My Mountain

Romney thinks very little of $375,000. Shrugs off his speaker fee earnings as "not very much."

2012-01-17T12:55:00.001-06:00

Holy crap! Did you read just how out of touch Mitt Romney is with ordinary Americans? The guy truly doesn't have a clue what middle and working classes are going through. Money is just an afterthought to this top .2 percent wage earner. Truly, he doesn't have a clue.

The New York Times reported Romney earned a whopping $374,327.62 in speakers’ fees from February of 2010 to February of 2011, at an average of $41,592 per speech. But that's no big deal to Romney.

“I get speakers’ fees from time to time, but not very much," said Romey.

Read it here.

$375k is just an annoyance to Romney, probably the richest man to make serious run for the top office for in America. Are you prepared to trust your future and your children's future to a guy who is so far out of touch with the values of 99% of Americans? I pay 25% of my income to Uncle Sam. Romney only pays 15% of what he earns, and he wants to pay much less.

You can wrap this Romney pig in denim, but that doesn't make him a working class pig.

Dumped Godaddy Today. Moved 75 domains

2011-12-23T16:25:00.002-06:00

Today I finished doing something that I've wanted to do for several years. I dumped Godaddy as my registrar, and hopefully struck a blow against this stupid SOPA bill that would threaten the social internet.

I have used Godaddy for about 6 years and have accumulated 75 domain names. When Godaddy announced their support of SOPA, that was the final straw. I learned of a boycott that is encouraging people to move their domains from Godaddy on December 29, 2011. I decided, what the hell... I'll move mine today.

Thanks, Godaddy, for giving me a reason to do something that I've wanted to do for a long time, but have been too lazy to take on. For years I've been too uninterested in my 3 Godaddy accounts to even look through and prune the list. But the timing was perfect... I'm home for Christmas break, giving me some spare time to sit down and toss out all the domains that I no longer needed, remnants from projects long abandoned or discarded.

Moving my domains was not a painless process. First I had to unlock 75 domains. Next I had to figure out how to request an authorization code to move the domains. Then, I had to manually parse 75 emails and create a list that I could upload somewhere else. It took me a couple of hours.

I know that Godaddy won't miss my $850 per year that much, but it felt good to move my business. Hopefully it will register as a small protest against their increasingly offensive and degrading advertising, their show-off CEO, their creeping fees, their increasingly difficult to use website, their incessant up-selling, and (the final straw) their support of SOPA.

I just learned that GoDaddy dropped their support of SOPA, but who cares. I think I know where they really stand. It's too little, too late as far as I'm concerned.

Good bye, Godaddy!

US Sales on Internet Transactions Will Harm Small Entrepreneurs

2011-11-30T15:46:00.000-06:00

Amazon today threw its weight behind a bill the would authorize US states to force online resellers to collect sales tax. And why not? Amazon has nothing to lose and much to gain by having a sales tax requirement. Amazon has brick and mortar fulfillment centers all over the US and is under intense pressure to collect taxes on the many billions in sales they make annually.

As the owner of a small software company that sells exclusively on the internet, being forced to collect and remit sales tax to 50 states and DC individually would be a daunting infrastructure challenge. This is a challenge that a brick and mortar small business would not have -- they have only one sales tax authority to collect and remit for.

Why in this debate do I not see any kind of discussion about a centralized reporting system that would bring efficiency to the collection of sales tax? The impact of this will force small internet retailers into the arms of companies like (you guessed it!) Amazon and Apple who will gladly collect their 30%-50% cut for letting you sell on their sites. I don't know about you, but an 8% sales tax and 30%-50% reseller fee have not been priced into my business model, and would put me at a huge disadvantage to direct competitors I have in India and other places who don't appear to collect any taxes from US buyers.

I'm not completely against the requirement to collect a sales tax, as long as the 50 individual states a) don't make it a nightmare to collect and remit, and b) as long as they don't force small internet businesses to compromise their independence and profitability and c) you find a way to impose it on the rest of the world.

Its mostly the process behind the requirement and the lack of concern for small businesses that is the real issue for me. A US sales tax seems almost inevitable at this stage; but nowhere do I see a seat at the table for small internet retailers, whose futures and independence are in jeopardy.

Lets give small internet retailers a SEAT AT THE TABLE NOW so that entrepreneurs can continue to pull the US out of this depression.

Minnesota Republicans to Send Vikings Packing

2011-09-16T06:59:00.000-05:00

Curt Zellers, the speaker of the Minnesota House, said this week "“There is absolutely no way we’re going to be able to go to the finance commissioner and say, ‘would you write out a $300 million check to (Vikings owner) Zygi Wilf, and put in the little memo section ‘roof for the new stadium. It’s not going to happen."

I'm not thrilled about my "outstate" tax dollars going to fund a stadium and improvements 250 miles away. Billionaires are favorite and easy whipping boys for pols during stadium debates.

But you know what bugs me even more?

Politicians like Zellers who think "there is absolutely no way" that government can be part of a creative solution to any problem.

Zellers thinks there's no tax base in Minnesota. The truth is, the Republicans clownish management of the state's tax base has forced up local property taxes and forced school districts to borrow against their promised funding. Minnesota will continue to run $5 billion+ deficits as far as the eye can see, because of Minnesota Republican's mismanagement of the tax base. They fix our "deficits" with accounting gimicks instead of structural long term solutions. They refuse even to shift taxes around to compensate for lack of revenue due to the recession.

So now the Republicans are going to send the Minnesota Vikings packing to Lost Angeles. This is the consequence of voting not for a political party, but a political philosophy that insists that the citizens of Minnesota can never accomplish anything good by working together, and by the way, let's not even try.

Appealsale.com Scam

2011-09-02T07:23:00.000-05:00

This morning I awoke to find about 30 messages from Craigslist alerting me to new postings in the Broward County, FL Craigslist. Overnight, my Craiglist account had been hacked, and dozens of messages advertising mobile phones were posted from my account for a website called Appealsale.com. They use the email addresses appealsale@yahoo.com and appealsale@msn.com. The company seems to be based in China.
I alerted yahoo and MSN, but really, what can you do? Now I just want to get the word out on the web to NOT do business with these guys. I highly suspect that if they will hack my Craigslist account, then they will gladly accept your money and not send you the merchandise.

Problem with Amazon MP3 Uploader: file names appear to have Chinese characters

2011-07-23T21:36:00.001-05:00

I've been on a mission to convert 300 CD's into MP3 files and then upload them to Amazon's Cloud.
After a week of converting CD's, I thought I was home-free. Now all I had to do was spend the 10GB of bandwidth to upload the files to the cloud, a process that would take a couple of days.

After a day of uploading, I discovered that many files (about 3/4th of the total uploaded files) had their titles and album names appearing in the cloud player with Chinese characters. I can play the songs; they obviously uploaded correctly, but it is now impossible to categorize the songs.

I've contacted Amazon support, but it has been several days, so I presume no reply is forthcoming. A second attempt at uploading several days later yielded the same result.

Has anyone else this issue?

Amazon's MP3 Uploader often inserts Chinese characters into the name, artist and album fields.

Before you are seduced by Amazon's offer of "free unlimited storage" for MP3 files and start uploading thousands of files, beware that this process may take a lot longer than you think.

Google Plus is a big disappointment so far.

2011-07-19T06:59:00.000-05:00

So all this noise about Google+, the Facebook killer. I have read they are over 10 million users and growing like crazy. Yet, if I try to log into Google+, I'm greeted with the message: "Right now, we're testing with a small number of people, but it won't be long before the Google+ project is ready for everyone."

Why on earth would Google want to promote this service when only a paltry 10 million or so can actually use it? It's irritating to say the least, and my interest is waning. This reminds of the Orkut debacle, when Google did the same thing. I couldn't log into that service either, unless I was invited. Guess what? No one invited me to Orkut and I setup shop on LinkedIn and Facebook instead.

Come on, Google! Open the doors already and let us in! I'm tired of standing in the rain.

Why I probably won't subscribe to Office365.

2011-07-04T10:24:00.003-05:00

I joined the Office365 beta last month. Although Microsoft's online productivity suite is useful, I probably won't be buying it.

Office365 presents online versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, OneNote Sharepoint, Powerpoint and Lync Messenger. I am a heavy Outlook and Powerpoint user, and I was very quickly at home using these online applications. I liked the ability to easily share my work product with others for collaboration.

