Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Random Rants - Basketball Weekend Warrior's experience

I play basketball every Sunday over the past 22 years and I started to miss some of the weekend as I am either down with injury, personal home commitment or some other issues. I certainly love the sport and enjoy the game with a group of guys who (like me) frequent the same court every weekend. Over the years some people come and some go, but the main core of the group is still around, and when the group become really small, we combine with some other groups and continue with the sport.

As I am not tall, and not really gifted in any way, my only weapon, so to say, is being fast and try to be faster. That is the key to my games. I remembered on one occasion probably like when I was in my late 20s, being full of energy, I hassled one of the boys that played until he was so frustrated that he called me 'monkey boy'. He was really upset, but again, I wasn't aiming at him, I was aiming to snatch the ball. I did that on and off and it happened to me as well, when someone tried to snatch the ball from me. Give and take I do it on others, others do it on me. And that was one incident that got a bit out of hand until recently...

I was playing last weekend, and I was marking a guy I don't think I am familiar with. And so it happened he turned on his back to me and I hassled him for the ball. He made a mistake and the ball went out of play. So I won the ball back. I didn't give much thought on it. And when I start the game, he said to me that his hand was injured and don't play so rough. I don't know how I looked at that time, well to me I thought I would have responded with a 'well, sure' expression.

That next start of the ball, he got a bit heated and he told me more, he said he got injured, he just got back and he wanted to have a good fun game. I can't see my face in the mirror, but I thought to myself, ok sure, no problem. But as the game got on, he seems to get more and more pissed. Honestly, I do not know what seems to piss him off, really. To me, what is done is done. Don't like it, call a foul. So the next shot, he tried to block, and I call a foul. And he was arguing with me that isn't a foul. Which is fine, I think it is not, but I have called it and no one else was disputing that except him.

His friend ask him to cool down, and the game went on, he got pretty pissed by now he started speaking loudly and then jump around me and check me with his chest to my chest. As the attention starts to make people gather around, I told another team mate to shift marking opponent with me. That still piss him off until the game ends I think.

He talked some stuff, but later when his friend was talking to him, I went over and apologize and share my view, so he says I am arguing with him and he doesn't like argument. He just asked me to sod off and he said he needed to be quiet. Sure, no problem. And then he got cooled down and starting talking to me again, and he said that why I am doing this to him, and not doing it on others, and he's just trying to have a good game etc... and I told him he was elbowing me and stepped on my foot. So I just responded with being a bit more physicality (not even thinking of fouling him actually). So he just said I am wrong, and I told him you can think what you want to think and call a foul if you think it is a foul. So that ends our conversation.

My take of things, this guy is so emotionally unstable and lashes out, and feed on his own anger. Does he even have a family, and what would he be like with family? It is a basketball game and it is a game with rule. Call for a foul if you think a foul has been committed. What's the story of don't be so rough. Seriously I don't think I touched him, but I managed to make him lost the ball in his hand. He was pissed with that I think. His thinking is of another level, not sure what, but surely full of himself. I think in a court, there is only court rules and nothing else. If you can't take basketball rules, don't play.

In the final moment of the final game he played, he showed me his middle finger and probably he wanted to tell me that he hurt his finger. Funny, I don't know I hurt his finger or someone else did. He is emotional, and after the initial challenge on him, he seems to feed on anger and it all keeps adding up. He even blame another guy for hurting him last time and he has to spend RM300 on his fractured hand which he was wearing a protective gear. Well you wanted to play basketball, I'm not sure if anyone really pushed him down or something, I don't remember that or maybe I wasn't there.

This has left me a lot to ponder, but in case you are that guy whom I pissed off, no I wasn't troubled by you. I was just having time to think of the kind of reaction a person can give and the kind of emotional stability which is so important. If we don't have that, they'll be much trouble for people around you because others now have to behave in a way to make sure you are not offended. And a last note, when I was resting and he is playing, he made 2 shots (I think). And on the first shot he made, I think he looked at me, but I wasn't trying to look back at him. He wanted to tell me 'I'm good'. I was looking elsewhere and although I felt that, I didn't want to look back at him. Still thinking, why he need to prove anything? He just got to look at himself. He might have made 2 shots, but, don't think anyone there is going to want him to be there again.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Tuesday, January 03, 2017

Random Thoughts (for 2017)

LPWA - Low Power Wide Area Network seems to be the next big thing especially for IoT. Seems to be low power usage, transmit a wide range and this shall be good devices to cover a lot of area. The only issue seems then that the data transmission should be limited (something got to give, right). I haven't done a lot of research on it yet, but I will, since this is the next big thing.

People on the ground who does the work knows the problem. This is nothing new, but as manager, I think this has to be re-emphasized and sometimes it is ok to go down to low level in order to fully appreciate an issue or an opportunity. In the new world (2017), manager also needs to have a good feel and deploy 'agility' concept to team members, 'on demand' work (able to address business outcomes as business are looking at all leverage they could get to compete), prototyping (higher chances of success and customer discovery.

Think about the concept of Play > Learn > Adapt > Apply > and repeat.

The world shall be content driven adaptiveness, with focus on project delivery, on demand scheduling and critical chain shall be key to the turbulent world of 2017.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

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