farmteam

Got a notice in the mail today from the Census Bureau, saying that in a few days I'll receive a questionnaire that's part of the "American Community Survey" which I've never heard of, but whatever. I just thought it was interesting that the informational pamphlet included was in 6 different languages. Not sure on all of them, but I think they were English, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian, Korean, and some sort of southeast Asian, perhaps Thai or Vietnamese.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 09:00 PM) Well... let's just say that this foreign aid keeps a few million (yes, million) workers employed in this country. Maybe I'm just a bit slow tonight, but can you expand on that?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 09:03 PM) Just to note...the amount this country spends on foreign aid is less than the amount we spend in a couple weeks in Afghanistan. The Iraq war could pay the non-war foreign aid budget for something like 150-200 years. Oh I'm not even touch that argument with a 10 foot pole, even though we'd probably have roughly similar goals.

QUOTE (God Loves The Infantry @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 08:51 PM) I'm not advocating military aid for them so they like us more or to make them think America is totally great. I'm advocating it in return for something that I want for America. Beyond that benefit of getting to watch al-Megrahi die in our hands, f*** 'em. They can vote for sharia or a liberal democracy for all I care. I just want Megrahi. Frankly, we should use foreign aid in a more controlling way. Cut people off when they start acting a fool. Why does Pakistan still get money from us? Or the PA? These people suck. Let's cut them off until they stop acting like little assholes. I mostly agree with your second statement. A lot of aid seems either unnecessary, egregious, or both. Not to mention, I think a lot of it would be better spent on stuff within the country.

QUOTE (God Loves The Infantry @ Oct 23, 2011 -> 11:46 PM) I still believe Libya is about to fall to radical Islam, so while I believe Gaddafi got what he deserved and is just one asshole killed by other assholes, I'm not celebrating wildly because I don't see that country improving anytime soon. I stand by that. QUOTE (God Loves The Infantry @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 06:38 PM) I think we should make some nice offers to the NTC for this dickhead. An increase in foreign aid, some weapons for the military, maybe some training for their soldiers? I'm not sure what, just give 'em something nice for this goon. QUOTE (God Loves The Infantry @ Oct 24, 2011 -> 08:00 PM) Absolutely agree. Appeasement never works. Ok I'm really really confused. So "Libya is about to fall to radical Islam" but it's fine to give them military aid even though "Appeasement never works?" Not trying to be a jerk at all, I tried to not to quote of context at all there. I'm just really confused by this collection of viewpoints.

It's almost like asking, "Is Heads drunk, or is Heads not sober?"

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 21, 2011 -> 07:42 AM) Normal beer is 3.2%. That is your taps of regular or lite Miller's and Bud's. Something like Icehouse is 5.5%. 3.2 = Water It's all they sell in grocery stores in Minnesota, you have to go to a liquor store to get normal. I mean, even Keystone is like 4.2

QUOTE (Felix @ Oct 22, 2011 -> 03:12 PM) I don't really give a f*** about college football, but I happen to have the Minnesota/Nebraska game on and just saw possibly the worst rule ever be enforced. On fourth and two, Nebraska tried to convert a backwards pass, but it was dropped by the receiver. However, he batted it forward past the first down marker, and since they touched it last, they got a first down out of it. Holy jesus that's awful. Yeah I saw that. I think they said it was because they considered it a "backwards pass" instead of a fumble. Seemed like a terrible call.

Hahaha, as of this moment, IU is the only FBS team eliminated from Bowl contention.

My cousin goes to Purdue, so we always have quite a bit of banter back and forth (since I went to IU). First I told him not to go to the game so I could just hope for the stadium to blow up. Then I told him I actually hope Purdue wins for two reasons -- 1, It would be amusing to me if Illinois collapses and 2, I don't think Purdue will make a bowl anyway, and even if they do, that means they'll probably keep Hope, who is a terrible coach. Then he'll get to experience what I did with Lynch. In 2007, my freshman year, Lynch was the interim coach after Hep died. Even I could have lead that team to a bowl game, but he got an extension anyway. Even though our record is worse this year, at least there's some hope. Speaking of which, I've heard mixed things on Wilson, and a lot of this probably ties into Kiel re-opening his recruitment. Apparently Wilson is rather crazy and a hardass, and I've heard tell it takes a "special kind of player" to play for him, according to people who played under him at Northwestern. I don't care if any of that is true as long as he wins. Roberson actually looked pretty good in the first half. As is always the case with IU, though, the defense is craptacular. That needs to be fixed more than anything. That and the penalties. We can't have this many penalties and be a good team. I've always thought that penalty problems indicate a coaching problem (lack of discipline), and I won't stop thinking that now. However, I realize it probably is a little harder given that not only is it a new system for all these guys, but Wilson is playing a TON of young guys (I think something like 16 TRUE freshmen have played, and a ton of redshirt freshmen and sophs have played too), and they tend to get penalized more. Because of all the youth on the field, my hope is that we'll get better over the next few years, and that Wilson can recruit pretty well to add to it (even if he loses/lost Kiel, the class he brought in this year, even in a limited time, was better than anything Lynch brought in [yes a lot of them were Lynch guys, but Wilson brought in a fair amount of his own guys after he was hired, and theyve done well]). His 2012 class is shaping up to be pretty good as well. But again, along with penalties, we can't go anywhere if we can't play defense. I really really want some studs brought in on that side of the ball, and preferably a few JC players to add a bit more experience in the short term. They've shown flashes of playing well on defense, but today has been pretty bad. I've liked what I've seen from Roberson today, though. He reminds me a lot of Kellen Lewis (and the commentators mentioned that too). Hopefully he likes the nose candy less than Lewis did -- I haven't heard any of problems of that sort, and actually he's supposedly pretty mature.

