Mentos and Diet Coke

I don't mean for the blog to become a place for me to provide publicity for funky/funny videos, but it appears that this is the trend for the moment. One simply must watch this video clip where two guys in Maine create a performance piece using Mentos and Diet Coke. It is a sight to behold. You can hear an interview with the two "artists" on an NPR All Things Considered segment.

On the personal front, I've finished grading my finals and have just posted grades. All I have left is Saturday graduation and a Monday faculty meeting, which might be trumped by.....JURY DUTY!!

Consider this your 2006 forwarded email that I implore you to look at

For those of you who are a bit behind the technology curve, there is this new website called YouTube which allows anyone to upload video clips that they have/make and broadcast to any other person who wants to watch. As you an imagine, there is a great deal of crap and a lot of stuff that reverts to a teenage boys level of humor. However, every once in a while, something great is created and I hope that you'll take a second to go over to YouTube and view it. In the search field type in "Bernanke" and the first clip that comes up is the one you want to watch. If you are not so motivated, I'll make it even easier, you can watch it off of the SF Chronicles Technology Chronicles Blog.

It's even funnier now that I know that CBS stands for Columbia Business School, that main singer is the Dean of Columbia Business School, Glenn Hubbard. It was Hubbard that Bernanke "beat" for the appointment by President Bush.

And for those students of mine who are reading this, I hope that you understood what the songs lyrics meant.

A Proposition Party

No, not that kind. Next Tuesday June 6th, 2006 the California State Primary Election is to be held. As a permanent absentee voter (there is NO reason now NOT to vote since you can have the ballot mailed to you every single time and election is held and you can vote in your underwear), I am in possession of a Democratic Party ballot. I want it on the record that I am a registered Independent that chooses to vote in the Democratic Party's primary.

A couple weeks ago, I met a guy who lives a couple blocks from me at one of the game nights that have become a regular tradition at casa Chen. He told me about this get together he and his friends and housemates have before each election where each person is asked to research a proposition or set of candidates for an office and then present to the people attending the party.

So, tonight was the night. There were 14 of us and I knew only the guy who invited me but I was SO impressed with the quality of discussion. I mean this was the political process at it's best. I came in with my mind made up on a couple issues and/or candidates and clueless on others. What was clear is that the presentations and discussions fleshed out the true intent of the propositions and I was swayed back and forth a couple of times before a straw poll was held.

Surprisingly, the votes were more than 50% of the time split 50/50 with the other half generally being unanimous votes by a group of 14 San Francisco liberals. However, it was the propositions that asked us voters to approve bonds for various programs/construction that split our group down the middle.

It was truly democracy in action.

The Rise and Arrival of the Asian-American Male

The year-end Awards Assembly is always a time to celebrate the accomplishments of those students (mostly seniors) who represent and embody those characteristics that a school community holds forth as the best of youth and humanity. These are the students who our community is proud to send out into the world. There is always such a positive feeling in the theater and it always gives me chills. It also is one of those moments that confirms for me that I've been lucky to have moments like these in my job.

However, I noticed something today that is beyond coincidence. The surnames of the boys who earned the highest awards were Chen, Tran, Dang-Vu, Mar and Lalchandani. That's four boys of East-Asian descent and one of Indian-Asian descent. It indicates to me that Asian-American males have found a way to overcome the math-science geek pigeonhole and be leaders in their class and in our school community. I remember that when I was in high school in the 80's I never saw other Asian-American males as leaders, we were all just studying hard and not making waves. I never thought that I had something to contribute so I just stayed along the margins. But I say a hearty congratulations to these five young men. I never taught any of them but I've watched them be class presidents and club leaders and successful in sports. They have obviously found a formula that works and their legacy will be a model for younger Asian-American males. I wish these guys had been around when I was in high school.

