Jenksismyhero

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Oct 4, 2013 -> 10:09 AM) You named one game. I'd say this is absolutely one of the biggest games in the program's history. On a side note, I apparently could have been able to meet the gameday crew tomorrow(which would have meant Samantha Ponder!!!!) if I wasn't stuck in Wisconsin. I guess I view conference championship implicating game as more important than an early big ten matchup, even if on national tv. Of course, I'm also probably understating how awful NW football was in the past compared to where it is now (even though I don't think the "now" is anywhere close to where Greenberg and Wilbon think it is).

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 4, 2013 -> 09:59 AM) There's a key component missing, though: Americans (US): Millions of us don't have any candy at all and we literally die because of it. It doesn't look like this happens in any other developed country in the world?? Please fix this, thanks in advance! Link? I'm interested to see how many people die from not receiving medical care in this country.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Oct 4, 2013 -> 09:40 AM) DirectTV called me last night and as a loyal subscriber offered me a decent discount on Showtime. We never watched it before so it really was not worth it but I appreciated the call. Homeland is worth the few month subscription to catch up and watch this season.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 4, 2013 -> 10:00 AM) You are wrong, April owns Yuck. Owns what? Being smarmy and occasionally looking at the camera? She's a spoiled, self-centered brat for 8 episodes and sometime in between she'll do something "nice." I think she's a pretty useless character.

Am I the only one thinking NW is going a bit overboard about their game tomorrow? Wilbon was on ESPN this morning (Mike & Mike and GameDay are also in town) and he was saying this is one of the biggest games in program history. Rose Bowl game > annual Big Ten game against OSU in my book.

QUOTE (Brian @ Oct 4, 2013 -> 08:49 AM) One of my favs of all time. Rare show that got better as the series went on. Parks & Rec and Big Bang killed it last night...again. Have to disagree. The Ron off the grid stuff was funny, but everything else was kinda meh. April is one of the worst characters on TV right now. Leslie/Ben can be gag-inducing. And the funniest guy on the show after Ron (Andy) wasn't in it. Parks and Rec and Modern Family are kind of in the same boat for me - they've run out the same formula for so long now it's getting a little old. They need some new characters or something to spice things up. Maybe a new Tammy episode. Anyone watch Masters of Sex? The wife and I caught the pilot last night. Very well done. I think we'll stick with it.

I think she was just trying to see what real life GTA V was like.

wonder who was/were the intended target(s)

QUOTE (Tex @ Oct 3, 2013 -> 01:03 PM) I am not following what you mean. The admin exempted a lot of businesses from the requirements of the Act for a period of time. I wouldn't say they were 100% gung-ho on this thing being implemented ASAP.

QUOTE (Tex @ Oct 3, 2013 -> 12:41 PM) Right Dems wanted an earlier start date, the GOP was, and still is, for delays. Unless you're a business donating to the DNC or Obama campaign...

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 2, 2013 -> 04:53 PM) That's fish tape. It's for pulling wires through conduits/walls. It's a long, flexible plastic rod. No idea how you'd find the pre-wired speakers if they didn't terminate them at a panel or left them in an outlet box. It's actually a rigid, but bendable metal (if they make plastic ones and I linked to it by mistake, don't get it). I've used mine countless times trying to fish wires between two walls without having to open them up. Because the metal is rigid and workable, you can push it through the space of two joists or down the backside of drywall or whatever to the hole you're aiming at. For example I was refinishing my basement and installed speaker wires. I used this to fish 20 feet of wire between the joists in the already drywalled ceiling (going from the unfinished side of my basement to the finished wall on the other end). With some work, it went over the ceiling, down the wall and near enough to the cut out I made for me to grab it. Then you duct tape your speaker wire to the end of the fish tape, reel the fish tape in and you've just run the wire. I also used it to run electrical wire when I was installing my recessed lighting. If any of that makes sense.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 2, 2013 -> 11:47 AM) You could use wiremold to cover the cables without tearing into the ceiling, but if your floor joists are running the right way (i.e. you could run all the cabling between two joists, not having to go through a bunch), it wouldn't be too much work. Only a little bit more than running power and cabling up behind a wall-mounted TV. Yep, that's the easiest way. And get one of these: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-Dep...56005/100660167 It'll save you a ton of time/frustration.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Oct 2, 2013 -> 03:39 PM) Internet with UVerse sucks (but I LOVE thier TV). The "base" is only 3mb down, 1 up. I have it, it sucks, and it's $41/month. To get 24 down, it is $66/month. Compare this to Comcast: Their 3mb package is $30/month. Their 25mb is $50. We will be switching sometime this fall. I need faster upload speeds since we backup all our pictures online. Just call them and tell them you're going to switch to Comcast unless they can match the price. They upped my speed from 12 to 24 and dropped the price to $29 bucks for 6 months.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 2, 2013 -> 03:02 PM) How fast is it? In my experience, Uverse is dogs*** slow. There is a speedtest from Chicago to LA (~1700+ miles), it's why I stick with Comcast...I'm pretty much forced to use their Internet, because it's amazing. The few times I check (after work, so mainly in prime time) it's in the 16-18mb download range for 24mb service.

