You betta believe it!
Go here if you don't believe me: buddytherat.wordpress.com
Or you could keep checking back on this blog, but then you wouldn't see any new posts and that would be pretty stupid.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
1 Week To Make A Game - Day 2
Hello again! Today I have some interesting developments.
Firstly, the game planned in the first post, well, that will not be completed in a week. No no, the idea is too good and the ideas I have for it too grand to downgrade it so. No, I shall keep working on it, but as a much larger project. I don't want to leave you totally disappointed though so here's a cool sketch I made of the first area of the game.
Click for larger image.
Secondly, the game I WILL be working on over the next week.. *drumroll*
Will look like this:
Like it? Hate it? Well I like it. My new strategy for tackling this 1 Game in a Week thing is: SIMPLICITY. Some of the world's most popular games (video and otherwise) are so popular on virtue of their simplicity. (No, I'm not saying this game will be that good.)
We'll see how it pans out tomorrow as I struggle to learn MMF 2's terrible, awful scripting "language". Until then, my love is a stolen catchphrase.
P.S. Props to mah scientist peeps at da Large Hadron Collider yo. Keep up da hard werk n dont let dah haterz put u down. peace out
Firstly, the game planned in the first post, well, that will not be completed in a week. No no, the idea is too good and the ideas I have for it too grand to downgrade it so. No, I shall keep working on it, but as a much larger project. I don't want to leave you totally disappointed though so here's a cool sketch I made of the first area of the game.
Click for larger image.Secondly, the game I WILL be working on over the next week.. *drumroll*
Will look like this:
Like it? Hate it? Well I like it. My new strategy for tackling this 1 Game in a Week thing is: SIMPLICITY. Some of the world's most popular games (video and otherwise) are so popular on virtue of their simplicity. (No, I'm not saying this game will be that good.)
We'll see how it pans out tomorrow as I struggle to learn MMF 2's terrible, awful scripting "language". Until then, my love is a stolen catchphrase.
P.S. Props to mah scientist peeps at da Large Hadron Collider yo. Keep up da hard werk n dont let dah haterz put u down. peace out
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
1 Week To Make A Game - Day 1
And so it begins. Can I do it? Will it actually be fun once it is done?
For most of today, things were looking pretty bleak. I had planned on making this day my main planning day. Ideas and design and whatnot. Well, my mind was blank. I couldn't think of ANYTHING.
A quick shower, though, solved all of my problems. I do my best thinking in there for some reason. (as I am sure many can relate with) I have to admit, though, that this is a game idea I have had for a long time now. It was the shower that made me realize that it was perfect for my challenge.
The premise is simple. A little boy is dreaming, and the world is his dream. A strange cave appears in the distance. Dare he enter? Outside the cave sits a bard. He tries to talk to him but he just goes on and on about absorbing bullets or something weird like that. The boy enters the cave.
In the cave the boy encounters beasts and monsters of all sorts. Why are they here? Can't stop and think now, they are attacking!
The boy is filled with magical powers as he rises into the air. What is this strange power? It is not merely the boy, someone, something is helping him! A ring of bright crimson materializes around him. The boy is astonished, but he suddenly remembers the words of the bard. "...Absorb bullets with the proper color, and then you may shoot them right back!..." The boy concentrates.. PCHOW! A red orb of light bursts from the ring, frying the monster into cinders.
Don't understand? Tomorrow will explain further, as I work as hard as I can to get this done.
Wish me luck!
For most of today, things were looking pretty bleak. I had planned on making this day my main planning day. Ideas and design and whatnot. Well, my mind was blank. I couldn't think of ANYTHING.
A quick shower, though, solved all of my problems. I do my best thinking in there for some reason. (as I am sure many can relate with) I have to admit, though, that this is a game idea I have had for a long time now. It was the shower that made me realize that it was perfect for my challenge.
The premise is simple. A little boy is dreaming, and the world is his dream. A strange cave appears in the distance. Dare he enter? Outside the cave sits a bard. He tries to talk to him but he just goes on and on about absorbing bullets or something weird like that. The boy enters the cave.
In the cave the boy encounters beasts and monsters of all sorts. Why are they here? Can't stop and think now, they are attacking!
The boy is filled with magical powers as he rises into the air. What is this strange power? It is not merely the boy, someone, something is helping him! A ring of bright crimson materializes around him. The boy is astonished, but he suddenly remembers the words of the bard. "...Absorb bullets with the proper color, and then you may shoot them right back!..." The boy concentrates.. PCHOW! A red orb of light bursts from the ring, frying the monster into cinders.
Don't understand? Tomorrow will explain further, as I work as hard as I can to get this done.
Wish me luck!
Monday, September 08, 2008
Chiptune Monday
Noticing a trend, anyone?
Well, today was GOING to be Chiptune Monday, and, I tried, I really did! I guess I just overestimated my abilities. So, gimme a week, I will have some actually finished tunes to show you.
Oh yes, you'll see.
Anyways, tomorrow starts my 1 Week To Make A Game challenge, and if everything goes as well as the past two days have then.. well then we're screwed.
On a side note: I got my learners permit today! Woohoo! Joyous times.
Welp anyways PEACE OUT YO.
Well, today was GOING to be Chiptune Monday, and, I tried, I really did! I guess I just overestimated my abilities. So, gimme a week, I will have some actually finished tunes to show you.
Oh yes, you'll see.
Anyways, tomorrow starts my 1 Week To Make A Game challenge, and if everything goes as well as the past two days have then.. well then we're screwed.
On a side note: I got my learners permit today! Woohoo! Joyous times.
Welp anyways PEACE OUT YO.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Sketch Trip
Looks like I fell asleep before finishing this post. Oh well, here it is anyways:
Well, I didn't quite go on a sketch trip as planned, but I did go on a trip. Today I was definitely worried about rain, and it did sprinkle a bit, so the sketch trip was called off. I definitely needed to get out of the house though, so, despite there being no good movies to see, me and my girlfriend went to the mall. We browsed the shops worth browsing, ate some dinner, and then for no particular reason we decided to head over to Books A Million, which is a pretty good walk from the mall.
It turned out to be the best decision of the day. We browsed the books a bit, picked what we wanted, made our purchases and then went to the cafe to just relax, read, and enjoy our day. We shared a hot cocoa and it was a good time.
Definitely going to try to get out of the house more and relax more often. Thinking about having to post and having something special to put up was already stressing me out, so I'm glad I took this weekend to just chill. Anyways, I have a copy of Spore to go pick up and enjoy!
Well, I didn't quite go on a sketch trip as planned, but I did go on a trip. Today I was definitely worried about rain, and it did sprinkle a bit, so the sketch trip was called off. I definitely needed to get out of the house though, so, despite there being no good movies to see, me and my girlfriend went to the mall. We browsed the shops worth browsing, ate some dinner, and then for no particular reason we decided to head over to Books A Million, which is a pretty good walk from the mall.
It turned out to be the best decision of the day. We browsed the books a bit, picked what we wanted, made our purchases and then went to the cafe to just relax, read, and enjoy our day. We shared a hot cocoa and it was a good time.
Definitely going to try to get out of the house more and relax more often. Thinking about having to post and having something special to put up was already stressing me out, so I'm glad I took this weekend to just chill. Anyways, I have a copy of Spore to go pick up and enjoy!
Friday, September 05, 2008
Skeleton!
Today I am not a man of words. Just pictures. As usual, click for a larger view.
I have learned much today, and will continue drawing skeletons, since it is intensely illuminating and very fun.
Tomorrow the Calendar says "sketch trip", but we'll see how the weather is. (Forecast says it might rain.) If that's the case, maybe I can surprise you with something else?
Tomorrow the Calendar says "sketch trip", but we'll see how the weather is. (Forecast says it might rain.) If that's the case, maybe I can surprise you with something else?
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Desktop Tour - Behind the MAGIC
Yes that's right. The magical world of Wabi-sabi REVEALED AT LAST. In this first time opportunity I will bring you backstage to the heart and soul of Wabi-sabi. Yes that's right, in this premier occasion, I, BuddytheRat, shall show you my desktop. *Applause*
Idiotic attempt at humour aside, streamlining my ability to organize and plan ahead was the main inspiration for starting up my blog again, so I will give you a fairly brief runthrough of how I get things done, with tips and software that can help make ANYONE more productive at their computer. If you spend any time at the computer whatsoever, then you will benefit from this post.
So let's go ahead and get to it. Here is my desktop, in all it's glory:
Click for zoomed in version.
THE RUNDOWN
Samurize
On the left of the screen we have Samurize. The website describes it as an "advanced system monitoring and desktop enhancement engine for Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista." In less vague terms, Samurize is a flexible and powerful tool for creating and designing (or downloading) perfectly customized desktop "widgets" so to speak, which can display anything (in beautiful ways) from your grocery list, to currently playing album art, to the amount of harddrive space you have left.
While my own config is still currently a work in progress, (notice the big gap right in the middle?) what I do have is a good showcase of the software's ability.
Idiotic attempt at humour aside, streamlining my ability to organize and plan ahead was the main inspiration for starting up my blog again, so I will give you a fairly brief runthrough of how I get things done, with tips and software that can help make ANYONE more productive at their computer. If you spend any time at the computer whatsoever, then you will benefit from this post.
So let's go ahead and get to it. Here is my desktop, in all it's glory:
Click for zoomed in version.THE RUNDOWN
Samurize
On the left of the screen we have Samurize. The website describes it as an "advanced system monitoring and desktop enhancement engine for Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista." In less vague terms, Samurize is a flexible and powerful tool for creating and designing (or downloading) perfectly customized desktop "widgets" so to speak, which can display anything (in beautiful ways) from your grocery list, to currently playing album art, to the amount of harddrive space you have left.
While my own config is still currently a work in progress, (notice the big gap right in the middle?) what I do have is a good showcase of the software's ability.
Here, from top to bottom, I have the date/time, harddrive info (using the Buuf icon set, by mattahan), a list of daily tasks and reponsibilities (because I need it ground into my head or I will probably get distracted), and the currently playing track in winamp, along with album art, track bar, song title, and artist.
Sunbird
Here is the centerpiece of my desktop, a very important piece of software indeed. Sunbird is an open source, extensible calendar created by the people behind the Firefox web browser. It is the central and most important part of my desktop because it is the central and key piece of software used in the creation of this blog! *Applause*
Here is the centerpiece of my desktop, a very important piece of software indeed. Sunbird is an open source, extensible calendar created by the people behind the Firefox web browser. It is the central and most important part of my desktop because it is the central and key piece of software used in the creation of this blog! *Applause*
With Sunbird I am able to keep tabs on multiple sets of events and todo lists, each with their own individual colors and settings. Most importantly, I am able to sync Sunbird up perfectly with Google Calendar (with use of this incredibly handy tutorial from one of my most favorite websites ever), putting all of my important dates and times on the internet to access at any time. This is how I am able to seamlessly integrate my Goals calendar with the right hand bar of this blog.
Glass2k
Of course, no calendar is useful if it isn't visible at nearly all times, thus bringing us to our next bit of software, Glass2k. Glass2k is a very simple and easy to use program that allows you to set any window to be semi to completely transparent through the use of very easy to learn hotkeys. How does this become useful in increasing productivity and organization?
Well, with Glass2k, I am able to make Sunbird, and any other desktop applications that I might have the need to keep open, be able to stay open and maximized without hiding or otherwise detracting from the background image. Aesthetics are very very important to me, and so Glass2k has become a mainstay in my software library as a nice way to establish an aesthetic, yet still functional workspace.
Executor
Our last piece of software is one of my favorites. Executor is a must for anyone that strives to speed up their ability to navigate their computer. Put simply, Executor is an easily accessible context menu that can be quickly accessed at any time through use of a hotkey. (Mine is ctrl+/) Once open just simply typing the name of any application, or preset keyword will find and open any program, folder, etc. that you might otherwise access through slow use of the mouse. In my current setup, a quick "Ctrl+/, net, [enter]" will open up my web browser.
