Iwritecode

QUOTE (South Sider @ Jan 17, 2017 -> 04:50 PM) Heh, I actually bought a ball in November and have been practicing twice a week with some friends in anticipation of eventually joining a league. I had my first 500 series last week (yay) and have been finally starting to get my ball hooking nicely. Any tips for beginners? If you haven't been bowling long a 500 series is pretty good. As Alpha said, it's all about repetition. Same stance, same footwork, same back-swing, same release every single time. Then it's about making minor adjustments based how the ball is reacting to the lane and how fast the oil breaks down. If you're just wanting to join a league to have fun, then I'd say get a decent ball (probably in the $130 - $150) range and make sure it's drilled properly to fit you. The really good pro shops will actually watch you bowl a few frames and drill your ball based on your throw. If you're looking to eventually get into tournaments and make some money then it's a matter of practicing a lot. 3 games 4-5 times a week. Although the best advise IMO is simply work on your spares. Anybody can throw a strike but open frames will kill your game. Even a clean game with mostly spares should put you in the 170 - 180 range. Make sure you know how to pick up the basic spares. 7-pin, 10-pin, 4-pins, 6-pin, 7-4, 6-10, 1-3-6, 1-2, ect...

New year, new thread I guess. The HS bowling season just finished up for us. My daughter was on JV the entire year but both varsity and JV went undefeated in regular season matches. She finished the season with a 180 average and set a new personal high game of 256. That was tied for 2nd highest game of the season. One other girl got a 257. They were in quite a few tournaments and invites throughout the season and won most of them or at least placed 2nd. They only finished 3rd in one tournament. I wasn’t there but I heard they all had a really, really bad day. They are still ranked #1 or #2 in the state though depending on who you ask. Same story with the JV team although they actually bowled at the varsity level in a few of the tournaments. They finished 6th, 8th and 3rd in those. Which is pretty good for a JV team because in most of the tournaments there were 10 - 15 teams. The best was yesterday when they had a freshman/sophomore tournament. They didn’t even bother sending the two best sophomores because they’ve been bowling varsity since they were freshman and would’ve just destroyed everyone. There were only 4 girls teams and 15 boys teams. Our girls took first and would’ve actually placed 3rd had they had been bowling against the boys teams. Our boys team took first as well. It was funny though because they had the girls bowling on the same lanes as the boys. After each game teams on even lanes would move one pair right and odd lanes would go one pair left. Well the girls chant when they bowl. A lot. Loudly. I think that unnerved quite a few of them. Besides the fact that the girls were better than them. So now we get a few weeks break and then the spring leagues start up. I’ll be bowling with her in another Adult/youth league coming up in February. I’ve open bowled a few times but haven’t been on a league since October/November.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 13, 2017 -> 08:38 AM) I hate that people still insist on calling this Obamacare, because the Republicans successfully branded it as such. The ACA needs fixes, but that doesn't mean it needs to be repealed because of reasons... I think more control needs to be exerted over drug and healthcare prices if this is ever going to work. QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 13, 2017 -> 12:26 PM) People dont hold their elected officials accountable. Im sure youve read the stories about people using Obamacare who voted for Trump/others who said things like "Oh we just dont believe theyll get rid of it." Then you have people like this:

Blockbuster's biggest failure IMO was when they decided to get rid of late fees and instead jacked up the prices on rentals. The last time I was ever in a Blockbuster it was sometime in the early 2000's. I wanted to rent a PlayStation game with a friend of mine. We picked out the game, got to the counter, saw how much it would cost and immediately put the game back and went down the road to another video store. It may have even been a Family Video we went to that night. Late fees suck but I wasn't willing to pay 2 or 3 times what it cost to rent a video somewhere else just to not have to worry about having one. We have at least 3 Family Videos near my house but I don't think I've been into any of them in at least a year.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 12, 2017 -> 08:13 AM) There are only 3 states which require elementary schools to even give a regular scheduled recess to students. It's just a shame. Is this state one of them? Because for some reason they are requiring my daughter to continue to take PE even though she's behind in credits and on her 5th year of HS. Seems to me that it would make more sense to fill her schedule with the classes required to graduate including the ones she needs to make up from previous years.

QUOTE (3GamesToLove @ Jan 10, 2017 -> 01:28 PM) I've never done Soxfest. Is it worth going just the Sunday? I'd be interested in getting a couple autographs but don't want to spend the whole day in lines. The panels sound cool. The very first year I went (2003 or so IIRC) I went on Saturday only. It was fun but there wasn't really enough time to get to everything. So we started getting weekend passes the next few years. I haven't been to one since 2006 but I would think if you're only going for one day, Sunday wouldn't be a great day. But that kinda depends on what you are looking for or looking to do. I've always thought that most of the "good stuff" happened on Friday or Saturday. I haven't seen a schedule but I would think most of the bigger name players and the good panels are already over by Sunday. IMHO, if you are going to go (and can afford it since they jacked up the prices) get the weekend pass with the hotel room.

