Tennis Betting Tips For Beginners Finding the right tennis tips on bettingexpert today is easy. First you will see the top three most tip-worthy tennis games listed at the top of your tennis tips page and then the corresponding number of tips posted each on that tile.
I started playing Fortnite Battle Royale for the first time today and this is the backup stream consisting of that. If you all want to make fun of a noob/give me tips/etc. I'd greatly appreciate it. I did however manage to make it top 5 in one of my first few games!
Call of Duty: Mobile - February 5th Community Update & Public Test Build
https://preview.redd.it/pd0xmv18trf61.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=7797a4cfe50c33a06ab65ed46ccd00c204fffe8a Greetings Call of Duty: Mobile Community! We are back today with your usual type of community update filled with info about recently released or upcoming events and modes, but this time we are also happy to share that the next public test build is here! We’ll have that in first section following the events schedule, but it is being released far earlier than normal, especially for one that is filled with content from the next major in-game update. However, for Season 1: New Order the biggest release this week is the featured event, Fight For Humanity. https://reddit.com/link/ldpeki/video/tei7fdebwrf61/player This new event, released yesterday, asks you to pick a side and join the fight alongside your fellow players while you earn points in an attempt to control territories. There are many unique rewards to snag this time, both as a team and solo, and we’ll have more details about that event below in its own section of the update. In this update we also have responses for recent feedback and bug reports alongside various event, store, mode, and playlist updates that recently released or are coming soon. First off though, we want to say thank you to the many players who have reported a variety of bugs and created discussions to give feedback about new features, modes, balance changes, or other aspects unique to this season. Members of our development teams who create these events, make balance changes, add new pieces of content, game modes, and more, also read your responses and feedback. Thank you all for your dedication, passion, and commitment to making this game better through so many different ways. With that said, let’s jump into this update! https://preview.redd.it/nhr33madwrf61.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=d92f9a5116c867106b75da4711ad83cde764de4a Here is a quick look at all of the new events starting today and others launch soon:
02/03 – 02/09 ~ 10v10 Collection (MP)
02/03 ~ Two New Seasonal Challenges
Deadly Mist (Gas Grenade) and Premier Operator
02/05 – 02/11 ~ 3v3 GunFight (MP)
Check out the Gunfight Trio event
02/05 – 02/11 ~ BR Sniper Only
02/05 – 02/19 ~ Fight For Humanity event
02/05 – 02/18 ~ System Overload Draw
The brand-new Ether – Network is here!
02/08 – 02/14 ~ Grind Baby, Grind! (MP)
02/10 – 02/16 ~ Russian Nuketown 24/7 (MP)
Coming Soon – Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year store content
*All Dates UTC We covered a number of these topics in the last community update, but we’ll go over some again if it is launching today or if we have some new information to share. First though, just a reminder that for Battle Royale we have limited modes launching every week in February and the newest mode, Blitz, will be back later in February. https://preview.redd.it/9v3crd9vwrf61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=3d2f76132c10f62ea1ccf812db1329dc2724f4c8 February 5th - Public Test Build We are back quite early in the season with a public test build ready to go for our next update, which does not release until March. This test build will be larger than the last couple in relation to the player limit and new playable content, much of which may release in one of the next two seasons. We are thrilled this time to announce that we have added iOS to the mix! You'll need Test Flight to access it, but otherwise it should be a relatively straight forward install. Here are all of the usual details, but please note that we have two different APKs to download this time.
Begins today on February 5th (PT)
Test end date not specified
Available for Android and iOS devices
Download Size: 2 gigabytes, Wifi connection is highly recommended
Player Registration Limit: 40,000 (30K Android, 10K iOS)
Content suited for ages 16+
All information and player data collected during this test will be deleted
This time around we have two different versions, 32 bit and 64 bit. For anyone unfamiliar, 64 bit is more suited for higher-end/newer devices while 32 bit is generally more suited for lower-end/older devices. We recommend that you only download the 64 bit version if you have no issues running the current version of CODM on the more demanding (high/highest) graphical settings. With all of that said, the 64 bit version is the ideal version we would like players to test during this specific public test build. If you can, please download and use that version of the build. Please find all of those download links below along with the player registrations limit per version.
(Priority) Android - Downloadable via 64 Bit APK here: (Registration Full)
20,000 Player Limit
Android - Downloadable via 32 Bit APK here: (Registration Full)
10,000 Player Limit
For iOS players, you’ll just need to have Apple’s Testflight application installed on your phone and this link below should take you to the correct page to download the test build.
iOS Testflight Link:(Registration Full)
10,000 Player Limit
We do have a general cap (as listed above) on how many players can enter into both the iOS and Android versions of this test. You unfortunately won’t be able to see if that limit has been met until you try to register an account at the login screen. We’ll update the page here once registration is closed, but this is just a heads up for anyone who manages to download after we’ve hit that limit. In this build you’ll be able to find a variety of new content, but some of the main ones you might notice are: Shoothouse (MP Map), Shipment 2019 (MP Map), updated Night Modes, Sword & Stones mode, the Truck in BR, new perks, and the new Bull Charge Operator Skill. Of course, there are plenty of smaller changes or new additions hidden in there too, but this is just a glimpse at what you’ll be able to try out. Some general tips for downloading this rather large file:
Do your best to make sure you on a secure uninterrupted connection so that the whole package is downloaded without any issues
Try to turn off or stop your device from going into any kind of rest mode
If you are running into issues download the file, try using a different browser
Make sure you have 5-6 gigabytes of data free on your device
This file and build is independent of the main build, you do not need to remove or do anything with your main CODM application. It will install as another application that is executed separately. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to help us test out this new content and please make sure to report any feedback or bug through the in-game options, like the in-game survey that may not be available right off the bat but will show up once the beta has been out for a while. Fight for Humanity Sides have been drawn, the field of battle has been laid bare, and the Fight for Humanity has begun! Your first choice is simple, Atlas Corporation or Cordis Die, where will your loyalties lie? Pick one of the two sides, open up the map, see what territory is currently being fought over, and what tasks you can complete to help your side win that battle. https://preview.redd.it/zab957iyxrf61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=d12d6a7edf27d89ac7cf5ffac1bbd2f15d67602c Each side will have its own set of Faction rewards available and they are broken down into milestones, winning prizes, and leaderboard rewards. Each faction has its own version of the Cordite to grab (seen above) and the Russian Merc operator. Additionally, the faction that wins it all will snag the ATV – Override and the those who reach the top of the leaderboards can snag the Legendary Calling Card — Rupture. Through all of those different methods there are many rewards to grab by participating in this global battle of territory control! Lastly, you can boost your points by using various weapon sets that are indicated in the top right of this event page in-game. If you’d like to get the upper hand with some tips and tricks then head on over to our Fight For Humanity blog post. Good luck out there and may the best faction win! Seasonal Challenges Two seasonal challenges are already out in the wild as of last week and now this week two are more coming your way! The first challenge, Premier Operator, is more of your usual type of seasonal challenge with a variety of rewards and tasks, while Deadly Mist is a unique one due to the fact that you can earn a new piece of a tactical equipment the Gas Grenade by completing it. Find the details below! Premier Operator This six-part seasonal challenge is all about using different operators in Battle Royale and Multiplayer modes. The tasks all vary, ranging from just playing BR matches to getting kills with the S36 while using Outrider. You can earn nearly 20K Battle Pass XP for completing these tasks plus the following rewards:
(Uncommon) Mechanic – Warp
(Uncommon) S36 – Warp
(Rare) Charm – E-Chatter
(Rare) Special Ops 5 – Trance
Deadly Mist This five-part seasonal challenge went live a few days ago and it is your rare chance to grab a brand-new piece of equipment. The gas grenade is a tactical grenade that slows down your enemies with debilitating smoke that also provides cover. Complete a variety of tasks related to equipment, scorestreaks, and perks, and you’ll be able to snag this new tactical grenade along with the following items:
(Uncommon) Smoke Grenade – Warp
(Rare) Calling Card – Dystopia on TV
(Common) Gas Grenade
https://preview.redd.it/q44od4330sf61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=afcc9e6aac686ea0447b4f8763ed595860013219 3v3 Gunfight Mode This tactical showdown played on perfectly symmetrical small maps has returned, but this time around each team is bringing an extra teammate with them for this competitive challenge. This team-based mode released yesterday on 2/5 (UTC) and for anyone unfamiliar with it we have a new video just to show off the basic rules and objectives. Take a look! https://reddit.com/link/ldpeki/video/uqcb2ql60sf61/player While you are playing 3v3 Gunfight make sure to check out the Gunfight Trio featured event in order to earn some rewards while you are challenging yourself to intense tactical gameplay. There are eight tasks to this event and they are all straight-forward, like get kills or play matches, and by completing these you can earn the following rewards:
(Uncommon) Frag Grenade – The Numbers
(Uncommon) Knife – Warp
(Rare) Kilo Bolt-Action – Cosmic Wave
(Epic) Cyber Clown Frame
System Overload Draw While we rarely highlight any draws, crates, or bundles through these community updates, it is hard not to bring up the System Overload Draw. This draw brings with it the second blueprint for the newest assault rifle, the FR .556 - Superhighway, and of course the highly sought-after new operator, Ether - Network. Here is a glimpse at those two main new pieces of content: https://reddit.com/link/ldpeki/video/txshs60b0sf61/player Another unique aspect of this draw, related to the Fight for Humanity event, is the Breach Set. If you acquire the three breach camos for Outlaw, the EMP, and the Karambit then you’ll receive a weapon set bonus for that featured event. That specific weapon set increases the points earned from battles between factions by 50%. You can find all of the information in-game on this new draw or in the featured event. Get a jump on it while everything is still active. Feedback Since the Season 1 launch we’ve primarily been focused more on reporting bugs, but there are still a few feedback-related topics we’ve seen come up and have been trying to respond to on a one-to-one basis whenever we are able to. Let’s jump in!
