Goals

Sam has started to clean out his school items, since there is only one week left in 5th grade. Dad discovered that Sam brought home the paper shown above, in a red folder labeled "Homework". Dad presumed that it has been sitting empty in Sam's folder since early September. Perhaps Sam was not in class on the day that they did the goal setting exercise.

The good news is that one of the blanks is filled out on the sheet (Name). The bad news is that the writing is not Sam's, so someone must have filled that in for him. Which gave Dad an idea...

Dad is not one to leave an empty sheet of goals, so he went ahead and filled out the sheet with a few ideas:

There is still one week left in the querter, so anything is still possible...

Riven Build Guide

Sam posted his first "publication" today - a Riven Build Guide on MobaFire (wiki). It is a detailed strategy guide for a character in League of Legends.

Below are some excerpts from the guide:

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Le monpudding52, and Riven is one of my favorite champions. I've been playing her a lot recently, and I figured I would share my thoughts and ideas with her.
This will be a little bit in depth, so just take it a step at a time. It will highlight laning phase, mid-game roaming, teamfighting, and late game.

Pros/Cons

[*]High mobility and damage [*]Can get blown up in fights
[*]Has a shield and 2 hard CCs [*]Is vulnerable to targeted poke
[*]Has a strong lane phase [*]Is sometimes hard to use in teamights
[*]Can save teammates [*]Loses duels vs autoattackers like Udyr

Animation Cancelling

This is the list of basic animation cancels for Riven:
E - any Q
E - W
E - R (activate)
E - R - any Q (activate)
E - R (wind slash)
3rd Q - W
R (wind slash) - 3rd Q
In any of those combos, the abilities will happen at the same time, cancelling the movement of your champion for one of them, but still doing the damage and CC. Props to FragonHD for this video.

Laning Phase

You will have Broken Wings at level 1. When you get into lane and the minions walk down, start going aggressive with Q. Q into them, autoattack. Again. If you don't get the autoattack off, it's ok. Do that for the first two Qs. On the third one, try and hit them and then get about 2-3 autoattacks off, the knockup gives you time. Get Valor second unless you are against a ranged champion. Ki Burst against ranged champions. You have more mobility with E now, so it is easier to close the gap. I often find myself pushed all the way to their tower within the first couple minutes. If that happens, ward the river with trinket, and IF you have teleport, look for opportunities to gank bot lane. Try to bully them as much as you can. If their jungle ganks you, use all your Q charges and E to get out. If you get a chance, try and stun them for extra distance. When stunning them, cancel the animation for it by dashing away at the same time. When you take down their tower or at about 20 minutes, group with your team.

Mid Game and Roaming

During mid-game, Riven is VERY effective at picking off high priority targets. She has a lot of CC to help her lock down carries. If you find someone out of position, pick a fight with them. Remember not to burn your ult on just one person. If the rest of the enemy team fights your team, activate Blade of the Exile. Get in position to stun more than 2 people or knockup more than 2. If you get a successful stun off, activate hydra and your 3 charges of Broken Wings. As their health gets lower, Wind Slash to finish them off or to get them low enough for your ADC to get them all. Besides fights, group with your team and push towers. You have a lot of waveclear so it is easy enough to push up to towers. You also have a lot of AD to take down the towers.

Teamfighting

Like I said before, teamfighting can either be really simple or really hard depending on their team. I already highlighted the individual parts, but this will be more in-depth. When starting fights, YOU are the instigator. Pick fights when you want to, just make sure your team can follow up. Stun them or knock them all up. After you go in, your team can use their CC and AOE to help out. Use all your AOE sources of damage, while trying to weave autoattacks onto their AD carry or mid laner. If you start to get low, try and Q or E out. If you do manage to escape the fight, you can re-engage when your abilities come back up, just make sure you hit your CC so they can't just blow you up. Note you should have Blade of the Exile on during the whole fight. When they get low enough, use Wind Slash to finish them off. Credits to Best Plays on youtube, go check him out.

Late Game

If you play the early and mid game well, you should be kind of fed in the late game. Try and pick teamfights if you can. If you have Youmuu's or Zephyr, splitpushing can be a good idea.
If you are splitpushing, use your AOE to clear the waves to push down towers faster. When grouping with your team, it is often easy to get the other team to fight you. It isn't very nice, but you can sometimes bait out angry enemies by spamming an emote like laugh or taunt. If they go for you, just engage onto them. Farm whatever you can, upgrade trinket, get wards down and try and get as big a lead as you can for your team.

