thebruce44

For some strange reason I really enjoyed playing through AA much more than AC. I beat the main story on AC, then put it down in favor of Uncharted and haven't touched it since. It was awesome, and I know it was a better game than the first, but my enjoyment while playing through it just wasn't as high as AA.

The problem with that line of thinking is that you can pretty much always say that. The tech is never going to stop evolving this fast, if anything its going to speed up. Amazon is taking a loss right now on the Fire to get their foot in the door and sell movies/books through their closed system. Its a great time to purchase one, especially if you know how to root it and get the regular Android Market on it.Not really. For example there is almost no change between the iPhone 4 and 4S that is worth upgrading for. Graphics cards are improving constantly but unless you are running DX11 stuff at the highest resolutions there is no real reason to constantly upgrade. The tablet market is different. Rumors of the iPad 3 getting a super HD display keep popping up (something that seems really stupid but we'll see) which could change the base resolution of all apps. There will be a second revision of the Fire which could fix its issues. And we know for certain that Windows 8 will be launching this fall with ARM support so low cost full fledged Windows tablets may be possible. The tablet market in 10 months will be completely different than it is today.Well, I agree about the iPhone 4s, but that has more to do with questions about Apple than having anything to do with Tablets or the general direction of the industry. Your post seems to be advice for someone like yourself who wants the latest tech, and not someone like the OP who is considering entry level tablets. Some people can't justify spending $500 - $700 on what people still consider a gadget. A $200 Kindle Fire seems like a great way step into this tech and see if on your next round you want to go with the cutting edge. As well, the Galaxy Tabs are great for tinkerers, as the dev community already has ICS running on it. They can be found for fairly cheap as well at this point. I do agree that it doesn't make sense to buy an iPad2 right now. I have no idea why they don't lower their prices when we all know the iPad 3 is right around the corner. In terms of the second version of the Fire, yea, I'm sure its on the drawing board. With the hardware on the original Fire though, a software upgrade of the skin could just as easily fix its issues and not mean we all have to wait 10 months to make a purchase as you suggest. I have a hard time suggesting someone who is interested in a budget friendly entry level tablet wait for the Fire 2 at this point when the original just came out.

I'm about to pull the trigger on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. My dad is going to be in the hospital for 2 months for a transplant so I want to get it all set up for movies, books, and news to keep him busy even though he is completely computer illiterate.

When they figure out color e-ink on phones and tablets its going to be so awesome.

The problem with that line of thinking is that you can pretty much always say that. The tech is never going to stop evolving this fast, if anything its going to speed up. Amazon is taking a loss right now on the Fire to get their foot in the door and sell movies/books through their closed system. Its a great time to purchase one, especially if you know how to root it and get the regular Android Market on it.

They traded away my favorite player (Allen) and I haven't really followed them since. I'm now just a Wade and Rose fan. At least college basketball is awesome.

Not to be too technical, but Black and Yellow, Grenade, and Pumped up Kicks came out in the fall of 2010. For some strange reason, I don't hate L. M. F. A. O. I feel like I should, but their music video for Party Rock is just too awesome. My girlfriend saw them at a club in Chicago last weekend, and the one guy actually wears the cardboard robot suit on stage. Of course, they only did 3 songs (I'm sure you can guess which ones) but in terms of "way too catchy pop music" their singles are actually pretty good. Pumped up Kicks was good too, though not my favorite song from that album. It sounds like you only listen to singles, or buy songs one at a time, but check out Helena Beat off that album. Its a single too, but better than Pumped up Kicks in my opinion.

Agree to disagree about Hazards then. But what makes you think hyper-literate geek gimmicks only work for so long? Has there ever been a band like The Decemberists that you can look to for a history, or is this just sort of your personal opinion? Meloy, with his creative writing degree, seems like the kind of guy who can push out short story after short story set to music. Its in his blood, his sister graduated from Harvard and writes fiction in addition to being published in The New York Times and New Yorker.

You can rent music from the library? Why not just give Spotify a try?

Can you explain a bit more? I really like The Decemberists, but didn't even realize they had a new album out... so obviously I'm no diehard. Please bear in mind my above response to Glennron about Hazards of Love. Well for starters, I too loved Hazards, though my favorite Decemberists album is probably Picaresque. One of the many reasons I like the Decemberists is that they often take on different genres of music, ones that I don't particularly like, yet do them incredibly well (Meloy's voice doesn't hurt either). In Hazards, they had a few tracks moving into more of a rock genre, which was awesome for me to hear. They did this somewhat on Crane Wife too. With all that said, The King is Dead is a definite departure in that its more of a country album, which I'm okay with but that was personally a little disappointing. Keeping with that country genre, Meloy used to be in the band Tarkio, which I thought did country better than The King is Dead. For the most part, I think this is why I found the album disappointing. Its almost, and again this is my very personal opinion, a regression, which is the last thing I expected from Meloy. Finally, the album runs a total length of around 40 minutes. I realize albums are getting shorter and shorter, but I find it very difficult to put an album of this length into my top 10 (even though I did with El Camino). But an album of this length from The Decemberists? I hold them to a higher standard due to what they have done in the past. Maybe thats me being overly critical as I think its cool that they put out an album this time without a real defined theme or narrative. Perhaps thats why they excluded some of the interludes they usually use, but for whatever reason I expected more. Finally, the first song that really caught me on this album, "This Is Why We Fight" just isn't as enjoyable to me as some of their past catchy songs (I'm not using the word single on purpose here). It can't compare to "The Rakes Song," "O Valencia" (or the brilliant close to Crane Wife, "Sons and Daughters"), "LA I'm Yours," "Bach and Bride," or "July, July." So I probably just wasted a bunch of your time if anyone actually read all that, but long story short, personally I was disappointed.

Yes. I've probably watched more Cubs/Sox games than Brewers games these last few years. Hart's defense is terrible.

From the Simpsons: I'm Kent Brockman, on the eleven o'clock news tonight...a certain type of soft drink has been found to be lethal, we won't tell you which one until after sports and the weather with Sonny Storm

As you alluded too, I don't think the workload was what effected him since he was actually better in the second half. Loe needs to be used properly to be successful. A GB ROOGY is somewhat of a luxury though, especially at the price he will probably get. I don't think he is worth the money and with the innings last year I could see him struggling a little this year. That being said, I don't see a lot of other options for the Brewers right now.

Its much better than Attack and Release. Probably not as good as Brothers, but its hard to expect that.

They are definitely hit and miss with my tastes, or maybe I just don't listen to enough music to keep up. For the top end stuff though I seem to agree with them. Their top 3 albums of the year (Bon Iver, Kaputt, & M83) were all in my top 10. For their 11-50 though, it seems like I've never heard of half of it. NPR's All Songs Considered seems to touch on a lot of the stuff I like more than Pitchfork, or at least this year.

Agreed this is ridiculous. All people were doing was commenting on speculation that had been raised by sources out there and all of sudden we are talking little green men. I'm wasn't talking about the content of the posts, though that has gotten a little out of control. I am just having actual problems reading the thread. Yuku sucks.

Is this thread starting to get jacked up for anyone else too? I suspect the length is the issue. Mods, could we lock this and start another or something? I can't see any of the new posts past page 36 and before that it was not updating properly with the last read function.

I may have exagerated for effect, but its a lot more common than people think. I think I've heard its like 1 in 5 sexually active adults.

I'd say most of this stuff is getting pretty mainstream. The last 3 concerts I've tried to get tickets to have sold out in under a few minutes online so it kinda sucks.

Human being? Has nothing to do with being a human being. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. If I contracted an STD through carelessness or was fired for breaking a company policy, I really would not expect anyone to feel sorry for me. Not everyone that has a disease is a victim. Practically everyone has herpes these days, relatively speaking its not that big of a deal. However, not many people have put up historically great baseball numbers only to have an astirks next to them. As a human first and fan second, I hope Braun has the herp.

El Camino was their release this year. Pretty good stuff.

I hate to use the old "he started it" argument, but thats really what happened here. This is a lot different than me saying I know a girl that got herp from JJ Hardy. Its entirely relevant to this discussion, even though the discussion should never have been put in front of us in the first place.

Baseball players are required to report all drugs to MLB?

I'm a huge Decemberists fan, but was really disappointed in that album. My list: 1. M83- Hurry Up, We're Dreaming2. Cold War Kids - Mine is Yours3. Portugal the Man - In the Mountain In the Clouds4. Cut Copy - Zonoscope5. Foster the People - Torches6. Destroyer - Kaputt 7. Black Keys - El Camino8. Cage the Elephant - Thank You, Happy Birthday9. Bon Iver - Bon Iver10. Atmosphere - The Family Sign

Its 2011. Is herpes really that taboo that when a rumor of this nature comes from several sources its inappropriate to discuss the medical implications?Braun has Herpes? OMG! That means he has had sex! Professional athletes have sex?!!?!