phorku's chess blog

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Still plugging away

Well it's been a while since I posted. I am still plugging away at CT-Art. I have been working through the level 30 problems a second time. Things have calmed down a little allowing me some time to spend on chess.

In my correspondence games I am 9-0 and am in the middle of 5 games. I will likely have my first loss in my game vs Dutch Defense. One of the games I am playing is a Fischer Random game and it is pretty enjoyable. The opening phase is pretty tough though.

I am still looking for another job. I can't believe how long it is taking. Some jobs I am not interested in after interviewing. Some have not offered enough salary and some can't make up their mind if they really want to hire someone. I am considering taking a long term contract because I am really frustrated at work and have been really busy.

Some schedule changes at the house will probably free up more time for chess in the near future.

Recently I have read on some blogs the MDLM was unemployed during his 7 circles. I was wondering if those in the Hall of Fame followed the schedule exactly. If not, what is required by the Knights to get into the Hall of Fame?

I will try to update my blog with my progress and the side bar this week.

Something interesting happened last night. My girlfriend and I fell asleep on the couch and I woke up in the middle of the night because one of the tortoises was making a grunting noise. I thought "Oh no! Here comes another midnight visit to the animal hospital." I looked over and 2 of them were doing the nasty. Now we have to try to figure out what the gestation period is and how to prepare the habitat so the female will lay eggs. The bottom we thought was a male all this time.... I wonder if they are dumb like rabbits and will hump anything. Guess time will tell.

5 Comments:

  • I was unemployed during 5 monthes of circles too, so I had no problems with timescales. But then some monthes was so busy, that havent played chess at all. So I havent got my 400 points.

    Phorku, I hope you'll be available for 45 45 teamchess game on that week. I havent recieved email from you nor reply on forum. Now I even dont remember if I asked you about availability for T30... so long they prepared new website that I forgot everything. If you are too busy for whole tourney then please play round 1 and I'll find someone else for round 2.

    We have again two U1800 teams with MDLM followers.You are again on board 4.

    By Blogger Роман, at 8:47 AM  

  • Awoken by humping turtles? Nice :) Good luck with the babies (if they really are opposite sex that is).

    PS

    By Blogger Pawnsensei, at 2:38 PM  

  • phorku,
    trying to get a hold of you and I'm posting here!
    here's what I posted in the game scheduling forum:
    something just came up and I can't play at 1600 FICS time on Monday!
    I'm real sorry but I won't be able to play on monday until at least 1745. Could you pick another time or even day? I would greatly appreciate it, sorry for the trouble.

    Josh

    By Blogger Unknown, at 3:52 PM  

  • I think that if you do some circle program that you have set up for yourself, and finish it, then you are a Victorious Knight. It is pretty mellow...

    By Blogger Blue Devil Knight, at 12:43 PM  

  • I stuck to the MDLM schedule exactly, but it was not easy. I had a pretty bad cold in the middle of it, and multiple weekend Swiss tournaments (one out of town), but I had decided early on to do it no matter what, so I presevered. For me, once I was well into the program I felt like I had developed this "muscle" in my mind, and that's how I made it through the tough times. I could be totally out of it and yet my mind clicked on to solve the problems. That's also what allowed me to do well in tournaments during that time. The only downside is that muscle will relax (and grow flabby!) if you don't regularly exercise it.

    I did take a day off work on my last day (1200+ problems). I don't think I could have physically done it otherwise. To be honest, I'm not sure if would have made much difference if I'd skipped the last two cycles. Those are so insanely intense all you're really doing is proving a discipline thing for yourself rather than significantly increasing your tactical ability.

    If you're in a relationship you definitely need a very supportive partner :)

    Btw I got the RSS site feed working on my new blog (look under the archives on the blog page). Thanks again for pointing that out to me.

    By Blogger Chris, at 12:48 PM  

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