I did something I haven't done in a long time and played chess today at lunch.

When I was a kid, I actually was into chess. In fact, I was pretty gosh-darn good, so much so I dominated my 2nd grade gifted class. I was so into it then that I actually read books about chess and started learning all the big moves. At some point, however, I backed off from playing chess probably because I realized being into chess would doom me into a life of loserdom and geekdom. So I joined marching band instead.

Actually, one of the reasons why I stopped playing is because it's one of those games where it's all up to you. It's all about the mental, about being logical and smart and seeing things steps ahead of you. There's no die rolling, no alliances, no randomness involved. Whicis why I hate playing it- if you lose you have nothing to blame. You can't say you had a bit of bad luck or you lost it in the sun or you were injured or what have you. If you lose it's because you lose.

And the thing about losing is that when you lose there's only one real excuse for it- you got outsmarted. Which, in it's way, means that you lost because somebody was smarter than you. I hate when I think somebody's smarter than me.

So that's why I hate playing chess.