So Kurtis came across these free tickets to the WWE event in Joplin (formerly known as the WWF apparently). Our seats were excellent – front row on the balcony, and for a venue as small as memorial hall – these are great seats. Kurt explained to me how wrestling works beforehand so I would know what to expect… basically it is all staged, there are good guys and bad guys (and the crowd somehow knows which is which – which was good because then I knew who to boo and cheer just by following everyone else’s lead). The referees are easily distracted, allowing the bad guy to grab a chair or do some illegal move without being caught. The referee can also be knocked out, and will not wake up until just seconds after the bad guy finishes the rule breaking. Sometimes the referee will be distracted and not notice the good guy pinning the bad guy.

The crowd there was almost as entertaining as the event itself. I have to say though, in the end – this whole experience made me loose what little faith I had left in humankind, haha. It was a ton of fun… I am glad I got to go!

As it turns out, I will be traveling back to AZ in a few weeks for yet another installment of the UWP Doc. Not sure who we’re interviewing, but it will be fun. I spent a considerable about of time last night looking for flights that would best fit my schedule, and I finally settled on one that connected in SLC (my favorite place). So once again I will get to pay a quick (to the tune of about 30 minutes – hopefully enough time to deplane and run to the next flight) to my favorite state. I am just hoping its clear out that day so I can look out the window and see all the cool utah scenery, as well as the grand canyon!

As for last weekend, well I didn’t post about it because not much really happened. I fell asleep when I got home friday night, which caused me to accidentally ditch my plans with Kim. Then Saturday I went to my granny’s farm and helped trim tree limbs, so Im still really sore from that. Then I made up for my friday night blunder by going out to eat @ 609 w/ Kim, followed by hanging out at the mall like we were in jr high again. It was awesome. THe mall is my new favorite hangout on the weekends.

Long weekend… long story. Here are all the pics. It all started by going to Springfield to watch the MSU bears play Stanford. Although we did win, it was frustrating watching the bears let a 20+ point lead slip away in a matter of minutes. You kept waiting for the coach to call a timeout to regroup, but nope… they just kept playing without a plan until the were behind. This is probably the reason, while I still firmly believe MSU got a unneccesary snub by the NCAA, it really doens’t matter that they aren’t in the tourney. Through some miracle the bears eventually recaptured the lead, despite Stanford’s obvious size advantage.

Saturday – Matt and I headed to Indianapolis to hang out with my long lost Icthus and fellow MSU friend, Krista. It was good to see her again. Her friend Emily joined up with us and we went out on the down. Then we went back to the apt and attempted to watch a movie but just fell asleep instead. Oh and we got really good bbq from a place called Dick’s.

The next morning we woke up just in time to get back in the car and head to lafayette where the lady bears were playing Purdue. I figured they would loose, but it was fun just to visit a big 10 team anyways. The first half was more fun than the second because missouri state lead for a significant portion of it.

After the game Matt informed me that we were only 2 hours from Chicago. I was well aware of this fact, but Matt felt that we needed to ’stop by’ for dinner. After calculating how late we would get home, I informed him that we could do it, but that I had to work the next morning – so I was intending on sleeping on the way home. A couple hours later we were in Chicago, where we went to the top of the hancock building, then walked down to the grand lux cafe (which was quite good i might add). Then, I did my best to keep matt out of the stores, quite a feat. I gave him 5 min in the GAP – then it was back to Missouri. I think I got home just before 3:30am.

Oh, btw did anyone else notice that the sweet 16 includes not one, but two teams from the no-talent Missouri Valley Conference?! Even Dickie V agrees with me on this…

Ohhh, and did I mention that we saw a DRAGON in illinois while finding a geocache?!

Okay so I saw this article in the news-leader this morning. I just think its plain awesome. That is what i call being a good neighbor. Naturally I start wondering “who paid for the material” and “what if they were thinking about rebuilding a different kind of house, or in a different spot”…. but these people were all about helping out in spectacular style and didnt get caught up on that stuff. I think most of us would be too hung up on details to do something like this, or to even receive something like this to some degree. Amish people are cool… they built my parents house (though not for free). In my opinion they are genuinely good people. Yes, I don’t understand why they aren’t allowed to have a car but are allowed to hire a full time person to drive a car for them, but that’s beside the point. Quirks aside, they are awesome, respectful, honest, and they speak “pennsylvania dutch” (which i think is actually german, not dutch) when they think no one is around.

Other Amish Facts:
1- They don’t wear wedding rings – they grow beards.
2- They make really good bread.

So…. props to those people for rocking. Way to be a good neighbor.

Last night I went and played mario party at joels for a bit. It was fun. At least this time I got a star. I can dig mario party because even I can somewhat compete with people who play video games all the time.

Well, most of you are probably more interested in the skating party pics… so here they are.

