One Final Dose of Cal Bears Football

...to get through the off season.

It's a good video montage of Best's 311-yard day against the Huskies this year.

Maybe both Cal and Wazzu or is it Wazoo fans will like this...

I Can Dance Too!!!

Here's our editted version of the "Stream of Life" video.

We Can Fly ! We Can Fly!

After a picture taking session in front of our tree, I told the kids to have fun and do some goofy things and here is the result.

Stats Redux - January 2, 2009

Here's an update on stats first posted in November 2005, and updated on January 2006, June 2006, October 2006, March 2007, November 2007 and August 2008.

Price of Gas: $1.85 per gallon (down from a high of about $4.49 this past summer when crude oil prices pushed past $140 per barrel)
Price of Milk: Down to $3.29 for a gallon at Trader Joe's (from $3.99 in August 2008)
Bridge Toll: $4 as of January 1, 2007 on all Bay Area bridges except Golden Gate Bridge (which is $6 cash and $5 FasTrak as of 9/1/08)
Today's High Temperature: 55 degrees F (overnight low of 35) and raining (the last entry in this space in August 2008 shows a low of 56)
Dow Jones Average: 9034.69 close on 1/2/09 (down almost 2300 points since August 2008)
Shopping Days to Christmas: 355 days (http://eclecticesoterica.com/xmas_cnt.html)
Dinner Tonight: Blondie's cheese pizza on the run to Cal basketball game for me; the rest of the family had chicken nuggets, fish sticks, mozzarella cheese sticks, corn casserole, carrots and apple slices
Average Commute Time: under an hour in mornings due to holiday driving conditions (carpooling to restart again this next Monday; two fellow carpoolers work for tech. companies that go into hibernation between Christmas and New Years; new carpooling will have 3-person carpool MWF; 2-person carpools on TuThu)
Cost of Area Homes: the value of homes in immediate area is down to around $500k
Movie Ticket: $10 to see movies in Seattle last week; saw "The Spirit" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Time with My Kids: played card game Golf this evening

Ethan will be 8 in less than 2 weeks.

"Stream of Life"

The music that accompanies the Matt Harding video was so mesmerizing and uplifting that we had to go look it up.

The name of the song is "Praan" or "Stream of Life," and was composed by Garry Schyman and performed by Palbasha Siddique. The lyrics were adapted from the poem "Stream of Life" translated by Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. The singer who performs the song apparently lives in the U.S., but has gained some notoriety since the production of the video including competing in the Bangladesh version of "American Idol."

The English translation of the poem goes something like:

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day,
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy,
through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass,
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death,
in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

Here's the song set to a video of nature photography.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to one and all! First blog of the year. 2008 was a down year for blogging in the Emoto household. Can't really say that this was due to one particular reason. We'll see what 2009 brings.

Perhaps we'll travel more. Definitely cannot travel any less than we did in 2008. We already have a possible trip to Disneyland in the works.

Here's our nomination for the video to inspire us all to travel more and for a more uplifting 2009 in general. Enjoy!



His web site says that he lives in Seattle. Check out his Wikipedia entry for more information about Matt. The Wiki entry states that one of the founders of YouTube claims that Matt's video is his favorite YouTube posted video of all time. Another entry also mentions that "few people are able to watch the video without smiling."

Christmas Light Show in Clayton

Another stop on our tour of lights this past weekend was the Clayton Community Church that has a light show at 7 and 8 pm every evening at their downtown office. It was quite a show. It probably went on for about 20 minutes or more. Here's a short clip.

Mr. Christmas

We went to visit Mr. Christmas this past weekend. Mr. Mertz on Olive Drive in Concord, CA is celebrating 30 years of celebrating Christmas in a BIG way. The display includes 50,000 lights that takes 11 weeks to set up. The PG&E bill for the season is estimated to be about $700.

"Fish Out of Water" Move

I'm waiting to see the Cal student section try this at a Cal basketball game this year.

The author of this video clip is non-other than Rod Benson, former Cal Bear basketball player. I got this clip from his on-line column at Yahoo! Sports.

He's currently playing basketball over in Europe. The other person in the clip is a teammate on that French professional team.

Plasma or LCD?

Not that we are in the market for a new set, but here's what is the current state of the "Should we buy an LCD or plasma high definition television?" question.

If having a truly cinema-like experience is important, then plasma displays are slightly better. The main issues with plasma sets seem to be image glare on untreated diplays especially in bright rooms. Also, although for most good plasma displays this is a non-issue today, there is a possibility of image retention for some displays.

