FestivusMiracle

I, too, have experienced the peer pressure involved with alcohol. I pretty much always give in if someone calls me out. It's a flaw, no doubt. But it's usually an easy decision since I love alcohol. BUT, I will say, in the last year or so I've been able to resist taking shots on numerous occasions. Whisky will make me do some dumb stuff!

Rolling Rock....just realized I don't think I have ever actually tried this beer, and I never realized it was a "cheap" beer. I always thought of it as a sort of American Heineken (I'm assuming it's American). But yeah, I definitely need to try it now, because I see it everywhere! As for your question, I feel like hipsters have been drinking PBR for a long time, so I'm not sure I buy your argument that she drank it before hipsters "claimed it." Did she drink it like, I don't know, pre-2008? If so, then maybe. Or maybe she is just a hipster with bad taste in beer.

Fantasy pro bull riding? I am somewhat shocked that this exists. But any fantasy individual sport makes more sense than fantasy football, baseball, and other collective sports. Do you feel odd at these events, considering you're in graduate school? I knew some rodeo types growing up, and while I think most of them would look down on graduate school, they were all pretty intelligent.

How do you define craft beer? To me, Sam Adams puts out a huge variety of different and interesting beers. It seems like you don't put them in the craft category simply because they are a bigger brand. Were you one of those people who really liked Kings of Leon before they became popular in the U.S.? lol, and no offense.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like a lot of stouts that have beer-like carbonation are often placed in the same category as nitro-Guinness. To me, they are completely, completely different and hard to compare directly. I'm assuming the Nitro beer you mention is a nitro beer, but are the other stouts "nitro" beers as well? I rarely can find other nitro beers, besides Murphy's and in one place I lived they had this sort of orange cream nitro can thing, can't remember what brand, and I never tried it. Ultimately I think the reason I'm so high on Guinness is the nitrogen, and the fact that it was the first nitro beer I tried. The only other one I've tried was Murphy's, and it's pretty damn good as well.

This is what I try to force myself to do...If I like something, I should do it/not be ashamed of liking it. It's tough sometimes, though. One thing I've noticed, though, is that a lot of the stuff that I was too ashamed to admit that I liked eventually wound up becoming the cool thing...

Check it out on Beeradvocate...one of the "Bros" gave it a pretty positive review, despite almost always saying how terrible the big macro brews are. Oh, and check out their review of Guinness...it may make you cringe a little when you see what a poor review Guinness receives by the same guy. http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/209/754/?ba=bros Personally, I don't get it. Guinness is freaking incredible out of the nitro can. The nitro can makes it so much smoother than regular beer. One thing I notice about beer snobs and Guinness is that they seem to think that they have to drink it closer to room temperature "to get the full flavor." Personally, I love it ice cold. It's kinda like iced coffee.

If you haven't picked up on the hipster/PBR thing, you must live in a hipster-free area, because it is blatantly obvious where I'm at.

I'm talking about the beer, not the rodeo league, just in case there are any cowboy graduate students on here. Is it just me, or is it fashionable to be somewhat of a beer snob and yet claim that PBR is pretty decent beer? Every time I try PBR, I feel like I can't judge it objectively because there is so much weird cultural baggage that goes along with this beer. On one hand, beer snobs tell me I should like it, and on the other, it is the only beer hipsters drink at bars, which makes me want to despise it. My understanding is that this beer used to be a true blue collar, working man's beer (way back in the day), and recently hipsters latched onto it due to its lack of popularity with mainstream crowds. Is PBR a decent beer? Or is it all hype? And while we're at it, how do you feel about hipsters? Do you consider yourself at least a little bit of a hipster? Sometimes I can't tell if my non-conformism makes me less of a hipster, or more of one, because hipsters seem to 'refuse to conform' by engaging in the exact same behavior as every other hipster. It's a paradox.

If I have heard it, it's been so quiet that I've forgotten. It seems like all I hear about is how college players should be paid.

You know, it seems kinda obvious now, but I can't recall anyone ever bringing this point up. Everyone blames college football for not paying players, but I never hear anyone arguing that the NFL should remove its barriers to entry.

