I Told You There Would Be Madness

    In last week's post, I mentioned how the NCAA basketball tournaments were riddled with upsets.  Well, that turned out to be sort of an understatement.  In the two days after I wrote that post, the last two number one seeds in the men's tourney were defeated.  Ultimately, this would leave a four seed, two five seeds, and a nine seed in the final four, with only one of the teams in a so-called power conference.  That team would be Miami (FL) from the ACC, even though they are more known for football.  Technically, Connecticut is not in a power conference, as the Big East is usually considered a mid-major now that they don't have football.  However, UCONN is the only previous winner still in.  UCONN's last win came from an incredible conference and national winning streak, so we will see what happens this year.  On the women's side, things went pretty much as expected.  Two number ones, a number two, and a number three seed make up their final four.  All four teams come from power conferences, with two from the always dominant SEC.  This includes the undefeated South Carolina team, obviously the favorite.  Yes, there were a few upsets on the women's bracket, with two of the number one seeds losing before the Sweet Sixteen.  Yet, this still lent the women's tournament a sense of regularity.  Nothing too major beyond those loses really stands out, at least not as much as the bloodbaths on the men's side.  I don't think that many people would have chosen any of the men's final four to win it all, except maybe a few UCONN fans, and not many of those.  Seriously, how many people outside of Florida have even kept up with Florida-Atlantic? For the women's final four, South Carolina has been such an overwhelming favorite that they have a better chance of winning it all than did the rest of the Sweet Sixteen combined.  Now, should the four top seeds on the men's side have been changed?  Who can say?  All I can add is that the process needs some retooling to be fairer to the largest number of schools and fans.

Well, Doesn't That Bust My Brackets

    At the time I write this, it is just before the start of the second week of 'March Madness.'  The first week of the NCAA Men's (and Women's) Basketball Tournament was highlighted by upsets, including what many consider to be the largest upset ever in the history of the tournament.  Farliegh's narrow win over Purdue was only the second time ever that a number one seed had lost in the first round.  The 'real' first round, that is.  Such upsets are almost becoming the norm.  Sure, there has usually been a few upsets every year, but I feel that they are becoming too common.  While such Cinderella teams make for a good story, most cannot maintain that momentum to become champions.  Furthermore, having such smaller teams go far into the tournament can ultimately lower ratings, as the market to watch a small team cannot compare to many of the larger schools.  The problem lies entirely with the way the tournament has been seeded for the last few years.  See, the NCAA expanded the field to include sixty-eight teams, up from the previous sixty-four.  However, these extra teams are not treated the same.  Instead of having the four extra teams play each other, the NCAA chose to have four of the teams that received automatic bids from their conferences go up against each other for two of the sixteen seeds, while the other four teams vie for an eleven seed.  Basically, this invalidates two of the automatic bids, usually those to smaller conferences, so that the bigger, so-called 'power' conferences can have the remaining spots.  These bigger conferences had averaged five or six seeds per tournament, but they now can easily have up to eight with this rule. This is leading to the planning commission to undervalue the smaller conferences' teams.  Just because the competition is not as strong, that does not mean the players and teams are not good.  For instance, the eighth best team in the Southeastern Conference, Mississippi State, failed to win their play-in game.  Farliegh did win their game and managed to upset Purdue before losing to the ninth-seeded Florida-Atlantic.  By focusing more on the power conferences, and placating their large markets, the commission is not ranking the teams as well as they should.  The balance of play is missing when the focus is taken off the smaller schools.  Many of these small schools actually have great teams.  Maybe not any future professional players, but still fairly high-caliber.  Fewer upsets might happen if the notion of the power conferences dominance is removed.  Take the women's tournament as an example.  This marks the first year that the women's tournament went to sixty-eight teams as well.  Previously, such upsets were rare, with at least three number one seeds making the national finals each year.  Sure, the Southeastern Conference once had ten teams in the tournament, but that was mainly due to the overwhelming quality of a few schools during the heyday of Tennessee. This year will mark the first time that not all of the number one seeds did not make the Sweet Sixteen.  This could be another sign that the matching of teams is unbalanced due to focusing one bigger schools, although this instance involved a power conference team (Indiana) losing to a mid-major school (Miami of Florida) and not a smaller school.  Still, the correlation could be made on how seeding should be looked at to make such upsets less likely and competition fairer for small schools.

But You're Not Gonna Reach My Telephones

    This time last year, I didn't own a single smart phone.  I currently have two, plus I am the primary caretaker for my mother's.  How did this happen?  I'm still unsure.  First, the background.  When cell phones first came out, I had no use for them.  I didn't have anyone to call.  I rarely went anywhere on my own, so I didn't have any need to alert someone if I was having problems.  Even when the first PDAs and smart phones came out, I was intrigued, but not enough to actually buy one.  I mean, why waste so much money on something I really didn't need.  Even when the technology improved, including features that tickled my fancy, I stayed away.  I barely even looked at the various books and manuals that came out that would come through my store. In fact, I would wind up getting my MacBook well before I would have a smart phone in my possession.  This would change when my mother got appointed to a local utility board. For some reason, it was decided that the members would need official phones so they could more easily stay in touch.  So, when my mother received her phone, it was going to be me to find out how it worked.  Fortunately, it was an SE model iPhone, so I already knew many of the basics of Apple software.  The particulars of an iPhone were still beyond me.  I would up downloading the manual onto my computer just to get many of the basics down, while my mother checked a book out of the library, possibly on a different model.  I mean, why buy anything for something that technically isn't yours.  My mother was just going to use it for calling about board business anyway.  Well, we wound up using the camera to take pictures of animals we saw while driving or the latest holiday decorations for the store, but not much else.  I mean, I helped my mother make a emoji of herself on it, but that was the most involved with the phone she has ever gotten.  Well, things changed again last year, when my university made a notice that two factor authentication would be implemented for use of many sensitive portions of their online information, including classes.  I wasn't taking any last semester, but I was scheduled to take an exit exam.  While online graduate students like me weren't immediately effected by this change, my mother was freaking out, so much so that she demanded I get a phone as soon as possible.  Of course, I was going to get an iPhone just for the connectivity.  I looked around for a few weeks before choosing an outline and option that worked good enough.  I mentioned that story in a previous post last year.  I wound up not needing the phone until this semester, and I mentioned that story in a post a few weeks ago.  So, what about my second phone?  Last month, the board notified my mother that she would be getting a new phone.  She was also told that the old one was now hers to do with as she pleased.  She could've sold it, but she probably wouldn't get that much for it.  So, I am now keeping it.  The current plan is to use it for one of my gaming accounts once the game departs Facebook.  Sure, the old phone doesn't have a cellular plan connected with it, at the moment, but it should still work with wifi connections.  If that doesn't work, I might have to borrow my mother's phone so that I can keep both accounts going without having to switch them back and forth on the same phone and risk losing one.  Her phone is the previous year's model to mine, so there shouldn't be any problems with that part.  I also bought a book and a manual for my phone, as the former is helping me get better acquainted with the regular features while the latter is for the latest iOS updates.  In fact, I'm still learning some new things about my phone.  For instance, there appears to be a way to connect a mouse via Bluetooth to my phone so I can play my game the way I would like to.  I haven't made it work yet, but if it does, this would make playing my game less frustrating.  I should add that playing Golf Clash with just swiping the screen isn't too hard, I still like my mouse.  And no, I still barely use my phone for calling.  Mostly, it has just been calls to an out-of-state supplier.  My phone has a better long distance plan than my store's landline. I just don't have anyone else I need to call out of the blue.

This Is What I Call Music, 2022 Edition

    It is an annual tradition for me to create a puzzle based on some of the top songs of the previous year.  I've been doing these puzzles for a few years now. The first batch of puzzles, which included versions for other media, have links with NSFW links.  Fun times. I stick to music, mostly, now, with less risqué links. Basically, I take a song title and change the words, and then I have my viewers guess the correct title.  For example, if you saw "Preserve and Store That One's Lacrimal Fluids," the answer would be "Save Your Tears" by The Weeknd with Ariana Grande, the number two song for 2021 and the number forty song for 2022.   This year continues a trend with various problems.  For instance, many songs, such as "Tears," are repeated from the previous year.  Also, there is a preponderance of one-, two-, and three-word titles.  Shorter titles such as these are harder to rework.  A few songs from last year had letters in their titles, and they are not easily changeable.  Not to mention I sometimes can't figure out exactly what they mean.  (What is "P" and how does one 'push' it?) Finally, slang terms and foreign words are quite popular as well.  For the former, I might not know what they stand for.  The latter, there really isn't any fun in directly translating a word, if I'm able to do it at all.  Still, I have managed to come up with more than enough for this puzzle.  As a hint, the titles are are roughly arranged in their end-of-year order.  The answers are found at the bottom of the page.

1. Periods of Intense Above Average Temperatures
2. High-end Flight Seating
3. Extremely Large Power Stores
4. Low Temperature Cardiac Muscle
5. Multiple Occurrences of Inappropriate Behavior
6. Entirely Used Up for the Convenience of That Person
7. Quickly Perambulating Vertically on One Particular Prominence (Supreme Deity-Approved Contract)
8. The Entirety of the Madrigal Family Refuses to Mention Their Eldest Extant Male Relation, the One with Ocular Ability
9. Conversation Occurring During Nocturnal Hours, Particularly Well after Twelve
10. Singular Occurrence of Inappropriate Behavior
11. Desensitized Minuscule Insect Arthropod
12. Destroy This One's Spiritual Component
13. Vodka, Lime Juice, and Ginger Beer Cocktail
14. That Person There Is Entirely Correct in Their Assumption
15. Granular Particulates Entered This One's Western Footwear
16. Arrive Concurrently Where We Have a Mutual Admiration
17. Brachial Phalanges Were Counter-Manipulated
18. That Person's Best Interest Is to Vacate These Premises
19. Of a Not Exactly Saintly Nature
20. Round Meanderings outside the Limits of Our Municipality

ANSWERS

1. Heat Waves
2. First Class
3. Big Energy
4. Cold Heart
5. Bad Habits
6. Wasted on You
7. Running up That Hill (A Deal with God)
8. We Don't Talk about Bruno
9. Late Night Talking
10. Bad Habit
11. Numb Little Bug
12. Break My Soul
13. Moscow Mule
14. You Right
15. Sand in My Boots
16. Meet Me at Our Spot
17. Fingers Crossed
18. You Should Probably Leave
19. Unholy
20. Circles around This Town

Time for a Pop Quiz, Okay, Taste Test

    For some reason, this is the time of year that many new varieties of soft drinks debut on the market.  I don't see why, but I am glad to try out many of the new flavors.  Not all of them, because I usually don't try ned editions of Coke unless they seem to be really new.  And I don't have to buy an entire carton of the stuff.  This means I won't be trying the new limited edition Rosalia inspired flavor, as I have yet to find an individual bottle or can anywhere.  To be honest, I'm not too thrilled by the supposedly rosé flavored drink.  First off will be the strawberries and cream variety of Dr Pepper, because I am a lifelong Dr Pepper fan.  This new drink 'popped' up with very little fanfare.  So little in fact that I could barely find anything online about it on the very day I buy my first bottle! Usually, there would be something, but this new flavor came out of nowhere.  I tried it over ice, as that is my preferred drinking style.  The first sip was overwhelmingly strawberry, not subtle at all.  It was almost too much berry flavor.  The creaminess of the vanilla was more pronounced in the aftertaste.  This was true as I continued drinking, even after the first strawberry flavor began to wane.  The vanilla continued to be dominant even in the last few drops that were mostly water from the melting ice, long after the strawberry was lost.  I few days later, I tried a second bottle, because Dr Pepper.  This time, the strawberry flavor wasn't as strong on the first sip, but it was still the dominant flavor, with the vanilla being stronger in the aftertaste and in the last diluted last sips.  Now, years ago, Dr Pepper had two different tries at Berries and Cream flavors.  The first time was raspberry dominant with the second try a more evenly mixed berry taste.  I didn't like the former, and I don't remember the latter being available all that much.  Dr Pepper supposedly still has a Cherry Vanilla flavor (it was one of my all-time favorites), but I haven't seen it sold locally in over a decade.  Next, Pepsi brought back its Marshmallow Peep flavored drink.  It was originally an online-only exclusive, but this year it is available in stores.  I tried this one without ice, but mixed with a small amount of water instead.  Well, I can truthfully say that it tastes like Peeps.  Very, very much so.  Now, I find regular Pepsi to be fairly sweet.  This flavor was explosively so. However, it did mimic the flavor of Peeps perfectly.  I could barely finish my sample; it was that sweet.  [Before you ask, yes.  I know that there is an exclusive variety of Dr Pepper flavored marshmallow Peeps.  I have bought some, but I am waiting until it is closer to Easter before trying them.  Stay tuned.] I do not really recommend trying it.  Unless you are into extra-sweet drinks.  Finally, I tried Pepsi's new citrus drink, Starry.  It is replacing Pepsi's Sierra Mist, if you didn't already know.  At least there was news about this new drink online, as well as the Peep flavor.  I again had the drink on ice.  I usually don't drink that much citrus drinks.  I have the occasional 7-Up, but it is usually the cherry version.  On the first sip, I immediately realized what was different with Starry.  Instead of the usual lemon dominant lemon-lime drink, Starry is lime dominant.  It is a subtle difference, but I could taste it.  I as continued drinking, the flavor profile remained consistent.  Now, I could be wrong with the lime, but I can usually taste such subtle differences, even if I am not that familiar with lime.  It definitely wasn't mostly lemon.  I am still undecided if I want to try it again.  The drink wasn't bad; it just wasn't my main flavor choice.  Give me my cherry Dr Pepper any day.