May 15 - June 14: Ditch Day, San Diego, Church camp, Glenn visits, Bologna, Caltech Commencement

In my last post, I said I'd write not every two weeks but now every three weeks. And wouldn't you know it, then all this stuff started happening! So, this may be a very long post. But maybe the next one will be really short, so enjoy it while you can! :-)

May 20, Friday, was "Ditch Day" at Caltech. That sounds so innocuous, but it's really quite elaborate. I did an extensive writeup of just one "stack" at Ditch Day 2006 here. (There are ~40-50 unique stacks on Ditch Day.)

I didn't find out when Ditch Day was until the day before. It's a surprisingly well-kept secret each year, so even one day's notice is a privilege (or great luck). The late notice didn't stop me from changing most of my plans and waking up before dawn.

Because Ditch Day is a secret, a lot of the props and puzzles are hidden until the last minute: the seniors spend all night finishing, moving, and assembling hundreds of puzzles throughout campus. Ditch Day starts at 8 am, so I arrived before 7 in order to see all the stacks and puzzles in a pristine, unsolved state.

"Officially," I was there to help the "Harry Potter" stack of Avery House. (They turned the Avery Library into the "Shrieking Shack"–a two-level maze formed from moving boxes.) I wouldn't be needed until later in the day, so I happily explored the rest of campus to check out the other stacks.

Around 7:30 am, I was checking out Ruddock House when I saw two guys from the "Leverage" stack moving this big, wooden … sculpture. I asked if they wanted any help, and they said yes. We spent thirty minutes trying different ways to carry this bulky thing across campus, until we finally got a ride from one of the campus supply trucks. When we finally made it to the designated field, the dummy collapsed! (He's doing the splits here.) Although it seemed like a fail at the time, I'm sure the participants found a way to still have fun with this guy.

Once Ditch Day started, the undergrads donned shirts for their chosen stack. Then they went puzzle-solving across campus. I ran into this stack and had to get a photo. The stack is "Indiana Jones and … the Ocarina of Time"! ("The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" is a Nintendo game from 1998 and is the highest-rated video game of all time.)

Even though I graduated in 2005, I still have some friends at Caltech. One of these is Cynthia Carlson, who works for my old boss, Steve Mayo. I took Cynthia on a whirlwind tour of Ditch Day stacks. Here we found some top-secret, fragile documents for an unknown stack.

That's one tough thing about Ditch Day: we saw all these cool things on campus, but for most of them, we didn't find out what they were for. (But a few times, we were in the right place at the right time!)

This grid shows the stacks for one of the Caltech houses; the grid is to help each student decide which stack to participate in that day. Along the top is the name/theme of each stack (e.g., "Futurama"). Along the left are different aspects of each stack (e.g., tunnels, fire). Note that "Gardening" is missing from all of the stacks.

While Cynthia and I checked out Avery House, we saw a group across the street at the maintenance plant. We were just in time to see this clever puzzle!

The plant has this deep shaft. A dozen boxes of various sizes had been placed at the bottom, and the students had to use a makeshift crane to bring up each box. (Presumably they needed something in some of the boxes.)

I liked this puzzle because it was well-hidden, it revealed something neat (I lived in Avery for 6 years and never knew about the shaft), and it was a great exercise in anticipation and problem-solving. (The boxes are easy to see; but how do you reach them? Which one has what I want? And what will it look like when I find it?)

Back in Avery, the Harry Potter stack ("Harry Potter and the Mysterious Legend") had moved on to another part of campus. But they had converted one of the lobby areas into a Sorting Hat area, plus the wand shop.

It's amazing how effective a little calligraphy can be.

We caught up with the Harry Potter stack in front of Beckman Auditorium. They were playing Quidditch, of course.

Notice, in the foreground, a tarp revealing just a bicycle wheel. Which stack is it for? And what's under there?

A professional video crew finds part of the "Jedi vs. Sith" stack.

One of the great tragedies of Ditch Day is that almost all of the awesome and creative puzzles, etc. are seen by only about a dozen people (the students solving the stack). There are so many wonderful stories and histories that would bring joy to others. So, I was glad that the administration hired this film crew. But there's no way one film crew could cover even 5% of Ditch Day, especially without knowing what's where.

