The Lonely Cache
Posted on September 7, 2024 by Bruce

A Year in MINIons, MINIon # 1745

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Bruce
IMG_6611BOO!  Happy Halloween everybody.  You know how people talk about the “good old days” that really weren’t that good?  My good old days memory is of wearing your Halloween costume to elementary school and the parade of kids.  For me, this sadly died around my 8th year of teaching when my school district decided to forbid Halloween.  The sent out a list of politically correct assignment topics and decorations you could use… which included “jack-o-lanterns.”  Yes, jack-o-lanterns whose history was to scare aware the evil spirits on All Hallow’s Eve.  Really?!? I only bring this up because I see photos of my friends in other schools- heck, other professions dressed up and having fun being goofy one day a year. Yesterday I went to school as a slightly overworked teacher who had to give multiple assessments to his class (scary).

A Year in MINIons- MINIon #9072

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Bruce
IMG_6612It’s getting closer to Halloween, which means more and more candy corn will be around.  I don’t know why but just like some people get all excited about “pumpkin spice whatever, I really enjoy (in moderation) a little candy corn.  It’s nostalgic…  oh and this one was going to be wearing a candy corn hat with candy corns in his hand.

A Year in MINIons- MINIon #0127

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Bruce
IMG_6614I find it funny that I just upgraded my computers operating system and now it doesn’t see that there is a scanner attached to it. These things happen and hopefully it will get fixed at some point (it’s a nice scanner). because of that I’ll be posting the drawings, not the badges.  So today is World Internet Day which makes me feel old. I remember when the internet was just a baby- my how they grow up so fast…

A Year in MINIons- MINIon #029.5

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Bruce
0295“Even a monkey who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.” When I was in high school I went to a lot of movies. It seemed like every Friday I’d head out to the theater… one of those films I remember seeing was An American Werewolf in London. Around this time I also worked at a t-shirt shop- the kind where you would go in, pick a design off the wall, and it would be imprinted on your shirt. You also could have sayings and stuff put on the shirt too. So here I am, a adolescent boy who has never had a girl friend and I make a shirt that says, “Lycanthropes make better lovers” I wore it around a lot, which didn’t help me to actually get a girl friend. Hey! Geeks gotta geek.

A Year in MINIons- MINIon #0051

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Bruce
0051When first started teaching third grade I was getting frustrated with how my class was set up.  Before third grade I had taught fourth for a year and first since I had started teaching.  In those classes I had a kind of theme that went through the class and was used for almost everything.  First graders were Astronauts and our classroom was a space station. Fourth graders were test pilots our groups were called squadrons, it was a cool hook for the class.  Please Note: This was before NCLB, Race to the Top or any of the standardized everything and massive amount of testing, back when teachers had some control over what happened in their classrooms (end rant).  For third grade I had transferred to a new school and that first year was just trying to figure out the curriculum.  So as I started year two I had decided I was going to turn my classroom into a movie studio.  I checked out one of the video cameras and my students filmed almost everything.  At the end of the year each student had a VHS tape (I’m old) of everything they did.  For this theme, at the beginning of each year, I would draw a movie poster instead of just listing the names of my students on a paper outside my door. The first one was “It Came From Outer Space” and over the years I had done a number of them.  One year I did “Teacher in Black” and for school pictures I wore a black suit, black tie, and black sunglasses.  I thought it was great!  The principal… not so much.

A Year in MINIons- MINIon #1893

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Bruce
1893Someone’s having a very special birthday today… no, not you. My niece & God daughter, Mackenzie, is having her first birthday today! I expect to see the traditional kid covered in cake photos and I do hope Aunt Sue’s and my gift arrived. All that really matters is that she has a wonderful day, I wish I could be there to celebrate.

A Year in MINIons- MINIon #0399

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Bruce
0399I think most people would say I’m one of those “early adopters.” I love Kickstarter because of all the cool things people come up with and want to bring to market. I have a LunaTik- preprecursor of the Apple Watch- it was a watch band the you put an iPod Nano into (when the nano was square). I have a Pebble- the precursor to the Apple Watch- it wirelessly connected to my phone and would display, caller, and text messages. I could also select the music I wanted playing. The funny thing I don’t have an Apple Watch, and when it came to the initial iPod, I was kinda lukewarm to the entire idea initially. I’ve never really gotten into music so it wasn’t my thing. Why would you want to spend almost $400 for a computerized Walkman?  I did finally get one when the second gen came out and was sold from that point on.