Melodía J. Parker

Author: Melodía J. Parker

  • The results of my first ever chess game.

    The results of my first ever chess game.

    Recently, I played my very first chess game. I am still learning and there are a lot of things I still don’t know. So, when I decided to test the waters on my first game, I will admit that I was a little overwhelmed! I am very, very, very new to chess. So, I will be struggling in these very early games.

    I made a few blunders and mistakes, but I didn’t lose! The game ended in a draw by repetition. I have analyzed my moves and now I definitely understand what I did wrong. I will be playing another game soon to see if I can (hopefully) not make the same blunders and mistakes!

    Here is the game below. I was white.

  • Learning how to play chess.

    Learning how to play chess.

    As some of you know, my dad passed away a few years ago. He loved playing chess. It was his favorite game. He tried to explain it to me when I was younger; he had even bought a game called “Chess Teacher” to try to help me to learn, but I just didn’t understand it. Sadly, I never learned how to play chess while he was still alive. My mom doesn’t play chess either, so he had to play chess solo. He wasn’t interested in joining in any clubs or sites to play chess. We had gotten him a handheld electronic chess game, and he loved it! He could play chess whenever and wherever he wanted. He took it everywhere with him.

    I think I’m still processing my dad’s death. I know he’s gone and that his death was not a surprise (he had suffered from incurable cancer), but I am still in shock that he’s gone. I use his old iPhone as my backup phone as one way to connect to him. However, a few days ago, I had a strong urge to go to chess.com, a site I had never visited. I’m not sure why, maybe my dad’s spirit “nudged” me towards it. Well, I spent some time on the site and I was impressed by the puzzles and lessons. They are perfect for a complete beginner like me. I immediately signed up for an account and downloaded the app. I’ve even started doing some of the daily puzzles! And, even more shocking, I’ve even joined the US Chess Federation! I’m not going to be a Grandmaster or anything like that, but I am thoroughly enjoying chess now! I’ve even purchased a cheap chess set so that I can try the puzzles out on the chessboard before doing them online. I learn better by doing, so having the physical chessboard in front of me will be very helpful.

    I wish my dad could see this. I think he’d be so proud of me, learning a game that I never thought I could learn. I think this is also helping me to keep connecting with him and to process his death. Also, chess is good for your brain!

  • Leaving Bluesky.

    Leaving Bluesky.

    I deactivated my Bluesky account yesterday. I didn’t delete it, just in case it ever gets better and then I can just reactivate my account, but somehow I doubt that will ever happen.

    Before Enron Muskrat completely ruined Twitter in 2022, that was my main social network. It was a great place. I had been on it for years. I had floated the idea for my debut novel, Us Against Them, on Twitter in 2016. Then, Muskrat bought Twitter in 2022 and Twitter as we knew it was over. In fact, I had actually left Twitter a few months before he became the owner. I knew nothing good was going to happen, so I deleted my account and never looked back.

    When Bluesky was first announced, it seemed like it would be a lot like the old Twitter. It even looked like the old Twitter. I was truly excited for a return to the old Twitter. But, as time has gone on, Bluesky has completely fallen flat for me. The first thing I noticed is that it is quite the echo chamber. I’m willing to listen to other points of view, but on Bluesky, that seems not to be allowed. You better subscribe to whatever views the “majority” on Bluesky demands that others hold. Yikes. That’s not going to work for me.

    Then, there’s the problem of engagement. The majority of the people who followed me on Bluesky were bots. I know that’s a problem on all social media, but it seems very bad on Bluesky, a place that should’ve had less bots. It’s impossible to have a conversation with bots. It was like a ghost town.

    I think Threads might be the closest thing we have to the old Twitter. However, Threads has its problems, too. An influx of MAGATS seems to happen every couple of months. There’s a quite a bit of censorship on Threads, too, being that it’s owned by Meta and Meta is known for censorship.

    I don’t know if we’ll ever find anything like the old Twitter. Bluesky failed miserably at it. Threads isn’t there yet. Will there ever be anything?

  • Employers are still posting fake jobs.

    Employers are still posting fake jobs.

    A long time ago, on a different domain name that was on a different platform, I made a post about the fake job postings that companies make on Indeed (and other job boards). It is now 2026 and the problem has only gotten worse.

    I first became aware of this problem in 2020. I was laid off as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. I had used Indeed before, in 2016, and I didn’t have any issues with fake job postings. If there were any fake jobs, I didn’t see them.

    Fast forward to March 2020. My employer at the time shut down in-person operations, so everyone who worked in-person was laid off. The day I found out that I was laid off, I immediately went on Indeed and started applying for jobs. From March 2020 to September 2021, I applied for THOUSANDS of jobs. I am not kidding. Of those thousands of jobs I applied for, only three of them were legitimate.

    Finally, in September 2021, I ended up getting a job that wasn’t posted on Indeed. I had applied directly on the company’s website. They interviewed me the next day and I was hired.

    But that time period from March 2020 to September 2021? Every day, I received hundreds of spam emails, text messages, and calls. I even got dozens of spam letters in the mail! These companies had taken my information and sold it to data brokers. They knew they didn’t have any jobs. They were hoping to get as many people to apply for the fake job as possible so that they could make money off our information. I had reported every single one of these fake jobs to Indeed, but they did nothing about it. They allowed the fake jobs to be posted.

    It took a long time to get my data removed from these data brokers and to finally stop receiving all the spam. After that disaster in 2020-2021, I never applied for another job on Indeed. I only apply on the company’s website.

    So, imagine my disgust when I found out that in 2026 Indeed is STILL allowing these fake jobs to be posted! I will repeat the same warning I posted back then: DO NOT APPLY FOR ANY JOBS ON INDEED! Only apply for jobs on the company’s website. DO NOT USE ANY JOB BOARDS! The jobs posted on Indeed and the other job boards are FAKE! Your information will be sold to data brokers if you apply for “jobs” on Indeed and job boards.

    I hope that someday Indeed and job boards are shut down for good. They only hurt job seekers.