Off to see the world on SB 09

It has been an interesting week for me. There have been some ups and downs but knowing what lay ahead (spring break) made the week much more bearable. I'll give you a breakdown of the occurrences since my last post, in my life, and the sports world, as well as some insights.

The BAD

I Got beat BAD by a girl in tennis

So I've played my fair share of girls on high school tennis teams, and have always come away victorious, so going into this one, my confidence may have been a little bloated. I've never had a backhand, but it really hasn't hurt me when I play yet, until Monday.

0-6, 2-6. Does that say enough? Becca was painting corners, and I was hoping my shots were gonna land in the court. It was a dismantling, and I give her the credit. She's frickin good! But now I know I can play someone who will make me better, and I look forward to the possibility of beating her in the future. Maybe she'll help me with my backhand.

No PGA Internship

Turns out they didn't have any openings to begin with for summer interns. I still have an in with the marketing guy at Kohler Hospitality, so maybe something will turn up.

Railside Internship

I hope things fall into place soon for this gig, because it is starting to get frustrating. Ask me about it if you'd like to know more. 

2 Midterms the same day

I had to memorize over 100 buildings, their name, architect, and time period. This exam sucked. I put in as much time as I ever have studying for a midterm for this one, and I still didn't feel great leaving it. 

8:00 AM wake-ups on spring break

So the golf team is gonna kinda be like boot camp this year on spring break. A workout every morning at 8 before our rounds should be interesting, and I can't say I'm looking forward to it. 

The GOOD

Spring Break 09!

6 rounds of golf, a beautiful house right on a resort, and all paid for by the mighty Calvin dollar. Not to mention having the AD of the school, Jim Timmer, along for the ride. Oh, and our coaches wives are coming along, so good meals too!

Tennis and Trains

I have a good time hanging out with people and making things competitive. Ticket to Ride has been our game of choice lately, and it's pretty good. Not quite as good as Settlers of Catan, but it will do. 

March Madness

After the first day, I've gotten 14 out of the 16 matchups correct, so I am feeling pretty good. I started off 12 for 12. Go Marquette and Wisconsin tomorrow. Look further down the blog for more on this. 

The World of Sports for Tyler Smies

The Bucks - Twittering

The bucks got a huge win over the celtics, something that I certainly didn't think was possible considering the shell of a team that we have left. Somehow this got overshadowed by Charlie Villanueva twittering during halftime of the game, saying that he needed to bring it for the second half. And bring it he did.

With 15 points in the second half and a win over the world champion celtics, I was amazed that this move by Villanueva got so much press. This is one of those "duh, you are a professional athlete, act like one" moments by the hairless wonder, but hardly seemed egregious. At least he was into the game, and he's not getting drunk and doing stupid stuff. I am fine with the way Skiles handled it (a formal reprimand, but no actual penalty) and I think CV will know better from now on. Thanks for the win, though, big man.

The Brewers

With Yovanni Gallardo throwing a 5 inning no hitter in spring training yesterday, I like my all-star selection more and more. I guess multiple websites that do statistical analysis say the brewers will win 85 games, which is my prediction from last week. 

Word is that Macha is considering catcher Jason Kendall at leadoff. While I'm not in love with Weeks in the leadoff spot, it certainly beats a 35-year old catcher with no speed or pop and a low batting average starting off a game. At least Rickie can hit one over the fence or take a walk. Please Macha, don't be stupid. I've seen enough bonehead moves from Yost over the past 4 years. 

Marquette

Fearless prediction: despite their woes since James has been out, I believe that Marquette will take care of business in what is essentially a road game against Utah St. This team is too Senior laden and has more pride than any other marquette team that I remember watching (including Wade's team, who was obviously more gifted). McNeal and Matthews make sure this game goes to the Golden Eagles. I have them losing in the second round though to a tough Mizzou squad. It is too bad the season had to end like this, because this was a more watchable Marquette team than I can remember, because of their hard nosed defense and fearless penetration on offense.

UW

The Florida St. matchup will be a tough one, but I really think Wisconsin will grind it out. They are more disciplined and play a brand of basketball that Florida St. is not used to. And believe me, Wisconsin will force Florida St. to play at their pace. I hope I am right, and all the naysayers who believed that Wisconsin didn't deserve a bid can shut up and sit down. Since Bo Ryan has been coach, I don't remember them losing a first round matchup. Perhaps I am mistaken, but a team with that kind of proven track record deserves to be in over a school like St. Mary's. 

I'll try to put up some pics of me on the links so some of you can see them. Thanks for reading!

New Random Thing to Do?

I've always been a methodical writer. It's been ingrained in me since high school; Intro, 3 paragraph summary, conclusion. And that thesis better be frickin good. So this may be a new thing for me. I'll probably practice it a little bit before I start telling people that I do this. But perhaps this will be the best way for me to get my thoughts out, and feel like it is accomplishing something. I'm a very organized person, so My Blogs will probably get organized into categories, and later my friends and family can just immediately go the part that they actually care about. So I'm beginning to ramble...

