1. I have not followed college basketball much this year. I kind of turned off after Jontay went down. I don't know much about many of the teams. BUT, I am a degenerate, so I am betting. The first game I look to put a ton of money on (still need the line) is Virginia to cover. I feel bad for who they play. They will not take the foot off the gas until that team is dead and their families are dead after what happened to Virginia last year. I was honestly hoping for a rematch against UMBC, would be great to watch, or at least a great story. Here is some advice for picking your bracket. Since 2000, there has only been 1 team to win a national title without a McDonalds AA. I don't know which teams have McDonalds AA, but I know Kentucky, Duke, UNC, kAnsas, Nova, LSU, Oregon, Syracuse, Maryland do. I don't think Tenn, Gonzaga, or Texas Tech does. So that should eliminate them as your potential winners.
2. Spring Break with Kids. I went to California for spring break. I had to drive, well chose to drive, because plane tickets would have been almost $3K for coach total for the fam. I hate driving that far. At least the newer cars make it easier for the kids, but with all the stops and breaks, it took forever to make the drive and back. That and west Texas, New Mexico, and Southern Arizona and Southern CA don't have that much between Dallas and San Diego/LA. I need to get richer so I can charter that crap next time. I will never go to Disney for Spring Break again. I am done with Legoland, compared to Disney, they look like a bunch of Amateurs. Disney just does everything better. Next year for Spring Break, I am thinking either a cruise or a trip to hill country Texas.
3. College Admission scandal. I find it hilarious that FBI busts rich parents making bribes and donations to private schools for admissions of their kids. I do think the IRS should get involved and that should be most of the crime. The fraud on the ACTs is also government important. However, donating your kid into a university has been around for a very long time. How is Paige Laurie doing now? She just purchased a $40M house in Bev Hills. I guess she is doing ok. These rich kids are going to be fine, because they have their parents money. I like that these kids exist, they exist to reallocate wealth. They spend their parents' money like idiots and they don't accomplish anything, so that their kids can't grow up super rich. I have heard a couple phrases to describe this. 1st generation builds it, 2nd generation grows it, 3rd generation blows it. I have also heard, the ladder is climbed up in work boots, but climbed down in satin slippers. I had the opportunity to kind of be that third generation. My grandfather grew his farm operation to over 1500 acres. My father added maybe 500 more acres, so he didn't quite grow it like expected, but the main reason is that my grandfather passed at 55 in a car accident and threw everything into chaos. My father's family had 1 boy, 2 girls and was never a corporation style, but split out farm ownership. My father then had 3 sons, and none (especially me) were interested in farming. It also hurt that I graduated high school in 2000 when farming made sh!t money because crop prices were so low due to the strength of the dollar. I think corn was like $1.40/bushel, beans were $5/bush. When I graduated law school, they were $7/bush and $17.50/bush respectively, so farmers who owned everything were making bank. So if I graduated high school in 2008, things might have been different. Also, my dad was in a very significant accident that crippled him in 2001, which made expanding the farm impossible. However, I think I am growing the empire in other businesses. My kids live way better off than I did growing up. So hopefully I am still climbing that ladder higher. I hope that I can raise my kids to keep going to heights I couldn't reach. I won't be bribing any schools for my kids.
4. Terrorism in ChristChurch NZ. It sucks. The world is not ideal. I don't understand why the hate for islam. For starters, it is a very disciplined and peaceful religion. There are some radicals, for sure. Most of the time, the radicals develop through poverty and/or ostracization (is a word, I looked it up). So I have always found my encounters to be pleasant. Of course, I mostly only encounter with those who practice islam that are also well off. Now on the other side, this hate is a lot of times developed through one of two avenues: 1. Ignorance is most common. Most often, people don't know much about the religion or know any people in it. 2. Resentment, they see special treatment for people of islam that they don't receive. I don't think you can reduce #2 very often unless you eliminate categorizing people by faith. I think you can reduce #1 a lot. I think one way to do so is by introduction. A lot of people don't want islam taught in their schools. I get that, just like many don't want christianity taught either. HOWEVER, religion is part of history. And in History is where we should teach about those religions. WHat they are, what they mean, etc. I think it would be so helpful if someone who practiced each religion was introduced to classes so that they could see that people who practice each religion aren't that bad. If teachers want to teach students about the "real world" than teach them that each of these exist. I think in one of my classes, we spent maybe one day in history on all the religions combined. Mostly, I just remember covering Hindu and Buddhism. A little education can go a long way. And honestly, most religions are interesting. I am still trying to learn why the Jewish and the Muslims still don't eat pork. I am fascinated by the Islam split between Sunni and Shia.
5. More candidates. So it looks like Beto is in. Biden on the doorstep. And we got Pete Guttigeg, the mayor from South Bend. Shocking, what is the first characteristic about Pete listed? He is gay. This goes to what I argued about constantly. These qualifiers are soo damn divisive and honestly, demeaning. I was beginning to wonder, what is the benefit of running if you know you are going to lose? Then I read about Bernie Sanders' tax returns. Bernie has made about $2M on books and speaking over the past 2 years. Yahtzee. Run, if you make it to debates, you can cash in. I don't think that was Bernie's intention, but I think it might be now. Book deals, twitter followers, etc.
In the potential race for Dem Primary, I go back to one of the most popular Democratic POTUS quotes. "Ask not what can your country do for you, ask what you can do for your country?" Now I look at all these proposals and I ask that question and it completely contradicts JFK's words. I think he would be a GOP candidate.