Voice Overs – We’ve brought up this topic numerous times in previous updates or on social media channels, but we keep seeing interest in upcoming voice overs, updating current (or missing) voices, and of course brand-new operators. We are of course working on all of those, just like we released many updated voice overs alongside some new ones in Season 1, but we are also working on ways to provide more visibility about all of that in future updates.
China Version Content – As you may see in the public test build (if you manage to snag a spot before it is full) we have some content coming in future updates that is also in the Chinese version of CODM, like Trucks in BR. Most likely, we won’t always keep content the same in each version of the game, but the teams managing the game are always working together to coordinate, discuss, and decide what content should release in each version.
Cheater Reports – For whatever reason, most of the time we release an update we see an increase in cheater reports. These have traditionally tapered off one or two weeks into the season, but we have seen no abnormal increases in cheaters. We will always keep an eye out for reports in community areas, so please keep sharing, but also please keep reporting in-game as well and we’ll keep monitoring and acting to make sure your experience isn’t compromised.
Master of All Event – A special shout-out to those who have been giving feedback back about the unique rewards on this event (6000 credits and BP XP as the final reward). The team was looking to see if this type of reward felt valuable to players and so far all we’ve seen is positive feedback about it, which may pave the way for similar reward setups in the future.
Next Update – While we cannot confirm any dates for our next season or update, it is always a moving target for a variety of reasons, we can confirm that the next update will be in March.
Bug Reports We’ve been going through many smaller bug reports lately thanks to threads, PMs, and posts sharing details, videos, or screenshots explaining the issue. We don’t have any huge issues to bring up this week, at least nothing new or seemingly troublesome, but we are working with our teams to investigate many of those smaller issues and please do keep sharing. It is always appreciated!
Battle Royale Bugs – We’ve seen a variety of BR related bugs come in over the past two weeks and they vary greatly in relation to the types, the severity of them, and how widespread they seem to be experienced. While we can’t list it all here, we just wanted to give a general shout-out and thank you to several community members who have spent a significant amount of time making videos, screenshots, and posts to highlight these issues clearly.
Black Screen Issues – We are happy to say that we have seen fewer reports of these types of issues after the Season 1 release after we implemented some general stability improvements for all players in that update. We’ll have more on that front coming in the next major update (next month) and we’ll be monitoring both in-game and external channels for reports.
Blitz Mode Performance – We have seen various discussions about performance issues in Blitz mode due to the changes made to put more players and items in a smaller area. This seems to be a similar issue to why some devices struggle with Warfare mode. We recommend experimenting with different graphical settings before jumping into these modes to see if that helps performance, but we’ll also see if there is anything we can do to help improve performance in these types of modes.
Support Options Lastly, thank you to everyone who have been reporting various issues since Season 1 released and please do keep using our support channels on top of community areas to repot issues. In the off-chance you haven’t seen this information in every single one of our community updates 😉, here are our main support channels:
https://preview.redd.it/5e5mlmwm0sf61.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=8041bf5e80de983c00bcb5cf20bbbe42664d8bb5 One of our greatest pleasures each week is looking through various community areas to see the latest and greatest in CODM memes, but also to see the latest and greatest art designs created by some extremely talented community members! This week, we are thrilled to be able to highlight Sarcstoon, who you may know as Sagar in certain community areas. Urban Tracker by Sarcstoon Sarcstoon is a character artist and their online portfolios are filled to the brim with impressively detailed pieces of art that range from CODM operators to commission pieces for real life couples. One thing is clear through all of their pieces, their style is unique and in particular for faces and expressions. Park Safehouse by Sarcstoon Whether it is Helen Park or Urban Tracker, they’ve blown us away with their vibrant, welcoming, and charming pieces of work that make us proud that CODM is lucky enough to be a receipent of their designs. If you’d like to see more of Sarcastoon then you have plenty of options to see their work:
Thank you all once again for being the type of community that supports artists and designers by providing positive feedback, supportive words, or even just upvotes or positive reactions. There are so many talented folks in the community and we are always eager to look for more each week. With all of that said, we’ve come to the end of yet another community update! We plan to return next week with more and with some info on our upcoming Valentine’s Day events & activities. You know us, we love to use holidays as an excuse to design new content, create giveaways, or just create engaging events with the general community. We’ll see you all next week and for those of you in the public test build make sure to jump on that before we hit that player limit! Thank you all and stay safe out there. -The Call of Duty: Mobile Team
Host or participate in Heists - Min. Level 1 / to participate; Min. Level 12 / or own a high-end apartment to host
I'm a millionaire already, just give me a grind:
CEO Import/Export Vehicle Work by Psychko - Currently most reliable and profitable money grind with high end only method - Min. Level 1 / if you already own a CEO office / if you do not own a CEO office
Do an I/E sourcing mission, then do VIP work (Headhunter or Sightseer are a breeze with a Buzzard) in the cool down, then do an I/E delivery mission. Rinse and repeat!
Earn 2000-3000RP per source delivery, 5000RP per sale delivery. Buy 1 crate and sell immediately for maximum RP since the same RP is given whether you source/sell 1 crate or multiple.
Earn 200-600RP bonuses when you stay near the CEO/VIP's location
My uncle left me a shifty little bar in his will. The employees here sleep in the backroom.
My uncle was an odd, lonely man. That one guy you try to avoid at family reunions, the one nobody knows too well but loves to talk about nonetheless. I think he liked me best because I never really enjoyed badmouthing him. I wouldn't say we were close, but we tolerated one another. At least that's how it was when I was little, we never bothered to stay in contact. I forgot about him by the time I left home. That's why the news of his death caught me completely by surprise. Uncle Mack was alone in his apartment when he had a heart attack causing cardiac arrest. He fell unconscious and died within minutes. Then there was me at the time. I had just flunked out of college and the only thing I was actually good at was playing video games. When I was contacted by Mack's lawyer, I was even more shocked. Mack had left me three things: a box of sorted letters addressed to me, all the money he used to own, which to me was a lot, and his bar–the one he had inherited from his father and had worked at all his life. I'll be frank, I had no idea what to do with the bar but I knew from the very start I'd take it over. I felt kind of honored–this had basically been Uncle Mack's entire life and he was giving it to me of all people. Sure, from what I knew there hadn't been many friends or loved ones in his life to choose from, but it was still flattering to me. Once I read the first letter, I was even more convinced. "Hi Giulia, If you're reading this, my bad eating habits have probably caught up to me. Or maybe someone killed me, who knows. As of me writing this, you're fifteen years old. You were the only one to talk to me at the family reunion today. Not for long, but more than just an awkward hello. I notice these things and I appreciate it. That's why I'm trusting you with the most important task anyone in this family is ever going to offer you. You are going to take over my bar. Besides, knowing you, you're not gonna have much of a career anyways, so you might as well. Once you're done reading this, please go to the bar at your earliest convenience. Take the box of letters with you and stash it away somewhere there. It has some valuable advice you're gonna need down the line. In fact, you will need to read the second letter right after your arrival. You'll find my employees are a bit special. Anyways, I hope you're doing alright, however this letter finds you. You're a good kid, Lia. Always have been. Besides, the only person you could possibly disappoint by screwing this up is dead so there's no pressure to impress. Sincerely, Your Uncle Mack." I wiped my eyes. They had actually gotten a bit watery while I was reading the letter. I folded the letter and tucked it back into the box before grabbing my coat and bag. Mack's bar was a train ride and a thirty-minute walk away from my parents' place, which is where I was residing at the moment. I figured I would probably have to look for a place close to the bar if I really would start working there full time. When I finally arrived at the establishment, it looked almost exactly the way I had expected. It was just another wall in the row of buildings on the street off to the side from the inner city's market square. A large, bright red double door with a neon sign reading "The New Saloon" above it. It would probably glow if I'd find out how to switch it on. At least I hoped it would glow. It felt weird, unlocking the door and opening it for the first time, all on my own. Entering and looking around inside felt even weirder. The New Saloon was your typical old-style dive bar. Even completely empty it looked overcrowded. The fabric of the cushion seats was stained and frayed, the walls behind and in front of the counter were plastered with neon beer signs and large framed photos of people I didn't know, some were even in black and white. The floors were dirty and my heels stuck to them when I walked further in. This place was small, shabby and smelly and I loved it. It was so strange but I suddenly just felt like this bar was mine, and that I needed to take care of it and protect it. Remembering what Mack had told me in his first letter, I pulled the second one out from the box and unfolded it. "Hi Giulia, If you're reading this, you're probably at the bar for the very first time! How do you like it? Let me guess, it's ugly and gross but it instantly started growing on you? Don't worry, it's about to get a lot weirder. You'll find the entrance to the backroom behind the counter. The lightswitch is on the inside of the wall, make sure to turn it on before you head inside because there's stairs leading down right behind the door. It's a death trap. Once you're in there, stand in the middle of the room. Stay away from the walls. You may then say out loud the following words: Spirits of this house, by the power of the spell that has bound you I command you to serve. You'll see what happens next. Whatever happens, keep in mind you can order them around. When all the work is done, simply tell them to go back into their room. You've got this. Sincerely, Your Uncle Mack." I frowned. That was odd. Was this the prelude to some kind of joke? I walked over to the door behind the counter and pressed down the handle. It swung open with a loud creaking noise and I began to grope around for the lightswitch. A single light bulb down in the backroom came flickering on and I proceeded down the rickety wooden stairs. No bannisters. Risky, especially with the shoes I was wearing. By the time I had reached the middle of the room, my heart was already beating faster than it should. Still, if this was a prank, Mack had been planning it for over five years, and I was not about to ruin it. Besides, no one was watching anyways. I cleared my throat. "Spirits of this house…" I began, a giggle swinging along in my voice. "By the power of the spell that has bound you I command you to serve." Nothing. Not a single sound for five whole seconds. I looked around the room. It was completely empty, except for a single door in the wall across from me. Maybe I had been supposed to say it in whatever room was behind that one? Just as I was about to walk over to it, a loud noise came from one of the walls to the side. I spun around to find that it had cracked open. Bits of it were beginning to