ReLIFE

In all honesty, the reason why I started watching ReLIFE back in 2016 was because all thirteen episodes were uploaded at once (like certain Netflix shows). I had no knowledge of the plot and the art style didn't intrigue me that much. I was fortunate to stumble upon a real gem; the story line was about a late-20's man that is unable to find a full time job due to certain circumstances. That led him to be picked by a company to be a test subject of an experimental drug to make him appear physically ten years younger.

ReLIFE is a story of getting a second chance in life, to enjoy the innocence of youth, and to preserve among hypocrisy in the adult world. Despite feeling quite content with life, I wouldn't mind going back to my high school years and redo certain events with what I know now.

Written with an older male audience in mind, it's a slice of life story with romance. As many of you may know from reading my blog, I am no fan of romance -- save for romantic comedies if done correctly (ie: no focus on love triangles). However, ReLIFE quite literally stole my heart.

I started reading the manga/webtoon for ReLIFE about a week ago and managed to finish it today. The amount of raw emotions I felt from reading the webtoon was surreal for me. I do not feel intense emotions from reading or watching often. I have to admit, I felt tears start to form near the end of the webtoon where the two main characters, unknowingly, will lose their memories of each other.

The ending was sappy, but me as of now, like sappy endings.

After finishing reading, and reading other people's perspectives on the series, I found out that a four episode season was released to finish the series! Anything to prolong this feeling of euphoria from reading such a great series.


 

Last working day for the 2017-2018 school year

The day has finally arrived. The last day of work for the 2017-2018 school year. I did most of my cleaning a few days back and paperwork, meaning that there shouldn't be much work to do for today.

I was wrong.

Somehow, the leftover cleaning took a good couple of hours, followed by additional paperwork that I missed. However, I did manage to find time to socialize with co-workers before leaving early to go to the dentist for my biannual cleanup. No cavities! =)

I don't think I posted a 4th year reflection of a teacher last year, but I'll most likely post a 5th year reflection this time around.

Chest day went relatively smoothly, and a lot better than the previous week's session. I wasn't able to do 4 reps of 205, but I'll just have to continue working on it.

Jinya was on the menu and I went for a non-ramen option this time, or I should say dry ramen to be more exact. It was better than I expected, though I regret not ordering more food since I was still hungry.

Let summer begin!

Last Day with Students

The grade 9s were on the annual year end trip to Waterton Park. I opted to not spend the fifteen hours to go there and back. Instead, I ventured to Calaway Park with the grade 6 to 8s.

It was an overcast day, which meant that it was not unbearably hot at the park. Like the previous trip, I let my grade 8s wander around the park. I mostly walked around the park (got in about 11.5 k in terms of steps), while noticing that there weren't many schools at the park. I'm guessing it's due to most CBE schools ending yesterday in comparison to our school. There were a lot of families at the park, which was different that Junior Science Day in May.

Strangely, the last day with students didn't feel like any other year. Honestly, I never felt so relieved that the school year is over. I didn't stay long at work since I need to keep myself busy in the morning tomorrow at work.

I finally got a chance to head to the gym, yet I was unable to get much squatting in. My hip was giving me issues, so I had to rely on leg accessories to keep my legs busy.

Just one more day of work! 

Grade 9 Grad

It's that time of the year again! Grade 9 graduation. We had it at a different venue this year since our regular venue doesn't have enough space to fit all the students, parents and guests. I used to tutor at this venue, so finding the location was not an issue.

Another year, another batch of students to walk the stage. Overall, the grade 9s have been quite an interesting bunch.

Besides grad, work was the same as yesterday.

Just one more day with the students to go.

And an early night for tonight. I'm exhausted.

Started cleaning my class

The grade 7s and 8s were on field trips while a large portion of grade 9s decided to skip the day today. Therefore, I had a lot of free time. I managed to get a head start on cleaning my classroom. Since I won't be moving classrooms this year, it means I don't have to pack everything in boxes.

Other than supervising students that were there, I started on my student cumulative files after school today since I have a dentist appointment Friday afternoon. At this rate, I should be able to clean up most of classroom by Thursday!

