Book review: "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf

Never has such a short book seemed so long. 

My copy of Virginia Woolf's 1929 book "A Room of One's Own" is just 125 pages long, but it took me almost two months to read. Why? Because each chapter was so exhausting that I had to take frequent breaks and get away from the book before I could continue on.

Reading this extended essay is like trying to follow a hyperactive child around the playground: Woolf zigs, she zags, she backtracks, spins around, pauses to rest, then suddenly zooms off in a new direction. 

It's too bad, for Woolf does have something important to say. "A Room of One's Own" is her commentary on the many obstacles that have prevented women over the centuries from succeeding as writers. Her conclusion is that women need a room of their own to write without distraction and plenty of money so they don't have to constantly worry about supporting themselves.

That conclusion is easy to understand, but Woolf's route there is not. There is one sentence in "A Room of One's Own" that is -- I kid you not -- 191 words long.  Deciphering that sentence alone is enough to merit a three-day rest. Despite the weighty matters Woolf wants to discuss, she seems incapable of saying anything in a straightforward manner. 

Take, for instance, this passage:

So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say. But to sacrifice a hair of the head of your vision, a shade of its colour, in deference to some Headmaster with a silver pot in his hand or to some professor with a measuring-rod up his sleeve, is the most abject treachery, and the sacrifice of wealth and chastity which used to be said to be the greatest of human disasters, a mere flea-bite in comparison. 

Translation: Write what you want, and don't listen to what others say.

I know it may sound like I hated the book, but I really didn't. Woolf makes excellent points about how women have been treated unfairly and often denied a chance to succeed as writers.  And, I sometimes actually liked the process of decoding the hidden meanings of her sentences.  But while an occasional cryptic passage could be fun, a book full of them is tiresome.

What Moore League school has the best cross country website?

There are two great cross country websites in the Moore League -- and both belong to the same school. Long Beach Poly's boys and girls teams have separate websites, both stuffed with team updates, race results, historical tidbits and helpful information.

The rest of the league, unfortunately, doesn't come close to matching the quality of Poly's cross country websites. Some of the other schools make little or no effort to produce a site with even basic information.

This is unfortunate, because a team's website is the face it presents to the world. A good site can engage and inspire fans, who may then buy tickets or otherwise financially support the program. It can also win over the parents of students, drawing talented new athletes to your team.

To be clear, a school doesn't have to go to the lengths Poly does to produce a good website. There are only a few things that are essential for a good team site: a current schedule, competition results (or links to pages that have the results), and the names and contact information for the coaches. Other things like a roster, photos and team records are just a bonus. 

Unfortunately, many Moore League schools' site don't even achieve the minimum.

A couple notes: First, this is a review of official team pages, not commercial sites like MaxPreps. Also, websites change, so this review can only capture a "snapshot" at this time. Tomorrow, any one of these websites may be better or worse, or even disappear altogether.
 
Long Beach Poly: A

Both Poly websites, one for boys and one for girls, are excellent. Beyond the essentials, both offer bonus material like training information and race results from past years.

The boys site scores with a clearly stated mission statement, team requirements and team motto. This sort of thing is exactly what parents want to see when they consider whether their child should join a team.

The girls site doesn't have a mission statement, but otherwise it is more complete and better

organized than the the boys site (someone on the boys side needs to clean up the clutter). The girls site even offers driving directions for various venues where the team competes.

While they are not on the Poly school site, they are the official pages for the teams, and people who go first to the school website will find a clear link to them. 

Wilson: B-

Wilson's site has the current schedule, plus the names and contact info for the boys and girls coaches. That's good.

On the negative side, it weirdly has multiple links to results from last season, but none from this year. The main element on the page is outdated information about summer camp.

The Bruins site has some historical listings of past athletes and teams, but it's a motley collection. There is, for instance, pictures of the 2016 varsity teams, but no other years.

Cabrillo: C
  
Cabrillo's cross country site has the current schedule and about a dozen pictures available for download. And that's it. There are no results and no coaches' names or contact information. At least it has the schedule.

Millikan: C-

Millikan's cross country team actually has a halfway decent website, but it's so well-hidden that it's virtually invisible to the public.

A Google search for Millikan cross country will lead to a baffling page on the school's website. The main feature, in the center of the page, is the team's schedule -- from two years ago. On the right is a link the  "Millikan Athletics Website." That leads to a page saying "Error 404: The page you are looking for either doesn't exist or can't be found." 

It would be easy for a user to give up there. But here's the deal: You're in the wrong place.  Remember the first page you went to? If you scroll down -- which few people will do -- you'll see a link to another site, called Running Rams.  This Booster Club-run site is actually the official site for the team, and includes a schedule, some results and a roster. But it has neither the names nor contact info for the coaches (or anyone).

That site is not bad, but who knows it's there?

Jordan: D

The Jordan website promises much but delivers little. The main page features a calendar that would be a great place to put the team's schedule -- but, alas, it's just a blank calendar.

There are five other pages devoted to the history of Jordan's cross country program, three of which have a little bit of history. The 1960s page, for instance, says, "A great decade for the Panther Harriers led by runners like Pat Egan who was Jordans fastest two mile Cross Country runner." 

The textual history is nice, but each page also makes reference to an accompanying collection of pictures ("The slide show below has over 50 pictures," says the "Cross Country in the 1970s" page).  Unfortunately, there are no pictures on any of the pages. 

There is no schedule, no results, no name of coaches or athletes. 

Lakewood: F

Lakewood's has separate pages for boys and girls cross country, but both are equally useless. 

The boys page has nothing but three unlabeled pictures, all of which, bizarrely, are cropped to cut off the heads of Lakewood runners.

The girls page features a four-month-old, now-obsolete announcement about summer training. It has two unlabeled pictures which, thankfully, include the heads of the runners. It also has a three-sentence report on a meet from over two years ago. Has Lakewood had no meets since then?


There is no schedule, no results, no name of coaches or athletes.

Compton: F

Compton has no cross country website, nor even a page. Going by the school website, there is no evidence that Compton even has a cross country team. But it does. Sigh.

