Discovery

Black is to move.

What piece should be moved ...and to where?







Study it before reading further. For you non-chess players, the answer is Knight on e5 to f3, check. This opens a discovered attack on White's queen sitting on d4. White is forced to respond to the check by Black's knight and on the next move Black will take White's queen with his bishop sitting on g7, giving Black a sizable advantage.

This type of manouvre is called a "discovered attack".

But you already knew all that, didn't you?

The Garden

A picture of part of our garden taken last week.

Right now I'm jammin' on O'ahu-boy, "Jammin' Jake Shimabukuro" - ukulele artist extraordinaire. He plays mostly instrumental ukulele-ized arrangements of some older types of popular secular tunes. Funny - on some of his tunes, Yngwie Malmsteen's influence is very apparent. Early on, Yngwie was one of my influences, too. That is, until I changed somewhere along the road of style. Changed into what? I don't know. Certainly, I've slowed down. But I don't play anything anymore. Haven't played guitar for over a year and a half. But I still think about it a lot, tho. Usually that's when the change of style takes place - after an absence and then a re-approach from a different perspective. I was entering the realm of jazz & differing modalities when I left off. Just knocking on the door, actually. Not exactly true jazz, but some of its theory & I wanted to add some of that to bits of my music.

Tempting is the idea of going back & taking a Nugent approach to making new music. To me that's when you throw the idea of applying something you've learned out the door & go forward with what you already know so well, as simple as it may be. Rather than impress the listener with theoretical novelties, it's all just simple shit played with feel and an "in your face" attitude. But ANYBODY can play that way and to me it's redundant and not very appealing. Nah, that's not for me. It's fun to jam that way sometimes but I feel I'm not moving forward if I'm not learning something new to get me a step ahead of the next guy. I guess I could still be pretty good.

Funny how some of the best stuff to listen to is really simply arranged with simple chords & structure. I guess that's why the poppy stuff is so poppy. It's simple. People get the melody in their head & it's happy & easy to enjoy.

Shania Twain's husband, Mutt Lange, also wrote most of Def Leppard's songs & a lot of tunes for other artists & he basically fools around, comes up with a neat little "hooky" progression (usually a chorus) & creatively fits everything around that catchy little thing that hooks right into the listener.

Maybe, if I ever get back to playing again, I'll do a little bit of everything.

Pull Up Bar

Finally "got 'er done"! ....the pullup bar, that is.





Nathanael got up there & did two and 1/2 - his first time. No shirt! I couldn't do one without momentum. He is so grounded. I can still kick his ass in basketball, tho.

...And chess.

Neutral bouyancy

Neutral bouyancy -

Last night I had a salad - twice. This morning I weighted 207.5

It's not a loss of weight but it's not really a gain, either. Get this - I lost 6 pounds just thinking about losing weight in the last two weeks.

This is the weekend for the P90X fit test and the start of a grueling regimen of physical activity the likes of which my body hasn't seen in a looooong time. It's been a long time coming & I'm eager for the pain.

Neutrally Bouyant

Neutrally bouyant ....did I spell that right?

Anyway, Jill decided, based on my recommendation, we should not go to KY. I think it's a mixture of my persuasion and her workload at the office but I'm pleased nonethe less. Nathan mentioned earlier in the day that he'd rather stay home. That may have had an effect, too. But, she no doubt did it for me. Do I feel better? Not exactly. I feel bad because she really wanted to go, and her parents really wanted her there, I just feel somewhat relieved. This weekend can be for some serious QFT while getting things done.

....a start

Got up this morning & weighed 207. That's a six pound loss. I credit that to nothing but a conscious effort to eat sensibly portioned meals instead of eating till I'm stuffed. That's all. And no change in diet except some restraint from the chocolate snacks - tho I blew it this morning (Snickers). Oh well, I'll have to consider that (280 calories) when portioning throughout today's meals, so maybe it'll come out even.

I worked a little more on making the pullup bar last night after everybody went to bed. There may be a slight change because it may not be low enough for where I'm going to put it.

The fit test is planned for sometime this weekend & excercising to start soon after.

For lunch I had some salad with ranch, a slice or two of corned beef, and two of those little frozen burritos.

*NOTE TO MEN* - Be careful if your wife ever asks you to hand her a tissue, she uses it, and then asks you to throw it away for her. Mine did that to me last night. I went to toss it in the trash & it stuck to my hand ...twice! Yeah, tricky. Put the boogie on the OUTSIDE! Uh huh. I see now.