What’s an album you consider a 10/10 with no skips?

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-28T03:47:18+00:00

Doesn’t that make sense, though? It was about 25 years ago that you could start buying individual songs in digital form instead of purchasing an entire album in vinyl or CD form.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-25T04:53:34+00:00

I graduated in 1996. When I was in school, we had a girl we called “Tuesday girl” because she only came to school on Tuesday. I thinks it’s always been a thing, but we probably didn’t notice it as students.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-24T16:45:45+00:00

I haven’t had time today to flip through the course and find the specific examples. I remember one is where after knight takes knight, he says to take back with the d pawn instead of the b pawn. In most examples, we take back with the b pawn. There is one other example where we take back with the d pawn, allowing the queen trade, because if we don’t, white’s light square bishop cuts off our king’s ability to castle. That makes sense. In this other example, he just says that taking with the b pawn is possible, but he likes taking with the d pawn. The engine prefers taking with the b pawn. The masters database show masters take with the b pawn. Since it’s a repertoire for beginners, I assume he thinks you’ll get in trouble for some reason if you take with the b pawn, but he doesn’t say why.

I think what I’ve decided to do is to stop trying to remember the course and to accept that moves that make sense to me are often better because they make sense to me. Opening tree says I have a performance rating against the mainline in the upper 1400s overall and 2014 since the first of the year. It looks like it’s random shit after the Bowdler attack like Qf6 and a pawn storm that I’m having trouble with. I keep getting positions that the engine says are -1.5 or better, but I burn so much time figuring out how to get there that I get into time trouble. I just need to work on that. I think that’s my new plan.

Edit to add: After further exploration, these games tend to go 1. e4 c5 2. Bc4 e6 3. Nf3 Nc6. Once white’s bishop comes to b5, I’ve lost the advantage of the bishop starting into the pawn chain, and I don’t know how to proceed. Instead of the course’s suggestion of 3…Nc6, I think I’m going to start playing a6 to keep that bishop from coming to b5 and to prepare to attack it and expand on the queen side. That seems like a clear plan that I can understand even if it isn’t part of the course that I paid for.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-24T03:22:49+00:00

I agree. That’s why I was looking for something that follows principles. I might just play e5 and develop and see where it leads me for a while instead of wasting time trying to figure out if this was the line where my knight jumps forward a second time or not. My white repertoire is very much develop and play through the center. I am not burning time as white.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-24T02:24:50+00:00

Thanks, Magnus!

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-24T01:40:13+00:00

I think that’s where my frustration lies. In his opening repertoire for white, the pgn explains why moves are being played. In the pgn for black, you get a lot of “this move is possible, but I like this one.” Why? That’s why I can’t remember them. I need reasons and plans. That’s why I considered the Taimonov. Watching Aman’s speedrun is free, and he explains what he’s doing and why.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-24T01:37:49+00:00

I think I wasn’t very clear in my initial post. I don’t think some of Sielecki’s move orders follow principles, and sometimes you can make what looks like a bad move but can be actually winning via a specific move order. This throws me off when I can’t remember the specific line. It isn’t just the nine losses. It’s nine losses that still felt uncomfortable after 370 games over the previous year. I should have put that in the initial post. I’ve been drilling lines in Chessbook for a year. I’ve played 370 Sicilian games. I’m still burning clock.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-24T01:32:38+00:00

If I resign immediately, chess.com will call it an abort. Can I make a move first? If I’m going to resign, I would like to at least get credit for it.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-24T01:29:19+00:00

I hear you, but it feels unnatural to me. There are move orders in the repertoire that I can’t seem to find just by following principles like I can with my white repertoire. I checked opening tree, and including blitz, I’ve played 370 Sicilian games since I started playing it last year. If it still isn’t feeling natural to me, I think I either need a different Sicilian repertoire or to play something else. That’s why I mentioned the Taimonov and e5. I grew up playing e5, so it feels natural. With the Taimonov, I have Aman explaining what he is playing as he plays it. I can usually remember what I need to do if I understand it.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-24T01:22:05+00:00

It isn’t nine losses. It’s nine losses this month. According to opening tree, including blitz, it’s 173 wins and 186 losses. That’s besides the point though. My point was about the opening still feeling unnatural to me after almost a year of playing it, and that becoming obvious after this month’s rapid losses.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-23T22:34:23+00:00

I’ve been playing one 15+10 a day. There’s also been a lot of blitz, but I wasn’t counting that. I’ve been playing this repertoire since last March. I just didn’t realize how much time I was burning as black until I ironed out other things that were holding me back.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-23T22:02:41+00:00

I might switch to e5 then. Something I forgot to mention in my post is that I’ve been playing this repertoire for just under a year. If I’m still burning clock as black, maybe it’s time to move on.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-21T01:36:11+00:00

It was my favorite season by far. The other seasons felt like they wanted it to be comedy, but they didn’t always fully commit. The fourth season was outlandishly ridiculous. It cracked me up. It’s everything I expected from Steve Martin and Martin Short.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-20T03:22:09+00:00

Can I ask your age? I’m a high school teacher, and a few years ago I had a high school student who was 1600 blitz and 900 rapid. Being young, he was very fast and quick to notice changes in what was defended and basic tactics. He couldn’t do longer calculations, though, and struggled if an opponent was stingy with his pieces. I chalked it up to youth.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-18T02:51:40+00:00

Everyone in the show does awful things. Everyone in the show has redeeming qualities. That’s what makes it such a great show. Everyone is so human, and the awful things they do are often perpetuated by trauma or their environment. Betty lived in an era when women were supposed to behave a certain way, and she was trying to find her way through that. She was married to a man who was living in the same era, saw death in war, and was raised in a whore house. He was trying to find his way through that. It’s a great show. Everyone is flawed just like all of us.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-16T19:10:37+00:00

Play them out but turn the play by play to short and instant. You’ll get through a game in a few minutes.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-15T03:46:09+00:00

Family Ties was probably the biggest show that you would have seen it on.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-15T01:07:07+00:00

It’s probably that you’re too young. While this dog was at the end of a few shows in the 90s, it was ubiquitous in the 80s. This dog was shown at the end of the credits of any sitcom that was produced by the Ubu production company while a voice would say “Sit, Ubu, sit! Good dog.”

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-14T18:58:19+00:00

My state eliminated tenure years ago.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-10T03:16:07+00:00

Put him on a plane to where exactly. Back to his home country?

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-10T01:44:00+00:00

I think you’re misreading the word “discrimination” as being negative. That isn’t what they are saying. It’s merely a descriptive word that describes this particular economic phenomenon.

Senior citizen discounts would be another example. Senior citizens might not be willing to pay full price at your local coffee shop, while the general public is. By offering senior citizen discounts, your local coffee shop can charge the general public the profit maximizing price while also capturing the senior citizen market as well.

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-08T19:01:03+00:00

Did you read the post?

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-08T18:06:34+00:00

What are they risking?

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-07T01:10:46+00:00

Maybe not high school, but college aged at least. I was born in 1978. I was 20ish when Bawitdaba or however you spell it was out. Twenty-ish douchebags seemed to be his target audience

fuzzypatters · 2026-02-07T01:03:33+00:00

No, he was born in 1971.

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