At first I was Frightened....

…Frightened that I had made a big mistake in buying the Frightened Rabbit album that was released in 2008. When I did my first listen of this album, I really didn't think there were more then 1 or 2 good tracks. Well, after giving myself a couple more listens, I discovered some hidden gems in this album. The album, The Midnight Organ Fight, is the band's second studio album, I can't compare it to their previous because I have never heard anything from it. The music on the album can be best described as being raw…raw lyrics, raw vocals and raw sounds. As I said, a first listen might leave you wanting more from the album, but after a couple of listens you start to see what the band is trying to do. The lyrics are nothing to write home to mom about; lyrics such as, "you're s**t and I'm knee deep in it" from the track Backwards Walk or "Jesus is just a Spanish boys name" or even "I think I'll save suicide for another day," give a clear indication that the band members probably haven't had the most inspirational life, but there is still a lot of emotional truths being belted through the different tracks. The tracks that I can't stop listening to include the first 3 tracks of the album, The Modern Leper, I Feel Better, and Good Arms vs Bad Arms, but there are other tracks that continue to grow on me that include Fast Blood, Poke and Floating In the Forth. Overall the album is a good listen once you get used to the bands style. If you are looking for some good, but different music, this is a good album to purchase. Overall I give it 3 out of 5 gerken pickles.

The Worst Guide Dog Ever

I had a meeting with a client in another part of the downtown area of the city. The taxi dropped me off across the street from the client's building, so as I waited for the light to turn green for me to cross, I saw a blind man with a dog coming towards me. I stepped forward out of his way and stood next to the street light pole. Well I heard the blind man start to speak to the dog a little bit more and then an old lady stepped in front of me and looked at me then at the dog with a concerned stare. Taking note of that stare, I turned around to note that the dog was basically peeing on me. I believe the dog was trying to pee on the pole, but in fact, the dog must have been as blind as the owner because the dog was trying to pee on me. If this was a seeing person, I probably would have been mad at the person, but being that the guy was blind, I didn't take offense to his dog peeing on me. Luckily the dog not only missed the pole but mostly missed peeing on me, which makes me conclude that it is probably not the best dog to be guiding a blind guy around.

My House Smells Like Easter Eggs...

Well at least it smells like the stuff that you dip the Easter Eggs in. I think the Easter Egg dye is basically vinegar with food coloring (at least if my memory serves me correctly). We had a bunch of new furniture that has been delivered to our house last week, with all the wood furniture, the stain on the wood is fairly new so we have some strong fumes floating around the house (the only good thing from the fumes is that my kids sleep later in the morning, this I presume results from them sucking in the fumes all night long). To eliminate the fumes, we read that it is good to put vinegar near the source of the smells. The only problem is you are replacing the bad smell of stained furniture with the awkward yet strong smell of vinegar. So I am not sure vinegar takes away the smell, but it definitely replaces the bad smell of stained furniture. I guess all I need to do is fry up some potatoes so my house smells like Thrashers…that might actually be a good thing.

Kunming

Last weekend the family and I headed to Kunming to visit some friends working down in Kunming. The essence of the trip was to catch up with our friends, so we didn't make a significant amount of time to do sightseeing. On Saturday morning, the kids and I were free, but only had a couple of hours. As a result, we decided to go to Cui Hu (Jade Lake) in downtown Kunming. The park around the lake isn't anything too special, but it was a great day and we were able to rent a paddle boat and go for a paddle boat ride out on the lake. The kids had a great time chasing the ducks (although they were just sitting back while I was the one paddling to chase the ducks…and ducks are pretty fast), and they were all excited to run around the bridges in the park.

Over the rest of the weekend we spent time with friends and met some really cool people, actually I met some Norwegians, which are the first born and raised Norwegians that I have ever met in my life so that was pretty cool. One other thing that came out of the weekend was how I figured out what kind of great life we have here in Shanghai. If we were in Kunming our lives would be totally different and totally less western as compared to our lives here, so while people in the US think we are bold for living in Shanghai, we have it really good here, I take my hat off to the expats that are living in smaller cities such as Kunming that do not have all the creature comforts we get here in Shanghai.

