F3 Knoxville

Tag: Sparkler

Like Cheese and Fine Wine

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Curveball
PAX: Lilydipper, Brick, Lizzy, Drum Major, Mr Jinxy, Crash Dummy, Serpentine (Jason Pierce), Pele (Jon Lindberg), Sparkler, Doubtfire (Nick Bond), Rooney(Carl Whipple), F3 Pluto ( Hugh Nystrom), Curveball, Crankbait
FNGs: None
COUNT: 14
WARMUP:
1. Side Straddle Hops (Jumping Jacks)
2. Forward Fold
3. Imperial Walkers.
4. Windmills
5. Arm Circles

THE THANG:
Find Rock Pile. Everyone get one.
Do first listed exercise to rep count. Then run to cone (25 yds) and back. Same exercise same count again. Then to cone and back. Same exercise same count again. Then to cone and back. Same exercise same count again. While waiting for the six, do AMRAP of second listed exercise. After six finishes all 4 sets of exercises, all PAX do third exercise in cadence to rep count.
So, first exercise 4 times with Rocks, second exercise while waiting, and third exercise as group.
1, 15 CMU Merkin walk-overs, Squats, Jump Squats
2, 15 Overhead CMU Press, Big boys, Flutters
3, 20 CMU Curls, Calf Raises, Twinkle Toes
4, 30 CMU Bench Press, Hello Dollys, LBCs
5, 15 CMU Triceps, Lunge, Jump Squats – Dips
6, 15 CMU Rows OR CMU Kettle Bells, LBCs, Box Cutters.

Back to flag. Exercise then run short loop (20-30 second mosey)
1. Squats – 25 reps
2. Merkins – 20 reps
3. Lunges (10 each leg) – 20 reps
4. Plank Jacks – 30 reps
5. Big Boy Sit-Ups – 20 reps
6. Burpees – 10 reps

MARY:
30 second stretch.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
T-Claps for Sparkler and his work done for Hardship Hill.

PRAYERS:
For Drum Major’s wife and all of the family after the passing of her brother.
For Convoy’s brother who is in need.
For all the F3 Brothers battling stressful situations.
And for those prayers held in our hearts.

COT:
One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night

Ladies and gentleman skinny and scout
I’ll tell you a tale I know nothing about
The admission is free so pay at the door
Now pull out a chair and sit on the floor

On one bright day in the middle of the night
Two dead boys got up to fight
Back to back they faced each other
Drew their swords and shot each other

The blind man came to see fair play
The mute man came to shout hooray
The deaf policeman heard the noise
And came to stop those two dead boys

He lived on the corner in the middle of the block
In a two story house on a vacant lot
A man with no legs came walking by
And kicked the lawman in his thigh

He crashed through a wall without making a sound
Into a dry creek bed and suddenly drowned
A long black hearse came to cart him away
But he ran for his life and is still gone today

I watched from the corner of the table
The only eyewitness to facts of my fable
If you doubt my lies are true
Just ask the blind man, he saw it too

Embrace the Nonsense. It makes life a lot of fun.

Keep Striving

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Lilydipper
PAX: Pele (Jon Lindberg), Curveball, Windex, Crash Dummy, Tenderfoot, Mr Jinxy, Pusher, Sparkler, Brick
FNGs: None
COUNT: 10
WARMUP: 20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Squat Jumps, 10 Mountain Climbers, 10 Windmills, 10 Twistees, 10 Rockettes, 7 Pterodactyls Forward and 7 Backward

