Tag Archives: Griffin Says

Griffin

Griffin’s RPG campaign

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Griffin just sent this message out to his friends and their families (parents are still involved for rides). It warms my heart.

Good day, everyone!

        I am excited to announce that next Sunday (26th), from 2 pm – 8 pm, I will be hosting another RPG session at my house (finally)! We will have dinner provided, as well as the game, characters, dice, and a trampoline. We will not have a lot of snacks, so if you want to bring some, please do (Ava, if you decide to come, some extra Wii and Switch remotes would be delightful!) My father, a very experienced DM, will be running the session, and we will have about equal parts gaming and other stuff. Please respond to this email so I know if you will make it!

       My address is ■■■■■, St Paul, MN ■■■■■, and you can contact either me or my parents for questions at:

[email addresses removed]

 Quick note: We have a new member! Everyone, please welcome Ellie to the campaign! Ellie, if you need help with a character or something, just contact me. 

I hope to see everyone here next Sunday!

-Griffin Roy (Dragonborn Wizard)

For the gamers in the audience, we’re playing the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (Powered by GURPS), which has been my go-to game for the past few years. They created a wild array of characters:

Fred
Half-Elf Bard
Jack
Cat-Folk Thief
Maryx
Squid-Folk Martial Artist
The Mineor
Human Cleric
Maurice
Half-Ogre Barbarian
Mozell Bolick
Opossum-Folk Phantom-Thief
Red
Human Druid
Zorgar Lomikos
Dragon-Blooded Wizard

Note that the pictures of Maryx, Mozell Bolick, and Red were created with Midjourney, a generative artificial intelligence program that creates art based on written prompts. I’ve been experimenting with the service for RPG art like this. If you look carefully at Red, you can see some of the details that AI art programs struggle with. Her eyes are a bit wonky and her left hand appears to have three somewhat misshapen fingers.

Griffin

Griffin’s Application to SPA

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As the school year kicks off, I’ve been spending more time on my laptop, and I keep running across files that I intended to post over the past year. (It was a very busy year!)

Attached below is a scanned copy of Griffin’s handwritten admission “essay” that he filled out last January when he first applied to St. Paul Academy (where I teach). I love it that he filled it out on his own without any input from Sarah or me. It’s a great snapshot of his thinking in the middle of a his sixth grade year. At this point, he hadn’t been at an in-person school for ten months.

You can view it below or click the download link below to view it in a larger window.

Griffin Admission QuestionsDownload
Griffin, Maggie, Photo, Piper

Puppy, Week 2

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We’ve had our puppy for two weeks now and we want to tell you about the second one. She has gotten to like us much better and is way more attentive. She loves playing with Coco, the dog across the street, but is scared of Josie the Great Dane. Piper has gotten bigger. She also has more of an appetite. She loves the liver treats and also she goes on some walks. We got her a bigger crate also. She is still the cutest thing ever. And she gives us delight. What else can a person ask for?

Griffin, Piper

Invincible Tick

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Warning: This is a bit grosser than the average post on this blog. Skip it if you’re squeamish.

Once upon a time our puppy had an engorged tick in her ear. We saved it in a plastic bag for a few days because we thought it might be a Lyme disease transmitting tick but we think it’s a dog tick. And it didn’t die so we drowned it in alcohol and it still didn’t die so we pinched it in a clothespin for a few days BUT IT STILL DIDN’T DIE!! And it is still alive today. We might pop it but it would get too much blood everywhere so we named it the invincible tick.

Griffin, Maggie, Oliver, Photo, Piper, Video

Introducing Piper

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The latest addition to our family is Piper, an eight-week old goldendoodle puppy. We picked her up on Monday, June 15. Griffin and Maggie describe her like this:

We just got a puuuuuppppy!!!! She is a goldendoodle and she is a really great sweet dog. We named her Piper and she loves to play but doesn’t really like her crate yet. Piper loves outside, especially the bush. And she loves digging besides the house. She sleeps a lot and she rarely barks unless she’s scared. She is the cutest thing ever!

Piper’s phlox lair.

The “bush” that they mention is a clump of phlox at the edge of our yard; she likes to nap in the shade there, nearly invisible.

We had been idly considering a dog at some point in the next few years, but were in no rush. Like many people during the pandemic, however, we realized that the requirements of social distancing and a summer without many of our usual activities is an excellent time to focus our energy on a new project. Puppies are a lot of work, but we’re enjoying the journey so far.

Pictures from our first few days together followed by two short video clips:

Playing in the yard on a hot afternoon.

More backyard fun.
Griffin

Griffin’s Week at School at Home

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This week was pretty good. I did my human body systems work which is a project that I’ve been working on for a few months that is about the eleven human body systems and I’m on my final draft.

I also worked on my conference prep essay. This is an essay which we have to write about our year and work habits and big work and lessons and lots of that stuff. Normally we would have written this by March 19 (I’m pretty sure), but it’s different this year because of the coronavirus. We already had the conference but for some reason I still have to write this. 

I also did a lot of TerraCycle work. We’re trying to create a presentation slideshow that will teach people about TerraCycle and how it will help save the Earth. Here’s a PDF of our current draft of the presentation:

TerraCycle-projectDownload

It was hard to stay focused because Oliver and Maggie and Daddy and sometimes Mama were always loud somewhere. Especially Oliver because he’s always asking me to do stuff. 

I also went to a few state parks and I learned a lot at them. We saw a garter snake at Lebanon Hills and Mama said that I could try to pick it up but it got all coiled up like it would try to bite me. We looked it up later and learned that it will poop and make it really stinky if you pick it up. Also they’re really fast. I’m adding this because I learned a lot of facts there, so it counts as school.

Example of my work journal from Monday.
Griffin, Maggie

Career Thoughts, Summer 2018

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Unprompted, Griffin announced in the car tonight that he wants to grow up to be either a musician or an illustrator. (I’ll include a post soon with some of the pictures he’s drawn in his new notebook; he’s very excited about it.)

Maggie proceeded to announce that she wants to be one of three things: a dolphin trainer, a singer, or a dancer.

(For comparison, see what Griffin said in 2013 and both of them in 2016.)