In other news, I just finished reading Educated by Tara Westover. It was a really good book. She was raised by a very strict mormon family that wanted to live off the grid, no schools, no doctors, etc. It was a great story. I have read it might have been embellished some, but that's ok, it doesn't hurt how good the book is and I strongly recommend reading it.
2. Spring Break with Kids. I went to California for spring break. I had to drive, well chose to drive, because plane tickets would have been almost $3K for coach total for the fam. I hate driving that far. At least the newer cars make it easier for the kids, but with all the stops and breaks, it took forever to make the drive and back. That and west Texas, New Mexico, and Southern Arizona and Southern CA don't have that much between Dallas and San Diego/LA. I need to get richer so I can charter that crap next time. I will never go to Disney for Spring Break again. I am done with Legoland, compared to Disney, they look like a bunch of Amateurs. Disney just does everything better. Next year for Spring Break, I am thinking either a cruise or a trip to hill country Texas.
3. College Admission scandal. I find it hilarious that FBI busts rich parents making bribes and donations to private schools for admissions of their kids. I do think the IRS should get involved and that should be most of the crime. The fraud on the ACTs is also government important. However, donating your kid into a university has been around for a very long time. How is Paige Laurie doing now? She just purchased a $40M house in Bev Hills. I guess she is doing ok. These rich kids are going to be fine, because they have their parents money. I like that these kids exist, they exist to reallocate wealth. They spend their parents' money like idiots and they don't accomplish anything, so that their kids can't grow up super rich. I have heard a couple phrases to describe this. 1st generation builds it, 2nd generation grows it, 3rd generation blows it. I have also heard, the ladder is climbed up in work boots, but climbed down in satin slippers. I had the opportunity to kind of be that third generation. My grandfather grew his farm operation to over 1500 acres. My father added maybe 500 more acres, so he didn't quite grow it like expected, but the main reason is that my grandfather passed at 55 in a car accident and threw everything into chaos. My father's family had 1 boy, 2 girls and was never a corporation style, but split out farm ownership. My father then had 3 sons, and none (especially me) were interested in farming. It also hurt that I graduated high school in 2000 when farming made sh!t money because crop prices were so low due to the strength of the dollar. I think corn was like $1.40/bushel, beans were $5/bush. When I graduated law school, they were $7/bush and $17.50/bush respectively, so farmers who owned everything were making bank. So if I graduated high school in 2008, things might have been different. Also, my dad was in a very significant accident that crippled him in 2001, which made expanding the farm impossible. However, I think I am growing the empire in other businesses. My kids live way better off than I did growing up. So hopefully I am still climbing that ladder higher. I hope that I can raise my kids to keep going to heights I couldn't reach. I won't be bribing any schools for my kids.
4. Terrorism in ChristChurch NZ. It sucks. The world is not ideal. I don't understand why the hate for islam. For starters, it is a very disciplined and peaceful religion. There are some radicals, for sure. Most of the time, the radicals develop through poverty and/or ostracization (is a word, I looked it up). So I have always found my encounters to be pleasant. Of course, I mostly only encounter with those who practice islam that are also well off. Now on the other side, this hate is a lot of times developed through one of two avenues: 1. Ignorance is most common. Most often, people don't know much about the religion or know any people in it. 2. Resentment, they see special treatment for people of islam that they don't receive. I don't think you can reduce #2 very often unless you eliminate categorizing people by faith. I think you can reduce #1 a lot. I think one way to do so is by introduction. A lot of people don't want islam taught in their schools. I get that, just like many don't want christianity taught either. HOWEVER, religion is part of history. And in History is where we should teach about those religions. WHat they are, what they mean, etc. I think it would be so helpful if someone who practiced each religion was introduced to classes so that they could see that people who practice each religion aren't that bad. If teachers want to teach students about the "real world" than teach them that each of these exist. I think in one of my classes, we spent maybe one day in history on all the religions combined. Mostly, I just remember covering Hindu and Buddhism. A little education can go a long way. And honestly, most religions are interesting. I am still trying to learn why the Jewish and the Muslims still don't eat pork. I am fascinated by the Islam split between Sunni and Shia.
5. More candidates. So it looks like Beto is in. Biden on the doorstep. And we got Pete Guttigeg, the mayor from South Bend. Shocking, what is the first characteristic about Pete listed? He is gay. This goes to what I argued about constantly. These qualifiers are soo damn divisive and honestly, demeaning. I was beginning to wonder, what is the benefit of running if you know you are going to lose? Then I read about Bernie Sanders' tax returns. Bernie has made about $2M on books and speaking over the past 2 years. Yahtzee. Run, if you make it to debates, you can cash in. I don't think that was Bernie's intention, but I think it might be now. Book deals, twitter followers, etc.
In the potential race for Dem Primary, I go back to one of the most popular Democratic POTUS quotes. "Ask not what can your country do for you, ask what you can do for your country?" Now I look at all these proposals and I ask that question and it completely contradicts JFK's words. I think he would be a GOP candidate.
In other news, I just finished reading Educated by Tara Westover. It was a really good book. She was raised by a very strict mormon family that wanted to live off the grid, no schools, no doctors, etc. It was a great story. I have read it might have been embellished some, but that's ok, it doesn't hurt how good the book is and I strongly recommend reading it.
