Category Archives: Basketball

Angie, Art, Basketball, Bill, History, Jesse, Logan, Music, Steph, Street Photography, Travel, Work, WPC - Reminder

Viva Las Vegas: Day 3A

March 31, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

Tonight, at approximately 8:30 Central, the Iowa women’s basketball team will play South Carolina in the Final Four for the chance to play Sunday night for the National Championship. I honestly don’t expect Iowa to win. South Carolina is an 11.5 point favorite. They are the defending National Champion. They have won 42 straight games. They have the defending National Player of the Year and the presumptive 1st pick in the WNBA draft in Aliyah Boston. Plus Brea Beal is expected to be a Top 10 pick. Plus Zia Cooke is expected to get drafted. Plus Latecia Amihere is supposed to get drafted. Plus Vicatria Saxtan will probably get drafted. Plus LeLe Grissett has a shot to get drafted.

I will just add that the Iowa women’s basketball team have been getting a ton of national media attention and are setting ratings records. Their Elite Eight game last Sunday had higher television ratings than every NBA game on ESPN this year. South Carolina does not like that. Their coach doesn’t like it. Their players don’t like it.

This isn’t to say that I don’t think Iowa has a chance. They definitely have a puncher’s chance. It isn’t exactly David against Goliath because Caitlin Clark isn’t a David and either is Monika Czinano. But the odds are against them. However, if they do win, they will do something that no team from the state of Iowa has done since 1956.

In 1956, the Iowa men’s basketball team played in the National Championship Game. They lost to San Francisco 81-73. That San Francisco Dons team finished the season 29-0 and finished the year with a 55 game win streak. That team was lead by Bill Russell and K.C. Jones.

The Iowa men also played in the 1955 Final Four, losing to La Salle 76-73 and the 1980 Final Four losing to Louisville 80-72. Although it is widely believe that if Ronnie Lester didn’t get hurt in that game, Iowa would have went on to win the National Championship that year.

Drake has played in one Final Four in 1969. Falling to UCLA 85-82. Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) played on that UCLA team. UCLA would go on to blow out Purdue 92-72. Drake would blow out North Carolina in the 3rd Place Game 104-84. It was the closest a Lew Alcindor UCLA team ever came to losing in the NCAA Tournament.

The Iowa State Men’s team has played in one Final Four in 1944. Losing to eventual champion Utah 40-31. Wat Misaka played on that Utah team. He was of Japanese descent and he would go on to be the first non-white player in the NBA. That Utah team also played in the NIT and lost in the quarterfinals to Kentucky. Utah was only invited to the NCAA Tournament because they needed a replacement for Arkansas. Arkansas had to withdraw because a car accident injured two of their starters and killed a third person that was in the car.

The Iowa women’s basketball tournament has made one previous Final Four, in 1993. They lost to Ohio State 73-72 in overtime. Ohio State would lose in the Championship Game to Texas Tech 84-82.

Both Iowa State and Drake’s women’s basketball teams have never made the Final Four. Both have made it as far as the Elite Eight.

The Northern Iowa women have never won an NCAA Tournament game and their men have made it as far as the Sweet Sixteen.

Win or lose tonight, the Iowa women have already made some history. If you want some gambling advice, I would take the 11.5 points.

If you are a fan of basketball at all, I’d encourage you to watch. It is on ESPN and should be entertaining at the least.

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While I’m spitting out this cold knowledge about basketball history, I might as well make good on my pledge to go over the history of girl’s basketball in Boone County and the Girl’s State Tournament.

Boone Toreadors

1958 (6 on 6)
+ Twin Rivers 56 Boone 44
West Central, Maynard won the Championship.

1989 (6 on 6)
+ Boone 59 Saint Ansgar 58
+ Atlantic 78 Boone 63
Ankeny won the Championship.

2017 (4A)
+ Marion 46 Boone 38
North Scott won the Championship.

2018 (4A)
+ Center Point-Urbana 69 Boone 47
Marion won the Championship.

