NFL Wildcard Weekend Playoff Picks

Atlanta at Arizona
I simply don’t see Arizona being able to stop Michael Turner without stacking the box, and if they do that then Matt Ryan will make them pay. The Cards might be able to explode through the air and win in a shootout under optimal conditions, but the smart money is on Atlanta.
Pick: Atlanta 31, Arizona 21

Indianapolis at San Diego

Well, starting Friday I can officially start looking for decisions.

I’m still quite bothered with how the retake score came out, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. The whole thing has been out of my hands since December 6th, and the waiting game just hits the second phase now, awaiting decisions from schools.

I’m operating under the assumption that at least some of the schools have already looked over my application, and are simply waiting on my second score before giving me a final decision (Indiana-Bloomington had contacted me to ask me a clarifying question about one item, I know that they had at least looked it over…so that’s one school I know had been looking at my app right away; I’m assuming that’s been the case with a lot of them). A few of the schools I applied to have online status-checkers; some have called my application incomplete until they received my second score, but Denver at one point said “in review,” and now just has a blank status, telling me that they’ve probably deliberated in full and were just waiting on the score. Santa Clara’s specifically said “Pending December LSAT.”

To gather some kind of idea of when I can start expecting to hear back from schools, I shot Santa Clara an e-mail to see if they would just be getting my score electronically or if they had to wait on a hard copy report at this point…I got an out-of-office autoreply that indicated that they’re closed right now for the holidays and will be back in on January 5th. I sent Denver a similar e-mail to ask them, and also got an autoreply saying they’d be back in the office on Friday. So, some schools will be back up and running on Friday, the rest on Monday.

In theory, I could hear back from someone as soon as Friday (some schools notify by e-mail, others by phone, some still send snail mail…Denver does snail mail, for what that’s worth), but I’d have to guess I’ll see my first decision sometime next week at the earliest. After the disappointing LSAT news, it would certainly make me happy to see an acceptance or two sooner than later.

I would guess that the first decision I see will be from among the group of Santa Clara, San Diego, Pacific and Denver, seeing that they have already issued a decent number of decisions in mid-to-late December, but we’ll see. I expect at least one or two of those schools to take me, which would be a welcome start.

Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

I was skeptical about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The premise of the man aging in reverse seemed too silly to take seriously, the previews looked just okay, the whole thing just seemed like a contrived contender for Oscar nominations (I didn’t actually realize until looking around just now that it was based on a book written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby). However, when it got a bunch of Golden Globe nominations (which surely means Oscar nominations are to come), and I saw a high rating on IMDb, I knew I was going to have to see it at some point. I’m glad I did.

Fallout.

Well, at this point there’s nothing to do but to accept that schools aren’t going to see what my full aptitude is. That’s a jagged pill to swallow, but I can’t do anything about it now. It’s going to bother me for some time that I underperformed on two separate occasions, but it also would’ve bothered me to simply accept my 165 and said, “good enough,” when I knew I could do better.

While the decision to retake didn’t benefit me in any way, one silver lining I’ll point to is that I chose to work hard and not accept a score that is below my capability; shrugging and consistently saying “good enough” is why my undergrad grades were so bad, and the fact that it’s simply not my way anymore is a pretty good sign of my work ethic being better than it once was, and that determination is why I’ll succeed in law school.

Of course, that’s assuming someone takes me. Someone will I’m sure, but this disappointing score heightened my anxiety about actually getting in anywhere, something that will only be fully cured by seeing an acceptance in my hand.

Notre Dame, Arizona, Arizona State, Pepperdine, Wake Forest…I’m sure they’re currently printing out a rejection form letter for me as I speak. While I’ll hold out a bit of hope about U of A, I’m very much expecting the worst with the rest, and in general I’m assuming I’m going to get shot down by all five…unfortunately five of my favorites on the list. I’ll be happy if I’m wrong.

