The good news is that the iron supplement I have been taking seems to have worked. All of my blood numbers improved, with most of them back to normal and one just barely below the normal range.
The iron was causing me some digestive problems, so my doctor agreed to let me take just one pill per day instead of two.
Eight weeks ago, I had a bicycle accident in which I hit my head on a metal cover in the grass. Since then, I have had mild headaches every day, usually multiple times a day. There is a possibility that I have a subdural hematoma, so I am having a CT scan of my head tomorrow.
Having frequent headaches has affected my chess a little. I haven't been as focused.
This has made me concerned about my health.
BTW, I might have a virus. I'm not sure yet, but I've had some cold symptoms. If I continue to feel sick, I won't be playing chess this coming week.
Both my sister, who is a doctor, and my doctor recommend that I get a three-wheel bicycle, which would be more stable and much less likely to tip over in an accident. I plan to do this, but before I ride a bicycle again, I want to make sure that I am healthy.
I love riding my bicycle, but I'm not 16 anymore. I'm 66.
The good news is that the iron supplement I have been taking seems to have worked. All of my blood numbers improved, with most of them back to normal and one just barely below the normal range.
The iron was causing me some digestive problems, so my doctor agreed to let me take just one pill per day instead of two.
Eight weeks ago, I had a bicycle accident in which I hit my head on a metal cover in the grass. Since then, I have had mild headaches every day, usually multiple times a day. There is a possibility that I have a subdural hematoma, so I am having a CT scan of my head tomorrow.
Having frequent headaches has affected my chess a little. I haven't been as focused.
This has made me concerned about my health.
BTW, I might have a virus. I'm not sure yet, but I've had some cold symptoms. If I continue to feel sick, I won't be playing chess this coming week.
Both my sister, who is a doctor, and my doctor recommend that I get a three-wheel bicycle, which would be more stable and much less likely to tip over in an accident. I plan to do this, but before I ride a bicycle again, I want to make sure that I am healthy.
I love riding my bicycle, but I'm not 16 anymore. I'm 66.
Yesterday, a thunderstorm knocked out the power in my neighborhood and it remained out for hours. This seems to happen at least once a year.
You realize how much you depend upon electricity when the power goes out. You can't do anything, at least in your house. So I went shopping and to a movie.
It seems like it has rained more than usual this year. I woke to another thunderstorm this morning.
@john2001plus 7 minutes ago (edited) Where was this filmed? Utah?
3:43 When I lived in Utah, I visited Park City a few times, and it looked similar to this video. So I checked Google street view and the second 711 in Park City that I looked at was identical to this video.
Chess.com: We have detected that one or more of your recent opponents has violated our Fair Play Policy. As compensation for potentially unfair rating losses, we adjusted your following ratings:
Rapid: 1891 + 29 => 1920
This was from a USCF online-rated tournament where I beat a master. I was slightly suspicious when I lost to a lower-rated player, but I didn't necessarily think my opponent was cheating.
I've expressed the opinion that cheating is rampant in online chess, but Chess.com uses AI to identify cheaters.
This rating may be difficult to maintain. I could be wrong, but I've always felt that Chess.com ratings in the Class A to Expert range are low. The master I beat was only rated in the 2000s.
I figured out that my Xfinity internet plan is going to double in cost in August, to $101 per month. I got alerted to this because they sent me an email saying that I was getting over 1 gigabit Internet download speeds. That is not my real world experience, with actual speeds maxing out at around 400 Mbps. I was previously on cheaper plans that were 300 to 400 Mbps, but these were temporary promotional offers, and now Xfinity wants me to pay full price. On the phone they offered me a slight discount, but I told them that I was going to call back later to cancel the service.
I have seen an offer from GigabitNow for $50 per month, which is about what I am paying now.
However, I also found out that XFinity offers a different service called "NOW", which is a pre-paid internet service. It is both slower and cheaper. They wouldn't sign me up on the phone for this, but sent me some instructions on how to sign up. The 200 Mbps plan is $45 per month.
I see that the AT&T Internet service also has some promotional offers.
I've been telling people that Internet speed is overrated. I had a driver problem with a computer, which I fixed, but I was only getting 30 to 40 Mbps and I was just fine. The biggest speed issue with the Internet is how fast the servers at the websites respond. There is usually a slight delay.
