Tag Archives: college

Bracket Kudos

Have to give props to whomever (I assume it would have been a Michigan resident) actually had Michigan State in the title game.  I mean, seriously?

It was just me against one of the kids who works in the office; we both filled ours out at the last minute, after the first games had tipped on 3/19, actually, and neither one of us were (a) huge fans, or (b) able to pick one than one of the Final Four successfully.  I needed UConn to get to the title game in order to win (he was 2 points ahead coming into this weekend).  It seemed like a lock.  And it SOOO just wasn’t.

Anyway, I’m sure that somewhere under the bridge there is a college basketball fan pumping his or her fist at the fantastically lucky turn of events.  I know that I did back in 2003, when I knew just as little (or maybe less) about college hoops and randomly selected a 3-seed and the 12th-ranked team in the country to win the whole thing.  And they did.  Luck could not possibly get dumber if you gave it an ice-cream-scoop lobotomy.

Have a delightful Monday…

My Bracket Is Frakked

So when the sun rose on a new work week, I was greeted with only one of my Final Four picks still intact.  Fortunately, it IS the one that I picked to win the national championship, so I guess I have a prayer.  I thin, wispy, glimmer of a prayer.

Yesterday, Michelle hung out at my place to work on some work-related stuff, and we also watched a little “Best of the Price Is Right” on DVD.  Two words– huh.  Larious.  The contestants from the 50s and 60s, as well as the prizes and prices were just unbelievable.  I’m sure the same thing will be said about… oh, I dunno, American Idol in 30 or 40 years.  People will wonder how the hell we ever watched it.

Busy day lined up at work, so I best get to it.  Need to start planning for a big adjustment in our availability schedule as well as regular day-to-day stuff…

How was your weekend?

Evidence

I wanted to throw this out somewhere while I’m thinking of it, so if there’s ever any doubt, say, 20, 25 years from now, here it is:

My kids will not be allowed to go to an out-of-state public school for college unless they have a scholarship that completely negates the non-res tuition.  Wanna go out of state?  Go to a private school.

That is all.

PS – I hate college.

Distracted

I’ve got a bunch of things on my mind this week, and it’s complicating my work and my blog. There’s also the fact that I’m out of coffee at work, and keep forgetting to bring in more. I get caffeine headaches now, which I never used to, and it’s quite a bummer when I’m off the stuff. But I digress.

So late last week, I ran the following numbers:
DATE I ENTERED UW-OSHKOSH AS A FRESHMAN: 9/3/1997
DATE I LEFT UW-OSHKOSH w/ A BACHELOR’s DEGREE: 12/15/2001
TOTAL ELAPSED TIME: 4 YRS, 3 MONTHS, 12 DAYS

DATE I ENTERED MSU-BOZEMAN AS A GRAD STUDENT: 8/26/2002
DATE I TRANSFERRED TO UW-OSHKOSH AS A GRAD STUDENT: 2/2/2004
TOTAL ELAPSED TIME SINCE GRAD STUDIES STARTED (degree incomplete): 4 YRS, (and very nearly) 8 MONTHS

One of my master’s program colleagues was in the office the other day to talk to my boss. He started after me, and he’s defending his thesis this month. That really sort of put some stuff in perspective for me and made me realize I need to quit dragging my feet.

So my plan for this week is to get done with the paperwork that needs to go through in order to start on my thesis. Rindo seems to think I could still get out even as early as the fall. Personally, I don’t know how that would happen, but spring suits me fine, too.

I’ve gotta get back in a writing mode and scrape some rust off my brain so that what I do in the fall is actually worth something. I’ve been so goddamn tired or making excuses for why I can’t work. I really need to kick myself in the ass.

There are some professional distractions hovering around my mind this week, too, and hopefully I’ll have more to say about that by next Monday. Things are coming to a head, I think you could say.

I also totally flaked on the Netflix subscription coming out of my bank account this week, so I’m goddamn overdrawn, and what that basically means is that the sandwich I had for lunch last week is gonna cost me 40 dollars. Stupid, stupid bullshit.

I gotta try to concentrate. If I manage to formulate a coherent thought, you mind get wind of it.

33.3%

Found this brief story from the AP fairly interesting:
Study Finds One-Third in D.C. Illiterate

To quote from the article:
Adults are considered functionally illiterate if they have trouble doing such things as comprehending bus schedules, reading maps and filling out job applications.

I looked at that and said to myself, “Hell– I know people in college like that…”

More Useful Than a Comm Degree?

My boss mentioned this to me today:
MIT OpenCourseWare.

Apparently, you can access the course materials for any class at MIT for free. It’s certainly interesting (and useful) if your goal is just to amass knowledge, although I’m not sure how much the average person could glean from reading lists and syllabi without any guidance from an instructor.

Put it on your summer reading list..!

Weirdos

There’s a freakshow in my neighborhood who thinks that his walk to class is a never-ending audition for American Idol. Seriously, 3 out of this last five days now, I have encountered this fellow that sings AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS as he walks down the street.

I’m all for letting the world know that you’re happy and you know it– good feelings usually make people feel good, and they should be shared.

Excessively good feelings, or feelings expressed in excessively strange ways, make you look like a nutbar.

Do you have any thoughts on why institutions of higher learning seem to attract the most looneys? Is it the free money, cute girls, and cafeteria food? Please, if you know– enlighten me…