Joni picked up dinner yesterday from the best Thai restaurant in Colorado Springs — Arharn Thai located near North Carefree and Constitution. We mixed it up a little bit by ordering the Pad Prig Prow instead of the drunken noodles or Phad Thai. Overall we had:

• 3 Egg Rolls
• Crab cheese wontons
• Pad Prig Prow with beef (hot)
• Panang curry with beef (Thai hot)
• Bangkok fried rice with tofu (medium)

This year most NBA games were broadcast on cable networks. Fortunately, the America Broadcast Corporation (ABC) executives via ESPN talent have been broadcasting two NBA playoff games a week on Sundays. LeBron James may have just received a 3^rd NBA MVP trophy this year, but the Miami Heat team is still lacking a true center to anchor the backcourt. I cannot decide if I want to pop some movie theater butter popcorn or heat up the leftover Bangkok fried rice. The eclectic mix Indiana Pacers players have been able to create some interesting matchup problems for the all-star players on the Miami Heat.

Other notes:

• In terms of technology related news, I’m quietly working on a review of my new Nikon D3200 digital SLR camera.
• Will the HTC EVO 4G LTE be an awesome phone? I get to upgrade my Sprint phone or change carriers on June 1, 2012.
• I watched episode 5 of “On the Verge” on my TiVo. The Verge editor Paul Miller has taken a vow of internet silence. I am predicting that Paul will fail miserably. Why would a tech journalist attempt to successfully go without the internet for an entire year? Perhaps Paul has been ordered by a judge to stop using the internet…

I’m getting ready for the big game. The sports commentators are picking Ohio State. Naturally, I always believe the University of Kansas basketball team will pull off the win.

Is a new transformers movie coming out this summer?

7:13 the Jayhawks are not off to a strong start… Robinson has left 6 points on the floor by missing shots in the paint.

7:18 here we go!!!

7:58 so the first half did not go very well for the Jayhawks… The zebras were horrible… The Kentucky vs. Louisville game had way more contact with fewer whistles…

8:30 Bill Self must have given the halftime speech of the millennium. Throughout the tournament the Jayhawks have been without a doubt a second half team.

9:00 Did you say a comeback! Jeff Withey has taken shot blocked to the next level. Who has some additional questions to answer? NBA scouts that thought Jared Sullinger could dominate a shot blocking 7 footer.

Joni, John Paul, and I watched the entire game at the Fox and the Hound. University of Kansas Alumni in Colorado Springs are always welcome to attend the Colorado Springs Jayhawks watch parties during basketball and football season.

.

Over the course of the last year my focus on getting a new laptop has gone from a passing interest to an objective for the year. What is the point of buying an ultrabook? Most of the desktop replacement laptops don’t have enough battery life to truly mobile. Time management matters. My current schedule has become rather erratic. At 5:00 AM Mountain Time my alarm goes off and the day begins. Each day is pretty much the same as the next.

Updating a Netflix disc queue used to reliably be a weekend activity for millions of people. If you don’t really mind have real-time content delivery, then Netflix can easily provide on demand media content via the internet.

In preparation for the basketball game between the University of Kansas and the University of North Carolina, I decided to watch the Deep Space Nine (DS9) episode “Trials and Tibble-ations.” I had reserved a few hours of time this afternoon to write. Writing is a form of mental exercise. In a couple of hours, Joni and I are going to take little John Paul to a University of Kansas watch party at the local Colorado Springs Fox and the Hound (Sports, Spirits, & Fun).

I have about five hours of work to do today, but some distractions have surfaced. People really seem to enjoy and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. During the course of preparing for the day, I stated downloading the public release of Diablo III from the Battle Net servers. While I was waiting for the download to finish, I started cleaning up my desk area. I have a Fellows paper shredder that is nearing the end of its lifecycle. Paper shredders have gone from a specialized office technology to a common part of a home office. Like a growing number of people who are hyper-focused on protecting personal information, I put almost every piece of mail my entire family receives through a cross-cut paper shredder.

