The reluctant sweater is kind of on a break, and I haven't had the time and space to continue the ugly slippers video, so I did what any reasonable person would do. I started a new project.
No, I'm not going to tell you what it is. As I'm working it backwards (kind of), I'm not expecting anyone to have any idea, either.
I should be in more of an explain-y mood next week. At which point there should be more to see. Maybe.
The previous Friday, Mr. K at the continuation high school had texted me to see if I was available to sub for him the following Friday. I said no as I didn't know how long the vacant success class would go, and so I was booked through the week.
I had assumed that Mr. K had put in the request that day. Apparently not.
I don't look too closely when jobs pop up, because if I don't grab it quickly enough, I miss it. (I'll click "accept" and then be told that another sub was already assigned to the job.) It wasn't until I got the "successfully booked" message that I looked to see what I had snagged.
I was surprised to see the assignment for the next day. But there was a problem. It showed as a half day, afternoon. This I knew to be wrong as the continuation high school only has morning classes on Fridays.
So, I called the school.
I knew the secretary could fix the assignment, and I knew which secretary to call. When the system picked up, it asked me to dial the extension of the person I wanted. And then it told me that extension didn't exist. Deep sigh.
The phone list I had for the school was from the 2023-24 school year.
Well, I knew the front office staff. I dialed O for someone to pick up, and I recognized the voice. "Hi, Shelly. Could you please transfer me to Sabrina?"
And when Sabrina picked up, I identified myself and told her what had happened.
She was hesitant to touch the assignment as she didn't want me to be booted from it. I assured her that I get "absence modified" notifications all the time. So, she fixed it, and I retained the assignment.
Of course, part of me just wondered if something went wonky and put in a job that didn't exist. But no. Mr. K just put in his absence the day before. (He is out a lot. I think he's trying to fly under the radar sometimes with his sub requests.)
Fridays are pretty mellow at the continuation high school. Not much happened. But at least I had the sweet, sweet air conditioning. (The kiddos complained it was too cold in the room. I. Did. Not. Care. It's been icky hot here.)
Tuesday. Lunch.
I had just finished getting the students into their online gradebook (see yesterday's post), and I was organizing my stuff as things kind of go all over the place during class. The classroom door opened, and in walked a stranger to me.
He identified himself as Mr. N, the new teacher.
I had heard the prior Friday before leaving school that they had hired someone. We were in waiting mode, waiting for his paperwork to clear. As soon as it did, he could start.
Mr. N told me he was starting Wednesday.
All-righty, then.
They gave us two days of transition. Mr. N needed the time to get his feet under him. I showed him what was up with the success classes. He was also hired as the school's new athletic director, so he had a lot of stuff on his plate. (It's been crazy without someone in that position as the school year begins.)
But Mr. N is close in age to me. He's been at several schools. He's taught, coached, and done all the educational things, so he knows what he's in for. They're in good hands.
That was the gig I signed up for. This is probably the shortest vacant position I've ever done. That's a good thing, really.
And now, back to the day-to-day subbing of it all.
(I told the kiddos this wasn't goodbye. I'd be around. A lot. And I will.)
I connected with the middle school assistant principal, and she sent me a bunch of resources for the seventh grade success classes I was covering while the school was in process of hiring the teacher. In those resources was an offer that the counselors had made of coming to the class to help the seventh graders create accounts so they could access their online gradebook.
After the previous week's debacle, you'd think I'd reach out to the counselors and have them help. Wouldn't you? Yeah, that's not how I roll.
I could do this.
The school is on a block schedule, so the class I met on Monday was not the class I had the issues with on Friday. Rather than chance another computer mix up, I put the students' credentials on paper that I handed out to them.
I went through the slideshow. And I had the same issues I had Friday.
"You have to create the password. Just make one up."
"It's giving you an error message? Did your password contain one capital letter, one number, and one special character?"
"Just go to your email and click on the 'confirm email address'. No, don't put in a code..."
Oh, and they had no idea how to find their email.
Hands in the air, and I'd go over to find that they just weren't listening to my instructions. They plowed ahead, and then they got stuck. I'd have to answer the same question individually several times. So, basically what I expected.
I handed out their credentials. I went back to showing them how to log back into the account they just created. "No, you don't have to do this screen again. You created the account. See how it says this account exists."
And then, suddenly, they were all in. Poof.
I just...
I looked around, and they were looking at their grades. (I had not input any grades yet, but other teachers had. Their history teacher had maybe one assignment, so pretty much everyone had an A+ in that class. Some were amazed.)
The feeling of accomplishment overwhelmed me. They did it! Mission accomplished.