Life feels good...for the First time in awhile

Everyone goes through funks in life where things just don't feel right. I'm just waiting for that lucky break. Well, I feel like I've been in that mode since maybe October or so. At that point I found out I didn't make the cut for the interim trip to Europe, and I was bummed. After that, I decided I wanted to get an internship set up for the spring. And thus began a long and arduous search for the mystical internship. 

Things were bleak. I applied to USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council), but didn't get an interview. I applied at Steelcase, and they manager told me my GPA scared him. Baffling. I interviewed with a different branch of Steelcase, and made the cut from 53 applicants down to 7 interviewees, but then got bombarded with questions from 6 people that I didn't handle too well. Needless to say, my confidence wasn't high.

But then I got an email from a local private club that was hoping for some help in marketing. After alot of phone tag with the head pro, I finally talked to him on Wednesday, and I will be starting next week. What a relief.

At the same time, a possible door opened for me for an internship at home this summer. It would be a dream internship, involving Golf, marketing, and my home course, Whistling Straits. We'll see what happens, but things look good. I'll keep everyone posted.

Needless to say, these two internships both landing this week made it a fantastic time to be me. I feel like I'm starting to catch some breaks, and I'm trying to savor every minute of it. God certainly has his own time frame, and usually for stuff I want, it's a whole lot slower than mine.  

Scripture passage of the night - "They entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their hearts and souls." - 2 Chronicles 15:12

Sports - Chri-High, Bucks, Brewers, golf, and the NCAA tourney

Chri High - What a fantastic week for the boy's basketball team at Chri-High. Beating Randolph is a feat that I wasn't sure I'd ever see. It couldn't happen to a better group of guys. I've watched them grow up  and go from pipsqueaks on the floor with me and my friends, to competing with us, to quite frankly, putting me and my friends (their brothers) in our place. It's too bad it came to an end tonight against Benton. These guys deserved more, but I'm proud of them, and I have a sense of pride knowing that I beat on them a little bit over the past few years, and maybe that helped them. At least that's what I like to think.

The VerVelde controversy -  I don't really know what happened, but honestly this whole article and the comments posted on sheboyganpress.com makes the school look AWFUL. No matter what side you are on, you can't be pleased on how bad it makes SCCHS look. It is also unfortunate timing that it took a little luster off the guy's run through the tourney.

Bucks

Go ahead and just skip over this part, b/c no one is actually interested. Hey, somehow at 30-38, they are still hanging on for a playoff spot. Losing their two best players for the rest of the season hurts, but this month showed that Charlie V and Ramon Sessions can keep this team competitive. 

This is what really hurts though.... With Charlie V and Sessions both putting up fantastic numbers, their stock has risen dramatically. And of course, they are both restricted free agents (always, always, in a contract year). So the Bucks can essentially sign only one of them this offseason because of cap issues. Suck.

Brewers

Spring training has come. The brewers are essentially the same, minus two all-star starting pitchers. I expect them to compete for the wild card, but fall short. I'm expecting and 85-77 record this year, just close enough to keep everyone interested. All star selections will include Yovanni Gallardo and Ryan Braun. Fielder is looking a whole lot slimmer at spring training, but the competish at first base is rather stiff. Let's hope Trevor Hoffman doesn't pitch like his age suggests he will. 

Golf

Spring break next week! Going down to Kiawah Island, South Carolina. We will be playing the Ocean Course, designed by Mr. Pete Dye, as well as 3 other resort courses while staying in an 8 bedroom mansion. Likely to be my best spring break yet. We've got fantastic guys, all who seem to enjoy each others company. I'm going through a swing change...what's new. We'll see if this one works.

NCAA tourney

Marquette and Wisconsin are both down this year a bit, but both will make the tournament. This Thursday and Friday are honestly probably my two favorite days of the year, save for thanksgiving and Christmas...And they are REALLY REALLY close. 

And here's some food for thought at the end of my blog...

My top 5 most visited websites (save for facebook)

5. www.brewcrewball.com - this guy must not have a job, but this is a fantastic blog about brewers baseball.

4. www.brewhoop.com - great blog about bucks basketball, fills me in every night on what went  down. (since I can't watch it myself)

3. www.sheboyganpress.com - I know this is lame, but reading up on local sports and random stories about the deer in my backyard gets me smiling everytime.

2. craigslist - free section - Best 15 seconds I waste every day. I've already gotten my dresser from this, and I'm hoping to bag a free entertainment center soon. I was five minutes late for a free laptop. Shoot

1. ESPN - Bill Simmons columns and podcasts - This guy is absolutely hilarious. He puts out 3 or 4 podcasts a week, as well as a column a week. His writing makes me cry it's so funny. The podcasts are good, but PLEASE read his articles. His recent one about Mike Dunleavy's ineptitude coaching the Clippers kept me laughing all day.