Suicide Soccer:

This name came about in Lakewood Jr Secondary in gym class.

It was just a normal soccer class. However, one game I managed to block a long deep kick with my face. Yea, that hurt but it wasn't enough to take me out of the game.

In another game, I remember chasing after a bouncing ball. A defender came up to the ball and tried to poke it out of the air with his foot. However, he missed the ball and hit me in the crotch. I went down like any guy would. THAT hurt like hell too, but I got up and played on.

After these two weird incidents, I started playing more aggressively and more recklessly. The other students knew me as more of a computer nerd than a sports jock, they decided to name the game after me, "Suicide Soccer" by "Chatari" (that's Chow and Atari).

Sure it wasn't like the movie "Shaolin Soccer" but was funny.

I remember people would shy away from the ball when I came running after it screaming.

I almost scored on a breakaway once when chasing after a ball. The girl who was playing defense was about to intercept the ball but she decided not to because she didn't want to get hurt. I scooted by her and made to the net. Unforunately, I didn't score...

Oh, well. So that is how I got my own nickname for a game.

Rugby Basketball

Lets see. I remember one day our teacher allowed us to play

any game. A bunch a guys decided they want to try playing

Aussie Rules basketball.

It is basically, rugby and basketball put together. You don't have to dribble

the ball. And you are allowed to tackle the other players.

Wow that was a hard game, very rough...

But I had fun playing it. The teachers thought we were crazy...

I remember from gym class that Dance is one of the required topics that all the students take. Sure we did all the standard ballroom dances like Waltz, Cha Cha, and even Polka.

However, there were 2 dances that I excelled at, jive and square dancing.

Jive: I remember, the hardest move to learn in jive was the octopus. I won't get into how you do it, but it is sufficient to say I managed to practice that step a lot with my sister, and my neighbour Trish. I remember the first class back at that I figured that out,

I knew everyone stopped to look. I saw the expression on Mrs Triplett's face, she was impressed.

Square Dancing: Yea, I know what you are thinkingÉ What the HELL? Yea they made us do square dancing. Now, what made matters worse is that Lakewood (no, correct that, Prince George, is one of the most red necked racist cities around. For the most part I was one of probably seven Chinese students of 400. And of course, since I wasn't white, nobody wanted to be my dance partner. Anyway, so show them, I had to work a bit harder. I got to point where during the classes, I was able co-ordinate a 7 man square (remember 4 pairs is 8 people). I remember Mrs Triplett pointed out and asked the class a girl to join our square just for the testing but no one volunteered. She voiced her disappointment, saying that it was a pity because we were one of the better squares. That sure was a boost to my confidence.

Grad Dance: I remember, one of the rare opportunities that I got enough guts to ask a girl for a dance and not get brushed off. Yea that happens a lot. Back then people were pretty racist. Anyway, I finally asked Jill for the NEXT dance. Well, I was expecting the usual '80's rock n' roll like they have playing. Well, wouldn't you know it, the DJ changed the tempo to a slow dance. Well, normally this would be lucky break, but I don't know if it was just a lapse in logic hit the two of us or what. But we held hands to begin the slow dance but we stopped. She started what resembled the stance of a jive, so I went with the flow and followed. And throughout the song, we improvised and changed between forms and it ended up part Jive/Tango/promenading. We sure turned a lot a heads. I enjoyed it, she enjoyed it. I guess it was all good.

One of the most memorable conversations, I ever had was with Linda Hansen in the Home Economics class. We were alone, and I would have to say I was the most relaxed and comfortable talking to her about a lot of things. It was a great confidence booster. Unfortunately, nothing became of this, because I could never work up enough courage any other time to approach her. However, it did make me try and become more socialable rather than be nerdy.

I remember we did have a computer room up in the social studies room.

I remember I took a printer ribbon cartridge and threw it out the window but I held on to one part of the cloth spool. That was a neat looking yo-yo. Well, until it broke....

I remember I was part of a "special" science class. Well, we had access to the chemical storage cabinet. That means ACID!!!

Yea, one of the first extra cirrucular experiments we did was melt a standard locker combination lock using 12M Hydrocloric acid! Yea... all the insides just bubbled out and distintigrated and the combo knob just disappeared in bubbles.... And OOOOHHHH that SMELL!!!

I remember there were people I just hated. We all have them in high school. So instead of confronting them head on, I was more the intelligent coward type. One of the favourite things I loved to do was walk to MacDonalds on the way to the school, grab some ketchup and some vinegar condiment paks. I would arrive at school really early like an hour ahead of the bell for library club duties. Of course, nobody is around in the hallway. So I would go up to their locker, and squeeze my packet of vinegar and ketchup into the slit of their locker. Oh the smell fills the hallway by the time bell rings, an hour later...