Oregon Go Open 2006

Yesterday, 5/27, I directed the 2006 Oregon Go Open in Corvallis, OR. We had a great turnout with 32 to 34 people at any given round. Due to some issues with the AccelRat software which the AGA endorses, it was a little hectic pairing and properly handicapping the players for each round. Thank goodness the previous tournament director, Bob, was on hand and willing to help figure out the proper handicaps for each pairing! Many thanks to Bob O’Malley, Gail O’Malley, Akane Negishi, Cornel Burzo, and my lovely wife Wendie for your time, expertise, donations, and support! During the first round we had an even number of players taking part so I was able to play and was paired up with a friend, Frank Brown, from the Seattle area. Frank and I have played eachother in previous tournament rounds and he had beaten me twice already. Our games always seem to be close so I was happy to see that he was taking white. I knew this was going to be a close game! I ended up having to sacrifice my left side group, but in the process of doing so I was able to make up for the loss by taking a good portion of the center of the board. I think my end-game moves are where I was really able to take the initiative. Great game, I’m really glad I recorded it on my pda!

Thanks for the great game Frank! Also, please tell your friends and wife hello and it was nice to meet them! I hope they had a great time ‘tasting wine’ while you were playing your games! :)

Here’s a picture of the final position of the board, with the scoring mode displaying who had what territory at the end.

And here’s a copy of the game SGF for those Go players out there! FrankBrown-JoshGum-20060527.sgf

Following are a few pictures of Go players during thier rounds, click on the picture for a brief description of who is in the picture!

6/6/2006 : Cornel and Landon played thier lesson game, here is the SGF with comments.

24th Annual Oregon Homebrew and Microbrew Festival

Saturday, 5/20, was the Homebrew and Microbrew Festival at the Benton County Fairgrounds, and we had a blast! I was invited to take part with a few friends doing the demonstration all-grain brew which was a great time. Basically we stood around tasting microbrews and chatting with others doing the same… oh and we did brew up a batch of “Arrogant Bastard Clone”. By in large the people who stopped at our location to discuss homebrew already understood the process and most even knew what “Arrogant Bastard” is, but one elderly couple looked shocked after asking “So what are you doing here?” and hearing “Brewing Arrogant Bastard”. An uncomfortable moment later, we quickly explained what we meant by that. :)
Wendie even stopped by after her class and enjoyed plenty of Witbier and other microbrews! A little later into the evening we stopped and chatted with a friend Nick, who had ridden an electric scooter to the festival and looked like he had been tasting plenty of brews. He seemed to be having a great time and we all enjoyed chatting for a good bit.

We all had a great time and I plan on attending next year, as well as entering a few brews into the competition!
Here’s an illustration I found in an old book which I think closely resembles me if I was a monk. :) Click here to see a few other great illustrations.

Software patents…

Here’s a story about Amazon’s 1-Click patent being re-examined.. I’m not patent lawyer and I’m certainly not versed in patent laws, but when the original patent news was announced online regarding Amazons patent on providing its users a way to click and purchase something without having to re-enter information (using what was stored on thier server) I was kind of shocked. I guess having a patent on a name like ‘1-Click’ sounds reasonable.. that’s a trademark. But to have a patent on action of a user clicking a button, and the system using information that the user defined as thier default purchasing profile seems silly to me.. That’s like saying someone could patent the use of a mouse as an input device to the operating system. There has to be some measure of patentability, and it seems to me that measure is pretty wide open.

Now, I’ve got to get back to brainstorming to find something obvious which hasn’t already been patented. :)

Happy Freakin Friday anyway!

Hacking my brain in hopes of eventual weight loss?

I stumbled across a hack for the brain which has helped many people control thier appetite. Like so many others, I’m carrying plenty more weight than I should. For the past 7 weeks I’ve been getting a good amount of exercise each day, most often being 20 minutes of the elliptical before showering when I wake up in the morning. Along with the increased activity, I’ve been eating much better than in the past but not starving myself or depriving myself of everything. In the past I’ve tried the Atkins diet, which worked well, but I could not see myself continuing that diet indefinitely and it was not a good stepping stone to ”eating right” and “exercising more”. Of course my eating habits are mostly not related to my body feeling like it needs food. I tend to eat out of boredom, depression, stress, social activities, and to appease my addiction to pizza..specifically Ciddiccis special with jalapenos.. oh god, pizza is wonderful! :)

I’ve read that plenty of people find this hack has helped them restrict the calories they consume and to recognize and address the other factors that are involved.

This morning I stumbled across an interesting article regarding a very non-traditional method of weight loss and appetite suppression. The premise of this theory is that you are essentially hacking your brain into thinking it needs to prepare for a period little food availability, or famine. After reading this article and a few others on the subject, I’m willing to give this a shot.. Afterall, the worst thing that could happen is my consumption of 300-400 more generally tasteless calories a day.. I’ll try this out as strictly as I can and post about whatever happens.. If you’re at all intrigued by this, read the article for yourself. I will summarize HOW to do this, and leave the explanation of WHY this works to the article.

CalorieLab has a great posting which summarizes this perfectly, I’m posting it for my readers and myself:

If you need a starting point, try swallowing a tablespoon of bland vegetable oil in midmorning, about 10:00 or 10:30, and another in midafternoon, about 3:00 or 4:00. It has to be at least an hour away from any meal or eating, for reasons explained in the article above. To summarize here, you need to give your body some calories, but in such a way that your body does not associate those calories with taste. To do this, (1) the substance must be virtually tasteless (oil, diluted sugar water, or raw egg), and (2) you cannot consume a meal (which would have taste) close to the consumption of the tasteless substance.

If you want to try the sugar water route, put three tablespoons of sugar in a pint of water and drink it all at about 10:00 or 10:30, and do the same at about 3:00 or 4:00. The type of sugar doesn’t matter (but don’t use “tasty” sugar like brown sugar, honey, or maple syrup).

Another thing to remember: This isn’t a diet in the traditional sense. There is no eating plan or meal suggestions. The whole idea is that consuming the oil or the water will deaden your appetite, and you will eat less. If it works, you will naturally be choosing to eat less food. If you are still eating a lot of food, it hasn’t worked. If it hasn’t worked, adjust the timing or amounts of oil or sugar. If after a few variations it still doesn’t work, maybe you should give up and try another diet — or wait until Dr. Roberts’ book is released.

Seems crazy right? Just some oil or sugar before eating.. that’s a fad diet for sure! Right? Well, we’ll see what it does to (for?) me.