After work, I headed off to Ten Foot Henry for dinner. I don't recall the last time I've been to a place like Ten Foot Henry, but it was a decent experience. Pretty packed when I got there, but apparently that was normal.

And that's pretty much it for today. Two more days with the kids, while 3 more days of work for me!

Awards Night

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I feel more stress and nerves as a teacher during exam time than I ever felt as a student. The main reason being is that I cannot control how students do during their exams.

Thankfully, students did a lot better on their Science 9 PAT than what I expected. No one aced the test in my class, but a small number did score above 90%. About three quarters scored above 60% as well which made me quite happy for my first PAT year. True, exams are never the best indicator of student learning, but it does give me pride.

After school, I had a couple hours to burn before awards. I opted to read on my phone, rather than clean my classroom. When it got close to five, I headed down towards the gym for Award Night. Instead of giving out medals this year, the school opted to hand out trophies. I had to say that seeing all those trophies on the table behind the podium looked pretty impressive. We started awards late, but manage to end somewhat on time. I quickly rushed on home to relax for the rest of my night.

It's going to be a busy week, with little time to head to the gym. =/

Thursday is going to be rough.

South Glenmore Park and Galileo XX

Last day of karate started off my Sunday morning. We normally do marching for the last class, but we opted to train kicks instead. Another karate year over, with it means that summer is just that much closer.

After karate, I headed down to South Glenmore Park to take pictures with a friend. The last time I took out my camera to take pictures (besides family birthdays) was almost a year ago when I was in Japan. I was scrolling to see pics from Mt. Takao, which brought back memories.

We didn't stay too long at the park due to the sun, but I managed to take a few pictures of things that interested me. I brought out my 50 mm lens since I didn't want to lug around my bigger lens. I'll hopefully upload those pictures eventually.

It feels awfully weird to not do work on a Sunday. I ended up watching a couple of episodes of anime and played a few games of SC 2. Just a couple hours ago, I was searching for a new Japanese Drama to watch on a site I frequently visit. As I was surfing the drama list, a particular title caught my eye: Galileo XX. Now for those of you who read my blog from a while back would know that the Galileo series is one of my favorite detective series. I heard of their latest movie, which I think was released five years ago, but I never had the opportunity to watch it.

Utsumi Kaoru (Shibasaki Kou) reprieve her role as the main lead as she tries to solve a "normal" case. The movie was a stark difference from the rest of the series, in that she relied on her own skills instead of having her physicist partner, Yukawa Manabu (Fukuyama Masaharu) help her solve the case. Also, there was a large emphasis on how difficult it is for women to be recognized as detectives in the Japanese police force.

Finally, the end of the movie was bittersweet. From my basic interpretation, no matter how much effort you put in at times, you don't always get the result you want. I'm still confused on why the movie went in a certain direction at the end, but I think dwelling on it will eventually lead me to a conclusion.

That, along with reading up people's interpretation on the ending!

Saturday Strength Day

It has been a while since I last remembered a dream, yet alone a nightmare. After startling myself awake at around 8, I laid there until 9 before getting up to get ready to head down to Rockyridge.

The drive was relatively uneventful besides all the rain that was pouring down. The gym was a lot busier than what I ever seen, but I was able to secure a squat rack to myself for a good hour or so. I had to use a closer stance to squat to alleviate any pain in my hip, but it did help with squatting heavier. I managed to get back to 275 lbs without too much of a struggle. Going back to five sets of five reps for 275 lbs will be my goal for the rest of this year.

And to do it without any serious injury would be the icing on the cake!

Just a week left to go before break starts. I need to start constructing a list of what to do for break this year...

Rainy Friday

I was tasked with watching the grade 8s today for work. We spent a good chunk of the morning finishing up Interstellar. Unlike previous years, the grade 8s this year were not fond of the ending due to how it deviates from "science".

As for the afternoon, I went over a final review for the Science PAT on Monday. Granted that the grade 9s had their Social Studies PAT in the morning, they were highly restless. We managed to get through a brief review in the span of two periods without anyone losing their sanity.

