My interests span many sports, my secondary favorite being badminton, but I will give a quick reference to some other things to spare you my endless repertoire of ramblings that could ensue from my continuing the subject of sport

• Shorinji Kenpo (Japanese martial art; started in January 1997)
  
• Movies: especially interesting ones of high quality.
  
• Reading: I read lots of informative books of various topics, and
  also fictional books.
  
• I enjoy writing, especially fictional writing, but I'm learning
  to enjoy certain academic writing too
  
• I love to cook and eat what I cooked.
  
• I don't eat any animal products or byproducts, and I try to avoid
  all other unnatural things that some have come to call "food".
  
• I like to draw and do other things with my hands.
  
• Listening to music of all kinds, the more different and interesting the better.
  
• I would like to have a business, more than one actually.
  

...and many other things.

        What's it like here in south west B.C.? Rain rain and more rain. If you like rain, this is the place to be. In my neighbourhood we get about 3000mm of rain a year. That's about 1000 more than at the Vancouver airport, which is on flat land. That's 3 meters! There's a reason that TV shows such as Millennium and the X-Files are dark and gloomy. We have a lamp in our home that is turned on by a light sensor when it starts to become dark outside. It's on all day in the winter. That's not to say it's like this all year 'round; our summers tend to be excellent. I remember times where we had good weather from before May 'till October, but in recent years it has rained right up until June. Greeeaaaat!

Weeell, we don't call it Beautiful British Columbia for nothing -- wanna see why, check out these video postcards at KnowTV.

        People seem to forget that we live in one of the biggest temperate rainforest regions in the world. We could be the reigning champ for all I know (pun intended). I guess the reason that people tend to forget this is probably due to the lack of any rainforest. There are some small patches still around here and there, but largely it's all gone. You can go for a walk in a park and find some huge beautiful stumps nestled in between these relative saplings and look up trying to no avail to imagine what once spanned from such a large base. It's a shame that I would have to live another thousand years without another tree being cut to see such a wonder in this place again. These giant trees that used to cover this land are now so few and staggered that you would need to buy a guide book, and do some serious hiking in some cases, to find them.

        In their place are row upon row of plastic coated California coloured Barbie Doll houses and with interlacing asphalt roads. You can imagine what kind of affect this all has on the land around here. The Frazer River, better know to locals as The Muddy Fraser (not to mention polluted). I wonder what the natives used to call this river? I'm sure the word mud wasn't the first thing to come to mind, rather, clean, clear, salmon,... and the such would be conjured since many tribes were situated along this river. They are now all extinct. The Coquitlam natives used to live here, but that's all I know about them. Great huh?

        All this rain that used to be absorbed by forest now goes directly into pipes and out to sea. And we endlessly hear how short our water supply is and how we should conserve by not watering our lawns etc. in the summer months. Why, the water the runs off my roof in one year could easily supply this household with all it needs.

        One hot shower will empty our water heater. That's 40 gallons (151.42 liters) of hot water. We use more cold water than hot when taking a good long shower, so let's say that's 50 gallons (189.27 liters). 90 gal. 340 l. total. That's a lot of water for one shower, but I could stand under the corner of my roof when it's raining and do the same thing. We're wasteful and we don't know what it used to be like around here before this place was stripped of all it's natural wonder, that's what I'm saying. When I went to Japan, the thing that disgusted me the most was all the similarities I saw. I saw the future of this area. Sickens me to the core. If you want a taste of the future, go to a big disgusting city. Hopefully you will go back home and appreciate things more and try to stop it from happening to your area.