Dear Mr. Kingsbury,
I wrote you a well composed letter, persuasive and organized, preened to be respectful and concise. I know better than to compose inside the message thing where you can’t save as you go. I got timed out by Etudes and lost it. So I jogged with my dog, cooked salmon tacos (with herbs from my garden,) sulked, then watched several episodes of Trailer Park Boys.
It sounds lame, but I’ve been killing myself doing the work for this class. My boyfriend has been sad for me, my nose in the book and computer constantly, loosing sleep, having no fun. (I had fun this weekend with my friends from SF and in Tahoma. I want more.) I keep assuring him, “I’m enjoying the challenge, I’m succeeding, I can get an A like my other classes this year, I’m almost caught up, then I’ll go have fun, I’m having a sort of fun doing this work, I’ll never get a degree, grow up, succeed in life, if I don’t buckle down and persevere with this work.” But I’m pale and fat, lethargic and stuffy. I gave up on Boot Camp and Afro Cuban dance because I stay up late doing this homework. I haven’t had much fun this year at all. I didn’t snowboard hardly this winter, which is completely against my grain. I haven’t even swum in the lake this summer yet.

I mistakenly thought my fancy mountain bike got stolen again this weekend. Turned out I just left it locked up at work on Fri. But the perceived loss of it triggered a floodgate of pent up emotion and depression Tues., which I’ve only just recovered from last night with some soul-searching decisions. I have my motivation back today. I realize I need a vacation bad before school starts again in fall. I need to refocus some effort towards replenishing mental, physical health and balance.
I do want to finish this class, as it’s a necessary step towards a degree. I’ve accomplished 50% so I hate to waste that effort. However I was barely keeping up before and loosing sleep doing it. Now I’m irreparably behind. So here is my idea of how to finish. I’d love your feedback and gratefully your mentorship and support too.

I took this class with 5 objectives:
1) To get clues and motivation to focus my million ideas into a better job.
2) To learn the difference between a non-profit and regular business, and if you can make a living off the former.
3) Learn how to create a business plan and pursue financing.
4) Practice producing academic homework in preparation for ENG 103 this fall. 5) Knock out a pre-req for a degree.

The first 2 have already been satisfied. Thank you. The 5th may be accomplished with a C if I finish the tests and the discussion, which I intend. No 4 I’m feeling failurish and discouraged on. However, I’m trying to remind myself that Cabrillo College’s learning center showed me

I have mental and learning “differences” to fight with or utilize. Just because I can’t produce certain written and conceptual work as quickly or easily as some other students, doesn’t mean I can’t succeed. I could quit on one end of the spectrum (with a D) because of this, or make myself ill and extremely unhappy on the other end (with a syllabus conforming B.)
What I’d like to do instead is realize I’ve practiced enough to know ENG 103 in the Fall will be a royal biznatch and I better not sign up for anything else, (but I can’t help myself and

I’ll sign up for BSN 210 anyway.) I am definitely better prepared for ENG 103 now than before attempting this class. With risk of offending your sensibilities by suggesting an altern

ative to your well thought out planned syllabus, I’d like to scrap doing the rest of the essay type assignments in order to regain some healthful balance in my life. I hope you’ll consider, in a Maria Montessori style, of supporting and mentoring me to incorporate the text of this class and other research materials into a more personally meaningful and motivating (and therefore more attainable for a person with my learning “differences,”) curriculum described further on in this letter. Now the 3rd objective is what I’d like to discuss. I know that material will be covered and focused on in BSN 210, but I want to get a head start now.
When I lost my fancy mountain bike at B-man ’07, I volunteered with bike reclamation helping people file stolen bike reports. I learned that hundreds of bikes are stolen, abandoned, recovered and then only a few donated to new homes while most are turned to useless landfill and ugly art installations. I felt driven to do something better about that. Then I lost steam in the regular rut of working for a living to pay bills. Last year at B-man, the drive was refueled when I got another less fancy bike stolen. I participated a few hours in pulling the piles of dumped bikes off the playa, but my motives weren’t trusted as I was looking for my stolen bike that I couldn’t name the brand name of (Giant.) They like to catalogue the bikes and try to match them with stolen bike reports before giving them up to charity and landfill. Many after burn people think they should be able to adopt these bikes while they are in the staging area before the cataloging process. These people will scope the lot and file reports describing a bike they see there or describe in vague terms that apply to dozens of bikes in the lot. They thought I was one of these people. And they just didn’t want my help. It kind of discouraged me in contrast to the appreciation I received the year before.
Having lost my bike again this weekend, fueled my old dreams of creating a “bike hospital” here in Tahoe, like the one in Santa Cruz. The one in Santa Cruz shares space with People Power a political org. http://peoplepowersc.org/promoting bikes as sustainable alternative transportation and a bike messenger service. I want my Tahoe bike hospital to be a place where bikes otherwise going to landfill could be recovered as useful transport to people in Tahoe who don’t currently have a bike. My motto being, “If every one owns a bike, no one need steal my

