Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Luck, or something like it

So how do you know it's going to be a bad week?  Let me count the ways:

1.  You lose you're wallet on the weekend, it's shortly before the holiday, and you haven't done your shopping yet.  (thankfully, yes, it's been found!)
2.  You go bowling and as you walk to your locker to get your equipment you slip.  Thankfully you don't fall, but get a little extra stretch you weren't prepared for.
3.  You go to bowl your first frame, slip, and end up sliding a bit down the lane on your knees.  Of course, you bowl a strike!  But since you went over the line, it's a foul.
4.  It's only Monday!

I hope you're week is filled with nothing but the best of luck and joy!

Ed.

Friday, December 14, 2007

And so it goes

It's amazing how time passes by.  I was hoping to leave work a little early today.  Didn't happen.  So a bit late as usual.  I stopped at my mother's after work, then slowly made my way home.  On my way I sent Kip an SMS to see how it was going.  What did he want to know?  What's for dinner of course!

So I was telling him that I just left my mothers, was now going to CVS, then hitting McDonald's, and finally going home to play some WOW!  What did I actually SMS?  It went like this:  "Just left in's now CBS next MVD's then wow".

Huh? :)

Exactly!

The wonders of modern technology.  Speaking of WOW, I've been playing a little less lately.  And when I do, I find that I get annoyed much easier.  It's not a good sign.  But the good news is I've been playing a little more chess again.  Oh, and if you didn't know:

Gata Kamsky is freaking amazing!!!

I could tell you more, but you'd probably just say... Huh? :)

When I got home tonight I was going to work on my Priest.  I still want to get him to 70 before Christmas.  Not very likely at this rate.  Tonight I was asked to do a Heroic Instance on my warrior.  4 hours later we finish.  In case you were wondering, it was Heroic Underbog.  At least we finished it!

So it appears I'm about to do the unthinkable.  Stay up all night.  I was just invited to do Karazhan.  I love that place!  

Hmm... it's 4am.  Going to get a few hours of sleep now.  I need to meet my mother at staples for 10am.

Sorry for all the random thoughts.  Have a good weekend!

Ed.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

How to pick up girls

I could say... why didn't I ever think of that? But instead I think I'll just throw up. Now, for your enjoyment, here's an excerpt:

We kept walking toward the car. "Dad," he said, did you know that Alex put a BOOGER between his TOES to attract the girls?"There was a dramatic pause."And it WORKED!" he shouted.

Thank you to Bill Harris at dubiousquality. You've made my day!

Ed.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Perfect Stranger

I watched Perfect Stranger with Halle Berry and Bruce Willis last night. Overall I didn't like it very much. But I got bored staring at my computer playing WOW. All I was doing was standing in the middle of Stormwind City. That's it. Just standing. Finally I decided that it wasn't so much fun. Turns out it would have been more fun than watching that movie.

Enjoy your Thursday - final update on the tournament still coming...

Ed.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Blades of Glory

More to come soon on the tournament, but I just wanted to say that I watches Blades of Glory the other day. If you haven't seen it, you'll probably either love it or hate it. I thought it was funny in a completely stupid sort of way. Which is probably why I liked it.

Time to get to work...

Ed.

Saturday - Rounds 1 and 2

The first day is quickly coming to a close, and I’m starting to get a headache. Because of the games I find it difficult to eat at normal times. Eric and I went out to the Macaroni Grill this afternoon after our first game. I had a Chicken Caesar Salad and some water. It was actually quite good, though it did have a bit of an aftertaste. What doesn’t? Hmm… Unfortunately the tables had a paper tablecloth on them. While eating I proceeded to give myself 3 paper cuts on my hands. I am not so pleased about that.

Eric was going to drive back and forth from Vermont if he couldn’t find anyone to room with. So, guess what? He’s playing in the Under 1600 section and doing very well. So far he has 2 wins after 2 rounds. As for me, well, I wish I could say I was doing so well.

