Baseball fever 2013

Who would have known that I would be hooked on baseball? For the longest time, I thought it was the most boring sports ever. I have been to a minor league game and a major league game a few years ago. Both times I was invited to the game. I found the sideline activities more interesting than the game itself.

I watched World Series 2012 when Giants won the championship.  I tuned in because people around me are doing so.  Since San Francisco is the home of the Giants, I cheered for the team too in the comfort of my living room. Shortly after Giants won the World Series, the trophy went around town and made a short stop at my work place. It was a lively event where my fellow co-workers donned their Giants jerseys and queued to take picture with the trophy. I did not join the club then.

A couple of weeks back, I watched a live Giants game on television and took the time to understand the MLB rules. I got some of the basics down— 9 innings in one game, 3 outs ends 1/2 inning and as I understand more rules, I started to appreciate the game more and I started to watch more games. It was not until recently that I came to realize that there are a lot of baseball fans around me.   I turned to my fellow co-workers to deepen my understanding of this sport — RBI, foul ball, fair ball and balk. I am fortunate to have many living wikipedia about baseball around me. It sure makes it a very conducive environment to learn about the game. I am hooked.

Since I have acquired sufficient knowledge to appreciate the games,  I started to google or wikipedia the baseball players. I find it very special that each player has a moniker e.g. Tim Lincecum is "The freak", Pablo Sandoval is "panda", Marco Scutaro is "Blockbuster" and Hunter Pence is "The Reverend".  As I read through the players stats, it reminded me that age is catching up on me. Age may be just a number, it is still sad that these players are younger than me. That is not going to change anytime soon so I will get over it.

Perhaps I like baseball because it is a low contact sports. I find baseball a very gentleman game. There is hardly any shouting match between the umpires and players. There is literally no tackling in baseball. Everyone behaves. The players do not show much emotion during the game. The pitchers are probably the most even keel people in the game and they demonstrated strength and resilience in the way they conduct themselves. One thing, I cannot comprehend is the spitting. Why are players spitting all the time? It seems to be deeply rooted in the baseball culture.  This does not make sense but it is happening in every game.

I watched a live Giants game at AT&T ballpark with my boyfriend to celebrate my anniversary. I cheered and joined in the fun. It's a family event and a sport for everyone. I enjoyed myself immensely. This time, I focused on the game more than activities happening on the sideline. It is as though the light bulb just turned on after so many years before I learn how to appreciate the game. But I am glad I did and I am hooked.

I am taking a hiatus from a self-absorbed friend

I have a friend who is going through some challenging times and she is late on her car loan payment again. Since my contact was given to the car leasing company, I have gotten calls to ask for her to call back when she is late on dues.  

The first time, I received a call from the leasing company, I called her and left her a voice mail. She did not bother to call back. I also learnt that  the most effective way to get in touch with her is via Facebook.  There were several other calls and I was asked by this friend to ignore the calls or block the caller. Last week, I got a voice call from the leasing company requesting my friend to call back and based on my missed calls, the caller ID indicated that the number is blocked.  I left her a note on FB. While I know she has read my message, she did not respond to me. I wrote her another note where I expressed my frustration of her non action and below is her response:

"you have every reason to be mad at me. I haven't been a good friend at all. Sorry to implicate you in this but I thought I can handle anything that comes my way but I was wrong. I am back log in most payments again. it's the car financial ppl that's been bothering you.. Since I will always be late till I clear it off this year, it's the last year and they do not listen to my plea to not call you or any of our friends, you might need to either ignore or block their calls.. Sorry it's the only way I can think of and even that I still can't help and you have to do it yourself . What luck to have a friend like me huh?"

I have no intention of responding to her FB message. I am not mad at her but disappointed at how she can be so irresponsible and ignorant at the same time.

She had offered the suggestion to block the car leasing company's number, I can block the main line which I have already done. What about calls from the direct lines within this company ? I work for a global company, I cannot ignore all the phone numbers coming from the same area code as the leasing company. Also sometimes international calls come in as block numbers, I can't ignore that either. Sigh.... ignorance is not bliss in such matters.

Since she moved to San Diego several years ago, I tried calling her from time to time. I left her voice mails and she never called back. I stopped calling her altogether. The last time I spoke to her was when she needed my contact as a reference to lease a car and that was at least 3 years ago.

I am disappointed that she did not take the time to keep in touch. A common friend, E of hers and mine has decided to ignore her altogether. There is a lot of things to do before migrating to a new country and there is no explanation in the world that can absolve this friend for not telling E about her decision to move. 

She is my friend since we were in primary school and we sat next to each other in secondary school. I have seen first hand how her dad's demise have changed her life at a tender age of 17 years old. Her then boyfriend lived across from my first boyfriend. She was pregnant out of wedlock intentionally because she wanted a baby.  It is a taboo to have a baby before marriage in asia. She went against the social norm where typically a woman should marry up and she took the reverse route. I suspect she is struggling to make ends meet now.  We , her friends, respect her chosen life and none of us think less of her.  This friend has forgotten that we can be her best support system to get her through tough times.  Hopefully, she will come around soon. For now, I am taking a hiatus from her.

