March Madness Madness!

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Two-crazy-weeks-produce-a-Final-Four-full-of-sur?urn=ncaab-wp1357

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegebasketball/story/unexpected-foursome-kentucky-uconn-butler-vcu-heading-to-final-four-032711?true=true

http://www.ncaa.com/menshighlights/?c=turner_mmod_mens_recaps&p=513722&s=5081586&i=926655

NCAA March Madness has really lived up to its name this year.  For the first time in history no 1 or 2 seeded teams have made it into the final four.  This is also only the third final four with no 1 seed.  Going into the final four is University of Connecticut from the Big East, Virginia Commonwealth University from the Colonial Athletic Association, University of Kentucky from the Southeastern conference, and Butler from the Horizon League.   Although the University of Kentucky and University of Connecticut are not as surprising as VCU and Butler they are all have been underdogs in at least one tournament game. 

Each team made it into the final four by beating off big teams, buzzer beaters, and determination.  The 3^rd seeded UCONN beat 6^th seeded Cincinnati 69 to 58, then 2^nd seeded San Diego State 74 to 67, then 5^th seeded Arizona 65 to 63.  The 4^th seeded Kentucky beat 5^th seeded West Virginia 71 to 63, then a major upset to 1^st seeded Ohio State 62 to 60, then their biggest accomplishment happening last night when they beat the 2^nd seeded North Carolina 76 to 69.  The 8^th seeded Butler upset the 1^st seeded Pittsburg 71 to 70, then 4^th seeded Wisconsin 61 to 54, and then 2^nd seeded Florida 74 to 71.  The 11^th seeded VCU beat three seeded Purdue 94 to 76, then 10^th seeded Florida State 72 to 71, and then the biggest upset of them all against 1^st seeded Kansas 71 to 61.

Each of these teams deserves to be at the spot that they are in.  I do not feel that any of them slid into this position by luck.  University of Kentucky beat two top ranked teams; Ohio State and the University of North Carolina.  Each of these teams has screwed up fans brackets across the nation.  Very few in the nation picked Virginia Commonwealth, University of Connecticut, University of Kentucky, and Butler as their final four.  I know I sure did not. 

The next match up will be Saturday April 2^nd between Virginia Commonwealth and Butler and then the University of Kentucky against University of Connecticut.  It will be big dogs versus big dogs and the underdogs against the underdogs.  In the national championship we will have more of a powerhouse against one of the totally unexpected teams. 

If I were to make my prediction I would pick VCU over Butler not only because they are the complete underdog of this entire tournament but because they are coming off of a HUGE upset against KU.   This big win will hopefully give them momentum to take over Butler.  In the other game I am going to pick University of Kentucky over University of Connecticut because they have out beat two major power houses and do not seem to be backing down any time soon.  That will put the University of Kentucky and Virginia Commonwealth in the finals and I am going to pick University of Kentucky to win it all.  With the way this tournament has gone I am sure the exact opposite will happen.  Will be know this Saturday!

TIME OF MY LIFE!!!!

Over Spring break I and nine other girls on my soccer team went to South Padre, Texas.  TIME OF MY LIFE!!!  We took two cars and one group left on Thursday and the other group left on Friday.  I was in the group that left on Thursday evening drove six hours to our first stop, Burleson, Texas.  Burleson is home to one of the girls in our group.  We arrived at 3am, woke up and she showed us around her town.  That day we drove another two hours to Austin, Texas.  We visited her friends at the University of Texas.  Very big change for us from Missouri Southern.  We experienced fraternity and sorority houses.  There was definitely a lot more school pride here and it was a great time.  The next day we drove another two hours to San Antonio, Texas where a girl that graduated on our team last year lives.  This is where we met up with the second group that left on Friday.  All together again, at last.  That night we all went to a 2-stepping bar that blew buffalo run out of the water.  We had already had so much fun and we had not even made it to Padre yet.

Sunday morning we woke up and started on the last leg of our trip to SOUTH PADRE!!! This drive was five hour.  We stopped and got groceries and the essentials and checked into our hotel around 5pm.  Our hotel was right on coca-cola beach, which is where all the performances were located.  We could not have picked a better spot!!  That night we went to a place called Louie’s.  I have never seen so many people packed into one place before.

Monday morning our team woke up went on a run together and then headed to the beach.  Our basic routine for the next three days was wake up at nine, run, eat, beach until five, shower, nap for an hour, get ready, out for the night.  On the very last day I and three other girls went jetskiing! I was very sore that night from being thrown off of it over ten times. 

Wednesday night we all stayed up all night making friends and living the last night to the fullest.  We met and hung out with Syrus from the real world Boston.  We definitely went out with a bang. 

