In Search of Black

High school art. They had a "busy work" assignment...

The last thing a sub ever wants is a class with nothing to do. But there are times when the class isn't in the midst of anything (like a Tuesday after a four-day weekend after a big project was due), and the teacher has a last-minute necessary absence (like either she or one of her kids got sick). So, the class needs something to keep them busy.

The teacher had a word search and color page for just this contingency.

The color page was an interesting geometric figure. They could color it in or draw designs all over it. Easy points.

Fifth period, one girl went searching through the colored pencils looking for a good black. There were plenty of browns and navy blues, but the black pencils were all about an inch long (or shorter).

Me: "Black seems to be popular."

Student: "Well, this is a high school."

So true.

The Long Game

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.😉

Today I'm going to go with another sci fi standby, the time loop. Specifically, I'm talking about the Groundhog Day loop, where characters replay one day over and over and over again... (Warning: link goes to TV Tropes. Click on links at your own risk.)

What if we're living in a Groundhog Day loop, but it's a really, really long one? That is, what if this loop started, say, at the beginning of recorded time? And, what if something resets the world every time? (For argument's sake, let's assume we've done this loop of time at least a dozen times so far.)

A Nordic Super Simple Scarf

I made another one.

For this version, I reversed the shaping.

And I used a different colorway (called "Nordic").

This time, I ended with the same 21 stitches I started with.

(The other one's colorway was called "Dragonfly". For comparison...)

They're for twins. (Their Christmas presents.) I couldn't make the exact same one for each.

So, tell me, those of you who have winter, is it still winter? Or did I finish these just in time for them to pack them up for next year?

(We're having a southern California winter cold snap at the moment. It's been really, really cold for us. But I heard the rest of the country is getting warmer. I mean, I hope for warmth for you all, but my timing just kinda sucks. Ah well, that's on me.)

How Not to Review an Album

When I took over the journalism class (because the teacher was retiring), I was told that hopefully the counselor wouldn't add any students for those last two weeks.

Alas, she did.

Jason needed something to do, but all the articles had been assigned. So, I flailed about for something to give him. I hit upon the idea of a review, as the movie reviewer had been absent for days. But he wasn't into movies. However, he was into music.

(I've read the school newspaper. Several issues, in fact. So, I know they occasionally have an album review. It wouldn't be out of place.)

Jason wanted to review his own music. He couldn't comprehend why I would object to that.

But eventually, I got him to understand that he could review any other album by any other artist he liked.

So, for three days he worked on his review. Once he finished it, he submitted it to me.

It had the usual grammatical errors. Those I was expecting. I was also expecting that I might not have heard of the artist or the album. (I hadn't. He reviewed Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho.)

What I didn't expect is that he didn't actually review the album. He put together three paragraphs that are obviously cobbled together from that Wikipedia page I linked to. Nothing about what the album sounds like. Nothing about what he thought of it. Nothing that sounds like an album review.

He had no idea what I was talking about when I gave him back my notes.

I attempted to explain what I meant by an album review, but it was like I was speaking to him in Greek. He didn't get it. So, I searched out some examples of album reviews. I gave him a link to Rolling Stone's page of album reviews. He balked until I explained I just wanted him to take a look and use those as examples.

A couple days later he resubmitted his article to me. He had added a paragraph on the end about the music.

While I would really like to just copy and paste what he wrote, copyright and all attaches, so I won't. Suffice it to say, he wrote a sentence saying what kind of music it was, and not saying a whole lot more.

Hopefully the new journalism teacher can get a better album review out of him. I tried. I really did.

Dropping a Mixtape

Apparently I've never written about Earvin before. Funny. He's been a thorn in my side for a while. I guess he's not done anything blog-worthy until now.

It was week two in the English 12 classes at the continuation high school. Third period was journalism. (Read: the kids that write the school paper.) Ms. M had dropped Earvin from the class before she retired to make things easier for me, but the counselor put him back in.

Ugh.

Earvin is one of those students who has no concept of proper behavior. Oh, he pays lip service to it, but when I actually want him to sit down and let me start class, he'll "do it in a minute". He just needs to finish whatever he's talking about right then. And that something is rarely, if ever, classroom appropriate.

On this day, Earvin was all about the rap song he had just released into the world.

He had to play it for everybody. Repeatedly.

And no matter how much I protested that it was inappropriate for school and that we had classwork to do, Earvin needed "just a minute" to "finish up".

Oh, the class was so enthusiastic about the song. They're sure he's going to be famous. And they told him how brilliant it was.

Personally, I thought the song was profanity-laced, misogynistic, violent, and rude. Of course, I'm not into rap music, and when every other word is either an f-bomb or that n-one, I'm left totally cold.

But Earvin was so proud. And he had to promote it. He needed a credit card. He asked me if he could use mine.

And then he was shocked that I wouldn't let him use it. (He only needed $5, and he was going to give me the cash.)

Some students are just so clueless...

Earvin seems to think I like him. I have no idea what gave him that impression.

Going Over My Head

I got called into the assistant principal's office. Twice. In one day.

It was week two of the two week assignment at the continuation high school. I was covering the English 12 class. The teacher had retired.

The first time, I had sort of requested the interview. Student issue. The second time, however, took me by surprise. I was sure I was in trouble.

And I was in trouble. Sort of.

The students had complained to the assistant principal (AP) that I had been giving them too much work.

So, I told the AP exactly what I had assigned. I even emailed her copies of the all the assignments. She looped in one of the other English teachers, and I met with this other English teacher the next day to go over stuff. (I've subbed for Ms. S many, many times.)

Neither the AP nor Ms. S thought I was being unreasonable in my assignments. And it wasn't like I wasn't giving the students ample extra time to make things up.

In the course of our conversation, I mentioned to Ms. S that the AP had received complaints, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't overburdening the students. Ms. S then told me who the student was that complained...

via GIPHY

I recognized the student's name. Because the school is so small, I know her face. But only because the school is so small. Not because I had seen her in class...

Ms. S and I had this conversation on day seven of my nine days covering this class. The student who complained? Had been absent all of those seven days. (She actually had the journalism class, too. She showed up for that class once. On a Friday. Twenty minutes late.)

Apparently the girl had asked what she missed of her fellow classmates and balked at the amount of work...

Nah.

I'm not sure what she was thinking, but she hadn't spent any time discussing classwork with her classmates. That would have required effort.

Annual Cross

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.😉

Let's go a little high concept this week. Parallel universes. (Warning: link takes you to TV Tropes. Click, and follow links, at your own risk.)

Have you heard of the concept? It's the idea that there are an infinite number of universes, called the multiverse, that diverge in small (and sometimes large) ways. It's been used in various ways in just about every sci fi TV show.

What if these parallel worlds could only intersect (so one could cross over into them) on specific days of the year (like, their orbits are completely different around the sun, and they only coincide in the same physical space, albeit in a different dimension, one day a year)?