Madrid Tigers

1921 (6 on 6)
+ Madrid 13 Hiteman 7
+ Madrid 18 Mount Ayr 4
+ Madrid 9 Laurens 6
+ Ottumwa 16 Madrid 6
Audubon won the Championship.

Ogden Bulldogs

1972 (6 on 6)
+ Lu Verne 70 Ogden 51
Roland-Story won the Championship.

Grand Bobcats

1960 (6 on 6)
+ Corwith-Wesley 69 Grand 55
Gladbrook won the Championship.

Napier Comets

1947 (6 on 6)
+ Coon Rapids 41 Napier 26
Seymour won the Championship.

1955 (6 on 6)
+ Goldfield 63 Napier 51
Goldfield won the Championship.

It would seem that in the history of girls basketball in Boone County, the schools have combined to win 4 games. 3 of those were in 1921 by Madrid.

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Day 3 in Vegas was the first day of the actual CMC. It was a long work day. I got to the convention before 8 and worked continuously (with the exception of about a 45 minute break) until close to 10 that night.

Before I went to the convention I did take a little bit of a walk near Planet Hollywood and took a few pictures here and there. This collection of pictures are from that walk.

There is more to share from Day 3 of my work trip to Las Vegas to share, including my the Per Diem Update. Which I know you are the edge of your seat to hear about.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is BLUE:

BLUE

BLUE! What a great theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a BLUE image? It is simply an image where the subject or a major compositional element of the image is the color BLUE. That is it! Almost too simple!

But this isn’t the first time that BLUE has been a theme for the WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. Here is a look at some submissions from the past to provide you a little bit of inspiration:

Christopher D. Bennett – Week 40

Stephanie Kim – Week 193

Angie DeWaard – Week 193

Logan Kahler – Week 325

Bill Wentworth – Week 325

Hopefully you find some inspiration in look back at the past!

Basketball, Boone FUMC, Dahlia, Event, History, Teresa

Methodist Grillin’

March 26, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

About the time this publishes Iowa’s (yes there is another university in the Cyclone State) women’s basketball team will be tipping off against Louisville for a chance to play in the first Final Four for any Iowa university since 1993. In that year, the Iowa women’s basketball team made it to the Final Four. This is their second Elite Eight since then. The got crushed by Satan, I mean Kim Mulkey and the Baylor Bears 85-53 in 2019.

Since 1993, the only men’s team from the state to make it to the Elite Eight was Iowa State in 2000, but we don’t talk about that Elite Eight game and the fact that they had to play a road game and still would have won the game if it wasn’t for the Blarge… the single worst call in the history of basketball.

The Iowa State women have made the Elite Eight twice. Falling to Georgia in 1999 and Stanford in 2009.

Iowa is lead by Caitlin Clark who will probably win most of the National Player of the Year Awards. She is the best player in Iowa history and she went to West Des Moines Dowling.

I bring up her high school career, because Caitlin Clark will probably go down as the greatest women’s basketball player in the history of the entire state, although that is legitimately hard to say because Iowa girls played 6 on 6 basketball until the 1990s. She might be the greatest player ever and she NEVER won a State Championship. In fact, her senior year, she didn’t even make the State Tournament.

I don’t follow high school sports much unless I know a kid or know a kid’s parent’s or that kid is going to Iowa State. For example, the highest ranked recruit in Iowa State Men’s basketball history lost in the semifinals of the State Tournament this year. The team his team lost to, then lost in the Championship Game to a team that was lead by a kid that is being recruited to Iowa State to play wide receiver and the son of one the greatest men’s basketball players in history. They are both sophomores.

It made me curious about the history of Boone County teams in the State Tournament. Madrid made the tournament for the first time ever this year and they were the first team from Boone County to make the State Tournament since 1988 and the school that made it that year doesn’t even exist any longer. At least not as a high school.

