On Jan 13, 5:51*am, Frank Reid © 2008 wrote:
Don't need the spool but I want to welcome you back to the loving and
gentle arms of ROFF.
What's up? *Long time no talk to.
Frank Reid

Two kids, a mortgage and a job that often keeps me up past midnight
after the rest of the family has gone to bed is what's up. ROFF
withdrawal wasn't so bad. Usenet is so hard to come by these days and
Google groups interface is just awful. If not for the message length
limitation, ROFF social dynamics would probably transfer well to a
newer platform like Twitter although the nice thing about usenet is
the absolute open nature of the beast. Haven't done much fishing in
the last few years though did manage a trip to Penns Creek last
October. Haven't had such a multi-day fishing trip in four years.

Did write an article for a fly fishing magazine a couple of years ago
but that took many, many day trips to collect all the info,
photographs and requisite experience in order to write about that
particular river with any semblance of authenticity. By "day-trip" I
mean 3.5 hours drive from my home in Silicon Valley - that was before
the run-up in gasoline prices.

These days I'm grateful that all those years spent in graduate school
which at the time might have seemed like a misdirected exercise in
esoteric abstrusity, have resulted in gainful employment. Not that I
would not have found something equally fulfilling otherwise - but it
did take some wandering in the wilderness to get to the place I find
myself today. And though each of us might have different thresholds
for what we consider an honest day's work for which one deserves
honest pay, I am happy to report that nobody tells me to put in the
long hours each day. I do it because I want to and feel I owe it to
the people who will use our products.

From a distance it is tough to watch my beloved Gotham enter another
period of darkness. And it's not just Fifth Avenue but Main Streets
everywhere. But I'm hopeful that the failure of leadership and the
attendant cynicism that led a nation to so blithely choose such
financial foolishness would now inspire us and especially a younger
generation to step into an era of renewed self-responsibility as
opposed to a further weakening of our freedoms or reduction in social
mobility in exchange for promises of a false security.

Mu
on the left coast