No July 31?

It's Tuesday, the day I dig into the archives (and give myself a day off from coming up with something new). And it's my birthday. 

So, I found my birthday post from two years ago (that would be 2010). Enjoy.

I don't know why these things come up, but as this was rather timely, I thought I'd share.

On Monday, I went over to help my 9-year-old niece clean out her closet. As she did the work, I blathered on about random things.

I told her about the time when I was a child that I was paranoid about July having 31 days. My child brain reasoned that since February sometimes has a 29th, then perhaps other months could lose their last day. My niece thought that this logic was crazy, and she said so.

Of course, I was assured by my parents that July would always have 31 days. And now I see the craziness of the thought. (I was a small child. I had many crazy worries.) I hadn't thought of this for years.

Nothing quite like trying to entertain a child to bring out such strange memories.

Happy Birthday to me.

Charger Fail

Last week I went to the Orange County Fair. I don't live in Orange County, but that fair is closer, and the LA County Fair isn't until September anyway. Although, the commercials for the LA County Fair are brilliant:

Anyway, I like to go and look at the knitting. And the photography. And the ridiculous stuff that they deep fry. (Deep fried hamburgers? Really?) It's a good excuse to walk around and look at things.

This time, I bought a small solar charger for my iPhone:

Isn't it cute?

As per the instructions, I charged the thing for two days in the sun (well, I did more than two days, just to be safe), and then I went to use it. I was out and about. I plugged it in to my cell phone...  

Well, I have a case on my cell phone:  

And I bet you know where this is going. The case is just a little too big. So, I could get the charger plugged in, but I had to hold it so that it would continue to charge.  

I found that if I prop up the phone and let gravity do the work, it'll connect enough so that it will charge, so it isn't a complete fail. And it's just a case issue. But I still feel kind of stupid.  

Ah well. I guess it's time for a new case anyway. My birthday is next week. Perhaps someone will buy me something cute.  

Power Outage

Last Tuesday, the power went out. There was no good reason for this. (The company's message said "equipment failure".) It wasn't terribly hot out. There were no storms in the area. But at about 4:30 PM--POOF! Out.

It was an inconvenience. They had power restored in three hours. I missed a couple TV shows. No big deal.

But it's Thursday, so I'm going to turn this mundane happening and go crazy with it.

Imagine you're living on a colony on the moon or Mars or in a space ship someplace. What would happen if the power fails? 

I think about things like this. This is why I would not make a good candidate for one of these crews. That, and I'm a big wuss.

Query Contest

Do you have a completed manuscript? If so, make sure to head on over to Unicorn Bell for the School's In Query Contest.

Week 1: Study Hall
It's a week devoted to getting you up to speed on how to write a query. If you have no idea what to do when it comes to querying, this is the week to learn. If you do know, you may still learn something.

Week 2: Workshop
It's time to show off what you've learned. Submit your query for feedback. Get it ready to submit to agents.

Week 3: Editor Judging
Time for final queries. Judging by guest judges.

Make sure to head on over starting August 13th.

"Cut it out, Gary Glitter."

I did it! I finally reposted all the old posts from the now defunct MySpace blog. Yeah! Now what am I supposed to do with Tuesdays?  

Well, this blog has been going for a while. And I have followers now. (When I started, not so much.) So, I'm going to find some posts that got missed and repost them. This was originally posted on October 9, 2007.

It was 6th period. The 7th grader in the seat to my right was humming "Rock and Roll, Part 2" through his rolled up assignment. I expected a quizzical look. I got nothing. (He hadn't heard me.)

You know the song. It's the one that they play at basketball games.



Since the boy hadn't heard me, I repeated myself. "You didn't get that reference, did you?" I asked. He hadn't. Why would he? He doesn't remember the '70's. He was born in 1995!

I found out that he's in the middle school band--a trumpet player. They learn a couple songs that they play all the time. One is "Louie, Louie" (yes, that "Louie, Louie"). The other is a song they call "The Hey Song". That one would be "Rock and Roll, Part 2".

I know this because I have subbed for the band. Luckily, there was a very nice man who rehearsed the group (so I didn't end up with chaos). And that's where I learned about the band's repertoire.

Did I get the boy to stop humming? Well, no.

Boring T-Shirts

Last week, I helped my sister-in-law did some sorting/downsizing in her home (read: I held the trash bag). While she was going through various stuff, she found some plain white t-shirts (kids' sizes) and a tie-dye kit. A project that never got off the ground.

One of the things I like to repin on Pinterest is t-shirt tutorials. There are all sorts of clever people who have come up with ways to take a boring old t-shirt and turn it into something interesting.

My sewing skills are rudimentary. I've made a couple superhero capes. I've lined purses that I knit. But I have a sewing machine, and I'm willing to learn.

So, I volunteered my services. I said that if she and my niece would tie-dye the shirts, I'd turn them into something fun.

I went to the board...and discovered that I only have 6 choices. That may seem like a lot, but I thought I had a dozen or more. Oops.

So, anyway... Anyone seen any interesting t-shirt upcycle projects online? I'm open to suggestions. And which of the ones I have pinned do you think I should try?

Message from the Future

Time travel has long been a staple of science fiction. Can it really happen? Who knows?

What if it was possible to send information back in time? They are doing experiments to see if that's possible (at least according to the episode I saw of Through the Wormhole). But in my mind, I took it one step further.

What do you think you'd do if you got a message from your future self? Would you believe it? Would you act on it?