I was up at 1:30 in the morning writing the Friday blog. I was still unhappy about the work issue, woke up, and could not sleep, so I got up and wrote the blog, and by 3AM, I was sleepy again. I was up before 8AM and was stuffed up, and I found my inhaler for asthma and soon felt better.
I started slowly dragging a little and breakfasted an NYC bagel (thank you, Smiths+Kramers and Joyce) with a banana and a cup of Zabar’s blend from NYC (thanks, Smiths+Kramers). I had cream cheese from my grocery shopping. I started washing my sheets and hung up the laundry from yesterday. I also put away clean dishes from the dishwasher and reloaded it with the few dirty dishes from the past few days. While all mundane tasks, their completion made me feel better and started to feel better–more awake.
I started back on my task for the morning. I continued clearing Susie’s paper blog on ice skating judging. I must have recycled 50 pounds of paper, including copies of the judging manuals, going back almost ten years. I found items on Susie’s skating that I retained. I returned all this to a chest we bought in our first weeks in the new house from Pier One housewares store (now gone). I also cleared a box that has been around the house for years. Back in 2012, before Susie’s depression and memory issues began, Susie paid all the bills, did all the laundry, and even worked a job selling fine women’s clothing. To my surprise, the box contained these records. I was able to recycle most of it. I will have to destroy some as they have current account numbers. I carried out various items that should not be in the dining room to the garage (a project in the future), and for the first time in a long while, the room was ready to be used again.
I dragged the Pier One chest from the wall (it came with a metal frame that holds it up off the ground and makes it easier to use), pulled out the chess table, and put it in the center of the room. I dusted off the chess table, retrieved my chess machine and its shiny wooden board, and set up the chess set. I had lost a vital cable! I found it on the table where I last played chess on the machines. Instead of using the King computer for my Millennium Exclusive Chess Computer – Emanuel Lasker Edition chess set (to celebrate the 150th birthday of the German campaign) or the Link, I could attach the new computer to the existing board and pieces. Holding my breath, it all worked together. The new computer is modern and uses a Raspberry Pi single-board computer, the more recent, faster version.
I had to play, and while I expected to be stomped, I had to know if everything worked and how it played. It played with three seconds of thinking time (default settings) and reminded me of flawless human play, unlike my old King. Excellent. I played against the Shredder 13.5 engine (I don’t know what that means), but my old nemesis, Stockfish, is also available. I am pleased with my insanely expensive chess set.
Aside: Modern chess has explored the opening and created the concept of a Line, a set of correct play, the Main Line. These are published in books that are inches thick with dense type. I have an older copy that does not have the typos of the newer versions (yes, you need the right edition–sort of reminds you of magic tombs). The new computer programs use this information to open and react to an opening. The computer has also been programmed with many insights discovered by exhaustive artificial intelligence (AI) chess studies. The machines are telling humans how to program machines. The results are incredible insightful play from the computers. Stockfish is one of the chess engines created from the fusion of human programming and AI insights. It is nearly impossible to beat.
I took another pasta jar, ran through the dishwasher, scrubbed off the wet labels, dried it, and added a hanging loop and a new lid containing fairy lights, a solar panel, and a battery. I also found my hanging hooks in the garage and used these to hang the new fairy light mason jar and two others I had made recently on the deck’s roofing beams (part of the deck is covered, so you can enjoy the rain without getting wet). Every early night, the deck is now lighted by jars of fairy lights. I love the look.
Satisfied I had done the right thing by buying a new tech level, I showered to remove the dust covering me and was ready to start my day out of the house. Evan dropped by while I was playing with the chess computer. I was trying other features. I have not had time to read the manual. Evan, who had apparently never seen the chess set before, got to see how it played–I backed off the checkmate and reran the ending for him.
We headed for Sushi Zen in the nearby strip mall and enjoyed the track Sushi for lunch. Evan ate his fast and was waiting for me. I find sushi exotic and eat it slowly. I never grew up with it, and I had it the first time at a work lunch in 1997 while working for Nike as an AS/400 Synon programmer. Sushi is something I continue to learn and explore.
I like to wait for my food to come to me in track places. I have one plate at a time unless a favorite appears. I let the smoked eel go to the gals beside me, who only had a few plates. The smoked eel is a good choice if you only have a few. The braver gal loved it, but the other would not eat a “snake.” I thought they both were right. I had green tea with sushi and enjoyed the experience. There was no more eel, so I had octopus proving again that we should let them live–fish-flavored rubber bands.
Finally, I paid the bill, and we headed to The 649. Natallia was bartending, and I had a beer and set up the Concordia, my favorite board game. Evan had a drink. We played a new board; I have plenty of Concordia boards, and we used the alternative wine and cloth mix card purchasing board. Evan started off strange but then flew through the game, impressing me with his knowledge of the game and its mechanics, and soon was ahead in building trading posts. I focused on getting colonists out. Evan bought many cards as he mixed his trading posts with cloth and wine, thus aligning with the alternative card purchasing board. Evan won by over twenty points by ending the game by building the last trading post before I could catch him. My colonist strategy was not enough to slide past him. I also bought specialist and Mars cards, but that was not enough. Evan had purchased the more usual cards, but they multiplied his count of cities and providence, which pushed his score way up, my usual plan.
I had another smaller-sized beer, and we reset Concordia with another smaller board (best for two players). I found my strategy needed to change on the small board and instead build wine trading posts (I prefer food and metal as they fit my usual colonist strategy). I covered the board with trading posts and did get all mine out. Evan got seven points for building his last trading post, but I got to play one turn and got all mine out, too. I had bought the more mundane cards, and on the small board, I had managed to spread out, and this was enough to win by about fifteen points.
I was coughing and suddenly unwell. I paid the bill and left Evan, finishing dinner. I got home and took my inhaler, and soon everything was fine again. I drove in the dark; after the time change, it was getting dark at 4PM. Traffic, for a Saturday, was stop and go, and I was a few minutes late after an hour’s drive that was twenty minutes before. There was some local flooding as the puddles were deep, and water flew up on the highway when folks hit them. I reached Richard’s without incident.
Shawn, Richard, and I played Voidfall, which I have described before. The board game was set up ahead of time by Richard (to save time), and I had a new faction with Dreadnoughts that looked much like the bad guys in various SciFi and Marvel movies. Strangely, I found myself less militant than my fellow players–something I have done in the last two games. I lost again, last place, but my best score so far–I keep increasing. I still like the game, but the wait between turns for the other players to find the perfect play is hard. I could play chess on my phone and Voidfall at the same time. I will try to attack more and get more agenda cards to knock my score into the two-hundreds next time. Instead of being bored, I watched the other plays and tried to guess what was happening. So, it’s all good.
Richard is looking for a brighter “burning candle” LED for his buildings. I gave him a build of a single LED using a coin cell. I will look for a brighter solution for him.
Air Volvo took me on what I call the space shuttle ramp onto the bridge, but there were no scary puddles on the bridge (five stories in the air). I arrived in Beaverton without incident, and then Air Volvo splashed through Beaverton, which had puddles on the main roads. The rain, the dark, and the puddles seemed to suppress the extra-legal driving and unexpected lane changes common on our streets. Air Volvo was intact when we arrived at the Volvo Cave.
I read almost to the end of my book, nearly falling asleep as the murder was unmasked, and this time I missed it. It was so obvious. I could not reach the end of the book as I was nodding off. I slept until waking to f**king early this morning on Sunday. But at least I could write a long blog and enjoy the sunrise.
Thanks for reading.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 