Dota 2 Coaching Session - Shadow Fiend, Part 2 (real game)

The second part to my coaching session with N9.blackshatan, the first part can be found here.

In this part, I played an unranked matchmaking game against real players while he watched and gave advice. It was a bit hard, since the coaching mode seems bugged and I could see things he drew if my screen was on that part of the map already, but I couldn't see any pings, and I couldn't see his drawings on the minimap. But we tried.

Match ID: 3206363143

He started by telling me that he likes to build (after getting bottle, and brown boots) Ring of Aquila, Power Treads, Dragon Lance, then either Shadow Blade or BKB. After that, it depends on the game.

The game started off pretty badly. There were no  bans, but they randomed Leshrac, and we had a random for Tinker, who fortunately repicked to Crystal Maiden (as I said I was going mid). Next they picked Huskar, and I locked in Shadow Fiend, but shatan said Huskar is one of the harder mids for SF to face in mid lane because he takes almost no damage to raze and SF doesn't do very well at manfighting him if he just runs at me.

Our team then proceeded to pick Drow, Anti-Mage and Phantom Lancer. I was cringing a little on the inside, because I could just feel him thinking, "WTF scrub tier is this - what are these picks?!" He even said, "What the Hell, Anti-Mage?"

Their team was rounded off by Clockwerk, Nyx and Lifestealer.

He recommended going Dragon Lance -> BKB. And Hurricane Pike is good against Clockwerk.

He suggested I put tango, bottle and brown boots in my quick buy, as Faerie fire wasn't going to cut it against Huskar. So I shipped myself some tangos after picking up the bounty rune.

I did a good block, and it was in my favour.

But I got low pretty quickly and the lane pushed into the Dire tower, He said to leave to pick up the rune / bounty rune because it wasn't safe for me to stand so close to Huskar when I was so low, so I might as well be doing something else. It wasn't that bad for me, as I only ended up missing that wave, even though I walked all the way around to the bounty rune and back to lane. Because I razed the wave, my creep wave was going to go into his tower and die to it without killing much of his wave. Then his next wave would meet mine, and Id' be back by then.

Unfortunately, I made a mistake, and let Huskar get too many hits off on me while I was focused on the creeps, and ended up dying for it.

The mistake I made was that I should be hitting a creep and moving back, instead of just hitting the creeps and standing there. Another piece of advice he gave me was if I teleport (TP) back to lane and the creeps are close, I can get a free raze off, because I'm still regening mana from the fountain. And I can bottle while channeling TP, to get even more regen after teleporting.

He jumps me again, but this time I'm in a better situation HP / mana-wise and I have double damage bottled. But I choke and fail to pop DD, and we both end up killing each other (though he died first).

He does it again, and this time I die first. Shatan says that against Huskar, I want to spend as little time in the lane as possible. He's a hero-killer and doesn't do that much against towers. He doesn't farm creeps well, only heroes. The more time I spend in lane (feeding kills), the worse it is for me. He recommends double razing the wave, then farming the jungle. I will get stronger whenever he leaves the lane, and if he does, I should smash their towers.

If he does jump me while I'm out, I should just TP out right away.

Huskar went to gank and push bot, so I took mid tower, and Shatan told me to keep pushing. He said if I saw three heroes in one lane, I should be fine to push a tower. It's only when I don't see Clockwerk (because I need to fear his hook) or Nyx, that I need to start going home. I should also position myself so that I'm on the opposite side of where they are. So if they're all at bot lane, I should position myself to the opposite side of the game.

So in this screenshot, I can see Huskar is bottom (because of the ward), so I should be on the left side of mid lane.

In this screenshot, I probably should have been standing closer to the red X, because I should have known he would be near the top (probably having used the shrine), and I would see him coming if he was going to gank me from the bottom because of the ward. If I'm there, I can see him coming and run into the fog. As it's nighttime, I will have less time to react, so I need to think about where he can attack from. (I ended up dying here.)

There was a moment when I pushed top, and retreated, but managed to get out. He said it was good, because I lured 2 heroes away so my team could pressure other parts of the map.

I tried it again, and ended up dying (not in the screenshot above, I lived that time), but he still said it was an OK death, because Anti-Mage, Phantom Lancer and Drow were farming. He said that it's something a lot of newer players do as a mistake - spend a lot of time chasing one hero with the entire team, while the enemy team farms freely.

Another important thing he mentioned was remembering who teleported when. So if I pushed top and Lifestealer and Nyx teleported in to defend, I could push bottom with the team knowing at worst, we'd be up against three heroes.

I should also be switching to int treads when razing, but I kept forgetting. I also forget to build Ring of Aquila, but by the time I remembered, I had started building Shadow Blade and didn't have room for it in my inventory.

At this point, he told me I should start pushing bottom.

I have Shadow Blade, I can see three of their heroes are in middle lane. He said what I want to do is be on the aggressive and dictate the gameplay. If I'm beating down on their tier 3, I have to force them to decide how to react - either they make a commitment to push themselves (in which case I can decide to retreat), or they have to retreat. It seems like such a minor difference, but forcing them to make the first move favours me, because I have more knowledge when I make my decision. I end up teleporting back to defend, but AM (who joined me) sat in the trees. After the enemy team moved away, he resumed the pressure on bottom lane. Better AM than me, because he has a better escape (blink).

We didn't get to the tier 3, and CM and PL got caught out, so we ended up losing mid rax. He said I should have been less fearful, as they had just popped dust, and it was a perfect chance to ult on top of Clockwerk, but I chose to walk back and do nothing instead and missed the opportunity.

At this point, CM and PL were having a bit of a tiff, and he said he hates it when people sook like this. I said this is pretty normal for this tier of play, and he responded that even at his level, there are people like this. Sad news - seems like it never ends!

I had Dragon Lance, BKB, Treads, Bottle, Shadow Blade and TP, he said it was worth getting Silver Edge to disable Huskar's passive.

It was really important for me to constantly check their inventories for sentries, as it would tell me whether I'd be able to shadow blade in and get my ult off. I did get a good one off, but it wasn't enough to save our rax, and we were now down two melee and one ranged rax.

