The Avenger

That would be me on both counts - got Superfan for free the past 2 years and do not have HD. For anyone wondering WHY I wouldn't have HD, let me list what I'd have to do and the immense costs associated: - New HD TV (or TVs, plural, if I wanted to replace more than 1 in my house) - call it $1500 (and the TV I have now works fine) - New HD Tivo (if you get HD, and run it through a SD Tivo you lose your HD) - $300-$500 (and I'd be losing capacity as my current model has over 700 hours capacity) - New lifetime service for above Tivo - $399 (I have lifetime service on my current box - replace it and I start paying for service again) - Upgrade DirecTV to HD - new HD dish. If I wanted to really take advantage of it I'd also have to replace my other TVs and upgrade the DTV DVR to HD - $200-$2000 depending on what I do. So minimum I'm probably looking at $2500 to go HD (did I mention my current stuff still works?) and with 2 kids and a mortgage there's no way I'm going to drop that sort of loot just so my picture is "awesome". At some point my current stuff will break and I'll have no choice, but for what it is going to cost me I'd rather take the whole family to Disney for a week.......

My vote would be for either Lori or Rich - people who not only enhance the conversation here by posting, but who also help keep this place running as mods..... Let us not forget that this place grew out of a direct result of the D&C boards going to hell due to lack of moderation.....

If you listen to "rock radio" take note of how much of their playlists, even today, are from songs older than 1995.... Honestly, they play almost nothing from the past 10-15 years - it's like it didn't exist.....

Metallica Iron Maiden Dio Slayer Anthrax Megadeth Venom Mercyful Fate Suicidal Tendencies Judas Priest Black Sabbath

Of course the flip side of that is to do what the Bills did this year and draft the best available player regardless of position, even if it's one of the very few places where you actually have decent talent/depth - I'm not so sure I like that strategy a whole lot better. Regardless, in the end of comes down to talent evaluation and it's pretty clear to me that has been an area where the Bills get their a$$es handed to them year after year. Unfortuantely, I'm not sure we've seen enough change here from the past and I fear getting the same sort of results going forward - can we sink any lower?

That's the problem - we "guess bad". How many guys, both college kids and vets, have we "guessed bad" about? We've had some pretty terrible talent evaluation in the last decade, and that leaves us with some really terrible talent on the o-line. The fact that Fowler had been cut from 2 team prior to the Bills perhaps should have been an indicator that he didn't have what it took to play in the NFL, but somehow we thought he was good enough to start and anchor the middle of the o-line. After the Bills he never played another NFL game - didn't make any squad, even as a backup! He's 31 now and being drafted almost last by the UFL - that's one hell of a bad guess by the Bills and unfortunately it was just one of many....

I saw the video last night of the drills he was running at OTA - we did appear to be going near full speed and making sharp cuts - I was pretty amazed. Of course with the Pats* you never really know if the injury info on him was correct - it wouldn't shock me that his injury wasn't what they said it was. Regardless, I think with the type of running and cutting he does in his role, if he did have a seroius knee injury I've got to think that he may be much more likely to suffer another than he used to be. Don't get me wrong - I'm not wishing the guy would get a knee injury - it just wouldn't shock me if he got injured again.

Good Lord - the guy was our starting center 3 seasons ago and played 15 games for us 2 years ago and now he's drafted in 12th and final round of the UFL - with 5 teams he still ends up being 2 players away from Mr. Irrelevant in that draft. If this doesn't speak to the dearth of talent Buffalo has had in their last decade of fail I don't know what does. We all knew some of those lines were sub-NFL caliber quality, but being sub-UFL quality is rediculous......

Maybe the show was from 2001?

You got your wish.... A favorite Sign Appears Again

I think you forgot the part where, due to injury, Rudy gets into the game and scores the winning touchdown because nobody took him seriously and left him all alone in the endzone. The fans rush the field and carry him off on their shoulders as a dejected Tom Brady and company sulk back to the locker room - THAT'S "the most likely scenario".... Seriously, other than freel-good Hollywood cliche movies, why should this year be any than the past 10 for the Bills? Why, suddenly, are we going to "beat the odds" and "show the world the heart of champion" we have? The "most likely scenario" is that we get our asses kicked by teams with far better talent and we end up winning 5 games or less. If you want a feel-good ending where the good guys win go see a movie.

Or add Moorman to the mix to really confuse them. As Steve Martin used to say, "I used to like to punt on first down"....

Wendy Dio, Ronnie's widow, has asked that fan/mourners ignore the Westboro protesters - she says RJD always hated violence.... Still, I would so love to see them get theirs (maybe the Supreme Court will give them a legal ass kicking when they take up one of their cases this session)

Remember - these are metalheads - they solve issues with boots and Doc Martins, not wit.....

Yeah, but if you get a beatdown by mob of people let's look at who gets what: WBC Member: -Publicity (already getting it by just threatening to picket) -The beatdown of a lifetime (as Visa says, "priceless") Metalheads: -Arrest (if caught) -Possible jail time (if convicted by jury) -Satisfaction of kicking the living sh%t out of a WBC protester WBC could also try and go after civil damages, but honestly, the type of metalhead who's going to kick your ass like that probably has relatively little assests.... I'm thinking that in this case the violence could happen......would love to see video of it with Sabbath's "Mob Rules" playing as the soundtrack.....

