Don't believe a thing I say.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday Video: Turkey Fryer

We are no longer in the market for one of these.

The REAL School Pics

          

Deerless

Better luck this weekend, guys!

Session Start Wed Nov 07 14:52:48 2007

carsonkip: In case you didn't hear Miskowic and I are deerless
terry: I had not
carsonkip: well we will try it again this weekend
terry: How was it - were there any to be seen that you passed on?
carsonkip: I saw 3 Fri
carsonkip: they saw me and went elsewhere
carsonkip: thats it
terry: I saw a dead buck on the side of 610 on Saturday
carsonkip: they are really starting to go now
terry: Sorry I didn't make it up there with you guys before deer hunting
carsonkip: my dad saw a 4 point in his backyard Sat too
carsonkip: well I only made it up twice myself
carsonkip: don't work too hard but make lots of $
terry: OK then
carsonkip: c ya
terry: bye

*** "carsonkip" signed off at Wed Nov 07 15:02:27 2007.

Contingency plan

If you ever find yourself in a sales meeting and you unwittingly refer to a marketing plan that your client is seriously considering as being "slimy" (Ex., sending a mass email to a list of purchased addresses belonging to people who did not opt in to be spammed by a third party):

Do yourself a favor and let somebody else talk for a while. Once your ears stop burning, get back on the horse. If you happen to hear their marketing director say something to the effect that the company president is getting 20 - 30 penis enlargement emails a day (ergo, certainly their product would get past the average spam filter), in the driest and most professional tone possible ask if there is any chance that he opted in to receive those emails.

Depending on the client's sense of humor, this will either redeem you or else it will just shovel more dirt on your grave. Either way you've already screwed up anyway, so why not take a chance? Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!

"Remember, I'm pullin' for ya. We're all in this together."

Won't take you far

Here is kind of a postscript for the trip, three bulleted lists I made in my notebook while watching the autumn sunset light up the tamaracks on my last evening in the BWCAW.

WHAT WENT RIGHT:

• Beautiful, rain-free fall days
• Beautiful fall colors:
  -The birches still had about 15% of their leaves, the scrub oaks were hanging on, and the tamaracks look like God plucked each one, dipped it in gold and set it back down again.
• Exercised good judgment:
  - I knew when to swallow my pride and turn around.
  
• Re-learned something about myself I had forgotten:
  -I am quite strong... But without conditioning, strength won't take you far.
  
  

WHAT WENT WRONG:

• Pack overloaded:
  -I brought too much unnecessary crap.
• Body overloaded:
  -I need to lose at least 25# (More like 50) before I try this again.
• Body out of shape:
  -The primary means by which to lose the above-mentioned weight should be via exercise
  
• Equipment failures:
  -Boots fell apart
  -Stove was not running 100% efficiently (Didn't test it out beforehand)
• Wrong/inappropriate equipment:
  -Heavy base camping tent, no water pump
• Underestimated the trail:
  -The trail had the element of surprise - it had been waiting for me for 300,000 years*
  
  *(Not sure what I meant by that!)
  
  

WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS:
(Updated on Sunday in the Ely coffee shop)

• On Echo Trail:
  -A family of Bald Eagles
• On the trail in:
  -I kicked up a rabbit
  -I passed within the vicinity of a skunk.
• In the campgrounds:
  -Panhandling whiskey jacks and red squirrels
  -2 Ducks of unknown species (Didn't look like mallards)
  -An otter swam up and briefly spied on me through the weeds
  -What appeared to be a beaver towing a log across the lake (What else would do something like that?)
• On the trail out:
  -I kicked up a grouse
  -I met a visibly shaken teenage boy who spent a sleepless night in a nearby campsite after a bear entered the campground, stomped around and snorted around the young man's hanging food pack.