two days, 20 hours

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and 33 minutes had expired out of the 72 hours allotted for my take home exam when I uploaded it and hit the submit button.

Of course, ten minutes after that I started thinking about what else I should have said, or how I should have said it. But then, stick a fork in me, I was more than ready to be done with exams.

It is not to say that I am done with the semester, just with the exams and deadlines. I still have two papers to turn in. One is a combination project of a cover memo with draft legislation/ordinance – the other a position paper. I have drafts for both but have not been able to drum up the energy needed for a concerted effort on either.

The last day of exams is tomorrow; half of my friends are slotted for that very last exam period.will not complete their last exam until late afternoon. I can’t really decide which I detest more – in class exams where your whole grade depends on the final, in class mid-terms and finals, take home exams, or whole grade hanging on a writing assignment. They are all ugly options.

Why am I doing this to myself anyway? Oh, yes. GI Bill with Uncle Sam paying for everything plus providing me a living subsidy…..

I really should be

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working on that take home exam.

Which is why I am playing computer games and otherwise procrastinating. Like puzzles –

just those last few pieces

which means that I finished –

all 524 pieces

 

and an area where you can see the details –

no two pieces alike

 

Otherwise? I finished Questions 2 & 3 on my take home exam, leaving Question 1 – probably the most difficult, for tomorrow

Quietly insane

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is what this particular take home exam is driving me.

5 May afternoon

which may be why I am spending time working on the puzzle. Unfortunately, the easiest portion is complete. From here on in, criss-crossing tree branches. And more branches and more branches. I am not sure that this puzzle is not also going to drive me around the bend (and that is not really all that far since I can see the curve from here….

Mental Health Break

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AKA, just running errands and playing with puzzles prior to starting on my take-home exam.

about 1/3 completed

which is challenging considering that the entire upper section is fairly dark as is the section of the living room where I am working…

Meanwhile, George is spending the day at the Bay Area Book Festival.

Survived, barely

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At least I think I did. There are two theories when taking a portion of a test that is multiple choice. One either thinks of it as multiple guess and goes with ones best, first guess. The other is to take on those questions as a serious challenge worthy of one of the three hours of the exam and try to reason them out. Even going back at the end to see if something in another part has cast light on some of the answers.

This time my method fell somewhere in between. This faculty member is reasonable, at least somewhat. Since there was relevant legislation to the essays, he kindly provided the appropriate sections just to make sure that we understood that he was not trying to fake us out on section numbers or content. Of course, this particular bit of legalese was written in 1946 and has a density of about 100gm/word. As I often, remind everyone -I am NOT a lawyer. I have no desire to be a lawyer, to think like them or emulate their behavior. This particular degree is my evil plan to understand, undermine and control….. Oops. Back to Admin Law and today’s three part exam, Multiple choice section, long essay section, two shorter essay sections.

Over, done and hopefully passed. Since I am not on the same grading curve as all the young, bright and beautiful, my goal is simply survival. I have learned a lot this semester, so it was a course worth taking. This leaves me with only one exam to go (take home, 72 hours once the clock starts and upload before Midnight on Tuesday). Means I didn’t have anything I needed to do this evening? Right?

Well, there was this reception for the staff and invited authors, the occasion being the Bay Area Book Festival. George, because of course he has nothing to do with his time… (!), is on the Board. Hence the invite. The good thing? I could get some photos of the sunset toward SF and hang out on the edges of the group. The downside – way too many people jammed into one place for me and the noise level was painful.

 

2121

Avoidance of study

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Since I have an exam tomorrow morning, bright and early (0830 in San Francisco) it means that I should be diligently studying this whole day, right?

Instead I find my mind wandering. It is that awful feeling somewhere between–I know this stuff and I don’t want to over think it– and “I don’t have a clue, much less a reason for why I am doing this to myself. It might be why I was more than happy to take something for my headache and go back to sleep for a number of hours this morning. Or why I spent sometime sorting out paperwork. Or looking at furniture for the back deck. Or working on a jigsaw puzzle that had been put away for months.