Today’s real topic – to my astonishment, MSU was once again snubbed by the NCAA selection elites. This sets a new record for team with the best computer ranking to not get into the tournament (as of yesterday it was 19). This shatters the previous record (amazingly MSU now has 2 of the top 3 best rankings to get left out – the other was in 2000 with 34) of 33. Which begs the question…what is the point of having an RPI if the selectors are still going to arbitrarily pick who they want to be in the tournament. Or rather – what do they have against MSU? It’s great that the MVC got 4 teams in, but it should have been 5 and everyone knows it, and Bradley should not have been in at all. Basically it seems to me that the selection committee only started watching basketball last week, because thats pretty much the only time all season bradley was playing well.

The committee said MSU’s first round loss in the MVC tournament was a key factor in leaving them out. Well geez, there are 6 good teams playing in a tournament with 8 slots – not everyone can make it to the finals. But of course if the conference was called the ACC or something, then it wouldn’t matter because everyone just knows that they are all good teams and should be in anyways despite their record.

Really, I’m just irritated because MSU gets the shaft from the NCAA once again, and personally I think so did Creighton. Somehow Bradley, Air Force and Utah State all slipped in ahead, with far worse stats (Air Force has an RPI of 51 (MSU 19), a strength of schedule of 150 something (MSU 40 something), and NO wins against top 50 teams (MSU has 4). As the guy on tv said, it looks like committee is really making a statement that they don’t have much confidence in the MVC. I think they just don’t want a chance for too many upsets by MVC teams – this might steal attention away from their beloved Syracuse and other east coast teams. Jerks. I hope a lot of people go to the NIT game next friday so we can collectively give the finger back to the NCAA tournament and enjoy a bonus home game.

Ok so the government has decided that a good way to help pay for rural schools is to sell of tracts of the national forest. Obviously they are doing this because they think it is a brilliant way to pay for something without having to use the “t” word (tax). This includes many forests in many states, but Missouri has the third largest total acreage that is up for sale in the proposed deal. Obviously the tree hugger in me thinks this is a stupid idea and here is why:

1- Costs for a school will never go away. They need a continuous stream of revenue. Selling off an asset provides only a short term solution. When the money from the forest sale runs out in a few years what is the next piece of public property that will be offered to the highest bidder?

2- With the explosion of rural development going on these days, we should be buying more land to save, not selling off the pieces we have.

3- Missouri is getting the bad end of this deal because it has more to loose than all but 2 other states (california and i’m not sure what the other one is). About 22,000 acres have been selected to be sold in southern missouri, which is a little over 34 sq miles total.

4- Although the idiots in Washington and elsewhere might think the national forest land is just sitting and not being productive, some people actually enjoy having a place that is owned by the public and protected from being tore up by individuals, developers, and the like. Just because these politicians don’t use this land doesn’t mean no one else does. Not everyone has the money to buy their own 2,000 acre estate.

5- I am a big fan of the national forest. Remember this recent outing thanks to the Mark Twain Natl Forest?

6- Did I mention the fact that the sale of all this land is a completely near-sighted solution? Once land is sold, its sold. You can’t sell it again every year.

If this irritates you as much as it does me (which it probably does not, but thats ok) you are probably asking yourself “what can i do?”. Well here is the answer – the month of march is public comment period, which again is brilliant becuse almost no one even knows about this plan because it hasn’t been publicized very much. So comment and tell them how stupid this idea is (preferrably in a more tactful way). Here is the contact info:

Comments on the proposed sale of Forest Service land to finance the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 can be submitted by March 30, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

Comments can be sent by e-mail to: mailto:SRS_Land_Sales @fs.fed.us.

Written comments may be sent to: USDA Forest Service, SRS Comments, Lands 4S, 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Mailstop 1124, Washington, DC, 20250-0003.

By the way, I love how they have titled this proposal “Secure Rural Schools”. What a joke. It is not going to “secure” anything for very long. Am I totally missing somethere here? WHAT are they gonna do in 5 years. Just doing some math – if all 22,000 acres were sold at $2,000 an acre (reasonable for large tracts of rural land), thats about $44million (assuming ALL of the missouri land sale money stays in missouri – which is unlikely. To give you an idea of what impact this will have – the 2005 education for the state of missouri was $4.8 BILLION. So, basically nothing. At least not for more than a couple years.

So today I come home and check the weather channel to see what’s going on tomorrow night. As the highs, lows and various other data were scrolling across the screen I realized that the background music was on a cd that I not only OWN, but LIKE. Oh jeez, it’s all downhill from here!

In other news, I am extending an invitation to you (reader of my xanga) to come over and watch Missouri State tomorrow night at 8pm. We’ll follow it up with some hottub action. And by action, I mean getting in. If you don’t like to watch basketball, just come over for the hottub, or you can play airhockey or something.

“You know what they say about women and trolley cars. There’s plenty of ‘em in the sea.”