Phaedrus

I'm amazed and relieved in equal measure that LeeRichards hasn't jumped into this thread yet...

Ice-fishing: you're doing it wrong.

All the best, Erin. We'll miss you!

Two problems that rail freight has, that road doesn't. Firstly, rail doesn't go door to door. Even if you do the bulk of the journey by rail, you've still go to get the container to the train on a truck, and then get it off the train and onto another truck to get it to its final destination. This takes time and effort, and therefore money; at present, it's cheaper to send most things by road. And that's assuming there *is* a viable rail link for most of the journey. The only things that are likely to change this are massive investment in rail infrastructure (hugely expensive in a country the size of Canada), massive congestion on the roads, or rising oil prices. Secondly, passenger and freight trains don't mix. Those mile-long trains carrying coal or ore or whatever don't move fast; passenger services can't afford to get held up by them (at least, not if they want to have any passengers). And that means you have to have multiple parallel tracks; again, expensive. As for passenger services... last time I investigated, going from Ottawa to Toronto or Montreal by train cost around the same as driving... but you have to get to/from the station at each end (hassle, expense), wasn't much faster, and the trains just weren't leaving at convenient times. And that was from central Ottawa to central Montreal/Toronto, which is pretty much the ideal case; if I'd been looking at going to/from suburbs it wouldn't have been even a remotely close call. The huge advantage of the car over almost everything else is convenience and flexibility. Rail can only compete with the car under two circumstances: when there's a lot of trains, and cars have additional costs associated with them (e.g. the daily commute into large cities), or when the speed of rail is enough to overcome its other downsides (long trips). If you had enough track and ran enough trains to make rail a viable alternative to the car in most cases, it'd require massive initial investment and huge subsidies to run. And long-distance, if you're not taking too much luggage with you, planes are cheaper, for the simple reason that you don't need the infrastructure. You just have to build airports; there's no need to lay track between them. This also means that air routes can be added and removed and changed as the market dictates, in a way that rail can't, so you don't get stuck maintaining unprofitable infrastructure.

This is relevant... sort of. You're only as old as you want to be.

Oh, you should have known better than that while I'm posting mountains. K2. BWAHAHAHAHAHA. (it's also known as Godwin Austen :) )

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/state_web_spring Funny. And true.

It would have been even better with some inescapable menus in there. Of course, at any time they could hit 0 to... er... go back to the hold music. And on that note, this is absolute genius, and incredibly funny, and absolutely worth the ten minutes it takes to watch. So, who's in for doing this to Rogers and Bell...

Read the reco threads. Read the scams/warnings sections. Use the search functionality. If you're interested in someone in particular and can't find anything, you can always ask to see if anyone else has any info. If you can work out where the SP is based, or where else she visits, that may be a good place to look for recos or discussion. If she's with an agency, see where they're based and check out their recos. But there are some bad actors out there who skip from place to place, alas....

Alice Cooper is playing Ottawa Bluesfest this summer, and supporting these guys. I'm looking forward to that one. Iron Maiden - Infinite Dreams