I won the day. Whew.
Yeah, I knew I could get them through it.
(As for the other class, the lady at the district office sent me an email early Monday morning. She had disconnected all the accounts that were attached to Sadie's info. This time I put their credentials on paper, and that worked. They got it all set up, too.)
I got another fundraising email from my current congressional representative. (I'm a little irked, though, as I learned in the primary election that come January I will no longer be in his district.) And it contained information I had not heard. So, I looked it up, and, via AP News:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has awarded a $16.7 million contract to purchase 6,000 pairs of gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks, saying officers would use them to control detainees and protesters who resist.
ICE moved forward with the purchase despite opposition from civil rights advocates and Democratic members of Congress, who said ICE officers cannot be trusted to use them appropriately.
Now, that's chilling. (You can find the full article here.)
And those things can kill people. (Although, ICE has been killing people just fine without them.) I mean, tasers aren't as safe as we think they are...
My congressperson had a petition to sign. You might want to call your reps and let them know of your displeasure over this.
I have started recording the video.
I am making slippers that look like this:
(It's been too hot to think, plus I've been busy at work, so my brain hasn't been in reluctant sweater mode. I'll get back to it once things cool off.)
I got a new light/camera holder since I recorded the last video, so there was a bit of a learning curve. I can set the camera up higher. My first attempt to demonstrate something ended up being below what the camera recorded. Oops.
So, to make sure I kept my hands in camera range, I stuck some blue tape on my surface. But, as I moved around and recorded and such, the camera moved a bit. I had recorded everything I wanted to do, and then I checked what came out on camera. The blue tape? Had drifted into the shot. Most of what I recorded was unusable.
Deep sigh.
I had to rip out what I had done and shoot it again.
And then there are the usual bloopers. Like...
But progress.
I knit a bunch off camera (no need to continue to demonstrate the two rows that repeat), and when I get another moment when I can, it's back to recording more video.
I won't promise when this will get done. Once it gets done, it'll have to go to my brother for editing, and that can take some time. But, it'll be up sooner or later. I'll announce when.
My little counter at the top of my posts page tells me this is post #4500. Wow. I'm kind of amazed I noticed it. I guess I've been doing this for a while.
Here we go again...
New school year, new vacant class. This one is seventh grade success. It's basically a study skills class that is kind of an elective for the kiddos, but it's also kind of required.
I was informed that one requirement of the class is that we're to have them do grade checks every week. Okay, no problem. For them to be able to check their grades, they have to have access to the online gradebook. As they are new to the school, they were going to need to set that up.
They gave me the instructions on how the kiddos needed to set up their accounts. They also gave me the log in credentials the kiddos would need: their student ID numbers, their official phone number, and a verification passcode.
Knowing how these things go, I tried to be clever. I typed in the info they'd need into the computer, and I sent that info to each student before class began.
So, we were in the midst of it. And it was going as well as could be expected. That is, I had many students unclear on what to do even though I had slides with what they needed to click on up for them. I explained to the class, and then I had to explain again to individual students.
While I was helping the students who were struggling, the students who got it had worked ahead. And found the credentials that I had sent them.
Only... they all had the same credentials. They had the credentials for one student named Sadie.
Sadie alerted me to the problem. Several students now had gradebook access to her gradebook.
Ugh.
I do not know what happened. I sent each student a different set of credentials. I typed them in myself. I double checked that I was doing a different one for each individual student. It took me over an hour.
Doesn't matter. It was wrong.
I deleted what I could. Many students hadn't even gotten that far. And it was the end of the period, so we were out of time.
So, now I have to track down the person who can reset these things. The main office sent me to the IT guy who sent me to someone in the district office. But it was late afternoon on a Friday.
At least I wasn't to see this class again until Tuesday. Maybe it'll be fixed by then? So we can try it again?
Just when I thought I had a handle on things...
Last Monday was the first day of school. And to call the day one big long snafu is to use the initial meaning of the word, the original acronym for the word. It was the kind of day I can only encapsulate via a Thursday 13.
ONE
I was very happy when an assignment for the week popped up the Friday before school began. I had a suspicion it was a vacant class from how the assignment was worded, and shortly after I accepted it, I got an email from Allie verifying that my suspicion was correct. Good news/bad news.
TWO
I arrived early Monday as I didn't know what sort of situation I'd be walking into. Good thing. Because no teacher was assigned to the classes, there was no way to access the attendance online. Allie (the secretary I check in with at the school) printed me paper rosters. And that was when I first got to see what my schedule was going to be.