I've been really happy with ATT's U-Verse internet. It's run on their fiber optic network. I've never had an outage in 2 years and really have never had a problem with speeds dropping. It's also nice because the modem and wireless router are in the same box.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 2, 2013 -> 02:41 PM) Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal? I have had DirecTV and Comcast in my life, I don't find the customer service of either to be particularly good, but as it stands, since I need Comcast for Internet service, there is no compelling reason to need two providers when one can do the job. I have the following: (About 5 of each of these channels) HBO SHOWTIME STARZ MAX ENCORE REDZONE/Sports Package Extended basic, which means every channel not considered premium (which I have all of) 2 HD DVRs (the new tiny xfinity ones) 1 standard TV connection for my bedroom TV Modem with 50mbit/10mbit Internet Phone 149$ a month AFTER tax. If DirecTV could come close to beating that when I add in the cost of Internet service, I'd switch. When they had the chance to match that offer, they couldn't do it. So ... DirecTV sucks and Comcast rules. FWIW they've recently added ATT U-Verse as a bundle partner. They offered me 45 mb service with the offer I stated above for a total of $151/month. But i'm currently getting a crazy good deal with u-verse ($29/month for 24 mbs for 6 months) so i'm going to wait. Plus you have to deal with that awful menu system comcast has. Hello, 2002!

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Oct 2, 2013 -> 02:35 PM) Because it's the last chance for his grandmother to see his grandson play basketball? Turn on the TV? And if she's that sick is she really going to travel 100+ miles 3-4 days a week? Btw, having to sit out a year is stupid to begin with. Coaches can leave a school and coach the next year, why can't players?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 2, 2013 -> 02:18 PM) 140+ channels for $54.99 LINK I'll pay $74.99 for the choice extra classic, hbo and showtime, sunday ticket, HD/DVR/whole home network and 4 boxes (a genie, genie mini, HD-DVR and regular HD box). In a year it'll go up $40 bucks ($30 for the cable package, $10 for hbo/showtime), although the guy on the phone told me to call the retention office a year to the day my install is complete and they'll hook me up with some other kind of promotion for the hbo/showtime stuff. Over the last two years i've had a reminder to call basically every 6 months (around when a promotion ends) and they will always hook you up with 5 or 10 dollars off a month for 6 or 12 months. My only complaint with them was my original directv install. They did an ok job, but the choices the guy made were kind of messed up and my wife was home at the time so I had to live with it. For starters he put the dish on the front of my house. There's nothing in the way so there's really not a good reason why he did that. Second, he ran a cable from the dish all the way to the back of my house to go to my basement. We have a chimney back there and for some reason he dropped the cable down the left side of the chimney, 2 feet away from it, then a foot off the ground he ran the cable across the chimney base, and then another few feet until he hit the spot to go into the house. Why he didn't just put the cable on the right side of the chimney is beyond me. I'm hoping the guy that comes to install the boxes in the other rooms will fix it for me.

What I don't really get is this - if he has a dying grandmother, why couldn't he just take a year off? Why does he need to "go home" 100+ miles away where he'll be busy with school and basketball? I get that he wants to be closer so he can visit more often, but if he wants a waiver it seems like he needs to immediately get home, not wait a year.

Speaking of TV provider customer service, man oh man do I love DirecTV. Just got off the phone with them after 45 minutes. My 2 year contract expired last week and I called to see what kind of promotions were available. The first guy I talked to offered me a few things, a free HD-DVR box, 10 bucks off a month, some additional content for basically free, etc. But I wasn't thrilled with any of them. Because I didn't like what he was selling HE offered to send me to the retention department where they "have more room to work." Talked to the guy in the retention department for 25 minutes, not haggling, but just talking about what they wanted to GIVE me. I didn't ask for anything other than "what can you do for me?" At the end of the day I basically got treated as a brand new customer with additional incentives. I got the Genie system (sadly i signed up with them like 6 months before that launched), I got the new customer pricing, an extra 10 bucks off hbo and showtime, I got Sunday ticket free (2nd time in 3 years) and I got to keep my current 2 receivers (in addition to the 2 new genie boxes) without having to pay the 6 bucks a month for each. All and all, a VERY happy customer.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 2, 2013 -> 08:23 AM) projector? I think i'm leaning that way for my next "big" tv purchase. We have two set-ups, the everyday TV watching during the week upstairs (40 inch) and the finished basement home theater area downstairs for movies and sports (currently a 55 in). It'd be nice to get 100 inches up on the wall. I just don't know about the brightness without spending a fortune, but it has been a few years since I looked into them.

I looked into buying an individual plan after college and it was going to be like $125-$135 with BCBS of Illinois.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Oct 2, 2013 -> 10:28 AM) BTW, if anyone still thinks the Illini could be better than last year, as was the conversation months ago from someone, here's the roster: 3 returning scholarship players (only 1 senior) 2 transfers 5 freshman 1 walk-on soph Call me a believer. Without the crutch of BP and DJ either Bertrand or Abrams will really step up. You have to believe that Egwu has learned not to foul out of every game. Nunn I think is BP-lite and will have his moments. I think Ravonte Rice is going to be very good. And hopefully Ekey hits some threes to stretch the floor. Struggles? Sure. A bad loss or two? Sure. But they'll still be capable of winning some big games. The major problem is depth. They'll have issues with foul trouble and/or fatigue. And an injury is really going to hurt. Hopefully they can manage that stuff.

QUOTE (Brian @ Oct 2, 2013 -> 10:20 AM) Unfortunately for Illini fans, I'd move on from Cliff. He's probably going to be a Jayhawks. And Black was going to Florida, and Snider was going to UCLA.... I get that fans shouldn't expect it or be too optimistic about it, but there's still a chance.

I wonder if this changes the Cliff situation at all. It was always a long shot, but another lost scholarship may be too much to keep going after him.