Super Powers – July 19 to 25, 2014

This week was a week of much adventure and fun, and I hope that you enjoy reading what I have to say about it. So here we go!

Saturday July 19, 2014

Parkour

On Saturday I went to my usual Parkour class at Breathe PK and was joined by a few of the people that I have known for a while. Here are the pictures of us looking goofy!!!

So from left to right it is me, Isabella and Spencer. Austin was there as well but he left before I could get him into the group picture.

I also have a picture of Brodie (the teacher) and me making goofy faces.

I am going to say this once and probably never say it again, hashtag let me take a selfie. (Sorry for the shake in the picture.)

Saturday was warm, but not too warm. I think the temperature in the gym was about 22°C (72°F), but that isn’t all that bad, still warm, but not bad.

We began the class by working on what are called wall splats. These are something that is used as both a safety measure and as a lead up to a cat leap. They are a safety measure in that if you miss your cat leap then you can do the wall splat to stop yourself from plowing into the wall face first. They are done in the same way as you see the cat leap done in the picture below, but instead of grabbing a ledge you plant the palms of your hands onto the wall and then you push off the wall like you are a frog bouncing off the wall.

Click on picture to go so source.

After practicing wall splats we moved on to doing cat leap, they are done as I have explained above and as you see in the picture above. We did these for a little while and had some good fun with them. The grip tape that they have on the wall now scratched up the insides of my hands, but that will give me great calluses, which will make Parkour outside that much easier.

Next we worked on what are called bar to cats. Basically these are swinging on a bar, letting go of said bar, and then grabbing onto a wall. They aren’t too hard when you are less than or equal to 2 meters (6.6 feet) away but when you are greater than 2 meters (6.6 feet) away it becomes hard to gain enough momentum to clear that large of a distance.

The next thing that we practiced was a series of movements that we slowly added more movements on to. We started this series of movements with a hip catch, these are a movement where you jump at a bar, grab the bar with your hand and then let your hips land on the bar while using your legs to slow down so that you don’t land on the bar to fast. After we had gotten that down we added in a cast, thing where you cast off the bar, to a precision, then we added a stride and we finally finished the series by adding in a vault. It was pretty awesome as it gave us the chance to work on not only a bunch of different movements, but it also gave us the chance to work on flow (making your moves flow together nicely).

That was my Parkour for the day, that next thing that I did was some something that I haven’t done for a while, and that is do something “constructive”.

 

Steampunk Construction

If you haven’t guessed by the title the thing that I was “constructive” with was an item for the Steampunk cosplay costume that I have been working on for the past few months. This item was a homemade air tank that is going to connect to the Steampunk style pistol that I am going to be making soon. I had a friend come over to give me some help putting it together. We had a good time talking while we cut, drilled and glued the parts into the masterpiece of amateur craftsmanship that you see below. We also enjoyed the construction part as well.

We works on the tank on my back deck in the warm air and hot sun, so I got lots of vitamin D, and I have more hot air in me than ever before. Wait…

Super Powers!!!

The next thing I did was go and get my super power for the week at the Super Power Distribution center. Never hears of it? It is a very popular place right on the corner of (square root of -1) Street and Imaginary Avenue. (In math taking the square root of -1 produces an imaginary number. So I am saying the corner of Imaginary Street and Imaginary Avenue.) make this note a popup box. So, that’s a lie, what I actually did was go over to a friend named Raeanne’s house for a games night. While there we played board games like Mancala, one version of it at least, Jenga, and Apples to Apples. After we had done these different games for a while we went to a playground that was nearby and played grounders. The game of grounders was awesome and I got the chance to break out some of my Parkour skills while we were playing.

Man, I really had a busy Saturday, and it went a little late, but it was super good though.

