I Can't Stop Laughing

I stumbled across this video tonight:



...and I can't stop watching it and laughing out of, I guess, sheer joy. My God, does this guy have talent. And if the stories are true, this could not have happened to a more deserving person.

I just love watching the look on everyone's face as he starts to sing, then later as he hits those massive notes with such force. He is truly an incredible singer. I'm absolutely floored. There is plenty of information available on Paul Potts, and his winning performance on Britain's Got Talent is breathtaking. To be perfectly honest, I have never been a fan of opera, but to see and hear this guy sing...well - perhaps I have been missing out on something. ;)

Dreaming of Coolness

This is without a doubt *the* coolest thing I have seen on the internet.

http://worrydream.com/

I can only dream of being this awesome. This guy's only fault amongst his heaps of uberness is the fact that he used Perl to write bkasm. ;)

10th Fly

I tied my 10th fly tonight; the Klinkhammer Special. Still not quite like the picture in the book. I wonder when these will start looking better?

Happy 80th Birthday, Grandpa!

This past Saturday was my grandfather's 80th birthday and we celebrated with a bit of a family get-together in Mitchell's Bay, Ontario. Everything went quite smoothly as family get-togethers go and apart from a few logistical snafus, it was a relatively good weekend. Unfortunately, in all the pictures I took I never got one shot of the birthday boy!

We decided to stay the night at the local campground in the tent-trailer. It rained the entire drive down but the day turned out to be not so bad, and by nightfall the weather was simply amazing. I took the kids fishing, although it was more like 2 hours of dad untangling 4 different fishing lines from one another, followed by Drew falling into the water and getting soaked and muddy. I also had a chance to have a few beers and visit with family I hadn't seen in quite awhile, and the kids got to roast marshmallows. I was even able to start a fire with no paper out of the scrap wood from the last tube amp cabinet I brought (thanks again, Boy Scouts).

Everyone else went to bed before midnight (although not to sleep) and I just sat outside in the dark by the dying fire for over an hour. The sky was perfectly clear and full of stars and it was absolutely peaceful. I just wished I'd had a few more pieces of scrap wood so I could have enjoyed it a bit longer. ;)

The Obligatory Flies

So whenever I can snatch a spare 20-30 minutes nowadays I try to sit down and tie a fly. I am getting steadily better but I still struggle with some fundamentals; in particular hackles, and occasionally the whip finish. This is a Blue-Winged Olive I tied the other day:



The first hackle looked great but when I went to tie the whip finish the thread slipped and everything unravelled, including the hackle. Well, rather than start over from scratch I tried to save what was there. It still isn't all that bad, but it did look better...honest!

Tonight I tied my first beaded fly as well:



I don't have any real fly tying beads. This is from my daughter's craft box. It is supposed to be a Peeping Caddis (a sinking nymph) but looks quite a bit different than the picture in the book. The body is supposed to have a gold wire wrapped around it to give more of a ribbed look but I decided to leave that part of it out due to lack of materials. I tried gold tinsel but it did not have the same effect. I still think it will catch a fish though!

A Couple More Flies

I tied a couple more flies this weekend. I had a go at an elk hair caddis:



It turned out alright. I added a bit of a tail to cover up a mistake, and after I took the photo I gave it a bit of a haircut. ;)

My second one turned out to be a completely original creation due to a failed experiment. It has a fairly convincing wing and body, but the head didn't turn out at all how I planned. I think I'll call it a ruby-throated whipper-snapper.



That's what I like about fly tying though. I take a fair amount of artistic license when I tie a fly, and that what makes it so exciting. Will the fish bite it? Maybe I have stumbled across a new killer combination of colours and materials.

That's why I enjoy cooking as well (when I get around to doing it). I like to experiment and see what tastes work and don't work. Sometimes my family might not enjoy that part of it though. ;)

Good Luck, Steorn!

Well, looks like Steorn is having a bit of bad luck.



I wish them the best of luck in solving the issues and I look forward to seeing their demo - whenever it happens. Incidentally, the amount of negativity and sheer rudeness of the comments on the Steorn forum truly astounds me. I just can't believe how idiotic people can be.