They actually uphold a little bit of the chinese wedding tradition.

My sister planned for two wedding ceremonies. The first was for the groom's family and the next ceremony was for the bride's family and the new couples' friends and colleagues.  Since the second ceremony involved the bride's family, I helped out a little bit.  The fact that the new couple simplified their wedding,  I wasn't sure what's in and what's out in terms of wedding traditions. Also, my parents have been very accommodating to the new couples wishes.  Basically, I played by ear and just went along with whatever I was told.

My mother's youngest sister a.k.a my 8th aunt, she came a day earlier. I know that's a lot for any average family. My maternal grandmother has 13 children, over 50 grandchildren and perhaps 5 and growing number of great grandchildren. I am glad to have the opportunity to spend time with my aunt.She is well-versed in wedding traditions for different Chinese dialect groups and is available for wedding engagement to uphold chinese traditions. Without her presence, I highly doubt that any Hokkien wedding tradition will be observed during my sister's wedding. Thank you to you, my dear aunt!

Normally, this is a loud and merry event and typically, the groom and his entourage will go over to the bride's home to pick up the bride. Before he can see his bride, he has to negotiate with the bridesmaids: $$$ in the red packet ,play some games, sing a song, declare his love aloud to the bride and etc.  In my sister's wedding, the groom came solo. In lieu of negotiation, the new couple took photograph with friends and relatives.

According to Hokkien tradition, it is inauspicious for the bride's family if the new couple leave the house before 10am in the morning. Therefore we delayed the commencement of the tea ceremony where the couple offered tea to the elderly: my parents, aunts and uncles for my father's side only. Tea was not served to relatives from my mother's side because my grandmother wasn't presence and it is not appropriate to proceed without her.

Later, the couple has to bow first to god(sky) then to our ancestors before proceeding to bow to my parents. It is disrespectful and may anger god or ancestors if the sequence is not followed.
Luckily, my aunt was there to guide the new couple throughout the ceremony at my parent's place.

We took group photographs before the couple was allowed to leave the premise and it was after 10am. My sister brought along with her a fan, upon getting into the car, she disposed the fan. In turn, my mother handed her a new fan. This is uniquely a Hokkien tradition. I understand from my aunt that this action signifies that the bride gets rid of any bad habits and start fresh. Also, it is consider bad luck/clash to see other weddings. She can use the fan to shield from viewing of other people's wedding.

While these tradition may not have any significance to the new couple, I am glad they went along with it. We joined the couple at their wedding reception for a 8-course luncheon. My favorite part was the slideshow about the new couple.  

My sister's wedding ceremony in Singapore.

This week I am back in Malaysia and Singapore for my sister's wedding. Our family is from Malaysia while her husband's is from Singapore. In Asia, getting married is a family affair and I fully anticipate "drama" as this new couple does their best to accommodate the requests of their parents.

I am pleasantly surprised how my sister and her husband were able to pare down on custom wedding rituals while keeping the harmony with their parents. My sister's mother-in-law is a  Peranakan Chinese or Baba Nyonya. Instead of wearing a white wedding gown, my sister borrowed a Kebaya from her mother-in-law while her husband was in a batik shirt. They had tea ceremony at his parent's place and their first wedding luncheon at Lai Wah Restaurant on Bendemeer Road for her husband's immediate family.There were 4-tables (approx 10 persons per table) for a nine course meal. Nine is one of the auspicious numbers in Chinese and nine means "long lasting".

As a child, I looked  forward to wedding and anniversary banquets for the Shark's Fin soup and I still do.The restaurant served the soup with crab meat and I had 2 addional helping of the soup. Ah... divine. I also devoured the roasted sucking pig and the Venison Fried Hor-Fun.  I craved for these dishes the following night. It was a pity that I did not pack the dishes to-go. Another popular dish was their Yam pot with cachew nuts and prawn. I am not a fan of yam but it was a delightful eating this dish and I did not have the feeling that the yam is heavy or dry. Also, I came fully prepared with my Antacid pills just in case I over indulged.

I followed the new couple to their alma mater so that they can take photograph of themselves in their wedding costume. They used to live in the same dormitory area and they shared some of their stories with me: the guys dug a small pond for throwing people into, built their own barbecue pit , my sister had boiled big pots of water to make colored starch for their man-made slide during orientations and a parade of stolen undies and panties adorned their dormitory. The pond had been covered and the barbecue pit had been removed, their good old varsity days remain etched in their memory.

