Tuesday, October 15, 2024

I Voted, So Please Shut Up

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder. 

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news. 

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉

I live in California. They now send all registered voters mail-in ballots. I got mine about a week and a half ago. (And I returned it all filled in a week ago.)

We have the option of doing the mail-in ballot or going to our polling place on election day. There's also early in-person voting. Options. 

And I'd like one more option...

What if those who have already submitted their ballots could opt out of all the political ads? What if there was a way to just "I voted" out of the TV commercials? What if the various campaigns could find out who returned a ballot so they wouldn't waste their time mailing out the various flyers?

Monday, October 14, 2024

Eyeing the Sweater

It. Is. Finished.

Finally.

(Only four months late...)

I pushed through last week and got the bottoms of the sleeves completed:


It's not quite how the reference picture looks, but at this point, I'm calling it good enough. 

So, what got me over the finish line? A couple days off work. Cooler weather. And not being in the long-term assignment. I had a bit more mental energy to figure out what I needed and push through.

Now I get to mail this off to my niece. The timing's good as she should be able to wear it now. It would have been nice if I had gotten it to her in time for her birthday, but oh well. (Her birthday was in June.) 

This is why I can't "design" stuff to a deadline. (Although, I didn't design it. I just copied a picture. Which is harder in a way.) There are too many things I need to think about, and that takes time. I can deal with deadlines better if I have a pattern to work off of.

If I had known it was going to take fifteen posts to get the sweater complete, I would not have done the eyeball puns for titles. Or maybe I would have. It was fun, in a way.

Now, I have to figure out what project I'm going to work on next.

Eye sweater previous posts:

Friday, October 11, 2024

Familiar Faces

Friday. Seventh grade English.

I glanced at the class roster. Yup, I knew many of those names...

Fourth period. Out of a class of 22, 12 had been in the science class I had left just one week prior.

Immediately, Julian pounced. "Why did you give me a 13 on my lab safety poster?"

Julian is one of those overachiever-type kids. Good student. Anxious. 

I graded the posters by rubric, 20 points total. (So, 13 is 65%.) 

And... I don't really pay attention to names when I'm grading. And 175 students. Do I remember what each student got on the poster? Nope. I don't even remember what Julian's poster looked like.

I said something of the sort. I'm sure his grade is still just fine. (And I gave Mr. H carte blanche when it came to adjusting grades on the posters if he wished. That he didn't tells me he wasn't going to bother.) 

Once class got started, there was a dispute between two boys. Myles and Clayton (I'm talking about Clayton in #8 of this list). Clayton had stolen Myles' water bottle and drank from it. (Clayton said he pretended to drink from it.) Myles was upset as the bottle was now nearly empty when it hadn't been before.

Oh, Myles could not be consoled. Then he said that Clayton had put grass in the bottle. (As Clayton had never left the room, I wasn't sure how he accomplished this.) Myles dumped out the remaining water, and now he was upset that he had no water. I pointed out that the school had water fountains made to fill water bottles. But the school water was warm and didn't taste good. Myles had had "good" water that was cold.

Deep sigh.

It was one thing after another with Myles. His table mates were antagonizing him. He couldn't do something else. On and on and on. (He's that kid. So, none of this surprised me.)

Then, Corbin. "The teachers at this school all hate me."

I told him I was sure that wasn't true. 

"What? You hate me."

I denied this. Because, I don't hate him. He annoys me. But hate? Nope. 

It was a day of constant motion, keeping the kiddos contained. But many actually did the assignment. (They were completing a storyboard based on a story they read: "Thank You, M'am" by Langston Hughes.) Typical seventh grade stuff.

Thursday, October 10, 2024

An Open Door

Thursday found me back at the middle school where I had done the long-term for Ms. S, and, in fact, I was covering a classroom just across the way. 

Snack was between the first and second blocks of the day. As is my habit, I left the classroom to head to the restroom. On the way, I ran into another sub I know, and we compared notes. (It's a good thing I took that long-term assignment as gigs have been a little sparse this year.) 

On my way back to the classroom, I noticed an open classroom door. It took me a moment to realize it was the room I was in. 

Um, had I not closed the classroom door when I left? I knew I had. I generally check the door before I leave, too. Then how had someone gotten in? And, more importantly, why? (Because mostly the kiddos will see no one's in the room and leave.)

When I got to the room, I immediately knew what had happened. Mr. F (the teacher I was subbing for) was there.

I've subbed for Mr. F many times in the past. (This is the Mr. F from the tortilla slap.) We know each other. 

Mr. F leads a middle school leadership group (called We All Belong), and they were going to do a thing the next day with popsicles. There was a popsicle freezer in his room, but it was empty. Mr. F was filling it with popsicles. 

(I didn't actually peek. The previous day a student had walked by, gotten curious, and asked the leadership class if he could get a popsicle. They said no. The student poked his nose in the freezer anyway, only to find there was nothing there.) 

Mr. F had a few students helping, and his best teaching buddy was there, too. (I've subbed for Ms. B as well. Mr. F and Ms. B are pretty much attached at the hip most days. They've been like this for years.) 

They finished filling the freezer. The student helpers were compensated with popsicles. I chatted with the other two teachers for a bit until the bell rang. Then Mr. F was back to wherever he was for the day, Ms. B went back to wherever she was for the day (she had a sub as well), and as Mr. F had a conference period, I went off to another room to cover a class there. 

Just another subbing day. 

(When I cover Mr. F's classes, more often than not I see him at some point during the day. He isn't sick often. Usually when he's out, it's for school business reasons.) 

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Newbie Mistake

Monday found me back on the day-to-day subbing grind. I got to cover high school biology. 

And... It was kind of a boring day, really. This, of course, is what I want, and seriously, it's how many of my subbing days go. The kiddos had a project to work on. Most did. Some did not, but they didn't disturb those who were working. 

Fifth period, my last class of the day. I checked attendance on the seating chart, and then I walked the room. Someone asked a question. 

Nothing of note really happened.

The class left at the bell. I checked to make sure their computers were plugged in. (They put them away, but they did not plug them to charge overnight.) I got ready to pack up...

Wait. Did I input the attendance? 

I had not logged out of my computer yet, so I checked. And sure enough, I did not.

What am I, new? 

Yikes. you'd think I wouldn't forget one of the basics after a month and a half in a long-term. 

Sadly, I did. Well, at least I didn't completely forget. Phew. 

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Number Base Twelve

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder. 

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news. 

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉

This is my 4000th post. At least, that's what Blogger's little counter thingy says at the top of my screen. Which got me thinking about milestones...

What if our number system was based on 12? (Or 6? Or 7?)

(Because I was curious, my 3000th post was in 2020 and my 2000th post was in 2017.)

Monday, October 7, 2024

Cross-Eyed

Lisa was right. (See her comment on this post.) 

A couple weeks ago (on that post I linked to), I complained that I could not figure out what stitch was used on the example photo:

Lisa suggested trying an X stitch. So I did:

And now that I've done it, it looks pretty much like what that stripe looks like in the example. If it's not the same stitch used, it's close enough for what I'm doing. I'm keeping it.

Alas, that's as far as I got last week. And only on that one sleeve:

Good enough. 

We'll see how far I get on this thing this week. (Oh, and make sure to stop by tomorrow for my 4000th post. I'm kind of stunned that I've written that many blog posts. Yikes.)

Eye sweater previous posts: