I’m famous! (kind of!) for something important! (Prop 8)
Current mood: accomplished

I attended a rally in front of Boise's City Hall to support a synchronized national protest against Prop 8, a proposition banning gay marriage which passed in California.

You can find me commenting here

You can also visit http://jointheimpact.com/ to get more info if you are interested in helping in this very important social issue.

Peace.

Currently listening : The Renaissance By Q-Tip Release date: 2008-11-04

2:00 AM - 4 Comments - 7 Kudos - Add Comment

En passant: RIP Earl - you’ll be missed

As submitted to the Idaho Chess Association:

The Earl of the Magic Valley Chess Club: Memories of David Earl McClellan
                    By Garrett Reynolds

It was likely a hot day on July 11th, 1992.  

Yet, as hot as July in Twin Falls can be on any given morale-withering day, the action inside the Salvation Army on 4th street was far more withering still.  Bishops sliced and diced, but not because the Salvation Army patriarch was serving soup and sandwiches to the poor, but because wooden and hard plastic assassins took their positions from afar, patiently waiting for an erring rook to pass a long, treacherous diagonal.  Yes, the heat outside would melt lesser mortals, but inside the tournament hall resided no mere mortals - these were the Knights of Cassia!  While the pawns burned their bridges behind in hopes to rudely rouse an opposing monarch, the cool and calm dashed such hopes upon the center of the board.  Full-grown men sank in their chairs and furrowed their brows, finally mumbling to themselves over the chaos of two-dimensional, Cartesian destruction.

Such exquisite violence intrigues young boys, and on this day a 9-year-old boy wandered into the Magic Valley Chess Club to enroll in a seemingly harmless chess club quad, innocently and naively unaware that this curiosity with the noble game would seize his mind in lifelong addiction.  However, this was not the young man's first tournament - that had occurred in the desolate, tribal lands of Boise, where chess-thirsty vagabonds did not hesitate to smite the unsuspecting with a brutal day-long orgy of tabletop wood-pushing, otherwise known as the 1992 Idaho Class Championships.  This young man had come away from Boise only with defeats, and brashly decided that today would be his lucky day of victory.  

It's harder to remember those days when the Magic Valley Chess Club typically boasted 50 to 60 dues-paying members through the early 90's, especially now that the truly devoted gather twice a month at the local Barnes and Noble bookstore in Twin Falls, Idaho, in a group typically no bigger than five or six.  Whereas once a week the Salvation Army was open from 4:00PM - 10:00PM every Saturday for club play, the now-called Twin Falls Chess Club must email members to remind them to come on the second and fourth Mondays every month from 6:00PM - 9:30PM.  This particular quad, for example, had to take a first-come, first-served approach to limit the tournament to a 3-section, 12-person quad.

And who would direct this quad, potentially wrought with chessic carnage?

None other than local chess addict David Earl McClellan.

David Earl McClellan was born on February 19th, 1955, in Jerome, Idaho, and though he made some attempts at leaving the state for other adventures, Earl came back to set up residence in Idaho.  Though he was not a particularly strong chess tournament player, what Earl lacked in skill, he made up with color commentary.  Earl was particularly prone to knight-forks, and would toss the beasts over his shoulder after he captured his opponent's stallions - at the expense of a rook on a8 or a1, however.  Earl loved chess, and during a 10-year tournament career, Earl played in 45 tournaments and directed 25 of them, playing the role of director/player, often as organizer as well.  As a chess player, Earl was an eternal optimist, observing once that the "L" in the tournament box score did not represent a loss (which is what the "L" does literally stand for), but that it stood for "lesson".  '"L' stands for a lesson to learn" was a common Earl saying, and it was true that Earl earned many losses and lessons.  However, he would hardly be deterred by setbacks, and worked hard on his chess game in the late Nineties to reach his high rating of 1162 following an impressive showing at the 1998 Magic Valley Chess Club Championships.

But telling the story of Earl in terms of his chess career misses the true essence of Earl.

