This summer, I'm offering shorter classes to my swords students: "intensive" classes to my older students and "workshops" to my younger students, focusing on specific weapons. An 18 year old accidentally signed up for a workshop aimed at 10 year olds. This was the first refund I have ever issued.

I just read this short story and it made me laugh. www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-1... I used to be the treasurer for a disability advocacy club in college. We got them to install 2 elevators so that I didn't have to carry my girlfriend up and down the stairs to get to class.

Ugh, I am so burned out right now. I have no creativity left. I have no productivity left. I don't even want to play a video game or work out. I just want to get on my motorcycle and ride 1000 miles and not be responsible for anything.

Gods have I needed this. I have been so busy, I haven't given myself the time to just run until I can barely lift my legs anymore. 20,000 steps before 7am. My audio book ended 6km ago and I didn't care. I walked 2 labyrinths and took some pictures of a very pretty chapel.

Bluesky: Tell me your food crimes I don't like breakfast food. I cooked up cheeseburgers on the grill this morning for myself and my children. (My burger was a salad with a little turkey under it; theirs were just meat cheese and ketchup because fed is best.)

It has now happened multiple times that I have talked about someone I've done and one of my students has talked about it with greater authority, knowing more than I know, but when I go to talk about the experience of doing it, they don't know anything.

I just figured out how to get paid to take a sword class: Organize a sword class with an internationally renowned instructor, then take it alongside the students. Pay the instructor well, but make sure to turn a profit.

I climbed a mountain to watch the moonrise tonight. Unfortunately, due to clouds over the Atlantic Ocean, I couldn't see the moon until it was well up in the sky.

On the way out of the gym, I saw a group of people standing around one of the windows, looking at the tennis court below. "Is he trapped?" a asked. There was a fox in the tennis court! We all watched him figure out which gate wiggles enough for him to escape.

I hope the weather clears up. I'm planning to climb a mountain tonight to watch the full moon rise. It will be less fun in the rain.

I know you aren't supposed to mow your lawn in May, to protect the pollinators, but the grass is getting really long. I am really looking forward to next week when I can mow this.

My 4 year old Pencil on paper Took one 30 minute staff meeting to draw I'm getting better!

I stopped traffic on the way to the gym for 2 minutes to watch a dominance display between 4 geese and one tom turkey. The geese eventually backed off and I let go of the brake pedal once they were all out of the middle of the road.

Yesterday, I woke up well rested and got a whole bunch of stuff done before I went for my run. Today, I woke up from a dream that a teddy bear and some animal crackers had been possessed by a demon who was setting fires so my 4yo would be blamed for it. Less productive day.

If you see this, post a castle.

only tangentially related but still, I'm this 🤏 close to destroying the entire internet with hammers

I woke up starving this morning so I have myself 100 calories of pure sugar (an apple sauce pouch and two gummy worms from my weight training bag) before I left for the pool. I need a big breakfast this morning!

I am struggling with a group dynamic in which all but one of the women in the group is advocating for one thing, and all but one of the men in the group is advocating for the other. I am uncomfortable with the gender disparity here and am trying to see things from the other gender's perspective.

I just woke up from a dream that I was participating in a murder mystery game a la Clue or Glass Onion, where players were getting killed for various reasons which had nothing to do with getting too close and I was surprised I hadn't been killed yet.

Who's your favorite goddess from the Hellenic (ancient Greek) pantheon? I was excited when Athena was trending, then disappointed when it appeared to be about some sporting event.

I have seen a battle between a dragon and a phoenix. I have seen a battle between a unicorn and a dragon. I have never seen a battle between a phoenix and a unicorn. Clearly I need to fix this.

I think this is the best drawing I've ever done. Pencil and paper, took all of an hour long staff meeting, during which I occasionally had to look up and pipe in. On the right is the original photo.

I just summarized everything I have been thinking about for the past 6 months into a single 3 page document with data from the real world and regression analyses and explanations of my thought process all throughout. I'm about to send it in. Wish me luck.

Hypothetically, if someone put in an offer to lease space from you and you asked them for the past 2 years of their financial records, what would you be looking for? Asking for a me.

