Observation:
I was watching the NBA the other day during one of my sleepy stupor episodes. It happened to be a Spurs game, and as I watched the team with the best win/loss record for the regular season lose to the Memphis Grizzlies for a third time, something occurred to me. The Spurs are a good, consistent team. They've kind of always have been. They're known for putting up good results with their veteran lines, and doing so day in and day out. But the playoffs are another animal. When it comes to the big stage, there is a thing people like to talk about called shifting gears. This gets used all the time when announcers talk about individuals (especially in tennis, which I follow more closely than basketball). They'll say something like "things were going well until Roger Federer found another gear, and the other guy just didn't have a response." It seems like the Spurs are just always playing in a high gear. Which makes sense; they are old. They know how to play well on a day to day basis, and they know what it takes to win. But they don't have another gear to go to for the post season. The Grizzlies are a young team with tons of energy, and yeah, they'll lose to the Spurs when they can't find that gear. But they have it, and that's been the difference so far. They get pumped up and once they got rolling in game four, it was over. They blew the Spurs out. And it was fun to watch because I don't like the Spurs. This also highlights why it's getting to be depressing watching Federer. I keep waiting for that gear to kick in. But like the Spurs, he's getting old. He'll still consistently be in the final rounds of tournaments, but it seems like that gear is slipping beyond his reach.

Me:
You get half a post while I write my paper for tomorrow. Sorry about that.
I got on my bike the other day and put my headphones on to listen to some music, as I usually do. What I don't usually do is start pedaling without making sure I know where my headphone cord is. It took no time at all for the cord to be shredded by the chain of my bike, and now I am out my second pair of nice-ish headphones in as many months. But, as usual, this just inspired me to upgrade. My iPod got stolen so I got an iPhone. I broke my headphones, so I opened up some better headphones. Because nothing says "I'm responsible enough to have this" like having just destroyed it.
And now back to my paper.