If you are approaching Office365 from the perspective of an Office 2010 desktop app user, you will find the suties a bit incomplete. Although the online apps have a fairly rich GUI, I found the overall performance to be sluggish. But I could live with sluggish performance if necessary.

As a small business owner (6 employees, distributed), what really got me excited about Office365 beta was the opportunity to have access to a collaborative suite that was familiar to my employees. We have struggled to share documents efficiently but have ruled out hosting Sharepoint because of costs. Office365 holds the promise to be a good alternative for us.

I also thought that we could really benefit from Microsfot hosted email. Our SMTP email accounts are on a shared email server. If any other email users on a different domain hosted by our shared server misbehaves, then our email begins to bounce as our email server IP address is posted on the SORBS "spam" sever list. SORBS makes our lives harder when our emails suddenly and without warning begin to bounce back to us (I hate SORBS for their irresponsible machine gun approach to spam, but thats another post). The idea of using a Microsoft hosted email server and a rich online Outlook client to complement our local Outlook 2010 apps seemed like a no brainer.

But then I learned that someone at Microsoft made the mistake of presuming that one Office365 user will have one email address. This is not an unusual mistake for Microsoft to make, since they are a gigantic business and have completely forgotten what it is like to operate a small business. But restricting users to one email account is a very silly policy. As a small business owner, I answer to many email addresses, including sales@, support@, info@, webmaster@, and several others. This alone is a deal killer for many small businesses -- no way will I pay $6 per email address, and I shouldn't have to restructure my business around Microsoft's arbitrary email account restrictions.
The problem with Office365, from my perspective, is that we are looking at it as a way to complement our existing Office 2010 software (which we have already bought and paid for) and our collaborative processes, and I think Office365 will do this very well.
Although Office365 shows great promise to server small businesses, Microsoft needs to quickly go back and fix these pricing and structural missteps. The essence of my gripes are rooted in policy and pricing mistakes, not software mistakes. If they do this, they may find themselves with a competitive online office suite offering that small businesses like mine will flock to.

Republicans shut down Minnesota State government. Millions of dollars wasted. Tourists disappointed.

2011-07-02T08:29:00.000-05:00

Well, they did it.

The Minnesota Republicans have shut down state government. What a glorious day to be a Republican, I guess. By sticking to their hard line ideology, the "no taxes" Republicans have ground government to an expensive halt in Minnesota, presumably under the guise of fiscal responsibility.

Last night, I stopped for bait at my favorite bait shop here in the heart of Minnesota's lake land. It's July 4th weekend, prime season for tourism. The first thing I heard was appologies from the cashier who was trying to explain to an incredulous man from Idaho that he could not purchase a fishing license. The man had his boat in tow and couldn't believe that he had driven so far with his boat only to find that he would not be able to fish. I hope he wasn't on his way to a Minnesota state park, because those campgrounds have also been closed by Republicans.

Minnesota's state parks will lose millions of dollars per day, thanks to this Republican shut down of the state.

The shut down is incredibly foolish, fiscally irresponsible, and a very pathetic, non-transparent exertion of Republican ideology.

Minnesotans will not soon forgot the Republican role in this mess. Shame on you Minnesota Republicans -- you don't care who you hurt, just as long as your rich buddies get their tax breaks. Your are an embarrassment to our Great State, and we will not soon forget this. Neither will that man from Idaho.

Cell Phone-Cancer Link Inconclusive? We've heard this song before.

2011-06-03T10:48:00.003-05:00

Here we go again.

"Experts say the data on cellphone use and brain cancer is still inconclusive."

Yeah, right. "Inconclusive."
That's what they said for years about smoking. That's what they still say about Global Warming.

Just toss some doubt out there and try to slow things down; that is the typical big business (and Republican Party) playbook. The longer they can keep pumping oil, the longer they can keep you addicted to cigarettes, the longer they can stave off any emissions regulations to cell phones, then the more money they can wring from their investment.

They don't care if its in the bests interest of our children or our country or our health care system. They only care about their own best interests and pleasing Wall Street.
Expect more industry paid experts to line up and on the wireless payroll and scream "INCONCLUSIVE!! NEED MORE STUDY!!" Meanwhile they're busy selling as many cancer causing cell phones as they can.

