Short Horror Story

Since it's Halloween, rather than a what if, I thought I'd try my hand at a two sentence horror story. (Thanks for the idea, Jeanne.)

If you want some really good ones, go here. And if you'd like to try it out yourself, I'd love to see what you come up with in the comments (or go ahead and link to your own post).

After days starving, trapped by the snowstorm, we thank James for his sacrifice today. But the children are going to be hungry again tomorrow.

Fidget Spinner Cozy Pattern

I've been meaning to post this for a while. I wrote this up in May, I think, and then set it aside and forgot about it. Oops.

(I know many of my readers aren't knitters. If you want one of these but don't have the means to make it yourself, I am selling them out of my Etsy shop, Zizi Rho Designs.)

Initially, the idea was to repurpose my "knitted pouches" (which is a repurpose from a cell phone cozy that you can clip on something--long story how they came about in the first place). If the fidget spinners fit inside, that's what I'd call the pouches from now on.

But once I had that thought, I kept going. I could knit something the same size as the fidget spinner. It would need to be a triangle. but if I did that, then I could keep it open at the center so one could still spin it while it was in the fabric. This would make it a cozy...

How to construct? I could start from the center, knit one side, then knit the other. That way, both sides look exactly the same. Balanced.

So, plan in place, I set about knitting one. I used a temporary cast on. Knit a few rounds. Bound off. Unraveled the temporary cast on and repeated for the other side. Easy enough.

But I didn't like how the finished object looked. There was an extra half row that made the garter ridges look wrong.

A couple more tries with a couple more tweaks...

And I discovered that I was making the whole thing much more complicated than I needed to.

I guess I've been knitting for too long. I know several ways to accomplish a goal. I was using every trick I know when simpler is actually best in this case.

Right. So that's the story. Here's the pattern.

Materials:

• About 0.15 oz of worsted weight yarn
• Set of 4 size 8 (5.0 mm) double pointed needles
• Stitch markers

Gauge: About 15 sts/4 inches over garter stitch while slightly stretched.

This is made to fit the triangular shaped fidget spinner that's about 3 inches (7.6 cm) along each side. If you have a different style to cover, adjust the pattern accordingly.

Notes:

• This pattern is written to be knitted on 3 double pointed needles. If using a different circular method, mark each "needle" with stitch markers and proceed accordingly. 
• The increases are done by doing a yarn over (yo) on the round, and then on the following round working those yarn overs through the back loop (TBL). 

Using Old Norwegian Cast On, cast on 21 stitches.

Arrange these stitches over 3 needles, 7 stitches per needle (or mark off 7 stitches).

Join to work in rounds.
Follow the chart, working each needle as indicated:

Round	Needle 1	Needle 2	Needle 3
1	K1, yo, k6, yo	P1, yo, p6, yo	K1, yo, k6, yo
2	P1, p1 TBL, p6, p1 TBL	K1, k1 TBL, k6, k1 TBL	P1, p1 TBL, p6, p1 TBL
3	K1, yo, k8, yo	P1, yo, p8, yo	K1, yo, k8, yo
4	P1, p1 TBL, p8, p1 TBL	K1, k1 TBL, k8, k1 TBL	P1, p1 TBL, p8, p1 TBL
5	K11	P11	K11
6	P11	K11	P11
7	Ssk, k7, k2tog	P2tog, p7, p2tog	Ssk, k7, k2tog
8	P9	K9	P9
9	Ssk, k5, k2tog	P2tog, p5, p2tog	Ssk, k5, k2tog
10	P7 (bind off)	K7 (bind off)	P7 (bind off)

Round 10 is the bind off round. Use the Simple Stretchy Bind Off.

Wind in ends, and put it on your fidget spinner.

I'd love to see your finished projects. Upload to Ravelry. Tag me on Instagram or Twitter (I'm @ZiziRho).

The Balloons

They delivered them while I gave period one my opening remarks. A bunch of helium-filled blue balloons. I was covering an 8th grade science class. And all of their eyes went wide.

"What are the balloons for?"

I tied the bunch to the back of a chair. No way was I going to deal with those yet. Experience has taught me to pass those sorts of things out at the end of the period.

Still, periodically, someone would ask, "What are the balloons for?" And I would reply, "We'll get to them at the end of the period."

