Long Live the Mid-Majors!

Never before have I seen the Sports Cafe with anywhere near as many people as were there on Friday night for St Patrick’s Day. It was absolutely insane. Of course, the number of people was probably boosted a bit by the fact it was Day 2 of the NCAA tourney, though they couldn’t find remotes for some of the TV’s/projection screens, resulting in a few scattered screens showing silly things like boxing or poker instead of tournament basketball, oh well. But quite a few of us ventured down to Sports Cafe at various stages of the day and for various amounts of time to take in some of the green/tourney atmosphere, it was rather festive. I think, though, that I’ll be glad to see the Sports Cafe back to its usual, relatively tranquil self next Friday evening when trivia resumes.
Saturday was a fairly lazy day for me, in that I didn’t leave my apartment, and that I watched basketball all day. On the other hand, it was a pretty productive day in that while I was watching all that great college basketball I managed to get ALL my grading done for this week. Any day on which I can get my work done while watching sports like that is a good day in my book. Especially when my new favourite teams, such as Wichita State, advance as I predicted on my brackets. I’m tellin ya, the mid-majors are having a major uprising this year (especially with today’s additions to the Sweet 16 of Bradley and George Mason), and that’s only a good thing for the NCAA tournament.
Today wasn’t quite as productive in a work sense as yesterday, but that’s okay. I went to church in the morning with Daniel, it was a good message on the problems we encounter in life discipleship. A lot to think about, especially with the time aspects of everything, namely how we spend our time doing what. I watched a bit more March Madness before heading into Walker for a couple hours to try to get unstuck on the mesoscale homework. Then this evening I went to the Bible study with Penn State Christian Grads for the first time in awhile, I finally felt like I wasn’t drowning in work that needed my immediate attention. It wasn’t a normal Bible study this week, more just talking about how well we as a group are/aren’t meeting the group’s stated goals/mission statement. Definitely some interesting discussion.
Tropical North Queensland in Australia was hit by a major tropical cyclone (hurricane) a few hours ago. Severe Tropical Cyclone Larry made landfall near the city of Innisfail, which is about an hour’s drive south of Cairns. Larry was a Category 5 at landfall (though various reports also say it was as weak as a Cat 3, so who knows). It’s currently weakened to a Category 3 over land, as it’s ravaging the Atherton Tablelands area and continuing to race off to the west. Interestingly for me, I’ve driven around in that whole area that’s getting smacked by the super cyclone. Damage and casualty reports are coming in still, but one thing’s for sure, it’s devastating for the sugarcane and banana farmers in that area. Keep the Aussies in your prayers, especially as there’s the threat of another cyclone, Wati, potentially hitting Queensland in a few days.