Observe, Not Interfere

At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements. 😉

Have I done this question before? I thought I did something like this before... 

What if time travel was possible, but you could only observe, like being a ghost or seeing the past like a hologram?

Stash Shark

Every crafter has a stash. Since I'm a knitter/crocheter, my stash consists of yarn. 

I'm not much of a hoarder. While I hear tell of those that find pretty yarns or soft yarns and buy them to "feed the stash", I've rarely done this. When I buy yarn, it's with a specific project in mind. 

So, how do I have a stash? It started with the yarn and accessories I inherited from GramMavis (my great-grandmother, the one who taught me to knit) when she passed. From there, the yarn in my stash is either from extra yarn bought for those projects (one should always buy more than one needs, because to run out of yarn before the project is complete is not good), or yarn for projects I never started. 

Why am I telling you all this? Because it explains why the shark is blue. 

For my twin nephews' seventh birthday, I gave them the gift of "I'll make you what you want". Last week I showed off twin one's Spinosaurus. 

Twin two requested a shark. 

Their birthday is in late April. We were under stay-at-home orders. So, once I found patterns for what I was going to make, I went digging through my stash to find yarn to complete the projects. 

Sure, I could have ordered yarn online. But it would have taken time for that yarn to arrive, and besides, if I had appropriate yarn in my stash, why buy more? 

I had the perfect yarn for the dinosaur. That green is from a sweater I made myself several years ago. But while I had one gray for the shark, I did not have another gray or an off-white. And I needed a lighter color for the shark underside as well as the white for the teeth. 

What could I use as the third color? 

I figured navy blue was close enough. This is more a cartoon shark than an actual one, anyway. At least navy blue is kind of close... 

At least, that's what I'm telling myself. 

Hey, it works. 

If this shark looks a little familiar, it's because the pattern designer is our old friend, she who created the jellyfish pattern. (If you're interested, the pattern is here.) 

What Is Your Birthday Word?

Considering the trouble I had last week finding a quiz, this week I'm cheating. Somewhat. 

What is your birthday word?

You type in the year you were born, and the generator gives you a word that was coined near to then. So, much simpler than last week. 

I ended up with romcom. I'll take it. 

I'm curious. What word did it give you?

The Last Time

For #ThrowbackThursday, I went looking for a specific post. It would have been in October of last year. 

It was a minimum day, the last day of the first quarter. 

The last day of a quarter can be a bit weird. The shorter periods make the day go quickly. Not a lot is assigned. And assignments on that day will most likely only be counted on the semester grade. 

That day I covered a Spanish class. It ran the gamut from year one students to the AP students. If I recall correctly, I had some attitude in the first period class, but that was not surprising as they were freshmen. 

The day went pretty smoothly. I think. Although, it took me a bit of time to figure out which assignment went with which class. None of this ended up being blog-worthy, though. For, when I went back through my archives, I did not find a post for this day. 

It's not surprising. I don't blog about every class I cover. Some just don't have a good story to go with them. I was probably sketching out my blog posts for the week while watching them (as it was a Friday), and nothing they did stood out as being all that interesting for the blog. 

As I look at the picture, I remember the set up of the room. The teacher had one of those high chairs which I find uncomfortable to sit on. There was a stand with the seating charts. Most of the work was piled on her desk. 

It was a fairly average day. 

This was the last time I subbed for Ms. M. I did not know it would be The Last Time. 

Last week an email went out to the whole district. Ms. M had passed away. 

By the time all of this is over, we all will have known someone who has passed due to this thing. Likely, more than one.

A NOVA Episode

I've got a different TV post for today. I happened upon the NOVA from two weeks ago (about a week late), and since it's timely, I'm posting the link: 

Decoding COVID-19

It's about 55 minutes. And I'm sure you've already heard some of it. But it talks about how the virus works, what they're doing to find a treatment and vaccine, and the various scientists who are working on the problem. 

It's a good program. As I only accidentally happened upon it, I thought I might not be the only one who almost missed it.

Mysterious Object

At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements. 😉

I've been doing a bit of going through my stuff and getting rid of things. No, nothing like this has happened to me... 

What if you found something buried in a closet or a box or a trunk that you don't remember having before? What if when you touched it, that item started to glow?

A Crochet Spinosaurus

For their birthday, I gave my twin nephews the "gift" of "I'll make you what you want". Twin 1 asked for a Spinosaurus. 

A what now? 

At least Google knew what it was, and it corrected my spelling as well. 

Turns out, there are a few patterns out there for a Spinosaurus. Good thing, as I wouldn't even begin to know how to make one. I chose the Rosie the Spinosaurus pattern which was more cute than anatomically correct. (I didn't like the look of the more dino-looking creatures.) 

The instructions were straightforward, but not always clear. That is, it made sense as I was working it, but if I tried to read ahead, I wasn't always sure how things went together. 

But that's true of many patterns, especially toy patterns. I would probably do things a bit differently if I were to make this again. It'd probably take me a lot less time, too, as I put things off for so long wondering how it would work. 

It was the same the first time I attempted the jellyfish. But once I knew what I was doing, Getting one of those finished took not a lot of time at all. 

The spiney thing, which is what the dinosaur is named for, went on last. 

The face, which I found most difficult, went on first. What do you think? How does the face look?