Expect to hear crap like, "You have a higher cancer risk being on a golf course on a sunny day" or "You have a higher cancer risk flying at 35,000 feet in an airplane."

Just keep this in mind: How many hours a day are you ever actually stting in a chair at 35 feet, or on a golf course? They are not comparable. Sure, if you're flying at 35 feet for 4 hours a day, every working day, year in and year out, maybe you'll have higher risk of cancer than your cellphone use. But when you are a big business trying to slow down an inconvenient truth, then any FUD will do.

Bing Zugo problem is growing. List of software that installs Zugo.

2011-05-20T08:28:00.001-05:00

The problem with the Bing Zugo browser hijacking seems to be growing. During the past few months, visits to this post have just exploded. It now gets hundreds of views per day.

Its saddens me that a company like Zugo can get away with installing its shitty toolbar in such an underhanded way through "free" software. If you know of a crap software publisher that installs the Zugo toolbar, post it here and lets make a list. These software companies should be avoided at all costs because apparently they do not give a rats ass about the end user. If they will let your browser be hijacked for a few cents of profits, only god knows what else they are installing on your computer.

How to fix Outlook 2010 search problem

2011-03-30T09:26:00.000-05:00

I have been using Microsoft Outlook 2010, the 64-bit version, with Windows 7 for several months now. Recently I encountered a problem with the search function. Search just stopped working. Any search I would do to find emails would turn up exactly nothing. I tried several remedies offered on the web, but nothing worked. Eventually, I figured out a solution that restored Outlook 2010's search ability, and I will share it with you now.

The first thing I did was to close Outlook.
Next, I inserted the Outlook 2010 CD, and started it up.
Outlook installer will offer to uninstall or repair itself. Choose Repair.
Reboot your computer.
Start Outlook
Next, you will need to reindex the files on your computer. Go to Windows Control Panel and choose Indexing Options (or search for Indexing). Select "Advanced" and then "Rebuild."

With Outlook open, leave your computer on overnight.

If everything has gone according to plan, you should now begin to see emails showing up again in your Outlook searches.

Why this problem happens, I do not know. Judging from comments by others on the internet, this is a fairly widespread issue. I hope these steps help to resolve the problem for you.

If you found a different fix, post it in the comments.

Fighting for the Right to Stay Unionized in Wisconsin

2011-02-21T07:33:00.001-06:00

The Governor of Wisconsin is busting unions for the Koch brothers. Its that simple, and you will find the proof with a little Googling.

And Yet...
We allow capitalists to "unionize" when they unite their capital in the form of a corporation. These corporations can now pump billions of dollars into our elections because they are "entities" with "Free speech rights." The people who own and run corporations can hide behind the "corporate veil," to protect themselves and their assets from responsbility for their actions.

But... when the discussion comes to allowing workers to unite, that is somehow a bad thing.

Big money needs to be offset by big labor to ensure fair working conditions and wages.

Corporations are driven to produce profit. Unions are driven to produce decent wages and living conditions. Have we forgotten all the lessons of the past 150 years? We have unions today for very good reasons. Look up your American history. Large corporations with unchecked power kill people.

I'll be happy to do away with Unions on the same day that we do away with corporations.

Ice fishing is a sport

2011-02-18T10:00:00.000-06:00

Up north here in Minnesota, where winters are long and cold, ice fishing is one of the things we do to enjoy the season and stay active. Although its often the butt of jokes in movie story lines, like Grumpy Old Men, ice fishing is truly a sport.

Ice fishing demands self control. Knowing when to move on, and knowing when to persever is the constant emotional struggle an ice fisher has.

A knowledge of the environment is required. Knowing your lake or river, and considering the weather, and tiem of the season (early or late ice).

Like other sport, there is danger involved. Last year, I accidentally stepped down an ice hole while tearing down a portable shelter, tearing my miniscus. Like an injured football player, I required orthoscopic surgery to repair the damage.

Ice fisherman concern themselves with the biology of the fish. Cleaning fish, we often will investigate stomach contents to discover what the fish are eating. This can help us choose bait to use.

We're concerned about such things as the oxygen levels in the lakes. Groups of sportsmen will get together and place aerators in lakes to keep the lakes oxygenated in the late winter.

The best of us are also concerned about pollution, lake run off, and we take a very dim view of poachers who flout the law, or slobs who litter the lake.

