Latest Defense Technology

Chess Master Bobby Fischer Dies at 64

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Bobby Fischer, the reclusive chess genius who became a Cold War hero by dethroning the Soviet world champion in 1972 and later renounced his American citizenship, has died. He was 64.
Fisher died in a Reykjavik hospital on Thursday of kidney failure after a long illness, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said Friday.
Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Fischer faced criminal charges in the United States for playing a 1992 rematch against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia in defiance of international sanctions. In 2005, he moved to Iceland, a chess-mad nation and site of his greatest triumph.

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10 Minutes of Chess Torture

Below is a snapshot of the 10-minute game I had at http://www.gameknot.com/.

A few moves back when I ended up a knight and a pawn ahead, my opponent tried to make fun of me by not resigning still. He unpolitely wanted to make me labour more just to finish the game. He was being funny. He was also attempting to make me lose the game by time run-out. Taking the humour out of it I deicided to get back at him by prolonging the game too.

I promoted every pawn to a queen as many as I could. There were also exchanges of chat during these attempts. It was humorous because his king was trapped to dance the cha-cha-cha in only two squares (f3 and f4 square). It was a 10-minute game and he lost on time. The result on the board is a very funny position --the king is on its own fighting against 4 queens and 4 chess men.

Shitty Day, Literally!

Yesterday I was on sick leave.

I've got the "shits" -and that is literally speaking! I was "shitty" (means in australian lingo as "having a bad mood") because I have the "runs" (an australian slang word for diarrhoea).

It was a bad case of tummy ache that the first thing I started doing at work is shitting runs! Even worst was the runs had wet my pants -underwear included! It was a nightmare situation! So I had to go back home.

As soon as I finished the toilet I sneak my way out the workplace to hide my wet pants and avoid the embarrassment. I dont have the car for another week so I had to pedal my bike going home! It was a case of "hit and run" --or maybe "shits and runs"?

Anyhow, going back to when I was still in the toilet room I saw a "raunchy"magazine on top of the water closet. There is nothing much to do inside the room so I started reading it (a good excuse to read eh?). Interestingly enough there was an article about art. By that discovery I already knew that it was meant to be read by an artist like me (see how good I am at justifying things?). I thought that this is something I have to post on my blog so I took photo of the magazine while I was shitting (it's called "multi-tasking" -doing more than one thing at the same time).

The article is about an australian sculptor who uses chicken wires as his medium. His name is Ivan Lovatt who was commissioned by the Jackman Gallery in Melbourne for a number of sculptures --each costing at more than AUD $ 10,000!

Some of his creations include famous people like Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Abraham Lincoln, Dame Edna and Bob Marley.

There you go, had it not been of my "runs" yesterday I wouldn't have had this article to share with you today!

The name of the raunchy magazine is "The Picture".

Sleep

This is a painting entitled, "Sleep" (oil on canvass, 1931) by Salvador Dali , a spanish surrealist painter, who is my greatest influence in art.

This painting is also one of Dali's self portraits where unlike in most of his imagery to represent himself, he has given himself here a mouth and, rather than resting on the ground, his image is supported by a series of crutches --which he uses often to symbolize "resurrection". I believe what he is trying to convey in this painting is, that through sleeping his surrealism prowess is always being ressurected.

"Sleep" is a very timely topic for me at the moment because I am still having difficulty falling asleep at night. Its already affecting my verbal skills to the extent that I always get "tongue twisted" during conversations -let alone my first language is not english!

Sleep is really important to us surrealist artists because it is the source of dreams that make the imagery of our surrealism art. Surrealism is about liberating the imagination --and since sleep is a rich source of imagination, I as a surrealist is becoming constricted not getting enough of it.

Do you have any advice about my sleep problem? Please post a comment.

The Night I Whacked My Alter Ego, Part II

(If you haven’t read Part I, please click here first)

The rule of the match is to always play from a Najdorf position. He showed his closed hands so I can try to pick which hand has the white pawn. This is a standard chess practice of deciding who will get to play the white pieces first. Unfortunately for him (my alter ego), he is really me so I knew which hand he had hidden the white pawn. “Sucker!” I uttered with a grin on my face when I picked the hand where the white pawn is. “So you think you’re smart eh? Let’s see how well you’ll play.” -was his sarcastic reaction.

So the match began. Oh what a very hard experience! Playing him was the hardest games I have ever played in my entire life! I thought it’s just going to be easy to beat him because everything he will think he won’t be able to hide from me. But I forgot that I cannot also hide my thoughts from him.

The match ended in a draw. Of the total four games, we both lost one game as black using the Najdorf defence. From here an argument started. “See? Najdorf defence is not reliable!” He claimed furiously. “I have to disagree. We only lost with the Najdorf defence because we haven’t really mastered it yet sufficiently.” I said. He instantly popped his eyes and irritatedly said, “How would you know, you are just an alter ego!” Shocked and angered by his claim I said, “Excuse me? I am the alter ego? What a nut case you are! I am the one who is real, the real Joemar.” He started laughing and said, “What? So there are two real Joemar’s now? That can’t be right. There can only be one!” At this point I just knew that he intends to get rid of me by attacking me with a long sweeper handle lying just beside him.

Everything now happens very quickly. As he reach for the sweeper handle I was fortunate to remember the vacuum cleaner I rarely keep under the table. I hurriedly grab its long steel handle as my weapon. The scramble movements created strong vibrations of the whole place. So strong that it made some objects fall out of place and consequently triggered the camera to shoot! We were caught at the moment where I barely blocked his first attack (see photo above).

There I was, fighting for my life and is getting exhausted fast. He was gasping for air too. The fight continued but no one was able to hit the other. Eventually we both realised that even in fighting we are still aware of what the other is thinking therefore we will always know where to block. After the realization, an idea came to mind -that I should close my eyes instantly and swing the vacuum handle like crazy! Only a few swings with eyes closed and “Whacked!” It felt that I got him on the head.

I slowly opened my eyes, looked around, and there was no sight of him. I have survived!

But suddenly I realized that I was lying on the floor and felt a terrible pain at the back of my head. It was an enormous lump! So how did I end up lying on the floor having a huge lump on the head?

It became apparent. Hitting him is actually hitting myself!


The next morning I told Chris, my workmate, of my ordeal with my alter ego. Wanting to show Chris the photos I asked him if he believes my story. To my surprise he said, “Yes, because my own alter ego has come to work with me today and is just in the next room.” “Wow! Can you call him so we can take photo of us three?” I asked with excitement. “Certainly!” He said. And so we did (see photo above).


Author's note:


The above story is just "made up" and is only for humour :) The photos were done on a special camera.

Related video below.

The Immortals (study)

This is a figure study drawing for my "The Immortals" composition.

It was drawn on a letter to my friend where I described the influence of "The Dance" painting by Matisse, on the concepts for a new painting.

My concept for the composition of the painting is that the figures will look like that they are dancing, but in reality they are not. Though they are not really dancing they are all in fact "in a dance of a situation" in life. Its about life and how sometimes immortality is achieved.

Please keep in touch for the progress of this work.

Suggestions or interpretations on the figures are welcomed.