Back in Avery again, the conference room had been turned into a kitchen/class for "Transfiguration" for the Harry Potter stack. Transfiguration in Harry Potter is the art of transforming one thing into another (e.g., a car into a potted plant). How to adapt this into a real-life stack? Cake-making!

The students had to turn cake materials into a given animal (owl, turtle, teddy bear, cactus).

Can you guess which one this is?








While the transfiguration class was in session, I saw some familiar faces in the custodial room next door. It was Maria and Enrique, two of the long-time custodial staff! In the middle is John Liu, an Avery alum who flew in from Boston just to help out with Ditch Day.






Another great thing about Ditch Day is seeing how the campus is transformed. Consider just Avery: the library became a cardboard-box maze, a lobby became a wand shop, the conference room became a kitchen/transfiguration/sculpture class, and the vast dining hall became: a life-size word search! The Indiana Jones stack used it to adapt a scene at the end of the "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," in which Indy has to step on the correct letters to spell "Jehovah" … in Latin. As with most Ditch Day puzzles, this word search had some Caltech/nerdy twists. Either way, it was totally cool. And the use of sand to cover just enough of the letters was inspired.

Again in front of Beckman Auditorium, we find what was under that tarp on the Quidditch field. It's a bicycle frame … welded to a shopping cart! Apparently the red team's bi-cart hadn't worked out, but that didn't stop them from having fun!

Back in Avery once more, I had time to wander the halls. Avery House has a mixture of not just undergrads and grad students, but also some faculty. Here is the apartment door for one faculty family, and it really surprised me! These are the Zmuidzinases–a.k.a. the Z's. The Z's lived in Avery until about 1999 or 2000, but then they moved away. It's great that they came back!

From Ditch Day 2011

Of course, there was a ton of Ditch Day that I didn't talk about, and a ton that I'm sure I never saw. Even for the Harry Potter stack, there was a lot more. (We ended with games and dinner at a park 30 minutes away.) But alas, I still had other things to do: I had to pick up a cake for my Bible study group that evening, and pack for a trip to San Diego the next morning!



May 21, Saturday, was the "Ridiculous-Obstacle-Course Race" in San Diego. The website is here. It's a 5K with a dozen obstacles thrown in.

Now before you think too highly of me, I didn't run the 5K. But I did drive 60 miles to watch some friends in it. That counts for something, right?

Left to right, it's Mel, Elise, Sue, and Jeanne. We all worked together at Genentech.

I have several relatives in San Diego. This trip, I took the opportunity to visit my cousin Lance and his wife Jonelle. They graciously let me stay at their place. I also got to visit their church on Sunday.

Later on Sunday, I caught up with Mel, Elise, and Jeanne. We decided to try a famous breakfast place in San Diego. The wait was a little long, and the place may be a little overrated. However, I appreciated their chorizo, which is the red stuff at the top. What I appreciated was that it looks like chorizo, and it tastes like chorizo, but it's actually tofu. Same taste, more healthy = win!

After our big lunch, we went for a hike near Torrey Pines golf course. Just past the golf course is a nice hike to the beach, and along the way are some really unusual rock formations.

Here again is Mel, me, Jeanne, and Elise. Only Elise lives in San Diego, so it was really cool that we could all get together again.

From San Diego, ROC race

A better look at some of the rock formations.








So, it was a super busy weekend. But super fun.




The next weekend, Memorial Day weekend, was my church's church camp! I was really looking forward to this as a chance for people at the church to get to know each other better, and my hopes were pleasantly fulfilled.

Church camp was on the campus of Pepperdine University, in Malibu. It's nice. Here, we're worshipping in the amphitheater, which has a view of the sea.

From Church camp

Church camps can be quite diverse. I've heard some are almost like academic conferences, but ours was more like church vacation. That suited me quite well! Here, I was having quiet time on a balcony with this great view.

Actually, I think the key to our church camp was that everyone was divided into pseudo-random, same-gender small groups. My group had an 18-year-old, a 24-year-old, me (34 years old), two older guys (45 - 65?), and Pastor Ken. It was a great mixture of ages and experience. We met for a few key moments throughout the weekend, and we definitely got to know each other better than we would have at church. (I'm not sure I would have even met any of the guys during church.)

