Losing the Blogging Feeling...

Quick check. Last blog entry 27th April...That's one month's exodus from here...Not good.

It didn't help that I didn't have much to write about recently...There are things to write, but writing them may result in personality suicide..So I'll digress.

Now, what have I got to blog today?

A little update in my life. Last Friday my company had a bowling tournament. Ever since I joined 4 years ago, I haven't missed this annual tournament, so no prizes for guessing that I was amongst the first few to sign up. The way this noob/amateur tournament goes is that there's always a group competition (best of select number of players' points total) and best individual players. Now (Telling the story like most women would..), I've never really been a good bowler, averaging about 100 points per game with a lifetime high of maybe 180 or so..Yes, I'm le'suck in bowling...Many others as well (as you'd know later!) So as always all I wanted to do was to get 2 games of free bowling, lousy but free dinner and a chance to spend fun time at companies' expense..Oh, may I note in the past the individual and team events were seperated..i.e. "Those who are good or think too highly of their bowling" would join the individual competition, while the random others would partake in the team event. Yes, no prizes for guessing team event scores are relatively low..This year however, singles play for team as well and vice versa.

Ok, on to the event. It's supposed to kick off at 6.30pm but knowing us Malaysians, it didn't start until 7.30pm...While waiting, I had the decency to begin a chant, "we want food" to subtly hint to our organisers we were hungry..Subtly because if I was obvious I would have gone for the food directly! Food was horrible. Chicken cocktails, chicken nuggets, sandwiches of the el'cheapo type and random local pastries was what dinner would be. No refills too. (Wonder why I would complain about refills if I didn't like the food? Then you don't know me at all, hahaha!)

Back track half an hour before, it was time to input our names in the play roster. I'm commonly known as Benjamin Lam, but that night I felt like using a nickname given to me by my CCG circle, Judge Ben, so I changed my name to just initials JB. When asked what it meant I said Johor Baharu..Ok, I wasn't that keen on giving them the whole story of how I play M:tG, judge M:tG, quit it, played Raw Deal Wrestling, etc...Until I got coined the name JB. Not to mention there were 3(at least) different Benjamin's in that gaming circle and I wasn't actually big enough to qualify as Big Ben (there was a bigger Ben). The small Ben nickname obviously went to someone else.

Looking at my team's players I was quite sceptical we'd do well, but then again I never expected any podium finish anyway. Oh, there's only 4 teams in contention, so you would guess what my expectations were on not getting podium finish. Now this other team, known as Fumo Blue (mine is Conquerors while the remainnig 2 are Blazers and....and....the other team...) had this pro looking player who hits quite a strike. Halfway playing the first game (we would have 2), I noticed he was playing 2 different games and that....wait, this part of the story shouldn't be here...

FYI, on friday I had a sore thumb. On my left hand. I'm left handed. It's actually an infection which recurred despite 2 weeks ago I finished all the antibiotics the GP gave me and it receded. Well, on Friday it appeared again. It was painful too. I was sincerely considering not to play. However, looking at how my team lined up, I felt compelled to do my bit to help score some points. I figured besides a handful of regular players, most of us were either noobs or noobs. Therefore a contribution of 100 points per game (200 in total) would serve well in the team competition. So I played through the pain barrier. Literally..

Ok, back to the game. So this pro player was playing 2 games, which isn't fair at all so I complained. In more respectful and honourable situations, you'd expect the organisers to disqualify the 'cheating' team, but alas, it was not to be. All I managed was to get that other game's score ignored for team totals...bah..

My first game was ok, scoring at 122 despite no strikes.. I was still adjusting to the game and getting the right throw angle and using the correct bowling ball, so 122 is actually quite good. For the second game, the pro player I was mentioning, started off with a strike. Then another strike. Then a turkey. Then his fourth strike consecutively for that game. Then a fifth strike. Then his lane had technical issues which delayed the game for almost 10 minutes. Needless to say he lost his rhythm. he still ended up with a game high of 204.. As for me, did I mention he was bowling to my left and that he always bowls just before me? You could say I was under pressure, but the truth is I wasn't. I'm just not competitive enough to fight the big boys. On the other hand, the smaller ones, the ones who love the gutter some what, they are by feeders.

Now, as I was saying, I had a sore thumb. Add that to an unfit body, I was not throwing straight at all. I was even having difficulties sparing. Then I hit a chord. Everytime I walk up to the lane, as I carry the bowling ball, I would sing one of Evanescence's songs somewhat aloud. I would not finish singing the song, so in the next frame I would sing the next song. I do take pride in knowing 10 out of 11 songs in Fallen so I had enough songs to sing for my 2nd game. Worse comes to worse, I'd just sing the 2 songs I know from The Open Door. No problem. You'd probably not believe it had any effect, but my second game score was 184. I had 1 turkey and I believed only failed to spare in 2 frames. In those frames I failed to spare, it was because I forgot the lyrics of the next song...Haha, losing memory after all.

So I had a game total of 306, which as I mentioned earlier, with most of us being lousy bowlers, it was enough to get me 2nd place. (The pro player got first, of course!) Still not bad for an unfit, injured noob I think. Not to mention, I should play this game more often. It's fun, burns some calories and makes me look like I'm loco...I mean, nutty.

So that was last Friday..See, so much easier to blog if I had something to blog about...

Oh, I have nothing to say about Liverpool's lost in the Champions' League Final except, out of luck...

Do comeback sometime...


(Do anyone of you get what I meant by telling the story like a woman would?)