5 changes I’ve made recently:

• I try my best to sleep well and regularly (not always possible, with work and school and stuff).
• Using iTunes’ and iPhoto’s automatic folder-izing and sorting of my music files and photos.
• Actually paying for things I use (like Team Fortress 2 or peripherals) with my own money.
• Listening to more Chinese music, both new (like F.I.R.) and old (like Jacky - Zhang Xue You).
• Wearing my scarf.

There’s nothing much to report on. News is slow and posting has been even slower. I do hope most of my readers are RSS-ing my feed, and picking up the goodies as they come sparingly (it’s temporary, I swear!) instead of checking back manually and getting disappointed…

The other day, a girl on my floor, Whitney, suggested she would stalk me by reading stuff I post on my blog. I told her it’s not really stalking if it’s on a public place and meant to be seen. Anyway, if you’re reading this, Whitney, feel free to stalk, but you’re not getting anywhere with it.

In other news, please head on over to my flickr page to check out, among some photos of my adorable cousin Jolie (courtesy uncle Keith’s seed and aunt Iris’ womb-ous), drawings of “The Girls” (one for each of the instruments I am currently caring for). There’s Emily (my first bass), Clementine (the acoustic guitar I borrowed from Sherman and Herman), and Phoebe (my baby I made over the summer). Check em out. Gawk a little, if you like.

PS: Since I’ve been slowing down in Twitter usage, I’ve changed Totally Tweets to take my twitter posts weekly instead of daily. Let’s see how this changes things.

5 things I think could be worked on at the badminton club:

• executives making matches should care about making good matches
• regular members should not be treated like second-class citizens to executives
• promotions and demotions of skill levels should be rarer than willy-nilly
• it should take more than one bad day to warrant probation
• executives should have to wait their turns like everyone else

As you can see, I’m a little fed up with the general atmosphere of jackassery that some people exhibit at the club.

Tonight, I had been playing horribly (I’d have to say uncharacteristically horribly). I can’t be sure what went wrong, exactly. I mean, I probably didn’t get enough sleep last night and I probably should have eaten a smaller dinner, but in any case, the following is still very bullshit. I played doubles lazily (yeah it was probably the dinner) against someone in the Intermediate level who was paired with Old Guy. Old Guy is notorious not for being much older than everyone else at the club (he must be like, 50+) but for somehow being the in the Advanced level (he signed up as that) and no one is cruel enough to break the news to him that he probably doesn’t belong in that level. Epic collision ensues!

Anyway, my partner just so happened to be one of the executives. Apparently, she didn’t like playing with me very much. To be fair, I did miss quite a bit, but she was in no position to be complaining, the way she was playing. Long-story short, she give me an award! It’s called the “Yellow Probation-Sticker Award” which is given to outstanding members of the club, exhibiting excellence in playing sub-par badminton. I subsequently had to get tested by one of the better players at the club to see if I should stay in the Advanced level.

First off, I passed. The tester said pretty much all my shots were fine or strong, even, but my smash was weak (who’s going to go all-out for a test anyway?), so I was pleased to know I’m quite the clutch performer. I asked him whether we’re expected to go all-out even on players in lower levels since that seems a little ridiculous to me. He didn’t give me a straight answer (like the other executives) but whatever, I called him a badass and that was that. My concerns have little to do with staying in my level (evidently, since I got to stay but am still pretty pissed).

I wanted to be in the Advanced level so I could play against people who were either good matches for me or better than me so I can learn things. I am still on probation, technically, and I could care less. I like playing against good people. Winning or losing isn’t particularly important, though winning is nice. I hated playing the level where I am near the top since every match is either a smash-fest (no fun) or a screw-around party (also not as fun as it sounds). This is why I like being in the low-middle section of the Advanced level. Sure, I might have my nights where I suck and it’s sort of obvious, but when I’m on, I can compete pretty darn well. This is what makes me so angry about that exec-girl, putting me on probation for one crummy night.

Anyway, I don’t plan on making a fuss about the probation thing and no I could care less that there will likely be other executives sent to monitor my games to make sure I’m not clusterfucking everything for lack of skill. I actually prefer things like this. Every game suddenly becomes so much more critical! Just… if any of you reading this are executives (unlikely!), please just leave me be!

All this bureaucratic stuff really takes away from the actual fun of playing a good game. IMO, if they’d just let people have more freedom in how things are run, treated players as people who may have bad days and nights, and treated things like probations and demotions with more severity (i.e. requiring more than just one random person throwing a hissy-fit for PMS or something), then maybe we can get along and get back to smacking birdies. The alternative, of course, would be to apply to become an executive for next year, but then, wouldn’t I just become part of the problem then?!