Two days ago, on November 7th, 2021, we ended daylight savings time. Now it gets dark as soon as 5:00 pm. That is early. This is what is on my mind tonight. The change in time has got me a bit off my game. The clock says it is 7:30 pm but it feels like it is 10:30 pm. It is dark outside and cold. Is it better to change the clocks every autumn and get up in daylight, with the sun setting so early? Well, farmers like that schedule better. But few Americans nowadays are farmers who milk the cows before breakfast. But still we turn our clocks back…
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My Sick, Inflamed Country — America the Unreasonable? The Ungovernable?
There is a malady which plagues my country. It is the malady of political division — of intense political ideology, and the denunciation of others because they disagree with you. Where will you find the source of this division? In the political extremes. In our two party political system, there are the populist Republicans who follow Donald Trump denounce any Republicans who didn’t follow Trump, in addition to all Democrats. Similarly, there are the progressive Democrats who denounce any moderate Democrats who don’t toe the “anti-racism” line of far left politics, as well as all Republicans. It used to be that moderate Democrats and Republicans could find common ground and…
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My Jane Austen Problem
It must have been around 1988 or 1989. I had a college job where I was wont to be at a desk for long hours at night without much to do. I would arrive to work and unload my backpack with my materials for the night. As was my custom, I would often push aside my assigned reading in political science to pour over my unassigned reading for pleasure. If I was going to sit at a desk with little to do for eight hours, I would bring a Kafka novel to read. But I would also bring one by Dostoevsky and another by Steinbeck. When I bogged down in…
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Malala Yousafzai, Grab a Rifle
It has been over seven weeks since Kabul fell to the Taliban, and I read the following article today which had the following attention-getting headline — “I will never become a Taliban wife. I would rather die.” This is so predictable. And so sad. The United States leaves Afghanistan, the Taliban takes over, and you have the resumption of a certain kind of Islamic rule. And life in Afghanistan moving forward becomes very different than it was before. Maybe there will be less fighting and a certain kind of peace in Afghanistan moving forward, as long as one does not confront the Taliban. The little folk will “go-along to get-along”…
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Happy 25th Anniversary to My Personal Webpage!
I figured I would take a step back and write a birthday message about my personal webpage on the 25th anniversary of its inception. I intend to explain why it came into being and how it evolved over time, and to show some of the back-side technology details and performance statistics. I started my website on October 9th, 1996 as a way of both exercising my creative side and mourning my mother’s impending death. I had a number of “commonplace books” from my college days in the style of famous Renaissance thinkers or Americans like Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Mark Twain who also had them. They sort of…
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“Working For a Living: the Theory and the Reality”
I am 54-years old. I have been a teacher for 27 years, exactly half of my life. I went to school and then college. I got a job and worked. Got married and raised a family. Does my adult life consist mainly of sustaining myself and my wife, helping to pay our bills, and raising our two daughters? Much of it does. Do I like my job? Well, much of my job as a writing and history teacher coincides with my personal interests. I have a passion for what I teach, and so it is fair to say that I have a vocation. That might mean I don’t just have…
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Choosing to Be Positive and to Enjoy the Day: Reflections on A Sunday Morning and “Doomerism”
A day in the life — Sunday September 17, 2021. A snapshot into my daily existence. An exposition on the choices we all make on how we choose to live. I woke up yesterday and went to the grocery store with my wife, who needed milk to make pancakes for our daughters for Sunday morning breakfast. We had a family breakfast. I then left for my 11:00 am USTA doubles tennis league match. It was a beautiful morning in Southern California. My partner and I played a solid 4.5 doubles team, and we played well in the first set, not so well in the second set, but surged in the…
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Struggle and Growth: Letter to My Daughter as She Starts High School
Dear Julia, Six days from today you will embark upon your high school career in the classroom. It will be the first day of your freshman year. But as you have already started high school athletics, I will take this moment to write to you moving forward. You are fourteen years old, and high school brings with it the process by which you will earn the good grades which will open up doors for university acceptance, or not. During the teenage years you develop the personality traits which will coalesce into your adult persona. Hormones and the opposite sex; confusion and angst; extreme lows and extreme highs: you will deal…
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Gavin Newsom and Larry Elder: A California Recall Story
