Almost snapped my neck

As you can tell by my joyous tone, I'm alive and well... so far anyways.

Another typical day at work -- we had an assembly in the afternoon where a police corporal came to talk to the students about self control. I thought it was a powerful message and I hope that it got through with some of my students.

As it was Thursday, it was leg day. My goal was to get five sets of five reps for 225 lbs today. First two sets were rough, but the third and fourth set felt pretty smooth. On my fifth set however, I somehow lost my balance and tipped forward. I wasn't able to regain my balance so I had to bail.

Unfortunately I couldn't drop the weight behind me so I had to have the bar roll off my head as I bent forward. As some of you may have guessed, that meant having 225 lbs on my neck for a brief moment. I don't feel any soreness at the moment, but I'll have to wait and see tomorrow... =/

That was the first I ever failed leaning forward. Usually when I fail, it's due to not being able to push the bar up, thus dropping it behind me.

I guess the bright side is, it's not another lower body injury. =P

Volume Back Day

For those who didn't hear, there has been a breach with certain routers and bank accounts. A list of affected routers can be found here: https://globalnews.ca/news/4237529/fbi-reboot-router-russian-malware/

Also, if you have a Simplii (CIBC) or I believe a BMO bank account, there's a chance that it might be hacked as well.

Since I have both (my router wasn't on the list, but I thought I might as well update the firmware), it was time to change some settings.

As for the gym today, it was Back-day Wednesdays. Last week was weighted pull-ups so today was volume pull-ups. I have trouble going past six normally, but the weighted pull ups seem to be helping with the volume.

22 more days to go! I'm not sure if I can finish 8 review booklet answer keys in the span of a week though... on top of making notes for my grade 9s and the upcoming marking this weekend for the grade 8 unit tests. I regret not starting earlier with the answer keys.

Day 2 of Field Tests

Today went a lot smoother than yesterday: the math test was on paper and we had experience from yesterday for social studies. During the morning, I managed to finish some marking and get a reference letter written up for a volunteer. I was surprised it took four hours to get all of that done, but it's better than not getting anything done.

I saw one of my grade 8 classes today; we managed to finish two sets of notes. It's hard to believe there's only two more weeks before their final exam... and I pretty much got 75% of their last unit to cover in time for their exam. It's going to be an interesting few weeks.

Other than that, I skipped working out today to work on more work.

23 more days to go!

Day 1 of Field Tests

As noted in my previous posts, I was supposed to have a field trip with my grade 8s today. Unfortunately, environmental conditions led to the cancellation of said trip. With that in mind, we had to make some changes to the schedule since my grade 9 homeroom had their field tests (Science and LA) while I had grade 8s and 7s in the morning as well. Rough coverage was made, and it seemingly went without a hitch.

The field test... was interesting.

Other than that, it was just work, work and more work. Almost done! There's only 24 more days to go.

Go through a stop sign and signal me as crazy... whatever floats your boat!

Karate was the normal affair, besides me being late by nearly 20 minutes. I forgot that the Scotiabank Marathon was taking place today, so I had to take a detour and park underground.

After karate, I went out for some bowling at Chinook Bowladrome. I believe the last time I went there was in university with a few cousins, thus making me a complete noob. We managed to put in two games, and I was pleased to say that I got one strike and a few spares to boot. I think my highest score was 142 points, which is the first time for me to break the 100 point barrier!

As for the title for today, when I dropped off a friend after bowling, I approached a four-way stop intersection. I see a silver car to the left of me slow down -- I stopped and proceeded to go because the silver car did not stop before I did.

I assumed that it'll stop... but instead, after slowing down, it sped up and went through the intersection. The driver of the car was staring at me and made looping circles around their ear. For those of you that are not familiar with that gesture, it meant that the driver of the car thought I was crazy.

I in turn just stared at the driver and raised my palm up in exasperation. I guess you need all sorts of people to make the world go 'round.

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.

There's not a lot of anime series that evokes belly-splitting laughs from me. The only one I can think from the top of my head is Gintama.

Just recently, I stumbled upon this anime series on Netflix: Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan or otherwise known as The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. The protagonist is a high school student born with psychic powers. His powers varies from being able to teleport, exchange items, tremendous strength, telekinesis, and pretty much being overpowered. Saiki Kusuo tries to live an ordinary high school life by hiding his powers from people, only to use it if necessary to avoid situations that he does not like. A very light hearted comedy with ongoing gags.

Lucky for me that there's a second season right now, so I have something to watch after finishing the first season!

