Monday, March 31, 2008

Teams Left in my Bracket: 3

Being somewhat of a stats/history geek I figured that since no 4 number 1 teams have ever met in the final four I'd better pick at least one lower seed. My lower seed was Texas. They messed it up. Thanks Longhorns.

I did discover though that I may be in love with Connor Atchley . Sure I've never met him but that doesn't really matter. I feel bad about changing college basketball boyfriend's so soon.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Goal of the week

I was having a conversation the other day with a co-worker about new year's resolutions. I've never believed in New Year's resolutions, mostly because I know that I will never stick to it. But I can probably stick with something for a week so here it goes.

After writing this it got me to thinking about how much money I spend that I really don't need to. So my goal for this week (as of Friday night) is to opt for a tall drink at Starbucks rather than my usual Grande. Perhaps this will lead to only 4 days a week of coffee. But for right now this is my compromise.

The greed of my generation.

Excuse me while I get up on my soap box for a minute. If you don't want to be offended then perhaps you'd best not read this particular entry but I think it needs to be said.

First of all I'd like to say that while it's going to seem hypocritical of me to say the things I'm about to say but more than anything it's actually an observation about the things that I need to change in my life. Alright here we go.

Yesterday I was talking to one of my co-workers who is considering going back to school. She has both financial and time constraints to completing here education. She tells me she can't afford it right now but she wants to be done her education by the time she's 30. This prompted me to think about the way all of the people of my generation are living.

I once read an article that said the the average Canadian is spending $1.25 for every $1.00 that they earn. When I first read this I was in University and quickly justified this by saying I'm in debt right now I'm spending $10,000 a year and earning about $7,000 a year at best, every other student in the country is in the same situation. Now that I'm out in the "real world" I realize that this is not just a problem for students.

Having watched my brother struggle with debt, I swore up and down that I would not live paycheck to paycheck once I got a job. However now that my roommate had moved out and I'm paying all of my expenses myself I realize that perhaps I'm living beyond my means. It's not that I don't have enough money to pay for my basic needs I can easily pay rent and grocery bills but it's all of the other little things.

My first thought was "where is all my money going? What can I live without?" For example do I really need high speed Internet at home? Yes. Do I need to have the largest range of channel packages on TV? Also yes. Do I need to buy Starbucks coffee every morning? probably not.

While this is not an extensive list of all of the money that I spend in a month. It made me think about all of the things that I have and all of the things that I want that are strictly for my own enjoyment or convenience. But when did it become nearly impossible to live on a salary of $40,000? Hell I lived on a fraction of that while I was in school and some of that went to pay tuition.

Another thing I've noticed at my company is the length of time that people stay here. Recently some of my co-workers have celebrated 30 or more years at my company. While it's listed as one of the top companies in the province very few people of my generation intend to stay here for any length of time. So what's the difference. Some would call it ambition, the desire to move up to a better job even if it means changing companies. The problem with this is that the ambition is less the desire to move to a better job and more to move to a better paying job. No longer is it desirable to be the "company man".

I really do have more to say on this topic, things like the idea that it is the "right" of young people to attain higher levels of eduction. But I think I've been up here long enough. Time to get down from the soap box before I fall off.

Teams left in my Bracket: 5

Freaking Tennessee. But good for Xavier that was an awesome game.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Dream Diary Episode 1

I’ve often wondered where dreams come from. One of my friends once hypothesised that dreams were really a collection of things that you subconsciously thought about throughout the day but didn’t have time to actually deal with.

Occasionally I’ll have dreams about people that I haven’t seen in years or places that I’ve never been but more often they are about people and environments which I deal with everyday. So I’m really not surprised when I dream about co-workers.

I am surprised (and worried) that I’m having recurring dreams about the same co-worker. Typically this dream occurs sometime between 5:30 and 6:15. So it’s likely (and hopefully) just that I’m thinking about having to go to work in the next hour or so and that works itself into my dream.

If dreams were really a reflection of what I’m thinking about during the day then my dreams should probably be focused on Tyler Hansbrough. However I have avoided that one so far.

Edit: I've now posted more entries in the month of March than I did all of 2007.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

NCAA Pool - Sweet 16

I could do what I did last year and just update each matchup for the sweet 16 but this might be more fun.

Here are my picks for the 16 hottest remaining players in no particular order.

