Election Madness!

Ever since the end of the election, it has been madness. There have been rumors about riots all over the place. People being unnecessarily paranoid. Therefore, to teach them a lesson, and also because I am too bored, I have conducted the following experiment. It's pretty self explanatory if you read it.

The Gullibles:

Shihong says:

hey.. riot... got explosion

Shihong says:

damn insane

Jason says:

riot where?

Shihong says:

butterworth

Shihong says:

damn insane

Jason says:

wtf?

Jason says:

penang posers?

Shihong says:

haha.. jus kidding

Jason says:

wtf???

...........................................................................

Shihong says:

hey.... riot... got explosion

Shihong says:

damn insane

Zhi Zhi says:

in malaysia?

Shihong says:

butterworth

Shihong says:

damn insane

Zhi Zhi says:

holy crap

Zhi Zhi says:

cos dap won?

Shihong says:

yeah

Shihong says:

damn insane

Zhi Zhi says:

woww

Zhi Zhi says:

that's nuts

Zhi Zhi says:

what was their purpose?

..................................................................

Shihong says:

hey.... riot... damn insane

はん　ぶん says:

what riot?

Shihong says:

in butterworth

Shihong says:

got explosion

はん　ぶん says:

where do you get the news from?

Shihong says:

serious la

Shihong says:

damn insane

はん　ぶん says:

do you have the link to the news?

Shihong says:

not in newspaper yet

Shihong says:

tomorrow

はん　ぶん says:

shocking election results

Shihong says:

yeah

Shihong says:

damn insane

はん　ぶん says:

the Prime Minister should step down

Shihong says:

got explosion leh

Shihong says:

wtf

はん　ぶん says:

whereabout in Butterworth?

Shihong says:

not sure leh

Shihong says:

haha no lah

Shihong says:

im jus kidding

はん　ぶん says:

so there's no explosion?

...........................................................................

Shihong says:

eh... riot... got explosion

weng soon: loving my Yonex Ti-10 says:

you serious ?

Shihong says:

yeah in butterworth

Shihong says:

damn insane

weng soon: loving my Yonex Ti-10 says:

omg...

weng soon: loving my Yonex Ti-10 says:

racial riots start already

...........................................................................

Shihong says:

hey... riot... got explosion

shin.yi the slacker says:

huh? u mean in malaysia?

Shihong says:

in butterworth

Shihong says:

damn insane

shin.yi the slacker says:

oh really?

shin.yi the slacker says:

what kind of explosion?

Shihong says:

some vehicle

Shihong says:

dunno wat they do

Shihong says:

but exploded

shin.yi the slacker says:

wow

Shihong says:

madness

shin.yi the slacker says:

what do u think? should the opposition have not won?

...........................................................................

The People Who Just Can't Believe Anything:

Shihong says:

eh... riot... got explosion

Seng Jiann... says:

? huh

Seng Jiann... says:

serious?

Shihong says:

yeah in butterworth

Seng Jiann... says:

u sure or not?

Seng Jiann... says:

not on malaysiakini news worr...

...........................................................................

Shihong says:

hey...riot.... got explosion!!

ohy~ying....aihh says:

wher?

Shihong says:

in butterworth

Shihong says:

damn insane

ohy~ying....aihh says:

how u nie?

Shihong says:

siao liao

Shihong says:

they blew up a car

ohy~ying....aihh says:

harh?whenn was this?

Shihong says:

yesterday only

ohy~ying....aihh says:

news oso din come out/

Shihong says:

maybe too late to print in the newspaper

ohy~ying....aihh says:

ooo...how did u noe?

Shihong says:

ppl tell me

Shihong says:

madness!!

ohy~ying....aihh says:

ooo...ppl spread rumours....

...........................................................................

The Numb Ones:

Shihong says:

hey.... riot.... damn insane

∞§∞£ǿя∂¼½∞§∞ says:

where

Shihong says:

butterworth

Shihong says:

got explosion

Shihong says:

eh... damn insane

(after 20 minutes trying to look for the news in the paper and TV)

∞§∞£ǿя∂¼½∞§∞ says:

crazy wan

...........................................................................

