Thanksgiving Observations 2004

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

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

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

You all should be ashamed of yourselves...

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

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

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

Remember the Dewey Decimal System?

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

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

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

The Red and Yellow books area

The Green and Blue books area

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

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

Look at the cool vehicle passenger

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

Election Postmortem (part 4)

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

Carolina 37 San Francisco 27

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

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

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

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

Chris D., Jimmi W. and Gary S.

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

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

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

Here are some pictures of it from the outside.

Candlestick Park from afar upon approach

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

Candlestick Park

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

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

Tim and Matt

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

Tim A. and Matt S.

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

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

Golden Gate Bridge

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

David Sedaris

Sedaris' latest

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

Humble Pie

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


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

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

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

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

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

Cameo by sister

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

Marlene and Melody

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

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

Election 2004 postmortem (part 2)

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

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

You go, Ira!

Election 2004 postmortem

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

Can it all be so simple as this?

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

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

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

I will post a sample of one my better comments:

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

Not for the faint of heart

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

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

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

6AM is for sleeping

Mom and Dad-

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

Ernie

Zachary Jon M. turns 30 and 2 days

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

The Birthday boy, Zac and Kelly

Myself with Pilar and Jeff

The glamourously tall Eric S.

Jeff and CHB3

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

My sister meets the Mariner of her dreams

Marl and Mariners catcher Dan Wilson

Bernal Heights Pride

A view towards Bernal Hill looking south from the Mission

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

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

This was nearly me

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

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

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

Cortland Avenue, no longer a major thoroughfare

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

Bernal Heights T-Shirt

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

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

Members of The Compound

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




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

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

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

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

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

Kevin O. makes an appearance in San Francisco

Kevin O. of Cincinnati, OH

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

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

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

The Shins

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

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