In the Background

What song are you listening to right now?

(I generally work in silence, so I'm listening to the wind and the fountains outside.)

13 Surprises from My Junk Drawer

Last week I listed a bunch of projects that I had worked on or was planning on working on. It was not a complete list. A couple days after completing the post, I found a "junk drawer organizer" that I had purchased months ago with the knowledge that I wouldn't be able to do anything with it until I had some time. I had some time.

I knew what was in the junk drawer. I did. I put the stuff in there myself. And yet, I was surprised by some of the crap I found. So, for today's Thursday 13, I am listing some of the surprises and some of the weird that I found while doing a bit of clearing and organizing.

1. I have an index card problem. I did not realize how bad it was until emptying the drawer. I knew I had some index cards, but I didn't realize how many. And they were everywhere. (Don't let the picture fool you. That was after I had found them all and stacked them together. They were not this neat in the drawer.)

2. I also have a post-it note problem. I had six full pads of post-it notes. 

3. And, I have a scotch tape problem. I had three full rolls plus an empty roll. Why I had an empty roll, I have no idea. It's now in the trash. (And that doesn't count the two or three tape dispensers I have in my wrapping paper nook.)

4. Mechanical pencils. I do not need this many mechanical pencils. I do not know why I bought all of them. (They are going to come to school with me next school year. I figure a week, two tops, and that will be a problem of the past.)

5. Instructions for a digital clock that I no longer have. I remember the clock. I had to have bought it in the '90s. I tossed it (after it died) years ago. Why I still have the instructions... (Those also got tossed.)

6. An old cell phone case... for my old iPhone 4... (I have an iPhone 15 today.)

7. Speaking of phones, I also found my old phone books. I haven't needed a phone book since getting a cell phone and keeping my contact list up to date.

8. A Halloween sound effects box and a Halloween flashlight. Neither work (although, that's a battery issue, I'm sure). I don't remember the last time I saw either, but it was before Covid. 

9. I have an eraser I keep in my school bag. I use it a lot. I used it up. I knew I had another, but I could not find it. So, sometime during the school year, I bought a new one. Guess what I found in the junk drawer? Yup, I knew I had another one of those erasers. Now I have four. (They come in packs of three.)

10. Three packages of crazy glue. I don't need three packages of crazy glue. And they're all sealed, so I have never used any of them. 

11. Old sunglasses...

12. Of course, there were the assorted tacks (why I need 100 tacks...), paper clips, rubber bands, etc. in every corner. And, of course, some fell on the floor while I was going through it all, so of course I stepped on a tack...

13. Random buttons. I have a button tub where I keep random buttons. So, why did I have at least a dozen in the junk drawer?

Yeah, so the drawer is organized. For the moment. You know what I did not find? Pens. I have been in Dollar Tree about once a week for months, and I have been holding back on buying pens. "You have pens at home." Nope. I now have permission to go and buy more pens. I think that's my biggest surprise. 

3 Body Problem

Last week I talked about how I had started a bunch of shows, but I couldn't get past the pilot episodes. Luckily, one show interested me enough that I was able to finish its first (and only, so far) season. 3 Body Problem.

I had heard some rumblings about this Netflix show, but they weren't the sort of rumblings that would normally draw me in. Incomprehensible. Violent. Weird...

Okay, weird I'm okay with. I'm not fond of violence, but I can put up with it for the right sort of story. As for the hard to understand part, I am familiar with the 3 body problem from my physics studies (in that it's not solvable). 

As nothing else was sticking, I figured I'd give it a go.

The pilot episode didn't turn me off. I was ambivalent, but willing to give it a second episode. It wasn't until episode four or five that I felt like I got my feet under me, and then I was on board. (That's about the time the underlying mysteries got explained. It went from what the heck? to oh, I know these tropes.)

The show starts off with some weird things happening in science. Particle colliders are turning up weird results that are upending all particle physics theories. Something's wrong with the accelerators or something's wrong with the theories. Science is broken.

At the same time, various scientists are dying--many by their own hand. It's too many to be a coincidence. And one of our main characters is seeing a countdown in her vision that no one else can see. It's clear that some of the other now-dead scientists had seen this same countdown. (She goes to see a neurologist. They can find nothing wrong.) 

The show centers on a group of people (age: 30-ish) who went to university together (I think it was Oxford--they're in the UK). They studied physics. Two are working scientists. One went into developing something in the private sector. One became a physics teacher. And the last one left the field and became a millionaire selling chips (food, not computer chips). 

And then there's a parallel story set in China in the late '60s. That connects it all together. Eventually.

