SL "Ask a Bitter Old Man" Thread

[LKJ]

Thank you goofy. I had nothing to do with the creation of the thread, but I figured why not play along.

Originally Posted by fishmeout

Zak Brown Band is the nuts fwiw.

Yeah they are. Their original stuff is great, but just to show you their ridiculous musical chops, this cover is insane. What a fiddle player.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QVWQTDoMr4

[bsball8806]

Country was my favorite type of music growing up. I can't stand it any more because it has become so bad. I'm still a big Garth Brooks and George Strait fan, but this modern stuff sucks dick. It's not possible to find a country song released in the last 5 years that doesn't contain at least one of {beer, god, america, love} in it. Most songs have at least 2 and many have 3 or 4. Be more original?

[bsball8806]

I think country artists sell themselves out even more than pop artists fwiw.

[LKJ]

The following scenario goes on all the time in sports and just pisses me off:

Mariners have a runner on first (shut up, they occasionally get this far). He then gets caught stealing, which leaves the bases empty. The batter then hits a triple. An announcer or fan will say, "Well that caught stealing sure is huge now, it cost the Mariners a run." What? We don't know that. There's no way of ever knowing that now. Once the bases are empty, it affects the pitcher's approach on all subsequent pitches and the batter adjusts his expectations on what pitches to look for accordingly. There's a very good chance that something besides a triple happens if that runner either stays at first or successfully steals second. You can't go around changing one variable and then pretending like every other variable that took place afterward would magically stay the same. That's ****ing retarded.

Or, "If the umpire hadn't blown that call back in the third, those two runs wouldn't have scored, and we wouldn't have lost."

Shut the **** up. That's stupid. It's fine to be pissed about getting jobbed on a call. However, both teams proceed to play the games according to the reality of the situation, not what the situation "should" be. Seriously, hate to break it to you, but...

Spoiler:

Teams play a lot different strategies when they're ahead by a run rather than behind by a run.

That type of **** just kills me. Gripe about injustice, gripe about mistakes...that's all fine. But quit acting like you're a ****ing soothsayer. You don't know what would have happened going forward.

[Karak]

LKJ,

Please expound on the "Law School Scam," as articulated by many blog sites on the interwebs.

[LKJ]

I think it's really ****ty that law schools report salary statistics that are at best misleading and at worst outright lies.

To give cliffs to those who don't know what's being talked about, schools will report average starting salaries of recent grads, but won't mention that these statistics:
1. Are very self-selecting in nature, like the biglaw types are far more likely to brag up their salary than the person who finished at the bottom, didn't even get a job as a lawyer, and is now earning about $25K a year.
2. Don't mention how little of the class is reporting. BIG TYPE: "Our graduates make $100K a year coming out." Small print: "3% of our grads reported their salaries."

It's shameful that the law schools do this, but it's also shameful that USNWR perpetuates it. Schools can't afford to either refuse to report or to report honestly, because it will make them look like a bunch of chumps. A solid school like Wisconsin, if reporting honestly, would suddenly look really bad next to a diploma mill like the one Karak went to before kicking ass and jumping up above me on the ladder.

One of the things that impressed me the most about my school was that, when I hadn't committed and was grilling the dean of career services about what my realistic job prospects would be coming out, he was quick to tell me that I should ignore the statistical salary averages due to their misleading nature. Even though I was aware of that, he pointed it out so that I wouldn't be misled. They were also up front about the likely steep tuition hikes that would occur during my three years here. I felt good about committing to a school that seemed to have the integrity to offer me full information right up front, and I still feel as a 2L with median grades that I made a good choice to come here and will be fine.

Time will tell how well I'll ultimately do in finding a good job upon graduation, but even if things go kind of sour (which again, I'm optimistically thinking will NOT be the case), I will not be one of the bitter law school grads who feels like he got the wool pulled over his eyes. I knew what I was getting into when I signed up for six figures of debt. And while I think the practices of many law schools are downright awful, I do struggle to sympathize with people who make a six figure investment without being aware of all of the realities of what they're getting into. In this day and age of widely available information, there's just no excuse for idiocy like that.

