Smitty

Should ask humblefisherman how that worked out. Smitty

I've been happy with Spyware Doctor: http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/ Smitty

Yes, the link is deliberate. The author provides sources of companies like "Your Man In India", which can provide virtual office assistance, web design, etc. Overall the book is a great read for any small entrepreneur, in terms of getting cheap but quality help, and access to cheap but quality resources. Perhaps some, maybe alot, of the material won't end up being terribly relevant to Sundancefisher's new venture, nevertheless, it is an eye opening book. Highly recommended. Smitty

SundanceFisher: Check out this book: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/hour-W...rch+Top+Sellers Lots of resources on getting quality websites including domain registration names for cheap. This guy is the king of outsourcing. If you are starting a company that requires a web presence and any type of office assistance, consider it a must read. Smitty

Just an addendum to what I said earlier: Spent the previous week (Thu-Fri) at Teachers' Convention here in Edmonchuk. Usually I rotate session to session, but Friday I decided to stick with one guy for the whole day; a special ed teacher and brain researcher. His lecture was very eye opening in terms of the effects of video games and television, instant gratification, brains constantly being bombarded with dopamine. To skip the gory details, it amounts to the electronification of our children amounts to brain "rot". Basically validating most peoples' concerns here. I think I should get back to basics and revive my flyfishing club and spend a little more effort and time getting kids to learn flyfishing, and just breathing oxygen from fresh air outdoors. Smitty

Yeah Kris, you're not hysterical at all. Nopers. Your tone is measured, and not overly emotional. Yeah, you're a true Vulcan. See how much it sucks when you're always right? The only person who could be possibly be intoxicated is you Kris, drunk on your own self-righteousness. Keep the positive tone coming though, I for one am very glad you chose study something in the field of fisheries mgm't, as opposed to say, teaching. Page 3 and darn near a train wreck. Its like slow motion or something. But that's nothing special; predicting that a controversial topic involving you could turn into sh*t show is like predicting the sun's gonna rise in the east; too easy. I thought you were done posting on this on page 2? Sorry, was that a hi-jack? Something more on topic needed? Ok, how about Don's essentially right in his assessment of ACA's performance and you're not. Way back we were talking about pessimism. When the SRD's budget has been hacked like it has, there is cause for justified pessimism. It's not in my nature to be thus, but numbers are numbers. And that doesn't have to translate mere shrugging of the shoulders and throwing of the hands in the air. Believe it or not, one can be pissed off, pessimistic, AND choose to take action. But that complexity seems to elude your black and white vision of things. C'est la vie Kris, c'est la vie. Smitty

Wow, you are relentless Sundance. Not a bad thing. I can tell you though, for the avg layperson, here's what we need: I need a summary. I need a book condensing your position into, like 100 pages or less. Then, I need the Sundancefisher - whomever that is - of the pro side - someone who is in complete opposite of your position, to give me the same book from the opposing point of view, without prejudice, a dispassionate look at the evidence. Then I can read both and weigh in my mind. Whatever it comes down too, humans need to reduce their footprint, no matter what. Even if there is no basis to this (human made global warming) right now, if the human pop. is expected to go from 6B to 9B in the next 40-70 years, we have to find a viable alternative energy. This century will certainly be a turning point in human history, and that turning point - for good or ill - will come at a very real cost. Only so much time can be spent on certain tasks. Smitty Yes, I am dreaming. I hate to admit such ignorance, and perhaps its disgraceful, but I have merely scanned at least 90% of what you've written. Did you ever see the documentary "Collapse". Roger Ebert called it "terrifying", and further said his BS meter never got past zero. Interesting. It was being shown at an arts theatre in downtown Edmonton, and I have to say, it was disturbing. But I am guilty of mixing in two concepts here: peak oil with glabl warming issue. But they are not mutually exclusive, IMHO.

Kris: I sincerely think that part of the problem is that you fail to keep an open mind, and you don't actually read what you're writing. Seriously, go back and re-read what you have written; even from the past year; you'll see people's impressions and interpretations are more than justified about you, your opinions, and your agenda. And quite frankly, you have long since given up, conceded any "right" to fall back on the "I'm just ribbing you" routine. Its like saying to someone "Hey! Your an a%%hole. Just kidding, what are you so upset about?" lol. There perhaps is no greater indicator of immaturity with comments like that, not to mention the "suck lemons" part. No one has any problems with free speech, but we remain fully within our rights to call you on your BS and your ad hominem attacks. Anyways, goes in circles, as it always does with you. If that was your last post on this particular topic, well goody. As for AB fisheries, with the SRD cutbacks, the long decline will continue. Lack of biologists, officers, collection of baseline data, public input, same old same old. We had a mini - very mini - golden age there amidst the darkness when Barry's letter and other catalysts prompted regulatory changes some 12 years ago. And the effects have been noticeable in certain fisheries that improved. But it does come down to $, and I agree with Kris and others when we talk about more money. At some bottom line point, all departments need money to run properly, and there's no doubt in my mind that certain funds should be separated from general revenue. Smitty P.S. BTW, as you clearly have failed to understand Kris, elitism has nothing to do with dry-fly. Its purely about attitude.