Glass2k
Of course, no calendar is useful if it isn't visible at nearly all times, thus bringing us to our next bit of software, Glass2k. Glass2k is a very simple and easy to use program that allows you to set any window to be semi to completely transparent through the use of very easy to learn hotkeys. How does this become useful in increasing productivity and organization?
Well, with Glass2k, I am able to make Sunbird, and any other desktop applications that I might have the need to keep open, be able to stay open and maximized without hiding or otherwise detracting from the background image. Aesthetics are very very important to me, and so Glass2k has become a mainstay in my software library as a nice way to establish an aesthetic, yet still functional workspace.
Executor
Our last piece of software is one of my favorites. Executor is a must for anyone that strives to speed up their ability to navigate their computer. Put simply, Executor is an easily accessible context menu that can be quickly accessed at any time through use of a hotkey. (Mine is ctrl+/) Once open just simply typing the name of any application, or preset keyword will find and open any program, folder, etc. that you might otherwise access through slow use of the mouse. In my current setup, a quick "Ctrl+/, net, [enter]" will open up my web browser.
The use of Executor has completely removed any need I may have had for the Start Menu. (Which I have slyly removed through use of another program, called Start Killer.
So that's it. That's my desktop. Thanks for all your time and I'll see you tomorrow! Expect more posts like this in the future, as I compile more of the tricks, tips, and software that I have amassed and used over the years.
So that's it. That's my desktop. Thanks for all your time and I'll see you tomorrow! Expect more posts like this in the future, as I compile more of the tricks, tips, and software that I have amassed and used over the years.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Slowly I Climb
As dorky as it seems, learning Disney music on the piano to sing along with is satisfyingly fun. Soon I shall be able to sing along as I play A Whole New World, and it will be awesome.
Embarrassing anecdotes aside, today was a success!
Time spent drawing: About 1 hour.
Time spent on piano: About 30 minutes.
As for the study on heads, while I didn't really do anything too in depth, I did what I could, and ended up learning some things. Because I now live with my family, my grandmother, an extremely talented artist, is ready and willing to offer criticism and advice, and will be helping me along as I try to improve, artistically. Anyways, enough talking and more pictures:
Warming up with some reference images.
A quick scour of the internet got me a nice little 3d head that I could rotate and draw at different angles. Not completely proud of these, though.
God I'm rusty. Well you gotta do what you gotta do.
Lastly there's this guy. My grandmother suggested that I try to draw heads with interesting shapes, and thus this guy was created. I was quite satisfied with him. It's always refreshing when I can draw something that makes me chuckle.
So, I guess that's it then. The first real post! Huzzah! If you'll note, I am in fact taking tomorrow off, so, sorry internet, but this will give me a chance to prewrite some things and make my life a lot easier. Until then, farewell!
Embarrassing anecdotes aside, today was a success!
Time spent drawing: About 1 hour.
Time spent on piano: About 30 minutes.
As for the study on heads, while I didn't really do anything too in depth, I did what I could, and ended up learning some things. Because I now live with my family, my grandmother, an extremely talented artist, is ready and willing to offer criticism and advice, and will be helping me along as I try to improve, artistically. Anyways, enough talking and more pictures:
Warming up with some reference images.
A quick scour of the internet got me a nice little 3d head that I could rotate and draw at different angles. Not completely proud of these, though.
God I'm rusty. Well you gotta do what you gotta do.
Lastly there's this guy. My grandmother suggested that I try to draw heads with interesting shapes, and thus this guy was created. I was quite satisfied with him. It's always refreshing when I can draw something that makes me chuckle.
So, I guess that's it then. The first real post! Huzzah! If you'll note, I am in fact taking tomorrow off, so, sorry internet, but this will give me a chance to prewrite some things and make my life a lot easier. Until then, farewell!
Monday, September 01, 2008
6 Months
Today is September 1st, 2008.
A lot has changed since I last posted on here some 6 or 7 months ago. The WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE™ didn't get much farther than what you can see. Shortly after that post I got hired as a production worker at a Steak n' Shake just down the block from my college. The Go Club meetings went well and I attended a couple. I've lost touch with the host since then and no longer attend. I am no longer enrolled in UCO and now live at home. I guess "dropped out" is the more popular term. My last day at Steak n' Shake is in 2 days.
If you asked me what I was up to these days, I would tell you that I am pursuing a career in art so that I may one day work in the game industry doing what I enjoy. Though, what I would mean by that is that I am currently spending too much time playing video games, spending money faster than I can earn it, and too little time (none) practicing actually drawing.
We all have to grow up some day. Maybe this is one of those days. It's interesting having all these blogs that I have crafted over the years, and to be able to look back and see them just vanish, like magic. All that hope and potential, building up and heading somewhere, anywhere, but then just like that, gone without a word. I guess I just haven't learned yet that this is my future I am throwing away. I am in control and I'm driving myself straight off a cliff.
This post is already more depressing than I intended! But, it's really a happy post. This is my new last stand. My comeback into the world! I am older now, and wiser. It's amazing how much you can learn in just half a year. Some days you just wake up, and you realize how different it feels to be you. You just, suddenly and abruptly realize: A change has taken place here. It's hard to notice these things when you're drifting along without a cause or goal in life.
I've been planning this resurgence for some time, though. I don't know why my random inspirations tend to pop up near the start of new months though. Probably some kind of psychological thing. A feeling of rebirth, starting over. But it's not starting over at all. I need my past mistakes to build on and gain momentum from. There are no magical gates, just walls in my head. Walls that barricade me, like a maze. My habits, my preconceived notions, all of them mesh into a complex and difficult maze. But it's all a construct, a lie. Imagined into existence. They aren't real.
Once you can ignore the walls, progress is easy.
Just do it. Do it even if you don't want to. Do it even if you don't think you CAN do it. Wait, what am I doing?
THE PLAN (so far)
Every day I will draw for 30 minutes, + the time it takes to complete any goal's I have set for myself in the calendar.
Every day I will practice the piano for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Every day I will plan for the day ahead, organize my thoughts, and generally clean up my life in whatever ways I can to prepare for the road ahead.
Every day I will finish goals as set forth by the calendar.
THE CALENDAR
The calendar is the true blood of this operation. (thus it gets it's very own bold title text!) The idea to map and actually PLAN for the future is surprisingly a totally new concept for me, and I think it is something I've needed for a very long time. I have purposefully made my calendar easily accessible and readily available. (More on this on Thursday's post, "Desktop Tour")
Every goal I add to the calendar will be openly available for public viewing, as can be seen on the right hand bar of this blog. (Click the link under the calendar for a more user friendly view.) Every goal listed will correspond to a post, each with a description to let you know of what is to come.
THE FUTURE
The future? Well, just look, it's all written out in front of you. Now grab it, and make it a reality.
A lot has changed since I last posted on here some 6 or 7 months ago. The WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE™ didn't get much farther than what you can see. Shortly after that post I got hired as a production worker at a Steak n' Shake just down the block from my college. The Go Club meetings went well and I attended a couple. I've lost touch with the host since then and no longer attend. I am no longer enrolled in UCO and now live at home. I guess "dropped out" is the more popular term. My last day at Steak n' Shake is in 2 days.
If you asked me what I was up to these days, I would tell you that I am pursuing a career in art so that I may one day work in the game industry doing what I enjoy. Though, what I would mean by that is that I am currently spending too much time playing video games, spending money faster than I can earn it, and too little time (none) practicing actually drawing.
We all have to grow up some day. Maybe this is one of those days. It's interesting having all these blogs that I have crafted over the years, and to be able to look back and see them just vanish, like magic. All that hope and potential, building up and heading somewhere, anywhere, but then just like that, gone without a word. I guess I just haven't learned yet that this is my future I am throwing away. I am in control and I'm driving myself straight off a cliff.
This post is already more depressing than I intended! But, it's really a happy post. This is my new last stand. My comeback into the world! I am older now, and wiser. It's amazing how much you can learn in just half a year. Some days you just wake up, and you realize how different it feels to be you. You just, suddenly and abruptly realize: A change has taken place here. It's hard to notice these things when you're drifting along without a cause or goal in life.
I've been planning this resurgence for some time, though. I don't know why my random inspirations tend to pop up near the start of new months though. Probably some kind of psychological thing. A feeling of rebirth, starting over. But it's not starting over at all. I need my past mistakes to build on and gain momentum from. There are no magical gates, just walls in my head. Walls that barricade me, like a maze. My habits, my preconceived notions, all of them mesh into a complex and difficult maze. But it's all a construct, a lie. Imagined into existence. They aren't real.
Once you can ignore the walls, progress is easy.
Just do it. Do it even if you don't want to. Do it even if you don't think you CAN do it. Wait, what am I doing?
THE PLAN (so far)
Every day I will draw for 30 minutes, + the time it takes to complete any goal's I have set for myself in the calendar.
Every day I will practice the piano for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Every day I will plan for the day ahead, organize my thoughts, and generally clean up my life in whatever ways I can to prepare for the road ahead.
Every day I will finish goals as set forth by the calendar.
THE CALENDAR
The calendar is the true blood of this operation. (thus it gets it's very own bold title text!) The idea to map and actually PLAN for the future is surprisingly a totally new concept for me, and I think it is something I've needed for a very long time. I have purposefully made my calendar easily accessible and readily available. (More on this on Thursday's post, "Desktop Tour")
Every goal I add to the calendar will be openly available for public viewing, as can be seen on the right hand bar of this blog. (Click the link under the calendar for a more user friendly view.) Every goal listed will correspond to a post, each with a description to let you know of what is to come.
THE FUTURE
The future? Well, just look, it's all written out in front of you. Now grab it, and make it a reality.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Get Ready
See that calandar? Yeah, I'm coming back, and this time I have a few more tricks up my sleeve. Yes, each and every future post and event shall be placed on that calandar, and I shall (hopefully) stick to my word and provide them to you. Exciting eh? Well, probably not for you, but I am excited as ever!
September 1st. Get ready!
September 1st. Get ready!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Inspiration
I have been short of motivation recently. Haven't posted, haven't drawn, and haven't really played Go, either. The plus side of this is being more able to concentrate on school, but even there I am lacking that certain motivation to concentrate and stay on top of the work. Recently I've had some epiphanies that I think might help me break my current mold I have been stuck in.
1. Inspiration can be found.
Inspiration isn't just a feeling that comes and goes. It can be found by immersing yourself in different things, be it music, television, movies, games, etc. Don't rely on chance to set your mood. Back when I was still working my way through Hikaru No Go, I was consistently inspired to play more Go just by getting caught up in the show. Then when I finished with the show, I needed new sources of inspiration, which brings me to my next epiphany.
2. Keep things fresh.
The inspiration you can gleam from something will wear off or end, so be constantly immersing yourself in new things. . Sticking with the Go example, I have been trying to think of new things to gleam some motivation from. One source of motivation came to me purely on luck. An Oklahoma Go player that is always trying to get players together for meetings recently moved extremely close to my campus, solving my problem of not having any way to play Go on a real board. As for other sources of inspiration, I have recently been interested in getting some non-study material Go literature. More specifically "The Master of Go" by Yasanuri Kawabata.
3. Once you're inspired, act!
This is a mistake I used to make all the time. That is to say, I would find something to be euphorically inspiring, and then just enjoy the euphoria without putting that positive energy to any use. It's too easy to just ride on the waves of emotion and then lay dormant on the beach once they have passed. I believe this might even be the hardest step of them all. At some point you should stop watching Hikaru No Go episodes one after the other, and use that growing feeling of inspiration inside you to play a couple games. Perhaps something you watched or read has made you think. This is a form of inspiration that you can turn into action in a different way by writing down your ideas. Ideas becomes a sort of internal source of inspiration, and if you don't write them down, it will be that much harder to turn them into action later.
These things might not seem all that surprising or new to you, but for me personally I feel that these three ideas will push me forward by leaps and bounds. It's started to pull me out of my slump, at the very least, and hopefully it will push me even further.
