Peevo

I don't know how I feel about this either way. I don't think there's any dispute that minorities are inevitably going to experience some hardships that a white guy from the suburbs won't be able to understand. But this is what I don't get about CNN going out of their way to classify and separate minority cultures further from majority with their specials "Black in America," "Latino in America," and "Black in America 2." Look, I get that these groups all had struggles, fought for equality over generations. I really do. But at this point, I'm sorry, but our President is black. What can't minorities accomplish that white people can anymore? Seriously. At this point, can't we all just be "People in America." I think classifying it the way CNN is actually contributing more to the problem. In a sense, I feel left out that they're not doing a "White in America." Yes, white people in this country are struggling to keep a job, pay the mortgage, feed their children, or pay for college too. I hope people don't think this post is slighted, but I can't help but feel that CNN is pouring on the white guilt, and I really, very much respect the product CNN delivers.

Some argue that drug prohibition has done more to harm our country than alcohol prohibition 70 years ago. The DEA spends billions of dollars a year investigating, prosecuting, and arresting marijuana growers and distribution centers. Meanwhile, their budgets go up every year, supported by tax payer dollars, and nonviolent criminals flood the already cramped U.S. prison system also on the brink of collapse, yet again made possible by taxpayer dollars. This is why I fail to understand why fiscal conservatives are so against marijuana legislation reform. If their biggest issue is government waste and corruption, over spending, over taxing their support base, then why wouldn't they want a means to instantly bolster all tax revenue coffers with the ridiculous taxes they could charge on say, $100/8th of an ounce of marijuana? Or even higher? It would certainly help California's budget crisis. Prisons would actually be filled with violent criminals deserving of incarceration. Sure, smoking reefer corrupts the youth, kills brain cells, encourages fast food sales, music listening, a lot of terrible societal issues. Ever hear of anyone high on marijuana commit any violent crime? There's a tremendously negative image associated with pot users, and some of it is valid. We're lazy, uneducated, out of shape, and have little to offer in life. Well, I smoke pot, maintain a 3.7 gpa, work full time, have 0 credit card debt, exercise daily. You wanna chastise or demonize responsible marijuana users? Ok, go ahead and burn any book written by Huxley, Louis Carrol, Jack Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, Ray Bradbury, throw out all your Beatles, Rolling Stones, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Theolonius Monk, albums. Obviously, all these artists have nothing to say either. In fact, lets destroy all culture then the social conservatives will have nothing to complain about.

Jerry Sullivan on GR makes this point sometimes. The Bills finished 2-8 after a 4-0 start. He should of been fired after that joke of a Dallas game. Or the Jets away game last year. His conscious, exact decisions in these games have directly affected the outcome. But since he's been extended now, there's no reason to think that he'll be gone if they do poorly next year. Ralph might just stick with consistency for consistency's sake. I really love the Bills, and like a lot of their players, but I just can't get behind this guy. Give me something other than "we like our guys," "we tried hard" "we studied film all week" crap. Here's an idea, actually TALK to your players. When do you ever see Jauron chewing someone out on the sideline? Giving instruction, SOMETHING. Even Harbaugh, a first timer last year, was RIPPING into Ray Lewis during the playoffs one game I distinctly remember. Lewis is a former Super Bowl MVP, does Harbaugh care? No, its his team, do what he says. What time is it Dick? Is that too hard of a question to answer? 1 winning season in his career. 20 games plus below .500, and we're supposed to think he's "gonna figure it out, look at Belichick in Cleveland."

Actually I think this looks really interesting. A dark look at our obsessed sports culture. Patton Oswald might actually be a good actor. He cares more about his team than his own well being or health. I didn't see The Wrestler, but this did get good reviews and awards. It can't be all bad.

PC is definitely better for gaming, no question. There's pros and cons to each. But once again, as people have reiterated, any sort of multimedia production, duplication, editing, etc is simply far and away better on Mac OS X. Just for the record, cnet.com's review of the older, all aluminum Macbook Pros from last year actually has the graphical data to support how OS X runs more efficiently than Vista on similar hardware. http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/apple-macb...l?tag=mncol;lst go there and scroll down to the graphs about mid-page, there's 3 graphs on processing speeds. The Photoshop CS3 is the most obvious, with the Macbook nearly half the image processing time as a Dell equivalent. This is actual empirical evidence by a reputable company, not some arbitrary blogger that has an agenda.

