Iwritecode

QUOTE (Texsox @ Feb 10, 2009 -> 11:27 AM) These are people looking to walk 300 miles for a minimum wage job at some restaurant or farm. I'm sure there are plenty of people living in this country legally that could use that minimum wage job right about now. Plus, they'd actually pay taxes on the money they made from that job.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Feb 7, 2009 -> 11:37 AM) I'm a united way guy, but this year I was going to make a nice donation to my college or high school. We'll what happens with the market. I've always been pretty indifferent to most charities but the United Way really turned me off when they decided to quit giving money to the local community center where I grew up playing baseball in the summertime. My youngest daughter plays there now. They nearly went under because of it.

QUOTE (shipps @ Feb 6, 2009 -> 09:23 AM) I was a young lad and it was my first pair of expensive shoes. I was so proud of these shoes I would look at them all the time. I would make sure not a speck of dirt got on them and if it did I would do the spit wash. I had those shoes except in black. I finally had to throw them away around 2001 or so when the soles literally fell off them. It was a sad day. I've got a pair of boots that I've had since 1996. They look like hell but still fit and they don't have any holes in them.

Mine are done and sent out. I'm just waiting for the direct deposit to hit my account now. I'm getting around $2000 back this year between state and federal. Last year I got back every single dollar I paid in. This year I had to paid a total of $64. The rest is being refunded to me. Mostly because of the $3000 tax credit I get for my kids.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 28, 2009 -> 02:55 PM) I always say I have no problem with people thanking God for, say, blessing them with professional athletic ability or something along those lines. But be consistent with it. If you're going to thank God for the touchdowns you threw or your wins, also be thankful (or be upset, whatever) for the interception you threw in the 4th quarter or the time when you fumbled near your own goal line. Because God has de facto responsibility for those, too. I can just see it... "First of all, I'd like to blame God for this loss today. We would've won the game except when God made me fumble that ball in the 4th quarter with 1:30 left to play."

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 28, 2009 -> 02:17 PM) http://www.peapod.com/ I'm not entirely sure I'd trust something like that anyway. There are many times we don't actually make a list and just kinda wing it. Plus there's a lot of food that we just buy on impulse too because we see a good price or something.

Whenever I see somebody driving behind me and dodging back and forth between two lanes every 3 seconds for no apparent reason I like to get just close enough to the car in the other lane so they can't get past either one of us. If the car in the other lane happens to turn, I'll speed up enough to catch up to another car. If the car actually does get around me I like to wave and congratulate them for being the first to stop when I catch up at the next stoplight.

I hate the whole process of grocery shopping. Sitting down to make a list of the stuff we need. Driving there and spending 2 hours walking around getting all the stuff on the list plus any extra stuff that we happen to see and think it looks good. Unloading the cart onto the moving belt so the cashier can put it into a bag and I get to put it right back into the cart again. Loading all the stuff into the trunk. Unloading all the stuff from the trunk to carry into the house. This is 10X worse in the winter because our shoes are wet and we end up getting the carpet and floor wet walking back and forth. Then later I end up with wet socks. Putting all the stuff away into the pantry/cupboard/fridge.

When you pull into a drive-thru, order one or two things and they give you you're total and tell you to pull around before reading the order back to make sure it's right or even asking if you're done ordering. More and more I've just decided to skip the drive-thru completely because of this.

QUOTE (The Critic @ Jan 26, 2009 -> 01:49 PM) For me, it's spending control. A debit card would make it far too easy for me to overspend on things I want but don't need. If I have to make the committment to take out a check, fill it out, and hand it to someone, I'm much more likely to stop the urge to spend needlessly. I know my self-control limits and I have to work within them. I'm the exact opposite. I only spend money when I really have to. Even when I get a gift card or something I’ll take forever deciding what to use it on. I did spend $5 on a shirt that I didn't really need a week ago or so.

QUOTE (The Critic @ Jan 26, 2009 -> 09:42 AM) No. I refuse. I love to write checks at the grocery store. Love, love, LOVE it. Of course, I do fill everything out in advance so all that has to be entered is the amount. If that takes too long for you, there's always the self-checkout. May I ask why? I very rarely write checks anymore. The only times I write a check is if I can't use my debit/credit card or it's a bill that can't be paid online. I can't tell you how many times I've had a check cashed for the wrong amount because somebody at the bank can't seem to read/type either.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jan 23, 2009 -> 12:05 PM) shopping at Goodwill and Aldi's I go to those two places all the time. Wal-Mart too.

I could name a ton of stuff but most of it has already been said. Reality TV, the Cubs, beer, myspace, facebook. There are a number of things that I don't hate but am pretty much indifferent too. Nascar Hockey College sports The Beatles Led Zepplin The Godfather Trilogy

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 23, 2009 -> 11:34 AM) Carrottop? Really? I haven't seen him in quite a few years but I discovered him in the early 90's on MTV. I went to his show a few times when he came to Rockford. First time I saw him live, he was pretty funny. Second time there was some repeat stuff but it was still pretty good. Third time it was all repeated stuff. Fourth time we skipped but some friends that went said that he did a lot of new material. Figures... Some of the props he comes up with were pretty dumb but some were hilarious.

