Hi Gary, That little building in the back? I don't know if it's the same there in Australia, but on the east coast of Canada perhaps the most important room in the house is the kitchen. Whenever there are parties, gatherings or even when company stops in they seem to congregate in the kitchen. The same is true in Newfoundland (Canada's most easterly province and an island by the way). However, "The Shed" or garage for those not fortunate to have their own Shed is the place to be! This is where the great minds of the community congregate to discuss matters of great importance. Important decisions are made, such as: - What's the best beer? - What was wrong with the last government? - What kind of beer they drank? - Who the next government will be? - What kind of beer they should drink? - Are going to raise taxes? - Will they lower taxes on beer? - Where are we going fishing next week? - Who's brining the beer? And other matters of great importance. And when the wife gets mad at you! It's your home away from home! :-)

with that sort of activity going on in the "shed" it seems more like a castle of great minds, oh yeah and beer. Ice fishing decisions now a days, gearing up for them overnighters in the hut, fishin by the light of the full moon and keepin the beer in one of the biggest fridges you could ever see. It is a pretty weird thing if you think about it. You and a few buddies are out on a frozen body of water sittin in this hut with some form of propane heat, and it is dark in the hut cause you don't want to have a huge lot of light, or your hole in the ice stands to stick out like a flashlight beaming its light into the cold, dark water. Then you open the hut door to reach outside into the fridge (beer sitting on a frozen body of water gets real cold) to get a nice frosty beer and the light from the full moon reflected off all the ice and snow just a beams into the hut like a Photon Torpedo fired from the bow of the Starship Enterprise, just like when you open the fridge door at home. Now I don't know what all that has to do with anything, I guess I just got caught up in it when Winstion said beer a couple of times.

Yep. Yep. Yep. I just HAD to do it, didn't I? I had to dredge this thread back up. How time flies. We all had so much fun here (well, I did, at least) and it was all BEFORE Christmas last year. Peter, that ice fishing paragraph was so visual. Well said! I must have missed this before. Maybe I was too busy playing Custer or tossing cyber-grenades or something - LOL! Seriously, that little piece of writing was VERY good. I really liked it. Now, anybody got anything else to say about MLM's? I'll spar with you if you want. Ooh, here's a juicy little snippet... The Australian breakaway from Mother Amway, called "Omegatrend" which was set to start up in the UK and the USA and a few other places, has recently been placed into receivership with unpaid debts of more than $2 million. The Australian newspapers are all over this. Yet again the krill at the bottom of the heap were being paid too little for doing all the work while the whales at the top just glided around with their mouths open sweeping up all the greenbacks. Gary

Well Gary, I don't want to spar with you but I do have something to throw out there because I am a little confused. I know you are against MLM as are quite a few and I totally agree with these quacky get rich schemes. But I can't totally throw all Network Marketing companies into that same barrel. Say you were diagnosed with terminal cancer and the doctor sent you home to get your affairs in order. Told you that you had about 3 months to live and there was absolutely nothing that could be done for you. Your friend Joe,(just pulling out a name, maybe you have a friend Joe)or someone you know from around your town comes to you and offers some hope that has some good scientific backing to it. Are you not going to think about trying it just because the company that sells it is a Network Marketing company? I'm just asking this because I read all of these posts about MLM being the devil of all devils and it is the same thing as Network Marketing. I just can't see that they are all in the same boat. Martha

Hi Martha, ================ "Well Gary, I don't want to spar with you but I do have something to throw out there because I am a little confused." ================ Now don't take that too literally Martha. If you read some of this thread you will notice that I like to stir the pot a bit to get folks revved up enough to make comments. It was just a bit of a turn of phrase - no offence intended. ================ "I know you are against MLM as are quite a few and I totally agree with these quacky get rich schemes." ================ Well, the reason I am against MLM/Networking is because I spent ten years trying everything I knew to make it work. I got to a mid-level achievement in one of the three I tried but the work I had to do FAR outweighed the reward. And, after the wash-up I was "greatly out of pocket" too. With the other two I was pushing the proverbial you-know-what up a steep hill. My belief is that on paper these things are great. It's just when you add the people to the recipe it all falls to pieces. Regarding your hypothetical: ================== "Your friend Joe,(just pulling out a name, maybe you have a friend Joe)or someone you know from around your town comes to you and offers some hope that has some good scientific backing to it. Are you not going to think about trying it just because the company that sells it is a Network Marketing company?" ================== LOL! ACTUALLY... I DO have a very good friend called Joe. He's from New Jersey. That aside... no, under those circumstances I would try anything - as I am sure most folk would. Then again, I don't like electricity much but I still use it. Same with petroleum products and plastic bags and a whole heap of other things. My beef with MLM/Networking is that it comes with such great promises (oops I mean "Dreams" to use the MLM jargon) but I have NEVER seen it deliver. If anybody else knows of just ONE successful MLM/Networker then I'd like to be informed of this person. In fact, please invite them here. It would be great to get their point of view. ================ "I just can't see that they are all in the same boat." ================ Then we'll just have to agree to disagree on that point. I see them all as being the same - BIG promises, small deliveries. And eventually they all crash leaving shattered people to pick up the pieces and move on with their lives. The biggest MLM of them all has many of its "big pins" embroiled in nasty divorces and massive lawsuits. You'll all know which MLM I mean. Just type the name into Google and add the word "complaint" to it then stand back! The screen will explode at you. Thanks for your comments Martha. I respect you and what you have said. Looks like the MLM thread us back in town folks. I can hear the groans already - LOL! Gary