1. Inspiration can be found.
Inspiration isn't just a feeling that comes and goes. It can be found by immersing yourself in different things, be it music, television, movies, games, etc. Don't rely on chance to set your mood. Back when I was still working my way through Hikaru No Go, I was consistently inspired to play more Go just by getting caught up in the show. Then when I finished with the show, I needed new sources of inspiration, which brings me to my next epiphany.
2. Keep things fresh.
The inspiration you can gleam from something will wear off or end, so be constantly immersing yourself in new things. . Sticking with the Go example, I have been trying to think of new things to gleam some motivation from. One source of motivation came to me purely on luck. An Oklahoma Go player that is always trying to get players together for meetings recently moved extremely close to my campus, solving my problem of not having any way to play Go on a real board. As for other sources of inspiration, I have recently been interested in getting some non-study material Go literature. More specifically "The Master of Go" by Yasanuri Kawabata.
3. Once you're inspired, act!
This is a mistake I used to make all the time. That is to say, I would find something to be euphorically inspiring, and then just enjoy the euphoria without putting that positive energy to any use. It's too easy to just ride on the waves of emotion and then lay dormant on the beach once they have passed. I believe this might even be the hardest step of them all. At some point you should stop watching Hikaru No Go episodes one after the other, and use that growing feeling of inspiration inside you to play a couple games. Perhaps something you watched or read has made you think. This is a form of inspiration that you can turn into action in a different way by writing down your ideas. Ideas becomes a sort of internal source of inspiration, and if you don't write them down, it will be that much harder to turn them into action later.
These things might not seem all that surprising or new to you, but for me personally I feel that these three ideas will push me forward by leaps and bounds. It's started to pull me out of my slump, at the very least, and hopefully it will push me even further.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Oklahoma Go Club, Exercise, and Progress
Oklahoma Go Club
Way back, when I was just getting into Go and climbing my way up the KGS ladder, there was a Go club here in Oklahoma that I made some visits too. Everyone was older than me and attendance was often sparse, but that didn't prevent me from enjoying sage advice and relaxed atmosphere as we sat and played. Unfortunately, I couldn't make this trip often, as it was a pretty long drive, and, my only means of transport was my mum, who was not always available or willing to make the long drive. Eventually the long drive became too much and I stopped attending.
Recently the host of the meetings has moved, and now lives 4 miles from the campus that I live on! He's already e-mailed me with plans to start up regular meetings again, and I have to say I am excited. I never get any chances to play on a real board, which is especially depressing because of the small collection of Go boards I was able to create for myself, with all three standard sizes present, (9x9, 13x13, and 19x19) gathering dust on the desk to my right. I was lucky enough to find some nice (I think) glass Go stones at an out of the way games shop. (Looks like I went on a tangent there.. maybe I should make the next post about my boards?)
In case anyone here live in or around Edmond, Oklahoma, in order to get information on the group and how to join in on the meetings, this yahoo groups page would be the best place to get in touch, as it is the largest (only) collection of Oklahoma Go players I have been able to find.
I will continue working on forming a Go club on campus, though, as I believe if anything, I will be able to spread the game of Go into the minds of others, and enriching their lives by doing so. (Is that a bit pretentious? Go really is a beautiful game, though.)
WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE™ still going
I've finally been able to get a regular exercise schedule into my week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8:30 AM, 40-50 minutes of bike machine thingy that I don't know the name of. It's a little awkward, since I have no other clothes to exercise in other than what I usually wear during the day. As soon as money stops being a problem I will get right on that. What is more exciting about this post is that, after only 3 days of exercise (Monday and today), and maintaining a daily calorie count of 10x my weight (this gathered from information found on the internet), I have apparently lost 4 pounds! If this keeps up I will reach my goal in no time at all! Of course, there is also the possibility that this is just a minor variance in weight due to some of the many extraneous variables that can effect ones weight at any given time, but what is the limit of that? That is a question I should find out about.
Fighting the hunger has been a little difficult, though, but if what I've read is true than it is just a matter of time until my body readjusts itself into the lifestyle of not eating 5 times a day or on every impulse of hunger. In reality it isn't at all that bad, and I am surprised at the ease of transitioning into this new lifestyle. The number one destroyer of self improvement, though, is lack of dedication. As long as I stick to my goals and don't give up, I should be ok.
So, until the next time,
-BuddytheRat
Way back, when I was just getting into Go and climbing my way up the KGS ladder, there was a Go club here in Oklahoma that I made some visits too. Everyone was older than me and attendance was often sparse, but that didn't prevent me from enjoying sage advice and relaxed atmosphere as we sat and played. Unfortunately, I couldn't make this trip often, as it was a pretty long drive, and, my only means of transport was my mum, who was not always available or willing to make the long drive. Eventually the long drive became too much and I stopped attending.
Recently the host of the meetings has moved, and now lives 4 miles from the campus that I live on! He's already e-mailed me with plans to start up regular meetings again, and I have to say I am excited. I never get any chances to play on a real board, which is especially depressing because of the small collection of Go boards I was able to create for myself, with all three standard sizes present, (9x9, 13x13, and 19x19) gathering dust on the desk to my right. I was lucky enough to find some nice (I think) glass Go stones at an out of the way games shop. (Looks like I went on a tangent there.. maybe I should make the next post about my boards?)
In case anyone here live in or around Edmond, Oklahoma, in order to get information on the group and how to join in on the meetings, this yahoo groups page would be the best place to get in touch, as it is the largest (only) collection of Oklahoma Go players I have been able to find.
I will continue working on forming a Go club on campus, though, as I believe if anything, I will be able to spread the game of Go into the minds of others, and enriching their lives by doing so. (Is that a bit pretentious? Go really is a beautiful game, though.)
WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE™ still going
I've finally been able to get a regular exercise schedule into my week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8:30 AM, 40-50 minutes of bike machine thingy that I don't know the name of. It's a little awkward, since I have no other clothes to exercise in other than what I usually wear during the day. As soon as money stops being a problem I will get right on that. What is more exciting about this post is that, after only 3 days of exercise (Monday and today), and maintaining a daily calorie count of 10x my weight (this gathered from information found on the internet), I have apparently lost 4 pounds! If this keeps up I will reach my goal in no time at all! Of course, there is also the possibility that this is just a minor variance in weight due to some of the many extraneous variables that can effect ones weight at any given time, but what is the limit of that? That is a question I should find out about.
Fighting the hunger has been a little difficult, though, but if what I've read is true than it is just a matter of time until my body readjusts itself into the lifestyle of not eating 5 times a day or on every impulse of hunger. In reality it isn't at all that bad, and I am surprised at the ease of transitioning into this new lifestyle. The number one destroyer of self improvement, though, is lack of dedication. As long as I stick to my goals and don't give up, I should be ok.
So, until the next time,
-BuddytheRat
Monday, February 11, 2008
Slump
I guess I can say I am officially in a slump. I have been intensely bogged down by school the past two days, and now that it is time to post I just have no energy or ideas.So, instead of boring you with yet another half-assed post, consider this my admittance of defeat. I feel kind of ashamed, but then, what I'm doing I feel is better for this blog in the long run.
Taking the advice I received from Terri Schurter, the author of one of the better Go blogs, I will try to stress quality over quantity. If I don't have anything good to post, I won't post. Period.
Until whenever,
-BuddytheRat
Taking the advice I received from Terri Schurter, the author of one of the better Go blogs, I will try to stress quality over quantity. If I don't have anything good to post, I won't post. Period.
Until whenever,
-BuddytheRat
Friday, February 08, 2008
Happy Birthday To Me!
19 years old today. That's a boring number. 18 was exciting and new, 20 will be awesome, but 19? Meh.
Today I enjoyed my birthday, and played lots of video games. (Including the present that my girlfriend gave to me, Elite Beat Agents. <3 <3 <3) Of course, this means more distractions to keep me from my Go studies! Although I did play today, and had some particularly ingenious moments that I feel fairly proud about. Nothing left to say, really. (Yes I am using my birthday as an excuse to make a crappy post.)
-BuddytheRat
Today I enjoyed my birthday, and played lots of video games. (Including the present that my girlfriend gave to me, Elite Beat Agents. <3 <3 <3) Of course, this means more distractions to keep me from my Go studies! Although I did play today, and had some particularly ingenious moments that I feel fairly proud about. Nothing left to say, really. (Yes I am using my birthday as an excuse to make a crappy post.)
-BuddytheRat
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Go Club Update
The first meeting for my attempt at starting a Go club on campus is approaching. There is no set date yet, but I am hoping that we will get started on Friday of next week. If not then definitely the week after that.
The main focus of this post is the poster that I have created to spread the word. It is still a work in progress but once it is finished I will post a pdf file of the poster on this blog. For now I am just posting a preview to hopefully get some critiques or suggestions. Oh, and also, before anyone jumps on my back for stealing the general design from a certain poster on the American Go Association website, yes, I did take a lot of inspiration from this poster, because I liked it, but thought I could improve upon it.
Here is the poster as it stands currently:
The main focus of this post is the poster that I have created to spread the word. It is still a work in progress but once it is finished I will post a pdf file of the poster on this blog. For now I am just posting a preview to hopefully get some critiques or suggestions. Oh, and also, before anyone jumps on my back for stealing the general design from a certain poster on the American Go Association website, yes, I did take a lot of inspiration from this poster, because I liked it, but thought I could improve upon it.
Here is the poster as it stands currently:
UPDATE: Reading this post again the next day, I just discovered that about two or three of the paragraphs that I had written have vanished! Since I have class in 20 minutes, here is a quick synopsis of what I meant to say:
-The poster is inspired by this poster off of the American Go Association website, which I liked but thought I could improve upon.
-I meant to include a bit about how I did not originally intend to have the "Want to learn?" part included in the poster, not out of conceit or elitism, but because the idea of teaching Go to someone else scares the crap out of me. I am already a shy person, and just starting the club in the first place is a bit of a challenge. So, if anyone has taught before or has any suggestions of teaching methods, or the order in which to introduce new concepts, etc., then any help would be appreciated.
Sorry for the accident! I will pay more attention next time.
-The poster is inspired by this poster off of the American Go Association website, which I liked but thought I could improve upon.
-I meant to include a bit about how I did not originally intend to have the "Want to learn?" part included in the poster, not out of conceit or elitism, but because the idea of teaching Go to someone else scares the crap out of me. I am already a shy person, and just starting the club in the first place is a bit of a challenge. So, if anyone has taught before or has any suggestions of teaching methods, or the order in which to introduce new concepts, etc., then any help would be appreciated.
Sorry for the accident! I will pay more attention next time.
Until Friday,
-BuddytheRat
-BuddytheRat
Monday, February 04, 2008
Go in the Virtual World
Goals and Schedules
I've decided on my new posting schedule. I shall now post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. (Yes I know it is Tuesday) This kind of goes with the challenge for this month, as well, since those days will be the days that I exercise.
Speaking of which, yesterday I finally managed to get down to the Wellness Center (the gym here on campus) and get my weight. I am 5' 9", and 228 pounds. As for what would be considered a healthy weight for my height/size in particular, I have no clue, and a quick google search reveals wildly varying numbers. One thing that is similar though, is that none of the numbers are higher than 200. SO, that will be my goal for the time being. Lose at least 28 pounds.
Go in the Virtual World: The Second Life Go Center
Yesterday I made a special trip to the self proclaimed "Go Center" of the online game/community of Second Life. To reach it, simply open your map in game and head to the sim named Vineland. For anyone not in the loop, Second Life is a free to play online game wherein anything can be constructed (through the combination and molding of basic 3d shapes called "prims"), textured, and brought to life through coding and other methods, and then shared within the world of the game. When you put it that way though, it sounds extremely intimidating. In reality, the building system is designed to be simple and easy to learn, and without getting into any complex stuff, anyone can make a large variety of cool objects and buildings to play with and communicate in. Communication becomes the game's second mainstay, as once you've created a world of your very own, all that's left is to hang out in it and have fun.
How would you like to play Go here?
One final view of the island before I end my tour.
