Wednesday, September 30, 2009

A Child’s Plan, for adults to counter (part one)

I only taught English for one year, and I don't miss it, but I found this old extra credit assignment in my mailbox and thought you guys might enjoy it. It's part one of three-- if you like it, I'm happy to post the next two.

This kid was one of my all time favorites: super funny, a huge character, always had something interesting to say. He was also quite good at chess. In his first essay for me, he compared Animal Farm to this book I had lent him about the genocide in Rwanda called I Regret to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families. His thesis was that power is always corrupting, but it's more corrupting when its caught up with issues of identity. Pretty amazing insight for an eighth grader, right?

But this one is just fun:



A Child’s Plan,
for adults to counter
by: (name removed)

Intro

Funny thing is that the real reason I’m writing this is for credit of all the homework I’m going to miss writing this for Ms. Vicary my English teacher. Well also I’m writing this to open up the eyes of many adults to show them how hard it was back when they were small themselves. You may be moved by this but no this isn’t enough to truly open up your eyes and have a different view on children. Well lets start with the actual intro to the regular book (if this ever get published).

Actual Intro

In the time of when we all were young learning was a absolute must. We though the young, now take it for granted. There are actually many reasons why we take such a vital thing for granted. It is all the stress and work our brains are going to face. Working at the age of 10 is bad but people really don’t know what it is to work with your brain for twenty two-years or a full education length . Also we must deal with the stress of homework and school during these twenty-two years also . I bet if we put a random adult in school for a week they wouldn’t stand the pressure we face. Honestly the will to learn is completely based upon pressure. Many people say our brains are like sponges but has anyone listen to any person who said that if you pressure the sponge a lot it won’t soak up anything though? Or no one even thought of saying it. Doesn’t everybody see that teachers needs to sometimes need to be more lax on the homework ? Well some people may do but most will not. This malfunction of the sponge can cause serious defects in the child’s early life. Thus I’m here to guide you into raising a child to be normal or at most, a great artisan.

The Plan
Intro

Many psychologists have tried to decipher our brains and plan out what we might make for our next move. Few have realized that it takes a child to see a child’s brain. Thus why I’m writing this book. I want to help you out with dealing with your child. I would like to help you with Behavior waves in this part. You will learn how to:
Interpret phases
Deal with phases
Keep your child under control
Use the bottle

A Complete guide to Phases

Life so vivid and full of, you know life. Us children are that way, when small of course. Well that all changes as we complete our metamorphosis into an adult of course. First we go through many phases in order to reach adulthood. Here’s what basically summarizes it.

Dependant phase

When we are little we have to depend on someone, it’s nature. Well sometimes we depend on you too long like when your 50 and you still live in your mommy’s house, awww you big lug. Well there isn’t much to say but the ages it occurs in. Also if you continue to love your children like how you did over six years old you’ve got one spoiled lug who’s going to really on you a lot more than other kids. Ages-0 to 6 “normally”

Independent phase

The best time for you to teach your child how to do things so they could fend for themselves or you’d get you know what (points to dependant phase explanation). Well don’t let them get too independent though, just teach them the basics or they’re going to run around in the street with a knife saying “ Let’s cook you !!”. Honestly that could happen, there’s always a chance of it. Ages- 5-10 ( yes we can experience two phases at once)

Obedient phase

Do you know what’s it like for you to have a mindless robot following your orders ? Well you may not because these robots aren’t real yet or we’d be having robot families instead. Well here we are at our best behavior and we listen to what you. Yeah, we really, we’re like your slaves. I still remember when I was like this ( trauma switch on), I did whatever she said and not even one thank you, she owes me!!!!! (trauma switch off) Ages- 6-8

