oldguystudent

Gee whiz, you're right! I better get started on that back yard bunker!

Alright dude. It's you and me mano a mano. Irvine vs Fresno St to open it up.

I suppose that's a fair assessment, but I refuse to view them as an imminent threat. They are a starving, incompetent, non-funded entity. Since the USSR pulled out, they got nothin'. China throws them a bone every now and then for food, but not for weapons. Who's the financial backer of all this? Oil countries? Meh, I can't see that. You've got to admit that to be a little far fetched man. Who's cargo ship? Not like they're gonna slip in onto one of the thousands of North Korean ships bringing imports into the United States. They would basically have to transport a nuclear warhead (which would be huge. Remember they're working with 1940s technology) from North Korea down through China to a port and get it on a container ship bound for San Francisco. That's the stuff of Clancy novels at best. You want to call Kim Jong Il nuts, insane, evil, antagonistic, bat-crap crazy, that's all fine with me. I'm no North Korea supporter. But I stand by my statement that they are the last threat I fear. Seriously, what's next? Imminent threat of attack from Myanmar?

Seriously guys. They don't have the technology. They can't even get a conventional missile to fly straight. North Korea is the absolute last country I'm worried about.

My next door neighbors' son was killed in Afghanistan last month. This Memorial Day is a big deal in this neighborhood.

Wow, that is pretty. The only thing Irvine's really got going for it is the actual playing surface. It's the same as Dodger stadium. For the stands, they threw in an additional 1500 erector seat temporary bleachers for this regional. They only have 900 real seats in the whole joint. The rest of the stadium is a grass berm. They added an additional 800 seats on the top of the berm after this picture was taken. That one suite in the background handles up to 45 people. ETA -- My apologies to the UNT faithful on this. This is a big deal to me for UCI to be hosting a regional. I was a student lobbyist back in the day to bring baseball back, so it's really fulfilling to see this day.

Holy it ain't over til it's over batman! Fresno wins the WAC tourney and gets back to the post season! Oh dear lord help us all. BTW, Irvine was awarded a regional this year. Locally, TCU will be hosting this weekend. If any of you want to check out some great college ball, now's the time.

Oh man, you have no idea. It was horrific. Think Fouts with more concrete and even farther away from the action.

I've got nothing against good beer. Of course, I've also got a strong affinity for cheap beer. I just don't think a baseball game is the time or place to get all hoity toity about your hooch. It's all in the upbringing I suppose. I remember $2 parking and $8 box seats in Candlestick when you could BYOB if you so chose. It was a time and place to watch sports, not to see and be seen. I was about 8 or 9 years old in the period of which I speak, so it was hot dogs, coke and chocolate malteds for your's truly. I don't know what it is with the food and drink with me. I have no problem with the cajun food at the Box, but I can't stomach the sushi in Anaheim (or SLC for that matter!). I love the Anchor Steam in Oakland and don't mean the Shiner in Arlington, but I don't dig the Asahi in Dodger Stadium. I think my line in the sand is if it distracts from the fact that one is at a game. PBR cans at a Major League game? The words you speak intrigue me and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Man, that's a tough question, because different parks are near and dear to my heart for different reasons: Fenway -- Because it's Fenway man! No swimming pools in the outfield, no sushi at the concessions. The most attentive and knowledgeable fans in baseball bar none. Great atmosphere on Yawkee way, and I love how it becomes part of the stadium on game day. Downside -- Really cramped, and I mean really cramped seats. I put my palm on the front of my seat, and my fingers touched the seat in front of me. Candlestick -- Here I would put the Oakland Coliseum as it was my primary childhood stadium, but Al Davis ruined it. Candlestick was a miserable place to watch baseball. It was so cold there that if you endured an extra innings night game, they would give you a pin with the SF logo on covered in icicles. As opposed to whatever shiny corporate joint the Giants play in today, Candlestick was full of blue collar baseball fans who hated the Dodgers hard and drank their smuggled in flask contents even harder. Opposing players absolutely hated playing there. Hometown fans embraced the misery and made it a point of pride. Alex Box Stadium (Part I) -- Best college baseball place in the country, and the best food inside and out of the stadium. A rabid fan base that created a home field advantage like you wouldn't believe. 10,000 seats crammed in erector set style to accommodate ever increasing demand over the years. Cohen Stadium, El Paso -- Home of the independent El Paso Diablos and evidence that there truly is nothing else to do in El Paso. You put out a team with no affiliation, sell a few $1 beers, and the whole damn town shows up. I was at a game when they clinched a playoff birth, and you'd have thought El Paso was hosting the world series. If there were any money in that town, it would be a fantastic place to have a professional team of any sport. One of these days I really want to get to a Fort Worth Cats game because I hear it's a similar experience. I'm not a big fan of any of the newer stadium because the game of baseball becomes a tertiary part of the experience. I don't want to drink micro brews, eat filet in an air conditioner leather tent while my kids ride the water slide. I want to watch a baseball game...outdoors...and not in evening wear.

With what little understanding I've got on the matter, that's what Chinese medicine is like. It's essentially the base ingredients you'll find in western drugs, but it's far, far less concentrated and takes a long time to work. However, it seems in some cases to have an ultimately higher benefit in the long run. I don't know. I always kinda' grimace when I see the deer horn liquor pouches in the fridge. Stuff squicks me out. Some of the claims of the eastern medical practices are just simply crazy as well. You wouldn't believe how easy it is to cure cancer/aids/impotence/heart disease according to some of the claims out there. I like the holistic approach in theory. Really I do, but I think a lot of it hangs too much on centuries old technology, and I'm a big fan of science.

