.195% Probability

Last evening, we were invited to attend our friends Hans & Teresa’s “bag” party. I had participated in this a couple years ago in a smaller incarnation and have to admit that it was fun. My other half, being the Meyers Briggs STJ wanted to know what to expect and how the evening would play out. Being the STJ myself, I knew it was hard for him to hear, “you just have to trust me.” He’s a good sport, and even though he wasn’t 100% healthy, he and I got on BART and headed over to the 510, which in Scott’s mind is a foreign country.

The instructions from the hosts were to bring a bag in which five items were placed. Two of the items were to be “good” items, two were to be “bad items” and one was to be neutral. In my bag were, from what I deemed to be good to bad, a $25 gift certificate to a French Bakery, an Alfani polo style shirt, a mug with a beautiful painting on it (of course I knew nothing of the artist), a palm sized soft soccer ball and a jar of homemade leftover pickling juice. The two good gifts were gifts from students that I was “regifting” and the mug was my take from the last "bag" party that I had held on to for precisely this night.

What is this “bag” party? Well it’s based on this toy that most of our generation knows from childhood called a Cootie. It has a body, head, two antennae, two eyes, one tongue and six legs. Think Mr. Potatohead in bug form. Each of the six items is assigned a number, in this case 1=body, 2=head, 3=antennae, 4=eyes, 5=tongue and 6=legs. Now, you’re thinking how can this be given a context within a game. We sat down in groups of four, and in the layout of the apartment, table 1 was in the kitchen, tables 2 and 3 were in the dining room and 4 through 7 were in the living room.

In your table of four, the player directly across from you is your partner for that round. The object is to build (in our case draw) as many COOTIES as you could in a given timeframe. The kicker is that the COOTIES could only be created in a certain order. To do anything, the body had to be built, or a 1 rolled. At that point, you could start building legs (6) or the head (2). Only when the head was created could the antennae, eyes and tongue be created. Inevitably, most every game came down to the rolling of 6’s to create those legs, which finished off a COOTIE. Once a team finished it’s first COOTIE, it embarked on building a second or third within the given round.

At the end of the round, the pair that had the most COOTIES, or parts of, was the winner. The winning person in each pair then got to choose an item from within the bag of the player on their left. To replace that item, the winner got to give any item from within their bag to that player from whose bag they just received. The winning pair then moved up to the next table closer to table 1. You see table 1 had special powers. Every round ended when a pair at table 1 finished ONE COOTIE. The four people at table 1 could start playing anytime because only when they finished, did the round finish for the other 8 groups. As I learned later, the four people in the kitchen (location of table 1) took their time getting started by going to the bathroom, grabbing another drink, socializing or whatever. The world was their oyster. One indignity, however, was that the losing pair of table 1, was in the subsequent round, assigned (banished as Scott would later call it) to play at table 7.

At the start of a new round, you found yourself either staying at the same table with the your partner of the previous round or moving up with your winning partner of the previous round. The rule was that you could not play with the same partner for two consecutive rounds. This, by the way, sounds like it could be a great icebreaker kind of game.

There were 10 rounds played in the course of the evening. Scott and I both started at table 3. Scott promptly won and moved up to table 1, where he stayed for four consecutive rounds. Alas, he lost in round 9 and ended up at the of the 10th round, his COOTIE ego bruised, at table 7. I lost 9 consecutive rounds of COOTIE. It happened over and over where a pair who had won at table 4 would come up, the pair would take their seats at table 3 and I would tell the person across from that they had unfortunately picked the wrong partner. Inevitably our pair would lose, even in the face of sure victory. My partner would then play the next round with a new partner and they would win and move up. Did I mention that I lost 9 consecutive times? Only in the 10th round did I finally win. But since no 11th round was played, I never, ever, moved from my seat.

