Bus Tour, Bracket Update & Rocky Marathon

From the beginning of the planning for the San Francisco trip, I’ve had certain concerns about the double decker bus tour and I’ve never been able to really pinpoint the problem. Last week, I had everything booked that needs reservations except for the bus tour. There were four choices to choose from, three of them had pictures of the same bus, making me think that at least two, maybe all three were third parties for another company.

Going through a third party, though apparently cheaper, made me nervous. So I settled on what I thought was the main one of the three and the fourth one, which went around downtown and also stopped at both the north and south vista points of the Golden Gate Bridge. I decided that since this would give me an extra view of the Bridge, I would go with it, even though it was more expensive and took up an extra block of time.

However, when I read the terms of agreement, I began to get a little wary. It was made worse when I was getting ready to enter in my credit card information and the site wasn’t encrypted. I looked up the company on the Better Business Bureau’s website and they had given the company an F. It turns out that the company not only wasn’t based in California but it was in Cobb County, Georgia. They had numerous complaints filed against them and in many cases, the company never bothered to respond to BBB.

So I checked the other company, and while it wasn’t as many complaints, they too had an F rating and had trouble responding to BBB. In addition, their site didn’t offer encryption for credit card information.

I decided that it was better to get rid of the bus tour. On the one hand I’m disappointed but it will save a lot of time and a little bit of money as well. And if I’d gone on the tour and been forced to sit on the bottom level, I would’ve really been upset. I hope not going on the tour turns out to be a good thing.

Giant News

I got the tickets to the San Francisco Giants’ ballpark tour this week. I don’t know why they wouldn’t let me print them out but at least I got them in the mail without any problem.

Randy Johnson’s having a really good Spring, which is good news for him but bad news for me. The depth chart’s now listing him as the second starter, meaning I’ll see Matt Cain against the Brewers’ Jeff Suppan. Baseball’s baseball regardless but it would’ve been cool to see Johnson again (or even Barry Zito, currently listed as the team’s fourth starter).

On Opening Day, the Giants are giving away a calendar. On game two, they’re giving away collectable pins. And on the third game? Nothing. So I don’t get anything and I’m forced to see Cain, whose brother Abel was quite the shepherd from what I hear.

Rocky Marathon

My girlfriend and I watched 11 hours worth of movies this weekend, including Rocky I, II, III, IV and Rocky Balboa. Instead of watching the fifth one, I just explained the major details of the plot, though you can pretty much pretend it didn’t happen and move from part four to part six. She’d never seen any of the Rocky movies.

A couple things I was struck by about the series is that the little details hold up fairly well from beginning to end. Well, it was kinda odd that Mickey was 76 in the first one and he died in the third one, which was set five years later, at the age of 76.

The first two are similar in style to each other but the third and (especially) the fourth one seemed sillier, going for laughs in many places. And what was the deal with that robot in the fourth one.

Rocky Balboa, the sixth movie, is a successful return to franchise’s roots. I’ve seen the movie a few times but I appreciated it more having watched all the others back to back. In my original review, I wrote that it was the best one since the original and that I wasn’t sure if it might not be better than the first one. I still don’t.

Angelina

The other movie we watched was ‘Changeling,’ starring Angelina Jolie in the role in which she was nominated for an Oscar. It was a well-made movie and I certainly was interested from beginning to end. The plot was so unbelievable that I went to the Internet to find out how close this kept to the true story and it was relatively close, considering how movies go. I object to the starting of the story featuring the phrase: ‘A True Story’ when any details are changed. Enough was changed for it to be labeled ‘Based on a true story.’

Did Jolie deserve an Oscar? Here’s my problem with Angelina…I’ve never seen her in a movie where I was able to get past who she is. Is that her fault or mine? Sometimes it doesn’t matter but in this one, I found her presence to be distracting and I think someone else playing the part might’ve been more effective.

My Brackets

Okay, so my brackets aren’t super great. I already know I don’t know anything about college basketball.

I’m not going into the few upsets that I nearly picked because that’s pointless. It also wastes time to list the games I got right. You can look at the last entry and the scores for that. The bottom line regarding the Sweet Sixteen: I had three of four right in the Midwest, three of four in the West, three of four in the East and all four right in the South. And all my Elite Eight teams are still alive right now.

Final Thoughts

So much for the possible resurgence of ‘Scrubs.’ After a decently positive start, ‘Scrubs’ has sucked so bad as of late. This past week’s episode ranks up there as one of the worst of the series’ history.

Speaking of television, another week has gone by and I didn’t tape ‘The Simpsons.’ Am I missing it? No.

Want to know the greatest opening line to an article? James Mason had known his wife since she was a little boy.

Blind Bracket Picks & Penishead Exits?

It’s bracket time and I know absolutely nothing college basketball. I haven’t watched a single game from start to finish and I’ve probably watched no more than five straight minutes of any one game. So these picks are out of complete ignorance.

Every year, I tend to have all the number ones in the Final Four, and last year was the first time I ever got that right. This year, I have all the number ones except for Memphis, which is a number two. Oh, and virtually every year I pick UNC to win and this year's no different.

