Why I get up in the morning...

Things between Scott and I go well. A good sign is that we split nights at each others houses. We live a mere 8 minutes and one stop light apart since I discovered a cool backway to each other's homes. Anyway, on his counter sits a juicer, not a blender, but a juicer. Since I've been taught how to use it (as well as take it apart and clean it) every morning when I get up from his house, my first thought is "JUICER". I love the fact that this spinning blade/sieve type thing can extract juice from fruits and vegetables and all that is left over is shredded organic bits. Todays morning mix was grapefruit, orange, kiwi, apple and carrots.

Morning Motivation

Setting off metal detectors at the airport

An x-ray of my right heel after surgery and the way it is currently

I won't rehash the details of my accident of August 2002, but the most difficult and longest recovery was from the essential destruction of my calcanei (the heel bone) in both of my feet. Pictured above is the "erector set" of plates, pins and screws that Dr. Stephen Benirschke constructed in both of my feet in order for them to heal properly and eventually allow the joints around the shattered bone to function as "normally" as possible. As witnessed by my only slightly impaired mobility today, Dr. B's work was of the highest order.

The metal is serving no purpose and Dr. B suggested that I schedule a day surgery with him to have the hardware removed. I would need to avoid putting the weight of my body on the foot for the five days following surgery. I have scheduled to have Dr. B perform the surgery to occur on June 23rd, 2005.

All great plans must at some point go awry. I got a call from Dr. B's billing clerk and she said that she would need to have Kaiser (my HMO) to sent a letter to Dr. B's office in Seattle stating that they approve of my having this operation outside of the Kaiser network. The very nice woman in Dr. B's office named Emmy, told me that I would need to contact my primary care physician, Dr. Tang, to start the paperwork in motion by contacting Kaiser San Francisco's outside services office. When Emmy told me the name of the woman handling my case, I knew I was going to be for a tough battle. This woman, who shall remain nameless as I have learned that naming names when not talking about them nicely does get one in trouble in some unforeseen way, was the 800 pound gorilla that stood in my way of being released from Kaiser into the care of the doctors in Seattle back in 2002. Let's just say the word "NO" doesn't cause her any pain or guilt to say.

So this morning, I headed over to see Dr. Tang to get the ball rolling. Even though I didn't actually get anything rolling due to the fact that Dr. Tang isn't himself an orthopedic specialist and therefore wouldn't hold any sway in the decision making process. However, he did suggest that the person who may be able to make a decision and have that decision carry weight with outside services be the attending physician during my stay in Oakland, are you ready for this blast from the past, Dr. Josef Gorek. Dr. Gorek performed the initial surgery to fuse the L2,L3 and L4 vertabrae in my back. The scar I have from that surgery is still a sight to behold here on the left side of my body. Anyway, Dr. Tang said that since it was Dr. Gorek and his group that released me from Kaiser's network to the more experienced and specialized surgeons that I needed to see who were in Seattle at Harborview Medical Center.

Since Dr. Gorek is himself an orthopedic surgeon, and the surgery to remove hardware from my feet would be classified as an orthopedic surgery, it would be up to him to decide whether or not a surgeon in the Kaiser network can do the surgery or whether or not it is in my best interest (and note I'm going to get him not to say in Kaiser's best interset) to have Dr. B, the surgeon who inserted the metal, to do the removal.

I tried calling Dr. Gorek today, but the Oakland Kaiser Facility's Department of Orthopedic Surgery is closed Friday. I will call Monday and leave a message with Dr. Gorek. I don't think he has thought of me since my final checkup with him back in August 2003.

Lastly, because it would be Dr. Gorek making the call to send me out of network, I would work through the Oakland Kaiser's outside services office and avoid dealing with "the woman" altogether. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

No news yet about the ruling on my claim against Subaru.

Sorry for the radio silence

I'm baaaaccckkkk!!! Due to various circumstances, I had to be mute for a couple weeks, but that doesn't mean I have been a hermit either. Since we last met, I've participated in a focus group about a new venture. I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you. Seriously though, I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to participate and earn the $75 for two hours of feedback I gave them. I am going to end this by saying I was thoroughly uninterested in the product and one that I would never use. I hope they found valued my genuine boredom.

I organized a group of people to go out to dinner on the night of Dining Out for Life. On this night, partcipating restaurants donate up to 25% of their nightly take to the Stop Aids project. Our group which had a mix of my friends and Scott's friends dined at Moki's right here in my neighboorhood of Bernal Heights.

Scott made his HRS debut by attending the school musical Cabaret. Shahana grilled him. What else did I expect? Scott has also met Senator Kefauver. She gave him the thumbs up to. Her email was "keep him." And to the Senator, according to DrDr Brakeman, if you screw it up with the guy your dating now, "you're an idiot." Enough said.

I had my day in Small Claims court in my case against Subaru of America. A representative from Subaru didn't show so I had a one-on-one with the judge and at first it was looking like she was going to throw the case out due to the issue of venue. This meant that she couldn't determine the presence of a contract between me and Subaru of America. After I explained to her my story, she asked for my exhibits and then asked me more questions about it. When we were finished, the judge said that she would need to go and do more research on the laws in my case and then I would receive a judgement by mail. Since I was suing for $5,000 (out of the $6,000 in repairs, labor and expenses) I would either get a negative judgement (no money), a full judgement (all the money) or somewhere in between. So what were the issues at hand? First of all, she needed to determine the issue of venue again, and if I win on the venue issue, the next thing to determine is whether or not Subaru is to be held to the "Replacement Parts and Accessories Warranty". This is what I believe to be the breach of contract. CK and I found this provision right on the Subaru.com website. Here it is (make sure you scroll to halfway down the page), the warranty.

