Re: DO WE REALLY NEED A FAQ..????

From: SHIVER ME TIMBERS (shiver_at_me_timbers.com)
Date: 02/16/05 

Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 09:21:54 GMT

> Jill. <news@REMOVETHISkintaline.co.uk> wrote:

> > Is a FAQ really necessary....... and why.
>
> probably not which is probably why we have not done one <vbg>

Thanks for your response Jill.

When I made my post earlier today I was a little afraid that you might
decide to throttle me by the neck for being as direct as I was.

TO THE GROUP --------> I've been lurking in this group for about
five years now and have enjoyed the conviviality of the regulars, while
getting a free education on the raising of chickens.

Mr. Hawkins is curious as to whether or not I have any experience with
live chickens and the answer is no I do not.

I don't believe that is a prerequisite for being a member of this group.

What brought me to this group originally was dead chickens.

Frozen dead chickens...... By the metric tonne.

You see I used to be in the import export business on the web some
years ago and I was starting to represent numerous businesses
that were in the food business, either looking to buy, or selling.

Everything from canola oil, bulk alcohol, fruit, vegetables, beef,
pork, and poulty. From China to the Middle East and everywhere
in between.

Now Jill..... If you stretch your memory you may recall one of the
first posts I made to this group where I was inquiring as to the
possible availability of turkey heads. That's right - turkey heads.

Thirty thousand pounds of turkey heads to be exact.

That particular post raised a few eyebrows to say the least, and
no folks.... I never did inquire as to what use the potential client
had for those heads.

I never did find a source either, but at least I tried.

Now for those of you mildly curious as to how I got my start in the
import export business - Well I owe it all to Cobalt Oxide.

What the hell is that you say.

Well that's exactly what I said the first time I came across someone
wanting to buy 50 metric tonnes of it per month.

I didn't know anything about it, but the word Cobalt seemed to have a
radioactive ring to it, and considering the client was in Belarus I had
visions of weapons going through my head. Can you spell dirty bomb.

Needless to say I was curious and spent a few days contacting some of
the largest chemical suppliers in North America.

Nobody seemed to know what it was or what it was used for, which I
found surprising.

Finally someone said they carried it in small 500 gram packages and
they were astounded when I told them I wanted a price quotation on
50 metric tonnes per month.

They told me they didn't think there was that amount in North America.

This was confirmed when I was contacted by a chemical supplier in China
who indicated that the amount I wanted was approximately three times
their countries annual output.

Isn't this fascinating folks.

But wait...... there's more.

That week I called a cab one night and went grocery shopping.

The cabbie was a black man from some Country like Ethiopia, and I had
been in his cab before and knew he was a family man with children.

I asked if he drove full time and he said no, and went on to explain
that he was a chemical engineer.

I started to laugh, and of course he asked what was so funny.

So I said.... Well if your a chemical engineer, then what is Cobalt
Oxide, and what is it used for.

He gave me strange look and said it's a compound used in the glazing
industry.

He couldn't believe it when I told him how much I wanted, and his
response was, do you have any idea how many cups and plates you
can glaze with 50 metric tonnes of Cobalt Oxide.

He was so interested in what I was doing that when we got to the
supermarket he told me he was going to turn off the meter while I went
shopping and that he wanted to continue the conversation while he drove
me home with my groceries.

When I got home that night I started designing a website and got into
the import export business with Cobalt Oxide as my first business
listing.

And the rest they say is history.

By the time I shut it down three years later, I had hundreds of
listings of which many of them were in the food related business.

My little hokey website hosted on Geocities was getting about
four thousand hits a month.

Now hits don't mean nothing, it's the serious e-mails that count.

I was getting about forty to sixty serious e-mails per month and
believe me that kept me hopping about ten hours per day.

But in the process I started to get junk mail and it was obvious that I
was winding up on mass e-mail lists.

As a result I do not use either a valid name or e-mail addy in any
postings I make to any newsgroups. And yes I do use different names
in different groups from time to time. No I do not e-mail anyone in any
group, under any conditions, for any reasons, and I do not invite
anyone
to try to contact me "off list" for any reason.

It doesn't matter who I am, or what I call myself.

For those in the know, a quick check of my posting headers will clearly
show everyone that I am 161.184.141.129 which is my permanent
static IP addy which identifies me to my ISP.

And contrary to what Mr Hawkins would have you believe, the fact
of the matter is that the last time I spoke to my ISP they made it
quite clear to me that there were no complaints against me, that
I was doing nothing wrong, and that they were glad to have me
as a loyal and paying customer.

If I have a comment, good bad or indifferent, relevant, topical or not,
I make it to the group, and take my lumps (if any) like a mature adult,
as they may come.

In the past four years I have not sent an e-mail to anyone... period.

Nor have I received any e-mail from anyone that I personally know.

Yet each week I receive about two thousand junk e-mails as a result of
my commercial site, and every Monday I download them from my ISP and
immediately delete them.

And every time someone chastises me for supposedly being anonymous
by not using a valid name or addy I think of those thousands of spam
e-mails that I delete each week and say no thank you.

And if you have been reading my post this far, and frankly who isn't,
I say to you on behalf of Shiver Me Timbers, greetings from Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada, the home of tasty Alberta beef, and where the chickens
are always tasty.

And if anyone wants to know who I really am.... well this is who
I really am...... 161.184.141.129.