Vega$

Every year, my friend Jim J. (a Biology teacher at Lawrenceville) and I make a trip to Las Vegas to feed our gambling needs. Over the course of about 6 or 7 years, he and I have gone for a two day jaunt every year except the year where I was injured. We have had other friends come along, but this is my thing with Jim.

Primarily, Jim and I play blackjack. The way I have come to approach blackjack is that when I cash in for chips, the chips reflect the "time I have on the clock". The moment I have no more chips, the buzzer has sounded and I am done for that round. I don't think of it as winning and losing, I think of it as the cost of playing and the entertainment it brings. What is fun is when a bunch of people you know all are playing at the same table with a dealer that feeds that vibe. Those moments are fleeting and magical, regardless if we are winning or losing money.

Jim and I have also started playing poker and yes I will fully admit I am riding the wave of Texas Hold Em on television. I have played at the card rooms in Emeryville but this time Jim and I played a good three and a half hours straight of Hold Em. Jim also played the night/morning before when I was sleeping. Jim taught me some good things to think about but mostly to look for four kinds of players. There are smart and dumb players. Each kind of player is either a loose (bets a lot and often) player or a tight player. Everybody likes dumb loose players at the table. Alas, the table Jim and I played at was packed with smart tight players. I probably was the least skilled player at the table. The more and more I play, the more I realize how little I actually know about the game of poker. There were a couple times where I played to the end of the hand sensing that I was going to get beat but unable to put my finger on it. Sure enough, I lost. The one that hurt the most, I had full house 8's and Aces. I was beat with a full house of Ace's and 8's. Ouch. That hand cost me about $20.

Jim and I stayed at the New York New York Hotel. Many of you have seen pictures, but here's another one.

The fabulous New York New York Hotel

The room was very large for a standard hotel room and the decor was so fabulous that even I, Ernie Chen, the aesthetic idiot, took note. The accomodations were part of a Southwest Airlines vacation package. Can you believe that I got a roundtrip flight from Oakland and two nights at the New York New York for a mere $220?

In Vegas, Jim and I met up with Erin O. (remember her from the South Bend days of this year) and her family. The O'Dea family does Vegas right. They go to wine tastings and eat at the fancy restaurants. It was nice to see Erin's family again. Alas, Raymonde was not in Vegas with us this year. The big surprise was that a former Lawrenceville colleague was in Las Vegas visiting her sister. Kathy K., the teacher who inherited my classroom at Lville, her husband Rick, Jim and I all had dinner one night. What a treat it was to see Kathy again.

Kathy K., me and Jim J.

Alas, I will say that I was definitely ready to return home. I got the gambling out of my system for another year.

A Taste of My Own Medicine

The following blog entry should be music to the ears of Head-Royce students Samantha W., Courtney P. and Nikki K. to name just a few. The common thread between these three young women? They have been the focus of my unrelenting teasing. Many of you know that when I get on a roll, I can be incredibly brutal in the sheer amount of abuse (all in good fun and done with the utmost love and knowledge that the victim can handle it) is pretty massive. I was particularly harsh with Samantha W., and those students who were in that section of Honors Geometry last year, can attest that I was borderline unprofessional!

So, it was Monday afternoon and Jim and I had wandered down the the Bellagio. We were working our way down the Strip to eventually meet up with Erin and her brother Kevin. Jim and I sat down at a $5 blackjack table and our primary dealer was named Sheila. Sheila was a woman in her 50's who has found that the way she enjoys her job is to talk with her players. She also, like me, has a good sense of people and knows when she can go for the juggular. I was her target. For nearly an hour and a half, I was subject to teasing, ridicule and abject embarassment. It didn't help that Jim was sitting next to me feeding her information about me. Jim, come on now, did Sheila really need to know that I snore loudly? Things that I thought were innocently said came back to nail me an hour later. NOTHING got past Sheila. The fact that I lost my $100 budget at that table and then reached into my wallet for an additional $40 to stay with Sheila must mean something. I guess I like being the center of attention. Sheila, thank you for giving me a lesson I probably needed.

On a random note, it turns out that for the entire one and a half hours I sat at the table, each and every person who was played at the table during that time was a mathematician, scientist, engineer or a teacher of those subjects. It was a total meeting of MATH CLUB. This engineer from Dayton, OH and I were fascinated by the little machine which the dealer uses to determine if the down card is an Ace or face card depending on what she/he needed to know. We wondered why the designers of the machine didn't simplify the machine to have just one button. It's a long story.....

"Why don't you ask Rich?"

The second act of of "friends in town for the weekend" had protagonists Leah and Rich (of 4th of July in Washington, DC blogfame) in town this weekend. Richard has business here on Monday and Tuesday and since Leah is done with teaching her classes this semester tagged along for the shopping, eating and visiting of me.

In recapping our lives, every once in a while, Rich would ask, "did that person ever make the blog?", and in each instance, the person I was talking about was not a blog subject. RICHARD A. is a regular blog reader!!! As our conversation over dim sum continued, every time Leah asked me a question, I sometimes deferred to her husband to answer. RICHARD A., you get major cool points.

We spent the majority of our three hours dining on dim sum. Leah loves my regular dim sum place here in San Francisco. It's down on San Bruno Avenue in the Portola District. The area is off the beaten tourist path, but the kind of place were you see true locals doing their thing. We counted that today's meal was the third time they had eaten dim sum at this restaurant.

Leah and Richard taking a break from their favorite San Francisco meal.

We spent the early afternoon driving through different neighboorhoods of San Francisco to get a feel of the city and the kinds of housing available. Hmmmm????!!!! I'll leave you with a picture that simply sums of life in San Francisco.

Leah and Richard looking over the city from the top of Vallejo Street on Russian Hill.

ALL POINTS BULLETIN FOR CARLOS A P.

