Winter Break 2016 Day 1? Final Fantasy is coming to town!!

I can't recall how I count the days of Winter Break in previous years, but let's say today is Day 1.

Woke up a bit later than I expected, but early enough to ready myself to purchase tickets for Distant World: Final Fantasy. Ever since the Zelda concert in... 2011 or 2012, I've been hoping that Final Fantasy will one day come to Calgary.

Lo and behold, my wishes came true! When I found out that they were coming to Calgary, I literally jumped for joy, which is something that I rarely do. To this day, it is still my favorite when it comes to game music, Nobuo Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu (and whoever makes music for FF) are musical geniuses in my opinion. Now, just to count down to May 21st 2017!!

Other than that, I started Final Fantasy XV today. Square Enix sure spent a long time with the game, but I'm very pleased with the result.

Besides relaxation, my dad and I changed the oil in my car and my mom's car. Took a bloody long time, due to certain factors, but at least it's done!

Now I just have to find time to do marking this break... and some lesson planning... Work has been extremely draining this year as to date... which is one reason why I've been blogging a lot less.

But less excuses and off to enjoy Winter Break 2016!

Longest Hiatus Yet

I believe it's been over a month since I last blogged! Life has been quite hectic; whether it's marking, report cards, working out -- it just has been really busy.

I finally found some time to blog!

This week has been somewhat grueling, due to report cards. I got off work at around 5:30 and headed off to Chinook Centre to purchase chocolate for my mom's birthday. She favors Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut.

As I went up the escalator, I went to the nearest directory. I have long since forgotten how to head to the small shop, due to my horrible sense of direction. After some time, I realized... that Chinook no longer had that particular chocolate shop! I frantically looked for another one, since according to Google, most Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut stores closed at 6, I found one at Southcentre Mall.

After an uneventful journey to the said mall, I parked in the parking lot and headed towards the main entrance. The night air was brisk, but it brought a sense of joy for me. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but this time of the year is one of my favorites. The festive season is still young, but I felt it in the dark as I headed towards the somewhat dim lighted glass entrance. (Which reminds me... I need to pull out my camera again! And finish editing those fall pictures...)

I quickly found the shop, made a purchase (and got two free samples!) and headed home to complete more report card comments...

And now I'm done my rough draft for my comments! Just editing tomorrow before I submit them.

Who knows when I'll blog again...

5 years

It's been five years and a day since I first started this blog! A lot has happened throughout the five years: graduating from the faculty of education, starting my career, travelling to Japan, making a big ticket purchase, meeting new people, etc.

Half a decade has passed, and I'm finally on track on being healthy once again! =)

But I admit, I've been lazy in terms of blogging. Despite all the new things that have happened over the past five years, it didn't seem significant enough for me to blog about.

Either way, onto another five years hopefully! Thank goodness it's the long weekend... it'll give me time to mark music theory.

All in the Mind

It's been a while! Nothing too dramatic in life, and I was feeling quite lazy the past couple of weeks.

I haven't had a leg weekend since two weeks back due to various events last week. I was dreading squats today, so I took pre-workout... which I normally never do. Also, and I know you're not supposed to when you take pre-workout, I chugged it all down instead of sipping on it (which is the part you shouldn't do) throughout my workout.

With a clear mind, I began to squat: 45 lbs, 95 lbs, 135 lbs, 155 lbs, 185 lbs, 205 lbs and 225 lbs before going on to my working set of 245 lbs. However, I was unable to do my 5 x 2 sets. I kept leaning forward, being unable to keep my core tight. After getting advice from a friend, I went back down to 225 and rep out 5.

My workout buddies for the day believed that I could do more than 5, in which I personally never done before (doing five today was also a first). After a quick discussion, one had set a goal of 8 reps!

I never done 8 reps of 2 plates before (225 lbs), and thus I was feeling quite anxious. Doing five felt like a grind for me. I gritted my teeth and tried a set. I wasn't able to do 8, but I did put in seven.

