I was hit by a car! Dark, rainy, wet. My bike light had been stolen. Normally it is light when I bike home but - board meeting at work. So. all-way stop sign. Car comes from right, slows. I assume it will stop and feel like it's my damn street and my damn neighborhood and what not, so I continue in front of him, and instead of stopping, he starts to .... accelerate! I like how my brain works in an emergency; it clears out and focuses. Partly I am modeling what is going on for the driver. Can't imagine he didn't see me because you have to look both ways. So he must see me and if he's accelerating he must be trying to hit me.
I think must have figured that in the worst case I'll be OK, and might as well make the point for bikes. The land grab.
He started to accelerate and hit me square on. In the moment I interpreted this as deliberate act of aggression at me for being wrong in some way. My bike was pretty much centered in front of his grill. I didn't have the leverage to fall onto his trunk (what do you call the front top of engine surface?), and even then it was sloped and slick, so not sure could have held on. I went over onto my left side, hitting the street. As soon as I hit the ground I pushed/rolled toward the side my head was closest to getting free, to escape the wheels. For some time I did not know whether I would be hit, but it was never scary, just figuring stuff out. Then I cleared the car, rolling over onto my front, and got up. He stopped, got out, was so sorry. I told him several times calmly that he needs to come to a complete stop. He said he looked right, and I repeated myself, and he asked if I was OK a couple times. I decided I was OK, mostly because my light had been stolen and I was wearing dark clothes so felt like I would be busted. Came on home; the bike a little harder to ride, and my shin boinked, but I guess kind of adrenalinny according to Izzy who was the one to be there and hear the story.
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This morning at work, after the parent/teacher conferences, David called. Mom, can you help me study for my final; it's in 3 hours. OK. David sent me the practice exam and we went through it for a couple hours. OK, maybe you can do this:
What is a solution (i.e, an equation for a(n), that doesn't include the function a() on the right hand side), for
a(n) = a(n-1) - a(n-2)
where a(0) = 1 and a(1) = 4
?
Also, a bunch of graph problems.
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Conferences.
Gave each teacher Erin's letter.
This letter is to inform you that Isabel Bryant a student at your school has been selected to the USA Juniro Standing Orienteering Team. This is a National Development Team designed to prepare athletes to compete on the world stage. Isabel has put in years of hard work to reach this level in orienteering. The demands at this level are very rigorous, from training every day, to traveling around the country and internatinoally for competitions and training camps.
With this commitment there are times when school and orienteering conflict. In this case Isabel has the opportunity to travel to Finland, Norway, and Bulgaria for world class competitions, training, and the Junior World Orienteering Championships. In order to attend this trip, Isabel would need to leave school on June 9th, requiring her to miss the end of the school year. I request that Isabel be excused from school June 9th through the last day of class. I make this request with the assumption that Isabel will complete all her work consistent with your class expectations through the end of the year. I expect Isabel to work with you proactively to make sure she completes all the necessary assignments for class before she leaves and has a clear plan should she have assignments to complete while traveling.
Should you have any questions, ...
National Team Coach
It was like Charlie's golden ticket. It was unbelievable. Glass elevators everywhere. And of course, I'm like, so if you would like your class to go on a year-end field trip to the woods to orienteer, let me know. Results:
Math teacher - will ask several other teachers that teach non-pre-calculus-track kids that do really well with alternative hands on stuff and are studying graph theory, if they'd like to do orienteering with their kids.
History teacher - was really impressed about Isabel being on the team; he might have been one of two teachers who already knew about orienteering. I always explain anyway. Always travel with an O map. And your Junior Team Administrator business cards. I always forget. Anyway.
Art teacher - thinks Isabel is great. First assignment - Isabel had figured all this Photoshop stuff out herself, stuff that was going to be taught 2 or 3 lessons later, and the teacher looked at the last name, "Bryant", oh, of course. I guess kids still say every week or two, "I could really use the Shadow Master right now," referring to artistic David's skillz.
Art teacher told me to start a high school club. She is the adult advisor for the Dungeons and Dragons club at CRLS. There are 70 kids in this club. They all crowd into her classroom on Fridays. Maybe I could just infiltrate her club.
Computer science teacher - great, love him. He taught the alternative math program for many years. Now just teaching CS. I am going to send him a paper, maybe you all can recommend one, on the NP-complete orienteering version of the traveling salesman problem. Also he might be interested in bringing his AP CS class to orienteer this spring.
Then talked to the principal, awesome guy. He has spoken with Izzy and is psyched that the school has a "national champion". Wants to watch JWOC on the internet; I hope they have good coverage with both RouteGadget thingy and video. Guess we can provide video after the fact and other reportage. But real time GPS would be super nice for keeping people's interest. Principal possibly interested in a staff retreat to orienteer in the woods for teambuilding. Then a mother who overheard me recruited me to come put on an orienteering event at an event for
gogreenstreets.org, a local oragnization that encourages 'sustainable' commuting and holds events outdoors at parks in the spring - May will be orienteering. Magazine Beach. Ed, I need to borrow your map again.
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I love how Erin doesn't explain what orienteering is. People *should* know. They can look it up. Then they'll be drawn even further in.
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Part of the point here is that each kid on the JST has huge leverage in their local community to spread to the word about orienteering to hundreds of people. Getting press is pretty easy when you are organized and send out the info. (Maryjane and Glen have been good with that.) But having connections into the local community like schools can bring nearly instant opportunity with something like this; you just have to be ready to jump in with the information and the offer.