utdfan

Good choice. If its warm when you come, make sure not to sit in on a class in Bascom or Science Hall. I can't think of anything more miserable than sitting through a power lecture on a warm day in either of those buildings. I would also recommend that you take a look in one of the dorm rooms just to realize how little room you will have. I didn't see my dorm room until I moved in and we had to spend a lot of time just to get all of our stuff to fit comfortably.

I agree with a lot of what you said but I don't really think that there is much of a compatibility issue with macs in terms of class projects. I would say that the split between Macs and PCs in madison is at least 40/60 so you will more than likely be working with other people who have macs. Also even if you are not, you are most often using Microsoft office which is easy enough to transfer from a mac to pc. I use open office on my mac and have had no problems. Having had both a PC and Mac during my time in Madison, I would strongly recommend a mac if you can afford it. The battery life alone is worth it. After a little over a year my HP laptop lasted less than an hour on low energy settings and it became impossible to use anywhere without the power cord. Also, waiting is probably the best idea at this point no matter what you decide. Microsoft is already coming out with there new version of Windows ( sometime in fall?) and Mac's new OS is also not far away.

The whole thing seems forced. I am willing to bet that the percentage of the population in Italy who has watched more than an inning of baseball is less than 5%. And the whole thing with A-rod switching teams was a joke. The biggest problem for me is that the outcome means absolutely nothing. You only have a select group of players that were willing to participate all of which are basically in their second week of spring training. It was obvious after watching Peavy pitch against Puerto Rico the other night that pitchers can not be expected to pitch in a meaningful game at this point. Then you add that fact that the setup of the tournament goes against the fact that baseball is all about competing over a full season and not a few single games which any team could win. In the end all the winning team can claim is that they were the best team of players that may or may not have ever actually set foot in the country they represent who were willing to play at a time when nobody was at their best with rules that don't apply to regular baseball. For me to be interested in this a lot would have to happen: 1. Move it to November 2. Actual rules regarding national representation similar to international soccer. This means no switching and citizenship or citizenship of parents must be required. 3. Change the format. The best format I can come up with would be bracket style with each round consisting of a three game series. For example, if there are 16 teams there would be four rounds and that would mean the final two teams would play a maximum of 12 games. Maybe you could extend each round as you get further so it would be a 3-3-5-7 format or something like that. 4. Eliminate maximum pitchcounts 5. And most importantly everyone would have to care. This means that all the best players doing their best to win the games. I am not convinced that is the case right now. The US team certainly does not have the best posible players right now and their is no way the Dominican Republic played with Maximum effort.

Also, don't underestimate how much of a difference a football team makes. I realize it shouldn't be your only reason, but honestly the fall semester seems to go by twice as fast just because you have the football games to look forward to most weekends. Even when they were terrible last season, there really is nothing like getting up at 9 am to party and spend 3 hours watching (hopefully) a good football game. And I couldn't agree more with Brewbadger in terms of the dorm decision. The SE side seems to be much more enjoyable and you will meet a lot more people. I know people who enjoyed the lakeshore dorms but I also know people who hated it. I have never meet anyone who didn't have a good time in the SE dorms.

After looking at the brackets, I would not be surprised if either Marquette or Wisconsin made it to the Sweet Sixteen. In my opinion MU has the easiest path for any of the six seeds. And the biggest thing going for Wisconsin is the complete lack of any expectations. They have a style of play that can control those high scoring offenses, and as long as they are able to put up a decent score they are in almost every game. On a different topic, how hard is it for you to objectively pick your brackets? The past few years I had the gut feeling that Wisconsin was an obvious choice to get upset early but I was never able to pick them to loose before the sweet sixteen. This year is the opposite, I have watched them blow so many leads and play some bad games but I have a feeling that they will last longer than expected.

I can't say to much for Marquette since I don't go there but, in terms of the cons for UW I may be able to help you a little. Yes, it is a huge school but I really don't see the downside of that. There are a lot of people and things to do which means that everyone can find something they like. And yes it is a liberal school but it isn't really that big of a deal. Its not as though people will hate you if you are conservative. Graduating in four years will depend on major and your general work ethic. If you are able to handle a decent workload each semester you can do it. The problems start when people take light schedules there first few years and then realize they need to take 18 credits every semester their junior and senior year to graduate. Also, you said that Marquette is smaller and therefore has more one on one education. This may be true and I have never attended a class at Marquette, but at UW there are tons of opportunities for one on one education. In every class I have taken so far both the Professor and TAs have office hours which is when students can get help directly from them. Most people don't take advantage of this until the week before an exam, so for most of the semester if you go in for their office hours you will have all the help you will need directly from the people teaching the course. Forgot to add this but I am sure you have heard that UW has a great poli sci department. I have taken a few of the classes and I am considering it as part of a double major. It also does not hurt that you will be within walking distance of the Capitol which means a lot of intership opportunites. I can't really think of any places to get interships in government around Milwaukee excpet for something in the city council, and that is one of the last places I would want to work right now.

Congratulations, I was in a similar spot a few years ago and ended up going to UW. Best decision I ever made. For me, I lived just west of Milwaukee growing up and wanted to get a little further away from home than Marquette. Combine that with the academics, campus and athletic programs at UW and it ended up being a easy decision for me. What are the biggest factors you are weighing now in terms of your decision? One thing that I would recommend is that you should not wait too long to make the decision. If I remember correctly this is the time when you send in your housing application UW. Some of my friends who got accepted later and turned in the housing application late got stuck way out in the furthest lakeshore dorms possible.