THREE
The vacant position was for the athletic director. Who was also teaching two periods of seventh grade success. (I knew the success part before I got there. The athletic director part was a surprise.) What were my responsibilities regarding the athletic director? I would need to touch base with the assistant principal who oversaw athletics. (Note: this did not happen.)
FOUR
The good news: I didn't have a first period class. The bad news: the seventh graders were spending all day with their first period teacher in an orientation. (We did the same thing two years ago when I covered that maternity leave for the seventh grade science teacher.) Where was I supposed to be? Turns out, I had not been added to the list for the day, so I had no official responsibilities.
FIVE
As I was figuring the day out, another teacher came into the classroom. She explained that she had just learned (the previous workday) that she would be teaching two periods of success this school year. She's a PE teacher. So, she was checking out the room to see what she had and what she would need. She would have the room for first and second periods while I would need it for third and fourth periods. Not a problem, just a surprise.
SIX
Right before first period was to begin, Allie called me. A math/credit recovery teacher had taken ill and gone home. Could I cover his first period? Well, it's not like I had anything better to do. (For the full story about this class, see yesterday's post.)
SEVEN
For third period, I returned to "my" classroom, but "my" third period would remain in their first period classes. I remained with the PE teacher's group. The PE teacher had her PE classes to cover for the rest of the day, but they had booked another teacher to come in to supervise the class.
EIGHT
I got to see some of the orientation. We took a tour of the campus. In the heat. And while my presence was not needed, I learned what the students learned that day. I knew most of it, but now I knew what they were supposed to know.
NINE
I asked Allie what my responsibility was for seventh period, the athletic period. She had told me she'd ask around and get back to me. For seventh period, she said to remain in the classroom. (The school is on a block schedule, so the first day was an odd day, periods 1, 3, 5, and 7.)
TEN
I got to work on what I'd need for the next day (when I would for sure have a class). I was going to email Allie pages I needed printed (as I don't have printer access). Only, I suddenly had no access to my district email account and it's linked drive (where I keep all the material I need for class). I got an error message saying it was disabled. I've had this account for many, many years. WTF!
Before I could panic, Allie called to tell me I was supposed to be outside. (She had only just been informed.) I told her my account was disabled. She said she'd look into it.
ELEVEN
On my way outside, I passed the basketball team heading for the classroom. I told them to come back outside, and I took roll. I was able to locate a few of the students from the soccer team, but most had left. (They were supposed to have practice, but something something coach not there something something missing bus. I didn't get full details.) I had several other teams' attendance, but they were nowhere to be found.
TWELVE
End of day, I went to check out. I took the athletic director attendance to the attendance office. Allie informed me that they had restored my account. I went to check it, but I couldn't get online in the office. I asked Allie to print some things for me that I'd email her when I could. And then I went home.
THIRTEEN
Yes, I could access my account. Yay! I emailed Allie what I'd need for the next day. As I sat down to make sure I had my slides and such ready for Tuesday, my account again was disabled. Grrrr.
The next day I learned that they were doing something at district that was disabling accounts. I conferred with two other subs who had the same problem. Allie contacted district and got my account restored only to have it be blocked again that day. After class, luckily. Then Allie contacted the district again... At the moment my account works. Fingers crossed that that doesn't pop up again.
Last Monday was the first day of school, and I caught an assignment for the whole week. (More about that in tomorrow's post.) However, I did not have a first period. This was a good thing, as first day of school, no teacher assigned to the class, so I was in scramble mode.
Just before first period was to begin, I got a call. Could I cover a first period?
The teacher, Mr. B, had been on campus. He had set up for the day. But, he suddenly got ill and had to go home.
On the first day!?!
I don't doubt his illness. What concerned me was that there weren't any lesson plans. Uh, what do I do?
I got to the class at just about the bell. The class filed in.
There were intro first day things written on the board. It was some sort of icebreaker activity. They were to get into groups or something, and I was unclear on what it was.
The class was credit recovery. Generally, they'll work on whatever class they need to make up credits for. But that can't happen until they've been signed into the program. Which I could not do, not that I would on the first day.
After I took roll, I flailed about for a bit, letting the class know that Mr. B was out ill, and then I noticed on a side table some worksheets. Score!
They were simple things, like "about me" and "the importance of education". First day stuff. Okay, then, that works.
It didn't quite take the whole period. But it was something.
I had a whole first day thing ready for the class I had been booked for. If I had been thinking I would have brought it with me to that class. But no.
You'd think by now I would know what to do in any situation. Nope. But at least the class had supervision.
Mr. B was out all that first week. As I was on campus, I was able to find out. I hope he feels better soon. What a terrible time to suddenly take ill.
And before anyone says it...
...yes, I know. (Via Jamie at Whatever I Think Of!)
