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Closing message to the 2026 Chicago Area Riichi Tournament

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Big thank you to everyone for attending this year's Chicago Area Riichi Tournament . With all the tournaments across the country, we wish for all these events to be successful. We are all truly blessed with the privilege of hosting and attending this year's tournament. A special moment happened before we started Hanchan 9, with everyone clapping. That applause is directed to all of us - not just in the room. We can extend the applause to beyond this tournament to everyone who plays and will play this game. Without our community, none of this is possible. We live in a wonderful time right now, where members of our community can come together and play this silly riichi mahjong game. It has always been in our best hope to provide an environment, where everyone can enjoy themselves here. Based on the general vibe, we all achieved just that; and we among staff bow with the privlege of serving everyone's tournament needs. We shall look forward to serving you the nex...
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Continuing Writing

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The entries here come in phases.  Historically, I go into bursts of writing with gaps of no-writing inbetween.  This pattern has been lifetime, as far as I may remember.  Due to lack of writing plus pen and paper, many of my thoughts are lost through time.  If I am lucky, I may find some and actually type them up. My writing will intermittently continue, but I shall not be making this promise.  "I will try" is all that I can say on this matter. The biggest determinant to my writing or lack-of-writing is tied to my general mood.  My thoughts run constantly, but my will to jot them depends on my overall feel.  After all, some of my thoughts are not worth sharing.  Other thoughts are indeed worth the notation.  For what its worth, I hope to have enough written down to reflect some of my lines of thinking.
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Kyuu's Running Record

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 For now, I shall note my road racing history in my adult life: Road Racing Record: Kyuu Date Race Distance Time Bib Number 03/31/08 NEIU Golden Eagle 5K 0:26:34 66 05/01/08 Race for a Safe State 5K 0:26:09 67 07/10/08 Bastile Day 5K 0:24:55 921 08/31/08 Nike Human Race 10K 0:55:41 0268550 04/19/09 Prarie View 5K 0:24:21 76 07/09/09 Bastille Day 5K 0:22:16 2446 10/11/09 Chicago Marathon MAR 4:08:34 32399 03/21/10 Shamrock Shuffle 8K 0:37:22 9865 04/24/10 Race to Wrigley 5K 0:21:59 2021 07/07/10 Bastille Day 5K 0:22:33 541 08/01/10 Rock n' Roll Chicago HMAR 1:50:29 8739 10/03/10 Twin Cities Marathon MAR 3:53:25 3543 05/28/11 Fleet Feet Soldier Field 10Mile 1:26:11 1991 08/14/11 Rock n' Roll Chicago HMAR 1:51:11 3264 11/05/11 Hot Chocolate 15K 15K 1:16:43 50174 04/29/17 Race to Wrigley 5K 0:40:08 2826 Had things turned out differently, I would still be running today.  However, a bunion during the 2012 training season knocked me out permanently.  Sure, I did get it one more ...
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Year 2025

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Let's see. My personal review of mahjong last year : Tenhou 214 games. Fresh account to 3dan. This is much lower than expectations, but the push continues. KyuuMJ stats . I also retain my old main account, KyuuSC, where I only played a game once a month to keep it alive. Mahjong Soul: 329 games. KyuuAA stats . Almost returned to M2 after 3 years, but it took a kokushi deal in at a "rank up" game to stop that. I even deranked to E3 but bounced back up to M1 quickly. Riichi City Might have to wait on the Riichi City annual report. Though, one thing not looking forward to - a reminder of the suuankou tanki, that I dealt into. For now, my numbers of the last 100 games . Pulled some characters, notably Shalltear via Overlord collab. SegaMJ Largely inactive throughout the year, until the Hololive Cup just a couple weeks ago. I grinded 111 east-only games in the two portions of the event. Even crossed R1800 briefly. Week 1 . Week 2 . IRL Chicago Area Mahjong club ...
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The following are words to the 2025 ARA Invitational :  The invitational weekend is here.  Some have already arrived or are on location.  Others will be traveling today. To everyone participating, once again - congratulations for making it to this tournament.  A few of you have played in a single open tournament to qualify; while the rest played in multiple tournaments last year.  It is both a cost and a commitment to play in these tournaments. Nevertheless, we do so because we want to. I for one apply this very principle to my own mahjong, to my club, to the Internet, and certainly to the country and beyond.  We only play mahjong because we want to.  Yet keep in mind: Participating in a qualifier-based invitational is a privilege.  In fact, every tournament is a privilege, but it is more so here because of the entry barrier.  You all should feel this; you earned your way to get here. As a reminder, all players have eighteen hanchan in nine t...
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Banned from Mahjong Soul Discord

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It is unfortunate, but I did my part lightening up the place in there.  However, that was not enough.  Instead, I ended up with multiple infractions that render this ban.  After all, it is their house, their rules: Am I guilty of these infractions?  Yes.   Was it my intention to trigger this ban?  No. For the record, this is the list of infractions: June 14, 2020: Case ID: 257 Posting a borderline NSFW image of Hisa. July 4, 2020: Case ID: 276 Political criticism, where I said, "Trump sucks". July 11, 2020: Case ID: 288 and 289 Unsolicited harrassment, where I pinged one mod who I perceived as a friend at the time. July 30, 2020: Case ID: 1074 Unlisted and unrecollected warning.  This must be the first ban warning. October 22, 2022: Case ID: 1177 Inadvertent off-topic discussion regarding Starcraft with a few others. December 7, 2022: Case ID: 1238 Typed a basic German sentence, but failed to provide an English translation. December 12, 2022: Ca...
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My Last Address to the 2023 Chicago Area Riichi Tournament

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Now that the event is over, we go forward from here with another tournament as a memory.  Some of us have a collection of tournament participation in the past, while some have this one as their first one.  Either way, it was certainly a collective experience.  Hopefully, plenty of us have found moments, where we can think and/or say: "I like how things are right now."  This thought first appeared at 2022 Riichi Nomi; in turn, I naturally gained the ability to produce puns.  Likewise I was getting plenty of such thoughts this past weekend.  To those who could not attend, future events are around the corner. Unlike anime conventions with their "post-con depression", everyone should walk away from this tournament feeling good.  Even if your mahjong results were not as you hoped they were, you can be happy for being there feeling the "synergy" or as I had been corrected: "the flow".  As mahjong players, that feeling of "flow" feeds off of e...
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