Here is how I remember Earl:

That young boy, age 9, had come away empty-handed in the first round against the King Of Square-Dancing himself, Tom Cromwell, who would later be forced to abandon chess for his other loves (chess is a mistress that demands singular attention and monogamous devotion).  The young boy now had three losses in a row to begin his United States Chess Federation affiliated career, and his next game, played with the black pieces against one David Earl McClellan, was not promising: the young chess apprentice had made a mistake that young players make around the country.  He had moved his queen out too early.  His queen now stood helpless, forfeit on c6, pinned to her loving king by the white bishop on b5, aided in this Sadistic regicide by an accomplice who just "happened" to be in the area - the white knight on c3.  All dressed up, but with nowhere to go, the queen would be traded for a bishop on the next move.  Realizing the dire situation and faced with a fourth loss in a row to begin his chess career, the stalwart young man summoned all his courage for the daunting task ahead, and promptly broke into tears.

Chess is a harsh, unforgiving game.  The blame for every inaccuracy can be blamed completely on one person and one person alone: the person who played the move is always at fault.  It's direct competition at its finest, mano a mano, and if one loses, one has only oneself to blame for the mistakes.  This load of responsibility can make even the strongest of players crack, and it is not uncommon to see pieces fly across the room in a fit of acknowledging responsibility.  Across the world, chairs are broken, coffee is hurled, and tears roll down mighty cheeks in response to chess losses.  It is a tough lesson to swallow that sometimes even trying your very best is not enough, but it is a lesson that must be endured to facilitate learning for the next game; a mistake is recognized and hopefully not repeated.

But the pressure of chess can also elevate people to kind moments.  Faced with a tearful opponent, Earl did what horrifies chess teachers around the country: he took his move back, and allowed a different move to be played such that the queen would be spared.  While it is part of chess's tradition to be brutally defeated by a heartless opponent, Earl loved chess, and he loved people.  Earl understood that this quad was being played for the real reason chess is played by amateurs in July at the Salvation Army on a sunny Saturday: chess is fun.  To Earl, this single game, in the larger scheme of his chess career, would not make or break a march to a grandmaster title.  There was no prize money, no trophy at stake for the quad event.  It would mean so much more to the boy to retain his queen than for Earl to coldly capture it, as occurs every day in tournament halls.  After much struggle - Earl was still attempting to win, after all - the game was declared a draw, with only two kings left at the board, both monarchs too frightened to run after the other.  True, that meant the boy had not won, but he had neither lost.  In fact, the boy would win his very next game.  That boy would go on to be one of the strongest youth players Idaho has ever had, and he would not soon forget that Earl had spared him.

It has been just over 16 years now that I had played Earl on that hot summer day when he allowed me to take back a move so I wouldn't lose my queen.  Over the ensuing years I was blessed to know Earl and be subject to his jovial ways and his kindness.  Unfortunately for all of us, David Earl McClellan passed away on June 12, 2008, when his mighty heart could be mighty no more, and simply stopped.  Coincidentally and fittingly enough, a small tournament consisting of those who knew Earl was held in his memory on July 12, 2008, almost exactly 16 years from my most memorable interaction with Earl.  In his honor, his notorious nemesis - the knight - was specially marked on the bottom on all the sets we played on.  In addition, the tournament was lovingly dubbed, "Those Forking Knights".  It hardly matters who won the event, for Earl's attitude was that he could not lose when playing chess: he either won, or he gained a lesson.  There were no losses.

In Earl's passing, the "L" stands not only for "loss" and "lesson", but for "love", because Earl was beloved by the Magic Valley chess community.  Earl organized many tournaments, brought many laughs, and gave us many positive memories.  The Magic Valley Chess Club and Idaho Chess Association were greatly aided by his presence, and it was no accident that the Magic Valley Chess Club flourished while he was tournament director and organizer.  

Thank you Earl, for being a part of my life; you will be missed by all of us.

11:05 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Recommendations for FREE podcasts
Current mood: gallant

So, I've noticed that I prefer listening to podcasts over music in most situations where I'm doing something mundane, like housework, brushing my teeth, and torturing detainees.

So...

I would like some recommendations for free podcasts.  I'm looking for almost anything, really.  Right now, all the spoken word I have is stuff from ESPN, and that gets old pretty quickly.  Here's what I have already:

Stones Throw podcast
XLR8R podcast (podcast for under the radar electronica, trip-hop, jungle, etc.)
ESPN: PTI
ESPN: The B.S. Report with Bill Simmons

And that's it.

So if you could pass some podcast sweetness on to me, I'll appreciate it.  Politics, art, nonsense, whatever - if you think it's worth listening to, I'll check it out.

