Not quite as mad

It’s pretty sad not getting into the CBI and CIT if you’re a Big West team with a plus-.500 record.

… I had been looking forward to going to the Big West Conference final to see Long Beach State play in it since the end of the 2008-09 college basketball season. I just knew they would get there.

Then the new Big West Conference season happened.

LBSU didn’t get off to a good start to conference. They would lose their first two games and struggled to get to a .500 league record and a No. 3 seed in the tournament.

Since they struggled, I did not ask for the conference finals day off. Then I saw the 49ers advance to the finals.

For a while I wondered if I was going to miss the second Big West title in three years in person.

So from work, I watched the finals. Sure enough, I made the right decision. LBSU lost and did not get the NCAA automatic bid.

I did, however, hold out hope they would get some sort of post season bid.

Well they couldn’t get one of those either. So it looks like I’ll ask for next year’s final off.

… Speaking about the tournament, the NCAA is considering adding 31 more teams to the tournament. Personally, I think it is a bad idea, however, there has to be some sort of expansion.

My solution is simple, three more play-in games so three more at-large teams can get in. Most of the No. 15 and No. 16 seeds are first round fodder; it would be better if they cannibalized each other rather than take up a bracket spot for truly deserving teams.

… Recently two celebrities passed away: Peter Graves and Merlin Olsen.

People will remember Peter Graves as the lead actor from the TV show “Mission Impossible” the pilot in the movie “Airplane!” and narrator from A&E’s show “Biography.”

Merlin Olsen will be remembered as a NFL Hall of Famer, actor on the show “Little House on the Prairie” and NFL color commentator on NBC.

For me, it wasn’t any of those reasons I thought of first. The first thing I remembered was movies they acted in that were featured on the TV show “Mystery Science Theater 3000.”

Olsen was in the movie “Mitchell” that featured Joe Don Baker as a shabby police investigator. Graves was in “Parts: The Clonus Horror” and stared as a presidential candidate who hid the secret about a clone farm.

Both movies were trashed by the main characters from the show. I don’t know if it is a good thing the first thing I thought of when I heard their passing, but it shows the lasting impression of MST3K.

Better than usual

Did you know there have been three sequels to the “Free Willy” movie? Dumbass whale.

… The Winter Olympics just ended and what looked to be unforgettable games turned interesting rather quick. Sure there were problems at the start, but there were some memorable moments. The men’s hockey gold medal game between the United States and Canada was very entertaining. The game ended 3-2 Canada winning in a 4-on-4 overtime period.

There were other memorable moments. Unfortunately for me, I’ll remember the games for the extra amount of work that had to be done. To top it off, one of my co-workers took his vacation and it made some shifts impossible to make deadline. It’s been a long time I’ve worked a shift that made me want to quit at the end of it.

I survived and I’ll become a better person for it.

… I went to my first Ash Wednesday since high school probably. It was one of the most unorganized masses I’ve been to, but it will go down as one of the most memorable.

At first, the priest asked if someone from the congregation could lead in singing. The mass went relatively fast than a regular mass. After the ashes, the gifts still needed to be presented. The problem, no one was assigned that. The priest asked that it needed to happen and had to ask again for someone to bring down the gifts.

All in all, it was a memorable mass. And in case you’re wondering, I gave up red meat and soda for Lent.

… February ended and that means I just need to survive the next 31 days of March. I’ve had some let downs during this time, but not too bad. In fact, I’ve done my best to try and not let things bring me down. I’m hoping I can continue the trend for the next month.

The Modem Day Massacre

I started my laundry at 1 a.m. that makes me a winner.

… For a while there, I was worried; but it’s nothing major. I had this feeling that my home phone was giving me problems like it did last year. I was afraid that if Verizon came back they would need to come back into my apartment to fix it which would cost me.

I could see on my modem that it would lose and gain connection to the DSL. I picked up my phone and discovered there was no static like last time so I was even more afraid since that was the problem last time.

As a last ditch effort, I decided to leave the modem on to see what would happen. Sure enough it seemed to fix itself. Since then, the modem connection hasn’t always been perfect, but I think it is the problem.

Just how much longer I can keep going like this, I don’t know.

