I know I haven't been on in a few days, but my Internet connection's been really crappy until tonight. Also, my car is currently sitting in the parking lot of the Panera Bread on Glendale because when I was trying to return to MUO from picking up lunch, the whole thing went dead. Not even the power locks work. My uncle (the mechanic) is gonna pick it up tomorrow and try to fix it. In the meantime, that means I've got tomorrow off.

Weird Thing I Saw Today: The sign on the McDonald's across the street from the car wash that "loves sodium chloride" (see previous weird things) currently says: "TWO STEAK BEAGL FOR $5." I'm hoping they mean "bagel" and not "beagle," but nevertheless, I've never heard of anyone putting steak on a bagel.

I know I missed posting Women's Elite Eight, but I got confused cuz the damn grid I was using didn't differentiate the dates for the Sweet Sixteen and the Elite Eight. I'll post Final Four predictions for both men and women later. Also, I probably will NOT post predictions next year, because I just can't keep up with the pace.

Okay, Women’s Sweet Sixteen:

 

North Carolina vs. Purdue (North Carolina)

Rutgers vs. Tennessee (Rutgers)

 

Boston College vs. Utah (Boston College)

Baylor vs. Maryland (Maryland)

 

Duke vs. Michigan State (Duke)

Georgia vs. Connecticut (Connecticut)

 

LSU vs. DePaul (DePaul)

Stanford vs. Oklahoma (Stanford)

 

 

And the Men's Elite Eight:

 

LSU vs Texas (LSU)

Memphis vs UCLA (UCLA)

Connecticut vs George Mason (Connecticut)

Villanova vs Florida (Florida)

 

 

I forgot that the men’s Sweet Sixteen start tonight, so here are my (rather late) predictions for the games:

 

Duke vs. LSU (Duke)

West Virginia vs. Texas (Texas)

 

Memphis vs. Bradley (Memphis)

Gonzaga vs. UCLA (UCLA)

 

Connecticut vs. Washington (Connecticut)

George Mason vs. Wichita State (Wichita State)

 

Villanova vs. Boston College (Villanova)

Florida vs. Georgetown (Florida)

 

I’ll have predictions for the women’s Sweet Sixteen tomorrow (hopefully).

Weird Thing I Saw Today: On my way to MUO I pass by a car wash right before I go over the river. Usually the sign on this car wash advertises the week’s special or it says “Support Our Troops” when there’s no special (I guess), but today it simply said, “We love sodium chloride.” NOTE: For those of you who are a little rusty at chemistry, “sodium chloride” is table salt. And I don’t know why people at a car wash would love it.

Weird Thing I Saw Today: I happened to see part of a really old episode of Power Rangers during my channel surfing this morning. It was strange, because I vaguely remembered this episode from my Power Ranger-watching days. When I was ten, I never realized how bad the acting was (though oddly enough, I was aware of the bad dubbing of the Japanese bad guys). I read somewhere that one of the actors died in a car accident about five years ago, so I guess I’ll give her a free pass, but the others have no excuse (and what’s more, my friend Elizabeth told me that another one of the actors was STILL on the show until very recently). At any rate, it was amusing to discover just how much puberty can change your perception.

 

And now, I present to you my predictions for Round 2 of the Women’s tournament:

 

North Carolina vs. Vanderbilt (North Carolina)

UCLA vs. Purdue (Purdue)

TCU vs. Rutgers (Rutgers)

George Washington vs. Tennessee (Tennessee)

 

Ohio State vs. Boston College (Ohio State)

Utah vs. Arizona State (Arizona State)

New Mexico vs. Baylor (Baylor)

St. John’s NY vs. Maryland (Maryland)

 

Duke vs. Southern California (Duke)

Kentucky vs. Michigan State (Kentucky)

Hartford vs. Georgia (Georgia)

Virginia Tech vs. Connecticut (Connecticut)

 

LSU vs. Washington (LSU)

Tulsa vs. DePaul (DePaul)

Florida State vs. Stanford (Stanford)

Brigham Young vs. Oklahoma (Oklahoma)

 

 

Once again, I’m running late, so I’ll just post the rest of my predictions for Round 1 of the women’s tournament:

 

#5 UCLA vs. #12 Bowling Green (Bowling Green; I know I’m wrong on this, but I’m going there in the fall for grad school, so…)

#4 Purdue vs. #13 Missouri State (Purdue)

#6 Texas A&M vs. #11 TCU (TCU)

#3 Rutgers vs. #14 Dartmouth (Rutgers)

#7 George Washington vs. #10 Old Dominion (George Washington)

#2 Tennessee vs. #15 Army (Tennessee)

 

#1 Ohio State vs. #16 Oakland (Ohio State)

#8 Boston College vs. #9 Notre Dame (Boston College)

#7 St. John’s New York vs. California (St. John’s)

#2 Maryland vs. #15 Sacred Heart (Maryland)

 

#1 Duke vs. #16 Southern (Duke)

#8 Southern California vs. #9 South Florida (Southern California)

#6 Temple vs. #11 Hartford (Temple)

#3 Georgia vs. #14 Marist (Georgia)

#7 Virginia Tech vs. #10 Missouri (Missouri)

#2 Connecticut vs. #15 Coppin State (Connecticut)

I’m running a little late and I’m really tired so if you want my playoff predictions, I’ll post them here later, before the games start, along with my results for round 1 (Though it looks like I sucked this year).

EDIT: Yeah, I got about half my predictions wrong. The newspaper didn’t put a new grid in so I don’t know which Round 2 games are today and which are tomorrow, so I’ll just give predictions for all of Round 2’s games:

 

#1 Duke vs. #8 George Washington (Duke)

#12 Texas A&M vs. #4 LSU (LSU)

#6 West Virginia vs. #3 Iowa (Iowa)

#10 N.C. State vs. #2 Texas (Texas)

 

#1 Memphis vs. #9 Bucknell (Memphis)

#5 Pittsburgh vs. #13 Bradley (Pittsburgh)

#6 Indiana vs. #3 Gonzaga (Gonzaga)

#10 Alabama vs. #2 UCLA (UCLA)

 

#1 Connecticut vs. #8 Kentucky (Connecticut)

#5 Washington vs. #4 Illinois (Washington)

#6 Michigan State vs. #3 North Carolina (North Carolina)

#7 Wichita State vs. #2 Tennessee (Tennessee)

 

#1 Villanova vs. #8 Arizona (Villanova)

#12 Montana vs. #4 Boston College (Boston College)

#11 Wisconsin-Milwaukee vs. #3 Florida (Florida)

#7 Georgetown vs. #2 Ohio State (Ohio State)

 

Today is also the first round of the women’s tournament, so I’ve gone ahead and done predictions for today’s Round 1 games (I’ll post  the rest of them tomorrow). And, yes, I’d like to reiterate that the newspaper makes the women’s grid TOO DAMN SMALL. This gives me a tendency to choose colleges with shorter names simply because they’re more likely to fit on the gridline, so if I suck at the women’s tournament, I blame the newspaper:

 

#1 North Carolina vs. #16 UC-Riverside (North Carolina)

#8 Vanderbilt vs. #9 Louisville (Vanderbilt)

 

#5 Utah vs. #12 Middle Tennessee (Utah)

#4 Arizona State vs. #13 Stephen F. Austin (Arizona State)

#6 Florida vs. #11 New Mexico (Florida)

#3 Baylor vs. #14 Northern Arizona (Baylor)

 

#5 Kentucky vs. #12 Chattanooga (Kentucky)

#4 Michigan State vs. #13 Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Michigan State)

 

#1 LSU vs. #16 Florida Atlantic (LSU)

#8 Minnesota vs. #9 Washington (Minnesota)

#5 North Carolina State vs. #12 Tulsa (Tulsa)

#4 DePaul vs. #13 Liberty (DePaul)

#6 Florida State vs. #11 Louisiana Tech (Florida State)

#3 Stanford vs. #14 SE Missouri State (Stanford)

#7 Bringham Young vs. #10 Iowa (Iowa)

#2 Oklahoma vs. #15 Pepperdine (Oklahoma)

 

Weird Thing I Saw Today: The bridge I normally use was still closed, so I had to take my alternate route home. As I was traveling down Nevada Street, I noticed two police cars and a SWAT team van parked outside a house. There was nothing on the news about it, so I’m not sure what the deal was.

 

Also on my way home, I got behind a car that had a Denison sticker on the back. I really wanted to know who it was, but I never got a good look at the driver (It had Lucas County license plates, though).

 

This is something I’ve been wanting to write on for some time, but I must warn you that it involves some people who read this site, so if you’re one of those people, please, PLEASE don’t take this the wrong way. Sometimes I don’t understand my mom (well, a lot of times, but…). My mom has always been highly critical of my friends and extremely skeptical of their motives. The only ones exempt are Stephanie (because she was friends with my mom first, sad but true), Chris (because being in Iraq somehow proved that he wasn’t using me for some nefarious purpose), and, to some extent, Laura (because she spent a lot of money to go on vacation with me). However, no one seems to be exempt when it comes to relationships. Whenever one of my friends acquires a boyfriend or girlfriend (even if it’s another friend of mine), my mom immediately decides that this is a Bad Thing and usually that it’s my fault. The reason why she thinks it’s my fault is most often a combination of the following three reasons: 1. I’ve been acting too enthusiastic or monopolizing my friend’s time, so he/she got a significant other in order to have an excuse to be away from me. 2. I’ve been too controlling/hard/critical towards my friend, so he/she has found a significant other as some form of rebellion. 3. I’ve been too negligent towards my friends, so he/she has found a significant other in order to fulfill the social need that I should have been. I have no idea why she does this, and it’s kind of annoying. It seems, though, that once my friend and their boyfriend/girlfriend have been dating for about a year, she’ll decide that maybe it’s not me and they’ve actually found a good person. This rarely happens, though (Correy & Chad and Liz & Joe are pretty much it, and their cases were both different from what usually happens anyways; Correy was friends with my mom in addition to being friends with me, so my mom was a little easier on her, and Liz was dating Joe before I even met her, so it wasn’t really something my mom could blame me for). I guess my friends just suck at relationships. HOWEVER, right now I can’t really complain about it, because today my mom helped me figure out a solution to her problem with me staying out late. Now all I need is an occasion to implement that solution.

 

I don’t think all of today’s basketball games are over with yet, so I won’t report on the results of my predictions until tomorrow (though I’m not optimistic). In the meantime, here are my predictions for tomorrow’s games:

 

#6 West Virginia vs. #11 Southern Illinois (Southern Illinois)

#3 Iowa vs. #14 Northwestern State (Iowa)

#7 California vs. #10 NC State (California)

#2 Texas vs. #15 Penn (Texas)

 

#1 Memphis vs. #16 Oral Roberts (Memphis)

#8 Arkansas vs. #9 Bucknell (Bucknell)

 

#1 Connecticut vs. #16 Albany (Connecticut)

#8 Kentucky vs. #9 UAB (Kentucky)

#6 Michigan State vs. #11 George Mason (Michigan State)

#3 North Carolina vs. #14 Murray State (North Carolina)

 

#1 Villanova vs. #16 Monmouth (Villanova)

#8 Arizona vs. #9 Wisconsin (Wisconsin)

#7 Georgetown vs. #10 Northern Iowa (Georgetown)

#2 Ohio State vs. #15 Davidson (Ohio State)

Weird Thing I Saw Today: The bridge that I normally cross to get to MUO was closed today, so I had to use another one. On my way, I passed a house that had some strange stuff in the window. The first thing was a Carty Finkbeiner for Mayor sign, which actually wasn’t that weird (though the election was months ago and Carty looks to be just as crazy as he was the last time he was mayor). The second thing was a poster for Super Bowl XXXIII, which is kind of odd (and no, I don’t remember who was in Super Bowl XXXIII). The last (and weirdest) was a very large picture of Jodie Foster from the 70s.

 

My mom got a call from her best friend Jeannie earlier tonight. Jeannie’s sister’s partner Kathleen has been suffering from terminal colon cancer for the last year or two, and apparently she’s now taken a turn for the worse and probably has only a few days left. She and Mary Jo (Jeannie’s sister) have a teenage daughter. I haven’t seen them in years, but they’re very nice people and I hope they can get through this time.

