A collection of random sports stuff, my personal goals, analysis of my crazy dreams and other me-related craziness.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Teams Left in my Bracket: 3
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
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Dream Diary Episode 1
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
Here are my picks for the 16 hottest remaining players in no particular order.
- DJ Augustin -Texas
- Chase Buford - Kansas
- Joe Alexander - West Virgina
- Dante Jackson - Xavier
- Conor Teahan - Kansas
- Cam Thoroughman - West Virgina
- Josh Shipp - UCLA
- Wayne Chism - Tennessee
- Micheal Flowers - Wisconsin
- Brennan Bechard - Kansas
- Taylor Rochestie - Washington State
- Will Scott - Louisville
- Ryan Childress - Tennessee
- Connor Atchley - Texas
- William Archambault - Davidson
- 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?
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
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
- 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
NCAA Pool Round 1: Mississippi State vs Oregon.
NCAA Pool Round 1: Clemson vs Villanova
Final Score: 3-0 Clemson
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
NCAA Pool Round 1: Connecticut vs San Diego
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
Final Score 7-2 Marquette
NCAA Pool; Round 1: Cornell vs Stanford
NCAA Pool Round 1: USC vs Kansas State
NCAA Pool Round 1: UNLV vs Kent State
NCAA Pool Round 1: Louisville vs Boise State
NCAA Pool Round 1: Washington State vs. Winthrop
NCAA pool Round 1: Oklahoma vs. St.Joseph's
NCAA Pool Round 1: Notre Dame vs. George Mason
Final Score 2-1 George Mason
NCAA Pool Round 1: Cal State Fullerton vs. Wisconsin
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
NCAA Pool Round 1: Georgia vs Xavier
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
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
NCAA Pool Round 1: Gonzaga vs Davidson
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
NCAA Pool Round 1: Vanderbilt vs Siena
NCAA Pool Round 1: Indiana vs Arkansas
NCAA Pool Round 1: Michigan State Vs. Temple
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
NCAA Pool Round 1 Tennessee vs American University
Final Score 5-5
Another tie, another chance to throw it at commenters.
NCCA Pool Round 1: UCLA vs Missisippi Valley
NCAA Pool Round 1: Kansas vs. Portland State
NCAA Pool Round 1: Baylor vs. Purdue
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
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
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
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
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.
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!
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?
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
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.