Swingandalongonetoleft

Hope you guys are right. I like things the way they are.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 08:22 AM) Are they similar in the way they're written, or does Robert Downey, Jr. simply play them similarly? I like the guy, but a lot of his characters seem the same. It's both. Holmes and Stark have a lot of similar traits, and for that reason, all Downey Jr. has to do to play both parts is change clothes to reflect the appropriate time period and switch accents while speaking.

I cannot defend against that which is deserved. I never said it was a good gut feeling. Maybe a few haymakers to the tummy would banish that gut feeling similarly to how Jesus banished the merchants from the temple in the Gospel of John.

I have this gut feeling that the Cubs are going to win it within 3 years. This year they might be competitive and either just miss, or even make the playoffs contrary to the popular consensus (that they're going to be garbage); but 2013 or 2014 will see a Cub WS winner. I kind of like it the way it is right now, and would rather keep it that way- but my gut feelings are usually pretty good.

Since movies that come out in December belong to both years (IMO)- Went to go see Sherlock. Best movie I've seen in a theater since Dark Knight. Robert Downey Jr. is better as Sherlock than he is as Tony Stark, and he's pretty good as Tony Stark. Two very similar characters, actually...

Space and our origins have always fascinated me. I've read and re-read all of Hawking's books. Excellent stuff. Hope he sticks around a bit longer.

Looks like we'll see new Pearl Jam and Aerosmith this year, hopefully with tours included. Also possible new Black Sabbath (original lineup) and GNR (not so original lineup), though the latter two are long shots. Just read that Tony Iommi from Sabbath has cancer... I'd be in an uncharted state of glory with even 50% of those seeing the light of day.

Was kind of hoping that the 2005 Canvas would fall on a weekday covered by the 27 game plan. I've never really cared too much about promo giveaways though, so no biggie. Half the time I can't even make it to the park until second inning or so because of work. On the other hand, this year 20,000 people might not show up the entire game, let alone by the second inning.

Regarding Z to Miami: I've always enjoyed Zambrano, so it's just one more reason for me to watch the Marlins this year. Thank God for mlb.tv... I wish they weren't in the same division as the Phillies so I could pull for them more, so I'll just settle for watching them when I'm not watching the Sox or Phils. I'll make it a point to catch them when they visit the Cubs and Brewers. I think he can still be a serviceable arm for the Marlins, my only question is if he'll get his act in order for Ozzie.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 6, 2012 -> 08:45 AM) And here I thought Castro was too lazy to take the extra base... Touch 'em all!

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jan 6, 2012 -> 06:45 AM) Being reported on the Score and WBBM that Starlin Castro has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her mid-20s. https://twitter.com/#!/WBBMNewsradio/st...264808709660672 Wow. Whoopsie daisies... Doubt anything comes of this, but if it does (and he goes away for a couple of years), would this be another one to file under "Cubbie Occurance"?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 2, 2012 -> 11:07 PM) Finally got around to watching The Prestige. Not bad. Me too- I really liked it. Pleasantly surprised. Hearkening back to 2011- I just saw Thor. Probably my favorite 2011 movie. Haven't watched the final Harry Potter movies or the latest Pirates. Or Sherlock. Gotta see those before I delve into the goodness that is summer 2012/Batman.

I remember taking some Cub fan friends to their first ever game at the Cell. It was against the Angels, and Q walked it off against Lackey IIRC. Q was such a beast at that time.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Dec 23, 2011 -> 05:25 PM) PDF, another proprietary format that needs to die a swift and painful death. f*** Adobe for ever inventing that s*** and conning people into thinking it's a good idea. Adobe needs to stay away from anything that's not video/audio/photographic based software. Buggy garbage code just like Flash and one of the main things (along with Flash again) that opens your computer(s) to most backdoors, security exploits, etc. If .pdf went anywhere, I would curl up into a ball and weep like a child. Not that I'm particularly fond of it, but it makes my work so much easier.

I'm used to not really getting too much for Christmas, but I got a new laptop, a ukulele, a new Bunny rabbit to replace our old one that died a year ago almost to the day, Also gifted myself a 27 game Sox plan. Also getting license un-suspended this week. Probably the best Christmas gift-wise in all of my 25 years. I'm giddy like a little child.

Yikes. Also, haven't the Phillies already thrown enough money into the old relief pitcher fire to exclude themselves from Madson?

With Buehrle creeping up there age-wise, I suppose I've come to accept his tenure on the Sox being nixed. Good to know that at least one likeable piece will be back next year.