I got pretty low and started to run away, but he told me to turn around. I should try to kite them if possible, because I can outrange them. I said it should be OK for me to let them beat on me while the rest of my team kills them, and he said, "NO! You should make them work for that kill. You don't need to die." It sounds so stupid, but I guess I've always rationalised my deaths, because that's what support heroes do. Can't keep that mindset!

43 minutes in, we go for Rosh. I think he was in shock that it took so long for either team to make a Rosh attempt. Creeps were pushing out top, AM was pushing mid, and he told me to go bottom. Even though we couldn't really see much, I had buyback, and the risk of my death losing us the game was pretty low, so it was a good gamble.

(This screenshot does not correlate with my above comment about not being able to see much - it was taken from a replay with vision from both teams.)

Clockwerk (light blue) is coming towards me, and I started to head back in fear. Shatan said that was a mistake. Instead, I should have hid in the bushes. With all the other enemy heroes heading towards top, it would just be me and CW. If a fight broke out in the top lane, he would be guaranteed to teleport in to help, which would leave bottom lane free for me to farm and push. By running all the way back to base, by the time I walked back to the lane to help push it, it had taken so long that the fight was over, and I had to worry about them coming to fight me and I didn't make it to the tier 2 tower.

PL and I picked off two of their heroes, but I was too fearful to keep pushing.

It actually ended up being a mistake, as AM was pushing top rax, so if PL and I had distracted them for long enough, even if we both ended up dying, AM would have finished the rax. Unfortunately, I told PL to get back, and he listened. He said I have to get into the mindset of thinking, "What would happen if I did _______?" and considering the trade-offs. Fortunately, they came back and fought us after they thought AM had retreated, and even though I died, AM finished top rax and PL got bot tier 3.

I started working on Skadi, which he said would be good against Lifestealer as I can start to kite him. He also mentioned that the game was starting to turn in our favour, and it was our game to lose.

I said we didn't deserve to win with such rubbish performance, but he said that was the nature of our hero picks - we wanted the game to go late. We should keep split pushing so we don't get into a situation where we lose our entire team. That's how a lot of teams lose - they stick together as five, get wiped, and then lose their base.

Well, I got caught out as I didn't realise they had another gem, and CM and AM both died with me. So we lost top rax and they had megas. I also left the courier in middle lane for an embarrassingly long time (~20s). I also didn't know having teleport scroll in your backpack makes it finish its cooldown slower (only ticks once every 2 seconds).

PL gets picked off, AM has no buyback. They push in, and we couldn't stem the wave and ended up losing.

Some tips from him:

• if you are losing your lane, it can be good to abandon the lane and farm the jungle. You can let your support come in and soak up XP from the lane if they're free. There's no point staying in the lane and getting destroyed. This ended up working out well for me, because once Huskar realised he couldn't just keep killing me in lane, he left. It did mean he went to pressure other lanes, but I was able to pick off the mid tier 1 tower, and start chipping down the tier 2, reclaiming some of the ground I had lost. Fortunately, Huskar didn't get too many kills on his wandering journey. A part of me says this is a bit selfish, but that's the life of a core!
• focus on the ranged creeps!!!!!
• stand near the creep wave to make it easier to get creep kills.
• don't trade hits with Huskar - the lower he is, the more damage he gets. Just focus on last hits. If he stands back, you can stand close. If he moves in, you move back.
• level 7 is when Shadow Fiend becomes super powerful and starts to crush towers (4 points in Necromastery for max soul damage).
• pay attention to the time - the offlane heroes sometimes go for bounty runes, so you can get an opportunistic kill if they're not careful.
• don't linger around if you don't need to. If you are going to double raze and go to the jungle, then do that. Don't double raze and question life's mysteries, then leave.
• a good player doesn't sit around waiting for their support to make plays - they make opportunities for the support heroes to make plays. For instance, they can push a tower, forcing the other team to commit resources to defend - this leaves the other lanes under-resourced, so the support heroes will have an opportunity to make a move on the remaining hero. You end up opening up two parts of the map with one action. He said he often likes to push a tower, TP away to the opposite side, Shadow Blade in, and pick off the poor remaining hero.
• if you get an illusion rune, use them like wards. Place them so you can see if the enemy hero approaches you while you're farming the jungle or whatever else you're doing.
• if you see heroes on the map, push the opposite lane
• SF is really good at clearing lanes, so you are able to double-raze, go farm the jungle or pick up runes, return, and not really miss out on much gold or XP.

I just found it incredible how much more he was seeing even though we were both seeing the same thing. He would see a glimpse of a couple of heroes briefly moving in and out of fog on the minimap, and his mind can process who it was and where they're likely to be going. He is really good at keeping track which heroes have items: TP scrolls, sentries, gem, dust, wards, what kind of boots, BKB usages.

He was watching me farm, watching Huskar's movements, watching the minimap, tracking ultimates, tracking item progression, tracking rune pick-ups, and who knows how much more while I was just trying to kill those damned range creeps!

It's funny - nothing he mentioned was particularly mind-blowing. It all makes sense if you think about it, but they're just things that never really occurred to me. Positioning, taking advantage of heroes being away, looking at your lane match-up and not forcing yourself to stay out of stubbornness, trade-offs, risk assessments. I do those things at some level, but not to the point where it feels like second-nature, like it does to him, and I think that's always going to be a big barrier for my improvement. Until those things are just muscle memory, I am going to be devoting too much brain processing power trying to do those things at the cost of other things.

I think the biggest improvements are going to come from improving my positioning, so break time, then more practice!

Dota 2 Coaching Session - Shadow Fiend, Part 1 (1v1 solo mid)

In preparation for my Dota 2 match, I was fortunate to get a coaching session with N9.blackshatan. He said that the normal procedure is to go over a replay together, and then he would coach me while I played a game, but I think the games I watched to watch might have been too old and were discarded by the replay server or something, as we weren't able to download any of my old games. Instead, we played a few 1v1 mid games, while he gave me some pointers for the laning stage.