By the way, just to connect to the dryfly thread, if anyone was looking to define elitist, I submit to you the above. Anyways, for someone who's supposedly heavily educated into fisheries management, you sure decided to ignore a significant part of the equation Kris. Take Edmonton for example; lots of trout fishermen needing to get their fix using the pothole stillwater lakes. Its very simple; no artificial trout fisheries, means more pressure on the trout fishing - including a lot of the eastern slopes waters where native fisheries exist - elsewhere. Any way you want to slice it, having these fisheries is good for us and native trout. Win-win. In some cases, the trout have replaced a pike-perch fishery after winterkill; are we going to lament the fact that we created a trout fishery instead of having native pike perch fishery come back in a closed system? Its not as if people can't fill their boots elsewhere for pike and perch fishery. The only one here that needs some head shaking is you Kris; I could rewrite the whole Beach Boys song about "Wouldn't it be nice". As in wouldn't it be nice if less people fished, if we could go back in a time machine and undo all the damage the early stockings. Wouldn't it be nice if people could not fish in National Parks, and there was zero harvest on all native fisheries. Wouldn't it be nice if barren pothole lakes were left for the shorebirds, and if we could just take the cream out of the coffee. What's laughable is that you do have an agenda Kris, there's simply no reason to deny it. I'll let you in on a little secret; everyone has an agenda. To say otherwise, is to say "I'm packing up and gonna live on a riverboat on d'Nile." lol Your opinions reveal your agenda, and frankly, that's perfectly fine by me. Its not like anyone here is any different, except we may disagree, and, of course, may choose to post our opinions with a little more tact and dignity, and less hysteria. But keep posting; your tone -for the most part - here has been light years ahead of previous threads. Can we make it to page 3 before it turns into a real train wreck? Creating fisheries were none previously existed doesn't necessarily have to automatically translate into an environmental holocaust as you seem to suggest. However, to err on the side of caution is prudent. You're completely right in identifying the litany of previous mistakes. Smitty

Ya. Clearly some of us have no idea what choking is. Far too many people confuse choking for "I simply lost the game", or even "I didn't play well". Not playing well does not automatically assume the choking part. Choking is Jean Van de Velde at the British Open. Its Greg Norman at the Masters. Ivan Lendl losing to Michel Chan (bad leg). The American basketball team losing to Argentina. You could even argue Team Canada finishing 7th at Turin. But Bernard? After she consistently bailed out her team game after game all week. Taking the totality of her play? Nope. Oh, btw, she won a medal. And Reh, there is no way in hell you could have made that shot. But you know that, right. Course, I could be all wrong; more experts here than I about choking. After all, you've watched the Flames do it in the 1st round these past years. Her real problem was the 10th end. Didn't have to play the shot she did. Could have just tapped the yellow stone back, so her shooter would have stuck around. Would have left Annette with a near impossible shot (nearly impossible to score 2, 1 was a gimme). But Hindsight is 40/20 yes? Anyways, about Team Canada. Last night was fairly predictable. They blew a lot of emotional steam coming out so damn hard against the Russians. And the Slovaks were much more committed to defence. As far as the gold medal game, we better score the first 2+ goals, because its highly likely we will get out-played in net. Luongo made some good saves, but that first goal was greasy. I think we win Sunday is the forwards that have scored 18 goals in 3 games who up, and Luongo protects our psyche. But who knows? That's why the movie is called "Any Given Sunday." Smitty

Despite the loss, and lingering sadness, you decided to skate, and a whole nation watched your scintillating beauty and your magnificent courage. Is it too obvious to say, on behalf of our beloved country, "nous vous aimons, Joannie, nous vous aimons". Congratulations on your bronze medal Joannie. I hope they let you carry the flag. Smitty

Wow. Strong feelings there, young padawan apprentice. Any reason to pick on her in being so "uncanadian?" Wait, I'll google it... Smitty

Tungsten: I get what your saying; a person goes "you paid how much? for FEATHERS??" Their skepticism is perfectly natural and expected. And irrelevant. If need be, overcome their skepticism by explanation (things for hobbies and craftsmanship are often more expensive than one might think) and also overcome their skepticism by producing the bill. End of story. A sense of decency and honor means an automatic gracious offer ought to have been forthcoming from the neighbor to pay in full for the damage caused by the dog. If they can afford the dog, they can afford to pay for damage from said pet. I say this as a dog lover/former owner. Smitty

