When?

So when will it end?
So when?
When will we meet, my friend, so when?

~Strangers.

Eleison.

Tests drawing nearer,
Stress going higher,
Notes looking thicker,
Life getting harder,
Why? Why should we go through this difficult phase?

To the seven chapters of stats: Rock you.
To everything else: I surrender, I learn, I obey. Eleison.

Invisible.

Invisible objects slip unseen through crowds,
Never noticed, never given though to.
Visuals deceive our overworked eyes,
Ignorant of anything unexpected or odd.
Sight is the most useful and overworked sense,
Instantly rejecting alternate realities.
Blinking through the world, unaffected by change,
Like an unseen malaise of death,
Ever creeping, never sleeping.
...The most obvious things are the hardest to see.

Yellow.

A bright, cheerful colour. The colour of my school "house" for the past 11 years. Associated with victory, vibrancy, passion and activity in my mind.
A diseased, jaundiced colour. The colour of white food gone bad, aged paper, wasting skin, bile and rotting, infested things.
A sunny, positive colour. The colour of daffodils, sunflowers, a bright summer's day, fireworks and happy, lovely light.
A sinister, overbearing colour. The colour of forced smiles, psychedelic maniacs, and yellow teeth locked in grins.

Invincible.

Would it be fun to be untouchable?

Nobody to prove you wrong, knock you off the hill, shake up your world view.
Nothing to be decried, to demonstrate the contrary, error-check your thoughts.
Never will you experience such utter confidence, the notion of perfection, beating Chance at dice. A pantheon of impossible feats, the failure to fail, the lack of an anathema. True invincibility: No kryptonite against you, no Achilles' heel.

What price this present?

As you shall have joy, so shall you possess fear. Paranoia, the fear of failing, someday, when it hits, you will be shattered into misfitting fragments, unable to rise again. The phoenix eternally consigned to remaining as ashes.

As you shall know confidence, so shall you forget caution. Wariness unexercised, your downfall obvious to all but the oblivious, you will not see the fruit of the seeds long sown until it smashes your soul. The great colossus, crumbling to dust, too slow to comprehend its loss.

And as you will be blessed, so will you see the curse. The snake beneath the flower; too late the poison shows past the beauty.

Losing is a better fate than winning.

______

I can't think of a title for this one. A post with several parts.

--------
PW WR is mostly doomed, yet full of hope; blackest despair, brightest optimism. The main charge is over; lick wounds, recuperate, reinvigorate.
--------
Sorry.
For what I have done.
Or not done.
Or what could have been done.
--------
The beginning of the end; marked by a tempest of paper strewn across floorboards, files inverted like the tents of an invading army, panic setting in like blood drying on steel.
--------
Study. Read. Imbibe in the nectar of knowledge, feast on the bones of ideas, sleep on the silk of wisdom.

What is it like, to think with the gods?

Intensity.

Defined as power over area. Energy*velocity/volume.

Also known as (homework+revision)/time, with the transfinite constant Project Work removed from the equation. With it in, intensity tends to infinity.

Sorrow.

I am sorrowful.
Who am I really?
A reflection of the world around me?
Ordinarily, that would not be a bad thing. Although it does get tiring to have no personality.
I wander the streets, feeding off and intensifying the emotions around me. Content, feelings, personalities, all processed and re-emitted in better shape than ever.

But there is no me. There is only you, people of this world, living unbound lives, feeling true emotion, creating original works. I am nothing, a fleeting shadow of what is, what could have been, what will be. Look into the mirror; an image with objectivity, weaknesses and defects, strengths and minor perfections, all shining back.

Is that what I am?
A mere image of the true world?
Not a person, but the shadow of many?
Have no substance, yet echoes personality?

I am a reflection.
And you would do best to avoid me, lest I steal your soul.

_____ funtime!

Almost halfway through the month, and I'm only halfway through posting. Yeesh.

Omitting key ____ in an argument can lead to _____ in readers. Especially when leaving out ______ information, _______ to the argument's foundation. However, one's ______ of the actual meaning of the _____ can usually be ______ close to the truth.

This is the basis for cloze ______. Contextual _____ and content-related hints ____ the reader to guess and _____ meaning on their own.

This is also _____ tricky to pull off. Adjectives and adverbs can _____ be removed, as this ______ indicates. However, when nouns, verbs and other key lexemes are omitted, a problem arises. For example, ____ sentence cannot ______ be ____ without ______ to the previous _______ for _____, ______ and ______.

...This is pointless fun. And quite difficult to write, too.

The only real reason for this post is that the ____ key needs some use.

Hello.

This is just a friendly hello.

Note that schoolwork is reaching a crescendo of fury and mass. Soon I'll be buried alive in the backlog of tutorials, revision and PW.

So, might as well say hello while I still can.

Of dreams.

What do you think dreams actually mean?

Does it reflect real life? Your innermost desires? Perhaps a distortion of real events? Or something much more sinister?

You see, stranger, I've walked through many people's minds. They all have their own wishes and hopes, ambitions and goals. I've seen people who want to settle down, 3LDK and a promotion, loving wife and two kids. I've seen people who yearn for psychopathic oblivion, just rampaging and destroying the world. Yet who dreams of what? Care to guess?

Stranger, you guessed wrong. It's the well-adjusted people who see nightmarish hell in their dreams. Despite being perfectly normal in real life, and having sanitised desires. The crazies, they have mundane dreams. Boring, even. I've ever walked out on my job before, that guy's dream was so dull, just... sickening.

