This guy was a legend. Hamilton-famous, generous beyond belief, and the big bro I never had.
I'll remember you always Jim. Cheers.
Brammer
In great company at The Flamingo.
A 29-yr old Jim playing at ‘The Downstairs John’
at McMaster.
Some great stories & write-ups about Jim here: Hamilton Blues Lovers Blog
At the end of the 80's, my family moved back to Hamilton after we'd spent five amazing years enjoying small town life in Northern Ontario. Starting grade nine in a big, downtown city high school was a huge eye-opener for me. A little traumatic actually. There were fights, trouble, crime and sketchy characters o' plenty. I actually dreaded lunchtime, as it meant I had to either go to the cafeteria (didn't like big crowds), or just walk around the hallways munching my PB sandwiches to pass the time, which I did.
Eventually, I got to know a few people and on one occasion, a couple of us ambled into the school library at noon. We pulled down one of the dozen or so chess sets and started playing. The school librarian (Mr. Moore I think was his name) let us eat our lunches as we castled, forked, and put each other in check. It quickly became our daily mid-schoolday routine. Our group of players grew to about a dozen as we sharpened our skills while talking Nintendo, TMNT and became friends. In hindsight, they were great freshman days.
Our Chess Crucible - Scott Park's library (post-vandalization)
I spent only one year at that downtown high school before moving up the Hill. It was intense, yet memorable. Everything is when you're 14, I guess. Scott Park was torn down in 2015, with mega-school Bernie Custis taking its place. The demolition of SP had been hastened when a group of adolescents went in and turned on fire hoses, discharged fire extinguishers and vandalized as much as they could. It's a little sad when places of your past cease to exist. Maybe those kids who tore the place up didn't have a place to pass time with worthwhile hobbies. Thanks to Mr. Moore, and thanks Dad for teaching me this great game when I was 8 years old.
A great chess match breakdown of arguably the game's finest player ever; Paul Morphy. Hang in until the very end to hear the acknowledgments ;-)
This is the way out of this pandemic mess.
Please get vaccinated.
A young bounty-hunter got a cool Samus arm-cannon and cool Metroid's for his 2nd Covid-era B-day.
I also spent way too much time on something that got smashed to smithereens in less than a minute. Still, when the candies rained down and the smiles lit up, it was worth it. Holding Draygon from Super Metroid.
He's also managed to *ace* Super Metroid on the SNES classic mini.
Atta boy!!!
As part of the isolation that a pandemic foists upon you, Wednesday nights saw a group of us battle boredom by turning our phone devices into high-stakes gambling screens. Actually, the only stakes were bragging rights, but that's neither here nor there...
What a game it is. Having played a lot of poker with my buddies over the years, we've seen crazy bets, bad-beats, shit-luck, gritted teeth and a few centavos changing hands.
But I'll never be convinced that it's a skilled game. People will argue that they can 'read' someone, but it's easy to just play up nervousness, or get a bit fidgety to induce calls. Or you bust out a slow-play and let others dictate the action while you rope-a-dope. Being able to calculate percentages is all well and good, but an 87% chance of winning is eff-all good to you when a river card gives an opponent a full boat. It was always fun for me as long as I brought the desire to keep it fun, and the willingness to lose.
Snapped a screenshot of the best poker hand I've ever had. I won the hand, but not the game...
Bundled up for a chilly March ride with my buddy Matt... As I check my dates, it was 15 years since we'd conquered the Kalamunda Hill down in WA.
Ride on bro!!
