First day in Vegas!

First day in Vegas! 

It's been a while since I was in a plane. The takeoff was fine, but the landing was quite abrupt. 

After landing, we took a taxi to our hotel. Along the way, I was amazed at the difference between the strip and the rest of Vegas. It was quite an extreme contrast in that the strip is bright and extravagant while the rest of Vegas looked ordinary. 

After checking into our hotel, we walked to Holstein, a restaurant inside Cosmopolitan. The burgers and shakes there were expensive but amazingly good! It was the first time I had foie gros and it tasted extremely good!

After dinner, we shopped for a bit (despite it being near midnight, the strip was extremely packed). We are now back in our hotel rooms! 

A picture of, I believe, a hotel. Hotels here are like malls! So huge inside

I haven't realized that a week has passed already!

Time really flies! I haven't realized that it has been a week already! And what a week it has been. (I decided that it's not time to release part two yet, so I'll hold that off to a later date.)

Last Thursday, I went to go visit my last practicum school. My former students were doing a lab where they had to clean up an oil spill. I went around and helped out groups with the set up. During my usual prep time, I went to their gym class (they had gym when I had prep). Instead of gym though, they were watching Jumanji. The movie certainly brought back memories of when I watched the film in my younger days.

Between Thursday and Saturday, Southern Alberta experienced a historical flood (I believe it's the biggest flood we ever had in a long time). Downtown Calgary was shut down due to all the flood water. It was the first time I experienced something like this. Over the past couple of days, the effort put in by Southern Albertans has been awe-inspiring, in that many individuals have volunteered to help the misfortunate. On the other hand, there have been opportunists out there...

As of recent, I have caught a cold, just after recovering from a coughing fit not too long ago! I hope I recover in time for my trip. =/

Onto happier news: my macro extension tubes came in today! For about $55 dollars, I can convert my 75-300mm telephoto lens into a decent macro lens. Here's a picture of what it looks like, when I had all three tube parts attached (69mm extension in total)

You can see all the flaws now in my build =(. Also, I'll have to start practicing my manual focusing, since my lens is unable to focus with these extension tubes (despite being able to auto focus since I have the contact points)

And that's it for today! Due to my runny nose, I can't think/write anymore... I've been running upstairs every few seconds to blow my nose...

And so ends another chapter... Part 1

I went to school today to pick up my degree. At first, I had troubles finding the place (MLB 117) because I was searching through the library tower (instead of the block). After finally finding the place, I waited a while till the secretary was done with her call. After entering my ID number into the computer, she went to grab my degree and pin. It was a very bittersweet moment for me, though the reason why will be further explained in a couple days time.

After getting my degree, I went up to the Dean of education's office to pick up my gift. The faculty has generously given each of us graduates a gift. I was quite pleased to see that I received a magnificent looking clock. I was congratulated for finishing my degree, yet I had to say that I didn't really feel exuberant for graduating.

As I walked out towards my car, more specifically on the road towards Lot 32, a strong gust of wind blew near me. It blew the cotton buds (or whatever the "detachable" things are called) from the trees, making it look like cherry blossoms falling from trees. It felt like a sense of closing, like the cherry blossom scenes you see in anime or dramas. When I was walking through the fluttering "detachable" things, with the things gently hitting my face, I was thinking to myself "ah, yet another chapter has ended in my life". I have graduated as a certified teacher.

It's a moment that has been deeply imprinted into my memory.

As I reached the sidewalk of Lot 32, I turned around and noticed that the "detachable" storm ended. Sorry for sounding arrogant, but it really felt like that event was for me, to tell me to continue on in my journey called life!

Enough sentiment for today! I would have taken a picture of the falling "detachables" but it never really occurred to me until I sat in my car. Instead, here's a picture of the gift we graduates got!

Galileo!!!

Pretty normal day today. I went to Karate to help with the examinations. After coming home and lunch, I finished watching an SNSD variety show (Hello Baby, where the 9 of them takes care of a toddler) and got started building my MG Aegis. I spent about 90 minutes to build the torso, and I'm liking it so far! It's one of the most complicated torsos I ever built, but I'm liking how the color scheme is working out. (Nothing too dramatic, just a shade darker in terms of the red and the navy blue is black once again).

Since the series is almost done (I'm assuming that there is only two episodes left), I felt it's high time that I start watching the series now! I calculated that if I should start now, I will be able to watch an episode a day till the series ends next week.

And the first episode was great! There's a deeper, more emotional take when compared to the first season's opener. The character that replaces the detective Utsumi, has done a great job so far! Yoshitaka Yuriko, playing the new rookie detective, has never disappointed me before in terms of her acting skills!

Brother's Convocation

Today marks the day that my brother graduates from his nursing program.

It was also the first time I sat through a convocation that wasn't my own. It was definitely a different experience being on the bleachers instead of being at the center of attention. The ceremony was long, though not as dreadful as I thought it might have been. (I was dreading sitting in a hard plastic chair for 3 hours straight)

After getting home, I was pretty tired, so I only worked on a couple of cover letters and played a bunch of LoL!

And that's it for today!

Three Rathalos Mantles in a Row!

My apologies for not blogging in a while! I will explain in due time of my absence, though not today!

It has been quite an eventful week. Gone out a couple of times, played a whole bunch of monster hunters and LoL and looked for some work. Not so much luck in job searching, but so far so good in terms of LoL and MH.

Late last night, my brother and I were grinding on MH since we couldn't fall asleep. (We ended up playing till 2:30ish last night). Our goal was to gather Rathalos Mantles (really rare items) since we wanted to craft the Rathalos Soul Z armor set. I wasn't having much luck early on when we started grinding, till we did an advanced double azure quest. I managed to grab my first mantle in the quest reward section!

Right after that quest, we did a advanced triple rathalos quest. Lo and behold, I managed to carve it from... I believe the 1st rathalos we killed.

After the triple rathalos quest, we fought a regular rathalos. After chopping off his tail, I went in to carve it... and got my third mantle!

Successful night! =)