Gifts for the class

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, our German class is coming to an end all too quickly. And like most of the other classes I have had at American River College, it will be sad to see it end knowing that there's a good likelihood we'll never see each other or the teacher again. She will not be teaching the second semester of German so even if any of us continue it won't be with Ms. Martin.

So it was with surprise and delight that we accepted some "remembrance gifts" from Ms. Martin. She had studied German literature in Germany and the texts for many of her classes came in the form of small (4 x 6 in) booklets originally costing about $1 to $1.50. They were inexpensive so that students could afford them and small enough that you didn't get a backache from carrying 4 or 5 around. She brought it a pile of maybe 20 of these booklets - more than enough for each of the remaining 14 students to have one. Before she gave them out, though, she pointed to me and said that she wanted me to have a certain one. If I didn't like it, I could trade.

This is the one that she held out for me: J. W. Goethe's "Satires, Farces, and Clowning Around." I feel very honored to be singled out for a specific book, especially one that is by a noteworthy writer and philosopher such as Goethe and one that is specifically about humor. (Now I once had a friend tell me that the shortest book ever written was "500 years of German Humor" but I don't believe that's true. It's just that German humor is not American humor any more than British humor is. Isn't that interesting?)

Anyway, she said we probably wouldn't be able to read our little booklets but I'm finding mine easier to read than I expected. Thank you, Suzannah Martin, for a wonderful class and for this small remembrance gift.

Warning: Shorts ahead!

Finally! I can get my shorts out of cold storage, wash the mothball smell out, and start dressing like a normal Californian. We've had some great, warm days lately but as soon as I think I'll get the shorts out, the weather turns cold and I end up wearing a warm jacket instead. But this time we're so close to May that it's got to stay warm.

And that's why!

A few days ago when Carolyn found some cassette tapes that we hadn't cataloged and added to our iTunes database, the second thing that came to mind (after "oh, no, not more tapes!") was "Do we really need to get all of these into our database?"

But with a little idle time for the computer and enough for me to sort of supervise the computer's work, I went ahead and started. With the second tape I worked on, I happened to play back some of the recording we had done. It was horrible. Then I noticed that it hadn't even gotten through the entire tape before quitting. It was then I saw that the tape was wound around and around the capstan - the piece that connects to the motor or gear and provides the power to move the tape from one spool to the other.

Immediately turning the tape player off and then carefully pulling the tape from the capstan, I was able to get the tape back in the cassette although it had gotten badly mangled. I tried playing the tape to see how badly it was damaged. The one side wouldn't move. And how did I get one side to work all right? Well, it turned out it hadn't worked right, after all.

I tried the tape on another player. Same results. I slammed the tape on a flat surface like they tell you to do for Books on Tape. Still no go.

It was time for the big guns. Radio Shack sells a repair kit for cassette tapes. I happened to have one on hand. I literally had to bust open the old non-functioning cassette, place the tape from that cassette into the brand new shell from Radio Shack. Then it was just a matter of putting things back together so that I could recopy both sides of the newly rebuilt cassette.

Now I know why I'm spending time archiving these fussy tapes.

I knew it was too good to last

A few months ago I wanted to reset the clock on our electronic telephone answering machine but I couldn't find the owner's manual. I was really thrilled when I used the Internet to find the manufacturer's web site. Their customer service department had all the manuals for products that they sold. It was easy to look up the question I had or even dowwload a pdf file of the whole manual. I sang the praises of the Internet and thoughtful manufacturers.

But companies must have come to their senses and realized that they were giving away information that could just as easily be sold. When our recent purchase of a VCR happened to have no users manual in the box, I looked it up on the internet and found that I could either look at it on the server site or buy it for $38.

Now recently I tried to get a manual for our land-line wall-mounted wireless phone. The manufacturer's web site directed me to a web site named Retrevo. It was available all right, but at a price of $6. And you can't even browse in the books like you can in Amazon bookstore. I'll bet we're going to see more and more charges for information that used to be free. Good luck.

What am I missing out on?

I don't know about anyone else, but I have really enjoyed the national Do Not Call registry and the number of phone calls that I don't get to answer because they are never made. But there are loopholes that allow some callers to continue to harass us. As it says on the registry web site:

The National Do Not Call Registry does not limit calls by political organizations, charities, or telephone surveyors.

....

A telemarketer or seller may call a consumer with whom it has an established business relationship for up to 18 months after the consumer's last purchase, delivery, or payment - even if the consumer's number is on the National Do Not Call Registry. In addition, a company may call a consumer for up to three months after the consumer makes an inquiry or submits an application to the company. And if a consumer has given a company written permission, the company may call even if the consumer's number is on the National Do Not Call Registry.

One exception that really jumped out at me was "political organization". Those were really obnoxious when we held our presidential primary and they'll certainly get worse this fall. But the calls I really hate are those than hangup as soon as they hear the answering machine coming on and those that aren't on the line even if you pick up the phone on the first ring. My understanding is that an automatic dialer rings our phone then when I answer, it begins looking for a telemarketer to hand off the call. And here is where the title of this blog comes in.