I love the idea as well, but if you're a WBC member who likes their teeth/life and thinks they're going to prance around with their signs and keep said teeth/signs/life it's truly a terrible idea..... There haven't been any riots at past funerals because most people can retrain themselves from giving these idiots what they want, but a bunch of despondent metalheads who don't give a flying %#@! and like a good brawl could certainly change all of that......

Looks like Fred Phelps and his band of merry morons is planning on picketing the public memorial for Ronnie James Dio in L.A. on Sunday. Something tells me it's a really, really, really bad idea for a small group of fundamentalist closet homosexuals screaming about Dio rotting in hell to get near a bunch of upset metal fans mourning the passing of their hero... Pehaps they'll finally get the beatdown they so richly deserve? Bad Idea - Really Bad Idea.....

Looking forward to seeing these folks in the pit when I see Slayer in August........

Ted's is pretty good. They have a huge range of burgers and chicken sandwiches. Any burger they have can be made with bef or bison. The bison is actually really good - just don't get it too well done or it doesn't hold together so well...

I've got a couple of problems with Felser's article. Firstly, he holds the 2008 Miami Dolphins as an example of how quickly things can go from hopeless to division champs. In late 2007 they hired a certain football guru by the name of Bill Parcells and give him all the control he needed to turn the team around. If the Bills ever made a move like that I would optimistic, but their latest "change" in the front office was to hire a guy from within as GM and not go and get a proven guru and let him run the show - huge difference and for me, plenty of reason to be pessimistic that the team won't be much different than the past decade. Secondly, Felser himself admits that when it comes to scouting you either have an eye for talent or you don't. I agree with this, but what has the Buffalo staff shown in its evaluation of college or free agent talent that makes you feel like we are loaded with guys with an eye for talent? Given how poorly we've done in that department over the past decade you'd think a major shakeup would be needed in the scouting department, but we didn't get it. In fact, one of the old talent scounts is now GM. Again, call me a terrible pessimist, but that lack of change doesn't give me much optimism. To be optimistic about the Bills because the Dolphins turned it around quickly and because we have a solid eye for talent seems way too optimistic for me, Larry.....

I am so bummed by this - I have been a HUGE Dio fan for years and years.... I remember going to see the Sacred Heart tour at The Aud in Buffalo and being completely blown away. Of the hundreds of shows I've been to that still ranks as one of the best ever. The stage was a giant dragon - Vinny's drum kit actually sat on its back. The wings flapped, the head moved, the eyes shot lasers and yes, it breathed fire (gotta love the early 80's - a show was a SHOW!). Dio came out in a huge crystal ball that was filled with fire - it exploded and the show started. During Sacred Heart Dio killed the dragon with a laser sword. Good times. As a metal DJ in college I arranged an interview with Dio when he was scheduled to play Darien Lake. Never thought my interview request would be granted, but I can still remember my mother answering the phone and telling me that there was a Wendo Dio who wanted to talk with me. We scheduled the interview but it never happened as the show was cancelled due to weather - one of the biggest disappointments of my life - never getting to meet a hero of mine. I recall seeing Megadeth open for Dio on their Peace Sells tour - he really knew how to pick an opening act (or maybe he didn't - Rough Cutt was the opener for Sacred Heart). Through the years I had the great good fortune of seeing Dio solo, with Sabbath and with Heaven and Hell more than a half dozen times. Every time I saw him I grew more confident that he was the best mtal front man ever, bar none - 5 and a half feet of pure fury and intensity. I realy though Dio might just beat the cancer thing. I was toying with the idea of going to Sonisphere Switzerland next month to see the 4 pillars of thrash on the same bill (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax) and Heaven and Hell was also supposed to play - I was wondering how Ronnie was going to do that and when I read that Heaven and Hell cancelled their tour I felt better about not going to Europe for the show (still hoping the 4 pillars will tour the US - fo now I am settling for Slayer, Megadeth and Testament in August). I'm glad that some of the new bands know Dio's contributions - Killswitch Engage does a killer cover of Holy Diver as a tribute. R.I.P., RJD - you fought to kill the dragon and you bargained with the beast \m/ \m/

Or maybe that he's a big dog?

Hopping on a pogo stick from L.A. to Miami > current version of the Buffalo Bills......

Actually, the expert usually says something like, "At auction I estimate that this could go in the $5000 range", then the pawn shop guy asks "How much do you want fo it?" and the owner almost always says "$5000". I guess they don't quite understand how it works. The expert estimated $5000 - never any guarantee what you'll get at an auction. But before you can even auction it, you have to do the legwork to find the auction and then pay a big percentage of the sale price to the autioneer. On top of that the pawn shop owner has to turn a profit that makes it worth his while, so most of the times he's not going to do the deal for anything more than about 40%-50% of what the expert said it could be worth.

Just saw some videos of people eating ghost chilis on Youtube - it is not pretty..... I'll be impressed if Stl Bills cares to come back and type after that - he may be too busy tring to figure out how to rip out his digestive tract with his bare hands...