spayne

Nah, they'll just go through with sharpies and mark out any references to Pluto as a planet! (laugh)

This is true!

Yes! Las Vegas, Church of Elvis! Wearing leather and being serenaded with "Hunk of Burning Love" while walking down the aisle! Yes, that was my dream wedding. Jay wouldn't let me do it. (flame)

No, they were offered by a Box Owner. I did him a favor this year and he was just being nice. Unfortunately, the seats will go to someone else of his choosing. I get out to see at least one Duck game a year. I could probably go see more, but I try not to be greedy. I'm sure I will get another chance this season, but I really did want to see this game. Like I have said before. I think this beach cleanup is a good gesture on our part as a club. OOPS... I posted under my wifes account. Crap. Jay

Yeah, isn't that just crazy? All these years we were taught that Pluto was a planet... then after a meeting of the minds, POOF! No more! Unlearn all that you have learned. (nutty)

Roy, you're on the list! You don't necessarily have to get an XTi. You can get the XT for a couple hundred cheaper or more and it would still be a great camera! And of course, you can come over and play with it Nyles! Jody, if I lived closer to Medford, you could pay me with zoanthids! (laugh) Thanks for the comments on the pics! I'm so HAPPY to have a camera again. Well, I had the 1.9mp Nikon... but it pales in comparison to the new toy!

You've got me thinking, maybe I should get back into having a few houseplants. Get some worker bee plants that put out bunches of oxygen! (clap)

Yea, Roy! From what you've told me, she's a keeper! And just like Blaine said, make sure you register at the LFS of your choice. (clap)

You're right, Sean! It isn't Stonefield. Google maps didn't show it. It's a great little tidepool area... but now I need to check some of these other ones out before the weather turns cold and rainy!

Hello Tidalzone Aquas and hellow Canon Rebel XTi! (clap) I'll throw this new pic in, too!

I used to have a jungle of houseplants, including African violets. I think since our cat family increased I stopped with the houseplants. The cats fancy fresh greeneries. (sad)

I will be sure to check that out!

When the zoas I fragged a few days ago squirted me in the face, I ended up with a bad headache too. I'm beginning to see a trend! Course, I never wear gloves either. I know, bad! I need to start wearing them.

I did a quick bit of research and came across this page. Fenner favors synthetic: http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/saltwater/fenner_sea%20water,%20natural%20or%20synthetic.html

Turkey! (wife) I'm in on a group buy for plastic golf tees! Just tell me when, where, how and what I have to pony up.

There has to be more than six! Just counting in my head there are more than six going. Jay and I are good on transportation... and I don't think anyone would want to wedge themselves in the back of our car for more than a couple hours. If my dad is off on Saturday, I'll be dragging him with. Ugh... that means I'll get the back seat. Brandy brought up an interesting point as to meeting up after the clean-up. Does anyone know of anywhere good to go in Tillamook to get a bite and hang out for a bit? Or should we do a potluck on the beach or in a park? Ideas! Because I don't have any besides visions of cheese curds! (laugh)

What kind of fish are you interested in having? That will help us figure out what corals you can or cannot keep. Any particular type of coral that you're into? Do you like the colored sticks (SPS) or the movement of the softies? Are you wanting to have a clam someday? Would you like to incorporate a refugium so you can have macro algae for added nutrient export? Did you get a lighting system with your tank purchase? That will also be a big factor as to what corals you can keep. Used equipment can really help out on the pocket book. This is not a cheap hobby! And it's even more expensive when you get something that isn't right for your system. Huh, Jay? (wife) The big thing is to do your research and ask us questions. Even if you think it's a dumb question, ask it anyways! We want to make sure you are successful with your tank. Taking on the saltwater hobby can be a daunting and sometimes overwhelming task, but we're here to help you out. When Jay and I started out, I did a lot of research. In fact, I reserached for over a year before we bought an established 72 bow. Then Jay hi-jacked my hobby. To this day I still do a lot of research. And I still ask questions. So don't be shy! Let us know what you'd like to keep and we'll advise you. Oh, and Jody at Tidalzone... awesome stuff! For when you're up and running and your tank has cycled and matured a bit of course.

