2026 has started, but you haven't forgotten 2025 yet, have you? (I know we want to memory hole the year as quickly as possible...)
I got 13 out of 18. Not terrible, but not great. In my defense, I do not pay attention to soccer, and some of these pop cultural events totally passed me by.
Warning, this is a bit U.S. based, so my non-U.S. readers might want to skip this. Let me know how you did in the comments.
Happy New Year.
Today is normally Thursday 13, but I posted it yesterday (as I wanted to do my 2025 in 13 posts in 2025), which leaves me with nothing for today.
But a couple weeks ago my brother sent me a text. It seems that eldest nephew has started a Band Camp page. And I thought, why not link to a few things I wouldn't normally have a need to mention on the blog?
So, first, eldest nephew's Band Camp. Don't let the photo fool you. He's actually 20. He did drumline in high school, and now he's making music on the computer. Take a listen. I'm sure he'd appreciate any support.
Next, my sister-in-law started a podcast called Raven's Lore Cast. The previous link is the podcast on Spotify, and this one is the Facebook page.
My brother, who has been kind enough to edit my little yarn-y YouTube videos, has made a couple of his own. (Well, besides the actual work he does, as he does actually work in television.) The Night of Zach. And The Night of Zach 2.
I have mentioned my uncle's YouTube channel before, but as long as I'm doing this, I'm going to mention it again. He does animations that he posts every couple of weeks.
And then, of course, my YouTube channel, where I make things out of yarn. I have a plan to knit slippers next, but I have not even started this yet.
What sorts of things do you have out there on the internet? Post links in the comments. Promote yourself, too.
For the last Thursday of the year, I like to list 13 posts from the past year for Thursday 13. Alas, the last Thursday of 2025 was Christmas, and I kinda didn't want to do this on Christmas. So, instead I'm going to do this on the actual last day of the year (a Wednesday) and just link up with Thursday 13 tomorrow.
1. January 24th: Scissor Emergency
About a seventh grader and the scissors he had to have. In the class I covered almost a full year ago now.
The post I wrote when my mother passed away. Suddenly. Yeah, 2025 was that year.
3. February 14th: Missed Deadline
In February, I started a long term assignment for a class that lost their teacher at the semester (she got a new job), and it was a mess. Like, missed-turning-in-grades mess.
A most unusual extra period assignment, but not in a good way. This was the period when the students were informed that one of their classmates had passed away.
Spring semester was kind of a tangle. This post kind of explains how I was in the middle of a couple longer term assignments.
6. May 1st: Settling into the Long Term 13
And I ended the school year in an eleventh grade English class. In this post I talk about how it was going.
My main yarn-y work for the first half of the year was the Minecraft collection, characters from the video game that I crocheted for my nephews. This was the last one in progress.
 |
| The Minecraft Collection with the nephews |
8. July 11th: Missed Connection
The week of the 4th of July, I flew back to Ohio to visit my brother and family. On the way home, I got stuck overnight in Denver, Colorado.
9. August 11th: Starting the Sweater
And for the second half of the year, my main yarn-y work was a knitted sweater for eldest nephew. This is the beginning of that project.
10. August 27th: Starting from Scratch
I began the current school year in a vacant middle school art class. It was a mad scramble to get things set up.
After leaving the middle school art class, I continued to see "my" students in other classes. Somehow they were unclear on the whole they-hired-a-teacher-for-your-class bit.
You may have heard of this. If you don't see kiddos or teenagers regularly, you do not know my pain. It's worse than you know. Six... seven...
13. December 3rd: A Reading Lesson
The end of the calendar year saw me back in the day-to-day subbing of it all. This day was a senior English class where they were studying a graphic novel.
By now I'm sure you heard about how 60 Minutes had a story all ready to go about CECOT only to have it pulled by the new head of news because the news is no longer critical of the regime. But, of course, almost immediately the segment escaped containment.
Have you seen it?
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5
[image or embed]— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog.xyz) December 22, 2025 at 5:28 PM
I heard it was on YouTube, but it got taken down. But someone posted it on Bluesky in five parts. The above is the first part. Click through to the post to find the rest of the thread. If you'd like to save these for yourself, you can use the Bluesky Video Downloader.
