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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Brad's LiveJournal:
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| Sunday, October 11th, 2009 | | 7:37 pm |
Bad day to be a Boston sports fan
All of a sudden Papelbon can't get anyone out and Brady can't hit the broad side of a barn door. What an excruciating 7.5 hours. Current Mood:  angry | | Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 | | 12:31 pm |
Faulty logic?
Why does a cheeseburger cost 99 cents at Burglar King but a double cheeseburger costs $2.89? The only extra thing you get with a double cheeseburger is an extra patty, and seems like that should be worth less than $1.90 considering you can get almost two extra cheeseburgers for that price. They also have a promotion where you can get 2 double cheeseburgers for $4 on Tuesdays but even that doesn't make much sense to me. I'd rather have two cheeseburgers than a double cheeseburger. Maybe there's an appeal to the double cheeseburger that I don't understand. Current Mood:  confused | | Monday, September 7th, 2009 | | 1:52 pm |
Win
I finished 1st in Portland even though my opponents outblanked me 25-15. Blanks certainly aren't everything, as I had good tiles and balanced racks pretty much all the way through. This was my second division 1 multi-day win, and a better win than my other one (Saratoga) because the competition was stronger. I was lucky that there weren't as many word knowledge issues that came up this time as opposed to Albany and Dayton. Next tournament is Rhinebeck one-day, then Lake George after that. Current Mood:  excited | | Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 | | 9:57 am |
Dayton challenges/phoneys
| |
Valid, challenged |
Phoney, unchallenged |
Phoney, challenged |
| My Plays |
TROWED (out play)
|
LENDED*
SCUTTeD*
UNCLADS*
CAPA*
|
HENNAE*
CHORAGIs*
INDRESS*
|
| Their Plays |
EMPTIERS
ZORILLAS
INCOGS
KRYPTONs
TETANIC (out play)
BOUSE
dEPOSI(TO)R (out play)
|
GUIdABLY*
BHATKA*
SHARINgS*
AMAZERs*
|
THA*
WIFER*
SWINERY* (out play)
BORTIEST*
ZO*
|
Current Mood: amused | | Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | | 1:46 pm |
Albany round 20
Here is my game against ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) baudekin: http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=4078#0The word knowledge things don't bother me so much. I figure they will straighten themselves out as long as I continue to study. Although it does concern me a little that I didn't actually think very hard about whether or not TAPDOWNS* was a word. I didn't think at all about what it might mean. I viewed it as a possible word that I had no idea whether or not it was valid, and made a strategic decision based on my comeback plays. I also violated my rule of challenging words I don't know against players rated lower than me. I think COCHLEAR had something to do with that. What really bothers me is thinking I had EVERY for 53 points as a comeback, then when I went to play it, realizing that it didn't fit. There was a split second there when I realized it didn't fit, and Jason hadn't drawn his tiles yet, that I thought about challenging even though I had released the hold. According to the rules, you can still challenge after you release a hold as long as your opponent hasn't drawn tiles yet. But it would have been a split second decision, and I couldn't pull the trigger. OUTFEEDS* is embarrassing but I don't have any opinion on it whatsoever. I guess I should have held at least but I don't see myself challenging it, especially after COCHLEAR and TAPDOWNS*. I hope I can get to a point where I can challenge a word like that off but I don't know if or when that will happen. Games like this happen every once in a while... it's just a little annoying that it happened in a money game. I'm not too bent out of shape about it, though. Current Mood: content | | Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | | 7:12 pm |
Albany
After mediocre early birds and start of the main event, I recovered and actually played my last game for 4th. Against baudekin I challenged one valid word, allowed three phonies, and lost by 15. Still I feel pretty good about the tournament as a whole. I think I'll learn some words before Dayton. Current Mood: amused | | Monday, June 22nd, 2009 | | 11:14 am |
Average tournament
Rating before tournament: 1806 Rating at mid-point of tournament: 1798 Rating after tournament: 1802 6-4 in both halves. Had some good games. Had fun. Bring on the next tournament. Thanks Terry for putting this on. It was great to play in a major open tournament then only have to drive a couple of hours home. Congrats to Brock Dougmeier for taking home the big bucks. Current Mood: content | | Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 | | 8:53 am |
Facebook keeps getting more and more ridiculous
This morning: "You have 1 are you a potato? invitation" Huh? I'm pretty good at ignoring all the silly requests but this one made me shake my head. Makes Frank's fans of bubble wrap look normal. Current Mood: bitchy | | Monday, May 25th, 2009 | | 9:13 am |
Funk
Sorry I'm jumping on the "blah" bandwagon. 3rd multi-day tournament in a row I finished with a losing record (6-8 this time in Montreal)... which is not good considering I've been seeded 2nd, 6th, and 3rd in division A. I actually stole a couple of games when opponents made very obvious errors at the end of the game... so 4-10 would have been even worse. I hope things turn around at the HO. Current Mood:  blah | | Friday, May 1st, 2009 | | 11:09 am |
What is wrong with me?
