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 was scrolling through Twitter the other night when I happened upon this tweet:
This reminds me of something a profoundly deaf friend said to me about the first time he got cochlear implants (as a young adult). Apparently one of the first things he signed after getting them was “Wait!? The sun is silent??”
Middle nephew's birthday is about a week after the twins'. Like the twins, middle nephew (AKA Rambo) got a card and a "free choice" for what he wanted. Unlike the twins, I did not get his request right away.
I mailed off the twins' gifts. My brother sent back a video of them opening them along with a video of the twins' requests. That were not what my sister-in-law had texted me...
It's cute. But considering how long he's waited for his choice, how big his little brothers' gifts were, and the degree of difficulty of making this, I knew it wasn't going to cut it.
...it made a squid of about the right dimensions (and labor involved).
Okay, then. Just for comparison sake...
And now I'm done with nephews birthdays for this year. (Niece still hasn't given me her request, but that's another story.)
In case you were wondering, the twins requested a Kracken and a dragon that breathes fire (and the fire can be pulled out of the belly of the dragon). They're seven.
Although, they seemed to like the shark and the Spinosaurus. And I can get a head start on Christmas. There's this really cool Kracken beanie I've been dying for an excuse to try. As for a fire breathing dragon, well, dragon I can do, but I have no idea how to make it fire breathing. (If any of you have seen a pattern for that, send me the link, will ya?)
I keep a few lists on my computer. They're kind of a contingency plan for the blog. There are times when I have a lot going on, like during the school year. If I run across something, like a quiz, that I like, I'll save it to the list.
Most of the quizzes on the list are from Sporcle, so as I was staying away from those quizzes, I didn't really peruse the list. Until last week. And that's when I found a quiz buried at the end of the list that led to this week's "quiz". It's more of a list, really. But it's perfect for a Friday.
Some of those movies look awfully familiar, but I can't be sure if I've seen them or not. Did I see that as a small child? If I have a pretty good idea of the plot, I figured I'd seen it. But there were a couple that might have been seen that I didn't recall enough to definitely say I'd seen it.
And, a bunch of the more recent ones looked familiar just because I'd seen them advertised. I know a couple of them I only saw because I showed them to various classes. Then some were of the "did I see this or not?" variety. (Plus two of them are currently sitting on my DVR, waiting to be watched. I did not count those.)
I figure the false positives and false negatives probably cancel each other out.
This may take you a bit of time, so I totally get it if you wish to skip this. But if you do try it out, I'm curious as to how many you've seen.
Pretty much nothing happened last week in my little corner of the world. (The world at large was figuratively on fire, but it's been that way for a while now. Besides, you all already know this.) Which means it's a #ThrowbackThursday.
I'm reposting the post from May 9, 2019. Darla's comment last week: "...I'd probably end up in the wrong school based on some substitute teacher's regular rounds in our state," reminded me of the day that *ahem* I ended up at the wrong school...
Considering how long I've been subbing, I'm surprised I haven't had this issue before.
I had called ahead a couple weeks prior for this assignment. "Mrs. Jones" at "school A". I've covered Cindy Jones' class several times, so I knew what I was in for. (Cindy Jones' room is pictured above.)
It was a pretty good morning, and I managed to get there fairly early. I went to check in.
"You're at [school B] today for [Rebecca Jones]."
Erm.
I was told "school A".
A couple things were working in my favor. I was running early. And "school B" starts a half hour later than "school A".
I got to "school B" easily and checked in. It was a bit of mentally changing gears. Cindy Jones teaches English. Rebecca Jones teaches intro to health careers.
I blame the sub caller. She's new. As in, she's had the job for about a month. Mistakes happen.
(I did actually get a chance to chide her for this. She called me for a gig for the next day. I mean, I wasn't going to call her just to give her a hard time about the mixing up of the schools.)
There's a treasure trove of programming on YouTube. Many shows
I remember fondly have ended up there. On subbing-free Wednesdays,
I'll present a random video that I loved back in the day.
Some of these may not have aged all that well. If you
have some time, come on and take a trip down memory lane
with me.
I'm not a big disaster junkie. I don't like seeing things about people getting hurt. But, I found myself glued to the show Survival in the Sky when it aired on TLC back in the '90s.
