The Beast

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 29, 2010 -> 04:29 PM) Ha I wish. The relationship I've been in with a girl for just under 2 years has essentially come to an end. It's been hot and cold for about the past 6 months, but we've never really fought. It was mainly a matter of me being a huge POS for pretty much the entirety of the 2009 calendar year while she was actually being productive and becoming a legitimate member of society. So I had a bit of a revelation that I needed to step up and make changes, and thus far it's been great for 2010 - joined two very good business oriented organizations on campus, I'm looking for a job, and scouting out some internships. She told me last night that she wants to pursue another guy before she takes off to see if anything can bloom and the only reason she's really been hanging out with me is because she does still have feelings, but she wants to see me get on my feet more than anything, and she didn't want to hurt me. I told her that you have to hurt people as it's an inevitability in life, and I gave her the go ahead to try and get with this other guy. I don't know if he has feelings like that for her, but he may. Needless to say, I hope he doesn't, but it's out of my hands now. First true love too. Ouchers. Wite, While I know that you and other posters on this board probably don't want to hear me give any sort of relationship advice, I do want to at least assure you that I have gone through some of the same things that you have when it comes to relationships ending and the complications that follow. So hear me out - Your situation is comparable to mine (I dated my ex/first love for 3 1/2 years), though you are going about it a bit more mature than I did (initially) and the reasons that she gave you were more legit than what was given to me. I guess the red flag that comes up with me right away is that she seeks another guy before she heads out into the real world. Tell me, were you her only serious boyfriend? I have always thought that first loves really don't work out but if they do it is meant to be. What you are doing right now is absolutely the right thing to do. You are going out, not abusing alcohol over the breakup, joining organizations and bettering yourself. When the ex got rid of me in December of '09, the first thing I did was go to the gym and seek out my options as my life really wasn't full then. I was just about to embark on a new major (big mistake), try new things and stop being the little b**** that I was. The biggest thing for you right now is to not be a wuss and to channel your emotions into something different. For me, that was running the Chicago Marathon. I discovered what drove me again and I got focused on what I really wanted out of college. To get over my ex I worked, traveled to different colleges (UIC, ISU, NIU, Western Michigan University and St. Ambrose University), made some new friends, transferred schools and started over again. Maybe it was a bit extreme, but I had originally set out to attend a school to be a member of the media/teach English and to be close to the then high school girlfriend. I found out rather quickly that I didn't want to devote my life to the world of sports media and have to travel to UI-UC every two weeks to see her. (Though she was the one who broke up with me.) I found out that Eastern really wasn't for me and that I needed to find some place to succeed at. St. Ambrose seems to be where I can learn about business in a stimulating and encouraging atmosphere. They also took all of my credits, gave me scholarship money and told me that I can graduate on time! Sure it's catholic, but that doesn't mean s***, the women are hot and are definitely more approachable here. Basically all I want to say is that I can relate to you, Wite. And that I think you are making all of the right moves. However, I would say that you should keep reporting to the site. It comes to a point where you need to let go and just start dating someone else. I put everything I owned of her in a box (threw that s*** out when I moved to SAU), unfriended all of her and her contacts from facebook, deleted old emails and started fresh. For some, it is hard to do that. The whole breakup process took 1 year to complete before I officially could start living my life to the fullest again. My approach to women now is to not be a nice wussy guy but rather, to be myself with a backbone...I wish you luck with whatever you decide to do. Best, Ross P.S. Consider this - in the real world, can you have a job, be independent and stand up on your own without any dependence on parents or anyone else for support? Sometimes I think that only then a relationship is truly possible. As in, both people have to be mutually happy on their own to bring something to the table as far as a relationship goes. Just an abstract thought.

I didn't realize that this was somewhere else. If anyone feels the need to delete or merge it, go ahead - my apologies. As for Kruetz, I always thought he was one of the great leaders of the team. The fact that he had a closed door meeting with Angelo spoke volumes to me about him actually giving a s*** and standing up for either him or some personnel. Maybe I'm looking too far into it, I'm not exactly sure. All I know is that there is a void at one of the tackle positions and at left guard and it needs to be fixed. Is Omiyale a bust? Can Beekman step up and help anchor a weak Bears o-line? Should the Bears trade Hester? I'm sure that I'm just speculating and analyzing here.

Ready to take the dive with Smith after '10 campaign. I like the hire, but I still see the deficiency of the offensive line being a problem. The fact that Cutler doesn't have all of the time in the world doesn't bode well for this team. I'm curious to see what personnel changes occur on offense as a result of Martz's presence. Does it mean that Kruetz is gone (because Angelo is a b****)? Do the Bears make a move to up the offense again? The hiring of Martz is interesting although I don't think that he alone can save this team. What do you all think? (And who will be their defensive coordinator?!)

QUOTE (quickman @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 11:34 AM) Not sure what your argument is with me on this. Is it that I don't want thome back? or that KW put himself in this situation? TQ - Who do you think should DH, Kotsay, Vizquel or Jones? Do you think the platoon is going to be effective or is something up KW's sleeve here? Just curious now that Thome is out of consideration. (I hope he joins the Twins and rapes our pitching staff.)

Good work, Pratt. What are you trying to do with your degree? Do people actually do design work for the publication there? Is it weekly? Monthly? It's definitely one of the more tough fields to get into, especially if you haven't worked in an official j-school setting before.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 10:29 AM) I'm honestly not sure. I'm getting my B.S. so I've taken Calc and all kinds of Stats classes. I'm a math guy so I didn't really look into that. Well I was lucky to swing out a deal to take College Algebra instead of Applied Calc and finish off my senior year with Statistics. Thank the good dude upstairs.

