Environmental Ethics

This past semester I took an Environmental Ethics class required for my major. Previously I have taken Forest Inventory classes which mainly focus on trees, Wildlife classes which as you can imagine involved learning about mostly native species, how to count them, populations and such, as well as a bunch of other what I would consider "Science classes" having to do with natural resources(hard facts not feelings). Going into Environmental Ethics I was hopeful, I thought there would be in depth discussion and analysis of environmental issues using facts and figures to rationalize or justify decisions. I soon realized this was not the case, the reading material was made up nearly entirely of Native American creation stories, fictional stories about unrealistic interactions with wildlife, and several manifestos by radical environmental groups. The discussions were even worse, stuff like "How can we think like a mountain"? Our grades were mainly based on writing assignments, where we were given several topics to choose from, but most of them had no basis in reality, basically creative writing exercise. Every time I picked the one that could be somehow related to documented research or knowledge I had gained from studying natural resources. I think it really annoyed the teacher, he always commented that it was interesting and no one has taken that approach before, however in terms of a grade it didn't end well for me. Looking back requiring that class for any science major is ridiculous.  So I am curious about other people who may have taken Environmental Ethics classes or any other required class that was pretty much useless.

New perch Fly.

So my uncle is doing much better, walking around the house and telling jokes which is much better then when he got out of the hospital. I searched around the internet for various perch flies and found a pretty nice youtube video of one, so I decided to tie something similar, some variations just to avoid having to order a lot of new materials.



In the video they suggested a #1-2 hook I went with a #4 just because we have been seeing smaller perch lately and have had trouble getting them to stick to the larger hooks. For The tail I used craft fur and gold krystal flash and trimmed it shorter, once again because the smaller perch have been grabbing the the tails on the worms rather then where the hook is. For the collar I used an orange hackle just to get a bit for color on the fly, and the wing I used undyed bucktail because I didn't have any brown craft fur.

I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, and unless the fish are biting it is hard to tell if it will work, but hopefully in the next few days I can give it a try.

Still a few more days.

So my uncle is doing good, but understandably it is still pretty hard for him to get around the house and cook for himself and such so I had the day off to get some of my own stuff done, then I will go back for a few days. I did find some wi-fi, either the guy was crazy about torrents or it was to far away, because it was really slow and I kept losing the signal, so it was pretty much useless for anything other than checking email.

Gone for a few days.

I had hoped to make some progress on finding, tying, and testing a new lure, but I haven't had much time  to research. A few days ago one of my uncles had knee surgery and was released from the hospital today so I agreed to spend sometime at his house helping him out. Unfortunately he doesn't have internet, which I find hard to believe but I guess since he doesn't have a computer... hopefully I can get on someones wi-fi otherwise the internet withdrawals might drive me crazy.

New Lures.

Well the relatives decided to stay an extra day, but the cooked so that was cool. They also attempted to play rugby in the yard and broke a bunch of plants, but they needed trimming anyway.I did manage to go fishing every morning for the last 4 days, first 3 days the fishing was great, but this morning there were few clouds and a lot of sun on the water which can mess things up sometimes, and the current was bit slower. Caught a fish my first cast but a wave knocked it against a rock and a shell or barnacle broke cut the line, then no bites for the next 2 hours, so I went home.

I want to start tying flies that look like either a small fish or one of the invertebrates that is around here, then try to catch a fish on that. Kind the the next level of tricking a fish, having it bite something you made yourself rather than bought at a store. So hopefully by the next post I will have something picked out, probably won't have anything made yet since I'll need to order some materials.

Relatives. Why me?

So some family from out of town was passing through and decided to invite themselves to stay the night. Really not much trouble other than not having enough food to feed them and such. It was my aunt and uncle, and their son who is a sophomore in high school. During dinner he told jokes the entire time, the kind of jokes where they would be funny if you were 5, his parents seemed to think they were hilarious, and I just wanted to leave but that would be rude. Everyone started getting ready for bed, and after making sure they didn't need anything I went to sleep, 15 minutes later I get woken up because they can't find the pump for their air mattress, so I look around and get them a wet-dry vac to blow it up, of course the wait around another 15 minutes before blowing it up so I get woken up again. Woke up early and went fishing, caught some good perch, enough for dinner at least. When I got home, my tooth brush wasn't where I left it, so that was kind of horrifying, then when I tried to turn the shower on I noticed the screen to prevent soap and hair from going down the drain was bent and stomped down the drain, the shower nozzle was on backwards, and the hot water handle doesn't work anymore. Luckily they are going home today, but in less then 20 hours they have already wore out their welcome. 

Making money from junk on the street.

So after the post about seeing furniture left on the street I remember a conversation I had with someone a few years ago. This guy was ~60 years old but every summer he would go the the local university which happens to be pretty large and also fairly expensive. He would wait for the all the 1 year old furniture: desks, chairs, dressers, that people had furnished there dorms with and didn't have a place to store over the summer. He loaded up his truck drove it all to some storage units he rented, at the start of the new semester he would make fliers with a list of all the stuff he had(got for free) and would sell it for half what it would cost new. His best year he made just over $4000 after storage unit expenses. Seems like a pretty good deal, even if you had to rent a truck for a few days you could still make some pretty good money.

Garbage on the street.

Went to work today so no fishing, cold and raining again this morning, kind of depressing to wake up to. While driving around this morning I noticed a lot of people leave stuff on the streets, and not just empty chip bags and soda cans. There were several desks, and few tables with 4 chairs, mattresses all over a lot of pretty good stuff if you wanted to furnish your house with other peoples stuff. I think the best collection I saw was a TV, bed frame with mattress, and a gather large, dirty glass bong. I guess who ever it belong to decided to really focus on something.

