Motivation Lacking

Monday (the week before spring break). Tenth grade world history. Eighth period. 

The assignment: work on the study guide to prepare for their test on Friday. For the last thirty minutes of class, show the movie Midway. Apparently they'd been watching it in thirty minute increments for a couple days. 

The test was for their unit on World War II. As I meandered around I got relevant questions. One girl verified who the Axis were. Another student was verifying who the leader was in Italy. 

But not everyone was on task. 

I noticed that Jasper and his buddy weren't on the study guide on their Chromebooks. I pointed out that perhaps they wanted to get to the work. They needed to be ready for their upcoming test. 

Jasper didn't see my point. It was Monday. The test was Friday. He had plenty of time to do the study guide. 

Oh yes, I've had this conversation before. Many, many times. 

Somehow Jasper got on the topic of his grades. He was doing fine, he said. Three Fs was just where he wanted to be. Um... 

The low grades, the having plenty of time to get his work done that he was not doing, those are topics I usually discuss with the students at the continuation high school. I said as much. Jasper? He thought the continuation high school sounded like something he should aspire to. 

While I do not begrudge the students at the continuation high school, as they were probably going through some things, I do not encourage students at the traditional high schools to go there. The continuation high school is to help the kiddos out of the bad situation they got themselves into. If they can avoid this, they should do so. 

But again, Jasper thought the continuation high school sounded way easier than his school. Sure, in ways it is. But if Jasper is going to avoid work, he won't get anywhere at the continuation high school. Which I said. But he didn't see my point. 

Deep sigh. 

I left his name in the note, and I let Mr. M know what Jasper didn't do. I assume Jasper bombed his test, and Mr. M can follow up to remind Jasper that he did not use his time wisely when it was given to him. 

Will that do any good? Likely not. But if Jasper hears it enough, it might eventually make some impact. 

Then we got to watch some of the movie Midway, which I had not seen. I'm including the trailer just in case you missed it, too. 

Have you ever seen this Midway? Do you enjoy history? 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Letters from Children

So many terrible things happening all the time now. So, what can I find to talk about for this L day? How about: 

Protesters Fill Minnesota Capitol, Read Letters from Children Held in Immigration Custody

I'm still a little salty from the conversation I had where they said, "It's not really that bad". 

It's really that bad. 

The concentration camps are "unbelievably inhumane". A family held at Texas' Dilley ICE detention center wrote letters describing neglectful medical care, inedible food and a disregard for their religious accommodations. 

And this sort of thing will traumatize these kids for the rest of their lives. Even if the kids aren't taken. 

Tuesdays are my day to rail against the current regime in power in the U.S. Even in April. Feel free to vent in the comments. 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Knitting Another Beanie

I really appreciate K falling on a Monday this year. Makes my life so much simpler...

Last July I asked the family what they wanted for Christmas. Middle nephew requested a beanie in Lakers colors. I finished his in about a week, and he seemed to like it. 

When I finished it, to show it off on the blog, I asked my father to model it. 

And at that time, I offered to knit my father one. 

I started it a few weeks ago. I'm only working on it once a week for a couple hours at a time, so that's why it isn't done yet. 

I decided to reverse the colors. And I'm not sure which one I like better. Here's where the new one is as of this writing: 

It's not too far from done. But I really should be working on other projects. I'll get there. Eventually. 

So, what do you say? Which is better? Option one, with the yellow on top? Or option two, with the purple on top? 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter... 

Jacaranda

 Happy purple tree season to all who celebrate. 

We're not quite to purple tree lined streets yet. Just a few have started blooming. But they're already making a mess... 

Those blooms are thick. And squishy. And they make a mess. This is why these trees get lots of hate from the locals. 

But last year I read lots of "ooh, wow" online about these. And it's Saturday and J-day, so why not? 

It is a striking color.

Are there any things local to you that tourists love but you hate? What sort of colors are popping up around you? 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Identify 26 Global Foods

As it is spring break for me, I have saved last week's subbing stories for next week when I'll be back to work. That means this week is summer schedule time. And Fridays are for random quizzes. 

This one is perfect for our little April trek through the alphabet. You'll be given pictures of 26 different dishes, one for each letter of the alphabet. Can you identify each one?

Identify 26 Global Foods from A to Z

I got 20 out of 26, or 77%, which for me is excellent. I am an incredibly picky eater. I don't try a lot of new things, and I don't keep up with new trends. A few of my correct 20 were lucky guesses. 

I bet you can do better. Let me know how you did in the comments. 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Humble Bundle 13

A couple months ago, I found out about a sale of all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels in a digital format. Which is something I had wanted for a while. I jumped at that. 