Ok, fine. I'm not a computer genius. I don't build computers, nor will I ever. But I do know how to use one efficiently. I operate Logic, Reason, and Ableton Live on a daily basis. These are pretty advanced music editing programs. I was just saying that I own a Mac and love it, while on a PC here at work I couldn't have had more issues. I even said originally that Macs ARE expensive and probably not worth the investment unless you do something worth its computing power. Just trying to be fair, then I get patronized for my opinion? Did I take a personal attack on PC users or something? I realize getting annoyed on a message board is slightly ridiculous, but come on man, I was just contributing to the conversation.

Anything Apple does is going to be expensive. Their market isn't targeting the average computer user. While the markup on their products is steep, you're paying for top craftsmanship, performance and longevity. OS X simply runs much more efficiently than Windows. You can read the reviews on cnet.com Photoshop, Final Cut, Pro Tools all run much faster and with less CPU clock than a Windows PC running the same program. Leopard is super stable, has a load of simple, brilliant features and really changes how I look at computers. Windows requires you to take so many steps to accomplish a task, when on OS its all simple, point, click, and drag. Hot corners and spaces make navigating through windows and different programs super easy. Most of its clientele are involved in digital media production or editing of some sort. Any sort of photo, video, or music editing, web design, graphic design, etc is simply the best on Mac OS X. If you're not gonna do that sort of thing, its a lot of money to spend to send email, write documents and blog/facebook and what not. Is their attitude slightly pretentious? Probably. I love my macbook and it has given me not 1 problem since I bought it last year in April. No headaches, slow load times, viruses or spyware of any kind. That's what you pay for. I have no patience for XP or Vista anymore, I can't stand clicking "Start" and waiting for the menu to pop up.

totally smokin' no question. This actually almost, almost, makes T.O. look human. Is he human, or is he dancer? We'll find out on July 20th!

When I first saw the Pickup Artist, I was convinced none of that crap could possibly work. But man, whatever he tells those losers really, honestly, actually works. It blows my mind. The one-line openers and how to approach "sets." It sounds so incredibly lame, but I've even borrowed from the "method." Its all a game, and Mystery realizes that. To your questions, I'd say, do your best to roll with it. Every guy is gonna wanna hit on some girl. You, at one point, were that guy. It happens, we find girls attractive. If you get pissed off it only hurts your cause. One of my best friends literally dragged his girlfriend out of the bar and went home cause he "couldn't take deuchebag guys hitting on my girlfriend." Well, deal with it. Also, I agree with above posts. What do you have in common? What's her interests, career goals, etcetera. Do what makes you guys happy away from the club scene. You can even do the bar thing without Gotti-collar-popped-roid rage-over tan d-bags around. Go see a good band at Mohawk Place. Go to Allentown for a drink and a good band or two. The Wine Thief on Elmwood is classy and chill, no pressure. The Botanical Gardens is a great date spot. Does she like chocolate? Take her to Butterwood. There's a laundry list of stuff to do outside of lame Chippewa bars. Seriously.

All the advice is super good so far in this thread. But I concur with the above sentiments. Live it up a little. You're in paradise to go to school. A good way to get some extra scratch is to find stuff you don't want anymore and sell it as much as you can. Ebay, craigslist, you can make decent money on stuff you don't use anymore. I'm a music gear nerd, and have acquired a ton of stuff that just sits and collects dust. $50 bucks here, $100 bucks there for a case, amp, etc add up. Records, comics, memorabilia are good to trade or sell too. Its hard to part with nostalgia, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I don't know your personal situation, but file your FAFSA carefully. It takes hours, but if your parents are divorced, make less than $50 k/year, etc, all helps get you free money from the government. My brother shamelessly proved our 1/16th Native American in us to get more money for school. Its there for a reason. Once you hit 18, its time not care about where you shop. I can't tell you the 1,000's of kids that roll out of bed in pajamas that go to class. Its not high school, no one cares what you wear or what you do with your hair. Abandon the mall for thrift stores. If you're lucky, you can literally find designer stuff with tags on it for $5 or less. Have no shame. Plus, the thrift store look is super hip and it'll give you cred with "the kids." Shop for food at Aldi or discount groceries. Every college worth its salt has weekly or daily free events for their students. Every semester there'll be a concert or something to party for free, if thats how UCF does things. UB pulled Rise Against and Brand New, which was a $40 show for FREE for students. You can't beat 2 good bands for free. UB has great movies playing in the Union every week, completely free. Try to take advantage of fun activities that cost you 0 dollars. I'm involved at WRUB, which is UBs online radio station. They're funded from Sub Board and the student employees receive a monthly stipends for working at the station. $300 bucks/month to have fun on the radio is not a bad deal. Find anyway to get involved with something that interests you, and who knows, you might get literally paid to have fun doing it.

