Directory of Chess Openings

I’ve been trying to learn some chess openings, couldn’t keep them in my head, so I created a mindmap of them all. I find most of the websites about openings unusable as a teaching aid, so much so I sometimes think about writing something myself.

Found a House

So after far to many bad places, I finally found somewhere, a new build…

This blog seems to be dead at the moment

House Hunting

So, after the yearly round of payrises, I’ve decided to try buy a house

I have a bit of a dilema, in that I only have 22% deposit for 3 times my salary. Below 25% and the interest rates on mortgages jump ~ 2%. So do I try and save to get to 25% or jump in now?

So what am I looking for in a house

1. Primarily, it’s not in a sink estate, I know I won’t be able to buy a house in the nicest of areas, but staying away from the warzones would be nice.
2. Must be within 25 minutes drive of work (so Shipley to Skipton)
3. Must be structurally sound, I can fix cosmetic stuff easily, but fixing roofs is a pain.
4. Kitchen must be decently sized (I think 3*3 metres is my lower limit)
5. Must have at least a back yard, something I could plant some raspberries in.

Things I’ve given up on

1. Drive would be nice, but onroad parking otherwise.I want to be able to walk back from a train station when drunk, so the house needs to be less than 1.5 miles away from any of the Airedale stations.

Crumupant

The realisation that the crumpets are burning.

(Google doesn’t know about it)

Should I buy a car?

I’ve been trying to decide if I should buy a car or not after I pass my test, as usual I’m trying to calculate all this from a logical point of view. Ignoring financial considerations

Advantages of having a car

• A to B, without needing to go through C D E and F
• Less waiting around especially in the cold
• Don’t have to get from the train station to the destination
• Can go at any time I want, don’t have to wait for the schedule
• Can carry heavier goods.
• Cancellations are less likely
• Can always get a seat
• I rather like revving up to 70 mph.
• Only being able to get into Leeds twice an hour (once on Sundays) really restricts my timing.

Advantages of taking the train

• Doesn’t tire me out
• Can read a book or watch a movie
• Can get rather drunk and then take the train.
• Less polluting
• I rather like sitting down and relaxing.
• Can use the phone/browse the web.

I don’t intend to take the train from home to work and back, as they are both right next to a train station. When I go into Leeds I’d take the train as it’s not exactly a long walk to the train station.

None of those arguments are exactly knock out blows. While I’d rather I pollute less, wasting hours in a train station really annoys me. So onto the financial side of things (all prices return):

Place	Cost of Train	Time of Train	Changes	Distance in Car	Cost of Fuel for Car (1)	Time for Car
Moms	£47.30	Between 195 – 295 minutes	3	132 miles	£25.50	148 minutes
Dads	£44.50	Between 189 – 219 minutes	2	124 mile	£23.95	151 minutes

1 – I made an assumption that I could get 48 mpg out of the car and fuel would cost 4.64 a gallon.

The fact that taking a train to my mothers takes twice as long and twice as much money really leads me to think that getting a car would save me time (which in a way is priceless), I would have to make a lot of journeys to economically make up the insurance, cost of the car, cost of the road tax and all the other sundries, I’m concinced financially it isn’t entirely sensible. But the freedom to be able to go anytime I want, wherever I want is undeniable.

Two steps forward one step back?

While the election of Barack Obama is a great step forward for America, the news reports in the UK are overlooking the propositions in the States that are banning Gay Marriage. Some of the states such as Florida Gay Marriage wasn’t a reality, it was already setting into place the current state of their system. California however is different, many marriages already exist and changing the law to deny them their rights to marry really hurts all those who are already married.

This led me to thinking, why isn’t there an index for LGBT rights, like the Corruption Perceptions Index and the Freedom in the World report. So I started thinking what would you include.

I’d make a score of 0 mean that according to the law there is no difference, a higher number say 100 would mean that there is total inequality.

I’d split it into seperate areas, marked between 0 and 10, 0 being complete equality, 10 being complete inequality or completely illegal. I’d split the area into a set for men and a set for women (for items such as age of consent and such like).