Mathematically, since we are going to assume the rolling of die is a random phenomenon, the probability of my losing (or winning) a round is 50%, or .5. My probability of losing 9 times in 9 tries can be calculated as (.5)^9 (.5 multiplied by itself 9 times) which come out to 1/512 = .00195 = .195%. People, that’s essentially two-tenths of one-percent. In the face of continued defeat, I’m finding silver lining in the fact that something so rare could have happened to me.

However, one must wonder at what I ended with in my bag given that I gave away the “good” items in my bag early on. After the fifth round, the winners were pretty disappointed when they looked through my bag. I left with a colorful toy sunflower (which was the best of the five), a can of cat food (salt in the wounds since not only do I not have a cat but that it was expired), condoms, the pickling juice and an old CD case in which there was a half-used bottle of "Oder-eaters". I consider myself luck as after the last round I was able to unload an old used laptop battery. The battery would have been the ultimate insult as it is technically hazardous waste and would have required a special trip to dispose of it in an environmental safe manner.

The night was a classic example of something so simple being so fun.

Answer: Nine Days

Question: How many days did it take for The Head-Royce School to come back and ask me to serve on the Admissions Committee?

I knew it was going to happen. As was previously mentioned, because I had agreed to take on organizing the Fair, I was relieved of all other extra duties, such as coaching, chaperoning dances or committee work. NINE DAYS. They didn't even make it into double digits!!!

So, I agreed to do it but on my terms. One of the more onerous parts of the committee is the requirement to come in on two Saturdays in the winter and interview applicants. It's half my weekend shot. This is in addition to file reading and attending the big meeting in March. I said I would do the file reading and attend the meeting but that i would ask not to have to do Saturday interviews. I got confirmation today that this arrangement works for all parties.

Side Note: Faculty who come in on those Saturdays and are not committee "members" and are considered "volunteers". If I did elect to do either or both Saturday interviews, I too would be considered "volunteer." Did I mention that "volunteers" are paid $30 an hour for about 5 hours of work? CH-CHING!!

Rookie Mistake

Halloween on Cortland Avenue is a zoo if you announce that you are open for business. It's old hat to me, but since Scott has always lived in an apartment complex and now on a out of the way cul-de-sac, he has never had the joy of giving kids the treats they so crave. So this past Monday night, he was so excited to greet his first kids. He opened the door, the kids yelled trick-or-treat and he promptly stuck the bowl right out in front of them. One kid took one Tootsie Roll. The other girl stuck her hand in and took a large handful. In my estimation, she probably got just under 50% of the bowl. Upon closing the door, Scott was incredulous at the audacity of the little girl. But he did say that she was a bit taken aback by the opportunity she had been given and after a paralyzing moment, she did what she needed to do. Next time, Scott says he'll pick up candy from the bowl and drop them into the Halloween kids' bag. Good idea!

Being a good steward of the Earth

I am a recycling fanatic. I am simply unable to place an aluminum can in the garbage. I rip out the plastic windows in the envelopes so I can recycle the paper. I carefully separate my compostables from recyclables from the real trash. But it's taken on a more intensive twist in the past six months. I now try and avoid using the dryer. I've taken to stringing up some climbing rope on the back porch and having my laundry air dry. I've kept up my promise of taking public transport to work now averaging 3 times out of 5 in a week. I have also been making an effort to buy the energy efficient lightbulbs and replacing the bulbs in my house.

However, I've reached a new level of fervor. You see, at school, I have always kept a stack of papers that have been used on one side but were free of any marks or writing on the back. I have always been good about using the back sides of paper, but the pile just kept getting bigger and bigger. Then this past summer, I was cleaning out my files and checking to see if I could save the blank back sides of sheets (while carefully removing any staples from those sheets going to the recycling bin) and my scratch paper pile grew to over a foot. It was time to take action. So, I finally experimented with the department printer to be able to stick in paper into the tray in the correct orientation to print out onto the backs of my previously used pieces of paper.

