Scam Victims

Dear Friend,

I am Mr.D,C Willian Frost . I am a US citizen, 66 years Old. I reside here in Centreville Virginia U.S.A. My residential address is as follows.14852 Rock Landing Court Centreville alanta  20121 United States and my email address is (barristerdcwilliams74@gmail.com) my telephone number is +14049824519 you can call me or send me a  text message and i will respond back to you.

I am one of those that fall victims to scammers in Africa two years ago. I have lost over US$100,000.00 for the past years while in the USA. I was trying to get my payment all to no avail. And they always stopped my funds with one reason or the order. So I decided to travel with my Son to WASHINGTON D.C with all documents, there the (FBI) was amazed and contacted the Nigeria embassy in the USA. After some hours in that office, I was asked by the FBI officer to come back the next week.

When I did the FBI officer gave me the contact of one Mrs. Maria Farnandez who is a representative of the (FBI) and a member of the compensation award committee, currently in Nigeria. And when I contacted her she explained everything to me. She said whoever is contacting us through emails are fake that I should fly down to Nigeria to see things by myself which I did and she took me to the paying bank for the claim of my compensation payment.

This was paid to me successfully. Right now I am the happiest man on earth because I have finally received my compensation funds of US$1,300,000.00. Moreover, Mrs. Maria Farnandez showed me the full Information of those that are yet to receive their compensation funds and this was how I came across only your email address and your full name. The only Money I paid after I meet with Mrs. Maria Farnandez was just $550.00 (Five Hundred & Fifty Dollars) for the ownership paper works. So I am advising you to contact Mrs. Maria Farnandez through her email address (officew633@gmail.com) for your own money including the money you lost to the scammers please take it very serious.

Please contact her and send your telephone number and your residential address to her so that she can release your own money to you.

Thank you & God bless you.

D.C. William Frost.

 United States

My Dear Beloved In The Lord

My Dear Beloved In The Lord,

My Name is Mrs. Sandra Korjev,I am married to late Yuri Korjev who was an Oil Merchant and international businessman before he died in the year 2001 after a brief illness that lasted for only five days. Before the Untimely death of my husband we were both born again Christians. When my late husband was Alive he deposited the sum of ($18,000,000.00 USD) with a Bank in Europe whose name is withheld Until we open up communication. Following my ill health, my Doctor told me that i may not last for the next Couple Of Months due to My cancer problem.

the one that disturbs me most is my inability to move Around and Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to a God fearing Person that will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct herein, according to the desire of my late husband Before his death. I don't want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly Way. I am not afraid of death Hence I know where I am going. I know that I am going

to be in the Bossom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that"the lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace. I don't need any telephone communication in this regard because of my health hence the presence of my husband\'s relatives around me always, As soon as I receive your reply, I shall give you the contact of the Bank where you shall reach them and i will also issue you a Letter Of Authorization from the High Court Of Justice that will prove you to be a beneficiary of this fund. Any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing another individual for this same purpose.

Your Beloved Sister in the lord,

Mrs.Sandra Korjev.

A New Personal Highest Rating for Blitz Chess

Greetings,

As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, I am addicted to online blitz chess.  One great thing about lichess.org is that it calculates your rating (assuming you select to play a rated game instead of a casual game).  Lichess calculates your rating for each type of time control (bullet, blitz, rapid, etc.) and all new users get a provisional rating of 1500.  A rating of 1500, for the most part, is the around median rating for all chess players (FYI, there are almost 200,000 users with a blitz rating on lichess).

Lichess uses what is called the Glicko-2 method for calculating (the successor to the Glicko rating system).  The math is quite complicated.  For the most part, if you win or lost against an opponent with the same rating (at least for where I am rated), your rating goes up (or down) about 10 points.  Losing to a lower rated opponent will cost you more while winning against a higher opponent will gain you more.  Lichess appears to find you a player with a similar rating whenever you select to play against a random opponent.

As of the moment of this blog post, I have a blitz rating of 1487 which is a new personal high for me.  I had reached 1485 twice (once in August and again 2 weeks ago).  My rating fluctuates quite a bit as you can see from my blitz stats chart below.