During the review, a thunderstorm rolled in which offered students a distraction from their studies. I left my jacket in my car, so I had to walk through the rain to grab it. I didn't want to walk all the way around to the buses, so I took a shortcut that involved jumping over a small fence. I didn't plan my jump too well, so I ended up stabbing my right knee into an exposed wire. Besides a bit of blood and pain, not too much damage was done. Hopefully my tetanus booster I took in 2012 is sufficient.

Chest Day Friday was pretty pathetic, due to not having strength for some odd reason. I wasn't able to push 205 for four reps. =/

We finally got to try out Yum Yum Chicken, and it turned out to be a great culinary adventure. Since I didn't drive today, I opted for a glass of Sapporo Beer. Beer and chicken never tasted so good before, but I guess it's because I never had this combination before.

Summer Solstice 2018

Today marks the longest day of the year. Pessimistically, it means that each day after today will be shorter until December 21.

For the longest day of the year, it was relatively clear skies and hot weather. I'm blessed that my classroom faces north, thus not having to deal with direct sunlight shining in and heating everything up. It gets warm, but it's normally tolerable.

As for the Science 7 final exam, I'm glad to say that no one failed today. I don't think I ever had a class where everyone passed, so I'm quite pleased. Granted, some of my weakest students left school early for vacation, making it easier to achieve this no-fail exam.

A good way to end the grade 7 school year.

Thursday is leg day, though not a successful one due to a hip issue. All these problems...

When one area feels good, another area starts to go. I need to fine tune my warm ups somehow or incorporate more stretching at home.

Anxiously awaiting for the end of exams...

Day three of exams, and I'm starting to feel bored. Despite having no classes to teach, I normally don't do work during exams due to a cheating incident that took place during the Science 8 final a few years back. With the current layout of my classroom, I believe it would be easier for students to take advantage of the situation.

What I tend to do now is read at the front of the room while making occasional glances at students. For the most part, I believe it has mitigated most cheating during my exams.

Other than exams, another typical day at work.

Back-day Wednesday was volume pull ups. The first three sets bore results since I was able to do eight reps. The rest proceeded to decrease from seven, to six and finally to four for set ten. Other than that, the other exercises went by relatively smoothly.

Six more days with the students. Science 7 final exam tomorrow!

I can taste summer break.

I really really lonely

First PAT for the grade 9s, second final exam for the 8s and the first final exam for the 7s. It's nice in that I don't have to teach and just invigilate exams all day. The negative side, however, is that it can be extremely lackluster.

Other than exams, my grade 8s have started watching Interstellar. I've been using that movie as a wrap up to the year for the past three years. Or maybe it's two... can't remember to be honest. Despite it being my 10th... 11th... nth time watching Interstellar, there's always something that I'll pick up that I haven't picked up from my previous views. This time, it was a book dropping from the bookshelf that I somehow missed, which would explain one scene at the end.

Like I mentioned before, one problem with driving manual is heavy traffic. I was hoping to check out a car detailing shop down 16th ave, but traffic was horrendous and my foot was getting tired from clutching. The ride down Deerfoot was relatively short at around 15 minutes, but my left leg was starting to ache. I'm just grateful I don't have a racing clutch at the moment.

I stopped by Sports Chek to check out some duffle bags since my karate bag is breaking, and I needed something that can last while I travel. Not seeing what I really wanted, I headed back home to finish one final activity for my grade 7s for the year.

As for today's title, a relatively new Korean pop girl group have caught my attention as of late. Loona is a 12 girl band that had an interesting debut concept: release a solo for each member for 12 or so months. There's only a few songs that I like from the group, but the songs I like, I really like.

This B-side track to one of the member's (Jin Soul) really caught my attention. The beat is catchy, but my only quip is the one English line where they go "I really really lonely". I don't think it would change the song dramatically if they used "I'm" instead of "I".

One exam done, two more to go.

The science 8 final exam happened to be the first one this year. I was feeling nervous since I really had to rush the last unit.

Despite the crammed last unit and one week of review, students did better than what I expected. Out of the 72 students I teach this year, only... five failed? Better than the 10 or so last year that I had out of 100 students. Quite a few students got above 90%, with class average for all three classes being around the mid 60s. If I recall my studies in assessment correctly, it means that the final exam I created was a fair test.

