Stepping on toes.

Was with Harlie at Lot One, that shopping mall in Choa Chu Kang, doing our "Mall-Rat" thing, the same activity we never got bored of, since we started in our Polytechnic days. We dropped by the games arcade and saw two teenagers on the Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) machine. Pretty surprised that the game is still around; it was the hype when I was a 14 year old. The two teens were match-made in Ah Lian & Ah Beng heaven.

For the uninitiated on how DDR works: your dances moves are steps, dictated on the video screen by multiple arrows in the Left-Right-Front-Back sequence, the speed of game play increasing alongside with the level of difficult of the game. Oh, and let's not forget the irritating soundtrack of techno songs that sticks to your head that goes ai-ya-ya I'm your little butterfly. (Wiki Link, Youtube link)

Not an easy game to master, really; If done nicely, the good dancer of the DDR is actually quite beautiful to watch, and a bad one, really quite funny to snigger silently at. You'll enjoy watching the synchronized moves, likening it to MJ and his zombies in Thriller, a Bollywood song segment, or retirees doing line-dancing. A good dancer usually rounded up audiences around the arcade machine, just like this Ah Lian + Ah Beng pair.

They chose a 2-player mode, where they each have a dance-floor and a different set of "moves". But these two chose to bring the game to another level, by hopping across each others' dance floors and fulfilling the steps of the other team mate throughout the song. Such finesse, such precision! Such a power-team!

Hahaha, imagine the amount of time they put in to practice to get to this level. (And the amount of $ they spent at the arcades :P). Channel the same amount of effort put into any other parts of their lives, and imagine what they could achieve!

Harlie was mentioning: one wrong move, and they will step on each others' toes, literally. They probably have done so, many a times before they got to this level. Ah Lian must have had her pedicure toe nails chipped many a times.

Same applies to our usual corporate work environment, I guess. We're going to be stepping on each other's toes when we work team. (In that non-literal way, obviously). It sure is a non-enjoyable, painful process, but somehow, we'll eventually learn about each other's good points and bad, and advice each other on how to get it right. Beautiful synchrony.

And those who don't enjoy being stepped on after awhile, or keep fearing on stepping on people, leave the team loh, rather than stay unhappy. That was something I didn't do quickly enough in my previous job(s). Lesson learned.

Funny that Ah Lians and Ah Bengs on DDR can get me philosophizing about work.