Htam::Diary.Theme(sport)

This Friday, I went and played tennis with my father and his friends in the morning.  They play from 6:30 to 8 (and often longer) often (at least every other day, sometimes every day).  At first, I was hitting very poorly, either into the net or high over.  However, after a while, I found a good position and I can start hitting quite well.  We had 8 people, so we had 4 teams and played doubles (we had 2 courts) with all three configurations.  I actually won two matches, mostly because my partner was way better than anyone else (though he is really nice, and does not try to win necessarily, and only occasionally hit to kill).  It was really fun, I might want to do this a few more times.

Then I drove to Hualien City with my mother.  We first went to the hospital where I picked up my annual dizziness medication.  Then I dropped her off at her friend's place and went to Downtown area to buy things.  After driving around trying to figure out where I was and where the store I wanted to go was, I finally found a parking space that was quite close to the stationary store.  I went there and spent an hour or so picking and buying a watch.  Then I walked to have lunch at the same store we went Monday and Wednesday.  I ordered the same 2 dishes that I've ordered every time; but since one of them was unavailable today, I switched to the other dish that was ordered first time and was suggested for second time.  The food was good as usual.  Then I went back to the stationary store and spent a few more hours there.  And then I picked my mother back up and we came home.  On five receipts, I spent precisely NT9000 these few visits.  This is still much less than the cost of the clothes I bought on Wednesday.

This Wednesday, I woke up before 8:00.  I decided to go for a jog in the morning, since I am ahead of my schedule.  I jogged four laps.  I will probably do this again if I happen to wake up early.

I also found an error in the proof of my primary source paper.  I will attempt to salvage the proof and fix it tomorrow.  Today is the first of the Wednesday noon seminars.  The chemistry is not easily understandable, but I am not scared away.  I will continue going to these seminars.

In the afternoon and night, I spent some time playing games with Cameron Taketa, who is staying with me for a few days.

I have been tired and wanting to sleep since 21:30.  I have been trying to stay awake until 23:00 so that I will be able to attend TenSing tomorrow night.

This Monday, I played table tennis in the afternoon.  I also played yesterday.  But before then, I have not played for perhaps three weeks.  I was sick the prior two weeks.  I can still play well, and my shoulder is well rested and does not hurt anymore.  After my Shakespeare class, even though I only have 1.25 hours to play, I still went to the gym.  I played with Janet Sheung today.  At night, however, since I have TACIT rehearsal, I did not go to the advanced table tennis class.  Also, today Lauren Savage came to David Barmore and my apartment and we watched Heroes together.  After the holiday hiatus, the show started again last Monday.  I only can record the episode when it shows on SCIFI on Friday (how ironic, I do not get good reception for NBC).  And Barmore and I could not find a common time to watch until now.

This Monday, I went to play table tennis in the afternoon.  This is a beginners class, so I practiced basic things such as serving only top spin.  There is always ridiculous amount of practice that we can put into training the basics, and it is usually very helpful.  We can be surprised how much training in the fundamental strokes can help us even in high level of play.

This Thursday, my week is basically over.  Two out of my three sets are due today.  After classes, I just relaxed and got two diamonds on medium.  Also, I started and finished half of a Ma117 set that is due next Thursday.  Am I on top of things?  We shall find out.  Today at table tennis I played with John Liu.  He has problems with forehand warmups, almost exactly what I had a few years ago.  Once he is warmed up (which took a very long time), however, he is very good, and we had good practice together.  We practiced serving and receiving with looping, and also foot work.  At the end, I played doubles with Jiaqi Guo against Changyi Li and John.  We won 3-0, then I partnered with John against the other two.  We were up 2-0, but then our games degraded (all four of us) so we just stopped playing a bit after class ended.

This Thursday, I am finally done with everything this week.  I was a bit tired to study for next week, so I sang a few songs on Karaoke Revolution.  I got another medium diamond and also got my first hard diamond (Endless Love).

Table tennis is fun as always.  I played with Che-Fung for most of the time.  Because we had a lot of people, we shared tables and played cross court.  Very nice practice.  At the end, I played doubles with Jiaqi Guo, John Liu, and Che-Fung.  Jiaqi and I won 3-2.

This Monday, I broke my pattern and went to play table tennis after lunch!  I ate an early lunch at 11:00 and went to the gym at 13:00.  The PE class meets from 13:00 to 15:00 on Mondays.  I have never been able to go to this session because of other classes.  But since I just dropped Ch3a, my Monday is completely open except for one hour of Ma109.

Today, we practiced resetting by jumping for the next shot.  It is a physical cut off to make every shot count, regardless of the previous shot.  I played with Michael Woods for most of the time but also played a bit with Changyi Li.  I got really tired because I have been basically training (which is very tiresome) with Michael (who is the person with the most stamina).  I got a good workout, however, and probably improved my play.

This Thursday, after Rotation dinner, I went to play table tennis.  I haven't really played for more than a month.  I played once with my Dad in Taiwan, and I also played a bit on Sunday.  Today, I played with John Liu for the most part.  We also switched out to let others play, because there were too many people.  At the end, I played doubles with Changyi Li (a new frosh) and Michael Woods.  I still enjoy playing table tennis very much.

This Tuesday, I found another paper that might help with my SURF.  This is the paper that originally raised the open problem that I am working on this summer.  The paper is quite long, but I will read it in the next few days.  In the afternoon I went to the mandatory safety meeting, which was extremely unenlightening.

At night, I decided to go to the Pasadena Table Tennis Club, hosted by Diego, husband of Wei (the Caltech coach).  I ate dinner slightly earlier, and left at 18:45.  It took me about twenty (20) minutes to bike there, but that was because I missed a turn and went a lot of extra distance.  After being there for fifteen minutes or so, I got in and started playing.  I played with a young Asian named Richard as a warm up.  I was missing a lot of balls, but when we come to matches, I beat him pretty good.  I think he is simply not tricky enough.  When we got down (after about thirty minutes, the standard rotation time), an older Chinese guy asked if I wanted to play.  His name is Wilson, and we are more evenly matched.  After hitting with him some good balls, we palyed some games.  I beat him, but it was close.  Then we hit some more.  At the end, I played with a white person whose name I forgot.  He was left handed and beat me, but it was still fun.  Today my time there was very enjoyable.  The club ended at 21:00, and I spent fifteen (15) minutes biking back.  I am definitely going to continue to come to this club as often as I can make it.