Reality is for the sad group of people that can't handle drugs. People should read "Food of the Gods" by Terrence McKenna. You ever read Louis Carroll, Aldous Huxley, Edgar Allen Poe, Ernest Hemingway? Listen to the Beatles, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Soundgarden among a laundry list of other tremendously influential musicians? All of the above were either brutal alcoholics (Poe and Hemingway) or drug users. Mankind has discovered all there is on this planet, we've been to the moon, we've been to the darkest parts of the ocean. What's left to do? Occupy our time. Television, movies, chocolate, fast food, drugs, alcohol, sex, tobacco, gambling, these are all mediums in which we indulge to enhance our current state of mind. Quite seriously, whats the difference if it produces the same effect in your brain, a sense of euphoria. We all engage in some sort of vice, and anyone that's pretentious enough to devalue conscientious, responsible adult marijuana consumption is just sitting on a throne of sanctimony. Why do we watch football on Sundays? To be entertained for a few hours. If the government were really concerned with our health, McDonald's, Phillip-Morris, Budweiser would all be illegal. Prohibition has done nothing but fuel the problem.

I'm planning on seeing it this weekend. Its gotten ripped apart by just about all relevant critics. What exactly do these people want? Some grandiose, existential statement about life? It's a Michael Bay movie about gigantic alien robots. Other Michael Bay claims to fame? Armageddon, Pearl Harbor. Stuff blows up, there's a hot girl or two, and maybe something happens between characters. I'm not really sure. I sat through 3 hours of "life is depressing, then you die" when I saw Benjamin Button. It was long, depressing, and pretentious. Everybody loved this movie. Sometimes I wanna just vege out and not have to endure a "film" just to prove my taste.

Gotta love our "high-motor, hard working, high-character guys." As Jauron would say, "they play very hard for us." Great, why not actually, ya know, make a play every now and again average D-Line? When Stroud wasn't in on a down, you knew they were just gonna all get pushed back. Just a quick question, does "high-motor guy" in football equate to the guy in baseball that "finds the gaps?" He can't actually hit the ball outta the park, he's not really good, but he can make a half-way decent play every 4th up or so. That's basically our defensive line. No intimidation, or game breaking ability anymore. Look at our defensive line from 10 years ago. Bruce Smith, Phil Hanson, Marcellus Wiley, Ted Washington, Pat Williams. I'm probly forgetting a couple, but THAT was an impact Defensive Line. Why do we have to talk about teams from a decade ago to draw good examples of heartfelt, dedicated play? I swear to God, if I hear again about how "hard they work," "high-character effort" or "high-motor play" from Jauron, I may hurt small children.

hahah yeah i have this self-loathing thing going on. My skin so pale its sad. I'll go outside, get super sunburned, then it peels off and I'm white again. I was saying how I need to start working on my golf game cause, well, that's what white people do, right?

It really is amazing that the this "family" uses their own fertility science gone haywire as a means of celebrity and for-profit entertainment. I read on Wikipedia (so it has to be true) that Kate has some disease that prevents her from becoming naturally pregnant. So they used fertility drugs to help get her to conceive. The science behind it is real, but unperfected and out craps 6 kids when you only probably want 1. Whats interesting is that Duggar family in Arkansas has 18, yes, 18 children, all born naturally without any drugs or fertility treatments. They also have a show on TLC I think. They, somehow, have 0 credit card debt and make their own everything. Despite their tremendously creepy uber conservative white bread ways, you have to respect a huge family that can somehow make it work, despite the financial supplements that TLC I'm sure gives the family for filming. Jon and Kate can't handle a litter half that size. This is what's great with America. We're just so obsessed with other people's miserable lives to somehow make ourselves feel less bad, somehow more important. That's why I hate Mtv and the Hills and all these sickening rich kids that wouldn't know a day of work if it kicked them in their ass. I guess all you need to be successful in the U.S. is if you're rich, young, white, and hot.

