What happened, what's happening, and uh-oh?

 Last week I was pretty average, but because I built up a cushion in the wild card round my playoff totals should be pretty good. I was 2-2 straight up (5-3 in playoffs) and 3-1 against the spread (7-1) with a 2-2 mark against the over/under (6-2). Overall I'm not 174-83 straight up, 131-128-5 against the spread and 153-106-4 against the over/under. 

 It's nice to be perfect. Well, almost perfect. I was 3-1 straight up (172-81 overall) while going 4-0 against the spread (128-127-5 overall) and 4-0 on the over/under (151-104-4 overall). I don't recall ever going 8-0 versus Vegas in any playoff weekend so that was cool. 

 Ok...so I've manipulated some things, messed up a few others...and now Small.to is participating in the Open Graph.

That means you can login using your Facebook login, instead of registering here.  And some of your FB-familiar actions are now available, here.

If you want to see what I'm talking about, just click "read more" on a story, and see what's at the bottom!

 Well that was fun. I didn't set a new record straight up after going 10-6 last week (169-81 overall) but I beat a lot of the other pickers including all of the ESPN guys (easily). I squeezed out a 9-6-1 showing against the spread (124-127-5 overall) and I can live with almost being even. Now for the good news. I thought mentioning I could set a new record versus the over/under would jinx me so I didn't. I went 8-8 (147-104-4 overall) besting my 2004 mark (141-107-6). For the regular season I was +40 against Vegas, but gambling is for suckers. Only the casinos and bookies win. Let's talk playoffs. 

Some of these are importation opportunities, and others are franchise opportunities, and others are just food-service opportunities...

 The late season blues continue to bite me. I was just 10-6 straight up (159-81 overall). I lost against the spread at 6-9-1 (115-121-4 overall) and the over/under at 7-8-1 (139-96-4 overall). The tough week assured I will not set a new mark picking winners since I had 175 in 2009 and even my first-ever perfect 16-0 would only tie. I need to navigate motivation to work the spread as I try to get back to .500 where I usually find myself each year give or take. 

Every once in a while, I get a burr in my britches, a story I feel I need to write.  When this happens, it usually is followed by more.  And then I’ve got several stories queued up.  Of course, when this happens, I’m faced with a choice:

1)      Wait until I have time to write the story the way I want

2)      Don’t deprive you of the story, write it stream-of-consciousness, and trust you to appreciate the story despite the writing

I’ve done #1, up until now.  But after sitting on a story since September 12th, I’m going to go with #2.

It just figures I would fall flat on my face straight up (6-10, 149-75 overall) right when I was starting to think I might set a new season best in that area. Oh well, I was 8-8 against the spread for the second straight week (109-112-3 overall) so still chasing .500 there. I went 10-6 on the over/under (132-88-3 overall). 

 There is good news and there is bad news. I ripped it straight up at 13-3 (143-65 overall) which puts me ahead of all the ESPN pickers, but still behind some others I am still hunting down. More good news was my 11-4-1 mark against the spread (101-104-3 overall) and I sorely needed it because the final few weeks are tough to predict with so many variables like injuries, lack of motivation and resting starters. I fell flat on the over/under so I guess I lied it's not really bad news so much as disappointing. I went 8-8 (122-82-3 overall) so at present I am +37 against Vegas. Not too shabby huh?