#posting this mostly to force myself to not think about drawing and commit to focusing on irl

[ravene]

Heads up: I wanted to had drawn more this month but I have to focus on some irl stuff, so I actually won't be able to draw that much for a non-determined amount of time.

[oh-no-its-bird]

Ok so updated list of my WIPS;

Actually in progress;

- Offal and All (Kakashi's relationship with food throughout the years, mostly told through the eyes of others) I'm activley focusing on this one rn and hoping to post it like, this week actually. It's a mash up of a lot of different tiny Kakashi hc's I've posted about and should be very fun (and depressing, but that's kind of my brand, so.)

- One Step Three Steps chapter 10, it's going well so far actually I just keep writing it at work then being forced to stop bc like. Work. Might go up this week, hopefully

- Chasing Shadows chapter 4, it's like 20% done? Ish? I just need to find the head space to get back to writing it, will go up within the next 2 weeks for sure but idk when exactly. It'll be great tho ur gonna get Hikaku, Fugaku, Shisui, Mikoto, just all the cool Uchiha. Lots of politics, lots of drama, the works

- Itama and the secret senju weed empire fic,,,, it will be long and it will be beautiful which means it'll take me forever to do, sorry

- Magical Girl Izuna AU (my beloved) I got distracted by other projects midway through writing chapter 1 but I'll get there eventually

- Little lab mystery where kid edo-tensei reincarnations of Madara and Tobirama wake up with no memories and immediately stage a jail break

- Nin burger!!!!! Yes this is a real thing yes I meant to post it like the same week I started making it but then I got distracted and didn't. But I swear to fucking GOD I will see it complete. Nin Burger is my favorite real naruto restaurant that is real

- That one oneshot where Madara and Tobirama spend a festival night in the capital together as children, and Madara develops his very first crush on the fox masked boy, but seems to be doomed never to meet him again— till Konoha's first festival is held and he sees a man wearing the very same mask, waiting for him in the crowds. Might not actually finish this one tbh but also maybe I'll save it for tbmd week?? Idk

Considering / Planning;

- Hikaku as the Uchiha clan head after Madara's betrayal comic,,, not an actual fic but I wanna make this so bad. I've written notes for it I just need to get along to drawing it

- Izuna in Wonderland comic, honestly I'll probably end up doing the entire thing in one go one night when I get hit in the face w a brick w motivation. So it'll be a surprise for both u guys and me when I post that! I always do my comics in one go bc I physically can't bring myself to return to art projects if interrupted, which means I tend to do longer ones on my days off where I have literally nothing else to do or distract me, but I haven't had one of those in like. 2 months now. So. But I will soon!! Umm. Maybe.

- Here Before and After Me chapter 2, I'll probably make one eventually but who tf knows when. I have a very specific vision of Kakashi following Tobirama onto the battlefield and scaring the shit out of a very alarmed and confused Izuna

- Tobirama and Izuna's field trip through time and space, I don't think I want to commit to a full fic bc it'd be seriously long and I'm already commiting to Chasing Shadows and One Step Three Steps as my regular update long fics, then the MG Izuna au and Itama fic as my "write it all behind the scenes then post" long fics. One shots only for me, sorry. But I do wanna write a silly one shot of the boys crash landing face first into a konoha council meeting during their field trip

Dropped / Abandoned;

- That one mdtb space mermaid au, rip. Maybe I'll come back to u one day but for now I have a lot to focus on, sorry

- mdtb fish in a pond fic where Tobirama is half spirit and turns into a koifish that Tajima then brings home and tosses into the families koi pond

I think that's everything? I have a shit memory and do everything on my notes app then forget to categorize the notes half the time so I honestly wouldn't be surprised if I'd lost smthn else in my like billion different notes.

Those are the important ones tho, so, good enough!

