reevesr1

Look up Paul Potts on Youtube. All the Britian's Got Talent performances I think.

My wife has his CD. I sent her this link and she'll be thrilled. Not like I'm an opera fan or anything, but the look on the judges faces and the reaction of the audience was very cool. Pretty moving stuff, thanks Kevin.

Can anyone help me clean up the coffee I just spit all over my screen and keyboard? Oh and Brett, I notice that you gave BBB some flies. I am also noticing a distinct lack of newly tied flies in my flybox.....

so lets see here, he catches fish with Glenbow, catches fish with Birchy, catches fish with Toolman, catches fish with bigbadbrent, but doesn't catch fish with me. There is a constant in this, but I'm at a loss to figure it out.

I've used it for at least a year now. We have a couple of apps at work that will not run with Firefox, only IE. It irritates me to no end now when I have to use IE. SLOW!!!! Firefox is highly superior IMHO. They just added the real time spell check feature which is great.

Ladystrange, Nice job. Let me know next time you guys are heading down. I'd like to fish that side and it is still very close to my house.

Birchy, Pat leave=helping wife with baby, not fishing with MTB. By the way, he is a jinx. Do not fish with him, you won't catch anything.

Ha! Both. I thank her for the first part. Not sure about the other one.

Did a little research: Not that this is completely relevant, but there is a perception that as cities have become more crowded, murder rates have gone up. While murder rates (and I think crime rates in general) have gone up since about 1960, historically they are very low. Want to get murdered? Go back in time and live in Medieval Europe. Homicide rate in England in the 1340s was 110 per 100,000 people. The US in 1992? 9.2. I don't know what the rate is now, but it has gone down since then, not up. Read this: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...753C1A962958260 There is a perception, sometimes real, more often not, that the world is a more dangerous place now than ever before. . Why does it seem more dangerous? Because we are told of every single horrific event that happens anywhere in North America, Europe, Asia, whatever, and in many cases in real or near real time. A child gets kidnapped in California? CNN is on the case, baby, right now! One hour later, you can hear all about it with Anderson Cooper, Larry King or Nancy Grace. Pick your poison. It's all breathless and all horrible. But hearing about each individual case gives us an unrealistic vision of the danger associated with modern times. Dangerous stuff has ALWAYS happened. You just didn't hear about all of them, so you felt safer. And just for the record, until I got married and my wife made me, I never locked my doors. My mom still doesn't. Never been robbed.

Seen this before. I fit in the group, that's for sure. Here is the problem though: It ain't the lawyers or governments who regulate our lives, its us! If we as a group didn't like the regulations, we can have them changed. Beauty of democracy. Reality is, way too many of us don't want them changed. Here's why: Does anyone really think we were better off without seatbelts. Really? Then you ignore statistics. Childproof caps have saved lives. How many? Don't know, but I can guarantee the number is small. Think we should do away with them? Well no, because what if it's my kid who suffers because of it. Almost every safety example up there is the same. The risk of any one of these things impacting you are small. Which one's should we do away with? Who decides? How many of us actually want to get rid of our cell phones? One of my best friends lost an eye with a pellet gun. Two pumps. We were 12. I also have always enjoyed the nintendo and computer game issue. Did I play with them? Well no, because they didn't exist. Had they existed would I have? Absolutely yes. How do I know this? Because EVERY KID I KNOW DOES!! Is it worse for them in the long run? I think it may be. Do I know this? Absolutely not. How could I, I'm poisoned by my past experience. I didn't have them and look how good I turned out. Problem with that is, I don't yet know how the younger gen will turn out. My bet is every preceding generation in history thought the one behind it would turn out bad. Our parents sure did. Maybe they were right! I agree with the little league thing. But does any one really believe the government did that. We as parents did that. No one else. If we dealt with freedom and responsibility so well, why have we allowed it (if the above rant is correct) to be taken away from our kids? Cuz it ain't the kids who took it away, it is us. Lawyers and government is a way too easy cop out. Look, I think these lists are funny, and some of the things we have regulated are ridiculous. But how do you separate the ridiculous from the necessary. Who makes that call? Who explains to the parents of the kid who dies in the back of the pickup truck "we thought that one was ok cuz it's a special treat". I'm also willing to bet, right now, that there are plenty of risk taking innovators coming out of the younger generation. I use history as my guide on this one. There have always been innovators and video games and seat belts ain't making kids stupid! Sorry for the rant. This list always gets my blood up for some reason. It implies that my generation is somehow better because of the things that were different. I just highly, highly doubt that is true. Oh and MTB, not throwing rocks at you here bud!!

There is little chance I will take up fly tying for the next several years. Too many other things to occupy my time. From reading the above posts, it looks worth it even if you don't tie. Any one think otherwise?