True freshman Tre Roberson starting for IU. This will be interesting -- he's small (6'0" 184) but quick and athletic. He could definitely be very very good over the next few years. He was Mr. Football in Indiana last year.

QUOTE (He_Gawn @ Oct 21, 2011 -> 05:35 PM) McGary has completely transformed his body and his mentality. He's going to tear it up for a year and head on to the NBA. If he has turned things around mentally, then good for him and he will probably prove me wrong. Let's just say I knew a ton of people from Chesterton at IU, and the stories I heard about him made me think very hard about whether or not he'd fit at IU (this was when they were still listed as potential suitors; not too long after I heard these stories, Crean sort of stopped recruiting him, so it seemed kinda suspicious to me).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 21, 2011 -> 03:34 PM) Depending on what's available...the Bears needs probably are, in order, WR, DB, DE, O-Line, with RB jumping up if they're really dumb. I'm not a fan of picking up WRs in the first round. I've always preferred to spend later picks on them, because, aside from a few truly beastly guys like the unrelated Johnson boys, there isn't enough of a disparity between later round guys to me. Also, I think WRs, more than any other position, rely on the talent around them, which makes them a slightly less important draft pick in my eyes.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 21, 2011 -> 03:02 PM) Speaking of the Illini not living up to expectations, Jereme Richmond is back in jail for failing a marijuana test while out on bond. Nice. Also, I'm calling this now: I don't think Mitch McGary will be a very good college player, at least in the sense that he'll get in trouble too much to be effective. Could be completely wrong, but call it a hunch.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 21, 2011 -> 10:00 AM) They have some decent talent coming in next year I believe, but this year its all Robbie They picked up two 3-stars this year, but you're right, next year is pretty good. I didn't realize they got AJ Hammons, that's a good commit. In my clearly biased opinion, though, IU's 2012 class is much much better/deeper, and IU will be a better team next year too. Also, Lewis Jackson is pretty good. Stereotype of a guy who can be pretty good in college because he's so quick, but won't sniff the NBA because he's too small (5'8" might be generous).

I've been having the argument with my brother about Williams and Webb -- he thinks they're awful, while I only think they're bad because damn near everyone on that line is. I think if Williams and Webb were your 4th and 5th best linemen (of the starting 5, not of backups), they'd be perfectly fine. I've actually been pretty happy with Louis. Omiyale just needs to go away. Also, Kellen Davis is terrible, but Spaeth is decent. If you don't want them to spend a first on OL, Balta, what route do you think they should go?

If Harris is actually healthy, I'm not too upset; but I as actually quite pleased with the Conte/Wright combination. I really don't think Harris was healthy for the game or two he back, though. Also, did anyone else see this story with Marshall Faulk? I can't tell whether he's trying to just talk up Martz, call the Bears really bad (which is mostly warranted), or just say that 99/00 Rams teams were amazing. Also, I've been toying with this question recently: What's the bigger need in the draft this year -- OL or Safety? Or something else?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 21, 2011 -> 11:34 AM) Thats the rumor I just read. His bro got taken out of the 2-deep. That's because he's injured. At least, he's supposedly injured, but I actually buy that, because he looked TERRIBLE in the Penn St game. Terrible enough that I would have been more surprised if he wasn't injured (it's an ankle, so he's having trouble planting). EDIT: I more meant that, if he wasn't injured, he looked so bad (and Roberson, the true freshman, looked decent) that he legitimately deserved to get demoted

Yeah, I was worried about this with Kiel. My guess is Wilson pissed off Dusty, Gunner's older brother, who is one of QBs who has started for IU.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 18, 2011 -> 05:18 AM) They are 24 oz at 7 percent. Chugging 2 in an hour is akin to chugging 7 normal beers in an hour. Really? So that's 4 normal cans. I guess I consider normal beer like 5-5.5% or so (either Miller/Bud, or wheat beers), so that math roughly works out.