I've decided on my new posting schedule. I shall now post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. (Yes I know it is Tuesday) This kind of goes with the challenge for this month, as well, since those days will be the days that I exercise.
Speaking of which, yesterday I finally managed to get down to the Wellness Center (the gym here on campus) and get my weight. I am 5' 9", and 228 pounds. As for what would be considered a healthy weight for my height/size in particular, I have no clue, and a quick google search reveals wildly varying numbers. One thing that is similar though, is that none of the numbers are higher than 200. SO, that will be my goal for the time being. Lose at least 28 pounds.
Go in the Virtual World: The Second Life Go Center
Yesterday I made a special trip to the self proclaimed "Go Center" of the online game/community of Second Life. To reach it, simply open your map in game and head to the sim named Vineland. For anyone not in the loop, Second Life is a free to play online game wherein anything can be constructed (through the combination and molding of basic 3d shapes called "prims"), textured, and brought to life through coding and other methods, and then shared within the world of the game. When you put it that way though, it sounds extremely intimidating. In reality, the building system is designed to be simple and easy to learn, and without getting into any complex stuff, anyone can make a large variety of cool objects and buildings to play with and communicate in. Communication becomes the game's second mainstay, as once you've created a world of your very own, all that's left is to hang out in it and have fun.
Click any image to see a larger version.
The Center itself is located in a remote island setting. Beautiful Japanese plant life dots the landscape, like this majestic Cherry Blossom in full bloom. Behind you can see an array of stores, the only one currently in use being a Japanese fan shop. To the left, just out of frame, is a gallery of Asian Art depicting serene landscapes. Traveling through the torii in the back brings you to a chat area with a bonfire overlooking the sea.
How would you like to play Go here?
This beautiful glass structure otherwise known as the "Playing Pavilion" offers a relaxing and quiet place to enjoy a nice game of Go in the company of others. Each board is fully interactive, allowing you to set game options such as komi, handicap, and board size, choose who plays which color, and finally allowing you to play on the board by clicking, just like in KGS. Second Life's flexible camera controls allow you to position the board perfectly in your screen for ease of use. Behind the Pavilion is stream of water seemingly from the heavens, but really, it comes from here:
Defying all laws of real world physics, a giant flower shaped platform funnels a seemingly endless supply of water onto the rocks below. On top of the floating rock is a relaxing chat area for use when the Pavilion needs to be kept quiet for the players inside. Here I have a relaxing rest as I peer into the sky. My avatar, by the way, is a recreation of Starman Jr., a
boss character from the SNES game, Earthbound.
boss character from the SNES game, Earthbound.
Of course, none of this is quite as amazing as this gigantic sized Goban, towering far over my head in this image. But, what's that behind the left leg? A ladder?!
Inside the giant floorboard we find an elegant playing room, designed after the real life Yugen no ma room.The billboard on the left speaks of the dream that one day, the Go Center will gain enough members to one day hold a tournament, and that the final two players will play a series of games in this room, with only them and three officially chosen judges present. Each stone played will appear magically on top of the giant goban for all to watch and discuss from above. In the far left corner, a bonsai tree, a small white flower(can anyone identify it?), and a scroll adorning the wall. On the far right, a judge table complete with a tea pot and cups.
Flying around taking pictures, I noticed someone standing alone by the Pavilion. This was the first person I had seen so far so I flew in for a chat. We ended up playing a very quick 9 x 9 using the interactive gobans. As we played, another person appeared and asked very politely if she could watch. We talked about the Go Center, and I learned that the Center is most active on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 6 to 9 PM PST. After our game, and after my opponent left, yet another person approached. His name was Coral Gausman, and further inquiry told me that he was the main caretaker for the Center. I couldn't stay for much longer, so after a quick chat I said my goodbyes and logged off.
One final view of the island before I end my tour.
Wow, that was a lot of writing. I am ready to hit the sack. I will post again tomorrow, and from then on every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
Friday, February 01, 2008
Day 32 - No more days.
Here's the deal: The ONE MONTH CHALLENGE™ is over, and I feel I need to slow down now. No more daily posts. I will be posting 2 to 3 times a week on average. I have a feeling that the blog will improve as a result. Sorry to anyone reading this that enjoyed the prospect of daily postings (hah, yeah right) but these new posts will be a lot better, I promise.
I have been playing a lot of Go lately and I feel my game has improved a lot. I am 11 kyu now which is 1 kyu away from the goal I set during the ONE MONTH CHALLENGE™. I'd say that isn't a bad effort. I have been reading Tesuji, by James Davies, a lot. The problems are a lot harder than in Life and Death, but they will be wonderful for improving my reading skill.
Now, onto the WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE™, or, I would talk about the WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE™ except other plans prevented my from stopping by the Wellness Center. I plan to go first thing in the morning, and I might even try my hand at one of the machines.
Until then,
-Buddytherat
I have been playing a lot of Go lately and I feel my game has improved a lot. I am 11 kyu now which is 1 kyu away from the goal I set during the ONE MONTH CHALLENGE™. I'd say that isn't a bad effort. I have been reading Tesuji, by James Davies, a lot. The problems are a lot harder than in Life and Death, but they will be wonderful for improving my reading skill.
Now, onto the WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE™, or, I would talk about the WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE™ except other plans prevented my from stopping by the Wellness Center. I plan to go first thing in the morning, and I might even try my hand at one of the machines.
Until then,
-Buddytherat
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Day 31 - It's over? Really?
ONE MONTH CHALLENGE™ ends...
It is officially the final day of my challenge. I can't really say that I succeeded, but then I can't really say that I failed, either. Whatever I did, it was a huge improvement. Of course, now that it's over, there's only one thing left to do.. Start all over again! I have a new challenge. Starting tomorrow, I am beginning what I shall call...
GENERAL HEALTHYNESS BETTER GETTING CHALLENGE THING™
[pause for dramatic effect]
...or just WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE™ for short
So, basically, I need to lose weight, and it isn't going to happen unless I build up the proper habits. The resources are there, and I've got the motivation for it (at least for now I do), so it's now or never, basically. There is a gym (free entry for students) LITERALLY across the street from me. I can see it through the window, mocking me, challenging me. Coincidentally I walked in there for the first time today. Not for the WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE™, but for my Healthy Life Skills class, which was meeting there instead of the usual building. It is a really nice place.
Tomorrow I will go there first thing in the morning, get my height and my weight, and use that as a base to create my first goals for.
I've said it. I've written it down. Can't back down now! Nuh uh. Although, I haven't exactly posted it yet.. That backspace button looks awfully lonely..
NO! It's done. Moving on.
Go on Youtube
As you may have noticed, I removed the Youtube video from the last post. This is because, after posting said video on a Go forum, their response was a bit more like "What? You idiot he was just moving the stone to the correct location because it was placed slightly askew of the intended intersection! [list of evidence] Go play on a real board for once in your life RAWRGH!". So I took it down, posted a pseudo-apology, and tried to suppress the bad thoughts by slaughtering velociraptors with a jeep for half an hour. (warning: game contains violent themes such as velociraptor murder with off-road vehicles)
Anyways, here is your video for today. Go ball! What is go ball you ask? Really (&#@!ing confusing, that's what.
Ever wondered what would happen if you combined lolcats and Go? THIS.
Beautiful, I know. While we're on the subject, here are some other Go themed webcomics that I recommend:
Almost Sente - Strange green anteater type things play Go. Jokes ensue. Can be very funny.
Empty Triangle - Really good art coupled with awesome humor makes this comic highly enjoyable. Although updates can sometimes be sparse, if you only check out one of these comics, make it this one.
And that's all I can really recommend. There are others out there, but I think they are terrible.
Thoughts
I've been thinking a lot about this blog, and what it is, and what I'd like it to be. It's gone through a couple style changes so to speak over the course of the month. One thing I'd like to change is, think that I need to add a bit more personality to my posts. There's a balance that you have to think about when you are writing a blog about yourself that you also want others to enjoy. How much personal stuff do I include? How much do I leave out? I'm sure it is something that will just kind of develop over time, as I get more and more enveloped in the blog.
One thing that kind of makes me wonder is this Go blog by a kid my age named Solomon Choe. He has made seven posts, accrued 23 comments, and has 44 votes in his poll. I have had 31 posts, and have accrued a grand total of 1 comment (not counting comments by close friends, of course, in which case it would be more like 4) It could just be the fact that he is about 4d. A very respectable rank, and I am a lowly 11kyu on KGS (Note: KGS ranks are significantly lower than their American Go Association rank counterparts)
Regardless, I am trying to think of ways to make my blog a bit more interesting, so expect me to be trying new things.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
It is officially the final day of my challenge. I can't really say that I succeeded, but then I can't really say that I failed, either. Whatever I did, it was a huge improvement. Of course, now that it's over, there's only one thing left to do.. Start all over again! I have a new challenge. Starting tomorrow, I am beginning what I shall call...
GENERAL HEALTHYNESS BETTER GETTING CHALLENGE THING™
[pause for dramatic effect]
...or just WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE™ for short
So, basically, I need to lose weight, and it isn't going to happen unless I build up the proper habits. The resources are there, and I've got the motivation for it (at least for now I do), so it's now or never, basically. There is a gym (free entry for students) LITERALLY across the street from me. I can see it through the window, mocking me, challenging me. Coincidentally I walked in there for the first time today. Not for the WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE™, but for my Healthy Life Skills class, which was meeting there instead of the usual building. It is a really nice place.
Tomorrow I will go there first thing in the morning, get my height and my weight, and use that as a base to create my first goals for.
I've said it. I've written it down. Can't back down now! Nuh uh. Although, I haven't exactly posted it yet.. That backspace button looks awfully lonely..
NO! It's done. Moving on.
Go on Youtube
As you may have noticed, I removed the Youtube video from the last post. This is because, after posting said video on a Go forum, their response was a bit more like "What? You idiot he was just moving the stone to the correct location because it was placed slightly askew of the intended intersection! [list of evidence] Go play on a real board for once in your life RAWRGH!". So I took it down, posted a pseudo-apology, and tried to suppress the bad thoughts by slaughtering velociraptors with a jeep for half an hour. (warning: game contains violent themes such as velociraptor murder with off-road vehicles)
Anyways, here is your video for today. Go ball! What is go ball you ask? Really (&#@!ing confusing, that's what.
Ever wondered what would happen if you combined lolcats and Go? THIS.
Beautiful, I know. While we're on the subject, here are some other Go themed webcomics that I recommend:
Almost Sente - Strange green anteater type things play Go. Jokes ensue. Can be very funny.
Empty Triangle - Really good art coupled with awesome humor makes this comic highly enjoyable. Although updates can sometimes be sparse, if you only check out one of these comics, make it this one.
And that's all I can really recommend. There are others out there, but I think they are terrible.
Thoughts
I've been thinking a lot about this blog, and what it is, and what I'd like it to be. It's gone through a couple style changes so to speak over the course of the month. One thing I'd like to change is, think that I need to add a bit more personality to my posts. There's a balance that you have to think about when you are writing a blog about yourself that you also want others to enjoy. How much personal stuff do I include? How much do I leave out? I'm sure it is something that will just kind of develop over time, as I get more and more enveloped in the blog.
One thing that kind of makes me wonder is this Go blog by a kid my age named Solomon Choe. He has made seven posts, accrued 23 comments, and has 44 votes in his poll. I have had 31 posts, and have accrued a grand total of 1 comment (not counting comments by close friends, of course, in which case it would be more like 4) It could just be the fact that he is about 4d. A very respectable rank, and I am a lowly 11kyu on KGS (Note: KGS ranks are significantly lower than their American Go Association rank counterparts)
Regardless, I am trying to think of ways to make my blog a bit more interesting, so expect me to be trying new things.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Day 30 - Rengo and Tesuji
The Magic of Rengo
Today I tried a game of Rengo for the first time. For those unaware, Rengo is team Go, where two players (four total) take turns placing the stones for each side. It was nerve wracking to say the least. I learned that a magical thing happens when I play Rengo. Suddenly, and without warning, my reading skills drop about 15 ranks. I missed the opportunity to capture a large group of stones that were in atari, and then later, when me and my team member successfully "killed" an even larger group of stones, I missed a group of our OWN stones that were in atari, allowing the other team to save their once dead group, and ending the game once and for all. I felt pretty bad throughout, but once it was over it eventually sank in that it was just for fun and nobody was really annoyed at me. Maybe I will try it again someday. For now I'll stick to normal Go.