I have to admit I have paid almost no attention to the recall of Gov. Newsom and consequent upcoming special election. But I did sign the recall. Over a year ago I was biking along the boardwalk near the Ventura promenade when I spied two men sitting under an awning gathering signatures for the recall of California Governor Gavin Newsom. I happily biked over there and happily added my signature to the list of others. I have substantial anger at the authorities in my home state over their handling of the COVID pandemic. Anger all the way from the governor to school boards and teacher unions and city politicians and…
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An Unfortunate Outbreak of “Gun Violence” in Urban America— the Rhetoric of Firearms and Murder
There has been a rise in gun violence in the United States recently. Mostly in the big cities, the murder stats speak for themselves: I live out in the suburbs and there has not been an increase in “gun violence” here. Much of the rest of the country can say the same. It is in the place that always struggled with gangs, murders, etc. Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Washington D.C., etc. President Biden has publicly decried this outbreak of “gun violence,” as if it were the same as an outbreak of “viral flu.” It is strange the language Democratic politicians and “social justice warriors” use when…
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The “Delta Variant” of COVID-19 in the United States and the Ghost of Charles Darwin
It is just over one month since California officially reopened and face masks were no longer mandated. I was thrilled about about it. But the virulent “Delta strain” is out and about, and the numbers of COVID-19 infected has risen recently. Although small compared to previous “surges,” there has been an increase in the numbers of Coronavirus ill in California. The virus is still out there, and people are getting infected by it. Neighboring Los Angeles County has had an even larger outbreak than where I live in Ventura, and starting tomorrow night they are reinstating indoor masking by law, even for the vaccinated. But this is an outbreak almost…
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Can You Hear It?
Behold the boy. He sits alone and listens to a piece of music, and he starts to cry. Why is he crying? Watch the below video and ask yourself that question — — this little boy grows up to become the famous concert pianist Glenn Gould, best known for his recordings of J.S. Bach’s keyboard music. It would be hard to find a more idiosyncratic and brilliant musician than the semi-recluse, semi-savant Glenn Gould. There was no one like him before or since. But why is the ten-year old Gould crying while listening to the prelude of Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde? When you listen to it, dear reader, does…
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Not Every Provocation Requires a Response: Tit for Tat Political Rhetoric
My friend sent me the following text message today: My friend lives in Atlanta, Georgia and often has occasion to decry the strident blowhards he sees in the South from the conservative side of the political spectrum. I can sympathize, although I have never lived in the South or had much exposure to “Red state” politics. I live in California and work in the public schools there, so I have the same problem from the opposite problem: aggressive “progressive” liberals. So I responded to his message from Georgia with one from “Blue state” California: Why are there so many blowhards in political life nowadays? Why does this kind of outlandish…
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The Crucible, How I Shall Live
“That which does not kill you makes you stronger.” I never liked the above quote by Frederick Nietizsche. More accurately I suspected a conflict which almost kills you leaves you traumatized. It scars and leaves you less than you were. Instead of being strong and active, you are passive and vulnerable. I preferred the Chinese saying, “When two tigers clash, one is killed and the other is maimed.” Social science has recently documented how “adverse childhood events” can leave lasting psychological wounds which can stay with one for life. The tender inner lives we lead can take only so much brutalizing. Yet the opposite is true, too. Adversity and suffering…
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“Down With Social Distancing!” California Re-Opens
Today California “re-opened” officially. If you are vaccinated you can enter stores without a mask. I did so this morning, and it felt wonderful. To wear a facemask for some twenty minutes while at the grocery store is not the end of the world, and in the larger scheme of things it is a minor inconvenience. But how nice it was to be in a grocery store without a mask for the first time in fifteen months! To see the faces of other people, and even maybe to get their germs. I will take it all! So this is what happened this morning: I walked into a Ralph’s grocery store…
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Weed and Tattoos — A Las Vegas Story
I had my first long summer bike ride along the beach yesterday. I rode some 35 miles total from downtown Ventura to Rincon Point along the beach, and back. It was my favorite time of the day for such a bike ride: approaching sunset. The temperature was dropping as the dying sun reflected a rust color off the seaside cliffs. It was beautiful. This bike ride takes me two hours, and by the time I finish I am pleasantly exhausted and ravenously hungry. I refuel over dinner at a restaurant, with my bike on my car outside, and it is dark when I arrive home. Being outdoors in the sun…