When I hand my students something that has been printed off the stack, they are a bit confused. I'm hoping that they won't be after I continue to do this. Why do I do this you ask? It lets me sleep better at night. Therapy in my future perhaps?

Things to check out

So, during my absence from the blog, I've been saving up things that I wanted to mention or have readers check out. It's actually only two things. One is an action and the other is, well, a statement on the level of maturity of political discourse in our nation today.

First, we should all be aware of and work to replace the incandescent lightbulbs we grew up with to the energy efficient bulbs that are now on the market. The months of October and November are the Energy Star Change a Light Change the World Campaign. I replaced a burned out bulb a couple of days ago with one of these greenstar bulbs. Yes, they are expensive, but will last years longer than the energy inefficient bulbs most of us still have. Just do it.

On a completely unrelated topic, I found this following Schwarzenegger clip on the website of Democratic Treasurer Phil Angelides. What does this say about the level of political discussion in the United States. But you make your own judgement.

The 2005 All School Fair

I explain away the radio silence of the past month to one thing only......read the last posting. I must provide some history. The school "loaned" me one of the retired colorful iMac's back in 2003. I didn't know that one couldn't install OSX onto that machine and I killed it. The tech department was kind enough to "loan" me another iMac. Six months later, it was stolen from my home. A couple of months later, my grant was approved and I was "loaned" the iBook from which I am currently writing. In my first year of possession, I had to have the CD-ROM replaced, luckily it was still within the warranty. However this latest pain I have inflicted on the computer was a friend logicboard. After a week of diagnostics, the tech folks concluded they needed to send it to a place called "We Fix Macs" for a cost of $700. It took a while for the approval to spend this money and then another week to get the computer back to me. So, all told it's been about a month since I've had a computer and now it's back. I feel whole again. Also, now that you have the entire history of my computer issues (remember I also killed the loaner iBook as well), I felt in no way justified in asking for speedier service. It's back, and I'm overjoyed.

So, concurrent to the pain of not having a computer, it was crunch time in getting the All School Fair set up. Here's how it works. Groups of students in the high school, either advising groups, homerooms, clubs and sports teams get together to sponsor a booth at the fair. Asia club always offers a Dance Dance Revolution game, the Junior class delivers carnations and runs a second booth, the Marriage booth, which is a huge hit with the Middle School kids. The senior class turns the "big toy" into a haunted house. These are just some of the fair booths. But each grade in the Lower School also offers a booth. The 5th grade always does the cakewalk On the night of the fair, the older students run these booths for the entertainment of our Lower School students. Remember, since HRS is a K-12 school, many of the students running booths attended the fair as little kids and so there is a sense of continuity.

So what's the hook here for the older students? Ahh, it is the red "PLAY" ticket. Each time a person wants to play at a booth, they must hand over a set number of tickets to the booth sponsor. Each group collects there tickets over the course of the evening and turn them in to business office which credits the groups account thereby providing the group or club money with which to run its activities for the year. Essentially, the fair is its own economy for the three hours it exists every third Friday evening in October. Some booths had activities that were games and if the participant won, they received a blue "WIN" ticket. These "WIN" tickets could be redeemed at the prize booth. A red "PLAY" ticket had a value of 25 cents and a blue "WIN" ticket had a value of 10 cents.

What did I do? I was the coordinator. It was like herding cats. The Athletic Department was in charge of food (BBQ). A colleague of mine was in charge of musical entertainment. Another colleague was in charge of the prize booth. I had liasons in both the Middle and Lower School. So, I realized that my role was to simply play air traffic controller. Making sure that preparations were done in the correct order and at the right time so the next thing could happen.

So, here are some pictures of the fair. I know you all have been waiting for these...

The Fair was on Friday October 21st, and as of Thursday afternoon, less than 15% of the fair was set up. But in a rush of activity, things were in place and ready to go by 6PM Friday evening. Here is a group of students from the BSU setting up their booth.

