The Start of Tremendous Labour

He runs a finger down the side -- only grit makes a mark on his cracked tips. A smile gently breaks on his weathered face as he moves away to light up his work space. As he comes back, a large white pail filled with water with various cleaning tools float in his left hand. In his right hand  is a spray bottle filled with soapy water.

The man gently dons a cleaning glove, specialized for the task at hand. On one side is a smooth microfibre towel while the other side is tacky and gray. A quick spray on the glove and multiple sprays on the body begins his day. For a few hours, the man continued what seems like a mudane routine; spray glove, spray surface, and wipe till he feels little to no resistance. At times, he would adjust an ear to the surface, listening for a sound, or a lack of sound as his mission is to ensure a smooth clean surface.

Sweat started to bead down his neck. Lucky for him, he works indoors so the harsh climate does not hamper his efforts. As he continues with his routine, he would occasionally switch hands as his body starts to ache. At certain points, he would pull a small green chair, in which he would squat seemingly uncomfortably to reach lower areas. As he finishes the last panel, he stands up and throws the cleaning glove into the once-clean-but-now-mucky water bucket. A grimace appears on his face, him not knowing what his true emotions are at the moment. Happiness at one task being completed, or frustration and a sense of hopelessness as he realized that this was only one step of many.

Ah, the joys of detailing a car.

(Time: 9 minutes and 59 seconds!)

Wistful Fantasy

I awoke, without opening my eyes, to a soft breeze washing across my face. It is warm, with the scent of salt water. I can faintly hear the waves crashing among the beachfront near my cottage, the sound of gulls and other birds interrupting the peace that is on this secluded island. From behind my shelter, the sounds of various insects sing, seemingly, in tune with the wind. I can also feel the hot sun beaming down upon me as I lay on my hammock tied between two palm trees. My vision is bright red, due to the various capillaries within my eyelid. As I lay here, I start to hear the vegetation rustle as animals are sulking in the undergrowth.

I dare not open my eyes. I want this to last as long as possible. For when I do open my eyes, I will be forcefully brought back to reality.

A large jarring sound jerked me from my slumber forcefully. I open my eyes.

All I see is broken faded walls. The small window displays gray skies -- rain is in the forecast for today.

Ah, the joys and sorrows of dreaming.

(9 minutes and 30 seconds... that was a lot harder to write than I thought it would be...)

Day before I start "improv" writing

Due to the mundane life I'm currently living, I'll be writing 10 minute improv pieces starting tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

But as for the week, I'll be detailing my car. It'll take more time than last year due to the need to polish. I better stock up on painter's tape and applicator pads. There were a few videos on YouTube that gave me some helpful tips on polishing, so hopefully I don't burn or wreck my paint too badly.

As for karate, it was the same as usual. I meant to go to the gym after karate, but laziness got the better of me. In retrospect, the cool a/c at the gym might have given me some sort of reprieve instead of sweating my butt here.

A Learning Day

I found out about Teachers Learning Code from a former student teacher of mine. Since I'm teaching Robotics this coming school year, I got the opportunity to attend one of their workshops at Nose Hill Library. For a six hour PD session, it was jammed packed with info, but not once did I feel bored. It was a great learning experience and I learned how to use Scratch more efficiently while learning the basics for HTML and CSS.  

After coming home, I rested for a bit before heading out to learn how to use my DA polisher. Compared to a regular orbiter, a DA polisher is harder to burn paint.

A lot of learning today in comparison to the last four weeks. Halfway through break!

Done for the year

Half an hour or so was spent to finish placing stickers on Banshee. I spent a few minutes later to ensure that I placed all the stickers. Unlike decals, I don't mind putting stickers. Granted, some places on the body seemed overdone with stickers, and some were not placed properly meaning that edges were hanging out. Either way, it's done.

After a couple coats of dull cote, I let it dry while reading Attack on Titan. Transforming the RG variant of Unicorn was a lot easier than the MG or PG sibling. The only issue I had was the left knee, which could be due to how I placed the pieces together. This will be my last gundam build for 2018! Once again, I'll be entering a soft retirement... hopefully a permanent retirement. I'm running out of space to display my models, and I'm not sure how I would transfer them over when I move out.

Other than that, it was chest day at an empty gym. There was absolutely no issue with getting equipment today in comparison to yesterday.

