Hunters Hunted Blogs

For my sixth and final week of doing the 20% project, I moved onto my final goal of combining all previous skills. This week, I managed to play a few games with all the prior knowledge I gained from this project. I won a majority (6/10) of the games I played. I didn’t get a chance to play the scotch game, but I still did fairly well. Overall, this project was pretty fun considering I just played chess the whole time. I learned a few things from this project, mainly that I suck at chess. I hope to continue getting better at chess even though the project is over, and get my rating up to at least 500. Anywhozle, cya.

I’ve had many great memories this year, and if I had to pick three of the best, I’d say they were: First, Night at the Museum, where we got to eat tacos and look at different presentations. Second, watching “The Outsiders” movie. And finally, every time we got cookies for something because they tasted really good. I also enjoyed learning a bunch of British words because they make me sound smart when I use them.

This month, I read a book called Keeper of the Lost Cities, Lodestar it is the fourth book in the series. In this book, one of Sophie (the main character)’s friends named Keefe joins the Neverseen, an evil organization of murderers and kidnappers trying to destroy society so they can rebuild it in their own image, to try and bring it down from the inside. During this book, the Neverseen (an organization comprised of murderers, kidnappers, and psychotic arsonists) cause havoc all throughout the lost cities. There’s various conflicts involving inter-species wars, a gnomish plague unleashed by the ogres, and kidnappings. Sophie and her friends are banished to Exillium, where they try to fit in and earn their way back into the Lost Cities, whilst also trying to stop the Gnomish Plague before it wipes out their entire species. All the while fighting the Neverseen, and gathering as much information as possible to help destroy them. My favorite character in this book is once again Mr. Forkle, but only because in the end of this book, he’s killed in an attack by the Neverseen. My favorite quote from this book is by Keefe, “Tell my dad…that I’ve been hiding his favorite cape in a closet on the twenty-ninth floor. But don’t tell him the door is rigged with gulon gas. Let him find that out on his own.” This is yet another quote that proves how Keefe is always finding ways to make people laugh, despite the circumstances.

My favorite room in my house would have to be my room, since that’s where I have all of my things. It’s also where I sleep, and I love sleeping. It’s also my favorite room because I don’t have to talk to anybody.

This week my goal was to complete 10 games using the Scotch Opening to get a percentage of the win rate. Unfortunately, I was not able to complete this goal nor get a percentage for my win rate. This was, in part, due to the fact that I couldn’t always play as white, nor could I always use the Scotch Game (Opening) for every game. I did, however, manage to get a win or two. This being said, I am disappointed I wasn’t able to get an actual number to work with, but there were results, nonetheless. My goals for next week are a bit hefty, being to research the middle game portion of chess. While chess isn’t an exact science, the middle game of chess is even further from something I could “research”. It has been said that there are more moves in a chess match than there are atoms in the universe. Including illegal moves, there are actually an infinite amount of moves that can be played in a chess match. So far, I found that making sure you follow the basic principles of chess and not blundering your queen in three moves is the best way to win the middle game. Cya next week for the middle game results.

This week, my goals were to find an opening with the highest win rate (within the 300-400 ELO range). And while I initially thought this would be an easy task to complete, only being a google search away. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Chess is many things, but it most certainly is not an exact science. There are many different openings that work well, especially at such a low level. I decided to go with the Scotch Opening, played with white. This opening doesn’t always work, as the opponent has to play a part in it too. And while it did help me win a few games, the opening is only a small part of the game. Some blunders and mistakes down the road, I won around 30% of the games I played with the Scotch Opening (tutorial: Chess Openings- Scotch Game – YouTube). Next week I’ll attempt to do my best over 10 games using the opening and try to get an exact percentage. Cya next week.

The image below is meant to represent the two very different sides of society. One half being of a spoiled little kid crying about something in the midst of all his toys while the other half is a child happily playing with one singular toy car, which seems to be enough for him. On many ways, it shows the difference between how people value things when they have an abundance or a shortage of them. For example, the kid on the left has every toy he could possibly need, and yet he is still unhappy while the boy on the right has one older toy and he is enjoying himself just fine. As for the captain, happiness or satisfaction does depend on how much is considered enough. If you only need one toy to make you happy, it’s worth the same as one hundred toys, if they’re what it takes for someone else’s happiness.

This week, I was attempting to research the middle game portion of chess. As I said in my last blog, there isn’t an exact way to research how to play a middle game, but there are some basic principles that are meant to help with your overall chess skill. These principles are as follows: Principle of Development, Principle of Centre-control, and the Principle of King-safety. Looking into these, the principle of development is based around moving your pieces to give yourself more “firepower” in terms of attacking. The second principle, the Principle of Centre (Center) Control is based around moving said pieces to the center of the board, allowing you to control where your opponent can move their pieces, and weakening their defenses. The third principle, the principle of king-safety is exactly what it sounds like, being based around protecting your king by castling or moving it to a defended position. Next week my goal is to do a bit of “research” on the endgame and try to put it all together with the middle game properties and opening. Adios.

Working on my 20% project this week, I accomplished a few things. While I didnt meet my goals entirely, I still did a decent amount of what I wanted to. I found an opening I like for white called the “Scotch Game” and played a few matches with it. I only won around 3 of them, but you can’t exactly judge an entire match by the opening. Next week I’ll be focusing more on the middle game and opening as a combination. I’m hoping that by the end of this project, I’ll increase my chess rating (ELO) by at least 100 points. Cya next week.

My dream job would definitely be Food Consumer Analyst or something along those lines. Essentially, the job would be to eat a bunch of different food from 5 star restaurants to test out their menu and see what food is good to serve. Ideally, this would be testing out various food items from restaurants around the world, with expenses being payed and having no employer. This way I could travel, eat food food, take vacations with my family, all the while making good money.