Here is the history of Boone County Schools in the Boys State Tournament:

Boone Toreadors
1919
+ Boone 16 Ames 11
+ Council Bluffs 16 Boone 9
+ Boone 9 Cedar Rapids 7 (Consolation)

1920
+ Boone 23 Council Bluffs 5
+ Boone 17 Grinnell 12
+ Boone 23 Nashua 17
+ Boone 20 Spirit Lake 15

1921
+ Boone 16 Council Bluffs 10
+ Boone 20 Charles City 9
+ Boone 28 Cedar Falls Teachers 23
+ Boone 23 LuVerne 10

1922
+ Boone 16 Columbus Junction 9 (Suck it Jorge!)
+ Boone 16 Union 13
+ Grinnell 30 Boone 14

1926
+ Cedar Rapids Washington 16 Boone 13
+ Boone 19 Webster City 16
+ Newton 23 Boone 21

1927
+ Burlington 21 Boone 18
+ Missouri Valley 18 Boone 10 (Consolation Bracket)

1931
+ Boone 27 Henderson 21
+ Boone 25 Alta 17
+ Boone 16 Des Moines Roosevelt 15
+ Boone 16 Muscatine 11

1948
+ Boone 45 Carroll 41
+ Ankeny 41 Boone 37

1963
+ Storm Lake 48 Boone 47

Boone has not been back since 1963.

Ogden Bulldogs
1952
+ Marion 72 Ogden 42

1979
+ Ackley-Geneva 56 Ogden 55

1982
+ Ogden 65 Buffalo-Center-Rake 62 (OT)
+ Central City 63 Ogden 54
+ Cardinal Stritch, Keokuk 69 Ogden 50 (Consolation)

Haven’t been back since 1982.

Boxholm Swedes also the Blue Stars

1932
+ Boxholm 21 Wellsburg 20
+ Boxholm 15 Cedar Rapids Washington 12
+ Des Moines Roosevelt 27 Boxholm 23
+ Boxholm 31 Livermore 16

Boxholm High School doesn’t exist any longer. After 1957-58 it consolidated with Pilot Mound to form Grand. Which eventually split and was absorbed by Southeast Webster and Ogden.

United Community Comets

1970
+ Tri-Center, Neola 63 United Community 62

1988
+ Wellsburg-Steamboat Rock 70 United Community 41

United Community no long exists as a high school. Until Madrid made it this year, they were the last school to make it to the Boys Basketball Tournament from Boone County. Unless you count Woodward Academy. Which I suppose is technically in Boone County but the town of Woodward is pretty much completely in Dallas County.

I’ll go over Boone County’s Girls Basketball Tournament history at a later date.

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Today seems like a good time to share some pictures from the Boone First United Methodist Church Grill-Out we had back in October. Although this is mostly just a collection of pictures of my great-niece Dahlia.

Boone First United Methodist Church Barbecue - 2022

The Methodist Men did the grilling and the rest was a potluck. In case you don’t know, Methodists like our potlucks.

Art, Basketball, Birthdays, Iowa State, Linda, Road Trip, Self-Portrait, Street Photography, Teresa

Loyal Forever True

March 19, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start today by wishing my Aunt Linda a happy birthday. Happy birthday Aunt Linda!

I hope your birthday is filled with as much joy and happiness as you can handle!

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Last Sunday I went down to the Kansas City with Teresa to watch the Big 12 Championship Game between the Iowa State Cyclones and the Texas Longhorns (Horns Down!). The game was held in Kansas City’s historic Municipal Auditorium. At this point it is more historic than anything else. This is the last time the Women’s Tournament will be played there because at this point… while it isn’t quite a dump… it is horribly outdated. It is still cool to look at. It is a beautiful building, but the facilities aren’t anywhere near what they need to be hold a major sporting event. Next year the tournament will be played at the OTHER Hilton South. T-Mobile/Sprint/Corporate Sellout Arena or whatever it will be called by then.

While that will definitely be an upgrade for the players, the bad part is that the Big 12 will be splitting the Men’s and Women’s Tournaments up. They will be on separate weeks. That part sucks. I think that the Big 12 was the only conference that does it right and now there are no conferences that do it right. Oh well.

Municipal Auditorium has hosted more Final Four games than any other arena in history. It has hosted it 9 times. It has not hosted a NCAA tournament game since 1964 and still holds the record.

