Chess again

A couple of recent "hobbyish" developments to report in my life of late. In February I started going to the local Essendon toastmasters club. For those who don't know, toastmasters is a public speaking organisation consisting of many clubs worldwide that generally have weekly or fortnightly meetings. Everyone who joins gets the opportunity to speak (and is encouraged) in front of an audience with the idea of improving your confidence and speaking skills. For me it is a really good way to meet some different and interesting people and an opportunity for an intellectual challenge. I gave my first formal speech last week, the "icebreaker", which is basically just a chat about myself - it may seem easy but was a surprising challenge. So far I have been really enjoying the experience and already have a few ideas for upcoming speeches.

The second hobby I have rediscovered in the last few weeks is chess. I have played chess on and off for most of my life (since Dad taught me how to play when I was about 8 I think) and I tend to go through phases where I play it a lot or not at all. When I am into it, it kind of becomes a bit of an obsession...hence the lack of blog posts recently. I would suppose consider myself a slightly below average player - my online ranking is 2295 out of 4116 players on the FICS server www.freechess.org where I normally play. My handle is CloakedRaptor, maybe I'll see some of you online sometime...

Why we should boycott the 2008 games

I actually wrote this post some time ago but I thought that it was now appropriate to voice my distaste for the Chinese dictatorship...

So it's a little early to be talking about the 2008 Olympic games but for whatever reason it has entered my consciousness and now I am feeling very uneasy about these games. No it's not because of drug contamination, the worry about respiratory problems from pollution - it is simply that the games are being held in a country with a dictatorial regime, with known human rights abuses in the past that are continuing to this day.

Let's be fair, China has made significant strides in the past 20 years - they even allow a kind of pseudo capitalism to exist in some of their 'protected' business districts. However, this doesn't take away from the reality - China is still a dictatorship and rules through force rather the rule of law and the voice of the people. The recent crackdown in Tibet is a prime example of China's leadership maintaining their rule through brutality.

The Olympics long ago lost their native appeal as insturment for reconciliationa, hope and cooperation, maybe they never had it. In any case, the one thing they are still good for is for demonstration purposes. What better way to say 'up yours' to China than by boycotting the games that they are so keen to use to show (with propoganda) the world how modern, free and happy their country is?