Sore Psoas

Another typical workday. Presentations are finally over for my grade 8s and thus we can resume back to notes. I can't recall the last time we've done notes, with their unit test a week back and with presentations all week this week.

Leg day did not go well. My left side has been feeling week yesterday and today, and thus it was time to investigate what was causing the issue. It seems like my psoas (core muscle) was tighter than usual, which may have explained why lifting was an issue today. I had a friend help free it up a bit, and it did seem to help with squatting today.

Otherwise, off to sleep! Tomorrow is Friday already...

No regrets!

The last time I spent so much money on my computer, was when I first built it in 2014. In the past five weeks, I purchased a new video card, new mouse, new HDD and finally a new SSD today at Memory Express. I can't recall the last time I've shopped nearly four times at one store within a week span...

I managed to grab a 500 GB SSD, which is a noticeable improvement over my current 120 GB. I was sitting on the fence (once again) on this purchase since I don't really need a new SSD (despite only having about 8 GB of storage left on this drive), but I needed to stop by since I ran out of SATA cables.

So far, no regrets! I should have more than enough space for my files (pictures and games) without needing to clear up my drives as often!

Other than that, ordinary day at work. One class finished their presentations, while there's two more left to go.

They're starting to pop up everywhere!

Day 2 of presentations - some really good ones while there were some mediocre ones. Work went by relatively quickly; I got to see my Robotics 8 class today as well.

After work, I went to try out Berlingo, which served soft-serve ice cream. The flavours were rich, though not overly sweet.

As I was driving around downtown today though, I saw another car that was the same color as mine. That's two within the span of... 6 weeks? What I never saw in two years, I saw twice in such a short amount of time!

But off to sleep... I wasn't able to get much last night so I'm hoping to make up for it tonight!

Start of Presentations

The grade 8s started presenting their disease presentations today. Other than that, classes were the same as always... except for the start of term 2 meaning new option classes.

Shoulder and a quick arm day, with 105 lbs feeling not too bad, though I wasn't able to do 5 sets of 5 reps. I ended up doing 4 sets of 5 reps and 1 set of 4 reps. I just couldn't squeeze in that last rep!

But yes, an ordinary day once again. No shopping today though!

Another Shopping Day...

Karate was the same like any other week. The class I teach had a practice tournament since the kata tournament is taking place next week. Despite being just a practice tournament, most of the students put in 100% power. Perhaps I should tell the kids that every week is a practice tournament to see if it applies to their other skills.

After karate, my brother and I met up with our cousins for a get together lunch. Scrumptious dim sum is always great to eat! After lunch, it was off to Market Mall and Memory Express in the NE to pick up components for my mom. I've been to Memory Express everyday for the past three days (including today).

Chances are I'll be back tomorrow...

On a happier note, I managed to finish marking my exams, which I didn't expect to do! It should give me time tomorrow to install my new HDD...

A first for me

Woke up and headed to the gym after breakfast. Leg day was alright, though squats weren't going up as fast as I would like for 255 lbs. I could only muster two reps. I hope it's just my body adjusting to squatting three times a week again.

Deadlift was feeling great until I headed off to 105 kg. When I went to get some clips, I somehow got a metal splinter! I had splinters before, but never metal. My brother was able to remove it without much trouble when we got home.

I went out for dinner to Ichiran. We were lucky to be there just before they ran out of stock. It didn't really matter to me since I ordered a mazemen. It was quite delicious, though I think I preferred the one at Jinya more.

Other than that, I went through a batch of written unit tests. Unlike previous years, students were able to answer a question that many students got incorrect in previous years! Overall though, they tend to do better at the written section than multiple choice.

Perhaps its time to revisit my written section and make it harder...

Black Friday

Interviews went well, considering that it wasn't as busy as Thursday. I think I still managed to see 20 sets of families? Either way, I wasn't in a rush to leave work like yesterday, but I did end up going to Memory Express to scope out some deals.

The lines were long at the SE Memory Express store, but it moved relatively quickly. I was in and out in about 15 minutes time. Afterwards, I headed to Costco to purchase windshield wipers that were 30% off. 

Chest Day was horrible in that I barely squeaked out two sets of 100 kg before stripping it down to 90 kg. I blame it on fatigue and lack of sleep from Thursday!

Other than that, a typical day once again. The end of the year is fast approaching!

