William M

The most disheartening thing about America’s descent into fascism has been the abject cowardice of virtually all the people and institutions that could have stood up and refused to comply.

*now* I finally manage that 3:30 deck... making progress despite everything... despite being bottom 5 of this year's entrants...

Still don’t expect to come close to qualifying but these are scores that would have at least made me an alternate last year… and easily top-5 if my best events were back!

And with 80/80 in 3:16.92 in numbers and 40/40 words in 5 minutes… all my trials in this two day mock were where I want them to be (though I wouldn’t say no to having my numbers be a few seconds quicker)!

Original plan was snack first, memory trials later… but with all the rain I’ll do the second half of my mock qualifier now - starting with numbers and then words!

Took a guess in most trials but I hit my goal in all four! Cards 3:55.05, images 1:51.13 and 1:25.71, names 4:56.88 without a single miss

Nelson wants us all to do a mock qualifier over the weekend; to accommodate my own health I’m dividing it in two. Today I will try: CARDS (targeting 4:00), IMAGES (two trials - targeting under 2:00 then targeting 1:30) and NAMES (targeting ~4.48).

signs of 2025: my anti fungal meds which I start today and take for 3 months say… no sunlight while on it (right as summer begins)! At least I can hopefully squeeze in a beach day or two between 90 days from today and the end of summer…

Going to regret this memory trial (I got another medication change - but maybe not the one I need?)

Memory trials today (3/4 done so far):
5 min words - 40/40 better than I've done in a long time
2 min words - 14/20 disaster
5 min names - 30/30 in 4:38.21
1 min words - to try soon...

7 level pain again :-(
at least my GI doc has a shot at being in to read what I posted 2 days after his last med tweak?

Stomach cramps, gas, everything...

only been 41 for two weeks and it’s pretty much all been in some of the worse pain that I’ve experienced thus far #fml

Just when I thought things were getting better… more pain of the same type greets me today

that feeling when you think your pain might be slightly improving, you go to sleep and then… seven hours later… stomach pain wakes you up

Comfortably cleared at 3:07.74 - three more trials to go for the day though

Gonna regret this but worth a shot… starting my day’s memory assignment despite pretty bad pain - can I do 80 digits in 3:00-3:20?

when your meds are approved, but your other meds have yet to be adjusted and you feel sicker

when your computer arrives but you haven’t the spoons to open it

at least I finally had a numbers success at 3:30.31? Ignore that this time last year I was hitting 3:15s…

1-2 days into my medication swap and... nothing changes so far, the chest pain as a warning becomes clearer but why would I want that?

Another day interspersed with too many memory assignments; first I’ll try for 38 words… this time *without* auditory distraction that sunk me last time.

Final assignment of the day is words - hard because my independent project is also words (top 50 11 letter words now that I have the 12s)

can I do 38 in 5:00 like last time? *IS* it my peak?

unusually hard set: the majority of the names weren't on the top-100 lists, we had Debra/Debbie, James/Jim (plus Jean and Justin) along with Celeste, Claire, Christine, Connie, and Carmen! But still got 30/30 in 4:32.19...

today Nelson wants me to do 5 trials which I'm cutting down to four. First up: names - where I've been doing pretty well. Last time I broke 4:40; this time I'll try for about the same!

maybe it's headaches from my new meds... blocking my ability to get the full 80 digits - yet I got 30/30 names in just a little over 4:30 without issue last night! And my images and words trials are solid too... though I haven't done 5 min words since the med switch

Others in my cohort: try a stretch goal, fail, and then their normal timing feels easy and they start setting new PRs

Me: tries a stretch goal, fails, and struggles to manage to do anything even close to my normal timing after

feeling like this is exactly what happened to me this time last year at this event (except last year I was still hitting 3:15s until June and only then did I slip to the 4:00 level)... blanked on the object in locus 11 and AO in locus 12 for 74/80 in 3:06.47

yesterday's trials were all pretty good; Nelson wants me to begin today by choosing cards or numbers - going for numbers as I got greedy and stumbled my last few 2:40-2:50ish trials... this time I'm going for 3:00-3:20!

not a good run; blanked on the first 5 loci for much of recall and missed ten cards

Time for more cards; can I get closer to 3:30 this time?

Computer and health struggles along with yesterday being bad number trials… but my Viberzi came… and I just had my second straight cards success under 3:45! (3:42.92 - only needed to backtrack on Mr Reid judging with a rope)

Went for 2:50 like my last success, stopped the clock on 2:49.46 and… realized I had completely blanked on the final person (Jackie Robinson); when I recovered him… still blanked on the SHIN being rolled in locus 4 for 78/80