New: 5 Days a Week, Your Moment of Zen

I faithfully write a blog post five days a week. Clearly, it's not here, though. In that other world where I'm a teacher, I keep my students and their families updated on assignments and other important information using a blog. A few months in to using the homework blog, I added a daily feature which I call the Moment of Zen in homage to The Daily Show's final punchline of a clip. It started as much as anything because I kept on coming across fun little sites, images, and other interesting in the world that I wanted to share with my students, but also makes a nice incentive to check the homework blog regularly.

The homework blog is also run through a Blogger account, so every time I log in to put up the day's homework, my dashboard reminds me what a poor job I've done keeping up here. It's not that RPM Fiberworks isn't happening - far from it! So, partially to get myself back on here, and partially because I suspect the Moments of Zen have a wider appeal than just my 7th & 8th graders, I will be reposting the Moment of Zen here, hopefully with fiber updates some days as well! To get you started, here's a Moment from earlier this week, with my favorite highlight from the Vancouver Olympics. I haven't been paying too close attention: I don't have cable, and I'm still not entirely comfortable with the politics surrounding use of Coast Salish land, but I do like me some curling and crazy costumes, so there's this:

Moment of Zen:

Olympic Highlights: The Norwegian Men's Curling Team's Pants

Curling may be one of the stranger Winter Olympic sports, involving sliding polished, 40+ lb hunks of granite down an ice sheet, guiding their path by sweeping the ice in front of them, jockeying with another team to have the greatest number of rocks close to a bullseye target or button in curling parlance. It reeks with the kind of creativity peculiar to long, cold winters without much to do. However, whether because of an increased appreciation of this kind of weirdness or because of an increased popularity due to curling's inclusion in Deca Sports for Wii (yes, there is Wii Curling), curling has garnered more attention in the 2010 games than ever before.

Personally, I think it's because of Team Norway's pants. Breaking with the somber convention of black or gray slacks curling teams usually favor, Norway's men's curling squad outfitted itself with red, white and blue (also the colors of Norway's flag) harlequin golf pants for the Vancouver games. Even Norway's King Harald wants a pair. Norway curling hasn't just brought the style though, they've also brought the heat. Well, metaphorically, at least. Team Norway (and their pants) are second in the ranking behind undefeated Canada, and have secured a place in the semifinal round.