Kudos to Pike for Human Events article and for daughter’s success in elk world
Kudos to The WOMA veep, Kirstie Pike, CEO of Prois Hunting Apparel on her article in Human Events about teaching our children to hunt and carry on the tradition. Her 17-year-old daughter, Hanna, shot her first elk, a 7×6 bull, recently — guided by her dad, Steve, and her grandfather, Jim Dog. See http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34318&page=1&viewID=1189518
Hanna Pike with her grandfather on left and dad on right.Don't they look proud of her!
2010 Bassmaster Classic Field Set
Editor’s note: Starting later next week, BASS will be accepting applications for working media credentials for the 2010 Bassmaster Classic, Feb. 19-21, on Lay Lake out of Birmingham, Ala. Working media can visit www.espnoutdoorsmedia.com to apply.
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Wow, what an easy way to convert media!
Lately, I’ve been working a lot with video. The biggest frustration I’ve found is how to get it from one format to another. I use Windows, so when somebody sends me a Quicktime file (.mov), I can’t edit it with Windows Movie Maker, which is what I use. I know there are all sorts of media conversion software programs available for download. Some are free. Some are cheap. Some are neither.
After a particularly frustrating experience with a video clip for a new website I’m working on, I finally found a solution to my conversion blues. Believe it or not, I found it on You Tube! At the time, I was looking for a way to convert a .mov file to .avi which is a format I can edit with Movie Maker. I ran across a video by ericleb01 that introduced me to media-convert.com, an online audio/video conversion site. Not only is it super easy to use, it’s online and there’s no software to download! All you do is enter the format of your media file (input) and the format you need (output). Media-convert.com uploads your media file, converts it and either displays a link to the converted file on the page so you can download it, or if you don’t want to wait, you can get the link e-mailed to you when the conversion is complete. Since it’s online, it doesn’t matter if you use Windows, Mac or Linux. As long as your file format is on their list, you can get it converted!
If you ever have problems converting audio or video to different formats, I highly recommend this site. I also recommend ericleb01′s video on You Tube that does a great job of explaining how to use the site. I’ve used it on several occasions already and it’s always done the job. It also converts media files that are online. It even works in nine different languages!
Oh, and did I say it was FREE
Let me introduce you to Itcha Mountain Outfitters!
November 5, 2009 by Amy Shaw
Filed under On the Road
Kirstie Pike
CEO, Prois Hunting Apparel
I am constantly on the watch for gear and services that are considered female-friendly. When recently asked what, exactly, makes something “female-friendly” I had to laugh at myself. Well, the 
explanation isn’t as simple as it would seem. I believe the term “female-friendly” may conjure up all sorts of images like 10,000-thread- count Egyptian cotton sheets, or Cristal Champagne. Nope. It’s neither of those. When one ratchets down what exactly makes a female-friendly outfitter, it comes down to three simple things: comfort, safety and experienced guides. That’s it. No fluff, no puff.
Let your happy light shine
November 5, 2009 by Kathleen Miller
Filed under Just Chillin'
“This is my favorite room of the house!” exclaims my visiting niece after taking the obligatory tour through our new log home in the woods of Western Montana. Hers would not be a noteworthy comment, except for the fact that we are standing in my husband’s workshop, out back and behind the garage.
An adjunct to the property that is home to the main abode consisting of a 20 ft. ceiling great room that boasts of massive log trusses and chandeliers, stunning decks, hardwood floors, and two hallways leading to bedroom wings completely furnished in rustic cabin style, this working space is spare. The windows are unfinished, the walls white, the floor concrete. A small wood stove rests in the corner. It’s a tangle of tools, wood pieces, guns, and fly fishing rods. Mountains of sawdust surround half completed “projects.” It’s Brad’s winter retreat for the daily cigar, his creative quarters when something needs constructing, reloading, or re-rigged—the man cave. No women allowed.
Yet it is Erin’s favorite room. The young nurse who enjoys a mug of afternoon tea, a Jane Austen book, and a sylvan setting in the woods cannot explain her attraction, but I can: it’s the “happy lights.”
