The Racing Scene

Geeking Out

2006-02-23T14:20:00.001-08:00

What is a nerd anyway? If two senior citizens were sitting on a park bench playing checkers, I doubt anyone would call them nerds. Replace said seniors with twenty something males and for added effect change checkers to Stratego and you have yourself some nerds.

The word nerd, undefined but illustrated, first appeared in 1950 in Dr. Seuss's If I Ran the Zoo: “And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!”

This guy is a nerd, but this guy only looks like one (despite the fact that he plays the clarinet)

According to Dictionary.com geeks and nerds have much in common:

nerd also nurd P Pronunciation Key (nûrd)
n. Slang

A foolish, inept, or unattractive person.
A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.

geek P Pronunciation Key (gk)
n. Slang

1. A person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy.
2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.
A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken.

So nerds are less attractive but better coordinated than geeks, but both can be scientists or fools, and both are definitely socially retarded.

People who dress up like star wars/trek characters and go to conventions and whatnot are definitely nerds.

Big sci fi fans, even those one who don't feel compelled to dress up as Chewbacca, do have a bizzare tendancy to watch a film over and over again. I know a few nerds who have seen every Star Wars and every Star Trek film in excess of twenty times. Apocraphyl accounts of similar behaviour abound, so I can only assume that this is a pretty standard. Do nerds enjoy their films more than most people? Does sci fi lend itself to endlessly repeating screenings by its hardcore viewership? The top rated movie on IMDB is The Godfather. When is the next convention and where can one get a tommy gun and a prop garrot?

American Psycho

2005-12-13T09:11:00.000-08:00

I have seen the film American Psycho too many times. I have just finished reading the book. I like them both - a lot. Mary Harron, Don Harron's grandaughter directed the film and wrote the screenplay.

You are all fucking ugly bitches and I want to stab you and play around with your blood.

I am so being The Driller Killer for Halloween next year. Either that or I am going to wear a suit and have Patrick Bateman 'murders and executions' biz cards made up.

Today I am having lunch with Cliff Huxtable at the Four Seasons.

Christian Bale should be in every movie.

Did you know that Ted Bundy's first dog (a collie) was named Lassie?

Analysis Contest

2005-10-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

I entered a chess analysis contest. The question:

After the common King’s Indian moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0–0 6.Be2 e5 7.0–0 we suddenly run into a series of “strange” moves that, to many people, won’t make much sense: 7…Na6 8.Re1 Qe8 9.Bf1 Bg4 10.d5 Nb4 11.Be2 a5 12.Rb1 Na6 13.Bg5 Bd7 14.Nd2 Kh8 15.Bxf6. Explain the meaning behind each White and Black move from 7…Na6 to 15.Bxf6.

My Answer:

7. ... Na6

at first 7. ... Na6 seems illogical. Nc6 seems to suggest itself, i.e. it is more natural. 7. ... Na6, while optically strange, is a strong move becuase it a) develops a piece b) eyes the dark squares b4 and c5, which fits well with black's overall dark square plan and c) holds up the immediate b4, and expansion on the queenside by white, unlike in the line 7. ... Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. b4 etc.

8. Re1

this is a strong move because it brings a piece to bare on the centre. the rook should overprotect the e4 pawn (when the bishop gets out of the way) in case black decides to give up the centre with e5xd4 (with moves Re8 and Nc5 comming)

8. ... Qe8

this move threatens to win a pawn with exd4 and Nxe4. it is also removes the threat of Bg5 pinning the knight against the queen - and does so with tempo because white must protect his e pawn. it has a slight negative (if the centre opens) in that the black queen is now in the same file as the white rook.

9. Bf1

white protects his e pawn thusly becuase the other options Bd3 and Qd3 both run into 9. ... Nb4 by black, winning a tempo. if 9. d5 Nc5! 10. Bf1 a5! seems excellent for black.

9. ... Bg4

black develops a piece and pins white's knight against the queen. white's d4 pawn is threatend (exd4) because of discoveries along the a1-h8 diagonal after white recaptures with the queen.

10. d5

white defends his d pawn, gains space on the queenside, and relieves the tension in the centre. the c5 square is not immediately habitable by the black knight (10 ... Nc5 11. b4!). black must first secure his outpost.