THE THANG: Mosey to the stop sign at the Northeastern Corner of the Admin Bldg. We will go up the road that semi-circles the Admin Bldg and stop at nine different cones to do the exercises listed and then go to the next cone as listed. Here are the exercises at the nine cones:
Cone 1: 10 Shoulder Taps, both shoulders = 1. Sprint to next cone.
–
Cone 2: 20 Hello Dollies. Bear Crawl to next cone.
–
Cone 3: 20 Imperial Walkers where both legs = 1. Bernie to next cone.
–
Cone 4: Go down stairs by bat cave. Run to summit on left and go up summit. Then go to roadway where you will see next cone.
–
Cone 5: 40 Baby Crunches. Slow Mosey to Cone 6
–
Cone 6: 20 Bobby Hurleys. Bernie to Cone 7.
–
Cone 7: 20 Flutter Kicks, both legs = 1. Hop to Cone 8.
–
Cone 8: 20 Merkins. Sprint to Cone 9.
–
Cone 9: 20 Mountain Climbers both legs =1, 20 Freddie Mercuries both legs = 1, 20 Big Boy Sit-ups, 20 Box Cutters, 20 Diamond Merkins, 20 Backwards Lunges, 20 Plank Jacks, 20 Iron Mikes both legs = 1.
–
Mosey to Coliseum. We will stop to do 20 Squats. The Coliseum is 6 oclock. We will run counterclockwise around circle. At 3 o’clock we will do 10 Carolina Dry Docks. At 12 o’ clock we will do 10 box jumps on stairs of the Admin Bldg. At 9 o’clock we will do 10 Wide Merkins. At 6 o’clock do 20 Bench Dips at steps. Rinse and repeat.
Next, guys will number off into two teams. Team one will mosey to Stop Sign on the Northeast Corner of the Admin Bldg, then go up semi-circle road to AO, picking up cones on the way. Team two will mosey to Stop Sign on Southeast Corner of the Admin Bldg, then go up semi-circle road to AO, picking up cones on the way.

MARY: Stretches.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hardship Hill will be May 17. Volunteers are needed. Also, guys who participate can arrive early to help set up or stay late to help break down and clean up. Tomorrow morning at Shamrock, at the 5:30 am workout, Slappy will be passing the baton to Stitch as AO captain. Be there if you can.

COT:

Message

Keep Striving

As a psychologist and as a human being, I have experienced, had family members experience, and had patients experience deep depression. When depressed the idea of going through another day can seem absolutely overwhelming. When depressed, just getting out of bed to shower can be difficult. And, when we do get more active, when we do put in the effort, it may feel like we will never get rewarded. For us who are believers in God, we may wonder where He is and why He doesn’t respond. We may feel like giving up. Yet, we can’t give up. We must keep striving.

I love the song Your Labor is Not in Vain by Isaac Wardell, Paul Zach and Wendell Kimbrough. The song is about having faith and knowing God is with us although all our work and efforts may not currently seem to be paying off. Imagine God saying the following to you:

Your labor is not in vain
Though the ground underneath you
Is cursed and stained
Your planting and reaping are never the same
Your labor is not in vain

Your labor is not unknown
Though the rocks they cry out
And the sea it may groan
The place of your toil may not seem like a home
But your labor is not unknown

Chorus
For I am with you I am with you
I am with you I am with you
For I have called you
Called you by name
Your labor is not in vain

The vineyards you plant will bear fruit
The fields will sing out and rejoice with the truth
For all that is old will at last be made new
The vineyards you plant will bear fruit

The houses you labored to build
Will finally with laughter and joy be filled
The serpent that hurts and destroys will be killed
And all that is broken be healed

Remember, God is with you. He has called you by name. He is there when all seems broken. Keep striving. Your labor is not in vain.

Prayers: Prayers for Slappy and Stitch as Slappy passes leadership as the AO Captain of Shamrock to Stitch. Prayers for our brothers at Shamrock as well. Prayers of thanks for Sparkler’s continuing recovery from surgery related to prostate cancer. Prayers for Crash Dummy’s friend as her recovers from the removal of a tumor near his pituitary gland. Prayers of thanks that Windex’s daughter, Mattie, has recovered so well from her terrible car accident.

Sparkler

AO: asylum-am
Q: Waffle House (Brady Greene)
PAX: Matlock (Bill Maddox), F3 Pluto ( Hugh Nystrom), Tropicana, bluebird, Rainbow, Charmin (John Willis), Backflow (Wesley Hunt), Double Wide, Cinco (Scott McGuire), Gibbler, P3, Sparkler
FNGs: None
COUNT: 12
WARMUP: The usual: 30 Sparklers, the Junk Sparkler, 10 Sparklers IC, the Sparkler.

Weather was a tossup so we did Sparkler Burpees (deceivingly difficult after two or three rounds) and some rock work until 6, when we left the Pavalon’s friendly confines for a prayer mosey – sounds weird but it was a highlight for me – and just one little backwards trip up Cardiac.