[bigskycastle]

ask

Yup! I’m gonna use this ask to answer the other ones finally lol

Hehe that’s a cute idea.. that’s sort of what I imagined the “special ready” effect is, but it would definitely be cooler if instead of just glowing/moving a bit their hair cycled through a bunch of colors

Hi! Oh that’s pretty broad uhhhhhhhh id say.. well. it’s N from pokemon bw but most of the characters I end up liking are just, like, silent protags lol

Honestly? at first nervous and uncomfortable because I very much forgot how to draw humans. But i’m feeling tons better about it now and having a lot of fun with it^_^

Awh thank you ! ❤ you’re also cool

Good at the moment! Got a 4 day weekend every week now so I should (maybe?) be able to be more active here. Also FINALLY have a doctor’s apptmt today so i can see someone about my mental health shit and possibly, perhaps, potentially actually get help lol

You’re sweet, thank you❤ I’d like to redo my spectrum piece at some point just because i think i’ve evolved a little stylistically since I finished it, but I still like it despite that. And ty again! They’re very relaxing for me now lol, I’m glad we (against all odds) got a zelda game with one

I think I first saw a streamer playing it when I dropped by their twitch page on a whim, and I saw all the clothing options and immediately decided “i must buy a switch just to play this game”. The fashion aspect is still one of my favorite things about it lol. 

I think my Favorite part has to be the singleplayer modes, in partic agents though (predictably), bc they’re exactly the sort of “mostly blank slate” characters+worlds I get attached to.. I’ve always rly enjoyed sort of filling in the gaps left behind in media, even if that means what I end up loving at the end is 90% headcanon stuff. I think that’s the best way 2 interact with media anyway. making it more personal. 

It’s always very cool seeing everyone’s different takes on the agents/splat world, and it’s Very cool how I can post a pic of, like, agent 3 and have a bunch of different people each see a totally different character, you know? But yeah i like the shoes in splatoon

Honestly kinda rough but I’m trying! I’ve started college now and the people there are nice enough, plus it’s got incredibly cushy hours and is pretty light on actual “learning”, but it’s good, I needed some kind of break from academia before I straight up died

I’m happy you enjoy it anon!!!!!! I will :-)! I’ve got a lot planned for zelda art in the near future, i just have to finish some commissions and stuff before I can properly work on it

I’ve never “studied” officially, but i’ve been drawing for like, 5-6ish years now? I didn’t pick it up until I was about 10 and didn’t rly commit until I was maybe 12. The course i took at college is meant to be art-focused, however, the stuff they’re teaching is like.. not a brag! but stuff I do already know. Like, a tutor tried to explain what “pixel art” is to me on my first day. I mostly took it to try and learn some Maya skills because I do want to pick up 3D art one day!

Ty! This question’s pretty similar to the last so i’ll put it here. I’ve been slacking on my actual studying a bit, most of what I do is force myself to draw anything every day. Doesnt matter if its a wonky doodle of a face on the back of a napkin or if its a full illust, its practice, it counts. Also, trying to shove myself out of my own comfort zone by doing things like environments and very detailed things (motorcycle.). It’s very rewarding just to look at something you made and think “I thought this was impossible before right now”.

hmmmmMm... I can’t think of any just off the top of my head but my friend @nickymemer (I think?) put the idea of Zelda, whenever shes sick of link and her dads’ collective shit, just running off to gerudo town to hang out with urbosa and the rest of the gerudo court, in my head and i love that a lot

Thank you thank you! As of rn it’s botw but that’s probably because it’s the only one i’ve played by myself. I watched a 30 hour longplay of twilight princess and really loved that though. I did watch an lp of both majora and ocarina but I get the feeling i’m missing a big part of the experience of both bc i’m not playing them. (That or they’re overhyped.) If i get a bit more cash at some point I’ll probably get both on my 3ds.

Alright that’s all I think! Thank you everyone ❤

[yujachachacha]

Do you think You's been sidelined too much in Season 2?

Unpopular opinion: Nope.

Now, before y’all start coming at me with pitchforks, let me explain.

[Putting under a cut for S2 spoilers]

To understand this question, we need to know what factors contribute to a character getting screen time. Of course, this is usually not a straightforward matter, but for the purposes of this ask, I’ve simplified it down to three:

Plot

Popularity

Fairness

…I’m now slightly upset that I can’t find a word that starts with a “p” for #3.

