Alex P. Vidal Quotes (Thoughts)

Men harm others by their deeds, themselves by their thoughts.
 -- HARE BROTHERS :

When we squarely tackle down known enemies, there's a chance we can shield ourselves from mortal blows and even defeat them. But if we mess up with our thoughts and become paranoid, we don't need a warm body to deliver the knock out blow that would bring us to kingdom come. Our lunacy itself will expedite our destruction.
--ALEX P. VIDAL

Alex P. Vidal Quotes (Character Assissination)

Never tell evil of a man, if you do not know it for certainty, and if you know it for a certainty, then ask yourself, 'Why should I tell it?'
-- JOHANN K. LAVATER :

It's a moral obligation to warn others about the obnoxious character of certain individuals. It's a moral courage to reveal their shenanigans in order to protect others. But it's downright immoral to expose them to shame and embarrassment while trying to rebuild their shattered lives and bury their sordid past.
--ALEX P. VIDAL

Alex P. Vidal Quotes (Forgive, Friend, Enemy)

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
-- WILLIAM BLAKE :

It is more honorable to lose and lick a wound inflicted by a known enemy after a fierce battle. It is twice an agony and humiliation to be defeated after being stabbed in the back by a friend.
-- ALEX P. VIDAL

Alex P. Vidal Quotes (Mistake)

Strong people make as many mistakes as weak people. Difference is that strong people admit their mistakes, laugh at them, learn from them. That is how they become strong.
-- RICHARD NEEDHAM :

It isn't how many mistakes we commit that defines our worth and competence. It's how we pick ourselves up after a bad fall, how we rebound from an almost catastrophic slump, and how we turn despair into hope that counts.
--ALEX P. VIDAL

'Mansion'

"The place of chess in the society is closely related to the attitude of young people towards our game."
--Boris Spassky

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- An avid reader of my blogs and other news websites from Manila in the Philippines once asked this writer, "Where is that mansion? What kind of mansion?" 

THE MANSION on Britton Street

She was referring to the "mansion" mentioned in a series of chess articles I wrote early this year about a place on Britton Street in the Queens' Elmhurst neighborhood here.
In the mind of any reader, the word mansion conjures a large dwelling house derived from the Latin word manio "dwelling" through Old French, an abstract noun derived from the verb manere "to dwell".
The English word "manse" originally defined a property large enough for the parish priest to maintain himself, but a mansion is no longer self-sustaining in this way.
The mansion in our subject matter here is neither a large dwelling nor a Roman medieval villa, or a haunted house frequented by ghosts and dead spirits like in Hollywood movies.

APARTMENT

It is a modest three-storey apartment, its basement the mecca where dreams are--and still--being made; where talent is abundantly brimming; where brilliancy is executed with head-turning incredulity; and where comradeship is forged and strengthened over bowls and plates of native pulutan (appetizers like shark and tuna meats, spaghetti, adobo, Chinese pancit taken with beer or fruit juice) amid card games and friendly chess matches.
Mansion's main conclave is the 30-square meter wide wi fi-powered basement frequented by a coterie of Filipino chess kibitzers and serious players, considered as the strongest in New York and the East Coast, if not the best in the entire United States.
Its amenities include a kitchen, dining table and chairs, study/playing area with a large TV set, freezer, toilet room, and four collapsible beds. 

(L-R) Demetrio Lopez, Rainier Labay, Alex P. Vidal, Gerson Caballero, NM Mario Rebano

"We are open (only to invited guests and chess players) every Thursday and Saturday evening," enthuses Rainier Labay, Mansion's de facto chief and official chef.
The place has been a regular venue of "underground" clashes by Filipino non-masters, national masters, FIDE masters, grand masters, "has been-masters" and "also-masters."
Non-Filipino hustlers are welcome to participate, Labay confirms.
When matches romp off, the main door isn't locked so that those who come late can sneak in without interrupting the players' concentration.
Games can be accessed "live" from Labay's Facebook account so that players still in workplaces and unable to participate can monitor and join the heckling in the running commentary.

SHOWDOWN

Meanwhile, the July 22 blitz showdown, or a chess match with a fixed time (usually three minutes per game), was ruled by Grandmaster Mark Paragua (Fide 2520) with seven points.
He was followed jointly by Labay, a former coach of the De La Salle University in Manila and the only player to convincingly whip Paragua in the first match, and Fide Master William Aramil with four points each. 

