Some links to start off the week

After an excitement filled weekend of NCAA tournament action where my beloved Blue Devils pulled out a squeaker against Texas to get to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 3 years, here are some links to get your week started.

For those trivia buffs, here is a great website that my roommates found which has kept us occupied for the past day. It is called Sporcle and is a collection of categories where you can fill in the answers under a time limit. For example, one of the lists is of "Countries in Africa" and you get 10 minutes to name as many African countries as you can, and it will tell you if you are correct or not. It sounds dumb but it is extremely fun and addicting.

Lance Armstrong was hurt in a race in Spain and broke his collarbone. However, it looks as though he will recover quickly and will be able to race in the Tour de France this summer in his comeback bid.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is making a comeback after retiring from boxing. This was easy to predict as most boxers rarely can pass up another opportunity for a big payday.



There are amazing photos online of an undersea volcano erupting near Tonga. I don't think I would have gotten as close as the photographers were to this spectacular event.

The Allman Brothers have been doing their annual concerts at the Beacon Theatre in NYC, but no show was quite like last Thursday's performance, when Eric Clapton joined them onstage for an hour long, six song set. What a great show that must have been!

VIDEO GAME ALERT!

For those who play Call of Duty: World at War online...



The new downloadable map pack will be available starting at midnight tonight. It features 4 new multiplayer maps as well as a new map for the very popular Zombie mode called Asylum. As a frequent player of Zombie mode with friends online already, I have to say that I am extremely pumped for the next couple of days. Zombies were already extremely fun and creepy with the current map and I cannot imagine how much creepier Nazi Zombies will be in a place called Asylum. Add to that the fact that the NCAA tournament starts tomorrow and there is going to be a very miniscule chance that I will vacate my couch in the coming 48 hours.

On that note, some upset picks for Thursday and Friday games in the NCAA tournament. Look for Portland St. to beat Xavier- Portland St. may be a 13 seed but it has already beaten Gonzaga this year at Gonzaga and also barely lost to another NCAA tournament team, Washington, by 1 at Washington. Another upset will be VCU over UCLA. I know this is a trendy pick in the past week but this VCU team is for real. Eric Maynor is an NBA level point guard and might be this season's version of Stephen Curry (ask Wisconsin, Gonzaga, and Kansas how good he was last year). They also have a low post banger in Larry Sanders to compliment Maynor. And VCU has done it before, defeating my beloved Blue Devils two years ago in the NCAA's. Also, look for Utah State to pull off the upset of Marquette, who have felt the loss of their point guard Dominic James to a broken foot. Utah State is 30-4 and is ranked in the top 25 despite lacking name recognition. I have them beating Missouri as well in the next round. Those are my picks and I'm sticking to them. Feel free to come back and rub my nose in it if I am completely off base.

Top 5 Movies of 2008 (I know... really late)

Since I have been slacking over the past 2 weeks, after watching the Oscars I forgot to post the top 5 movies that I saw during 2008. It was a pretty good year for movies and I managed to see a lot in the theaters (always a goal of mine). So without further ado, here are my top 5 movies that I saw in 2008. Feel free to comment and leave your own top 5, I would love to see them.

5. Appaloosa- I am usually not a huge Western fan but Appaloosa was a great movie. The performances of Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris were great and the landscapes and scenery of the movie just made it very visually appealing. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good action movie that revolves around a solid plot.

4. Iron Man- Iron Man was just a fun movie to watch. I would consider it a blockbuster movie but Robert Downey, Jr. did a great job and was really convincing as multimillionaire arms manufacturer Tony Stark. However, I felt as though Jeff Bridges was equally as good and played a great villain.

3. Forgetting Sarah Marshall- There weren't a ton of movies released this year where I consistently laughed for the entire movie but this was one of them. (Tropic Thunder also comes to mind) There were just some hilarious scenes in this movie, whether it was the surfing lessons that Jason Segal took with Paul Rudd (a very underrated comic actor in my book), the Dracula musical, or any scene with Russell Brand in it. This movie was just downright hilarious.



2. The Dark Knight- Absolutely loved this movie, as did most of America. Heath Ledger was probably one of the greatest villains I have ever seen in a movie and it is a shame that he is no longer able to show how versatile an actor he is. The action scenes were done brilliantly, the plot was awesome, and the visual effects were just stunning. I saw this movie at least 3 times this summer and loved it every single time.

1. Slumdog Millionaire- For once the Oscars got it right. This movie was just breathtaking. From the amazing shots of the slums of Mumbai to the way that the movie was filmed jumping from flashbacks and then back to the present, it was simply awesome. Not only was it filmed brilliantly but the soundtrack was perfect for the movie. Never before did I think I would see a movie win an Oscar that had M.I.A.'s song "Paper Planes" in it twice but it fit perfectly. And the last song of the movie, Jai Ho, is great by itself. This was one of my favorite movies of all time and if you haven't seen it yet, I would highly suggest going to see it ASAP.