The Bobcat Nation

I'm very much addicted to the "Bobcat Hangout" here. I really enjoy poltical and social debate, and quite frankly (with the exception of a handful of posters) egriz posters either get pissed if you even bring up politics or just poke fun of your post if they disagree with you.

Note: In no way is this turning me into a cat fan, but I just thought I'd let you guys in on my guilty pleasure.

Yeah, this forum seems to do pretty well during the "off-season" and it is interesting all of the different topics that come up and nice to see that rival fans can discuss other things without always falling back to the Cat-Griz argument. Amazing how dead this forum gets every fall though!

Re/Max Griz wrote:.....This is turning me into a cat fan, but I just thought I'd let you guys in on my guilty pleasure.

The Cats beat the Griz 3 out of 4 and you bolt....I'm tellin'. Bad Real Estate boy!

Cat-theotherwhitemeat wrote:

Re/Max Griz wrote:.....This is turning me into a cat fan, but I just thought I'd let you guys in on my guilty pleasure.

The Cats beat the Griz 3 out of 4 and you bolt....I'm tellin'. Bad Real Estate boy!

Its money...i bet he is thinking that he can sell more houses by bolting to the blue and gold

Shoot, the way real estate is selling in Montana, you can't be in a bad location!!!

bobcatgrad2005 wrote:Shoot, the way real estate is selling in Montana, you can't be in a bad location!!!

No, but you can always be stuck a Griz!

Cat-theotherwhitemeat wrote:

Re/Max Griz wrote:.....This is turning me into a cat fan, but I just thought I'd let you guys in on my guilty pleasure.

The Cats beat the Griz 3 out of 4 and you bolt....I'm tellin'. Bad Real Estate boy!

Yup, real estate bandwagon fan here...

Yeah, I agree. This section of the board is pretty much the sole reason why I have about twice as many posts here as I have on eGriz. On eGriz, I basically stop posting once the season ends (although I still read the board every day to keep up with the gossip on recruits, etc.)

Hey Re/Max, talking real estate, itsn't it amazing how quickly real estate in the Rocky Mountain West is still going up. Not just in land value, but sheer numbers?

A good friend of mine is thinking aobut writing her Master's Thesis on it. I guess they are calling the Rocky Mtn. front, from Taos, NM., to the Flathead area the 3rd Coast, like the East/ West Coast. Shes' interested in the historic preservation aspects, like reuse of old buildings and suff.

Can you share any amazing numbers? How long have you been selling in Missoula?

I guess it just goes to show we 'Cats are a more educated bunch

I read the athletics board still, but rarely post. If it weren't for this forum I'd probably not visit very often at all till next Fall.

I love a good debate! I find I either end even more sure of my stance, or just maybe get an understanding of why the other people think that way.

I have to admit that i OBVIOUSLY spend too much time posting on BN. my little one plays quietly at my feet with her legos, flash cards, puzzles or whatever and it gives me time to surf around. that wouldn't be the case if it were her brother, boys have WAY too much energy and interaction requirements. Of course once the weather is nice again I wont get to be such a fluff poster, we'll get our lives back

it's a good place to BS. so I guess it's my guilty pleasure as well and the topics are more interesting than some of the mastiff topics that the breeders shoot my way. I enjoy volunteering my time to research issues, but it's much more fun to read BN.

I'm really glad that people enjoy this board. I obviously do as well, as I like the chance to bounce ideas off of people, test my own ideas against the wisdom of others, and maybe even add a different perspective from time to time.

One of my "someday" projects is to start an online magazine that takes MT-centric issues and expands upon them in intelligent and insightful ways (depending on the styles of each writer), and then provide an area similar to this for each article for people to opine. In my business plan in my head, real names would be required for posting, so it would be like a real-time letters to the editor page, but much more interactive and much more interesting.

It would essentially be like Slate, but likely with a lot lower payroll and with a much better message board platform (their "fray" area is really clunky).

I don't know if there would be a demand for something like that to make it worthwhile, but it would be fun to try, and it would give a lot of good MT writers a venue to write something more profound than anything they can currently do within the constraints of their local newspapers.

It's nice to step out of the athletic realm from time to time and discuss other events. I remember one post on e-Griz where they brought up a "Bobcat Hangout"-esque topic in their "Random isht" section. Some e-Grizzers thought that it was out of place there. I thought the post was just like something over here. This is a good forum.

briannell wrote:my little one plays quietly at my feet with her legos, flash cards, puzzles or whatever and it gives me time to surf around. that wouldn't be the case if it were her brother, boys have WAY too much energy and interaction requirements.

I have NO idea what you mean All it takes is a little Beer and Duct tape and my boys are quiet and calm as can be....a little tip I picked up from my Mothers of Boys message board.

I have NO idea what you mean All it takes is a little Beer and Duct tape and my boys are quiet and calm as can be....a little tip I picked up from my Mothers of Boys message board.

oh but she changes the instant her bro bro comes home from school, than it's tornado time at my house I try and at least stay online so i can IM hubby overseas, there's like 9 hours difference, but admit to surfing the web more than i should.

