Mahjong Life and Living

 I keep chugging on but slowly.  This month of August has me rather despirited.  A lot has gone on in the Western online mahjong world, as well as Japan per usual.  To name a few: Cross Cup   AnimEVO   NAGA World Riichi Festival On a personal level, I cannot help but be despirited.  The month of August this year is heading towards its quick close, as with every August.  Yet I hang on; and I'll keep going.  September comes; and we head into Autumn and later Winter.  I hope everyone is dealing with the current Covid pandemic well. Here is a short summary to each event: Cross Cup .  This was an event backed by the Kizuna Project .  If there is one thing the Kizuna Project is good at, they are able to bring in activity from Japan, notably their connection to Saikouisen and other organizations.  So, they were able to set up a Tenhou based qualifier, where players play for a best consecutive 3-hanchan score.  Then the qual...

Late in 2018 just prior to Thanksgiving, I spent a weekend crying. For a few days, my cat was not really eating.  We found her in a very weak condition, barely eating if at all.  Reading the situation, I had to make a decision: Do we put her down or not?  I had never experienced this before, so it was rather emotionally stressful.  The thought of her being dead so suddenly was too much to bear.  Had my decision gone through, she would not be alive right now.  When the "last hope" of her eating was dashed, my mind thought: "that was it".  My sister managed find some added information; and her nausea was relieved as the vet prescribed some medicine. In my tears and desperation, I did write out some words on paper.  One year later, I do not know where that writing went.  It's somewhere.  I have to find it; when I find it, I'll type it out.  The basic jist made me realize how much this cat meant to me.  Before then, I never rea...

As Kyuu, I have been playing the Japanese version to mahjong and have been captivated by it.  The anime Saki had much to do with it; but the effects of that diminishes and is replaced by the sheer complexity of the game.  My entrance into the game came late in 2009. I had watched Saki, without any knowledge of the game.  Even now, I cannot remember my reason for even starting the series.  Eventually, an online buddy of mine came around and introduced me to the game.  He linked me to Saikyou no 3D Mahjong ; and the rest is history.  Later on he brought me to  Tenhou.net . With Saikyou no 3D Mahjong, I had to learn the most basic of rules.  Thankfully, I was already capable of reading hiragana and katakana.  In addition, I was already familiar reading the kanji to the numbers 1-9.  Yet, I once thought the 1-sou was a 10-sou tile for some reason.  On top of that, I did not understand the winds, nor their purpose to it.  T...

I managed to find a very interesting quote from the #mahjong IRC days: Many years later, I managed to embrace the  ⑨.  If you do not know what that is, then you are not aware of Touhou.  The  ⑨ is one of the more prominent memes .   When it comes to mahjong, I shall admit to being bothered about being called an idiot or my suggestions labeled as stupid.  That is only when I am taking things seriously.  Otherwise, in pure  ⑨ mode, I can just lay back and smile at everyone.   In terms of my mahjong (and even chess) play, I've had plenty of silly moments.  Case in point, I had a feud with the player named Rosti and even much longer ago xkime.  If you mix in a passion for something and the wish to display your thoughts and ideas, sometimes these things clash.  Arguments get heated, and it becomes one big internet mess. At the end of the day though, it is all bygones bygones.   With xkime, I can go a...