It was a show about plane crashes. But its focus was on the investigations afterward and what the industry learned from each disaster.
I suppose that's what I liked about it. It was a puzzle. What happened? Why did it happen? How did the industry make sure it didn't happen again?
For today, I have the first episode here. If you search YouTube, you'll find the other parts as well.
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 "they" are using the music you listen to as a way to control you?
I mentioned this before here and here. It's to be a gift for my landlady's great-grandson, due in July. (She liked the yarn I used for the scarf for the Christmas present to my SIL, and she asked me to knit her a baby blanket.)
She bought the yarn. She picked out the pattern. She told me how big she wanted it.
It was pretty straightforward. It was a simple enough pattern. I got sidetracked with other projects, but then I got back to it.
However, I had one big issue with it. Every time I sat down to work on it, I could only get four rows done at a time.
It was a strange sort of curse. Some nights four rows was all I could rightly expect to have time to do. The rows are long (94 stitches). This takes a bit of time.
But there were other evenings where I blocked out a lot of time to work on it. I put a movie on the TV. I had nothing else to distract me.
Still, something would happen, or I'd get distracted, and by the time it was bedtime, I had only accomplished four rows.
Ah well. Even four rows at a time is enough to finish the thing after a while. The last night I worked on it, I only had three rows to do. (And an edging.)
It's another finished project for my Ravelry projects page.
I've been searching for new sources for quizzes. (If you have a good website for quizzes, please let me know.) But I haven't found anything better than the Sporcle quizzes. So (considering last week's debacle), today I'm going to go with what works.
Yes, this is timed. Yes, it loads slow, so wait until it's fully loaded before hitting "start". And yes, it can be a bit persnickety.
But, there's also the "prev" and "next" so if you're not sure, skip around. All the possible choices are below, so you don't have to come up with these on your own. And the choices are in alphabetical order.
That happens from time to time. Some weeks are slow with nothing much of interest happening. And some weeks I have an embarrassment of riches to choose from.
As this was already written, I set it aside for a future moment when this blog would need material. Then I promptly forgot about it. Until now...
When the class phone rings, I have a way of answering that (1) tells the caller they have the right room, and (2) tells the caller the teacher is not present:
"Room 915. Sub speaking."
It's simple. It's fast. But it doesn't take into account that I'm in a different classroom every day, and I might not necessarily remember where I'm at.
Friday (December 13th). 4th period. The phone rang...
"Room... uh..."
I looked around for the room number. It wasn't on the phone's display (it sometimes is). The classroom's door was open, and from my angle I couldn't read the number painted on it.
"...I forget what room I'm in. Sub speaking."
Good thing the woman calling thought that was funny.
(She informed me, in much the same tone one talks to a small child, that I was in room 915, and that she needed a student sent to her. Once I recognized her voice, I knew where that student was going. And yes, she uses that tone with many people, so I didn't take offense.)
There's a treasure trove of programming on YouTube. Many shows
I remember fondly have ended up there. On subbing-free Wednesdays,
I'll present a random video that I loved back in the day.
Some of these may not have aged all that well. If you
have some time, come on and take a trip down memory lane
with me.
I have officially exhausted my TV show recommendations. So, it's time to check out YouTube and see if I can find some shows I loved back in the day. And sure enough, Great Books is there.
Great Bookswas a show that aired on TLC in the '90s. It was about various celebrated books. Each hour-long episode gave a basic outline of the book, a brief look into the author's life, and a run down of how the book was influenced by its time and how it influenced its time.
If you haven't read the book, you'll feel like you have. If you have read the book, you'll gain a bit more perspective about it. This can be good or not so good. For example, I can't look at Alice's Adventures in Wonderland the same after hearing some background about Lewis Carroll. (I do encourage you to check that episode out all the same.)
If you go to YouTube and search "great books" various episodes will come up. Today I'm linking to a favorite book of mine, Pride and Prejudice. Enjoy...
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. 😉
Like last week, I'm stealing this week's question, but this time from a more recent source--the updated The Twilight Zone on CBS All Access...
What if you could delete someone from existence just by talking about them?
Normally, I would go to the yarn store and look for a variegated yarn in black and gray. While the yarn store is open, I wasn't really in the mood to go out searching. Instead, I decided to play a bit with the black and gray yarns I had on hand.