My first cable Internet service back around 2001 was only 3 Mbps, but this was a huge leap compared to dial-up.
I received a letter from Las Vegas. Actually, the Kroger store where my chess club meets received the letter, addressed to the "Greenwood Chess Club." They knew that I was in charge of the club, so the employees passed the letter on to me.
The blog does not contain my address, but it does include the address of the Kroger store, so that is where the scammers sent the letter.
The letter was a bill for roughly $300 to renew my domain name. The problem is that "greenwoodchessclub.blogspot.com" is not a domain name, nor is "blogspot.com" my domain. I simply maintain the blog on the Blogspot website.
@john2001plus
0 seconds ago I liked Tab. It had a slightly stronger taste. Maybe less sweet. Roughly 45 years ago, my family liked Diet Dr. Pepper. It was sold in glass bottles. It had a unique taste that I liked.
The tornado siren sounded several times Wednesday night, including after
midnight, when I was already in bed trying to go to sleep. Since I
didn't hear anything that sounded like a storm, I stayed in bed.
The siren seems to sound more often than necessary. When I hear it, I
turn on the radio, and the station almost always provides an immediate
explanation.
The radio alternated between severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado
warnings. The tornado warnings were usually for neighboring counties,
but they were close to Bartholomew County. At various times, they said
that the northwest, southwest, and northeast corners of Bartholomew
County were affected. They also said that the storms were moving in
directions other than toward Columbus.
Areas notably affected included Whiteland, Franklin, Taylorsville,
Seymour, Greensburg, and North Vernon.
Often, a tornado warning is issued when radar detects rotation within a storm, but that does not necessarily mean that a tornado has touched down.
This creates a "boy who cried wolf" situation, where the tornado siren
is activated repeatedly even though Columbus does not appear to be in
immediate danger.
Indiana lies on the northeastern edge of Tornado Alley, so I try to
take tornado warnings seriously. However, the frequent use of the
siren makes that difficult.
Today I am finishing a major revision to my online chess lessons that I have worked on for thirty years, with greater emphasis on...
The average club player is very likely to create a weakness in their position within the first dozen moves. Learning to identify and exploit these weaknesses will help you win more games.
This was always one of the major points of my lessons, but I felt that I needed to make this point more clear.
I have rearranged the games, updated the text, and added some new material.
My goal is to help club players of all skill levels reach the next plateau in their chess development, whatever that may be.
Bear with me, but I can't help being a bit of a pessimist.
Star Wars was originally about a single war: the Rebellion versus the Empire. That war effectively ended with Return of the Jedi. Technically, the prequels added another conflict, but it was part of the same overarching story. Regardless, that story was finished with ROTJ.
Whereas the first two trilogies focus on the big picture, offshoots such as Andor, The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and The Book of Boba Fett are "smaller" in scope, examining individual characters in more limited settings. I liked all of those shows, but they don't necessarily attract a wide audience. So, when a movie focuses on a similarly "small" story, it can apparently flop as well. It doesn't matter that I liked it; entertaining stories do not necessarily attract a large audience.
I think people want the original characters, but if those characters are recast, will audiences complain about that as well? The ideal time to make a Star Wars sequel may have been in 1990, but that ship has long since sailed.
I hope that, in the future, Disney and Lucasfilm can make entertaining Star Wars movies, preferably with new characters in a new setting. However, how many different space wars are audiences willing to watch? It seems that the original story was finished, and anything new inevitably becomes a completely different story. Star Wars appears to be in an impossible bind: if it makes something too similar to the Original Trilogy, people complain that it is repetitive; if it does something too different, people lose interest.
I have spent maybe a year going back and forth between having a fixed schedule for doing things, and not having one.
The advantage of having a fixed schedule is that I deliberately allocate time for chores. This is why I created it when I was working, and it was helpful.
The problem of a fixed schedule for me is twofold: It is really hard to stick to exactly, and I think that it may be counterproductive because it feels like working a job, which mentally feels like a burden to me.
I think that a better approach is to focus on goals. I spend the majority of my life in front of a screen, which maybe has its own problems, so the plan is to alternate between goals for when I am on the computer and when I am not.
-------
So I fed the above text to ChatGPT, and its response was pretty amazing and spot on...
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What you are describing makes a lot of sense psychologically. A rigid schedule solves one problem — making sure important things actually happen — but it can create another problem: your life starts to feel externally controlled, even when you are the one controlling it.
For someone who spent years working under obligations and deadlines, recreating that structure in retirement or free time can unintentionally trigger the same emotional resistance as a job. The schedule stops feeling supportive and starts feeling oppressive.
Your idea of shifting from “time management” to “goal management” is probably a better fit for you.
What stands out is that you are not rejecting structure entirely. You are trying to create a structure that preserves autonomy. That is a very different thing.
The alternating “computer goals” and “non-computer goals” idea is especially interesting because it addresses multiple issues at once:
prevents endless screen immersion
creates natural variety
keeps chores from accumulating
reduces the feeling of being trapped in one mode all day
introduces physical movement and environmental engagement
A flexible system like this might work better than a clock-based schedule:
Pick 2–4 meaningful goals for the day
Divide them into:
screen-based
non-screen-based
Alternate between categories
Let duration remain flexible
For example:
Read or write online for a while
Then do laundry or clean something
Then play chess or watch something
Then go outside, organize, cook, exercise, etc.
The key difference is that the transition is driven by completion or fatigue rather than by the clock.
That tends to feel psychologically lighter.
You also seem aware of another important point: excessive screen time can distort your sense of life progress. Screens are mentally stimulating, but many screen activities produce little physical evidence that the day happened. Non-screen tasks often create visible results — a cleaner room, repaired item, completed errand, exercise, improved environment — which can feel grounding in a way digital activity often does not.
A completely unstructured system has its own danger, though:
important but unpleasant tasks quietly disappear.
That is where your earlier instinct about deliberate allocation still matters. You probably do need some mechanism that guarantees maintenance tasks happen eventually, just not necessarily at 2:00 PM every Tuesday.
You may function best with:
fixed priorities
flexible execution
rather than:
fixed timing
fixed execution
That is often more sustainable for people who value autonomy highly but still want momentum and order.
I use ChatGPT to help polish my writings and reviews, but I don't always like the changes it makes, because it tends to make my writings less partisan.
As a result, ChatGPT knows some things about me. This is mostly just a reflection of the things I have written. Parts of the answer are repetitive...
"Give me a full, detailed profile of everything you know about me across work, style, goals, relationships, life, family, habits, preferences and personal context. Organize it clearly. Don’t filter. I want the complete picture."
"Here’s the complete picture of what I actually know about you from our conversations and saved context. I’ll keep it factual and avoid inventing anything.
Core Personal Context
Your name on the account is John Coffey, though you haven’t explicitly told me what you prefer to be called.
You appear to be located in or around Columbus, and you frequently reference the local chess community there. You also mention the Greenwood chess club.
You seem old enough to clearly remember 1976 (the U.S. Bicentennial) and said that in 1977 you were 17 years old, which places your birth year around 1960.
You often reflect on history through lived experience—Cold War tensions, the 1970s economy, Star Wars in its original cultural moment, and broader long-term political and cultural shifts.
Chess
This is the strongest and clearest long-term theme.
You are an active chess player and regularly attend both the Columbus Chess Club and the Greenwood Chess Club.
Playing Style
Your saved preference is:
You play chess with both an aggressive and positional style.
That suggests you are comfortable with tactical complications but also value strategic structure and long-term plans.
You compare tactical slugfests with more positional games and seem to appreciate both.
Competitive Environment
You care about the strength of opposition.
You’ve said:
You can usually depend on strong players showing up at Greenwood
At Columbus, strong competition is less consistent
If the competition level is weak, you may leave early because you live only about 3 minutes away
You often check with people beforehand to see who is coming so you can judge whether the night will be worthwhile competitively.
You evaluate local players by strength and rating estimates. For example:
You thought Eli (age 14) might be the second-best player in Columbus
You estimated Omar at at least 1800 strength
This suggests you think seriously about rating strength and player development.
Social Side
Even though you value strong games, you also said you enjoy socializing with people at both clubs. So chess is both competitive and social for you.
