Random Musings

First of all, the Pittsburgh Steelers are awesome. Many of you don't know this, but I was born and raised 20 miles outside of Pittsburgh and will be a die hard Steeler's fan for the rest of my life. I try to love the Pirates, but their historic losing streak is getting to be more than all but the likes of my Dad can stand. And hockey just isn't my thing...probably because I never played it outside of D League IMs in college. But the Steelers....Gotta love 'em.

In today's game they missed a ton of opportunities. Limas Sweed drops a ball that should be caught 100 times in a row. Then doesn't get off the field because he's either hurt or sorry for himself. He cost them 7 points then 3 points in one fluid motion (the only reason they were even close to attempting a field goal there was another awful call by the refs, this one going for the Steelers on a phantom roughing of the kicker...I was almost glad that didn't result in points). The Santonio non-catch on the 6 inch line (which was the right call...just a tough break) was painful. The two pass interference calls in the end zone (one of which was bad officiating, the other of which was bad defense) basically accounted for all of Baltimore's points. The ridiculous non-call when the Baltimore player drove his helmet into Ben's spine a full second after Ben had released the ball was just silly. Even with all that (and admittedly there is usually a lot of stuff that goes wrong), they won easily. It's gonna be fun to be a Steeler's fan the next two weeks :)

Changing topics completely....

As I've gotten more experienced at this I've noticed that I feel like I'm making more mistakes than I used to. For a while this worried me, but then I realized that in all likelihood I've just gotten a lot better at recognizing mistakes. Think about it....as you get better at something cerebral, like poker or any other sort of game, your ability to identify mistakes probably improves along with your ability to avoid them. Therefore, for a while, you'll probably notice the same number of mistakes. Interesting concept, at least to me....

And again....

My confidence is pretty shaken right now, but upon looking at my recent numbers I've realized that most of my current downswing (the exact depth of which I haven't figured out just yet) has occurred at 30/60 and 40/80. At 20/40 I'm still basically running pretty well, which is very reassuring. I'm back in the saddle tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday before taking a 4 day trip to Boston for my fraternity's annual alumni weekend. Going back for this weekend is something I really look forward to, and I'm hoping this year it will give me a chance to clear my head. How could you not like hanging out with a bunch of guys who managed to do this?

In closing....

It's been rough the past few weeks, but the people close to me have been there for support, and that has really helped. Specifically Pete, Hank, and Danielle have given me both encouragement and honest feedback that have helped keep me grounded and rational. Thanks so much :)