Fun out west
Turns out my friends live about 65 miles away, so the drive out and back was a beast. But, I had a great time and got dinner with them and the trip was well worth it. It’s always great to see faces from home, or the other side of Texas, that are familiar.
Bracket almost done
I’ve been working on my bracket since Sunday when the Selections Committee made their choices for the 65 teams competing in this year’s Tourney. It’s always stressful because it’s difficult to know the difference between a bracket that is simply “all favorites” and one that is “the right blend of favorites and upsets”. Someone should figure out a mathematical way to determine how many favorites and how many upsets should be picked. Maybe a points system could be devised so that the differences in seeding are taken into account (to compensate for the difference in likelihood of a 16 upsetting a 1 versus a 9 upsetting an 8 ). So, it would be something like: You get a total of 14 points in upsets. A 9 upsetting an 8 is worth a half point, a 10 upsetting a 7 is worth a full point, an 11 upsetting a 6 is worth 2 points, a 12 upsetting a 5 is worth 4 points, etc. (Of course this method would really need to be based on statistics, so these number have absolutely no meaning.) Then you pick your bracket, count the upset points and see if your bracket is balanced. Of course, this would only get one through the first round, but then, that’s the toughest round to pick. I’m sure a similar method could be used for picking subsequent rounds, but I don’t feel like thinking about this anymore.
I’m pretty happy with my bracket and I also realize that a lot of it comes down to dumb luck and freak occurrences, so I ain’t losin’ any sleep over it.
Finishing Prince Caspian
I’m about to finish the fourth book in the Chronicles of Narnia series, so I’m out. That’s all I have to say about that.