Tax Day Bonus

This is a repost and a very recent one at that, but with this being tax day, it is appropriate. Plus, it's a cheap way to get back on track.

     Without a doubt, this post is my most valuable one. Not in quality (surely, you've realized that by now.) Not in future worth like an early piece of a writing from Hemingway or Mark Twain (what will the blog entries of the next Faulkner be worth, anything? The computer he typed on?) But in value to you , the reader. For it could mean money, real cash.

     I am talking about the state unclaimed property database and begging you to search for yourself on it. You can search by name and city. Do it both ways as some will have a name but not a city. You can play the leprechaun, search for a friend, and then tell them about their pot of gold.

     What is this money? Perhaps a check from a deposit you were entitled to but never cashed. Settlements, refunds, something from an apartment you used to rent. Most amounts are not life changing. The vary in value from the price of a gumball machine to a nice dinner. Some are larger. But, in any case, it is YOUR money. Go get it.

Link to search in California.

Note: each state has this department so make sure to search every state you have lived in.

Cesar Chavez Day

Today was a holiday, Cesar Chavez Day. I do not wish to delve into the political nuances of the holiday; I want to investigate our uses of the holiday.

        Personally, I went to lunch and saw a movie. (Batman vs Superman, not worth evening prices, maybe not even matinee, but a free showing is OK, i.e. you can wait.) My mother has recollections of her and my dad doing some sort of organizing with Chavez. Both being liberals in the valley, I certainly grew up with positive views of Chavez, so my lack of honor/celebrating him on the recognized day to do so is not from political standpoint. I just used it as a goof-off day.

       

I think that is true for all of our holidays, even the most religious. We just celebrated Easter and even the fervent observant do not attend religious services all day (well, of course, there are some who do, but aren’t we on the edge of cult then?) They attend their service and then take time to break bread with one another and they do relax.

Christmas, well, reams have been written about the commercialization of the holiday and how it has drifted from its religious roots. In addition to the pagan elements of a Santa Claus and snowman, skiing and shopping are part of the Pantheon of the holiday’s meaning. All these ordinary activities could, and do, take place at any other time. A special holiday is not required to do the activities, we just choose to use the free time that way.

Should we have more time off? Would that motivate us to celebrate whatever we are supposed to be honoring, be it Christ or Chavez? If the three day weekend was a regular occurrence would the Fourth of July recover some of its civic importance for the hot dog gorging fest it currently is? I don’t know. But it might have allowed me to see a second movie today.

At the Fair, The Big Fresno Fair

     Time for a little desperation, last minute, not going to slip again, lazy ass, cheat by using pictures post. The following are pictures of roses from the Fresno Fair, ops, my bad, The Big Fresno Fair. It's there in the title, I better be accurate.

     Actually, there are hundreds of categories one can enter for judging. Most have a nominal entry free with the chance to be known as the "best" in the county. The pictures below even represent sub-categories within roses, so there is no excuse not to find something to enter. I've perfected my carrot cake, so save your money there and find something else.

Mine or Reddit?

I’ve been running late on this blog all week long. Ideally, I would like to have something ready the night before and then schedule it to post first thing in the morning. Hasn’t happened in a long time. I’m kind of stuck at the moment, but I don’t want another late night, just before midnight, barely counts type of thing, so I am forcing myself to write. I will do this post in response to the fourteenth story listed on my yahoo front page. Let’s go see what it is.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/fast-food-workers-reveal-items-153407514.html

As a long time restaurant employee, I could probably add a bunch of comments to this story. My own little suggestions, comments on proper procedure, other Anthony Bourdain type tips. But, let’s ask the question, is this really a “story?”

If you read the link, it is actually a rehashing (pardon the pun) of a Ask Reddit question. For those of you who don’t know what Reddit is, perhaps it is better not to know. It can be a huge time suck of web browsing and probably costs companies billions of dollars in lost productivity. For our purposes, you can think of it as an electronic water cooler where people will gossip, make comments or longer stories on various topics and, sometimes, offer productive advice.

