winchou

Pacific Grove

2011-06-05T11:36:00.000-07:00

We were able to spend a marvelous week on the Monterey Peninsula, in the town of Pacific Grove. This was our first visit to the area, and we enjoyed the wondrous views, the wildlife, and the calming pace. With the ice plants in bloom and the fleet squid fishing near the shore, we benefited from an active, glowing coast. After arriving, we walked back along the shore, through rows of Victorian bungalows, to the downtown area along Lighthouse Avenue; galleries, shops, and restaurants line this "main street", made wide by the parking strip in the median. But the traffic and the crowds were light, and the walking easy. We spent the afternoon exploring the shore, walking the path by the sea wall along Ocean View Boulevard.

There's a small beach area tucked behind a rocky jetty called Lover's Point. Walking westward, the path opens to large patches of ice plants, thick with small pink blossoms that edge the rough coast. Cormorants fly in formation over the kelp beds, past the fishing boats waiting for nightfall, when lights are used to attract squid.

The next morning, we walked further west toward the light house. It got really windy in this stretch, and that slowed us down a bit; all the better to take in the scenery. Along the path, we pass two large, roundish rocks with a thin gap between them - known as the kissing rocks. Past these rocks, the chop was heavier and the spray more prevalent. As we got closer to the lighthouse, we ran into a large crowd of school children, who had apparently bused in for a end of school outing. Well, we were ready to turn around anyway.

After lunch we drove down to Point Lobos, a State Nature Reserve just south of Carmel - the most beautiful coast I think I've ever seen: bright and dark rock formations covered with succulents and grasses, the shadowy kelp and the splashes of seafoam. And there was, of course a soundtrack, too: the kick of the spray, the droning barks of the sea lions, and the constant rush of air over the outcrops and in the little inlets and caves.

Famed for its sea lion population as well as its harbor seals - we saw plenty of both. It was our first chance to really test the telephoto lens; boy I was not sure any of our pics would come out, it was so windy and my eyes are so old. But the monopod did its job and the zoom lens compensated for my own marginal optics. We were happily surprised when we got home and downloaded the images, as nearly every picture we took was a winner.

From Sea Lion Cove, we drove across the Reserve and found a small group of harbor seals "pupping". Whaler's Cove is a large, sheltered semi-circle with shallow, sandy beaches where the seals could easily slide on shore; when we got there there was a stray pup yipping away in a kelp bed about a dozen feet from shore. The barking went on for quite some time; the ranger commented that the pups were about a month old and that he had never seen a pup left alone for such a long stretch. Regardless, the adults were happy to stay put on the beach, but no more than 100 feet away. It was quite a treat to have this group of seals so close and all to ourselves.

The next day the forecast called for rain, so we made a day of it indoors at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. My goodness, what a place! The big tanks were astonishing, and the smaller displays were all impressive, too. The attractions were mesmerizing; we must have spent twenty minutes just watching the otters. We wanted to see the giant octopi, but they had crammed themselves into the corners of their tanks. One lady, claiming to have "finally" found herself alone at the Aquarium, parked herself by the larger octopus and refused to move. At one point the octopus decided to rush to the other side of the tank - a gasp flashed through the crowd, and then he was hidden again. And the octopus lady had followed her friend to the other side, too.

With our Membership passes, we were able to take a "behind the scenes tour" with only one other guest and a small group of new Aquarium staff. Tara, an Aquarium biologist (?), acted as our guide and showed us, quite literally, the internal plumbing: wet suits and gear, fish food, solitary for cephalopods (the trick is to surround them with astroturf), a medical bay and nursery for otters, and the top of the big tank with a craneway for the large fish.

We finished our day with the sea horses. What a way to wind down: just enjoy the zen of being with the Syngnathiformes (Tara challenged us to use that word in a sentence). The experience was hypnotic in the best possible way; in contrast to the action of the penguins and the murres, the otters, and the divers in the big tank, this was calming. Plus, you had to get right in to see anything, and once you saw the animals, it was hard to pull yourself away. The flow was slow. And that was fine. We were especially taken, as were so many others, with the leafy sea dragons; hard to believe those things were alive. They were exotic and gorgeous.

Restaurants reviews: PassionFish in Pacific Grove gets three stars. Yummy. Also, the sit-down restaurant in the Aquarium was terrific (there are field glasses on the tables so you can spy on the shore scenes out the windows).

Oh - and the Red Sox won four in a row while we were away; we listened to the games when we could. Back in first place and me on vacation; the world is good again. Our thanks to Shelby and Erich.

[Click here for the whole slide show.]

Road Win

2011-04-20T19:11:00.000-07:00

The Red Sox came to town last night and lost ugly: they argued calls, ran into outs, wasted a great effort by Lackey (6-4-1-1-3, 93), and managed only four hits vs Oakland's Brett Anderson who was on his game (8-4-0-1-8, 109). The Red Sox had not won a road game all year, and I did not expect to go see them, but for an e-mail form donna. Somehow she scored free tickets by posing for a picture with Stomper, the As elephant mascot.

So I took a day off and invited my neighbor David (an As fan) to join me. We got a matchup of two young guns: Gio Gonzalez and Clay Buchholz. Gio made quick work of the Sox int he top of the first (striking out JD Drew and Adrian Gonzalez). Buchholz's first pitch to Coco Crisp went over the wall at the 367 mark in right. It looked like it would be a long day.

But the 4-5-6-7 batters for the Sox put together a couple of great innings. Youk (4), Scutaro (6), and Crawford (7) all singled in the second, and the game was tied. Then Youk hit a solo shot over the left field wall in the fourth, and the Sox were up 2-1. In the sixth, after A-Gon singled, Youk struck out, and the skies opened up. Jed Lowrie (5) hit a long home run into the rain. He now leads the Sox with 11 RBIs; he's been amazing.

In the bottom of the sixth, Buchholz started to run out of steam. Ryan Sweeney doubled, then Landon Powell and Conor Jackson both walked. Bases loaded with one out. Bard came in and shut the door: he struck out Pennington, and got Coco to pop out to short.

In the seventh, JD Drew added a homer of his own, just over the glove of DeJesus in right. Bobby Jenks came in to pitch for the Sox in the eighth, and did not look sharp. He gave up a run on a walk and three singles before Papelbon closed the frame by striking out DeJesus.

The As added another in the ninth off Bot, but that was it. The As left 15 on base. A frustrating day for my friend David, but also an anxious day for me as I had to endure all those base-runners. Plus, Ellsbury struck out. Three times. All looking. How does that happen? Anyway, the Red Sox got their first road win and split the two-game set.

On How Technology Encourages Wandering and Helped Me Find "Smitten"

2011-04-08T16:48:00.000-07:00

I was watching "The Civil War" on PBS last night cause - well, cause it's really great TV (and it's a sesquicentennial). As is my habit, I researched some relevant war factoids on my iPad as I watched, and found myself clicking into the PBS app to get a preview of the next episode. My eye caught a glimpse of a sculpture by Viola Frey in a thumbnail for another show. Posing in from of the sculpture was Rene di Rosa; the preview was for a documentary about art collecting called "Smitten".

During the episode break, I checked out the preview. What a character! The preview follows an older fellow in a green trucker cap and a spectacularly loud dinner jacket wending through a gallery opening crowd - completely out of place among the dark suits, the hors d'oeuvres, and the high heeled set. But when he starts talking about art, and his drive to collect new art, you know this guy very serious and very real.

Of course, the Museum has a large Viola Frey, a seated, female nude, at our entrance - she watches you as you buy your tickets. The other piece that I glimpsed, while watching another clip that I tracked down on YouTube, from KQED's "Quest", was the cuckoo clocks by Paul Kos, which we also have here in the Museum (look for the hammer and sickles at about the 9:17 mark). diRosa's vision, like our own vision here at the Museum, is to give voice to those artist who are really pushing the definition of art, and investigating how those "pushes" give narrative to our Californian community.

It's very easy for the staff at the Museum to take the Frey nude for granted, we walk by this material everyday as we work, but it is an amazing assemblage of contrasts - simultaneously garish and serene. Once you start thinking on it, it's kind of hard to stop. Similarly, the new Michael McMillen show, "Train of Thought", elevates the seemingly low experience of sitting in a tin shack on a rainy night, and makes you wonder at our way of making the world. You got to try it to know what I mean. The staff is particularly curious about the eponymous piece which involves several hundred pounds of dry, alphabet pasta. The McMillen show open in two weeks, but most of it is visible and working now.

The moral of the story is that like good TV, stimulating art takes work to search out and find. You got to keep wandering.

According to KQED's web site, Smitten will air Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 7:30pm, and repeat on Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 1:30am. Here are a couple of choice quotes to whet your appetite:

"It occurred to me that all of the art should be shown, and it should be shown to more than just weekend party people. It should be shown to a larger population."

"Artists are wildflowers. They enhance our landscapes and sometimes free us of them."

"To hell with wall labels."

Here's a little clip from the show.
Here are some more background vids.

New Shoes

2010-11-29T19:01:00.001-08:00

The old wheels on the TT, SSR Comps, cracked - that's what I get for buying the lightest wheels I could find. Plus they're no longer made. Dang. So time for new shoes: Enkei RPF1 18x8. They're about two pounds heavier (18 pounds vs 16 pounds), but I wanted to keep the graphic, 6-spoke appearance. The center caps are late, and better pics will be posted after the weather warms up and I can wash the car.

Expensive Baseball, Also Good Baseball

2010-06-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

The Big Chou Family Reunion was last weekend, and we splurged a bit and got a luxury box for the Red Sox at the Giants. This, after reporting on my adventures trying to find "cheap baseball". The big advantage to having a private suite (there are many) is, not only the privacy and the easy accommodation of older and younger family members, but the ability to actually gather and talk which a row of seats simply does not afford. To be honest, the seats, view-wise, were only mediocre, but the service and the company were first class for sure.

It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, and AT&T Park was jammed for the big pitching duel: Lester vs. Lincecum. Like our family, the crowd seemed to be split about 50-50 between the Red Sox and Giants. The Suites staff provided us with souvenir hats that included both team logos - a nice touch.

Lincecum seemed to start well, getting a fly out from Scutaro, and a strike-out of young Daniel Nava. Then Big Papi sent a hanger into the Cove. I saw the swing on the TV as I was getting my parents settled, and it stayed in the air long enough for me to run to the seats and join in the cheering. I did not actually see the ball as it left the Park, I mostly saw the right-field crowd watch as the ball sailed over their heads, but I guess I can say I witnessed my first "splash hit".

It's a bit disconcerting to see a whole section of the crowd turn and watch the action outside the ballpark. There was a big splash-fight between the a guy on an inflatable dragon and a guy in a blue kayak. Stranger still that the whole crowd seemed to react to the replay of the paddle-race for the home run ball, shown on TV minutes later, during the next at-bat. The loud cheers coming at this random time must to have thrown off Youk, who struck out swinging.

Not trying to make excuses, I'm just saying: tell me that's not distracting.

In the bottom of the first, the Giants got a dribbler, infield hit from Andres Torres. He quickly stole second and then third, and scored on a fielder's choice. There are two ways to score runs, and they both count the same - game tied.

In the second it became clear that Lincecum did not have his good stuff. V-Mart walked, Bill Hall doubled. The Giants then intentionally walked Darnell McDonald to load the bases and get to Lester. Lester then put up a pretty good at bat, working the count to 3-1 til he got one he could drive - about 400 feet to the triples alley in right center. Sac fly, and Red Sox were back in front 2-1 (turned out to be the game-winning RBI). A Scutaro single added another run in that frame.

Red Sox fans cheer!

In the bottom of the second, Martinez took a foul ball off his foot, and hopped around the infield for quite a while in obvious discomfort. Collectively wincing, I think everyone could feel his pain. He later came out of the game; another Red Sox June injury - but it turned out he had a broken thumb, and as it swelled, he could not get his hand back into his mitt. I hope he's a faster healer; he sure is a gamer.

The Sox tallied another in the third on a single by Youkilis, walk by Drew, and a single by Hall. Lincecum came out of the game after that: 3 IPs, 5 Hs, 4 ERs, 3 BBs and 4 Ks - not a stellar outing.

Two other highlights: in the sixth, Lester worked a walk, fouling off pitches like he was a real hitter. In the ninth, Beltre tagged a solo shot to left. Lester went the distance for a 5-1 win. He was awesome: 9-5-1-1-9, 103 total pitches.

Giants fans have their say.

Boy did we have a great time. Good food, and a good Red Sox win. Apologies to the Giants fans in the family and sorry that the rally caps did not work - but they made for great photo album fodder. And the kids got to run the bases after the game. The luxury box cost several pretty pennies (damn dynamic pricing!), but it was worth it.

Cheap Baseball, Good Baseball

2010-05-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

We went to the Oakland Coliseum with the promise of a two-dollar ticket. This, for a transplanted Red Sox fan (used to paying $20 for a bleacher seat), sounded implausible in the extreme. But it was Tigers at A's. Justin Verlander versus Dallas Braden in first home game since his perfect game a week and a half ago. How can you pass that up?

When I moved to Berkeley from Boston, my brother Tony gave me an Oakland A's cap, and I wore it for the first time last night. It felt very strange to have folks walk by me, glance at my cap, and imagine they thought I was an A's fan; some strange anxiety moved through me as if they could tell I was a fraud. And if someone struck up a conversation and started some chatter about Rollie Fingers or the Bash Brothers, I knew I'd be found out.

So I went with my friend Rex, a Tigers fan from childhood. When we got there at about 6:20 (for a 7:05 start), we found out that the two-dollar tickets had sold out. Dang. So we asked for the next best, but cheap deal. This is what we got: $12 for a seat in the way upper deck, but with a $6 food credit and a free t-shirt - still ridiculously cheap. And we had a great time.

First, the free shirt commemorated Braden's Mothers' Day perfecto, and is pretty sharp. Next, two dogs and a water (at Fenway might have been about $10) were included in my ticket with change left over. Then the seats themselves, in the vertigo section behind home plate, gave us a good, if fairly distant view of the game. Still, the Coliseum was fairly empty, and despite the misty weather, I was disappointed that more folks had not turned out.

We got the pitchers' duel that was expected. Braden threw very well, but Verlander was awesome - with a one-hitter into the 5th, he had faced the minimum to that point because of some double-play defense behind him. The game was scoreless into the 7th, when, in the top of the frame, Brandon Inge lead off. The scoreboard flashed that today, May 19th, was his birthday, and Rex began serenading him with "happy birthdays". He immediately hit a rope over the left field wall. The next batter was the catcher, Gerald Laird, who hit a bunt down the first baseline which Braden could not field.

The A's held a team meeting on the mound. We could not figure out what was happening. I suggested that Braden had to be injured, or they would not be permitted to meet like that - but the bunt did not seem to cause him any obvious strain. Later we found out he had "flu-like symptoms". In came the A's relief corps, and the Tigers jumped, plating three more runs to give Verlander a 4-0 cushion. The Tigers would add an insurance run in the top of the 8th, and the A's would prevent the shut-out in the bottom with a run.

Verlander (9-4-1-1-5, 116 / 80 strikes) was throwing 97-98 all night, faced 30-A's, and got the complete game win. His final pitch was 96-mph heater that Ryan Sweeney cut on and missed. The Red Sox beat the Twins, so the Tigers pulled within a game of first.

Not bad for $12.

iPad - Day 2 (Easter Sunday)

2010-04-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

Got this image from Gizmodo.

Day 2 and I'm still high on iPad. Been reading with the iTunes running, checking e-mail between chapters, and doing look-ups in Wikipanion as I go. The reading experience is great. Ojectively, the iPad is about the same weight as a large hard cover (heavier than Summer of '49, but much lighter than The Essential Piaget); very comfortable to hold and read.

