EuroCup entrants

Pool A
1.Russia - Tedman, Ladave
2.Greece - Darren, Sean
3.Czech - Leslie, Liliana
4.Poland - Bridget, Melanie

Pool B
1.Germany - Andrew, Zacko
2.Netherlands - Scott, Michelle
3.Portugal - Barb, Rap
4.Denmark - Siobhan, Casey

Pool C
1.Spain - Campbell, Norm
2.Italy - Fred, Christian
3.Croatia - Adele, Wessel
4.Ireland - Craig, Dobbs

Pool D
1.England - Troy, Stan
2.France - Jay, Wesley
3.Sweden - Tim, Scerra
4.Ukraine - Brandon, Chloe

Please paypal me $11 to zr10sw@yahoo.com or $10 in person.

EuroCup pool 2012!

Euro 2012 is here! It's here every four years! I just learned that.

This pool is in the same format as the world cup pool. Everyone's name in a hat and will draw one team. This year's tourney is going to be tighter than the World Cup with half the teams and more parity.

Entry is $10(or $11 to my paypal:zr10sw@yahoo.com). Payout is $100 to first, $40 to second and $20 to third(the semi-final loser to the Euro winner).

The draw will be held live either on the Wednesday or Thursday night after Memorial Day(Kings game pending).

NCAA Pool Live!

The Tourney is up. My spreadsheet is also online, so whenever I update, you can check in. If anyone can help me

Live Spreadsheet Here

If you want to watch the video, I saved in on my channel(http://www.ustream.tv/channel/zacko-on-demand).
Below are the results of the draw, and even below that are the current standings. I will try to update it nightly, but I'm just one man. I'll probably share a google docs spreadsheet, but for now:
SOUTH
1 Kentucky : Ted - Nancy
2 Duke : Costello - Friedman
3 Baylor : Leslie - Sharif
4 Indiana : Lindsay - Rap
5 Wichita St. : Casey - Scerra
6 UNLV : Bridget - Sean
7 Notre Dame : Jeff - Norm
8 Iowa St. : Brian - Wessel
9 Connecticut : Chinfoo - Campbell
10 Xavier : Christian - Fred
11 Colorado : Tim - Zacko
12 VCU : Danny - Craig
13 NewMexicoSt. : Andrew - Barb
14 South Dakota St. : Troy - Melanie
15 Lehigh : LADave - Scott Miller
16 Miss Valley/W Kent : Darren - Scott Wilkerson

WEST
1 Michigan St. : Bridget - Tim
2 Missouri : Sharif - Zacko
3 Marquette : Costello - Sean
4 Louisville : LADave - Scott Wilkerson
5 New Mexico : Campbell - Christian
6 Murray St. : Fred - Nancy
7 Florida : Danny - Andrew
8 Memphis : Wessel - Craig
9 St. Louis : Troy - Ted
10 Virginia : Friedman - Scerra
11 Colorado St. : Barb - Casey
12 Long Beach St. : Jeff - Lindsay
13 Davidson : Brian - Norm
14 BYU/Iona : Rap - Darren
15 Norfolk St. : Melanie - Chinfoo
16 LIU Brooklyn : Scott Miller - Leslie

EAST
1 Syracuse : Jeff - Scerra
2 Ohio St. : Chinfoo - Fred
3 Florida St. : Christian - Friedman
4 Wisconsin : Sean - Zacko
5 Vanderbilt : Rap - Bridget
6 Cincinnati : Costello - Leslie
7 Gonzaga : Scott Miller - Campbell
8 Kansas St. : Casey - LADave
9 Southern Miss : Danny - Nancy
10 W Virginia : Wessel - Troy
11 Texas : Andrew - Ted
12 Harvard : Barb - Scott Wilkerson
13 Montana : Melanie - Darren
14 St. Bonaventure : Norm - Tim
15 Loyola-Maryland : Brian - Lindsay
16 UNC Asheville : Sharif - Craig