Thursday morning we were exhausted and started our seventeen hour drive back home.   We got home at 5am Friday morning where I went to work for six hours, went home slept, woke up and worked another ten hour day.  No matter how tired I was I still caught myself smiling from my trip.  Well worth it.

We have been depressed ever since.  South Padre with my best friends has been the best time of my life.  There was never a bad moment or any disappointments.  No arguing or anything.  I would not change one part of that trip for a second.  I could write on here forever all of the stories and everything that happened but I may just spread this trip out into three different blogs.  Ha I hope everyone enjoyed their spring break as well!!

Old Habits Die-Hard

Our country is known for many things. Probably one of the biggest would be how over-weight and lazy we are. I don’t know how many shows are on TV now that deals with morbidly obese people. I usually don’t watch TV much, but when I do, I almost always see one show talking about weight loss. America is getting to the point of two extremes of weight, either really skinny for fear of becoming overweight, or very overweight. Little girls now are so pressured to look perfect, there’s this super model image that is advertised almost everywhere so when they don’t meet that image or standard eating is usually the number one comfort, which is sad. But it’s not just girls, boys have it the same way. I’m not saying because of the advertisement our country has become obese, I just feel like it’s a contributing factor. However, when you have the parents that feed their children junk food constantly and teach them horrible habits there’s not a lot you can do either. They learned from their parents and their parents learned from their parents and so that leads to this long line of bad habits that is hard to fix. Also, bad eating habits lead to health issues that can be passed on to children as well. I grew up in a house that ate healthy, which at the time I hated. When I wanted a snack my mom gave me an apple, no chips or cookies for me. I loved going over to friends house and raiding the fridge and cabinets. They had pop tarts, Oreos, fruit roll ups everything that a kid could want. When I started to get older though, I became more aware of what I was putting into my body, and what was healthy for me. Instead of eating fries and burgers for lunch, I started making sandwiches and bringing fruit, or I would just make a salad for lunch. I do not understand how people cannot grasp the idea of eating healthy. I get that the food does not taste as good without butter but there’s moderations that barley change the taste. Sadly though, many people do not cook a lot anymore. My mom cooked dinner every night when I was little. Who would you when there is literally every single type of food at a drive through restaurant in your town. Seriously, there is a McDonalds in probably almost every town in America. Who has the time and especially the money to make a sit down meal, when a cheeseburger only costs a dollar? I can’t blame people for trying to save money, when it’s scarce right now. Third world countries are desperate for food, and the United States is in an obesity epidemic. That doesn’t seem right at all. However, I love my country, and am so proud to be an American, and I believe that we’re getting better about our eating habits. This just takes time to fix, old habits die-hard.

College Choices

The United States has a lot of variety when it comes to the types of colleges people can to attend. An important factor in choosing a college might be the amount of time an individual wants to spend taking classes, but because of the different academic systems colleges provide, some complications can arise. There are three different types of academic terms schools or colleges can adhere by and they are a semester system, a trimester system, and a quarter or quadmester system. Usually, a semester system divides the year into two terms, mostly around 15-18 weeks. This system is very common for most American colleges. A trimester system cuts the academic year into three terms, generally around 10-12 weeks. Lastly, the quarter or quadmester system cuts the year into four ten-week terms and also counts the summer as one of the terms in the academic year. The hours earned is the biggest difference between semester and quarter system schooling. As said before, the semester system roughly cuts the school year in half, usually around 15 weeks each. When the two semesters are joined together they constitute 30 weeks of teaching. So if you look at the quarter system, and then the semester system you will find that three academic quarters are equal to two academic semesters. As a result, credit earned in quarter hours converts to semester hours at 2/3 of its value, and semester hours converted to quarter hours are actually worth 3/2 of it’s value. In other words, three quarter hours are equal to two semester hours. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_term#United_States. Another difference would be the amount of time spent taking classes. The quarter system can keep you more alert and you’ll be able to finish classes you do not like much faster. When taking semester classes, you have to take the classes, such as general education classes that may have nothing to do with your major for the entire sixteen weeks. On the other hand, you get longer breaks while on the semester system stretching out the classes, and giving professors more time to assess the class and maybe make adjustments to students who need more help. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/660798-semester-system-vs-quarter-system.html. Another difference I think is important would be the amount of breaks each system has over the school year. The semester system has a general Spring, Winter, and short fall break whereas quarter systems have breaks almost every three months. Also, when most students attending a semester system college are done with classes in the winter, quarter system students are still enrolled in classes and have a significantly less amount of break time. So of course when visiting friends it is sometimes difficult to be on the same break schedule if one was in a quarter system school and another in a semester system school. http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=65275. Personally, I think that I could attend either one. Quarter systems seem to be easier when looking at the class load, and break times between each quarter, but not many people attend these colleges as well as it is hard to transfer credits going to a semester based system.

