College Basketball

During March every year there is a basketball tournament between a bunch of US colleges. This year I decided to join in the fun by participating in the 'fantasy basketball' tournament. Basically you just pick the teams you think will win and then get points for each win, with points increasing as the rounds of the tournament go on.

Not being a great basketball fan, and not really knowing anything about the teams I decided on a somewhat unorthodox method of picking my winners. First off if I had been to the city the team was from I picked that team to win, unless I didn't really like the town. Next, if I had been to the state that the team was from I would pick the team, with the exception of teams from California for no real reason other than that my time in LA was probably my least favourite time in my trip to the US a few years ago. Seeing as I have not really visited many places in the US yet there were a lot of games that these first 2 methods did not cover, so for those games I went for the team with the better name.

Surprisingly these selection techniques did not work out so well for me, and I am now totally eliminated from the tournament only half way through the 3rd round. I was looking pretty good after the first round, on 19 points but then only managed another 6 points in the second round and none in the third. The next closest contestant in the group I am playing in has 59 points, so I am hoping to finish with more than half of that person's total, all I need is for Oregon to beat Florida and I achieve this lofty goal I have set myself.

In other news, nothing much has been happening here. A new coffee shop opened last week half a block from work. It is actually more of a chocolate shop but also have a pretty nice espresso setup. They were giving out free coffee and hot chocolate all week so I had 3, 2 lattes and a hot chocolate. The lattes were not too bad, but I think the barista needs a bit of practice, still not bad for his first week. The hot chocolate was pretty good, not too sweet and not too milky. They sell coffee beans roasted by some decent local roasters so I may try them out some time in the next few weeks. Oh that reminds me, I bought some Bolivian beans from the Elysian Room this afternoon and my first impression was pretty favourable. Quite tasty indeed.

Oops my bad

In my last post I may have got a few of the facts a little wrong. It turns out that the plane was actually part of a movie set. So for those of you who were considering traveling to Vancouver, it is still very safe. Mum, you might want to mention to your travel agent that there wasn't actually a crash at all. Sorry about that. I will try to check the facts a little more thoroughly next time.

The movie that was being filmed was called "Passengers" or something, and stars Anne Hathaway. It is due out some time in 2008.

Plane Crash

You have probably heard about the plane crash in Vancouver last Tuesday night; it has been all over the news here. As far as I have heard they do not know yet the exact cause of the crash, but I suspect the foul weather we were having was a contributing factor. A domestic passenger aircraft crashed on Locarno Beach not far from my house, killing all 75 people on board.
If you have ever been to Vancouver then you will understand how surprising it was that the plane should crash where it did, as the airport is quite a bit further south so the plane was well off course.


Being so close to my house, today I decided to take a walk down to the beach to see if the aircraft was still there. As it turns out it was still there although it was roped off so I couldn't get terribly close to it. It was a pretty sobering scene, and it was clear that there would have been very little chance of survivors. The main body of the plane was broken shattered with only the nose and tail left intact. The passenger compartment had been totally gutted by fire. Scattered on the ground around the surrounding area where random items of luggage, thrown from the plane during the crash.