Am reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, so every time he mentions some obscure aspect of Vatican lore, I can look it up. I can also check the maps to see where the characters are. This is fun. The other thing that makes the iPad way better than an iPod is the speed; it feels like I'm using a computer, not a smartphone.

One thing I did find - I cannot get my Comcast Digital Voicemail in the Safari browser. It requests that I download the QuickTime plugin. D-oh.

Spent the evening listening to the ball game on the MLB app. The videos did not work until I did a hard reset, but otherwise, it was great to hear the game and track the at-bats. Red Sox beat the Yankess 9-7. A great weekend.

iPad - Day One

2010-04-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

more pictures (link)

It's Saturday, April 3rd. I've been tracking my packages all week. I've been reading the news and the blogs to figure out just exactly what is going on iPad-wise. Walt Mossberg and David Carr were on Charlie Rose last might chatting about iPad. It's really just too much - and I can't get enough:

Location Date Local Time DescriptionWhat's This?
SAN PABLO, CA, US 04/03/2010 8:22 A.M. DESTINATION SCAN
OAKLAND, CA, US 04/03/2010 6:43 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
LOUISVILLE, KY, US 04/03/2010 4:55 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
04/03/2010 12:28 A.M. IMPORT SCAN
GUANGZHOU, CN 04/02/2010 4:10 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
GUANGZHOU, CN 03/31/2010 3:02 P.M. ORIGIN SCAN
03/31/2010 3:00 P.M. ORIGIN SCAN
SHENZHEN, CN 03/30/2010 3:52 A.M. ORIGIN SCAN
CN 04/02/2010 11:12 P.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

It's so close now.

It's Good Friday. Final Four weekend. Major League Baseball opens this weekend, too (go Red Sox). US new jobs numbers turned positive with new reports released yesterday. The Large Hadron Collider is smashing atomic particles with forces of 7 TeV. And I'm waiting for a big brown van. This from CNN: "I don't know what it is -- I just think it's going to be something that's really cool," said Mark Bowling outside an Apple store at Lenox Square mall in Atlanta, Georgia. "I can't figure out how to use it if I don't have one."

Of course, I realize this is a manufactured national event - but it is fun to be part of it. And there's still a part of me that still finds it amazing: that Apple can repeatedly re-create a Christmas-like shop-and-wait experience. There are a lot of wicked fun products out there, but no one can package a product launch as a "happening" like Apple.

Dang. Where's that van?

Almost lunch time. Still no iPad. What does "DESTINATION SCAN" mean anyway?

Destination Scan
The shipment has arrived at the local UPS facility responsible for final delivery.

Oh. Why did the package go from Oakland to San Pablo - it went right past me!

Ate a sandwich; had some tea. No change for my packages at UPS. Reading reviews and blogs, and came across this image on SFGate:
If you ever had any doubt that the touch interface was completely intuitive - well? The kid is just poking at the box, and the iPad is upside down, but the kid knows what to do.

Arrival - it's here (1:40pm). The UPS lady asked me if I was sure I wanted my boxes - I said she must be having quite a day. She looked pretty tired. It's just taking a long time to sync. A few of my iPhone apps got updated to with iPad versions, and I'm loading those along with a few movies, TV shows, music, and photos. It's taking a while.

Trying to sync about 25GB of stuff - it's taken about two hours now, and it's still not done. I fired up my other iPad and did not sync anything - so I got to try out the iBookstore and Maps, etc. Wow, the selection in the iBookstore is very thin. I had a few books I thought I might try at launch to test the reading; was especially disappointed not to see the new Michael Lewis book. But I'll get something to try (aside from the free Winnie the Pooh book). Maybe I'll download the Kindle app and see if the situation is any better in Amazon-land.

The last book I read on a computer screen was Jurassic Park on a PowerBook 170 (grey screen). It came on a floppy. Despite the fancy "active matrix" technology, I hated reading on that screen.

Okay, I've made the switch to the iPad, typing on it now. Trying very hard to type as fast as I can and this seems to work very well. Got the iPod going , but when it downloaded a few of the free news apps, the audio feed does not play in the background - no multi-tasking. I'm sitting by the window, on the couch in my office, and the screen looks great. I've got that new product high going.

Read another's experience waiting for an iPad.

Chez Aenoch

2010-01-31T22:33:00.000-08:00

Gad - I've really neglected my poor little blog. Sorry for the long delay in posting. I've been busy, but not that busy, which means I've been lazy. But our good friends Fred and Julie came by and we had a nice "almost birthday" dinner for Fred (happy almost birthday!). Julie has just started a blog (which I've linked here and below), and I thought I ought to get back to doing my own.

It's been quite the gastronomical weekend, including tonight's meal: vegetable fritatta, chicken sausage, and home made corn bread - and chocolate mousse cake. The weekend started with a very fun brunch yesterday at Rick and Ann's with our good friend Gary, who came across the Bay to see our new house.

But the weekend's true highlight was yesterday's dinner, with guest chef Aenoch. It was quite the production, making full use of our ovens, the six-burner cooktop, and all our counter space. Here are some action shots:

Pan roasted chicken with a mushroom and shallot reduction:

Potato and celery root mash (which required the use of our food mill - I did not know we had one):

And roasted cauliflower, and a green salad with beets and toasted pecans:

Bon appetit.

Remembering Ted Kennedy

2009-08-29T17:42:00.000-07:00

Ted Kennedy, first pitch, Fenway Park, April 7, 2009 - Mike Ivins photo

Senator Ted Kennedy was buried today. At his grave-side in Arlington, the priest gave his condolences to the Senator's immediate family, and to the Senator's extended family, which he added, included the entire nation. Growing up in the 60s, as one of three brothers, the Kennedy's were constantly being held up as a model for us. And although my parents supported Eugene McCarthy in the 1968 primary, I recall Robert Kennedy's death as one of my strongest early memories, so powerful was the emotion and the loss. I don't think of my parents as emotional people, but they were shaken that day, and I felt it. In my senior year in high school, Ted Kennedy ran for the Presidency, and I canvassed for him. Going door to door, talking to folks in suburban New Hampshire was an experience I'll never forget; for me, it made concrete the idea of a democracy. Having spent most of my adult life in Massachusetts, he was my Senator for more than two decades - and I wrote him several times to say one nutty thing or another. Though I thought of him as a personal hero, I certainly felt like part of that extended family today. Thank you, Ted.

Moving. Again.

2009-06-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

Donna and I are moving on July 15th. Here is our happy new place (click to see the postcard):
The color is a little strange, but the space is really cool. We lucked out with the timing and the market and, it's unusual to have this smallish house listing in this area. We can stay in the neighborhood, which we love, and I can still walk to work. The new commute involves about 150 stairs, and it's a twelve minute walk instead of three, but the view is awesome. And no more Tunnel Road traffic.

We have a lot of work to do, and the TT will have to live under a cover for a while, but it feels good to own property again.

[ download a Google Earth model here ]
Note: if your web browser adds a ".zip" extension to this ".kmz" file, just remove the extension and it'll open in Google Earth

Red Sox at As 2009 Game 3

2009-04-15T17:11:00.001-07:00

Tim Wakefield was fantastic, nearly perfect in fact - a no hitter thru 7 1/3rd. Boy did he provide a big lift to a team in desperate need of one. Home runs by Lowell and Drew provided the spark. Red Sox win 8-2 on Wake's complete game 4-hitter.

A sunny and warm day in Oakland and a great crowd helped make up for last night's debacle. Jackie Robinson Day; alll the players wore 42. Life is good again.

Red Sox at As 2009 Game 2

2009-04-15T07:38:00.001-07:00

It was windy and cold. Really windy and cold. On the plus side, I finally found a hot dog vendor in the stands, and the Red Sox scored three in the top of the first. But Dice-K was not good and gave it all back plus two in the bottom. At least last night, Lester made the As work for two innings before giving up five.

But Masterson came in and pitched really well. The Sox rallied to tie it in the fifth with timely hitting (finally!).

The rest of the night was an exercise in self-torture. First cause it was really windy and cold (did I mention?). And second cause I did not want to leave a tie game. But the wind and fears of a lingering illness forced my hand. They lost in 12, 6-5. We were at home recovering.

Change of subject: listening.

At the Coliseum BART station, we met a young man who is a first-year high school teacher. An As fan, but a nice guy; we got to talking. We watched as the announcers tried to get the passengers to step back from a train so it could move forward and open its doors. There was a lot of leaning, and heads turning, but no one stepped off the yellow safety line. Two, three announcements; no one listened. The train did not move. Finally after about five minutes of announcer stale-mate, the doors opened, and the fans could step into the heated cars.

The high school teacher and I recognized it: just like getting kids to listen in class. It seems that things don't change much when they get older.

Some things just make you scratch your head. Not much good to take from the night.

Red Sox at As 2009 Game 1

2009-04-13T23:03:00.000-07:00

Standing in the Rockridge BART station, I must have seen two dozen Red Sox fans before I saw one As fan. I ran into a former student, Patrick, who was wearing a Yankees cap. Obviously he was not rooting "for" but "against". We smiled, greeted each other and wished each other luck. We could not have been less sincere.

Lester vs Braden, two good lefties - but Lester did not hit his spots tonight, and Braden mixed and moved his pitches really well. Youk homered in the top of the second, but the As had five runs on the board before Lester could get five outs. Lester actually struck out the side in the second, but obviously, not a good thing. My first chance to see Nick Green, who started at short; did not make a positive or negative impression - but at least held his own. My first chance to see Saito as a Red Sox, too, and he did not perform too well as Holiday tripled off him to right to close the scoring at 8-2.

There were two "diving plays" by Sox OFs - one by Bay that resulted in Giambi's double, and one by Drew that was Holiday's triple. Both seemed like they should be catchable. Maybe it was the angle from behind the plate (I had really good seats), but it sure seemed like they did not track the balls well.

The As mascot "Stomper" hung out behind us for qute a few innings; was a little annoying to have that thing hovering behind me.

The Red Sox are 2-5; last place. And I do not like the new road uni's, either; they need more red.

Quiltmakers of Gee's Bend

2009-01-16T11:40:00.000-08:00

[Louisianna Pettway Bendolph, China Pettway, Mary Lee Bendolph, and Matt Arnett on the stage in Meadows]

Yesterday was Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday - he would have been eighty. In school, we had the pleasure of welcoming a group from the Gee's Bend Quilters Collective. They were joined by Matt Arnett, one of the art historians responsible for bringing the work of the Quilters to light. I mentioned in my previous posts about my trip to Japan that the US does not nurture, or keep "alive" a lot of it's old traditional crafts and practices; no tea cups, no seasonal festivals, no samurai pride. The visit by the Quilters made me reexamine that meme. Seeing the Gee's Bend quilts, hearing the stories and songs - well, we do have these amazing traditions and artisans, but we really have a very hard time valuing and sharing them - and I mean "valuing" in every sense of the word. I wonder how these things need to be presented and packaged before we see the meaning and the worth.

In my video class, the kids are documenting the events of that day. To set them in the right frame of mind, we watched a documentary movie about the Quilters. We heard one woman describe how her grandmother came in on a slave ship and was separated from her family. We heard another tell how her father had to change his name from "Irving" to "Pettway". And we realized the women are only one or two generations removed from being considered like livestock; they have truly experienced our nation at its very worst.

They joined Dr. King in the struggle for voting rights; the ferry service from Gee's Bend was closed to prevent their traveling to the county seat in Camden to register. So they arranged to drive around the "Bend" (they told us there were only four cars in town!), only to be greeted by tear gas. They participated in the Freedom Quilting Bee, an experiment in economic development, which received some of its original funding through the efforts of Dr. King. They earned $10-15 per week, but they could not produce the kind of uniform "product" that could be sold in department stores, so their work was deemed unacceptable. They have thus actively risen from the lowest rungs of our democracy.

Consider: their quilts are made from worn-out clothes, hand-ripped into strips and squares, and given new expression and value through the labor of these amazing artists. The rags are, of course, like the artists themselves: from share-cropping cotton farmers, to artistic marvels with their own museum shows (values up to $25,000 per quilt at auction). These women were subjected to segregation, denied the right to vote, and had their labor rejected by Bloomingdale's. Mary Lee Bendolph was not permitted to return to school when she became pregnant; she did not finish the 6th grade. And yet they have found a way to achieve gender equality, social and racial justice, and economic independence on a scale none of them could have imaged when they were young. It's astonishing.

This lifetime of growth and progress actually took place within the span of a decade or so, and is in large part thanks to Matt Arnett and his father William Arnett, whose efforts on behalf of the women gave them the legitimacy and stature they deserve. William Arnett bought their quilts hoping to preserve a dying art, and instead gave it new life. Still, I am deeply troubled by this part of the story and what it says about those who remain undiscovered and unacknowledged. If the Quilters did not have a tireless, and knowledgeable champion, where would they be? and how could their art have enriched our nation?

And now, as we celebrate Dr. King, and the forthcoming inauguration of the first African-American President, the stories and experiences of these Quilters, and the efforts of the Arnetts are more valuable than ever. I believe it says something about the scope of our superficiality and ignorance that these problems do such human harm and are so difficult to overcome; and that we need such earth-shaking leadership to move our society from that ignorance.

The spirit and the art of these women needs to be celebrated - as does the work of so many other who go unappreciated. Our crafts, our old ways of life, our cultural vernacular: we should take more pride and we should take more care. In fact the cultural isolation of these artists probably preserved their art from the stultifying effects of our commercialized society. The melting pot should not melt these treasures away. That these Quilters came through their struggles to live a new life, and emerged joyful and generous - that should lift us all.

Homecoming - Thanksgiving in Japan (Part 4)

2008-12-15T21:39:00.001-08:00

[read Part 1] - [read Part 2] - [read Part 3] - [see more pictures]

We started our long get-away on Black Friday. The moment you turn around and start moving in the other direction is when any trip starts feeling too short - and this one felt really short. We were flying out of Narita Saturday afternoon, so Friday was almost all trains. To really get to know Japan, you have to move by train: the markings on the platforms, the Kiosk stands, the butt rooms, and the tachigui (stand and eat) soba shops. The Japanese spend so much time at train stations that they've put their shopping, smoking, and eating right there; and they've marked out the spaces so they know what areas belong to whom, at least for the next fifteen minutes. And on this day, we waited with them.

Our hotel that night was near the Ginza, so we took the Shinkansen back to Tokyo Station. There we met Uncle Keisuke, my father's older brother, and they talked some family business. I am not exactly clear on all the family business, but my father's mood seemed different after that meeting. In Kumamoto, he was very upbeat and easy; after he seemed more circumspect. We had some coffee and tea, and said our good byes, and stepped into the Tokyo lights to find dinner.

Saturday broke cool and sunny. Donna and I got up early to gather breakfast and walk around the Tsukiji area. Donna first wanted to stop at the Buddhist shrine near the Tsukiji station. As we wandered, we came upon a few old houses mixed with the office buildings and shops. These were old, copper-clad structures with a heavy patina; outside the house, were live chickens in tidy pens sitting right on the street. The shrine itself had a striking "Indian" versus Japanese (or even Asian) feel, and it piqued our curiosity. Inside the smell of the incense was sharp and strong.

Tsukiji is the famous raw fish market, and though Donna is not a fan of sushi, the markets just behind the trading hall were a fascinating collage of the strangest food textures, colors, and scents. Cuttlefish, flattened and dried were sold in little bundles. Small crabs were tied in into fist-sized packs with colorful twine. Bright, tangerine-red octopus tentacles were laid out with the sucker-sides up. Others vendors offered grilled yaki-tori, odd-looking root vegetables, and beautifully wrapped fruit.

On the way back we found a curious bakery tucked into what seemed like someone's basement. The smell of sweet-cakes drew us in, and we bought some azuki-bean manju for breakfast.

