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…
Author: cjbickford
Books Ruin Movies
I just wrote a scathing review of “The Last of the Mohicans” on Netflix. Neil and I read it for CSA earlier this year, and it was an intriguing book, though sometimes difficult, like when entire passages were in French. But Neil laughed at the scenes where a character disguises himself as a beaver (and…
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…
My Hunter S. Thompson Moment
Kelly and I (and briefly, Neil) have come down with some nasty respiratory bug. Maybe it’s influenza, maybe bronchitis, maybe pneumonia, but whatever it is, it is keeping us down, exhausted, and coughing like seals. My anti-sicknessroutine have consisted of raw garlic; hot water with lemon, honey, and fenugreek; zinc mouthspray; loads of orange juice;…
The Physics of Speed (and the value of multiple Ortizes)
Thanks to this book, Neil and I watched the 1994 movie Speed for his physics lesson today. As a physics lesson, the movie is absurdly amusing. If you don’t know the movie, the general premise is that a madman, unhappy with his pension plan, has placed a bomb on a public transit bus, and once…
Costco Glasses
As previous posts have shown, I have a psychologically tortured relationship with Costco. I loathe the conceit that everything there is a bargain, but for the exact same commercial goods found elsewhere, they are often cheaper than Amazon. Their dairy prices compete with those at Smart & Final, so I will buy milk and eggs…
My 2011 Comic Con Fears Arrive Early
The economy may be slow, but there’s one place that’s going strong with near-unlimited demand: Comic Con 2011. I knew it was already going to be off the hook when I was in the office a few weeks ago and got a call from an anxious would-be Comic Con 2011 attendee. It was the day…
Our Fake Christmas Tree
Last year, Peter surprised me as we ventured out to get our new Christmas tree with the suggestion that we get a fake one instead. He’d bought a fake one the year before for his office, so that the janitor wouldn’t suffer additional work in constantly vacuuming up fallen pine needles. I had had a…
Battle of the Crater, as presented by Neil
Here is Neil’s recreation of the Battle of the Crater, or as the Confederacy might have called it, the Great Turkey Shoot
Why I Think QE2 Won’t Work
I’m not an economist, but the Fed’s recent decision to unleash (that, virtually print) more U.S. dollars into the world economy–termed qualitative easing 2, or QE2 for short– really caused me to fret. Now, the idea, as far as I understand it, is that we need more inflation in order to have an full economic…