Summary

That's all I can think of for now, guys. I will probably be adding more chapters in the future or editing the current ones. Just remember, you can use your own ideas too.If you want to take teleport, go ahead. If you want to build Sorcerer's Shoes, go ahead. This is just what I find works the best and is most reliable/consistent. If you have any suggestions or feedback, go ahead and tell me. Thanks for reading!

Science Project

Pete turned in his science project today on climate change. An ambitious topic for a 9th grade Earth Science class, but it was one that Mr. Lee was willing to accept.

This year in Science has been a bit of a struggle, with Mr. Lee learning the ropes of being a Science teacher (despite having done it now for 15+ years) and  Pete having to re-do some of his work at times as projects became properly documented and clarified. In retrospect, he wishes he had taken the "more difficult" Biology class.

Next year Pete is taking another basket of honors classes, so hopefully he is getting more comfortable with doing these projects. Among the other projects Pete has grappled with this year were the articles/timeline for AP History, and the anthology (esesntially an entire book) and "thrice told tales" projects for Honors English.

Dad suggested that Pete have a climate change debate with Tom on our trip in July, but Pete will probably pass on that. Mike was going to rig up the ultra-liberal Thad to be the judge, so there was no way Pete could lose.

Final Scenes

Pete took Theatre I this year at Broad Run and they performed "Final Scenes" on June 3rd and 4th. His teacher was Mr. Willmot. Mom and Dad went to watch Pete and Heath Yancey perform ""Cover" by Samuel French. They did a great job.



Pete also got recruited to perform in one of the other plays when one of the students could not participate.

These were the other Final Scenes that day:

1. The Nerd (Will H and Matt W)
2. The Surgery (Sam B and Jared R)
3. Beyond Therapy (Nicole B and David G)
4. A Slight Ache (Mia D and Nick H)
5. Psycho Beach Party (Vedika D, Samantha S, and Nicole B)
6. Blueberry Hill Accord (Laura G and Lauren S)

Cocoa Pebbles

The bus routine this year has been better for Dad. Since Mom is teaching at Sterling Middle School, which is a lot closer than Springfield, she can drop Sam off at the bus at 7:32am on her way to work.

So Dad wakes Pete up at 7:45am. Pete wonders why his 12 alarms didn't wake him up, then staggers out of bed after a few minutes. For about the first half of the year, Pete would come downstairs around 8:15 and enjoy a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles before walking to the bus at 8:28. (Or going with Dad on Tuesdays and Thursdays to allergy shots at ENT and/or orthodontist appointments with Dr. D.)

But for the last few months, it has just been Dad sitting at the table with the empty bowl and milk, on the off chance that Pete comes down in time to eat. After Pete heads off to the bus, Dad puts the empty bowl back in the cabinet.

Lips or Tongue

It is 10:15pm, so Sam should be brushing his teeth and quickly shuffling off to bed.

However, apparently this is not too late for a game of "lip or tongue". Dad needs to gess whether Sam's upper lip is actually his lip, or in fact his tongue. You would think Dad could guess right at least 50% of the time just by random chance, but Sam is pretty tricky and can fool Dad rather easily in this game.

The reader can rest assured that Sam did eventually go to sleep later that night at some point.

Spring Family Campout at Camp Snyder

The weekend of the family campout got off to a rough start. Sam went to a sleepover birthday at Colin Nestor's house. This turned out to be one of those parties where the parents just let everyone stay up all night. So Sam was a mess on Saturday morning and wanted to stay home.

Then Pete was disappointed when they arrived at the campsite at Camp Snyder and he realized that there were going to be other families there too. He thought it was a more traditional family campout. And he wasn't happy about not pitching the tent, either.

Anyhow, once they settled in, everyone had some fun doing fishing and archery. Sam went back with Mom to take a nap, while Dad and Pete did a craft and hung out at the dining hall doing crossword puzzles.



The meals were not as good as they were for the Webelos Camp. Lunch was hot dogs and dinner was spaghetti.



At the evening bonfire, the family did a great skit written by Dad, called "The Stick". It was a successful performance, despite their having to go first and Pete accidentally leaving out the "horrible tragedy" line.



They were home by 10am on Sunday morning, leaving plenty of time to relax and recover before school on Monday.

The marigold planters that Pete and Dad made at the craft station actually flourished rather nicely in the kitchen. One of them was decorated as "Happy Mother's Day" and the other was "Eagles Super Bowl 2016".

