NCAA Men’s B-Ball Tourney

OK, I went ahead and filled out a tournament bracket for the first time this year. I’ve been jealous of all the fun President Obama has appeared to have with his brackets each year, so I figured I better join in! March Madness got the better of me a couple of times as I repeatedly spilled salsa on myself and refused to shave until the Badgers made it to the Final Four. Don’t worry, I’ll shave before 2012. Stupid Butler. 

As it currently stands, my bracket is in the 94.9th percentile on ESPN.com. Not bad for a rookie! Coincidentally, I am tied with President Obama: http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/entry?entryID=4267886 Maybe it’s a sign that we’re both going to have a great remainder of the year… with things other than sports! One can only hope.

Here’s my bracket:

Travel Time Budget

Here’s an interesting blog post at Freakonomics: http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/03/16/the-travel-time-budget/ 

Is it weird that these type of articles are genuine entertainment for me? I’d take the Freakonomics blog over Jersey Shore any day!

Blue Patrick

Here’s a fun fact that I just learned: Saint Patrick’s Day was originally associated with the color blue! According to Wikipedia, shamrocks and green ribbons eventually replaced the symbolic blue and gave us our current association of green with Saint Patrick’s Day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick's_Day

On that note, Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! I’ve got to get back to work!

Neurological Nonsense

What’s next? Is somebody going to come out with a study justifying permanent unemployment? http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/14/unemployment.health/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn 

"Moving from unemployment to a poor-quality job offered no mental health benefit, and in fact was more detrimental to mental health than remaining unemployed."

Sure, I can understand that there are terrible jobs out there. There are always extremes! However, given that there are other external factors that were NOT present in Australia over the seven year period of the study, such as horrific unemployment rates, I don’t think that the study accounts for even worse mental health conditions that the unemployed are currently facing in the U.S. (OK, this is somewhat of an assumption – I don’t know the history of unemployment rates in Oz). Getting a job and being productive in this present economy is such a blessing, I would not think the negatives in the article hold as much weight as the article suggests.

My advice to current job seekers is this: GET A JOB AND KEEP IT! The mental health problems you face without income generally increase as you lose more and more. Also if you can hold a job, couldn’t it be argued you have a duty to avoid being a unnecessary drain on our suffering unemployment benefits programs across the country? Just imagine the psychological detriment you’re going to suffer if you’re unemployed WITHOUT collecting unemployment benefits!

Checking In (haha) @ Coffeetopia

How do you feel about sites like foresquare.com or facebook's places feature?  I'm not really sure if I'm pro- or anti-checking in. As a fan of semi-anonymous browsing/posting, I'm not going to post online where I currently am. I'm not enough of an exhibitionist to advertise my current activities to the minute. Each time I see somebody checking in somewhere, I wonder if they are imagining a horde of paparazzi-esque followers watching their every move online. Is that what people want?

On the other hand, I'm all about sharing where I've been in the past! For example, I recently spent a day hanging out in a bank vault at Capitola's Coffeetopia. I'm going to take a wild guess and say the building used to be a bank! It's a pretty good place to lock yourself away, forget about the beckoning beaches, enjoy free internet, and GET WORK DONE! They even have whole-leaf tea too, which is a definite bonus for me! If you're ever in the area or are just curious, check them out: coffeetopia.com 

To all of my stalkers, you're going to have to camp out and wait for me to show up to different places. I'm not about to make it easy for you! 

My legs feel like Jell-O!

Going on a three-hour bike ride has some foreseeable consequences for somebody like me (that is, somebody who isn’t in good enough shape to be going on on really long bike rides). One of those consequences is the ensuing wobbly legs! Oh well, it was worth it… I just need to work on properly pacing myself! Any tips from you experienced road bikers?

Here’s a shot from the ride yesterday… the Monterey Bay is just over that hill! 

Snooki Goes To Wonderland

I’d like to proudly say that I know the author of a new book that’s hitting e-shelves at present. PE has released an instant classic (or as the title implies, “The Improved Classic”) in Amazon’s Kindle store. Check it out here: http://www.amazon.com/Snooki-Wonderland-Improved-Classic-ebook/dp/B004OL2LF8

… and read Time’s article about it here: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/02/24/snooki-goes-to-wonderland-in-illustrated-take-on-alice/

Way to go, PE!!

Live the Sheen Dream

I usually try to keep away from this sort of entertainment, but this was too odd to pass up! Somebody actually dedicated a site to posting recent quotes from Charlie Sheen. If you’re in need of entertainment for a couple of minutes, check it out: http://www.livethesheendream.com/