Book review: "The Library Book" by Susan Orlean

The peaceful facade of a library can be deceiving, Susan Orlean shows in "The Library Book." Behind the scenes. a hive of busy workers helps get books to demanding patrons. Reference librarians help kids do homework, settle bar bets for sports fans and answer questions as far-flung as "Which is more evil, grasshoppers or crickets?" (Yes, really.)

Along with such day-to-day functions, administrators continually fret and debate over the role and direction of the modern library. What should a library be doing besides lending books? And in buildings filled with thousands of paper books, there's the constant worry about fire.

The star of the show in Orlean's book is Los Angeles Public Library system. Orleans wraps disparate stories about the history and people of the L.A. system around a central tale following the investigation into the 1984 fire that destroyed 400,000 books a the Central Library.

She recounts the history of the L.A. library from day one, including the story of the head librarian who was fired because she was woman. She joins modern administrators as they discuss how to serve the homeless population that increasingly inhabits the library.

 "Every problem that society has, the library has, too, because the boundary between society and the library is porous; nothing good is kept out of the library, and nothing bad," she writes
 
"The Library Book" starts fast with a description of the stunning 1984 fire. But it soon loses focus as Orlean skitters to and fro on a host of a library-related topics. The arson investigation, while initially interesting, simply runs out of steam as the authorities have few clues to work with and an unconvincing case against a local drifter.

While Orlean is a smooth writer and she finds some interesting tales to tell, the book bounces among so many subjects that it never becomes compelling. I'm almost a perfect audience for "The Library Book" -- I've lived in Los Angeles for over 20 years, I've been in the central L.A. library dozens of times and I'm a librarian -- yet I to nudge myself to keep reading to the end.

If there's a reward in the book, it's Orlean's depiction of the dedication and hard work of librarians and other library workers, many of whom love their jobs. While some have questioned the role of libraries in the Internet age, Orlean ends on a hopeful note.

"Libraries have persisted, and they have grown, and they will certainly endure" 

One night at a Chargers game

The first issue was basic: Where were we going?

As my son and I got ready to attend last Saturday night's Chargers-Seahawks matchup, I found myself stumbling when others asked where the game would be. I could have used the stadium's new proper name but nobody knew what Dignity Health Sports Park was. It was more effective to call it "The stadium formerly known as the StubHub Center and before that the Home Depot Center." It wasn't poetic, but it got the message across.

It had been years -- many years -- since I last attended an NFL game, and I was curious what the experience would be like. Some thoughts:

1. The Chargers Express works really, really well. This free shuttle brings fans to the game by bus from two locations. My son and I arrived at one of those, the Del Amo Metro train station, about 90 minutes before kickoff. There was plenty of parking. We hopped on a waiting bus -- with ample empty seats -- and in a just few minutes we were on our way to the game.

It took about 15 minutes to get to stadium and we were dropped close to the stadium. It was unbelievably smooth (and -- did I mention? -- free!).

After the game, we easily found the shuttle and got on. This time the bus was full and we stood in the aisle along with many others. Still, the bus soon departed and we were quickly back at our car.

To be fair, this was a preseason game with a stadium that was at best three-quarters full. And many people left early, so the crowd at the end of the game was less than it would usually be. During a regular season game, you're more likely to find larger lines to board the bus. Still, the shuttle worked so well for us, I would definitely use it again.

2. Entering the stadium was pretty easy. Yes, we did have to empty our pockets of keys and cellphones to go through a metal detector, but there was no intrusive search of our bag or an insulting pat-down.

3. The atmosphere in the stadium was fun and friendly. There were some light games for fans -- like throwing a football at a spinning target -- just outside the seating areas. There were plenty of places to pay too much for beer and food if you were inclined to do so. During breaks in the game, they had some entertaining games on the big screen, including one comparing pictures of Taylor Swift's ex-boyfriends to those of live shots of "lookalike" fans in the stands.

4. The public address announcer provided little useful information to the fans, and came off instead as petty cheerleader. Sports fans crave information, yet the PA announcer stubbornly refused to name any Seahawk player.

If a Seattle player caught the ball and was tackled by a Los Angeles player -- or visa versa -- the announcer would only name the Charger, never the Seahawk.  (Note that at least half those in attendance were Seahawks fans.)  This small-minded approach was not just tacky, it was frustrating for sports fans on both sides who wanted to know who made a TD run or who threw a great pass.

5. There was too much music. Almost every time there was slightest available moment -- even the normal intervals between plays -- music would blast from the speakers. This was not just annoying for people trying to focus on the game, it also kept us from even hearing the names of Charger players when they were announced (see No. 4)

Have a little faith in the fans, Charger management. We came to watch football. Let us enjoy it.

Book review: "Last Man Off" by Matt Lewis

Ah, the joy of fishing on the open sea: A light breeze tousling your hair, the sun warming your face, your mind free from everyday concerns.

That might be a nice trip, but it'd be a pretty boring book.

Then there's the fishing trip in "Last Man Off" by Matt Lewis, the true story of how a ferocious storm, combined with human error and selfishness, put a boatload of men in a desperate fight for survival. It is one of the best books I've ever read.

"Last Man Off" is the story of the Sudur Havid, a South African fishing boat that sank during a 1998 trip into the frigid Southern Ocean.

Lewis was 23 years old at the time, a recently graduated marine biologist, when he came on board the Sudur Havid as an "observer." His job was to make sure the boat's fishing practices followed the law.

There was little to make the trip pleasant from the start. With 38 men on board, the Sudur Havid's cramped conditions were accompanied the persistent odors of diesel, sweat and fish.

Lewis introduces many of the key characters -- including Bubbles, the captain -- early in the book. As much as I like the book, Lewis could have done better distinguishing some of the key players. There are a lot of names and it's sometime hard to keep them straight. Helpfully, he does include a list of the crew at the front of the book for reference.

It's in the middle section of the book, describing the sinking, where Lewis' writing really shines. As the storm moves in, tossing the boat around like a toy and the crew struggles to deal with encroaching water, a rough trip suddenly become a life-or-death situation. Lewis describes each moment in vivid detail.

I don't want to give away too much, but like a car crash, the story is both horrifying and riveting. You can't look away, and each page brings fresh surprises. My mouth was literally agape as I read..

