Well almost two months ago I had hoped to awaken from my blog slumber, but looks more like I hit the snooze and rolled over and went back to sleep. I may have hit the snooze button, but haven’t been sleeping, that’s for sure. I have since quit my job and moved into the brave new world of self-employment, which has been a dream of mine for a long time. Actually, I am starting 3 new businesses at the present time.

Firstly, I started a one-man web services consulting firm (not sure if a team of one counts as a firm), Web Exponent and am currently busy on a huge project at a local company in need of some web strategy help. I made my first bonehead move by putting the wrong phone number on my business which I swear I double checked. Doh!

Secondly, I am working on an outdoor product company with a friend. The company is called Goat Head Gear and we are hopefully about 8-10 weeks away from launching our product. There will definitely be more to come on this subject.

Lastly, I just started working on a new project with my neighbor that will also have a web sales component but we are early in figuring things out at this point.

Add to all of this, I am also helping one my longtime friends with a web software company he is starting. So somewhere in all of this I need to spend sometime with my family, exercise, and fulfill my responsibilities at church. Sadly blogging has fallen by the wayside a bit. I am hoping to start sharing more about Goat Head Gear on this blog as I think it suits the subject matter … Continue Reading

Thisisflydaily.com recently posted a you tube video showing a French guy landing an absolutely monstrous brown trout on a fly rod.  The thing is ridiculously huge.  What I can’t figure out is why during the entire video, the guy is losing his waders until they are eventually around his ankles.  Thankfully he is wearing some swimming trunks. Video below:

My good friend’s production company recently produced a video for the new Toshiba product called the Libretto (links here and here).  He wanted to put some fishing photos in part of the demo so he borrowed a few from my collection.  You’ll notice from :15-:20 a photo gallery with three fishing themed images. The images are the brown trout, me standing on a log in front of the Tetons, and a group of buddies I fished with recently, I don’t know who the bikini girl is, she certainly wasn’t fishing. I guess this 5 seconds will be deducted from my overall 15 minutes of fame budget.  Hopefully that leaves me enough time to still do something awesome.  Click for the full video:

I am hoping to make a return to more frequent blogging after a long and unintentional hiatus. Not sure how many of you missed me, but I have been meaning to get back on the horse and looks like now is the time.  Please check back frequently and share what you like with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Great horned owl

I went for a walk through the neighborhood tonight with our youngest son and our dog, Mr Beau Jangles.  We came across a great horned owl pair calling to each other from across the street.  At first we heard just one and it was right above us in the tree although it was too dark to actually see it.  A few minutes later we heard another across the way answering the call. I can still hear them now from the bedroom window.  Pretty cool.

ThisIsFlyDaily.com shares this nice looking video trailer for the fly fishing photography/videography blog fly-focus.com.  Check out the blog.  There are some really cool images posted that make me want to get out and go.

FLY-FOCUS Trailer from Marcus Sies on Vimeo.

Lazuli bunting (via utahbirds.org)

I recently “celebrated” my 5 year anniversary of employment at my current job.  They were kind enough to let me select a gift from a little online catalog.  I ordered some binoculars which have turned out to be pretty nice.  It is hard to imagine that I enjoy watching birds and prior to this haven’t owned a decent pair of field glasses (it is bad enough that I don’t have a decent camera for close ups). Today I noticed some birds that looked slightly different in size and behavior from any birds I have seen recently at the feeder.  To my surprise they turned out to be lazuli buntings (and this from utahbirds.org) and there were about 7-8 of them both males and females. They are strikingly beautiful birds.  Hard to imagine this is my first sighting of these little flying gems. Now I just wish I had a nice camera to capture them.

Zion National Park vintage poster

A recent article in the Deseret News brought together two of my favorite things: vintage graphic art and Zion National Park. I really love seeing these old photos, especially of the one where the little kid is hanging on to the rope for dear life. I think the poster to the left is super cool and I always try, but never really succeed at making cool vintage designs.  Hard to be the actual images.  Thanks Deseret News for sharing.

Pentax W90

The critics at Photography Blog have reviewed the recently released Pentax Optio W90.  Sounds like a good camera with some unique features, good image quality (except low light), and a decent price.  Click below for the full review.

Pentax Optio W90 Review (via Photography Blog)

Canon D-10

I have been watching these cameras since last summer and I think at this point if I was to pick up, I would get the Canon Powershot D10 which is reviewed here by tech gadget blog, Engadget. We currently have a Canon for the family camera and it does a great job and is easy to use.

Big Weber River brown trout

Wildlife biologists in Utah have been busy in recent weeks conducting gill net and electroshock studies on local fisheries.  Generally the reports have been quite positive.  Here are links to some of the results:

• Weber River survey report (via Salt Lake Tribune Fishing Blog)
• Big tigers and wild browns (via Utah DWR)
• Flaming Gorge survey report – big fish (via Salt Lake Tribune Fishing Blog)

Let’s get out and get some!