Amazing U-Go

2009.10.17 Saturday

It was the day that we set off for Bangkok, Thailand. The flight was at 7.30 pm, and I was supposed to reach the air-port by 5.30 pm. I was surprised to see only James and Mile there, because I didn't know that the NYP people had already left for Thailand early in the morning. Seems like they found the air-ticket too expensive, haha. The flight was a bit delayed, and we reached Bangkok at around 9 plus. But the funny thing is that even though the flight to Bangkok takes around 1 hour, the time in Bangkok is also slower by 1 hour, so in the end it will seem like you didn't spend any time flying. Ironic, huh?

Boarded a coach to Tara Park immediately after we left the air-port. The weather was not as cold as I imagined. Guess I shouldn't have brought 2 jackets... After some time, we reached Tara Park, where we would be staying for the night before going to the actual competition venue. I didn't expect they actually prepared dinner for us, cos it was quite late. The last time we went there, I remember, they gave us cup noodles as supper. But this time they gave us yummy dishes! 

They also distributed the booklet for the competition and the shirts that we were supposed to wear for the next 2 days. Haiz, if I had known I wouldn't have brought so many shirts along... The booklet also let us know who our opponents could be... Some were quite... scary...

2009.10.18 Sunday

Today's schedule was full of lectures and "tutorials", which made the day very boring. Well, having a lecture at the resort wasn't such a bad idea, just that maybe the lectures could have been more interesting, haha. Or maybe the team leaders could attend the lectures, while we players go play?

Basically the lectures were about research on Go and it's effects on people. In the afternoon we even had a guy come and teach us how to meditate! It's not impossible though, but a bit hard to achieve in a lecture theatre, isn't it? In the end I think almost everybody fell asleep...

We spent the whole day at the resort. For the lunch and dinner, the environment was ok, but the food... I'm not really sure. I can't really get used to Thai food, even though I came here so many times. While Xie Tang kept complaining that the food sucks and he wasn't able to fill his stomach, haha. For dinner we even had to go to a riverside restaurant despite the fact that it was raining heavily, making everyone drenched when they reached there...

Oh yeah, in the evening every team were supposed to make a presentation on how they came to know about Go and what they feel etc. Singapore team was first, followed by Malaysia, Taipei, and Hong Kong. I don't know why the other teams didn't present, haha. The officials even told us that if we didn't finish they wouldn't send us to the air-port on the last day! Really?

At night we proceeded to our accomodation, which was something like a school hostel. But the rooms were very nice, just like a hotel, except maybe there were too many mosquitoes... The beds were very soft and very comfortable! I was tempted to just lie down and rest, but James went to play a friendly match with the Japanese, and I was also curious to know how well they were, so I went to watch.

2009.10.19 Monday

Finally the competition was going to start. We were going to play 6 rounds swiss rule, 2 rounds per day. It's actually an individual competition, just that your individual scores will contribute to your country's team score, just like Lanke Cup in Singapore. The competition hall was divided into 2 parts, one for the Thai U-Go and one for the Asian Go Tournament. Mile, me and Xie Tang joined the Asian Go, while the other NYP people played the Thai U-Go, against other Thailand universities. 

The opening ceremony included some big shots talking, some performances, and all the country flags going onto the stage. The performances were nice, especially the Hip-Hop dances, and it was also nice to see the head of 7-eleven giving a speech. 

Our first round's opponent was Vietnam players. All 3 of us won. It was a good start, considering that Mile's opponent was 4d, their strongest player. But of course, everybody's attention was on the fierce fight between the China and Korea players, who played against each other in the first round. 

In the end China won by 2-1. I didn't expect the professional player Yang Qian to lose! But well, this shows how strong the Korean players are...

We packed food for lunch, but I don't know why I feel it tastes better than the food we had at the restaurants... Oh well, never mind. In the afternoon we 3 played against players from different countries. Mile played Ho from Hong Kong, I played Tsai from Taipei, while Xie Tang played Yang Qian, the pro 6d from China! Unfortunately Xie Tang lost that game in the end. He said that he wasn't mentally prepared, and played a lot of bad moves, other wise he would have had a chance. I also lost my game, due to making a wrong move during the opening. Mile was the only Singaporean who won both game during the first day! Wow...

During the dinner at the competition hall, there was a muay thai performance. We were very anxious to see the fight, but it only started after about 10 minutes of warm-up, haha. Nevertheless it was still very exciting. Just when the NYP teacher in-charge Mr Wilfred who came with us was complaining that back in NYP the don't even allow food inside the hall, a black dog roamed into the scene and among our tables. Looks like they allow anything to go inside, haha~

I think it was on that night, that we and many others were invited to the Korean players' room to drink Shochu after we got back to our hostel. The alcohol level was like... 40 degrees? But I was still alright after drinking it. Guess I'm getting stronger now, haha. It was a fun night when we introduced ourselves and got to know more about each other. The Koreans also taught as a new way of eating Nong Shim noodles. Open the packet, break the noodles, pour out the sauce, and just eat! Don't even need to cook! We were all amazed by this method, but surprisingly it tasted quite good. There were also magic performances by Yukihiko from Japan and Ho from Hong Kong. They were very professional! I hope to learn from them if I had the chance, haha.

2009.10.20 Tuesday

3rd round of competition. I played Dong from Vietnam, Xie Tang played Peng Bei from Macau, while Mile played Tsai from Taipei. Xie Tang and me won, while Mile had his first loss. There was also a close match of Yukihiko VS Chen Xiao Chen from China. In the end Chen won by a bit. The review with Xie Tang after the match was very funny. Everytime the players were reviewing  game, they would talk about if Xie Tang was around he would be able to kill this group, make this group alive etc. And when Xie Tang really came, they made him prove to them that he can kill a particular group. In the end it became a let's-all-gang-up-against-Xie-Tang instead of a game review anymore. LOL

In the afternoon I played Ding Ding from Taipei, Xie Tang Yukihiko, and Mile Shogo from Japan. I was surprised that my opponents for the 2nd day are from the same country as my opponents for the first day, in the exact same order! And my results were also the same... I lost again... Even though I lost by only a small margin, It still shows that I wasn't up to standard. Xie Tang won by killing off one group, while Mile lost, but he kept saying that he could have won.

Dinner was at this place called Texas Steak House (or something like that?). It was outdoors, so everybody wondered what would happen if it were to suddenly rain. But soon everybody started to worry about something else... The mosquitoes. Just as Mile said, we were well fed, so were the mosquitoes, who started appearing in swarms when the sun set. After a while everybody was literally running away from the dining tables... You can see how powerful the mosquitoes are!

At night we went back to the competition venue for a teaching game... by us! Or rather by the high dan players, and apparently I was one of them. Each of us had to play against 9 to 10 players, all giving a handi of about 6 to 7. However it was more fun than I thought, and Xie Tang apparently enjoyed it. The other players were playing teaching games with the Korea and Thailand coaches. They also provided us with tasteful porridge after the games. What a nice evening!

2009.10.21 Wednesday

For the 5th round of competition, my opponent was Patcharapol from Thailand. Xie Tang played Shogo, and Mile played Peng Bei. Two Taipei players were playing against two Korean players, so it was like a match between the 2 countries. In the end it was 1-1. Congrats to Tsai for beating a Korean player! 

For the final round, I played Yukihiko, Xie Tang played Cui Chao from China, and Mile played Jimmy from Malaysia if I'm not wrong. Since it was the last round, I wanted to play a good quality game, but it ended up in a very bad one... Xie Tang won his China counterpart with a smile, and Mile also won. There was also a final fight between Chen Xiao Chen from China and a person from Korea (sorry, I forgot his name...). In the end Chen Xiao Chen won, and as a result of winning all 6 rounds he got the individual champion.

Xie Tang got 2nd, and even he himself was quite surprised, as he thought his SOS couldn't make it. For the team rankings, China was first, followed by Taipei, Korea, Japan, and Singapore. As for my individual ranking... I don't want to mention anymore... I actually got the lowest from my country... Haiz... 

Prize presentation ceremony was carried out at night in the same competition hall. They first gave out tokens to those who played the teaching games, followed by dinner and some performances, and then the prize presentation. The food was nice, and the performances also had beautiful girls and guys and... those who belong to neither category. Haha, but they were fun to look at, and everybody was laughing. 

After the ceremony instead of leaving everybody was busy taking photos with each other. As if no one wanted to leave, people were just crowding outside the hall flashing their cameras. The officials even had to come and ask us to hurry up before we moved up the bus. This shows how unwilling we were to part from each other...

That night back at the hostel was spent playing table tennis, drinking, and playing Go. Even though we had to wake up at 6.30 am the next day, no one wanted to sleep. Sleep is such a waste of time! Everybody wanted to spend more time with each other instead. That applied to me as well. In the end I played pair go with Chien Chong, Mile and Lok Yan until about 3 am before we really went to sleep.

2009.10.22 Thursday

This day was spent touring around Thailand. We went to the Grand Palace and some other places which I cannot recall the name... Thailand is nicer than Singapore in some ways. For example when boarding the MRT (they have another name for it) people actually queue up in front of the doors, unlike Singapore where everybody fights to be the first to get in. And their trains also look better than Singapore's. 

Night time was free time so the Singapore Team went to Siam Paragon, which was incredibly far away. Furthermore it was peak hour, and the traffic jam was at it's maximum, hence it took us more than 1 hour by taxi to get there... After dinner we had only 1 hour to shop around before we went for Thai traditional massage. It was actually the first massage that I had, and all I can say is... very painful. Yes, while Xie Tang said it was very comfortable, I kept holding back my screams during the massage... I really can't understand why people pay so much for these things...

The night won't end there. After we got back to Tara Park we joined the rest in drinking and playing games. The Koreans taught us a very fun game called the "I Love You Game" or something like that, and everybody enjoyed playing it. The video can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?comments&v=515299086528  After that I played pair go with Chien Chong, Jimmy and Mile until about 6 am before we slept.

2009.10.23 Friday

Left for Singapore very unwilling at 1 pm. Was back in Singapore by 4.30 pm Singapore time.

On the whole, I feel this was a very fruitful trip. I didn't do well for my games, but I didn't plan to achieve any good results, and I only treated this as an ORD trip, so it was still okay. Memories and friendship is much much more important, and I still regret not creating more good memories. But I hope the friendship I gained in this trip will always be there, and also hope that one day we will gather together again. 

PS My photography skills didn't improve much during this trip... I wanted to take nice photos, but all of them ended up very dark... The external flash I brought also screwed up and the photos didn't turn out as bright as I wanted... How can I shoot better without flash? Was it my settings' problem? I tried by increasing the ISO but that would just increase the noise level... Decreasing the shutter speed would also make the picture more blur... I don't know. The officials did a very good job. I'm definitely going to do some research next time... And guys, sorry for some photos that were very badly taken... ><

Off to Chiang-Mai

Finally finished preparing for my Thailand trip...

So, tonight, I will be flying off to Chiang-Mai, Thailand, for my Thai-U-Go weiqi competition. It's quite surprising that until now I still don't know what the competition is about, how it goes and who's going, but who cares. As long as I get to go for overseas competition, I'm happy. It has been so long since I last went overseas...

I'm not really hoping to achieve anything. I just hope to do my best. This is also something like my ORD trip, except I haven't ORD yet! Haha~ Oh yeah, I'll also be bringing along my dear Canny this time, so I hope to bring back great pictures. Haven't touched Canny for a very long time also...

Ok, Chiang-Mai, here I come!

Marksman and Confinement

Just came back from my SAR 21 range today.

And to my surprise, I actually got Marksman! Even though it was a group effort, and my group seemingly consisted of random people, we still did it! The first batch of Marksman from TDS, haha. I guess I should be proud of it.

The happiness from getting $200 and 2 days off didn't last long. After the range my PC told me that I need to serve 2 x confinement. Why? Because my rifle was stunned by him... Okay, I admit it's my fault. I went to throw rubbish and it just slipped my mind. But 2 confinement? Haiz...

Didn't think I would still need to suck thumb when I'm going to ORD soon...

Countdown to ORD

<--- 42 more days to go...

Going for my last range tomorrow. Hopefully I will get marksmen since it's SAR 21.

Will be going for my last 7 days this Thursday. Must really prepare well, since after that I won't be staying in anymore...

And I got to start planning my life after ORD... Getting back to normal Civilian life is no easy task, you know.

