Saturday, March 22, 2008

"When masochism's lost its fun..."

Yes, I'm aware I've misquoted the line here, but, eh.

So, spring has sprung, and dumped ten inches of snow on Madison to boot. If I haven't said it already (and yes, I know I have), I'm quite ready for this winter to be over.

Barack Obama has released his NCAA bracket. Call me a cynic, but only a candidate scraping for votes in Pennsylvania picks Pitt to make the Final Four.
Speaking of which, my bracket is officially done for. That's what I get for picking too many underdogs (and the wrong ones, at that), but there's no money involved this year, so I'm not too worried about it. (By the way, I've got Memphis winning it all.)
Back to politics - I'll only say that we've still got a month until the Pennsylvania primary, and all of this down time really forces us to focus on things that don't matter - this is when people like Ferraro and Wright dominate the headlines. Again, it's ridiculous.
I just finished reading Everything Bad is Good For You. It's an interesting read - author Steven Johnson basically argues that today's pop culture is actually making us smarter (whaddya know, I just ripped off the subtitle) - for example, video games are becoming far more intricate (from the simple patterns of PacMan to the sprawling worlds of Zelda), and television is forcing the audience to fill in more of the plot and understand the relationships between characters without actually saying it (see The West Wing and 24). Johnson doesn't argue that books are becoming irrelevant, he just says that society nowadays is too quick to judge the new mass media as "trash" instead of understanding that these new formats are helping us build our brains just as much, which translates to better problem-solving skills in real life.
Okay, so that's it for me.

1 comment:

Sarah said...

Hey there! So..I'm lame and REALLY late to start following this blog of yours, but now is better than never.

Didn't have time to read all that you're writing these days, but figured this was a perfect time to post since you're talking about brackets.

I've got Memphis taking it as well. Obama, are you kidding me? PITT? Gotta be for the votes, that's the only way to explain it. For some crazy reason I have your Badgers in the Final Four. Seriously.

Heartbroken over the loss of my eagles vs. stanford and their twin terrors on Saturday. Eh..there's always next year. Wait - that's only supposed to be said for the cubs. Frick. Double frick.

Speaking of the cubs - heading back out for the end of spring training this week. Catching Cubs vs. Brew Crew on Thursday. Should be a nice little vaca. Get away from this lovely 'spring weather' we're having. Oh and speaking of vacations...I need to hear more about your eurotrip. Did you see scottie? (sorry had the movie on my mind, case you didn't get that one...)

Okay..so I think I've worn out my commenting 'welcome'. It's more of a mini-post. Going to be up in Madison on the 12th seeing a concert that night - maybe meet up for coffee or drinks after if you're free? let me know.
aiight. I'm out. Let's talk soon I hope. ;p

I blame you if I start blogging again.