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!!

Collateral Damage

We all know them. We love them individually, but in a group, they are a true terror. When they are together they can create a storm, almost hurricane-like, of noise and outlandish, boorish behavior. Who is this? The 9th grade boy, of course. This year's 9th grade class has, like every class, a group of these boys. It's just my luck that I teach every single one of them, but compound that, I have them all in the same section. There are eight of these boys along with seven girls in one of my sections of Geometry.

The second week into class, there was a day in which the boys were all clustered on one side of the room, being themselves and I was having difficulty getting them to pay attention, let alone learn anything. At some moment, I announced that as of the next day, I would have a class seating chart. I was in charge, not them. And the next day, as they walked into class, I had post-it notes on each seat showing the students where to sit. The goal was to divide and conquer the boys. I succeeded, whether it was the separation of the boys by the seating chart or simply the fact that the students got a clear picture that I was in charge, classroom chatter and noise has been reduced.

A couple days later, the Upper School held its Parents night, in which parents go to all of their childrens classes to meet the teachers. When the parents of this infamous section entered the room, they looked around at the other parents. There was an immediate sense of doom and one of the parents said that I was in for a long year. In response, I told parents of the boys about the seating chart and how classroom decorum had been greatly improved from the first week of school.

I then looked at the parents of the girls in the class and told them that, unfortunately, their daughters were collateral damage in the strategy to divide and conquer the boys. The girls had merely become buffers between the boys. I am glad that there was laughter from the parents.

Set Your VCR's (ok TIVO's here in the 21st century)!!!

Hey all!!! My friend Dave F.'s Acorn Theater will be featured on HGTV's Building Character. It will be shown four times at different times on October 13th, 14th, 17th and 18th. It's a great place and story about the reuse and transformation of older buildings for new purposes. Plus, you get to see my friend Dave.

How Alan Greenspan influences my life!

Well, I will admit that the catchy title is a bit exaggerated, but not by much. This posting will deal with the world of home mortgages and the crazy games that are played to save money. When I purchased my share of 121-123 Cortland, I inherited the 30-year fixed mortgage that the Streiffer's (121) had purchased with the Shimetz's (123). We had a 30-year fixed rate of 6.625%, which back in 1999 when the mortgage was intitiated, a pretty good rate.

Mortgage rates have been low for the past year and a half or so, but I was always a bit overwhelmed by the idea of refinancing the mortgage, that I just avoided it. That was until, in February 2004, my colleague and friend Shahana referred me to her broker Mark B. of Wymac Capital. He helped me through the process and just like everything in life, was much more managable once I understood the why's and how's of what Brian, Meredith and I were doing. There were lots of papers to submit, documents to photocopy, papers to sign and an apprasial of the building done.

In the end, Mark, locked us in at a 6% 30-year fixed mortgage, saving us $300 a month. We decided to continue to pay at the previous amount, thereby paying down the principal $300 a month, which meant that we would pay off the mortgage in 21.75 years instead of 30. In addition, the entire process cost us NOTHING. We did not pay a cent to save $300 a month. Great!!

This past Friday, Mark left me a message on my school voicemail telling me that on Thursday the 23rd of September, there was a three hour window in which 30-year fixed mortgages rates dipped to 5.75% and Mark locked us in at that rate. The process this time would be the same, except even easier. Most of the documents that we submitted back in February are still valid and the only things we need to submit are paystubs and bank statements.

Mark had the documents delivered by courier service on Saturday morning and after looking at them, it looks like the quarter point drop in the rate will save us a grand total of $54 a month. Not that much in the grand scheme of monthly life, but it will mean we pay off the mortgage even quicker than at the 6% rate. Saving money:very cool.

ONE FINAL NOTE: I have only ever spoken to Mark B. on the phone. Hopefully, someday I will get to meet the man.

I am an Idiot Savant

This morning, as I was rushing to get myself packed and ready to go to school, I tripped over the wire that plugged my cell phone charger into the power strip on the floor. I pulled the charger and the phone in the charger onto the floor and it went SPLAT.

A photo of my LG VX4500 phone

Now, I have dropped my phone before and everything has been fine. But for some reason, this morning, things did not go my way. I picked up the phone to see the color flip screen to be on but only have streaks of colored lines. It looked like, as I described it to the customer service person on the phone, one of the color tests you see on television.

So, I called Verizon to see what I could do. The Verizon representative pulled up my account and told me that I had been purchasing insurance for $4.99 a month since I purchased the phone in April and that I was insured for a replacement phone with only a $50 deductable. I was floored at the forsight that I must have had back in April. Typical me would have been WAY too cheap to buy insurance. But I have it and I'm going to use it.

