Fallout 2005

Every four years, I start the academic year with a new group of ninth grade advisees. For the next four years, the group and I meet a couple times a week to hear announcements and check-in with each other. At the end, I hope that I will all see them graduate in June 2009. Yikes, they are the class of 2009. Tradition has the 9th graders go on a two night trip to Mountain Camp, which is in the Sierra Nevada foothills about 75 miles east of Sacramento.

I particularly like the trip because I, as an advisor, am simply there for adult presence. There is no requirement of us advisors to rally kids to get to their activities or to try and get them to be enthusiastic. Instead, napping is encouraged, as is sitting down by the lake (pictured above) or doing whatever we want to do. I did just that.

Fellow Math Department colleagues and fellow 9th grade advisors Paul S. and Steve G.

So, here they are, presenting to you the Chen/Gregg Class of 2009 advising group.

In the group, I will advise my third Dantzker and second Palley. It's a treat to have a relationship with families that they feel comfortable enough to allow me the honor of being an advisor to all of their children. It's one of the great things about independent schools, the family relationships. Time to carry on with the school year. If you are interested, check out my school webpage. It might be more than you can handle!

Slow on the uptake....

The dot com boom occurred during the late 1990's. I moved to San Francisco, the Bay Area being the center of internet technology change, in 1998 and was only slightly clued in to the revolution that was happening around me at the time. So many companies came and went (hello Webvan) and most were making big splashes with their IPO's and stock prices. One of those companies that had a lot of press written about it was Ebay.

People made such a big deal about it. Everybody, it seemed to me, had an account and was selling stuff as well as buying stuff. As is typical with me, if the masses are doing something, I won't do it or approach the new phenomenon with my own variation. Essentially, I ignore it because I don't want to be caught up in all the hype and get lumped in with "those people." In time, my curiousity gets the best of me and I check out the "new thing" and find out how truly cool or revolutionary it is and declare that too the world that already knows about it. I then incorporate that thing, whatever it may be, into my life.

In this instance, I am speaking of the site Ebay. Only two months ago did I actually peruse the site and find out how amazing it is, especially from the persepective of an Economics teacher teaching about the concepts of reservation price and markets. But the economic concept I think it best represents is consumer surplus where I am willing to spend (bid) $20 on an item but the auction system allows me to purchase the item for only $15, therefore I get $5 of consumer surplus because I got a $20 value to me for only $15. I have been an Ebay fiend. Here's a list of what I have purchased (and yes, I have been furnishing my home).....

1 Single Panel Velvet Drape (Wine)
1 Double Panel Velvet Drape (Oat)
1 Double Panel Cotton Drapes (Lime Green)
1 Double Panel Cotton Drapes (Ivory)
3 Curtain Rods
2 Bar Stools
1 Queen Set of Eqyptian Cotton Sheets (White)
1 Albert the Dancing and Singing Gator (University of Florida Mascot)
1 Book (A Long Way to Fall, signed by author Nick Hornby)
60 Blank DVDs
1 Pair Born Closed Toe Sandals (yes Mom, with heel strap)
1 Canvas Tote Bag (Green and Brown Leather)
1 Soundtrack to Wicked the Musical on CD
1 Box Set of entire series Sports Night on DVD

I've slowed down a bit now, but I've been bitten by the bug! Now, if I would only figure out the IPOD.

File Under: Now I understand!!

"Where Everybody Knows Your Name"
(Theme Song from the show Cheers)

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go, where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows your name.
You wanna go where people know, people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows your name.
You want to go where people know, people are all the same;
You want to go where everybody knows your name.

By: Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo

The show Cheers was in its heyday during the 1980's and early 1990's. During that time, I was a teenager and plodding through college. I watched the show, laughed at the things I understood at the time. But I always wondered why there was so much hype about a bar. Why also did many people feel an affinity and identification with the premise of the show?

It wasn't until Scott introduced me to his local bar, the Yet Wah Restaurant in the Diamond Heights Shopping Center, that I understood what was meant by the line where "everybody knows your name." Every character on the show has an equivalent at "the Wah". Without question, the Sam Malone character takes the form of a petite in stature, but large in personality, bartender (and now co-owner) Aree K. My guess the guy named Jerry would be Norm. But more telling is the fact that it seems every person at the place has some story. On more than one occasion, I've been at "the Wah" and Scott has whispered "news at 11". Later on I hear some crazy, you can't make that stuff up, story about a person or a couple. The nicknames there are so descriptive like Chicago Bob or Delta Jimmy.

Lastly, I have to relay a final story about the world of "the Wah". Whenever Scott has some obnoxious comment or makes a statement of the obvious, he uses this nasal pitched voice. I never knew why. One day, I was at "the Wah" and I heard that same nasally voice, but it wasn't Scott. This cartoon character voice actually belonged to one of the regulars at the place and Scott had been imitating it out of habit for years.

Now that I understand why bars are such communities, I can watch Cheers in a different light and probably appreciate more things about it. Let's hope something will soon help me understand Seinfeld.