The balloons were a reward for the kiddos who had done well on the state testing last spring. The awarding of the balloons turned into a nice little ceremony.

I read the explanation of what the balloons were for. Then I called names. Each student came up to retrieve their balloon. The class applauded each recipient. It went very smoothly.

And then the bell rang.

Passing period. A student returned. "Howard knocked Amber's balloon out of her hand, and it flew away."

And so it began.

Second period the balloons were everywhere. A couple came loose from their strings. I retrieved one from the ceiling. (I was tall enough to reach. The student was grateful.)

Fourth period a couple girls came up with a game. Balloons mysteriously floated to the ceiling. The girls were cutting their classmates' balloons loose. (They did not have balloons of their own. And Andie was in that group.)

By sixth period, there were far fewer balloons. One boy walked into class with his balloon's remnant. Tied to a string was the bottom of a popped balloon. It looked rather sad as he tossed it over his shoulder as if it might fly again.

Yeah, that went about how I expected it would. Talk about an ephemeral reward!

The Long Walk

We're now officially into the school year. We've hit the days where there are not enough subs to go around. This means extra work for me. 😎

I was at the back of campus. Room 919. Beyond the classroom were the P.E. fields. So, way at the back of campus.

I was, of course, expecting the phone call. Could I work an extra period? Of course. And then she told me the room number.

Room 100.

Yup. That's about as far away from room 919 as you'd expect.

Sometimes the secretary will tell me who the teacher is or what the subject is, but not this time. However, I knew already. It was a Spanish class. But this teacher has various levels of Spanish. So, I didn't know quite what I'd be walking into.

As per normal, we got into the classroom after the bell. I went looking for the lesson plans. Found them. And then I learned what class I'd be covering.

AP Spanish IV.

I did a mental jig as I read that. The class cheered when I told them their test had been postponed.

(I could have ended up with freshmen in Spanish I. They would have been a challenge. But Spanish IV--and AP to boot--contains the kiddos who have chosen to remain in this elective. The kiddos who actually like the subject. The good kids.)

Some days I just luck out. It was that kind of week, actually. Well, until... (Check in tomorrow. That day was more "interesting".)

Requested

Monday morning. The teacher was there before school to give me the rundown of what he wanted done in his classes. It was a chapter on vertebrates in the simplified science textbook for the middle school special ed. class. Standard stuff.

Mr. M was in and out of his classroom for the first couple periods. (This sometimes happens when the start time for the teacher's thing is later than the start time for school.) I don't particularly mind, but I do get a bit of stage fright.

(There have been instances where I got a "critique" later, so I worry.)

Luckily, the classes were cooperative on this day, and we got through the material. Before Mr. M was ready to leave, however, he mentioned that he'd be out again on Wednesday. And, if I wanted and wasn't already booked, I could cover his class.

As it was a pretty good day, I figured I'd try to get the class again. But when I called in for an assignment for Wednesday, Mr. M's class had already been taken.

Ah well. There are other classes. I didn't think too much more about it.

I happened to be on the same campus Wednesday. I was scheduled to cover a general ed. English class. But the secretary had a request for me. Mr. M had gone to her and asked her to have me cover his classes again.

When we're booked to cover a class, we're booked to cover a particular class. There's a whole system in place. The secretary sometimes does switch subs around, but it's something that only happens under extraordinary circumstances. (Or if there's a mistake in the scheduling.)

However, on this day, the secretary asked if I'd be willing to make the switch. It was okay with me, but what about the other sub?

He's been subbing about as long as I have. We're on friendly terms. I figured that he'd be okay with the switch. I mean, general ed. instead of special ed? I think he actually got the better deal.

(I told the secretary that if he didn't want to make the switch to let me know and I'd take back my originally scheduled assignment.)

It amazes me that teachers actually request me to cover their classes. And so this is how I covered the same class for two days this past week.

UBI

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 you heard of the idea of a universal basic income? It's something that's been all over my Twitter feed recently as #basicincome and #CASHcon. (If you haven't seen it, check it out.) I first heard of this only this year, but it seems to be getting more and more press. And this got me thinking...

What if you started getting an extra $1000 a month from some philanthropical concern? Would you be suspicious? What would you do with the money?