Jim Thome and Ozzie Guillen. In all seriousness though I would have to say I'm hoping that all the newcomers step up and fill the holes well.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Jan 24, 2010 -> 03:14 PM) We cant take it to this level for a guy who's going to be 40 soon. We already had some signs of decline last year. If he's back we're better, but I'm not going to injure myself over it. Is there anyone out there besides what we have or Thome that makes sense for DH? I'm just curious because Jones seems to be on the decline as well as far as numbers go. Not sure about Vizquel or Kotsay's stats, though.

I'm going to be sure that if he joins the Twins that I'm in attendance for a game that he's playing in. I'm going to cheer as loudly as I can and cheer against the Sox while he's playing, much like when Frank hit that home run in his first game back as an A's player. It would be ridiculous to believe that we can use a DH spot with a platoon the whole year. No thanks. Bring Thome back, Guillen and Williams, you jackasses.

Last night we got like 15 people over at the house and had bud light, jager bombs, vodka and rum all around. Good times.

Someone at SoxFest rag on Guillen and KW to get Thome signed. What do you guys think about the platoon at DH? Looking at the Sox roster, does it make sense to re-sign Thome? It doesn't sound like KW is too enthused about the possibility of bringing Thome back...

I prefer listening to the Score over AM 1000 these days, not sure what you guys do though. When I was working over the summer, I really enjoyed Spiegs and McNeil's show and thought Boers and Bernstein were annoying. Anyone who puts furniture outside or something for parking is retarded. Also, I love deep dish. What's wrong with it as opposed to regular thin crust pizza?

I say Chicahhhgo. My dad and I differ on papers, I could give two s***s less but I enjoy the Tribune over the Sun-Times.

I don't like it when people take pictures at the Millenium Park Bean. I do like it when people are loud in the stands at USCF. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen all too often. I do love singing the Bears theme song. I hate the wave at sporting events. I love deep dish pizza and chicago style hot dogs. Anything outside of I-88 towards DeKalb is corn and anything south of I-80 is southern Illinois. Bloomington and Peoria f*** up my argument that Chicago is the only major city in IL.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Jan 20, 2010 -> 12:07 AM) I'm at Aurora University now. I really like the Business school here as most if not all of the my professors were officers at major corporations before coming to teach later in life. Their experience is really worth a lot. Yeah, I have a few friends that go to Aurora University. They are both on the women's cross country team and like it there. I almost thought about going to finish a business degree there. Do they have a BA degree where you don't take Calculus? At my school all we have to do is take Statistics - thank god! But yeah, it definitely helps having professors who have been through work in their lifetimes to teach something.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Jan 19, 2010 -> 10:10 PM) I have an adjunct for mine who is a lawyer as well. The material is challenging but if you have a good professor you should be able to learn quite a bit. My professor said that she taught our class much like a class in law school and thus a curve was needed. Where do you go to school? It's always helpful having someone who has worked in the industry teaching...

Mathematics for Business/Social Sciences 161 Principles of Marketing 309 Acct Principles II 202 World Civil History Since 1312 (Liberal arts requirement) Principles of Management Information Literacy, graduation requirement I probably could add another class but things are rather full at this point. I'm so ready to get back in the math mode and stuff. Too bad I can't retake Legal Environment of Business, that class was the s***. What with the adjunct professor who was a lawyer and learning about torts and stuff.

I'm on it. What's your name or industry on it? I think it's a necessary tool for college grads to show the recruiters what they have to offer.

While I do not believe in ghosts, I do believe that the old woman from that new Legion movie is f***ing creepy.

After watching a few episodes of the Office, I have to admit that Jenna Fischer is attractive.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 11, 2010 -> 10:17 PM) yes sir, grew up right off highland ave. I drove past there every weekday to pick up my brothers my junior year of high school (they went to Montini). Where'd you go to college and what do you do now? Almost all of my class at DGS either went to COD, ISU or UIllinois. QUOTE (BFirebird @ Jan 11, 2010 -> 10:53 PM) I live close to Highland Ave now off 31st Street in Oak Brook. I was a south subs guy growing up, but I like it over here. I don't know much about the schools around here though outside of their football programs. According to your profile you live in the West Loop now right? My wife and I wanted to move to the city, but with 2 cars and our offices are in the 'burbs...it just didn't make sense. I really like Oak Park and River Forest area of Chicago. I'd definitely move there if I had a job out that way post graduation. How are the football programs in your area? DGS is decent with Belskis at the helm.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 11, 2010 -> 02:25 PM) Anyone live in Downers Grove right now? That seems to be the most acceptable area based on our initial search in the west. Lots and lots of decent sized homes in the 250-350k range, lots of green, surrounded by homes that are 3-4 times as expensive, and at least with a couple of these houses, pretty "reasonable" taxes. I live in Downers and while I can't speak about what it costs to live where I do, I can tell you that you are better off sending your kids to Montini or Benet than Downers Grove South. It's all relative because I was misplaced in classes at DGS, and other schools heavily promote electives (or classes that aren't useful), but I would say if your kid thrives in smaller classes, send them to the catholic school. If I were to do it all over again, I would have spoke up on how they misplaced me in my math courses and went to Montini. Another plus about the catholic schools is that there seems to be a level of fairness in sports there. I never felt welcomed to football at DGS, and that is why I quit. Great place to live, however.

After giving it some thought, here is what I'm proposing for my 2010 resolutions - Live in the moment Meet a new girlfriend Meet new people Pursue the working in the sports industry dream, even if it wasn't what I thought I'd do in the first place (sports media job) Be realistic at the same time with how things can turn out Volunteer, continue to try new things Have a blast in my second chance at college

Have a blast in Davenport, grow some testicles and enjoy college.

She's got some guns on her.