Hyperstatic Boredom....

My weekend was short-lived. Yes, it was a 3-day weekend, but that's not the point.

I spent Friday at school, followed by a quick haircut before the first round of sub-section baseball. As I mentioned before, St. Peter screwed themselves over by voting us as the #2 seed, and we gave them what they deserved. It was a 11-0, 5-inning game. After it was over, I went to Sam's grad party for a little bit before heading to Tommy's for some randomness. We played Apples To Apples for a while, and then I went home and slept.

Saturday wasn't too eventful until I drove to Deml's grad party. It was a good time, and I spent some time afterwards at Brice's with my brother (his last night home before camp) and some other folks. We played more Apples To Apples and a few Wii Sports. I left later than I expected, but it was good fun.

I woke up somewhat early Sunday, but I fell back asleep before grad parties started. I woke up again in time to make it to Kimmy's, then Mariah and I hung out and watched "Walk the Line." After she left, I just sat around watching TV until I fell asleep.

Today was probably the most eventful day. I went to Blue Earth at 1:00 to start taping more of my Spanish video. We got a lot done including our ninja scene, "socking" Sra. Tietje's house, the low speed chase, and our twist ending. It was all hilarious, but I think our random ninja scenes were the best along with our random extras we taped on the way to Tietje's.

Now, I'm just listening to great music, and I give all the thanks to Greg. I had heard a little about Pandora recently, but I hadn't been told exactly how it worked. I love it. Setting up a station for each kind of music I'm in the mood for, rating songs so I can hear them more or less often, pausing songs at any time, switching stations and then returning to the same point in the song I left back a the last station, and experiencing new artists I haven't heard of. Always a good time.

Welcome to my mini rollercoaster....

Chapter 1 -- AP Euro
Today was a day in the media center well spent. We were given some time to type one of the four essays that was due today (I typed up the 4th one and my conclusion to the third). The essay most people typed was all about the German army's view on the use of aircraft before, during, and after WWI. There were really only two interesting aspects to my essay, the first being my title, "Planes, the German Army, and Anthony Fokker." In case you didn't read up on Fokker with my Wikipedia link, I'll just say he was an airplane designer and builder during the time this essay was all about. The German army, when WWI started, asked all airplane companies to quit designing new planes and focus on the mass production of what they had. This next line is from my essay, and my teacher loved it (note: I couldn't resist making the comment I did):

"One of those men was Anthony Fokker, who was so determined to advance the aircraft industry that he convinced one of the pioneers of airplane construction to make modifications. Fokker gave the German army a taste of his “Fokk you” attitude by continuing his innovations, and in 1916 he designed a new and improved pursuit plane"


Chapter 2 -- Baseball
Yes, we won the conference today, but it ended up a 3-way tie with Waseca and New Ulm. It's still a conference win, making us the first team from Blue Earth in 40 years and the first Blue Earth Area team to win the conference (we shut out Fairmont 8-0). Our coach is still mad about how we were seeded on Wednesday. It was a tie between us and Maple River after all of the coaches had voted for our sub-section seeding, and so our athletic director called each coach from the other five teams for a tie breaker vote. The final vote came down to St. Peter, who is in our conference and didn't play Maple River this season. The coach voted for Maple River, and dug his own metaphorical grave. We play St. Peter next Thursday in the first round of sub-sections, and we've beat them twice this season.

Now for my rant on what's frustrating me about baseball. Right now, it's not the lack of playing time, but it does involve that. I was invited to the athletic banquet tomorrow night, and it made no sense to me since I didn't play football and I haven't played enough in baseball to legitimately get a varsity letter. Turns out our coach lettered everyone on the team, which kind of irritates me. If he just lettered all of the seniors, even those who don't play much, it'd be a different story, but I don't really feel like taking a varsity letter that doesn't mean anything other than "Hey, congrats! You sat on the bench your junior year of baseball!"


That's all I've got....

00110001010111000111001000101110101010101

Oh, the title? Don't ask. I'm just as confused as you are.