I didn't take many pictures during church camp, but others did. I think this link will go to our church's Facebook photos page.

My favorite part of church camp was during communion ("The Lord's Supper") at the end. We did it in our small groups. I didn't even take communion (long, same ol' story). However, I was almost moved to tears watching each group get up, look for its members, and just be together. It was really impactful to me for some reason. (I just hope everyone got to be in a small group, like most of the organizers.)

Everyone at church should be in a small group! (Or at least get to experience being in a small group.)

So that was my Memorial Day weekend … except for one thing. The Friday before the weekend was the birthday of my good friend Glenn Mondro. (Glenn's the guy who drove with me on part of my Minnesota -> Sacramento trip.) Glenn lives in Sacramento, so I called him up on Friday to wish him Happy Birthday. Of course, we ended up talking for a couple hours, mostly about video games and how he should take a trip down to LA to visit me. I thought we agreed that Glenn would research transportation options, email me later, and we'd go from there. Hopefully he could visit in a few weeks.

Then on Sunday, while I'm in Malibu for the whole weekend, I get a call on my cell. Glenn had driven down on Saturday to LA! He ended up visiting another friend, but he needed a place to stay or he was driving back on Monday. Crazy guy.

Long story short, I told Glenn to hang around LA on Monday during the day, and later we caught up and he stayed at my house for a week. I don't have any photos, but it was a full, fun week. We played a lot of video games and board games. We also caught up with Nick McGee, another childhood friend. On Friday, June 3, the three of us watched an improv comedy show that Nick is sometimes in. The show is called Improv Shmimprov. It's sort of like the TV show, "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?" There are two opposing improv teams, and various improv games they act out in front of the audience. Improv Shmimprov can definitely get raunchy/offensive, but we were laughing throughout. Three of the funniest parts:

1. A game in which one person has committed a crime and will receive a punishment, but he has to figure out what both of those are from clues from his teammates. The guy's crime was that he "broke into Narnia." There were references to wardrobes, lions, witches, "see us loose" (C.S. Lewis), Christian fables, and even Turkish delight. And the criminal is like, "It's like … the Golden Compass!" When he finally apologized by saying, "So, I broke into Narnia …," we all cheered. (The punishment was that he had to tease his hair. Go figure.)
2. A game in which an everyday scene is acted out repeatedly, but each time the actors have to "step it up." The scene was three people at the DMV, and the first time, one guy mentions some bees buzzing around the room. By the last iteration, one of the other guys was transforming INTO a bee because he had to wait so long at the DMV! (And he drove a Volkswagon Bee-tle, har har.)
3. A game called "Time-Travel Raptor." The game was made up on the spot, and it involved a dinosaur raptor (think of "Jurassic Park") travelling to three key moments in time and wreaking havoc. The first two times, the raptor (violently) stole the Wright Brothers' plane and then (violently) tried to save President Kennedy. The third time, two people were about to sign the Declaration of Independence. The raptor actor walks in with a finger above his mouth for a mustache, and his other hand out for a raptor claw, and we all somehow know that the raptor's impersonating John Hancock. And the raptor just signs the Declaration of Independence.
   

Great stuff.

From Bologna

Oh, I suppose this photo is related to Glenn's visit. Glenn didn't have much money for food, but I told him he could eat anything in our freezer. Somewhere, he found this unopened package of bologna.

If you look closely along the top of the photo, you can see it says, "USE BY NOV 01 2005."

Glenn left before he could try the bologna, but I tried it. Still okay! (Knock on wood!)

Finally, on Friday, June 10, I was scheduled to visit the Headington Institute in Pasadena. More info about them is on their site, but they wanted my input on designing a mobile app to promote the well-being of caregivers. (Imagine an app to help a person's physical/spiritual/emotional well-being! Intriguing.) I mention this because if you have any input or assistance for them, I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

The day before my visit to Pasadena, I learned that Caltech's Commencement would also be on Friday! Perfect timing! So I arrived a couple hours early to see if I still knew anyone graduating.

And I did! This is Habib. Habib and I both lived in Avery. We had a lot of fun hanging out together over the years. Habib, congrats on getting that Ph.D.!

