It is Pi day.
For all of – us who are not math-geeks, in the American date system today is March 14 aka 3.14 which is the start of Pi. Geometry? Circles?
Or, as it better to think of – Dani provided the alternative photo from Pi Day at work –
eight options for Pi Day
And, while tasting – you can go to BandCamp and listen to PDX Broadsides – here
Probably I should have spent more time today studying than I did. But I had signed up for a software class (embroidery) a couple of weeks ago. First I had purchased the software. Ravelry is dangerous. People give you all sorts of good ideas, many of which wind up being money out of the pocket. In this case, it was an excellent idea. Several days later I received a class list from Dublin Sewing Center. My new software had a class listed for today.
There is always a challenge, teaching a class on software. First you have to hope that everyone in the class understands how to do the basics on the computer they brought. Sadly, if you have 15 people, there are going to be some in the group who don’t. In this case we had about five. This included some with challenges involving inserting, opening and copying files from a flash drive.
The class was still worth it. There were a lot of things I probably could have figured out on my own (if I had thought about them, or read the manual rather than just looking a few things up).
Since I have been home –
dish towel
t-shirt
and flour sack towel
The flour sack dish towels are easy, the t-shirt is black and I will replace the photo when I have a picture in daylight.
but it is 2030 and time to get ready for the morning….
Don’t watch. Seriously, you don’t want to see this.
Cal was at Stanford today for the second of their two games. The first, Thursday, was at Haas Pavilion with Cal pulling out a win on Asha Thomas’ buzzer beating last basket. Today the favor was returned in spades. No clue what was going on, but baskets were missed, passes easily intercepted, literally a dozen opportunities lost. Stanford had its act together. It wasn’t pretty.
Then there was the heartbreaker of the Blackhawks beating the Wild 4-3 in overtime (Hockey, for those who don’t recognize the teams).
Otherwise, I spent a small amount of time on homework, but mostly worked on various embroidery projects. All told, six items completed. The cutest –
x two. reversed colors
were a pair of flour sack towels. The purple is called Orchid – that orange? Allegedly it is Devil Red.
On every other Friday morning I have the option of staying home, Or I can head over to Hastings and spend two hours sitting in on a class I am auditing. This morning when the alarm went off, I thought about it. Seriously thought about it. Then decided that my time would be much better spent sleeping.
Knowledge is always good, but sleep is really precious.
There is a Clown School in San Francisco – link here. They are located near the N-Judah Muni Line. The website really, really needs work, but it gives you the basics.
A couple of stops after George and I boarded near UCSF, a clown alley (yes, that is what a group of clowns is called. Trust me – well, ok, but I did look it up!) boarded the Muni and started working their way up and down the car. Young women they were. I don’t think that any of them were over 23. Each one of them was unique in her clothing, appearance and make-up. Hats and noses varied as well. Not everyone (thank goodness) was wearing the classic red bulb nose.
A few of the passengers reacted quite negatively; a number of the rest just pretended that the clowns weren’t there. I thought I counted seven but wasn’t completely sure since there was a lot of moving around involved. A spritely woman likely somewhere in her 40s was moving through the car as well making suggestions, keeping an eye on the group. I asked her if she was their keeper. She laughed and said this was one of their first outings. I would have pictures, but when someone else took out her phone for a picture, she was politely but firmly asked to refrain.
I exited the Muni at Civic Center, heading back to class. George stayed on, headed across the Bay. He was able to watch the chaos accompanying the clowns as they searched for the correct stop (Powell St Station).
After class, I met George in Berkeley. Dropping my backpack off in the car, we headed to Haas Pavilion and the Cal Women’s Basketball Game. It was hard fought, neither team ever leading by more than 6 points. Cal won 81-80 on a buzzer beating score by Asha Thomas.
Gwen
Waiting on her people to come home.
Besides schematics on a lot of flour sack towels, I have been trying various designs on terry towels. It was a while ago, but there was Felix and Felicia (bib and towels). I messed around with a couple of other patterns and dumped them on Daughter #2 who always has a need for towels. Two dogs, one a golden retriever who loves water and mud.
And then I have a friend in Alabama. She wound up there secondary to job, family, and retirement from military fun and frolic.
Her daughter loves unicorns especially those from My Little Pony. I remember My Little Pony. That set/series/whatever has been around since my daughters were young. Until I looked, I had no idea that there was more than one unicorn involved. I just remembers a white unicorn which made sense. I mean really, who isn’t familiar with Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn? The movie by that name post dates the book. I will always vote book over movie. In this case, both book cover and animated movie had white as the color of the unicorn’s coat.