And off to sleep, since I'll be attending a workshop tomorrow!

Decal Galore

I spent a large portion of my day putting stickers on RG Banshee. Compared to decals, wet or dry, it's definitely a lot easier to put on stickers. It doesn't look nearly as clean, but I'm not that picky. As of 10:33 PM, I'm nearly complete! Just one half of the front left to go before a layer of dull cote is applied (to get rid of gloss and to hopefully make the edges of the stickers blend into the back) before the final transformation.

Besides working on Banshee, I got in time to watch Ted 2. I don't think it's as good as the original Ted movie, but there were some laughs here and there. 

The gym was extremely busy today for some apparent reason. It did allow me to stretch longer than usual, while waiting for a squat rack to free up. Leg day went relatively quickly without any major hitches. My hip felt weird, but I was able to get in five sets of four reps of 225 lbs.

And that's it for today! Starting... Monday... I'm going to challenge myself by writing short stories/narratives/etc while limiting myself to ten minutes. We'll see how it'll goes as I plan to do it for a few weeks!

Car Galore

Woke up and went to the gym early for back day. Despite it being around 10:30, the gym was quiet. I managed to get in about 13 sets of pull ups, though the last few sets were quite messy. I added some accessories (landmines/t-bar rows, regular rows, reverse-grip-rows?, and a few others) before heading to the library to reprint some documents. This time I was able to get them in color! After making a brief stop at the local post office, I went home to play MH Stories (almost got maxed out poison sword and shield) before working on RG Banshee.

I managed to finish building Banshee! Just decals to go. The shield seemed a lot easier to build compared to the MG Phenex, with both having the same type of shield. The RG build definitely made it simpler to assemble. Perhaps I should compare the RG manual to the MG to see what the differences are, and maybe dig out the PG manual for Unicorn...

After finish building RG Banshee, I ventured out to various car dealership. It's interesting to see how cars have changed over the years. Many cars now have tablet like infotainment systems in the cars now.

I wish I had a tablet like infotainment system in my car... =(

Another Food Day

I guess I should give up on waking up early since I ended up drifting to sleep once again after waking up at 6:45.

I traveled down to a relatively new car detailing shop to purchase a clay mitt. I used to use clay bars when I detail my car, but it takes a relatively long time to finish claying a car. With the mitt, I hope to cut down the time by a significant portion. The shop is called Carzilla and it's close to 16th Ave and 19th St NE (I believe it's 19th street). My first impressions of the shop was extremely positive due to how neat and clean everything seemed to be. The staff that was working there was polite and knowledgeable as he got me a clay mitt.

After going home, it was off to build banshee -- finished the shoulder, head and backpack. Just the weapons and stickers to do and I'm done!

As for this evening, I ventured out to try out River Cafe. I've heard positive things about this restaurant, but I have never seen it before, or perhaps I never paid attention to this building before. The food there was splendid, though pricier for what I'm normally accustomed to eat. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I'm still more of a quantity over quality type of eater. =P

Learned something new at the library today!

The one thing about vacation that is awesome is the ability to wake up early, lie in bed and not do anything until you drift back to sleep. I woke up at 6:45 feeling fresh and ready to start my day, but with the thought of vacation in mind, I laid there until I drifted back to sleep.

I didn't end up awaking again till around 9 AM. That threw a bit of a wrench in my plans, but I managed to go the library to get stuff printed since I no longer have access to a color printer at home. It took me a while, but I was unable to figure out how to print documents from the library computer since a particular pop up screen refused to show up. I went to the front desk for help, and the lady there showed me a different way to print in case the specific pop up screen didn't work.

However, somehow, it didn't let me print in color! Literally 40 minutes down the drain in which I could have printed these at home on my black and white printer. Either way, I learned something new today.

After stopping at the library, it was off to a detailing shop nearby to purchase a polishing pad. I'll be detailing my car sometime next week since it's been almost a year since it's last detail. I'll also be dabbing my hands into polishing by machine, in which I have never done before. If things go well, it should look better than new! If things go south... well there will be a lot of burn marks.

With all those errands out of the way, I went home and proceeded to continue building RG Banshee. I finished the torso, both arms and one shoulder. I gave up on the left shoulder because the right shoulder was giving me much difficulty. Like tradition, I did manage to break something in RG Banshee -- a stopper nub for a exhaust vent in the shoulder. It shouldn't matter in the long run I believe... but it's never nice to break something. =(

Finally, arm day at the gym went like any other week. The gym seemed slightly emptier than usual, but it could be due to the thunderstorm not too long ago.

