Jake

How do you the think the margins are in ebooks? Do they do any of their own publishing? Seems like only a matter of time before they would. I assume the Kindle has nice margins as well, but that will have constant and cutthroat competition as well -- especially given it doesn't have a strong argument as better product.

It sounds like the main thing about Family Video is that it doesn't have too high of ambitions and it is generally offering the same service that Blockbuster did before they alienated their customers. The article posted by Y2HH shows why those blunders with service were fatal instead of harmful. They had already made their service unnecessary.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 9, 2013 -> 02:39 PM) It's going to be an extreme let down. Rubio took how many weeks to look like an NBA player after coming back? And Rose is going to start that way in the playoffs? No chance. He's done, as is the Bulls' season. Of course, Rubio probably came back when his doctors told him to, not when he decided he was 110% and Jesus Christ whispered into his ear that everything was okay.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 9, 2013 -> 08:25 AM) You can beat up a vagina pretty good and in most cases it's as good as new within a couple of days, tops. You could even push a baby out of it and it's back in "game shape" within a few weeks, maybe earlier. That can't be said about certain people. I'm going to go test this hypothesis. See you in a few months

Bears without fur are really creepy.

QUOTE (Joxer_Daly @ Apr 9, 2013 -> 06:19 AM) That's not what I said, actually. But don't let that get in the way of whatever point you're trying to make with that comment. mr. genius tends to be what I like to call a jimmy rustler for explanation, see this page: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/that-really-rustled-my-jimmies

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 9, 2013 -> 07:56 AM) I watched them, and it was OK. I am way more into Vikings. My grandmother got really confused by the transition from the Bible straight into Vikings one night. She has a hard time seeing so the costumes weren't a dead giveaway, lol

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Apr 9, 2013 -> 07:35 AM) This is why I shouldn't post in the morning before having caffeine.

I like the Nats guys on TV as well. I'll be listening to Hawk though, of course. I liked the Mets guys one day, too, just because they sounded so New York-y. In general, I don't hate the Nats. They're not the most major market, the players are fairly likable, etc

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 8, 2013 -> 11:50 PM) I want the White Sox payroll sheet back. What happened to Kalapse? I'm going to give it another week before I add him to the insert dead celebrity thread. I believe some other sites do the same thing now.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Apr 8, 2013 -> 08:32 PM) Just wanted to make a suggestion here & am hoping others think this is a good idea & will sign this official petition. I believe that when you ban a poster, instead of putting "Banned" under the username you should put "Grab Some Bench" there. Why? Because that's funny. Agree or disgaree? Please sign this official petition. Thank you for your time & consideration. In my experience, they often don't change the status to banned unless it's permanent. Let's change that too, how else am I to keep up with the drama?

QUOTE (Joxer_Daly @ Apr 8, 2013 -> 08:27 PM) Ah, maybe I shouldn't have brought it on here. I don't want to go forcing the topic on anyone. I'm just about to head to bed, so I'll keep it short. Suffice to say, there's many of my own countrymen and women that wouldn't have seen an early grave or the inside of a prison cell, if it hadn't been for her. Likewise, there's many of her own countryfolk that would have suffered a lot less too, had it not been for her. That, plus her support of Pinochet in Chile, her condemnation of Nelson Mandela and opposition to sanctions being put in place against apartheid South Africa, and her support for several other unsavoury regimes. Her disdain and callousness towards anyone but her own clique of wealthy supporters was repulsive. As I say, I'll leave it at that. Interesting stuff. I didn't mean to say that you'd be likely to piss off people in this forum with your opinion, in my experience Americans don't tend to give a s*** about British heads of state (except Winston Churchill, I often hear that Americans like him more than Brits do). Too bad that folks can let that kind of injustice go.

