UConn James

[PastaJoe stops eating his ham sammich. PastaJoe's face turns to a ".... Yes.... ?" says PastaJoe. PastaJoe grins and returns to eating his ham sammich. PastaJoe rocks out to "Don't Stop Thinkin' 'Bout Tomorrow]

I, too, think we could carry 6 CBs this season... and see one resultant decrease at safety w/ Ko, Whitner, Wilson and Wendling (who can't be put on the PS again); also, the LB we drafted is a 'tweener SS. I think we typically carry 5 Ss, no? Or the roster spot might come out of the WR pool or Coy Wire's slot, who had been primarily a ST player.

I don't get the ruckus, either. Or is everyone just supposed to pose like "American Gothic"? If there was something patently obscene or creepy, I might get it, but the girl is wearing normal clothes and/or covering herself appropriately. Seen many a young Olympic figure-skater/gymnast wearing less and hugging creepier 50+ men. This is simply the mass media pissing in someone else's cereal b/c Britney, Spitzer et al's bowl is full. If they don't take someone down a notch or two every week, they feel they've failed (believe me, I've seen it from the inside). It's just this girl's turn.

Actually, the lower center of gravity for this position is a bit of a benefit.

That's what I was mulling. Similar to the rabbit in the training video, etc. I thought that w/ the desert scenes we might have gotten a tie-in w/ the helicopter woman's flashback, but I don't think it's really necessary now, and in an indirect way, we did get a tie-in. The fossilized polar bear w/ the Dharma collar is evidence of earlier experimentation of the system Ben used. I was going to post "like Star Trek" but didn't want all the Kirk > Picard weirdos here showing up and taking over.

Maybe, maybe not. I don't think Desmond --- in the first go-round, at least --- had foreknowledge that he would wind up on the island. It was a storm at sea --- one he thought he'd die in, b/c he tried to read "Our Mutual Friend" --- that brought him there. Whether Widmore knew what would happen is another case. I think he did; and I think he knew exactly which buttons to push to get Desmond to want to enter the race. Operates much like Ben in that regard... manipulating people and using them as the "pawns." Also, wondering how the hell Ben suddenly got to be in the middle of the desert. If I remember right, it started with a thud and he was on the ground when it faded out of black. --- Also, the more I think about it, the Jack flashforward in last year's finale, I'm pretty sure that it was Michael in the coffin, who was then able to kill himself b/c he couldn't live with what he did and what Walt thinks of him. That he was finally able to do it indicates something has changed on the island, it's a kind of signal that, to Jack, meant something bad had happened to the people left there, or to the island as a whole, or ...?... But the way he said the same thing on the bridge as Michael did when he was about to crash his car "I'm so sorry!" is linked. I'm also wondering if it was something like what the people on the boat are going through.

Just wanted to mention Sawyer's selflessness in this ep. Running around trying to protect Claire and then deciding to leave Locke & Ben b/c it was too dangerous for the plebians. Then stuck up for Hurley without any smarmy nicknames. For someone who's just "survivin'" (and all the selfishness involved in that ep and in pretty much everything Sawyer's done), he's taken a new role in being a leader and putting himself last (the old Sawyer would probably make for the beach on his own). He cares for these people, as much as he wouldn't admit it.

Probably from the standpoint that the football team provides free publicity to the branch and encourages recruitment. There's also the argument that this is only going to apply to the rare player to temporarily excuse him from full-time service to an alternate role. And when he's done with his playing career, which is an NFL average of ~ 2.3 seasons, guess where he's going to go back to work for 20 years? This is far from desertion. God sends us all on different paths, people. What Pat Tillman would think? Probably that each man has to make his own decisions, given the givens.

You realize of course, that at this point, our OL is one injury away from seeing Duke Preston take a giant dump on the field?

Fixed. Rosenass is such a POS.

I've followed FBs since I consider it a need position for us. Was impressed in the 2-3 games I saw him in, but he lacks a complete game or a rare talent at any one aspect. I doubt Cox will be drafted. Likely will sign somewhere as an UDFA as many FBs do, and he will have to contribute heavily to ST to make a roster/PS. I think teams might be placing a large amount of his success at having a very good RB (Choice) to block for and thereby downgrading his contribution. This may be Hillis' problem as well. Tho you can never really tell that with where FBs are drafted. Most GMs are of the mindset that the spot can be filled with any warm body.

Wow. NFL.com is running ~ 15 minutes behind. It just showed him picked.

Not according to what I'm seeing on DraftTracker....