I’ve been having a few problems. The biggest problem is that I’m moving a little too fast. The other is that I feel very stressed. I can’t get work out of my head. There’s just too much to do. I brought some work with me but I haven’t started any of it yet. So I also feel a bit guilty about that. The final issue, or at least the final issue that I’ll talk about, is that I feel I’m playing a bit too passively. I did a little better in the second game, but overall I’m holding back a bit too much.

Ok, on to my games!

[Event "2007 New York State Championship"]
[Site "Albany, NY (Mariott)"]
[Date "2007.09.01"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Kordsmeier, Nolan"]
[Black "Borowski, Edwin"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "D13"]
[WhiteElo "1802"]
[BlackElo "1953"]
[Annotator ""]
[Source ""]
[Remark ""]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Nc3 Nf6 6.Bf4 Qb6 7.Rc1
Bg4 8.Ne5 Nxe5 9.dxe5 Ne4 10.Nxe4 dxe4 11.Qa4+ Bd7 12.Qxe4 Bc6
13.Qc2 Qa5+ 14.Qc3 Qxa2 15.e4 Qa4 16.f3 e6 17.Bd2 Rd8 18.Qc4
Qxc4 19.Bxc4 Be7 20.Ke2 Rxd2+ 21.Kxd2 Bg5+ 22.Kc3 Bxc1 23.Rxc1
Ke7 24.Rd1 Rd8 25.Rxd8 Kxd8 26.Kd4 Kc7 27.g3 Kb6 28.f4 Bd7 29.f5
g5 30.h3 Kc6 31.h4 gxh4 32.gxh4 b6 33.f6 b5 34.Be2 a5 35.Bh5
Be8 36.Be2 a4 37.Bd1 Kb6 38.b4 axb3 39.Bxb3 Bd7 40.Bd1 Be8 41.Bb3
Kc6 42.Bd1 Kb6 43.Bb3 Bd7 {Draw Agreed.} 1/2-1/2

[Event "2007 New York State Championship"]
[Site "Albany, NY (Mariott)"]
[Date "2007.09.01"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Borowski, Edwin"]
[Black "Marcus, Neil"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A47"]
[WhiteElo "1953"]
[BlackElo "1845"]
[Annotator ""]
[Source ""]
[Remark ""]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 b6 4.e3 Bb7 5.Bd3 g6 6.Nbd2 Bg7 7.c3
d6 8.Qc2 Nbd7 9.e4 Nh5 10.Bg3 Nxg3 11.hxg3 Qe7 12.Nb3 O-O-O 13.Qe2
Nb8 14.a4 a6 15.Nbd2 Rde8 16.b4 f5 17.e5 d5 18.Nb3 Qd7 19.a5
b5 20.Nc5 Qc6 21.Nd2 h6 22.O-O-O Nd7 23.Ndb3 Nxc5 24.dxc5 Qd7
25.Nd4 c6 26.f4 h5 27.Rh2 Kb8 28.Rdh1 Bh6 29.Kb2 Ref8 30.Qf2
Rh7 31.Qc2 Rfh8 32.Qf2 Kc7 33.Rh3 Qf7 34.Be2 Bc8 35.Bd1 {Draw Agreed.}
1/2-1/2

After the game Neil and I went into the skittles room to take a look at it. Nothing definitive came out of that, but it was fun to look at other possible variations. After looking over it for a few with the computer I’ll hold to my initial assessments – I’m still playing a bit too passively.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

2007 New York State Championship: The Beginning

The first round starts in about 20 minutes! I'm hoping things slow down a bit for me soon, but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen. My mind is racing. I'm hoping once I start playing I'm able to detach at least for the game. Since Larry had to back out at the last minute, this adventure is mine and mine alone!

