It's how you play the game

Sometimes losing can be a happy thing.

If you remember my post from a few months back, I have been playing ping pong again lately. And my ping pong buddy's game has gotten loads better. He is now smashing left and right and left again... and every so often making those smashes that land halfway along the side edge of the table... meaning it does not even reach the end of the table. So I have to run forward to get it. The smashes aren't too hard and fast yet... but it's only a matter of time if we continue playing.

Still, it's helping me improve my game too. I still manage to win most of the games (he insists on keeping score), but sometimes he takes the lead and I have to play hard to get back...like today when he took a lead of two sets (two sets, for goodness' sake, that has never happened before! Usually after losing one set I manage to concentrate and win the next one) and I was worried I was going to lose the rest. But then, it's not whether you win or lose... (see title :P )

He still can't play spin balls that well, but most of the time I don't play those either, because I still want to improve on my fast balls. When my fast balls can't help me win any more, I'll have to bring out the spins... (and maybe end up playing a few suicide balls in the process... I haven't been practising, you see...)

May the force be with you

Just watched Running Man episode 264 (yep, that's the latest; I'm a fan, remember?). For some reason HaHa started singing his old school song (okay, the reason is because they were doing something related to school), so his teammates Jae Suk and Kwang Soo started singing theirs too. Then Jae Suk was like, did you receive vital force from somewhere? And it turns out that all Korean school songs have something to do with receiving vital force from a mountain (or most, to be technically correct, because this is just from the three of them). They will sing something like "We received vital force from xx mountain" with the xx being the mountain's name. Only the mountain's name changes... probably each school receives their force from the nearest mountain!

I found this really funny. :D Why? I dunno... Maybe because it's similar to the ubiquitous torch that we find on school logos in Malaysia? I wonder whether other countries have those too. From darkness to light... (that was my primary school slogan, by the way)

Where am I?

Some people baffle me. I just don't know where I stand with them. Sometimes I feel that we are friends... and then some time later they just act like they do not want to be friends after all. Some are on-off-on-off, only acting friendly when they feel like it (somehow this makes me think of the song Hot and Cold by Katy Perry).

Maybe I am bad at reading signals. Maybe I interpret people's actions all wrong. Maybe I have a different definition of friendship. Maybe I just don't understand how humankind works.

All I know is, my English is supposed to be correct. I have acquaintances, and I have friends. A person needs to be an acquaintance before they can be a friend. And as for colleagues... well, some I don't know, some become acquaintances, and some become friends.

But which ones? Which ones are where? I think I know... and then I find out that I was wrong.

So since I'm stupid... why don't you tell me?

Where would you like to be?

Where would you like me to be?

So that we are clear on this. It would make things a lot easier for both of us.

Smile. Or not.

Some time ago, some people were sharing a picture of Heath Ledger as the Joker on Facebook. On it were the words: "Smile. Because it confuses people. Because it is easier than explaining what's killing you inside. -Joker"

BUT. These people were sharing the picture with the caption "Smile :)" How can they believe that the message these words send is to smile? That it is positive?

Did they even read what was written on it? Did they stop reading after the first two sentences?

You people need to wake up. That smile? Sometimes it is painted on. That's what the Joker has on his face. A painted smile. Not genuine, not happy. Just a smile to hide the sadness within.

Not saying that all smiles are fake. Which brings me to my drawing.

There are all kinds. Even more than these four. But I don't have enough space for the rest. Or maybe... there are too many of the rest to be able to represent in drawings.

Kena saman

We were having dinner at the Sg Pinang food court. When going back to our car, our heart sank (yeah, it's a collective heart) as we saw a traffic summons on the windshield.

(click to see larger version)

So... MyTeksi says that we are guilty of not using it. Hehe. I guess this is a pretty good marketing gimmick, as you are sure to look at a "traffic summons" you get!

(MyTeksi is an app to book a taxi. Some friends told me about it; it seems that you input your current location and your destination, and different taxis will bid for the job. Something like that... since I've never used it myself.)