It has also hosted concerts for some of the most famous musicians in history:
+ Elvis Presley
+ The Beach Boys
+ The Who
+ Jimi Hendrix
+ Jackson 5
+ Led Zeppelin
+ The Rolling Stones
+ Elton John
+ Eric Clapton
+ Jefferson Starship
+ Rush
+ Genesis
+ Black Sabbath
+ Van Halen
+ Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
+ Prince
+ Hall & Oates
+ Black Sabbath
+ Kiss
+ Metallica
+ Beastie Boys
+ Green Day
+ Red Hot Chili Peppers
+ Dolly Parton
+ Tenacious D
+ Shaun Cassidy

To name a few.

Here are some cruddy cell phone pictures from the day trip to Missouri and back.

2023 Big 12 Women's Basketball Championship Game

There are 2 things that you can only find good versions of in Iowa. Chocolate milk and tenderloins.

I love Whataburger, but their breakfast is not as good as their lunch.

Pep Rally.

Power and Light District.

President Wintersteen.

Bill Fennelly with his grandchildren.

I don’t think Texas even had a pep rally.

Jeff Johnson.

Cy, Iowa State cheerleaders, and the Iowa State Pep Band. This is the good life!

Hard to see, but traditions travel!

Randomly ran into Nate’s best friend in a seedy Kansas City alley.

Such a cool looking building.

Pretty sure if there was a fire in this building, lots of people wouldn’t make it.

So many cool Art Deco touches.

Concessions weren’t great.

I did fist bump the Texas mascot. (Horns down!)

Ashley Joens – The GOAT.

Had to talk to these ladies about their shoes.

Coach.

Ashley.

I’ve paid my dues. Time after time. I’ve done my sentence. But committed no crime…

Goodbye Municipal!

It was a good trip. We parked at our cousin Melissa’s house and she and her husband drove us to and from the area. Was pretty sweet. Like having our own personal Uber drivers. Personal Uber drivers that buy you breakfast and bring you a drink from Sonic after the game.

Of course the best part of the trip was Iowa State winning the Championship!! They won every game in the tournament by double digits, but all of the games were close until they pulled away late. It felt particularly good to see Iowa State beat teams that have had our number the last few years, like Baylor and Texas. And it was particularly sweet to beat Oklahoma in the semi-finals as one of their players is a transfer from Iowa State and is Ashley’s sister Aubrey. It had to be a little bittersweet for Ashley to beat her sister, but probably a lot more sweet than bitter.

Regardless of how the season finished in the NCAA Tournament it was a great season and they will be able to hang another banner in the rafters of Hilton at the beginning of next season!

Basketball, Flowers, Macro

A Promise to Keep

March 16, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

This is my last pitch to get you to join the Roundball Oracles NCAA Tournament Pool for this year. The deadline to enter this year’s pool is approximately 2 hours after this post publishes.

I just wanted to brag on the state of Iowa a little bit. Something I rarely get to do these days. Iowa is the center of the basketball universe. There are 363 colleges that field Division 1 Men’s and Women’s basketball programs. 68 Men’s and Women’s teams make the NCAA Tournament.

Of those 363 schools, only 26 schools got a team invited to both the Men’s and Women’s NCAA Tournament. Of those 26, 3 of those schools are in Iowa!

Check out this graphic from Fox Sports:

The state of Iowa only has 4 schools with Division 1 Programs. Iowa State University. University of Iowa. Drake University. University of Northern Iowa. Despite only having 4 schools that could achieve this feat, Iowa is the only state to have 3 schools do it. Iowa State. Iowa. Drake. Sorry, Northern Iowa. I’m sure you are good at something.

Full disclosure, the stats I’m about to reference are a couple of years old, but if anything, the numbers have went up.

California has 26 Division 1 Schools. 2 accomplished this feat: USC and UCLA
Texas has 24 Division 1 Schools. 2 accomplished this feat: Baylor and Texas (Horns Down!)
New York has 22 Division 1 Schools. 1 school accomplished this feat: Iona
North Carolina has 18 Division 1 Schools. 2 schools accomplished this feat: Duke and North Carolina State
Pennsylvania and Virginia both have 14 Division 1 Schools: They combined to have zero schools accomplish this feat.
Florida, Ohio, and Illinois each have 13 Division 1 Schools. Only Illinois and Miami (Fl.) from those states accomplished this feat.
Louisiana, South Carolina, and Tennessee each have 12 Division 1 Schools. Only Tennessee accomplished this feat.