Winterland

I am sure that I’ve mentioned Liberty Puzzles before. Wonderful small firm located in Boulder, Colorado. Wooden puzzles, all laser cut for accuracy, with whimsy pieces and challenging shapes. I have a lot of their puzzles, accumulated over the years. Not cheap, but challenging, durable and interesting. Plus, they are not 1000-2000 piece puzzles. I want a challenge but something that can be completed in my life time.

I don’t actually remember when I started this particular puzzle. It has to be more months ago than I want to admit. Perhaps after we reorganized the living room furniture but maybe not. I had tucked it away in the puzzle keeper I had in order not to lose the small bit of progress that I had made. Challenge of dark colors, not as much light as I would like and older eyes in the evening. Enough said on that, if you don’t understand, you are just not there yet. Just wait.

Anyway –

the foreground

has some identifiable plants below the house (easiest part as the colors are pretty obvious) before heading up into trees, trees, and more trees.

and not making much progress

as so far 8-10 pieces a day seems to be about as much success as I have been able to accomplish.

Having said all of that – I need to get back to my Admin Law outline. I just shouldn’t be that hard, right? Rulemaking, Adjudication, and Judicial review, along with about a dozen cases which I should make a serious effort to remember. It would be nice if the entire grade didn’t hang on this one exam.

Oh, right – Administrative Law. For those in the US – it is the area of law concerned with all those pesky US government agencies from how they make rules and regulations to how they decide (adjudication) everything from licensing to customs fees to Social Security/Disability payments (who gets what and how much). For those not in the US – you have a similar system in one way or another.  Your government has to set the standards for licensing, or benefits, followed by a standardized application process which results in a determination. There are also likely set rules and procedures for appeals and renewals. It all falls into the category of Administrative Law. Normally there is count oversight with more or less deference given to agency decisions depending on challenges of interpretation (substance) or procedure. Since the US is a common law country (also UK, Australia) previous court decisions have a weight of precedence on subsequent determinations. Frankly – I much prefer countries that just have legal code. If a court is involved, the judge makes a determination for that case. The result applies to that case, and that case only.

Anyway – the devil is in all of the details and I have procrastinated long enough….

Up on the roof

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Pictures at some point, promise.

Yesterday while I was waiting for the NCL Bliss to dock (and Mary to get off the ship) I wandered along Pier 27, checked with one of the guards to find out that the end of 27 was closed off, but I could walk out to the end of Pier 29. Just in time as it turned out as the Bliss came around the corner from Pier 39 accompanied by her pilot boat. The guard was charming and on the way back I stopped again to thank him for pointing me in the right direction in order to take photos. A second gentleman was standing there. As it turns out, he was the Port Engineer. After attending the Maritime Academy followed by interning on several of the NCL ships he decided that enough travel was enough. Returning to home to the Bay Area at just the right time, in 2014 he became the engineer for the brand new Pier 27. More interesting than ships’s boilers, steadier land beneath his feet and not much more interaction with the general public.

At some point, I transitioned from the general public, and I am not sure why. But I was offered the opportunity to go up on the roof. Yes, the roof of the Pier building to take photos. Inside the industrial portion of the building, then up stairs, then up a ladder. No elevator, but then you don’t want anyone up on the roof who can’t get there themselves. Part of my view was blocked by the ship, but being able to see the rest of the city without vehicles and pedestrians in view? Wonderful. Now I just need to figure out a thank you for the next time I am in the area.

Quarters

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Parking at BART costs $3US for the day. You have to pay if you park anytime between 0400-1500. No exceptions or it can cost a lot. With  a regular BART card it is just a matter of tapping your card at the park station on your way to the tracks. For those of us on any kind of discount, a cash payment is required. Cash. Not credit card, not debit card. Cash. Change up to $4.95 provided. Hit the “cash only” button, enter your parking space  number (oh, right, there is a space number stenciled on each parking space enabling the good folks to match payments to slots) then feed the machine.  Most of the time, I have either one dollar bills or a five dollar bill. The second is the worst option since change is provided. In change.

On my way in this morning I checked various car locations and found …. QUARTERS! I was able to actually, when including the four quarters from my bedroom, to rid myself of change which otherwise just seems to accumulate dust and be aggravating.

My trip to SF this morning was strictly for fun. One of the lovely people with whom I did the NCL Bliss maiden voyage last April was on the repositioning cruise. I enjoyed watching the ship sail in to Pier 27. Mary and I met, walked up to Pier 39, then along the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building before I really had to head home and go back to studying.

 

NCL Bliss

 

I have more photos, but they are still on the camera.

One down

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First of my three exams was this morning. Oh, thrill. Not.

It seemed like a huge pain, travel into SF for a single, one hour exam.  One credit course, one hour exam.

To top it off, the exam had been scheduled for Saturday. Out of general principles, I don’t take Saturday exams.

So there I am, first having dropped over to the library to return a number of CDs and books and finding that several books I had requested were now available. Since I had been trying to be good, I thought I had placed a “pause” on all my holds. Not so, as it turns out.

Then it was down to the lockers since phones and smart watches aren’t allowed in the exam room. Large clock on the wall plus the proctor does 10 and 5 minute warnings. Right before the exam starts, one of the records office people stops by to tell me that there is a change on the exam – not to worry about the first question, answer the second and do the best possible on the third (apparently somewhere along the line there was an issue with the exam). Ok – I can be more than happy with only two essays questions rather than three.

Then it starts and I look at the exam. Ok – Question #1? Easy Peasy, I will answer it anyway. Question #2? No major issues, in fact it looked an awful lot like one of the practice exams. Ok – I can answer that as well. Then I drifted down to the third question. Note, I still had 45 minutes of my hour to use. Question #3? Hey this is not all that complicated – and pull out the list of everything possible from one of the charts, going down the line, I can fake this.

(Sorry lawyers, but I have less than any interest in Torts, common law and other adversarial systems that aren’t decided by an adult (read judge).

From there it was off to Cal and my afternoon lectures. Perhaps it is the last two semesters, but there is precision in words. The bacteria, toxins and virus are BioAgents. The evil idiots who want to spread death and destruction? Those are terrorists when non-state agents and evil empires when state agents. Bioterrorism is one of many methods of seeding fear, panic, hate, and distrust–along with massively interfering with people, plans and infrastructure.

Never mind, you really don’t need the rest of this particular soap box.

Telling time

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The Circle of time

since, obviously, I needed to start a new puzzle.

completed

Again, not all that many pieces but a challenge in terms of fitting everything together and the interesting loops on the edges.

and then there is the cloth underneath – an old pastry cloth inherited from my mother’s mother with a circle imprinted so that you would know exactly how big to roll your pie crust.

I have three daughters who bake as well as a son who cooks. I am hoping one of them will treasure this bit of history.

Stem Cell

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I adore wooden puzzles. You have heard that particular line from me a number of times. I have raved about Liberty Puzzles. I must have mentioned Artifact Puzzles as well. Like Wentworth and Liberty, the company produces high quality wooden puzzles precision cut by laser.

Stem Cell

by Bruce Riley. Combining the most interesting from science, painting and whimsy pieces, it is not a large puzzle (~150 pieces) but completely and totally challenging.

Puzzles?

Because I am studying.

Right.

the puzzle completed

 

and tucked into a towel to move it off the breakfast table and into the living room where it can be the first to be admired.

Not their best performance

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Anyone can forgive a pitcher one lousy pitch. Even if it is one of the first pitches in the top of the first and results in a right fielder (not ours) hitting a home run. That would be ok. That can be overcome. Even a runner on base and another lovely out of the park ball resulting in the Astro’s pulling ahead 3:0. From there – hello? As Batters? Please hit something. Pitchers? It is really NOT a good idea to load up the bases before providing an Astro’s batter the opportunity to swing for the fences. Embarrassing. Seriously embarrassing.