The start was fine, and I managed to "get the bounty rune" (it doesn't spawn in 1v1 mid games) and block the creep wave so that we met mostly in the middle. The first point he raised with me is that if the lane was 1v1, and I wasn't struggling too much to get last hits, I shouldn't waste mana on raze to get last hits. However, there are some exceptions. If I am going to raze, and I will be able to hit the other player in addition to hitting the creeps, then it's good. Or, if the enemy ranged creep is at risk of being denied, it can be worth it.

He told me that ranged creeps are worth more gold and exp than melee creeps (42-48 compared to 34-38 gold and 90 compared to 40 exp). I had no idea! Wow, I feel so dumb. I always thought it was worth denying them because they kill creeps faster and tend to push the lane.

The first thing we worked on was drawing creep aggro to try and get a better farming position. Right-clicking on an enemy hero causes enemy creeps within 400 (?) range to aggro onto you. Even if the enemy hero is out of range, or even in another lane! It's something you can do to pull the creeps towards you even if you're unopposed in lane. The creeps will drop aggro in about a second though, so if you want to pull them quite far towards you, you need to aggro, walk back, aggro, walk back, etc.

So this position is quite bad for me, not just because I can't see him up the hill, but because he is uphill, if I ever wanted to manfight him, I'd lose simply because of the added 25% uphill miss chance. This also means that he is able to take pot shots at me with very little to lose.

At 2 minutes in, look at the difference in our two heroes:

He is nearly full HP / mana, and though you can't see it from the image, he is level 4 and has 20 souls obtained. I am on about a third HP and half mana, level 3, and only have 3 souls. Even though the lane is pushed in my favour, I can't afford to get in close right now, because I'm so low, and so he can freely farm right in front of me. The huge difference in our situations is mainly because of his superior positioning and what it has allowed him to do. (Well, not the low mana part, that is entirely my fault. But with shrines not activating until 5 minutes in, it's not a good start for me.) The game is pretty much over for me at this point, and he said that this is the strategy he usually uses if he has to play a game against low matchmaking rank (MMR) players - edge out your opponent in your lane so you can get strong, then go and dominate another lane and snowball out of control.

He said I should really be shipping myself a set of tangoes after picking up a bounty rune. Not a salve, because the efficiency of a salve is only when I'm really low, and ideally, I shouldn't get to that stage, whereas I can heal up small chunks of damage with tangoes. It also means I can eat a happy tree without having to run back to the treeline and lose out on creep kills. In a real game though (without bots), I'd normally be pooled two tangoes, and in that case, I'd get a salve.

I asked if it was ever worth not getting Necromastery at level 1, and he said no. Even in the rare case where getting raze first would net you first blood, he said you have to consider what it's going to do once you get back to lane, as you'll get back to lane with no mana, no ability to get extra damage via souls.

I also asked what I should do if my three opponents just all sit in mid lane together. He replied that I should use this creep aggro thing to try and draw the creeps towards my tower and farm them as best I can. Eventually, they should lose out on EXP, since they'll be sharing it. If they are really aggressive, I can always double raze any waves that I can, and then retreat into the jungle.

We spoke about which items to get at the start. He said Wraith Band, Iron Branch and Faerie Fire all work well. When it comes to boots vs bottle first, he said that in general, go bottle, but if I am against a hero that I can kill early if I have the speed advantage, then go for boots first. In this game, he went boots first, and after harrassing me a bit with razes, he was able to chase me down because of his speed advantage, and even though I ran around, past the shrine and back to my tower, I still ended up dying as his creeps had pushed up to the tower and he was able to slowly catch up to me.

If I'm full mana, I should try to get off an opportunistic raze - either to pick off a ranged creep, or harass the enemy hero. It's good to get chip damage on the tower if the lane is pushed, and if the enemy hero ever leaves the lane, try to push the tower (if it's safe).

He also mentioned keeping an eye on the creep difference. It's something Pharmacist does well, and I never remember to do.

In the above screenshot, he has 6 creeps to my 4. Which means if we try to fight each other right now, with all other things being equal (level, HP, damage, etc.), he will win because more of his creeps will attack me than my creeps attack him.

With regards to my mindset, he said I play like I'm really scared - probably because I am.

At this moment here, he turns around to raze the ranged creep (because it's not safe for him to last hit it otherwise), but what I should have been doing was standing at the top of the stairs and going for the deny, rather than being behind my creeps. There is no way he can 1v1 me right now, as I have the uphill advantage, and an entire wave of creeps to back me up, so I shouldn't be so far away. If I didn't want to go for the deny, at least I'd be better placed to get a few hits off on him while he razes the creeps.

Misc tips

• if the lane is pushed up to their tower, you can try and get some hits onto the enemy hero, as they'll often be too focused on trying to last hit under the tower that they won't be in the best position to avoid attacks, and also tend to lose track of what the enemy hero is doing. Same applies to denying - if the enemy hero looks like they're focused on trying to get a deny off, you can usually get a couple of hits in.
• try to maximise bottle usage to heal both health and mana, if possible. So don't be afraid to take some hits which you can heal up with bottle later.
• as soon as the enemy player leaves the lane, double raze the wave and push the tower hard.
• if both of the creep waves are full, or nearly full HP, try to aggro them towards you, or try and get some hits off on the other hero. Don't just stand around doing nothing.
• don't be too concerned if the wave pushes into the enemy tower. It's harder for your opponent to last hit under the tower, and the tower will cause the wave equilibrium to come back in your direction soon.You can use this opportunity to hit the enemy hero, or start chipping away at the tower.
• always check your opponent's items - it's important to know when they have boots and you don't, or vice versa, as it can mean a kill or a death with the speed difference.

After a few 1v1 games, I played an all pick game with him in the coach slot, and then we went over the replay. I will cover that in tomorrow's post.

Barkly Barks Dog Festival

Today's adventure was to the Barkly Barks Dog Festival, in Brunswick. I was partly expecting a puppy parade, like in that bottle episode of Community, but I had lunch plans, so couldn't hang around long enough for the dog parade. It was really cute seeing all the dogs.