As I was paying the phone bill this morning I noticed under Services Provided a service called "selective call rejection". Here was something I had been paying for as part of a package and I had no idea we had that capability. Just then the phone rang and I could see from the Caller ID that it was one of those callers who are never there when we answer and they never leave a message. It was time to try out the selective call rejection.

I looked up the instructions on the Surewest web site. Adding the latest number was easy as was turning the service on. I think I'm going to like this feature. Now, what else am I paying for but not using?

Volunteeers' Banquet

Today I attended the 34th Annual Senior Nutrition Services Volunteer Recognition luncheon. Of course for me it was my 1st Annual luncheon as shown on the certificate above. So of course I had no idea what to expect. When you're delivering Meals on Wheels from a site like Folsom which has only one driver, you just have no idea how large the program is. Even at Orangevale there were only two other routes and a dozen or so seniors who come in to eat their lunch. I have visited the kitchen in West Sacramento so I knew the program is rather large but I didn't know until today just how large.

According to the program for today's event they were honoring 758 volunteers who were involved with serving 7,219 seniors 611,193 meals during 2007. Of the 758 they didn't say how many were drivers and how many were on-site volunteers but together they volunteered a total of 68,422 hours last year or a little more than 90 hours each.



Each attending volunteer was given a goody bag of chocolate covered pretzels (that looked suspiciously like left-over Christmas candy), a certificate of appreciation, and a couple of the pins shown here.




The meal was excellent - something called Fresh South of the Border Salad. It was sort of like a fancied up taco salad with chicken. The entertainment (not unexpected for a Latin fiesta) was an authentic Mariachi band.

When I first got there, there was no one I recognized but since we were sitting by congregate meal site, I did know where I was supposed to sit. Eventually, three of the other drivers I've gotten to know as well as our informal coordinator showed up.

Nice job, Senior Nutrition Services.

Pascal's Wager - book review

Most of us have heard of the mathematician Blaise Pascal and his famous wager about belief and the existence of God. Briefly, it goes something like this:

Either God exists or he doesn't. Either you believe in him or you don't. Thus, there are four possibilities

1. God exists and you believe in him;
2. God doesn't exist and you believe in him;
3. God exists and you don't believe in him; and
4. God doesn't exist and you don't believe in him.

In the first case, assuming you also follow up your belief with good works, you are one of the chosen few and shall enjoy life everlasting with God. good outcome

In the second case, your belief in God profited you nothing except a good, clean life that has on earth its own rewards. You will also have lost the chance to waste your life in sensual and hedonistic orgies or whatever else you may wish to do. neutral outcome

In the third case God will punish your unbelief and you will burn in Hell for eternity. bad outcome

And lastly, in the fourth case you will have lost nothing in eternity and on earth you will be able to spend your time doing whatever you can do under the law and your fellow man's indulgence. neutral outcome

Clearly then, according to Pascal, the reasonable man would want to avoid Hell at all costs and live in Heaven if possible. The reasonable man can't change whether God exists or not, only whether he believes or not. So a man can pick Cases 1 and 2 or 3 and 4. Cases 1 and 2 have a good and a neutral outcome. Cases 3 and 4 have a bad and neutral outcome. That means this reasonable man will choose belief in God, cases 1 and 2.

Many people have disagreed with this argument and questioned Pascal's faith if it was based on gambler's logic. In his book Pascal's Wager, the Man Who Played Dice with God, author James A. Connor lays the groundwork for a much clearer understanding of the background and context of the wager. We learn, for example that Pascal was a very, very devout man who took his religion so seriously that he labeled the Jesuit order of the Catholic Church "lax" because they were too "easy" on sinners. Pascal felt that belief should come from the heart but with his Wager example he felt that one could also justify belief solely on rational grounds. The book presents a window into how serious the French took matters of religion and morality. And it explains how Pascal almost by accident fell into the science of statistics and expected outcomes which underlies gaming and gambling.

The book also gives us much to think about regarding the separation of church and state which seems to be in question nowadays. In 17th century France there was no separation which meant that the church meddled in matters of government and the King meddled in affairs of the church. It indeed goes both ways.

I would have liked more discussion of Pascal's contribution to science and mathematics but the author chose to fill in areas that are less well know. It was, in any case, an interesting biography of Pascal. A good read.

German class winding down

The semester is rapidly coming to an end as we have only 3 weeks of class left before the final. And it seems that with each passing day, our class gets smaller and smaller. No there are more than 3 students left but I couldn't get the whole class to pose. I think we're down to 11 from an initial count of 30 plus. Such a drop out rate must make it difficult to plan for. It certainly makes it difficult for the teacher to plan assignments. For example, one of our final projects was to be group presentations but with so few in the class the groups will all be just 2 members. On the other hand, the students benefit from having a lower student to teacher ratio because we all get to speak more often and practice our newly developed language skills.

Assembly line cooking

Feeling a little like a lonely little onion in a petunia patch (no one under the age of 80 will get catch that allusion) I attended Relief Society Enrichment Night tonight to learn why and how to do assembly line cooking. Several companies are actually making money by hosting such assembly lines and there are dozens of books and blogs celebrating this new way of cooking.