Other than that, today was quite the ordinary day. Finally finished some marking...

Calaway 2018

Another year, another Calaway park trip for the grade 8s. We were blessed with hot weather and clear skies. Unlike previous years, I gave the grade 8s permission to roam on their own. Majority of them showed up on time to leave for buses at the end of the trip, save for two students who were ten minutes late.

Other than that, I spent most of it walking around and relaxing. Just one more field trip to go!

Other than Calaway, it was chest day at the gym. I've been having troubles with pushing 205 lbs consistently as of late. I was only able to muster five sets of three reps, but I'm getting used to these temporary plateaus.

Another typical Friday, but a good one nonetheless. Five more weeks of school left! I better get my review booklets ready for exams...

Shounen Anime

In all honesty, I'm not a fan of the major shounen anime (ex: Naruto and Bleach). I find that it's mostly just fight scenes and not much "original" storyline in my books. One in particular, My Hero Academia, the supposedly successor to the older shounen anime wasn't too promising based on what I saw in season 1.

I just started season 2, despite it being in season 3 at the moment, and I have to say that I'm quite enjoying it. The battles seem like any other big anime series, and the story line seems predictable. Well, the sport festival arc has short battle scenes... I have yet to understand why I find it so likable! I doubt it'll be like a Violet Evergarden for me, but it's good to eat some time.

Perhaps I need to give series like Kuroko's Basketball a try. Maybe it'll be like Haikyuu!!

$1.46/L of gasoline? Wow that's cheap!

I cannot believe I'm saying $1.46 for a litre of 94 Octane gasoline is cheap at the Petro Canada by Falconridge. It was a good thing I was paying attention to gas prices ($1.23ish for regular) when I was driving to the gym today.

Other than "cheap" gas, it was a normal kind of day at work and at the gym. Doing weighted pull ups for threes are getting easier. My rhomboids feel tight, but otherwise body seems relatively pain free today.

Other than that, another short week for me since there's Calaway Park this Friday! Perhaps I should blog more about my opinions on matters since life is the same day after day.

That wasn't expected in Violet Evergarden

Instead of watching videos to make me sleepy before bed, I've been trying to read. The difference is probably minimal at best since I'm reading novels from my phone. As of the moment, I'm currently reading the second Violet Evergarden light novel (based on how they broke it up on the website).

In the latest chapter I read, without spoiling much, a religious cult served to be somewhat of an antagonist. Unlike any other chapters, there seemed to be a clear villain here. The plot seemed quite obvious and cliche, yet I was still pulled into the narrative. I'm unable to put my finger on why I'm so captivated by the story, but I can clearly say that the translator did a good job to bring out the meaning behind the author's intent.

I wonder what reading the original Japanese LN would be like.

Other than that, the countdown begins! 6 more weeks of school left if I'm not mistaken! Onto summer planning... but only after I'm done planning for the rest of the school year.

Victoria Day Monday

The May long weekend went by without a hitch. I feel like I managed to get a balance between productivity and relaxation. I managed to clean my winter wheels, finish marking a unit test, inputting some grades and notes for the grade 9s. In terms of relaxation, I managed to get a decent amount of TV time and progress with Pokemon Ultra Moon.

Also, it was back to the gym today after my week hiatus. Back and arms feel decently good today, but it's probably due to the one week break.

Other than that, nothing else to report for today. A little bit of reading before sleep.

Winter Wheel Cleanup

The last time I sealed my winter wheels was two years ago, when I first got them mounted with winter tires. Since they didn't have a decent wash in a while, and it was the long weekend, I thought I might as well give them a wash.

I slotted two hours, but it ended up taking closer to four for some odd reason... My process was relatively straight forward: rinse, spray with wheel cleaner and let it sit for a bit, rinse, flip over, use a wash mitt, rinse, flip it back to the front, wash mitt and final rinse (perhaps a bit overboard with the rinsing). For two winters, they're in a lot better shape than I expected. True, they're scratched up, and having a shiny surface makes all the scratches quite apparent. I tried applying a polish compound that I purchased from Part Source today, but it didn't seem to be as effective as I hoped it would be. Either way, winter wheels will be winter wheels. I'm just pleased that there weren't a lot of chips from rocks flying all over the place (*knock on wood*)

After washing, it was straight to sealing them and storing for the winter. I didn't get as much school work done, but there's always tomorrow.

Long Weekend Saturday

I was out late last night, thus the reason why I didn't blog last night.