10 Sparklers when we got back to the Pavalon, then a sprint up Eaby everest to finish things off.

Prayed for various friends and situations, including a certain surgery happening today.

Links to interview:
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-jonathan-haidt.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1hKDKmcByIL0fRsOK91aOh?si=wCKo2rM0TVuOeTsp96u0xA

100 Years of Virtue

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Lilydipper
PAX: Lizzy, Title IX (Christian Prescott), Pusher, Glamper, SlideRule (Stephen Sloan), Sparkler, Curveball, MD Hammer, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Rooney(Carl Whipple), Tenderfoot, Crash Dummy, CRISPR, Unibráu (Nick Robinson), Duggar, Brick
FNGs: None
COUNT: 17
WARMUP: 1 All-Important Burpee, 10 Imperial Walkers, 10 Iron Mikes, 20 Plank Jacks, On back leg and arm stretches, 10 Tennessee Rocking Chairs, 10 Tempo Squats, 10 Little Baby Arm Circles Forward and 10 Backward

THE THANG: Mosey to end on parking lot with nice restrooms. We will do 20 American Hammers.
Mosey to the Amphitheatre. We will bear crawl on grass, step up to next level and continue to the top. Run back down through parking lot below and rinse and repeat.
Mosey to Haslam Sign at Ball Fields. We will do 20 Hello Dollies.
Mosey to nice pavilion past ball fields. We will do Doras. While one partner runs around the pavilion, the other does exercises. Then partners switch. Here are the exercises:
100 Picnic Table Pull-ups.
–
100 Incline Merkins
–
100 Bench Dips
–
100 Decline Merkins
–
Mosey to ball field with artificial turf. Then run past the ball field and up the hill to the street.
Mosey east on road to the encircled garden by roadway circle. We will do 20 Rocky Balboas on curb surrounding garden.
Mosey to the Coliseum. Next, we will run counterclockwise ¾ of the way around the loop, stopping at each ¼ to do 15 Carolina Dry Docks. Those finishing the third ¼ first sweep everyone back.
Mosey to Haslam’s Rock. Here we will have a 20 Second Sky Gazer.
Mosey to AO.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Smokies Convergence this Saturday in Seymour. Hot Toddy Triple Q at Asylum on January 11.

COT:
Message
On December 29, Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, died peacefully at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 100 years old, the longest living president in the United States. He served one term as president, losing the race for president to Ronald Reagan the next election. Losing the race for presidency hurt. But, Carter continued to serve our nation and the world in many different and powerful ways after he lost the election. He established the Carter Center to expand human rights and promote health around the world. Through the Carter Center he helped to practically Guinea Worm Disease, a disease that haunted Africa for centuries and affected 3.5 million people. He monitored more than100 elections around the world. Through Habitat for Humanity, he helped build over 1000 homes in over a dozen countries. He had many other accomplishments as well and because of the accomplishments, became the only president of the United States to earn the Nobel Peace Prize.

While achieving all this, he continued to preach Sunday School at his Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. He taught his church members but also had many visitors for his class. Some would come because he was president or because of his post-presidency accomplishments. But, as President Barack Obama noted, “I’m willing to bet that many . . . were there, at least in part, because of something more fundamental: President Carter’s decency.”

The following words are directly from President Obama about Jimmy Carter:

Elected in the shadow of Watergate, Jimmy Carter promised voters that he would always tell the truth. And he did – advocating for the public good, consequences be damned. He believed some things were more important than reelection – things like integrity, respect, and compassion. Because Jimmy Carter believed, as deeply as he believed anything, that we are all created in God’s image.
Whenever I had a chance to spend time with President Carter, it was clear that he didn’t just profess these values. He embodied them. And in doing so, he taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice, and service. In his Nobel acceptance speech, President Carter said, “God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace.” He made that choice again and again over the course of his 100 years, and the world is better for it.

So brothers, we have lost a good man. Let his legend live on and inspire us. May we each yearn for and learn to live the life God created us to live: one of grace, dignity, justice and service.

