parkside21

I don't know anything about the book that you read, but if it sounds like you're looking for a post-apocalyptic theme, I can't overstate enough how great the movie "Testament" is. It's an older film, 1982 or 1983 rings a bell. It's about how a town tries to survive after a nuclear attack. It's character driven, and really shows nothing about the actual bomb itself, rather it deals with how the people in the community react, and is way more "realistic" than any special effects "hollywood" movie that depicts a nuclear attack that I've seen. It's incredibly sad, and you latch on to the main family quickly. It's about 90 minutes long. I can't imagine it's rated worse than PG-13, because though it's been a few years since I've seen it, I don't recall any terrible language or gore, though it might be rated PG-13 just based on the subject nature. I think it might have actually been intended for TV, but they instead decided to release it as a studio movie because they were afraid it would scare too many people on tv, especially during our relationship with the USSR at the time. At least that's what I thought I heard. It's a bit tough to find, as it's out of print now, but I first found it on blockbuster online a couple of years ago, so I would imagine Netflix might have it. I got got lucky and found my copy from a local blockbuster store and I "lost" it. The 14.99 replacement fee was much cheaper than the 50-60 dollars it was going for on secondhand websites. I've recommended it to many people, and while they thought it was good, they wish I would have prepared them a bit better for it, but I think that's all part of the shock and what makes it such a great film. Good luck. edit: here is a link to it on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086429/ and below are the first two paragraphs from Ebert's 1983 review of the movie, that both he and users gave 4/4 stars: "Testament" may be the first movie in a long time that will make you cry. It made me cry. And seeing it again for the second time, knowing everything that would happen, anticipating each scene before it came, I was affected just as deeply. But the second time I was able to see more clearly that the movie is more than just a devastating experience, that it has a message with a certain hope. The film is about a suburban American family, and what happens to that family after a nuclear war. It is not a science-fiction movie, and it doesn't have any special effects, and there are no big scenes of buildings blowing over or people disintegrating. We never even see a mushroom cloud. We never even know who started the war. Instead, "Testament" is a tragedy about manners: It asks how we might act toward one another, how our values might stand up, in the face of an overwhelming catastrophe.

I wasn't sure if I'd have better luck posting in this forum or in the trading post, but I'll give this a shot first I guess. Anyways... I'm looking for tickets for the Saturday, March 7th men's hockey game. It's against ND so I know it might be a tough ticket to get, especially for what I need. I'm basically looking for 6, possibly 8 tickets. I'd like to take my gf, mom and nephews, since they've never been to a game, and the ND games are a fun atmosphere. I checked stubhub but they were 30-ish for 300 level (not counting fees or whatever), not exactly what I was hoping to pay. It'd be nice if they were all together, but I know that's gonna be very tough to come by....so, if we could even get 4 and 4, or 4 and 2 or whatever, we'd have to just make that work too. Can anyone help? I'd be willing to pay cash of course, but I also have some autographed ROMLbaseballs (Gallardo, Sandberg, Damian Miller, Lorenzo Cain, Cole Gillespie, and some others) and some extra bobbles (Hall, Hardy, Tony Butler, and a couple 25th anniversary 5-inch) that I could work in a trade if need be. Let me know, please!

Has there been any update yet on Cordero's session? Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but I can't find anything. Maybe there's nothing to report, he and his agent will say he felt/looked great, and teams that attended will be mum about their free agent interest and say he's "one of many directions we are interested in evaulating" yada yada. However, I'm now kind of wondering if we haven't heard anything because maybe he didn't look very impressive? I assume he could get a better offer if healthy, but I'd love to see him get a shot at the set-up role, and if all goes well he steps in as closer next year. Pie in the sky?

I'm really liking Mitch Williams so far...I've also always liked Harold Reynolds too, but sometimes his positiveness gets a little annoying sometimes, so it was nice to see Mitch call him on it when they were talking about Raul Ibanez/Pat Burrell tonight.

I think they have been announced now...at least I know the T-Rats and a couple other ones were announced a couple days ago. edit: I see they have been announced in the other thread....shows what happens when you read threads from the bottom of the page upwards.

