- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 723
Now writing, now taking a break. Playing chess online against the bot "Sven", whom I should be able to beat with my eyes closed, only - for some reason, I don't.
Inaccuracies, Mistakes, Blunders.
Sven, he's a barometer of my mental wellness, 1100, my chess rating should be substantially better than this, only - it's not. My mistakes - blunders, are trivial, yet still they recur, there's no "long term strategy", merely move, move - ooops, the blunderbuss of my incompetence, inattention, keeps the game running to 20, 30, 50, even 150 moves.
Games I should win with my eyes closed.
There are days when I win - it seems that it is the day that decides, not my ability - some days, the games are short, victory is swift. Others - defeat inevitable and invariably prolonged far beyond what I should be comfortable with. There seems to be no common denominator - play drunk, hungover, sober as a judge - there's something else going on upstairs that decides even before I wake how the day will proceed.
Now - I know this game. I've played it - on and off - 35 years. My real ranking should be in the low 2000. Minimum. I used to play a friend, Milan, in the cafe's of Edmonton - we were evenly matched, meaning to say that both of us were bad - but I recall playing him once - he had me cornered - his checkmate assured, when somehow a light went on in the back of my brain, and I saw a full 7 moves ahead, my way out - an epiphany of sorts - and playing them through won the game.
For the record, chess masters only "see" 2 or 3 moves ahead - merely they know what moves are better, what moves are not - and so the game is built largely upon habitual responses to every foreseeable move.
But this is it - the game - it plays itself in the back of your mind, it's not playing the game that's so difficult, it's getting myself out of the way so that the light in the back of my head can play, me, I'm casting an incompetent's shadow on the board, it's not Sven, it's me defeating myself.
And this I am finding highly annoying.
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 658
This, found while doing research into a few related topics, a grotesque masterpiece that's rather fetching, don't you think?
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triumph_of_Death
Right click, open in a new tab and admire the details. The painting is inspired by the Bubonic Plague, which swept Europe and Asia a number of times to devastating effect.
In some instances, in towns up to 50% of the population died in a couple of years, in countries upwards of 25%.
This Pandemic, hate to say it, but it's just the warm-up before the practice...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 592
Curious, on the "Mind-Body" connection. Will yourself to death or think yourself young...
Link: https://www.salon.com/2021/12/31/psychogenic/
& Link: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/02/can-you-think-yourself-young-ageing-psychology
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 455
Link: https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-invisible-organ-shaping-our-lives-microbiome/
By implication, a great deal of our health and mental wellness can be traced back to diet and lifestyle. Things like smoking, sugar, diet soda, preservatives and antibiotics all negatively affect the gut biome, which in turn affects not only our health but our state of mind.
The good news, you can positively impact it with healthy lifestyle choices and probiotic foods - such as Kombucha, active yogurt, fermented foods, etc.
And, of course - fresh and young fecal transplants. Mmmm. Fecal transplants. I've already called my first unborn grand-childs first dirty diaper, but this could be a long waiting game...at least the kids know I'll be game for baby-sitting.
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 616
AN interesting read via PsyPost that human brains shrunk approximately 3000 years ago as a response to Social Intelligence (or "Shared Intelligence").
I see plenty of evidence that via Social Media, cell phones, etc - the next level of "Social Intelligence" - are shrinking and atrophying our brains yet again, and further...