US Cellular had a special offer just before Christmas where if you bought 2 Samsung phones you would get a 58" smart TV for free. My wife and I were thinking about getting new phones anyway so we went ahead and got the deal. The TV was delivered today. Our old one is a 40" and it's on a stand behind the box. The box is sitting on the floor.

I got WatchDogs 2 for Christmas and have been playing it the last few days. Been doing mostly side missions but I figure I'm about 1/3 of the way through the main story. It's definitely better than the first one although I can't help but compare it to GTA V where it falls a little short. On one hand, I wish there was a way to modify and save vehicles. On the other hand, the driving mechanics aren't that great and you can simply fast-travel most of the time anyway. I do like the fact that you have to ability to climb up buildings and other obstacles and use RC drones and cars for getting to the difficult to reach places. Although it seems to make the multi-player hacking missions more difficult for the hacker/easier for the hackee (is that a word?). I've only had 2 people come into my game to try and hack me and found them pretty easily both times. It's also weird to see another person come into your game and just run around. There are only a couple of interactions but I wish one of them was "Sorry, I don't want to team up with you right now." 95% of the time I like to play solo.

I'm off all next week. Technically I'm listed as the "oncall" number for any IT problems but they are pretty rare since only a handful of people actually do anything over the break.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 23, 2016 -> 10:26 AM) Reading some people pointing out that a big driver in the US and Russia pulling back from an "arms race" is that an arms race pushes the probability of accidents higher - there's a legendary 20 minute stretch in 1983 when a Soviet computer sent out a false alarm saying the U.S. had launched missiles at the Soviets and it came down to basically one guy saying his gut said it was a false alarm and waiting 20 minutes to see if he was vaporized to avoid a retaliatory strike. Sounds like the ending of War Games.

Our varsity girls set a couple of records this past weekend. Had the news at their practice yesterday. Link

I'm already having this same discussion elsewhere but just because a movie is set on or around Christmas doesn't make it a Christmas movie. As much as people think it's clever to include them every year, movies like Die Hard, Gremlins and Rocky 4 do not count. They aren't movies about the holiday itself. They are about events that just happen to take place around the holiday. It's a small albeit distinct difference IMO.

QUOTE (CrimsonWeltall @ Dec 19, 2016 -> 02:27 PM) lol. If you were trying to pick out an NES game present, why didn't you choose a small rectangular box? THIS LARGE, HEAVY CYLINDER MUST BE BUBBLE BOBBLE! To be fair, my family is known for wrapping presents in boxes 2 and 3 times bigger than the actual present. Many times there are multiple boxes/layers of gift wrap to get through. It's also possible that I though it was a GI Joe vehicle or something as well.

When I was a kid my parents would allow me to open one present on Christmas Eve. This particular Christmas we were spending at my Grandma's house. I had brought my NES with me and of course, had a bunch of NES games on my list. So when I picked the present I wanted to open on Christmas Eve my parents asked me "Are you sure you want to open that one?" Of course being a kid I didn't listen to them and said "Yes, I'm sure." I opened it and it was a metal White Sox garbage can. It was cool and all (I'm pretty sure I still have it somewhere) but not exactly what I was hoping for at that moment. I'm pretty sure they made an exception and let me open another, "better" present.

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 19, 2016 -> 07:49 AM) The most surreal thing for me is watching a movie and realizing that everyone in it is dead. I was watching Bad Santa a few years ago and it got to one of the scenes with John Ritter and Bernie Mac. Then I realized that both of them were dead.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 16, 2016 -> 09:37 AM) it hasnt been on in a few weeks. Is it back? Which one? AFAIK, Last Man just had their fall finale this past Sunday and Falling Water just aired an episode yesterday.