Ha well if you eventually find yourself in grad school, you may get used to the feeling of being banished from society with all the required reading. I'd wait til tomorrow for the chocolate. It's gonna be super cheap!

11 PM on Valentine's Day and checking e-mails...I wish I could say my Valentine's Day was more exciting but it was pretty much the same. How lame lol

The ones that are good enough to go pro right away, i agree, maybe they are in effect forced to go to school. But the other ones benefit a ton from school, because otherwise they wouldn't have a shot in hell at making it. So if you ditch college football, only the obvious 'talent' gets picked. There would be no Jerry Rice(s), if that were the case. There is no way to separate the academics from college football, because...well it just wouldn't make sense. Therefore the 99% benefit tremendously from the opportunity to play college ball.

I haven't thought about it a lot, but maybe the reason pro football teams don't allow kids into the draft right away is that college subsidizes the cost of their player development.

Nobody is 'forcing' anyone to do anything, with the exception of the <1% who are at pro level out of high school. The rest get free training that wouldn't be available if only professional teams were involved. College gives them a chance to do what they love. In return, they have to attend class every once in a while. Most athletes in other sports consider the free ride they get as a good thing, instead of some obligation they have to meet. I get your point that it sucks that there are athletes who clearly shouldn't be in school, but I don't really know how you get around that problem and I think if anyone benefits from the situation it is the 99% of athletes who don't go pro and receive a diploma.

I'm not blaming them, I just don't feel sorry for them. Your comment pretty much doesn't account for the fact that most college athletes will never play at the professional level and you also assume that players who will play pro are already at the pro level straight out of high school, which is almost always false in football. College football provides a sort of training/improvement area where players who were considered only decent can go prove themselves and earn their way onto a pro team. Without college football, many would just wind up with regular jobs because they didn't receive the coaching necessary to make it at the pro level. College football is beneficial to the majority of its athletes.

As someone who has attended schools where football/sports are a huge deal, I think it's the students who care that suffer more than the athletes who don't do shit. Academics are marginalized at the expense of athletic events, along with classes being dumbed down. Need to study on the day of a big game? You're not gonna do it in the library, because it'll be closed. Meanwhile, athletes are completely pampered with forgiving teachers and free 'tutors' who do their homework for them. I say all this despite being a huge college football fan. I just find it hard to find sympathy for apathetic college athletes.

One of the big places that accepts Bitcoins as payment is Overstock.com. BUT, and this is a key but, my understanding is that Overstock doesn't actually get paid in Bitcoins, but instead gets paid in dollars from a third party who manages the Bitcoin risk. So Overstock may 'accept' Bitcoin, but they don't really accept Bitcoin. The question is can the third party figure out a way to manage such a volatile currency (Bitcoin) and be profitable. My guess is that that's almost impossible at this stage in the game. That's like trying to price exports in a currency denomination that can double in value and be reduced by half on any given day. Just doesn't happen.

How is Bitcoin different from precious metals? Someone could still obtain a large enough share of bitcoins and withhold them from the market, just like diamonds. Instead of the currency being controlled by a government who has relatively benign intent, Bitcoin makes itself vulnerable to currency manipulators with less benign intent, right? (This all assumes Bitcoin surives long enough for this to happen, which I think is highly unlikely)

So you think it is durable as a currency? You don't think the whole concept is a gigantic bubble whose eventual bursting is inevitable?

Go.

Ah...gotcha. I just try to blend in. I feel like a big enough dork as it is.

A button? I'm lost...

I kinda go back and forth on this one. Some days I'll go full on J Crew dressed up just for the heck of it; most days, jeans (JCrew jeans, nonetheless) and a T-Shirt/jacket. When it was really really hot I went in shorts (and by shorts, I mean athletic shorts) a few days. Obviously it depends on what everyone else wears (all over the map at my school, but usually pretty laid back; some professors wear extremely casual stuff so it kinda sets the tone that you can wear whatever you want), but I wouldn't worry about it too much. Focus on doing well academically, and I don't think anyone will care how you dress. But if dressing up makes you feel good, do it! Even if no one else dresses up, who cares. IMO it's almost impossible to be overdressed (Despite this, I tend to be underdressed).