Tesuji Arrives
The 4th book I ordered from Kiseido arrived today. Tesuji, by James Davies. It is a problem book, but more oriented towards teaching the concepts of the problems rather then compiling a large list of them, just like the other book I ordered from Kiseido, Life and Death, which is also by James Davies. I did not have much time to read it, so a more in depth appraisal will have to wait until tomorrow.
Go on Youtube
Sorry, I removed today's video. I guess I jumped the gun a little and assumed too much in my accusation of cheating. Welp, mistakes happen, and we can only move on and hope not to be as stupid in the future.
The Blog Bug
Posting on my blog every night has been incredibly enjoyable. Now my girlfriend, whom I will refer to as Nusumenai, who has been watching me write every post from the very start has been bitten by the bug and started her own. If you enjoy j-pop, anime, video games, or are at all interested by learning the Japanese language, then check it out. She already said in her first post that she will make a new post every night. (I will make sure she sticks to this promise. Muahaha.) Check it out here.
Until tomorrow,
-BuddytheRat
Today I tried a game of Rengo for the first time. For those unaware, Rengo is team Go, where two players (four total) take turns placing the stones for each side. It was nerve wracking to say the least. I learned that a magical thing happens when I play Rengo. Suddenly, and without warning, my reading skills drop about 15 ranks. I missed the opportunity to capture a large group of stones that were in atari, and then later, when me and my team member successfully "killed" an even larger group of stones, I missed a group of our OWN stones that were in atari, allowing the other team to save their once dead group, and ending the game once and for all. I felt pretty bad throughout, but once it was over it eventually sank in that it was just for fun and nobody was really annoyed at me. Maybe I will try it again someday. For now I'll stick to normal Go.
Tesuji Arrives
The 4th book I ordered from Kiseido arrived today. Tesuji, by James Davies. It is a problem book, but more oriented towards teaching the concepts of the problems rather then compiling a large list of them, just like the other book I ordered from Kiseido, Life and Death, which is also by James Davies. I did not have much time to read it, so a more in depth appraisal will have to wait until tomorrow.
Sorry, I removed today's video. I guess I jumped the gun a little and assumed too much in my accusation of cheating. Welp, mistakes happen, and we can only move on and hope not to be as stupid in the future.
The Blog Bug
Posting on my blog every night has been incredibly enjoyable. Now my girlfriend, whom I will refer to as Nusumenai, who has been watching me write every post from the very start has been bitten by the bug and started her own. If you enjoy j-pop, anime, video games, or are at all interested by learning the Japanese language, then check it out. She already said in her first post that she will make a new post every night. (I will make sure she sticks to this promise. Muahaha.) Check it out here.
Until tomorrow,
-BuddytheRat
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Day 29 - Too Early For Nostalgia
Day 29 already? The month seemed to glide by. It's not long before the ONE MONTH CHALLENGE™ comes to an end. I didn't really meet my goals exactly, or stick to the intense daily regime that I had hoped for, but, I feel I learned a lot regardless, but why am I talking about this now? I guess I'm just feeling a little saddened, like I'm saying goodbye to a good friend. We'll save good-byes for later. For now let's just enjoy the rest of the challenge to the best of my abilities.
Still Waiting On Kiseido...
If you've read my previous posts, then you have heard of the problems I have been having with the go books I ordered from Kiseido.com. If not, a quick recap: I ordered 4 books from Kiseido on the 1st of this month. After about a week or so, I recieved 3 books. 2 were books that I ordered, and the 3rd book was mistakenly sent to me. And what about the other 2 I ordered? 1 would not be shipped until February due to stock shortages, which is completely understandable, the 2nd just wasn't there at all. I sent them an e-mail, and received a very quick reply that basically said they would send me the correct books along with a return envelope to send back the wrong one.
So I wait until the 24th when the package finally arrives. What I find inside is not the 2 books that I was missing, but the 2 books that I already have! I rechecked my e-mail to see if I was clear in what books I needed. (I was very clear) I sent them an e-mail immediately. Now it has been 5 days and no reply, whereas the reply to the first e-mail took only a single day. So, I wait, double copies of half the books I ordered on my desk. Tomorrow I will call them directly.
Go and Youtube
If you don't know what Youtube is, then, hi! Welcome to the internet, I hope you like your stay! Somewhat elitist humor aside: I browsed the beast that is Youtube today. This is something I do when I couldn't possibly have ANYTHING else to do. (Yeah, right.) I decided to see if i could find any decent Go videos. I found a handful that were interesting in some way or another, that I haven't seen posted anywhere else yet. The videos range from "cool", to "holy crap did that really happen?". Yes even the game of Go has it's "Youtube moments". (That is a terrible phrase I apologize.) To keep this post short I will only share one for now, but I will continue to show another one of my discoveries in every post for awhile.
To start us off, here is a video I would put in the "cool" category. Two old men playing Go in the park. I don't know what it is exactly about this video that makes me smile. Perhaps it's the extremely relaxed nature of the game. How the man on the right is constantly digging through and rattling his stones, or how the two men have removed their shoes before stepping onto the mat.
The Answers
Here are the answers to yesterdays problems:
Here I believe the answer is 'a'. To properly use a wall of outside influence like this, one must find his opponent's thin spots, and invade. The wall then becomes the perfect aid for the ensuing fight. At least, this is what I got from the chapter of Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go about using outward influence correctly. If anyone out there knows any better, please PLEASE speak up.
This is a slightly easier problem. First one must connect with 1, or else white will capture the S6 group by playing in the same spot, thus gaining 2 eyes. 2 and 3 are miai.
Still Waiting On Kiseido...
If you've read my previous posts, then you have heard of the problems I have been having with the go books I ordered from Kiseido.com. If not, a quick recap: I ordered 4 books from Kiseido on the 1st of this month. After about a week or so, I recieved 3 books. 2 were books that I ordered, and the 3rd book was mistakenly sent to me. And what about the other 2 I ordered? 1 would not be shipped until February due to stock shortages, which is completely understandable, the 2nd just wasn't there at all. I sent them an e-mail, and received a very quick reply that basically said they would send me the correct books along with a return envelope to send back the wrong one.
So I wait until the 24th when the package finally arrives. What I find inside is not the 2 books that I was missing, but the 2 books that I already have! I rechecked my e-mail to see if I was clear in what books I needed. (I was very clear) I sent them an e-mail immediately. Now it has been 5 days and no reply, whereas the reply to the first e-mail took only a single day. So, I wait, double copies of half the books I ordered on my desk. Tomorrow I will call them directly.
Go and Youtube
If you don't know what Youtube is, then, hi! Welcome to the internet, I hope you like your stay! Somewhat elitist humor aside: I browsed the beast that is Youtube today. This is something I do when I couldn't possibly have ANYTHING else to do. (Yeah, right.) I decided to see if i could find any decent Go videos. I found a handful that were interesting in some way or another, that I haven't seen posted anywhere else yet. The videos range from "cool", to "holy crap did that really happen?". Yes even the game of Go has it's "Youtube moments". (That is a terrible phrase I apologize.) To keep this post short I will only share one for now, but I will continue to show another one of my discoveries in every post for awhile.
To start us off, here is a video I would put in the "cool" category. Two old men playing Go in the park. I don't know what it is exactly about this video that makes me smile. Perhaps it's the extremely relaxed nature of the game. How the man on the right is constantly digging through and rattling his stones, or how the two men have removed their shoes before stepping onto the mat.
The Answers
Here are the answers to yesterdays problems:
Here I believe the answer is 'a'. To properly use a wall of outside influence like this, one must find his opponent's thin spots, and invade. The wall then becomes the perfect aid for the ensuing fight. At least, this is what I got from the chapter of Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go about using outward influence correctly. If anyone out there knows any better, please PLEASE speak up.
This is a slightly easier problem. First one must connect with 1, or else white will capture the S6 group by playing in the same spot, thus gaining 2 eyes. 2 and 3 are miai.
Until tomorrow,
-BuddytheRat
-BuddytheRat
Monday, January 28, 2008
Day 28 - Improvement?
Problem with Guo Juan's Audio Lessons (and impressions)
Today I was unable to purchase KGS Plus, since my phone bill for the moment has lessened my budget significantly. What I did do was check out one the free audio lectures from Guo Juan's Go School. (note: only a small portion of Guo's audio lectures are free, the rest costing about $1.50 USD each to view for a month, for more details see this post.) I had a small amount of difficulty getting it to work, and found a problem that I felt I should warn people about: Some anti-virus software prevents the java client needed to play the lectures from starting. The simple solution is to just turn off your anti-virus for the duration of your listen. So, if you've tried listening to the free lectures only to be turned away by a blank screen, try again, but this time be sure to turn off your anti-virus!
Once I did get it to work, starting up the simple in browser java application yielded a very nice surprise! Expecting a simple audio player where you just sit back and listen, I was confronted with a go board looking exactly like the board from the KGS client, and as the commentary rolled, the board updated to follow the lecture. This makes the $1.50 price tag even more of a nice deal.
As for the lecture itself, I viewed this review of a professional game between OuYang ShaoYou and Csaba Mero. Guo Juan's commentary was very easy to understand and incredibly informative. This is actually the first time I've ever experienced this kind of a review of a professional game, so it was an extra treat for me. The game took on a whole new light, and it became very exciting to see the outcome.
Improvement
As for me, I feel that my previous anxieties about the opening and about my skill in general have begun to dissipate a little. I tried the advice from two posts ago again, taking my time in the opening, and found myself asking (and answering) vital questions about where to play next. In the single game I played today (Mondays are a busy time for me) I felt that my opening was a vast improvement from the previous games I have had.
On top of that, I was able to use some of the advice from Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go (by Toshiro Kageyama, 7d) in order to successfully use my outward influence to attack one of white's stones and secure a large amount of territory.
Where should black play in order to best utilize his outward influence on the top side?
Answer will be posted tomorrow.
ON TOP of that, I was able to (almost) successfully kill an invading group of white stones. I played it perfectly up to the final moments, and then botched it up in a totally thoughtless move.
I didn't feel too bad about it, though, because the fight was extremely exciting, and the resulting life and death problem I think was very interesting:
White just played the marked stone. Where should black play next?
Answer will be posted tomorrow.
Tomorrow I intend to try more lectures from Guo Juan's Go School, and further my study of Life and Death problems.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
Today I was unable to purchase KGS Plus, since my phone bill for the moment has lessened my budget significantly. What I did do was check out one the free audio lectures from Guo Juan's Go School. (note: only a small portion of Guo's audio lectures are free, the rest costing about $1.50 USD each to view for a month, for more details see this post.) I had a small amount of difficulty getting it to work, and found a problem that I felt I should warn people about: Some anti-virus software prevents the java client needed to play the lectures from starting. The simple solution is to just turn off your anti-virus for the duration of your listen. So, if you've tried listening to the free lectures only to be turned away by a blank screen, try again, but this time be sure to turn off your anti-virus!
Once I did get it to work, starting up the simple in browser java application yielded a very nice surprise! Expecting a simple audio player where you just sit back and listen, I was confronted with a go board looking exactly like the board from the KGS client, and as the commentary rolled, the board updated to follow the lecture. This makes the $1.50 price tag even more of a nice deal.
As for the lecture itself, I viewed this review of a professional game between OuYang ShaoYou and Csaba Mero. Guo Juan's commentary was very easy to understand and incredibly informative. This is actually the first time I've ever experienced this kind of a review of a professional game, so it was an extra treat for me. The game took on a whole new light, and it became very exciting to see the outcome.
