It is a good thing to be in the know, so I will take it upon myself to bring to light some of the strange things that have been in the news lately.

CBSnews.com reports that a Vermont hunter tried to cover up shooting an antlerless deer by bolting antlers to its head with epoxy and lag bolts. Ten days in jail, $400 in fines, and being unable to apply for another hunting license in Vermont for the next three years are the consequences that befell Marcel Fournier for his late November kill.

CBS also reported that the post office is diligent as ever. In 1962, Francis “Fran” Murphey sent her friend Marion White a postcard from her travels in Helena, Mont. to White’s northern Ohio address. It arrived a short 47 years later. The current resident after researching, found that White was the previous renter of the P.O. Box and that Fran was a former reporter for the local newspaper and died in 1998. Good work USPS. I'm still waiting for my check from Publisher's Clearing House.

If your boss is too wound up, follow the lead of a 24-year-old assistant in a Bryant, Ark. vet’s office. News.yahoo.com has run a story stating that this woman placed tranquilizers into her boss’ coffee because “he needed to chill out.” It looks like the woman will have time to chill waiting for her $24,000 bond and April 21 court date.

Be careful with whom you mess with. Yahoo also reports on one of Wisconsin’s finest criminals: A robber in Milwaukee took on more than he could handle recently when he attempted to steal from a Tae Kwon Do studio during a private lesson. The instructor sat down the robber by holding his neck and called the police. When he tried to escape, the instructor again held the man by his neck until the police arrived.

Be smart. Do your homework. Most importantly, if you do something dumb, your grandmother will read about it in the newspaper and your family will never let you live it down - Trust me. And never squirt an officer with your windshield washer fluid.

Our generation is no stranger to any number of technologies such as MP3 players, cell phones, computers, GPS navigators, XM radio, or blu ray DVD players.

We are accustomed to seeing digital displays on billboards, receiving emails on our laptops and phones, and driving cars that tell us exactly what’s wrong with them when they breakdown.

These devices and tools are taken for granted by the world’s youth and it is easy to forget that things have not always been this way. Just one generation prior to ours, that of our parents, witnessed the invention and emergence of these technologies into mainstream society.

With each new upgrade or development of technology there has been a division in the opinions of the older generations. Some embrace each new technology and attempt to utilize it to its full capacity, while many others question the necessity of the “next big thing.”

My dad graduated from high school in May of 1980 and attended Michigan State University that fall. He said that the entire campus had one computer that was housed in a two-story building and was, for the most part, wasted space.

This primitive computer’s range of capabilities was maxed out by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing; functions that our most basic hand-held calculators can surpass. Now we not only have computers that have seemingly endless capabilities but they fit in our backpacks and even in the palm of our hands.

Another technology that has emerged during our parent’s lifetime is cellular phones. When we watch movies from the early 90s we often chuckle when the actor pulls out their “super cool” cell phones that almost require the use of two hands to hold.

My mom often recalls her first experience with a pager, a device that has been virtually eliminated from use today. My parents bought their first “car phones” in their early 30s. This cutting-edge gadget was great if you didn’t mind being attached to a cord all the time or sitting in a single place in the entire county to get service.

That was less than 10 years ago. Compare these bulky phones to what we have now. Blackberrys, Palms, Razrs, and many more nestle into your hand and connect you to virtually anywhere in the world from anywhere in the world.

In fact, many new cars come equipped with cell phone like devices of their own that will contact emergency services if the car senses it has been in an accident.

Unlike our parents the majority of my friends had their own cell phones at some point in high school and there’s an increasing proportion of middle school students with their own phones. Our society has shifted to the mentality that you must be available at all times rather than chatting with people at your leisure.

With the development of cell phones the phenomena of text messaging has exploded as the new form of quick communication. I know very few college and high school students who do not use text messaging. This is one convenience that my parents simply cannot grasp.

They believe that if you need to ask someone a question there is no reason not to simply call them. This argument holds a fair amount of validity but it comes down to a matter of convenience for both the sender and recipient.

Sometimes you are in an environment where making a phone call would be disruptive or inappropriate and if you have a memory like me there is little hope of remembering later. I myself was slow to picking up texting. My cell phone plan allowed 300 text messages per month and up until last fall I seldom used more than 50 each month.

Then as more of my friends began texting me I began using all of my texts and sometimes additional ones. Last weekend my mom called me to inform me that our contract was up and it was time to buy new phones and rea$djust our plans.

The solution was to drop our minutes by increasing the number of text messages to unlimited. That meant that my parents would be obligated to text more to decrease their minutes. I told my sister, “the day that mom or dad text me I will die.”

Shortly thereafter I received a text from both of them. Needless to say I am still alive but I was shocked to say the least. Since that time neither of my parents have texted on a consistent basis. It was nice for the short time while rather than calling to “check in” with me my mom would simply send me a text message.

I suppose that I just have to accept that my parents are not going to take up texting anytime soon, if at all. However there is hope for the older generation as many of friend’s parents do send text messages just as much, if not more than their children. Who knows, maybe one day there will be some new technology that we have no idea why someone would want to use, only time will tell.

Grab your favorite snack, the TV remote, and hit the couch because it is that time of year once again: March Madness.

The most exciting nationwide collegiate tournament begins tomorrow with the first round of the 2009 NCAA basketball tournament. The 64 team field is set and anything can happen over the next two and a half weeks.

This tournament represents the chance of a lifetime for many unknown schools such as Cleveland State, Siena, Chattanooga, and first-timer North Dakota State. Statistically, at least one of the schools will “upset” a higher seeded school in the first round.

Last year, Siena and Western Kentucky, two teams in the field again this year, won their first round matchups against teams seeded four and five respectively.

And who can forget about what Davidson did last year? No one even knew who Stephen Curry was until the tournament began and now he is a household name. Davidson propelled itself into the spotlight by defeating the likes of Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Wisconsin on its way to the elite eight. In their final tournament game, Davison fell to eventual national champion Kansas by only two points.

Thousands of people, sports fans and non-sports fans alike, fill out brackets each year. My Mom enters an office pool every year and almost always, her bracket ends up being better than mine. She goes right down the list and picks the teams with the best records, not necessarily the higher seeded teams, and she still wins. I try to evaluate the teams based on strength of schedule and teams they have beaten, but it does not help much.

There is no sure fire way to fill out a bracket for the NCAA tournament. The more conservative you are, usually the better you will do. I try to pick the higher seeds in almost all cases, but even that does not always work. You think you have a pretty good bracket and all of a sudden 11 seeded George Mason upsets four teams and gets to the final four.

This year, when you are filling out your bracket, remember that there are always upsets. If you get lucky enough, you just might pick the right one. I’m not exactly the person you want to be taking advice from on these matters. Then again, I only play against my friends and family for fun, not money.

I love watching the small schools upset the favorites with a half-court buzzer-beater. There’s nothing more exciting this time of year than a Cinderella team making the Sweet 16 or even the Elite eight. No matter what team you root for, whether they are in the tourney or not, March Madness is always entertaining.

Kick back, relax and take your mind off studying for a few minutes. Watch the last five minutes of a couple of games as a study break and you will know exactly what I am talking about. March Madness has arrived and it will deliver as much drama and excitement as you can handle.