WHOOOSH

Parent Teacher Interviews, especially on the Thursday, is gruesome since they're longer than normal days for me. Fortunately, the grade 8s had their second part to their unit test (written), meaning that I didn't have to teach three periods. As for my Robotics 8 class, seeing that it was their last class with me, I gave them a free period. Many of the students, included myself played a online game to end of the term in high spirits. The grade 7s had a project to work on, along with a lab that my student teacher took care of, meaning that I didn't have to teach all day! =)

Parent Teacher Interviews themselves went relatively smoothly this year. Around 30 families showed up, though most of them were students I didn't need to see. The students that you do want to see never do show up unfortunately.

In terms of today's title, since Black Friday is tomorrow, they already had some sales online that I took advantage of in the morning before work started. Best Buy had a sale on a gaming mouse, which was cheaper than I've ever seen it (I've been scoping this mouse for the past year or so ever since I started having troubles with my current one) and wireless earbuds, which could be useful at the gym. I reserved both items at the nearest Best Buy to my house to be picked up after interviews today.

The issue I had was Best Buy closes at 9 PM, while Parent Teacher Interviews finish at 8:30 PM. Since it was a Black Friday sale deal, they had a one day pick up window, meaning that I had to pick it up that night. Fortunately, there were no parents near the end of the interview so I was able to leave right at 8:30.

I started warming up my car five minutes before leaving, so I didn't feel as guilty as I... gently thrashed it driving to Best Buy. I have a stock airbox at the moment, but it's nice to hear the turbo spool and faint "whoosh" sound as it releases it's pressure once you let off the throttle to shift gears. I made it with about 15 minutes to spare, though it took about another 10 minutes to get served since everyone seemed to be packing up for the day.

Either way, I was able to pick up my items! And according to my ECU management tool, I had to pull back timing just a bit!

Test Day is Always a Good Day

My grade 8s had their first part of their unit test today, which meant that 3 out of my 6 periods (with one being a prep) were just for exams. Results were similar to last year, where a fair number of students failed the exam (I think 10 out of the 72 students or so that wrote the test). I haven't figured out class average yet, but I'm assuming it's in the 60s. The last time no one failed this Cells and Systems unit test was during the 2015-2016 school year, though my classes for that year were phenomenally good that year.

Other than work, it was leg and back day today. I've upped the weight to 185 lbs for fives (five sets -- my knee was starting to feel weird) and weighted pull ups (25 lbs for reps for 4). Squatting three days again is going to be tough, but it's probably for the best in the long run.

I never knew physical attractiveness equated to the type of car one drives!

My student teacher has been taking care of my grade 8 classes, so I normally sit with the students to observe as he teaches. During one of my classes today, a student told me that a younger student said something rude. Asking what the student heard, she said that the perpetrator wondered how such an ugly person (me in this case) can drive such a nice car.

First of all, my car, once again is quite ordinary. I bought it mostly for the rarity of it's color, rather than it's looks (and for some performance over a regular compact sedan). Second, I guess I could use a wardrobe upgrade... I've been wearing shirts from when I was bigger, so some of them are quite baggy.

I guess I should comb my hair a bit more as well...

But other than that, I was quite amused by the comment. If I had time, I could track down the student and ask what car s/he suggests I drive...

But other than that, quick day at the gym for leg day. Sets of 4 reps of 225 lbs was hard today mentally, but it went up relatively well. I did some sled work to finish off leg day before cooling down on the assault bikes.

Since it was also my brother's birthday, there was more for dinner than usual. Unfortunately, I have lost the ability to eat a lot, thus meaning I wasn't able to eat much tonight. =(

The gripes of old age. =/

Markings of a long week

It's been a while since I stayed till nearly 6 at work. I normally try to leave at 4, and no later than 5, but today marked some work to be done for the week to run smoothly for me. It meant skipping arms and shoulders, but at least I don't have to miss leg day tomorrow... I hope. Parent teacher interviews are this week as well, and it'll be a long Thursday...

I stopped by the local Dollar Tree to pick up supplies for a lab later this week. At items no more than $1.25, it makes shopping for cheap items easy to do. I purchased some glow sticks and ice cube trays (since I lost my other trays somewhere at work).

After getting home, I utilized my time to modify exams for later this week, along with making some notes. I managed to get in some Let's Go, Eevee as well! Once again, they did a great job with bringing Eevee out as a mascot!

Let's Go, Eevee!

As some of you may know, I'm a fan of the Pokemon games. I grew up with then, stopped playing after second gen for a while and got back to it once university hit with fourth gen and never looked back from that. I've enjoyed the changes to the mechanics that Game Freak has done to the games as we went to fifth, sixth and seventh gen (though I cannot say I agree with all their designs... but I understand it gets harder when you have... 800 Pokemon?!?)

