onelesscar's blog

Search and ye shall find

A lot profs here tend to give annotated bibliographies as a research assignment just to get students comfortable with and practice in searching for scholarly information from a variety of sources.  It's not a bad idea since most of them have never used anything but Google or other general search engine, where finding scholarly info takes a little more skill then just plugging in a few key words.

One such assignment asks them to create a bibliography of sources about a religious figure the instructor assigns.  They need something like 5 books and 10 journal articles.  For about two weeks now I've been working repeatedly with a student who was assigned Hillel, an early Talmudic scholar.  Well, as it happens we have no books on Hillel.  That's not such a big deal, though, since the students only need to cite the books, not necessarily read them and we can find books at other libraries without much difficulty.  Journal articles, on the other hand, has been a real challenge.  We don't have tons of database subscriptions the way research libraries have, so it was very challenging to find stuff.  Of course, we also looked in Google Scholar and other free web specialty databases and search engines, but all of us were surprised to discover how little we could find.  Now, of course, I do have access to SJSU's library databases, which includes JSTOR, and there I was able to find articles.  But, I'm not actually allowed to share that info with the student since she can't find that using resources available to her. 

The few articles we were able to find also did not lead to many other articles since they are mostly relying on primary source interpretations.  But, one article we tracked down from JSTOR that was indexed by GScholar, had a citation that simply said: "R E J, XXIV, 68-81".  So, first task was to find out, what is REJ.  I searched around and discovered it is a French journal on Judaism.  The student asked the instructor if she could use it in her bib.  He said, OK, but then she wasn't sure how to cite it, since we didn't have the article in hand.  So, this morning I searched for the article itself, and lo and behold, I find it in Google Books by way of the Internet Archive.  Turns out it's from 1892 and the bound volumes of the the journal must have been scanned by Google. For the curious, here it is.  Neither I nor the student can actually read the article since it's in French, but, hey, she's got her additional citation and I learned something new about GBooks (I didn't realize they scanned bound journal volumes).

Hopeful

Had a rare opportunity to meet new folks on Tuesday evening that was really enjoyable.  It was a get together of parents of students at the school organized by the Eagle Rock Elementary Foundation at a wine bar on Colorado.  No babysitter, so I went solo.  Met a number of interesting folks, including a documentary film maker who also teaches in Community Studies at UCSC (and I thought my commute was bad!), a communications prof at USC and several others.  I guess what stood out for me was the contrast with our experience at Crestwood, where I never really got the sense that we would ever get to know any of the other parents in a meaningful way.  Here I am hopeful that it is different.  I suspect some of that has to do with the fact that the ER parents we've met so far have by and large been professionals, whereas at Crestwood it seemed there was more of a blue collar crowd of dock workers and the like.  Don't know if that makes me classist, but it was just clearly easier to strike up and sustain a conversation with the ER parents.

One of the guys I talked to for quite a while told me there's also a fathers group that gets together every once in awhile.  He's gonna email me to let me know about their next outing.  Seriously, I would like nothing better than to start building some friendships with people who live nearby.

Less hopeful about developments on the political front.  It's hard to know what to make of the so-called health care reform winding its way through Congress.  Obviously, increasing the number of insured is a good thing, but I heard a pretty harsh critique of the plan(s) on Democracy Now yesterday from a Harvard medical professor who is also the director of Physicians for a National Health Program. Her argument in a nutshell is that while the plans will increase the rolls of the insured, they do so only by increasing power of the private insurance lobby who get the lion's share of newly insured at premiums that are still uncontrolled.  Combine this with subsidizing premiums, whether through direct taxes or shifting of spending, and you get another version of corporate welfare. To the argument that something is better than nothing and that this is just the first step towards a more sane policy, she responds that change in the future will actually be more difficulty because the private health insurance lobby will be strengthened.  Still, while I would also say a single-payer system is the way to go, we know that for a variety of reasons that won't get passed under current circumstances, so it's really hard to know what to support.

Another Sunday, another ride

Got in another ride this past Sunday.  Better Half and Little One and I first stopped off at a tire store in Gdale to get BH's flat tire repaired and from there I started my ride.  I headed toward the LA river bike path that runs parallel to I-5 and Griffith Park.  Can't say there was much to it in terms of scenery.  The LA river is pretty dismal and riding alongside the 5 with its constant hum of traffic is not exactly peaceful.  That said, I did see some rather interesting birds in the river bed.  Might have been some sort of Heron.  At the end of the path, I circled back around through the edge of Griffith Park on Riverside/Crystal Springs and then wound my way through Atwater Village, Glassell Park and finally back through Eagle Rock.  I definitely want to explore Griffith Park more, both by bike and on foot.  All told, the ride was just shy of 16 miles on the Brommie.  Doable, but as I've noted before, the Brommie is not really ideal for longer rides.  So, yes, I'm starting to think I'd like to get a third bike, one specifically for recreational rides.  My other two bikes are more utilitarian.