So I took one large unicorn design – mostly head, horn and a couple of flowers added for accent and fought my way through the design. Not the best, but it went out in the mail. Then I tried a different design on a hand towel. I still have a couple more patterns that I might want to try.
for the love of unicorns
and it is always fun to send things when they aren’t expected.
Apron apparently appreciated, the other worker this morning replied that she would love to have one. So that will be on my list of things to do this evening.
Otherwise, I was in the firing line this morning in Admin Law. It should have been last Thursday and as I mentioned, I might have been overlooked completely. But no, I should have the “learning opportunity.” At least I was challenged with what was the easier side of a discussion of rule making under the APA, section (can’t find the symbol) 553.
For anyone who hasn’t yet fallen asleep, The Administrative Procedures Act was passed in 1946. It covers what administrative agencies (US Government Executive Branch organizations that are set up to “administer” a particular set of rules, law, or organizational requirement). If it is an alphabet soup agency – with rare exceptions, it falls under the APA. These agencies have two main ways of accomplishing their mission: they can make rules, they can adjudicate. We have been on the rule making for a couple of weeks in excruciating detail and may be there for a while. And, by alphabet soup – I mean those agencies which are usually known by their initials rather than names (FDA, EPA, IRS, CMS – you get the idea). The administrative arms which were created to handle implementation of a specific area of law. The easiest and clearest for every US citizen is the IRS – Internal Revenue Service. They take the tax code passed by the US Congress and turn it into “clear” rules and create forms. Those forms are processed, monies handled. Audits are effectively adjudications – the application of the tax law to the individual/firm/corporation to determine whether or not “they” have complied and paid in what was owed.
All of this is a long, round about way of saying that I was hit with describing why, with an implementing section that effectively said to (1) provide notice, (2) accept comments, and (3) publish rules, there were now a whole set of procedures that have been added over the years (mostly the 1970s) by the Courts.
The requirement of giving Notice can be tied directly to the wording in the law. By extension, one can make a case for what giving notice entails (subject, information, data, length of comment period). The same case can be made for what needs to be in the substance of the final rule. For example – is it reasonable to want something said about the comments being considered?
Ok, you are now bored out of your mind. So am I. Maybe. Since I spent decades working in a rule driven environment, all of this makes sense to me. Admin Law is common sense in a way that Constitutional Law never was. I have been the proponent for regulations. There are forms, procedures, and feedback to those who bothered to provide input. I can say that it is all driven by regulation. Or, in my case, since I wasn’t receiving thousands of opinions and useless bits of information, I just thought it was common courtesy to let someone who had made the time and effort to submit improvements/corrections know that their comment was appreciated even if not incorporated into the final document.
What all of that means is that I could rationalize the Court (even the Supreme Court) clarifying procedures. Heather already had her turn so the chore of answering the flip side (why shouldn’t the court be adding extensive procedural requirements to what Congress intended to be informal rule making?) passed up to the second row. This is the fourth week of class. Sitting in the back might have been smart since only ten have been through the wringer so far. I don’t know that everyone will “have the opportunity” to play.
If I could see from the back, I might have considered sitting out of harms way….
on an apron
UC Hastings College of Law has two buildings on McAllister in San Francisco. They lie across an intersection from each other. In the Admin building, besides offices, the second floor boasts a cafeteria called the Law Cafe which is open from 0700 and provides basic food options for students, faculty, and staff. Across the street is the classroom building. On the first floor, which in the US is the entry level, there is a small coffee stand which features coffees, various snack items and a cooler of yogurt, sandwiches, beverages, and wraps. There is some relation between the cafe and Peet’s Coffee. Q Cafe is staffed by trainers and trainees, the later of which seem to be making a transition from jobless/homeless to having a simply employment skill which can gain them a job and get them back on their feet.
Over this academic year, I have taken the opportunity at quiet times to speak with various workers. All seem to maintain a sense of humor and the student body seems to reciprocate. Coffee being such an essential portion of a student’s daily diet. Along with the other schematics I found, there was this one of a complex espresso machine. Adding it to an apron front just seemed like a natural idea. Besides, I have a couple of apron blanks.
Of course I do. It is part of my bad habit to want to be stocked on those items which I might need. When the kids were young I had a shelf in my closet that housed various items which could, on no notice, becomes presents for an event that they remembered on the way out the door. So why wouldn’t I have supplies on hand? Because I might never use them? Ok, I will grant you that. I have yarn, fiber, fabric, patterns that I probably will never use.