Other than all that, I'm approaching the halfway mark of break! It's been somewhat productive and relaxing at the same time! I haven't started my blog post as a fifth year teacher yet, but I'll get to it in due time. 

Really?

For those who read my blog post on missing a runner, I mentioned that I double checked to ensure that I painted all my runners properly. I even got my brother to check for me.

While I was building the torso, I went to grab a new runner that I haven't used yet.

It turned out that that particular runner, labelled as "C", was, as you guessed it, dark blue instead of black.

*Explicit language*

Other than building, karate went relatively smoothly once again. I came home to finish MH Stories and to watch the next episode in Hanebado, the badminton anime. I appreciate depict how players move on the court and the graphics are amazing!

Time to sleep early and hopefully reset my clock for tomorrow!

Broken door knob

Last night, I came home and realized that the door knob to my garage door was broken. My initial reaction was anxiety since my garage was broken into eight years ago. The other locks were okay, so I relaxed a bit, thinking that the broken knob was due to old age.

After leg day at Rockyridge, I went to Rona to look for a replacement knob for the garage door. They had a sale on some knobs, which worked out to my favor, but I guess there's always some sort of sale going on for items you really need.

After going home and barely helping my dad install the knob (he did most of the work himself), it was off to continue building RG Banshee. The goal was to build the waist and the torso, but I got lazy and built just the waist. I want to finish building the entire kit by tomorrow, but I don't think that's feasible at the rate I'm going. I guess, thinking positively, it means that I'm getting my money's (or my brother's money since he bought it for me) worth due to how many days I can stretch this project.

As for Monster Hunter Stories, I believe I'm near the end of the main story line. The story line is predictable, but I don't really play Monster Hunters for the story. I play it for just sheer game content.

And that's that for today!

Start of RG Banshee

With everything being painted properly, I managed to start building my RG Banshee. The legs took about a few hours, but the color scheme is looking good in my opinion. I used a similar color scheme with my MG Full Armor Unicorn back in 2012, save a duller gold instead of this bronze gold, but it looks so much better this time around.

While building Banshee, I kept thinking to myself why I keep building gundams, for I don't find it all that fun to build. I only like the finished product most of the time, which is my motivation to build. I think it's due to exhausting myself with building multiple kits back in 2014 and 2015. Either way, this is my second gundam for this year and last for now. I did swear that I retired from building back in 2016, yet I've managed to finish two kits (RG Qanta 00 Full Armor and MG Phenex). Perhaps a permanent retirement this time around after Banshee?

Other than that, it was off to the gym for Chest Day. No new gains compared to last week, but I remained consistent which is rare for chest day. For dinner, it was to venture down Kensington to try out Tuk Tuk Thai, a fast food Thai restaurant. The chicken green curry I had was somewhat decent considering that it's fast food!

And that's Friday!

Forgot to paint a runner...

Another late night last night made it difficult to wake up early this morning. Nevertheless, I got in Scratch programming for a portion of the day before proceeding to start building RG Banshee.

That was the plan, until I realized that I didn't paint a dark blue runner, that included parts for the leg which happened to be the first thing to build. I thought that I would skip legs and move onto another part of the body, but that runner had parts for the arms as well. Not wanting to start with weapons, and giving me an excuse not to build it, I decided to wait till tomorrow.

I quickly sprayed the runner though and double check to ensure that nothing else is missing. Once that was complete, it was off to the usual Monster Hunter Stories before working out.

Leg Day Thursdays went extremely well. I was able to squat 225 lbs for threes for about eight sets. My hip nor my back were giving me much grief, which is a great sign in my books. Lunging around the track was hard due to not doing it in a while, but my hip flexors felt better... probably due to the stretching from the lunges.

And that marks Thursday July 19th. The days are just flying by...

Sock Galore

Perhaps it was due to the weather, but I had immense difficulties falling asleep last night. I don't think I was able to crash till like 1 AM, which meant I woke up later than what I would have liked this morning. Either way, I did mange to clean up most of my clothing drawers, with just the closet left to do. As for the title for today, I think I counted about 30 pairs of socks in my sock drawer. Majority of them are dress socks, but it's ridiculous on the amount of socks I have. I think I've only used like 1/3 of these socks. Some of these socks look absolutely brand new!