Improvement
As for me, I feel that my previous anxieties about the opening and about my skill in general have begun to dissipate a little. I tried the advice from two posts ago again, taking my time in the opening, and found myself asking (and answering) vital questions about where to play next. In the single game I played today (Mondays are a busy time for me) I felt that my opening was a vast improvement from the previous games I have had.
On top of that, I was able to use some of the advice from Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go (by Toshiro Kageyama, 7d) in order to successfully use my outward influence to attack one of white's stones and secure a large amount of territory.
Where should black play in order to best utilize his outward influence on the top side?
Answer will be posted tomorrow.
ON TOP of that, I was able to (almost) successfully kill an invading group of white stones. I played it perfectly up to the final moments, and then botched it up in a totally thoughtless move.
I didn't feel too bad about it, though, because the fight was extremely exciting, and the resulting life and death problem I think was very interesting:
White just played the marked stone. Where should black play next?
Answer will be posted tomorrow.
Tomorrow I intend to try more lectures from Guo Juan's Go School, and further my study of Life and Death problems.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Day 27 - Study
Dilemma
Today I tested out the advice from yesterday, spending extra time thinking about my first 50 moves. The main thing this accomplished was to show me how little I really know about openings. Many times I was left with very little ideas as to where I should play. I know where I could play but I have no idea of which constitutes a better choice or what the outcomes might be.
Take this diagram from one of my games today, for instance:
Should white play A? Or maybe B? C? D? E?F? Is the approach at B too close? Too high? These are the questions that I can never seem to answer by myself. Here is a diagram from later in the game when I reached another dilemma:
I've messed up greatly in letting black construct a large moyo in the top side and middle of the board with M11, P11, and P14. Now I am stuck with the question of how to invade? My mind doesn't even know where to begin. I played the game to the end, even when things looked bleak. I ended up making a lucky capture at a weak spot in one of black's walls and managed to at least close the lead a little but, giving black a victory of 7.5 moku.
I submitted the sgf file to The Go Teaching Ladder, a free to use service that allows you to submit sgf files which will then be reviewed by higher level players and returned to you. That should be back in about a week.
Study, Study, Study
Any good art takes time and dedication. That is why I have decided to take a further step in my advancement as a Go player. I spent the last few hours scoping out potential sources for Go lessons/lectures, and while the choice at the moment for me is fairly obvious, I have compiled a few here to share with you.
First up, the most affordable of the three, is Guo Juan's Go School. Guo Juan is ranked 5p (professional). For 1 euro (about $1.50) you are able to listen to one lecture of your choice (by Guo Juan herself or some other various players) as many times as you want for one month. This is affordable with the exception being that in order to experience a larger handful of lectures, the price can add up. This option I might consider as an extra supplement.
Secondly comes Cristian Pop's Internet Go School. Cristian Pop is ranked 7d. For 30 euro, or roughly $40, you can buy a single 2 hour lesson with Cristian himself. For 35 euro, or about $50, you can attend one month of group lessons (one per week), with similarly ranked group members, and homework. Downsides to this include high price and having to cater to a specific schedule.
Lastly, and my personal choice of the three, is KGS Plus. KGS Plus is a service for the Kiseido Go Server in which, for $15 per three months, you can attend weekly lectures and participate in monthly tournaments. The lectures are presented in voice and in text (through the KGS client software) by numerous highly ranked players and professionals. This is the best choice for me, as not only can you download the lectures after the actual lecture date, leaving you free to enjoy them on your own time, (Although you lack the ability to participate) but it is also the most bang for your buck.
Certainly these are not the only options available to you, and I will probably share more in a later post. Tomorrow I will purchase 3 months of KGS, and possibly 1 or 2 lectures from Guo Juan's Go School. Perhaps something on the opening, as that seems to be my current area of focus right now.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
Today I tested out the advice from yesterday, spending extra time thinking about my first 50 moves. The main thing this accomplished was to show me how little I really know about openings. Many times I was left with very little ideas as to where I should play. I know where I could play but I have no idea of which constitutes a better choice or what the outcomes might be.
Take this diagram from one of my games today, for instance:
Should white play A? Or maybe B? C? D? E?F? Is the approach at B too close? Too high? These are the questions that I can never seem to answer by myself. Here is a diagram from later in the game when I reached another dilemma:
I've messed up greatly in letting black construct a large moyo in the top side and middle of the board with M11, P11, and P14. Now I am stuck with the question of how to invade? My mind doesn't even know where to begin. I played the game to the end, even when things looked bleak. I ended up making a lucky capture at a weak spot in one of black's walls and managed to at least close the lead a little but, giving black a victory of 7.5 moku.
I submitted the sgf file to The Go Teaching Ladder, a free to use service that allows you to submit sgf files which will then be reviewed by higher level players and returned to you. That should be back in about a week.
Study, Study, Study
Any good art takes time and dedication. That is why I have decided to take a further step in my advancement as a Go player. I spent the last few hours scoping out potential sources for Go lessons/lectures, and while the choice at the moment for me is fairly obvious, I have compiled a few here to share with you.
First up, the most affordable of the three, is Guo Juan's Go School. Guo Juan is ranked 5p (professional). For 1 euro (about $1.50) you are able to listen to one lecture of your choice (by Guo Juan herself or some other various players) as many times as you want for one month. This is affordable with the exception being that in order to experience a larger handful of lectures, the price can add up. This option I might consider as an extra supplement.
Secondly comes Cristian Pop's Internet Go School. Cristian Pop is ranked 7d. For 30 euro, or roughly $40, you can buy a single 2 hour lesson with Cristian himself. For 35 euro, or about $50, you can attend one month of group lessons (one per week), with similarly ranked group members, and homework. Downsides to this include high price and having to cater to a specific schedule.
Lastly, and my personal choice of the three, is KGS Plus. KGS Plus is a service for the Kiseido Go Server in which, for $15 per three months, you can attend weekly lectures and participate in monthly tournaments. The lectures are presented in voice and in text (through the KGS client software) by numerous highly ranked players and professionals. This is the best choice for me, as not only can you download the lectures after the actual lecture date, leaving you free to enjoy them on your own time, (Although you lack the ability to participate) but it is also the most bang for your buck.
Certainly these are not the only options available to you, and I will probably share more in a later post. Tomorrow I will purchase 3 months of KGS, and possibly 1 or 2 lectures from Guo Juan's Go School. Perhaps something on the opening, as that seems to be my current area of focus right now.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Day 26 - New Ideas, New Arenas
Mental Preparedness
I find that I do a lot better if I play after reading a chapter or two from The Fundamentals of Go. It gets my mind functioning in the right mode for playing. Something I have had a lot of trouble with is mentally preparing for matches. If I am not ready to put my all into the game, then I rarely get far. Repeating old habits and making the same mistakes, never learning.
I sent an e-mail to ChiyoDad(8k) awhile ago. He replied and suggested that I check out GoDiscussions.com. The (as far as I know) primary Go discussion board for English speakers. I have been lurking around reading the posts, and found one discussion about how people get into the correct mental state for Go.
One suggestion that especially stood out to me was one by somebody named Juwanji(link goes to his blog). His suggestion was that for every game you play, take your time on the first 50 moves, thinking out each stone. This hit just the right key for me for a lot of reasons. For one, I have been noticing lately the utter lack of care I put into my own openings. I just do what comes naturally and never put much thought into it. The opening is by far the worst part of my game, yet by many is considered the most important. The other reason that this advice, I feel, can help me, is that too often I have rushed headlong into a game, messed up greatly in the opening, and then suffered because of it, thus causing me a lot of grief which in turn causes me to play even worse which at last causes me to lose interest in playing, telling myself that the timing of my mood just wasn't right. This is wrong in many different ways.
I believe trying this will help me improve immensely, as I will actually start to learn some things about the opening and hopefully even be able to prep myself better for playing.
CyberOro
I tried an interesting new Go client today, called CyberOro. Unlike KGS, most of its players are either Japanese or Korean, and as a result, is a much more challenging arena. I set my starting rank to 20 kyu, thinking that would be a suitable downgrade. I was wrong, as I quickly found myself losing greatly to 21 kyu players. I played two games, resigning both, and then, to my complete surprise, got a game invitation from a Japanese 4d! I was intimidated, to say the least, but I accepted regardless. I only had 4 handicapped stones, but I did my best, and about halfway through he said I was doing alright. He did not know English, but used CyberOro's built in chat phrase feature to give me basic messages.
Of course by the end he completely destroyed any hopes for territory I had left. that is not to say that I did not have fun or did not learn anything. It was a very fun experience and I felt honored to just be given the time by such a high rank player.
I will give CyberOro more attention in the next few days, and see how I like it.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
I find that I do a lot better if I play after reading a chapter or two from The Fundamentals of Go. It gets my mind functioning in the right mode for playing. Something I have had a lot of trouble with is mentally preparing for matches. If I am not ready to put my all into the game, then I rarely get far. Repeating old habits and making the same mistakes, never learning.
I sent an e-mail to ChiyoDad(8k) awhile ago. He replied and suggested that I check out GoDiscussions.com. The (as far as I know) primary Go discussion board for English speakers. I have been lurking around reading the posts, and found one discussion about how people get into the correct mental state for Go.
One suggestion that especially stood out to me was one by somebody named Juwanji(link goes to his blog). His suggestion was that for every game you play, take your time on the first 50 moves, thinking out each stone. This hit just the right key for me for a lot of reasons. For one, I have been noticing lately the utter lack of care I put into my own openings. I just do what comes naturally and never put much thought into it. The opening is by far the worst part of my game, yet by many is considered the most important. The other reason that this advice, I feel, can help me, is that too often I have rushed headlong into a game, messed up greatly in the opening, and then suffered because of it, thus causing me a lot of grief which in turn causes me to play even worse which at last causes me to lose interest in playing, telling myself that the timing of my mood just wasn't right. This is wrong in many different ways.
I believe trying this will help me improve immensely, as I will actually start to learn some things about the opening and hopefully even be able to prep myself better for playing.
CyberOro
I tried an interesting new Go client today, called CyberOro. Unlike KGS, most of its players are either Japanese or Korean, and as a result, is a much more challenging arena. I set my starting rank to 20 kyu, thinking that would be a suitable downgrade. I was wrong, as I quickly found myself losing greatly to 21 kyu players. I played two games, resigning both, and then, to my complete surprise, got a game invitation from a Japanese 4d! I was intimidated, to say the least, but I accepted regardless. I only had 4 handicapped stones, but I did my best, and about halfway through he said I was doing alright. He did not know English, but used CyberOro's built in chat phrase feature to give me basic messages.
Of course by the end he completely destroyed any hopes for territory I had left. that is not to say that I did not have fun or did not learn anything. It was a very fun experience and I felt honored to just be given the time by such a high rank player.
I will give CyberOro more attention in the next few days, and see how I like it.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
Friday, January 25, 2008
Day 25 - Change-up
We all have our high points and our low point. For this blog in particular I feel we are at a low point. When updating on a daily basis, it becomes difficult to think of new things to talk about. In many instances I have failed, just posting about my progress in the ONE MONTH CHALLENGE™, using it as a failsafe so I always have SOMETHING to write down. So what happens after? Do I continue to post every single day, or do I tone it down to once or twice a week, using the extra time to think of good material?
I have a two main goals with this blog:
1) Use it as a progress tracker and motivator for projects and aspirations.
2) Make it interesting for readers to the point that they want to come back.
Despite the poor posts in between the short stretches of good posts. I would like to post everyday, and I must, for the duration of the month. So here is my plan. I will focus entirely on Go for the next 6 days. Since Go players are, I believe, my only viable audience, this will create some material to keep people here. Secondly, Go is something that, to truly improve at, one must put a great great deal of effort in and form strict routines, constantly covering new material and reviewing old.
So for the next six days I will not worry about my game at all. When I say don't worry I mean I won't make it a priority. Maybe something to do if I have done my Go study and am feeling up to it.
From tomorrow on I will only focus on what is interesting to write about.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
I have a two main goals with this blog:
1) Use it as a progress tracker and motivator for projects and aspirations.
