One year on

As I sit here typing, I do reminisce about what has happened in the past one year since I took over as the Scrabble columnist for the Star after the death of my predecessor, Mr. Leonard Wong.

Back then, I was still a whippersnapper (still am now, but I feel old with so many juniors invading the tournament scene, many of whom I introduce in the first place), who just wanted to play, play and play.

Since Leonard passed on, I probably continue a lot of his work. I was mainly focus on writing about Equatorial, Causeway, the Nationals last year. Then 2005 rolled in and I realized that there was no tournament to write about unless I organized it. Then there was the irritant of the ex-president, who has wronged the whole committee and the association.

So I probably end up doing everything for Malaysian Scrabble (and the KL Scrabble scene), received a few thankyous here and there (and a lot of misguided criticisms from the ass who is the current president, who sits on his ASS all day while the select few on the committee toil everyday).

Am I happy with the current situation? NO
Am I happy with the current trend? NO

I am still not satisfy with my articles, I want to write better but I need a serious revamp in my style. I am dissatisfied with the dictator, aka president, who is an ASS and tries to control everything. He is not touching my articles or the webpage that my friend maintains for me. He simply does not have the support of the committee to bully me as he wishes. So there!

I am also giving thoughts to the next few days to decreasing my involvement in organizing Scrabble tournaments because it is too stressful, especially when I am still starting out in the workforce. I find it very annoying that there are people who do have the free time and resources to organize Scrabble just sit back and do nothing but play. They should be the one getting off their butts and trying to organize their own tournaments, instead of coming up to me with ideas and suggestion. I am very pissed when people give their suggestion for two reasons. One, I don't take criticism lightly or easily. Secondly, I don't want to be the only one to organize Scrabble tournament in KL for the rest of my life.

I do take pity on Mrs. Yap because of all the committee members, she probably works as hard as me, if not harder than me. She has put together the Interschool Championship and National Championship this year already inspite of serious fumbling from the ASS.

So wake up, people. From next year onwards, you might find out that you will be on your own for most of the year. So, you want a Scrabble scene, start by helping to create one, before I bow out early like Leonard Wong (who was very overworked in 2004).