Sloth: The Man with the Hammer

[Xena]

10 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

On Tuesday we went on a field trip to a Modern Art museum.  TBH I don't understand or appreciate modern art.

 

I don't know anything about modern art, but I love our area modern art museum. Partly because it's small. You can go through it in about an hour and think ok, I've seen some art and now I can go have a beer or something. Also partly because it's in a beautiful building with a big sitting area that overlooks a harbor. You can literally just sit on a bench and look at the water and feel vaguely cultured. And then go have a beer.

 

(I understand the beer might not be very compatible with school field trips, but it might help for any future art museum adventures)

[Sloth the Enduring]

17 hours ago, Xena said:

 

I don't know anything about modern art, but I love our area modern art museum. Partly because it's small. You can go through it in about an hour and think ok, I've seen some art and now I can go have a beer or something. Also partly because it's in a beautiful building with a big sitting area that overlooks a harbor. You can literally just sit on a bench and look at the water and feel vaguely cultured. And then go have a beer.

 

(I understand the beer might not be very compatible with school field trips, but it might help for any future art museum adventures)

 

Our museum is small and weird and in a cool building too.  It has a really nice patio overlooking the city, and TML's next neighborhood, on the roof where we ate lunch.  We only had one student climb over the railing and hang over the ledge eight stories up.  It also has what looks like a very nice place to have an adult beverage, which I obviously didn't try.

 

The museum had one interesting exhibit.  It was a large, dark space.  When you drew an animal or plant and scanned it, it was projected on the floor and it was animated and interacted with the others.

 

6/7/17 Wednesday

 

It was a good day.  The students are definitely in their summer brain, but I've been giving them activities they can do on autopilot so I can focus on behavior management and classroom packing.  They were pretty chill yesterday.  

 

I got a nice bump in my Red Ribbon Ride total, mostly from you fine folks.  Thank you   My RL friends are apparently sucky.

 

Slothgirl went on an all day hiking field trip.  I'm a little jealous that I can't do that with my students.

 

Training: Yoga for 20 minutes.  Light S&S - 12kg getups & 16kg swings.

I got ready for a  night ride, but it started to rain before I left so I went to bed instead.

 

Eating: Like a big, dumb jerk.

 

Spending: The sixth grade funds are depleted.  Too many students didn't bring in money to pay for field trip buses.  I think it is legitimate; the correlation between not paying for FT and not have a fidget spinner is about 100%.  If you meet a 12 Y.O. without a fidget spinner, their funds are seriously tight.  Anyway, I'll be buying our traditional pizza feast for the sixth graders on our last day festival.

[EricMN]

4 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Spending: The sixth grade funds are depleted.  Too many students didn't bring in money to pay for field trip buses.  I think it is legitimate; the correlation between not paying for FT and not have a fidget spinner is about 100%.  If you meet a 12 Y.O. without a fidget spinner, their funds are seriously tight.  Anyway, I'll be buying our traditional pizza feast for the sixth graders on our last day festival.

You're a good man, my friend. I will always admire your dedication to your students, especially in the years when you'd just as soon see some of them move, permanently. 

[Sloth the Enduring]

You're a good man, my friend. I will always admire your dedication to your students, especially in the years when you'd just as soon see some of them move, permanently. 

 

Thanks. That's teachers for you. All of us are pitching in, I'm taking the big ticket item because I'm the old guy with the larger salary. And yes, there are a couple that wouldn't upset me if they moved.

[WhiteGhost]

6 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

We only had one student climb over the railing and hang over the ledge eight stories up.  

 

I like how you slipped this in like it was somehow business as normal. If that happened over here there would be all of the freaking out

[Bearlee]

On 6/7/2017 at 11:11 AM, Sloth the Enduring said:

I'm not going to spam y'all, but I want to bump this now that the new challenge craziness is past.  I'll quit bugging you after this.

 

 

In a month I'll be doing the Red Ribbon Ride.  It's a 300 mile charity ride that supports organizations that help individuals living with HIV/AIDS.  I'd be honored if you would consider supporting this charity through my riding.  Sloth's Red Ribbon page.

 

Thanks for your support.

How do these Red Ribbon posts keep ending up the last post on a page when they should be the first?