What's going on in the world? No, seriously, I'm asking. Last week I got buried with back to school, and I have no idea what the idiots got up to.
This got me thinking, though. This must be what it's like to be a low-information voter. One of the blissfully ignorant multitudes who have been going through life not watching everything we ever believed about our country crumbling around us.
And I wondered how we reach those people. How do we wake them up to what's happening?
We can't be overt about it. If they wanted to pay attention, they would. But can we be sneaky? Can we just slip things into conversation in such a way that they're not aware we're trying to wake them up? Can we mention things in passing that would shock them? And when they disbelieve, we can let them know that they just have not been paying attention.
I don't know. Is it even worth the effort?
But it is kind of nice to not be aware of all the shenanigans, just for a little while. It'll be there once I'm out from under the back to school crush.
I finished a thing last week.
Well, it's not precisely finished per se. But it's where I want it.
It has been a while since I added anything to my YouTube channel. I had been toying with working on the reluctant sweater on camera, but I never quite got around to it. However, in the back of my mind, I thought I might want to do a video of the ugly slippers.
They are the first things I ever made right after I learned to knit. My first project. Before that, GramMavis (my great-grandmother, the one who taught me to knit) made the family the slippers, gifting them to us to replace the previous pairs that wore out.
As it's a great beginner project, I thought I'd knit them on camera and add them to my channel.
As they are slippers, one would need to make two. But, I'm not going to knit two on camera. And, as it's been a while since I knit a pair, I needed to make sure I remembered how.
I have no idea when I'm going to sit down and film this, but at least now when I do, I'm ready.
(I like to sew both slippers up at the same time. It's a good way to make sure they look alike. So this one will remain flat until I film knitting the second slipper.)
I wanted to give you a look at what they look like completed, but I couldn't get a good shot of them sitting on their own. Instead. I took a picture of them on my feet. Not the best, but it gives you a better idea.
Now it's just a matter of figuring out when to do some filming.
Just in time for the school year to begin (the first day was Monday), I ran out of color quizzes. (We never did get a black quiz, but I believe we hit all the other major colors.) So, it's back to finding other quizzes. Today...
Spoiler alert: they can't. Because I got:
24% of players got this result!
You are definitely a millennial, born between the years 1981 and 1997.
Uh, no. I remember 1981. I was in fourth/fifth grade. That makes me Gen X.
So, let's see how badly they mangle your generation. I don't think I have very many Millennial readers, so most of you should not get this result. Let me know in the comments how badly they got your generation (or if they actually guessed correctly). I'm very curious.
As my summer comes to a close (school started Monday), I find myself reflecting on the season that was. While I didn't do much this summer (besides flying to Ohio), I did learn a few things along the way. Here is a list of some of the tidbits I picked up, in no particular order (and for Thursday 13).
1. Trashie.io
I was in the car with my father, driving back from lunch, when the ad came on the radio. (I couldn't find a link to the ad, but here's their YouTube page.) An easy way to dispose of old clothing so it doesn't end up in a landfill. (And you earn gift cards per each bag you send in.) Sign me up.
I have sent in one bag and one electronics box. It does cost, so that's a con. But I've been meaning to clean out my closet, and this makes it easy for me. It's just what I needed.
Before my flight, I went in search of podcasts to download so I had something to listen to while crocheting on the plane. And I found this gem. It's currently in its fifth season, but I'm still on season one.
Midnight Burger is the name of a diner that opens at six every evening. Where it'll be when it opens is anyone's guess.
I did not expect to find a radio-play-type sci fi show podcast, but, then again, I am a total newbie with regards to podcasts, so I didn't know what I'd find.
3. Apple Pay
On a whim I set up the wallet on my iPhone. And now I use my phone to pay for everything. It really is very convenient, although I understand why some might not want to use it.
4. Airplane ticket on Apple Watch
I got an Apple Watch back in November, mostly to track my steps for the WeWard app. It turns out that there is so much more I use my watch for.
When flying to Ohio, I added my tickets to Apple Wallet (as I had done in the past), and lo and behold, my boarding QR code just popped up on my watch. I did not know it did that. Now I know.
5. Middle nephew is interested in astronomy
Just being in the vicinity of the family that I don't get to see that often teaches me so much. Middle nephew is now 16, and just in passing his mother mentioned how he's thinking of studying astronomy when he goes to college. And that just blew my mind. (I had similar aspirations at his age. Note the name of my blog. That's not an accident.)
You better believe I asked him some follow up questions. I hope he does pursue the study. (Things got dicey for me in my twenties, and while I finished my bachelor's in physics, I did not go on to my masters as I had originally hoped to do.)
