o-BacklasH-o

Thanks MakeYaBleed! I need 3 more surveys to complete my quota of 20.

I need 20 responses for one of my college finals. It is for statistical analysis. Please take a minute of your time and fill this out. Thank you in advance guys, you're doing me a huge favor. Just copy the survey and paste it into a reply with your answers. --------------------------------------------------------- Please mark your response with a check or X. 1. Gender: Male ______ Female ______ 2. Age: 14-16 _____ 17-19 _____ 20-22 _____ 23-25 _____ 27-29 _____ 30-32 _____ 33-35 _____ 36-38 _____ 39+ _____ 3. How many movies do you watch in a typical month? None _____ 1 _____ 2 _____ 3 _____ 4 _____ 5+ _____ 4. How many video games do you purchase in a typical year? None _____ 1-5 _____ 6-10 _____ 11-15 _____ 16-20 _____ 20-25 _____ 5. What is your favorite professional sport to watch or attend? Baseball _____ Football _____ Hockey _____ Basketball _____ Golf _____ Auto Racing _____ Other _____

Not out yet.

Sounds cool. Illinois.

I read double XP will last until at least Monday. Doesn't make a difference to me, since I've long been finished prestiging. :'( I assume some time this afternoon the maps will be out. The PS Store needs to update and that typically happens in the afternoon/early evening hours. You'd think they would make an exception, but that appears doubtful. I'll be taking Wednesday off class/work, as I will likely be sleep deprived from playing them tonight.

Hanni I actually remember that one. I also remember some cool claymore videos on Frostfire and Chain Reaction.

I know you're going to hate this Meaux, but I feel very excited after what the Cubs have done in April. Battling back to finish .500 through the 1st month of the season, despite the pen losing a handful (or two handfuls lol) of games. The offense is really streaking and coming together. The patience of the hitters, is eerily reminiscent of 2008. Everybody is hitting, except the 2 most consistent hitters in the lineup, historically anyway (D-Lee and A-Ram). The Starting Pitching has been phenomenal and the move to put Z in the Setup Role looks like a wise decision thus far. Gives us a reliable right-handed bridge to Marmol, opposite Marshall. A look at the Cubs lineup batting averages: 1. SS Theriot .355 2. RF Fukudome .342 5 homers 17 rbi 3. 1B D-Lee .221 (walking a lot and still driving in runs though) 4. CF Byrd .354 5 homers 19 rbi 5. 3B Ramirez .155 (shaking my head at this brutal start...has been hitting balls hard lately, hopefully will break out in May) 6. LF Soriano .325 6 homers 17 rbi 7. 2B Fontenot .303 8. C Soto .322 with a .487 OBP (No, that's not a typo, he has 19 walks already this year) Colvin is also hitting .289 in spot starts and pinch hit appearances. Jeff Baker isn't doing so hot and Fontenot will continue to see more starts/abs, perhaps even against lefties if he stays hot. Jamarillo seems to be preaching a much more patient approach and it's paying dividends. It seems every at bat is a quality at bat by the hitters, sans Lee and Ramirez. If the rest of the lineup can sustain this pace and D-Lee and Ramirez snap out of their funks, it could be the 2008 offense all over again. I love Marlon Byrd more and more every day. He and Theriot are tied for the league lead in multi-hit games. The lineup has been tearing the cover off the ball and the subs/spot starters haven't been bad either. Soriano hasn't looked this good in over a year and a half. He has 3 multi hit games in a row and 4 homers in his last 3. He hasn't done anything CLOSE to that since 2008. That's a very good sign of things to come. Fukudome vowed to be much improved this year, his 3rd in MLB. He's been very patient as always, but has been driving in runs and hitting for power moreso than in years past. The lineup lacks speed obviously, but with the top of the order coming through for the rbi men they won't struggle to manufacture runs in the long run. I know a month is a relatively small sample size, but as a diehard fan I can't help but be a little excited about the future of this team going forward. The need to stay within shouting distance of the Cards in the Central and hopefully they can add a big time bullpen arm.

