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Notation technique
Yesterday, I went to the Go club again. I tried to
record the game using a coordinate based notations system using the handicap
points as orientations points because the board did not have numbers on the
side. At the beginning this worked fine, but near the end of the game it
became harder, because I became tired. Again, I felt that the record
taking took a lot of energy. When I came home, and tried to enter
the game, I discovered, I had missed a
number of moves. So the system is not very reliable, but maybe it is also
because I did not write down the color of the stone with the move. But
nevertheless, I did learn something from the game I played against Daan.
Daan played simultaneously against Martijn and me. At the end of the
game, we concluded that the outcome was about equal. I learned a lot from
analyzing the game.
Strange day
Yesterday was a strange day. I had taken a day off so that Li-Xia and I, just with the two of us, could look around a little bit for
a new car. After next week the summer holidays will start, and we won't have
the opportunity anymore. It was out intention to first look around. We were
thinking about buying new car, but a little smaller than the Renault 19 we have
now. We quickly found out that most compact cars could not carry the special
buggy we have for Andy. The weather was rather changing, sun shine alternated
with thunderstorms. I took some pictures of some violently moving clouds right
before it started raining. We looked at several dealers for Japanese and Korean
cars, when we finally arrived at a
Toyota dealer. There
we looked at a light grey metallic Toyota Corolla of just three years old that
drove about 18000 Km. We became rather enthusiastic about it and took it home
during lunch for a test drive. Its dimensions are rather similar to those of our
current car. In the evening, we decided to buy it.
At four o'clock, I took Annabel to the doctor. She
had been complaining about pain in her right food, since last Monday, when a
boy from the class kicked against her toes. While waiting, I tried to solve a
nonogram, which went very quickly for the first half. The doctor then made some
remark about her appearing in my diary. He then told that he had seen the
May 4 broadcast. He event suggested that maybe I
should publish some parts from them. Then he sent us to the hospital for an
X-ray, just to make sure that it was not broken. In the hospital I did make
some more progress solving the nonogram while sitting in the waiting room.
I am still wondering if it is possible to construct a nonogram that cannot
be solved simple by solving rows and columsn in isolation. So far, I haven't
come across a nonogram that requires you to do some guessing and back-tracking
and that only has a single solution.
(follow-up)
Two X-ray pictures were taken that did not
reveal any fractures. She was advised to just try to use her feet as much as
possible, because exercise would improve the condition quicker.
When coming home, Andy was very proud about his
school report and the fact that he goes to group 3 next year. He even
told his grandmother over the phone
that he did.
Fanaat
Yesterday, Annabel and I went to the
Go club.
Because the holidays have started at the university we went to a different
location, namely "De Belletrie", also the location where the game club
Fanaat meets. We sat at the
long round table.
Before we started playing, I showed everybody the four rubber bands that I had
made with numbers, and put them around the four sides of the board to aid me the
record keeping. Martijn showed a board with numbers and letters, but I preferred
numbers on both sides.
Annabel played against a student who had just learned the game a few weeks
ago. They were about the same strength. I played against Arne, who got a 9 stone
handicap and 40 point komi. The game lasted about three hours and was the
longest of that evening. Arne was determined to win, although he had not played
for some time. The opening resulted in some very solid positions for me. But
than Martijn, who was sitting beside me, remarked that Arne should making some
daring moves, and try to confuse me. Apparently, he succeeded in doing this,
because I followed Arne too easy, making mistakes, and not seeing the weak
points in his own position. Finally, he won with 38 stones, which according to
the starting conditions should be considered as a loss, but looking at how much
he gained since the start of the game, I think it pretty good. I took a
picture of the final board position.
I also recorded the game (PostScript, SGF)
but at home I discovered there were some missing moves and errors in it.
Annabel spent a large time of the evening looking at books all around us, and
watching the cat that was walking around. On the way home, she asked if she
could borrow some of the books. I told her that she should become a student
first. We calculated that it would at least take nine years, if she did not skip
any class. I also said that she could do faster, if she would only study and
never play outside or watch television. I told her that children do not learn so
much in school and that you could learn things much faster if you would know how
to learn them right. Most comes down to the ability to concentrate. She did have
a good school report, even the troubles she had with spelling seems to have
improved. I wonder what will happen from here.
Analyzing a game
Yesterday evening, I went to the Go club. Together with Marcel, I analyzed
the game, I played last week.
We did not analyze the whole game, but he did give me some good advice. Then
we decided to play a gain. He got a nine stone handicap, and had to win with
110 stones according to my rating at the club competition. At the end of the
game he had 75 point against 29 of mine, making him win with 46 point, but
compared to the 110 he had to win, it was a loss of 64 points. He commented
that I played strong, although I gave up one corner that I could saved, and
allowed him to steal another corner, which was not really possible. So I
did become stronger in the past year, but so did many of others I played
against. My real rating might be around 15 now.
I borrowed the book Get Strong at the Opening and started
reading it.
Mass detonation through shock wave
Some research by students from the Royal Military Academy has shown
that a shock wave can make normal consumer fireworks become explosive.
This could explain the mass detonation
during the fireworks disaster on May 13, 2000.
Right before the big explosion there had been a smaller one, which
after analysis of the video footage was proven to include a shock wave.
The test done by the students showed that the effect is stronger with
lighter fire works.
Weather
This morning, the sky was blue, which was a nice surprise because it
had been grey for almost the whole week. When I came outside, it was
hot, but it was also obvious that the humidity was rather high.
When we went into the city, I already saw some cloud forming in the
sky. Around four in the afternoon, there were the first dark clouds,
and we heard on the news that some heavy thunderstorms were causing
problems in the rest of the country and a warning for strong squalls.
It was only around eight that the it started with us, and while I
looked outside, I considered the possibility of parking our new car
away from the tree it was standing close to. Finally, I just left it
there and nothing happened. (Later I heard that the thunderstorm was
preceded with an impressive shelfcloud.)
Wedding ring
Yesterday around four in the afternoon, I went outside to check the
temperature. It was rather nice. I decide to do something about the
pavement in the garden, which had been partly removed because our
neighbours are having an extension of their living room. Last week
the builder told me that he no longer needed access to our garden
with respect to the new wall. I ended up doing everything, and worked
till about half past eight (of course, with a break for dinner. It
did involve some puzzling to get all the pieces in, but I was rather
happy with the result.
In the evening, I suddenly noticed that my wedding ring had some rough
edges. Then I noticed that it was damaged because of me banging the
stones of the pavement with some other stone. I immediately went to
Li-Xia to show it to her. I got the ring
from her. She forgave my stupidity. I am afraid that the next time, I
will forget to take it off again.
Shooting down a wasp
We just had our first wasp entering the room through the open window
for this year. One of my colleagues got the idea to shoot it from
the ceiling with a rubber band. He fired
twice, I four times. My last shot was a hit. He then killed it with his foot.
The Game
Tonight, I watched the movie The Game on television. I missed the very first minutes, I guess.
Quite an interesting movie, a real psychological triller, as you keep
doubting whether it really is a game or not. Especially, when at the
end he jumps from the building to commit suicide. The only weak point
is that this would never be possible to do in reality. Of course, you
can do a lot with special effects, but only when everyone is aware of
it and cooperating. It would never be possible to do this with a
person being unaware of it.
This months interesting links
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