But anyway, I will drop off the apron in the morning.
flour sack towels
Everyone can always use dishtowels, right? I mean seriously. No matter how inventive dish-washer manufactures are, there are simply a number of items that don’t fit. Much less that favorite coffee mug or tea cup that is just right in your hand. Or various kitchen items that have been handed down in the family and are just too fragile to trust to modern standards of time and temperature. And, speaking of temperature – not all (or I really think most) plastics are truly dish-washer safe.
Growing up in the 1950s – we didn’t have a dishwasher. In fact, we didn’t have one in the 1960s either. Nor in the 1970s when I lived in various apartments during University, Med School or Residency. I washed dishes, I air dried dishes and occasionally used a dish towel if I needed a particular item NOW.
As I think back, I am not sure when a dishwasher became a standard appliance in my kitchen. Perhaps the 1990s? Thinking back that many living places and decades puts a strain on my memory. But there are some realities, even if you live in a location with enough resources to have one in your kitchen. If there are not several people in your household, you may run out of dishes before it is reasonable to run the dishwasher since you probably don’t use all that many items every day. It really isn’t particularly sanitary to leave items unwashed for days and days. It uses more water to rise/prewash dishes followed by a dishwasher cycle than it would to just wash the dishes in the first place.
All of these thoughts lead me to dishtowels. Everyone needs a few. Flour sack dishtowels, bought in bulk, are inexpensive and provide a wonderful blank canvas on which to test out machine embroidery. If it doesn’t look great – hey, it is a dishtowel. If it does? Hey, presto! I have just created a nice present.
Which leads me to the photo which started this particular discussion. If I am going to practice machine embroidery, the item should reflect the interests of the victim recipient, right? College guy is headed out for spring quarter. He is a science/engineering type. Since I haven’t found a schematic of a laser yet, he will have to settle for the microscope.
on my shawl for the Wild Swan MKAL. In case I haven’t explained it – MKAL stands for Mystery Knit Along. The pattern for the knit-a-long is published in increments which means that none of us participating have a clue as to what the final product will look like. Ravelry has updated their software so that it now possible to post progress pictures on the forums but have them hidden under a “spoiler” label so that each person can make the choice of whether or not to peek.
Me? I don’t want to wait until after the full pattern is published to start – that takes all the fun out of participating. But peeking means that if, for some reason, I decide it isn’t worth my time, I can bail out earlier in the process. I really don’t need any more UFOs (Unfinished objects) lying around.
So here I am – 6 rows short of completing Chart G, the last.
see the needle?
After reading most of the discussions, I decided that I could end the shawl after o this particular row with a regular rather than a picot bind off. Not enough yarn. I am stuck and am very glad that I contacted the dyer several weeks ago for more yarn.
I don’t wait well…..
You have heard about the “socratic method” of teaching? No?
Explanation: (lifted from criticalthinking.org)
In Socratic teaching we focus on giving students questions, not answers. We model an inquiring, probing mind by continually probing into the subject with questions. Fortunately, the abilities we gain by focusing on the elements of reasoning in a disciplined and self-assessing way, and the logical relationships that result from such disciplined thought, prepare us for Socratic questioning.
So that means that question follows question follows question until everything that could possibly be wrung out of the teaching point.
A Socratic questioner should:
a) keep the discussion focused
b) keep the discussion intellectually responsible
c) stimulate the discussion with probing questions
d) periodically summarize what has and what has not been dealt with and/or resolved
e) draw as many students as possible into the discussion.
The professor announced at the beginning of the year rather than random calling, he would just go down the rows and call on students one after another. Today it was my turn. So I sat through the beginning portion of the class. Not really worried, but I would rather not open my mouth unless I really feel that I have something to offer.
The hour progressed. We started on the cases. Not deliberately, but for whatever reason he thought I had already taken my turn and moved on to Heather. She looked at me, I looked at her. She was prepared just in case and handled the questioning. When I thanked her for stepping up right after the end of the class, the professor over heard me. He thought I had had a turn. Not to worry, I can be first up on Monday.
As if Monday’s aren’t enough fun on their own……
in spite of all my good intentions, I am heading to bed without completing an assignment due at 1420 tomorrow. On the surface, it seems to be an incredibly simple thing: take a list and turn it into an outline/table of contents. What turns out to be tricky is deciding what goes where, and why.