Test your knowledge

Here is a link to Seattle Pop Quiz

I scored 25/32

Visitors and The Conservatory of Flowers

I received a voicemail yesterday from a friend of mine from a summer program I attended in 1986. She is always so good about making time to catch up when she is out here and for that she is to be commended. Deborah G.,her husband and 14 month old son were out for a visit to her brother. We agreed to meet his afternoon at the Conservatory of Flowers, located in Golden Gate Park.

I'm not a big plants fan, but I did find reading the history of the building to be fascinating. Fires, earthquakes and lack of funds had allowed the Conservatory to be placed on the World Momuments Fund as 100 structures that were in danger of being lost. In 2003, the renovated Conservatory reopened as seen in the picture above.

The special exhibit for Spring and Summer is one on Butterfly's. I've taken some pictures of butterflies for you to see for yourself

Here are some pictures of all of us on a glorious Saturday afternoon in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

Baby Micah taking his first few steps with Dad Ian

Deboran and Ernie, boy was 1986 a long time ago!

Calling all Yuppies

This weekend, Restoration Hardware held a warehouse sale down at the Cow Palace.

You've got to wonder about a pavilion with the name Cow Palace, so if you're willing to take a gander at the official Cow Palace website you'll understand the genesis of its name. The Cow Palace was the site of both the 1956 and 1964 Republican National Conventions where, repsectively, Eisenhower and Goldwater were nominated to run for president. As we know the former won and the latter lost.

So back the warehouse sale. It was row upon row of furniture, upholstery and other goods from the store.

Scene from the Restoration Hardware Warehouse sale held at the Cow Palace

I had visions of buying an end table for the corner of my bedrooom. I even went so far as to measure the dimensions of the space I wanted to fill. The deals were great, lots of things were 50% off. However, with starting prices in the stratosphere, 50% off still was more than I was willing to pay. As we Economists say, I was unwilling to forgo future opportunity to have the thing immediately in front of me.

A great mail day

In this day of the Internet and instantaneous service, the trip to the mailbox to see what came in the mail via the US Postal Service has become an exercise in junk mail futility. Then comes a day like today where it was a treasure trove of goodies. It's what makes the mail, the mail. I got the four pieces of ubiqitous junk mail which went directly into recycling but I also got my Sports Illustrated (which you all know I love and are some of the best 2 hours of every week when I read it cover to cover, ok so I don't read the hockey articles), my mortgage bill, the new stickers for my car from the DMV, my absentee ballot for the June California primary, my jury summons (we all know that story) and a letter from my dear friend Jennifer C.. What a day for the mail!!

Back to the Future, but not so much

The logicboard on the beloved G4 iBook that the school lent me died. In the post-mortem analysis that I had with the guys in the tech office gave the most probable cause for the breakdown was the bending that occurred when I would carry the laptop with one hand when the computer was in the open position. But this is only one possible cause. So after all this, the best the school could offer to loan me was the following:

One Orange G3 Clamshell ibook

I am grateful to have any computer at all. This "new" laptop has runs OSX and has all the basic features I need. Alas, it doesn't have a CD insert and only one USB port, but hell, the school was willing to lend me a computer considering I, in the past three years, have killed an iMac by trying to load OSX onto an iMac that wasn't able to handle it, had one stolen and then twice nearly killed the now dead laptop. Thank you HRS Tech Office.

Computer Malfunction Redux

It was only a matter of time. Things were simply going to well. There were no hiccups, no glitches, not even a glimmer or clue that the cliff was coming and that I would walk right over it. Metaphorically speaking, the cliff scenario is what it felt like that day during one of my days of jury selection, when I pulled my iBook out of my bookbag, took it out of its neoprene case, flipped open the top and after a couple minutes, the screen went blank and then began to cycle through the primary colors infinitely.

