Still Alive (And Causing A Ruckus!)

Don't believe the rumors - I am still alive, still crazy about SC2, and yes, still have grand intentions to publish more content - and play in Season 6 of the online ladder ;-)

However, these last three weeks have been filled with other activity, including hunting XBox360 Achievements in the Zombie mode of Call of Duty: Black Ops, go-karting, taking care of sick kids, chatting with my wife about all sorts of things, passing out on the floor (apparently loudly snoring), eBay-ing for the first Diablo game, finding a new favorite local GameStop, and most recently, hosting my first StarCraft 2 watching party at my house (which was a grand success!).

So be expecting some future posts chronicling those adventures (ok, maybe not the sick kids part).

Ruckus-wise, I apparently started one with my comment concerning web crawlers in my last post, 1000 Views.

Not only did that post generate the most comments (by far) - but it is very close to the most viewed post on the blog (views of that specific post, not including hits on the main page). For those of you that commented on that post, please check out the post again for my replies :)

As it turns out I have several followers in Spain and Mexico, and their comments (despite being offended by my web-crawler remark) I found greatly encouraging - and make me wonder if all those hits from Russia really are real-life readers...

So a BIG thank you (and apologies) to my international readers - and I look forward to your comments, as I duck behind the sofa ;-)

1000+ Views!

About two weeks ago (Feb 20th), I logged into Blogger and glanced at the stats for the GosuDad blog and saw this:

Now admittedly, likely the 1000th or at least the 1001st page view was myself. And quite likely a chunk of the total views are from some web crawlers - it seems like there's one in Russia and some from various Spanish-speaking countries.

And given how long the blog has been running (almost 8 months), that's only about 4 hits a day.

But besides all those factors - I was still quite excited :)

I have really enjoyed writing posts (and doing the "homework" for them), and it's encouraging to see that others are enjoying what's published! Looking at the stats today, we're over 1100 views!

So a big thanks to all of you readers out there and especially those who have left comments - your interactions really add to the little corner of SC2 where people blog about their favorite e-Sport :)

Season 6 Goals - The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown

As usual, my goals post is over 2 weeks into the season! I was quite excited the Friday after the start of the season (Feb 17) to do this post and enter Season 6 in a flurry!

But between catching up with housework in the evenings and preparing for a Dance Central 2 showdown with CmdrTallon's wife on Saturday Feb 25, time and energy have been short for SC2.

But we are here at last, and let me tell you, the gauntlet has been thrown!

Last weekend, I read a quote from an entrepreneur in Inc. magazine that "If you have more than 3 priorities, you have no priorities."

Given my limited time/energy, and that gauntlet I mentioned earlier, I felt this saying (which I've heard before I think) was quite relevant. So here we go!

(Note: There are about 5.5 weeks left in the season, so I calibrated my goals to that timeframe.)

1. Exercise for 30 min 6 times a week = 16.5 hours

• The gauntlet was thrown by my family doctor, who instructed me on Feb 17 that if my cholesterol doesn't improve, she's going to send me to a nutritionist. Disregarding that in our current state of healthcare in the US, my doctor can't force me to do anything, I took this as my gauntlet (or her gauntlet I guess). Of course, I'll need to focus on my diet as well - but this part is more fun ;-)

2. Do a produced sportscast-style cast once a week = 6 casts

• For many months, I've wanted to do sportscast-style casts with some more production values. Last season I opted to do a casual review style for my ladder games. Although I think was a great choice in regards to content I want regularly on my YouTube channel and blog, it gave little time towards those more involved posts. I have several showmatches lined up between myself and others, and would like to do this style for those casts - not to mention CSL casts (whose season is starting to draw to a close!).

3. Blog once a week = 6 posts

• Although I enjoy casting, it can lead to an absence of non-video blog posts, where I can talk about my life "around" SC2 - the thoughts and experiences that take place outside an actual game session. I think is the strength of the blog format, and hope to put just a bit of focus on it this season.

So there you go, 3 priorities. And I do hope to do some ladder/learning casting this season. But I felt that train/habit was well on it's way last season, and these 3 areas needed focusing - after all...

THE GAUNTLET HAS BEEN THROWN!