Kevin's Hetero MFM Poly-Fi V

5:17 p.m., Tuesday the 20th

Tonight is a Barn Hunt practice for Eddie; Snowbunny is gone doing that. Rumor has it that Brother-Husband will get takeout for me from McDonald's; possibly he may get pizza for himself. I've had a few energy drinks today, but otherwise I am fasting and I'm super hungry. Luckily, BH just got home (5:15 p.m.). After we eat, we'll probably watch something. But we'll see.
 
2:51 p.m., Thursday the 22nd

He got takeout from McDonald's for both of us. Then, we watched AHS S5E4. That was Tuesday. On Wednesday (yesterday), SB made hot dogs and mac/cheese for dinner. We did not watch anything.

I've been a little extra stressed-out the last few days, getting up late, and struggling to catch up on my internet things. I don't think I've logged on to Facebook since this last Sunday.
 
2:21 p.m., Saturday the 24th

I did get around to doing some of my Facebook stuff (on Thursday), but not on Friday (yesterday). On Thursday, the three of us watched the Presidential debate, while we ate pizza for dinner. For dinner yesterday, SB prepared chicken with potatoes and other veggies. It was a good dinner. Afterward, BH and I watched AHS S5E5.

SB has all five of the coming weekdays off ... which means I won't have to let Eddie out again until a week from this coming Monday. Yay!
 
4:46 p.m., Sunday the 25th

For dinner last night we had salad, cooked veggies, chicken fried rice, and Korean soup. I feel bad, I know SB worked hard to make it for us, but I'm not a fan of Korean food ... honestly, the salad was the best part. [shrug] After dinner, BH and I watched AHS S5E6. We probably won't watch anything tonight because (for BH) it's a worknight.
 
3:23 p.m., Tuesday the 27th

The forum has been extra busy these last few days ... which is okay but it does make keeping up a challenge for me. That plus the fact that I am feeling extra stressed-out again today. On the bright side, SB and I walked to Tim's Pharmacy (it's within easy walking distance) to pick up a prescription that ended up being something superfluous and we didn't get it, however I did get my flu shot and a few tasty snacks.

Tonight Eddie has a Barn Hunt practice, so SB won't be here, and BH will get takeout for him and me. We usually watch something on Tuesday nights, I think BH likes to stay up until SB gets home. But BH has been a bit down/moody lately, so we'll just have to see.
 
4:09 p.m., Wednesday the 28th

Still feeling extra stressed-out, although maybe slightly less so at this moment. SB is making chicken in the crock pot for dinner. Last night, BH brought home takeout from El Rey Burro, one of my favorite places. He brought me my favorite thing from there, their very big veggie burrito. After dinner, we watched AHS S5E7.
 
"This'll be a "short" blog, :), assuming no one posts any thoughts/questions for me to respond to here, as I'm always willing to respond to thoughts and answer questions to my best knowledge. But, I am suggesting posting on this board to "someone in a success story," and thought it best that I practice what I preached."
That was your first post. LMFAO! 92 pages later..
Just wanted to say hello. :)
 
2:15 p.m., Thursday the 29th

Okay okay, I admit the blog's not short. :LOL:

Hi!
 
5:37 p.m., Friday the 30th

Eddie had a private session for Barn Hunt, SB was allowed to bring me with as long as I stayed in the car while Eddie did Barn Hunt practice. We ate dinner before we went to that practice, we had salad and hot dogs. Then on the way to the event, we stopped at a coffee kiosk and bought a couple of frappuccinos (no whip).

Apparently Eddie did a super good job this time around. While we were gone, BH got hold of a bottle of African Cream, and drank most of it. Luckily he saved me a little, delish. Meantime, he was flyin' ...
 
3:54 p.m., Saturday the 31st

We are not going to make ourselves available to the trick-or-treaters this year. Because of the pandemic. We did, just a short time ago, have BH's friend and former coworker come over and help us make plans for a deck in the backyard. The four of us had pizza for lunch.