crumble to the floor as the tear widened. I stared at it with my mouth agape, frozen in place and incapable of comprehending what I was seeing there. From the crack, a set of long, bony pale fingers reached out into the room, gripping the inside of the wall. My throat was too dry to produce a proper scream, but I couldn't contain a gasp as I staggered backwards until my back met with the other wall behind me. It was then that I felt cold palms rubbing against my neck and hands closing around my shoulders from behind. This time, I shrieked. I whirled around again only to see that there was a hole there too, long, skinny arms slowly moving forward from it, grabbing at me, searching for me. I glanced around the room frantically. Holes had opened in basically every spare spot. I counted four sets of arms pulling themselves out into the light, followed by similarly slender upper bodies. By the time I finally thought to run back up the stairs and save myself, the people from inside the walls were standing in the backroom, fully emerged from their dark hideouts. I didn't risk another look at them. When I finally reached the top stair, I dashed back into the bar and slammed the door shut behind me. I pressed myself up against it just to keep standing. My knees had grown weak beneath me and I was panting heavily, my mind racing. Then I heard them; slow, light footsteps making their way up the staircase and stop on top of it. I heard calm, steady breathing coming from the other side of the door. I tensed up and shifted my weight on my feet, leaning up against it to keep whomever was in there from getting out. I was sure this person would start to try pushing it open, but to my surprise, nothing happened. Instead, a voice rang out from inside. "Excuse me, who are you exactly?" It was a man's voice. I had expected something like a growl, or a hiss, or the groans of some decomposing zombie, but this was distinctly more articulate. It sounded almost polite. I didn't know what to do other than respond. "Giulia," I stammered. "Giulia?" The man sounded surprised. "What about Mack? Wait, if you're here…" He sounded quite sad now. "Mack's dead, isn't he?" "Yes," I replied quietly. "His heart stopped." "That's… good God." He fell silent and I heard him utter a shaky sigh, almost like a sob. "I'm sorry, would you give me a moment? I need to tell the others." "Go ahead," I murmured. "Nevermind, they heard us. So, will you let us out now or…?" "Who are you? Why were you in there?" "We work here, actually. My name is Andrik… I do most of the organizing here. I take care of the accounting, our profits, our spendings; I place the orders on most of what we need. Back here with me, I've got Bo, who is our bouncer, and Danika and May, both waitresses." "You work here?" I repeated. "And you live in the walls? After your shift is over, do you just go down there and melt into the room or what?" I couldn't help but let out a nervous chuckle at the mental image. This was just too absurd. At least I was breathing normally now. "Pretty much, yes." I shook my head. "What are you?" "Well, to explain that you would have to go exactly a hundred and twenty-two years back so it's a long story," Andrik replied. "All you need to know for now is that if you let us out, we'll get the bar up and running right away. We've been working under Mack ever since he took over this place though, so you'll have to excuse us if we're a bit gloomy." "No, that's fine," I muttered, slowly turning away from the door and carefully pulling it open. The man in front of me was of normal height, slender and looked to be in his thirties. Despite being dressed in jeans and a simple black t-shirt with the bar's name printed on it in white, swirly letters, he had a very official look to him. Maybe it was the way he stood, straight as a rod with a friendly yet matter-of-fact smile on his face. "Thank you," he said. Turning back to the room, he raised his voice. "You heard it everyone, Mack might be gone and while that's a downer, our work isn't over; so get yourselves up here and let's get this going again!" His tone carried the flat motivation the coach of a youth sports team might have. Three more people emerged from the backroom, all dressed exactly like Andrik, all of them that same content little grin on their lips. They walked by me offering polite greetings; the first one, a large, bulky guy giving me a curt nod and the two women that followed smiling brightly. The girls were a little younger than Andrik, maybe in their late twenties. Both had blond hair hanging down their shoulders in wavy pigtails. That first night the bar was open, I merely watched the backroom people work, following them around while they ignored me. It was eerie. They looked almost like automated mannequins, going about their routine by sticking to preplanned paths; like there were set directions painted somewhere I couldn't see. I soon began to notice other distinctive attributes about them. None of the people from the walls had fingernails. I saw it on the waitresses when they reached for the cups handed to them, on Andrik when he scribbled down notes. However that was not the only thing off about them. All those little details in their faces, the kind of thing you'd normally never pay attention to–they didn't add up. For example, their eyes didn't lign up. One was always slightly lower than the other, just enough for someone to notice. Their nostrils would differ in width and one of the girls' pinky fingers was the same length as her ring finger. Had I not known that they had just crawled out from the backroom walls, I would have chalked these harmless little oddities up to simple, inconspicuous deformities, but knowing what I knew, it made my skin crawl with uncomfort. I soon found out that Andrik did most of the talking for them. Bo rarely ever said a word, and all the waitresses did was whisper amongst themselves, giggle and chat with the patrons. Eventually, Andrik waved me over to him behind the counter. "Alright, to give you a rundown of the place, we have a cash-only system. We rely on our local clientele, but once in a while someone new comes by and then we try and keep them around, obviously. Here's some of our regulars." He pointed at a lady sitting in a corner, weeping over an empty glass of whiskey. "That's Shauna. Comes here whenever she can, only ever orders whiskey. Will not stop crying." His finger wandered over to an old, short man with an almost disproportionately large head and short white hair. He was sitting at one of the tables as well, talking to two younger women who seemed very much out of place. "That's Tommy. He's likely to start fights but he drinks a lot and tips very generously. Bo throws him out a lot but he's very easy on him, so don't worry." He finally nodded towards a tall glass of wine standing lonely on the counter right in front of us. "And this is Irene. She can't pay but she's always welcome. She's very nice and she's been here ever since Mack's family started this business." "Andrik, there's nothing there." The pale man threw me a confused glance. "What do you mean, she's right… oh! Of course. Don't worry, you'll start seeing her with time. Either way, for now there's actually not much for you to do except read up on barkeeping once you get the chance. However you should start getting acquainted with the regulars. After all, the owner of The New Saloon will always be part of the reason why people come here." He paused as his mouth started to twitch into an almost guileful grin. "I have a feeling they're going to love you." I retreated into the ladies' room for a quick break. I sat down on one of the toilets and buried my face in my palms. I had no idea what was going on or what I was supposed to do. Andrik had made himself pretty clear when it came to the instructions he'd given me, but all of this was so surreal I seriously considered the possibility of me having suffered some kind of blow to the head and dreaming it. I spent the rest of the night standing behind the counter and observing their every move. Andrik kept to my side mostly, looking at me with the kind of suspicion I probably had in my eyes as well. I couldn't figure him out. I accidentally-on-purpose walked by the waitresses who were talking to each other in hushed voices, picking up on small bits of their conversation. "Her blood is weaker than his. Do you think she's–?" "We shouldn't take any chances. Remember what Mack did when we tried to test him?" "I do, but this could be our chance to have some fun." Her words sent chills down my spine. Remembering Mack's letter however, I decided this was not the time to show I was frightened. "You're going to do no such thing," I chimed in from behind them. "I don't care what you are but I promise I'll find a way to make this whole thing very uncomfortable for you guys if you try to pull any kind of weird crap on me." The looks they gave me were worth my initial doubt. They seemed shocked that I had listened in on them at all, let alone spoken up. I glared at them, holding their gaze and ignoring the trembling of my legs. Their heads lowered, they marched off. When the bar began to clear out and we got ready to close down for the night, I told the four of them to clean up. Of course I helped, but I made sure never to lose sight of a single one of them. I felt like they were wild, hungry animals, waiting for their chance to pounce on me. Whenever I looked up from the rag I was wiping the countertop with, I would find one of them staring at me. By the time we were done, the place really did look a lot more welcoming. It certainly was cleaner, despite the four workers' angry faces spoiling the mood. We carried the cleaning supplies back into the small storage chamber next to the employee restroom before I went to open the backroom door for them. "Okay everyone, good job today! Thanks a lot, now back inside!" I called out, almost enjoying the feeling of authority as they came trodding towards me and made their way down into the dimly lit basement single-file. Andrik was the last one to cross the threshold. Right before descending the staircase, he turned to face me once more. "You were keeping a close eye on us," he said quietly. "That's clever. But you're going to need to keep it up and… let's see how long you'll last. Who knows what might happen." He gave me a sly wink with the one eye that was a little lower on his face before following his co-workers. I watched from the top of the stairs as they leaned up against the walls. It was almost as I had expected; their bodies seemed to melt into the holes they had come from, sealing them shut and not leaving so much as a thin crack. Lacking a better option, I stayed at a nearby inn that night. As bizarre and frightening as all of this had been, I got out of it unscathed. The bar workers and I would end up coming to blows in the future though, more than once. And I wouldn't always be that lucky. X Part 2: one of the regulars had a doppelgänger Part 3: My bouncer and I got beaten up by a little girl. Part 4: The regular who never stops crying. Part 5: Appreciate good employees.
300-400 Viewer Average and Partner in 5 Months Here is my Advice
Just yesterday I hit free twitch turbo partner on twitch after roughly 5 months of streaming (somewhat) consistently. Today I'm hoping to share some decent advice and give my own (learned) opinion on some of the frequent yet not always useful tips shared around here. Before writing this I did a cursory search through the subreddit for frequently asked questions so hopefully this answers most of the ones that I myself have any experience to answer. My simple request: I'm not going to be posting any links to my stream or anything but if you go out of your way to find it please don't follow/subscribe to the channel unless you are genuinely interested. Thanks big boss.
Should you stream?
If I have to read another thread or comment of a person asking if they should stream I am going to scream. What do you people expect to hear? Yes, please stream the world needs you, you will be rich beyond your wildest dreams and have all the clout to have ever been cloutted. I know people who usually type out questions like that probably don't read posts but here is a hack I've used to answer my own dumb questions through out the years. Say that shit out loud and respond to it like someone asked you the question. Nine times out of ten, you end up answering it yourself and on the off-chance you actually don't you should have a more actionable question. Example: Instead of asking "should I stream?" you end up realizing the only thing holding you back is having no mic or something. The question then becomes "I want to stream what's a good cheap mic?". Which is a lot better and doesn't make people want to pelt you with rocks. For those of you who ask "should I stream or is it a waste of time?" please, I BEG YOU, stop. Most of the shit you do is a waste of time, you either want to stream or don't. Make a decision based on that.
