Birthday Wishes

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. 😉

What if the number of Facebook "happy birthday" wishes you got determined what kind of gifts you received? 

(Tomorrow's my birthday [so I will be offline], but I have, like, five friends on FB, so this wouldn't apply to me...)

Knitted Case Progress

I have not touched my mini iPad case in a while...

What mini iPad case, you ask? Yeah, it's been a while since I mentioned it. A recap:

• Designing Woes: where I showed off the first couple inches of the piece
• My Knitting Whoops: where I pointed out a mistake I made (that many of you couldn't see)
• Contemplating Next Steps: where I showed off the finished piece, without edging

Since then, I did crochet an edging. I even took pictures, which is hiding in some file or other. (I don't remember what I blogged about that week instead. Probably the donut.) 

The above shot has the case folded up. That's what it looks like at the moment. On the inside...

The gray is fabric that I sewed down. Inside the gray fabric is a posterboard backing (with duct tape along the edges to keep things smooth...

...and a gap so that the posterboard can be removed in case I want to throw the whole thing in the wash.

The next step is to figure out how I want to position elastic to keep the iPad attached, and then to sew that down.

You can't tell from these photos, but there is a buttonhole on one edge, so I'll need to sew on the button as well.

I had thought of sewing in more of a lining, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do that now. I'll have to see how I feel after sewing in the elastic and sewing on the button.

As before, it's a work in progress. And it's been a bit too hot to think, so not much progress is being made.

Although, I had the brilliant idea of sewing in fabric that is as stretchy as the knitted fabric. Can you see the ribbing on the fabric? That means that the whole thing has a bit of give. It's lovely. 

Rhymes with Oak

It's Friday, so it's time for a random quiz!

This week, it's one of the rhyming ones. You're to find all the one-syllable words that rhyme with "oak".

You can type them in any order. If it's a match, it'll disappear from the answer box.

Rhymes with Oak

I was only able to get 17/24. I'm sure you can beat my score. Good luck.

Fake Amanda

I'm not great at detecting lies, but sometimes the kiddos are obvious. Today's #ThrowbackThursday post is from February 22, 2008, but I remember it well. 

Today I covered a 7th grade world history class.

I needed a silent room. I was not getting it. So, I warned them: "I will take down the names of those who continue to talk." This only works when I cover some teachers. This was one of them.

They fought me on it for a moment. I stared down the few whose names were going to be on my list. Then one of the girls (the talkers were all girls in this group) told me to write down her name. "I'm Amanda," she said.

She offered up her name way too easily. I was suspicious. I checked the seating chart. Sure enough, Amanda sat in that seat. But she did not look like an Amanda. She did not feel like an Amanda. I was sure I was being lied to.

Twenty minutes later (I had gotten my silence, so I didn't need to make my list) two other students were exchanging words. "Amanda, I have it here." The first student was talking to a different girl, not the one who claimed to be Amanda. I knew it!

After a quick perusal of the seating chart, I figured out who the fake Amanda was. Joanna. I was pretty sure. The two girls had probably switched seats.

Then someone called to the fake Amanda, calling her Joanna. I was right.

I don't know why they do this. I don't know what they get out of it. Today? They get honorable mention in my note to their teacher.

Ms. T recently retired. I miss her classes. She did not put up with this sort of nonsense. That girl was in serious trouble afterward.

Too Close

Considering how often I've covered for teachers who got stuck on jury duty (like for most of last August), I knew was about due to get caught. The summons wasn't completely unexpected. As always, I postponed to a more convenient time. Last week.

Our state is a one day/one trial state. I picked the week between the end of summer school and the beginning of the continuation high school, so I wouldn't be in danger of missing anything at all.

My reporting day ended up being Wednesday.

The hope is that I'll manage to duck getting assigned to a trial for the day. But, alas, at about 11 AM, I got assigned to a courtroom.

via GIPHY

We waited outside for nearly 40 minutes. By the time we got in, we had just enough time for the judge to inform us that the trial (including estimated time for deliberations) would take about a week before she dismissed us to lunch.

While I did not want to be assigned to the trial, I admitted to myself that it wouldn't be a hardship. The continuation high school wasn't to open until Thursday of the following week. I'd miss nothing.

After lunch, from our pool of slightly less than 30 (they took a pool of 30, but a couple had already been dismissed as they had conflicts with remaining a week), they called up 18. I was juror number 15.

As the usual questioning proceeded, I could tell a couple of jurors 1-12 would be dismissed. You just kind of know. As #15, that meant that I'd end up in the box.

via GIPHY

But, there was no way to get myself disqualified. Could I be fair in this case? Sure. There wasn't anything presented that I had any definite bias for or against.

At about 4 PM, it was time for the lawyers to get their peremptory challenges.

First, the prosecution bumped one. Then the defense. Then the prosecution...

Ugh. I was moved to juror #8.

Then it was the defense's turn again. He looked at the jury box and said he was okay with the jury as it was.

via GIPHY

Then it was time for the prosecution again. "We thank and excuse juror number 8."

via GIPHY

That was way too close.

As the judge instructed, I waited to celebrate until I had left the courtroom. But, as I was leaving, I heard one of the lawyers say for the new juror #8 to not get too comfortable. (And I celebrated again. The woman next to me as former juror #16 told me that getting off work for a week was going to be a problem for her.)

By the time I got back to the jury room (4:15-ish), the place was empty. Which meant I was done for the day. I checked out and headed for my car.

As I hit the escalator, I ran into the others from the courtroom I had just left also leaving. They still had their juror badges, so it appeared that they would all be returning the next day. I have no idea if the jury panel was complete or not.

But I was done. And I was quite happy about that.

Hopefully it'll be another few years before I have to do that again.

Religious Law

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. 😉

What if the U.S. became a theocracy?

A First Draft

I was not much in the mood to take pictures yesterday, so instead I played with making a collage.

The plan is to turn this into a pin for Pinterest. Or, at least, I'll turn the final collage into a pin. Consider this a first draft collage.

For the last year I've been getting pictures of all these lip balm cozies. How'd it take a year? I got distracted by things like Christmas and the deluge in my bedroom, as well as getting a new camera and a lightbox. The listings are done. (Finally!) But, looking back at the first pictures I "improved" shows that those need to be improved upon again. Sigh.