This is a great sci fi show. If you like that sort of thing. And if you have Netflix. (Sorry if you don't.) 

Have you seen it? Are you tempted if you haven't?

All Closed

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 😉

What if your local library closed permanently? (Could be budget cuts. Could be citizens protesting what's in the library's collection. Could be new regulations. I won't specify why.)

How to Crochet a Mobius Scarf

In my summer of getting random projects done, I actually got myself a new computer. I ordered it a week ago, and it arrived on Wednesday. This is the first blog post I've written using it. (It's a Lenovo, and I know nothing much more than that other than it has a touch screen and a working keyboard.)

And I also finished reviewing that mobius scarf video that I made over a year ago, but have been talking about since I made a pink one two years ago and mentioned that the video was in progress in April. 

And now, if I want to keep my YouTube channel active, I need to figure out what to make on camera next. (I have one video being edited, but nothing coming after that.) I've been toying with the idea of doing the Christmas ornaments, but otherwise I'm out of ideas. Any thoughts?

Anyway, here's the video:

It's about 33 minutes long, so I don't expect views from any except crocheters. I hope you like it.

Your Bait

While planning out this week's blog posts, I was perusing Bluesky. And someone had started a thread with this question:

If someone was baiting a trap to specifically catch you, what bait would they use?

The post from Bluesky.

And I thought that would be an excellent question. 

So, what would be the perfect thing that would get you to fall into a trap specifically designed to catch you? 

(I've been pondering the question for days now, and I can't come up with anything. Although, if they fixed my computer so it stopped doing this lagging/glitching thing it's been doing, I might not notice something coming for me...)

Summer To Do List 13

It's the middle of my summer break, so I've been busy getting some things done. And I have a mental list of all the things I would like to finish before school starts back up. For today's Thursday 13, I'm listing some of them.

1. As I sit here writing this (a week ago), I am car-less. My car is over 30 years old, so routine maintenance tends to find issues. It was my own fault, really. I told them to check the brakes... Better they find it now than it causes a problem later.

2. A couple years ago, I came up with a way of handling the pictures I post on this blog, mostly the classroom pictures. That necessitates a reset once a year (where I clear out the pictures from the previous school year). I have backed those photos up to an external hard drive and cleared the pictures on my laptop.

3. And while I dealt with the pictures, I backed up all of my laptop's files. I should do this more frequently than once a year, but I don't. (Everything is backed up to the cloud, too. And most of these files aren't critical.)

4. I finally have my dental appointments set so they both hit at vacation times. (My dentist's office is only open until 3:30, and school gets out at 3:35, so if I want to go in on a school day, I'm not working that day.) I had my semi annual cleaning at the end of June. 

5. I also cleared out my school digital files. Mostly I purged a bunch of files that were class specific to this past school year (notes to teachers about classes that now no longer exist, seating charts for classes that now no longer exist, etc.). What was left was organized into files so I can find them if I need them again. 

6. I made a bunch of copies of my weekly checklist. More than 52. I won't need to do this for another year. And I updated a few pages of info I keep on hand.

7. I am due for an optometrist appointment. (I have a feeling my contact prescription has changed.) I was going to go in June, but I didn't want to go while sick. Now I just have to call and make an appointment... (This can take me months, actually, but I'm determined to do this before my birthday. My birthday's at the end of this month.) 

8. I finally went through the video files I made for another video for my YouTube channel, and I sent them off to my brother to edit together. Now, I need to watch one video that's been finished for months, and get that uploaded. (It's a moebius scarf. I'm quite proud of that project.) 

9. I still have to go through my school bag and clean it out. I started this a month ago, but I haven't really done the purge that I should do at least once a year (best before a new school year begins). 

10. I need to work on packing stuff up and moving it to a storage unit. I started this back in October when it looked like I was going to have to move. That move is going to happen, and I'd rather not have to scramble when it does. That means getting ahead of things (downsizing, storage unit, etc.) before. (I don't know when the move is going to happen. I may have another year. I may have a couple months.)

11. I really need to plan Christmas gifts. Yes, it's early. But this is when I need to start if I plan on making anyone anything. 

12. It's time to replace my computer. And I've been intending to do this for three months. Maybe soon?

13. I need to clean up the apps on my phone. Once upon a time I managed to get them all on one screen. (Grouping them helped with this.) But then a couple new apps (for school) became necessary, and my system got broken. It's time to get it organized so that the apps I use are on the first screen and the ones I keep around aren't. 

What sorts of things are you getting done this summer? What sorts of things do you want to get done this summer?