- My name's Aaron.
- I have no brain cells because I'm finishing three AP European History essays simultaneously.
- I'm surprised I can still spell simultaneously.
- My baseball coach thinks I'm a trustworthy guy because I'm a blatant Christian. It kind of irritates me.
- Lemon Lime Powerade isn't very tasty.
- My back is killing me. I need to find me a chiropractor.
- Only 12 days of school left. School is so yesterday. I'm not into that fad anymore.
- My Spanish video this year should be amazing. [Cross your fingers, knock on wood]
- Essays are for people who care. I don't care.
- I need to work on my list. It's starting to fill up.
- Cody's cat is annoying right now. Anybody want it?
- Cody isn't here. No idea where he is.
- Why am I bulleting all this?
- I'm confused.
- No more brain cells for me.
- I talks like these now.
- Bye.

[Insert suspenseful music here]

Friday. 4:00. Blue Earth.

We'll be playing Fairmont for our shot at being the first BEA baseball team to win the conference. It's very exciting, but we're going to have to be at our best. We beat Fairmont earlier this season, but they're definitely competitors. They're a strong enough team that our coach is going to seed them #1 in the sub-section tomorrow.

On that note, we're hoping for a high seed tomorrow. First would be great, giving us a first round bye in the sub-sections. If we happen to be seeded second, we expect to play St. Peter, who hasn't been having the greatest season.

And on that note, I have a lot of work to do on some AP Euro essays.

Farewell....

Another quick one

Prom was on Saturday, and I have to admit I had a blast. It's still very much overrated, but it was a ton of fun. Mariah looked quite gorgeous, and I was sweating like crazy in my tux. The dance was good, and post-prom was just full of dozing off. I slept from about 6 til 10 before going to the TEC 67 Reunion.

The reunion was short-lived. I really wish I could've spent more time with the Wheaties. Oh wait....FRIDAY! I'm very excited for our Wheat Party this Friday. Both the Wheat slideshow and the weekend slideshow at the reunion had some interesting pictures.

School is lame....I don't like tests....

Speaking of which....
I feel pretty good about my AP Euro test on the industrial revolution and such. I don't feel so good about taking the AP test for college credit this Friday. My hopes for it aren't very high....

Finally....the week is over....

Last night, we beat the tar out of St. Peter 13-1 in 5 innings. It was great. I finally got my first varsity at-bat, and failed. I struck out, but at least I struck out swinging.

Today we had a mock crash to show us what could happen with drunk driving. It was pretty unnerving, but the freshman were all making jokes and being stupid. Kind of ruined it. If you talk to Sam (Wheat 67), ask her how it felt to die. She got put in the hearse and everything, which was pretty interesting.

Tomorrow is prom, and I'm not so much excited for that as I am to hang out with Mariah all night.

Sunday is the reunion, and I'm very excited for every aspect of it.

Next week is going to be interesting....

Real quick

I'm very tired right now, so I'll make this quick.

We played a double-header in Waseca tonight, and we lost both games. That puts us a game behind them in the conference. I got back from there about 11:15 or so, and it sucked just sitting on the bench (not even a chance at baserunning) for two games. I'm pretty glad to be home. Our next game is against St. Peter on Thursday.

When I got home, I decided paying the ACT Monopoly $8 to see my scores early would be worth it. Registration for the June test is due Friday, and I would've had to just guess whether or not my score was good enough for my taste. It was. A 32 is just fine with me.

Goodnight!

SCC!

The Blue Earth Area Buccaneer baseball team is officially ranked first in the SCC! We beat New Ulm tonight 6-4 (it was a huge win at Johnson Park) to take the lead in the conference. Very exciting!

I don't have much else to say, but I wanted to quote Bob's post about TEC because the last line made me very happy. It read, "What hope it gives me to know that the next generation has kids like these." When you think about it, there are so many incredible youth at TEC who will continue to serve and praise God throughout their lives. It's very hard to fathom how much the 3,000 who have gone through TEC so far have impacted the people around them. And so to Bob I say "Amen!"

On a quick side note, I saw a kid at the college fair today who looked just like Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli from "Fast Times At Ridgemont High." It was priceless....