“Normal” phase

By normal I mean stable like others. Not too obedient, and not to rebellious just normal. This can happen at any time unless “that” has been used and if we’re having a tough time right now. Here’s a example of it to help you out.
Son: “Mommy, can you buy me this ?”
Mom: “Son what is that!!!”
Son: “Just a plastic gun that’s all.”
Mom:“Put it back now”
Son: “Alright mommy”.
+ 5 years Son: “Hey mom I’m going to the movies l.
”Mom: “ Alright be home on time though”
3 hrs later
Son: “I’m back”
Mom: “Son I thought you’d be back on time.”
Son: “The trains were damaged mom watch the news.” Ages 5- death ( five because we start to use our brains then)

Rebellious phase

Think of this, boiling, hot, sweaty, rage, what your going to be feeling when you experience this with your child. God you’re in for a ride. When we’re rebellious we don’t listen to what you say, we don’t do our homework, we don’t do anything you say basically. Honestly the worse situation to ever be in. Especially if you have a girl, they are the most feisty and have the longest phase. It can last for over five years or even when they’re adults. There are many examples of this and the all too known spoiled, Paris H. (Hey u can’t sue me because I could me any other Paris H. like Paris Hamburg). Ages-13-14

Stupid rebellious phase

A amplified version. This time it effects our decisions and our brains. We become totally mindless things that go around doing stupid things and still not listening to what advice we get. A great example is my stupid big sister. My mom gives her a curfew, she breaks it. My mom tells my sister to stop going to someone’s house, sh goes. My dad yells at her for going out and tells her not to do it during school nights, she still does. In the end she makes me angry, my mom angry, my dad angry, and she gets herself in trouble, great isn’t it? Well here is basically were the line ends. If you survive this we won’t be as much trouble. It’s been known for girls to have it longer though but boys to become much more stupid during this phase. The reason, we dumb down because we tend to get much more interested in girls and do whatever they say. Aye... Such stupidity.Ages-14-18

Dealing with phases and constant fuss

How to deal with these phases ? Why would I write tha... oh I’m righting a book on children’s brains. Well it’s going to be easier with the help of it, just follow step by phase.

Dealing with:

Dependent phase:
Here just nourish them with love and build a foundation of trust, love, and joy. Just don’t over do it and stop when the child’s at six or five because(points to dependent phase explanation). Also it’s good to start early and prepare for the storm ahead. (Points to hurricane)

Independent phase:
Same thing, you could let them become independent but just don’t over do it. Honestly If you let someone be independent for too long you could become misanthropic and despise friendship, love and all that stuff. So teach them things and don’t you dare let them out of sight because you know what could happen.(points to child running wild in the street with a knife)

Obedient phase:
Eh it’s pretty simple just have them do what’s good for your relationship by forcing the child to memorize a the things you did for them and to shed love on them too. Also, careful your child could hate you if you make them do something embarrassing. Trust me, I was used once in this case. (Trauma switch on) My sister, stealing money from me, all those Gunplas I could have bought (T-T). (Trauma switch off and yes a face)

Rebellious phase:
The hardest to deal with. You must keep check of the way your child acts to realize when the phase has come. Well you basically keep your cool in this phase but don’t make too cool or your going to run out of energy for the stupid rebellious phase. Well all you have to do is out smart the child and hope that the stupid rebellious phase never comes. Also, hide this book so you don’t get pummeled by the attacks the child may plan for you like:
RK: “Mom, Dad am I that hard to keep up with huh? That hard that you need a book. I don’t do bad things, you just annoy me so much. Go read your stupid book.”
Honestly that would hurt if actually said to your honey muffin child which spoiled. Just be careful.

Stupid rebellious phase:
Utterly stupid, that’s all I have to say. For you and the child you raised. With my advice you shouldn’t even be in this mess if you haven’t done something wrong. Well I guess I’m going to have to tell you how to manage through this mess or I’m going to give you a painful medicine for your child. (Points to bottle) Well first off, you have to tame us. Do this over the summer, all you have to do is ground the stupid idiot. Don’t let them out of your sight and if they get violent just restrain the kid. Don’t beat them, it’s for that. ( points to bottle) Same thing in the rebellion phase, out smart them but this time ten fold. You must also establish respect. Without that your dead. Here’s a example how to establish it.

