Last year I went to the World Youth Day in Germany with a group of 12 people from St. Paul.? Since we came back to Vancouver, we havn’t had a gathering with all 12 people.? There is always one or two people are missing.? Tonight it is very special, we have all 12 people came together again.? We went to mass, then dinner and watch the DVD of our trip prepared by one of the member.? It brings back so many good memories.? One team leader also handed each of us back an envelope, in which we wrote down what we expect to get from WYD before we go.? I totally forgot what I wrote, and it turn out I didn’t really want anything.? I just want to have a good time, come back and show off my trip.? I think I had accompished it.? Although we had spent two weeks together during WYD and more time before the trip on preparation.? I didn’t develope a very close feeling towards this group.? I feel I am part of the group and I like to come out to see them once a while.? I don’t think I make any really good friends personally in the group.? I don’t contact any of them other than the reunion.? Even if there is no reunion, I probably won’t miss them too much.? I think part of the reason is this group are mostly girls.? Naturally I don’t get along very well with girls.? The remaining few guys are much younger than me and we don’t share any common interest, so I don’t have any incentive to hang out with them.? The nature of the WYD group is just like reunion of old classmates.? You know them quite well, modesty care about them and you belongs to the group.? Somehow you feel both close and distant to them at the same time.? You know they are close to you, but you just can’t feel it that way.

Today at lunch, my friend made a common saying I have too many theories.? I forgot since when I start trying to theorize everything I come across.? A theory is nothing more than its explanation power.? I am trained as an engineer, I have a firm believe on things can and should be explained.? Many other engineers would stop applying their science sense outside of their field of work.? Then I came across philosophy and learn that almost everything things most people think as fundamental can actually can be further examined.? Many philosophers would only interest in their research topic.? Cross over engineering with philosophy breeds an very interesting character of myself.? Engineering is applied science, use scientific theory to solve problems in the world.? We can do the same to philosophy, apply philosophical theory to solve other problems in the world.? If there is a problem, there is always a solution.?? The problems in engineering usually is building something to serve some purpose.? The problems in philosohpy is very different, it uses reasons to convince people to accept your point of view, since we can’t directly measure how the problems are solved in philosophy.

Every 4 months, there are new co-ops come to the company to be our cheap labour in the name of gaining real life work experience.? Today I met a few co-op from Waterloo in the game room.? The company had stopped hiring co-op for a few years and in the past year they mostly hire from UBC and SFU.? So I am surprise to see the co-op students from from Waterloo this term.? It is always interesting talking to younger schoolmates.? You will be surprise by what had changed and what stay the same.? I can’t imagine the over-weight professors who drink 1L of Coca-Cola every lecture managed to lose some weight.? I can’t explain the mysterous connection shared by those who to the same school.? Alumni sure has some common topics but that only limit to the school and will exhaused very soon.? Yet, I always find I have a natural tendency want to get closer to the graduated from La Salle and Waterloo Engineering.? I think the education one recieved in school really shape ones character.? Each school has its unique traditionals, thus the students all have the same suble traits in their character.? These small traits become the building blocks in alumni bonding.? However, this bonding only appears on those who had a good experience in school.? Those who dislike the school would eject the traits and won’t feel the sense of belonging among the alumni.? Just like I don’t have the same enthusiasm towards people from Appleby College, where I spent two unhappy years.

Today I gave my first ATM speech in Toastmaster.? The purpose of this speech project is to entertain the audience.? It is very different from the last few speeches I worked on, which is focused on deliver something to the audience.? This kind of topics well suit a casual speech used to kill off dead air.? The speech manual suggest use personal experience to begin us, add some small twist to the story and use vivid language or even act out some dramatic scenes.? The speech don’t have to be out right funny, as long as you can grab the attention of the audience without letting them feel bore.? I didn’t prepared the speech well.? I had the topic in mind for a few weeks, but didn’t write it down to organize it.? Last night I even though of giving up, skip today’s speech.? I am glad I didn’t call it off at last.? I sat down and divide up the speech into sections 1-2 minutes in length, then I can find points to fill up each section easier.? I had the speech layout in my mind before I go to bed, but I didn’t practice it.? I pratice for half an hour this morning at work.? I practiced section by section, pick the right wrong to use in each sentence and think about where to drop in some sense of humor.? Due to the lack of time, I didn’t dry out the whole speech once before I go in.? Big mistake.? Since I worry I may not have enough material, I end up dragged on too long in the first half of the speech.? When the green lights come on, I am only half way done.? So I have to cut down the materials in the second half to stay within the time limit.? In a short 5-7 minutes speech, don’t waste precious time in dragging a few points.? Don’t worry about not having enough material.? It is easier to extend the speech than rush it to finish.? You can always prepare a bit extra material in case there is? time.? From my experience, a speech more likely run over time than not long enough.? Other than grammer, I should focus on making every sentence counts.

My friend Michael raise an interest question on the latest cover story of the Times Magazine titled “Does God Want You To Be Rich”.? He sent me a link to the article and commented it is wrong for the church telling people to get rich.? Actually this phenonoma is not new, it has been around for at least a few decades.? Probably Times runs out of better news stories and decided to pull it out from the archive.? This version of the success gospel is very different from the traditional gospel that teach thu shalt love thy neightbour.? It is more like a self-help program in a religious package.? Many mega-churchs in the States are built on this version of the gospel.? I don’t see that many here in Canada.? Probably Canadian are more intelligent, so we don’t need God to tell us do the right thing or get rich, we can do it ourself.? To make Michael feel a bit more easy to this new religious movement, I pointed him to read more on Max Weber and Protestant Ethics.? According to the grand father of sociology, it is indeed God want us to get rich.? This ideology drove the birth of capitalism, the industry revolution and all the great progress of human kind in the past two hundreds years.? I don’t have enough knowledge in sociology to critize whether Weber is right or wrong, but this point of view definitely have some credibility.? Put aside the economy aspect of the protestant ethics, actually I found the successful gospel is easier to sallow than fundamentalist or evangelist talk about salvation or rapture all the time.? It is impossible to rational with someone who seek reward outside this world.? Some of them maybe saints like Mother Teresa, but more of them are just plain stupid religious zealots.? Those christians want to get rich maybe not saints, at least they are reasonable and their mind are bounded by the reality.