Scott and I attended the return of Gay Bingo. It's not what it used to be without Sister Betty.

Scott and I went to play Texas Hold 'Em at the Sarkar/Kadlic's. I cleaned up.

My friend from high school Kristin S, her husband Jeff, and their six week old baby were in the East Bay for the wedding of one of Kristin's college friends. It was great to have a quick lunch with them.

I called my Mom for mother's day. And on the actual day, Mom, my sister and my Grandmother flew to Taipei. My grandmother was so excited to go and visit her friends to be in a place where she feels comfortable. She was even willing to forego watching the Mariners, who suck this year, by the way.

And that's a summary of my life since the last post. And next on Chen's life.....The Prom.

By the way, I hope that you all noticed that S&M has been revealed to have a real name.

Let me use my "I" statements

All of us who graduated from high school/college/graduate school are by default, alums of those institutions. I attended and graduated from The Lakeside School in Seattle, WA. Class of 1988, thank you. So today, there was a Bay Area gathering of alums held at The University Club in San Francisco. The address, 800 Powell, should have given me enough warning to stay away. Why is it that I feel that I am never going to enjoy these events. Against my typical anal retentiveness, I showed up 20 minutes late, which is the outer parts of the margin or error for me. I walk into this stately ballroom and there is no one (out of about a dozen) there that I know or even recognize. I lounged around the food, looked at the spectacular view, glanced at some of the Lakeside literature and talked to the Director of Planned Giving for a couple of minutes. Then, the Director of Alumni Affairs was free, she is someone I know as she was a year younger than me, and after the typical small talk, there was the awkward silence. She broke it by telling me that she saw a bunch of my classmates, you know the ones who always hung out together and lived in the same wealthy neighboorhoods and belonged to the Seattle Tennis Club, that morning at a breakfast held by one of my 1988 classmates. That took me RIGHT back to being 16 and feeling that I was always left out. I know that I should be proud of my life and what I've done and to be happy with who I am, but to hear the names of those classmates of mine in that context once again made me feel inferior. At the time, I didn't understand the feelings, just that I had to get out of there and fast. I know that the unresolved issues of high school are complete and utter BS. There is NO ONE to blame except me and I'm sure all the breakfast eaters are perfectly nice people now that they are 35 as well. I need to suck it up and let it go.

I see those friends of mine from high school and college, the people near and dear to my heart. So, a vow. I will give money to the institutions that I hold so dear, but alumni functions, for the time being, are out of the question.

You know the Apocalpyse is coming when

ummm, yeah, read here.

From Bayview/Hunters Point to The Muir Woods

These two geographic locations were the places I landed Saturday night and Sunday morning respectively. On Saturday night, Hans, his friend Nina and I went to a fundraiser for Public Glass which is a hot glass facility run by a small group of dedicated artists. For a $20 donation, you got a free glass, free beer, a band, some belly dancers and some demonstration glass blowing. It was really a cool experience but I truly felt I was back in college in a fraternity party. What was of particular interest/apprehension about attending this event was the fact that it is located a mere half mile from Candlestick Park, thereby placing it in the southeastern quadrant of the city, Bayview/Hunter's Point, which you are told to never go to at night. It's as if that knowledge is imparted to every incoming resident of San Francisco. But, as was to be expected, the journey to and back was uneventful.

Ernie, Nina and Hans with our new favorite drinking vessels

The selection of complimentary glasses

On Sunday morning (4/17/05), S&M, his mother Mrs. Weller and I took a journey over the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County (Yes, I did get my visa and passport all squared away :)) to make a visit to the Muir Woods. Here are some pictures:

So as a tease, here is a picture of S&M's mother. The family resemblence is a strong one, but alas, still no official picture of S&M.




S&M's Mother hails from Athens, GA

S&M's mother leaves on Tuesday to return to Georgia. Safe travels!

Documentation

Every new teacher to Head-Royce is assigned a mentor. I was asked to be a mentor this year and my mentee is Sonia G. Because Sonia is a veteran teacher (Northwest School in Seattle), I've actually had very little to do in this role. I also served as a mentor to a long term substitute Spanish teacher last year, when Senora Galligan went on maternity leave. Every mentor is given $50 to spend on some social activity with their mentee. Last year, I pocketed the cash and then never actually used it. Oops.
This year, Sonia and I were talking about getting a pair of mani/pedi treatments with the money. However, things fell through and it never happened. In January, I made one of my grand sweeping statements about my disdain for modern art and she said shockingly in her very cool British accent, "WHHAATTTT?". The next thing I knew, I spent $85 on a dual membership to SFMOMA. Here is proof:

Chen and Gomez 4/16/05

What about the art? Umm, I looked at it.

The Mother-in-law

Even though S&M and I have recently started dating, it just so happened that his mother had already planned a trip from her home in Athens, GA to visit her one and only son. The implications? It meant that I had dinner with S&M, his mother and his cousin who also lives in San Francisco. Me, being the charming, witty and scintillating dinner guest was well received by S&M's mother. It helps the cause when she is, herself, loud and full of life. Oh, and by the way, to all you single straight women reading this, S&M's cousin is a single straight male. In San Francisco? This breed of male is almost extinct!