How to establish respect:
Be really good at sports (I’m working on it)
Stay calm when in arguments (I can already do that)
Don’t ever hit anyone (The bottle may be used)
Be nice to your child sometimes (This problem wouldn’t even start)
Have a similar hobby that your better than them at (for me RTSG) Well that’s it I guess. If you need help with anything not written in the book, please email me at to be helped with. I have a even harsher personality in real life so don’t waste my time or your going to get a harsh message.

The Bottle
Do you honestly want to know about the bottle ? Well let me show you it. (Grabs bottle and show you it)SHOCKZ THERAPY OINTMENT
CREATED BY HH CORP.
(x_x)
/ T \
/\

GOOD EFFECTS OF SHOCK THERAPY:
CONTROLS YOUR CHILD
KNOCK OUT OF ALL PHASES
FOLLOWS A DIFFERENT PHASE
SNAPS CHILD OUT OF STUPIDITY
IMPROVES GRADES

BAD EFFECTS OF SHOCK THERAPY:
MISANTHROPIC BEHAVIOR (You know I hate everything)
RESENTMENT (They don’t like you for sure)
HATRED (There’s a huge difference)
DESTABILIZES RELATIONSHIP(Down the drain ?)
RANDOM PHASES INCLUDE OSTRACIZED GROUPS OF PEOPLES SUCH AS GOTHS AND EMOS (O.M.G.could it get worse)

VERY BAD EFFECTS OF SHOCK THERAPY
DEPRESSION ( ME)
SUICIDAL THOUGHTS(AHHH NOT THAT!!!!)(SERIOUS)
SEVERE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT CHANGES(ME)That covers it. Now you read the bottle, would you use it. If you are then read the instructions.

Directions:
Apply directly to brain
Give a dose of anger everyday for a month

Anger dose chart
Rebellious- 2 times as powerful as the child’s own anger
Stupid rebellious- 4 times as powerful as the child’s anger

Shut up! V.S. GET OUT OF THE HOUSE YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING
Warning do not use on other children who are perfectly ok. Use the eldest as a example or if you only have one don’t carry on the anger on to your loved one.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Sunday, September 27, 2009

update on me

all right, so you want to hear how I'm doing? I feel like lately I've been posting a lot of semi-interesting things you could find on the internet yourself, also some nice photos of kids, not that you care maybe, but no actual thoughts from me. So here we go:

Professionally, things are going quite well. We got some amazing, amazing new kids this year (James Black, Justus Williams, and the Bryant twins are the most remarkable/ high-rated, but there are also a whole lot of talented, super enthusiatic lower rated kids whom I'm very excited about.) Here's the current list*:

1. Justus Williams 2051
2. Jehron Bryant 1963
3. Miguel Garcia 1926
4. Alexis Paredes 1914
5. James Black 1841
6. Pobo Efekoro 1822
7. Shawn Swindell 1759
8. Azeez Alade 1751
9. Nigel Bryant 1733
10. Rashawn Williams 1718
11. Myles Foster 1703
12. Rawn Prowell 1701
13. Isaac Barayev 1690
14. Mr. Galvin 1620
15. Joel Ogunremi 1592
16. Danny Feng 1598
17. Jakob Kobajlo 1569
18. John Paul Garcia 1500
19. Sebastian Dabrowski 1488
20. Randy Rivera 1437
21. Brittanie Uddin 1434
22. James Ovando 1383
23. Jermaine Cooper 1355
24. Karol Wadolowski 1313
25. Aleem Awan 1311
26. Giovanni Quinones 1306
27. Abadel Perez 1309
28. D’Andrea Dey 1308
29. Rhoda Lynch 1291
30. Ezequiel Acosta 1280
31. Mitasha Palha 1277
32. Sekou Prowell 1276
33. Talitha Santana 1254
34. Matthew Kluska 1239
35. Emmanuel Ogunremi 1231
36. Adolfo Nabor 1229
37. Mr. Murnieks 1202
38. Ameer Williams 1195
39. David Kim 1181
40. Mateusz Bruszewski 1178
41. Lisa Laundry 1147
42. Vaughn Soso 1126
43. Bilal Hussein 1122
44. Kevin Dominguez 1118
45. Lukasz Fron 1116
46. Kenneth Martin 1115
47. Kamil Chmielewski 1108
48. Mariah McGreen 1086
49. Lequasiah Lawrence 1081
50. Henry Cali 1081
51. Maya McGreen 1077
52. Keith Leary 1064
53. Chris Caraballo 1061
54. Jayvann Cox 1048
55. Richard Wu 1011
56. Eddie Turcios 1007
57. Cesar Ramos 1005
58. Sedrick Nurse 998
59. Qi Yuan Huang 987
60. Usman Hussain 986
61. Alex Cueva 974
62. Joel de la Cruz 960
63. Daniel Montanez 958
64. Alex Bradford 951
65. Juan Candelario 916
66. Cedric Brown 907
67. Anita Maksimiuk 902
68. Christian Marte 885
69. Anthony Ovando 856
70. David Herrera 837
71. Hector Martinez 820
72. Rashawn Baldwin 800
73. Myles Baron 793
74. Matthew Jacome 772
75. Rashawn Baldwin 800
76. Warren Zhang 697
77. Otto Schatz 695
78. Aru Banks 694
79. Manuela Ortiz 660
80. Brian Flores 621
81. Timothy Lam 607
82. Evelyn Cardenas 554
83. Zanea Seymour 521
84. Michael Osseniov 486
85. Brian Chen 380
86. Patrick Johnston 336
87. Szymon Krasnicki 285
88. Rebecca Ogunremi 268
89. Xonatia Lee 184

Ridiculous, right? And Saturday, I learned we are probably getting a new 1700, Emmanual Khodra, who is an old teammate of Justus'.

A lot of the new kids come because they live nearby and 318 is the best middle school in the district. (We ranked in the top 40 of all NYC public schools, out of more than 1600! hurray us) But some kids are coming from far away, and while I would like to take some credit, I think the larger reason is that the eighth graders this year are just incredibly charismatic kids, and everybody wants to hang out with them. The whole team is really a tight knit group, and they spend all kinds of time together and seem so happy, I'm almost jealous. I think even parents see what a good time my kids have with each other, and they want their kid to have access to that kind of camraderie and friendship and educationally based fun. I'm definitely humbled and flattered and awed and terrified of being in charge of all these geniuses' chess education.

What's interesting to me is how the shift upwards in ratings and attendance affects what's important in my teaching: I have less individual time with kids, so my class lessons and homework become more important. I've been enjoying Herman de Grooten's book, Chess Strategy for Club Players, a lot. And I've been giving a lot of hard tactics and making** the kids put time into them. Also, I've been using chesslecture.com more, and that's been a true godsend. It means kids can get individualized help with their openings (the funny reality of teaching middle school: teenagers all want their own special, personal opening that nobody else plays. They will literally get angry if you teach someone else their line.)

Teaching has been very tiring though, because I have at least two and usually three "learning groups" (kids of like strength) in each class, and each group needs its own curriculum and lessons. Which means I have almost no down time during a class. It's like I finish a lesson with one group, have them play a position or work together on some exercise, and immediately I have another group in front of me, ready to check homework or review yesterdays' opening lesson, or whatever. Always go-go-go, finish all this in a 43 minute period. I talk basically all day, loudly and quickly.

Socially, things are pretty dismal. I'm sick right now, so the feeling is exaggerated, but I feel like 99% of my life is work, sleep, internet, and errands, pretty much in that order. Things have gotten so bad that Greg agreed to help me find a boyfriend. It's a pretty funny story, and I know you guys like Greg stories, so here you are:

I've tried online dating, but found that very few people wrote to me, and most didn't write back when I wrote to them. I'm not sure why: I used the blue and yellow picture, which I agree was probably a mistake, and I was kinda weird often when I wrote, or maybe it's just that internet dating is hard, or maybe I'm not as irresistable as I seem, but for whatever reason I failed at it. So Greg believes he's very good at being charming online and picking good people, and he offered to find me some dates. Here's how it works: Greg wrote my profile, he selects and writes to people for me and screens the responses. He forwards anything that he approves of. I continue contact from there. I don't know my own password even. The best part is that my profile doesn't sound much like me at all, but it sounds exactly like Greg (likes: waterslides, hanging out in the park).

