Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat (fill in blank)

Years ago, I witnessed an argument that I found quite astounding. Two of my co-workers were arguing whether the new guy was a moron or a pinhead. Each brought up valid points about why one description was more accurate than the other. While the debate was held mostly for entertainment purposes, it also demonstrated that pejorative adjectives each have their own unique application.

More than once, I've had the discussion as to whether an action made the guy who perpetrated it a dick or an asshole. That one always seems to be decided by perspective than denotation. Of course there is the age old argument about the absence of the female equivalent to being a dick. Bitch doesn't quite make it, and we will table the c-word argument, as well we should.

The purpose of this little diatribe is to provide an example, and leave it to you, as to what term most accurately applies to Rush Limbaugh. In reference to President Obama, Rush Limbaugh breaks it down to 4 words, I Hope He Fails. I guess it is lost on Mr. Limbaugh that if the President fails to clean up the current mess that he inherited, then we all fail as a country. Rush's sense of team play an patriotism are astounding. I will leave it to you to determine which favorite adjective of yours most aptly applies. Should you have any good ones, please leave a comment.



The fly of the day is the Conehead Bonehead, provided by the awesome people over at Front Range Anglers (Seemed like the most applicable fly name I could find on quick notice)

Tight Lines,

Dave

That About Says It

I've never referenced someone else's post before, but here goes. Michael Shedlock absolutely nails it with his analysis of the current economic crisis entitled Open Letter To Congress On Sharing The Pain. Somewhere along the way, people figured it out. If you are going to F* up, F* up in a big enough way so that others will have to bail your A** out.

The fly of the day is the Golden Furnace Streamer, courtesy of the nice people at Fly Anglers Online



Tight Lines,

Dave

Blogs and Bandwidth

I woke up this morning in a half daze thinking about all the data inputs I have and the blogs that I read today. I did a quick walk through memory lane and remembered the card catalog at the public library, the micro fische tapes you would load into a machine with a 20 inch CRT, and what I thought was nirvana at the time, LexisNexis. Things have definitely changed in the last 15 years. The access to data, and the ability for any individual to publishing data have exploded. I worked for a guy named Rob Tercek at PacketVideo who would talk about the impending explosion of user generated content, and how it would be a good thing and a bad thing. He was certainly right about that. There is some stuff out there that leaves you scratching your head, both because there are wickedly smart people out there, as well as an equal number of those who are obsessed with... well just about anything.

A year ago, I would check in with one or two blogs periodically, but stuck to traditional media outlets or other places for information and research. Since coming to Lijit, with our focus on online publications, my information acquisition and processing paradigm has definitely shifted. Like anything new, there is a period of over-exuberance, followed by a retraction to a self/organically-defined optimal level. Looking at my Google Reader sidebar I seem to have acquired an eclectic group of publications, for different purposes including, work, entertainment, education, and simple interest. Now it is time to figure out which ones to cull. As it stands today, the list is as follows:

Blog Maverick
Calculated Risk
Cleantech News
ClickZ News
Colorado Green Tech Meetup
ColoradoStartups.com
Compete Blog
Efficient Frontier
false precision
Feld Thoughts
Foundry Group
GigaOM
Green Inc
HotSauceDaily
Learn to Duck
Lijit Blog
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Passive Aggressive Notes
Stock Car Science
Tech Crunch
The Silver Fern
Yield Blog

This list is hardly an exhaustive list of all things that I may find interesting, and there are probably better sources for the same topics, but before I start adding more to my list, I need to cut the dead weight. The sole criterion will be to ask myself if I actually read the posts, or do I skim at about the same speed as I do my spam folder.

With all the sources out there, managing them in an effective manner on an individual basis will become more and more of a challenge for just about everyone with a computer and an Internet connection. There are good tools out there like Google Reader and Filtrbox to help with customized data management, but I'm not sure anyone has effectively nailed it yet.