For six whole entire months, I did not make a pitstop into the tech office. I would see the guys in the hall and they would ask how things were and I could proudly proclaim that I was taking all the precautions and putting the computer into sleep mode when I was attaching a device through the USB port. I was doing my very best not to treat the computer as a bag of bricks and to treat it gently (I know you're chuckling as "gently" kind of isn't in my vocabulary let alone a way to operate in the world). But when I brought my iBook in after Spring Break, the howls of laughter and the jeering I got from the guys in the tech office were deafening. I am proud to claim that I lost NOTHING because I have been religious about transferring all work from the iBook on to the school's server. And I was able to boot the computer up to get to the point where I could email key documents to myself and thereby save them. BOOYAH!!

But, alas, I am again without a computer and feeling a bit lost in the world. I have been so wary of even stepping into the tech office that I only checked in yesterday and heard that they hadn't yet heard anything from their repair people. I'm praying it's something relatively inexpensive and simple, but it's looking like something major has friend inside. Damn.

I have to point you all towards a couple of causes I had forwarded to me. The first is a malaria prevention campaign that you can read in Sports Illustrated. The column is by Rick Reilly and there is a link off the article to the UN program that is running the campaign.

The second is one that sounds interesting as a way to battle high gas prices.
GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work




This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It ' s worth your consideration.
Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $4.00 a
gallon by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices
to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action.
Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain
day" campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil
companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue
to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an
inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.

BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can
really work. Please read on and join with us! By now you're probably
thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It
is currently $2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil
companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the
cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take
aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the
marketplace..... not sellers. With the price of gasoline going up
more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are
going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the
pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT
hurting ourselves. How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just
stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all
act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea:
For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two
biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are
not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If
they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow
suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon
and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out
at this point.... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to
reach millions of people.

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us sends it to at
least ten more (30 x 10 =3D 300) ... and those 300 send it to at
least ten more (300 x 10 =3D 3,000)...and so on, by the time the
message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over
THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass
this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been
contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE
HUNDRED MILLION >>>>PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all.
(If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you
have to do is send this to 10 people.... Well, let's face it, you
just aren't a mathematician. But I am, so trust me on this one.)

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out
to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people
could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!

I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did
you?

Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to
you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from
EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP
THEM DOWN.

THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

I think I might actually try this. Ok, who knows when I'll post next. But when I get my computer (or a computer) back, I'll be back in the saddle.

"Why did I attend this conference?" is why I attended

Once a week, the HRS Headmaster sends out a Headmaster's Letter that we all receive by email. In it, we find out who's decided to leave the school and who will take their place. There are always announcements for different workshops and conferences included. I usually give a cursory glance to the latter but just before Spring Break, there was an announcement for the 2nd annual Asian Educators Alliance to be held April 21-22nd at Lick-Wilmerding High School. In the past, I would have dismissed the thought of even attending. But for some reason, I was drawn to the idea of attending and so with the aid of the Math Department Conference Budget, I sent in my registration form and fee.

The critical question that kept rearing its head in my mind was why I was so resistant to the idea of attending something like this? The former reaction was not one of simply ignoring the conference's existence, but I would have turned my back on it. My conjecture as to why I slammed the door on even addressing my being Asian in the teaching profession within the Independent School world was twofold. First, I used to (and perhaps still to a degree do) associate affintity groups as a place where those students who belong to that group weren't able to assimilate to the culture of the school. Secondly, because I never really felt as if I were left out (little did I know that I totally was clueless as to an entire life of my class that I wasn't privy too) or treated unfairly or even misunderstood, that I therefore had no need to attend anything that identified purely by affinity group.

So there I was at 5:00PM on a Friday afternoon sitting in my small group or 15 Asian educators sharing our answers to the two questions, A) When did you decide to be a teacher? and B) How was it when you told your parents? As I sat there and listened to the answers of other people, I began to ask myself, "what is my role as an Asian teacher in that do I have some inherent responsibilities?", "am I automatically supposed to teach the Asian experience or perhaps my experience? Lastly, I wondered "what does HRS want to get back from having a teacher with my face on their campus? If I am able to start answering these questions, or at least know how to study and address them, before the conference ended, I would be truly excited.