Shock Leaders

Well it was so foggy this morning it was pretty much raining and the wind was blowing ~20mph but the tide was pretty good so I decided to go try some fishing off a jetty. After about 30 minutes of fishing my hands were wet from the fog, and so cold from the wind I could hardly feel or move them, and it was really screwing up my casting, either letting the line slip and the lure going straight up or letting the line go too late and the lure dives into the water. On one cast I either screwed something up badly or my line was worn from the rocks but there was a loud snap behind my head, and my lure was gone. If you are fishing with no one around this is okay, but in a group of people a lure flying away can be pretty dangerous. A solution to this is to use a shock leader, basically a heavier line that wraps the spool 5-8 times then goes the length of the rod and back down to the reel. Most people seem to use 10lb test per ounce they are casting. I was casting 2 ounces with 12lb test. You might be wondering why not just use all 20lb test, well on the reel I was using I could probably only hold 100 yards of 20lb test, so with a 25-35 yard cast, then a big fish that wants to swim away you could run out of line.

Annoyed.

So I am curious about other peoples reasons about why they moved away from home. I was living at home, going to school, and working part time.  I guess it was a pretty good deal no bills to speak of but it got to the point where I couldn't stand living here anymore, so I decided to transfer to a school several hundred miles away. Now when I come home to visit, before hand I look forward to it, when I get here it is nice not having to cook, and in general being on vacation from normal life. However after being here for a week I am starting to feel like a live here again, and I think it is a feeling of a lack of independence. Today I woke up early went for a run, and then went down to the beach and went fishing, got home at 1 pm ate lunch and took a nap, but I got woke up and "in trouble" for sleeping rather then helping my dad clean the garage. So for those of you who visit your parents as a vacation, do they let you have vacation or act like you never left?

Visiting the parents.

So I am visiting my parents this week, which I guess is pretty cool because I don't get to see them much anymore, but there are some funny things about it. Even though I haven't lived here is several years there still get mad if I don't show up for dinner. They also like to barge into the room I am sleeping in without knocking, I guess they aren't used to closed doors. My dad also likes to bother me by waking me up in the morning and telling me I don't need to get up, but then turns the radio on in the shower so I can't sleep anyway. So I usually get up and go to work with him, help him carry stuff around and wait in the car if he can't find a parking spot.

Fishin on the Fourth

Got up early to avoid traffic/crowds and for a good minus tide to get out to some different rocks to fish. Landed 5-6 perch and a smelt and had a few more that got off. I had a bigger rod further out hoping for a shark or something that would fight better but no bites, but thats why they call it fishing not catching.

While fishing I started thinking about how people meet, I tend to think I look pretty unapproachable, I kind of have a constant look of disgust while out in public, and for no real reason other than habit I wear all black. When I look at others I always worry that talking to them will somehow inconvenience them, if they are in a hurry, and I ask them for directions or something, they might not want to be rude and help, so I generally don't bother people unless it is obvious they have nothing to do.  Then I started thinking about various people I either met online or talk to online but haven't seen them in many years, or something I don't have experience with but I think about when other people mention it, online dating. So much of what we think about people is based on out first impression of them, and generally that is their appearance. Where as online you might get to know someones personality before you even know what they look like, and at least for me, personality is far more important than appearance. I have talked to some people about this and they seem to think it is an unnatural thing to be friends with people you have never met face to face, almost as if they are imaginary people. What do you guys think? I think with the amount of time people spend online it is only natural and will only increase.

Holiday Traffic.

So with the holiday weekend and the nice weather here, everyone is outside going to the beaches and I guess anywhere other then their houses. I wanted to go fishing but the traffic was pretty bad, tried to get to a new spot but after 15 minutes in traffic that hardly moved and about an hour to go I turned around and went to the normal spot, but there was no parking so I came home and decided to sit in the yard and work on my reels and tie up some leaders for the next trip. I guess it was an okay day.

I forgot about making a twitter before the break so I figure I will update that, at least with new blog posts. http://twitter.com/#!/RemoteRumbles

Hobbies

I've been thinking a lot about a hobby I would like to get into. There were some conditions:
1. Not too expensive, I really don't have any spare money so the cheaper the better.
2. Some element of danger, other then a paper cut or inhaling too much glue.
3. Something that most people have seen or heard of so I can use it in conversations.
4. Putting me in contact with people, something where I need to go outside.

So with that in mind I looked at things I have done before, or have some interest in.
1. Rock climbing - Have enough gear to go to gyms and climb but nothing suitable for outdoor climbing.
2. Auto racing - Could get a car pretty cheap to work on, but there are no tracks nearby other than a drag strip
3. Surfing - I have a knee board I can use, and a wetsuit.
4. Fishing - I guess this could already be one of my hobbies but I kind of stopped doing it.
5. Offroad motorcycling - Have a motorcycle and gear.

There were some other but I can't seem to remeber them now. I think I am going to get back into fishing. There are a lot of sharks and such near where I live so I think I will target them rather than the smaller stuff. I figure I will make me go to the beach, and there are people there, so maybe I could talk to them. Also Sharks fight pretty good so that should be fun, and pulling a shark out of the water is sure to get peoples attention, and fisherman(hopefully women) always want to talk about fishing so well see how that goes.

I have gone fishing the last 3 days, and plan to go the next 2, so far the fishing has all been on secluded rocks that most normal people wouldn't climb so I hardly saw anyone, and the fishing was pretty slow, but it is much better then sitting around at home.