Okay boys and girls, this one is going to require some audience participation.

I’m in the process of setting up the annual NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament Brackets, and I’m looking for the best online solution. Ideally, this solution would have the following characteristics:

# Free, or inexpensive.
# Allow participants to enter brackets online.
# Automatically score and rank brackets.
# Allow participants to view standings online.
# Allow definition of points per round, including possibility of bonus points for upsets.

Not necessary, but wanted:

6) Allow participants to enter more than one bracket.
7) Be easy to sign up for.

Thus far, the solution offered by cbssportsline.com looks like the best, but it lacks the ability for users to input more than one bracket. Brackets2004 looks promising, but since it’s not up and running yet, I can’t draw any conclusions as to its functionality.

There may be additional features that I haven’t considered that would also be useful. It would be really nice if the system would sort teams by different stats (RPI, Games Won, Turnovers, Rebounds, etc). This might facilitate some bracket picks.

Additionally, I’d like to know what you think the best bracket scoring system is. I’m leaning towards a slightly unweighted system of 1/2/4/6/10/14 as opposed to the classic 1/2/4/8/16/32, to balance # correct picks vs deepest picks. Comments wanted.

I’m sure one of you out there knows of a great solution for online bracket management. Please post it. That means you Yahoo! crowd. I know you’re out there.

Cheers,
Sam

In a way it’s like Pool. When you have nothing, just hit it really hard.

The Good:

* 40 Levels
* Fun with Physics
* Popping balloons

The Bad:

* No level codes

The Game: Warthog Launch

William Hung, a man onto himself.

He entered the American Idol auditions with a bulletproof attitude and balls of steel. This is worth 2 minutes of your time…

See the video here. (sound required)

And if you want to know what else is going on with the man, the myth, the legend, take a look at this website dedicated to him: williamhung.net (thanks to Shannon and the team at Yahoo for digging this one up)
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Have you ever wondered what the elves do for fun when they aren’t making presents? Well here’s a good idea of how they get back at Santa with their time off.

Ok, it’s not terribly complicated, but it took me a few times to figure out exactly what I was supposed to do. The first mouse click starts things moving along. Click and hold to retract the catapult, and when you release the button Santa will fly.

Catapult Santa or local copy in case this link goes out.

A penguin walks into a bar, and asks the bartender if he has any plums. The bartender, confused, tells the penguin that no, his bar doesn’t serve plums. The penguin thanks him and leaves.

The next day, the penguin returns, and again repeats his request for plums. Again, the bartender tells him that, no, the bar does not serve plums, has never served plums, and, furthermore, will never serve plums. The penguin, a little ruffled, thanks him and leaves.

The next day, the penguin returns, but before he can say anything, the bartender begins to yell: “Listen, penguin! This is a bar! We do not serve plums! If you ever ask for plums again, I will nail your stupid penguin beak to the bar!” The penguin is silent for a moment, and then asks, ”Do you have any nails?” Confused, the bartenders says “No.”

“Good!” says the penguin. “Then do you have any plums?”

——–

At which point the bartender wished he could play: Penguin Baseball

This isn’t much of a movie review as the movie isn’t released until 9 July 2004, so consider this a trailer review.

Will Ferrell returns to hit socal roots to play a 70’s anchorman for Channel 4 News team in San Diego. So I guess that means: funny and filled with hot girls. The trailer and an exclusive clip are available in many formats and sizes. “You pooped in the refrigerator?…I’m not even mad, that’s amazing.”

Will Ferrell is THE comedian right now. Last year brought us Old School and the Harvard Class Day speech.

Sara, if we go to just one movie this year, and that’s a real possibility, it’s gonna be Anchorman.

I found CaliforniaCoastline.org a while back, I think in relation to the lawsuit by Ms. Streisand that tried to shut this down. Instead, it probably just gave it free publicity and brought it to my attention.

If you’ve ever lived in California or traveled to part of its coast, you’ll like what you can find here.

Golden Gate Bridge
Opening Scene from ‘The O.C.’
The Wedge
Golden Gate Park and the Sunset
Southern End of Zuma Beach

Lots of memories, check it out.

Remember the days of cutting out snowflakes?

Well, just got this URL for some fun addictive flash! Have a great time… Give it a try.

Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King was released on December 17th at a feature length of 3 hours and 30 minutes for this final film in the trilogy. I would recommend the collectors versions of the trilogy films if you are interested in learning more about the vast imaginary world which has been created based on the original books (The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings)

In connection with the trilogy and other famous works of J.R.R. Tolkien there have been a lot of development of various mythical stories and creatures, etymology of a lot of the elvish words used. One of the scolars (David Salo) of the invented languages Tolkien used in the books was called up to help the movie creators with the inscriptions on both the ring and the elven gate to the mines of Morea, along with the dialogue of the films and inscriptions on costumes and props. Another student of Tolkien came up with one of the more current applications of his studies and put his knowledge into a name generator. If you want to learn more, click here.

What is my Elven Name?
What is my Hobbit Name?
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Dear Friends and Family:

I hope that you will spare me a few minutes of your time to tell you about something that I saw on Monday, October 27.

I had been attending a conference in Annapolis and was coming home on Sunday. As you may recall, Los Angeles International Airport was closed on Sunday, October 26, because of the fires that affected air traffic control.

Accordingly, my flight, and many others, were canceled and I wound up spending a night in Baltimore. My story begins the next day.
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