High tech electronics take the sport of ice fishing to new levels. Vexlars and cameras help us understand what is going on under the ice. Ice sonar helps us measure depth.

Ice fishing involves much more than just dilling a hole in the ice and stting on a bucket. The pursuit of fish through the ice is a fun activity, especially if done with friends. You should try it some time.

Shame on Flippa.com for Allowing Scammers Easy Free Run of the Site

2011-01-19T07:36:00.001-06:00

Buyers beware. A close friend just paid $1000 for a website on Flippa.com that was supposed to generate $250 of adsense revenue monthly. After the site was transferred, it became clear that seller was a thief.   Traffic monitoring (after the fact, unfortunately) showed that the traffic was all coming from a click script. Click scripts are simple php or java scripts that can be used to fake traffic figures and click on Google Adsense ads. The more serious problem for my friend was that after he put his Google code into the site, Google banned his account for click fraud. An appeal is pending, but this could take months and cost him a lot of revenue from his other websites that use this Adsense account.

Flippa.com and their decision to allow scammy "Autoblog" websites has brought a proliferation fo such ilk to the popular auction website. Autoblogs are usually WordPress websites that run an add-in to steal content from other sources, potentially opening the owner of the site to possible copyright infringement claims.

Here's generally how the scam works: Seller registers some keywords as a domain that show high competition (something MedicalHeartSurguryDevices.net). They use a script to run up traffic and Adsense clicks for a few months. Adsense seems to lag behind on enforcement for a little while, allowing the seller to show great revenue from the site. The seller just posts regular server logs as "proof" of traffic, which say nothing about the actual source of the traffic and obscures the click script.   Seller now offers this great money generating website that requires "zero work," usually on the pretext of needing quick money for another project or having to pay bills. Escrow.com payment is not accepted; they only allow Western Union for the payment. They will also refuse to put traffic monitoring on their website such as Statcounter, because it would reveal the scam.

The new owner pays top dollar for the site. When the dust settles, the new owner has a crappy website that generates no revenue and has no organic traffic, and when Google Adsense fraud enforcement finally catches up, it is the new owner who gets the blame.

I'm mad at Flippa because they have created a market place that provides inadquate protection for the buyer. They do not do enough to flag questionable website auctions, or to allow others to raise pertinent questions. Sellers can simply delete any challenging questions that might expose the scam.

Flippa gives "trust points" to sellers who register a Facebook or LinkedIn account. Yet, they don't show buyers the names of those accounts. Since any scammer anywhere can setup a Facebook or LinkedIn account in about 30 seconds, this has the affect of awarding fake trust to the scammer.

Flippa also tries to verify a phone number. Any scammer can use a disposable cell phone, a payphone or a free webs phone number like those offered through Google  -- it means nothing.

What Flippa needs to do is to RED FLAG, or allow the community to red flag, any questionable auction where the seller:
1. Refuses to use Escrow.com
2. Refuses to setup a Statcounter.com account on the website that would provide public view into the traffic
3. Post the name of the Facebook or LinkedIn account
4. Require at least a 5 day auction for all websites (No more '24 hour sale')
5. Charge a big fee for every first time seller. This would deliver a penalty for scammers who sell crappy websites under new accounts every week
6. Make it much more difficult to qualify for a Flippa seller account.

If Flippa insists on being the marketplace where people get Ripped Off, then eventually the good sellers will leave. Bad sellers on Flippa drive down trust and therefor keep bidders at pay, resulting in lower prices for legitate sellers.

Wake up Flippa! You are about to step over the edge. Once your reputation is shit, you will never get it back.

Srinivas Rao Vemulapally is a thief.

2010-12-16T06:21:00.000-06:00

Srinivas Rao Vemulapally
Chennai India,

This person is a thief. Deal with him at great risk.

Aka: Edward Waya

Six Reasons Why Google Adwords Sucks

2010-11-15T13:11:00.004-06:00

1. Google will give your keywords a "low quality score" but will not tell why.
2. You can screw for weeks with improving your landing page, keywords and ads all you want, but your quality score still won't move.
3. Google will lower your quality score suddenly and without warning, raising your cost per click 20 times. By the time you figure it out, you will have paid $3.00 for each click you were previously pay .15 cents for
4. Google will "recommend" new keyword "opportunities" for you, but these keywords will register as "low quality" if you add them to your keyword list.
5. Google reps will say they will call you back, but they really won't. They don't care.
6. Google thinks they know more about your business than you do, but they really don't.

