It's a Telltale Sign, When It's Chairs Up and Time To Go

(Uncle Tupelo, Slate)

God bless Slate. They're giving us a "Hillary Deathwatch" daily update with her chances of winning the Democratic nomination. Proof that somebody out there loves me. My faith in the natural order of things is on its way to restoration.

In other news, let's all put on our favorite burnt orange and root, root, root for the Longhorns tonight against Stanford and their twin towers.

I Went Down to Houston and I Stopped in San Antone

(Ryan Adams, My Sweet Carolina)

Ok, so my "mascot bracket" post might not have been as funny as I thought while writing it, though in my defense, it all made sense in my mind at the time. But with the NCAA Tournament starting tomorrow, I'm going to go ahead and get my predictions out there. Normally I end up going for the upset picks, and sometimes I nail them, but usually I lose at least one, sometimes as many as three, of my final four teams in the first weekend of the tournament. Hopefully not this year, as I've pretty much stuck with the higher seeds to advance to the later rounds.

East Region
Sweet 16:
1. North Carolina over Arkansas
2. Notre Dame over Washington State
3. Louisville over Oklahoma
4. Tennessee over South Alabama

Final Four - Tennessee over North Carolina. I know, they're playing in Charlotte. I don't care.

Midwest Region
Sweet 16:
1. Kansas over Kent State
2. Vanderbilt over Clemson
3. Wisconsin over USC
4. Georgetown over Davidson

Final Four - Kansas over Georgetown.

South Region
Sweet 16:
1. Memphis over Mississippi State (this will be one of the better games of the tournament)
2. Pittsburgh over Michigan State
3. Stanford over Marquette
4. Texas over St. Mary's

Final Four - Texas over Memphis. Game's in Houston. That's gonna be a huge factor.

West Region
Sweet 16:
1. UCLA over Texas A&M
2. Drake over Connecticut
3. Baylor over Xavier (my only major upset in the entire field)
4. Duke over Arizona

Final Four - UCLA over Duke.

Of course, the idealist in me has a Kansas v. Texas finals, in the rematch to end all rematches. Texas wins in San Antonio, 84-78. Book it.

I Make the Bed, I Change the Sheets, I Even Learned How to Use the Washing Machine

(Wilco, Hate It Here)

Amanda left for D.C. yesterday morning, and I am so bored. I mean, I've had a ton of basketball to watch yesterday, and this afternoon, and I've gotten a lot of work done. I also did 3 loads of laundry, went to the grocery store, did the dishes, and I'm actually hoping to iron some shirts. I've also listened to a bunch of new music I picked up from a friend at work, and I'm sure I'll end up posting some of that soon, but man, when she leaves me to my own devices, I either get a lot of stuff done, or I end up eating popcorn and snickers bars for dinner. This weekend, thankfully, it was the former.

Right now I'm watching 3:10 To Yuma, and it's pretty good. I didn't think I was a big fan of westerns, other than Tombstone, and my feelings about Russell Crowe haven't changed in close to a decade. He's a great actor, but why does he have to be such a grumpy son of a bitch all the time? Would it kill him to smile? Ever? Amanda and I saw American Gangster in the theater back in the fall, and that's the first of his movies I've seen in the theater. I will always rent them or watch them on tv, but I had a moratorium on paying for his box office intake, but I lifted it for American Gangster, which I enjoyed. The dude is in some good movies, that's for sure. It's just too bad he's such a douche.

Texas played a hell of a game against Kansas today, but ended up losing the Big XII Tournament. We ultimately scored a 2 seed in the South region, though, which gives us games in Little Rock, Houston, and San Antonio, should we get that far. That's pretty damn awesome, if you ask me. Unfortunately, we play Friday, and I don't think I'll be able to see the first round game.

Ok, I'm done rambling. The rest of this movie's all that stands between me and hitting the sack. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to some of this new music.

For Those About to Barack, We Salute You

(AC/DC, For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) sort of)

I knew there was a reason I liked this guy so much.







(thanks to both Amanda and Jeremy for emailing me these pics!)

I Wonder Should I Get Up and Fix Myself a Drink (no, no, no)

(The Beatles, I'm So Tired)

Man, am I ready to get this thing over with. 8 days to go, until I can finally shave this beard.

This week I'm working only mornings so I can study in the afternoons and evenings. Today was loads of fun, going to work on about 3.5 hours sleep, then coming home and studying Commercial Paper. It's a good thing we have a coffee maker. Tonight I'm going to be immersing myself in Secured Transactions, then Professional Responsibility (like that really matters), and hopefully will come home in time to catch the second half of the Longhorns game against A&M. Need that win.

In other news, new Mountain Goats album drops tomorrow (8.0 from Pitchfork!). Very excited. And yes, I do listen to music other than Wilco. Sometimes even voluntarily.