Nice game! Couple of comments...why did you play 8. Ne5? Isn't 0-0 better? What plan did you have? And 12. Nd2...I don't know but I think d4 would have worked. Overall decent game!
Beautiful Pawn Storm

Nice game! Couple of comments...why did you play 8. Ne5? Isn't 0-0 better? What plan did you have? And 12. Nd2...I don't know but I think d4 would have worked. Overall decent game!
I felt 8. 0-0 was the better option but my gut told me to wait a tempo and play slightly aggressive. I believe it was you who suggested I play faster games (hence 5|5 instead of 30) and I know black would castle soon; I wanted to gain an extra tempo on aggression and see if I could psych black out before 0-0. I still think 8. 0-0 was better too; this was purely experimental.
I have always preferred knights and closed positions. 12. Nd2 was not the best because it allows black to come in strong with a kingside attack (a pretty good one), but I wanted to bring my queen into the game and my knight was in the way. This was the only logical square that continued to allow mobility since Ne1 would have completely blocked the knight in. I knew the threat on black's knight was going to be short-lived but it was long enough to bring my queen in with tempo.
If these two moves are your only critiques of my game then I feel honored, thank you for the feedback and the questions!
This game is far from perfect, but I am proud of this seemingly unstoppable pawn storm unleashed on my opponent. Further analysis shows my opponent had some outs, but the game is enjoyable nonetheless. I will not bother with annotations; I am simply posting this for your viewing pleasure.
Note: I usually play 30 minute games. I undoubtedly make more mistakes with 5|5 minute games, but I am forced to stop second guessing my original ideas. I am still determining whether it is better or worse for me - my next game reminds me of Mikhail Tal.