If there were another game in town, I would move all of my Adwords business today. Google is acting like an evil monopoly. Google Adword's suck-ass quality can only bode poorly for Google as emerging competitors like Facebook, Bing-Yahoo, Baidu and others begin to get their acts together.

The unfortunate bottom line is that Google doesn't give a shit about serving its small long-tail customers. Now that they're a giant, they could give a shit about the ants that built the pile that is now Google.

Why MLS Soccer is better than than NFL Football

2010-11-08T09:17:00.000-06:00

1. Soccer rules are easier to understand. Yellow Card, Red Card, off sides. Compare that to the complexity of the NFL rules.

2. Games start and end pretty close to the expected times.

3. Scoring is easier to understand. Put the ball in the net for a point. No touch down, field goal, extra point, two point conversion and touch back nonsense.

4. Gives you something in common with the other 95% of the people in the world

5. Virtually non-stop action.

6. Virtually no interruptions for TV commercials during game action.

Minnesota soccer teams

2010-11-01T13:22:00.000-05:00

I'm on a soccer binge.

After watching the world cup games, I realized there was much I didn't understand about the game. After 30 years of NFL football, I have to be honest -- I need to learn something new. My wife is English, so I've always felt a little out of place at English family gatherings. When my brother-in-laws took me to a Brighton-Hove Albion game, I just didn't quite get it. But I persisted, and now since the World Cup games, I haven't been able to totally leave my interest in soccer behind.

For the past 3 months, I've been watching MSL soccer, I subscribed to UEFA matches on DirecTV, and have been watching La Liga and BPL games on Fox Soccer channel.

Lately I've been trying to get my head around soccer, and how it is organized in the U.S. and my state of Minnesota. I was surprised to learn that Minnesota has 3 soccer teams that compete in the 2nd and 4th tiers of the US Soccer Pyramid.

NSC Minnesota Stars
NASL (2nd Tier)
Blain, MN (Twin Cities)

Rochester Thunder
USL Premier Development League (4th Tier)
Rochester, MN

Minnesota Kings
National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) (4th Tier)
Minneapolis

Saint Paul Twin Stars
National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) (4th Tier)
St Paul

It would be nice if the PDL teams could play the NPSL teams. We could get a nice cross state rivalry going between the Twin Stars, the Kings and the Thunder.

Alibaba.com - the place where scammers run wild.

2010-09-25T08:16:00.000-05:00

After reading online what a great success the Alibaba.com market place is, I thought I would try it out. I wanted to buy about 500 usb flash drives for a software promotion. After checking the front page of Alibaba, it seemed like a great place to buy in bulk direct from China.

But now, I am so disappointed in Alibaba. I don't think I will ever use it again, nor will I ever advise anyone to waste their time trying to find credible sellers on Alibaba.

After locating a product I wanted, I entered my information as requested to get a quote. I thought I was sending my information to one company.

Wrong. Alibaba collects your information and blasts it out to hundreds of scammers who want to steal your money. They offer crazy prices. People like "Mr. Jon" or "Mrs Kaka" will fill up your email inbox trying to get you to send money through Western Union. They promise "free units" and "free logo printing" and even a "discount" if you send the money. They have websites that are so clearly fake, with their name photoshopped across the top of a huge building.

Yes, now hundreds of these people have my name, email, phone and address.

What a waste of time and energy to use Alibaba. Stay away from this scammer market place. Pay more from a US distributor and get what you ordered.

For shitsake, do NOT Western Union any money to China. You will never see it again.

What bait do I use to catch crayfish in Minnesota

2010-08-02T12:25:00.001-05:00

I have posted a few times here about my obsession with Minnesota crayfish. I've also introduced some friends to the idea that our freshwater crayfish are a tasty, yet underutilized resource.

A frequent question I get is, "What do you use for bait?"
Catfood works well, especially tuna or seafood catfood. Just punch some holes in the can and put it in a crayfish trap. I have found that a can of catfood can attract crayfish for up to 3 days. The only problem to this approach is the expense.

