In the past few months I've gotten hooked on playing chess. My dad taught me the moves when I was young, and we had a chess set around the house, but TJS and I were untrained and uninterested in really doing much more than goofing off.

A colleague at work was helping me unpack a box I'd had since our office's move, and inside the box he found an old travel chess set I had. He suggested we start an ongoing game, and before I knew it I was hooked. After a few weeks of playing in the office (getting up from my desk to survey the tiny board, making a move, and then watching him do the same a while later), I was kicking around on the internet trying to find ways to improve when I happened upon an amazingly well-designed online chess playing site.

Let's just say that my descent into geekdom underwent a terrifyingly rapid acceleration. Now, my Amazon Xmas list is full of books on chess, I have a bunch of sites bookmarked, and I just today received in the mail a tournament-sized chess set, complete with--wait for it--a carrying bag with a shoulder strap.

Shel nearly laughed me right out of the house.

But who cares about ridicule, Gentle Reader?! Not I! I've now found a hobby that doesn't get outmoded by technological advances (videogames, anyone?) and isn't impeded by my body's inability to withstand injury indefinitely (remember karate?).

For those of you interested and secure in your non-geekitude, I now have a little button on my page here that you can use to take a peek at some of my ongoing chess games online. Currently, I'm in the middle of a trash-talking game with Dorito Icee, otherwise known as TJS.