TEC 67

The TEC weekend is over, and I spent my first day sitting at home. I slept a lot. I can't believe how amazing the weekend was. I've never been on a team (and probably never will again) that bonded like our Wheat Team did. On that note, here are my highlights, first from the weekend, then from Wheat.

10. Wheat bag -- I found some of the most random things in there. Between Barney and a history book, I'm not sure what the strangest thing was. I know the Wheat from Mariah was probably the most happifying though. My favorite Wheat that I gave was to Bob. Hopefully she'll put that dried applesauce to good use.
9. Talks -- I have to say I loved each and every talk that was given. They all tied together really well, and I think that helped the candidates make connections.
8. Team commissioning -- This has always been one of my favorite parts of the weekend, but giving the commissioning instead of receiving it was even better than I thought it would be.
7. The atmosphere -- I have to thank God for the lack of stress during the weekend. It was so laid-back that it was more of a weekend hanging out with friends than working. The comfort made the weekend
6. Talent show -- It was priceless. 'Nuf said.
5. Prayers -- So many prayers were answered! A lot of the team was sick or injured, some Candidates were having trouble opening up, and things from the outside world were trying to make their way in. Thanks to prayers, the team was able to serve through any sickness, the Candidates felt more comfortable with their tables, and everyone was focused on the weekend.
4. Conference Room Leadership -- Adam and Amanda are amazing! They did an awesome job, and Adam finally got through the weekend verse at Closing.
3. Burning of the Sins -- I've really been struggling with the things I wrote down for my personal inventory. When we were outside to burn the sins, I asked God not to let me put mine in the fire until he felt I was ready to be forgiven and ready to fix things. It hurt so bad to realize I couldn't move. It takes a lot for me to get emotional, but I was definitely in tears.
2. The Candidates -- I knew it would be a good group when I saw them at lunch on Friday. From where I was sitting, I couldn't see any who weren't joining in on the song. Usually there's a couple you have to force to stand up. Plus, seeing more share at Closing than downstairs was incredible!
1. God -- What can I say? He's amazing! I can't even fathom (one of my favorite words of the weekend) how well this weekend went. Praise God for being so blatant through His love and grace during the weekend.


Now, for the Wheat highlights.

10. The "Wheat Cave" -- Our crazy little room was renamed for the weekend. Anyone who came in with shoes or eating food was demoted to the Support Team. Everyone at Closing gave us funny looks when we yelled for the Wheaties to go to the Wheat Cave.
9. Being on Wheat and giving a talk -- It was just awesome to have these fellow prayer warriors, who I had been getting to know and bonding with so well, do the pray-up and pray-down for my talk. It's very different and much more powerful than being on a different team.
8. Music in the Wheat Cave -- We played so many random songs. There was Disney music during affirmations, "Devil Went Down to Georgia" (oops....bad word....), random sign language to some songs, and Nate's priceless lip-syncing to the o's in "Prince of Peace." Plus dancing to "Love Addict" was crazy awesome.
7. Stations of the Cross -- I've now been on all three sides of Stations, and I have to say this was one of the best. Being able to see all of the stations combined with seeing the words instead of hearing them made it easier to understand and experience.
6. The Champion -- It was nice to practice so many times before Saturday, and it all worked out wonderfully. I apologize for my random pointing in the video, but Ben was looking through the door and I was trying to get rid of him.
5. Final prayer -- When our team had our last prayer together on Sunday, there were lots of tears. For some reason, it still doesn't feel like our weekend was finalized. It's probably just because we came so close together and it's like I'm not with family anymore.
4. Saturday -- The whole team agreed Saturday morning that it was a good day, but Saturday night brought about a few tough things to handle. God prevailed over Satan's attempts to bring down our team, and we came even closer during our prayer.
3. Wheat Leadership -- Nate and Alyssia were so great to have as leadership. I can't find any words to describe how awesome they were. I do thank God for allowing Nate to lead the Wheat Team again; I might not have ever worked a team with him otherwise.
2. Wheat Adults -- I finally got to work with Janet, Angie and Gary! Individually, I love all three of them. Together, there are no words to describe how amazing they are.
1. God -- He was such a factor for our team, as He is with everything. He brought our team so close together, and I will definitely not forget them. Sadly, few of us will be able to work together again, but at least we had this amazing weekend to spend together.


