Rod Dreher is behind OCATruth.

No wonder it seemed very "Fox News" - they had professional guidance. I admit to being surprised. Perhaps if I could stomach his prose, I would've been familiar enough with it to recognize it. However, I doubt whether I've read more than 2000 words written by him besides his at-times-slanderous anonymous posts on that web-log. Now, the behind-the-scenes details, those are about what I expected (a little more involved, actually, but not too far), just not the name I expected. I especially like the irony of the OCATruth people harping on an investigation of how/whether Stokoe got the confidential SMPAC report (he didn't) when Rod Dreher got both it and the official response of the metropolitan. Seriously, though, I think he could have done some good if he wrote a web-log saying, "Hey, I'm Rod Dreher, and I want to provide some balance here." Etc. And conducting it in the way you have to when you're attaching your name to it and have some integrity.

Okay, and the campaign against Bishop Mark which just rolled out, I didn't know what to make of that, but the background there doesn't look good.

Anyway, there was a pretty good ordination today, I like our new bishop. It's also always good to see all these shiny bishops in one place. One kid remarked to me that he was surprised that they were so funny. Anyway.

I have, of course, changed some of my opinions over the years.

This thing has been running for five years and I don't think I've posted regularly since 2007. I have certainly changed a number of my opinions since then, though I'm mostly the same. I don't think I've changed many of them since I've been married, at least not the ones I discussed here or on my "less serious more personal" web-log which preceded this and which is also, more or less, defunct. Most of the change was between 2007 and 2009. I thought about this while looking back on what I've said publically about Catholicism. I haven't changed my mind about Catholicism except perhaps quite minor details which I will not catalogue.

EDIT: I also have not changed my mind about Protestantism.

I think the priest is exactly right...

And "OCATruth" is exactly wrong on every single point of this article: http://www.ocatruth.com/?p=629#more-629

One of the best/worst quotes: "That is an indictment on the Synod for not squashing the suspicion that something nefarious isn’t [sic] afoot." Absolutely terrible. The Synod owes an anonymous web-logger nothing. This is pure Fox News.

Another: "As for the statements made about Fr. Ted [Bobosh] and Mark Stokoe, I think that everything we have written is easily defensible. If anything it has given Fr. Ted an opportunity to clarify himself." Fr. Ted Bobosh owes an anonymous web-logger nothing. However, an anonymous web-logger most certainly has a duty to be charitable in his readings. At the very least, he could commit libel using his own name, not a twee pseudonym.

This web-log is not exactly anonymous, though my name isn't listed anywhere. I'm quite glad to respond to any and all inquiries and if you meet me in person I think it would be quite clear that I am the author of this web-log. My initials, shown above, are quite distinctive and my interests are, too. I refrain from publishing my name to avoid the Google, not identification.

chess improvement

I thought a bit about chess improvement and noted that what some people (learners, not instructors) seem to miss sometimes is the importance of actually playing the game and playing it at tournament speeds (ie, slow, for those of you without any chess experience). Perhaps it's just me, so don't be offended if you feel implicated. One canonical example discussed on web-logs is the phenomenon of Michael de la Maza - what the people don't comment on much is that he played around 200 tournament-speed games over 2 years when doing his "rapid chess improvement" and critically examined them. Many discuss his tactical study plan, but few try to emulate that aspect. Dan Heisman recommends, IIRC, 55% practice, 45% study, but it's easy to let get out of balance, as it's easy to sit there with a book and hard to carve out time for a G/90. That's three hours, after all! And all at once! Probably with another human (at least, it's best with another human)! Anyway, there are some opportunities around me to regularly plan in tournaments, so I'll do that and just let my rating float up.

Note: I'm being very lazy up there, I could just google what Dan Heisman recommends, he has a great web site with some great articles. It could be 45/55 rather than 55/45, but the point is still the same.

Goal recap

Looking back on 2010's goals and thinking of this year's goals.
1. Did not crush many enemies.
2. Battled some cosmic evil.
3. Sought a little justice.
4. Did gain some weight and then lose some.
5. Didn't quite escape from the jorb, but, yes, I actually did do this. Won't comment publicly.
6. Didn't really do this.
7. PL total way over 500kg now, but not quite there on the olympic lifts.

This year's goals:
The first three are always the same.
4. Definitely escape the jorb this year or make it (pay) significantly better.
5. Indulge in some sort of "intellectual stimulation hobby" like chess or what-have-you on a regular basis. I've been playing cards a bit lately. Something with measurable levels of achievement and the potential for high levels of potential intellectual involvement.
6. PL total of 600 might be a bit much to shoot for. 550 is a little low. I'll still say 600. 230-140-230? I'm not going to have an OL goal.

EDIT: Adding a goal.
7. I suppose I should have some sort of goal about more regular social event type things, like board gaming nights or card game nights, especially since there are now quite a few sets of young couples around.

What I Have Been Up To Lately

1. I've been playing piquet quite a bit lately. It is a marvelous game that feels like a board game in some ways. I hope to get the wife to start playing at a decent level. So far I've managed to figure out the basics of discarding and trick play, but I need to get better at sinking in declarations and counting cards in general. For those interested in learning the game, I would recommend keeping the following outline in mind to make sense of the rules. There are three phases: exchanges, declarations, and play. You exchange to improve your hand, declare things about your hand to score points, and then play out the hand for more points. These are all distinct phases of the game. The elder hand should almost always trade five cards and should rarely discard from the longest suit. Go for the point and tricks. A beginner should probably just make the biggest declarations possible, as that is usually the best bet. Beyond that, it's stuff you can figure out on your own by playing against a computer a few times. Three things: Pagat's rules page, Cavendish on Piquet (1901 edition, the best one), and MeggieSoft's program. We thought of finding a two-player card game because games of skill, like chess, would either be too one-sided or be something I wouldn't be interested in. That is to say, I don't think it is realistic to expect my wife to ever become a match for me in chess and I don't think I'm interested in learning a different pure game of skill.
   
2. I had hoped to squat 500# by year-end and was coming rather close, but travel plans and now a minor back injury have put me out of the running. I should make it in January, though.
   
3. I suppose I'm doing stochastic stuff at school. Woo stochasticity.
   
4. I'm almost done with the Aubrey/Maturin series. I highly recommend it even if you don't typically enjoy "genre fiction". You don't have to read through the entire series, but reading through the first few will pay off. I think the second book is even better than the first, for instance. I'm on the 14th book and think the quality has not waned (though I would say #2 was the high point), but I do admit that getting this far requires you to be a fan of the series, if not the genre. My recommendation is to try the first three, maybe four, and then decide whether you want to continue. You can find many of the books at a very reasonable price used on amazon.com. I paid less than $100 for my twenty books, including shipping. I found a large number of them for either $.01 + $3.99 shipping or $3.99-ish + super saver shipping. This series of books is also what sparked my interest in piquet.

So that's what I've been up to lately.

EDIT: BoardGameGeek has a very helpful cheat sheet for piquet that helps make sense of all the scoring.