On setting my money on fire

On August 4, 2025August 4, 2025 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy, Teaching3 Comments

Witness my latest addition to my classroom, a “boneless loveseat,” that shipped compressed into a very tiny rectangular solid and expanded rapidly into that once I took it out of the packaging. It can supposedly support 600 pounds of humanity; I can say that when I sat on it the back did not feel especially comfortable but the seat held me up just fine and I didn’t have trouble getting out of it. I’m considering a matching chair to go with it. Supposedly this thing needs 48 hours in order to completely decompress and it was almost unsettling to look at it after the first batch of expansion was done; the damn thing always looked like it was moving, but in this weirdly imperceptible way. I’m going to take another picture of it tomorrow from as close to the same angle as I can and see if it looks bigger.

This is, as you all well know, my greatest hypocrisy; I genuinely think that teachers should not spend money on their classrooms and yet I lavish hundreds of dollars on mine for fun new shit every year even before we get to the school supplies. Remember, I already bought myself a new Goddamn desk chair. That loveseat was pretty cheap as such things go, but still.

(Donated supplies have begun arriving, by the way; my deepest thanks to those of you who have contributed. The link is here if you haven’t yet and want to; if you don’t, that’s absolutely fine.)

In accordance with prophecy, our new textbooks have not arrived yet; at this point I’m fully expecting to not see them before October. I hope I’m wrong. We should’ve had the damned things before school let out so that we could familiarize ourselves with them over the summer. I wouldn’t have done it, mind you, but at least I’d have spent the summer feeling guilty like I should have and not waiting for the opportunity to feel guilty.

Anyway, I got my desk beaten into shape; tomorrow we’ll look at starting to get things up on the walls. I also got a bunch of clothes shopping done today, so I can stop stressing about that for a while. Whee!

Also, here’s what the loveseat looked like before I opened it up. Note the bankers’ box next to it, for scale.

And I’m putting this at the bottom because I’m hoping no one notices it. I’m also considering this, because I’m an idiot:

I’m not even sure where I would put it. I’m running out of floor and wall space at this point.

Because I’m dumb

On June 2, 2025 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocyLeave a comment

A couple of days ago, I was at 287 pounds on the scale. Objectively, that’s a lot, especially at my height. However, that’s also the lightest I’ve been in at least four years and probably more like five or six. I’m down over thirty pounds.

Today I had Qdoba for lunch, two doughnuts, and McDonald’s for dinner.

Kinda want to die.

In which I have a disease

On February 27, 2025 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, idiocyLeave a comment

…both in the literal and metaphorical sense. The wonderful news is that my ear abruptly partially cleared on the way home from work today, as I was actually on my way to urgent care to have it looked at again. It’s not 100% yet; there’s still some tinnitus and a little bit of pressure, but it’s not remotely as bad as it was yesterday and the transition from one phase to the other took all of thirty seconds. Hopefully it’ll continue to improve over the next day or two; I have about five doses of my antibiotic left.

The metaphorical sense? Do I need to explain, since you presumably have eyes and can see the image at the top of this post? Because God damn if I didn’t involuntarily start to reach for my wallet the second this image appeared on my phone, only to realize that the presale doesn’t start until the end of March so I have plenty of time to talk myself into buying four books that I didn’t like by an author who I genuinely dislike just because holy shit they’re pretty.

(They actually come with two dust covers each, those above and another set that is a slightly upscaled version of the original covers. I already have all four of these damn things with the original covers, so it’ll be these.)

Don’t ask the price. The set will cost roughly $texas; Broken Binding editions are expensive. They appreciate like motherfuckers, so I could pretend that I was going to hold on to them for a year and then sell them, I suppose, but I’ve got to buy them first. Nonetheless! Daddy can do this, all day, every day, no problem. But when is it going to stop?

I know I’ve said this before– hell, I’m a million and a half words deep into this site, I’ve said everything before– but I really never thought I was going to be the person I’ve become, where the more discretionary income I have, the more shit I find to buy. This obsession with special editions of books even if I don’t like the books is just the latest Goddamn symptom.

Okay FINE I won’t

On November 22, 2024 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy6 Comments

Dan Ford may have slightly too much influence over my life decisions for someone I’ve never met, but those five words more or less talked me out of Adventures with Bitcoin, and realizing that this weekend is a Lego Insiders weekend and that they have a model of the HMS Endurance coming at the end of the month sealed the deal; I’m not destroying the environment and I get (sorta) free Legos? Yeah, fuck money get Legos.

