The NCAA tournament is one of the nation's great, perhaps greatest sports events. The Superbowl draws more attention in a shorter time but "March Madness" takes place over three weeks is all around the country and draws a lot of office pool betting.

I think the whole thing is great fun and I was fortunate enough to attend games in Salt Lake City this year between teams playing to go to the Final Four. Watching Butler win on Saturday was grand sport indeed. Press access is overlooked by those who do it for a job but since I am mostly in an office, it was a welcome respite.

Anyway, here is how the no-picks pool has gone:

Jody - Kansas, BYU, Sam Houston State, Northern Iowa

Larry - Pitt, Marquette, Siena, Georgia Tech

Amy - Purdue, Oklahoma State, Morgan State, Florida

Jared - Baylor, Xavier, Vermont, Old Dominion

Layton - Maryland, Tennessee, Murray State, San Diego State

Mike - Duke, Michigan State, Houston, Saint Mary's

Randy - New Mexico, Clemson, UC Santa Barbara, Louisville

Dan - Vanderbilt, UNLV, Oakland, UTEP

Mark - Villanova, Notre Dame, Lehigh, Minnesota

Sarah - West Virginia, Texas, Ohio, Missouri

Cottle - Georgetown, Richmond, Robert Morris, Utah State

Dirk - Kentucky, Temple, Arkansas-PB, Washington

HiHo - Ohio State, Gonzaga, East Tennessee, New Mexico State

Heidi B. - Kansas State, Butler, Wofford, Cornell

Kent - Syracuse, California, North Texas, Wake Forrest

Emmie - Wisconsin, Texas A&M, Montana, Florida State

Elite Eight and half of Final Four

Jody - Kansas, BYU, Sam Houston State, Northern Iowa

Larry - Pitt, Marquette, Siena, Georgia Tech

Amy - Purdue, Oklahoma State, Morgan State, Florida

Jared - Baylor, Xavier, Vermont, Old Dominion

Layton - Maryland, Tennessee, Murray State, San Diego State

Mike - Duke, Michigan State, Houston, Saint Mary's

Randy - New Mexico, Clemson, UC Santa Barbara, Louisville

Dan - Vanderbilt, UNLV, Oakland, UTEP

Mark - Villanova, Notre Dame, Lehigh, Minnesota

Sarah - West Virginia, Texas, Ohio, Missouri

Cottle - Georgetown, Richmond, Robert Morris, Utah State

Dirk - Kentucky, Temple, Arkansas-PB, Washington

HiHo - Ohio State, Gonzaga, East Tennessee, New Mexico State

Heidi B. - Kansas State, Butler, Wofford, Cornell

Kent - Syracuse, California, North Texas, Wake Forrest

Emmie - Wisconsin, Texas A&M, Montana, Florida State

How do I teach my children? (NCAA folks scroll down)

Like most parents, I try really hard to teach my children how to be confident enough and smart enough and wise enough to grow up and be great and happy people. That, in a sentence, is what I am trying to do.

Logan, in kindergarten is an affectionate, fun and confident kid. And . . . violent?

Dresden came home from school this week and told me how horrible his substitute teacher was. I tried to be empathetic but all I could gather was that she got mad at him and some others for no reason. Maybe there was a reason or maybe she had plenty of reason but I decided since I didn't know, I would just listen and hope that later he would know that I do listen to him and what he says is important.

Later in the car he told his mother the same story. Little brother Logan also had a substitute teacher and he loves to jump into conversations if he feels that he has something similar to share and often if he doesn't.

Logan: I had a substitute teach too and she had a giant butt!
(Secretly I found this funny but I can't laugh at such comments because then I am enforcing inappropriate things on many levels and this theme goes on.)

Mom: Logan I hope you didn't say that in front of her.

Logan: I didn't

At this point Shannon and I realize that isn't enough of an explanation why such remarks, ney, such observations just aren't okay.

Mom: Logan that could realllllly hurt her feelings. You don't like it when people tease you. How does it make you feel when people tease you?

Logan: I feel good after I punch them in the face

And despite how inappropriate that was, I am still laughing.

Photo of the week (or whenever), NCAA below

I took this photo (which you can click for a much bigger version in much better detail) while in Romania visiting my friend James C., who was there for around two months working. The chance to go somewhere I had not been and wasn't likely to go to again, was too good to pass up so I braved long, long, long flights to Bucharest.

James was busy working during the day so that left me free to roam Bucharest by myself. I obviously don't speak Romanian but I couldn't sit around so I went to museums and walked through the historic city. It was beautiful with some architecture that reminded me of Paris and then it was gray from its years of communism and there were always fantastic Eastern Orthadox churches to be found.

This photo was on a door on a street in an older but residential part of town. I like it and it evokes for me the sense of decaying beauty I saw. I would like to return and the tiny, tiny part of my brain that sees business opportunities, thinks this place is ripe.

The fight to make it to the Sweet 16 is on, and it is looking bloody for the favorites. I will make the latest casualties in blue to honor Kansas.

Jody - Kansas, BYU, Sam Houston State, Northern Iowa

Larry - Pitt, Marquette, Siena, Georgia Tech

Amy - Purdue, Oklahoma State, Morgan State, Florida

Jared - Baylor, Xavier, Vermont, Old Dominion

Layton - Maryland, Tennessee, Murray State, San Diego State

Mike - Duke, Michigan State, Houston, Saint Mary's

Randy - New Mexico, Clemson, UC Santa Barbara, Louisville

Dan - Vanderbilt, UNLV, Oakland, UTEP

Mark - Villanova, Notre Dame, Lehigh, Minnesota

Sarah - West Virginia, Texas, Ohio, Missouri

Cottle - Georgetown, Richmond, Robert Morris, Utah State (Cottle gets this team in this pool every time they make the field).

Dirk - Kentucky, Temple, Arkansas-PB, Washington

HiHo - Ohio State, Gonzaga, East Tennessee, New Mexico State

Heidi B. - Kansas State, Butler, Wofford, Cornell

Kent - Syracuse, California, North Texas, Wake Forrest

Emmie - Wisconsin, Texas A&M, Montana, Florida State

After the NCAA first round

After one round of NCAA games, things are a little crazy. Power conferences aren't so great and "weak" conferences like the Pac-10 are undefeated. St. Mary's is legit as are other low seeds that are gooooood teams.

A couple of our participating players were pulverized in a single round, which I don't recall happening before. Anyway, here we are:

Jody - Kansas, BYU, Sam Houston State, Northern Iowa

Larry - Pitt, Marquette, Siena, Georgia Tech

Amy - Purdue, Oklahoma State, Morgan State, Florida

Jared - Baylor, Xavier, Vermont, Old Dominion

Layton - Maryland, Tennessee, Murray State, San Diego State

Mike - Duke, Michigan State, Houston, Saint Mary's

Randy - New Mexico, Clemson, UC Santa Barbara, Louisville

Dan - Vanderbilt, UNLV, Oakland, UTEP

Mark - Villanova, Notre Dame, Lehigh, Minnesota

Sarah - West Virginia, Texas, Ohio, Missouri

Cottle - Georgetown, Richmond, Robert Morris, Utah State (Cottle gets this team in this pool every time they make the field).

Dirk - Kentucky, Temple, Arkansas-PB, Washington

HiHo - Ohio State, Gonzaga, East Tennessee, New Mexico State

Heidi B. - Kansas State, Butler, Wofford, Cornell

Kent - Syracuse, California, North Texas, Wake Forrest

Emmie - Wisconsin, Texas A&M, Montana, Florida State

Random.org & NCAA No-Picks Tournament draw on my blog (sorry regulars)

For several years, I forget how many, I have either participated or have run a low-cost, no-pick NCAA tournament bracket including this year.

Sixteen people sign up and each player gets four teams randomly selected from the NCAA pool of 64 teams with a chance to win money. It makes things fun because after the draw you suddenly have four new teams to root for. To make things fair, each player gets a 1-4 seed, and one team each from the 5-8, 9-12 and 13-16 seeds.

The longest surviving seed in the three lower groups wins its owner a small amount of money and the overall tournament winner gets all the remaining cash. It adds some tension to games with teams that usually nobody would care about.

This year rather than doing the old school drawing with paper out of a hat, I went to Random.org to generate the field instead of paper. This is a very cool true random number generator (not the artificial random algorithms) built and operated by Mads Haahr of the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin in Ireland. This sounds very impressive. Best of all and most importantly, it means Dungeons & Dragons needs no dice.

Anyway, here is the 2010 draw, forever preserved in the Webiverse in the order participants signed up. I will update whenever possible rather than flood mailboxes with e-mail.

Jody - Kansas, BYU, Sam Houston State, Northern Iowa

Larry - Pitt, Marquette, Sienna, Georgia Tech

Amy - Purdue, Oklahoma State, Morgan State, Florida

Jared - Baylor, Xavier, Vermont, Old Dominion

Layton - Maryland, Tennessee, Murray State, Sand Diego State

Mike - Duke, Michigan State, Houston, Saint Mary's

Randy - New Mexico, Clemson, UC Santa Barbara, Louisville

Dan - Vanderbilt, UNLV, Oakland, UTEP



Mark - Villanova, Notre Dame, Lehigh, Minnesota

Sarah - West Virginia, Texas, Ohio, Missouri

Cottle - Georgetown, Richmond, Robert Morris, Utah State (Cottle gets this team in this pool every time they make the field).

Dirk - Kentucky, Temple, Arkansas-PB, Washington

HiHo - Ohio State, Gonzaga, East Tennessee, New Mexico State

Heidi B. - Kansas State, Butler, Wofford, Cornell

Kent - Syracuse, California, North Texas, Wake Forrest

Emmie - Wisconsin, Texas A&M, Montana, Florida State

Celebration time!

I am so pleased to read today that HBO has given the green light to George R. R. Martin's series "A Game Of Thrones". Season 1 will have 10 episodes. Time to subscribe to HBO!

Hip hip HORRAY!

This barely has a place on my blog but it is a book I am passionate about and has the potential to be excellent drama.

If you care, you can read some more here.

Too good not to post

I read tonight that "Avatar" is one of the two favorites to win "Best Picture" at the Academy Awards. With 10 nominations I find predictions a little sketchy but there is a lot to be learned from other award shows.

I liked "Avatar" a lot. But it isn't the best film of 2009 by any stretch.

I found this little gem that is too good not to post:

CFV 426 - Avatar/Pocahontas Mashup FINAL VERSION from Randy Szuch on Vimeo.