Well, whatever. First up, the plot. If a character is crucial to whatever story arc is going on at the moment, then obviously they get more screen time. Take Kanan in Season 1 - everyone made jokes about her getting next-to-zero lines for the first half of the season, and then she finally got her chance to shine in the moments leading up to the Mijuku DREAMER episode.

But look at it this way: in the beginning, the anime was all about Chika’s efforts to start a school idol club and develop a fledgling school idol group. At that point in time, Kanan was still opposed to the idol of being a school idol again, and was busy helping out at her family’s diving shop to boot. It’s a shame that Kanan didn’t appear more, but you also have to consider that she didn’t have anything to offer in terms of plot advancement.

As for popularity, it’s actually kind of a chicken-or-the-egg factor. Popular characters get more screen time because they’re the ones who are drawing in viewers, and so the more screen time they get, the more that people will watch a show. On the other hand, certain characters become popular because they get screen time - just look at how Ruby’s popularity exploded after the Hakodate episodes in Season 2.

You can even argue about this working for ships. There are plenty of YohaMaru and YohaRiko moments for the massive YohaMaru and YohaRiko fanbase out there. KanaMari has no shortage of ship tease moments in S2, and I will confidently say that a large part of their explosion in popularity is thanks to S1E9. Whatever the case may be, it’s undeniable that popularity does have some level of influence on screen time.

Finally, we have fairness. Every character gets their chance in the spotlight by having an episode dedicated to them. Dia fans did get plenty of fun moments in Season 1, but had to wait until Season 2 for her “turn”. Plus, if a character doesn’t get enough screen time for a while for no particular reason, usually the gap will be made up for at some point in the future. Since the RubyMaru episode in S1 mostly focused on Hanamaru, and Hanamaru got a lot of screen time after that, it was only fair to introduce a major Ruby arc in S2.

Now, how does You fare in Season 2 under these three conditions?

Is she popular? Sure! Her popularity’s probably taken a bit of a hit over time, as characters like Yoshiko and Hanamaru have gotten a chance to be fully developed through the anime, but she’s still up there in the ranks.

A side note - this is probably my bias speaking, but part of You’s constant popularity might be thanks to her seiyuu Shukashuu, who is undeniably popular. Case in point: at the time of this post, Shukashuu has the most followers on Twitter out of the Aqours cast (if you’re curious, 2nd is Rikyako and 3rd is Aikyan). Also, if you look up prices for Aqours seiyuu bromides, sets for Shukashuu tend to be markedly more expensive than sets for the others. I can’t help but feel like You would be a lot less popular if Shukashuu wasn’t so well-loved. I have no doubt that there are plenty of fans under the Watanabae spell, but I also suspect that You has an underlying base of Shukashuu fans who help maintain the character’s popularity.

All right, back on track. The big questions we need to ask: is You plot-relevant right now? Is it her “turn” to get screen time?

Let’s go over what’s happened so far in Season 2. Dia learned how to be more comfortable with the group; Riko finally got over her crippling fear of dogs; Chika went through another period of self-doubt over her capabilities as a leader; Ruby proved that she’s grown from a shy girl into an independent young lady; the third years made peace with their inevitable separation; and finally, Aqours renewed its commitment to winning Love Live for the sake of their beloved school.

Now, where does You fit into this? That’s the issue - she kind of…doesn’t.

Season 1 was about Aqours making a name for itself. They needed to prove that they weren’t just a µ’s copycat, and that they had their own unique hopes and charms that would make them stand out as school idols. Since at that point, Aqours was still forming and everyone wasn’t quite comfortable with each other, You got to have a lot of screen time. Since she was Chika’s best friend, You would be the one who Chika would rely on in the beginning. As You provided a lot of skills that Aqours didn’t have yet (choreography, physical training, costume designing), she got bonus screen time for those parts as well.

With Season 2, a lot of the reasons why You got screen time faded away. Chika learned how to communicate better, confiding in not just You, but Riko, Kanan, Maru, and the others as well. Ruby gained enough confidence to proudly sew outfits for the group instead of hesitantly hovering in the background. Kanan and Mari continued to oversee the group’s training regiment and choreography.