LA River

LA River Ride

In other news, there's another cold front in relations with BH.  Lots of bickering going on and then one evening about a week ago, she just completely lost it on me in front of Little One.  LO got very scared, in fact.  These outbursts are intense, but invariably we perceive them much differently.  To me, they are signs of existential crises.  To her, they seem to be no big deal.  This difference in perception makes resolution difficult.

Saturday we hosted a Halloween Party for LO and her friends.  Sent an evite to all the kids in her class and also invited a friend from after school program as well as some neighboring kids. Predictably, most of the parents did not even bother to respond to the evite.  But, two kids from her class came along with the kid from after school program and the two boys across the street.

I had wanted to provide the kids some structure for the party rather than have them all run around wildly.  To that end, I had prepared some arts and crafts projects and a couple of ideas for games.  Unfortunately, in the end, chaos reigned.  I got no support from BH on providing structure; instead she got to socialize with the adult guests while I tried to deal with kids and pick up the pizza (next time I'm definitely doing delivery, even though it was darn good pie).  LO had multiple meltdowns when things weren't going as she had hoped, one little boy fell down the stairs (luckily no harm done), and another kid broke a glass pane in our coffee table (again, we were just lucky she didn't get hurt).  On top of it all, the Schmaz shows up in a French Maid costume, and despite my expressed request to NOT lift up her skirt to show her panties when the guests were there (our neighbors across the street are fairly religious, and I was concerned that they might be offended, not to mention the inappropriateness of such behavior at a kids party), she did.  So, all in all, I pretty much hated the party.  Next party opportunity, I'm not lifting a finger.

There was some redemption in having one of the kids stay for trick or treating and then spending the night.  She's a third grader and goes to the same after school program.  Her parents are very cool and it is nice to see LO bond quickly with another kid.  They had fun trick or treating and the following day.  Hopefully, we'll be doing more with them in the future.

A decent Sunday

Today was kinda of fun and productive at the same time.  I got up pretty early (for a Sun.) and decided to finally go for a ride 'round these parts.  I don't have a good sense of the area or even a decent bike map.  Working off the very basic LA County Bicycle Map, I decided to head over to the Rose Bowl.  From there I thought I might do some hill climbing and circle back around coming down in G'dale. 

As it happens, I got to the Rose Bowl in about 15 minutes, and the place was already hopping for a huge swap meet.  Toyed with the idea of skipping the rest of the ride and going into the swap meet, but I couldn't reach Better Half on the cell, so I decided to just carry on.  Maybe next month.

I circled the Rose Bowl once.  Lots of walkers/joggers out using the route around the bowl. I mean, really a lot. Then, instead of following my original plan of hill climbing, I decided to head back down towards Pasadena and go through South Pasadena to get back to ER.  This is where having a totally inadequate map became a prob.  I got thoroughly lost and even ended up riding in circles at one point.  But, it was still enjoyable, as I always like exploring new areas.  There are some really interesting looking areas along the arroyo seco.  Very rustic, yet obviously pricey housing (a la Rolling Hills behind the gates).  Came across some stables, too.

For the record, here's what the route looked like in the end.

Lost in Pasadena/S. Pasadena

Lost in Pasadena & South Pasadena

Eventually ended up having to go all the way back to the Rose Bowl to retrace my way back home.  I'm definitely gonna have to get better maps.  Back in ER, I stopped into the local hardware store.  We've been trying to get some sort of clothesline going.  Last week I checked in Home Depot (they only had one option; an umbrella style one that you need to dig a hole in the ground for and then cement it in to stabilize it) and Target (I picked up there utterly useless drying rack).  To their credit, the local shop had some five different models (including several of the umbrella type and the portable drying rack type).  I ended up getting a retractable one with a 40' line that I intend to attach to a concrete wall in the back and the other end to our lemon tree.  Also picked up a lawn mower (human powered) and an ironing board,  I was wearing my bike helmet and the guy at the register looks at me and says, "Um, do you have a car?"  Nope, but I've got a pretty big bike, so it shouldn't be a prob.  Strapped all the stuff down and hauled it away while the guy looked on incredulous an impressed.

I also stopped in at the local Italian bakery and deli.  Sweet little place.  Bought a pounds worth of assorted biscotti and other Italian pastries.  Went down real well with my latte I made when I got home.  I think I can get used to that place.

Rest of the day was spent mowing the lawn, trying unsuccessfully to attach the clothesline (I need special screws for concrete, it turns out, and the second local hardware store I went to closed right when I got there), and otherwise dealing with laundry and other house stuff.  Nothing exciting, but I just liked being able to get stuff done and get out of the house.  Yesterday I was cooped up inside the house all day, it really bugged me.