I have been wanting to find plastic golf tees, too! They would work so well in the frag area of the fuge! For SPS... Jay sticks his hand in the tank. No, seriously. Even though that is one of the means of fragging SPS, Jay got some cutters at Waves. They work great! We usually mount them on rubble and use "Maxi Cure". And if we're out, a gel super glue. LPS... we've only fragged the branching ones like the frogspawn and hammer. Usually Jay will pop a few heads with the cutters. We don't usually mount those guys. We don't have a whole lot of LPS, so we don't have much experience fragging them. Softies. That is something we have a grip of. For the colt and capnella we usually use a razor blade. Same with the toad, but lately it's been fragging itself. So I tear those frags off when they're ready to drop. I try to rubber band those particular softies to a rock and get them to attach that way. Zoas, usually the hammer and a nice chisel. Bang bang bang! I tried using a diamond blade with a dremmel, but my technique was lacking. Plus I was afraid of sawing off my finger. (laugh) Usually the zoas are on a rock when I use the chisel method, but for the strays I try to glue them down. GSP, peel 'em off. Shrooms, slice them off with a razor. And boy, do those suckers squirt! So did the zoas that tried to nail me in the eye a couple days ago. I called Jay and told him... "Just in case I'm dead when you get home, this is why!" (whistle) So that's how I/we frag. I'm sure Jay will add more input! Great topic, by the way! (clap)

My Dad and I found these awesome tide pools a few months back, so we always make sure to go there when we go to the coast. I'm not sure the name of it, but Jay thinks it's south of Waldport. The beach is entirely rock. And, like all tidepools, the only good time to go is during low tide. We love it there, even though walking on those rotten round rocks to get to the solid rock with the tidepools is a KILLER!

Welcome, fellow reef addict! (clap) Definitely don't be shy... post away and get to know us!

This is why I seriously thought about quitting the club last year. I was seriously getting tired of the bickering. He stole this... you're an idiot... you will do what I say... I don't care about your opinion. I could go on and on for hours. And I hear you on the meetings. Imagine driving all the way to Portland from Creswell for a gab fest? That's a good couple hours. Sure, we had the added benefit of going to the other awesome LFS in the PDX area... but the meetings were a bit of a joke. Since Jay has taken office the June meetings was at Advanced and Ryan gave a talk on water chemistry. We were slated to have a topic at the July meeting at FantaSeas, but there was a bit of a shakeup with the speaker at the last minute. August, BBQ with Randy Reed. September... SOLV beach clean up, because not only do we need to educate, we need to be proactive in caring for the oceans. We need to give back for what we take as much as possible. Every meeting from here on out is supposed to have a topic. In fact, I look at PNWMAS as an entirely new club. I know, maybe that's wrong... but if you get right down to it our NPO was dissolved (without our knowledge) and we're lucky that dedicated individuals scrambled and worked their butts off to keep it going. The club took a MASSIVE hit just a few short months ago. MASSIVE!!! We lost our President, Vice President and our Forum Admin said he was retiring. Not to mention our President was also our Web Master... so that was a double whammy right there. Our hands have been FULL. We had to figure out what to do with the changing of the guard, figure out the BBQ which had not been planned yet... deal with getting club property from individuals, changing PayPal addresses for security, starting a business bank account with US Bank, working on getting the information with our club filing in Oregon changed from Ryan to Jay (and we're still waiting on this), changing all of the web servers and such to PNWMAS, changing the front page to remove Ryan's intellectual property... I mean, this list goes on and on and on. Oh, and Mike scheduled BORNEMAN to speak! We've been burning the candle at both ends just getting all this technical stuff changed over. Once that's all done, then we'll work on the NPO and getting the by-laws up. Since I came into office, I have tried to make myself available to everyone. And not just officers and BOD. This is OUR club, guys! Not just one person, or a select group of people. You know that old saying, "It takes a village to raise a child"? Well, our child is the club and it's going to take all of us together... working together... to make this a great place. When I worked, I knew the fastest way to get my way was to go to the "boss" with the problem and the solution. Not that I'm saying we're bosses by any means, but you get my drift I think. We want to hear your ideas and solutions! If you want a topic discussed at a meeting, tell us! Heck, if you're well versed in a subject, offer to speak about it. We all need to take a breath and be a little patient. Try to help each other out. Honestly, I want to see this club become something way bigger than it is now. I want to see the club working with lots of schools, putting tanks in classrooms. Educating youth is key. If you get them while they're young, they'll protect what they love. I want to see big speakers come in once or twice a year and open it up to the public so educate the masses. I'd like to see us have booths at fairs and events where we can talk to people about our hobby as well as conservation and caring for the ecosystem. I want to see us assist and support the Newport Aquarium and Hatfield. I'm not in this club for the frag trades and discounts. I'm looking at the big picture. The future big picture. I totally get the frustration though. I've had it as a club member... and now as an officer. Now, I'm not trying to make anyone mad... but look at it from my side. The officers and BOD spend so much of their free time on this club, and we don't get compensated for it, just to hear "It's not good enough!" Sorry, but we're really trying! (sad) I'm not complaining. And I'm not angry. In fact, I'm thankful that Blaine started this thread because we do need to know where the problems are and we ALL need to come up with a solution. Just remember, everyone... most of the BOD and officers have full time jobs. For example, Jay works 50-60 hours a week, so sometimes he can't get to something right away. So again, that was my vision of the future of the club (which probably isn't shared by anyone else!), discussing the changes implemented in this term of the club, what the officers and BOD do for you and I'M NOT ANGRY! It's so easy to misread posts. I'm just trying to be helpful. I swear! No animosity here!

