DHonks

That is interesting...I wonder if it would be at all possible for us to acquire Hamilton. I'm sure we'd need more pitching to trade for him, but the Rangers have excess outfielders. Last time he was traded for a good big league-ready pitching prospect, and surely his value has gone up. Perhaps I could see them wanting any of our top starters (Yo, Parra, Bush), but I don't think we'd move the first two. I don't think we're a match, but it's fun to think of Hamilton and Braun in the same OF

chuckiehacks, I don't find it disturbing. When you tweak your back, do you immediately call the doctor? No, the average person gives the body time to heal before doing that. He probably thought that it was getting better, just wasn't 100%, so he wasn't ready to see a doctor. But with spring training approaching and it not 100%, he figured it was time to say something

sbrylski06, I knew I sold you something cheaply. I have to say, the battery life on the new ones is awesome. That was my big knock on the old one, besides the size.

i picked up the hp mini at best buy with my gift certificates, so I'll let folks know how it is

The problem was that Lowry would feel numbness when he threw. He's someone I'd love to have for depth.

This is my second year of teaching, and budget-wise we're seeing something unheard of here in AZ. First in November, our voters failed to renew the district's Budget Override measure, meaning that we had to slash $8 million off of the budget in '09-10. Then the news came that the AZ legislature is slashing educational expenses. The result is that we currently are expecting to be $32 million short of the initial budget. As a 2nd year teacher I have some unique specialty training, but that doesn't matter. I'm the most recent hire for my department, and today my principal confirmed that my position might be eliminated. Since I'm a fulltime certified teacher, I should be able to either stay at my current school or at least be re-assigned to another school. However, many of our first year teachers (usually in their 20's) are on interim contracts and have no guarantees of jobs. How horrible to go to college for 4-5 years for a specialized degree that most consider noble and a sacrifice, then to have politicians slash funding to the point where you have no job and your training is worthless in most fields. The old teachers might be one year from retirement, but the young ones are bearing the burden here. The reality is that politicians are viewing schools as a simple place to slash funds rather than actually doing their jobs and weighing the costs and benefits. There is a reason Arizona is rated among the worst in the nation for student test scores, spending per student, and places to raise a family. The new middle school limits will go from 165 student contacts per day (for a teacher) to 190. That's an average class of 32, with a maximum of roughly 38.

alright, thanks for the response. I rarely if ever use the Function row, so it's not a big deal to me to lose it. I agree about the screen size. Seeing the Acer Aspire One at Best Buy makes the 8.9" screens look tiny. Thanks for your thoughts...maybe somebody has seen it. It's funny, I have yet to see someone using a netbook, but they're supposedly selling like crazy

Sam, did you ever find the Dell netbook anywhere? I see Best Buy online has dropped the price to $350. I'm just curious if the keys will be okay, or it it's worth $50 more for the HP.

I could see the Hurricane make it over Duffy and Gwynn. Then again, I figure Nelson has to make the team since he's out of options and the organization would likely lose him.

why claim Jenkins? He hasn't been halfway decent in years. Nixon and Griffey would be better options. I'm content w/Nixon, I was just throwing Griffey's name out there

actually, the NFL's franchising tags are stupid. The only decent thing for MLB to borrow from the NFL would be the process of evaluating free agents signed vs lost. If the Yankees sign 5 free agents, they shouldn't be gaining protected draft picks for the 3-5 players they lost.

I go back and forth with the size of the hard drive. Most of the netbooks use either 4200 RPM hard drives or flash memory. I go back and forth, but ultimately it'll come down to using the gift card, and the HP is the best of their options at Best Buy (in my opinion). Bigger battery would be nice, but not necessary. Also, like I said, I view netbooks as a temporary purchase--something to replace every 2 years for $400. I could buy a loaded laptop for $1300, but that'll be slow and breaking down within 4 years. So I view the netbooks as the cheaper alternative.

sbrylski06, I'm with ya...I've heard the battery on the NC10 is great. But I'm planning on using around $300 in Best Buy gift cards, so it's pretty much down to just the HP mini. The Acer's look nice and are cheaper, but I like the 10" screen and better keyboard. Like I said, I'd love to try the Dell but can't find it anywhere. It's only available on bestbuy.com, not in stores

Canada's beautiful, even if I did get stopped at the border returning to the US. Who would have thought that you only need a smile to get into Canada, but you need a passport to get back?

So I'm looking at the mlbtraderumors site and realizing Griffey has few bidders. If he'd take an inexpensive 1 year deal, he could be a solid 4th OF, playing roughly 6-7 games every two weeks. He has lost a step in CF, but can likely DH in interleague games, play RF a couple days a week vs tough righties, and play 1 day a week in CF. Throw in his bat off the bench.

That's something Dell and HP were good with...notebookreview.com says they are VERY easy to upgrade memory on. However, the Mini 12 unfortunately cannot go beyong 1 GB of RAM given that the processor can't handle it. Additionally, the Lenovo S10 looks cool and affordable, but can only go to 1.5 GB RAM. The Dell Ubuntu system and HP Mini MIE seem intriguing for the purposes of a netbook, but my problem is that I can't get wireless cards to work on my current laptop and computer in Ubuntu. It's making me realize that I feel fairly proficient with Windows products, but rather helpless with Linus products. The other debate is that Windows 7 is nice like Vista, only less of a system hog. It'd be nice to wait until it comes out, but that might be 8 or 9 months. Does anyone know where to buy a cheap externam CD-Rom/DVD drive so that I can load disks in (like when I want to upgrade to Windows 7 next year?

I'd love Benson or Mulder to be in AAA. If either recover they could be huge steals. Most likely they won't be much, but it's at least depth and a cheap risk.

I think sometimes ground up food sticks to the top of the disposal, so grinding ice might knock it down

I only know of Best Buy. They have the HP Mini and some Acer products. The Acer is simple, but the HP keyboard seems nice. Plus, some of the small screens are ridiculously small. I'd like to see the Dell though, but can't see it anywhere

http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Burger-Hotdog-2-R.jpg

Taking a flier on a guy like Pudge makes sense, as sometimes veterans will have occasional huge years while they are declining.

I've had a few classes where a kid or two will have one in class, but I don't think they ever really take notes. I couldn't care less, but why not just skip class then if you're going on the internet. glennron, my college took attendance.

I am planning on getting a netbook soon for just the scenario you mentioned bjkrautk. However, I don't get why all laptops seem to slow down (ie, get bogged down) within 2 years. I've never had a desktop show signs of declining performance before the 4 year mark. So I happen to like having a desktop for primary computing, and I'm going to buy a netbook with the realization that I'll need to replace it within 2-3 years, so why buy a $900 laptop?

I work with a MacBook at my school, and I have generally been unhappy with Macs. I always thought I'd enjoy Macs, but I've been disappointed. Programs freeze or crash more than in Vista and I generally don't use any of the Mac features that make them desired--the artsy programs like garageband. I'm more interested in Windows 7 right now, as I've never had an issue with Vista and am intrigued by 7's smaller footprint

They usually start around the 1st-10th of March. My understanding from when I worked Dbacks Minor League Spring training was that they are unpaid, although they get daily money for lodging and dinner (breakfast and lunch are provided)