SALIMBAGAT VS RIVIERA

Other top finishers were Fide Master Rico Salimbagat, Philippine National Master Mario Rebano, Albert Riviera, Cesar Apalla, and Gerson Caballero.
Aramil, 2004 American Collegiate Championship winner and a regular New York visitor, came all the way from Chicago to join the Mansion chessfest.
"Gusto ni Rico (Salimbagat) mag invite ng ibang masters galing sa ibang states para magkaroon ng challenge ang tournament at mag improve and upgrade ang skills namin lahat (Rico Salimbagat wants to invite masters from other states to join us in the tournament from time to time so we can upgrade and improve our kills)," sighs Rebano, who is based in New Jersey.

STRONG

Some of the strong players who missed the recent tournament but are regular habitues of the mansion were: Anthony Gallon, Gilbert Gonzales, Leo Buencocillo, Vincent Umayan, Bert Labuac, Jan Vincent Paragua, Mike Adarlo, Gerry Salazar, and Manuel Jurado.
GM Oliver Barbosa and 2017 World Open Under-2200 champion Ramon Manon-og were absent.
Before mansion became their official chess hub, Pinoy players gathered every Monday evening for the "Ilonggo Night" at the residence of Elmhurst Chess Club founder and godfather Camelo "Jun" Galinea on Elmhurst Street.
Salimbagat, a highest rated player like Labay, also occasionally hosts the gathering of Pinoy woodpushers in his residence across the park. 

SALIMBAGAT VS LABAY

When they don't play via individual knockout system, they tangle as team against team: "Britton boys versus Hampton boys" or "Tagalogs versus Ilonggos."
The former is composed of players who live in the mansion: Salimbagat, Labay, Labuac, Caballero, Riviera, Adarlo; the latter is composed of players who live on neighboring Hampton Street composed of Rebano, Gallon, Apalla, Umayan, Gonzales, Buencocillo.
The spirit of professionalism, brotherhood, and sportsmanship is always best exhibited and further enhanced by their active participation, cooperation and discipline like phalanx which became Alexander's anvil when he conquered Darius III in the Battles of Issus and Gaugamela.
If the World Chess Olympiad is held in the United States and the Philippines is hard-pressed to send a team, the talented Elmhurst boys can always fill in the blanks; and possibly give some of the world chess superpowers like USA, Russia, China, Germany, and Ukraine a run for their money.

Is it possible for a person to shoot himself twice?

"The only difference between suicide and martyrdom is press coverage."
--Chuck Palahniuk

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- The answer is yes.
There have been suicide cases where the persons shot themselves two times or even more before they were killed.
This happened when the first shot wasn't fatal and the person intending to kill himself got another chance to pull the trigger.
If the first shot isn't fatal, there may be cases where the person can still pull the trigger as he twitches due to muscle spasms caused by the disruption of communication between neurons.
It depends heavily on the angle of the barrel to the body or head and the caliber of the gun, which can be best explained by Iloilo police investigators who are the experts on this matter.
Arnel Rebeta, a DPWH district engineer in Antique in the Philippines, who was recently found dead inside his boarding house at Bankers’ Village subdivision, Barangay Dungon B, Jaro district with gunshot wounds on the chest and on the nape, could have killed himself, according to the initial investigation of the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO)’s Special Investigation Task Force (SITF) headed by Superintendent Rogen Morales who faced reporters on July 18.

UNIQUE

An Australian who committed suicide on parkland in Canberra in February 1995 had the most unique method in killing himself.
He shot himself in the chest using a pump action shotgun. Without hitting a single rib, the load passed through his chest, and went out the other side.
Sensing he was alive, he pulled out a pistol and shot himself in the head while walking for 15 meters.
He was still alive, thus he reloaded the shotgun, leaned it against his throat, and pulled the trigger, hittinf the throat and part of his jaw.
He survived anew.
He reloaded a final time and walked 200 meters to a hill. He sat down on the slope, held the gun against his chest with his hands and operated the trigger with his toes.
This time, the shot entered the thoracic cavity and punctured his heart. He died, finally.

-o0o-

Is there really a hell, heaven and purgatory litterally?
Religion tells us they exist.
Many independent thinkers and philosophers believe they don't exist literally.
One of them is lawyer-philosopher Ernie J. Dayot of Dingle, Iloilo in the Philippines, who exhorted this writer to read more about Italian poet Dante Alighiere or simply called "Dante."
In the book, Who's Who In The Middle Ages by Dr. John Fines I acquired from Barnes and Noble in Manhattan for $7.98, Dante was described as "a voracious reader of vernacular as well as classical literature, and he claimed to know the Aeneid by heart. He also studied painting and music."
Fines describes Dante further: "By 1287, he was at Bologna--possibly at the university, but his whole heart was set on poetry, and at this young age he dared to submit a sonnet for criticism to the leading poet of the age, Guido Cavalcanti. At the same time he led a rich social life, and (as was normal for young nobles of the time) twice appearing on the field of battle."

