Been too long Bracket Update – Jan. 26, 2012

ram124 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:52:28 +0000

I’ve been busy, OK! I don’t feel great about this effort, but I needed to put something out. Shooters keep shooting.

Last 4 in: Stanford, Xavier, Southern Miss, and NC State

First 4 out: BYU, Iowa State, Arkansas, Arizona

Finals Week Bracket Update

ram124 — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:21:05 +0000

I don’t have any finals to take but I still have plenty of reason to really HATE finals week.

Horrible Monday Night Football match-up
No decent hoops games until Saturday
8,001 Facebook posts of “I should be studying, but…”

The good news is the bubble is starting to shrink ever so slightly. Not really, but at least I am starting to see some trends and able to pick out a few teams who aren’t absolute shit. Also, I moved my beloved Mississippi State Bulldogs up again (4-seed this week, up from 5). Oh and Christmas is only two weeks away….SOLID. Enough with the drivel-dravel, here’s the new bracket:

Last 4 in: Seton Hall, Virginia Tech, St. Joe’s, Wichita St.

First 4 out: Texas, New Mexico, Temple, Ole Miss

Bracketology: 2011-12 NCAA Bracket Projection v1.1

ram124 — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:27:27 +0000

If you thought my pre-season bracket was ridiculous then you’ll probably think even worse things about my latest bracket update. The bubble isn’t even a bubble yet. There’s just a jumbo-sized container of bubble mix spilled on the kitchen floor. Not even worth playing with but it’s been a month so I felt compelled to give some sort of update. Here’s the damage:

Last 4 in: Wichita St, New Mexico, Northern Iowa, Virginia Tech

First 4 out: Texas, Ole Miss, Miami, Washington

New to the party: Denver, Murray St, Charleston, Weber St, Virginia, Nevada, St. Louis, Northern Iowa, Boston U, San Diego St, Indiana, Illinois, Norfolk St.

Ride had a curfew (Out): Detroit, Miami, Hampton, Tennessee State, Montana, Utah St., Villanova, Stony Brook, Oklahoma St., VCU

Puked after Jager shot, passed out in corner (WAY OUT): St. Bonaventure, Notre Dame, UCLA

Conferences with multiple bids:

BIG 10 (9)

Big East (8)

ACC (5)

SEC (5)

Big 12 (5)

Pac 12 (3) —Ya, i know.

Atlantic 10 (3)

Mountain West (3)

Missouri Valley (3)

C-USA (2)

WCC (2)

Bracketology: 2011-12 NCAA Bracket Projection v1.0

ram124 — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 04:51:43 +0000

I spent last weekend in Dallas, TX. Undoubtedly, my least favorite American city. I blame most of this on Ricky Williams, the Dallas Cowboys, Tony Romo, and the drunk asshole sitting right behind my family at the 1998 Cotton Bowl who just wouldn’t shut the hell up. But that’s not the purpose of this post…

College Basketball season is back. Over the next 5 months, 345 teams will go on a unique journey. They’ll stop in places like Terre Haute, Chapel Hill, Storrs, and Logan. They’ll walk into buildings like Cameron Indoor, Bud Walton, the Breslin Center, and The Pit. They’ll witness the strength of Jared Sullinger, big shots from Ashton Gibbs, the savvy of Doug McDermott, and the potential of Anthony Davis. They’ll do all of this with one thing in mind: a trip to the Big Dance.

I’ll be on a type of journey as well, and it started in Dallas last weekend. I spent Friday night in my hotel room with a notepad, a few printouts, a college basketball preview magazine, and my iPhone. My goal: to pick the 68 teams whose journey will lead them to the Big Dance.

Last season was my first crack at bracketology, and you know what? I didn’t do half bad. In fact, I did pretty damn good. Better than Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm, the so-called experts in the field.

http://averageatbest.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/bracket-math-how-did-i-do/

Enough with the bullshit. I give you my first bracket projection of the season. I’ll update every 2 weeks during until conference play starts, then I’ll give a weekly update. Enjoy!

5 Favorite New Orleans Po-boys

ram124 — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 01:32:05 +0000

A text message from my roommate about a recent trip to Crabby Jack’s birthed several thought bubbles about my favorite po-boys in the city “over by the river, under the lake.” In order to come up with a proper list, I had to get a proper set of guidelines. I came up with one: Must be served on New Orleans style french bread. That’s it.

5. Roast Beef – Tracey’s (formerly Parasol’s) -There are a lot of great roast beef po-boys in Nola, but this one stands out for its consistency. Not too messy, but not too dry. Meaty. Delicious.

