woefully underprepared

I realized today that this is very often my issue, and was with the proposed tournament of cities as well as the bachelor party that preceded it and the home flooding that followed.

I had no pump, no generator, no nothing. I get a foot of water in my basement after this tree snaps an overhead electrical wire and lands on my yard looking like this

and my basement like this


What can you do? People make plans and God laughs. More on this to come. City Sixty-Four needs to be put on hold for one year...

Automatic berths begin rolling in, selection committee hard at work

So I’m stuck on a plane in Harrisburg (which has no shot of making the tournament by the way) and wanted to get this out before I take off again. Flight diverted from Indy, which made a great case this weekend for a high seed.

A couple of automatic berths surprised me this weekend. Santa Barbara, incredible beach town, makes the grade and lives to fight another day. Other similarly sized automatics include Roanoke, VA and Charleston, SC.

This is going to be fun. The full field is listed out below, bracketology to follow…

New York	Phoenix	Orlando
Miami	Washington, DC	Tampa
Los Angeles	Boston	New Orleans
Chicago	Seattle	Detroit
Cleveland	Dallas	Buffalo
Portalnd	Houston	San Diego
Philadelphia	San Antonio	San Francisco
Charlotte	Oklahoma City	Minneapolis
Atlanta	Milwaukee	Indianapolis
Cincinatti	Providence	Jacksonville
St. Louis	El Paso	Hartford
Kansas City	Baltimore	Pittsburgh
Nasvhille	San Jose	Omaha
Memphis	Columbus	Newark
Denver	Albuquerque	Las Vegas
Oakland	Tucson	Reno
Sacramento	Anchorage	Billings
Austin	Lexington	Salt Lake City
Tulsa	Birmingham	Sioux City
Honolulu	Boise	Bismarck
Raleigh	Rochester	Louisville
Colorado Springs	Irvine	Fresno/Sacramento
Wichita	Spokane	Long Beach
Madison	Des Moines	Virginia Beach

So there you have it. The 70 plus cities that have a chance to make it into the final grid. Any automatic berths I’m missing? Send ‘em in.

This includes a play in game between Fresno and Sactown, too good to pass up. There are probably other cities that deserve that type of offer, but my heart leans to @Tlack415 Homerville.

Basic rule. Any city that you don’t inherently know what state it’s in is pretty much automatically ruled out (sayonara LBC, California, by the way). Other unwritten ruled include uniqueness, lack of suburbia. Baton Rouge may get an automatic berth for that reason, even though they didn’t rank high enough for inclusion in the at large field.

Home of college hoops

So the day of flight begins. Difficult at first, then beaming into a bloody mary, the stewardess having to hold back a grim excitement. Perhaps she now realized it was almost noon on Friday. No, we still have Chicago to get to, flip an hour back, then down to Indy. A short 55 minute flight. Who knows what to expect.

I do know that I have six more drink tickets, scratch that seven. Each drink is only one here at @southwest! Yeah!!! I don’t fly Southwest that often any more, living, as I do, in the Northeast. But enough about that, that’s @bitterbill territory.

I’m here to focus on the brackets. March Madness is in full swing if you look at the calendar and caliber of play. Big East Tourney and Big 12 surely to make headlines. Going to Indy, home of the NCAA and the Big Ten tourney. Hoping to catch a game.

Basketball’s birthplace, or close enough. Rabid fans in the year I know more about hoops than in any time during my sportswatching life. I’m on a fantasy team.

But this is just one factor of many. Only fitting that this journey begins as I visit a new city for the first time. Stopover in Chicago, one of my all time favorites and a most likely 1 seed, to Indianapolis. A solid mid major, but where will she go? Shall I wait till after this weekend? I believe I shall.

So here is how it is going to work. I’ve got probably 70-80 cities on a list. This week we have to figure out who is on the bubble and get rid of them.
Rochester, Irvine. Do we even bother? No suburbs, Evansville, Tucson. Right?

Anyway, with no further ado. The field as I see it.

Not going to influence seeding yet, but do with this what you will.

New York
Los Angeles
Miami
Chicago.

See a top seed I’ve missed? Talk about in the comments.

It's been too long

I've not posted for months, and I'm about to rectify that situation in a big way. Something I've never tried before. A real-time top 64. March Madness in a US way.

What city will rank above all others? Who will make it into the big dance?

The nation is massive, and so many considerations. At the end of the day the final decision is mine, dear reader, but I look forward to any thoughts you might throw my way. Remember, this is just the start.

As I look in live at Syracuse/Villanova from the Carrier Dome, I'm overcome by the passion of the fans, the packed house. Yet they are very far from the closest Top 64 city.

Philly is going to be a low seed, but really, can they be better than a four seed?

We'll see.

A few automatic bids from cities you might not expect, but all in all I think we know who the finals will come down to. Miami looks great, Chicago is always strong. Dark horses everywhere, but if it's not LA/NY at the end of the day, it's a huge upset.

As Canada and the US set to square off in Olympic hockey, remember just that the Russians, with Ovechkin, Malkin et all went packing early. Will Boston do the same? What about Frisco? If you call it Frisco you probably won't enjoy the rest of this tournament.

Highlights of the Top 100, and a little bracketology tomorrow.

The holiday spirit

Make a Smilebox greeting

Mean

So today's my birthday. Usually a day that brings me nothing but joy, but today was peppered with downside. Wife went to be with the signoff, "You're just mean. Mean, mean, mean, mean."

This seems to be a theme this week. Something I'm learning about myself, and I'm OK with it to be honest. The challenge is that people confuse mean for bitter. I'm really not bitter.

Love life. Love my family. Just don't see the upside of being shiny happy all the time. Maybe any of the time.

I've always had a real joie de vivre. Maybe I just keep it hidden under the surface? As I get older, will I get crabbier and crabbier? On some level, I hope so, as it defines me a bit.

On the other, I worry I may just end up being unbearable to be around. Especially to her. Now granted, it was my birthday and I feel like if I'm upset, she should make the extra effort to ensure that's not the case, whether she thinks I'm an asshole or note. Maybe that's just me.

What set her off, after a few of my usual missteps were forgiven, including slamming the door in her face (accidentally) as I entered the restaurant holding our child. I couldn't hold the door and be my usual gentlemanly self, but I also didn't notice and that pissed her off.

The final straw, though, was my grumbling about Facebook. I don't know about you, but when people I barely know and never speak to wish me a happy birthday on FB, it strikes me as an odd outgrowth of this new form of communication.

She thinks I was actually got annoyed at these people. I just thought I was pointing out the irony, but these people all have the best intentions and I manage get it twisted... Maybe I should be pissed at my real friends who forgot!

There was a half-joking vote of the meanness level between me and a colleague in the office, and I won by a landslide. Note I say I won.

Anyone can be nice. But is being unapproachable really a victory. I guess only time will tell...

Good night and God bless.