So far I have only gone on one date. The guy looked excellent on paper, wrote some great email, but when I met him (at a trendy Japanese restaurant/bar), he was exactly like a chessplayer, only an economist. He talked to me about fiscal policy for 2 straight hours. I'm actually pretty interested in economics, and I'm good at having conversations with obsessive intellectual types (me: "so where do you see US monetary policy in the next ten years?" date: "that's a really good question..."), but c'mon. A bunch of other people have written/ winked at me, but so many of them have something insane in their profiles. For example, what is going through your head if you say you will only date caucasians or East Indians who have blonde, red, or dark blonde hair? How can I take someone who says that seriously?

So I guess I can't complain, but life feels a little zing-less.


*students who haven't played in 2 months are removed
** trying to make, which translates into giving them a hard time when they don't get it right (of course, as long as I think they should have, given their strength and the problem's hardness). I don't know how effective/nice that is, but I can't think of how else to do it.

two fun things for a better Sunday

1. Paul Hoffman's Big Think, a website of interesting talks by experts in diverse fields. I enjoyed the one below





2. fun with microlending: kiva.com! Check out all the worthy people you can lend to, and be fairly sure of getting your money back! (there's a partner reliability 1-5 star rating that allows you to choose your level of risk) join the team yay! micro-lending to be part of Greg (and my) "team."

Saturday, September 26, 2009

photos from central park


Kameelah and Najeebah


David


Anita



Rochelle

Joshua, Nigel, Jehron, Justus


Nicole, JieJing

you can see all photos here

update: thanks to these pictures on facebook, a ridiculously large number of current and former students have friended me.

Friday, September 25, 2009

envy, lead

I'm envious of men for a lot of reasons... their superior ability at video games ... the fact that it's socially acceptable for them to wear the same pair of pants all week .... maybe most of all, their ability to pee standing up.

but that's going to change; in my in-box this morning:
"Ladies, what is the biggest inconvenience when you are backpacking, camping, and hiking? Trans men, would you rather use a urinal instead of a stall? You do have a choice if you want to Stand To Pee, and of all the "STP" devices we tested out, we chose P Style for you!

Anyone who’d like to pee standing up (and that’s a whole lot of people!) will find the P Style useful. This compact and convenient “Stand To Pee” device, or STP, works perfectly for outdoor recreation and work, travel, folks with physical restrictions, female-to-male transsexuals, people who’ve had surgery that interferes with their ability to pee standing up, men with hypospadias… basically, anyone who wants to pee standing up, but whose anatomy or circumstance has kept them from doing so! It can be used through an open zipper with the user fully clothed, and the back edge can be used in place of toilet paper. Best of all, it’s made from nonporous hard plastic, so it’s easy to clean, completely reusable, and long-lasting. Color may vary."

genius!! and only $12! I'm ordering 2.

In education news, a disturbing amount of school drinking water across the country has been found to contain unsafe levels of lead and pesticides. Apparently, nobody is really monitoring it. A few years ago, I worked at an elementary school where they found very high levels of lead in the drinking water in one classroom. None of the parents were informed; we were just told not to let the kids drink water anymore.

And finally, an interesting link (thanks to anijoshi) that traces the political schisms in this country to four distinct groups of British settlers. He suggested it might shed some light on the mind-blowingly weird murder of a substitute teacher/ census worker who was found hanging from a tree with the word "fed" scrawled across his chest.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Pascal and Irina's lecture, Gig

Last night I went to see Pascal and Irina give a lecture at the Marshall Chess Club:

First Pascal showed his game against Dmitry Shneider:


Then Irina showed a game from China.

