Areas of Unrest

15 August 2001 - Chess Nuts Boasting In an Open Foyer

QOTD: "There is no shortcut to longevity; to achieve it is the work of a lifetime." - James Chrichton-Brown

Reading: Ronald Huntford, Shackleton

Listening to: Austin Lounge Lizards, Creatures from the Black Saloon

Today's title has to to do with a very amusing news story I heard yesterday. There is somebody who has actually proposed making chess an Olympic sport. The result is that some chess federation official was being interviewed on the radio about the need for drug testing in chess. When he said that any drug which cognitive ability could potentially be banned, the reporter asked about caffeine. I can't make this stuff up.

I've never really cared for chess. It's a game that I find marred by two problems. First, its rules are too complex. Not that they're difficult to learn, but a really great strategy game shouldn't need so many rules. The only two pure strategy games I've ever really liked much are Othello and Kensington. In both cases, the entire rules set would fit on a business card.

The more serious problem with chess is that there is no element of luck. (Similarly with Othello and Kensington, of course.) I realize the purists consider that an advantage. However, I far prefer games like backgammon, which are games of skill when I win and luck when I lose.

Moving on to other subjects, I'm still fed up with various things, but I'm feeling much more optimistic. We had an off-site at work yesterday and I realized that everybody else is as frustrated as I am. But there were also a couple of job vacancies I thought might be interesting (which has not been the case in several months) and I am definitely going to apply for one. So, if nothing else, my frustration level has gotten me to update my resume - a task I had been putting off for a long time.

And Robert called me last night, having just gotten back from his mother's and seen the pathetic email I sent him. I came away feeling like he really meant it when he said he was sorry he hadn't been around to help. Of course, now I feel guilty about having been so pathetic, begging for appreciation, but it's not like I do that all that often.

As for other news, I have a new toy. I bought a Mac iBook last night. It will take me some time to get everything set up in a way I find reasonable, of course. But I think I made a good decision. Now, of course, I have an excuse to buy some DVDs to watch on it.

My final news is that it looks like I'm going to come across an out-of-print book I wanted in a most unusual way. The author saw a mention in passing in a travelogue I wrote. And he sent me e-mail offering to sent me a copy! Of course, I wrote back that I would be delighted. That's the sort of thing that people forget about the Internet. It's still about people even in this corrupt day and age.