OTher than that, it was shoulders and arm day at the gym. I've just started doing shoulders again, since my shoulders are quite puny.

And off to sleep! Eight more days with students, while nine for me!

Father's Day 2018

The day was warm overall, compared to the chillier rain we had the past couple of days. Today marked exam day in Karate. Besides seeing a few new faces for the exam, it was like every other exam I've been to date.

It's been over a month since I last gave my car a rinse so I stopped by the local car wash to try and remove some rain residue and brake dust. The car wash was a lot emptier than I expected, but perhaps it's due to Father's Day.

I admit, I haven't done anything special for father's day this year. It's usually some sort of meal or gift, but nothing on the table this year. It was an ordinary Sunday, like any other Sunday.

For those of you celebrating Father's Day though, I hope it has been an excellent day for you all!

When pictures equal words - A extremely brief comparison of the light novel and anime series for Violet Evergarden

Movies and TV series/anime are great. They get straight to the point and it doesn't involve a whole bunch of reading. Some serious drawbacks include not being able to fully convey the author's meaning since you're limited to so much time. Also, quite often, my imagination depicts characters and settings far differently than what movies/TV shows. 

That is why I normally do not watch a movie/TV adaptation of a series I read. And if I do, I would read the book after to gleam the author's intent and for details that were not found in the other form of media. Even then, I normally find the book to be the superior form of entertainment.

With Violet Evergarden, I started with the anime series before reading the light novel. My thoughts for the anime series were depicted in another blog post . With an anime series that superior in quality, and with my mindset of expecting the books to be even more exceptional, I'm pleased to say that I found both of them to be of equal quality.

With the light novel (LN), the order differs from the anime. The LN starts with Violet being an auto memory doll on a job request, which gives her a mysterious aura. You don't find out more about her past till literally halfway through the... 13 chapters (if I remember it correctly). I thought it was a clever way to seduce the readers to continue to read; wanting to know about this mysterious beauty as they call her in the novel. The LN also had a couple of characters that were not added to the anime adaptation. One in particular, I thought, should have been added to the anime series for I felt it gave more depth to Violet's character. This character, was in a sense, Violet's foil. Both were soldiers, but one is allowed to function as a member of society while the other one is sent to jail. It's not as simple as the two of them being just soldiers, when the prisoner, Edward Jones, committed various other criminal acts, but how Akatsuki Kana (the author) illustrated Edward was spine tingling. 

One particular element that the LN had which the anime did not, or at least did not clearly state, was Major Gilbert Bougainvillea's status. In the LN, the Major was alive, despite missing an eye and a limb. Violet and Gilbert met at the end, and everyone seems happy. Personally, I felt that he should have been killed. The reason being is I feel like Violet regressed, even if it was ever so slightly, back to when she was a child soldier following orders. Violet is so dependent on the Major, that it's frightening. With his disappearance, I believe it allows Violet to grow as an independent person, not shackled to orders, even if it's her desires. With this, I believe the anime did a better job in not mentioning the Major's status, allowing for Violet to "move on". 

Now with the anime, I felt it was a better idea to tell the story in a chronological order with the flashbacks to explore Violet's path. The anime was sufficient in grabbing my attention, and not letting go. At times, when reading the LN, I would get confused on the chronological order. 

All in all, you can go no wrong with reading the LN or watching the anime or doing both in whatever particular order that floats your boat. It's not often that I find an animated media an equal or superior form of entertainment to a good ol' book. Kyoto Animation, apparently known for taking the original content to base a work and mutilate it to how they see fit, did do just that with certain aspects of the show. However, I didn't feel like it diluted the quality at all. 

I'm eagerly awaiting to watch the OVA and see how it'll enhance (and hopefully not soil) the anime series as a whole. 

Today feels like a taste of Summer Break 2018

Like mentioned yesterday, today was a day off. Personally, a much needed day off despite summer break being two weeks away. I initially woke up at around 7 due to congestion that I have daily after my last bout of sickness. I don't really view it as a negative thing because it acts like a natural alarm clock for me. I drifted back to sleep after blowing my nose, but woke up again at around 7:30. Not wanting to get out of bed, I took out my phone and watched videos till around 9.

