connoisseur series500

That is cool. I used to play over at KC when I found that it was ruining my chess. Used to watch the GM games over their live as well. It's great because you've got people commentating on them live. I would throw in these wisecracks and so on. Not very helpful. B) Maybe I should join ICC in order to watch GM games live. As it stands, I simply follow the games from the tournament websites and that seems good enough. I mean I've got to put in some time at work! Saw one of the Polgar-Anand rapid games live yesterday. It was the one where she won in a Sicilian Najdorf. Found it very interesting. That Nd5 move with her bishop hanging and all that. Those openings are ultrasharp. What if Anand had just traded his knight for the knight on d5 and then bishop taking the d5 pawn? He probably would have been better, but perhaps this was home prep for Judit.

As someone who is a dual US/UK citizen, perhaps I can explain. In Britain, they use slices of ham. In America, the bacon is sliced in thinner strips. That's all. BTW, I've never lived in Britain, but have travelled there several times, so perhaps I can't claim "expert" status on this subject!!

Seems to me this thread started in an honest fashion allowing people to reveal personal information. Didn't take long for the flames to start. Will you people leave Greg alone? For crying out loud. He reveals some personal info and people obviously bearing some kind of animus feel compelled to get his goat. Yes, I am aware that Greg fights back with some invective, but as far as I can discern, he did not start this. Save the mudslinging for politics. I've personally stayed from politics a bit in order to catch my breath! :rsmile: Let's allow ourselves to get to know each other in this thread.

Except, by having it the way it is now - that encourages people to take advantage of "buy it now" options right then and now!! - cuz if you wait and somebody even so much as make a silly $1 opening bid - then you won't get it. The way the system is now encourages quick decision-making when the "buy it now" option is available. Another way to look at it is that ebay has always had the interests of the sellers in mind. They do little to enable or encourage buyers picking up stuff cheap. BTW, I believe that Hubbard/Shaw sessions went cheaper than the buy-it-now. Why? Does everyone hate paypal or something?

Toledo had it pretty mild. Our power went out for only 45 minutes. Power was out for as long as 5-6 hours throughout different parts of the city, and Southern Michigan (Temperance, Lambertville) lost power for 10-12 hours.

As long as the world doesn't run out of pretty women, Sangrey is a lock for top poster!

Of course, JK, you know my opinions of Dodo. She lasted 2 days in my collection! Felt myself wishing she would shut up for a bit so Ike and Grant could stretch out a bit. Thanks for the disk, JK, I'll get you back someday!

Great session, RT. Nice Latin rhythms. Duke's best besides "Dedication."

I think I'm a classic underachiever. Graduated with a M.A. in English in 1984 and I had my bags packed for Asia. My parents wanted to know what I was up to, and I told them that I needed some experiences to write about! I wanted to be a writer, and figured I could tour the Far East and could get teaching jobs easily. Actually, there was another reason: I had a Thai girlfriend in college and she was 10 years older than me. I had to break away because we were getting too close! Landed in Japan first and had some adventures too lengthy to relate here; stopped in Korea and Hong Kong for a bit and ended up in Thailand. My girlfriend had given me a few names of people I could stay with and I abused those privileges terribly. Started off teaching English literature and writing at Chulalongkorn University and did that for three years. Then I quit the school and got into all kinds of adventures. Got married to a Thai woman. Did all kinds of things, made all kinds of money--was a millionaire for a few years!!--and lost a lot of money! It was all legal, folks, but I don't care to go into details in a public forum about everything. One day, I was 35 years old and broke and I looked myself in the mirror: what the Hell am I doing here? I've got a young child, a wife, and I haven't even vested in Social Security, no 401ks. It's great in Lotus-land, but old age is a curse here and time slips. Here's a poem (not entirely autobiographical, btw): Searching for Sunday The wind shakes the tree in an ancient way. Day without agenda; and man the animal Of purpose bedding it on Sunday. Lizards shooting in timed spurts across the ceiling. Seeking the sun through frosted panes. For reasons beyond the glare. Slack sails on a breezy Sunday. Such quiet drove Fritz to drink. One meets the light as haltingly, as hesitantly As one enters a Chinaman's shop. Motorcycles roar at the green light, And I lie lost in the seven layers of my bed. Searching for Sunday in the whore's brown flesh. I know the exile's sorrow. It was time to go. My farewell poem: 3/13/1995 Farewell to Krung Thep, City of Angels, Thaksin's wall against the Pegu hordes. Flooded like a rice paddy every year. It's a 20-hour flight to a new life. "Back to the world," they said in Nam. Whizkid with all that cash in his thirties, The wolf blew down my house of gold bricks. All those painful careful decisions I got a better return in the end, On my secondhand appliances. No Stalin-kiss on this corpse. Exiled and axed like Trotsky in his Mexico City fortress. We packed up everything and landed at Detroit Metropolitan airport. Here's another poem: 6/14/95 Fortune wound down into aching backs And bored stewardesses. We reeled from the 20-hour flight Into the room for immigrants To await our turn behind the troop Of visiting Japanese baseball players, St. Peter's approval courtesy the Detroit Tigers; And the Marine escorting His Filipina motel-mate. Fingerprints and the search for drugs before We were spewed into the Motor-City metro parking lot. "I'm Polish," read the upside down license plate On the parked Cadillac. Landed at my parents house in Toledo and we were in culture shock. My wife couldn't take my mother any more and we moved into a motel after 10 days. Luckily we were able to get an apartment by the time the moving truck turned up with out stuff from Thailand. I was unemployed for a year then figured I'd get into the financial sales and insurance industry. Been there ever since. I dislike sales, but I like seeing people. I've felt like quitting a hundred times, but I never do. Don't know what my next step will be but I'm getting older and lazier. Really digging chess right now. Focusing on raising my son. We'll see...

