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It’s estimated that over 40 million Americans will have participated in the guessing game that is the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Sixty-four teams enter, but only one is victorious. If you’re like me, you’re already out of the final four; your team was bounced out along the way, maybe even in the first round. So what does it take to pick the perfect bracket? Does it all come down to knowledge of the game and knowing which stats to pay attention to, or does it come down to luck?

The odds of picking a perfect bracket in this year’s March Madness is 9.2 quintillion to 1. That’s 9,200,000,000,000,000,000 to 1. That number is eerily comforting as I watch my name slowly drop on the total point’s sheet week after week. This is, in essence what makes the March Madness hoopla so appealing; it’s really a game of luck and chance more than skill and careful consideration. You may disagree but then I ask you, how is your bracket doing? For me, the hours I spent agonizing over my final picks were washed away with Scottie Reynolds layup with .5 seconds remaining on the clock. With Pittsburgh hopes and my shot at NCAA victory just a fading memory I now get to enjoy the remaining three games stress free, maybe winning isn’t everything?

The enjoyment of watching my friends criticize and hypothesize over the next week is a sweet reward courtesy of another botched bracket. Alas, another year of second guessing myself, for now I know what I should have done. Not to worry though; I have a good feeling about next year.

Spring is finally here. Which means lovely occasions such as Easter and Passover. Question is, when you are not with your loved ones do you send cards? Of course the greeting card industry would have you send cards for just about every occasion. And if so, is it an online card or an actually, physical card?

Is an ecard as thoughtful as actually purchasing a card, writing a little ditty, placing a stamp and mailing the card? Of course not, but to quote a teenager who looked at me as though I was mad: “there is going to come a time when no-one actually sends cards – they are all going to be online”.

I guess greeting cards are going the way of newspapers.

There are cards for everything, not just holidays and the obligatory event cards such as Valentine’s Day. Now you can send cards for adoption, divorce, even commiseration for the stock market crisis. I assume there is one that sends condolences to the victims of Bernie Madoff. In fact if you go online to one the top egreeting sites, you will see that there are thousands of card-sending occasions – it is a full time job just keeping up with all those events to match the appropriate message to your friends.

It’s actually big business. The greeting card industry is over $7billion and they are expanding to online precisely because our culture is moving to online greetings. And as a result they can economically produce multiple situations for which consumers can send a card.

So Happy April 1 – I am sure many of us are going to receive April Fools’ Day e-greeting cards.

As a devout Pittsburgh Steelers fan I am excited and elated that we are in the Super Bowl again. The mid-day trips to a Steelers bar, the endless barbequing, and incessant yelling have all paid off. I’ve been on this ride for 21 weeks and I always knew they had a good chance but with the toughest schedule in football I knew it wouldn’t be easy.

When you proudly support your team you pretty much are the team to the people around you. Monday mornings bring out the “Monday morning quarterback” in all of us and the Steelers are often front and center. Talking about close, tense games has become commonplace for me, though it hasn’t gotten any easier watching the games. If the game is on TV then I stay home where I can yell, swear, and throw things at the tv, what else can a superfan do? Living in Northern California, I haven’t had a lot of luck with our other teams so for me, this is pure joy. I have noticed a lot of anti-Steelers sentiment lately, as we try to become the only team to win 6 titles, something 49er fans don’t want to see happen.

This year I feel an obligation to throw the best Super Bowl party I can. My team is in the big game so it is only fitting. I’m going to go back home and have a party with my brother and my nephews. I look forward to spending time with my family and friends as we gather to watch the big game. For my nephews, who are 5 and 6, this will be the first time they have had a Super Bowl party. I’m taking them grocery shopping in the morning to get the supplies and I’m going to let them pick out what they want to eat which is surely a naïve uncle mistake. I want this to be a memorable experience for them. As an uncle who lives far away, I want to be part of as many “firsts” as I can with them.

I hope everyone has a great Superbowl XLIII, go Steelers!

Tis the season to be jolly! This year, Christmas for many people may be different than the previous years. The economy is taking some time off and most consumers find themselves strapped for cash this holiday season. It’s times like these that remind me how lucky I am to have a big family, and how important they are to me. I look forward to traveling to Southern California just to spend time with them.

I’ve been Christmas shopping and applaud myself for not waiting until the last minute this time. To make my money go further this year I’ve tried to put more thought into my gifts, but ultimately less cash. I’ve used several different strategies to buy gifts and I think my final shopping days are coming very soon.

Since I live in San Francisco and my family does not, I’ve been shopping at second hand stores to find fashionable items they haven’t seen before. Crossroads and the Buffalo Exchange are stores that sell used clothes and accessories. I’ve shopped there and bought inexpensive jackets and jewelry for my brother’s girlfriends. I’ve also bought a couple of pre-viewed DVD’s from blockbuster. When my friend was visiting she noticed a picture in a store she liked. Well I bought it, and I’ve been waiting for months to give it as a gift for Christmas.

I’ve made my father home made T-shirts of his grandchildren using iron on transfers and my digital camera. For the adults who don’t act like adults, a cheap gag gift from Spencer gifts can go a long way. Lastly, when I find myself searching for a gift idea I turn toward the sauce. Around the holidays you can find a gift set with a bottle of alcohol and a glass or two. I like to buy this gift when I’m going to a Christmas party; we always seem to have a great time. Happy shopping and happy holidays!