My office runs a comprehensive NCAA tournament pool that utilizes the same technology we use to score 10 national championships each year. The pool is quite popular, garnering close to 200 entrants annually. This year, the exact number is 179. How do I know this?

Because regardless of what happens in the next two hours, I will finish 179th.

It's a shameful reality I will carry like a scarlet letter for the rest of my life.

That's one reason our attentions will not be as focused as usual on tonight's championship final. The other is that G4 is airing a "Ninja Warrior"/"Unbeatable Banzuki" marathon. (As a sidebar, could the Wiki entry for "Ninja Warrior" be any longer?)

My brother, in a fine tradition passed down by our father, watches an incredible amount of crap. I'm not a fan of much of it - most notably, his preferred trifecta of poker, house flipping and motorcycle-building programming (although, I am currently sitting next to him and he would also like to be credited with watching "Deadliest Catch" and "Dirty Jobs," both of which I do enjoy, although the closest I've ever come to vomiting while watching television was during an episode of "Dirty Jobs," but I digress. Also, given how many episodes of "My Super Sweet 16" I watched over the weekend, I'm not in any position to judge.).

But this Japanese show is different - it's glorious, simply glorious!

The show itself is tremendous - humans performing a variety of tricks and stunts, accompanied by shtick-filled, subtitled commentary. But then add my brother's contributions - a lot of karate-esque noises and the like - and you have a slam-dunk winner of a viewing experience.



I've said it before but it's worth repeating. Easily amused, people.