I thought it was funny though the first couple episodes but then it seemed to drag out and I was bored by the third and fourth episode. Maybe its because I watch all the four episodes back to back on demand, but I haven't been a fan of a lot of Will Farrel's more recent movies and this show is a lot like those. I don't think it is nearly as funny or well thought out as Entourage, Flight of the Concords or even Summer Heights High.

I haven't played it yet but the review on IGN wasn't promising. It seems like the fear that everyone had with Madden after they got the exclusive rights to the NFL license is more of a problem with the 2k baseball series. They isn't anything new and the same game play issues are there year after year. Does anyone know when their deal with the MLB expires?

I read somewhere that they pushed sweeps back a few weeks because of the DTV transition that was supposed to take place. This has caused many of the networks to push back shows to March and play reruns now.

I'm still not sure at this point that you can assume that Ben is the "bad guy." We don't really know anyone's actual intentions when it comes to the Island. And yes it did go long but it seemed like the last commercial break was noticeably longer.

I also got rejected for both but I did get an offer for a second marquee game presale on Thursday the 26th. Did everyone who entered get this?

Will I be able to sit there if I am not with someone who has a disability? I just got the tickets through the online offer they just sent out and did not realize that they were for that area. I'm fine with sitting there, but I want to make sure that it is okay.

Yea keep trying that happened to me. Does anybody know what the ADA stands for on the ticket when it says "ADA 211 Loge Infield"?

I just got two loge section 211 seats together through that email offer. It was about 30 minutes ago and I had to refresh a lot of times before my order was accepted.

In my opinion, if it comes down to extending Sheets an extra 10 pitches vs. giving him an extra start, I would definitely want the extra start. The chances of Villanueva or Shouse performing better over those 10 pitches is much greater than Dave Bush pitching well over 6+ innings. And for anyone who has ever pitched, how much of a difference does that extra day of rest make?

I currently have TWC and I completely agree that their DVR is terrible. It was never that good to begin with, but ever since they changed the program they use for the dvr/on screen guide, it has gotten worse. In terms of Uverse compared to TWC, it seems that they are priced similarly but the content seems to be better on the Uverse lineup. On a sidenote, I was wondering if anybody knows if/when Uverse will be availible in Madison.

In my opinion, the comments made by a coach would need to be extreme (racist, life threatening, very inappropriate directed at a specific person) before being sent off. Since nothing like that has been reported, and it most likely would have, I still don't think they deserved the sending off. I am not talking about the extremely close ones, there have been many obvious one that you could tell were wrong in real speed. The problem seems to me that they are not always watching when the ball was kicked and all they see is a player a few steps ahead when they receive the ball.

I didn't get a chance to see the game live but I saw the highlights, and from what I saw the coaches did not deserve the sending off. In terms of Andy Gray, I have enjoyed listening to him during the tournament. His years playing in the EPL really show when it comes to his analysis of the game. There has been more than one occasion where he perfectly breaks down a play before seeing any replay. I feel like he knows perfectly when point out the mistakes made as well as the brilliant display of skills during the match. I don't know if you saw the Turkey-Czech game but it was great to both watch and listen too. I have no problem with the commentator speaking their mind about players or refs. And on the topic of the referees in the tournament, I can't remember seeing so many bad calls, especially offsides. It seems like every offsides called/not called has been wrong. I still think that it will be Portugal vs. Holland in the final, but I would not be surprised if Turkey somehow pulls off an upset after the way they played in that second half the other day.

I saw that this was being released today and decided to give it a try. I had been using IE and was becoming increasingly frustrated by the time it took to load most sites. Even though its been less than a day, I can't believe how much better Firefox is. Every page loads right away with no errors, and it has yet to crash( a more than daily occurrence with IE). I would recommend anyone who uses IE to switch.

I just got the Sony W580i and it seems to be a good phone. Its a slider phone and comes with everything that most new phones come with (camera, mp3 player, ...). It also has an fm radio built in which is kinda nice. I have never owned a phone made by sony before so I can't comment on reliability or anything like that since I've only had it for a few weeks. But over all it has worked well and in my opinion is one of the best looking phones right now that you can get for under $100. The retail price is over $200 but if you sign a new contract with ATT it cost $80 and then they also give you a $50 rebate so it ends up being pretty cheap. The one downside is that its not 3G so if you want internet on it you probably would be better off with something else.

I think this is the best lineup they have had all year. I hope Yost stays with this for a while. And when Weeks come back he should go in for Hall but stay at the bottom of the lineup.

Now that the every group has had their first games, A few things are evident: 1) Offense has been prevalent. With only one draw so far it seems that teams are not siting back playing cautiosly and waiting for their chance. And the teams that do (Italy and France) are not getting the results. As a neutral fan this makes it much more enjoyable to watch. 2)Age. The teams with a majority of younger players and maybe a few older players to lead are playing much better. Teams with the opposite (again Italy and France) are not playing well. I know its still early and anything can happen but if Italy and France don't make changes I could see Romania sneeking through. Also, I am hoping for a Holland vs. Portugal Final.

Sean Bianco People Talk About Wine http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3014/2550059200_807d6e587e_m.jpg

I just read this article on the offsides play. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A37087842 After seeing this I decided to look at the rule. As the guy quoted in the article says, an attacker can't be offsides if one of the last two defenders leaves the field. But the rule also states that this must be a deliberate act, and a defender that does this should be shown a yellow card. Since the Italian defender was forced off, I don't think he did it on purpose and therefore offsides should probably have been called. As much as I love to hate referees, Its plays like these that make you appreciate the difficulty of their jobs.