bike.”

I’ve heard through the grapevine of a snowboard video where they get from resort to resort with a people powered Flintstone car, a bike driven vehicle protecting the passengers/drivers from the elements while able to tote their snow gear, a vehicle I dream about every winter. I want to sell that video and others like it and other wise promote biking for alternative sustainable transport .
I read about water pumps in Africa powered by stationary bikes that kids have fun running, in Blue Planet Run by Smolan and Erwitt, (http://blueplanetrun.org/run.)

There is an artist , Peter Hudson, every year at B-man who powers his art interactively by citizens participating with people power, i.e. stationary bikes and drums. I want my non-profit bike org to educate and promote this form of sustainable energy.

Another aspect of this Non-profit org. I want to add is bikes as performance art. There are crazy clown bikes that certain hot boys I’ve met build for fun. I admire these and imagine promotional events highlighting and publicizing them. I worked with a girl last year at Love Fest in SF that is part of a bike choreography performance group http://www.sanfranciscobicycleballet.org/thirdpage.html. I want to get them on board too.

I believe, if I could write a good business plan, or even a crappy beginning of some sort of business plan, before burning man, I think Travis, the guy in charge of all those hundreds of abandoned bikes left as trash to clean up on Playa, will consider donating some of them to my cause, and let me on his after burn crew to learn a few things about fixing them. I know a ton of people in Tahoe too, who love to tinker with bikes that will show me and help me. I figure I can get Gary Bell http://www.sierraskiandcycleworks.com/index.html on board even though I 'll be direct competition for his shop, just ‘cause he’s that sort of guy.

So what do you think Teach? Will you give me that extra nudge of support, blessing and mentorship by guiding me to start a business plan for a non-profit org that will pay me a living wage? Will you give me extra credit points as a carrot to get started and to finish a decent draft of this business plan as an alternative, that will offset not producing all of the syllabus planned assignments?

Here are some other things I’d like to do for extra credit:
1) Get my BugsNow site live (mentioned below in “my work at school” post, Click here to enlarge,) with a business plan or mission statement or some other content, in order to recruit better research writers than me from class.

2) Practice writing mission statements and content for my myriad millions of ideas for businesses this town needs. Post it live on my umbrella website to get my Tahopia.info business rolling.
3) Research leads in the class text for writing plans and securing financing, i.e. pgs 158- 161 and C1-C8.
4) Investigate joining the Moose and Soroptimist clubs locally towards financing, karma and networking purposes.

No. 2 was my main goal for this summer that I haven’t moved an inch on. I thought

by being enrolled in school, having access to the silence of the computer labs and the necessary programs I don’t have, I would kick ass. But I haven’t budged. The lab hours are really meager anyway, sour grapes. I really need an I Mac computer, the Adobe Web Suite and a camera. I thought I’d have the $$$ and time this summer, but it didn’t work out that way. With the extra impetus of extra credit points for this class, perhaps I might get a few powerfully motivated days in before the labs are closed till fall?

Realistically, there are only 2 more weeks of this class. I'll be lucky to get the reading finished and do the tests. I need to get crakin' sewing L'wire to my faux fur coat, cherry out my playa bike and all the other multitudinous preparations for burning man. I'm vending at the Gorge Phish show, my import clothes. Hopefully I can frame up some art from Borneo and Hunan in time too, I need a mat cutter and materials though. Phish 7-13-03 The Gorge, WA - YEM Trampolines