You have to keep us posted on this... your tank conditions, what you feed, all of it! Feather stars are so beautiful, but I've never entertained the thought of attempting to keep one because of the difficulty in keeping them. I have my fingers and toes crossed for you!

Well, you poor little honey bunny! I like to see you frustrated. It shows that you care about the club. (clap) We have our active posters and a lot of not so active ones. Not much I can do about that besides get out the bullwhip, but then everyone would just laugh at me! I think, perhaps, part of the problem with posting is many use RC or even TRT to pose their questions so they can reach a larger audience. What with the higher traffic, you're pretty much assured to get a response on either one of those boards. I very very rarely post on the other boards. I hardly ever read RC anymore, I will check to see if there's any activity on TRT in the PNWMAS forum and I tend to keep an eye on "Club-Zoa" because, well, I'm a zoa fiend. I have come to see our boards as a means of all of us to stay in contact between meetings. It would be nice to see the boards utilized in educational ways, although Roger is going to have his class post on our boards and ask us questions. At least, I think that's the plan. I'll be forming a special forum for them if Roger decides to do that. I'm not saying that I advocate going to RC or TRT with topics. But I can certainly understand it! Rest assured, I come to you guys first with my victories and defeats. We can do lots of things with the board... someone just has to make the move. We could do our own "salt test" experiment. We don't all use the same brand and we're all constantly searching for the holy grail of salt. Just an idea. I know you have ideas... spit 'em out! (laugh) The BBQ went better than expected as far as I was concerned. You have to remember, we just had that big shakeup with losing our president and vice-president. Nothing had been planned at that point... no BBQ location, nothing! We really wanted to have it in a park, but we couldn't find any openings. We were fortunate enough that John had access to that community center. Next year, we will be planning ahead. Far ahead! It's rough when you go somewhere with cash in hand and you feel the customer service is sub-par. We all have our bad days. Both customers and employee/owners. Sadly, we're human. For me, if the goods are worth it, I can put up with a bit of indignity though I'm treated fine wherever I go. I probably just jinxed myself! Next time I go into C&S Sean is going to kick me in the shins and squeal "No zoanthids for you!!!" (laugh) You have to do what you think is right about that. And thanks for not speaking the name of the store. This is something that should be kept to PMs. If anyone has a problem with a store, I encourage you to contact the store owner and talk to them about it. They want your money, and if they can improve their operations most of them will. Just don't expect a butt kissing and that red carpet! I'm just kidding, I know you don't expect that. (laugh) As for chat... I hate chatting, that's why you'll never see me in there. Okay, never say never... but I'm just not a fan of that medium. Instant messaging, chat... bah! The LPP program here is pushing my comfort levels enough as it is! Hehe! I was tempted to jerk flash chat off the server after having those exploit scripts tacked onto it and getting our account suspended. But I know some of you really like it, so it stays. I'll just keep an eye on it. Post a reminder in the general forums about having a chat. See if that won't give you more participants! As for the sponsor issue... we had an emergency meeting about it because we are concerned about the welfare of the animals. It is being worked on, I assure you. And I know, a lot of people hate the "PMs only"... but you have to realize that if these accusations are unfounded it would be slander. Plus to be perfectly honest, I believe topics, such as that, which are potentially inflammatory in nature should be kept to private messaging. Why? Because, quite honestly, if we're constantly bickering who in the heck is going to want to be part of our club and participate on the boards? I know when things were getting ugly last year I questioned why I was staying with the club. But I stuck with it and look at me now. Secretary/Forum Admin... aka SUCKER! I don't know if I helped or not or just managed to tick you off even more! If I failed, you can give me a black eye the next time you see me if you want! (naner) And just because you're not on the board or not an officer doesn't mean you don't have a voice with this club. We have an open door policy. We're just going through some growing pains, so sometimes things do not go as smoothly as they should. Every year we get a little better. We all just need to be a little patient... and if you have suggestions, then say them! BTW, Blaine... you're good for the rest of the year. No more noise outta you! Just kidding! (naughty)

I did it. I bought the Canon Rebel XTi... course, they'll call when it comes in. It was out of stock. I ended up getting the kit lens because I just got so overwhelmed with the decision of what lens to purchase in its place! So now I just need to get a CF card, because I don't think the old 64 mb one in my Coolpix 2500 is going to work. (laugh) And of course I need to get a macro lens (looking at the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM) and some of those close up lenses to go along with it so I can magnify even more. And I still need to get a zoom lens. I didn't realize how costly image stabilized lenses cost! :eek: As soon as I get my new camera... and get it figured out, I'll post up some pics! (clap)