Goodbye, Usui-san. Goodbye, Shinchan

先日軍にいたとき、新聞をよんで、クレヨンしんちゃんの作家、臼井儀人がなくなられた事を、知りました。 

とても、ショックだったです。 

シンガポールに来た後は、漫画とかアニメとか少ししか見てないんですけど、日本にいた時はほぼ毎週見てました。オレはしんちゃんが大好きでした。あこがれてました。真似もしてました。友達との話題にもなっていました。しんちゃんの姿をみて、感動もいっぱいありました。 

笑いもそうですけど、何よりクレしんが好きだった理由は、しんちゃん一家が、ずっと幸せな暮らしをしていたからです。ちょっと下品なところもあるけど、クレしんはすごく家族の愛をあらわしてる作品だとおもいます。オレもそんな家族がいたらいいなあ、いつかそんな生活したいなあって、いつも思ってました。 

多分もうこれでしんちゃんとはお別れだとおもいます。すごく残念です。 

今後クレしんをみるときは、涙がこぼれるとおもいます。 

臼井先生、これまでの笑いや感動、ありがとうございました。あなたがいなければ、多分オレは、あんなに楽しい子供生活をすごすことができなかったと思います。 

ご冥福を祈ります。

Having booked out on Thursday, I thought I would be happy. But it seems that I'm not. Because too many sad things are happening around me.

The mum of a friend of mine just passed away due to Breast Cancer. It must be a huge shock for him. To lose a person so close to you, no matter how much tears you shed it won't remove the pain. I can't imagine what I would be if I were to lose my mother suddenly like that. So guys, please treasure your family.

When I was in camp a few days ago, I read the newspapers, and found out that Usui Yoshito, the author and creator of the famous manga, Crayon Shinchan, was found dead under a cliff in Gunba-ken. It seems that he accidentally fell while climbing the mountain. 

It was a huge shock to me also.

After I came to Singapore, I didn't read or watch much Shinchan anime or manga, but when I was in Japan I watched it almost every week. I loved Shinchan. I admired him. I imitated him. He was the topic of discussion of everyone. I was also touched by his actions many times.

The manga/anime is funny, but the main reason I liked Crayon Shinchan is because the family of Shinchan is always leading a very happy life. There maybe some parts which are a bit indecent, but overall the manga is about family love. I always thought of being in such a family and leading a life similar to that of Shinchan.

It's a pity that probably I will have to say goodbye to Shinchan.

The next time I see Shinchan on book or TV, I think I won't be able to hold back my tears.

Usui-sensei, thank you for all the laughter, joy and happiness you have brought us over the years. If it weren't for you, my childhood would have been half as fun.

Rest in peace.

Stay-in for 10 days

From tomorrow onwards, I won't be around for 10 days... And I do mean it. It's the time of the year again, and we will be tested for 5 days followed by another 5 days of normal duty. Haiz... I feel sianz, but thinking that this is the last thing I will go through makes me feel better. Yes, after this week, I will be the king! 

So today, basically I was preparing for the 10 days stay-in for the whole day. I was doing things like looking for my PSP charger and putting games into my PSP. Yes, I'm going back to using PSP again, because I feel that this time iPOD Touch will not be enough. I will try to do some reading, though. There are so many books that I have read halfway... I'll also continue to do my weiqi training in camp, using the magnetic Go board.

Hopefully by the time I come out, I will have more freedom, and will be a happier person. But for now, let's hope this thing goes smoothly first...

Sharing some funny videos here. "Ideal" for those who wants to learn Japanese but are lazy to go and learn the words... LOL Watch the last one especially... It's damn funny...

National "Youth" Team Selection

Saturday and Sunday was the selection for the Weiqi National Youth Team. Even though there was a word "Youth" inside, people who are older than 20 and even one guy who was older than 50 joined the competition... Well, never mind about that, since I think the definition of "Youth" can vary. Anyway, we played 5 games in 2 days, and for the high dan group 12 out of 13 people will  be selected to be in the National Team. It also means only 1 person will be eliminated. Upon knowing that, I was able to play with much less stress, though I still wanted to achieve the best result possible.

