My blog got my chess.com account closed

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

I was very surprised to find this email in my inbox today. It said my profile had been closed for spam. This got me a bit upset because the last time I logged in chess.com was in 2024 and the only way I could be spamming would be if I got hacked.

As it turned out, I included a link to my blog in the bio years ago, and the anti-spam AI flagged that link as spam. Chess.com’s support bot connected me with a human within minutes, and my account was restored almost immediately. I got a bonus diamond membership, played a few games, and realized I forgot how to play there.

It’s great that chess.com maintains nice human support. Kudos to their support engineer who got my account back. Most online services do not make it easy to reach out a to an understanding human, especially if you’re logged-out. Boo for the AI that messed everything up in the first place.

Her Final Breath by Robert Dugoni

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

I’m glad I bought the second book in the Tracy Crosswhite series. The first one was a good thriller, but it also had some disappointing moments. The second one is great. I couldn’t figure out who the killer was. It fooled me well.

To some extent, the first two books are connected, as the murder is introduced in the first book, although it is only mentioned. In the second book, we will see Tracy Crosswhite work on it.

Here are some good parts about the book:

  • No superheroes or super-heroic traits. Any success is achieved by regular police work
  • More than one case at the same time, reminding me of the best books by Michael Connelly
  • Characters behave logically. We had some cases of comical stupidity in part one and while real life is full of that, I don’t like reading it in thrillers
  • More than one meaningful character. It’s not all about Tracy. Her colleagues and partner help significantly

Overall, a clear 5*/5. I’m already half-way through the third one, and the fourth is rolling on the floor next to my bed. It’s a solid series, won’t be surprised if it gets mentioned in the annual reading summary.

Which author I’d like to meet

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Which author would you love to have dinner with?
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There’s a saying that you should never meet your heroes and after meeting some of mine, I stand by it. However, I checked and Linus Torvalds wrote a book so if I could have a dinner with 10-ish nerds and Linus being there in a way that the other 9 maintain the conversation, while I just stfu and listen, that would be fantastic. I had one of these with Monty Widenius, and while I don’t remember much of it because it was a long time ago, the setup was fine.

As for popular science or fiction writers, while there are plenty I’d love to see at a book signing, having an actual meaningful conversation would be too much.