am writing this at 3.50am... somehow, i just can't sleep. god knows why. sleeping alike how ppl can choose to love you are 1 of the 2 things which you cannot choose.
anyways, back to the topic.
i'd be on tv on 28th jan 8pm!!! there's this new travel gameshow called "i want a holiday!" well, i shall not tell you the results for now. the prize is err.. kinda shrunken with the economy. one of the worse takings yet from a teevee gameshow. can see how bad things are now :P i guess we played pretty well tactically in the first round, less so in the second. will review this here after the show's played.
was at the games cafe after a long time with some friends. i realised that i need fresh people to play my favourite game "
ticket to ride". if you have ever played ticket to ride... you'd realise it is a game of nothing but pure strategy.
the trouble is, i'm quite good at this game. since the game has no element of luck (unlike dice tossing board games), your mind is able to play out the game and test out thy brillance.
- first movers advantage: you can opt to "block" people on strategic routes
- resource collection and allocation: with your limited movement vs your mates, how can you collect enough resources, predict their movement and seize the route first. (note that they have just as many carriages as you have)
- journey planning: you'd get 3 cards with routes that you MUST fulfill. so for obvious reasons, one of the easiest way is to make sure everything is enroute somehow.
- enemy don't move, i don't move: one of the 36 strategems that sun-tzu espouses. i personally think that it works just as well as first movers... depends on situation.
- hiding your intention (something that you read in all strategy books.. be it in warfare or in relationships..): so that nobody can stop you when you are putting the plan out in action.
- be like the water: folks are just as smart as you are, so you better make sure if plan A fails, plan B, plan C are ready to take over.
wah... i really like this game. anyone wants to play with me?
in the meanwhile since the period of my last posting, i've started my training programme. diet as well... some friends are pissed with my dogmatism over this "no buffet" rule that i've put into my life. they like to eat steamboat at bugis. i like to eat steamboat generally. just that steamboats are buffets and i tend to overeat. since starting my training and avoiding buffets all together, i have lost 1.5kg all together. like friends say "can see your cheekbones more prominently already".
here's what happened. there's like 4 friends other than me who are in the group - there's A, N, C and Y. N wanted to organise a buffet to cafe fairmonte. everyone is pleased, less me. C looked forward to it even. after i stated that i won't go if its a buffet, N tried to change the place to shokudo (which i'm cool with). then along came A who thinks that shokudo doesn't have good food and wanted to go back to the hotpot stall at bugis (which was 2008's hangout). so the whole thing took a tack with A's choice. there was no consultation to the "final" decision. obviously i won't go already. i'm just cheesed with a lack of consideration on A's part. and it seemed like its such a sweeping decision.
i guess 2009's aim of doing a half-iron might see me lose some friends, since they won't change themselves for me and we are going thru a cold war of sorts. i don't support buffets anymore, because people just tend to overeat. and i have a guilty conscience that goes against being super duper overfull when i know that others out there have nothing to eat. not that by not eating, the food goes to them. but what's the point of eating so much? really. i love to eat, trust me. i love to cook just as much. this group of friends overeat and just don't work out as much. there's even someone whose heart is already clogged up at the ripe old age of 27 and on blood thinners already. he's grown at least 150% of his size since 10 years ago. literally one leg in the grave and not afraid of death clearly.
just as these people won't support my cause in dropping weight for my training, there are new improvements to my training group. we're attracting new folks in our friends who are interested in picking up triathlon as a sport... there's boonie, who just did his first marathon. so proud of him, since its something that i won't do. and some of my training buddy's colleagues who lead pretty sedated lives. we managed to pull in one of our ex-colleagues who did an Ironman event before even! am happy that we are growing in size and there are now more people leading healthy lives with us.
i'm not an advocate of losing friends. and its one of those things which do tear me apart a little, which is probably why i'm writing this at 4.16am. but here's the deal, people do move on from time to time. and i guess, either you are on the same route or you aren't. i'd probably take some time to move on, though i'm sad and pissed how this event turned out. its a lose-lose situation in this entire playout of friendship. they won't bend, and i won't give in. different values, different takes. like N said after i shared with him how i feel... just too bad (which reaaaaaaaally pisses me off, blardy typical stat board styled statement).