My favorite all-time pc game is Fallout2. Love the story and the humor. Love the slow-pace of the turntaking mode. I don't have to be quick on the mouse or anything. I remember I was morally disturbed when I first played the game as I was presented with some awful moral choices to make. I once had to shoot a kid in order to stop him from barring my exit from a room. At that time, I didn't know how to activate the "push" option. The whole town of Klamath was after me for doing that. I don't think I was able to sleep that night.

Don't know what the writers had in mind, but it strikes me as the self-satisfied 1950s meeting the disturbed 1960s with all Hell breaking loose. Still trying to formulate my thoughts and feelings: The 50s and its self-satisfied values are visciously ripped, but the disturbing elements of the 60s don't seem to offer any kind of hope either. Certainly this is a dark classic.

Anyone ever see this movie? I am watching it now for the second time. Man what darkness! It's one of those character studies done like "Ship of Fools" but it is more violent and ugly. Great story; great acting. Very disturbing. No one comes out of this looking good: the younger generation, the middleaged , or the elderly. Fascinating yet deeply pessimistic. Hollywood doesn't make films this good anymore.

I only have the original issue and the recently-arrived RVG edition. I just compared the two and although there is some improvement on the remaster, I don't feel it necessary for anyone to give up their old version. I'm a little annoyed with BN for feeling it necessary to remaster this particular title when others are more deserving. Keep your $$$ folks and keep your original version. Blakey's "Indestructible" has been improved and might be worth the upgrade. I didn't bother to order any of the other new RVGs.

Sound comments, Lon. Don't want to jinx myself or anything, but no temptation will lead me astray. Who would want to tempt ME anyway?? I had tons of temptation in Bangkok where I could just about pick up anyone I wanted. Withstood it like a man-of-steel.

I've personally never cheated on my wife and certainly don't plan to. Been married since 1987. We have our disagreements and mismatches, but that's ok. I let her clonk on her loud piano and she lets me blast jazz. She's used to me and she's a good wife. I'm not necessarily a prude. Had lots of fun prior to the marriage. Never could understand those who cheat; well, I guess I have some understanding for just about everyone, but still these kinds of commitments are important to me. Still, I am not quick to judge people about these kind of things. What's the divorce rate, 50% or something? Pretty damned ridiculous. Marriage doesn't mean anything to anyone anymore; and I think it may mean even less to the younger generations.

Again, I rate "Blue John" at 3.5 stars or so. It's not bad. It's just not worth 4.5. I certainly wouldn't sell or trade my copy. BTW. I'm shipping off "Lush Life" to you today. (Haven't got your check yet, but I'm sure it will arrive any day now.)

Will keep an eye out for you, Steve.

I've got it too. I think it's very pricey, but I appreciate the heads up and the offer T-jazz.

Great pics, Swede. I guess you have pretty much covered her. GOM, there are lots of sites. I don't play in them or keep up with them because I feel they are bad for my chess, but you can play for free at yahoo, I think. 2...c5 (we've got a potential Benko or Benoni going here)

What I'm saying Stefan is that he should have just hit the buy it now without placing a bid. Does he reallye expect to get it for less than $8.99?

Here's one for you guys: One seller was offering Woody Shaw/Freddie Hubbard sessions cd for only $8.99 buy-it-now. I already own it, but emailed the seller to see if he accepted any other kind of payment other than paypal. While awaiting his response, some moron puts in a bid of a dollar and the buy it now option disappears!! I couldn't contain myself and emailed the guy to ask him if he is either stupid or greedy or both? Current bid is $1.50. I guess $8.99 buy it now was not cheap enough for this idiot.

While you're at this, would love to see your comments on the Andrew Hill discography as compared to AMG, Rooster. B) Up for Rooster!

Hope this helps: imagine a board in front of you (white on your right, of course!) you have the white pieces. the lower left square (which is black is a1); the white square above it is a2; the white square to its right is b1 etc. King=K; queen=Q Rook=R Bishop=B Knight=N pawns don't have letters; they just occupy squares; for ex. d4 means the pawn on d2 or d3 moves to d4. If the move is Nd4, then a Knight moves there. O-O means castle kingside; O-O-O means castle queenside. if two pieces can occupy a single square then it is notated in this fashion: Nge2. That means the Knight on g-file moves to e2 (and not the Knight on say, c3). If it was the knight on c3 which moves to e2, then you say Nce2. For rooks which can move to the same square you can notate it in two ways: R1e2 (if both rooks are on the e-file already; or Rff1 (if one rook is on the f-file, while another is on the first rank but not f-file.) And so on. Best way is to look at any chess book and there's usually a diagram which describes algabraic notation. That's the most common notation. This may take a while to get used to.

While you're at this, would love to see your comments on the Andrew Hill discography as compared to AMG, Rooster. B)

No single artist; but the period 1955-1970: anybody who falls within those years.