Unfortunately for You, the way her character has been built means that the factors of “plot” and “fairness” work against her for screen time. Since You got to shine in Season 1, she had to step aside to give the others a chance in Season 2. As for plot…well, there are some people who complain that You is too “perfect” of a character. In a way, they’re right.

You see, characters like Chika and Yoshiko stay onscreen because of their imperfections. Chika has the constant pressure of being the leader and trying to stay positive for the sake of the group. You can see that there are times when she breaks under the stress, particularly at times of failure (see: the 0 from S1, the training portion for MIRACLE WAVE, the announcement that the school was closing for good). Chika is the embodiment of Aqours, and seeing her ups and downs is the equivalent of seeing the growth of the group as a whole.

Yoshiko is also a character who always struggles with herself. Her “fallen angel” routine hides a vulnerable first-year student who is still unused to the idea of having friends. Riko and Maru may scoff and tease her at times, but they are also her top supporters, and don’t hesitate to step up to the plate when they see that she needs help (whether it’s raising a dog or attracting customers for fortune-telling).

So while others may stumble and falter, You is the character who will always be there for the protagonist, and provides a sense of security and consistency. If it’s You, she can do it. If it’s You, she won’t fail. That’s what You means to the viewers - she’s everyone’s “rock”. However, this means that she’s there as support rather than the driving force behind the plot. Above all, characters need to be shown for the sake of development and growth - You, unfortunately, doesn’t have too much room for either.

There’s actually a µ’s character who I’m reminded of in this situation: Umi. Like You, Umi is the childhood friend of the leader of her school idol group, and decided to give her all to support her despite juggling a top position in a sports club. Unlike You, Umi didn’t even get an episode dedicated to her - although Umi also suffered from being the reliable best friend, she didn’t really have any glaring insecurities that needed to be resolved (plus, Honoka constantly clung to Umi, which eliminated any possible jealousy subplots like You’s).

Both Umi and You have the misfortune of their major character block being something that can’t fit into the anime - them being in another club. If you read alternate LL adaptations, you’ll discover that the characters who get left behind in the anime get their chance to shine again. In SIF, Umi missed practice for several days due to an archery competition, and in her School idol diaries, she goes over how she feels about her duties as the inheritor of a dojo. In the manga, a major plot point for a couple of chapters is actually about You’s swim club practices making her too busy for the school idol club.

These story arcs, while interesting, have no place in the anime. The anime needs to focus on the group’s journey to Love Live, and there are already enough nigh impossible obstacles for them to overcome without the additional threat of missed practices. It’s regrettable, but Umi and You were thus relegated to providing reassurances and encouragement when needed, and making sure that everything runs smoothly for the group in the background.

So in the end, do I think that You’s had a severe reduction in screen time this season? Yes - in fact, there are actual statistics out there (i.e. hardcore fans straight up recording how much time she gets on screen) to prove this. She really has been kinda put on the sidelines for a good chunk of Season 2.

But do I think she’s been sidelined too much? As I’ve explained above, although I’m a huge You fan myself, I get why the sidelining had to happen. It’s not “too much” if there’s a legitimate reason behind it.

Plus, remember my third point about fairness and how characters that lacked screen time would eventually show up again? Fans of You (and ChikaYou in particular) got massively rewarded for their patience with that lovely, heartfelt moment between You and Chika in S2E11. Perhaps it was done on purpose - after all, S1E11 was You’s episode (and also the episode that caused all ChikaYou fans to melt into a puddle of tears).

It’s a pity that You hasn’t appeared too much in Season 2, but hopefully it’s understandable. I have strong hopes that she’ll appear more often from now on - and I have no doubt that we’ll get plenty of yousoro love in the future! o7

[theboykingofhell]

can you tell me abt the journey you took to get where you are now in your acting? c:

sure bby!!!!