Anyone else watching Last Man on Earth? I thought the show started out ok with an interesting premise. Adding and killing off certain characters and "guest stars" was fun too. But at this point it seems like the writers aren't really sure where to go with the story and they are just spinning their wheels. The last 2 or 3 episodes barely moved the story along at all. I'm completely confused on what they are doing with the whole "Melissa has gone insane" storyline as well. I also watched the first episode of Falling Water last night. I have the show set to record on my DVR but just never got around to it. I though the previews looked interesting but have heard absolutely nobody talking about it.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Dec 9, 2016 -> 12:04 PM) Ok, after the first third of a season here, I have a very mixed bag going on. I bowl in 2 places, Town & Country in Joliet and Orland Bowl. last year I ended in the mid 180's both leagues, maybe 3 pins higher in Orland. This year, my average at orland is up to 195, but my Joliet one is down to 170!!! For the first 2 months it was in the 160's. I have no idea of the difference, I just seem to be getting less favorable pin action on my pocket shots in Joliet. Most of the league is down a few pins, but mine is somewhat drastic. I did have a 590 and 606 series the last 2 weeks, so perhaps there is light at the end of that tunnel. I know there are times when my feet, knees and arthritis hands play against me, but it hasn't been any more than normal, so far. Sucks getting old, but beats the alternative. There was just a HS tournament at Town & Country last weekend. We only sent our varsity team but looking at their scores, they did not bowl like they normally do. They ended up in 2nd place overall but it looks like the scores were down for a lot of the girls. Most of them normally average 190+ and I saw a lot of scores in the 160s and 170s. I don't know what it is about that house since I've never actually bowled there myself, but it sounds like it's pretty difficult shot.

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Dec 8, 2016 -> 09:20 AM) I was playing this at the same time I was playing Sleeping Dogs and the "which side of the street to drive on" thing kept f***ing with me. Just as I get used to Hong Kong I pick GTA up again and I'm driving on the left side crashing into everything. I just always drive down the middle. Problem solved.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 1, 2016 -> 11:22 AM) Best record of the combatants. They play entirely different schedules. While true, baseball is unique in that even if they made a balanced schedule and every team played every other team the same amount of times there is no guarantee they'll face the same starting pitcher each game. In all the other sports if you take out factors like injuries and trades, you know that you'll be facing more or less the same team every time you play them. Anyways, teams within the same division don't even play the same schedule, yet hardly anyone ever says a word about that. Was it fair that the Sox had to play the Cubs for 4 games but the Indians got to play the Reds instead?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 29, 2016 -> 01:13 AM) The Sox deserve all the mocking. If they don't acquire the right young players, this rebuild may be mocked as well. I can't believe the Sox don't a.) hire the best proven manager possible and b.) go the free agent route to fill holes with GOOD players. If we had an excellent manager and just a few more good players, we'd be a perennial playoff team. Now we have to have this manager 3-4 years during the rebuild. My hope is someday we hire a difference maker manager like Maddon or Francona. Holy crap, that's the key? Just get GOOD players? Why the hell haven't we been doing this all along? It's almost like that theory about scoring more runs than the other team. We should test that one out next season as well. Get GOOD players. Score more runs than other teams. Win. It's so simple!

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Nov 22, 2016 -> 01:45 PM) Anyone have a Surface Pro? My wife has been hinting that she wants one and i've been looking at possibly getting one during Black Friday. I'm just not sold that it's worth it. I don't think she would use it for anything more than streaming shows/movies, checking email, surfing the web and looking at photos of our kids. She's not going to be drawing portraits like a sketch artist or whatever. Is there a need for this over a tablet? Is it going to last longer? Any reviews? I tested one at work a few months ago. Wasn't really anything special in my mind. The pen/stylus that came with it was interesting but not all that useful for what I do. IIRC our salespeople requested them mostly because they wanted a replacement for their laptops so they could use them on planes.

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Nov 21, 2016 -> 10:18 AM) I had shoulder surgery in February, followed by 4 months of physical therapy. Got one of the bills and they charged $40 for ice. $40! It was covered, so I didn't bother fighting it, but I asked my therapist why they charge just to ice my shoulder. What she explained was, the insurance companies refuse to pay or "negotiate" down the price so much that places have to find ways to charge to make the money they should be making. So, as someone said before, health insurance shouldn't have been for profit to begin with. Don't blame the lab for trying to get their employees paid. Blame the insurance companies for colluding to only charge what they think it's worth. I've always heard that hospitals charge so much to make up for the people that come in to the ER off the street, get treated for whatever and then disappear and never pay their bill.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Nov 18, 2016 -> 10:37 AM) I paid $99 for a used PS2. I paid like $60 for one about a year ago at a Half-Price Books. I have a couple of the slim ones but they don't work. So I got the one that can play the PS1 games as well.

So has anyone here bought (or attempted to buy) the NES classic yet? It looks like that is the big rage for Christmas this year and pretty much all the stores are sold out of it. I still have a couple of actual working NES systems from the 80's/90's and all of my old games so I'm not all that interested in it. I already have half the games that come pre-installed on it and the few I don't have never interested me that much anyway. The only thing that really intrigues me is the ability to save any game at any point. That would've been nice 25 years ago.