Shihong says:

hey... riot... got explosion

baby, you can turn me says:

in msia ah

Shihong says:

butterworth

Shihong says:

damn insane

baby, you can turn me says:

u mean where ure at?

Shihong says:

no

Shihong says:

butterworth is in penang

Shihong says:

wtf!~#~!#

baby, you can turn me says:

how i know man

baby, you can turn me says:

butterworth sounds american

Shihong says:

not really

Shihong says:

only brits are so dumb

Shihong says:

madness!!

Shihong says:

got explosion!!

baby, you can turn me says:

then how

baby, you can turn me says:

can anot

baby, you can turn me says:

everything ok?

Shihong says:

they blew up a car

Shihong says:

wtf

baby, you can turn me says:

never happened before huh

Shihong says:

may 13 1969

Shihong says:

that was the last riot

baby, you can turn me says:

hey my birthday

baby, you can turn me says:

ok so how anyone hurt etc

So you see, the reactions weren't as interesting as I have hoped. I was looking for someone to go "Where do I sign up?". It just seems that most people are happy about the opposition's "victory". But maybe that's just because I didn't poll any Malays. These results bore me even more. Nevertheless, I had some good laughs for a few seconds.

No Child's Play

Who ever thought teaching chess to 8 year-old kids can involve difficult decision-making and carefully chosen words? There are two issues that I would like to address today.

I think we should all understand that kids like to win. I have in my life only encountered one exception, but I will talk about this later. But let's just accept the generalization that kids like to win. So one of the kids that I have been "teaching" to (out of 8 other kids), is what seems like a beginner among beginners. Just to note, I don't like to use the word "teach" because it's more like sharing to me. It is obvious that he is trying hard and is willing to try hard, but just can't seem to beat the rest of the kids. So on this fine day, his father pulled me aside and told me that he is really trying and asked if I could give him some encouragement. So that troubled me. Firstly, now the parents have expectations on me. I hate it when people tell me how to do my job, at least when I am supposed to be good at it. I don't claim to be something like a Grandmaster or anywhere close to that, but I can say without boasting that I am pretty knowledgeable when it comes to chess. Now to say that I hate this situation would be an exaggeration because he didn't tell me what to do, he just asked politely. So I am just mildly troubled/irritated. Irritated because of the above-mentioned preference, but troubled because I don't know what to do. You see, even years of practice in encouraging girlfriends who needed to be encouraged did not train me to encourage an 8 year-old. How do you tell an 8 year-old who hates to lose, loves to win, that it's OK to lose, and our goal here is to get him to improve so that he can win in the future. For an 8 year-old, the end of the one hour chess session IS the future. Anything else that happens two hours from his arrival at the chess session is a new day altogether. I am not belittling a child's mindset, but merely stating their thought process. Because to him, being better 6 months from now is simply not worth the effort. He wants to start kicking butts now. I mean, if the we invented instant noodles and other magical thingamabobs, who can blame them for expecting instant results?

I tried to think hard about the time when I started chess. What was it like and how did I overcome losing? Maybe overcome is not the right word, because obviously, the way to overcome losing is to win. Hahaha... So how did I accept losing? Why did I get better? How did I get better? This ties back to the earlier point I made about what Kasparov and Abraham Lincoln were trying to say. It is very important to understand ourselves and where we are. I don't mean to preach but some messages just cannot be said enough. I remembered my first tournament. It was the PFS Open 1992. Back then, I could only watch in the sidelines the games played out by Chuah Heng Meng, Eric Cheah and many other "untouchables" who were always playing in the top five boards. To be honest, I didn't even bother watching because there was no way I could have understood the games. But I remember this one game. I was playing against a girl's MSSM U-20 champion. At that time, I was definitely no match for her. I was down a lot of material. With only a queen, bishop and a few pawns left, I set up a mating cheapo on White's g2 square. While barely staying alive, I managed to finally place my queen and bishop in that holy diagonal and got the checkmate that I was pining for 5 moves before that. A cheapo indeed! But of course, before the game, I had no idea she was an MSSM champion and my dad was very surprised that I won. Everything might have changed if I had known. My whole life would have taken a completely different path. I might have played the game knowing that I would lose, and would eventually lose. I would then go on to be an average player not knowing that I have a tricky mind, even as a kid. Or maybe my chess development was fated... Who knows? I'd like to think that it's little moments like these in our lives that are significant, and that we won't realize it unless we think about them.

