Iwritecode

QUOTE (ewokpelts @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 08:37 AM) The difference is that the sox make more money today with less crowds. A sub 2 million attendance in 2003 meant a payroll of 40 or 50 million. Same attendance in 2016 means a payroll of 125 million. Yea but in 2003 50 million was around middle of the pack for attendance. In today's world, 125 million is still around the middle of the pack. Sure they make more money purely by the numbers but so does everyone else.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Apr 20, 2016 -> 06:11 PM) That's a shockingly late spring break I thought so too. Unlike the school district I grew up in, they apparently don't base their break off of when Easter falls. We always had it either the week before or the week after.

Advertising for the new Dark Tower film... http://www.sombragroup.com/

The only things my teachers ever did for me for graduation was sign my yearbook.

Apparently it's because CPS is on spring break this week.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Apr 20, 2016 -> 10:51 AM) Wow, so student loan service companies are f***ing terrible. Does anyone have Navient (formerly Sallie Mae, I think)? If so, be warned. I just got a notice in the mail my monthly payment was being reduced by 25%. I didn't ask for it or authorize it. I emailed them about it asking why and they sent me some BS non-answer that it was to conform to the terms of unsubsidized/subsidized federal loans. So I call them today for an actual answer and it turns out they, without authorization from me, extended the term of the loan by FIVE YEARS to "conform" to new maximum term limits allowed by the Federal Government. I don't even know if that's true, but either way, this company took it upon themselves to extend my loans and collect an extra 5 years of interest off me. What a crock of s***. I had them change it all back to my original payment schedule but I bet 95% of their customers are going to get this letter and be like "oh sweet, i'm saving some money," not realizing their going to pay more in the long term. Why not just keep paying the same amount instead of the new lower amount? It would achieve the same result of not changing your payoff date and you wouldn't pay any more in interest.

QUOTE (Tex @ Apr 20, 2016 -> 06:28 AM) Is the HS team officially recognized as a sport or is it intramural / club level? In Texas it is not officially recognized through our state sports organization. We have a pretty good team here and it is well supported as a club but not at the same level as if it were part of our sports umbrella. Yes, bowling is an official HS sport and part of the IHSA. The girls have been official for as long as I can remember. The boys became part of it around 2002. When I was in HS we had a bowling program and competed against all the other schools but weren't recognized by the IHSA for some reason. So I kinda got screwed out of all the scholarship money that they give out to the kids these days. Every single league and tournament that my daughter bowls in now she is earning scholarship money.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 19, 2016 -> 02:50 PM) Stats to back that one up? Only anecdotal evidence. But you've been in a locker room right? High school maybe? YMCA? Heath club? Gym? They are pretty open. Here's some pictures of a few. QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 19, 2016 -> 02:50 PM) So we are worried about the chance that someone can walk into the opposite sex locker room and what exactly? I don't know about you but I don't think I'd feel comfortable sending my daughters into a locker room to change and having some guy in there watching them simply because he has a "legal right" to be there. I can't believe I'm seriously having to explain this...

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 19, 2016 -> 02:14 PM) Because? Because most locker rooms and showers don't have individual and lockable stall doors? You're much more "open" in them compared to bathrooms. If some guy wants to claim that he feels like a woman that day and goes into the women's locker room there's no way to really stop them. Like this guy did.

QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 19, 2016 -> 08:58 AM) It's almost as if people forget that there are stalls with locks on them. Someone that identifies as a certain sex goes into a stall in that bathroom, shuts the door, locks it, uses the facilities, flushes, unlocks the door, washes their hands, and leaves. No big deal. QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 19, 2016 -> 09:07 AM) I mean, I've always wanted to pretend to be trans so I could sneak into a womens bathroom to see and hear them poop. Yum!! I keep seeing this straw-man argument all over Facebook. But it's not just bathrooms. It's locker rooms and showers as well, which is a much, much bigger problem.

So there were 46 schools at the state competition with around 160 girls bowling. Our girls finished 5th overall and my daughter ended up 12th individually. She was in 9th going into the last game but just couldn't get the corner pins to go down. 7 more pins and she would've been top 10. She averaged 163 over 10 games. Her high game was 215. Not bad considering none of them had been there before. The top girl averaged 204 over the 10 games. Our teams have won the past 3 years straight but just couldn't pull off the 4-peat. The HS team is pretty good though. That all starts for us this fall. Until then we'll have a couple summer leagues to keep us busy.

So I found out last night I can basically get locked out of my car if my remote stops working even if I HAVE MY KEY IN MY HAND. I went to the store to pick up a few things. Use the remote to pop the trunk. Put the stuff in the trunk and close it. Push the unlock button. Nothing. Just that quick my remote completely stopped working. None of the buttons would work at all. So I used the key to open the door. As soon as I put the key in the ignition the alarm started going off and the car wouldn't start. The only way to turn the alarm off is with the remote. So I get out and shut the door and the alarm finally turns off after about 10 seconds. After a few more times of tripping the alarm I decide to go back into the store to get some new batteries hoping that will fix the problem. No such luck. What's even more odd is that I was using my backup remote because the one I was using was acting up as well. I ended up having to call my wife so she could send my daughter up to the store with the other remote. Luckily it decided to work and I got home. I switched the batteries in that remote and it seems to be working ok now. I sort of understand why they built the alarm to go off if the car is unlocked without the remote (i.e. someone breaking into the car) but I can't even use my key? WTF?