[LKJ]

"Whatever doesn't kill me only makes me stronger."

What a stupid ****ing cliché.

I'm sure that people with post-traumatic stress disorder love hearing idiots say that one.

There are inspirational clichés that I actually like quite a bit, but moronic platitudes like that one make me want to pull an Andy Bernard (season three edition).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwTJ08lb73Q

[Vintage00]

To everyone else itt --

Have you ever tried to picture what LKJ looks like? I really have NO idea.

[goofyballer]

Originally Posted by LKJ

A solid school like Wisconsin, if reporting honestly, would suddenly look really bad next to a diploma mill like the one Karak went to

This is quickly becoming one of the best threads in SL

[fishmeout]

Vintage I'll tell you if you cut your grass.

Spoiler:

[LKJ]

I'm jacked for the beginning of the football season, even though I know I will be subjected to idiocy such as the following.

QB gets sacked. Fan bitches (often correctly) about the QB holding onto the ball too long. Granted, QBs undoubtedly get a disproportionate amount of the blame since the camera isn't showing us the receivers possibly getting completely shut down all over the field, but it's still the QB's job to bail out of the pocket at some point and throw it away if everyone is covered and his protection is giving way.

Later in the game, it's 3rd and 10. QB is looking for somewhere to throw the ball, and after going through his progressions, he eventually dumps the ball off to someone four or five yards downfield who gets tackled short of the first down marker. Same exact fan inevitably bitches, "Why would he make a throw short of the marker like that? He's not even giving his team a chance to make a play." The really puzzling part to me is that this opinion will be perpetuated by announcers, usually former players themselves, who should get it. That comment, and all of its variations, KILL me.

Okay, so to recap...according to this fan, the QB is a bum if he:
1. Holds onto the ball too long when he doesn't see a receiver open to throw to.
2. Throws the ball short of the marker so that he can at least get a few yards and potentially the WR/RB might break a couple of tackles and every once in a while make a first down.

So, that means what? That a QB should make an idiotic throw worthy only of Rex Grossman? Brett Favre, as much as I hate him, has to be the most talented passer who has made a career out of reckless throws. Even he looks really bad at times and throws some really ugly picks. Any other QB trying what he does looks far, far worse...and would undoubtedly take the brunt of the criticism from a fan like that.

Basically, within the shallow thought process of a fan like this, the QB is at fault for almost every failed pass play, save for a really blatant drop or a really blatant whiff by one of his offensive linemen. This is the same fan who will call a draw play on 3rd and 10 a great play call on the occasion that it works out, but boo loudly if it doesn't.

The whole thing is completely idiotic. QBs need to make pragmatic decisions sometimes...and if that means dumping off to his safety valve to play the field position game when nobody else beats their man downfield on third and long, he should hardly get raked over the coals for it.

As always, I kindly invite results-oriented thinkers everywhere to light themselves on fire.

[LKJ]

Fishmeout's spoiler pic...my second almost-LOL-in-class of the day.

(No, I haven't been in class for most of the day.)

[Pecota]

Originally Posted by goofyballer

This is quickly becoming one of the best threads in SL

No, I'd say it's already there.

LKJ might be one of the few posters around who could beat me in an "old man rant-off," which is quite impressive. His bitterness knows no bounds.

[Karak]

LKJ and Pecota are very, very similar people.

In fact, Pecota often IMs me long and hilarious rants about otherwise mundane things which happen in his life that make me laugh quite hard. It's very 70yo-man of him. I'd encourage him to share some of them here for everyone's enjoyment.

[Karak]

Originally Posted by Vintage00

To everyone else itt --

Have you ever tried to picture what LKJ looks like? I really have NO idea.

Spoiler: