Ashley Bingle
Halloween 2008
by Ashley on Nov.05, 2008, under Ashley Bingle
Well, no contest winnings this year. Apparently we have less chance of winning at youth group specifically because we are Bingles. We were told that we were at a disadvantage (having placed the last 3 years), although we did have costumes in the running. However, since Halloween fell on a Friday this year, and our costumes for youth group didn’t have to be ready until the Monday after, we had different costumes on the actual day.
Alyssa was an Olympic Gymnast, complete with Gold Medal and American Flag. Pictured are her Olympic Rings, on the front of her jacket she had “USA”.
Amber was a fisher person, using some shiny pins as lures on her hat and our Fisher Price fishing pole. Here she is trying to fish out of our pool. Needless to say, she did not catch anything.
I used one of our store bought costumes from after Halloween sales a different year and was a gypsy. I used our little mini tambourine and some earrings that were almost used on Alyssa’s pirate costume last year.
Daddy took the cake, though, with his costume which he wore all day at work. He was a Former Wallstreet CEO: (You wouldn’t believe how many people asked him that night if it was real!)
We worked during the weekend on our costumes for the contest at Youth Group and this is what we came up with:
I was a blue Lego brick, our Youth Director thought it was a domino, and Amber was a monster large bag of M&Ms®, complete with the registered trademark symbol.
Driver’s Edge
by Ashley on Oct.27, 2008, under Ashley Bingle
Well you know I have my learner’s permit and am learning to drive, but this wasn’t a typical “Driver’s Ed” class, it was Driver’s Edge!
This program is sponsored by Bridgestone and organized by people from Las Vegas who recognized the need to educate teen drivers in how to handle situations where it is easy to lose control. The four hour class involved a pre-test to evaluate your knowledge prior to the class, an introduction to explain how everything worked, four rotational stations, and a post-test, to see what was learned. All of this was held in the empty parking lots of the Orange County Convention Center so the worst we had to worry about while driving was hitting little orange cones. (The light-posts were far enough away from the courses.)
The stations were two lectures and two hands-on driving stations. One was a lecture by the Florida State Highway Patrol about seatbelts and a demonstration of “Drunk Goggles” which simulate the vision of someone with an intoxication level exceeding the legal limit. The other lecture was by one of the founders who detailed seat and hand position as well as some of the internal components of the engine.
My favorite parts were the hands-on stations where I actually got to drive. They had cars with four seatbelts and they would put two or three students in the car with a driving instructor. The really neat part was that the instructors were mostly racecar drivers. One of the stations they wet the road and then had us floor the accelerator then let off and try to turn. We would lose traction and have to try to come out of a skid. I’m pretty sure most of those instructors were drifting racers. I did pretty well on that one, I think, because I only ever spun out completely once, the other times I managed to finish driving through the cones at the end of the course. The instructors took us through once or twice then each student was supposed to go three times. The second course was really two put together, one where we slammed on the brakes to see what antilock brakes do, and one where we were supposed to change lanes very quickly like an obstacle had just fallen in front of us. They would take us through that whole thing once and then each student got two turns. The first time on the ABS section we just slammed on the brakes when they told us to, the second time they told us to put them on later and so we had to steer around a curve while braking.
I had such a good time doing it the morning of October 25, the first of two days they were doing it, that I signed up for the Sunday afternoon class too. I felt like the driving experience was very helpful and I am hoping the Driver’s Edge people come back again next year because it was good to get to practice accident avoidance skills in a controlled environment.
International Talk Like A Pirate Day 2008
by Ashley on Sep.19, 2008, under Ashley Bingle, Richard Bingle Family
The time has come again, Mateys! That most wonderful time of year when we get to annoy all passers-by with our piratical speech. I know I will lapse into pirate speech just about any time now that I have gotten to see all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (since last TLAPD I hadn’t yet), but this gives me a reason to be talkin’ like a pirate. (I get a few less stares that way, maybe…)
Last year I confused my Computer Science teacher when I answered all her questions about java coding in my pirate persona and this year I saved up my Web Design teacher’s oral quiz for a similar demonstration. Ironically, as I am usually the Captain when we play pirates at PE and it started just yesterday, I got to try out my pirate voice prematurely.
-Cap’n Ash
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Ahoy, Ahoy!
Welcome to Bingle.org! This is the place to go for what the extended Bingle Clan is up to. Take some time to look around and browse the gallery. -- Rich
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