Usagi
I am usagi, former 6d KGS. I am a 4 dan in China, where I live.
On or around the week of October 24th, 2008, my account was deleted from KGS without warning. Lost in this "accident" were:
- an irreplaceable avatar.
- legacy room-owner of ASR.
- former 6d rating connected to account (thats right, no '?')
- was probably '3d?' when i got deleted though
- several months of KGS plus archives which I had on the account
I know for a fact that the account was deleted by hand because I had logged onto it recently, as I had also done with my taiji account. This just chimes in with the earlier screwings I got on KGS which is what caused me to stop financially supporting the ASR and certain tournaments in the first place. Whatever. KGS doesn't want me to give hundreds of free teaching games every year and pay for dozens of people's KGS plus, then I won't. I'm sick of the admin's attitude anyways. They should learn to respect the users. For example they will boot wolchengi. Big mistake. For example the admins will troll users then boot them. Not smart. Note not every admin is bad, but the fact remains that the bad ones aren't removed. IMO that makes the good ones complicit. I have no say in KGS, and I let myself fade into the shadows rather than speak out for them for a long time, but this latest move pissed me off, so here's my little speech. Thank you for reading it. Goodbye.
===== old user info below =====
In the past, I have practiced Tai Chi Ch'uan for health for more than 10 years. Yet, I gave it up to learn Go (Wei Qi), because I feel I am better suited to it. After a further ten years I realised this was a terrible mistake and I have mainly gone back to Tai Chi now.
I restarted the Advanced Study Room on KGS with the ASR League. Unfortunately my life for the last long while has not been very stable. Due to the political and financial upheval (even in canada) during the Bush administration, I was not able to reliably participate in society so I had to stop running the ASR. To make matters worse, shortly after moving to China I accquired a case of tropical pneumonia which seems to be recurring every year since (althoug less severe each time). Thankfully several players, like sente, slade, hotspur, etc. have taken control of the ASR in my absence. Now that my life is stable, I am going to help out in the ASR a little more. I am happy that the room has grown beyond a need for me alone to administer it.
When I took lessons from willzhang I realized my main problem is that I am impatient and that I am looking for quick results without putting in the back end work necessary to succeed. It was a lesson more than worth what I paid to acquire it. This was on two levels, on a long term level (daily, regular studying) and on a short term level (thinking and reading and taking time per move, not wasting byo yomi time etc).
Go Numbers
- My willzhang number is 1 :)
- My Alexander Dinerschtein number is 1.
- My Solaris number is 1.
- My tartrate number is 2 (through both solaris and breakfast).
- My Cho Hun-Hyun number is 2 (through Kim Jung-Jin).
- My Shusaku number is 6 (Honinbo Shusaku - Shuho - Kita Fumiko - Shiratori Sumiko - Michael Redmond - Alexandre Dinerchtein). My Shusaku number may also be 5; I have played Steve Fawthrop several times, and his Shusaku number is (unconfirmed?) 4. If it can be confirmed that Segoe played Iwasaki? or Shugen then my Shusaku number is 5: Shusaku - Iwasaki - Shusai - Segoe - Cho Hun-Hyun - Kim Jung-Jin - Usagi
My top influences are currently Go Seigen and Shusaku. I strongly reccomend the book "A Way of Play for the 21st Century" by Go Seigen, and "Invincible: The Games of Shusaku".
A wise man once told me in passing, "it is dangerous to try to become stronger". (He was the former president of the NYC Go Club). My interpretation? Many people harbor a fatalistic dream to become a professional go player, perhaps after watching too many episodes of Hikaru no Go. Yet in truth there is not enough room in their life to support such an endeavor. Yet the dreams remain, and year by year they get stronger, but not fast enough, and then they graduate university. They wake up one morning and realize they need to work overtime for their job to be recognized in their field, and cannot possibly devote long hours to studying Go. Look at me. I am a 4 dan. But I had to give up a career and move to China. Are you willing to do this? Give up everything? Is it really worth that much to you? Well, I am a person who has gone that road, why don't you send me an email?
Goals:
0. Ritualize my life such that I have a regular study practice (more free time through ritualization).
1. Memorize Ishida's joseki dictionary, and possibly the Fuseki dictionary too (Perhaps Rin Kaiho's?)
2. Study of Tsumego
- I reccomend uligo and/or gogrinder.
- I am the author of disort.sh, a handy utility to sort go problems from goproblems.com.
- I am the creator/editor of gpc-usagi edition, available
here.
3. Memorize professional games of one or perhaps two players.
- I think I will focus on studying shusaku and go seigen, and how their play changed over their years.
4. Taking regular lessons from a very strong amateur dan, or pro player.
- Currently taking lessons from willzhang 9d, on KGS.
5. Promote the game of go and teach go
- Run a go club if there's a need. I started the Advanced Study Room in it's current incarnation on KGS.
- I wrote some beginner's books usagi's books
- Please read Benefits of Teaching Go
- I try to offer at least one teaching game per day on KGS. I gave nearly 300 teaching games in 2006.
Something struck me recently, Seigen no Go... Someone on KGS asked me how to make a page on Sensei's Library. This gave me an idea: KGS Player Homepages.
Questions and Comments Below:
(no comments within past year)