10. ... Nb4

black wants to put his knight on the c5 square, where it will pressure the centre, but he must first stop white from simply playing b4, and chasing the knight away. so, Nb4 prepares a5. if white plays a3, then black will probobly play Bxf3 smashing whites kingside, and then retreat his knight. playing 10. ... Bxf3 immediately is another plan that black could have opted for here.

11. Be2

white stops the threat of 11. ... Bxf3 12.gxf3 (12. Qxf3 Nc2+-) destroying his king position.

11. ... a5

black follows up with his plan of gaining space, playing on the dark squares and securing the c5 square for his knight.

12. Rb1

white fights against blacks plan on the queenside. if white can get in a3 and b4 he will have the better of things on the queenside. black must either stop this plan, or develop a counter initiative on the kingside.

12. ... Na6

eyeing the c5 square.

13. Bg5

with the center fixed, white decides that his bishop is less useful than black's kings knight, and desires to swap.

13. ... Bd7

black retreats his bishop to a more useful square, as the pin of the white knight has been relieved. with the centre closed, subtle maneurving like this will be the norm.

14. Nd2

white wishes to trade his useless light squared bishop for black's potentially active one with Bg4.

14. ... Kh8

this strange move looks like a "pass". if this is the best that black has, then black can not be more than equal. black waits for white to makes some desicions.

15. Bxf6

with Bxf6 and presumably Bg4 and Bxd7 to follow, white hopes that his knights will be better than black's poor dark squared bishop and queenside knight. moves like a3 and b4 for white are also comming. black will probably try to transfer his knight to the kingside or trade it for whites knight, as there doesnt seem to be a way to stop whites queenside plan. black will also try for f5 and play on the kingside.

Riot Grrlll!!!

2005-10-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

The blurb that you can't quite read is by Yoko Ono

My Myspace

2005-10-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.myspace.com/rockrobinoff

New Writing Blog

2005-09-30T10:52:00.000-07:00

Sue's writing workshop has inspired me to write things. You can read the first mini-story here:

http://theblame.blogspot.com/

Defunct States

2005-09-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

Photo by DMC

Stuck at home with a sore neck.

2005-09-01T11:07:00.000-07:00

I woke up yesterday with a sore neck. No big deal, I slept wrong, or so I think. It still freaking hurts, and I had no sleep last night as I was awoken with stabbing pains everytime I had to turn over, and felt like I had to turn over frequently becuase my neck would ache when left in one position for too long. Yeessshhh!!!!

The Warring States and you?

2005-08-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

The Warring States is on hiatus until a new drummer can be found. Perhaps that drummer is you.

2005-07-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

Rock Show.

2005-07-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

Song titles to date:

1. Classroom Confusion
2. Mezzanine
3. Northly
4. Street Champion in Exile
5. Octoroon
6. Rood Alarm
7. Bourgoise Burnout

Two shows

2005-06-29T17:49:00.000-07:00

The Warring States are playing Sunday, July 17th w/ The Burdocks and Attaq Mode at One World Cafe'. This is the Burdocks all ages CD release Party.

The July Seahorse show is now on August 5th. Lineup so far is The Warring States, Losmantolinos, The Million Dollar Rock Band.

Ok Kids

2005-06-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

the new rockband: The Warring States
first show: Sat, July 30th, Seahorse

there is some possibility of a show mid July.

some of our songs have titles. these are them:

Classroom Confusion, Mezzanine, Northly, Street Champion in Exile

Today I Leave for Bostonia

2005-06-02T04:39:00.000-07:00

In addition to a trip to Boston, a side trip to Foxwoods Casino (Connecticut) for some poker is planned. Foxwoods is the largest casino in the world, with over 100 poker tables. Am curious to see what the $100 buy in ($1-$2 blinds) no limit cash game is like.

It's a Brand New Era

2005-05-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I go back to the casino after having been absent for a full year. They have six tables now, and extra day of poker (wednesday) and a few minor rules variations. It will be nice to be out of the house.

rock

2005-04-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

Had a great time playing rock and roll with Jason Wilson (drummer for the now defunct Heelwalkers). I played guitar, and he drums, at his house. He is great drummer, and very heavy hitter. Playing angular indie rock isn't his normal deal, so I wasn't sure how things would go, but he seems pretty keen. We are now looking for a bass player who can practice on weekdays, during the day, and has their own gear. This might be a tall order.