 

Good luck with the last few days of school.

 

Keep forgetting to ask but are these bike races road races or trail races? Most of the racing you've done lately is trail racing but these distances seem pretty far for a trail race.

[Bearlee]

So I was listening to a Podcast with Phil Keoghan from the Amazing Race and he was talking about his latest project about the 1928 Tour de France and the first English speaking team which was made of 3 Aussies and a New Zealander. He went on to say that the New Zealander Harry Watson would go on to win the Tour de France seven times but no one had ever heard of him. Plus I thought it would be interesting for you to see people doing the TdF with a single speed bike and over cobble stone, those bastards must have been tough. The movie "Le Ride" doesn't seem to be out on DVD yet but thought I might mention it so you could keep an eye out for it. Or check to see if the library has a copy of Harry Watson: The Mile Eater by Jonathan Kennett. I know your a big fan of the Belgian Hardmen but perhaps you can find a place in your heart for this guy. And perhaps this can be a little motivation for your racing season. Anyway here is the trailer, hope you can see it.

 

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

14 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

 

I like how you slipped this in like it was somehow business as normal. If that happened over here there would be all of the freaking out

 

Definitely not normal.  He wasn't in my group so I missed the fun.  Everyone was totally freaking out.  He spent the rest of the field trip sitting in a secluded area and won't be attending our last day field trip.  

 

13 hours ago, Bearlee said:

How do these Red Ribbon posts keep ending up the last post on a page when they should be the first?

 

Good luck with the last few days of school.

 

Keep forgetting to ask but are these bike races road races or trail races? Most of the racing you've done lately is trail racing but these distances seem pretty far for a trail race.

 

Thanks.  I mostly use Tapatalk and don't know where on the page we are.

 

I love road races the most, but I'm not able to devote enough time to get fit enough.  When you race on the road you need to be able to keep up in the pack or you're just dead and miserable.  It takes a measure of speed because you're always sprinting out of corners up rises and it's easy to get dropped.  I am not fast.  My body is entirely slow-twitch.  What I can do is go slow for a very long time.  So my sport in endurance mountain biking.  My zone are the races that take 4-6 hours to finish.  I've done 12 and 24 hour races, but after 6 or 7 hours they really stop being fun.  Gravel racing (endurance racing on dirt roads) would be perfect for me, but I don't have the equipment for it.

 

6 hours ago, Bearlee said:

So I was listening to a Podcast with Phil Keoghan from the Amazing Race and he was talking about his latest project about the 1928 Tour de France and the first English speaking team which was made of 3 Aussies and a New Zealander. He went on to say that the New Zealander Harry Watson would go on to win the Tour de France seven times but no one had ever heard of him. Plus I thought it would be interesting for you to see people doing the TdF with a single speed bike and over cobble stone, those bastards must have been tough. The movie "Le Ride" doesn't seem to be out on DVD yet but thought I might mention it so you could keep an eye out for it. Or check to see if the library has a copy of Harry Watson: The Mile Eater by Jonathan Kennett. I know your a big fan of the Belgian Hardmen but perhaps you can find a place in your heart for this guy. And perhaps this can be a little motivation for your racing season. Anyway here is the trailer, hope you can see it.

 

 

 

Man, that looks cool.  Those old-time racers were just insane.  200 mile races over dirt roads on a single speed just seems like torture.  Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for those.

[Sloth the Enduring]

6/8/17 Thursday  - Slothboy's Birthday

 

It was a good day.  I gave my students their final exam; I should have given it a week ago while their brains were still in the game, but I still got some quiet time.

 

Mrs. Sloth was home when I got there.  She wanted to sit on the couch together.  We haven't done that in a long time because our squishy couch kills my back and we don't have a ton of quiet time at the same time.  I indulged her.  My back was already tweaked from sitting weird at school - I'm an old, fragile snowflake - it's better today.  Anyway, couch time was nice.

 

Slothboy's birthday was good.  He turned six.  After couch time I built Legos with Slothboy.  He choose MoMos and Naan for dinner, so went to a Himalayan place.  My dad stopped by for cake and Slothboy opened all of the family presents.  He has a ton of new Legos.  MIL got mad (via phone) because she wanted to be the one to give him a special Lego set.  He has a small one that has the Star Wars bounty hunter mini-figs. I might buy that for myself.   My dad didn't leave until very late so I didn't get a workout in, but it's all good except for keeping up with the Nerdhammer PVP.

