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| October 13, 2009 |
|
Heard on the internets: 97% of diagnosed
cases of flu here right now are H1N1. So that's what I've
had since Friday, and the Swine vaccine won't arrive in time. A
drawback to this new career o' mine is, you can't just call in
sick when you're under the weather -- it's up to the ill teacher
to arrange any substitute (although in an actual emergency,
management steps in).
|
| October 9, 2009 |
Settled into the new routine, with free afternoons of various durations
Mon-Thu and three-day weekends, the schedule finally free of tiresome
credential busywork and thankfully, no more computer class Thursday
mornings, teaching elderly immigrants how to mouse. Morning classes, my
Advanced students; and in the evenings, my intermediates, in the high
school classrooms. Hate working nights but those classes are so much
better 'cause the site's away from management, which drops in on my
morning classes. One of those, the conversation class, is out of control
wih fourteen Japanese women but only a few Koreans, a couple Chinese and
two Spanish speakers; plus three Israelis and a Pole: the European
contingent. The only male besides me, an elderly pilot whose post-military
career involved flying 737s on domestic Taiwan flights.
Also working with a new demoographic this term, tutoring seekers of the
GED and HS Diploma equivalent, people some might dismiss as high school
dropouts but these kids aren't letting that happen, good for them. But
one callow youth, white boy wearing a baseball cap, has the most appaling
body mod, plugs
in his earlobes, looks like he's using big plastic bottle caps. I'm
reminded of a savage in the South Pacific I once read about, who used
the various perforations in his ears for storage of small objects.
Since we get a week off between quarters I'll be heading down to
LA early November, as my trip there last weekend was aborted
due to traffic and not enough time.
|
| September 26, 2009 |
- At AskMe, Man
vs. cow?
- Any tattoo is inappropriate, except on a sailor; but these are
especially appalling -- What
were they thinking?
- Three great photo-finds on flickr of the dust storm in Sydney:
Station Platform,
Open Door, and
Luna
Park -- they're like views from Mars. Glad I don't have to breathe
that air...drove through a sandy dust storm on I-5 in California's
central valley, late one afternoon in '92 -- its particles looked like
cinnamon, and in the aggregate created a terrifying, zero-visibility
situation.
- We collected these when I was young and I recently tossed some
rusted examples found in my parents' basement, saving only a
Teem, which
the Bottle Cap Man
has like new for $3, and many others as well. Love those
vintage designs.
|
| September 20 - crime |
I live over my parking space and late this morning while I was
home a theiving vandal smashed my car's window and
grabbed my Samsonite briefcase, a gift of
this
class. Only loss, school paperwork, and fortunately I'd just extracted
the homework I'd check later in the afternoon, to be returned
tomorrow. May replace replaced the busted window
myself. .. ironic how just a week ago 'twas almost I doing the breaking,
when I locked my keys inside it at the DIY car wash and spent almost an
hour first scouting about for and then manipulating a wire coat hanger
inside to unlock the Tercel.
Earlier today for the first time saw fresh
mangosteen in a US
supermarket, the
Ranch 99 in
Cupertino Village. Almost bought but $7 a pound and you could
only purchase two-pound net bags, so it was an impulse not-buy. Later
in my local produce market, the Sunnymount, I heard the couple in front
of me buying a few tangelos at $14 a pound -- that must be a mistake?
They thought so but payed anyway.
|
| September 13, 2009 |
It's raining this evening in Silicon Valley, a rarity -- the
winter rains usually don't begin until late autumn.
Dental distress, my fifth root-canal/crown treatment just completed,
this one the most expensive as my insurance is essentially
covering nothing, and it's my first ceramic crown. Age 40 was when
this advanced stuff began, and that was a lower molar; but in a
disturbing trend all of those since have been uppers. I still
retain two of my wisdom teeth but the two extracted were uppers, as
well.