This is a typical booth structure, which is constructed from PVC pipes. The design was created and fabricated by a former colleague who has since left the school. The attempt to put together this structure has flummoxed even the most engineering minded adults and students in the community. Luckily, I had a colleague who had put them together in the past create the first one for me and which I used as a template.

This year, the Athletic Department unveiled their brand new deluxe BBQ. Hats off to the chefs. I dined on a perfectly cooked steak sandwich!

Entertainment? You got it. Here is the dance troupe FADE

Every year there is a fair theme. Off the cuff, I chose an Arctic/Antarctic theme. Little did I know that declaring the fair theme was the most significant decision I made in the planning process. So, that sign I'm wearing has written on it "x=r*sinO". I was a polar coordinate. Get it?

Here's the Junior Classes very popular and lucrative Carnation booth

With a stroke of luck (as in they were the first group I saw when i found out the Student Council would not sponsor the astrojump), the Junior Class ran the astrojump, which is a huge cash cow.

The cakewalk run by the 5th Grade

Show off your skills at the Latino Clubs goal kicking booth.

Protect the penguins at the 6th grade bowling booth. That's legendary 6th grade teacher Jim J. there with the white hat and his trademark khakis and running shoes.

The sophomores in the Sarkar/Dwelley homeroom earned a good chunk of money with their Wheel of Fortune game. My statistics class is able to calculate the mean value (either loss or gain) on each and every bet. It's the calculation of finding the mean of a discrete random variable. Easy.

My colleague Bob W., dean of the 9th grade, has the class run the prize center.

These two Charlie's angels are two of my Geometry students. The one on the right is the 3rd and last child in the Dantzker family. I have had the priviledge of serving as the advisor to each of the three kids. They are a great family and have great to me over these past nine years.

I was visiting a friend of mine and he had this bear sitting in his living room. I made some comment about it and he said he had no use for it and wanted to get rid of it. I asked if he would be willing to donate the bear to the fair as an auction item for a club to raffle off. He generously gave the bear to me and I handed it over to the Revelations club.

I think the raffle winner went home happy.

So, some closing comments. It was a thankless task, but one in which I had the benefit of meeting some of my colleagues in the Lower School with whom I have never spoken. My one large disappointment came with my fellow faculty members. We all say that we want to have our students plan ahead and then follow through with their committments. But it was more than just once or twice that I had faculty members bail on me or committments they had made to students. We adults have to model the behaviors we want from our students. It's no wonder they don't have a clue as I watched more than one teacher completely ignore what they preach.

I'm off the soapbox now. It's done and over with. But I immediately get hit with the whammy of writing interim comments on each of my students. I have, at this moment, 0 done and 73 to go. They are due at 8AM on Tuesday November 1st. Wish me luck!

I am a computers' kiss of death

The iBook the school has purchased and lent to me died for no apparent reason last week. I took it to the technology people (who do a fantastic job) here at school and they gave me one of the "loaner" computers to use in the meantime. I got word from the boys in the tech office that Apple wouldn't take it back under warranty because the problem was one that they didn't understand. Therefore, my original computer is being sent out to a private company for diagnosis and fixing.

Last night, the screen on my loaner computer starting blacking out, shaking and streaking. What was the deal? COME ON!!! It worked well enough upon reboot to allow me to move my files onto the school's server this morning but it too is dead.

I walked into the tech office, told them the story and we all were incredulous and laughed. We're going to attribute all this computer drama to the fact that the metal in my feet must cause some magnetic field which causes these computers to roll over and die. But for now, I'm actually without any computer. I feel naked.

Things to check out

FREE MAMMOGRAMS FOR WOMEN
The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle).

This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.

LOBBY SCHWARZENGGER FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY IN CALIFORNIA
Governor Schwarzenegger's office has opened their phone lines to anyone around the country wishing to express support for AB849 - the marriage equality legislation that the Governor has pledged to veto.

