Copy of My Facebook post

​Events in recent years have impressed upon me the fragility of human life. I have lost friends, family, and associates. This happens with greater frequency as we get older, because most everyone we know is getting older too. However, I have also seen young people die from accidents. For example, a young couple I worked with were hiking in the mountains during a storm and were killed by lightning.

Cancer has claimed the lives of a few people I know.

What can we do about? I think that the first rule of living should be don't do stupid stuff. Stupid stuff can get you killed. Don't take unnecessary risks. Obey the law. Don't do drugs. Drive defensively. Obey the speed limit. Keep your vehicle, especially your tires, properly maintained.

Keep fire extinguishers and working smoke detectors in your home. Get at least two carbon monoxide detectors, because if both alarms go off at the same time then you know it is not just a defective detector. This happened to me, but I also know a whole family that got carbon monoxide poisoning and had to be treated at the hospital.

I think that the second rule of living should be to take reasonable steps to protect your health. Don't smoke. Drink in moderation or not at all. Eat as healthy as you can. Consume more plant based foods and less red meat. Eat fewer processed foods and more fresh foods.

​​

​Exercise.​

By the way, there is much research to indicate that sugar is very bad for you and addictive. For this reason, I don't keep any sweets in my home, otherwise I know I would eat them.

This is all common sense, but humans in general have a tendency to ignore common sense. We think that nothing bad will happen to us, but I have seen bad things happen to too many people. There is potential disaster around every corner. This is the reality we live in.​

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Some Facebook posts about Carson Nuss

Abigail LeeAnna Phillips

19 hrs · Instagram ·

Today wasn't goodbye it was a see you later. Carson you were the most amazing and loving person I have ever met. I don't know why you had to go you had so much going for you, but God just needed another angel, and what a perfect angel he received. I never knew you to hate any one I just knew the love and the hugs and the good memories you shared. Today I saw what an impact you made on everyone's lives... I love you so much bub! And I'll see you later

Magan Bowen in Kokomo, Indiana.

12 hrs ·

Please keep my family in your prayers, today we lay to rest a special young man.. especially pray for his mom, dad and brother...

Tammy Scoggins Hodges

6 hrs ·

The Carson Nuss funeral procession just went thru town. It's usually so noisy outside near hwy 26 in the heart of town, but at that moment, so quiet. I stood outside saying a prayer for the family of young man who lived here ...a family who gives so much to this community. Sherri Coffey Nuss and Matt, our hearts all break for you but this town lifts you up with our support. Bless you on this day.

John Coffey

4 hrs ·

This was read at my Nephew's funeral.

A most beautiful poem 'The Dash' by Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend. He referred to the dates on her casket from beginning to the end. He noted that first came the date of her birth and spoke of the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years. For that dash represents all the time that she spent alive on earth and now only those who loved her know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own, the cars, the house, the cash,

What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard; Are there things you would like to change?

For you never know how much time is left that can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough to consider what is true and real

and always try to understand the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger and show appreciation more

and love the people in our lives like we have never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile,

Remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read with your life's actions to rehash…

Would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your dash?

John Coffey

4 hrs ·

The service celebrating the life of my nephew, Carson Nuss, could not have been done any better. The pastor, Carson's friends and family, spoke about what a smart, upbeat, energetic, loving and generous person he was.

The number of mourners was staggering, with at least 1,500 coming to the viewing yesterday. Today's service was a packed house.

Macie Chaffee

2 hrs · Indian Heights ·

Today friends and families saw a loved one for the last time. As they go through this, I ask that you pray for comfort and healing over them. Carson was such an amazing young man. He will never be forgotten. Always in my thoughts and prayers ❤️

"When my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than I." Psalm 61:2

Rest easy, Carson
Sherri Coffey Nuss Codi Hurd

Caroline Conaway with Sherri Coffey Nuss and Codi Hurd.

1 hr ·

Today we laid to rest one of the kindest souls I have been blessed to know. My life will never be the same, it is altered forever. Although it is a very hard time right now, I know Carson is up with our Father watching World War II documentaries and looking down and smiling on us. I'm glad I got the privilege to know and love someone who is undoubtably one of the most influential people I have ever known. thank you for loving the person I love and being there for him always and loving me just as much. I will never forget you, rest easy, sweet boy.

·Magan Bowen

57 mins · Scottsburg ·

Carsons funeral was the nicest celebration of life I've ever seen, from the beautiful casket, flowers and painted vault... he's going to be missed by so many but his send off was beautiful

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Fwd: Facebook political discussion.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Coffey <john2001plus@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Oct 7, 2016 at 2:30 PM
Subject: Facebook political discussion.
To:

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in." - Michael Corleone in Godfather Part III.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw-3e_pzqU

Just when I was vowing to stop worrying about politics, I get sufficiently prodded on Facebook to make me want to respond...

