boxing palookas
Aug. 19th, 2005 07:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonarkToday I finish off a week of getting things done. Last night I got my Free Internet Chess Server rating up to 1560, just a stone's throw from the 1600 rating which is my 12/31/06 goal. Late last night,though, I played roughly twenty games with a 1200 player. For some reason, that fellow "had my number". I only won 12 of our 22 games, with 2 draws. This is still a majority of wins, but given our ratings difference, this sliced roughly 100 points off my rating. But it is my credo that games are about fun. I'll play 20 fun games of 3 minute chess, even if I am not destined to become a blitz grandmaster.
There's a great story in chess history about the first American champion Paul Morphy, a New Orleans lawyer who went to London to play all comers.The reigning "world champion", Howard Staunton, used his chess column to deride Morphy's play. Yet he assiduously avoided a match through either unreasonable terms or through sheer evasion.
He apparently preferred to box the palookas to boxing his betters. There's a lesson in there somewhere. Perhaps every champion has a little Falstaff in him, although if it's darts I'll bet it's a different beer instead. They showed a darts competition the other day on the sports cable channel, and I realized that I have no idea of some of the rules of competitive darts. That's a humbling feeling.
We fly at dawn to Washington, in the District of Columbia, on the first leg of our journey to a lakeside rental in Virginia. My law partner gave me great advice about things to see and do in the region. The problem is that there is more to see and do than we will have time to do. Still, we'll do what we can do. The only real worry is the hot weather. We live in hot weather, of course, but a destination like Wisconsin, Maine or Canada might have permitted us a cooling breeze. But we did not insist upon boxing a palooka, weather-wise.
My new computer is really cool. I have most of the software loaded I will need, but a few key things still to load. When I record from microphone, though, my voice sounds like a kazoo. I must read up about distortion.
I used my musedit musical notation software and my Slicer synthesizer to write a new ambient song for my soundclick site. It's quite imperfect, but I am beginning to get the hang of virtual electronica ambience.
My goal is that by year-end I will put together a CD of ambient music and "release" it by posting it at www.dollarcd.com, where every CD costs only a dollar. I do not think anyone should pay anything but plstic reimbursement cost for my work, but it is fun to have a tangible product somewhere.
There's a great story in chess history about the first American champion Paul Morphy, a New Orleans lawyer who went to London to play all comers.The reigning "world champion", Howard Staunton, used his chess column to deride Morphy's play. Yet he assiduously avoided a match through either unreasonable terms or through sheer evasion.
He apparently preferred to box the palookas to boxing his betters. There's a lesson in there somewhere. Perhaps every champion has a little Falstaff in him, although if it's darts I'll bet it's a different beer instead. They showed a darts competition the other day on the sports cable channel, and I realized that I have no idea of some of the rules of competitive darts. That's a humbling feeling.
We fly at dawn to Washington, in the District of Columbia, on the first leg of our journey to a lakeside rental in Virginia. My law partner gave me great advice about things to see and do in the region. The problem is that there is more to see and do than we will have time to do. Still, we'll do what we can do. The only real worry is the hot weather. We live in hot weather, of course, but a destination like Wisconsin, Maine or Canada might have permitted us a cooling breeze. But we did not insist upon boxing a palooka, weather-wise.
My new computer is really cool. I have most of the software loaded I will need, but a few key things still to load. When I record from microphone, though, my voice sounds like a kazoo. I must read up about distortion.
I used my musedit musical notation software and my Slicer synthesizer to write a new ambient song for my soundclick site. It's quite imperfect, but I am beginning to get the hang of virtual electronica ambience.
My goal is that by year-end I will put together a CD of ambient music and "release" it by posting it at www.dollarcd.com, where every CD costs only a dollar. I do not think anyone should pay anything but plstic reimbursement cost for my work, but it is fun to have a tangible product somewhere.
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-19 12:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-19 02:34 pm (UTC)Bwahahaha!
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Date: 2005-08-19 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-19 03:49 pm (UTC)and Verian sound samples soon. his poem,
my poems, random lines from books. it just
takes a bit for me to crank up on this, since
i am, as always, a computer semi-illiterate.~paul
no subject
Date: 2005-08-19 04:39 pm (UTC)Also, what do you mean by "boxing a palooka?"
no subject
Date: 2005-08-19 05:09 pm (UTC)There's a similar concept in chess, although historically at least 2 palookas ended up upsetting the champion.
Here I used that metaphor to have a bit of fun, or at least a bit of fun to write.
Thanks for the well wishes! I'm eager for a lakeside trip.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-19 06:15 pm (UTC)If it's all a burden, then you could even make a long phone post, and we could use that. To avoid the "stage-y" ness of things, you could read your poems or an old LJ post, so that you wouldn't have to "make something up" for this. My only request is that you make it completely original material, as it's a hassle to deal with rights.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-19 06:21 pm (UTC)cranked up for it(figuratively,
that is)~paul
no subject
Date: 2005-08-19 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-19 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-19 06:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-20 05:43 am (UTC)http://www.livejournal.com/users/msggoat/316087.html
in any event, have a great time.