On and on

I don't fully understand it.  Saturday I slept on and off all day.  BLAH.

Sunday I was pretty busy.

I did install the Yosemite beta this weekend.  I also installed the Xcode beta.  I'm tempted to try out Swift.

I also have a few side development projects that I need to get started on.

My time on World of Warcraft rarely exceeds about 5 minutes a day.  If that!  It's hard to imagine how much time I've spent playing it over the past 6 years.  I think it was the community, friends, and raiding.  As all 3 have dwindled so has my interest.

I do enjoy playing Diablo but I have some of the same issues.  No real community, friends, or raiding.  So I can only play so much.

The trick is to change some of that focus to other things.  Exercise more and work on some of those unfinished projects.

Let's see how we can finish up the 2nd half of the year!

Motivational Ineptitude

Perhaps the title is a bit harsh, yet it seems like I've become the king of excuses.  There's always a reason for not doing something.  Is that a bad thing?  Well, you know what they say.  Too much of anything...

The newer, more positive, me is making some changes.  You will not see me become a yes man, nor will you see the glow of positivity radiate from my being.  I don't know what you'll see.  But it will be a change nonetheless.

Welcome to the future!

Another bad weekend.  It seems so hard to avoid, even with the best of intentions.  On a positive note, it wasn't as bad as many previous weekends.  But still the end result wiped out the weight loss for the week.  I keep saying I'll do better next time.  Though you have to wonder why that isn't enough.  What changes can I make and follow through with?  If it were easy, we wouldn't have the global problem that we do.  I'm not trying to change the world right now though, just me.  So here I go again...

Change

I wonder how many of us are really creatures of habit.  It seems like so much of our day is driven by the way we do things.  I don't tie my shoes a different way every day.  I tie them the same way.  The way I was taught when I was young.  The way I tie them every day.

I don't drive to work a different way every day.  I go the same way.

The examples keep piling up.  It's interesting.  But it's also insightful.

Without a reason for change, why change?

Unfortunately even with a reason to change, change is not easy.

And so it goes.

RNG - you never know what you're gonna get

Hi again, just some random thoughts for today.

If you read my older posts you know I'm a huge Garth Brooks fan.  So with that I have to say that I'm really excited that he is going to be touring again.  He's the reason why I got into country music to begin with.

Today I feel really tired.  I don't know if it's a culmination of my poor eating habits and exercise catching up to me, or if I slept too much today, or if it's something else entirely.  I'm focusing on improving though.  Forward!

Today my mother stopped over and we took a walk around the block.  I think it was about a mile but I'm not sure.  Either way, with a downhill start and an uphill finish, it was TOUGH!

This evening I was getting really tired playing Diablo.  So I hopped on WoW and ended up doing a heroic with Wyrdrune.  I asked him to hop on vent and we talked for a few hours.  It was good because it definitely engaged my mind a bit more and helped with my feeling less tired.

I also had a few work calls sprinkled in.

It's time to do something new.  That means a lot of things, so I think I'm going to start writing for the next few weeks or months about it.  It's a big list:

• Career
• Health
• Weight (goes along with Health)
• Gaming / Hobbies
• Goals

The hardest part is knowing that change doesn't happen overnight.  We want immediately results.  As you may have heard, we live in the fast food nation.  5-minute anything is almost too long.  I remember growing up without technology and when I look back I can't imagine anymore.

A few years ago I started having anxiety issues and panic attacks.  Now if I don't have my phone near me at all times I start freaking out.  I can't imagine what people used to go through.  Maybe it wasn't as bad.  Maybe society as it is today helped to bring some of this on.  But that is beyond my desire to analyze.

I don't know what tomorrow will bring but every day is a new day.

over and over again

The year is more than half way over. Time does fly. I turned 40 this year and I've found that it's having a significant impact on me. It's only a number, but it's a reminder of how fast time does pass by. Have you stopped recently to think about what's really important for you in life? How are you doing on all those goals that you have? If you're like me, those goals are struggling and you should find a way to get back to them. But not because you have to - because you want to. Otherwise, maybe it's time to come up with some new goals.

Aside from that - I hope everyone is doing well! I can't believe it's been 3 years since I last wrote anything. Maybe next time will be sooner. Until then!

Almost had it

I spent the time tonight to put my first game from the tournament into Chess Assistant. When I finished, I went to save it. The computer had a fatal error. What luck. I decided it wasn't going to happen tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

Ed.

Chess Club Tournament

I finally got back to playing some tournament chess this past weekend.  It was an unrated event where the chess clubs from the area got together and played against each other in a swiss style event.  

For this event, a decision was made to allow 2 teams from New Hampshire to play.  I'm not sure why that was done, but chess is chess.  It was an impressive showing knowing how small many of the events have been over the past few years.  Our team ended in a tie for 1st place, winning on tiebreaks.  As for me, I was overall very happy with my results.  After not playing in an event since last September I really wasn't expecting much from my performance.  I did lose my last round game, but I felt like I played well the entire event.  I'm sure I was still a bit rusty, and my last round opponent was rated >2000, so maybe that means there's hope for me yet!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Ed.

How about a game of chess?

And sometimes, they come back!  Stay tuned for some news this weekend.  The Western Mass Chess Club Championship is being held this weekend at Forbes Library.  That should be fun.  I'll admit I'm rustier than I'd like going into an event, but how can I not go?  Speaking of going... time to get to work.

Enjoy, Ed.