We spent the rest of the morning walking around the Ginza, shopping. Donna wanted to find a good stationery store, and as we stood outside the Mitsukoshi, waiting for the stores to open, a remarkably friendly and helpful Japanese woman over-heard us and volunteered to walked us to the Ito-Ya shop just down the street. This stretch of the Ginza also included the Ginza Apple Store, Tiffany's, and the Ginza Matsuya. Before heading to Narita, we decided to get our bentos in Mitsukoshi's food basement, where we would have a better, albeit more expensive, selection. Donna was happy to find a salad bar and "real bread".

It was amazing to watch the queues in Mitsukoshi, too - there was some kind of Vermont Teddy Bear event on the main level, and the lines curled around, between, and under the escalators. There was even a queue in the bread shop for folks who wanted their loaves sliced. As I waited for Donna to buy a small baguette, people pushed past me to get in line, until I realize what was going on. They seemed to be in such a hurry to get in that line. And on the way out, with all our shopping bundles, an another decided to make me a lead blocker: she put her hand on my side and pushed me into and through the crowd of teddy-bear fans. As I turned to see who was pushing, I could not have been more surprised to find an old, tiny woman in formal kimono. I guess I was in her way.

It seemed a shame to leave on such a beautiful day, but we made our way back to the hotel. On the way, Donna was stopped by an Australian couple needing English directions to Tsukiji. We pointed them in the right direction, but Donna reminded me that if we were Japanese, we would have walked them down there ourselves. We got to the hotel, gathered our luggage, and called a cab to take us to - the train station. And by now it felt like we were pulling the weight of the trip with us. We were tired of waiting, tired of trains, and just plain tired.

We ate our bento lunches on the Narita Express, and arrived at the airport in short order. Security in Japan was another odd exercise in mistaken practice - shoes do not need to be removed, but apparently, tiny, blunt-tipped, yarn scissors do.

EPILOGUE

I took this trip, of course, to spend time with my folks, and to search with them for a sense of their place, their past, and their home. I realize now that if I had grown up in a place with 400-year old castles, ancient festivals, and ceramists with a fourteen generations-long legacy, I might feel different about the places where I spent my childhood.

I grew up in suburbia, that generic sprawl that's anywhere and nowhere at the same time, but the myths of my boyhood were things like westerns. My father appears to have grown up on the set of his own samurai movie. He looked out on the island where Musashi dueled with Kojiro, he walked in castles and shrines visited by the shoguns and damiyo, and on New Years Day he visited the Imperial Palace and caught a glimpse of the Emperor.

Though I feel closer to the stories, I am still in the audience. More than nostalgia, I think my father's boyhood was grounded by this culture, and the myths were tangible. Japan has found a way to keep that alive; like raising chickens on the streets of Tokyo or saluting a train as it leaves the station, these things continue. I could never go home the way he did, because I don't have a place like that. I'm thankful I got to go home with him.

Homecoming - Thanksgiving in Japan (Part 3)

2008-12-06T20:54:00.000-08:00

[read Part 1] - [read Part 2] - [see more pictures]

Our Thanksgiving Day trip involved more trains; we were headed almost directly south from Fukuoka to the heart of Kyushu and the city of Kumamoto. Kumamoto is a well known "castle town", though the various castle structures were repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt in feudal times. The current reconstruction of the main towers dates to the 1960s, and is considered one of the best castle sites in Japan. In just the last few years, the castle celebrated a 400 year anniversary, and last December, the castle's "Inner Palace" was restored and opened for tours.

We met Mrs. and Dr. Uchino, my father's former research fellow, at the train station, and we found them to be typical Japanese hosts: energetic, warm, and gracious. Lots of bows were exchanged. We were lead into a misty rain, to cars that took us to a large hotel very near the castle. On the second level of the hotel were private dining rooms with great views of the main towers. Here we had a traditional kaiseki meal, a series of small, precious courses, meticulously prepared and presented: samples of raw fish, delicate soups, and a local rice cooked with chestnuts and served with pickles on the side. Certainly one of the most memorable Thanksgiving meals that I will ever have.

After lunch, we took a tour of the castle. We entered the outer walls past a smaller tower; the walls are famously tall, curved, and capped with rooflets to ward off rival warriors. The entry road is a kind of "maze" designed to confuse attackers, and give defenders more time to rain down destruction. No destruction for us, though there was a heavy mist, which we fought off with our colorful umbrellas; through the gatehouse and under the Inner Palace, where spotlights illuminated the heavy timbers, fresh-hewn for the reconstruction and textured like hammered copper.

Turning the corner, and walking up a ramp, we arrived at the main courtyard, where the scale and elevation of the place became apparent. We could look out to the horizon and the peaks of the surrounding buildings, but in the heart of the yard was a giant, old ginko tree. Behind the tree, a crowd of Japanese queued for the ritual storage of umbrellas and shoes. In the US, you'd never get your stuff back, even if you could find it; here, the folks carefully collapsed and stored their rain gear in large racks, and then removed and bagged their shoes before entering the Inner Palace. Guards and attendants very politely corrected my bad American manners when I stashed my shoes on an empty shelf, and did not carry them inside - I retrieved my shoes and they smiled, bowed, smiled again, and allowed me to enter.

All this silent politeness left me wondering: how did these people ever get up the nerve to attack each other. I soon found out inside, as the sparse crowd from the courtyard funneled into the confines of the hallways of the Palace (though we were all in our stocking feet, we were not allowed on the tatami). Every photo-op became a pushing session as digital cameras, on arms out-stretched, shot to every doorway and display case, and the rush of the crowd became a current that carried the tour forward. Here was a method and a madness at work, and if you did not go with the flow, say you wanted to peak out an odd corner window, you had to fight. Yes, we were the invaders, unaware of the unstated social contracts that allowed an army of photo-seekers to inhabit tight, tourist spaces - and I was pushed just about the whole way through the Palace.

Still, it was not nearly as bad as grocery shopping at the Berkeley Bowl.

Putting my shoes on, I made my way to the relative safety and space of the courtyard once again, and we began our descent back to the parking lot, to cars, and back to the trains. These were on the local Kyushu lines, but the trains were very nice. Our return tickets allowed us to sit in a private booth, with facing seats and a very sizable table with folding leaves.

During these train rides, my father told us of his connection to Kyushu and also of the famous samurai swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, who is legend in this area. Musashi spent his mid-life years in Kokura, and his last days in a cave near Kumamoto. Musashi's famous duel with Sasaki Kojiro took place on Genryu Island, in the strait between Kyushu and Honshu - just west of the Kanmon Railway Tunnel.

Thus, our Thanksgiving Day was a thoroughly personal and Japanese affair. Arriving back at Hakata Station, we found a shop free of tobacco smoke and had some curry-rice for dinner.

[read Part 4]

Homecoming - Thanksgiving in Japan (Part 2)

2008-12-05T17:19:00.003-08:00

[read Part 1] - [see more pictures]

The next morning, we hired a car and set out for Karatsu. Our driver, Katsutaro Katafuchi, drove us past the Fukuoka Dome, over the Aratsu Bridge, and into the Kyushu countryside. In about half an hour, we could see the city across Karatsu Bay, framed with a long crescent beach. Soon, we were driving through a thick forest of small pine trees that acts as a barrier to the beach, and we pulled up in front of the Kunchi Museum.

The Kunchi Festival happens in in early November, so we just missed it. The festival involves the dragging of about a dozen different paper-mache Hikiyama "carts" with various characters on them. Now, this is actually much cooler than that sounds - the carts are really big (seven meters tall), really old (some date to the early 1800s), and really heavy (as much as two tons). The Hikiyama are remarkably well-kept and just beautiful.

From what I understand, the festival is used to ward off harsh winters. We sat and watched a short video of the parade, which we used to substitute for watching the Macy's Parade - a Japanese Thanksgiving indeed.

Across the street is a small Shinto shrine, which also plays a part in the Kunchi Festival, but was empty during our visit, save for a small girl and her family. The girl was dressed in a traditional kimono, and seemed to be the center of some ceremony at the shrine.

Katafuchi-san then drove us to the Nakazato Taroeman Kiln. The studio itself is a picture-perfect collection of Japanese structures connected by koi ponds, gardens, and walkways. This is likely the most best-known kiln in the area, the family has been making ceramics for fourteen generations. The commercial pieces in the main showroom here were priced rather high (over a hundred dollars for a small tea cup). But we were directed through the main showroom, over a wooden bridge, and into a more intimate and museum-like showroom with some very high-priced artisan pieces. A tea bowl that I liked very much was over $15,000. I was truly smitten by the artwork, but I just did not have the yen.

Next, we drove into the hills behind Karatsu trying to find the Ryuta-gama Kiln. This kiln was established by the youngest son of the most recent Nakazato patriarch. Luckily, Katafuchi-san had GPS. The hills rose sharply from town, and the narrow valleys were cut with beautifully terraced fields. A rough, grey stone with chiseled letters and a set of large, over-turned pots marked the entrance to the kiln. Just off the driveway was the wood shed, which was stacked with precisely sized and bundled fuel wood.

A steep drive lead down to a series of warehouses and outdoor work areas. There, Taki Nakazato sat shaving down some bamboo pieces with hand tools. All around him were piles of ceramic pieces, in various stages of production, tagged with post-it notes. At one end of the warehouse, pieces of charcoal were carefully laid out on a tatami mat. Hanging along side were shovels and other tools.

We followed a stone-lined water channel further down the hill, and stepped over a small stone bridge and entered the potters' shed. Here we found Sensei Takashi Nakazato sitting at his wheel. He was in the far corner with views out to the fruit trees and the stepped gardens beyond; classical music played through large stereo speakers in the loft space behind us. My parents were speaking to him in Japanese and I could not follow their conversation, but he was shaping the bottoms of some soba noodle cups and had finished a line of about ten pieces.

In a tray at his feet were some cheap-looking kitchen utensils - pie crust wheels and pizza cutters. He explained that he used these to incise the patterns in the surfaces of the soba cups. His English was quite good. From time to time, his assistant would come in and move some things around. Near the door was a drying rack with shaped and glazed pieces that were being prepared for the kiln, and to one side there was a small door to a smaller room where pieces were kept for slow drying.

After talking and picture-taking, we asked about buying, and we were lead to a white building up the hill from the potter's shed. In contrast to the Taroemon, this showroom was open, with large windows on each side with views the fields, the stream, and the persimmon trees. A colored glass panel split the center wall. Ceramics were laid out in front of the windows on tatami.

After making our purchases, we were able to take a quick look at the ovens, which were not lit. There was a large, two-chambered "beehive" oven up front, fixed with heavy cut stones, and a series of three climbing "tunnel" ovens just behind. They were all dug into the earth, and paths and tools were scattered around. The bricks for the ovens had a similar honey yellow color as the clay. Tucked against the walls and along the walkways were large trays and palettes of fired pieces - a variety of colors and shapes and all remarkably beautiful.

Our next stop was lunch, and Katafuchi-san rather insisted that we try the local noodle dish "chanpon". Not as thin as ramen, but not as think as udon, chanpon is served in a milky sweet soup as opposed to the typical clear, savory broth. Our lunch was taken at Imari Chanpon, and the extra large bowls included fish, shrimp, squid, scallop, fish cake (kamaboko), and lots of veggies. It was very very tasty, ate very much like a stew and was just as filling.

A short drive from Imari took us to the village of Okawachi-yama. About 400 years ago years ago, Korean workers were kept captive here in order to provide the local Nabeshima clan with fine placewares. The village is a little time warp: narrow, stone streets are cut into the sharp hills, which are packed tight with kilns, studios, and showrooms. We slipped into a few back rooms where young apprentices quietly, carefully applied glaze to cups and bowls - the foggy light through the windows focused their steady gazes despite the astonishing views to the valley beyond. We stepped out and crossed a tiled bridge to inspect the ovens on the other side; a small river ran below, bounded by steep, mossy masonry walls and emptied past the Korean cemetery - the last resting place of the potters and artisans who lived and worked here for these past centuries. We happened to catch the village in nearly full autumnal polychromy; it was just gorgeous.

The next stop was in Arita at the Kakiemon Kiln. This is perhaps the best-known shop in the area, providing it's signature "persimmon" (kaki) red glaze on the best white porcelain. The showroom was immaculate, with pieces displayed under glass; small, formal conference nooks were stashed in the corners. Past the showroom was a larger museum building that held fantastic, large, antique pieces. And past that we came upon a collection of old thatched-roof buildings that, we assumed, made up the studio. The buildings were connected by stone and green gardens; a little ancient village.

After Kakiemon, with the day running out on us, we ran through a series of showrooms and museums in Arita. I must admit my brain could not handle much more input, and I lost track of the stuff we saw - Imperial place-settings, the room where the Emperor stayed, more Imperial dishes, a shop with some really cool plates, etc.

We stopped off at Dazaifu Tenman-gu, a Shinto shrine dedicated to the spirit of learning, before heading home. It was dark and a bit cold by the time we arrived. We walked over three bridges representing the past (don't look back), the present (stomp your feet), and the future. Then, feeling tired, something got lost in translation cause I could have sworn the driver said this was all sponsored by Kirin beer, there was a little chapel-like area and everything - but I'm sure I got it wrong.

Just outside the temple, there was a small mochi stand where an older man and woman were heating sweet-bean dumplings. We bought a few, steaming hot, and jumped back in the cab to eat them and warm up. They were really good.

Then somehow, the discussion came back around to dinner, and Katafuchi-san began listing his favorite local tempura places. We ended up at Daruma Tempura, somewhere in Fukuoka. It was a dive, and my faith in Katafuchi-san faded. First, we had to decipher a vending machine to get meal tickets. Next we were directed to a very grungy booth; crumbs clung to the plates set in front of us. We set our tickets out, and a young man ran from the kitchen with a basket of food: crispy-fried, foot-long shrimps. Once we had a few bites, we knew the place was good, but the atmosphere was lacking in the extreme. Hey, an hour ago we were looking at Imperial tea cups.

[read Part 3]

Homecoming - Thanksgiving in Japan (Part 1)

2008-12-04T20:16:00.000-08:00

[see more pictures]

Nearly seventy years ago, my grandfather moved his family from Tokyo to Kokura, near the city of Fukuoka, on the southern island of Kyushu. He was working as an administrator for the Japanese Government Railways, and had some responsibility for building the Kanmon Railway Tunnel that connected Kyushu to the main island of Honshu. So, my father spent his grade-school years in Kita-kyushu (northern Kyushu), and held some remarkably clear memories of the area.

About ten years back, Donna and I had seen a show of Japanese ceramics at the Art Complex in Donna's home town of Duxbury, MA. Last July we returned to Duxbury to visit Donna's mother, and took a drive to the Art Complex. There was a small feature on Japanese ceramist Kozuru Gen, who keeps homes in Topsfield, MA, and Fukuoka. We got an extra copy of the older show catalog and sent it on to my folks.

When my parents asked if Donna and I would be interested in travelling with them to Japan over Thanksgiving Break, I mentioned our interest in pottery. So they suggested a trip to ceramic towns of northern Kyushu, and we readily agreed.

We set Fukuoka as our primary destination. Fukuoka is the south-western terminous of the Shinkansen (Hakata Station), and from there we could take day trips to the smaller surrounding towns. But we spent our first two nights in Japan in the Shinagawa section of Tokyo, in order to recover from the flight and attempt to adjust our internal clocks.

