Stay Humble

What I realize is that when I stay up late on Saturdays, karate tend to "drag" on longer than normal. On the other hand, when I sleep early, karate seems to whiz by.

As for today, I did end up sleeping at around 1:30 AM, but karate went by relatively quickly! After training, I went home to do some work for school. 

And then I had the opportunity to practice stick again! I drove to work, since the route I normally take in the morning gives me a variety of roads, while not being overtly difficult. Personally, I thought the drive went pretty smoothly: no stalls, and smaller shudders than normal. There were even opportunities for me to try rev matching, though I think I only succeeded once out of the four or five times that I tried. 

I practiced parking in the parking lot at work (without any cars) and reversed parking. Feeling quite confident, I went home down Deerfoot, which allowed me to accelerate quickly (not speeding of course!) It was a thrilling ride overall. I was at the point where I thought I didn't have to think much about driving stick, especially clutch control.

Unfortunately, that was where I stalled... down on 36th St and 26th Ave. After restarting, I almost stalled again! (Never had that happened to me before). I guess I panicked, which led to the almost double stall... 

That made me realize that I still have a lot to learn/practice with manual, and that I should remind myself to remain humble as I learn. (Though the acceleration is unmatched in comparison to an automatic).

***

While I came home to reflect on my driving today, I just suddenly felt a lot older. Something about learning stick shift as being a significant change to my current lifestyle... It's like I'm finally grown up. (I admit, sometimes I feel like a kid despite being 27 years old...) 

Change is inevitable. Despite not liking change much, I have to remind myself that its always nice every now and then. 

Saturday April 23rd 2016

My title... as original and unoriginal as titles can get in my opinion.

Typical Saturday: woke up and went to work out. I haven't squatted since my birthday... thus making plate + 25 hellish. I'm still paranoid about my recent injury making it difficult for me to go back up. =(    (Or I'm just full of excuses =P)

After my workout, I had a chance to practice driving stick again! It was the first time I drove stick on my own. Fortunately, it wasn't too busy during a Saturday evening, thus I didn't feel as nervous as I did when I first started driving stick. I only stalled twice on the roads too! (With only one honk for my second stall!)

I'm still getting used to driving stick, but it's getting easier each time I practice. The jerking moments are the hardest parts at the moment (stop to first). Just practice practice practice!

"We All Need Someone to Kiss Us Goodbye" - Marcie

It's been a while since I last posted... once again. What else is new?

The last couple weeks have been extremely busy with badminton season in full swing. I'm falling more and more behind. Fortunately though, I think I'll be able to catch up in a couple of days once badminton season is over.

As for today's title: I'm almost done watching Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. To be honest, it's not as touching as the first run through, but I'm able to pick up on the subtleties that I missed. One thing that I noticed this time around, were a number of quotes that the main heroine, Miyazono Kaori used throughout the series. After some research, many of them came from Charles Schulz's  Peanut comic.
This quote stood out more than any other quote for me in this series. Without spoiling the series, it really hits home by stating the importance of company as significant events come to an end. I believe that we're all social creatures (no matter how introverted a person can be), that need company in tough times.

But that's it for today! Sleep and onto the weekend!

27th Birthday - Birthday Squats

It's hard to believe that another year has gone by so quickly. The older I get, the faster time seems to flow.

I was surprised this morning, during announcements that they mentioned that it was my birthday today. As a result, I had many students and colleagues wishing me happy birthday (with my three grade 8 science classes singing happy birthday.. and competing to see who did it better...) throughout the day. It was a really nice gesture!

I was pleasantly surprised that one of my classes gifted me chocolate bars, a Hunger Games cup and hand made cards! My homeroom this year, did not prepare anything for me. =(

Ironically, but pleasantly surprising, my former homeroom brought me cake during lunch break today! I was touched by the gesture, seeing that I rarely speak to my students from my homeroom from last year. 

Throughout the day, I had friends wishing me well on various social media sites. Thank you very much for those! It certainly brightened my day as well! (And not to mention that the weather was absolutely stunning today. I think it's been the warmest birthday since I was a teenager...)

After work, I went to exercise (I have no life... I know...). During my brother's birthday last year, he went and did "birthday squats", which was pretty much a number of squats equivalent to your age. He managed to do his 24 reps of two plates.

For me on the other hand, two plates is my current maximum (at most, I can probably do 5 sets of 2 reps). I decided to go for 50% of my max, so I lifted 27 reps of 135 pounds (1 plate). It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, though it turned out that I should have lifted more in order to feel the effects of these birthday squats. However, I did feel light headed after the ordeal, which made the rest of my squat sessions... interesting... I guess there's always next year for more birthday squats!

But other than that, I got my workout in, came home and watched anime to celebrate my birthday. And not to mention... more cake. 

When my students ask me tomorrow what I did for my birthday, I can lamely say that I worked out and came home to watch anime... (Some suggested that I should "party hard" after work today... which is surprisingly alarming in my books... but I guess the current generation matured a lot faster than I did when I was their age).

***

To recap my 26th year... it has been a pretty good year. I had an amazing summer, great start to my third year as a teacher, got to meet new people, mature (or I think I matured) as an individual and started to play the piano again. I hope that my 27th year will go as well, or even better than my 26th! And to help me remember my 27th year... I decided to pursue the 365 day challenge in which I take a picture everyday. I highly doubt I'll post them on my blog, because I do not blog daily... but they'll be on my Instagram!

As selfish as it sounds... to my good health this year! And to yours too I guess! (The way I phrased it makes me sound like a jerk! =P) 

April Fools 2016

It's that time of the year again! Unlike last year, all of the pranks came after 12:00 PM for me...

They were pretty tame compared to last year -- mostly attached stuff to my desk via tape. Once again, the younger kids seem to have the more creative ideas!

Other than that, it was mostly an ordinary day. It's hard to believe that a quarter of the year has passed by already. It has been an interesting three months to say the least. =P