Hey everyone. I thought I would go ahead and give an update as to where I stand at the moment. First and foremost, I would like state very clearly: I am not leaving the world of go or shutting down the go blog. I apologize for giving that notion in my last Friday Go Forward. So in an attempt to clarify what’s going on, I have decided to write this post.

Over the past couple of weeks, things have been really crazy. Unexpected work projects, opportunities, and crazy hours sprouted out of nowhere. In addition, a last minute trip to California forced me to really reconsider where I am in life and what my priorities are. As a result, the blog’s regularly generated content (i.e., Monday Go Meditation, Weekly Go Wednesday, and Friday Go Forward) went on hiatus.

The reason for this is quite simple. My writing schedule has been to produce each weekly blog content a week in advance so that the content is consistent. However, this leaves little room for flexibility when you consider the way life likes to throw curve balls. In addition, it takes much more time (than my brain is willing to admit) to generate content that I think will be worth your time. (Or well, I would like to believe it’s at least somewhat worth your time. Haha. xD)

To be honest, while I am somewhat proud of myself for being able to last this long on the blog with consistent content, I am still disappointed that I wasn’t able to keep it going a little longer. So, in order to prevent this from happening again, I am taking the month of December to really get my affairs in order and revise my system so that it’s a little more “life-proof” in preparation for 2014. If you have any suggestions or ideas for things you might like to see in 2014, be sure to let me know!

Meanwhile, you can expect to see a number of reviews pop up over the next few weeks along with any random ramblings that I might be inspired to write. =D Until then, hope that everything is well with everyone and I’m looking forward to hearing any suggestions or comments on what you might like to see when 2014 rolls around. Ciao!

Friday Go Forward: Week 44

In the past week, a lot has happened and it has forced me to reconsider a lot of things that are going on in my life. As much as I regret to say this, it seems that I will need to cut back even further from go and blogging than I thought. So though I thought I would at least be able to keep up with my Friday Go Forwards, I regret to say that this will be going on hiatus as well.

I have a few more reviews that I need to wrap up, but it seems that the blog may be going into hibernation mode sometime this month. I’ll be sure to write more about it when the comes, so until then, I’ll do my best to finish up what I have left.

Friday Go Forward: Week 43

Overview

As a one man team, it was only a matter of time before I was unable to keep up with the content I’ve been wanting to create. So though it pains me to do so, Monday Go Meditations and Weekly Go Wednesdays will be going on a break for a while until I can find a way to bring it back into my crazy schedule. I will still be keeping up with this weekly progress report, but otherwise you can expect to see a more traditional blogging style appear over the next month.

And for those wondering about my reviews, those are ongoing as well and I will be posting them as I finish them, so no worries there! For those who celebrate Thanksgiving, hope you had a great one and I’ll talk to you next week!

Games

• KGS - 0 games
• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• Nova - 3 ongoing games

Reading Material

• Worked on Changing One’s Conceptions: Awaji’s Aphorisms.

I had a feeling this would happen sooner or later, but it seems that that time is now: work has really taken over my life. On the upside though, for those who don’t really know much about me, I really enjoy what I’m doing and I’m learning a lot. So it’s not a bad thing for the most part. The only part that kind of sucks is I don’t really have the time I want to have to devote to go.

No worries though. I have no plans on disappearing from the blog any time soon. If I need to take a sabbatical, I’ll make sure to post about it before I do so that it doesn’t seem like I dropped off the face of the earth. =) In the meantime, I’ll be focusing on trying to work on my reviews and the books I have waiting for me to read and review. Until then, best of luck in your studies and in your games and hopefully you’ll see me online from time to time!

Friday Go Forward: Week 42

Overview

Can’t seem to make up my mind about how I’m writing this summaries, but perhaps this is due to my own confusion lately. There hasn’t been too much going on this week, but I have become aware of a few weaknesses of mine that are definitely holding me back and I’ll have to address them over time. Meanwhile, I will try to simply survive the onslaught that is work and the rest of my life. Hope your week went better than mine!

Games

• KGS - 2 games
• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• Nova - 3 ongoing games

Reading Material

• Worked on Changing One’s Conceptions: Awaji’s Aphorisms.
• Started working on Breakthrough Attacking Power.

Videos

• Baduk TV English: Attacking Vitamins: Lesson 2
• Baduk TV English: Attacking Vitamins: Lesson 3

My head has been all over the place lately, so I’ve been taking a step back from things and just trying to clear my head. So one of the things I did was remove myself from spending time watching amateur games and focus more on professional games. In the process of doing so, something became painstakingly clear to me: I’ve become a nervous wreck.