I just received an email notice after completing a NORC (National Opinion Research Center) survey online that noted, “Certificate of Completion of the Survey of Earned Doctorates Questionnaire. This certifies that Nels Lindahl, a student at Walden University, has completed the Survey of Earned Doctorates on 3/18/2012.” The survey did not really delve into my personal experiences related to doctoral education. The researchers could have extracted most of the information they requested from the UMI system. I would highly suggest that NORC partner with UMI to include the survey of earned doctorates (SED) questions as part of the dissertation upload process required for students to graduate. This proposed partnership would certainly increase the survey completion rate! I started looking around the NORC website and was able to locate and extract the data tables for the SED.

My Diablo III download finished earlier today, but Beta Patch 15 is currently being deployed.

It took a couple of hours to get everything set up, but I was able to play the game!

The Jayhawks were able to win the game. Robbie Hummel played exceptionally well. The head coach of the Purdue Boilermakers should retire #4 during the post-game press conference. The Kansas players were able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Under any other circumstances a team that shoots 33.9% from the floor and 25% from beyond the arch will be defeated during the NCAA tournament. I’m seriously considering setting up a college basketball statistics feed to predictively model game statistics.

The basketball games today start at 10:00 AM Mountain Time on CBS. The first 10 minutes of the first round NCAA tournament game between The University of Detroit Mercy vs. the University of Kansas were highly competitive. The Detroit Titans started the game with a level of intensity and commitment that was truly inspiring. Perhaps now that the game is complete and some time has passed Kansas Coach Bill Self will be able to communicate to the team that the capacity to achieve that level of intensity and commitment is a necessary element of winning consistently. Eventually, during the course of the NCAA tournament the team skill levels even out to the point where execution, intensity, and commitment make the difference between winning and losing.

The second round NCAA tournament basketball game between Kansas State University and Syracuse is about to start on CBS. I’m going to go ahead and pour a Guinness Draught from a bottle into a pilsner glass in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. It looks like both teams will have players sitting out due to off the court issues.

Two fifteen seeds won today during the 2012 NCAA tournament; Duke lost to Lehigh and Missouri lost to Norfolk St. Joni and I are watching the KU game via the CBS Sports internet feed. We connected a media center laptop to our Sony Bravia via a 25 foot HDMI cable. Apparently, the Detroit team actually has more McDonald’s All Americans. The Detroit coach has recruited a very talented team.

I’m watching the game box score on the ESPN webpage. If both teams get an average number of possessions, then key stat to watch is the field goal percentage. Most college games are won in the paint. A few games each year in the NCAA tournament are decided by a team’s ability to hit an overwhelming number of 3-point shots. In the end a game with relatively even field goal percentages will probably be decided by free throws or 3-point shots.

Thomas Robinson walked into halftime two rebounds short of a first half double double. With slightly better and more active footwork, Jeff Withey could have easily pulled down ten rebounds during the first half. Withey happens to be walking tall compared to the Detroit lineup. Detroit’s tallest player is 2 inches shorter than Withey.

During the halftime show I started looking at cell phones. The new HTC One phones look promising. I wonder how long it will be before Sprint starts selling the HTC One series. I’d settle for an HTC EVO variant with the HTC One specs. Over the last few months I have gotten pretty annoyed with the battery life my HTC EVO 4G is getting. I almost purchased the expanded battery, but I just could not bring myself to part with the cash necessary to make the purchase.

I recently acquired a 25 foot HDMI cable from Amazon to help stream the NCAA tournament games to my 60 inch Sony Bravia television from a laptop. This year I paid 4 bucks to have access to stream every NCAA tournament game. Originally my plan involved purchasing a wireless HDMI transmitter. However, purchasing a 25 foot HDMI cable was a significantly cheaper option. I paid about 15 bucks for the new HDMI cable on Amazon. Canceling our satellite subscription was difficult. I’m glad that CBS is allowing people to stream all of the games. Given that I only have access to broadcast television the option to stream every University of Kansas NCAA tournament games is more or less awesome.