MIDWEST
1 North Carolina : LADave - Scott Miller
2 Kansas : Andrew - Rap
3 Georgetown : Ted - Norm
4 Michigan : Danny - Sean
5 Temple : Tim - Chinfoo
6 San Diego St. : Craig - Bridget
7 St. Mary's : Casey - Jeff
8 Creighton : Friedman - Scott Wilkerson
9 Alabama : Darren - Christian
10 Purdue : Lindsay - Barb
11 North Carolina St.: Costello - Leslie
12 California/S Florida : Brian - Wessel
13 Ohio : Sharif - Fred
14 Belmont : Campbell - Scerra
15 Detroit : Zacko - Melanie
16 Lamar/Vermont : Nancy - Troy

STANDINGS
(1) 46 Melanie Sartoris
(2) 36 Darren O'Loughlin
(3) 30 Troy Jones
(4) 28 Brian Beery
(5) 24 Barbara Yates
(6) 16 Craig Burnett
(7) 14 Lindsay Kurtis
(8) 12 Scott Wilkerson
(9) 10 Scott Miller
(10) 8 Steve Wessel
(11) 6 Norm Brown
(12) 4 Leslie Juarez
(13) 2 James Campbell
(14) 0 Sharif Rahman
(15) -2 Andrew Parker
(16) -4 Danny Patterson
(16) -4 Nancy Lelieur
(16) -4 Zachary Rynew
(19) -6 Fred Einesman
(19) -6 Tim Carroll
(19) -6 Mike Chinfoo
(19) -6 Casey Cristich
(23) -8 Steve Scerra
(24) -12 David Sartoris
(25) -14 Christian Reed
(25) -14 Jeff Berson
(27) -18 Rap
(28) -20 Ted Cheung
(29) -22 Scott Friedman
(30) -24 James Costello
(31) -32 Bridget Wilkerson
(32) -34 Sean Gjos

2012 NCAA pool is here.

For those that loved the World Cup pool, I'm bringing it back for the NCAA tourney with a few twists. The basics are: Everyone will get a random team in each region and winning is based on total point differential of your four teams. And there will be a LIVE WEBCAST of the draw on next Monday the 12th at 7:00. The more specific rules are below, but the cost is $10 per entry or $11 if you enter through paypal. Please paypal me at this address: zr10sw@yahoo.com Yes, this is a different format I've invented. The idea is that even if your four teams are out, you are still in the hunt because the point deferential from the teams ahead can dip as the tournament plays out. This may need some tweaking, but who doesn't love watching LIVE DRAWS? Here’s the rules: 1. A LIVE random draw will be conducted the evening of Monday, March 12 7:00pm. 2. Everyone will have their name drawn for a team in each region. There are four regions, so everyone will have four teams. 3. The pool of entrants will be in multiples of 16. No more, no less or this doesn’t work. If we have 32 people, then two people will be assigned to each team. For 48, then three to a team. For 64, you get the drift… 4. The top five will get payouts in a pool of 32($180 / $75 / $30 / $20 / $15). 5. The winner will be by the total win differential from your four teams. Four example, if your team X State beats Y College 73-65, you are +8. If you are Y College, you are at 0. 6. To handle the expansion of the tournament to 68 teams, the four play-in games will be assigned in lieu of a team. The person drawing the play-in game will receive the winner of the game for the remainder of the tournament as well as their winning point differential for the play-in. For example, last year two #16 teams UTSA and Alabama St. faced off in the play in game with UTSA winning 80-71. Whoever drew this matchup would get UTSA a +9 entering their first round matchup against #1 Ohio State. At least it softens the blow of getting a #16 seed. 7. Your team will also be handicapped by the two seeds playing in the game. For example, if you hold a #15 team that's playing a #2, then you will be rewarded 13 points to start. Conversely, the #2 will be deducted 13 points.