Marshall has been good for a while. Be weird not seeing him with the Cub.

Inning eating left handers don't grow in vineyards, they take their talents to south beach.

Saw Inception. Like it a lot. It gave me this intense feeling of uneasiness that I last remember getting for A Clockwork Orange.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Dec 16, 2011 -> 07:57 PM) I heard Poland is doing pretty good now-a-days. lulz I visit once every few years. That is enough for me. Besides, my home growing up was pretty much like a colony of Poland anyway.

The one benefit I know about is that someone bought up all the ad-space that Lowe's dropped. Hopefully an indirect benefit will be people realizing what kind of asshats FFA are. Anonymous certainly did :-) . I suppose this is true- my parents came here from Southern Poland and brought a lot of that area's s***ty mindsets along with them. I couldn't stand it, and so I told myself I'd be the polar opposite. The quickest way I could piss them off would be to tell them that I will marry a Muslim girl, or Jewish Girl, or anything not Roman Catholic. They're going to be in for the shock of their lives when I don't bring home a nice polish girl (because I absolutely won't) I've dealt with that every day of my life. My sister is most likely going to get engaged to a black guy - there will be fireworks when that happens, and I don't mean in the sky to celebrate it. None of my other brothers and sisters, or myself, see anything wrong with it. We think it's great. You'd think we were raised by John Lennon and Mother Theresa, but it's the exact opposite. I still think attitudes towards people different than you are at least a *little* better, but yeah, it's certainly true that not everyone is singing kumbaya together everywhere else but here. I'm more aware of it here, because here is home. I'm absolutely not anti-American- there aren't too many places I would rather live (except maybe Canada should Herman Cain have been elected, but that's a discussion for another time).

Never got into 24 either. Or Lost, sadly. I plan on changing the latter after I'm done plowing through my un-watched seasons of Parks and Rec, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Aqua Teens.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 16, 2011 -> 03:12 PM) You went after me hard, very hard, said that: "It hurts me because like you said- too many people either don't care enough, or can't look past their own f***ing noses to look into other culture's and faiths- let alone accept them. They accept the obscenities these jabroni's spew as truth". And yet you don't seem to care about the show either. Like I said, had lowes not done this, no one would have cared about the show, or anything the Florida Family Association or whatever this group is called actually says. By listening to them, they have given this show an enormous amount of free publicity. Balta, I misunderstood your original post. I wasn't addressing the show itself in that post, and actually thought I was agreeing with you ("because like you said- too many people either don't care enough") Definitely not attacking you personally, sorry if it came across that way.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Dec 16, 2011 -> 02:38 PM) And people have the right to be "ignorant about Islam", or the Quran, or Catholicism, etc. Far be it for me to say, but just because YOU decided to care about Islam and read up upon it, don't point fingers at others for "being ignorant". It's not ignorant to NOT read up on something that exists, because I have to tell you, there are religions out there that YOU'VE never heard of, thus you're ignorant, too, by your own definition. Look, we only have so much time in our lives, and just because a person doesn't decide to educate themselves on something (or EVERYTHING), that doesn't mean their ignorant. It just means they have different priorities than you. I guess that's not how I meant it. I don't know much about Wiccans, Buddhists, etc. - but it doesn't mean that I'll pass judgement or paint their entire religion and all who subscribe to it with a broad brush. That's exactly what a whole hell of a lot of Americans did and keep doing after 9/11. QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Dec 16, 2011 -> 02:44 PM) I think the ignorant part is thinking something about a certain group of people without actually taking the time to learn about them. If you've never heard of a religion then you can't form an opinion about the people that practice it. This is exactly what I meant. See, I just can't understand how someone can do that - especially if that opinion is negative and based on inaccuracies (not you in particular- I have no idea what you're opinion is) such as the afore-mentioned non-Muslim American's view of anyone that even resembled a Muslim after 9/11. Something like that can be pretty damaging to someone. FFA and the dumbass Qur'an burner are my examples - people won't find out for themselves that this is bigotry on-par with s*** the KKK does and blindly assume it's true, making the lives of many people miserable, and in some cases, dangerous. Of course many of you will remember the attacks on people shortly after 9/11. That's f***ing embarrassing and pathetic. In one case (a knife attack on a taxi driver IIRC) the guy even forgave his attacker and argued against the judge coming down too hard on the attacker. I'm glad the judge disregarded him and threw the book at the guy. As for Hitchen's - I'm not exactly familiar with his negative stance on Islam (past the fact that he had a negative stance), or the rationale behind it.