In the final section, Lewis recounts the aftermath of the sinking and smartly analyzes what we wrong. While the storm and the boat design were factors, he doesn't disguise his disgust for certain members of the crew who failed to help during the high-seas crisis, perhaps dooming the Sudar Havid.

I rarely go back and read a book a second time -- there are so many good stories to read out there, after all -- but there is so much that happens so fast in "Last Man Off" that I felt like I couldn't absorb it all. I'm going to put on the shelf for now, but some day soon I'll pick it up and read it again.

The University of California gets this math problem wrong

U.S. colleges are required by law to post a "net price calculator" on their websites to help prospective students and their parents estimate the true cost of attendance once financial aid is factored in. The calculators ask for information on a family's finances (you can do it anonymously) and household size so the college can produce a realistic estimate of costs.

But the calculators at five University of California schools include an incorrectly worded question that prevents users from getting an accurate estimate -- or any estimate at all.

The calculator at UC Berkeley, for instance, asks the user for "Number in college." When you move your mouse over the question for more information, it explains, "Total number of people in your household that were in college during the last academic year, including your Parent(s)."

For many families -- such as those who are getting ready to send their eldest child to college -- the answer to that question will be zero. But if you enter 0, you get an error message: "'Number in College' must be greater than zero."

Huh? Why can't you enter zero when that's the accurate answer?

Here's why: The question is worded wrong. It should ask how many people in the household will be in college next year. At that point, you would theoretically have at least one person -- your freshman student -- in college. But the question doesn't ask that.

Berkeley isn't the only UC campus to get this wrong. It's also wrong at the calculators offered by UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, UC Merced and UC Irvine.

While many families will get an error message, they at least will realize at that point that something's wrong with the calculator. But families who already have a child in college and who follow the calculator's instructions will end up with a misleading number and may not know it.

Let's say the oldest child in the family is already in college and the parents are preparing to send off their second oldest. If the parents reply to the question "Total number of people in your household that were in college during the last academic year, including your Parent(s)" by honestly saying "1" (when they really should say "2"), they will get an inaccurate estimate. That's not a small problem: It could influence where the second child goes to college.

UPDATE, Oct. 7, 2019: UC Santa Cruz has corrected the wording on its page. The other four UCs, however, still have it wrong. 

UPDATE, Oct. 12, 2022: UC San Diego, UC Merced, and UC Irvine all use the same calculator with the same incorrect wording. UC Berkeley moved its calculator to a different page. But it's still wrong.  

This New York Times advice doesn't wash

The New York Times recently fell into a trap set by the commercial car wash industry. It is a trap that has ensnared many lesser publications, but you expect the NYT to be more careful.

In an article titled "One Thing You Can Do: Opt for the Carwash," the Times said that commercial car washes are kinder to the environment than a home car wash because they use less water. The story says that a driveway car wash "can quickly rack up 100 gallons of water or more." Commercial car washes, the article assures us, use less.

And what is the source of the numbers used in this comparison? Um, it's the commercial car wash industry itself, hardly an unbiased party in this debate. Yet the Times uses the industry's numbers without even a hint of skepticism.

The fact is that the 100 gallons figure is just flat wrong, and the Times could have easily found that out with a tiny bit of research, as I told the story's author, Jillian Mock, in an email:

Dear Ms. Mock:

I wish you had run your article by the New York Times' fact checkers before publication. The notion that home car washes use 100+ gallons is a long-discredited myth perpetuated by the commercial car wash industry. 

Way back in 2012, for example, Politifact put the idea to the test and found it took a mere 11 gallons to wash a car at home. 

You can easily test this yourself, as I did one day with my and my wife's cars.

First, I determined my hose's flow rate by timing how long it took to fill a one-gallon milk jug. Time: 7.37 seconds.

Then I measured how much water it took to fill the bucket. Total: 2 gallons.

The final step was to time how long it took to pre-rinse and post-rinse each car. Then add up the total number of seconds and divide by 7.37. Since my wife and I have two cars, I was able to basically run the experiment twice. Here are the results:

	Pre-rinse (seconds)	Post-rinse (seconds)	Total rinse time	Gallons (total rinse time/7.37)	Add 2 gallons used for bucket	Total gallons used
Toyota	41	48	89	12.08	2	14.08
Hyundai	47	41	88	11.94	2	13.94

As you can see, each car wash used about 14 gallons total, not even close to the 110 gallons mentioned in your story. (To be clear, it's best to take a moment before starting to think about how to rinse your car all the way around without backtracking. If you spray back and forth covering the same parts of the car more than once, you will obviously use more water. Still, you would have to be extremely careless to hit the 100-gallon mark.)

As far as runoff, there are ways to limit, or even eliminate, this at home. First, you can use biodegradable, non-phosphate car wash soap. You also can do as some of my neighbors' do - wash the car on the front lawn. Not only does this prevent runoff, it has the bonus effect of allowing the overspray of water to help irrigate your lawn. 

My wife and I can't do this because we long ago replaced our lawn with low-water-use plants. So when I wash our cars, I put down an old rolled up sheet to redirect any runoff (there isn't much since we're conscious of our use). The extra water flows onto a patch of grass by the curb. 

So while commercial car washes may claim to send contaminant-laden water to treatment facilities, smart home washers prevent those contaminants from entering the water system in the first place.

One last thing: Simply by choosing to stay home and not to drive to the car wash, you're lowering your carbon footprint. 

The unfortunate conclusion from all this is that the New York Times gave readers precisely the wrong advice. If you want to be kind to the environment, stay away from the commercial car wash and instead wash your car thoughfully at home.

Book review: "Idea Man" by Paul Allen

Paul Allen lived the dream.

As a college student in the 1970s, Allen teamed up with his former high school colleague Bill Gates to  create the first microcomputer operating system and found a company they originally called "Micro-Soft."

For eight intense years, Allen worked with Gates to build the business into a technology powerhouse that would soon rank as one of the largest companies in the world. And then he stepped away and essentially,retired at age 29. His shares in Microsoft would make him a multi-billionaire, and for the rest of his life -- he died at 65 in 2018 -- Allen had the special privilege to spend money on almost anything he wanted.

This is the story told in Allen's 2011 autobiography, "Idea Man," a book that is mostly fascinating, but sometimes dull.