Fixed It

Last week I revealed the first block of the project I'm calling the Russian Poncho.

And I mentioned that I made a mistake. It's a subtle difference, but one that was kinda bothering me. (I'm not posting the picture from Pinterest of the pattern as I don't know the copyright, but you can check it out via the link.)

Well, I fixed it. Here's the updated version...

Look at the outer rounds. It's visible in that purple band between the bands of teal. See it?

I think it makes a big difference. And it wasn't a big correction to make. I even managed to complete a second block this week...

So, progress.

What did you make progress on last week?

A Forced Computer Restart

Friday was a weird day. I got what is called a "roving" assignment. It was a training day for the English teachers. But instead of having them out all day, they split the group in half so half were out for the first half of the day while the other half were out for the second. And since the teacher I was covering the first half of the day had a 1st period prep, I was sent elsewhere for that period.

Which is why when I walked into the class I was covering 2nd period, I was not surprised to find the computer set up with the class' assignment.

The class had vocabulary words to copy down. This is something they do every day. All I had to do was turn on the projector.

Well, ideally that's how it would have worked out.

When I got into the room, I found a countdown clock on the computer. I had less than ten minutes before it was going to shut down.

I know this drill. The computer uploads updates. Then it tells you it needs to shut down. But you can postpone that. So, that's what I did. I told the computer to postpone shutting down for four hours.

Only, that didn't stop the countdown clock. Nothing would stop the countdown clock. I tried the exit button. I tried CTRL-ALT-DEL. I tried the escape button. I clicked on everything I could. But the countdown clock kept ticking away.

The only other trick I know is to shut down the computer. Which is what it was going to do anyway.

Unfortunately, it was going to take the vocabulary words with it. And I didn't have the teacher's log in, so when the computer restarted, I would not be able to access the teacher's files.

Ah, technology...

In the end, I could not stop the forced shut down. The students had maybe five minutes of the eight to ten that they needed to copy down the words. And with no other choice, I then just started them on the assignment for the rest of the period.

It was a freshman class, so I had the usual freshman problems. The teacher's computer finished restarting. And then I could log in to the computer under my log in.

And it turned out that the teacher had a back up for me. She had printed out the words (as well as the words for the next class), and her document camera was connected. So, I set that up, and about halfway through the class, we were able to complete the vocabulary that should have been done at the start.

Better late than never.

With that technical difficulty out of the way, I had no issues with the computer for the next class.

These are the joys of subbing. Unexpected issues always seem to crop up.

All Subs

Tuesday and Thursday of last week I covered a "severe" special ed. class.

Rather than go into a long-winded explanation of what that means, let me reference some previous posts. Two weeks ago, I wrote about the class that these kiddos will go into once they've aged out of the high school. And I pretty much had the same group at the end of the school year when they were still in middle school (so, June 2016). (In fact, Kenya, Brittany, and the boy Kenya had a crush on were all in this class.)

Tuesday things went pretty well. And if that's all there was to the story, this wouldn't have made the blog. I figured Thursday would go similarly. In fact, when I arrived, the lesson plan for Thursday was pretty much identical to Tuesday's. (The math problems were of the same type, but different examples. The grammar lesson had different questions. The reading assignment was a different page. But otherwise, we did the exact same thing.)

But when class started, I was all alone with the class.

These types of classes always have instructional aides. The IAs know everything, and I lean on them heavily. This class was supposed to have two IAs with me in first period. And yet...

Luckily, I knew the drill as it was the same as it had been for Tuesday. We did their "journal" (which was a math problem... a story for another day). And then it was time to deliver coffee exactly the way they had done on Tuesday.

About the time we were getting ready to leave, an IA showed up saying that she had been sent to fill in. And while we were delivering the coffee, another sub arrived to help out. (He was actually a substitute teacher like me. The class he was supposed to cover turned out to not need a sub.)

By second period I had full IA coverage. But, opposite what's usually the case on these days, I was the one who knew what was going on in the class and I was directing the others in what to do.

Somehow we got through the day. (I did have one regular IA, but she worked the last three periods.)

When I was getting the assignments for this week, the sub caller almost gave me a different teacher for Thursday. When I realized that I could cover the same teacher on Thursday as I did on Tuesday, I made sure to request that placement. I shudder to think what would have become of another sub walking into this without the backup I had had on Tuesday (with IAs who guided me through the day).