This Sunday, at Caltech table tennis club, I played with someone I've never played before.  This is a Chinese fellow that I've seen many times, but since they often come in groups and play amongst themselves, I never got the chance to play with him.  Today, the parity consideration brought us together and we played for a while.  It is always quite interesting to play with strangers, especially when the levels are approximately equal.

This Thursday, our table tennis coach Wang is back.  I am spending a lot of time in preparations for the Readathon tomorrow.  Bing Huo decided to help me out by driving me to Smart and Final and buying food for the event.  We have lots of free food.

This Sunday, after church, I helped Michael Woods bring some free food to the gym.  We are hosting the fourth annual Sardine Cup table tennis tournament.  There were about the right number of people who came to participate.  As we grew in experience, the competitions also run more and more smoothly.  Today, I advanced to the top bracket after round robin, only to meet my death.  In the past years I have always lost in the round robin and came out victorious in the consolation bracket.  In any case, it was an enjoyable afternoon.

At night, we had deja vu ditch day barbeque, where we ate food that was leftover from the ditch day barbeque.  We also talked and hanged out.  Afterwards, I talked to Bing Huo for about an hour.  It was quite enlightening.

This Sunday after church, I played table tennis with Michael Woods.  Today, since we were asked to do drills last Thursday, decided to do some today as well.  We did the famous three hit drill for quite some while.  Then we played some games, and discussed the potential date for the last tournament of the year.  We have decided that it will be the following Sunday.  We need to advertise soon.

This Thursday, our usual coach is still on her trip in Germany, so the postdoc Damanik came again.  This time, however, he brought his friend Bob to help.  Bob played with every single one of us one-on-one, correcting and pointing out issues.  This was quite a different experience.  Too bad Bob got to me only at the very end, so I had no time to practice what he was saying, and too tired to really think about it anyways.  Too bad.

This Thursday is the big day:  Unaffiliated Housing Lottery for next year.  John Shen, David Barmore, and I decided to become roommates and live in Chester next year.  John's number was 126, while mine being 151 and David 157 (the last number for people who have turned in the forms on time).  When it got to 70 or so, John and I decided we should start worrying and find David.  I went to Avery and David was sleeping!  He got up, took a shower, and came.  Just when we were talking to the Housing office about waiting for our roommate to show up.  Surprisingly, a lot of rooms in Chester were still open, therefore we picked into my current room.  If I get this room for Summer also, then I won't have to move at all.  Yay.

Tonight I played table tennis as usual, and after looping practice with John Liu for awhile, we did the drill where one person blocks/places the ball while the other does one backhand (left corner), one forehand at the same position (body moving off the table) and one forehand on the right corner.  This is one of the more tiring drills.  I believe the person blocking actually practices more, the person moving only builds stamina.  Anyways, I was able to give John Liu four rounds of this drill.  When he was blocking for me, he kept on messing up.  However, at the very end, he was able to give me four rounds, and we kept on hitting: all the way up to six rounds (me hitting 18 balls consecutively).  It was quite a feat.  After resting for a while, we played doubles with Kevin Lui and the substitute coach Damanik, a math postdoc.

This Sunday I played table tennis with Kevin Lui.  I haven't played with him for a very long time.  It is quite fun to play with him again.  Our levels are about the same, and we beat each other numerous times in tournaments.  After he left, I played with some older Chinese person that I do not know.  In any case, it was fun and well worth my time.  I became really tired afterwards, however, and required more sleep.  I went to sleep earlier, before midnight.

This Thursday I spent three (3) hours watching the movie Judgement at Nuremberg for PS12.  Good thing I only have one hour of class today.  At ping pong, Wei is not here so we have a substitute teacher.  This is a math postdoc Damanik.  The Fairchild Senior Research Fellow that I do not know.  Today it was very tiring because I played with Ning Bao, and he has too much energy.

This Sunday after church, like most Sundays, I went to play ping pong.  I started playing with Michael Woods, then I let Kevin Lui play.  After a while, Adri came so I played with him.  I enjoy playing with Adri more because he is better than me, letting me improve and practice much easier.  Then Michael left, after a while, when Kevin was about to leave, I let him play and I left instead.  In the end, I think the four of us all played about the same amount.

This Thursday I played table tennis as usual.  However, for whatever reason, I am hitting very badly today.  This is most discouraging.  However, I know I will hold true and continue to practice.

On a different note, my stressful week is coming to a close.  I turned in my SURF forms today and now it is official.  I will be doing a SURF this summer.  The topic will be announced soon.

This Sunday, after church I played table tennis with Michael Woods, the president of the Caltech Table Tennis Club.  I have not played with him for a long time, and I realized he has improved a lot.  We both have.  Today's training was very intersting.  He is incapable of putting as much spin as Adri, whom I played with the past two weeks, but Woods is a lot more aggresive, and his balls are fast and strong.  This gives me a chance to practice fast reflexes and counter-hits (without much spin either).  Later we played some games, I believe I won all of them, but we were really close.  I really enjoy playing ping pong.

This Thursday, at night we had CCF Obscure Songs recording session again.  We recorded only three (3) songs.  Afterwards, I went to ping pong class.  I played with John Liu again.  Our level is quite similiar, making us good practicing partners.  Today we reviewed forehand looping, and also practiced underspin serve and forehand loop return.  We were the only table playing cross courts today.  I am very, very tired afterwards.

This Sunday, after church, I went with Scott Hsieh to buy some groceries.  The items count was 47!  (Not factorial, just exclamation mark.)  Afterwards, I played table tennis with Adri again.  This time he decided to practice chopping, so it was perfect for me to practice looping.  We decided that my backhand looping is actually more powerful, and he taught me to exploit it.  He also tried to teach me how to chop, but I had not much success.  Today was really fun, and I enjoy playing with him more and more now.

This Sunday, after not playing table tennis on Sundays for more than a month, due to Shakespeare performances for a month, and then injured ankle for two weeks, I am eager to be back and active.  Today, as expected, not many undergrads showed up.  In fact, I was the only one.  I played with Adri.  He is one of the better players here.  I am surprised that I can actually play fairly well with him, even after a 1.5 month of hiatus.  Today I am extremely tired, possibly due to the fact that I have not played for a while.  It was very enjoyable, nevertheless, and I am more certain I will try to make it to practice every week whenever possible.

My roommates have returned, signifying that school starts tomorrow.

This Thursday is my last chance to play table tennis for a long time.  Starting tomorrow, I will have TACIT rehearsals on Thursdays for three weeks.  I have been extremely busy, and am posting this ten days later, and I don't remember much about what I worked on this class.