I'm being stalked....

.....by the mother of one of my students. Well, stalked has the wrong connotations. How about, admirer. In my ten years of teaching, I have seen the spectrum of students and have a good sense of when a student has something about them that is seriously out of whack. However, I have some to realize that there are some parents out there who have one child and that child is their sample size. So this mother, has a son, who she adores, but has no idea whether or not what he says or does is within the realm of normal. Therefore, I occasionally get calls from her on my voicemail asking me to check in with her to give her feedback on what her son is doing. I'll say that her son is a great kid and as a 9th grade boy, being monosyllabic to one's mother is completely in the realm of normal. In fact, I told the mother that if he told her everything going on in his head and life, he would be abnormal. What is abnormal, however, is the fact that about once every two weeks, I get a Hallmark greeting card to the affect of "just for you" and the like. I won't mention the Valentine's Day greeting I got, however.

Two for One Posting

I met my friend Carl, from Sacramento, at the FTE conference last summer in Chicago. He is constantly checking Air-Fare.com for cheap flights, so he can accumulate miles to take international trips sitting in first class and not having paid for the high priced ticket itself. He invited me to join him on a quick overnight jaunt to Washington, DC to go and visit the new National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian, which is located right near Dulles Airport. He and I were going to both leave Sacramento at around 12:15PM Friday and arrive into Dulles late Friday evening. See the museum Saturday morning and then fly back to Sacramento that evening. The fact that we were flying on separate flights is key.

Side note: What I really wanted to see at the museum was the Dash-80, or what became known as the Boeing 707. It was the commercial aircraft that revolutionized air transport and ushered us into the modern aviation age. That original aircraft, pictured below is housed at the museum.

The original Boeing 360-80, aka the Dash-80, aka the Boeing 707

You could probably say that this plane is the reason I am in the place I am today. It's launch brought the Boeing Company to the fore of commercial aviation, this is the corporation that both my parents worked until their retirement. It's stock increaed in value over three decades as well as split numerous times and left me in the enviable position of leaving college with no debt, allowing me to choose teaching as a profession and not having to worry about making money in a more lucrative profession. I guess it all started with the Dash-80.

Returning to our story. I left San Francisco at 845AM, giving myself two and a half hours to get to the airport. The trip should take no more than an hour and fourty five minutes. Who would have predicted that a torrential storm would track me from SF to Sacramento and also at times include tornado warnings. The traffic was hellacious. At one point, I called Carl and left him a message telling that I might not make my flight. I roll into the airport and go to check in and my reservation had been cancelled. Apparently, Carl had thought since I wasn't going to make the flight, that he would do me the favor of canceling my reservation and therefore be able to use the money I paid towards the ticket as credit instead of just losing it. Oops. So, I hung out with Carl all afternoon and that evening returned to San Francisco and got a bonus night with S&M, the guy I'm dating. Shall we say boyfriend?

For those of you who have read this far, yes, I am officially announcing that I am dating a great guy who will for now be code named S&M, it's an inside joke between the two of us. You will find out more as time progresses as I allow myself to be more comfortable with all of this and make sure that I don't do something stupid to mess it all up. So far so good.

The quotes keep pouring in

I'm online chatting and one of my students messages me to rub it in my face that he's in Italy and I'm not. Here is a part of the exchange....

laxdude82504 (11:44:34 AM): i'm in italy and you're not
echensf (11:45:03 AM): you're also in 9th grade, have 3 years of high school, 4 years of college all ahead of you, think of all that homework
laxdude82504 (11:45:13 AM): wow, you're an ass sometimes :D

If you want to know how I treat my students (and how they treat me back), here is a classic example. And Sam M., if you are reading this, remember what everyone's homework assignment it. If you want me to tone it down when you get back, you better start grovelling, a lot. Or, something expensive from Italy will also suffice.

Understatement of the day...

"This kid is taking up more time that I thought it would."

-Brian S on 4/7/05 in reference to his
newly born daughter Cora born 12/11/04"

Spring Cleaning

Before


After


So, this was a major project I've been dreading now DONE. Thank the lord for somehow giving me the motivation to attack the clean-up and organization of my office. You see the shredder? I put her to work HARD. It's interesting how during my shredding time I would ebb and flow between "oooh, I should keep this just in case" to "shred it, shred it, you don't need it".

Five new fans of Klaus Teuber

After I purchased the Teuber games at the HRS auction, I dashed an email to the friends here in the Bay Area who I knew played the games or would be interested in playing "Settlers of Catan". The response was positive and so nine of us played two separate games of Settlers were played. Here at table #1 we have:

(l to r) Thomas, Scott, Michael and Teresa

Here at table #2 (playing at a table brought into the kitchen) the particpants were:

(l to r) Hans, Larry, Carl and Dave (who looks nothing like this picture of him though)

The winners of the games were Michael and Carl. Nonetheless, all had a great time.

For the record: Carl's presence this night was by virtue of a favor swapping between his wife, Shahana and I. Shahana's father owns an athletic club in Orinda and twice a year they host a sprint triathlon and need volunteers to man the registration table the serve as a timekeeper. Therefore Shahana asked me to be a volunteer and payment for my services this morning at 745AM (with losing an hour to daylight savings time, so essentially being in Orinda by 645AM) she had to let Carl join us for game night. We're even

Making Tibetan Monks Happy

Every year, because the music groups take a big trip and miss the day before Spring Break, the rest of the school takes the day off to do community service or take alternative education trips. Think J-term. This year, and last, I took a group of Head-Royce students to assemble books for the Yeshe De Project (YDP), which is funded by the Tibetan Aid Project in Berkeley. Find out about the teachings of this organization at The Nyingma Center.

