Documentation is like sex: when it is good, it is very, very good; and when it is bad, it is better than nothing.

The rules

The rules to our game are fairly basic:

• Pick a winner for all 35 bowl games.
• Assign a confidence number ranging from 1 – 35 with 1 being the least confident pick and 35 being the most confident pick.
• For every game you win, you get those confidence points.
• For every game you lose, you subtract confidence points.

So, if you correctly pick the winner of all 35 bowl games, you get a total of 630 points (and most likely all the cash).

My picks

I meant to post this last week but got a little too busy. I’ve already lost two and won two games at the moment.

Here’s my list in the order the games are played in.

Your picks

Call me crazy on some of these. I’m definitely gambling on a few games, but you have to take a few chances to win.

Do any of you do similar pools? Feel free to write a blog post and link back here with your list. Or, just call me out in the comments when you see how horrible my picks are.

Pop Critics...reviewing pop culture so you don't have to

Some of you may remember that I told you a while back that I was taking the plunge and working online from home. Well, that hasn’t changed. However, I also wanted to have a little fun and do some other things I’ve been wanting to do for a while.

At about the same time, an opportunity revealed itself. One of my favorite sites was shutting down. After talking with the owners (and going through all the legal stuff), I became the proud owner of Pop Critics.

Why I took over the site

For one, I didn’t want to see it go because they’ve always had some great material to keep my inner pop culture nerd satisfied.

Mostly, I wanted to get back into writing about things other than WordPress a bit. I love all things TV, movies, and books — a perfect match.

I’ve also always secretly wanted to redesign the site, which I’ll be doing soon.

So, this is the fun thing I wanted to add to my schedule to sort of let off some steam.

Do you like popular culture enough to write about it?

I’ll go ahead and let you know, this isn’t a paying gig. It’s all about having a little fun.

If you like anything about any movies, television series, books, comics, music, or any other facet of Pop Culture, this may be an opportunity to get your name out on a well-known site.

Just drop me a line or leave a comment below if you want to participate in this project. I’ll get back to you ASAP.

This could be loads of fun!

For the last few days, my connection has went out only twice. And I think I know why.

I had a sort of epiphany the other day after trying to figure out how to get this whole connection problem fixed. So, I tested the connection without my TiVo hooked up (it’s wired and my computer is wireless). That worked for a day. The next day, I reconnected the TiVo, and 5 minutes later, my connection was lost.

The other time I lost connection was just a random event.

So, I’ve been testing the connection without the TiVo connected for about four days. Everything’s been working fine.

I haven’t tested all the variables yet though. It might not be my TiVo’s connection. It could be any wired connection. It could be a mixture of wireless and wired messing it up. I’ll need to test it with another computer and my X-Box 360.

When I lived here a couple of years ago, we always had problems. We were using a different router then. While using the router I have now at the last place I lived, we had two computers and two X-Box 360s connected to it. We only lost connection about once a week, which I think is reasonable.

So, I’m not letting Charter completely off the hook just yet. I still think it’s a problem with the service at this particular place. At least I’ve found a temporary solution. But, the TiVo has to be connected to know what time to record my TV shows.

I know this isn’t the most exciting thing to read about, but it’s all I’ve got tonight. I’ve updated Books In Bed with this week’s bestseller lists. Also, I finally uploaded Wordpress 2.1.2. The AJAX in my admin panel wasn’t working with 2.1.1 for some reason. I didn’t realize this until I saw how things worked on my Books In Bed admin panel. Everything’s working great now.

Anyone else been having difficulties with the Internet lately?

I got so mad one time that I just punched my bed a few times as hard as I could.

It was one of those moments where you get so frustrated that you want to hit something. I figured the bed was better than the wall or something else hard. I don’t know if this is just a guy thing — wanting to hit something when frustrated — or if most people do this.

Do you ever get so mad that you just find something to hit?

I don’t normally do this. Actually, I don’t know the last time I’ve even swung my fist at anything. I’m not a violent person. I’d rather it had been someone from Charter Communications I’d hit. My bed is precious. It is comfortable, and has given me many a good night of sleep.

Okay, I don’t want to really hit anyone from Charter (in case they are reading this right now).

Don’t forget to stop by Books In Bed and sign up.

I’m off to sleep. Poor, precious bed, I’m sorry if I harmed you in any way…

My Internet connection just went out again as I was hitting the publish button for this post. So, thank you Wordpress for putting in that nifty save function.

Today is my grandfather’s birthday. I’m not really sure how old he is. Sixty-something. And he has the easiet birthday in my family to remember. So, I have no excuses if I forget to call.

I finally got him on the phone at around 9:15 tonight to give him birthday wishes. This was after several tries. It was one of the longer conversations we’ve had in a while. I usually talk to Granny for hours on end. Papa and I usually only have sports to talk about, and that doesn’t leave for much of a conversation.

I do cherish these rare moments when we get into a conversation about things other than sports, even though I enjoy those also. We simply talked about life in general. Well, mostly about my plans after college. He also told me his Uncle Jim, who is 81 years old, only has two months to a year to live because of his third bout with cancer.

Mostly, it was a good conversation. It seems to me that my grandparents would sometimes get bored when I start talking about school, work, and my future because I have to explain half of the things I’m talking about. But, they bear though the conversation. I think they probably enjoy it though.

Anyway, Happy 6?th Papa!

You can read He’ll Always Be Papa, an article I wrote for Grandparents’ Day last fall.

One bit of news: I made the Dean’s List last semester. My certificate came in the mail last week. So, whoopie! or whatever.

I do have plans for this week. I’m officially making it the week of Book Reviews. Yes, that’s right. I’m going to do it. I’ve read a few books that need a little bit of thought and reflection on them. Last post, I reviewed The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil. My upcoming reviews will include (in no particular order):

• The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
• Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies — and What It Means to Be Human by Joel Garreau
• Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson

So, encourage me to review these books this week. I’m still reading Fantastic Voyage by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman. Now, I’ve started on The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman; If You Want to Write: A Book About Art, Independence, and Spirit by Brenda Ueland; More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement by Ramez Naam; and Emma by Jane Austen

Yes, I need to finish one book before I move on to the next. I know this, yet somehow, I don’t listen to myself.