To create this content for Yahoo, this person took comments from the Reddit site and wrote a little article with them. The author does credit each comment to its original poster, albeit with the Reddit user name rather than the legal name. Since the internet provides some sense of anonymity, perhaps this is the proper citation to make.

But how much of an effort does it really take to cherry pick the best comments and call it a “story” or “article?” Shouldn’t there just be a link to the Reddit site and let the readers view the material first hand?

In the era of easily distributable material, where you can grab content with just a thin device in your pocket, the demand for content is unquenchable. Everyone can have their own channel, website, (blog!) and they need to have something, anything, to put on it. As the time required to share news shortens, so does its shelf life.

When a newspaper was a once a week occurrence, topics would the public’s attention span for a month. With the telegraph and daily newspapers, the race for scoops began in earnest, with publishers going so far as to CREATE the news. With today’s instant forms of communication, our demand is so immediate, we don’t even wait for it to be printed. Is it any wonder that we can’t even write it quick enough? Thus the relisting of someone else’s’ bullet points becomes worthy of “publishing” with a byline.

Creating fresh content is hard. Anyone reading more than a couple of these posts will certainly affirm that frequency can hurt quality. AND, I’ve resorted to posting a link of a clip or pictures when crushed for time. (So, a little case of the pot talking to the kettle here.) But I haven’t resorted to copying Reddit, yet. That’s another good goal to have.

Of the Past

In my Richert Letters project, I came across a “Del Vaniman” mentioned in one of the letters from Julius. This was from his time in a forestry work camp during the war as a conscientious objector. These individuals, who took a moral stance against war, where put to work in projects like the CCC during the depression. An interesting footnote in our history of World War II.

As a lark, I started doing some research and found a photo of Del in a collection in the Lewis and Clark College Special Collections and Archive. It’s always such a rush to find something when doing research like this. The collection had photos from the actual camp my great-uncle Julius worked at for part of his time. I’ve already matched a couple of pictures to probable locations he mentioned and am excited at the prospect of more.

Which leads me to wonder, how much historical material is waiting to be discovered and put into context? The listing for this set of photos states that there are over 1300 individual pictures and just a fraction of them are online and available to those without physical access to the archive.  How many letters like ours could have added context and told a story using those pictures, but were discarded and lost for all time? Will future generations be able to recover more?

I think today’s forms of electronic communication will create new problems for the historians and researchers of the future. Many private communications will be lost as the medium used is not conducive to long term storage, but the numbers of records that ARE stored, like the thousands of governmental emails, could make finding the interesting kernels more difficult to find amongst the chaff. Hopefully, the computerization that stores them will help to search them.

I hope to find a descendant of Del to share the letter with and maybe fill in a little tidbit that might have escaped their family history. Though, I realize not all get very excited about genealogical details like that. Perhaps they have their own archive with a stash of similar letters and I have nothing new for them. In that case, I would love to see what they have about my relative.  

Eggs and More

“Easter egg dyes certainly aren’t as good as they were when I was a child! All I could get out of my red dye was a pale pink egg ─ so I got out the bright red fingernail polish and now I have a beauty of a red egg.”

The above quote might have been said earlier this week as some parent was helping to create colored eggs for use today. I think anyone can read that and hear it in their parents’ voice, too. But it is actually from a letter my great-wrote to my great-uncle 1945. Did they even have dye back then? Of course they did, the letter says so.

But it is easy to imagine our quality complaints are solely this generation’s issue. The “they don’t make them like they used to,” lament is sure to garner a sympathetic nod of agreement, no matter what the product. Funny how the user’s skill level is never called into question. Maybe, the product is not faulty, you’re just an idiot.

The reverse of this thought is “I had to walk X miles through Y conditions to do the same thing you’re doing now,” boast. Yes, your school might have been farther way than mine, but did it have metal detectors? Security guards? Different challenges doesn’t equate to different levels of difficulty, just different experiences.

