We had our 2nd match of the foosball tournament today. Both me and Anson did exceptionally well in the match. In the first game, we lost to the other team 5-0 straight. It is partly due to we were distracted by some other bad mouthed players before the game, and partly we tried new roles, Anson plays offensive and I play defense. I was afraid we will be the laughting stock around the foosball table if we lose two games straight. In the second game, we changed back to our normal strategy and we were able to win 5-2. The other team got confused in the 3rd game and switched their roles. The result is not very good for them and we won 5-3 in the end. It was a very tense game, and I am glad we won at the end of the day. Our first two opponents are relatively weak, I don’t think we will be this lucky next week. During the game, a player from other team made pretty harsh comments on our skills, he said how come he didn’t get to play either of us so that we can score an easy win. I was too concentrated on the game so I simply ignored him, but his comments really bothered Anson. I know we are weak, but I think we may have a chance standing up aganist them if we practice more. If we meet them in the play off games, I will definitely get even on them of making such comments if we happened to won the game.

I have been feeling very rush since Sunday. No only the tape-in date is getting close at work, but also I have encounter unexpected problems in my thesis after work. It like I am continuously chasing something, couldn’t slow down and take a breath. I don’t have mood to write my blog today, and I had skipped it yesterday. I had already formulated an article I have to write on my review section but couldn’t find time to type it out for a few days. I have a small book called slow-down therapy, maybe I should reread it several more times to slow down myself. However, slowing down cannot help getting all the work done. My focus should be getting all the piles in front of me cleaned up, and not adding any new pile at the time.

I just found out an ideal part-time opportunity from my cousins. What kind of part time job gives you $80 an hour basic salary, included dinner, on top of that every $5 for every 3 minutes of work, while you can have fun and excerise at the same time? The answer is to be a gigolo! Oh well… not quite right, but close enough. This job is “dance man”, be the dance partner for old women. Of course you first have to be reasonably good in ball room dancing. Then the big leap is that you are willing to scarfice your digity or perhaps your butt, which may get squeezed by those aunties. The fact is there are many old women like ball room dancing, but most of their husbands are not very interested nor good in dancing. This creates a hugh demand on men who can dance. Thus allow them charge money in this normally recreational activity. Both me and YanYan’s boyfriend are very interested in joining this profession. The prospect of becoming a dance gigolo is a good motivator for us to go thru the harsh dance lessons, especially on the painful trainings in counting the beats and remember the steps. The only problem is how can I convince Pat let me “step into the sea” to be a part-time dance gigolo.

Today, Father Perie didn’t talk about the Bible in his homily. He dedicate the whole homily to the victims of the Pakinstain earthquake, urge us to donation money through the national charity to help those victims. I think today’s message is very meaningful, the father as a good example to acted out Jesus’ teaching rather just talk about it.

This earthquake is like the hurricane in New Orleans, most of the damage could be avoided if the growth of the cities are well controlled. An earthquake will not cause much damage to a primitive society doesn’t rely on electroncity or pumping water. In ancient time, villagers could probably rebuild their shaggy home and life back to normal in relative short period of time. The more complicated the society, the better its ability to fight natural disasters. But it also prone to suffer much more damage if it face a disaster it couldn’t win.

We have heard about the damage cause of flooding almost every year in the recent years. The number of damage in dollar value or lives taken is getting higher and higher. These numbers may give an impression that the world’s climate is getter worse and worse. However if we look at a different presective, the area of the flood remains about the same for centuries. Flooding is just part of the nature. It is the fault of man who expand their cities into high risk areas, ignoring the geographical reality.

I havn’t make up my mind whether or not donate to help the victims of the earthquake. If Pakinstain government can spend millions of dollars to develop nuclear weapons, they should not ask for aids from other counties. The people living in Kashamir is different than those who lives in poor rural China. I don’t feel the bond to them, and the obligation to help them. Natural disaster always happens, and the local government always asking for aids afterward, rather having better preparation. If there is some kind of charity insurance fund covering natural disaster in selected poor places, or charity investment fund help poor area to build better infrastructure against the disaster, I will definite donate. Giving money to reward poor planning will only encourage local officials to become more irresponsible about the welfare of their own people. At last, the root cause of all the huge damages is there are too many people. I always wanted to donate money help solving this problem. I have long been searching for to a charity organization that carry out birth control in poor countries.

My mother stoped by Vancouver and visit me on her way back to Hong Kong. She will stay for 2 weeks this time and another two weeks on her way back to Toronto. I originally planned to go back to Toronto on the X’mas, but couldn’t make it due to Pat’s schedule. It is always nice to have her tasty cooking and have someone clean up my apartment. I am kinda lazy since her last visit. I will only vaccum or dust my place when I absolutely cannot stay it any longer. On average, I think I clean my place every 2 to 3 months. My mom also repairs my clothes, which is a very important skill that Pat lacks. My mom always boast how much time I save while she is here. The reality is there is no big difference. The time I save for not cooking my rudimentary dinner is lost to eat a proper meal at the table. I rarely clean the house, so not much time is save over there. The only real time saver I can think of is doing the laundary that is a task I couldn’t avoid every week.