From Caltech Commencement

Ah, a second familiar face! This is Si-Ping, another newly minted Ph.D. Si-Ping and his fiancee, Jackie, also were in Avery with me and Habib.




Whew! That brings us to the present. See you in three weeks!

Good Friday, Transformers, and Three Weeks

At the church I go to, we had a Good Friday service. "Good Friday" is the Friday before Easter. Easter is supposed to correspond to when Jesus rose from the dead, so Good Friday is supposed to honor when Jesus died on the cross. I feel we should instead call it "Bad Friday," because when Jesus died, it sounds like everyone who loved him felt really bad.

Anyway, for … that Friday, the church tried something new. They tied loaves of bread to the cross, and for Communion, people had to walk up to the cross and tear off part of the bread. Since the Communion bread is supposed to symbolize Jesus' body, I felt this was a surprisingly appropriate idea. But it sure felt weird (and I didn't even take Communion, since I didn't feel ready).

From Good Friday

After the Friday service, my Bible-study group went out for dinner and drinks.

Those aren't beers, I swear! :-)




A few weeks later, my friends Robert and Stephen Mar came to visit. Rob and I used to hang out all the time when we were kids.

While in LA, Rob and Stephen wanted to visit a place called Frank & Sons. It's basically a warehouse full of collectibles, especially comics, figurines, toys, collectible-card games, and sports cards. Entry is free, and each time there's some special event, like a baseball player signing autographs.

From Transformers

This time, the special event was "Star Cars." They had famous cars from TVs and movies. For example, KIT from "Knight Rider," Herbie, and the DeLorean from "Back to the Future." Those were all nice, but I really liked the car shown, which is Ratchet from "Transformers." Ratchet was the main medic/mechanic for the Autobots; I remember having that toy when I was a kid.

On top of Ratchet is the Decepticon "Ravage." (He's like a wolf, with missiles. And he transforms into a cassette tape.)

Finally, I want to mention that I'll be spreading out my posts more, from every two weeks to every three weeks. Frankly, I don't feel I currently get enough work done every two weeks to warrant a blog post. We'll see how this change goes!

The La Brea Tar Pits and Griffith Park

A few weeks ago, some foreign friends from the Game Developers Conference (GDC) were visiting LA. Another GDC friend, Jeff, acted as tour guide and showed us around. We visited many places, including Venice Beach and Mann's Chinese Theater. However, I took pictures of only the La Brea Tar Pits and Griffith Park.

From left to right, here are Robert (from Sweden), Irene (from Norway), and Jeff. I had always wanted to visit the La Brea Tar Pits, so I'm glad Jeff took us. There are two main parts: the museum and the tar pits. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit the latter.

Another view of the elephant/mammoth skeleton. I had always thought that the tar pits were full of dinosaur bones, but actually the tar pits are too recent for that. (The tar pits date back maybe 100,000 years, but the dinosaurs date back millions of years?)

The La Brea Tar Pits also has a volunteer program in which you can learn to dig out and clean up the fossils. It's a tempting opportunity!

In the evening, we headed up to Griffith Park. The park is up in the hills around LA, so there's a spectacular view of the city. There is also an observatory, but it was closed that evening.

From LA w/Jeff, Irene & Robert

Grad school took me six years, but I never went to Griffith Park in all that time. I'm glad I got to see it.

Perhaps someday I'll do some other LA things: the Getty museum and Mount Wilson.

Trip to Berkeley with Helen and Bibi

In March, I was in the Bay Area for the Game Developers Conference. I also got to see my Auntie Helen and cousin Bibi. We took a day trip to UC Berkeley, aka Cal, my alma mater.

At Cal, one of the biology buildings houses the Museum of Paleontology. They have a life-size T-rex skeleton! Her name is Sue. Bibi's in the lower-left.



GRAW-AUR!








There are a lot of hills in Berkeley! Here, we took a snack break in front of the campus bell tower, which is called the Campinile.








Bibi borrowed my camera and took this picture of a squirrel. I'm still not sure what the squirrel was doing, like whether he was resting, or about to zoom off somewhere.


This is one of the bells of the Campinile. Thankfully we didn't have to climb very far; they have an elevator.

The bells ring automatically on the hour, without warning. They are LOUD.