So, we’ll see how close these picks are…

In the Midwest:

First Round
(1) Louisville over (16) Morehead State
(9) Siena over (8) Ohio State
(5) Utah over (12) Arizona
(4) Wake Forest over (13) Cleveland State
(6) West Virginia over (11) Dayton
(3) Kansas over (14) North Dakota State
(10) USC over (7) Boston College
(2) Michigan State over (15) Robert Morris

Second Round
(1) Louisville over (9) Siena
(4) Wake Forest over (5) Utah
(3) Kansas over (6) West Virginia
(2) Michigan State over (10) USC

Sweet 16
(1) Louisville over (4) Wake Forest
(3) Kansas over (2) Michigan State

Regional Final
(1) Louisville over (3) Kansas

In the West:

First Round
(1) UConn over (16) Chattanooga
(8) BYU over (9) Texas A&M
(5) Purdue over (12) Northern Iowa
(4) Washington over (13) Mississippi State
(6) Marquette over (11) Utah State
(3) Missouri over (14) Cornell
(10) Maryland over (7) Cal
(2) Memphis over (15) Cal State Northridge

Second Round
(1) UConn over (8) BYU
(4) Washington over (5) Purdue
(3) Missouri over (6) Marquette
(2) Memphis over (10) Maryland

Sweet 16
(1) UConn over (4) Washington
(2) Memphis over (3) Missouri

Regional Final
(2) Memphis over (1) UConn

In the East

First Round
(1) Pitt over (16) E. Tennessee State
(9) Tennessee over (8) Oklahoma State
(12) Wisconsin over (5) Florida State
(4) Xavier over (13) Portland State
(11) VCU over (6) UCLA
(3) Villanova over (14) American
(7) Texas over (10) Minnesota
(2) Duke over (15) Binghamton

Second Round
(1) Pitt over (9) Tennessee
(4) Xavier over (12) Wisconsin
(3) Villanova over (11) VCU
(7) Texas over (2) Duke

Sweet 16
(1) Pitt over (4) Xavier
(3) Villanova over (7) Texas

Regional Final
(1) Pitt over (3) Villanova

In the South

First Round
(1) UNC over (16) Radford
(8) LSU over (9) Butler
(5) Illinois over (12) Western Kentucky
(4) Gonzaga over (13) Akron
(6) Arizona State over (11) Temple
(3) Syracuse over (14) Stephen F. Austin
(7) Clemson over (10) Michigan
(2) Oklahoma over (15) Morgan State

Second Round
(1) UNC over (8) LSU
(4) Gonzaga over (5) Illinois
(3) Syracuse over (6) Arizona State
(2) Oklahoma over (7) Clemson

Sweet 16
(1) UNC over (4) Gonzaga
(3) Syracuse over (2) Oklahoma

Regional Final
(1) UNC over (3) Syracuse

Final Four
Louisville over Memphis
UNC over Pitt

National Title
UNC over Louisville

World Baseball Classic Notes

I didn’t pay any attention to the World Baseball Classic in 2006 when it first started but I’ve watched a few of the games this time around. A couple thoughts: This means so much more to people in other countries than it does to Americans. When you look at the games that took place in San Juan, the stands were packed and it was wild.

Second, the two games between the Dominican Republic and Netherlands were absolutely incredible and fun to watch.

Finally, I realize that injuries can happen in Spring Training but when Chipper Jones is out with an oblique injury that I have a feeling will be nagging him all season long and USA manager Davey Johnson puts Braves’ catcher Brian McCann out in left field, I can’t be too enthusiastic about the WBC.

Side Notes

Last night, I hardly slept. My side was really hurting and I couldn’t get in a position that would allow me to go to sleep. I finally managed to fall asleep a little after 1am and then I woke up for a while after 3am. I then woke up at 5:30am and I didn’t get back to sleep until about 7am. I then woke up for good a little after 9am.

Besides being really tired today, the bigger concern is how this affects the San Francisco trip. Over the last couple weeks prior to this week, I was feeling better. I was cautiously optimistic that maybe I’d be near 100% by mid-April and that the planning wouldn’t be affected by my side. Unfortunately, it appears likely that it will be a factor while I’m out there.

I’ll try to plan around it the best I can but there’s a part of me that believes that this might be the only chance I have to go out there and if there are things that I don’t see, I’m going to really regret it. And it’ll probably cause me to push through when maybe I shouldn’t and it’ll cause me to do possible significant damage.

The biggest day that I’m concerned about is Friday, where I’m set to do the most amount of walking, possibly three miles or so. I’ll have pain killers on hand and might need to prioritize some things so that if I absolutely can’t keep walking, I won’t miss anything too important.

But it is a concern. I’ll try to be careful over the next few week so that I can be as healthy as possible by trip time. For instance, I have undated tickets to Six Flags and while I’d love to do that before the trip, that’s not going to be possible. My real goal would be to go before school gets out but that looks unlikely.

I could go on April 18th, the week after I get back but I imagine I’ll be pretty worn out. That next weekend, my girlfriend and I will be going to Talladega for my first auto race. So that makes it unlikely until May. Because the tickets are undated, it means I can wait to see what the weather is going to do and then go.

So Long, Penishead!

Okay, so apparently Penishead’s last day really was yesterday. He’s been saying that his last day was near since November. ‘My last day is next Monday’ or ‘My last day’s the Monday after next’ is all I’ve been hearing for the last five months. So it wasn’t a Monday at all…it was a Tuesday.

Is there a chance that he’s still there today or tomorrow? Will his desk be cleared out? I don’t know. I’m still not sold. I realize that he was given a cake and flowers and everyone was saying goodbye but I still have trouble believing he’s really gone this time. He’s fooled me so many times before that I just don’t want to be fooled again.

Final Thoughts

I was clearing out stuff in my jacket pocket yesterday and I had a receipt from Applebee’s from a couple weeks ago. The name of the waitress that night was Say-Ruh. That’s the way a person from Macon would pronounce Sarah.

Research shows that old age begins at 27 and I feel it. I tell you, sometimes I start sentences that I never