SouthernMan

It's not that difficult to "peak" the dish on your own - provided you have reasonable access to the dish. Peaking the dish is where you adjust it for maximum signal strenght. The dish can be adjusted by loosening the bolts on it's mount in two directions: azimuth (side to side) and elevation (up and down). I've used a small portable TV outside as a monitor to peak it. By putting it to the menu screen where you see signal strength, simply adjust the dish in both directions until it reaches the highest signal strength, then tighten the nuts/bolts/screws. If you can't get a portable outside, you could also have someone inside monitoring the TV for you. A cellphone comes in handy for this. Even with somewhat lower signal strength, your picture shouldn't be affected until severe weather becomes an issue. Mine is usually in the 80-85 range and I rarely have an trouble with reception.

McCartney WAS NOT lipsyching. What in hell gave you that idea? The fact that his voice cracked a little on the Live and Let Die high scream (at the end of the phrase "give 'em helllll!") should be proof enough. Somebody else suggested to me he wasn't playing the bass because his hands weren't moving. McCartney is a very efficient bass player and he positions his right hand on the neck in such a way that he doen't have to do a lot of movement of the arm or wrist. It's done mostly with his fingers and he can hit most of the needed notes between the 4th and 8th frets. Hey Jude was saved until last because it's the most anthemic and allowed an opportunity to get the crowd involved with the placards and sing-a-long. Helter Skelter would have been a terrible choice for the occasion. Great screaming toe-tapper in it's day, but the Manson conotations and the fact that it lyrically means nothing to most people, would be reason enough to not choose it. She's a Woman, though a good mid-60's rocker, would be kind of stupid for a grandfather in his 60's to be singing. One of Macs greatest songs was Maybe I'm Amazed, but it is hard as hell to sing in it's original key. He was just barely able to hit it 15 years ago, and I'd be real surprised if he includes it as part of the song list for his upcoming tour. I really liked having a single artist with his song catalog and preforming talent do the halftime. I really didn't like the idea of trying to fit in 8 different acts into one halftime. This year they want for quality over quantity. Little side note: Today is the 41st anniversary of the Beatles first arrival to the U.S. - except for George, who'd jammed at a VFW club in Illinois a few months earlier (true).

Empire Sports Network has been re-running some oldies but goodies, and it was interesting to hear Marv Levy talk about Dickerson on Marv's old Empire show. I think it had come on the heals of one of Dickerson's WGR-55 rants. I was surprised that Marv, who is one of the classiest guys to ever be associated with the NFL, actually took several minutes to call Dickerson out on the carpet. Marv must've been majorly pissed off after some of Dickerson's on-air critisisms of his boys. This must've been somewhere in the mid-90's. I wish I could remember the exact details, but Marv proceeded to reel off Dickerson's pitiful records as a head coach at the high school or college level. Understand, Dickerson had been anointing himself as some kind of defensive genius on his radio show. The record had multiple lopsided victories, of which, he was on the losing end of it. They were like 70-3 (and worse!). Not just one, but several of these embarassments. Don't know how he ever made it to the big leagues. Anyway, it was interesting and commendable to hear Marv stick up for his squad and let Dickerson have it right between the eyes. Dickerson is a mouthpiece and Marv,who was the target of much of the bashing, has more class in his long gone foreskin than Dickerson has in his entire body. How's Dickerson's coaching career been going lately anyway?

Point taken. O.k. - so maybe Buffalo is Be-tarder

Maybe he wanted less responsibility and more leisure time. Or possibly he was offered a good financial deal with the Bears. Maybe there were family reasons. What if Sam & Pat were such a bad influence on the rest of teams's eating habits, Rusty finally threw his hands up in the air and said, "I give up". Maybe he got sick of living in a be-tarded city with poor economic conditions and out of control state taxes. Maybe with his lifelong dream of having his very own roundtable show with Art Wander and Ed Kilgore on the Empire Sports Network up in smoke, he decided to head for windier pastures in Chicago. Or maybe he just gets a real charge out of saying "da bears". The most likely reason: he's was suffering mental trauma every day when he came to work at One Bills Dr. because the admin building was a constant reminder of Gregg William's "man-boobs". Whatever the reason - best of luck to Rusty and his family.

