My son Peter's teddy bear...
Mar. 19th, 2011 03:15 pm
I've been avoiding talking about this because I didn't want to jinx myself, but I don't think I really have a shot so I'm just going to do it. It's NCAA tourney time, and as has been the case the past few years, I wasn't paying attention to college basketball until March Madness started. It's always fun to participate in the office pool, though -- even though last year I finished dead last. >< This year I read an article in Slate about how to win your office pool by finding the best 'bargains' in the field and betting on those. It uses a combination of computer statistics, national averages (of which teams people in general are voting for), and your own intuition. I decided to try it out, since I haven't had much luck with other methods in the past. I have to admit, as I was making my selections, I still had to fight against the desire to pick the teams I normally would pick.
I'm actually doing fairly well! After the first round (day 2), I was tied with two others for second place in the office pool! I've called 5 out of the 7 upsets that have happened so far (but unfortunately also picked some that didn't pan out). We have 30 people playing this year, so the winner gets around $200 and also 2 tickets to a Sounders game. :P
I don't know if my streak will continue after today. I personally think my picks are kind of crazy and really have no chance (I have Texas winning it all), but it's an interesting experiment. At least I'm doing better at this point in time than I was last year.
The worst point in the tournament was when I was closely following the UCLA-Michigan St. game, and was super excited when UCLA eked out the win. Only to check my bracket and realize that I hadn't picked UCLA! *headdesk* Oh what a high price to pay for my disloyalty!! I should've just picked them to advance from the first round anyway, just to avoid a scenario like this. Losing the point and feeling bad about not believing in them. Sigh. It's just that every year I get overtaken by sentiment and I didn't want to get caught up in that again. But the Bruins did lose their game today, which is annoying because hardly anyone picked them to move on, so if I was going to be wrong about them, it'd have been great if they continued to win and everyone else's brackets got messed up in the process. :P
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In non-basketball news, I've planned out the next 3 things I'm going to cook.
1) Alton Brown's pan-fried chicken.
2) Cha-Siew, which is Chinese BBQ pork.
3) Chili crab, which is supposedly a popular Singaporean dish (according to this blogger from Singapore; I'm sure![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
adelagia will correct me if I'm wrong), except instead of crab (or lobster, which is what the blogger used), I'm going to use shrimp ... and fish balls, because I'm a rebel.
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The walk in Discovery Park with H. was lovely today. We totally lucked out because the sun came out for the first time in like WEEKS so it was a perfect day for a walk. I could totally feel how out of shape I was though, omg.
Also, no more fears on the "misunderstanding" front. As I suspected, I was just being paranoid. :))
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Four little Fringe comments. ( Spoilers. And beware of spoilers in the comments too. )
I'm actually doing fairly well! After the first round (day 2), I was tied with two others for second place in the office pool! I've called 5 out of the 7 upsets that have happened so far (but unfortunately also picked some that didn't pan out). We have 30 people playing this year, so the winner gets around $200 and also 2 tickets to a Sounders game. :P
I don't know if my streak will continue after today. I personally think my picks are kind of crazy and really have no chance (I have Texas winning it all), but it's an interesting experiment. At least I'm doing better at this point in time than I was last year.
The worst point in the tournament was when I was closely following the UCLA-Michigan St. game, and was super excited when UCLA eked out the win. Only to check my bracket and realize that I hadn't picked UCLA! *headdesk* Oh what a high price to pay for my disloyalty!! I should've just picked them to advance from the first round anyway, just to avoid a scenario like this. Losing the point and feeling bad about not believing in them. Sigh. It's just that every year I get overtaken by sentiment and I didn't want to get caught up in that again. But the Bruins did lose their game today, which is annoying because hardly anyone picked them to move on, so if I was going to be wrong about them, it'd have been great if they continued to win and everyone else's brackets got messed up in the process. :P
========
In non-basketball news, I've planned out the next 3 things I'm going to cook.
1) Alton Brown's pan-fried chicken.
2) Cha-Siew, which is Chinese BBQ pork.
3) Chili crab, which is supposedly a popular Singaporean dish (according to this blogger from Singapore; I'm sure
adelagia will correct me if I'm wrong), except instead of crab (or lobster, which is what the blogger used), I'm going to use shrimp ... and fish balls, because I'm a rebel.========
The walk in Discovery Park with H. was lovely today. We totally lucked out because the sun came out for the first time in like WEEKS so it was a perfect day for a walk. I could totally feel how out of shape I was though, omg.
Also, no more fears on the "misunderstanding" front. As I suspected, I was just being paranoid. :))
========
Four little Fringe comments. ( Spoilers. And beware of spoilers in the comments too. )