I woke up relatively early, but stayed in bed to watch the No Game No Life movie in bed on my phone. Watching the movie brought back pleasant memories of when I watched the original series. Here's hoping for a season 2!

I got out of bed at around 11 and managed to breed Bagons in Pokemon. I didn't realize that I had a Hidden Ability Sheer Force Bagon (which translates to a Moxie Salamence) which is nice to have on a team! Other than playing Pokemon for a while, I ended up watching My Hero Academia Season 2, which is turning out to be a lot better than season one in my books.

I went out for dinner last night since a friend was back from Hinton. He's never been to Ginger Beef Bistro in the NW, so we headed there to eat dinner before heading to 3Q Bubble Tea in the south.

As one can read, it was a day where no work was done... which is always nice to have every now and then.

Cancelled Field Trip

As I was heading out the house, I checked my phone and noticed that I received a call from Edmonton. There was a voice mail notification, so I proceeded to unlock my phone to check. As I did, I received a text message from the business manager of the field trip that my grade 8s were supposed to attend today. Due to certain circumstances, it had to be cancelled today.

I made a few hurried phone calls before starting my car to drive to work. I left a lot later than I usually would, but I managed to be only a few minutes late today. Thank goodness that it's the long weekend, thus traffic was extremely smooth.

As for today, a lot of improvisation was needed. My grade 8s ended up watching an episode of Bill Nye Saves the World that discussed the importance of water scarcity. After work, I headed on home to rest up. I feel a lot better than a few days back (with slight improvements from yesterday). Hopefully I'll be nearly recovered by Sunday.

I spent the early afternoon and early night working on a nanoblock Ho-oh my brother got me from Honk Kong. It's rated to be a 4 out of 5 in terms of difficulty, but I couldn't see/understand the complexity until I reached the tail. It was slightly frustrating to piece the fragile tail together, but somehow I managed.

Now off to sleep! The long weekend should be busy!

Rainy Fieldtrip

The grade 9s had a field trip today to the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory, which is located outside of Calgary and about thirty minutes away from school. The purpose of the field trip was to let students see telescopes and, weather permitting, allow them to see the sun under a telescope.

Unfortunately, it was rainy today so the field trip was mostly a lecture. It was apparent that the students were disappointed and restless throughout the entire ordeal. I on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed today's field trip since I was able to learn quite a bit about space. I do regret not taking any astrophysics courses in University. Perhaps I'll be able to find a course online!

In terms of my sickness, I feel a lot better today. No headaches, with minor coughs and runny nose.

As always, sleep seems to be the best cure! Rest up for another field trip tomorrow -- with the grade 8s this time!

Revenge of the Headache

My runny nose was not as prevalent today, but it led to my sinuses being clogged. That meant the return of my headaches. Fortunately, they weren't as bad as Sunday's episode but it was tough getting through the work day. After I got home, I immediately crashed on the couch by my computer.

Perhaps it's time to take a sick day... I haven't taken a sick day since my first year of teaching, but I have field trips tomorrow and Friday. I'm not looking forward to Friday's field trip, due to my illness, since we'll be on the Bow River for the entire day.

And no more Tylenol Nights for me... besides stopping my nose from running, it doesn't make me drowsy enough to fall asleep. But enough complaining from me for one day. I'm feeling drowsy enough to fall asleep quickly.

I hope...

Big Blunder

My cold progressed from migraine/runny nose/cough to mostly just a running nose and cough. I'm glad I don't have migraines anymore and I guess sleep and perhaps those black garlic is doing its trick. The Tylenol Night pills didn't do anything to make me feel drowsy, but the antihistamine was amazing.

As I was driving to work this morning, I was thinking about work; more specifically the upcoming field trips this week. I was thinking whether two buses would be enough instead of three. As I got to work, I headed down to the office to check the bus booking binder that holds records of all buses booked for field trips.

As I was flipping through May, I saw my previous bookings and bookings for Friday and next Friday. What I was looking forward though, Thursday's field trip, was not in the binder... Panicking, I flipped through the entire binder but with no luck. My first period was prep, so I called the bus booking company to see if they had a copy of my reservation... in which they did not. Things were made worse when I was told that there may not be any buses available for that day. Despite making the confirmation, I must have forgotten to print and submit it to the office.

I was further fortunate in that the principal was around, so I asked him for help. After a few calls, he was able to book me the buses I need for the day. For the future to ensure that this does not happen again, I'll be double checking a week or two before field trips!

