650 posts later

That's what Bloglines greeted me with when I returned from an 8-day internet-free, chess-free holiday in SoCal. Needless to say, I am now flush with new information and topics to cover. Here's a sampling:

• I hope my recent absence from these pages wasn't misinterpreted given all the "I might be leaving the blogosphere" talk. I just don't think it is a good idea to be announcing my vacations in advance on publicly accessible websites.
  
  Regarding the pronouncements from Dennis and Michael, let me say that I am more than sympathetic to their plight and have been in the same place many times before. So far, I've been able to rekindle my interest and enthusiasm through new sources, topic areas and other experiments. Nevertheless, it is certainly understandable that one might want to move on to new projects after a year or two of pouring intense effort into a blog, as these two obviously have. Perhaps things would be different if the rewards were more than just psychic?
  
  Of course my theoretical solution to this problem -- my utopian ideal -- is having a number of different club members posting on BCC Weblog. While we are no where near achieving that vision, the signs are as encouraging now as they have ever been -- four posts by three different posters while I was gone. I particularly enjoyed Dan's piece on BCC championship participants; Bob's photos continue to enhance the visual appeal of the blog and thanks to Jason for maintaining the blog's reputation as the preeminent site for independent coverage and discussion of the USCL.


• Speaking of the league, the blogosphere offers insider views of the action from the perspectives of Boston Blitz team manager "Globular" and Tennessee Tempo player FM Peter Bereolos (see the 8/30/06 post). You can also find information on the Seattle Sluggers at Clint Ballard's Slugfest7 site (no cheerleader pictures, I'm sorry to say).


• While we are still talking about Clint, the blogosphere has been abuzz again with discussion of his BAP scoring system. The Chessmill offers some mathematics to highlight its limitations. Meanwhile at The Chess Mind, Dennis and his readers (including Clint) have been engaging in a largely philosophical debate across several posts (see here, here, and here).


• I noticed the announcement for the new (relaunched?) Chessville Free Playing Zone in their newsletter a few weeks back but didn't have a chance to check it out. Edwin Meyer did and he likes it. It's always good to have more free options when others are locking down the hatches.


• Pale Morning Dun takes us on a sometimes hilarious tour of the super-GM class. There is an old saying: "Never trust a Montana fisherman wearing chess piece print boxers." Granted, I coined the saying, but I think it holds true here.