Well, it appears that I'm incapable of summoning the energy for an ongoing blogging project without badgering other people into doing the same thing, so with a suprisingly minimal amount of badgering and only a moderate amount of foxing, we're getting the band back together and following up our smash hit "Septemblag" with our new peice "Blarch". I'd like to think "Blarch" has a new fresh sound that demonstrates where we're currently at, but I'm the drummer, and drumming is generally just drumming, so expect more of the same from me.
More of the same means more Friday ties, Wednesday Quizzes, Tuesday Book Reviews, and Monday Miscellaneous Papery, joined by some kind of Sports and Gamesey Thursday content and maybe the occasional super exciting thing on weekends too. So if you've been a fan of the general thrust of this here publication in recent times then you're in luck. If you're not keen on more of what I persist in referring to as Thomly Goodness, you're also in luck, because there are other things purported to be happening out in Blarch too...
Ale is getting back into the art, John insists he's going to do some writing, and James says he'll blow up significant parts of the country if he doesn't, and who knows, even Jimmy might get in on the action with a little coding.
And of course, this is your chance, dear reader, to sign up for Blarch and help us all blog our way towards April. Drop me a line in the comments and I'll know to go looking.
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
The Wednesday Quiz (iii.i) Lords a'Leaping
With the decline and fall of that once-great institution and spiritual blogmother of this here publication, Michael5000's Wednesday Quiz, it is once again up to the antipodes to provide your weekly dose of Quiztime goodness. Thus the editors are proud to announce a new season of quizzes here at the Leaflocker, on a range of topics determined by fancy and if all else fails, trawling of wikipedia. The rules shall be as follows:
-There shall be 15 approximately weekly quizzes of 10 questions of equal weight, normally in the form of pictures stolen from the internet.
-Entry is open to all and sundry, provided that they are willing and able to submit their answers to the comments before the next quiz is posted.
-Entrants should solemnly vow to consult no other persons, nor to seek to obtain the answer or information leading to the answer from any source other than their own brain prior to entering their answers.
-Each entrant shall have up to one free point on one question each week provided that they admit their total ignorance of a subject moderately relevant to the question. (If the question is to name a pictured country in a map of Africa, the answer "Pass. I know nothing about African geography" would be acceptable, while "Free pass for me, I'm a squirrel" would not). Acknowledgement of ignorance will be taken as a declaration of intention to educate oneself on the aforementioned subject.
-The entrant with the highest total score taken from the aggregate of their best ten results for the season shall be declared the winner. This title may not be worth very much.
-Tie-breaks shall be determined by the aggregate of the best best eleven results, or if still tied, twelve results, et cetera.
-The editorship reserves the right to award bonus points for particularly clever or amusing answers, be they right or wrong, up to a total of ten points.
-Disputes on the rules will be entered into with any interested party, but any decision of the editorial team made ex cathedra shall be considered infallable.
With the ground rules set, let's get this show on the road. This week you, the entrant, must attempt to name each of these persons prominent in the field of leaping.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Post your answers below in accordance with your sense of honair.
-There shall be 15 approximately weekly quizzes of 10 questions of equal weight, normally in the form of pictures stolen from the internet.
-Entry is open to all and sundry, provided that they are willing and able to submit their answers to the comments before the next quiz is posted.
-Entrants should solemnly vow to consult no other persons, nor to seek to obtain the answer or information leading to the answer from any source other than their own brain prior to entering their answers.
-Each entrant shall have up to one free point on one question each week provided that they admit their total ignorance of a subject moderately relevant to the question. (If the question is to name a pictured country in a map of Africa, the answer "Pass. I know nothing about African geography" would be acceptable, while "Free pass for me, I'm a squirrel" would not). Acknowledgement of ignorance will be taken as a declaration of intention to educate oneself on the aforementioned subject.
-The entrant with the highest total score taken from the aggregate of their best ten results for the season shall be declared the winner. This title may not be worth very much.
-Tie-breaks shall be determined by the aggregate of the best best eleven results, or if still tied, twelve results, et cetera.
-The editorship reserves the right to award bonus points for particularly clever or amusing answers, be they right or wrong, up to a total of ten points.
-Disputes on the rules will be entered into with any interested party, but any decision of the editorial team made ex cathedra shall be considered infallable.
With the ground rules set, let's get this show on the road. This week you, the entrant, must attempt to name each of these persons prominent in the field of leaping.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Post your answers below in accordance with your sense of honair.
Monday, 27 February 2012
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
A Very Special Quiz
The Leaflocker editorial staff is very sorry to announce that we don't have a quiz prepared for all of our loyal readers this week, although the answers for last week's quiz are now available. Instead, we would like to draw your attention to the annual "Notchers News" Christmas cricket scoring competition, which in the past few years has greatly increased our understanding of fiddly bits of cricket scoring, to the detriment of dinner-table conversation but to the great benefit of underworked cricket synapses.
Notchers News is an excellent scorer's newsletter from the UK (where cricket scoring is a serious business), which brings me great joy on a quarterly basis when it lobs in my email inbox.
An example of the type of questions that we're talking about here, from last years quiz:
Notchers News is an excellent scorer's newsletter from the UK (where cricket scoring is a serious business), which brings me great joy on a quarterly basis when it lobs in my email inbox.
An example of the type of questions that we're talking about here, from last years quiz:
"The striker makes a legitimate second strike at theThis years competition can be found on pages 2 and 3 of the latest issue of Notchers News and is well worth a look if a complete understanding of the Laws and Spirit is one of your life goals.
third ball of the over to protect his wicket; the batsmen run and, after they have crossed, the fielder throws the ball in an attempt to run the non-striker out; the throw misses and the batsmen complete three runs. How many runs should be added to the score?"
