First week of vision drills done

Well, 6 days anyway. Given my uber-beginner status, I have modified MDLM so that on day 7 of each week I will only play games, no MDLM exercises. I hope to play at least one long game at ICC tomorrow night, with notebook in hand, treating it as an actual tournament game.

I am in a definite rhythm now with the drills: I am finishing them in 20 minutes (queen, bishop, and rook only) when it used to take me an hour. Also, just as advertised I am now almost doing them without thinking, while on my first day my brain told me in no uncertain terms that it had been thinking hard for that hour.

That said, after a little under 2 months of thinking way too much about the game, I am still ridiculously bad at chess. I want to learn an opening system. Right now I use a few strategems like develop your pieces fast and try to control the center, but I think it would be good for me to have a target on my side to aim for (e.g., where, in an ideal world, would I place my pieces?). I am also trying to learn how to develop a pawn structure that establishes a stable territory rather than establishing that I have no idea what I am doing.

On a positive note, one thing I have found helpful is going to ChessFm to watch the flash animations of games with commentary by IM Bill Paschall. They give me a better sense of the game, and how to spot diagonals I should be attacking. My favorite so far was two hypermoderns staying away from the center at all costs in the opening. :)