It's all automated, you don't have to talk to anyone. Just follow these directions:

Call: 916-445-2841
Push: 2
Push: 1
Then push: 1 to support marriage equality.

"THE PRIZE WINNER OF DEFIANCE, OH"
Back in 2002, I was up at my local bookstore and picked up a book written by a San Francisco (and at that time Bernal Heights) author, Terry Ryan. The book, The Prize Winner of Defiance, OHwas one that I read in one sitting and loved from the start. I won't spoil anything for you, but it really is a testament to the perseverance and faith in the world of one woman for herself and her family. The movie will be coming out sometime within the next month and you can check it out or watch a trailer here at the movie's website.

Pornography for the Homeowner

Real Estate Times of San Francisco

I know that I am blessed to have had the means to purchase part of a building four years ago. But I still pick up this bi-monthly publication whenever I see a new one in the bins that are strewn across the city. I bring it home and it sits right on the bedstand table for a few days or lingers in the bathroom as toilet reading.

I love where I live, but I'm always looking for that "bargain" (an oxymoron here in the Bay Area) in Telegraph Hill or Russian Hill or some cute neighboorhood that I have this perception of being the apex of gentility and chicness. Why do I do that given that I am a person who rarely cares about image and such. But I have these crazy dreams that it would be the ultimate to live in a cute duplex on Telegraph Hill on one of the crazy dead-end streets or even better, on either the Greenwich or Filbert Street steps. A man can dream can't he? And he is most certainly allowed to be have delusions of grandeur!

What you say to your kids does stick

I have numerous memories of childhood in the Chen household in Seattle, WA, circa late 1970's through mid 1980's. The one constant was my Mom's consistent message of eating vegetables and fruits. It might have bordered on "pushing" my sister and I to eat fruits and vegetables, like perhaps a drug dealer pushing drugs onto little kids. "Come on my little friends.....you'll like it and it's good for you."

A couple of decades later, I find myself up at 6:45AM (Scott out coaching his marathoners) trekking down to the local farmer's market right on the other side of my neighboorhood. It's the Saturday morning Alemany Farmer's Market (much better, less pricy and not nearly as fufu as the farmers market downtown by the Ferry Building) right where I-280 and Hwy. 101 intersect.

Sunrise hits the already busy Alemany Farmer's Market

A stall that has no Asian Women pushing each other out of the way with their pink plastic bags, a rare occurance.

You literally have to watch out for recently killed chickens when their purchasers set their bags down and suddenly there is a decapitated chicken in a paper bag running around with it's head cut off.

I have my routine, coming in from the West and doing one loop around the stalls, making a final purchase of eggs just outside the entrance and then back to my car and home. But this morning, my mushroom people weren't there. I was too EARLY?!?!?! That never happens. So when I finished, I violated every principal of shopping that I adhere to (yes, Shahana, listen to this...) I went back to the stall and they were just starting to set up.

A mural on the wall of my stall that sells mushrooms.

I am loathe to admit but since I was in a hurry, unlike the picky old Asian women who sit there and pick over each mushroom one-by-one, I got my paper bag and reached OVER a woman and was taking handfuls of brown button mushrooms. When my hand hit her as I was coming back with a fistful, I got a dirty look from her. Man, I out Asian-womaned an Asian-woman shopper. WOW!

So, here's the loot for the morning all laid out at home.

All this for $39.50

Three things to take from this mornings shopping adventure:

1) Scott and I will be eating well, and healthy this upcoming week!
2) Life in California is sweet...
3) Mom's haranging in my adolescence paid off and here I am eating my fruits and vegetables!

