I'm back

Hello out there. I’m back from a long hiatus. Things have been unbelievably busy since I left this blog back in August of last year. Here’s a brief synopsis of what’s been going on.

I finished the Hold The Pass challenge from Gibborim at the beginning of September and went right into a Soulcon Challenge. It took me a while to recover from both of them.
I started working in the men’s ministry at a local church back in November. The pastor was interested in Soulcon and needed someone to lead it.

If I had to give 2020 a rating, I would give it one and half stars. The only reason it’s this high is because I’m alive and kicking. Let’s see:

Where I work, which is a local school board, there was a cyber attack that crippled us for several weeks.
While we were recovering from the cyber attack, we had to stop working because of the pandemic. Now, I have to answer help desk calls on Thursdays until we are cleared to go back to work.
As of now, our stuck, I mean, stay at home order is until May 15th. I have a feeling this is going to be extended even longer but we shall see.
My oldest daughter went from going to college to being an online college student. It’s a bit difficult when the degree is Industrial Electronics. She’s going to finish up her technical degree this summer.

It’s not all been rough, though.

I’ve purchased some photography/videography gear — four Moment lenses for my phone which are fun to use. There’s a 1.33mm Anamorphic lens, 58mm tele lens, 18mm wide lens, and a 10mm macro lens. I’ll be doing a review video on them soon.
I also got a new tripod from Neewer. This has been a wonderful purchase. I did a reveal (click on the link) video and it’s posted on my YouTube channel. A review video on this is also in the works.

I’m not sure how often I’m going to post on here. I will post at least once a week. It’ll depend on what’s going on.

Thanks and I’ll talk to you later.

I am not affiliated with any of the companies listed above. I just enjoy their products.

Hold The Pass Challenge - Day 6

John here.

Yesterday was Day 6 of the Hold The Pass Challenge. The challenge was to burn 600 calories during cardio. When I got home from work, I got changed and got to walking. I decided to try it without putting my knee brace on. It was a mistake. I’m feeling it today for sure.

I won’t be doing the next cardio challenge without wrapping my knee. The next challenge, and my most challenging one I have so far, is 600 pushups. I have to touch my chest to the tennis ball or the rep does not count. I’m currently fighting arthritis in my left shoulder so I’m not sure how many I will be able to do before my shoulder decides to give out.

I’m outta here.

John

Hold The Pass Challenge - Day 5

John here.

Yesterday was Day 5 of the Hold The Pass Challenge. The challenge was to do 600 crunches while squeezing the tennis ball between your knees. A couple of things I figured out while doing this challenge.

First off, my core is extremely weak, almost non-existant. I had gall bladder surgery earlier this year and I haven’t done any exercises to strengthen my core. I realized that after my first crunch attempt. I went as high as I could go to get the challenge done.

Second thing, I should have spread the attempts throughout the day instead of waiting until I got home to do the 600 reps. As I’m typing this, I’m a bit sore but after each 100 or so reps, I would stop to stretch so I believe the stretching has helped with me not being as sore as I thought.

I don’t have any pictures for this one. I forgot to take some. I will have some for the Day 6 challenge, which is burn 600 calories during cardio.

I’m outta here.

John

Hold The Pass Challenge - Day 4

John here.

Yesterday was Day 4 of the Hold The Pass Challenge. The challenge was to burn 600 calories during cardio. I had to some serious improvising to meet this challenge. I started out on a treadmill because we got back from shopping too late. Here is what I was able to do on the treadmill before I had to stop from hurting too much.

I got back home and set my Samsung Health on phone for aerobics to burn the final 500 calories as a suggestion from my wife.

**Screenshot of the Samsung Health app**

I was able to finish but was definitely feeling it when I was done. Another day, another challenge. Day 5 is 600 crunches while squeezing the ball in between your knees. This is going to be an all day challenge for me because of work.

I’m outta here.

John

Day 27 of my 365 Project

John here.

Here is Day 27 of my 365 Project.

Hold The Pass Challenge - Day 3

John here.

Yesterday was Day 3 of the Hold The Pass Challenge. The challenge was to do Single Leg Wall Throws (300 each side). If you drop the ball, that set must start over again and you do 20 reps per set. I’m fighting some knee pain (I’ll probably need it checked out when I’m done with this challenge) so I did regular wall throws and did 800 total throws. The wall I was using was a cinder block wall so I would aim for a certain block to work on accuracy. I didn’t do too bad but I could use more work with it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day. See y’all tomorrow with more updates of the challenge.

I’m outta here.

John