The Game of Kings

Chess or Chaturanga as it was originally called, literally meaning Four Divisions is a game as old as civilized society invented somewhere between c. 280-1000 into the modern era. Many histories and treatises have been written about it for ages. It is indeed a powerful game and is of course known to be a favorite of strategists and intellectuals. The great thinker Benjamin Franklin had this to say of the game:

"The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or the want of it. By playing at Chess then, we may learn:
I. Foresight, which looks a little into futurity, and considers the consequences that may attend an action.
II. Circumspection, which surveys the whole Chess-board, or scene of action: – the relation of the several Pieces, and their situations.
III. Caution, not to make our moves too hastily."

Thusly I've begun to play a chess game with myself each day/week to strengthen my mind and open up more doors of creativity. As a writer I am hoping this practice will increase my ability to think for multiple characters at once and to have strategy in defining a plot that is both satisfying and entertaining. As an actor, the same principles apply, by having to play two sides at once and with multiple pieces to move I am hoping this will help with defining character wants and needs or motivation for movement. Now, as an artist, I don't see much practical use into the strategy portion of the game as art is meant to feed on chaos, not order, but I do however see the beauty of the juxtaposition of the pieces as well as the layout of the board, they are all indeed aesthetically pleasing, so I think in some way unbeknownst to me this will help. Well, we'll see.
On the news of the project front, I finished scene one of act two of my play last night and I hope to write most of scene two of act two tonight possibly. The best thing about this play is that I have it all played out for myself in my mind so the effort of it is to just get it written so then I can read and rewrite as needed and then share my creation with those whose opinion I respect.
Also, tonight the wife and I got some great vegetables from my parents. A blog on that will be coming up.

Intellectual Cucumbers

In recent cases I'm realizing that I'm going through changes. As is neccessary and sometimes unnoticable until you forget your not doing that thing you always use to do. This happens to be a lot though, so I'm kind of use to the cycles. What I'm talking about pertaining to myself is: I'm going through one of my drawing pits right now, I haven't been drawing as much lately. No pages have been getting done, I still have one panel left on like the first page of my new samples....But things will turn around for me, as with history a period of inactivity is usually in turn the result of a period of strong activity.

In anycase onto what I am keeping myself busy with these times. Recently we had our Stag and Shower parties; they went great! Tons of fun with friends and plenty of gifts! All is great! So while all this has been going on I've been obsessing over this new hero of mine from history, Count de Saint Germain the immortal man. This guyis amazing, he could do so much, he was so damn smart! He could speak fluently, 12 different languages, in which case I'm attempting to learn 10. He knew all these facts about history and the way he talked about them it seemed to his listeners as if he was there; he never denied nor said he was there to them. So I'm finally reading all my history books I got three Christmas' ago...He was so many other things as well; a painter, violinist, pianist, courtesan, alchemist. Awesome right?! So yeah, I'm trying my best to be like him in these aspects, because that's fucking amaing isn't it? I'm blown away by it!!

Also as recently as yesterday I discovered this amazing dude and author Tim Ferris and his book "The 4-Hour Body". I haven't read it yet but I looked at the contents and examples and read some stuff on the website, this shit is amazing too!! He describes all these ways to change your body physically with minimalistic efforts! He went through 10 years of experimenting on himself (a human gunieu pig) to prove or dissprove all these amazing facets; fat loss, stenght gain, muscle gain, sleeping less to gain more productivity and so much more! I'm going to buy this book I think, at Target of course, dicount and all that haha. But yeah, so I've got Count de Saint Germain for my insperation to increase my menatal capacity and now I've got Tim Ferris's book to better myself physically!! Maybe this will help me become something like Nietchie's Uberman (Superhuman)? Who know?! I just want to be as friggin amazing as possible!! Think about it, if I create myself more amazing think of the benefits of those around me and think of the benefits of my children eventually! This is the type of thinking that moves forth the human race closer to that which we idealize. So I mean if this doesn't inpire someone, whatever. Because I'm going to make sure that myself and the people I know move forward!