Other than that, work went like always, save for me blowing and wiping my nose every 10 minutes or so. I wondered if the late day migraine yesterday came from me sniffling the entire time, which had me blowing my nose more often than I usually would. The head custodian at my school installed a new paper towel dispenser in my room that delivers softer white paper towels instead of the normal brown towels; surprisingly soft on my nose.

And rest before early sleep once again! 

Surprisingly functional

Morning started great in comparison to yesterday. Like mentioned, it's probably due to sleep.

Headache was gone, coughing was a minimal and no signs of a running nose. A few hours after though, things started to downhill, but tolerable compared to yesterday.

After blogging in the afternoon, I managed to finish writing up a written unit test, and edit two other tests for my grade 7s and 8s. Yay for reusing old material! It saves a lot of time. I also managed to work on the field trips for the end of the work week. I pray that things become better closer to the date of the field trip...

But otherwise, onto a concoction of black garlic and white raddish syrup with honey. These remedies seemed to work in the past, so I'm hoping they will again this time around.

Or I can try the night time Tylenol lying around.

Migraines

I didn't post yesterday because my headache/migraine was getting to the point where my head would pulsate when I moved my neck. It wasn't too bad in the morning, but it intensified after karate and driving home.

I think I caught a cold, rather than the flu, but the muscle aches were hard made me think of the latter. However, I had a pretty eventful leg day the day before, which could explain the pain.

Either way, I came home from Karate, and went to lay down for a while. I got up a couple of times to get a hair cut (I'm cheap so my mom cuts my hair for me), and to eat dinner. Otherwise it was trying to get as much rest as possible.

15 hours of sleep does the body wonders though. I'll blog about my day today in the evening. Now onto work that I missed yesterday!

It has been found!

For those who don't know, I'm a bit of a fanboy when it comes to Pokemon. It started way back in grade four when one of my friends had Pokemon Red. After convincing my parents, I've managed to get a copy of Pokemon Blue and my interest for Pokemon started to skyrocket from there until I reached junior high. During the time before my first break from the franchise, I would collect the cards and watch the TV show. I stopped playing Pokemon after 2nd gen, but I got back to it in high school with Pokemon Pearl.

Ever since going to Japan for the first time, I started to collect more Pokemon memorabilia. It went from collecting Japanese versions of Pokemon cards to little figurines. Last year, my brother purchased an Eevee toy that you get from a capsule machine by the Pokemon Centres for me from an Akihabara shop. Since you can pick the actual capsule toy you want, they have exorbitant  prices (800 yen for a 300 yen capsule). I was quite happy since Eevee is one of my favorite Pokemon (besides my number one being Dragonite). However, when I came back to Canada, I was unable to locate Eevee in my luggage. I thought I left it at the hotel before coming back home.

With a saddened heart, I scourged the internet to see if I can purchase another one online. With the limited information I had about these toys, I was unable to produce any results.

Just yesterday though, when my brother returned back to Canada, he found Eevee nestled in a plastic bag located in my luggage!

With great joy, I can now prop it beside my other Eevolutions.

It's not too often that I get to drive auto

After switching to driving manual in May 2016 daily, I don't often get the opportunity to drive automatic. Despite not being able to perform advance techniques (ie: heel-toe downshift, drifting, burn outs... joking about the last two), I'm getting to the point where it's all muscle memory when I drive.

Manual transmission is a pain to drive during heavy traffic, for it's constantly about clutching in and out, shifting into first, inching forward by feathering the clutch and hoping that your clutch foot doesn't cramp up. I'm fortunate that my stock clutch isn't too heavy, but my leg would feel sore after a long session in heavy traffic. However, the feeling of "being connected" with the car far outweighs the cons of manual.

Though, it was a nice experience to drive auto today. I took my mom's SUV since I went to pick up my brother from the airport. At times, my left foot would automatically try and reach a clutch in the SUV, or my right hand would automatically head towards the shifter. The drive was relatively long, but boring due to the lack of traffic at 11 PM.

With all that being said, I think my next daily driver will be a manual... but knowing me I'll probably change my mind when it comes to that time.

Mhm

I'm no expert at all when it comes to computers, nor am I knowledgeable enough to give an informed opinion on Google's recent keynote. During the event, they showcased their new advanced AI system, dubbed Google Duplex if I'm not mistaken.

I have to say that I was fooled when I was listening to the phone call conversation between a human and a robot. The robot/AI sounded so human like that it was scary. What really got to me were the slight hesitation and filler words (like using Mhm when it was asked to wait) that made it hard for me to distinguish an artificial voice and a natural human voice.