With this third remake of Kanto (after the remake for the Game Boy Advance: Fire Red and Leaf Green), I was hesitant on purchasing Let's Go, Eevee (or Let's Go, Pikachu) since they took out a lot of battling and incorporated a Pokemon Go approach to leveling up your team. As a side note, I was never truly a huge fan of Pokemon Go. I felt it was too far from the original series, despite the innovate way to get people to play.

After reading a whole bunch of reviews on how decent the game was, I made the plunge and got myself a copy.

And I'm glad I did! From what I've seen so far, they really dumb down the game so younger children can get into the series, which is probably a really smart financial move since my generation is getting older and older. I'm not feeling the capturing system yet, but it's better than swiping with a finger on a smart phone (you flick your Switch remote on the screen to catch Pokemon now). 

The biggest thing that I like about the game, thus far, is the nostalgic factor. It made my heart skip when I heard the main theme, though orchestrated now instead of being 8 bit (I think it was 8-bit back in the day). 

With the laid back atmosphere (compared to competitive breeding), it allows me to not spend too much time on the game and live my life... as a responsible adult...

Time for bed!

Where do time go...

Surprise surprise -- I was able to wake up early without having a massage/chiro appointment! Going to the gym on time (around 10:30 on Saturday) felt great. 275 lbs for singles was extremely heavy, but it was a relief that I'm able to somewhat do it. I spent more time on hamstrings today to make up for not doing hamstrings.

Other than that, I got home and helped my dad with some chores after lunch. It didn't take too long, though the sun was starting to set. I answered a few emails, before spending a good portion of the day playing Rise of the Tomb Raider.

A relaxing week, though hoping I get work done for tomorrow!

Chilly chilly Friday

Students were working on their presentations for class, which is a rarity for me. I rarely give work periods at school for a number of reasons. One: I prefer to spend more time for class discussions to discuss topics in Science and two: most of my students tend to not utilize work periods as efficiently as they should.

Either way, one out of three classes were quite productive during their work period!

After work, it was chest day at the gym. It was grueling pushing out 100 kg for three reps, when a few weeks back it wasn't as bad. I'm hoping that it was just not benching for two weeks...

Other than that, other exercises at the gym went relatively well! I still have yet to find a work out app to keep track of my numbers.

KT Assault Glutton Heavy Bow Gun

Today's title would only make sense to those of you that play MHW. As of recent, I managed to get my hands on the coveted Kulve Taroth Assault Glutton Heavy Bow Gun (quite the mouthful). It specializes in spread shots (aka shotgun ammo). Even with non-optimized gear, it was able to do quite a bit of damage to monsters. I'm still a fan of light bow guns for mobility, but this heavy bow gun may make me switch.

Other than that, another typical day at school. We're halfway through November already! I took my day off from the gym to get more work done. It's a good thing that tomorrow's Friday, which means that I can relax a bit this weekend before Parent Teacher Interviews next week.

Back and Legs

Ordinary days are always good. Besides presentations for my grade 7s and finishing up the unit for my grade 8s, nothing new took place. 

Wednesday was back day with some squatting. I was working on sets of eight reps for 135 lbs just to work on some volume. My legs are feeling a lot better than Saturday (almost back to normal). It's quite tiring to incorporate legs with pull ups, but it means that I can squat three times a week again. I'll just have to take it carefully so I don't end up injuring myself, which seems to be a common occurrence now a days.

Rest day tomorrow and time to catch up on work! Report cards are done, but there's still so much to do... 

I can't be losing my memory yet... am I?

For some odd reason, I've been having trouble logging into my mark/attendance module at work. After many failed attempts, I was locked out of my account. I went to the office to get it unlocked, and I inputted a new password.

The new password was working for a good portion of the day, but I just tried to log in right now and it's not working...

Maybe there's something wrong with my keyboard at work?

Other than that, work was the ordinary with a light leg day at the gym. I don't feel as stiff as I did on Saturday, but I don't feel like I'm in tip top shape.

Power of Endorphins

Not from drugs, but just going to the gym. I was feeling stressed from last week, but today's session helped me feel back to normal!

Other than the gym, we had to go in to work today. I finished my report cards (save for a few students who have to hand in things tomorrow) and got some planning done for the week.

Life's good.

The end of the year is almost here!

