Yes, chess has been a big part of my life. I started to play tournaments when I moved to Bartlesville Oklahoma, after finding permanent (or as permanent as it gets) employment with Phillips Petroleum. I started out as a pretty poor player (1158 was my first rating) and progressed over the next ten years to a respectable rating near expert. I finally made the sacred level (above 2000) in the early 1990's and have hovered near there ever since. I've played chess in New York, New Orleans, and all the way out to California. The best tournament I've ever played in is the National Open, held annually in Las Vegas, though recently I've been playing in the Greater Western Open in Reno, a tournament organized by Jerry Weikel. He runs an excellent tournament, and Reno, is pretty nice town.
I've helped organize chess around Oklahoma, having been the President of the Oklahoma Chess Association for over 4 years, serving as the Secretary of the same, but am currently not involved at the State level except to support the efforts of some excellent tournament organizers, Jim and Frank Berry and the Oklahoma Chess Foundation. I've been an officer of the Bartlesville Chess Club for almost as many years as I've been playing tournament chess, occupying the office of President, Vice-President, Secretary/Treasurer, and Statistician. I've also earned the title of Senior Tournament Director, which allows me to direct tournaments sanctioned by the United States Chess Federation. I've organized tournament exclusively in Oklahoma to date.
Another hobby is computer programming, all completely self-taught. I've programmed in BASIC, machine language, Z80a and 6802 assembly language, FORTH, PASCAL, C, FORTRAN, VISUAL BASIC, and a number of subvariants. While this has been fun, it hasn't been profitable! However, the programs I've written have helped me keep track of postal chess, organize chess tournaments, and even keep track of bowling leagues.
Bowling is another hobby. I've been able to become a respectable bowler, and while 600 series are not the norm (except for the first 2 months of league bowling in 2004), they're not total strangers either. I think my highest game was around 264 and my highest series is a 750, which I will most likely never get to again!!!
My most fervent, hobby is scuba diving. The world under the sea was a world I first glimpsed in Jacques-Yves Cousteau's book "The Silent World" in junior high school in Liberal, Kansas. Since then, I have been drawn to the sea and water in general. Many's the summer I spent around and in the swimming pool, attempting to go as far down as I could and to spend as much time under the water as I could. I only dreamed of scuba diving and again it happened in Bartlesville when the company I worked for offered a scuba diving class. Since then, I've spent time in the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and a number of lakes around the Midwest. I hope to dive all the major bodies of water in the world before I pass from this plane of existence to the next.
I've recently become a little bit more serious about my running hobby, having run my first 15K at the 2002 Tulsa Run. Although my time wasn't great (1:23:14), it is still respectable for a chess playing, computer programmer, bench chemist. I hope to get my average pace below 8 minutes/mile on a routine basis, but I really need to lose about 20 pounds first.
I've got a lot of other hobbies, some more or less active, including writing (short stories and novels), golfing, fishing, woodworking, playing clarinet, bicycle riding, and even chemistry (yeah, I know it's more of a job, but if I were independently wealthy, it would be a hobby). I think my parents did a great job with me, because there has never been anything that I thought I couldn't do. Not that I thought I could be real good at it, but just that I could probably learn how to do it and felt the confidence in myself to go ahead and try it. Still have a lot to give a shot to.
Now if you've read this far you probably are thinking, "Boy what an ego, to think that anyone else would even care about this guy's life!" While I do have an ego, easily bruised, I'm wondering what kind of person reads this far into this diatribe? I just wrote this to practice some writing. And since I've done most of the useful things already, I might as well burn some electrons on some random blathering!?!?!?!
I guess if you've read this far, you've got a serious Internet Surfing Hobby and hope this little narrative gave you a fix. Have fun, happy computing, and See ya!!!