Shinagawa is the "next stop" on the Shinkansen from Tokyo Station. It's not nearly as crazy-busy as Tokyo, and so a little easier to deal with. Monday was "Labor Thnksgiving Day" in Japan, which involves no turkey, football, or shopping whatsoever; the city was relatively quiet in any case. We used the day to take a walk around the Imperial Palace and to catch-up with my Uncle Shinpei's family (mother's youngest brother) at dinner. His eldest son, Eijin, is almost exactly my age, so I was surprised to be re-intorduced to his sons, Tomo and Kazu, who are now both in college. My cousin Bujin also brought his son Yujin, who is in the second grade - softening the "age hit" a little.

We planned our departure from Shinagawa for about 10AM to avoid the big morning rush, but the platform was still strikingly crowded when we left. The bullet trains that left Shinagawa every five or ten minutes were full. It was amazing to watch the coordinated work of the folks at the stations to keep everything rolling. My father gave me the play-by-play of the actions of the assistant station master as he bowed to the approaching engine, and went thruough a ritual check of the train; all learned from his own father, who started his railway career as a station master.

And the Japanese sure know who to queue - folks line up, get out, get in, and the trains just keep moving. To emphasize this, there seems to be a an irritating lack of seating in all the staions; you are not supposed to sit, you are supposed to stand and wait at the area carefully marked for each car as indicated on your ticket.

It takes less than a half hour to leave Tokyo proper, and the urban fabric falls away suddenly. Look down to check your guide book, look up, and you are in an area of manicured farms and patchwork fields filling the flatlands to the moutains nearby, all flashing past at 300kph. On the trains, the conductors and the young ladies pushing the bento carts bow before entering and after leaving each car.

We transferred from the Tokaido Shinkansen (the Tokyo-Kyoto main line) to the Sanyo Shinkansen at Shin-osaka. It's a perfect place to sell bento and snadwiches, but for whatever reason, all the stalls sold basically the same lunch. I suspect that there is some kind of concessions license in the stations; I cannot otherwise account for the lack of decent choices. Soon, we arrived in Fukuoka Station, and quickly found our hotel.

[read Part 2]

Change Has Come to America

2008-11-07T17:20:00.000-08:00

The sun sets on an amazing week. Barack Obama was the first "winner" I ever voted for - my "losers" list includes John Anderson and Ralph Nader. Donna is in Connecticut visiting her sister, but we used our iPhones to text, e-mail and share the events on Election Day. Like many, we were disappointed with the outcome on California Prop 8, but are hopeful that we will soon turn that corner as well. I don't really know what else to say, but I know what I feel: hope.

"We divided the world after 9/11. And the world said no. And through my brother, we can all connect again."

Malik Obama
Kogelo, Kenya
Nov. 5, 2008

Remembering Dale Wagner

2008-10-25T21:50:00.001-07:00

Got some very sad news this morning that our good friend Dale Wagner has passed away after a long fight with cancer. In the spring of 1993, Dale and I, along with Stew Roberts, Chris Doktor, and Steve Scapicchio took a trip to Dale's home state of Oregon. We stayed some days in the coastal town of Manzanita where we researched a site for a architectural proposal. The site was just below Neahkahnie Mountain, so we climbed the trail to the peak. Here is Dale, as always, checking out the plantlife at the top:

"Neahkahnie" is Tillamook for "place of the fire god". I will always remember Dale standing on that ridge. To Rakhsana and Yasmin our heartfelt and deepest sympathies - Dale was one of the coolest guys ever.

Postseason Baseball

2008-10-04T09:10:00.000-07:00

Mr. Rally Monkey, meet Mr. J. D. Drew:
It's October again, and the Red Sox are playing the Angels in the ALDS. Many of you have likely heard my cheapskate-socialist rant about how the airwaves belong to the people - I refuse to pay to be advertised to, so I don't have cable. For the playoffs, since I'm in Berkeley, I'm stuck watching the Red Sox on whatever free media doo-hickey I can find on the web. In this case it's TBS "Hot Corner" and MLB Gameday. The best way I've found is to have Gameday open so you can see the diagram of the "field action", and the line score, then have Gameday Mini open so you can see the pitch count and the locations. Then have TBS Hot Corner next to that, and put it all up on the big Sorny TV.

Thankfully, there's no pseudo-broadcast this year in Hot Corners - it's just four stationary camera shots with the crowd sound. I love the crowd sound not only cause you can hear the Red Sox fans chanting in LA (Anaheim/Orange County, whatever), but because it feels more like going to the game.

Of course, I missed all the defensive plays (you can sorta see the put-outs at first base in the distance, behind the pitcher), but I did see K-Rod's reaction to Drew's HR - he pointed up in the air like it was a pop-up. A blue-dot shows up on the Gameday Mini, "In play, run(s)". Then the Sox dugout went nuts, and K-Rod covered his face with the glove. I also got to see Papelbon's reaction at the end of the game: Gameday shows a red dot, "Swinging strike", and check the upper left camera frame: Paps yelling in at Tek.

One thing you do get to see that you don't on the "broadcasts" is the stuff that happens between innings - the pitchers warming up, the activity in the dugout as the team gets ready to bat, etc. And, for some reason, they showed a bunch of Rally Monkey footage. If you need a monkey to tell you to cheer on your team, there's something wrong. How is it to win in the 9th after watching all that? Sweet.

That was a great game. We're up 2-0.

Labor Day in Portland

2008-09-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

Had a great weekend with my folks and my brother's family in Portland before school start again. Played a lot of golf and did a lot of tech support. The golf with Matthew was great - you can tell he has an idea of what to do. He beat all of us on a couple of holes with par - though he will still, from time to time, nine-putt a green.

click here to view gallery

Monkeys control robots with their minds - CNN

2008-05-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

If you can put a grape on it, a monkey will find a way to control it - and use that control to dominate the world! You can't make this stuff up; I *love* this headline:

Yet in another string of eye-ball grabbers from our friends in the MSM that sound like parodies, or Austin Powers punch lines, but aren't. And actually, the content in the story is rather amazing, but why not say "Implanted sensors may help disabled"?

HSF Concours 2008

2008-05-07T10:00:00.001-07:00

An car show to support a small public school system? Oh, yeah! Some amazing cars, including a Niki Lauda F1 Ferrari, a couple of gorgeous Delahayes, some Cords (which I love), a hydrogen powered BMW 7-series, a bunch of fun Alfas and FIats, two matching dark grey 300SL Gullwings, and this mind-blowing "Bumblebee" 212 Inter Ferrari!

click for slideshow

Opening Day in Oakland

2008-04-02T08:01:00.001-07:00

Last night, the Red Sox and A's opened their North American season at McAfee Coliseum, after two games in Tokyo. Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched masterfully for the World Champs (6 2/3 in, 1 ER, 9 K). It was a close, well-played game, with a couple of controversial calls: Suzuki misses Youkilis with a sweep tag at the plate, and Varitek misses a home run on a called Ground Rule Double. We had a clear view of the Varitek shot, which clearly bounced off the top of the grey scoreboard roof, never coming close to the yellow "in play" line; a very bad call.

Was very happy to be able to use the occasion of Opening Day to celebrate our re-location from Boston to the East Bay. And I was extra happy to share the event with so of my many friends and family that made the move possible. Particularly fun was seeing my nephew Matthew and his friend Ronnie laughing, hanging on the railing, and moaning "Yoo-ooo-ook" out the suite window; Matthew in his Big Papi jersey, and Ronnie in his Derek Jeter jersey. The red "34" and the white-on-blue "2" looking back at us seemed almost irreconcilable, with Ronnie's Dad describing the scene as something like, "a sign that world peace is possible".

Felt really bad for my nephew David, who flew from DC to San Fran to see the game. I may not have this exactly right, but somehow his flight got delayed then stuck in Charlotte. He got on another plane to Philly, and onto another flight to SFO, but that plane didn't have enough fuel to make it from coast to coast (?), so he landed in KC to refuel. After about eight hours of delays, he arrived at McAfee at the end of the 6th inning, and the usher could not direct him to our box. We did not see him until the game was over. How does that happen?

However, I must say that the venue was otherwise pretty darned acceptable. Going to watch a baseball game in a facility that is also used for football gave me dark memories of going to Three Rivers in Pittsburgh; never liked that place. From the outside, you certainly get that feeling of "concrete monstrosity", but on the inside, the seating and the views were pretty good, if a little distant. Foul territory was expansive (like having two more outfields), and I never liked having the bullpens "in the field of play".

The As fans were enthusiastic, if nearly overwhelmed by the Red Sox crowd. Chants of "Let's Go Red Sox" mashed into an unintelligible static of "Let's Go Oak-Sox", "Let's Go Red-land", each side trying to shout down the other. The Opening Day ceremonies were brief but appropriate, with a sort of mini-fireworks display set up in the outfield and a fly-over by the Blue Angels. Sometime in the fifth or sixth inning, the Scoreboard lit up with Tarzan movie clips in an apparent attempt to get the crowd to make enough "jungle yelling" noise that the elephant mascot Stomper (?) would appear. It felt strangely like a minor league promotion, and I never did see the elephant.

Unconsciously Green

2008-03-02T17:59:00.000-08:00

I filled the TT's tank with gas yesterday; for the first time that I can recall, it cost me more than $50. But, I hadn't bought gas since December 1st - three full months. I used the gas to visit my brother in the South Bay. He just bought a house and was going to rent it out, so I was going to help him clean it up. But when I got there, the new tenants were already moving in! The tenants had just moved from England, and needed a new (left-drive) car. They bought a BMW M6 convertible; EPA says 11 miles per gallon city, 17 highway. Damn.

When I was living in suburban Boston, I filled the tank once every other week, almost without fail. Now, living in Berkeley, I've now driven a total of 1,000 miles since moving in June. When Donna and I moved, I know we had hoped to reduce our carbon footprint, and I think it has been a tremendous success. What's great is that we really don't think about it, or even go out of our way to be "green". Our life style is simply more green, mostly because it asks less of the world: we need less heat, we need less gas, much more of our food is locally grown, and my commute is a two minute walk.

In all the recent talk about climate change and alternative energy, I still don't feel like there's been a strong call for conservation. Maybe cause I remember the days of Jimmy Carter and gas lines there just doesn't seem to be any kind of public urgency. Though there has been talk of CFL bulbs and hybrid cars, I still don't think there has not been a big and specific call for energy conservation. One big reason, I suppose, is that the "economic climate" has taken the headlines, and forced a kind of built-in conservation; when people save money, they save energy. But, I also have a hard time imagining pulling out a this economic recession tail-spin without spending our way out.

But I still have this big fear that there are those who believe we can spend our way out of this climate crisis, rather than save our way out. In other words: drive a more efficient car, not fewer miles; change your hardware not your software. And while I agree that we need to have more efficient "life accessories" (houses, cars, big appliances), ultimately, we need to change the way we approach life.

We did recently rent a Prius Hybrid, and I am convinced that these hybrid drives are not the answer. Perhaps because we drive so little now, that we barely felt the "upgrade" from 25 to 40 mpg. But the car felt cheap, and it drove like a bus; it did not have the feel of a better product. And I know that the petroleum "investment" in this product has got to be significantly higher than in other products because there is more in it: batteries, rotors, control systems, etc. Whereas the car we have does not require very much more investment in the product itself, other than, perhaps, getting new tires and filters. From every angle, I think our best economic and climatic choice is to keep our cars, keep them in good shape, make them as efficient as possible, and drive them less.

We may have arrived at these "tipping points" simultaneously, creating a situation in which good decision-making is much harder. My conclusion is that this is truly a fork in the road: our economic activity imperils our planet's health and we may have to choose one or the other. We cannot have both, and my concern is that at this point, we are all going to choose the selfish, "short-term gain" path of economic growth. If this is the case, I believe that conservation is going to be even more important down the road - but we need to be talking about it now.

2007 Year in Review

2007-12-31T17:27:00.000-08:00

Today, had a good lightsaber workout with Matthew. The force is strong with him, but, as you can see, he knows the power of the dark side:

As this year comes to a close, we can finally consider the tremendous change it has brought.That we got through it at all is a testament to the tremendous support of family and friends, our own organizational skills (mostly donna's), and a whole lotta luck.

We started 2007 with our Phil and Lois, and our friends in Walpole (MA), playing parlor games and enjoying their teriffic company. Tony came and stayed a weekend in late January, with Matthew, and we watched the Patriots lose (the Pats lose?) to the Colts. Ouch. Sorry bout that, Matthew, but it has gotten a little better for the Pats since. Changes in my professional life are, by tradition, connected to visits with my brother, so I began my new job search in February. In March, I had my interview at Bentley, and got the job offer and the housing offer that same weekend - could hardly believe it.

We made a return trip in April to tie up some loose ends and check out the (new) house, and then we got ready to put our old house on the market. We had our open house on May 6th, and sold the house the next day - could hardly believe that, too (thanks Dottie!).

Donna finished her certificate program on June 5th. We had our Big Good Bye Blow Out on June 9th; we were so happy to see so many people before leaving! I finished up at Rivers the next week. The moving truck came on June 22nd. Then we moved out, closed on the house, and flew west on June 25h. We spent July 4th unpacking; and a few weeks later, my Mom and Dad came to stay a while in Berkeley, and we experienced our first California earthquake. That didn't take long, either.

August was about settling into our new place, setting up the new Computer Lab, and starting my new job. By September, we were old hands, and October brought a Red Sox World Series Championship. Looking back it hardly seems possible that all these things lined up, happened, and/or got done. I hope we don't have to move again too soon.

And so the sun sets on 2007 - for us, it has truly been an amazing year. Thank you and Happy New Year, everybody.

California Xmas No 1

2007-12-22T11:19:00.000-08:00

click here to play

School has been on December Holiday now for about a week; I've been out playing golf and walking the Berkeley Hills. While the eastern half of the country has seen some early weather, we've been in the mid-50s. Folks here complain abut how cold the mornings are out on the fairways, and I remind them that they are playing golf a week before Christmas.

Went to Tony and Kris' in Hillsborough for an early Xmas gathering. Matthew is at that age where the excitement of the holiday is really peaking, and it's just fun to watch the kids enjoy the gifts and the general spirit of the occasion. This year, Matthew discovered Star Wars, as evidenced by the Darth Vader helmet and the lightsabers. Sophia immediately fell in love with her wooden blocks and wagon set. She climbed right up on the table to inspect her new toy. And several times during the evening, Matthew mentioned that he was "shaking", he was so excited.

The lightsabers were a particularly memorable gift. These are made by Master Replicas, and are amazing in their details and function. There is some kind of gyroscope inside that can tell if the blade is being swung or struck, and respnds with the appropriate sound effect: red (Darth Maul), green (Yoda), and blue (Luke Skywalker) - beautiful holidays lights. Nothing says Merry Chrsitmas like the power of the Force.

Back at home, I got a little potted Monterey Pine, and installed some twinkle lights in the frieze that runs at the edge of the ceiling, around the living room, dining room, and kitchen. You can see the lights of Berkeley and San Francisco in the windows beyond. Happy holidays everyone!

Breaking News - Situation Normal

2007-12-07T09:36:00.003-08:00

I got into the habit of checking the MSM websites because when I worked for a big company (SSRM/MetLife), the "higher-ups" got their tech news from these sites. So I was in CYA mode. Plus, new computers tend to come with MSM links preloaded, and I am a bit lazy on the housekeeping. In any case, I opened up CNN this morn to see the headline above: "Innocent people going about their daily lives" and thought I had mistakenly clicked the link for The Onion. Obviously, when I checked the story, I understood the headline, but I was still in this kind of fake news, truthiness place.

Last night, on Nightline, the big story was a profile of the mall shooter in Omaha - these incessant cries of "why did he do that" echoing the (media-generated) fear in all those cries of "why do the terrorist hate us" from six years ago. People gotta get a grip: in Baghdad, a day when only eight people get shot is a sign that our War Against Extreme Fundamentalism is "succeeding" [end airquotes]. Which side of the MSM's mouthes do we want to listen to? Do we really need an explanation for the shooting or the terror act? Was there ever a time we cold have prevented the death of innocents? Is it important that we measure someone's the guilt or innocence?

