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.

Today I went to Metrotown to kill the half hour between I finished study and go to pick up Pat for dinner. To my surprise, I found the arcade in Metrotown has some latest games, including Time Crisis 4, Gundam Fed vs Zaft II. Both games cost $2, quite expensive, but save me the trouble and gas of driving all the way to Richmond. I used to be very good at TC3. I guess I am lack of pratice, I got KO in the first stage. There are quite a few people lining up, so I only get to play once. Then I tried the Gundam game. It support 2 links, so I won’t be forced to play vs mode like in the Richmond acrade. I can take my time to practice when playing against the CPU. The Gundam series is one of my most favourate arcade game. I have been playing since the first generation. There are some new mecha in the new game, but the general principle is still the same. I am not used to the high speed and the way of fighting in the air, as a result I couldn’t get pass stage 4. I had just discovered a good place to have fun, plus it is very close to home.

Today is my thirtieth birthday. I am now officially a middle age man. I can already feel the mid-life crisis shadow over me. I had already start asking though questions, such as meaning of life, self value and the identity problem. I remember when I turned twenty, I had a melancholy for no longer a teenage. It took me quite a long time to get over it. This time, I don’t have the time to feel depress. There are so many things I still want to do and time is running out. I can only prioritize the task and do the important one first. I have to accept the reality that some dreams I will have to give up forever. Looking back the past 10 years in my life, I had accomplished a lot of things. I don’t have any unaccomplished tasks, since I didn’t set any 10 years goal in 20. It seems that life is just like a roller coaster ride, all I can do is fasten the seat belt and hold tight. Looking forward to the next 10 years, I have to ask myself should I set goals to myself. Ten year plan is different from new year resolution. Most of the time, the 10 year plan is just dreams without any action plan. Ten year is too long a time span to plan properly. I don’t even know where I will be, what will I do in 2 years, how can I plan further ahead with no visibility? Maybe I should just sit back and relax, let God or whoever up above plan the best for me.

I have used my old first generation Microsoft natural keyboard for almost 10 years. I bought that keyboard when I first entered university. It has survived 4 computer upgrades and still accompany me. That keyboard is still very solid, except a key fell off from the time I dropped the keyboard, so I have to glue the key back using blue-tac. Today my cousin who worked in Microsoft bought me the 4th generation natural keyboard. I asked her to order one for me using employee price, which only costs only 30% compare to Future Shop. She found out it is my birthday and gave it to me as my birthday present. Thankyou Yan Yan! The new natural keyboard is as good as my old one. The keys on the left hand side is slight narrower, so it will take me a while to accustom to it. The keyboard has many extra functional keys. I thought all the keys are programmable, but I am wrong. Some keys has fixed feature, such as pressing the “My Favorites” key will only pop up an useless menu. Overall, other than those minor problems, the natural keyboard is one of the best and most comfortable keyboard on the market.

I finally found a good deal on the air ticket to Haiwaii. I am going to Honolulu at the end of September fore merely 3 days to attend my lasalle buddy’s wedding. I have been hesitated to spend over $1000 on airfare for just a few days in Haiwaii. I was reading newspaper the other day while I was having dinner, I saw an advertisement from travelcuts. The deal is pretty good, return ticket from Vancouver to Haiwaii only $550. The only catch is that it is not direct flight. I have to transfer at Seattle on the way out and Porland on the way back. It is kinda stupid flying to Seattle, as it would be faster drive here. It is interested that my friend has a hindsight that I will come to his wedding. He bought one extra stamps with extact postage to Canada, seems like he is expecting me to come. It is always fun to hang out with my lasalle friends. We have known each other over 15 years, we are just so used the group. I guess I have no other group of friend can match my friendship with them.