This is what I ended up with...
I did not intend nor expect the pattern that emerged. I was just playing around with the yarn.
It turned out kind of diamond-y.
So, how did I achieve this? Every other round was "checkerboard". That is, I did one black stitch, one gray stitch, and repeated. The non "checkerboard" rounds were alternated black or gray. So...
Round 1: black
Round 2: alternate gray and black stitches
Round 3: gray
Round 4: alternate black and gray stitches
And I repeated those rounds, finishing on round 10 with an "alternate gray and black" round.
(I'm writing this out more for myself, in case I ever have to reproduce this.)
I almost just did stripes. I'm rather glad I didn't just do stripes.
A long time ago, I set about making a clip to attach my lip balm to a belt loop. I can't recall if it was due to a lack of pockets or if I was looking to attach it to my work lanyard.
In the end, I did manage to come up with one, and since then I have made dozens of them. (I wish that was an exaggeration. I've probably made a couple hundred at this point.)
But if you'd rather make one yourself, the instructions follow:
This holder is crocheted using Caron Simply Soft Yarn on a size G hook. The other things you'll need are a 23 mm lobster claw clasp (adjust size if using a different weight of yarn), a tapestry needle, and a stitch marker. I'm not sure how much yarn this takes to make, but it isn't much at all, so I'd suggest you go into your stash for the yarn rather than buying new.
I'm using the usual abbreviations--sc=single crochet; sl st=slip stitch; ch=chain
Gauge: 17 sc and 18 rows over 4 inches
This is one of those projects that is so small that making a gauge swatch is kind of silly. What I suggest is that you keep your lip balm on hand and try it out. If it won't fit, add a stitch to the first round. If it's very loose (there should be a little ease, but not so much that it'll fall out), subtract a stitch from the first round.
This is worked in a spiral, so make sure to mark the beginning of each round as you pass it. It's very easy to lose track if you don't mark it. (Not that I have any experience with that...)
The Pattern:
Ch 3. Sl st into the first chain, making a loop.
Round 1: Work 9 sc into the ch 3 loop.
Rounds 2-9: Work 1 sc into each stitch around.
Round 10: Work the same as for rounds 2-9, except at stitch 2 (or any preferred stitch):
Take the hook out of the loop, pull the loop to make it bigger, and slide the clasp (open part facing down) over the whole stitch. Then replace the hook in the loop, tighten the loop back on the hook (with the clasp tight against the previous stitch, and continue to work 1 sc into each stitch around.
Round 11: Work the same as for rounds 2-9. At the stitch that the clasp is attached to, push the clasp out of the way, and work 1 sc into that stitch.
Finishing: Cut yarn. Draw the yarn all the way through the loop. Then put that yarn on the tapestry needle, and loop the yarn around the base of the next sc and up and through the top of the final sc. If you've never done this before, here's a great video showing exactly what I'm talking about (if it doesn't work, try searching "crochet seamless join in the round"):
Wind in ends. The lip balm should fit snugly inside, but not so snugly it's hard to get into the cozy.
So, I looked around for a better quiz, one that didn't take forever to load and one that didn't have a bunch of questions. Sadly, I was having no luck this week. I went back to my list of quizzes I saved up for when I'd need them and found...
It's fairly long (29 questions), but the load time wasn't bad. It didn't look like there were a lot of instrument choices. It appeared there were more than two, however.
I ended up with piano. Meh. I don't suppose that oboe was one of the choices.
What did you get? If you could pick a musical instrument, which one would you choose?
It was Monday, June 1st. I needed to go grocery shopping. I had debated going on Friday. However, I knew I would need to go to the post office Monday (the shark wasn't quite ready to be mailed off on Friday), and I decided to combine both errands into one trip out.
Little did I know on Friday that protests over the weekend were going to impact that decision.
A protest happened that Sunday in my city. That night the news covered the looting happening downtown.
When I awoke on Monday, I saw alerts of a curfew. But I didn't get ready and go out for my errands until about noon.
That should have been plenty of time. I made it to the post office. No issues. I did a couple other things. Then I headed for store.
As has been normal, there was a line outside. But there was a line outside. The night before, there had been word on Facebook that various grocery stores in the area had been hit by the looting. I wasn't sure if I would be able to grocery shop. Apparently, I would be.