Yikes. You mean to tell me your neighbor is too cowardly to replace the capes? What are they, like $1000??????? Sheesh. Sorry about your luck. Smitty

Wow. Do we see this differently. I don't think the problem early on was ego's, that's for sure. Bloom, I agree. Main difference tonight is that we finished our quality chances, and Nabokov probably wants one, maybe two goals back. Also agree about Luongo; he played well enough to win, that's it. Let's see if he ends up facing a situation where he really has to bail us out and then judge how he's doing with the pressure. Russia did play bad indeed; in fact, they hardly showed up. We out-worked them, out-skated, and certainly out-passed them. An achilles heel for the Russians is that they try to do too much themselves, and are too selfish. Now that's playing with ego. Anyways, next up! Can't wait. Team is getting stronger, despite Russia's play. I mean to say they're demonstrating faith and paitence in themselves and their teammates. Keep the momentum rolling... Smitty P.S. BTW, anyone else notice that the women seem to be carrying our medal count? FOUR medals today, all by the ladies. You rock Team Canada WOMEN! (plus a few of you are pretty good lookin'...)

THAT WAS AWESOME! Scott and Tess were MAGNIFICENT. ICE DANCE GOLD! And hey, the Americans were awesome too. Apparently, they train and are best friends with our team. (No apologies for watching figure skating.) Originally forced fed from my mom, and then one year dad and I - literally - snuck into the Saddledome on a February night in 1988 and watched Elizabeth Manley win silver. Its an awesome event live. Also, there is no greater pressure in the world than the Olympic ladies free skate. Toughest 4 and 1/2 minutes in sports. Gold medal hockey is nothing (team sport). Smitty

I understand where you are coming from Sun, in terms of some specific concerns, but I see last night's game different. There has been some individualistic tendencies, difficult to avoid when you're loaded with superstars. But, I thought last night was one of our strongest efforts, passing wise. Just some terrific passing between our forwards. I might be a voice in the wilderness here, and not to take away anything from a good goalie like Miller, - and a good game by him - but I thought there were more than a few times when we made him look good. Shot placement, particularly going upstairs, was an issue. So I had more issues with the shooting than the passing, IMHO. Smitty

-sigh- Yeah Brian, I watched the damn game. You just don't get it. I don't care if the reffing is assinine; been watching and playing hockey for far too long to know that you stand a half decent chance of getting sub-par reffing. So what? You miss the point. The reffing is assinine for both sides. Both sides are "victims" of incompetency. Give your head shake; are you then saying, in your perfect world, where the game is reffed by robots and penalties can be called via replay and hindsight, that 118 power plays (notwithstanding coincidentals) should have been awarded? I'm trying not to shake with laughter. Seriously? [Not going any further down the line of entertaining your whispered conspiracy theories about the refs being paid off to make sure we lose...talk about a roll your eyes moment]. My God, if that's the case, I'm glad it comes down to a referee's 'feel' and interpretation and "incompetent" judgement. A game with 336 minutes of power play time would be unwatchable, and you would have succeeded in having the rigid robot referees destroying the sport. I suggest - for purposes of reducing stress - that you join the rest of knowledgable hockey fans in the real world and take the reffing as it comes. We didn't lose in Nagano, Torino, or the World Cup in '96 because of the refs. We lost because we didn't score as many goals as the other team. Analyzing a game to death via PVR won't change the very basic fact that Canada can win gold due to their - wait for it - gasp - ability to win. Enough said by me. But have the last word if ya like. Why don't we talk about the bust Thornton has been, break up this so called dream line of the Sharks, and just throw Dany Heatley up there with Crosby. Now that's a topic worth discussing. Smitty

I have re-iterate what Rickr says. honestly Brian, what a load of crap; that is just pure garbage. Take Rickr's advice seriously then and don't watch, and keep your reffing conspiracies to the Flames thread. Nothing will be more unbecoming to a host country and Canadian spirit in general than us to behave like a bunch of 2 year older whiners, just because we didn't win the 'big" game. Here's what could beat Canada: 1) We just simply choke, implode, and don't play well enough to win, 2) The Russians, 3) A hot goalie. We've got a good enough team to win the next 4 straight, and I think we'll do it. If I am wrong, well so be it. But I will say with 100% absolute certainty, the refs won't prevent us from winning gold. Believe it or not, we are in charge of our destiny. Smitty

