Malweth’s Metablog

I’m going to start working on getting in shape this weekend… I think I’ve come up with a good rewards and motivation system:

Points are awarded for various activities, events, etc. Points can be cashed in for rewards.

Points are earned in the following ways (and you have a low-cap of -500 points):

• Target Daily Calories rounded UP to the nearest 100 (example, 1800)
• +10 points for every 100 calories under the target (maximum 30 earned points)
• -10 points for every 100 calories over the target (minimum 100 lost points)
• -100 points for Not Keeping Track
• Working out
• Effort Levels have time factors:
• Hard workout (Muscle pain on the following day, target heart rate, sweat)
  1.5 times the actual time spent (+50%)
  Example: Running, hard elliptical workout
• Moderate workout (sweating, heartrate up)
  1 times the actual time spent (0%)
  Example: Yardwork, light elliptical, actively playing with dog
• Light workout (no sweat)
  0.5 times the actual time spent (-50%)
  Example: Walking, light Qigong, light Taiji
• Time spent equals points earned (after factor):
• -15 points for <30 minutes of daily activity
• +15 points for 30-90 of daily activity
• +30 points for >90 minutes of daily activity
• Weekly Weigh-in
• If losing weight:
• -80 points, gain > 2 lbs
• -40 points, gain 1-2 lbs
• 0 points, 1/2 lb gain to 1/2 lb loss
  (note that half pound changes cumulate, so a 1 lb gain over 2 weeks
  results in -10 points)
• +40 points, lose 1-2 lbs
• +80 points, lose > 2 lbs
• If Maintaining (with losses acceptable) the above chart shifts up and all gains cumulate

This means that a maximum week results in 30 x 7 + 30 x 7 + 80 = 500

Getting 500 points in any given week will be next to impossible! I’d figure on a good weekly goal of around 200 points. Rewards are described below:

• Food Rewards
• -100 points, Uncounted Dessert (2 scoops ice cream or equivalent)
• -250 points, Uncounted Large Dessert (Restaurant portion)
• -750 points, Uncounted 3-Course Restaurant Meal
• -1500 points, Uncounted Holiday
• Gift Rewards
• -500 points, $10 “giftcard”
• -2000 points, $50 “giftcard”
• -10000 points, $500 “giftcard”

I’m having some trouble with the １２３大家來解詰棋1000題. I’m stuck in the 700s - the 5 step problems are giving me some difficulties, so I’ve decided to start over again from the beginning. This will be my third restart, but I’m not too concerned - most of the problems are still difficult enough for me to get something out of them!

The picture doesn’t really have much to do with anything, but I like it. Took this from my car just before the toll booth at the Newport Pell Bridge.

I’m also reading commented games in Invincible! My visualization skill has increased significantly so only the toughest of situations are hard for me to see in this book. There are typically about 50 moves per diagram in Invincible. I really like the sanjubango between Shusaku and Ota Yuzo. I’ve read through 5-6 of those so far.

I’ll also note that I’m not reading Invincible in order. The beginning games, where Shusaku takes a handicap, are less useful to me because of the shorter commentary and bigger diagrams.

I’m doing very well in the Tsumego department! Since the last post I reached problem 463 in the 1000 Tsumego book! Many of those were last night when I had more jasmine pearl green tea (3 tsp., boil the water, let sit for 4:30, steep for 3:00). Averaging it out, that’s 65 problems per day - not bad at all!

One of my “short” tsumego days was Sunday. Bob (from the Southern New England Go Assoc) and I went to Sommerville, MA for the Fall MGA handicap tournament. It was very small (about 20 people) this time (usually about 30) so all of my games were handicapped. I played amazingly well considering the types of games I played!!

Game 1 gave me Black in a 3 stone game versus a 2 dan. The game progressed normally, but turned into a very big fight in the mid-game. I surrounded and killed a very large group… it was a skillful kill, so I was happy!

Game 2 also saw me as Black, this time with 6 stones versus a 5 dan. This was an incredibly tough game. I nearly came out ahead in a joseki in the lower right, but my opponent took the cutting stones to turn the corner around. I went a bit tilt at that point (20/20 hindsight counts this a good thing) and split my opponent into two large eyeless groups elsewhere on the board. I managed to turn the game into a giant liberty race (after nearly killing a group, and getting another 5 dan super-turnabout) that I was losing by 2… a resignation on my part, but a game I could be proud of. (I only hope my high dan opponents were talking about me ;))

My final game against a stronger opponent gave me 5 stones. In another surprising fight, I captured a large group (about 40-50 points worth). At this point in the day, and given my previous performance, I was still in a fighting mood… so I played the wrong game (positional judgement is necessary but boring)! I gave away a large corner for free because I refused to defend strongly and lost by 6.

In the last game of the day I gave 2 stones and overplayed far too much. My joseki was terrible and I thought well punished - simply because I was trying too hard. (Can I rationalize a bit that it was the end of the day)? I finally did manage to cut off a small, but heavy group and attack it… this time it was my opponent’s positional judgement that was a bit off (give up the small group to take the win)! The small heavy group turned into a giant heavy group with one eye. In the end I killed it in gote, played elsewhere (because I thought I was sente) and was suddenly losing by about 60. (I missed an atari that let her either connect out or make two eyes). I will rationalize a bit over my stamina, I was feeling fine, but I was getting tired from so much reading. I managed to make up about half of the difference in oyose, and resigned since I was still behind by about 30.