In short, every year in January, there is a large celebration in India at which thousands of Tibetan monks gather. At this gathering, the YDP distributes texts to the airport, that the Yeshe De Project have printed and put together back here in Berkeley. These are sacred buddhist texts that the monks have never had in printed form. This year, 2005, the YDP will be printing the first 30 Sutra's which are teachings of the Buddha. About 17,000 of each of the 30 Sutra's will be printed, cut, assembled and wrapped by November, which is when they will ship out. So, doing the math, the YDP must make one Sutra per week and a half, which turns out to be just over 1,000 a day.

Chanel B. (9), Naomi O. (12), Brittney T. (10), Katie R. (11th), David T. (11th) and yours truly

So our group had two tasks to perform. One needs to know the reason why our two tasks exist is because these sacred texts are not bound, but simply sheets of rectangular paper sandwiched between to pieces of tagboard. So task one was to take the texts and assemble them.

Putting the back cover on

Turn over

Put the front cover on and keep together with two stretchy ponytail things

Here is task two, wrapping the texts. Here our hand model is my Honors Geometry student, Chanel B.. Props to Chanel for being such a great wrapper.

    

We and the volunteers that worked along with us, assembled and wrapped 850 books. Here's a picture of one of the two pallets of books we finished.

I assembled books and stacked them on the pallets. Let's just say the my wrapped books had to be done over again regularly. I got the message loud and clear.

The Gross Domestic Product

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is defined as the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time.

"GDP does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry, or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our courage, nor our wisdom, nor our devotion to country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."
--Robert F. Kennedy (1968)

In Economics class, which I am teaching for the first time, we have just started our section on Macroeconomics and the first thing we study is how do we measure the health of our economy. It's the GDP. Think of GDP as a pie. For the US to continue to experience the high standard of living, we must grow our GDP at a rate of 2% a year. Or, we have to continue increasing the size of the pie. So the question came up today in class, but what if the quality of the pie isn't as good as it used to be? Food for thought!

Evidence that I'm becoming an "old person"

Actually, since writing the title of this posting, I took a trip to the kitchen and a second event happened that supported my theory that I am becoming one of those "old people" I used to wonder about.

When I first started my teaching career, it was back at Lawrenceville when I was 25 years old. My, can it already be my ninth year of teaching? Oh my. But I digress. Back then, I would be in my department office and I would listen to the veteran teachers complain about this and that and wonder to myself, "COME ON, CHILL out, who cares if the theater department needs to use the room for a performance, we'll just move our lecture to this room....", you get the drill. Something out of the ordinary happened and things needed to be rearranged and so no big deal.

Well that was the 1995-96 version of Ernie Chen. So, what happened today that the 90's Chen would have told the modern Chen to chill out? The long and the short of it is the chorus and bands are leaving at lunch on Thursday for their big trip of the year. I scheduled a test for one section of one of my classes for Thursday and they meet after lunch. I threw a hissy (have I been throwing a lot of those lately, eh) in my department office in front of my colleagues about how I have to rearrange things and teach an extra period on Tuesday for those seven students who will be missing class on Thursday. Ok, hissy might be the wrong word, how about I grumbled loudly. It's just interesting that my first reaction is no longer, "how cool for those kids to have the opportunity to take this trip to perform" and is now essentially, "damnit it, that sucks that I have to change things in my life" or more succinctly, "what about MEEEEEE???" Yeah, yeah, maybe it's not a growing old thing but there has to be something different. The real lesson in all this is that events that throw the ordinary out of whack IS the ordinary.

Oh and the second thing. I went to refill my water and got REALLY EXCITED that I had some cut up cantaloupe and honeydew. Hello 9PM snack!

"It's as if they built it just for you!"

This was the subject line of an email I received from my college roommate/buddy Peter S.. In the email was simply this link.

He hit it right on the nose. Thanks, Pete!

I agreed completely with......The Republicans

As I was driving to school this morning I heard a story on NPR about voting qualifications in Georgia. If you choose to listen to the story, I think you will immediately fall on one side or the other of this debate in the Georgia state legislature.

I know that one of my big life lessons being a teacher is imparting the idea that we all are accountable for our actions and that inherent in all of us who live in this society have to take on personal responsiblities. So for the Democrats in Georgia who make the argument that not having a valid photo identification leading to a disqualification from voting will disenfranchise voters is bull. So there are people who live in rural Georgia counties who may have to go out of their way to get a valid ID outside their county. It is their responsibility to get an ID and not have laws be left on the books simply to accomodate their lack of effort (notice I did not use the work lazy). Perhaps I am missing something or do not know the entire story, but I really can't think of any situation in which someone could not find a way to get a valid photo ID. So in this case: Republicans - 1 Democrats - 0

Ode to my backscratcher

Bamboo Happiness


Everyday I come home from work, and you lie there just as I left you on my bed in the morning

Your simple existence can bring me such joy and physical relief/pleasure that I must simply yelp

Then yesterday, you were no where to be found. Where had you gone? Could a visitor have absconded with you, my Bamboo Happiness?