For some reason I neglected to mention the master technician that is Jojo Mayer. Just go to youtube and search his name. He's certifiably insane, but man, can he play.

Oh man, what a topic very close to this drummer's heart. I've been playing for about 13 years. My favorites are of the grunge era: Matt Cameron Jimmy Chamberlin Dave Grohl Josh Freese (one of the THE most in demand studio musicians, period. You name a lame radio rock band, he's done that record. Probly been on over 500 professional recordings, I've read in modern drummer his rates start at $5,000/hour. yeah) Both Jimmy and Matt have a jazz background, and demonstrate a tremendous touch and sensitivity to the instrument. The fact that they both played in heavy, progressive, and precise rock bands speak very highly of their versatility. Also, two of the only rock drummers to strictly play single pedal, and use the hi-hat chick when not riding on it as a time keeping device. I love that. You HAVE to keep that chick going when you're riding cymbals/toms, I need that drive. So few young rock drummers just leave their left foot unless they're worrying about double-bass rolls, which unless you're playing metal all the time, you don't play nearly as often as you do the hi-hat. Jimmy Chamberlin's single stroke rolls are the fastest I've seen next to Mike Mangini. For jazz, there are soo many greats. Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Jimmy Cobb the list is pretty much endless. I could talk drummers for days on end. For me, jazz is best on drugs. Sorry, I said it. Miles/Coltrane's best work is when they were strung out on heroin. Its true. Anything from the 60's or before is better when they weren't clean. Jazz before desegregation had this visceral, emotional purity. You can feel the anguish in the notes, thats what jazz is. Did I mention I could talk for ever about drumming? OH yeah, just FYI, Keith Moon is probably one of the most overrated drummers in history. He's known more for his antics and reputation than his playing. Could he play? Sure. Did he fit the Who? Absolutely. But he's not in my conversation for best all time, just my opinion. Much too sloppy and drugged out. If you're gonna be high and play, fine, but play flawlessly. Its not that much to ask when you're in one of the biggest bands of all time.

Hahah can you imagine Dick Jauron on his birthday as a kid? "I'm happy with this toy, it was the toy I wanted. Our war room worked real hard, and I'm glad the toy I really liked ended up falling to me. You know, with birthdays, its always such a crapshoot." On his wedding day, "I'm happy about this woman, its not easy to get married in this life. I'm looking forward to living with her. You work on it, you keep trying, and hopefully, the person you choose ends up working out." When asked about what time it was, Jauron responded, "I'm gonna have to take a look at it, you know, no watches are completely accurate in this league. It may be 11:10:30, it maybe 11:10:27, so, you know, its just tough to say for sure what time it is."

I have to admit, I think all of these look fantastic. The Bills jerseys are the classiest, obviously. But from a child of the 90's over market-researched slick black/silver/navy era of sports/advertising color schemes, a little vibrancy from the 1960's is more than welcome. Why everybody decided on having "safe" dark, bland schemes to sell jerseys once 2000 hit, I'm unsure. But all these look fantastic.

See whats funny is "thought-police" equates to someone punishing blatant hate speech. You know who actually defends Hate speech? The ACLU. There's a wonderful piece of writing by James Madison called the "first amendment." And even if there's speech out there that is deemed pretty damned awful, hate groups like Aryan Nation, the Ku Klux Klan, et al have used the ACLU's lawyers to receive protest permits, and the like. This guy is an idiot and literally posted racist, sexist remarks to his coworkers via coworker email which everybody knows is not private peer to peer conversation, but public record. Furthermore, sure, maybe the jokes might be funny, but be reasonable. Wanna talk about thought police? Everyone and their mother is getting on Dave Letterman for a hilarious joke, about a stupid family that makes stupid decisions and uses their kids for their own political gain. It works both ways. Once again, this "thought-police" construction is a tool used by the Right to criticize their critics. Rush Limbaugh is one of the highest rated talk-radio personalities every year. Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, they all have VERY successful programs. What the hell is the problem, exactly? The Weekly Standard, Wall Street Journal, all very successful conservative papers. There's just as many conservative voices as there are liberal. I watch plenty of Fox News. I can't stand Sean Hannity, but I watch him. Does that make me an "anti-American" because I disagree with him? Why is anyone who challenges the conservative platform "hate America" or want the "terrorists to win."

