Smile

My manager asked me today whether I'm happy working at IPPUDO. I said yes. And then he said if I'm happy, then I should smile.

I felt weird. I always thought that I was smiling, but apparently others did not see it that way. My tutee also once told me that I'm a very dull person and did not laugh a lot. Maybe I was just smiling in my heart, and did not bring it out. Other people can only see what's on the outside, and cannot see what's inside my heart. Hence the only way to let others know what you are thinking is through your expressions, body language, and words.

I thought that maybe I need to learn how to smile. I know that smiles are very important. They are the antidote to many problems, and just a simple smile can bring happiness to everyone, including yourself.

However, in Japanese, there is something called 作り笑い, which means "forced smile" or "fake smile". You use it to show others when you want to achieve certain motives, and they are not smiles from your heart. I don't want to learn that. I know that after I go out to the society, I will need to do that many times, but I don't think I will like that. It's just too fake. What's the point of smiling on the outside when you are pulling a long face on the inside?

I want to smile right from the bottom of my heart. I want to smile because I feel happy. And I hope my smiles can bring warmth to everyone around me.

Smile! =)

All the Best

All the best to Sadaharu for his conquest on KGS! Hope the rank graph won't go down again.

All the best to the knight fighting the Z Monster! Hope he has a swift victory.

All the best to... myself?

Hmm


P.S. Congrats Yuri for finishing the 10 km run even after drinking the previous day. Haha~

The Attack of the Z Monster

I realised that there is a more serious problem to solve other than Sadaharu's problems.

It's the problem about Z Monsters.

Every morning, after I wake up and shut off my alarm, I would be attacked by Z Monsters. They would either pull me back to bed, or make me fall asleep on my chair. I would wake up again after a while, but this cycle continues, sometimes until late afternoon.

Recently the power of the Z Monsters have been getting so strong that I can do nothing to resist their spells. I'm absolutely defenseless. I've tried many things, such as putting the alarm clock far away, setting many alarms, drinking alcohol the night before, switching off air-con, etc but all never seemed to work. I thought that it's about the time I sleep, but last time I tried sleeping before 12 am, and the same thing happened. It's just like a level 10 hero fighting a level 100 monster. There's nothing I can do.

Well that's not the only weird thing. Recently the Z Monsters will start attacking me at around 8 to 10 pm, but after 12 am they will just disappear. All my will to sleep will be gone after 12 am. Why?? Z Monsters are sleeping also?? They never attack me at the correct time...

Seriously this problem has been bothering me for quite long... Sometimes I wonder whether I should go see a doctor...

I think if this problem is solved, many of my problems, including Sadaharu's, will be solved as well.

Slay the Z Monsters!!

Sadaharu Off Form

Recently, the poor Sadaharu keeps losing... And as a result he's getting further and further away from 7d... I can only say that he's off form, but is that the only reason? It seems that he can't really think properly now, the way he used to. He's not able to concentrate on the game, and will misread on a lot of situations. Judgement skills are also deteriorating. A lot of games he was actually winning but made a mistake at the last moment and lost. Something has terribly gone wrong. I don't know since when but it's like suddenly, he doesn't know how to play the game anymore.

Solution? Hmm, I don't think there's any quick solution to this problem. He just have to deal with it slowly. Restart from the basics. Revise through all that he has learnt and make sure he remember. Because I think his memory is getting from bad to worse... And he has forgotten a lot of things that he has learnt already. Do more tsumego. Make sure to read through every move, and never look at the answer unless he has done that. And try to concentrate more in games. Once he starts playing, he shouldn't think about anything else. Just the game. Look at the game, and the game only. Never stop thinking. Never stop reading. Hopefully by doing this for a period of time, the mighty Sadaharu will come back.



PS. As for my work at IPPUDO, it's still fun, just that there are some problems. My manager once jokingly told me that if I stop moving in the kitchen, I die. That taught me that I should always be doing something. The other manager also told me that I move too slow, and that's the reason I'm not given as much work as the others. Well knowing that is kind of sad, but I must take it as a lesson. It just shows that I'm not doing good enough. If I have a negative attitude and start thinking that everybody don't like me or something like that, nothing will change. In fact things will get worse. Hence I think it's important to keep a positive attitude. Take other people's criticisms as a chance for you to improve. And once you improve, things will get better.

Service

Now I know why the service fee is kind of so high. Because we the service staff have to serve other people food while being hungry ourselves!!

Ok, that was a joke, but really that's one of the things we have to endure as a service staff. Serving and smelling all the delicious food makes us even hungrier, but still we cannot do anything. We still have to serve our customers with a smile.

Anyway, having worked at IPPUDO for several days, I must say it's quite fun. At first I was worried that things might go wrong, but it went quite well. All the staff and managers are very nice, and taught me from the beginning how to do staff. Whenever I have any queries I can go and ask them also. I do make mistakes, but they guided me patiently. At peak hour, there are a lot of customers and the queue outside is very long, hence there is almost no time to rest(by rest here I mean stand around and do nothing). But then that's also the fun of it. I feel pleasured every time customers say "Thank you". Maybe I haven't met any difficult customers yet, but so far I like it here.

Communication is also very important, because you won't be able to do a lot of things at once. Hence in the restaurant there will always be people shouting around. I think that's one good way to make people do things. Without all the shouting, there will be much less motivation to do well.

Now I only hope that I won't create trouble for the rest, and will be of help.

Oh yeah, and the Ramen here is really nice! Definitely recommended for those who like Japanese food~


PS Gotta go register for my driving soon...