On Saturday morning, we started in the same small group of 15 and we were sharing our feelings on "how we identify with the term Asian-American educators?" As I listened to the others answer, I came to the realization that my answer to the question at hand, might answer one of the big three questions I posed myself at the end of Friday. My answer was that I could use my Asian-American heritage to help all students who live in the dual worlds of school and home. I find that I am able to help students navigate through certain situations in which what the school said contradict one another. In addition, I'm not sure that when the school hired me that they overtly were presenting to the Asian (and other non-white minority) students the idea that they too could grow up and choose teaching as a profession. On a more global level, students can be whatever they choose to be. As I reminisce about my high school years at Lakeside, I had all Caucasian teachers for my five major courses for each and every one of the four years I spent in high school. I didn't think that teaching was even an option for someone like me.

Looking around my small group, I was struck by the ratio of female to male was about 5:1 or 6:1. Then looking across the entire group later on, there just aren't many Asian men choosing teaching as a profession. Why?

For the first workshop, I chose one entitled "Asians Are Elemental! Moving beyond tokenism in our schools". What we wanted to understand is that to make Asian issues and stories a true part of a curriculum by integreting it into the main curriculum and not just a supplemental add on at the end. Our presenters were humanities teachers who had found ways to bring this multicultural knowledge. For History teachers, class doesn't need to ordered chronologically, but with themes or patterns that will give students a context for what they are studying. The English teacher also has designed her courses on on themes.

The keynote speaker of this conference was Gus Lee He told great stories but admonished us teachers to 1) Honor All Persons 2) Seek Social Justice 3) Demonstrate Courage under Great Present.

A voicemail from my sister

"I just had to call to tell you that George Bush is helping me get $390 back. I'm very upset about it. I felt like I should do something with it but of course it's $390 so what am I going to do with it? Alright, anyhow I get money because he lowered the capital gains tax and that's why I'm getting money back. Otherwise, I'd have to pay money. BUT IT JUST DOESN'T FEEL VERY GOOD (caps relaying the emphasis in her voice). Just had to tell you."

--Marlene C (4/16/06)

I've just inadvertantly both pissed off a judge and found out a foolproof way to avoid jury duty

Last time we met, I was in the midst of jury duty selection. Remember that I had already rescheduled jury duty from sometime in February to my Spring Break. I wasn't called until Wednesday of that week and was informed that I was going to be a potential juror in a six week trial. From my experience two years ago where I was almost a juror for a seven asbestos trial, it was at that time the judge in the case who made it a blanket policy that teachers would have to serve regardless of their situation. Seeing as that I am serving in a San Francisco court and I teach at a private school in Alameda County, I concluded that my "hardship" request would have no sway with any judge. Thinking that I was going to have to go through the process of jury selection because of my belief that I either couldn't be excused nor reschedule a second time, I played the odds that in a group of about 100, there was a small probability that I would end up one of the 15 jurors or alternate jurors.

So I made the blog posting a couple posts back. Go back and read it to familiarize yourself with exactly what I wrote. You don't really learn much about the case, right? So on Monday after the lunch recess, the District Attorney and the defendents lawyers use their preemptory bumps to excuse certain jurors and a jury of 12 is seated, with the people in seats 24, 25 and 26 moving into the 1st, 2nd and 3rd alternate jurors seats, those being 13, 14 and 15. The clerk called names to fill up seats 16 through 26 and I was called to sit in seat 24.

