Talk is cheap. When are you going to so something, Don?

Err, no time soon. August, maybe.

Why?
I do want to make another constructive jab at chess improvement, but taking a bite of a reality sandwich, it ain't going to happen before August. I've got a big project coming in at work, and I'm going away to school for the month of July. (I'm training to be a high school math teacher, but as Robert Howard would say, "That is another story".) Since I only go to school one month of the year, you can imagine when all my homework is due. 'Nuff said.

So what is this blog going to be about until then?
I offer you the rare chance of chess schadenfreude. In June, I will be playing one rated game/week at my local club. If my early results are any indication, I should go down in a blaze of glory. I think Zukertort's nervous collapse in his world championship match versus Stenitz will look dignified by comparison. My rating floor is 1500, a full 217 points below my current 1717, and I think I might even need that safety net before Fourth of July weekend. Here is your chance to watch someone flipping around like a fish on the dock.

You're kinda nuts.

You're just realizing this?

My purpose is not all masochistic. I am finding what has happened to my chess ability very interesting. I've come back after layoffs before. One is always rusty, but this is something new. My heightened pattern recognition combined with my severely weakened calculation ability has made me an abysmal player. I really do think I am playing worse than I have ever played. I think that my experience may shed some light on why people get kookie about their rating ("I couldn't pay because I didn't want to risk the rating points") and why people drop out of the game and never come back.

Is that really it?
Pretty much. That and it's kinda fun to think of new ways to describe how much I suck.