Anything else?

So what else is supposed to release this year? Is there anything on the horizon for the next 30 days that deserves attention? Not that I'm getting anything else, I still have some games I haven't touched due to Skyrim. And I have some others I've barely touched due to indifference (Saints Row 3) and mediocre gameplay married to the worst career mode ever with non-functional community servers (WWE 12). Then there's the games that are out but I'm just going to have to pick up used down the line, like the new AC.

Speaking of Skyrim, I think I need a break. I've had my share of bugs already (forcing me to ditch a character I'd invested over 100 hours in) but this "patch" seems to have created a new set of problems for me, and tbh I just can't take it anymore. I'll dust off some of these other titles and get back to Skyrim once the bulk of its been fixed. We all knew going in there would be some issues, but Bethesda needs to do a better job communicating their awareness of the issues we're experiencing as well as communicating what they're working on. Plus releasing a patch that doesn't make things worse would help a lot.

My son had a dual meet the other day, and as it turns out he had a forfeit scheduled at 220. Thats one problem (one of many heh) with him living in such a small area, there's not a lot of involvement in wrestling and as such he gets a lot of forfeits. He's probably had more matches in the last 2 summer camps than he has the last 2 full seasons he's wrestled, and thats not good. In the town he lives in there's no youth wrestling, so a lot of these kids are stepping on a mat for the first time in high school. Wrestling is a difficult sport, and when you are stepping on the mat against someone who has 10 years + under their belts its not going to end well, and a lot of my son's teammates are seeing this firsthand. They've gone from 35 kids in their program at the beginning of November to 24 as of last weekend. But the kids who are sticking it out are trying hard, and thats all you can expect of them.

Now about that forfeit of his...they didn't have a heavyweight on my son's team, so they were giving up the forfeit there. My son's coach approached the other coach and suggested that their heavy wrestle my son in a JV (exhibition) type match, just so the kids could get a match in. They refused, saying that if my son wanted to wrestle he'd have to bump up to varsity heavyweight or no dice. Now, my son had been sick for the past few days and was down to 203. Their heavyweight weighed in at 234. Thats some bullshit there, only offering a match under the conditions of an extreme disadvantage. But my son thought it over and said sure, let's do it. He was fired up over this and wanted to get a match in. But as it turns out, apparently one of my son's coaches heard another kid on the other team tell their heavyweight not to wrestle my son cause he'd lose. So they backed out of it entirely and my son just accepted his forfeit at 220 with no match to be had.

That is not the nature of this sport, but sadly I think its inline with the mentality down there. In most cases (and even back when I wrestled and before) you have guys jumping weight classes all the time to get a piece of somebody, just to prove they're better. There was no cowering behind weight restrictions and then backing out because you might lose. Thats not how this sport works, too bad that kind of mentality is seemingly encouraged there.

He has a triangle tonight (3 teams, round robin) and had texted me that one of the teams didn't have a 220 so his coach submitted the lineup with my son at heavy against that team, no discussions and no chances to back out. The other team has a 220 so he's going to get 2 matches in tonight for sure. He's feeling better now and is back up to 207, he says the heavy on the other team only weighs 227.

And my son just texted me saying he pinned the other team's heavyweight in 20 seconds. Maybe that kid from the other night had the right idea. :) Hope he does as well in his next match!