As you continue up the river we call our comfort zone, you begin to see tall gum trees instead of mangroves. Occasionally, there is a house – well you would call them more of a run down shack, but people do live in them.
As we kayaked up the river recently, I said to the other half “Can you hear a chicken?” and he agreed that he could hear one. We thought it must have been in a chicken house near the run down shack, but we soon discovered this is a free range chicken.
Maybe it is a rooster, but I don’t know much about chickens really. It wasn’t a course available in school. The chicken certainly seemed to be enjoying the beach, scratching in the sand.
Snoskred Lives
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Welcome Slash Dotters..
I’ve read through the comments here, and I just have a couple of things to point out.
In the case of AKMuckraker, previous to Doogan outing her, there was no connection between her real life identity, and the identity of AKMuckraker. You couldn’t google and find a link between the two. It simply was not possible.
He spent three months obsessively asking people who AKMuckraker was. He did this because she posted this blog post – Are You People Nuts? Lessons In Email Etiquette – this post came about as a direct result of his own actions.
The actions? Rep Mike Doogan replies to emails in a very inappropriate manner as a matter of course, it seems. But in that case he had collected up 30 or so different email addresses, and then emailed them ALL with the email addresses viewable to everyone. That is a clear breach of the privacy of those people who wrote to him.
Now AKMuckraker had a right to inform people about that, in my opinion. If you write an email to your representative, you expect there to be a level of privacy. Apparently this sent Doogan quite over the edge and began his obsession with her.
He chose to send out her identity in a newsletter to his constituents, many of whom may never have heard of AKMuckraker at all. That is the part which is most inappropriate in my opinion.
There are many reasons people want to remain anonymous on the internet. Alaska is a quite a small place in the scheme of things and like a lot of small towns to have true freedom of speech you don’t want to use your real name.
Other reasons someone might wish to remain anonymous –
* Because it is a standard identity- and privacy-protection precaution
* Because they have experienced online or offline stalking, harassment, or political or domestic violence
* Because they wish to discuss sexual abuse, sexuality, domestic abuse, assault, politics, health, or mental illness, and do not wish some subset of family, friends, strangers, aquaintances, employers, or potential employers to know about it
* Because they wish to keep their private lives, activities, and tastes separate from their professional lives, employers, or potential employers
* Because they fear threats to their employment or the custody of their children
* Because it’s the custom among their Internet cohort
* Because it’s no one else’s business
Bear in mind also – remember Kathy Sierra? Remember Dooce? Remember Abby Lee? What person in their right mind would knowingly put themselves out there for the kind of treatment those people went through?
Would you put your hand up to be fired from your job because of your blog? To receive death threats – and the people sending them know where you live? Who knows how far those people who do not like what you wrote might go?
The bottom of the bottom lines is – AKMuckraker would never have written about Doogan if he were acting in a sane manner. He is the politician who was sending the crazy emails to 30 people at once. If he had been doing the right thing and treating the people who elected him professionally and with respect, AKMuckraker would not have exposed his behavior. And NOTE – It is actually his JOB to listen to what the people are saying, and respond appropriately.
I haven’t had time to collect links today but here are some from yesterday – I would like to highlight these –
Picture of Mudflats’ AK Muckraker Posted! <-- do not fear, just go and read it. ;) I would not be posting a link if it infringed on AKM's privacy, and AKM has commented on the post too.
Lorelle Van Fossen, who to me is famous but may be unknown to many of you, is writing a series on this event -
The Outing of a Blogger: Social Transparency or Violation?
The Outing of a Blogger: Is it Legal to Reveal a Blogger?
The Outing of a Blogger: The Fear of Being Found Out
More links will be added to this post once I work out what hasn’t been posted. Apologies for any double ups.
Dear Mr. Doogan (Don’t feed the bears)
A Final Thought About Rep. Doogan and Mudflats
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
alaskan dem legislator outs blogger
Exposed
Mike Doogan- own version of 1st ammendment
Anonymous bloggers, journalism and politics
The pertinent point
Alaska Legislator Mike Doogan: A Tool Of The First Order
Headline Does Not Match Story, Part 14: “Anti-Palin”?
Mike Doogan was wrong!
