Honorable Mention

 About thirty years ago, when I was at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, I took an environmental law class. At the end of the class we had to write a brief and present it to a panel of volunteer judges in a real courtroom. The judges awarded students first, second, third place for the best briefs, and I had an honorable mention--for being clever.

The case we had to argue was a real one from our environmental law book--a developer had proposed a housing development in the Central Valley, and a raptor center had challenged it on various environmental and CEQA grounds. Our instructor was also clever--he assigned which side of the case we were to argue based on our opposite inclinations. Since I probably exhibited signs of populism, caring about good governance, and prioritizing environmental and people protection over developers making money at public expense, I was assigned the developer's side of the case to argue.

This put me in a difficult position. In a real job, I just would have rejected it--frankly, I felt the developer's case sucked. I saw no way to win, or even argue that side with a straight face. But as a student, I couldn't say no. I had to do it somehow.

Then I had an idea.

Graphic Novel Reviews

Our family has been reading a lot of graphic novels over the last year or two. They are mostly fun, some are absolutely brilliant, and some I don't care for that much. As we keep reading I'll add reviews to this page, from the adult point of view (my kids might absolutely love the ones I don't like that much). Watch out, there are lots of spoilers here.

The Bad Guys
This is a really fun and clever story of bad-guys-turned-good, fighting aliens. Can bad guys really become good? But really great silliness and good character development and a well-thought-out plot.

Captain Underpants
Silly, clever, inappropriate. A bad influence but good.

The Catstronauts
The Catstronauts are a cat space program that heroically accomplish important missions despite themselves. Aside from overly-simplistic plot devices (solar panels on the moon will save the Earth), and the risk that readers might actually believe the solutions are good policy ideas (they are very bad ideas), the stories and characters are well-developed and contain entertaining parallels to reality (such as a Cosmocats space program).

Catwad
Catwad and Blurmp are cats that have a crass and at times disgusting sibling rivalry. Blurmp is simple and gullible, while Catwad is manipulative and mean. You explore their toxic relationship through clever stories set in ordinary situations with hilarious outcomes. And Catwad might actually learn something once in a while from sweet Blurmp, who bumbles along cluelessly and never stoops to Catwad’s meanness.

Dog Man
The body of a cop and head of a dog are sewn together to create—Dog Man! Not my favorite, but endearing characters fighting bad guys with plenty of goofiness.

El Deafo
A deaf girl imagines herself as a superhero and discovers advantages she has that other kids don’t. Poignantly captures the feeling of being different, of worrying the other kids will judge you. A powerful story.

Glorkian Warrior
The Glorkian Warrior and his Super Backpack encounter silly alien creatures while on patrol. Lots of cleverness. I think the video game is better than the books.

Hilo
Hilo is a robot-boy who with other kids saves the world from giant robots sent to destroy it. A complex plot with twists and turns. I love the relationships between the characters. I love the real family interactions and the individual personalities of the kids’ family members. And clever laugh-out-loud silliness is on almost every page.

Johnny Boo
Johnny Boo is a ghost who hangs out with other ghosts and tangles with an ice cream monster. Not my favorite.

Princess in Black
Keeping monsters from eating goats and keeping their superhero identities secret occupy these princesses, goat herders, and others.

Totoro
This beautifully-illustrated magical fantasy is set in Japan. The movie is even more amazingly wonderful--the best animated/kids film I've ever seen.

Learning about equity from Monopoly

In recent months, when I played Monopoly with my kids, I realized how insidious the rule is that you don't have to pay someone who doesn't notice that you landed on their property. That rule encourages dishonesty and bad sneaky behavior--and could be responsible for the downfall of western civilization. Wait, never mind, the me-first capitalist mindset preceded Monopoly. But still, we don't play with that rule so as not to encourage dishonesty--at least while they are young and impressionable.