You guessed it. It was bound to happen. March Madness is officially here. Today CBS Sports will be the first media outlet to announce the official college basketball brackets for the NCAA tournament. I started my basketball watching marathon today with the SEC championship game featuring Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt on ABC. I don’t actually miss the 24 hour sports or news coverage that cable provides. When I have access to 24 hour sports and news programming then I almost feel compelled to have either news or sports on in the background. Relegated to the background the media cycle becomes a secondary event. As a secondary event even major events are an afterthought unless the viewer is capable of truly multitasking. I’m still wondering if the University of Kansas will receive a #1 seed this year. Will the selection committee use head to head matchups to make seed determinations? A heads up win has to be considered when comparing teams.

Here is a digital photograph of what the Pizza Hut driver delivered:

Strangely enough a certain degree of civility still exists within the sports related arm of the media. Political reports gave up on maintaining any degree of civility long before I started paying attention to politics. I would like an answer to the question, “When was the last time we had civility (with respect to American politics)?”

Well it is official; I just could not bring myself to pull the trigger on an ultrabook this weekend. It’s not the money. My Dell Studio 1535 is still kicking. With a batter life of about two hours my Dell Studio 1535 has always been horrible to travel with or take anywhere. The Dell Studio 1535 has to be plugged in while I work on the sofa in the living room. Overall, I have come to the conclusion that battery life matters. A long time ago in a faraway land (Kansas), I had a Sony VAIO VGN-T250P laptop that had wonderful battery life, but it overheated and died. My next purchase is probably going to be an 11 or 13 inch ultrabook. I’m still guessing that the market is about to change at some point before summer.

Armed with a Philly cheese steak sandwich from Taste of Philly and a beverage, I sat down to watch game seven of the World Series featuring the Texas Rangers versus the St. Louis Cardinals. During the game, I found myself reading the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and running the washing machine. I stopped actively collecting baseball cards over a decade ago. My sports trading card collection gradually transitioned from baseball to football. Recently, I have started to bid on a fair number of Beckett Grading Services (BGS) rated autographed football cards. The market on BGS autographed cards has fallen on hard times. While the current economic situation has decimated prices for sellers, anybody who is considering buying up a few player autographed cards can do so relatively cheaply on eBay.

Will anybody notice if the National Basketball Association (NBA) failed to play any regular season games this year?

Nobody really cared when the National Hockey League (NHL) skipped the 2004 to 2005 season. I think the NBA might be overvaluing their stock by about 40%  to 60%.

Consider for a moment average game attendance…

During the 2011 season 893,462 people attended a total of 41 Chicago Bulls home games. By comparison during 7 home games 782,776 attended University of Michigan football games. If a college football game can draw in over 100,000 people per game, then how does the NBA stand satisfied with a league best average of 21,791 per game?

In defense of Bo Jackson: Bo knows baseball; @royalsreview (Royals Review) must not know Bo. We now live in an age of stardom and fame for all the wrong reasons. Bo Jackson represents the pinnacle of two sport superstardom. No other Royals player who has or will ever suit up in the cool blue glory commanded the same degree of talent as Bo Jackson. Statisticians might fault a star for burning too brightly. In the case of ranking Bo Jackson as a Kansas City Royal should the statistics be compared year to year or career to career? Baseball has long been associated with complex statistical questions. As a sport baseball is defined by both great seasons and great careers. Somebody could bother to rank the professional baseball careers of the top 100 Kansas City Royals; I would argue this comparison lacks validity. The better and more obvious question would be to evaluate the top 100 single seasons in the history of the Kansas City Royals.

I will be working toward a post directed @RoyalProcess (Trust the Process Kansas City) unveiling the top 100 individual player seasons in the history of the Kansas City Royals.

Maybe the future network printer will help print out a copy of the current sports card database. Maybe the best strategy for dealing with all the changes in the sports card trading industry will involve simply focusing the hobby of collecting. Those pesky graded card companies do make some fantastically exciting trading card holders.