Or do we need some unbelievable and intensely immediate news item to help sell ED drugs?

Though the headline above might suggest otherwise, it sure seems like we should have passed the tipping point where these acts become the norm, or maybe the expected, and we are just living, if not in Baghdad, in The Onion World.

Or maybe we just want so much that the world not be the way we've made it, that the expected becomes the news.

How Long for the PS3 Version?

2007-11-10T14:41:00.001-08:00

This is not a an image from a new video game, or the next sci-fi movie prop, this is the headgear being designed by the Royal Air Force to work with the new Joint Strike Fighter jet ...

from the "Switched" blog:

" New Pilot Helmet Allows Terminator Like X-Ray Vision

The British military is testing a new helmet that allows fighter pilots to see through their planes.

The system is actually very elegant in its simplicity. A series of camera are placed on the outside of the plane. The images from the cameras are fed back to the cockpit where they are projected inside the specially designed helmet, allowing the pilot to see 360 degrees around him/her. It will look to the pilot as if there is no plane at all... which, now that we think about it, sounds kinda creepy.

The cameras will even have infrared sensors, allowing pilots to look down, through the cockpit floor, in the dead of night, and identify targets."

Particularly interesting is that this visioning technology is being used on a jet with stealth technology to allow pilots to be able to see "as if the plane was not there". In other words, the plane is invisible to both the folks on the ground and the pilot!

One wonders at what point we'll even need to have pilots in the plane, and this really does become a video game.

Jessie Doktor 1998-2007

2007-10-19T21:46:00.000-07:00

This is the saddest news: our friend Jessie Doktor passed away today. She was nine. For some years now she has fought leukemia. This summer she had a new kind of cord-blood, stem-cell, marrow transplant. About a week ago she got an bad infection.

I love this picture of her not just cause of she's wearing a Red Sox cap in New York, or that she's in front of the Apple Store. She was such a fighter with an intense, competitive will. But I love her smile, that sneaky grin.

Video Tribute: Jessica Rose Doktor
If you want to know her better, here's Jessie in her own words.
And here's a Boston Globe article by Erica Tochin

Her mother writes: "And if you would…please fold some paper cranes. As many as you can. We will post how and where to deliver them…and we’re not yet sure how we’ll use them…but we would like to have at least 1000 paper cranes in Jessie’s honor."

Guess I'll start folding.

An Outpost of Red Sox Nation

2007-10-06T22:45:00.001-07:00

"If I fail, it's going to be with my pants."
- Manny Ramirez, post-game interview, Oct 6, 2007

Before I left the Boston area, my co-workers gave me the pre-requsite going-away novelties. Among the books and trinkets were quite a few Red Sox souvenirs - the kind of things you'd never buy for yourself. From the other side, my brother tried to welcome me to the East Bay with a fitted, wool A's cap, one of the black ones (actually, quite sharp and probably a little pricey for a cap!). Everything is carefully scattered around my new place, as any superstitious Boston fan should have it, to maximize baseball karma - pictured above, a Manny Ramirez 24 wrist band on a model of Fenway Park sits on my desk

Meanwhile, I watched the end of the season on MLB-TV, and have tried to tolerate TBS Hot Corner during the playoffs. Worst. Baseball. Chat. Ever. Worse even than enduring a Tim McCarver broadcast. Imagine two fixed camera video feeds (pitcher-cam and dugout-cam), the most basic graphic display in one corner, and the TBS commentary crew in the other - four "hot corners". The discussion between the commentators is so simplisctic that, to my ears, it doesn't sound like they are really talkng about baseball; maybe they're watching a game of cricket. Setting MLB Gameday over the Hot Corner ads, so that the video feeds are still visible, makes it a little less incoherent.

But the distance, the sub-standard video, and the plain awful commentary aside, it's been all good for the Red Sox so far. Yesterday was particularly exhiliarating, of course, but also infuriating for all the above reasons. Phenomenal cosmic baseball; itty bitty media experience.

I loved the "bug-out" at the Jake that cast a kind of "Romo and the Cowboys" shadow on Joba and the Yankees. At that moment, TBS had commentary from former catchers John Marzano (Red Sox) and Jim Leyritz (Yankees). They could not stop talking about the bugs, the studio furniture, or A-Rod long enough to tell us what was going on with the game. Fortunately, in that sequence, there was all this activity I *could* see on pitcher-cam (bugs, walk, wild pitch, bunt, bugs, wild pitch, play at plate, tying run scores).

At the end of the Indians game, in extra innings, the "hostess" (Heather Catlin) was dumb-founded by Torre's choice to walk Sizemore with the winning run on third to setup a force at home and a right-righty match-up. I was now yelling at the TV: shut-up you're ruining this for me! I hit the "mute" button. After Cabrera popped out (semi-validating Torre's decision), Hafner delivers. That was an awesome end to an awsome game, but I don't think Catlin or her chatters delivered the drama of the moment at all - so, what is the point of their commentary?

All this would have made perfect sense, I think, to any RS fan, but was completely lost on these the TBS staffers. If Cabrera had grounded into a double-play, would Caitlin have understood the significance of the IBB? I honestly doubt it.

Worse was the anti-Bartman moment at Fenway with the TBS chat crew who could not understand that 17 year-old Danny Vinik's catch was absolutely *not* fan interference. I couldn't see the play, so I had to take their word on it that it *was* interference. When I saw the replay, I was floored because it was so clearly legal, and described as such by the broadcasters. And at first I thought I saw Pedroia cross the plate on pitcher-cam (it might have been a bat boy?), so I thought he was tagging. Imagine that pop foul; a little further down the line, and if not for Lowell's sac fly, that fan-catch might have cost the Red Sox a run. Then how does Vinik feel?

So I spent the night cheering with joy at the action (the parts that I could make out) and screaming furiously at the commentators; it was a strange case of baseball schizophrenia that perhaps only a Red Sox fan who had lived for a while in Cleveland Heights and now found himself in Berkeley might understand.

OTOH, pitcher-cam was perfect for Manny's walk-off dinger. He stood there for quite a while with his arms strait up in the air, and I knew. And like the rest of the Fenway crowd, my arms were strait up, too. The commentary was simply, "Ooooo." The replay showed the ball flying *over* the Coke bottles - that ball was c-r-u-s-h-e-d. Perfect coverage.

Anyway, I'm off for the long weekend (thank you Christopher Columbus!) to see my folks in Oregon.

And they have a dish.

UPDATE: After typing the above on my Treo during the plane ride from Oakland, I arrived at the parents house to find that the digital satellite service has been termintated. My father's new passion is DVD karaoke. D-oh. I wonder if they have "Tessie" on that thing.

Another Neighborhood Walk (with Stairs)

2007-09-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

First a little baseball gloating ...

Last night Donna and I hooked the MacBook to the big TV, and watched on the internet as Dice-K pitched a gem. After the Red Sox won their game, we switched MLB-TV "channels" over to the Orioles and Yankees game, doing our best to duplicate the experience of the fans in Boston. We cheered like crazy when the O's tied it up against Rivera, and then could hardly believe it when Mora laid down the bunt. The unlikeliness of that series of events (plus the Red Sox and Yankees role reversal) seemed to make clinching the Division extra special; what a celebration. I loved all the comments on SoSH and YF-vs-SF. We celebrated the Red Sox' AL East Division title by watching a bunch of internet videos late into the night. It was great to hear Bob Lobel and Dan Roche bring the celebration to us from Fenway. It's weird being so disant -- and then not distant.

But this morning the fog broke, and we got one of those glorious California mornings. We went for a little walk and we're finding more and more of these public walkways and stairs hidden in the hills. It's an amazing area. Here's a little slide show for you:

My Parents as Goth-Rock Fans

2007-09-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

Trying to put last night's ridiculous Red Sox loss to the Yankees out of my mind, and while running errands this morning, I stumbled on this odd article re-printed from the LA Times in today's Oakland Tribune (click for story):

The article is about Chthonic, a Taiwanese death metal rock band. Imagine, if you will or can, KISS with strait black hair and a real serious attitude (click to go to their myspace page). They are currently touring in the US with Ozzfest, and their fans often include middle-aged (and older) Taiwanese-Americans. Evidently, one their songs, "UNlimited Taiwan", has become an anthems of sorts for the independence movement, which is hoping that the UN will recognize Taiwan as an independent nation. Here is the song played along with a montage of the independence movement -- the myspace video description reads, "This is a short film by Director, Cheng Wen-tang. It's not a Music Video" (click to play):

UNlimited TAIWAN Short Film (Not Music Video)

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Even though it's not a "music video", the video piece actually fits well with the song, and focuses attention on Taiwan's exclusion from the World Health Organization (WHO), something my parents have been working hard to do something about. Definitely a great way to focus a new audience, and connect what would normally be divergent audiences with common goals -- but I have a hard time picturing my folks moshing at the foot of the stage, waving little flags.

But, whatever it takes. Rock on you guys.

The Spiders are in Charge

2007-09-01T12:19:00.000-07:00

Tho it's not as bad as the "giant spider web in Texas" (why is everything big in Texas?), but the spiders here are just all over the place. True from the day we moved in, we've been running into, and cleaning spider webs all the time. Odd, as I don't think there are many bugs around at all, except maybe a few moths. I went out this AM to try to take pictures of the Bay Bridge closing (too foggy), and got covered with a web! And here's the busy little guy rebuilding:

It's such a strange day, and I really feel like the whole summer phase-shift thing is done now. I've started my job and started teaching my class; the Lab is pretty much done by now and the wave of tech issues resulting from the return of the faculty is behind me. The Bay Bridge is closed on Labor Day Weekend for this crazy construction thing, and the first Cal football game of the year is on. Tunnel Road is a mess. I had no idea we were so close to the Stadium that people would be *upstream* from us on Tunnel Road scamming tickets ("Anyone need tickets?"). It's like popping out of the T Station at Kenmore on Red Sox game day, only these guys are are barking at the traffic jam. And the traffic jam is a block or two from my front door. That's really strange.

So here we are, in our own happy little web. Our back to the Hills and Tunnel Road in front of us. We are caught here, but I am fine with that for now.

A Walk Around the Neighborhood

2007-08-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

Went for a walk after dinner and snapped a few pics.

We moved to an area of fires and earthquakes, but it is a really beautiful neighborhood. It was wiped clean about fifteen years ago by a big wildfire. All the homes are new and crazy big, and they scamper up the hills in the most amazing ways; it's hard to show in pictures. And stylistically, the homes stretch the American vernacular - from pseudo-colonial, to California Mission, to "real new".

A guy from Berkeley Public Works told me that our house and the one across the street were really the only two buildings to come through the fires intact. It's strange that it should all feel like an established area and a new development at the same time.

Reunion Pictures

2007-07-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

Irene's father just moved to the neighbohood, and stopped by for a chat.

David, Aenoch, and some meat.

Lapoe, Aenoch, and some meat; Kris and Sophia are all smiles.

Sophia.

Penny and David get a piano lesson from Matthew.

David at the helm of the shark.

Shark vs. Sea Monster!

Earthquake

2007-07-20T06:52:00.000-07:00

From CNN:

" A 4.2-magnitude earthquake shook the San Francisco area Friday at 4:42 a.m. PT (7:42 a.m. ET), the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The quake was centered about two miles east-northeast of Oakland, at a depth of 3.6 miles, the USGS said. Oakland is just east of San Francisco, across San Francisco Bay. "

The other thing centered about two miles east-northeast of Oakland is our new home. What an introduction to be shaken from sleep -- espcially while my parents were visting (they've lived in SF before and did not seem too alarmed). And then the local news folks launch into fear-generation mode, telling us that the Hayward Fault is due for a "big one" relatively soon. Good gracious. I just moved on top of this (from Wikipedia): "Of all the region's large faults, the Hayward (and) Rodgers Creek fault system is considered most likely to create the next major destructive earthquake in the region."

Yikes.

But nothing really was damaged; actually, nothing much moved at all. The quake was incredibly short and sudden. Donna said it was like being on a train. Maybe we should install straps and handles, like they have in the subways.

Californians

2007-07-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

Well, hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I heard it was kinda wet and cool in New England. It was hot here -- about 80 degrees. I guess 80 is the new hot. This weather is going to take some getting used to. We finally got the TV going and were able to listen to the local forecast. Boy, the meteorologiests here have to deal with 60's at the coast and 100's inland.

But the night cooled off nice. Unfortunately, it was a bit foggy (smoggy?), so we could not really see the big fireworks off Fisherman's Wharf very well; we could not really get the spray of color and the full size of the bursts. But we could see fireworks that were (I think) at the Berkeley Marina better, but that display was smaller.

Slowly unpacking. My car is here; that's a relief. Today, I wired my bookshelves to the wood ceiling (they are in front of a mirror, so I could not secure it to the wall). I hear they got a thing out here: earthquakes.

Arrival in Berkeley

2007-06-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

Well, Earthlink messed me up and I could not get online at home. Sorry it took a while to post this -- we did not fall off the face of the planet. Here is last night's sunset:

Also note that the phone number we had been giving out previous (with the 295 prefix) was never in service. Again, Earthlink.

The past few days have been filled with cleaning and shopping for cleaning supplies. It's kind of a strange thing to wait in an empty house for your stuff to get to you, you feel passive and helpless. So we pass the time by cleaning. This morning I checked the moving van's status, and it's in Gallup, NM. Soon.

It's been sunny and about 70 degrees for the past few days. The streets here are wide and well marked; both the pedestrians and the drivers are much more patient than in Boston. Still, there are letters in the Berkeley Daily Planet about citizen concerns regarding the lack of respect shown on the streets. Hmmm.

Every Friday there is a group that displays an "impeachment" banner. We missed the show this morning, but may have to join them at some point. Then we'll have arrived in Berkeley. For sure.

Leaving MA

2007-06-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

This is my last night as a resident of Massachusetts. On Thursday afternoon, a bunch of people came to the house and jammed all our stuff into boxes. Friday morning this really big truck showed up and three guys took all the boxes:

Tomorrow we close the sale and get a big check; the buyers get a mortgage and some keys. Then it's off to the airport and our flight bound for Oakland.

The last few days have been amazing. Saying goodbyes and thinking about how it's been living here in and near Boston for over twenty years. To all who came to see us off at our big (and very crowded!) party a couple of Saturdays ago, to the one guy who showed up when no one was here (Steve!), and especially to those who took old furniture and made the move super smooth (Kim & Dan, Michelle, Rose, Anthony & Heather, Norma, Matt, Robert & Jeanine, Justin, and Mary & Greely) -- thank you! Extra thanks to Peter and Pam for staying over and dealing with the old computer stuff (more on the way!).

To our long-time neighbors: Joe & Martha, Annette & David, Peg & Gary, and Glen & Joanne: thaks for always being there with a snow plow or a soldering torch. You guys are the best.

We love you all. We're moving the party to the west coast, so come see us.

MADRacing Shift Paddles

2007-06-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

I've been looking and asking around for shift paddles for the DSG (Direct Shift Gearbox) in the Audi TT for a while. Others have replaced the standard plastic paddles with the slightly larger aluminum paddles from the VW R32, but I was holding out for something that really changed the shape and usefulness of the paddles. I finally found what I was looking for from MADRacing of Portland, OR.

Before:

After:

These paddle are significantly taller than even the R32 paddles -- much, much easier to hit from a regular 10-n-2 drving position on the steering wheel. The design and execution are tremendous; on par with OEM fittings. They look and feel like they should have been there all along.