That leaves another 13 schools, and we’ll just have to see what happens with those. When all is said and done, I’m going to guess I’ll get acceptances from 5 or 6 of them; I’d be fine with that result at this point. My mood will be a lot brighter when I get my first acceptance. Hopefully that will happen within the next two weeks.

Oh, for crying out loud…

I said that I wouldn’t be shocked by a score of anything from 163 to 172 this time, and that much was true…

Unfortunately the 163 feeling was on the mark. That was my score, this time in the 89th percentile. I have no clue why I was so insistent on underperforming my potential on these tests, I easily should’ve done better than this on both occasions. It wasn’t even reading comp that killed me, I did as well as I could’ve hoped or expected on that, and the logic games that unnerved me didn’t kill me either. I blew it on logical reasoning, flat-out blew it, and those are the sections I’m so consistently good at most of the time.

On my trip report, I wrote this…

Logical Reasoning, Part 1. This section is very much in my comfort zone. The sections are usually 25 questions long, and I usually answer at least 20 in full confidence that I’m right (often more than 20). I do usually get a couple of them wrong, but I rarely crash and burn on this stuff, I’m really good at it. So, I thought this section went well.

I missed 6 out of 25 on that section.

Logical Reasoning, Part 2. This section went how LR always goes for me, I felt really good about probably 22 of my 25 answers and felt okay about the others. There was one question that totally stumped me, I bet I got that wrong, but in general this section went smoothly. Although I always considered logic games to be my best section, there was always slight meltdown potential for that section and virtually none for logical reasoning, which I’m very consistent at; I’m pretty unlikely to get 100% right, but I’m even more unlikely to get 5+ wrong in a given section.

…and I got a whopping seven wrong in that section. All of that confidence I showed was entirely genuine, logical reasoning was the last thing I thought had been a problem for me on this test (it really never is, on practice tests or on the first take of the real thing)…it freaking killed me this time. I’m shaking my head in disbelief. Just goes to show that the only thing I was right about is that it’s impossible for me to get an accurate feel for how I did on any given test.

I don’t think this harms my situation that badly, but it sure doesn’t help it, and really it turns the decision to retake into a waste of time and money. Hopefully some of my schools were already planning to accept me, and weren’t waiting on an improved score in order to change their minds for the better. Despite the fact that a score in the 89th percentile is nothing to blush about, this is really a very disappointing result.

Score definitely imminent now.

Without attempting to explain what this means, an update box on my LSAC page has filled in with a score e-mail date, which means a score is definitely coming today or tomorrow. Since it happened so early in the day today, I’m hoping it’ll be along today. Stay tuned.

The 11-5 team gets kept out, the 8-8 team makes it in.

Any football fan could see the inherent unfairness of the Patriots missing the playoffs while the Chargers are going to be in the hunt next weekend. New England is the far superior team, and is three games better than San Diego in the standings. Of course, these types of things happen every year, but this discrepancy is more pronounced than usual.

I don’t think it would take drastic measures to prevent situations like this in the future, honestly. I wouldn’t do something silly like abolishing divisions or conferences, I think rivalries that come about from teams playing each other twice a year are great for football, and that structure gives some semblance of sense to the realities of a 16 game season that can’t be extended into many more due to the physical rigors of the game.

Reviewing My 2008 Season Predictions.

As posted on 9/1, right before opening day…

AFC West:
x – 1. (10-6) San Diego
2. (7-9) Denver
3. (6-10) Oakland
4. (3-13) Kansas City

I did pretty well here. Got the order right, and if Ed Hochuli hadn’t made the fumble gaffe early in the season, I’d be almost right on with records. I did overrate San Diego a bit, but I’m happy with my accuracy here.

AFC North:
x – 1. (11-5) Pittsburgh
y – 2. (9-7) Cleveland
3. (6-10) Baltimore
4. (4-12) Cincinnati

Mixed bag here. Got the top and bottom right, but severely overrated Cleveland and Baltimore caught me way off guard.