Playing golf requires spending time at a driving range. Only a driving range can provide an environment for improvement. As a sport, golf requires access to equipment and the commitment of time. The eDouble band played on the Microsoft Zune music player during the redistribution of a bucket of Sand Creek driving range golf balls in Colorado Springs. Sand Creek driving range provides both grass and Astroturf surfaces. Overall, the driving range provided a suitable environment for practicing the game of golf.

For some reason the telephone service appears to be uninterrupted, but the DSL internet services are not functioning. The individual faces a late night query for information or simply a late night nudge in the right direction. Society’s interests including politics rise and fall like with the ocean’s tides. During the beginning of early round NBA basketball playoff series the games correctly align to provide games every night. Something about watching parts or all of NBA games, every night develops the story line in ways that enhance the dramatic effect of the sporting events. Without question, the NBA would benefit from Cleveland and Los Angeles appearing in the finals. The Denver Nuggets appear to be motivated playoff competitors. High energy or running basketball teams always provide the basis for compelling basketball coverage. For several years, Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns delivered entertaining basketball games that garnered national television interest.

What a day! Unfortunately, the baseball game scheduled between the Colorado Springs Sky Sox and the Omaha Royals conflicts with an NBA playoff game. Phil Jackson and the Los Angeles Lakers will compete against the Houston Rockets at 1:30 PM MST in Los Angeles. Thanks to the magic of DVR technology the game will be recording in glorious HD while Nels enjoys fifty cent hot dogs at the Sky Sox game.

Nels will have a chance to test the image uploading capabilities of the LG Voyager at the Sky Sox game. Field work will help inspire a photographer to build a random collection of digital images. Nels enjoys random acts of photography. Living in Colorado Springs affords residents the ability to witness true competition in the form of minor league baseball. In theory, minor league baseball players have every incentive in the world to compete as hard as possible to get to the show known as Major League Baseball.

The AAA affiliate of the Colorado Rockies the Sky Sox play home games in Colorado Springs. Nels has a very large sports trading card collection, but during the last five years has not purchased a single AAA baseball trading card. Due to current economic conditions now is a time to acquire sports trading cards at considerable discounts. Now is not the time to attempt to sell a large collection of sports trading cards. For the foreseeable future the sports trading cards will have to reside in a climate controlled area within a hermetically sealed storage container.

Nels has been wearing a Colorado Springs Sky Sox hat from 2006. Unfortunately, within the last year the Sky Sox have changed logos. Today just might be the day to purchase a new Sky Sox hat.

Nels has been considering how to upload photos to a specific weblog entry during events like the Sky Sox afternoon baseball game. Anyone with a photo capable cellular phone can upload photos to an online service. Getting the photos uploaded online to a specific weblog entry probably requires access to the mobile web. Currently, Joni has restricted family access to the mobile web.

On Friday May 15, 2009, at 10:00 AM MST Nels tried to utilize a special promotional code to purchase NBA Western Conference playoff tickets at the Denver Nuggets home arena the Pepsi Center. Nels even successfully acquired tickets using the Ticketmaster system. At the very last moment, during the checkout procedures (after authorizing payment) the Ticketmaster system concluded Colorado Springs is not currently located within the State of Colorado. After the Colorado Rockies World Series ticket problems, using the Ticketmaster system seemed logical. Unfortunately, the people who programmed the Ticketmaster software apparently lack basic geography skills. The Denver Nuggets do not need to thank Ticketmaster for providing excellent customer service. In this case, Ticketmaster has done the Denver Nuggets and the NBA a disservice. Unfortunately, for the Denver Nuggets Ticketmaster probably does not care.

“At the request of the Denver Nuggets tickets are not available for sale in your area. This order will have to be cancelled. To purchase tickets, you need to be a resident of Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Wyoming, or Nebraska. Please check back at 10 AM on Saturday May 16 when restriction will be lifted to place your order.”