Punishment, Unusual and a Little Cruel

In the first year of high school math, certain students who are struggling are given an extra period of what is called "math support". All the struggling students. Together. In one period.

This is how difficult classes are constructed.

But, I had two things going for me on this day. One: I had fair warning from the teacher himself and his co-teacher (who had taught all the previous classes that day). Warning and support. And two: another teacher "helped out" (read: did all the work) with the class.

One of the warnings I got was a little trick the teachers used to keep the class in line. Turning on the air conditioning was contingent upon the class' behavior.

I know many parts of the U.S. are getting into fall temperatures. However, I'm in southern California. On this day, our high was projected to be in the upper seventies. (Roughly 25 C.) With it being a sunny and warm day, and us being in a classroom with no open windows, the room got fairly warm. I had been running the a/c all day.

But, with the warning, I turned off the a/c before this class came in. (This class was immediately after lunch.)

Class got started. The other teacher who "helped out" showed up. (There was some question as to whether or not she'd be there on this day. As it sounds like she's doing this extra on her own time, I wouldn't have blamed her for not coming in.) I passed out their assignment, and they got to work.

Slowly, the temperature in the room crept up. And someone asked me to turn on the a/c.

The other teacher then used the a/c to her advantage. She informed the class that everyone had to complete two problems before she'd turn on the a/c. Several students had completed way more than two problems, but several others hadn't even written their names on their paper.

It took at least five minutes (maybe ten) before the stragglers finally finished their two problems.

I was urging them on. I run warm generally, and I was already dripping sweat. (This is normal for me.)

The class was still loud. Several only got those two problems done. But, that class could have gone a whole lot worse. I'm going to have to consider using the a/c to my advantage in the future.

Skipping Lunch

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 😉

What if we didn't need to eat?

Updating Pictures, Part 5

Another Monday. More pictures.

I have now got a backlog of pictures to sort through. This is a good thing. Now I just have to sit myself down and make the time...

This week I retook the pictures of my Halloween projects from a couple years ago. I made small amigurumi pumpkins, and then with puffy paint I made one a jack-o-lantern...

And then, of course, is the spider...

One of these years I'll get a whole bunch of critters made for Halloween. But when I should be working on them (August), I tend to be distracted by other things. Ah well.

Finally, I got working on the poncho that I talked about a few weeks back. The first panel is finally done. (And now that I went back to look at the original, I see a big mistake I made. Oops.)

This has taken me way too long to do. Not that it's all that hard. I just haven't been doing much crocheting (or knitting) lately. My usual yarn time keeps getting usurped by my desire to go to sleep early. I figure time will open up in the not too distant future. I hope.

(Pattern for the poncho is the link to the pin above. Here's the link to the pattern for the spider. And here's the link to the pattern for the amigurumi pumpkin.)

Friday and 13

It's Friday the 13th. The second and last one of the year. (In any given year there will be at least one, but never more than three. If there are three, they will be in February, March, and November. Unless it's a leap year, and then they'll be in January, April, and July. And they occur when a month starts--the 1st is--on a Sunday.)

Enough random calendar information...

Anyway, as last week was rather light on blog-worthy subbing incidents (good for my sanity, not so much for the blog), it's time for another random quiz Friday. And in honor of the day, I found a Friday the 13th quiz.

You can click the "prev" and "next" to skip around. If needed. This shouldn't be too difficult of a quiz. And if you can't work the embed, click on the link above.


Please let me know how you did in the comments 😎

Out of Order

Seventh grade science. They had a test.

This teacher had assigned a couple students every period to be test helpers. Their job was to pass out tests and then to organize the tests after they had been turned in. And most of them did a pretty good job. (It's early in the school year. They'll get better.)

(I know the drill. I covered this teacher for four? weeks last school year.)

But in 4th period...

Each student got a "test" and an "answer sheet" (a Scantron page to fill in the multiple choice answers). The tests got reused every period. To make sure they all got returned, they were numbered. That makes it easy to see if one is missing.

So, the test helpers were to put these back in numerical order.

While the test helpers were taking their tests, I'd keep things neat. I ordered the tests, mostly because I can't abide disorder when I can do something about it. But when the test helpers were ready, I left them to do their job.

