Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Patriot Games

I know very little about basketball and you'd have to pay me to be excited about us being the "sweet sixteen." In fact, I can't remember another time when my interest level was so little compared to everyone around me. Ok, I care a little that Mason was on the cover Sports Illustrated and more people know who we are now, but I have zero interest in the simple fact of Mason's standing.

Yet I am surrounded by those that do care and they care an awful lot. So much so, that they are externalizing the costs of them caring, of which I am in part bearing.

-A housemate of mine keeps talking about the upcoming game and wants to talk about it with me.
-Yesterday, my coworkers had a hard time talking about little else, of which I had to hear and exhibited an opportunity cost of conversation.
-Outside the office, the past two games are playing on a really large screen, which I, again, have to hear.
-The campus is now blanketed with posters about the team's standing and I don't care.

There have also been some annoying demand curve shifts.

-When Jeremy and I went to lift yesterday, the weight room was abnormally crowded, making it more costly for me to do the workout I want. (We attributed the sudden rise in gym attendence to "sports fever.")
-It was harder for me to find a good parking spot at the field house (where the weight room is located) because about 30 people were there, camping in line for tickets.
-While trying to find a spot, I had to navigate around a TV van parked in the road, as well as some campers playing football.
-There's a big line for "Sweet 16" T-shirts, spilling out of the bookstore and into the main area of the Johnson Center, making it more crowded.

And then there's one that's a bit of both.

-The topic is crowding out virtually all normal radio conversation; I would almost certainly enjoy the opportunity cost more.

I really hope we loose on Friday.

4 comments:

jeremy h. said...

David, quit trying to take credit for my ideas ("sports fever"). But I agree with some of your thoughts. With any luck, I'll be blogging on this after the test.

jeremy h. said...

Oh, and I'll just reiterate: why do you hate GMU? Is it because of our freedom? You know, you're either with us or against us.

David said...

ok fine. you attributed it to sports fever, I agreed. You GMUers and your freedom.

Anonymous said...

David, I sympathize. Things were a bit crazy here last year with the Red Soxs. This guy in the office was a big fan. I joked that I wanted the Reds to win so I can get a TV during the riots. Then he started thinking I cared about sports teams. He's also a bit on the loud side. When he asked about March Madness, I said I didn't care about those overpaid steroid abusers which seems to have solved the problem (yes I know most pro basketball players don't abuse steroids, but too many of them do).

Jason