Jake

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Dec 12, 2012 -> 09:25 AM) He said quite a bit more than that in a 3 page article. If he didn't, that would have been some enormous text

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 12, 2012 -> 08:02 AM) WTF kind of class makes you do cold-calling? In Memphis, cold calls are likely to rear some very interesting stories

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Dec 12, 2012 -> 08:39 AM) Javier Bardem was great in Skyfall. His accent is amazing for someone that has not known the language for very long

Turning in a revised paper this afternoon, then I am finished! More importantly, I'm hoping to get this published (fingers crossed). Looks like I'll be finishing this semester with 2 A's/2 A-'s or 2 A's/1 or 2 B+'s. Damn you, grade deflation QUOTE (Tex @ Dec 9, 2012 -> 07:28 PM) It sounds like you are also doing a TA/GA thing. If I add anything my second year it may be a return to coaching, but just two Lit classes about killed me. Next semester it is The History of English Renaissance Women Poets and a class on Literary Theories. Both are reduced seat time, but my last two reduced seat time met all but two weeks. What are you studying in grad school? Are you still teaching?

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Dec 11, 2012 -> 11:39 PM) Rangers are going to sign Hamilton. ?

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Dec 11, 2012 -> 09:15 AM) This may seem like quibbling, but once a guy is put in a position of power and decision-making, it's not fair to go back and look at his quotes from a time where he didn't have the power, and was more just going along with decisions that those higher up made. Not to mention that in this day and age, you have to take all public statements with a grain of salt. What was he supposed to say, Mackowiak sucks and I am certain my manager will use him to royally f*** over Brian Anderson?

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 10, 2012 -> 11:52 PM) What's the reasonable Christmas gift dollar amount for a girl that you've been with for 4 months? I have revised my suggestion

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 10, 2012 -> 11:52 PM) What's the reasonable Christmas gift dollar amount for a girl that you've been with for 4 months? Mercedes.

Everyone acknowledges the main weakness on the Illini is the lack of inside game. I certainly can't argue it. The impressive thing about the Gonzaga game is that they are really good inside and they still couldn't beat us. They proclaimed before the game that the Zags lacked weaknesses. They even managed to get each of our few post players in a big foul trouble but still could not capitalize. This tells me we should be able to compete with Big Ten opponents. I also don't think this team will lay down like last year's did. They're playing much different and better than last season. This means we should definitely beat Mizzou. And LOL at poll voters.

I, too, have no idea what the f*** Sweetest Day is.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Dec 10, 2012 -> 10:29 PM) If there's any truth behind what bucket said then an OFer makes sense. It's certainly a possibility, but the generic "corresponding move" could just as easily be salary related.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Dec 10, 2012 -> 10:19 PM) Dislike of a player from his years on another club absolutely cannot stop you from doing what is best for the team. We don't know if there is a move, or what other possible moves would be out there. But it is pretty messed up to hate a guy forever because of HRs he hit against us. The entire point would be to add him and then he'd be on YOUR team. Problem solved Except there is a way too large of a chance that Dayan Viciedo outproduces Jason Kubel next year. It is almost certain that in the next 3-5 years, you'll get more production from Dayan at a much lower price. I don't hate Jason Kubel at all, but I would hate it if we got him under the premise that he is better for our team now and in the future than Dayan. If we have to move Dayan for some other impact player, then sure, fill that hole with Kubel if need be.

I'd rather get kicked in the nuts than trade Viciedo for Jason Kubel

Why are we so insistent on speculating about OF'ers? I have to think that that is the last place we're looking -- unless we have a corresponding deal for a current OF'er for a position of greater need.

QUOTE (flavum @ Dec 10, 2012 -> 09:06 PM) I don't know what type of teammate or guy he is. He had the DUI a couple years ago. Well that's interesting. Could be something, could be nothing. Certainly reason for pause. For some reason I've never perceived him as "tough." I'm also not incredibly eager to lose Dayan's bat just to add his. Choo is better, but the marginal value isn't great. Would be interesting to see how we would shuffle guys to accommodate Choo as well as who we would need to send away.

QUOTE (flavum @ Dec 10, 2012 -> 09:04 PM) They've been rumored offering Swisher 4/48-50 mil. They offered Victorino 4/44 before he went to Boston. Why sign Swisher for a bundle of money just to get rid of Choo? Did I miss something outside of the rumors that leaked that they were selling everyone?

QUOTE (flavum @ Dec 10, 2012 -> 08:59 PM) Where are the make up concerns with him? Hopefully it's Choo, and the Indians are just waiting on Swisher's decision. I was thinking along the lines of health, position of need, and "tough". If it were a FA, that would obviously be Hamilton. Choo is interesting, but is there a make up concern?

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Dec 10, 2012 -> 08:03 PM) FWIW...Talks progressing for a guy that's been on the short wishlist lately. Conflicting make up concerns but when healthy, dude can slug and plays the game KW "tough". Deal has a good chance as of yesterday. Some risk but could be an impact move. Corresponding move(s) likely required which is the hold up. Chase Utley?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 10, 2012 -> 07:05 PM) For whatever reason people are saying the dolphins plan on letting him walk. Strange, but the talk is getting louder I hope we get him... We share a name. I would buy the jersey.

I've been around a fair amount of steroid users, some of whom use more than can be used safely, and I just haven't observed marked changes in behavior. I have seen assholes be assholes, but I don't buy the whole roid rage thing. Way overstated. I also think ptatc summed up the concept of pitchers and steroids pretty damn well. It might sorta kinda add velocity, but strength is a surprisingly small part of the equation. My guess, like has been said, any increases in velocity were more related to the pitcher feeling healthy than having added on to his God-given strength. There is of course a huge performance boost just in feeling healthy day after day.