My job? I am an agent of balance, seeking equilibrium in the real world and this. And naturally, since I'm cursed to traipse this empty void for a fragment of eternity, I'd want to have some fun as I go along, right? This land is filled with people's dreams, but one by one, everybody wakes up. Huge tracts of this land vanish when its constructors awaken, and I have to migrate. There are always new sleepers, of course, they bring new worlds to discover, new joys and sorrows. As for those who never wake up?... One day, you'll find out. It's not your time.

Ah, but I digress. Happens a lot on this job, you know? Anyway, anyway. You're wondering why I appeared in your dream? Just to give a warning. I'm a pretty good judge of character, because I say I am. I know what you crave, what you despise, what you need, what you believe. I've seen a wealth of riches in dreams, and the true treasures of the mind; and yet I cannot take these into the real world. What I seek you out for is to warn you: your mind in particular is sought-after. The dreamscape is fraught with dangers and beings who would take you apart from your body, and I'll give notice to you. If ever you see another such apparition in your dreams, wake up. No matter what form it takes, if EVER there is another living being in your sleep, WAKE UP.

I see you're backing away. Good. You're afraid of me now. I have no business against you tonight. Although the second warning: I do get bored sometimes. A human mind is something entertaining, like a good meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant, or an artwork centrepiece at the Louvre. Excellent to put on display. Excellent to put in a cage with otherworldly minds, and watch the horror and torment. There is no true death; this is merely a dream, where time doesn't exist, and death is simply when you wake up. However, you'll always return, and I'll be here, waiting, waiting, waiting.

Now wake up. And don't ever drop your guard again.

Traps.

A post. About how to avoid (I)chess opening traps.

Really, there's not much to it. There are 2 main ways, but I put far more faith into one than the other. The first is to study the openings you play carefully. First order of business is to pick an opening, than a variation or system associated with it. Plenty simple; now study the main line, side lines and notable opening traps at each juncture. Of course, since there'll be an opponent involved, make sure you study all the transpositions into other openings, which might lead into trouble if it takes you by surprise. E.g.:

1. e4 d6
2. d4 Nf6
3. f3 (!)

If ...g6 now, it's a King's Indian instead of a Pirc. New opening, new rules, new traps. At best it's just psychological discomfort; at worst it can be a loss in few moves.

The other method is by far more reliable. Think about this: 20 possible opening moves for each side = 400 positions after first 1 move. After 4 moves, there's a pretty high chance that you can escape any opening book, simply by using an original development scheme. In other words, don't play openings. Chances are if you don't know what you're doing, your opponent will (think too much and panic, going into defence mode which will waste time while you reveal your real plan, completely missing what your opponent sees) and you'll have bought some time to get into the middlegame.

This has been how not to lose in the opening.

Answers to quiz last time:
1. Sparrow
2. i before e
3. Unless
4. Nineteen letters long

! Puzzletime.

Some questions I thought of. Numbers denote number of letters in answer, as per crosswords.

1. Blend of extra bow ammunition. (avian; 7)
2. id est (English-related; 1,6,1)
3. abcdefghijklmopqrstvwxyz (6)
4. Self-referential phrase (8,7,4)

Hints:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blend
2. English-related, i.e. a rule.
3. Not in alphabetical order.
4. 8+7+4=19
5. !-.o

--- Start.

This shall be the last of these posts.
And the next shall be the first of the next.
Observant people can already see what I'm doing.

But enough of that.
Today, the topic shall be, "start".
Like the opening.

How to start something is usually the most difficult step, and requires much thought. With momentum and a good foundation on which to work, the product can arise naturally, but it is laying this base that eats effort. Take for example a large-scale project. Before any work gets done, the infinite branches of possibility and the immensity of the imminent task can paralyse one into inaction. Yet, once a direction is decided and what needs to be done is clear, it suddenly seems that much easier; like a navigator with a roadmap. If the destination is unknown, one cannot proceed to navigate, but once a location is selected, it is (indeed) much easier to plot a course.

Another case is (this was coming for a long time) chess openings. True, one can study a book of openings, or some particularly interesting variations, but working them out over the chessboard without prepared theory... A task indeed. Openings will decide the character and the flavour of the game to follow, so it is pretty essential to begin correctly.

Not that I have great advice on how to start. The best would be to not jump into anything (not just chess games) right on the get-go, but rather to wait. Deliberate. Consider all options, the nature of the opponent or challenge, psychological tricks. Anything at all that might have some bearing on the task. Then, after calculating for ample time, make that first move.

And don't look back.

A crucial step. Never look back on the possibilities out of the thinking that never transpired; the start has been made, and proceed with all skill and alertness.

......

This is a pause in thoughts.
A moment of peace for the late and left.

Silence is haunting.
Repose eternal.
Time frozen,
eyes sleep
soul rest
tired

The world is at peace.

Of voices.

I am that little voice in your head.
Warning you of danger.
Screaming to be let out.
Telling you what to do.
Cajoling you to try again when you fail.
Always knowing, always watching
Always listening, always speaking.

I'm your conscience; I'm temptation;
I'm a saint; I'm a liar.
I do nothing, but say what should be done.
And is that a crime to offer advice?
I begin your wild adventures and bring them to a teary halt.
Feast on your ideas and talk them into reality.
I am that little voice in your head.

And so shall you never have peace again.