A resolution kept (at the moment)

At some point during the summer, I got it up my rear end, that I would take public transportation more often, specifically to and from work. For years, I have been paying lip service to the idea, but for some reason this fall, I finally got my act together and found out exactly how to do it, experimented a bit with different times and routes and have settled on a general plan of action. Now, for those of you familiar with the Bay Area and the BART system know there desparately needs to be a 30th and Mission BART station built. Right now, the system goes right past a major intersection a mere 2 blocks from my home but doesn't stop. This intersection is smack dab in between a long stretch between the 24th and Mission station and the Glen Park Station. There have been plans talked about for years, but I don't think I'll ever see it.

This being the case, getting to the 24th and Mission station is pretty simple by bus and takes about 15-20 minutes from my front door to the station and costs $1.50. I then take BART from 24th and Mission to the Fruitvale station. The BART fare is $3.20. From Fruitvale, there is an AC Transit bus (the 53) that runs every half hour to a stop a mere two blocks from school. This ride takes 17 minutes like clockwork and costs $1.50. So a roundtrip on public transportation is $12.40 a day, which is still more expensive than driving and takes about twice as long when there is no traffic.

So, I've instituted some time and cost saving measures to make it more time and economically efficient. Instead of taking the bus in SF, I drive the 3 minutes to an area about 3 blocks from the BART station and find parking. I take the bus uphill in the morning, but afterschool, I have been able to hitch a ride with any number of colleagues to a BART station and hopped the train home. Total cost = $7.90 which is easily cheaper than driving (which includes Bay Bridge tolls).

So, I haven't tooted my own horn yet in public, but I am doing so now. In the first month of school, I have taken public transportation to and from school 50% of the time. I have learned to build it into my day and it seems easy now. The only thing I have to even think about in the morning is whether or not I have a first period class and am I prepared for it. If I am, I catch any train around 7:15AM, catch the 8AM 53 bus and in my office getting ready for class at 8:25AM for an 8:35AM first period class. I have first period three days a week on Monday, Thursday and Friday. If I need to get to school early, back everything up either a half hour or full hour.

"The Swamp"

In the world of college football, there are places that teams dread playing away games. There are great nicknames for many of them, such as "Death Valley" for those teams having to play a game at Clemson's Memorial Stadium, "The Big House" at Michigan or when "The Sea of Red" convenes to form the third largest city in the state of Nebraska when the Cornhuskers play in Lincoln. However, as Lee Corso states,


There is no better place than The Swamp! When the Gators run out of the tunnel, it is absolutely the moment of moments in college football.
Make sure to click on the link above as it is a virtual tour of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. Come on, do it!!! You know you want to experience "THE SWAMP".

This past weekend, Scott and I travelled to his alma mater, to watch his (and now mine as well)Florida Gator's (and new coach Urban Meyer's) SEC opener against long time hated rival Tennessee. The Gators beat the Volunteers 16-7.

We arrived Friday evening and promptly met his friends at a bar called none other than the Gator Dockside. The next morning, his friends, at 7:30AM set up a tailgate tent whose key feature was a satellite television with feeds to all the different games played throughout the day. We made a run to Burrito Brothers (something I've been hearing about for months), I had friends Thom and David come up to visit from Orlando and we took a walk around campus to see the key locations of Scott's years on the Gainesville campus.

One highlight was watching the marching band go through their warmup's right across the street from our tailgate tent.

When Scott was a student at Florida, he was a member of the band as well as serving two years as all important drum major. Most of the friends I met were also in the band as well. When the band played Mahler's #3, it brought both of us to tears. I think I can attribute it to the fact that for both of us, our years in college were some of the best of our lives. It is rare in our adult lives to be apart of a group, working together towards a common goal and having fun at the same time. I don't think one experiences that in the corporate world, and as a teacher you sometimes can have that but never to the extent as one had on a team or with a group back in college.

At 730PM, we finally walked over to the stadium to watch the game. Here are some images...

Scott M. and one of his best friends Scott S.

