Greg's Music And Geek Blog

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Sat, 25 Mar 2006

KGS Rocks

My new favorite Go server is the KGS Server

My user name there is also DruLeePars so look for me and maybe we can play a game of Go.

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Sat, 18 Mar 2006

My Latest Addiction

Many years ago when I was just a lad, my Uncle Rex was stationed in Japan with the Navy. During Christmas he and his family came back to the states to be with the rest of the family. My gift that year was a Go set he brought back from Japan.

Go is a very old Chinese game and it’s extremely popular in China and Korea. In Japan the Manga and Cartoon series “Hikaru No Go” has caused a resurgence of the game among Japanese kids. I tried to learn the game back then but it was difficult because I didn’t know anybody else who played. So after a half hearted attempt to teach my friends how to play the Go board went into the closet and stayed there.

Actually, there’s a bit of a funny story about that Go board. My Uncle bought it in Japan, where Go is much more popular, and brought it back to America. On the box the set came in was the name of the company that made the set. “Hollywood Game Company”. So that board and those game pieces were made in the US and sent to Japan only to be brought from Japan back to Southern California about 20 miles away from where the game was manufactured.

In any case, I was in the book store a couple weeks ago looking at the poker books when I noticed some books for Go. I bought the first two books in the “Learn To Play Go” series by Janice Kim: A Master’s Guide To The Ultimate Game and The Way Of The Moving Horse These books are quite good at explaining this amazing game and I found myself wanting to learn to play this game once again. But that old Go board of mine is packed away at the house up in Northern California and we’re still down here for a couple more weeks. So I went to Janice Kim’s website www.samarkand.net and bought their Club Set. When it arrived I was really pleased at how nice the set looked. It’s much nicer than my first Go board and, like chess, it’s just nicer to be able to play with a decent set.

When I was playing tournament chess I was playing at a low average strength. I was rated about 1200-1300. In chess a rating of 2000 gives you the title of “Expert”. At 2200 you become a Master.

In Go there are Japanese and Korean ratings. In the Japanese rating style you start at 30 kyu and move up to 1 kyu. Then you become first dan or “shodan”. The dan levels go up to 6th dan for amature players. Then, if you’re really good, you can take the test to become a “professional” player. The professional players go from 1st dan to 9th dan.

Since I work with a bunch of Chinese programmers I thought I’d ask them if they played Go. My friend Chaoming looked at my books and said “Oh, that’s ‘Weichi’ in Chinese”. I play a little bit, but Henry plays a lot.” I asked Henry (which is the Americanized version of his Chinese name) if he plays. It turns out that Henry is a 5th dan player. So he’s really good. In fact, when I play computer Go against the GnuGo program I set it at the easiest setting and take the biggest handicap and I can still only win about half the time. I watched Henry play against the computer at the maximum strength with no handicap and he absolutely crushed it!

So now I’m studying Go and playing on the Panda Go IGS Internet Go server I use my standard on line identity of “Dru Lee Parsec” but my name got shortened to “DruLeePar” on the server. So if you’d like to play a game of Go against a total newbie player then look for me on IGS.

After all, it’s my latest addiction.

What we’re listening to today : The Album Leaf

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Sat, 11 Mar 2006

Goodbye Mr Boddington

Our pet bunny Mr. Boddington, who was indeed named after the beer, has a growth a bit larger than a golf ball in his gut. It’s pressed up against his intestines and that’s blocking anything from coming out. It’s incurable without surgery and bunnies are so sensitive that they usually don’t survive surgery.

He was obviously in quite a bit of pain. He would just barely move around his pen and when he did his legs would shake. He’d just lie on our lap and not move a muscle.

Just two days ago he was running around the house and hiding behind the curtains. This afternoon we had to let him go.

I held him as they gave him the anesthesia (gas) to put him to sleep. I talked to him and petted his head as he went to sleep. I’d like to think that my voice and my touch comforted him. Then the Dr. gave him the injection. He didn’t kick or wince or anything. He felt no pain at all. I held him for about 2 more minutes while his breathing slowed to a stop and then he was gone.

I already miss the little guy. My wife is really torn apart about it. He was her buddy for the past 4 years. Every morning she’d pet him for 10 or 15 minutes before she made his breakfast of fresh greens and hay. Every night he’d run around the house and play before he’d settled down and snuggle up at her feet.

Mr. B is no longer in pain and I’m glad I was there for his last moments. I don’t know if there’s a bunny heaven but if there is he’s there in a garden of dandilions and kale.

Mr. Boddington.

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Thu, 02 Mar 2006

We’ve Moved, Story # 3

It’s Music Time

Lucky for us, we planned the move over President’s day weekend. That gave everyone an extra day to relax and enjoy the new house, the snow, the fresh air, and generally relax.

On Tuesday I worked for the first time at Music And More in Auburn. I only had 3 students that day but it was nice to get a feel for the studio and the students. I had one brand new student who’s never played before, an 8 year old who wants to learn to play and is so shy that he barely said a word the whole lesson, and a young man who just “gets it”. Evan is the dream student. He picks things up really fast and he obviously practices. It’s really going to be fun teaching him. It also turns out that he goes to high school with my buddy Sean so I may have to get those 2 to play music together.

In the evening we did a little slow jam. Since it was a pretty impromptu situation we only had 4 people show up. But it was still a lot of fun. It was an interesting combination of instruments though. We had on girl on steel string guitar, Mike, one of the owners of Music and More, on classical guitar, Sean on mandolin and me on guitar, mandolin and banjo.

The Slow Jam is going to become a regular monthly jam at Music and More starting in April. Everyone who plays a string instrument is welcome regardless of proficiency. Although you should probably be able to at least play a G, C and D chord.

Watch this blog for the schedule.

Well that brings us to the long drive back. We didn’t get on the road until 12:30 so I was expecting to get home quite late. But somehow we made it in just about 8 ½ hours. We were even able to stop off at our favorite restaurant “Marrietta’s” in Santee. Every time we show up that late the waiters know that we just drove the 580 drive from the northern California house so they always greet us with “Welcome Home!”

Welcome home indeed. It feels strange to call the mobile home our “home” when we only started living there this week. The Weimar house feels like home but we’re not there. I’ve visited the new owners of our old house to drop off some more keys and a list of phone numbers for the utilities and that house sure doesn’t feel like home any more. So where exactly is “home”?

I think “home” is wherever I am when I’m sitting next to my wife, reading a book, and petting Tequiza the cat who’s curled up between us. Yeah, that feels like home.

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