I guess this is going to be my first random post on my new blog.
Yesterday was was my PRC gathering at my house. However, the number has decreased a lot... Many have already moved to other countries. But I think it is good to meet my JC friends once in a while, 'cos in the future it will be even more difficult to arrange such gatherings...
Went to the SWA today to watch the finals of the Singapore Weiqi Tourney. Previously I could have participated in this competition as well, but since I couldn't come on some of the days of the competition I choose to back out(or was I forced to back out? Haha...). So in the end I could only participate in the lucky draw. The final was between Zhou Xiang and Xie Tang, and I initially went there to watch the games between them, but ended up playing against a strong japanese uncle instead. They also didn't review their game so I didn't get to watch anything...
Anyway, about the japanese uncle, by strong I really mean STRONG. He says his fuseki is 8 dan but yose is 4 dan, and I think the first part is really true. I don't know about the second part because I didn't play until yose, haha. He almost won jc, if not for a mistake in the end. I made a stupid move quite early in the game, and I even thought it was a good move. I only realised that the move was useless after the game... Haiz, this has happened to me many times. Looks like my 棋感is still not up there yet, and I still got a lot to improve on my fuseki and chuban.
Feel sorry for Dan, who is not able to participate in the Pair Go Category in World Mind Sports because Kay couldn't go. I think he's flying to Beijing today, in a very gloomy mood. I can understand his feeling, 'cos I also felt terrible when I was told last minute that I cannnot go. But looking on the positive side, at least he gets to go Beijing to watch and meet other people, while I can't even go at all. But still, it's like disaster to him, 'cos he has put in so much effort in training and yet his partner cannot participate. I don't know the situation exactly but I think Kay should do some self-reflection on this...
Cleaned up my room a bit today. Found out that my vacuum cleaner was spoilt... Haiz, why aren't there any good, functioning electrical appliance in my house? My broom also very 'cui', and dustpen literally full of dust... I must go and do something about this next time... Oh yeah, I only cleaned up my room, and still haven't tidy it up...
And that's the end of my first random post.
Showing posts with label Mind Sports Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mind Sports Games. Show all posts
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
2008.10.02 Thursday
Firstly, let me congratulate Ayu for her 30th birthday! Time really waits for no WOman. Even our lovely Ayu has turned 30 already. But no fear, Ayu! I know you can still carry on singing and produce wonderful songs! 加油！Those who wants to support her, please go and buy her latest album: A COMPLETE ~ALL SINGLES~, which contains all her 43 singles in her 10 years in the J-POP history. The album also contains a DVD inside which you can find 25 live performances from various events and some of them have never been shown before! Definitely worth a buy!
OK, so today was supposed to be the day when I fly off to Beijing. But, now the rest of the team has went there without me. I didn't really expect my officer to talk to me today about this incident and explain to me the whole process. It seems that they applied 3 times, and SSC was still not convinced. Which means, even if I started applying earlier, I still would not be able to take leave... It's all bad luck... If the army had never forced us to take leave earlier in the year, I wouldn't be left with only 2 days of leaves for this year... Maybe they should revise the system... But haiz, no matter what I say the result is fixed already. It's just that it's very sad to miss such a opportunity that is so hard to come by...
祝其他的新加坡选手们能取得好成绩！也祝中国棋手们能勇夺各项赛事的冠军！各位职业棋手，我们下次再会吧。
祝其他的新加坡选手们能取得好成绩！也祝中国棋手们能勇夺各项赛事的冠军！各位职业棋手，我们下次再会吧。
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Despair, Disappointment, Helplessness
On Sunday when I booked in, I thought that I still had a few more days to fight for my right to take the leave to go Mind Sports Games in Beijing. However, SWA suddenly called to tell me that I needed to tell them the result by Monday. Things were getting from bad to worse, and I was losing more and more hope. I didn't expect the final verdict to come so early...
On the fateful day, when a fateful decision would have to be made, it came all very naturally, as if everything had been fated since the start. There were no miracles. Maybe I shouldn't have kept hope in the first place. Maybe I shouldn't have tried at all. I don't know. All those anxiety and eagerness experienced during my wait for the Mind Sports had ended with a NO from my officer.
It's not his fault, I believe. As I have mentioned in my previous post, there aren't anyone I can blame for this. If there's one thing I didn't like it would be the giving of hopes my so many people. Ever since the first day I started talking about this matter, people have been saying I should be able to go. Even my officers had also said that shouldn't be a problem. I also thought so, until last Wednesday when I received news about the rejection. I had absolutely no idea that my fate was actually sealed in the hands of the almighty SSC.
Ironically, my officer told me that the SSC recognised this as a sports event, but they can't support my leave because this is not their area of focus. I'm not considered a carded athelete, and to them weiqi is nothing compared to those more important sports like swimming, table-tennis, gymnastics etc. And because of this one times NSF will not be able to attend the would-be one of the most prestigious events in the weiqi history.
I shouldn't have thought about playing instructional games with the Pros. I shouldn't have thought about meeting famous people, taking pictures with them and getting their signatures. I shouldn't have wanted to see what the new Beijing is like. I shouldn't have planned about what to do if I meet my friends there. Yes, I shouldn't have done all these, because I should have known the outcome in the first place.
