Wikipedia was involved in my synchronicity!

[backpocket]

First, some backstory: I've always wanted to write, but never had the balls to do it, because I always thought it will be well too worthless for someone's time anyway, so I always chose the 2nd best option that I enjoy, and people actually approve.

Inspired by Steve's article (aren't we all) What I Learned From Going Bankrupt in My 20s That Proves to Be Immensely Valuable in My 30s, I started writing again. Nothing much, just attempting some short stories, but could never finish anything. It all just felt so hard, like it was a struggle, but I just presevered, thinking I have nothing to lose anyway.

Then a few days ago, while freewriting, it somehow turned into a detective story. For the first time in weeks it was actually enjoyable to write, and I looked forward to continuing it everyday. But somehow I just couldn't find a proper voice for it, and what was cool in my mind turned insipid on paper. I was disappointed, but just continued along, trusting that if I screw this up, I can just rewrite it all over again.

Today, after another writing session, and still frustrated that I couldn't find a proper voice, I went to wikipedia to read up on Tarrasch. I'm currently studying chess endgames, and I love reading about the history of things, plus I wanted to waste time, so I checked.

I skipped a lot of the article, it was pretty boring, then somehow my eye caught a link to The Yiddish Policemen Union at the bottom of it. What's a novel got to do with a chess player? Intrigued, I clicked it, skimmed it again, and it said that the book was a homage of sorts to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. They were familiar names. I bumped into those names a few times when randomly surfing online, but never gave them much thought. I just knew they wrote hardboiled fiction.

Then I saw that the movie would be adapted into a movie by the Coen Brothers. Huh, never read about the Coen Brothers, let me click that. While reading through it, I saw Hammett and Chandler AGAIN, with both of them said to be the main influence of the Coen's.

Then everything just clicked in my mind. Influences, Hammett, Chandler. Ka-ching! Ooh, so the universe has been telling me to go read their books all this time and I never bothered to pay attention. Dumbass!

Haha. Wikipedia is awesome!

[Acting Like Godot]

First you must blockade the isolated queen pawn on d5, then you pile up behind it and finally you win it.

This is the culimination of your strategy as White, and then to your disappointment, you will discover that you drift into a one-pawn-up endgame with queens only. Where you cannot win, due to the annoying & endless checks by the very irritating Black queen.

This post will make sense to no one except Backpocket, and maybe not even him.

[songwriter]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

First you must blockade the isolated queen pawn on d5, then you pile up behind it and finally you win it.

This is the culimination of your strategy as White, and then to your disappointment, you will discover that you drift into a one-pawn-up endgame with queens only. Where you cannot win, due to the annoying & endless checks by the very irritating Black queen.

This post will make sense to no one except Backpocket, and maybe not even him.

Chess player here, thought I never play the Tarrasch, but I guess what you mean.

Synch fan here too, lol... I've never known how to read synchs, all I know is they're good and they're important.
For Steve you just have had an "alfa-reflection", after your intention of writing again.
Then there's the other interpretation, of "go ahead", "this is your way", "you're right"... and even more, I don't know.

[backpocket]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

First you must blockade the isolated queen pawn on d5, then you pile up behind it and finally you win it.

This is the culimination of your strategy as White, and then to your disappointment, you will discover that you drift into a one-pawn-up endgame with queens only. Where you cannot win, due to the annoying & endless checks by the very irritating Black queen.

This post will make sense to no one except Backpocket, and maybe not even him.

LOL. I think this is the opening trap? I could never memorize openings, it's so boring. I'm never really sure what to do in the beginning anyway besides just developing all the pieces.

I'm just starting to play again after 14 years of not touching the board, and I found out I only truly understood the knight, due to the endless childhood battles with my brother who loved using the knight. That influenced my play, trying to win pieces only by manouevring my knight around. Bad strategy when you go out and play against someone with a basic understanding of chess

Right now, I'm trying to figure out each piece's subtlety by itself, and was learning about the rook when I read the Tarrasch rule. "Always put it behind a passed pawn!" Huh? Why not put it in an open file? Surely it would be more powerful?

The rest is a wonderful synchronicity, probably the first I've had in 4 years.

[backpocket]

Originally Posted by songwriter

Synch fan here too, lol... I've never known how to read synchs, all I know is they're good and they're important.

Yeah, it's like the universe is saying, "We'll pave the road in front of you, and give you a push when you need it, so don't worry about a thing, you just keep on going straight."

Strangely enough, I remember that it's only happened a lot when I'm writing something, never anything else. Usually it's just a weak one, like a half hearted push. I think they line up with your thoughts, and if it doesn't excite you, then the reflection would be the same.