After getting up, I proceeded to have a leisure breakfast before proceeding to read. I had no desire to get work done, but it'll have to be done eventually. I ended up finishing inputting grades that I've put off for a while.

Before heading off to the gym, I managed to squeeze in Coco. It's strangely reminiscent of The Book of Life, yet different at the same time.

The gym was busier than the past month, but we managed to get in a decent chest day. Dinner was at Point Sushi today, the re branded Sakana Grill in Chinatown. The concept is a conveyor belt sushi using train-trolleys to bring food to your table. From my uneducated guess, it'll probably cut down on operational costs in the long run since you'll need less waiters to serve people.

It worked as efficiently as those in Japan. An interesting idea, but pricier for what I'm willing to pay for in Calgary.

And that pretty much wraps up my Friday!

Day Off Tomorrow!

An ordinary day, yet many students were away from school. Today literally marked the last day of review quizzes for all of my classes. Exams will be starting next week. After printing out the exams, I headed home to get ready for leg day.

Leg day went relatively smoothly, though I'll need to roll out my left hip well after. I stayed a lot later at the gym than I normally would since there's no work tomorrow! =)

I should be able to enter marks and get ready to wrap up the last two weeks of classes.

The end is near!

Holy cheap!

A number of Petro Canada stations in Calgary have recently been hit by a shortage of gasoline due to some production issue. The Petro I usually go to have no issues, but today was a different story. I've been filling up near empty recently, though seeing the nearby shell charging $1.34ish per litre made me seek out my regular Petro before they decide to raise their prices.

Fortunately the sign read $1.22 still, so I went in; surprised by the number of cars pumping gas, but I manage to find an empty pump without too much difficulty. To my surprise, the Petro I go to ran out of regular gas, and only had premium. Petro Ultra94 was the only option available... and they were charging it as if it was regular gas! Saving about 22 cents a litre certainly made my day!

Other than that, work was normal once again. Workout went relatively normal as well.

Onto another day tomorrow. It will feel like a Friday since there's no work this Friday.

Chine Hot Pot

Another day, another dollar. My grade 9s wrote their unit test for their last unit: Space Exploration. Despite what I thought would be a straight forward unit, many students did poorly on the exam. Class average was about 10% lower than usual. The sad thing was that students who did poorly didn't care that they did poorly... I guess it's due to being it near the end of the year and everything being due.

After work, I went home to work on a study guide before heading out to meet some friends for dinner at Chine Hot Pot. It's similar to 1pot in which you have your own personal pot. What's different though, is that they offer a small list of bubble tea/flavored tea drinks! Personally, I find the meat a lot better at Chine compared to other places.

Other than that,  12 more days for me. 11 more days for the students. It's going to be a short week this week, meaning I should finally be able to enter all my marks by this weekend!

And plan for the upcoming summer!!

Chilly with a side of wind

I don't recall the last time we had the furnace turn on in June. Nine degrees has never felt so cold before, or at least hasn't felt so cold in a while.

Due to a soccer tournament, many of my grade 9s were away today. It made science class and lunch a quiet event. It was also the first time that I didn't have much to do after school, since it's mostly printing off exams for the next day.

As I got home, the wind really started to pick up. Windows had to be closed in fear that something might break. After a bit of a break, it was off to the gym for arm day and shoulder day. I've haven't done shoulders in a while, and they're looking quite flat.

An extremely ordinary day. A relaxing day. A day that I strangely enjoyed despite the normalcy.

A Quiz Making Day

I had slight regrets today for not doing more work yesterday. I spent the vast majority of the afternoon and evening making review quizzes for my grade 7s and a unit test (m/c and written) for the last unit for my grade 9s. Five quizzes only took about an hour to make, but the unit test took nearly three hours to complete.

Good thing I have double prep first thing in the morning to do marking that I don't want to do tonight. =)

As for the weather, it rained for most of the day. Downtown was indeed quieter when I drove to karate. I was able to park closer to the dojo than normal due to the lack of vehicles. I was worried about my bag getting wet walking towards the dojo, but my dad gave me an umbrella to use. I'm currently searching for my own umbrella... which is lost somewhere.