No problem – I can just take my favorite Army regulation and use that as a pattern – right? Except that civilian lawyers, especially those who have worked for various international organizations and NGOs just don’t think the same way as those of us who are steeped in the tradition of admin regulations.
And, as it turns out, the military is one of those exceptions to the APA (Administrative Procedures Act, 1946) so some of the standards which all of those who are US law school trained just don’t apply. One of the other students in this 8 person seminar has spent time related to military regulation drafting, he understands my point of view. But, being a law student, his attitudes are probably a bit more flexible than mine.
The upshot is that I knit four more rows on my Wild Swan – starting from here –
End of Chart F
Unlike a number of those in the KAL, I am not going to run out of beads. I have lots and lots of beads. Some of them are the wrong size or color, but I have the 250 that I will need to finish the shawl.
Yarn? That is another question. I think I have enough for maybe two more rows + the bind-off. The problem is that there are eight rows plus the bind off. I thought this might happen, so contacted Fierce Fibers two weeks ago and have a bit more on order in the darkest color. But it isn’t here yet…..
And then there was the embroidery tonight. Got through the pattern in spite repeated thread breakage (but no needle challenges) and bobbin snarls only to find that the last two colors shifted themselves right from where they belonged by about a cm. It is obvious. Really, really obvious since those two colors complete a frame around the main pattern. I am just glad it happened on a napkin. Not that expensive, I can try it again. But first – I need to figure out if it is the embroidery, the machine or me. Not inclined to repeat the same mistake.
And, oh, gee – it is too late to finish that outline. Or wire diagram. Or whatever the H it is.
Morning?
Today started at 0615 (not counting the snooze alarm on my phone) and it will end with the conclusion of my last class at 1840.
So why am I talking about sunshine? Because there is sunshine and decent weather today. I am taking a break literally outside in front of 198 McAllister sitting at one of the cement picnic tables. Admittedly, it is not the most comfortable place to sit, but the sun on my back feels wonderful.
My first class was 0830-0930. From there I found a comfortable chair in one of the reading rooms. Now, figuring out how to get to the upper floor of the Gold reading room was a bit of a challenge. Officially it is on floor 3M which is somewhere between Floor 4 and the ground level. Now, 2M is between the ground floor and Floor 2. So I would have expected that 3M would fall between 2 and 3. Wrong – so much for logic. The elevator came down from 4, picked me up at 3M, then stopped to let off about five people on 3 before continuing its descent. The only positive portion of this experience was that one of the students mentioned that he usually took the stairs between these two floors.
Stairs? Where are the stairs? Would you believe the stairs connecting the upper gallery (3 Mezzanine) with the main portion of the reading room are outside the reading room.
All of which is too completely confusing for me. As I sit here with my back being warmed by the sun, I counted the floors since I am facing the building. Not counting the ground floor, there are four tiers of windows facing McAllister. The ground floor is not G, it is 1. I will leave it to the convoluted thinking of some architect as to why this was a good design for a building that houses some offices, numerous windowless seminar and classrooms in addition to endless rows of lockers in the basement.
It is time to review a bit more before I slog into the afternoon (Public Health Law, US Health Law, Legal Drafting). I am trying to decide between caffeine and chocolate.
Taken 1 1/2 weeks ago, returning to OAK from Long Beach.
leaving the southern end
Watching the coast of Southern California recede from sight. Flying over land, ocean, and mountain range rarely out of sit of civilization. And then there are the shapes and patterns of communities and buildings.
blurry shapes looking more
like various motherboards
leaving me to wonder if architects imitate life
coming in to OAK
They wander into our yard on a regular basis. The boys, that is. Often we see them in the morning as they drift back up the hill from their night escapades. Other times, like when there is a light rain, apparently our recovering grass is viewed as mighty tasty.
the younger buck
bored
and blatant
In what is reputed to be an annual affair, there were literally thousands of school children at today’s Cal Women’s Basketball Game. Schools from San Jose south of us to Fairfield on the north (plus several Richmond primary schools), all the Berkeley Elementary Schools, a number from Oakland and (surprisingly to me) a number from both San Francisco and the peninsula. Since they announced all the schools, accompanied by lots more screaming, it was easy to determine who was missing (Albany, Marin, and about 1/2 the private schools).
As is there wasn’t enough noise, it was also Fire Prevention Education Day. Yes, Smokey walking around large as life was a real hit. I didn’t mind all the hints, but demonstrating sirens and fire alarms? That was a bit much.