Friday December 19th, 2004 was a historic day for Justin D., the boyfriend of my longtime childhood friend Lynn K. It was his last day of medical school. Today? DONE. And I had the honor of having dinner with Lynn and Justin at my local restaurant called, yes, this is its name, Emmy's Spaghetti Shack. Afterwards, I took the two of them to the Bernal Heights and the two of them went down in tandem. So cute.

So here are pictures of Justin and Lynn. Somehow, pictures taken without much care and thought in my kitchen often turn out the best.

Justin D. looking pretty suave on his last ever day of medical school.

Justin and Lynn

Pedraza, this one's for you!

Only if you are in the know...

Please, all, stop me before I buy this:

Study Day Success

The Head-Royce Upper School gives semester finals twice a year. The day before the three days of finals is a day called "Study Day". All teachers are required to be available to answer students' questions and alleviate their worries. In the past, I have left school on these days wanting to: a) slit my wrists b) seriously consider changing professions due to the fact that the students knew nothing or c) want to check myself into an insane asylum due to the chaos and frenzy of anxiety. Historically, students begin to act like freaks of nature, grow a mob mentality and all I am doing is trying to put out fires left and right.

So this year, I posted the following list of rules on my door that students had to read before entering the room.

Mr. Chen’s Study Day Rules and Regulations to make your Experience More Enjoyable
(AKA: How to ensure Mr. Chen will not lose his temper today!)

1) The question “Will that be on the test?” will be returned with a glare of sheer disdain. (If you do not know the meaning of disdain, see your English teacher, as they should have their employment terminated.)

2) If there is more than one student in the room, Mr. Chen will take a question from a student and answer for the entire room. If you have a question that applies specifically to you, please wait for a time when you will be alone OR see Mr. Chen later in the day (say after 2PM) OR email Mr. Chen (echen@headroyce.org) and he will answer your question by return email this evening.

3) If you interrupt or cutoff either Mr. Chen or another student, you will be less likely to be called on if you subsequently raise your hand. Mr. Chen will be keeping mental score.

4) The final will be worth 150 points for Geometry and somewhere between 130 and 140 points for Honors Geometry.

5) Geometry students will be allowed to write corrections for their fall final in the same manner as chapter tests. Honors Geometry students will not be allowed to write corrections.

6) Smile and breathe; you’re going to do fine as you have learned and actually know a great deal of Geometry.

7) As you enter, please bow to Mr. Chen (just like all students do for their teachers in Asia) to signify that you have read and understood these rules.

You may now enter Room 208, a happy place!

The day was great. There was NO chaos or meltdown on the part of any student. And let me tell you how CUTE students are when they try to bow. This is a keeper.

I am becoming obsolete.....

This is a small excerpt from a December 12th, 2004 article in the New York Times titled "The Last Time You Used Algebra Was...."

"In all but the most arcane specialties (like teaching math), the need for math has atrophied. Electronic scales can price 4.15 pounds of chicken at $3.79 a pound faster than any butcher. Artillerymen in Iraq don't use slide rules as their counterparts on Iwo Jima did. Cars announce how many....."

Here is a link to the actual story.

You would never have these happen at a suit & tie job

On Wednesday, during homeroom (my advisees are now seniors) , one of my advisees, Ryan P., was rocking out on his portable CD player. Not an Ipod mind you. We could hear the music blasting out of his earphones. Someone asked what it was and Ryan answers without any hint of irony or humor or whatever says "The new Russian National Anthem". We were all like WHHHAAAAATTTT. It turns out, the ENTIRE CD that Ryan was listening to was anthems of the world. Of course we all wanted to listen to the new Russian Anthem which the majority of my advisees, and I included, was a letdown after the grandeur of the old Soviet Anthem.

Yesterday, Thursday, we all file into the the regularly scheduled 10:10AM all school meeting. After the crowd settles down, the curtains open and we see one boy on drums, one boy playing an electric guitar and two boys performing their self-written Hanukah rap. This rap was up their in quality with Adam Sandler's Haunakah Song that is now a staple around the holidays.

And today, oh Friday December 10th, 2004, will forever be a dark day in music history. It stems from the policy that I have with my students that if they are tardy to class, they can choose to sing a song of the classes choosing to have me not report the tardy. It is always a source of high comedy until it happened to me. Last week, I walked into my infamous/beloved A-Block Geometry class after the bell had rung. Nailed!!! So the students chose my song to be Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like a Woman". Well, the CD they brought for me to use as my backup music didn't have that song, I instead I ended up singing "UP!". The mental images you have? Worse.

Weekend in Monterey

This past Saturday, I spent the entire day attending seminars on the Asilomar grounds while attending the Northern California Mathematics Teachers' Conference. I tend to find that if I get nuggets of information and knowledge, I am pleased. This year, however, look what I made...

A 20-sided polyhedron (called an icosohedron) made from 4 paper plates

You can't beat that. After the conference, I stayed down in Monterey and hung out with my Lakeside friend, Colin B. Colin moved to Monterey last year to take a job that is a "perfect fit" for what he wants to do and to improve his resume. He lives in a complex that is right on the beach and you can hear the waves crashing right from his living room. How cool. He and I took a drive up the coast to Santa Cruz to hang and have dinner with Carlos. Carlos and Colin, from two very different parts of my life, hit it off. It's great when friends hit it off. We had dinner, and then drinks at The Dakota.

This morning, Colin and I hung out, I took a walk on the beach, we had brunch in downtown Monterey and then walked along Fisherman's Wharf. It was a beautifully clear, crisp day. It's too bad I had to get in the car and haul myself back to SF and all the work that is in front of me.

Final Thanksgiving Memories

Alas, I know that this posting and these pictures are a week late, but that's what happens when one's computer dies and needs to be fixed. I have lived this past week without my laptop and at first I felt naked, but I grew accustomed to not having it pretty quickly. It's back in my possession, but hmmm, it's still acting up. I hope it gets me through the next week.

