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I've still got my Ally and I agree, the keyboard is just right, still. I mean, come on...it's got backlighting and great action and spacing and this is a two-year-old phone! The screen on it is brilliant, too. I replaced the battery last summer and rooted & ROM'd it, so it's loads better than it was when it came from…

Except you can shoulder it. You can't do that with a Maverick and it just feels cool to shoulder up something that looks like a psycho-yellow sci-fi gun.

I took up ukulele for just that reason. It's small, it's inexpensive to start with a decent model like a Makala, and it's easy to get going. I've had mine for about 3 weeks and have learned enough with informal self-teaching and just noodling around to entertain myself.

Yeah. I've got three kids, the oldest of whom is in 1st grade, and I'm thinking very hard about the life I want them to lead, and how my wife and I can help them (or stay out of their way) in achieving self-sufficiency.

I always thought the problem wasn't that it'd fail if hit repeatedly (because as someone else pointed out, if you stack shots on a single point, regardless of caliber, something's getting through), but that its structure didn't allow for servicing. With conventional armor, I think it's easier to replace the plates…

I'm thinking professionally AND personally. I've never lost my wallet. I've never lost my phone. I've never lost my keys. Maybe it's generational (I was born in '74, which I guess makes me an X-er), but what happened to the idea of being responsible (nay, careful) with important things? We got that drummed into our…

"They are just as fallible as we are."

OK, yeah, university. I always tended to think in terms of individual colleges, but that's just my personal quirk. I slummed around St. John's for about 6 weeks in summer '96 & '97, so at least it was quiet then, but I admit I never saw chess played. Beer pong, though...yep.

10 Forward reminded me of the "common rooms" that I'd see in colleges in Oxford U.K....they had their own little bars but they were mostly quiet with tables & places to sit and chat and play chess.

Contamination can be dealt with. The impact of an asteroid half a klick across can't be cleaned up so well.

No. Blanks come in a variety of pressures, so that when you see, say, Kate Beckinsale two-handing a pair of H&Ks without her arms flying all over, you can assume she's firing 1/4-powered blanks. I remember Bruce Campbell talking about firing a full-power blank from a sniper rifle while filming an episode of Burn…

Doesn't he look like he's about to whap the guy with it?

Why not? There was a trip to a resort in Costa Rica included!

I once shot a tick that I saw stalking me (no, really...it was honestly coming for me).

I love Google Music all around. I'm finding that it's seamless...I can download tracks from, say, eMusic to my netbook (I've always used WMP as my local-music player) and the files seem like they upload to Google Music almost as fast as they download from eMusic. I'm never connecting my phone to my netbook to transfer…

For sure. That's a great car overall (platform shared with Mazda 6, Ford Fusion, and Mercury Milan), and the Lincolns are really nicely decked out.

Depends on the engine, especially. Some engines are just plain harder to maintain, whether because of design or materials. I had a few different Ford Contours in the past and the mechanics hated the V6 versions because the engine was so tight in the bay. I knew mechanics who'd pull the engine clear out of the car to…

Zephyr = luxo Fusion, not Focus. Plus, the Zephyr was kind of an orphaned child in Lincoln, because it was only available for a year or two before the company stuffed a bigger engine in it and changed the name.

I used to believe that until I started taking my cars to a specific Ford dealership in town. I *know* they've saved me money...their rates aren't much more at all than good independent shops, plus they have owner loyalty programs and good discount promotions. On my last visit, without asking, I got $50 discounted off…