Ah, Customer Service

Me: Hi, my DVR records things with pixelated stutters. Why is that? Why can’t you provide me with a service that works?

CSR: Well, it only does that when there’s a lot of sudden pixel changes. That will happen sometimes. Are you trying to watch a program with fast movement?

Me: I’m trying to watch a freaking race. It’s all fast movement.

And We’re Back: Thoughts over Actions

I read something jarring, about how global communications will take away new thought. To paraphrase: “Connecting everyone will no longer lead to people having new ideas. It will just be people commentating in real time on what they see.”

Because it’s true, there’s nothing really earth shatting about that. Except it was written by Michael Crichton in The Lost World and published in 1996.

That’s why I don’t like Facebook, think Twitter is stupid, and find most the internet worthless. A lot of people seem to think people care what they are doing.

NO ONE CARES WHAT I AM DOING.

I don’t DO anything. Why whem my mom calls and asks “so what’s new with you?” once every three weeks, I say “nothing.” She can’t believe that’s true. It is. No one does anything.

All I do from October to March is work and watch college basketball.

The last four days, that’s all I wrote about here. And no one cared! A website is only as good as the ideas and thoughts its putting forth. They need to be intelligent, or really freaking funny in order for anyone to care. People don’t want an itinery for your day, people read website for humor or quality thoughts/ideas. (Working on it. It’s tough to be brilliant).

Along these lines, I was listening to a Bill Simmons podcast with Chuck Klosterman about the fall of newspapers, and how they failed to adapt to the internet, despite having unlimited space online to write longer, well thought out pieces that cannot be provided in the other media (print/radio/TV). It baffles me that as newspapers endure a financial crisis (Craigslist, Monster-like websites killed classified revenue streams), they’ve cut local coverage. Their niche is definitely local news and sports people cannot get anywhere else.

It seems like the most crucial aspect of newspapers/local TV is embracing new media, finding revenue streams from it, and out-lasting local competitors. The big thing that’s hurt newspapers is that no one is going to buy news when they get it online for free, and internet costs roughly the same amount per year as a printed paper subscription. The way to go for a newspaper would be to team up with a local TV, provide print stories and video from the TV network free of charge, and have the best website among the local outlets, with a heavy emphasis on local news/sports. Link to the affiliate website for national news via RSS feeds.

And feature my website as a columnist.

Selection Sunday

WED: 11
THU: 24
FRI: 26
SAT: 17
SUN: 4

After 82 games in five days, I can finally move my secondary TV back to the bedroom.

This bracket sucks. There’s only four “mid-major” at-larges, out of 34.

This is because the NCAA added two regular season games, which lets .500 major conference teams get into the tournament.

Now, if you go 9-9 in the Pac 10 or Big Ten, with those two extra games, you can be 21-11, 20-12, 19-13 and be in the NCAA Tournament instead of 19-11, 18-12, 17-13 and be out of the tournament.

It’s a complete and total joke that some of these big conference teams got in. Didn’t the regular season already prove that Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maryland, and Arizona couldn’t compete for a championship?

We already KNOW that Maryland isn’t as good as Duke, UNC, Wake, Florida State and Clemson. Because they played them ELEVEN TIMES and lost NINE.

We know that Minnesota and Wisconsin aren’t as good as Michigan State, Illinois and Purdue.
Wisconsin: 2-5 vs Mich St, Illinois, Purdue and Ohio State, plus losses to UConn, Marquette, Texas and two to Minnesota. That’s 4-10 vs NCAA teams. We know they aren’t capable of going to the elite 8.

Minnesota is 0-5 vs MSU, Illinois and Purdue. 3-8 vs NCAA teams (taking out Wisconsin)

Arizona: 6-11 vs the top 75 of the RPI (and two of those wins are against teams who didn’t earn at-larges)

Oklahoma State: 4-10 vs top 50, 9-11 vs the top 100. They got a great RPI by LOSING. Against Oklahoma, Michigan St, Mizzou, Kansas, Washington and Gonzaga they went 1-8. Wins over Siena, Texas A&M, Texas (but losses to Texas and Texas A&M). They are mediocre.

We’re saying “Oh, well, they played a ton of tough teams and got a couple victories, they’re an NCAA team.” That’s rewarding mediocre teams for losing to good teams. And that’s stupid.

Hoops (Good and Bad)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

“The man who is responsible for the song “One Shining Moment” making it onto CBS’ airwaves all the way back in 1987, has passed away today. CBS released a statement on the death of TV Exec, Doug Towey, who at the time of “OSM’s” inclusion in the tournament was a Creative Director at the network.

I may have written an actual post if I wasn’t busy watching 11 college basketball games all day. So this will have to do. Until Saturday or Sunday, I suppose, since there’s TWENTY FOUR games on tomorrow:

11
Providence-Louisville (ESPN)
Xavier-Saint Louis (A10 TV online)
Baylor-Kansas (ESPN2)

12
Kentucky-Ole Miss (CBS)

1:30
Marquette-Villanova (ESPN)
Michigan-Iowa (ESPN2)
Temple-St Joes (A10 TV online)

2
Arizona State-Arizona (FSN)

2:35
Georgia-Miss State (CBS)

4
Penn St-Indiana (ESPN2)

4:30
Washington vs Stanford (FSN)

5
UNLV-San Diego St (CBSC)

6
NC State-Maryland (ESPN2)
Pitt-West Virginia (ESPN)
Tulane-Memphis (CUSA TV online)

6:30
Alabama-Vanderbilt (CBS)

8
Dayton-Richmond (A10 TV online)
USC-Cal (FSN)
TCU Utah (CBSC)
UConn-Syracuse (ESPN)

8:30
Arkansas-Florida (CBS)
Texas Tech-Missouri (ESPN2)

10:30
Wyoming-New Mexico (CBSC)
UCLA-Washington St/Oregon (FSN)

I Heart March

Oh, what an outstanding day. Slept til 10:30, left work at 4:50. Now I’m trying to figure out a way to watch four basketball games, Chuck and 24 all in a stretch of four hours (picture in picture, you rule).

6 p.m. ESPN: VCU blows out George Mason to take the Colonial (A GMU win would have helped Dayton).

6 p.m. ESPN2: Chattanooga tops Charleston to win the SoCon (Davidson should have won)

8 p.m. ESPN: Gonzaga vs St. Mary’s, West Coast final (both these teams should be in the NCAA tournament)

8 p.m. ESPN2: Siena vs Niagara, MAAC final (ditto. In fact all of them deserve to go ahead of anyone in the SEC not named Tennessee or LSU).

Two Games at the Same Time.

Apparently, tonight on Chuck, he’s thrown into a spy situation a normal guy can’t handle, but somehow gets through it while pining for the hot girl spy. And on 24, Jack has to get tough and break rules to fight a terrorist threat that could kill many main characters but probably won’t.

Tomorrow might be a light day of college hoops, but Wednesday is chock full of games, many of which can be watched in the office! I love my job. Anytime you can get paid to watch college basketball, you’re in the right profession.

How About An Appetizer?

No, I’m not talking about a Super Bowl Party. I’m stating that THERE IS NOTHING ON FOR FIVE HOURS BEFORE THE SUPER BOWL!

I can’t watch 19 hours of pre-game coverage. How about a college basketball game? You had six good games today, why were they all at the same time?

9 Michigan State vs Penn State, Dayton vs St. Joe’s, 1 Duke vs Virginia, 20 Illinois vs Iowa, Creighton vs Missouri State, 21 Villanova vs Cincinnati… can a brother get a triple-header starting at 11 am CT?