JUSTgottaBELIEVE

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 30, 2014 -> 10:32 AM) I would say the systems to avoid over there are East Chicago, Hammond, and Merrillville. Other than that, there are a lot of nice towns through that area. Depends on where exactly you want to be in relations to schools, train, interstate etc. I'm petty much ruling NWI out due to location. Anything within a 30 mile radius of the loop is fair game. Any suggestions?

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 07:56 AM) Munster. First of all, Indiana's government and taxes are far, far less f***ed up than Illinois. So having narrowed the choices down to NW Indiana, Munster has by far the best public school system. Anyone else?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 01:51 PM) This. And The Region is as close to downtown Chicago by train as most of the suburbs are. Closer in many cases. It is a fraction of what it costs to live in the City. definitely if we worked in the city or SW burbs ... but hard to get to anywhere else other than the city (which is already a bit of a stretch of a commute from NWI) or SW burbs so it really limits work options. I'm guessing that's one of the biggest reason RE is much more affordable in the NWI region

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 11:09 AM) Property taxes may be similar, but income and sales taxes are a lot lower in NWI, plus like you said you can get more house for your money. Yeah, Addison may be a bit far to commute from there. It's been a while since I've driven the tri-state in the morning so I don't know how long that would take. NB Tri-State is pretty bad in the morning but SB in the afternoon is even worse. Particularly north of 55, once you're south of 55 it's not bad (typically) in either direction AM or PM

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 07:56 AM) Munster. First of all, Indiana's government and taxes are far, far less f***ed up than Illinois. So having narrowed the choices down to NW Indiana, Munster has by far the best public school system. I never considered NW IN to be honest. Munster seems like a great option if you work in the south or SW burbs but unfortunately is too far south for us since my wife works in Addison and Elk Grove Village. That commute would be an absolute bear. Too bad it's not an option because we could definitely afford a bigger/newer home in that area, though property taxes appear to be surprisingly comparable to where I'm at now in terms of % of home value

and please provide a brief explanation as to why you recommend that suburb (i.e. great schools, good location, activities, restaurants, good investment, etc)

If you were picking a Chicagoland suburb to buy a home and raise a family, which one would it be?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 9, 2014 -> 02:27 PM) I had TWO, and have some info for ya. First for comparison sake for you, our lot is a corner lot about 60 by 120, average house footprint, but a lot of garden landscaping. Overall not a very big lawn, but not small either. With a relatively small lawn, decided to give the electric a try - got a battery-power one from Home Depot, I forget the brand. Had a 30 day return policy, so I thought, might as well try. Price same as similar gas mower, less noise, no gas/oil, cheaper to run. Worked great first year - usually finished the lawn with about 30% of the battery remaining. Cutting job was OK, not the best I've seen, but just fine for me. Quiet, charged quick, lived up to expectations. Went to charge it back up after the first winter, did what you should do with stored batteries - ran it down a little, then fully charged it. Well, it did about a quarter of the lawn before it died. Figured it was the winter, so I charged it full again, let it sit, charged it full yet again, then tried it. Was even worse. Batteries were trashed after sitting for one frickin' winter. And of course, the mower has a 2 year warranty... except the battery, which is 1 year. Missed it by a month. Bought a new battery. Worked great at first, seemed just as good as it was when new. Later in the summer, started having trouble finishing the lawn. Did some interwebbing, says to keep the battery plugged in over the winter, so I did that. Next spring? Dead again, battery barely worked. Also by this point, after just two years of use, a couple plastic parts started acting funny, just not a quality build. Since the mower itself was still under warranty and it had other flaws, I managed to trade it in for a different brand electric, this one a Black and Decker (Home Depot was pretty good about this). That one I returned in a couple weeks because it couldn't finish the lawn on even the first shot! Finally gave in and bought a gas Honda mower, which has worked fantastically for 2 years. It's a great concept, but the batteries - both the OEM ones and the aftermarket ones from a different manufacturer - just don't last. I don't recommend it. ONE NOTE - These are the battery powered ones. Plug-in ones may be fine, I don't know, but those weren't practical for me. great info. that is exactly my fear. just like any other battery-powered device (cell phone. laptop, etc.), my fear is that it would start out fine but quickly lose capacity over time. didn't realize it would be that quick though!

need a new lawn mower. the old craftsman has seen its last days. contemplating an electric mower (cordless) rather than gas. read a lot on line about pros/cons and seems like they have come a long way in the past few years. I like the idea of not messing with gas, oil, pull cord, etc. but I'm still a bit skeptical about performance. anyone here have first hand experience?

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Jan 6, 2014 -> 12:10 PM) Clay Matthews, Casey Hayward, Brian Bulaga, Johnny Jolly, Jemichael Finley, Brandon Bostick, Jonathan Franklin, DuJuan Harris. Lot's of good players in that list. and probably the most significant of all, sam shields on the opening drive of the game. devon house is garbage and made crabtree look like TO in his prime. even despite your list, with shields in yesterday's game it changes everything

Is miles plumlee the real deal? His stats in college weren't overly impressive but he had two huge games to open this year. Considering picking him up in fantasy basketball in favor of varejao or faried (who appears to be on a time split with jj hicks on this year)

And the fact that the bills have no qb, not sure if that helps or hurts FJax

I'm leaning towards sproles since I think spiller will be more involved this week but FJax has been so solid thus far this season

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Oct 13, 2013 -> 09:59 AM) PPR? Standard

Sproles @ NE or FJax vs. CIN?