I agree a lot with what you have to say. The above economy point is a fair one, at least in the respect "the dismal science" is very much that, tuned to the attitude of consumer and business health. If we all consistently believe the economy is still tanking and there is no end, we will spend less, take less risks, hire less employees; it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sports, as Sage said, isn't that simple. All Buffalo fan wants to do is love our teams. It's becoming harder and harder to do that. I take this only from my generation (millenial), since that's all I've experienced, but I've had quite literally, 0 fun with Buffalo Sports throughout my life. The closest we as a city got to a championship, with regards to my young adulthood, is going to be game 7 of the ECF against Carolina. It sucks, but that playoff run is going to end up being the most nostalgic I will look back on in 20 years, much like if I were in my late teens-early 20's during the Kelly Bills years. Why it always ends in heartbreak, no one can really answer, but it is what it is. I'm developing a theory about how ownership of both teams, Bills and Sabres, are essentially blackmailing the existence of the team against its fanbase. At this current stage economically, with Buffalo's market size, and availability of disposable income, we should just be happy that the teams exist here, and are making money. Forget winning or entertainment, Buffalo fan, at this point, should just be happy we can talk sports at a pro level. This attitude sucks. Detroit is floundering, GM is bankrupt, Chrysler is in bankruptcy, and the state of Michigan is at double-digit unemployment, yet the Red Wings win Stanley Cups, NBA championships. Pittsburgh, similar situation. How do these Rust Belt teams make it work?

Yeah, seriously. To sum up what I said before I was censored: If you don't like Dave Letterman, don't watch him. This isn't feudal Russia. The consumer has the ultimate power, turn the channel. Its that simple. To clarify my political point, why is the Right making this such a huge "story," when, as I said, Bill O'Reilly complains of 20 something newspapers that didn't run it. Well, maybe because it isn't a story. GM and Chrysler are in bankruptcy. We've blown hundreds of billions on proxy wars that have done nothing to actually stop the problems of our flawed Middle East foreign policy. Dave Letterman is a comedian/personality. He has no bearing on public policy. Furthermore, the Palins receive no respect or sympathy from this poster. "Abstinence is the only way," Sarah? Really? Then why is your 17/18 year old daughter a mom? Its ok for a Republican white family to have a teenager birth a child out of wedlock, but if the Obamas had a teenage daughter in the same situation, we'd hear all about the "breakdown of the family unit," or the erosion of "traditional family values."

Yeah, that would be nice. I thought I made an honest point, but apparently that was slanderous or something. Over/under 10 mins before this gets deleted? We'll see.

Being a typical broke college student, I subscribe to Time Warner for cable and high speed interwebzzz. It sucks we dont get NFL Network, but man, 140 something channels, and there is still nothing on. I watch Jeopardy and Bill O'Reilly and thats about it. Seriously, I'm actually 89 years old. I don't pay for premium channels, once again, just too expensive. But if you've been a DTV subscriber for as long as you claim, I would probly stick with what you got. The Sunday Ticket is sweet, but when I was researching this stuff last fall, I remember it was around $75/month for the package, irrespective of all the other fees/service charges. I can't in my right mind justifying paying $150 or more for just television. I'm paying $100/month for tv and internet, which is decent, plus its split 2 ways. FIOS is interesting, since the service includes NFL Network among others, and the fiber optic network is really powerful/reliable. Its availability is an issue, and you HAVE to get inclusive packages with it (phone/internet). Since the system is all on its own fiber optic system, they have to rout the cabling from the street to your basement, which can also be a lot of work. Why does TV take so much research nowadays?