Update 3

 Well, November was significantly quieter on the blog front that October. Not sure exactly what to chalk that up to. I started some posts but kind of felt they weren't very good. I also was feeling less inspired. I think part of it is the old "should" problem. I started to feel like I should be working on it so then it became less of a want to. I have also been playing a bit more. Not like a huge amount more but definitely an improvement.

So been kind of leaning in the direction of video games lately. Feeling more interested in them and wanting to spend time on them. So, I have been doing that. Like with everything it tends to frame itself in my mind as this decision for all time but the chances are high that I will focus on this for a time and then lose interest and pick up something else. Not saying I want it to be like that but...

In other news the chess world championship is going on in Singapore between Ding Liren and Dommaraju Gukesh. Despite my emphasis on video games I have been following the match although not watching the actual games. Just checking in on a daily basis to see the result.

On the other hand my own chess has taken a beating. I had earlier expressed a determination to focus on daily games. But there just seems to be a serious problem for me that I don't end up thinking about the moves, I just log on and whip off a move. This results in me committing egregious blunders that I would rarely make in a slow game played in one sitting. This is ironic because daily chess allows multiple days to make your moves and chess.com provides an analysis function where you can move pieces on the board to analyze (no engines allowed). Both of these indicate that the quality of the games should be higher. The problem is just that when I think of analyzing carefully I end up procrastinating. So the opposite extreme and sometimes the result of this procrastination is just to log on and make the move. Basically it is really hard to get into the game mindset. So there is no sense of flow. One of the most enjoyable things about slow chess is getting absorbed in a game for hours and really feeling like I gave it my best. I am pretty good when playing slow chess online to actually eliminate all distractions and focus on the game just like if it was a tournament game. But I just seem unable to recreate anything like that with the daily chess games so I finished up the games I was playing and haven't started any new ones. I also let my tactics streak die a while ago.