Zacko's 2nd Annual World Cup Draw

Here are the final results. We all know who we should be pulling for now:

1. Brazil - Tedmen Cheung
2. Spain - Barbara Yates
3. Portugal - Sharif Rahman
4. Netherlands - Troy Jones
5. Italy - Stan Stanev
6. Germany - James Costello
7. Argentina - Bridget Wilkerson
8. England - Rick Borchert
9. France - Gary Leach
10. Greece - Zachary Rynew


11. United States - Scott Seigrist
12. Serbia - John and Jay Wales
13. Uruguay - Steve Scerra
14. Mexico - Craig Burnetto
15. Chile - John Singer
16. Cameroon - James Campbell
17. Australia - Vincent Pun
18. Nigeria - Mike Chinfoo
19. Switzerland - Andrew Parker
20. Slovenia - Danny Patterson
21. Ivory Coast - Lyndsay Cameron
22. Algeria - Lindsey Kurtis
23. Paraguay - Mike Dobbs
24. Ghana - Tim Carroll
25. Slovakia - Dan Mack
26. Denmark - Darren O'Loughlin
27. Honduras - Nicole Debbini
28. Japan - Mark Narain
29. South Korea - Mike Rapisura
30. New Zealand - Brandon Singer
31. South Africa - David Sartoris
32. North Korea - Julia Mack

My dad's portfolio

If you go onto imdb.com, my dad doesn't have the largest page. It isn't because a lack of trying, but it's just that most of his work has gone as uncredited. Not too many people know that he created the radars in Top Gun or added special effects to the last episode of Cheers. And of course, with all the Simpsons gear around the house, you know how much of a big part he was with the show.

Anyways, last Saturday, we were flipping through the channels and my dad told me to hold it on one of our non-premium channels. "Repo Man" was starting and he wanted me to watch the opening. He started to tell me how they had little time and my dad had to put together a title sequence with no money. My dad, as resourceful as he was, went to the nearest AAA and grabbed a bunch of maps because he was a member. He worked through the night and by the next morning they had their opening.

The next morning we flipped open the LA Magazine in the sunday section and they had an article about the fifty greatest movie title sequences in the history of film. You can guess what was one of the films, but the man who got the credit was someone my dad never met.



Repo Man Title Sequence(The first 2:16)

Oregon/California 2008

We made our annual trip(I can call it that because it's our second time now) up the coast to visit her family for Christmas. We went up the coast this time to stay at the Vintage Inn in Yountville for the 2nd time. We made sure not to miss the champagne brunch, where I rediscovered corn beef. We also were able to get reservations this time at Bouchon, which I Yelped about here.

Gold Beach, Oregon

We divided the trip by staying up in Crescent City one night which was memorable only because my back is still hurting from the Travelodge. Irregardless, it's a beautiful drive. One that has to be done in the summer though to take advantage of more sunlight.

You know whos

Christmas was fun again, but the highlight was some of the stories Barb's grandmother told us. The best was how she moved from Oklahoma to Illinois as a little girl in the 1920's. Oh yeah, by stagecoach!! Who'd thought they were still around?

There' no business like snow business in the Siskiyous

The part we were most worried about was the drive back down. We thought we were going to be going through a snow storm so much that Barb bought chains. Luckily, we were able to make it through the Siskiyou's quickly enough that we even had time to stop by the North Face Outlet in Berkeley. That was Barb's doing.

Mt. Shasta, possibly on fire?

We spent our last two days of vacation with Dave and Helen in Cambria. Our place was right on the ocean and was beautiful. The meals which I have yet to yelp about were really good both in Cambria and Paso Robles. The only bummer was wine tasting because I had a slight cold and it felt like only 20% of my taste buds were functioning. But since it affected everything, I could tell the difference between the good and bad and I think we found our white wine for the wedding.

Sunset at Cambria

And finally, if you're on the 101 driving through San Luis Obispo, we had to stop at Firestone's for the tri-tip on the way back.