And even though there were so many dogs in once place, they all seemed really well-behaved, and they all got along well together.

(That big dog was actually bigger than me if I was down on all fours.)

The owners seemed perfectly happy for you to pet their dogs, or take photos with them. They had stalls with different doggy treats, and various competitions for dogs.

You could even have your dog's photo taken professionally by "Pupparazzi":

Seeing all the dogs made me want one of my own, but the presentation I got to see spoke about some of the things you really need to consider before buying a dog:

• Dogs require physical and mental stimulation. For a lot of people living in the inner city, they just don't have enough space in their house for dogs to run around in, and if you work full time, you might not be able to walk your dogs as often as it really needs to in order for it to get exercise. Carrying a dog around in your purse does not count as exercise!
• If you are planning to start a family, or already have one, be wary of breeds like the Maltese, which tend to bite people.
• Also, if you want to travel, consider what you are going to do with your dog. The Akita breed doesn't really like being trained, and may not behave well when in the company of another person while you are away
• Consider how much food the dog will need to eat. Larger dogs like Great Danes will eat a lot.

The vet that took care of MrFodder's dog said that with our current lifestyle, it is really unfair on the dog if we were to get one, because we both work quite long hours. I agree with her, and think that it would be irresponsible of us to get a dog right now, especially as we aren't even able to keep the house clean when it's just the two of us!

Something to dream about for the future though. :)

National Burger Day

Another random food day! I decided to try Serious Eats' smashed burger recipe, and since I've been meaning to make Hokkaido milk bread for a while, I thought I'd use that as the buns (because brioche buns are so last year).

The Hokkaido (soy) milk bread recipe I used was the King Arthur flour one: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/japanese-milk-bread-rolls-recipe except I replaced the milk with soy milk, butter with Nuttelex, and instead of adding milk powder, ended up putting 125g of soy milk. I brushed it with soy milk before baking, which is probably why it doesn't have a very nice brown colour on top.

This is what it looked like out of the oven:

The smashed burgers are pretty straightforward. Get some mince (at least 20% fat), roll it into balls (mine were about 80g each) and flatten a little. Season with salt and pepper after shaping. With a paper towel, brush oil on a frying pan (not a non-stick one, as you want the meat to stick a little so it gets that nice crispy brown-ness, and non-stick pans can be toxic at the heat you want to cook the burgers at). Heat the pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes, and then increase to high.

Put the burgers on a pan (I could only do about 2 at a time), and immediately squash them until they're about 70mm thick. If you wait more than 30s to squash them, you lose a lot of the juices, so you have to do it quickly! Cook until one side is nice and brown, flip over and put a slice of cheese on the cooked side.

The reason you put the cheese on now is because it is deliciously melty and covers the burger when you do it now. Compare below, the left slice was placed after the burger was removed from the pan, the right one while the burger was on the pan. Look at how nicely it coats the burger so you can maximise cheese-beef without having that weird hanging cheese part.

Cook on this side for about 30s, then remove and allow to cool for a bit (so the juices don't leak out right away).

Assemble the burgers with whatever toppings you like.

I fried up some onions, sliced some tomatoes, bought some shredded lettuce (was too lazy to do it myself) and for MrFodder, fried an egg. And, the greatest thing of all:  Beerenberg's Reg's tomato and cracked pepper relish.

I love this stuff. I could eat it out of a jar on its own. MrFodder likes to corrupt it with American mustard for burgers, but I think it's perfect on its own.

The Hokkaido milk bread buns were really nice. I'm not 100% sold on them going with burgers, as they are fairly sweet, but it was still delicious.

Van Gogh and the Seasons

redbeanpork invited us to go and see the Van Gogh and the Seasons exhibit that's currently at the National Gallery of Victoria. Disclaimer: I'm not a huge fan of art galleries, and only went for the company, and to try something new, so keep that in mind when reading this!

The first part of the exhibit was a short video on his life, which went through the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Then there was a section featuring some Japanese block prints that were a heavy influence on his work.

As redbeanpork mentioned, a lot of the pictures were just of everyday people doing everyday things - something that the exhibit showed in the artworks they displayed. They explained that Van Gogh was fascinated by peasant life, and did a series of paintings and drawings focused on things like farming.

A lot of the descriptions went over my head, but I thought that the paintings were amazingly detailed, and I never realised how difficult it would be to be able to paint something like that. It's something that doesn't seem too hard when you have things like Photoshop with erasers and undo buttons. To be able to put together layers of paint to create something so visually stunning is incredible.

My favourite painting was this one, Horse Chestnut tree in blossom. I like it because it's just a heap of dots on a canvas, but you can see the tree, until you think about how it's a heap of dots and that's what you see. It's just so interesting to me, the way that the mind does things like that, and it's something that is explained by theories in modern psychology, but Van Gogh wouldn't have known about that. He somehow understood the concept and took advantage of it.

I don't know, maybe that's a style of painting? A lot of those descriptions went over my head, so I don't remember a lot of the theory behind the paintings. I was there in a caveman mindset: "That's pretty. Me likey." I still don't know what you're meant to do at art galleries, or what art appreciation involves, but I did enjoy my time there, and it was good to listen to redbeanpork's commentary in the moments that we were both able to look at the same picture at the same time (it was pretty crowded).

I don't think I'm going to become a painter anytime soon though, that's one aspect that no amount of YouTube videos will be able to fix.

Holey Moley

It seems I have become a degenerate gambler. Another bet I made with D was on a game of mini-golf. I have been talking about getting into golf, but maybe what I meant was mini-golf, as I think it's really fun. Some of my greatest memories were playing mini-golf at Adventure Park in Geelong.

Since the Dota 2 match doesn't look like it'll be happening any time soon, D has been really talking up this game of mini-golf. We were joined by a couple of people from his team, Mr T and Daniel.

The place we went to is called Holey Moley. I was a bit dubious that there could be a mini-golf course in the middle of the CBD, but I was proven wrong. The place was built in what was formerly the nightclub called Sorry, Grandma or something like that. It is now a bar / mini-golf venue.

