For what it's worth, I have not completed my thoughts on graduation yet. I'll do so at a later time.

I also decided to reduce the size of the page so that it loads faster. Hopefully that helps loading times, although I don't notice since at work I use lynx which speeds things up, and makes it look like I'm working.

This weekend, I should be moving out of the hotel and into a room I'm renting. This should allow me to set up the computer, and maybe take advantage of the local cable company's deal on cable modem service, by getting it free for a month (they better still have those trials around). If I can get that, then I'll post more often. Otherwise, I'll probably post from work as I do now.

Speaking of which, this computer has a CD burner, which my position has no use for.

Ever wonder who the Verizon Wireless guy is?

He's Paul Marcarelli, gifted character actor.

I signed on with Verizon before the "Can you here me now" era, when their slogan was "people want to be free". Up here, the coverage is OK, a lot of analog in the rural areas (and a lot of Sprint roaming, especially along I-84).

As promised, I am now in the Rose City.

Today was the day of the Portland Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade. Watching the telecast just cemented the feeling that I have that Portland is a second tier city, forever living under the shadow of Seattle, which is definitely a real city. I visited Seattle a couple of days ago. They have real attractions (not just the Space Needle, which is incredibly overpriced at $12 a pop, but the monorail, the ferries, Pike Place Market, the waterfront, the Mariners, and so forth), whereas Portland likes to think it is all that, when it really isn't. Case in point: during the parade, they had a couple of Southwest Airlines employees going around the country to tell people about the Grand Floral Parade, billed as the second largest floral parade of its country (the first, belonging, of course, to the Tournament of Roses, a fact conveniently omitted by the folks on the tube). They were giving away plane tickets to next year's parade, for all the viewers not in Portland. Of course, Portlanders get sent down to Phoenix, AZ on Southwest, which I also consider a second tier city (under the shadow of Los Angeles and Las Vegas). But Portland has a small town feel ("we like to think of it as the world's littlest big city"), but in a bad way. David Kaye sums up my feelings nicely here, although the entire thread is worth reading as a nice guide to cities around the country, and has three Davids participating (David Barts, of whom I enjoyed his hospitality when the streetcar opened, Kaye, and Dave Simpson).

AC Transit is cutting service to North Berkeley on Line 8, and to Merritt College (where some Cal students take summer classes or participate in the inter-campus exchange option) on Line 64. Service cutbacks on what is now Line 65 and Line 67, as well as Line 9 will also occur. In addition, the F Line to San Francisco will cease serving West Oakland (which only took up time, and didn't bring in any riders). More dramatic changes are also happening in Central Alameda County as well. The meeting is on June 20th, which is timed when students are away (and there are quite a few students that use Line 8).

The interesting thing is, if you read the service deployment plan (chapter 1 is linked above), where all these changes are discussed, it turns out that AC is using September 1998 numbers to make all these cuts, since they were the "most recent available". I discussed with a member of the Class Pass Committee once that AC Transit specifically promised in the 1999-2002 Class Pass agreement to do ridership surveys on lines surrounding the campus with money. That member said that they opted to ask those questions online instead, which provides little useful information, because of the granularity of the information (broad ranges) and the sheer amount makes it difficult to get real ridership data. Of course, 1998 data does not represent the data in 2002, where the Class Pass is well used, a housing crunch has forced students further and further out, and North Berkeley is the source of many single family homes popular with students.

Some rumble that this is AC Transit's way of increasing ridership, and to settle a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club against them and MTC regarding a drop in transit ridership. Cutting driver hours away from lesser used routes, even in hilly areas where the alternatives are difficult to use, and into service on well-served streets, but those where there would be more demand, is the goal. While it isn't as disasterous as what recently happened in Orange County (what happened there was they wanted bus service to be "straightlined", which ended up unserving the Braille Insttitute, several malls, colleges, and other points of use; the goal was to increase boardings by forcing more transfers, but ridership actually declined while transfers increased, meaning more people faced the inevitable and bought cars; and, after large public outcry, the service was basically replace bit by bit such that, with the exception of spaghetti routes in South County, most of the main routes went back to the way they were.), it still has the potential to be. Some are complaining that Pill Hill (the hill where Summit and Kaiser Oakland Medical Centers are located on) will be unserved (it is currently served by Line 59, which is slated to be eliminated), leading to increased cost, ironically, because seniors who can't make the hill will call dial-a-ride paratransit and have a shuttle carry them out, with costs to the taxpayer on par with taxi service, not regular transit.

It's flying under the radar screen now, but worth paying attention to.

While we're discussing freshman students' experiences at Cal, it might be also be worth it to give the same treatment for the transfers. Fortunately, Tyson McCreary, one of the Daily Cal's best columnists (up in the same area as Ross Clippinger and Isaac Clemens), does the obligatory transfer student treatment, even if he changes his major and class every week.

Well, I haven't updated it recently, for various reasons. And, I won't be able to update it for a little longer, until next week. So don't expect much, if anything, until then.

Someone decided to send me an IM offering me money if I just said who I was. Well, I'm not; but I understand how the ad is bothersome, so I opened my (insert money-collecting device here) and paid the twelve bucks to "ad-neuter" this sucker myself. Hey, it's only $12, and I've foregone about that much food in the past two weeks, so I'm not complaining.

