There are a lot of fine people here invested in this stock, some who even date from the Caribou days. I have seen, sensed and also experienced firsthand the anguish of the drumbeat we often throb to, waiting for the next News Release (picture Protobaggins' penguin in the background doing a serious dance shaking a maraca around a fire).

I don't know if it's my place to say these things but I figured the days coming up to the excitement and freshness of a conference is as good a time as any.

The question is regularly raised about when we will get the next Kodiak News Release. I would heavily caution investors not to expect one soonish. I say that even though I do not have any information on when we can expect one. I am writing this only because of what I've perceived in terms of a big picture vs. the unhappiness we experience (me too) when we get frustrated by waiting. However, there is nothing to be gained by holding your breath as it only causes you to turn blue, pass out and fall over (penguin now prostrate by the fire, still holding the now-silent maraca).

Kodiak is in a completely different mode than a year ago in terms of gathering and subsequently sharing information. Kodiak now has its sights set not on the latest hole but on the finish line. There is no longer the question of "do they have something exciting" - yes, they do; but instead "can they make a solid case to a major gold miner that a good piece of this is profitably mineable," which is a different question and requires a different operating procedure.

If you are driving a long distance cross-country you could navigate by looking down through a hole in the floorboards, watching the flicker of shiny stones and markings flash by, or you could look out in front of your car and towards the horizon. The latter is preferred.

One hole here and one hole there does nothing to impress a big company - they would laugh us out of their boardroom. They want a "whole ball of wax" understanding of at least one region's geology - the structure, the grades and extents, the vein systems and a host of other factors (ask Brian Maher).

In my own private estimation of the possible Hercules prospects, only but a small fraction of them have been identified, and I feel I am being conservative. Then there is stripping, surface sampling, shallow drilling and only then moderate-depth drilling and analysis. It is hard to keep in mind the contrast between the few prospect zones identified in Hercules perhaps a 1/2-dozen to a dozen of them, and the enormous area covered by the geomagnetic, gravity and other geophysical indications of the Hercules area.

An understanding of how just one zone, the Golden Mile, is hinged together is only barely coming into focus - and yet only 1/2 of it has even been stripped! The bulk of the Golden Mile remains swampy "virgin" forest, north of Golden Golden Nameless Lake. Something to think about. It is nobody's fault that the Golden "Mile" is so darn long - even calling it the Golden "League" (~3 miles, depending) would't do it - nor that the Elmhirst Intrusion is so big.

The geologist and mining specialists at Kodiak would only begin to be able to put together a meaningful description of Golden Mile/Lucky Strike at this point, and the majority of the worthwhile information even then is yet to come. They are making lightspeed progress and the drillers are punching their holes unusually fast (65 km already!), but it still takes 9 months to make a baby. Well, after the first part is done anyways.

The next three prospects systems, Maki++, West Geraldton++ and Bearskin/Sturgeon++ (where ++ is all their attendant zones), which are complete bonuses in relation to the stock price, even though they have been subject to a frenzy of effort have only just barely begun to be explored and are nowhere near to being understood and described in mining terms. Ditto the other Kodiak divisions.

Yes, it is true that your dog gets grumpy and might leave if you don't throw it a bone now and then, and I do personally hope we get something to chew on in the next few weeks. I was as guilty as anyone this Summer in eagerly obsessing "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?," asking to be pleased by the arrival of a News Release.

However, I understand the stunning magnitude of the major tasks at hand, and that information will only be useful to those at the finish line (the majors) in convincing and meaningful chunks. Kodiak is doing the wise thing and concentrating on a few areas, with a plan to sell some off and then continue with the rest, á la Virginia Gold. But even then I would be sad to see a lot of us fine people at Agoracom expending good energy moping and being unhappy without the speedy arrival of a News Release. At the beginning of the school year you are sad to see the end of Summer vacation and the next one seems impossibly far away. You get used to that and then before you know it you miss your friends because it's vacation time again.

The general markets are sick and getting sicker and that does nothing to help our stock price. However, the state of the general markets simply does not much enter into the critical-path of tasks that will take us to the finish line. The message that I've taken from all this is that we each have to make our own very clear decision about whether we see this as a long-term good thing. It has been proven by smart eggheads at the universities that day traders make no more money than the buy and holds. Personally I've decided that the markets are not going to be friendly to me but overall I can't picture being out of what I consider to be a very good prospect.

I hope I haven't worn out my welcome with such a ridiculously long post full of dogs, penguins, typos and kids yearning for summer vacation. I don't want to be a pumper or a basher in suggesting we hang in there or we don't, and as they say your mileage may vary. I definitely welcome anyone's input on how the heck we navigate these totally crazy economic times and how that relates to holding our Kodiak stock. Please speak up if you can illuminate us.

Fair enough, I too am looking forward to the next NR very much, whenever it does arrive. But given all of the above, our golden (there's that Bill C word again!) opportunity is to obtain the equivalent of our own news release this weekend at the Toronto conference. Keep your questions pithy, realistic and to the point and we could make our own chew-toy(s) to keep all us dogs happy.

Thanks for reading this far / all best / cedar