Stuffed animals

Remember back to your childhood? Remember when you had a few choice stuffed animals to keep you safe at night? Or maybe you had a favorite which had to come EVERYWHERE. We will had a few growing up. My brother and I both had our favorites - a bear, a lion, a bunny, a seal. But the collection grew well beyond just those. As you can see in the picture, we had a menagerie. This came to being because we were not alone in our appreciation of the stuffed animals. Our mother essentially collected them.

Sadly, it has been a long while since these guys were played with. The reason they were reunited was to take stock before we donate the lot. A few were saved and hopefully cleaned. The rest will hopefully bring joy to another child or neighborhood of children.

How would you redesign it?

A few weeks back, a friend posted a link to a blog article which I found interesting. The author, Erica Goldson, displays her valedictorian speech given earlier this year (one assumes). In her speech, Erica questions the method in which our current education system evaluates whether students have learned enough to move on. I encourage you to read her speech first:

http://americaviaerica.blogspot.com/

“But now I have successfully shown that I was the best slave.” What a line. I agree with the sentiment of the speech. We should be taught and encouraged to think beyond the facts and rote memorization. One of my friends once told me that educational systems are mostly an experiment. There is little science or testing which shows that one way of teaching is better than another. Mostly this is because you can't truly tell until at least ten years later.

I believe that we as a society need to encourage life-long learning. No matter our degree or profession, we are all capable of learning new things. We should strive to build that desire within ourselves and the youth. In today’s economic climate, this idea is more than just a suggestion, it is required. Many people are finding that they are faced with learning new skills, techniques, and entire vocations in order to survive.

Coming back to schools and education – Erica suggests for students go beyond what is required for testing and not worry about grades. How does that work? I agree - metrics stink. But how do we, as a society, evaluate which schools need support, which are 'succeeding'?

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book ‘Outliers’, examines commonly used stats showing reading comprehension between students of different socio-economic status across several years in school. Looking at the numbers, it appears that the schools are failing at helping the students from low income backgrounds keep up with their middle and high income classmates. But then Gladwell has the reader look closer. The low-income are not falling behind in school. They are falling behind during summer. It comes back to a difference in what happens at home. When a family is struggling to make ends meet, there is less time to encourage summer learning. On the flip-side, the middle and high income families create more incentives for summer education. It comes through required reading, trips, summer camps, and similar activities.

I believe that our attitudes towards education are impacted by the school, the teachers, and our classmates. But they are so much more affected by our family, relatives, and friends. In essences, it comes back to association. Be careful who you spend time with.

In Erica’s final sentences, she directs her thoughts to her classmates and instructors. She challenges them to change, to grow, to learn. We all should listen and try to learn, grow, and change.

Thanks for reading!
~J^3

A Baltimore First

So I did it. After nearly seven months living here in the city, I finally did it… I took a bike ride. Oooo. Ahhh. OK, so maybe it is not that exciting to you. But since bringing my bike down here, I was excited to finally take it out and use it. Back in Delaware, I would ride the bike about once a year. Typically, it would be on the fourth of July. I would ride down to the reviewing stand and help setup the sound system and podium. The reason I rode my bike was that at some point the road would be closed for the parade and there was little need to bring my car there. But I digress.

So in a recent post I mentioned that I would write stuff in no specific order. So you might ask, “When did you take this ride?” Today – Saturday July 24th, 2010 - reportedly the hottest day in Baltimore this year. According to wunderground.com, it was between 99 degF to 100 degF outside. And I biked almost 9 miles in that heat.
Was I thinking? No. Did I at least prepare for a hot ride? Yes. I was smart enough to wear shorts, a t-shirt, a ballcap, and bring water. It really didn’t hit me though until I was 20-30 min into my ride and about 3-4 miles away from my apartment. First, I am getting into shape (positive talk), but I do have some way to go. So biking even that long wore me out. Plus it is warm out. Fortunately, I was not racing nor had a timetable. Also fortunately I was biking in a park with benches. I stopped a few times to catch my breath, breathe, and walk the bike a little. But mostly I powered through it. That felt great.

The route was nice – I wasn’t biking through the streets of Baltimore. From my apartment it takes about ten minutes to get to a bike/walk entrance of Druid Hill Park. The signs read for the Jones Fall Trail. I followed that into the park, past the Maryland Zoo, in front of the Conservatory, and down to the Druid Lake. There is a nice 1.5 mi path around the reservoir which I did twice. The ride back to the apartment started out rough. I was pretty winded so I took my time. At certain point though I was feeling better and was able to power through the rest. You can check out the route I took at GPSed.com here. GPSed Lite is a cool, free app for my Blackberry which uses GPS to record my path.

Recently I was having a conversation with my friend Sara where I told her about a high school incident where I managed to scare a fellow classmate (Kayvon) through my driving. She noted that most high school boys have this ‘invincibility’ idea that nothing can ever stop them. I don’t know if Mrs. Hitchens still teaches at AIHS and whether she still runs the Math League team, but if you wonder why no one is allowed to carpool to offsite matches, you can thank me. Because of the incident, students would either use the bus or go alone.

One could argue that I still believe I am invincible in a few areas of my life. Chalk it up to being single, unattached, and still alive. I think my decision to bike on the hottest day this year goes right along with this notion. But I survived. Thank God for that. Next time, I’ll be a bit smarter and start with shorter runs to build up endurance. I must add though, when I got back to my place, I had two things which helped my body recover very quickly: endurance cubes (berry flavor) and an antioxidant twist tube.

So that’s it. I was able to start biking and I hope I can make it a habit.
Thanks for reading,
~J^3

An adjustment

Have you ever been to a chiropractor? Ever been adjusted? Well I had my first experience today. It was interesting.

I went to one of those booths at the HonFest which offered a free 10 min massage. Well along with that I was offered two free chiropractor consults. Sure, I thought. Why not?

They checked me out and even took a few x-rays to check out my spine. As it turns out, I need to correct the curvature of my neck and my middle to lower back.

Fast forward to today. I went to my first appt. The doctor felt my neck and them made two quick, sharp adjustments. Wow, did my neck crack. And that was it. I then was given 10 min of some electric stimulation to ease the muscles. Strange.

We'll see how it goes. I hope it helps to reduce the general back and shoulder pain. I guess time will tell.

~J^3
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Does order matter?

Since the whole blog thing is new to me I have this feeling that posts should have chronological order. Well that creates an issue when I have posts in mind and then new ideas come up. I get this anxiety about finding time to write. Forget that!

I have a plan to write a post summarizing the road trip. That'll happen. I also have starting writing one about a recent trip to Bethany Beach. Right now, I am at a local haunt - Golden West Cafe in Hampden. If you haven't been, check out the long bar. A few great bartenders - Tony, Eaden - and an every changing list of beers on tap. The food is pretty banging too.

So look forward to other posts. Who knows when they'll come or in what order. Yay for randomness.

~J^3
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