Breaking Troupes

This is the insanity I saw during my very first visit to California:

Berkeley Radicals

I expected to meet the illiberal Left (Stalinists) at Berkeley’s BART Train platform. Instead, I proceeded without incident to take a selfie at UC Berkeley’s Free Speech gate, wearing F-16 jet shorts draped in the American flag. I realized that Milos Y. might actually be a provocateur.

Gender as fluid as the San Francisco Bay

Even UC Berkeley didn’t have “gender neutral” bathrooms. Around the area, there were Womens’ rooms, Mens’ rooms, and unremarkably unisex water closets. Exception is the deYoung museum, which has a “gender neutral” restroom, which is basically a co-ed facility like one would find in a European youth hostel.

Environmental Fascism

Foie  Gras and fur may be out in San Fran, but plastic bags can still be procured at ten cents’ tax. Highway tolls are few and far between, even the long Oakland Bay Bridge merely levied a $7 toll, single driver, during rush hour. Many streets in central SF are set up as one-way arterials for the purpose of moving vehicular traffic. In Washington, D.C., Mayor Bowser has “de-commuterized”
several streets, with traffic-calming measure, in booming mid-city neighborhoods.

Tech Bro Colonizers

They exist, they ride exclusive commuter buses, but they blend in with the urban fabric as well as other urban professionals. Hard to get a table at a ‘hip’ restaurant, though.

Mass transit is falling apart and everyone must ride Uber

BART’s 50-year old Transbay tubes are undergoing major renovation, practically ending subway service at 8pm. But the system, and the MUNI streetcars, earn their keep during the daytime hours, with frequent and fairly comprehensive service. With just 36 stations, the SF Bay Area’s  BART falls well short of counterpart Washington DC’s 90+ station Metrorail. Put on some walking shoes.

Oakland is a war zone

The city across the bay is working to find its groove. Street life leaves much to be desired, but increase in new residents will create a demand for shops and restaurants.

Palo Alto Snobs
The students at Stanford University’s suburban-style campus were quite friendly. Education still has meaning besides a means to a financially rewarding end.

Crippling taxation
As a visitor, yes San Francisco was expensive, but less so than a Western Europe’s destination city. New Yorkers tell me that their City is a great place to visit, but that living there is expensive. I conjure the same about San Francisco. Several restaurants and shops itemize a 5% levy to cover healthcare costs. I ate in more than I usually would on travel.

School's Fun

Today was my first full day of school since May. The transition wasn't too hard, as I'd spent plenty of hours this summer at the Abbey kicking around the soccerball. What took me back was my realization, on the Metro ride home, that I'd just spent sunrise to sunset at school. I ought to not have been; the administrators assured us 1st semester seniors that we'd have enough to do.

There is a good shot I missed out this season's issue of prime lockers (24 cubic feet) and settle for one half the size. I mean , there were about 18 Seniors eligible (i.e. currently play a sport and allege that a regular locker would not fit their sporting equipment)for the 22 units. I sense that the Juniors took a few of them nefariously. What I get now is a good selection of neighboring real estate.

(As a matter of micropolitical correctness,I'll add commentary on other subjects later).

In AP Biology, there was a sense that memories- from Freshman Biology- last: the teacher recalled JH, now a student gov't leader, machoing his lab partners on his ability to tolerate the stench before he himself got woozy on formaldehyde.

We participated in a great textbook issue. For the first time, the textbooks really feel like 20th century technology. In recent years, we have saved our backs with online editions for home use. However,many conceded that this is the year we should've transitioned to e-readers. In the Pub(lications Lab, two seniors were hashing out our class' eternal keepsake, the yearbook, and two other leavers were working on the glossy-paged periodicals we kindly critiqued award-winning literature. I received my first homework assignments of the year. As a matter of good policy, I made at least a token effort to complete the assignments before starting the weekend.

In IE (intro to engineering), I'm earning credit for what I do on my own: think of how to make things work. For the team portfolio (a semester-long lab report, in other words), I'll have to insert some calculations. I think the more tedious they look, the better it will be received by the PhD. Certain that the Doctor wouldn't approve of any idea we generated on day 1,I left good sketches in my notebook for closer to the first advisory grades. The details of these, and of many of my and my classmates' maligned and horrid ideas will remain sealed until presentation day in December.

Got a Job

"There is the f(x) club. You see, you need to be a function to get in this club. If you fail the vertical line test, you have to stay out on the street. Now inside this club there's a special room. VIP lounge. Call it what you want. But only one-to-one functions are allowed inside".- From MCAS (Mr. C------ Appreciation Society), a Facebook group.