Coronavirus Pandemic Misinformation and Mislabeling and Musings

First of all, I want to start by expressing gratitude and appreciation for everyone that is leading us through these uncharted waters. Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement and better ideas, and I may have a few here. Or maybe not.

Social Distancing
"Social distancing" has been with us for over two months, but it is an inaccurate term. In the age of social media, "Physical distancing" is much more accurate and it is nice to see many people and agencies switching to this term.

Shelter-in-place
It has been six weeks since the poorly-named "Shelter-in-place" orders were issued. The consequences of the misnomer "Shelter-in-place" really hit me when I spoke to my mom one day, and she told me she was afraid to go outside in her yard, and that the Coronavirus was washing up on the beaches from the ocean. Now, the latter belief was a result of a single person's ill-chosen remarks that were widely reported in the Southern California media and quickly retracted. But the former--fear of going in the yard--was certainly related to the "Shelter-in-place" terminology, since "stay home" does not equal "stay inside," but "shelter" implies staying inside.

This is a poor name because it is inaccurate--depending on where you live, it is generally safer outdoors than indoors. The purpose of the shelter orders is to keep us away from each other, not to keep us away from the outdoors.

Your chances of catching the virus when you go outdoors is extremely low, provided you’re keeping a safe distance from others. “Outdoors is safe…unless if we are in a very crowded place — which is not allowed now anyway. It is safe to go for a walk and jog and not to worry about the virus in the air..." Lidia Morawska, professor and director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.
NYT 4/17/20

A 30-year History of My Mountain Bikes

My mountain bike is twenty-eight years old this year--I bought it in November 1992 for $389. It is a 21-inch Giant Iguana, a little on the tall side for me, but that is what they had in stock at South Bay Bicycles in Torrance, CA (on Sepulveda Blvd), near where I grew up. It was the first--and last--bicycle I bought for myself.

My parents had bought me bikes before--a new bike was an exciting birthday or Christmas present. I had been riding my brown curved-handlebar ten-speed the three-and-a-half miles to high school every day, often followed by another mile-and-a-half ride to the beach after school, when my parents bought me my first mountain bike. It was a light blue low-end mountain bike with slightly curved handlebars. All the "real" mountain bikes had straight handlebars, but it was better than a ten-speed for dirt riding.

Nobody walks to... San Mateo County Parks???

Cities are for people. Unfortunately, they are rarely designed for people. It is usually apparent that those in power--and those designing cities and putting up signs--are not thinking like pedestrians. No wonder it is hard to get people out of their cars--people keep designing places for cars and not people. See my previous post about this.

On Tuesday, I walked from Emeryville to Oakland. As I approached a bridge that clearly had no sidewalks, I began looking for alternatives. The expected "no pedestrians on bridge" sign was very clear, and included an apparently helpful "use walkway" directive. As I got to the sign, there was no indication of what direction the "walkway" would be in, and no obvious place for pedestrians to go. So I walked across the parking lot of a private business, and reached another street that had sidewalks, although not exactly going in the direction I was hoping for. After going down that street a ways, I crossed it, and walked on the other side, eventually reaching a walkway that ramped up next to a wall and dead-ended at a locked maintenance entrance of a large building. No signs had indicated this sidewalk would dead-end at a private business with a locked door. I guess no one unfamiliar with the area ever walks there. I walked back to the intersection, went around the wall into the street, and walked down the bike lane for a block or so until a sidewalk resumed.

On Thursday, I was part of a group of young children, parents, and teachers that were walking from Redwood Glen Camp in Loma Mar to Memorial Park. We wanted to walk to the Mt. Ellen Trail through a campground that was closed for repaving, but since many in the group had walked through the campground the previous day, and since we weren't trying to camp there, we assumed it was okay as long as we stayed out of the way of the workers and off the fresh asphalt.

