thablingster

I've been watching wrestling on and off for the past few months, but from what I have seen I think they've done a good job of building up both Undertaker-Michaels and HHH-Orton. I could see Michaels beating the Undertaker because I really can't see Undertaker putting over a young guy to end the streak at WrestleMania. As for HHH-Orton, I would not be completely surprised to see a McMahon turn heel on Triple H to help Orton win, but since that is so obvious I'm not sure if they would book it that way on WrestleMania, but the booking rarely surprises me as a 20 year veteran of watching wrestling so it could happen. I'm guessing we probably will see Mae Young in the 25 diva match because they love to randomly trot her out. The Money in the Bank match should be good. Punk, Kingston, Christian, and Benjamin will probably take or give some ridiculously awesome bumps in the match. I wouldn't be surprised if this is finally the year Benjamin wins the match, he has come a long way. Otherwise my nod goes to MVP. It should be a good show.

X-rays on Braun came back, he just has a contusion according to Telly. Craig Counsell's new batting stance kind of makes me sad. If it works out so that he doesn't hit .220, I think I'll get over it. haha

I have a sale pending on these, but if it were to fall through I will let the couple people who have PM'ed me know. Thanks for the interest. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Tickets are sold. I appreciate the interest, though!

To make a long story short, I bought a couple single seat tickets to Opening Day hoping a couple friends may be interested in going, but it hasn't turned out that way. I'd like to give a couple Brewers fans an opportunity to experience Opening Day for a non-outrageous price. One seat is in section 422, row 9, the other is in section 423, row 8. As per Brewerfan policy, I am only looking for face plus the fees I paid. I paid $50.50 for the tickets ($20 face each, $6.50 convenience fees, $4.00 processing fees). I'd prefer to sell both for $50, but in lieu of that I'll go $25 for a single. All I ask is you don't in turn buy these from me and then sell them for like $250 to some poor sap. Not that I'll ever know that you did, but it would be nice. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Let me know if you're interested. Local pickup can be arranged either in downtown Milwaukee (Midwest Airlines Center / Grand Avenue Mall area) or in the Glendale / Bayshore Mall area. Thanks.

yfinn, definitely play with the sliders a little bit. As well, just kind of work on using the left analog stick to square up the pitch you're hitting. Timing is really everything with hitting. Use the classic baserunning techniques, it will help a lot. To control the runners you coordinate a D-pad button with x, circle, triangle, or square. If I hit the ball and want the guy to go to second tap X and up on the D pad. You might have to do it a couple times 'cause the computer AI is sometimes dumb and doesn't do what you tell it. If you have guys on base when you hit that double, you can do triangle plus down to send the guy on second home, circle plus left to send the guy on first to third, etc. You can also go base-to-base if you prefer. As for pitching, I've noticed you kind of need to overthrow stuff like changeups, circle changes, sometimes sliders, etc. in order for them to have the intended effect. If you overthrow something like a curveball it will just hang in the zone. I mix my pitches with Villa pretty well. The guy I never could pitch with was Riske. I gave him a good month of appearances and he got absolutely hammered every time he pitched and I ended up trading him, lol.

I do guess pitch for fastball, and have found not swinging at anything unless it is a fastball where I want it until I get two strikes has helped a lot. It helps me not only spot balls and strikes, but to gauge release points and break on different pitches. A couple cool things that have happened as far as gameplay details: I hit a grand slam with Scott Hariston (who I acquired to be my backup utility guy) in the 8th inning of a 4-1 game, and there was a cutscene of Prince Fielder pushing him back out of the dugout to do a curtain call after scoring. I also saw a guy randomly lose his bat into the crowd on a swing. This game has really tried to incorporate some of the fun nuiances of baseball.

If it is not too late, I'll go for the barrelman. If it is, this is still a cool gesture!