The first thing the 4th period helpers did was to take my nice, neat stack and turn it into five or six piles of chaos. Their method made no sense, but I figured they had a plan.

Turns out, I was wrong.

At the end of 4th period, the helpers handed me the stack of tests. Initially, I thought just a couple tests were out of order. But then I took a closer look.

(4th period was right before lunch. By the time I'd taken a closer look, the kiddos were all gone.)

I don't know what order they were going for. It would be one thing if they just weren't in order at all. That I could somewhat understand. But this?

I took a picture to send to their teacher because I couldn't not share...

The top of the pile was test #2. The bottom was test #20. (Click on the picture to get a closer look.) And in between...

It's like they started to put them in order, but then they didn't finish? Or they had them sort of in order, but then they didn't order the smaller piles? I just don't get it.

As I told their teacher, those helpers either need to be retrained or replaced. Although, I think there's hope for them. Probably.

Updating Pictures, Part 4

I've been taking a lot of pictures lately. This is good as I've needed to update my listings in my Etsy shop for some time now. But, the more pictures I take, the more pictures I have to go through, and that's what's been bogging me down as of late.

(Well, that and the school year getting underway...)

This week I made a stab at photographing the cozies I made for the fidget spinners...

I like that image of all of them, but I think the close ups aren't too bad either...

And it's getting close to time when I'm going to want my knitted and beaded Christmas tree ornaments to be available...

None of these are listed, however. (If you're interested in purchasing any of these, just let me know. While it will take me some time to get them listed, if I know someone wants one, I can put up a custom listing immediately.)

What I did finally get listed was the pattern for the Bullseye Beanie on Etsy. (It's been available on Ravelry for a couple weeks now.)

More pictures coming soon.

If something seems different today, it is. If you came here looking for a story from the #subfiles, I posted the one that would normally have appeared today on Monday. I've been a bit behind with the editing of the photos and the knitting and the crocheting, so rather than going dark on Monday, I swapped the posts. Hopefully, next week all will be back to normal.

Up in Smoke

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'm writing this Monday afternoon. I had a whole different post ready to go for today, but I'm changing it for a more timely question.

Around noon today I noticed a distinct odor in the air. "Where's the wildfire?" I asked. Turned out it's about a half hour away. (We discovered this after turning on the TV.) As the afternoon progressed, the light got darker and darker (and more orange-tinged). As the news crews watched, houses burned. (The firefighters were on scene doing their best.)

And we began speculating about the residents. How many of them had left home to go to work and now have no home to come back to? So, now you know what the question is...

What if while you were at work your house burned, and you lost everything?

Dragging his Feet

Seventh grade math. Their assignment was a review packet for an upcoming test. And because they were seventh graders, I spent most of my time trying to keep them settled.

In a class of seventh grade crazy, Jairo stood out. Literally. He refused to sit for much of the period.

So, when with 15 minutes left of class Jairo had packed his stuff up and was ready to go, I noticed.

I informed him that he still had time to get work done. It wasn't clean up time. And he'd better get his work back out and do... something...

He ignored me. He told me he was going to do it for homework.

(At this point, I normally would have made the assignment due right then, but it was a test review. Plus, there were enough students on task, and it wouldn't have been fair to them when Jairo was the only one being difficult about doing the assignment in class.)

Luckily, this was the last class of the day. If he wasn't going to work for the last 10 minutes of class, I'd have him stay 10 minutes after school.

Jairo unzipped his backpack. I prompted him to keep going. He thunked his binder onto the desk. Right direction, but not complete. He opened his binder.

Yes, I had to prompt him at each step. Then the assignment came out, but he said he didn't have a pencil.

There was no work on the paper, but his name was at the top, and there were various doodles in spots. Clearly he had had a pencil. He began a convoluted story of how he had borrowed a pencil from one student for one thing and another for...

Okay. Fine. He would have to remain in class until he finished one problem.

Immediately, Jairo opened the front pouch of his backpack, produced a purple mechanical pencil, and filled in an answer on his page. (A correct answer.)

It's amazing how he put so much effort into resisting doing anything constructive. If he were to apply that single mindedness to work for him...

Too bad I didn't ask Jairo for five problems.