While in Yellow Springs, Ohio, we ended up in a comic book store. They had a section of games. And I found this one. I was going to leave it behind, but SIL convinced me to go back and get it. We were going to play it, but we never did get around to it. Maybe next year...
7. There's a castle in Loveland, Ohio
I already wrote a blog post about this. It was fascinating. If you missed the post, please check it out.
8. Packing serving size containers
I don't know why this never occurred to me before. Game changer.
I like ice cream. But I don't like scooping it into a bowl. Silly, I know. But, that is enough for me to not get ice cream unless it's in a smaller (and more expensive) container. Then it occurred to me that I could get the ice cream and repackage it in smaller serving-size plastic containers.
It makes it so much easier. For me. I do something similar with cereal. This is more a neurospicy hack than something most people would even bother with, but it was new to me this summer, so on this list it goes.
9. Making s'mores in an air fryer
We got an air fryer about a year ago. I've been learning how to make things in it.
Put one marshmallow on a graham cracker. Set the temp for 375 degrees F. Let it heat until the marshmallow turns golden brown (about 3 minutes, but I watch it). Take out of air fryer, and put chocolate and second graham cracker on top. Squish and eat.
10. Poaching eggs in the microwave
I learned scrambling eggs in the microwave a few years back. Why not try poaching them?
I've only done this a couple times, but I learned quickly to poke holes in the yolks as the first time I tried it one of the eggs exploded. All over me. It was a mess.
I've been doing 3 minutes in the microwave (in water), but I like my eggs well done. And covered, because exploding eggs.
11. Jack in the Box and In-N-Out developed drive thrus at about the same time (but independently)
The Food that Built America has been a favorite of mine for a few years now. The current season started recording on my DVR in March (maybe February or April? I wasn't paying attention), but I didn't start watching the episodes until June. That was one of the tidbits from one of the episodes.
12. Europeans love ranch dressing
I enjoyed seeing travelers enjoying the U.S. during the World Cup games. And this cracked me up. There were news reports of people trying to check this in with their luggage.
I can't stand the stuff personally, so send it all overseas. I'm good with that.
13. FAA regulations mandate pilots must retire on their 65th birthday
I learned this while eating lunch in Nashville Airport, but I already blogged about that.
School started back up this week, so this is my last blogging nuts and bolts post of the summer. So, a few reminders:
Now is a really good time to refresh your sidebar. When was the last time you went through and made sure all the gadgets were working? Is there anything there that's out of date? You should check it out periodically, so why not now? (Or find a time of year when things are slow for you and set yourself a reminder to do it then.)
I've spent this summer trying to figure out how to help those bloggers who can't log in to comment on Blogger. If you've had this issue and figured out how to fix it, why not write your own blog post about it? I guarantee there are bloggers who would appreciate the insights.
I collected all my blogging nuts and bolts posts into a page with a link at the top of this page. Feel free to reference it whenever you have need.
And if there's any topic that you would like me to address, let me know in the comments. If I can answer the question, I will. Vacation weeks throughout the school year I will be in need of topics to blog about. Also, I'll need topics for next summer.
Happy beginning of the school year to those who celebrate.
Just a little post today to link to an article: Opinion | Executive Order on Vaccines Bypasses Evidence-Based Process That Has Kept Kids Safe.
If I had more time, I'd spend it writing a longer post bemoaning the anti-vaxxers. I might even have pondered the anti-science people and how the regime is pandering to them (although, I think many of them believe some of this stuff). There are studies that show right-wingers are more likely to react to things from a position of fear, and the whole anti-vaccination push feeds into those fears.
I have such high hopes for myself when it comes to writing Tuesday blog posts, and then when it's time to write the post, I chicken out. Maybe next week?
I might be a bit scarce this week as school started, and, well, I have a feeling this week is going to be kind of busy for me. Explanations should be forthcoming next week.
Step 1: Complete oval to desired width of sweater.
✅ Complete.
Step 2: For back of sweater, continue working the top half of the oval until the color of yarn is the same color as the outer round of the front oval.
While working the top half, flatten the side of the oval.
And... That's my next little puzzle. I know the basic formula. As I get to the edge, I work shorter stitches. Each row I'll start further back as the edge becomes flat rather than curvy. But I have to eyeball it, and this is not quite right.
I have some wiggle room as this part will be in the seam.
Anyway, the back needs a bit more length while the front is going to have a deeper neckline. I kind of have it worked out in my head, but we'll have to see if the actual physical piece works out the way I planned.
At least I have now completed the ovals. Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to assemble them. Progress.
