Recent Entries

• Predictions for 2028

  July 12, 2025

  Why 2028? I don’t know other than that’s the year when the Olympics will be held in Los Angeles. I used to really look forward to 2028. Part of the reason we built our guest house was so we could rent it out during the Olympics. There was such a premium on home rentals during…

  Continue Reading...

• Trash trucks in the morning make me happy

  June 26, 2025

  I'm sitting on my deck, it's cool and foggy in my Los Feliz valley. The thursday morning trash pick up is underway and it is one of my favorite things. The sound of trash trucks is a sign that civilization continues. It used to be a sound I didn't like and now I look forward…

  Continue Reading...

• Parents being difficult

  June 10, 2025

  I think difficult is an understatement. Now that my mom is 86 she has a plan for he remaining years: do nothing to take care of her health, get in a catastrophic accident, have me and my sister fly across country in a panic and resolve whatever nightmare situation she's fallen into. Rinse, repeat...

  Continue Reading...

• So stupid

  June 9, 2025

  Last night around 7PM I could hear fireworks coming from downtown. It was a bit early for fireworks since it doesn't get dark here until around 8:30. Then I saw that D was watching CNN - it was showing footage of the national guard throwing flash bangs at the protestors on the 101 freeway about&h...

  Continue Reading...

• Crisis: Part Two: The Hermes Handbag of Total Control

  February 2, 2025

  Wei Ning took me to a screening of Goddard's film WEEKEND at the Cinematheque on our third or fourth date. Honestly I couldn't tell you what it was about. It was French people being French in the 1960's. But there was one part that stood out where one of the main characters gets in a…

  Continue Reading...

• 危机: Part 1

  February 1, 2025

  There is a mistaken notion that the Chinese word for Crisis is a combination of the symbols for the words “change” and “opportunity.” This is not true. It just means crisis.  I was on my way to the Rainforest offices in downtown Seattle when I heard the news the king of Mars had been arrested.&he...

  Continue Reading...

• Climate Crisis Out My Window

  January 11, 2025

  We spent the last week with the local news on waiting to see if we were next in line for evacuation. 100 MPH wind gusts threatened to rip the awnings off the porch until I got them tethered down. Our shingles were all over the street. D was beside himself. I get sleepy in a…

  Continue Reading...

• I believe the children are the future

  December 7, 2024

  And we’re screwed. I have remarkably normal blood pressure considering that I have a tendency toward high blood pressure and the amount of stress I’ve been under this past week. There are students that I work with who are behaving like they were raised in a barn. And in some cases a barn would be...

  Continue Reading...

• Arbeitsplatz, trabajo, the endless to-do list

  December 5, 2024

  In East Germany the main car on offer was the Trabant. The name comes from Trabajador or “worker.” Look I am no communist sympathizer but I appreciate the elevation of the worker if even only symbolic. And if even only to name a car after workers, when said car was a total piece of shit…

  Continue Reading...