Prelude to the Big One
Damn. It's done.
Twelve days is a long time NOT to blog when you are busy at chess every day--and busy, intensely busy on matters of real interest to fellow chess improvement bloggers... twelve, crazed, long days...
...come home from work at 10:30 pm, nap, or work on chessBase for an hour to unwind, barely taking a second to run to the bathroom or make tea, but literally jump on the computor and start grinding, grinding, pedaling as hard and as fast as one possibly can...
Sleep for 15, at most 30 minutes, wake up without an alarm, and work from 12:15 am or 12:45 am till the 'wee smalls' (English for very late hours) and grind till 4:30 am, or 4:15 am including CTS every single day, then watch Wijk aan Zee live at 4:30 am PST then go to bed at 5:30 or 5:45 am and get up at 11:45 or noon... then do it all over again.
What did I do? How to explain such a huge thing? I added fifteen hundred games to my 1,735 GM chess game database. Now it is 3,273 games [those intensely curious, before the next big post, can glance at the list of game sets here, with emphasis on the last 678 games]. Lots to say--more latter. This is my news. In ten or eleven days I did this, viewing many of them, at times entering them by hand one game at a time or correcting errors, comparing versions between books, chessBase, and chessGames.com--at times even adding exegesis in the form of notes if you follow...
...the image of the crazed unshaved scientist with piles of paper pushed to the side, but intense laser focus on one single thing... latter. I have earned a rest.
posted by transformation at 3:23 AM
12 Comments:
Have you lost your mind?
:) smiles.
obscession, commitment, determination, focus, passion, deviance, surrogate fulfillment instead of social reality, excess, isolation, repetitive behavior in the face of inexplicable and inconsolable sorrow and deep seering regret and remorse, yes, all of these fit this sort of thing... it is all of them.
It's awesome you've been able to maintain such laser focus! I've been zipping around the country meeting people lately. These are the long days where you fall asleep within 60 minutes of getting home and wake up an hour before your next meeting. I got a 20% salary bonus for my efforts, and my family life's going well, but my chess is almost certainly suffering. What I would give for balance--the ability to work in 30 minutes of chess & exercise almost every day!
"repetitive behavior in the face of inexplicable and inconsolable sorrow and deep seering regret and remorse"
Congratulations on your new work schedule, and sorry that the above had to be weaved into your message.
Well, you must be becoming a kick ass chess player on top of it. And in all sincerity, youve chosen an outlet that will make your life better. Thats not a particularly easy thing to do.
likeForests:
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i feel you man!
for me, if someone paid me 20% more, it could NOT get me to work a lot more. mind you, i love hard work, but only at what i love or enjoy. not just any hard work. but, then again, at 38k a year $US, 20% more is not meaningful and could detract from my quality of life significantly IF i was gone a lot more, and working weird hours in weird places... 7.6k after taxes is just 5.4k.
BTW, i value NOT commuting at 8k per year, pretax! i live four minutes from my store, in a suburban area, slightly metro, come home for lunch (i entered some Informant endings to my chessBase9 at lunch tonight!), can nap, read email, feed the cat, check financial markets, watch foodTv!
quite the contrary, and knowing that you know business margin analysis, 20% more on 65K is another 13k per year, or 1.1k per month extra or 0.76k.
IF a person has a cost of living at 26k per year, another 5.4k per year is not dramatic. but if a person has a cost of living at 40k per year and they go from earning 65k to 78k per year, the amount of extra cash doubles...
65k-19k taxes= 46k.
78k-23k taxes= 55k.
if one needs 40k to live, there is a delta of six or 6.0.
but at 49k and now after takes nets 55k, now we have 15k discretionary dollars for education, travel, unread chess books, wife, daughter....
6k to 15k is a 150% increase of extra juice.
:)
am i dumb?
"but at 46k and now after takes nets 55k, now we..."
correction...
i dont use calculators, just my dome.
I was wondering if maybe the job search was finally taking its toll.
We appreciate the YouTube video of the cute chick. Just keep alternating between hot males, females, and bikes (for Polly), and you'll keep everyone happy.
Didn't know you could watch Wijk aan Zee live, although with the Internet age, I suppose this should have been unsurprising.
yes, Wijk aan Zee starts in four minutes.
GM Seirawan JUST emailed me to say he is leaving for the last two rounds, where he commentates for playChess or the playing side of chessBase.com.
ICC has it. and FICS all have it. not to be missed. spend the bucks and get a real place to play!
tkaing its toll?
yes, and no.
yes, it is emotionally exhausting. after my last big phone interview, with the recruiter for a construction field engineer position (or constructino manager) to build four resturants in a casino WHILE it operates, yes, i just collapsed.
my job involves meeting 1500 people per week, so i overdose on contact. mainly why i make less comments now at other bloggers, much as wish otherwise, sincerely.
no. in that, i know what to do, but less than emotions it is just raw physical wear, and my reward on a day off is not to leave this desk AND not to phone or write anyone. perdicament.
that chick Padma Lakshmi was married to Sadam Rushde (sp?) the brit that ticked off the militant arabs.
she is the first supermodel from india, and was on Bravo lattest food reality tv show as a judge and commentator. she is so beautiful. known for a gigantic childhood scar on her arm that is clearly visiable.
"for me, if someone paid me 20% more, it could NOT get me to work a lot more."
I'm with you. I live 5 minutes from my workplace and there would need to be considerable compensation for me to ever change that. Unfortunately, they used the carrot and the stick approach--eg, taking the offer had rewards and declining it would mean penalties. I agreed within 10 minutes.
"discretionary dollars for education, travel, unread chess books, wife, daughter...."
Mueller has a new endgame book coming out this year. I already pre-ordered!
Also, Secrets of Pawn Endings is being reprinted! It's worth picking up for anyone who missed it the first time around... and if you have a first-edition copy and are strapped for cash, it might be worth selling it for $75-$100 and then re-buying the second edition at the 40% off pre-order rate.
sorry for my delay. blogger never seemed to get me a notice, and only just found as i went to start a new post!
glad you are flourishing.
declining offer would have consequences? man, does that ever sound familiar!
warmest, dk
thx for heads up on SOPE by Mueller. already own the paperback, first edition, i assume. will have to check.
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