Hearing that naturalness, to me, reminded me of Dan Brown's Origin book, where a robotic assistant (Winston if I remember correctly) was assisting Robert Langdon.

But anyways, what do I think about Google Duplex? I can see it as being beneficial if used like how its intended to be used. It'll be cool to have your own secretary/assistant to book appointments for you or deal with other mundane tasks (ie: perhaps call my CC company if I have any inquires). However, I can see it as a new way for scammers to take advantage of people. Robot calls are already bad enough.

With the advancement of artificial intelligence, it'll be interesting to see where it goes in a few years time. Like the saying goes, "what a time to be alive".

Finally Rain!

If I'm not mistaken, we had our first rain/showers this spring today. It's nice to get this form of precipitation instead of snow or the icy rain back in April.

Work was quite ordinary. The grade 9s had a field trip today, thus I had a prep first thing in the morning, which was much welcomed since it's my non-prep day today. One good thing about non-prep days though, is that the days go by quickly.

At the end of work today, I was packing up when I started hearing a car revving it's engine. I wasn't quite sure if it was in our parking lot (since my classroom is one of the closest classrooms to the parking lot), or on the street outside. I ignored it for a while, but it dawned on me that it sounded oddly familiar... somewhat like my exhaust note. Panicking slightly, I opened my blinds and fortunately saw that my car was still there. What was making that noise was a foreign car, that happened to be the same type of car as mine, just a few generations older.

Laughing a bit, I packed up and drove home to rest before heading back out for back day. A volume day but nothing too extremely hard today.

First PAT

Technically not my PAT, but my entire morning was essentially supervising the LA writing PAT exam. Unlike the other final exams, I had an EA help supervise, thus meaning I had time to get a lot of marking done! It's amazing to see (some) students concentrate for four and a half hours to write a test!

Slowly but surely.. I'll catch up in terms of marking. I think another weekend or two would suffice! Hopefully I won't encounter the same issue next school year...

With the morning being spent on supervising/marking, the afternoon seemed awfully quick since I only had two classes to teach in the afternoon. After students left, it was off to count money for another field trip. Two field trips next week and one the week after. As always, despite the time needed to plan for field trips, it's a great way to "take time off" from the daily grind.

And off to sleep. Hopefully I'll be able to find time to hit the gym tomorrow. I actually feel somewhat guilty for not working out yesterday nor today. =P Also, rest should help make my thoughts more coherent when I write.

Sales are always a good thing... isn't it?

I nearly forgot how long it takes to count money for a field trip. I had the double prep first thing in the morning today, but it took nearly the entire 88 minutes I had to count and tally money... let alone input it into my computer for my own record keeping. Fortunately, there's only three field trips to worry about, which is considerably much easier than coaching badminton!

After work, I headed down to the London Drugs by my house because there was a sale on Panasonic earbuds that were the same as my current busted ones. For $10, you can't go wrong with a set of decent sounding earbuds (from $20 originally). I was looking for another set of black ones, but they all sold out. After contemplating on silver/white or blue, I decided to go with the latter since it'll match my workout hoodie. =P

Other than that, it'll probably be a long week in terms of work. I'm slowly catching up with my marking and inputting marks (another set of marks to enter this weekend!). Also, hopefully I'm able to hit the sack earlier than previous weeks to get in at least 6 hours of quality sleep.

With that, it's time for bed!

I forgot how loud summer tires are...

Driving to karate this morning was quiet, like any other Sunday. What I noticed most though, was how loud summer tires sounded compared to my winters. Back in the day when I had all season tires, they were relatively quiet compared to winters. However, I find my summer tires on my car currently to be louder than my winters!

And not to mention how slippery they are on top of gravel. My backyard is filled with gravel at the moment, though I cannot recall whether the city goes in to clean up back alleys as well... I don't think so? 

Either way, it was nice to drive on summer tires. It doesn't feel like they'll melt with the hot weather that's coming, and hopefully staying, in Calgary. Also, the grip you get when going up ramps or accelerating out of corners is unparalleled to all-seasons or winters. 

Other than the drive I explained in more detail than I usually would, it was a typical Sunday. I finally entered some marks in for my five science classes. Even with a few short cuts, it took the better of two hours to enter marks... >_>. On the bright side, I managed to finish two sets of notes so I'm pleased with that. 

Onto another week of work! This Tuesday will be the first time I ever experienced a PAT as a teacher instead of student. Even though it's not my subject, I feel somewhat anxious for my students writing it in a couple of days. 

