Checkmate

Depressed? Maybe you should be!

A well written article that deals with the idea of depression not always being a mental illness. I'm glad that I am not the only one who's had similar thoughts.

The original article can be found here.

My VisualDNA

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Just a few pictures...

I didn't take all that many photos (the ones mentioned in my previous post) but here are just a few random ones from the ones I did take. :P

Grilled New York Steak Frites:

Profiteroles:

Van Gogh's Ear:

Fun Night

Last night was pretty interesting. Dave, Emmery, Catharine, and I all went to the Brasserie Frisco for dinner before catching a late night showing of Hot Fuzz at a nearby theater.

Brasserie Frisco would probably not be the first restaurant I would recommend for food alone. Their selection is a bit limited but what they do have is done well. No, I would recommend Brasserie Frisco for a group of friends rather than as a place for a fancy dinner date. The environment is great for just 'chilling' and they've got a lot of interesting things there. The quality of the service was excellent as well. Even after arriving late, due to traffic and trying to find a parking space, they kept our reservations without a hitch - not to mention that the waitress we had was very courteous and friendly!

Anyway, after dinner, we just walked down to the nearby theater to see if there were any showings for Hot Fuzz for that time of night. Luckily, we managed to get tickets for the 10:45PM showing about half-an-hour before showtime. Seating wasn't an issue since we went into the theater fairly early compared to the other movie-goers. The movie itself was very well done for what they wanted to achieve - lots of comedy, action, suspense, and good ol' British humour. I remember at least one point during the movie, Cat was sitting on the edge of her seat laughing hysterically. *lol*

Overall, pretty fun night but probably won't happen again for a while. ^_~

(That reminds me... I still need to get the pictures off the camera, heh.)

Mr. Bean's Holiday!

What Colour Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

Heh, maybe it should be blue... but I prefer my current colour choices. :P

Your Blog Should Be Blue

Your blog is a peaceful, calming force in the blogosphere. You tend to avoid conflict - you're more likely to share than rant. From your social causes to cute pet photos, your life is a (mostly) open book.

What Colour Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

BabasChess

I've recently been giving BabasChess a run. It's one of the best chess clients I've ever used and it would probably even surpass WinBoard if not for the lack of Human-versus-AI capability. It has everything you could want from a chess client, as far as I can tell, and works perfectly well with servers such as FICS and different gameplay modes such as: Crazyhouse, Bughouse, Suicide, and more.

The only significant issue I've noticed is that adding chess engines for analysis mode is flawed (although, it may be the settings I used for the GNU Chess engine but I doubt it since it seems to work when I run the engine outside of BabasChess). The Crafty chess engine, that BabasChess comes with, works without a problem though. Not only that, whenever you edit the chess engine settings from within BabasChess, it always makes the lines read as "<command>\n<command>" where the '\n' should actually be a new line. Only a restart of the client will fix this problem.

However, minor issues aside, if you're looking for a Windows-based chess client to use, I highly recommend trying out BabasChess. It's robust, very customizable, and best of all, it's free! ^_^

Riddle Me This

1. One morning while she was eating breakfast, Jane's ring slipped off her finger and fell into a full cup of coffee, but the ring didn't get wet. Why not?



2. Five hundred begins it,
   five hundred ends it,
   five in the middle is seen.
   The first of all letters,
   the first of all people,
   take their places in between.
   Combine them all to make the name of a famous king.



3. What is it that turns everything around but does not move itself?



4. I can sizzle like bacon,
   I am made with an egg,
   I have plenty of backbone,
   but lack a good leg.
   I peel layers like onions,
   but still remain whole;
   I can be long,
   like a flagpole,
   yet fit in a hole.
   What am I?



5. The first man is the master of priceless gems;
   The second man is the master of love;
   The third man is the master of shovels;
   The fourth man is the master of big sticks;
   Who are they?

Winterbells

While it's not technically winter anymore, this is still an enjoyable little diversion and quite cute. Besides, it's Easter now. What Easter would be complete without a bunny? :P

Anyway, click here to check it out.

I hope everyone has a good weekend! ^_^

Google TiSP, eh?

Just in case you haven't seen Google's new service, check it out here! :P