Web Log  ...   

 for my  "Game of The Month,"  website. 

Many have asked that I generate a web-log  (blog?)  for this site. And while I have no intention of making it like some sites ... telling you every miniscule detail of my (regular) life ... but I will keep you informed of my activities. The main thing, that I will confine myself to, is those activities, actions, or events that directly affect or impact this particular web site ... and my ability to post the games on time.  

  Contact Information:  

     A.J. Goldsby I;   P.O. Box 11718;  Pensacola, FL  32524     

See also the "Portal Page," for various other announcements that concern this particular website. 

1. Approximately June or July, 2003. - I first register this site ... but it sits fallow for several months. 
    (Initially, I do absolutely nothing with it.) 

2. August, 2003:  I {heavily} annotate a game for this site ... but it never gets used. (I am busy with family matters.) 

3. October, 2003:  I post the first  game  for this site ... the feedback after just a few weeks is amazing. 
    (Over 100 e-mails, plus several letters, many post-cards, etc.)  

4. (approximately) November, 2003:  I am running three hard drives, one of them fails. Unfortunately it has a ton of chess stuff on it. 

5. February, 2004:  I am very ill with the flu and a stomach virus. This causes me to be close to (over?) a week late with the final version of the game, (formatted, with diagrams); although an un-formatted version is posted relatively close to the deadline. 

6. March, 2004:  A former USCF Policy Board Member contacts me to strongly suggest that this website be submitted to CJA. 
   This will entail a lot of work, the web site itself gets a  {minor?}  face-lift.

7. May, 2004:  Many interesting things happen this month. Probably the most significant is that my old computer finally dies on me. (Actually, the CD-ROM player quit, and I could not replace it, as it was very old technology. New players were not compatible to my old case. I was literally forced to upgrade. The box/case itself was close to 15 years old, maybe older. The motherboard was approximately 10 years old, although I had upgraded the processor many times. If you want the details, see the  box  at the bottom of this page.) 
   What this means is that I had to do a great deal of work ... two or three straight weeks of doing almost nothing but installing programs and downloading software off the Internet. I also spent a great deal of time bringing in data, back-ups off floppy disks and CD-ROM's. I figure this one little set-back alone will wind up {eventually} costing me six months of work. (Aargh!!) 

8. Early June, 2004:  I go to open my web folder for this site, and discover it is no longer valid or was corrupted. Everything has to be re-done from scratch and/or copied off the net or from back-ups. The game for this month may not come out until July!!! 

9. June, 2004:  Since I have to re-do everything anyway, I decide to completely re-organize the site.  (Many major and minor changes.) 
   June 15th, 2004:  I posted all the games ... BUT! ... the June  "Game of The Month"  has no diagrams and has NOT been formatted yet. Obviously, I intend to do this, I have been busy with many other things - and I have not had the time yet to finish formatting the game. {I also have several paying projects that must be completed, ASAP.}  (Just last night I got a virus - A.WIN32.Trojan variety - on my computer, and it completely wiped out my sound. I worked over 15 straight hours on this situation, before being able to rectify the problem and restore my sound capabilities. I am now running two firewalls and also a virus program. I guess I will have to be much more careful and far more circumspect about what kind of sites I visit and what kind of downloads I use or get.)  
   June 19th, 2004; 1545 hours:  I am currently hard at work - still trying to format the page for June's "Game of The Month." But things have been slowed down tremendously - I was the recipient of several computer viruses and a worm the other day. I am pretty sure the problem has been solved, numerous sweeps of my computer, (with two different anti-virus programs!); confirms that all viruses have been eradicated. But the time this has taken has been enormous, I had three straight sessions on the computer where I worked 15-20 hours at a time trying to solve these problems. Of course, you must have a virus-free computer to get any {real} work done! 
   June 20th, 2004:  In the last month, I have replaced my computer, in the last few days I have had to deal with all kinds of nasty things. (Viruses, worms, whatever.) But I have managed - FINALLY!! - to get the game formatted, create the diagrams and check it meticulously. I believe it is done. What a headache this month has been! 