Lots of pictures of Irina:






spectators
Somewhat incredibly, there were six women in the audience (ok, counting Irina and myself).



In other news, I'm reading a fascinating book called Gig, in which 125 people talk about their jobs. I found it online and embedded it for you. Reading the high school basketball coach one was unnerving, but he's crazier than me, no? update: people were telling me the blog wouldn't load for them, so I've erased the embedded book and linked to it instead

Monday, September 21, 2009

more gender and chess


STRATEGIC BEHAVIOR ACROSS GENDER
- A COMPARISON OF FEMALE AND MALE EXPERT CHESS PLAYERS

This paper studies expert chess players, making use of an extensive database from international chess. We investigate whether men and women differ in choice of strategy, and particularly, we distinguish between "risk-averse" and "risk-loving" strategies. Controlling for playing strength, age and nationality, we find that females are more risk-averse. Furthermore, males act more aggressively against female opponents even though this reduces men’s winning probability. Due to enduring differences even after using individual fixed effects, we think that gender differences in preferences are to some extent biologically determined. This sheds new light on the discussion of women’s under-representation in society. read it


thanks to Macauley Peterson for the paper

you always get a second chance

So I taught the Panov last week. I like teaching it a lot: I have a good little shtick I do, good questions, nice new handout, all very logical, etc. And the trap at the end is such a sucker punch:

1.e4 c6
2.d4 d5
3.exd5 cxd5
4.c4 Nf6
5.Nc3 e6
6.Nf3 Be7
7.cxd5 Nxd5
8.Bd3 0–0
9.0–0 Nc6
10.Re1 Nf6
11.a3 b6
12.Bc2 Bb7
13.Qd3


the big moment of truth... black has to play 13...g6. But doesn't 13... Rc8 look reasonable?

13....Rc8
14.d5!! exd5
15.Bg5 g6

16.Rxe7! Qxe7 [16...Nxe7 17.Bxf6]
17.Nxd5 +/-

So first round at the Marshall, Randy Rivera

Randy

gets the position in the first diagram against an 1880, but after 13... Rc8, plays 14. Bg5 and goes on to lose. First I was annoyed that he forgot, then I was smugly elated at the idea that my students would see how preternaturally relevant my class lessons are. Also James,

got paired against the same guy in round three and he has a much better memory.

temptation: marshmellows, bishops

So Mig facebooked this video:







and it immediately brought to mind a position Azeez got on Saturday:

Azeez is white. His opponent played 1...Bf3. He's a good calculator and normally a very sensible player, but I guess it's like marshmellows.

2. gxf3 exf3
3. Qd1 Qxh3
4. Qxd8+ Bf8
5. Qg5 ...


and ... everything's ok?!?

nope

5... Bd6! and there's no stopping ...Bh2-g3, Qg2#.

poor Azeez

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Saturday at the Marshall

Shawn Swindell, 1679, who went 3-1, beat experts Darrian Robinson and Alena Katz, and won the under 2000 prize.

Myles Foster



Pobo Efekoro



Justus Williams (2020) won all his games.

Alexis Parades

Rochelle Ballantyne

more pictures here
and a video you shouldn't miss

Friday, September 18, 2009

another crushing blow for me:


not making the 20 most bizarre Craigslist posts. (my contribution is described here)
My favorite of the winners? definitely the bathtub noodles:

5) Woman to sit in my bath tub full of noodles, wearing a bathing suit "I will pay you $1 to sit in my bathtub full of noodles while you wear a one piece bathing suit. I will not be home, nor will anyone else while you do this. I will leave the key for you, and you will sit at your leisure. DO NOT bring any sauce. I will season the pasta after I return home prior to dinner."
(abridged-- click the link for more details, especially if you live in Pittsburgh)

and if you enjoyed these, don't miss Amazon's funniest review threads. One example:
Number of reviews: 167
Why it took off: Nuclear material doesn't usually come though the post.Sample reviews:

i) I bought this to power a home-made submarine that I use to look for prehistoric-era life forms in land-locked lakes around my home town in Alaska. At first I wasn't sure if this item would (or could) arrive via mail, but I was glad to see it showed up with no problems. Well, almost no problems. Unfortuantly my mom opened my mail, because she does not respect people's privacy. She was pretty upset to see Uranium Ore.