One of my goals for this summer is to clean up my closet and desk area properly.

And to write the review post about the differences between the light novel and anime for Violet Evergarden.

Perhaps next weekend...

IMS for my neck

As I blogged last week, I had a session where I failed my squat and had the bar roll over my neck. With that in mind, I'm grateful that I rescheduled my massage and chiro appointment from a few weeks back (when I was sick) till today.

The massage therapist worked on my traps while the chiropractor utilized intramuscular stimulation on my neck. IMS is never the most enjoyable treatment, but it has worked wonders on my left knee and lower back in the past. It turned out that my traps were sore from the incident, since it was indeed tighter than normal.

After therapy, I headed down to Rockyridge for leg day. The gym seemed quieter than what I recall at Rockyridge. Due to the massage, I felt more sore than normal, meaning I had a "valid" excuse for going light today with my squat session. That was followed up with Romanian deadlifts, regular deadlifts, shrugs and hamstring curls.

Besides teaching piano in the late afternoon, I decided to go against my original plan of marking labs to watch The Foreigner. It was interesting to see Jacky Chan in a non-comedic role. There's some questionable scenes with the movie and major changes to the script from the original source material (if I read Wikipedia correctly about the novel that this movie was based on). The action was decent and I'm amazed that Jacky Chan is still able to perform stunts at his age.

I wonder if I am able to remain that fit at his age...

Busy Friday Nights

The one good thing about the end of the year is review. This is the only time where I get to sit back and do work (instead of lecturing or supervising labs) while students work on review booklets. With a relatively clear day, and being a Friday, it was a nice drive back home.

Chest Day Friday went off without a major hitch. I'm stuck at 205 lbs for 3s (can't even do 4s like a month back). After working out, it was off for food.

We had plans to stop by for Korean Fried Chicken in Chinatown, but the place we ventured was extremely packed. Not wanting to give up so easily, we decided to go for a stroll around East Village before returning back to see if there was room. After about a half an hour, filled with mosquitoes, other insects and interesting people, we returned back to the restaurant to see it even busier. I'm guessing it was due to the warm weather; 9:45 PM never seemed so busy before. Speaking of interesting people, one gentleman we met was briefly explaining the history of some of the buildings within East Village, or before it was called East Village.

After walking around to find a restaurant, we finally settled for a Chinese restaurant that closes extremely late. Despite it being around 10:15, it was quite packed. For about $20 a person, I was relatively stuffed.

Just three more weeks of work to go!

Snapped my headphone dongle

Today marks the day that I finished the curriculum for all of my classes! Just review and exams left... and a couple more assignments to mark.

Nothing interesting at work happened so time to move to the rest of my day. Thursday is typically leg day. I'm glad to say that I didn't fail and have the bar rolling off my neck this time. I admit that I was anxious pushing 225 lbs, but managed to finish seven sets of five reps. Going parallel instead of ass to the grass was a different sensation, so I had to do a couple lighter sets after to train my body to get used to parallel only. One reason why I could have failed last week was my heels has a tendency to lift when i go past parallel.

As I moved onto leg press near the end of my workout, I had my phone in my hoodie pocket. It wasn't my smartest decision because I ended up snapping my dongle that connects my headphones to my phone. Unfortunately, Apple took out the headphone jack since the iPhone 7, thus requiring a dongle. Fortunately, on the other hand, they are relatively inexpensive to replace, well expensive considering that it's such a small thing.

The connector snapped quite cleanly, which was interesting to see. Fortunately, there doesn't seem to be any damage to my phone.

15 more days of work!

Finished the curriculum for the school year for my 7s and 8s

Yesterday, I managed to finish the curriculum for three of my five classes. I managed to finish one other class today. Just my grade 9s to go through!

Other than that, I left work at my normal time since I didn't feel like doing work at work. I got home after an extremely smooth drive, which is rare at around 4:30ish in Calgary. I managed to finish a unit test/quiz and modify a couple final exams for students that are leaving before the school year ends. 

