It's like my dirty secret...

...but it really isn't.  I feel "stupid" (not exactly the word I am looking for) for liking Kevin Durant and now DJ Augustin.  I think I have a thing for University of Texas's athletes.  I like to watch their track stars, such as the Hookers, and have sadly started to like their basketball team.  And it wasn't just Kevin Durant.  I don't know if it is some extension of my obsession with him, or that it is a separate obsession that just seems to have Kevin Durant in common.  Nevertheless I am going to feel strange to be outwardly trying to support Stanford (because I want more love for the Pac-10) while inwardly wanting to see awesome out of Augustin and co.

Well, according to the ESPN article, DJ calls his parents daily and also wants to do well in school (Academic All-American athlete = pretty good).  I would have no problem if he decided to stay in school for 2 more years; keep playing at Texas, yo!

What is going on?

Mardy Fish beat Roger Federer.  Mardy Fish beat him in STRAIGHT SETS!  This is so wrong.  Novak needs to kick his ass.  Mardy Fish needs to die in a fire.

West Virginia beat Duke.  Now that is awesome.

End of dreams

The first round of the NCAA tournament is over and 32 teams have lost.  And one of those was Oregon.  Even though I only knew the boys for 2 years, it was the one team I did care about.  They started off so well too...  And one of those teams that advanced that I hate was Duke.  And they almost lost!  I could care less about my bracket.  There were two exciting overtime games yesterday, with both underdogs winning (I only picked one of them - San Diego).  Tampa was crazy, with both 12 and 13 seeds winning on that floor.

I also caught a little bit of tennis and got to see Ana's smile.  Yay for her winning, but it really couldn't lift my spirits too much.  And she is going against Sveta tomorrow and every time I watch Sveta I realize that I still love her.  I think, of all the tennis players right now, I would want to meet her the most.  Her over Novak, Ana, Amelie, etc.  It's insane, but that's how it is.

The U.S. U-23 men's soccer team's dreams didn't end, thankfully.  On Thursday they beat Canada 3-0, with 2 goals from Freddy Adu and 1 from Sacha.  I think I have already ranted on my Sacha Kljestan love, but I must tell you of my recent obsession with Maurice Edu.  Mo Edu is hot.  It's funny that fellow LJers are feeling the same.  It's like the new fad or something.

Someone else who is hot?  Joe Alexander on West Virginia.  Looks like I'll be back to watching basketball...

And the bracket is out!

The 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball tournament bracket is out and most importantly, YAY for OREGON!  Sad for ASU and Virginia Tech, but nothing was too terrible.  And the best part: OSU didn't make it!  And part of it was because they lost to Michigan, haha.

My bracket is still going to suck, I think, but I really want to do better than 50% like I did last year.  And not completely fail by picking Texas and having them lose in the Sweet 16.  Texas should do better this year, at least.  I will have to figure out which one of these games to watch, especially since my actual #1 favorite sport, tennis, is on TV again.  But on FSN...which means FSD for me and basically losing a bunch of the coverage.  It's sucky, but I will have plenty of things to watch.  I just need more hours in a day...

Not good enough?

So I hear back from Washington today and I am waitlisted. Out of 14 people, I was not one of the top 9, and they only want 5 people. So the 3.93 GPA and a decent GRE score doesn't cut it anymore. No, 8 months of research doesn't cut it. I was supposed to have done research since I was in high school, or have worked a few years post graduation. Someone should have told me this before I applied to grad schools, aka my advisor. But I don't think he thought this would happen, and neither did my research advisor. You would think that they would know how the system works. So I get to be one of those people who got interviewed at 4 places and wasn't considered good enough for 2 of them. Maybe Northwestern would have given me an offer, but would UC Irvine? Seeing that they were only taking 4 people when I read their stuff online, I automatically disqualified myself from a place which I thought others would love to go to much more than me. And with my luck, I probably would have gotten rejected after the interview anyway.

Instead of graduate school I would have looked for a job or gotten a masters and not have dealt with this bullshit. Did they feel obligated to invite me or something? They could have told me, straight up, that I needed to do something more than the others to impress them, to not just let them tell me about their research if they decide they want to. My application wasn't hiding anything; I only had that year or so of experience, and one major project, and my three years of school. At least Stanford was nice enough to reject me outright. I didn't have to spend my time (though a vacation is nice, but still) thinking about them, or trying. If I was the interviewer, I would have asked, if I thought a candidate was weak in some area, to justify to me why he or she should be accepted to the school despite the weakness. I feel like they treated me as if I was going to get in as long as I showed them that I was the person who matched the application. I guess only Michigan and Emory thought that. I mean, if they had just told me that I was #12 on their short list or something, I probably would have accepted that and still have been myself.

This bullshit makes me want to be a student for life. At least I can just do what they tell me to do and get the grades I want. I can even do research for someone for credit! Too bad they don't pay people to be students...

Done!

I have finished all my grad school interviews.  Now I just need to pass my classes and graduate!  WOOT!

First comes that thesis though...  I really need to finish the first draft before NCAA tourney time comes, because I won't have a life then.