I just found that aside from Chess, there are three other variations I can play on my iBook.

From the Chess Help File:

Crazyhouse follows the same rules of movement as chess, with the winner being the first player to checkmate his or her opponent. However, when players capture their opponent’s pieces, they receive the same piece of their color to drop into the game at any time. For example, if a player captures a knight, he or she can later drop a knight anywhere on the board, even if it brings about check or checkmate.
In crazyhouse, a player cannot drop a pawn into the 1st or 8th rank. Also, you can promote a pawn to any piece, but if that piece is captured, it reverts back to a pawn for the capturer’s use.

Suicide follows the same rules of movement as chess, but there is no castling. The winner is the first player to lose all of his or her pieces or to have no legal move left. The king doesn’t hold a special significance, and it can be sacrificed like any other piece. Also, players can promote pawns to a king.

Losers follows the same rules as Suicide. However, the king holds the same significance as in chess, and players must reply to checking moves first. But if a player mates, he or she loses.

Is this part of Wesley So’s discipline? I don’t think so (pun unintended), but it might just help him grow his repertoire of moves. Funny thing though is I’ve lost as much as I did with regularl chess yet it felt fun losing. Maybe because it continues to teach me how to think differently from the way I used to.
In life, maybe you can ask yourself: “What will I do if I can do anything I want, regardless of time, money, ability, training, location or physical condition?” You might just have a Eureka moment.

Extra: For book lovers:

There is a great adventure book that used chess and a certain Chess set as its topic. This I think is way much better than a recent around-the-world-mystery-adventure in all aspects. Persons are considered in their equivalent chess piece. Pawns, Black  knight, bishop, qhite queen… and a play on the number eight, the chessboard (8×8)… fibonacci sequence… the puzzle of using the knight to cover all squares of the board in exactly 64 moves… music (octave), etc… I wonder if the sequel has been finished or will be out soon.. The tile of the book is The Eight by Katherine Neville.

Thank you Janette, Aileen and 88db.com for giving a summit and party in our honor. Gina and I are humbled by your kindness.

Ok, so it was just coincidence that these events just fell on our 11th wedding anniversary and were not made for us. They were made for bloggers.

So Bloggers assemble!
The fourth iBlog Summit will be held on April 26, 2008 at the Malcolm Theater, College of Law, in UP Diliman, Quezon City . Register for iBlog4.

Here’s the info from 88db.com for the first blogger party this summer -

What: 88DB.com Bloggers’ Night
When: April 26, 2008 @ 7pm
Who: bloggers of any size, age, status or whatever
How: Just leave a comment below or register through any of the coordinators blogs
Why: Booze, Music, Prizes and 88DB.com
Where: Katips Bar in Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City

Come as your blog* and get a chance to win a brand new Sony PSP.

To confirm attendance, kindly leave your name and blog address as a comment here in my blog or visit any of your other favorite blogs. Check the list here.

*Come as your blog means you have to dress up like your blog. With all my blogs I wonder how I’m going to dress up… I’ll probably come as an apple! Remember, the blogger who represents his/her blog the best wins the Sony PSP.

Coordinators (please let me know if you’ve made a post) -
Migs, AJ, Andrew, JayDJ, Anton, Sexymom, Noemi, Cokskiblue, Janette, Jayvee, Jomar, Jozzua, Jun Asis, Juned, Markku, Regnard, Winston, Gail

A recent survey showed that many consider themselves poorer compared to last year.

I think this is a wrong impression, an incorrect conclusion. I dare say most of us have become wealthier and increase our net worth every single day. Many of us are probably millionaires several times over. It’s just we are using an incomplete balance sheet.

The traditional mindset for wealth includes the things you own and the things you owe: Your house, money in the bank, your business, precious collections such as paintings, real estate; loans, debts, operating expense, etc. Get the difference and you get either a loss (negative) or a gain (positive).

How about considering the following as part of your assets?

