Archive: June 14, 2015

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Meg graduates!

Sunday,  06/14/15  09:46 PM

And so last Thursday Megan graduated high school, yay!  Our last one, now an "adult" and off to college...  quite a moment.  There were the usual speeches, and as usual the students were a lot more interesting than the administrators.  I've just recently re-read The Most Human Human (great book!), and it struck me that indeed it is surprise which makes things interesting, and surprise was the difference between the students' speeches - which tended to focus on more specific things I didn't know - and the administrators', which were just blah blah blah platitudes about the students moving on to change the world. Anyway in Megan's case I have no doubt that she *is* moving on to change the world; anyone who knows Meg knows this. I couldn't be more proud of her; smart, self-confident, funny, beautiful, and interesting, in the sense of always being surprising, always having a new point of view, a new approach.   As I think about Meg's graduation, I think about all the other kids who graduated from her high school, and all the other high schools which had graduations.  So many people, all going through this critical transition from kids to adults.  For many of them it was one of the most important days in their lives so far, and they will no doubt remember them forever. Having blogged for so long, I can also now remember Alexis' graduation, now four years ago, and Jordan's graduation, now (gasp!) eleven years past.  It does indeed bring tears to my eyes rereading those reports and reliving those days. Onward!

 

everything inflation

Sunday,  06/14/15  10:42 PM

I just noted Meg's graduation last week, which was awesome :) Also impressive was the incredible "everything inflation" on display.  In her class of 570 students, 104 had 4.0 averages, and there were 35 valedictorians.  Roughly half of the kids graduating wore academic distinction sashes.  And the administrators literally bragged about how few kids failed to graduate.  Huh? Ah ... when I was a kid ... getting a 4.0 was incredibly hard, only two students in my whole school were able to do it (I did not).  There was one (1) valedictorian.  And if you didn't pass all your classes, you simply did not move on to the next grade, no muss, no fuss.  I think that was better.

 

bicycle day

Sunday,  06/14/15  10:52 PM

You will have seen, last Thursday was Meg's graduation, but last Friday was equally as important; the fourteenth anniversary of Bicycle Day, the first day following Meg's open heart surgery in 2001 that she was allowed to ride a bike again.  I was just going through some old posts celebrating this, and wow, how those years have flown by. This is a picture of me and Meg on the original bicycle day, off to take a ride :)

 

flag day

Sunday,  06/14/15  11:01 PM

Today was Flag Day, did you celebrate?  I did, by putting up a flag on our garage ... and then going sailing; ended up in a great match race with a long time friend.  Perfect. Meanwhile, it's all happening... How cute is this?  An announcement from a friend and his wife: "announcing a new addition to the group ride".  Awww...  For you, and so I can find it later: GPSVisualizer.com.  The perfect way to "see" a ride once you have a GPX file for it.  Either a ride you've actually ridden - from the GPX file generated by your GPS - or a ride you're planning - from RideWithGPS.com, etc.  Very cool.  And speaking of ride visualizations, I've been watching the Criterium Dauphine, and ITV4 (a UK television channel) have a great way of showing a ride route in 3D.  Check this out!  Makes me think perhaps I could take a GPX file and figure out how to actually print the ride visualization on my 3D printer.  Stay tuned :)  By the way the Dauphine was a great stage race this year; congrats to Chris Froome for winning, and to Tejay Van Garderen for making it close. Are you ready for The Martian, the movie?  I've raved about the book already - yes, you *must* read it - but now, looking at the trailer, this looks like it's going to be excellent.  Ridley Scott is the Director, by the way.  Meanwhile, in the real world, the Philae lander has woken up!  YAY.  You will remember, this is the little guy who landed on Comet 67/Churyumov seven months ago.  He landed on his side and ran out of power, but scientists were hopeful that as the comet orbited closer to the sun he'd rebuild power and wake up.  And this has apparently happened!  No word on what shirts the scientists were wearing when this happened :) More space: Seven things to know about the New Horizons visit to Pluto.  Excellent!  The perfect picture from the International Space Station.  Astronaut Terry Virts had been trying to take this picture of the Egyptian pyramids for 200 days, on his last day in space, he got it.  Wow.

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