Ever since, I've been getting the emails from the company, Humble Bundle. Mostly they bundle up video games, but they do digital books and comics, too. You get a bunch of media at a great price, and they donate the proceeds to charity. 

Since it is spring break (so I'm on the summer schedule), this is a Thursday 13. Since this is April, well, Humble starts with H... Here are 13 bundles you can get right now from Humble Bundle:

1. The Collected Peanuts: 43 books of Peanuts comics. Pay at least $25. Sale ends April 15th.
2. Valiant Classic Omnibuses: 7 comic omnibuses for at least $18. Sale ends April 27th.
3. Guitars and More for Dummies: 18 books for at least $25. Sale ends April 21st.
4. The Dark Worlds of James Herbert: 17 books, for at least $18. Sale ends April 13th.
5. The Best of Ellen Datlow's Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror Anthologies: 29 books for at least $18. Sale ends April 28th.
6. Linux the Good Stuff: 17 books for at least $60. Sale ends April 19th.
7. Strategic Minds Collection: 7 battle games for at least $18. Sale ends April 22nd.
8. Avatar 20th Anniversary Physical RPG Bundle: 6 physical items for at least $49. Sale ends April 24th.
9. Humble Heroines: 6 female-fronted games for at least $18. Sale ends April 15th.
10. Spring 2026 15 for 15: 15 games for at least $15. Sale ends April 15th.
11. Dungeon Master's Adventures, 3D Printable Miniatures & Scenery: 91 item software bundle for at least $25. Sale ends April 20th.
12. The 2026 Certification Bundle: 45 item curriculum bundle for at least $25. Sale ends April 12th.
13. Realer than Reality Scanned Material Bundle: 22 items for at least $30. Sale ends April 20th.

Sometimes they have good stuff, sometimes not. Check out the website and sign up for the emails. You might be surprised at what they have on offer.

Have you ever bought from Humble Bundle before? Jealous of my acquisition of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels? See anything you might be tempted to buy?

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Good Blogging Manners

It is spring break. As is my habit for off-times, I go into my "summer schedule" here on the blog. (My subbing stories from last week will appear next week.) Wednesdays are for blogging minutiae. 

Since it is A to Z Challenge time, I thought I'd talk about commenting. Especially commenting as a return visit when someone new visits your blog. It is considered good manners, and most of the bloggers I encounter do engage in the practice. 

But there are times when I fall down on the job. That's when I can't find the blog of the commenter. 

These instructions are for Blogger. At some point I created a reader profile on WordPress, so when I comment there there's also a link. It seems to work... 

If you click on your name after you've commented on a Blogger blog, you'll get your profile page. Under "My Blogs" should be a link to your blog. 

My problems stem from when there is more than one blog listed. And/or that link goes to a blog that hasn't been updated in a long time. Or it goes to a landing page where the blog is not obvious. 

Sure, I could go to the A to Z Master List. Now. But in non-April times, or really now, as I don't have a lot of time to go blog searching, if I can't figure out where the blog is fairly easily, I won't return visit. (And I'll feel guilty for this, but at a certain point it's more trouble than it's worth.) 

If your profile works, there's a big "Edit Profile" button in the upper right hand corner. Making it clear which blog you want return visitors to find makes things so much simpler. 

But what if your profile doesn't work? What if the only way to you can comment is via "Anonymous"? 

(This happens. Sometimes it's a system glitch. Sometimes I can't get the right Google profile to load. And sometimes it's a problem I can't figure out, and who has time to mess with that, especially in April?)

This is where using some HTML in a comment is fine. 

I usually type something like "Liz A. from Laws of Gravity" as a signature. (If you've seen my "Some Basic HTML" post, you know how to do this.) I have this saved on "Notepad" on my Windows desktop so all I have to do is copy/paste if needed. 

And you can do that, too. 

In HTML, my signature looks like:

The highlighted parts are the important HTML that you'll need for your signature. Or:

You can omit the spaces. (I did it that way to make it stand out.) The red is what you'll replace with your information. (Sorry it's an image. I tried to get one of those boxes things that you can copy, but I couldn't make it work. At least, since it's an image, you can click on it to make it bigger.) 

If you add that to the end of all your comments, there's no question where you want return visits to go. 

I've been bad about this, though. I've been trusting that my links work. And they seem to? That's the problem, of course. If the links don't work, that's the blogger who isn't returning the visit. 

So, how about you? Are you getting return visits? Do you put in a blogging signature? Has anyone figured out how to not have to do an anonymous comment? 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...