For a miserable two hours, you were no where to be located and I felt as if I had lost a great friend

But you are located under a large leather chair? What are you doing there? No answers required, though. It is good to have you back at my beck and call

Our Economy Must Be Healthy

This past Saturday, the Head-Royce parents association held its annual auction. I've always felt that if a couple is willing to spend (ok, let's be honest, it's a redistribution of cash between the already rich and wealthy) $7,000 on a homemade ceramic pig that was uniquely decorated, things in our economy must be good. The NY Times actually had an article about the correlation between school auction success and the US economy.

My guest for the evening was my beloved friend Kathryn K.. If that last name rings familiar to you older generation of readers, does this Time Magazine cover jog your memory? If not, the man on the Time cover is the late Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. He is best known for leading the Senate Commission that broke organized crime. Ok, back to Kathryn. She is a writer and I want to give a plug for being published in a book about travel writing. Here's a link to buy The Best Traveler's Tales 2005.. The two of us came home with loot.

Kathryn won the table raffle prize which turned out to be a couple gift certificates (Noah's and Jamba Juice I think) and a beautiful orchid/floral arrangement. She was very happy. I, on the other hand, put in a bid on a set of five Klaus Teuber board games during the Silent Auction. I bid on these games last year at the auction but was outbid at the end. This year, I ensured myself of not being outbid by enlisting a student volunteer to keep having me rebid if someone out bid me. Here's a picture of them.

The Settlers of Catan and four other Klaus Teuber games

Two new things today

At what location in San Francisco would you be standing at the highest elevation above sea level? Twin Peaks? EENNNHHH! Pacific Heights? What???? The correct answer would be little appreciated and oft forgotten Mt. Davidson. If you stand in Oakland and look across the Bay to San Francisco, Twin Peaks would be the pushy attention grabbing bratty twins right in the center of the picture. The dignified Mt. Davidson stands off to the side and behind Twin Peaks. At the top of the peak stands a large cross, which I found out to be a memorial to the Armenians who perished in the 1915 genocide. If you are inclined, here is a comprehensive history of Mt. Davidson

Since the mountain is in the, residential streets come to about 100 feet below Mr. Davidson's 938 feet. I took at stroll to the east ridge lookout and it inspired me to learn how to use the panoramic setting on my digital camera. Here's an attempt at putting them together!

Two for one. Mt. Davidson and the panoramic camera shots

Man, did therapy actually pay off....

Yes, there has been radio silence here on the blog for just over a week. The reason? The arrival of Mom and Dad. They were here from the evening of Thursday March 3rd and I dropped them off at the Oakland Airport at 6AM Monday March 7th. There were some good moments during the weekend such as our dinner with my cousin Henry as well as a visit to Frank Shen and his family.

Chens on left, Shens on right (photo courtesy of Chester Chen's mastery of the self-picture)

However, the weekend did provide some tense moments and I certainly was not an angel in all of it. I won't go into the details mainly because I am trying to preserve some dignity and not reveal how horrible of a son I am, but there was great relief when I dropped them off at the airport. But about three minutes later I began to feel so bad that I was so relieved they were leaving. I mean, hello, these are my parents and they are doing the best they can from the life experiences they had.

So I began sifting through my flareups during the weekend. The first conclusion is actually a rehash of an old learning moment I had as a teacher. At one point a female student was telling me about a problem, I tried to tell her what to do and she comes back with, "Mr. Chen I don't want you to solve my problems, just listen." ZOINKS!! And that has stayed with me for years. Unfortunately Dad (and to a lesser extent Mom) always have some suggestion, comment, improvement, etc. They may mean them with the best intent, but the fact that they are trying to tell me what I should do along with the fact that it's coming with that same voice I heard as a child causes me to go into a huge rage. So lesson #1 for M&D is to listen. If they continue to "make suggestions" they will find themselves even more shut out of the information they really want to know.

Then on Friday, Mom and Dad took the car during the schoolday and at some point went to K-Mart to get an umbrella and then bought lots of other things, one of them being a new area rug for my television room. The good son in me should have said thank you, accepted it, laid it on the ground when we got home and then removed it when they left. But NOOOO, I had to throw a hissy ove some arugment like, man I can't remember and it was so bad, and we had a huge fight over it. Again, I come across as ungrateful for not accepting a gift from my parents. However, this was one of many things that they changed while at my place. Some good, but the carpet stands out. So this solution splits the difference. I need to be more grateful for gifts given to me and my parents need to think about whether or not i actually might want something and then calling me. Lastly, after having a week away from all this, I realized that no one in my familly is good at receiving gifts. I mean, how was I supposed to learn how to be grateful and good about receiving a gift when my role models didn't themselves. Ok, this last part was a little harsh. My bad.

There were a couple more incidents like this over the weekend, but the revelations are not nearly as grand, so I'll leave them be. All of this brought to you by my two years working with a therapist, because I actually now do sort through my feelings. CONCEPT.

Rudy

I'm not talking about Giuliani either. This morning I found a copy of the movie Rudy sitting on the counter in the Math office.

"Rudy", the movie

Rudy, the story about a young man who's dream it is to one day play football at Notre Dame, is one of my alltime favorite movies. Just thinking about the final scene in the movie can move me to tears in an instant. It also doesn't hurt that Sean Astin is a major cutie. But I digress, the message of the perserverance of the underdog is what keeps me here watching the movie at 1AM.

