Good thing: one stop commute to work this morning, got in at 8:45am! Bad thing: parking in Brooklyn Heights sucks as bad as anywhere else. Ended up in a corner spot, crossing my fingers that we don't get another ticket!

Tonight's Urbana semi-finals has the potential to affect our Finals. If Shappy or Dawn win tonight, they're in Urbana's Finals next Thursday. Dawn's already in our Finals and most people would bet Shappy will be in the top three next Monday and also end up in our Finals. Shawn Randall is already qualified for both of our Finals, too. While I love cross-polination during the season, I hate it at this point. That's potentially one-third of our Finalists going out for both teams. (Pretty sure we don't have any cross-over with the Nuyorican this year.) If any one or more of them make the Urbana team, they have a decision to make. Accept the Urbana slot and drop out of our Finals or, stay in our Finals, making the commitment to accept the slot should they make our team. I'm apparently the most hard-line of the three venues on this issue. Should anyone drop out - (MATH ALERT!) - the fourth place semi-finalist with the smallest differential from third place would get the slot in Finals. Right now, that would be Mara, who was 0.8 behind Lynne this past Monday. Our last semi could be even tighter, though, so even that's up in the air.

This is the time of the year when the competition and community development start to bump heads. Had an interesting conversation last night with Omar and Ed about it all. With the possibility of this being our last year of sending a team to Nationals, I would like nothing more than to take a brand new team to Chicago. Over the past couple of years, I've tried to install a "term limits" rule to our slam, mandating a year off after two consecutive years on the team. Not surprisingly, most of the people that have been on the team before don't like the idea while those that haven't made it yet do. I think it's important to separate the competition from the invaluable experience Nationals offers. One of the early arguments against a new team was the chance we wouldn't do well. Last year's team shot that notion to hell, though. If anything, I think the more Nationals experience on a team, the more likely there will be problems with it. Personally, I'd rather get blown out with a team of first-timers than win it all with a group of veterans.

Karen Rockower's playing at Arlene's Grocery tonight. Tempted to catch that instead of the slam. Maybe I'll swing both? Play it by ear, I think.

Starting to work on my first two advertorial columns today: Fixed Income Funds and Technology & The Internet. Should be interesting. Gotta figure out how to put a subtle socially responsible spin on things. Some people say I don't know the meaning of the word subtle, though. We'll see.

:-)

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