Denver Nuggets NBA western conference finals tickets are going on sale Friday May 15, 2009. The Denver Nuggets website has indicated that season ticket holders will have priority ticket status. The total pool of tickets available to the public will be limited. Competition for the tickets will be fierce. Colorado residents had a horrible time trying to purchase tickets to the Colorado Rockies World Series games during October 2007. Computer software problems and nefarious ticket purchasing practices created a near catastrophic ticket distribution failure. Ticketmaster appears to be providing the technology infrastructure to sell the Denver Nuggets playoff tickets. Nels will attempt to purchase tickets to see one of the western conference final playoff games at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado.

The National Football League (NFL) draft will start at 4:00 PM EST on Saturday April 25, 2009. Nels will be covering the NFL draft all weekend via both live blogging and Twitter. Unlike most sports writers, Nels will fully disclosure all previously associated fandom. Traditionally, Nels follows the plotlines of two NFL franchises the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos. Growing up in the Midwest, Nels followed both franchises thanks in part to dominated media coverage within the region based on the strong tradition of rivalry and fierce competition between the Chiefs and Broncos franchises. However, as a football fanatic Nels maintains a degree of generalist knowledge about the National Football League and the various administrative functions of the league. Nels tends to provide unsolicited commentary on a wide variety of public decision making, administrative, and bureaucratic scenarios.

Nels will be updating this weblog entry throughout the weekend by reacting to the events of the NFL Draft…

---

11:00 AM EST Day 1 —– The Entertainment Sports Programming Network (ESPN) and the NFL Network have started providing principle coverage of the NFL Draft. The St. Louis Rams appear to be considering alternative strategies for the second overall pick in the draft after completing the initial decision making process. Trading the second pick for two additional picks later in the draft would be beneficial for the Ram based on economic considerations.

---

11:40 AM EST Day 1 —- The Denver Broncos start the day with ten NFL draft selections thanks to the Jay Cutler trade to the Chicago Bears. At least one of the Denver Broncos draft selections will probably involve acquiring a young quarterback to help secure the future of the franchise. NFL Draft Prediction #1: At least five of the Denver Broncos selections will focus on defensive players.

---

11:53 AM EST Day 1 —– The NFL Network programming coverage is entitled, “NFL Total Access: 2009 Draft Day 1 coverage.” Information presentation utilizing graphics and streaming content dominates the NFL Network coverage. Both ESPN and the NFL Network are providing speculative analysis of what might happen with the draft. At this point, only the Detroit Lions selection of quarterback Matthew Stafford from the University of Georgia with the overall number one pick is official. The television networks are not reporting any major draft day trades. Given the volatility of the NFL Draft, a major first round trade is possible this year.

---

12:25 PM EST Day 1 —– ESPN has a partnership with EA Sports to provide integrated interactive graphical environments for the celebrity commentators to utilize. People apparently enjoy watching people walk around within a video game backdrop. This type of technology replaces the sampling of actual game footage to demonstrate a player’s unique skills and abilities. Generalizations are interesting, but NFL fans are by far too intelligent to put up with video simulations when actual footage exists. ESPN should know better than to use generalizations when the audience both requires and demands specificity.

---

1:01 PM EST Day 1 —– ESPN proper has transitioned from the NFL Draft to NBA coverage of the Denver Nuggets playoff game against the New Orleans Hornets. Only the NFL Network provides continuous coverage without sporadic highlight reels from other sports or complete NBA games.

---

2:09 PM EST Day 1 —– Less than two hours until the NFL draft. Now is about the time to start getting all of the snacks ready for the first few picks of the NFL. For some reason, hot wings seem to be a great idea today. Does the NFL draft have an official snack food?

---

3:48 PM EST Day 1 —– The NFL Network’s Deion Sanders did an excellent job introducing the top prospects before the NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York. The draft is about to start and the NFL Network seems to be providing behind the scenes coverage. Earlier NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) executive director DeMaurice Smith discussed pending changes to the next collective bargaining agreement. The NFL needs to address the rookie wages issue before the entire salary cap formula collapses.

---

4:01 PM EST Day 1 —– Roger Goodell just started the draft party with a few opening remarks. St. Louis Rams are on the clock. Announcers seem to be excessively speculating about trade scenarios.