LOL THIS IS LIKE NOVEL LENGTH LEMME READ MORE THAT SHIT FOR YA

so omg like almost all of my passions i got into in elementary school (like i started writing in 3rd grade, i started rly getting into psychology at the end of 6th) so acting was originally like that… the way my brain works, it’s just natural for me to pursue my passions because i literally can’t conceptualize things i’m not interested in BUT i never considered it like a dream of mine to act professionally. it also never rly came to mind, it was just like… hi yeah i’m a writer and i liked to act!!

so i started rly young in school shows in lil small parts. i was never the lead in something lol never even got close but shit was fun to get involved in. this continued in high school, where i finally started taking some of the drama classes there.

here’s the thing tho… i sucked lol. HERE’S THE OTHER THING THO… it was rly RLY obvious to my teacher that i had a shitload of potential. i grew up HIDEOUSLY shy and withdrawn (80% of this is my dad’s fault lool) so oh man that stage fright was FUUUUUUUUN to try and work through. but my teacher there would confirm what i’d always thought - that i did have a talent, that this was something i was good at, i just had to learn to access what was in me.

i moved on to college then. my first college was a private school and i was technically a liberal arts major because i didnt know how to (and was also too lazy to) take the first steps as to what i rly wanted, but the original plan was acting/creative writing double major… (i eventually changed this to acting and psychology because FUCK english majors)… i didnt rly do much in that first school tho! in fact, i had to drop out because i had a psychotic break lmfao it was a rly RLY low point in my life and i was forced to take a mental leave and i was institutionalized and everything

that’s relavant because… when the leave was over, i was made to go to school again, but i didn’t think i could handle my first school. i hated my first school.. so i went to the community college near me and it CHANGED MY LIFE. the school is actually considered one of the best acting programs you can get around my area if i’m remember right, and even if that’s not still accurate, in my time there, we went to this annual theatre school we go to… they were giving out 20 awards… we, as the only community college there among ONLY private acting schools got FOURTEEN OF THEM BITCHHhhh. the teachers there were brilliant, SO passionate, SO driven, but also SO experienced because they were all professionals who were still actively working in the field!!! they taught us the basics of networking, the discipline and, I LEARNED STAGE COMBAT MY MOST FAVORITE THING but most importantly, how to be safe and open and vulnerable on stage.

two of my favorite moments in learning this was something called the ‘personal monologue’ and something called ‘shakespeare in the dark’.. since this post is getting long enough, if yall wanna know about these, i can talk about that in another post but… they taught me how to be intimate with the audience. and it taught me about the catharsis in acting. shakespeare in the dark in particular was the first time i cried on stage, and even now crying on stage is the ONLY way i can do it without having a horrible reaction to it because of my trauma. acting is super super theraputic for me at this point because i get to access and express emotions that i NEVER let myself do irl because it’s SAFE and ughnfdjgs it’s so good

i stayed in that community college for.. a shitload of time lol i ran out of classes to take cuz i was there for so long. eventually i finally summoned the balls to go to my current school!!!

so i transferred there in the fall, went through a semester of it, and there i met one of the best directors i’ve ever seen and came in contact with a BRILLIANT acting technique that. Holy. Shit. again, if you want me to talk about like… acting technique shit i can do that in another post cuz it’s a lot and it’s also a weird convoluted topic that idk if a lot of people know about outside of theatre (especially out of community theatre cuz i never see it applied there as much hhm). if i learned about vulnerability in the first school, my time here taught me about commitment and immersion. in the first school, i learned to be myself and let myself live through the characters emotional journies. in the second school, i learned to TRANSFORM into the character, completely and totally become them, and work naturally within that and.. most importantly.. to do that in a safe manner.

(again if i talk about techniques i’ll talk about the dangers of some of them but there are a LOT of rly psychologically unhealthy ways you can act which. of course. are some of my favorite ways to lol)

i only spent a semester there tho because…! my school has a partnership with this british school called lamda… which was, oh god, SUCH a brilliant school. so i entered in the program and studied abroad there…! so this is why i was in london from january until like LITERALLY LAST WEEK and holy fuck.