Let's Go 'Nova....

After my documented worries during my running diary, there were not many things to worry about on Saturday when my boys, Villanova, played UCLA. UCLA clearly being a better team than American, but 'Nova played their type of game and were able to dominate UCLA basically the whole game. So after a scare in the first round, 'Nova was able to pull it together to easily advance onto the Sweet Sixteen.

Next up, Duke…which is a team that is on a much different level then American or UCLA. So I am worried…yes…if we play like we did during the first half of the American game, we will get destroyed…if we play like we did against UCLA, then we should keep it very competitive. Duke is the better team of the two teams, but I believe we have a good fighters chance to advance onto the Elite Eight…but can't think too far ahead…first up…Duke in Boston.

As for history with this matchup, I can only find one other time that these two teams played each other. In November of 2000, Duke beat Villanova 98-85 at Duke. Carlos Boozer, Shane Battier, and Chris Duhon (all NBAers) beat up on the 'Nova team whose start player Michael Bradley couldn't keep up with the Duke. I don't think this year's Duke team is quite on the level of the 2000 team, but we shall see.

Villanova vs American U, My First Running Diary

I got to work early primarily to be able to watch the Villanova vs American first round NCAA tournament. A friend of mine runs a blog, http://ilovebrackets09.blogspot.com/ and one of the things he does well are running diaries of games. I thought I would take a shot at it.

7:20am (China time) – Okay so I am running late and trying to get my computer up and running. No one is really picking American on the upset here, but my gut feeling when I heard the matchup was that I was concerned…hopefully things workout well for us this morning. Also no big upsets yet in the first day, I'm not all too happy about that cause this could be the primer for a big upset….we shall see.

7:25am – 5-3 Villanova, Happy to have the game showing online hoping that I can watch the whole thing. Dwayne Anderson just hits a 3 pointer to make it 8-3, off to a good start, let's see if we can maintain this.

7:29am – 10-9 Villanova, American has hit 2 straight 3's to get back into this game early, if they stay as hot as they do, could be trouble. Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas are calling the game, this makes me happy. At least I can be entertained with these guys making the call, Jay Bilas really knows what he is talking about.

7:30am – 14-12 Villanova, Enberg points out that American players move well without the ball, and then American hits a 3 off of a screen. For some reason 'Nova has had trouble early keeping track of all the American movement. If American keeps it up they will be able to stay competitive.

7:33am – 14-11 Villanova, after the commercial break, refs take a point away from American as the last shot by American was a two pointer not a 3 pointer.

7:39am – 19-17 American, sloppy play abounds in this game. Villanova is trying to win the game with outside shots, particularly the 3 pointer, if they continue 'Nova will not win this game. They need to get the ball inside to Cunningham, they need to get him more involved and they should be able to run away. 'Nova hits a 3 to make it 20-19 Nova, with 11:04 left in the first half, there is a lot of game to be had, 'Nova needs to change their approach to the game if they want to pull away.

7:43am – 21-20 American, great steal by Corey Fisher, goal tending called on American, 22-21 Villanova. I know that Dwayne Anderson is hot thus far in the game, but Cunningham and Reynolds of 'Nova need to get more involved in this game or 'Nova is going to lose.

7:45am – 24-24, just passed it inside to Cunningham for the first time and he got an easy score, 'Nova needs to do this all game long. American comes back and hits a huge 3 to make it 27-24, they are hot right now and that is just what it takes to win a tourney game, 8:41 left in the first half.

7:48am – 27-24 American, too much time left in the game to make any assumptions here, but Villanova needs to slow down the game and know that American won't be this hot all game long. Just establish the inside game guys.

7:51am – 27-24 American, Enberg makes the mistake of calling American, America…you knew this was coming, it must come every game.

7:53am – 27-26 American, 'Nova is playing the way they should be, methodical offense, great defense, and then Scottie Reynolds shoots a quick 3…that was not methodical. American hits a 3 to make it 30-26 American…wow.

