So this is kind of a great achievement for me. One year ago I swore I would not stop playing chess with my brother until I beat him. Since he is about 500-600 ELO higher than me, that was a tall order to accomplish. So, exactly 1 year after we started playing correspondence chess on Chess.com, a game that we started 1 January 2019 and ended today 8 February 2019 (3 days per move), I finally beat him. And that with a Bishop + Knight endgame.

I must admit, there are few things more beautiful that seeing the move sequence of a well orchestrated mating net performed with the Bishop and Knight and King in chess - it is like a prima ballerina moving gracefully across the stage. I did have to study hard to get it done, and my play was far from perfect, or good even for that matter. I made many big mistakes and blunders. But in chess that does not matter, the 1 for me and the 0 for him is all that does. (I will not speak of the 3 draws and 54 losses). What I am proud of, is that I managed the best case mate-in-26 from move 91, in 30 moves. That is just 4 moves worse than the best you can do with perfect play.

I needed a large wooden sushi press (oshizushihako) for a meal I wanted to make, and ordering one from Amazon would have taken 2-3 weeks. So I decided one night after work to make one from some pine offcuts I had lying around. I was in a hurry so I did not do a very good job, but it works great and did not cost me anything.

I recently was approached by 500px that one of my photomicrographs was picked by a potential customer for purchase, and they asked me if I would mind licensing it for sale through their distribution partners. I read the terms and agreed. After uploading the full version, it was ready for sale. About two months later I received an email notification from 500px that my image sold:

I was elated. Now I could finally put my keyboard down and retire - buy a house and see the world. Oh wait what?! I guess the denomination USD does help - it is 1.34 times more in Canadian Rupees.

I made this keepsake box for my baby daughter. I used teak - something my dad used to let me work on when I was little. It is a wonderful wood to work with, I love the grain and the oiliness of the wood. This is the first time I ever tried to make dovetails, and I am moderately happy with the result. Next time will be better.

The inside is laid out with soft black felt to prevent anything inside from getting damaged and to make the box look more luxurious. I added two small rare earth magnets to the top lid to make it snap close. It was finished with lacquer.

My third project is a knitting needle holder. The challenge here was to work accurately enough that the faces of each segment aligns perfectly with each other so that the flutes would form a perfect circle. This project was made out of fir. Once again, everything was done by hand.