In other news, I cannot recall the last time I cleaned up my closet, but it will take a while to sort through the things I have inside. I should leave it for next week...

After cleaning, I continued working on MG Phenex. The larger water decals for the shoulder pieces took a lot longer than I expected because they kept folding onto themselves. It gotten to the point where some of the decals began to rip, which added more to my frustration. After an hour or so, I managed to get on seven decals.

And I left it at seven.

With darkening skies and the chance of hail, my friend was gracious enough to pick me up for back day today. No pull ups, rather we spent a decent amount of time on cable exercises.

And that's that for today! As for tomorrow, start trying out some Scratch and get started with building RG Banshee.

Errands and Food

Woke up and got ready to start my day at a relatively early time. My first stop was to Yann Haute Patisserie in Mission. I've never been here before but it seemed very posh. The outside of the building is aesthetically pleasing, being the only yellow house in sight.

After the bakery, it was off to a Lindt store to purchase some chocolate before heading on home. Once home, I had lunch before proceeding to play Monster Hunter Stories and nap. At times, I do admit I feel like a child. =P

After getting up, I went out to venture a restaurant down in Inglewood called Gorilla Whale. If I were to explain the concept behind the food, I would say it's Western with a touch of Japanese cuisine. The dishes were nice, though not what I expected them to taste like when looking at it.

A busy but fulfilling day. I should really start cleaning my closet and drawers soon...

Cells at Work!

Got up and proceeded to work on the Mindstorm kit after breakfast. I experimented with rotating, adding sounds and lights. I haven't gone into anything too extreme as of yet, but I believe I'm starting to get a stronger grasp on how these kits work. It's amazing what you can do with these kits!

After playing with the kit for a while, I proceeded to finish up reading my investment magazine before starting to put decals on MG Phenex. I've placed the decals on the hyper magnum gun and that took literally an hour...

There's around 113 different marked decals, not including duplicates. If I were to put all the decals on... we're looking at around 300 or so? I've decided to be lazy and just place the white decals and not the red since the red on gold looks a bit tacky to me.

Other than that, arm day at the gym. I wanted to go early to do some shoulders, but my nap took longer than expected.

Anyways off to sleep for tomorrow is going to be a busy day of errands!

EDIT: I started a new anime series called Cells at Work. The premise is about humanoid cells that resemble our real body cells. I'm amazed by the accuracy, such as how they had signs to tell the red blood cells to get into single file line in the alveoli. It might be a useful tool for students who are weak in biology for the detail is just like what is expected for a grade 8 student.

Lazy Summer Sundays

For the first time this break, I woke up nearly two hours later than what I've been for the past two weeks. I wanted to wake up early enough to finish the decals on MG Phenex before karate, but it never came into fruition today.

Summer karate is only for 90 minutes since there's no earlier class to train. There were a small amount of students today, but we were able to spend the vast majority of class focusing on one concept while spending the last half on nunchaku.

Once class finished, I rushed on down to the SE 17th, aka International Avenue (or I rudely call it ghetto 17th) to meet up with a friend for lunch. We spent more time than I thought we would, but it was great to catch up.

I got home and did some work before proceeding to sit here and laze around. When I laze around, it tends to be watching random videos on YouTube. For today, however, I must have evolved or achieved a new level of laziness. I was watching videos on YouTube but had absolutely no idea what was going on in the videos. =/

After that, I did some chores before heading off to watch more videos.

MG Phenex is still incomplete.

I need to get back to work tomorrow. Start off with Mindstorm programming and proceed to finish off MG Phenex! I need to get started on RG Banshee before the end of the month. 

Another Ordinary Saturday

Week two of break is almost over with an ordinary lazy Saturday. I was late to the gym, but it wasn't an issue since my lower back was feeling sore from, what I'm assuming, yesterday's session at the gym. Fortunately I was able to squat 135 lbs without too much pain, but I guess I should take it easy for the next couple of days.

And that's pretty much my entire day besides, as you probably guessed, gaming.

I really need to finish MG Phenex.

PR on Friday the 13th

I may have mentioned it before, but for the past couple of years, I've been watching/reading on my phone before bedtime. Since I'm or was in the midst of watching Death Note, I planned to watch an episode before I fall asleep.

