Matt Holthe's Fleeting Thoughts

A couple weeks ago I posted that I was in third place in the ESPN college football pool. Then I had a terrible week and dropped to 30th place. (Still on the first page of the leader board, though). Last week I did a little better and moved up to 21st place. Although I'm still mad at Wisconsin. They took the lead over Ohio St with just over a minute remaining and then let them get a long kickoff return and allowed the Buckeyes to march down the field and get a touchdown with 20 seconds to go. Cost me 9 points. If I had one that game, I would have moved up quite a bit. (I don't know exactly what place I would have been in - a lot of other people had Wisconsin, too).

The vacation year for me ends December 31. So I have to finish taking all my vacation for the year. Between that and the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas), I just figured out that I'll be working 14 out of 30 days in November and 15 out of 31 days in December. Less than half of each month. And I have a lot of stuff to do. I have a feeling there will be a difference between official work days and actual work days.

Three weeks worth of a lot of segments and hotels. I'm now down to needing 10 segments on American to get my Platinum status for 2012 (which I should be able to do in the last 2 months) and needing 5 different Hilton hotels to maintain my Hilton Diamond status for 2012 (which will be more difficult, but I think I can do it). Don't like being this close to the limits at the end of the year - I would rather make it by a little bit than end up right on the number.

I have periodically gave updates on my travel. As of the end of the second quarter of the year, I was well on pace to maintain my AA Platinum and Hilton Diamond statuses ( 2011 Second Quarter Travel Update ). But then travel came to an abrupt halt and I had no Airplane Trips For Two Months . Things are picking up a bit, but I'm still going to need to work the system in order to maintain my status. But it looks like I'll make it, just barely, though. If all goes as planned over the next 10 weeks, I'll end up with exactly 60 AA segments (just enough for Platinum for 2012) and exactly 28 Hilton stays (just enough for Diamond for 2012). Hopefully none of my trips get canceled - I don't have any leeway with my scheduling right now.

Last week I talked about the ESPN College Pick 'Em game and mentioned that my goal was to get on the first page of the leader board. I think I need to update my goals... Right now I'm tied for third place: I am the "Eat My Dust" entry in the image above. I'm one of 6 people tied for third, two points behind the overall leader. Nice!

I heard on the radio yesterday... If you had bet the favorites so far this year in games involving at least one top 10 team in college football, you would have won 77% of your bets. Wow.

I have been playing the ESPN College Pick 'em. You pick 10 games each week and assign confidence points (1 through 10) to each game. There are 55 potential points each week. Week 1 I got 53 points (9-1). Week 2 I got 48 points (8-2). Week 3 I got 50 points (8-2). Week 4 I got 52 points (9-1). Week 5 was a bad week - 32 points (6-4, losing my 10 point game). Last week was week 6 - a perfect 55 points. After 6 weeks I have 290 points, which ranks me 53rd in the nation. I don't know how many people are playing in nationwide, but it's probably several hundred thousand. There's a leader board that shows (right now), everyone through 291 points (the top 52 people). My goal is to see my name on that leader board - I just need to move up slightly next week to be on there.