8:20 PM - 13 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

What a bunch of fucking bullshit - the 2nd amendment
Current mood: irritated

One of the most frequent questions I received while I was in Germany was some variant of, "Why is it legal to own personal firearms in America?"  This was always asked with pure puzzlement, sometimes with auxiliary information about America's number of gun deaths in comparison with European countries and so on.

Why is it legal?

Well, I would explain the background for the 2nd amendment - that the persons responsible for the Bill of Rights had a (then) legitimate concern about fighting back in the face of an oppressive government.  In addition, it's important to remember that this was a fledgling nation, distrustful not only of others, as seen by the difficulty it took to even get the 13 original states to band together as a nation.

However, my ultimate point was that the 2nd Amendment does not - as popularly thought by Americans and others - specify the individual's right to firearms.  For the uninitiated, here is the 2nd Amendment:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Since the wording is a little vague on meaning toward the rights of individuals, I have longed argued the intention of the 2nd Amendment is exactly what the opening clause declares: "A well regulated Militia..."  I have long argued that the sole intention is that individuals were allowed to armed themselves only for purposes of a militia, the idea that this militia could combat enemies of a free State (whatever the hell that is) whether within or outside the country.  In addition, I would also argue that this concept is laughably outdated, as it has become obvious that the national government does not tolerate well-armed militias from citizens, see : Waco, TX, and the Freeman - the government is not going to allow an upstart militia.  Obviously, the people in Waco and the Freeman are not exactly of sound thinking, but the example continues to weaken an already weak argument that American citizens should be allowed to arm themselves.

Well, weak until this bunch of nonsense.

Incredible.

Well, sorry Europe.  I don't have a good answer anymore.  A country so stupid it elected Bush twice and overwhelmingly approved the invasion of Iraq for no good reason has taken one of the Bill of Rights and misappropriated its usage.  We're just a country of gunloving yayhoos who are more concerned with toting around "protection" - protection this is more likely to kill someone in our own family than an attacker.  It's an instrument proven deadly in our culture of fear and paranoia and by the gross inadequacies of our piss-poor social support system.  Is there any logical reason that handguns are legal?  No.  But our highest court approves.

When it's hard to separate America from Toby Keith's vision of it, we all are in serious trouble.

Currently listening : Silent Alarm By Bloc Party Release date: 2005-03-22

4:48 PM - 17 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment

S’ what happens when technology, capitalism, and horniness have a 3-some
Current mood: tired

Currently listening : Common Market By Common Market Release date: 2006-10-17

7:57 PM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Ok, so I lied (sort of)
Category: Travel and Places

Seems I found some internet time today because it..s raining like crazy and I have to put more German lessons on my Ipod anyway.

Here are some thoughts on Germany thus far:

1)  First and most incomprehensible to me right now is the lack of good beer.

Yeah, that..s what I thought too.

Bavaria is the place for beer, so says the teacher hosting me for the exchange program.  If I had been in Münich, I..d be in beer heaven.  Here in Mosbach - not so much.  I was at the bar for the Germany - Croatia match (I guess the secret..s out: I love international soccer, the real Fußball), and when I asked for a beer recommendation, all I got was, "Well, Guiness is pretty good.  It..s from Ireland!"

Yeah, thanks.

So, if you..re scoring at home, that..s USA 1 and Deutschland 0.

On the other hand, there are breweries everywhere.  Whether they produce beer worth drinking is another matter.  Stay tuned...

2)  Germans are intensely intertested in the US national elections, so much so that their version of Time magazine ran a cover story on Obama.  Everyone wants to know my take on the elections, and most folks here - even in Mosbach-Nekerelz, population 20,000 - are likely more informed about the American presidential elections than the average Idahoan, and maybe even the average American.  Really, an informed electorate is not difficult.  It..s called reading, and the people ..round here do.

3)  There is a sizable population of Turkish people in Germany, and good lord do they make good food.  Here and in the surrounding towns and cities (and I imagine they are all over Germany) are places called "Ke-bops" that serve a pita-like confection called a "döhne"  It..s god-damned delicious.  It has really lean, rotissiere-style, thinly sliced beef, tomato, lettuce, onions, and a sauce remiscent of what goes in gyros.  It..s packed in some sort of pita-like bread, only it..s much better, because...

4)  The bakeries here own.  There..s not much else to say here.  They know what the hell they..re doing.  Don..t bring that hipster bagel shop crap here, because they are not in the same league.