This Sunday after church, I played table tennis at the club for fun.  Michael Woods did not show up.  I played with Kevin Lui and Kevin Peng.  After a while, we decided to play doubles with another guy, who is likely not a student.  It was quite fun, and I won more games than I lost.  I also renewed my interest in playing doubles.

This Thursday, I organized a table tennis tournament during class.  We are sending teams to participate in the NCTTA tournament in San Diego next Saturday.  Therefore I have taken it upon myself to get people to sign up, with Woods busy with OPI.  He has also called me "Vice President" of the Table Tennis Club.  In any case, the coach thinks I did a satisfactory job of organizing the tournament for the first time.  We now have internal rankings to aid in forming teams against the other schools.  I personally was more distracted at the beginning and could not play well, (Wei says this is common).  Towards the end, however, I was playing pretty well.  I had fun and gained experience in organization and playing.

This Thursday, I received new rubber for my ping pong paddle.  The forehand does not bounce as much, giving me more control.  I therefore need to work on using my entire body correctly to deliver more power.  The backhand rubber seems to bounce more than my previous one, I need to relearn control of my backhand.  I can still several stunts with the backhand, but probably with less accuracy and power.  Oh well, new rubber always takes time to adjust, and the result is usually good.  We'll see how it serves me.

This Sunday, after church, I played table tennis at our school club.  I played with Mary.  Our levels are about the same (though I usually win every single game) so practicing is perfect.  We quite faithfully practiced forehands, and then switched to backhands.  Later she started giving me alternating forehands and backhands.  This is very good exercise.  Afterwards we switched and now I am practicing giving alternating balls (it is as hard as hitting alternating balls).  After about 40 minutes of practice, we decided to play some games.  We were well warmed up.  I was able to both control the ball to both extreme sides of the table and attack on both sides.  It was quite fun, being able to play continuously and not win or lose after serve and return.  I had to leave early like last week, but hopefully this will not happen in the future.

This Thursday, at night during table tennis class, we had way too many people for the tables to handle.  Switching off is no longer a feasible option.  We finally did something I've always wanted to see: diagonal practice.  Seriously, each table is capable of letting four people practice with two balls.  Why do we not do this when there are two people waiting?  People are not used to it.  If we frequently have to put twenty people on five tables, perhaps we will, in the future, only have at most one person sitting out at any given time.  That would be a good time indeed.

This Sunday, as usual, after church I went to play table tennis.  I was going to ride my bike there, but my bike has been locked up by a careless owner of another bike while attempting to secure his bike.  As a consequence, I got to the gym late.  Furthermore, there is a Ma108 office hour at 17:00.  I did not really need it per se, but I wanted to see if I can get it moved back to the original time (19:00), so I can play more ping pong in the future when I do need the OH.  All in all, I was not able to play much ping pong today.  Hopefully our petition for him to move the OH would work, or else it is going to be less table tennis for me, sad.

This Thursday, we practiced backhand hit and forehand loop.  My backhand hit has always been better than my forehand.  But I was not using my body enough.  Today, Wei taught me to move my left shoulder forcefully backwards.  At first it was REALLY awkward, and I am hitting very bad.  But after a while, my body adjusted automatically until it falls into a smooth rhythm.  I was able to hit smoothly again, stronger, and without thinking about my left side—it went back automatically!

Then we practiced forehand looping from the left corner, standing completely out of the table.  My forehand loop is not as good as my backhand hit, so it was not as dramatic as the previous practice set.  But Wei again instructed and I practiced, I think I could see improvement.

Afterwards we were free to do whatever we want, a lot of people started playing games and doing stuff that is ``fun.''  I decided to continue practicing with John Liu.  We almost practiced strictly (set routine) until the end of the class.  I feel I have gained a lot.  Afterclass, Kevin Lui and Kevin Peng joined us and played doubles.  We played with all three team configurations, it was lots of fun, especially when I am playing better.  I think I won at least two out of three configurations.  I had a lot of good receives, thought my serve is antisymmetrically weak.  I will have to work on that.

This Sunday, after church I went to table tennis practice.  Due to not playing for a while, I might actually be more receptive to suggestion.  Last Thursday I was corrected for my forehand strokes.  We also worked on footwork.  So today, I practiced my corrected forehand strokes and more footwork, according to the suggestion I received in class Thursday.  It turned out to be quite productive.  I had a lot of good practice today.  It was very enjoyable.  We also did a lot of switching around, I almost played with everyone who came, which is always nice.

This Thursday, after going to a boring physics lecture, where I sat with my former roommate David Barmore and made modular origami pieces, I had a big lunch of mongolian grill.  Then I meet Keevash for about the fourth time (previously substituting for Wilson in both Ma3 and Ma121a), who is the instructor of Ma121b, after Wilson taught Ma121a.  (They are obviously specialized in the same field.)  His intro lecture today was very clear, howbeit slow and somewhat trivial.  I am hoping he will pick up the pace as time goes on.

At night, I went to play table tennis.  I have not played since Sunday, 12/18.  It was a bit foreign at first, but the feeling is coming back.  We worked on footwork today.  As always, working on footwork is the most draining exercise.  Afterwards, we worked on serves.  It's fun getting back into the game.

This Sunday, after church, I played table tennis as usual.  Today, I was surprisingly energetic so I hit fast balls.  I had to tone it down because my partner could not handle it.  I am out of shape, however, because my stamina is lower.  I got tired rather quickly and now I can barely stay awake.  I think I am going to initiate my regenerative cycle sooner today.

This Sunday, after church, I went to the gym.  The Caltech Table Tennis Club is hosting a Winter Tournament for the first time since its existence.  (The two Kevin's started the club three years ago.  Now they are seniors and have handed the club down to Michael Woods, who is very eager to host tournaments.)  It was really fun.  We had eleven (11) people show up, we first separate into three round robin of 4, 4, and 3 people each.  Using the results, we re-sort into three 4, 4, 3 round robin again.  The top two of each of the 4-person round robins advance to the semifinals, I was not among them.  Kevin Lui, Weiyi Li and I were tied for second in our round robin, we both won the same number of games.  After counting points, Kevin advances.  Weiyi and I went to the consolation bracket with the bottom two of the other 4-person round robin.  I managed to win the consolation bracket, like last time.  Fun, fun.  I got a shirt with Winter Champion on it and a free body diagram (nerds) of a ping pong ball.  Too bad it is in black so I cannot wear it.

This Thursday, we had a good table tennis training session.  I am glad that I am out of my cold, and I was able to resume my table tennis practices.  Today we trained formally: forehands, backhands, forehand loops, backhand loops, and of course serve and receive.  I feel this was a very beneficial session.  This might help on the tournament on Sunday.  I am excited (n=?).

This Sunday, at church, I was translating (or interpreting) the song leading and the annoucements.  One from English to Chinese and the other vice versa.  They have been training me and letting me do this service every single week.  Today was a surprise, however.  After the gospel meeting, a brother suddenly decided to share his testimony.  I was caught on the spot to translate it quickly (he actually said I had to speed up).  It was quite stressful, but at least I was able to do it.

Afterwards, I went to play table tennis.  For some reason, possibly related to the orchestra concert at Occidental, almost no undergrad showed up.  At the peak, there was six people.  I was able to play quite a lot with good people.  It was very fun.  The four male present played doubles with (all) three different partner configurations.  I was able to win twice, when I am with the two stronger players.  Sadly, this meant the other person lost all matches.  He is quite good in himself, when I played singles with him, we are almost tied.  He might just be not used to doubles.  Overall it was very fun, and is the most enjoyable Sunday club table tennis this year.

This Thursday, we worked on backhands in table tennis class.  It is really fun.  I am not sure if Ma121a or PE84 is more fun.  Usually I try to rotate and play with different people each time after a instruction cycle, but I was not able to do it today.  I played with Kevin Lui the entire night.  It was fun and good, as we are around the same level and willing to practice nicely.

This Thursday, after an uneventful day, I went to play ping pong.  I worked on my forehand loops again and now it is more continuous.  I think I know of something concrete I can work on to improve my playing now.  I will have to train in this way for a while before effects can start to be noticeable.  On the other hand, perhaps intrigued by the doubles at NCTTA competition, we played doubles after class again.  This has been really fun, trying to match each other's footwork and the like.  Hopefully this trend will continue.

This Thursday, during PE84, we got ready for the NCTTA tournament on Sunday.  I was having a bad day and couldn't do much with my old rubber.  Knowing that I have no set to work on is quite refreshing for a change.

This Thursday, in table tennis class, we have tryouts for NCTTA.  The competition is on 2005.10.30.  We have between 4*[4,5] people, so we had a partition of four sets of 4 to 5 people.  Each partition people played round robin (n*(n-1)/2), and the top 2 advances, yielding 8 players.  Each second place person is given a chance to beat another partition's first place, yielding top 4 players.  (I think none of the second place people were able to win, as we partitioned pretty evenly.)  I was the winner of the third partition, as expected.  However, I got really tired after playing (and losing) to Kevin Lui that I also lost to John Liu.  But that's okay, I'm still on the team, and will be going to the competition the Sunday following this coming weekend.

This Thursday, we had our first ABSK Bible study.  Last year we did it on Thursdays, but this year we are moving it to Fridays.  This week, however, the different ABSK groups on multiple campuses are having a special meeting on Friday, so our Bible study was reverted to Thursday for this week.  We reviewed Genesis.  We will probably spend one more week or so reviewing, then we will continue our study of Genesis.

Afterwards, I went to table tennis class.  Today I learned a lot.  We did backhand looping.  Surprisingly, it is not very difficult, but only somewhat hard.  I did pretty well and improved quite a bit.  This was so fun.

This Sunday, I woke up and was coughing a bit more, I also felt dizzy.  I took some medicine and went to church.  It got better and better.  In the afternoon, I was feeling good enough to go for a slight exercise.  I went to play ping pong.  For various reasons combined, I decided to play with my left hand.  I discovered that my left hand is still pretty good, I was able to block pretty fast balls.  And I did more homework.

This Thursday, the much-anticipate PE84 is finally here again.  We learned how to do forehand loops.  (Well, obviously a lot of us already knew how, it is more like a reinforcement.)  It was highly effective because everyone is focused on one stroke.  Our partners are, therefore, focused and on the approximate same level.  We were coached, and of course we look at how others are doing and imitate/avoid certain distinctive features.  I had a really good time and I improved a lot on my forehand loops.  I am slowly coming back to my original strength before my shoulder was hurt.  At the end of the class, Jon Landy, Kevin Lui, Kevin Peng, and I played three (four choose two over two) sets of doubles.  It was very enjoyable.

This Sunday, after going to church, I restarted my weekly routine.  I went to the Brown gym and played table tennis.  Our club usually meets every Sunday from 16:00-18:00.  Because of Rotation, it was earlier today.  It was very fun.  After not playing ping pong with this intensity for a while, my skills and my stamina has decreased significantly.  I was able to pick up my skill somewhat towards the end of the day, but the same cannot be said for my stamina.  I really need to start playing seriously again.

This Saturday, I woke up a bit before noon.  After breakfast/lunch, Charley and I played some badminton.  At night, we went to a mongolian grill place and ate dinner with Mike, Ben, Joe, and Dennis.

This Sunday, (actually I am not completely certain as to the temporal coordinate of this event, as I have been performing way too many temporal incursions, and as a being normally subjected to linear temporal progression, I am not fully trained in mentally handling the interleaved timeline being slightly altered,) I played ping pong with my father.  The last couple of times when I played with my dad, for some odd reason, I was playing really poorly.  Today, for some other odd reason (which makes it even :-P), I played up to my normal level in the States, when I would play on a much regular schedule with regular partners and training items.  I was really glad.  I played really well from the very first stroke.  It probably have something to do with the cleaned paddle rubber, but not all due to it.  Even though I do not clean it every time (I should), I do clean it but sometimes I still play poorly.  In any case, I was able to get my hearbeat up to 38*4=152 per minute, which is, in my oppinion, a bit too much.  I am pretty sure that was a semi-instantaneous record and was not sustained for long.

This Wednesday, I played some table tennis with astro in the morning.  Actually, not much to be said.  Later in the afternoon, we went to Hualien city and some famous food.  astro's mother asked him to purchase some local goods.  Then we sent astro to the train station and parted: until next summer.

This Sunday, silver and I went to the National Syncrotron Radiation Research Center (where aaron's mom work) and played table tennis with byjiang and aaron.  The facility was fairly nice, there were three tables and two pool tables.  After playing for a while, astro and nogard arrived.  We started at 15:00 and played a fair part into nineteen o'clock.  Wow!  More than four hours!  It was very fun and I enjoyed the afternoon sports a lot.  I went back to silver's house and took a quick shower, packed all my luggage, and moved to astro's house for dinner and the night.  I stayed at silver's house for a total of two nights.

This Friday, I went to play table tennis with my father.  He is quite good with blocking and ball control (given that I `attack' directly at his paddle).  He fed me balls two left and one right, while I hit the first left with a backhand, move out of the table, hit the second left with a forehand, and cross over the table and hit the third on the right.  This training routine was very tiring, and I was drained of energy.  However, it was enjoyable, profitable, and fun.

This Wednesday, after a ten days (or so) hiatus from table tennis, I was eager to get back in to the sport. I stopped because I was getting my injured arm/shoulder and side/back checked and worked on. It also served as a rest for those body parts which are intensively used for ping pong. I really like ping pong.

This Sunday, other than reading the Bible, I spent most of the time performing tasks necessary before large-scale data transfer.

This afternoon, I played tennis with my father. He is actually quite good in my humble opinion. If he is not better than me, he is definitely relatively better than me as compared to our difference in table tennis. In any case, I was the one that decided we've played enough.

At night, I initiated large-scale data transfer. Hopefully when I wake up, nothing bad would have transpired.

This Friday, I spent the entire day trying to install Fedora Core 4 (Stentz) on my newly acquired 60G 7200rpm hard disk (for laptop, so this is actually a very good HD already). I installed Fedora Core over HTTP from my own server. This provided me with an extra install log with timestamp information. Fedora Core installed smoothly, however, I had trouble getting Chinese language support to work properly. I worked on this issue the entire day to no success.

In the afternoon, I played table tennis for the first time since I came back to Taiwan. I played with my Dad, and he was suprisingly good (not that good, just relative to my expectation.) I remembered the old days when he used to beat my right hand with his left hand. I think that was just because I was really bad. I can beat people with my left hand nowadays.

This Saturday, we have Saturday meeting. Dennis planned some activities at Jackson high school at 13:00. Charley and I went there at 13:30 but found no one. We thus played tennis for a while, until the rest of the people arrived after 15:00. We then played some ultimate discs (as known as ultimate frisbee). I think my stamina has been built up in the past week.

We went back to Dennis's house and made some dumplings. We ate and had a sharing meeting, where brothers and sisters of the college and carreer group at SCA, as well as graduating high school seniors shared about how God has taught us in our lives.

This Thursday, I went to get a pair of passport photos taken then applied for international driving permit. Now I may be able to drive in Taiwan. Afterwards, Charley and I played tennis fourth day in a row. I was getting pretty tired. After some dumplings for dinner, we atteneded Stanley's graduation. Daniel and his father, Charley and his mother, Paul Chou, Chi, and of course Stanley's parents were there. Afterwards, all of us but Chi and Stanley went to a restaurant to eat. It was quite good.

This Wednesday, I visited Shorewood in the morning. I attempted to visit all the teachers who hath taught me. A few of them are already retired. I was able to talk to all other teachers. I had a good time. I went to orchestra and since last year we did not have a separate ninth grade orchestra but this year we do, I knew almost all the students in orchestra. After school, I played tennis (for the third day in a row) with Charley at Shorewood. When we got tired (or rather, when I became tired), we went to the Shoreline Library.

We then went to a baseball game with some church people: Mike Shen, Paul Chou, Polly, Patty, Chong, and Keller. It was my first time to a baseball game. Even though I think baseball is more boring than other sports I like, it was still an enjoyable evening simply talking with other people. Seattle Mariners beat Philadelphia Phillies.

This Tuesday, Charley and I went to Barnes and Noble and read books. Afterwards, we went to play tennis a second time. This time we did not play a game.

Stanley came over to get help with physics, after helping him a bit, I took a shower, ate dinner, and went to prayer meeting at church.

This Monday, after not doing anything specific in the morning, and watching half of Left Behind, Charley and I went to play tennis. I was a bit rusty for not playing for a year. I was easily tired, too. We played a game, and we got to 6-6. I should have won earlier when I still had enough energy, for I was leading 5-3. Once he started his winnings, I was not able to bring it back. He won the tie-breaker. Afterwards we went to buy some cards and some drinks. We also went to Cold Stone and purchased ice cream.

For dinner, we picked up Bo and met Dennis at Valamos, for old time's sake. Our small group used to go there on Mondays a lot. This time Joe was unable to make it, but we had a pretty good time there. Afterwards, we all drove to Renton and went to Fry's Electronics; Dennis needed to buy a motherboard. And then we went to Bo's house and watched Lion King 2. I thought I had not watched the whole film, but after seeing the ending, I realized that I have already watched it. But we had fun talking afterwards. It was a very enjoyable day.

This Sunday, after church, I played table tennis at church. Some of the people I used to play with every week was there. Also, Tyler Phong (sp?) whom I met at SCC during senior year in high school came to our church for the first time. I used to play table tennis with him too, so I played with him and his bunch of friends from Hong Kong. It was fun.

Later at night Chip and Charley's cousin came over for dinner. We had some fellowship regarding following the Lord, listening, and the end times.

This Sunday, I finally returned to the sunday table tennis club after a hiatus of about a month. It was fun playing with them again.

I also looked at ways to utilize my fun fund.

This Thursday, I went to table tennis class for the first time in a month! I am so excited that my back is healed and I may participate in this wonderful sport. I stretched a lot more today and played in moderation. I picked it up rather quickly from where I left off. I am not as good as before (especially my forehand). My stamina and agility are also significantly diminished from non-use. I think I will have to train a while before my bodily functions return to normal. Again, very excited.

This Friday, we went bowling. Alley 1 and Alley 2 of Ruddock engaged in a fun and relaxing alley challenge. This is my second time bowling (first time with physics class junior year in high school). I was able to get a strike the third round. Not much, but it was fun. Alley 2 lost. We are now last place.

This Friday, I played table tennis. You must be thinking: What? Table tennis on Friday? My answer is: Affirmative. James and Ray from ABSK came to Caltech at night. Seven people total, we went to the gym and played ping pong. It was interesting watching them play. I played with Che-Fung, who plays regularly. Later I played with both James and Ray (separately). It was a fun night. Later I went to play more Tetris Attack.

This Sunday, Ruddock had a Disco challenge in table tennis with Lloyd. Unexpectedly, an ex-Lloyd who graduated, Weiyi Li showed up. I have always lost to him, and today is no different. I might have a chance in beating their second best player, but that is okay. We lost all three of our singles and both of our dobules. Even though Lloyd beat us 5-0, it was still interesting to play with them.

At night, I worked many crazy hours on the Bi1 set. I went to the ``office hours'' of Elena Fabrikant. I put quotation marks because she definitely stayed much, much longer than her normal hours. As she is a well-known Rudd, a bunch of us Ruddock froshies just surrounded her and asked questions. She was a lot of help.

This Thursday, as usual, I left ABSK early and went to ping pong class. I am very glad that my hand did not hurt much from the Sunday tournament.