Anyway, on my last day, family Chen was scheduled to the hilt, with everything planned and car trips coordinated. Until right off the bat, my Dad's Mercedes decides not to start. Apparently, the fuel injection system crapped out. Luckily, I had my AAA card with me and so got Dad towed to the dealership. He was so impressed the the AAA service, I got him a membership for Christmas. Gotta love the easy and useful present for Dad.

Mom, Marl and Dad pushing the Benz

The Benz on its way to the Mercedes dealership

After the Benz was delivered to the dealership, we all took a jaunt down to "Gingerbread Lane" to view the winning design in the gingerbread architecture.....Zimmer Gunsal Frasca's (Marlene's firm) prize winning representation of Rockefeller Center.

Rockefeller Center in Gingerbread and candies

My last day in Seattle had Marlene and I eating Pho at the #25, splitting the cable at my grandparents house, me getting a haircut (a good one too) and then hanging with Vickie as she and I drove out to Monroe to see and have dinner with Dean. A fun visit, to say the least.

Thanksgiving Observations 2004

1) There is poker overkill on television these days. As I am flipping through the channels, there are at LEAST three channels showing some version of Texas Hold 'em. I am a fan, but this is truly out of control.

2) The Washington State Governor's race is currently separated by a mere 42 votes. Republican Dino Rossi leads Democrat Christine Gregoire by 42 votes out of nearly 2.5 million votes cast. Unbelievable. Then a revelation happens in the Chen household. My mother voted absentee but didn't sign her ballot. She signed the outside envelope, but didn't sign the ballot itself, thereby negating her entire vote. Only in Chen-land.

3) My father (a foreign policy blue stater, economics purple stater and social red stater) has decided that the Hallmark channel speaks for him and his fellow red staters. He says movies on the Hallmark channel are what middle America wants to see and appreciates, certainly more than the show Desperate Housewives. Ok, Dad, whatever gets you through the night.

You all should be ashamed of yourselves...

Look at what showed up in my email this afternoon!!

Congrats to Ernie C (10 wins and Monday points pick for $13) and Chris D. (5 wins) on their picks.  The Thanksgiving games start THURSDAY, so get your picks in early this week!  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Me of all people, should NOT be winning the football pool.

Remember the Dewey Decimal System?

Remember back in elementary school, making that special (to you at the time) midday field trip down the hall to the library? If you were to walk into it today, some things might be different. You probably wouldn't see the space consuming card catalog. Microfiche machines? Again, they are few and far between. We can thank technological advances for eliminating the presence of those things which were cumbersome and repetitive tasks. However, one contant remains from your first days in that first library experience, it's organizational structure, the Dewey Decimal System.

I distinctly remember asking my 1st grade teacher (Mrs. Scholl) why didn't the library put the books on the shelves from smallest to the largest? The other reigning question of that time was why didn't the library just organize the books by the book cover's primary color? In both cases, it is because the characteristics one sorted by could change from one edition of a book to another. For example, I wanted a book that I believe to be orange and 4 inches thick. But the copy in the library was blue and quite thin. This is a major flaw. The subject matter and title of a book are integral to the book and can never be changed. This is the characteristic by which we sort books and use the fleixble system Dewey created.

Adobe Bookshop (3166 16th Streeet between Valencia and Guerrero) and here is how they have allowed themselves to organize their books since the beginning of November 2004.

The Red and Yellow books area

The Green and Blue books area

Pretty neat, huh? Alas, this ordering of books will be replaced by the traditional method as of Monday November 22nd, 2004.

Right across the street from Adobe is my favorite place in San Francisco to get a bagel, Katz's. Here's the sign out side their front door:

Look at the cool vehicle passenger

You never know what you are going to find on 16th Street.

Election Postmortem (part 4)

Read this article about The Urban Archipelago, It's the Cities, Stupid, from Seattle's The Stranger. It's really a good analysis about the recent election and how the Democratic party can build its base. It gives some hope.

Carolina 37 San Francisco 27

Now that my hometown Seattle Seahawks has been moved from the AFC West to the NFC West, they will play a game against the 49'ers here in San Francisco every year. I will go to these games because I can buy a set of four tickets from Shahana and Carl, who are Niners season ticket holders. Every year except those years in which the Sunday the Hawks and Niners play here in San Francisco falls on the same Sunday afternoon as the Head-Royce School Upper School Open House, a requirement of all teachers. Therefore, my second choice was this afternoon's game against Carolina, who went to (but lost to the New England Patriots) the Superbowl this past January.

Incoming records of today's teams (W-L)
Carolina (1-7)
San Francisco (1-7)

This truly had the makings of a dud of a game. But as I foreshadow the fact that the game was far from being a dud, I will come right out and say that it was a truly exciting and eventful game. There was drama at nearly every turn in the second half. To read about it go to a game recap. The professional sports writers will do an infinitely better job of conveying the excitement of the game than I ever could.

So who did I go with? Here they are...

Chris D., Jimmi W. and Gary S.

Me, Chris D., Jimmi W. and Gary S.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about attending this game, other than the game itself, was to look at the stadium at Candlestick Point, known to most as Candlestick Park. Other names in the past years have been 3-Com Park and now Monster Park.

The park was built in 1960 as the lynchpin enticement to the owners of the New York Giants to move that team to San Francisco. The biggest selling point? The ample parking in the vast parking lots. It was state of the art 45 or so years ago, but today it is a stadium truly on its last legs. It has none of the amenities of newer parks, and worst of all, it is in a HORRENDOUS neighboorhood in San Francisco. To get to the park, you have no choice but to drive through Bayview-Hunters Point, which you do NOT want to be lost in at night.

Here are some pictures of it from the outside.

Candlestick Park from afar upon approach

Here's a couple shots of the inside, notice the severe lack of luxury boxes.

Candlestick Park

Candlestick Park's playing surface with the Junior Niner cheerleaders doing a routine to "Our lips are sealed" by The Bangles.

The weather was perfect, the game exciting and the companions first-rate. A great afternoon.

