A few days ago, my neighbor’s grandson, who recently graduated from high school, stopped by and asked to speak to my husband. He told us he had a new job, and wondered if we’d listen to his sales presentation, for which he would get paid whether or not we bought. I asked him “what’re you…
Category: Daft Musings
Did the SJPD Run The Bad Guy Out of Town?
Back in May, I was understandably chagrined when our security video revealed a sleazy guy riffling through my car. When Peter looked at the tape, he thought the burglar looked an awful lot like Andrew Clark Bergman, aka Mr. Skeezebag, who had stolen his PT Cruiser in September, and was caught in it by the…
Conway Pere et Fils and Neil and Me
Neil recently came up with some puzzles (and art) for Gary Antonick’s Numberplay column in the New York Times. It was really cool and as part of it, Antonick includes a picture of Neil with one of his heroes, Stephen Wolfram, whose book The Art of Science, introduced Neil to cellular automata, the Game of…
Guido the Business License Tax Enforcer and Other Nuisances
I was working in the office yesterday when in Guido from the city came in, asking to see our business license. Guido is not his real name, but he had the air of a low-end mafioso. I had no trouble showing him our license, since it’s prominently posted in the break room, and we’d recently…
Rant on the 2011 Closure of California State Parks
I have an entire blog about the upcoming, er, proposed, closure of selected California State Parks, but it is out of context without a rant about the cynicism, demagoguery, and manipulation of the members of the California State Legislature. We have, after all, been at this point before. In 2009, our then-governor vowed to close…
Three Strikes for Kill Hannah
We just sent video to the San Jose police department, showing the footage our video cameras captured of a skeezy guy in a hoodie casing our cars and breaking into mine and taking some stuff. Normally, the police simply take a report, but this was an exception. Since the guy in the video looks an…
Eek, Mr. Skeezebag is Still on the Loose!
In October, a skeezy white guy named Andrew Clark Bergman was caught red-handed in Peter’s PT Cruiser, which had been stolen 6 weeks early. I called him Mr. Skeezebag in my posting, assuming he would be quickly convicted and sentenced, but not wanting to have anything skew the case. This morning, after finding security tapes…
World War II Timed Essay Showdown: Neil vs. Carolyn
A few years ago, when we first started homeschooling, Neil and I wrote persuasive essays with opposing points of view, and I posted them here. Neil is an excellent writer, though he sometimes loses sight of this fact. So as part of his final test on the World War II unit we’ve just completed, I…
Public Parks vs. My ‘Hood
Recently, I took my children to park day at Lincoln Glen Park in the middle of San Jose, a neighborhood between cute old small Willow Glen homes which house both upscale families who love the character of old neighborhoods and immigrants who look for affordable housing. It’s a fairly busy park with a regular traffic…
Pi Day at San Jose State
Neil and I were juggling with the San Jose State juggling club when one of the members mentioned that the math department (from which two of the regular jugglers come) was having its Pi day celebration on Monday. No kidding? Neil loves pi more than pie! I emailed both our mathematical jugglers and wrangled an…