Selfie Mode

Dad announced at dinner that he had installed a new camera app on his Samsung Galaxy S3 phone which featured a "selfie mode". It figures out when everyone in the picture has their eyes open and is smiling, before taking the picture. So of course everyone took the opportunity to test it out - with Pete at the helm.

Patrol Leader

Sam was elected as leader of his new Scout Patrol. And then in June, he was re-elected. Here is the sequence of events that occurs each time leading up to these elections:

1. Dad asks Sam if he is going to run for Patrol leader
2. Sam says "nah, probably not"
3. At the meeting, Sam decides to run (for whatever reason)
4. Everyone in the Patrol runs in the election except William
5. Everyone votes for himself
6. William votes for Sam
7. Sam wins the election with a tally of 2 votes

At some point, the other boys are going to figure this out and one of the others will not run and vote for someone else. Until then, the Sam/William block will remain in power.

Family Golf Day at 1757

Sam and Dad went to the Family Golf Day at 1757. First they signed up for the raffle. Then they headed over to try out the games.

First was the driving range with unlimited balls. Sam actually hit really well that day. They were going long and straight.

  

Next was the chipping game. This was not so enjoyable, since the "balls" were these weird plastic things, you were not allowed to hit from the grass, and the guy was giving a bit too much instruction.



Next was the putting challenge. It was a little bit of fun, once they figured out how to navigate the obstacles. This was not any sort of organized contest. You just hit the balls through the obstacles for about 5-10 minutes.



Finally was the DJ area where various kids were trying to chip the plastic pieces into a dinosaur's mouth. There weren't very many statioins here, so Sam never got a chance to try this.



They hung around at the end for the raffle drawing. There were only about 15-20 people left, and they were only giving prizes if people were present, so they figured their odds were pretty good. There were about a dozen prizes. Lance and Michael (friends from Cub Scouts who were there) each won a prize. And pretty much everyone else. But no luck for Dad and Sam this time. They got a free drink cozy and squeeze ball, and of course most of all were some good memories and time spent together.

All in all, this event was about a C+. But it was free and the weather was nice.

Sam FUTURA Play

Sam performed a play in his FUTURA class this Spring. Mom and Dad were not able to attend, so they watched the video that miss Debbie took.



In case you can't find Sam, he's the one wearing the signature orange sweatshirt under his toga.

How did they do? We'll just have to wait until the Tony Awards are given out to get the final referendum on that.

======

Update: They did not receive any Tony Award nominations.

Cub Scouts Nationals Game

Although Dad's trip to Dubai got moved around a few times in April, fortunately he was still able to go with Sam to the Nationals game. The Scouts who sold the most popcorn received free tickets to the game.

They stopped briefly at Dad's office on the way to the game, to treat Sam's massive bloody nose that occurred just before the exit for the office.

Sam and Dad stopped at McDonalds near the park for their traditional pre-game lunch, and then walked over to the park. It was a bit chilly, but they had a good time. You see a few rows in front of them the family that ordered the bucket of chicken and fries. Sam and Dad were trying to speculate how much it must have cost for that.

Dad had some extra tickets that he gave to Mr. Steve. Ethan, Joseph, and Jacob arrived somewhere around the 4th inning. The Nationals defeated the Phillies 4-1.

Sweeney Todd

Pete participated in the Broad Run Spring musical production of Sweeney Todd. Pete was the understudy for Tobias, in addition to being in several company scenes and singing in several scenes as part of the sextet. Mom, Dad, and Sam attended the Saturday evening performance.

A variety of Dad's clothing ended up being used in the play, which left Dad wondering since it was mostly for the street urchins. Here is Pete wearing Dad's shirt and tie; the shirt was was one of the ones used in the production:

Spring Break Golf

The forecast for Thursday of Spring Break week was sunny and 73 degrees, so Dad scheduled a tee time to play with Pete and/or Sam. Sam was not able to play due to some soreness in his neck from Rebounderz (and URF mode on League of Legends), so Dad and Pete played their first full round of 18 holes together. It was a glorious day.

Pete and Dad played at Sterling Golf Park. They teed off on the back 9 at 10:30am, took a break for lunch, and returned to play the front 9.

Pete played great. He made a very long putt on #17, and had quite a number of good shots. Pretty good, considering that he only had 5 clubs, most of which are a bit too short for him. He also had a great attitude throughout the day (except for a few putting issues towards the end).

Dad was overjoyed with such a fun day together.

Minute To Win It

The family decided not to go anywhere for Spring Break this year. But after a quick dinner at Wendy's, they had a lot of fun at the "Minute To Win It" event at the library.