The next call was to the insurance company and with just a minimal amount of effort and absolutely no questioning of the validity of my claim, the nice woman informed me that my new replacement phone would arrive by Federal Express tomorrow around noontime.

Never has anything like this been so easy. To boot, my hot surface ignition element arrived yesterday by DHL from it's little side trip to Missouri. Things are going way to well at the moment.....

Hot Surface Ignition Delivery Update

I called DHL today at noon and my package got misrouted to.....MISSOURI. All I can do is laugh and thank my lucky stars that this package was not anything life and death.

The Nabers at Casa Chen

Sunday morning in Seattle had my grandparents for breakfast as well as Jennifer N. and her son Darius.

Chen, Nabers and Darius (15 months)

A funny moment came when my grandmother, who doesn't speak English, asked me in Chinese as to whether or not Darius' father was white, which he isn't. I knew my grandmother was going to say ask, and she did. To watch my Mom and Dad take to Darius (as well as all of my friends children) so well and willingly really speaks to their desire for grandkids. I'm working on it Mom!! :)

Gay Marriage Now, Tomorrow and Forever

This past weekend I took a quick jaunt to Seattle. Living on the West Coast makes trips like these easy. It's always a direct flight and if there is no fog in the Bay Area, flights are on time and under two hours between the Bay Area and Seattle. The primary reason for the visit was to attend the Seattle Chapter of the Human Rights Campaign's Auction/Gala/Fundraiser. My friend Dean is the political co-chair of the chapter and was presenting an award. Plus, it was a chance to hang with the gays of Seattle. Read about the HRC here.

The evening started with me picking up my "date".

Ernie and Vickie

Vickie, Dean and I are all classmates from high school. Vickie is an immigration lawyer (trying to get people into the US, although she at one point was a lawyer for the INS working to deport people) in Seattle and has just purchased her first home. Congratulations to Vickie for that! Anyway, my Dad has this fantasy the I will someday come to my sense, return to being straight and marry Vic. So when I was scrolling through pictures on the camera and he saw this one, he wanted me to go back and he wanted to look at it. Sorry, Dad. Anyway, Vic was lamenting the fact that she was going to spend the evening amongst the company of well-dressed, well-groomed men and the majority of them being inaccessable to her. Oh well.

Vic and I arrived just in time for the silent auction. In traditional Ernie Chen fashion, I made one silent auction bid and subsequently outbid. It's exactly what I wanted to happen. I feel like I have participated in good faith, but not didn't actually have to shell out any money.

The main dinner and program started at 8PM. But remember, we were on what I call "Gay People Time" where everything has to be at least a half hour late. With this late start and the fact that things always take longer than expected, the evening dragged on until 11:45PM when it was supposed to end at 10:30PM. Ahh, who cared, it was Saturday night.

One of the first speakers was the HRC president, Cheryl Jacques. She spoke of how one of the main actions of the HRC this past year was to lobby against the Senate's passing of the Federal Marriage Amendment. You might have heard something about that this past summer. Bush and his administration is trying to amend the constitution to limit marriage to only between and man and a woman. In essence, Bush wants to institutionalize and write discrimination into the constitution. This is something that I cannot forgive about Bush and his policies. I am perhaps a heretic, especially here in the Bay Area, in which I can disagree with Bush but also try to see the point of view he is making. I don't necessarily assume that he is bad. But on this issue, I can't in any way give him the benefit of the doubt. It is simply a hateful move and for this alone, he needs to be defeated in November.

Cheryl spoke passionately about the issues but one thing stood out in my mind and here is a quote that I had to write down.


"It is time for us (gays) to talk to the people who love us to stand with us in not allowing discrimination to be written into the United States Constitution and to allow our society to continue to treat us unequally"

Something about that resonated with me. I must say that I have been guilty of resting on the laurels of the hard work and struggle of those gays that have come before me who have worked so hard to get us this far. It is certainly time for me to start talking to my parents and friends to realize the serious of these issues and to help us. In fact, at breakfast this morning, I actually openly talked about gay marriage (just a passing remark) in front of Mom and Dad. I'm starting.

After Cheryl Jacques, one of the things that impressed me was the fact that BOTH United States Senators from Washington State were in attendence. Dean, being the political co-chair, was instrumental in getting them there.

Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash)

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash)

For those of you Washington State residents, I encourage you to re-elect Patty Murray to the US Senate this November. She is running against Rep. George Nethercutt the person who defeated Speaker of the House Tom Foley back in 1994. Patty Murray will be serving in her 3rd term as Senator from Washington and with each year, moves up in seniority, which is gold in the US Senate. In point of reference, after nearly 12 years in the Senate, she is still only 9th in seniority out of 12 on the very powerful Appropriations Committee. Vote for Patty Murray. One last thing that I found interesting in Patty Murray's remarks is that there is a pretty high probability that as of this Fall, Washington State will be the first state in history to ever have the top three political offices to be held by women, this is assuming that Murray herself is re-elected and that Christine Gregoire will be elected governor. Pretty cool.

Dinner break.

A picture of the many A-List Seattle gays

After the dinner break, Dean presented an award to to Multifaith for its great work in the community and the live auction. There were 11 high priced items on the docket, each given a dollar value. The game at our table was to predict whether the final purchase price was over or under the stated value. I went 8 for 11.

Dean on stage, he's DA MAN

The evening ended with......LILY TOMLIN

Lily Tomlin onstage at the Seattle HRC gala.

Did you know that Lily Tomlin is a lesbian? I didn't, but glad she plays in our sandbox. Her political leanings, well let's just say this should reveal all....


"President Bush may be the only person in the world not suffering from information overload." -- Lily Tomlin (9/18/04)

She did a couple bits using some of her most famous characters. One was Ernestine and the other was the little six year old girl writing a letter. Great!! Lily Tomlin is awesome. Overall, a fantastic evening. Great friends, great entertainment, and most importantly, a wake-up call for me to not be so complacent about how good I have it, but what can I do to make it better.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE DEFEAT OF THE FEDERAL MARRIAGE AMENDMENT

Go here to see how each senator voted. The actual vote wasn't on whether or not to accept the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), but actually a vote on whether or not to continue discussing whether or not to proceed. If you remember any of your civics lessons, many votes in government are simply procedural. The senate needed to vote on whether to even bring the FMA to the floor to discuss. The vote that went in the favor of those against the FMA was a cloture vote, a vote to end discussion. The cloture vote that failed on July 14th, 2004 was to close the discussion on whether or not to discuss the bill and move to considering the bill on the floor. A cloture vote needs 60 votes to actually stop discussion. Cloture is a way for the senate to overcome the filibuster. The fact that those for the FMA didn't get 60 votes was key, but the fact that they didn't even get a majority, getting only 48 was a grand slam for the HRC and all of us who oppose the FMA. Only one Democratic Senator, Zell Miller of Georgia, voted with the Republicans. He's not seeking re-election this year anyway, but will be replaced by a Republican.

However, there are Republicans (those moderates that are fairly liberal on social issues) who voted against cloture and thereby stalled the discussion of the FMA. These are Republicans that I have always accepted and been willing to support. They are:

Benjamin Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colorado) He is not running for re-election this year and there is a dogfight to replace him. There is a good chance that the people of the state of Colorado will send a Democrat to replace Senator Campbell.
Lincoln Chaffee (R-Rhode Island) Chaffee is, in many respects, a Democrat. Of all Republicans, he votes with the Democrats most often. He comes from a prominant Rhode Island family and the Chaffee name carries a great deal of weight in that state. He was one of the senators the Democrats courted highly to switch parties, they eventually got Jeffords of Vermont.
Susan Collins (R-Maine) A leading moderate Republican and now the Chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee. This post is crucial in the discussion of the restructuring of the US Intelligence community.
John McCain (R-Arizona) A maverick in many respects. This vote is right in line with who he is.
Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) Like her counterpart Collins, a leading moderate voice. Plus, I've always kind of had a crush on her.
John Sununu (R-New Hampshire) This was a SURPRISE. Sununu has always been viewed as one of those extreme conservatives, especially on social issues. His vote here came, from my perspective, out of nowhere. However, he does represent New Hampshire, where being liberal on social issues is not a death sentence.

Sometimes businesses do ASININE things

All of you are briefed on the oven saga. My part, ordered from Sears sight unseen (let's hope it is the right part), was to arrive LAST Friday, the 10th. I got a call on this past Tuesday morning from DHL, the delivery company, asking to confirm the delivery address since I have all packages sent to work in Oakland. After confirming the fact that I wanted it shipped to Oakland, they told me that they would have it to me the next day. At the end of Wednesday, I still didn't have the package. I called the number I called Tuesday and they told me that it had been shipped over to the Oakland/East Bay sorting center from the South San Francisco center (where it was sent due to my billing address) and it was out of their hands. They were nice enough to give me the Oakland center number. I called the Oakland center and they looked into the matter and confirmed the package had left South San Francisco and had not arrived yet in Oakland. They she rolls out the kicker. "Your package is probably in Fresno." I went "WHAT???" The woman then tells me that any package in the state of California that moves from one sorting center to another sorting center is sent to Fresno, where DHL's statewide sorting center is. I'm still waiting for my part and my range is still sitting in the middle of kitchen waiting to have the hot surface ignition replaced. Argh.

