Now I'm more nervous

Confident that I couldn't watch the game in suzhou, and believing that I didn't have the mental strength to wait until 4 to watch a crappy feed from a sling box that may or may not have worked. I went to Shanghai last night instead, woke up at 5 in the morning and watched the game live at a bar. The football gods no doubt were pleased as the Steelers won pretty easily, for the moment i'm at ease with thoughts of being one win away from the big show. I will wait for tomorrow to freak out about the ravens.

I'm nervous

During the regular season I am the epitomy of resolve often reminding my friend Anthony that there is time in the game for the Steelers to come back, while he is pacing around his house worried. I have come to realize this fear is not about the steelers but about the money he is or isn't winning gambling.
But during the playoffs something happens.
in 2005 i drank 5 beers in the 15 minutes where cbs game announcers tell you about the game and the actual kickoff. I didn't know what to do with myself, it was the only thing that could calm me down. ANd I knew we were going to beat the bungles, even in the playoffs they are still the bungles. the playoffs magnify ever little thing, something like a missed tackle, a missed fg, or a blocked punt might cost a game in the regular season but it costs the year in the postseason. I know that For me the postseason starts Sunday, or Monday morning here if I can even watch it

I am legitimately worried about my steelers chances this weekend. A few things scare me

I might not be able to watch...apparently ESPN in china would prefer to show things like cricket and F1, and the game is going to be on at 4 in the morning so I need a bar to stay open that late even if they do show it. I found a bar here that streams the games from a sling box, but the last time i did that (for the lers vs. Titans) it started with 1:40 left in the game, a bit anticlimatic. It may seem like a small thing , but it is hard to not go to websites that would tell me the score especially when that is most of what I do every other day. Today the manager told me that the sling box hasn't even been working.
I'm looking into sattelite for PC. These are the moments that make me wish I was back in the US.

1. The lers are not good at home in the playoffs, and especially not to the Chargers. I'd rather not reopen old wounds, but lets just say we don't have the greatest track record at a place where we should have a distinct advantage. If the field is as bad as people say it is shouldn't the team that plays on it 8 times a year be better on it than the one that plays on it once maybe twice. and I know from experience it gets loud in that place so there should be a home field advantage. I wish I knew the answer because than I could stop it.

2. Are D has been keeping us in games all year, but as the Post Gazette's Gene Collier pointed out, even if they continue this trend, because they are hard. it is usually not the D that has cost us games in the post season

3. Any thing can happen in the playoffs (see. Immaculate Reception, The Tackle, THe Patriots cheating) and something will greatly affect the game that no pundit spent a breath on in the week they have had to discuss it.


4. The chargers are hot..they are finally playing like the team everyone expected them to be at the begginning of the season. a little reminiscent of a scrappy Steelers squad that stormed to the Lombardi Trophy in 2005

5. giving 6 points is alot...I don't mention this to condone gambling, but to say that the difference between professional athletes is so miniscule. It really comes down to how much they want it, and for some reason these athletes can turn perceived slights, real or imagined, into the extra push that makes them run just a bit faster, or hit a bit harder. You never hear anyone say everyone believed in us, so we just went out there and proved them right. I think that is one of the amazing things about coaching and just the athletic psyche in general, that the best athletes in the world can be convinced that that they are not good enough and twist anything around until it becomes motivation.

5a. Anthony is probably going to take the Chargers, and then lie that he didn't bet against the Steelers. This can not be good.

5. Ben typically does not play well after concussion
5a. We've struggled to establish the run (that being a positive review of our running game this season)
I could see a lot of throwing.

But its not all bad


Reasons why I feel good about the Steelers

1. we get that "nobody believed in us" thing too, because a lot of people seem to be backing a Chargers team they saw play last week. But if we win we will have to say "No one believed in us except Vegas, the people in this locker room, and merril hoge" (I don't know Merrill's pick, but in his entire broadcasting career I've never seen him not pick the Steelers) There reasoning seem to be for things like Darren Sproles (when is the last time a running back beat this D) and a kicker ( I hope they are punting all day, let them be good punts too, because that means they aren't scoring either)

2. The field- it is hard to kick in Heinz Field but Skippy Reed does it better than anyone, visiting kickers not so much.

3. Aaron Smith- the lynchpin and the guy that wasn't there last year when are top ranked run d couldn't stop anyone the last 5 weeks. coincidence? Also anytime I can work aaron smith into a column, everyone wins.

4. Mike Tomlin-Obama's christmas wish was to be as cool as Mike Tomlin.

5. I'll still take Big Ben over Philip Rivers -kiss the ring.

6. We have a silverback gorilla that plays outside linebacker, I don't even think 4 inches of snow can contain that.

2009: A Space Odyssey

I get this message from my computer when it can't send an email.

Hi. This is the smtp delivery program.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.


I realize we live in a world where computers are designed to sound more and more like Humans to make me feel more comfortable, and maybe when we are living in the world of AI I will feel more comfortable with this, but at the moment the message makes me feel like its HAL from 2001, and is just plotting my destruction.

Why is it speaking in the first person? it's a computer. and apologizing too? why does it expressing feelings?

Any day now I feel like I am going to ask it to do a task and it is going to say "Sorry 李岩 but I can't let you do that"

Wear that Crown

For the first time in history the #1 ranking and PITT men's basketball have joined forces. In the Big East it is only a matter of time until they are upset, but it is indeed an exciting occasion for myself and fellow fans of the program.

It is amazing to me how far Pitt has come in the last decade from a middle of the road Big East squad to one of the best teams in the country.

A thank you to Ben Howland for changing the culture of the program and Jamie Dixon for continuing its ascension into the ranks of the elite.

Now maybe we can finally get past the Sweet 16 and genuinely move into that upper ethelon

It's been a long time...

I should have never left you/ without a strong blog to step to.*

Its been a long few months where I've got a new job, went home for thanksgiving, returned to Shanghai, moved to Suzhou, all the while thinking of great posts to write and then losing the inspiration, or procrastinating and then the time when they would be relevant past. How that is different than the rest of my blog is debateable. But my new years resolution was to blog more, and I'm already 5 days late, so we'll see how long it lasts.

*Thank you to all the rappers who have used a variation of that line over the years, pushing the forum into mainstream white america so I only feel mildly embarrassed to have wrote it. **

** I promise not to use hip hop lyrics again until I translate Juicy into Chinese.