Iowa, had 3 schools do it.

The Big 12 States of Kansas and Oklahoma combined to have zero schools do it.

To break this down by conference:

Big 12: 4 Schools (Iowa State, Baylor, Texas, and West Virginia)
Big 10: 5 schools (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, and Purdue)
SEC: 3 schools (Alabama, Mississippi State and Tennessee)
PAC 12: 3 schools (Arizona, UCLA, and USC)
ACC: 3 schools (Duke, Miami, and North Carolina State)
Big East: 3 schools (Creighton, Marquette, and UCONN)

My point is that you should be proud (if you are from Iowa) to be from the center of the basketball universe. If you want to play in the NCAA Tournament, go to a school in Iowa. Besides UNI. Go to one of the other 3. The ones that are good at basketball.

So if you still want to play, click on the link below:

Roundball Oracles – Year 18

And remember that the deadline is 11 AM (Central).

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I still talk to you in my sleep
I don’t say much ’cause the hurt runs too deep
I gave you the moon and the stars to keep
But you gave them back to me

The hill I’m walkin’ up is gettin’ good and steep
But I’m still looking for a promise even I can’t keep

I still lay on my side of the bed
I dance alone when the last bottle’s spent
Memories like a river runnin’ through my head
I’ll have me an ocean before I’m dead
-Brandi Carlile

Thursdays are for flowers! This collection of flowertography pictures were taken on September 15 in my yard.

While there is still snow on the ground in Iowa, we are inching closer and closer to flowertography season!

Animals, Art, Basketball, Birthdays, Carla, Christianity, Flowers, History, Monica, Nathanial, Nature, Politics, Road Trip, Self-Portrait, Slice of Life

Clayton County Aux. – Vol. 6

March 15, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

I need to start today by wishing Carla a happy birthday. Happy birthday Carla!

I hope your birthday is as full of as much joy as you can handle!

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I also need to wish Monica a happy birthday. Happy birthday Monica!

I also hope your birthday is as full of as much joy as you can handle!

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A reminder that you have until Thursday at 11 AM (Central) to get your picks in for Year 18 of the Roundball Oracles. Click on the link below to join:

Roundball Oracles – Year 18

It costs nothing to participate. First Place gets a trophy. Last Place Adult that gives full effort also gets a trophy. Hope many of you participate!

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Finally, I also need to wish Nathanial a happy birthday. Happy birthday Nathanial!

I also hope your birthday is filled with as much joy and photography opportunities as you can handle!

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It is time to share the final collection of images I took while harvesting the town signs of Clayton County. All of these were either taken at Pikes Peak State Park or in Marquette.

Pikes Peak State Park

Marquette

The next time we hit the open road to look at auxiliary images for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT, we will visit Wapello County.

Basketball, Drone, Panorama, Railroad, WPC - Alternate

Rodan139: High Bridges

March 14, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

A reminder that you have until Thursday at 11 AM (Central) to get your picks in for Year 18 of the Roundball Oracles. Click on the link below to join:

Roundball Oracles – Year 18

It costs nothing to participate. First Place gets a trophy. Last Place Adult that give full effort also gets a trophy. Hope many of you participate!

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One of the last times Rodan139 took to the skies last year was near the Kate Shelley Memorial High Bridge. I flew around it to take pictures for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme STRONG. Here are the picture I took that day:

I think it would be pretty cool if some day they made it so people could walk across the abandoned bridge. I’m sure it will never happen cause of a myriad of security reasons, but it would still be pretty cool.

Basketball, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Formal Portrait, Fran

Roundball Oracles – Year 18/F & P – Vol. 4

March 12, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

It is time once again for the greatest sporting event of year. It is that time known as March Madness. The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

Once again, I will be sponsoring a NCAA Tournament Pool. There is no cost to enter the pool, except for pride. And if pride is nothing to you, well done.

