Californians (and expatriates like me whose last US residence was in California) vote tomorrow on a number of things, including Proposition 82. Proposition 82 would create a special income-tax increase to pay for universal preschool throughout the state.
Even as much as the general citizen might like young children, few will want to fork over more in taxes specifically to pay for it.... especially those without children. That's why one might suspect this proposition to be doomed from the start, but no, it won't fail. I predict it will pass with the force of a mandate.
It will pass because this proposition's key point is “You [...]
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What a pleasant surprise! The morally reprehensible ballot proposition (California's Proposition 82) that I feared was certain to pass was soundly defeated by a 39/61 ratio. Only two of California's 58 counties passed it (one by less than 350 votes).
As a bonus, the other proposition (a bond measure) was also defeated. I have a “guilty until proven innocent” attitude toward Statewide bond measures, as a state with one of the highest tax rates in the country has some very large means and should be able live within them. (Local bonds measures are a different story.)
Despite these results, I'm not sure if my cynicism about [...]
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Anthony's First BikeFumie (R) and her mom (L) in the background
Fumie's folks have been wanting for some to get Anthony his first bicycle as a present for his starting preschool (which is a “big boy” milestone). Fumie's Dad was in town (from Malaysia, where he's stationed for work), so today was the day.
We went to the store, and Anthony picked out his present. He had a choice of silver, yellow, and red, and had not a moment's hesitation when picking red.

We went to a park near the house, and gave it a try. The seat came a bit too low. It was [...]
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I do a lot of stupid things, but it's been a long time since I've been as shocked with myself as I was last night when I read the comment by Sam on the post about Anthony's new bike. Sam suggested we consider getting him a helmet. Prior to his comment, I hadn't even thought of it this time. (We had a couple of years ago.)
Thanks Sam. We got a helmet today.




This is the tracklog for his second bike trip, yesterday.
He was much more adventurous than the first time, and enjoyed using the bike as transport to [...]
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My arm hurts, but I had a fun day today.
This morning, I played real, indoor volleyball for the first time in 10+ years. (I'd occasionally played sand volleyball at Yahoo's corporate headquarters during my 8-year stint as a Yahoo, but that doesn't really count.)
Apparently, there's a little Mommy League for volleyball, of moms at various Kyoto preschools. I don't know many details except that I'm not allowed to actually play in the games (I lack appropriate Mommyness), but I can still practice with them. Anthony's preschool doesn't have a lot of volleyball moms, so they need all the warm fee-paying bodies they can get. Today [...]
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Anthony's hair can get wild, but it doesn't grow very fast. He was over a year old by the time he had his first haircut. Here's a screen capture from the video:
Anthony at 1 year 17 days (Nov 2003), ready for his first haircut
More than two and a half years later, he's had only a few more haircuts, twice in the place down the street where Fumie and I often get our hair cut, but mostly by me. Yesterday, we went to a kids-only haircut shop with racecars for chairs and videos of trains and such in front of each station.
Anthony at 3 [...]
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This is not the most ridiculous advertisement I have ever seen, but it's the most ridiculous advertisement I've ever seen on the front page of Yahoo! Also, it's perhaps the most vague as well:

What do issues affecting young women have to do with “what defines my generation”? (Note to the new reader: I am not a young woman.... not even close.)
An online exhibit of what? Of young women? Well, sure, I'm up for that.
Music and community resources? What on earth does that have to do with the above??? Oooooh, wait, is this a MySpace ad?
I have [...]
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I'd like to expand Anthony's exposure to English, and one way to do that is with a broader range of videos or movies. We've been pretty restrictive about watching anything on TV/video, and until now he's been limited to the occasional Dora the Explorer, Bob the Builder, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and the Disney movies Dinosaur and Finding Nemo. By far, Dora is his favorite.
Looking for different types of videos, I went to my old DVD collection and found a few to try: 101 Dalmatians, Ice Age, and Space Jam.
We started out with Ice Age, and wow, what a mistake that was. Within five minutes he was [...]
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Finally getting around to processing some of the accumulated few-thousand photos I've taken but not yet dealt with, here are some from a park Anthony and I visited in May.


Okay, it seems to work -- let's see what this baby can do!
Warp Speed
(That last picture has an exposure of only 1/5th of a second -- he was really cranking!)
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Have you ever noticed that some parking lots have yellowish lights that make things look crazy colors at night? A movie theater in Santa Clara, CA we used to go to made Fumie's silver car look perfectly green, or something like that.
Such situations are an extreme example of the simple fact that all light is not created equal. Any middle-school student can tell you that perfect white is an even dose of all colors across the visible spectrum, but it's only common sense that if the light shining on something white doesn't contain that even dose of all colors, then neither can the light reflected from [...]
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