On Friday, the last day of class instruction for Juniors, the Headmaster posted the list of leadership assignments. The plebicite-elected, Admin approved presidents, designated House Heads and social chairs. Up for grabs- publicity and treasurer. Later that day, up went page two, listing the school media positions. Yearbook was predictable; our in-house shutterbug and technoratus got his due. The RA- resident artist (specializing in pen drawings and dermal doodling) made it a team. THe key to the Priory Press (student publication) was given to the three people who I knew to have applied. That would be the stellar writer and SAT smasher (I've heard rumors of a perfect score!), a prolific web-writer, and myself. I admit, I am a prolific webwriter as well. So who's an Editor and who's Staff?
That's something we'll probably be discussing.

Happy Birthday, Augustus!
Happy May Day.

Cautiously Pessimistic

The Denny's disaster of a nationwide dusting of snow, significant enough to close school, but not enough to scare drivers from driving, did not happen. And a snow day for the central DC region tomorrow, according to my books, may not happen tomorrow. Let me tell you- a lot of the weather tonight will be what a lot of kids call dismal- the weatherman(or woman)predicted wrong about a major snowfall.

So then, my forecast for tonight is wishy-washy. According to the national data, a significant snow is falling from Minneapolis south to Raleigh east to Boston, and north into Canada. Somehow, all this snow is to dodge the Chesapeake? The local meteorologists are calling a snow tonight, although a brief one. However, NOAA is differing. Or maybe there'll be the yink of an hour delay. After all, I do want to see little brother off.

Balt 57

One of the best thing about staying in hotels is the indigenous TV news!
Montreal somehow gets the Detroit news- how exotic- I haven't been to that part of the country in years. Watching local news that isn't national. News that is not recession-proof, and the reporters don't fake about financial tragedies and the audience can't say, "what people". Reporters who aren't invincible, smart, or even rich.
Detroit news- more closing factories, the stun-session of robberies, slaughters, and fires.

Baltimore news- a shock session of a straight line of 6 murders, not even mentioning attempts and near-fatals. Then it proceeds to national news that DC people balk at, then back to the good stuff from blue-collared Baltimore, sister of the gold-collared DC. This is what we started to get over HDTV recently, in pure color, and perfect picture, except for the occasional breaks by large jets at BWI airport. I hope that this is a permanent change- some news that makes one understand the real world.

Halloween Duties

So for last evening, I dressed like a plastic cop. No, not really, but I did make sure to take note of suspicious people who looked out of place. You see, Georgetown has a lot of rich people, and ones that aren't afraid about flashing their wealth. But the problem is that, people come across town on the bus, and take bags of candy away with them. So I noticed that the people who were in place (neighborhood kids and some friends from Arlington and up Northwest). They tended to have more success with candy-milling. But I tell everybody now, Georgetown people are getting tired of giving candy out to the whole city.

Spiffy Little Job

I couldn't find the school right off the bat. Among the towers of Bethesda was our destination.

That was yesterday, when there was a concert called "Dream Tour around the World". It was a Chinese production, portraying Chinese music, as well as Asians and everyone else performing music from all over Europe, and then, authentic Latino music, and some African drumming. But I only got to hear half of that- I had to go backstage. This was at B-CC- for those who don't know, Bethesda-Chevy Chase. Nice 2002 everything, from classrooms to expansive 1000 seat auditorium, and very, very clean- totally unlike a typical DC (or even PG) public school. Somehow, most people there are well off- there was a sign boasting a guest speaker from 'da hu' making a presentation about 'DC poverty'. What a foreign concept!

It had a feeling of an All-star school. In fact, it is America's Best High School- in 1960. 2005- it was tagged as #29, and now, #63. Cause- Ranking system gets skewed; Magnet schools are included, and the ratings are 'unbiased'; that means that the $ factor is excluded- none of the fancy toys came cheap. But Newsweek doesn't feel the need for keeping it real. I need to write my own rankings. It'll work better. Anyway, that explained the 2015 target goals posted up and down the hallways.

PS- Wilson High, situated between high-lauded BCC and Arlington's even higher-ranking HB Woodlawn, is given #386, even with the School Board's listlessness, deteriorating facilities, and violence- although not as bad as 'DC Poverty Place'. Still, it's a reductio ad absurdum.

Of Late

Jangoo introduces a new Ad service. If you let us put a standard ad on your website we will pay you upwards of 15 cents.

Jangoo also introduces a CCTV style news system for its news and the Tuck Shop. Postings to come soon staring Atticus and Augustus Sawatzki, and Massimo Pellegrini as cameraman.