Demos

2005-04-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

after a year of very sporadic activity, i have demoed four new songs in the past week.

here are the titles:

1. Classroom Confusion
2. Mezzanine
3. Northly
4. Facehugger

these are fast, distorted, and short. kind of punk in some ways, but too technical to be called punk rock. they are warming signs/national parksish, but with more bite. no song longer than 90 secs.

maybe i will put a new band together, but as of yet, i have no idea with whom.

Clever Things on the Internet

2005-03-16T17:10:00.000-08:00

i found this somewhere:

I attribute most of George’s problems to the “man with the yellow hat.” This fellow should know a little bit about monkeys before committing to the full time care of one. Why does he keep leaving George unnattended? This “man with the yellow hat” is at least partially culpable for allowing George to spend so much time without supervision.

Why is he the “man with yellow hat?” An astute observer will note that he has a yellow shirt, pants, and tie.

Understand This

2005-03-15T23:47:00.000-08:00

This is why poker works (for those who work at poker)

Imagine you and I were to play a gambling game where we flip a coin and wager on the result. Whenever the coin comes up heads I give you 50 cents, and when it comes up tails, you give me a dollar. Would you agree to play this game with me? No, of course not, but every day people play this game with me nonetheless, if just in a different form. Let's illustrate my point using 5 card draw poker - the kind of poker you see in all the movies:

I hold: A(hearts)A(clubs)X,X,X (three random and meaningless cards).

There is $10 in the pot (we each anti $5), and my one opponent and I each have $50 in front of us. There will be two betting rounds, one before the draw, and one after. No betting limit. I am first to act and bet $30 - so the pot has now grown to $40. My opponent looks at his cards:

2(spades)8(spades)5(spades)9(spades)K(clubs).

With the large bet i have made in relation to the size of the pot (i bet $30 to win $10) my experienced yet ignorant opponent guesses i have either a big pair, or some other good hand like three of a kind or a straight. He decides that if he draws to his flush (by calling my $30 bet, and discarding his king of clubs) and hits it, he will very likely win. He is correct in all of his thinking so far. However, what are the chances of his drawing to a flush? Well, there are 13 spades in total in the deck, and he has 4 of them, so that leaves 9 spades. He has 5 cards in his hand, so that leaves 47 unaccounted for cards. Of those 47 cards, 9 will help him(the spades) and 38 won't. So we are left with 38-9 or a little more than 4 to 1 (20%). So 1 times he will draw his spade and beat me (we are ignoring the possible full house i could draw to, to make this simpler), and 2,3,4,5 times he won't. Should he call the $30? No, the pot would have to be at least $120 in size for him to call(120 - 30 is 4-1) and the pot is only $40.

How is this like the coin flip? Well, if my opponent does call the $30 he will increase the pot to $70 and win that pot 20% of the time. Or, in other words, he stands to win 20% of $70 which is $14, less the $30 he paid to call, for a grand total of minus $16 whenever me makes this play.

A Post from a Women's Golf Forum

2005-02-19T00:37:00.000-08:00

4. Recent game by joycejones, 2/17/05 16:08 ET
Recently I was playing with my normal group on Tuesday afternoon. We are all in the 15-25 handicap range. As usual, it was a real laugh riot with many stories told about kids, baking, soccer, etc. After about 6 uneventful holes we were standing in the fairway when a ball suddenly came from out of nowhere and landed squarely on my friend Linda's head. She of course fell down and was close to unconscienceness. We all looked around to see where the ball came from and to our surprise a group of elderly gentlemen from behind us began shouting for us to get out of the way saying that we'd taken over two hours to play 6 holes with no one in front of us. Another player in our group, Megan grabbed her putter from the bag and charged the loudest of the old men. They immediately began hitting each other until she struck him on the head and he fell to the ground not moving. The end to all this is that the man is now in the county hospital in a coma and on life support while Megan is out on bail and awaiting trial for assult. The lesson I've learned from all this is that basically men are bastards and can't be trusted to share a course with women.