The winner gets a trophy. The dead last place person gets a trophy known as The Sara*. Nobody else gets a trophy. I’m not made of trophies people!

By winning, you get your name etched on the List of Immortals:

PAST ROUNDBALL ORACLE CHAMPIONS – LIST OF IMMORTALS

2022 – Ben Baier
2021 – Micky Augustin
2019 – Becky Parmelee
2018 – Paul Golden
2017 – Paul Golden
2016 – Michelle Haupt
2015 – Derek Dohrman
2014 – Brandon Kahler
2013 – William McAlpine
2012 – Lowell Davis
2011 – Carrie Baier
2010 – Mark Wolfram
2009 – Mark Wolfram
2008 – Mark Wolfram
2007 – Tim Peterson
2006 – William McAlpine
2005 – William McAlpine

But I said that there are 2 trophies. The 2nd trophy, The Sara, goes to the adult that finishes dead last, while trying. A person can not tank on purpose and win The Sara. The reason The Sara winner has to be an adult is that I don’t want to mock children, to their face. Does that mean I have no problem mocking children behind their back? Does it make me a bad person if I say yes? Probably a better rule would be that to “win” The Sara, you have to be at least a teenager. I have no problem mocking teenagers to their face. At least, back when there was a Youth Group.

Past “The Sara” Winners:

2022 – Joey Randazzo
2021 – Rachel Gildersleeve
2019 – Russell Kennerly
2018 – Robert Henning
2017 – Shannon Bardole
2016 – Laura Priest
2015 – Derrick Gorshe
2014 – Sara Lockner

The Sara doesn’t have the long storied history of the championship trophy, but it will get there. I have no doubts. This will be the 9th winner since its inception after all.

These were the final standings from last year:

ROUNDBALL ORACLES – YEAR 17

1. Ben Baier – 273 points
2. Sara Lockner – 271 points
3. Shawn Lockner – 242 points
4. Rachel Gildersleeve – 242 points
5. Linda Bennett – 232 points
6. Becky Parmelee – 231 points
7. Carla Stensland – 229 points
8. Angie DeWaard – 224 points
9. Christopher D. Bennett – 224 points
10. Tim Peterson – 223 points
11. Jason Baier – 217 points
12. Lowell Davis – 215 points
13. Derek Dohrman – 215 points
14. Carrie Baier – 214 points
15. Sarah Karber – 210 points
16. Michael Augustin – 209 points
17. Elizabeth Nordeen – 206 points
18. Jorge Rios – 203 points
19. Brandon Kahler – 203 points
20. Will Baier – 197 points
21. Jordan Toot – 197 points
22. Corey Faust – 197 points
23. Andree Jauhari – 192 points
24. Jesse Howard – 191 points
25. Dawn Krause – 182 points
26. Derrick Gorshe – 181 points
27. Michelle Haupt – 179 points
28. Jackson Faust – 176 points
29. Jason Stensland – 168 points
30. J.J. Baier – 164 points
31. Russell Kennerly – 161 points
32. Toby Sebring – 157 points
33. Robert Henning – 151 points
34. Jill Gorshe – 147 points
35. Joe Randazzo – 143 points
36. Olivia Baier – 141 points

If you are a basketball fan, or are just interested in having fun, click on the link below to join my pool:

Roundball Oracles – Year 18

The rules are as follows:
Round 1 = 1 point + seed
Round 2 = 2 points + seed
Round 3 = 4 points + seed
Round 4 = 8 points + seed
Round 5 = 16 points + seed
Rounds 6 = 32 points + seed

The Play-in Games (AKA the First Four) don’t matter. You can wait for those games to complete before filling out your bracket. The deadline to fill out your bracket, is tip-off of the first game on Thursday. Roughly 11 AM.

Under special circumstances, I will allow you to turn in a paper bracket to me. So, don’t be afraid to ask.

Yes, your child can fill out a bracket. Your dog, no.

