Journal - March Madness

If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll know that I have recently become very interested in basketball. This is all because of what the women's team at UNL has done this year. As I have mentioned before, they are the first basketball team from Nebraska, men or women, to advance to the sweet sixteen round of the playoffs.

I decided it would be interesting to create a bracket of the sixteen teams and track their progress through the rest of the playoff schedule. Of course, there are plenty of brackets available online, for download and printing, but those don’t do me much good. The brackets just don't make any sense if you can't see the lines. What I decided to do was create my own bracket in a spreadsheet.

I actually had a hard time finding out who the sixteen teams were, however, and which ones were playing each other. The brackets that are available online would, of course, have all that information, but like I said, my screen reader doesn’t interpret them very well. I was finally able to piece my bracket together by reading various news articles about the basketball playoffs. I have learned more about basketball in the last two days than in my previous 39 years. Here are the sixteen teams:

In the Kansas City Region:
Oklahoma versus Notre Dame.
Nebraska versus Kentucky.

In the Dayton Region:
Connecticut versus Iowa State.
Florida State versus Mississippi State.

In the Memphis Region:
Tennessee versus Baylor.
Duke versus San Diego State.

In the Sacramento Region:
Xavier versus Gonzaga.
Stanford versus Georgia.

You may be asking yourself, “Who or what in the heck is Gonzaga?” I asked myself that very same question so I looked it up. Gonzaga is a private Catholic University in Spokane, Washington. So there, you learned something today.

The last time I talked basketball I said that all sixteen teams were coming together in Kansas City for the final tournament, but I found out that was wrong. As shown above, there are four different cities, each hosting four teams. I guess they do that so they can get through the games more quickly, or maybe so more fans have a chance to watch a game. Each region will end up with one winner, and I’m assuming those Final Four teams will come together somewhere. Actually, I think I read that the finals will be in San Antonio.

At the time I am posting this, the Memphis Region and the Sacramento Region have already played their first round of games, but I’m not telling you who won yet. The Lady Huskers play Kentucky tonight. Incidentally, I read that this is also Kentucky’s first trip to the Sweet Sixteen. Too bad one of them has to go home after this. Hope it’s Kentucky, though. Connecticut, or Uconn as they are called, are the big favorite in the playoffs. They are the returning champions and have won their last 74 games, which is basically every game for the last two years. I don’t like the thought of the Huskers playing against them, but I don’t think the two will meet unless they both make it to the championship game. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I would kind of like to see that matchup. But we can't look too far ahead, first they have to get past Kentucky.

I know most of my readers are not basketball fans, I'm not either come to think of it, but this is what’s going on in my life right now, so I wanted to make a complete record of it.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

Journal - Number 50

Okay, just a few quick notes to catch up on what I’ve been doing.

I’ve been experimenting with my screen reader a little bit, lately. I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with surfing the internet and typing documents, so I decided to challenge myself a little and try some spreadsheets. I’ve always really enjoyed usihng spreadsheets, as any tru obsessive/compulsive would, and used them a lot in my work. Over the years I got pretty good with them and I was kind of missing that. So that’s what I’ve been experimenting with. I made a large database to catalog my audio books. So far, so good. I enjoyed the work, plus now I can find any audio book I want, instead of just listening to whatever is on top.

I called Serotek on Monday of last week, that’s the company that developed my screen reader, System Access To Go. I told them how I had purchased the voice package for my account but it didn't work. After looking up my account and confirming that I had, indeed, paid the forty dollars, the guy told me their system had screwed something up and they would have it fixed by the end of the day. I tried to log in again less than an hour later and they had already fixed it. . I was a little peeved at them over the whole thing, but felt a little better after getting such good customer service. I wish all companies were like that. Don’t they understand that it’s those little touches that will keep their customers happy and loyal?

Last Tuesday we had a little excitement. It seems that the local television station in Kearney recently fired one of its employees. Tuesday, the young man walked into the Wells Fargo bank in Kearney with a gun. I don’t know if anyone really knows what his intentions were, but he ended up holding some hostages for about three hours before finally giving himself up. No one was hurt, praise God. This was a twenty two year old, just a kid. I can only imagine what must have gone wrong in his life to make him do something like that. We used to see stories like that on the news all the time in Dallas, but it’s something of a rarity here. The kid is from Minden which is where we live, although we are several miles outside of town.

Well, this is my 50th post. When I started this blog back in September, I really didn’t know if I would be able to keep it going. I never would have guessed that I had so much to say. Fifty isn’t really a lot, in the grand scheme of things, but I’m pleased. I think it's a great start. So, to celebrate my 50th post, I decided to have a little fun with the number fifty.

In America: There ar fifty states in our union. The fifty dollar bill features the face of Ulysses S Grant, and the fifty cent piece shows the silhouette of John F Kennedy.

In popular culture: There is a song by Paul Simon called “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” There is a movie called “50 First Dates” starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, one of my favorites. The television show “Hawaii 5 oh” was thus named because Hawaii was the fiftieth state admitted to the union.

In the year 1950: a new house cost about $8,450, a gallon of gas cost eighteen cents, and a loaf of bread cost twelve cents. Popular movies included “Sunset Blvd" and "Cinderella”, and popular musical acts were Fats Domino and Nat King Cole.

Okay, that wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be, haha. Seriously, if you’ve read all fifty of my posts, thank you and get a life. If you’ve joined me more recently, I hope you’ll stick around for the next fifty, and get a life.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.