The General

So I guess there's some sort of blogging challenge floating around the interwebs this month? I think it's in the style of NaNoWriMo or Movember or Toyotathon or something. Anyway, I was asked recently if I do any blogging and, since I started writing for TVLatest, I admitted I haven't done much "pleasure blogging." So let's try this.

I'm in the process of de-cluttering my surroundings. No, I'm not a Hoarder – not a capital-H one, at least – but trying to live more simply involves getting rid of the little pieces of paper that I only look at whenever I go through a cleaning kick. Pieces of paper such as this:

REVENNNNNNNNGE! Okay, so some backstory is in order. In my 11th grade history class we had this semester-long program simply known as The Game. The class was divided up into teams that formed countries. These countries would develop land, cultivate resources, and amass wealth throughout the semester. Grades earned on tests would generate revenue, but most of the action took place during a weekly Game Day. After 15 minutes of "World Bank Time" – the opportunity for teams to purchase land, buildings and military pieces – we would go into the Q&A round. Each team would send someone up to The Panel to answer a question related to material covered in class since the previous Game Day (or material we were about to be tested on if an exam was coming up). A correct answer would allow teams to collect money, place acquired land and pieces on the giant world map game board, or move a piece already on the board. Oh yeah, the world was not just limited to our class: LB taught 5 classes a day, each with its own set of countries competing to amass the most wealth. The top three countries in the world at the end of the semester got to go to a pizza party.

Now would be a good time to mention that I took the game VERY seriously. LB started calling me The General, though looking back I think it would be safe to elongate that nickname to General Asshole. For example: each non-resource game piece a team possesses needs to have the country's logo on it in ink. Otherwise, other teams could swoop in and erase the logo and place their own branding on it, claiming it as their own. Oh, and you better make sure farms are on plains and not mountains, otherwise some guy with a little too much time on his hands may pull the piece off the board. Rules are rules.

Along with the psychotic auditing of game pieces, I really got into the idea of pitting teams against each other. It should be noted, Survivor didn't premiere until the end of this school year. One time I wrote a fake note about one team plotting to go after another and had one of my friends in a class earlier in the day drop it so that the second team would find it and get distracted. It worked for about 30 seconds before they decided to declare war on us. Don't worry! They spelled "missile" wrong on their war declaration, making it invalid. I actually cackled like a Bond villain after I pulled down the failed declaration from its bulletin board.

I'm trying to remember the circumstances leading to the war declaration above. The cackling incident happened in Fall Semester, while the image was from Spring Semester (different games; same churlish behavior). The problem second semester was that all five of the people on my team had opinions and loved digging in heels at the first hint of a disagreement. I was friends with all three members of MCA, but their territory was positioned in such a way that attacking them regularly was fairly easy. Both they and I made things personal when it really should have just been business. Unfortunately, I did not win those disagreements within my team, so the "revenge" felt more directed towards me than the team as a whole.

On the last Game Day of the semester, MCA was successful in nuking us. Unfortunately, we had a Superchance (a bonus card with awesome powers) that nullified up to 3 successful attacks. While they groused about my general awfulness ("General Awfulness"?) we successfully attacked a country that had acquired, but failed to secure, the wealth of one or two other countries. We managed to secure our haul by the end of the day, and we ended up winning despite ourselves.

This is the Cliff's Notes version of The Game, but feel free to mention it at any gathering of my friends from high school. The stories are fantastic.

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Name Game

We're filming project two for my multi-cam class on Wednesday. It is a pilot for a webseries about a sex addict who opens his own dating service in his sister's basement. I'm one of the writer/producers for the project and things are going pretty well. Our set looks awesome, particularly the basement that is filled with the most random crap from the prop closet.

The prof is a bit of a perfectionist, particularly when it comes to policies and legal issues, so we've had to tape over some logos and brand names (despite learning in law class that we don't have to do that, but whatever). Here are some of the renamed board games we have on the set:

PE Ratio:



You and your doctor friends invest your payments after elective surgeries. Bet on the wrong stock and your patients will be abuzz!

Mouse Rap:



Bust laps around the board, bust rhymes with your homies, collect cheddar as you go. I got first on Lil Squeekz.

I don't play golf, so this is what I do as producer since my main job is pretty much done.

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Rube Goldberg Thursday: Nintendo

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The Madness of Rube Goldberg

Why does ESPN allow you 10 brackets for March Madness? I realize I am probably the last person who should be complaining about this, given how much I hate basketball. But I like college basketball, I like choosing, and I like bracket formations, so this annual ordeal is perfect for me, I suppose.

This is only my third year of actually participating in the madness beyond "Oh, is it that time of year again?" My first foray I think has been and will be my best year. With so little knowledge about the sport I wasn't going to be biased by team loyalties or statistics. All I knew was that you never, ever pick the 16 seed to advance. However, the rest of my picks were based on the following criteria:

1. I considered going to the law school on the campus.
2. I recalled the school having some vague association with a good basketball team at some (not necessarily recent) point.
3. I knew someone who went to the school.

I think I actually made it to the Elite 8 with this strategy.

Last year I made the mistake of using prior knowledge and experience to factor into my picks. Granted, there were some early upsets, particularly in Tampa, that pretty much ruined me. It doesn't help if your Final Four pick from a section is knocked out in the second round. I have no confidence in any of my brackets this time around. For example, I called a UNC/Syracuse matchup before the selection process this past Sunday. All my biases are kicking in, as are my past experiences with bracket busters.

What I don't understand, though, is how anyone could fill out 10 brackets. I have my pool bracket, a secondary bracket which I think is at least 70% the same as my pool bracket, and then my experimental brackets. There's the bracket where you pick all the high seeds. There's the bracket where you select the team with the better win-loss record. I did a bracket where I picked the winner based on proximity to Detroit (surprise - Michigan won that bracket).

My favorite bracket, both last year and this year, is the Coin Flip bracket. Heads: Top line advances; Tails: Bottom line advances (exception: 1 seed advances to second round). This has led to a semi-bizarre Final Four:

*Pittsburgh (1) - The East is the most sensible bracket with Pitt, Xavier, VCU, and Duke in the Sweet Sixteen.

*Wake Forest (4) - Okay, this isn't that unlikely, and I have Wake Forest advancing to this point in at least one other bracket.

*Western Kentucky (12) - The South is the most bonkers section of the bracket. UNC loses to Butler in the second round. Western KY beats Akron in the second round. Clemson takes on S F Austin after unseating Oklahoma. The good news is if even half of this turns out to be correct, I will be raking in the points.

*Cornell (14) - Memphis out in round one, UConn out in round two, and that's just two results. The only reason the West isn't as insane as the South is because BYU, Washington and California make it to Sweet Sixteen. If the South is the Bracket Buster, the West is Upset Central.

The finals are between Wake Forest and Western Kentucky(!) with Wake Forest taking it all.

So how are your brackets looking? Are you using all 10? What sort of filler brackets are happening?

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