So that is why I love finding little tidbits like the above quote from an older generation. This was in a letter over 80 years old, yet expresses a sentiment we hear today. Because their pictures are in black and white, we often assume they were flat colorless people incapable of understanding the modern world. What a mistake. They laughed, cried, made jokes, made out just like we do today. And they complained about today’s stuff being crap just like we do today. No doubt the laser egg dyes of tomorrow will be a piece of crap, too.

Back in the Saddle

        And it happens Just. Like. That. “I’ll write a longer post latter.” Then, I’m too tired to write it when I get home. A little guilty the next day, but I did write something the day before, so it’s really only the first day of missing a post. I’ll write TWO the next day so I can get caught up. Oops, missed THAT day and now it’s a week.

        Good Habits are like that. Easy to break and tough to start/continue. But if it’s a bad one, like smoking, it’s soooo easy to start and tough to break. And you’ve got the double trouble of trying to break it AND the negative consequences of the bad act.

        Good habits are certainly the hardest ones to START. Getting to the gym? That requires you to actually DO something, get in the car, grab some gym clothes, sign in and start working. Hell, being a couch potato requires nothing on your part, no driving, no organizing, nothing. If you are already on the couch, the biggest task is finding the remote you’re probably sitting on. You may actually get a minor workout by flicking through every channel in the search to find something to watch. (If you’re hungover, you might be hurting too much for even that activity and will sit through whatever is playing when the TV is turned on. That is how I came to watch The Legend of Baggar Vance.)

I am trying to get back in the posting habit. If you’ve made it this far, you’ve noticed that the writing is not very impressive, insightful, or even interesting. Really, just a notch above free-form interior monologue. But, I have to take that first step. Just like signing up for the gym, one must go and get on that treadmill, if only for five minutes. Three hundred words, it’s a (re)start.

Please Stand By...

There is a birthday celebration for a friend later this evening and I will write a post after the event. I might ask permission to present specifics, but we'll play it by ear.

The Big Lebowski: Audience Review

        I had an unusual experience last night while watching a movie. It was a special showing of The Big Lebowski at the Warnors in Fresno. For those unfamiliar with the Warnors, well, you HAVE to go to the next performance of anything that even peaks your interest. It is a pre-Depression classic theater whose craftsmanship and detail will never be duplicated. It’s so special just being in the building.

        They have a monthly film series call “Modern Classics” and a friend wanted to go see the movie and the Warnors. He hadn’t seen anything there in over 20 years and they have done a lot of restoration work. He is also a big fan of the movie. I’m a big fan of the Warnors and have even had the opportunity to work in the various venues and can tell you the non-public spaces are just as fascinating. Plus, I haven’t seen the movie, so I was twofold excited about going.

       

        Now, I can hear the groans from some readers at my Big Lebowski virginity. (Though, I have caught a couple scenes of it while channel surfing, but it and Kingpin have always been conflated in my mind.) I am guilty as the next person of hazing someone who has not seen a movie that I deem necessary for cultural competency. It is only through my very generous spirit that I’ve stayed friends with people who have not seen/liked Star Wars.

        So, I went wanting to SEE the movie and came across an audience that wanted to EXPERIENCE the movie. They knew were all the pratfalls and jokes took place and their laughter was just a beat ahead and slightly louder than an audience watching the movie for the first time. Like me.

        Since the slower parts of the movie were quite familiar to them, they took the opportunity to make their after movie plans, debate the best IPA, or understand why Ashley and Justin broke up. These distractions made it tough for me to get invested in the characters and soon my mind was wondering. The audience had totally taken me out of the movie.

        This was really the first time this happened to me with a movie. A crying baby/kids is the most well-known distraction, but this time it was the whole audience which suggests it was me, not them. The analogy most relatable to some is The Rocky Horror Picture Show. If you had gone to a midnight showing and expected the quiet opportunity to watch and absorb the movie, well, you were in for a surprise.

        And this is want happened to me. People who came had seen the movie numerous times and were there more for the communal experience of sharing something they love rather than to watch a movie. They wanted the experience, I had come to watch a movie.

        Most of the time, the audience experience/reaction ADDS to the event. Sports events are the perfect example. The audience behavior is so much a part of the experience that bettors will take the home into account when handicapping the games. If you are attending a play, an intense emotional scene will be magnified by the audience’s reaction. We feed off of other’s emotions.

