Me vs jmallick

I won't spoil the ending for those of you who didn't see the board on facebook.

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8597

Highlights:

Worcester, MA - March 6:
http://www.cross-tables.com/tourney.php?t=6737&div=2

Mississauga ON - October 9:
http://www.cross-tables.com/tourney.php?t=6986&div=1

Guelph ON - October 10:
http://www.cross-tables.com/tourney.php?t=6989&div=1

and especially...
Portsmouth, NH - December 12:
http://www.cross-tables.com/tourney.php?t=7079&div=1

Visiting the Jerusalem Scrabble Club was also very awesome.

Top 100 No-Plays (13 total)
2. David Gibson
9. Rafi Stern
14. Laurie Cohen (I could have sworn we played but cross-tables says no)
26. Nick Meyer
27. Eric Tran
30. Joe Dackman
40. Noah Walton
45. Christopher Sykes
51. Lewis Martinez
77. John Stardom
79. Shannon Burns
85. Scott Jackson
89. Alan Helfgott

I played Nigel Richards at Table 1 in Mumbai, so I'm counting that.

Highest Ranked Winning Records:
5. Conrad Bassett-Bouchard (1-0)
5. Scott Appel (8-7)
8. Carl Johnson (1-0)
11. Kenji Matsumoto (3-2)
14. Ron Tiekert (2-1)
16. Ian Weinstein (5-3)
17. Winter (11-2)
27. John Luebkemann (3-2)
34. Chris Cree (5-4)
34. Paul Epstein (6-1-1)

Or, as the kids say, need to be "punched in da mouf":

1. The cranky well-dressed middle-aged guy in CVS at 12:45 AM Saturday night, randomly berating the night manager about the evils of self-checkout machines... telling him how terrible they are and that they should get rid of them. His major beef was that they take people's jobs away and "that's not what life is supposed to be all about." Not just playfully pining for the old days, he was dead serious, and apparently not drunk/high. Basically shaking his angry fist at technology. Even if on some level one can relate to those sentiments, he's barking up the wrong tree. If a guy is working the overnight shift on a weekend, safe to assume he's pretty low on the CVS totem pole. Write a freaking letter to corporate or STFU. Leave the poor guy alone and get off your soapbox.

2. The 19ish year old college female sitting in front of us at the Lewis Black show last week. Apparently going 90 minutes without texting is too much to ask. She was attempting to be discreet, hiding her phone under a translucent article of clothing in her lap while texting. Of course, this only amplified the annoying white light shining in my eye every 5 minutes towards the end of the show. I was one text away from saying something (which I don't shy away from when really pushed). I really hate the tension that follows. Why don't people get how rude this is?

3. People in the movie theater overreacting to the movie. It was most evident last month during "Inception", which we made the mistake of seeing during an early Friday showing filled with high school students. The biggest annoyance: Laughing out loud repeatedly at things that weren't "funny". I know, this is harder to quantify. But picture a scene that is supposed to be poignant, where a character is emotionally conflicted, maybe even serious... but the dialogue contains something witty or clever. A burst of laughter that renders the next line inaudible... well, is really annoying. It's as if these people over-emote because they're in a crowd, or because they think they're supposed to react to show they "got it".

A middle-aged lady, sitting next to us during "Hereafter", in a conversational tone kept alternating between "Awwww!" during something heartwarming and "Haha!" during something amusing. She also muttered out loud a few times to her husband to exhibit she understood what just happened. Stop ruining my movie experience, dammit.

That's all I got for now.

...and I'm not at work: Win.

Instead, I'm on vacation 1,500 some-odd miles from home playing Scrabble and enjoying time with my closest friends: Win.

Baseball, drinks, pizza this evening: Win, win, win.

My Sounders had another kick-ass win tonight: Literally, win.

The only loss (and it's a gigantic one) - my wonderful girlfriend is not here with me to share the aforementioned wins... but that was a loss in pocket the moment I stepped on the plane.

So... just relaxing in the hotel room now, watching a movie, feeling great about life.

Looking forward to what the morning will bring, and striving to maintain the winning streak.

Tourneys: 17
Games: 229
Wins: 148
Win Percent: 64.6
Total Spread: +8841
.500 or Better Record: 15/17 tourneys (3-4 & 9-11 were the losers)

NSA Rating In: 1833
NASPA Rating Out: 1884
NSA/NASPA Rating Peak: 1932
Avg. Perf Rating: 1882.9

WESPA Rating In/Out: 1914
WESPA Events Played: 0

Tournaments Won: 4 (3 multi-day, 1 one-day)

Winnings: ~$2750 (+$940 BAT Roto)

Highlights: BAT, HO, Cleveland Classic, Egypt (Scrabble with cheezchick on the train from Cairo to Luxor!)

Lowlights: Life is too awesome to dwell on such things :-)

2010 Wish List: NAST Final, DO, BAT, OT, Arden, CanAM, NSC, CO

Cleveland was pretty fun. ipecac_icecap & dallaswj did a standout job with this event. Good venue, efficiently run, excellent internet coverage, and everyone behaved for the most part. More people should go next time. I wish I had time to check out the city more.

For now, some bingo lists, for entertainment purposes only:

( Read more... )

I've been meaning to post about this for months:

I love Seattle Sounders FC!

The local Major League Soccer team, New England Revolution, never captured my imagination. They play way down in Foxboro, which is a pain in the ass to get to... so that's part of it. And they've been good, so it's not like I was holding out for a winning team to support. But this Seattle team got me, and in short order has made me a passionate supporter.

( Here's why... )

Tonight I'll be watching the Sounders take on DC United for the US Open Cup Championship on Fox Soccer Channel. It's not as prestigious as the MLS Cup or Supporters' Shield, but it's a cool event nonetheless. Go Sounders!

WorldWinner bought us dinner last night. That was pretty cool.

It was a customer appreciation/feedback meeting. A couple of other random site users were also there along with three company reps. I guess cheezchick made an impression on the WW rep in Dayton. I can't imagine how that could happen... ;-)

We ordered lots of food and totally milked it. Crab cake appetizers, steak tips, banana chocolate cream cake. Mmm.

= My Dream Website

The latest permanent fixture in my daily rotation:

http://www.sportsclubstats.com/