Friday, July 14, 2006

Stupid is...

Yes, it's 1am and I have to be at work in the morning. Why? I was tired today and I planned to go to bed by about 10. I need the sleep. So what's the problem? I think a dash of Tobinitis. Truth be told, I watched 2 episodes of the west wing and really didn't want to stop. But I did! Yes, then I went to the computer to play a quick game of chess before going to bed. Several hours later, here I am.

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

The way cannot be shown, only experienced. When it happens to you, you'll know it. I'm still waiting!

Ed.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The blinding light

Believe it or not I'm still listening to Jonathan Coulton. I enjoy the music and some of the lyrics. Though I'll admit that I wish the lyrics were a little more "mainstream". I think, at least for me, the songs would have a longer shelf-life that way. Aside from that, I'm still loving "The Riddle" by Five for Fighting. I know, you care. Thanks!

Lately my life's been fairly routine. Probably a little too routine. It consists of work, school, oblivion, and the west wing. I'm enjoying it - all of it - but it will definitely be nice to have the summer classes finished. I really didn't expect Linear Algebra to be as time consuming as it is. It's partly my fault, I'm determined to get an A. Especially after getting an 85 on the first test. I was disappointed, since I had been spending several hours a day on it. Since then I've taken 2 more tests and scored 100 on them both. So I'm back on track.

I have to go to school for my other class tomorrow, so we'll see how far behind I am on that one. That's my next goal - catch up with that. If only I could pull myself away from Oblivion on the weekend I'd be all set.

Gayle asked me the other day why I hadn't written anything in a while. She was referring to poetry. I like to think of it as music that only I can understand. Nothing personal, I'm more than happy to share the words. But the song, the music, the pictures - only I can see. I think it's better that way!

I saw a quote that I enjoyed the other day:

"An unsophisticated forecaster uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts, for support rather than for illumination".

I'll have to think on that one.

Until next time, Ed.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Happy 4th of July

As another day quickly comes to an end, I hope you all had a good one. Happy 4th of July! It's been an interesting few days for me. This weekend I had planned on taking my Linear Algebra test and doing some work for my other class. As you may have noticed, at least from Saturday, I didn't do that. Oblivion! Will I ever get sick of it? I don't know, but I'm sure it won't be anytime soon.

I do need to get to bed. Work will be here before you know it. Today, to celebrate the holiday, I ate too much. It wasn't actually part of the plan, but you know how my plans go. It actually would have been a fine day if I didn't go to McDonalds for lunch. Always a mistake. Without even thinking that you're eating "too" much, 2000 calories pass by!!! Ouch. It's in the spreadsheet, though I'm not happy about it.

Again, I mostly played Oblivion. I am now the Grand Champion of the Arena, though I'll admit I'm a bit of a wussy. I noticed on some of the message boards that people have found some parts of the arena that you can jump on if you have a high enough acrobatics skill. I do. So I jumped out of range and kept summoning zombies to do my dirty work for me. Not much honor, but life isn't fair - why should Oblivion be! ;)

Oh yes, I finally took my Chapter 2 test for Linear Algebra tonight. I was pretty nervous. The first chapter I really spent a lot of time on and wanted to do well on the test. I only managed an 85, with the class average being around 86.5. So that was a bit of a letdown. This time I continued my trend of spending a lot of time, but added some last minute review before taking the test. It went well.

To finish off the day I watched "Find Me Guilty" with Vin Diesel. It's based on a true story about what they are calling "the most remarkable criminal trial in US history.". With comparisons to My Cousin Vinny, and with a brief role for Annabella Sciorra, I had certain expectations. It wasn't a bad movie, but it was no "My Cousin Vinny". And Vin Diesel... with hair... and putting on a few pounds for the role. I guess at least he was trying something different - and he did a pretty good job.

I've still got to make my plans to see "Superman Returns" this week. It's one of those I just have to see on the big screen.

Good night!

Ed.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

The game of the week

I almost forgot, but I had a chess game scheduled at 9am this morning. It was on the ICC. Before the game I looked at how the team was doing, and realized that I had to win. We have 4-man teams and two of my teammates lost their games. Well, technically, one of them forfeit for not showing up. So I knew that if I didn't win we didn't have a chance at drawing the round.

With that information in hand, I knew I couldn't play my normal game. Not that my normal game is bad, but it can be "careful". As it turned out, I played one of my best games of the year! Seriously, I really felt great playing it. I also won in convincing fashion. Not bad for playing aggressive when you're not generally an aggressive player. Here was my favorite position from the game. White to move, can you guess what I played?



If you guessed Qxd5 you've got the talent. That's what I played and went on to win.

I watched Failure to Launch tonight with my Mother and Sister. It was a pretty good movie. So if you haven't seen it, I can certainly recommend checking it out. It doesn't make it into my hall of fame, but it was good.

And to end my night I was just playing a few games of blitz on the ICC. My last game I had a winning endgame against my opponent when I lost on time. I was pretty pissed. I happened to be leaning back on my chair at the time, and without taking a moment to let it down I found myself shaking my fists. Then I found my chair falling towards the floor, with me in it. Ouch! When I got off the floor and picked my chair up, I noticed that it was a draw. My opponent didn't have any pieces left but his king so he didn't have any winning chances.

So there you have it. A day in the life.

Ed.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Not like I would have played it

I can't seem to get the song "Millionaire Girlfriend" out of my head lately. I don't know why - it's not like I've got that problem. So Friday I spent most of the night working on my homework for Linear Algebra. I got home a little after 9pm and decided to spend some time playing Oblivion. How did it go? I played until 1AM, then I was up at 9AM playing again until about 7PM tonight (Saturday). It was awsome! I've overcome my previous issues, and my character is currently a Magician if I remember correctly. Next comes Warlock, but I think I need to work on a few other things in the game first. I've tried the quest for becoming a warlock and died pretty quickly.

I went to the chess club for a few hours. I ended up playing 3 games against Willie. I'm not exactly certain who Willie is, or how strong he is, but he was certainly playing reasonable. The first game I won on time, but since he was up a pawn we played it out and he won it. We played a second game and he dropped his Knight early and lost. He made a comment about us being 1-1, and wanted to play one more game. I didn't remind him that technically he lost the first game so he didn't actually have any points.

The third game he also lost on time but we continued playing. As my luck would have it, he got himself into a winning position. He must have had a mate on the board, though it wasn't easy to find. He had to keep checking me, or at least be very careful, because I was also threatening mate in 1. In the end, he made a bad choice and lost the game. Again, though, it was already lost on time.

Tonight ends my second full week using the spreadsheet. How did it go? I'll find out in the morning.

Until then!

Ed.