The basic idea is to cook more efficiently by cooking 3 or 4 or 6 times one normal recipe and then freezing the result so that you have 3 or 4 or 6 ready-made meals waiting for you in the freezer. Many recipes lend themselves to this sort of mass production such as a cheesy chicken pasta casserole that the young lady is making while her sister is explaining some of the finer points of shared mass production. By making a whole day of it and by making it a social occasion with a sister, a friend, even your husband, you can get even more mileage out of the experience.

We were treated with samples of dishes that these women have cooked for their family, handouts giving great substitutions, and tips such as using #10 cans to hold up the gallon plastic Ziploc bags for easier filling. All in all it was a good presentation.

I would be even more excited about trying it out if (1) we had more family recipes that lent themselves to this method; and (2) we had any space at all in our freezers to store completed meals. Until then I'll just have to think of assembly line cooking as preparing leftovers ahead of time.

Supply and demand

I received an email today that makes me wonder about the quality of education in the U.S. Like most such SPAM messages, it depends on the exponential growth of contacts if everyone contacted contacts X more where X is greater than 1. And the message makes absolutely no sense otherwise.

Subject: Dropping Gas Prices THIS IS NOT THE 'DON'T BUY' GAS FOR ONE DAY, BUT IT WILL SHOW YOU HOW WE CAN GET GAS BACK DOWN TO $1.30 PER GALLON. ...

I've deleted several lines of "we can do it, you can do it, we can make a difference" (what I call cheerleading propaganda) the note finally gets down to business.

...

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace..not sellers. Apparently this person did not learn anything in Economics. There are Buyers' markets where the buyers do indeed control the price. But there are also Sellers' markets where the sellers set the price and terms. Sellers' markets are usually the result of more demand than supply. With our current addiction to oil products including gasoline, for the forseeable future, we will be dealing with a Sellers' market.

The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.
How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas.

But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL.

If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices.
If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

Since the author of the plea has already admitted we're not going to buy less gas, just switch pushers, why should the companies who are now seeing MORE customers lower their prices? That makes no sense at all. In fact, they could raise their prices until someone writes another goofy note naming their company as the villain du jour.

The rest of the note simply deals with the wonders of exponential growth, again in a cheerleading manner.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!
I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) .. and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x10 = 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers.
If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!

If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all!

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

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

I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you!
Acting together we can make a difference.

If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $2.00 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK

Keep it going!!!

If you get a message like this, I hope you do what I did, namely bounce it back to the sender with a suggestion that they read what they're forwarding and think it through.

Customer Loyalty packages

It is so refreshing for a salesperson to look up your records as you come to the cash register and tell you, "You know, you could be paying as much as $37 dollars a month less than you are now. Would you be interested in signing a 1 or 2 year contract? She then pulled out a schedule of reduced package rates designed to meet every customer's needs while actually lowering the annual costs. It's nice to see that they actually do care about what customers are paying and how we could lower our bills.

I had this happen to me recently when I was at the Surewest Customer Service office exchanging some equipment. She went on to explain that these prices were called "Customer Loyalty" rates and the sales staff just loves them. She said it seems wrong to offer new customers deep discounts to lure them away from the competition but do nothing for the old customers who are being wooed away by other companies offering deep discounts. It will probably only last for 6 months or a year at most but I can live with that.

Storybook wedding

(click on invitation to read it easier)

From the first, you could tell it would be a fairy tale story, the kind you could read to your kids evening after evening. After all Tami had been looking for a "perfect" husband for several years and Jim had been in a blue mood ever since his wife decided she didn't want their marriage to continue. What if these two young people were to get together. They had lots going for them including being in the same church congregation, in fact singing in the same choir.

We were really excited when we heard that they had gotten engaged and so supportive of the idea that we even offered our back yard for the wedding and reception. Of course, at that stage in the planning it was going to be "just a few people" with the number "less than forty" floating around. By the time of the actual wedding, the number had grown to over 100 so we were glad they had turned down our offer of the back yard.


The decor of the cultural hall was Princes and Princesses, grand ballrooms, and pink rose petals. In front of each seat around the tables was a small (2 inch long) glass slipper with a mesh bag of candy which had no discernible taste as far as I could tell.

Although the groom and others of the wedding party were mingling with the crowd, there was no sign of the bride.

Then on the DJ's cue, the youngest of Tami's sons came marching down the aisle holding a pillow with a silver slipper on top.


He was followed by the flower girl and the bridesmaid.

So we had the flower girl, the bridesmaid, the bishop, the groom, and the slipper carrier all waiting. But for what....? At this point Marcus, a good friend of the groom's, carefully took the slipper and began looking at the feet of all the women in the room and visually comparing them to the slipped. The comparisons were superficial and rapid but got the point across that the prince was looking for his Cinderella. Marcus was getting more and more frustrated when suddenly the curtains on the stage opened and there was our beautiful bride - wearing, of course, only one slipper.