Webcam, do you need one?
This question is asked so often that I see it every time I come on the subreddit. Unsurprisingly, the answer is always the same as well, yes you do. However I disagree. I have never streamed with a webcam, not a single time, yet I'm still here and somehow managed to get partnered. Now, I know why every one parrots the same advice, it is because the people making tip threads, youtube videos, etc., all say to use a webcam. Harris Heller said it once and I'm pretty sure that was enough for the people who copy and paste what he says in text threads here to become their mantra. The truth is, all that matters is the content. Ask yourself do you do/want to do a lot of react/just chatting content? If so, you probably want a webcam since your content will focus around reacting to content. Lirik doesn't use face-cam because his content is his gameplay and commentary, not his face. Corpse literally blew up and is famous for not showing his face (even though he is still a personality). I know the whole "Lirik doesn't use a face cam" argument is going to be met with people saying "exception not the rule!!!" but seriously, just use your head. Half the people you watch probably don't need face cams. MoonMoon probably doesn't need a face cam, Critikal didn't have a face cam until he already had over a million subs on youtube, schlatt didn't either, Dream doesn't, AdmiralBahroo doesn't, almost every DBD streamer I watch doesn't, just think for yourself. The point I'm trying to drive home here is not just that a webcam isn't required, but also you need to look at what you want to create and decide for yourself. Edit: I saw someone say somewhere that you need a webcam for sponsors. That's cap. I've had a sponsor and nobody has seen this ugly mug.
Equipment in general
People like saying that they need this this and that before they start streaming. This is just stalling. Until last month I hadn't owned a desktop PC my whole life. Before that it was just laptops and using my phone to read chat or look up things. You obviously need SOME equipment to start, i.e. a computer and some form of internet connection, but that doesn't mean you need to pick up a shure, a streamdeck, 4 monitors, 6 consoles, and whatnot. Here is my setup. Keep in mind I literally just upgraded this last month after saving up for several months:
Blue Yeti: Hell ya baby got a free game with it too so I'm for sure pleased with this purchase. Edit: I recommend shopping around for mics since the yeti isn't as much of a "get this for streaming" mic as it once was. Plenty of good options out there for cheaper
Two BenQ monitors: Like I said, I was using my phone for chat but that got old fast. These monitors are cheap and 144hz. There are some color issues but eff it I barely notice anymore
Streamer PC from NZXT: My old laptop was from 2016 and made editing literal hell. Averaged 3 crashes every time I would try and render (and the renders took about an hour). Upgrading to this was the most worth purchase I've ever made. Also, the streamer PC got upgraded since I purchased, so you can grab a 2070 instead of the 2060 ti like I have :)
Red Dragon Keyboard and Mouse: I'm a cheap ass so when I see light up peripherals for like 40 bucks total I am sold.
Earbuds: Legit don't know the brand. I stole them from my sister like a year ago. I prefer these over a headset anyway since I don't want that gamer dent lmao
For those of you who are probably saying "GROSS A PRE-BUILT" remember that part prices are actual aids right now, not to mention the availability of even finding good parts. If you have the cash go pre-built that shit is amazing. My recommendation: Stay with your shitty set-up as long as possible but make sure to pick up a good mic first. Big streamers (looking at you Ludwig) shit on the Yeti, but straight facts all you need is to EQ that shit a lil bit and nobody will bat an eye. You don't have to pick up the Yeti (there are lots of cheaper options) but that's just the one I and many others have gotten since it is reliably a good ass mic. Audio <- chat engagement <- pc upgrade
YouTube
How many people have to tell you bums to focus on YouTube before you do it? Twitch sucks ass. I'll say it, i'm brave. No discoverability, especially to those of you at the very bottom. Make a goddamn YouTube and start pumping out videos, it is not hard. Ludwig made a power point on how to be a streamer that talks about a few things but the most important point of all was what he said on creating content for stream/YouTube. This isn't the exact timestamp but it do be close: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/896089267?t=01h24m14s That advice is coming from a top streamer who also has over a million subs on YouTube by almost exclusively taking twitch vods and editing them for YouTube. As for getting views on your videos here is my advice from my personal experiences:
Thumbnail and title are important but there are outliers that can thrive without doing shit. One guy I saw has their most watched video (over 250k views) with a title like "[game] [character] gameplay" and the literal default thumbnail that youtube makes. AND to top that off it was just a VOD from their twitch channel.
Audience retention matters. There is a reason massive YouTubers have these weird zoom in pans and flamboyant gestures all the time. Lots of movement and noises keep our tiny attention spans happy and frequently cutting is usually the key to success, although don't overuse it. I do very light edits and have been growing but that's more of my personal preference rather than a growth strategy.
Respond and engage. If you have one comment on your video and they are complimenting you, why aren't you responding? This is by far the easiest way to get someone to continue to engage with you and trust me, that is the most important thing in the algorithms eyes.
My understanding of YouTube
So obviously, clickthrough rate and audience retention are the things that are constantly brought up when talking about gaining more views and what not, but I am fairly comfortable in saying that there are other metrics that you should be paying attention to. Let me hit you with a something that would make Dream shake in his boots. I don't subscribe to anyone on YouTube. *gasp* The reason for that being, I almost always have the videos I want to see on my home page. I never have to go, "wonder if x YouTuber made a video" since YouTube knows I watch and enjoy their stuff. The question for most people being, how does YouTube know what people like and how does it suggest it to them? Basically, by seeing how often people engage with your content AND also what type of content you create. (although keep in mind, youtube tries to throw new videos at you a lot as well, these are usually in-line with content you engage with though) For engagement, think of it as like affinity points in a video game but in reverse. Before you get to bang that smoking hot sim, you got to woo them. Every time someone likes your video they get a point, every time they comment they get two, every subscription counts as like 10, watching an entire video might be 20, etc. Obviously, these are made up values but I hope you follow what I'm putting down here. Once they get enough points you start showing up more in their home page. I know this because I have a different account on my phone that doesn't have the same suggestions as my main account because I watch different things on my PC than my phone. However, I do like to look at the comments while I'm taking a dump or something. Problem was, my videos were rarely every recommended. I solved this easily by liking a couple videos. I didn't even watch them, just liked and read comments. LITERALLY NOT EVEN SUBSCRIBED AND I GET NOTIFICATIONS ON MY PHONE SOMETIMES WHEN A VIDEO DOES WELL! In other words, by getting people to like and comment on your videos you are almost guaranteeing they see future videos from you. Now, keep in mind, engagement is only a small portion of the whole pie. And even though you might engage with a content creator often, there is still a chance you miss some of their videos because of one other reason, the content's genre.
Content Genre
You might have noticed this phenomenon on various different creators YouTubes, but sometimes they create a video that bombs. Usually, this happens when they create something outside of their niche. This could be as simple as changing games, or as radical as changing the entire direction of the channel. Even if you engage like crazy with a creator, if they change the content enough, you won't get that shit recommended to you. This is the main reason some creators have several channels and why some even get pigeonholed to one type of content. The reality of it is, if you build your audience on one piece of content and then want to change it, you will be fighting an uphill battle. One of the best ways to fight that is to diversify early OR better yet, emphasize your personality over the content. Jschlatt shits views and he does whatever the hell he wants really. Same goes for jacksepticeye, markiplier, Ludwig, Critikal, XQC, and numerous other creators. That being said, doing one game/genre isn't a bad strategy either. A metric fuck ton of OfflineTv's videos are the same game. DisguisedToast played Hearthstone on repeat, then switched to TFT, THEN switched to among us, and his videos absolutely kill. Valkyrae is one of the biggest streamers period and all she does is play/upload among us and rust. Then of course we have all the minecraft streamers too. It's really up to you to decide, but I'd recommend going towards personality content since that allows the most flexibility.
Other Social Media (Twitter, IG, etc)
Lots of people here seem to think that they don't have time to do YouTube or some other BS they think up as an excuse, so they think that twitter, instagram, tiktok, etc are all ways to grow. Trust me, they are not good ways to grow. These are all stupid treadmills that trick you into thinking you're doing something when in reality you aren't moving the needle by much if by any at all. Posting ten dumb tweets and reposting memes on IG seem "productive" if you frame it in the light of "content creation" but the two people that see all of these things don't really give a shit. Spend that time working on a video for YouTube. Don't give me this "I don't have time" bullshit. Do small videos and work yourself up, become better and faster. Perfectionism is a cute word for procrastination. Ok, now that I took a shit on them so hopefully, you won't grind on them all day, these are still ways to grow and are important. Having multiple platforms for fans to communicate and engage with you is always a good idea, but don't spread yourself so thin early on when nobody knows who you are. Prioritize the thing that will get eighty percent of your results. I personally have a discord for people to come and chat in. Thing is, I had no intention of doing so because I don't really use discord that much. The only reason it exists is that people kept asking for it in the comments on my YouTube videos so I made one. TL;DR: Don't put the cart before the horse :) Edit: Oh ya I forgot to mention. TikTok is trash for growth. I won't mention names cuz that's probably toxic(?) but there is someone signed on luminosity who has 690k TikTok followers and 95k YouTube subscribers who barely cracks 100 views on Twitch and has a hard time getting over 1k on YouTube. So don't go thinking TikTok leads to immense fame ya darn kids
Hosting/Raiding
Getting hosted/raided means actual jack. I remember pretty clearly when I had like ten viewers, I got hosted by someone with twenty-five or something. I think only one person ended up saying anything in the chat to me about it and although some stayed for the entire stream, by the time I went live again I lost all of the people who were in the host. This seems to be something others have mentioned as well, you won't retain almost any views from hosts/raids. Edit: Please do try raiding/hosting or otherwise networking with other streamers at least once. Your mileage may vary and it could end up blowing up your channel. Who knows? Edit edit: Having something that you can do during the stream is huge when getting hosted/raided. Most of the time, if not all of the time, a streamer is ENDING their stream and sending viewers to you rather than timing it for your own content. So if you are doing something uninteresting or are in the middle of something you are going to get less retention than if you did something crazy to impress the newcomers. In other words, having a strategy for hosting/raiding growth is key.