 

Training: No.

Eating: We have cake...  The vending machine is empty until fall, so that'll help.

Spending: Dinner out.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

3 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

 MIL got mad (via phone) because she wanted to be the one to give him a special Lego set.

https://www.reddit.com/r/JUSTNOMIL/

Not that it applies or anything.

[maegs]

Happy birthday to Slothboy and happy (almost) end of school to you!

[WhiteGhost]

22 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

He has a ton of new Legos.  ...   He has a small one that has the Star Wars bounty hunter mini-figs.

 

Sounds like Slothboy and Ghostlet would get along marvelously.  Ghostlet loves starwars legos

[Sloth the Enduring]

I've hit the just-cram-it-in-anywhere stage of packing up my room.  This does not bode well for August.

[EricMN]

Slightly has exquisite taste in Legos.

[LouCarJo]

18 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

6/8/17 Thursday  - Slothboy's Birthday

 

It was a good day.  I gave my students their final exam; I should have given it a week ago while their brains were still in the game, but I still got some quiet time.

 

Mrs. Sloth was home when I got there.  She wanted to sit on the couch together.  We haven't done that in a long time because our squishy couch kills my back and we don't have a ton of quiet time at the same time.  I indulged her.  My back was already tweaked from sitting weird at school - I'm an old, fragile snowflake - it's better today.  Anyway, couch time was nice.

 

Slothboy's birthday was good.  He turned six.  After couch time I built Legos with Slothboy.  He choose MoMos and Naan for dinner, so went to a Himalayan place.  My dad stopped by for cake and Slothboy opened all of the family presents.  He has a ton of new Legos.  MIL got mad (via phone) because she wanted to be the one to give him a special Lego set.  He has a small one that has the Star Wars bounty hunter mini-figs. I might buy that for myself.   My dad didn't leave until very late so I didn't get a workout in, but it's all good except for keeping up with the Nerdhammer PVP.

 

Training: No.

Eating: We have cake...  The vending machine is empty until fall, so that'll help.

Spending: Dinner out.

Tell her to buy the Lego for you, you act really pleased, situation fixed :-)

(I want more Lego.)

[Sloth the Enduring]

Question: I'm getting back into Simple & Sinister which is KB swings and get-ups on a near daily basis. Today I'm planning a 3 hr trail ride (it's hot enough I may only do 2). I don't want to pre-fatigue my lower back. Do I keep up the practice by swinging a lighter bell or skip the swings and just do the get-ups?

 

I know myself well enough to know I won't train after I ride. Right now I'm leaning towards no swings.

[Marauder]

6 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Question: I'm getting back into Simple & Sinister which is KB swings and get-ups on a near daily basis. Today I'm planning a 3 hr trail ride (it's hot enough I may only do 2). I don't want to pre-fatigue my lower back. Do I keep up the practice by swinging a lighter bell or skip the swings and just do the get-ups?

 

I know myself well enough to know I won't train after I ride. Right now I'm leaning towards no swings.

 

This is just me and is based only on my experience.  Swinging with a lighter bell affects my technique and can lead to problems I don't have with a heavier bell.  Not sure if it's just my protective mechanisms are confused or what, but I would vote no swings or less swings with your regular bell.

[Mrs Van]

On 2017/06/09 at 6:12 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

He has a small one that has the Star Wars bounty hunter mini-figs.

Oh wow! Glad he had a great day and got so many new sets of Lego's. Rocco loves the little mini-figs. That is his reason for wanting more Lego's.

We can swap mil's for a little bit. Your mil can buy Lego's for my boys. I can assure her it will be the biggest sets they get

[Sloth the Enduring]

On June 9, 2017 at 11:16 AM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

https://www.reddit.com/r/JUSTNOMIL/

Not that it applies or anything.

 

Hah.  I haven't hit the point where I need an online support group.  Except y'all of course. 

 

On June 9, 2017 at 11:32 AM, maegs said:

Happy birthday to Slothboy and happy (almost) end of school to you!