I was 8 years-old when that happened. Why is it that I can remember only that game from 16 years ago. I don't remember any other game from when I was eight. That game was by no means brilliant. Upon hindsight, the only thing that can explain this phenomena, other than my powerful memory, is that for some reason, I was encouraged by that game. I can safely say that before I came to university, I have received no encouragement or a "well done" from either of my parents. I remember in National Age-Group 1999 where I squandered a half-point lead going into the final round. I drew a game after losing my queen because of the "touch-move" rule. I got over-excited over the idea of winning the tournament with a 10 move combination and in style. What was more devastating was that I could have won after losing my queen but I took a cheeky draw offer. I was so excited about winning that I played the wrong first move of the combination. A perfect lesson on "counting your chickens before they are hatched". Nevertheless, the point of this story was to say that despite this devastating loss, I did not even get "It's OK, you can try again next year". Did I wish I got a word of encouragement or two? I don't know. Would I have been weaker? Because it definitely wasn't OK to lose in a tournament of such importance. By the way, I tied for first place and lost in the blitz playoffs. No "Congratulations" for second place, no "It's OK" for not being first. How did that affect me? Did that make me stronger? Wiser? Most probably so. But I was already 15 then. Half of that lifetime ago, did I think that winning was everything? I loved to win. No doubt about that. But what I am trying drive home is that my experience has not taught me about giving words of encouragement. You lose, time after time, you think about why you lose, and you fix it. That's the kind of education that I got and was expected of me.

So back to the point of this issue, which is, if you can remember, how do you encourage an 8 year-old kid who is trying hard but not getting the fruits of his labor? As I write this article and think about it, the only words of comfort that I can come up with are "The other kids have been playing much longer than you have, and if you keep working hard the way you do, you may well become better than them in no time". Does that even sound honest? Because I hate telling lies, especially to kids. I hate being lied to as a kid. Maybe that's where I get my lying abilities from. Because I get lied to all the time. But that's another story for another day. So if any of you people have any ideas on how to deal with this kid, let me know.

As for the second issue, which is kind of similar to the first, and has the same underlying problem. Another kid in the group who also loves to win, repeatedly asked for my permission to play against the aforementioned kid. Now the reason is obvious because he will get to win all the time. He went so far as to lie to me about not having played against the other kid yet. So this kid is by no means close to being the weakest player in the group. If anything, he is one of the better players. The key difference here is that he does not need encouragement. But the trouble is, how do I explain to him that winning is not everything? To him, winning IS everything. Can I, dare I, should I dash his dreams and desires at a tender age of eight? We all want kids to dream big, be all they can be and all that good stuff. I can't just send the roof crashing down on him and tell him that in life, we cannot beat everyone at everything.

So I did not allow this kid, Brad, to play against the previous kid, Aaron. See the problem when parents try to interfere with my job? Now I don't want Aaron to keep losing, so I told Brad that you can't shouldn't keep playing Aaron if you want to improve. I tried to explain to him the concept of "It's OK to lose" and the main purpose of our chess sessions is to help them improve so that they can win more in the future. I think that even though he understood the message deep down inside, he kept it inside him that he didn't like my decision to not let him play Aaron. I can deal with a kid not liking me or whatever. But how could I have avoided the situation? What could I have said to appease a kid who loves to win, and yet help him to improve? That answer was the best I could come up with, so if you have better ideas, let me know.

