Monday, August 1, 2016

Chronicle 96 - Conflicted

Work is very busy. Ok, moving on…

I was walking with GK, en-route to meet a journalist when we began talking about our interests. I told him about an upcoming martial arts competition that I had signed up for and asked if he had ever done any martial arts or combat sports. His answer was: “No, I don’t think so. I’m a lover not a fighter, Adwin.” That reply made all my hairs stand.

I had two separate badminton sessions some time back: one with my secondary school friends and another with D and a friend of hers. I love the sport so every session is enjoyable, but sometimes wonder how we can extend the circle of players. I kind of miss the old badminton gang back when I was in secondary school. Sadly, we’ve all drifted away for various reasons.

As for the martial arts competition, I’m not sure what to make of it at this point. My elbow still hurts even weeks after the competition. I had to tap out in one match after I was caught in a triangle choke barely a minute into the fight. The other fight was more enjoyable in a sense though. I went toe-to-toe with my opponent for the full five minutes. He caught me in an arm-bar submission but with adrenaline pumping and my pride, I refused to tap and forcefully extracted my arm from the lock. There was also an instance where we were grappling with each other and he somehow managed to pin me to ground. I had my fair share of dominant moments as well so I thought the match went pretty well. After the match though, the blood started to drain from my head and I had to stagger to the toilet to puke. One day later, my elbow and chest began to hurt – a lot. Both are incredibly inconvenient injuries as almost every single everyday-motion would aggravate the pain. I am still resisting going for an x-ray but it seems I might have to if the pain doesn’t subside.

Speaking of martial arts, I applied to Evolve Mixed Martial Arts for the post of PR Manager. LT saw the job posting online and forwarded it to me. She also helped me a bit with my cover letter. Long story short, they called me and asked me down for an interview. I’m still waiting for the second round but am starting to lose hope with every passing day. Oh fun fact: my first opponent at the competition was from Evolve.

We celebrated LT’s birthday and had a custom set of poker cards made for her. The challenge was trying to find 15 unique pictures to decorate those cards from Ace to King to Joker. It turned out very well in the end.

Where is the line between being intrusive and showing concern? I find myself struggling with this recently. Don't feel like elaborating for now...

I met up with my University mates at M2's place for Hari Raya. No cultural shocks this time. Just good food and catching up with friends. Everyone seems to be doing well - relatively speaking.

I attended K's and PL's weeding last week. It was a joy seeing these pair of old friends finally getting married. They've been through plenty of drama and break-ups only to find each other again. Bless them! Now this F who attended the wedding dinner with me suddenly decided to be a hero and after many glasses of wine became rather drunk. He could barely walk straight. I had to bring him home... Wonder what came over him.

I am currently in reservist and thus far it has been manageable. My elbow though still has not recovered and it might prove challenging for me to perform certain tasks. Gonna fail IPPT for sure this round. I managed to sneak out of reservist to see off our intern on her last day. She's been a very good help and is very competent for her age.

I also just got some intel that my boss has officially announced that someone new would be joining us as an Associate. Truth be told, we have already known about it for some time through other means, so this announcement is more a formality. It is however, a reminder that many such official announcements are always made whenever I am away.

Having a target is good. But is having a target for the sake of having one a good thing? Again, I don't feel like elaborating on this for now either...

[Quotes]

"All children are born pure egotists. They perceive their needs to be the exclusion of all others. Only through socialization do they learn that some forms of gratification must be deferred and others denied." - Andrew Vachss

"Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." - Carrie Fisher

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