 

 

 

On June 9, 2017 at 11:38 AM, WhiteGhost said:

 

Sounds like Slothboy and Ghostlet would get along marvelously.  Ghostlet loves starwars legos

 

I mean, who doesn't. 

 

On June 9, 2017 at 0:41 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

I've hit the just-cram-it-in-anywhere stage of packing up my room.  This does not bode well for August.

 

On on the other hand, I should be packed up and ready to leave right away Thursday morning. This is weather dependent, rain would keep us in the building and I'll have to unpack craft projects and clean up from them. 

 

On June 9, 2017 at 8:40 PM, EricMN said:

Slightly has exquisite taste in Legos.

 

  do you want an invite to the Slothboy, Ghostlet Lego build?

 

On June 10, 2017 at 5:15 AM, LouCarJo said:

Tell her to buy the Lego for you, you act really pleased, situation fixed :-)

(I want more Lego.)

 

Hah.  I don't think a picture of me and Star Wars Legos would get her enough FB likes to make her happy. 

 

On June 10, 2017 at 9:24 AM, Sloth the Enduring said:

Question: I'm getting back into Simple & Sinister which is KB swings and get-ups on a near daily basis. Today I'm planning a 3 hr trail ride (it's hot enough I may only do 2). I don't want to pre-fatigue my lower back. Do I keep up the practice by swinging a lighter bell or skip the swings and just do the get-ups?

 

I know myself well enough to know I won't train after I ride. Right now I'm leaning towards no swings.

 

My big problem is I need a decision tree with almost no branches.  Biking and KBs confuses things to much. I gotta keep remembering to keep the goal the goal.  The big goal is to be healthier and to be a better mountain biker. KBs accomplish this because I move better when I do them, my back is solid, and I'm generally more sturdy. With that in mind backing off swings isn't a big deal as long as I get a minimal effective dose - twice a week(?). 

 

On June 10, 2017 at 9:33 AM, Marauder said:

 

This is just me and is based only on my experience.  Swinging with a lighter bell affects my technique and can lead to problems I don't have with a heavier bell.  Not sure if it's just my protective mechanisms are confused or what, but I would vote no swings or less swings with your regular bell.

 

Solid point. With a light bell I tend to arm swing them up. 

 

8 hours ago, elizevdmerwe said:

Oh wow! Glad he had a great day and got so many new sets of Lego's. Rocco loves the little mini-figs. That is his reason for wanting more Lego's.

We can swap mil's for a little bit. Your mil can buy Lego's for my boys. I can assure her it will be the biggest sets they get

 

I don't know if I want that swap.  Can you assure her that she'll get a lot of Facebook likes when she posts Rocco's pictures?  

 

This is a good set for Rocco.  It's a small one, Bounty Hunter Speeder Bike IIRC and it comes with four bounty hunters. My favorite is IG-88. 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Friday - it was a good day. I grabbed a computer cart and gave the students a project. It kept them engaged. The on-task majority will make something cool and feel accomplished and the "naughty" kids will be naughty by trying to sneak unblocked games or music and won't bother anyone. I hope I can stretch this until Tuesday.

 

I don't remember anything after school. I know I Yogaed, I think I sledgehammered and did a short ride to give me some NerdHammer points.

 

Saturday - It was a great day. It was a hot one 94F/ 34C.

I did some Yoga, but my workout time was given to nitpicking Slothgirl. I love her school, but the kids are constantly trading lice around.

 

I went to TML's garage sale. He was priced to sell. He didn't have much left when I got there. I picked up a couple games (munchkin and The Resistance) and some fake Oakleys that have good clarity for practically free. @Rooks saved me a lot of money by buying the kettlebells.

 

I went mountain biking. I did 21 miles/ 34km in exactly 3 hours. Certainly not fast, but I felt smooth and solid and I could have kept that pace up forever. Cutting calories has robbed me of power and strength.

 

Saturday night was Nerd Night. The gaming was a bit lackluster, but the first game of the summer is traditionally Lime-A-Rita night. So it was all good.

 

It turns out most of us were in the background of Let's Bowl (different episodes), a show on Comedy Central in 2001 that was filmed in Minneapolis. Mrs. Sloth and I hung out with local comedians at the time, some of whom wrote for the show. Anyway, someone found the episode I was on.