Tim and Matt

My good friend Tim is now dating a new guy named Matt. Matt had his birthday earlier this week so Tim surprised him by flying the two of them out from New Jersey for a long weekend. I met up with the two of them in front of the Hotel Monaco on Geary Avenue. It was a whirlwind trip up and down the many hills of San Francisco. First stop, Russian Hill, then we trekked over to Telegraph Hill. We went to Crissy Field and walked along the path to Fort Point. Along the way, the conversation turned to Las Vegas and craps. I taught Matt the basics of craps. We then walked across a portion of the Golden Gate Bridge. As you can see, the weather was beautiful and picture perfect. It's days like today that make living in San Francisco so grand.

Tim A. and Matt S.

Following the Golden Gate Bridge, we had lunch at a dive Mexican place in the Richmond. The fact that it looked like it was formerly a Chinese Food restaurant should have been my first clue that we should have gone to the Mission for Mexican. Overall, the food was alright, but man we could have gotten better in the Mission.

After a driveby of the Calfornia of the Legion of Honor and then to Fort Miley in Lincoln Park. Fort Miley is as close to the end of the world as one can get even in San Francisco. It is located in the very NW corner of the city of San Francisco. The views back towards the Golden Gate Bridge as well as the Marin Highlands are such deep and stunning example of the amazing enviroment we had and still have in California.

Golden Gate Bridge

The Marin Headlands, preserved for antiquity by the foresight of our ancestors and their leaders.

David Sedaris

Sedaris' latest

I spent this evening being entertained by the one and ONLY David Sedaris. Yes, he does sound exactly like he does on the radio. His impression of his brother are too funny to convey in any form on this medium. Thanks Kristin Dwelley for a great evening.

Humble Pie

9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. I, at 34, am the adult. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. I, at 34, am the adult. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. I, at 34, am the adult. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. I, at 34, am the adult. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. I, at 34, am the adult. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. I, at 34, am the adult. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. I, at 34, am the adult. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. 9th graders are 13/14/15 year olds. I, at 34, am the adult.


You get the point, but sometimes I forget that the students I teach are in that middle area between childhood and adulthood. They are doing their best to hold it together and act like adults, but the impulse to be children and act before thinking is always bubbling beneath the surface.

So what is this post all about? My "meltdown" occurred in my Honors Geometry class which meets Monday G Block (last period 2:30PM-3:20PM). It was the end of a long day for all parties, myself most certainly included. In class, we were working on proving different properties of isosceles triangles. It is tedious and at the same time confusing to keep track of what are the pieces of information that we know and what are the things we are trying to prove.

As is always the case, there are a good majority of students who understand the material on the first go around and those who don't. I make a case of going over new material at least twice. The class in general was rowdy, there were questions being asked from all parts of the room, the protocol of hand-raising was completely out the window. I will admit that as the teacher, I shouldn't ever let classroom decorum degenerate to this level. In addition, freshman boys being the 14 year old "dorks" that they are, were goofing off in the back of the room. The chaos of the room was growing as the minutes passed. I gave what I thought was a pretty stern warning to all members of the class that we needed to restore a hospitable learning environment. That lasted less than a minute but I kept trying to teach through the craziness. All of a sudden two of the boys are falling out of their seats trying to grab something. I turn around and immediately say "OUT" and point towards the door. The two boys, Troy C and Greg W, were totally stunned. The rest of the class was as well. They had never seen me lose my cool, although if you ask some of the older students who have had me in the past they will tell you I have a pretty solid track record of losing it.

So, today, I wore a tie to school. It was my reminder to myself that I am the adult and that I need to be the one to handle situations in a mature and professional manner. The students are kids and sometimes it's just who they are. Before class, I apologized to Greg and Troy individually in the hall. In class today, I apologized to the entire class for my behavior and admitted that I was wrong. What was kind of interesting to me was the look of complete wonder the students had on their faces when I gave my apology. Perhaps they had never seen a teacher be contrite.

The bonus of all this? Whenever I throw a "tantrum" the kids in that class are on their best behavior for about three days before things return to their normal equilibrium. I'm going to take advantage of my temporary upper hand!!

Cameo by sister

It sounds like a painting, doesn't it? Well, it's actually what happened tonight. My sister flew into town tonight so she could attend a seminar here in San Francisco tomorrow. We had dinner with her college roommate, Melody, at Eliza's on California Street. It was truly and drop-in and drop-out hour and a half, but it's always great to see my sister, Marlene. Funny stories about Mom and Dad? Yes, they were shared. That's all you get to know.

Marlene and Melody

Election 2004 postmortem (part 3 and final, I hope)

This was sent to me by my friend Shahana. Today was quite a fruitful email day, I must say. Check out Marry American, What will they think of next?

Election 2004 postmortem (part 2)

This was sent to me by my friend Hans (yes, of Hans and brother Franz fame). It is originally sent out by Ira Glass or NPR's This American Life. I think it really sums up how I feel and how I do think that the future we (meaning those who have the same values as I do) want for this great country.

 
      The Supreme Court is not the only power in this world.
      We, the abolitionists and colored people, should meet
      this decision, unlooked for and monstrous as it appears,
      in a cheerful spirit. This very attempt to blot out forever
      the hopes of an enslaved people may be one necessary
      link in the chain of events pereparatory to the complete
      overthrow of the whole slave system.
 
If it is the case that Bush was elected largely, or at least decisively, by those who, standing athwart history screaming "STOP!", are casting symbolic votes in an attempt to stop abortions, stem cell research and gay rights (and are therefore immune to evidentiary arguments, much less the public policy consequences for them of Bush's health care and economic policies), then it is well to remember that although their actions may indeed do a lot of damage in the short and even medium term, they cannot in fact succeed in stopping abortion rights, gay rights or stem-cell research.  And their children and grandchildren will live in our world, not theirs, just as black and white children play together in Southern schools today regardless of the "massive resistance" of the fifties and sixties after Brown.
 
