King's Cup Epilogue

Good: 16-10, +93, 16th place (one win up on last year) Personal Record

Bad: losing out on 10th place by a Helen Gipson or Lukeman Owolabi or Panupol Sujjayakorn

Ugly: Free challenge is such a bitch to deal with. Then again, there was Cream & fudge Factory which I visited like 5 times throughout the tournament, my poor waistline. My bowling scores on Friday or Saturday night.
Preparations for Nationals: Double NADA!!!!

Scrabble updates

Zyzzyva: 1.4xk 7s and 8s with bloated indigestions, must be the 6Ls K words......oh well, not going to reset cardbox just yet.

Strategy: sux!!!

Practice: sux!!!! need to plan some online sessions with pakorn or helen.

Preparation for Penang Open: what preparations?
Preparation for King's Cup: Nada too.

Where did the script go wrong?

Singapore Open:

First 10 games: 9-1, 2 clear of the field and in pole position (good)
Last 6 games: 0-6, 7th barely scoring any points if this was the F1 GP (bad)

Playing phonies like HILIS* (unchallenged), OBIITS* (unchallenged), VOIDLESS* (challenged). (Really Ugly)

I just got a tattoo

from Tribal Art Gallery, by Chung.

Consider it a customized tribal modern design with 3 dragons (1 roaring, 2 asleep) in the form of a borneo scorpion.

Will post photos and the pain up when I get back from East Malaysia on Saturday.

Edit: Here are the photos

Parent are back from visiting their ancestral village

Heck!!! My dad originated from China...at least his family house is still there. Mum's great-grandparents house got torn down.

So a couple of obligatory books on TeoChew-isms, leather belts and a leather wallet (both courtesy of dubaoiU brand, god knows what else is springing up in China these days). Still skimming through their holiday photos. Not to mention getting an added dose of TeoChew conversation these days to boost my TeoChew factor (which is woefully low at all times)

To play or not to play

There will be a local Scrabble tourney next weekend, which will jam up my dinner appointments schedule on Friday, Saturday and Monday (not to mention that they are all wine tasting menus so I will probably be playing at around 20% peak performance)

What a dilemma...trilemma....quadrilemma....

Watchmen was worth the wait.

even with the few significant changes in the storyline and shortened philosophical monologues.

Guess my favourite Watchmen now is strictly Rorschach (I used to dig the cynical Comedian) but having a shifting face-mask and "me against the world" attitude just cuts it for me; plus his death scene is much cooler than Comedian's.

Australian Nationals 2009

Perth, here I come.

At least it will be on Easter weekend, have booked the flight and accommodation.
Now to renew the passport and get an ETA Visa.

PS: I know I haven't been posting about food much.
Will probably throw all the photos I have on one page with some captions.

Marley and Me

What a tearjerker......I even shed tears at the end.

God, I need to get it on DVD for my collection for my little ones when they do come into this world.

Now to go with someone to watch Watchmen.

Thank god for Millecup

Okay, first tournament jitters over. 4th place was a so-so finish even if I was seeded 4th but I still lost rating points. Not many fantastic things except for the niner that turned around a game where I was like 2 bingos down and playing catch-up. Funny how luck changes midgame.

On to the next one. wonder if I can win it (wish I could give Nigel a run for his money, last year's Scrabble Scramble was very painful to lose)

On another topic, I dislike the team allocation for Malaysia this year at Causeway (and I most definitely do not want to play my countrymen even if I make the international team), not that I will make the cut for that anyway. At least we get more spots for the WSC.

Moving on...

I guess I have to admire people who can give up Scrabble (at their peak) totally for any given period of time (even when some of them do come back for Act II). Brett, Perry, Cappelletto, Ganesh.

And you have the constant: Nigel,

Me, I still haven't ascended any peaks, never won any tournaments in the top division, haven't studied the entire dictionary, haven't mastered all the strategies and tactics. It's feel kinds of weird leaving the game on the way up but not at the top or over the peak.