10. July 13th, 2004:  I post the first two bonus/supplementary games for the month of July. (The main game for July is completed, but I have not yet formatted this page. (Obviously I must spend several hours a day for the next 2-5 days, until this task is complete.)  
    July 17th, 2004: The game is finally finished AND formatted. It has been a difficult month for me, around the start of July, I am completely bed-ridden with  back pain,  and cannot work at all for about 6 days.  Despite the set-backs, I am able to crank out some work. 

11. August 14th, 2004:  Basically - the small group of people who promised to faithfully {financially} support this feature ... on a regular (monthly) basis ... have all stopped sending any type of support. Which means several things - most importantly that I not even worry about the deadline. (At this point, I am not even sure I should continue the effort ... or for how long I should even try to do this. If you really enjoy this feature, and would like me to continue, I need to hear from you.)  

12. August 17th, 2004:  After talking it over with my wife, I decided to go ahead with this feature.  (Although next month, the game will probably be much smaller, and I doubt that there will be any more  "Bonus Games,"  or  "Supplementary Games.")  I will be able to post the Supplementary Game today for August, but the main game is not yet finished. (I am still formatting the page.) 

13. Tuesday; August 24th, 2004:  After a very long time- during which I began to think I would never get through - I finally finished and completed the formatting phase of my "Game of The Month." (For August, 2004.)  I attempted something VERY ambitious here. NOT only is this my regular game, it is  ALSO  the third game in my opening school. Too much work, though!  (Since I currently have no major sponsor, you can expect next month to be MUCH less in depth.)   

14.  Monday; September 14th, 2004:  Posted the bonus game for this month. (Also - the UN-formatted game was also posted.)  

15.  Tuesday;  September 21st, 2004:  Very late here finishing the {main} "Game of The Month,"  ... however I do not feel at all bad. 
    (The UN-formatted version was actually posted early here.)  
    
    Hurricane Ivan - hitting the Gulf Coast on the 15th - is mostly to be blamed for this delay.  (I was without power for at least three days, and without any phone service for even longer.) However, as soon as the power came on, I began working. And just as soon as the phone service was restored, I began doing tons of updates. It was not easy, at one point I worked almost 14 straight hours. (I did the best that I could! Many hours of work here!)  
    

16. October 15th, 2004:  The game - AND the analysis - was posted; however, the game is NOT formatted.  

17. Friday; October 22nd, 2004:   I completed the formatting - and posted - this month's game I got involved with many other projects, which included commentating on the moves of the games for one small server, and also annotating the last game for my web site. 

18. November 15th, 2004:  I posted the game ... although it has not yet been formatted. I am rather proud of this month's game ... 
     it took an almost incalculable amount of time to complete the analysis phase. 

19. November 21st, 2004:   I finished the formatting stage ... although the diagrams were not completed until the following day. 
    One of the finest jobs of annotation that I have done for this web site, it is also one of the most interesting and complex games. 

20. Tuesday; December 14th, 2004:  I posted the game ... the analysis is complete, but the page is not yet fully formatted.  
    Dec. 16th, 2004:  I finish the game and post it ... to include the diagrams and the replay page. 

21. Wednesday;  January 12th, 2004:  The game is posted, fully formatted. It is only a lightly annotated game with two diagrams.  
    And there is NO JS-replay page.  (It is in a completely different type of format then was used previously.  - Read why.)  

22. Wednesday; February 16th, 2004:  The game was posted yesterday, I finished it today.  (A pretty fair job, iidssm.) 

23. Tuesday; February 22nd, 2005:  I posted two supplementary games, for December 2004 - - and for January 2005.  

24. Wednesday; March 23rd, 2005:  I first posted my "GOTM" around the 15th, today I completed the formatting.  

25. Friday;  April 29th, 2005:  I complete the formatting, and post the game of the month for April.  

26. Thursday; May 19th, 2005:  I completed the formatting and posted the "Game of The Month" for May, 2005. 

27. Thursday; June 16th, 2005:  I first post my HTML Page for the "Game of The Month" for June. (06/23, completed format.) 

28. Note:  Thanks to a Hurricane, {plus a lot of related stuff, like helping a relative put a new roof on his house}; ... ... ... 
     ... and then the death of a good friend ... no {completed} game has {yet} been posted for this month. (July - 2005.) 