Since it was an after-work thing, we only played a round of 9 holes, which was in their upstairs area.

As far as little tricks go, the courses themselves weren't overly complicated. It seems like for every hole, there was a pretty straightforward path to the hole. But some of the holes did have little twists, that we didn't realise until someone told us later.

For instance, there was a Groundhog Day hole, which had little groundhogs scattered around. I thought it was complicated just because of the hills, but one of the rules was that if you hit a groundhog, you'd have to start the hole again from the start (retaining your current score though).

There was a Pac-Man themed hole:

And the last hole we played was interesting. You started with a pinball machine (which didn't seem to contribute anything to your score). Once you got the ball through the hole in the middle, it would roll out onto a foosball table, which you had to use to play against one of your opponents. If you lost, you'd get one stroke added, if you won, you'd lose a stroke from your score. And not pictured in my photo, once you were done with foosball, you had to hit your ball into one of the pockets of a pool table (which had pool cues and the triangle thing as obstacles). The point values of the different pockets varied from -3 to +3.

Despite my Asian maths racial, I got my ass handed to me pretty badly.

The night was pretty fun. I think Mr. T has a bit of a soft spot for me, from when I was a grad, because he was trying to help me win. He would try to let me get some practice shots in while nobody was looking, and tried to get extra strokes added to D's score (I wouldn't let him in the end). Daniel was pretty encouraging, too. But even all that wasn't enough to help me win, so I lost the bet. I did manage to beat D at foosball though!

I should add that even though it doesn't look like it in my photos, the place was packed. You had to keep the courses themselves clear, which meant when you were waiting between holes, there was only a very small area to stand. The bar was really crowded as well. As far as drinking venues go, I think it's a nice twist. My opponents had had a few drinks before we started, so they were quite jolly the whole time. I still haven't recovered from my last drinking adventure, so I decided to give it a miss this time.

Fail Better - Sponge cake

Someone on my team got offered a permanent contract, which started on Monday. I thought it was something worth celebrating, and asked him what type of cake he likes. He said plain sponge.

I think eggs are my bane (see my failed soufflé attempt), as I tried making a sponge cake Tuesday morning to bring to work, and this is what happened:

(That isn't one sponge cake cut in half, but two "sponge" cakes". I ripped a chunk out to taste it.)

I couldn't bring such an abomination to the office, so I arrived empty-handed and said I would try again. He told me to Google "Wawrinka tattoo" and I was dubious at first, but he promised it would be something safe to look at on my work computer. It's a tattoo that tennis player Stanislas Wawrinka has on his forearm that says:

Ever Tried. Ever failed. No Matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

I found a different recipe and Tuesday evening, I had this:

Both still flat like pancakes, and one was so burnt. I tried to rescue it by cutting the top off, but it was beyond help. Although, despite being horribly flat, the bits that weren't burnt were delicious. I guess that's failing better?

Once again, I arrived at the office empty-handed. He said to me, "You need to look at the tattoo again, don't you?"

So Wednesday night, determined to get it right this time, I tried another recipe and made this:

Much more rise this time, but it didn't taste as good as the second one. There was far too much cake, so I ended up slicing about half off each cake. I also thought it was a bit too plain, so I whipped up some cream, put in a layer of strawberry jam and dusted it with icing sugar.

The guy from work loved it, and ended up eating 3 slices for breakfast. This was all that was left by lunchtime, and he ended up polishing it off after lunch.

I now have 2 and a half sponge cakes in the freezer, but a much better technique for making sponge cake. I think my problem was that two of the recipes recommended using a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, and I don't have one of those. They whisked whole eggs, and I couldn't get the same effect with my electric beaters. The recipe that ended up working for me involved separating the eggs and beating the egg whites separately.

The recipes I used:

#1 https://www.donnahay.com.au/recipes/classic-sponge-cake-with-jam-and-cream
#2 https://www.gretchensbakery.com/vanilla-sponge-cake-recipe/
#3 https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/sponge-cake-recipe/

Chi Running

I'm nearing the end of my running journey, so I thought I'd share some of the things that have changed since I started.

When I told MrBrioche that I was doing the Couch to 10k challenge, he gave me this book that he said helped him when he was running. He said he could do 5k comfortably, and then he found this book and it completely changed the way he ran.

The essence of the book is advocating a running style that blends tai chi and running. The author talks about how tai chi is about going with that natural flow, and the way that most runners run involves powering as hard as they can with their legs to go as fast as they can. He says that children are often the best runners, because when they run, they aren't focused on running, they're focused on getting somewhere, and so they will just let their body do its natural thing. Adults tend to focus too much on trying to run, rather than just running.

Instead, he suggests a bunch of minor tweaks to the way that you run, which should help you run in an injury-free way. Considering how A is slowly recovering from his many running injuries, I have been quite vigilant about not over-working myself and have put a lot of focus on listening to what my body is saying. So injury-free running sounded great to me.

A couple of big changes it suggests, the most important being the forward tilt. The idea is that you should always feel like you are falling forward, and it's the momentum from that which pushes you forward, rather than your legs pushing off the ground. So all your legs really need to be doing is moving forward to "catch" you, so you don't fall face-down into the ground. If you don't want to run as fast, don't lean as far forward. If you want to run faster, lean even more forward.

I have been trying to do that, and I can sort of get into it, but I don't think I'm doing it quite right. I do find that when I am able to do it, and I get a rhythm going, I almost forget that I'm running and get into that "runner's high" a lot faster.

The other important thing he talks about, which kinda comes as a consequence of the falling forward method, is where you land on your feet. You should land in the middle of your foot, rather than your heel (despite the fact that the guy in the picture on the book looks like he's landing on his heel). This way, the shock of hitting the ground is better distributed over your whole foot, rather than focused in one point, which should reduce the number of injuries that you get.