Questioning occurred and it was going at a nice rapid clip. The judge adjourned for break and asked four of us jurors to remain behind. I was one of the four. I am called into the judges chambers and am immediately asked if I had made a posting about the case on a blog. My head is spinning. I had no idea this was going to be the topic. I had no recollection of what I wrote but I did know that I had revealed no details of the case. He then asked me why I wrote about it. After a couple moments, I remembered that I wrote about how pissed I was that I had to come back on Monday. At this point, it was basically mayhem between the judge and I. My quibble (if at this point one can say it was a quibble) was that I felt as if I was working without any information. He nailed me on the fact that I was playing the odds of not being seated. And this made him incensed. He lectured me like a little kid. I just sat there and took it because I end up getting what I wanted, which was off this trial and to serve jury duty at a different time, most likely June. The judge made it a point to not excuse me from service but I had to defer my service and come in again to fulfill this years obligation. At that point, I got up and walked into the courtroom and in front of the entire room, walked right out the door.

So, my mistake in all of this is that I didn't realize that on the first Wednesday I was called in that I was allowed a second postponement or to apply for a hardship excuse or deferral. Had I known this, I would have avoided this all together and not had to sit through two days of court.

BUT, now that we know that the lawyers are out there on the internet searching for us in the cyberworld, here's a pretty easy way to get yourself disqualified.

I want to now write about the substance of the trial, but I'm not sure if I can. Once bitten, twice shy they say. So, judge and lawyers, if you're reading this, you win. You have scared the bejesus out of me and I'm keeping my mouth shut.

Read this book!!

The silver lining in this endless jury selection process is an opportunity to read. The icing on the cake was that the book, recommended to me by one Peilin C., was one of those that I couldn't put down.

The book is a look Ed Rendell's first term as the mayor of Philadelphia. But more importantly the book is about the place the large urban cities have in our society today. Are they valuable? Are they worth the investment? The best books leave us with more questions that they answer.

Spring has arrived

OK Next time there won’t be Mr. Nice Guy

Back in February, I received my summons for jury duty service for the criminal division of the San Francisco Superior Court. Two years ago, also in February, my summons was for the civil division of the Court. Each time, I asked to reschedule my service to the week of my Spring Break.

Two years ago, I was nearly selected to be the second alternate in a seven-week asbestos trial. Avoided that one by the skin of my teeth because I was the third to last person in the jury pool and who knows what might have happened had they needed more people. The selection process lasted all of two days.

This time, I wasn’t called in on Monday or Tuesday, but my scheduled appearance time was 1PM on Wednesday. This first court appearance was logistical. Who qualified for hardship dismissals and filling out a small questionnaire. I was there for an hour.

Thursday’s adjournment was at 1030AM. The judge is a very nice grandfatherly looking man. He spent some time explaining the process and then stated what the charges were against the defendants. I am not at liberty to say what the case is yet, but let’s just say that everyone will be doing their best to NOT get on this jury. It’s planned for five weeks.

Usually, the district attorney questions the 26 jurors in the hot seats and then the defendant’s lawyer does the same thing. This is a tedious and time-consuming process. In this case, there are two defendants and each has their own attorney, so we must listen to questions three times instead of two. We had a full day of questioning jurors on Thursday. We adjourned on Friday again at 1030AM but were let out for the afternoon at 1230PM. We were told to return on Monday at 10AM. At this point, I went to the court clerk and asked whether or not I would be able to reschedule my service until June, when school was out. She said that it wasn’t possible. I asked what would happen if I simply didn’t show. The clerk said that the judge could issue a warrant. So, I told her that I would be there on Monday, but I wouldn’t be happy about it.
What are some of my observations? Well, the theme of personal responsibility kept coming up in questioning. I’m glad that they are visiting a topic that I harp on constantly in my job. I also notice that there is a preponderance of single people. Yes, a great many single people may inhabit SF but the proportions can’t be this out of whack. Where are all the married Caucasians?

Lastly, I learned that there is a different burden of proof between civil and criminal. In civil, the burden is a preponderance of evidence, but in criminal the burden is beyond a reasonable doubt. Interesting.

Under different circumstances, this would be called a “Perfect Storm”

This story as so many different strands that come together at the same place at around the time. I am apprehensive about having missed something so as per usual, I’ll set the story with a list of characters and or a mosaic of other things. Of course they’ll be listed in as close to chronological as I can possibly remember.