  1. DJ Augustin -Texas
  2. Chase Buford - Kansas
  3. Joe Alexander - West Virgina
  4. Dante Jackson - Xavier
  5. Conor Teahan - Kansas
  6. Cam Thoroughman - West Virgina
  7. Josh Shipp - UCLA
  8. Wayne Chism - Tennessee
  9. Micheal Flowers - Wisconsin
  10. Brennan Bechard - Kansas
  11. Taylor Rochestie - Washington State
  12. Will Scott - Louisville
  13. Ryan Childress - Tennessee
  14. Connor Atchley - Texas
  15. William Archambault - Davidson
  16. Tyler Hansbrough - UNC

You can find the pictures for all of these guys elsewhere on this blog. Except Tyler Hansbrough. You know I was reading Sports Illustrated in the Chiropractor's office on Monday and it described the Hansbrough brothers as college basketball's version of the Manning brothers. You can see how this is only going to turn out badly for me.


Oh look Tyler's crying!

Monday, March 24, 2008

huh?

You all know that I'm a huge sports fan (except baseball because it's crap). But when I came home today I found Championship Bridge on TV.

Seriously cards are not a sport. Period. End of story. Don't even try to convince me that poker is a sport. Game yes, sport no.

Easter Weekend Review

So one would think that I would enjoy having a long weekend. One would be wrong.



As much as I dislike being at work I find that my weekends are almost too long. Sure I don't want to go to work on Monday but for me the alternative is probably sitting at home either on my computer or on my couch watching TV. Don't get me wrong these are both wonderful past times and I have taken over the world numerous times on Civ 4, but you really can't do either for more than 2 days and even that seems too long. My point is really that I didn't quite know what to do with myself for 3 whole days. So I made my way out to the farm after the near heart attack during the final minutes of the Duke/Belmont game.



First of all I should NOT be allowed to drive at night without my glasses. I can't see very well at long distances and the lights of on coming cars are not pleasant on the eyes. Nothing exciting happened Thursday night it was about 10:30 by the time I got home and I wanted nothing more than to sleep.

Friday I pretty much sat around and watched Basketball. Good times. Yes I probably should have been working on my accounting course but really it's a long weekend so I'll excuse myself. That night the whole family went to visit my grandma. You know she's lonely when she offers to make you a pizza just so that you'll stay a little longer. Poor grandma.

Saturday morning my brother and I helped Dad cut wood. Not a big deal except that it was more physical labour than I've done... well ever really. My arms are still killing me today and I think I messed up my shoulder pretty bad because my whole right arm is a dull ache right now. This was all followed by more watching of college basketball followed by taking my Mom out for dinner for her birthday. Oh I also helped name cattle for registration purposes.

Sunday I watched a little bit of basketball and then played computer games until it was time to head to OB2's for Easter Dinner. It wasn't your typical Easter dinner. We had BBQ'd ribs and chicken, followed by some more college basketball and OB2 and I complaining about all the stupid bracket picks we made. Freaking Drake. The real excitement came when the little brother and I went back to my apartment so that he could grab some stuff he had left there. He drove and then forgot to give me back my car keys. So now my keys are at the farm but my car is in the parking lot behind my building. It's gonna be an interesting week.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Hotness Bracket results

I just wanted to let you all know (because I know you were wondering) that my hotness bracket final 4 based on actual seedings but ignoring the results of the actual games to this point are:

  • Tennessee
  • Kansas
  • Texas
  • Xavier

Which actually isn't all that far off my actual bracket picks of UNC, Kansas, Texas, UCLA. Also both my actual bracket and my hotness bracket are kind of screwed thanks to Drake.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

NCAA Pool Round 1: Drake vs. Western Kentucky



Only Drake is featured here because the hottest guy on the Western Kentucky roster was the coach and I'm not giving points for the coach this year.

Score 5-0 Drake

NCAA Pool Round 1: Mississippi State vs Oregon.


I'd like to add a little disclaimer here the only reason I added Maarty Leunen is because he's an econ major and I'm a bit of an econ geek, even though I did really poorly in Econ of Sport and Leisure at University.


Final Score 5-3 Oregon

NCCA Pool Round 1: Memphis vs UT Arlington


Final Score: 2-0 UT Arlington

NCAA Pool Round 1: Clemson vs Villanova

It's been a long week at work even though technically it's been a short week. Also it's a long weekend and I'm kind of sick of this so I'm not putting much effort in. Again this always seems like a good idea at the time and then about 15 teams in I get sick of it. Next time I'm doing the Sweet 16 on. Remind me!





Final Score: 3-0 Clemson

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

NCAA Pool Round 1: Connecticut vs San Diego

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:





Just so you know everytime I think of UConn I think of the show Hang Time, 'cause that's where the female player was going to go to college. Now I want to try to find old episodes of that show so that I can relive my youth.


Final Score 2-2

NCAA Pool Round 1: Marquette vs Kentucky

You know this always seems like a good idea at the time but if you look at some of the matchups I've done so far and how I've scored the teams you'll notice that it changes from day to day. Additionally it changes a bit depending on my biases. That said everyone has a chance to score the match-ups themselves in the comments.