The ride took a little over 2 hours, and I got here around 9:30pm last night. The stupid GPS kept falling off my windshield, so I was starting to flip out a little bit as I'd get close to the exits I needed. I didn't take directions because I had it with me. Luckily, it worked out ok - and the GPS is very cool. I just have to learn to do a better job attaching it. From there I checked in, signed up for the tournament, bought a new clock and board, then finally headed back to the room and ordered room service. It was 10:30 by then. I've been wanting a new "roll-up" board and digital clock for a long time now, so it was good to finally buy it. Unfortunately I really had no choice. I somehow lost my chess clock over the last few weeks. I also lost my nice wooden set. I still have my wooden board, but the set disappeared. I must have forgotten it somewhere.

My Internet access runs out at noon. It's basically $10 for every 24 hours. Noon to Noon. I'll get it at least once more, but that may be it depending on how busy it gets. So I'll at least have another update out here with some status. I feel OK with how I've been playing the last week or so, so it'll be good to see how that translates to the tournament. It's definitely a different atmosphere, and everyone always seems to be at their best. Well, almost everyone!

I have a picture of my new board/clock that I'm hoping to put up later. Other than that, we'll see how it goes.

Hope you're all having a great start to the weekend!

Ed.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Strikes and spares and I don't care!

As much as I love to bowl, I hate bowling poorly. Knowing that I used to be good at it, it's always tough at the start of the season. I didn't bowl at all since last May when the season ended, and I felt it. Man that ball felt heavy! I ended last season with something around a 180'ish average. Not great knowing that I used to be in the low 190's, but still not terrible. Plus, if I would have just stopped being lazy and gotten myself a spare ball, it would have been better.

The problem is... I'm still lazy! Having said that, I almost didn't go tonight. I got home from work and I was so wiped out I couldn't focus. I laid down for a few minutes, and woke up just in time to leave. I had to force myself to go. It was difficult to even walk around. Luckily, it did get better. I have to get to bed soon here, I don't want to be like this again tomorrow.

So, how did I do:

Game 1: 111 (ouch!)
Game 2: 165 (better)
Game 3: 171 (best)

and I have no idea how to bowl again! About half way through the second game Pat looked at me and said, "Here's what you've got to do...". After that, it got better. It's always the basics that I seem to forget. The biggest thing was that I was turning my wrist instead of lifting the ball and letting it do the work. Once I changed that I was more consistent.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to finally get some positions up from the weekends tournament. And this coming weekend should be another trip report. If I have Internet at the hotel I'll be posting as I go, otherwise the update will be on Tuesday when I'm back home.

I hope you had a great Monday!

Ed.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Wild Hogs

My mother came over today to show me how to make pizza and to watch a movie. Her real reason was that she wanted to play Wii Sports, but hey, I'm not the one living the lie! The pizza was easier than I expected. Will I do it myself? That is the question!

Wild Hogs - awsome! I've heard it had mixed reviews, but it was great to watch. I enjoyed it.

Tomorrow night the bowling league starts up again. I knew that I wasn't sure I wanted to bowl this year. I still have this WOW thing in my head. But I decided to anyway. I figured if I could say yes, that meant my addition to WOW isn't as bad as I sometimes think it is.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Ed.

August PVCC Tournament

I went to the chess club Saturday night to play in their monthly tournament. It's an unrated event that costs $5 to play. This Saturday night we had 10 players, so 1st place was $25, 2nd was $15, and $10 went to the club. The players were:

1953 Edwin Borowski
1827 Paul Budney
1797 Tom Smith
1791 Bruce Arnold
1557 Eric Strickland
1513 Dave Hall
1488 Tony Hartai
1396 Frank Kolasinski
1393 Casey Dolan
1193 Paul Spatarella

And was run by Enrique McDonald, who also played the last round since Tony had to leave:
1425 Enrique McDonald

The tournament lasted about 4 hours, from around 7pm - 11pm. It was 3 rounds, with the first game being G/30, the 2nd and 3rd being G/40. I can't tell you how everyone did, but here are my results:

Game 1: Ed Borowski (1953) vs Dave Hall (1513) 1-0
Game 2: Eric Strickland (1557) vs Ed Borowski 0-1
Game 3: Ed Borowski (1953) vs Bruce Arnold (1791) 1-0

I finished 3-0, and won the event in clear 1st. The final deciding game for 2nd place was between Tom Smith and Paul Budney. A win for Tom meant clear 2nd place, a draw or loss meant a tie for second with 2 others. Tom lost, so Paul Budney, Eric Strickland, and Bruce Arnold shared 2nd place. Since Bruce had left, the prize was shared between Paul and Eric.