The middle section of Death Note was starting to bore me, but somehow it started to pick up again on the episode I watched before my alleged sleep time. I couldn't control myself and ended up watching an additional four episodes or so.

Somehow I managed to wake up at my normal time, but I opted to finish the last 10 or so episodes of Death Note. The beginning of the series was great, the middle was so-so and the ending was mediocre in my opinion. A good series still overall, but not something I would consider rewatching.

Besides finishing off the series, I continued on my journey in Monster Hunter Stories (MHS). I finally got to battle a Great Jaggi. Unlike other Monster Hunter games, the Great Jaggi is the first "boss" monster you fight, thus being a punching bag of sorts for most people since it's quite easy to beat. It wasn't really the case in MHS for the Great Jaggi hit me pretty hard.

Other than just lazying around all day, I managed to hit a personal record at the gym for bench: 5 sets of 5 for 205. Perhaps the one hour nap before the gym helped, or the ice cream I had yesterday...

Blood, Puppies and Sore Back/Glute

I woke up earlier than normal since I had my annual blood test appointment today. The clinic wasn't too busy at 7 in the morning, but having a booked appointment time meant that I didn't have to wait for them to call my name. Ironically, the person before me had the same name (First and Last) as my brother! I initially thought it was my brother since there aren't a lot of Maruyama's in town, but remembered that he was home sleeping. The person that got up when my brother's name was called looked quite a bit older than I was.

Anyways, after getting my blood work done, I went home and continued to binge watch Death Note. At this rate, I'll be able to finish all 38 (I think it was 38) episodes by this Sunday. I cannot say that I'm currently enjoying the middle arc now, because it seems anti-climactic from earlier episodes.

Around lunch time, I headed out to meet up with a friend for food (poké and ice cream) and to meet her new puppy. It's quite cute and well behaved!

And finally leg day. Hip was feeling decently well, but when I progressed to leg press... my back started to tighten up. It was reminiscent to my first major injury in 2016... which made me think that my glute is the issue.

Sigh... luckily it doesn't seem as bad as 2016 so hopefully I'll recover quickly! What is this... my third injury in as many months?

Death Note

I've never felt the urge to watch Death Note back in the day, despite all the positive reviews I read/heard from others. Since there isn't a drama series nor an anime series that caught my attention as of late, I decided to give it a try since Netflix is currently airing it.

Out of the ten episodes I watched so far, it has been quite the journey of two geniuses trying to outwit one another. I don't have a strong grasp of the deeper themes in the series yet, but it'll come in due time once I get the chance to read other people's analysis on the series.

Other than starting Death Note, I focused on coding today. I haven't started with any coding program yet, but mostly just scrolled around the net for resources. Fortunately, one of former student teachers informed me of a very useful resource close to home: the Calgary Public Library. I never knew they offered such workshops, and I'll be sure to give one of them a try in the near future! =)

And off to sleep since I have a blood test first thing in the morning tomorrow.

Miniso at Cross Iron

I began to read my new book on lesson plans for the EV3 kit before realizing that it would be a lot easier to understand if I were to go along and make the model as well. I took out the EV3 box and started to assemble the basic Rover that they recommended to build. It took longer than I thought it would since there were certain pieces missing from the EV3 kit. Fortunately, I had a NXT kit on hand, so I took some pieces from there to supplement the missing pieces. Also, I wasn't able to find a batteries for the brick, but somehow there was a EV3 DC adapter in the NXT kit.

As for the USB cable that wasn't in either box, I was fortunate that Lego decided to use a universal USB plug in that made one of my spare camera cables useful. I think I nearly spent 90 minutes programming and trying various options. I think I would personally buy my own kit... if it didn't cost as much. The official Lego Mindstorm videos online that demonstrated some of the abilities of said kit, like playing an electric guitar and drawing letters, were extremely cool. Robotics is definitely on the rise and I'm glad that I get the opportunity this coming school year to learn more about it.

After programming, it was off to lunch and more Monster Hunters. In the early evening, I ventured out to Cross Iron Mall. I never knew they had a Miniso at the mall, so in the shop I entered. It had a reminiscent scent of Japan, if that makes any syntactical/grammatical/word choice sense. There were a lot of neat things to look at, but I decided in the end not to purchase anything.