The pattern of the day is the Muddler Minnow, provided by the folks at The Fly Fishers' Republic



Tight Lines,

Dave

Long Term Value of a Customer

A few weeks ago, I went to Lowes to pick up some baseboards to complete a flooring project I have been working on in my house. While I was there, I also picked up some odds and ends, as one is wont to do in a hardware store.

When I got home, I realized that I had tied the baseboards to the top of the car, and forgot to throw the bag of odds and ends into the car. So I went back to the store and before going an buying the items - AGAIN - I went to the customer service counter to see if someone had turned in the bag. Of course nobody did. I'm sure whoever found the bag was looking for some wood putty, some razor blades and whatever else I had in the bag. As I was about to leave the counter, the customer service agent told me that the store would replace the items for free. I must say that this was a complete surprise.

On my way home, it occurred to me why they did it, and why it was a sound business move on their part. From this point going forward, I will always drive the extra 4-5 miles to go to Lowes, instead of Home Depot. My lifetime value as a customer, being an admitted tool junkie, will go well beyond the $38 (retail) of the items that they replaced. I'm sure my name is on some list of potential fraudulent clients, but that's ok, I'll be more careful about putting everything in my car from now on.

Granted, I will still go to McGuckins, a local Boulder hardware store, because their service and inventory kick a**. But when it comes to making the big ticket purchases that you have to go to the big box retailers for, Lowes is the default choice.

The fly of the day is the Texas Bullfrog, quite possibly one of the ugliest flies I have ever seen. It is provided, courtesy of the nice people at Fly Anglers Online



Tight Lines,

Dave

All Quiet on the Negative Front

Anyone else enjoying the lack of negative noise that has been dominating just about every form of media? Even with Tivo, the negative campaign ads were difficult to avoid all together. The last few days have been noticeably calming.

Of course, forward thinkers like John Boehner are back at it already. He wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post, with the conflicting assertions that he would work together with the other side of the aisle while fighting the leftist agenda to help the country get out of the economic crisis that the Republicans have to take just a little bit of blame for creating.

I guess we can thank Boehner for at least declaring his intentions to be an obsturctionist, pain in the arse.

I think we can guarantee that congress will pass Obama's initial economic package without much resistance other than the ususal CYA saber rattling. Grudgingly, they will also accept the war in Iraq as a lost cause and opt for whatever quiet exit strategy comes around, as long as they don't have to do it under W's watch. What will be interesting is the hearings after Obama's first selection for the supreme court. The same people that jumped all over Joe Biden for making Alito's wife cry are going to pummel the nominee.

Anyway, enjoy the relative lack of noise now, because it is going to return to the same old shyte soon enough.

I started this post, mostly to post a fly, and somehow went off on a political rant. I guess that will happen.

Good news: the doc says the shoulder, other than the fractured humerus is stable and likely will not require surgery.

The fly of the day is the Red Eye Damsel, courtesy of the nice people at Fly Anglers Online





Tight lines,


Dave

Trim the bottom 40

Most of the time I look at presidential and other elections and think that what you see is a repackaging of the same old cr*p. When McCain picked the little known governor from Alaska, I thought to myself that this is really odd. Then I saw her speech at the convention, it was fairly impressive in it's delivery, not to mention a bit frightening. In the next weeks, it became obvious that there was not a lot of depth to be found. At the end of the Vice Presidential debate, it was clear that all Palin was capable of was rhetoric, and claiming to be a Maverick, which I'm not entirely sure she can spell.

Over the last few days, the theme in the media is how she is dragging down the ticket. One poll said that 55% of people thought she was incapable of being president, while 40% thought she was.

This morning in the Washington post, I saw this quote:"Overall, 52 percent of likely voters said they are less confident in McCain's judgment because his of surprise selection of Palin; 38 percent are more confident because of it. That represents a marked reversal from the initially positive reaction to the pick."