Yesterday, I copied a formula incorrectly while teaching. I then spent the entire period flailing around in front of my precalc class, trying to figure out why nothing was working correctly. (I transposed the "a" and the "d" terms in one place.) Today, I fixed it. 1/2

A woman tried to join a Facebook group for pagans that I moderate. When asked about her pagan journey, she claimed that she was a member of my religious order. I messaged her to tell her that I hadn't seen her around, and ask her who her facilitator was (we each have one). She didn't reply. strange.

Happy Mother's Day to all those who have the honor to be a mother. My wife just wants to be left alone today, so I have spent the morning playing with the kids. Unfortunately for her, her father and his girlfriend want to celebrate WITH her. She drew the line at going to church with him.

After 6 months thinking of all the ways things can go wrong, I just spent the hour and a half drive to my Kindred's May Day celebration and the drive back thinking about how to make things go right.

I don't understand how people go through life without talking about their children. My children are as integral to my life as swords, food, and the runes.

Orcspiration is probably my favorite bot on here. It reminds me both that I am strong and that I am vulnerable. I should put quotes from this bot around my classroom.

Well, that's a load off my mind. My insurance company decided not to cover HEMA (the kind of sword-fighting I do), comparing it to "parkour" and "ninja" activities. I was unable to find another insurance company when they raised my prices last year, but I found one this year. Thank goodness.

I tried yoga for the first time last night. It wasn't as bad as everyone left me to believe. The hardest part was the balance, not the flexibility. Also, there was a lot of bodyweight exercise which surprised me. I did well with those parts.

The left is the original, the right is my attempt.

Today's agenda (completed) Grading Drawing a hunter from The Unicorn Tapestries (pictures when I'm more done) Beltain Did a reading for the high priestess who hosts Beltane. Got a reading from a new reader who was very unsure of herself but very good. Found out 2 of my friends finally got engaged.

It's frustrating when I'm told to do something, and when I go to do it in the most logical way, the same person yells at me for doing what they told me.

The most stressful parts of this overly stressful weekend are over. Just one more Beltane celebration, in which I will be The Greenman. The high priestess hasn't given me a script yet, but I've been working with her for about 2 decades now so it'll probably feel familiar no matter what she wrote.

The house is almost in usable condition in expectation of our guests' arrival later today. Hopefully, they will be impressed enough by the decor of treasure chests and swords that they will ignore the mess that I don't have energy to completely erase.

Okay, it's time to do the scary things so that I can stop thinking about how scary they are.

I am disappointed to find out that the picture my brother in law sent me of the moon setting over a mirror lake, glowing bright orange, was only a dream.

Finding an appropriate image for the rapier intensive I plan to run later this year was hard: all the good rapier manuals have the fighters naked. This will do.

I did some math yesterday that makes me feel better about the future, ironically because it is more pessimistic than previous math I have done.

Post your favorite Lord of the Rings characters. Wrong answers only. Please see the alt text before talking about the "wrong answers only" part.

I disapprove of Khionian marriage culture because they call the best man something that sounds like "Cosine" (Kho'zeine) and they call the wedding something that sounds like "ceiling" (sealing). Someone should have fixed that before they aired the episode. #starfleetacademy #startrek

I started a swordsmanship school. (That said, I have only lost money on the school 1 year out of the 14 I've been in business: 2020, when I refused to accept money for the video lessons I ran, and I didn't charge enough for the private, socially distanced, masked, lessons I ran.)

After a week, I sent out a survey asking "What did I do wrong? Why is no one signed up for this class I created for June?" The overwhelming response was, "Chill out! You only sent it a week ago and the class isn't until June!" I feel better now.

...I think I need to do this. I will put in the air BnB listing that players should arrive in costume and that if they don't bring their own approved foam swords, I can provide some for an additional fee.

This! Combating misinformation is a team effort. Even the most vigilant among us can be tricked sometimes; if you accidentally post misinformation, just delete it and post a quick correction. That way, you can stop the misinformation in its tracks before more people are impacted.

I ate like trash all week. I only know for a fact that two of my meals the whole week had ever been in the same room as a vegetable, and I probably had as much protein the whole week as I normally eat in a day. Road trips were easier when I was younger and ate like this normally.

The most important part of any vacation is to find the green spaces and spend time there. I just got back from a 9k run along the Schuylkill River. Gorgeous.