ii) I purchased this product 4.47 Billion Years ago and when I opened it today, it was half empty.

iii) I ordered a can of Uranium Ore to use as a seductive body dust, as it's much cheaper than those glitter body powders you can buy at department stores, and in addition I prefer the gentle yellow glow it gives to the gaudy glitter of those powders. Not only does it stay in place and glow all night at the dance clubs, but the effects of the radiation have improved my life significantly.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

I'm the stupid jerk

I'd like to apologize to Alejandro Ramirez for thinking and saying that he complained about his game in week 1 of the USCL. I was totally wrong, and moreover, the whole contest idea was childish and stupid.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

this week the team is somewhat unfocused

first board Alex Stripunsky

Dima, dejected

Andrei Zaremba: this time, no ice coffee



teammates Shaun Smith and Ben Katz


Okay, so I played badly. I don't want to talk about it. But two things cheered me up:

1. the Dallas - Boston match. I laughed every time I thought about it today.

2. The court's rejection of the SEC -BoA settlement. All I can say: HOT DAMN.
("It is not fair, first and foremost, because it does not comport with the more elementary notions of justice and morality
....
Overall, indeed, the parties' submissions, when carefully read, leave the distinct impression that the proposed Consent Judgment was a contrivance designed to provide the S. E. C. with the facade of enforcement and the management of the Bank with the quick resolution of an embarrassing inquiry -- all at the expnse of the sole alleged victims, the shareholders.
...
Nor is the proposed Consent Judgment reasonable. Obviously, a proposal that asks victims to pay a fine for having been victimized is, for all the reasons already given, as unreasonable as it is unfair.
...
It is quite something else for the very management that is accused of having lied to its shareholders to determine how much of those victims' money should be used to make the case against the management go away.
Judge's Rejection of S.E.C.-Bank of America Settlement























and finally... pictures of my 318 students!!

Azeez Alade

and his sister, Azeeza Alade!!

James Black


Joel Ogunremi

Justus Williams

Maya McGreen

Myles Foster and D'Andrea Dey

Nigel Bryant (I can tell them apart already!)


Randy Rivera and Rashawn Williams

Monday, September 14, 2009

want to know what my prep for Norowitz was?

I'm writing this Sunday night, but post-dating it so it won't (hopefully) appear until Monday 8:15 pm, when I should be well out of the opening. In case you are wondering if I got what I wanted, it was this:

1. d4 d5
2. e3 c5
3. c3 cxd4
4. exd4 Nc6
5. Bd3 Qc7
6. Ne2 Bg4
7. f3 Bd7
8. Bf4 e5
9. dxe5 Nxe5
10. 0-0 Bd6


and black has supposedly enough activity to compensate for the pawn. A couple interesting games I saw were Brynell - Luther (2003) and Semeniuk - Dreev (1999).

Saturday, September 12, 2009

funny internet stuff

exerpts from Lynne Cheney's lesbian novel, courtesy of the funny whitehouse.org (not a porn site, as I had somehow been led to believe)


and you know I love uncyclopedia:

this piece on kitten huffing is especially good.

The worst part of novice huffing is finding pure kitten. We all know the story, some guy in a club offers you a little bag of kittens, they all have smiley faces on them and he promises you a good time. You get home and check out your "kittens" only to find you have been given a selection of sundry other animals stuck together and painted to resemble kittens! Cunning dealers often use ocelots or other low grade feline products, do not accept alternatives!

A quick and easy method for testing for real kittens is to drop them in water, fake kittens will remain visible while real kittens become hard to see as their refractive index is similar to that of water.This is the same test that can be used on diamonds and has led to the theory that high quality kittens may be formed in a similar way, taking thousands of years of heat and pressure under the surface of the Earth. Isn't nature marvellous!
ps anyone have a good line against the Colle?