Wildcard round

Hello all (or "both" or "you", as the case may be), this is my first uscl blog post since last season. I seeded myself directly into the postseason last year, and that seemed to work out, so I am doing it again. If further excuse is needed, I have been (sic)working(/sic) at the NY Knights matches this year (providing warm body service), and I didn't want to create a possible conflict of interest.

A word from our sponsors: pen for these jumbles provided by Papermate, napkins by Chalet.

I am writing this on Tuesday night and hope to have it up in time for Wednesday's matches. If not, don't say you heard it here first. I have in fact complete the jumbles and just need to upload them somewhere.

Seattle vs. New Jersey:

San Francisco vs. Connecticut:

This has nothing to do with chess or the league, but just to motivate myself, I want to say here that I pledge to have a rough draft of my twelve-minute playlet, tentatively titled "The Last Horseshoe Repairman on the Lower East Side", ready by the time I go to bed on Wednesday. I have in the past disdained this form of self-motivation, feeling that if one wishes to do something, one should and can simply do it without any such silliness. But at some point in one's life, one must face reality and realize that one is incapable of being self-motivated and must therefore use artificial means or just continue to get old and die and fail to enrich the world as one might have.

Wednesday update: It looks improbable that I will be able to upload these jumbles today, so I guess I'll just put down my picks while hoping a method eventually presents itself--New Jersey and San Francisco. I also hope the napkins stay more or less intact meantime.

Later Wednesday update: I got one up but not the other, either because I stuck it into a different bag yesterday or because I forgot it wasn't just a used napkin like any other. Anyway, I will have it or a replacement up eventually, probably next week.

The following Tuesday night update: I found the other napkin (it was in my bag after all, but hidden between pages of a notebook. Not the notebook I lost; the other one. Also, not a notebook computer). Also, I didn't have that rough draft ready after all, but I did figure out the dramatic climax, which is better than my average daily progress.