I started tying and flyfishing again at the young age of 62 after swimming with the sharks in corporate america for about 40 years. I found this site and went thru Al Campbells flytying tutorials as a refresher. I tied all of the flies to exercise the vast knowledge that I already had (from 40 years earlier). In retrospect I aproached the offerings of this master fly tyer too quickly and with way too much arrogance. I then combed the bulletin board for the few tying ideas that some of you may offer. I even tried a few of them. It is now a little more than a year and about 1K flies later. Each fly that I thought to be pristine at the time of tying was at best mediocre. Just for laughs I started going thru Al's tutorials again and found it amazing how much he had learned and added to his tutorials over the last year. I concentrated on each skill, every technique until I got each down as good as I possibly could - and practiced - practiced - practiced. I love to tie flies and fish them but Al taught me so much more. He taught me that no matter how refined my tying may become, IMHO, there will always be more to learn from experienced tyers who are generously willing to teach and a vast number of tyers who will make my best efforts look novice. So, THANK YOU AL for giving me the basic skills that I can use to further develop my tying skills. But even more, thank you for the great lesson in humility which allowed me to get my arrogance and ego out of the way so that now I can truly learn.