Be patient. It's always wise to give the other party (in this case, the seller) the benefit of a doubt. If you start spouting off or acting irrationally, just think how foolish you'll feel if the book arrives in a couple of days. When you communicate with the seller, be respectful. Act as if you're on the same team. If the seller does large volumes of business, he/she has probably been through this before and isn't as worried as you. If it's the post office who's handling the delivery, it would not be the first time a package has taken a circuitous route. I used to get Shout! and sometimes it would take 3 or 4 weeks to get to me. God only knows where it goes in that time. Give it a little more time. If it still hasn't shown up after 4 weeks, the seller SHOULD offer a refund or offer some kind of consolation/replacement. Only if the seller totally blows you off and ignores your concerns should you take it to the next level. I bought an electronic device off an Ebay seller. It was advertised as "like new". To me, "like new" means it functions as if just bought new. At any rate, the thing never worked, seller never responded to emails. Never heard from the seller until I left negative feedback for him. VERY quickly he responded with negative feedback for me. He had the balls to leave comment that "it was only $20". Anyway, this dickhead (in Miami BTW), started getting a lot of bad feedback. He was basically a con artist. I think there had been some negative feedback previously, but I ignored them. Eventually, the jerk was thrown off of Ebay. Even so, I'm left with a black mark on my feedback percentage. It ain't worth it. Be patient. Chances are, if the seller has a record of positive feedback, and has responded to your concerns, it will get worked out amicably.

I'm sure it's different in every jurisdiction, but for us, it goes something like this: There HAS to be another annoyed neighbor who also files a complaint. I suppose this is in effect to prevent a police reaction for every pain-in-the-arse-with-nothing-better-to-do-Mrs Kravitz's of the world from phoning the cops with every petty annoyance. Kind of makes sense. Secondly, we have to file a formal complaint through at magistrate's office. As far as calling the cops goes, about all they can usually do is issue a warning. If it continues, maybe a second warning. Animal control works less than banker's hours, and the odds of them actually being available when the disturbance occurs is less than zero. At any rate, it's not as simple as calling the cops and pulling the eye mask over our face for some serious Z's. Like so many other things, it's steeped in bureacracy. At that point you have to weigh out what's more of a pain - the crap you have to go through to get it resolved or the dog who mighstart with the yapping at any given time. Something I forgot to mention in previous post. The ingenius solution the negligent pet owners have for their lonely, barking mutts.....get a second (or third) dog to "keep it company". Brilliant. Absolutely F'ing brilliant. At that point, it's time to move before the property value dips any further.

We've had a similar problem for years. Seems we're the only people in the neighborhood without a dog. These people around us get these dogs to somehow make their lives complete after they've finally moved into their very own house. Once the novelty wears off, the poor animals end up in the backyard, ignored by the owners. A lot of times I believe the dog is just a band-aid to fill some void until their masters have children. Once the babies arrive, Fido gets a life sentence to backyard solitary confinement. Some use the excuse that they're outside for the owner's protection. Someone explain how it can be considered as a good guard dog if it barks at every living creature that creeps into or near the property. Hell, the animal will finally shutup once some friendly burglar shows up to pet the poor thing. Maybe that's the genius of the guard dog theory! Anilmal is quiet - it means trouble. Our only solution is to move into a more upscale neighborhood with a home owner's association that will supprt our right to have peace. We've been debating this move for a while. On one hand, we bought our home 13 years ago and our mortgage and taxes are so insignificant that we hate to change our financial freedom. Moving into one of the more upscale neighborhoods (which we could well afford) would take away from money we now use to travel, buy toys, improve the house, invest, etc. Is it worth giving that up because of some inconsiderate neighbors? I don't know. Maybe. A lot will depend on who (and with what animals) moves into the house next door (which appears to be abandoned at this time). We've had little help from the local sherriff or animal control. The laws and town ordinances are not in favor of the law-abiding, peace loving citizens. When I was young, we were taught that owning pets carried with it certain responsibilites. I think too many pet owners think taking care of a dog means filling it's dish every so often. Whatever you do, don't take it out on the dog. It's not the animal's fault. Dog's are bred and made to be working, hunting, or cuddling and just being companions. No dog should just be thrown outside to be left by itself day after day. That's downright cruel.

I went to a dinner at the Saturn Club in 1982. Nice place. I would have thought Hillary would have been more comfortable at a place called "Uranus".

I agree. Should the Pats win this year (and I believe they will), that would be 3 superbowl wins in 4 years. In my mind, that is far more impressive than 4 consecutive losses. I think what the 70's Steelers and 80's 49'ers accomplished far and away a bigger acheivement than the Bill's 4 straight. If the 4 straight is so wonderful, where do the Eagles 4 straight NFC Championship games rate? I mean, where's the cutoff? What's next - an undefeated exhibition season?!?!? Wow! When traning camp begins, winning the superbowl is the ONLY goal of every team and player. Anything less is an equal accomplishment(or failure) among the 31 teams who didn't take home the hardware. There are no second place ribbons. Sure, there are the conference trophies - but who the hell goes into the season hoping they can take home the Lamar Hunt trophy for god's sake? The 90's Bills were great teams near and dear to our hearts, but the fact is, they didn't do what was necessary when it counted most. "Almost" doesn't cut it for me.