 

That's me back when I had black hair, Mrs. Sloth beside me, and Step Sloth behind me.

 

 

[Bearlee]

OMG, it's like seeing a baby Sloth. There is a really nice close up of you and Mrs. Sloth at the 17:35 mark of the show. Can't believe this was on Comedy Central, looks more like Minnesota Public Television quality. Any idea what national emergency happened during this time to prompt the Red Cross banner during the show (sneaky way of asking time frame of show)?

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

1 hour ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

 

Friday - it was a good day. I grabbed a computer cart and gave the students a project. It kept them engaged. The on-task majority will make something cool and feel accomplished and the "naughty" kids will be naughty by trying to sneak unblocked games or music and won't bother anyone. I hope I can stretch this until Tuesday.

 

I don't remember anything after school. I know I Yogaed, I think I sledgehammered and did a short ride to give me some NerdHammer points.

 

Saturday - It was a great day. It was a hot one 94F/ 34C.

I did some Yoga, but my workout time was given to nitpicking Slothgirl. I love her school, but the kids are constantly trading lice around.

 

I went to TML's garage sale. He was priced to sell. He didn't have much left when I got there. I picked up a couple games (munchkin and The Resistance) and some fake Oakleys that have good clarity for practically free. @Rooks saved me a lot of money by buying the kettlebells.

 

I went mountain biking. I did 21 miles/ 34km in exactly 3 hours. Certainly not fast, but I felt smooth and solid and I could have kept that pace up forever. Cutting calories has robbed me of power and strength.

 

Saturday night was Nerd Night. The gaming was a bit lackluster, but the first game of the summer is traditionally Lime-A-Rita night. So it was all good.

 

It turns out most of us were in the background of Let's Bowl (different episodes), a show on Comedy Central in 2001 that was filmed in Minneapolis. Mrs. Sloth and I hung out with local comedians at the time, some of whom wrote for the show. Anyway, someone found the episode I was on.

 

 

You look 12 years old.

[Mrs Van]

6 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I don't know if I want that swap.  Can you assure her that she'll get a lot of Facebook likes when she posts Rocco's pictures?  

 

This is a good set for Rocco.  It's a small one, Bounty Hunter Speeder Bike IIRC and it comes with four bounty hunters. My favorite is IG-88. 

It will only be for a short while, and I'll make sure that she gets a lot of Fb likes, even if I have to secretly send messages to my friends to like the post on Fb! Never done it before, but maybe my friends will support me to help "lift up her heart in joy" ??! The point you miss, is that you'll have a mil (for that little while) who will go biking with you. She will help and support you fully with your cycling, drag you along to races (although it might be road races and not mountain bike). She does sometimes train on open forest dirt roads, which often goes by some waterfall or another, which could be nice. AND!!! you will be her hero for that while because 1.) you're a teacher, and 2.) you cycle 

The boys were both very impressed and Rocco immediately said "four minifigures!".

5 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

but the kids are constantly trading lice around.

I think I'll stick to our card-trading, thanks.

 

 

You look very young in that photo. So nice to put faces to names.

[Marauder]

10 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

 

Saturday night was Nerd Night. The gaming was a bit lackluster, but the first game of the summer is traditionally Lime-A-Rita night. So it was all good.

 

It turns out most of us were in the background of Let's Bowl (different episodes), a show on Comedy Central in 2001 that was filmed in Minneapolis. Mrs. Sloth and I hung out with local comedians at the time, some of whom wrote for the show. Anyway, someone found the episode I was on.

 

That's me back when I had black hair, Mrs. Sloth beside me, and Step Sloth behind me.

 

 

 

 

You never run out of awesomeness do you?

 

 

[Shello]

12 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

 

It turns out most of us were in the background of Let's Bowl (different episodes), a show on Comedy Central in 2001 that was filmed in Minneapolis. Mrs. Sloth and I hung out with local comedians at the time, some of whom wrote for the show. Anyway, someone found the episode I was on.

 

That's me back when I had black hair, Mrs. Sloth beside me, and Step Sloth behind me.

 

 

 

What a strange show.  I guess it pays to know the comedians.  You had good seats.