zzzzz vol. 7 March 2013

THINGS AT CHURCH
-On Sunday, March 24, 2013, there will be a special service at Bethel Assembly in Oakdale, CA.

-On Easter, there will be Easter service.  A new sermon series will begin, and there will be activities for kids.  Service starts at 9:00 A.M. and 11:00 A.M.  The address is 105 East G Street, Oakdale, CA.

FIFA.COM MEN'S TOP 25
1. Spain 2. Germany 3. Argentina 4. England 5. Italy 6. Columbia 7. Portugal 8. Netherlands 9. Croatia 10. Russia 11. Ecuador 12. Greece 13. Cote D'Ivoire 14. Switzerland 15. Mexico 16. Uruguay 17. France 18. Brazil 19. Belgium 20. Ghana 21. Sweden 22. Chile 23. Bosnia-Herzegovina 24. Mali 25. Denmark (The U.S dropped one spot to 33).

FIFA.COM WOMEN"S TOP 5
1. United States 2. Germany 3. Japan 4. Brazil 5. France

IF I WERE KING OF SPORTS
I normally make one change a month.  This month, I am making three..  First, this law was not violated this year, but it is a first.  No sub 20-win team may receive an at large berth to the NCAA tournament over a 25 or more win team. I am tired of good mid-major teams getting passed over because not every team in its conference is good, and because power conference teams did not get enough teams in the tournament.  With the fact that most power conference teams schedule weakly in the non-conference, they never go on the road unless it is a neutral site, and they feed on the weak teams in the conference, and there are many more teams now than in the past, there should be no excuse to not get 20 wins.  Despite the conference schedule, if a team can get 25 or more wins, it is a good team.  I am not saying a 25+ win team should automatically get in the tournament, but it needs to be in before a sub-20 win team does.  There are only 3 sub-20 teams in the tournament this year, but they were automatic qualifiers.

-Rule 2: In the NIT, if the arena of the higher-seed team is not available, the game will be played in a neutral site closer to the higher-seed team.

This rule is violated this year (and most every year).  No one plans to play in the NIT, so sometimes arenas are booked for other events, or for the NCAA tournament.  In this case, Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY is booked for the NCAA Tournament.  However, Kentucky is the top seed in the NIT tournament and has no access to its own arena.  Therefore, the game is at its opponents home floor (Robert Morris).  It will be good for the small university, but it should not be.  Under my rule, the game would be moved to Louisville, KY.  If the arena is not available, it would be moved to other arenas in Kentucky (or Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN if those are too small).

-Rule 3: Create a Former VOL vs. Current VOL challenge in basketball.

This is just something I would like to see.  This is based on the ACC/Big 10 Challenge from the NCAA.  In my vision, I have this challenge over two days. Four games would be on Friday and four on Saturday (or four on the first Saturday and four on the second Saturday).  The first one would be at Oakdale for four games, because I thought of it and I want it at my alma mater.  The second group of four games would be at Sierra in Manteca, because they won league.  If there is a case where one site of the challenge is outside the Manteca Unified School District, and the other one is at Manteca, the team who finished the worst of the MUSD schools the previous year, would be the team to travel (Lathrop). Should it become an annual event, the top two teams would eventually host, but every VOL team would host at least once before it went to the top 2 teams.  Every former VOL team would play in it at least once before teams play again.  I would start the challenge in 2014 after realignment.  Here is a model for the first possible former VOL vs. current VOL (note: I will be using the most current Sac-Joaquin realignment as "current VOL".  Therefore Sonora will be in the "former" VOL, and Central Catholic will be in the "current VOL").

Day 1 at Sierra (Manteca)
Bear Creek vs. Manteca
West vs. East Union
Buhach Colony vs. Weston Ranch
Riverbank vs. Sierra (I believe Riverbank was in the VOL at one time).

Day 2 at Oakdale
Livingston vs. Lathrop
Tracy vs. Kimball (I'm sure the Tracy school district wouldn't like two of their schools playing each other in Oakdale, but it is my model)
Ceres vs. Central Catholic
Sonora vs. Oakdale
   
GOOD SONGS NEVER RELEASED
-I will be starting a new segment in zzzzz. Not all good songs artists sing are released in public radio.  They want to save something for those who buy the CD or download it on their iPod.  In a dream world, I would like to see someone do a countdown of the best songs never to be released, but there are three problems with the concept.  First, some songs are released in some markets and not in others.  An example would be nearly anything Flying Blind put out.  Flying Blind is a band out of Hughson, CA.  They were big in the Modesto area, because they were a local band.  However, they were not big across the country.  The same thing goes for UVR's "Got Two Girlfriends." UVR is from Tracy, CA; and that song was a big hit in the Stockton/Modesto markets, but from the lack of the song on YouTube, I assume it was not released nationally.  The second problem is that someone (or a group of people) would have to listen to thousands of albums from several types of artists whether they are world-famous singers or those trying to catch a break.  Finally, people are going to have a different opinion of what is good and what is not.  Therefore, I will put songs on here that I think are good that I have never heard on the radio or seen the video on a major tv network. 

The song for this month is called "Better Than This" by Brad Paisley.  It is on the album "5th Gear".  The CD was released in 2007.  Other songs on the album are "Online", "Letter To Me", I'm Still A Guy", and "Waitin' On A Woman".  I personally think "Better Than This" is probably the third best song on the album. 

Click for the song "Better Than This"

(Note: This is the first time I tried to put a link on here.  If it doesn't work, go to www.youtube.com and search for "Better Than This-Brad Paisley").  By the way, I encourage you to buy this album if you are a country music fan.  There are other good songs that haven't been released, either.

STUPID LAWSUITS
I heard about two stupid lawsuits on the news that I was going to put on here.  Unfortunately, I only remember one of them. A man in Redwood City, CA is suing the school district, becuase he felt that they held his son from being accepted to a good college.  The whole thing started when the son got caught cheating in his honors class by coping someone's homework.  Because he was caught cheating, he was removed from the honors classes.  The father and son both signed contracts saying that any level of dishonesty was a cause for removal from the honors program.  The father ended up dropping the lawsuit.

-Ok, to the father.  You're an idiot.  Neither the school nor the teacher of the class prevented your son from getting college credit and possibly getting in a great college, your son did.  The fact that you base your lawsuit on the rule being vague is a load of crap.  They were pretty easy to understand.  Your son broke the rule and the punishment fit the crime.  Your son would be kicked out of college if he did it there.  Plus, your son can redeem himself at a community college and then get in a good college.  One of the many reasons why school districts cannot afford more teachers, better equipment, newer books, etc. is because districts have to pay a high premium for lawsuit insurance to defend itself against stupid crap like this.  I hope you are somehow reading this.  You cost the taxpayers $15,000 that could have been used for books to defend against your B.S. lawsuit. I hope you're happy.