My right wrist has been bothering me for a couple of weeks now. It doesn't hurt while I'm playing, but after, when I move it, it hurts. I don't know if it's carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis, or something else, but it is really annoying.

So, I'm thinking about taking a break from FFR and Stepmania after the May-hem event. Might play the new songs when they come out, but probably nothing serious like trying to AAA Master songs. Hopefully, I won't be gone long and whatever is bothering my wrist will go away soon. Maybe I'll hit the 1000 Public AAA mark before then.

Just as I feared . . . D5. Oh well, let's see how far I can make it.

Round 1
Song: Retro City (63)
Score: AAA
Comment: Got some relatively easy songs to start off the tourney, and D5 gets some dubstep. I'm actually surprised at how relatively jack heavy this file is; I think the last 2 D5 songs were jumpstream heavy. I'm not complaining though; I LOVE jacks. Great song, great file, and a AAA to top it off. Round 2, here I come!!!

Round 2
Song: Oops (67)
Score: 1-0-0-0
Comment: As far as YOSHl charts go (which, IMO, are mostly god awful), it's not a terrible chart; jack heavy charts are right in my wheelhouse. Unfortunately, the song and the chart (except maybe the ending) are insanely boring.
EDIT (1/31, 12:30 PM): Haven't had a good FFR night tonight; I can't believe how much I was struggling on this song. I had 6-0-0-1, like, 3 times tonight; that ending trolled me so much more than it should have and I kept dropping goods in random spots. Finally got a decent enough score so I can give this song a rest for a while.
EDIT (2/1, 1:00 AM): That 1 good was such BS. At least I know I can hit the ending cleanly.
EDIT (2/5, 1:00 PM): Haven't played the song since Friday, but I think I'm safe for Round 3, which is as far as I predicted I'd get, and am currently prepping for the next song. Let's do this!!

Round 3
Song: Undiscovered Colors (70)
Score: AAA
Comment: YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES
YESYESYESYESYESYESYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EDIT (2/6, 4:25 PM): I'm not a big fan of color charts, but this chart is just flat out beautiful and fits the song so well. Really hoping it's not a AAA or die round, but, seeing as how popular this song is, it just might come down to it.
EDIT (2/7, 3:40 PM): 2g this time, puts me right in the middle of the safe zone. Any other song I'd be fine being eliminated on, but please, D5, don't make it be this one.
EDIT (2/9, 3:10 PM): Epic choke near the end, ended up with a BF. That AAA is so freakin' close.
EDIT (2/10, 4:50 PM): IT IS DONE!!! AAA!!!!! Heart is pounding, hands shaking, but I'm going to Round 4!!

Round 4
Song: Sleep (76)
Score: 7-1-1-2
Comment: First Guru song of the tourney. Didn't realize this was a pony song in disguise (yay). Despite that, I feared this type of chart greatly since the start of the tourney: fast, dense JS/HS. Despite my improvement in JS, I'm thinking it'll take a miracle to get to the next round.
EDIT (2/14, 12:00 AM): I can't even FC the damn song let alone SDG it, which is where the cutoff is right now. Not going to make it to Round 5, and that's a guarantee.
EDIT (2/15, 10:50 PM): More nervous getting my first FC (39-5-0-16; sux, right?) then I was getting my current tourney score.
EDIT (2/17, 3:10 PM): OMG, an FC with decent PA. Still, not even close to the cutoff.
EDIT (2/19, 12:10 AM): Thank god this is a PA tourney. This score bumped me up a couple spots. If I'm gonna go out in this tourney, then I'm going down swinging.

Game Over for me. :(
Finished in 25th place.
Though Round 4 was pretty much the round that I expected to go out on. I had a great time, but now it's time to practice some more. Clearly, my JS/HS still needs work so I'll need to practice more of those kinds of songs, and maybe I'll come back for the next tourney.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I keep expanding my old "FFR Goals" thought after I accomplish each new goal, so I'm just gonna start a new list up here. My skills have improved a lot, so the goals will be a lot tougher.