There were 36 competitors in 2022. A 9 person gain from 2019. Hopefully there is continued growth in participation this year, but I don’t know that I have 9 more friends than I did in 2021. It is possible I have gained even more friends since 2022. I might be a pretty great person.

*You have to be 14 years or older to win “The Sara”.

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It is a Sunday, and it is a Formal Portrait Sunday. In fact, this is the last Formal Portrait Sunday for the foreseeable future. I’m sure I’ll take some more formal portraits at some point, but until then… I’m not sure what I will do with my Sundays. Maybe I’ll take them off. Or maybe it will just be fairly random. Who knows? It is a whole new world!

On this last Formal Portrait Sunday I am sharing a small collection of pictures from the photo shoot with Fran and Pepper:

Art, Automobiles, Baseball/Softball, Basketball, Becca, Black & White, Brandon, Calendar, Christianity, Dad, Flowers, Geri, Gretchen, Holidays, Iowa State, Linda, Logan, Maven, Michelle, Mom, Music, Naima, Night, Photo of the Day, Road Trip, Sara, Self-Portrait, Shawn Lockner, Shorty, Still Life, Teresa, Work

Hello 2023.

January 1, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

It is the first day of 2023. I’m not really a “resolutions” person. Pastor Adam was on vacation today so we had a substitute seromizer in church this morning. He gave an impassioned, longwinded sermon on resolve. It took more than a bit of my resolve to stay awake during the longest sermon these ears have heard in quite sometime.

But if I were to take the words on resolve to heart, I would say that I’m not without goals. Last year my main goal was to complete THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT. I did that.

My main goal in 2023 is to complete Phase 2 of THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT and put the book together. I should be freeing up sometime to work on that buy dropping a couple of photo projects that I did in 2022.

My second goal in 2023 is to begin work and complete my new photo project. Details are still foggy, but it is to create Boone postcard. Not a bunch of Boone postcards. Not even to print up a bunch of one Boone postcard. But to make one big image of one Boone postcard. While the end goal is one image, it will involve taking at least several hundred (probably thousand) images. It will make more sense when I get going on it.

My third goal in 2023 is to keep the positive momentum that was achieved in 2022 in participation rates for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. I’m not likely to go out and beat the drums looking for participants, but doesn’t mean you guys can’t. Right?

My fourth goal in 2023 is to consider and maybe take action on visiting and photographing every State Park in Iowa.
That seems more straight forward than it actually is because in addition to State Parks there are State Forests and State Preserves and State Recreation Areas. Boone County contains 3 Minor State Forests alone! We will see where this one goes, but we all know I could use the exercise.

I don’t have any goals related to the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. That type of stuff is a considerable amount of luck. So best not to have goals that are out of one’s hands. Maybe my goal should just be to give my best effort.

Hopefully 2023 is a good year for all of us!

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Time to share the December images for the FatMumSlim Photo A Day Challenge. This is also the final collection of images as I will be dropping this pursuit in 2023. It doesn’t take a lot of time, but it still eats up a fair amount of time. Hopefully time freed up that I can use to pursue some of those 2023 goals.

Here are the December images:

December 1 – I Love This!

December 2 – I Bought This!

December 3 – Starts with T

December 4 – I Held This

December 5 – Something Red

December 6 – Peace

December 7 – Tree

December 8 – Looking Up

December 9 – Small

December 10 – Out + About

December 11 – Free Choice

December 12 – Lights

December 13 – Something Green

December 14 – Decoration

December 15 – A Star

December 16 – Candy Cane

December 17 – A Hat

December 18 – I Made This!

December 19 – Joy Is…

December 20 – Begins with S

December 21 – On the Floor

December 22 – A Gift

December 23 – A Tradition

December 24 – Someone I Love

December 25 – My Day

December 26 – This is Delish

December 27 – Colourful

December 28 – A Book

December 29 – Us

December 30 – How I Relax

December 31 – Best Part of 2022

Top 9 Most Popular Images

I did enjoy this project and I’m not walking away from it because I didn’t enjoy it. I “met” numerous other people in this community that I will continue to follow, like @bea.photoaday, @sara.fms.photoaday, @outnbout, @gerkgirl, @pink_koffie, and @lostfate13.