Watching the movie now also has more meaning since I spent sometime last summer in South Bend during my car incident. I think back fondly of those two days biking around South Bend and the Notre Dame campus. Ahhh, Indiana!!!

What happens when your Internet dies for 18 hours

1) Go down to Comcast, as the customer support person suggests on the phone, and trade in my old modem for a new one to see if that works. Nope

2) Go and get those two new tires that was suggested by your Subaru Dealership during the 75K checkup.

3) While waiting for the two and a half hours for the tires to be properly mounted, schmooze with the woman at the mattress store and in the process lay on lots of beds and determine which bed you want Mom and Dad to buy for you when they visit next week.

4) Clean the refrigerator

5) Sweep and mop your bedroom floor.

6) Do all the little things you've been meaning to do.

7) Oh, and finally get this done..

I finally finished the chair that I started last summer

Peter Sagal Alert

Ok, my love for Peter Sagal has grown even moreso since July of 2004. Am I stalking him? Well, here's a picture what he looks like for those of you who have not had a chance to see him.

I want Peter Sagal or a clone of him will just fine

Thanks go out to Kristin D. for having a sharp eye last year and grabbing tickets to three Cal Performances series at Zellerbach Hall on the UC-Berkeley campus. The first we all remember was David Sedaris. I was unable to make the second one as I was in Seattle for the holidays. The third one of the trio was a live taping of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, the NPR new quiz show which regular readers of the blog know is the closest thing to sliced bread for me. The host of the show is a man named Peter Sagel who I find to be the wittiest man alive, well at least of those that I regularly meet and know. Since I listen to him weekly, I consider him a person that I know. Please don't tell me I'm turning in a lady with lots of cats!!

The show was taped in the same manner as the one I saw taped in Chicago last July. Listen here to the show for February 19th.

I must comment, however, on the trials and tribulations of being in an audience for anything in Berkeley, CA. Here's an example. At some point in the taping, there was a reference made to Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. The politically well-informed citizens of Berkeley, the East Bay and Greater Bay Area, immediately hissed and booed.

After the show is taped, the audience is asked to stick around for the taping of those parts which were unclear in the first taping. You knew that the Santorum part was going to need a second taping. Peter Sagel says Rick Santorum....hissing and booing. This happened at least two more times. At this point Peter (note we are now on a first name only basis) my Peter, is at wits end saying that everyone wants to go home and can't the people of Berkeley take the high road and cheer him? At this point you would think that people would have a fun time doing something they normally wouldn't do and that is cheer the name of a prominantly anti-abortion US Senator. The taping goes through and there was a mere trickle of cheering. Can't these people CHILL?

Lastly, most of you will remember that I too was once a contestant on my beloved show and had a conversation with my beloved Peter. Here is a link to the archived recording of my three minutes on air. Click on the listener bluff link halfway down on the right hand side of the page. This is my evidence that Peter and I are destined to be together.

A little something from the files of Jim J.

Jim, from Las Vegas fame, sent me this article on penguins, specifically gay penguins. To quote Jim...."you got to love Biology!!" Amen brother.

Roadblock

I filled out the paperwork to submit a claim in Alameda County Small Claims Court. I went down right after school today, to beat the 4PM closing time, to find out that it is California State law that a claim cannot be made on a person or entity outside the state of California. Since I was making a claim against Subaru of America based in New Jersey, I was denied. Hmmmm...

According to my legal advisor, I might have to go into municipal court. I'll find out more about all this on Friday evening.

What determines the answer to the question..

"Where are you from?" Ahhh, I love this question, because it's always such an interesting thing to find out where someone is from. But it means different things to different people. It means, for most people, and for me for a long time, "where did you grow up/where did you spend your formative years?" And that would mean Seattle, WA for me. However, if I were now to answer that question, it would be San Francisco, CA, which is now home for me. What is that tipping point that allows you to feel that a new place you reside becomes "where you are from"? Interesting to me in any case.

This all stems from a conversation I had with a group of people who ostensibly meet as a bookclub, but it's all about getting together. Shout out to Hans (and Teresa) for putting together the monthly gatherings. The "book" for this month was "Where We Are From" by Joan Didion. It sparked great conversation amongst us five who were there. Another question that intrigued me is "Are we products of the places we reside? Or do we migrate to those places where we are going to be of like mind?"

I am leaving out a lot of the nuances of conversation but you get the gist. Lastly, something interesting we discussed was those places in America where people who were born and raised there, always hang on to and take pride in saying that they are from. You may agree or disagree....in no particular order or ranking..

Ohio (yeah, think about it, all those people from Ohio are all about Ohio, Texas, Colorado, California, Maine, Vermont, Chicago (but not Illinois), Boston (but not Massachusetts), Seattle (and to a lesser extent Washington state). This is a partial list, but food for thought.

Oh, and lastly, while on the subject of place, here's a great website, called Epodunk I found on someone's blog. I think it's totally cool.

Man, my love affair with the Internet continues...

Yesterday morning, I was listening to NPR as I was getting ready for work and I heard the announcers interviewing someone from either the IRS or a representative of the company that makes TurboTax telling us NPR listeners that Turbotax allows filers to prepare their taxes for free and then only charged when a return is filed electronically.

Well, being the person who embraces technology with open arms, I went online last night and checked out the site. I'm going along and there are SO MANY COOL features. For instance, I was able to tell Turbotax my Fidelity Investments account numbers and it electronically retreived the information and took it into my tax calculations. An hour and a half later, I was sitting there all done and with a larger refund than I expected, I think due to the fact that I actually deducted all the charitable giving this year as well as educational credits for being a teacher as well as taking classes. In addition, my California returns were prepared as well. So, for $35 I filed my taxes.

