2013 Reflections

Reflections, reflections. The year will be over soon and reflections for the year must be done before the new one comes. はいそれじゃ今年のまとめ：

去年の話だけど代表としてＫＡＣＡに参加しました。　そのお陰で音ゲーがどれほど世の中の人を繋げるのがよく分かった。　台湾も韓国も日本も音ゲーでつな げるなんて凄いなぁ。　ＫＡＣＡの後は皆とつなぐためにツイッタはじめました＠ＲＢＲｉｅｚｚ。　大体音ゲーツイットしかしてないけどまぁそれでもいいん じゃない。

Lost my favourite music game and had to fly overseas just to play it but it's being replaced for now and SDVX is pretty fun. Can't beat RB for me and I don't really bother as much with scores but it's good enough I guess. Don't really know whether I can convince anyone to bring it back but I guess I can try at least.

Also I might be slow but it seems I'm a little more well known in the arcade community than I thought I was. >_> Oh well. I've been holed up at Cityvibe much more this year compared to last but I'm still thankful for all the friends and rivals I've made from SDVX, RB, and IIDX. It's nice to see that the music game community is still pretty awesome irl even if the JB FB group has kind of gone to hell and back, and it's really heartening to see that competitions, as rare as they are, are as lively and active as ever. Hopefully next year is a better year with regards to music games as this one - still hoping someone will change their mind and bring RB and Pop'n back into Singapore at least ~_~.

Got randomly dropped into a great project group and a great OG - probably the luckiest thing to happen to me this year as far as NUS is concerned. Wonderful people, and I honestly have no clue how my ISE life would be like without these guys. Kind of a scary prospect in hindsight. Damn. Really glad that you guys are there, and I'm looking forward to hanging out and working with you guys again next sem.

小さなバンドに入りました。　あまり練習時間がないけど大切にしています。 十年以上やった聖歌隊を止めた後歌うチャンス全然なかったからなぁ。　久しぶりの歌える場所があることは「運が良い」としか考えられない；これだけを心か ら感謝してる。　これからもっと皆と仲良くなりたいけどちょっと難しいだね。　まぁもうバンドのページいっぱい書いたからここまででいいかな。
　
Realized once again how great my friends are, over the various meetups to catch up, random crashing of people's houses (and vice versa), and all the conversations on FB/WA (across timezones or not), regardless of whether they lasted minutes or hours. Thanks for being with me through the good and bad times, the boring and stressful periods, and the joyful and painful days. バカな時でも支えてくれて本当にありがとうございます。 親友達はどれほど大切なんてもう一度分かってくれました。 シンガポールにいてもいなくても僕にとって皆は大事な宝なんです。

All in all the year's had its ups and downs but it's been mostly great everywhere. Life's been good to me even though I don't think I've done that much, and hopefully it stays that way next year - but I guess I'll be putting in more effort into keeping things good, be it friends, colleagues, work or life.
来年もよろしくお願いします。

The Power of Words

You said that talking to people online is but a distant form of communication and relationship - that it would be near impossible to really know a person just by talking online. Perhaps there is more truth to be found in real contact - mannerisms, appearances, the little subconscious signals the human makes that he or she will never notice but will never escape your gleaming eyes. The online, I suppose, is but a farce; a makeup of the soul and brain.

You don't realize that sometimes, talking is all we have. And online is all we have. Not everyone has the luxury of physical contact, the knowledge of when your friends will be available to meetup, let alone the choice to meet them tomorrow to catch up over a cup of coffee. The doctor-to-be in Australia came back for a week in December - the previous time was July, and the one before over a year back. He's freer next year because it's his research year, but what after? Back to the rural hospitals with minimal access to the outside world? The looming thought of marriage to his highly conservative girlfriend? The realization that the only time I will ever get to meet him again is with a $800 air ticket and a prayer for him to have good fortune not to encounter too many of the dying?

For some, even contact is a privilege an honour we are undeserving of. But I digress.

There are those who get close and then start talking to each other online very often. I'm the opposite in cause and effect. As far back as I can remember every single friendship I've forged across the past decade that has lasted the test of time has started from talking online; it is the cause, not the effect. There are those who can't bother with farces, illusions, the makeup of the self and soul, who speak their mind without hindrance, who bare their self without fear. I trust them to take it, and they trust me to receive likewise. Of course trusting in a person and being trusted by a person are completely different matters - no doubt I fall completely guilty of mistaking this - but it works.

What difference is it, after all? The difference between talking with a person through a monitor and talking to a monitor is merely the trust that the person on the other side is truly a person - no robot, no fake, no pretending. When you don't bother with these things communication might get complicated - misinterpretations, misunderstandings. But you adjust and learn, and trust that this is the person behind the words, the person in the personality. Nothing clears up a misunderstanding faster than frankness and questions.

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I'm at the stage where I can only write incoherent writing without proper linking between everything and conclusions. I blame 3am writing without the alcohol.