Remembrance Day 2018

This year's Remembrance Day is special in that it marks 100 years since the armistice between the two sides during WW1. A student in karate reminded me about the moment of silence, and so we had a minute in which everyone (including students that are in Div 1 in school) stood quite still.

Thank you to all of those soldiers who fought for our peace. The older I get, the more I appreciate their sacrifice so that we can live in a country like Canada.

Lest we forget.

As for the rest of my day, a good portion of it was spent on completing marking and report card comments. I had plans to lesson plan, but I'll do that during work tomorrow.

I also started Rise of the Tomb Raider. It seems somewhat similar to the first game in that it's a cinematic experience, but there's some nuisance differences that makes the game deeper than the first. The story seems more interesting at the moment, and the skill tree looks more complicated.

But off to an early bed time since I'm exhausted from this week of work. I'll be able to relax a bit this following week though!

What a week of being sedentary could do!

I had a chiro session for my wrist early in the morning. It hasn't been really bothering me, which is vast improvement, though it could have been due to not going to the gym all week.

Which leads me to the next part of the blog: I went straight to the gym after my appointment. Leg day was a disaster. Squatting 135 lbs was arduous in that my hips and knees were feeling extremely tight. I was stretching for a good 20 minutes before hand, but it wasn't enough. Not wanting to injure myself from sitting all week, I decided to call it early after 5 sets of 5 reps of 135 lbs and spend another 20 minutes stretching.

I got in some Tomb Raider before playing around with my router settings. Due to dead spots at home, and having access to two routers, I decided to try setting up a Wireless Distribution System (WDS). It wasn't as hard as it looked initially, but it did take time since I was trying to bridge both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, when you're only allowed to do one. (Or so I read online).

After moving the second router to an area with dead space, I proceeded to mark my Robotic 8 websites. The rubric provided from Code.org was a lot simpler than I thought it would be, so I modified it to fit my needs. Marking websites was actually quite fun, since students tend to be quite creative. Some barely had anything, while others went above what I expected.

After that was all said and done, I spent a couple of hours finishing up Tomb Raider. The first in the reboot trilogy was overall a great game despite not having as many tombs to explore as I thought it would have. It was a cinematic experience as you control Lara Croft through the island of Yamatai. It always seemed as Lara having bad luck since the game steered you towards taking the long route to your destination (burning bridges, obstacles blocking your way, etc). Onto the second of the trilogy next week!

Calgary Zoo Field Trip

The grade 7s had a field trip to the zoo today, in which they partook in an Interaction and Ecosystem workshop. It was actually quite an informative workshop and I managed to learn some new facts myself! I was unable to visit the panda exhibit though. =(

After work, I went to A&W to try their Beyond Meat burger -- a 100% plant protein patty. I've tried vegetarian burgers before, but I have to say that this was the best one I have ever sampled yet. I would be hard pressed to differentiate between a normal beef patty and this patty.

I skipped the gym for the 4th day in the row to mark quizzes that my grade 8s had in my absence. Normally, I would have them mark quizzes after their done to save on time, but with their current topic, it's normally hard to find time after this quiz since there's so much content. After around 2.5 hours, I managed to finish!

Just robotic assignments left to go...

Stories are all marked!

Work was the ordinary, besides our Remembrance Day assembly. May those that fought for our freedom rest in peace. 

I skipped another day at the gym (3 days in a row now) to finish working on the logistical side for the Grade 7 field trip to the zoo tomorrow, followed by finishing up marking stories. After going through a whole bunch of stories in the span of 2.5 hours (including combing through student accounts for those that didn't hand in stories to see if they just "forgot" to share them with me), I can safely say that I do not want to mark any more stories till next year. They were all pretty creative, but it does get kinda boring after the nth story of how they ended up in a pool of yellow liquid.

Almost to the weekend though... which means marking Robotics projects...

Sandwich Stories

May this be a reminder that I should never assign big projects just before the end of a semester... I've assigned a simple writing piece to my grade 8s to help them memorize the pathway food takes as it goes through the digestive system. Unlike previous years, I don't have time to spare in class for students to read out loud and for me to mark them on the spot.

I started with one batch of assignments today (meaning another missed back day =/), and it took a while to go through said patch. On the positive side, students are quite creative when it comes to writing a story that personifies a sandwich as it's gruesomely gets devoured with enough details to make my skin crawl at times. 

I haven't even touched my robotic projects yet... which I'll be leaving to the weekend.