Moving from Boston to Berkeley

2007-05-24T18:53:00.000-07:00

Well, we are down to our last month in the Boston area. All our preparations seem to be moving ahead as smoothly as we could possible hope [knock wood]. Google Earth says this is going to be our new view of the world:

Looks pretty good -- boy, the Sutro Tower looks really tall in Google Earth (black vertical thing on the horizon).

My new job will provide me plenty of welcome challenges, I think -- I'll get to work with technology in a classroom setting. Plus it's starting to get real toasty in Boston. Every time I've been out there, and every time I've cheked weather.com, it seems to be sunny and mid-70s in Berkeley.

But I just finished 8th grade portfolio reviews at Rivers, and the melancholy is starting to set in, too. Listening to the kids talk about the changes in their lives has made me consider my own. This may be a rather lonley summer, as my new co-workers will not be at my new school again til fall, and we don't really kow anyone else in the neighborhood. Tho we'll be settling in and setting up the new house, I think I'll miss Boston, and Rivers a lot during those weeks.

And the Red Sox are winning and I leave town -- an interesting (a)symmetry given that we moved to Boston in the summer of 1986. I made one last trip to Fenway: Braves at Red Sox, May 19th. Imagine the nastiest, cold-drizzly night game (the second of a double-header). The Red Sox got killed, 14-0, and it never really stopped raining, but in the bottom of the 9th inning, the crowd was still strong and loud, and very wet (Mr. Chang, this is for you):

Go Red Sox.

Kites and Sand

2007-04-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

It never fails that when I travel to the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston gets pounded by some bad weather. Mid-March, I came west to interview, and Boston got a coating of snow. Last weekend we travelled west to check out our new house in Berkeley, and Boston got a crazy Nor-easter. Not one to pass-up a chance to enjoy the good weather, we went kite flying with Matthew and Tony:

We told Matthew about our friend Jessie Doktor and her family back in Boston, waiting out the storm in Children's Hospital while she under-went chemo. We visited Jessie before leaving for San Fran, and were told about the Doktor Family's "sand from around the world" collection. So here is Matthew collecting some sand for Jessie:

This is sand from Fort Funston on the Pacific Coast. The dunes over-looking the shore were blanketed in flowering ground-cover of cacti or succulents -- squishy! It was a very windy day, as we were to find out later when we lost a kite (thankfully recovered). We had a great time, and were glad we might be able to share it with the Doktor Familty, too!

Boundaries, Narcissism, and the Deep Economy

2007-03-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

I am on a flight to Chicago and considering an article in the Globe about a recent narcissistic tendency among our (American) youth. I suppose it's easy to condemn the current generation's non-chalance about our consumerism, but this article drove home some specific points about expectations of happiness versus misery generated by this narcissism.

The article highlights a study conducted by a team lead by Jean Twenge at San Diego State University: "The researchers describe their study as the largest ever of its type and say students' inventory scores have risen steadily since the test was introduced in 1982. By 2006, they said, two-thirds of the students had above-average scores, 30 percent more than in 1982."

I am also in the middle of Bill McKibben's new book on the Deep Economy, which also tries to weigh materialism and happiness. McKibben talks about consumption models that allows the following equation: "the most economically productive citizen is a cancer patient who totals his car on the way to meet with his divorce lawyer". Though I gotta think there's a cheaper way to remove oneself as an economic burden than destroying a car and holding up traffic, I take his point: our society values things on their economic merits.

And, of course, our nation's materialism is built on the labor of others; others who are paid a pittance of the money we actually spend. Another example referenced by McKibben (from "Not on the Label" by Felicity Lawrence) describes a Ugandan coffee worker who was told the cost of Starbuck's coffee: his eyes welled with tears when he realized people willingly paid the equivalent of 5,000 Ugandan shillings per cup, and he made about 200 shillings -- per kilo!

I think these two memes intersect at some dark point where the set of items that define our 'self' is so large, that we loose ourselves in that crowd. For example, McKibben compares a young Chinese factory worker's intense reaction to receiving one plush toy, to his own daughter's bland satisfaction in having another to add to her pile.

The implication of the Globe article is that the constant reinforcement of "specialness" creates a kind of needy, compulsive behavior that I think of as an addiction. And I've been pondering solutions, assuming 'cold turkey' is not a viable option.

Unexpectedly, I flash to the reaction of our students to our school's dress code -- at every opportunity they stretch it, do a lawyer-act on it, loophole it, and otherwise ignore it. There are two topics we cannot escape at Admin Team meetings: parking and dress code. The kids really hate being told what to wear (and where to park their increasingly large vehicles).

But I'm starting to see this as an addict's dysfunction. An addict's behavior, our psychologist friends tell us, is marked by an inability to establish boundaries. I understand the concept as: if you can't deny yourself some random thing or behavior (fill in the blank), you can't break your dependance.

So it really bothers me when I have to explain or justify the dress code, because the reason to enforce it is basically existential. If I can't trust the kids to follow a simple, clear dress code, how far can I trust them?

In fact, the general experience of air travel provides example after example of people not paying attention to simple requests. People don't wait for their seating number to be called, they crowd the jetway door. People don't turn off their cell phones when asked, they squeeze in one more minute. I've been watching them all day. It's astounding.

Where does all this mental wandering get us? For me, this is about a generational justice: that we have squandered the earth's bounty, imperiled the earth's future, and taught our kids how to fiddle while the planet burns for the next 100 years. Yeah, that's about as dark as it could possibly get.

Well, but if we get this right, we will have basically stared down and solved the most incredibly large and daunting world problem, ever. What kind of world would be on the other side of "done"? Imagine a world all fixed up, sustainable, with power and food and water -- and justice. What else is there? I think we start building the Starship Enterprise and looking for Vulcans at that point.

The first step to recovery is recognition. And, of course, I'm not immune to the addiction. I'm flying over the New York farms described in McKibben's book, adding to the CO2, thumb-typing this blog post into my Palm Treo.

Hi, my name is Winston, and I love my car.

Having a Frank Grimes Moment

2007-02-02T17:00:00.000-08:00

Litebob Squarefinger. Boston was sent over the edge this week by the sudden, scattered appearance of strange electronic devices with these obscene little emoticons:

click for Globe article

In this, the "Week of the Super Bowl" and it's advertizing "blitz", what could be appropriate than a terror attack from the Cartoon Network? The reaction of the blogosphere, and of many of my friends and assoicates, has sent me into Frank Grimes-like spasms of disbelief: Ahg! Aiwt! Emg! Ufpk!

Recall: Frank Grimes was a character from a Simpsons episode that went nuts cause everyone around him actually was nuts. Exposed to the insanity of Homer's careless and lazy behavior at the nuclear power plant, and compounded by the acceptance of this behavior by all others at the plant, he snaps. So follow me thru this, and see if I snap -- the blogosphere seems to think this whole thing hilariously funny. It seems to think that the folks in Boston over-reacted, sending in the Bomb Squad to explode some cartoon ad made of Lite Brites.

Boston got punkd. Boston got pwned. Boston got its panties all twisted. Boston is clueless. Laugh at Boston:
"And, uh, the real fake bombs?" on Blue Mass Group
"Attack of the Killer Cartoons ..." on Democratic Underground

Let's put this in context. If you work for some branch of emergency services, your Wednesday morning included a fake pipe bomb at a big hospital in central Boston and mysterious packages found on two busy bridges over the Charles; concurrent with a series of puzzling reports of electronic devices attached to bridge abutments and under highway overpasses. Connect these with other reports of security alerts in other cities (in Britain and Washington DC), and there is no way anyone should think that the reposnse professionals in Boston over-reacted. They responded just as they should.

By contrast consider that the two "performance artsits" were told by their advertising employers that they should keep quiet while chaos reigned around them. After their court appearance, they launched into a non-sequitor about 70s hair styles while claiming their seriousness and sincerity. Tell me you don't feel the pangs of Frank Grimes. Aiwt! Ufpk!

But almost worse than all this is the sense that a huge number of the "informed public" (Olbermann!) has gotten this completely wrong. In fact, they seem to be encouraging the perpetrators to not only continue dumping on Boston, but ot rub Boston's collective nose in it. That there is some "reason filter" that is not set quite right, or some "logic mechanism" is just not switching on.

There are other examples in recent headlines: the lady who wanted to win a Nintendo and drank so much water she died. The mental giants running the radio show explained to callers warning of the danger, "They signed releases so we're not responsible, okay?". So even after these mooks were told of the danger, they did not tell the contestants, or even consider having some medical consultant available for them. And still the comments to the news posts include many responses that basically blamed the dead woman for drinking the water. She was punkd. She was pwned. She was clueless.

Yes, and rape victims wear short skirts. I guess in a world where people eat bugs on TV to win money, this seem like acceptable behavior. If you're a rube, you deserve it.

Similarly, our national conscience is fixed to "American Idol" not just for the winners, but for the losers: we love those early episodes and the delusional wailers who think they have a shot. We even take some of the"best losers" and push them into the spot light, like William Hung. We've taken schadenfreude to a whole other level.

Further consider how lucky, really, the folks in Boston were that there was not some other "big thing": a big apartment building on fire, or even some ambulance headed to MGH stuck at Charles Circle with a life-threatening situation. What are the consequences of installing home-made, enigmatic, electronic ads in a City famous for its congestion? And for what? Ads? Contests? It's funny, huh? Ahg! Emg!

Finally, folks pay for billboards for a reason: you can't just paint big ads on the sides of skyscrapers. It's not your property. There are places for ads. "Artists" who spray paint graffitti on trains and buildings know they are committing a crime; defacing property is a crime. Over the summer, other city administrators in Philly were all upset over a Sony PSP ad campaign that paid graffitti artists to deface buildings with prescribed images -- but Sony actually paid for the wall spaces.

Or if ad tag lines are your language, let's use the one from Apple: Think Different. It seems that folks no longer have the ability to distinguish between "different" thinking and no thinking at all.

There are good places for ads and there are bad places; responsible behavior and irresponsible. There are art installations and there are crimes. When (when!?) did it become "okay" to attach a homemade electronic device to a column holding up a highway? I don't care what reason you have for doing it -- advertising, mooniniting, 70s hair styling, whatever -- when did that become a acceptable thing to do?

This accepance would reduce our basic economic relationships down to a giant network of confidence games: tricksters and marks. Anything goes as long as you're "in the know", and if you're not, it's your own fault for being a dope. The answers were right there on the internet, just search Google for "zebbler", d-uh. You were the idiot for not looking. Sucker.

Oxymorons: jumbo shrimp, reality-TV, marketing-genius.

Here's the litmus test -- ask yourself: what if the "artists" had not been hired by Turner? What if they had come up with a conceptual piece unrelated to cartoons, involving Lite Brites in public places? Would it be funny? Would they be prosecuted?

My inner Frank Grimes is especially appalled by those comments congratulating Turner and the advertisers on a "brilliant" move and for psyching the City into giving them a ton of free exposure. If we expect our style of democracy to work, then the market-place of ideas should not fail in this manner. It kinda makes me wonder if everyone shouldn't have to pass a test to vote. My trust is broken.

At least I still have the Simpsons.

Hottest Weather Ever

2007-01-11T13:37:00.000-08:00

The NOAA has released it's summer report for weather in the US in 2006. It's conclusion? A very warm December pushed 2006 past 1998 as the hottest calendar year ever recorded. Check out this map -- no one near normal. In 112 years, almost every state is showing a triple-digit (one of the 13 hottest years). Hot.

"The 2006 average annual temperature for the contiguous U.S. was the warmest on record and nearly identical to the record set in 1998. Based on preliminary data, the 2006 annual average temperature was 55°F, 2.2°F (1.2°C) above the 20th Century mean and 0.07°F (0.04°C) warmer than 1998."

And for the first time ever the US Historical Climatology Network calulation for average annual temperature broke the 55-degree (F) barrier. If the mean is just below 53-degrees, aren't we now officially two degrees into "global warming"?

The State of the Arctic

2006-11-17T18:04:00.000-08:00

A stunning update to the arctic climate research going on at the NOAA reinforces all the recent news that climate change at the poles is accelerating.

Old Ice vs New Ice - 1988, 199, 2001, 2005
[ download the PDF here ]

This AP article summarizes the basic conclusions, adding to the drum beat that we are heating things up:

"Signs of warming continue in the Arctic with a decline in sea ice, an increase in shrubs growing on the tundra and rising worries about the Greenland ice sheet.

"There have been regional warming periods before. Now we're seeing Arctic-wide changes," James Overland, an oceanographer at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Washington state, said Thursday.

For each of the last five years it was at least 1 degree Celsius (1.8 F) above average over the entire Arctic over the entire year, he said.

The new "State of the Arctic" analysis, released by the U.S. government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also reports an increase in northward movement of warmer water through the Bering Strait in 2001-2004, which might be a factor in continuing reduction of sea ice."

But there is some interesting cross-currents in the data, from the LA Times article by Robert Lee Hotz:

"Yet the researchers also found new patterns of cooling ocean currents and prevailing winds that suggested the Arctic, long considered a bellwether of global warming, may be reverting in some ways to more normal conditions not seen since the 1970s.

Taken together, these findings may be evidence, the researchers said, of the region struggling to keep its balance, as rising temperatures slowly overturn the long-established order of seasonal variations.

'This is a region that is fighting back,' said lead author Jacqueline Richter-Menge, a civil engineer at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H. 'There are things that showed signs of going back to norms, trying to right themselves under very dire circumstances.' "

The dude's name is Hotz.

The Tragedy of the Commons

2006-10-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

I had suspected that there would be some way to reconcile our sense of justice (the meek shall inherit) with evolution (only the strong survive) -- that altruism and goodness are not just foils to some needed "survival behavior" (aggressiveness, greed) but true driving factors in the success of the breed.

A terrific re-cap of our situation from Julia Whitty under MoJo's current cover headline "Evolve or Die", with some insights as concerns global warming, and maybe some tools that would allow us to understand our behavior as a species...

"The Thirteenth Tipping Point"

I was particularly taken with her spin on the idea of the Tragedy of the Commons. My take: if we all live in a system wherein selfish behavior almost certainly guarantees success (comfort, wealth, power, however you want to measure it), but selfless behavior provides the greatest success for all -- people will continue to act selfishly. This is the refutation of the old "industrial" notion that what's good for business is good for the nation: the calculated acts of selfish entities will serve the selfish entities, not the general welfare of the nation or planet.

And thus the tragedy is truly Shakespearian in nature. We are driven to construct and then act out our own doom. But Whitty allows this hope:

"A recent study hints at the evolution of altruism. A team of Swiss and American mathematicians and population biologists ran a variant of game theory known as a public goods game, in which players contribute money to a common pot that an experimenter doubles, divides evenly, and returns to the players. In ordinary play, if all players contribute all their money, everyone wins big. If one player cheats, everyone wins small. If an altruist and a cheater go head-to-head, the cheater wins consistently. This paradox is known as the Tragedy of the Commons.

But in the new computer variant, population dynamics were introduced into the game. Players were divided into small groups that played among themselves. Each player eventually "reproduced" in proportion to the payoff received from play—thereby passing her cooperator or cheater strategy to her offspring. Mutations and dispersions were introduced, creating a shifting population of individuals divided into groups of changing sizes and allegiances.

After 100,000 generations, the results were surprising. Rather than succumbing to the cheaters, the cooperators overwhelmed them."

So we can see that in the short term, cheaters (the selfish) will win; but a view from the ages holds nearly certain victory for the selfless.

Then consider the corporation, built to compete, if possible dominate, in an environment of world-wide commercialism, often ruthlessly self-serving. It may take several human generations for the corporation to spawn and evolve; tho the span of that cycle appears to be shrinking with our post-industrial, "flat-world" globalism. Still, if it takes something on the order of 100,000 generations to see the successes of "the commons", we're in for quite a wait -- if we're holding out hope for cycle No. 100,000, how does it feel to be at cycle No. 42?