Standings at the end of the 4th week of the season the standings shape up like this: AL Central: 1. Twins 16-9 2. Tigers 16-10 3. Indians 10-14 4. White Sox 10-15 5. Royals 10-15 AL East: 1. Rays 18-7 2. Yankees 16-8 3. Jays 13-13 4. Red Sox 11-14 5. O's 7-18 AL West: 1. Rangers 13-12 2. A's 13-13 3. Angels 12-14 4. Mariners 11-14 NL Central: 1. Cards 17-8 2. Cubs 13-13 3. Reds 12-13 4. Brewers 10-15 5. Pirates 10-15 6. 'Stros 8-16 NL East: 1. Phillies 14-10 2. Mets 14-11 3. Marlins 13-12 4. Nats 13-12 5. Braves 11-14 NL West: 1. Padres 16-9 2. Giants 14-10 3. Rockies 12-13 4. D-Backs 11-14 5. Dodgers 11-14

Thought you XBox guys would enjoy this: A small group of hard-core Halo 2 players is still unwilling to let go of its beloved game. On April 15, Microsoft turned off access to its popular Xbox Live service to anyone using an original Xbox. But for this small group of Halo 2 devotees--said by IGN to be 12 people--losing the ability to play the game online isn't an option. That's why each member of the group has kept his or her Xbox continually logged into Xbox Live and Halo 2 (as my colleague Don Reisinger wrote about earlier this week.) According to IGN, "The group has shrunk noticeably since [April 15], with several players experiencing console freezes and disconnections. It's been determined if any one of them are signed off of Live for any reason they can no longer reconnect." But Microsoft is also applauding the players' efforts to stay logged into Live. On Friday, Stephen Toulouse, director of policy and enforcement for Xbox Live, tweeted his encouragement: "To those noble folk keeping halo2 alive: we see you, and we salute you." As a result, IGN reported, each of the 12 will be given codes for access to the beta of the forthcoming Halo: Reach, the latest iteration of the mega-hit franchise. This is a fun and rare case of a company, in this case Microsoft, making a fair and understandable decision yet being willing to accommodate the few customers who are going out of their way to show loyalty to a discontinued product. It's nice to see, and I think that Microsoft will likely garner a lot of good will in the video gaming community for allowing these stalwarts to keep on doing their Halo 2 thing. The question now is: How long can these 12 people hold out? In a post on the (Halo developer) Bungie forums, one of the players made it clear he and the others are in for the long haul. "We will keep playing until we are all forcibly removed," Halo 2 player Joe Campbell wrote. "It could be by Microsoft, Bungie, our Xbox's overheating or just lagging out. Not for competition, not for a prize, but for the love and memory of Halo 2." You go, guys. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20003913-52.html

Still nobody has signed him, wow. What is the major knock on him, the injury? Wasn't he higher on the depth chart than Maclin, but didn't perform due to injuries?

Can't wait. I'm hoping that SOCOM releases before/after this, so they aren't directly competing. I'd like time to enjoy each game individually, then decide at a later date which will hold my gaming interest the most. It's a shame SOCOM has come to that point with me, but I can't take any more heartbreak from SOCOM like I did in Confrontation lol. For all it's moderate inadequacies, even Socom 3/CA blew out Confrontation, so hopefully Zipper will bring back the fun of old. I have faith, after all they did create the best Playstation Shooter games of all-time in Socom 1 and 2. But Black Ops is going to at least pull me off Socom 4 a little bit and will be a great fallback title if SOCOM falters. Bring on some more Nazi Zombies!

That would be like our signing of Freddie Barnes after the draft. Came out of Bowling Green, put up ridiculous numbers like Alexander. He had 155 catches for 1770 yards and 19 TD's last year LOL. Alexander was #1 in yards, Barnes was #2. Barnes was #1 in receptions and TD's though.

LOL . My prediction for the Bears is 10-6. They have a ceiling of about 11 wins, but have a pretty tough schedule to expect anything more than 10. They haven't passed up the Vikings, that's for sure, but have about matched the Packers. It will be a race between the two for 2nd place in the division and a wild card spot.