Simple Rickr: All teams need time to gel. No one has ever said that "gelling" is a characteristic unique to Canada. Its term used for teams like Canada who are 100% NHL'r players, and are used to having linemates and playing a different way. We slap together a team of superstars in short order, and frankly their Olympic life isn't that long in duration. So, the more games you play, the more you can figure out chemistry. This is particularly important for teams like Russia and Canada. Name another team that is 100% NHL? Particularly when the entire team can be composed of 1st line players. Thought not. Patience my friend. Canada will get stronger as the tournament goes on. Frankly we should have could have would have won last night's game. But the morning after, its all lame blah blah blah excuses, so it don't matter. Put Roberto in, and move on. I guess my point is that given the organization and nature of the tournament, I don't ever see Canada as a massive, certain "lock" during the round robin, so unlike all the commentators out there, I don't get my knickers in a knot if we're not 3-0-0-0. Its about playing and winning when it counts. Round robin doesn't count, I don't care what anyone says about having to play an extra game, a "longer, harder road to the gold medal game" blah blah blah. More games the better I say, and so much the better if we have to play Russia sooner than later. Smitty

Well it may be I end up eating alot of crow about Pronger. But he wasn't the largest issue, not by a longshot. (But Neidermayer was awesome, as was Doughty). Hey Rickr, I am not worried; when your team relies on 3 assists from our goalie, plus an empty netter, then you deserve the win. And its an if, not a BIG one, about Germany. We're not nearly as bad as our record indicates. Anyone notice that epic shift by Crosby's line near the end? Holy Crap! Solid! Mr. Martin Brodeur, I thank-you deeply from the bottom of my heart for 2002. But its time for you to pass the reins. A veteran goalie like you shouldn't be making those decisions with the puck. I am not completely sold on Luongo, but neither am I about Fleury. I will say that we could have a serious issue here, if Luongo doesn't have an extremely strong game against Germany. You know, I still thinks this feels more like Salt Lake than Torino, in terms of my gut and my belief about this team overcoming adversity. Assuming we get good goaltending, we should be fine. Still hopeful, Smitty [Edit: And Rickr, damn right our dancers are in first place! As it should be!]

Don: Just resurrected my teaching career yesterday. Subbed in a jr high math class. Your suspicion is correct; it would seem every boy - someone else can chime in about girls here - between 9 and 18 are addicted to a video game called "Call of Duty". Its a realistic war game with variety of weapons and enemy scenarios. There's a reason there's a Facebook group these kids join called "Call of Duty; Preventing Teenage Preganacy since 2003". More on a satirical angle, than serious. One last comment; just remember, blood, crime, and crap sells newspapers and ads. The majority of kids out there are still decent human beings; not every kid is a drug addicted gang-banger. Having said that, communities should try an engage kids more for physical activity and appreciating the outdoors. Without exception, going back centuries to the Greeks, every older generation complains about the younger generation having no respect, its not like the old days etc etc. Smitty

Huh? Iginla would have been a great choice for captain. He has the experience and leadership qualities, don't you think. Where did the analogy for Iginla come from? I only disputed the comparison between Thronton and Crosby. BTW, why are we debating the choice for captain? Its not like Crosby's wearing it...he's an A. Again, an excellent choice. Castus: I understand the sick feeling thing, but understand, this team has way more weapons and offence than the Turin team. Way more. I think people should calm down. Every tournament is going to have patches where your team plays subpar. I don't like it either, but if you're expecting a blowout every game, or even an all star team like Canada to perfectly execute game plan every game, your expectations are far too high. Frankly, this was a good game for them. they still got a win, and a wake up call. Win win in my opinion. Guess I am more optimistic than some. Lets see how we do against the US on Sunday. Smitty

While I think Pronger is debatable, you don't leave someone like Neidemayer off this team. Too much experience, too much ability to ignore; I don't give 2 cents what his +/- is this year, doesn't matter a whit for this Olympic tournament. Hey - I'm from Edmonton, and I am supposed to hate Pronger. but given the size of Russian forwards, you may want someone of Pronger's size to deal with them. I'm willing to wait a little bit to see if really is a liability. Don't know what games you watched Reh, but Pronger was pretty good in Salt Lake. And in Turin, when you get shutout 3 of the last 4 games, you know defence isn't THE issue. BTW, great coaching, great game plan by the Swiss to keep it close. Have to give credit to them - they skated hard and checked hard, and that does help mitigate the difference in skill. Quite effective. Classic way to play as an underdog. Plus it helps when your goalie stands on his head. Smitty P.S. Bhurt; many comments from the fellow players and commentators about Crosby's willingness and dedication to the game. He's a superior choice for the A; and it grooms him for 2014. Thornton has choked in the playoffs, and hasn't won a Stanley Cup; Crosby has.

Get better Jay, love your videos and I'm glad you're going to make a full recovery. I'm hoping Karma has something in store for those bastard cowards. Smitty