Wednesday, October 5, 2011

LSAT, the wacky NFL, and the MLB Playoffs


Today is cold and rainy, and I’m one of those few psychopaths who actually enjoy this kind of weather. I get nostalgic for some reason; it could be because I always look forward to Thanksgiving and the holiday season. It really is my favorite time of the year.
I decided a few weeks ago that I would take a chance with my life and apply to law school. Let me make one thing clear, here: it’s not something I’m pursuing on a whim. I’m not going about preparing for it willy-nilly, either. I’m going at it full-force. It’s certainly very late in the application cycle to get started on something so big, but I can guarantee I’m putting my all into it.
In fact, I think I may have overdone it these first few weeks. At first, I could get through whatever material I had in front of me without much of an issue. But now, I can’t get through half a page without dozing off. So as a result, I think it would be prudent to adjust my schedule a little bit and take a couple of breaks during the day. I’m far enough along in the material that I can be a little more relaxed about it.
I wonder if it’s true that all lawyers go to hell.
Meanwhile, I’m balancing a couple of community college classes to help keep my mind fresh. They’re a little easy, but it’s still nothing to sneeze at. College is college, after all.
Now that I’ve got all that boring crap out of the way, I can move on to what really matters – my poor, pitiful Pittsburgh Steelers.
The last thing you want to do is count out a team, no matter how bad they look. But right now, it’s not looking good for Pittsburgh. The offensive line is in shambles; as a result, both the running game and Ben Roethlisberger have taken a sizeable beating. And with the offense unable to really sustain any drives, the defense is getting gassed a lot more quickly.
Let’s get one thing right, though. The Steelers looked helpless when defending against the run on Sunday. The Texans’ offensive line is nothing to sneeze at, and Arian Foster is an absolute monster. The obvious explanation is that the Texans are simply the better team. I’m sure I’ll have a hard time finding anyone who would argue otherwise.
With the Steelers banged up and terrible, I initially anticipated I wouldn’t really enjoy the NFL all that much this year. But 2011 really has proven to be one of the more unpredictable and exciting years in recent memory.
Yes, there are those teams we expected to do well – the Green Bays, the New Englands and others – that have failed to surprise us. But for the most part, the league is in a state of chaos. Buffalo is at a shocking 3-1, Detroit is undefeated through four weeks, and the Eagles, whom many trumpeted as the preseason NFC champion, are at a shocking 1-3.
It’s years like these that let me focus more on the league as a whole instead of only the Steelers and those few non-Steeler players on my fantasy teams. And really, I emerge from these kinds of seasons for the better, either by learning a little more about the league as a whole or not getting so upset over my favorite team’s performance (or lack thereof).
Should the Steelers find a way to pick things up, I’d be all for it. But until then, I’ll sit back and enjoy the three-ring circus that is the 2011 NFL season. I can’t wait to see how messed up the playoffs will look.
Baseball, for now at least, is pretty much dead to me. The Angels once again had a tremendously disappointing season, culminating in the long-overdue resignation of GM Tony Reagins and his cronies. But never mind them – I’ve had plenty of time to get over that.
The main reason I can’t really follow the MLB playoffs too closely is that there are very few moments I can conceive that would surpass the last day of the regular season. Time and time again, I look back on that day and shake my head in disbelief. What occurred on that day was something you’d only expect to see at the end of some sappy Disney movie.
I’m not going to go through it all here – I had a much better take on it here. But I can’t possibly imagine any moment involving these seven remaining clubs that would be somehow more memorable than the combined collapses of Boston and Atlanta last Wednesday. I wouldn’t mind seeing Texas or the Yankees go out in heartbreaking fashion. I know I'm not in the minority there.
Big day tomorrow. I scheduled a self-administered practice LSAT in the morning, so we’ll see how that turns out. It will be the first of many.