Well, since nobody's replied to this yet, I'll take a stab at it :) First, and probably most important: take the time to work out what you're looking for, and how much those things matter to you. There are plenty of folks who have preferences for body type, age range, hair color, tattoos and piercings (or not), although they may not talk about it all that much. But also, don't be too restrictive here, or you'll eliminate almost everyone before you start. Secondly, what kind of an encounter do you want? Quick, or multiple hours? PSE? GFE? Something else? Are certain things important to you (kissing is one that comes up over and over again, here)? I've mentioned these categories of things first because its usually (not always, but usually) relatively easy to work out whether a given lady will be right for you or not, based on her pics, ads, website and recos. So, on to the more difficult but also more important stuff... the personality aspect of things, and finding someone you'll actually get along with - which pretty much all of us agree matters, but is nevertheless very hard to do. First of all, accept that this isn't an exact science, and however good your research you'll inevitably have some encounters that just aren't that great because you have no chemistry with the lady concerned. There's nothing wrong with this. It doesn't mean that either you or her did anything wrong. It's just a reflection of the fact that we're all different. On this one, I've found that the best bet for a rough guide is the ladies' ads and, especially, websites; some SPs put a *lot* of time and effort into their websites and you can get a pretty good idea of what they're about from them. However, the best way of working out the personality stuff I've found is just being on CERB, and having conversations with people. Over time you'll get to know them, and you'll start to get an idea of which people you might be interested to meet. And then you'll probably find that they're on the wrong side of the country and don't travel, but nothing's perfect... You'll also see pics and ads and recos go by, and as you read those you may well stumble across gems that you'd like to get to know a little better. I have a list in my head of ladies I'd like to see, as and when the opportunity arises, mostly based on something I've seen here on CERB that piqued my interest. Alas, that list is more extensive than my financial prowess, and that's before you consider the ladies I've seen who I'd like to see again. *sigh*. The one thing you actually mentioned ("right lady verses the right now type") sounds like one of those intangible things; I'd suggest looking through ads and websites until you find someone who feels right. It sounds like you're looking for the type of person who *would* have interesting ads that reflect her personality, and probably maintain a website, rather than just a cellphone and "Free tonite, cum see me" style ads. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with the latter, of course - it just doesn't sound to me like what you're looking for. Finally, a disclaimer, which you've seen before: YMMV. What I've described above is what works for me. I'm sure other people have different methods of doing things. So, there you have it. Hope those ramblings were useful!

But once you've launched into the wide blue yonder, take care not to end up... Tom Petty - Free Fallin'

Up yours, slacktivists!

It should perhaps be mentioned that the "farewell sex" thing seems to be the invention of a columnist/blogger who appears to be well known for some of his more off-the-wall ideas. The lowering of the age of consent does seem to be real. http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/04/30/211238.html

The Eiger. No pic this time, but here's a vid of the famous North Wall being climbed, solo, in record time. It's... impressive. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vx7GKAUDC0&feature=fvst

This is my life.

I like piano8950 because he's a great new addition to the CERBhood!

I daresay Mod will get to it, but he isn't online 24/7/365. It'd help if we could find someone who's seen Brooklyn/Hailey *and* Nicole/Madison who could give us a definitive answer. Which, I should add, doesn't have to be in public - I'm sure a PM to Mod would suffice.

A couple of things. First: +1 on the benefits of splitting the MA and SP advertising forums for Ottawa. It's made things much cleaner. Tip o' the hat to Mod for that one. Second: Are there seriously that many people who won't click through to page 2? Third: if you let paid advertisers stay on the first page, you'll rapidly have to pay to get there at all. And what happens once there's enough that they won't all fit? Some kind of auction system? Finally: Mod, if you're reading... I know you can configure how many posts appear per page when reading a thread, but would it be possible to add a config knob to allow us to fine-tune how many threads appear per page on the forum pages? This would perhaps help somewhat with the issue raised in this thread, and it'd also help with the general forum and others where there's a lot of sticky threads. Personally, I like to reduce clicking and get as much on one page as possible...

Really? Learn something new every day... Anyway, my favorite: We're trash, you and me We're the nipples in the trees, We're the lovers on the streets Suede, Trash I have no idea how I ever mis-heard that so badly, but I did. Repeatedly.

I don't wear any when seeing SPs. There's a non-trivial number who seem to be allergic to it, so it's easier not to. And assuming that you've done the rest of the hygiene thing before you show up, it's not as if there's anything to be, er, smothered.

Pretty much everything by Terry Pratchett. It's all very silly, and frequently hilarious, but it sometimes throws you a serious curve-ball too. He's most famous for his Discworld books, although the one book of his that I really love is Good Omens. Minor hijack: Ford Prefect wannabees can head over to http://h2g2.com/ and contribute. The site seems a bit flaky right now, but putting God's Final Message To His Creation on the front page is a nice touch under the circumstances.

True. I've never even *heard* of anyone being written a speeding ticket that was actually as fast as they were going, except for one person with an already-horrible driving record. What *really* pisses me off about all this is not so much the fine paid to the courts, as the fact that your insurance company will then proceed to gouge you and line their own pockets for the next few years.