I recently joined an internet book club. In the book club, there is a support group to help you read a book. We synchronize our reading progress and have interesting discussion on the ideas of the book. The book I am reading is the main reason I am attracted to this book club. It is a book about the moral and social issues on homosexual, with fairly balance arguments on both side of the issue. My book just arrived last firday, so I spent a few hours today catch up the first two chapters and I can join the discussion. I used to read by myself, this is the firs time I am reading with a group of people. I am sure I will learn a lot more from this experience than finish the book in turbo mode by myself. One of the setting up a book club is to find a book you are other people want to work at the same time. The book club I join focus in philosophy and theology books, on topics that I am interested in generally. I hope I can keep up with other members in the book club by reading a serious book every 3-4 months. You can learn more about the book club by following this link

There is an old chinese proverb that “Small sickness is good fortune”. When I am forced to relax at home the past few days, I can fully appreciate the wisdom of these words. I heard many scary stories about removing wisdom teeth from my friends. When it is my turn, I found that other than not able to eat solid food is a bit inconvenient, there is not much suffering. The only trouble is that I have to drink soup many times a day to stop me getting hungry. My mouth is not painful, swelling nor uncomfortable, only a bit sour. I can even talk or sing karaoke like normal. I don’t have the pressure of exam or assignment this week. The two sick days I got away from work for free let me sort out my mind. I thought a lot about the future when I was just sitting at home doing nothing. I can even put aside the bad news that the company is going to shut down for a week at the end of this month to cut cost. A week of unexpected vacation may not always be welcome. I think I could use this time sort out the remaining piece of the puzzle in my mind.

I havn’t sung karaoke for ages. Michael visit Vancouver this weekend and he wanted to sing Karaoke so much that I booked a room speically for him. I asked Verona to come along since we need more female voice other that Pat and I know she like singing Karaoke very much too. Michael, who was my TA when I was back in Waterloo, actually knows more new songs than me, and some of his younger friends. We have to resort to singing Hacken Lee or Jacky Cheung after a few songs, but he can still sing the latest hits that I unheard of. My songs list is not very up-to-date, I can only sing a few new songs form Jan Lam or Justin. Tonight was really fun. I don’t know when will be the next time for me to sing Karaoke. People at our age just stop going to Karaoke. I remember I used to sing Karaoke every weekend when I was in unversity. If I did pratice so much back then, how come my singing skill is still so bad? Anyways, singing is just half of the fun going to Karaoke, the second half is to torture your friends. Other than I feel quite hungry half way during karaoke, the removal of my wisdom teeth didn’t affect my singing at all. I think I am almost back to normal other than I still cannot chew anything.

I just come back from removing my wisdom teeth. My gum is still bleeding, but it should stop after a while. The removing of the wisdom teeth is actually less scary than I had expected. Literally, I sat down at the dental chair, poked a needle and I fall asleep. The next thing I know the wisdom teeth is gone, I have some gauze dressing inside my mouth. Before I have anesthesia, I feel a bit worry. The idea of being put into unconcious is foriegn to me. Unlike sleep, you voluntarily falls asleep and you know you can wake up anytime. When you are under anesthesia, you can only trust the doctor that you will ever wake up again. The last thought I had in my mind is to tell myself I will wake up again. Maybe this is the same feeling I will have when I face my death, the only difference is I don’t know whether I will wakeup again. After I woke up, I felt a bit disoriented at first. I ran some BIST (built-in-self-test), like moving my arms, looking around, try to remember why I am here to confirm I am still alive and the same horace before I put to sleep. The anesthesia experience makes me think about problems on life and death, what is conscious, what is my identity, the issues I learnt in my metaphysics class. Now I am back home, taking some rest and fight the hunger for not able to eat solid food for the next few days. This maybe the chance for me to get rid of my big tummy.

The principal of Lasalle College, Brother Thomas come to Vancouver these few days. The Vancouver chapter of the OBA host a dinner to welcome him. He went to Edmonton attending the North America OBA conference and football tournament, stop by Vancouver on his way back to HK. He retired from LSC two years ago, then he taught in the only christian university in the West Bank, Palestine. The current principal of LSC resigned a few months ago, Bro. Thomas was brought back from retirement. I don’t come out to the OBA functions very often. Bro. Thomas’s visit draws out not only me but also many other old boys. The speech given by Bro. Thomas left me some thoughts. He talked about the Lasalle spirit and the tradition. It reminds me that LSC is ran by the Lasalle Brothers, whose goal is to educate the poor and the rich, the smart and the dumb. That’s one of the main reason LSC refuse change into a private school despite forced to accept lower quality students by the government. When I think about LSC, I always think it is just a school, often forget it also a Catholic school. The visit of Bro. Thomas is one of the few occassions reminds me the Catholic background of LSC.