LCDs on the other hand come in a wider variety of sizes (e.g., plasma displays less than 42 inches are not available) and images are quite comparable to that from a plasma display. The areas where LCDs do have possible weaknesses compared with plasmas are limitations with viewing angle, blacks not being as dark, and motion blur.

The top plasma display makers are Panasonic and Pioneer.

The top LCD display makers are Sony, Samsung and Sharp.

Why Not Bail Out California Too?

As the clamoring for a bailout of the Big Three U.S. automakers reaches a crescendo, it's still unclear if such a bailout is the right course of action. The total bailout could reach into the $30 plus billion range. That's a lot of zeros.

The main reason that seems to be out there for the bailout is an implosion of the Big Three would be bad for the economy, but where's the proof that this would be the case? It obvious that the Big Three are in need of a course correction. Aren't bankruptcies intended to allow companies to find a course correction?

So if we're talking about bailouts, why not a bailout of California? The current estimate of the state's budget deficit is at about $11 billion. Various proposals have contemplated closing this deficit through raising the state sales tax, raising the auto registration fee, imposing a new tax on any oil produced in California, raise the excise tax on alcohol sales, reducing K-12 education funding, reducing college education funding, reduce the amount available for the state's welfare-to-work program, require state employees to take a one-day a month unpaid furlough, reduce the number of paid state holidays by two days, and postponing some mandatory regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Quite sweeping.

If the auto industry is to be bailed out, the concessions by the auto industry must be at least the equivalent of these kinds of cut-backs being contemplated by states such as California.

After all, if California were a country it would have the 8th highest gross domestic product (GDP), about equivalent to that of France's GDP. So one could make an argument that a bailout of a state such as California might be more important to the national economy than the bailout of private companies that surely would be replaced by other private companies.

Basketball Dribbling Five Year Old

Here's a video of a 5-year old from San Leandro here in the Bay Area who has advanced basketball dribbling skills for her age. She attends something called the Triple Threat Academy. We first saw her as part of a halftime show at a recent Cal men's basketball game. Ryan has expressed an interest in wanting to learn how to dribble a basketball so we had actually inquired into their program. The rates were not too bad, but we haven't signed up.

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a nice little Thanksgiving dinner at our place this year. It was a smaller gathering than most years so we were able to get all of the adults a seat at one long table. The kids got their own separate table. The menu included: turkey, ham, stuffing, mash potatoes, corn casserole, bok choy and mushroom, green salad, fruit salad, an appetizer platter, winter melon soup, and rice; and then there was sparkling juice, wine, sodas, apple pie and pumpkin cheesecake. There certainly was enough food and even more for doggie bags for those wanting to take a little home.

Oh, yes, and Ryan got the larger half of the turkey wishbone this year.

Tinkerbell

We've had a guest for the past week in our home. Tinkerbell, the pet guinea pig from Ryan's preschool classroom.



In the photo below, Tinkerbell gets a treat on Thanksgiving Day.

What in the World Do I Do?

Friends back home have asked me what I do for a living. Sometimes it's not easy to explain.

Check this out though. Here's a link to a newspaper article on freeway improvements that was forwarded to me by a friend:

Fixing I-880: the never-ending story

So now you know that my work involves freeways. So how did someone who grew up in a small Alaskan town with no traffic signals and traffic signs used more for target practice (are they still?) get to work on freeways?

The Bears Tribute to Pete Newell

The Bears postgame show with Roxy Bernstein featured stories about Pete Newell who passed away yesterday at the age of 93. Here is a sample:

The first 5 times that Coach Newell coached against John Wooden he went 0-5 against the Wizard of Westwood. UCLA was still not quite the powerhouse that they would become, but nevertheless losing to the south state rival Bruins didn't sit too well with Coach Newell. The story goes that before the Bears' 6th match-up under Newell against the Bruins, one of the Bruins' players provided bulletin board material. Something about the Bears not being able to beat the Bruins. Well, in their next 8 games, the Bears went 8-0 against the Bruins. Pete finished his coaching career with a record of 8-5 against Coach Wooden. How many other coaches can say that they finished their career with a winning record against Wooden?

Did not know that former Bears assistant coach (and now head coach at New Orleans) Joe Pasternack held a special spot with Coach Newell. About 3 weeks ago, Joe traveled out to San Diego for a couple days to visit with Coach Newell before the season started. After Coach Newell's passing, if Joe didn't already know it, he learned just what Pete thought about him. One of Pete's sons called and in their conversation, Joe learned that Pete felt especially close to three coaches: Coach Knight, Coach K, and Joe.

