#lastshadow

 A few small things have happened and I feel its time to update my journey.

Just after my last blog post I had a few days of crazy gaming. I had a few straight(no breaks, only playing) 5 + hour sessions. I wanted to simulate a gaming session of a pro. I had plans to take it up to 8 hours but did not get that far. I had a blast doing it and I found dramatic improvements by the end of each session. But it was short lived. After 3 of these intense sessions my desire to play disappeared. I had no will to play. This was worrying. I continued not playing for weeks. I still remained in touch with the community, watching streams and going on TL. I would not mind having a SC break but since I just came back from a break, me being in England, I found this troubling. It reminded me very much of me stopping playing guitar, which I have ceased practising to this day.

In this time away from playing I discovered reddit. Reddit is now my new go to. It seems to be the forefront on knowledge. I have now come from Kotaku, to TL to Reddit it is my favourite source of news.

I also started Hunter college. So far I like it. On the Hunter Reddit I found someone who started a SC club. I contacted him and asked to join. I have become friends with the president of the club. He is a Terran player, the only friend I know who plays Terran. Vj gave me a coaching session. It was unbelievably helpful. The lesson was ushered toward TvP. I now have a much better understanding of TvP which makes me feel more comfortable in the match. Now I know I don't understand the other match ups. I hope I can convince VJ to give me some coaching in TvT and TvZ. It would be great if I had an understanding of all match ups. When I say comfortable, I do not mean that I am necessarily winning. I mean that understand what is happening, I know what I need to do and not do. Instead of doing because I'm told to I understand the why. I think at the moment in TvP what I need to do is work on dropping more and micro. 

I told VJ about my shit micro. He told me I should practice using Darglein's micro trainer. VJ even coached me on some micro. Since then I have been keeping track of my high score on several challenges and trying to beat them. I have not practised the micro trainer recently but I think it is helping. Especially in hotkeying my units. I have also started rallying to spots and not on units although I am not doing this all the time, yet. Today I microed a banshee and macroed simultaneously. I was very proud.

I have not been able to play on the Korean server. The region changer I was using is no longer working. This is rather annoying. When I'm having a bad day I prefer play not on my main account. It makes playing stress free. Without my Korean account I have not been able to do this. Instead I have been settling on playing custom games. Surprisingly playing custom games is a good. Most the people I play against are of higher level than me, Master and Diamond most the time. Better to play against better people. It puts into perspective where I am in terms of skill and shows me how much better I can be. I have also found that lots of the people on custom games are helpful if you ask for a little advice.

My Zowie mouse has conked out. They said they would replace it. I have it ready to be shipped but I have not sent it yet. I have decided I am not happy with it. I want a mouse with higher dpi. When I get a job I have told myself I will buy a nice mouse. At the moment I am using a cheap 5 dollar mouse that I bought for my gran. Although it is not perfect I am surprised with how good it is. 

My play time has been limited. I yearn to play more but I put restrictions on myself. Such as no plying until my homework is done. I fear what playing will be like when I get a job. I do not look forward to that. I have been out of the slump I was in about two weeks. I am grateful and I have all the drive I once had. All I need now is some time to practice.

I have finished school. I have been playing some since my last post. I have not reached my level when I was playing regularly. But I'm getting there. 

I have gotten in touch with Dreamlike a free SCII coach. I found him on a TL thread. In his post he mentions that he likes explaining the why. I like that. We had a Skype conversation and we discussed what I wanted. It was concluded that before we start coaching that I need to sort out the way I hotkey. Up until now I have Been using.

1-base

2-rax

3-factory

4-starport 

I have not been hotkeying my army at all. From today on I will no longer do this. I will put my army on 1-3 and my production on 4-7. I started practising this today. I lost most my games but I think it went well. This will be hard but I know I will become better hotkeying my army.