Last night, however, was nice.  Our neighbors across the street invited us to a outdoor screening of Bolt.  They invited friends of their six-year old and their parents.  It was very cute.  The kids got all cuddly under blankets and after the movie we made smores.  Also met some other parents, including a guy who lives right around the corner and has three girls, so it was nice for us.

This followed Friday night's Reading Night at the school, which was a big hit.  i showed up late b/c of work, but there were several tents set up on the grounds outside the school and there were adults in each one reading to the kids.  Excellent turnout.  Much better than we would have seen at LO's old school, and a great first PTA activity to kick-off the year.

Speaking of reading, LO has got the Harry Potter bug bad.  She started the fourth book on Friday.  I read her the first six pages or so before I fell asleep.  She spent the rest of the weekend reading.  She's now around page 180!  I'll never catch up.

Work has been crazy.  Nuff said.  i should be prepping for tomorrow's class, but I just can't get myself motivated.  Think I'll just do it in the morning.  I get to work around 7 am and class isn't until 10, so that should be plenty of time.

Better Half's Near Miss

More craziness.  Over the weekend we had a packed program with going to the PU's for Rosh Hashanah and then celebrating Radio Junkie's one year anniversary of going sober.  Through it all, Little One managed to pick up a bug at school that had her in and out of fevers during the weekend, while Better Half was nearly crushed by huge 92" high wardrobe with mirrored doors that fell over when she opened one of the doors.  It was in the laundry room where most of the boxes still are and had not yet been secured to the wall because I wanted to be sure first of where to put it.  Very scary.  Luckily, BH managed to not get hurt, though she was definitely scared.  The wardrobe itself was damaged, though it may be salvageable.

We also went back to the vintage stove shop together and agreed to purchase the stove they had on special.  It arrived today and I gotta say it looks mighty sweet.  Very classic look.  Fits exactly in our space.  I'm way happier with this appliance than any modern stove we could have gotten, none of which would have fit properly.  While we were in the shop, another couple was in and they mentioned how much they loved their vintage stove.  They recently moved and the old stove didn't fit, so they bought a pricey Thermador, which they said has been nothing but headaches for them.  So, now they were in the market for another vintage.

On Monday, I stayed home with LO since she had been sick over the weekend and we figured she needed the rest.  We had a very mellow day together and it actually gave me time to get a lot of stuff done, since she slept late.  Had to cancel class for that day, but not too sussed about that as I'm not really digging the class anyway.  Met LOs teacher in the afternoon when we went to pick up the homework for the week.  Apparently of the six kids at LOs table, four were out sick that day.  Clearly something was going around.

No sign of Boo-boo since the day I brought her back. Hope she's okay.  Guessing we won't be seeing her again.

Took a walk around the neighborhood yesterday evening heading east on Colorado.  Saw lots more restaurants and shops worth checking out.  It really is great to just be able to walk places again.

Of course, the downside is the commute.  This morning when I got to campus I ran into another guy who bikes there.  He comes from Torrance and it takes him 90 mins.  I was envious, for sure.  I need to get some good lights on my Brompton, and then I can try the bus/bike combo.  Meanwhile, the morning drive is usually pretty smooth, but I try to hit the road by 6 - 6:15.  Takes me just under 50 minutes driving around 60mph on the freeway portion of the journey.  The return journey is the kicker, but so far it hasn't be too horrendous.  Averaging about 1 hr to 1 hr and 15 mins.  If I could find a way to circumvent downtown, that'd help, but I'm sure I'm not the first to have had this thought.

Was good to see folks at Rosh Hashana, including Little Sis coming up from SD.  The celebration for Radio Junkie was nice.  I think he appreciated that we marked the occassion. Schmaz had brought a cake and when were about to serve it, seemed like everyone felt like we ought to say something or sing.  So, I sang "Happy sobriety to you." Gotta plenty of yuks out of that.

Hot off the press

Just received Dr. B's new book in the mail yesterday.  What a great first piece of real mail to get in the new home!  This has been a long time coming and I'm really looking forward to reading it.  I'm always very impressed by people's abilities to see these sorts of mult-year projects through to the end.  Topically, this book couldn't be more timely and I hope it gets the attention it deserves.

Science in Democracy: Expertise, Institutions, and Representation

Mark B. Brown

In other news, Better Half is on her way home today.  I do hope the week to mourn with her family has helped.  I know she's going to be super tired, but we are super glad she's going to be back.

Yesterday I made my last trip to the old pad to return the keys and clean out some remaining junk on the deck.  Boo-boo was there.  Last time I went by I succeeded in getting her into a cardboard pet carrier, but she managed to claw her way out of that, fortunately before I had her in the car.  This time I had a proper pet carrier borrowed from Middle Sis.  Got her in again (she was obviously hungry).  Cried a lot on the way to ER.  Little One was excited to see her.  Let her out of carrier, she wandered around to explore new yard and then promptly scuttled up over a fence and into a neighbors yard with a dog.  She fled up a tree.  Haven't seen her since.  Put out food this morning, so I'm hoping she'll find her way back and get used to the new surroundings.