After about 5 minutes, I went back to attempt again. At around 4 reps in, I lost count and felt like I was going to black out. After completing what I thought was 7 reps, I was informed that I managed to put in 8! With that boost in confidence, I was able to count 8 reps for my next set, and without feeling like I would black out!

After 5 sets of 8 reps, I went back up to 245 lbs. It felt a lot easier to rep out sets of 2. I even managed a single 255 lbs set, which was also quite a confidence boost for me.

So all in all, I never realized how important mental strength is when it comes to lifting. You have to believe in yourself, that you're able to lift the weight (with proper form)! Or have it come crashing down onto you...

And that's that! It's hard to believe today is the first day of October! Or second day technically.

2016 went by pretty quickly!!

Witty Responses

Last week was a short week due to Labour Day Monday; shorter due to two teaching days and two testing days.

However, it just seemed extremely busy... probably because of things starting to pick up since we're in week two of the school year.

In terms of the blog title today: Thursday and Friday consisted of reading test. Essentially, every year, we test our homeroom student's reading levels. The reason why we need two days is because it takes around 30 minutes per student. There's one particular reading about natural disasters that asks a question about how you would personally feel if you were a survivor of a natural disaster. 

Most students that read this passage would say that they would be scared, and try and look for family members. However, I had one student comment that she most likely would die and therefore had no feelings. That comment surprised me, and I wasn't sure how to react to it.

But I had to admit, that it was a clever answer. 

Besides the reading test, in karate today, we were going over personal introductions. It's something I use to refresh my memory of my students, because I would forget how old they are, or even like today... forget some of their names... Besides their name and school grade, I asked each of them to state something they did over the summer. (I think I used favorite ice cream flavor last year).

Anyways, one student stated that he went to the hospital over the summer. I automatically responded by asking why he went to the hospital. 

He pauses to think, and the scrunches up his face into a slight scowl and said "It's none of your business!" I actually laughed mentally, because he was definitely right. 

Sometimes I wish I was that witty when I was their age! =P

New Personal Best and Failing Gracefully

For the past couple of weeks, I've been doing squats on Saturday and deadlifts on Sunday. I find squats to be more draining, especially with a greater fear of failing and injuring myself (from my injury in February) compared to deadlifts. If you can't deadlift, you just drop the bar.

As for this weekend, I switched up the two: deadlifted yesterday and squatted today. I was nervous since I wasn't feeling in top form from deadlifting. Therefore, instead of doing 5 x 3 sets, it was more for PR (personal records) and hypertrophy training.

Since I've been doing two plates for the past month or so, I was able to achieve a PR of 265 lbs. I tried doing 275 lbs twice, but I needed assistance halfway through both times. Nevertheless, I've never touched this amount of weight before, so I was pleased with my progress. Hopefully in six weeks time I'll be able to achieve 275!

After reaching PRs, I worked my way down to a single plate, in which I started hypertrophy training: repping as much as I can without resting. Even though it was only one plate (135 lbs), it felt extremely grueling. On my second set, when I tried to go past ten reps, I failed.

I dropped the bar on the safety rack as I failed and rolled onto my back. Compared to the last time I failed, it was much more graceful. Last time, I refused to drop the bar, which made it difficult for my spotter... and of course caused a bit of a commotion, with others coming to my rescue. I think I almost injured somebody as well with the bar... =/

At least lesson learned! I must say that my failure today was one fluid motion. =P

I was actually touched today that I almost had tears in my eyes!

First week with the students! It has been extremely busy due to getting back to the swing of things. This is my first year teaching four science 8 classes, making it more difficult than I thought it would be with scheduling. I see some of my classes for the double, which means that some of my classes are slightly ahead of the others. Small thing that I'll just have to get adjusted to.

Other than that, my new homeroom has been pretty awesome! My previous three homerooms have been really good, but this is the first year where all my students got a lock for their locker. And this was accomplished by the third day of school!

I was really impressed.

But what impressed me more was that majority of my students brought a book cover for their textbook, when in previous years, less than half of my class would bring one in the first week of classes.

And with that, I was touched. I didn't have to remind/haggle my students.

Seemingly small, but it meant a lot to me today.

Hopefully it means that this year will be a good year! =D