Sunday July 20, 2014

So on Sunday I went to church and I went to a presentation. The presentation was on sex inside and outside of marriage and what some of the important effects that you, your partner, and your possible children, will have to deal with. The presenter also talked about there is this one woman who thinks that we don’t need to feel guilty about anything because Gophers don’t feel guilty. I find it funny that this lady compared humans to a species that does not have sentience and is unable to reason, and then thought that it was a legitimate argument for why we should never feel guilty for things.

That was my Sunday.

Monday July 21, 2014

Monday begins the work week, and that means I need to wake up at 5:40 in the morning again. How many of you groaned when you heard the time that I wake up in the morning? After I finished work I went to a get together at the Parkland Community Hall (don’t ask me why they call it a hall, because I have no idea) to play Ultimate WHICH WAS TOTALLY AWESOME. We played for about an hour and a half, and had a great time with the super competitive friendly competition. It was pretty humid out for Calgary, but it wasn’t as humid, or nearly as hot, as it was in Brazil during the World Cup so I didn’t complain. I don’t really remember who won but, I think it was the team I was on, and we won because we had some awesome players on our team, I don’t remember their names, but they were really good! After we finished the game we all had ice cream sandwiches for our snack, you know, nothing like processed sugar after you have been running for an hour and a half… I had two… What?! They were really good!

Tuesday July 22, 2014

On Tuesday I went on a bike ride with a friend of mine named Tuan. We went on our bike ride through a park in Calgary called Fish Creek Park, and we started our ride at a little after 7 and rode for about an hour and a half.

We stopped twice along our bike ride to look around and talk. On first stop we went to the river and skipped some stones while we talked, and then the second time we stopped we walked along one of the bridges that goes across the Bow river that got partially taken out by the flood that Calgary had last year, here is a picture of the bridge.

I also saw a picnic table that had gotten ripped up but the flood laying upside down near the path, so I mounted it and got Tuan to take a picture, see below.

I had a good ride on Tuesday, and I had a good talk with Tuan, so I’m really glad that he in it me to go rising with him seeing that I am moving to Edmonton for school pretty soon.

Wednesday July 23, 2014

I went to work on Wednesday, that’s it. No I was the guy you saw on TV flying through the air, that wasn’t the super power that I picked up for the week.

Thursday July 24, 2014

On Thursday I was in a two hour conference meeting for ABB Inc., it was pretty good and I learned some good things about the business. I also went to see my sister at the end of the day, it was good to see her again.

Friday July 25, 2014

On Friday I had Szechuan for lunch, and it was really hot because one of the guys that we were with wanted to get the “medium” spice level. If you don’t know anything about Szechuan, know this, what they consider “mild” we here in Canada consider extra hot. I was fine personally because I eat spice frequently, but the medium spice level pushed me to my limits.

I also made this on Friday, with my Neodymium magnet balls. In the first picture you can see that I had three of them left over at the very end.

The End

So that was my week everyone, I had a good week, and did a number of great things, and I am happy that I had the ability to have such a great week.

Now for a quote.

Quote of the week

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little. Do what you can.
– Sydney Smith

You can find an artistic representation here on Zen Pencils.

Remember any little thing you do is still something, and that is what matters.

Be good people, and always learn new and interesting things. Bye!

– Nathan Aris

July 12 to 18, 2014 – A Tea Party in Wonderland

This week was a week of stress and relaxation, and a lot of hot air.

In this past week I went to a Steampunk Tea Party, did Parkour, went swimming, and had experienced general merriment.

Saturday July 12, 2014 – Steam Up in Fish Creek Park

On this day I went to a Meetup for the Calgary Steampunk Assemblage, which is the Calgary based club for those who enjoy what is called Steampunk. The Meetup was an Alice in Wonderland themed tea party, which was an awesome idea by the way. I went to the Meetup with a friend of mine named who has made a Steampunk themed Portal Gun, which is super awesome because it lights up and has gears that turn on the back of it and stuff. Because it’s awesome, here is a picture of him with his gun.

 

As you can see it is quite awesome, unless you don’t think it is awesome, which is okay I guess, just don’t tell me that.