In addition, now that we've built this economy around a resource that, when consumed, is slowly destroying the planet -- can we affect the situation? Are we, like a Hamlet, destined to drive to a dark ending? If this is true, it's almost frightening to conclude: we need to accelerate the economy in order to see the true pay-off.

But, is there a way to cheat the system for the common good? Doesn't evolution require odd mutations and transformative breaks in the line? There are examples of large-scale human benefits of commercial ventures I can think of: Indian casinos, Saudi and Alaskan oil windfalls, charity branding (such as Product RED, etc). I'm sure there are more, but these examples seem to rely on our selfish natures to give a common-good payday (we like to gamble, drive SUVs, shop). Like a lottery system that pays for public schools -- how do we wean ourselves of the bad behavior once we introduce it to the system?

But if we don't capitalize on our selfishness, we are left with this puzzle: how do we commercialize and exploit our generous natures? Otherwise, what's the business model for altruism? And how do we ask our species to take responsibility for our actions without requiring frequent flier miles or the free prize in the box? What does a corporation built for the common good really look like?

I am always brought back to the Bolivian water protests. A harsh example, to be sure, but there was a time when developed countries would provide assistance to third-world nations through NGO's like CARE -- we would teach the people who were not benefiting from the knowledge how to pump their own clean water through sustainable systems that fit their economies. Now corporations like Bechtel will try to find ways to make a buck; they do not introduce sustainable systems, that is not in the interest of the corporation. But the people protested, and were able to, at least in part, take back some control; after all, unlike oil, water is truly required for life.

I dread hearing that without some incentive (money, titilation, fame), people are not driven (to work, build, create). Of course, the most efficient (and significant) economic entities in human history had access to free labor, and the best incentive is a whip and a spear -- our species has traveled some distance in 5,000 years. As in evolution, if you leave it in ocean waters long enough, a hippo will turn into a dolphin. The tragedy then, is if the hippo still thinks he's a hippo -- and that the change has taken so long, he just doesn't notice.

Eventually, we are getting better and better and the game is playing to the good. There is solace in that, but we don't have to be passive players. We can push the game to get better faster, and given the pace of global warming, we had better get on it. So I agree with Whitty in this: we do not lack incentives for this evolution. We lack leadership.

Massachusetts is the New South Carolina

2006-10-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

A new comprehsvie climate survey from the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment that shows how the cliamte here in Massachusetts will soon (by the end of this century) be on par with the climate that we're familiar with in South Carolina (from Boston.com):

"The study also predicted less snow, more extreme storms and frequent droughts -– key events that could harm tourism, agriculture and the region's economy.

'The very notion of the Northeast as we know it is at stake,' said Cameron Wake, an author of the report and an associate professor at the University of New Hampshire’s Climate Change Research Center. 'The near-term emissions choices we make in the Northeast and throughout the world will help determine the climate and quality of life our children and grandchildren experience.' "

Global warming study: Boston temperatures could mirror highs in South

The report is available from the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment -- the report in PDF form:

Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast, a report of the NECIA

Herding the Security Cats

2006-08-23T18:57:00.000-07:00

I flew out to the west coast last weekend. The security lines were not as bad as I thought they might be, but I flew out of Providence instead of Logan to avoid the real mess (and possibly loose concrete ceiling panels). Here's a quick report:

First, I saw perhaps a half dozen people on four flights with drinking bottles: water, gatorade, iced tea. Second, on two flights, there were passengers that insisted on talking on their cell phones long after the atttendants asked for them to be turned off. Third, I sat next to a lady doing needle point -- she had a pair of scissors.

Now, I'll admit that I find the security rules to be ridiculous. But to see these completely unnecessary violations of protocal really made me think: the US will never be safe because we are too spoiled to allow rules to govern our lives. Even rules that might save our lives.

One fellow with a cell phone (vulgar, annimated, and loud) was talking to a friend (?) about skateboarding and a skatepark he had recently seen. Dude, it was f-ing this and f-ing that. Totally!

I mentioned to one young lady with the bottle of water (which I'm quite sure was vodka): "Wow, you brought on a bottle of water." And she replied, "Yeah. Did I do something wrong?" I said, "No, I guess not if you're thirsty." Then she and her husband ordered tomoato juices and poured in some of the "water". Cheers!

Am I a wuss for thinking that I should follow rules I don't agree with -- for the safety and respect of my fellow passengers? It makes you feel like they'd deserve whatever they got. Except I'm on the same f-ing plane. Dude.

Peak Oil Is No Myth

2006-07-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

A very interesting debate between progressive thinkers on Peak Oil going down -- Greg Palast and Richard Heinberg:

Why Palast Is Wrong

An Open Letter to Greg Palast on Peak Oil

I guess this is in anticipation of a new book from Palast -- the BBC reporter who did so much work to get at the facts of the Florida Election debacle (in his earlier book, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy "). It sounds like Greg is splitting hairs on this, but it reminds me a lot of the spin-spin and counter-spin that added to the confusion around, for example, Global Warming (oh, it's not real, scientists disagree about it, it's effects are exaggerated for political reasons, etc.).

Cause it sounds like they agree on the big issues: conservation, alternative energy sources, environmental impact of a fossil fuel economy. Palast simply seems not to buy the fact that we are quickly running out of crude -- the rest appears to be a conspiracy (oil co's, govt, etc).

It's clear: the last barrel of oil is gonna be a whole lot harder to get than the first. Peak Oil is the point at which we have consumed as much as is left in the ground -- but we'll never get the total of the "second half". It seems important to understand this if we are to plan and manage a better scenario for the future. Even if we don't agree with an "oil crash" or other slightly more "apocalyptic" future-views, we can see the very serious implications of a country like China or India driving energy markets to price extremes that will make our economy strain.

While it's important to manage our fears, and check our businesses and government; it's more important to stay clear about the facts and focus on the truth. Eyes open folks; keep em open.

A Movie with Gore

2006-06-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

Went to see "An Inconvenient Truth" tonight. A great movie and a great story. I had discussed the movie previous to seeing with a friend who was rather annoyed by two things: that it was "all about Al Gore" and that Gore used a Mac -- the constant product placement. Well, of course, Al Gore happens to be on the board at Apple Computer, so the product placement is rather a given (especially since the movie is basically about the "slide show" he has on his computer). But the personal stuff is the story in the movie -- I don't think the movie would have felt like a movie without that narrative. It would have felt like a slide show.

The scariest thing was the data graph showing the rising levels of CO2 -- when Al Gore gets on this electric lift so he can point out the "spike". Here is the study, conducted by a group from the University of Bern, specifically cited by Gore:

From a BBC News article:
"We find that CO2 is about 30% higher than at any time, and methane 130% higher than at any time; and the rates of increase are absolutely exceptional: for CO2, 200 times faster than at any time in the last 650,000 years." (Thomas Stocker, study leader)

CO2 levels are higher than at any time in the last 650,000 year. Ack! And not just a little bit higher, but nearly 30-percent higher than at any time during that period. This is not a piddling look back a few hundred years, or even a few thousand years -- but over half a million years. Our civilization is just over 2000 years old. Our species is likely about 200,000 years old. We have never ever faced a crisis like this. Ever.

These are recorded levels (the lift is used to get to the predicted increase over the next fifty years); it gets pretty vertical!

Reading some of the blog posts in reply -- some millions or billions of years ago, CO2 levels were thru the roof. Al Gore is a nut case; he's Chicken Little. But the 650,000 year time frame is pretty much coincident with the appearance of our "species branch": modern man. Homo sapiens heidelbergensis dates back to approximately 800,000 years at the extreme. We have never lived through a geologic change of this scale.

The question is: why should we not do everything we can to assure that our species survives? That civilization can move forward beyond the next two generations? Why dismiss this?

One scene in the movie, Gore shows a slide that he says was from a Republican "slide show". It shows a scales with the word "Balance", and in one pan is a pyramid of gold bars, and in the other is the globe (I think representing "environmentalism"). Economy vs. ecology. Will some please explain to the Republicans how this is supposed to balance?

In the end, this is a very personal story; the movie was right about that. Even though it is a story that may touch and affect more than 9 billion people in less than fifty years, it is personal on a global scale. Each of our actions will have an intense and direct affect on everyone else. The politics of this are clear, too; as Robert Green Ingersoll famously said, “In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences.” The scale of those consequences are now readily apparent.

So I take the story very personally, too. And, hey, I get to write this blog on my very own PowerBook -- looks just like Al's.

Tech Support Guaranteed to Frustrate

2006-06-12T15:59:00.000-07:00

From today's Boston Globe, an article by Keith Reed -- what's wrong with this concept:

"Next time your cable service is on the blink, log on to your computer instead of picking up the phone to get a little customer satisfaction. You might have to wait less to chat with a human being who can fix your problem than to talk with an agent on the phone. And they may be better equipped to help you."

What you don't see is the half-page photo-illustration in the paper edition: a man with a a notebook computer says, "My cable stopped working". Below, a service rep replies on another laptop, "Your cable modem appears to be swtiched off". An impossible scenario. Think.

You also don't see that on the front page is a little banner ad that reads "Online technical chat sessions are allaying computer angst".

Yeah, that's right. What if your cable service is your internet service? If your cable is out, how ya gonna chat? Wait less? Man, you are gonne be waiting a real long time. Didn't anybody catch this in editorial? I hate reading illogical twists like this -- especially since I've provided tech support on some fairly large scales. I know some nutty executive is going to try to convince his/her company to do away with phone support based on articles like this (I know cause it has happened to me).

What's worse is that the article is about ComCast, a company that I have to deal with almost daily, and a company that has just awful tech support. They are almost telling you that you need DSL or some other ISP if you expect support on your cable TV or phone service.

Stop the insanity.

Planet TV on Global Climate Change

2006-06-11T22:28:00.000-07:00

I got hooked on this video podcast show some months ago cause it was funny and truly interesting. I was discussing global dimming with some colleagues, and one of my co-workers suggested I check out the show.

Admittedly, sometimes, they have crazy robot projects or people retrofitting jet engines on motor scooter. But Episode 172 was different -- an editorial on Gloabl Climate Change.

There’s a lot of head-in-the-sand behavior going on about so many things. The legacy we’re leave to the next generation is shameful — and I mean our environmental, ecomonic, and political legacy. And more so because we have been *consciously wreckless*.

If this doesn't explain the issue and the imperative for a change in our behavior as a species, then nothing will. Check out this show:

Click to watch the QuickTime movie
Transcript here.

Worst President Ever

2006-04-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

The Worst President in History?

You're Not the Decider of Me

2006-04-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

Bush: 'I'm the decider' on Rumsfeld

"I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best."

What an idiot. Does anyone else think he sounds like Ralph Wiggum?

Well, I guess so!

"I don't appreciate the speculation about Don Rumsfeld; he's doing a fine job; I strongly support him."

Don't appreciate? Didn't he say nearly the same thing about "Brownie"? So what is a decider, you ask?

Machine that always halts

It's almost funny.

Kunstler's Long Emergency

2006-03-18T14:10:00.000-08:00

Just finished reading "The Long Emergency" by James Howard Kunstler, a very-very dark look forward to a time when we begin to run out of oil; ie. in about thirty years.

We will soon (or have already) gone past the point of "global oil peak" -- the halfway mark when we have consumed as much oil as is left in the ground. but, as Kunstler points out, the half we got is the easy half, the second half is going to be harder to extract and of much lower quality. There are no "hybrid" airplanes. Everything that's made from plastics or machined with power tools is about to become much more scarce. Our global economy is about to hit a giant speed bump.

When oil was first pumped in 1859, the poluation of the US was around 30 million, and the world population was around 1.2 billion. The population of the US has increased ten-fold in 150 years. The world population has about tripled. Kunstler makes it clear: these increases are sustained only by the massive use of cheap oil. The loss of fossil fuel on a population totally dependent on it results in: famine, disease, strife, and unrest. The past gave hints of the future: remember the gas lines? rolling black-outs? What happens to people working or living in 30-story skyscrapers when the power goes out?

Before we started pumping it, there were about 2 trillion barrels of oil in the planet. The world currently consumes about 84 million barrels per day; it will consume 103 million barrels per day by 2015, and 119 million barrels in 2025. At some point it will take more energy to extract the oil than is recovered; at which point we will be, essentially, out of oil -- we will never really recover all the oil in the planet. This oil was like an endowment; we could have invested it in something that would generate some kind of return -- we could have developed and built wind, solar, or geothermal technologies. Instead, we basically drove around a lot and burned away our inheritance.

Which sucks cause I really do like driving around a lot.

Kunstler takes it a step further -- a return to a regional economy, regional self-reliance, and regional governance. It sounds a bit like the Dark Ages run with computers. The loss of plentiful oil is double-compounded by the environmental legacy of our oil consumption: both the natural environment (global warming, industrial farming) and our built environment (suburbia, lack of mass transit). In 30 years, by the time the Long Emergency is in full swing, the world's population is expected to surpass 8 billion. One of the most thought-provoking books I've read in some time. Here's a good sampler:

An exceprt on the Rolling Stone Web SIte

Don't believe Kunstler? -- how about believing Chevron:

"It took us 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil. We'll use the next trillion in 30."

TT Turns Two

2006-03-11T18:15:00.000-08:00

I kept a little diary in my Palm when I decided to order the Audi and let go of the Mercedes:

- I ordered my TT 3.2 Roadster on January 17, 2004.
- Audi confirmed the order on the same day.
- Manufacturing scheduled for week 8/2004 (Feb 22).
- Manufacturing confirmation on January 27, 2004.
- Shipment notification from factory, March 11th.
- Arrival due into Davisville Port (RI) on March 12th.
- Released to carrier on March 17th.
- Arrival at Clair International (Boston) March 18th.
- Inspection and prep at Clair, March 20th.
- Delivery and driven home on March 22, 2004.

TT Turns Two, March 11, 2006 -- [click here for hi-res]

Since it was shipped from the factory in Gyor, Hungary, on March 11th, I think it's fair to consider this her 2nd birthday. That, plus it was such a nice day, I took the TT for a little tour with the new digital SLR and shot some reference shots that would really test the camera (chain link, wood siding, etc). I posted them on my .mac homepage, but the little wizard down-sampled the images. Click the hi-res below to get a better idea of what the camera can do (original images from the camera are 3456x2304).

Great Posts on 228 Incident

2006-02-27T13:57:00.000-08:00

Found these interesting blog posts via Misadventures in Taiwan Podcast:

228 was Chiang Kai Shek's fault!
Chiang's Grandson Suing Authors of 2-28 Report

More on ther Report itself on Taipei Times:
228 report provides food for thought

Also a link to more about the Report here:
[President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) with image of 228 victims]
Report blames Chiang for 2/28 incident

More about the 228 Incident here:
228 Memorial Museum

Screening: Hidden In Plain Sight

2006-02-21T17:02:00.000-08:00

We're screening another movie -- this one is Paul's suggestion:

Hidden In Plain Sight

"'Hidden In Plain Sight' is a feature-length documentary that looks at the nature of U.S. policy in Latin America through the prism of the School of the Americas (renamed, in January of 2001, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), the controversial military school that trains Latin American soldiers in the USA."

February 26th (Sunday) at 1:30pm.

Same deal as before: big screen, LCD projector, lots of snacks. Donna asks you bring a non-perishable food donation for the food pantry. See you then!

To Annoy or Not to Annoy

2006-02-09T18:42:00.000-08:00

Thank goodness someone is stepping up to challenge this:

Lawsuit challenges new 'e-annoyance' law

Here's what they say:

" The challenge to the 'annoy' law, filed in federal district court in Arizona, asks for a preliminary injunction barring federal prosecutors from enforcing the rule. It claims the law's invocation of the word 'annoy' is 'ambiguous, overbroad and vague' and violates the First Amendment and the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. "

Go get em. Or at least really annoy em!

