Get up at 6:30. Work for an hour and a half. Nail down the fine details of an English presentation worth 10%. Excited to kill it. Hop on my longboard an hour and a half later, 2 minutes till class. Arrive late to Physics for the 10th straight day (new record time: <2 mins from home to school, 0.8km). Take notes for upcoming unit test. Shit pants because teacher predicts class average of 60-65 (90+ avg. student). It's now 9:35AM. Lunch time. Ride back home to shower and get dressed properly (lol). Study presentation briefly. Come back to school, eat food. 10:55, English presentation. Best presentation of the week (by far!). Day rockets by, very pleased with myself. Plan on going home and studying for 5+ hours.
(I'm only in eleventh grade, but I need a 93+ average for an automatic $2000 scholarship to University of Toronto, my dream school for my undergrad).
This is where things get shitty and shittier.
Get home. Flush toilet while brother is running water for a bath. Get screamed at and called every name in the book, turns into a rather large fight. Upset and not wanting to deal with being yelled at for no reason, decide to go boarding (brother is 7 years older. And alpha as fuck). Get back an hour and a half later. Clean up brother's mess in the living room so my parents don't have to, and do the dishes. Set up my desk and get ready to study. Start studying. Frustrated with math (so terrible at Factorization (lol)), trying to figure it out. Talking to friends about it. Slowly getting more frustrated as it gets more confusing. Get screamed at to come for dinner. Get yelled at more about listening to Whitechapel (while I study...). Fight with father for a bit about pretty much nothing (he was upset about work...) Decide to go longboarding to cool off. Two fights with my family in one day. I can't remember the last time I even yelled at anyone in my family. My day has gone from awesome, to quite shitty.
Find some sick hills, calming down, really enjoying the night air. Ready to go home and crush books and figure this math out, then study physics for a couple of hours. Riding home down Wellington St (2nd most used street in Aurora, Ontario), on the opposite side, so that I can see oncoming traffic and get off well in advance. This is a common practice of mine. I've been yelled at by officers of the law before because of this, but nothing more than a honk and "OFF THE ROAD!!!"
Looking down at oncoming traffic. See a pair of motorcycle headlights and a pair of car headlights behind them. Behind those two, a wall of cars. No one is passing. Everyone is driving somewhat slow (speed limit is 50km/h. Most do 60-75. No one is going near that). Think to myself, "wouldn't it just top off the night if I got a ticket here.."
I decide to get off my board to avoid it. As soon as I step off the board and lean down to pick it up, I see lights. Blue and red. I look up. Sure enough, they're emanating from the motorcycle leading the headlight-charge. I look to escape: there's an apartment building to my left, and to my right (across the street), a massive plaza. The closest escape route is behind me, across the street that's 50 m behind me (into a backyard and over fences). After that, into a ravine 100m ahead. Decide there's no escaping this cop even if he's in his silly rubber boots and massive bike jacket.
Get off the road, and put my board on the grass. Await the cops arrival. Greet him at the side of the road. Get told to back up and that he will approach me. Wait calmly. Cop is huge, but nice. And genuinely concerned. Pulls out his ticket book (I have a Class G1 License. I can officially drive with a G-Class driver that has had it for 4+ years as long as they are in the passenger seat of the vehicle. In October I will be able to drive alone). I'm ready to cry, at this point. A ticket before I even get my G2 will mean my insurance is far past affordable. And I've been saving for a car for well over a year (have worked multiple jobs).
Speak to the cop for a while. Discuss the consequences and what was happening and why. He calls dispatch. Asks me for my name etc., since I don't have my wallet on me. Asks if I have a license. Say yes. Get asked twice more (in more aggressive tones (e.g. "So if I call dispatch RIGHT NOW, your G1 will show up?). Yes, yes officer, yes, absolutely. Sure enough, dispatch comes up with nothing.
"So. Do you know what laws you're breaking when you do this?" -- "Officer I assumed it was the same as a pedestrian walking towards oncoming traffic, in order to see it and judge when to move. So no, I'm sorry I don't." -- "OK, well, this street is officially classified as a Highway. You must obey the rules of Highways, no matter what you are driving, or in your case riding." "This is considered a Reckless Driving charge. It's the same charge as if you were driving down the wrong side, for fun. Do you know how much the minimum fine is?" "I don't. If I had to guess, anywhere from $300-$500." "$498 and a 6-demerit points" (Ontario (can't speak for all of Canada; unsure) has a demerit point system. You have 12 possible "demerit points". Once you hit 9, they run an investigation, interview/interrogate you, and determine if they should revoke your license. If you hit 12, it's gone automatically). "So in other words, my insurance next year will be $7,000 with only collision" -- At this point, I'm ready to start bawling my eyes out. Cop chuckles. Says nothing.
