Monday, April 19, 2004

Black

This lady soldier in Iraq is good read.

I choked something awful last night while eating, talking and drinking at the same time. Two separate conversations, one admonishing my son and the other talking to guests. I did this once in Hawaii in the same circumstances. My wife noticed the pattern and pointed it out to me. "I want you to stop joking," she said, lovingly. Joking is part of who I am, I thought, but I can try... "What?" I said. "I want you to stop joking." "Stop joking?" "No, stop choking." I must have mis-heard her. It was late. She takes good care of me.

I got the volumetric breathing thing up past 5000 mL, which is the highest value it records.

My son is in preschool today. Did a little nailing in the garage. Mostly I use the pneumatic nailer, but I do quite a bit of by-hand hammering as well. For example, when my son wants to come down in the garage, sit on a paint bucket, and watch. He hands me nails when I need them. But I was also hammering just now. The other day when I was hammering I noticed that my right hand got a little strained. So I called it quits. Again today the right hand sort of gave pre-warning signals. I quit. And a sad thought hit me, that some day I may no longer be able to swing a hammer and drive a nail. It's a guy thing. But still, the hammer is perhaps the first human tool (think rock in fist). Frankly, I don't know how anyone is able to squint at a tiny nail head, swing a hammer from two feet out, and hit the head true enough to drive the nail in. But I like to be among those people. A righteous song came on the iPod then, Chumbawumba I think it is, the one where he says "I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down!" I like the spirit. I like it a lot. It inspires me, the youthful bravado. But try getting up again when your motor nerve cells are all dead.

Plenty of sawdust on the garage floor today.

I consider this one of those internet hoaxes. But Wired magazine seems to think it isn't. It soooo close to real that you have to think twice, but the clues are there.

I seem to have better fortunes playing black. It sure does help that there are people on the net who are truly awful, like this guy:



guest842 vs. guest289 --- 2004.04.19 14:08:37
Unrated Blitz match, initial time: 2 minutes, increment: 12 seconds
Move guest842 guest289
---- ---------------- ----------------
1. e4 (0:03) e5 (0:01)
2. a3 (0:02) d5 (0:19)
3. d3 (0:08) dxe4 (0:03)
4. Nf3 (0:13) exd3 (0:02)
5. Nxe5 (0:10) Qe7 (0:17)
6. f4 (0:14) f6 (0:02)
7. Bxd3 (0:16) fxe5 (0:05)
8. Bb5+ (0:08) Bd7 (0:18)
9. Bxd7+ (0:12) Nxd7 (0:02)
10. Bd2 (0:13) O-O-O (0:03)
11. Bb4 (0:10) Qe6 (0:12)
12. Nc3 (0:15) exf4+ (0:04)
13. Ne2 (0:16) Bxb4+ (0:03)
14. axb4 (0:10) Ngf6 (0:17)
15. Qd4 (0:14) Qb6 (0:21)
16. O-O-O (0:17) Qxd4 (0:08)
17. Nxd4 (0:08) Nb6 (0:29)
18. Ne6 (0:22) Rxd1+ (0:05)
19. Rxd1 (0:13) Re8 (0:21)
20. Nxg7 (0:06) Rg8 (0:01)
21. Ne6 (0:23) Rxg2 (0:03)
22. Nxf4 (0:06) Rxh2 (0:03)
23. Re1 (0:09) Nbd7 (0:18)
24. b3 (0:16) c6 (0:01)
25. Re6 (0:09) Nd5 (0:08)
26. Re8+ (0:15) Kc7 (0:06)
27. Ra8 (0:34) Nxf4 (0:11)
28. Rxa7 (0:06) Ne2+ (0:41)
29. Kb2 (0:03) h5 (0:09)
30. Ka3 (0:09) h4 (0:12)
31. c4 (0:11) Nd4 (0:17)
32. Ka4 (0:21) Ra2# (0:13)
{White checkmated} 0-1
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