4. Pulled Pork with Purple Cabbage Cole Slaw – Boucherie -I’ve actually never had this in the restaurant, but seek it out at any festival where the purple truck is found. There’s something magical about this mixture of pork and cabbage.

3. Fried Green Tomato with Shrimp Remoulade – Crabby Jack’s – This one is just plays on the heartstrings. I feel like my mom fried green tomatoes a lot when we were kids, so I have a pretty strong affinity for them. I love the combo of the hot, crispy tomatoes and the cold shrimp remoulade.

2. The Ray Ray – Sammy’s - OH MY. I’m not sure where to begin or end, but I’ll just say this: It’s big, it’s filling, and there is NO WAY you’re eating this in one sitting (unless you’re Jonathan Parrish during Mardi Gras)*. Two fried chicken breasts, grilled ham, and melted swiss. Fully dressed, of course. Served on a full length loaf of french bread. The Ray-Ray actually tastes as good as the novelty of the gigantic po-boy. *Note: JPar is notorious for his love of fried chicken and ability to eat a lot of it.

1. Shrimp Po-boy – Parkway Bakery and Tavern -It ain’t flashy, but I don’t care. Some people might say it’s hard to mess up and shrimp po-boy and others might even say they’re all the same. But the people who say these things have obviously never been to Parkway Bakery. Parkway’s batter is top-notch and they don’t over do it. The shrimp is big, fresh, and lightly breaded. Fully dressed with a whole mess of Crystal Hot Sauce and I’m in heaven.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention some of my other favorites that didn’t quite make the list:

Oyster Loaf – Casamento’s (Served on texas toast. Otherwise, it’d be on the list).

Hot Sausage Patty Po-boy – Sammy’s Deli

Slow Roasted Duck – Crabby Jack’s

Roast Beef Po-boy – Parkway Bakery

Fantasy Football Overreaction: Week 5

ram124 — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:11:16 +0000

One thing is obvious: I have 3 too many fantasy football teams. Vomit inducing performances each week have dropped my interest to somewhere on par with professional water skiing, and just below underground midget wrestling. I’m also thinking about getting a hamster (naming him “Pete Rose”) and getting him one of those spinning wheels. Hours of endless fun, I’m sure. No one is sure who started the dumpster fire, but Bo Jackson and Michael Bolton want absolutely nothing to do with it.

No Talent Ass Clowns: 1-3. 9th place (of 12)

Led by…Well, no one. This collective fucking joke of a football team is destined for a 3-10 regular season. Jones-Drew is sure to get injured, leaving me with zero viable running backs. Mike Williams might as well tear an ACL or have season ending sports hernia surgery because he ain’t helping us.

Total Garbage (formerly Totally Tecmo) 0-4 10th (of 10)

The season was over when… I got drunk at the draft and handcuffed Pierre Thomas and Mark Ingram. Ouch. Typing that hurt. Lately, the play (or lack of) from my Steeler twins, Roethlisberger and Mendenhall, has provided a 757′s worth of jet fuel to the fire.

Bayou Beavers 2-2. 10th (of 16)

MEGATRON. That’s it. Other than Johnson, this team sucks like Kimmy Gibbler.

Sunday Night Entertainment…Fireworks?

ram124 — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 03:18:26 +0000

Fireworks lit up the Mid-City sky for about five minutes this evening. I wandered out around the neighborhood to get a better look and to find out as one of my fellow Parkview inhabitants put it, “what’s the occasion, man?”

Twitter is full of explanations with the most common being the filming of a movie (GI Joe 2?). Whatever the occasion, it was a nice sight on an already gorgeous night in New Orleans.

Wild Night For The Wild-Card

ram124 — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:25:58 +0000

I’ll just leave this here

I Wish I Could See This In Person More Often

ram124 — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:04:10 +0000

Ain’t nothin like it…

Fantasy Football Overreaction: Week 3

ram124 — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:00:34 +0000

With the 3rd Pick of the 4th Round in the Cowbell Correctional Facility draft, drafting DeAngelo Williams seemed like the lesser of about 10 running back evils. Cedric Benson. Christ, no. Beanie Wells. Not touching him. Hey, Javhid Best might break out, right? Pssshhhh. Knowshown Moreno has some potential. Yeah, so did Corey Feldman at one point in his career. All of these choices would have been infinitely better than Williams with the exception of Moreno (if everyone in Denver wasn’t so hard up for Tebow they might realize that KM is never healthy and hasn’t been since high school). But when you name your team after a reference to a has-been soft rock singer the choice is simple. Draft Williams. Who cares if he hasn’t done shit since 2008?

Thank you, DeAngelo. Seriously. I put some sort of blind-retard faith in you and this is what I get. Cam Newton is laughing at me and it feels bad, man.