ADINORT was on Jumbletime today. I stared at it. I got frustrated. I stared some more. I got more frustrated. I went through each letter, pretending it was the first letter, and still couldn't get it. I literally spent at least 60 seconds on it before giving up. Seriously. I had to look it up in Zyzzyva. This is ridiculous. Sometimes I think I need to review words 24/7 to keep stuff like this from happening, but what a retarded existence that would be. Current Mood: angry | | Sunday, April 19th, 2009 | | 4:56 pm |
BAT
LWWWWWWLLLLLLLW 7-8, -400 something. Surprisingly should still be over 1800. Had a good time despite the big losing streak. Might go to Ardsley on May 9... otherwise no more tournaments until Memorial Day. Current Mood: indifferent | | Sunday, March 29th, 2009 | | 10:02 pm |
ACEEIN?
This was my latest whiff. Opening rack, I'm going first. I looked at it for 4 minutes but couldn't find anything. I couldn't believe there were no bingos in there, but it was time to move on so I traded E, drew E, looked again and found FIANCEE/FAIENCE (didn't see EUCAINE which Phil pointed out later) and went on to score 654. I so didn't deserve that. It was my highest scoring tournament game ever (previous high was 653). Not much else went right this weekend. I played some interesting games, especially against hebdomad who beat me 3 times this morning. Had a good time despite mediocrity. Princeton is one of my favorite tournaments despite the small size (or possibly because of it... there is a lot of congeniality among the players). Probably going to North Salem this weekend. Congrats to ididjonassalk for his dominating performance! Current Mood: indifferent | | Monday, March 23rd, 2009 | | 6:55 pm |
AEENORS
Another in a long line of embarrassing bingo misses, this time against Richard B. in Northampton on Saturday. Luckily I won the game so it didn't matter. Congrats to crosstables for going undefeated and earning a new peak rating! Also, I realized I didn't post any (real) commentary from my Dallas tournament. I had a great time and a great tournament even if I didn't win any money. I was the happiest I've been in a long time that Saturday night. I had just found out I would play my first game Sunday morning at table 1 (my goal for the tournament going in was to play a game at table 1) and I was off to eat all the meat I possibly could at the Brazilian Barbecue place. I was in heaven. As far as the meatfest goes, I ate too much (big surprise there) and was physically distressed for a couple of hours afterward but it was totally worth it. As far as the game goes, I was psyched and focused and played a great game (as far as I'm concerned) and still totally deserved to lose were it not for the inexplicable blunder by one of the very best players in the world. It was an experience, that's for sure. Current Mood: content | | Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 | | 3:24 pm |
the Circle of Life
9/29/07 - in Baltimore, Dave Englehardt plays GIGILOS* against me. I hold, think "that's not how you spell it," and challenge it off. 3/14/09 - in Dallas, I'm playing the #88 seed. I play BU?NIES and designate the blank as an R to try to draw a challenge. He holds but doesn't challenge. My next rack is GGIILOS. I play GIGILOS* and he neither holds nor challenges. 3/15/09 - in Dallas, Rod is playing Mike Baron. Mike plays GIGILOS* and Rod holds, thinks "that's not how you spell it," and challenges it off. After the game, Mike tells Rod that he saw the word on a board yesterday and it stayed so he figured it was worth a try. One of the many, many things that cracked me up this weekend. Current Mood: amused | | Monday, March 9th, 2009 | | 10:34 pm |
suplex*
Another word from real life that I can't play. Well, if you consider spending countless hours as a kid watching WWF on Saturday mornings to be "real life." At least I found out it's a phoney while studying and not over the board. Current Mood: surprisedCurrent Music: Rasmus "In the Shadows" | | 1:20 pm |
North Salem bingos and phoneys/challenges
( Phoneys/challenges ) I didn't play as many phoneys as I thought. 4 is a lot for me, but not obscene. I did make a lot of trips to the challenge computer, especially compared to Saratoga where I made only 2 (and one of those was an out play challenged as a formality). Current Mood: content | | Sunday, March 8th, 2009 | | 10:06 am |
North Salem
This was the opposite of last year's Montreal tournament. At that one, I had 12 bingos in 12 games but still finished 4th (behind Boys, Logan, Wapnick). At this one, I had 24 bingos in 8 games (!) but finished 5th. I'm happy with 5th even though I was seeded 2nd because everyone who finished ahead of me is a great player. My average score was 460-390. My lowest score was 397. My three losses were all really close (4, 15, 16). I played more phoneys than usual and for the most part it worked out. I'll post the 3 games I lost (and maybe the others too) later. They all had interesting endgames, especially the one against Joan Kelly where I was Q-stuck but would have pulled out a miraculous win if I hadn't made a fatal final move with less than 10 seconds left. I'll also post the bingo list and phoneys/challenges since the amount is so unusual (for me anyway). Current Mood:  contemplative | | Thursday, March 5th, 2009 | | 8:19 pm |
| | Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 | | 3:43 pm |
Dayton travel
Last week, I complained about the air ticket prices I was seeing online for the Dayton trip in August. Today I checked again and they were dirt cheap! I got a round trip on United for $170 including taxes. Also, in case you haven't noticed, the online registration for nationals is open. I'm currently the highest rated player in Division 1! Current Mood: content | | Thursday, February 26th, 2009 | | 9:42 pm |
Saratoga games 8-14
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Game 11 against Dan Pratt was a 1-point game and had an interesting endgame. Game 12 against Paul Avrin also had an interesting finish. Current Mood: content |
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scared