So at this tea party we enjoyed much old time revelry, in the form of invigorating conversation with many other people, rousing music from a musician named Peter and a competitive game of Croquet (seen below). The temperature was a blazing 34°C (93°F) while we were there, and for those who were in their full attire it was quite hot indeed. I myself was not in a full costume, my costume, which I am wearing most of in the picture below, consisted of a pair of black dress shoes, beige pants, a white shirt, a brown leather vest, aviator goggles, and a beige paratrooper satchel. So not to much at all.

I am the guy second from the left hidden mostly behind the guy with wings, sorry about that I wasn’t in charge of taking pictures. I am also not wearing my full costume at this point in time.

As I said before I was able to talk to many different people during my time at the Meetup, most of them people I have never met before, which is awesome.

I was able to spend some time talking to an older man named John and an early 30’s guy named Alex while the two of them, Ethan and I were setting up the “rabbit hole” over the entrance bridge to where we were having the party. During the party I had a few conversations with a girl named Kris who was dressed up as a Steampunk cowboy, which was pretty awesome, it looked like it was a little bit hot though. While playing croquet I was able to talk to all the different people that were playing the game, also “I lost the game”.

My first game of croquet was a great and interesting experience. It was good, because I was able to play a good game of croquet where I didn’t win but, I didn’t do all that bad either. Because everyone had a different color of ball in this game we took to giving each other nicknames based on the color of the ball they were playing with. I was playing with a black ball so I was Batman, and all the other people were named Sinestro, Hal Jordan, Mystique, and Robin. You should be able to figure out who is who in the picture below.

The reason that they decided to call me Batman was because of how I kept hiding in the shadows whenever it wasn’t my turn, and since they were calling me Batman, I had to talk like Batman, and since I kept hiding in the shadows they would beckon me by calling out “Batman! Batman! Batman, it’s your turn!” or something similar to that.

After playing my first game of croquet I went back into the shade of the overhang that we were having the event at to cool down, because I was HOT! I drank some of the delicious punch that they had made out of club soda and Saskatoon berry concentrate (drinking this stuff was also part of the reason why the people I was playing croquet with started calling me saying it was my turn all the time), and ate some of the great snacks made by Christie, the event organizer, and mingled with people some more.

After this went on for a while, until about 5:45pm if I remember correctly, a large group of us began making our way to the Bow river so that we could cool down for a little while.

On the way to the river we came across a woman walking her dog, I talked with her briefly and then continued on while some of the other people I was with continued speaking with her. After I had gotten about 20 meters (65.6 feet) away I heard some yelling from behind me saying “STOP HIM” or “CATCH HIM” I turned around and saw the dog running towards me, and as he ran past I managed to turn around and catch the leash that the dog was on. It was quite surprising to me that I was able to catch the dogs leash in the time that I had to catch it and it just reaffirmed to me that being healthy and doing an activity that pushes you to develop is really wonderful thing.

So after we reached the river, we began our glorious frolicking (I say that in the manlyist way possible) in the water, and by frolicking I mean we took off our shoes, got into the water and sighed a sigh of relief at the coolness running over our legs and feet. We took some pictures, skipped some stones, and had a good time before returning to the group area to end the get-together. Before I left I talked to a couple more people, and then got into my hot vehicle and drove away mightily into the sunset.

Actually I drove onto the road, and went home for the day, no majestic sunset for me this time, maybe another day.

Sunday July 13, 2014

On Sunday I went to Edmonton because I needed to go and look at a couple different apartements, because I was trying to find a place to live while I am attending school at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, AB. I looked at two different places this time, I went up to see one place last week, but that didn’t end up working out so I had to go back. So after bearing another three hour drive I arrived in Edmonton with my parents, and we went ot the first place that I had set up to view. It was a nice apartement but I didn’t want to just say ‘yes’ straight out, before I had viewed the second unit that was available. The second unit I looked at was better in some ways, and worse in others, it had a balcony, but it was more expensive and as a student I need to think about money, and the first unit was the one that I took. When I move I will share a picture or two of my apartement.