why golf is hard

2005-01-01T01:07:00.000-08:00

How to Play a Middle Iron from Deep Rough

Play the ball back in your stance, with your hands a couple of inches ahead of it. Open the clubface. Swing the club back on an exaggerated upright plane, allowing your wrists to cock quickly. On the downswing, pull the club down hard, smacking the back center portion of the ball with the sweet spot of the clubface. - Butch Harmon

On the plate

2004-12-13T14:04:00.000-08:00

The Racing Scene

Been working on some songs as of late. It's hard to pick up a guitar after not playing for 6 months. It's not so much a lack of dexterity, but having no ideas. It's starting to come again though, and I hope I can finish off the material.

Books

Started rereading The Spandau Diaries - Albert Speers' account of his 20 years in Spandau prison. I find the idea of isolation appealing in some way - being forced to keep yourself sane with a pen and paper. Produce creatively to ward off the depression of loneliness.

Films

Been watching TV Nation and The Awful Truth, both Michael Moore shows (thanks kazaa lite). I think Moore bites off a little more than he can chew with F911. He seems much better suited to goofy satire and tripping up the megacorps.

Listening

Still listening to The White Album. Despite all its faults, I love this record. I am more of a Rubber Soul and Revolver era fan (though I pretty much like the whole catalog), but the best songs on this record are amongst their finest. Savoy Truffle is a rare Harrison gem. I can't stand While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

Games

Go is proving the greatest of challenges. It is a highly abstract masterpiece of lateral thinking. It is fairly chessy in that it merges tactical and strategical thinking nicely (go is a little heavier on the strategic side of things). However, go as it is played (as opposed to how it might theoretically analyzed) is considerably less about calculation (even though the possible variations in a game of go is much larger than a game of chess) because the calculations get completely out of control very quickly, and the player is forced to rely on strategic understanding, experience, and intuition, to predict the result of many situations. Shwew!

The Setting

2004-12-10T02:38:00.000-08:00

Going to try and post something about the following topics frequently.

The Racing Scene:

The Racing Scene is my new solo project. Organic rhythms, sad guitar, voice. Some keys.

I like to play rock and roll. I have played in a few bands here in Halifax. The Madge Millers, Ampersand, The Warming Signs, and most recently, The National Parks and Soldat. You can get mp3s of these bands here: http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/?aid=4029/ and
http://www.newmusiccanada.com/genres/artist.cfm?Band_Id=7997

None of these groups ever played outside of Halifax, and all self destructed inside of a year or so. I would like to say that is because I/we were much too punk, but while my first attempts at bands failed because we didn't know how to be a band (and we sucked), my last attempts failed because we were too disorganized and all of us had too many other responsibilities (though we kinda rocked). Most un punk.

Books (fiction and no):

I am currently reading nothing and this suits me fine. I read novels in fits and can go a year or more and not read one lengthy piece of fiction. I am the same way with films though the gaps between movies are narrower. Last novel I read: I can't remember - and that is weird 'cause I remember just about everything ('cept when to bathe, eat, shop, pay bills, or where my shoes are).

Films:

Just watched Kill Bill vol 2. Loved it. Of course I like QT hate Stephen Spielberg, Tom Hanks. Big revelation.

Listening:

I am listening to Built to Spill's Keep it Like a Secret, and The White Album.

Games:

I like to play games of skill. I have spent too much time playing and studying chess - here is a link http://www.chess.ca/memberinfo.asp?CFCN=120340 which details all of the tournaments I have played. If you haven't ever played in a chess tournament, or if you spent your youth in pursuit of things other than understanding the minority attack, then I am likely about a million times better at chess than you. I played competitive bridge for a few years. I once played bridge with Audrey Grant on TV. If you don't know who Audrey Grant is, then I am probably a million times better at bridge than you. In order to pay the bills I play poker. I have played poker in Halifax for about 2 and 1/2 years. I also play poker on the internet. If you don't have a background in competitive games or advanced mathematics, than I am most definitely a million times better at poker than you. In the past couple of weeks I have been learning about the game of Go. I don't know how good I am at go, but I can probably beat you.