I can't think of a specific item that was the "worst", it's more of a good/bad thing...I mostly order the same things at places I go and usually it's either really good, or just kind of average at best, and when it's bad it's usually just due to the food being cold. Like others, I don't try a lot of new stuff at fast food places so maybe that's why. But, come on...a McRib? That just sounds gross, of course it's going to be questionable. I also like the dollar menu at places (though I read that these will probably start disappearing with the cost of meat going up...but who knows). I love that Wendy's has their double stacks on the dollar menu now though, beats McD's every time. Tough to beat two double stacks and a value order of fries all for 3 bucks. I always order my burgers/sandwiches/subs plain, so that seems to ensure the items are usually at least made "fresh" (no condiments, lettuce or tomatoes etc.). Just meat and cheese for me. I loved that Wendy's commercial about being a "meatatarian", described me perfectly. But, as much as I loved the Baconator....it just made me feel like a jerk afterwards. I don't know why, but it was a total shot to my self esteem after thinking about what I just consumed. Anyone else always go through feelings of guilt after eating fast food? Weird. edit: Also, lately I've been ordering fries with "no salt". This is also nice because it ensures the fries will be hot and freshly made, and not drenched in salt making them inedible (here's looking at you McD's). You have to wait a couple minutes, but I'd rather add salt to my own taste anyways.

Thank you to everyone that has provided suggestions so far. I looked up some of the ones that I found most interesting and added them to my "list". I feel a little silly still making a list now that I'm well into my 20s, but I suppose getting presents are still fun, no matter how old. Now I just have to convince my mom that yes, Amazon is a trusted website, and yes, it's okay to use the Wish List feature that I sent to her, and that she's actually buying gifts that I wanted, and not just some ideas from some "spammer" who stole my identity and created a wish list under my name. Old people are fun. Keep the suggestions coming if anyone still has any, I'm sure they are helping more than just myself.

Snow really started picking up here in the last hour or so in the Fox Cities.....pretty much everything is covered now and new snow is falling sideways. Joy.

So, my mom recently asked me to make a Christmas list for this year because she doesn't want to do the whole gift card thing again this year. I'm normally the type of person that would rather just pick out things for myself so that I know I'll like it (aka, picky). I'm really not much of a reader, but can anyone recommend any "light" baseball books I might enjoy? I know we've had book threads come up in the past and it lead me to "read" (listen to on CD) Manhunt by James Swanson and I really enjoyed it. I don't remember if we had a specific baseball book thread or not in the past, if so please feel free to delete this and point out a link to it. This past summer I read Tim Kurkjians book A-Rod to Don Zimmer's Head: My 25 Years in Baseball (or something like that). I really enjoyed reading about the lighter side of baseball and side stories, and I really enjoy TK's work but I'm not sure he has any other books in print. I also enjoy his squeaky voice, but that's another topic. I also listened to Moneyball on cd (books on CD are way underrated), and while I realize it has it's flaws, I still really enjoyed it. Can anyone suggest any books similar to Kurkjians or something relating to baseball's lighter side of things? I tried reading Three Nights in August a couple months ago but couldn't stick with it. I often put a book down and won't pick it up again for a couple weeks, and that was too hard to do with that book because while interesting, it was too in depth to read casually. Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Josh

I think they would be okay...people often just leave out frozen chicken breasts on the counter (or, at least my mom did) while they are at work during the day, and would cook them when they got home. That's about the same 8 or 9 hours that you had them sitting for. But, hopefully you put them back in the fridge when you got up this morning? I dunno, I'm no expert, but I'd say they are okay....unless wild duck is that much different than chicken. The more important question is....where the heck did the water go? Hopefully you just didn't put the drain in tight, and it's not some crazy dog (or roommate) you have wandering around drinking water from the sink. By the way, this reminds me, did anyone see the mexican restaurant Kitchen Nightmares last night? That garbage can full of refried beans was awesome.