The Florida Gators Marching Band during pregame festivities

We made it, baby!! We're at "The Swamp"

The Gators huddled on the "F" just before kickoff

We spent most of the game on our feet but I was particularly impressed by the amount of noise 90,176 people (the most ever to watch a game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium) could make. More than once the Tennessee quarterback (coach Philip Fulmer switched between two quarterbacks the entire game, that in and of itself was quite an event) was seen running up to his players trying to audible or the like. The place was a zoo. The best part of the game for me was watching the ball-breaking double reverse touchdown run that Florida executed in the first quarter at our end of the field, the north endzone. It happened right in front of our eyes.

Overall, I think that Urban Meyer revealed enough of his offense to beat Tennessee and nothing more. I'm guessing that there is much more up that sleeve of his and he'll pull it out when he needs to. The offense is still getting itself up to fighting condition. However, defense and special teams are already there. Hold on to your hats people, it's going to be a wild ride in the SEC this year. Florida plays at Alabama, at LSU, Georgia and Florida State this year and all are ranked in the top 25. Lastly, at this point, they are looking up in the standings at, of all unlikely teams, Vanderbilt. This year Vandy makes a trip to "the Swamp" and the game becomes a surprising game of importance. Go Gators.

The return of BB

Now I’m usually not one to make a big deal about something as everyday as a regular season baseball game. However, I must make a special case for the game that Scott and I attended last night at SBC Park, in which the San Francisco Giants defeated the division leading San Diego Padres 4-3. With the season coming to a close, the Giants must sweep the three game series to have any remote chance of earning a playoff spot for a chance at October glory. This Monday game in September had an additional storyline, for this was the night that saw the return of the Giants (or Gigantes on Latin night) of their homerun record chasing fearsome hitter, Barry Bonds. He did not disappoint, but in a way that was unexpected to me.

The top of the first inning was a nightmare for the Giants. Their starting pitcher allowed three runs and had runners on first and third when he was yanked having managed to get just one batter out. It was three up and three down for the Giants in the bottom of the first. Leadoff hitter in the bottom of the second? Bonds. The crowd of 39,000 went nuts. There was a standing ovation as flashes went off all around the stadium. Bonds swung for the fences and hit a couple of towering foul balls. He hit one that appeared to be just over the centerfield wall, but it was deemed a ground rule double. The previously moribund Giants came alive. Bonds started an 11 hit parade, which included 3 for 3 nights for the two batters right after Bonds in the order. Bonds’ presence simply was the catalyst for better and more inspired play. Watch out for those Giants!!!

An interesting discussion

I received an email this morning from Pete with a link to the site Knowthyneighbor.org. Along with the link, he poses the question,

While obviously I support same-sex marriage (otherwise how could I ever live happily ever after with Ernie?) I find the below site interesting... just to play devil's advocate, if my vote in the voting booth is private, why does my opinion on a referendum have to be public?

Then came a reply from our mutual friend Sim, who stated,

I believe the idea is that if you are going to petition to change the constitution, petitioning is a public act which is very different from voting for a representative. They are not voting to change the constitution, they are petitioning their legislature to vote on changing it. Just like when you sign a petition to put a ballot initiative to a public vote. I think it's a pretty reasonable threshold for such important changes; there need to be enough people willing to publicly acknowledge their desire for a constitutional change or ballot initiative.

Pete's response,

Would you say the same if the change to the constitution was to remove homosexual acts from the books as a crime? In that case, the likely signatories would be gays -- a class probably wouldn't enjoy being forced to "out" themselves just to have a basic right to privacy. It's tricky.

As I always do, I have my initial gut reaction, but I'm learning to keep that in check and to wait for a couple of hours/days to try and put logic behind it. So after some thought I'm going to look at it from a different perspective. I took a look at the amendments to the US Constitution (didn't have time or desire to look at each states so I hope you get my drift). In all cases, except for those dealing with the office of the president, the amendments are increasing the rights of citizens. Prohibition, the only one that was taking away rights, was repealed as we all know. So, to look at it from the perspective of discrimination, there really hasn't been a precedent to write in the denial of some right granted to one group, but not to another. If this this called "marriage" were simply a religious issue, then the US Constitution should be removed from the discussion. However, our economic status, as in how our taxes our calculated or how we file a will, to life issues (medical decisions) are governed outside the sphere of basic religion or houses of worship and for that reason the right for gays to marry needs to be addressed. With that established, assuming that obtaining the names of those who sign any petition is available to anyone (true?) then why should the medium the internet be a question? Perhaps I am missing something?