Today, I got email confirmation that both my federal and state tax forms were accepted and I should be getting my refunds deposited directly into my checking account within a couple weeks! Man, I love the Internet.

Lame Ernie Move: So, as the Turbotax program is checking for errors, one of the things that I need to fix is a State ID code for a dividend I received. I punch in all the numbers I can find on my statements, none of them work. I call Fidelity and the representative tries to have me punch in another number. No go. I then try CA for the State ID code. It worked. Why didn't I just think of that in the first place?

The Cultural and Age Gap

Italics indicates conversation in Chinese

I was pulling up to my friend Carrie's house for bookclub and my phone rings. It shows up as a restricted number, which I usually ignore but I've recently learned that my grandfather has some number restrictor on his phone so I've had to take these calls of late. I answer an sure enough, it's him.

Ernie, what is I-P-O-D? I was reading the newspaper..............

At this point, I am trying to figure out how to explain it to him, let alone it being in Chinese, but also laughing to myself about how far out of the main loop people, such as my grandfather, can be.

For the hip and not-so-hip

Seriously People...this is why Google ROCKS

Google Maps

One part rant, one part observation

One of my greatest pet peeves with students is their EXCESSIVE use of streamers. Why is it that every single celebratory event must include streamers? I could go on with examples, but I ask the reader to simply think about activities that have had the combination of both young persons and streamers. Thank god they have yet to invent the sparkly streamers.

Today is Chinese New Years. One of my colleagues noted that there was an increase in the number of students having to duck understreamers celebrating Chinese New Years.

Lemonade

We came home from the dim sum bash to Izzy and Mimi selling Lemonade in front of their house. Ahh to be six again!

The S. Girls with Chen

Birthdays Under the Sign of Aquarius

Jennifer K. -- January 25th
Paul B. -- January 29th
Carlos P. -- January 29th
Ernie C. -- January 29th

The four of us have made it a tradition to celebrate our birthdays together as one big bash. In the past there have been some legendary moments. But as we move on with our lives, Saturday night parties that last into the wee hours simply are not feasible for those people with children. Therefore, we had the 2005 version of the bash at the Imperial Seafood Garden. In two words, DIM SUM. This place, which is off the beaten track in San Francisco is on San Bruno Avenue in the Portola District of San Francisco. I classify dim sum as JV, Varsity and Pro levels of eating. There have been times where what is brought out I haven't recognized and subsequently brought my parents in to eat and thereby identify things. Here are some pictures from the brunch.

Carlos P. and CHB3

Colin B. and Carlos P.

Teresa M. and Hans W. (yes, his brother is named Franz)

Justin D. and Lynn K.

Jennifer K. and Michael M.

Michael M. and Mary H.

Renee T.

Pedraza and Brewer modelling the new shoes they purchased the night before.

Present but not pictured: Kristin and David D., Paul and Amzie B.

Ahh 35! On the downhill slide to 40.

Bookends

The past two Saturday's (1/29/05) and (2/5/05), I have spent the day at school interviewing current 8th grade students, from all over the East Bay, who are applying to become 9th graders at Head-Royce. Starting at 9AM, you have exactly one-half hour to conduct the interview and then write a short evalution/description of the meeting and make a quick judgement, based solely on the interview, to accept, deny or put the student on the waiting list.

Between these two Saturdays, I met up with three 2001 graduates of HRS. Jamie G. and Nick J. were both advisees and Simon R. was a (pain in the ass) student. I found it to be such an interesting way to look at the admissions process to see what the product of our foundational education looks like.

Jamie G. is now taking his senior year off from Dartmouth where he is studying Electrical Engineering and Political Science. This past fall, he travelled to Kuwait to aide in launching of a private liberal arts college in the country. In a couple of weeks, Jamie will be travelling to Iran to spend the spring and summer doing (I forget exactly).

Nick J. took his freshman year off to travel to Central America. He now is an Economics and Environmental Science major at Kenyon College in Ohio. One bit of interesting information. Nick stood in line for 10.5 hours to cast his vote in the 2004 election. This spring, Nick will be doing a study abroad in Chile, in which there is a large Economics component.

Simon R. is one of the most far-sighted minds I know. He is able to discern what is truly important versus those things that are extraneous. When I had him in my Algebra II class, he NEVER paid attention and turned in the shoddiest of work. What I attributed to laziness, is Simon's realization that he could do minimal work, enjoy life, and still get to the places he wanted to. He is following a passion in the gaming world and has told me about a dream product he would like to make. I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you.

High school plays a very crucial part of our development. It's been interesting to see the before and after.

Another Poem

A poem for Mr. Chen (#2)

Mr. Chen, you are my favorite teacher,
I'm gonna buy you a new t-shirt
Or maybe a seat in the bleacher,,
You have inspired me to be a preacher.

Matt P. '05

Look what I found!

A poem for Mr. Chen

There once was a man
Who, of The O.C. he was a fan.
He taught us all Math
and showed us the path
to learning all that we can!

Lauren R. '05

One-Eighth of College --- DONE!