MAJOR WORK

Born in Florence in 1265, Dante's first major work was the Vita Nuova, a striking piece of self-psychologizing, set in the form of a critical exposition of his sonnets.
"These were concerned with his strange relationship with Beatrice, with whom he fell in love at the age of nine (she was only eigth). With all the devotion of Courtly Love that demanded purification through a kind of self-denial and worship usually accorded to the Divine, he pursued Beatrice with adoring glances, being rewarded with one famous salutation on the bridge," narrates Fines.
Dante's devotion, however, was obviously real, Fines adds, "for when she died in 1290 he changed his mode of life considerably in reaction."
Dante married and had children, and indulged in a certain amount of dissipation and free-thinking, which he much regretted in later years, according to Fines.
Dayot says religion copied the theory of hell, heaven and purgatory in Dante's long narrative poem, Divine Comedy.
The Divine Comedy is composed of 14,233 lines that are divided into three canticas (Italian plural cantiche) – Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise) – each consisting of 33 canots (Italian plural canti).
An initial canor, serving as an introduction to the poem and generally considered to be part of the first cantica, brings the total number of cantos to 100.
It is generally accepted, however, that the first two cantos serve as a unitary prologue to the entire epic, and that the opening two cantos of each cantica serve as prologues to each of the three canticas.

The Decay of Lying

“My dear fellow, I am prepared to prove anything.”
-- Oscar Wilde

NEW YORK CITY -- Below is the final conversation between Cyril and Vivian in an essay, The Decay of Lying -- An Observation by Oscar Wilde included in his collection of essays titled Intentions, published in 1891.

Vivian tells Cyril of an article he has been writing called "The Decay Of Lying: A Protest". In the article Vivian defends Aestheticism and "Art for Art's sake". As summarized by Vivian, it contains the following four doctrines:
-Art never expresses anything but itself;
-All bad art comes from returning to Life and Nature, and elevating them into ideals;
-Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life; and
-Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art
The essay ends with the two characters going outside, as Cyril asked Vivian to do at the beginning of the essay. Vivian finally complies, saying that twilight nature's "chief use" may be to "illustrate quotations from the poets." 

CYRIL. Then we must certainly cultivate it at once. But in order to avoid making any error I want you to tell me briefly the doctrines of the new aesthetics.
VIVIAN. Briefly, then, they are these. Art never expresses anything but itself. It has an independent life, just as Thought has, and develops purely on its own lines. It is not necessarily realistic in an age of realism, nor spiritual in an age of faith. So far from being the creation of its time, it is usually in direct opposition to it, and the only history that it preserves for us is the history of its own progress. Sometimes it returns upon its footsteps, and revives some antique form, as happened in thearchaistic movement of late Greek Art, and in the pre-Raphaelite movement of our own day. At other times it entirely anticipates its age, and produces in one century work that it takes another century to understand, to appreciate, and to enjoy. In no case does it reproduce its age. To pass from the art of a time to the time itself is the great mistake that all historians commit.
The second doctrine is this. All bad art comes from returning to Life and Nature, and elevating them into ideals. Life and Nature may sometimes be used as part of Art's rough material, but before they are of any real service to art they must be translated into artistic conventions. The moment Art surrenders its imaginative medium it surrenders everything. As a method Realism is a complete failure, and the two things that every artist should avoid are modernity of form and modernity of subjectmatter. To us, who live in the nineteenth century, any century is a suitable subject for art except our own. The only beautiful things are the things that do not concern us. It is, to have the pleasure of quoting myself, exactly because Hecuba is nothing to us that her sorrows are so suitable a motive for a tragedy. Besides, it is only the modern that ever becomes oldfashioned. M. Zola sits down to give us a picture of the Second Empire. Who cares for the Second Empire now? It is out of date. Life goes faster than Realism, but Romanticism is always in front of Life.
The third doctrine is that Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life. This results not merely from Life's imitative instinct, but from the fact that the selfconscious aim of Life is to find expression, and that Art offers it certain beautiful forms through which it may realize that energy. It is a theory that has never been put forward before, but it is extremely fruitful, and throws an entirely new light upon the history of Art.

It follows, as a corollary from this, that external Nature also imitates Art. The only effects that she can show us are effects that we have already seen through poetry, or in paintings. This is the secret of Nature's charm, as well as the explanation of Nature's weakness.
The final revelation is that Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art. But of this I think I have spoken at sufficient length. And now let us go out on the terrace, where "droops the milkwhite peacock like a ghost," while the evening star " washes the dusk with silver." At twilight nature becomes a wonderfully suggestive effect, and is not without loveliness, though perhaps its chief use is to illustrate quotations from the poets. Come! We have talked long enough.