I loved it. Now, for anyone who likes predictable, Disneyesque, car crashes and gratuitous teen pranks and ass shots, this isn't for you. It's very quirky. A few steps off center from your basic Tarantino or Cohn Brothers flicks. Some very tongue in cheek humor and it uses expressions unique to Buffalo such as, 'mocking me out'. The gist of the story is about Billy (named after his obsessed mother's football team, no doubt), and his struggle to give and receive love. His untimely 1966 birth caused his mother to miss the Buffalo Bills last championship win. She has never forgiven him for it. His mother is obsessed with the Bills and watches video taped games and has her house adorned with Bills stuff. The family photo album has pictures of her with various Bills, including Jack Kemp, but no photos of Billy growing up. When Billy is grown, the Bills have a chance to avenge his lifelong misery by finally winning a championship. Billy sees a bookie and places a bet on the Bills to win in the Superbowl. Scott Wood misses the potential game-winning 47 yarder wide right (surprise!). Billy's mother continues to ignore him, and to make matters worse, Billy can't cover the bet. He repays the bookie by taking the rap for someone else's crime and spends 4 years in prison. As the movie begins, he's just getting out of prison. His mission is to get Scott Wood for all the misery he's caused by missing that field goal that would have changed everything. Anyway - it's fairly bizzare. Some great scenes with Christina Ricci, including the photo booth (spanning time) one and the bowling alley scenes. The father's singing scene (Lip-synched to an actual recording of Gallo's real-life father) is surreal. A lot of people would absolutely hate this movie. It's slow moving. It's more of a character study than a great story. Billy is kind of a modern day Holden Caufield. A good kid who's just gotten some crummy breaks along the way and is sensitive enough to let it get to him. It's worth checking out. It shows up occasionally on the Bravo channel and is in most video stores.

Anyone here know - are there any radio stations from Buffalo that are live and on-line through the internet? It seems like it's more difficult now than it used to be to pick up Buffalo news. There was a time when you could go see archived Eyewitness News (channel 7 in Buffalo) on the internet. No longer can we hear live WGR55, WNSA, WBEN, Empire Sports Network. I guess when it all comes down to it, most of these endeavors just weren't fiscally viable enough to sustain themselves outside the boundries of WNY. Is Empire dead and gone for good? Was there ever any official announcement from the station's on-air talent? Any locals hear any comments from Howard during his radio show on WGR55? Is there a radio station on-line from WNY?

I used to work for a company that used the PTO (paid time off) program. For anyone not familiar with it, here's how it worked. We were allotted so many days off per year, accrued on a monthly basis. These were our days to use for whatever purpose - sick, vacation, personal, etc. The nice thing about that system was that, rather than surprise your employer with a (cough cough) fake 'sick day', you could give them time to accomodate the absence. The company was later bought out, and changed the policy by splitting it up into sick days, personal days, and vacation days. I believe there may be tax implications for this. Anyway, it was always the same people who used up every sick day. If they weren't sick, then it was their spouse, mother, kids, or somebody else whom they had to care for. What a crock. Unless I was deathly ill, I wouldn't expect my wife to stay home from work and be my wetnurse for a day. Basically, I was screwed out of days off for being a dedicated, consciencious employee who rarely called in sick*. Meanwhile, all the slackers were rewarded for their dishonesty with extra days off. *in 12+ years I only missed 2 days total after I fractured my ankle in 3 places playing football during halftime of a Bills playoff game. PTO is definitely the fairest system.

It's an effective visual devise I suppose, but it's still gay as hell and 30 years out of date. Maybe it's just a nostalgic thing. I don't doubt some of those terrible towels doubled as jackrags 30 years ago for the pathetic losers living in their parent's basement's with a Farrah Fawcett poster over their waterbeds. At least that woudl explain why the towels are so terrible.

If chili is already being used (Cinci or KC?), how about a dessert suggestion? Rocky (Yo Adrian) Road ice cream. Keeping with the Rocky theme, I suppose you could just beat some raw meat and serve it like that.

Tackles: Donnie Green, Dave Foley Guards: Reggie, Joe D Center: Bruce Jarvis, then Mike Montler taking over following Jarvis's injury. I believe Paul Seymor was a tackle for the Steelers, and was converted into a TE after coming to Bills in trade.

The way I'm reading this quote is that The NFL Network, now seen on Directv (don't know about Adelphia cable), will now be shown in the slot where Empire currently resides on the local Buffalo cable outlets. I didn't take the quote to mean that there will be an NFL Network station dedicated for regional Bills stuff, but rather, the Bills will produce segments to be aired on the existing NFL Network - probably in rotation with other team productions, NFL Total Access, etc. I'd love it if the station actually WAS dedicated to the Bills, though I can't imagine how they could fill airtime 24/7 with Bills stuff. I suppose they'd have to fill it with a bunch of off-topic crap about favorite rock groups, garbage plates, and such.