        So, while it wasn’t the right audience to see the movie for the first time, it was a good audience. I’m not giving up on the movie. Some night at home, I’ll watch The Big Lebowski and get past second base so I can go to the next revival showing. And I’m definitely not giving up on the Modern Classics series. In May, it’s Ghostbusters and I’m the Keymaster.

B-Ball Bulldogs

After a fifteen year absence, the CSU Fresno (or FSU or Fresno State or FSC if you’re old enough and can’t break the habit) Bulldogs are back in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Today, it is the premier post-season tournament, relegating the NIT to runner-up status. The Bulldogs actually won the NIT in 1983, the zenith in the men’s basketball history; the nadir being either the year the Bulldogs won the California Penal Championship or when the women outdrew the men at the Savemart Center.

       

        The tournament has turned into an industry in and of itself with filling out tournament brackets; a challenge of one’s sports handicapping ability. Pick an early upset correctly and you feel like Jimmy the Greek (alright, there, I’ve dated myself.) Depending on the betting pool you enter, we are talking about either bragging rights or serious cash. This can cause problems for rabid fans of their college team. And, for the first time in over a decade, Bulldog fans find themselves in the same predicament.

        The Bulldogs aren’t the worst seed, but only by a couple of spots. Do you bet with your heart and pick the Bulldogs to win? How deep into the tournament? Or do you face reality when given the opportunity for financial gain and bet with your head. Maybe they win the first game… but certainly not all the way… but a true fan has to hope… but this isn’t Fantasyland… but if you believe… Well, to play it safe, better to buy two brackets to fill out.

       

        There are two larger post-tournament questions for the Bulldogs. The first, all Fresno State fans would LOVE for the Bulldogs to win more than won game. The Sweet Sixteen would be incredible. But for each Bulldog victory, the chances of Coach Rodney Terry leaving the program increase. Nothing succeeds like success. Other schools are hinting of interest just on the Bulldog’s appearance in the tournament. Win a couple of games and schools with bigger bank accounts start throwing numbers around that Fresno can’t match. Terry’s first tournament with the Bulldogs could be his last.

        The larger post-tournament question is the degree of long-term interest this sparks in FSU men’s basketball. Surely the AD’s goal is to remove the tarp, fill the stands, and make basketball a positive income sport. Is just one appearance in the NCAA tournament enough to make that possible, probably not, especially if Terry leaves. Two wins and he stays? Two win, but a new coach? It’s anyone’s guess.

        But, this IS a big deal and we should enjoy it. Whether a Fresno State alumnus or alumna with only a causal interest in college athletics or a 30-year Red Seat holder, here’s your chance to see your hometown school on the national stage. This is a great opportunity for Fresno to gain some national attention without placing last in a best list or first in a worst list.

                                                GO BULLDOGS!

Looks like I have another bracket to buy.

Fresno Ag

Of course, the day after posting something about keeping me honest on a daily posting, I miss a day. See why I need help?

I had to pick something up at Fresno Ag, the other day. For those of you from out of town or unfamiliar with Fresno Ag, it is a hardware store of the old school type. Need a 2/7 inch reverse countersunk bolt with a rubberized nut? This is the place you go to find it.

Now, to be honest, they might not have it in stock. But they know what you are talking about and how to order it. There are actually people in the various department AND they know the difference between AC and DC (no, not the band) and which end of the hammer you use.

There’s a scene in the mall chase from The Blues Brothers (if you are unfamiliar with the movie, stop reading this and watch it. Seriously, stop and go watch it, you’ll thank me later) where Jake says of the Mall, “This place has got everything.” That’s Fresno Ag.