A few years ago during a Bears game against SDSU in San Diego, Pete sat next to Roxy who called the game solo. Pete sitting next to Roxy was not planned. Anyway, Pete spent the game scribbling notes that he would pass onto Roxy (who was next to the Cal bench) to pass onto the Cal coaching staff. The notes were about possible adjustments that Cal could make. The Bears would go on to win the game.

Now onto the game...

The Bears won 87-74. Cliche warning! ...but the game was much closer than indicated by the final score. In fact, the Dons scored 11 straight points in the middle of the second stanza to take a 60-59 lead. Fueled by a Randle 3-pointer that put the Bears back up, the Bears ran away with the game on the strength of a 16-2 run.

It was only fitting that the first game on Newell Court after the passing of one the most respected coaches in college basketball history would be a game between two teams once coached by the Coach. Prior to the game, a tribute to Coach Newell was displayed on the video board followed by a moment of silence.

The game ended quite anticlimactically with the Bears up comfortably. The final box score will only show that the final Bears' basket was a jumper scored by Patrick Christopher. What the box score will not show is how and why the jumper was scored. The Dons were not fouling with the outcome of the game decided, and the Bears were content to wind down the clock. At the end of clock, Randle set up Christopher for a baseline jumper. Nothing remarkable on the surface, but it spoke volumes about Randle's command and control of the game - quite a contrast to how the season unfolded last year.

Oh, by the way, Randle tallied 25 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists with just 2 turnovers.

The Bears are going to need to find some toughness inside. Although they are now 2 for 2 with the rebounding battle, it is a little surprising that this is the case. Perhaps, this is because they have been guilty of giving up rebounds that seem to turn into points. Max Zhang will need to be able to play more minutes, especially against the beefier teams. It seemed that when Max was on the floor, USF was quite aware of his presence and made it a point to not challenge on the inside.

Next Game: 11/20 (Thursday) against the Texas-Pan American Broncos.

New King Cove - Cold Bay Roadway

Having flown into King Cove on several occasions, it's understandable why an option to be able to fly into and out from Cold Bay is being sought. However, it does not seem that this is a black-and-white issue.

There have been recent stories on the proposed new roadway in the local papers in Alaska and also in papers here in the Lower 48. It's one of those locals versus outside environmental groups where both sides have valid points for and against the project. The articles have included quotes attributed to: president of National Wildlife Refuge Association (against the project), mayor of the Aleutians East Borough (for the project), and other people of note. The articles have mentioned Shell executives (presumably for the project), Fish and Wildlife Service (for the project), Governor Sarah Palin (for the project), the New York Times (against the project), and others.

So what are the opinions of the local people regarding questions and comments like those below?

1. This is really not about the roadway providing a needed safety valve for medical emergencies. It's about taking one step toward future oil and gas exploration in the area.

2. The hover craft system that is in place is too costly (running a deficit of about $500,000 per year) to operate for much longer.

3. How can the new roadway be a much better option when it could take two or three times longer to drive on the new road than it does to take the hover craft to Cold Bay?

4. The hover craft has limitations like not being able to operate when wind speeds are over 30 mph. Is this limitations of the hover craft really an issue?

5. The new roadway will have detrimental impacts to one of the most valuable wetlands in the world.

6. Locals have traveled the area for years on trails and dirt roads for years without an impact to the local wildlife.

Here's a story from the point of view of project opposers.

Here's story from the point of view of project supporters.

The following is a video from those supporting the project and includes local people that some of you may recognize:

A Historic Election

In his concession speech although John McCain looked a little tired, it was one of his finer moments of the campaign. His speech sounded much more genuine as compared to his campaign rhetoric down the stretch to the finish line. The results seem to indicate that the race was not so close.

Obama's speech was full of hope, but he's got a difficult task awaiting. Here are some steps that he should take:

1. Prepare and implement a plan to move our country toward energy independence.
2. Remake government so that it can really make a difference in the lives of ordinary people.
3. Set a tone of accountability; be willing to own up to mistakes.
4. Offer John McCain a seat in his Cabinet.

And finally...

Ryan says, "You rock Obama! I knew that you could do it!"

The Voters

Tomorrow's the big day. Then there is what kids have to say about what tomorrow means.

Me: Who's McCain? How about Obama?

Ethan: Yeah, they're those voters.

Me: What do you mean?

Ethan: You know, those people that you vote for.

Me: So are you saying they need us?

Ethan: Yeah, the voters need us to win.

Ryan (in the background): Yahoo! Go Obama! (over and over)

Halloween 2008

We had a soggy Halloween this year, but this did not deter our kids from making the rounds. Let's see now... Naomi was Sacagawea, Ethan was a clone trooper from the Star Wars stories and Ryan was Mater from the movie Cars.