The Reluctant Sweater:
I bet you thought we were done. Nope, not quite. There is another color we have not hit yet (via Quizly). White.
I got 19 out of 21. A few of these weren't as obvious as you'd think. How did you do? Let me know in the comments.
School starts back up next week. Now that I've had the summer to kind of cleanse my palate (so to speak), it's time to remember what I'm in for. (Not that I'll necessarily have work next week, but...) This is a Thursday 13.
1. Mr. Jahn @JahnifestDestiny
Can confirm, sometimes it's just fun to listen to them talk.
2. Amanda & Zach Smith @amandasindallas
How was your day? Nice he gets to give a snapshot. I could totally see a kid doing this.
3. Educator Andrea @educatorandrea
"Wandering around asking people for Cheetos and Takis while we're reading about the Holocaust..." Been there.
4. MyTeacherFace @MyTeacherFace
Sometimes we can say the weirdest things. Teenagers...
5. Mr. Firth @Mister_Firth
Sometimes we really are in tune with the kiddos.
6. Gabe Dannenbring @gabedannenbring24
"Stop touching each other." Yup. And "It's on the board." Said frequently.
7. Sam Salem @samuelsleeves
He's a sub and a comedian. And I absolutely want to do this. (The thing in the video, not being a comedian. I'm no comedian.)
8. Mr. Moore Taught Me @MrMooreTaughtMe
Yup, everyone absolutely chimes in. Well, the ones that we're not talking to.
9. Levi Hawk @levihawk_teaching
They absolutely think they're hiding their phones. They're not. They're obvious.
10. Coach Russo @MrRussoHealth
I mean, I haven't seen a dab in a while, but the rest of this...
11. Talana @Talanagram
Can confirm. Asking a class to quiet down does not work.
12. Gregisms @Gregisms
The elementary kids say the darndest things.
13. Philip Lindsay @Mr_lindsay
I have yet to meet a student who says they're locking in actually lock in.
Why do I do this job again?
Whenever I get a comment from a blogger I have not met before, the first thing I do is to add them to my Feedly. (I talked about this last year.) Whether or not we end up regularly interacting, it's easier to have access to the latest posts without my having to search for them every time. (I especially do this in April, because otherwise I would not be able to keep up.)
But this doesn't always work.
I already wrote about how I can't do this if I can't find a link to the blogger's blog. But I ran into another issue not that long ago. I easily found the blogger's blog, but Feedly could not add the blog to my roll.
Uh oh...
When I'm visiting other blogs, I use my feed reader. They're all collected in one place for me. I don't have to go searching. I don't have to keep track of anyone's schedule. If a blogger who's been dormant suddenly reappears, I see the post. If a blogger took some time off, I'm not hitting up their blog daily only to find no new post.
The system isn't foolproof. Sometimes the feed reader won't update in a timely fashion. I generally have my posts publish at 6 AM Pacific Time. I've had my posts show up hours later. But generally, to keep up with dozens of blogs, the system works well enough.
Unless I can't add the blog to my feed reader.
I went looking for an alternative. Did the blogger have an email subscription? No?
So, how am I supposed to remember to check this blog? I'm going to have to hope that they comment on my blog when they have a new post?
This is why today I'm asking you: is your blog is available to add to a feed reader?
It is generally a good idea to have ways for a reader to keep up with your blog. If you look at my sidebar, you'll see several options for mine.
"Subscribe To" is one of the options when setting up things for the sidebar. "Follow By Email" is via Follow It. I created an account, and they provided this graphic for the sidebar. (I did a post about adding gadgets to the sidebar a while ago.)
The "Followers" is also a selection in the sidebar tools. "Follow on feedly" and "Follow me on bloglovin'" I got from both of those readers. If you click either of them, it'll help you add my blog to your account there (or you could set up an account there to follow my blog and all the other blogs you follow).
Since everyone blogs differently, I've tried to have as many options as I know about so other bloggers can keep track of me easily. (If there's another option I don't have, please let me know in the comments so I can add it there.)
And so, it might be time to check to see if your blog can be accessed by the feed readers.
Is your RSS enabled? Blogger help has an article for your reference.
Go into "Settings" and scroll down to "Site Feed".
As you can see, I have "Full" enabled. You have a choice:
"Full" means that if someone goes to the feed reader, they can see my full post. "Until Jump Break" and "Short" mean that the feed reader only shows a short portion of the post. I generally click through and go to the actual post on the blog, because you can't leave comments on the feed reader. But, some might just read the post and not interact, so I can see why some might not want to enable "Full".
And that should do it. It's easy enough to check that it works by uploading your blog to the feed reader of your choice. (It's a good idea to do this as it's a good check for you. I've caught issues with my blog a few times.)