5)  Seems like a good place to stop, and this section might need its own blog, so I..ll leave this said and (somewhat) unexplained for now: the Germans are very conservation minded, to the point that things that we think of as environmentally friendly - like recycling, for example - would be an embarrassment here.  Forget about recycling (which they do with whatever possible - rarely is anything simply trash), everyone in this town produces their own compost from anything organic such as uneaten food, and you can return all bottles, whether glass or plastic, for cold, hard, cash at the gropcery store.  And not that 5 cents nonsense.  Try 35 cents for a beer bottle.  True, it..s probably 35 cents a bottle you overpaid in the first, but it..s a real incentive not to throw the empties in the garbage.

9:40 AM - 8 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

I gehe nach Deutchland (I’m going to Germany)
Current mood: anxious

I breifly entertained the idea of writing this entire blog in German.  That was up and until I realized it would be tremendously self-indulgent to do so.  But then I thought about how blogging is self-indulgent on it's own, and that discussing my possible self-induglence in a blog that hasn't been yet completed...

Well, you get the idea.

Anyway.

Tomorrow (today if I wait 15 more minutes) I'll be headed to Germany.  It will be a hellacious couple of days.  We leave for Salt Lake City at 10 AM, get on the plane at 5 PM, ride a 11 hour joy ride to Paris, see the sights and sounds of Paris Intl. for 2 hours, skip over the mountains to Frankfurt, get picked up by hosts, and then arrive in Mosbach next Febraury.  All in all, travelling time will be about 21 hours, with barely any night as we travel in the opposite direction of the sun.

But there's more:

We will all be arriving at school - Gymnasium (a German high school) - the next day for 8 hours at 7:30 AM, after said travels and an 8 hour time difference.

Can't wait.

I'm sure I'll be happy to be there in a few days after everything has been adjusted, despite the fact that a Euro trades for 1.55 dollars...if I'm lucky.  I traded in 300 dollars for Euro a week ago, and it came back at 180 Euro for 300 dollars.

Now, it would be one thing if you could get lunch for something like 2 Euros, which would make lunch in the area of 3 bucks and change, but it's not.  Lunches are reported to be in the 6-8 Euro range, so about 9 - 12 dollars.  Luckily, since we are staying with host families, this saves a lot of money, but like Ringo in Yellow Submarine, I expect a hole in me pocket coming back to the US in a month.

But enough complaining.  All in all, I'm definately looking forward to the trip - that's why I volunteered to go.  But to everyone who tells me I'm so lucky: it's not as fun as it may initially appear.  I'm in charge of 5 high school students, and I still have to go to school on the weekdays to help teach English, and/or provide info on American culture.  I plan to show them this:



And this:



I'll be off myspace for awhile.  Likely 3-4 days.  'Til then, God Bless America!

10:27 PM - 4 Comments - 7 Kudos - Add Comment

Your all-in-one source for websites you should never go to
Current mood: gallant

http://www.thedogmatist.com/2007/the-definitive-list-of-shock-sites-and-media/

You're welcome...I guess

11:34 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Sage words from Jonathan Benton, Part I

Hello friends!  I'd like you to meet a friend of mine, Jonathan Benton:



Jonathan's a pretty chill guy.  He likes to compose electronic music, long walks on the beach, and surfing the web for weirdo stuff, some of which I have stolen for some of my other posts (but not the Mariah Carey video, which I stole from Mina).

Anyway, Jonathan imparts on me occasional nuggets of wisdom; I'd like to share some with you.

Note that as Jonathan imparts his wisdom upon me, I will be updating this blog by signifying it as "Part II", "Part III", and so on.



Jonathan sezz (italics are his words):

"Wow, that tastes gross - kind of like pesticide."

"How do you know what pesticide tastes like?"

"Believe me, I know."

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Uhh..where are we going?

"Well, I was going to go to the Sportsmens Warehouse to get a fishing reel, but then I remembered I don't fish."

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"Garrett!  Quit being a pussy and watch this dick-cutting video with me!".

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Currently listening : Real Emotional Trash By Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks Release date: 04 March, 2008

9:42 PM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Early favorite for wierdest (and funny) video of the year

Mariah Carey - Touch My Body{OFFICIAL VIDEO}

Add to My Profile | More Videos

9:11 PM - 3 Comments - 3 Kudos - Add Comment