First Steps from the Shadows

Remember the days when big brother tried to pretend that he didn't exist, for fear that there would be a public uprising? With all the sharing of personal information that people do through the 500+ social media channels, it seems that people don't care, so why should anyone try to hide what they are doing. With the Google Dashboard coming out, it shows something that everyone should have implicitly known. If you have to sign in, somebody knows who you are and what you are doing. The dashboard makes available your Google related activities.

I've heard it said in office conversations that the magnitude of the information collected would make it impossible for any entity to build a profile with actionable data. Don't believe it. In a post today on GigaOM, it is pretty clear that crunching capacity is not going to be a constraint. While browsing history certainly is innocuous enough, I have to imagine that additional information is stored and indexed in an actionable format. Like any other tool, the positive or negative outcome is largely determined by the intent and proficiency of the individual with the access to the tool.

The fly of the day is provided by the Redneck Peacock Nymph, created by Jay Zimmerman, and posted by Larry Jurgens.

Tight Lines,

Dave

Single Serving Containers

Last night, I was tying some flies while my wife was watching a recorded episode of The Biggest Loser. I had never seen or heard the show before for more than the 5 seconds it would take me to do a drive-by and let loose some sarcastic remark about the participants and/or the audience... which was always popular in the Ferro house. One guy has lost 100 pounds, and easily has another 100 to go. I can't imagine what it would be like to have that much weight to lose. These people obviously are in need of some assistance to tackle their weight issues, and more power to them. I guess we all have our limits at which point we decide that a change needs to be made.

About a year ago, after injuring my shoulder in a rugby match, I went into one of those bad cycles of no exercise, holiday cheer, lots of holiday sweets, and big meals. Needless to say, the scale started inching northward until I hit the magical number of 220 lbs. For some reason, 220 is a psychological trigger that forces me to take corrective measures. Playing weight has always been 205 lbs. but let's face it, playing the occasional Olde Boys and B-side match does not constitute active participation in the sport of rugby, so I should probably aim a bit lower.

As a quasi competitive athlete, you go through periodic fluctuations in weight. One thing I have noticed, is that as my old ass continues to get older, the downward part of the fluctuation seems to be getting more difficult. Into my early 30's, I'd skip a couple of lunches, and I'd lose 10 pounds in about a week. Burgers, pasta, beers, steaks, chips, dip, biscuits and gravy were all acceptable dietary inputs in this rigorous regimen. Though, these days that does not seem to work. I started out on my trek back to playing weight with the usual two instruments, don't eat sweets, and start running. Fairly easily, I got back down to 212 lbs. But then hit a wall. I was stuck at 210-212 lbs for a good while. Really didn't matter how much I ran, and I had cut out all the sweets. It was about to get desperate, I was going to have to seriously consider giving up beer...:)

At about this time, I heard about people I knew employing several different motivational tools and methods, including:

• the bodybugg, some thing you attach to your arm that monitors the calories you take in and those that you burn
• bets with friends, the most disturbing coming from the Southern California contingent of my associates where the loser was going to have to walk down the Venice boardwalk in a thong
• publicized personal goals, where the person would donate money to some cause that he detested

All of this seemed too complicated for something that is pretty straight forward. Somewhere around February, a study was published that said the key to weight loss was burning more calories that one consumed. Wow, no sh*t. Eventually, I started looking at the between meal snacks available in the corporate kitchen. By cutting down the trips to the cupboard, I started seeing the scale trend toward the 207 number, pretty darn close to the goal. Now that I've been out of the corporate world for about 3 months, 201 & 202 are numbers that I have been seeing for over a month now. The one thing that is strange is that I don't think I eat any less than I did before. If anything, I'm probably eating more.

My non-scientific, limited data analysis of these facts leads me to another obvious point. It's not how much, so much as what you eat. My rule of thumb is that if something comes in a pre-packaged, single serving container, it's probably not good for you. Bags of chips, string cheese, M&M's and candy of any form, power bars, and all that rapid reward stuff that you can open and eat is a clear path to the next larger hole in your belt.

(I have another theory about the correlation between the arrival of the 32 ounce Big Gulp and the rise of child and adult obesity, but I'll save that for another post.)