This is an aside observation not necessarily related to this debate. I always like it when cars are brought up in an argument. Cars kill more people every year than: Guns Smoking Second hand smoking Terrorist attacks Asbestos Global Warming Swine flu Dick Cheney hunting trips Bill Clinton croneys Extended viewing periods of Ellen Degeneres comedy routines I'm always curious what the fate of the automobile would be were it invented today.

I was thoroughly entertained by the DaVinci Code. I read Angels and Demons next, but it was actually written first. It's a much more simplistic plot and conspiracy theory about the Illuminati. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much. Perhaps because so many people spent so much time and effort debunking the theories presented in the DaVinci Code, by the time I got to Angels and Demons, I was no longer able to suspend disbelief. The little History Channel demon kept sitting on my shoulder whispering, "The Illuminati aren't real. None of this is true." Kinda' ruins the experience. If you go back even farther with Dan Brown, you get to Deception Point and Digital Fortress. You find that he writes the same story over and over again but uses different plot devices and different all too powerful entities covering up their secrets. Bottom line, you've read one Dan Brown novel, you've pretty much read them all. The last author I was totally enamored with before my reading selections became limited to inventory control and accounting textbooks was Christopher Moore. He's got a great Vampire Trilogy, a story of intelligent whales, and the gospel of Biff, Jesus' childhood best friend. The guy is one of the funniest authors I've ever read, but if you're at all sensitive to blasphemy, you might want to put the book down. A teenage Jesus becoming a Kung Fu master in the mountains of China while assigning his friend Biff to explore pleasures of the Oriental flesh so that Jesus may understand without partaking is more than a lot of people care to handle. The vampire books aren't as sacrilegious and are just as funny. I think the most brilliant book is about a young insurance man who grew up on an Indian Reservation and killed some land bureau guys as a kid, then disappeared into mainstream America. He ends up going back and discovering himself through Indian mysticism. The part about his mystic adviser at the craps table in Las Vegas is the funniest three pages I've ever read.

Is anyone here old enough to remember when they forced catalytic converters and/or phased out leaded gasoline? Was there an uproar? Are there people out there who still think leaded gas is a good idea? I've never really thought about it before, but I'm old enough to remember leaded gas, but too young to have noticed if there was any reaction to it being phased out.

No. Refer back to the original article. The goal is not for them to stop drinking, but to drink responsibly. They are free to drink in class as long as they are using someone else's money to acquire the booze. This is added value and pure residual income for their trade. Communism Kool-aid Ancient Chinese Secret That depends on what time it is and whether or not the bar fine has been paid yet. You get what you pay for, and pay for what you can endure. In all cases, remember to be safe and avoid visible cases of Egg Foo Young or Chop Suey. Both were brought in by filthy white seamen and are a shame across the Asian continent.

Since I have never personally seen a UNT win, it is somewhat difficult for me to envision that such a thing exists. I'm more interested in seeing if there's an increase or decrease in the number of SLC letterman jackets I see milling around the concessions this year. OK. Things that HAVE to be better: The defense, by definition has to be better. The strength of the linemen with this new strength and conditioning coach that has all the players angry and sore. Still not sold on: The spread offense. Fine, I'm no college football genius. Hell, I'm no high school football genius, but to my untrained eye, this spread offense still looks eerily similar to the ole' schoolyard days when we would get in the huddle and the QB would say, "OK. Everybody go long, I'll throw it as hard as I can." The more I read about the spread, the more it seems to me to be a great tool as part of an overall system, not the end all be all to sports as we know it. Adaptability. This still isn't high school, and those schemes still aren't working. I predict a win over Army simply because it's at home and they are historically pretty poor over the past several decades. New coach up there, so a new system for already undersized players to learn. Other than than, I hope to see all defensive efforts on the southern side of 50 -- preferably for the entire four quarters.

Wow, I've been so concentrated on my lesson plans for alcoholic Chinese hookers, I didn't even notice that balls were flying my way!

Having absolutely no personal experience with marijuana myself, I have to go by extensive research and say that it is imminently better than alcohol in every way imaginable. It's more mellow, less volatile, non-violence inducing, non-hangover causing, not physically addicting and less health damaging. Besides, you can't make clothing or fuel from the by-products of barley or yeast. The big downside is it would make for very dull crowds at football games, but the halftime music would be spectacular. Also, I suppose it might have an adverse effect on GDP as the eighty hour corporate world work week is such a bummer man!

In most of the corporate world, if you or I were cited for spitting on the sidewalk we wouldn't even qualify to bag groceries at Safeway. Those background checks they carry out for even the most menial jobs are a bitch.

I was more thinking that if you're an officer trying to control an unruly situation, I find it hard to imagine that you'd want people around you being armed. It's not a matter of pro/anti gun, but rather thinking from a tactical standpoint.

It actually surprises me that a police officer would be in support of an armed population. Seems counter-intuitive to me.

I do believe that's twice in one week where we have completely agreed on something. I see others coming together on this board who typically disagree on matters. Perhaps GMG.com really is the cause of AND solution to all the world's problems!

Other than symbolism, I don't know. It's not like the military base is going anywhere if they shut down the prison.

Tell me about it. I finally got that coveted 4th week and used it as a point of leverage in getting my next and final job. I said I wasn't moving without equal vacation status and X% pay increase. It worked. Now I'm at square zero, and will probably have to deal with one week when I get to working again. It's gonna' be a tough pill to swallow, but I'll build the leverage back up soon enough.

As I recall it, trouser cannons were not only encouraged when I was in college, but a point of boasting for most male students.