… The Winter Olympics began with tragedy before the opening ceremonies. Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died during a training run. The accident was horrific.

To say the games have not gone according to plan is an understatement. The opening ceremonies had a malfunction with the torch lighting.

In fact, I don’t think there was much build up for these games; as almost they just showed up one day. Unfortunately it took a tragedy to get my attention.

… I’ve seen five of the 10, yes 10, movies nominated for best picture by the Academy Awards. The last movie I saw was Avatar.

Visually, it’s stunning especially in IMAX 3D. It’s a wonderful story too. But if you were to ask me to say a line from that movie, I couldn’t. So of the five movies I’ve seen – The Blind Side, District 9, Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air – I would consider it worthy of the nomination. Is it better than those four other movies? No. Can I pick my favorite one of the group, probably not. So this should be a close race.

More respect for Ringo Starr

With January gone, what am I to do?

… The heaviest rainfall I’ve ever seen since I moved to Southern California fell recently and I missed most of it being in Las Vegas.

The day before I left it felt like the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” was coming true. As it rained the city’s drains failed to do their job. I needed to get a haircut and went to where I go and the owner wasn’t worried about it until I got there and the water began to enter under her door. We did our best to prevent water getting in, but there is only so much a towel could do.

She cut my hair and the water kept coming in. When she finished the water had made it easy to see where the low points of the salon was as the water pooled there, then it crept back up to where we were. By the time she finished, the rain had stopped and the water finally started to recede.

For the next hour I helped her get the water out of her shop by first mopping until the water went down enough to open the door to sweep out the water. Luckily for us, two plumbers came by with brooms to help get the water out.

… The next day my friend and I left for Las Vegas ahead of the next storm. By the time we got to Las Vegas it was a light rain. It continued to rain off and on for the next 30 hours. The good thing about the rain was that the workers passing out cards for strippers scattered from the Strip.

For the trip I managed to break about even – not including money for all things not gambling. I actually won $74 from a nice old lady that avoided the 7 like nobody’s business on the craps table.

The only real problem I had was the night before we left as I couldn’t go to sleep. The problem was probably due to the fact I was so worried about getting to work that day. So with no sleep and up at 6 a.m. I told my friend we needed to go and so we left at 7:30. I drove to as far as Baker when my friend took over. I fell asleep for a little bit, but was up for a while then after dropping him off; I drove home in the rain. I got home and rested for another hour before going into work.

Still, it was an excellent trip.

… A little more than a week after going to Las Vegas, I went to Fresno to visit family. Their youngest daughter always wanted to play with me; at times it was a bit much. My father was also there and I talked to him for a while. Later on that first night my sister, her husband and I played Beatles Rockband for about two hours. It’s a fun game. I played drums and sang. Needless to say playing the drums was harder.

The next morning I took my dad to Turlock to watch my niece, then later my nephew, play basketball at a church league. My sister from the Bay Area met us later. I was finally able to give away all my Christmas presents. I also made lunch for the family with the help of one of my sisters.

After the last game, my dad and I rushed back to Fresno to attend Saturday Night mass that was being done in my mother’s honor. When we got to the church, my brother in law told me that we would be bringing up the bread, wine, holy water and donations up. I was in the back with my sister’s youngest daughter bringing up the donations. Knowing my niece, I knew she wanted to carry up the basket of donations on her own so I stood behind her. When they gave her the basket the person in charge of giving the gifts said that the basket was bigger than her. My niece did a good job of carrying the basket and I only helped a little. When we got to the front the priest took the basket from her and commented, “The basket is bigger than her.”

We went out to dinner then later Beatles Rockband.

It was a fun trip all in all. So yes, I can’t wait to go back – and not just because of Beatles Rockband.

… With January over, it is finally upon me. The traditional worst two months of the year begin with 59 days to go until April. I hope that this year it’s not so bad, but I’m not really holding out hope. I can only imagine what could happen. January was a good way to start 2010 as nothing really uneventful in a bad way happened to me. By this time last year, I had a friend laid off and was told about the transfer to West Covina.

The good news is that friend that was laid off has a new job that he’s starting on the first of the month. Hopefully the job freeze is melting. So maybe the next two months won’t be so bad … maybe.