Take action on behalf of MUDFLATS
Mike Doogan Fell
My Letter to The Ethics Committee
Anonymous blogging
Open Letter to Alaskan Rep Mike Doogan
Please look for a new book by Alaska writer Mike Doogan: “Indecent Exposure.”
Know Your Blogging Rights and Help Protect Anonymous Bloggers Everywhere
Suck. Suck. Blow.
ADN’s Ear Siding With Doogan – The World Has Gone Mad
Politician Outs Blogger
…it begins.
Politician Outs Blogger
I honestly cannot believe I am typing this..
Some time ago Alaskan Politician Rep Mike Doogan was sending some crazy emails to people who emailed him and AKMuckraker was one of the bloggers involved in exposing his craziness.
Apparently this did not sit well with Rep Doogan. He has been trying to find out who AKMuckraker was for several months now and he has finally managed to do it. He then sent out a message to people on his mailing list via his official legislative newsletter, advising them of the real name of AKMuckraker. It is possible that when he did this, he broke the law.
Whether or not people support AKMuckrakers opinions, I believe most people would support her right to remain anonymous. I feel it is a right that everyone on the internet is entitled to – people make the decision for their own reasons, some because they have been cyber stalked in the past, some to prevent being cyber-stalked in the future.
This may be the first known case of an anonymous blogger being cyber-stalked by a politician determined to find out their real identity and out them, though!
You can read the full story here –
In Exposing the Identity of Mudflats, Rep. Mike Doogan Exposes Himself.
There are also some other blog posts on this subject –
Progressive Alaska
Shannyn Moore
The Immoral Minority
Mamadance
Palin Gates
Think Alaska
We’re Not That Stupid
I have been supporting AKMuckraker for almost 6 months now – we have been hosting her blog and forums – we have a team of mods and admins who keep the forums running smoothly. I did not need to know her real name to do that (and in fact did not know her real name until today) nor did I care what her name was. I understand anonymous blogging – I do it myself for the reasons explained on my about page.
My support will not change – other than to do whatever it takes to make sure Rep Mike Doogan never wins an election again, and to also inform the worldwide media of what he has done. It is highly inappropriate.
Epic Fail, Rep Doogan. Epic Fail.
I may not be around much for the next week or so, I’ll be busy taking action on this. ;)
The Comfort Zone
We’re pretty used to our favourite little river now.. It is our comfort zone. We know what to expect – calm, clear waters, occasional boat wakes which are not too scary, sometimes a little bit of a wave, but for the most part it looks like this –
We’ve talked about going out into the bay a few times – which contains sharks and dolphins and at certain times of the year even whales – but this time the water looked fairly calm so we decided to have a go at it. This is taken from out in the bay looking back towards our comfort zone.
Note to self – it always looks calmer than it actually is, even in photos. Once we got out there it was a bit scary. I didn’t take too many photos because we were concentrating on what we were doing.
Both the dolphin boats were out, packed full of people as it was a gorgeous day. They did not seem very far away when we were out there, but they were a long way away as you can see in this photo. :) It almost seemed like we could paddle out to them in a few minutes.
Hey, what’s my boat doing out here? ;)
We ventured out a couple of kilometres and it seemed like we were out there for ages but that was the fear making time go very slowly.
I had a sad that no dolphins approached us. Maybe next time we venture out of our comfort zone, they will. It certainly is a good reason to get out there and get used to it. :)
Kayak Trip & Jellyfish
After taking several weeks off due to holidays, we finally got back on the kayak yesterday. It was an absolutely stunning day – almost like summer but hello, this is autumn now. Here’s hoping we get many more days like this in the next few months And look, it’s my toe! ;) YAY TOE.
When we got in the water, we noticed there were many tiny jellyfish. They were difficult to see for the most part, but you could see their shadows on the sand. Apparently these ones do not sting – if they did we would certainly know about it.
We decided to head down to the mouth of the creek and back, a shorter version of our usual trip.
When we got down to the mouth we discovered both the Dolphin Watch boats were out in the bay and the wharf was completely empty. We spotted one of the boats out in the bay. You can just see it in this pic.
This is the first time we have ever got there at the right moment with both boats out, so we decided to do a paddle along the wharf.