I think that’s the phrase, at least.

MEANWHILE! Kendrick Lamar has a new album out! He didn’t tell anyone it was coming before he released it. I’m listening to it right now and it might be his best album yet. I never really vibed with Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, so it’s good to see a return to form.

Let’s see. What else? I feel like something happened at work today that I really want to talk about, but hell if I can remember what it is. I decided today that I have what I’m calling a Shitty White Boy problem with my sixth hour, but that’s not the story.

… Goddammit, it’s gone. I’m gonna go play Veilguard and if I remember what the hell I wanted to talk about I’ll come back.

In which I am out of my damned mind

On September 11, 2024September 11, 2024 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy1 Comment

We’re going to the Michigan Renfaire on Saturday, which … which means I have made some decisions, is what it means. Bad decisions.

I owned zero of those garments other than the shoes on my feet (which don’t quite fit the theme, but whatever) before deciding we were going to a Ren Faire. Now I own all of those things, plus a sporran that I’m not wearing in this picture.

Problem is, I need headgear. This is where you, and some terrible bathroom selfies, come in.

Headgear option A: Hat. Irish! Irish people don’t wear kilts. Advantages: easy, black, classy. Disadvantages: no neck covering, may not fit the theme.

I gotta get that leather string stretched out so it stops spiraling like that.

Headgear option B: Silk du-rag. Advantages: Easy, black, covers the neck. Disadvantages: A little more piratey than maybe I want.

My bathroom mirror? Filthy.

Headgear option C: Cowl. Advantages: A touch more renfairey, covers the neck, also covers the collar of the shirt which I don’t love. Versatile; I can take the hood down if I want, where the hat and du-rag will need to be carried around if I’m not wearing them. Disadvantages: Blue, but not matching the blue in the kilt, kinda feels dorky in a way the rest of the outfit doesn’t, makes me make that face, possibly more complicated to keep on/ in need of constant adjustment throughout the day. (It wears like a scarf, with long tails down my back.) Uncertain: Warmer, which may be a good or bad thing depending on weather.

So. What am I wearing? YOU DECIDE:

Okay so far so good

On January 8, 2024 By Luther M. SilerIn Teaching2 Comments

Today was not a bad day by any measure, and a few revisions in my rosters led to two classes becoming substantially easier and one becoming slightly– manageably, I think– more difficult. You could tell that it was the first day back from break– I’ve never had more kids fall asleep or try to fall asleep in class than I did today, and by the end of the day I just stopped worrying about it. Yeah, it’s fucking stupid that you went to bed at 4:00 in the morning and only got two hours of sleep, but none of these kids live in my house and I can’t control their sleep schedules and I know they’ll be back to normal by the end of the week.

Which, granted, still means some of them are going to try and sleep through class every day, but not remotely as many. I’ll take “back to baseline” without complaint, I think.

Meanwhile, speaking of sleep schedules, it is 7:20, I am dead tired, I am anticipating a two-hour delay tomorrow (they won’t cancel, but the worst of the weather will be between 1 and 7 AM, which is never a good sign) and I will be in bed by 9:00 tonight or die trying.

How was your Monday?

Face 47.0

On July 17, 2023 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy2 Comments

God, it’s even worse at high resolution: my head is dented, y’all. Look at that shit!

Anyway, the thought shave off your mustache has been floating through my head for so long and at such high volume that it damn near qualifies as a clinically intrusive thought at this point and this morning I lost the battle. Fuck it, even if I hate it it’ll grow back in two weeks anyway, and it’s summertime, and I’ll just make a joke about it and tell everyone to call me Amos for a while, right?

Except I think I like it. I like it a little more with some stubble, and I might let it come back to, like, a one on my clippers, but I was expecting to immediately regret my mistake and spend the next two weeks hiding from society. Which, hell, I was gonna do that anyway, so whatever– but now every time somebody sees me they’re suggesting a different bright color I should dye it. The boy is partial to magenta; others have suggested pink; I’m thinking green or blue.

What say you, Internet? How else shall I humiliate myself before school starts?

(Oh, and my class lists came out today, and there are currently thirty-four kids in my honors Algebra class, and … I’m ’bout to have two Algebra classes again, because that’s not gonna work, so I’m looking forward to starting a fight about it.)