Final NFL Power Rankings

1. (12-4) NY Giants (1)
I don’t take this loss to mean much of anything.

2. (13-3) Tennessee (2)
Same for the Titans.

3. (12-4) Carolina (3)
John Kasay really saved their bacon at the end…a collapse like that would’ve surely signaled the end of their Super Bowl contention.

4. (12-4) Indianapolis (5)
I’m basically taking their first round road win for granted. Their next matchup against the Titans or Steelers is really what I’m interested in.

5. (12-4) Pittsburgh (4)

I bet I’ll know my score within a day or two.

Tomorrow and Tuesday, the 29th and 30th, are the last days the LSAC is open before the promised “no later than” release date of January 5th. Since I doubt they’ll take all the way until the 5th to give us our scores, I’m guessing we’ll find out during the next couple of days. Specifically, I’m going to guess we’ll see a Tuesday afternoon/evening release.

Any day during the next week is possible, but that’s what I’m thinking right now. While I’m sure I’ll get pretty anxious by the time the score actually comes, right now I’m just not particularly stressed about it, since I’m planning on getting news that won’t greatly alter my situation for better or worse. I just want the score to come out sooner so I can start hearing from schools sooner…those responses, I’m obviously quite anxious about.

NFL Week 16 Power Rankings

I could truly see any of these teams in my top 8 winning the Super Bowl. This playoff year is much more wide-open than most.

1. (12-3) NY Giants (1)
Between the two #1 seeds, I have to say the Giants are the safer bet for the big game. Better offense, and more balance as a result.

2. (13-2) Tennessee (2)
Well, they’re officially the best bet to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. Still, the conference is very wide open.

3. (11-4) Carolina (3)
Costly loss. They’d better recover in a hurry, because a loss to the Saints (a real possibility) could send their season spiraling out of control in a hurry.

4. (11-4) Pittsburgh (4)
The #2 seed might actually draw a more favorable matchup in the second round of the playoffs. I’m pretty sure I’d rather draw the AFC East champion than the Colts for my first playoff game.

5. (11-4) Indianapolis (5)

50+ minutes to get out of my parking lot.

Since last week I tapped out my vacation bank while snowbound at home, I figured that I needed to try to get to work today. Missed work is lost pay at this point, after all.

So, against my better judgment I make an attempt to get to work this morning. It took me over 50 minutes to escape from my parking spot alone. My apartment dues must not pay for any lot maintenance at all, because the snow is just piled up everywhere. Eventually, a nice guy with a big SUV came along and pushed me with his vehicle, and I got out onto the road to work. The sad thing when kind strangers come and help you out of a spot like that is that you never get to properly thank them, as you have to keep your vehicle’s momentum going.

Now I’m parked in an unmaintained lot at work. Nearly got stuck parking in this one too, upon arrival. We’ll see if I successfully make it home tonight. But hey, at least little kids get to make snow angels, that must make this awful weather a net positive in general.

Nothing kills Christmas spirit like the snow.

Thanks, Coach.

It really was fantastic to see the Seahawks score that win today, even in an awful season that has been meaningless for a long time now. It meant a heck of a lot to the Jets and the rest of the AFC East, and our team rose up and meant something again in the NFL for a few hours. To send Mike Holmgren out with a win, to give him real reason to take a lap around Qwest to greet the fans…it made me happy.

Coach Holmgren is my favorite head coach in Seattle sports history, bar none. I absolutely love the guy. He brought us to new levels of success in Seattle, made playoffs the norm when we were used to always sitting at home in January, and brought a level of class and character to the franchise that I can appreciate. I loved his coaching (his conservative style more than suited me), and loved his personality. To have him as the face of our franchise for a decade was an honor, and while I’m more than happy to get behind Coach Mora next year (even if I’m skeptical about him), I’m very much going to miss Holmgren. Tough to see him go, but I’m happy for him to get a chance to recharge his batteries a bit, and I wish him the best when he inevitably pops back up in the NFL one day. Thanks, Coach.