The Campinile offers great 360° views: the Big "C" in the hills, the football stadium, the Bay, Golden Gate Bridge, etc. The funny-looking building in the middle is the art museum. Below that are some tennis courts, where I once took a tennis class. You can also see a swimming pool; in the surrounding building, I once took a tap class. And in the field below that, we used to play ultimate frisbee.

From Cal w/Helen & Bibi

Bibi did some quick tree-climbing on campus.

We also visited the campus bookstore and a food court on the south side of campus. (We had Korean BBQ.) Then we took the BART back home. Even though it's a short BART ride from Auntie Helen's home to Cal, it sounded like they hadn't been there in years.

I'm glad we went.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

I've mentioned that I live with my cousin Mark. One pleasant surprise of living with relatives is that I get to meet other relatives . . . who are not relatives.

From Grandma's birthday

For example, in Seattle are my Uncle Paul and Auntie Nancy; Uncle Paul is my blood relative. However, while living in Seattle, I also got to meet Auntie Nancy's side. (Here are "Uncle Wai," "Auntie Janice," and my mom at Grandma's birthday party.)

Back to LA: My Uncle John and Auntie Valerie live here; Uncle John is my blood relative. But recently, Auntie Valerie's niece Tish was visiting, and I was invited to the family dinner.

The dinner was held at "Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant" near Knott's Berry Farm. The restaurant is a Southern California icon, and it was my first time there.



Relatives! Shown here are Tish's family (husband + 2 kids), Valerie's kids (+ their kids), and me (right side, second from the back).

From Dinner w/Tish et al.

More relatives! Besides John and Val, here are Tish's parents and Tish's husband's parents.

I was grateful that I got to meet everyone, even if we're not related by family. (But genetically, we all share at least 99% of our genetic code!)

And, yes, I was grateful also for the chicken dinner. Yummy!

Video Games: "Valkyria Chronicles" for the PS3

I love video games. I play them not as often as I would like, but more often than I should. My friend Glenn let me borrow "Valkyria Chronicles" (VC) for the Playstation 3, and I spent several dozen hours playing it recently.

VC is a turn-based, tactical strategy game in which you control a squad of soldiers. Since tactics are involved, you spend a lot of time looking at maps. Here, the blue circles with the funny icons are my guys, and the red circles with the funny icons are enemies. The yellow circle is the goal, and the concentric red circles are where enemy mortar shells will land.

Doesn't examining this map make you want to play the game? :-)

What makes VC unique is how you control each soldier. Instead of giving orders or moving soldiers on a grid, you control each soldier in a 3-D world. The game is turn-based, so while you're controlling one soldier, no one else moves . . . sort of. You'll have to play the game to understand. Anyway, the gist is that VC avoids the pressure of real-time strategy games and other 3-D worlds, but it still has immersion and emotion.

From Valkyria Chronicles

So, why did I take pictures of a video game? It was to document a particularly tricky mission in the game. In the picture at left, note the result for the number of turns used: 2. To a VC veteran, that says it all . . . almost.

You see, I love optimizing things. And games are easy to optimize, compared to reality. In this mission, "Escape from Forest Snare," a typical result is finishing the mission in 4 or 5 turns. If you're good or lucky, you can do it in 3 turns. But on the Internet, someone reported finishing the mission in 2 turns! The reported method required some tricks and a lot of patience, but it also sounded like an intriguing challenge.

In the end, I was able to duplicate the reported results (hence the last photo). But, I also discovered an incremental improvement to the reported method (hence the other photos). In VC jargon, I used only two "Double Movement" abilities, rather than three!

For most people in the world, that means absolutely nothing. For most people who've played Valkyria Chronicles, that still probably means nothing. Perhaps ten people in the entire world would appreciate this result.

But, I'm still glad I did it.

Baby returns

From Baby returns

First, the important news: My cousin Kristen and her husband Mike had their baby! Her name is Charlotte Mar, and she's already 1 month old and doing well. They're grateful for everyone's prayers.

What does this have to do with me? Not much. I haven't even seen Charlotte yet, because I'm not sure if I've gotten the new Tdap booster. The Tdap is for tetanus, diptheria, and pertussis. It was released in 2005, and I think I got mine in 2006 in Minnesota. But I'm not sure. Anyway, they say we're not supposed to come into contact with newborns unless we've had a recent pertussis booster, so I'll have to wait until Kristen and Mike are ready to take Charlotte public.