Marcus, after putting the slipper on Tami's foot, ran back to inform Prince Jim, who told him to bring the Princess to him at once so they could be married.


So Tami's escort and oldest son brought the lovely Tami down the aisle to join the rest of the wedding party.


For the next 10 to 15 minutes Bishop Smith presided over the actual marriage ceremony and concluded with a brief exchange of rings and an introduction to the congregation of Mr. and Mrs. James Swihart.


This was followed by people taking pictures of the new bride and groom while they posed kissing;


or just standing;
or dancing, exhibition type and otherwise.


There was plenty of food that not only looked great but tasted wonderful.


And a wedding cake that was absolutely gorgeous and wonderful tasting. Of course I would say that about a chocolate and pudding cake.

Jim and Tami enjoyed cutting the cake and feeding a piece to each other. They didn't really try to smear it on each other's face but the size they were feeding made it almost impossible to get cleanly in a mouth.

We were all having such a good time that we were surprised to suddenly hear that gonging of a bell and the DJ announcing that Cinderella and her Prince had to leave before the 12th chiming of the bell. Jim took Tami by the hand and, waving good-bye to us, escorted her quickly from the hall leaving the rest of us to wind the celebration down. It was a well planned and well executed party. Thanks Jim and Tami and all those who made it possible!!

We have HOW MUCH Music?

It has been a while since I synchronized my iPod so I was a little surprised when iTunes started up and I saw that we had 7,000 songs! That many songs is apparently equivalent to 17.4 days of non-stop music without repeating anything and it takes up 22.45 gigabytes on our hard drive. I find it interesting to see how varied our music is although we probably have more Children's music that most people would. I thought we'd really be heavy in the Country/Western but we actually have almost as much Jazz as Country.

It is so nice to have all our music backed up on the computer and indexed for the first time. I just wish there was a way to do that with our piano music. I could scan every page but that would ruin some of the books, I'm afraid.

Carolyn just found 32 more cassettes that I need to rip into iTunes. Will I ever get done with this project?

Customer Service

One of the things I really like about our telephone/cable TV/internet provider is that they have a fairly convenient customer service office open from 9 to 6 daily. If you have a cable TV box that you think is not operating, you can phone for service and set up an appointment for a service person to come out, test and replace the offending box. Or you can simply take the suspected box into Surewest's customer service office and receive an across the counter replacement - FREE. And they take the customer's word that something was wrong.

When recently our flat screen TV developed a buzz in the right audio channel, we were concerned that we'd have to haul it back to Costco and we had just disposed of the packing box. Well, my son Steven worked on it with me to the point where we thought the problem was in the cable box. It appeared to give out a bad right audio signal or none at all.

The next day that I had time available, I took the box to Surewest's customer service center and easily and quickly had a replacement box. Back home I plugged it in and ... same problem. I couldn't believe that there would be two boxes broken in that particular way but no other explanation made any sense. Then I noticed that the new box had come with a cable that included an S-Video connection. So rather than using the old cable, I swapped in the new one - first without using the S-Video connection and then using the S-Video. Both modes worked perfectly.

I still can't figure out how we got it working at all with problem cables. But I don't question success and this was a success.

And the egg hatches...

A few weeks ago, Carolyn and I found a little unusual packet hanging on one of our trees in the backyard. It was about an inch long and a half inch in diameter. I tried to take a picture but the camera focused on the tile beneath the bottle. We assumed it was a chrysalis for some moth or butterfly. To find out what kind it was, we clipped off the small limb the pod was hanging onto and placed it carefully in a one quart jar which we capped and put on the kitchen counter. I thought about punching holes in the lid but decided that it was loose enough that the pod would get enough air as is.

And that was pretty much it until this morning. We had just left it alone except when we had to move the bottle to use that part of the counter. This morning, I reached to move the bottle and saw that the pod was a little ragged looking, sort of like a knitted sweater coming undone. You can see it at the top of this picture. Had we hatched a butterfly? No. Nor was it a moth. It was dozens of little green bugs about a quarter inch long and looking vaguely like miniature praying mantises. Talk about creepy.

I'd like to find out what the little fellows are and whether they're harmful or beneficial for our backyard. Can anyone identify these?

Street level viewing in Google map

I am fascinated by the satellite pictures that were merged with Google map information to provide the program called Google Earth. I've even used those photos with my geocaching hobby as it can provide information about the terrain and groundcover in an area where a cache is hidden. I had also heard that Google was driving along streets and taking street level pictures that would be merged with the Google Earth program. Then I find out that it is the Google Map program which is getting the street level pictures. I also found that it is well along the way in many parts of the country and really hit and miss in others.

Some of you might recognize this house or the Mercury parked in front of it. The picture has been taken at such a distance that it would be otherwise difficult to distinguish.

When Google Maps acts the way it should, you will get a little box with Street View in the upper right hand corner of the map view. If you're zoomed out like the above map is, you can see the area (highlighted in blue) that has already been filmed and integrated with Google Maps. As you can see, San Francisco is pretty well covered but the central valley including Sacramento hasn't even been touched.