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
The Wednesday Quiz II.VI: It Becomes an Emperor
Well, it turns out that you guys, while distinguished and erudite in many ways, aren't that excellent at naming monkeys, so we've collected a bunch of other primates for you to have another go, in the little game we like to call Name That Emperor. All you have to do is identify the Emperors in the comment thread below to win the genuine admiration of a blogger near you.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Vive l'Empereur!
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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9.
10.
Vive l'Empereur!
Monday, 28 November 2011
What's Up With: The Reading?
As some of you may know, I have finally moved houses, and I now live in a cosy little bedsitter. While this is great in many ways (and I'm finally getting some alone time to read!), it does cause one large drawback to the reading project: My unread bookshelf does not fit, so I instead have... the unread Suitcase!
The suitcase contains only the books that filled two of the five boxes packed from the contents of the bookshelf, but it's a start, and if by some fluke I ever manage to finish this lot, rest assured that the rest are waiting happily nearby.
With any luck, the book reviews and pointless statistics that I know you've all been waiting for will be back this time next week. I've finished a few books recently that I cant wait to share with you, by which of course I mean that I can wait, at least until next week (see above). Expect
The suitcase contains only the books that filled two of the five boxes packed from the contents of the bookshelf, but it's a start, and if by some fluke I ever manage to finish this lot, rest assured that the rest are waiting happily nearby.With any luck, the book reviews and pointless statistics that I know you've all been waiting for will be back this time next week. I've finished a few books recently that I cant wait to share with you, by which of course I mean that I can wait, at least until next week (see above). Expect
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Chess Variants - Extinction
A month ago now, in that blogging black hole that we shall not refer to again, I hosted a small chess variant tournament for a few friends, games were randomly selected from a list to which we all contributed suggestions, and on Saturday the four of us, my four chess boards, and a box of tea got together for what I hope was the first of many such competitions. None of the four of us are exactly hot-shot chess players, but we make up for our lack of skill with enthusiasm for the game. Over the next few weeks I'd like to present you some records of the games I played, complete with annotations, because I'm just that hep with it.
The first game drawn out of the hat was Extinction Chess, a popular and widely played variant in which one wins by removing all of an opponents pieces of any type, so if you lose your queen, or both of your bishops, knights or rooks (or even all of your pawns) you lose, as well as by conventional checkmate. Being gentleman, we agreed to call check for any "royal" piece whose loss would cause the end of the game.
In my first game, I drew the black pieces against David, who I would normally beat in a game of orthochess some three times out of five, but as you're about to see (assuming that you have java) I played a pretty poor game of chess.
Click on the applet below to being the game and navigate by pressing the direction buttons or spacebar.
So my first game of the tournament started off true to form, but I had no time to mope about my loss, because my next opponent was Dan, who'd also come off of a loss in the first round. This one isn't exactly a great win, Dan having made a bad error with his knight very early on, but it is a nice example of the possibilities of extinction mates.
And so, spurred on by that victory, I decided that if my next opponent was going to plat silly buggers with his knights, I was going to play silly buggers as well. This is a classic example of how overconfidence, rapid play and sheer not-looking-at-the-board can result in a truly abhorrent game of chess. I'm not going to annotate it, because there's nothing to say, except that this is without a doubt the worst game of chess that I have ever, ever played, and it's almost enough to convince me to hang up my board forever.
On the plus side, I can hardly play such a terrible game ever again, right? Tune in next week to find out! (And if anyone has access to or wants to quickly code up a pagn viewer that can handle a 16x8 board (no need to enforce the rules), drop me a line.)
Tournament Scores (W-L-D) After Round 1
Bell, D. : 3-0-0 (3 Pts)
Nowak, D : 2-1-0 (2 Pts)
Diment, T : 1-2-0 (1 Pt)
Thomas, D : 0-3-0 (0 Pts)
The first game drawn out of the hat was Extinction Chess, a popular and widely played variant in which one wins by removing all of an opponents pieces of any type, so if you lose your queen, or both of your bishops, knights or rooks (or even all of your pawns) you lose, as well as by conventional checkmate. Being gentleman, we agreed to call check for any "royal" piece whose loss would cause the end of the game.
In my first game, I drew the black pieces against David, who I would normally beat in a game of orthochess some three times out of five, but as you're about to see (assuming that you have java) I played a pretty poor game of chess.
Click on the applet below to being the game and navigate by pressing the direction buttons or spacebar.
So my first game of the tournament started off true to form, but I had no time to mope about my loss, because my next opponent was Dan, who'd also come off of a loss in the first round. This one isn't exactly a great win, Dan having made a bad error with his knight very early on, but it is a nice example of the possibilities of extinction mates.
And so, spurred on by that victory, I decided that if my next opponent was going to plat silly buggers with his knights, I was going to play silly buggers as well. This is a classic example of how overconfidence, rapid play and sheer not-looking-at-the-board can result in a truly abhorrent game of chess. I'm not going to annotate it, because there's nothing to say, except that this is without a doubt the worst game of chess that I have ever, ever played, and it's almost enough to convince me to hang up my board forever.
On the plus side, I can hardly play such a terrible game ever again, right? Tune in next week to find out! (And if anyone has access to or wants to quickly code up a pagn viewer that can handle a 16x8 board (no need to enforce the rules), drop me a line.)
Tournament Scores (W-L-D) After Round 1
Bell, D. : 3-0-0 (3 Pts)
Nowak, D : 2-1-0 (2 Pts)
Diment, T : 1-2-0 (1 Pt)
Thomas, D : 0-3-0 (0 Pts)
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