---

4:17 PM EST Day 1 —– The St. Louis Rams selected tackle Jason Smith of the Baylor Bears number two overall. Will the Kansas City Chiefs make the smart move and take an offensive tackle? The Kansas City Chiefs elected to draft Tyson Jackson a defensive end from Louisiana State University.

---

4:45 PM EST Day 1 —– Outside linebacker Aaron Curry the fourth overall pick of the NFL Draft will be playing for the Seattle Seahawks. The New York Jets have traded to acquire the fifth overall pick from the Cleveland Browns. Thanks to a draft day trade, quarterback Mark Sanchez will be playing for the New York Jets.

This weekend will be almost exclusively devoted to working on writing projects. Joni will be attending a retreat this weekend. Nels will have to take advantage of this opportunity to spend the entire weekend writing. At the same time, the National Football League (NFL) will be holding the annual rookie draft event at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York. Significant television coverage, traditional media, and internet reporting will be devoted to a multitude of details about the NFL Draft. The sheer volume of coverage about the NFL Draft has increased over the course of the last few years. Any adult living in the United States with access to media coverage probably knows the NFL Draft is occurring this weekend.

Even the most hardcore traditional baseball purists would have a hard time making the case that American Football is not the national pastime in the United States. Baseball faces significant structural problems from the frequency and length of games to late night broadcast times associated with World Series games. In fact, some experts might be able to argue the World Baseball Classic is more representative of a World Series than the conclusion of the Major League Baseball (MLB) season. Most Americans cannot afford the ticket prices associated with MLB season ticket packages. In additional to affordability concerns, most Americans are not willing to make the time commitment to attend eighty one MLB home games for a team.

Perhaps a comparison of both the MLB and NFL seasons is appropriate.

1. If the average MLB game lasts about two hours and fifty minutes, then an entire home season of eighty one games represents a commitment of 13,770 minutes or about 230 hours.

2. If the NFL home season comprises eight regular season games that last about three and one half hours, then an entire home season requires a commitment of about 1,680 minutes or 28 hours.

By comparison, perhaps the most telling fact relates to the NFL season being only ten percent the size of the MLB season. People who attend an entire MLB season of all eighty one home games are making a significant investment of time and energy. Other than special occasions like Thanksgiving, all NFL games occur on weekends or evenings. MLB games are played seven days a week and at a variety of times including traditional business hours. Overall, it is clear that the current scenario makes it easier for an NFL fan to attend all eight home games.

Interesting MLB Statistics

170 minutes in the average MLB game
81 games per season per team
27540 minutes played per team per season
30 teams in MLB (two teams play at a time)
41 weeks to watch every MLB game
287 days to watch every MLB game
6885 hours to watch every MLB game
413100 minutes to watch every minute of every MLB game
24786000 seconds to watch every second of every MLB game
79% of the year would be devoted to watching every MLB game

On Monday, the Spartans of Michigan State will be competing against the Tar Hells of North Carolina. One of these two national basketball powers will collect an additional NCAA national championship trophy. A DVD copy of last years Jayhawks of Kansas defeating the Tigers of Memphis sits on the shelf collecting dust. Archived basketball games really only hold the attention of viewers with a vested interest. People typically watch live sports. Sometimes people watch recently recorded sporting events. Occasionally, given enough time people will watch classic sports archives. Something about the spectator knowing the outcome changes the very nature of a sporting event. Perhaps the highest levels of physical competition are simply nothing more than a form of artistic expression.

For Kansas Jayhawk fans, the March Madness occurring within the confines of the NCAA basketball tournament is now over until next year. Bill Self has demonstrated a unique ability to both recruit well and coach well. They say a good coach has the ability to motivation people. A good coach demonstrates the ability to compel action from motivational speeches. Within the landscape of modern college basketball, a coach has to demonstrate the ability to be compelling. Basketball recruitment seems to be a full time job for college coaches. Rules and procedures restrict and limit the process. External media attention drives the process without the restrictions or limitations. The supply of outside information easily outpaces any coach’s demand. Coaching college basketball within the confines of the modern world seems to be about more than just the game.