Do you use a feed reader? How do you keep track of the blogs you follow?
Why were July's jobs numbers so terrible? Because women are losing jobs. Women lost 32,000 jobs in July while men gained 9,000.
I guess making America great again means relegating women back to housework.
Remind me why feminists are the problem.
I did not do a whole lot of crocheting last week, but I did do a bit of math. Decisions were made. I've decided that side one is the back...
...and it's about an inch away from the oval being complete. That's one more round (maybe two).
Which means that side two is the front.
Yes, both sides are a bit wavy, but not nearly as bad as they could be, and I think they'll flatten out as the sweater is worn. That is, I'm no longer worrying about it.
So, how am I going to turn both of those ovals into a sweater? I'd attempt to explain, but I doubt it'll make any sense. That's what pictures are for.
I'd love to say that the ovals will be finished by next week, but I can't say that for sure. Considering the heat and my general slothishness lately, it might not happen. (Then again, it's not really that much more, so it is possible.)
The Reluctant Sweater:
We've just about finished off all the colors (via Quizly quizzes). So, this week's color should be no surprise. We're at yellow.
I got 18 out of 20. I did know quite a few of these (and not as many did I get via process of elimination).
How well did you do? Let me know in the comments.
Wednesday. The continuation high school. Computer aided drafting.
Wait. A subbing day...?
Yes, it is still technically summer. The first day of school is in about a week and a half. But the continuation high school starts early (mid-July), so this time of year there's always a chance that I might get to work. If something pops up, I grab it.
I've covered this teacher's class many, many times, so I knew the drill. They had projects. (They work on Solidworks, completing various drafting activities.) They get their credit upon completion of the assignments, so if they goof around, it's only hurting their own graduation.
Third period. Joey's task was to program a robot to "dance" to a song of his choice.
Joey? He explained that he needed Mr. G's help.
This happens all the time. I asked Joey if there was some way we could figure it out. He booted up the computer (which ran an old Windows because that's what the robot was connected to), and connected to the necessary software. The robot moved. But, as Joey attempted to add to the program, he could get nothing to "stick". Every movement he input disappeared as soon as he tried to get it to work.
I am sure that we're missing something obvious. But as I'm unfamiliar with the software, I don't know what that obvious thing is. Sigh.
I'm used to these students making excuses, so I try to push a bit.
Sixth period. Two girls were "concerned" that I was "standing too close". I was just making sure they could log in. Then Elian had all sorts of excuses as to why Instagram was on his computer rather than the CAD software.
I gave them time to get their music set up. But Elian was still not working. Why? He said he was done.
On a Wednesday?
Generally, the teacher gives an assignment for the week. Most of them slow walk it, finishing by Friday, maybe. The rest of the classes, it didn't look like the kiddos were doing much, but it was the kind of fiddly work that doesn't look like much. They were enlarging their screens to the point that they were looking very closely at detail. And making minute changes.
I've watched kiddos work in this class before. That is the sort of thing I expect.
Elian? Done?
I mean, he could be. It's possible. But unlikely.
But, if he doesn't complete the project, he doesn't get credit. It's his grade.
I left a note that Elian said he was done. And I left it at that.
If he's scrambling in May to get credits done, he can remember the goofing off he did in July.
And now back to my summer vacation.
Have you ever tried to comment on a blog post only to have your profile not load? No matter what you do, you can't get the site to recognize you, so you're stuck commenting as "anonymous" (if the blog actually allows anonymous comments, otherwise you're just out of luck).
No, sorry, I don't have a fix for you. A few weeks back, I attempted to tackle the issue by asking if you had your cookies enabled. Alas, I don't think this solved the problem (but if you haven't tried that, try it first). But I was reminded of something a school IT guy told me. They search and research and ask various people in the hopes of finding someone who has fixed an issue.
While visiting my brother last month, I asked him the question. He did not have an answer for me, but he was able to articulate a question and input it into Google's Gemini. (Yes, I hate AI, but it gave an answer. It has to be useful for something.)
So, if you're stuck and have tried everything, there's one more thing to try.
But first I'll post the answer just in case some of you find it useful.
The question: Mac user reporting that their profile won’t stick. When they try to log in with user and pass, it doesn’t log them in. It vanishes. Is this more of a browser issue?
Because we were wondering if it was a browser thing (as some of you have reported that one browser works just fine while you have issues with another), we included that information. And Gemini replied that yes, it most likely is. This is good news as if you're having commenting issues, it might be a great time to download a different browser and use it instead. The answer Gemini gave:
Yes, this is almost certainly a browser issue, specifically tied to how Mac browsers (most notably Safari) handle cross-site tracking and cookie authentication.