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Summer at the Beach in 2021 — Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
My school year comes to an end tomorrow. It was my 27th. But my first full one during an epidemic. So it has been a long year of (distance) learning. I taught my students the best I could over the Internet using Zoom (and Canvas). I was there day-in, day-out for my students as much as I could. Even in the darker moments of the pandemic, they always had my full attention. I was gratified to have many of them recognize that and thank me during the last week of school. Not an ideal year of teaching, but I did the best I could. “Control what you can control.” Then…
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My Buddy (Probably) Gets a Permit to Carry a Gun
I never thought I would see the day. A long-term friend of mine is about the best candidate for a concealed weapon permit I have ever known. His criminal record is entirely unblemished. He also owns his own business and regularly handles large amounts of cash, lives and works in a high-crime area, and has been a civilian volunteer for a police department for years. He very much wanted a CCW license, but because he lived in LA County he thought he never would get one. He is the poster child for the “license to carry” permit holder. This fact notwithstanding, I thought hell would freeze over before ultra-liberal Los…
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My 54th Birthday: A Celebration and A Reflection
Today is my birthday. I turn 54-years old. I hear some complain of “getting older.” They don’t want to hear out loud the number associated with the span of their years. They seem almost to want to keep their age a secret. That is not me. I enjoy getting older. I have earned my gray hairs. I am 54 today. I don’t enjoy the increasing aches and pains of an aging body. I don’t enjoy seeing those in the generation ahead of me fall into disrepair and even die. I don’t. My father mentioned that he wanted to invite two good friends to our joint birthday party, but neither of…
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The Poinsettia Elementary School Parking Lot
In a few weeks my younger daughter will finish her fifth grade year and move to middle school. It will end nine years of our family’s involvement at Poinsettia Elementary School. I remember a co-worker telling me how it seemed like her children’s time in elementary school lasted forever. I tend to agree. But the era of elementary school for my family is almost over. Thank God. What was so bad about Poinsettia Elementary School that I will be happy never to see the place again? Well, the crowded parking lot in the mornings. That was horrible; it was a madhouse. If I arrived at 7:42 am to drop my…
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In Praise of “Big History”
The purpose of this essay is to explain my ambivalence about science, and to identify how and why I best learn it. Science is important. You have to study it. But I never enjoyed science classes in school. I enjoyed math even less. I was a humanities person. I still am. I would avoid science classes, and their boredom and pain, in youth. But I go out of my way to learn about science as an adult. Over the past year I read Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything” and “The Body: A Guide for Occupants,” for example. I enjoyed these two lengthy books, but there was something…
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A Weekend of Birthdays: 80 and 14
Today, if she were still alive, my mother would turn 80-years old. But she is dead. She died at 56-years of age. To arrive at 80-years of age would have been quite the milestone for my mother, if she were alive. It was so for my father. Additionally, my older daughter Julia turns 14-years old tomorrow. That is another milestone. High school. The dark drama of deepest adolescence lies straight ahead. The outlines of her adult personality will come into view. Exciting! My mother used to say she found her children much more interesting the older they got. She did not enjoy dirty diapers, spit up, and toddler tantrums. She…
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Revisiting A Post 14 Years Later: I Am Changed, I Am the Same — I Will Be Food for Worms
I had occasion lately to come across a posting of mine from January 15, 2007. It is titled, “The Past Is Not Done With Me.” That would make the essay over fourteen years old. I was 39-years old when I penned it, and now I am 53-years old. What is the difference between those two ages? 39 and 53? The difference is HUGE. Let me explain. During my early twenties I was fixated on the drama of early adulthood: developing my adult persona, finishing my education, and finding my place in the world — courtship drama with the opposite sex, and all the joy as well as frustration of that…
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Pandemic Diary #5: The End in Sight
This was the moment I realized the end was in sight. It was February 21, 2021. I came across a big stand of hand disinfectant on sale at the grocery store. A sign said “Manager’s Special” in front of a huge stack of unsold produce. It seems nobody was buying hand disinfectant anymore. So they reduced the price, put it on sale, and hoped they could be rid of it — This was much different than a year earlier when the outbreak began, and stores could not stock enough hand sanitizer to meet demand. The fear the Coronavirus held on people was ebbing and would soon be gone, and now…
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Post-Pandemic World and Seven Years: “Party Like It’s 1921!”
