2006 NSC

Too much data to blog!

* Forgot my glasses, so could not experience the full brilliance of the tournament room in one panoramic peek.

* Motel six, walked to the tournament and back, shortcut through Wantilan Luau!

* Best record: 9-2; Worst record: 12-14; final record: 14-14

* TSH records on NSA website show me as a "Lucky Stiff" #2 with wins of 3, 6, 9, 12, 19, and 20 for a total of 90, far behind Laura Scheimberg with 3, 3, 4, 7, 10, 16 for a total of 43.

* Spoke to almost everyone I meant to. Two omissions are Keith Nishimi (division 4) and Brian Galebach. (To Do: Look through all the contestants and try to recall what conversation or game I had with each one.)

* Possible Detriments:

- Fatigue factor: time zone may have hurt me; i'm a night person mainly and I had some insomnia.

- Forgot My Medicine: Forgot to take a certain endocrine pill the first morning.

- Competition Factor: All the competition was about as tough as I am.

* Missed the $50 survey (rating too low!); took the Raffle survey (Tuff....) and found it very interesting (it was asking me a lot about my study and preparation for tournaments).

* Thanks for the Ride: Cynthia Seales gave me a ride to the Orlando airport, and Jean McArthur drove me from the Austin airport to home. (Hmm.)

*Deadly Sin: Pride. I occasionally get the feeling that a game is just supposed to be won by me, because I am better at scrabble than my opponent. Then I don't bother to think about the tiles, the score, the endgame, and the words I am playing! Sloth also contributes. Fatigue factor is involved. (Hmm.)

* New Insight of the Week: (from "Management of the Absurd" by Richard Farson, p. 37):

"Feelings Rediscovered: One of the most useful ideas to remember is what we might call the "reciprocity rule" of human behavior: that over time, people come to share, reciprocaly, similar attitudes towards each other ... If I have a low opinion of you, ... eventually you will come to feel about me the way I feel about you. ... If we generally respect our colleagues and employees (and scrabble opponents!) those feelings will be communicated without the need for artifice or technique. And they will be reciprocal."