Mom was the best at the dice balancing:

Pete was good at the pasta pickup:

Pete trying the slinky headband game:

 Sam was the best at the tissue box ping-pong ball twerking:

Mom and Sam doing the toilet paper snap toss:

Dad was probably the best at the balloon balancing:

Other games included the Smarties with straws and marble rolling on to tape (that Sam was quite good at).

It was a fun way to spend about an hour on a Monday night.

Dad Class Presentation

Dad had the distinct pleasure of teaching a lesson in Sam's class on Thursday. He asked Mrs. Lindenfeldar if he could speak for about 30 minutes about some of his adventures in traveling across the USA.

Dad covered the following topics:
- Baseball Stadiums
- State welcome signs and capitals
- Pictures and stories from 1998 trip (more info available here)

If you would like to see the slides from the presentation, they are available here (at least for a little while).

Science Project

Sam’s class did a mandatory science project this year for the Science fair. Sam had some trouble choosing a project. His first idea was to see if video could be used to determine the speed of light. Dad’s friend Brian (the laser scientist) had a few suggestions for this, but fortunately Sam eventually realized that this might not be the best choice. He ended up doing “What Liquid Evaporates the Fastest”.

For a few weeks, there were tubes of water, salt water, and vinegar in the dining room.

Here is Sam’s poster. The project was not his best effort, but he got it done and turned in on time:

Dad enjoyed going to the Science Fair and looking at all of the posters for the other students’ projects. A lot of study is apparently being done these days on Mentos in coke and microwave popcorn. There were some really funny ones too, like this one by Sean Sullivan:

Scout Badge

Here is Sam earning his Scout Badge. He skipped the first campout, so he’s a little behind on his Tenderfoot and First Class achievements. But he doesn’t seem to be too concerned about that.

Donuts With Dad

Sam and Dad woke up early for their final “Donuts with Dad” at Dominion Trail. Sam put on a nice shirt and his ubiquitous orange sweatshirt, and they were off to school. They parked in Dad’s secret spot in the local neighborhood and got a nice seat near William and his Dad.

Hopefully they can continue this tradition next year in Middle School.

Munzee Trail

Dad convinced Pete one Saturday to join him a new type of Munzee called a “Munzee Trail”. They went up to Lansdowne and had an enjoyable 3-mile hike up and down the Potomac River.

The first location was a bit dicey with some bees’ nests:

Pete did some community service by raking a bunker on the golf course:

And Pete found a decent stick that he carried for a while:

They released the stick in the river and rooted for it to wend its way through some shoreline thicket and outu toward the waterfall.

Pete’s phone actually did a better job locating most of the Munzee’s than Dad’s, so it was good that he came along. They eventually found all of the Munzees and completed the trail.

Miracle Take-out

One night Dad and Pete went to Chipotle in Broadlands to get take out. When they arrived, there was no line. They thought maybe they were closed or something, but they placed their order and got their food. It was truly a magical night.

Sam 5th Grade Basketball FSBL

Sam played on Anthony's team again this year for FSBL. They were the Celtics. Anthony's Mom (Jen) and Dad (Dennis) were the coaches again.

Pictured above are:Tyler Provencal, Anirudh  Addepalli or Nihar Kandarpa, Ben Yan, Austin Ashley, Sam, Dominic Del Rosso, Alex Ashley, and Anthony Gonzalez.

County Spelling Bee

Sam represented Dominion Trail at the Loudoun County Spelling Bee at Stone Bridge High School.

He got the first right, but went out on his second word (cacao). He was a bit upset, since Dad had always told him to ask for a sentence, which he did, but then the pronouncer blundered and gave him the definition of the word instead of using it in a sentence. This seemed to throw Sam off of his game and he did not spell the word correctly.

He had a nice receptioin the next day at school, being on the morning announcements and a general celebrity for the day.

The Sea The Sea

Dad and Pete went to a local micro-concert in Sterling with Brian and Patti. They saw a group called “The Sea The Sea”. They both really enjoyed the concert. Dad has been listening to their songs since then on Spotify. It was a very small concert. There were about a dozen people in attendance. One of which was an annoying girl who asked the artists after the concert to buy a box of Girl Scout Cookies.

Snow Shoveling

We had some good ice storms and snow storms this winter. The boys missed quite a bit of school. The good news is that Pete is old enough to help now with the shoveling. Here is a picture Dad took about 30 minutes after Pete went out to “shovel”:

It took a while, but eventually the job got done.