That was pretty much all the work I could muster today. Not a productive day and blaming it for being near the end of the school year isn't a great excuse either... seeing that I skipped back day today.

Not to mention the answer keys I need to work on...

Well tomorrow is another day they say! 

ELL Portfolios are Done!

With the end so near, I decided to get the portfolios for my students done today. It took longer than I expected, but at least they're done for this year. Being the last person in school is not as bad in the spring compared to winter. At least there's sun outside still!

Other than that, another typical day at work. Nothing to report.

In other news... I finally finished reading the light novel for Violet Evergarden. I spread the last chapter into two parts (read it Sunday and Monday night). Since it was nearly midnight, I rushed through the end, which I think could warrant another read to ensure I get enough detail. All in all, I am still unsure what made the story so attractive to me. The ending was somewhat cliche, like most of the series, but it was still captivating.

I'll try and write a more in depth piece on the novel, with some comparisons to the anime this weekend, or next. Whenever I have time...

Sudden Heavy Rain at Lunch

The thing with Calgary at times is that it can be sunny one moment, and rainy the next. It looked relatively clear when I drove to work this morning, though by sheer luck I decided to bring a rain jacket with me. The past couple of weeks have seen me jacket-less due to the relatively warm weather.

Work proceeded pretty smoothly -- first period was a practice final to make up for the botched exam we had last week. At lunch time, I was on my phone until I decided to look outside and notice that it started to pour. I don't find that it pours a lot in Calgary; rather showers throughout the day. If I were to hazard a guess, it probably rained a good 2-3 mm in the span of 10ish minutes.

When my afternoon classes started, a lot of my students that were outside were soaking wet. The first afternoon class was delayed for at least 10 minutes as many of my students went to go change into their drier gym uniforms.

Other than work though, it was off to the gym for arm day. It's the least exciting day of the workout week. What kept me entertained though was seeing a guy whom I haven't seen at the gym before. He was squatting 545 lbs like it was just the bar on his back... Also benching 415 lbs with relatively ease. For both squatting and benching, he was doing eccentric lifts, meaning slow descents.

It caught my attention because you don't often see such strong individuals at the gym I go to.

Onto Tuesday! 18 more work days for me I believe!

Finished with Notes!

As of today, I have finished making notes for my grade 9 science class! I didn't feel as excited as I had when I completed my batch of grade 7 or 8 nights back in the day, but it's a sigh of relief for sure.

Other than work, Karate was a normal affair. The annual Lilac Festival took place today as well, but I have yet to attend. Fortunately though, the weather was quite pleasant today for everyone taking advantage of being outside.

Onto another week of work! I will eventually write other types of blog posts... than these daily journal like posts.

Going to work on Saturday

Instead of heading to the gym, it was off to work for a quick PD session on the potential option's class I'll be teaching next year. Since it was a Saturday, the drive was extremely smooth. I think no traffic and (could be a mixture of my imagination and the smooth traffic) better timed lights help save 10-12 minutes today.

At work, I learned some basics when it came to the potential option's class I'll be teaching. After a couple of hours, I went to print off some notes, collected tests to mark and had a couple conversations with my colleagues at the school (Saturday school is taking place right now) before heading back home.

Rested for a while before heading out for a BBQ. Came back home and marked! Despite the workload I have right now, I feel oddly relaxed about it... nor unmotivated to get it all done.

There's always tomorrow (or today since it's past 12) to do it!

I'm lucky that I'm not injured!

Another Friday, another week finished; in terms of work wise. I woke up feeling relatively good, and grateful that my neck did not feel any pain from yesterday's events.

The double prep I had in the morning allowed me to get started on unit test marking. With my benchmarks done, I can print them off and get started on ELL portfolios next week. Just... 19 more work days I believe?

Other than work, chest day went without a hitch. The gym was relatively quiet, despite the weather being rainy outside. Dinner was Korean food. The restaurant we frequently go to was a lot busier than expected, especially at 9:30 PM. Food was still good despite the business, though it seems like it's getting less and less spicy.

Or I'm getting used to eating spicy food.