Mahjong Life and Living

I have not practiced Lent in a several years.  Once I completely stayed away from the Internet, but that was many years ago.  In my opinion, Lent is a voluntary practice rather than a mandatory one, when it comes to giving something up for a period of time. This time around: I'll pledge to stay away from online mahjong play - until after Easter.  That is till April 12.  Can I keep away from real tiles?  No, that is my social circle.  Given a big change in my life this year , I need to at least play with real tiles to maintain my mental health. My Tenhou accounts, main and tonpuu , are safe due to recent game.  I won't have to worry about my Majsoul account either.  If anything, this huge break will be nice.  Hopefully, I return nice and refreshed with ladder ranking.  Many years of ladder ranking had rendered me utterly miserable about ranked play.  An even greater break will be a nice reprieve. In my meantime, my blog p...

As of 3:17 PM US Central Time, my cat Maki had passed away via euthanasia.  It is a tough pill to swallow, despite anticipation for the past year.  It has finally happened.  Her cancer had reached a state of infection, where it was finally necessary to end her suffering.  She needed regular daily doses of pain medication for the past couple weeks.  She did well, with spirits kept up and even surpassed her 20th birthday.  As for today, the time was right, as her behavior indicated as such.  She knew it was time to go. It was great knowing her.  I miss her already.  When I have myself more collected, I will write more about her.  For now, this was her sleeping earlier this morning.

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...

The following is text posted in Chicago Area Mahjong's blog just about a year ago. As the title notes, it's about Tenhou Tuesday. Any current edit is noted in parentheses: This has been an interesting development since the month of May. (2018) Every week since, a number of us across the country regularly play in the 7863 lobby of Tenhou.net. This regular session of online mahjong has been branded as Tenhou Tuesday . It took a life of its own, as we established a Discord channel where we normally converse via voice chat. In a sense, we are simulating the casual club play environment; and this environment provided players another opportunity to become mahjong friends. Personally, my first game was May 9; and I have been consistence in my weekly attendance. Needless to say, my involvement with mahjong has been overstretched. Yet, I keep coming for more. (Three of my club members) have joined some sessions as well. It was nice to see club members here participating too. ...

Mahjong is chock full of highs and lows.  This points to individual game instances to ranking trends.  Sometimes, the game makes us feel as if we're on top of the world.  Other times, the game sends us to the pit of despair.  It's an ebb and flow, that we as players have to deal with. Well, the idea exists in real life too.  We get our happiest times; and we get our saddest times.  It is all a natural course. On the highs, we feel like everything is okay.  Some highs feel perfect.  On the lows, time stands still; and we are faced with problems and despair.  Our responses to these depends on who we are; and I do not know enough about anyone to write about that.  As to my reactions, this is how I react to them.  This is how I see them. Under all cases, they are learning experiences.  All of it.  So, let's see how the learning happens in a future article.

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...

As of this post date, this individual managed to qualify into the next World Riichi Championship in 2020 by placing second at the Tri Nitro Tiles 7th Detonation Tournament .  Congratulations! Now we turn back the clock. One of the items received in the WRC swag: a booklet listing all of the tournament participants.  Most everyone responded to the survey and submitted their photo.  One person took the liberty of collecting everyone's signature. When she collected mine, I was very much surprised that anyone would ever want my signature.  Quickly, I realized her goal.  So, I decided to help out, as I had a decent familiarity recognizing who is who.  She did the work; I simply helped out a little.  As the signature collection grew, it really became easier as everyone was more than happy to sign upon seeing previously collected signatures. Of course, the collection came to the last day with a remaining uncollected few.  The last day was particu...