Free Technology for Teachers: My Five Most Frequently Recommended Google Forms Add-ons

Free Technology for Teachers: My Five Most Frequently Recommended Google Forms Add-ons

We're hiring! Shop Managers wanted for Bike Project.

Bike-related employment opportunities! We are now hiring for two shop manager positions: a part-time manager for our Downtown Urbana shop, and a full-time manager for the Campus Bicycle Shop. (The manager at the Campus Bicycle Shop will be a University of Illinois employee; the Campus Bicycle Shop is a collaboration with the University.)

See both job announcements at http://www.thebikeproject.org/jobs/ .

Below are vitals for each position; follow the links for the full text of the job announcements.

The application deadline for both positions is 11:59 pm CDT, March 27, 2013.

Part-time Shop Manager (Downtown Urbana location)
http://www.thebikeproject.org/jobs/part-time-manager-2013/
Date Posted: March 8, 2013
Position: Part-time Shop Manager (20-25 hours/week)
Organization: The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign
Start Date: April 15–May 15, 2013 (negotiable; earlier preferred)
Duration: One year (renewable annually)
Location: Champaign-Urbana, IL

Full Time Shop Manager (Campus location)
http://www.thebikeproject.org/jobs/full-time-manager-2013/
Date Posted: March 8, 2013
Position: Full Time Shop Manager (40 hours/week)
Organization: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Start Date: April 15–May 15, 2013 (negotiable; earlier preferred)
Duration: One year (renewable annually)
Location: Champaign-Urbana, IL

Feel free to re-post the above links and job announcements. If you know any good candidates, please let them know!

(UPDATE: The application for deadline for both positions has been changed to  11:59 pm CDT, March 27, 2013)

wOOt! One of the Hollandias has a home! Now its partner is alone... if you're looking for a Dutch-style utilitarian vehicle, it's waiting for you (if I were two inches taller....) Saturday also brought in two folks whose brakes & handlebars & wheels needed work because they'd crashed into poles... riding on the sidewalk... reminding us of the reality that the streets are safer -- and on our streets of the common width, to use good lane position that's not hugging the gutter, so you're seen and so cars don't buzz you trying to avoid going across that center line...

Can you spot all six folks working on bikes? (Hint: look for legs :) ) It was another busy Saturday with a couple of new memberships and three or four bikes making that graduation from "ain't goin' nowhere" to "Rollin' on outta here." And NOrth of the bike-stand scene we had two volunteers who re-organized just about every wheel in the place, pausing to help get the right wheel on the right bike. I love it when it's a busy day, but still people somehow manage to make it *more* organized than when we started. We're still working out staffing logistics for the Campus Bike Project ... as soon as something's definite, it will be posted.

This fellow, Mike Udelhofen, got help with bike setup at the bike project. Then he flew to Sidney -- not for the Sidney Saloon and Casey's, like the Saturday Saunterers do, but to Sidney Australia, where he started a bit of a tour... see http://www.m-u.us/ for the post-by-post details!

Vision Meeting

Sunday from 10-2 we had a nicely-attended meeting for generating ideas and setting short and long term goals. This included talking about the assorted kinds of folks who use the different branches of The Bike Project, the different things people say that show us what our public image is, and what we actually do. Each question has many answers, of course ;)
Then we talked about our need to get fiscally organized, to connect with other organizations and reach different demographics, to have more fun, and to get more people on bicycles and get more people embracing the idea that bicycles are viable vehicles.
Notes and pictures to follow...

Do the chain shake!

Yes, you can swirl that chain around in a pile of solvent -- or, grab that jar and fill it up and shake ;)

Bike Shops = Art

If only every bike shop looked like this, we might get everyone on a bike.

Happy riding!

Bikes from the Future!

A terrific bike-related link found its way into my inbox this morning, and I had to share it with my fellow bike enthusiasts. This article, entitled "15 Amazing Bicycles for the Future of Seoul," offers up an enticing peek at a few examples of what could be the future of bicycle design for commuters in crowded and polluted cities like Seoul. Take a look and see which of these designs could inspire your next bike project or purchase.

Get thee a handlebar

We're busy fixing bikes with folks, but we've got some treasures for sale, as well. Come on by -- today is also the Mini Maker Faire!

