Intellectual Curiosity?

Last Friday I was in a science classroom. Science classrooms many times have working faucets at the workstations. The students are supposed to leave them alone unless they are doing a lab, and most of the time they do.

I noticed one group of four running the water. Of course, I went over to investigate.

They explained that they were doing physics. They wanted to see how many drops of water they could get to balance on the end of a pen.

This kind of pen, although theirs was blue.

Because of the surface tension of water, they could balance a couple drops. If you look at the end of the pen closely, you'll see that there's enough of an indentation to keep a little water there, which is what held a drop on top.  

They were able to get three drops or the third drop obliterated their efforts--I wasn't clear on which.  

I stood there and watched them for a bit. It was kind of interesting. 

There are all sorts of things students will do when given the chance. (The assignment was a finish-up-the-packet-that's-due thing, and several students pulled out work from other classes.) Many of my nightmare posts result from this.  

But of all the things they can get up to, this is the sort of thing that bothers me the least. 

Hidden History

I record a lot of shows off The Science Channel. It's backup for when there's nothing on TV. Lately, I watched What the Ancients Knew.

There was a lot of stuff that happened before history. That is, history is what was recorded, so before they could record, we have pre-history. Writing was a huge invention.

But that got me thinking...

What if the ancients did have some way of writing/recording stuff, but at some point they destroyed it all? What if they decided to hide something from us future humans and the only way to do that was to get rid of all trace of their accomplishments?

Unfinished Purse and More

I intended today's post to be a brag post where I show off my newly completed green patchwork purse. Unfortunately, the purse is not yet finished. Between another lining issue and a head cold/allergies/sinus/misery, I haven't gotten much of anything done. Ah well.

Outside done. Inside work-in-progress.

As long as I have you here, I was wondering if any of you would be willing to do me a favor. That is, would any of you who have blogs mind doing a little advertising for me? It'd be the thing on my sidebar that showcases my shop. It looks like this:  

It would be great if you would put one on your blog's sidebar for a bit. In return, I'll gift you with something made by me, either from my shop or a custom knit. If interested, email me at mllelizka [at] gmail [dot] com.

And finally, just a reminder that Blog Action Day is coming up. October 15th. Are you in?

Got Your Back

Government. Seniors. They filed in, took their seats, and waited for the bell to ring.

A girl seated in the middle of the room looked over her shoulder at the three boys seated behind her.

"I don't like this."

I didn't set the seating chart. It's the third week of school, so these sorts of things should have already been worked out. But we had a moment, so I asked.

"Do you normally sit in the back of the room?"

Student: "No. But I don't trust them."

Um, okay. I didn't see a problem. It's not like they were going to attempt anything. Besides, I was at the front of the room, and I could see exactly what those boys were up to. If they tried anything, I would catch them.

So, I told the girl I'd keep an eye out. She'd be safe.

"Thanks. I've got your back, too."

That's nice to know.

Where is Michigan?

7th grade English. The entire lesson plan consisted of going over the 20 words on their new spelling list. I was supposed to discuss the words' meanings with them.

For the most part, I asked them to come up with definitions. I figured that 7th graders should know what a penguin is. Language should also be a familiar word. And everyone volunteered to be the one to define guacamole.

(Other words weren't so familiar to them, like chauffeur, whirlpool, and exotic.)

Then we got to Michigan. I assumed they'd know it is a state, so instead I asked them to tell me where it is.

"In the USA."

Um, okay. Could you be a little more specific?

On the one hand, I'm glad that they didn't think it was in Africa. But it would have been nice if they had a better handle on where it is located. I resigned myself to being the one to give a better description for them (alas, no maps in the room).

Then 5th period walked in. I asked the same question, but this time I got a different answer.

"It's next to Ohio."

Nice. The rest of the class pointed out that the boy who provided that answer was born in Ohio. As if that somehow made the answer less right.

Unfortunately, 6th period gave the same answer as the rest of the day. Although, now they all have a much better idea of where Michigan is.

Forgotten

My "what if?" posts started as a way to fill Thursday. They replaced other writing topics as I exhausted my writing topics pretty quickly.  

To refresh, these are random thoughts I have. They don't have to be based in reality. In fact, they work better if they're not. These are questions which are meant to lead to more questions which hopefully will turn into a story of some sort in the future.  

This past weekend, I saw The Vow. (Please don't judge me too harshly. There was nothing on TV, and it was awfully hot outside. Over 100 degrees. It broke records. And there was not much to do in the air conditioned house but watch TV.) And it made me think of how memory determines much of who we are.  

I know this topic has been done in movies and books before. So, I'm going to try a different spin. 

What if we could erase memories that we did not want? What if losing those memories didn't change us at all?

As school has started up again and I have been working, I will have new subbing stories to share. Would you like me to continue with the "what if?" posts on Thursdays (assuming I can come up with something)? I've been debating whether or not to keep them up and post about subbing on other days. What do you think?  

Lining Fail

I thought I was being so clever.

Last week I showed my new green patchwork purse in progress. Now I'm in the home stretch. I should be able to finish this and list it (this one is going to be for sale) soon.

Before felting

After felting

Since I'm going to sell this one, I figured that it would need a lining.

This is what the inside looks like without a lining.

Because this purse wasn't made from a simple rectangle, sewing the lining was going to be a bit tricky. So, I traced the purse onto fabric before I sewed the seams of the knitted purse. And then I did the felting.

Felting shrinks the knitted object. I knew this. So, I didn't worry about adding seam allowances. After cutting out the lining, I trimmed it a bit more to even things out. Then I pulled out my sewing machine. The lining was considerably smaller than my unfelted purse. 

I felted the purse. I was pleased with how well the purse turned out. And then I went to fit the lining to the purse, and...  

Um, yeah. That's not going to work.  

I thought I was being clever. I thought I would just be able to insert the lining and sew it down. 

Ah well. It's time to get the sewing machine out again.