishing the Sound when I arrived, as surf-casting into the ocean had been less than productive. It was that way all week for us. We eventually discovered the inlet at the south of the island, and caught the vast majority of our fish there. Not much was pulled out sound side Monday, though we did catch a few undersized red drum, some pinfish and one enormous eel.

Cat Fight - Meowwwwwwww!!!!

Professional basketball players are not boxers as evidenced by Rick Fox at a recent Lakers vs. Kings game. As described in this article, Fox attempted to hit Doug Christie with an open palm…….okay, he tried to bitch slap the guy. Men should not bitch slap each other, something that Christie is apparently more aware of, based on the fact that he tagged Fox immediately following the slap. To make matters worse for Fox, he then waited for Christie to enter the hallway to the locker rooms, where he put the guy into a headlock. What’s next, the windmill attack? The close your eyes and twirl approach? Being an athlete is no guarantee that you can fight.

Christie had his problems as well. Apparently his wife joined into the fight, to which Fox replied, “I guess she thought he needed the help.” I’m not sure who won this catfight, but I’m looking forward to the next one.

Ok, I’m back, though it might be a day or two before I clear out enough time to get back to regular blogging. The Carnival goes out on Wednesday as usual, but I’m not sending out the email notifications, I just don’t have the time yet. In the meantime, you can see one of my fish here.

To Bomb or Not to Bomb?

Here is a link which gives more food for thought on the Iraq issue. It is an article by Stephen Zunes, who is the Middle East editor of Foreign Policy in Focus. It is 8 pages long, but makes for interesting reading.

Covering Kremlin Asses

Going along with my post from yesterday, I am not questioning whether or not the Russians should have stormed the theater in an effort to save as many hostages as possible. It is highly likely that those hostage takers had no intent of allowing anyone to leave that place alive, but the more that is reported on this story, the more secretive it seems to become. Again, the following was found on an AOL news site:

MOSCOW (Oct. 28) - Russia on Monday mourned those who died when troops stormed a theater seized by Chechen gunmen, but the Kremlin was criticized for the gas it used to disable the rebels and which killed more than 100 of their captives.

The government has so far refused to name the gas which special troops used to knock out the rebels on Saturday morning before they could detonate explosives strapped to their bodies in the Moscow theater they seized three days earlier.

No, they may not have had other options, and the loss of life is unfortunate, but keeping secrets is not going to make Russian citizens feel any more comfortable with who is in charge. If an accident occurred, then admit mistakes and let’s move on. But what if the government used a poisenous gas in the theater, being well aware of the potential consequences? We are about to bomb Saddam who has used chemical weapons on his own people, are the Russians now guilty of the same thing?

I just threw that in there for all of you to tell me how the two are not similar, but it does appear that something went horribly wrong, and not revealing what gas was used seems to indicate that someone is trying hard to cover their asses. Thank God it isn’t us this time.

Rescue????

The rescue in Russia was not as successful as we all were hoping. The latest story coming out of there makes Ruby Ridge look like a smudge on the paper.
Found this on AOL:

MOSCOW (Oct. 27) - Moscow’s chief physician said Sunday that all but one of the 117 hostages who died during an operation to free hundreds of captives from a city theater were killed by the effects of gas used to subdue their captors.

The Interfax news agency quoted Andrei Seltsovsky as saying that one person died from bullet wounds during Saturday’s assault. It was the first time that a Russian official identified the cause of death of most of the victims.

I can imagine that the community relations in Russia is going to be a nightmare after this, but what choices did they have? I hate that they will be questioned for a long time to come after this, but that is the nature of the job, I guess. Unfortunately, our government has had to deal with this before as well.

Who Can We Blame?

When bad things occur it is natural to look to identify someone who we can blame for the situation. When the WTC attacks occurred people wanted to blame our intelligence agencies, and the President of the United States, for knowing about terrorist warnings and not doing enough to stop it. The latest agency dealing with this type of scrutiny is the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), as they are being blamed for their possible role in the sniper attacks.

Apparently one of the persons charged in these crimes, Lee Malvo, is an illegal alien from Jamaica. He jumped ship in Miami in June 2001, but was picked up, along with his mother, by the Border Patrol in Bellingham, Washington, in December 2001. Unfortunately, he was then let go by the INS in what one reporter claimed was a clear violation of federal law and contrary to what the arresting officers intended.

Malvo and his mother were released about a month after their arrest. The law does not allow for this and states that illegal alien stowaways are to be held and deported without hearings. Malvo?s mother admitted that she and her son were illegal aliens yet they were released anyway.

The author of the article I am reading from suggested that someone at the Seattle INS agency put pressure on the arresting officers to ignore the ?stowaway? status of Malvo and his mother, and release them and avoid the costs of the deportation process. Might this imply that a sympathizer wanted Malvo free, or just somebody who was looking to save himself time and money? The frightening thing is thinking about how often this probably occurs.

So, the Monday morning quarterbacking continues. For now, I am just glad that we appear to have won this particular game.

Choosing Your Death

Apparently, serial killers are not exclusive to the East Coast. As reported in the Greensboro News & Record, a man, Roberto Arguelles, was arrested and convicted of killing three teenage girls and a woman in her 40?s in 1997. He received the death penalty and was given the task of choosing how he would like to die. Strangely enough, he has chosen the firing squad and, in addition, has made the request to not wear the traditional hood over his head.

I understand that it is somewhat difficult for us to be empathetic with this individual, but I have tried to place myself in this case. What on earth would possess someone to choose the firing squad? My personal choice would be lethal injection simply because I would prefer to fade out instead of going out with a bang. His choice has caused me to wonder if he is mentally aware of what is happening to him. It is a VERY general statement, but the assumption is that sane people don?t want to be shot by a lot of people. Contrary to this idea, the court did order Arguelles to undergo a psychiatric evaluation after he attempted to hang himself with a prison laundry bag.

Another question this raised was whether or not the courts and the state would allow this type of execution to take place. That question was answered with a ?Yes.? The state Supreme Court of Utah ruled last Friday that the firing squad execution could proceed.

How many bleeding hearts do you expect this will bring out of the woodwork? As I have mentioned before, I do not view myself as being either for or against the death penalty, although I realize for many that represents being for it. When you see how many people show up to protest a lethal injection killing, my guess is that this method of death will bring out many more. I admit that the brutality of this one seems much more barbaric than an injection and would therefore create more media attention. Would we allow people to be hanged if they chose that method? I would be interested to learn more how this choosing process works.

You are supposed to feel better knowing that another serial killer is being removed from society???do you?

Your Better Half?

Professional athletes and famous women just don’t mix. This may be the only time when Mike Tyson can be viewed as a legitimate role model. Something about pro athletes attracts famous bitches like the swans returning to Capistrano.

Bobblehead Fever

To go with the post below, this seems fitting. I think they are actually using her real head for this.