I seem to do OK for a while and then hit a losing streak.  I have dipped below 1400 quite a few times over the past few months only to rebound.  I am not sure why but I have a feeling that the gambits and defenses that I use work great against 1300 rated players and not so well against 1500 rated players.  Once I get into the 1400s lichess puts me up against better players and I am lost.  This is the main reason that I started my database of my openings so I could see if I needed to study on how to play against some opening method (I do struggle against the Sicilian Defense, I do not need my database to tell me this).

Anyway, today I am on a high so I thought I would blog about it.  As the chart indicates, the lower 1300s awaits me soon enough.

Jon

Chess Statistics

Greetings,

It has been a while since I wrote a real blog post.  There are several reasons but one big one is my serious addiction to online chess (hey, as I point out to my wife often, there are WORSE things a fellow can be addicted to on the internet!).  I started playing on https://lichess.org around the April (2018) time frame and have played over 3,000 games since that time.

The lichess site allows you to play several varieties of chess other than just the standard rules but I have almost exclusively played normal chess.  The site also allows you to set time limits for a game, some of which are just crazy (30 seconds to complete a whole game!).  For the most part I have been playing with a time control called "blitz".  There are a few definitions for blitz depending on where you play chess but the lichess site says that anything between 3 and 8 minutes per side falls in the blitz category.  The majority of my games are what is called 5+0 which means that each side gets 5 minutes to complete their moves and you add 0 seconds per move (incremental time).  I won't bog you down with any more details.

Since you can download your game results and details, I started importing them into an database (of course!).  The data contains what is called an ECO code which categorizes the type of game, mostly based on the first few moves.  These openings get their names from where they were first played (French Defense, Vienna Game) to the pieces used (King's Gambit, Four Knights Game) to the person's who first used and perfected the opening (Ruy Lopez, Caro-Kann Defense).  There are a limited number of ECO codes (A00-A99, B00-B99, C00-C99, D00-D99, E00-E99) so some openings share a code as they are just a variation on a theme.  OK, enough about that, let's get to the chess stats.

While the download contains the ECO code, it does not tell you the variation so I had to do some legwork.  I first started by figuring out how many different opening combinations there were.  I just used the first 4 moves (2 by white, 2 by black) and found that there were over 400 different combinations.  I think looked up all the ECO Codes and ECO Descriptions (the name of the opening).  Still not satisfied I considered the first 6 moves (3 by white, 3 by black) and found that of the 3,000+ games I had played, there were over 1,000 distinct openings (no wonder chess is so hard to master).  Once I had imported them into my database, we were in business.  I plan on making a few postings about chess so let me start with just the games from April through June.  If I also filter for only blitz games that were rated (more on that in another post), there are ~400 games.

Color	Win	Loss	Draw	Total
White	84	103	12	199
Black	101	104	15	220
Total	185	207	27	419

Not a great start I will admit.  If I add in the ECO code and description then the table would quickly explode to 100 rows so I will just include a few of the more common openings.

White	Win	Loss	Draw	Total
C30 King's Gambit	10	11	3	24
C34 King's Gambit Accepted: MacLeod Defense	11	8	1	20
C34 King's Gambit Accepted: Fischer Defense	4	11		15
B30 Sicilian Defense: Old Sicilian	3	7	3	13
B50 Sicilian Defense	6	6	1	13
C30 King's Gambit Declined: Queen's Knight Defense	6	5	1	12
B01 Scandinavian Defense: Mieses-Kotroc Variation	5	5		10

I like playing the King's Gambit opening but it does require your opponent to make a certain move with their first move.  I do not like it when my opponent plays the Sicilian Defense against me but I just need to study more on that opening and how to play against it.

Black	Win	Loss	Draw	Grand Total
C41 Philidor's Defense	30	26	4	60
A40 Queen's Pawn	10	9	4	23
B12 Caro-Kann Defense	9	9		18
A00 Van't Kruijs Opening	9	3	2	14
A41 Queen's Pawn Game: Anglo-Slav Opening	7	6	1	14

As black I really struggled until I discovered Philidor's Defense (more on that in a future blog I would guess).  Let me know if you ever want to challenge me to a game.

Jon

GOOD DAY

--
Attention:

Scammed Victim/ $350,000 Compensation-Ref/Payment Code: 06654 we are delegated from the International Monetary Fund to pay 1000  World scam victims $350,000 each, you are listed and  approved for this payment as one of the scammed victims, get back to us as soon as possible for immediate payment of your $350,000 compensation funds.