Cop is still upset. Thinks I'm lying (about identity). Still doesn't know who I am. Still somewhat nice, however, and a bit cheerier since I'm a nice guy. I feel like I can get off with this one. I'm asking questions. Lots of them. Trying to clarify the law, to make him sure that I'm learning from my mistakes. Eventually he lightens up. Calls my parents, and my mom brings my license. Goes over rules of the road with us for 20 minutes. Calls dispatch and confirms that my mom arrived. Then explains that I'm getting an official warning and no charge.
It is now 10:30PM. I still have at least four hours of homework/studying to do. Coffee is slowly becoming a good friend of mine. I'm taking getting off of this ticket as a sign from above (not actually religious), and studying my ass off as soon as I click "Post Blog."
Not sure if today was good, or bad. On the bright side, I found two really awesome hills to board, and a ladder that goes to the top of the town library (eventually to climb, some night). On the bad side, I won't be asleep until at least 2:00AM and I have to be at school for Senior Jazz Band by 6:55AM. Where I need to learn 12 songs on First/Second Trombone.
For those unfamiliar with a longboard: it is a skateboard, much longer, about the same width, with more flex. It has larger trucks, bearings and wheels. It allows you to go much faster and carve about on the street, similar to snowboarding except for there is no lateral movement, unless you "slide", but that's a technique more for tricks or to slow down. I don't slide often.
Here is a video of some guys killing it on their boards:
Kind of bullshit that they'd threaten you with reckless driving for longboarding down opposite traffic. I've done that with my bike(which could actually be considered to be under the rules of the road) and never got in trouble for it. I have no idea why you've got in so much shit about it. Maybe they just discriminate against longboarders? Maybe they stereotype and hope to pull over a stoner? I don't know, man.
As for the being yelled at by the family, I've had days like that before. All of a sudden everyone gets pissed off one day and I get in shit for everything. Normally happens in early fall, too. Probably something to do with the oncoming winter?
About the math, try to get your brother to help you with it. Unless he's too alpha to do something as wimpy as math haha.
On September 26 2012 12:02 WarSame wrote: Kind of bullshit that they'd threaten you with reckless driving for longboarding down opposite traffic. I've done that with my bike(which could actually be considered to be under the rules of the road) and never got in trouble for it. I have no idea why you've got in so much shit about it. Maybe they just discriminate against longboarders? Maybe they stereotype and hope to pull over a stoner? I don't know, man.
As for the being yelled at by the family, I've had days like that before. All of a sudden everyone gets pissed off one day and I get in shit for everything. Normally happens in early fall, too. Probably something to do with the oncoming winter?
About the math, try to get your brother to help you with it. Unless he's too alpha to do something as wimpy as math haha.
Yeah. I know. I figured it was just me being safe. Longboarding down a narrow sidewalk at 20+ km/h is less safe for me and other pedestrians than being on a road facing oncoming traffic and just getting off when getting close to cars.. Even though I sometimes just ride through traffic :s
He did actually mention to my mom while on the phone with her though that I was sober. Couldn't quite hear since he walked away. Something like "polite and sober with no silly foot chases", so maybe he was hoping for me to have a couple grams of weed and run, or something. He seemed scared that I would attack him at first, which I guess is a safe practice for any cop.
In regards to discriminating against boarders, he actually mentioned that Ontario has no laws specific to longboards when I asked where I should be. He simply said that he thinks the sidewalk would be a better choice.. He later contradicted himself by saying "I've clocked boarders at 20km/h, and you can imagine how that is when they're coming up behind a senior citizen who isn't quite doing that speed." I personally think where I was was the best spot.. Chances are I'll get pulled over for it again. Riding the sidewalk is stupid, imo, unless it's a very very busy street.
When you get a ticket here for an offence as such (same as a parking ticket), you have three options: pay straight up, don't pay and get fucked eventually, or meet up with the chief prosecutor and try to negotiate a deal. If I were to have received a ticket for such a serious charge, I would have been in there, lawyer or not, pretty fast. I can't imagine a prosecutor really wanting to go to a judge with a reckless driving charge when I was on a longboard lol.