About a year ago, I purchased a set of Klaus Teuber games at the HRS annual auction. The game I was after in particular was called Settlers of Catan. Subsequently, I began hosting games nights pretty regularly for friends, some of them my HRS colleagues.

The Alumni Director, being that it is her job to know what’s happening in the alumni world, catches wind of the fact that some faculty is playing Catan. She promptly tells a 1993 graduate of HRS about the game being played at school. Why would this 1993 alumna (I would mention her name but I can’t remember it) care? This alumna is married to none other than Klaus Teuber’s son Guido, who is heading the small Teuber office in the US.

The 1993 alumna’s younger brother, Nick J (not the Nick J that I advised for those of you in the know enough to ask that question) graduated from HRS in 2001. In college he earned a degree in marketing. During the years in college, he worked in bits and chunks for his future brother-in-law at the Teuber office. Upon graduation, he secured a job at the Teuber office trying to develop new markets of for the game.

Nick J. and I must have had the same epiphany around the same time but totally independent of each other. The genesis of my use of Catan lay when my Economics students didn’t truly understand the concept of an Economy. The way the game is constructed and some of the dynamics that occur in a typical 2-hour game mirrors quite closely the struggle that the poorer countries of the world face in trying to move up from the third world.

I seized the moment and asked my students to come in on an evening to play the game. In compensation, they got a class period off later in the week. Nick came by and we talked shop and about how Catan might be able to open an Economics market. He came to see how I would run the game and how I would relate it to Economic topics.

The students loved the game, a true testament to the high quality fun and challenge that Settlers of Catan possesses. I’ve emailed my students some of the things I wanted them to think about and be ready to discuss in class on Monday, but you’ll find out next why I can’t be there.

There is a bonus for the HRS Math Department and that is our Department will be the recipient of a set or two of the Catan series of games. Also, Nick stated that he and his boss (Teuber’s son) are always looking for game testers. How cool is that? And more interestingly, how crazy is the path of this story. No way one could have predicted something like this.

My oven mitts now have some homemade hangers

This is one of the many little changes that I am left with after my Mother visits every year. I've had to work really hard at not interpreting my Mom's cleaning of my kitchen the moment she arrives as a implicit disapproval of the cleanliness of my home. It's hard to not hear some hidden meaning in each and every statement and question. I can't say that I was perfect, but at least I'm cognizant of the fact that this is in fact MY ISSUE and my issue alone. Unfortuately, you know how a person can be so unattractive when they aren't completely nice to their mothers? Uhhhh, I was guilty of it at some points during her three day visit.

One thing that Mom did do, purely coincidental, was bring the sun with her. We've been having rain everyday for nearly a month, and she arrived on one of the first sunny days all Spring and the rain has been minimial since. We toured the new deYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park.

Mom posing in front of the deYoung Museum tower. (Dad, I know the composition of this photo leaves a lot to be desired. Guilty)

Since Mom and I were honest about the fact that neither of us was particularly interested in the art and artifacts in the museum itself, we just toured the grounds outside and went up to the top of the tower, all of which was free. Now the tower is the signature component of the deYoung.

At its base, it is a rectangle (an equiangular quadrilateral for those of you who are geometric terminology purists) that is aligned along the axis of museum complex and quadrangle within Golden Gate Park. It twists and at the top, it is in the shape of a parallelogram (a quadrilateral with two sets of congruent and parallel sides) that is aligned along the axis of the North-South streets of the Richmond and Sunset Districts outside the park. The view from the tower is simply gorgeous and shouldn't be missed.

As we walked around the grounds, my mother commented on the fact that every Spring when she comes to SF, she sees the trees pictured below that are all nobby but with one sprout coming out of the end. Anyone who knows what the name of these trees are and what the deal with them is, please email me.