what lamda taught me: ummmm… how to party? mostly kidding lol but again, on one hand it was a beautiful reiteration on what we’ve learned and are always learning, like how to network and the different ways to do that (umm partying with actors is beautiful and important), how to express yourself on stage in same ways… but the things i learned were all about rly technical things that we don’t focus on in america… american acting focuses a lot more on realism, drawing on emotions, YOU AND HOW YOU AFFECT THE WORLD… british acting actually does more with physicality and the space around you an how the environment affects YOU and how YOU push back against it. they’re generally pretty similar, either way stuff like the psychology of the character, the physicality, the environment, they’re things you have to work with no matter WHERE you are, but american acting focuses inward looking out and british acting focuses outward looking in and it’s VERY interesting. so going there gave me more tools to work with and more ways to hone what i have difficulty with (like my vocal work is SHIT because i more or less have a speech impediment i gotta finish working through but that’s improved GREATLY)

i didnt mention all the shows i’ve done in the meantime but i’ve done one ACTUAL PROFESSIONAL SHOW before and by that i mean. i’ve done a bunch of things with my school and stuff no problem and that all counts in my acting resume but i’ve actually performed in nyc off-broadway on a STAGE in the LEAD ROLE and i got paid for it. so that’s when i started considering myself a professional actor. since schools USUALLY put you under a contract to not work during the school semesters, the summer is usually the only time i seek out stuff, so… i’ve done pretty much all the auditions i wanted to do this week and i’m just waiting back to see if i’ll be doing more professional things! i’m still a BABY though there’s a lot i don’t know and there’s a lot i haven’t experienced yet and rest in peace my ass because this year is my last year of training until i go to graduate school and i’m not READY FOR THE REAL WORLD WAAAAAAAAAH

uhhh BUT YEAH i hope that was interesting to read omg thank you for asking me bby ilysm!!!

[nitemice]

Hey, here's my latest post over on my main blog:

In 2017, I only had one New Year’s resolution: to document a highlight for each and every day that year. Not only did I managed to keep the resolution, I’m still doing it to this day, and I can’t see myself ever stopping!

Tracking my daily highlights for over a year has been a really interesting experience and I’m pretty proud I’ve been able to “not break the chain”. It’s also an idea I think more people could benefit from, so in this post I’m going to try to give you a bit of a rundown of the what, why and how of daily highlights.

What is a ‘daily highlight’?

Basically, at the end of each day, I take stock of everything that happened that day, and I chose a specific moment or occurrence that was the highlight. That is, the best part of the day.

What does that look like exactly? Well, it could be anything! Something simple like “biting into a mushroom burger”, or silly like “noticing a woman whistling to herself as she walked down the street”, or specific like “capturing the flag twice in a single game in ‘Overwatch'”, or vague like “having a weird conversation with colleagues”, although I generally try to make it as specific as possible. To help with this, I will often write some extra notes to give a bit more context to the situation, so it’s easier to remember and understand when I come back to it.

Sometimes, if I’m struggling to think of something, I use the prompt “What moment from today do I wish could have lasted longer?” That’s not exactly what I’m looking for, but it makes for a good starting point if I’m stuck.

Conversely, some days I know my highlight immediately after it happens, and will write it down straight away. Even on those days, I will review the day at the end, to make sure nothing else came later to trump what I already wrote. If there was something, the original highlight usually just becomes a note of the usurping highlight.

When multiple highlight-worthy events happen in a day, I nominate one as the primary highlight of the day and make a note of the rest. This allows me to keep each highlight fairly specific, rather than writing something broad or vague to try and cover everything.

Why do this?

Documenting a daily highlight for the whole of 2017 was an idea that I had somewhat in the heat of the moment, late on the last day of 2016. But it was a culmination of a number of thoughts that had been bubbling in my mind throughout the year.

Earlier in 2016, I had been reading a number of articles about the benefits of journaling, and it intrigued me. But I didn’t want to commit to such a high level of detail and it seemed pretty time-consuming, so I put that thought on the back burner. Also around this time, a friend of mine began meaninglessly documenting the event of her day on her digital calendar. She wasn’t writing down highlights, so much as just blocking out how she’d spent her time that day in a very broad sense. When I asked her why, she didn’t really have any sort of explanation except that she’d started and didn’t want to stop. These two ideas together served as the inspiration for my daily highlights resolution. I decided to draw a line somewhere down the middle: not full-on daily journalling, but not just recording events without meaning.