We have a dishwasher!  After nearly three years of spending way too much time hand washing, we finally have a dishwasher.  Yay!  What we don't have, unfortunately, is a stove.  We ordered this on 8/22 to be delivered 9/12, but now Sears says it won't be available until 9/30.  They claim the one they were going to deliver turned out to be damaged.  I'm truly pissed off, but don't have the energy to go deal with them at the moment.  Little One and I looked at some restored vintage stoves that would actually fit our non-standard 40" space.  That is apparently what used to be in there.  They are nice and they even had one at a reasonable price, but I don't know yet how BH feels about them, as it is quite a different look.  Supposedly they last forever.  Looks basically like this:

Vintage_stove

Not there, not here

Today was Hamid's funeral.  I just spoke with BH on the phone.  She said it was really hard to leave him at the cemetery.  She said there were about 200 people there.  I sure wish Little One and I could have gone, both to say our goodbyes and to support BH.  She sent some pix of him from the hospital on the day he died.  He looked very much at peace, but also very sick.

Goodbye

Most of you probably already know that Better Half's brother died on Friday.  Given what I knew about the form of cancer he had, I knew it was coming sooner rather than later.  And, yet when it actually happened, it sucked the air out of me.  Better Half came home Friday afternoon and just broke down sobbing as she told me the news.  A few days earlier, a large tumor had been discovered in his kidney and doctors had told him there was nothing more they could do for him.  We had heard they said it was now just a matter of days, but I didn't want to believe that and I don't think BH did either.  BH's younger sister was with him in the hospital when he died and it happened in his sleep.  Apparently just hours before he asked her, "Is this what it means to die?" (or something to that effect).  It's not clear why his wife and two sons were not present and he apparently was asking to see them.  I'm guessing they couldn't face it, but if that's true, they're likely to regret it later that they did not come.  BH is really upset and wishes she had had a chance to say goodbye.  Her last convo with him was after we had heard about the kidney tumor, but I guess it still didn't seem imminent at that point, so there was no formal goodbye.  Lots of crying.  Thanks to those who have called/emailed/stopped-by; it means a lot.

Not surprisingly, the move has been overshadowed by events and has not been joyous.  I was in a packing frenzy on Friday before BH came home.  Kept on packing well into the night, but it was tough going.  The movers came the next day.  The first picked up a bedroom set at the PUs and then hit our place round 10:30.  Took 'em till 4 pm to get it all in the truck.  Problem was the shitty narrow access we had made it really difficult to get larger items out.  Then they made it to ER around 5:30 and spent the next 4 hrs unloading and re-assembling some furniture.  Very expensive move (about 75% more than I had estimated it would cost!), but we could not have done it on our own.  Regrettably, the contractors are also not finished, so we're going to be living with some crap for awhile.  But it's manageable. 

On the upside, Little One (who has really had to put up with a lot because of our preoccupation with packing) enjoyed spending the late afternoon at our neighbor's across the street.  They have two boy (6 and 3) and a pool!  The kids got on great and the parents are very friendly. 

I'd better get some sleep.  Tomorrow more unpacking, cleaning and prepping for classes.  A true Day of Labor.

More roller coasters

After working several hours on the syllabus for this class I'm teaching, today I was checking enrollment numbers and nothing was showing up. Then I found out from the registrar the Academic Affairs Dean told her to freeze the course.  Emailed the dean.  She came over a few minutes later and said she was sorry but they weren't getting the enrollment numbers they'd hoped for, so she had to shut the section down and would reopen it if there was somehow demand.  In fact, I wasn't too disappointed as I figured this would free up time for me to work on other stuff, but I would have liked to have known before I'd invested time in class prep.

Five minutes later she walks back in with the Dean of Admissions.  Turns out they have a dozen soccer players who couldn't register for any of the other offered time slots.  Would I like to teach a morning section?  Uh?  Ok.  So, now it's back on again.  At least for today.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Crunch time

Could it get any more stressful?  Students return next week and we still don't have all the website redesign finished (but most of it).  The class I'm teaching (First Year Experience course entitled The Art of Being Human) begins Tuesday, and I don't have the syllabus finished yet, not to mention having read the textbook (yep, there's a text book on the subject).  My ePortfolio officially started Monday and is due in 12 weeks (actually, 12 weeks from Monday, so even sooner now) and I have barely begun to do anything on it.  We move on Sept. 5, but the house is not ready yet and we're not packed yet (though we've made a good dent).  Nope, can't get much more stressful.  See you in December.  Wake me up when it's all over.