On the other hand, the old Tercel's running and looking great. Finally
replaced the tailight assembly, busted for years and patched with tape
and cement; along with the missing trim (which fell off one night on
the freeway several months ago, oops) now painted almost to match in
metal-flake Rustoleum blue.
|
| September 6, 2009 |
|
Tomorrow, the last day of freedom in a great summer. Tuesday, the new
school year begins, with a different, challenging schedule.
|
| September 1, 2009 |
So the new laptop's finally running the software I got it for, 'The
Complete New Yorker, that eight-DVD package which includes
every page of every issue (up until '06). Fascinating.
- The big news from Japan is the election, and like the Spanish Civil
War, confusing due to the party labels, but happy and fun in a Yes We Can!
way because they finally threw the conservative bums out.
- And I've just learned of their expression
KY
which is a hard to explain -- oblivious, maybe?
|
| August 31, 2009 |
- Via Kochalka we learn of McDonalds-Japan's new spokes-gaijin
Mr James, a mocking stereotype of the doofus-Westerner created
to market some new sandwich-combos, which is the only thing I can
understand, at the end of
the commercial.
More details available in a
Japan Probe article,
as well as
this
MetaFilter thread unnoticed a week ago.
-
How serious are these sites? Amusing, anyway --
Stuff White People Like
and
Stuff
Christian Culture Likes. "Asian Girls" and "Japan" in the
former are so accurate it's scary, or embarrassing; and "Bare Feet"
in the latter is amusing: they're just
keepin' it real.
|
| August 28, 2009 |
Yesterday, had my credential meeting, and passed (hooray!);
today, ninth and next-to-last cargo transfer between
storage unit and new apt... this was the one with the big
stuff (mattress, etc) strapped to the roof of the mighty
Tercel, a maneuver I've performed many times. Everything
going very smoothly.
School's doing something we should've seen in California
a long time ago -- they're building solar farms over the
parking lots -- more shade, more power, a good deal around.
|
| August 24, 2009 |
Been so busy with the new apartment. Mostly pleasant except next door
neighbor who plays loud video games. About half a kilometer north of
my previous location (below), everything's new, clean and working,
but smaller and cheaper, and even though I'm closer to the big road,
not so much external noise.
|
| August 20, 2009 |
Seeking an apartment, again. Should be easier than last year, better
selection anyway, since "For Rent" signs are all over the place. School
for me starts the day after Labor Day, and because of budget constraints
this year's going to be a little unpleasant -- morning classes and evening
classes, only four days a week. Maybe an afternoon class once a week, none
of them levels I've taught before. And if not enough students show up, the
course will be cancelled.
- In Mother Jones,
Spin the
Bottle is about Fiji water -- like many attractive and
expensive products, it's evil.
|
| August 16, 2009 |
|
Last day in the DC area -- tomorrow, back to Silicon Valley.
|
| August 10, 2009 |
Returned at last from ten days on the road, 1215 miles, stops in Falls
Church, Front Royal, Charlottesville, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Kitty Hawk.
Portrait by Scott in Charlotte. Contemplating how well we have it, Kings
of the Road, in comparison to all those who came before, by foot and
pack animal, whilst I whiz by in air-conditioned-comfort, motoring along
at slightly illegal velocities in my Dad's cruise-controlled Ford Explorer.
|
| August 5, 2009 |
|
Writing from Charlotte, North Carolina, the "Queen
City" (one of 23 American cities with this nickname).
Thanks to my hosts Scott and Margaret for such wonderful
hospitality!
|
| July 26, 2009 |
|
Been inside the Beltway for almost a month now, some details: staying with
my parents, in the same upstairs where I lived during the 1960s while in
elementary & JrHigh school... so a little nostalgic, even though
the room's devoid of all furnishings from that era. Riding my dad's great
bike around the old neighborhood, at night a special treat with fireflies,
and balmy night air. Sometimes, I ride over to my brother's house,
Wunderland.