Haven't seen much of him, but I hear he's getting close to "bust" status. Of course, Drew Brees was a bust before this year too. It took him until year 3 to blossom. Interesting side note.. Harrington has the same birthday as Kelly & Bledsoe. Maybe we can get Patrick Ramsey also if we want to stick to a Valentine's Day QB agenda. I think we positions requiring attention before the QB slot.

There's not much I watch on a regular basis, other than the Bills and NYPD Blue. When I was out of work a few years ago and I got hooked on the old reruns shown on TBS and Court TV. I'd never seen the show during it's original run with Jimmy Smits, and only starting watching about the time Rick Schroeder came on board. Still haven't seen the Caruso episodes, except for the pilot episode where Sipowicz gets shot. Anyway, we TiVo the 6 pm Court TV episodes and watch it as our post or during dinner TV show. The Jimmy Smits years were great, but I actually think the Rick Schroeder episodes had the best characters and storylines. I don't think any other show has done such a great job of developing complex characters and having great guest actors portraying 'skels' and various deadbeats. The show started going downhill with the new partner (John Clark) - such a boring character all they can think to do with him is have him get involved in a lot of romances. He's not even a good actor. The current group in the squad are fairly mundane - John Clark, Ortiz, Jones, Murphy, Lieutenant whats-his-name, etc. Nothing interesting at all about these characters. I suppose it was hard to recruit top talent for writers and replacement actors the past few years, knowing the show is nearing the end. Haven't seen Tuesday night episode yet. Will check it out tonight. Hopefully they'll save this season with a good ending. Looks like Sipowicz will become a sergeant and Metavoy will go into real estate.

Some of these contestants (ususally the worst ones) appear to be absolutely psychotic - especially when they're told they can't sing. Have you ever noticed the looks in some of their eyes? It's scary. I swear some day we'll hear on the news that one of the American Idol audition loser loonies is stalking one of the judges, or is threatening them....or worse! Maybe it'll be some other newsworthy event like jumping off a bridge or holding a kindergarten hostage, but at some point, there'll be national news of some psycho - and we'll see over and over again the American Idol audition tape. A lot of the ones they show on AI just seem ready for a straight jacket.

Either way, they're going to want to replace the transmission. 40,000 mile ago the dealership, AAMCO, or whomever, would have been more than happy to put in a new transmission. So far, I've gotten 40,000 extra miles on the thing. Why not run it until the transmission finally looks like it's had enough? So, far, just the usual slippage. What's the worse that could happen? Get a new transmission?I think I'm ahead of the game. Suppose I put out $2,000 for a new tranny and some asswipe totals out my car tomorrow. The insurance company sure isn't going to compensate me for my recent $2,000 output. I was at the Goodyear garage this past Saturday (getting tranny flushed, among other things)and this very thing happen to a customer who was talking at the counter. He'd just put weeks and many dollars into a car that got totalled 2 days after getting it on the road. Heartbreaker. BTW - I bought this car used with about 64,ooo miles on it. I had the first transmission replaced at about 70,000 miles on this car. Fortunately, I'd bought the extended warranty from the dealer when I purchased the car. I didn't take chances with a private party, knowing that in fact it does all come down to BUYER BEWARE. Thanks to everyone for their input on this subject.

You tawkin' to me? # 1 - I didn't register for the sole purpose of asking this question. I posed the question, simply because I was curious how others felt about the moral issues and to see if they'd ever been on either side of a similar situation. It's a dialogue, that apparently, has been of some interest to quite a few people. Why would anyone write out LOL at the end of their own unfunny post? Go figure. So many mysteries.

1999 Accord V6. They paid $6,795. Exactly what the window sign showed as the sale price. Buyer never even attempted to negotiate a lower price. (Duh!) I'm sure I would have come down at least $300-$400. Gee, you think from a moral standpoint I should have suggested to her (the buyer) that it's a good idea to haggle a little and try to lower the price. That'd be the day! Except for the transmission slippage and some minor parking lot dings, the car was in superb shape. Great tires, interior like new, starts right up, runs like new. The car has been well maintained, other than the timing belt which is due (according to Honda's schedule) to be replaced. Even if the transmission were replace for $2,400, that would still only be a little over $9,000 total for a car that should be good for at least another 100,000 miles.

They didn't take it to a shop. They had their "mechanic" go for a drive in it. Could have been her brother-in-law hot dog vendor who changes oil on the side for all I knew. She said it was her mechanic. The expert opinion she trusted. Maybe she should sue him.