When Brad and I began shopping for light fixtures for our new home, the expert at Western Montana Lighting didn’t take long to size us up; we still sported tans and blonde streaks in our hair. Most Southern Californians who relocate to Missoula drag around like the walking dead during the winter months.
“Get happy lights for the workshop, “ he recommended, figuring our high ceilings and glass inset doors would allow for sufficient light to penetrate the house itself. It took me a few minutes to adjust my mindset to the purchase of a light bulb that could actually elevate my mood. I’d sported a mood ring in high school that could detect my cerebral shifts, but a light bulb that could banish the blues? Indoor lighting that mimics natural sunlight by producing up 10 10,000 LUX of natural spectrum daylight in order to wage war with winter blues was only something I’d faintly heard of back under my native perennial sunny skies. Just as light therapy had been successfully used to treat tuberculosis in 1927 and jaundiced nursery babies in the 1950’s, now supposedly light therapy corrects Seasonal Affective Disorder, AKA winter depression.
Should we be concerned that we were building our retirement dream home someplace that required amped up lighting to keep us from plunging into the depths of seasonal depression?
“I double my dosage of Vitamin D-3 during the winter months,” a new acquaintance pointed out while giving me directions to the nearest post office—her directive being right up there alongside necessary services on her “new resident” information list. “It’s safe to take as much as 10,000 milligrams, they say!” Yikes. She might explode with happiness were she to drop in for a cigar in Brad’s workshop while partaking in this supplemental regime.
Mood-elevating lighting is noticeably white; it lends a bleached effect to any room. At first you wonder if it’s fluorescent, but during the time you attempt to determine just what it is that makes it unusual, you’re too satisfied to pursue the issue any further.
So the first winter arrived, and I waited for the slam—the anvil of ennui that would settle into my brain. I would wake up one morning and be unable to get out of bed. “Bring me one of those light bulbs!” I would weakly beg Brad so I could at least pull off the covers and make it as far as my bathrobe.
Day after day I waited; day after day, Brad retreated to his shop to “work.” He was unbearably chipper when he came in for a glass of wine before dinner. Was I crabby? I told him to tell me—do that intervention in case I didn’t see myself slipping.
December turned to January, January to February, February to March. I’d only cried over nothing a couple of times—par for me. I could always blame hormones for those episodes. In fact, I found myself feeling quite pleased when the snow fell and I enjoyed weather as an excuse not to leave the house to hustle off to some mundane meeting or pesky errand. Since childhood in the Beach Boys’ state I’d longed for a dramatic change of seasons. You might say I was genuinely happy to experience an authentic winter—the “White Christmas” of croon.
Hence, whenever I ambled out to the shop with a snack for my beloved, upon opening the door, I went from joy to juiced; I felt like I was having one of those near-death experiences where I’m about to step into the light. In the face of such false felicity I turned tail and retreated to the house where I could just be jolly.
Winter turned to Spring, Spring to Summer, and then one morning in Autumn, Brad asked me if I would mind tacking one of his errands onto the endless list of mine. Being a good sport, I agreed. When I learned it was to stop by Western Montana Lighting to pick up some track lighting he’d ordered for the storage room that he planned to convert into an office, I secretly bemoaned such a boring task: I hadn’t planned to head out Reserve Street quite that far, I had too many other things on my agenda, they don’t sell cute shoes. Begrudgingly, I sandwiched it into the proper order of my cycle, then upon arrival pulled my neck scarf over my chin against the wind, huddled in my jacket, and lumbered in as if I was on my last leg.
Steve, the man who had helped select lighting for the house, handed me a hefty box with Brad’s new apparatus and accompanying paraphernalia. While waiting to pay, I felt indefinable joy wash over me. I shucked my scarf, chuckled at Steve’s jokes and told a few of my own. I chatted with the receptionist, and grinned and cajoled with other customers. Then it occurred to me: this sudden bliss might be bogus. I gestured to the array of fixtures that illuminated the counter area.
“Are these happy lights?” I asked.
“You bet!” an employee who sipped her coffee answered, with an overzealous smile.