And yeah. My father does contract landscaping, in other words, he's out of work whenever there's snow. Fall sort of sucks around here. It's like a pretext for a shitty couple of months (where my family is broke..)
Hmm, I've never long-boarded(although it's something I've been thinking of trying), so I don't know what type of shit you guys have to deal with, but it really doesn't seem like they treat you too well. Reckless driving for that is so ridiculous I can't even comprehend a police officer being serious about it.
As for the fall thing, that's even worse. My parents both have year round jobs(teacher and some sort of electrical engineering) and they get pissed off around this time because it's the onset of fall. We get noticeably shorter days, cold weather, and a 4 month winter to look forward to. If you combine a lack of income during the winter with that...
On September 26 2012 12:53 WarSame wrote: Hmm, I've never long-boarded(although it's something I've been thinking of trying), so I don't know what type of shit you guys have to deal with, but it really doesn't seem like they treat you too well.
Try it. SO much fun. And never really get much shit. It's obvious that you're pissing people off when they have to slow down behind you or go around you, but that's all. Never been yelled at or anything.
On September 26 2012 13:49 Turbovolver wrote: So this is the kind of person that listens to Whitechapel
Find two numbers that multiply to get a*c and that add or subtract to get b, for example:
y = 10x^2 - 7x - 12
a*c = -120 b = -7
So to find the two numbers, just do *1, *2, *3, and so on until it works. We want the multiplication of the two numbers to equal -120 and the addition or subtraction to equal -7 (since the addition or subtraction result is negative (-7), the bigger number below has to be negative)
If you're not sure what to use for a certain number, for example *5, just do -120/5 = -24 and so your numbers will obviously be -24*5 = -120 and then you can do -24 + 5 to see if it equals your b value.
So, now we split up the bx term, -7x into -15x + 8x, because that will still give us -7x if we simplify it. now we can rewrite it as: y = 10x^2 -15x + 8x - 12
Then grab the first two terms and take out the most common factor, which is 5x. Now grab the second two terms and take out the most common factor, which is 4. Now it looks like this:
y = 5x(2x - 3) + 4(2x - 3)
You'll notice that your two sets of brackets are the same, so that means that you've probably gotten it correct!
Now you just grab one of the sets of brackets and chuck the outside stuff into a set of brackets, to get: (5x + 4)(2x - 3) and you're done.
There are some simpler methods, but I find this the most systematic and fool-proof when factorising a nice equation.
edit: I totally thought you were referring to the surfboard longboard, not the skateboard longboard.
Oh my god the post above mine, that method is just... too long?
Try this one:
y = 10x^2 - 7x - 12
Same example, same end result, different method.
First take 2 numbers that give 10 when they are multiplied (like 5 and 2, 10 and 1 and so on).
Let's pick 5 and 2.
Then, find 2 numbers that give -12 when they are multiplied (like -3 and 4, 3 and -4, 2 and -6 and so on)
Let's pick -3 and 4.
What do we have now?
5 and 4 on one side 2 and -3 on the other side
Do a cross multiplication (multiply 5 with -3, 2 with 4), sum up the results, see if it gives -7. If it does, your end result is (5x + 4)*(2x - 3). Double check by opening the brackets, see that it gives the correct results.
On the family part though, yours is pretty much nothing, I have to live through the same psychological warfare, that you lived only once, every single god damn day. You have to be grateful.
hahaha, reckless driving. that's a good one. cops are real pieces of shit sometimes. they will always lie to you to intimidate you like that. do you know how hard it would be to prove beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law that you were violating the reckless driving law on a longboard?
why in the fuck would you be in the street going the opposite way on a highway like this??
all it takes is one slip and you'll get yourself killed or cause a massive pile up. stay on the sidewalk and don't be an assclown next time and you won't get in trouble. the cop wasn't being a dick at all.
why in the fuck would you be in the street going the opposite way on a highway like this??
all it takes is one slip and you'll get yourself killed or cause a massive pile up. stay on the sidewalk and don't be an assclown next time and you won't get in trouble. the cop wasn't being a dick at all.
Its not nice that this post calls the OP an assclown (lol). He sounds liek a great guy, taking hard courses, having fun, caring for his family and planning ahead when he is still so young! Gotta be supportive, he was obviously pretty mad when he wrote this.