Gas Prices

1.)    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/07/california-gas-prices-highest_n_832312.html

2.)    http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/03/07/gas-prices-rise-time-drill-baby-drill/#

3.)    http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Editorial-Board-Blog/2011/0307/Gas-prices-too-high-Obama-may-not-think-so.-He-s-pumped-to-use-high-oil-prices

Last week my Mom called me and told me to fill up if I could because the prices were going to rise, boy was she right! My Mom says she remembers when gas prices were under a dollar.  I barely remember when gas prices were under two dollars. 
In the past couple of weeks the gas prices have risen substantially across the country.  “The new Lundberg Survey finds gas prices have jumped nearly 34 cents over the last two weeks across the U.S.” (1)  The average gas price across the country is around $3.50 per gallon.  California is really bringing up the gas prices with their average being $3.898 per gallon. 
Just how much higher will the gas prices rise? Many experts are predicting $4 a gallon gas in 2011 and $5 a gallon gas in 2012.  My tank holds about 14 gallons.  I am no math major but that means in 2011, the year I graduate and take on all my debt from school and start commuting to my graduate school I will be filling up my tank for a near seventy dollars!!!!
“The former president of Shell Oil, John Hofmeister, has been already predicting $5 a gallon gas in 2012 long before the unrest in Middle East and North Africa.” (2)
The rise in prices leads Americans to produce the slogan “Drill Baby Drill” in reference to the fact that America needs to stop being so dependent on other countries to produce our foreign oil.  I’ll say that I do not have much knowledge on this topic, but from the information I have gathered I am shocked that America is not looking for more ways to produce our own oil.  We are already in an economic crisis, counting on other countries to supply one of our most important goods is astonishing.  I agree with the argument that if America became more pro active in becoming more energy independent and free from foreign sources of fossil fuel we would help pull ourselves from this major economic crisis we are in.  Producing our own goods would enhance us economically in more than one way.  Producing our own goods would require the man power to do so.  Implementing the man power to create and maintain these power plants will open up jobs to many Americans which is an important factor that could  potentially help pull us out of this recession.
I’ll be honest when it comes to the production of oil and where we get our crude oil from I am clueless.   I really learned a lot from this blog and the information I gathered, but I still have no idea how to even go about fixing this problem.  The economies in other countries that we get our oil from are unstable.  The economic stability poses a problem for the United States to receive our oil.  With the demand for a supply that is difficult to obtain rising, the prices are going to continue to rise until the economic issues are solved.  How long will that be? I am not sure even Obama can answer that one.  Ha

Speed up, and slow down AT THE SAME TIME!

Have you ever wanted time to speed up but slow down at the same time?  Boy do I know that feeling, especially lately.  11 days until our spring break trip to Padre!!!! Of course I am counting down the days and can’t wait for it to get here.  On the other hand, I have A LOT of things to do in the mean time.  Three tests, three papers, one paper summary, and a few quizzes all in that time.  That is just one example.

I am also anticipating my living situation next year, but along with that will come with me being a senior and one soccer season left.   I know next year is going to fly by and then I will graduate and be off to grad school, yuck!!

The end of my sophomore year I had made the decision to transfer to Mizzou to finish out college.  That summer I realized I was making a HUGE mistake, looking back on it, it would have been the biggest mistake I would have ever made.  Girls on our team usually decide who they are living with the following year in March.  I decided to come back to Missouri Southern in July; we meet for pre-season early August.  I was stuck with nowhere to live and no one to live with.  As crazy as this sounds, this is a true story, my Mom came to Joplin with me and found me a place to live…..on Craig’s List.  She looked up houses in the area that had bedrooms for rent and called that day and I moved in the next.  I am currently living in a house with two other guys above the age of twenty five.   Trust me every person I tell this story to laughs.  All the girls on my team make fun of me on a daily basis, but hey it is a great memory to look back on.  It has actually worked out really well and next year, what I am so excited for, six other girls on my team and I will move into this house and make it our own. 

We could not be any more excited.  Everyone on my team gets along so well we could not possibly think about splitting up.  This is a four bedroom house and I said that seven girls will be living in here.  Crazy huh?  There is a large bedroom in the basement that three girls are going to share and then upstairs there will be a room shared by two people.  Lucky for me, I get my own room.  I am the one that brought them in here right? Ha ha. 