Prayers
Prayers for our brother, Sparkler, as he makes decisions regarding his upcoming treatment for Prostate Cancer. Prayers for Brick’s children after the divorce this past year. Prayers for all suffering mental or physical pain, including those who suffered injuries or the loss of loved ones in the recent incident in New Orleans. Prayers for those who work for the City of New Orleans.

100 Years of Virtue

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Lilydipper
PAX: Lizzy, Title IX (Christian Prescott), Pusher, Glamper, SlideRule (Stephen Sloan), Sparkler, Curveball, MD Hammer, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Rooney(Carl Whipple), Tenderfoot, Crash Dummy, CRISPR, Unibráu (Nick Robinson), Duggar, Brick
FNGs: None
COUNT: 17
WARMUP: 1 All-Important Burpee, 10 Imperial Walkers, 10 Iron Mikes, 20 Plank Jacks, On back leg and arm stretches, 10 Tennessee Rocking Chairs, 10 Tempo Squats, 10 Little Baby Arm Circles Forward and 10 Backward

THE THANG: Mosey to end on parking lot with nice restrooms. We will do 20 American Hammers.
Mosey to the Amphitheatre. We will bear crawl on grass, step up to next level and continue to the top. Run back down through parking lot below and rinse and repeat.
Mosey to Haslam Sign at Ball Fields. We will do 20 Hello Dollies.
Mosey to nice pavilion past ball fields. We will do Doras. While one partner runs around the pavilion, the other does exercises. Then partners switch. Here are the exercises:
100 Picnic Table Pull-ups.
–
100 Incline Merkins
–
100 Bench Dips
–
100 Decline Merkins
–
Mosey to ball field with artificial turf. Then run past the ball field and up the hill to the street.
Mosey east on road to the encircled garden by roadway circle. We will do 20 Rocky Balboas on curb surrounding garden.
Mosey to the Coliseum. Next, we will run counterclockwise ¾ of the way around the loop, stopping at each ¼ to do 15 Carolina Dry Docks. Those finishing the third ¼ first sweep everyone back.
Mosey to Haslam’s Rock. Here we will have a 20 Second Sky Gazer.
Mosey to AO.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Smokies Convergence this Saturday in Seymour. Hot Toddy Triple Q at Asylum on January 11.

COT:
Message
On December 29, Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, died peacefully at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 100 years old, the longest living president in the United States. He served one term as president, losing the race for president to Ronald Reagan the next election. Losing the race for presidency hurt. But, Carter continued to serve our nation and the world in many different and powerful ways after he lost the election. He established the Carter Center to expand human rights and promote health around the world. Through the Carter Center he helped to practically Guinea Worm Disease, a disease that haunted Africa for centuries and affected 3.5 million people. He monitored more than100 elections around the world. Through Habitat for Humanity, he helped build over 1000 homes in over a dozen countries. He had many other accomplishments as well and because of the accomplishments, became the only president of the United States to earn the Nobel Peace Prize.

While achieving all this, he continued to preach Sunday School at his Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. He taught his church members but also had many visitors for his class. Some would come because he was president or because of his post-presidency accomplishments. But, as President Barack Obama noted, “I’m willing to bet that many . . . were there, at least in part, because of something more fundamental: President Carter’s decency.”

The following words are directly from President Obama about Jimmy Carter:

Elected in the shadow of Watergate, Jimmy Carter promised voters that he would always tell the truth. And he did – advocating for the public good, consequences be damned. He believed some things were more important than reelection – things like integrity, respect, and compassion. Because Jimmy Carter believed, as deeply as he believed anything, that we are all created in God’s image.
Whenever I had a chance to spend time with President Carter, it was clear that he didn’t just profess these values. He embodied them. And in doing so, he taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice, and service. In his Nobel acceptance speech, President Carter said, “God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace.” He made that choice again and again over the course of his 100 years, and the world is better for it.

So brothers, we have lost a good man. Let his legend live on and inspire us. May we each yearn for and learn to live the life God created us to live: one of grace, dignity, justice and service.

Prayers
Prayers for our brother, Sparkler, as he makes decisions regarding his upcoming treatment for Prostate Cancer. Prayers for Brick’s children after the divorce this past year. Prayers for all suffering mental or physical pain, including those who suffered injuries or the loss of loved ones in the recent incident in New Orleans. Prayers for those who work for the City of New Orleans.