The Church of Alvis

This isn't a physical fitness thread, rather a mental one. My freshman year of college, before the internet had really caught on, I played a lot of chess on the west mall (open area where student groups congregated). It was a lot of fun, and I got decent at chess. If you know ELO ratings I was probably around 1500 (2000 would be expert,2100+ you start getting in Master, Grandmaster territory).

Anyway this last weekend I decided to play a game of chess against a computer program that came with my PC. Man talk about really sloppy play and moves followed by "WTF was that?" It was the mental equivalent to not exercising for months then doing 4 hours of basketball.

Not about chess but after 5 years I've gone back for my masters. Ever want to realize how non-phd your brain thinks go back to school after working in the real world.

I was just having a discussion about "Are you smarter than a 5th grader" last night. My roommate was of the opinion that he forgot everything, I believe that I remember everything, but they've just changed all the answers (Pluto was a planet, Columbus discovered America, doing math without calculators made you think...).

A lot of what school teaches you is essentially useless in the real world, though everyone wants to see those degrees and certifications proving you know all the useless stuff. In reality, the mind stays sharp for what you do frequently... I used to be REALLY fast at Photoshop, but now that I don't use it for 3-4 hours a day I've slowed down and am not as good with the visual tracking or the keyboard shortcuts. Oddly, I still can tear down and rebuild a PC as fast as ever.

Sit down and play Quake 3 for an hour. I bet you'll suck. Play an hour a day for a year and you'll get better. Then don't play for a year. You'll suck again, but probably get better in a few weeks the second time around as you start to remember. The brain is a funny thing.

after a few months I tried to play CoD with my son and his little buddies! I couldnt get my eyes to track and the little bastards kicked my ass! So I went upstairs and started drinking... I think I got better after that? not sure, but I woke up with the controller in my hand

Holy crap! Freyli!!! What's up buddy?

well a little squid told me they might be puttin the band back together for some new gig?

so I figured I'd check up on you's guy's!

still getting back into the swing of lurkin the boards!!