At the NCAA Regionals for the opening day session in Winston-Salem. This is Texas Tech warming up for their game with BC.
NCAA Regionals in Winston-Salem Baby!
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Yearly Archives: 2007
News Flash: We Boys are Crotch Watchers
I know you ladies will find this shocking, but there’s now some proof that most men won’t look you in the eyes when they’re talking to you. In 2005 two researchers did an eyetracking study on 255 people, or in other words they tracked where people looked on a screen when browsing the web, and came up with some interesting info. The full article is here, but for our purposes we’ll concentrate on this part:
When photos do contain people related to the task at hand, or the
content users are exploring, they do get fixations. However, gender
makes a distinct difference on what parts of the photo are stared at
the longest. Take a look at the hotspot below.Although both men
and women look at the image of George Brett when directed to find out
information about his sport and position, men tend to focus on private
anatomy as well as the face. For the women, the face is the only place
they viewed.This
image of George Brett was part of a larger page with his biographical
information. All users tested looked the image, but there was a
distinct difference in focus between men and women.Coyne adds
that this difference doesn’t just occur with images of people. Men tend
to fixate more on areas of private anatomy on animals as well, as
evidenced when users were directed to browse the American Kennel Club
site.
We really are a bunch of dogs.
Found via Boing Boing.
Alligators, Meet My Rear Parts
Heard the expression, "Up to my ass in alligators"? That’s me until at least May 3. My client’s conference is April 30-May 3, and that means I’ll be busy dealing with exhibitors and sponsors, coordinating with the hotel and decorating company, and who knows what else between now and then. So if you don’t hear from me for longer stretches of time than normal it’s probably just me fighting off the gators.
Chinese Eminent Domain
I used to think that the annexation rules we have here in North Carolina were crazy, but now that I’ve seen this story about what developers are doing to a guy in China who’s refused to sell to them I’m thinking we have it pretty good. They literally dug a huge moat around the guy’s house and he won’t budge on his rather high price. I hope he has a tall ladder.
Fec’s VFD Political Theory
My buddy Fec has his own theory about the "electability" of our current dozens of candidates for POTUS. Boiled down all he’s saying is that if you can’t be elected to the local volunteer fire department you can’t be elected POTUS. Here’s his rundown of the current candidates:
John Edwards – not a chance.
Hillary Clinton – sorry, no women allowed.
Barak Obama – sorry, no blacks allowed.
Al Gore – too fat.
Joe Biden – too stupid.
John McCain – vets are an automatic. Besides, he’s been around.
Newt Gingrich – too geeky.
Mitt Romney – sorry, no Mormons.
Bill Richardson – sorry, no wetbacks.
Chris Dodd – sorry, too old.
Dennis Kucinich – too boring.
Duncan Hunter – lead pipe cinch.
Mike Huckabee – a fiscal conservative from Arkansas. Yeah, he’s in.
Tom Tancredo – Good on his feet. He’s in.
Rudy Giuliani – are you kidding me? The guys are soiling themselves at the prospect.
I think Fec’s on to something, and I’ll take his opinion over Russert’s any day.
5,475 Days and Counting
That picture to the left is of me and Celeste 15 years ago today. I know that it’s nothing new to hear that time flies, but I don’t care who you are I think you always end up reaching these milestone days and wondering how you got there so fast. Every once in a while I do something silly like calculating how many diapers I changed over the span of about seven years (about 16,000 for the record) and it floors me when I see it. So if instead of thinking about being married for 15 years I think about it as being married for 5,475 days it knocks the wind right out of me. But I mean that in a good way.
I’m not going to speak for Celeste, but I can tell you that I’m happier and more fulfilled now than I was 15 years ago, or even 7 years ago. Like so many couples out there Celeste and I had moments when we weren’t sure we’d get from day 2,555 to 2,556. We had three young children, money was tight, and whatever romantic notions we had about life had been knocked out of us by the real thing. Somehow we weathered those storms and emerged as a much stronger couple than we entered. Now at day 5,476 I can honestly say that I can’t imagine my life without her.
And of course there are the kids. They actually represent our first trial because we had our oldest, Michael, before we’d been married even a year. Erin followed 13 months later and Justin rounded out the bunch just 2 1/2 years after that. Three kids in four years will either break you or turn you into a kind of mush that you hope someday turns as hard and firm as concrete. Luckily we went the mush route, and today we stand at the beginning of what we’ve been warned will be our greatest trial: teenage children.
I have confidence we’ll weather this trial okay as well. You see, Celeste is not only a magnificent woman she’s an incredible mother. She knows when to be empathetic and she knows when to be stern. Virtually every decision is made with the kids in mind and they know it. She’s a great balance for me since I’m a "just get over it" kind of guy and I’m about as empathetic as George Patton.