Speaking on stream
This seems to be something a lot of people struggle with on Twitch since so many people ask how to do it when nobody is watching/chatting. Coming from someone who had this problem, the answer is pretty simple, talk for the content not the chat. What I mean by this is you should be focusing on your content more than the chat. Since I play games, what I do is just say some shit about whats happening on screen and sometimes say something that is hopefully funny. Pick up a garbage item? Say something about how garbage the item is, ez. If you're streaming to NO VIEWERS you shouldn't be streaming to stream anyway. What you should be doing is making a YouTube video in the hopes of getting viewers to watch your stream. The only way to do that is to have good content planned out that should effectively act as your script. Again, Ludwigs stream on this is good (it'll probably be a video soon) so make sure to check it out. A more recent problem I've had was just how much I engaged with chat (suffering from success I know). When I went to edit the videos I had to cut large swathes of the video because I was just chatting to people. Make sure to avoid this when you are actually trying to get content out for YouTube as it can mess up the flow of a video and make it harder to edit. You still can chat with people just make sure not to go overboard. Again, Ludwig is a perfect example of this, just look at his videos and streams and notice the difference between the two.
Streaming as a job/hobby
I hate this dumb argument of streaming isn't your hobby or twitch isn't your job. You have 24 hours in the day, subtract 8 for sleeping and depending on your job, 9 for work. All that extra time can be spent doing whatever the fuck you want. Want to get big and make money streaming? Do work. Want to just stream while you're playing games anyway? Do that. IF YOU WANT TO BECOME A PROFESSIONAL AT SOMETHING YOU PUT IN THE AMOUNT OF EFFORT REQUIRED TO DO SO! So stop telling people it has to be a hobby or it has to be a job. It can be either for christ's sake.
Partner difference
I have a checkmark which makes me a better person. No, but seriously, partner doesn't really do much other than add more emote slots and some quality options. Also, you don't gain extra cash as a partner either. I don't have the mystical bounty board or god-tier split, just the checkmark to flex baby.
Opinion on affiliate
Devin Nash made a video about how affiliate is a scam, which is kinda true but only for people with no viewers. Having the sub button is huge and even when I was small small, affiliate gave me a couple hundred bucks a month for no effort on my part. Patreon is probably better though, no lie.
Twitch "grind"
If you stream 5+ hours a day without making content that lives somewhere else please form a neat line so I can smack you all. People saying they have no time drives me nuts, but when they also "grind" all day AND say that, it makes me want to punch air.
Stream YouTube friendly content
Stop stream and edit content
Upload and plug twitch in the video
repeat
That is the only "grind" you should be on. Affiliate is stupid if the 3 viewers you have are all just you on a different ipad.
Luck
You know what? Maybe PewDiePie got lucky and that's how he is such a big YouTuber. Maybe early twitch streamers got all their views because they were early adopters. Or maybe these people only got lucky because they showed up and actually put the effort in. There are plenty of videos on my channel that looked like flops at first. They got like a couple of hundred views and didn't do well. However, after continuously publishing, a whole bunch of them ended up blowing up and becoming some of the most-watched. Without publishing more videos they would have ended up dead in the water. Consistency > luck. I don't believe too much in luck when it comes to doing very simple things (LIKE MAKING A YOUTUBE VIDEO) but you literally cannot win the lottery if you do not purchase a ticket, it's that simple.
Editing Software
A couple of people asked this so I thought I should add it here. I use davinci resolve for my videos. Previously, I used hitfilm or something like that I can't quite remember the name, but I had to switch because they don't allow you to have split audio channels (i.e. one for desktop audio and one for mic audio). I've literally never touched any paid software like premier or anything because, again, I'm a cheap ass.
What should you upload to YouTube?
Seriously just look at Ludwig, smallant, DisguisedToast, literally every top Twitch streamer with a YouTube. All three of the people I just mentioned are over one million subs on YT and are top streamers, so they are definitely doing something right. In terms of off-stream content, guides are king. If you're a small YT channel with ZERO subs you can still get thousands of views by hitting the search algorithm of YT. My first 3 videos were uncut gameplay, guide video, guide video, in that order. Guess which ones have tens of thousands of views and which has less than a thousand? Guide videos are insane for small channels. Edit: Actually, let's just call it searchable content. Searchable content is king
Ending notes
I think that's about it for this post. Hopefully, I covered everything although I doubt I did. If you have any questions I'll try my best to answer them and will probably edit the good ones into the post.
Host or participate in Heists - Min. Level 1 / to participate; Min. Level 12 / or own a high-end apartment to host
I'm a millionaire already, just give me a grind:
CEO Import/Export Vehicle Work by Psychko - Currently most reliable and profitable money grind with high end only method - Min. Level 1 / if you already own a CEO office / if you do not own a CEO office
Do an I/E sourcing mission, then do VIP work (Headhunter or Sightseer are a breeze with a Buzzard) in the cool down, then do an I/E delivery mission. Rinse and repeat!
Earn 2000-3000RP per source delivery, 5000RP per sale delivery. Buy 1 crate and sell immediately for maximum RP since the same RP is given whether you source/sell 1 crate or multiple.
Earn 200-600RP bonuses when you stay near the CEO/VIP's location
Host or participate in Heists - Min. Level 1 / to participate; Min. Level 12 / or own a high-end apartment to host
I'm a millionaire already, just give me a grind:
CEO Import/Export Vehicle Work by Psychko - Currently most reliable and profitable money grind with high end only method - Min. Level 1 / if you already own a CEO office / if you do not own a CEO office
Do an I/E sourcing mission, then do VIP work (Headhunter or Sightseer are a breeze with a Buzzard) in the cool down, then do an I/E delivery mission. Rinse and repeat!
Earn 2000-3000RP per source delivery, 5000RP per sale delivery. Buy 1 crate and sell immediately for maximum RP since the same RP is given whether you source/sell 1 crate or multiple.
Earn 200-600RP bonuses when you stay near the CEO/VIP's location
Host or participate in Heists - Min. Level 1 / to participate; Min. Level 12 / or own a high-end apartment to host
I'm a millionaire already, just give me a grind:
CEO Import/Export Vehicle Work by Psychko - Currently most reliable and profitable money grind with high end only method - Min. Level 1 / if you already own a CEO office / if you do not own a CEO office
Do an I/E sourcing mission, then do VIP work (Headhunter or Sightseer are a breeze with a Buzzard) in the cool down, then do an I/E delivery mission. Rinse and repeat!
Earn 2000-3000RP per source delivery, 5000RP per sale delivery. Buy 1 crate and sell immediately for maximum RP since the same RP is given whether you source/sell 1 crate or multiple.
Earn 200-600RP bonuses when you stay near the CEO/VIP's location
My ~500 day journey to a 160/180 N1 score (w/ tips & tricks)
Hey guys, wanted to share a bit of my happiness today >w< TLDR; I passed N1 (160/180) after 438 days of learning Japanese from zero, my secrets are just read a lot (especially VNs (Visual Novels), they are the BEST!!!), use Anki with AnimeCards, and be consistent. My Journey: First 6 months! (August 2019 - January 2020) I started learning around the end of August 2019. I applied to Tohoku University in Japan for MEXT Undergraduate (for an International Aerospace Engineering course in English) and got accepted. This was the impetus to start learning Japanese, since I would be living in Japan for at least 4 years. I started by trying to find out good resources and methods of study. I came across Kanji Study on Android and used that for isolated kanji recognition study (10-20 new kanji/day in frequency order) and to keep track of my studying. This only worked for about 1000 kanji, because the English keywords stopped making sense and I didn’t really know any vocab examples or readings. I had a private tutor to help me push through the basics. We did like 10 meetings in my initial prep before I departed to Japan. I asked to skip all the hiragana/katakana rote memory stuff since I could learn that by myself. Instead, we talked about the basics of Japanese grammar and how to go about learning kanji. We used Minna no Nihongo I for like 3 meetings but I got bored and suggested we go through grammar points by understanding sentences/texts with audio. She gave me an intermediate reading comprehension book with audio and we practiced listening, reading, and grammar. I didn't know a lot of kanji at the time but thanks to Kanji Study, I could at least recognize the kanji and the meaning of the text after discussing thoroughly with my tutor. Tip #1: Speed run the basics (Hiragana, Katakana, common grammar points) and get to reading ASAP! Get used to Kanji but don't force yourself to individually learn kanji beyond a certain point (For me it was 1000-ish) I departed to Japan at the end of September and upon arriving had no idea about anything. The listening practice barely helped me understand. It did let me (just barely) get what people were saying and I managed to get by, by speaking very basic sentences. Whilst getting used to the new university life, I tried making Japanese friends and joining different circles. I came across a volunteer Obaachan group that would hold many events and I joined them often for conversation practice. This helped me recognize words in conversation better, although in hindsight this was probably inefficient since I didn't know many words yet. I needed to take the JLPT, since I wanted to skip basic Japanese at my uni. I was worried that I would only be able to pass N5 (at the time of registering for the 2019 December JLPT). Turns out I passed, yey. My daily study regime was about the same for the first 6 months. I learned to recognize 10-20 new kanji on Kanji Study, reviewed grammar rules, watched some Nihongo no Mori N3/N2 videos (they are great! Even for beginners!), and joined events with Japanese locals when I could. My biggest achievement during this 6 month period was being invited to give a presentation in Japanese about my country, Indonesia, at a local middle school in Japanese (around the 4th-month mark). I made the slides using the limited kanji knowledge I had and practiced for the presentation, which I feel went pretty well. I made one major mistake: I mistook the kanji for “uniform”, writing in the slide title (IN VERY BIG FONT): インドネシアの征服 [TL: Conquest of Indonesia] (it should be インドネシアの制服 (TL: Indonesian Uniforms (笑 lol)) 6 months to 1 Year (February 2020 - August 2020) I thought that I had done pretty well in my first 6 months, especially since I could now hold basic conversations with the local obaachans and I knew like 1000 kanji based on Kanji Study (No, I did not know 1000 kanji. I merely recognize the meaning