It's a good thing beer comes in 6-packs, or I would have to revise my new rule of thumb.

The fly of the day is the brassie, courtesy of the folks at Maine Fly Fishing:



Tight Lines,

Dave

Truth in Satire

I came across this satirical interview by John Bird and John Fortune on Paul Kedrosky's blog. As much as I try to stay away from re-posting, this one is so spot-on that I will make an exception. Every so often, comedic efforts are more accurate than anyone wants to admit, and certainly more accurate than anything said from behind a podium.

The fly of the day is the Royal Wulff, courtesy of the Harry Mason, found on Fly Tier's Page.

Tight Lines,

Dave

The Worst Team... (cont.)

When you become the object of an article in the Onion, you have reached the status of cultural icon, that is only marginally less than that of being on Saturday Night Live. The Raiders have now reached that status.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/raiders_achieve_first_down

There will be no fly of the day today.

Tight lines,

Dave

Worst Team in the Bay Area

This week, I have seen two articles about how pathetic two of the bay area teams have become: The first is about the Raiders and the second diagnoses the current disaster that is the Warriors.

I'm a San Francisco Bay Area kid, born and raised. During my time there, I have been fortunate enough to watch the Raiders win two Super Bowls (plus one when they were on loan to L.A.), the Warriors win a World Championship (1975 was a long time ago), and the A's win 4 World Series (though it easily could have been 6 if not for Canseco's 'roid meltdown). This is both a good thing and a bad thing. Once one of your childhood favorite teams wins a championship, you are scr*wed. You can move 3 time zones away, and no matter what, no matter how much your teams s*ck for how many years, you are stuck rooting for them for the rest of your life. My wife just cannot understand why I don't give up on the Raiders and start rooting for a good midwest team like the Bears. (Note, I left the Bay Area before the Sharks came to town, so I am free to support the Avs.)

The fate of a professional franchise, much like the fate of any corporation, usually rests on crucial decisions that are made by the management team. For example, the hiring of Bill Walsh put the 49ers, who had been the worst team in football for a decade, on the path to one of the best stretch runs in the history of the NFL. Likewise, the hiring of John Madden got the Raiders to their first Lombardi Trophy. The Raiders and the Warriors since the mid-'80's have had terrible records, with brief periods of hope, largely due to successions of poor decisions.

At Golden State, the demise started in 1976, when they traded Jamaal Wilkes to the Lakers for Bob Abernathy, nice shooter, couldn't block out my grandmother. They followed that move up with:

- Trading two hall of famers, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale for Joe Barry Carroll

- Drafting Russell Cross

- Drafting Chris Washburn

- Trading World B. Free to Cleveland for Ron Brewer

- Trading Bernard King to New York for that coke-head Michael Ray Richardson

- Trading Penny Hardaway and 3 #1 draft choices for Chris Webber (massive head case with a dope arrest in DC, and couldn't figure out why the cop was arresting him)

- Siding with Don Nelson over Webber and losing both by the end of the season.

- Trading Webber for Tom Gugliotta (jumps like a brother shoots like your mother)

- Trading Gugliotta for some idiot who I think is still soaking up a paycheck from somebody

- Trading Vince Carter (10 time all-star) and cash for Antawn (pronounced Antoinne) Jamison (2 time All-Star)

- Giving A. Jamison a max deal then having to dump him for peanuts

- Firing Chris Mullen to hand the reigns back to that megalomaniac Nelson (Nelson is kind of like the General Santana of Mexican history, he just keeps coming back.)

- Letting Baron Davis go free agent because he knew Nelson was an megalomaniac slacker

In the middle of all that, there were the Run TMC years, like 3, but a single round in the playoffs for a couple of years is really not that impressive. Somewhere in there they had the ability to draft Kobe Bryant, but Todd Fuller looked like he had a much better future...???

On the Raider side of things, the list is almost too long. The benching of Marcus Allen because he told Al Davis to kiss his ass, about sums up the mindset in Oakland. Marcus Allen then went on to Kansas City where he resumed his Hall of Fame career. The latest tragedies include:

- Firing Art Shell

- Letting go of Charles Woodson (Now Making Pro Bowls in Green Bay)

- Running out John Gruden (Beat the Raiders like a drum in the Super Bowl.)