One a happier note. I am flying up to Seattle this weekend to attend the Seattle Chapter of the Human Rights Campaign's auction/gala. My friend Dean is one of the leaders of the chapter and so I am going to support him. It will be cool and interesting to hang with the A-List gays of Seattle.

Yalie, Ashley and Anya

One of the great things about being a teacher is when your former students come back and hang with you. Yalie K., Ashley J. and Anya B. came over to San Francisco tonight and we all hung out and talked about their new college lives, gossip about the Head-Royce school and most prominantly, the lack of good men (notice we didn't even try to talk about great men) and ate papusas at El Zocolo, my neighboorhood El Salvadorean restaurant.

Ashley, Yalie and Anya

This girl KICKS ASS

The Head-Royce school walked its talk this past Spring when it admitted a new ninth grade girl named Alva G. Head-Royce purports itself to be a school that is all inclusive and welcoming of every person. Alva G., you see, is a girl with cerebral palsy and gets around in a motorized wheelchair. She chose Head-Royce because, even though it is on a major hill, it was the most wheelchair accessible campus in the East Bay. Here is a picture of me and Alva.

Alva Gardner and her Geometry teacher

Alva has no control of her right hand, but she does have command of her left hand. So she writes, drives, does everything with her left hand. These first couple weeks as her Geometry teacher have been a learning experience, but since Alva is SUCH a great advocate for herself, she has told me what she needs and with what she doesn't. For example, if I know our class is going to be working on diagrams or with lots of lists, I make sure to photocopy my notes for her, as her writing, is as she fully admits, atrocious and it is also difficult for her to write. I have learned that on short quizzes, she needs no special treatment, but when it comes to whole-period tests, she will need extra time. It is now habit for me to clear out the chairs around the table she sits and I also am the person to put things back into her three-ring binder and then put her Geometry binder in her backpack and get out her English/History binder and put it in the sidebag she has. Alva and I are becoming a well-oiled machine. I am so amazed that this young woman has such spark and determination to live a full life. If her first couple weeks here at Head-Royce are an indicator, she is going to kick some major booty during her lifetime.

Friends in the News

My dear friend Tim (who I dated while I lived in New Jersey) is an incredibly talented and successful person. Here's an article about the company he works for that was printed recently in The Philadelphia Inquirer. The article featured Tim quite a bit. I wanted to say prominantly at the end of the last sentence, but I'm not sure if could spell it right, but now you can see if I actually can spell it. But, I digress.

Here's a picture of Tim, it was the one printed in the newspaper.

Tim A. in action on the left

Oh, you'll notice that I've changed the look of the page here. The key new thing is the comments section at the end of every post. Please feel free to comment on things I write. I enjoy hearing feedback.

Swimming in San Francisco Bay?

All San Franciscans know that our true summer is during the months of September and October. It has something to do with the lack of both morning and afternoon fogs that leaves the days clear and gives the sun an opportunity to heat up the air and raise the temperatures around the Bay. True to form, the first week of September 2004 will be remembered for its heatwave temperatures. Yes, we are lucky here in California not to have the compounded issue of humidity, but man, it was HOT.

The long prologue about the heatwave culminates in my conversation with my friend Matt. He mentioned that he had been going down to Aquatic Park (right by Ghiradelli Square) everyday to go swimming in the Bay. In the same moment, I was both horrified and throughly jazzed at the idea of swimming at such a lovely spot.....in the Bay. So I took Matt up on his offer and met him down at Aquatic Park and took a dip into the Bay.

A birdseye view of Aquatic Park and the Fisherman's Wharf Area of San Francisco. I swam in the tidal basin enclosed by the circular jetty.

I have to admit that it was pretty warm. Matt and I were quite adept at finding those areas in the water that were almost bathwater temperature. Apparently the sun heats up the upper layer of water and because it has been so warm of late, the water has had to retain the heat, thereby making it pleasant swimming. The only downside to the experience is that I forgot that the Bay is NOT a body of freshwater and I unfortunately took in my share of seawater.

This past weekend I also hung out with my friends Michael and Darren. We gorged on pizza and watched a COMPLETELY DISTURBING movie. It was called Elephant. It's a movie by Gus Van Sant. All I can say is that it was definately not a mainstream film.