Finally there’s her treatment of her fourth child, yours truly. She’s supportive when I need her to be, kicks me in the butt when I need it most, and she makes sure my world continues to spin in the right direction. She’s truly my better half, and I don’t know where I’d be without her. I do know that I couldn’t be close to this happy.
As a couple you don’t weather fifteen years of marriage and three kids without experiencing some, uh, changes. So I’ll end by giving you a picture of that fresh faced couple you see above after said changes. I feel luckier than any man should be allowed, and all because Celeste chose me over 15 years ago. Believe me, it’s better to be lucky than good.
Another Reason for DC Sports Fans to Thank Me for Moving
I’ve written many times about my reverse DC sports curse. I moved there as a kid in ’72 and the Senators left town. I moved away in ’04 and the Expos/Nats promptly moved in. I moved away from my alma mater and they go to the Final Four. Now I find out that Congressional Country Club will probably be the home for Tiger Woods’ hosted invitational to be held in July from the 5-8. They are waiting for the club members’ approval (like they’re gonna say no) and then it’s all over but the ink drying on the papers. Just one more reason DC should be glad they’re rid of me.
Side note for anyone who plans on attending the event: wear a bathing suit. You won’t be swimming but it will be so hot and humid you’ll feel like you are.
Travel Tip of the Day for DC
Here’s a free tip for you. If you’re traveling to the DC metro area and need to find a place to stay around $100/night but don’t want to stay in a flea-bag motel or 100 miles outside the city then you might consider the Comfort Inn right off the Beltway at the Van Dorn exit. It is literally right off the exit so you can be on the Beltway in 30 seconds and from there you can be on 395 north to DC in five minutes or to the Wilson Bridge in five minutes (without traffic). Even better they provide a free shuttle to the Van Dorn Metro Station, which is about a 1/2 mile down the road. You can also take Eisenhower Avenue into Old Town Alexandria without having to get on the highway.
As far as amenities go the hotel is nothing fancy, but it’s clean and the rooms don’t smell like an ashtray. The staff was efficient when I stayed there, and the bed was comfortable. One problem is that if you’re on the Beltway side you can hear the hum of traffic but it’s easily drowned out by the TV on low volume and really it’s white noise. All in all it’s an economical place to stay without the inconvenience of being in the hinterlands.
So Close
Mason came within two minutes of making the NCAAs again this year, but then VCU’s Eric Maynor picked Mason’s pocket twice in succession and scored nine straight points himself to put VCU into the big dance. (Click on the video on the right of the page to see the sequence).
ESPN’s Simmons is right that this is one of the best individual college hoops moments you’ll see. Just an incredible individual performance at a huge moment in the biggest game of the year (yet) for his team. The bummer to me is that VCU would probably have received an at-large bid even if Mason had won, much like Mason got an at-large last year. It will be interesting to see if Old Dominion gets an at-large for the CAA; hopefully Mason’s performance last year after their controversial-at-the-time at-large bid will pave the way for the CAA and other mid-major conferences to be considered for second bids more often. If I had to bet, though, I’d say ODU will be playing the NIT.
By the way, I haven’t liked Billy Packer for a while, and his comments re. Mason last year ticked me off on a personal level (I think he’s a hack for the ACC, Big Ten, Big East, Pac 10 industrial complex) and his commentary on the Duke-Carolina end of game fiasco last Sunday made me wonder if he’s lost his marbles. Still, I think he was right when he said that the potential national champion could be beaten on any given night by at least 50 of the 64 teams that will be playing in the tournament. He didn’t think that those 50 could all win the tournament, but that the parity in the field is great enough that on any given night 50 of those teams could beat anybody. It’s gonna be fun to watch.
If I Get Lucky
If I get very lucky George Mason will continue its improbable run through the CAA tournament and beat VCU in the finals Monday night. Then if I get very, very lucky they’ll draw Winston-Salem for the first round of the NCAAs. (I think W-S is hosting this year). Since I didn’t get to see my alma mater last year when they won their region at the Verizon Center in DC to go to the Final Four it would be nice to see them just 15 minutes from my house at the LJVM Coliseum.
I still find it a cruel irony that I could live in DC from 1972 to 2004, the exact years that DC did not have pro baseball and within two years the Nats come to town and my school goes to the Final Four by winning their regional semi-final and final just blocks from where I worked for years. Maybe this year I’ll get my make up by getting to see Mason in the early rounds and then a couple of weeks later seeing the US in the Davis Cup against Spain. I’ve already got the second half of that equation covered so here’s hoping GMU comes through.
Befuddled 