There are other things he talks about in the book, but I'm afraid of stealing his material. I'm still trying to incorporate everything in my runs, so I'm not entirely sold on the idea yet. He talks about how important breathing is, and that was one of the things I was able to work in right away, and it's crazy how much my breathing has changed. One of the things I struggled with most was breathing. Back when I was doing the shorter run times, I would always feel like my lungs were on fire by the time I hit a walking break. I'm constantly panting, and the sound of my feet hitting the ground would often be drowned out by the sound of me breathing.

He said he starts all of his runs breathing through his nose, and tries to see how long he can do that before he falls back to breathing through his mouth. The first time I did it, I think I took one full breath, and then had to fall back to my regular panting breaths. Now I can last about a minute and a half, but more importantly, I've noticed that I don't pant anymore while running. In fact, I rarely hear my own breath anymore. He says the reason a lot of people feel out of breath is not because they have trouble breathing in, but because they have trouble breathing out. He tries to breath in for three steps, and out for four. I used to breathe in for one and a half, and out for one and a half. Now I am able to do his 3-4 pattern - though most of the time, I don't even focus on my breathing, but it definitely feels a lot slower than it was before.

I want to give it another month or so, before I feel comfortable advocating it to others, but I think the biggest benefit to me so far has been the change in my breathing technique, so I would recommend that.

Mind Barrier

A few days ago, I was challenged to not say anything incriminating while drunk. I passed with flying colour (although now they're making stuff up based on the questions I didn't answer ~_~). I had steeled my mind against revealing the secrets I particularly wanted to keep. I noticed that throughout the night, despite the fact that my inhibitions were lowered, and I could feel myself saying things that I normally would not have said, whenever the topic was on either of those things, I felt this mental alarm go off, and I knew I had to tread carefully.

The funny thing is that the mental barrier seems to have remained, even after so long. D is still trying to find out who the hero is, but now it seems like he has moved on to Special K, which is great!

Still, I wonder if this is how intelligence agents train themselves to resist interrogation. I'm trying to work out which one is better. On one hand, you can't reveal a secret that you don't remember. I think that's the strategy I usually go for. A lot of the time people will tell me something, and I will put it away in a box in my head, and proceed to forget about it until they bring it up again. It's not the best strategy, as I sometimes forget important things, but it's awesome for keeping people's secrets!

On the other hand, if you know ahead of time what you don't to reveal, you can begin to put together a cover story, and that way your lies will be plausible. You know which lines of conversation to avoid, which means you can direct the conversation away.

There must be some technique to keeping secrets. A quick Google search seems to say that the best way to keep secrets is to convince people not to tell you any. Awesome advice. Pharmacist says the golden rule is not to tell anyone...

This thread from /r/theRedPill seems to advocate just staying quiet in general, this this is more in relation to people who seem to reveal too much, rather than keeping secrets. As one poster said:

Well said. Sometimes, you do have to disclose something you know that if you didn't, could jeopardize your standing with that person..
It is, however, better to remain silent or talk less.
When you are not an open book, no-one can guess your next move.
If you are going to share everything you know, then you have better have an exit strategy no-one knows of.. Again, just easier to STFU.

Pharmacist says it was an effective technique used by Louis XIV.

I always thought I was pretty much an open book. In one of my review sessions, a piece of feedback I got from someone was:

No agenda of her own. Very honest and open in all my experiences...

I was really confused about what he meant by that agenda comment. A suggested it was because I had meeting invitations without an agenda, but I'm pretty sure for any meeting involving that person, I had an agenda. Over time, I think I have worked out what he was trying to say. In the working group that we were both a part of, I never tried to push my own agenda. Everyone know what I was thinking at all times. To be honest, in retrospect, I think that made me very open to manipulation, as other people used me to push their agenda, but overall, it made it easy for people to work with me because they were never trying to second-guess what I was thinking.

However, I'm starting to think that this has changed. I still say what I think (in a SFW kind of way), but I get the feeling that people don't trust me yet. Maybe it's because I'm still somewhat new, and I've mostly kept to myself in order to avoid "bringing the people together" (though a part of me is starting to realise this is a losing battle because I'm already planning on making my new video). There are people on my team who seem to try and ask me questions to subtly work out what I think about something, without asking me directly. Maybe they're just a bit cynical, as they are always surprised when I say I will bake something, and then actually bake it.

Either way, it's only a matter of time before I break them. :)

In my experience, I've found that people tend to open up to you faster if you open up to them first. Perhaps that is the secret to finding out secrets.

Wow, this post took a huge detour.

No-Tech

(Yes, I realise my phone screen is really dirty.)

I had lunch with MrBrioche and Ally today. Ally mentioned that she had gone on a meditation retreat, and one of the requirements was to go tech-free. Not even books were allowed. As someone who is almost always glued to her phone / computer because of her job, I was surprised that she actually agreed to it, and I was even more surprised that her boss allowed it. But she did do it, and lived to tell us the tale.

She said that the first day was the toughest. It was so bad that one person couldn't do it, and ended up giving up and leaving the retreat. But by the end of the four days, a lot of people were actually dreading having to return back to "civilisation" because they had managed to find a sense of inner quiet, and they knew that it would be really hard to find again amongst the constant phone notifications, social media happenings, and work emails.

After hearing about this retreat, I was intrigued. The meditation part doesn't fascinate me all that much, but the no-tech thing sounds interesting. As someone who makes a living with computers, I can't imagine what it would be like to go no-tech. Even the couple of months where we didn't have internet felt like torture (although by the end of the first month, I did manage to find other things to occupy my time).

Obviously, unless I were to take leave from my job, I wouldn't be able to go no-tech, but I've been thinking about giving it a shot for 24 hours. I know that a lot of people have been doing it as a substitute for the 40-hour famine, so 24 hours isn't much, but I think it's long enough for me to see if I'd go stir-crazy.