29. Saturday; August 20th, 2005:  Uploaded the games for July AND August. (Formatted and complete, w/diagrams.)  

30. Friday; September 9th, 2005:  (Re-) Uploaded the finished game for this month  ...  plus several updates as well.  

31. Wednesday; September 14th, 2005:  I finished a complete re-do of the entire site. The main thing was to add a list of all the major "supplemental" or "bonus games" for this web site. (Plus many minor fixes.)  

32. Monday; October 3rd, 2005.  Posed a page to explain the process for choosing the individual games. 

33. Saturday; October 22nd, 2005:  The game for this month - and all pertinent files - is finally posted.  

34. Saturday; November 29th, 2005:  Posted the game of the month, I will probably have to repost ... with some minor changes tomorrow. 

35. Wednesday; December 21st, 2005:  The games - and the diagrams - are finally posted.  (Merry Christmas!)   

36.   Happy New Year!    Monday; January 23rd, 2006:  I finally finished changing all the copyright dates. I also added several "supplemental games," and I {finally} posted the updated version of the January, "Game of The Month."  (I am in the process of adding several more supplementary games, they are NOT all complete.)  

37. Friday; Feb. 24, 2006:  I take the plunge ... and make this site a paid site. (To get rid of pop-ups and hourly limits and the like.) 

38. Sunday; March 05th, 2006:  I completely re-designed the home page for this site.  

39. Saturday; March 18th, 2006:  I finally post the game for February. 
    (There were many delays. Two trials - where I was a witness, jury duty, and I worked in Mobile at least half a day for nearly half the month of February. Plus, I took at least a week-and-a-half off to finish my monthly column for WCA, and it was a huge effort.)  

40. Wednesday; March 22, 2006:  The game for March (2006) is posted.  

41. Wednesday; May 24th, 2006:  Due to many problems, (mostly my wife being treated for cancer); I am behind on almost everything. But I finally post the game for April, 2006. 

42. Thursday; May 25th, 2006 (around noon):  First, an apology. I did not do it on purpose, it was actually just an oversight.  I just posted the "Games Considered File" for the last three months. (They already existed on my hard drive, I just forgot to zip them, and then upload them to the main FTP server for this site.) Thanks to J.B. who pointed this out in his e-mail to me!  

43. Game for MAY ... is finally posted and fully formatted. (June 23rd, 2006.)  

44. Once again ... I forgot to upload the "games considered" file for May ... but I took care of that just before 0600 this morning.  (06/26/2006.)  

45. Thursday; June 29th, 2006:  I upload the game for June ... however, there is no "games considered file," as I still have to annotate at least one game as part of the overall D/L package.  (June 30th, 2006 - The download was posted.) 

46. Wednesday; August 23rd, 2006:  I finally posted (re-posted, actually)  the  July "Game of The Month."  Many problems in the last few weeks, to include having to put my computer in the shop ... and then RE-INSTALL all of my software!!! {See below.} But now I am about back up to snuff, the August game is close to being finished ... and should be posted shortly.  

47. Tuesday; August 29th, 2006:  I am still recovering from having the computer in the shop. (See the box at the bottom of the page.) I did a good job of backing up my ChessBase files, and also backing up the data of all of my websites. However, I cannot find anything unless I do extensive searching, I must go looking across three internal hard drives ... and two external ones ... to find anything. I did manage to find the appropriate file and post the download/"Games considered file" for July, 2006. 

48. Tuesday; November 1st, 2006:  I finally post the game for September, 2006. (My wife was ill for a long time ... just one of many delays.)  

49. Monday; November 6th, 2006:  I upload the "games considered file" for September, 2006. 

50. Tuesday; November 7th, 2006: An alert reader points out that the updates are not getting posted. After much head scratching I discover that the host will not allow the name of the file. Once the name is changed, all the problems are corrected.  

51. December 2006:  I have had MULTIPLE computer problems and hard-drive crashes for the last 2-3 months of 2006. Due to these problems, and because I have fallen so far behind, there will be NO games for (the months of) November or December ... for the year, 2006. (Additionally, there will be no game for January, or February of 2007.)  

52. Monday / March 26th, 2007:   After a very long delay, I finally post the game for October, 2006. The game for March, 2007 ... should be posted within a week. (The game is already chosen and partially annotated.)  