Disconsolate no longer, I skipped to my car, mindful of good-temper temporariness: once out the front door I was operating on residual merriment in the face of a long, boring drive home.
I have a proposal for automotive manufacturers who wish to ramp up sales during an economic downturn: Install happy lights on every car console. As it is, I may have to smoke a cigar when I get home.
~ Kathleen C. Miller
Kathleen is the author of 200 essays and stories that have appeared in such
publications as Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, Los
Angeles Times, Missoula Living magazine and The Christian Science Monitor. She is a
columnist for The Missoulian, western Montana’s daily newspaper, and her monthly
column “Peaks and Valleys” appears in Montana Woman magazine. Kathleen has also contributed to National Public Radio’s On Point.
Heide Kaser – Member of The WOMA
November 4, 2009 by The WOMA
Filed under Featured Members
Heide Kaser has worked for the National Rifle Association since 1999, and is now the NRA’s Assistant Director of Strategic Giving. She is currently working with national leaders to develop the Women’s Leadership Forum. This group seeks to identify, inform and involve women in the shooting sports, hunting and helping to secure the future of the NRA.
Heide became an FBI agent after completing her Masters in Criminal Justice at American University in 1985, and later took time off to be a full-time mother before joining the NRA Law Enforcement Activities Division. Heide is an avid USPSA competitor, loves shooting three-gun matches, and is learning sporting clays.
An invitation to celebrate turkey day at a pheasant place
This week, we will host the first Team Huntress Coed Pheasant Hunt in South Dakota. Couples and singles alike are heading to Pheasant Phun Inc. to enjoy world class hunting at its finest. The bird population is great and the camaraderie cannot be beat! We are anticipating great weather and loads of Pheasant Phun. This will be an annual event you don’t want to miss. Mark your calendar for the next TH pheasant hunt scheduled for November 11,12 and 13, 2010.
If you can’t stand to miss out on hunting over the holidays, celebrate Thanksgiving with Team Huntress Pheasant Phun Style, join in on our bounty of plenty. Bring your family and friends to experience South Dakota hospitality. Team Huntress is proud to announce a 10 percent discount to all WOMA Members. This discount will apply to the Team Huntress Outdoor Adventure Clinic and also for hunting adventures at Pheasant Phun Inc.
Team Huntress Outdoor Adventure Clinic – June 3,4 & 5, and June 10,11,& 12 2010.
For more information see http://teamhuntress.info/ or call 605 266-2848.
What’s the etymology of entomology?
November 3, 2009 by Amy Shaw
Filed under Editorial Exegesis
The headline on last week’s post “I hate to say I tolled you sew” evokes two homonyms (in this case told and so), words that sound like other words but mean something different. Homonyms can cause trouble for writers by requiring them to decide which version of a word to use. The best known homonyms might be to, two and too. But less well-known homonyms can be quite tricky:
Actress Jennifer Garner once portrayed the superheroine Elektra, who battles the forces of evil with her signature sighs.
Sighing may not be an effective way to fight evil. The correct word is sai, the Japanese word for a traditional, ancient short stabbing sword from the island of Okinawa.
Four sais of relief
Sigh and sai are true homonyms, in that they are pronounced exactly alike. Even more troublesome for writers can be false homonyms, words that sound somewhat (but not exactly) alike but are spelled differently:
Aquatic etymologists still debate the classification of the countless different species of mayflies and caddisflies that inhabit the American West.
An etymologist is one who studies word origins, and might tell you that the English word petty comes from the French petit, meaning little or small. The correct word here is entomologists, for scientists who study insects.
Unfortunately, there’s no “rule” or quick fix for dealing with homonyms (except perhaps to, two and too), since there are so many possibilities. It’s best to be aware of the words you’re using and choose wisely. But we should all do that anyway.
Here are this week’s editorial funnies to test yourself. See how many errors you can spot. Each example contains at least one.
Say what?
5. The sun began its slow but steady ascent into the cloudless, azure blue sky.
4. It is the slight of hand that the left does with rediculous name reversals (like “family planning”) that implies something that in fact does just not happen.
