Delays and Obsessions

I watched Cruel Intentions for the first time yesterday on DVD and I cannot believe it took me 9 years from its release date to get round to finally watching it. It's one heck of a movie! I like how morally devoid and boundary-less the characters are. Judging from how desensitized we all are from increasing violence, and hypersexuality in the entertainment industry, this movie must've been really controversial when it came out. And looking back it paved the way for so many stars today: Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Selma Blair, Eric Mabius (from Ugly Betty) etc... And the opening and ending songs in the movie are 2 of my favourite songs of all time. 'Every You Every Me' by Placebo and 'Bittersweet Symphony' by The Verve.

My luck at Mahjong has been awesome this year. I play very often in the casino - at least once a week and of course like economic cycles, there are peaks and troughs but the peaks have been waaaaay outnumbering the troughs! I've been on a shi-san-yao (13 orphans - one of the hardest combinations to make EVER. Probablities are one in more than a billion according to this one MJ website.) roll this year. 3 times I've gotten since the start of the year! Twice they were under special circumstances. The first time, I was waiting for the yi-tong to win and chances were very slim since my friend had already 'pong'-ed three of them. But of all the luck, he decided to 'kong' the remaining one and I could 'chiang kong' (rob the 'kong') to win as you can see from the first pic. Since this was a super special combo, I was paid 10 quid by my very annoyed (but very impressed) friend. :)

The most recent time was only yesterday when I was unbelievably lucky. I kept getting the tiles I needed and I was lucky enough to 'zhi-mo' (self draw) the last tile I needed (yi shuo - one bamboo) to win! 10 pounds from everyone! And a round before this I 'zhi-mo'-ed a qing-yi-se tong zhi (self draw pure suit of circles). Since it was a normal special combo, it was just 6 pounds 40p from everyone. But I wasn't complaining! Quite a hefty booty at the end of the night. :D





And the night I got the special three lesser scholars combo above I won 90 quid! I was so lucky - kept on self-drawing maximum combos. Mahjong is very very chi-kek since we play for such high stakes. Throwing the wrong cards can have disastrous (and expensive!) consequences. It really trains my mind to be alert and mindful of what probabilities my opponents and I have of creating combinations based of the style of playing and aggressiveness. Too intent on winning and you run the risk of throwing the winning tile of an opponent calling a bigger combination than your own so sometimes, it's better to destroy your combo to play defensive and prevent your opponent from winning. It's like the Art of War!

OK enough Mahjong talk. Have to get back to the books! Got my Advanced Business Economics exam on Friday and I'm not even fully prepared yet. ARGH!