"Tom Sloper" <tomster@sloperama.com> wrote in message
news:KrHpb.101381$Tr4.274713@attbi_s03...
> From: Nath Krishmaratala
> >>> It's painful to loose one's illusion.
>
> Tom Sloper wrote:
> >> I am reminded of a wonderful line from The Simpsons. It was Nelson
Muntz
> who
> >> uttered those immortal words: "Some of us prefer illusion to despair."
>
> From: Nath Krishmaratala
> >Very strange. Me, it reminds me of a wonderful comment from a
> >respectable author (sorry, I can't remember his name). He was watching
> >"Walking With Cavemen" on the Discovery Channel and was taken by one
> >line of narration in particular. The narrator was talking about Homo
> >Heidelbergensis: "They see the world only as it is, and cannot imagine a
> >better version of it." By contrast, this author taught, some of us are
> >so highly evolved from Homo Heidelbergensis that they can only see the
> >world as it ideally should be... they cannot see the world as it is!
> >
> >(^_^)
>
>
> That too is a very apropos quote. Sounds familiar, but I can't quite place
> it...
>
> (~_^)

Those quotes are quite amusing! Quite fair enough, however, illusions and
workable visions are quite different, and it's also true that things in the
world are ever changing with new ideas being constantly created. The world
will never stand still!

Just as an example, in 1999 in response to my concept of a world unified
mahjong, someone had said: "IMO, /no/ amount of 'promotion,' in and of
itself, will ever get the players of the 15 or 16 different major varieties
of MJ to destroy the 'Tower Of MJ Babel' and join together in one unified
way of playing." Everyone now knows this opinion has been beaten by the
event of the World Championship In Mahjong 2002 held in Tokyo, and by the
one who had said this opinion and participated in the event. Isn't it
amazing!

In a previous message Nath wrote:

>
> What *results* do you have to show us? Does any international or
> national mahjong authority adopted your house rules? Not a single one.
> Did your house rules spawned international regroupements of players? Not
> a single one. Does anyone play with your house rules internationally?
> Nobody. Are IMJ sets sold in the world? No. Where IMJ sets manufactured
> in the world? Nowhere. Who with international credibility cited IMJ as
> an influence in mahjong trends? Nobody.

I will quote my previous messages as a reply:

> > That's why I said we are not on the same bet. Mahjong being played
> > internationally *by a standardized rule set* (*that part I have missed
in
> > the past message) was my concept I tried to promote. I see that things
are
> > getting towards this trend nowadays. As to the rules bearing my
trademarks,
> > I am still working on my goals with a vision.

>   > Whatever you say will not change
>   > the facts about the registered trademarks, and the effort of me
>   > continuing working on my visions.

I also would like to remind Nath of these messages,

> > Nath, I can see that you have a very strong talent in debate. However,
> > attacking others and trying to force your rules on your opponents are
just
> > not good techniques, and I won't buy those.
>
> I am not attacking others. I'm challenging your beliefs about IMJ. You
> dislike me because you are confronted with the eventuality of IMJ been
> only a dream. It's painful to loose one's illusion.
>
> > Perhaps, a bet based on the visions I posted on my website
> > (http://www.imahjong.com/g3mbs.html) may be something I don't mind going
> > with.  My ultimate goal is "a worldwide game of mahjong played by one
common
> > set of standardized rules, thus allowing games to be organized and
> > participated by people around the world, and records of scores and
worldwide
> > ranking of players to be centrally maintained and internationally
> > recognized". How that "worldwide game" is being called doesn't really
> > matter.
>
>   > Could you come up with a more fair challenge based on this?

... and see that Nath doesn't seem to be able to come up with a fair
challenge based on my concept (not on Nath's rule), may I suggest the bet be
put up like any of these:

(1) Since you wanted to measure my success with some figures and quoted the
following to prove my failure:

> What *results* do you have to show us? Does any international or
> national mahjong authority adopted your house rules? Not a single one.
> Did your house rules spawned international regroupements of players? Not
> a single one. Does anyone play with your house rules internationally?
> Nobody. Are IMJ sets sold in the world? No. Where IMJ sets manufactured
> in the world? Nowhere. Who with international credibility cited IMJ as
> an influence in mahjong trends? Nobody.

Would you consider I win if I could give an answer of YES to any of the
above questions, in a given period of time?

(2) As to a bet based on the visions I posted on my website
(http://www.imahjong.com/g3mbs.html), that is, to test the degree of my
belief and faith in my visions, would you consider I win if any of the names
INTERNATIONAL MAHJONG, INTERNATIONAL MAHJONG RULES or IMJ RULES is ever
associated with any international tournament of mahjong, in a given period
of time?

How long would that "given period of time" be fair?

Since my website has long been only a conceptual website, your (Nath's) bet
will now certainly push me up with working hard on my visions seriously...
(Well, I'm just kidding!)

Since my website has long been only a conceptual website, and today I am
seeing things are getting towards what I had proposed, I have started
working systematically on realizing my visions. How about by June 30, 2005
if you want to bet on group (1); or by the end of 2006 if you want to bet on
group (2)?

Cofa Tsui
www.iMahjong.com