The Whistler

How do you not lose your composure in this kind of situation?

I say play our game and if the refs don't know what hockey is we'll at least go down playing hard.

Wow, you've got a time machine too, because that's right on.

Frattin, Frattin, Chay, Blood. 4 to 2.

What I do to accomplish the same thing is to just open up the disk and copy the entire DVD over to a folder on my hard disk. Then I use Any Video Converter, free, to change the VOB files to a format that you can use. (I usually just stick with WMV files). There will be a ton of files there, but you don't need to worry about them all. Check the size and ignore all of the small ones. Then if you want to edit the movie you can use Windows Movie Maker. Ripping the DVD with VLC is probably easier but this is how I figured it out myself.

I'm thinking the same way, but if he can do some extra stuff off ice, like work with some troubled yout's it'd probably make up for that other stuff. Just a thought.

A win and a tie for the Sioux.

In the late 90's we had some really deep teams. We'd have 3 skill lines that were pretty much even. This year we might even be able to consider the #4 line a scoring line.

He should be doing some talks in front of some JD's to get some credentials for that big prize at the end of the year.

So when the Sioux sweep this weekend are we going to have to keep the same school bus until we lose which will more than likely next fall.

Looks like some good news at least for today. (breathing on his own) I hope things keep getting better.

Two tough games, two gritty Sioux wins.

Prior to the spring of 2009 the School was officially still in favor of keeping the name and the Board of Higher education was thought to be of the same mind.

Is this really all about getting the nickel trophy back to Fargo?

Good point matt. It's the lies that got me going on the Alerus issue. I can't imagine how successful the center would have to be in order to make it worth the lies. I think what we need to do is lease the facility out to someone who knows how to run an event center. Venuworks and the Alerus Commission have proven to be entirely incompetent.

Actually I did check Google Earth. You said 2 blocks (repeatedly) and then act like I've never been to Grand Forks because there is no high density traffic two blocks away from the Alerus. When I asked what you were talking about rather than correct your error you compounded it. Of course you're confused on what caused the new retail to move in as much as your difference. Target built out there, because they were building super centers. Lowes and Best Buy were building new stores. That's why we got that new shopping area across from Menards and in the area West of the existing shopping (west of the Super 1 shopping are). That was a natural progression of the shopping in the city. It's interesting that you bring up the hotels that formally hosted a lot of weddings. It's true they were getting faded and it was probably time for a new hotel to be put up. Unfortunately with the city's interference in the market that won't happen. Pity because the new hotel would have been expected to pay it's way and even contribute to the city's tax base.

It's funny that the business model of the Alerus has devolved into football games and weddings. If I'm not mistaken we had UND football games for decades and decades before the Alerus and the Alerus is only stealing the wedding business from local tax paying businesses.

So it is the Target area that you're talking about. Didn't you say that was two blocks away from the Alerus. LMAO. That's 1.5 miles away from Alerus. No wonder why nobody could figure what you're talking about. The area that's half a mile from Walmart but 1.5 times miles from the Alerus. They built there because that's the shopping area. Meanwhile the hotels are built near the shopping and not near the Alerus, which if it were the draw you say it is they'd be building there. The Ralph draws far more people than the Alerus. If you were to look into it the entire town fills up for hotel space, quicker than the Britney Concert for example. By your reasoning all kinds of hotels would open up near there, but even though it's far better than the Alerus's events there aren't enough of them to fill a hotel. That's why they locate near the shopping where people go week after week. A few events at the Alerus a year (aside from weddings which seem to benefit CanadInn and CanadInn alone) isn't enough to build an unsubsidized hotel. When Columbia Mall moved out there it was all but inevitable that the shopping district was going to expand there. That's rather than the Alerus site, which was another option at the time, or further south of Grand Forks, which is becoming a smaller shopping district. Canad Inn went in because of a seven million dollar incentive package that the taxpayers have to cover. I'm sorry if I'm not impressed. Nor am I impressed that they're bribing another motel to move in across the street. If the Alerus were successful they wouldn't have to give away the farm to get someone to build next to them. And as I said before, it was obvious back in the mid 70's where the town was going to grow. I fail to see how investing in a losing operation like the Alerus, taking money out of our economy and getting a pittance back is somehow helping us grow into a big city. And finally even if there was a net benefit to having the Alerus I fail to see why I should be forced to pay for an attraction for the hotels and restaurants. I don't own a hotel. I wish them well, but I don't think I should subsidize them in any way. I'll tell you one thing, during the event center debates they sure as heck didn't think that there should be an extra tax to pay for an event center. I found that very telling that the businesses that were going to benefit the most didn't think it was worth their money.

Two blocks from the Alerus? I didn't find any high density shopping. The closest shopping of any consequence is the Menards area, that was developed in 1985. I hope you're not talking about the area South of there (Target is about 1.6 miles away). That was put there as part of the overall building trend that started in 1977 when the Columbia Mall started going up. (I'm close on the 77, but I could be off by a year.) Across the property is an office building that has no connection at all with events at the Alerus. However I think you can credit the Alerus with them putting it there. The city council wrote of their taxes for years AND funneled a bunch of low interest money. I think their motivation was to try to trick gullible people into thinking that the Alerus wasn't such a total failure. The hotel next to the Alerus was given a massive amount of money (I've heard the package was up to 7 million dollars, but haven't been able to confirm that) to build next to the Alerus. The mayor of GF said that CanadInn was going to save the Alerus on the Huseby radio show. The hotel across the street is also being given government charity to develop there. I did quite a bit of research on the subsidies of the Alerus businesses. I wrote about it here: http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/alerus-area-development-is-all-subsidized-to-make-the-alerus-look-less-bad There are hotels down by the Amundson Funeral home that you seem to think that the Alerus brought in. Why is it that they build as far away from the Alerus they could on that road and as close to the shopping as they could. It's because they built for the shopping and not for the Alerus. As Local Boy already pointed out there just aren't events at the Alerus to get hotels built. (The Canadinn probably does well enough.) Finally I think that I know what apartment building you're referring to. The one that's going up next to the apartments that have been there for years before the Alerus was built. I can't imagine why you'd think that the Alerus would bring in an apartment building anyway.

Are we talking about donations to the NCAA here? In 2005 UND was fighting to keep the logo. Why would anyone be upset with UND over that. What people ought to be upset is that UND purposely dumped the name rather than fight it.

How many of these donations came in before the name controversy. I haven't dug into it yet, but they counted on gift from an estate (how long ago was that decision made) that was announced in the 2008-2009 annual report. (That's one that I picked at random, although I did decide to pick an estate.)

What in the world are you talking about?

The city attempts to do that BobIwabuchi. According to City Documents, in the first half of the year the net economic impact of the Alerus was 1.66 million dollars. During that time the Alerus taxes was over twice that at 3.6 million dollars. That's right, the city lost two million dollars. Of course a few of the businesses that cater to those people may have made money. But it makes no sense for me to have my money taken away, washed through the city, and having a small part of that go to some businesses that I probably wouldn't choose to support. If I did I'd just as soon get the services myself. In other words it's a big net loser and the people benefiting aren't the ones who are paying. If it was such a sweet deal wouldn't the hotels and restaurants be willing to pay it themselves and leave us skeptics out of it.

Not to start a flame war so all I'll say is that conservatives aren't racists.