That marks the end of the two issues that I had, and now, as promised I will return to the exception of the generalization that I had asserted, which was all kids love to win. So a third kid in this group, Chuck, who in the previous week, intentionally lost to Brad to make him happy. He said to me that well, he would rather someone else be happy since it's not a "real" tournament. By the way, the background story is that I organized a tournament for them and put a prize up for grabs. So Chuck doesn't feel like this is a real tournament because it's not officially organized by some recognized group or whatever. So he decides to let Brad win and I saw him intentionally throw a won game. It wasn't an excuse he gave for losing. I knew he saw how he could have won. I have the ability to see what moves other people are thinking about. When you have played chess for as long as I have, these things just come naturally. I just couldn't understand why a kid would do that because as we know it, "Winning is not everything, it is the ONLY thing!"

Anyway, it's just something to leave you people with. Dealing with children is most definitely no child's play. Man, I can't wait to get a kid a torture him with all kinds of psychological tricks. But that's just me. I am not saying I am ready to raise a kid. I just wanna see how messed up they will become. Hahaha...

Say What You Need To Say

Say What You Need To Say - John Mayer

Take all of your wasted honor.
Every little past frustration.
Take all of your so called problems,
Better put 'em in quotations.

Say what you need to say (x8)

Walkin' like a one man army,
Fightin' with the shadows in your head.
Livin' up the same old moment
Knowin' you'd be better off instead

If you could only...Say what you need to say (x8)

Have no fear for givin' in.
Have no fear for giving over.
[ Say What You Need To Say lyrics found on http://www.completealbumlyrics.com ]
You better know that in the end
It's better to say too much, than never to say what you need to say again.

Even if your hands are shaking,
And your faith is broken.
Even as the eyes are closin',
Do it with a heart wide open.

(Wide Heart)

Say what you need to say (x7)

Say what you need to, Say what you need to...

Say what you need to say.

A Lifetime Inspired

Not many people can say they know what the purpose of life is. Most people go through a lifetime not knowing what they live for, or what we should be living for. From my experience, there is no need nor reason to seek for a purpose in life. We spend our time asking questions for a reason to live, in vain, I believe.

The most important aspect of living is to make our lives as meaningful as possible. Since a while ago, I have stopped asking myself what the purpose of life is. We go through challenges day in and day out, we get tested by "god" or "nature" or "life" as we call it in our different beliefs and we inevitably question our faith, and reason for being. Someone asked me, why should there be a reason for living? Why must there be a purpose? In relation to my post about the "New Year", I would like to restate that it is of utmost importance to know "whither we are tending". If there is no purpose, then there is no need or desire to go anywhere, and we would just be floating entities of nothingness. So I argue that there is a purpose, unknown as it may be, and probably unseekable.

Coming back to the purpose of this blog post albeit not the purpose of my life, I would just like to share a little something about what makes my life more meaningful. We can go through life doing what makes us happy. In fact, that is probably the happiest you can make yourself to be. To obtain a larger degree of what is termed but undefined as "happiness", yes, there can be more happiness than what we can conjure, we must notice that other people can become the source of our very own happiness too. One obvious example you might come up with would be your loved ones. But that is not the point I am addressing today. I am talking about the greater happiness that the world can bestow upon us, how making other people happy, can make us happy.

Many people are easily disillusioned by a grandeur of an ideal. I am humble enough to believe that I could be one of these people. But I have always been happy to be able to inspire people, to help people maximize their potential, to be all they can be. I feel the joy in the joy of others. I may not be employed, or working in a back office somewhere in the outback, or anything, but I will make it my reason for being to inspire people, to show them what they are meant to do. I say this with confidence, yet humility, in hopes of not being ridiculed, but in the spirit of sharing and good faith. It will be my purpose, to help you find yours. How am I going to do this, in this world of more than 6 billion people? One at a time, my friends, one at a time.

