Liopic – Page 27

Irish Go Open Results

I’ve just come back home after spending a weekend in Dublin. Jordi suggested me to go there to enjoy some games with the Irish, and take place in the Irish Go Open, and eventually I went and had a nice time playing. I was really lucky on the board, getting a full score (5 wins in 5 rounds) in the main tournament. So now I’m a 4 kyu (at least). Moreover the rapid tournament, held on Friday night, was amazing, stressful but really enjoyable… in one round I finished the game with only 2 seconds of remaining time!!

The results!

The pictures!

Also one interesting thing I discovered in Dublin how pleasant the Irish are. Most of them love to speak, even with unknown people, showing interest on you. I’d like to see this kind of behaviour in other places, where if you speak with a stranger, he/she thinks you are asking for money or something.

Irish Go Open

This weekend I’ll be playing in the Irish Go Open. I hope the weather will be good enough to have a walk between tournament rounds, and do some sightseeing.

At the moment, I’m sharpening my tesujis, to fight with style against my red-haired opponents.

Unluckily I don’t like beer (due to a weird genetic mutation), so I have no idea what I’m going to drink there!

Technical books are too big (=uncomfortable)

Sometimes I’d like to have technical books in “smurf-size” format.

In the last months I’ve been reading some interesting books, but the reading experience was handicapped due to their uncomfortable format. Why do technical books have to be so big? It’s quite impossible to carry them and read on bus, or even in bed. It’s totally uncomfortable!

“Professional JavaScript for Web Developers”, “Ajax in Action”, “Designing Interactions” are interesting books, but maybe the authors can leave some information out, and make smaller books. But it seems that if you don’t break you arm while carrying them, they are not good. The only exception (of size) in my tech book list is “In the beginning… was the command line”, which is pocket-size (well, despite this name format, it doesn’t usually fit in my pocket), and it’s not really a tech book, but an essay.

Anyway, in other subjects the size of the books doesn’t matter, trust me! For example, I have some Go books, and most are pocket size (and some of them really are “pocket size”)… but the most interesting thing is that they are over-filled with information. Moreover, due to their useful size, you finally spend more time with them (reading and re-reading), carrying them everywere. The reading experience is really enjoyable!

Weather over my friends

I don’t know why, but I subscribed to the weather forecast of some European cities where some friends live. It seems like looking at these, I magically connect with their moods.

Today is a great sunny day in Barcelona, but it’s an even sunnier day in Alicante, so my family is probably enjoying a nice day. And it looks like in all of Europe there is nice weather… except Dublin, where it always rains (doesn’t it, Jordi?).

Next weekend I’m going to participate in the Irish Go Open, in Dublin, as a 5 kyu player (and hoping I’ll become a 4 kyu there)… and, well, I don’t really need sun, but please stop the rain just a little bit.

Small societies of clever people

Sometimes I feel playing Go is like speaking Esperanto, in social terms…

Some years ago I read some kind of web page regarding language learning. It had a list of different languages, with the pros and cons of learning each one. For example, English is a widely used language, being the facto standard as the bridge language worldwide, and it’s not complicated to learn. But when I looked at Esperanto, it said something like “it’s the easiest language to learn, it’s not really used (and useful), but if you learn it you’ll become part of a group of clever, interesting people who studies for fun… and with an amazing conversation, for sure”.

I’ve met a lot of Go players, and most of them have a sharp mind. Or maybe am I disturbing my conception of reality, imagining these players as intelligent? Anyway it’s really interesting to be part of this small society… specially when you arrive to a new city and go to the local Go club, and start playing Go and chatting with people as if they were old friends.

Bigger wall anchors are not always better

Since the beginning of the year, the population of books at home has increased enormously. I’ve decided to read more technical books, therefore I need more space for them. A new bookshelf, for example.

This morning I tried to put up a bookshelf in the living-room, but firstly I discovered that the wall was too thin (less than 3 inches). So I had to be careful, and for some reason I decided to use thick and short wall anchors. Some seconds after the installation, the bookshelf fell down!

Those wall anchors didn’t hold with enough strength, because the fact of being thick gives them the uncertain possibility of movement. Then I stopped and started to think in the opposite way… maybe some thin, really thin wall anchors could be better, because a better length/width ratio helps to avoid movement. I reinstalled it with smaller but smarter anchors, and the result was much better! Just curious.

If you put my name in an email’s CC, I’ll sue you!

Sometimes one of your friends get connected to Internet. Suddenly, he/she discovers those stupid emails (almost spam) with a funny text, and decide to send them to everybody… and your email address starts to appear in the CC of all those stupids emails… until you directly tell your friend off. But now, it could be illegal, in Spain.

Reading one of the Spanish newspapers, I’ve found this news: “Fined with 600 euro because she allowed to see 42 email addresses” (in Spanish). The article explains the story of Ms. A.G.S., who sent a promotional email to 42 persons, writing all those email addresses in the CC field (instead the usual BCC). One of the receivers felt it was a violation of the Spanish Data Protection Law, and decided to sue her. The law showed that the email address is personal data, and it can’t be published without the permition of the person, therefore she has to pay 601 euro to him. Just curious, but I agree.

P.S: I hope the American lawyers don’t read this… it could be a fountain of crazy ideas for them 😉

Barcelona’s Tournament aftermatch

This weekend I’ve been playing Go for full-time, in the Barcelona’s Go Tournament. The venue was really close to home, only 3 minutes walking, and maybe this is the reason that I had a good tournament. Finally my score was 4 wins from 5 rounds, but the best thing is that I think I’ve played quite well (in most of the games), with some easy wins.

I met up with a lot of friends, who came from different cities. I literally lost my voice due to a sore throat and lots of chats with the people. Nice moments to remember, with lot of fun, and crazy “rengos” in the chinesse restaurant 😉

And one marvelous thing to the future… some rumours say the next Spanish Go Open will be in Alicante, in Autumn. Which means I’ll kill two birds at once: visiting my family and playing a tournament in my homeland. I’m looking forward to this.

Some pictures by me and a lot by Jordi.

The big week of Go in Barcelona

The Barcelona Go Tournament is arriving!

This weekend I’m going to participate in the XXV Barcelona Go Tournament. I’m really excited… I’ve been looking forward to this event for months. It’s a wide collection of feelings: fun, nervous, fight!, laughs, hugs, jokes, brain power… A large quantity of people come from different parts of Spain and Europe. On Friday night, the party starts in the chinese restaurant where we usually meet. Normally we are between 5 and 15 players, but that night the whole restaurant is over-full of Go-ists. The next day the tournament begins: rounds, lunch with friends, more rounds, another night in the chinese, some sleeping and on Sunday there are more rounds. Finally, we come back home with a tired brain, and a smile.

Good luck on the board!

Another Puzzle: Two cities on the desert

To finish with this puzzles row, here is an elegant one. Alberto (my flatmate) set me, and I spent some minutes until I sorted it out:

There are two cities in the desert.
The inhabitants of the first city always tell the truth.
The inhabitants of the second city always lie.
You have arrived to one of these cities, and you need to discover which city it is, because you want to know if you can drink from the well with a “fresh water” label.
Also, a detail to add: the cities are next to each other, so the people are mixed… there are people in both cities from the other city.

You are in a hurry, so you can ask only ONE question to one person to discover in which city you are!
Which one should it be?

If you want to know the solution, see first post.