Early March but we're hopping!

Getting the bikes ready to roll... finally getting pictures uploaded :) Hey, it's back to something like snow but spring is really going to get here, any day!

We'll be doing some different things with hours and classes this season, so stay tuned.

Bike Love Around The World

Check out what our brothers and sisters in Nairobi think about riding bikes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n73l-zsp1n0

Ride a bike!

One Very Custom Bike

This is one sure way to build a custom bike that will get you noticed. Or is it a hybrid car?

Winter Maintenance

Yes, it's under 20 F out there and yes, people are tracking in snow on their tires but yes, it's still lively and bustling at The Bike Project as we make those tires hold air again.

We were listening to the "Out Spoken Cyclist" since we get that locally now at WRFU, and it featured a fellow talking about Calvin's CHallenge and randonneurs (and the challenge of not having randonneuring options closely). I thought about it last year but it didn't pan out... but hearing this guy talk makes me want to get on that trainer...

Pictures from Snowy Saturday

I was going to be in Peoria for the League of Illinois Bicyclists meeting... then told 'em based on the forecast they'd have to carry on w/o me... then the meeting was done by phone. At any rate, I got to come on down to the bike project to get my trusty Studly Tyred Gazelle oiled (alas, it seems I can't get any easier than Gear 3 tho').

Joel and Mike loaded up The Trailer withbikes to get to the campus coop, and mother nature made our display bike purty... and an artist contributed a marvelous snow sculpture.

Exercise, Not Emissions

Many of you are already on-board with taking to your daily commute on 2 wheels, but the popularity of cycling to work, to errands and more is taking off the world over.

More pedal, less metal.

Car Free in CT - Missing CU

I gave CU props in this recent post to my new Connecticut blog outlet.

http://beatbikeblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/car-free-in-connecticut.html

Currently building character and building up a bit thicker skin. Missing CU.

Tony

Curb Cuts

I hear tell that it's possible to get all the way through East to West on my common commute, which is Main Street, through the fountain, and across to White STreet to get under the viaduct. I was really pleased to see the curb cuts -- then less pleased to see that now that they've torn up the pavement, all pains have been taken to keep automobiles from unkind bumps with extra asphalt, but we've got the sliced concrete to deal with, per the picture. So be careful out there!
Also be mindful that the driver of the yellow cab 702 is worth a little extra caution; I was going past Urbana High School parking lot and the driver waited for me... until I got there, and then pulled right out in front of me so yes, I had to brake. I called their dispatch & let 'em know that pulling out in front of vehicles is bad for business.
Now it's off to the bike project to see what Saturday brings.

A Tony Cherolis sighting!

He made it to Connecticut in one piece, and he's writing about the trip in two parts. Here's part one, and look for part two the middle of next week:



http://www.smilepolitely.com/culture/chambana_to_connecticut_in_16_days/

bikes of the rust belt

Hello, friends, from Pittsburgh, where you're always biking in the door-zone... and usually up or down a hill, around a pothole, whatever!  Be thankful for C-U's complete lack of topography and calm roads!

One thing that drew me here was the sense that Pittsburgh's made itself into a laboratory for innovation, both entrepreneurial and social.  Pittsburgh's early de-industrialization may have given the city a quicker start, but it turns out that other rust belt cities are now making a virtue of necessity, giving birth to many innovative undertakings to fill the gaps left by disappearing heavy industry and declining populations.

If you haven't seen it, this documentary about Detroit (presented by Johnny Knoxville) offers an introduction to such enterprise in the Motor City -- and a great counterpoint to the ruin-porn that's too often the media face of places like Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and other rust belt cities.  Numerous great rust belt blogs present similar positive counterpoints: Rust Wire's a favorite.

Bikes repeatedly play a prominent role in these new rust belt enterprises.  For instance, detroitblog featured a great article about a new custom cycle club, the East Side Riders.  Closer to (my!) home, Pittsburgh just hosted an instance of Park(ing) Day, a worldwide holiday in which inventive people occupy and decorate parking spots around town.  Park(ing) Day in Pittsburgh included a slow-paced tour of all 25 spots throughout the city and showed off how older, denser cities can enable sustainable -- dare I say "green"? -- transit.