It was a good time, but wiped me out! I got home and wanted to do the BGs for an hour or two with the Guild (World of Warcraft). I was so tired that after about 45 minutes I had to go to bed.

Tomorrow, as they say, is another day.

Ed.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

White to play and win

In my neverending battle to remove the rust from my chess game, the following is a position from my most recent ICC game. It was against a lower rated opponent, but I can slowly feel the rust coming off. Just over a week before the New York State Championship!!!

So... White to play and win. Can you guess the move?


Ed.

Relentless, the rest is optional

It turns out that somebody actually reads my blog! I know, I was pretty surprised myself. My good friend Sean Tobin pointed out an error in my post about checkers. At the end I had noted that chess was a draw. I, in fact, meant to say that checkers was a draw. I've corrected that error.

In appreciation of my avid fan and his relentless pursuit of the truth, I will attemp to predict the future. I forsee.... nothing. No, wait a minute... I see a book. A chess book. Yes, I see a chess book in your future.

Enjoy,

-Ed.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

For the love of the game

The following picture is the final position in a chess game I played on the ICC tonight. What makes it amazing isn't necessarily the game itself. To me it was the fact that I really enjoyed playing it. It's been a while! So, who's winning?


In this game I'm playing white. Though I feel that ratings on the ICC have even less meaning than those of the USCF, my opponent was rated about 200 points lower than I. And when I say I, I mean me... the me that is out of practice because of a certain WOW addiction over the past 8 months. In the above position, my opponent resigned. There's too much pressure against the king.

Part of my renewed interest in chess has to do with a phone call I received yesterday. I've been thinking about playing tournaments all summer. In the end I decided WOW was more important. Last night Larry called me to ask if I was going to play in the New York State Championship. How could I say no? I have a storied history with that tourament, and even though I'm out of practice I couldn't pass it up. So now I have a few weeks to figure this game out!

Labor Day Weekend... here we come!

Take care, Ed.

Friday, July 20, 2007

And the winner is...

Checkers has been solved! It's really an amazing feat, though it was done by calculating every possible position and creating a database for it. Was it easy? Well, if you consider having several computers do nothing but this task for 13 years easy, then yeah! The article makes a chess comparison which I, of course, find very intriguing. If a computer could solve checkers in 1 nanosecond, that computer would take 3000 years to solve chess! Wow!

Oh yes, and the result... with perfect play checkers is a draw! Here's the complete article:

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3997

Happy Friday!

Ed.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Back at One

It's been an interesting year to say the least. I'll spare you the details, at least for tonight, but suffice it to say that I feel a hint of normalicy slowly returning to my life. Tonight... I didn't play WOW! I know.

Last night I ordered a new dvd. It's by Alexei Shirov and it's called "My best games in the Slav and Semi-Slav". I'm hoping it's good! I can feel the chess bug slowly returning. It's about damn time.

Speaking of the chess bug, I went to the club for a little while on Saturday night. I ended up playing 2 games against Paul Spatarella. They were without a clock, with the 2nd of the 2 being played quickly. The first one was an interesting struggle where I gave up a knight and bishop for a rook and 2 pawns. My extra pawn proved decisive. During the second game Paul faultered early in a tactical slugfest. Since we were trying to play quick because it was someone else's set we were using and they needed to leave, I'm sure Paul was a bit flustered. Though his rating is about 650 points lower than mine, Paul always gives me a great game. He's taught me a few lessons over the years as well. Look out!