Your knowledge and skills. Many bloggers write about themselves and rarely see how much their talent is worth. Often, this never gets highlighted in a resume. I have an officemate who is a deep thinker and writes excellently to pursue this avenue. I encounter a lot of people who know they are talented yet seem to discount these as capital. Singers, musicians, leaders, great with kids, have a way with people, can look at the big picture easily, can work methodically, likes the nitty-gritty, can act, is good with numbers, can fix anything, speaks well in front of people… Any of these yours? They are greater than gold in value.

Your successes. The awards that you got in grade school and high school certainly count. Graduating from college. Passing the board exams. Promotions and commendations in your work. Getting praises and expressions of gratitude for helping out. Having been featured in a magazine, newspaper or website. Being tapped as a subject matter expert in your field of expertise like technology, elearning or personal development. Putting up a blog and keeping it active and attracting traffic. Developing the reading habit (or any good habit), focusing on positive thoughts and passing the things you learned. You do not have to get a medal, a plaque or trophy. There are successes big and small, you just have to look back and take stock.

Your Experiences (specially the bad ones) and Failures. Failures and bad experiences as wealth? Yes, if you’ve learned the lessons. Any new thing you learn increases your portfolio.

In 2004, I started web publishing with hard coding html. It was a disaster as i struggled and almost gave up. I thought I’d have to get a costly software but learned that there was Wordpress: it does what I want and is free. I’ve used it ever since. There were two things I’ve learned from that. First, the knowhow I gained in coding still helps me to this day. Second, now, I always do my research first for a free and/or easier solution to any web-related application I need, even at work.

At one point during high school, I went to school without breakfast nor allowance. That experience I still treasure and still ground me. Though I would not wish it to happen again to me or anybody, that phase is one of my most valuable treasures. I will not exchange it for a million dollars.

If you ask most millionaires who went through hard times before becoming achieving success, the times they were at their lowest were also the times that have helped them succeed later. Failing forward ring a bell?

Your Connections. Though it sometimes has a bad impression, having connections or a good network is part of your wealth.  I’m glad I met Bo Sanchez and consider him a mentor. My brother-in-law surgeon-oncologist was heaven-sent for my mother. People I consider brothers and sisters in our covenant community also have helped me come up with solutions. Relatives and classmates are people i can rely on too. People I wrote to (but didn’t know) and responded. People I met even once. Their collective knowledge, skills, talents, experience, failures and success are potentially at my disposal.

With these assets, I’m a billionaire many times over if I put even just a minimum amount on each of these.

All of us have our skills, talents, knowledge, successes, experiences and connections. They are part of our wealth.

Each of us is wealthy beyond our wildest imaginations.

Lately, I have been getting more invites and updates from Multiply, Friendster, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks that I’ve signed up with. Truth to tell, my initial thoughts on these were not quite positive. I just joined to check what they had offer and  have a “presence” just in case I can use them later. That was about the time when Web 2.0 and social web buzzwords were fairly new and unproven.

A conversation with an educator friend convinced me that these tools were ripe for the picking so to speak and will continue to be used in several ways. Communities are being built and developed around these sites and applications, and people are finding all sorts of uses. What used to be the realm of “just hanging out online” is now “collaboration, advocacy, communication, contribution, connective and collective.” This is not to say that everything is good and rosy. Like any other tool, it depends on how you use it.

Little by little, I am now integrating social media and web 2.0 in my digital lifestyle. Not because it is hip, but because I find value in them, and foresee that it is a great avenue for education, communication and collaboration.

You might notice that I’m putting in Twitter in the sidebar. If you follow me at http://twitter.com/junasis, you will only receive good news, info and quotes. I am now looking into integrating my posts into the social web pages. I’d also like to see my blogs adopt web 2.0 tools, specially upgrading the Wordpress versions and putting in useful widgets. Maybe re-designing it to be like a dig-like site, contributory and user-driven. If someone can help me make this happen, I am open to collaborations.