Final Score 7-2 Marquette

NCAA Pool; Round 1: Cornell vs Stanford


So I'm in love with this game. I'm one of those geeky academic types (no kidding, eh?) who gets really snobby about what school they attend. Sure it wasn't a big deal in undergraduate but my grad school plans are all based on name recognition. Anyway on with the chlorophyll:


Connor Mullen is sporting a pair of fangs there but that's okay.
Final Score 3-2 Cornell.

NCAA Pool Round 1: Pitt vs Oral Roberts


Final Score 2-0

NCAA Pool Round 1: USC vs Kansas State


Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:
Final Score 4-2 Kansas State

NCAA Pool Round 1: UNLV vs Kent State

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:
Final Score 4-1 UNLV

NCAA Pool Round 1: Louisville vs Boise State

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:
Before I give my final score I'd just like to say that if the seniors were anywhere near as attractive at my school as Tyler Tiedeman I would have stayed an extra year.
Final Score 3-2 Boise State

NCAA Pool Round 1: Washington State vs. Winthrop

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:


Final Score 4-1 Washington State

NCAA pool Round 1: Oklahoma vs. St.Joseph's

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. If you've read all the other posts this intro is just a pain in the butt. blah blah blah. I had a tough day at work. Blah!




Final Score 5-3 Oklahoma

NCAA Pool Round 1: Notre Dame vs. George Mason

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:





Final Score 2-1 George Mason

NCAA Pool Round 1: Cal State Fullerton vs. Wisconsin

Okay this is going to be the last one at least until I get home and perhaps that last one until tommorow. If I get special requests then maybe I'll do a few more.


Final Score 3-3

I don't know what's up with all these ties this year.

NCAA Pool Round 1: BYU vs Texas A&M

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:





Final Score 2-2

NCAA Pool Round 1: Georgia vs Xavier

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:

I have determined that there is no freaking way that I'm going to be able to finish even the match-ups that go tomorrow by tomorrow unless I suddenly contract some sort of illness that will force me to be at home all day tomorrow. But since that's not likely to happen please enjoy whatever I AM actually able to get done.


Final Score 5-1 Xavier

NCAA Pool Round 1: Georgetown Vs. UMBC

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:


Final Score 3-1 UMBC

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

NCAA Pool Round 1: Gonzaga vs Davidson

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:




The two Davidson players on the right are from Quebec. Just saying.

Final Score 5-2 Davidson

NCAA Pool Round 1: Butler vs. South Alabama

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:





Final Score 5-3 Butler

NCAA Pool Round 1: Vanderbilt vs Siena

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:





Final Score 2-1 Siena

NCAA Pool Round 1: Indiana vs Arkansas

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:

Final Score 3-2 Indiana

NCAA Pool Round 1: Michigan State Vs. Temple

For some reason I got the silly idea that I should do a hotness bracket for this years NCAA Tourney. Part way through I realized that there are a buttload of teams in this thing. But anyway here's some of what I've got. Enjoy:



So umm really this one was a bit of a stretch on all accounts. I've included Drew Neitzel pretty much exclusively based on the fact that during last year's preview I determined that he looked liked the guy from Prison Break.

Final Score 2-1 Michigan State

NCAA Pool Round 1: Texas Vs Austin Peay

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:





Final Score 8-1 Texas

NCAA Pool Round 1 Tennessee vs American University

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:





Final Score 5-5
Another tie, another chance to throw it at commenters.

NCCA Pool Round 1: UCLA vs Missisippi Valley

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:



Final Score 3-0 UCLA

NCAA Pool Round 1: Kansas vs. Portland State


Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's addition:

First of all I'd like to make these pictures bigger but I haven't found an easy way to do all of the things I want to do so this will have to do. Secondly Conner Teahan looks like Zac Effron who facebook says would be my celebrity boyfriend. Don't worry it's a joke.
Final Score 9-3 Kansas












NCAA Pool Round 1: Baylor vs. Purdue

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups (or trying too. There are alot of matchups) and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's addition:


Here's another match up where I get to pretend I'm entirely unbiased. The rez girls will recognize Chris Kramer as the guy who looks like Keith.






Final Score 3-2 Purdue

NCAA Pool Round 1: Arizona vs. West Virginia

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:



West Virginia






Joe Alexander, Josh Sowards, Cam Thoroughman


Arizona



David Bagga, Zane Johnson, Nic Wise


Final Score 5-5,
I've never had a tie before. That's not right. First commenter gets to determine the winner.

Monday, March 17, 2008

NCCA Pool - Round 1: Duke vs. Belmont

Like last year I will be breaking down all of the NCAA basketball matchups and assigning a hotness score to each team to determine the winner. I had big plans for it this year but it didn't pan out. Anyway enjoy this year's edition:

First up Duke versus Belmont. I have a little confession to make here, I'm not completly unbiased when it comes to Duke. But I'm going to try really hard to pretend I'm unbiased.




