[Photo via University of Utah Athletic Department]

Yes, March madness is afoot. My team (Univ. of Utah) doesn’t play until tomorrow night. So I guess that I don’t really have a good excuse to take off work. I’m pretty excited about it though. U of U had a pretty good season, winning the MWC. I wish that I would have been able to follow the action more closely this year. They are going into the tournament as a No. 5 seed and the first game is against Arizona. I haven’t done a bracket this year. I guess I’m in denial that March is already here. People who are way busier than I am (with stuff like solving financial crises, commanding, chiefing, etc..), have still found the time to fill out a bracket. You can check out President Obama’s bracket here.

Utah, arch rival, No. 8 seeded BYU started their first round this afternoon against Texas A&M. I wasn’t able to watch the actual game, but I followed the web cast. I know it is bad for the conference and everything. But for some reason, I just love to see the Cougars choke. Barack likes Utah and BYU in the first round, but that’s as far as they get, on his bracket. Unfortunately for El Presidente, BYU has already taken a dive. Way to go Cougs. Now you have let down our country, too. Hahahaha. Let’s hope that Obama is better at his political and economic predictions than he is at predicting college basketball tournaments.

I have always wondered if these signs are confusing to tourists and other (non-New Jersey) out of towners. Path to what? They come out of the subway in lower Manhattan and there is this huge orange sign staring at them.  Is the Path kind of like the yellow brick road? No, dude. Sorry, it is just a train that shuttles people back and forth from the Garden State, and occasionally has a giant chicken in front of its WFC entrance.

Ken Johnson of the New York Times seems to think so.  So does Jordan at Public Ad Campaign. Johnson’s NYT article gives an overview of Fairey’s career and style of art, from Fairey’s days as a student, up through his current campaign for Saks Fifth Avenue. The article focuses on Fairey’s current exhibit in Boston observing that,

Despite its rousing first impact, the exhibition leaves you with a sense of dismay at the devolution of a certain avant-garde dream into a kind of visual easy listening for the college-educated masses.

Ouch. As PAC points out, even though the Saks campaign is a probono exercise to benefit charity, it still doesn’t quite sit right, saying “Oh Shep, I know this ones for charity too and I’m usually on your side, but this rubs me the wrong way”. I’m still on the fence.

[Revenge in Brooklyn Heights. Photo via Flickr/dangottesman via Curbed]

I thought this note was great. I was also glad that the person who penned the note had the self control to leave the note (albeit, penned on packing tape), rather than resorting to actually breaking the windshield. I came out to a deep key scratch on the quarter-panel of Bebe last Sunday Morning. I would have preferred the tape. At least a note would have let me know why someone is hating on me/us/Bebe.

["mobile canvas" taken at Park Pl. & West Broadway]

Is it just me, or are in instances of unchecked graffiti on the rise in NYC? I haven’t been able to find any data on the issue, other than statistics showing the petty crime is on the rise.  But just going off of my personal observation, it seems like I’m seeing more of it around. I actually don’t mind the well planned out tags that are aesthetically appealing. But I think that the hasty little chicken scratch throw-ups that I have been seeing more of, are pure garbage.

Participants of WWF’s Earth hour will turn off their lights at 8:30 local time on March 28. Get on board. Check out the details here.

Who is better?

Obama:

or Bush:

Thanks for the heads up, Jansen.

I came across this by way of Animal. Is the idea pool really that shallow these days? What happened to the good old days, when the good ideas flowed like wine? Since the entire functionality of a freestyle deck requires it to be rigid and lightweight, the skateboard above has in effect been rendered useless. Chris Jackson, is clearly no Danny Way. Maybe he should design a fold-in-half rollerblade instead. Seems more up his alley. No hard feelings, Chris.

You just found a four leaf clover. So, I guess that means you are lucky.

Question-

Jake, I have always wondered why don’t the American’s and the English switch driving sides. Either way would work, either driving side or lane direction. That would make the mailmans job alot simpler. “I know from personal experience, I drive a street sweeper. It has controls on both sides. Plus I am a government worker so I can drive on whatever damn side of the road I want.”

Name, Joe Jacobsen

Answer–

Joe, it is good to hear from you man! The answer to your question takes us back to colonial times. In the mid 1770’s, on the American Continent, there was a bit of a struggle going on in the New England area. All of the Yanks were hating on their British King and trying to find a way to get out from under his thumb. Back then there were no motorized cars. It was all horse and carriage on the road. There was no “right” or “wrong” side of the road. The system of driving back then was called Euromerge. This system worked by everyone just trying to all go at the same time in whatever direction on which ever side of the road they wanted to. A long with many things that carried over from Great Britain, the Yankees decided that the Euromerge system was totally retarded and decided standardize vehicular transportation on the road. They did this by creating signs and rules, one of which made it uniform procedure to drive on the right side of the road. Of course, as soon as the Yankees did this, the Brits, as with most things, has to copy, but put their own snooty British Eurotarded twist on it. So they decided that if the Colonists were going to drive on the right side of the road, then in Great Britain the correct side would be the left. The Brits still do this kind of thing in today’s world. For example, Americans brush their teeth, so the Brit’s don’t etc… As for the steering wheel being on the left side of the vehicle; blame that on Henry Ford. His parents were Irish immigrants (Ireland is part of the UK= under British control= Eurotarded). He obviously never delivered mail or drove a street sweeper.

Hope that answers your question, Jake