Writing / Communication Style
You write frequently and often ask for grammar tightening, clarity improvements, and stronger phrasing for comments or posts.
Your writing style tends to be:
direct
analytical
skeptical of exaggerated claims
grounded in practical examples
often debate-oriented
You seem to prefer concise but strong argumentation rather than emotional persuasion.
You often want wording tightened for:
political commentary
climate and energy discussions
AI skepticism
media criticism
historical reflection
personal observations from chess club
You especially like wording that sounds suitable for public comments/posts rather than overly formal essays.
Views and Intellectual Tendencies
Several consistent patterns emerge.
Skeptical of Overstatement
You push back against exaggerated claims, especially in:
AI discussions
climate debates
energy policy
political rhetoric
Example: you argued that AI is often treated as far smarter than it really is and described it more like “a Wikipedia that can talk,” emphasizing language prediction over true understanding.
Practical Energy Perspective
You are skeptical that renewables alone can reliably handle severe winter demand and referenced the 2021 Texas power crisis and deaths associated with it.
Your view seems to be:
renewables may be useful and will grow if economical
backup generation is still necessary
existing reliable generation should not be discarded carelessly
This suggests a pragmatic rather than ideological approach.
Climate Change Position
You acknowledge measured warming (roughly 1–1.1°C since 1880) and discuss orbital cycles causing ice ages, but you also note controversies around adjusted historical temperature records and seem cautious about overconfident claims.
Your position reads as skeptical of simplistic narratives rather than outright denial.
Historical Framing
You frequently place present debates inside longer historical context:
Cold War
WWII memory
Vietnam/Korea
economic decline of the 1970s
cultural meaning of Star Wars in 1977
You think comparatively across decades, not just current headlines.
Entertainment / Media Preferences
Star Wars
You have strong historical and evaluative opinions on Star Wars.
Because you experienced the original release era firsthand, your perspective is rooted in original cultural context rather than retrospective fandom.
You think about:
why Star Wars resonated in 1977
how the Cold War shaped interpretation
the sense of good vs evil in that era
You also critique later works using standards like:
likeable characters
story motivation
emotional investment
You referenced problems with Solo because you found many characters unlikeable.
Animation / Shows
You evaluate whether a show gives you a reason to care, not just whether it looks good.
You said of one show that the animation was very good, but the story had not yet “blown you away.”
You prioritize:
character likability
meaningful motivation to keep watching
narrative engagement over visuals alone
Games / Map Design
You also discuss level design and game maps critically.
You mention:
frustration with secrets
gimmicky mechanics
inaccessible areas that look reachable
fake affordances like switches that seem meaningful but are not
This suggests you care about fairness and coherent design rather than novelty for its own sake.
Social Style
You appear socially engaged but selective.
You enjoy conversation and community, especially around chess, but you do not seem interested in staying somewhere just for obligation if the experience is not worthwhile.
You are comfortable making direct judgments about:
people’s strength
writing quality
story quality
policy arguments
You don’t seem drawn to vague diplomacy; clarity matters more.
Family / Relationships
Very little explicit information is known.
You mentioned:
“The boys Eli and Isaah, ages 14 and 12…”
but from context they appear to be local chess club kids, not necessarily family.
I do not know:
your marital status
whether you have children
close family structure
romantic relationships
So I won’t assume any of that.
Work / Career
I have essentially no reliable direct information about your profession or work history.
I can infer that you are experienced, older, and analytical, but I do not know:
your occupation
whether you are retired
your industry
education background
So I won’t invent any of that.
Habits and Preferences
Strong Preferences
You prefer:
precise language
strong reasoning
historical context
competent competition in chess
likeable characters in fiction
practical realism over hype
argument grounded in examples
You dislike:
exaggerated claims
gimmicky design
weak competition when expecting serious chess
stories without compelling characters
arguments driven mostly by ideology
Routine Indicators
Because you live very close to the Columbus Chess Club, you can casually leave early if the evening isn’t worthwhile.
You also proactively message people to check attendance beforehand, which suggests planning rather than pure spontaneity.