"Idea Man" is almost two separate books. The first half, dedicated to Allen's early life, and the birth and growth of Microsoft, is the part most worth reading.

I like reading "origin" stories that show the steps that led to big things. For Allen, one of the biggest breaks he got was his parents' decision to stretch their budget and put him in the private Lakeside School in Seattle. This was the late 1960s and early '70s and the school had a computer club that introduced Allen to the primitive programming languages of the day.

Allen insists that he wasn't a nerd -- he was interested in the rock music of Jimi Hendrix, for example -- but as he describes his interest in computers, robotics, brain science and space exploration, you might conclude otherwise.

It was in Lakeside's computer club that Allen met Gates, two years his junior, and found that they shared a almost insatiable interest in programming. Through an arrangement between the school and a local business they got crucial time to spend crafting their skills on a mainframe computer, the only option in those pre-PC days.

The release of the Altair, the first personal computer (though incredibly crude by today's standards), sparked Allen and Gates to build their first operating system and soon Microsoft was off and running.

I was particularly intrigued by Allen's depictions of his relationship with Gates. While both were talented programmers, Allen was more fascinated with the technical aspects while Gates pushed to make money off their skills. Gates often could be a bully with an explosive temper, Allen writes.

Tensions between them built over the years. At one point, Gates told Allen that he because he had worked hard on one particular project he wanted to alter their 50-50 split to 60-40 in his favor. Allen agreed. Later, Gates pushed to make it 64-36. But when Allen completed a hard project and asked for a shift in his direction, Gates refused to budge.

"In that moment, something died for me," Allen wrote. "I'd thought that our partnership was based on fairness, but now I saw that Bill's self-interest overrode all other concerns."

In 1982, while Allen was being treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma, he said he caught Gates and company president Steve Ballmer conspiring to reduce his ownership of Microsoft. Soon after, Allen resigned.

The second half of the book is devoted to Allen's post-Microsoft life and it would be easy to become jealous here. Many of us, watching the latest lottery super-jackpot, have pondered what we would do if we were a zillionaire. Allen actually got to live that, investing his time and energy in a wide range of endeavors from technology to sports to brain science.

"Some people are motivated by a need for recognition, some by money, and some by a broad social goal," he wrote. "I start from a different place, from the love of ideas and the urge to put them into motion and see where they might lead."

This section of the book is less interesting than the first, in part because it's hard to match the intensity of the Microsoft creation story but also because Allen is less directly involved in the projects he describes. For example, he goes into much detail about SpaceShipOne, an effort he funded to send a plane-like vehicle into space. But he is mostly an observer, so the story is less engaging.

He also goes on too long with a dry story about a poor investment in Charter Cable.

Still, there are surprises here. He delights in his ownership of the Portland Trailblazers professional basketball team, even getting involved in the selection of particular players (he is more hands-off with his ownership of the football Seattle Seahawks).

Then there's his yacht. Despite his wealth, he said he long had no interest in acquiring a yacht, which he associated with "a society of snobs." But eventually he was persuaded to first rent, then buy, a large vessel to explore parts of the planet and indulge in his passion for scuba diving.

Later he ended up with a custom-built 414-foot yacht -- the fourth largest at that time in the world. The yacht even had an eight-person submarine that launched from an internal lagoon on the boat. Maybe you'd do the same if you were a zillionaire.

What do you call illegal border-crossers?

The English language needs your help. Despite having over 200,000 words, English has no single term that succinctly describes a person who illegally crosses a border.

Thus we're stuck with terms like "illegal immigrant," "illegal alien," or "undocumented immigrant," all of which prompt protests from some quarter. Shortening it to single words like "illegal" and "undocumented" doesn't help, and phrases like "people who entered the country illegally" are just plain unwieldy.

Sadly, the search for a proper term has become intertwined with politics, and many people are less interested in clear communication than in using words to manipulate the policy debate. That just makes the problem worse.

So let's set aside the politics, and consider this only as a linguistic problem.

Consider the fact that we have simple, clear words to describe most types of criminals. For example:  "jaywalker," "trespasser,""counterfeiter," "arsonist," "kidnapper," "thief," "robber," "rapist," "perjurer," "embezzler," "murderer," and "vandal." Those are all good, unambiguous words that describe a particular type of criminal.

(To be sure, you should use caution if applying those labels to particular people. It's one thing to talk in general about, say, "thieves" in your community, but if you're calling a specific person a thief, you better be sure you're right.)

Still, for all the fluidity of the English language, not all types of criminals can be described in a single word. There is, for example, "drunk driver," "reckless driver" and "drug dealer." Note how both words are important: Simply saying "driver" or "reckless" is not enough.

And -- to get back to our point -- there's no single word to describe people who illegally enter a country. Even the two-word phrases aren't very good.

"Undocumented immigrant" is a clunky euphemism that makes it sound like the person lost his or her wallet. Besides, it's just not accurate -- all people are documented in some fashion, and illegal immigrants are specifically documented by the Border Patrol and immigration courts once they're caught or give themselves up. Some people in the country illegally even have drivers licenses and bank accounts.

I like "illegal immigrant" and "unauthorized immigrant" better as they are clearer and more accurate. But the need to use "illegal" or "unauthorized" just shows how far we are from having a good term. After all, we don't need to say "illegal murderers" or "unauthorized rapists."

We need a new word to describe people who cross the border illegally. I've churned over various ideas in my minds but none seem that good: "Crossers"? "Borderjumpers"? "Illegrants"? I don't think so.

There is room in English for a better term if we can all agree on it. Even terms that sound awkward at first can become accepted over time. Got an idea? Submit it in the comments below.

Book review: "The Long Haul" by Finn Murphy

I'm a sucker for stories about working people.

While others may seek out novels about wizards, vampires, or war and peace, or deep-thinking treatises on politics or social issues, to me some of the best stories come from some of the most ordinary places.

I'm fascinated by the fact that we're surrounded every day by people who do different jobs that we do, but we rarely get a look at what their lives are really  like.

Finn Murphy, right, author and truck driver

That's one of the reasons I find books like "The Long Haul: A Trucker's Tales of Life on the Road" (2017) intriguing. In this book, author Finn Murphy takes us inside the world of a "bedbugger" -- a long-distance mover.