In the end I won 4 games out of 5. I lost 1 game to JC, by 3.5 pts. This game was quite smooth for me and I was sort of leading until middle game. Even after I made a serious mistake I still had a chance to win. But then due to byo-yomi I played a move that became a gote and after that I also lost some more points in yose, resulting in him leading the game. Haiz, I got to improve more in byo-yomi and judgement skills... Always cannot calculate the points properly...

I was able to win Sionghwai, Yuxiang, Damo, and Mr Zhao. Some games were really dangerous, but luckily I still managed to win in the end. As a result I got into Group A of the National Team. If I'm not wrong, those who are also in Group A include Sionghwai, Yuxiang, Shihao, Chee Hiong and JC. Alvin unfortunately got 7th so he got into Group B. Sad... 

When the training starts, I guess it's also time for me to seriously start honing my weiqi skills...

Recent Events

There has been so many things happening recently... And due to my addiction to this game called Red Alert 3, I haven't been able to update my blog... I really like the C&C series, and RA3 is really a nice game. I like to use Empire of the Rising Sun. It's units are really versatile, and Yuriko Omega is total Ownage... From what I see Soviets are more on the offensive side and Allies on the defensive side. But some units are really fun to use. I heard Command & Conquer 4 is coming out next year. WOW... I guess it's time for me to start playing my C&C3...

Ok, back to topic... First event is the Farewell party for Yanglaoshi @ Hwachong. This one is organised by our Juniors for Yanglaoshi. While it was a chance for them to say goodbye to YLS, I also happened to meet most of my Hwachong weiqi friends. With everyone busy with army etc, it's very hard to find a time when everybody is free... After the party we went to KAP to eat, and promised to have another gathering for the weiqi people at the end of the year.

Next event is the Japanese Summer Festival (夏祭り) at a Japanese Primary School at Changi. This is the first time I went to this event. Last year I think due to Army I couldn't make it. It was quite fun! Even though there were a lot of people and it was almost impossible to move around without bumping into anyone, the whole mood was there. I also managed to rent a yukata to wear. Kind of hard to walk about though, and I could have picked a better one... But some people really looked nice in yukata. I also did a bit of bon-odori before going back. Hope I can go again next year! And if I possible I want to go to the real matsuri in Japan!

ゲゲゲの鬼太郎！

Very nice mood~

People dancing on the stage~

After the Summer Festival I rushed to this place called Amaranda Gardens to celebrate Teacher's Day for YLS and KLS. It was organised by SWA. Kind of early for Teacher's Day, but since I was outside camp, I decided I should go and drop by also. Who knows the moment I reached there, YLS filled me a small cup of XO. He said he had been keeping this bottle for very long, and everyone drank 1 cup already. Having no choice, I had to drink the XO sip by sip, because I really couldn't take it... It was kind of... spicy. Anyway some people were playing weiqi, and the moment I reached they started taking photos. Zhixiong got into trouble again, by being thrown into the pool... Haha. But this time he brought Sionghwai along with him, who sadly had his phone, mp3 player and wallet inside his pocket... 

Happy teacher's day, YLS and KLS! (KLS left before I reached there...)

Last Thursday, there was a platoon BBQ organised by our PC. It was held at East Coast Park, which was very far from my house... And since it was on a weekday, it was even harder to get there... I tried to take bus from Bedok, but it seems that I had alighted at the wrong stop. I couldn't find the underpass at first... And after I found it I reached ECP but it took me around half an hour to walk to the BBQ pit... Haiz~

But the BBQ itself was nice! Some people kept eating, some people kept cooking, while some people just sat there to chill around. There were also people there whom I didn't expect to see. It's nice to have this kind of cohesion once in a while~

Singapore Weiqi League 2009 concluded on last Sunday. Even though it was the last day there were still a lot of happenings. I thought that after the previous few rounds, the final ranking wouldn't change anymore, but things didn't turn out the way I expected. First of all Yaxin lost to Song Yufeng from NTU, which of kind of unexpected. This way 棋局弈山河 lost 1 小分 and I think they lost another 小分 after that, and became on par with us. Hwachong on the other hand lost 2 小分 due to FCC losing 2 matches, and we were leading them by 1 小分 before the last game. And as if to make the finishing move, in our last match against 酒, Li Chao won Zhou Xiang by 1.5 points, and we managed to finish the day without losing a single 小分！Since our 小分 is the same with 棋局, and we won them by 2-1 when we played them, we actually got the team champion! Woohoo! 3 cheers to 长春二队！I'm sure Mr Fu will be so happy that his team finally got champion. This was our only chance to get champion, and it actually came true. I'll have to thank Li Chao for that also. Also not to forget my other team mates Sionghwai and Shiaw-yen. Good work, guys!