and was an idiot for thinking so.). But that changed when I came across a Discord server through AnimeCards that completely changed my language learning habits. When I first arrived on the server, I could barely pass the N4 vocab quiz and when I joined a VN reading stream, I could read nothing! I stumbled, misread kanji, didn’t even know a lot of words, and all in all, I didn't have a clue what was happening! But everyone seemed to be fine besides me lol. I had my ass handed to me, literally btfo’d. The people there were welcoming, although they can be very cynical and sarcastic (still love you, bros!). When I asked how everyone was so good at reading and had such extensive kanji knowledge, the answer was always the same: read more, just read VNs. This was followed by slurs and being called a dekinai, which was a real shock to me! (cuz all the obaachans would be going 日本語上手! at the slightest sight of basic fluency). But thanks to this experience, I started to realize that Japanese is so much harder than I thought! Just by doing the N3 or N2 Kotoba Vocab Quiz, I clearly didn’t know many words. I was disillusioned by how bad I actually was: I couldn't even read basic texts without looking up words every few seconds. I always thought that the 常用漢字 (Joyo kanji) was more than enough to read any light novel or novel I wanted. I was shocked when the more senior members started talking about how native media (i.e., LNs, VNs, and Novels) are actually much harder, especially in Kanji, than the supposed end goal of JLPT (N1). I could only read and lurk in silence. So, I looked into the anime cards guide and started doing Anki. Around March (the seventh month-mark) and started to read VNs (Nekopara). Nekopara was surprisingly easy for a beginner like me. I didn't know about Anki mining with Yomichan and gave up after Yomichan couldn't connect to Anki, until I finished Nekopara Vol.2. I had started to get a bit of confidence and decided to challenge my next VN. I started to read Island, I really struggled with it and had to look-up words every 2 or 3 sentences, but because the story was so interesting I managed to finish it after 2 or so months of reading. The first route, although quite simple now, really messed with my brain because I kept finding new kanji and new words to mine. (I have 1400 total cards mined from this amazing VN!) Also, I would like to highlight that just after reading Island, I had already reached 2200 kanji from my previous 1000 kanji mark. (This excludes easy kanji, where I couldn’t find words to mine from). This was all in 2 months of reading Island (about 60 hours for me to finish). Sounds pretty crazy right? Essentially, going from N2 territory to N1 in that amount of time (of course, just the kanji/vocab). Island isn’t even considered a very hard VN by VN standards, although there were some pretty cool words I mined like 絨毯、邂逅、蹂躙、and 顰蹙! (Yes, I know these are quite common words (edit: somewhat common in VNs or Novels, definitely not in general, sorry hahaha), but for me at the time, these were intense!) Besides reading VNs, I also watched quite a lot of anime with Japanese subtitles, mainly shows I had already seen with English subs. I recommend this as you already know the plotline and can easily match the new words, sentences, and dialogue to your understanding of the anime. After my initial shock at how bad I was at reading and my new adventure into VNs, I started thinking about taking the JLPT. I was introduced to a nice obaachan volunteer tutor and we did some JLPT practices together. At that time I apparently could already pass N1 although very ギリギリ (got about 105-110 on some mock-tests we tried), so I decided to apply for the 2020 July JLPT. Sadly, it was cancelled because of Corona. But on the bright side, I had more time to prepare and could also read more VNs. Starting from July, I began reading Dies Irae, after someone streamed the opening on DJT, which got me super excited to try it. It's quite notorious for being hard and very long (it's super long, alright!). But I really liked the premise. Long story short, Dies Irae really hammered my reading ability with its super long exposition, hard vocab (yes, I’m looking at you 鬼哭啾啾, 鸚鵡返し, 箍を締める, 眦, 珊瑚 and friends), and the character Mercurius that kept talking so abstractly, it becomes easy to lose track whenever he goes into monologue mode. Tip 2#: Don't be afraid to start hard, if that means you're enjoying what you're reading! Always challenge yourself with new things and try out whatever you feel looks interesting, especially when it comes to Visual Novels! 1 Year to JLPT N1(Aug 2020 - Dec 2020) [Final Touches] For the N1 test, I used the Shinkanzen N1 Grammar and Dokkai books for practice (Highly recommended), Sou Matome N1 books for short review/references (meh, but did learn a few things), also watching Nihongo no Mori N1 grammar videos (Marvelously easy to set on 1.5x/2.0x and speed run through). I also stayed consistent with Anki reviews and VN reading (Although I did occasionally read some light novels; Hakomari is amazing guys, highly recommend!) Although practicing for the N1 with Shinkanzen definitely helped me get a feel for the N1 format, what helped me most was reading VNs. VNs helped me so much with reading that I essentially had no problems with the actual N1. I continued reading Dies Irae until the N1 test and had happily mined 3500+ cards for a total of ~7000 cards with ~2900 kanji. During the test, all my hard work came into fruition. I finished the first part (Vocab and Reading) of N1 with 25 minutes to spare (from 110 minutes) and I was 100% sure that I would get a perfect score on Reading (which I did, easily). Thank you visual novels, god bless you. I was just slightly confused about some of the vocab questions but I was still confident I would get 50+/60 at least (which I did). For listening, I practiced with audiobooks and tried out the many free listening resources for N1 available on youtube. I'm actually a bit stunned I only got 45/60, since I thought I did very well on the listening: I only had 2 questions I felt confused about. I guess I still have a lot to learn! And yes, I do acknowledge that the N1 is nowhere near the level of some native media. The VNs that I've read (Dies Irae especially) were much harder than the texts given in N1, although some of the answers in reading were quite tricky (but I knew what they were trying to trick me on, so it was ok). Even while I was quite busy with my Engineering classes and keeping a relatively good grade for MEXT, I still tried my best to put in time for Anki reviews and reading. I don’t think there’s such a thing as having no time to study. You can always make time if you don’t mind setting priorities! That being said, you still need to put a lot of time into Japanese to get to a high level. On top of my busy schedule, I would try to immerse 6-10 hours on weekends and holidays (may that be Anime, LNs, VNs, or light N1 practices), which helped boost my time with Japanese. Tip #3: Use N1 practice books to get used to the questions, but don't depend on them. I believe that language should be acquired and to really get good at reading, you just have to read. I highly recommend Visual Novels since they have great context (image, audio, sentence) for mining cards, but also because they are quite dense and do force you to read. Of course, if you don't like VNs then that's fine, I just want to highlight how they have helped me so much to get better at reading and learning vocab until now. Present Day (January 2021 - Now) So now that I’ve passed N1, what are my next goals? I want to pass Kanken, preferably 2-kyuu. I'm currently studying using QM's Kanken Deck (An amazing deck btw) and the 3DS Kanken practice game. Although I’m still around Kanken Lv. 3 of the deck, the reading/memorization parts of the test are not that hard I believe, and I think it's more a matter of getting used to writing the kanji and practicing for the test. As such, depending on if I can pass consistently on the 3DS game, I will consider taking level pre-2 or level 2 of Kanken. Also will retake the N1 sometime this year December or next year to get a full score (満点). I thought It would take at least 3-4 years, but apparently 2 years is probably enough for a full score! Starting this February, I have a long 2-month break (pray for my final exams this week guys!), which I will use to the fullest to finish all my VNs (Kajiri Kamui Kagura, Grisaia Series, Muramasa, etc) I want to read and practice for Kanken. Also, I would like to practice pitch which I never bothered touching until now, since my accent isn't horrible (but not great either). Closing: All in all, these past 1.5 years have been amazing and I’m very happy to be able to enjoy anime series, light novels, and visual novels more with my continuous progress in Japanese. Although I could have specialized more on listening and gotten a better score, I do believe I have a pretty good balance between Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing. I feel like now that there are better resources, especially the 2.3k Anki Core Deck for initial vocab/kanji study and Anacreon DJT MPV script for mining from videos (anime, Jdrama, movies, etc) easily, I could have probably studied more efficiently. So, If you guys haven’t checked these out or any other resources I’ve mentioned, please do! Feel free to contact me through Discord (Doth#5403) if you have any questions or more preferably just ask the more seasoned people at the DJT server (Don’t ask simple stuff that can easily be googled, because this place isn’t really beginner friendly, but definitely houses some knowledgeable and helpful individuals!) or TheMoeWay server (More beginner friendly, pretty tame). Caveats: cus I know people will probably try calling me out if not
I live in Japan and although I study Engineering in English, I still communicate with friends in Japanese. This has helped me build my listening skills, although my scores would beg to differ, hahaha.
I have a pretty good memory, so I never really had trouble adapting to Anki. I’ve heard about people who can never really get used to Anki reps and I personally think it’s a matter of settings, trial, and error.
Shout out specifically to my DJT discord bros (not 4chan, I never go on there) for helping me so much with getting into VNs which helped me get a great vocab score (55/60) and perfect reading score (60/60) ezpz. (QM and friends) Also to my newly made friends on TheMoeWay, you guys are comfy and great! (Shoui and friends) Both have amazing guides which you should check at: https://animecards.site/ https://learnjapanese.moe/ Image links: JLPT History (N5-N1): https://imgur.com/gallery/u7m81sm N1 Results: https://imgur.com/gallery/0abMEbj Study Streak: https://imgur.com/gallery/PSb1xNc Edits: formatting, changing word usage lol, added a link to the VN guide since it is probably a new concept to a few viewers here. 顰蹙 is not that common, I just happen to see them quite a few times in the VNs I read. Don't want to misrepresent guys! But 蹂躙 is common, I knew it, wtf stop trying to gaslight me guys!! Thanks for all the awards! Happy to see this post has been helpful for some people! :)
The Double Edge of Medication OR: the guide I wish I had when I was first diagnosed
Tl;dr: here's an essay about how to live without medication, or how to survive your ADHD when meds just aren't working for you. As requested in the comments, I'm adding a TL;DR for every section, as well as adding some bolding to help the skim-readers. The actual advice, tips and tricks are the very last section at the bottom, you can skip the rest if you need to. Godspeed, friend.
So, You've Got ADHD
TL;DR: I was diagnosed in 2017 and I didn't get much guidance from my doctor, I had to figure out a lot of things on my own. I've reached a lot of conclusions with coping with my meds, and if I could get a time machine and share them with myself, these five epiphanies are what I would share. I'm not sure if my experience with getting a late diagnosis is entirely typical, but for me, at the age of 25, my family doctor screened and diagnosed me himself, he wrote me a script and sent me on my way. In the follow-ups he had a few words of guidance and support but mostly just asked me if I saw improvements in function. There was a thick printout of medication-specific information that mostly read like legalese, largely warning of the side effects. I want to preface this essay by saying that medication changed my life; this essay is written from the perspective of someone that was unmedicated for 25 years and then successfully medicated for 3. Even today, medication still has a lot of stigma attached to it and I am passionate in my advocacy for the validity of treating ADHD with stimulants. That being said, stimulants are not a one-size fits all solution. There are a lot of people that can't take them because they don't have access to affordable healthcare, there are people that can't take them because they have contraindicating conditions, there are people that have tried them and had to stop because of overwhelming side effects. When medication is hailed as a miracle or the end-all be-all solution to ADHD, these people can feel sidelined and invisible. At the same time, many people that are still struggling with their ADHD even while being medicated might feel like there's something wrong with them. I wanted to write a little bit about my journey of being treated with stimulants and a little about strategies for treating ADHD with and without prescription medication. This essay combines a lot of the epiphanies I've had over the last three years and covers the following topics:
Medication is a tool, not a cure
Medication as a crutch
ADHD and Depression
Lifestyle and Self Care
Treatment Beyond Medication
I'd like to add a disclaimer that ADHD is not the only condition I have; while this may complicate my perspective, I feel it also adds a lot to my experience and understanding of executive dysfunction and disability.
Medication is a tool, not a cure
TL;DR: Medication wears off, and having medication doesn't turn you into a person without ADHD. It doesn't do the work for you, you still have to be the one to implement the strategies to overcome your dysfunction. Medication doesn't always work consistently and it's important to have other tools to rely on and not just the medication. When I first started medication, something my doctor told me that resonated with me was that the medication doesn't do the work for you, it gives you a chance to put the work in yourself, where you weren't able to before. It struck me as true then and still feels true now. Medication doesn't fix the executive dysfunction, you do that yourself. The executive dysfunction itself is just the entropy that happens to your cognitive and executive function, the result of the thought patterns created by neurotransmitter deregulation. As far as effective tools go, stimulants as a whole cannot be disputed. Before diagnosis I was self-medicating with caffeine and energy drinks. When I met my doctor the first time, he asked me how much coffee I consumed and I was honest: 6+ cups of coffee to get me out the door in the morning, and 2 or more energy drinks on top of that to help me make it through the workday; this was one of many symptoms that led to my doctor's decision to screen me. Stimulants stimulate your nervous system and therefore your neurotransmitter production and processing. If your neurotransmitters aren't being regulated properly (the core of ADHD) giving your brain a stimulation boost will help with that. But that boost is just a boost, not a cure. At some point, before you go to sleep, your medication wears off and you are still a person with ADHD. A question I've seen that comes up a lot in ADHD groups when people try medication the first time is "is this how normal people feel???" It's a challenging question to answer especially because different people experience ADHD differently; it is a spectrum disorder. I personally have ADHD-C and I would imagine a lot of my cognitive development has been shaped around my difficulty focusing, for example in the way that we hyperfocus. Being medicated doesn't mean I don't hyperfocus, for me it just makes it less impossible to shift my attention around, I don't get stuck as often. Instead of hyperfocus, to me it's like megafocus. I don't believe medication makes my mind imitate a neurotypical person's, I think it just gives my ADHD brain some extra gas to make up for the extra ADHD holes in my tank. You still run out of gas eventually, the medication wears off. And you have to walk a line between having a high enough dosage to meet your needs while not being so heavily medicated that you can't sleep and risk developing serotonin syndrome. Often I see comments of people complaining that their dosage is too low, and that does happen, and is valid. But honestly if you can get by with a lower dosage, it's the best thing for you. In one way or another there's always going to be a struggle with managing ADHD, you may have to give up on the idea of never grappling with cognitive dysfunction just because you've been diagnosed and are medicated. It's about managing the ADHD as best you can, not about living without it. Similarly, if you are the neurotypical parent of a child or adolescent with ADHD, I feel the need to remind some of you that there is no amount of medication and therapy that will turn your child into a well-trained golden retriever. Even neurotypical people struggle with growing up and getting by sometimes. Signs your dosage may be too high and in general good symptoms to talk to your doctor about:
Your hands shake a lot and you find yourself struggling with motor control
You sweat a LOT
Hot flashes
Fevers
Dizziness, vertigo
Reynaud's syndrome (when your hands or feet and rarely face, knees or nipples go numb and dramatically pale as if the blood drained out of them, followed by flushing red)
Significant insomnia, loss of emotional regulation
Severe anxiety
To some extent these symptoms could be experienced while adjusting to medication and to a smaller extent could just be a part of living with stimulant medication; benefits sometimes may outweigh side effects, depending on the severity. It's absolutely worth checking in with your doctor to monitor. Some side effects can be a minor nuisance and benign but Serotonin syndrome can be serious and even life threatening
Medication as a Crutch
TL;DR: The pitfalls of trying to medicate your ADHD out of existence without other strategies and tools and coping mechanisms can set you up for a downward spiral if/when your medication becomes less effective, this is what that might look like. About a year and a half into being medicated, I was really struggling with a toxic work environment and also in denial about the job being the problem. I worked long, physically and mentally exhausting hours, I was held to high standards that required a very high level of focus with harsh punishments for small mistakes. I worked nights and I would find my meds would wear off before the end of my workday and I would describe this to my doctor as like living "Flowers for Algernon". It would hurt my self esteem every day to go from feeling so sharp and functional to slowly becoming dysfunctional and disoriented as the day went on, and it affected my work performance strongly; constant criticism from my boss further lowered my self esteem. I blamed myself for my struggles and I became depressed. We tried increasing my dosage so it wouldn't wear off and I could maintain focus to the end of the day. I couldn't sleep. The days started to blend together and I found it increasingly difficult to parse out my memories; things that happened two days ago felt just as sharp in my mind as the things that happened a day ago. I would forget to do important daily things because I remembered doing them, but in reality I had done that days ago. Despite raising the dosage, the meds seemed less effective than ever, I was still struggling to focus. I only knew for certain the medication was making a difference because as dysfunctional as I was becoming, it was still worse when the meds wore off. I felt useless at worst and unhelpful at best. Often I felt that the meds seemed like they just made me stupid, faster. As amazing as the medication had been at first, it turns out they didn't get rid of my ADHD. And the meds did absolutely nothing to teach me how to actually live with the active impairment of ADHD. I felt like I spent every day pushing uphill this boulder that threatened to roll over and crush all the progress I'd made, and it was getting heavier by the day. I was exhausted and frustrated and I felt constantly demoralized by the lack of support from my boss and the world at large. This is a real disability, but when it actually is impacting you it suddenly is just an excuse? I'd been trying to medicate it out of existence, but that did nothing to teach me how to function as a person with ADHD. It didn't teach me how to regulate my emotions when my meds have worn off. It didn't teach me how to tackle executive dysfunction when the meds just aren't working. If anything, I had unlearned a lot of what I'd learned before my diagnosis, my strategies and techniques atrophying from my reliance on the meds as a crutch. I wanted the meds to do the work for me and they couldn't. If you're curious, I had to leave that job and then lower my dosage and revisit what it means to take care of myself in therapy.
ADHD & Depression
TL;DR: People with ADHD are much more likely than the general population to struggle with depression and anxiety, and it can be hard to realize how much the depression is affecting you when you are so focused on treating your ADHD. Treating your depression can also help you manage your ADHD. Even when you take the same dosage every day, your brain might not be the same every day. It's normal for every human, even the neurotypical ones, to have larger arcs of ups and downs in life. But for us? Depression sorta comes with the territory. After 2020 especially, I'm sure everyone understands that sometimes you have limited control over how well your life is going. I've battled with depression for pretty much my whole life before diagnosis. After my first major depressive episode post-diagnosis, what I realized is that depression makes my meds less effective. At first I blamed myself, but the more I thought about it the more it dawned on me: when you're depressed, your brain literally doesn't function as highly as it does when you're not depressed. You add that to ADHD and you get the double whammy of lower function on top of your already compromised function. Mix in some hyperfocus and you get anxiety: downward sweeping mood swings, potentially catastrophic anxious thought spirals and anxiety/panic attacks that can be challenging to regulate and manage. Existential dread. Meltdowns. If you've been here, you probably are familiar with how frustrating it can feel to hear people say ADHD is a superpower. There may be silver linings, sure, but ADHD is a legitimate disability. Emotional deregulation is not a personality, it is not a quirk, it is not a social-systemic incompatibility. There's another caveat I personally struggle with as someone with a menstrual cycle: your endocrine system and your nervous system are inextricably linked. Many women, trans and nonbinary individuals report added difficulty managing symptoms related to hormone fluctuations. This is because your neurotransmitters rely on your hormones and vice versa: estrogen is involved in dopamine production. Progesterone suppresses estrogen and progesterone rises and falls dramatically as the driving hormone of the menstrual cycle. Frequently I see people asking in support groups if it's it's normal to try medication the first time and not feel different, wondering if the dosage is too low or if it just takes a very long time to kick in. I always ask them where they are in their cycle, and many times it seems to be a factor. Every month, for nearly an entire week, my meds don't work in much the same way as when I'm depressed. And if I happen to be depressed already when this is ongoing? Lord, help us all. Side note: if you haven't looked into Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder, this might be a good time to research it and see if that sounds familiar to you. If you find yourself being pummeled by the double whammy of depression and ADHD, the good news is that there is a treatment for this, though you might not like the sound of it: anti-depressants. SSRIs and other anti-depressants can raise your serotonin levels to give you more of a cushion so you don't scrape the bottom of the barrel every month with your ADHD. They can help stabilize you so you can figure out how much of your struggle comes from ADHD and mental illness and how much of it is caused by your environment. Many people recognize and understand that their mental health is poor because of lifestyle and other environmental factors and would rather resolve to address those instead, and that's valid. That said, for many it's much easier to make rational and secure lifestyle changes when you're not flailing for survival. It might seem like a lot of meds to be on, an anti-depressant and a stimulant at the same time, but let me assure you that there are lots of people doing this successfully and that are better off as a result. While a lot of people have reported negative side effects of anti-depressants, you have to weigh those against the negative side effects of not being on them; the very real symptoms you may be struggling to manage right now, dear reader. If you feel like you could benefit from anti-depressants but are still afraid to try them, remember that you don't have to be on them forever; in fact they usually recommend a 6 month to 12 month course, after which they wean you off, see how you're doing and see if you still need that help. The idea of relying on anti-depressants may seem restrictive or stifling but, I try to think of it like a brace for an injured limb. It's totally okay and normal to hesitate; it's your body, your brain and your decision, you don't have to figure everything out in one day.