QUOTE (MEANS @ Apr 7, 2016 -> 03:13 PM) XII? Do you mean VIII? Oops. I actually meant VII. Forgot my roman numerals for a minute there.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Apr 7, 2016 -> 10:00 AM) Will they be playing at Town & Country? LMK when, I will stop by and buy you a beer. Hopefully they oil the lanes. The last 2 months have been like bowling on sandpaper. We bowled one of the ladies teams that came over from the merge, and we had to give them 180 pins in handicap. And to top it off, they all bowled over their average the first two games, meaning we got our butts kicked. We had to have all 5 of us over 200 in game 3 just to win by 30 pins. Yuch. However with 2 weeks left we are still in contention for playoffs. We'll be there practicing a week from today. Tournament is Friday and Saturday.

Does anyone else buy/wear Skechers sneakers? I'm usually a bit picky on my shoes and I don't mind spending a little more on them because I'll wear them until the soles literally fall off. I've been known to keep a pair of shoes for 10 years or more. Anyway I bought a pair last year at a Shopko because they were on sale for like $40 and I happened to like the style and found my size. Two things that are pretty unusual for me unless I'm in an actual shoe store. I wore them as my casual everyday shoe for a few months during the summer. Then one day while I was tying them, one of the loops that holds the shoelace broke. I dealt with it for a little while because I liked the shoes but was never really happy about it. Then I found the exact same shoes at another store but these had memory foam insoles built into the shoe. So I bought a second pair and had been happy with them up until last week when the tongue literally fell right out of the left shoe. It didn't pull out. It didn't come un-stitched. Its like it was never even attached to the shoe at all. Of course the deadline for returning the shoes was about a week ago so I can't even return them. I emailed the company to see if they can do anything about it but as of right now, I think I'm going to stick to paying a little more for a better brand of shoe.

I thought the trailer was ok, but I'm not nearly excited about this movie as I was for Episode XII. I'm a SW fan but not a HUGE fan. Mostly I just stick to the main movies. I've never read any of the books or comics and I've never watched any of the cartoons. Even if they are canon. I'm sure I'll watch this one eventually but I'll likely wait until it's on disc.

So we finished up our Tuesday night league last night. We started the night in second by 4 games but we all came together on the night and actually won all 4. Sadly, the other team gets the tie-breaker because they have a higher total pinfall for the season. I finished the season strong with a 221, 209 & 231. First game was clean. Started with 3 in a row and had no problems picking up my spares. Second game I again started with 3 in a row, then opened up 3 frames in a row. 2 of them were easy single pin spares too. I got another spare in the 7th and then saved my game by getting 4 strikes in a row. Last ball of the 10th I tried switching balls and ended up with a 7 count. The last game I don't remember the details but I think it was clean too. I kinda lost my line but was getting a lot of lucky pin action. Finished the 10th frame by picking up a 10 pin and ending on a strike. Good way to finish the season off. I ended up with a 196.9 average. My wife already found an adult/youth summer league that she wants us to join with two of our kids. There is also a scholarship trio league that my daughter will be on with a couple of the girls from her school. So bowling has pretty much become a year-round sport for us.

QUOTE (StillMissOzzie @ Apr 5, 2016 -> 11:25 PM) Are we talking girls high school bowling tournament? What region are you in? My daughter bowled for Glenbard East 2011-2014. She's not bowling at school now, but I miss the life watching her bowl. SMO Middle school. 7th and 8th grade. HS bowling is done for the year so some of the HS bowlers help coach the younger kids. We just finalized our plans for next weekend for the state tournament in Joliet. Apparently there's a little jealousy from other schools over our bowling program. Our girls have won the state tournament the last 3 years in a row. Somehow our HS athletic director missed the deadline to sign up for it this year and lady that runs our program was hearing about it from other people before she was notified of what was going on. Luckily the girls were still able to get in but they've played hell trying to get the boys in.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Apr 5, 2016 -> 12:12 PM) DuPage county with 77% pop and 18% soda? I've literally never heard anyone refer to it as "pop" in DuPage, and I work at a restaurant... You must not be listening then. I've never heard anyone refer to it as "soda" in most of the entire midwest.

I saw one Cubs fan on Facebook yesterday afternoon (before the Cubs even played a single game) trash-talking Cardinals fans because the Cubs were technically ahead in the standings.

Coke is ok for mixing with rum. Pepsi and/or Mt. Dew are certainly my first choice(s) though. I really love the cherry vanilla Pepsi too.

That last line should actually read 90 or more games because there's one year where they won exactly 90 games. Anyway, having looked up the records it's amazing how many years the Sox didn't make the playoffs simply because the Yankees were better. Of course that streak of winning seasons stopped right around the time they added the East/West divisions to each league. The Sox have never taken advantage of MLB adding to the number teams that can make it to the playoffs. They've never won the WC and even with a second WC now added, they still haven't managed it.

My daughter bowled in a tournament Saturday. There were 12 teams from 8 different schools. Our school ended up bringing 3 teams. 4-person teams and they each bowled 6 games total. She ended up with the 2nd highest game and series among the girls. She was only 6 pins away from having the high game and 18 pins from high series. Since they are only allowed to win one individual award, the other girl got the award for high series and she got the award for high game. Her team took first place by over 200 pins and she was the team MVP. Averaged 167 over the 6 games.

Of the major chains: If I want quick cheap pizza, I'll got to LC. If I want pizza with so much grease that I need 3 plates, I'll go to Pizza Hut. If I want pizza with way to much garlic seasoning on the crust, I'll order Dominos. If I want good pizza, I'll get Papa John's. It's the only place my entire family can really agree on. My wife will even eat it re-heated the next day. And she never eats leftovers.

QUOTE (LDF @ Apr 1, 2016 -> 10:15 AM) this is the crux of my point of view. the casual fans will need incentive, that is done with winning ^^^ That's really all that needs to be said. Casual fans for the most part couldn't care less WHO is on the team or what slogan the marketing department comes up with or which players are on the TV and radio commercials.