I love drunk Heads.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Oct 15, 2011 -> 03:29 AM) DUI Mario kart makes the best nights. Though I'm concerned that over 20 drinks doesn't get me that drunk anymore...that can't be healthy. DUI Mario Kart is awesome, but I can only keep up with 1 beer per race for so long.

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Oct 20, 2011 -> 11:08 PM) I just read your post. Douchey perhaps, but very well-informed. On this side of the Atlantic, the Ramones are the quintessential example of "punks" that never got very far away from pop at all. And bless 'em for it. Definitely -- the Ramones certainly had pop sensibilities. The snarky tone was because I just wrote a huge term paper on a closely related subject last spring (but that was more about the political ideologies, or lackthereof, of different eras/types of musicians -- specifically blues, folk/counterculture, and punk), so those quotes I pulled were from books I read for that.

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Oct 20, 2011 -> 10:38 PM) I can't speak to any modern incarnations of pop punk, but it was a powerhouse genre that followed right on the heels of the original punk movement (which really was never as far removed from pop as the original punks wanted to think it was). Buzzcocks were total pop punk and they were very relevant and worth paying attention to. And xtc in particular — one of my all-time favorites — began as a loud, shrill, but strangely fun pop punk band. This was also what I wanted to say, but kudos to you for saying it in a much less douchey way than I managed to.

QUOTE (Felix @ Oct 20, 2011 -> 08:21 PM) Because the whole point of punk originally is that it was a counter culture to pop and accepted styles of music. The fact that the pop genre has decided to hijack that movement and its sound for their own benefit annoys me to no end. I don't listen to pop music for the most part, so it doesn't really bug me that people don't like the type of music I listen to. Most of my favorite bands (Ween, Mr. Bungle, Zappa to name a few) aren't an easy listen the first time around, which turns a lot of people off of them. It's a completely different musical experience than that of Fallout Boy/any other radio friendly band. Part of the original ethos of NYC punks was not necessarily to rebel against the mainstream; it was to embrace their own outcast culture. A lot of it was to say, "Oh, you don't like that I'm weird? Well let's see how weird I can be!" Even using "outcast" is perhaps too strong of a word -- it was also about just describing their daily lives. Legs McNeill (one of the original people behind "Punk" magazine and a guy who was heavily involved in the early NYC punk scene) said, "I mean the great thing about punk was that it had no political agenda. It was about real freedom, personal freedom. It was also about doing anything that’s gonna offend a grown-up. Just being as offensive as possible. Which seemed delightful, just euphoric. Be the real people we are." Of course, many segments of the punk movement did have a political agenda -- this one more describes the early CBGB scene (which became more political, but the west coast hardcore movement was much more political as a whole). Even the stuff that could be construed as rebelling against the mainstream was sometimes (even often, perhaps) wasn't rebellion so much as taunting/criticizing the mainstream. Concerning the Ramones sporting swastikas, Mary Harron, the first American journalist to review the Sex Pistols and the person behind "I Shot Andy Warhol" said, "But in the hippie days, styles of dress or symbols were used unironically. It was, This is what you are; you have long hair; you wear this; you are a peace person. So if you wear swastikas you are a Nazi. And suddenly a movement comes along with no transition, nobody saying anything, and they’re using swastikas and it’s not about that; it’s about gesture, and shock tactic." Interestingly, here she also touches on the disdain some punks had for the counterculture. This is why a lot of early punks (which is a vague term, really) loved/were inspired by blues music. They were fascinated both at the fact that this was music that was almost entirely ignored by the mainstream, and that it was music that was so raw. Iggy talked about hearing Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker and realizing he couldn't listen to the British Invasion anymore. A lot of this seems self-contradictory, and that's intentional. There are some general themes, but the punk movement (however you define it, which can be done in so many different ways) can't really be pinned down to one original idea or thought structure. Some say it was the direct descendant of Burrows; other hated beatniks and thought they were too associated with the counterculture, which they rejected. What it all boils down to is that punk can be whatever you want it to be, as long as it's intrinsic to you. So yeah, when Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump were teenagers and went down into their basements and just shredded the music they wanted to play, just getting their emotion out that was unique to them then yes, I consider that "punk." Maybe it has more of a pop sensibility, but that's ok, and doesn't make it any less punk. Now that I finished that mini-rant, I'll say that watching Zappa conduct his band on stage is f***ing awesome. Also, the fact that he and Captain Beefheart (Trout Mask Replica is one of my favorite album covers, and it's creation is one of my favorite stories) grew up together is mind blowing.