I like the different views on BN, and well, it's just more fun than those journals I attempt to stay current on. figure if I don't keep attempting to exercise what's left of my mind on a daily basis - i'll lose it all completely

bobcatgrad2005 wrote: A good friend of mine is thinking aobut writing her Master's Thesis on it. I guess they are calling the Rocky Mtn. front, from Taos, NM., to the Flathead area the 3rd Coast, like the East/ West Coast. Shes' interested in the historic preservation aspects, like reuse of old buildings and suff.

Can you share any amazing numbers? How long have you been selling in Missoula?

I was at a Chamber event about 2 years ago and an economist from UM (didn't know they had such a thing in Missoula) was talking about the 3rd coast phenomena. He spoke about how Salt Lake, Phoenix, and Missoula were all cities experiencing such dramatic economic and population increases over the past 10 years. The economist continued to talk about the expansion in our western portion of the State, and the unprecedented possibilities for Montana's economic future. Of course he continued to discuss the dramatic decrease of both the populations and economies in the eastern portion of the state. He broke the state down in 3 sections- the western portion (Missoula, Bozeman, Helena, etc) is seeing a huge boom, the central portion is maintaining population and economy (Billings and Great Falls), and the eastern portion is seeing a dramatic decrease in population and economy (Glendive, Malta, Glasgow, etc). It was a very interesting presentation. I believe his name was Swenson or Swanson (something like that), he has caught a lot of heat because he believes that the State Government should not give financial assistance to the eastern part of the state because it is a lost cause, and invest primarily in the western part of the state because of the economic boom that is currently taking place. Anyway, there you have my two cents on the current economic temperature of Montana.

G.W.Bush wrote:I believe his name was Swenson or Swanson (something like that)

Samsonite.....I was way off.

CoryChen wrote:

G.W.Bush wrote:I believe his name was Swenson or Swanson (something like that)

Samsonite.....I was way off.

Good one Lloyd. You know if Mary Swanson (Samsonite) had married, for some reason, Lloyd Christmas her name would've been...Mary Christmas.

Yes, I like the more laid back, yet serious, atmosphere here on bcnation.com, too. egriz gets pretty gruff or fluffy sometimes. They have some moderate posters, too, but they seem to run and hide when the non-sense starts flying around. This Hangout section can get testy, but that's what you get when you're talking politics. egriz seems to save its big fights for things that "just don't matter people!" or the Bobby Debate, Lulay-Dickenson Debate, Poor Sport MSU fans Debate, etc. that keep coming up over and over.

My pet peeve lately is the "UM's big deal is playoffs, but MSU's is beating UM." Seems like four years ago the MSU game was the big deal, but since we've lost 3 of 4 it's not. Kind of like a little girl (sometimes big girl) when her pal gets something that she can't have, she acts like she didn't want it anyway.

hey Heather - girl we've expanded! we have another female poster and she's a grizzle!!!! - hello kitty must be on vacation - I think that makes 4 of us now

G.W.Bush wrote:

bobcatgrad2005 wrote: A good friend of mine is thinking aobut writing her Master's Thesis on it. I guess they are calling the Rocky Mtn. front, from Taos, NM., to the Flathead area the 3rd Coast, like the East/ West Coast. Shes' interested in the historic preservation aspects, like reuse of old buildings and suff.

Can you share any amazing numbers? How long have you been selling in Missoula?

I was at a Chamber event about 2 years ago and an economist from UM (didn't know they had such a thing in Missoula) was talking about the 3rd coast phenomena. He spoke about how Salt Lake, Phoenix, and Missoula were all cities experiencing such dramatic economic and population increases over the past 10 years. The economist continued to talk about the expansion in our western portion of the State, and the unprecedented possibilities for Montana's economic future. Of course he continued to discuss the dramatic decrease of both the populations and economies in the eastern portion of the state. He broke the state down in 3 sections- the western portion (Missoula, Bozeman, Helena, etc) is seeing a huge boom, the central portion is maintaining population and economy (Billings and Great Falls), and the eastern portion is seeing a dramatic decrease in population and economy (Glendive, Malta, Glasgow, etc). It was a very interesting presentation. I believe his name was Swenson or Swanson (something like that), he has caught a lot of heat because he believes that the State Government should not give financial assistance to the eastern part of the state because it is a lost cause, and invest primarily in the western part of the state because of the economic boom that is currently taking place. Anyway, there you have my two cents on the current economic temperature of Montana.

I'll tackle this one 1st. His name is Larry Swanson, he is the director for the Center of the Rocky Mountain West. I had him speak at two different Realtor events in Missoula. What he says in controversial, but I see truth in it. I also saw it as a little extreme as well. Larry, and his department, has started an online newspaper for the "Third Coast," The Headwaters News, http://www.headwatersnews.org/ Also here is the Center's website http://www.crmw.org/

Larry's message is that Montana pumps money into dying economies, Rail, Military, Mining, Lumber, Ranch/Farm. While we tend to ignore what is driving Montana's economy, tourism, medical, and real estate related services/businesses. His message is extreme, but I think he's trying to make a point, the Montana government over the last few decades has been so worried about our rapidly declining businesses and not capitalizing on what is really making us money in this state.