Thanks for the advice so far guys, I really do appreciate it. We are kind of leaning against a long commute for both of us, especially since she usually stays at school later than I do, even with an hour or hour-plus commute I'd still likely make it home before her. I work at an alternative high school, so our hours and the hours we are required to be at school are a little different. As to moving on to another district, I imagine this will be the case eventually for myself, but as of now, I really like my position and our school (I actually work for CESA #6, not a district persay), our numbers are low and although the kids can be challenging, I have a pretty good gig, so I'd like to stick with it at least for a few more years. As for why not Fondy, I don't know...maybe it's a nice town, but I've just always felt out of place when I'm there, same thing with Oshkosh, and I even went to school for 2 years at Oshkosh, but for some reaosn every time I drive through I just don't feel like I really enjoy the city. Can't put my finger on it, but I know it's something. Rydogg, thanks for sharing your situation. Did you work in downtown Milwaukee? Or whereabouts? Just trying to estimate what your commute was from wherever you were at in Milwaukee to Oshkosh, considering I have to add on another 15-20 minutes to get to Berlin. We are kind of concentrating our search on the West Bend, Hartford, Slinger and Germantown areas, so it was nice to hear a couple of those suggested. As for West Bend...I actually know a few people either from there originally or had lived there for a couple of years, and none of them seemed to have great things to say about the area, I don't know why, they just semeed glad to have left...I'm not really sure why? But it just seems anytime I bring up West Bend, people never seem to really recommend it. That said though, it does seem to be a good fit, distance wise. As for Hartford, I've heard it's very nice, but small...same with Slinger, though they are right on Hwy 41, which is nice. Germantown would be nice just because it's closer to Milwaukee, which would be nice for weekends and things to do, and would give me more of a living near Milwaukee "feel" which sounds nice, but it would add 10-15 minutes to my commute every day each way. Not too worried about traffic/rush hour since I'd be heading north, away from Milwaukee in the mornings and that stretch of Hwy 41 between Germantown and Fondy/Oshkosh is really pretty isolated as far as cars go. The traffic between Appleton and Oshkosh seems much heavier on 41, it's the weather a handful of times during the winter that more concerns me. Anyways, sorry again for the book, but I really do appreciate the advice, keep it coming if anyone else has something to share.

So, I don't usually air personal business on message boards, but I'd really appreciate opinions from fellow Wisconsonians. The old lady and I have been dating for about seven months now, and have recently begun discussing future/marriage. We're both all for it, and have been thinking maybe engaged this summer, and married a year after. However, our dilemma is this. She lives in Mequon and works (teaches) in Grafton. I live in Appleton and work (teach) in Berlin (about 20 minutes west of Oshkosh, a straight shot on Hwy 91 from Hwy 41/45). We're both very comfortable at our current positions and districts that we work in and don't really want to leave them. This means, to stay together, we're going to have to find something sort of in the middle. Personally, I love Appleton and the small town/big town feel that it has. I have lived here all my life (save for 4 years in Kenosha for school) and am comfortable here. I don't want to give up my hobbies here and family and non-family things that I enjoy in the area, but I'm starting to realize I guess I might have to if we want to stay together. She's lived in Mequon all her life (save for 4 years at UWEC) and is very close to her family and doesn't want to leave the north metro area, for the same reasons I don't want to leave Appleton. We are trying to compromise and find something in between Berlin and Milwaukee so that we can both keep our jobs, which seems to be our main concern. We are looking at places along Hwy 41/45 since this is my main route to get to work, places like West Bend, Jackson, Hartford, Slinger, etc…or do I just bite the bullet and move to a north milwaukee suburb as close to 41/45 as possible? Like Germantown or Menomonee Falls? I've already ruled out Lomira and Fond du lac, just because. I've always been more of a big city guy, so maybe I'd be better off just having a bit longer commute and living in the metro area, as opposed to living in a smaller town further north that would save on my commute, yet be too small and/or isolated for my tastes. We're 26 and 27, with no kids to consider, and we're not quite financially stable enough to begin buying a house, so that's on hold for at least another three years or so, so we'd be looking at renting. Does anyone recommend or have anything to offer about the places I mentioned above? I know it would seem like a crazy long commute from Germantown to Berlin, about 70 miles one-way, an hour and ten minutes or so in good weather. But, the commute I currently have from Appleton is about 55 minutes one-way and 100 miles round trip every day, so I'm used to a long commute and don't really mind it anymore. Heck, my roommate in Kenosha commuted to Chicago every day for work and it often took him 90 minutes or so, though a lot of the time was stuck in traffic and not as many miles. Keep in mind though that because I teach, I only work 185 days a year so I wouldn't be commuting during holiday breaks and the summer, which would help. Plus, I don't have to be at work until 8ish and can leave around 3:30ish…so even if my commute was an hour fifteen, I could still leave in the morning at 7, get to work at 8:15ish, and leave around 3:45ish and still get home by 5. Sorry for the book, but if anyone has any advice or information about the communities I mentioned above, we'd greatly appreciate it. Seriously. Thank you! Josh

Ahh okay....thanks. The conspiracy theorist in me was starting to get all jazzed up. The stolen base didn't show up right away in the box score.