Quotes of the weekend:
- "Hey, you stop!" -- Lecy to the 'gang members'
- "Wheaties to the Wheat Cave!" -- Wheat at Closing
- "What do I thonk..." -- Alyssia
- "It's syphonated." -- Emily
- Nate: "I'm naked."
Bob: "That hasn't stopped me before."
- "It's Schimek! Schimek! Not Shmishlinglebitle..." -- Nathan
- Nate: "You're getting fat man boobs on you."
Lecy: "I'm excited!"
- "And he sleeps naked." -- Kyle

There are probably more....but I forgot them....

Take me out to the ballgame

Monday

We played NRHEG (yes, it's one word) in New Richland, and Mariah, of course, started trash talking. Lo and behold, the 10-run rule took NRHEG (yes, it's one word) out of the picture. We beat them 17-6 in 5 innings. Our starting pitcher was an underclassman who throws unbelievably fast, they pitched 4 or 5 different pitchers, Dusty homered off of one of their pitchers, and I did baserunning for our catcher. Our record improved to 1-1.

Tuesday
We played St. Peter at home. Last year, the varsity went 0-2 against St. Peter during the season. This game, being our home opener, couldn't be lost. We scrounged up 2 hits (one of them could've been considered a reach on error) and won 2-1 with an RBI double by Trent in the bottom of the 7th. Our coach called us mediocre. It was funny. We're officially 2-1, but we play St. James on Thursday and then Maple River and Blooming Prarie on Saturday. I'll definitely be missing all of those games.

I'm bored. Goodnight.

And of course, here's your Cyanide and Happiness of the night:

Saturday....

Today wasn't too productive of a day for me. I started out by getting up early and driving to school (yes, school). Today was the day of the ACT. It wasn't that bad, but I just didn't feel like taking it that early. I took three of the four practices tests in the book I was given when I registered (I skipped the reading practice) and ended up with composites of 31 in English, 29 in Math, and 34 in Science.

Quick rant: The section on Science should NOT be called Science. It should be called something like "Data Interpretation." All it consists of is reading graphs, charts, and other experimental data and figuring out what it means. I think there might've been two questions where you actually had to know something about science (i.e. C6H12O6 = sugar).

If my actual composite scores are anything like my practice ones, I'll be more than content. I'm not so sure how my writing went. I was kind of rushed, and I didn't feel too comfortable with what I wrote.

After the ACT, I went to help the little kids (3rd and 4th graders, I believe) learn to play baseball. They're pretty entertaining, but it wasn't very eventful.

My mom started painting the bathroom today, and she plans on finishing it tomorrow. I'm hoping we're able to use the shower by Saturday.

I realized I have 3 1/4 days of school this week.
Monday -- Full day//game in New Richland 5:00

Tuesday -- MCA math test in the morning (2 classes)

Wednesday -- Teach elementary for Spanish (3 classes)

Thursday -- Full day//TEC after school//missing game vs. St. James 5:00

Friday -- TEC

Speaking of science, here's a scientific comic for you (one of my favorites so far):

I have two words for you all....

As the title says, I truly do have two words for you all....

GO TWINS!

What a start to the season! The Twins swept the series against the Orioles tonight. I must say, I was very happy with Ramon Ortiz. He threw 98 pitches for 4 strikeouts and a walk in 7 innings.
First applause of the night: Ramon Ortiz

I'd also like to take a look at the Twins offense thus far. In the opener, it was the long ball that led to a win, but in both of the other games the Piranhas struck hard with scrappy hits and good base running (especially in game 2).
Cuddyer went 3 for 3 tonight before he was taken out to get stitches. What a stud.
Second applause of the night: Michael Cuddyer

My week was officially ruined when our opener was postponed. We now play USC on May 11. We're supposed to play Blaine on Saturday, but that isn't looking too promising either. Lo and behold, my week was turned around tonight. I normall don't answer phone calls from "Unknown" numbers, but tonight I did. Oddly enough, it was Mariah calling from Costa Rica. We had a nice little chat (although I was caught up in watching the game and didn't say as much as I should've). It sounded like she was having a good time.
Third and most appreciative applause of the night: Mariah

Our upstairs bathroom is being remodeled. I hope to have random pictures of when it is gutted (which it officially was today) and when it's finished. Sadly, I didn't get a before picture to awe you all with. I guess you'll just have to settle for this comic (and Janet, I believe Beth should see the 4th panel of this one)....