QUOTE (TRU @ Sep 29, 2013 -> 08:30 AM) Ide play Nicks. The trend seems to be complain about not getting the ball and you get it a lot the next week. Wallace did it, Brown did it, now its Nicks turn. Well that figures bowe scores a TD. Damn should have gone with my gut on bowe, that KC secondary is just too tough for anyone not named Cruz

Bowe vs. NYG or Nicks vs. KC? Both bad options with Cobb on a bye week but I think one of these guys is due for a good game but I don't know which one.

QUOTE (hammerhead johnson @ Jun 8, 2013 -> 08:28 AM) That's adorable. I'll bet you're one of those dudes at the game chanting PAULIE! PAULIE! while he puts up a career WAR of 26. Couldn't even get close to Kent Hrbek. I bet you're one of those dudes that was waiting for the DRose "comeback" this year while he sat on the bench and played cheerleader all playoffs. That was sweet. Paulie was a part of and played a huge role in a Chicago team winning a championship. How many Chicago athletes can you say that about in the past 15 years outside of the Hawks?

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ Jun 4, 2013 -> 07:55 PM) Valpo definitely had a tough loss against IU in game one. Their starter was very good, but Kowalczyk was overthrowing his sliders. Not really terribly surprised that they blew it, but having Clark hit the walk off homer was eye opening. To be fair, Austin Peay, even with their 16-game winning streak coming into the regional, wasn't that good. They had zero chance in both games against IU. I wasn't at the game but I read the same thing about the hanging sliders. Still, when a guy only gives up one run all season in something like 25 innings, you certainly don't expect him to blow a 3 run lead. As far as Peay, yes they certainly weren't a powerhouse but they did have an RPI of 39 heading into the tourney which is very respectable. They also had the longest active win streak in the nation (D1) heading into the tourney so they were a hot team. IU was simply more talented and obviously had no problem generating some offense against their pitching.

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ Jun 4, 2013 -> 11:09 AM) My alma mater, Indiana University, reached their first super regional in the team's history this year. The Hoosiers will be in Tallahassee, and I think they have a very good chance to make it to Omaha. Aaron Slegers, a 7-foot tall pitcher and B1G pitcher of the year (who will probably be drafted on Friday as well) will most likely start off the super regional. My alma mater had him beat in Game 1 of the regional until Valpo's closer blew a 3-run lead in the bottom of the 9th. Very impressed with how far Valpo's program has come since I played there in early 2000's. To knock Florida out of the tournament and then lose two 1-run games to the #13 team in the nation (IU) and another team that was very hot coming into the tourney (Austin Peay) is very impressive for a small-Midwest program.

wow, this makes me want to take a class in philosophy. seriously, I have taken religion classes in high school and college but the way you explain things is very interesting and led me to see things from a different perspective QUOTE (vandy125 @ Feb 12, 2013 -> 07:59 AM) I do get your point. I really do. You have to realize that it is the short-sighted view of history and time however. If this is all that there is, if there is nothing more, then time is short and it can be incredibly brutal. It can be painful, and it can be very unjust. If this is all that there is and there is a God ruling over it, how could anyone want anything to do with that being? That would be ridiculous. However, if there is an immortal soul, some piece that lives longer than this, then what is 70, 80, or 90 years in the view of eternal? It is nothing, it is but a short time. There is a long time to right the wrongs and injustices of what is happening now if the soul is indeed eternal. Buddhism talks about getting off this wheel of life. Christianity and Islam talk about life after death. Most of the religions that I have studied talk about more than just this life. So, IMO, it is short-sighted to think that all of the terrible and all of the wrongs can be waved away with a magic wand in this life. There is so much more time that will pass. Of course, especially in American culture, we want everything right now. We want things fixed right now, we don't care how it happens, but we want it right now. We have lost our ability to try and see further, to go through short-term pain for long-term gain because all we see is the here and now. And I really do not want to get into the debate between whether religion or atheism has killed more people throughout time. We can talk about Stalin and his 10-20 million, Hitler and his 20 million, Mao Zedong and his 10's of millions of Chinese, the Crusades and its half a million. History is full of people killing people. The reason that it happens is because they were human. They wanted power and control, and they were willing to do whatever it took to get that regardless of religion. They used whatever excuse possible to get them more power. To lay it all at the doorstep of religion is disingenuous. Religion, or lack of it, does not cause you to kill people. People will find ways to do that regardless of what weapon they wield.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/24/us/new-york-....html?hpt=hp_t1 This is a really sick story. Now our emergency responders need to fear for their lives when they arrive at the scene? Do firefighters, ambulance workers, etc. need to start packing heat? This is insane

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 16, 2012 -> 05:33 PM) There were 5-6 terrible calls. One took a td away from us. Another gave a td to them. Another two took a drive away from us at the end of the game. Another extended one of theirs and allowed them to take another 1:47 off the clock. This was one of the poorer officiated games you will see in the NFL. You didn't think any of those offensive pass interference calls on Jeffery were penalties? What about the one where he grabbed shields by the face mask and threw him down and they called illegal contact? That was the first play of the drive you referenced that "one took a TD away from us." The bears still scored 3 on that drive. I saw 3 terrible calls in that game. 2 in favor of Green Bay and 1 in favor of Chicago. Did I miss something?

QUOTE (Jake @ Dec 16, 2012 -> 03:57 PM) If I'm Lovie, I can't believe my livelihood is going to be changed by this f***ing referee crew Bad call? Yes. But the Bears did not lose the game on that one play. They were clearly outplayed and if it wasn't for terrible decisions on the part of McCarthy that game is a blow out - putting Crosby out there twice for 40+ yard attempts when he can barely make a PAT right now (the second one being on 4th and 1 situation), awful punt return trick play when leading by 11 points n the 4th quarter, and giving the ball to grant late in a game when he's been sitting at home half the season watching games on tv all while with Alex green was running the ball well all game

Odog is so awful