Mahjong Life and Living

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...

This was an old bit of writing dated: April 21, 2010.  Fast forward to today, I decided to include into this blog, as it is a piece of myself.  And yes, in terms of memory lane, I went as far back as my childhood life in the Philippines.  This was before 1986. Learning the Bicycle Here is a story of how I learned to ride a bike, and the pattern it had set me for life.  Yet, only recently, I had realized this pattern. My parents were buying a bicycle for my sister.  As for me, I was outright refusing a bicycle.  Yet, regrettably, it was I, not my sister, who ened up riding that bike more often.  Or at least, it appeared that way in my memory.  With the training wheels on, I rode it where ever I could.  Eventually, one or both of the training wheels would break.  If only one broke, then I still would ride it.  In the case of both, then I'd wait (or ask) for them to be replaced. One day, my neighbor decided to help me.  Wh...

Here is a litmus test in the form of just one question to determine if you truly enjoy mahjong: Can you take a 4th in a game, and still look back at the game fondly? If yes, then you truly enjoyed the game and mahjong overall. Every mahjong player has lost a chunk of games.  Even the good players have produced a loss rate (4th place) of 20% or more.  In general, losing is not fun.  It's even worse when there is a string of them.  However, a game can be played for pure enjoyment regardless of result. For example, here is a kazoe yakuman - just note the dora and uradora indicators.  I dealt the 3pin right into it, thinking that I can set up my hand and hit him for houtei.  Yes, that was my plan.  It did not work. I remember him saying, "Ron.  48." My immediate reply as I look at the hand, "Hey, that doesn't look like it's worth 4800." Then he repeated, "48,000." "Oh," I said. Then I laugh.  Even now, I can thin...

It seems fitting for the tournament scene to have been a big part of my mahjong journey, as I literally traveled to these tournaments to play.  For a record, here is my mahjong tournament history .  While I had been operating the Anime Central tournament for a number of years, my first chance at my own tournament play came in 2015.  From there, I got to travel to at least one tournament per year since. Hopefully, I do not travel to a tourney this year.  For family reasons, I was in Las Vegas last week.  I feel the need to save up a little money and catch my breath.  Yet, I retain the ability to just go to one, if I so choose. I will be looking to go through the tournament listing down the line and see what kind of memories still remain in my head.  Will I go through gameplay?  Not really, unless I happen to actually remember some moments.  Then I will share them. Memory lane will be fun.