Newsflash

I decided to copy the format of Shayla's most recent post (even though it was from February 27) and give you all some good news/bad news. There isn't much news at all, but oh well....

Good news: This weekend was pretty grand. I spent a good evening with Mariah on Saturday since she left on Sunday for Costa Rica. For our Palm Sunday service, I played Jesus. We went through the Procession, Last Supper, and Crucifixion. Word has it some people were teary-eyed when they left, and that never happens in our church. I also realized this weekend that my last post about four-day weeks was wrong. I have 4 consecutive ones because of TEC.

Bad news: The weekend is over, and I have 4 days of school to deal with this week. Then 4 next week. Then 4 the week after that. Plus, next Saturday is the ACT, which I'm not looking forward to. Plus plus, both of my best friends were gone (California and Costa Rica) at the same time. I didn't really have anyone to talk to until Nate came back (thankfully he was online tonight).

Good news: We got our field ready today since our first game is tomorrow. The weather sucked for field work, but at least there isn't water and such all over anymore.

Bad news: The weather doesn't look promising for tomorrow. We might not even have our game.

Good news: The Twins won their home opener tonight! Mauer got a hit on his first at-bat, and Morneau and Hunter hit back-t0-back homeruns on consecutive pitches on their first at-bats. The offense looked pretty good tonight, with the exception of White.

Bad news: For the Orioles. They start their season with 3 games against the Twins, who won 96 games last season, and then (after a day off) 3 against the Yankees, who won 97 games this season. After that, they play 3 against Detroit, a dominant force in the AL Central last season (although they lost their opener to Toronto). I'm not saying this is bad news for me, seeing as I'm not an Orioles fan. I'm just saying they didn't catch much luck to start the season.

Good news: I'm eating cereal.

Bad news: More wisdom teeth are coming in for me, and it's causing me to bite the inside of my cheek a lot.

Good news: I'm about to call Nate so we can call Ben for his birthday! I'm waiting until we call to find some bad news.

Bad news: Nate didn't answer when I called....this could be devastating to the company....our reputation could be ruined. We CAN'T miss calling our #1 client on his birthday.

Worse news: I tired calling again and still no answer....

Horrible news: Nothing from Nate. I might have to make this call alone. It just won't be the same....

OK news: I decided to text because I'm not feeling altogether talkative tonight.

Good news: Death thanked me for the text. He still needs to blog more often. I know for a fact the old man has things to blog about (i.e. Twins game).

Other news: I have no other news. Here's my comic for today....

You make oceans from the rain....

Today was just one of those days. Our school seemed very empty because the seniors didn't need to be there, and anybody in orchestra had left for their trip to Salt Lake City. Advanced algebra was as boring as ever because she actually made us do work. I was the only one in study hall because the other two people are in orchestra, so I spent the whole time doing a last-minute AP Euro essay. We watched The Pursuit of Happyness in Spanish. It was my first time seeing it, and we didn't get through it all, so I'm thinking about checking the rest of it out sometime. AP Euro was supposed to be productive until Duden realized how many people were actually gone. We ended up sitting around talking about random topics the whole time.

Basically, it was just one of those days. Not much happened. No big events. No fanfare. No parades. Mundane and boring. Amen.

Outside of my life, one thing did happen. The Twins chose Carlos Silva over Matt Garza for the final spot in their starting rotation. Garza's back in Rochester for some AAA ball. Gardenhire said, "He needs to be able to locate his pitches a little bit more." Amen again.