2) Make it interesting for readers to the point that they want to come back.
Despite the poor posts in between the short stretches of good posts. I would like to post everyday, and I must, for the duration of the month. So here is my plan. I will focus entirely on Go for the next 6 days. Since Go players are, I believe, my only viable audience, this will create some material to keep people here. Secondly, Go is something that, to truly improve at, one must put a great great deal of effort in and form strict routines, constantly covering new material and reviewing old.
So for the next six days I will not worry about my game at all. When I say don't worry I mean I won't make it a priority. Maybe something to do if I have done my Go study and am feeling up to it.
From tomorrow on I will only focus on what is interesting to write about.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Day 24 - Rawr
Yesterday, I finally received a package from Kiseido. Eager to learn about openings I ripped open the package. The book inside was.. not a book but two books. The two books I already have!
I now have two copies each of Life and Death, and The Fundamentals of Go. I sent them another e-mail to which they have not replied yet. Hay, maybe they'll feel sorry and let me keep the books, then I could do something cool with them.. contest anyone? That will get me some kind of audience for sure.
Regardless, I studied a chapter of The Fundamentals of Go today. It is a very interesting book, and the lessons in it are invaluable. It really is easy to forget/skip over the fundamentals.I highly recommend this book to anybody past the early beginner stage.
Really not much else to say for today. Sorry I haven't been keeping up the pace lately. I promise tomorrow will be different.
I now have two copies each of Life and Death, and The Fundamentals of Go. I sent them another e-mail to which they have not replied yet. Hay, maybe they'll feel sorry and let me keep the books, then I could do something cool with them.. contest anyone? That will get me some kind of audience for sure.
Regardless, I studied a chapter of The Fundamentals of Go today. It is a very interesting book, and the lessons in it are invaluable. It really is easy to forget/skip over the fundamentals.I highly recommend this book to anybody past the early beginner stage.
Really not much else to say for today. Sorry I haven't been keeping up the pace lately. I promise tomorrow will be different.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Day 23 - Quick
No time to really write a post because it's late and I have class in the morning and I'm trying to get this dumb village girl sketch to work!
A quick summary of my day:
Went on KGS to see my rank changed to 11 kyu overnight! It didn't feel nearly as earned, but I guess it does have some meaning to it. We'll see how long I can keep it. Not for long probably since I lost both the games I played today by resignation. I just couldn't get in that right mode of thought and was losing stones left and right, so I opted to stop and work on drawings instead. One might argue that the only way to learn is to lose, but I couldn't even get into the mode of thought to do that much. Perhaps I will review the games tomorrow and see what I could have done better.
Another thing I did was finish the line art for Edgar's battle sprite, as can be seen here:
I then proceeded to struggle with the sketch for the Village Girl (a.k.a. The Survivor) I wanted to get it looking good enough to post, and maybe I will, but for now I am going ahead and posting to meet my deadline.
Sorry for not having much to share today, but tomorrow will be better.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
A quick summary of my day:
Went on KGS to see my rank changed to 11 kyu overnight! It didn't feel nearly as earned, but I guess it does have some meaning to it. We'll see how long I can keep it. Not for long probably since I lost both the games I played today by resignation. I just couldn't get in that right mode of thought and was losing stones left and right, so I opted to stop and work on drawings instead. One might argue that the only way to learn is to lose, but I couldn't even get into the mode of thought to do that much. Perhaps I will review the games tomorrow and see what I could have done better.
Another thing I did was finish the line art for Edgar's battle sprite, as can be seen here:
I then proceeded to struggle with the sketch for the Village Girl (a.k.a. The Survivor) I wanted to get it looking good enough to post, and maybe I will, but for now I am going ahead and posting to meet my deadline.
Sorry for not having much to share today, but tomorrow will be better.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Day 22 - Movin' on up
Almost There...
Today I did not play as much Go as I had hoped, but what games I did play were enlightening. (I got a little caught up in my Zombie game, trying to code in an ammo system by myself having just learned the basics of the coding language in RPG Maker.)
It's amazing how seemingly tiny bits of advice I've gotten from opponents the last two days has helped my game. I have started to branch away from my own style of playing and into a new one entirely, as a whole new concept of strategy has begun to form in my head. Perhaps it was a collective gathering of ideas over time, and it was just the few bits of advice that made it all click? Either way, I've become very much enamored with the concept of giving and taking. Giving your opponent what he wants while also taking from somewhere else. Instead of playing with my usual, highly defensive tactics I have been experimenting with new ideas.
Another bit of advice that has helped me immensely is a small word I received on the proper use of playing a stone on the 4-4 (hoshi, or star) point versus the 3-4 point (komoku). At first I just used them blindly. I had a highly vague idea of their differences but other than that I had no clue. The main things I learned were that the star point is for faster movement, and the kumoku is for a slower, more territorial movement. I learned that while the kumoku can enclose the corner in just one extra move, the star point take a little more. Since then I have been playing one type of corner placement in each of my corners, and then noting their overall effect on the game thereafter. After testing out the advice just once it's effects were immediately obvious. It was like an great void opened in my mind and I saw the opening in a whole new way. More on this tomorrow.
With this and my new style of give and take, I have been a force to be reckoned with. My losses began turning into wins. I couldn't help but take a glance at my rank chart.
Small note: The reason I have progressed so quickly during the first half of November is because that was my first time playing Go after a 3 month hiatus. That quick burst in rank was me getting back up to speed. Before I took my break I was about 15kyu, so it would seem that I gained a rank during my time not playing! Not entirely sure how that happened. Maybe the 3 months of not playing broke some of my nasty habits, and in recovering I took more careful, thoughtful steps in what I learned?
Anyways, the main thing I am trying to point out is.. I am almost 11 kyu! This is the first time I think I've been excited about a rank change. I guess that makes me kind of a nerd huh. (Haha of course I am a nerd.) The next few days will be a fun and exciting challenge as I try my best to improve my game and keep my wins flowing steadily. Perhaps I can reach my month wide goal of reaching 10 kyu after all? Only time shall tell.
The Survivor
I sketched out the second main character of my game today. She has no name as of yet, so I will just call her "The Survivor" for now. She is the lone survivor after a horrible plague destroys her secluded farm town. Having a curious immunity to the virus, she alone takes care of the last dying villagers, including her own mother. It is a dark and especially chilly night when her bed stricken mother finally gives in to disease, then, as if in some horrible twist of fate, her dead mother becomes the first of the village to rise again. As her dead mother lashes out at her, jaws gnashing, The Survivor escapes to the nearby church, a fearsomely large scythe taken from the tool shed as her weapon.
Today I did not play as much Go as I had hoped, but what games I did play were enlightening. (I got a little caught up in my Zombie game, trying to code in an ammo system by myself having just learned the basics of the coding language in RPG Maker.)
It's amazing how seemingly tiny bits of advice I've gotten from opponents the last two days has helped my game. I have started to branch away from my own style of playing and into a new one entirely, as a whole new concept of strategy has begun to form in my head. Perhaps it was a collective gathering of ideas over time, and it was just the few bits of advice that made it all click? Either way, I've become very much enamored with the concept of giving and taking. Giving your opponent what he wants while also taking from somewhere else. Instead of playing with my usual, highly defensive tactics I have been experimenting with new ideas.
Another bit of advice that has helped me immensely is a small word I received on the proper use of playing a stone on the 4-4 (hoshi, or star) point versus the 3-4 point (komoku). At first I just used them blindly. I had a highly vague idea of their differences but other than that I had no clue. The main things I learned were that the star point is for faster movement, and the kumoku is for a slower, more territorial movement. I learned that while the kumoku can enclose the corner in just one extra move, the star point take a little more. Since then I have been playing one type of corner placement in each of my corners, and then noting their overall effect on the game thereafter. After testing out the advice just once it's effects were immediately obvious. It was like an great void opened in my mind and I saw the opening in a whole new way. More on this tomorrow.
With this and my new style of give and take, I have been a force to be reckoned with. My losses began turning into wins. I couldn't help but take a glance at my rank chart.
Small note: The reason I have progressed so quickly during the first half of November is because that was my first time playing Go after a 3 month hiatus. That quick burst in rank was me getting back up to speed. Before I took my break I was about 15kyu, so it would seem that I gained a rank during my time not playing! Not entirely sure how that happened. Maybe the 3 months of not playing broke some of my nasty habits, and in recovering I took more careful, thoughtful steps in what I learned?
Anyways, the main thing I am trying to point out is.. I am almost 11 kyu! This is the first time I think I've been excited about a rank change. I guess that makes me kind of a nerd huh. (Haha of course I am a nerd.) The next few days will be a fun and exciting challenge as I try my best to improve my game and keep my wins flowing steadily. Perhaps I can reach my month wide goal of reaching 10 kyu after all? Only time shall tell.
The Survivor
I sketched out the second main character of my game today. She has no name as of yet, so I will just call her "The Survivor" for now. She is the lone survivor after a horrible plague destroys her secluded farm town. Having a curious immunity to the virus, she alone takes care of the last dying villagers, including her own mother. It is a dark and especially chilly night when her bed stricken mother finally gives in to disease, then, as if in some horrible twist of fate, her dead mother becomes the first of the village to rise again. As her dead mother lashes out at her, jaws gnashing, The Survivor escapes to the nearby church, a fearsomely large scythe taken from the tool shed as her weapon.
Until tomorrow,
-BuddytheRat
-BuddytheRat
Monday, January 21, 2008
Day 21 - Life, Death, Zombies
Today was a success. Not only did I play 4 games of Go, but I spent the rest of the day working on art for my game. I can honestly say this is one of the first times a vision of mine is coming to life. I am seeing new skills in myself that I did not see before in the creation of art and of storytelling. I guess all my years of constantly trying but just falling short of making actual progress has left some mark on me after all.
In one of my Go matches I was lucky enough to pair up with a very talkative fellow who reviewed the game with me afterwards. He gave me advice and told me why I lost, etc. We also looked at possible threats that were left untampered with and found a lot of things that we both missed. (HUGE holes in defenses that, if penetrated properly would have turned the entire game around.)
During this game, there arose an interesting life or death problem. My opponent did not see the threat, but because of my study from Life and Death by James Davies, I knew exactly what to do. After the game we went back and took a look at the area in question and I taught him a few things about eye space, and we looked at other possible outcomes if he had responded at the proper time. Here I present to you two Life & Death problems. One from my side (white to kill), and one from his side (black to live). The first one is what actually occured in game, and the second one is a hypothetical that we worked through in review.
(Left) White to Kill, (Right) Black to Live
In one of my Go matches I was lucky enough to pair up with a very talkative fellow who reviewed the game with me afterwards. He gave me advice and told me why I lost, etc. We also looked at possible threats that were left untampered with and found a lot of things that we both missed. (HUGE holes in defenses that, if penetrated properly would have turned the entire game around.)
During this game, there arose an interesting life or death problem. My opponent did not see the threat, but because of my study from Life and Death by James Davies, I knew exactly what to do. After the game we went back and took a look at the area in question and I taught him a few things about eye space, and we looked at other possible outcomes if he had responded at the proper time. Here I present to you two Life & Death problems. One from my side (white to kill), and one from his side (black to live). The first one is what actually occured in game, and the second one is a hypothetical that we worked through in review.
(Left) White to Kill, (Right) Black to Live
I will post the answers tomorrow, hidden, although nobody reads the blog yet. (Sigh. I will stick my head out of the hole soon. I'd just like some actual content first.)
The Doctor, Edgar
As I said, I spent almost the rest of my day working on art for my game, and went off on a spiel about how my visions are actually coming to exist for once. Well, here is what I meant: The game I have been working on stars a doctor that stumbles his way into a full on zombie infestation. What began as an emergency call from a faraway village to deal with a sudden plague of disease, quickly ends up with the doctor stumbling headlong into a full on zombie infestation.
That's the premise, now for the art.
