When I graduated from school, my occupation was that of "computer programmer."  Today I do the same thing, but now I'm called a "software engineer."  I work for a software company programming mostly in Java, but I use a host of other languages as well, including C++, Visual Basic, JavaScript, SQL and assembly.

I met my wife in 1966, but she didn't accept my proposal of marriage until 1981.  So far, so good.  She's my best friend and the best wife and mother that anyone could ask for.

I enjoy playing chess.  I have been a member of the United States Chess Federation since 1969.  I played only correspondence chess from 1982 to 1997 when I achieved the rank of master.  One of these games will take anywhere from 5 to 26 months.  Lately I have been getting my chess fix by playing "blitz" chess on the Free Internet Chess Server.  I also hang out at Chess Games quite a bit.  Here is an article on how to buy a chess set.

I have been putting together several articles about different aspects of chess. They are PDFs and can be downloaded for your use.

• Basic King and Pawn Ending Theory
• The Special Rules of Chess
• How Chess Games End
• Named Checkmate Patterns
• Chess Jargon
• History of Chess Notation
• Brief History of Chess Men
• Chess Players You May (Not) Know

Following is a correspondence game that I played in 1991.

White: Wells
Black: Zechiel
Date:  Correspondence 1991

1.   e4      c6 
2.   d4      d5 
3.   exd5    cxd5 
4.   Bd3     Nc6 
5.   c3      Nf6 
6.   Nf3     Bg4 
7.   O-O     e6 
8.   Qb3     Qc7 
9.   Bf4     Bd6 
10.  Bxd6    Qxd6 
11.  Qxb7    Rb8 
12.  Qa6     Bxf3 
13.  gxf3    O-O 
14.  b4      Rb6 
15.  Qa4     Qf4 
16.  Be2     e5 
17.  b5      Nxd4 
18.  cxd4    Ng4
19.  resigns     

We like to hold five-minute chess tournaments every couple of months.  Here are the results of the last few tournaments:

I'm also a big fan of both The Capitol Steps and "Weird Al" Yankovic. These people make me laugh out loud more often than not. Check 'em out if you haven't laughed out loud today.

I have been working on a program to generate HTML for chess games, you can "Czech" it out here.

There's a card game I enjoy playing with friends, "Oh, Hell!"  The rules I play by were taught to me by John Swanson, and he learned them from Al Okenuff.  I have recorded the rules here for people who want to play an excellent version of this classic card game.

Another card game that is great fun for families is Liar's Poker.  This version is very easy to learn and superior to the version found in most card game books.