I don't really mind who, just... since our OCsaid we would be returning to an offense that incorporates a FB, it would be nice to get a guy who has spent some time at the position. We've farted around with tweeners and TE/HB/FB/Backup-waterboy for a few years now and the run game has suffered when we really needed it; to wit, getting stuffed more times than I care to remember last year on 3rd/4th and short. Let's face it. Buffalo is not a pass-first franchise, especially late in the season when the weather takes hold and yards matter most. Schmidt is a guy who lost yardage 5 times in his college career, and makes guys flinch. Having him plow the road for Marshawn like he did in the Nickel-and-Dime O at WV is historical Bills style football. OTOH, Hillis is a guy who can block, catch and run and I wouldn't be dissatisfied with him. Likewise, we could take another guy the scouts are keen on. Or, if they don't believe they'll be drafted, we need to get on the phone to entice the guy we want to sign with us as UDFA. I don't really care how, but we need someone who has played extensively at the position, knows it, understands the lanes, and who, through carrying or delivering bigtime hits, we can rely on to get us a couple of yards or even a couple of inches when we utterly need it. That last point is something we've lacked since Carwell Gardner or Sam Gash.

And then, they just drafted this guy, according to NFL.com DraftTracker: Maybe this will start a run in the league on supershort WRs.

McGee McKelvin Greer Corner They signed one in FA Fox, who saw ST time late in the season AY won't be a #4. Dude missed time early on and never caught up.

Sounds like the Youboty experiment is over.

Schmidt, or more likely in how Buffalo has tried to involve the FB in the passing game as well, Hillis. It's just tough to gauge where FBs might be taken; but with a rededication to the position and just one guy signed off the street, we need to bring in another, at this point, fresh legs from the draft b/c RBs take a beating in the NFL (statistically, their careers last half of the duration of other positions). Could we wait 'til the comp pick in the 4th? Donald Thomas, G, from my alma mater. Rucker, TE, Missouri Spieker or Justice at C

That's like wondering why Hollywood stars take so long walking down the red carpet. It's time in the limelight where you have the whole world interested in your team.

Yeah. Lots of feelings that are a mixture of anger, fear, constriction, betrayal, .... "Needing to get out" is a thing that I've noticed in almost every vet I know --- many from my family, worked in a construction crew owned by a Nam vet who hired many vets; the person is in a certain place, and if something goes the slightest bit wrong, or it might be an emotional trigger from a combat experience or it might be for no reason at all, they just need(!) to be somewhere else, in another place that is not this spot right now! Kind of like a 'move or die' mentality. I can't explain it any better than that. I remember helping him move out. At times it was like bipolar. We pulled out of the driveway with the UHaul and some c--t on her cellphone cut us off --- he leaned on the horn for (no exaggeration) 2 minutes, flipped her off and said "I'll !@#$ing kill you, B word!" That was a kind of day, for sure. Like I said, it has gotten better with the counseling at the VA and getting back into routine. But he says a lot of the guys aren't getting adequate help. Lot of guys getting into fights, doing drugs, drinking heavily, and some who are just f--ked in the head. On the way to move into his new place, we saw a kid a few times in the back and forth walking at furious pace down the street, in brown PT T-shirt and fatigue pants, unshaven, talking to himself. And the shi--y thing is these people can easily fall through the cracks until they !@#$ up bigtime; but it's impossible to reach them or get them help unless they want help. I'm not sure money is even in the top 5 when it comes to what causes the kind of things happening to returning vets. Sure, money is nice to have and it can alleviate some conditional needs; money can buy contentment, but it can't buy happiness and it can't buy mental health. Granted it can factor in to some of the situations of divorce that can lend toward mental health problems, but connecting money to mental health is tenuous at best.