The game will include an RPG battle system, with emphasis on avoidance and survival. Basically, more realism over supremely powerful war machine characters that you'd typically find in your average RPG. With this comes the need for realistic character sprites. Since the battle screen is a separately designed entity from the rest of the game, this is where I will take the most artistic liberty and make the game my own.
A little background information: RPG Maker XP comes prepackaged with already made graphics. You have the option to make your own, but for my purposes I would much rather work intensely in one or two areas, and leave the rest to the prepackaged stuff. Certainly as I go along I can make more and more changes to the default graphics, but for now they are broad enough for my needs.
So, as I was saying. Realistic character sprites. In other words, a lot of work, but with a really nice outcome. What happened was I tried it, and the results were surprising! I found out today that I am capable of a lot more than I once thought.
Here you see the initial sketch, and then the (WIP) pixel art. The right pant leg needs some help but other than that, I am proud of my work. (This is not something that happens too often.) I had some help in the form of criticism from a good artist, and good friend, Blurrpi. She helped me get the proportions correct, which, surprisingly, did not take very much. (Made the legs longer.)
Today has made me excited for tomorrow, and I hope to continue headstrong in all my pursuits. If my progress of today is any indication, I will be creating great things in no time.
Until then
-BuddytheRat
The Doctor, Edgar
As I said, I spent almost the rest of my day working on art for my game, and went off on a spiel about how my visions are actually coming to exist for once. Well, here is what I meant: The game I have been working on stars a doctor that stumbles his way into a full on zombie infestation. What began as an emergency call from a faraway village to deal with a sudden plague of disease, quickly ends up with the doctor stumbling headlong into a full on zombie infestation.
That's the premise, now for the art.
The game will include an RPG battle system, with emphasis on avoidance and survival. Basically, more realism over supremely powerful war machine characters that you'd typically find in your average RPG. With this comes the need for realistic character sprites. Since the battle screen is a separately designed entity from the rest of the game, this is where I will take the most artistic liberty and make the game my own.
A little background information: RPG Maker XP comes prepackaged with already made graphics. You have the option to make your own, but for my purposes I would much rather work intensely in one or two areas, and leave the rest to the prepackaged stuff. Certainly as I go along I can make more and more changes to the default graphics, but for now they are broad enough for my needs.
So, as I was saying. Realistic character sprites. In other words, a lot of work, but with a really nice outcome. What happened was I tried it, and the results were surprising! I found out today that I am capable of a lot more than I once thought.
Here you see the initial sketch, and then the (WIP) pixel art. The right pant leg needs some help but other than that, I am proud of my work. (This is not something that happens too often.) I had some help in the form of criticism from a good artist, and good friend, Blurrpi. She helped me get the proportions correct, which, surprisingly, did not take very much. (Made the legs longer.)
Today has made me excited for tomorrow, and I hope to continue headstrong in all my pursuits. If my progress of today is any indication, I will be creating great things in no time.
Until then
-BuddytheRat
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Day 19 - RPG
Zombies Ate My Go Books
Okay, I admit. I didn't study Go today, or draw, or clean even. I got sucked into a little program called RPG Maker XP. Me and RPG Maker go far back. It was the first game creation tool I ever tried to make use of. Of course, I never actually produced anything out of it, but I did learn a lot about coding and storytelling and commitment. (i.e. if you can't really and truly commit yourself to a project then you will never finish it)
So, I recently started messing with RPG Maker XP again, and all the ideas came flooding back. I couldn't help but take a stab at it and I became quickly obsessed.
One thing that I hold to be the best and funnest part of games/game design are the cinematics. The storytelling and the feeling you get during those truly tense moments. (Okay, I think that's enough bold text for one post.) Back when I was making my first games, I would spend literally hours listening to hundreds of midi files just to find the song that fit the mood of the moment I was trying to create perfectly. (Okay so italics aren't much better but I am really passionate right now okay?)
So, I started a new project. At first I was just watching my girlfriend mess around with the program by herself. (She was the one that started trying it first, and then slowly but surely the bug bit me and I dove back in myself.) Of course, I wasn't making a real game. (Woah, bold and italicized! Can I really get away with that?) I was just going to mess around a little and make a dumb little RPG quest in like 20 minutes. Of course, I then spent the next couple hours fleshing out every last detail of the first 60 seconds of the INTRO to what I will for now just call my awesome dramatic zombie game.
The first scene of my game. A desolate town plagued by disease. One healthy person remains , a girl with a strange immunity to the virus, to take care of the remaining villagers.
I would say that, since I did spend my time in creative pursuits, I can excuse myself for todays small slip-up. As for the rest of my day, I am going to see how much more RPG Maker I can cram in before I get tired of it, and then, maybe then, (really I just did that one to be funny) I'll play Go and/or draw.
Until tomorrow,
-BuddytheRat
Okay, I admit. I didn't study Go today, or draw, or clean even. I got sucked into a little program called RPG Maker XP. Me and RPG Maker go far back. It was the first game creation tool I ever tried to make use of. Of course, I never actually produced anything out of it, but I did learn a lot about coding and storytelling and commitment. (i.e. if you can't really and truly commit yourself to a project then you will never finish it)
So, I recently started messing with RPG Maker XP again, and all the ideas came flooding back. I couldn't help but take a stab at it and I became quickly obsessed.
One thing that I hold to be the best and funnest part of games/game design are the cinematics. The storytelling and the feeling you get during those truly tense moments. (Okay, I think that's enough bold text for one post.) Back when I was making my first games, I would spend literally hours listening to hundreds of midi files just to find the song that fit the mood of the moment I was trying to create perfectly. (Okay so italics aren't much better but I am really passionate right now okay?)
So, I started a new project. At first I was just watching my girlfriend mess around with the program by herself. (She was the one that started trying it first, and then slowly but surely the bug bit me and I dove back in myself.) Of course, I wasn't making a real game. (Woah, bold and italicized! Can I really get away with that?) I was just going to mess around a little and make a dumb little RPG quest in like 20 minutes. Of course, I then spent the next couple hours fleshing out every last detail of the first 60 seconds of the INTRO to what I will for now just call my awesome dramatic zombie game.
The first scene of my game. A desolate town plagued by disease. One healthy person remains , a girl with a strange immunity to the virus, to take care of the remaining villagers.
I would say that, since I did spend my time in creative pursuits, I can excuse myself for todays small slip-up. As for the rest of my day, I am going to see how much more RPG Maker I can cram in before I get tired of it, and then, maybe then, (really I just did that one to be funny) I'll play Go and/or draw.
Until tomorrow,
-BuddytheRat
Friday, January 18, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Day 17 - Walkin'
Walkin' towards my goals one step at a time.
This, of course, is an animation I created shortly after reading the "Walks" section of The Animator's Survival Kit. I spent a good couple hours on it.
And that's really it for today. Far too busy to do anything else. Instead of drawing I opted to clean the dorm room a bit, as it was in dire need. Slowly over the years I have come to realize that even a little bit of a messy environment absolutely KILLS any productivity that I might have had in me. So it's been a goal of mine this month to always keep a clean room/work area.
Until tomorrow,
-BuddytheRat
This, of course, is an animation I created shortly after reading the "Walks" section of The Animator's Survival Kit. I spent a good couple hours on it.
And that's really it for today. Far too busy to do anything else. Instead of drawing I opted to clean the dorm room a bit, as it was in dire need. Slowly over the years I have come to realize that even a little bit of a messy environment absolutely KILLS any productivity that I might have had in me. So it's been a goal of mine this month to always keep a clean room/work area.
Until tomorrow,
-BuddytheRat
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Day 16 - Stress
Learning To Cope
With college comes stress, and with stress comes an overwhelming desire to curl up into a ball and hide in the corner, hoping and waiting for the world to become safe again. Of course, all we can do is cope, and do better next time.
Organization has never been my strong suit, so stress tends to hit me hard during the semester as I constantly rebound from careless mistakes and forgotten assignments. At least, that was the story last semester. I coped just enough to scrape by. This semester I have to minimize stress. I have to remove the source of my problems and thus not have to stress about them in the first place. I need to stay organized, write down important dates, prioritize my concerns, and for the love of god, DO THE WORK.
Today was an especially stressful day, as I had to deal with a funds problem that I caused because I have been up to this point too inept to properly keep track of my bank account. I had to take some money out of my college savings to ameliorate the damage.
The weeks to come will hold even more stressful days, and I will do my best to cope.
Tablets Are Fun
For Christmas I bought my girlfriend a tablet from Genius. At about 50 dollars it is an amazing deal. It is both responsive and accurate, and has already proven itself to be worth well more than the 50 dollar price tag lets on. Because of this, I have begun doing sketches on the computer, so that I may post them on my blog once again. Here I have two sketches from lastnightsparty (BE AWARE: Link contains some nudity) and one.. um.. yeah.
Note: My good friend Travis helped a little with this one.
With college comes stress, and with stress comes an overwhelming desire to curl up into a ball and hide in the corner, hoping and waiting for the world to become safe again. Of course, all we can do is cope, and do better next time.
Organization has never been my strong suit, so stress tends to hit me hard during the semester as I constantly rebound from careless mistakes and forgotten assignments. At least, that was the story last semester. I coped just enough to scrape by. This semester I have to minimize stress. I have to remove the source of my problems and thus not have to stress about them in the first place. I need to stay organized, write down important dates, prioritize my concerns, and for the love of god, DO THE WORK.
Today was an especially stressful day, as I had to deal with a funds problem that I caused because I have been up to this point too inept to properly keep track of my bank account. I had to take some money out of my college savings to ameliorate the damage.
The weeks to come will hold even more stressful days, and I will do my best to cope.
Tablets Are Fun
For Christmas I bought my girlfriend a tablet from Genius. At about 50 dollars it is an amazing deal. It is both responsive and accurate, and has already proven itself to be worth well more than the 50 dollar price tag lets on. Because of this, I have begun doing sketches on the computer, so that I may post them on my blog once again. Here I have two sketches from lastnightsparty (BE AWARE: Link contains some nudity) and one.. um.. yeah.
Click to see reference image.
(BE AWARE: Reference image site contains some nudity if you venture past pages I have linked)
(BE AWARE: Reference image site contains some nudity if you venture past pages I have linked)
Note: My good friend Travis helped a little with this one.
Go Frustrations
I did successfully study go with no music for an hour. The problems in my life and death book have gotten difficult very fast. Since I am forcing myself to figure out the problems in my head, it has become blatantly obvious that my reading skills are incredibly poor. Creating all those imaginary stones in your mind and keeping them in the right place takes an incredible amount of concentration. There would have been no way I would have made it through this book with music blaring in the background. My inability to solve the problems on the 4th chapter of the book frustrated me, so I tried playing a few games. I resigned both very early in the game. My frustration bred more frustration and I plummeted.
It was not a good study session, but I am not shaken. I will take this as a lesson. When I find myself frustrated again, I will take a step back, breath in deeply, and solve the problem slowly and surely. Frustration just makes you do worse. You think less, you act overconfidently and overplay dramatically, you exaggerate the odds that are against you and forget how to act accordingly. It is a bad pit to fall into, but determination and solid foundation can get out back out of it again.
Tomorrow's study session will be better.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
I did successfully study go with no music for an hour. The problems in my life and death book have gotten difficult very fast. Since I am forcing myself to figure out the problems in my head, it has become blatantly obvious that my reading skills are incredibly poor. Creating all those imaginary stones in your mind and keeping them in the right place takes an incredible amount of concentration. There would have been no way I would have made it through this book with music blaring in the background. My inability to solve the problems on the 4th chapter of the book frustrated me, so I tried playing a few games. I resigned both very early in the game. My frustration bred more frustration and I plummeted.
It was not a good study session, but I am not shaken. I will take this as a lesson. When I find myself frustrated again, I will take a step back, breath in deeply, and solve the problem slowly and surely. Frustration just makes you do worse. You think less, you act overconfidently and overplay dramatically, you exaggerate the odds that are against you and forget how to act accordingly. It is a bad pit to fall into, but determination and solid foundation can get out back out of it again.
Tomorrow's study session will be better.
Until then,
-BuddytheRat
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