Your Latest Minor Accomplishment?

Mine is that I've learned algebraic notation for chess moves. Instead of P-QB3, it's simply "c3". When I'm studying Kasparov, I still have to compare the board with the diagram to see if I've screwed up. But I'm getting there!

I don't have one right now. ;-)

Have you ever tried to cheat your way through a yahoo game by using an industrial strength chess program? :D

No, I've never used a chess program against a Yahoo opponent. It never occurred to me that people would do that! I'll keep it in mind.

a successful grocery shopping trip.

180

It is going very well!

at work I used a quadratic equation to solve a problem though...

Even after a horrible and stressful night at work. Not a huge accomplishment, as I don't drink most nights, but lately I've been relying on that cocktail or two for relaxation when I should be pursuing different techniques to chill.

Bureaucracy is an artform in Germany. This one was in preparation to write my master's thesis.

Cutting my @*$#$@! lawn when all I really want to do is sit on my ass and drink a beer.

So nyah!

;-)

Radiologic Technology class was this week. I hope that's recent enough.. I haven't done anything since really.

I write for an online horror movie mag, and this interview will appear both at the site www.horrorview.com and in the DVD of Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre as Mou directed it. I contributed to the extras design of the DVD with an article about the Sino Japanese war, mini bios of important historical figures from 1938/39 China, Japan, and Europe, plus designed a virtual city map of 1938 Nanking for a multimedia tour of the massage.

I admit it, I'm excited.

Well it is over 10 hrs.

After a while, you start thinking algebraically -- it's much more logical and intuitive than standard notation.


I'm teaching myself Photoshop. I don't know why, since it has nothing to do with anything I do besides occasional photography, but it's a lot of fun learning something new and different.

It's been years since I picked up a chess book. I entered a local chess tournament and dropped out after two games because I was out of shape, mentally and physically. Just recently I've decided to get back into it.

I can see why Kasparov is legendary. He's not only a strong player, he's also very imaginative. He sees things coming a long way off.

At thumb-clipping quarters, half dollars, rings, etc. for sleight of hand/magic tricks. I've also come up with a routine where I'll be using these skills to disappear a wedding ring and make it re-appear inside a match box with rubber bands around it and wrapped up in a ball of yarn, and all of that is in a coconut that has to be smashed opened. It's for the company picnic which has a Hawaiian theme this year (thus the coconut).

TlalocW

In New York we pay bus and subway fare with the Metro Card, a flexible plastic card with a strip down the side. It's just the right size for palming and I'd like to wow the bus driver or anybody else who might be watching with my sleight-of-hand. There are lots of throwaway Metro cards to practice with, but I don't know how it's done. It's a modest ambition, but some modest ambitions are just as elusive as great ambitions.

I've sworn for decades that this will be the year I get up the nerve to ride the Cyclone. That is one bad-ass roller-coaster. My daughter completely embarrasses me when she's totally unafraid of it! The roller coaster gets to the top and she raises her arms over her head! I hate even to think about it.

A few days ago, I did something I've been wanting to do for about forty years: I went fly fishing for trout in a really great area (the Roaring Fork River, N. Colorado). It was absolutely glorious---browns, rainbows, whitefish, all returned safely to the river after some incredible fights. I don't think I'll ever be able to watch another "Bass Masters" show again; this trip spoiled me......

I went back to college a year ago at age 60. Have a 4.0 average so far. Wrote 4 poems and 2 short stories for my summer class and professor says one of my stories is good enough to publish--so I'm pursuing that. Also have an essay from spring comp class published at criticsociety.com along with a review of a John Singleton movie.

PS. Also planning to retire in 2-1/2 months. Just living long enough to retire seems to me like an accomplishment!

I ordered a kit off the Internet and repaired my tail light before safety inspection. It cost me a little less than $20 as opposed to the $100 for replacement with a used tail light and $150 with a new one. Took less than an hour and it was kind of fun and interesting to do, too. I just love the fact that I was able to get out of the auto repair scam loop.


Cher

I've known for years how to download and play them, but I finally figured out how to rip them and post them (to Usenet, the bestest place to get mp3's and binaries).

... and it still feels great.

-- Allen

Nothing incredible, but I'm a hair over 6'3" and not a dedicated powerlifter. Deadlifting for tall guys is no mean feat.

Talk about minor.... ;-)

and found this quote that I may or may not add to my sig.

Ok, fine. I didn't get my list of chores accomplished today. And I snuck in the house and sat down at the 'puter with a beer when I've only mowed about 10 square feet of lawn. Fine. Fine, fine, fine. I'll go mow some more lawn. It will be a minor accomplishment if I get the entire meadow out there done before dark!

*

wrote up a lecture about historical critical for an english class I'm going to guest lecture.

I started learning Basque. I have three friends who speak and read it, and had a Basque-American girlfriend some time ago who was keen on her heritage. And you can't really call yourself a language hobbyist without at least taking a crack at it.

Anyway, there is a scarcity of Basque learning materials in English, and nearly everything is in either Spanish (70%) and French (30%), two languages I can read passibly. So right now, I'm spending most of my effort translating the Spanish and French words I don't know, since they refer back to the Basque ones.

So I've learned a lot more Spanish, and a fair amount more of French.

And Basque? I guess I've learned, oh, maybe 50 words and a sentence structure or two. Like Ni BareKnuckledLiberal naiz -- "I'm BareKnuckledLiberal".

BTW, if you're interested in Señor Bush's World Wide Warr on Terrah, check out what his Great and Good Friend Señor "El Presidente" Aznar has been doing to Euskal Herria, the Basque territory. Mere suspicion of having a tenuous link with someone who knew someone from ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, the well-known Basque militant group) got Egunkaria Euskaldunon, the major newspaper, shut down for the last year, and half a dozen of its editors chucked in the old juzgado for a couple weeks. (Egunkaria was replaced with Berria in July.)

Nice liberal folks, them Basques. And just who said Franco was dead and buried, anyway?

--bkl
And no, the Basques did not emigrate from Mars to Atlantis 15,000 years ago. So stop asking!

Diverters, brackets, washers, shanks, supply tubes, teflon tape, wall mount faucets, shower attachment, etc. etc.

No leaks, works like a bandit.

which for me really isn't minor. I think I got an A in environmental Science....which is really major.(I am not a science brain, my talents are in the arts)

Okay let's try again.... I managed to drag my lazy ass out of the house to see a movie yesterday.