What's the name of these tree's and what's up with the single shoot coming out of the ends?

After we left the park, I took Mom on a stairway walk through the Forest Hill section of San Francisco. It's one of the first neighboorhoods west of Twin Peaks to have been developed because it's right next to the Forest Hill Municipal Railway Station, which is what brought mass transit to the western portion of San Francisco. The houses are all large and have yards. The Pacheco stairway is one of the most elegant stairways in all of San Francisco.

The rest of the weekend was calm except for those times when I had to inform/educate Mom that when I told her that I was thinking about trying something new that if she reacted by laughing at the thought, that it was only going to have me not tell her things. Also, that if I asked to not talk about something, it didn't mean that she could continue to ask about it. We got real and it was hard at times, but what I learned is that the issue I have about asking for what I want is also something that I find my Mom also has. Well, she knows what she wants, it's just that she goes about it (perhaps learned as a way to get stuff from my Dad?) in a not very direct way. Perhaps more analysis and thought needed here.

Lastly, because of Mom, I'm now hooked on Sudoku puzzles. I even went onto my Geometer's Sketchpad program and created blank grids for the two of us.

Two "Only at HRS" and One "You're Old When"

Three things that I observed this week and alas, all three happened at school. The first falling under the category of "You know you're old when" the senior class president of the school in my second year at HRS (1999-2000) is not a long-term substitute for a colleague of mine who is on leave due to extreme morning sickness.

The other two fall under the category of "Only at a school like HRS". This past week was spirit week and each class has a day in which they declare a theme and everyone is encouraged to dress on theme. Only at a school like HRS would Las Vegas Day produce not one, but TWO students dressing up as Hunter S. Thompson. The second item that lands here was related to me by my colleague Chris D. A male student in his class often wears a t-shirt which has the famous cover from "Dark Side of the Moon".

The cover from Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"

So apparently, another male student made a comment about the shirt and the two 9th grade boys subsequently had a conversation not about the band Pink Floyd but they were discussing the reasons why the cover is not correct according to the laws of Physics. I've spent the last half hour trying to figure out why (I even pulled out the old college physics text that's been sitting on my dining room floor) but I don't think I totally understand why. Regardless, the geek factor at HRS is running pretty high.

The consequences of September 11th, 2001

It's been nearly four and a half years since that fateful morning. But the events of that day are still causing havoc in people's lives to this day. Today, I went to get my haircut at my neighboorhood place, Tom's on Cortland. Tom's is expensive, but what you get is more than just a haircut, Tom, Richard and the third stylist (a woman who's name I forget) are therapist and Bernal Heights knowledge of all gossip (and oh so willing to share) all in one. It's high entertainment for the time one spends getting their hair done. Each of the three people in the place have cut my hair and are worth the extra few dollars it is to get it done there instead of the less "professional" places. It's all about keeping money in the local economy too, right?

Richard is my man today and he, as usual, is respectful of my initial silence. About halfway through my haircut (not too short Mom, I know how you like it a bit longer and I've gotten many compliments lately since I let my hair grow out not as a conscious decision but I've just not done it until today when I was totally fed up with the thickness and length of my hair) I asked Robert how he was doing. He promptly tells me that in July, he's leaving Tom's on Cortland to move to France. Turns out eight years ago he started dating a French national who was visiting the US. They had a pretty good system going where his boyfriend would visit for three months, return to France for a month and then begin the cycle again. After 9/11, US immigration cracked down on the type of visa that the boyfriend was using and renewing. So Richard's sister offered to marry the boyfriend and then have the boyfriend come and live in the US permanently. All was well until they were caught by INS for lying. Since then, the boyfriend has been deported back to France and there is no way for him to ever get permanant resident status, let alone citizenship in the United States. Turns out, it will be easier for Richard to move to France because he and his boyfriend can become domestic partners and Richard can hopefully get dual citizenship and even become a member of the European Union.

So there you go. The unintended consequences of 9/11.