I've actually been purposely avoiding Facebook for a month now. Not avoiding as in not using it, but I use it only to check messages and events. I don't browse the feed anymore. It did mean that I missed out on Enforcer renewals for PAX, but I was 50-50 about doing it again this year anyway. I've found it pretty liberating. Not that Facebook was depressing, but I found myself wasting half an hour each day looking at posts from people I hadn't seen since high school, and to be honest, was pretty disconnected from, and so the daily events in their life wasn't that interesting to me. Browsing reddit probably has the same effect, and I find myself doing a lot less of that lately as well (I probably only get about 3 pages in, whereas I used to probably do 20, or browse specific subreddits).

Giving up gaming is probably going to be the hardest, but I did it when we had no internet, so I can do it again.

So I'm picking a date: Saturday 3rd of June. Going to turn my phone off Friday evening, no computer,  books, TV, kitchen appliances, car, Mi band. Is that too extreme? I wonder what I will do with my time. I wonder what I will eat. I might have to stock up on bread or something. Beef jerky. Will need to think about it. I also will need to pre-write my blog post for the day.

Am I turning into a hippie?

Mid One

As I've mentioned earlier, I'm currently training for a Dota 2 match against D, and have started playing heroes other than my usual ones because I'll be playing a 3v1 match (4 bots on my team, 2 bots on his, plus his 2 friends). I've pretty much settled on going a mid hero, because I need to be able to get farmed as fast as I can, and having the solo XP and solo farm in mid lane is probably the best way to achieve that.

Mid players seem to have a certain reputation. There is the whole "solo mid or feed" mentality, where a player will demand that they have the mid lane to themselves, and threaten to throw the game if they don't get it. They hog the courier, use the shrines by themselves, expect lots of ganks from the supports, and see themselves as the best player on the team. Oh, and did I mentioned that I've become one of them?

Dr. Caligari played support while I played mid to help me get more practice. A running joke in our group is to ask me if I want them to do something for me, because "the bots won't do it", referencing the fact that the default AI in the game is pretty poor, and won't do things that skilled support players do, like share tangos, stack jungle camps, zone out opponents. I don't want to get used to the luxury of having those things, because it will be a disadvantage going into this bot match as I will expect it and not get it.

Dr. Caligari roamed to mid lane and zoned out the Dire mid player. He asked, "Should I be doing this, because the bots won't do it?" As a joke, I replied, "No, get out, you're stealing my XP." Except it only sounded like a joke in my head. The words that came out of my mouth were more like a demand. When redbeanpork commented that I really was becoming a mid player, I was shocked because it was true. I actually did want him to leave as he wasn't achieving anything hanging around my lane except leeching XP (and somewhat zoning the enemy hero, but I had done that on my own anyway). I don't think I have ever been so aggressive to one of my own teammates before in my entire Dota playing history.

He was trying to do something nice, and I was so focused on winning that I didn't even appreciate that. I apologised to him later, and fortunately, his response was to laugh and say he doesn't take any game stuff to heart.

I've now played about 25 games as a mid hero, and I am starting to get into the mindset, which is good, but I'm also afraid of the person that I'll become. My first few games were a complete disaster, and I think part of that is because I was still thinking like a support. If a teammate was in trouble, I would go in and try to save them (usually dying myself in the process). I had a very passive play-style, trying to make space for my carry to win in the late game, and just trying to avoid dying as much as I could. But it didn't work, because I was a core now, and I had to farm up and deal damage. I needed to be more aggressive.

I always found it bizarre that someone can become so toxic in a game, and start abusing their teammates over a mistake. It astonishes me that they aren't able to see how badly they are treating someone else, and how terrible their words are. There are toxic people who constantly end up muted or in low-priority queue, and they seem to honestly believe they don't belong there, yet the number of times they get reported seems to indicate otherwise. How does someone become so oblivious to their own behaviour like that?

I'm starting to see how. I don't think it's a transformation that happens overnight. It's something that probably happens over a long period of time. It starts with a snarky comment every few games or so. It probably gets results at first, especially if you are a big fish in a small pond. But you, as a player, are not improving, and  those snarky comments won't always get results. You can't see that the problem is you, so you continue to blame outwards, and snarky comments turn into criticism because you think that people aren't getting the subtle hints, and so you resort to being more direct. Criticism turns into blaming (complete with ping spamming). Blaming turns into abuse. And before you know it, you're yelling at the poor under-farmed Keeper of the Light who has been getting dewarded all game by the rich enemy supports and telling your teammates to uninstall the game.

Please don't ever let me go down this path. I take comfort in the fact that even 25 games in, despite being a bit better at it and winning more often, I find no enjoyment in playing mid. To be honest, I've found it has killed most of my desire to even play. I really can't wait for this challenge match to be over.

After-Work Drinks

Someone at work was talking about how the team works too hard, and nobody goes out drinking anymore, so he can't find out all the scandalous things about everyone. I said that even if I did go out drinking, my life is so boring that there was nothing scandalous for me to even say. His response was that everyone has a skeleton in their closet, and it always comes out after a few drinks. I asked him if that was a challenge. He responded that it was. I am never one to back down from a challenge, so we picked a date (which was today - or yesterday, by the time this will get posted).

Ever since we started that Dota challenge, D has been trying to work out which hero I plan to play. He claims that he doesn't know enough about the game to counterpick me, but his friends do, and since it is 3v1, I feel like having an unknown hero is my only advantage in this game. I know he has a fairly limited hero pool, and his other friends are a bit more versatile, but I am starting to get the feel for which kinds of heroes he likes to play.

I mentioned the drinks thing to D, and invited him along (in hindsight, I don't know why I did this). He agreed to come, thinking he'd be able to weasel my secret out of me after a few drinks. Seriously, I feel like people have so little faith in me.

Well, I guess I can understand that. I've probably been watching too many spy shows, but I was thinking about whether I'd be able to tolerate being interrogated. I was thinking about that scene in Alias where Sydney's character is tied to a chair, and this dentist guy is threatening to pull out one her teeth. She cooly requests that he pull one of her back teeth out so it doesn't damage her smile. Then proceeds to kick ass. I imagine if I were in that same situation, I'd probably spill the beans before they even finish tying me to the chair. Of course, they won't believe me, and will continue to torture me to find out the "truth". But even knowing that, I'd spill the beans anyway, because I have such a low threshold for pain, and an even lower threshold when it comes to suspenseful pain.