Nothing kills Christmas spirit like snow.

I’m big on Christmas. You might not expect it from my pretentious demeanor, my dismissal of stupid holidays like Halloween, my downplaying of the mediocre holiday called Thanksgiving…but I love Christmas. I love almost every commercialized thing about this holiday that others would decry as cheesy. I love Christmas music, I love Mickey’s Christmas Carol, I love exchanging gifts, the whole thing is excellent.

Unfortunately, with Christmas comes snow. Death, destruction and chaos, all packaged in nice pretty white flakes from the sky. When I was a kid, I loved snow like everyone else, because it often meant a day off from school. Who wouldn’t love that? So, I don’t blame kids for loving it, never will. As an adult, though…snow days off from work mean either losing money or wasting vacation benefits on days where you can’t reasonably even go anywhere.

LSAT score prediction.

I don’t think there’s any serious chance that my test score will arrive before Christmas, but like I said, once Christmas ends I think the score could come at any time. I gave a first impression when I wrote my trip report for this test, that I didn’t feel great but doubted that it was a disaster or anything. Here’s my feeling now that time has passed, I’ve thought it over, and am awaiting a result that’s been determined for almost two weeks now…

Alright, I won’t say that it doesn’t scare me at all.

In looking for all accounts of what law school will be like, I ran across this brilliant blog, which is downright hilarious in many of its post if you want to check it out. This guy is a cynic very much like me, in fact the tone of his posts very much reminds me of myself…the fact that he reminds me of myself does give me pause about this whole thing when he swears up and down that law school is a terrible idea for him.

Thankfully my fears are assuaged a bit when I saw him sum up his #1 reason for why he didn’t like law school, that law is a very serious subject and that he’s not a very serious person. Granted, I’m big on humor, sarcasm and levity too, but I have a very serious side that loves certain tedious stuff like this…and while he swears up and down about how boring and the law is, his descriptions just don’t strike me as boring. I’ve taken 400-level polisci classes that were pre-law, and found them to be among the most interesting I took in undergrad, so I just don’t buy that law school will bore me to tears in general (though I’m sure some classes will).

What I do take seriously is the financial aspect. If you root around at all, you’ll find that the career prospects for law students are grim, and that plenty of these people are left behind, and either can’t find legal employment at all or have to settle on something that they hate. That right there is scary, especially with the financial investment going into this. When I make a school decision, I’m going to have to weigh all factors heavily and feel like my odds are indeed good of coming out ahead financially in the long run, if I’m going to do this.

This isn’t to say that I’m wavering much at all in my decision to go to law school. I really still see myself having a new home in 8 months. I’m just saying that I have to be smart about this, and make an informed decision, instead of being blinded simply by the promise of new scenery just for the sake of having a change of scenery. I’m basically certain that I’ll get cold feet when the time comes to cross the point of no return and put a seat deposit down to attend a school…I also think that when the time comes, I’ll realize that there are always a million reasons not to take a big chance in life, and I’ll boldly step forward and choose to take that chance. But, until that happens, I’m keeping an open mind…I can’t afford not to.

NFL Week 16 Picks

All of a sudden, the NFL week is upon us, and I failed to post picks. Slightly less descriptive than normal, but here we go…

Indianapolis 24, Jacksonville 20
Indy is still working kinks out, this one won’t be easy.

Baltimore 17, Dallas 16
Gut feeling is that the Baltimore defense will expose some key flaws in Dallas’ offense.

Cincinnati 23, Cleveland 13
Cincinnati’s been playing a bit better now that Fitzpatrick has a lot of snaps under his belt. Cleveland is just waiting for the season to end.

New Orleans 24, Detroit 21
Detroit will make a run at winning again, but it’ll be another heartbreaking loss.