For dinner last night, SB made three large salads for us. The salads had beets, chicken, apples, pomegranate seeds, craisins, and of course, lettuce. After dinner, BH and I watched AHS S5E8.
 
3:25 p.m., Sunday the 1st

Since we had a heavy lunch yesterday, we had a light dinner, just some soup. We also had a little wine. After that, BH and I watched "Borat, Subsequent Moviefilm: delivery of prodigious bribe to American regime for make benefit once glorious nation of Kazakhstan." Pretty hilarious!
 
1:20 p.m., Wednesday the 4th

It looks like I am going to be taking another stab at Chess. Such a cool game, and I suck so bad at it. I can't take in the board as a composite whole, and I definitely can't follow a chain of hypothetical moves beyond one or two moves. Also I am very weak on my openings. I can do the first move decently -- e2-e4 -- and after that I am lost. I guess move a knight and then a bishop out? I'm pretty weak on my pawn movements as well. And piecing together a checkmate -- impossible! Those are just some of my shortcomings.

I guess my biggest shortcoming is time. I kind of need to reduce my time expenditure on this forum. Maybe I can reduce my Facebook expenditure as well. It's hard, I'm trying to stuff something into my schedule, where there is no room for it to fit. It would definitely help if I could start getting up earlier. But that's a hard proposition. I can't tell you how much I hate getting up. Although once I am up, I seem to adjust to it. Shit, I wish I had more years to live. My time is running out, in more ways than one.
 
2:13 p.m., Thursday the 5th

So, I have done a few more lessons on Chess.com, SB helped me get a paid subscription so I could have unlimited lessons, and I learned a few more things about openings. Like, get both your central pawns out there, get your knights to where they're controlling central squares, and get your bishops out there. These efforts, of course, will be resisted by your opponent, but at least I have a rule of thumb to shoot for. Once those first six pieces are out there, I should castle as soon as possible.

Since it's so hard for me to get up earlier (which I'm trying to do), it occurred to me that it would be easier for me to stay up later. So now I'm doing a minimum of one Chess lesson per day, after dinner, after I brush, and before I go to bed.

I'm not really following the Presidential elections, but the few comments I've heard from friends and family seem to suggest that Biden is winning. I am trying real hard, though, to not get my hopes up. We all remember what happened in 2016, amirite? It's not over until it's over.
 
3:45 p.m., Friday the 6th

I added one more thing to my Chess routine, I will do one or two practice games (me versus the computer) at the start of my days, then one or two lessons at night. In doing so, I'll have less time for (this forum and) Facebook, but the trade seems worth it.

By the way, don't be alarmed by my saying, a couple of posts up, "Shit, I wish I had more years to live. My time is running out, in more ways than one." I'm not doing any worse than usual, I just always have a bleak outlook on life, and death is never far from my mind, I just don't talk about it much. I'm almost 55, so I should have at least 20 more years to go, before I shuffle off this mortal coil. The sucky part is, I don't believe that there's an afterlife. [shudder]
 
2:54 p.m., Saturday the 7th

Well now I've got Snowbunny playing on Chess.com against me! It was annabelle who nudged me back into the world of Chess, and I've got a game going with her ... so that's two games at once, plus any practice games I play versus a computer player. My Chess cup runneth over ...

Eddie has a "Do Not Jump" class right now. It will last until 4:30 p.m., so Snowbunny won't get home until 5:30 or so. Gives me a little break from one of those two Chess games ... heh.
 
11:47 a.m., Sunday the 8th

I managed to talk myself into getting up today before 9:00 a.m., for me that's like getting up in the wee small hours of the morning. I take it Chess has injected me with new life, but let's see how I can do at getting up early tomorrow.

I'll probably get around to doing Facebook stuff in the not-too-distant future, and I've decided to have a Chess.com tab open at the same time for much of that. Just one more way I can carve out some time for more Chess, without losing all of my Facebook time.

Last night, BH and I watched AHS S5E9.
 
1:11 p.m., Monday the 9th

I managed to get up "early" again, who knows about tomorrow. I made another executive decision, and decided to keep a Chess tab open pretty much all day. I'm not great at multitasking, but I guess I'm taking that chance. I'm pretty sure this is the most time I can devote to Chess without ditching something else (e.g. this forum) entirely.