So it was a successful day, long though because of how much we had to drive for six hours, but successful.

Monday July 14, 2014

On Monday I went to an get together where we played kick ball. It started at 7 at night and we played until around 8 at night I think. The team I was on ended up winning, but we all had a really good time and that is what is important.

Some memorable moments from the night were whenever the ball was kicked and went one guy named Ben I would shout something at him and he would miss the ball. This happened three times and I don’t know if it is because I have the ability to control Ben’s mind or what, but I like to think that that was the reason, because it makes me smile.

Tuesday July 15, 2014

On Tuesday I went to a Parkour class at BreathePK, and worked on improving my skills in the heat of the oven. Imagine bacon inside of that oven and it becomes a wonderful visual.

We began this day by working on a few wall runs and then doing some climb ups. We practiced climb ups a little bit differently than I have done them before, for starters we were pretty much on the ground and we were allowed to use our feet when doing these, but when the idea is to teach the technique, it doesn’t really matter how it’s done as long as it’s effective. The next thing that we worked on in that class was back falls. Back falls are not really something that you do outside unless you get into a situation where you are falling and you can’t roll because they are nothing more than a safety measure intended to stop you from breaking your spine, neck or head, and I don’t know about all of you but I don’t really want to break any of those things.

After practicing those we moved onto practicing tic tacs which are basically a movement that you use to get really high, but in the opposite direction which you are moving in. This video demonstrates what they are and how to do them in case you are confused by my terrible definition.

That was my Tuesday class, it was great to learn some new things, and experience it alongside other people. I also had to get Cassandra to tell me what it is that we had done in that class right after we had finished it because I had experienced a serious lapse in memory, which totally sucked.

Wednesday July 16, 2014

On this day I went to a night class where we studied religion and then went to a lake in a community called Sundance where I did some swimming.

The religion class was good and much was learned on the subject we were studying. Don’t ask for the name of the subject though, I don’t remember the name of it, only what I learned.

The lake was awesome and it was also still warm by the time that I got there at 8:45 at night which was awesome because if you know anything about Calgary you would know that our lakes and rivers are usually quite cold.

While there I was asked to demonstrate a back flip and a side flip into the water, because that is what people think it means you do when you do parkour, oh well. I did them because they are very fun to do and I enjoy showing off the skills that I have spent time developing.

Overall it was a great day.

Thursday July 17, 2014

I went to visit my sister on Thursday, and we had a good time hanging out and spending time together.

Not really all that much to say for this day I guess.

Friday July 18, 2014

On Friday I went to a get together at a friends house whose name is Mary, Mary had a little lamb… Yeah, I went there, watcha gonna do about it.

So we began the night by playing a few games before we settled in for the movie that we were watching that night. We started the games by playing a game where we had to shoot some rubber ducky’s off of the top of a barbecue using water guns, then we played a game where we got to launch some water balloons using towels, next was a game of making the longest string made out of twizzlers, and finally a game of radio except you used chopsticks and fuzzy peaches, think about that for a while. We all had a great time and at the end of all the games we settled in to watch National Treasure. During one point of this movie I said to everyone “Plot twist, the ship is haunted by Harpies!”. Unfortunately everyone interpreted what I had said as “Plot twist, the ship is haunted by Herpes!”. So, yea, that became the joke of that portion of the movie until the ship got blow up at which point the joke was “The herpes got burned with fire.” This misinterpreted comment made the night that much better, and memorable.

The End

Well that was my week, I think that it was a productive and busy week which is great, I will now leave you with a quote.

Quote of the Week

If you can dream it, you can do it.

– Walt Disney

This is very true, and I would like to add to it that if you never dream of anything, or make a goal to get something or make something of yourself, you will never get anywhere or make anything of yourself.

That is all, peace out homies. (Yea, I said that, watcha gonna do about it!?)

– Nathan Aris