Nevertheless, I'm already running errands for the kiddo. What happened is that Kristen and Mike received more baby gifts than they could use, so they wanted to return some. They didn't have time, so Kristen's mom, Valerie, took them. My Auntie Valerie didn't have time, either, so I volunteered. But deep down, I was being cocky, like, "Oh, that's so easy. I'll show you how to do it." If I had known that there were no receipts, I probably wouldn't have opened my big mouth.

Auntie Valerie gave me three bags of baby stuff, mostly clothes. With no receipts. We didn't even know which stores the stuff had come from. Since Kristen had a registry at Babies R Us, I was told to try there. That was my mission: Take three bags of baby stuff, without any receipts, to Babies R Us and bring back some money, or at least store credit. And don't let them rip you off by giving you only a little money for something worth a lot. Although the stuff may not even be sold there. Oh, and go to Borders and return a baby book, also without the receipt. (And Borders was about to declare bankruptcy.)

I had received the baby stuff at night, so I put them in my car and planned to go first thing in the morning, because this would stress me out until finished. That night, I almost couldn't sleep. Then I had nightmares of driving across town only to be met by a condescending statement like, "Of course you can't return this without a receipt. We go to great lengths to explicitly say that you need a receipt. And this isn't even our stuff."

If you're a seasoned shopper, you may be wondering what I was afraid of. I'm not even sure myself, but I know I was terrified. I think I was afraid of being labelled incompetent. I had never tried to return something without a receipt, much less three bags of items of uncertain origin. And I don't know squat about babies. Probably, I wouldn't be able to return anything, and I would come back to my aunt empty-handed. (Actually, with my hands totally full, of all the baby stuff.) Then, my aunt would say that she should have done the job herself, because it obviously couldn't have been worse. I was in a lose-lose situation.

So, terrified, I woke up early, drove across town, and arrived at the Babies R Us right when they opened. (They were still having their morning staff meeting.) I prayed. I was shaking. The lady came to the customer service desk, and she was very polite. I thought, "Sure, she's polite. She doesn't know that I don't have any receipts." I explained the situation, hoping she wouldn't summarily cut me off–for some reason, explaining the entire situation felt really important, regardless of the outcome. When I finished, the customer service woman spoke:

"Okay, well let's see what we can do!"

It was like a little miracle. Check that: I'm calling it a miracle.

The woman calmly, cheerfully, and politely when through each baby item in each bag. Many were sold at another store, Target, but she kindly explained how to tell the difference. Several items were sold at Babies R Us but were on clearance, but the lady scanned each item and showed me how much credit I could get, and she advised me on which ones to just keep. She looked up my cousin's registry (presumably as store policy), but it didn't seem to matter whether the returned items were actually in her registry. I left with two-and-a-half bags of baby stuff, and a gift card with a small-but-very-importantly-non-zero-and-non-ripped-off-amount on it.

Armed with knowledge from the Babies R Us employee, I went to Target. I was still a bit afraid, but the Target customer service desk was also very polite and helpful. Most of the stuff was on clearance and not worth returning, like at Babies R Us, but I still left with a gift card with a modest amount on it.

Lastly, I went to Borders to return the baby book. The employee politely informed me of store policy, but he also called his manager to ask if she would make an exception. She didn't. But Borders had bigger things to worry about.

I returned to my aunt before noon and gave her back two bags of baby stuff, two gift cards, and a lot of explanation. Auntie Valerie might rather have had zero bags of baby stuff and a briefcase full of cash, but it was good enough.

In the end, my lose-lose situation turned out to be a good experience. Besides learning a lot, I was reminded of what it's like to be humbled. I know I could use more of that.

But, I haven't volunteered for my aunt again yet. :-)

Thank you so much to the employees at Babies R Us and the employees at Target.

From Baby returns

Oh, and here's the requisite baby photo. :-)

Christmas in Sacramento

Some of the other things I did while in Sacramento for Christmas:

On Christmas Day, Mary, Mom, and I visited Dad's grave. (In the picture, it's near the left-most headstones.) Dad's grave marker has a custom design, and it's almost cartoony. But I like that; it seems to give a little more joy to the place. Dad was extremely practical, but I am glad that we spent the extra money in this case.