Every day I clean out a different small part of the basement, every
evening an early meal with my parents at a different restaurant, although
some places, they go almost every week. Brief road trips within Maryland
in my dad's blue Type 1 VW; later this week, I'll set out on the bigger
journey down South into Virginia and North Carolina, using the much newer
Ford. A few little jaunts downtown on the Metro, naturally, once to see
the 1934 show at
the American Art Museum
(more)
and after I get back, the Alan Bean paintings at the Air&Space
described below.
|
| July 20 - Moon Day |
|
In editorial pages of great newspapers,
Time
to Boldly Go Once More, Buzz Aldrin's proclamation.
Interview
with Alan Bean - Quit talkin' to me, Buzz. I don't
wanna think about it. I don't know anything about it. I don't wanna think about
ways to go to Mars -- I'm not an astronaut anymore. Mr. Bean was on
the second mission, fourth man on the moon; but walked away from all that and now
he's an artist with a
big
show at the NASM where 43 of
his 170 paintings are
on display. More lunar:
|
| July 9, 2009 |
- A headline yesterday prompted
my
first attempt at a MetaFilter FPP (or Front Page Post) but it was
rejected for some arbitrary reason! I'm active in their green community
(Ask Metafilter) but don't spend
much time in the original MetaFilter blue. Anyway, I thought it
was interesting -- you hear the expression Death By Chocolate but how often
does it actually happen?
- Holocaust: The Ignored
Reality by Timothy Snyder in the New York Review of Books.
- In Slate, The
Wink That Changed the World by Michael Meyer.
The coming months will see a crescendo of anniversary commemorations of communism's
end, culminating with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. For many, Americans
especially, it was a glorious moment, emblematic of the West's victory in the Cold War.
It seemed to come out of the blue. But if you watched the Eastern bloc's disintegration
from the ground, as I did over the course of that epic year, you know that the process
was far longer and more complex than most people realize.
|
| July 7, 2009 |
- Some find 'em creepy but I like the
Evian roller
babies!
- The BBC reports --
ant
mega-colony takes over the world. I have shared my living space with members
of the "Californian Large" previously and know these Argentine ants well -- was in
fact discussing them here in Maryland with a nearby stranger at the fireworks on
July 4th, recommending the best weapon I've found: Windex. On the radio
recently, an entomological scholar confirmed what I've heard before, that the
weight of the world's total ant population exceeds all of us
humans. (Note that's all ants, not just
the little
Argentines.)
- Steve Sailor: Michael
Jackson vs Fred Astaire -- the latter's talents were
roughly similar to the former's: great
dancer, pretty good singer. After being exposed to
Captain Eo I
always wondered why Jacko was considered suitable family entertainment,
but Fred's always great and I love Clean Gene too ('specially in
The
Young Girls of Rochefort) so was surprised at his character revealed
in this bit of "Singing
in the Rain" trivia: Gene Kelly insulted Debbie
Reynolds for not being able to dance. Fred Astaire, who was hanging around
the studio, found her crying under a piano and helped her with her dancing.
|
| June 25, 2009 |
"People are already texting about it, remembering his greatest
moments," said 17-year-old Delmar Dualeh.
Kathleen Magnaye of New York was at Los Angeles' Venice Beach when she
received a frantic call from her boyfriend. She raced to Jackson's house
with her 14-year-old sister to take photos.
from AP news,
Hundreds
of Jackson fans converge on hospital |
| June 24, 2009 |
|
Winding down at my Sunnyvale apartment, moving everything into the
storage unit again, just like last summer -- although the plan is to
hang around my parents' house, for July and most of August I'll have
no fixed address. I'll miss this apartment, although it has some serious
flaws. Getting a new one upon my return shouldn't be difficult, unlike
a year ago there's For Rent signs all over the place, meaning a lower
rent should be part of the deal, as well.
Location
Independent has information for those who'd adapt a nomadic
lifestyle, useful even for part-timers like myself.
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