Lifestyle and Self Care
TL;DR: You could be wasting energy by working against yourself, trying to maintain a lifestyle that actually isn't helping you. People with ADHD often have other comorbid conditions. Pay close attention to what works and what doesn't, make sure you're taking care of yourself. Self care has become a bit of a meme in recent years and it's one of those phrases that is just abstract enough to make it easy to miss the point. What is self care? Self care is when you take care of your self. This can mean different things to different people, but the crucial points involve doing what you can to ensure your needs are met: eating, sleeping, grooming, exercising, cleaning, socializing, organizing, working, playing and relaxing appropriately. Obviously, when you have ADHD and executive dysfunction, self-care can become like a twisted game of whack-a-mole. Different lifestyles can make this more or less challenging but the main point I want to make with this segment is that there actually isn't a one-size-fits-all lifestyle and self-care routine that works for everyone. For example, a lot of people will insist that staying up late and sleeping in is bad for you, but if you have Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, sleeping in might be necessary. Getting a job where you work nights can be self-care, limiting your availability to only working specific hours may be a necessary accommodation. If you have always struggled intensely to fall asleep before 1am, do some research into DSPS. Sleep disorders are real, and they are not a lack of discipline.
Maybe working 40 hours a week is great for most people, but maybe 30 is your sweet spot. Maybe it's 50+?
Maybe working a Monday-to-Friday isn't for you. Maybe you're more of a gig worker, or a seasonal worker.
Maybe working at a desk isn't for you, maybe you're more of a tradesperson
Maybe living in one place isn't for you, maybe you're more of a nomad.
Maybe you sleep better when you play video games until your eyes shut, or while watching videos on your phone
What works for a neurotypical people might not be natural or comfortable to you. You would think this is obvious, but so often I feel like many think the goal of treatment is to make you into a reasonable facsimile of a neurotypical person. Don't let neurotypical people instruct you to be neurotypical. Try different stuff and figure out what works for you. Self care for you might not necessarily look the same as it does for other people, not even other people with ADHD; It bears repeating that ADHD is also spectrum disorder. Self care isn't always physical, it can be emotional. Self care for me involves setting boundaries with other people, which isn't just learning to say "no". Self care can mean limiting relationships with people that hurt you emotionally, self care can mean not working a job that doesn't treat you humanely. Self care isn't just taking care of your self, it's giving a fuck about yourself.
Treatment Beyond Medication
TL;DR: These are my strategies for coping with ADHD. As mentioned in the comments, many of these require somewhat of a baseline functioning that can be hard to reach if your executive function is too low. This is true of every treatment and strategy for dealing with ADHD, the key is to keep trying despite failure. Sometimes, what you need more than tips, tricks and strategies is support, acceptance, assistance and understanding. The entire reason I wanted to write this essay is because I often see in support groups people asking how to treat ADHD without medication. Frustratingly, often these questions come from people that don't have healthcare access, much like myself, prior to moving to a country with healthcare where a doctor could recognize my ADHD within an hour of speaking with me. If this is you, dear reader, I know your struggle and I want to give you all the tricks and tips I've amassed to help you make the most of what you've got. When it comes to living with the impairment of ADHD, sometimes I feel like an expert. Other times, I feel like I need an adult. I spent the first 25 years of my life trying to hold my shit together with spit and a prayer, with mixed success. Which, I often have to remind myself, is better than no success. I've developed these strategies for living with myself through trial and mostly error.
Coffee and tea
Therapy
Conditioning
Strategy
Assistance and Assistive devices
Support groups
Coffee and tea gets its own shout-out. They've been cultivated for thousands of years for a reason. When I was in high school, the student body opened a coffee shop and my GPA went up so fast I won an award for most improved GPA. Watch out for caffeine addiction and heart palpitations, but don't hesitate to use these valuable resources, if you can. Therapy is unfortunately another method that isn't financially accessible for everyone, but if you can afford it, I can't recommend it enough. Especially if you were late diagnosed, there's probably a lot of things you've experienced that you never even had the time to process because you were just trying to survive. Therapists help a lot with developing insight and recognizing what barriers you face, this can be a challenge when you're drowning in executive dysfunction. Therapists speed up the self-analysis process so much, it really stops you from wasting time blaming yourself and just helps you solve problems and cope with frustrations. There's lots of types of therapy, like psychotherapy, CBT, DBT. But Occupational therapists, especially those that specialize in ADHD, can help you develop personalized coping strategies, organize yourself in a way that makes it so you aren't fighting with yourself. Strategy: To me, good strategy is when you outsmart yourself; when you see the things you grapple with and limit the potential it has to happen again. You take the moments you are present and aware to prepare for the moments in the future that you won't be. ADHD affects memory formation and recall very significantly and if it seems like you can't keep things clean and organized because you do better in a mess, there's a reason for that. We do better when we can see and survey everything everything at a glance. Out of sight, out of mind.
Try taking the doors off your cabinets
Dressers are for people without ADHD. There. I said it.
See-through everything. If you need to keep it in a bin, let it be one you can see inside.
Walls! Use your walls! Use shelves! Hang things up! Get creative. It might seem overwhelming or tacky to someone that likes a minimalist aesthetic or thinks that everything should be put away and hidden from sight. Too bad! It's not their space, it's yours!
I shorten my leash so I can't make as big of a mess. I have fewer cups and plates so I run out immediately and have to clean them before I make a pile too big to deal with. I try to have exactly as much clothing available as I need so I run out of it at the end of the week and must wash a load.
Conditioning is a strategy for coping with my inattentive episodes, so important to me that it gets its own blurb. Call me Pavlov's Daughter. To condition myself, I find an area that often creates issues and I try to imagine a program or mechanism that would prevent the issue from happening again. Examples: leaving my bag under the seat on the subway, leaving my phone in a taxi cab, not remembering if I locked a door or turned off the oven, not remembering where I put important things, losing my keys. A program for me is a queue that prompts an action on my part, something that can get triggered even when I'm fully checked out on autopilot, blackout sober, maximum inattentive episode. They're basically little rituals and habits that become a compulsive second nature. This conditioning creates little checks that help snap me out of my inattention during the moments I need it the most. It takes time to make it automatic, but here are some of my successful attempts at programming myself:
Every time I stand up from a chair, I say "wallet, phone, keys" while patting down my pockets. Any chair. Every chair. I have narrowly avoided losing my phone literally hundreds of times because of this.
every time I get up to leave a subway or bus I look at/under the chair
Every time I turn off an oven or lock my door I say out loud "I am turning off the oven"/"I am locking the door" - this helps me remember it later on, when I'm not sure. I also try to vary the way I say this to help me differentiate whether I'm remembering something I did today, or another day.
similarly, if I am setting down something important that I will need to find later, I say out loud to myself where I am placing it. "The W2 forms are in the left desk drawer" "The present for my husband is in the back of the dresser"
Every time I walk in the door, I immediately put my keys in a bowl on my table. This is where I often would set my keys without thinking, so I made it Official by putting a decorative bowl there whose entire purpose is to hold my keys.
Assistance & Assistive Devices: I know people like to complain about the age of the Smart Phone and 'anxiety squares' and the perils of reliance on technology and overuse of social media. I am not one of those people. Smart phones and social media saved my life. Before diagnosis and medication, my phone was filled with repeating notifications that would prompt me to do everything from paying my bills to cleaning the litter box, even reminding me to bathe. There are even apps now that are specifically designed with this in mind: I have heard glowing reviews for Tiimo especially. Do you lose your stuff all the time? Try Tile! I save notes in my phone constantly with numbers and the description of what the numbers are for. With ColorNote I can search through all my notes with those key words later, for those moments when I go "crap, what was the security code for the alarm system??" I turned on voice controls on my phone and now instead of wasting hours of my life wandering around my apartment trying to remember where I set my phone, I use voice commands to set a one second timer and follow the beeping. There is also zero shame in needing help from a human being if you have that support available in your life. Self reliance is cool and all, but having another person to slingshot you around can be life changing. Some people do better as a team, and there's nothing wrong with that. In the morning, when I go to the bathroom I set up the coffee machine and my partner pours the coffee and brings it to bed when he goes to the bathroom. The coffee helps us get out of bed, then we coordinate together what we need and want to get done that day, and help keep each other on task. If one of us is having an off day, the other can step up to help more. Support Groups exist in many forms, across nearly every platform. On some platforms these can be very literal, groups for individuals with ADHD to ask questions and get advice on their problems. These are extremely useful for developing insight for your condition, using data points offered by other people with the same condition. There are no better experts on living with ADHD than other people with ADHD, and we just love to talk about it. I'm just one person with some advice, there's thousands more of me out there and you can inject us into your daily life by following groups, feeds, pages, and creators with ADHD. One word of caution: some groups are heavily populated by the parents of people with ADHD, and can be really demoralizing and triggering to join. Some groups are more empowering than others, and if a particular group makes you feel bad to be in, maybe you'd be better off without it. Don't give up, there's plenty more
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