 

The NCAA playoffs begin tomorrow. This is the only time when I actually watch basketball. Unlike the Oscars, where I just pick my choice of winner, I try to predict the winners of the playoffs. This is because the first time I did it (either junior or senior year of high school), I only got one match-up wrong in the first round of the men’s tournament and I got the first round of the women’s tournament exactly right. While I haven’t been nearly as accurate since, I have gotten a lot of upsets that no one else predicted, like Kent State advancing to the sweet sixteen a couple years back and Duke being upset in the Regionals. This is pretty good, considering I know nothing about these teams except for their rank and record, which is what gets put on the grid in the newspaper. So, at the risk of humiliating myself, I’ll post up my predictions by day (though I have a tendency to fill out the whole grid, and then revising the later brackets when I go wrong). Tomorrow is the start of the men’s tournament (the women’s doesn’t start until Saturday), and tomorrow’s games are listed below (my predictions, shaky as they are, appear in parentheses):

 

#1 Duke vs. #16 Southern (Duke)

#8 George Washington vs. #9 NC-Wilmington (George Washington)

#5 Syracuse vs. #12 Texas A&M (Syracuse)

#4 LSU vs. #13 Iona (LSU)

 

#5 Pittsburgh vs. #12 Kent State (Kent State; hey, my dad went there)

#4 Kansas vs. #13 Bradley (Kansas)

#6 Indiana vs. #11 San Diego State (San Diego State)

#3 Gonzaga vs. #14 Xavier (Gonzaga)

#7 Marquette vs. #10 Alabama (Marquette)

#2 UCLA vs. #15 Belmont (UCLA)

 

#5 Washington vs. #12 Utah State (Washington)

#4 Illinois vs. #13 Air Force (Air Force)

#7 Wichita State vs. #10 Seton Hall (Seton Hall)

#2 Tennessee vs. #15 Winthrop (Tennessee)

 

#5 Nevada vs. #12 Montana (Nevada)

#4 Boston College vs. #13 Pacific (Boston College)

#6 Oklahoma vs. #11 Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Oklahoma)

#3 Florida vs. #14 South Alabama (Florida)

 

Just one more rant: My newspaper’s grid for the men’s tournament is huge (It takes up half a page), but the women’s grid is less than a quarter of a page in size and the bracket lines are so tiny I can barely write the teams in. Plus, it seems a lot of the women’s teams in the playoffs are colleges with really long names, so this is frustrating.

Weird Thing I Saw Today: Actually, I first noticed it last week, but this is the first time I remembered to mention it. On my way home from MUO, I go through downtown Toledo, and there’s a billboard that I pass that has a picture of three kids that looks like it’s from the ‘60s or something. The only thing written on the billboard is “Ugly kids.” That’s it. I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean. And no, there’s no follow-up billboard on the next block or anything.

 

Apparently the guy who hosted Press Your Luck died this morning in a plane crash. I used to watch reruns of that show all the time when I was a kid. The USA network used to show game shows from about noon to 5 PM (Not sure of the actual times, but I’m pretty positive that the last game show of the day ended at 5 because I remember watching it mostly at my grandma’s house and the last game show coincided with my mom picking me up after she got off work). I believe Scrabble was one of the shows, and there was some short-lived game show where you had to decipher a phrase written in license-plate style (or something like that), and I think they also had episodes of both $25,000 Pyramid and $100,000 Pyramid, but Press Your Luck was definitely my favorite (and it was also the last game show of the day). I haven’t watched it continuously like that in years, but every once in a while I’ll catch an episode on Game Show Network if nothing else is on.

 

Today at MUO I helped Chris (the “Media Specialist”) videotape a seminar on medical ethics, which sounds really boring unless you consider the fact that the last seminar I had to work on was about training residents to be good teachers, and the two before that were from the Occupational Therapy department, and they dealt with ways of gathering information for needs assessment (and between those two seminars I had to watch three hours worth of the subject). Next to that, medical ethics is downright exciting. There is, however, an odd thing that happened in the needs assessment seminar. During the seminar, the speaker talked about how she hosted a community forum in Cleveland that focused on assessing the occupational therapy needs in the gay and lesbian community. Um, maybe I’m missing something, but how is occupational therapy gonna be different for a gay person than it is for a straight person? At any rate, I got free pizza today.

 

Anyways, that’s pretty much it for now.