We also visited the marker for Mr. and Mrs. Steinberg. Mrs. Steinberg was my math teacher through all of high school. She was ahead of her time: because of her, many juniors passed the Advanced Placement Calculus BC exam, when it was rare for a senior to even attempt the Calculus AB exam. (The BC was harder than the AB.)

From Christmas 2010

Afterward, Mom treated us to dim sum. Then we visited Hillary and Amanda, old family friends. (In the background is Amanda, and in the foreground, with her back to us, is Hillary.)

If this picture seems different, it's because Mary took it while practicing "artsy" photos.

A few days later, Mary and I went jogging. (I've taken up mild cardio.) I really liked this tree for some reason, so I took this picture. But I didn't realize why, until just now!

What does this tree remind you of? (The answer is at the end.)




Eventually, Mary and I made it from our house, through the parkway, to the Sacramento River. This was a rare occurrence (Mary and I doing something together, me jogging, and being in Sac), so we better take some pictures!

Mary tried taking some more artsy photos. Here, I am adjusting my ear muffs.






Sacramento has many trees. Many. And many great trees, like this one.

From Jogging in Sac

On the way back through the park, we saw a kitty cat! If you look closely, you can see dried cat food on the ground. So, someone was taking care of this kitty.


Holidays are funny. Growing up, I didn't think twice about the four of us being together for holidays. We were always together, at least geographically. I guess some things change, and some things stay the same.


Oh, what does that tree in the picture remind me of?

It's . . . a leaf!

That's deep, isn't it?

The Paul F. Hom M.D. Primary Care Center

For Christmas, I went home to Sacramento. While there I visited the Paul F. Hom M.D. Primary Care Center, which was named posthumously after my dad.

The center is also known simply as the "Primary Care Center." It's basically a medical clinic run by Sacramento County. My understanding is that people who don't have health insurance can go there to get help.

The center is at the intersection of Stockton and Broadway. It's right across from the buildings shown here. My dad worked in these buildings right before he died.



This is one entrance to the clinic. If you go inside and down the main hall, you'll see a portrait of my dad.





My dad's portrait. Next to that is a poem; I think my mom wrote it.






The poem says:

Born a child of adversity,
He saw and cared for
Those in poverty,
The disadvantaged,
The victims of social injustice.

A man of vision
His humble actions and words
Transformed suffering
Through faith and resolve.

Healing, compassionate, dedicated
A man of the community
His work transcended caring.

From Paul Hom Primary Care Center

Also next to the portrait is this statement from Congress. The late Robert T. Matsui did this. You can read more about my dad in the statement, but I'll quote one sentence here:

"All in all, the Paul F. Hom Primary Care Center will enhance the access to quality and effective health care for people without health care."

I'm sure Dad would be happy about that.

"Santa Claus Conquers the Martians"

A few days before Christmas, I finally saw the play "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians." I say "finally" because I had wanted to see this play for five years. The play is based on a 1964 movie of the same name. However, the movie's ratings have been terrible. (For example, a 2.3 out of 10 on IMDB.)

Why did I want to see a play based on a terrible movie? Because my friend Nick was in it! For the past 5 years, Nick McGee has been performing in "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" at the Maverick Theater in Fullerton. I'm not sure about previous years, but this year Nick was St. Nick himself!

Here's a picture of Nick. When I was looking at pictures and promotional material from the play, I had a hard time recognizing Nick in his Santa suit.


The Maverick is a community theater, and it's got that cozy, hometown feel. This picture was taken during intermission. On the left is the Martians' robot, Torg. People were lining up to have their picture taken with him.


Mark and Torg. Mark remembers watching the movie every Christmas when he was younger.

From Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Mark, I, and the cast. Instead of trying to figure out who each person is, consider seeing the play in person during Christmas 2011! (Quick tip: Buy tickets early, and arrive early and sit in one of the two front rows.)

By the way, Mark and I both really enjoyed the play. It's good family fun. And, as Nick told me, they've had over 40 years to improve upon the original!

Everyone, I hope that this new year is good for you!

Geoff