How to be a good daughter

Keep calm and let your brother kill you. That is how to be a good Asian daughter.

Keeping safe

My previous post on secrets made me think of this quote that I shared several years back. (wow, eight years!)

Si le talent suprême est de faire croire qu'on en a, la meilleure façon de garder un secret est de faire croire qu'on en a pas.

Donc la meilleure méthode de ne pas se faire voler son argent serait de faire croire qu'on en a pas. Ça explique alors, pourquoi tout le monde se dit pauvre ces jours-ci.

Not sure whether I've written about how people these days love saying that they're poor, while putting everyone else on a pedestal saying "rich". Looks like I've been slow on the uptake on this one.

(Short translation: From the previous quote, I guess I can conclude that these days people are trying to keep their money safe by pretending that they have none.)

Secrets

People really amaze me sometimes.

The other day, a few of us were eating together when the topic of a mutual friend came up. Three of us had heard about a recent happening in this mutual friend's personal life. The fourth hadn't. I can't remember who brought up the topic, but suddenly Number 1 and Number 2 were discussing it openly. As I held my tongue and tried not to give too much away... Number 4 (who didn't know anything about the story) suddenly reprimanded Number 1, "That person trusted you with this secret, you shouldn't tell people about it!" Probably because Number 4 thought that Number 1 was telling us stuff that we didn't already know.

And Number 1 justifies it by saying, "We all already know about it." I was like, "But we shouldn't be talking about it in front of Number 4!"

Number 1 agrees. "Yeah, yeah, we can't tell you about it." (said to Number 4)

Not a minute later, Number 1 continues talking about the same topic. *smacks head in own mind* I can't remember how it transpired, but Number 1's justification this time was that "Number 4 won't tell anyone about it right?" *almost faints*

That is NOT how you treat confidences. (though in this case, it seemed to be a rather open secret, so... I don't know how much it mattered)

This reminded me of something another friend posted on Facebook some time back. He was lamenting the fact that he had been told a huge secret which he had a great urge to share. (but then he added that he wouldn't share it... not sure whether he managed to do that in the end :P ) And another friend commented that maybe one day he would find that actually everyone knew the secret but was just keeping it "secret".

That observation actually hits the nail on the head. If everyone were to act like Number 1 above, telling anyone about something just because "they wouldn't tell other people", and the ones who are told go ahead and tell others because "they wouldn't tell other people"... in the end the whole world would know. Hello, secret that everybody knows!

Really hard to trust people these days, huh?

Two farewells in a week

This past week I attended two farewell gatherings. One was for a Polish colleague who was leaving for home after a short business trip here. The second was for a new colleague who was leaving us just after three months!

For the first farewell, we went to Zi Wei Yuan Steamboat in Raja Uda for dinner. This place is especially famous because of its milky fish soup. It was really tasty, and I liked it that they refilled the soup with actual soup instead of just water. But... we all felt really thirsty afterwards. :s

Photo taken when the food had just arrived; unfortunately two people hadn't arrived yet!

The second farewell was lunch at Mizi Bistro at Krystal Point. This one was not that good... some of the others said only a few dishes are really good; the others are just so-so. I must have picked a so-so dish...

Photo taken at the end of the meal

Hehe, what a coincidence; on both days I was sitting next to the guest of honour! :P Anyway, I'll pass on listing out the names this time.

I didn't take any photos myself, so thanks to those who passed me the photos!

Chicken chopping

Sometimes I wonder, do those people who sell chicken actually cook chicken themselves?

I usually ask them to chop the chicken into smaller pieces for me, and it rarely turns out well...

For example, today I bought half a chicken. I asked the seller to potong empat (cut into four) for me. And... he cut out three pieces (on the left, in the photo below), then asked me whether I wanted to cut the remaining (huge!) piece into two. I said, err...better cut it into three.

How do they expect me to cook one dish with a whole leg and half a wing? -_-

Though actually, after chopping it like this, he made to take the leg and chop it again... but I said never mind. Where there are joints, I can handle... it's just the hard bones that I'm lazy to battle with. :P