True Madness

So I will admit I don't follow college basketball very closely at all 49 weeks out of the year.

It's pretty much that I just don't care enough. To stay interested in the game, I need someone to cheer for. And to know who to cheer for, I need a personal connection of some sort with one of the teams.

BYU is the only team I've ever really cared about (even if they never make it past the first round). It's in my blood. Somehow, even living in Kansas since age 10, I've never felt a strong connection to the Jayhawks (Sorry, Katie).

But that all changes in March.

I fill out a bracket. Since I don't follow the teams, I really have no legit way to judge who I think will win, so my choices are mainly arbitrary (sometimes I have systems, like which mascot would win in a fight, or who I like better if I know people from the state). I love to pick upsets, but usually pick way too many and pick the wrong ones.

But the point is, all of a sudden, I care. I cheer for teams I didn't really even know existed the week before (Morehead State, anyone? Binghamton?). But they matter to me now because I wrote their name in my bracket.

Also, I LOVE to watch people watch March Madness. Especially in the first round, because there are so many games. My favorite place to March Madness people watch is the Wilk Terrace. The people just get so into it. I love it.

So I just wanted to announce that my bracket is kind of treating me well right now.
This is so unprecedented. After the first weekend of play, I was ranked lower than 3 million in espn.com's rankings. I am currently 264,773. Maybe not too exciting to most of you, but I feel great about it. I'm even ranked number one in my friends pool. Holla.

Small hiccup: I picked KU to win it all. First time in a while I have done that--and they let me down. So as this is the highest I will probably be ranked during the tournament, I'm sharing it now.

Why am I writing this right now when I'm already sleep-deprived and should be reading my Evidence homework?
There are some questions I just don't know the answer to.


P.S. Birthday shout-out today goes to Grandpa Crane. March 29, 1905 - August 1996. What an incredible man.

Going Green

I'm not Catholic and I don't drink, but that doesn't mean that walking around and seeing everyone wearing green doesn't fill me with a bit of joy.

This post was inspired by Mr. Ricks, my carrel-next-door-neighbor, when, as we enjoyed our sherbet floats courtesy of Lexis Nexis, he asked me if my favorite Irish band was House of Pain. So I thought to myself, "If I were to make a St. Patrick's Day playlist, what would be included?" Here is what I have come up with:

House of Pain"Jump Around," of course, because 1. it's their only song I know and 2. it's awesome. But their singles "Shamrocks & Shenanigans" and "Top O' The Morning To Ya" also sound promising.

U2 - duh.
The CranberriesI bet you didn't know they were originally called The Cranberry Saw Us. What does that even mean? Their debut album was "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?" Great motto for life. We only ever had "To the Faithful Departed," of which I probably only listened to one song, but that is definitely enough to merit space on this St. Patty's Day Playlist.

Sinead O'ConnorNothing compares to "Nothing Compares 2 U."
I also want to take this opportunity to thank Sinead for the inspiration she gave to another great singing group, Hot Sundaes.

Gotta love St. Patrick's Day.

***Today's post is dedicated to ValPal. Happy Birthday! Love you!***

She did it again

Welp she did it again folks. Jill went and got herself published in the Daily U again. If you would like to know what she had to say just take a little gander below:

Saved by the Bell

Because of the recent flood of letters complaining about the BYUSA elections, it seems that many people think the only reason people run is to win the scholarship and to pad their resume, which will help them get a job, get married and fine happiness and success (as suggested by the author of the March 4 letter, “Life Without BYUSA”). While I see no problem with joining together as a student body – or at least 10 percent of a student body – to support someone in achieving their dream of campus-wide fame as the figurehead leader of BYUSA, perhaps we should make sure their motivations are not tainted by promises of dollar signs and dates.

In an episode of “Saved by the Bell” (Season 1, Episode 13, “The Election”), Zack only runs for student body president for the free trip to Washington. When Mr. Belding tricks him into believing the trip has been canceled, Zack realizes he doesn’t actually want the job. Maybe we should trick all the candidates into believing they will receive no personal benefits from winning the election. Then only those with the purest of intentions will remain to be the face of BYU. But I ask you, would it really be so horrible for us to help these souls improve their resumes and dating lives?

There you have it. You may notice this is not the first time Saved by the Bell was used in Jill's letters to the editor. she says 'it's just that art imitates life.' Yes, she just referred to SBTB as art. I really believe that all of our best life lessons can be learned from SBTB.

P.S. Recently I’ve been feeling newly committed to our blog. I mean I sit in front of a computer all day and I rely on others blogs for entertainment to get me through the day so I feel I should be giving a little to the blogging universe rather than always just taking. We’ll see how long this feeling lasts.

One more thing. I had to speak in church yesterday. I hate speaking in church because of the amount of nervousness that overtakes me but yesterday wasn’t terrible. I only had one awkward moment where I lost my place and my face turned red but whatev. I would just like to give a shout out to Darren who helped me spice up my talk with sports analogies and another shout out to Cara who managed to included Zac Efron’s swoop bangs in her talk. It’s just that few can manage to get their bangs to look so good.