Life In 19x19

It would be nice to have a fan with an image of goban in the middle and signature of Obama on one side, Hu on the other

Use a powerful electric fan to blow the stones off the goban when you're losing.

tj86430 wrote:My club meets at the local pub. I can imagine the looks of the regular patrons if I brought a fan.

A Chinese chap living in Durham at one time used to come to the Go club in the local pub carrying a fan, and he used it often. He kept it, somehow, in the back of his collar, and he would "draw" it and snap it about and generally disconcert his opponents terribly. So far as I can tell, the pub's regulars just treated it as "those weird student-type game-players being odd"; it gave no trouble at all.

When it's warm, I carry and use my fan, whether I'm playing Go or doing something else.

Play with a fan?

I have three fans. Sometimes I play with them. Usually I give them 7-9 handi stones.

HKA wrote:
Aside from the affected "coolness" it has been useful. I used to be a fast player, and I still am pretty fast and fairly intuitive for good or ill, so holding a fan keeps my hands off the stones or the mouse. It has stopped some knee jerk mistakes.

I am also fairly fidgety, and it is nice to have something social acceptable to fidget with.

I would love to get a fan or anything I can hold for those above reasons. I don't really think it's that cool though. I generally enjoy playing around with my hands while I am idle. For example, I liked to do "origami"(I didn't actually make anything, I just kept folding the paper over and over in some of the small patterns I know of) when I was in training for my job. It helped the time go by more quickly, but it also helped me "calm" myself down. Probably some sort of attention issues, but I feel when I have something in my hands, I concentrate a lot better than when I don't.

I don't see how playing with a fan is at all socially acceptable, unless you're surrounded by a bunch of anime freaks or playing in an Asian country.
If anything, it reinforces the mainstream opinion of Go players as a bunch of weirdos.

palapiku wrote:I don't see how playing with a fan is at all socially acceptable, unless you're surrounded by a bunch of anime freaks or playing in an Asian country.
If anything, it reinforces the mainstream opinion of Go players as a bunch of weirdos.

Interesting. Point taken, and reinforced.

I only carry one for self-defense, and it dose not have a knife hidden in it nor is it steel.

Check out these videos;
The Fan of Fury
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jb8Is5nPoU&feature=related

Shaolin Kung Fu Steel Fan Demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtNhoDBqoGY

kung fu fan (Beauty of sun setting)back form
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G036_mhE_M&feature=related

Jackie Chan's fan tricks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOS51qpUoCc&feature=related