Other than that, a normal day as always! I admit I'm having troubles waking up at 7 AM, but maybe its due to sleeping too late as of late...

Classroom Activities for the Busy Teacher: EV3 Edition

Week two of break started well since I was able to wake up relatively early. After spending a considerable part of my morning on looking at the vast resources on Code.org, I proceeded to read up on investing once again before moving onto Monster Hunters Stories.

As I was taking a nap in the afternoon, a package came in the mail today. A colleague lent a book to help with Robotics and I found a, somewhat, companion book online for the first book. It'll keep me busy throughout the summer, but it should make lesson planning a lot easier.

Arm day at the gym today. Relatively straight forward again, and went out without a hitch. I was looking forward to dinner since I recently got some fresh blueberries and cherries from BC. They turned out to be mighty delicious. =)

And that's it for tonight!

Slow fingers

First thing I did after breakfast today was to spray my RG Banshee kit. I've been putting it off for the past couple of days due to pure laziness and an excuse for it being too windy outside. It was relatively calm which made spraying six runners (four black and two gold) relatively quick: 5-10 minutes of spray followed by 90 minutes to let it dry outside.

After spraying, I got back into reading about investing and opened up a practice account with my bank. The program/website wasn't as intuitive as I thought it would be, so I will need to spend time learning how to buy and sell investments. Whether I will do it with real money in the future is still up in the air... maybe I'll stick to something easier.

Other than that, a bunch of Monster Hunter Stories (first time losing all three hearts -- to a black blighted diablos) and watched SAO Ordinal Scale. As with the SAO series, it had it's high points and low points, though I have to give it credit for introducing me to the virtual gaming genre.

I also played some piano. I tried playing the first third of Chopin's Ballade and Impromptu Fantasie. My fingers were extremely slow and my forearms were tired from playing just ten minutes. At least I'll have time to relearn hopefully!

As for tomorrow -- I'll just have to surprise myself.

Breezy Saturdays

I believe I have recognized a trend when it comes to naming my blog posts. If there's nothing to write about, I'll have the most generic title up. If there is something to write about, then my titles tend to be a little bit more creative.

As for Saturday July 7th, I started my morning with a massage and chiro visit. It turned out that my hip flexors were tight due to my right glute being tight. At least it's not another severe problem so I'm grateful for that.

After my appointments, it was off to the gym for shoulders (since I had IMS done to my right glute, I was quite sore). Session went quite smoothly and it was nice that the gym was empty. After coming home, I ended up just gaming the day away.

Not as productive as I thought it would be, but somewhat relaxing?

Blasted Mosquitos

With all the rain we had at the beginning of the week, it was not surprisingly that there would be a large whack of mosquitos out tonight. I had one bit me on my cubital fossa or otherwise known as the elbow pit. Being in such a spot made it itchy every time I moved my arm. Not scratching it though made the inflammation go away in about an hour so I'm pleased with that!

Otherwise, a normal holiday in which I decided not to do any work. I spent most of my morning catching up in My Hero Academia. That final smash attack from All Might was utterly amazing. Afterwards, I went to the bank to discuss my RRSP portfolio before heading back home to get ready for chest day at the gym.

And that's it for today. The week went by quickly, but there's still lots of time left for break!

Right?

It's nice to see the sun today

The last couple of days have been chilly, so it was nice to see the sun today. I didn't take advantage of the warmth, but I will in due time.

Besides finishing up the tutorials for Tinkercad, I managed to get a couple chapters in learning to invest. However, I did spend most of the day playing Monster Hunter Stories. I'm not sure why I didn't purchase it earlier...

Leg Day was somewhat easy since I was not able to squat. I ended up doing a bunch of accessories again, but it is not the same as actually squatting.

I did not look at RG Banshee today, but I guess I'll do it tomorrow. It'll hopefully won't be as windy, thus making painting a lot easier to do in my backyard.

Half an inch taller!

I didn't feel like opening up a mindstorm kit, so I ended up tinkering with Tinkercad for the 3D printer. I have no previous experience with AutoCAD, but from what I was told, Tinkercad is a simplified version of AutoCAD.