[my previous post on this]

Banner Sent to the Peace Abbey

2006-02-04T08:59:00.000-08:00

The Walpole Peace and Justice Group presented the banner on the Town Common again this morning, and then sent it on to the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, where it will be on display for a while. Unfortunately (very unfortunately), we have to update the stars.

Click for a larger image

Click for a larger image

We had great supportive waves and honks -- but it seemed that more folks felt comfortable yelling obscenities today. Not sure what that says about the mood of the country. One man called us "haters". I'm not sure how or why he reached that conclusion, but it's hard to imagine that he was shouting with anything but hate in his own heart. Another man yelled, "Yeah I do hope they all come home so they can pound your f---ing a--es!". Good morning to you, too!

By this evidence, those who support our troops are all about hate and violence. If our troops are in Iraq, I sure hope they don't carry this hate. We will never win a war of hearts and minds if they do. If our troops are in Iraq, I sure hope it's not because they believe violence will turn thoughts and feelings in that country. The imposition of our will on another nation through violence is the exact opposite of liberty. So, I hope our troops are people of peace, even if we have to carry guns. I certainly hope our troops do believe in liberty, even as they work to re-shape a nation we destroyed.

One man approached us in a curious way at first and left very angry when he understood our message. He said, "you should be glad they're over there so you can be free over here". To me, that's the non-sequitur: terror, 9/11, WMDs, freedom, service, democracy -- from where I stand it seems none of those things were ever, or are yet connected by the war in Iraq. In fact, I think we are losing more freedoms here very day because of the Patriot Act, the loss of power of the FISA Court, and the imperious policies of the current Administration.

But I think it's nearly impossible, with a President who equates peace protests with enemy aid, to have people understand that I do support our troops. Not only with my tax money ($440 billion?), but also in spirit. I truly believe that if there is any good to come of the fighting over there, it's because of the good work of our troops. But that does not mean I agree with the policies (or the misguided reasoning!) that placed them there in the first place. Like Representative John Murtha, I believe that opportunity to do anything positive is, essentially, gone; we've done all we can.

But today, we actually had some people approach us in order to make donations (do we take donations?), and also to join. Working with this group continues to fuel my hope.

Best Wiki Entry Ever!

2006-01-31T16:55:00.000-08:00

I was just watching the Simpsons and homer was complaining that he could be sent to the South Pacific as a missionary becasue he did not believe in "Jebus" -- a quick Google search led to this entry:

List of neologisms on The Simpsons

Thought I'd share.

Extreme Pacifism

2006-01-20T06:51:00.000-08:00

Ah. Love it when an idea in my head is manifested somewheres by some nuts:

Non-violet Protest-bots

Of course, this is happening in Spain, and the original post is in Spanish (click image on above Engadget link for translation):

"European activists are considering to unfold robots supplied with placards to protest against the leaders of the G8. A twenty of robots of meter fifty of height, equipped with stabilizers and being able to be mounted or to be operated by remote control, will be unfolded this summer in Edinburgo, according to information of the office of communications of activistasa.
The American military are considering to unfold robots armed with machine guns to fight against the Iraqian insurgents. A twenty of robots of a meter of height, equipped with cameras and operated by remote control, will be unfolded this spring in Iraq, according to information of agency Associated Press."

ANA Project 2007

Okay you facist clowns -- try to gas these troops!

The "Annoying" Law

2006-01-15T10:12:00.001-08:00

I've had several (more like a never-ending series) of discussions with people about writing laws that require people to be "good". You can't legislate "goodness" -- it's stupid to try cause you end up with unbelievable arcane and useless laws that makes life complicated and frustrating. Like the "Blue Laws" here in Massachusetts. So I was really disturbed by this op-ed new item by Declan McCullagh on CNet:

Create an e-annoyance, go to jail

"Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.

It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.

This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison."

FAQ: The new 'annoy' law explained
Here is the language from the law:

"Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

Man, there's so much annoying crap on the internet, how they gonna make this law work? And then why have the law at all? The key is, in order to be illegal, it must be the intent of the author to annoy. It's extra strange cause it sounds like you can be as annoying as you want so long as you reveal your identity. So, you gotta just feel sorry for the guy who runs "annoy.com". I means, it's annoy-dot-com -- what else is that site gonna be about?

Or how about the "best blonde joke ever" thing? I find that whole thing incredibly annoying. But like P2P file sharing, how they really gonna root it out and completely remove it from the internet -- it's linked everywhere!

Two years in Federal prison.

Googling Winston Chou

2006-01-06T20:15:00.000-08:00

Oh no! Another Winston Chou -- and this guy is a real @-hole:

Forum on Peaceful Reunification

It's not me, Mom! I'd never accept the title of President of the Hong Kong Region China Peaceful Reunification Association. Wait. Huh? The what?

"It is an undeniable fact that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China," Chou said, noting that "the future of Taiwan only lies in reunifying with the motherland." He said the practice of the "one country, two systems" principle in Hong Kong and Macao demonstrates the tremendous success of the principle and that it is applicable to Taiwan as well.

When political toadies use words like "undeniable fact", " inalienable part", and "reunifying with the motherland", it sounds so damned sincere, right? And I guess it doesn't explain this:

Tens of thousands of people have taken part in a march in Hong Kong to demand a fully democratic political system. [BBC]
Check the Wikipedia entry
Organized by the CHRF
Also checkout: Hong Konger Front

I hope *my* posts and identity are messin *him* up! -- maybe get his butt elected President of the Hong Kong Region China Painful Re-education Association. Yeah. But, I suppose this is what I get for Googling my own name from time to time. And if you go to Google images, you'll find my long lost other-brother:

Larry Chou

The dude went to Winston Churchill High. What are the odds? And now by adding all this to my blog, I'm gonna totally screw it up. Yay! Google anarchy!

Worlds Apart Screening at WPL

2006-01-03T14:44:00.001-08:00

The screening for the movie tonight (Jan 3rd) has been cancelled. It has been rescheduled for February 7th. Below is more info from the WP&J Press Reelase:

"The Walpole Peace and Justice Group is continuing their speaker series ... at the Walpole Public Library. This month’s talk will be given by Tom Jackson. Mr. Jackson will screen his documentary, “Worlds Apart: 9/11 First Responders Against War”. The film documents his trip to Afghanistan with 9/11 first responder, Megan Bartlett. It is a brutal and honest look at Afghanistan post U.S. invasion. Mr. Jackson will allow time for a discussion after the film with the goal of presenting ideas for taking nonviolent action for peacemaking. The speaker series is held the first Tuesday of each month at 7:30 at the Walpole Public Library. All talks are open to the public and the press is always welcome."

Here is a link to the film's web site with clips and more:
Joe Public Films

Human Rights Award to Grace Wu

2005-12-29T15:03:00.000-08:00

Received this picture from my Pop, but there was not much of an explanation with it:

My mother, Dr. Grace Wu, received the Wang Kong-Lu Human Rights Award in San Diego a few days ago. I tried to Google the award, but I can't find out anything more about it anywhere's on the web. Anyone out there can explain it? Please send me a comment to this blogpost.

Congratulations and thanks, Mom, for your inspiration and dedication!

TimePhiz X-Post

2005-12-27T18:46:00.000-08:00

A little rant on the other blog ...
NSA and CIA for Kids (click)

While I was posting this, my cousin Jen called, and we talked about the "idea" of NSA and CIA web sites for kids. I mentioned that there were a couple other sorta controversial sites for kids, but I couldn't think of examples for a few things. Well, Jen, here is one:

FEMA for Kids

Here's some great commentary by Linton Weeks from the Washington Post via the Winston-Salem Journal (hey, Winston):
"The government also uses scaredy-pants tactics with young folks. The Federal Emergency Management Agency Web site for kids, for instance, features a hermit crab mascot named Herman, who, when faced with flood or fire, scurries like a scared crab to find a new shell to hide in. Couldn't the mascot be a wise, muscular Saint Bernard that helps people in disasters?" read more (click) ...

Also, the site that stuck in my mind as the "mother of stupid government web sites" is ready.gov -- you know, the web site that spawned all the duct-tape and plastic nuttiness:

ready.gov

Although it seems to be toned down a bit now -- I remember that it was quite a bit sillier. For example, I can't find the "burning man" graphic any more (yeah, that's right, I downloaded and saved all the little graphics!). Also, I've always thought that in the "car with explosion on the horizon" graphic, the arrow should have formed more of a U-turn. It's hard to say if the dead bird and fish are a sign of a bio-hazard, or are themselves a bio-hazard. In any case, it's truly something to stand and consider, hand to chin. Keep in mind that our tax dollars are paying for all these useful web sites. And, hey! Ready Kids is "coming soon"!

Baking and Games

2005-12-17T16:51:00.000-08:00

Today, Ethan and Lydia came down and spent the day. It's been a while since I truly broke out my "inner asian tourist" and went nuts with the camera (click on the thumbnails below for a bigger image). So we planned a ton of fun stuff to do. First, Donna and Lydia made a bunch of Christmas cookies! From our ever-growing cookie cutter collection, Lydia selected fish, angels, and other shapes. The sweet smell of sugar quickly filled the house.

Here's Lydia carefully cutting and shaping the cookies. We had shredded coconut, M&Ms, peanut M&Ms, little dark chocolate chips, and a lot of icing. Before lunch, we had enough time to cut the shapes and get some cookies onto the cooling racks.

Pizza for lunch! Laying on pepperoni; checking the final product. We made two gourmet pizzas and loaded on the toppings. Hoo-boy! Pizza and cookies are the foundation of any good day.

Sugar high with Mr. Peanut; Ethan and Mom jammin Gran Turismo. We setup the Momo force-feedback wheels and went a little nuts! The best racing was actually with multi-colored Austin Mini's on the Alpine Mountain course in GT3. They were like riding bikes after driving race-prepped C5-R Corvettes around the Speedway. Much time was spent going the wrong way and driving into each other.

After the Patriots game got started (and the traffic around Gillette cleared), Ethan and I went to the batting cages in Wrentham and did some hitting. Aunt Peggy -- he insisted on wearing his Seattle Mariners hat. I'm not sure I about that! But when we got home, we watched the Pats finish off the Bucs. Wow. The Patriots are looking good down the stretch!

Check the whole photo album on my .Mac HomePage:
View the album and click the button to start the Slide Show.

Peace Banner Unveiled

2005-12-10T12:52:00.000-08:00

The big snow storm did little to dampen the enthusatic presentation of the Peace Banner on the Walpole Commons this morning. A big, energetic group of people, some very young and some a little less young, gathered to voice their opposition to the on-going military action in Iraq.

With all hands on deck, the banner went up very quickly. Bright ski pants and hot coffee helped!

Once assembled, it wrapped the corner with 2135 stars; one for each casualty in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Though just a bit chilly, there were only little breezes. Here the banner wraps back toward the Post Office.

The folks at the corner kept the energy level high, and there were lots (lots!) of supportive waves and honks.

Even from across the street it was hard to take it all in; the banner was quite long, and made a strong statement of the scale of sacrifice made by the soldiers there.

It was actually lucky that the sun was at our backs; it kept us very warm. The white-on-white effect may have to be considered if we are to present the banner again -- hopefully we won't get 10-inches of snow each time!

It was an awesome morning; great to meet so many like-minded people and feel some supportive spirit from the people in town, too. I heard that one fellow stopped to say that we should not use the names of volunteer soldiers and later had a policeman check to see if we were blocking traffic. An interesting point, but of course, an all-volunteer military would not necessarily include reservists who never expected to be on hostile foreign soil. A few passersby did stop to chat; one small, older woman in particular crossed the street and let us know she shared our sentiments. She had a low, quiet voice, but her energy was strong. That was really moving and it made my day! I hope someone offered her some hot chocolate.

Time Phiz Blog Is Up

2005-12-09T16:53:00.000-08:00

Created a second blog for the TimePhiz project:
http://timephiz.blogspot.com/

Letter to the Editor

2005-12-06T18:15:00.000-08:00

Tonight's presentation at the Walpole Public Library was atonishingly powerful. Dr. Nancy Hendrie came and spoke about her amazing work in Cambodia. This is a country that has some of the worst poverty in the world, and the images and stories she shared were hearbreaking:

The Sharing Foundation

Also, received this via e-mail; it was written by a member of the Group (not me) ...

"Dear Editor of the Walpole Times,

The Walpole Peace and Justice Group has prepared a banner with 2129 stars, each bearing the name of a US soldier, killed in the Iraq war. The act of creating this banner was a moving experience as we placed each star and name and recognized the magnitude of the loss. 2, 129 of our service men and women and over 100,000 Iraqi people have died in this war. Unimaginable destruction, prisoner abuse, botched reconstruction, manipulation of the Iraqi press, chaos and the threat of civil war, all of this the US has brought upon the people of Iraq. The Iraq war has also resulted in a world wide increase in anti American sentiment and threat of terrorist attacks. One must be outraged as evidence mounts that the Bush Administration manipulated intelligence data to justify the war. No weapons of mass destruction, no evidence linking 9/11 or Bin Laden to Sadam Hussein have been found. The continuing presence of US military forces in Iraq now serves as a lightening rod and is counterproductive in resolving the disorder there. The United States should pull our troops out of Iraq now.

The banner representing the 2,129 US dead in Iraq will be held at a peace vigil on Walpole Common this Saturday, December 10th from 10 AM to Noon. The public is welcome to join us, to see the banner, and to call on the Bush Administration to bring our troops home now!"

The Corporation Movie

2005-12-04T17:09:00.000-08:00

Wow. Still sort of recovering from our "Corporation" gathering -- it's a long movie that just *dense* with information. A great movie and a wonderful group gathering -- thanks to all who came and participated. I hope we all agreed that the best action, to start, is to try to find ethical corporations and encourage that kind of corporate behavior. Here are two places to start:

Co-op America
No Sweat Apparel

Started my day by reading an interesting article in the Boston Globe South (click to link article). The article is about Phil Dunkelbarger, Democrat from Westwood, running against Rep. Stephen Lynch. A short e-mail conversation followed, and it looks like I'll be helping his campaign. Another project! But how could I *not*? Click to find out more about Phil and his campaign.

Phil and Lois called with news -- the banner is really coming along. And next Tuesday the Walpole Peace and Justice Group is hosting an event with Dr. Nancy W. Hendrie of the Sharing Foundation. Click here for the press release.

And next weekend is the peace vigil and the presentation of the banner -- can't wait! Click here for the press release.

It feels like things are starting to happen.

Peace Banner: A Field of Stars

2005-12-03T15:28:00.000-08:00

The Walpole Peace and Justice Group is making a banner with the 2100 names (approx, from the list published Nov 26) of US soldiers killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) on a field of stars.

Shiela and Lois consider the banner fabric and structure; Paul arrives with David and the stars from the copier.

The ladies begin trimming the sheets; Barry steps in to supervise.

Laying out the field of stars on the first two banners.

Applying the names of the soldiers.

The stars and names on the first banner are finished and it looks really great. As we applied the names, Donna and I read them off -- click here to link to the database. 2330 coalition casualties as of today -- tho not all the names have been published. I'm very afraid we'll have to do some updates before we present the banners to the public.

I started a blog today.

2005-12-02T11:10:00.000-08:00

I started a blog today. Unfortunately, I don't have much to say. There are a couple of big events coming up in my life, and I'll post news here about them:

- I joined a local peace group and we're protesting the war
- Been trying to start a grassroots effort to make the world better
- Working on a project to make technology accessible to teachers

So I decided to document these events and write some stuff down. That, plus I wanted to post some replies to moderated blogs.

Click here to join us for a screening of "The Corporation", Sunday, December 4, 2005.