Tennessee 26, Pittsburgh 17

Well that was a creative new way for the snow to screw me.

My hate for snow is well-documented.

Yesterday, after a difficult drive home from work, I arrived in my apartment’s parking lot, which was very snowbound and I quickly got stuck in it while simply trying to park. A couple of strangers kindly offered to help push, but we weren’t able to get much of anywhere, with my entire goal being to turn into a parking spot. Finally after two more people came to help, and still after quite a bit of effort, I was pushed into a spot. It left me parked diagonally over two spots, which I felt bad about, but it was truly as good as we were going to do…and I wasn’t about to waste any more of these guys’ time. I thanked them profusely for their help and went inside, hoping snow would melt soon so I could get parked more appropriately.

I checked outside once last night, saw that more snow had come down, and realized it was no use attempting to fix my parking job yet. Just now, I went outside and discovered that when I rolled my window down to ask for help…I hadn’t rolled it back up. Stupid, stupid mistake on my part. I had been so flustered by the parking experience that I hadn’t thought twice about rolling this passenger’s side window back up. Out of sight, out of mind at that moment. I’m good about locking up and securing my car, but the passenger’s side window is almost never part of the routine, so it somehow didn’t occur to me. And yes, this mistake cost me.

Date of LSAT score receipt not entirely certain.

On my LSAC.org page, it lists January 5, 2009 as the date I’ll receive the e-mail with my LSAT score in it. Apparently with this date they mention, they always list a Monday (and 1/5/09 is  a Monday), then release the score on the Friday before. That was the case in October and has always been the case going back from that time; the only exceptions came when the Fridays in question were holidays, in which cases the day before that Friday was when the score came in. So, conventional wisdom is that I’ll get my score on Friday, January 2nd.

With that said, a couple of factors make this score release date kind of unpredictable. For starters, the score usually comes out three weeks after the test, not four weeks like this 1/5 date would be. On top of that, December test-takers have always gotten their score sometime in December, and have never had to wait into January. Also, for holiday reasons, the LSAC isn’t even open on 1/1 or 1/2, they have a long weekend due to New Year’s. This could mean that I’ll actually have to wait all the way until the promised date of 1/5…but I’m hoping the more likely scenario is that the score will come out sometime on one of the business days in between Christmas and New Year’s, and they can spare me any further anxious anticipation.

Of course, I could be overanalyzing (which I basically always do) and it might just follow the usual pattern of three days before promised date, coming out on 1/2…but we’ll see. While the score won’t come out in the next week or anything, I’d say stay tuned from 12/26 on, because I think it could basically come out anytime after Christmas.

NFL Week 15 Power Rankings

So, who the heck is going to win this league? The winners of next week’s Giants vs. Panthers and Titans vs. Steelers games have to be considered the favorites, both by showing they can beat their top competitors head-to-head and by securing the all-important #1 seed. As vulnerable as all of the teams look though, I can easily see this being another year where a wildcard steps up to the plate and takes the Super Bowl down.

1. (11-3) NY Giants (1)
Well, they looked like a shoo-in for home field advantage throughout the playoffs, now they’re in a must-win situation to grab that hugely important spot. By default, I’ll call them the best team in the league, simply because I can’t convince myself that the other teams with top records are actually better choices right now. If they lose next week, I’ll drop them at least two spots…at least.

2. (12-2) Tennessee (2)
Cause for alarm? I’m not sure. It’s not good that the Titans are looking their weakest at this time of the year. I’m not a huge believer in momentum, but I do think that negative trends usually have a reason…and if teams are figuring them out now, that’s bad.

3. (11-3) Carolina (4)
They had a perfect home regular season. A win at the Meadowlands next week means that a perfect home playoff season means a trip to the Super Bowl.

4. (11-3) Pittsburgh (3)
Do these guys win any championships legitimately? Gross.

5. (10-4) Indianapolis (5)