As we paddled along the other, newer Dolphin Watch boat appeared and headed back to the wharf. This one is usually moored in the river, the bigger boat stays tied up at the wharf.
On the way back we spent some time trying to photograph the jellyfish. On closer inspection we found that they had amazing colors which would run down their bodies. Some were green, some were pink or red. We thought we would try and get some photos of them while we were out but I was worried we would not be able to capture the colors.
We spent quite a lot of time using the Hobie Stake Out stick to keep us in the shadow of this tree, trying to get a picture. The stake out stick is a brilliant invention which enables a kayak to anchor in the sand. This does make it easier to eat a snack.
The camera would not focus on the jellyfish which was very frustrating. We were lucky to find a jellyfish with an air bubble in it so we could finally get a decent shot – and we did manage to capture some of the colors.
On the way back to the boat ramp The Other Half said that we had not seen any stingrays today.. and the next thing you know one appeared. He seemed to be quite curious about the Kayak, and he followed us for about 10 minutes. The water was a bit murky by this time so underwater shots did not turn out well.. here is a shot of the dark blob in the water it makes.. ;)
The ray was heading towards one of the boat ramps. Word on the street is these guys like hang out at boat ramps. I wonder if it is like the cool place to be, because we spotted another one also heading there – this one is known to us because it does not have a tail at all and we’ve seen it many times in the creek. Also hanging out near the boat ramp were these guys.
On the way back there is an amazing dead tree. It fell backwards exposing a huge root structure.
My usual exercise routine has been completely thrown out by our trip, and by this time the muscles in the backs of my thighs were starting to hurt a bit. We decided to call it a day, having been out for 2 hours and 40 minutes according to the i-phone tracking system. Usually those muscles don’t hurt until we’ve been out for four hours, so looks like I have some work to do to get them back into shape. ;)
We do seem to have got our act together when it comes to getting ready to go kayaking and putting together our gear. We also have found the perfect kayak snack – nutrigrain bars. Yes this *sounds* awful, I know. However they are absolutely spectacular, my favourite flavor is honeycomb. I also like to take a banana and a couple of bottles of water.
We use the Olympus 850SW waterproof and shockproof camera to take photos on the kayak and when snorkelling. We chose the pink one in case it were to fall off the kayak or get dropped when we were snorkelling, so that we would be able to see it. :) The above shot is from the Marriott Lagoon Pool we visited while on holiday, it gives you an idea of the kind of shots you can get with this camera.
What News From SnoskredLand?
Much news. where would I begin?
I could tell you about –
– my sister and nephews visiting, and a shopping spree of enormous proportions.
– being obsessed by the US elections.
– watching the episodes of Dexter Season 3.
– craizy live chats during the debates.
– learning a huge amount more about Simple Machines Forums thanks to The Mudflats.
– losing over 5 kilos thanks to Sean Hannity and his unpleasantness inspiring me to get on the exercise bike instead of throwing things around.
– sitting for over an hour with two bearded lizards on me.
– sooky kitties trying to sit on me with my laptop on my lap.
– endless washing chores.
– warm weather returning yay!
– daylight saving yay!
– The Other Half’s new Iphone.
– watching a new show called In Treatment on Showcase.
– getting a new frypan.
And much more. But instead let me tell you about something wonderful that happened and it is possibly safe enough now to mention it without Jinxing it. My Dad got a nasty flu / viral infection thing. He was away from work for a week, and so unwell that he was unable to smoke for all that time, and it seems that he has finally managed to give up smoking for good.
The same thing happened to me back in 2003 when I got pneumonia, I was so ill with it that the nasty withdrawals happened while I was completely out of my senses, delirious and sweating and unable to sleep lying down and demanding Garlic Prawns at 4am. When I was feeling better, I tried to smoke but just was not able to. Yay! It has been nearly 5 years (will be 5 years in December) and I have kicked the habit for good.
Oh, and before I go.. you can join us today at for a live chat during the Presidential Election at The Mudflats, click on Live Chat now available 24/7 right here in the top right hand corner). We’re using Mibbit, which has a built in translation option. I have been using it to remember me some Norwegian, which is one of the most beautiful languages on the planet in my opinion.
In Other News.. New Mugs!
