Fighting the Current

smoke before fire

"...And I've got your pawns and your bishops and castles all inside the palm of my hand." - "Control," Poe

I have finally discovered why I am so terrible at chess. I focus too much on the offensive and leave my king open until the first or second checkmate. I run through all the possible moves of every piece on the board... except the king's moves and which pieces can take him. It may be because the king is of little strategic value (in that it can't move far or well). Really, if the point of chess was to obliterate the opposition, I'd be great at it--I stalemate chess very well. That's about the best I can do against most people. I can pare down my opponent's pieces until it's just king vs. king and stalemate.

"They've given you a number and take away your name..." - "Secret Agent Man," Blues Traveler (?)

I always misspell "traveler" and "traveling." They look like they need two l's.

Gas prices around here have shot up ten cents in the past week... yay...

I feel like I have bruises on the backs of my knees, but there's no sign of them. Teach me to not pull my legs up when I sit in the front of a sled. The backs of my knees bounced on the lip of the sled all the way down.

We had a snow day yesterday. It was a welcome relief. Plans either went through or were rescheduled.

Watched The Mothman Prophecies last night. That movie has some very, very good lines in it.

"If they're more advanced than we are, why don't they just come out and tell us what they are and what they want?"
"You're more advanced than a cockroach. Have you ever tried explaining yourself to one?"

Actually, I think I paraphrased that before in this journal, but this one's closer to verbatim. I can't remember any other lines off the top of my head. I watched that movie last night and then immediately watched two comedies to try and get it out of most of my mind.

Research to do. Sleep to make up.