Are you living under a rock?  No?  Then have you heard about the new trend of employers asking for Facebook information in order to get hired?

Personally, the job isn’t worth giving up my way to keep in touch with the people I want to keep in touch with.  In fact, as of this post, I’ll start going through my Facebook friends and eliminating those who I haven’t got any reason to have on my friends list.  Besides, if an employer wants to know what’s on my Facebook page, then they aren’t really interested in my abilities or skills… they’re worried about things completely unrelated to the job.

Now, if the job has something to do with public media or my image directly affects that company: sure, I’d consider the move. More likely, though, I’d just get rid of my Facebook (Google+, LinkedIn, etc).

We don’t need this… really.

Ooops.  Some features are changed or might not work correctly until I fix what I updated.  :)

Again, sorry for the issues.

This week, I had a business trip that took me someplace I expected to have access to the Internet.  That was not the case.  I was in Internet Hell.

With the absence of the Internet, I was unable to write a column for the New Chess Experience and I couldn’t get my podcast uploaded before just a few minutes ago… soooooo, next week I hope to be back to normal.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Have you listened to the Lime Flavored Podcast? Did you know my cohost, Dan, and I are going to be doing a lot more than just audio! We’re going to be bringing you the full Monty: TV/Video AND Audio. Yes, we’re going to be having a TV show (sure, local TV but we’ll also be online!) and it’s called Crazed Lime!

What are we going to talk about? What are we going to be doing? What are we going to be wearing? Why are we asking so many questions?

Just watch it. Coming SOON!

The 6th Edition

While traveling around the Internet, I come across quite a bit of interesting stuff… but rarely does that result in interesting chess stuff.  For example, I discovered Chessopolis by randomly meandering the web many moons ago and I have now discovered the ACO, which is the title of this column.  More about that in the bulk of the column but I wanted to note that if you have a little time and think about what kinds of things are possible, you might come across something you hadn’t expected.  Sometimes that can be a good thing.

No Chess Around the World this time… there are plenty of news sites that can update you… I just wanted to get a column out this week.

Most of the chess playing world is rated less than 2400 on the FIDE list. FIDE, the World Chess Federation, should technically represent the players but does not.  Where does that leave 99% of the chess playing world?  No way to support themselves with their favorite game and permanently an amateur.

Well, now comes the Amateur Chess Organization, or ACO.  I came across this on Google+ by accident, really.  I have been following the Chess Network and recently “chess battles” started following me on G+… so I started following them.  I’m after ways to improve my thinking and my game, so why not?  Well, chess battles posted a link about the ACO and I went to check it out.  I have to say that I’m slightly impressed, though not entirely.  Let me explain the whole thing.

The concepts personally presented on the ACO website state that the point of the organization is to represent the players (no fees, asking for feedback, etc) and seems to be really adamant about making sure that the youth aspect of cultivating the game.  They seem to be very anxious to hold World Amateur Championships (which would qualify anyone under 2400 to participate) and are interested in promoting youth teams, youth development, and any means of promoting chess that anyone might be interested in presenting.

I certainly understand the excitement but I think that the ACO stepped up to present ideas without actually having any themselves.  They formed an organization and are now asking for ideas.  That’s like me standing up and saying I have the exact formula for getting chess to be the most popular game on the planet… then asking for any other suggestions.

The ACO claims to be getting ready to use a new ratings system to make up for the inaccuracies of the FIDE use of the Elo system.  They also claim there will be no membership fees, making them a non profit organization (unlike FIDE) and giving anyone with less than 2400 Elo to be able to compete in a meaningful way.  My problem with all of the above is that without membership, how does anyone know what anyone else’s rating will be?  Yeah, they want you to still be paying someone (more than likely your national federation) in order to maintain an “official” rating.  All the talk about being a supplement to FIDE actually means they want to supplement FIDE.

I personally believe that the ACO has the best intentions of the player in mind but they aren’t doing anything about the matter of giving an alternative for anyone under 2400 that wants to compete in a meaningful way.  Sure, the events they organize may be real (like the Dubai World Amateur Championships where the first three members of each nation who register get to compete) but they will still have to pay their own way, qualifications won’t be based on actual skills or any sort of criteria.

What I’d like to do is have an amateur organization for those of us without a 2400 or higher rating.  What I’d like is for our ratings to be separate from a paid membership in a national federation.  What I’d like is an alternative to what is currently out there so that the rest of us are represented.

I don’t want to sound like I’m ungrateful of the effort the ACO is putting into this thing.  What I do want to suggest to them is to separate themselves from the megalithic FIDE and have a membership list of their own that doesn’t have any connection to a paying membership.  In my area, for instance, there are no regular events I don’t have to travel an extensive distance for.  Paying for a membership in my state (and national) federation would just be throwing away money.  How is that going to help with the ACO and me participating in the ACO?

The review of the ACO is a preliminary one, but I do think I’ll be doing more research before I give a final judgment.  I hope the ACO does do some good things for chess but I also hope that they work to separate the paying for memberships from the equation… because if I’m right, I can’t even participate in the ACO.

No “Me: On the Record” this time.  It’s just too hectic at the moment.  Sorry!

I’ve stated on the podcast that I’m trying to get myself into a deadline type scenario to actually accomplish projects… so, with my wife’s assistance, I have set a reasonable 122 day deadline to finish my first novel.  In case you’re wondering, 122 days is 4 months… so, on July 11, 2012, I will have completely written my first novel and with any luck, it will need a minimum amount of editing and I can publish it in iBooks.

What’s up with the “Garnet” part?  Well, I wanted to codename my projects so I can talk about them without giving away specifics… and like Apple’s “big cat” naming of their OS, I decided to start naming projects with a theme… a gemstone theme.  I have 10 gemstones mapped out and Garnet is the first one.

Here’s to me… so, when do I start?  Well, as soon as I podcast again… with the return of Dan to the podcast, I think we’ll get things rolling that night!

Yes, yes that is a white tiger in there…