2015 pastebin

 ▤▤▤ Lessons I’ve learned in 2014:

It’s tough to list every little thing because this was easily my most transformative year. Committing to the ambition of wanting to stream more and push myself in speed running in 2012. Fatigued from the fact my standards of speed running were very much out-of-align from my actual dedication and practice in 2013. Insecurities growing and giving into viewer demand for more runs at the same time. It all came crumbling down. Even almost halfway into 2014.

But I feel it was all necessary for the growth I have now. Here’s a sample of what I’ve learned and apply daily now:

• Never be afraid of failure, behaving as such limits your scope and, ironically, dooms you to failure, overall
• Creativity is a chaotic process, inherently. Attempting to “polish” experimentation in speed run routing/glitch hunting or mechanic exploits for viewer-friendliness isn’t a healthy habit.
• Goal-oriented mindset is extremely healthy for achieving goals. Being obsessed with them isn’t a bad thing if they’ll bring you happiness once you achieve them.
• Comparing yourself to others is bad. Others grew (whether stream-wise, or speed run PB-wise) under different circumstances from yourself. So much context ignored that it’s silly to compare. Comparing to your -past- self is what will keep you motived (both in working out/fitness, and speed running).

▤▤▤ Goals for 2015:
The previous years’ goals were all the same, because I failed to achieve them each time — get good at Yoshi’s Island for once, actually be happy with my runs. Enjoy the game. I am confident I will actually meet this goal. Here’s a few goals of mine this year:

• Push my potential in Yoshi. Be able to perform to the level I daydream of constantly. Not just nail everything in the sake of consistency, but at such a technical fidelity that playing at such skill is inherently swag. I want it. I’m talking beyond WR. Glorious 2 3 0. But it certainly won’t be easy, and I must stay very dedicated to see it happen.
• Get good at Stepmania, both on keyboard and dancepad. I will bring back DDR into my routine soon. Post-August 2014 I had to take a break because I didn’t have the time, plus working out was fresh and needed adapting to before adding in miscellaneous cardio. Keyboard-wise, dig deep and figure out whether I enjoy spread, index, or a hybrid configuration, but either way, progress to the songs I really enjoy and get into old-scale 12’s and new scale 18’s and higher. I plagued, like in 2008 and never bothered getting better. That changes this year.
• Stream “full-time”. I will grow equally ambitious in scope and presence online alongside streaming more too when this happens. I'll elaborate on this later when its relevant because it's a huge rant, lol.

▤▤▤ Games to speedrun for 2015:
- Yoshi's Island 100% for 2:30:00: if I don't get it, I will push whoever is competing for it! :)
- Yoshi's Island 2+2 (romhack) 100% for sub 3:40:00 (My PB/WR = 3:57:xx, VOD here: http://www.twitch.tv/trihex/c/4475861)
- Yoshi's Island: Kamek's Revenge 100% (start IL's, ultimately for hundo routing): woah, ambitious? Yes. But that's why it has my curiosity. Here's a sample of 1-2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-e-uCICKow

▤▤▤ Games to play for 2015:
- Ori & the Blind Forest (PC)
- GTA 5 (PC) (literally let's play, I can still do that right?)
- Kirby: Rainbow Curse (Wii U)
- Splatoon (Wii U)
- Yoshi: Wooly World (Wii U)
- Final Fantasy 15 (PS4, if releases this year?)
- Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD (let's play, mostly to rant about decline of KH as a whole, which I ranted about in 2012)

DISCLAIMER: I can't outright "decree" what games I'm gonna speedrun if I haven't played them beforehand. I like the thoughts of committing to Wooly World or Ori, but honestly, I can't say until I play them. Anyone who claims to do such blind either is guessing the game will be good, or doing it for the new-game-hype-stream-event factor rather than actually enjoying it. #StreamIllumanati

▤▤▤ 2014: Year in Retrospective
▤ January
- Did AGDQ back-to-back with Apex 2014. Anime on Display convention a week later. Thus, 3 of the 4 weeks wasn’t home to stream. Inactive month, speedrun-wise, overall.

▤ February
- Admittedly burned out on vanilla, but did de-rusting and bad runs regardless.

▤ March
- HackCarts — ability to play Yoshi’s Island romhacks on console, without lag — became a thing, a desire of mine since 2008, and immediately went-in.
- Routing for Yoshi’s Island 2+2 begins
- Get accused of “quiting” Yoshi, when a fresh option to explore seemed refreshing (and possible) for a change

▤ April-June
- Runs begin, prematurely, due to impatience/viewer demand
- Runs go from 4:30 to sub 4h (3:57:xx, VOD here: http://www.twitch.tv/trihex/c/4475861)
- Begin to DDR on-pad on stream

▤ June-July
- Month-long trip: SGDQ ’14, Anime Expo ’14, & EVO ’14
- Actually meet Jacob, owner of FAKKU and relatively cement our relationship of casual acquaintances to actually friends. A beautiful relationship forms.
- Stream inactive for a full-month, Yoshi rust forms in all areas

▤ August
- Return back, inspired by meeting a 14-y/o fan of mine & working out w/ caleb
- Start lifting in gym
- Openly admit to prioritizing gym over streaming, for now — in faith that gym will compliment my speed running rather than intrude, in time

▤ September
- Begin comprehensive foundation of training, implementing spec-2014 strats in my play, while simultaneously adding any new ideas I can retrieve from the 2012 100% TAS
- Read Creativity Inc, learn many things, but most important: Never be afraid of failure
- Read Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, learn a lot. Learn the importance of goal-oriented thought-process, and prospective on staying motivated in both fitness and anything else I find important

▤ October-December
- Consistent, dedicated practice
- Re-learn each level, from each world, attempting to overwrite 2008 muscle memory with beautiful, optimized 2014 muscle memory.
- Comprehensive understanding of levels, recovery options for stars, “safety numbers” to verify all red coins acquired at certain points in levels, and most importantly, visual cues for anything intense, rather than rely strictly on muscle memory.
- Did 1 run in mid-November for process assessment. Got 2:56:xx. At the time, hadn’t reached World 6 training, and expectedly, lost over 14 minutes there. About a minute behind WR pace until 3-4
- Did another run day before departure for AGDQ, Jan 2nd, 2015. Got 2:45:xx. New mistakes made due to unfamiliar to performing optimized new routes (coin despawned in 6-7)

Overall: a year of discovery, experimentation, and ambition that’ll continue into 2015 with bold progression. I’m very happy with it, overall (Something I honestly can’t say about 2012 or 2013).