I could do nothing to prevent the verdict from falling upon me. Maybe this is called helplessness. Maybe this is the result of serving national service. All I know is that I am going to pay hundreds of dollars for this disappointment. And a piece of paper which I will never be able to submit to the rightful counter. I would never be able to join the 4000 people taking part in this event out of which 708 are in the weiqi category, even though my name is in the namelist: http://weiqi.sports.tom.com/2008-09-30/00UV/43135522_08.html. Oh yeah, forgot to minus one, so it's 707 out of 3999 people.
After taking time to calm down, I still appeared as my normal self in the army. Maybe I have learnt to take things in its stride, or maybe I just don't take things seriously enough. It's quite weird though if you claim you are very hurt but you can still joke around with others. But then, what's the point of showing my sad face to other people?
After getting scolded by my mother, I'm starting to think that maybe the fault lies with me. I'm just too passive and always never voice out stuff resulting in this. Maybe if I talked to either the officer or SWA more the matter could have been resolved. Maybe if I persisted or showed that I was very passionate about this event the army could have given me compassionate leave. Maybe if they kept talking to SSC they would comply in the end. The last point was proven to be wrong, as SWA talked to SSC again today but they still refused to support me taking FPUL. Seriously, I don't understand why they keep rejecting when all they need to do is just say 'yes' and we are not like asking them to sponsor or anything.
Well, life still goes on. The Earth won't stop spinning just because of this. One thing I could say is that I will not give up weiqi. I can never do so. It is almost all that I have now, and I can't afford to give up because I know there are still many opportunities ahead. But next time, I must remember to use my own leaves instead of relying on the FPUL (I have new leaves coming in next year.)
Now, for the moment, please excuse me while I hide one corner and emo, and maybe shed a few tears... And I still have to carry on my duties after I finished crying...
P.S. Some more unhappy incidents happened in the camp today, and this time it involves me. I really don't understand... Is this year my unlucky year?
On the fateful day, when a fateful decision would have to be made, it came all very naturally, as if everything had been fated since the start. There were no miracles. Maybe I shouldn't have kept hope in the first place. Maybe I shouldn't have tried at all. I don't know. All those anxiety and eagerness experienced during my wait for the Mind Sports had ended with a NO from my officer.
It's not his fault, I believe. As I have mentioned in my previous post, there aren't anyone I can blame for this. If there's one thing I didn't like it would be the giving of hopes my so many people. Ever since the first day I started talking about this matter, people have been saying I should be able to go. Even my officers had also said that shouldn't be a problem. I also thought so, until last Wednesday when I received news about the rejection. I had absolutely no idea that my fate was actually sealed in the hands of the almighty SSC.
Ironically, my officer told me that the SSC recognised this as a sports event, but they can't support my leave because this is not their area of focus. I'm not considered a carded athelete, and to them weiqi is nothing compared to those more important sports like swimming, table-tennis, gymnastics etc. And because of this one times NSF will not be able to attend the would-be one of the most prestigious events in the weiqi history.
I shouldn't have thought about playing instructional games with the Pros. I shouldn't have thought about meeting famous people, taking pictures with them and getting their signatures. I shouldn't have wanted to see what the new Beijing is like. I shouldn't have planned about what to do if I meet my friends there. Yes, I shouldn't have done all these, because I should have known the outcome in the first place.
I could do nothing to prevent the verdict from falling upon me. Maybe this is called helplessness. Maybe this is the result of serving national service. All I know is that I am going to pay hundreds of dollars for this disappointment. And a piece of paper which I will never be able to submit to the rightful counter. I would never be able to join the 4000 people taking part in this event out of which 708 are in the weiqi category, even though my name is in the namelist: http://weiqi.sports.tom.com/2008-09-30/00UV/43135522_08.html. Oh yeah, forgot to minus one, so it's 707 out of 3999 people.
After taking time to calm down, I still appeared as my normal self in the army. Maybe I have learnt to take things in its stride, or maybe I just don't take things seriously enough. It's quite weird though if you claim you are very hurt but you can still joke around with others. But then, what's the point of showing my sad face to other people?
After getting scolded by my mother, I'm starting to think that maybe the fault lies with me. I'm just too passive and always never voice out stuff resulting in this. Maybe if I talked to either the officer or SWA more the matter could have been resolved. Maybe if I persisted or showed that I was very passionate about this event the army could have given me compassionate leave. Maybe if they kept talking to SSC they would comply in the end. The last point was proven to be wrong, as SWA talked to SSC again today but they still refused to support me taking FPUL. Seriously, I don't understand why they keep rejecting when all they need to do is just say 'yes' and we are not like asking them to sponsor or anything.
Well, life still goes on. The Earth won't stop spinning just because of this. One thing I could say is that I will not give up weiqi. I can never do so. It is almost all that I have now, and I can't afford to give up because I know there are still many opportunities ahead. But next time, I must remember to use my own leaves instead of relying on the FPUL (I have new leaves coming in next year.)
Now, for the moment, please excuse me while I hide one corner and emo, and maybe shed a few tears... And I still have to carry on my duties after I finished crying...
P.S. Some more unhappy incidents happened in the camp today, and this time it involves me. I really don't understand... Is this year my unlucky year?
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