Hey everyone, welcome back - it's been a while since I've posted. Having gone from posting once or twice a month to a completely blank half-year hiatus of blogging has been quite the journey. Life has been a slight obstacle as it tends to be sometimes. I have to admit that I hadn't even looked at my blog page for months before a few days ago and was surprised. A bunch of red exclamation marks of drafts was scattered throughout low-quality thumbnails. So much for nostalgia.

This is essentially going to be my rant post and list of excuses for why I haven't been producing blog posts ~

Tell us why your blogging career overdosed on sleeping pills 

- FA-18_SuperHornet2007

It's a bit complicated. As Artur so accurately put it, my blogging "career" "overdosed on sleeping pills" for a few reasons. So why haven't I been writing for so long? My last post was in June, half a year ago. A few days after that, I flew with my family to Germany where we would stay for most of the remainder of summer, with a trip in between to Italy to see some old friends. 

Europe

Taking a ski lift up the Dolomites (Drei Zinnen) - we walked back down because the bobsleds were sold out

More Northern Italian mountains

Altweinau, a small German village where we stayed for most of our trip, is about 45 minutes away from Frankfurt

It was a great trip - except there wasn't much time for chess, with all of the traveling, sightseeing, and activities that packed our 25 days in Europe. I only managed to play some blitz and bullet throughout the trip. I'd love to say that I played the best chess of my life because of the fresh mountain air, but, unfortunately, that isn't the case. I did win the majority of my games, but the quality was... what you'd expect in 2000-level speed chess. Or lower. 

This next one would probably be a nice miniature... if I didn't choke at the end and miss the mate.

Health

I've played tennis and soccer for years, with tennis being a year-round sport, for hours a day. Most competitive athletes know the struggle - injuries, health issues, etc. For me, it was with my knees. I had a slight problem with them for around a year but it had never impacted my life or playing. Until I made the brilliant decision to join my family and friends completing a 6k. Up and down a mountain near where we were staying in Italy. It was fun and good exercise, and I felt great until two days later.  Must have triggered something, because soon after, I could barely walk normally without pain.

As a naturally pessimistic person, I got slightly depressed for a while. Once we got home, school would start, and along with that came soccer season - my final season at this school. It meant a lot to me and I couldn't bear the thought of missing it. As soon as we got home I saw a physical therapist. I won't bore you with the details as this is already unnecessary and me just ranting, but I got lucky that soccer tryouts got delayed for a week because of rain and I temporarily recovered in time. Happy to say that I'm (almost) back at my normal level.

So there were some things to worry about besides chess - it shows in my play during that period.

A pretty low point in my life. But if there's anything I've learned from it is that if you think positively, life tends to provide what you need to recover.

I never thought this was possible

Right after the championship match (which we lost), I got sick, most likely with the flu. Two months later, I'm still in the process of recovering. It was throughout that period that I suddenly realized I'm... kind of losing interest in chess? A little bit?

Losing interest in chess? Even a bit? I never thought I would, but it seems it's happening.

One good thing - while writing this, I realize that I still do enjoy writing.

High school

If you didn't already know, I am a small person. Had to spend time this fall and winter preparing for high school entrance tests. The tests were easy, although not exactly what you would call fun.

But it's necessary.

I had an entrance test for my top choice on December 10th, the day of Nationals here in the US... it's the third year in a row I couldn't go, and this time it was only a two-hour drive 💀

My future in blogging

Over the past year and a half, starting in July of 2021, I've posted almost 60 times. I do enjoy writing. I'll do my best to post a bit more frequently over the next few months and into summer, if circumstances allow, of course, but I hope they do.

I was planning to post an official ripoff of @Lightning's Questioning Non-Chess Players About Chess and have the draft started, but unfortunately, we left for Europe before I could get it finished and I never could start it back up with its format... you'll see what I mean if I ever do get it done. 

As the thumbnail (work in progress) implies, my *test subjects* (participants?) were children of relatively low maturity.

Similar to me.

Anyway, I don't have any planned posts, but if any of you have any suggestions, I'll gladly take them in the comments below. I neeeeed ideeeaaas

I don't know whether or not I'll be able to continue blogging in high school as the school I'm planning to go to will be very time-consuming with sports and a lot of homework, but it should prepare me for the future well. Sacrifices might have to be made, but... we'll see. Maybe a few posts a year during the holidays.

BlogChamps

BlogChamps is a fast-growing community of aspiring bloggers where anybody can come and learn how to improve their writing from Top Bloggers and discuss with fellow bloggers. We have regular competition seasons, four in a year, where all up-and-coming bloggers can test their skill, creativity, and accuracy against other bloggers before a panel of five Top Blogger judges, including yours truly. The winner gets a recommendation for Top Blogger from us to chess.com. Season 2 starts the day after this post - January 1, the first day of 2023. If you would like to join, registration is still open as of now, so hurry up and join! You can find more information about the format and rules here. It's a great place to learn and grow as a writer and I'd suggest it to any blogger who simply wants to improve their skill, have a place to discuss their writing, or shoot for becoming a Top Blogger. The quote at the beginning of this post came from the club notes, and @FA-18_SuperHornet2007 is a regular competitor. 

I hope this post answered your question and revived my blogging career from an overdose on sleeping pills.

The end (for now)

I'm going to quote @Lightning (another BlogChamps judge ) on this because I couldn't have said it better.

Good job, you made it to the end. What a great achievement that is. 

- Lightning in basically every single post he's ever written

Thanks for reading this and let me know IDEAS FOR FUTURE POSTS in the comments because I desperately need some. 

please

✌

Happy New Year everyone!