Go

I started playing Go this week. I had never played this game before. When I was in Japan I saw old men play it every afternoon in smoky dens-rain or shine. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about this game. I'm the type who usually tosses the manual away and dives straight for the controller. However, before playing Go I read a little about it on wikipedia and familiarized myself with the basic rules of the game. I figured I'd just figure out the angles as I went along.
At first, I randomly placed my black pieces throughout the board. The computer seemed to be doing the same. It wasn't bothering me much, kind of keeping its distance. This went on for a couple of rounds until I tired of this. I wanted some action!
I decied to see what would happen if I came closer to my enemy. My provocation seemed to get its attention, because now his moves were responding locally to my presence. The computer reacted accordingly when I engaged it, and backed off when I chose not to. The board seemed to be growing naturally, as I explored this game.
The pace increased suddenly, as I noticed that the computer was strangling the life out of me. With almost every other move the computer encircled my pieces, and captured much territory from me. At one point the computer seemed to even tire of me, passing its turn on almost ten moves!
Eventually, I had to quit, as most of the board had been siezed by my computer enemy. Despite losing badly, I enjoyed my first round with Go. Now, I am thinking about strategies now for my next turn at Go. We'll see how I fare next time. Perhaps reading a couple of Go proverbs might help me out.

Here is a picture of the board before I quit.