I'll have some thoughts about the graduation either tonight or tomorrow. Right now I'm just really, really tired.

Here's an idea to get water from the north to the thirsty Southern Californians... put it in balloons! It's interesting, if it can be made cost effective, although I think there's more money to be made, as well as jobs for the depressed areas, by just bottling the water and trucking it down.

The Berkeley Daily Planet (not online yet) weighs in today on the Daily Cal eviction situation. They don't say anything new, other than they are currently paying $7,428 a month for rent and want to see that their rent gets lowered to $5,770 a month, because of falling ad revenues (as evidenced by the elimination of one sheet to the current two sheets/8 pages recently, and the decline in the news hole available for stories).

Also across from where the article jumps to is somebody selling an interesting service related to students. I won't go any more in detail than that, but we'll see how long it lasts.

There's an article about the Claremont-Elmwood district in the San Francisco Chronicle, talking about how white it is (86% of the residents there identified themselves as at least partially Caucasian). Not particularly surprising as to the causes (nice atmosphere, people not wanting to move, thus resulting in low turnover etc.), and it's not like anyone should do anything about it. The usual quotes from random people abound. (The neighborhood is basically south of Ashby and east of College to the city limits. Not many apartments, here, either, but mainly single family housing, which also accounts for the low turnover.)

In the "does anyone still care" column: Apparently, Kris Primm dropped his appeal of the election results just shortly before his hearing was scheduled. They also seemed to roust up enough senators to officially certify the vote. So congratulations to Jesse Gabriel as the new ASUC president.

Doe just opened back again.
I lost about 40 minutes, and got a brownie in the process. Not horrible.

Moffitt reopened again.

But my stuff's still in Doe. Bleh.

They just pulled the fire alarm in Doe, and Moffitt just got evacuated too, for no apparent reason.

And I have a final in six and a half hours. And all my stuff is STILL IN THE LIBRARY because I decided to take a study break and get some money just then. Big mistake.

Fire trucks are moving in as we speak, and I am going to ASSUME the library will reopen sometime tonight, and this is just a hoax. Otherwise, I'm totally dead.

I'm more or less done with the changes here. This look is better for people on lynx and Mozilla, in addition to the traditional IE.

I might mess with the colors a bit later, but this is probably it.

Before I go, just wanted to mention that there were people handing out Mentos at Sather Gate today. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought commercial activity was only permitted in that little area by the Cal Student Store. While Mentos is not as objectionable as that time when Bank of America was trolling for credit cards a while back in front of Wheeler, it's still a small irritant, although, they are free mints, so I shouldn't be complaining.

People keep saying that I'm an insider, or that I'm well-connected. That's one of the more ridiculous things that I've heard (although it doesn't rise to the level of The Most Ridiculous Item of The Day.) I basically keep my eyes and ears open and make a (mental) note as to what's going on. Which is why, by the way, I won't be saying who I am anytime soon. It's like that episode of the Simpsons where Homer ends up starting a web site reporting rumors, and then he accepts the award and people stop talking in front of him. (Although I do my very best to ensure that what I write is accurate, too, or clearly delineating what is opinion. And I do exercise a LOT of discretion as to what I end up posting, such that the vast majority of what I hear never ends up on the page. And I do honor off the record requests, as I have a few times already.) For what it's worth, my roommate knows, a few friends know, and I posted it up on my "real" AIM profile (not the one below) for a couple of days, until I took it off once I got linked. That's it.

24 just ended its day, with an important cliffhanger. (If you want to know what it is, just read the forum). While lacking in some parts, the times when it wasgood made it worth watching. Definitely movie-quality shooting and near-perfect storyline, better than most TV shows out there (only The West Wing and The X-Files (first four seasons, anyway) compare).

I've finally figured out how to get Trillian to get multiple screen names on AOL Instant Messenger. So now more of that Yahoo crap. You can IM me at calwatchblog. (Although it won't be on for long, since I'm taking off soon, and am studying a lot these few days until Friday.)

For those of you looking to find out who I am (the twelve or so of you that already know who I am don't count): the below about me at graduation ceremonies is true. Also, I'll be taking the train to Southern California on Sunday. I visit some friends and family down south, and try to transfer title on a car I'm getting, and then it's off to Oregon and/or Washington for my Government job, after stopping by Berkeley for a day or two. That will take us up to the middle of June, and then I come back for Fourth of July weekend, and back in Berkeley by Welcome Week or thereabouts.

Finally, thanks to Progressive at Cal for the Hugo award. There will not be an acceptance speech here, but look for more semi-informative commentary in the future.

Also, a note about editing blogs. I don't do it, aside from typographical and syntax errors, because my gaffes should still be seen and help make me better. I mean, the Daily Cal would look a LOT better without the corrections made every single day. But the mistakes are there for all to see. (This is not in reference to anyone in particular, by the way, just a general observation.)

Well, two done, two more to go.

Look for Cal Watch at the Political Science and Engineering graduation ceremonies this week. (I'm not graduating, though.)