If you look through that thread, I saw a couple other ways to view it if you're so inclined (and this way doesn't work for you).
And then PBS did a segment on Frontline: Surviving CECOT. This one should be easier to view.
While we're on the topic, some more articles about ICE and what they're doing:
(I finally found a whistle. They had them at Daiso. Where are they selling whistles near you?)
Before I close this out, this is my last Tuesday post for the year. How much of Project 2025 did the regime manage to accomplish this year? Someone took the time to find out.
As predicted, I did not finish eldest nephew's sweater in time for Christmas. The next question is: will I finish it in January?
I do not know. I have about half of one sleeve. So, maybe?
As luck would have it, the family made the trip out to SoCal, so I could give presents in person. I brought along the work-in-progress so eldest nephew could see how it was coming along. He was impressed. Apparently, cables are impressive. Who knew?
(Eldest nephew was also dealing with a miserable cold. On his birthday.)
But I had finished some things. Like, the beanie for middle nephew in "Lakers colors".
Yeah, he was wearing a Lakers t-shirt. Because, of course.
And the beanie for my brother:
Then the two of them took a selfie in their beanies:
I took a pic as they took their selfie.
So, I will be continuing the Christmas knitting after Christmas. I knew this would happen, though, so I'm not terribly upset about it.
The irony? When I referenced what they had asked me for in July, they had forgotten. So, the twins were quite content with the purchased long-sleeved sweatshirts (with Minecraft on them), and my sister-in-law wasn't upset that I hadn't started her sweater at all.
It's vacation time, so Fridays are all about the random quizzes. Rather than making you think today, let's see how you feel.
I got blue. "You are soulful, introspective, and emotionally in tune." I don't know if that's true, but whatever. (They have quizzes where they claim to guess your age based on the questions. They never get the age right.)
So, what color heart emoji did you get? Let me know in the comments.
Tomorrow, December 26th, is a Doomsday...
Many years ago, I read a book on the calendar, and there was a chapter on Lewis Carroll's method of calculating the day of the week for any date in any year. Simplifying that idea, British mathematician John Conway gave us the Doomsday Algorithm.
Every year has its Doomsday. It's a day of the week. This year (2025) it's Friday. Next year (2026) it's Saturday. (Which makes things easy as it moves forward one day every year except for leap years when it's two.)
Certain days fall on the Doomsday. Remember them, and you can count from them to figure out other days. And people think you're way smarter than you actually are.
So, today for Thursday 13, thirteen days that fall on the Doomsday.
1. December 26th
Or Boxing Day in other parts of the world. Which makes it easy to know what day of the week Christmas is going to fall on in any given year as well as the following January 1st, as that is exactly a week after.
2. March 0
Or the last day of February. This year that was February 28th. Next year that will be February 28th. But in a leap year it'll be February 29th. And this is the easiest way to note that.
3. March 28th
This one I remember because non-leap year February and March are the same month. Basically.
There are seven days in the week. Each month starts on one of those days. But there are twelve months. If two months start on the same day of the week (and mathematically, some have to), then I call them the "same month". That is, all the days will fall on the same day of the week. (Well, except for end of the month, as February only has the 28 days while March has 31.)
4. November 28th
Because November is the same month as March and non-leap year February. Don't believe me? Pull out a calendar.
5. October 31st
Halloween. Not the only holiday to fall on the Doomsday (see #1).
6. January 31st*
Because October and January (non-leap year) are the same month. (And both have 31 days, which makes them exactly the same month.) Feel free to check your calendar...
7. April 4th
There's a funny thing with even (non-February) months. The month/day when it's the same, is the Doomsday. As April is the fourth month (4/4)...
8. July 4th
And July and April are the same month. Every year.
9. June 6th
So, continuing from #7, this is 6/6. It's a nice thing to remember, as it gives most months one day you can remember as the Doomsday to make the calculations easier.
10. August 8th
Yup, 8/8.
11. October 10th
And that gives us 10/10.
12. December 12th
Finally, 12/12. Add seven, and the 19th is the Doomsday. Seven more gets you 26 (see #1).
13. September 12th
And finally, September and December are the same month.
Did you know these? Do you now think I know way too much about the calendar?
