I had a real badminton game today since I had stopped playing badminton in the summer. Last time didn’t count as a real game, I only played for 30 minutes due to the stupid AC said they will deliver my lost luggage on that night. However at the end, I waited them until 11:00p.m., I could have stayed for the whole game. Then the following two weeks, we had the teachers strike in Vancouver. All schools are closed including the one we rented the gym for. I think we should joined the Tax player association to sue the teacher union for compansation. We should get back $2 per night per person, or at least entended our court rental 2 extra weeks for free. My badminton skill is kinda rusty due to lack of practice, and I am not very good to begin with. Tonight I rediscover a few techniques that I had forgotten. First, In order to increase your reaction time, don’t trace the birdy, trace your opponent’s racquet, which points to the general direction where the birdy will fly. Second, return the birdy with back-hand, don’t hit the birdy in front of your body, hit on the side, so that you can have more follow through movement. I never had any badminton training at all, I only learn by observing others or some pointers from friends once a while. I think I need some formal badminton training, especially on the leg movements. It is necessary to break through the ceiling of my current skill level.

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.