I was pleased with the day… seems like an odd thing being 1 for 4… but it makes sense to me!

Last night I worked 2nd shift (and first), but I was only there for support and really wasn’t needed except for the first hour or so… I didn’t spend a lot of time on Tsumego because there were other people who were idle, but I did manage to get to problem #140! If I can keep up the 70 problems per day even after I’m out of the easier problems, I’ll be golden :)!

One of the hardest parts is being self-deluded in my answer. There are always 1-2 problems (out of that 70) where I find two correct answers, but one has a harder to see ko. Invariably the ko line looks better to me. There are also problems with two correct answers, but one keeps more territory (yet the other looks “safer”). It’s important that I read all of these sequences and ensure that all “correct” answers are truely correct (especially re: ko). Loss of a couple points isn’t quite as important (as ko), but the goal is to get stronger - and a couple of points can make a big difference!

I started the Tea & Tsumego study plan last night… didn’t do a full hour (GoDiscussions and family got in the way a bit). The tea was King’s Tea (Taiwan) 409 Oolong. Steeped it for about 4 minutes (I didn’t actually measure the amount of tea I used…)

I started over on the 1000 Tsumego book (123大家來解詰棋1000). These early problems go very fast, but I was a little distracted, so I got to problem #72. Without distractions (and with the full 1h minus tea prep) I’m sure I could have gotten to #150 in these easier problems.

Tonight there will be no Tea & Tsumego - I am working 2nd Shift to support some other group’s testing, which means I’ll essentially be sitting there… so it will probably be Doctor Who and some tsumego without tea (or with sugared, crappy, iced tea from the vending machine ;)).

Meghan & Dan’s wedding went perfectly this weekend! The rain held off until we were on the road home Sunday, and the day of the wedding was sunny! My flickr has all the images from the rehearsal dinner up, but I’m still working on the wedding photos.

Weddings are very hard to photograph well. The reception site was beautiful, but when you have a canopied deck looking out over a sunny harbor, the people are quite dark (or the water is over exposed). Once the sun goes down, there’s no light left for photos! It was even worse inside - the dance floor had no lights, so it was all flash photography (I hate built-in flash)… Of course this had no bearing on the actual event!! Aside from my photography everything went beautifully!

Another photo-trouble was the moon. It was certainly big enough to fit into some pictures… but a 50mm (or slightly more or less) focal length makes the moon (giant to our eyes) look tiny. It’s very hard to get far enough away for 200mm to get the whole view:

My best picture of the church:

A post on GoDiscussions was all about the types of tea people like… I’ve always been a big fan of tea, and I do have a Go related goal to master my 1000 Tsumego book and eventually the Gokyo Shumyo!

My thought is to have a single hour per day that will include the brewing of hot tea (green, black, anything loose) and the study of tsumego! One hour spent religiously every day will certainly bring my Go strength to a new level… and the tea is also very good for me

Lately it feels as though I don’t have time for anything! I still get a lot done, I’m sure. Notably:

• I’ve set up my Brother & Sister in-law on Wordpress. They’re in the process of Adopting from China.
• I’ve gone on vacation, taken loads of pictures, and post-processed most of them. I’ve also taken a lot of pictures at URI (see below).
• I’ve started looking into PKM and Scheduling to be more productive.

Go has been reduced in status somewhat - it’s unfortunate, but I just don’t have a lot of time for it, especially considering I don’t have a PDA anymore! (If anyone wants to buy me an ipaq…) I’m getting back into it slowly - especially with tsumego and a book or two (currently “Reducing Territorial Frameworks” and “1000 Tsumego”). I like doing tsumego, but it’s also the most likely thing to fall by the wayside when things get busy.

I am coming up with a plan though! As always, it’ll probably be a bit over the top - but if I can manage to schedule everything and stick to it (the hard part) I should be seeing some rapid improvements over the next year. Building this sort of change in routine is just about the hardest thing to do, though…

5D Pinhole

Originally uploaded by dmmaus.

I should really make my first blog related to my own photography, but this was too good to pass up!

The Canon 5D is a very nice digital camera. Without a lens it costs just shy of $3000. A Pinhole camera is essentially film (or a digital image sensor) with a tiny pinhole instead of a lens. This gives an amazingly good picture for the “price” because the camera is typically free (plus the cost of film). The picture always comes out very blurry, though! Apparently a number of people like to emulate the pinhole camera using their expensive digital SLR bodies… so the $3000 pinhole camera has been created!

Well, I had a tough time in this Quarter’s tournament! I won 1 of 4 games! The first game I had a tremendous lead with three corners, played an incorrect move that led to a ko about 10 moves later, losing me the corner. When ahead, it’s better to give up some small points than to lose the lead entirely!

The second game I played well (again getting 3 corners), but ended with about a 10 point loss. This was a no komi game as White.

The lunch break was excellent, though… the best Chinese restaurant is in Sommerville, MA across the street from the Davis Sq Starbucks! I took some pictures for the club here - I don’t have my new camera yet, so I didn’t want to take crappy no-flash pictures in the MGA Club room.

After Lunch, I managed my only win playing White in a 2 stone game. The strangest part of this is that I usually play worse when giving a handicap! I then lost a very exciting game after being given 2 stones. I managed a big capture early on, but my opponent managed a big one later. I probably should have played a little safer after gaining the lead (for the second time in this tournament).

In all, it was an exciting time, and SNEGA Represented!