Fashionably Late

I was going to post last week about the upcoming Season 6 ladder lock, but as you might guess, time has ran away from me. And last night, I suddenly found myself at the end of Monday night, the last evening before the ladder lock, without having even played my qualifier game!

So I told my wife I'd play just one game - and hit the big yellow button. Surprisingly, Battle.net was having some trouble finding me a match, and seeing the following message made me wonder exactly what I was in for...

Finally it found someone, and the loading screen wasn't clarifying either...

Oddly, there was no indication whether we were evenly matched, or whether one of us was favored to win. I wasn't sure if I had ever encountered this before - but guessing from my opponent's profile picture, I predicted I was in for a loss.

I won't spoil exactly how the game went - having not played on the ladder in 7 weeks, it was an experience! And I'll try to cast it later, but the resulting placement was a surprise!

So I'm apparently in Silver again!

And since that was indeed the only game I played that night, I am locked into Silver League for Season 6 - regardless of how terrible I do for the next week before the season ends next Tuesday :)

A lot has been going on this last week (which I'll definitely expound about later!) and I've been tired and unable to focus on SC2 work - and just today have apparently come down with a yucky cold!

But I'm camped out in the basement armed with a humidifier and a big box of kleenex (and hoping my wife will get some sleep!) - which also happens to be my SC2 office... so I'll be playing ONE ladder game after I publish this post - wish me luck :)

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!