I'm trying to get back to studying for my next chess tournament. I'm planning to play in Sturbridge at the Continental Open from August 9-12. I may play in one of the accelerated schedules so I don't have to take time off from work. We'll see.

For now I think I'll get some sleep.

Until next time,

Ed.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

2007_WMCA_Miller-Borowski


2007_WMCA_Miller-Borowski
Originally uploaded by firstfret
For the final round (4) I was paired against George Miller. George was having an amazing tournament. His only loss going into this game was against Larry Williams in the previous round. Larry is rated over 500 points higher than George - and in their game George was winning. He lost to Larry on time. Wow!

We only needed a 1/2 point in the last round to guarantee our club victory. So I had no doubt that regardless of my result we'd win. With 5 of us, to lose all 5 games was extremely unlikely.

George continued with his amazing play, and in the position shown I was lost. Unfortunately he moved a little too quickly, perhaps concerned about the time trouble from his last game. He blundered into a knight fork, lost his queen, and resigned.

So for my foray back into the world of chess, 3 wins and 1 loss. It felt good. Now I have to keep playing. No year off again!

Now it's time to get some sleep!

Enjoy!

Ed.

2007_WMCA_Borowski-Dould


2007_WMCA_Borowski-Dould
Originally uploaded by firstfret
I had the pleasure of playing John Dould in Round 3. John has been a solid player for many years now. I somehow felt like I was getting picked on. Where did my easy pairings go? I was determined to win this game, so I tried to play aggressively. Although I made some mistakes, I was happy with the end result.

2 wins, 1 loss.

Ed.

2007_WMCA_Montgomery-Borowski


2007_WMCA_Montgomery-Borowski
Originally uploaded by firstfret
In Round 2 I was paired against Parker Montgomery. Parker was an Expert for many years and is always feared OTB. Since Parker was the highest rated player in the event not on our team, I knew this would be the toughest game for me.

In the final position I resigned. I didn't see a way out of it. After the game Parker told me he was surprised that I resigned. That the position was actually drawn. After we went over it for a while, it did appear that Black had some good resources and with best play should be able to draw.

I was a bit shaken up by this and determined to win my next round. Not always a great idea to let emotions come into play.

As a side note, I had Fritz look at the game. I was lost. LOST! So oddly enough I felt better about that.

So after 2 rounds, I'm 1 win, 1 loss.

Ed.

2007_WMCA_Borowski-Hall


2007_WMCA_Borowski-Hall
Originally uploaded by firstfret
The first round started at about 9:15am. As luck would have it, I travel half way across the state just to play my arch rival! Of course, I mean that in the nicest possible way. I first started playing "real" chess against Dave. When Sean and I first started playing chess so many years ago, Dave was the first real tournament chessplayer that we met. Though I usually do pretty well against Dave, bad days are not allowed!

My last tournament was the New York State Championship last September. And having played very little since due to something we'll just call WOW... I was concerned about being nervous playing while trying to get back into the game.

I wasn't - it felt really good. In the picture shown this was the critical position of our game. Dave had been playing great up until this point. After his move Rd5 it unravels quickly.

1-0.

Ed.

A Lot of Things Different


2007 WMCA Club Championship 14
Originally uploaded by firstfret
Getting to the WMCA Club Championship in Fitchburg was a bit of a challenge. What could possibly go wrong with such a well planned trip? Well, my plan consisted of the following:

No WOW the night before
Wake up early (6am)
Drive there
Play chess

Not bad. Seemed like it couldn't fail. Now let me take you back to late last week. I learned that my excise tax wasn't paid. I received a final warrant in the mail. Well - not so bad. I can still drive. The upsetting part was that I paid it in February! I received the warrant in the mail, got a cashiers check, and had it paid. So I have an issue to work out.

So Friday night I stop at my mothers house on my way home from work. I forget what we're talking about, but I pull out my license. Expired! Now that could cause a bit of a problem. It expired on my birthday, which was Tuesday. So I decide it would be bad for me to drive.