So as much as I am so excited for next year and to finally be living with girls on my team again I know that next year is going to fly by.  I will be sure to make the most of my senior year and hopefully maintain my grades so I can still get into grad school. Ha ha.  All in all I want time to speed up, but yet slow way way down!

How To Determine Pujol's Future

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/02/albert-pujols-d.html

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/pujolal01.shtml

http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/feed/2011-01/albert-pujols/story/chris-carpenters-fate-could-depend-on-albert-pujol

In my last post concerning the trade of Pujols I stated that the Cardinal’s should do what it takes to keep him around.  As steep as his offer is and it could put the Cardinal’s in a penny pinching situation the economic effects of losing Albert Pujols could be worse. 

Albert will become a free agent after this upcoming 2011 season.  Pujol’s wants to play out this season and not be bothered by trade rumors until after the World Series, fair enough.  It is safe to say that Albert Pujol’s wants to stay a Cardinal.  He was quoted  in his latest interview saying that a few things need to happen in order to keep him around. 

If you ask my opinion of the few things that need to happen I’ll tell you….

They need to pay him what he deserves.  Pujol’s was paid 14.5 million in the 2010 season.  Arguably the best player in baseball right now didn’t even make the top 25 highest paid players in the league.  Alex Rodriguez was paid 33 million for the 2010 season.  See the problem here?  As much as I feel that it should not be all about the money imagine if you worked at the same company and compared yourself to a co-worker.  You work much harder, and you are clearly better.  At the end of the day they are getting paid more than you, wouldn’t that make you feel a little taken advantage of? I do not think Pujols is all about the money, but there comes a time where you need to stand up for yourself and get a little bit of what you deserve.

The Cardinals need to meet Pujols more than halfway on his demands.  Instead of paying him a guaranteed 30 million for 10 years, why not guarantee 8 years as the highest paid player with an option of the final two years based on performance when it comes that time.  That way Pujols is kept happy and the Cardinals have an out and are not bound to a 10 year contract. 

  In order to free up some money for Pujols new pay check the Cardinals are gonna have to let go of a few players that are costing them more money than they are worth.  Lance Berkman, former NYY, is getting paid more than he should.  He could easily be replaced for a more inexpensive player.  Other players that would free up some money would be Ryan Franklin and Skip Schumaker.  Letting go of some of these unproductive players will free up some money to keep our key players around. 

Another major thing the Cardinals need to be sure to do is keep a winning team around.  Pujols has said it is not all about the money.  If the Cardinals can put together a winning  team he would love to stay.  Keeping players like Matt Holliday, Chris Carpenter, and Pujols happy will ensure a winning combination.  Through some mediocre players in the mix at a low cost and that will at least keep the Cardinals organization out of some serious debt.  Win some games, build up revenue, and keep Albert Pujols!!!  Although paying him will put the Cardinals in a tough position money wise however, the economic ramifications of letting him get away could be even worse.

Rolling in the Money Now

Within a month I have gone from broke and no source of income to two jobs and finally a little extra money around.  I applied for lady foot locker last week and received my first interview.  Within a few days I was asked to come back for a second interview.  A couple days after that I was told I was hired and started training that next day.  The only other job I have had before this is lifeguarding every summer for five summers.  I have never had to balance school soccer and two jobs, but so far so good!

Just in the two weeks I have worked there I have already learned a lot.  As dumb as this may sound I did not know there was such a difference in shoes and that the shoes you wear can affect other parts of your body.  I know what shoes are good for people that pronate, or roll in when they walk.  People with flat feet and high arches I know just the shoes for you now! I have learned the shoes most useful for long distance runners, and every day walkers. 

The coolest thing that I have seen so far is the new Reebok and Sketchers shoes that work your glutes and hamstrings while you walk.  Very smart idea, and I am surprised they did not come up with that sooner.  They are pretty popular.  So if you are looking for some new shoes I know a lot now. Ha

I also received a job working in the student center score keeping basketball intramurals.  Pretty easy job for a score keeper, but I am very happy I am not a referee.  Some of these guys take the intramural games VERY VERY seriously.  You would think they were playing for a championship or something.  I have seen people get in fights with their own roommates.  Guys like to say girls complain a lot and are whiny, but that is absolutely false, at least during intramural basketball games that is.  Every play there is another guy complaining about a call that was or was not called.  There is always someone shouting profanities and getting in someone’s face.  It really is funny to watch, but only because I am not the referee that has to deal with any of that.  I get stressed out enough just sitting on the side lines stopping the clock and tracking the points. 

Over all I am lucky to have both jobs that I really do enjoy for the most part and to final have some money coming in.  I am going to need that money for my upcoming trip to South Padre Texas!!! Woooooo!