The game I'm playing against annabelle isn't going well, it's kind of stressful. I like to play and I need the practice, but goddamn does she ever have me in a tight spot. I'm already resigned to losing, it's just a question of when not if, I only hope I can come away from the game with some valuable lessons learned.

Hell I'm not even doing great in my game against Snowbunny. I mean I'll probably win, I'm ahead by a couple of pieces (her dark-squared bishop and a knight, versus two pawns taken from me), but there's still a lot of pieces on the board, which confuses me, and also I feel like I'm overlooking something (or several somethings) really important.

That's all I have to tell you for now.
 
The game I'm playing against annabelle isn't going well, it's kind of stressful. I like to play and I need the practice, but goddamn does she ever have me in a tight spot. I'm already resigned to losing, it's just a question of when not if, I only hope I can come away from the game with some valuable lessons learned.
My thoughts literally at some point yesterday were "boy, Kevin has me in a tough spot!"

We are going to do a dance here in this end game and there is a lot to be learned in this piece for both of us.

I have so many things to discuss with you about this game and frankly I am excited to talk it through with you. I had a really excellent coach in Darwin, and I hope I can do him justice when we converse about this. He is a very strong player, and devoted most of his life to playing but the thing is he reached the point where he maxed out his rating. I worry I am not good enough to be a teacher but I will fight through those feelings too.

You and I are very similar in how we speak to ourselves I think in self-criticism, and I suspect we both dealt with some common factors when we were growing up that didn't help anything. I empathize with those feelings greatly.

I was very confused at mid game too with a ton of pieces on the board. So many paths and choices, right? But I can assure you it will become clearer bit by bit.

On another note, I can't tell you much it helps me in my life right now to have a chess friend. I only play random people or the computer mostly and the fact we have a personal connection on here makes me feel warm to see when you have made a move and I get a little notice on my iPad you a have made a move.

That and you are present for me here, as well.

I just wanted to let you know how much value you are adding to my life and I am very grateful for it. 😊
 
2:19 p.m., Tuesday the 10th

Awww, thanks. Any little help I can be is a plus for me. And I'm glad you nudged me back into the Chess scene, I am enjoying the mental challenges, even though I get frustrated with myself when I overlook what should be a very obvious threat or opportunity. I look forward to doing more Chess each day when I wake up, and that encourages me to get up earlier. I guess you could say I'm a little more alive now.

Unbelievable that I was able to take that rook from you. It costed me a nearly-promoted pawn, but considering how desperate I was at the time, I think it was worth it. Honestly I still expect to lose the game, but I feel good that I recaptured a little bit of dignity in the process.

I, too, look forward to discussing the game when it's done. I'm just wondering, when a game is done, is it possible to backtrack the board display to various past parts in the game? If we could do that, I would get a lot more out of the discussion (e.g. of this or that move). My memory isn't nearly strong enough to piece together a whole board position just from a list of algebraic notation entries.

Time to check on the board. :)
 
There are a lot of game analysis tools available at the end of the game. We will be able to see who really had the advantage and when, what the 'turning points' were in the game. What the best move would have been. We can step through the game backwards forwards and sideways. 😉

You can make different moves to see how the outcome could have changed etc.

We can discuss how the game went from our perspectives as we step through... for example (a real one)

Me: "At that point, I was going to have to accept you would promote a pawn, or I had to sacrifice my rook because of the position you put me in and error x I made. You already had a knight, bishop, and rook.. so if you had a queen additionally to my 2 rooks and pawns it wasn't looking great unless I thought I could keep you in check and into mate. Also, you told me that you feel that your move to mate is to use two rooks, and it was clear to me you didn't want to sacrifice your one rook at any cost, or other pieces, and also you would feel more comfortable mating me afterwards. So I sacrificed my pawn, and read what I thought you might do, and thought I might be able to get at least one pawn promoted."

I think you got me here!! But we shall see....
 
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