A less expensive bait I often use are bullhead. Around here, bullhead are easy to catch. I'll go down to the dock and pull out about 20 bullheads. I'll usualy slice up about 3 per crayfish trap. I can also freeze the extra bullheads for later use. Fresh or frozen seem to work about the same for me. Its a good way to help your lake, and the crayfish, since bullhead will eat crayfish.

Another question is, When can you catch crayfish in Minnesota?
The Minnesota crayfish season opens in April, and I have caught them right away in April. However, they seem most active when the water is warm. I keep a thermometer hanging off our dock, and presently the water is about 80 degrees F, and crayfish are very active in my traps. Although trap activity drops off as the water cools, I have caught them as late as November.

What kind of traps do I use?
I love the plastic "Trappy" traps that "Trapper Arne" imports from Sweden. They last a long time, are easy to store, and are lightweight. I use these much more than my heavy, rusty wire traps.

Where do I trap?
In my weedy lakes, I usually find crayfish near the shorelines. Deeper water trapping has not been very productive for me. I usually look for a rocky shoreline, and put my traps into about 1 to 4 feet of water. I have not had much luck trapping in rivers, but I know there are crayfish in the rivers.

Good luck!

Target Corp. $150k Donation to Republicans tosses millions of dollars of goodwill into the toilet.

2010-07-28T15:48:00.002-05:00

What the hell, Target Corp? You donate $150,000 to the anti-gay Republican candidate for Minnesota Governor, but you have donated exactly $0 to the Democrats?

I always felt really good about Target until they made this insane political contribution. As a Minnesotan, for most of my life I have gone out of my way to favor the Home State company over the Walmarts and KMarts. I saw the good work they did donating millions of dollars to Minnesota schools and organizations, and I rewarded Target by giving them my loyalty.

Why would Target consciously decide to throw away this good will, by making a controversial political donation that will help bring a Homophobic Jerk to the highest office in Minnesota? Is that Target's vision for our state?

I guess some genius in the research department must have told someone important that only Republicans shop at Target, and that there is no way that Minnesota Democrats could ever be offended by your corporate meddling in Minnesota politics. You knew you would lose some gays, but they all shop at The Gap anyway, right?

Effectively immediately, my family and I will take our back-to-school shopping across the street to Walmart. The paltry $10,000 to $12,000 that my family typically spends at Target in a year (Groceries, staples, toys, TV's, books, DVD's) will certainly not make dent in Target's corporate wallet.

But it will make me feel better.

If Target will support Republicans over Democrats, then I have no further reason to support Target.

I invite you to join me in boycotting Target.

No Minnesota Flag at Target Field? Welcome to the new Home of the Hennipen County Twins

2010-07-20T11:33:00.001-05:00

Last Sunday was my first trip to Target Field, home of the "Minnesota" Twins. It was a great experience, and even the outcome of the game couldn't have been more exciting as the Twins rallied in the 9th for four runs to beat the Chicago White Sox.
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My brother and I drove nearly 460 miles that day, for seven hours. Going to a Twins game is a special experience for us, something we don't get to do every weekend because of the cost and distance. We're happy to make the effort though, to support our "Minnesota" Twins.

It was a moving experience to watch the American Flag hoisted above Target Field, on the original flag pole that stood at the old Met Stadium.

Yet, something weird was going on.

The Minnesota Flag flying next to Old Glory was not really the Minnesota Flag. This one had "Hennepin County" scrawled along the bottom in big, boring white letters. Wait a minute... this isn't even the Minnesota flag, its the Hennepin County flag!

I would never begrudge Hennepin County from flying their flag over target field. It should be there, because they stood up and made a major contribution to keeping the Twins in Minnesota, and funding this park. We owe them a debt of gratitude.

But come on! To not fly the Minnesota Flag over Minnesota Twins ball games at Target Field is a slap in the face to us "outstate" Minnesotans. This is the flag carried overseas by the Minnesota National Guard soldiers. As boring as the Minnesota Flag is, its still our flag, and should be present, flying right next to that beautiful Hennepin County Flag.

I don't know what the official reason is to deny the Minnesota flag a place of honor at Target Field. Maybe it is intended to be a nasty dig at the State of Minnesota. It might reflect the childish attitude that, "if they didn't pony up, then they don't deserve to have 'their' flag flown at Target Field."

