Hi Mare,
Sneaky is as sneaky does, sahr.... (Forrest Gump reference, in case you didn't catch it)
(Un)fortunately, everyone in my family is pretty honest--great practical jokers, but honest otherwise.
One suggestion about the compass needle flipping back and forth is that I suspect it's taking the minimum energy path for flipping. I've seen the same kind of thing playing with a compass and magnets, and I'm pretty sure that the needle will flip back and forth in the minimum arc necessary to follow the magnetic field. There's no particular reason (that I can think of anyway) that the compass will always spin in the same pattern every time.
Personally, I'm enjoying the patterns you're producing. If you really want to get involved, you could get one of those magnetic knife racks and a couple of cheap kitchen knives, and see if you can reproduce the banding pattern.
Fearn