I talked to my aunt last night who is 75-years old, and she remarked that her pandemic life is not too terribly different from life before. She is retired and need not leave the house for work; she does not have any young children at home all the time because the schools are closed, and she does not have all her activities cancelled. The worst she has to deal with is her favorite restaurants closed with no ability to take any sort of vacation. It is the same with my father: his life is not so different than before. They are old. On the other hand, there are millions of…
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David Copperfield and Breaking Bad: An Experiment
“Men have become the tools of their tools… Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.” Henry David Thoreau Last week I wrote at length about my long slog through the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield. I wondered why our society seems to have moved away from text and novels, and gone in pursuit of bite-seized social media posts and “viral” online videos. And I thought about how a friend recently told me that the popular Breaking Bad series on Netflix, watched by millions and millions, was one of the best TV shows ever produced. His…
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The Attention Span of a Gnat?
Some Meditations on Reading a Long Book During Quarantine in 2021: Patience and Perseverance, Purpose and Fulfilment They say that a book should be only as long as it takes to tell the story. It should be neither longer nor shorter than that. But that is plenty vague, and leaves lots of room for different lengths of books! I think about this as I am half-way through David Copperfield. I have read every page carefully and am on chapter 30. I have been reading the books assiduously for over two weeks, and I am only halfway done. I am tired. This is a long book! The narrative is lengthy. This…
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Attack on Congress: “Who the f**ck do you think you are?!?”, Part II
I wrote a few weeks ago about a very minor run-in I had with some bumptious Trumpkins in one of their mobile “Stolen Election” caravan protests. I could see the aggressiveness of these people. They had an edge. So I was not that surprised by the attack on the Capitol Building four days ago, although I was surprised at the audacity in targeting almost the most important few hundred yards of political territory in the nation while Senators were deliberating on whether to certify the election of Joe Biden as President or not. It still takes my breath away. It still angers me. Who the f**ck do these people think they…
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The Crooked Timber of Humanity and The Secret
Political Commitment: Progressive Politics as a Secular Religion The decline of religion and loosening of family bonds has been much in evidence in the United States these past few decades. The rise of single-parenting and economic stress on the lower classes has weakened the family and led many young people to grow up without much support — they are left to fend for themselves, and it can be a confusing world out there for them. Many are the commentators to have remarked on this. Many young people are lost and look for meaning. They look to belong to something greater than themselves, sitting there alone staring into their smartphones. They…
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Year 2020 to 2021: From Chrysalis to Butterfly
It has been a tradition for me to plan and record my resolutions for the new year, and then to reflect back on them later. I put considerable thought into my resolutions, as you may witness going all the way back to 1999 and earlier — Rich Geib’s New Year’s Resolutions:Over Two Decades of Introspection and Desideratum — but that is during normal times. This past year has been an abnormal time. How should I live in 2021? What resolutions should I make? Today is December 31, 2020. Tomorrow starts the new year. I gave much thought to making good choices and maximizing my potential for personal growth in 2020.…