Tire Swapping Saturday

Due to the vast amount of snow, variety of weekend activities and a recent vacation, we didn't get a chance to swap out our winter tires until today. Fortunately, it was nice, bright and warm, making tire swapping a pleasant, yet arduous task.

Our procedure goes as follows: wash the wheels and tires quickly with water, jack up the car, take off a tire, inspect the brakes, put on the other tire, swap out the other tire on the same side, repeat the steps, lower the car, go onto the other side to repeat, torque and check air pressure. Each task is relatively straight forward, just that it takes time to ensure everything is done correctly.

Either way, I'm ready to hit the road for some weekend driving! If only gas prices are cheaper at the moment...

Centre Street Japanese Hot Pot

Like most people, I look forward to Friday. Instead of the daily "bellringer" work I assign to students during the week (to help up them prep up for their lesson), I usually give them some sort of riddle to solve on Fridays. At times, we'll use a TED Ed riddle, which I find to be ridiculously hard. Most years, none of my students will be able to solve it (save for one student this year who has amazing logic skills for someone their age), but they always like trying to solve these riddles. We tried the "three gods" riddle, which was harder than other TED Ed riddles. Unfortunately, even my extremely logically student was unable to solve the riddle today.

Otherwise, work was an ordinary day, filled with notes and anxious students/teachers waiting for the weekend to begin. Today's workout was relatively short, but intense. Minimal breaks between sets and exercises lead to fatigue quite quickly.

After working out, we headed to a restaurant down Centre Street known as Centre Street Japanese Hot Pot. It's not an AYCE place, which is actually something I prefer now a days since I'm trying to cut. The large portion for hot pot had more than enough food for me. Unlike other places, they had sukiyaki as a broth option. With the ryokan as a unfair benchmark, I opted to give their sukiyaki a try. Overall, it was a lot better than I expected. I'm not a food connoisseur, so I won't bother going into details (and I'm feeling extremely lazy to write out my opinion).

Always have both earbuds in when you lift...

Somehow I wrecked my workout earbuds at the gym yesterday. I don't recall how it happened, but I glanced down and noticed my left earbud wire was damaged. I'm guessing it was due to bent over long bar row, since I only had one earbud in while the other one was dangling in front of me. It probably got caught between the plates...

For $12, the Panasonic earbuds I got from Amazon were a great deal. The sound quality was some of the best I ever heard from such a cheap set of headphones. Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't have a deal on them anymore. Time to research for another cheap set.

Other than that, we had our sheep eye dissection in class today. Fortunately, my current room has two windows, which allowed me to air out the smell of preservatives a lot faster than the last previous years. I need to order new trays in the future though since these plastic ones I ordered a few years back are quite flimsy... I'll have to see if they have metal ones selling somewhere...

Apparently I have seen Cherry Blossoms Before

As I was scrolling through pictures that my dad brought back from Japan, I noticed there were a bunch of them from Spring 2001, when I went back for the second time, and being the first time for my brother. In a few of the pictures, taken at some sort of shrine or temple, there were cherry blossoms in full bloom. I cannot recall that image for the sake of me, but I guess it shows that if you don't truly appreciate something, it won't make much of an impact on you. (Which is perhaps one of the biggest challenges I have as a teacher at times, to engage students, but that's for another day).

Back to the picture... I look seemingly bored. If only I can go back in time and slap myself silly...
It's time to go back to Japan in the spring.

Onigiris are indeed best from the homeland

My title is highly biased, and potentially inaccurate. I never had an onigiri in Canada before. They're hard to find, and if a restaurant does sell onigiri, they tend to be expensive. For those that don't know what onigiri is, it's a rice ball. Or according to the original Pokemon TV show, it's jelly donuts (how many people will get this reference I wonder). I'm basing my title on how Japanese food tastes so much better, for me, in Japan than in Canada. 

My father came back from Japan today after visiting his family. For the past couple of years he's been bringing back onigiri from the 7-11, which I'm assuming is at the Narita Airport (even though I've never found a 7-11 at Narita's Airport). There was the typical spicy cod roe and mayo tuna rice balls, but I got the chance to sample a new flavor: natto and pickled plum. The sour plum masks the slightly pungent taste of natto = tasty combination.

Besides food, my dad brought back a bunch of pictures from Japan. Back in the past, when film cameras were all the rage, my dad would send pictures to my grandparents. It's nice to look back at these pictures. As time goes by, I'm slowly, starting to appreciate the importance of pictures.