The other reason I like "The Long Haul"is that it's just plain fun to read.  The book is filled with so many good stories I have trouble picking my favorites.

There was his disastrous first day as mover -- so bad he offered to quit right there and then (his boss refused his offer). There's the story of moving a baby grand piano when things go awry. There's a tense story of driving his truck backwards up a muddy, narrow and winding mountain road in the rain -- the only way he could deliver his cargo.

There are stories of  various "shippers" -- those are the people who hire the movers, like you and me -- who are arrogant, rude, strange or friendly (included one attractive wife who was very friendly).

I love how Murphy finds joy in practical things. For instance, he rhapsodizes about the beauty of a well-packed truck constructed of carefully built "tiers" of household goods:

"A well-built tier is a beautiful thing to see and lots of fun to make. It's basically a real-life, giant Tetris game with profound physical exertion incorporated into the mix. When I'm loading I go into a sort of trance because I'm totally focused on visualizing everything in the house and mentally building tiers. This is one of the sweet spots where -- as anyone who has done repetitive manual labor understands -- the single-minded focus, concentration, and hard physical work combine to form a sort of temporary nirvana."

If you also like books about the working people, I would recommend "Rivethead" by Ben Hamper, the story of life at an auto assembly plant. Also, I liked this article about the life of a woman "cable guy."

A parent's impression of Fresno State University

Of the seven college tours I've done in the past two years with my kids, my least favorite was the one at Fresno State University.

But don't take that too harshly. Fresno State wasn't terrible, or anything like that, just ordinary. And there were a couple issues on the day we visited that weren't really the school's fault.

For one, there was the heat. It was around 95 on the afternoon we visited the campus, the kind of temperature that will suck the cheerfulness out of almost anyone and make the most eager prospective college students want to run away to the nearest air-conditioned room.

Then there was the odd group from Bakersfield College. My son and I arrived early for our campus tour because we planned ahead, knew when it started and didn't want to miss it. Every college tour I've been on has started almost exactly on time, and I  had every reason to believe this one would be the same.

But in this case we were kept waiting in a nearly empty meeting room for 10 minutes. Eventually a representative told us we were waiting for a group of transfer students from Bakersfield College to arrive.

The group finally arrived and the tour began. Throughout the tour, the Bakersfield College giggled and laughed among themselves, sometimes even when the guide was talking. Then, halfway through the tour, the Bakersfield group announced they had to leave. I was left puzzled by a group of transfer students who had come a long way for a seemingly important visit, but arrived late, didn't seem to take it seriously, and left early.

Fresno State can't be blamed for that group's behavior but they might work a bit on training and preparing their tour guides. The young woman who led our tour was very nice, but she wasn't nearly as enthusiastic or as well-informed as our guides elsewhere.

Fresno State is probably a fine school for many people, but the only thing we saw on the tour that struck me as particularly special was the Recharge Zone.

In the basement of the student union building was a storefront featuring a darkened interior, the "Recharge Zone" sign outside and two large round spheres inside.  What are they?  Napping pods. Yes -- make a reservation, pay a fee and climb inside for a nap.

That sounded like a really nice option on a hot day in Fresno.

A parent's impression of UC Merced

The University of California at Merced, which opened in 2005, is the youngest campus in the UC system. Like the adolescent it is, UC Merced is a bit awkward and its identity is still in the formative stages. But get ready: This youngster is having a BIG growth spurt.

My son and I visited UC Merced recently, walking around the campus and taking an official tour. It seemed considerably different than many of the other campuses we have recently visited.

If you're not familiar with UC Merced, it's not surprising. Not only is it quite new, to get there takes a lot of effort. First, you drive to the middle of nowhere. Then you go a little further. The campus lies outside the small city of Merced, past the farms that surround the city, on an isolated patch of rolling grasslands.

The "Beginnings" sculptures at UC Merced

Even at the age 14, in many ways UC Merced seems as if it just opened. Around the campus, the trees are small, as if recently planted. Parking for commuter students is in a temporary lot that requires a long walk to the classrooms. The parking lot we were supposed to use for our tour was a small, poorly marked gravel rectangle that we missed on our first pass.

Currently, the campus has an awkward layout, requiring all arriving students to funnel into campus along one road and across a single bridge.

But big changes are afoot. The campus is in the midst of a major expansion that is adding new classrooms, dorms, a soccer stadium, competition swimming pool and more. One of the first things you see as you approach the campus are large construction cranes.

Part of the expansion has been completed, and the rest is supposed to be done by the end of 2020. Existing buildings that are new and modern will be supplemented by buildings that are even newer.

The expansion, which will ultimately double the size of the campus, addresses key weaknesses. The current student recreation center, fairly weak by college standards, will be replaced by a new facility. The temporary student parking lot will be replaced by a more central parking.

For now, UC Merced, with just 7,500 students, has a feeling of almost a community college, though it does have dorms.  Our guide explained that new students are welcomed on their first day by a cheering tunnel of faculty and upperclassmen. The school embraces its farmland location with events like the music festival they've dubbed Cow-chella.

Still, like a teenager, the character of UC Merced is fast-evolving. In a couple years, I suspect it will have a much different feel.

A parent's impression of San Jose State

It's 3 a.m. and your laptop breaks. What do you do?

If you're a student at San Jose State University, you head to the school library, where you can rent a laptop -- from a vending machine. At 3 a.m., or anytime.

I toured San Jose State recently with my high school junior son, who is considering attending there, It's an attractive campus spread over a flat rectangular plot in downtown San Jose. Perhaps the school has run out of room to expand laterally because this "ivory tower" literally has a lot of towers.

Many of the buildings rise up 4, 5, 6 floors and more, especially the dorms, one of which I swear looks, from the outside, like a high-rise Marriott.

The large and fairly new King library at one corner of the campus is unusual in that it is both a university and public library. For the public, it closes at 9 p.m., but for students it stays open 24 hours (all-nighter, anyone?).

Laptop vending machine

Our guide, Anna, said the library features a rotating bookshelf and a "trap door" in the elevator but unfortunately we couldn't find either when we went inside. We did, however, find the laptop vending machine on the fourth floor.