After thinking that thought, I started to worry a bit about the drinks challenge. I really don't think I have anything scandalous to say. Anything that could be scandalous has already been posted for the world to see, and if people at work found out about it, it would damage my reputation, but I feel like it's the "true me", so is it really that bad? I don't think I've done anything that's worth being fired over, so there's that, too.

So after some thought, there were really only two things I was worried about revealing tonight:

1) The identity of the hero I plan to play in the Dota 2 match against D.
2) The identity of MrCrush.

They're not even that scandalous. The first I want to keep secret because I want to win. The second I want to keep secret because it's embarrassing, unprofessional, and I would like to preserve my working relationship with this person.

Suffice to say, since I was able to write so much, and I am not curled up in a ball of regret on the floor, I managed to protect both secrets. Challenge successful! My big secret: just staying silent and staring at the person who asked me the question. Which I had to do for all questions, otherwise I'd end up revealing something by picking and choosing which questions to answer and which not to answer. I've realised that staring at people is really disorienting, and I have to fight my natural instinct to fill the silence, which is surprisingly easy when your brain is moving at the speed of plate tectonics.

The downside is, I definitely drank way too much, and for the first time in my adult life, I ended up throwing up after drinking too much alcohol. Definitely not something I want to experience again. However, I got to know a couple of people on my team a bit better, and saw a side of them that I don't get to see in the office. I got to impress people with my ability to scull a jager bomb - an ability I did not know that I had. I laughed far too much at jokes that really were not that funny. I managed not to fall asleep, despite having 4 drinks on an empty stomach and over a short period of time.

I feel like I did have fun tonight (minus the throwing up part), but at the same time, I also hate that feeling of slowness. Like there are thoughts in my mind and I'm chasing after them, but it's always just out of reach. So instead I say garbage. D asked if I'm a "fun drunk" and I didn't know how to answer that. I think people just like seeing me drink because it's such a rare event. That and they want me to say something incriminating. Jal asked why I didn't just lie, and I responded that I prefer not to lie because I have trouble keeping my story straight, and so the lie gets revealed anyway.

Plus, I've found that if you go in with the knowledge that you can't lie, then it forces you to behave a certain way, because you know that you won't be able to cover your tracks with a lie. So I feel like I don't need to lie as I have nothing to lie about. That doesn't mean to say I go around telling the truth about everything. There are definitely lies of omission, which is a form of lying.

For the most part, I'm glad I survived today, and can go forward with the knowledge that no amount of alcohol can make me say something I don't want to say. Another adventure to chalk up to the 365 photo challenge. I'm definitely growing as a person. And look, it's a drunken blog post that isn't full of misspelled words and bad grammar!

William Angliss Dinner

QCN organised a dinner at the William Angliss Institute last night. They do meals prepared by students, and I believe students also act as the waiters. This week, they happened to have a 50% off deal on their menu, which meant a 3-course meal for $17.50.

The menu did look amazing:

They allow you to specify dietary requirements ahead of time, but I think my eczema has been pretty good lately, so I thought I'd try it properly (though I did opt for the dairy-free entrée).

We started with bread, served with olive oil and some spice mix thing (not in the photo).

The bread was amazingly soft, and topped with rosemary and salt. We asked for extra bread, which they provided, and it tasted so deliciously warm, like it had just come out of the oven. Great start to the night.

I ordered the chicken broth with salmon and shiso dumplings with garlic oil.

The dumplings were great, and the broth had a soft garlic taste, almost pesto-like, but I thought it was delicious.

MrFodder ordered the beef short rib, with potato cream, shallot salad and port sauce.

I didn't get to try it all, but I tried a bit of the beef rib and it was amazing. Nice and soft, and the sauce was delicious. MrFodder and I agreed that this was the best dish we had.

For a main, I ordered the sirloin steak with caramelised onion puree, watercress, peppercorn butter and hand cut chips. Because I am a baddie like I am, I asked for it well-done.

The steak was actually really nice, and I liked the sauce and butter so much I ended up mopping it up with the chips.

MrFodder ordered the duck with chickpeas, soyabean, lap cheong ragout and hoisin sauce.

He said it wasn't so great, didn't have much flavour. Though I guess it's hard to follow from those ribs.

We finished with dessert.

I got coconut rice pudding with basil and mango (asked for no pineapple).

I was pretty iffy about basil in a dessert, but it was delicious. The ice-cream in that caramelised crêpe had a basil taste, and it worked really well, and the green sauce was basil. The coconut rice pudding didn't have a strong coconut flavour, but I still thought it was delicious. I think the thing on the right was some black sesame soaked in water, or something. All the flavours worked really well together. Definitely my favourite out of the three that I ordered.

MrFodder ordered the brownie with caramelised banana and macadamia ice cream.

He said he prefers my brownies (awwww), but the caramelised banana was really great, the nicest part of the brownie. Something I'll have to add to my to-do list!

The night was great. The staff were really nice, and our water glasses were always topped up. It was our friend's birthday tomorrow, and they overheard us talking about it and when they brought out his dessert, it had a crêpe with "Happy birthday!" written in chocolate sauce on it, which was really nice of them.

The food was really nice, and the atmosphere in the restaurant was also good. The theme seemed to be Van Gogh, and they had a little easel with one of his pictures resting on it in the middle of the table. There was a candle inside an apple. To be honest, the restaurant seemed a lot fancier than I expected it to be! We had cloth napkins, which is always my measure of how fancy a restaurant is.

I think the wait staff managed a good mix of being attentive without being overbearing. Sometimes it was easy to forget they were even there (am I a bad person for not noticing them?). There wasn't overly loud music, so we could talk to each other comfortably. Even with a table of 12 people, it was easy to have conversations across the table. Huuuuuuuuge plus for me. Food came out pretty quickly, and it didn't feel like a long wait between courses. We did have to order everything up front though, but I don't think that's a bad thing, as it means you can relax for the rest of the night.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time there, and I would definitely go again.