What the Twins and Hennepin county don't understand is that the Minnesota Flag is the flag of all Minnesotans, not just Governor "Dumb Ass" Pawlenty. And all Minnesotans who buy food, hospitality and beverages in Hennepin County are helping to fund this glorious ball park through a sale tax, not just residents of Hennepin County.

Come'on Twins -- don't be so petty. Fly the Minnesota Flag at target field. Either that, or change your name to the Hennepin County Twins, and then see if I'm motivated to drive 460 miles to support "your" baseball team.

Koman Coulibaly - No, we have not forgotten

2010-07-10T07:33:00.000-05:00

Koman Coulibaly probably thinks the uproar of his bad call has simmered down. No, Mr. Coulibably, we're still all here, watching and waiting for you to fuck up again. And when you do, we will be on you like hot scalding water. Its just a matter of time.

The name Koman Coulibaly is a rallying cry for fair play in futbol, and a cry for FIFA to institute Instant Review now.

Glad to see that komancoulibably.com has been appropriated by a fan. It will give us a rallying point.

Koman Coulibaly and FIFA: Why do they hate fans?

2010-06-18T15:51:00.006-05:00

If you want to know why Soccer (hereafter called Football) is not top ranked sport in the USA, look no further than Referee Koman Coulibaly who made infamous calls that denied team USA a win against Slovenia on July 18.

It has been hours since Coulibaly's horrifically bad day, and still no word on what the penalty was that was so egregious that it denied the USA a well deserved victory.

As SFGate reported, "You'd think the comments on FIFA's website about the USA v Slovenia match would reflect the outrage expressed by many Americans, but not one as of this writing concerns the call. I've got to believe FIFA's eliminating any comment that would call the outcome into question. That's the only reason for such a development and that's outrageous in itself."

Outrageous, in the least.

As Peter King at SI said, "FIFA deserves equal blame, for putting a system in place that allows incompetent officiating to skate free. So what if we never see this official again? The damage is done. He was in far over his head, and he blew the call that decided the game. He can disappear now, and in all nations but America, the story will blow over. Nice racket you've got going, FIFA."

No explanation has been offered for Coulibably's insult to the game, and certainly non is forthcoming. After all, FIFA invests Referees with full and uncontested control over the game. Make a horrifically bad call, no problem! Need to supplement your Referee income by accepting bribes from a bookie, no problem: there will be no appeal, and no review by FIFA.

There are no rules in FIFA football: but there is "Law."

The "Laws of the Game" are set by FIFA and the conspiring UK Football Associations. The rest of the world has no voice, so shut up! There is a distinctly British traditionalist, classist approach to all of this. Screw the commoners (or as they are called today, "Fans") -- Football's great tradition of fucking fans must be upheld! The British football aristocracy has only contempt for the fans and the players, much as a nobleman might have contempt for the peons.

FIFA rules Football with an iron fist, recalling the glory days of the Victorian British Empire. It carries forward their world view that life is unfair, and there is nothing the commoners can do about being screwed by the ruling class. Britain may have lost its empire, but damned if it will lose control of Football! Damned if they will budge an inch on tradition or open up the "laws of the game" to a democratic or an instant replay process.

Fans around the world know when they've been screwed. Koman Coulibaly and his FIFA masters are undoubtedly laughing at this cruel boner up the ass to budding US football fans.

Until there is a modicum of justice in FIFA to address or review such incompetent, shitty calls such as Coulibaly's, Americans are justified in telling FIFA to go fuck itself.

Being a fan is a serious long term emotional investment, one that can span generations. Just as I would advise any woman who is being beating by her "loving" husband to leave him, even if he promises never to do it again, so I would advise US Soccer fans not to give FIFA's game all of your love. You never know when FIFA is going to turn around and smack you in the face for no reason. If Americans want to be smacked in the face by such shit calls, the money is better spent on home grown sports entertainment. American sports are ever answering the fans pleas for fair play in their sporting events. God Bless the NFL, NASCAR, NBA, MLB, NHL, PRB, Tennis, even the National Rugby League for implementing fair play through instant replay. No, its not perfect, but its a helluva lot better than letting a Koman Coulibaly run roque.

Time for FIFA to follow the lead of those sports. Americans want fair play. Wake up, FIFA!