Just days before our visit, San Jose State had opened a gigantic new student recreation center that had been years in the making. I've seen three of these shiny showpieces at other campuses (Sonoma State, San Francisco State, and Cal Poly Pomona). This one was similar to the others -- climbing walls at the entrance, multiple basketball courts, lots of exercise equipment -- but on an even larger scale. It also featured a large "party pool" at the back, which was quite hopping on the hot Tuesday afternoon we were visiting.

One of the features of the new gym is that, if you forget your ID card or just don't feel like carrying it, you can use your handprint to gain entrance. That's the theory anyway. When we visited, the handprint system didn't seem to be working that well, and there was a long line of students waiting to get in.

Perhaps they should call on some engineering students for help. San Jose State has a large and well-regarded engineering school. It is unique among the majors at the college, Anna said, in that engineering students spend most of their classes together right from the start. This can make a tighter social group of friends and study partners.

Anna was a fun guide, pointing out at one point that the Central Classroom building is called that because it's, um, in the center of campus and contains classrooms. (You might think that's obvious, but at San Francisco State our guide noted that the Science Building contains almost no science classes.)

Describing why the campus's historic bell doesn't ring anymore, Anna said, "They remodeled the building -- and by 'remodeled' I mean, it burned down."

Unlike SF State -- where students are told not to bring cars to campus -- Anna said they're actually "encouraged" at San Jose State. About 7,000 of the 33,000 students live on campus. Freshmen are required to do so.

Anna mentioned that the campus does offer some partnerships with the many nearby Silicon Valley businesses -- maybe that's where the laptop vending machine came from.

A parent's impression of San Francisco State

Would you like to go to a college that has puppies and free massages? If so, San Francisco State might be for you. Just beware of parking tickets and tsunamis.

I've toured S.F. State twice, once in 2018 with my daughter, and again in 2019 with my son. While these visits didn't give me a full picture of the university, I did leave with some strong impressions.

San Francisco State is an urban campus on the west side of San Francisco. There is a large mall immediately to the north and heavily trafficked Highway One on its eastern boundary.

On both my visits, the campus was filled with students hurriedly coming and going. San Francisco State is not so much a tranquil venue of intellectual thought as a buzzing hub of learning for busy students.

A view of San Francisco State from the top of the Student Union

The campus is compact, and to create space many of the buildings are tall. But it has surprises. You might not expect to find a soccer stadium tucked into the tight confines of the campus, but if you wander behind the tall buildings and look behind some trees, there it is.

Our 2019 guide, Victor, was fun and entertaining and noted that on certain days of the week the school brings in puppies as "therapy" for stressed students (sometimes it's kittens, or even piglets).  Wednesdays are "Free Massage Day" -- for everyone, not just students.

Unfortunately, we were there on a Tuesday, so we missed out on the free massages. But we did get something else. Just as our tour was about to end, a loud horn sounded over the whole campus. It was alarming, honestly, but Victor explained that it was a test of the tsunami warning system that sounds every Tuesday at noon.

Speaking of warnings, Victor was emphatic that students should not even think about bringing a car to campus. Parking is hard-to-find, expensive and aggravating. Parking officers, Victor explained, will literally wait as the last five minutes on your meter runs out and then give you a ticket. You might think that once you get that ticket you won't get any more that day. But you'd be wrong. Victor said officers will ticket you again and again -- one person he knew got seven tickets in one day in one spot.

Rather than drive, take the bus. The school's One Card ID includes a free pass for all San Francisco buses and discounts for the BART train system.

Another positive: A modern and expansive student recreation center, complete with a rock wall, multiple gyms, workout classes, and plenty of exercise equipment.

We didn't get to see any of the dorms on our tours. Victor suggested that some of the rooms are very small, but if you're willing to pay more you might do better.

You can't really learn much about academics on a campus tour, even two of them, so be sure to look around elsewhere to find out about that. 

A parent's impressions of Sonoma State University

I've visited Sonoma State University twice with each of my children, got official tours both times and also strolled the campus on our own.

The visits didn't go perfectly -- there was the rain and the undercooked pasta. after all -- but I still found a lot to like about this college about an hour north of San Francisco.

The mostly flat, Sonoma campus is a pretty, pleasant place to be. Groves of tall, evergreen trees are sprinkled throughout the campus. The grass is green, the lawns tidy. While the overall acreage is not great compared to other colleges, the campus still seems spacious.

An unrelenting downpour fell on my first visit to campus in 2018, so my daughter and I didn't explore much. But the next year, my son and I arrived on a warm day and wandered around a bit. Behind the classroom buildings there is a small man-made lake that supposedly has fish (we found it a little dirty), and some short paths through the woods.
 
The buildings are fairly modern -- though the campus first opened in 1961, it went through a major renovation starting in 2001. We did find one building, Stevenson Hall, that seemed a little older, as evidenced by the ivy running up the side. That won't last -- the building is scheduled for a complete renovation, our guide said.

Ivy on Stevenson Hall

Almost everyone we encountered on campus was nice. One sophomore girl, unprompted, happily stepped in to take some pictures of my son and I by a fountain.

Most colleges do not offer a view of dorm rooms as part of their regular campus tours, but SSU does, likely because this is one of their strengths. I don't even want to call them "dorms," because the housing is all more like apartments.

On both my visits, we were shown a four-person suite that featured two double-occupancy bedrooms, a shared living room, and bath area with separate shower and toilet rooms (so one person showering doesn't tie up the whole bathroom). No need to stumble down a long hallway in your bathrobe to a bathroom shared by 15 or 20 people.

The "show" rooms were dressed up in brightly colored furnishings from Bed, Bath and Beyond. Still, looking beyond that bling, you could see the rooms were bigger than you would expect. Some of the freshman dorm rooms even come with small kitchens

The rooms for older students were supposed to be even nicer (though we didn't see them); some  include floor warmers for cold winter days.

There are two outdoor pools by the dorms and, during my second visit, plenty of students were in the pool on a Monday afternoon enjoying the warm weather, talking and laughing. The phrase "party pool" came to mind.

And for students living on campus, laundry is completely FREE.

