Apologies and Updates

     

Ha! Reminds me of my sister...

       Hello! To begin, I would like to apologize for how long it has been since I posted in here. I have, however, decided that I am going to try to post in here more often and see if I can grow this into a fruitful weblog. The reason why it's been so long since I've posted is because since my last post TONS of things have happened! So once again, I apologize for slacking but thank you for joining me while I get you caught up. 

Am I a Grandmaster Yet?

     
       For those who haven't noticed on the right-hand panel of this page, my Elo rating on chess.com has gone up by around 200 in the last month or so. This is all good and well except it's still only in the mid 1200's. Allow me to offer some background on this: Last year, around the end of September, I encountered a bit of a transitional phase that left me to reevaluate my life a little but which is a shameless euphemism for, "I had way too much time on my hands" so I was brainstorming with a close friend of mine and fellow blogger as to how I should fill this time. We decided the best possible option would be for me to become really good at chess. Of course my friend and I are no virgin's when it comes to setting goals so we knew we needed to be a little more specific so it became the following: Achieve and Elo Rating of at Least 1700 in One Year. 
       Why 1700? 1700 is a completely arbitrary number that we thought was the highest attainable score for anyone in a year. It is considered class B in the chess world. It's an honorable rating but it's not legendary. The problem is that I, like most people, dabbled in chess with my father as a young lad but by the time I made this goal it had been a couple years since I had played. I got a chess.com account and immediately proceeded to lose game after game after game until my rating was solidly in the 800s. Bad, bad news for someone on deadline. The good news is that I've gotten better! I can somewhat consistently beat players in the 1300's and my rating is steadily climbing. Unfortunately, the deadline that we set was October 1st, 2013 which is fast approaching so I really need to up the ante and play a whole lot more-- and, more importantly, win a whole lot more-- if I want to get there which I very much do because I really do not like losing challenges.
    In other news, I have begun rehearsing the aforementioned Sonata for Eb Saxophone and Piano by Heiden with a friend of mine who just so happens to be an exceptional pianist for a competition this fall so that will take some serious work as well. Wish me luck!

~Nobilis Saeva

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

       You may have noticed that this blog is very... diverse, which may or may not be a euphemism for scatter-brained. One reason for this is because I'm new to this and another is simply because I too am scatter-brained and have too many interests for my own good. Furthermore, I think one will get more out of my writing if one knows a little about me so here are the top ten facts about the Noble Savage:

1. My name really is Noble. I'm kind of self conscious about this fact because I think it makes me sound pretentious. Of course, we can decide for ourselves whether or not I, in fact, am pretentious but I definitely don't want anyone deciding that as soon as they hear my name. Also, with a name like this I almost felt obligated to created a blog titled using silly wordplay. 
2. I like to ride bicycles. I don't care for cars and try to only use them when going on a date or giving a friend a ride as a favor so I try to commute on a bicycle as much as I can. I also race with a team called Saltcycle-Intelitechs, a spectacular group of smelly, bearded champions. I own an Iro fixed gear that I built myself from the ground up for commuting and a carbon fiber Bianchi for racing. 
3. I play the saxophone. I am primarily a jazz artist and mostly perform with jazz combos. I have never really been able to wrap my head around classical saxophone playing because I just don't really think the saxophone was designed for classical music but I have fiddled with some classical solos from time to time. Interestingly enough, though, I actually leave for a tour through Europe two days from now with a large wind ensemble. This is very strange because it is the first time I have ever played in a large group and I really have no idea how to do it; I am totally shooting from the hip. 
4. I love chess. I love to play chess and many of my friendships have been forged using the game's righteous flames. As you can see by my chess.com Elo score, I am a mediocre chess player at best but I think I can hold my own and I love to play even when I lose so long as it is a valiant and honorable defeat. Chess is cool! If you disagree you don't know anything. Also, feel free to challenge me if you have a chess.com profile and tell me you read this because it will make me feel really good if anyone actually sees this post. My username is Nobilis_Saeva. Huzzah!