Blow Your Mind

Many of you might not even come close to understanding what this is about. But I just witnessed a masterpiece today. Definitely one of the best games of Warcraft ever played. This will fucking blow your mind. Many of you won't even know who Grubby is, but he is definitely one of the greatest champions of any sport. He may have only won the WCG (World Cyber Games) once, but his attitude and character is exemplary, top notch, and definitely admirable. Here is some background info on Grubby:

Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen (May 11, 1986–), is a Dutch professional player of the real-time strategy game Warcraft III (his primary race is "Orc"); he is currently signed to the top electronic sports team: MeetYourMakers (MYM). He was rated the #1 top Warcraft III player in the World by SK Gaming and WCReplays.com on February 2006, going up from the second place (first spot was held by Grubby's rival Jang Jae "Moon" Ho he received when the ranking was first conceived 3 months earlier). Now Moon and Grubby are team mates at MYM.

Grubby is primarily a solo competitor, but is well known for being one of the best 2v2 team players in the world. In the past, he has formed strong teams with former 4Kings members such as Myth, Yoan "ToD" Merlo, and Olav "Creolophus" Undheim, achieving great success in clanwars and team competitions such as WC3L. It awaits to be seen whether Manuel will play in MyM's 2v2 team.

Showing consistent strong tournament finishes since 2004, together with Moon he is the only player in WarCraft 3 history to have at least one major tournament every year since 2004. To be more precise: he won the World Cyber Games in 2004, the Electronic Sports World Cup in 2005 and the World Series of Video Games in 2006.

His total prize money earnings exceed $160,000 USD. Additional incomes over the years have come from various sources such as a salary received from professional gaming team 4Kings and offering Warcraft 3 lessons.

In the web Mockumentary, Pure Pwnage, the main character Jeremy receives a phone call from "Grubby", a reference to Manuel. Jeremy notes on his inability to beat "Gosu Night elf players".

As of January 22, 2008 Grubby's previous clan 4Kings disbanded, and a few days after that Grubby was offered a place in MYM. The team MYM which contains Moon and Lucifer and other top players now acquired yet another powerhouse, making the team seemingly indestructible.

- Wikipedia

Grubby is a player that is wanted by most teams, not just for his Warcraft skills. He is a positive influence to his team mates, a great motivating force, and a good friend to all. A few posts ago, I posted one of his articles and for those of you who did not read it, please do! It's titled "Fickle Balance". Ignore the technical details of Warcraft and you shall witness your common misconception of what a "geek" pro-gamer is being blown to smithereens. His eloquence is obvious and exhibits thoughtfulness and maturity despite playing "Orc" which is deemed to be a disadvantage at the highest level of gaming.

But today is not a day for me or any of us to glorify Grubby. I doubt it will be the case any other day. In about 10 years, many of us would have forgotten him. Nevertheless, this game of his will remain. For those of you who have a copy of Frozen Throne 1.21, I assure you that your time will not be wasted in watching the imba-ness that is exhibited in the game that is downloadable below.

Click Here to download "THE GAME"

If you do not see what is amazing about this game, please let me know, ask me questions, and I will give you what I hope will do justice to the great masterpiece, an explanation. As someone who watches replays all the time, I can say that I have watched hundreds of Grubby's games and never before have I seen him play like that. He was truly in the zone. With all being said and done, I hope that you can enjoy this as much as I have and if you think I am being a geek for thinking so highly of what is "just a computer game" to you, as they say in New Jersey, "Suck my balls!"

New Year? New Day? New Beginnings? Pssfftt...

One of the biggest jokes of the year is the New Year. People begin the new year saying things like "This is the new year, I have a chance to start anew" or make ridiculous resolutions that they know they won't keep. The new year is just a new day. If we are ever begging so hard for an opportunity to change, why wait for the new year? To push it to the extreme, why even wait for a new day? If you want your 6-pack abs, or that elusive 24-inch waist-line, or the discipline to be a "good" student, or sleep with at least five guys this year, or find your dream guy, or to save enough money to travel the seven seas, why do you have to wait for a new year?

Nevertheless, all this is way easier said than done. But as usual, the first step to big dreams is self-awareness. Abraham Lincoln said in his "House Divided" speech in 1858:

If we could first know where we are going and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it

Simply, it means that it is important in every decision process that we know where we are and not just where we are going. We can only know "whither we are tending" if we know where we are. So for those of you who still think you are in your lofty worlds with all these big dreams, I hope that after you have read this, you will re-think where you are, and not just about where you want to go. It is pointless to know where you want to go if you don't know where you are.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a multi-talented writer from Germany in the late 18th-early 19th century added:

What you can do or think you can do, begin it.
For boldness has magic, power, and genius in it.

