Thursday, July 13, 2006

Chess, Music and Charge Cards

Speed Chess
Chess fascinates me. Watching chess, that is. It seems so intellectual, so sophisticated, so "grown up." I think about spies playing chess, kings playing chess, Bobby Fischer playing Soviet champion Boris Spassky in the 1970s. Funny thing is that I was alive then, and I had no idea they played the match of the century. Guess they did not have Chess-playing Barbie back then.

One thing that fascinates me is how quickly some chess players play (speed chess). They use these timers and basically take only a few seconds per move. Well, I love watching chess, but I have little interest in really learning the game. I mean, I know how the "horsy" moves, or the one that moves diagonally, but I don't really understand all of the strategies. And saying horsy instead of knight really makes me look amateurish.

But I sort of write like speed chess players play. I open a document, and I start typing. When I reach one page, I finish typing. It takes about 15 minutes when I speed blog, and er, believe it or not, I don't edit a darned thing. So you are getting raw thoughts, from my brain to my fingertips. Sometimes I repeat myself, sometimes I don't.

Stealing Music
You know, I don't steal music. But it is not because I am moral or anything. I just like music that was published twenty years ago, and I can get the CDs for a dollar in used bookstores. What does that say to me? That most people have better taste than I do? Probably. I mean, I could find blogs that talk about music, but if I did, I would want to find out about obscure musicians. I mean, to be obscure is so much more cool than to like what the whole world likes.

Wonderful Wayne's World quote: "I mean Led Zeppelin didn't write tunes everybody liked. They left that to the Bee Gees." Or something like that.

I don't steal music, but I could. My OCD would allow me to categorize all of the music I stole, and I would collect several renditions of the same song. This is the 1976 live version of Song X. And I would also want some rare masters. Oh, stealing songs and watching chess. What I geek I would become!

Great Business Opportunity
I was watching TV at the gym the other day, and there was a credit card commercial (actually, it may have been a charge card commercial, variation on a personal finance theme). I won't reveal the company, but they give you 1% back and put it in a high-yielding money market account for you so you can be a spender and a saver. Sounds great, huh?

Okay, so let me get this straight. I place money on the card, and I get 1% back. And instead of applying it to my balance (let's say you charge me between 12 and 18% interest, you will place it in an instrument that pays 4% (they actually had the percent the savings earned on the commercial).

I want that job – I lend you money at 18% and then if you lend me money, it is at 4%. And you cannot figure out that if you paid me with what was in the other account, you would net a huge savings. What a freaking great business opportunity – for the company.

Total time: 17 minutes. Crap, loosing my touch!

21 comments:

Edtime Stories said...

I love the raw thoughts from your brain.

Yeah those credit cards are a great gig for the banks. So did you get one?

kathi said...

I'm blocked...so I still envy your 17 minutes.

MOAB said...

Kathi- Me too. Sigh.
Leesa, good morning. What caught my intrest is that you go to a gym. I also envy those diciplined enough to exercize regularly. Or at all. My intentions and my actions do not coincide.
Monica

Grant said...

"And saying horsy instead of rook really makes me look amateurish." Especially since horsey is the knight, and rook is the castle. And the diagonal guy is the bishop, or as I like to call him, Mr. Pointy or Penis-Man.

Which is why I hate chess - serious players lose it when I rename the pieces, they like to use pre-planned and named strategies instead of playing by the seat of their pants, and I've never been able to convince any that we need to play speed chess instead of "let's take an afternoon to plan our next move". Also they don't like the way I turned it into a contact sport. Wusses.

Tony said...

I loved playing speed chess. Always quick, always exciting.

I can't speed blog, though. To many erors, repeated thoughts, words left, and repeated thoughts. I always have to go back and edit.

My hats off to you.

Deb said...

Speed blogging and speed chess? I never heard of speed chess before, but the whole concept of that game makes my brain hurt. I think you have to be smart or sumptin'. *sigh*

Leesa said...

ed: I have my one card already.

kathi: envy my 17 minutes? sounds like something sexual. Arg.

monica: yeah, no kids. I have to have other interests.

grant: I edited the post. Thanks for posting the mistake. Although calling the piece by the wrong name would also be amateurish. I almost looked it up on google, but I was two minutes over anyway.

tony: I could speed chess, but my opponent would be like, "sweetie, you can't move that piece that way."

dawn: okay. thanks.

goddess: I really think people should use credit cards with caution.

~deb: I know, sweetie, no such thing as strip chess. That's why poker is so much more popular.

Tony said...

No, one look at you and your opponent would be like "sweetie, I love it when you move your piece like that."

You'd win everytime.

mikster said...

17 minutes? It takes me that long to think of a title sometimes.

Pittchick said...

I think it might take me 17 minutes to come up with a comment. My brain is not working today, maybe because the air conditioning went out in my lab. UGH! Anyway, I stopped by today.

Unknown said...

lmao again. you and i are so much alike, it's scary. the whole OCD thing with the music collection and various versions of songs, been there, done that. ;) we need to talk, lol.

Prata said...

Love chess. Play it constantly.

I download music constantly. Why? Because I can. That and CD's are over priced. I also, don't listen to enough american music to warrant me goin' out and spendin' 20 on a cd that cost 5 and a half cent to make. The artist doesn't make money from sales anyhow. They make money from touring. Blech.

kathi said...

leesa ~ yeah, I envy that too, lately.

Superstar Nic said...

Hey Leesa!

Dr. Deb said...

Well you do so much in that short amount of time!

Leigh said...

Oh no I am a OCD music geek! What is this world coming to. I love that you don't edit and your style of writing. I look forward to your post daily. Thanks for sharing.

Leesa said...

tony: thanks for the compliment.

mike: the trick is to use Kaavya Viswanathan's method of writing. Just steal the titles.

dna: yeah, but your comments are better than my posts.

jd: you and I are so much alike. So you use Earth-friendly pads as well. Small world!

prata: er, I would have guessed that.

kathi: sorry hun.

n-search: hey, sweetie. I have not been by your site in a while.

dr ~deb: yeah, but quantity is nothing like putting together a quality product.

leigh: you said, "I love that you don't edit and your style of writing." What leight meant: "Thanks for not editing. It gives me a sense of superiority." Just kidding, but that's sort of what I was thinking you meant!

Unknown said...

yes, i find they make great kneepads for working in the yard. and i wear them on my head as sweatbands since are so absorbent. ;)

Unknown said...

doesn't everybody? :)

mal said...

Chess is worth learning. I enjoy it more than most games. The possible permutations are incredible. I will confess that I can see a game after the fact, but seeing it develops is hard.

Definetely not a spectator sport

Leesa said...

phronk: yeah, speed chess impresses me as well. With IT2M, I think they are just trying to be funny, mostly. They have ripped some good blogging friends of mine.

jd: funny.

mal: I have never seen a game afterwards. Of course, I have not played chess since high school.