7:58am – 32-26 American, 'Nova has 9 turnovers is cold from 3 and is not playing great defense, a recipe for not winning games. Game is still in range, but not if they keep playing like this, will really need to make some adjustments at the half, or at least over the last couple of minutes of this half.

8:03am – 32-31 American, good adjustment after the TV timeout, that's the way to get back into the game, getting the ball inside and being methodical…keep it up.

8:05am – 38-31 American, turnovers, turnovers, wow, my first gut feeling about this game is coming true…wow…49 seconds left in the first half, time to put your heads down and make some big adjustments in the second half. 'Nova is good at adjustments, but we shall see, hopefully they can prevent the lead from getting to much more out of hand.

8:07am – End of the first half, remember when I said they need to prevent the lead from getting more out of hand, 41-31 American at half, 10 point lead. 'Nova has a lot of adjustments at half, they need to focus on not turning over the ball, 11 turnovers in the first half, that'll keep any team in the game. This game is reminding me of the Georgetown loss a couple of weeks ago where turnovers killed us.

8:28am- Beginning of the second half, 41-31 American, I have switched over to listening to the audio of the game as opposed to watching it, the video feed was awful. I was holding onto the video feed because of the announcers, I enjoyed listening to Enberg and Bilas, audio has John Thompson and Wayne Larrivee, so this should be okay and will help me to better follow the game. 'Nova needs to get the ball inside to Cunningham and Reynolds needs to get hot, this is their audition for the NBA and right now they wouldn't be good enough to play professional ball in the Philippines, so they have to step it up and stop the turnovers…let's see what they can do.

8:30am – 45-31 American, starting to get out of hand…not quite the half time adjustments I was looking for, I should have gone with my gut feeling on my pick and not being a homer.

8:35am – 45-36 American, forget the game for a second, I should have been listening to the radio feed instead of the TV feed this whole time. I have learned very quickly that TV commentators don't have to say nearly as much as radio announcers so you miss a lot of the game if you don't have a good video feed (like I did). These radio announcers are doing a really great job right now.

8:37am – 47-38 American, 'Nova is starting to put on more pressure and it appears to be working, a good adjustment after American wasn't phased coming into the second half…let's see if they can continue to chop away at this lead.

8:42am – 47-41 American, 'Nova with and 1 opportunity, 47-41, 'Nova getting back into this puppy, let's see if we can keep it up, crowd back into it also.

8:43am – 50-41 American, 'Nova looked like it did in the first half in this past series, a bad quick 3 decision by 'Nova, American took advantage of it with a 3 of their own…stupid.

8:45am – 53-43 American, American is not slowing down, they have upset on their mind and 'Nova is not able to do anything against this. If American doesn't go cold, this game is over.

8:48am – 53-47 American, American timeout…American's ball, 'Nova needs a stop here, they need to get this game back into reach, if American extends its lead back to 8 or 9 it might be getting too late for a comeback. Where is Scottie Reynolds right now? 4 points in this game…not a good audition for the NBA. He is reminding me of Allan Ray from a couple of years ago, Ray couldn't hit any shots during the tourney back in 2006 and that was their ultimate downfall…not a good trend for 'Nova to have a great player go cold in big games.

8:56am – 55-49 American, keeping the game within 6 is good, but, obviously, you are not going to win games this way. 'Nova are looking good right now, but need to take it to the next level, rebound Villanova…foul on American…if we can get within 4, that would be good…first foul shot, good, second foul shot, good …55-51 American

8:59am – 55-51 American, rebound 'Nova, bringing the ball down the court, foul on American, chance to get it within 2…it's funny, for a team that should be dominating this game, I am loving that 'Nova has made it close. Redding hits the first foul shot, second foul shot, miss…55-52 American.

9:01am – 55-52 American, American's Carr is in foul trouble with 8:33 left, Carr leaves game, 'Nova to the line to shoot 2 foul shots, first foul shot, miss (you have to make these shots at this point in the game, this could kill 'Nova), second foul shot, good, 55-53 American…crowd really into it.
9:02am – 55-53 American, timeout, 'Nova's ball, chance to tie up this game for the first time since 10 minutes left in the first half…'Nova has to come up big with this possession, remind American who the higher see is…for the first time in this game.