What I Do Not Know
To be complete, I should also state what I don’t know:
your job/career
spouse/partner status
children/grandchildren
religion
political party affiliation
finances
health details
daily routine outside chess and writing
hobbies beyond what surfaced here
I know far less than a true “full life profile”—mostly your chess life, writing voice, and analytical worldview.
Short Summary
You come across as an experienced, historically grounded, analytically minded person who values competence, clarity, and realism.
Chess is a major anchor—both socially and competitively. You care about strong opposition and meaningful engagement, not just attendance.
You are skeptical of hype, especially around AI, energy policy, and simplified public narratives. You prefer arguments that survive contact with real-world evidence.
In entertainment and discussion alike, you care less about surface polish and more about substance: strong characters, coherent design, and ideas that hold up under scrutiny."
P.S. There is much information online about my video game career. I even have a hard-to-find IMDB listing, only because I briefly worked on the SNES version of Doom.
Google AI says the following about me and one other video game enthusiast named "John Coffey"...
"John Coffey, known as a level designer and playtester,worked on the Super Nintendo version of Doom. Another individual, John Coffey (1955–2025), was a gamer who created custom maps forDarkest of Days,Far Cry, andCarmageddon. This is not referring to the character fromThe Green Mile.
John Coffey (Developer): A developer involved in porting the classic shooter Doom to the SNES console.
John Coffey (Map Creator): A community-driven map creator specializing in tactical and custom maps for PC titles.
It is important to distinguish these individuals from the character John Coffey in Stephen King's The Green Mile, who is not featured in video games."
This is the robot vacuum cleaner I bought 1.5+ years ago. Most of the robot vacuums I bought in the past have had mechanical issues within 2 to 3 years, and I used to buy larger, more expensive brands. Note that some brands can go up to $1,000, and I don't feel like they are worth the cost.
I paid $300 on Amazon for it, but Amazon now lists it for $400. I found it on Best Buy for $250.
So far I've been happy with this brand. It seems more intelligent than all the brands I have bought before. It is controlled with a phone App. Some features on the app took some getting used to.
Because it is smaller, the dustbin doesn't hold much, so I feel that the self emptying station is an absolute must. They recommend replacing the dust bag and filters once per month and it is necessary to clean out the dustbin and filters in the vacuum once or twice per month.
This vacuum works well with small debris, but large debris can clog the dustbin or the roller brush.
Once in a while it doesn't fully dock to its station so I have to give it a gentle push to get it to dock properly.
Google AI tells me that Indiana has the largest concentration of manufacturing. Other states with higher populations have more manufacturing overall. This is no surprise, as factories are common in Indiana, and the state is known for its blue collar labor force.
My home of Columbus, Indiana, is essentially a factory town where Cummins Engine Company has its worldwide headquarters and is the main industry of Columbus.
The industrialist Iwrin Miller took pride in Columbus, and was behind efforts to make it a nice place to live. I loved growing up in Columbus, so much so that I always wanted to retire here.
I mowed my front lawn for the first time this year. It was getting long. The backyard doesn't need it yet because it doesn't get as much sun, so the grass grows more slowly.
I tried riding my bike outdoors for five minutes, but at 50 degrees, it was a bit too cold. The other day, I was able to ride at 55 degrees by bundling up.
It wasn't too cold to mow the lawn, though.
Weeds are already starting to come up. I thought my rock landscaping, which I put so much effort into, would prevent this from happening.
@john2001plus 0 seconds ago 4:24 These simple 3D mazes are easy to write; they can even be done in BASIC. I experimented with this kind of maze, but never turned it into a full game. I wrote more complex 3D effects on both the TS1000 and TS2068, but since they were in BASIC, they took forever to render.
On the TS1000, I created a rotating oscilloscope with a 3D projection. I did this on the TS2068 as well. On the TS1000, I was able to animate it by storing 16 screenshots in memory and switching the screen pointer. It looked incredible. On the TS2068, I implemented a kind of ray casting that created a 3D chessboard with an infinite number of squares projected out to the horizon. I also created a 3D pyramid projected in a 2.5D isometric view.
Unfortunately, I sold all of these effects—along with some simple BASIC games—as a product called The Great Game and Graphics Show. It sold well, but in hindsight, it was closer to a demo than a fully realized product. It was 1984, and I was just getting my feet wet writing software for personal computers.