It was the crown on an already challenging day which started with a migraine resulting in me missing both a deadline and a class, moved on to the fire alarm system going off in 198 Macallister in the afternoon thus killing any opportunity for the two afternoon classes which I audit.

My husband provided me the crowning experience. We both have enjoyed the Cal’s Women’s Basketball Team. They had a “thank-you” type dinner tonight as a kind of end of year function for the team plus families and supporters. The food was ok, the company at our table was excellent. Speeches that go on, and on, and on? Shoot me now.

At least my phone lasted through the evening so that I was able to observe the travesty of the A’s-Astro’s match up while not being able to hear much of anything in the reception area due to the level of noise provided by the D.J. under the guise of “music.”

One of those weekends

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Where I started with a huge amount of ambition and ended with nowhere near as much accomplished as I had planned.

I am sure that you have had one of those – and if not, my hat is off to you. On those rare times when I put a hat on my head. Baseball or well below freezing, that is just about it. Digressions are a fact of life and don’t always mean avoidance; sometimes they are just an indication of total disorganization.

I have mentioned this before, but when the area surrounding be gets totally disorganized, I grind to a stop. Doesn’t matter whatever else I have to do, I just don’t appreciate the mess. Cleaning up/organizing has its own challenges (including the ability to spell, but that is a completely separate discussion). George is kind and pays a lovely woman and her niece to come through every 2-3 weeks and do the heavy lifting. So primarily kitchen and bathrooms are never on my list of messes. But drawers, closets, and my upstairs studio/sewing & craft room feature in my nightmares.

It could be simply because I have too much “stuff” in too small a place. The walls slant which limits shelves and cabinets. Sounds like a good excuse? Rationalization strikes all the time. What is that song? “That’s my story and I am sticking to it?” Anyway, I can’t let Martha in there or I would lose her for the full number of hours that she normally spends at our house. I am limited in what I can do because there is another space which I need to access–that of my storage area in the garage. Said area is blocked currently.

Therefore I am using the excuse that if I can’t do the whole organization and cleanup, I shouldn’t start and get frustrated. Means I don’t do any of it, right? Well, when I write it out like that, it seems totally and completely stupid. Rather than work on clean-up, perhaps I should just complete my reading for tomorrow’s classes or the paper that is due by 0930?

City streets and sidewalks

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Several years ago as I was driving Daughter #2 and her dog from the D.C. area to Chicago we stopped in Indiana. At least I think it was there, although it could have been Ohio for all the difference it might have made. Our La Quinta was across a major road from a shopping center and I elected myself as hunter of dinner. Asking at the front desk, I was given driving direction to a location which I could see from my office.

“Can’t I just walk?”

“Oh, why would you do that?”

and it was obvious that, to this young woman, no one ever walked anywhere.  There were no sidewalks in evidence. There were no pedestrian signals at the traffic lights. There were no cross walks.

This morning, on our way to the North Berkeley BART station I noted that we were “in the city” as evidenced by sidewalks and crosswalks. Pedestrian signals abounded including along Shattuck Ave. at a couple of locations where cars could not turn but pedestrians commonly crossed the street mid-block . Then I started to think of the various locations where I have lived. In childhood, suburbs did not have sidewalks where city blocks–even residential areas did. In rural areas, there was absolutely no point to having sidewalks. After all, who is going to be walking 8-20 km along a state highway in order to go to work or visit a friend. Wheeled transportation is assumed when the distance is more than a few blocks.

Another characteristic of some cities (as apposed to suburbs or rural areas in the US) is the presence of public transportation. It is something that I took for granted while living in Germany and the U.K. Admittedly, it wasn’t always convenient, but it was by far more cost effective than driving, paying tolls, burning time and coughing up money for parking.  Especially when looking at meetings in London which not only were difficult to reach via car but then there were outrageous parking costs + congestion tax.