I also agree with Sim's point that taking a public stand to your views is important. Hell the marriage ceremony itself is simply the two persons public declaration of committment! It is all to easy to mouth the words that we think people want us to say but in private be two-faced about it. So knowing that signing a petition means public declaration of your beliefs will hopefully make people really take a look at why they are signing something either to look good to others or simply to get that person out of your face as you leave the grocery store.

Lastly, I want to include an editorial piece about the inevitability of gay marriage written by CW Nevius of the San Francisco Chronicle. He's saying what I've been saying for years.

I love it when I master technology

What you will no longer find me doing is praying to the Xerox gods on a daily basis. Instead of photocopying pages of handouts and problem sets for my students, I know post them to my school website as pdf files so students can access them at home and print them out at their own leisure. In addition, I no longer have to try and find the original of some handout to copy an extra copy for a student who has misplaced his or her first copy. Check out my Honors Geometry site and look at the Proof #1 pdf file. I'm so psyched!!!

I will never be able to serve on the Supreme Court

or any other position, either elected or appointed, in which public perception and opinion is an important factor. Why you ask? I make the following true statement, "I, H. Ernest Chen, was a willing patron of Hooters. To add insult to injury, the only Hooters establishment within the city of San Francisco is at Fisherman's Wharf.

The reason is that the boosters of the University of Florida Gators have arranged to have the Gator games brought in and shown at the Hooters of San Francisco. After coming off three mediocre years under coach Ron Zook, the game this past Saturday was the debut of the Gators new coach (and greatly heralded) Urban Meyer. The Gators, after a rather stiff looking first quarter, took control of the game in the second quarter and rolled to a 32-14 victory of Wyoming. A detailed description and analysis can be found at Gatorcountry.com.

And guess who is going to Gainesville, FL in two short weeks to witness Urban Meyer's SEC home opener against Tennessee? I'll give you two guesses......

Fallout 2005

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

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

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

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

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

Slow on the uptake....

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

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

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

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

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

File Under: Now I understand!!

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

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

By: Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo

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

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

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

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

US News and World Report College Rankings? TAKE THIS!

As I write, I am less than 48 hours from returning to school. Granted, I am attending a half-day faculty meeting on Wednesday and then my first real teaching day is Tuesday Sept. 6th, the summer break is near over. Part of me is sad that this time has ended (and proud that I have truly and honestly rested, relaxed and taken time off instead of rushing around travelling a lot) but I'm also excited to get back to school. I love school, always have. I was one of those kids who was bummed when June came around because I didn't get to go to school.

Anyway, with the beginning of school comes the publication of the always controversial US News and World Report College Rankings. But I was puttering online as I love to do, and found that the Washington (DC) Monthly had performed it's own ranking of Universities and Colleges based on what the institutions were doing to giving back to our country.

Here's a quote directly from the article.

The first question we asked was, what does America need from its universities? From this starting point, we came up with three central criteria: Universities should be engines of social mobility, they should produce the academic minds and scientific research that advance knowledge and drive economic growth, and they should inculcate and encourage an ethic of service.

The methodolgy and metrics the Monthly used were pretty generic and rudimentary, but it's a start. I too wish that they could incorporate some measure of how many (or what percentage) of graduates were in service fields such as teaching.

So what bragging can I do? Cornell University, my alma mater ranked #3 out of all large national Universities. My sister's alma mater, Wellesley College finished #1 in the national liberal arts colleges rankings. Let the record show.......