This Sunday, I participated in the Caltech Annual Table Tennis Tournament. I skipped church because of this. Sixteen (16) people showed up. We were split into four (4) sets by random numbers. I was with Kevin Lui,
Akil Srinivasan, and Michael Wood's dad. To my surprise (not trying to boast, I really was), I lost the round robin part. I was put into the Consolation bracket. I beat two people and ended on the finals for the bracket. Kevin Peng also lost and won the other half of the backet. In my game with him, I unexpectedly beat him solidly (again, I was surprised). I received a can of Sardines, yay. Later I went to dinner with the winner, the two Kevin's, and Jonathan Landy. Today was a very fun experience.

This Sunday, as usual, I went to play table tennis with the ping pong club. This time I got to play with Jonathan. I have seen him play for quite some time now, but never had the opportunity to play with him. He is a funny guy. Very good. He says he pretty much beat all the players at Caltech. (I think his dad is visiting here or something.) I still need to hold back because of my shoulder problem, though. I had a good time nevertheless.

Later I tried finishing my philosophy essay on tribalism. Hopefully I shall pass. After each paragraph I wrote, I watched half (20 minutes) of an episode of Babylon 5.

This Sunday, after church, I went to play table tennis as usual. However, this week the players from USC came to play with us. It was pretty nice. I beat Kevin Lui in a warm up game. Obviously Kevin was using his strength on me, but I was playing pretty hard. He claims that I have returned to my usual level from before my arm got hurt. However, after the game, I felt tension and stress in my shoulder again. So I rested for some time. Afterwards I played with a few USC players and some Caltech players who do not come often. It was nice.

This Sunday, I finally feel my right hand is getting back to normal. Previously, I played but was very reserved (no looping). I played with Michael Woods, he improved a lot, much better than I remembered. Perhaps last time I played with him, seeing I first started playing with my right hand (several months ago), he reserved his power and played with curtesy. However, I am inclined to believe that he improved much. He is very dedicated and can achieve great ends. Back to talking about self: I was able to loop and block pretty well. I can block much, MUCH better than before my hand gone bad. Probably because of the foot-work training done while trying to block with my left hand. I used to not block much and held on to the saying that ``a good offense is the best defense.'' Later, I did not want to put too much stress on my right hand, so I switched back to my left hand. Surprisingly, I was able to do pretty well also. All in all it was a very good time.

Yes, I finally can play with my right hand and with good people. This Sunday I went to the Caltech ping pong club and played. It was very interesting. Later at night, I ordered food with James Berglund, very peculiar.

This Thursday, having visited the trainer on Tuesday, I played with my right hand. It was not interesting because I am way too good compared to my opponents. At the end, I was able to play with people with higher skill level, and that was fun.

I got my Ch1b midterm back, I got 78/100, higher than I expected. Yay. Lots of homework, lots of homework. But I really like to do math, so actually it should read `Lots of fun homework, lots of unfun homework.' The unfun homework is chemistry... due tomorrow.

This Thursday, I spent more time training my left hand at the art of playing table tennis. I learned how to loop. I am really tired. Very tired. I shall go regenerate now.

On a side note, I finished the third chemistry in a considerably shorter time interval than the previous sets. I still have physics to do.

This Thursday, while I was playing ping pong with my newly-recovered right hand, my shoulder started hurting again. Currently as I am posting this (Saturday night), it still hurts. The instructor urged me to go see the trainer, I shall comply. In the mean time, I shall work harder on my left hand.

This Sunday, after the final meeting with brother Peng at church, Hou-En took me back to the Sprint store and retrieved my phone with a (free) new battery. I read some Leviathan and went to play table tennis at the usual time on Sundays.

I started with my left hand and was doing pretty well. Later I tried some right hand (slow warm up first, of course) and progressed to using more strength. I think my right hand is recovering pretty nicely. I beat Weiyi the first two games I played with him; even without practice for my right hand. (He is better than me, and usually beats me, today he is just not doing so well.) Later my right hand (and body) is tired and lost three games straight to Weiyi. He commented that I am moving more now. I realized playing with my left hand foced me to move and corrected my fatal laziness while playing ping pong.

Walking back to my room, I realized my legs and thighs are very sore. Therefore I ordered food from Chandra Thai Restaurant. To get free delivery, I ordered egg rolls in addition to fried rice. That was way too much food and I am stuffed.

I assimilated some Abstract Algebra. I am really tired. I think I am going to go regenerate now and get some extra sleep. It has been somewhat lacking in the past few days (read: between seven (7) and eight (8) hours).

This Sunday I transferred from aeon's house to silver's. silver came back from America and came to pick me up. aeon showed us a few of his newly acquired magic tricks.

Later I played table tennis with silver. He has not played for a long time. He can no longer beat me like the old times. He claimed that I improved. My right hand is still not at maximum, having rested for two months. If I am at my peak, perhaps I can beat silver.

At night I ate dinner with astro, nogard, and silver at a nearby restaurant. The person in charge knew of Caltech. I was surprised.

I stayed at silver's place.

This Sunday afternoon usual ping-pong club time, the Occidental College players come to play with the Caltech club. I played with all four players that came. They were good, but not as good as I imagined. I was able to get some games (not matches) even left-handed. It was a very fun experience, despite the fact that I lost to all four of them. I still need to work on my left hand, but I am improving quite a lot.

This Sunday afternoon normal Club time, I went to play ping-pong left-handed. I did really well today. I was able to very consistently (and quite powerfully for a left hand) return my opponent's drives with my backhand. My forehand, however, like always, requires much much more practice. I shall really commit my time and attitude to better my left hand. Perhaps I will just play with my left hand for a while now. A month? A quarter? Half a year? A year? We shall see.

Later I called my mom (international) and talked for 5*10 minutes about Donne's poem.

My arm still hurts, a lot. So after a day of intense assimilation of knowledge, I went to play ping-pong left-handed, again. I cannot stop playing table tennis, too much fun. My left hand is getting better. I cannot successfully loop balls yet, but I have the base down to perform forehand drives. For some reason, my backhand return is quite strong (when set my mind to) and perhaps stronger than my right hand backhand. Now my main problem is the switch between forehand and backhand for my left hand. I still hit balls high up when switching. Need more practice.

My right arm still hurts, so I (again) played table tennis left-handed in PE class. I am still doing quite well, but not as well as I have hoped. We have decided that I will still participate in the NCTTA tournament this upcoming Sunday. We have ten (10) participants, while each team can have 4 or more. We are going to form A and B teams.

