The dark place of speed chess.

I've been spending a lot of time on ICC, playing three minute blitz. I think that I'm very rapidly approaching that dark place of hatred and frustration that every online gamer has become intimately familiar with at one point or another. Unfortunately, I usually tend to visit that dark place at the end of the semester, right before finals.

Frankly, I thought that speed chess was a fairly safe option for digital distraction, compared to the alternatives - Starcraft, Age of Empires, and Civilization. I figured that I could just go in for a quick game, and then move on to other things (unlike with Civ3, which captures and holds my attention for many many many unproductive hours). Clearly, I drastically misjudged the addictive nature of playing chess really fast. (Who knew!?)

So, in an effort to avoid a nervous breakdown, and in hopes of finishing the semester on a high note, I'm going to quit for a few weeks. This is an important test of character; one that I have failed on numerous former occasions. Hopefully, this time I'll feel some sort of guilt out of accountability to you people.