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Chess again

This past summer I played in a regular rated chess tournament (a team event) for the first time in 8 years. Last time I took a long break (although not this long), it took me about 9 months to put my game back together. I'm about 5 months in this time and while my results aren't showing it yet, I can tell I'm starting to figure some things out. My confidence is definitely improving, but I don't have any swagger yet. Might take good results to bring that back. After such a long layoff, just remembering to make your moves properly, write down your moves, and hit your clock is a challenge. Some things have definitely changed that I'm adjusting to. The fashions in openings are quite different. A lot of white systems seem to feature a queenside fianchetto (b3), which didn't seem to make many appearances in the past. In my last tournament someone even did that in an open Sicilian. Also games are now played more often with an increment instead of a delay. Going from a...
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Samsung Makes Refrigerators?

A year or so ago I thought I got a good deal on a fridge.  Home Depot had a black Samsung fridge similar to the one my parents have.  The board had blown on it and had been replaced - it was otherwise new.  I think I got it for about $700 or so, which was hundreds of dollars below the retail price. Well I don't know if there was anything wrong with my fridge or not, but I seem to be running into some typical Samsung problems. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111015192110AAzZvbS http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/samsung_refrigerator.html The fan started making noise because it's hitting ice.  Right now we've put everything in a cooler and the outside fridge and we're waiting for it to cool down.  I have a feeling this is going to become an annual event.
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Revisiting WINE

Now that I have a Macbook Air, I have a passing fancy in WINE again.  I had tried out WINE recently possibly for the first time since the 90's. I find it interesting that in some ways, application support is as shaky as it was in the old days.  It makes some sense though when you think about it.  Windows is always changing!  These days everything is through an installer and you have 64-bit support to deal with, etc. I wonder how virtualization of Windows affects interest in WINE.  Why try to mimic it when you can just run it?  Currently I have VMWare Fusion with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.  Eventually I'll have to bit the bullet and just buy a full expensive Windows 8 license, but I'm getting by for now. Chess Openings Wizard is the application I've had the most success with.  I would say it as a Silver according to the AppDB standards.  Not quite good enough to stop running it through virtualization.
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Uncle Phillip Visits

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My brother is back in town to visit for Thanksgiving. Connor got to hang out with him all day and play. Tonight we're continuing our George Lucas movie tour. Connor's already seen all the Star Wars movies and is now working his way through Indiana Jones.
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Location: Madison, MS, USA
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Eclipse On My iMac

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My new iMac has renewed my interest in doing a little programming in my free time. It's not hard to understand - a slick new computer with a 24" screen and UN IX underneath - what's not to love? I downloaded Eclipse and it seems to work very well. I thought I would try a little application programming in Java. I've dabbled with Java over the years and I figured it was time to re-visit it. I found a library called Chesspresso that is LPGL . I've got a little to show for it so far - although obviously I don't have it picking up piece images very well just yet and the pieces aren't moveable. I'm working on downloading the iPhone SDK so I can play with that. Meanwhile I'm listening to "The Stage Names" and "The Stand Ins" from Okkervil River .
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Coke va Pepsi, Facebook

Coke drinking in te Obama administration - http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1882167,00.html I would say Facebook is winning the battle over Twitter to get people to use it to post their status updates.  if there was a tool that pushed Facebook updates to Twitter I would use it. I figured out how to push pictures taken on my iPhone to Facebook.  the Facebook app is awesome.  Flickr better get something similar set up.
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Updates

I am now the proud owner of an iPhone.  The SIM in my Motorola RAZR 3 died a few weeks back.  Rather than replace my SIM for $6, I decided to buy a $300 iPhone that has 16g of memory and supports 3G.  I've really been enjoying it - listening to a lot of podcasts and watching video podcasts. Connor has totally given up on Thomas and Friends and now is a huge Transformers fan.  I remember liking Transformers and owning all of the Constructicons .  I really I bought them slowly over a long period of time, probably when I was around 12.  I might have owned one other Transformers - that's about all I could afford.  On the other hand Connor is 5 and has 4 models of just Optimus Prime and a host of other Transformers.  Times have changed ... Yesterday we had our first soccer game of the new season.  The previous weekend we had a washout.  Our coach was gone, so as assistant coach I had to get the game managed.  We play on two different fields  at this age group as 3 on 3, but one of t...
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