A short walk on a trail past the closed sign led us to a campground loop, with a San Mateo County Park Ranger vehicle parked on the freshly paved asphalt at a water treatment building. Our leader walked over to the ranger, telling him we were trying to get to the Mt. Ellen Trail. The ranger, clearly not happy that we were there, told us that closed means closed, and began to say "You need to get back in your cars and..."

Rime Ice Rivers: How many ways can water flow down a mountain?

Two years ago, I joined a couple of friends on a climbing trip to Mount Shasta. We failed to summit due to high early morning winds, and turned around at sunrise when we noticed no climbers above us were advancing to the windblown ridge. On the way down, we encountered incredibly beautiful rime ice rivers, coursing down the steepest part of the route, pushed by the incessant downslope wind.

Rime ice coating the rocks the day before.

Last Ride on the Red Car - April 8, 1961

My dad grew up in L.A. during interesting times. His parents worked for the Pacific Electric--the operator of the extensive network of electric train lines in Southern California during the early 20th century. He rode on them as a kid, and grew to love trains and electricity, making the former a hobby and the latter a career.

57 years ago--April 8, 1961--my dad had his last ride on the red car. The buses, the sprawl, and the automobile took over, and the last electric passenger train ran in L.A. (until L.A. to Long Beach line was rebuilt in the 1980s).

The L.A. Long Beach
Interurban Train:
On Saturday evening April 8, 1961
Easter Saturday with Joseph Sweeney I had my
last ride on the red car, round trip Watts to
Slauson. In both cases two cars were coupled.
One conductor was glad to see them go, the other
was on the point of crying. When we got off at
Watts there was a long farewell blowing of the
whistle for 103rd St. crossing & a pedestrian and
the northbound train came very shortly with it's
farewell.

Eclipse of the Millennium: Travelogue

Day 1: Monday, 6 am, Southern California

I left on my solo adventure from L.A., and it was raining on the 405 Freeway, hard at times. After crossing the border I took the toll road for $6 to Ensenada, where I got gas around 10 am. It was cloudy on the coast, but the desert between Santo Tomas and Colonet was hot. It was cloudy again in San Quintin, but inland again between El Rosario and Catavina was warm desert with lots of cacti. A couple of guys with a truck waved me down and said they were out of gas--they siphoned some gas from my tank, and they helped themselves to a bit more than I had wanted them to have. At 4pm for $4 I ate dinner at Santa Inez. I spoke to some people from San Diego who suggested spending the night at Guerro Negro.

At 6:30 pm near Rosarito there was a big accident blocking the road on a curve. It involved a jackknifed truck and four other vehicles, one on its side. No one was hurt. There was an old dirt road that cut across the curve, and I went with three other vehicles across the shortcut, with no one passing anyone else the rest of the way to Guerro Negro.

A Year Without Facebook

2014 was a year without Facebook. I was on it for 5 years, and in September 2013 I downloaded everything on my wall and deleted my account.

Why did I do this? It was because checking Facebook was becoming one more thing I "had" to do, like checking the mail or email. And since it sucks you in and is endless (like the rest of the Internet), it could be a colossal waste of time. And I've always found that not having something (such as a TV for most of my adult life, or a car for three years, or ice cream in the freezer) makes it a lot easier not to spend (waste) time (and money) doing it.

The final nail in the Facebook coffin was its constantly-changing privacy policies, and inflexible rules for what was public and what was private, and how much control I could have over my account. Plus the Facebook Corporation doesn't seem to be the nicest one to be supporting and giving control over my personal information.

California Utilities Still Freeloading on Independent Power Producers - Part III

What you've all been waiting for--part III of the ongoing saga. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I suggest reading Part I and Part II for background.

But if you want to skip the details, here is the quick summary:

Part I Recap
We operated a solar photovoltaic grid intertie with Net Energy Metering on our home from 2001-2011. The year we sold the house, 2011, we had a big surplus of generated electricity, since the house generated electricity all summer but no one was living there to use it. This electricity was worth $154.52. In December 2011, I was told we would only be paid only four cents per kWh for this valuable, renewable, distributed, peak-hours electricity, or a whopping $18.52. SCE (Southern California Edison) was 10 months behind in sending out letters, and when we got ours we should send it back saying how we wanted to be paid, and then in another 3 months we'd get our check.