Zooming in for a closer look you can see which streets are filmed for street level viewing (those lined in blue) and which streets aren't (the others).


Some of the pictures are wonderfully clear. This one could be used to spot a turnoff from a curvy mountain road. Even though the smaller turn off road isn't itself photographed, this picture alone would be so helpful in knowing you've found the correct road.

Google has received numerous letters and email questioning whether these pictures violate the right of privacy. Their response is two-fold: (1) the pictures are all taken from public streets and roadways during broad daylight so there is nothing they have photographed that any member of the public couldn't have seen; and (2) if they by chance photographed something that is inappropriate there is a feedback process to ask them to delete or redo the street level view in a certain area.

Last of a generation

Aunt Bessie died today or late yesterday. As I understand it, she passed away in her sleep after a pleasant day visiting with her family. She was in a nursing home recovering from a second hip fracture in as many months. And she was conscious and coherent enough to tell the medical staff that she didn't want to go through another operation.

Aunt Bessie was my father's younger sister and sole surviving member of my father's siblings. With her passing, my father's generation is now gone. We now get to consider me and my siblings as the "top of the tree" genealogically speaking. And, of course, since four of the five of us have already outlived Mother, we do wonder how much we will outlive that generation.

Aunt Bessie was always a bit of a mystery to me because she and her family seemed to be out of the mainstream. They lived in Brigham City, Box Elder County where most of the Aunts and Uncles lived in Central Utah, an easy Sunday afternoon's drive from our house. So we didn't play with those cousins nearly as much and didn't share the bonds that cousins often make.

But Aunt Bessie and Uncle Don tried to keep up with the rest of the family, attending as many family reunions and festivities as possible. It was both a blessing and a hindrance when they took on a catering business and later expanded to a reception mansion business. They were able to cater my wedding, for example, but sometimes they were booked so much that they couldn't attend graduations or weddings that they weren't catering.

Rest in peace, Aunt Bessie. You deserve it.

The 10% factor

I'll probably write about this every year because it bugs me every year. I am the Treasurer for the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library. As such it is my responsibility to gather gather annual reports from all 28 of our branch affiliates each year. Now these branch friends are all voluntary organizations organized under the umbrella of our non-profit status but staffed with volunteers just like the "big friends" or System Friends which we call ourselves. Some branches are well organized, well-oiled organizations while other branches don't even have a president, let alone a treasurer or other organizational officers. So when I ask for a report I immediately get 50% of the branches responding ahead of time and another 30 to 40% responding just on time or a couple days late. But there is always that 10% which didn't understand the request, don't have anyone to work on the request, or passed the buck to someone who didn't understand the request or doesn't have anyone to work on it. This is a recursive process designed to frustrate me no end. Each year I start earlier with my requests and this past year I even attended a branch friends meeting to give a little speech on how important these reports are. Same result.

Luckily the library administration got involved and suddenly mountains moved. It still took a couple of weeks but I finally have 100% of the needed reports! Yea!!

A present, A project

The things that we've appreciate about Steve and Lisa are that they are close enough to drop in every few weeks; that they have excellent taste in gifts; and that Steven likes to work on projects.

This time they brought for Carolyn's birthday this ceramic teapot-looking thing. We puzzled over it until they explained that it was a hummingbird feeder. Two flowers on the upper edge on the pot have little holes for the hummingbird to find the sugar water inside.


We picked a place where the birds could safely feed and we could watch them. Steven screwed the feeder as high as necessary so that I wouldn't bump my head on it. Now we'll see if they notice their new feeder.

The Burden of Bad Ideas - book review

In the first paragraph of the Introduction to The Burden of Bad Ideas, How Modern Intellectuals Misshape Our Society, author Heather MacDonald says it all:

I once asked a mother on food stamps what she would do without them. "I'd get a husband," she replied matter-of-facatly. Here was news, I thought -- a tantalizing bit of evidence of welfare's corrosive effect on the inner city family. But when I recounted this exchange in an article for one of the nation's most influential newspapers, the editor ordered me to leave it out. Quoting it, he said, would "stigmatize the poor."

I thought this was so telling as an introduction to the introduction. First of all, has anyone ever pulled Ms. MacDonald's leg? Does she take all statements from strangers at face value? Does she have any idea what it takes to "get a husband"? It certainly seems to me that MacDonald is predisposed to see "corrosive effect" where she wants to see it. There is a whole universe of follow-up questions that could be asked to clarify the situation but it is much easier to jump to the conclusion. And if a newspaper editor wouldn't let her stigmatize the poor, she would write a book to do it herself.

This attitude is perfectly representative of the rest of the book. She can't understand why we shouldn't just pull those food stamps and let women get husbands. That would solve two problems, wouldn't it? The very least we could do is to make the poor, especially the undeserving poor, feel the shame they so rightly deserve.