I had been in line for a couple minutes when one of the workers came out to inform us that by order of the mayor, the store was closing at 1 PM. But those of us in line were going to be allowed in. (I was fourth or fifth in the line.)
I thought that it was just about 1 PM when I got there, but I guess it was more like 12:50. I made it in, got my groceries selected and purchased, and was on my way by 1:10. (I needed things like milk and eggs, and I can generally get done shopping fairly quickly.)
I felt very fortunate. Somehow, I timed that just right.
After the initial looting, the protests that have continued pretty much daily in the city have been largely peaceful. We had curfews Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (I think), but then those stopped.
I do not like living in interesting times. But other than that, I support the protests. I hope they bring about the change we so desperately need.
Whoops, it appears the video from my post earlier today has been taken down by YouTube. Until I find a replacement for it (I may not be able to), I'll entertain you with John Oliver's Last Week Tonight from Sunday...
I don't do a lot of current events here on the blog. It's not because I'm not political. It's because I don't generally have much to say.
There are so many people out there with more informed opinions. They have something new to contribute to the conversation. Me, I'd spend more time sputtering in anger or restating something you all have heard numerous times.
So, I spend my blog time writing more personal snippets, talking about my day to day. And I'm fine with that.
Last week went a bit sideways here in the U.S. Protests erupted all across the nation (and the world). (See, I told you all I do is restate the obvious.) This has been a long time coming, and perhaps our nation will finally deal with the systemic issues that allow racism to flourish.
This video project was created to offer people a way to donate and financially contribute to #blacklivesmatter without having any actual money or going out to protest themselves. Investing in our future can be difficult for young people, so 100% of the advertisement revenue this video makes through AdSense will be donated to the associations that offer protester bail funds, help pay for family funerals, and advocacy listed in the beginning of the video.
PLEASE share this video, make sure to leave the ads running, repeat the video, and let people know about this easy way to help.
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 you could see the future with complete accuracy, but anyone you tell would think you're crazy and ignore you?
It's probably about halfway done at this point. (Yes, I took that picture on top of the washing machine. There's a great light right there.) It's very warm. So, of course, I end up working on this on the warmer days. This week the forecast calls for upper 80s, so you know this is probably what I'm going to end up working on. Sigh.
Then another mask...
I cut out this fabric at the same time as the last mask I made. (I had a hankering for a red mask. Why? No idea.) I had intended to complete this at the same time as that last mask, but I ran into an issue.
I could not get a needle through this fabric. I spent a good hour trying to pull the needle threaded with the yarn through, and I only managed to get maybe three stitches done. So, thinking that it was a yarn issue, I switched to thread. Another hour, maybe five stitches done. At that point I gave up.
Then one day last week (I don't recall which day, maybe Monday, maybe Tuesday) I finally pulled the mask out again. I pulled out the poking tool. (An hour of searching on the internet did yield its actual name: awl.) And I made a whole bunch of holes.
I was able to get the needle threaded with yarn through. Hooray! And it didn't take too much time to complete from there.
Don't let the name fool you. This is pretty easy. I was giving this half my attention on my phone just before I went to sleep one night, and I got 100%.
I'd warn of difficulty to the younguns, but I don't think I really have any readers who are all that young. (Which just means if you do poorly, you can blame it on your youth.) Good luck.
Yesterday was officially the last day of school. But, as you know, in person school (and with it, what I do) ended much earlier. March 13th.
I didn't know that at the time. I mean, I suspected it might be true. And, if I had been thinking, I would have done this post back in March. By the time I realized the school year was over for me, I figured I might as well wait until June for this post. So here it is, my days worked for the year.
Normally there are 180 school days in the year. But since the last quarter doesn't count for me, I technically had a school year of 129 days. Of those 129 days, I worked 122 of them. That's seven non-worked school days total. Definitely a record.
Of those 122 days, 8 of them were for teachers who did not have a conference period, and 39 of them I was called to cover a different class during the prep. This is pretty low, compared to previous years. This is a good thing, staffing-wise. It means that there were enough subs to go around more of the time. This makes for a less stressful day for staff and students.