After a few phone calls, Larry says he'll pick me up. Kip calls me at 7am to say that I could probably renew my license online. Then Larry comes and Larry, Cliff, and I are off to Fitchburg. Larry mentions that his car leaks some fumes into the car so there might be some breathing issues. We decide to have him drive my truck.

There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the wheel of time, but it was a beginning (Robert Jordan).

Ed.

2007 WMCA Club Championship


2007 WMCA Club Championship 15
Originally uploaded by firstfret
We begin at the end. The 2007 WMCA Champions. It was a fun event, though participation was light. Better yet, I got away from WOW for a day. How often does that happen?

How did I play? I'll be putting up a few more posts with my games from the rounds. So I'll save the details. But overall our entire team did well.

Ed.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

The Improbability Drive

I'm going to play chess today. It's 6:00am and I'm actually out of bed. Wow! No, not that WOW! It's at Fitchburg State College and my ride picks me up at 7. So I should get moving. I was originally going to go myself but a few challenges mysteriously appeared. I found last night that I had a bit of an issue. My drivers license had expired this past Tuesday. Ouch!

I'll post a bit about the tournament later. Enjoy your Saturday!

Ed.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Addicted to ya baby!

http://health.yahoo.com/news/176635

I can see it happening. Addiction. I was there, I know. I didn't go over the top like some people do, but I definitely walked a fine line. It overtook my life. It was amazing! Since I hit level 70 on my main, it has subsided a bit. I didn't want it to. But hey, life goes on.

Assuming I can get Kip to cover for me tomorrow I'm planning to play chess in the 2007 WMCA Western MA Intra Club Championship at Fitchburg State College. I haven't played chess seriously since last year. There was this WOW thing... I've been studying tactics a little bit over the past few weeks, so hopefully I've sharpened up a little bit.

If for some reason I don't go, you can guess what I'll be doing!

Enjoy your Friday, Ed.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

The Strangest Dream

Last night I had the strangest dream... and it made me wonder, "what's wrong with me?". What was this dream about? Chess! If you're familiar with the last 5 months of my life, there's only one thing that I dream about: World of Warcraft. In this dream LW was explaining to me his new chess strategy. It was pretty cool.

Hmm... I might play a game of chess today. Stranger things have happened. But for now, back to bed!

Ed.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The Things

I was looking at shoes tonight. I ordered some shoes at JCPenney a few weeks ago and messed that up. I didn't think I needed to buy wide. We won't go into the details of that one. Anyway, I'm finally getting around to buying some new shoes and decide to do a quick yahoo search before going back to my usual JCPenney. If you know me, perhaps you can imagine my surprise when I came across the following possible selections:

Foot Undies
Foot Thong

I'd share pictures with you, but I have to say that just looking at the words is far too disturbing for me.

-Ed.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

The best day of my life

Imagine that you were given another chance. What would you do differently? Now ask yourself, why aren't you doing it? Life can only wait so long before it's gone. Is this the way you really want it to be?

There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the wheel of time. But it was a beginning.

Or, as Garth Brooks might just say...

Don't just stand upon the shoreline
and say you're satisfied
Choose to chance the rapids
and dare to dance that tide

Today is Wednesday, May 30, 2007. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Let's make the best of it.

Ed.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Spring Cleaning


undated_tournament
Originally uploaded by firstfret.
I've been slowly working on cleaning up a lot of old papers in the house. Boxes of stuff that are just wasting space. Once in a while I come across something and the memories just start flooding back. Here is one of those things. It was a chess tournament played years ago at the PVCC. Back when Sean was still around and chess was the game of the day.

Looking back at some of these initials, I wish I can say that I remember who they all are. I remember a bunch but I'm sure Sean will know them all! I'm also just as sure that I'll hit my head with embarrassment as soon as Sean points out who they are.