The Other Half doesn’t like my big Ikea mugs so when we were out the other day we bought some smaller pretty funky mugs. Here’s the first two.. :)
Aren’t those beetles pretty? ;) And I’m not sure what kind of birds these are supposed to be but I love the design.
Two more to be posted when they are clean, one of which is my current favourite so I can’t stop using it! :) I love that they have something on the inside, and something on the handles too. We got them from Haven And Space, one of the most reasonably priced (other than Ikea) stores ever.. :)
I like my politics with a side of LOL..
I cannot remember how I found Wonkette during my internet travels but by God I am glad I did, my friends. ;) My friends, though I know it can’t be possible that it is actually written by my good friend Cugat, both Sephyroth and I are convinced that it is either him, someone doing an excellent impersonation of him or perhaps his secret twin brother.
There are not many people in the world capable of the kind of sugary sweet yet savory tasty all you can eat snark you will find at Wonkette, my friends. Read my favourite example from today.
My friends, I just watched Barack Obama’s speech given in front of a massive amount of people and I am tempted to cash in my passport and move to the US just so I can vote for him. Firstly, he was looking sharp, ya’all. He had on a killer suit and tie. Secondly, he had a lot of stuff to say that made sense. Thirdly his two little girls were wearing gorgeous pink dresses. It was all very pretty.
You can see the speech here as well as read the text. I liked it so much, my friends, I watched it twice. There was so much that was good about it, I am finding it hard to pick out any favourite line but I think it has to be this one –
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.
Amen to that, my friends.
My friends, next week is the Republican conference thingy, and this is why I am saying my friends so many times because I am 100% certain that “my friends” will be said a total of 260+ times just in John McCain’s speech alone. Of course, it is entirely possible that John “Don’t trust me when I give you my word because I will break it in less than 24 hours” McCain and friends might have to put their conference off due to a pesky hurricane.
And Cugat – if there is a newer more exciting blog, send me directions mmkay? KthxbaiQ!!
Not to worry my friends, the American political stuff will all be over. In two months or so. Hmm.. And in Aussie politics, Krudd goes crazy and puts forward yet another idea to make it look like he is doing something when in fact he is doing zip, except this time he is making demands on the threat of withholding funding. Oh joy! He’s worth every cent we’re paying him, isn’t he? I mean so far he orchestrated a large media stunt in order to say sorry for something he did not personally do, he has held a summit for the supposedly intelligent people to come and suggest ideas none of which will ever be implemented, he introduced an extremely useless website for 13 million dollars, and he’s been off on a lot of world trips including one to the Beijing Olympics.
Plus, one of the promises he has broken I sincerely hope remains broken. We do not need the government to pay for fibre to the node. We need the government to pay for fibre FROM the node. If they’re going to spend 5 billion on something why not make it something we can use.
My friends, I could go on about how useless Krudd is, but the people who think he is doing something good need to come to the logical “he is useless, all talk, no action” conclusion on their own. In their own time. When they’re ready.
In the meantime, that 13 million spent on grocery watch could have been used to help families struggling with high fuel costs, high grocery prices, high rents and the fact that real estate agents are treating some renters very badly – in some cases making dutch auctions to get the highest rent possible for properties. Oh, but none of those things are his fault, they are all the fault of the previous party. Of course.
And he can’t do anything about the high fuel prices, because the government *needs* every cent of federal tax they collect on fuel to spend on useless things like $13 million for websites that do bugger all, and that 5 billion for fibre to the node so if someone were at the node they could get their pr0n faster but if they are one house away from the node they can get their pr0n at the same speed they get it right now, because the internet speed will not get any faster with fibre to the node. But nobody seems to have explained this to Krudd yet.
Generators Are Cool.
And even cooler, there is a blog devoted to generators. ;)
I made my Swedish Furniture name – I dare you to do the same thing!
And Now For Something Completely Different
A few bits and pieces from the web and my home.
On a recent blog topic, Sephy has posted Where Did WordPress Go Wrong?
The Other Half has been doing Yoga on the Wii Fit – and loving it. There is no possible way that he would have tried Yoga without the Wii Fit. Isn’t technology wonderful?
I love the Wii Fit myself – in particular the step aerobics.