One of the aspects of journaling that most interested me was its use as a memory tool for later reference and reflection. Recording a highlight each day gives me a date-stamped list of memories that should be easier to recall, and make it easier to remember when things happened. My memory is not the best, and I hoped writing things down like this might help me to improve, or at the very least give me a tool to lean on when someone asks me what I did last week. Writing down a daily highlight also forces me to take a moment each evening to reflect on the day. It’s a step towards a more mindful way of living, appreciating the good part of each day, rather than just focusing on the things that didn’t turn out.

The most enticing aspect of my friend’s time-blocks calendar was the potential for statistics. With all that data on how she was spending her time, she could work out what she was doing often or rarely. The only problem with this is because everything she did was recorded, it’s hard to derive any meaning from it. By recording a highlight each day, the value of the event is intrinsic: they are all the best part of the day. Therefore it’s easy to know what you want to do more (or less), given the statistics.

Another side-effect of daily highlight tracking that I didn’t really foresee was the way it encourages me to get out and do stuff every day. If it’s nearing the end of the day, and I haven’t done anything highlight-worthy, I feel a push to try and do something exciting. That said, the reverse can also happen when a clear highlight occurs earlier in the day, muting my motivation to do anything to compete.

How do you do it?

Being date-based, I decided that a digital calendar would be the perfect way to document my daily highlights and keep them organised. So I created a new calendar in my Google Calendar setup, just for this purpose. With this, I also set up a daily task on my phone with a reminder notification at the end of the day. This is to make sure that when I go to bed, I remember to jot down a daily highlight, if I haven’t already.

For each highlight, I create an all-day event, with a headline summary of the highlight as the event name, as well as an optional location and any further notes I may need for context in the body of the event.

Using this system gives me a lot of functionality and flexibility for little to no effect. For example, I get cross-platform access and cloud synchronisation, meaning I can add and view daily highlights from any of my devices, although I mostly use my phone. That said, it does have some shortcomings. For example, being in a Google Calendar, it’s hard to get at the raw data, making things that I’d hoped to do, like statistics, much more difficult. For now though, it’s the simplest and best way I’ve been able to come up with, and is what I would recommend to anyone interested in adopting the practice.

Some interesting statistics

After (over) a year of highlights, I have plenty enough data for deriving some interesting statistics, so below are some stats that sum up my 2017:

45% of highlights were at home

25% were at work

4.5% were travelling between work and home

16% were at one-off locations (i.e. places that only appeared once)

20% of highlights involved watching TV

14% involved video games (mostly playing, but also watching)

13% involved doing my job

12% involved having conversations with friends/others

10% involved eating

9% involved music/dancing

4% involved shopping

Less than 1% involved alcohol

79 days (22%) had multiple highlights

Hopefully this post has made clear what I’ve been doing, and why. And maybe it’s even convinced you to take up the challenge of documenting your own daily highlights. If anything is unclear, or if you have any questions or thoughts about any of this, leave a comment below, or drop me a note via the contact page.

TTFN,

Nitemice

[musinginspades]

The Buy-In

I’m learning poker.  This blog will document that journey, my struggles, what I’m working on, progress, etc.  Here’s an introductory post about me, where I’m at, what I’m working on, and how I’m working on it.

I started playing poker at the beginning of the poker boom (2003).  I mostly played limit hold ‘em for a few reasons, mainly because that was what was offered at casinos in Minnesota (where I lived then).  I read some books, played for a while, won some money, and would just play here and there.  After graduating college, it just dropped off my radar.  A few years later, I got back into playing poker, this time NLHE 6-max online.  Unfortunately, I only played a few months before Black Friday hit.  

Now, I’m back into it and picking up NLHE.  I currently play 6-max $2NL micro stakes.  After initially dumping $40 worth of buy-ins, I’ve been picking up better habits and improving my skills to where I believe I’m a slightly winning player at these small stakes.  But I’m committed to getting better now.  I also play full-ring live a few times a month, but I’m a pretty winning player at low-stakes on that.  Plus, in Colorado (where I now live), there’s a law making the maximum bet $100, so it really is $2-100 Spread limit, not exactly No-limit.  6-Max will really help me work on my post-flop play, battling for pots, etc. since the ranges are wider and the blinds come quicker.  