Part II Recap
Two years later, in November 2013, we got the letter. After overcoming considerable confusion about what it was, and why it was being sent to us, and what we were supposed to do, I re-read part I (see link above), and then I filled out the form and sent it back.

Part III

Welcome to Part III! This may be the end...

In February, 2014, we got another envelope in the mail from SCE. I opened it. I laughed. What was inside? Nine double-sided pages of account statements. The first page said "Do not pay. Your account has a credit balance of $5.48.

California Utilities Still Freeloading on Independent Power Producers - Part II

Two years ago, I wrote California Utilities Still Freeloading on Independent Power Producers, which you really should read because it is a riveting story about corporate greed. I left this opening for a sequel:

One small bright spot on the horizon: "If the CEC authorizes retroactive RPS certification of net surplus generators, the utilities may retroactively pay the renewable attribute adder to its eligible customers." Which means that I may get some additional compensation someday--maybe.

 That was two years ago. I had completely forgotten about being ripped off for $136 by Southern California Edison (SCE). The worst kind of pickpocket is one that is richer than you, and gets the government to hold you down while they do it.

California Utilities Still Freeloading on Independent Solar Power Producers

The state government is still being controlled by the big utilities, preventing full reimbursement for small power producers with Net Energy Metering contracts.

In 2001 I installed Mono County's first solar photovoltaic grid intertie on my Lee Vining home. The electricity was accounted for through "net metering," which means that during a one-year period, you subtract the energy you produce from what you use and pay for what is left--what you used that you did not generate. Typically the net use is positive, meaning you use more than you produce and have to pay a bill at the end of the year. State incentives are designed to create systems that aren't oversized, and prior to this year if you generated more than you produced--a negative net use--your bill would be zeroed out and you would start the next year without a credit.

One remarkable year that happened to me. I really

Boycott Chase Bank

I've never been harassed quite in this way by a bank before. My address changed six months ago and during those six months Chase has sent me 15 pieces of unsolicited mail--that is about one every other week. It is extremely annoying, and when I realized in September that they weren't just going to stop on their own, I called their privacy center at 888-868-8618. They told me I'd be removed from their list, but to allow 90 days for mailings already started to get through their system.

The unsolicited mail (two types of offers 7x each) from Chase Bank I've received during the last 6 months after I moved.

My Dentist's Advice: Eat Ice Cream and All the Halloween Candy You Can (and Exercise, Eating Right, and Brushing are Optional)

I went to my new dentist on Halloween. Yeah, I thought that was funny too. I bought and ate a doughnut afterwards but didn't eat any Halloween candy.

They make their new patients that drive take a test. If you park in the parking lot, you see a sign that has an arrow to the left that says "Back Entrance" for Dr. Herschleb. He isn't listed under "Front Entrance" with the right arrow. When you get to the back entrance, you see only a couple of doctors' names on a small door--with all those doctors listed on the left, there must be another entrance--so you keep walking around the building until you get to the front entrance, which lists all the doctors. It wasn't until I just wrote this a day later that I realized the "Front" and "Back" labels next to the arrows atop the two columns of doctor names on the sign on the parking lot side are not headings for the doctors listed beneath. My wife had the same trouble when she first went to this dentist a few months ago. Don't get me going on poorly-designed signs... I've got another whole blog post in my head about confusing signs at Samuel P. Taylor State Park. It is kind of like designing a Website--some people just shouldn't be allowed to be in charge of making and placing signs, and when they do the rest of us must suffer.

So after managing to figure out how to get into the building, and waiting for the mandatory waiting period for seeing a doctor, I really liked the guy.