If something seems different today, it is. Monday is usually the day I post my latest knitting or crochet project (although lately I've just been posting the new pictures I've been taking of older projects), and my subbing stories I post later in the week. However, as of "press time", I had no new projects or pictures ready to go for the blog, so rather than going dark like I did last Monday (due to the same issue), I'm rearranging my schedule for this week. I should have some pretty pictures for Wednesday 🤞.

Cheer Fan

A middle school art class on a Friday. It didn't go that badly, considering.

Some kiddos are just oblivious. The bell had rung. I was trying to start class. But Andie wouldn't get in her seat until other students pointed out that that's what I was hinting at. By saying, "Okay, class, let's get started."

Yeah, Andie was an issue. And apparently a well-known one to her teacher. Mr. S had left names of those I should "keep an eye on". Her name was at the top.

On this day, Andie decided that she just had to watch the cheerleaders.

She was astounded by them. She could see them practicing though the window, but only if she was standing right in front of it. And she had to watch them.

I told her she could watch them after school. She complained they weren't going to be there after school.

I've been subbing a while. The cheerleaders practice in the same spot every day. And they continue to practice after school. They did this last year. They're doing the same thing this year.

While it may be the beginning of the school year, we're a good month in. Football season is well underway. I'm certain the cheerleaders have been there every other day that I wasn't the sub in this art classroom. So Andie's arguments don't hold water.

And yet she did everything she could to get back to that window at every opportunity.

Middle schoolers. They obsess about the strangest things.

Not a Real Word

Some classes I cover more than others. (I hear there are going to be a lot of English curriculum trainings this year...) So, this particular PLUS class and I are well-known to each other.

The day's lesson was about vocabulary. They were to take words like team, values, character, and role model and define them "through a PLUS lens". (That is, they were to give examples of those qualities in action.)

I had a list. The lesson plan said to assign a word to each student. So, I did. I went down the class roster and down the list of words. And they were okay with this. Well, everyone except one student.

He got assigned "paradigm".

"That's not a real word."

Since the assignment had them creating a Google slide for the word, the students had computers. And I had just spelled the word for the boy. (Never mind that the word was in the book that was open in front of him.)

He had typed the word into Google, and the definition was right there on the screen in front of him.

So, yeah, of course I just made the word up... *eye roll*

He eventually completed the assignment. I think. But not after he challenged me to use the word in a sentence. (Which I did. Not a great sentence, mind you, but passable.)

How about you? Want to try to use paradigm in a sentence?

Lost at the Mall

Last Monday I went to the mall. And got paid to do it.

It was the first time I went to the adult transition center. It's the place they send the severe special ed kids who age out of the high school program. On Mondays they do their CBI or community based instruction. That is, they go to the mall.

We exited the school and got on a city bus. One girl said she needed to get her Halloween costume, so we headed for the pop up Halloween store. When we arrived, the rest of the class was reluctant to go inside. So, I volunteered to go with the girl while the aides took the rest of the class to the Costco food court.

Turns out the Halloween store didn't have the costume the girl was looking for. So, we went in search of the rest of the class. We got to Costco only to not find the class.

Did I misunderstand? Did they mean the mall's food court?

It was a bit of a trek, but we made it to the mall's food court. Only... Right. Not there either. So, back we went.

Oh, did I mention it was warm that day. The high was in the upper 80s. Ahem.

Okay, so we get back to Costco, and there's the rest of the class. Naturally. (Apparently, they went inside the Costco for something.) We should have just waited. (Oh well. That's half on me.)

And that was just the beginning of our adventures.

I never get to go on the "field trips". So, this was kind of fun. We were gone for more than three hours, and we took the bus back.

Why I avoided going to this school before, I have no idea.

The Big Silence

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 ;)

My "what if?" from two weeks ago garnered this interesting response from Bookworm:

I am cynical enough to believe we will never find any intelligent life (or their probes, or anything else). I fear all intelligent races end up destroying themselves before they can leave their home solar systems. Just like we might just well do.

And then I saw this tweet...

This is the alternate universe other universes warn their kids about.

— God (@TheTweetOfGod) September 26, 2017

The two ideas combined in my brain, and this is what came out of it... 

What if "intelligent life" is doomed to anniliate itself? What if the reason we haven't encountered a space faring race is because no race has ever managed to evolve that far?