Norm Jenson I understand the frustration of both conservatives and liberals. Promises promises and nothing much happens.where we differ is on the causes. The conservative solution is lower taxes and less government but I think that misses the cause which I believe is corporate personhood Citizens United in short corporate money in politics. This extends to the wealthy in general they buy a larger voice in decisions made it's not one man one vote but more like one dollar one vote as long as that's the case change comes slowly if at all. I don't believe the libertarian model will work I think it just makes the problem worse

Like · Reply · 1 hr

Hide 14 Replies

John Coffey I believe in freedom. I think that freedom leads to economic growth. I think that we need economic growth, especially since we are 20 trillion dollars in debt, not counting unfunded entitlements which are much larger. I think that there is strong evidence that larger more intrusive governments reduce economic growth. Studies have been done on this, but on simplest level you can compare countries on one extreme, like North Korea and Cuba, to countries on the other extreme like Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. All the countries between tend to be on a linear scale where the more free are the more prosperous.

It is not consistent with Freedom to have the government steal from one person to give to another. The Libertarian solution is to not give the government so much power that the powerful can influence it. (Right Steve Kusaba?)

Like · Reply · 1 hr

Norm Jenson and I believe in fairness. If there are no restrictions on freedom there is no justice. Freedom unchecked is slavery. Take monopolies as an example

Like · Reply · 1 hr

Norm Jenson or take Trumps business practices he sometimes doesn't pay people he hires and they have no recourse because the costs of fighting his big bucks is prohibitive. That's the kind of fairness I'm talking about. He's free to use his money to screw people.

Like · Reply · 1 hr

John Coffey This resembles the book 1984 doublespeak quote stating "Freedom is slavery." "Unchecked freedom" is hard to define, but I am not pure libertarian because I believe in regulations to prevent abuses. I think that government can and should protect its citizens.

Like · Reply · 1 hr

John Coffey The left never ceases in its distortions about Trump. If you are as big of a businessman as Trump is, then there are going to be contract and labor disputes. Said Trump, "Let's say that they do a job that's not good, or a job that they didn't finish, or a job that was way late. I'll deduct from their contract, absolutely," Trump said. "That's what the country should be doing."

'To be sure, Trump and his companies have prevailed in many legal disputes over missing payments.' http://www.usatoday.com/.../donald-trump-unpaid.../85297274/

USA TODAY exclusive: Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn't pay…

usatoday.com

Like · Reply · Remove Preview · 1 hr

John Coffey I am sorry that we disagree. I think that a free society is the most fair. I think that the poor benefit the most from a free society. The poor are far better off in free societies than they are in less free societies, even if those societies are less "fair." Although we have different views, we want the same thing, which is to help people.

Like · Reply · 45 mins · Edited

Norm Jenson I think the fact that the rich can and do take advantage by threatening to tie people up in court which denied them justice. What regulations would you favor to prevent that kind of abuse? Be specific

Like · Reply · 55 mins

John Coffey You are always commanding me to say something, when in this case I had finished all I had wanted to say. I think that our laws and are courts are nightmarishly complex, which is a symptom of too much government. I have frequently advocated scrapping all our regulations, and starting over with something that is much simpler and more reasonable. I especially believe this about the tax code, which is one of the positions advocated by Donald Trump. We should look for ways to simplify the court system too.

Like · Reply · 48 mins

Norm Jenson As a practical matter we can't simply scrap everything and start over. The structural problem will remain money determining policy and laws until those structural problems are addressed were doomed corporate personhood citizens united will slow meaningful change. The rich like a system where they pay little or no taxes. They have the power and trumps tax policies will simply increase that power

Like · Reply · 37 mins

John Coffey I think that all this concern about whether the system is "fair" could and has lead to a loss of freedom because the government becomes intrusive in its enforcement of fairness. You have a system where the top 1% pay 24% of all federal taxes and the top 10% pay 53% of all federal taxes, and people still perpetuate the myth that the rich pay no taxes. http://www.cnsnews.com/.../1-percenters-pay-24-percent...

1 Percenters Pay 24 Percent and Top 10 Percent Pay 53.3 Percent of All…

cnsnews.com

Like · Reply · Remove Preview · 32 mins

Norm Jenson well it seems clear Donald Trump doesn't pay much in taxes. I'm perfectly willing to sacrifice some freedom for a fairer and more compassionate society. That's something each individual decides for themselves that's why I'm a liberal. We have different things we find valuable.

Like · Reply · 23 mins

John Coffey I think that the intrusiveness of government is so detrimental that it outweighs the benefits. I think that in the interest of fairness, we are half way to totalitarianism, or at least a third of the way there. This is in the name of fairness, which to me is a false god. Free societies are inherently unfair, because some benefit more than others, but people are by far better off in a free society. Societies with big governments and socialism are equally unfair, if not more so, where the distribution of wealth is just as maladjusted, because people use government and power to their benefit, like they do with our government. Best wishes, John

Like · Reply · 15 mins · Edited

Norm Jenson Well as usual we'll just have to disagree.