On this faithful recommendation, I want you to know that during the
last United Nations meeting held at New York NY with the
president of United States Of America It was alarmed so much by the
rest of the world in the  meeting on the loose of funds by various
foreigners to the  scam artists operating in syndicates all over the
world  today, in order to retain the good image of the country, the
president of the Country is now paying 1000 victims of this operators $350,000
each, Due to the corrupt and inefficient banking system, the
payment are to be paid by Bank Transfer,ATM Card or Bank Draft. According to the number of
applicants at  hand, 300 beneficiaries have been paid, half of the victims
are from the United States and Asia, we still have 700 left to be paid
the compensation of $350,000 each.

Your particulars was mentioned by one of the syndicates who was arrested
in United Kingdom as one of their victim, you are
hereby warned not to communicate or duplicate this message to any person
for any reason or whatsoever, the IMF/FBI secret service is already on
trace of the criminal for more vital information.

I shall feed you with further information once I hear from you.

Reconfirm the following:

Name:
Address:
Phone:
Occupation:

Yours faithfully,

Mr.Stones Walter
Compensation Consultant

Re: My Propsal.

I am Ms. Liza Wong the Head of Accounting Audit Department of HSBC BANK (HSBC)in  Malaysia.

In my department in the Bank where i work, I discovered a sum of $85.5 Million USD.

In an account that belongs to one of our foreign deceased customers, a billionaire Business Mogul Late Mr.Moises Saba Masri, a Jew from Mexico who was a victim of a helicopter crash since 2010 which resulting to his death and his family members.

You can see more information about Saba Masri Mr.Moises unfortunate end accident on the website-link below.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3832556,00.html

A Mexican business tycoon was killed along with at least two members of his family in a helicopter crash on the outskirts of Mexico City on Sunday night, emergency .

Now our bank has been waiting for any of the relatives to come forth for the  claim but nobody has done that SINCE 2010. I personally have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives,Which the Board of Directors are planning to share this funds among them-self.

Which i have good heart to use this funds to help the poor and street children also  the motherless home. I want to build my orphanage home, which setting NGO for the disability people that can not afford to eat 3 square meal a day. I dont know about you.

I do seek your consent as my foreign business partner in this transaction to present you as the next of kin/Beneficiary to the deseased, so that the funds of this account valued at $85.5 Million USD can be paid to your local bank account in your country. Also know that transaction is 100% free risk, because i have all the legal document with me to make this transaction possible, and the funds we be share 50/50.

Please Provide me the following few information about you, as we have few days to run it through to achieve our goal.

1, Your Full names:.............................
2, Your age:..........................
3, Your private phone number:...............
4, Your current country and residential address:........
5, Your Occupation:.....................

Please on your confirmation of this message and indicating your interest,

i will furnish you with more information on this business transaction once i get your respond back asap.

Best Regard
Ms. Liza Wong

Fun, Not Fun

Greetings,

     I have not been in a great mood overall lately.  Oh like most people I have my ups and downs but compared to "normal me" my downs have increased and my ups have decreased.  I was thinking about this over the weekend during in increased "down" time and I think I might have a possible source of this up/down shift.  I think that the fun has been taken out of the fun things in my life.  Here are a few examples...