Another topic that she handles just as miserably is sex education. She worries that so much is spent toward teaching our youth about condom usage that no one gets around to teaching about abstinence. Yes, abstinence properly practiced would solve a lot of problems and "stigmatizing" the WOMEN who get pregnant out of wedlock would probably encourage abstinence (and reinforce the double standard) but no one yet has found a way to force abstinence in a free society, or even in fairly closed societies for that matter. Preaching abstinence and making boys and girls pledge chastity delays sex for approximately one year. That's good but then if they haven't learned about birth control, they still get pregnant before they're married. What MacDonald can't seem to understand is that it doesn't have to be either/or it can be both/and.

I'm certainly not saying that everything in the book is wrong. And the government has implemented good programs poorly and bad programs even worse but to advocate a return to the good old days when we stigmatize the poor or punish the woman for a man's lack of self control strikes me as a huge leap backwards in human social science.

Farewell & Good Luck

Roy (with blue shirt) and the Administration Managers

I rarely write about work or anything connected with it because people might take my comments the wrong way. Since I still work at the regional center one day a week, that is a bridge I don't feel like burning just yet, if ever. There is a famous story involving a blogger named Dooce who found that her fellow employees and her employer were not amused by the amusing anecdotes she told. I suspect that in her stories she took artistic license and used comedic exaggeration but the stars of such anecdotes are never amused by deviations from the truth or even deviations from their version of the truth.

But I'm writing to say farewell to Roy Doronila who will be leaving Alta California Regional Center the end of this month. He replaced me as Chief Financial Officer when I was transferred from that position to ostensibly coordinate Regional Center efforts with a proposed computer system enhancement called CADDIS. My transfer was akin to a Colonel being given a Lieutenant's job. Roy could have treated me like a Lieutenant but he never did. He gave me the utmost respect, insisting that others in the Center do the same. He made sure that I had all the privileges that I formerly had. He asked my opinion on many things and, in general, made me feel that he was glad I was still around, if only for 1 day a week. I think he fully expected me to ask for more time and I think he was disappointed when I said I needed to limit my time at the Regional Center.

Roy has accepted the position of Chief Administrator at North Bay Regional Center. He is replacing another good friend of mine Bob Hamilton who was recently promoted to Chief Executive Officer at that Regional Center. If I were 10 years younger I might have applied for that position myself. Roy told me about it about the same time he must have applied but he didn't tell me he was applying. I'm sure Roy will enjoy the change in scenery and the lower stress level of everything at North Bay. They're smaller with only two offices instead of our nine.

As I am now reporting to Roy, my job will necessarily change with his leaving. It will be interesting to see who replaces him and if I will report to the new person. If so will he or she still want me as a 1 day a week consultant I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it if it hasn't been burned it by then.

Jake's new workbook

Our grandson Jake is still at that wonderful age when working on an activity book is an adventure not "more homework" as big brother Tim describes it. After supper, I asked Jake if he had been working in the sticker and puzzle workbook he had gotten for his 6th birthday a couple of days ago. He said he had forgotten but he knew where it was.

He rushed to get it while I cleared a spot on the kitchen table for us to work. Very methodically, Jake got the book as well as some crayons and a pencil with a large eraser. He proceeded to show me the pages he had worked on and the first page that hadn't been. It was a math page where 1 truck + 1 truck = 2 trucks. I don't know what Kindergarten math grade level is but I do know that Jake didn't take the page as a insult or as an impossible task. It was just a fun activity to do with Grandpa. And Grandpa agreed.

The Top 10 Myths About Evolution - book review

The Top 10 Myths About Evolution by Cameron M. Smith and Charles Sullivan is a handy little book to hand to someone who has been convinced that evolution is wrong. Very likely they have been convinced by one of these "myths" and will recognize it easily. For example Myth #2 is called "It's just a theory." People will say that evolution is "just a theory" so scientists must not think much about it or they expect it should rank alongside other theories that might be disprove any day now. Smith & Sullivan proceed then to describe how scientific usage of the word "theory" differs from everyday usage. A scientific theory is, in fact, a paradigm for understanding the universe given what we know now. It is as close to fact as scientists get.

Another example is that "Evolution is random". Many people have latched onto this "myth" of evolution to say that we might as well think we could shake up a box of watch parts to create a watch. But a little closer evaluation of the myth shows it not to be stable enough to rest any sort of argument on. There are many definitions of random and many aspects of evolution. Some of these aspects may indeed be random in a certain sense while others are definitely NOT random. Some DNA mutations would, for example, appear to be" random" or haphazard but the effect that such mutations have on the ability of the organism to survive (natural selection) would be anything but random. Therefore, the next generation of DNA mutations would be a combination of random and non-random processes. The authors, of course, do a much better job of explaining each of the myths but then they have a whole book while I just have a small blog entry. (Not to mention that they are excellent writers.)

This book describes the following myths about evolution: 1) Survival of the Fittest; 2) Just a Theory; 3) Ladder of Progress; 4) Missing Link; 5) Evolution is Random; 6) People Descended from Monkeys; 7) Nature is in Perfect Balance; 8) Creationism Disproves Evolution; 9) Intelligent Design is Science; and 10) Evolution is Immoral.

The book is coherent and easily understood by non-scientists. It is well documented with copious end notes for each chapter. In any event, the book is a good read and a good reference book however you feel about evolution.