3. The last undimmed major steelhead river in California, the Smith and its tributaries, the Middle and South Forks, offer 300 river miles officially designated Wild and Scenic.
2. This doesn’t have to be about a hero who actually saved people’s lives, like that boy in Holland who stuck his finger in the dyke–it could be just ordinary people and there day-to-day heroism.
1. Even when hatched from the incubator, Gordon said that out of a hundred eggs he would be lucky to get one bird that passed his inspection.
Here are the answers to last week’s editing follies:
5. The bad thing about a horse is they have a mind of their own, and no matter how hard you pull on those reigns a horse is a horse of coarse.
When making a general statement, it often makes sense to use the plural, in this case horses. Wrong word. A reign is the period of time a monarch is in power. Those leather strips for steering horses are reins. Wrong word. Coarse is an adjective meaning rough or unrefined. The correct word here is course. Rewritten thus: The bad thing about horses is they have minds of their own, and no matter how hard you pull on those reins, a horse is a horse, of course.
4. The executive offices housed on the fifth floor proudly display the many celebrities and superstars that have walked its halls.
(Are the living celebrities imprisoned in cages for display? Are the deceased ones mounted like hunting trophies?) Missing word. Presumably the executive offices don’t display the actual celebrities and superstars, but images of them. Wrong pronoun. That is a pronoun for things. For people, the correct pronoun is who. Rewritten thus: . . . proudly display photos of the many celebrities and superstars who have walked its halls.
3. Many sniper rifles are equipped with muzzle breaks and/or flash suppressors as well as high-quality optics.
Wrong word. Should be brake. A muzzle brake, aka a recoil compensator, is a device fitted to the muzzle of a gun with ports, or holes, drilled perpendicular to the bore. These allow some of the gases from the exploding cartridge to escape the barrel sideways as the bullet exits the muzzle, thereby braking (slowing) the muzzle. That released gas pressure would otherwise be felt as recoil in the shooter’s shoulder.
2. There will be a private internment by invitation, with a public memorial service at the Whittington Center at a date to be announced. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family.
Wrong word. Internment is prison confinement. Should be interment (literally “putting into the earth”), synonymous with burial.
1. After pulling off two consecutive quarterly profits, spiraling consumer losses overwhelmed Citigroup’s strong trading results in the third quarter.
Dangling modifier. This says that the losses pulled off profits . . . which would be quite a trick. Rewritten thus: After Citigroup pulled off two two consecutive quarterly profits, spiraling consumer losses . . .
Respond or react? Mired or inspired?
November 2, 2009 by Amy Shaw
Filed under Business to Business: TIPS for WOMA members!
Energizing week. My latest book, The Reactor Factor: Dealing with Difficult Work Situations Without Going Nuclear has been published. I think about how much I love what I do, then must ask, “Why do people stay in jobs they hate?” I believe it is because they don’t know how to observe and package their talents, they don’t have updated resumes and they don’t feel comfortable with marketing themselves.
They are in the habit of knee-jerking to the negatives in the workplace instead of responding to the skills that are available to help them reposition and meet the challenge. I have a friend who just repackaged herself while working for a company that was being put up for sale. She was laid off, and within a couple of weeks, had a better, and better-paying, job than before. She had a choice: Respond or react? She responded and now is in a better place because she took personal responsibility for her outcomes.
You make a choice to be mired in the negative spiral or inspired by the opportunity. Amazingly, this is totally your decision.
So do you continue to be energized by your job, or are you stuck in a rut?
Marsha
The WOMA board member Marsha Petrie Sue’s new book — The Reactor Factor: How to handle difficult work situations without going nuclear
The WOMA’s Board Member Marsha Petrie Sue launched her latest book last week. Please help support her by passing on this message to your friends and colleagues.
The entitlement attitude in the workplace is killing success and business. Nobody owes anybody anything. Marsha Petrie Sue offers up a guide to make smart moves in tough times in her new book
The Reactor Factor: How to Handle Difficult Work Situations Without Going Nuclear. Check out the book trailer! No topic is sacred in this book because the goal is to provide a hands-on, hardcore workbook for responding instead of reacting.
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