Pubby if you care so much about your rating, just find a friend. Ask him to make a smurf account and then give you points till you are back to your previous level before you got smurfed.
Obviously it sounds like Eddy_Current was being a d-bag about it, but don't OOS. :/ You don't want that to follow you, just look at the KpN's...
My advice on the hotkeys is that, no offense to you, but at the 1600 level I think you could be focusing on more important things than specific hotkeys.
Obviously ones like period and comma are very useful for idle vils and military. But honestly I think that is all you need at your point in the game. That is all I use for hotkeys, and I can get 17+ easily and play around the 1700-1750 level.
This is just my advice, and could be totally wrong if you are one of those Korean guys that can 100 things at once. I find that hotkeys can help, but this is how I see it:
hotkeys < micro < Military Army < Economy
I just think that you are doing too much too early. Maybe its just me, but trying to remember more than 5 hotkeys makes my head spin, 11. And like I said earlier, hotkeys are not necessary to play well. When you pull them off correctly you can compliment your game nicely, yet it can be a detriment to your play if you pull it off badly.
Not the victory but the action;
Not the goal but the game;
In the deed the glory[This message has been edited by Husker (edited 02-21-2010 @ 09:53 PM).]