For Christmas, my wife and her family chipped in to buy me 10 coaching sessions with Peter Clarke (www.carrotcorner.com) at my request.  I’ve also purchased his quintessential NLHE 6-max textbook, “The Grinder’s Manual” (TGM).  TGM is one of the few books that is still recommended by poker players as a book worth studying vs. just getting an online subscription to a site, plus he wrote it as if it were to be used as a textbook in a course on Poker, which fits what I’m looking for.  I’m studying that, taking notes, trying to put the lessons into practice, and revisiting.  It’s a much slower process, but one that solidifies learning the concepts much better.  I’m currently as far as chapter 6, but continue to go back and review previous chapters when I have a problem.

As far as study habits, my wife and I are waking up at 5:30AM now.  She works out while I study poker for ~90 minutes each morning.  Additionally, Monday evenings are reserved for additional study plus playing online.  Those are the predetermined blocks of time I spend on poker.  Additionally, most Wednesday nights I get to grind a few hours of playing out.  Eventually, I’d like to get to 3-4 hours of study and practice each day: one session in the morning, and one after work.

Deliberate study is one part of the equation.  Deliberate practice is another.  Right now, I’ve taken a break (or slowed down, rather) from advancing through TGM in order to work on my hand reading skills.  My preflop play is mostly solid, though a lot of work still needs to be done, particularly around 3-betting, facing 3-bets, and 4-betting+.  The time to dive into those concepts will come.  

Instead, I’m focusing on improving my hand reading right now.  I play a bit looser than a normal TAG for 6-max (I’m around 28/24 to 30/25), and playing looser means I need to play sharper post-flop.  I think the biggest chunk of that is in better hand reading.  

My morning study sessions right now involve actively watching videos or reading articles on hand reading, then practicing that knowledge by reading 1-3 hands per morning.  There’s a lot that goes into this aspect for right now.  Going over my own hands or hands from SplitSuit’s 6-max Hand Reading Workbook (which I think my coach also worked on) is part of it.  

But then there’s more than reading a hand.  I’m asking myself what range would I call with? Bet with? Raise with? Check/call? Check/fold?  I’m taking those situations, counting combos, and working through that.  This helps me to understand how I play, identify some of my weaknesses, but also identify weaknesses of players who play like me.  I’ve noticed that so far, I’m too value-heavy post-flop.  I don’t know exactly how much I need to increase this yet, but If I’m continuing with 40-50% of my combos in some fashion on the flop, I’m probably too tight.  So I have some math to study and work out regarding that.  I don’t just want an answer like “you should c-bet 70% of your range.”  I want to know why that number is correct (if it even is).  That starts by spending at least a few hours going through the math and figuring that out.  I’m worried about getting down in the weeds too much this early, but I also know that if I can reign that in, it’ll likely be the best for me in the long run. 

Essentially, long-term success comes from the following, paraphrased from an Amazon review as it pretty succinctly spells it out (with my current steps in parentheses):

• Top experts practice more than those who are merely very good (already setting aside daily practice periods, and I plan to eventually up that amount) • Get an expert teacher and get lots of feedback (I have a dedicated coach) • Practice skills, not acquiring knowledge.  Knowledge will come as a result of using the skills (practicing my hand reading off-table as well as on; also using poker-fighter.com for drilling repetitions. I disagree with some recommendations on there such as when pot odds aren’t quite there to call an all-in with a draw, but in general should be good for drilling.) • Analyze so you know exactly what those skills are and what you need to improve most • Active, deliberate practice, not merely practice.  

Finally, I’ll be writing this blog.  I think writing is often overlooked as a method toward improvement.  It helps solidify and crystallize knowledge being worked on.  It forces you to really look at things and brings to the surface what your real trouble spots likely are.  And I’ll be working not on the lowest-hanging fruit each time, but on where my biggest (identified) weaknesses are.  It’ll make me think more.  It’ll bring up my play quicker.  It’ll shore up my biggest leaks first.  

And, of course, I’ll be working on whatever my coach tells me.