49 of those days I covered high school classes, 48 I covered middle school classes, and 25 I was at the continuation high school. Usually I cover more high school classes, but this year I covered the first 16 days of school for a middle school English class, so that skewed those results a bit.
I worked the first day of school and (for me) the last day of school. Although, I did not know that last day of the third quarter was going to be the last day of in-person school. Obviously, I did not work the actual last day of school.
Next up, the breakdown of what classes I covered. My general rule for "full day" versus "period": if the teacher had at least two periods of the subject, it's a "full day"; if the teacher only taught one period, it's designated as a "period" sub. So, final numbers may not exactly match my full totals.
English: 38 days with 6 individual periods
Back on top after last year's inexplicable 3rd place finish, this is probably mostly due to that English class I opened.
And to prove that point, 7th grade is the big winner with 20 days with 8th grade just behind with 19 days (and 3 extra periods). The English class I opened was 7th and 8th grade, so 16 of those days are for that specific class (3 periods of 7th grade and 2 periods of 8th grade).
Then it's 11th grade with 8 days and 2 extra periods, 12th grade with 6 days and 1 extra period, 10th grade with 5 days and 1 extra period, and 9th grade with 3 days and 2 extra periods.
Also, I covered the yearbook 5 times, the school newspaper once, and ELD 6 times (once for a full day, the rest for just the one period). Since these classes are generally taught by English teachers, they only counted for one period on those days.
Social Studies: 23 days with 5 individual periods
U.S. history (11th grade) wins this subject with 8 days and 4 individual periods. Followed (very) closely by government (12th grade) with 8 days and no extra periods. Not surprising, as a lot of the social studies teachers teach both U.S. history and government.
Then comes world history (10th grade) with 6 days and 6 extra periods. And geography (9th grade) with 5 days, 4 of which ended up being the penultimate week of school.
Rounding out the rest: world history (7th grade) with 2 days and 5 extra periods, economics (12th grade) with 1 day, psychology (elective, but taught by social studies teacher) with 1 day, and U.S. history (8th grade) with 5 extra periods.
Science: 19 days with 5 individual periods
8th grade science (mostly physical science, but not entirely) wins with 9 days and 1 extra period. If I had to rank the most dreaded class I cover, it would be 8th grade science. For some reason, they're extra crazy here.
Biology (9th grade) comes in 2nd place with 7 days and 3 extra periods.
7th grade science (mostly life science, but with measurement and some of the basics and the basics of engineering) had 5 days with 3 extra periods.
The leftovers include environmental science (an elective science for 11th & 12th grades) with 2 days and 2 extra periods, earth science (used to be for 9th grade, but is being phased out) with 4 extra periods (a couple of those were with the biology days as the teacher has the one period of earth science and four periods of biology), health with 1 extra period, oceanography with 1 extra period, and forensics with 1 extra period.
Math: 17 days with 5 individual periods
Rounding out the core subjects, integrated math 1 (previously algebra 1) with 10 days and 2 extra periods.
Next is 8th grade math (previously pre-algebra) with 7 days and 1 extra period.
Then is integrated math 2 with 6 days and 2 extra periods.
The rest are 7th grade math with 4 days and 2 extra periods, business math with 2 days and 1 extra period, and integrated math 3 with 1 extra period.
Special ed: 15 days with 6 individual periods
Most of these days are already accounted for above. If I was covering the co-teacher in an English or math class, I counted it as special ed.
There were 6 "severe" classes and 5 "special day classes" with 1 extra period.
And 1 period in an opportunity class.
Finally, the electives
12 days and 2 extra periods in computer classes. 5 of those days were graphic arts classes, 3 of those days (and 1 extra period) was in business (read: typing and Word and such), and 2 day were in CAD (computer aided drafting).
5 days in woodshop.
4 days in Spanish.
2 days and 1 extra period in art.
2 days and 2 extra periods in music classes (band and choir).
2 days and 2 extra periods in leadership. Some of that was ASB, some was link crew, and some was middle school. They get a bit mixed together as well as mixed in with teachers who teach other subjects the rest of the day.
And 4 days were roving (where I didn't have a set assignment).
It may have been a short year, but I did manage to cover most of the usual suspects. Hopefully they'll open the schools sooner rather than later, or I'm going to have to find a new line of work.
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?
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.
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...
