working my way up?

It's good to mix it up. Few can stand constantly getting thrashed.

I think the best way to improve is to analyze your games and read books.

analyze your games

Play people somewhat better than you.

If your opponents are too weak you can lose your sense of danger and don't get to practice dealing with tough situations.

If your opponents are too strong you can lose your sense for winning opportunities, and you don't get to practice dealing with winning positions.

You can learn more from the way someone 100 or 200 points higher than you wins, because you're nearly at that level, and you can (at least partially) comprehend it. You can't learn as much from a GM beating you, because their methods are too advanced.

Yeah yeah, so there's nothing new under the sun, just trying to pass the time.

lol

After a few drinks I do a sort of stream of consciousness thing to generate a username.

I have no idea how I came up with this one.

I wanted to keep the horse theme for the avatar though, so maybe my mind was doing something like horse -> stallion -> little stallion -> stallion-ling -> stiggling

No, but I've seen some videos.

My main thought is: it would take tremendous patience, but it can give a unique look that isn't bad.