Bracket Free, WBC, My Shake (thing things have nothing in common)

I’m not hanging on to see if the 12 seed in the west beats the 5 seeed, and I don’t get pissed if Louisville (as a 1 seed) runs the table and wins (although as Debbie would put it...I should care!)

You see I don’t have a horse in this year’s Men’s NCAA tournament. I AM going to watch a lot of the games and I will root for a bunch of upsets (especially North Dakota State....go Bisons!) but this may be the first year in the last 20 or so that I have not filled out a tourney pool or bracket. I’ve been invited to do several and of course there are always the dot coms (ESPN, FOX, YAHOO, OPRAH, etc) but I just don’t feel the need to do so. I’m going to sit back and just enjoy the action.

With that said I have entered one single bracket contest. WFAN radio in New York has a contest sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wing Café where by you pick the radio personality that you think will have the best bracket. If your choice wins, you are entered into a drawing for a large TV. I have chosen the great STEVE SOMMERS, the schmoozer for those of you keeping score at home. If you’re interested you can find the contest link here.

Lately I’ve become enthralled with Major League Baseball’s answer to the World Cup (or at least the World Cricket Championships), the World Baseball Classic where teams from the US, Latin America, Asia, and even Australia (didn’t realize they even played baseball in the outback mate) are represented. Last night in the quarterfinal round the US came back in the bottom of the 9th inning to beat Puerto Rico (why do the US and their territories have different teams btw!!) Mrs. Bloggerman’s boy-toy, David Wright’s, two run single. What a moment, but I apologize to my dog and my mother (who was on the phone at the time) for the screaming and yelling in their ear as I was watching the action unfold on the screen in front of me. I really didn’t think I was going to get into all the action but this year has seen some great games and a US team that actually cares about winning and is trying. I am so ready for regular season baseball I’m shaking. Well that might have been my 3rd cup of coffee but who’s counting?

Finally, I tried to make the Guinness Milkshake mentioned in the post a few days ago. The taste wasn’t bad (I added some peppermint extract and some green food coloring) but after a huge (and delicious) dinner of corned beef and cabbage courtesy of Mrs. Bloggerman I really had no room and only got about half of it down my gullet before giving up (it might have also been the two Guinness I had with dinner that did it too). Here’s a pic.

Mr. Big Time QB and How to Get a Free Berkley Education

First, Oh look at Mr. Big Time QB Mark Brunell (actually Brother Brunell to me and thousands of other LCA's) depositing his game check at the bank. No, really, it's true. someone I work with has a boyfriend who's sister works at the bank in Great Falls, VA where Mark lives and says he comes in every Monday to deposit his paycheck. I guess he doesn't trust the Direct Deposit system. Truth be told (a rarity here on this site) I don't either.

That got me to thinking about what it would look like if other big name athletes came in to deposit their paychecks instead of direct deposit, or handing it off to a business manager or personal assistant. Can you imagine David Wright standing in that long, wrapping line in the bank on a Friday afternoon trying to deposit a check for $300,000 and secretly being disappointed because they didn't have any green lollipops left on the welcome table. Or Lebron James trying find a pen at the forms desk that actually works and then getting up to the counter only to realize he filled out the wrong deposit slip. It makes me chuckle a bit inside...but then again so do pop-rocks.

Now onto the real reason you're reading this entry today: The Free Berkley Education. That's sorta right. UCal-Berkley has begun to post some college course lectures on line at YouTube. The link can be found here. Now while this isn't a real education and I highly doubt you can put it on your resume (much like that cop-out Time person of the year is you crap) it is pretty cool to think that you can sit in on lectures (rather watch them at home...never at work) from the faculty at one of the top institutions of higher learning in the country. \

Now that also leads me to wonder if these folks teaching are really the "A" team of faculty or just the scrub TA's of the west coast. If that's the case thought I'd like to get a position of there (no idea what I'm qualified to teach...maybe blogging) and treat the lectures as an audition tape for my own game or reality show. Sure the students will be a bit pissed that they're not learning anything but think of the hours of free exposure on the web. Priceless. Well Not Exactly.