EB: Ed Borowski
ST: Sean Tobin
MA:
JR: John Reinhart
DH: Dave Hall
JB: Judge Bean?
SF: Scott Farhatt
AL: Antonio Laudati
CW:
EM: Enrique McDonald

Sean... any chance you recall what year this might have been?

Be safe, be well, and thank you for the memories! That's what life is all about.

Ed.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Things Change

Life. It just blows me away sometimes. Here's this absolutely enormous, unimaginably complex world of unlimited possibilities. A place where anything is possible and all one has to do is dream. Then here I am. Totally clueless. What are the odds of that?

I've been feeling pretty terrible again this weekend. It's almost like a resurgence of the flu that I think I had a little while back. Mainly in my head. That constant dizzy feeling where, occasionally, I think I just might lose it. I'm getting by, but it's no fun. As some of you might know, I've been completely addicted to World of Warcraft this year. It's all I do when I have free time. Because of it I've been putting in all nighters on Friday and Saturday nights. It's crazy. Yesterday I probably only played for 4 hours. You know I've got issues!

I slept through the afternoon yesterday. When I finally got up at around 6-7pm I was still feeling a bit shaky. I figured I needed to stay away from World of Warcraft and do something different. I decided to go to the chess club! Back in December I was really at the top of my game. It was the best that I've ever been playing chess. After really not playing much for the last 6 months I can assure you that I'm rusty. Regardless of the results, you don't play much for 6 months and you're going to lose some of it.

Now that I've set you up with my list of excuses, I'm sure you're wondering how I did. I have to say that overall I was pleased. I definitely felt a little out of sorts, especially with my tactics. But I wound up playing 4 5-minute blitz games against Larry Williams. Larry and I were pretty close back in December, though I would have given a slight edge to me at that time.

Game 1: I had black and managed to get into an interesting ending. I lost on time. In the post-mortem we found that it was a draw. Ah well, I can't complain with a loss on time.

Game 2: I had white and we drew the game. It was another exciting endgame.

Game 3: I had black and Larry crushed me like a pig. No Post-Mortem necessary!

Game 4: I had white and won! In the post-mortem we found that there were some drawing chances for Black.

Still, it was 5-minute chess. But given my absense, I was very pleased with the result. Hopefully it will motivate me to increase my chess activity and get back to something else in addition to World of Warcraft. I don't think I've ever been so addicted to anything in my life! Though it might be close to the early days of chess. When Sean and I used to stay up until 4 or 5 in the morning at his parents house playing blitz games over and over again. Those were the days!

Speaking of Sean, if you still happen to read this from time to time, Paul Sarrazin says hi!

Wish you all the best!

Ed.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

The Solitary Way

So much to do...

I bowled tonight. I didn't beat my last score of a few weeks back, but given my year I was pleased nevertheless. 630'ish.

Then I decided to take a few minutes to refamiliarlize myself with some of the lyrics to "Run Around" by Blues Traveler.

But I want more than a touch I want you to reach me
And show me all the things no one else can see
So what you feel becomes mine as well
And soon if we're lucky we'd be unable to tell
What's yours and mine the finishings fine
And it doesn't have to rhyme so don't feed me a line

And even more amazing - I didn't play WOW tonight. That was my goal. I knew that if I started I'd get nothing done. I still got nothing done.

So it goes.

Ed.

Friday, February 23, 2007

The 700 Club

I've been so busy lately that all of my normal hobbies are suffering. My chess game has been horrendous. Seriously. And my bowling, not much better. My average this year, of which I'm not proud, is a 180. Last week I bowled 3 150's. Ouch. On the flip side, work is crazy but going well and World of Warcraft rocks!

So I guess it's all a matter of perspective.

Imagine my surprise this Monday when I was thinking about how much I wanted to be home playing World of Warcraft. Instead I was bowling. League night.

Game 1: 258
Game 2: 213
Game 3: 258
Total: 729

My first 700 series! Since it was in a league, I get a jacket for it. Nice!

Enjoy your Friday.

Ed.