Your resourcefulness looking up the map is really smart. I was going to ask for a description of the street. Thats a bloody highway. I'm a skater and I think when you skate, you have to plan your route to avoid highways and bumpy roads and enjoy the scenery.
also a little trick i picked up on the way.. if you're riding on the sidewalk just ride slow for FUN! sometimes i switch to goofy even though im regular and i'm so slow but i really concentrate on the small aspects of my stance and my kick and i workin on my shock absorption when i go over the cracks.
Anyways, good job dealing with the poh-lease. I woulda been a baby and got myself a ticket and i'm twenty two.
there's not many other ways to describe deciding to ride the wrong way on a highway when there's a perfectly good sidewalk... hell, it looks like there's a bike lane for most of that highway.
im sure he's an ok person besides that, but that shit not only dumb but dangerous
To the two that posted help with Factorization: thank you very much. I appreciate it.
To those assuming Wellington St is a very populated and fast highway: it really is not. Not in the area I ride, at least. The speed limit is 50km/h, which is only 10km/h higher than the standard town street. In the area I was riding, there are multiple stop lights. More than enough to keep traffic in large waves, with often minute and half waits between two waves of cars. To add, there are no bike lanes, anywhere along the street. The sidewalk is very, very bad. Overgrown with weeds in most parts, cracked and uneven. I'm way more likely to fall and hurt myself on a surface as bad as that with such small room to maneuver, than a newly paved flat two-lane street.
And to QuanticHawk: Because I'm not an illogical retard. No driver is going to drive straight into me on this two-lane street, assuming I was to stay in the lane. And the street is straight. You can easily see a kilometer down the street. There are no hidden entrances. I have no opportunity to be surprised by a vehicle.
I think you guys are mistaking Wellington St with something like Highway 401, where the speed limit is 100km/h.
Edit: and while "one slip" isn't impossible, it's ridiculously unlikely. I don't see how I coul possibly slip. I nver ride when it's wet outside because it ruins your bearings pretty much instantly. And I'm not on the road within 100m of any oncoming cars, so if I did slip, I'd probably just get back up and grab my board and get on the sidewalk, assuming traffic was coming.
Those factorization methods.... I feel they're very random. As in, could totally get you stuck trying numbers at random if coefficients are integers, and are impossible to hit right with irrationals (good luck finding two numbers that multiply to get -V43 and add to cos(1)). I don't know what evleventh grade would translate into in the French system, but don't they teach you square identities like (a+b)²=a²+b²+2ab, (a-b)²=a²+b²-2ab or (a+b)(a-b)=a²-b² ? I was taught those when I was 13, to give you a reference.
If you know them it's really easy to factorize a quadratic expression - It looks complicated with literal coefficients but it's really easy with known integers.
Then if blue and red are of the same sign, you CANNOT factorize without complex numbers (and since you're studying factorization you probably don't use those haha), and if they're not, you use :
And there it is ! Arguably this one was very quick & easy since x² + 2x + 1 = (x + 1)² is pretty to spot, but you get the thing (I hope )
If you fear you'll get in trouble for using this (if you use this :D), just prove the identities yourself, going in the development way :
(a + b)² = (a + b)(a + b) = a² + ab + ab + b² = a² + 2ab + b²
(a - b)² = (a - b)(a - b) = a² - ab - ab + b² = a² - 2ab + b²
(a + b)(a - b) = a² + ab - ab -b² = a² - b²
Very small calculations, no need to think or try things, always works, you know when you can't factorize.... Everything you dream of in maths.
Also you can sometimes directly use identities without thinking, for example :
P(x) = x² - 4 = a² - b² = (a + b)(a - b) = (x - 2)(x+ 2)
Of course it also helps to know the squares of the ~~15 first integers : 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100, 121, 144, 169, 196, 225, 256....
Hope I can help you with this, and you can use it ! But then if you're aiming for university and you're soon going to be able to drive you should be able to use these tools - again, this is true mathematics, not just random groping in the dark - it always works if it can work, and if the experssion cannot be factorized you know so.
If you don't read anything else : always look to see whether you can factorize more, like in :
it's a highway, not a street, and you could always try this novel idea that drivers typically do in shitty conditions and go only as fast as you can safely handle rather than going super fast on shitty sidewalks
Since when did you need to try so hard to get into U of T im pretty sure only engsci requires a 90+ average and being a 3rd year engsci you probably dont even want to come...
Just chill and enjoy high school.
Also traffic cases are a joke. 99% of the time no-one is even going to show up, and even if they do, ur never going to get your original fine...
EPT
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