Four-day weeks

I have three consecutive four day weeks on my schedule. This week is a four-day week because of the end of the quarter, and the next to weeks are because of spring break.

So far, so good this week....kind of....

School's been pretty good. I've been finishing up the last of the AP Euro essays (had 3 to do this week) that are due by Friday (our day off), I felt alright about the AP Euro test we took today, and I've only been late to class once.

Which brings up my first-time experience that occurred yesterday on the way to school. I was running a little late and still had to pick up Tommy on my way to school, so I was going a little fast between his house and the school. I came up over a hill and saw the cop car coming the other way. Yes, I got pulled over. He took my license back to his car, but when he came back he told me he didn't check it at all. Lucky break seeing as he clocked me at about 15 over the speed limit. Talk about lucking out of a hefty ticket and a hefty insurance increase. Looks as if I'll have a new life experience every week at this rate (first flat tire, first time being pulled over....I'm 2 for 2).

Baseball's been just dandy. We were out at the field Monday and Tuesday, but with the rain and such we were stuck inside today. Our coach complimented me on my speed yesterday when I was baserunning, which definitely helped me with my goal to not get my self esteem down this season. He said even if I don't play much I'll definitely be pinch running for our pitchers and catchers a lot. Bueno....

That's all I've got. I should get to writing my last essay now. I'm sure you'd all love to write it for me. It's about whether the Reformation was more like the Middle Ages or the Renaissance. Yes. Tons of fun. Or something. Like that. Yeah. No. Maybe.

I also discovered a strange new online comic this week and started to look through its entire archive. I'll post good ones on here as long as I'm able to find good ones.

Hold up, wait a minute, put a little love in it....

Last night was the Family Force 5 -- TFK -- tobyMac concert in Waterloo. I went with Boyum and Mariah (Curtis and some folks from his area were there too), and needless to say, it was a blast. We didn't have anything to do after we ate at Applebee's, so we just went and sat at the doors at 3:00 (they opened at 5:00). We were in the front row (the barrier was maybe 3 feet from the stage), and we started talking to the people behind us after a while. They were from Winona and hadn't waited outside at all.

Toddiefunk from DiverseCity came and talked to us before the show started. He asked us why we wanted to stand in the front row.

Family Force 5 was insane beyond my imagination. They're incredible live, and they have more energy than anyone I had seen up until then. Solomon Olds....is amazing....he put on golden "Hulk hands" for the last few songs....hilarious....

TFK had a mic issue right off the bat, and their show was very low-energy until they played "Rawkfist." Still, they play amazing music and it was nice to see them live again.

tobyMac was absolutely incredible. There was so much going on in his set that I can't even begin to spout off details. Well, I can try. They took a collection of old-school funk songs ("Play That Funky Music, White Boy"..."Rollercoaster of Love"...etc.) and put them all together into a song that was labeled "Disco" on their set list. There were also a few random bits of hip-hop songs thrown into the set ("Yeah" is the only one I can remember right now). Truett (Toby's son) was at the show and came out on stage a couple times. He never said anything, but he was jumping around. The best part was his Worm at the end. Plus, Tim Rosenau is a musical stud.

Boyum ended up with all three set lists, but he gave TFK's away. Other than that, all we got was a bunch of water thrown on us by Shonlock and GabeReal.

Good times....

Fresh treads

Wednesday....what a day it was. It started out with a blown tire on the way to school. Since Tommy and I had the spare (which only had about 10 psi in it) on by 8:30, we decided to drop my tire off to get it replaced and go cruising town before we got to school. That way, we would miss most (if not all) of advanced algebra. We got to school about 9:30, and all was good. I had an interview for Boys State (ugh....what a joke) at 1:00, and it was pretty dull. I won't be the least bit disappointed if I don't get chosen out of the four guys interviewed.

Baseball's still been great. My personal goal for the season is to not get down on myself for small mistakes, and so far so good. Outfielders even made it outside today for about a half hour. It felt good.

This weekend should be pretty great. Saturday is the tobyMac/TFK/Family Force 5 concert in Waterloo, and Sunday is the first TEC meeting (thankfully I don't practice my talk until the 2nd meeting). Good times....


