I don’t know man..

For the morning, i tried to get a good price for my account. From the afternoon onwards….i was hooked. Again. I must say despite the poor customer service, blizzard has done a darn good job of creating an out of world experience for players. A combination of so many elements together pulls you right back in. The ease, convenience of picking up with a community of players, the belonging, the curiousity, the loot, the sound, the challenge. Oh man. What is a gamer to do?

I remember the time i ran scholomance 50 times to get my helm(which i still din get) and how i can remember the whole instance blindfolded. Spliffski and i trying to 2 man the bosses. that was really crazy times. The times i wanted the rank 11 so bad i camped AV. When i first got unstoppable force, bought axe of deep woods and there still are people who are willing to pay heaps. My maelstorm card. Ace of whatever.

I logged today and phixiouss asked me to join him, which..in response i said i din raid. But what’s there to play if we’re not raiding? PvP? yes but its not complete. at least to me. its a tough call really. I don’t tink i will go back to how i did previously. But still, is it worth it? There’s nothing there, except pixelated treasures. The temptation to get to lvl 70 is huge. and tier 6 for all the hardcore folks.

I ran to the bishan stadium today. Literally breathtaking. When i stopped. I felt like i was gonna faint or something. My heartbeat was not strong. This is serious business. I cannot recall feeling such weakness during runs before. I need a gradual plan to get back to shape. I’ll do another short run tomorrow coupled with some exercises.

And so…….today happened also to be the national inter-primary school track and field! Other than the usual kids, there were a couple of hot sisters and teachers walking around. Not that i care to notice but adults are kinda striking with all kids around you know. Ok fine i’m justifying myself. I find alot of people to be hot anyway. So back to the kids, while some are ecstatic about supporting their schoolmates or friends, most of them were just sitting around talking to their friends or creating their own idea of fun.  After a couple of preliminary events, it seems obvious that while some have done their preparation, many schools have not. Most have their own singlet while some wear polo shirts to run. And their performance leaves much to be desired as well. I mean, in a 600m run, to lag behind by 200m at the end is a pretty big lead. There were the obvious first timers, who ran forward too fast, too soon, only to be overtaken by runners who have paced themselves well.

When i look back at my to-do-list, i get so demoralized cos there’s so many! its crazy! And then i remembered the advice of focusing on a single big task and then breaking it down into parts. and…just do something. anything, to get started and break inertia. Yea that’s sagely advice. back to planning my day so i don’t get offtrack just sleeping my day away or walking around thinking.

Crucial Conversations: Telling clever stories. We use clever stories as a way to deflect the feeling of having done wrong. there’s 3 versions of it.

1) Victim story: Its not my fault!
This is all about pushing the blame away from yourself.

2) Villain story: Its all his fault!
This is pinning the blame on someone else for a problem, attempting to mask, minimize the part you yourself had to play in it. When you’re afraid others will blame you, you start to do this.

3) Helpless stories: There’s nothing I can do
Yup. We do this all the time. Of cos there’s almost always something you can do.

And the common point of all 3 stories? They’re always incomplete. While your story are just one interpretation of a number of facts, which can come up to an infinite number of possible stories. Therefore, the solution is to…ta da! finish the story!

See/Hear –> Tell story –> Feel –> Act

While others may think that we get angry the moment he/she does the act, there are steps in between them. Steps that we can step in to question our thought process. By focusing on observable facts which others are able to state too in an interaction between the relevant people, you reduce the storytelling effect. His shoulders tensed up and his face grew more pale are observable facts. He said that he wanted to “make things clear” was a fact. On the other hand, he is “angry” or wants to fix you up are opinions. While many of these stories we make are useful in the sense they provide a shortcut and protect us sometimes, it is useful only if they’re inaccurate. Watching the language you use, observing the facts, slowing down our thought process, will make us more adept at dialogue.