I've found that playing at Citizens Bank Ballpark and Minute Maid Field in my last 6 games has made me feel a lot better about myself as a hitter, especially after playing 3 games in the cavernous Citi Field. The main glitch I've found that annoys me is the AI baserunning is horrible. For example, on a slow chopper to SS that could be a DP ball sometimes the runner on first goes half-way then decides to run back to first. I also had one where I had the bases loaded and Dave Bush hit a soft liner down the line past the third baseman, but the guy on first didn't run even though there were two outs and was thrown out for the force at second. It's a minor thing as I just need to really pay more attention and tell every runner what to do every time, but it is kind of annoying. Being patient at the plate really helps you to get good pitches, the computer kind of figures out your tendencies as a hitter and throws you the same bad pitches until you stop swinging at them.

I wish I could have attended this event, but I already had tickets to a concert. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif It looks as though a good time was had by all. If there are any other official (or unofficial for that matter, such as the Zims ones last year) meet ups this year, I am definitely game.

That's awesome, thanks for doing this! I'd like to throw my name in for the Weeks bobblehead.

Stay away from those salad tongs, Matty. I always enjoyed Wise when he was a Brewer and wished him the best when he left. He always seemed like one of the good guys.

As I've started to play, I've noticed some other cool things about the game. Mike Cameron wears his sunglasses like he normally would on any really bright sunny day, as does Mike Rivera when he is catching. The computer tends to dive for a lot more balls now, and the infield defense has been improved with both impressive plays and typical bonehead errors (Weeks ole'd a ball, Theriot let one go right through the wickets). Batting has been somewhat difficult, but it is just getting the timing back.

You're right Invader. The funny part is on exhibition I was only able to select the alternate blues as an away jersey top, while at home my alternate option was the retro Friday's jersey. I guess I didn't give the game enough credit. One thing I definitely noticed as an upgrade from last year is they really sped up infielder throws, last year I got so used to just throwing to first because a 6-4, 5-4, or 4-6 putout to end an inning was so painstakingly slow and half the time the guy would be safe. I also like the fact when you go into the edit player screen you can see their numerical ratings. Bill Hall has 41 contact against RHP, lol. He did homer off of Felix Hernandez though during the few innings I tested, so I'm not going to complain.

Tony, the only difficulty level which will allow you to see the exact location of the pitch you guess is Rookie, and you have to play with Classic 1/4 for guess pitch on. I think you could do classic 1/6 as well. The game is pretty awesome, from what I can tell so far. I have spent most of the night fiddling with the 40 man and entering music for people, so I haven't played a full game, but I tested a couple innings to make sure the music worked. I am kind of disappointed the Brewers don't have the alternate blues, instead they have the spring training blue and gold's, but I'll make due I suppose.

RyDogg, pretty much every online classroom is set up with discussion boards. Some schools use D2L, others use Blackboard Academic Suite, and I'm sure there are plenty of other online platforms out there. What happens is for each week of the class there usually is a discussion topic based off of class reading or other material and the students are expected to converse back and forth regarding their opinions of the material. It is much like how traditional classroom professors will sometimes make students write chapter summaries or chapter reflections to gain critical thinking skill. These discussion topics are factored heavily into a student's grade, so they are required to perform admirably in them. Another facet of online learning which is beneficial to the workplace is that it can vastly strengthen not only a student's computer skills, but their writing skills. Students depend on writing for the majority of the work they turn in, outside of internships or various proctored exercises some classes may require of them. Some courses also require students to have webcams or a way to video tape themselves giving presentations so that their physical presence can also be evaluated.

I finally got in about 10 minutes ago. All I wanted was a single ticket to all of the bobblehead games. I was able to get that, so I'm satiated. I hope the rest of you guys get in soon. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

I just got this error message on one of my waiting rooms: "We're sorry. We are temporarily out of service with a system outage. We should be back online shortly. Thank you for your patience." Ugh. There has to be a better way of doing this, while I've been waiting I googled the virtual waiting room and have been reading the horror stories of people being logged in all day and not ever getting in.

Bobblehead games, whatever is left for the White Sox games, and then probably Twins and other interleague games.

At this point I feel like I'd have been better off going to Miller Park for a few days and freezing. At least today I'd be able to feel like something was being accomplished as the line moves http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gif. I just hope the games I want to go to aren't sold out by the time I get in. I also tried calling, deadlocked busy.

Yeah, this virtual waiting room could go on for hours, especially since they are selecting participants "at random." Could they not have done it first come first serve?

