Wait, I Can Do Better Than This

I write this, as I do most of my blogs...on a state of new beginnings, the realisation that the old ways of learning have become not only old, but also intensely tiresome. The people who you used to teach me are the same, they remain friends...but methods are becoming tiresome, and their attitudes even worse.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a saint...when people teach me they take on more than just a vessel for knowledge, it becomes a torrent of ignorance after failures...if ideas don't work, I'll usually shun them aside, blame bad luck and be done with it...but what you do get in the long run is a tireless worker determined to improve and rise the ranks, and that is true in any game I play, any task I do, anything at all I meet with steely resolve, albeit a loud and hypercritical one.

Now when I started this new path five months ago, I wanted to be the best, leap before walk and run...it had minor success but for the most part was fairly lacklustre...fortunately this new path brought me into contact with some of the very best, and some of the worst...lucky to have a spectrum to work with I set the task of learning from the best, watching the tendencies of the worst, and improving at a rate most would struggle to match...until today, that was working well, but now I have a very simple message. Think of it not as scathing, but more as "constructive critisism"

Im going my own way with this one now guys, you've given me enough headaches and I probably have you as well

While the intentions were nice, the methods were at times questionable, at times downright pointless...what must be understood is that mindlessly showing the routes, and mindlessly saying which weapons to use helps nobody, while some of these weapons may be better in the long run, if the player is unfamiliar with them, then they hold no use, why try to push on the idea that the best should be used when the player may be better trained with other materials? "a trained man with fists will defeat an entire room of men with swords, but give him a gun, he will only fell so many"

Secondly, just because you understand of a method with certain tools, does not mean that all other methods are wrong, some games contain many parameters, and there is no defined way to play, anyone who thinks this is blind towards all possibilities and in the long run will lose out...if someone makes a play that is considered sub par in golf, the caddy doesn't randomly start screaming at the player, then by the third hole takes the clubs and plays the rest of the way themselves?! That shows a mark of disrespect and arrogance to think of yourself better than everyone else and that you naturally have to take over from them for their mistakes...remember one day you used to be that rookie, practicing his first strikes...if someone else had stolen your weapon every time you made a mistake to "show you how it's done" how would it feel?

Never forget your roots, one day you may have to come down that ladder and meet those same people again...how you've acted then might change how they act now

And thirdly, and this is a big one for me, respect your opponents...no matter how good you think you are, no matter how good the weapons in your arsenal are, you show the man opposite you the same respect you would yourself, to disregard them and write them off is doing your game a disservice...you never know what small minded, weak, feeble, hunched over old man (that you've written off) will do, they could very easily have the tools to stop you, you can never be assured of victory so don't go into fights and matches thinking so....it is also never justifiable, ever in life to ask, or worse, expect someone to roll over just because you've told them they have no hope, that's utterly disgraceful and more than likely gonna get them fired up, and the weak one in the corner usually roars the loudest, especially when they occasionally win that supposed "impossible matchup"

So the end of this just leaves me to understand I'm taking a new path, some methods of learning just aren't built for some people...but regardless, one day, some day, that student is going to sit there and say "wait, I can do better than these people give me credit for, this is my time, my chance"

Wait, I can do better than that, can I?

(yes, I'm well aware that this can be read into too easily for one of my blogs, but I don't care, your good mates lads and I hope it stays that way, but the methods are becoming irritating, and the egotistical attitudes are becoming disgusting...I tell it like it is and stand by that, if you don't like how I've said it, feel free to discuss it with me)

Seeing Is Believing

Well, its finally the start of a new year, my 20Th and the start of my third decade on this planet...its been a roller coaster ride from then to now and it shows no signs of stopping. And you know what...i wouldn't want it any other way.

I'm sitting here thinking of the year gone by, 2010 had a lot of points from both ends...a career taking off, but cutting short all in the same year...a new game found, but frustration along the way...a new chapter in education, tough, but so far quite rewarding...many other things have gone from good to bad and back again...but this year starts on its own page, its own slate.

Except this year doesn't start with hopeful promises yet to be achieved...it starts with the mindset and the imagination to make things happen. it starts with the realisation that it only takes 12 hours of skill and luck to make a serious impression on the main stage, but its common knowledge that a bit of skill in a satellite...then five days of the best i could give...could make impressions that change the course of my future...i have vivid pictures of trophies, interviews, dreams being realised.

That's what makes me smile going into this year, its not that i want these things to happen, but can actually imagine them happening...to be able to sit here and picture success on such a scale is something I'm good at, but usually put to one side when i come to common sense...either the common sense isn't there, or this could actually be more than mere fantasy...but of course...seeing is believing...