ROCKY ROOK Blog 10 Years Old

Wow; on February 3, 2004 I started rockyrook.blogspot.com

Ten years ago I was a bright-eyed college grad who had been working full-time for 3 years.  In 2001, I started working for a big company who promised me that I would have a long career with them - that I could have multiple positions and jobs over the course of my career without having to change companies.  This appealed to me because at the time, the common career path was to either start working for a ".com" company or work for one of the consulting firms.  You would put in 60-80 hours a week and then after you get burned out, you could find a more stable and sustainable job someplace.  This wasn't too appealing, so I decided to go with a stable career path with the big company.

Then, 9/11 happened, the ".com" bubble burst and the economy took a hit.  The big company who had told me they had not had lay-offs and would not have lay-offs were suddenly laying people off.  In late 2003 I had two options: 1) go down a heavy technical path with lots of tech certifications with the long-term view that I would have to keep those certifications current or 2) go get an MBA and take the management track with the big company or some other company.  By January 2004, I had decided to take the MBA path.

During the course of investigating what it takes to get into a good b-school, I found that there were various blogs out there that had a wealth of information.  I decided I would blog about my own MBA journey and thus this blog began.  I published two posts in 2004 and then didn't return to the blog until 2006 (read this post); and ever since, I've been a somewhat regular poster.

Now, in 2014, I'm still with the big company; I've been promoted several times - the MBA did help with those promotions.  And because of those promotions, life gets busy; thus I've not been blogging as much.

But, I'm still playing chess; doing lots of tactics at chesstempo.  I love chess.com and the app on my Android - spending lots of time between those two sites.

I still need to get started on the chess books reading list.  I've been nibbling at The Immortal Game, but I need to just finish it already and post a book review and then move on to the rest of the list.

Anyway - here's to another 10 years of chess blogging.

Ralph's Bigfoot Note

If you've been to Ralph's Lost in Chessland blog, have you ever scrolled all the way down?  At the bottom of his blog, he has a footnote ... or rather a Bigfoot Note.

His Bigfoot Note is a summary of his training plan and things he needs to focus on.  I think this is a great idea!

My Favorite Chess Blog

The Chess Improver (by Nigel Davies)

I've yet to find a post I thought was rubbish.

#39

This is out of the blue.  Susan Polgar featured another blog's post about 50 great chess blogs.  ROCKY ROOK is featured as #39 on the list.  This is how he described my blog: "Learn how to improve prowess by developing an appreciation for the rich history and eclectic culture of chess."

Go check it out - your blog is probably on the list too.

source: onlinemasters.org
via Susan Polgar

"The demise of chess blogging" Response

LEP's post about the demise of chess blogging caught my attention. I've seen it too. I am a part of this falling off. Earlier this year (March-April-ish) my attention to chess blogging (reading and writing) decreased significantly.

In my case, there are number of reasons why. Right now I'm beginning to finish off an 18-month job position that requires me to work shifts. Hopefully I'll be done with this job early next year. The shift work has greatly disrupted my on-line chess activities. I mostly play correspondance chess now.

My family is continuing to grow up. Two kids are on school, one is in pre-K. They have a lot of activities going on and that takes a lot of time.

The last reason why I've decreased time with the chess blogging scene is I've sorta lost interest. I want to spend time on chess, but with so many other "distractions" I've not thought a whole lot about chess (not like I used to). Also, the Knights Errant seems dead. There isn't so much attention to them any more ... and nothing new (on-line) has replaced their gusto and fervor for chess.

One other thought occured to me ... I continue to peruse the chess blogs via bloglines. I agree with LEP's 2nd point ... there is a LOT of chess content on-line now. Information over-load might be another reason for the drop in interest. The vast majority of posts are *yawwwn* boring ... seen that, not new. But once in a while, there is a great post and catches my attention. I used to do "Chess Around the Net" posts and try to find out-of-the-ordinary stuff about chess. I still attempt this exercise, but more often than not, the stuff I find is old-news or not really blog-worthy. I might try it again tonight just for kicks.

Anway ... that is my two cents on the subject.