Ryan Benbow's Blog

The McNuggets: The Story of My College Basketball Career

March 30, 2021November 2, 2021
by Ryan

Watching March Madness this year brings back memories of my own college basketball career. No, I never played on the basketball team at my college…or at my high school…or even at my middle school. Still, although I never played school-sponsored organized basketball, I am reminded of my own days as the captain of the 1999 college intramural basketball team known as the McNuggets – the basketball version of the Bad News Bears.

Basketball

2021 March Madness Brackets

March 14, 2021November 2, 2021
by Ryan

The NCAA basketball tournament brackets are out. After last year’s tournament was cancelled, I’m glad to see March Madness come back this year. The fact that the entire tournament will be taking place in Indiana this year makes it even more interesting for me, even though I won’t be actually attending any of the games. I’ve already attended the biggest stage anyway; I took the picture above at the 2015 NCAA men’s basketball championship game between Duke and Wisconsin in Indianapolis.

With this year’s tournament field now complete, it’s once again that time of year to fill out your own bracket and see how good you are at predicting the outcomes of college basketball games. Perhaps you might enter some sort of contest this week and compare your results with the results of other people’s brackets for bragging rights. Sometimes even those who don’t follow sports participate in the fun by filling out a bracket with complete guesses, and end up doing better than some of the “experts.” If you’re planning to fill out a bracket this year and looking for some tips, you’ve come to the right place.

Every year at this time, my friend Brian and I collaborate on our own bracket. Except, our predictions are based entirely on the ferocity of the team’s mascots. For example, who would win between a Wildcat and a Cougar? Never mind which basketball team is actually favored to win. Don’t worry about whether you are predicting a 16 seed over a 1. After all, upsets happen all the time. Just compare the schools’ nicknames.

Better Than Facebook

COVID Week: One Year Later

March 8, 2021March 8, 2021
by Ryan

I’m back! It’s been a record two months since I’ve posted anything on this blog, but in case you were wondering, no, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth. I just didn’t have as much free time to post on here during the first two months of 2021. But don’t worry, I’m back from my two-month hiatus with some more thoughts for your reading pleasure.

The past few days, I was inspired to share my own personal reflections from one year ago. As I’m sure you are all aware, it was at this time last year – the second week of March 2020 – that everyone’s world changed due to COVID. Although I’m sure we’re all tired of hearing about this pandemic that’s still going on one year later, I don’t really have any new insights to share that haven’t already been said ad nauseum. Rather, this one-year milestone has inspired me to recount my personal experiences from what I call “COVID Week.”

Better Than Facebook

2021 Is Finally Here!

January 3, 2021
by Ryan

Happy New Year! 2020 is finally over! Never before have we collectively wanted to get rid of a year so badly as this past year. Since I actually have a blog this year, I thought I would use this opportunity to post some thoughts here in honor of the arrival of 2021. Admittedly, I’m finding this to be a difficult exercise, in large part because I’m generally not one to put a lot of importance on New Year’s. However, I’ll post what I can on this holiday, and if you stick with me to the end, I’ll include a link to a New Year’s Quiz for you fans of The Office.

Song Parodies

Oompa Loompa Song: 2020 Version

December 30, 2020
by Ryan

Welcome to the final Song Parody Wednesday of 2020. I don’t always post song parodies on this blog, but when I do, it’s on a Wednesday. For this rendition, with 2020 almost finally over, I thought I would take the Oompa Loompa song from the 1971 movie Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

I remember this movie from middle school music class, as our teacher showed us this movie on multiple occasions, with the excuse that it was a musical and it was music class. This particular song from the movie provides some good lessons from the Oompa Loompas. These grotesque orange creatures always seem to appear and sing whenever a combination of bad choices and misfortune eliminates one of the kids from the tour group. (I imagine that modern-day Oompa Loompas would be quite busy singing as more and more people get COVID.) This parody version provides some thoughts and lessons from 2020.

Top Ten Lists

Christmas Movies: A Top Ten List

December 12, 2020November 22, 2021
by Ryan

With December now upon us and Christmas coming up soon, I thought this would be a good time to compile a list of my favorite Christmas movies. So, I made another top ten list. As a shameless plug, this is actually the third “top ten” list that I have posted on this site. Here you can find my top ten reasons why this blog is better than Facebook, and here you can find my list of top ten Indianapolis Colts games of all time. And now, in the spirit of the Christmas season, I am going to present to you a list of my top ten Christmas movies of all time.

TV Shows

Friends Thanksgiving Football Game

November 22, 2020
by Ryan

On Thanksgiving Day 1996 in New York City, six friends got together for a friendly game of football. But what started as just a friendly game quickly turned into an intensely competitive battle for the coveted Geller Cup in front of millions of television viewers. I am, of course, referring to the Friends Season 3 episode, The One With All the Football.

In one of my early blog posts back in April, I provided an unnecessarily detailed breakdown of the basketball game from The Office. (You can find that here.) With that in mind, I have decided to once again combine one of my favorite TV shows with my interest in sports. With this week being Thanksgiving, and in celebration of the time-honored tradition of Thanksgiving football, I now present an unnecessarily detailed breakdown of the Friends Thanksgiving football game.

Better Than Facebook

What Really Grinds My Gears

November 17, 2020
by Ryan

With Thanksgiving just over a week away, it’s important that we take the time to reflect on the things we’re thankful for and the blessings we have been provided. Regardless of how difficult a year like 2020 has been, we should all be able to think of several reasons to be thankful. With that said, it’s not quite Thanksgiving yet, and I have a different list I’d like to share here. Instead, I’d like to share some of the things that do not make my thankful list. A list of some of the things that really grind my gears.

Please note, these are not meant to be taken too seriously. I’m not here to rant about serious things, like coronavirus, or politics, or matters of life and death. This is a partial list of things that ultimately don’t matter, but are still annoying in their own small way. When reading the following rants, I hope you appreciate them for their entertainment value, rather than thinking I’m just complaining about first-world problems. Now that we have that out of the way, here are my thoughts on the following annoyances of life…

Current Events

Religion, Politics, and the Great Pumpkin

November 4, 2020
by Ryan

In the Peanuts Halloween special, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Linus Van Pelt comes to the following conclusion: “I’ve learned there are three things never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.” However, with this being shortly after Halloween and with our current election going on right now, I’m going to completely ignore Linus’s advice and share some of my own thoughts here.

Don’t worry, I’m going to stay away from all the political controversy that gets everyone wound up. My intent is for this blog to be a drama-free zone, which is part of the reason it’s better than Facebook. If you need more context as to why this blog is better than Facebook, the full top ten list can be found on a previous blog post here. Election Day is the perfect time to especially note #4 on the list – no political drama. With that said, here are some thoughts I’d like to share on our current season, starting with Halloween.

Baseball

Steal a Base, Steal a Taco

October 31, 2020November 2, 2021
by Ryan

I stole a taco this week.

Okay, I didn’t actually steal a taco, at least not in the literal sense. But I did get a free taco courtesy of Taco Bell, thanks to their annual Steal a Base, Steal a Taco promotion from the World Series. The way it works, if any player steals a base at any time during the World Series, everyone in America can get a free Doritos Locos taco at Taco Bell on a specified date. Since at least one stolen base is bound to occur at some point during a period of 4-7 baseball games, I’m sure Taco Bell goes into this each year with the understanding that they’re almost certainly giving away free tacos. I’d like to share a little personal experience on the matter.