Like · Reply · 14 mins

John Coffey Thanks.  :-)

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Every 9-11 I like to watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1gpJyFHETw

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Pre-video games

When video games took off in the late 70's, it seemed like my destiny to work in the video game industry, which I eventually did.  I got hooked on video games about the same time I got hooked on chess.

Prior to the video games becoming popular, there were a number of mechanical games that simulated a video game feel.  I saw this periscope game in the late 60's and to my young child mind, it was a great deal of fun:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periscope_(arcade_game)

I saw a number of shooting games that were mechanical, and I remember a mechanical racing game that rear projected cars onto a screen.

A game arcade opened in Columbus Indiana around 1974.  Most of the games were pinball, but there were a number of mechanical games that were popular until videogames took off.   I remember playing a "flying game" which simply had a miniature airplane that flew in a circle and all you could do was control the height to avoid obstacles.

Almost all the early video games did not have a processor, but instead used dedicated logic chips.  The game "Breakout" was that way, but there were other more crude games based on dedicated logic.

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Re: Why-black-shouldnt-hang-onto-pawn.html

When I was working at Lafayette Indiana from 1988 to 1991, I had gone to some computer fest and picked up a 300 baud modem for really cheap.  At the time my work was selling a dumb terminal because they often sold old equipment cheap.  

With the pair I could dial into my work.  It was all text only.  The modem was so incredibly slow that I could type faster than the what the modem could transmit.  I would have to type something and then wait for the dumb terminal to transmit it.

Despite this, I really liked it.  I could do some work from home, but my real motivation was to be able to access email and "usenet" from home.  Usenet was the real internet before the world wide web came along.   It was text only.   On usenet you could have bulletin board discussions with people all over the world on your favorite topics.

After moving to Salt Lake City, around 1995 someone showed me how to play chess on the internet.  I decided that I had to have this feature.  I spent a fortune to get a 486 33mhz computer with a 14K modem that could do practically nothing else.  I could play DOOM with it.  Over the years I would spend too much money upgrading that computer piece by piece until finally I decided that the computer was completely outdated, so I bought a new computer around 2000.  Bought newer computers again in 2005 and 2010.   I learned that it is better to buy new computers than it is to try to update old equipment.

​

​

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

​

On Sat, May 14, 2016 at 4:13 AM, Albert Nelms <alnelms@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I really appreciate you taking the time to teach and guide me in Chess. Btw, remember the days when you had dial an Internet provider? Good ok' AOL. Those were the days. lol

Mr. Askins

He was one of my favorite teachers ...

http://www.therepublic.com/view/local_story/Teacher_lives_legacy_of_Askins_model_10_19_2010

Watching shows more than once.

Probably everybody has seen individual episodes of certain TV series at least twice.  For example, most people have probably seen a few episodes of M*A*S*H more than once.  However, there are certain TV series that I liked so much that I had to see the entire series at least a second time.  Since I am a such huge fan of science fiction, most of the series I watched were science fiction or fantasy:

Battlestar Galactica (2003-2004): Twice.
Stargate Atlantis: Twice.
Stargate Universe: Twice.
Star Trek Enterprise: Twice.
The Event: Twice.
Flash Forward: Twice.
The 4400: Twice.

Stargate SG-1: At least twice. Parts of it I have seen three times.
Doctor Who (2004): At least twice.

House M.D.: Working on the third time.
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Working on the third time.
The Walking Dead: Working on the third time.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: At least three times.
(Although the series starts out uneven, the later seasons are really brilliant.  If there is a single episode of any TV series worth watching multiple times, it is "Once More with Feeling" from the 6th season of Buffy.  You could probably watch this without seeing the rest of the show, although it would be better to have seen the series first.)

Lost: Working on the 4th time.

I would like to watch Star Wars Rebels for a second time.  It has improved with each new season.

You might think from the list above that I do nothing but watch television all day, but if you watch only 1 or 2 episodes per day, then you can quickly run out of things to watch.

For the new shows on TV, the only ones I am watching right now are Colony, The Expanse, Star Wars Rebels, and The Walking Dead.

I especially like rewatching shows while I do my 2 hours of physical therapy everyday.

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

The Bunratty Riesling Gambit

Youtube recommended this video and I took an interest in it:  GM Analysis #13: Williams vs Wells: The Bunratty Riesling Gambit

However, when I analyzed the game with the computer, many of the moves from the game were a little faulty.  GM Williams seems to understand that he was playing a risky gambit line.  Rather than play the most perfect moves, he was going for his plan which he explains really well in the video.

So I think that the game is worth studying.

The computer's analysis with my comments is here.

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Christopher Hitchens, still outrageous

I admire the late Christopher Hitchens. He was a controversial figure, but it is fair to say that he lived an interesting life.

Christopher Hitchens, still outrageous

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com