I will be (primarily) playing left-handed on the B team. Those will be three singles against UCSD, UCLA, and USC. I will be playing on the A team for a single AND a double against Pepperdine. Do not expect me to perform well. Even if my right arm heals, I, out of practice and not wanting to stress a just-recovered ligament, will still play left-handed in the tournament no matter what comes up.

This Thursday, as usual, I have table tennis class. However, my right hand still hurts. Since I love ping-pong so much that I cannot stop playing. So I decided to play with my left hand. Throughout the three hours of playing, I improved much. The teacher, who was never impressed at my normal right hand playing, said my left hand was quite good.

At first I started blocking back forehand drives. I was doing quite good and was able to consistently return ball to his forehand. Later he started looping. Either he could not control well, or he was just causing trouble, he hit all over the table. I tried my best at blocking both sides. Later after class ended, I stayed and played one more hour. I played with another guy, he let me practice forehand drives. Later I asked him to deliver one forehand one backhand for me. I was able to return both backhand and forehand balls to him. I later played a match with him and did fairly well. In the end, even though I lost, I still gained valuable experience with my left hand. In the future, I plan to practice more with my left hand.

This Sunday afternoon I went, as usual, to the Table Tennis Club. This time I did very, very well. I find that I need to warm up my strokes every time I play. It is analogous to pulling binary from the hard drive to the RAM. This time I warmed up with Andri, he is very good. Because I started with him, I did not have any laziness mixed into my strokes this time. I play very efficiently, putting on much spin without taking much, power stroking without deformations, and moving without being lazy. Later I played with Bernard Chu and got a terrific slam-rallying action. We were hitting very fast, no peace-balls, but managed to return the balls. Mike White shouted in amazement after our rally. It was very fun.

The Caltech Table Tennis Club had a mini-tournament this Sunday afternoon, during normal club time. It was quite interesting. We split up into three partitions and each element of a partition played every other member of the partition. However, we only were allowed to play one game up to eleven (11) points. It was quite short.

I beat three (3) people quite easily in my group, lost to one (1) quite clearly. I lost to Ning around by approximately two (2) points. We were close, but apparently I am not good enough. Hopefully I will still be able to play in the real tournament against other schools some Sundays from now.

We were cut short by the need of the basketball team to use the court, hopefully this issue will not arise on a regular basis in the future.

I am finally officially in the table tennis class. Now I will no longer get kicked off by the official registrants. I played extremely well this time. I also met Brian (not that I did not know him well before) in terms of table tennis. He is really interested in playing and play quite well. I will say we are about the same level. After class, we stayed and played more. We were the last four (4) to leave. It was really fun, and we decided we can play more outside of Thursday class and Sunday club. I am really glad. Praise the Lord.

This Sunday I went and played table tennis with the Caltech Table Tennis Club. It was very fun. I did poorly in class last Thursday, but this Sunday I played much, much better. I am glad that I have this opportunity to play ping pong here every Sunday and Thursday.

I decided that playing three (3) to four (4) hours of ping-pong is not enough of exercise in this high-stress environment (contrast my seven (7) hours per week record during the non-stressful summer). Therefore I decide to jog. What is better than to boast that I jogged around the entire campus? That seemed to be a good idea. But mind you, I am not good in sports. There was once I consistently jogged. However, two things: first, I only jog approximately five (5) minutes per day (now one knows how I was able to be consistent); second, that was perhaps half a year ago, I have not jogged since. So I pushed myself to jog without stopping. The thought crossed my minds so many times. But I figured, if I stop today, I will probably stop the next time. Same reasoning apply for the k-th case; i.e., if I stop the k-th time, I will probably stop the k+1-th time. Therefore, by mathematical induction, I will always be stopping. (Or at least it will be very hard to break the pattern.) Therefore I jogged on, pushed myself. Thinking: just around that river bend. I mean, around the corner, just around the corner. Once I reach a goal, I say, one more. By mathematical induction, again, details omitted, I was able to keep going until I polygon'ed around (not circle) the entire campus. It took me fifteen (15) minutes. I tried to calm down for fifteen (15) more minutes. I was really tired afterwards. Now my legs are still sore. Wow, I am really out of shape. I need to work on this more often. I shall start at least once per week, and then increase the frequency. I also set the goal to be able to cycle around within ten (10) minutes. I have not the slightest idea if the goal is too easy, feasible, or too hard. We shall see my progress within the next few weeks.

I went to table tennis class today. But I am too tired. Good night.

This Thursday evening I played table tennis at church for the last time before I leave for California. It was good, I played for three (3) hours, more than I ever did. I was very tired at the end and lost to a brother who I can usually beat with confidence. It was nevertheless very fun and I enjoyed it. Who knows when I can play with them like this again? Someday, perhaps; someday.

This Saturday morning I again went to learn more table tennis. Today I asked the coach to teach me serving techniques. Now I can actually serve, and supposedly control, two kinds of balls: down spin and topspin both added with side spin. The two serves look alike, so it is theoretically possible to trick people. The coach says it is okay to put topspin balls out as long as it is with side spin, fast, and looks like a down spin. I got to work on the later two of the three requirements. I can get the side spin down pretty well. I still need to practice, practice, and practice more.

This Wednesday we had table tennis at church (as opposed to the usual Thursday ones). I played pretty good actually, I am looping more and hitting back more also. Still need to work on speed and spin on my forehand and consistency and rhythm on my backhand. Paul's dad said I improved much :) of course I still lost to him with a big gap. Fun times. I played for 2.5 hours tonight.

Today was the most tiring of all. Usually the coach have me loop underspin balls only. Today he made me loop topspin balls too. Looping underspins takes much more strength, but he usually only gives me one, and then free hit. Looping topspin is easier, however, it keeps coming. After some time I cannot loop anymore, too tired.

Today I used three buckets of balls, each twenty (20) minutes. Each third I sweat more than the entire soccer game a few Sundays back. Major workout today. I hope I'll retain the ability. Let's see, looping underspin balls at the top of the trajectories; looping topsins balls after they fall a little bit.

I also did some more work on my backhand hit and forehand slice, I should be improving.

This Thursday night I played table tennis at church. They all noticed my significant improvements! I was also able to beat the nameless guy (not from our church) who used to beat me. Amongst the people who played today, I think he was the best. Yup, I must improve more to beat those who were too good to come.

This Tuesday afternoon I had the third learning session. My coach is very perceptive and correctly deducing that I did not practice since the last time he coached me.
This time I am doing more forehand looping. I sweat more playing table tennis than soccer (literally). This shows how much strength I exert on the ping-pong ball and/or how little I run when I play soccer.
Anyhow, I improved a lot more, but I still need to work on my backhand a lot!

