Midnight Golf

For those of you who are unaware, Alaska has very interesting light and dark cycles. In the summer, there is copious amounsts of sunlight, whereas in winter the sun is almost always absent. To get an idea, think about this: In summer, the sun sets around Midnight and rises around 3 or 4 am. Howver between midnight and 3 is twilight. So in essence it does not actually get dark in Alaska in summer.

So, knowing this, when I was in Denali National Park I decided to play a round  of golf at the Black Diamond Golf  Course in Healey, Alaska.  As I was driving up to the course, I witnissed amazing views of Denali National Park. The view is absolutly undesirable and must be seen to believe.

The round of golf was not particularly good. I had to use borrowed clubs, didnt have a glove, and was playing in Timberlands! Also due to space reasons the holes had a tendency to run into each other. The fairways were also fairly narrow and pinched. However, nothing can take away the feeling as you look at the hole, then look a little farther and see the mountains of Denali just in the distance. Then you look at your watch and you realize it is 11:45 pm!

Overall, I had a great time at the Black Diamond Golf Course and I recomend it for anyone that enjoys golf.

Quick Entry

I do not have time for a full post at the moment.  I will post tomorrow about playing gold at midnight, but for right now I just wanted to comment on the issue of cell phones. I have finally decided to actually get one!

Now I know that I am not a fan of cell phones, but I am really not a fan of people that use cell phones. This is becuase I have noticed that there are certain types of cell phone users. There is the I am too cool for you user. This is the person who is seen walking everywhere jabbering on their phone. See these people's lives are so busy and they are so important that they do not even have time to simply walk down the street.  Oh, no. They must utilize every second of every day.

As a graduate student I always seem to encounter those students who insist on keeping their cell phones on in class. Is it really that hard to turn off your cell phone before you get to class? What interests me is that it always seems to be the same couple of people that leave their cells on. This is telling me that they are not forgetting to do anything. What they are doing is completly on purpose and nothing more.

And finally the last group I really dislike are those people that wear their cell phones on their hip. Cmon buddy, whom do you think you are fooling? Ooh, you have a cell phone?! WOW, I am impressed! Let me grovel at your feet in hopes of actually being allowed to look at the cell phone!

Well here is the thing. Quite frankly a cell phone is an easy cheap way for me to communicate with people and for people to communicate with me. I actually used a cell phone back in the late 90's, but that was a somewhat bulkier piece of equipment then the one I will likly get soon. 

Oh you want to know my provider? Well I have one question for you: Can you hear me now?

Jim goes salmon fishing

Yes, you read that correctly. I did go salmon fishing during my trip up north.  Even though I have fished a couple of times before(and never managed to catch anything more than a cold), I thought salmon fishing in Alaska was a must. Salmon fishing in Alaska is afterall the best type of fishing available.

I booked my trip, got in a bus, and rode out to the pier. Captain Todd welcomed me to the boat and a fellow Texan and an Okie joinedthe expedition. Salmon  was the fish we were after and the biggest of them all was our target: The King.

After sailing at 25 knots for about a half hour Captain Todd yelled out to cast out. He took a moment to show us how his brand new reels worked. Then the four of us cast our lines in the water and proceded to meet the King face to face.

Within a few minutes the Okie felt a sharp pull on his line. After a 20 minutes of hard fighting a 18 pound King was lying in the boat. I studied the Okie's tactics during his fight and felt prepared for my fight.

After a few minutes, my line pulled down violently. I started fighting the fish and worked the rod as best as I could. I felt the fight, and was ready to go. With the cheers from my fishing colleagues, I fought the mystery fish for about 8 minutes. As Captian Todd pulled the fish out by the net, he discovered it was not a Salmon at all but a cod. In fact the lure was actually not in the cod's mouth but in its tail! I had actually hooked the thing through its tail! That was the reason it had been fighting so hard. Even though it was a good size cod, it was not cod season, so back in the water it went.

After a couple rock fish that also had to go back in the water, my fellow Texan caught a 5 pound Pink Salmon. This little guy was very fiesty and refused to lay still as Captain Todd killed it on board. Other than the fact that it was a salmon there is not much that should be said about this fish.

