My friend Nicolas began to teach me the other week. I know what all the pieces do, it’s just a case of tactics, thinking in advance and seeing things going on on the board now! I’d also recommended Babas Chess which is a free program that allows you to play chess with other people online :) Nicolas is back in Madrid now but this allows us to play online. It’s pretty cool, I’m obviously getting destroyed at the minute, most of the people on there seem to know what they’re doing! But if you’d like a game with another newbie you can find me on there as ‘ricardigan’. Just gotta keep practising now, I guess. I also picked up an old book about chess from a book-giveaway-fair thing about a year ago, may have to find that again.
Richard's Life List
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1. Early to bed, Early to rise
2 entries . 2 cheers110 people -
2. be fluent in german
3 cheers224 people -
3. read as many books as possible, starting with all the books I own but haven't read
1 entry . 4 cheers616 people -
4. Spend less time fooling around on the net and more time actually working
1 cheer5,506 people -
5. keep going
1 entry . 4 cheers10 people -
6. learn sign language
1 cheer7,663 people -
7. grow my hair long
3 entries . 1 cheer3,527 people -
8. busk
1 cheer68 people -
9. learn photography
1 cheer2,644 people -
10. spend more time writing about the things I think about
4 cheers86 people -
11. play guitar more often
1 entry93 people -
12. Get up when my alarm goes off
1 cheer411 people -
13. learn to play chess
1 entry242 people -
14. Learn to play the piano
1 cheer7,416 people -
15. run a half marathon
1 cheer1,914 people -
16. see the northern lights
1 entry . 1 cheer16,864 people -
17. bungee jump
1 cheer3,422 people -
18. wear more hats
1 entry . 4 cheers44 people -
19. write down or record the things I play on guitar
1 entry . 1 cheer4 people -
20. start a Free Hugs campaign
2 cheers34 people -
21. re-learn french
428 people -
22. Learn to knit
1 entry3,496 people -
23. learn to play the harmonica
1 cheer806 people -
24. learn how to juggle
128 people -
25. Worry less.
1 entry . 2 cheers4,545 people -
26. learn at least one complete piece by Einaudi
1 cheer3 people -
27. do 100 pushups
446 people -
28. write anonymous, loving post-its for strangers to find
1 cheer867 people -
29. learn poi
177 people -
30. learn to make interesting origami
1 person -
31. get my driver's license
2 entries5,035 people -
32. fly in a hot air baloon
607 people -
33. visit the Elliott Smith memorial on Sunset Boulevard
1 cheer138 people -
34. Take pictures of examples of spelling and punctuation so horrible that they make me feel a bit sick, and post them on here for other language geeks to gawp at.
2 cheers12 people -
35. identify 100 words that make me happy
27 people -
36. visit guatemala
16 people -
37. receive 43 postcards from 43 different 43Thingers
33 people -
38. get rid of unnecessary possessions
809 people -
39. visit every country in Europe
1 entry124 people -
40. learn to cook. Really cook.
1,746 people -
41. Daily: Reflect on 5 things for which I'm grateful.
735 people
How I did it: Made a playlist on iTunes, when I remembered about the goal I simply added songs to it! Particularly, of course, ones that lifted me out of a bad mood and brought a smile to my face. Read how I did it…
Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
38 to go:
Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Republic of Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Republic of Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, Vatican City.
Now that I’ve found a list of all the countries this goal is looking considerably difficult. Perhaps some more interrailing is required :)
I even went up into the loft just to see if there were any extra books I own that had inadvertently emigrated up there unread…
I’ve got a lot of free time at the minute and am consequently turning into quite a voracious devourer of books, but my main problem is trying to read too many at once! I think at one point I had about eight on the go simultaneously when I realised something was afoot… Despite this, I don’t really own all that many books; there aren’t any shelves or bookcases in my house in which to store them as such, I mostly use some drawers and boxes in my room. I’d say I’ve got about twenty to thirty personally-owned books that I’m still yet to read. I’d be getting through them faster but I keep borrowing other books from friends and family and using the library. Must possess more “Ooh, that looks interesting!” restraint…