After going through the tutorial, it was time for my annual check up. I haven't been in two years time, so it was high time to get checked. I'm approximately ten pounds heavier than two years ago (though I would like to claim that I'm stronger than two years ago... even though I gained quite a bit of fat back) but somehow I manage to be half an inch taller! I'm now five feet eight. =)

After coming home, I finished the last two epsiodes of ReLIFE's final arc. I cannot say that it has the same emotional impact as the manga, but to cram 100 chapters into four episodes is a Herculean task. For that, I have to give the anime producers credit. I would personally change the ending to reflect more of the manga's ending, but it'll have to do.

I caved in and purchased Monster Hunter Stories from the Nintendo 3D shop. I haven't gone through much of it yet, but it's pretty fun so far! It's unlike traditional MH, in that you can collect eggs to hatch into Monsties (Monster Besties).

As for the gym -- Back Day Wednesday. I'm not sure what I dislike more: weighted pull ups or volume pull ups. Eight pull ups were too hard today, thus having to cut down to 5-7 reps.

As for tomorrow: continue to play with Tinkercad or try some basic programming, and start deciding how to paint RG Banshee... even though I haven't finished my MG Phenex yet. It's hard to believe that tomorrow is going to be Thursday.

Battery died again...

Woke up slightly late, but I still managed to get a decent amount done for the day. Not only was I able to finish most of the protoss campaign in Legacy of the Void, but I managed to get through a large chunk of the NXT guide to lesson planning that a colleague lent to me.

Leg day Tuesday at the gym didn't go exactly like planned. First of all, it was a lot busier than what I used to remember, so I ended up leg pressing for a while until a squat rack cleared up. When I got to squatting, I started to feel my hips give way at around 185 lbs. By sheer luck, coincidence or whatever it happens to be, I have an appointment with my chiropractor this coming Saturday. Hopefully it's nothing too serious, but all these injuries really put a damper in training my lower body. It seems seemingly worse than last year's knee injury for I think I was only out for five months last year. I'm nearly half a year this year.

As I went back to my car, I noticed that my starter wasn't working. I had an inkling of what was going on, and it turned out I was right: my battery died. The last time I drove my car was on Sunday... Fortunately, my brother had his portable jumper in his workout bag, so we were able to get my car started. I think it's time to invest in a new battery.

Other than that, what to focus on for tomorrow: perhaps try building a EV3 model and start programming it, or try making something for 3D printing or basic coding. Perhaps some reading on investing once again.

So far so good with this summer break!

Oh my back

Summer break is off to a good start in that I was able to wake up when my alarm went off. Like what I blogged about yesterday, I had started my day with cleaning my desk area and a drawer filled with old documents. Going through old credit card bills and other documents took a large chunk of the morning. I didn't end up looking up mindstorm, but with a cleaner desk (relatively to before), I should have no issues with getting on to it for tomorrow. In terms of the title, sitting on the ground for a few hours made my back a bit stiff. It's a ritual that I perform yearly (well most years) in which I clean my drawers. Must be getting old...

Since it was a stat holiday for most, I headed down to Rockyridge for shoulders and arms today. It was busy, but I managed to secure my own rack again for shoulder press. It's nice to have so much space and no one asking you "how many sets do you have left". My biggest pet peeve when people ask is their response when I say "I have about eight sets left". It's not like I'm hogging the machine; okay I sometimes spend over an hour at a squat rack, but I feel like the two to three sets with half-reps won't benefit me as much as some of these individuals like to believe.

After spending a considerable amount of time at the gym, I headed home to relax for the rest of the night. Let's see how productive I can be for tomorrow!

Canada Day 2018

Happy 151st birthday Canada! I celebrated your birthday by sleeping in and eating "brunch" before heading downtown for a bit.

Other than that, I restarted the Protoss campaign on Legacy of the Void, since I never completed it when it first came out. I managed to get eight levels completed, though on casual mode. This allowed me to mass an army before steamrolling into the enemy bases. Even two banelings cannot take down one probe!

Other than gaming, I got in a few episodes of anime and started reading about investments.

A relaxing weekend, and a good start to the holidays. As for tomorrow: start learning Mindstorm NXT and EV3. I'll probably spend more time with the EV3s since I believe we have more of these kits at school than the older NXTs. It'll be useful to learn both though, and to compare and contrast. Hopefully it won't take more than a week or two to get a general understanding of the two.

Also I'll need to clean up my work area. There's too many receipts floating around my desk.