For the next few hours we all had huge fish that got away in some way. It was a bit dissapointing for me as I was the only person that hadnt caught anything legal. I had hooked a rock fish that provided about 2 minutes of fight. In fact after the first 10 feet of being reeled in, the fish simply seemed to give up! Yeah, thats how my day was going!

With only 10 minutes left, I knew I had to do something right there and then or I would continue my disasterous fishing streak. I dropped line and pulled. Nothing. I dropped line, and pulled. Still nothing. FInally I dropped line again, and my reel pulled quickly downards. Great, I thought, here comes another cod. I reeled the line up and began fighting. Quickly i realized this wasnt gonna be a rock fish. I was hoping it was a salmon, any salmon really, as I really wanted to keep the fish. I reeled and fought and fought some more. At this point the other guys on the boat pulled their reels in and were warching me intently to see what I had come up with. After a strong fight that seemed to last for 20 minutes, a 12 pound Chum salmon found its way into the boat. I jumped up and down in joy and the captain remarked he never saw anyone so happy to catch a fish!

Chum Salmons are referred to as Dog salmons by the Alaska locals. Todd said that this was because they tend to be the best fighters pound for pound. Think about it like this: some people say that the greatest boxer ever was Muhamed Ali or Evander Holyfield. However few people argue that Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest pound for pound fighter ever. In essence the Chum Salmon is the third largest salmon(King and Silver are bigger) but it puts up an enormous fight. 

I had an amazing time fishing in Alaska and if I go back there, I will certainly fish again!

I'm Back

After a fun and exciting trip I have returned. I will make some comments about the trip as the days go by. I think I will make a comment every couple of days of something interesting that happened on the trip. I believe I will make a comment or two on the following topics so look forward to them:

1. Jim going salmon fishing
2. Jim playing midnight golf in bright sunlight
3. Jim fighting a polar bear

 

Out of town

I will be out of town from July 14-25. So if I do not respond to email, you now know the reason.

Spiderman 2

I recently went to see Spiderman 2. Since some of yall have not seen it yet, I will not go into any major plot details but there will be SPOLIERS. IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.







First of all, I enjoyed the second movie. I thought it was entertaining and am glad I went to see it. Will i see it again? Probably not. This is due to the fact that I have seen very few movies more than once. Only truly amang movies am I able to see more than once. Gettysburg, The Usual Suspects, Brain Donors, Modern Times, Jurrasic Park, X-Men, and A Beautiful Mind are a few examples. Believe it or not, I saw the original Spiderman only once.

There are certain advantages that this movie has over the original. For example, the CGI has picked up drastically. Even though you know that Toby is not swinging down the street, the computer graphics actually makes it appear that he is. This was a major improvement over the original in which the CGI was a bit much and seemed at times to "fake."

Another high point of the movie is the insight into Peter Parker. There is time devoted to seeing who Spiderman and Peter Parker are. We get to see the problems associated with the alter ego as well as why "with great power comes great responsibility." This really helped to see the inner workings of his mind and the dualness of it.

One of the problems is that there is too much drama in this movie. Seeing a little bit of drama is fine, but when it just keeps going the way it did here, is not really what I was expecting.

Ok, maybe this is just a personal observation, but the next problem I have is with Kirstin Dunst. She is certainly a beautiful woman and a good Mary Jane, but she is simply unable to do a dramatic scene convincingly.

So overall, I would say that the first movie was an action movie with a few dramatic scenes while the second movie was a dramatic movie with a few action sequences sprinkled through. I give the first movie 2 thimbs up and the second 1.5.

Howdy All

Howdy all. Thanks for reading this inital post. On my website, I had a section called the "Jim News" which served as a mini blog. I really enjoyed that section and I even requested information from yall on blogs. I was very surprised with the number of responses that I received. I think this is the best free(note free) blog available, so I will use this one for awhile.

If you are reading this you likly know me, however if you do not, let me give you a short intro. As you can tell from my name, I am a Texan, and I am a large man. I am interested in sports, politics, computers, electronics, and am an avid reader. I am very interested in reading scienctific publications as well as the psychology of the mind(as that is my chosen profession). I am sure you will learn more about me as time goes on.

And with that I would like to end my first post the way I ended the "Jim News" section: Thanks for stopping by, and I will se eyou next time.