Rapid social change always in America has provoked a politicized fundamentalism. That is what we are seeing.  We need to remain steadfastly oppositional to it; we need to resist the impulse to become discouraged by it; we need to adopt and implement a strategy of limiting the damage in the short run and planning for the long run (beyond the next election).  And we need to have our own faith, the faith that the tide of history moves with us, and that our values are more predominant today than they were 50 years ago, and that we are prevailing.  Setbacks, however serious, cannot alter that if we keep fighting; that is what scares and angers them, and produces elections like this one.  But it is also what should energize and renew us.
 
As Mr. Douglass, who faced bleaker times than we face, said: Stay Cheerful. (And keep fighting.)
 
Ira

You go, Ira!

Election 2004 postmortem

I have little to say other than I will come to the table with a positive attitude and continue to believe that President Bush is doing what he thinks is correct. Time to rally around the troops and become one nation again. Alas, but sometimes I really feel the situation really is as drastically depressing as this...

Can it all be so simple as this?

The two weekends a year I DISLIKE my job, a lot

The tuition at The Head-Royce School for an Upper School this 2004-05 academic year is $21,685. Yes, you read that right. So it is no wonder that the consumers at this school, the parents of my students, expect to receive detailed reports on their sons and daughters progress and achievement (or in some cases, lack of achievement) during the first quarter of the school year. Therefore, twice a year, I hunker down and write one-third of a page comments on each and every one of my students. Even though this year, I have the fewest total number of students I have ever had, 59, it was the most painful experience. I just couldn't get myself to get into a groove where I would knock off a big chunk in one sitting.

I do, however, play a game with myself to make it somewhat more "fun". Instead of writing comments of students in alphabetical order by last name, I put each student's name on a piece of paper into a bowl and then randomly pick out a name to write about. It provides a small moment of fun during this painful process.

I will post a sample of one my better comments:

Jeffrey -- I love the fact that everything you do is done with flair. A couple scenarios. Entering classroom: “Insert grand sweeping statement here” followed by a half-fling of the backpack onto the floor and then dropping yourself into the chair ending with your torso and head slumping onto the desk itself.” Correcting a mistake make by Mr. Chen (Jeffrey is correct): Hand raised straight in the air with great gusto, “Mr. Chen I think that you might want to change that because of the other thing.” Chen agrees and you go into an upper body victory dance. Correcting what he thinks is a mistake by Mr. Chen: (insert back and forth discussion with you, Eric, repeating your same point) At some point Mr. Chen tells you to put a sock in it. You slump back in your chair in a miffed mood. A classmate accidentally unplugs a bank of computers in the lab one of them being the computer you and your partner are using to do the Sketchpad test: “I’m gonna kill you!” This said over and over while jumping around in circles. Threats and lots of flailing your arms around and throwing your body into it too. 4 minutes later, 3.5 minutes after the computer has been rebooted, you and your partner continue with your work. I decided that a description of your behavior that always puts a smile on my face was going to be more interesting than “you are doing a fantastic job, Jeffrey”, which by the way you are. Keep doing your thing, Eric. I expect that you will continue to do achieve great things in this class. Average: 349/357 =97.8%

Not for the faint of heart

Ok, this posting is a bit personal, but since I am one not to be shy about revealing my life to others and ultimately can laugh at situations, here it goes. On Tuesday evening, for some reason, my left testicle starting to throb. I went to sleep thinking that it would get better, no worries. On Wednesday morning, it was hurting more, but I went to work anyway. All day, it hurt and was getting worse. It was best when I was sitting down and hurt most when I tried to stretch the legs or do anything that made that area of my body have to bounce around. By the time I got home yesterday afternoon, it was really hurting and the testicular area was really swollen and hot to the touch.

Having learned from the car experience to not avoid dealing with issues, I called Kaiser around 5:30PM to try and schedule an appointment for the next day, but lo and behold, they had an appointment available at 7:45PM that evening. I went to Kaiser on Geary and the place was EMPTY. I checked in and was shown to my room 10 minutes EARLY. I had a very nice meeting with a doctor and she gave me a prescription for antibiotics/anti-inflammatory and also a painkiller and was sent down to the pharmacy. I was in and out of the Kaiser facility in two hours. It must have been a record. A double bonus was that after 7PM Kaiser doesn't charge for parking.

I feel much better today. I am well on my way to good health.

6AM is for sleeping

Mom and Dad-

Please know that when you call me at home at 6AM in the morning, the chances of me answering my phone (a cell phone at that) are slim to NONE. I know that you are in China and getting to a phone and coordinating it with the time changes is difficult but please know that here are a couple reasons: 1) I am SLEEPING 2) I generally keep my cell phone in the charger which is NOT in my bedroom 3) If I happen to hear my phone go off in the other room, at 6AM I am generally NOT going to rush to answer the ESPECIALLY if the call ringer indicates it comes from a restricted or call ID unknown number. I ask you not to leave voicemails in which you sound annoyed at the fact that you didn't get my live voice. The car is fine, I got it back last week. Hope you are having a good trip. I look forward to hearing about it and seeing pictures from it.

Ernie

Zachary Jon M. turns 30 and 2 days

This past Saturday, Kelly M., Zac's girlfriend arranged a surprise birthday party for him at a Moroccan tapas restaurant called Baraka, located at 18th and Connecticut on Potrero Hill. Here are some photos that actually turned out decently. It was dark in the room in which we were seated and I often times just pointed the camera and shot the picture. It was totally an act of faith that what I wanted to take a picture of actually turned up on the preview screen.

The Birthday boy, Zac and Kelly

Myself with Pilar and Jeff

The glamourously tall Eric S.

Jeff and CHB3

It is my fault that major players in the evening, such as Carlos and Zac's parents, were not captured on camera. But they were there. Happy Birthday Zac!

My sister meets the Mariner of her dreams

Marl and Mariners catcher Dan Wilson

Bernal Heights Pride

A view towards Bernal Hill looking south from the Mission

I have lived in the San Francisco neighboorhood of Bernal Heights since the day I moved to San Francisco. By sheer luck, this is where my then roommate Jennifer and I landed our first flat. What a fortuitous life moment that was. I have come to love this tucked in the corner of San Francisco neighborhood. If one had to compare it to another neighboorhood in San Francisco, Bernal Heights is Noe Valley but subtract about 10-15 years of hip and yuppieness. It's a real place with real people. Even the San Francisco Bay Guardian recognized it as one of the top "hoods" in San Francisco. I could go on and on, but I won't to save you the pain of reading it.

This past Sunday was Bernal's annual Fiesta on the Hill our neighboorhood's street fair in the great tradition of San Francisco neighboorhood celebrations. The mailing asking for volunteers for the festival came sometime in early September and I was feeling a great deal of Bernal pride at the time so I said I would put in time at the festival. I was originally assigned to take money at the dunk tank, but when I arrived, the person who was to be dunked had not yet arrived and there was great pressure for me to do this...

This was nearly me

However, just as I was about to take get up on to the plank, the dunkee showed up and I was off the hook. Instead I got to pick up and distribute balls to paying contestants. However, this lasted a mere ten minutes before two very cheerful and motivated young woman told me they were my replacements and so I was done with my shift.

This woman's arrival meant my tour of duty lasted ten minutes.

I then spent the next hour strolling along a transformed Cortland Avenue and saw all the booths and the musicians.

Cortland Avenue, no longer a major thoroughfare

Along the way, I drank a lemonade, almost bought sunglasses and most importantly purchased a...

Bernal Heights T-Shirt

I have been eyeing one of these shirts for a couple of years now and since they were right there in the booth, it was time to buy and make a proud statement of living in Bernal Heights. At one booth, I stopped and talked to this Bernal filmmaker who is doing a documentary about the summer of 2003 when a wild coyote took up residence on Bernal Hill. Check out the short film clip at Still Wild at Heart. Lastly, I stopped into the Bernal Beast Pet Store to try and find, try and follow me here, my friend Aleeza's sister's partner Michelle. Michelle and Alana S. are life partners and own a home near the top of Bernal Heights. Alana S. and Aleeza are sisters who grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and I went to college with Aleeza. Aleeza has been hounding me to meet these two since she found out I moved to Bernal Heights. Connection has been made.

The afternoon was cut short due to the start of these rainstorms that have been pounding the Bay Area this week. Bernal Heights RULES!!!

Members of The Compound

Many of you who haven't been to visit me here at the casa at 121 Cortland Avenue might have a hard time understanding who all these people are who live in and or around my building. This post is to help provide you some clarity by putting names with faces. However, you truly will need a scorecard to keep the family trees straight.




Brian S. and Meredith E. (she is due in late November) are my upstairs neighbors and with whom I own the building

Stefanie E. is Meredith's sister. Stefanie and her family used to live in my unit and now live in the house with which we share our backyard.

Brian S. is Stefanie's husband and father of the twin girls Amelia and Isabel

Amelia (Mimi) and Isabel (Izzy) S., the twin daughters of Brian and Stefanie

There is one missing picture in this compound gala of photos. I rent the downstairs of my unit to Gary S., who is Brian S's brother. 121-123 Cortland and 356 Winfield are truly a family affair.

Kevin O. makes an appearance in San Francisco

Kevin O. of Cincinnati, OH

Kevin and I have been friends for going on seven years now. We met when I lived in New Jersey and he was "doing time" in the state of Florida. Since then, I have moved from New Jersey to California, remaining a teacher, and he has moved from Florida back to his home state of Ohio, remaining a reporter. When I first picked him up at the airport last week, the first question I asked was "what is it like to live in a state where you actually see and hear from presidential candidates?" Kevin being a political reporter for The Cincinnati Post has actually covered visits by George Bush and John Kerry. What a concept for anyone here in the state of California!! Kevin's specialty is hounding local politicians who don't live up the the expectations we hold for them, here's a story he wrote for the Post.

He arrived Wednesday night and on Thursday night, we went out to the bars in the Castro. I guess it took a while for me to get used to what Kevin calls the "Midwestern politeness" but I kept wanting Kevin to tell me what he wanted to do, instead of him deferring to what I wanted to do. I told him that he needed to be "bitchy" about what he wanted and so it happened and things went fine from there. Not being a real bar hopper myself, I did manage to stay out for more than three hours, which is probably a record for me.

On Saturday afternoon, after I proctored the PSAT's at school in the morning, he and I hit the road and toured San Francisco. I took him to my favorite little set of hideaway steps (Harry steps) and a walk around the top of Buena Vista Park. We had a bite to eat in the Haight and then wandered around Amoeba records. I managed to remember that the band that Natalie Portman's character was listening to when she met Zach Braff's character in the movie Garden State was called The Shins and I bought a used copy of this album:

The Shins

I burned it onto my iTunes and then gave it to Kevin as a memory of San Francisco. That evening, Kevin and I dined at a restaurant called Foreign Cinema. Arriving without reservations at 9PM is not advisable if one is truly hungry and wants to eat right away. Kevin and I finished dessert and coffee at 11:45PM.

Kevin is now back in Cincinnati, and I hope that the candidates are making him work!!!

On Tuesday the 12th, Chris felt that I should go ahead with having the mechanics take apart the the engine block to see if there is damage as well as. I agree later on in the afternoon, Chris calls and tells me that the overheating was so overwhelming that the short block (yes, the short block that was only 3 or 4 months old) in addition to all the radiator parts and the other miscellaneous charges. I got the fax and it said $7,015. I didn't know what to say. I had no idea that it would be this high. I decide to not get all wound up at that moment and that I would handle it with a clearer mind in the morning. Chris called me on my cell as I was walking to the Escort asking me pointedly to give him the ok to begin ordering parts for the repair. I must have really sounded irritated and annoyed on the phone (which I was in real life) because Chris ended the call with, "let me see what the parts department and I can work with you on." Perhaps I should be that nasty more often? I'll get things I usually wouldn't get.