- Drafting and paying Off the JaMarcus Russell

- Drafting the bleeder Darren McFadden

- Drafting and paying some offensive line stiff, Robert Gallery who is now an average guard

- Re-hiring Art Shell

- Making an inn keeper your offensive coordinator

- Passing on Matt Leinart because Andrew Water looked like he could throw

- Drafting and overpaying Darius Whothehellisthat Bay

- Keeping a coach who threatens to kill his assistant coach

Now the questions are: Who is the worst team in the Bay Area, and what is the likelihood that under current ownership there is any chance of there being a return to competitive play? There are certainly votes and arguments for both sides. Depending on the day of the week, I could sway one way or another. It is clearly apparent that ego and personal relationships are more important to both controlling entities that winning. Barring the introduction of adult supervision that can make rational decisions instead of gut decisions, the downward spiral will continue.

The only thing I know for sure is that I'm glad I got the Setanta package so that I can watch the Heineken Cup, Six Nations, Super 14, and Guinness Premiership rugby, instead of the two sports that these clubs supposedly play.

Enough frustration, if you got this far, thanks for listening to the vent. There is always standing in a cold stream...

The fly of the day is the Zebra Midge, put up on the Fly Tier's Page by Charlie Craven, Charlie's Fly Box in Arvada, CO

Tight Lines,

Dave

Black Squirrel

About a week ago on the way down the hill from a good day on the river, my buddy and I saw a black squirrel. Maybe it is just farmer's lore, but when you see a black squirrel, I have been told that means we are in for one nasty cold winter. Living in Colorado, this shouldn't be much of a surprise. You get used to snow on Tuesday, followed by 65 degrees and sunny on Friday. One thing I have not seen since moving here is snow that comes before the leaves fall off the trees. On Saturday, we woke up to 6-8 inches of snow on our decks. After shoveling off the bulk of the weight, I turned around to see that the little burst of wind, had taken the leaves off of our maple and oak trees, creating a bit of frozen potpourri.

Another interesting shot from the weekend is one that is more reminiscent of Mt. Tam than it is of Left Hand Canyon.

We've had a bit of the fog/haze hanging over Boulder, since Saturday. It'll go away, unfortunately, so has dry fly season. Cold hands, cold water, waders with sweats on underneath, midges, leaches, eggs, and bright yellow strike indicators may be all that is left for the angler in these parts until the Mother's Day next year.

The fly of the day is the Bunny Leach, courtesy of Mike Mora at the San Juan River Fly Fishing Site

Tight Lines,

Dave

It's a lot easier than it looks

I read somewhere that fly tying is more about capturing the general than mastering the specific. I have also found that there are at least 3 ways to tie every fly.

A few weeks ago, my fly of the day was the Parachute Adams. I posted a link to a site with tying instructions, that was actually pretty good. As I attempted my first 10 or so Parachutes, I thought there must be some form of Zen art form to getting the hackle to wrap around the post. The output of my efforts were more akin to cripples, with a good portion of the hackle fibers getting caught up in the head wrap. In talking to friends of mine who also tie, they have all decided it's easier to buy parachute flies than to tie them. I was about to adopt the same position.

In the course of doing some research on another topic, I stumbled across the Fly Tying Forum. What an awesome find that site is. You can search on just about any topic and find multiple articles, and there are a great bunch of folks there who are more than happy to help you out if you are in a bind.

Once there, I decided to see if there were any tips or tricks to tying a parachute fly. Sure enough, I discovered a video at Hatches TV, that shows a new and much easier way to tie a parachute fly. Here is the link to the video. In the spirit of there being more than one way to tie, the instructor finishes off the fly with some form of adhesive or cement, which I prefer not to use because I really don't want to breathe that cr*p unless absolutely necessary. (I have used the whip finisher around the head, and that seems to work best for me.)

If you have been struggling with the Parachute Adams, take a look at the video, it's a lot easier than it looks.

Tight Lines,

Dave