I reserved the game more out of convenience than need. I work 3 blocks from a GameStop and take a lunch walk everyday, so I figured it would be easier to just go in and out with no hassle. I saw on one of the videos for the game they still have the Gehl Club animated as the .300 club. Bernie looks less stiff this year, which will be nice. Another cool feature was they said during a season mode if you play with the Cubs you'll see the Ivy go from bare brown to full green during the season.

I could go on all day about student expectations and how many of them are unreasonable, ridiculous, and frustrating, but I think the majority of those topics have already been covered. As far as online college goes, online college is a vastly growing and competitive industry. When the classes and administration are implemented well it can be just as difficult, rigorous, and thorough, if not moreso, than a traditional classroom setting. There are several online colleges which now meet the standards to receive Federal Student Aid, which is a boon for students, especially in these economic times where borrowing a cumbersome Sallie Mae or other alternative Loan is not an attractive option. Not every online institution is a sleazy scam to get a student's money, but those are mostly the ones you see on TV at 3am. Another consideration of online schools is that while they do get their share of traditional aged 18-24 year old students, the majority of students are non-traditonal, low socioeconomic status, working adults. Many students who do online college are single parents who work full time jobs. Others are baby boomers coming back to school due to the economy or having an urge to accomplish a diploma or degree. Generally, online schools aren't dipping much into the pool of students traditional ground campuses will land. As the negative stigma of online college eventually fades I think more traditional aged students may try it, but for now it is still very heavily non-traditional as far as age and status. The number one expectation students have about Online College which is completely wrong is that it will be "easier". This is not the case. While online college does give a student flexability as to when they log into classes and when during the week they can complete their homework, online college relies just as heavily upon the student as a traditional campus does to take responsibility and initiative for themselves, their actions, and their success. I often find myself telling students that while in a traditional classroom, if the teacher sees blank stares on the faces of all the students they can back up and reiterate information, but in an online environment, the instructor has no way to know if a student is struggling unless that student takes the initiative to contact the instructor to let them know. Students also need to be responsible to ensure they will always have internet, a functional computer, and the foresight to be proactive about their education instead of reactive when life happens (e.g.: internet/computer failure, illness, death, weather). There are a lot of great things going on in online education, and there is a lot of room for growth, but I am overall hopeful for the future success of online education as a viable education alternative.

I picked up a Wii recently. I only have Wii Sports right now, but I am having fun with bowling, baseball, and boxing. I've heard good things about most of the games previously mentioned in the thread (RE4, Mario Kart, Mario Galaxy, etc.), but one that I'm wondering about is Guitar Hero. I am probably going to pick up Guitar Hero: Metallica when it comes out, but I don't know at this point if there will be a guitar pack that comes with it. A guy I work with suggested maybe picking up World Tour for Wii since it has the most up to date guitar. Any suggestions on that? I'm kind of a GH noob, but I'd like to play it.

I went to reserve my copy of this game today. I did a bit more reading about it on the PS3 website, it looks like they've added some interesting things. One thing they have tried to add is crowd realism, so teams like the Marlins will have no one in the stadium while a Yankees/Red Sox game will be packed with fans of both teams. It will be interesting to see if they've done the same thing for Brewers/Cubs. They had a little feature video about the lighting, I think it is pretty cool the lighting changes, it will make the game a bit more fun and in some ways more difficult. I like the Franchise mode features with carrying the 40-man in Spring Training and having rosters expand in September. I also read you can finally choose your uniforms in Franchise mode now, so no 80% of my games in the throwbacks for me, lol. I'll be interested to see how well the Brewers are rated and when the first roster update will come out, probably not until the end of spring training.

I didn't get to listen as much as I'd like (my job actually requires my ears these days, doh!), but I think he'll be alright. I did appreciate the score updates the first two times. By the time he'd mentioned it 6 times in the inning it was a little old, but hey, it's just different. I think he'll have it less rough than BA did coming in on the TV side behind Daron because BA was so dry when he came in, while Provus seems to have a little bit of excitement and humor in his calls, much like JP did (Plus he has been doing baseball for a while so it isn't as much of an adjustment).