I decided that because Subaru had ruled against my claim and was holding me responsible for all the repairs, I would liked to have had a outside mechanic make his assessment of the situation and then try and price out a repair amount. Over the past few weeks, I have continued to work with Paul at Art's Automotive. He listened to my explantions, often answering my questions before I had formed them. There were times in which he, like Candy from before, were able to explain how a piece or system worked and thereby gave more pieces of the engine puzzle.

On Thursday, Subaru came back with an estimate of $5,800. Chris apparently had negotiated for me to pay a certain number of parts at cost. The estimate from Art's was $4,500. Significanly less. I was about to arrange to have the car transferred from Oakland Subaru to Art's Automotive. I called Chris and it was only then that he told me that I was on the hook with the dealership for $900, essentially the amount is has taken them to disassemble the engine and to do the diagnostic. This brought the HRS estimate to be $5,300. I decided to keep the car at the dealership and have them deal with it.

So what is this about legal action? It took me a while for what was happening around me to sink in. But my Dad was right from the beginning. I did nothing wrong, although it took me a while to realize that it wasn't my turf to determine who was to blame, but to simply recognize that I wasn't to blame. Because of that, I slowly became incensed that I was being hit with a huge bill for something that I didn't cause. I spoke with C, my friend and colleague Shahana's husband. He told me that I should just get the car fixed and simultaneously begin the process of legal action against Subaru of America (SOA). I wrote up a detailed list of all the service work that had been done on the car since my parents first leased it back in Seattle in 1999. Every minor and major service was done under the auspices of a Subaru dealership. C is now in possession of all those documents and will write an initial formal letter of complaint to SOA. After that if we need to continue down this path, C will refer me to someone who is more versed in this kind of law. At this point, I'm along for the ride.

Lastly, in writing up the car's history, I think I may have a theory as to why the car overheated twice. We are sure that the reason the car overheated here in Oakland was because those four bolts holding the fan/motor assembly had loosened and disappeared causing the assembly to fall into the radiator, which lead to overheating. But back in Indiana, we had the same overheating leading to the replacement of the short block, but we never figured out why the overheating occurred in the first place. If we put it all together, perhaps back in Indiana, that fan/motor assembly was still attached to the shroud, but the bolts had begun to loosen and the entire assembly was being tossed around but still physically, albeit loosely, attached to the shroud. Perhaps, the fan could have caused some slow leak in the radiator and thereby causing overheating to occur, but with the assembly still attached, a mechanic would not have noticed something was loose and the fundamental problem could have been passed on without having it fixed.

I'm done with cars, at least for now.

Instant Runoff Voting

Here's the IRV instruction sheet

This past week, I received my absentee ballot in the mail. I am registered as a permanent absentee voter because I like the fact that I can vote while laying on my bed, or slumped down in my couch. It's just decadent to be exercising one's civic duty while wearing a ratty t-shirt and boxer shorts. But the reason for this posting is not to talk about my slothfulness, it is to highlight the fact that San Francisco is the first jurisdiction in the country to use a method of voting called Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). We are using it ONLY for the supervisors races. In San Francisco there are 11 districts, each electing a representative to the board of supervisors. This year, the odd numbered districts are up for election, which meant that I was going to using IRV to determine which person will serve District 9, which encompasses the Mission, Bernal Heights and the northern third of the Portola district.

I've dug up some articles about IRV but our best source of voting theory and execution is my friend Jeff O who has spent the two summers between his years in law school working for two different voting rights/reform organizations. During our camping trip this summer he was able to show me why our "winner take all" method of determing winners is the worst way we could do it. Here is an FAQ about IRV and an article praising IRV.

Voting went off without a hitch. Let's hope that my preference for president is able to sway enough voters his way in Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio and Florida to name a few places.

Two worlds, one ice cream shop

I spent the weekend of October 9th (Happy Birthday Marl), 10th and 11th (President's day holiday for us teachers) down in Los Angeles with my friend Steve and his friends Tom and Jeff. I went down to get away from San Francisco and to check out the LA scene. We had a great time, ate a lot, partied like rock stars, and barely even left the San Fernando Valley. Yeah, we had a great time in the valley. At one point, I had a landmark moment when I stepped into the Sherman Oaks Galleria, ground zero for the "valley girl" movement of the 1980's. Good times.

I flew back to Oakland on Monday morning and was immediately faced with the reality that I was still in the midst of dealing with my car. The truck of the first week, which I grew to really enjoy driving, was returned to Enterprise. My new rental was to be a Ford Escort and when I got the keys, I got the keys to a Ford Escort. No free upgrades this time. I will say this, driving a Ford Escort does NOTHING for your mojo.

Monday evening I was scheduled to have dinner with my friend Lynn K. Back during my childhood in Seattle, my parents played mah-jongg and socialized with a group of other Chinese families. All of us children became friends as well, even though our ages ranged from high school seniors to elementary school kid. Lynn and I were members of that crowd and as is the case in life, we had lost touch. Our parents were talking one day a couple years ago and they discovered that the both of us lived in SF (Lynn now has moved to Berkeley). Lynn and I reconnected and now do the "dinner" thing about once every three months. This Monday was our dinner. We walked down and had Thai.

My friend Carlos, up from Santa Cruz for a conference in SF, was scheduled to stay with me Monday night. It didn't work out that the four of us (the fourth being Charlie B.) could coordinate eating together, but with a bit of cell phone tag, I arranged for all of us to meet up at Mitchell's ice cream. We then rolled back to my place and had wonderfully all over the place conversations. I remember that at one point, Lynn was asking questions and getting the answers of three gay men and thereby seeing that we all have different opinions about issues such as wanting a baby.