Simon Castro's only sin was getting a year older IMO. Still a very possible contributor for the Sox.

OL is all about value picks. Not taking one in round 1 doesn't necessarily bother me, you can get special players at various positions there. This is just predicated on being able to get 5 year starters on the OL in rounds 3-7. I sure wouldn't mind getting Te'O this year.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Dec 10, 2012 -> 02:14 AM) I have been in the process for years now watching every film ever nominated in every category since 1929. My whole purpose of this is to break down the nominees down by decade, choose what I consider to be the actual best, and when I have my/my teams winners from each decade they will all do battle for the number one spot. This is no small task, I am talking several thousand films to be analyzed and critiqued, with no stone unturned. The reason I am doing this is because truth be told, the Academy misses the mark, and misses it by far too much, on a rather consistent basis. The Academy tends to love itself too much for my liking, and films/people get nominated and end up winning for unworthy reasons year in, year out. Were the actual winners even truly worthy? Why weren't they? Etc... My goal is to try and bring films, performances, and techniques to light to the general audience that very well may be forgotten expect for a select few. There will be facts galore, lost quotes, (what I mean by that is a great deal of research at public libraries), interviews, etc. I plan on having a site side by side before this goes into publishing, because I do not want to to scare people off with the sheer size of this sucker. The site would be a way to ease people into it. I suppose it could be broken down into segments, but I am not too keen on that idea currently. From what I have gathered, something this extensive, fun, and knowledgeable has never been done on this scale. So, if you know anyone interested, or are interested in participating yourself, let me know as soon as you can. If you have an abundance of interest, contact me, and we can figure out if something like this is truly for you. Thanks. If you need help with foreign films in any regard, send me a pm if you like Jake. That's really interesting. For some reason, despite your lengthy description, I'm having a hard time envisioning what your final product would be. Is this something you've been begun to undertake already? The Academy is interesting and I'd be interested in what your findings look like against something like Sight and Sound's top films. I'm into academic criticism, which is far less interested in evaluative findings, but it is often hard to escape positive or negative feelings about a certain film. The first things I think about with the Academy Awards is 1. Alfred Hitchcock, who would be the hands down favorite director among academics and whose films like Vertigo consistently rank as best among these same people, never won an Oscar even though he enjoyed tremendous popularity. 2. Foreign films are almost wholly excluded except for their neat little category in which everyone can ignore them. The Artist, which IMO was a merited victory, is a sort-of-almost foreign film. The constitution of the Academy makes this no surprise since it is composed of domestic actors and directors and was founded by studios. It undermines the authority of the merit-based awards in my opinion -- Americans like to do things that are "best in the world" but "best in the USA" is all we get at the Oscars. QUOTE (Joxer_Daly @ Dec 10, 2012 -> 05:53 AM) You cut me deep, Jake. You cut me deep. I'm not too well up on decent films on the Irish and British film scene at the moment. There was 'Hunger' (Christ, I had to google to see when that was and it was 2008. Jesus!) that got a tremendous reception. Strangely, as a subject matter close to my heart, I haven't seen it yet. But it really does come highly recommended, notwithstanding your comment about not liking prison based films. I'm drawing a bit of a blank at the moment - I wouldn't be any sort of a flim buff at all - I know there's lots of great British and Irish films, but I'm a little bit slow today!!! I might have to come back to this. Take 'Hunger' as my starting offer. Another old one, did you see Gangster No. 1? Decent London gangster film from a decade or so ago. Sorry, my brain is utter mush today. Just found this blog, if it's of any interest to you: 5 Irish Films You Must See This Year... P.S. If you're going to study in Britain (any worthwhile courses in Ireland?), or even Europe, I'm now baptising you as a Celtic fan. A session in Glasgow beckons, methinks! Thanks for the tips! My current adviser in undergrad is a Madrileña so she is already making a big push to get me into Real Madrid when it comes to soccer. You'll have to tell me whether these are mutually exclusive choices and if so, you better make the case for Celtic! QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 10, 2012 -> 12:36 PM) I checked out It's a Wonderful Life at the Logan yesterday for a matinee. I thought I had seen that movie like 25 times, but it turns out I had never watched the first half. It's a lot funnier in the first half. It's weird how that film is hailed as an all-time great family movie, but it's really fairly dark. Upon its release, it received a mixed reception due to this. Some even called it a flop, though it picked up steam after its initial release. I love Jimmy Stewart

The question is whether we should care that it was effective. Killing countless civilians was also effective, but I'd rather that we hadn't done that.

Jay Cutler played just fine yesterday and it was one of those days where he made his line look awesome. He plays tough and makes some just absolutely amazing throws. He threw a perfect strike to a receiver who fell down -- turns into a TD On 3rd and 1, with our 3rd string running back in the game, we call a shotgun pass. Already a fail before the snap. He overthrows a slant, definitely his bad on that throw (though I think it may have been close enough for an excellent catch). Somehow that turns into a 60yd TD return. I know you can't really scheme these things, but it's crazy that the guy caught that ball with the entire offense in front of him and still got a TD. Hester drops a TD a pass that probably broke his hands. Jeffery drops a TD on what would have been a truly great play, but he dropped it AFTER doing the hard part of getting position. It should be mentioned that he did make some fine plays at other times. He still cost us 14 points by falling down and then dropping a TD pass, though. He did catch a touchdown, though. I mentioned this about Davis during the game, one of the passes to him was clearly too high (another I think was a throwaway). He makes any high pass look impossible to catch, though, because he has no idea how to play a football. He doesn't know how to turn and ends up facing and backpedaling when any ball is thrown to him on the run. He then proceeds to mis-time his jumps.