Tokyo Street Market

Despite all the new snow that accumulated on the ground, the drive was relatively smoother than yesterday (both going to work and going home). Work was once again ordinary -- grade 8s presented their sandwich stories and my grade 7s had a review jeopardy session. Mind you, it was one of the most mature and calmest jeopardy sessions I've ever had.

After work today, I got the chance to try out Tokyo Street Market. It was tough deciding whether to get yakitori, ramen or oden. I was debating on getting oden since it's cold out, but I opted for ramen... which turned out to be pretty good!

Other than that, it's going to be a bad week in terms of skipping the gym... darn my lack of foresight and the amount of marking I have to do for report cards! I should have made my due dates earlier...

NOOOOOOOO

I have a habit of going through a Duolingo lesson every morning before work. I find it quite effective in learning Japanese, and had a 465 day streak going on. Somehow though, it turned out I missed my lesson yesterday, meaning that it reset back to zero! It's my longest streak yet, with my last one being about 150 days before I forgot to do a lesson last July 2017 (when I was in Japan).

I guess it's time to aim for a 500 day streak this time around! That should put me into January 2020...

Work was pretty much ordinary besides having my student teacher start his first day. Traffic was extremely busy, since roads were icy. I'm not sure if it's just in Calgary, but when it's winter, you have two types of drivers: extremely slow for the conditions or extremely fast for the conditions.

Other than that, the gym was the ordinary. I'm able to go back to shoulder pressing without pain in my wrist. Hopefully it'll remain this way for  awhile!

Daylight Saving...

Today marks the end of Daylight Saving Time in Alberta, and the switch back to Standard Time. I personally dislike the idea of switching on and off DST since there isn't much benefit in my eyes... especially when we have to spring forward one hour.

Other than that, karate was ordinary. I came home and ate before I started to mark for the good portion of the afternoon. Perhaps I'm getting pickier as a marker, but I feel like I'm seeing more and more mistakes when it comes to assignments in science. This upcoming week is going to be busy with report cards just around the corner. I haven't started marking my option classes websites yet...

Other than marking, I caught up with some administrative items for work since we have a field trip coming up this Friday to the Calgary Zoo!

Finally, I managed to get a couple nice items from Kulve Taroth and advance the story a bit more in Tomb Raider.

Off onto a busy week!

Rest Day Saturday

I woke up late, and with an upset stomach, decided to skip the gym. Despite really liking the new gym, which really helps with motivate me to go, it felt nice to take a weekend off from the gym. I made sure that I was productive though: I continued farming Kulve Taroth on MHW. The rarity 8 items are quite hard to get...

After a few hours of that, I helped my mom with an errand before coming home to continue playing through Tomb Raider. The story line is seemingly short, for I feel like I'm near the end of the game after around 9 hours of playtime. I was expecting more tombs to raid, but it's been a delight so far playing.

Other than that, I spent most of the day relaxing, which I will probably regret since it means more work for Sunday.

Far better in Calgary!

Fridays are always awesome because it means the weekend is near, and I don't have to wake up as early! Work was the ordinary, with students calming down (or maybe getting enough sleep).

Five reps of 100 kg is getting easier for benching, though I was only able to squeeze out three sets. The last couple sets were four and three reps respectively. I know I had a good chest workout if I'm unable to do push ups at the end.

Dinner was at Jerusalem Shawarma on 16th. I haven't had a shawarma since Ottawa, and I can safely say that the shawarma here is much better than the one in Ottawa. Of course, I do not have the sharpest of tongues, but quality over quantity for me!

Holy moly...

I have no idea why I dread post-Hallowe'en school, since the last previous years have been alright. Something in my gut was telling me that today won't be like previous years, however.

And it turned out that my gut was right. I'm not sure whether my students were exaggerating or not, but staying out till 12 AM for candy on a school night??? The lack of sleep sure made some students wild (not sugar... there's enough research out there stating that sugar doesn't cause hyperactivity. I still wouldn't recommend all that sugar though -- diabetes, cavities, and other health issues).

Homeroom class party was decent, though some students decided that since it was a party, they could ignore rules and leave class whenever they wanted to leave. An another class kept on getting sidetracked with non-science questions, which was difficult for me to get them back on task. My noisiest class, however, was actually well behaved and my grade sevens were angels.

Other than that, I managed to survived relatively unscathed.

I had an eye doctor appointment in the afternoon, and fortunately everything checked out. Leg day at the gym was relatively light -- heavier reps, though less quantity. Heavy sets are much easier than endurance sets in my opinion.

Good thing tomorrow is Friday though! Lots of marking to do over the weekend...