Wrench Retirement Plan

My cousin Gordon and I had just finished delivering Meals on Wheels and were already past the point of getting hungry. We were starved. We had decided to eat at In and Out even though it was a little out of our way. Then a couple of unusual things happened:

Stan, the older male employee at In and Out Burgers who cleans the tables greeted Gordon like he was a long lost brother. Then, after sharing a few bits of greetings and gossip, Stan moved to ensure us that we had a seat . So many people were there that it was difficult finding a seat. But we felt as welcomed as if we were members of a fancy men's club.

The second unusual thing that happened was a man that sat next to us reading while waiting for his order to be prepared. His number was called so he laid his book down and placed a large Allen head wrench on this book in the open position. When we returned we commented on his unusual bookmark. "yeh," he said, "I figured if people nowadays retired to a second career that this wrench could do the same." I enjoyed his remark enough that I asked to photograph his "second career" bookmark He couldn't even remember where he picked it up. I didn't get the man's name or address so if you recognize the wrench and want it back, Tough!

A race, A headache, A tradition: Pinewood Derby

I don't know which I hated more: as a Cub Scout getting the little box with a block of pinewood, 4 wheels, and 4 nails/axles or handing the boxes out as cubmaster. As a Cub Scout, I shuddered at the blatant competition that depended on skills I didn't have. And as a cubmaster, I felt so much pain and empathy for the kids who wouldn't have a chance to work on their own cars and might not even be allowed to hold them. So often dads think they have to take over the job of making the car or get frustrated when the kid doesn't want to shape it the way dad does. I think there's some merit in the way some packs have two races, one for the dads and one for the kids. Each can then design and race his own.

But that problem wasn't evident at the Loveridges of Sacramento. Ed made sure that Tim and Jake had plenty of input on what their cars should look like and they were tasked with all the hand sanding and painting that they could do after he (Ed) had gotten the cars in roughly the shape they would end up in. This year Tim has decided his car should look like a Number 2 Pencil while Jake is going after the Monster Car look.

Ed pretty much used the power tools in getting the blocks ready for final sanding and painting. He did let each boy try out what it felt like to use a power sander. I'm always amazed how much you can shape a block of wood with just 20 minutes and a rotary sanding drill.

More news will come in a few days if we manage to attend the actual derby.

Another Kit for Grandpa

I had so much fun putting together the cabinet in our bedroom that I jumped at the chance to put together a four-drawer unit that our son here in Sacramento purchased. Not only do I enjoy putting kits together but I enjoy the well-engineered kits from Ikea especially. And as topping on the cake, I would be able to work with my two grandsons!


As might be expected, Tim and Jake had different spans of attention but both of them were worn out by the time Ed had breakfast ready for us. We took a break for breakfast.


Then Ed helped with constructing the last half of the project. We moved it into its pre-selected spot in the boys' bedroom where it fit perfectly, of course. This was definitely one of those win-win situations that are so pleasant to experience.

Here is the chest of drawers in its place with the first fabric boxes in place ready to stow baby Camdan's new wardrobe, most of which he got from the shower at the Regional Center.

Fool Me Once - book review

Fool Me Once by Fern Michaels is the perfect book for someone who likes their mysteries to be non-violent, their suspects to be puzzling but basically good, and for everything to work out happily ever after. As a bonus, in this book Fern tries her best to make you fall in love with her fictional Yorkshire terriers. Even their misdeeds are "cute" and "darling".

I don't mean to say the book is not a fun read. It is! The heroine Olivia Lowell has what she thinks is the perfect life when the will from a dead mother she didn't know she had, arrives to completely screw up her life and force her to do things she would never have done and meet people she would never have met. Some turn out pleasant enough such as the handler of a Yorkie she is commissioned to photograph. Others like her father's girl friend keep their distance.

There are plot turns right up to the last chapter but I got the feeling it was just to keep the book a certain length. The serious plot resolution seemed to take place much too soon. On the other hand, Ms. Michaels does appear to want to tie up all, and I mean all, loose ends.

Who Am I?

This topic has been used for a workbook exercise, a hand-in essay, and an oral presentation in front of class. I'm finding this semester's Beginning German is an exercise in self-revelation. Rather than learning artificial dialogs, we are being taught how to tell people about ourselves, our needs, our interests, our desires, our family, our studies, etc. And our professor, who must have a photographic memory, has a depth of knowledge of the students in her class that is unrivaled in any other "beginning" class. A professor who has worked with a group of students for three or four semesters might start to have the same knowledge of his or her class. And profesorin Martin makes it clear that she is paying attention as she will catch us if one day we say we have three brothers and a couple of weeks later say we have two brothers, she'll ask what happened to the one brother.

It isn't quite as clear that the students have gotten to know each other better than many other classes although I think last semester's Conversational Spanish class seemed to have more camaraderie at this point in the semester than we do in German 401. Perhaps it is because we're too concerned about what we're going to say next to really listen to fellow classmates reveal themselves.

Have you ever had a class where your classmates or your teacher learned a lot about you, maybe more than you felt comfortable sharing? Does it make sense on a language teaching level to be so "I" centered?