I was just following the box score a little bit, and didn't see the game, but why was Delgado intentionally walked in the 9th? Did he already have a 3-0 count on him or something? I can't imagine he was walked before even seeing a pitch putting the winning run in scoring position.......or had Reyes stolen 2nd already?

I've been a T-Rats partial season ticket holder for the past 4 years...their mini-plans are great, and very affordable. This year I plan on stepping up to a half-season pack (35 games), so if anyone has any questions about how things work, I can try to help. Their website does a great job of explaining the benefits though...it's worth it almost just for the 15% discount at the team store.

Got my letter in the mail a couple days ago as well. Are we allowed to see our potential seats yet? Or do we have to wait until we log in on the 17th? I thought the 20 game packers were able to view their seat "bumps" before they could actually purchase them. Perhaps I was wrong.

I was wondering the same, at first I thought rain delay (I turned it on a few minutes late)....or did FSN/MLW forget to flip a switch? Hmm....

BTN now shows up in Appleton on channel 72. Woo hoo! (9:30 AM) edit: guide still shows OSU vs. Youngstown St.....but, I'll just assume it's wrong.

I thought it was 73 at first for the Appleton area as well (Time Warner Cable - Northeast Wisconsin), but I just went to TWC's website and it says channel 72. Either way, 72 still doesn't exist and I can't get it, and 73 is still the Jewelry Channel....anyone else in the area see anything different?

I hate the fact that I cannot finish a game while bowling. I had a 296 tonight due to nerves. What a wimp... Have you had a 300 before? I always find that when I'm in a situation like this (though I wasn't last year...ugh), take a little extra time and breath. Not when you're already on the approach, but at the ball return...just take an extra second and think of a funny story, joke, or sing a song, whatever, just something to break it up. Don't take too much time, just enough. Congrats on the nice game though....but I'm guessing you left the big 4? or let it out too far and the bucket? It's happened to a lot of people, don't sweat it....once you get your first one (if you haven't already) they'll seem to come easy as cake from then on.

There is a gas station in Neenah that voluntarily named itself "Pump 'n Munch". If I ever become so old and grown up that I don't still laugh at that......I don't want to live anymore.

You can download them from other users via the EA Locker Room. You don't have to be friends with them, just enter their USER ID. Check online in other forums for people that have them for you to download. I think there is a really good message board called "Operation Sports" or something like that...just do a google search for it and you'll come up with something. When the game was first released there was a problem with edited rosters freezing the game, but I'm assuming that has since been revolved or worked around. I bought the game the day it came out and because of the problems with edited rosters I just edited all of Wisconsin's and went with it...since I'm already in year 5 of my dynasty I didn't worry about other teams rosters really since they start becoming generic with new recruits anyways. I think the problem with the edited rosters causing freezes was with some of the obscure teams (Western Michigan and a couple others were causing problems when they were touched). Also be careful not to give any player a last name longer than 11 letters, I think this was a problem too (Shaughnessy and Vandenhuevel come to mind, you'll have to leave out a letter, not a big deal). In the beginning I think the first glitches were discovered from some guy's rosters, his USER ID was Pastapadre or something, so avoid him if you can. Also, there is no reason for you to pay for rosters, people that charge are the ones that steal the rosters from guys that do it for free, then try to charge you for someone else's work. Avoid them at all "costs". I think there was also a thread about the game when it came out...check back for a NCAA thread that would have started around July 15th...that might have more information in it, I don't remember. Have fun! ps....you'll also notice that some key Wisconsin players were left off, and some need adjustments (Gilreath, Brown, Toon and Henry I think were left off the roster for some reason, and Kendricks is listed at WR instead of TE)...so, if you're going to play with Wisconsin, you might have to do some re-arranging once you get the rosters if they came from someone that is not a Wisconsin fan and didn't catch it.

After taking a number of long distance drives, worst state I've ever driven through was Nebraska. There's a reason the speed limit is 75. I remember doing 80, and actually being passed by a state trooper. Apparently he was in a rush to get out as well.

PM sent

I believe "Milwaukee" is Algonquin for the country once known as, "The Great Land". I also believe it has an alternate pronunciation.