Duke
Okay forget trying to be unbiased. David McClure has possibly the worlds worst offical picture so I took a different one from his profile. He's also kind of my motivation for watching Duke in the first place as they are one of those schools that you're supposed to hate on principle.





Belmont
Andy Wicke
Jon House

Final Score:4-2 Belmont

Christmas in March

Yesterday my brother and I went to RiverCity sports where I purchased some Indianapolis Colts christmas ornaments. Some of you will remember that I attempted to purchase something of this sort online, only to find out my package had been returned to sender.

Anyway, I was so excited about my purchase that I didn't want them to just sit in my closet for nearly a year waiting to be used. When I came upon the brilliant idea that all I have to do it put up my fake tree again. It'll be like Christmas all over again, without the presents. My brother's reaction when I told him this was "that is something you would do". I'm not going to though because my laziness is outweighing my excitement over the oroments.

It's St.Patrick's Day

Today will be the first St.Patrick's Day in 4 years where I haven't gotten right smashed. Sure I could go out and drink tonight but I have to go to work tommorrow and quite frankly I have a hard enough time getting through the day when I'm not hung over. Also I have a feeling that I'm going to be sick towards the end of the week so I might need to keep those sick days.

I also wasn't sure what the process was for dressing this morning either. I've never really gone out of my way to St.Patrick's-ify, but I've been pinched enough to know that you probably want to at least have a green stripe on your socks. Though apparently it's not a big deal (or any kind of deal) around work.

Monday, March 10, 2008

There is something wrong with me.

Well actually there are many things wrong with me but some more wrong than others. The most immediate concern at the moment is that I spent my Saturday night watching College Basketball.

I don't like basketball. I played a lot of sports in high school, basketball was not one of them. Really,I think I'm getting caught up in the whole March Madness thing, even though it hasn't started yet. This happened last year too. I was even keeping an up-to-date bracket on my rez door, which helped other rezzies keep track of the action. I even won points in hall decorating for watching the Notre Dame game during St.Patrick's day hall judging. Just for the record it didn't help us much, Jason's drunken sailor took the prize.

Not only did I watch college basketball which I don't really like but I watched what are possibly the two most dispised schools in the United States, Duke and UNC. I plead ignorance though. Maybe it's just because I'm not American but I don't understand why there is so much hate.Actually the hate spreads to Canada too. When I did a quick poll around the office regarding this game one of my co-workers asked if they could both just blow up.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Jorts!

Last night I went out for dinner with a friend I hadn't seen in a while. This lead to signifigant discussion of all things that had been happening in our lives to this point. She remained unclear on two points which can both be explained using the following picture:



This is Tim Tebow. He's a college football player. I kinda think he's hot. He's also wearing Jorts (jean shorts).

What makes a bet valid?

Yesterday on my coffee break I made a bet with one of my co-workers regarding the validity of a rumor I heard about Brett Favre's retirement.

Here's how it went down:
me: I heard Brett Favre is retiring
co-worker: No way. I'll bet you.
me: how much
co-worker: ten bucks
me: done
co-worker: wait no make it 5.

So now that there have been more semi-official reports come out regarding the retirement my co-worker is trying to get out of said bet using the following loop-holes.
  • We didn't shake on it. I call verbal contract. I have witnesses. So what if we didn't shake.
  • It's not really a retirement, if he comes back. I'm willing to allow that unless he actually sits out the first game of the regular season it's not really a retirement. However in the world of sports when a comeback is made it's called coming out of retirement, thus one would have to have been retired to come out of retirement.

So now I pose the question do I have a valid claim on $10, assuming of course that Favre does in fact sit out of the first game of the regular season.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Oh blog, I'm sorry I forgot you

I only remembered that I even had a blog last night when I was thinking about College Basketball brackets and how I blogged the match-ups last year during the tournament. Today I noticed that I haven't even posted this year so I guess this is as good a time as any.

First of all I love my new job. This is mostly because the people are fantastic and as long as I get my daily reports sent out on time no one bothers me much. Leaving me plenty of time to do things like watch Degrassi: The Next Generation, while filing.

I'm also finding that I enjoy doing other things much more now that I'm out of the constant stress of my old position. I don't just look at my coffee breaks as time away from my desk, now I'm able to fully enjoy them.

The frustrating thing about term positions though is that eventually your term ends. For me that means going back to my soul-sucking old position. There have been alot of changes in that department recently though so I guess things could be better. But not bloody likely. So I'm looking for alternatives. First and foremost this involves Grad School, as it has always been my intention to go back some day. The problem is finding a good one. More on that another time.