But there were other things I didn’t like. Most people used the challenge to curate images, rather than take new images every day. The person that ran the challenge is Australian. That meant that a lot of the prompts were seasonal for Australia, meaning they weren’t seasonal for Iowa. Prompts repeated an awful lot. Not that they wouldn’t after 365 days, but I felt like they repeated more than necessary.

These minor complaints aside, I would consider doing it again in a future year. Just not this year. I’m sure many of you have minor complaints about how I run THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE as well.

Art, Basketball, Iowa State, Nature, Road Trip

Delaware County Aux. – Vol. 1

December 7, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Tonight is the night of the big Iowa State/Iowa women’s basketball showdown. This is probably the most anticipated game in the history of the series. Many thought it would be a Top 10 showdown, but Iowa has dropped more games than anticipated. However, Iowa is still #16 in the country. Iowa State is #10. They were #8 the previous week. Played one game. Won by 50 points. Dropped 2 spots.

If you love basketball, you should watch this game. It is one of the few games you can watch this early in the season that will feel like an NCAA Tournament game. At the very least, it should be intense and exciting.

Tip off is at 6 PM. It will be televised on ESPN2.

If you aren’t overly familiar with women’s basketball, you will be overwhelmed how much the announcers will talk about Caitlin Clark, Iowa’s star guard. They will talk about her 90% of the broadcast. At least.

So here are a few things to know, that the ESPN broadcast won’t cover:

+ Iowa State is the higher ranked team.
+ Iowa State made it farther in the NCAA Tournament last year.
+ Iowa State beat Iowa last year.
+ Ashley Joens is an also an All-American.
+ Ashley Joens is also her conference’s pre-season Player of the Year.
+ Caitlin Clark will at some point hit about a 35 foot 3 pointer. It will be impressive. She shoots less than 33% from 3 point range. That is less than impressive. She also averages 5 turnovers a game for her career.
+ Emily Ryan is also an all-conference point guard.
+ Lexi Donarski is also an all-conference player and the Defensive Player of the Year in her conference.
+ Stephanie Soares was the NAIA Player of the Year the last two seasons.

I’m not bagging on Caitlin Clark. She is a great player. She singlehandedly beat Iowa State 2 years ago. She could do it again this year. Just don’t let the ESPN coverage blind you to the fact that she isn’t the only great player on the court.

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Several months back I tooled around Delaware County harvesting their town signs. This is the first collection of images from that trip and they were all taken in Manchester:

Manchester

While in the Manchester Water Park, I looked down and saw that I was pretty close to standing on a snake. It was one of two time that this happened while I was working on THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT. This time, it did freak me out a little bit since water snakes are actually pretty aggressive. But it didn’t want a piece of this. It just slithered into the river and swam away.

There are plenty more pictures from Delaware County left to share.

Art, Basketball, Boone FUMC, Carla, Derrick, Football, Iowa State, Jason, Jesse, Nader, Naima, Self-Portrait, Self-Portrait Project, Teresa, WPC - Reminder

Selfie Project – November 2022

December 3, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

I don’t know that November was a particularly active month for me. It is getting to the hardest part of the year to do this project. The sun isn’t up when I go to work. It is barely up when I get off work. That being said, I think I took a few decent picture in November for THE SELFIE PROJECT:

November 1

November 3

November 4

November 5

November 6

November 8

November 9

November 10

November 11

November 12

November 13

November 15

November 17

November 19

November 20

November 21

November 22

November 23

November 24

November 25

November 27

November 28

November 29

I don’t know that I’ll be that active in December either. But I’ll try.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is ANIMAL:

ANIMAL

ANIMAL! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is an ANIMAL picture? Simply put it is a picture of an ANIMAL. It can be a wild ANIMAL or it can be a pet or it can be a stuffed ANIMAL or it can be a statue of an ANIMAL. It can be a dog or a bird or a squirrel or a fish or a lizard or a dog or a deer or a possum or a dog or a hamster or a rat or a dog or a bear or an alligator or a dog.

Happy photo harvesting!