Just Google me

I was trying recently to tell someone the name of this blog because there was a certain posting that she was interested in. After a few "use dashes between the words, not spaces" and "no, you can't put commas in", she finally asked with perfect logic "Can't I just Google you?"

"Well, yes," I responded, thinking "Why didn't I think of that?"

Well, it turns out that smart as Google is, it isn't very good at pointing at this blog. In fact, searching for (Arnold Loveridge blog) didn't produce the blog until the 15th entry. Just Googling (Arnold Loveridge) produced this blog as the 7th entry so at least it would be on the first page. Interestingly, both searches found my inactive Joke of the Day blog sooner than this active one.

So Google isn't that good at finding my blog but it is pretty good about finding and reporting on other details of my life. You might be interested in the kinds of information Google digs up with a simple search of your name. I'll detail the first 20 responses for search (Arnold Loveridge).

1. Notes that I'm an Amazon book reviewer. I've written 45 to 50 book reviews for Amazon
2. Amazon book review for a particularly controversial book.
3. My inactive Joke of the Day blog.
4. My participation in Meals on Wheels as documented in a Sacramento County meeting
5. My prize-winning short story that was printed in Sunstone Magazine.
6. A letter to the Sunstone editor I wrote trying to clear up a reader's misuse of the word homosexual.
7. The Link to this Blog
8. The cast list of Davis Musical Theater Center's production of Oliver! in which I played Oliver's kindly grandfather.
9. Old reference to my employment at the Harbor Regional Center in Torrance, now 7 years in the past.
10. Reference in fair hearing minutes to my being the acting Executive Director of Alta California Regional Center, now 4 years in the past
11. not a reference to me
12. not a reference to me but to the mayor of Riverside, California
13. 3 year old reference to my position at Alta California Regional Center
14. Reference to a short story I wrote for BYU Magazine 12 to 15 years ago.
15. not a reference to me
16. not a reference to me
17. Reference to my position in 1975 at Long Beach Community Hospital. It was a Hewlett-Packard PR piece about hospitals using computers more and more.
18. not a reference to me
19. 10 year old reference to my position at Harbor Regional Center.
20. not a reference to me

Net result from my research: It's best to tell people to Google (Arnold Loveridge blogger). My profile comes up first on the list of citations and this blog is listed among the two blogs that I have kept. I'm going to indicate the Joke one is inactive - that means that I'm not currently adding jokes but all the old ones are still there. Second result: I believe people can find out a lot about me and I don't even have a Facebook page.

Topical subjects

Sometimes topics occur to me (or are sent to me) that really only work that day or maybe the next. After that the topic is kind of like cold mush - there's still stomething there but it certainly isn't as interesting as it was hot off the stove.

Today, one of the first things I saw was an announcement from Virgin Records and Google that they were planning a joint operation to select the best crew for a Mars journey. You can see that announcement here on YouTube.

The second topic is a good explanation for why many state employees were off yesterday. Many people had no idea it was Cesar Chavez Day and even those that knew about it don't know exactly what Chavez did to warrant his own named holiday. Jack O'Connell, State Superintendent of Public Instruction (Secretary of Education) issued the following statement:

STATE SCHOOLS CHIEF JACK O’CONNELL ISSUES STATEMENT COMMEMORATING THE LIFE AND WORK OF CÉSAR CHÁVEZ

SACRAMENTO – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell today released the following statement regarding César Chávez:

“Every year on March 31^st we pay tribute to the tireless and passionate efforts of a genuine leader who gave voice to millions of Latinos in their fight for economic equality and social justice. Having had the immense privilege of knowing César Chávez personally, I witnessed firsthand his unique ability to envision a plan for change and his determination to see it through to fruition.

“His many accomplishments include his historic 1966 Peregrinación, or Pilgrimage, from Delano to the steps of the state Capitol in Sacramento to draw national attention to the plight of farm workers. He also played an instrumental role in the passage of the 1975 California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which afforded a number of basic, fundamental rights to migrant workers.

“Throughout his life, César Chávez remained fully committed to his ideals, always emphasizing the use of peaceful, non-violent strategies to bring attention to the plight of migrant farm workers. He remains an inspiration to me for his leadership and determined conviction to improve our world.

“As we near another celebration of this extraordinary man’s life, his eternal words “si se puede,” and his legacy continue to inspire people to organize and make their voices heard when confronted by inequality and injustice.”

The California Department of Education makes standards-based model curriculum on the life and work of César E. Chávez available to schools. http://chavez.cde.ca.gov/ModelCurriculum/Intro.aspx. This site also lists many resources available for the general public.

The reference at the end is a great resource for information on Cesar Chavez. I'd like to add my thanks for all that Chavez did for workers' rights. And, I appreciate the holiday.

Interesting sideline: While the head of the California Department of Education was issuing the above statement, several dozen students from area high schools were marching on the state capitol to protest the fact that state workers had the day off but schools did not. Mr. O'Connell was not amused and told the kids to get back to school. He said Chavez would have told them that. I wonder.