(for those who are following the debate about congestion tax in NYC – this article pretty much makes it clear. Congestion tax doesn’t harm the poor. If you are poor in NYC, you don’t have a car. If it cost (in 2017) an average of $430/month for a parking space and the subway cost $2.50 …. it doesn’t take a genius to realize that public transportation is the way to go. For the cost mentioned above, you can take a lot of taxis, or Lyfts or Ubers when shopping.)

Which takes me back to living in a city. Berkeley is not a large city; population around 123,000. The estimates vary depending on whether or not you count students. We have buses, we have sidewalks, and are connected to San Francisco, two airports, and a chunk of the East Bay by BART. Compared to childhood, it is lovely to walk sidewalks rather than dirt along roads, to have cross-walks where it is more safe than not to navigate to the other side of the street, and to have shops within walking distance.

Not to mention a husband willing to get up in the morning to drop me off at BART. Of course, that means he has access to “the” car for the day (single car family here) but still…..city living can be pretty good.

 

please, stand on the right

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It should be simple. This is North America. We do not follow English custom on roads, sidewalks or stairs. We stay to the right when moving slower than those around us. Passing is on the left.

Well, most of the time anyway. There are those who simply can’t take their eyes off of their phone screen. Not to look around, not to avoid others, not to be polite, and most certainly not to let anyone pass since it might  interfere with that all important kitty video.

Really? These are people who might never read a book, journal, or newspaper, but they put themselves and everyone around them at risk. You see the same thing all the time in crosswalks, on sidewalks, and occasionally even in bicycle riders. I have seen drivers looking at their phone rather than the road in front of them. Perhaps the only group that I have not seen paying more attention to reading their phones are motorcyclists. That might be just that the number of motorcyclists is minuscule compared to drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists (I almost wrote bivalves which might, in an absurd way, make a modicum of sense.

Back to situational awareness. I am not sure whether or not I am reacting to years of spending time in foreign locations that were not always safe, being concerned because of my age, or just irritated by the rudeness exhibited by those who don’t seem to care a whit about those around them. It wouldn’t hurt any of these individuals to tuck phones away, look at their surroundings, perhaps even see people as something other than objects interfering with their right to take up however much space might be needed in order to look at their phone screens.

On the tracks

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As my BART this morning entered Powell station, we heard an announcement. It was a simple, there are no trains going north on the Richmond line beyond El Cerrito Plaza. Sorry for the inconvenience. Right, like t hat is going to make any difference, the “sorry” that is, to those who can’t get to work on time or for those headed home after a long night shift. I suppose there are alternative buses, but that isn’t a portion of BART that I normally ride.

The “sorry for the inconvenience” bit–it could have been worse. Maybe. Kind of like having a mobility challenge and getting on BART only to find that both the escalators and the elevators are out at your destination station. Sorry doesn’t help you get to street level with a wheelchair or walker nor does it help a parent with a buggy and small children.

Today’s shut down was even uglier. For some reason there was a person on the tracks just short of the El Cerrito Plaza. Hit by a Warm Springs bound train, from what I can gather the person was killed instantly.

For those of you not familiar with BART – there are no street level stations. All the stations are either underground or on elevated platforms. It takes an effort to get on the tracks. One would have to jump down from boarding platform, or be pushed from the boarding platform. Did I mention these trains run via an electric third rail? There is absolutely no reason ever to be on the tracks. Admittedly, those who live in the Bay Area do not queue as well as traditional English but there is nowhere near the density of people on the platform as occurs in NYC or much pushing or shoving. Someone on the tracks falls into one of three categories; stupid behavior (the pushing, shoving, dares); “oh shit I dropped something” – which might also fall under stupid but doesn’t involve other people; and finally–deliberate action. I suspect the later in this case as the person was not in front of one of the platforms.