Wow, big question and difficult to answer. It would take an essay for me to answer that fully. I'll condense it to this. Houston is, and always will be, home. I love it there, the people, my family, the Gulf of Mexico, the sports, just about everything. It has major problems, mostly around the increasing gap between the wealthy and the poor. We don't know how to deal with it. Calgary is my adopted home. I can't see myself ever leaving, or if I do, not coming back. I'll live here as long as you'll let me (and if you don't, I'll become an illegal). The city, it's people and the activities it offers were tailor made for me. I do, however, wish I had a helicopter to commute. So for me, Calgary is where I want to be. I will however say that of my American colleagues, I am in the minority. I don't know anyone that doesn't like it here. But most of them plan to go home some day. But really, I just compared Calgary vs. Houston. I don't know that is a fair comparison of US vs. Canada. There is a famous line that says all politics are local. I think it also applies to choices of where to live. I don't think my choice has much to do with political differences between our countries. It has to do with my love for this area vs. the area I am from. If that makes any sense.

Another option is to upload the photo to imageshack, photobucket, whatever. I use imageshack. When you upload, it lets you select whatever size you want to resize to. You can then copy the photo back to your computer and use as your avatar. I do this because I'm not smart enough to figure out my photo editor.

Ladystrange, You forgot shipping. I'll cover it for ya if I get a sip. A small one. FOMCLMFAO = Falling off my couch laughing my efffin ass off?

I found many items on eBay cheaper than retail here back when the dollar was at .80, much less parity. I've bought and sold on eBay for years. The big difference in Canada is the shipping amount. I used to sell periodically from Houston to Canadian customers. The shipping is more expensive, but not strikingly so. If you search for sellers who are not marking up their shipping, you can do very well. I bought a Olympus camera on eBay. Cost me $6.00 to ship it. Many people have mentioned shopping local to support your local retailers. I believe that is very important as well. But it does get hard when you can save $50.00 on a $200.00 reel. What I do is tell the local retailer "here is the deal I can get" and give them a chance to match, or at least get close. If they can't then the money goes south. If that happens enough, the market will certainly adjust. I bought a tent trailer in Montana this year, used, for about $3000 less (at least) than what I could have gotten it for here. When I was talking to the customs guy at the border, he said that trailers were cheaper in the US when the dollar was .65, much less now. I plan to go down there next summer and buy both a travel trailer and a truck, unless prices here change significantly. Yaaaayyy free trade!

So a literal instead of figurative redneck! No offense taken, trust me. We do a pretty good job of making fun of ourselves, much like you Scotts! See the Jeff Foxworthy video below. Or Ladystrange's signature. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuiCnQc17jg

OK there a16. (a followed by 16 letters. Too hard to type otherwise). You win the best hook in a body part contest! Funny, horrifying, and well told. Also, so you know, I'm pretty much a redneck. Born and raised in South Redneckland. So don't talk bad about us.

I just got your name, finally! It would be very appropriate for me. Roll casted one into my finger yesterday. I'm a walkin' effin pin cushion.

My guess would be Arkansas, or maybe Oklahoma! There was a story several years ago of some guys in Kentucky re-enacting William Tell. Billy Bob puts a beer can (big surprise beer was involved) on Jethro's head and takes a shot. Unfortunately for Jethro, a little low. Jethro goes to the emergency room with the arrow in the melon. If I remember correctly, target boy survived and the guys were both on Letterman. Maybe that part is just wishful thinking.

Steelhead, Are you just trying to be provocative, or do you actually believe that? I always love it when someone decides something is bad, with no scientific evidence, and then decides it should be banned. The "I don't like it so no one can do it" method of regulation favored by governments and too many fishermen! If you read a couple of the replies, there are certainly those who agree with you on the issue of droppers. But their response is to stop doing it themselves. It does not fit with their belief system, so they stop. A perfectly reasonable and respectful response. Your response is to call the majority of the fly fishers in Alberta butchers. Again, I would assume you are just trying to be provocative. However, I struggle with what you are trying to accomplish, unless your goal is to just irritate. If so, congratulations! Just so my motives are clear, my goal is to get this thread to 2000. If a change in subject is what it takes, I'm more than happy to take up the challenge.

Brian, I'd love a hero cookie! Got any?? Make up for that Lava cake I didn't get the other night.

I have a question about multiple fly rigs and fish damage: I hooked a couple today with one of the back hooks, both times in the skin of the belly. I can tell you there was no way there was any damage to the fish. Can someone tell me why that is more damaging than in their mouth?? I'm not trying to be sarcastic here, I am truly wondering.

Hey FH, Does that cost 24K?

A friend sent me this one. Not exactly on theme, but funny nonetheless. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqAuctx0JDk

Chris, You are a funny man! Can you make me some for Thursday? Bobloblaw, Here is the report: Get to dock. Drop big leech into water while I strip out line. Watch monster rainbow come out from under dock to investigate then swim off. Make a few casts, switch to big green streamer thing (some sort of damsel fly?Not sure) and put it in my head. So 5 minutes of fishing, no fish, bloody head. Sorry for the whining.