Blogger frequently drops users into a "login loop" or vanishes the session immediately after authentication because it negotiates between two separate domains: [www.blogger.com](https://www.blogger.com) (the dashboard) and blogspot.com (the published content). If the browser blocks the communication between these domains, the session data won't stick.
So, basically, when you go to log in (so Blogger recognizes you), your info vanishes because of how the browser communicates with the website. Gemini gave some suggestions on how to fix it.
1. The Safari Culprit: Cross-Site Tracking
Safari has an aggressive native privacy feature called Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP). If they are using Safari, it routinely blocks the cross-domain authentication tokens required by Blogger.
The Fix: Have them go to Safari > Settings (or Preferences) > Privacy and temporarily uncheck "Prevent cross-site tracking".
After unchecking it, they should clear their history, restart Safari, and try logging in again.
This is for the specific Mac issue. If you're not on Mac, skip this and move on to #2.
2. Third-Party Cookie Restrictions (Chrome / Arc / Brave)
If they are using Chrome or a Chromium-based Mac browser, strict settings or extensions might be blocking third-party cookies, which prevents the Google authentication state from transferring to Blogger.
The Fix: Have them check chrome://settings/cookies and ensure third-party cookies aren't completely blocked, or add [*.]blogger.com and [*.]google.com to the allowed sites list.
This is for Mac, but it is probably similar for Windows-based systems. Then...
3. State/Onboarding Profile Corruption
Sometimes the login "vanishes" because the Google account is successfully authenticating, but the Blogger backend is bouncing them because the profile lacks a required Display Name or is stuck in an onboarding state.
The Fix: Have them open a new tab and go directly to [https://www.blogger.com/onboarding](https://www.blogger.com/onboarding) or [https://www.blogger.com/profile.g](https://www.blogger.com/profile.g). If it forces them to enter a display name, completing that step will instantly fix the dashboard drop-out.
I wonder if the above is anyone's issue. I'm sure someone is having that issue. And finally, the "quickest triage step":
Have them try to log in via a completely different browser (like Firefox) or an Incognito/Private window with all extensions disabled. If that works seamlessly, you've confirmed it's a localized cookie/privacy setting on their primary browser.
I hope this helps. If you're having this issue and this helps, or if you're having this issue and this doesn't help, please let me know. I'll keep my eyes and ears open and if I come across another way this could be solved, I'll let you know.
It's three times harder to get disaster relief funding under the current regime if you're living in a blue state as opposed to a red state. It's not supposed to work like that. It doesn't matter who your reps are or who your governor is, you should get help if a disaster befalls you. I would not wish such a thing on my worst enemy, and yet, here we are, dealing with the fallout of a manbaby throwing a tantrum about helping fellow Americans in need.
FEMA said yes, but the manbaby said no, so it became no. And now, with the wildfires in Oregon, the senators are demanding why FEMA won't help them out. Why are we paying into a system that denies helping us when we need it?
(Although, the same could be said of our healthcare system...)
Since we can't rely on the government, it's time to look into mutual aid organizations. Donate if you can. When you hear about disasters in blue states, make sure to amplify any group that's helping, as that might be the only help that's coming.
And make your displeasure known to your representatives. They know this is wrong. Remind them that they work for us, not the other way around. It's their job to stand up against the executive branch. They're supposed to be a check, not a rubber stamp.
Sorry, no new pictures this week. Just side 1:
and side 2:
from last week.
The big problem with doing something like this is that the early rounds make it look like it's building quickly, as each round is short. Now, the rounds take a while, so it doesn't look like much is happening each round. Or rather, each oval.
But I made some important decisions with regards to how I'm going to make this sweater-shaped. I'd explain, but it won't make much sense in writing, and I don't have visuals yet.
First it needs to be the width I want. Each round adds about an inch. I'm over halfway done, but it still feels like I'm crawling.
And, at this time of year my palms and the soles of my feet sweat, so that makes for uncomfortable yarn work. (Although, crochet is way easier than knitting.)
I feel a bit lighter with a plan in place. Now, if the weather would just cool off a bit, I might feel like working on it more.
The Reluctant Sweater:
This year my birthday falls on a Friday. Today. Once I knew I was doing color quizzes this summer, I knew which color I was going to post for my birthday. Orange.
Whew. I got an 18 out of 18. Of all the colors, this is the one I should know. Alas, some of these I did get via process of elimination.
(While I don't have an ultimate favorite color, I am quite partial to orange.)
How did you do? Let me know in the comments.