Still, there was the pasta. On my second visit, my son and I sat down for a lunch at the main campus eatery. Digging into the pasta we found about one out of every six pieces of pasta hard and chewy. Ugh. And my son didn't like his marinara sauce either.

Also, our guide said there was a "frozen mountain lion" on display in the basement of the science building. But when we later went to look for it, we couldn't find it.

OK, no campus is perfect. But SSU does have a shiny modern student recreation center with climbing walls, three gyms and plenty of workout equipment.  Students can "check out" camping gear for their own outings, or sign on to an arranged trip.

You might note that this article doesn't have much about academics. That's partly because that's hard to "see" on a tour of campus, and also because our guides didn't spend much time on it. You'll need to do your own research.

How to park for free at Universal Studios Hollywood

Parking for the day at Universal Studios Hollywood, the theme park in Los Angeles, costs a minimum of $25 and can be as high as $50.  Wouldn't it be nice to park instead for free?

You can, and it's not that hard, as long as you go on a day when the show "Family Feud" is taping. "Family Feud" films immediately next to Universal Studios and, to fill the audience, it gives out free tickets.

Here's the key point: Advance ticket holders to "Family Feud" are given a free pass to park in Universal's parking garage. Once you're there, there's nothing to stop you from going to the theme park instead of the show.

"Family Feud" tapes a lot, so you have a fair chance of finding a taping on the day you want to go to Universal Studios. You can find the schedule here. Some episodes do fill up, so plan at least a week ahead of time.

The REAL cost of driving

Some of you may have read my earlier post, "The cost of driving."  As life-changing as that post was, I realize now that it just wasn't good enough.

In that post, I concluded that the cost of driving my car was 26.3 cents a mile. But after some consideration, I think that's too low because I'm underestimating the cost of depreciation.

My previous calculation simply looked at the drop in the value of my car if I added 20,000 miles to it. That came to 2.7 cents per mile.

But that's a very narrowly focused view of depreciation because it fails to take into account the fact that every mile driven takes you closer to the day when your car will just not be worth driving anymore and you'll have to buy a new one.  That last mile -- whenever it happens -- will be VERY expensive.

So it seems to me the fairest way to assess overall depreciation is to take the total cost of a new car and divide by the number of miles it lasts.  This requires some assumptions, and I'll start by estimated my next car will cost $25,000 (no, I'm not planning on buying a BMW).

So how long will a car last? This can vary widely. Some cars, well cared for, last well past 200,000. But some seem to have trouble getting past 120,000 without major engine work. I'm going to say 160,000 miles. (Disagree? Fine. Do your own calculation.)

Divide $25,000 by 160,000 miles and you get 15.6 cents per mile. I think that's a fairer estimate of depreciation.

Also, since my last post, the price of gas has gone up; I last bought it at $3.59 per gallon. That works out, for my car, to 16 cents per gallon.

Adding it all up: 16 cents for gas, 8.6 for maintenance, 15.6 cents for depreciation, and that totals 40.2 cents per mile.  That's my REAL cost of driving.

The cost of driving

Imagine you want to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco and back again. For argument's sake, let's say a round-trip plane ticket cost $150.  Would it be cheaper if you drove?

To figure this out,  you need know the cost of driving. And I don't just mean the cost of gas. There's also the cost of maintenance and deprecation. Well, some of the depreciation.

This is a trickier subject than I expected when I started considering it. For one thing, note that the cost of driving is different than the total cost of owning a car. Just to own a car, you need to pay registration fees and insurance. But those are (mostly) fixed costs that vary little, if at all, with how much you drive. Should they be part of the "cost of driving" calculation?

There are various web pages that will give a rough estimate of the cost of driving. But I really wanted to know my specific cost, for my car, right now. I own a 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe with 101,000 miles on it. What is it costing me? 

Gas: Fuel may be the easiest cost to calculate. My car gets about 22.5 miles per gallon, according to the readout on my dash. This is an average, of course -- on the open road, the MPG will go up; while idling in city traffic, it will go down.

When I bought gas the other day it was $3.39 per gallon. Divide the the cost of gas by the MPG, and we get ... 15 cents per gallon. That's my driving cost for gas.

Oil changes: I get an oil change about every 7,000 miles. These days it costs about $42 each time.  That works out to 0.6 cents per mile. Not much.

Tires: How long do tires last? This varies widely, but in my experience, I get about 70,000 miles on a tire. (Your mileage may vary. Literally.). And how much do tires cost? Angie's List members reported an average cost of $637 to replace all four tires in 2015. Four years later, I'm going to say $700. This works out neatly. Divide $700 by 70,000 miles and you find that tires add one penny per mile.

Other maintenance costs: Cars need maintenance. Things break and need to be fixed. Brakes, belts and fluids need to be replaced. It's hard to figure all those, so I'll take a shortcut: AAA says that a medium-sized SUV like mine incurs maintenance costs of 8.6 cents per mile. That would include the oil changes and tires I listed above. (You might wonder why I figured those items separately if I was just going to add them into the general maintenance cost. I'm wondering that, too.)

Depreciation: Things get tricky here. Each mile that drive your car lowers its value and takes you closer to the out-of-pocket cost of buying a new car. But your car also depreciates even when you're not driving it.

Depreciation will vary widely depending on the age and value of your car. But I'm only interested in my car.

I went to Edmunds.com and found that my car currently has an estimated value of $5,675 in a private party sale. Then I added a fictitious 20,000 miles to the car's mileage, and Edmunds reduced the value of my car by $532.  Divide $532 by 20,000 miles and I find that the depreciation is 2.7 cents per mile.

That's much less than I expected, but looking at the numbers I see that age, regardless of mileage, is a separate factor in car value. For instance, just by adding a year to the age my car -- but not changing the mileage -- the value drops from $5,675 to $4,940. 

Conclusion: Remember that my goal was strictly to discover the cost of driving. The additional costs of ownership (insurance, registration and part of depreciation), are important, but they're not the subject on the table.

The cost of driving my car is 15 cents per mile for gas plus 8.6 cents per mile for maintenance plus 2.7 cents per mile for depreciation. Total: 26.3 cents per mile.