The second wedding ceremony will be in Pulai Spring Resort Johor,Malaysia. It will also be a lunch banquet so that relatives and friends from afar can travel to town for the wedding. There will approximately 200 people attending the ceremony. I am looking forward for the celebration as the couple flex their wits to simplify, personalize and conclude the ceremony with a bang!

Doh... Recording vs. Taping

I am privileged to experience new things and for the most part I embrace change.

To me, relevance is all about being malleable and adaptable to the changes happening around your environment. Change is the new constant unless one wants to live off the grid. I have an international appetite so being a locavore is out of the question. Having said that I do my little part to support the local farmers. Also, I may not be a social butterfly, I love technology that connects people.

I love my iPAD. It revolutionizes the way I do things — consume information, read on Kindle or iBook, play the piano or drums on GarageBand, video conferencing using FaceTime or Skype (depends on my boyfriend's network connectivity) and my latest fav is "Flipboard" where I feast my eyes with beautiful pictures around the world and also read the news too. I brought "the experience" from my iPAD and I love every moment of it. 

At work, I have finished recording a presentation on PowerPoint. The audio quality is subpar so I used the recording app on my iPhone to complete the recording and then attached the recording onto the PowerPoint presentation. I had asked a co-worker, senior person and veteran to review the presentation. He heard a blip on one of my slides and suggested that I re-TAPE it. I thanked him for his feedback and planned to redo the recording. That very same evening, I may not recall the context of the conversation with my roommate but I vividly recalled that I had suggested him to TAPE the TV program on the DVR.  Doh...  While my roommate comprehended my response, I might be totally incomprehensible for an individual who has not lived during the Tape -era.  I am just a tiny bit baffled that I made such a blunder.

I forgot to practice what I preached

I am happily occupied with an interesting project. One of the initiatives includes developing learning modules for the global team.  I decided on the training curriculum and assigned different members as video content creator.  I am also the creator of the first learning module.

I work closely with P on his presentation as his module is key because his presentation content builds on the knowledge acquired from the past learning modules.  He needs to weave all the knowledge learned and presents to the audience in a simple and engaging way.  At the end, there is a call to action for the global teams to present the information to their customers.  He has created a very personable and engaging presentation that I believe will be well received when we rollout his learning video.

Consistently, I always tell my team that I prefer to hash out details and make adjustment accordingly before sharing information with the outside the team. I have established a good rapport and understanding with my team that they can voice their opinion and share their positive or negative or neutral feedback.  I asked P and was respectfully told that I was regimented and stiff after he had listened to my video recording. Since then I have made adjustment to my video. Now, I am anxious to hear the feedback after it is released at the end of the month.

The irony is I have been pounding at P to create an engaging presentation and to avoid coming across as a factoid overload type of technical presentation. Yet, it only donned to me much later that I did not practice what I preached.  I did not lead by example. Shame on me as a leader!

Try and bonne chance

I am reading "Stupeur et Tremblements" by Amélie Nothomb for french class. It is about a bi-lingual Belgium lady who lives in Japan and speaks fluent French and Japanese. She works in an established Japanese firm where she encountered many inconceivable challenges from the beginning of her career at this firm. She understands the hierarchical order and to be submissive to the higher ranking employees in Japanese culture. Though she is tasked to perform dull and repetitive menial jobs, she took the challenges in good faith. I am only part way through the book, until this point,the book is entertaining. 

One of her responsibilities was to photocopy many copies of the rules of golf. Upon completion of this task, she knew in high degree of confidence that her superior will find fault in her work and she was destined to redo the task . The reason given was her copied document was not aligned. She was instructed to copy one page at a time over using a well engineered auto paper feeder that produces consistent and precision results. C'est un incroyable! 

Somehow, Jackie Chan's Kung Fu movies came to mind where Jackie was set out to learn from a master. For most of his movies that I have seen as a child, his master started him off with routines to build his foundation for Kung Fu. For example, he performed very basic squats and stayed still in the squat position while he balanced weigh on his shoulders for a long time.  Jackie's master guided him to be better in martial arts while Amélie's superior was being ridiculous for not leveraging her strength for the betterment of the company.

At some point in our lives, we encounter people that truly want to help us move forward and some we wish were just a figment of our imagination. One must be smart to distinguish the two extremes and make the best of the situation. I am a firm believer that success is sweetest when you have worked hard and overcome road blocks before fruition.  

I listen to "Try" by Pink especially on a trying week and the song keeps me motivated to go on. 

Here's the chorus that truly inspired me to go further:

Where there is desire
There is gonna be a flame
Where there is a flame
Someone's bound to get burned
But just because it burns
Doesn't mean you're gonna die
You've gotta get up and try, and try, and try
Gotta get up and try, and try, and try
You gotta get up and try, and try, and try


For those who are having a trying week —make the right sacrifice , pick your battles, take baby steps,  internalize Albert Einstein's definition of insanity and have the courage to have the difficult conversation. Bonne Chance!