Mike O'Connell

When your name is Michael O’Connell, you don’t need to wear green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

Green is for amateurs.

I could have used the luck of the Irish, though, yesterday, for my “hometown” college–that would be the George Mason University–the only school I know with nickname “Patriots” that uses green in its colors. The “Patriots” could have locked up an NCAA Tournament bid with a win yesterday against VCU, though fell a bit short in that quest. Mason ended the year 26-8 but was denied an at-large birth from the selection committee, who saw fit to include 14 teams from the SEC but one from the Atlantic 10.

Cue up Rodney Dangerfield because these Patriots get no respect.

Five years ago today the world, well, the world shut down. Remember that one?

Among other things I remember thinking, hmm, if this really is the end, I guess I lived a pretty good life.

Five years later I’ve had five more years of pretty good times. I guess it’s all just a bonus from the day we’re born, right? This is all one big mysterious bonus round.

I’d say I’ve gotten more philosophical as I’ve gotten older but really I think I’ve gotten less philosophical.

I don’t know why we’re here, I don’t know how long we have, and I don’t have an idea of really what we’re supposed to do with our lives.

As I often find myself saying… enjoy!

Today’s episode of Math and Musings is admittedly not the most happy or uplifting episode we’ve ever aired, though I felt it necessary to provide a little more closure for those who remember JR Gaudet. Actually, that’s all I’ve done for the past few weeks, and will no doubt continue to do so for, well, forever.

“Enjoy” is not exactly the right word.

Listen, share, and remember.

I know a thing or two about enjoyable movies. In fact I wrote the book on it. (That’s usually just an expression.)

Oscar-nominated movies, though?

Let’s check the O’Connell stats.

Oscar nominees for Best Picture…

O’Connell saw zero of ten.

Nominations for acting?

A total of 20 slots and O’Connell saw…

zero of those movies.

Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot were the only movies among the nominees I’d actually seen, and, well, neither of them won anything.

Still, it’s an honor to be nominated.

An even greater honor–more rare anyway–to have been seen by the aforementioned cinematic author.

Hard to believe it’s only Wednesday, right?

Well, part of that is because you’ve actually been through 60 percent of the week already.

In case you’ve never heard it before, this is the breakdown:

Monday… 32%

Tuesday… 28%

Wednesday… 20%

Thursday… 13%

Friday… 7%

These are hard and true facts, battle tested and peer-reviewed and all that.

Looks like Wednesday is the only day that’s actually, you know, equal to a day.

So have a nice… day… today.

And don’t worry, it’s easy from here on.