I'm blissfully oblivious. I know she was rather conservative, but all in all she has a fairly good rep in the USA

Just remember, lots of people give those players paychecks too. Hawk gets paychecks to say nice things about them.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Apr 8, 2013 -> 03:45 PM) We had a Blockbuster in town that was still hanging around up until last week. They finally closed down. I don't think we have any in the area anymore. We do have a place called Family Video that still seems to be thriving. We haven't caught onto the netflix/streaming thing yet so we still rent/return DVDs. We definitely aren't alone either. It actually gets pretty busy on Friday nights. My town (much smaller than Rockford) has a Family Video as well and it seems okay, I keep hearing reports about them opening up new stores in other towns. Don't know what they're doing, but it seems to be working. I go to school in Memphis and there is only one video rental store in the entire metro area, and that is just some guys who bought out the stock of all the closed Blockbusters and sells them out of this old house he owns. It's actually pretty cool though, despite only having about 5 parking spots and the craziest selection ever (there is a "John Waters Room")

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 8, 2013 -> 06:00 PM) I sure don't. That is an awful team. I'm talking 60 to 65 wins. They are eons better than Houston. At least they have some run production talent in Mauer, Morneau, Willingham. Plus the legend of Eduardo Escobar, walk off specialist

Yeah, if anything I'd be telling... UNLESS I expected financial contributions for the wedding.

If/when I pop the question to the lady that I plan to do so to, I probably won't ask the father. He is a pretty non-traditional guy, isn't a big fan of marriage, isn't religious, and I don't think he'd care either way. If my girl's dad was more traditional, I wouldn't have a problem schmoozing.

I think Peavy has a better K rate than Dunn. Awesome.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 8, 2013 -> 03:55 PM) The side story of Betty hanging out in the ghetto and that squatter's house seemed very unrealistic. Overall, the episode was pretty solid. She's just nuts -- how'd you like that awful rape joke? I think she's just caught in between -- she's very much embedded in a 50's type of cultural mindset that is unfriendly to the housewife, so she's curious about the late 60's stuff she's made contact with such as that ghetto. She just has no clue how to act out though; I really think there's no hope for that character.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 8, 2013 -> 03:42 PM) I'd be shocked if he was really running that page himself. No words are misspelled. Right, I'm sure very little of his facebook postings comes from him. I'm sure it would be mind numbing for him to even try to look at all of the attempts at correspondence he receives anyway.

Also, the free market does what it does -- it helps the top dog and hurts the lowest on the ladder. The current system exploits young Latin Americans in particular with just a few getting huge payouts. This democratizes the process to an extent and will hopefully give more young ballplayers a shot to play in the USA. My hope is this will lead to the end of the camps run by individual teams in South America and the Caribbean where young people slave away for years hoping for a tiny bonus while forsaking their education, health, etc. With the recent death of a young man in an MLB camp, I hope MLB is looking for ways to forage for talent without employing so many cost saving measures that they can't even provide medical care to the kids they put out on the field every day in hopes of a few thousand bucks.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 8, 2013 -> 02:32 PM) Entertaining is reading Facebook comments whenever "D-Rose" posts a new status. https://www.facebook.com/derrickrose/posts/10151525025827305 What is craziest to me is the amount of people that post these really emotional messages on there, not just f*** YOU but heartfelt requests. People REALLY want him to come back and he's oblivious to it

We really need to beat Gio -- need to flex our muscles against lefties when we get them. This is a HUGE chance to make a statement early in the season. A series win in Washington would speak volumes about where we're at so far.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 8, 2013 -> 08:40 AM) Because I never used it. Now that I hasn't been giving Netflix 7$ a month for the last year, I figure I have 84$. I also didn't know it was on Netflix, because Netflix never has anything I actually want to watch. If I keep watching this, I'll pay netflix 7$ for a month and cancel it again after I've watched all of the episodes...but odds are, they don't have them all anyway. For AMC shows, they will have all episodes with the exception of the season that is currently selling on DVD for the first time. For instance, Mad Men is on Season 6 as of yesterday. Seasons 1-4 have been available for ages, and about a month ago Season 5 became available because they had spent enough time selling the DVD version and would like you to get caught up so you can watch it on TV. Most TV series on there work that way. I used to complain about the selection on Netflix, but I've gotten more and more warm to it. Lots of TV series available, House of Cards is great, I love documentaries, lots of foreign films, etc etc