Um, we used our SIXTH round pick on LeFevour, 181st overall. We had a 3rd, 4th, and 5th before we drafted him. He was our 4th selection of the draft, when there wasn't much talent left on the board, not our first. Also they knew what they were doing with other players that wouldn't be drafted. LeFevour would have gone off shortly after to another team and at that spot we would have risked not getting any return or value out of that pick. Anybody the Bears took in that spot would not have had any significant impact on the team right away. We also signed a lot of draft free agents today. http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/04/bears-set-to-sign-two-local-free-agent-products.html Also we aren't full of holes like swiss cheese. ??? We are solid at pretty much every position except OL, S, and Corner is a little weak depth wise. Major Wright should be a boost at Safety and if they sign Faneca the O-Line instantly becomes more stable.

I am laughing at that article. He graded our whole draft based upon selecting LeFevour?! That's funny, because he was the best quality player on the board at that time. That is why that little fella works at Yahoo Sports and not ESPN, CBS, or Rotoworld LOL... What can you really expect out of the 6th round? If you can get a player who has potential of 3 rounds sooner, then why not grab him? Most experts agree that he was a very good pick in that spot and can produce value down the road. This guys article offers ZERO insight into what actually happened, outside his personal opinion about ONE pick in the SIXTH round. His whole article was riddled with false statements. Most of which have been edited now, after his commenters proofread it for him. This guys opinion doesn't belong on anything relating to football. I've read some of his junk before and it makes Pete Prisco look like a genius LOL. Prisco does produce some good articles, but he has had a lot of boneheaded articles. For a real evaluation of the Bears picks, read my post or read report cards by REAL analysts. Not dogging you for your post Crusty, just the guy who wrote it and his worthless article. I'd be willing to bet that guy doesn't even know we dealt this year's 2nd rounder in an entirely different trade, just based upon what he wrote.

Man what a game tonight between the Hawks and Preds. The Preds laid some nice screens in front of Niemi leading to 4 goals, but 2 of those he should have stopped. The final minute of regulation and OT was insanity. The Madhouse was dead silent in the 3rd after the Hawks squandered a 3-2 lead going into the period, and being down 4-3 late. The Hawks pulled Niemi for the extra attacker and with 1:03 left Hossa received a 5 minute - Major Boarding penalty. After the ensuing faceoff, the Hawks finally cleared the puck out of the zone and pulled Niemi again for an extra attacker (now really 5 on 5). With 13.7 seconds left Kane puts it in the net to tie the game and force OT. Still the Preds had a power play for nearly the first 4 minutes of OT, but the Hawks PK stepped up again and didn't allow a Power Play goal (Nashville is now 0-21 in the series on the PP). The Hawks got it into the Nashville zone almost as soon as the PP ended and what's Hossa do right after he gets out of the box? Scores the game winner. You can't write this stuff. Man what a game. This makes a huge difference going to Nashville for Game 6, up 3-2 opposed to being down 2-3. If necessary Game 7 comes back to the Madhouse. I'd love to see the Hawks get the win Monday in Nashville. Hossa may face a suspension for the hit, especially since he didn't receive a game misconduct and was able to come back in and score the game winner. It was similar to Ovechkin's hit on Campbell last month, but it wasn't as violent nor was there serious injury involved. Also Hossa is not a repeat offender like Ovechkin was when he was issued a 2 game suspension following the hit. Melrose and Barnaby both agreed that a 1 game suspension is likely. Anything more than that is a travesty imo. Also the Pens and Sharks punched their ticket to their respective Conference Semi's both winning their series 4-2.