[X]3 billion points (Veteran Status)
[X]5 billion points
[X]10 billion points
[ ]15 billion points
[X]Avg rank <1000 (token)
[X]Avg rank <500
[X]Avg rank <100
[X]Avg rank <50
[X]Avg rank <40
[ ]Positive score on all public songs (token)
[X]Get Oni; TOKEN WHORE!!!
[X]100 Skill Tokens
[X]110 Skill Tokens
[X]120 Skill Tokens
[ ]ALL SKILL TOKENS!!
[X]AAA 80 VC songs
[X]AAA 90 VC songs
[X]AAA 100 VC songs
[ ]AAA all difficulty 1-63 songs
[X]AAA 5 Expert songs (Xenoflow, Caprice B Minor, GOSW, Black Key Etude, CS Gun Sounds)
[X]AAA 10 Expert songs (Disconnected Hardkore, GEP, Makiba, CQ Boss, Hajnal)
[X]AAA 15 Expert songs (Everything Went Numb, LW4, MLP Medley, Soulcrusher, The earth blew up)
[X]AAA 20 Expert songs (Finder Keepers, Within Life, BRWP, Determination, Defection)
[X]AAA 25 Expert songs (Parousia, Demon Beast, Euromorroc, Epidermis, Epilogue)
[X]AAA 30 Expert songs (Eternal Drain, Feldschlacht, Overdrive [amw], Arrogant Cobbler, All Y'All Bitches)
[X]AAA 35 Expert songs (Still Blastin, Strategy of Emperor, It's Only Natural, K8107, Choprite)
[X]AAA 40 Expert songs (Banned Forever, asdfmovie, Miraiya, Internal Cannon, Rottel)
[ ]AAA 45 Expert songs (Purple, LWI, Destination of the Heart, Kil Stage, . . .)
[X]AAA 5 Master songs (Club, Blue-Violet, UC, Spaceman, Futsuu No Uta)
[ ]AAA 10 Master songs
[X]FC 50 Guru songs
[X]FC 60 Guru songs
[ ]FC 70 Guru songs
[X]FC 5 Brutal songs {Hardkore Atomic, RAN, Little God Channel, Molto Vivace, Saddest RMX}
[X]FC 10 Brutal songs {Mathsma, Chik Habit, My Half, Necropotence, White Walls Pt. 1}
[X]FC 15 Brutal songs {I Hate the 80s, 12BB, Tenimuhou, Betrayal, Sleepmix}
[ ]FC 20 Brutal songs {Kirlian Shores, LWXI, LWII, . . .}
[X]1000 Public FC's
[X]1100 Public FC's
[X]1200 Public FC's
[X]1300 Public FC's
[ ]99% FC of all Public songs (token)
[X]800 Public AAA's (10/21/12)
[X]850 Public AAA's (1/8/13)
[X]900 Public AAA's (2/23/13)
[X]950 Public AAA's (4/21/13)
[ ]1000 Public AAA's

In a few days, I will have been a member of FlashFlashRevolution for 4 years. Also, in a few more plays, I will have enough points to be considered an FFR Veteran, which is pretty cool. So, I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell you how I actually became a part of this community.

I was mainly a Stepmania player, which I downloaded after I got my laptop as a college present. Back then, FFR had its own simfile database, so I mainly used FFR as a place to download simfiles (good ones) that I could play on Stepmania in my free time. I also made a few simfiles of my own which I uploaded to my Bemanistyle account (also jgano). However, one of them--The Devil Went Down to Georgia GH version--was too big to upload there, and the only way to upload it to FFR was if I made an account there. And that's exactly what I did.

I may have played a few songs in FFR when I made my profile, but mostly I just used it to download simfiles. That is, until the website went down, which was a big surprise to a lot of people. After it came back online, I was a little upset that they weren't gonna bring back the database (fuccin' copyright issues), but I wasn't gonna delete my profile out of anger. So, I decided to try playing FFR the game more seriously. At first, I was pretty bad; I was lucky to FC 9's and 10's and even get good scores on 7's and 8's. But after awhile, my skills improved more and more. In fact, I credit FFR with transitioning me from playing index to playing spread and being able to play the harder Stepmania files that, originally, I thought I would never FC or AA.

I am mostly proud of what has happened in the last few months. I've only recently introduced myself to other members of the FFR community, starting with the Halloween Scavenger Hunt. After that, I entered Midigami's Wheel of Arrowsmashing Tournament, which was my very first tournament, and was placed in D2, and it ended up becoming my first tournament victory (albeit I was the only one left in D2 by Round 5). But, it was my decision to enter the Official FFR tourney that really catalyzed my skillboost. When I found out I was playing in D3, I didn't think I would make it even halfway through. Yet, round after round, I found myself getting closer to actually winning that division. In the end, I finished in 3rd place (wow!!!). During the time the tourney was going on, my skills improved greatly. Now, I could AAA 9's pretty easily and I finally have a few 10 AAA's (5, as of 1/16/12). With this boost, I'm hoping I can eventually FC an FGO and AAA an FMO file in the near future.

So, there you have it. My journey from using FFR as just a simfile database to becoming an above-average FFR player. Hope you enjoy reading this and I hope that my skills can get even better than what they are now. :D