Driving roundtrip from L.A. to San Francisco is 764 miles. That's $200.94 in driving costs. That's more than the air fare. But if you're thinking of flying, remember to figure in the cost of getting to and from the airport!

Review: Hotel Rose Garden in San Jose, California

My daughter and I spent last night at the Hotel Rose Garden in San Jose. The hotel just sent me an email asking me to review our stay. Thanks for asking, Hotel Rose Garden!

Location: The Hotel Rose Garden is located on a broad, busy street (The Alameda) just outside downtown San Jose. A mix of businesses, homes and large trees inhabits the neighborhood. It's a pleasant-looking area, but doesn't offer much in the way of restaurants or grocery stores.

The hotel is quite close to San Jose Airport -- but not so close you hear the jets -- which is one of the main reason we stayed there. It is just a few blocks off Interstate 880.

Check-in: We were little thrown upon arrival when we found the hotel doesn't have any parking spaces for people checking in. Still, we found a spot a bit further away without a hassle.

The woman at the desk was quick and efficient in checking us in.

The room: Our room smelled of cigarette smoke despite being labeled a "non-smoking room." The room was of comfortable size, and the TV worked. The door on the bathroom jammed and was hard to close. The shower worked and the water got suitably hot.

Noise: This was the worst characteristic of the hotel. The walls were so thin that we continually heard barely muffled voices and TV program sounds from other rooms. From above, we heard every footstep in the room above us. This sounds and noise continued sporadically through the night. While this noise wasn't exactly loud, it was constant enough to be annoying.

I also noticed that the hotel had a 2nd floor bar which had its door open, and its music could be heard throughout the courtyard of the hotel. We weren't that close to the bar, so didn't hear much of this music, but I think it would have been annoyance for anyone in a room nearby.


Beds: The beds and pillows were comfortable, but the blankets were very thin.

Wi-Fi: Free and it worked.

Breakfast: The hotel had a waffle maker, cereal, and bread for toast. There was also juice and some fruit, but the bananas were turning black. No eggs, bacon or sausage. The eating area was quite small, but we lucked out and had it to ourselves.

Overall: The Hotel Rose Garden gets some things right, but fails in areas that are most important to travelers. The smelly room, noisy environment and thin blankets meant the hotel was only minimally tolerable. I was glad we only stayed one night. I can't recommend this hotel.

Hotel Rose Garden, 1860 The Alameda, San Jose, CA 95126

Book review: "Educated" by Tara Westover

"Educated" is a fascinating how-to book for parents interested in raising a child to become a scholar at Harvard and earn a PhD at Cambridge University.

Here's the "Educated" formula:

• Do NOT send your children to school. Keep them home and have them work in the junkyard out back. 
• Do NOT teach them history, personal hygiene, or anything about human reproduction.
• Do NOT vaccinate your children or take them to a doctor.
• Teach them to fear the government and, well, everyone outside your family. 
• Let an older sibling physically abuse them (repeatedly sticking the younger child's head in a toilet is one suggested option)

Put all those elements in a blender, spin it around and -- voila! -- you will have Tara Westover, the author of "Educated." Despite being raised by a bipolar survivalist father who put all his faith in God

and a mother who never questioned her husband, despite never going to school before college, despite a brother who took pleasure in inflicting pain on her, Westover went on to become a successful historian at Harvard and Cambridge. 

Based on "Educated," she's also a pretty good writer.

You can't help but be pulled into Westover's story because her upbringing was so bizarre. She was raised in southern Idaho by parents who were continually preparing for a coming apocalypse. Her Book of Mormon-thumping father was an impatient metal "scrapper" whose recklessness contributed to a spore of accidents -- falls, car crashes, burns -- that injured almost everyone in the family.

She was so naive that as a teenager she wondered if she might be pregnant even though she had never even kissed a boy. She had never heard the word "Holocaust" before college. She never learned even rudimentary standards of cleanliness, much to the dismay of her college roommates, who were frustrated that Westover's habits contributed to a foul odor in their living quarters.

"The apartment looked fine to me. So what if there were rotting peaches in the fridge and dirty dishes in the sink? So what if the smell slapped you in the face when you came through the door? To my mind the stench was bearable, the house was clean, and I extended this philosophy to my person. I never used soap except when I showered, usually once or twice a week, and sometimes I didn't use it event then."


"Educated" has many similarities to "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls. Both books tell of  a weird childhood that was almost comical. Both books turn darker and more serious as they progress. Both books are testaments to the resilience of humans to blossom and succeed despite an upbringing that seemed fated to hold them back.

Westover tells her stories with vibrant detail and is honest enough to admit that in some cases her memories differ from others who were present at the same events she is describing.


One of the difficulties in reading this book is grasping why Westover continues to engage with her family -- going home for holidays, allowing her parents to come and stay in her tiny Harvard dorm room -- even after it's clear they are abusive. Westover, with the blessing of time and age, writes with such maturity that it's hard to fathom why she doesn't just cut them off.

Halfway through the book I was mentally screaming at the pages, "Get out! Just get out and never come back!"

But it's easy for an outsider to say this. It's not my family. And much of the challenge in telling her story is for Westover to show us how deeply her father's beliefs and her family culture is engrained in her. For her first 17 years, that was the only lifestyle she knew.

In the latter parts of the book, as her family division grows, she describes how some family members accused her of having a fault grasp of reality. Around the same time, she describes a series of emotional and mental breakdowns. Given that the entire book is told by Westover, I started to wonder: Is she a reliable storyteller?  A want to believe so, but unless some of her relatives come forward to publicly confirm her story, it's hard to say for sure. 

Racist scholarship of the week: Bernard Harris

If you're a hard-working high school student with good grades who is looking for a way to pay for college you might be attracted to the Bernard Harris Scholarship Program. This program award $5,000 each to four students who are interested in pursuing a degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

"To be eligible for the scholarship, the applicant must have a minimum 3.0 unweighted grade point average and have been accepted as a full-time student at a four-year institution of higher education," program materials say. That seems straightforward.

But if you happen to be Native American,  Asian, or white, forget it. The Bernard Harris Scholarship Program will not give you anything, no matter your grades and no matter how badly you need money for college. This program is only for African-Americans and Hispanics. 

Did I miss a memo? Is it now OK to discriminate based on race?