Lynn and Carlos hit is off. The two of them had a wonderful time and all I can remember of their banter was Carlos determing that Lynn's boyfriend Justin is absolutely perfect for Carlos. So I have been mandated to arrange for a time for all us to meet. It's on my list of things to do.

Charlie B., Lynn K. and Carlos P.

What is the radiator fan motor assembly?

This past week has been quite an education in auto mechanics. A huge shout out to Dad for pushing me to find out the "real" story and not just accept what the mechanics say and get "taken". After speaking with Chris and an independent auto mechanic, it became clear that I myself had to go and look at the damage and ascertain what I could. During my lunch break today, I went down to the dealership and took a look at the car. By the way, I was all worried about storing the car at the dealership was taking up space, well, not an issue. They park all the cars to be serviced on their huge roof, so the car is sitting there, one of over 50 cars to be worked on. It made me feel better about taking my time on this issue.

I opened up the hood and quickly saw that behind the radiator (on the passenger and driver side of the radiator) there were two side-by-side plastic fans, which are powered by an electric motor. Oh, how about some pictures, shall we?

There is the plastic fan, with the round electric motor. The two are bolted (4 bolts total although you only see two in this picture) to the shroud, which is those gray things going off to the left and right.

The picture above shows us what a properly mounted fan motor assembly should look like. This is the fan on the drivers side. Going over to the passenger side, here's what we see.

Uh oh.....no bolts to be seen.

Another look, and again, no bolts

So, being the deductive thinker that I am (you Geometry students, if you are reading this should know what I'm doing) looked around to see what this unbolted fan motor assembly might do. Well, first, gravity took over and the assembly, when properly mounted and centered spins the fan, blows air and touches nothing. With no bolts to keep it in place the fan motor assembly simply slumped down and...

The radiator fan grinding right onto the bottom of the radiator shroud. Notice how the fan carved into the shroud cover.

In addition, the fan motor assembly also pitched forward and began to grind against the radiator itself.

Fan grinding on radiator.

It was this action that led to the sequence of events that caused the overheating of the radiator and potentially blowing the head gaskets. Well, it looks like I'm going to work with Subaru of America to try and invoke the warranty because it appears that when the mechanic in Indiana reassembled the radiator, he probably did something here to cause the bolts to be loose and eventually undo themselves. We'll see where we go from here.....

Separated at birth?

More Car Drama....if you can stand it!!

Denial is an UGLY thing!! A couple of weeks ago, I turned on the air-conditioning in the Subaru Outback Wagon and there was this low grumbling sound. A sound that even I knew was not within the range of normal. Then the grumbling sound starting occurring when I slowed to a stop and was probably always there even though I didn't hear it when the car was travelling at high speeds. Then, last week, I began to notice a marked decrease in the amount of "pep" in the car when I stepped on the accelerator. On Monday evening, things came to a head. I drove home and parked the car and there was smoke coming from the front of the engine through the grill. It stopped quickly, leading me to believe that I could drive to school on Tuesday and then drop the car off at the dealership in downtown Oakland afterschool.

The best laid plans.........go awry. On Tuesday morning, I drove across the Bay Bridge and all of the six miles I drive on I-580 and as I exited off the freeway, all the lights on the dashboard come on, nothing happens when I step on the accelerator (DEJA VU??) and there is smoke coming out of the engine again. I immediately pull over and call AAA to come and tow me to the dealership.

When the tow truck driver offloaded the car, Chris Oliva, my customer service rep, got in the car and it started as well as drove fine. So, that put to rest my worries that the newly rebuilt engine was what was at issue. During my wait for the tow truck, I called Subaru of America and was informed that the rebuilt engine, because it was done at a dealership, had a one year warranty. Since it has only been three months since I was in Indiana, I am well within the timeframe of the warranty.

Later in the afternoon, I got the news from Chris that things were pretty serious. In short, the radiator fan came off (whether it broke or came off is an important fact as will be discussed later) and punctured the radiator, causing a coolant leak, which in turn caused the engine to overheat. This is indisputable. There are questions, however, about whether or not the overheating of the engine caused the head gaskets to have warped. If so, these would need to be replaced as well, which means mucho dinero. Chris believe, however, that because the head gaskets are new and the fact that I didn't drive the car a great deal while it was overheated, the head gaskets should be fine or close enough to what they need to be that some adjustments to them can be made to bring them back to specifications.

The car has been sitting at the dealership since Tuesday morning. Chris faxed me the dealerships estimate for parts and labor and it seemed to be way too high. Therefore, I have started to check around with some recommended auto mechanics to see whether or not what the dealership says is making sense and then, if they can do the work, provide me with an estimate of their own.

There is now a new wrinkle in this saga. My father has his equivalent of a "deep throat" in Seattle. This person, Candy, works at a place that specializes in Subaru repairs and she is therefore incredibly knowledgeable about the cars and how Subaru the company works. In talking with Candy, my Dad uncovered the radiator fan either "fell off" or "broke off" issue. Why? When the dealership in Indiana rebuilt the engine block, they most likely removed the radiator assembly to get to the engine block itself. Upon completion of the engine block rebuild, they would have reassembled and put in the radiator. If the radiator fan "fell off", it is possible that there might have been dealer error and therefore I am not responsible for the repairs, I would be covered under the warranty. However, if the fan "broke off", well, it looks more like an act of fate and I'll be looking at some pretty hefty repair costs. Ahhh, what will I find behind curtain number two.....

On a lighter note, since I have no wheels of my own, I have rented a car. I made a reservation with Enterprise for an economy car. When I arrived at the airport rental kiosk, they informed me that they were out of economy cars and I was upgraded, free of charge, to one of their small trucks, in this case the Chevrolet Colorado. You all know that I am one of the people least likely to ever drive a truck, so chuckle every time you see a truck in the next week and think that the person driving it could be me!!