Today our small group
G = { Joe, Dennis, Bo, I, Charley }
went to the driving range again. Mike was there. Ben and Joanna's respective parents were also there. I actually did much better today than I last week. Because of some error in communicational transmission, however, Charley and I arrived late. I was not able to play golf for a long time. Mike and our small group went to eat those gigantic calzones again.

Because I had a big lunch at Super China Buffet, I could not finish a whole calzone. I split with Joe, whereas Mike saved half for lunch the next day. Dennis, Bo, and Charley all finished their share. The salad is actually extremely good in my opinion. We talked about some moral issues and also on some lighter subjects.

Finally, it was time to say good bye. Sad. Bo will not be back until Winter break, but I will not be here during Winter break. I probably will not see him until next Summer. Charley is leaving for China, and will not be back before I head off to California. Sad, sad, sad. These are my closest family. Anyhow, imagine guys hugging each other awkwardly. I witnessed a total of six (6) hugs.

I truly thank the Lord for this Basic Truth small group experience, if not for this, I probably will not have known Joe, Dennis, and Bo this well. Charley on the other hand, has been a very special blessing in my life. All the quick and to-the-point phone prayers, the midnight chat about life, the discussion and mutually beneficial homework help, the tennis matches, the dinners together, and the like will be remembered. It is wonderful when brothers and sisters care for each other in truth and in love. In the past year or so, the impact of my brother on my spirtual life cannot be ignored. I wish I have also made an impact on his spiritual walk with the Lord. We can only pray for each other more often now, may the Lord, whom we surely trust, watch over and bless us abundantly in the years to come. May he lead my brothers, especiall Bo, who is out of state, on walks desirable in his heart. May he guide us all away from the tempter and from all evil. May our spirits and souls thirst for himself more in our daily growth, that we may no longer be infants, but to mature and reach unity in the spirit. Amen.

Many played soccer this Sunday afternoon. I joined in after the Gosepl choir practice. I am really not good at soccer, but exercise is good. I wanted to go to table tennis tonight but I am too tired right now to go.

This Wednesday afternoon, the usual set
T = { Paul, Stanley, Seaton, I, Charley }
played tennis for two hours in the rain.
Tennis in the rain was actually more fun than I expected.
I am actually quite tired from all the running.
Today I played less good but my serves have increased in consistency. They are not powerful like what I could do a few years ago though. Charles's serves are more powerful but less consistent. The rest have actually all improved a bit with consistency and ball placement during these three times we played.
Perhaps I should insert tennis into the set of sports that I could play during my stay at Caltech.

I got new table tennis rubber from Yi-Yong Fan this Tuesday. I still need to get used to it. It has more spin and more speed than my old one (only slightly by chart, but my old one is old now.) Anyhow, I am quite happy about this.

Today a lot of people went golfing. I am not really good at all. It was pretty interesting, nevertheless. Afterwards our small group (Joe, Dennis, Bo, I, Charley) went to meat (refer KJV Lu 11:37) at Burgermaster. The four of them talked about subjects that I have no knowledge in. It is good to learn more.

This Sunday afternoon I played table tennis with Dennis T, Timothy W, and Charley Z. I played for three hours! I think I basically won everything, but it was still fun. I also gave my left hand some good practice.

I just received the second coaching session today. I think I am improving. I beat an old guy who I could not beat before. The coach says I need new rubber, so I left my paddle with him. I, therefore, cannot play until Tuesday when I meet him again.
Also, he knows the 192-Ashworth church (SCA). He said he usually comes when he is not teaching on Sunday. However, he basically always teach on Sunday, so I think he never comes.
I look forward to the next Saturday event, where seven (7) world-class coaches (I believe) are coming to Bitterlake to coach me. (Okay, to coach us.)

Following the template from last Wednesday, the people in the set
T = { Stanley, Seaton, I, Charley }
again played tennis at Shorewood. Too bad Paul could not join us.
Later we ate dinner together at Ranch 99 and talked for a long time.
Perhaps we should do this next Wednesday too (last opportunity before Charles leave).

So Saturday morning I had my first table tennis coaching. I went and tried out my skills Saturday afternoon for more than an hour. I was already very tired and slept for ten hours last night.
Today after church, I played table tennis with Paul, Dennis, Alex, Charley (alphabetical by last name) for a bit. Afterwards, augmented with Sam and Joe, we played basketball at church for more than an hour and perhaps approaching two.
Since we had seven people, we played three on four. We had two team arrangements and I am the only person on the three-person-team both times. I am so tired. After most people left, I played a bit more with Charley, and then went home.
Around eight o'clock just now, I was so tired I fell asleep. I just woke up a few minutes ago and now is attempting to stay awake for a while.
Even though I lost the opportunity to play table tennis for real today, I sacrificed it for some group activity. I never thought I would do this, but I did, and it is not too bad. In fact, I enjoyed playing basketball with my brothers and, uh, brothers (some sisters would be nice ;-) but there was some mis-communication regrading Cathy).

This Saturday morning I went to the first table tennis coaching session. This coach was China table tennis junior champion at age 16. He was on the China National team. His USATT rating has been #1 in US for a long time, currently he is #2. (#1 and #2 differ only a little, whereas they are far away from #3.) Today just after he taught me the proper paddle hoding technique and some conceptual explanation of body mechanics, I already improved drastically! I was able to hit some balls I never could have before: with ease and power. Of course now I am still not good enough yet, but I can sense the improvement. Even though this cost a lot (over $50), this one-hour session with Fan Yi Yong is really worth the money! Too bad I did not discover this three years ago, or I could be very good by now.

Wednesday afternoon, the following set of people went for tennis:
T = { Paul, Stanley, Seaton, Jed, Charley }.
We played at Shorewood from 1600 till 1800. We played 2 on 3, hehe.

Later, the following set of people went out for dinner and Bible study preparation:
F = { Daniel, Jed, Charley }.
We ate at the Vietnamese restaurant next to church. I still have trouble pronouncing the dish I always order.
Afterwards, we went back to church and proof read our material preparation for the four-year SCA English group Bible reading plan.
We are going to go over the entire Bible in four years in Bible study on Friday nights. Therefore we need to cover many chapters per (Friday) night. So material needs to be prepared beforehand. Thus our preparation.
I was in charge of Exodus 1-4 on the oppression of the Israelites and the first two-thirds of the life of Moses. Hopefully something meaningful has been done.

So the intersection of T and F (T cup F = T - (T-F) = F - (F-T)) is { Jed, Charley }.