What is now becoming tradition, Sarah K. and Emma B. have made a dinner date with me on the San Francisco side of the Bay on one of the days just before they are to leave for college. Well, the first rendezvous for dinner (Blue) was during the middle of their senior year. This past August (Fuzio) and this past Friday (Firewood Cafe), Knox and Bundy took me out to dinner.

Emma B. to my right, Sarah K. to my left and Sarah H.

The threesome again

The two claim that the real reason they come visit is to see me. In reality, seeing me is a vehicle to mining the information I have. Apparently, I often have random pieces of information that I see as a random useless fact. It has become apparent that many times these data are missing from some story or picture Emma and Sarah are involved in. For instance, there was once an incident with a classmate of theirs named Tom. Tom was supposed to go out with one of Emma and Sarah's friends on a Friday night but he called and said he was sick. Controversy arose as to whether he truly was sick or was lying to get out of going with the friend. I had a piece of information that absolved Tom of guilt in that I saw him and his parents the following day out at Trader Joe's buying Tom his favorite foods to help him feel better.

As usual, it was great to see Sarah and Emma. I'll see them again, if schedule holds to form sometime in mid-August.

Every Six Months

What are the things that we have to do every six months? Well, the one I always think of is the event that happens twice every year, the events I live in mortal fear of. What are these events? It's the bi-annual visit to the dentist. What is the source of this irrational fear, this sense of dread that drives me to nearly cancel the appointment in the days before? What I despise is the new high powered water pik/drill that is used to clean your teeth. My hatred of this device stems from the fact that it has a high pitched squeal and that when the sharp jet of water hits a sensitive area of my gums, it causes immense sharp pain. I can conjur up this pain at anytime, even right now, it is that pressed into my memory.

My dental hygenist, Shelly, respected my wishes (which I have since found out is not as common as I believed it to be) and cleaned my teeth with the old-fashioned metal pick. However, during my cleaning, she said that there was no way she could get at/out the plaque buildup on the rear side of the front-center-lower teeth without using the new water pik. (Hello, does this mean that in the days before this new fangled water pik, the dentists and their hygenists simply let the plaque remain in place?) Shelly was very very very very cautious and judicious in her use of the pik. But there were times when the sharp jet would hit a nerve and I would start to cringe and eventually shut my mouth. Shelly was probably laughing at the sight of this 34 year old man acting like such a baby, but she didn't laugh, encouraged me to finish and eventually we did.

At the end of the appointment, my actual dentist, Dr. Saddler, came in to speak with me. He said that he advised to schedule a deep cleaning of my teeth and gums. I would have it done over two days, one day the left side and the other the right side. I would be facing the water pik of pain for the entire two days. Luckily, I found out that I will have the side of my to be worked on numbed so I won't feel it. I plan on bringing headphones to block out the squeal. I am already dreading these two days, February 2nd and 10th. AAAGGGHHH!!!

Three Events of the Past Week

The first I can't remember what it was at this very moment. I remember distinctly saying as the week went on that this event, whatever it was was something that I wanted to blog about. I've looked back in my calender and tried to figure it out, but nothing is jogging my memory. Thererfore, since I'm a calender/list freak and the fact that nothing is written down, this event must have been something that occurred in some spontaneous moment. What IS it? It's driving me crazy.

This past Saturday, I went and saw a financial planner. My long-time friend Kathy L. from my summer on the "Love Boat", pointed me in the direction of her former co-worker and friend Ray T., who is currently a high-level person within the Wealth-Tax Division of HSBC, which I subsequently found out stands for Hong-Kong Shanghai Bank Corporation. In our introductory emails, Ray figured out pretty quickly that I would probably need just a one time consultation to check on what I am doing is meeting my goals, both short-term and long-term. In our one and a half hour conversation on Saturday, he confirmed that how I have distributed my assets is correct. The two things that I should highly consider are A) Setting Up a Living Trust and B) Converting the TIC situation I am in into a Condo. I am glad and thankful that Ray was generous with his time to met me. It certainly is nice to know that I'm on the right path.

This morning, MLK Birthday observation day, my neighbor and friend Brian S. took my up on my offer to help him with some of his contracting work. Today's job was a "demolition" of the basement of a house he has been contracted to remodel. Demoltion in this case meant removing the everything that was currently in the downstairs basement of this house in St. Mary's Park because a new foundation needs to be poured. I like doing construction type work because it is the antithesis of the work I do. Working with one's hands versus one's mind is so different. So, the first thing I observed was the delivery of the dumpster? Has anyone actually seen how a dumpster is brought to a site? It's not exactly the most graceful looking method that Golden Gate Sanitation uses, but it does get the thing there. The first job of every demolition, I guess, is trash removal. There wasn't an exceedly amount of trash, but it needed to hauled out to the dumpster. Then the "demolition" began. Demolition is an act of removal therefore the process and it's results are not meant to be viewed as having inherent beauty. Get the stuff down and out as quickly as you can. I found that I viewed demoltion more as "disassemble" in that I would want to remove each board intact as one piece and then throwing it away. Follow this SAT analogy...DEMOLITION:DISASSEMBLE is the same as TEARING OFF THE CHRISMAS PRESENT WRAPPING PAPER:REMOVING THE CHRISTMAS WRAPPING PAPER CAREFULLY SO IT IS IN ONE PIECE. By the end of the three hours I was very nearly at demolition mode but I'm not sure I am fully cut out for ripping this apart.

I still can't remember what the third event of the past week was. I thought that by writing about the other two I would remember that third one. Didn't happen. Perhaps the third event didn't really happen.