Did I mention that the game started at 1130 which obviously put it at an excellent time for schools. It wasn’t a great time for the Straw Hat Band. They were out on their annual ski trip. As far as their usual alumni taking over, well, most had to work. I was really impressed that they managed to field about 20 with a bit of rearrangement as to who played what so that the important instruments (percussion & brass) were covered.
For a change, the referring was even handed and quite good. Very few questionable calls, and refs who were strict, The Cal Women’s managed to pull off a win over Washington State. Interesting to note, the Cougars didn’t have one native Washington State player on the team (Portugal, Australia, Israel, Eastern Europe – kind of like the University of Utah).
Timed it perfectly to catch the #65 up the hill to home. George spent the day doing various assorted meetings in San Francisco so he wasn’t home till late. My last missing textbook finally showed up. I thought about studying….
For the second day in a row, the small branch of the Hayward Fault that travels fairly near our house decided to shake a bit. The epicenter was just south of the campus (11.6 km deep), fairly near the tunnel on Hwy 24. The map link covers the whole world, but you can pull up regional maps. Since this is an area through which BART travels, obviously there needed to be a rail inspection. In my mind, this is a good reason for BART to be delayed.
[there are plenty of other reasons why BART becomes delayed. For the moment I will stay off that particular soap-box].
It lead to much discussion around school. And on BART. Mostly people were just glad that nothing serious happened and that they could blithely leave consideration of the potential for disaster sometime in the future.
Just the title should let you know that once again it was raining. This time in both Berkeley and San Francisco.
Wednesdays are either great or terrible depending on the week and my attitude. Today, I am on the positive side. Only one class which doesn’t start until 0940 giving me both enough time to get to Hastings and an early change to get home. That will change next week when classes kick in at Cal. But I will still have enough time between morning and afternoon to stop at my favorite Burmese Street Food Restaurant in Berkeley for lunch.
Today’s schedule was a bit different. Because of the holiday next Monday, there are classes that will not happen. Since this is essentially a Law School (writ LARGE) there are certain rules and regulations that must be followed. Part of those rules seem to be the number of hours sufficient in a class of a certain number of credits in order to be able to grant that class status. What does all of that mean? Make-up classes. Yep, can’t completely skip, especially if there are two hours of the same class involved which is the case for my International Human Rights Course. So today, after spending a painful hour going through several treaties (UN on various aspects of human rights) we had a break till noon. There was a presentation scheduled with an invited speaker which was going to count as one of the two hours which will be missed next Monday.
[Of note to me, Cat and maybe a couple of others. Having a network of people around the world is wonderful. When a question came up on one of the treaties as to why Australia was not electing to play, Cat knew where to find the answer. Even more fun, the answer made total and complete sense.)
After all was said and done in the morning (skipping delayed flights leading to a delayed guest speaker) I wandered through the Wednesday Market set up at UN Plaza on my way to BART. I found orange beets, multi-color carrots, fresh spinach, onions and a very interesting version of a citrus fruit which I can’t pronounce.
I skipped running errands with the guys and elected to attempt a reorganization in my studio. By the time I was part way through, it looked worse than when I started, so pictures are being held until I can share the end results.
And it was still raining at the end of the day.
My first class on Tuesdays is 0830. Just to let you know that up front.
Backing up in time, I have to leave about 40 minutes for BART (safe siding) + about 15 minutes to get to BART, not counting the BART schedule. Then add in whatever amount of time I need at home to run around like mad finding everything, getting dressed and pouring that first cup of coffee down my throat. All of this means that I am up somewhere between 0600 and 0630.
My next official class is 1640 in the afternoon.
Yes, you read that correctly. Between 0930 and 1640 I have nothing official scheduled. Having said that, I am auditing a class at 1420 and another at 1530. It would be insane not to since the two classes (Public Health Law and US Health Law) are interesting and had lectures that conflicted with other courses on my schedule.
I am trying to treat those intervening hours the same way I did back in 1984-5 when I had some similar holes in my MPH schedule at Johns Hopkins. Every hour spent studying/working on assignments/usefully occupied while at school is one less hour out of my precious time at home. Right?
The end summary is that by the time my last class finished at 1840 I am done. Cooked. Stick a fork in me. All I want to do is go home. I can’t imagine how horrible it is going to be once the baseball season starts and there are Tuesday night games. (2, 16, 23 April). Probably the only way I will survive is by not having to be at UCHastings until 0940 on . Wednesday.
I got home. Skipped dinner in favor of ice cream and went to sleep extremely early.