While I was going over the first game in Breakthrough Attacking Power: Yamashita Style, something interesting happened to me. I had just played out a sequence and noticed that the position felt disadvantageous*. Before I knew it, my brain starting firing panicking neurons and I was feeling like the game was lost. Now keep in mind that I’m reviewing a professional game, so it’s not like I’m even playing. Yet for some reason, I was still feeling this panicking feeling? And on top of it, I thought a disadvantageous position was equivalent of a loss game? Not good…

In case I really don’t know what the proper remedy is for this situation just yet. I’ll probably be upping my dosage of meditation and introspection, and I think I might continue reviewing professional games at the same time to give myself real examples of games that seem disadvantageous that are still perfectly playable. Either way, I definitely need to take a step back and really reassess things.

*To clarify, it’s not that it was actually disadvantageous, Black had just taken a lot of territory early on and White was primarily focused on a power game. Sigh. This just goes to show you how bad it’s gotten for me. My style of go is not even territorial! Haha. Oy vey how far I’ve fallen… xD

Over the last few days or so, I have to admit that I have started to feel more and more burnt out when it comes to go. For a while, I couldn’t quite grasp why I was feeling this way. After all, I haven’t been studying a lot nor playing a lot, so what was the cause?

Well, after a lot of introspection, I came to the conclusion that I have hit rock bottom when it comes to failing to judge the board as a whole. Years of not counting and avoiding making positional judgments have finally caught up to me. However, I know that if I continue down this path, I’ll probably actually burnout and could lose the immense enjoyment I get from this game.

Ever since my blog started back up last year, I’ve been trying to tear through book after book in hopes of compiling a really comprehensive book review library. So naturally (with the exception of First Kyu and Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go), I have only read each book once and no more. However, I think it’s time that I slowed down and revisited Positional Judgment and The Direction of Play again. It might slow down my reviews a bit, but it’s probably imperative that I do so. Here’s to hoping this works._
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Friday Go Forward: Week 41

Overview

Note: It seems my life will forever be consistently crazy and busy, so instead of talking about all the time I don’t have, I will be approaching these overviews from more of a goal and progress type theme for now until I can come up with something better.

This week’s goal was to really started chipping away at the pile of equipment reviews that I need to do. I’m happy to report that I’ve finished two (Go Bento Box and Folding Go Board), but there are still quite a few to go and so that work will definitely resume into next week. In regards to my progress of studying however, though that as taken a back seat for a little while, I was able to fit in a couple lessons with my sensei frozensoul. There are quite a few things he remarked on that have got me thinking, but more on that when I have processed it a bit better.

For next week, I’m hoping to wrap up on all of my equipment reviews so that I can can resume work on my book reviews. In addition, I will be going on a mini-go retreat at a friend’s house this weekend, so I will also be looking to put out a detailed post recounting the games and good times that is sure to come. So be on the lookout for those! See you next week!

Games

• KGS - 2 games
• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• Nova - 5 ongoing games

Reading Material

• Worked on Changing One’s Conceptions: Awaji’s Aphorisms.

Friday Go Forward: Week 40

Overview

Quite a bit has happened over the past week. First off, my training menu is completely thrown off now. Due to other pursuits in my life (i.e., design, boxing, etc.), it seems I lost track of time and could not be consistent about my study. In addition, I am also pretty swamped with trying to get my reviews for my GoGameGuru items up and online asap. So I’ve definitely lost a little bit momentum this week, but hopefully I’ll be able to regain my footing soon and resume my research into the ideal training menu. Anyhow, lots of work to do. See you next week!

Games

• KGS - 3 game
• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• Nova - 4 games

Reading Material

• Worked on Getting Strong at Endgame.
• Worked on Changing One’s Conceptions: Awaji’s Aphorisms.
• Finished Master Play: The Fighting Styles of Kato Masao & Seo Bong Soo.
• Started working on Getting Strong at Attacking.

My GoGameGuru order came in!!! Woot woot!!! You can see everything I got in the picture (except the glass stones which are inside the bowls). There is so much to write about and review. Haha. However, since I do need a little bit of time to put the reviews together, the one thing I want to recommend right away is the Foldable Go Board. The quality is incredible for the price and it’s definitely my favorite item of my entire order. So if you’re in the market for a foldable go board, don’t wait!

On a more journalistic note, I’ve been on a losing streak lately. Interestingly enough however, I’m actually okay with it. The training to try and maintain zen in high pressure situations or even after losing has been tough; but I think it’s been doing me some good. In fact, I was even able to resign a game that I was winning (against a 5 kyu) since I had more pressing matters to attend to. And if you’re wondering why I think it’s an accomplishment, it’s because I never would have been able to do that in the past. I would have saw the game as rightfully mine to win and probably have been unable to walk away from it.

As one might expect, my rank has been dropping left and right; but surprisingly enough, I’m actually okay with it. I’m not worried about whether or not the server thinks I’m stronger or not. I am taking on my weaknesses head on. It might make me lose a stone or two for now, but I think the benefit I will gain from this approach will be worth it. =)