To translate, in the words of Nike, "Just do it".

Some of you may also remember Celine Dion singing about a new day and NOT a new year. I know that's lame but I am going to use it as an example to drive my points home. Here is a link to that song for those of you who were born too late to know who Celine Dion is:

A New Day Has Come - Celine Dion

If you try to see beyond the mushy lyrics of the song, I think it can be applied out of the context of love as what was intended by Celine. Anyway, here are the lyrics:

A new day has...come

I was waiting for so long
For a miracle to come
Everyone told me to be strong
Hold on and don't shed a tear

Through the darkness and good times
I knew I'd make it through
And the world thought I had it all
But I was waiting for you

Hush, love

I see a light in the sky
Oh, it's almost blinding me
I can't believe
I've been touched by an angel with love
Let the rain come down and wash away my tears
Let it fill my soul and drown my fears
Let it shatter the walls for a new, new sun
A new day has...come

Where it was dark now there's light
Where there was pain now there's joy
Where there was weakness, I found my strength
All in the eyes of a boy

Hush, love

I see a light in the sky
Oh, it's almost blinding me
I can't believe
I've been touched by an angel with love
Let the rain come down and wash away my tears
Let it fill my soul and drown my fears
Let it shatter the walls for a new, new sun
A new day has...come

A new day has...come
Ohhh, a light... Ooh

Hence, we don't have to wait for a new year to make changes in our lives. All we need is a day. My best wishes to you in your future endeavors.

Full Circle

This post is probably long known to be inevitable. My final semester at BU did not begin with a bang, nor did I expect it to. Life as I have come to know it, is only as exciting as we make it to be. It's not that I am not excited about what I need to study for this semester, in fact, I have the three most interesting courses that I have ever taken in my college life. They had to wait until the last semester to give me what I really love to do. But then again, maybe it is because I have only discovered what I love to do during my later college career. Anyhow, my college career is approaching its end and I'd like to think that the first quarter of my life is coming to a close. When I look back at how I have spent my college time, it is inevitable that there are a few kinks here and there. But I think I made the most of the opportunities that were presented to me. I had fun, made some cool friends, did everything a college student is supposed to do. Could I have done more?

Anyway, this is also a period for job hunting and my hopes seem slim. It would seem that the harder I try, the more I have come to realize that the chances of me being hired are not too good. Nevertheless, I have zero doubt about my abilities as a person. I just have huge doubts about how the system works. How can they send a representative and talk to you for about 30 minutes and then they get to decide if you should be recalled for a second interview. Well, but that's how life works and I just have to live with it.

My plans now are to secure a job in Melbourne. I will go there after I graduate and check out the companies and see where I end up. It will be exciting. Life is actually beginning! I have to find my own place, pay for my own food or cook, and pay bills etc. As intimidating as it may seem to some people, it actually sounds exciting and fun. The only thing that is left for me to desire is to be able to do something that I will enjoy. I don't have to love the job or anything, but to be challenged and to enjoy the challenge would be pretty ideal.

I have also realized that I have saved a decent amount of money now and I can afford to buy myself a few presents before I go home. I have also sold off some of my textbooks, some of them even at a profit after using them. I am just that good at sales pitching. What can I say? Hahaha... So my plans are to purchase a camera, a long-term investment for me. I also recently purchased a suit, which cost about 200 USD. According to the people I talked to, that's a good price to pay for it. In fact, it's a bargain.

You could say that I am on a kind of a splurge right now. But after four years of "hard" work, I think I deserve slightly more than a pat on the back and a "Job well done". Besides, I think the camera is more of a shared property between Ern and I.

With all that said, and a quarter of my life gone, I can foresee that this will be a good life. I just know it. Now let's go fall down so that we can learn all the ways to climb back up :)