9:05am – 55-55, oh my oh my oh my, even though this shouldn't be this close of a game, I am excited that my boys are back in it.

9:07am – 58-55 Villanova, come on 'Nova, great 3, remember when I was critical of them taking 3's, forget that at this moment…actually you use 3's for separation not to get back into a game, note that they didn't hit a 3 during the whole time they were coming back.

9:10am – 60-55 Villanova…timeout American…5:05 left in the game…wow. American scored 41 points in the first half, they have scored 14 points thus far in the second half…that is pretty amazing. Carr still on the bench, which is clearly hurting American.

9:12am – 60-55 Villanova, a little scuffle underneath the basket, American's Gordon upset, hopefully they can take advantage of the emotions swing. 2 foul shots, 'Nova…first one, good, second shot, good, 62-55 'Nova.

9:14am – 62-57 Villanova, Carr off the bench makes a great shot, told yah he was being missed….foul on American, 2 shots, first free throw, good, second free throw, good, 64-57, 4:10 left in the game.

9:16am – 66-61 Villanova, American staying in the game, American's Carr playing like this is his game to win, he has basically taken over for American to stay in this game. Villanova needs to stay poised, they have the ball with 2:45 left, they have a 5 point lead, no turnovers, long methodical offense with high percentage shots and they can close this out. They are hitting their free throws which is also key…American is not going to give up so 'Nova needs to stay on top of its game.

9:20am – 68-61 Villanova, Cunningham got involved in this game and that is what they needed to do (what I was saying at the beginning of this thing), 21 points right now so Jay Wright must be listening to me via telepathic powers.

9:22am – 1:30 left in the 70-61 Villanova, what a great turnaround for these guys.

9:24am – 72-61 Villanova, people are going to look at the final score and not realize how good of a game this was. If you followed the game you will know how this game went from one team having the advantage to the next team having the advantage and how far ahead American was at one point and then how 'Nova was able to come back, pretty awesome. These teams battled, Dwayne Anderson throws down a huge slam to make it 74-63, 49 seconds left, these teams both played hard, once 'Nova got back into their groove they took over, but give American a huge amount of credit, hopefully this is a wake up call for 'Nova for the tournament. Huge credit to American and the Patriot League, American really showed up and almost was able to pull off the upset.

9:28am – 80-67 Villanova WINS!!!!! Big props to the boys they didn't shutter when they were down (even though some fans were shuttering), now onto rooting for VCU so that 'Nova can face them on Saturday in Philly. Hope you enjoyed my first official running diary, the game was too close for me to come up with any quips or anything, so it was basically just a running diary of the game, hopefully I can refine my skills as I do more of these things.

The upset

For the last two years I have given you all a nice upset pick for the NCAA tournament. Both years, I was right with my upset picks. I have no parameters for my pick other then I make 1 pick based on a lower seed beating a higher seed. Under this system, I can pick an 8 vs 9 game and pick the 9 seed and that would be an upset, but I usually avoid this since this isn't interesting enough. Two years ago I called the Winthrop upset over Notre Dame (an 11 over a 6), last year I called the Kansas State over USC upset (another 11 over 6), while I am not committing to always calling an 11 over 6 upset, I decided that out of all my upsets, this was the most far reaching and thus could put in jeopardy my streak…making it fun to publish. So you're probably thinking great, he is going to pick VCU over UCLA like everyone else…nope, that is too easy and since everyone else is picking it, I figure it probably won't happen. Actually I am going with a little bit of a surprise. If you read my blog, you will know that I am a huge Big East fan, so it is hard for me not to pick the Big East teams to go far in the tournament. But alas, not every team can win, so, while I understand that West Virginia had a nice run at the end of the season, I can see the Dayton Flyers pulling off the 11 over 6 seed upset. So there you go, hopefully I can continue my streak by going out on a limb here. Enjoy the tournament.