I really like our 3rd and 4th rounders as well. I was hoping Bruce Campbell would fall to us, but the Raiders snagged him early and the Bears went with the best player on the board. Wootton was a 1st rounder easily coming out of his Junior year, but tearing his ACL/MCL/meniscus in the Alamo Bowl forced him to stay for his Senior year. He would have gone in the 1st round had that not happened and he left after his junior year. In his Senior year he still had a productive year, playing not even close to 75% all year due to recovery. He's got a ton of potential and is a steal in the 4th. Just look at his numbers from his Junior year, they make me drool with anticipation. I don't think he will win a starters job out of camp, but he'll play his way into gametime in 2010. Major Wright will likely start at FS. Josh Moore is depth at corner to replace the departed Vasher. He's a solid coverage corner. He was a solid special teamer in college too, so he could contribute there right away in 2010 as well as in the Nickel. I actually like the selection of LeFevour, especially if you consider what Prane is alluding to. Caleb Hanie could never be confused for someone who could be a starter in the NFL. LeFevour was easily the most valuable player left in the draft at that point. He was a suspected 3rd-4th rounder going into the draft. The may be able to get a solid return from him a year or two down the road. He is a good option in case Cutler goes down and Hanie falters, due to his ability to make plays outside the pocket or tuck it and run. J'Marcus Webb is a 7th round pick. That said, expecting him to start and do a good job this year or next will be a pipe dream. Tice could mold him into a very good tackle in the future though. He has potential and for a 7th round pick, what more could you ask. Had he played all his college years at Texas he would have gone a lot sooner, but fell due to playing for a much smaller program. Here's a little excerpt I read about Webb: I grade our draft a B, especially considering we didn't have a pick until #75. I would've been a lot happier if we drafted some legitimate O-Line help for the now, but from the 4th round on there are not many O-Lineman out there that can contribute right away. Angelo did a good job with what he had and I fully expect them to go after Faneca. It makes so much sense on so many levels, the money just needs to be right. If he starts at LG that will really let Beekman gel into eventually taking the Center position, playing behind Kreutz instead of starting at LG. This would be nothing like the Pace signing, as Pace was already 3-4 years removed from Pro-Bowl level. Faneca started at LG for the AFC in the Pro Bowl in January and is easily better than any option we have at LG. Angelo already acknowledged Faneca's presence on the market:

Also I really like the pick of Major Wright. It was between he and Morgan Burnett, who went off at pick #71 to the Packers. The Bears were reluctant to trade up, though I think I like Wright more than I do Burnett. Don't be surprised if the Bears take another Safety before the draft concludes. If they do, look for it to be Myron Rolle, who is a great sleeper in the later rounds. I think it's all but a lock the Bears address offensive line in the 4th round (pick 109). Speculation is that they'll take a Guard. I would be thrilled though if they took a Tackle in Bruce Campbell from Maryland. He's the best O-Lineman on Kiper's board, but who knows if he makes it down to us at the 11th pick of the day. He's a steal in the 4th round, he could have gone off in the 2nd or 3rd easily. Some mocks even had him in the 1st round. There is also some buzz already about the Bears pursuing Alan Faneca as well. I'm all for it if he comes cheap and it's a 1 year deal. I'd really LOVE to see Campbell drafted by them though. He's a good pass blocker, with potential to be a great run blocker. His only question is durability. Faneca would be a nice pickup, he still has something left in the tank (much more than Pace did LOL). He struggled in the pass last year though, so it could be a sign of the end for the pro-bowler. Mike Tice really can play a big role in getting Faneca back on track and grooming Campbell (and the rest of the line). I'd like to see Campbell push Omiyale for the RT starter's job. Our O-Line could actually be good this year, with some depth. I'm excited. Could you imagine this, I'd like it: LT-Chris Williams (Kevin Schaeffer could back him up here). LG-Alan Faneca/Josh Beekman/draft pick C-Kreutz RG-Garza RT-Omiyale/Bruce Campbell (the loser of the battle, is the backup and much needed depth) If we don't land Faneca, I'd really like to see Beekman start at LG. He started all 16 games there in 2008 and did a good job (Same line that Forte had his stellar rookie season behind). He is rumored to be Kreutz's replacement down the road, so they need to see what they have.