53. Friday / May 04th, 2007:  After not being able to do any real work for a long period of time, (my wife was very ill the last few months); I finally get a spare evening. I decide - over the course of no more than two days - to knock out at least one game and get it posted. (I still have many more games to finish.) 

54. Early May, 2007:  A flurry of activity ... I am posting several games ... trying to get caught up. (May 11th.) 

55. Friday; May 11th, 2007:  Praise the Lord!!! (09:44 PM) After enduring computer crashes, illness, etc ... at one point, I was so far behind, I did not think I would ever get caught up again. However, I just posted the last of a series of updates, this brings me back to being current ... for the first time since last summer. Lots of good games, annotations and links ... so be sure to check them all out! 

56. Saturday; July 21st, 2007:  Posted the game for June, 2007.  

57. July, 2007:  We learn that we are being evicted out of our home, the place that I have lived since approximately 1990 or 1991. We get an extension of the time limit, and we finally move on August 28th. My wife (Julie); has been very sick as of late, she was actually in the hospital the day that we moved. (She was in and out of the hospital the last few months.) Julie was released from the hospital a few days after the move ... basically medical science has given up on her and sent her home to live out the rest of her days. (She is now a full-time patient of Hospice, and I am her full time caregiver.) Monday, October 22nd, 2007:  I finally have my computer set up, unpacking has been going extremely slowly, all the boxes are not yet unpacked. I know that this feature is way behind, I shall attempt to bring it up to date. I will work on it a little at a time, as much as I am able. 

58. Monday; October 29th, 2007:  I finally post the July "Game of the Month." (With diagrams.) 

59. Sunday; January 13th, 2008:  My wife of more than 12 years, the mother of my children (and best friend) ... passed away today. [Memoriam.] Needless to say, this GREATLY changed my entire life!  

60. Saturday; September 06th, 2008:  I have decided to try and do a much abbreviated version of this feature, I no longer have the kind of time that I used to have. [read more]  

61. July, 2009:  Geo-Ciites will be closing soon, so I am in the process of changing hundreds of links and changing everything to the new site. I have NOT posted a new game since July, 2007. With a family, an autistic daughter, and many new responsibilities, I may never have the kind of spare time that I did before. I do believe, that - unless I get a serious sponsor - that this site will simply become an archive of my previous work. 

62. October, 2011:  I decide to re-open this site. I will pick up with a game for October, 2011. 

63. Tuesday; November 29th, 2011: I finally post the game for October, 2011. 

64. late December, 2011:  The day after Christmas, my computer crashed. (The main hard drive failed.) Unfortunately, this will push back the December (2011) "Game of The Month." (I finally posted the December game, but it was not until sometime in January ...) 

65. August, 2012:  I have had many computer crashes this year ... about 6-7 times, my main hard drive has failed. (Ridiculous!) This is the main reason that I have not posted a game since January. I also switched my operating system from Windows XP to Windows 7. The new OS is a MUCH better operating system, however, I lost several key programs - as they were not compatible to the new OS. One of these was "Chess Captor," which I used to use to generate all of my diagrams. I have searched in vain for something to replace it. However, until I find another utility similar to captor, I will just have to use ChessBase 10 or CB11. (I have both.) 

66. March 18th, 2015:  After ignoring problems for YEARS ... I finally took almost a week and did a TON of work on this site. HUNDREDS of broken links have been fixed/repaired, just about every meaningful web-page has its own counter, I tried to remove any/all outdated links (that were no longer any good); I actually found all the files for the old games (dozens ChessBase files), where I analyze sometimes over 50 games - these are now available for a FREE download!!! And - after over two years of nothing - I have begun analyzing games again, the new game for January, 2015 has already been posted. REMEMBER - if you appreciate this work, be sure to go to the Paypal website, and make a contribution. (My e-mail is lifemasteraj@yahoo.com.) 

 (more stuff coming?) 

  Copyright (©) A.J. Goldsby, 2015. All rights reserved.  

 ******* 

Click  HERE  to go to my first domain,  or click  HERE  to go to my second domain.  

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  Page last updated:  Thursday, March 19, 2015 .