QUOTE (The Gooch @ Jan 22, 2009 -> 11:01 PM) -Jean Shorts on men QUOTE (Markbilliards @ Jan 22, 2009 -> 11:11 PM) Jorts (jean shorts) I never knew about this until last year when I happened to be watching Next on MTV (horrible show but nothing else was on at the time) and the guys on the show started making fun of one of the other guys because he was wearing jorts. Hell, I'd never even heard the word "jorts" before. Why are these so unpopular all of a sudden? I've still got a couple pair that I wear every once in a while. I guess I fell off the fashion train many years ago...

Nickleback 3 Doors Down Dane Cook Carrottop Ketchup on hot dogs soggy cereal

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 20, 2009 -> 07:19 AM) I bought my PS3 online and got no interest for 12 months. Where? I would like to do that as well.

Am I the only one that doesn't like shopping online simply because I like to get the X months w/no interest from the store instead?

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Jan 16, 2009 -> 06:12 PM) Jumped mine too and started after I turned it off a couple of times. Waited another 15 minutes and try to start it again but the voltage was down to 10.7 volts. Looks like I'm going to have to change it tomorrow. Anybody have any battery changing horror stories. I do. I was on vacation with my family and my parents in Michigan a couple of years ago. We were all piled into my suburban and we were towing a pop-up camper. We were getting ready to move on to our next desination and decided to stop at a petting zoo for the kids. When we got ready to leave, the suburban wouldn't start. When we went to check the battery, the piece that the cable gets screwed into literally fell out of the battery. We ended up getting the owner of the zoo to drive us a few miles to the closest town so we could buy a new battery. Luckily they had one that fit.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 19, 2009 -> 08:46 AM) No kidding. Most decent mechanics would have checked that when installing a new battery. QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 16, 2009 -> 02:13 PM) took to get it to AutoZone where they replaced the battery. Autozone =/= decent mechanics. Hell, they should have tested the battery and the alternator first before even replacing the battery.

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 12:48 PM) Hmph. Some credit check program... I can't even type my number into the box there. Just post it on here and I'll check it for you.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 30, 2008 -> 06:11 PM) The other shoe dropped today. Bad news: someone has been using my credit card number, online, the last few days. Had to cancel it, get new cards, and all that pain in the ass. Good news: its now pretty clear that someone got my info from something on the web - somewhere, where you put in CC# and address and all that. Its good news because this isn't my credit file being messed with. Credit cards can be cancelled, calls can be ignored. Could be a lot worse. I am usually quite careful about shopping online, only using major retailers and trusted names. But apparently, even that is sometimes not safe enough.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Dec 26, 2008 -> 03:20 PM) not sure what i can do, i went to Gamestop and they told me that the resurfacing thing they have sucks and it wouldn't help me out. i tried some home remedies i read about on the internet to fix scratched cd's, but none if it worked. i might just be out of luck, maybe i'll just replace my busted madden 09 with a cheap used madden 08. Is it possible to return it? Most stores will let you exchange for the same title. QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Dec 26, 2008 -> 07:07 PM) Don't buy your games from GameStop. They sell their old games as "new". I've always been a little leary about the fact that their "new" games are always open and out of the package. I usually only stick to buying Gameboy games for my kids from there but we had to break down and buy 1 game from them for christmas. I was shocked when the guy at the counter gave me a game that was actually still sealed in the shrink wrap. We questioned him and he said that they all come sealed unless it's the last one in stock. FWIW.

I just saw something a few days ago on the history channel I believe about the drug wars they are fighting in Kentucky of all places. I guess there are people that plant crops of marijuana in the wooded hills and when harvest time rolls around, the police lfly around in a helicopter to try and find the crops. Then they radio down to a ground team that goes in and confinscates it all. I can't imagine the cost of all the hours and man-power involved in something like that...

QUOTE (philadelphia sox fan @ Dec 23, 2008 -> 08:06 PM) Well, my computer isn't exactly new, and firefox tends to shut itself down on a regular basis so I needed an alternative. QUOTE (scenario @ Dec 23, 2008 -> 08:28 PM) Opera is a great choice for people with older computers or slow Internet connections. I think of it kind of like 'Firefox-lite'. Firefox will do everything Opera does and much more, but it works much better on newer/faster computers. For example, it does not work well on my 3 year old Dell Desktop running Windows XP, but it's amazing on my 2 month old laptop with Vista and 3Gigs of ram. I'm hooked on Firefox because of all the great add-ons that are available. My computer is about 5 years old and I just upgraded it to 1GB of memory about a month ago. I've been running Firefox on it for years with no problems.