Hester and Knox will be slot receivers in Martz' offense. It will likely lineup with Bennett and Aromashadu on the outsides. Hester has a chance to be very good this year. What team, not named the Jets, could match up with Hester and/or Knox in the slot? Think about a 4 WR set with the two of them in the slots. That spells severe mismatch. Don't forget, despite still on a learning curve, Hester was tied for 2nd in receptions with Forte at 57 (Olsen led the team with 60) and he led the team in receiving yards at 757. He did all this, despite getting injured against the Rams early in the 3rd quarter of Week 13, then missing the next 3 games. He also missed almost all of a game earlier in the season against the Lions (recording only 1 catch for 2 yards if memory serves, as he was starting in Fantasy Football for me that week lol). He is still not even close to completely groomed, but this is now his 3rd full season as a receiver. This is his make or break season. Under Martz I think he will thrive, especially in the slot. It will be mismatch heaven and Martz has already said he thinks Hester could be scary good this year. Though our receivers aren't top flight, there is a lot of talent there. Knox showed a ton of potential last year and Cutler seemed to instantly build a rapport with him. Cutler pushed for Aromashadu to be taken off the practice squad and when he finally was added to the roster, he did not disappoint. The final 4 games of the season he caught 22 balls for 272 and 4 TD's. He's a big target for Cutler, something the receiver corps lacks. Let's not forget about Earl Bennett either. In his first season as a starter he caught 50+ balls for over 700 yards. He sat on the sideline his entire rookie season and now entering his 3rd year, he is still only 23 (Just turned 23 in March). We also have Juaquin Iglesias, who at the moment is still the odd man out in our offense. Rashied Davis I believe will be cut, but Juaquin has already moved ahead of him on the depth chart at receiver. Davis is nothing more than a Special Teamer and a high paid one at that..

Yeah, on second thought, don't answer that question HR. lol.

I will not be updating this live today, but will modify my 1st post at the conclusion of the 3rd round.

Nemesis I'd really like to see them address Safety and O-Line before a receiver. That is unless they are able to trade up and get Arrelious or Golden. I think the receivers we have will do great in a Martz offensive scheme, so WR isn't as glaring of a need. It is something that obviously could be addressed, but not necessarily needed. Also my pick grades, good idea Prane: Most Shocking Pick: Buffalo Bills - C.J. Spiller. I honestly did not see them going RB with this pick. They get a great talent at this spot, but it appeared that Jackson was poised to take over once Lynch was dealt. It remains to be seen if this was a really great pick depending on the quality they get in return for Marshawn Lynch, who I fully expect to be traded soon (if not by the conclusion of the draft). Best Steal: Arizona Cardinals - Dan Williams. He fell quite a bit and the Cardinals walk away with possibly the steal of the 1st round. Whatever team snags Jimmy Clausen in the 2nd takes the cake in this category though. Worst Pick: Denver Broncos - Tim Tebow. Without a doubt the worst pick of the day. He is not a 1st round QB and it was debatable coming in that he would be taken in the 2nd round. Yet there he went at 25 overall to the Broncos, AHEAD of Clausen and McCoy. This was a huge reach, despite how much they like the guy. He would have been there for them in Round 2. Best Pick: New York Jets - Kyle Wilson. Man what a quality pick and an absolute steal here for a team that doesn't need much. This makes their CB's easily the best corps in the league, consisting of a core of Revis-Cromartie-Wilson. This pick was simply the best. Playing it safe pick: Denver Broncos - Damaryius Thomas. They played it safe here taking Thomas ahead of the greater talent in Dez Bryant. You can't really blame them though after all that they've experienced. McDaniels is looking for character guys, but sometimes you have to roll the dice.

Seriously! HR what the hell do you look up each day on the internet?

Without a doubt it is worth it for the Premium at an extra $20 a year. The plug-in is available for download on the PS Store at no additional cost. I downloaded it last night and I was having issues getting the code to work to link my account. I will try it again tonight. I am pumped to see how it looks through the TV via the PS3 instead of the laptop.

Kicking Lucky