• Slippery Scope (Band) - So I started a band a few years ago with some co-workers.  We played mostly at work even though we did do one 45 minute set at a local bar.  We lost our percussionist a while back and the recent split of our company (see Work section below) caused us to lose one of our vocalists.  The keyboard player we had did not have time (due partially to Work) to commit to continue playing either so the lead guitarist went out and got a drummer, a bassist and another guitar player and together we practiced about 30 songs and had enough material to cover a complete night at a local bar (three 45 minutes sets).  Less than a week before the concert, 2 of our band members had to make trips to the emergency room so we had to cancel our gig.  After that the bass player got a new job in another state so we had to find another bassist (which we did).  Through it all though it just became not fun for me.  The practice sessions were too long (3 hours on a weeknight + drive time) and we did not have a new gig lined up so practicing seemed to have less purpose than before.  In the end, I told my coworker (the original guitarist) that I was leaving the band.  He completely understood.  They are working on an album of original material and we left the door open for me to be a guest vocalist.
• My CD Collection - So I did a whole list of blogs (almost 50) about my listening to every CD that I own (over 1,200).  Lately though I have been cleaning out the closet and I decided that some CDs have to go.  I considered just throwing them out and that was very tempting but in the end I decided to sell them on ebay.  I threw out the CD cases long ago and all I have are the CD inserts and the CDs themselves.  These are in 2 big boxes in my closet.  I likely am going to try to get rid of 900 CDs and I did not want to list them on 900 individual auctions so I started to make piles of like artists and sell them in lots of 5 - 40 CDs.  I bought some 6"x6"x6" boxes from Half Priced Boxes (what a great store by the way) and spent many hours hunched over my collection and making stacks.  As of the typing of this blog I have completed about 30 auctions and have about 15 more active at this time.  Once you cover boxes, tape, ebay fees and my time I can conclude this is not going to be a very profitable venture.  It makes me sad I ever bought most of these CDs as the joy I got from listening to them in the past is outweighed by the pain of dealing with (almost) giving them away to strangers on the internet.  I am also giving away my LP collection (160 LPs) to my cousin who will pick them up the next time he is in Texas (which is supposed to be this month).  I have already given away my stamp collection that I have moved from house to house (an estimated 14 times).
• Eating - I think I can chalk this up to watching one or two too many documentaries on Netflix about food and the food industry.  It is a disheartening thing when you find out that everything you have been taught is a lie and that those lying to you have done so on purpose and assumed you were an idiot (this may be a bit harsh I guess but it is how I initially felt).  I will not go into too many details but I will warn you just to avoid the documentary section of Netflix unless you want to be mad or change (or both).  In the end, I have converted (not sure if this is the right word) to veganism.  Actually a better description would be a plant based diet.  I have not had meat, eggs, dairy, etc. since July 17th.  I have had some honey (technically not a plant based food) so I would not be welcome in the die hard vegan camp.  There are lots of reasons to go vegan or plant based but mine is strictly for health reasons.  I joke that I would have to give up veganism since I could not maintain the "holier than thou" attitude required in the bylaws.  I do feel healthier but eating has ceased to be fun, or at least it is much less fun than it used to be.  The wife kept the same diet for about 30 days but now describes herself as "mostly vegetarian" while my daughter would describer herself as vegetarian.  My son, who does not spend much time at home, let alone eating with us, has not changed his diet at all, at least based on Netflix documentaries.  Not only is eating less fun, but going out to eat is now a challenge.  Many restaurants have vegan options but it is mostly just omitting things (leave off the beef or cheese) instead of a planned vegan dish.  As a vegan, you can become a social pariah either not attending social functions that revolve around food or having an uncomfortable conversation with your hosts / fellow participants about why you are not eating with them.
• Work - Ugh, where to start?  Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy going into work on Monday mornings and in general I still love my job and my workplace.  However, having just gone through the 2nd major split in the last 3 years, my job (like everyone else's at my workplace) is not as fun as it used to be.  Nine years ago, the company I worked for was acquired by another company.  Three years ago, the bigger company split into two companies.  This required, in addition to your normal workload, that we make two versions of most applications and then spend time migrating and cleaning up data.  In some ways, that company split is still not complete as I still have to provide services indirectly to people from that company.  This past year, the company I work for (the one that split off three years ago) split again only this time the part that split off was immediately merged with another company.  So, now, in addition to making 2 versions of most of the applications and migrating and cleaning up data, we have to merge our applications with those of another company.  Again, this is in addition to my normal day to day job.  Also, there has been many cuts along with some good workers just leaving on their own.  The net result is even more work and responsibility for those of us left behind.  I have joked with more than one co-worker as we said our goodbyes (due to them being cut or leaving on their own) that time will tell if I am the lucky one or if they are.

     There are other things as well.  My morning commute usually involves listening to the local ESPN station but lately instead of sports the hosts are talking about off the field topics like the national anthem or players being accused of crimes and then fighting their suspensions.

     These are all first world problems for sure and I know it.

     It is just a theory, but when fun becomes not fun then you have to either fix it or stop doing the "fun" thing.  How to replace it though?  How does one find new fun things to do?

Jon