On this day, I let Meiyu help me take photos while I was playing games. I told her to take more because I will select among them, but I didn't expect her to take hundreds of photos... Haha, nice photos though. Maybe next time I'll look for her help again. In the end I became lazy to choose, so I uploaded almost everything to facebook. The gallery can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=116929&id=545686096&l=dc8e4390c6

酒VS棋局弈山河

Probably one of the highest level games there

Wonder what she's looking at and what she's thinking...

Photo of us 3!

Ah, finally I have someone to help me take photo~

Is he thinking about the game or about the Prelims...?

So many audience...

Another high level game...

Good one， Li Chao!

Yay! Team Champion!

长春二队rocks!!

I guess I was kinda happy also~

League Champion trophy. This year it's quite nicely made~

Weiqi League Day 4

Sorry guys, I didn't manage to take any photos this time. The matches were very crucial, and I was too busy playing games to take out my camera. Maybe I should hire a photographer next time to help me take photos... Any takers?

Anyway, today our team played against 可爱小兵, 棋局弈山河 and Hwachong. 棋局, Hwachong, and my team haven't lost a match until now, so today's games could very well decide the first 3. I managed to win all the 3 games, and we managed to win 棋局 by 2-1. I could say that we are lucky, 'cos sionghwai played again Wang Yaxin, I played Zhang Yimo and Li Chao played Wang Jing. I won Yimo by 5 points and Li Chao won by 1 point. 

During the last match against Hwachong, I won FCC, but Li Chao lost to Jian Zhongfan. He was winning but made a mistake at late game and lost a lot of points. Haiz... feel sad for him now that his 全胜奖 is gone. Subsequently Sionghwai lost to Gong Xinchi, also because of a serious mistake. He did not realise that his group of seeds would be killed after a certain exchange. It was really a pity because Xinchi was already running out of time and Sionghwai still had about 20 minutes, and the game was very close, so he had a high chance of winning. Nevertheless, it was a good game.

In the end, we lost 1-2 to Hwachong and it was also the first match that we lost in the League. Maybe if the match-up has been better, we could have won, but no point talking about it now. Since 棋局 and Hwachong both lost 1 match each, now what we can hope is that they will lose more individual games so that we can win them by 小分. In order to do that we need to try to win all the remaining games... 

Fight on, guys! It's not over yet!

National Pair Go Competition and Weiqi League Day 3

Went to watch the National Pair Go competition on Saturday. Mainly it was to support my friends (I didn't join because I couldn't find a partner...), but I thought it might be nice to take some photos of Pair Go competitions. In the end, Daniel, Munyi pair and Karen, Tony pair got into the first 2, and they will undergo another round of selection to decide who will go for the competition in Japan(if I'm not wrong... I was playing a game online when they were having the prize presentation...><). I'm so envious...

Karen, Tony pair

Two kids with different sizes pair

Zhixiong, Cindy pair

Father and daughter pair

Yurika smiling during a game...

Yurika, Alvin pair

Guess who's hand~

Damo, Kaixin pair

Two cute little kids pair

Daniel, Munyi pair

Sunday was league again... These few book-outs are all about the same. Saturday go SWA, and Sunday got league. Haiz... Really quite busy nowadays. Anyway, today's games were quite smooth. We managed to win all 3 today. Next next week will be tough. We'll be playing against the 2 most strongest teams in a row... Gotta train hard...

Hwa Chong jacket. I also want!!

Mile Gu with his signature tianyuan move.

My team playing in the 2nd round

Yizhuang, who used to be my junior

Ke ai xiao bin against qi ju

Clocks...

Discussing a game

Once again I'm going to spoil Chou Yang's reputation...

Yurika smiling after a game...

PS Tried out different settings and different modes on my Canny. But somehow I still couldn't get the desired effect... What I don't understand is how come sometimes the shutter speed and the F-stop is the same but I get different brightness... Hmm, need to go and study more~