MattPie

Pick him up! I'm sure that now he's seen how good he had it in Buffalo he's gonna try real hard.

As hard as it is, you have to view the traded pick as a sunk cost. Whether that pick ends up being #3 or #23 (ha), we're not making it. The Bills' only responsibility is do what's best for the team for this season (maybe) and long term. If I were a coach, I'd give EJ every oppurtunity to figure out his game or to decide if the first pick next draft is going to be a QB. If I were in upper management (or an owner that likes to have input in to team decisions ;)) I'd want Orton to play as an A/B test on the coaching staff.

If card longevity is a factor in your score, wouldn't it make sense to keep 1-3 "long term cards" and then just shuffle the balance to a revolving door of cards until it's paid off? Then, when you close that card all you have left are 1-3 cards that you've had for X years. That is if you can trust yourself to not use the long-term cards for anything that you can't pay off each month.

The game is listed and it got as far a "waiting for video feed" so that's hopeful on PC. The PS3 client doesn't even show a 2014-15 season yet; the PS3 client is kind of a joke. It works OK, but it's nowhere near feature-parity with the web interface.

I believe that taking out a loan negatively affects your credit rating. That sounds crazy to me, as to me it would be a sign that you're being responsible and managing your finances well. Aapparently it means that you were in over your head or something. I know in the past I'd use those "1% APR on balance transfers!" deals when I needed to, but I don't know if those still exist (I haven't kept a CC balance in awhile).

I'm jealous, I don't see an opportunity to get plastered any time in the near future. Luckily since I have 2-3 drinks a week now, plastered is drinking 3 craft beers in a sitting.

That's interesting, is this case is "best" most popular or actually "best"? For example, in the US, Miller Lite is probably the most popular but not many of us would consider it the best. I've had various Lindemans before (the cherry mixed with stout is pretty good, btw) but I never really considered them "good" lambic. They're almost wine-coolers (I think in the UK those are referred to as alco-pops in case the term isn't familar). Good for a fancy way to get girls who don't like beer tipsy, though that's long in the past for me.

I'm surprised, I had always heard it would be too expensive to license all the music. Maybe as time goes on the license fees are going down. My wife is mildly mad that Northern Exposure DVDs are either really expensive or the audio is badly cut up from replacing the original music with license-free stuff.

Are they talking about the shoes or the home-arrest anklet?

If it's the one I'm thinking of, probably because it weighs 800lbs. :) In a more useful comment: Best Buy takes almost all electronics back for disposal. I don't think you have to call ahead unless it's a really big TV.

As a new parent, I fully agree. I know my wife has had it a lot harder than I have, but she seems surprised that there's no time for hobbies or relaxing. I went into to this figuring for the first year I get maybe a couple hours per month to myself for hobbies, as long as they don't cost more than $20 to pursue. I do feel guilty that I'm keeping up here though, I should be cleaning something or reading baby books instead.

Drinking: Sage Gin and Fever Tree Indian Tonic. Drink of the Summer.

Spending to the cap now reduces flexibility later unless you find a bunch of good players (that are UFA, no less) that'll take 1-yr deals. Or, we have cap room to take on bad contracts. You want Stafford for a second? How about Stafford for a first and your underachiever on the last year of a contract?

There's a lot in there, but quick notes: A: I don't think anyone would argue that the stats are perfect or that they'll always describe everything that happens in hockey. Baseball has it easier there since there's a much smaller tree of things that can happen on each play. B: I don't think anyone is saying to rely solely (or cod-ly) on data and not watch the players. Yes, the model can be failable, but so can observation. C: Playing unconventionally can work (seeL Hasek, Dominic), but I'm not sure if that works as well for coaching. There's a lot of smart people out there analyzing tape and any "unconventional" coaching probably has a lot more pattern to it than you'd think, just not the pattern that the other coaches are used to seeing. D: As for analytics during the game, you're just being silly. No one is really suggesting that. I'm sure there was a coach somewhere that said, "eh, watching film is imperfect, you can't see the entire playing field and you don't get the feel of the team at the time. I'm not going to use it and just rely on what I saw during the game." That sounds completely ridiculous now, and Nolan's quote at face value is in the same league.

Even the best human is an imperfect observer. We let our personal biases take over, and once a bias starts to take hold we start emphasizing things we observe that fit into that bias. A great example is refs. Buy most measures refs are pretty unbiased, yet every fan seems to think their team is unfairly targeted. Bruins fans will rail about how the refs pick on them. Sure, we call them homers and crazy, but we're no different. I had a long conversation with a Flyers fan friend at one point about how the Campbell-Umberger hit was "dirty". On a team scale, people are always going to "like" a set of people in a group more than others in the group. And once you like someone, it's hard to objectively observe them because you want to give them the benefit of the doubt when something negative happens.

A statue of Darcy and Garth Snow shaking hands. Or perhaps Darcy giving Snow the ol' polksa kielbasa.

Not that sole, silly. Nolan is is a strong believer in pedomancy, divination based on footprints or the lines on the sole of the foot.

I would not trade McEichel on a train, I would not trade him on a plane.

I'd see it this way: Larsson in 22. Grigs is 20(?) and would appear to need some time in the AHL to develop. I'm not going to say Larsson wouldn't benefit from the AHL too, but his likely place seems to 3rd line center, so if you're going to bring up someone to play 3rd line center (behind Ennis and Reinhart), you might as well bring the guy up that fits better. If he plays well, you can slot him in there for awhile. If Grigs comes in at 3rd-line center and doesn't set the world on fire, you still don't really know what you have.

Fixed!

Jericho and Revolution are on Netflix, if we expand into TV. I'm apparently mildly broken then. I love my kid and all, but when I'm at work it's not distracting that she's not here. But apparently the lack of father bonding is fairly common for the first few months, so I have that going for me. http://pregnant.thebump.com/new-mom-new-dad/your-life/articles/secret-thoughts-of-a-new-dad.aspx

The more interesting question with all the new picture taking devices, how does that work with photos? I know there's some issues with this is various places: * 16-year-old guy takes picture of his wang * Sends it to his 16-year-old girlfriend * I think right now everyone is good with respects to the law * As soon as those two turn 18 and haven't deleted (or destroyed if we're talking pre-digital) the picture, is it child porn? * Is it child porn for the girl to have it regardless of age? How about the guy, is he producing CP? (Legal disclaimer: I have no pictures of anyone sans clothing that's under 18)

Thanks, I thought I read this up-thread somewhere. If that 50% PK stat is correct and Cassidy put everyone and anyone on PK, that explains a lot. Anyone know if there were set PP units or was that a Musketeer affair as well?

Last I looked, the Bills would have the bye in the first week of the playoffs too. I can't think of a better example of the perils of basing predictions on a small sample set.

That doesn't sound all that different that what I was doing, but mine was a bit more regimented. Based on Alton Brown's "Live and Let Diet" Episode (look it up, it's on Youtube in 2-parts). Went from 300-ish to 225 in 9 months, almost no exercise. I'm up around 235 now which is a function of me not being strict and having a social life (wife), and now eating whatever I can when the baby isn't making demands on my time. :) I'm really at a wall, I need to start exercising. As for counting calories, I didn't have much luck with it. I was using the "Lose It" app on my phone, which I'll admit is really slick. You can scan bar codes or search of stuff in their database. It's surprising how much was in there (Wegmans 7" Italian sub: check!). The problem I think I had was it's tough to really measure stuff out unless you're making everything yourself (which I was for awhile), and "oooh, I still have 200 calories left, time for a beer!". Sometimes saying, "I don't want to know" is better (for me at least).