So what areas would I consider

1. Marriage (Marriage the same as a hetrosexual couple would be exactly 0)
2. Age of Consent Equality
3. Adoption Rights
4. Anti discrimination Laws.
5. Transsexual Rights (change of birth certificate and the like)
6. Military Service
7. Restrictions on Public Discussion (Section 28 and the like)

I’d also be tempted to add items on Rape

So where would the UK be?

1. Civil partnerships. I’d say as it’s not called Marriage it’d be a 1
2. Equality of Age of Consent. Completely Equal 0
3. Adoption Rights. Completely Equal, Lesbians allowed to have IVF 0
4. Anti discrimination. Everywhere 0
5. Transsexual Rights. Right to change legal gender 0
6. Military Service. Fully allowed 0
7. Restrictions on Public Discussion. None any more 0

So a total score of 2/140. Pretty equal, what do we do with the placards now?

I might do some of the USA states and EU countries for a laugh over the next few days. I’m guessing most the USA states would be higher than a 2

A small hiatus

It seems that not much has been going on in my life recently. Thus no blog posts.

One thing that has seemed to be going on is that I’m coming out to more and more people at work. Whilst I’m not all my close colleagues know, from my point of view I feel like I’m out (or almost so) and I don’t try to avoid subjects that would bring me out.

How dull.

I failed my driving test.

Yep, failed it, and by a big amount

I got 1 dangerous driving, 3 serious faults and about 6 minors

I screwed up my reverse parking (serious, although why that is supposidly dangerous I’m not sure). I then didn’t completely stop at a stop sign when I could see there wasn’t a car around at the junction (serious, and I’m not sure if the sign was still there as they were doing maintanance on the road). The dangerous driving was a bit stupid, I was trying not to hesitate on a roundabout, I saw I had a space after a car and thought the one behind it was turning left, turned out it wasn’t and I had to really slam on the brakes. Then on the exit to the roundabout I forgot to check my left mirror (another serious fault). I got a few minors for doing 40 mph in a 60 mph area (I knew there was a sharp bend up ahead, there were no cars around I didn’t see the point in speeding up then slowing down) and ‘Undue hesitation’.

One thing I wonder about is, if most people fail first time (90% of the people I know), do they actually become better drivers the next time around or do they just get safer situations by random chance? If that is the case is a 45 minute driving test really the best way to exam for fitness of drivers? And are those that pass first time those who control their anxiety better? A quick google hunt in fact found a reference to a paper entitled “Anxiety and performance in the British driving test”, which does seem to indicate a link between Anxiety and the formality of the driving test. Are they really testing the drivers ability or just the drivers resistance to nerves?

If nervousness is a real problem wouldn’t a more fair way be similar to vocational courses with the driving instructor evaluating the driver instead of a person the driver has never seen before with the scarey clipboard? Afterwards my entire head felt depleted (lack of serotonin?) until I ate some chocolate (antidementor…), I unfortunatly pigged out a bit too much on sugarred products and my head is ringing, I really should stop doing that.

Second time lucky

Finally got my hair cut

I finally got my hair cut, I kind of backed out of going really short. I always feel a bit wierd after getting it cut, I don’t know what to expect. Nothing can be as bad as how it was.

Booked my ticket to the girl geek dinner in leeds next wednesday should be an interesting time. I’m starting to get a little anxious about my driving test in 2 weeks time, I still don’t feel confident about reversing round a corner.

Final week of first aid course

I passed my first aid course, during the assessment I got marked down slightly for not talking to someone whose uncoincious, but from my POV didn’t seem to be a high priority. Mostly this week was just on what happens with multiple injuries.

I spent most the afternoon enjoying the last of the sun in Leeds and my feet hurt afterwards.

Today when I gave my temporary certificate to the HR bloke at work he mentioned he was thinking of getting an AED. Bit nervous about my pratical driving test, but loads of idiots can pass it, it shouldn’t be that difficult.