I wish my mother would tell Tiger Woods to give up golf before he won any Majors and take over the family business.

No Scrabble tourneys for me...so far

The 1st WSC qualifiers clashed with work.
The 2nd one with a party that I am organizing.
The next one, Millecup in Singapore, might get derailed if I am sent off for a workshop in Penang the Wednesday before.

When the heck am I going to play in tournaments this year.

The Chinese New Year of the Ox

Status: Single unattached male.
Angpow revenue: RM 220
Gambling bonus: - RM5 mahjong; RM130 (not inclusive of RM59 initial capital outlay) cards
Expenditure: RM 30 handphone topup for new year greetings; RM 10 petrol, RM 0 free food.
Questions: 1,649 times - "When are you going to get married? (and other variations)"

The 2009 Reunion Dinner.: 1 day early

Instead of the traditional Korean BBQ in Ampang, we opted for a family dinner with about another 10 friends for the evening of Wagyu Beef, Lamb, Drunken Chicken and assorted goodies. Apologies for lack of a report or photos as I was too busy getting stoned with whisky and white + red wines. Time to rethink the food blogging aspect.

The Four Parties of CNY

Well.....Chinese New Year is almost upon us, the invitations have been sent, dates have been fixed, food have been prepared for all the annual *must attend* parties...except for one, my family's.

Normally, we will start off with the traditional tea ceremony at home. Followed by lunch at my godfather's place before heading off to the Chan's open house at night. The following day, another lunch get-together in Old Klang Road.

My Family's? : 21-February 2009 at the Hotel. And I am still on the lookout for food. At least the chef is settled.

I Hate Channel surfing

especially when the Australian Open/ Augusta Masters and clashing with my favourite weekly shows like Iron Chef/Heroes/Grey's Anatomy. (At least there will always be the DVDs of the series' seasons)

Welcome, Mr. 44th President

Nothing like learning on the job when you have crises exploding around the world when you take office (at the very least, you have FDR as a case study to ease things).

First Post of the New Year

Read as above. Nothing more.Actually, just want to thank everyone for the past year: mishaps, blessings and all. And I got off to the new year with a bad start, thanks to me being too overemotional over relationship problems. Here is to a better year ahead: Oz Nats, Penang, King's Cup, WSC and CSC. I will play them all. Oh and get a new girlfriend too.

My 1st time clearing spam on a blog

on that old malaysianscrabble.blogspot.com.

God, that's a lot of spam in the comment fodders. No wonder they labeled it a spam blog.
Anyway, posted the 2008 Causeway Scrabble Challenge ROTO on it.

Meme from FBB

Courtesy of FBB, I now have to answer this meme based on my meager contents of my wallet.

Prior to this, I will say that watching Oprah's self-help show on clutter and debt diet does wonders for my timeworn wallet, which is obviously nearing the end of its usability. (Previously, it was also thicker than FBB's one that you can see on his blog for reference).










Open inside and you don't see much. Good discipline!!!














The obligatory KP, and numerous editions of the drivers licenses, some of which I have taken the opportunity to "declutter".













My name cards; some contact name cards that I have yet to program into my handphone address book before organizing them, shall do so tonight; my blood card showing me to have one of the most stingiest blood types in the world.











Unlike FBB, I have Oprah to thank for decluttering my financial obligations and maximizing my returns on few items: two ATM cards (one from Singapore to park my stash, one Malaysian bank to handle most of my needs here. At the moment, I am waiting to switch to another one if it can meet my needs better); One (read that 1, ONE) credit card with a generous spending limit that rarely gets maxed out unless I travel abroad; Two membership cards for groceries and books; my Singapore EZlink card from student days, saves me a lot on my weekend trips to Singapore (why drive there when the public transport system actually works?)





Cash, this is probably almost my daily kitty fund.














Being a nice guy, I will not tag anyone with this meme.
Yeah right, ling239, helen gipson, meena (handbags, ladies), alpha, martin. You guys are tagged!!!