The other day, she told Brian Williams that the Vice President is in charge of the Senate. Um, maybe one of her handlers ought to have fed her the right answer after blowing it a few weeks ago. Those pesky ambush journalists.

My question is, who the F*ck are these morons that make up 2 out of every 5 adults? From which planet, or parallel universe, does she meet the minimum qualifications to lead a country? Perhaps knowing what her job description is might be a place to start. If someone wants to make the argument that McCain would be a better president than Obama, I would disagree, but would have to acknowledge that it was an opinon of merit. If the twit can't handle the tough questions posed by Katie Couric, how is she going to represent, let alone lead a country? Anyone who thinks that Sarah Palin is remotely qualified to be president needs to have their right to vote rescinded.

Apparently this opinion makes me some form of elitist selective racist who disparages rednecks, and casts aspursions against the real people of america. Based on the fact that I like to fish, enjoy NASCAR, have a garage full of power tools and drive a 14 year old Bronco, I myself might be categorized as a redneck. While I don't have anything parked on my lawn, don't have a gun rack, and I obtained a graduate degree in business might disqualify me, we'll leave that aside. Maybe I should start a grassroots group, Rednecks for Obama, or even better, Rednecks for Literacy and Cognitive Processes.

I guess I could go on with the litnany of reasons she is unqualified, but anyone who reads a newspaper and thinks for themselves should understand this already.

The fly of the day is the Yellow Sally Stone Fly, courtesy of the nice people at Fly Anglers Online




Thight Lines,

Dave

On the Shelf

One of the facts of life if you play a contact sport, is that you run the risk of getting injured. You are guaranteed to have soreness and pain if you play hard, but actual injury is one of those things that you would rather avoid.

It's never a good idea to blow up a joint or crack a bone, but more of a nuisance than the pain and discomfort, is the amount of time that you will spend going to doctors, getting X-rays, killing a day of work for the surgery, and the next 3-12 months going through the frustrating experience of rehabilitation. It's been 8 years since my last significant injury, but the memory of the seeming eternity that is rehabilitation is still clear in my mind.. The key to a successful rehab is that you fundamentally have to start over and refrain from doing even basic exercises. Even though you can take stairs 2 or 3 at a time, you need to take them one by one until the doctor gives you the green light. Even though you know you can start doing slide drills, you have to work with the little rubber band for the next two months. Arghh...


A couple of weeks ago at Ruggerfest, I ended up at the end of a string of passes "through the hands". It was almost like we knew what we were doing. (Oh yeah, we're old and we've been playing for a long time, we're just slow.) I had the angle to the corner, but there was no way I was going to beat the last defender to the try zone. After an amazingly deft move, amazing in that I couldn't believe that he bought it, I turned back toward the middle and was running toward the posts. With each step, I was getting closer to scoring (This happens about every 2-3 years). Right as I was getting to the try line, the defender dove and swept my ankles. As I was about to lose my feet, diving seemed to be the thing to do, as I figured I could reach the try zone and set the ball down. Somewhere shortly after I set the ball down, the rest of my body followed. At this point, the shoulder attached to the arm that was holding the ball buckled (that's technical term). I figured I twinged it pretty good, but no major damage. Guess again, Dave. I've yet to meet the person who has had an MRI and not had surgery, which will likely be my fate in about a month.

Long story short(er), I'm out of action for the next while. One thing that is important for any rehab stint is to have a goal event that you are getting ready in time for. While this may sound strange, my target events are Cowpie and Mother's Day, as in the Cowpie Classic rugby tournament in Steamboat, and the Mother's Day caddis hatch on the Arkansas river. May and July are a long way away, but they'll get here soon enough. About the only thing I'll be able to do between now and then is tie flies, so all is not lost.

The fly of the day is the spent caddis. A particularly hot fly, right after a hatch. (This particular video features A.K. Best, an angling legend in these parts.)



Tight Lines,

Dave