My brother was diagnosed with PTSD after coming back from Afghanistan last year, his third tour in the GWOT after also serving in Bosnia, etc. There were marital problems before he even got back.... We tried to reach out to his now-ex-wife during the deployment and rarely got a response and it turned out she'd been cheating --- the third-oldest story in the book. She complained that he didn't call her enough and othersuch bullsh-- like that (he was stuck eating goat in villages where no one had ever seen an American before... some people really don't ing get it!), trying to rationalize her selfishness (which was only confirmed by her --- out of the blue --- withdrawing his entire savings account balance "to protect herself" and further in the divorce negotiations). You can talk all you want about $, but the most weighing thing on the men and women serving 'over there' is leaving their lives in limbo back here and not being able to do much of a damn thing about it. It's a hell of a thing to come back and be a stranger in your own home. Combine that with all the things he had to do like shooting people who didn't pull their cars over for convoys, drawing O+ on every piece of your clothing, that mental state you get in when you can imagine what your own death might be like, including days when he, as an E-8 volunteered for Humvee gunner duty, actually hoped to die.... This sh-- stays with you. You don't just shake it off. Same damn thing actually happened to a guy in his unit. At the funeral the wife and kids cried, etc. but the quotes from them in the newspapers just seemed off-color, like 'Oh well. These things happen.' I remember myself thinking it very odd at the time and then got the full story when my brother returned home that this KIA was tantamount to suicide. People back here, even in the families of the soldiers, have NO CLUE. A 20-year non-comm who'd somehow never been deployed before asked him what to expect... Ninety percent of the guys in his unit have been divorced w/in a year of returning from a deployment, many of whom have small children and are getting utterly shafted in divorces. 11 out of 15 of the kids in his old platoon failed a drug test last month. It's unbelievable the human toll that's being levied. I have taken to just listening to what he has to say. Speaking, writing about what he went through that got him to where he is now is probably the best therapy there is. So I listen. He stayed here off-and-on for about 2 months while he was closing on a new house. He broke a halogen lamp during one flashback nightmare, would often shout in his sleep (at 4 a.m., mind you... when he did manage any sleep), and he's making gross mistakes in his personal life --- drinking, trying to reclaim/replace what he had with his wife including the same kind of dog (which he was not ready to take care of) and dating someone who was her spitting image, then moving to her place, moving out, then back in, then back out, then back in, then back out. I try not to judge and to just be there for him. At times it's like watching the seconds before a car accident, and you want to scream out to prevent it but they just won't hear you. Things now seem to be getting back on track, tho, but it's a daily struggle.

Holy sh--! I'm having hearing problems associated w/ an ear infection so I had a devil of a time following, but for all those who wanted answers, we got a pretty big one tonight re: the 'monster' (and evidently, more to come). Ben can summon it by going into the secret chamber w/in the secret chamber. Anyone see what that was on the door? Looked like wood carvings but didn't have time to see. But also, is this the room Ben referred to as the 'Magic Box' where anything you want can appear? Also, come to find out that this is all like a gentlemen's game of Risk, as this ep went to lengths to show us, or maybe a reverse-Highlander is a better comparison. A select group of men battle it out for control over this one or more spots on the globe. They can manipulate, kill, cajole all of these "pawns" to get what they want, but the strict rule is that they cannot hurt/kill each other, or up until tonight, their family. Kind of an old-fashioned ideal they're working with. So, now, Ben is tentatively viewed as the "good guy" in all this.... then again, from his smirk in walking away from Sayid, I don't doubt that he ordered Nadia to be killed to get Sayid to want to join him. The first 6 eps this season have been the set-up and now we're getting the delivery. Awesome.

First, to say something about the "spoiler" above.... how much of a spoiler is it when both of those things have appeared in the preview ABC has shown a million times in the past few weeks? As such, I think it's now fair game to be commented on. If you want to remain a mushroom (kept in the dark and fed bullsh--) despite the free and open showing by the producers from the preview, I will yellow-font for the totally Lost-pure. Secondly, I wanted to share some overall thoughts I've been milling about. Thinking specifically of the psychic who claimed to have found a couple in Los Angeles who could safely adopt Claire's baby before he gave her the 815 tickets. I'm heading in the direction that by the couple, he meant Jack and Kate. Think about it, specifically how things went with the Oceanic Six.... with some drama arising from Jack adamantly refusing to see Aaron in the flashforwards whose resolution being Jack's acceptance of his role will be a wrap-up element in the series (by no means suggesting it's the penultimate one). And think about it further, Jack is Aaron's half-uncle... can't connect it any better than that in a show whose bread and butter is the connections b/w the characters. Speaking about connections, also have been thinking about Juliet, and how she physically got to the island wrt the Desmond fatal time-confusion-w/o-a-constant episode. Her constant was Ethan, who she saw in the hallway at her sister's apartment in Miami --- a deliberate recognition that the Others planted so she wouldn't have those problems. And maybe this has been discussed or is accepted knowledge by now (I don't remember what was in the previous thread erased in the Great Stadium Wall Crash of '08) that it's only the Lostaways' and other inhabitants' previous connections back in the real world that kept them alive on the plane. The flashbacks are reveals of the connections that kept them alive. As I've written earlier, the Desmond-centric episodes are probably the most important clues to understanding how the island functions --- its MO in converging these people and discarding the rest. By that sense, could one call the island a murderer?

Neither is John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. Close!... But not quite.

No, silly. He ate crayons. Who amongst us was not so fascinated with that we didn't try a few nibbles?