My Week of Go Activities

 

The big news this week is that I went 5:0 in my YD League this cycle. It is the last cycle of Season 29. We have a break before the beginning of Season 30, so I will have plenty of time to study and prepare. There is no telling how the league tables will be drawn up for next season because some students may leave, and new students may enter. It will be exciting to see how it all shakes out. I am hoping that my rating will land me a place in D2. If enough current members renew it will.

Now for the Go Activities Report:

It was a very active week for Go Activities with slightly over 40 hours, which is about as many as I can handle. That's a full time job. It is a good thing I am retired.

I will admit that my Essential Go Activities did suffer a little this week. They came in at about 1/4 of total time spent compared to the usual 1/3 of total time spent. I am okay with that, however, because I like to see my Essential Go Activities coming in at at about ten hours or more. As long as I am close to ten hours I am happy.

Essential Go Activities:     

9:17 (hours : minutes)

About 1/4 of total time spent.

4:48       54%      Live Play

2:42       29%      Tsumego

1:37       17%      Game Review

I played seven games this week, which is low for me.

My Win/Loss Ratio

4:3

At my last lesson Clossius suggested that I take a break. I think he is looking out for my mental health. I have a good go psychologist. There are two weeks until my next lesson because March has five weeks. He said I should get out and do something fun. He also said I should treat myself for going 5:0 in my YD League.

I know that just studying go isn't good for my mental health. Getting out isn't much of an option, however, with Covid. I did treat myself though by lowering the amount of time on Essential Go Activities and by indulging my guilty pleasure of watching the Clossius Live Stream. I especially enjoyed watching Clossius do his first lesson with a new student this week. That was nice to see.

I also took two days off from playing go. That was my break.

The main reason I enjoy watching the Clossius Live Stream is because it focuses my attention on the basics. I know the Clossi Approach basics pretty well. They are consistent with what I learned from Yilun Yang. Watching the stream reminds me to focus on the basics, and to ask the questions in my own games.

I indulged my other guilty go pleasure too, which is spending time on the Go Magic web site. 

Those two activities are a lot of fun for me, but they don't require a great deal of mental effort. That is why I consider them to be my "go study guilty pleasures". The Clossius Live Stream does not usually come in near number one, nor does it usually even exceed the Live Play category. 

Clossius had two live streams Sunday where he played some go. That was fun to watch. During one of those streams he said that I am his most dedicated student. My teacher's pet status is now firmly establish and shall be diligently maintained. I've always made it a point to be the teacher's pet whenever possible.

To make myself more easily identifiable to Clossius in the Twitch Live Stream, so all of my witty comments will be properly attributed,  I have changed my Twitch name from the confusing "AGAid8" to the longer, but more easily recognizable, "buzzsaw_AGAid8". 

Something I did this week was to create a spreadsheet to automate the calculation of my Essential Go Activities percentages. I can't believe I had been doing them by hand up until now. Now all I need to do is to plug in the hours and minutes for each category. Then the spreadsheet converts to total minutes and calculates percentages for me.

My goal for next week is to play games on OGS and work on my rating there. I will work on building the habit of playing first, and then work on the rating.

Another thing I need to do is study the Chinese Opening. There will probably be a Mid Week Blog post about that.