There was nothing further in the news after the tracks reopened for the second time (police and coroner activity shut even the one track open). It has made be cautious enough, at least for a while, to make sure that I am standing behind the yellow line….

And it was another lovely

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day, most of which I missed. Something about migraines, medication and attempting once more to clean up my studio.

I think we are done with the rainy season and will confirm it if we don’t have more rain in the next week. I am still struggling though sorting and storing audiobooks (and the occasional tract that simply doesn’t read). And then there are files and floors.

Did I mention headaches?

Guess you can tell that I am not all here…

Library CDs

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It probably will not surprise you at all to learn that not everyone who borrows audiobooks from the library bothers to take care of them. End result, of course is that listening to them, ripping them to a hard drive or otherwise trying to actually getting through an entire book without either error or my hair turning the rest of the way grey is simply not possible.

Of course,  I do have an audible membership and could possibly buy a number of the books. But since the library has them, I figure why not listen to them on the library’s (and my taxes) dime. Buying them would cost more than a dime and frankly there are not all that many books which are worth listening to more than once.

I don’t think the problem is my CD player. In fact, we have several floating around and I have tried three so far in the attempt to get this particular book to the point where I might possibly be able to listen to the whole thing. Perhaps the most critical disks are the first and last.

So guess which ones seem to be the most damaged? At the moment I am on disk 8/12 and 61 minutes into attempting to import it to iTunes.  Not the whole book, mind you – just this one disk. Considering that the average disk plays in 45-75 minutes – the scope of the problem should be obvious.

and which CD? Well, the first one to start with won’t load – and it all went down hill from there….

Counting down

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In some ways, it seems like my semester just started yesterday. But in reality, there is only the remainder of this week and next. Followed by a week of study. Followed by exams.

Time flies when you are having fun?

At this point I am desperately trying to get caught up with some of the reading that seems to have slid somewhere along the line and figure out what – if anything I really need to do to prep for the three courses in which I have exams. Following that – I will have two major papers to finish.

Not that I don’t have anything else to do in my life.

Knitting? Not since January. Same with Cross-stitch. The machine embroidery has been off and on. What I really need to do is study.

Which is why I am reading….. something else

Brains?

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or was that kidneys?

I mean really.

Yes, I know that I am getting older and that my mind occasionally wanders. But I hadn’t thought it had progressed this far. How far? Well, I had displaced my debit card for one bank account. I knew that it hadn’t gone missing outside of the house, since I almost never take it out of the house. When I do, it is in my phone wallet. But I haven’t been able to locate it for a month. In fact, it is just about time to do the “lost it in the house” or “ran it through the washing machine” number with my bank to get a replacement so that I would be able to avoid the pain of changing bill paying numbers in more locations than I want to admit.

This also, as an aside, probably tells you how little I actually use cash on a day-to-day basis. When I stop and think – there are only two locations where I have to use cash. The first is to pay for parking on those rare days where I drive to North Berkeley BART. If I would want to use a BART card to pay for parking, I would have to be paying full price for the ride. If I want to use my Clipper Card, I need to pay the $3/cash. No cards, just cash.

Think about it – for most of us, parking for $3/day? Amazing.

Back to the rant. The only other time I use cash is contributions to various musicians along my commuter or ballpark route. They make my day better–I can spare a dollar for their day. But the debit card? Zipped into my rain jacket pocket.

Hey, I live in the East Bay. Most of the year it does not rain. Even when it does, an umbrella taken from where it otherwise lives tucked into a backpack pocket does the trick. Berkeley is not Portland or Seattle where people stare up on that rare day to discuss that unfamiliar burning thing hanging in the sky. I actually don’t remember the last time I wore this particular jacket. This is a win the whole way around. I have my debit card, some cash with which to hit the Wednesday Farmer’s Market at UN Plaza, Civic Center and a rain jacket just in case for tonight’s game.

(Weather App says no precipitation predicted. Not now, not for the rest of the day – so what is that wet stuff hitting me in the face?)