I still check Tim's blog every day for his first post, but lo and behold, there is still nothing. Sadness....

Baseball....the sequel....

Ok, so this is actually only my first post about this baseball season, but hey, it's my blog and I title it what I want.

Anyway, the BEA baseball season started today with a meeting at 4:30 and practice at 5:15. I truly dislike indoor practices, but I love the sport too much to complain a whole lot. The one thing I will complain about is how poorly I stayed in shape after I quit football. I was a wreck while we were running today. On the bright side, the worse I felt as I ran the better I felt about how my hitting is looking this year. I'm typically not the best batter, but I started to do better little by little last season. Today, we only hit off of the tees and soft toss, but I felt comfortable and I was hitting a lot of balls. It made me happy.

With that said, I'm utterly exhausted. I need to eat something and get to bed.

Tonight's episode of "The Riches" was pretty good. There's a small twist that I have to discuss with Nate after he watches it tomorrow night.

Knowledge....

Today was the day. Knowledge Bowl sub-regionals in Mankato. Out of 84 teams at the meet, the top 27 moved on to next week. I knew our top team would make it on to regionals next Friday, but my team (2nd team) was a question mark [our 3rd team struggled all year, so we all knew it wasn't likely they would make it]. We're not too shabby as a 2nd team, but our written round usually isn't up to par and we all pick the wrong oral rounds to sit out. Today was a little different.

Our 1st team got the highest overall written score (50 out of 60), and it was the start of something nice for them. They stayed in the top 5 rooms for each of the 5 oral rounds, so they guaranteed themselves a spot at regionals. Our 2nd team (the team I'm on) started with our best written round this year by getting a 43. That put is in the top 12 teams (room 4). Sadly, we ended up with scores of 6 and 7 in the first two oral rounds and dropped out of the running for regionals. We weren't able to get back into the top 9 rooms at all, so we didn't qualify for regionals. The round I sat out, I knew 20 out of the 45 answers, but hey that's the luck of the draw.

On that note, be sure to congratulate Nate on doing well today (he might blog about exactly how well later on).


And a quick question....
Has anyone noticed the fact that Tim has yet to produce a blog post for us all to read? I mean, I know a lot of us have been lacking posts lately, but to not even have a first post? Sad....I guess I can forgive him though....

March Madness

Tomorrow marks the start of this year's NCAA tournament. Since Nate chose to blog about his first round picks, I decided to follow suit. With my upsets, I won't put how sure I am of them like he did. I decided to stay pretty conservative this year and stick with higher seeds going deep in the tourney, but who knows what will unfold?

Midwest
1 Florida over 16 Jackson State
8 Arizona over 9 Purdue
12 Old Dominion over 5 Butler
4 Maryland over 13 Davidson
11 Winthrop over 6 Notre Dame [even though I love the Irish]
3 Oregon over 14 Miami (Ohio)
7 UNLV over 10 Georgia Tech
2 Wisconsin over 15 Texas A&M CC

West
1 Kansas over 16 Niagara
9 Villanova over 8 Kentucky
12 Illinois over 5 Virginia Tech
4 Southern Illinois over 13 Holy Cross
6 Duke over 11 VCU
3 Pittsburgh over 14 Wright St.
7 Indiana over 10 Gonzaga
2 UCLA over 15 Weber St.

East
1 UNC over 16 Eastern Kentucky
8 Marquette over 9 Michigan St.
12 Arkansas over 5 USC
4 Texas over 13 New Mexico St.
11 George Washington over 6 Vanderbilt
3 Washington St. over 14 Oral Roberts
10 Texas Tech over 7 Boston College
2 Georgetown over 15 Belmont

South
1 Ohio St. over 16 Central Conn. St.
9 Xavier over 8 BYU
5 Tennessee over 12 Long Beach St.
4 Virginia over 13 Albany
6 Louisville over 11 Stanford
3 Texas A&M over 14 Penn
7 Nevada over 10 Creighton [this was a tough call]
2 Memphis over 15 North Texas