Volleyball exhibition game

Last Monday night, our volleyball team "Tripple chocolate" played an exhibition game against another team at a Downtown highschool. The exhibition game is intended to kick start the volleyball season. Before the start of the game, I put on my Nike shirt and shorts, as well as my new knee protectors. I was fully prepared for the game. During the practice, Tracy, Ray (our captain) and I practised both the volleys and the hard returns. My passes were fairly accurate. However, after the game started, my returns were no longer as accurate. We lost the other team in all three games with 18-25, 13-25, and 9-25. Although we lost, we figured out a three-pass strategy for our team. Moreover, we believe that we can do better in our next game.

Making Oaster

On Saturday, when I went grocery shopping with my parents, I saw oaster on special with 12 for 3 dollars. I suddenly had the enthusiasm to cook oasters for my parents. I remembered ordering them at restaurants and they were either raw or steamed. So I told my parents that I would be the chef for the day. They didn't object. Later in the afternoon, I opened up the plastic cover and discovered that the oasters were entired closed, not as the half oasters that I ordered in restaurants. Then it came the pain of prying open the oasters. My dad jumped in to help. He grabbed two screw drivers from the basement and both of us started prying open the oasters one by one. After 15 minutes of hard work, all 12 oasters were finally open. I rinsed and added some seasonings to the oasters. Another 10 minutes later, the steamed oasters were at our dinning table. Without jumping into other dishes. My parents and I digged into the oasters and finished all 12 in less than 2 minutes. They were delicious!

Nortel LEDP Golf Tournament

Yesterday I joined the golf tournament organized by the Leadership Edge Development Program at Nortel. The profit collected from the tournament will be donated to United Way. I could say that it was my second time golfing and first time golfing 18 holes. Despite the adverse weather, the event was a lot of fun!

I was assigned to Team 5, which consists of Peter, Roger, Barry, and myself. Despite the fact that I was the only beginner golfer on our team, my teammates were extremely supportive of me. Peter showed me how to hold the club, Roger taught me the rules in Golfing, and Barry consistently encouraged my shots. I started with not leaving the ball of the ground. However, towards the end, I was able to shoot the ball high and 50 meters straight ahead.

After more than five hours of golfing, we finally finished the 18 holes. By then, most of us were frozen by the gusty winds and the rain. We quickly packed our golf clubs and walked into the cabin next to the golf course. There, I ordered spicy Ceaser and mix' mingled with my teammates and other colleagues. Soon I was warmed up and I could feel my toes again. Later on in the evening, we served ourselves a delicious buffet meal with grilled honey chicken. Meanwhile, a lot of prizes were drawn and many people walked home with lots of goodies in their hands.

Terry Fox run

Today, Simon and I did the Terry Fox run together. At around 1PM, we arrived at the Carleton University's registration center. Once we finished registration, we pushed ourselves out of the Start line. We jogged at a very slow but comfortable pace. There were three people right in front of us and they were running at about the same pace as ours. After four resting stations, we arrived at the Turn Point. Simon and I both took a cup of water and a orange slice prepared by the event volunteers. As we were running back, we slowly passed the three young people. We continued hanging on until we finally saw the finish line. By that time, we have run 6.5km. I was extremely exhausted so I told Simon to stop. Then we walked back the final 100 meters to get back to the registration center. When we got our certificate, we felt a great sense of fulfillment.

Meeting Paul

I encountered a very funny experience with Paul. Paul, as I referred to, is the person whom I carpooled with on the last weekend. On the following Tuesday, my co-worker mentioned that I should ask certain hardware questions to Paul Desousa in the OME group. Hence, I contacted Paul by calling his ESN and left a voicemail. In my message, I politely introduced myself to him and asked him if we could set up a brief meeting. Later in the afternoon, Paul Desousa replied to my call and told me that I could drop by his desk at anytime and I should know where he sits. Suddenly, I realized that the Paul Desousa is the Paul whom I carpooled with, because I was not supposed to know where Paul Desousa sits, but only the carpool Paul knew that I knew where he sits. :)

My first time golfing

Today, I tried to golf for the first time in my life. In the sunny but chilly afternoon, Simon, Jimmy and I went to the driving range at Eglington and HWY 403. Just like every sport, it's easier said than done. Simon showed me how to pick the right golf club and demonstrated the hitting posture. I first tried with using a "T". My golf ball was thrown high and landed at a decent distance. Then I tried without the "T". I kept hitting the grass on the right of the golf ball. Shortly the grass in front of me bacame bald. I went to Simon for rescue. He showed me that the golf club might be too long for me. So I purposely lowed my grip on the golf club. Here it is, my ball was finally thrown high into a trajectory again. After almost an hour of practice, I got not only better with my hits, but also a good exercise. It could be shown from the soreness of my arms.

Sign up for Guitar lesson

The recreational center "Aralia" at Nortel opened up many classes Today for the Fall season, including Yoga and Guitar. I signed up for Guitar Beginner and Yoga. Adults are getting busier too as kids go back to school. :)

Rainy labor day weekend

Since it was raining all day on Sunday as the aftermath of the Ernesto hurricane, the labor day weekend is pretty much set to be spent at home. I sent the afternoon re-installing Windows XP on my dad's computer after it was infected by a virus. The installation took much longer than I thought since the Windows XP CD didn't come with the boot option. As a result, I had to download the startup disk file from Microsoft's website and create the setup disk onto 6 floppies. Because the infected machine didn't have a floppy drive, I also had to dismantle one from another machine and mount it to the infected machine. Overall, I figured that although newer operating systems are better and faster, we still sometimes need to rely on old tech (like floppy and startup disk) for the new tech to function. :)

My weekly events

Monday:

In the morning, I was running late to catch the bus to work. The bus was about the leave when I rushed to the bus stop. I zoomed towards the bus and caught it. On the bus, I gave a smile on my face for the luck that I caught. Suddenly, an interesting thing happened. The bus died! The bus driver pulled over, stopped the bus, called for help, and asked everyone to get off the bus. When I went off the bus, I saw streams of liquid were already running down the road from the back of the bus and more liquids were leaking away. There were no backup bus, so I had to wait for the next available bus, which I would have gotten on if I wasn't "lucky" enough to catch the first one.

Tuesday:

I saw a groundhog eating a apple on the grass, on Nortel campus. The groundhog was chubby and cute.

Wednesday:

At 9:30PM, I tried to spot Mars with naked eyes. Apparently Mars was only 34.65 million (don't forget the million) miles away from Earch, which was the closest in 59619 years. I looked up in the sky. The sky was absolutely clear. I easily spotted the Big Dipper and the North Star. But when I turned around to the South sky to find Mars, there was no red star (planet). Did I get the orientation wrong?

Thursday:

I was very sleepy in the morning. Sitting at my cubicle, I felt that I could easily doze off. So I went downstairs to get a cup a coffee at the Timmie's. After drinking the coffee, I noticed that my left hand started to numb up. That feeling stayed for the rest of the day.

Friday:

I saw a bunch of hot air balloons up in the sky across the Ottawa river. They were colorful. Some were even in shapes of bear with ears and hands. Later on I found out that these balloons were part of the Hot Air Balloon festival in Gatineau.