Walking around, you can ask yourself, “Why the hell is a cherry pitter here?” You have to remember the store has been around since 1876. That’s so long in the past today’s hipsters would have to go hatless and shave to stand out. Back then, you didn’t run to ten different stores when you came to town. You wanted to get the errands done so you had more time in town. So a farmer coming in from Kerman would bring his wife and she could get her shopping done, too. Thus, they would have not only the expected kitchen in a hardware store, but the dishes washed in the sink and the soap to clean the dishes

Today, our shopping habits are changing dramatically. Not only do we demand more options, we’re getting it shipped to our door more frequently. So, when you go into a place that has a little bit of everything, it’s fun to look around. Not that you’re going to buy the tea kettle shaped like a rooster, but it’s important to know where to get it.

I have strong memories of my dad doing shopping at Fresno Ag (Gettysburg/Blackstone store, contrary what some think, I’m not old enough to have visited their downtown locations). He was a lawyer (the very definition of white collar) and I was always amazed when he did blue collar work, but he did have an incredible back-up in my grandfather. (Later, I hope to give you a sense of how incredible my grandpa was, but I don’t think I’m a good enough writer for you to fully grasp it.)

When we entered the store, my brothers and I headed for the soda machine.  It was dirt cheap, like a quarter or something, and everyone got their own soda. Then the tools. Seeing rows of tools lined up was for a kid (and adult) pretty cool. Must be how some feel about shoes, you know you can’t own or use (wear) them all, but it’s a rush to see them all in a row. I always like the display of Swiss Army knives. My grandpa always carried one and I always seemed to lose whichever one was given to me.

You could always tell that instead of doing something fun like the zoo or sailing, we were doing some physical work, when the day started with a trip to Fresno Ag. I don’t know how my younger brothers felt about it, but being the oldest, I knew I was slated for a greater degree of participation than I wish to contribute. Today, of course, I would trade the winning Powerball ticket for a chance to do one more trip to Fresno Ag with him.

Picture: Guess This

        I want to get a little ahead and write this tonight (Sunday) so that I can auto-post it and try to get a little cushion on the daily output of the blog. But I have a little writer’s block, well not so much of true block, but I dicked around on Reddit long enough that I should throw something together. Plus, I promised myself that I couldn’t watch tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead until I wrote something. I started seeing spoilers while procreating on Reddit, so it was time to type.

        I was still at a loss of topic and then decided to do something and create a little visual aid at the same time, so I’m going to go into my digital pictures and count down from 6, forth folder, then the third, etc. until I get a picture. I will then post it and tell the story about it.

Here it is:

        This was unlabeled and it took me a minute looking at the other pictures next to it to figure out what was going on. I’ll give you a second and then some clues to see if you can guess it. First clue: Familiar foothills, but which side of the valley? Second, the destination really is better than the journey, in this case. Third, you can’t “Pass” it up.

        The occasion was a spring trip to Stanford. The foothills of the Valley can be so beautiful when there is moisture present and they look like an unmade bed with a quilt of green.  The green in the hills of the Bay Area have a similar pleasant appearance, but they also fade with the heat of the summer. There are moments in summer when the yellow stalked foothills do not evoke desolation and destitution, usually when your car AC reaches its coldest temperature. But they are at their best in the Spring.

        So now is the time to take a drive (rather when it stops raining). Most of the stone fruit blossoms will have departed, but branches and the hills will be sprouting green. And if you lucky, you might hit some wild flowers like this:

The Richert Rosetta Stone

I didn’t mean to piggy-back on yesterday’s post about letters, but I do have an exciting find to report. I’ve mentioned the difficulty in translating the German letters in the family collection. Since it’s worth a thousand words, here is a sample:

So, you can see the challenge here. But, I’ve struck gold. I’ve found my Rosetta stone:

        What may look like more German scribbling, is, well, more German scribbling, but my grandfather has penciled in the modern German over the old script which means there is hope of translating the letters through this and technology.

        Technology is already a key in this project. As you can see, some of the writing is rather small. This has been an issue with even the letters written in English, especially the V-mail ones. Scanning the letter and then viewing it digitally has allowed me to quickly enlarge the letter and make it more readable. Of course, all the storage and indexing will be using currently available tech as well as sharing through blogs and any future websites.

Optical character recognition is a rapidly improving field, but even the experts think this type of transcribing might not be feasible, but with this “Rosetta” letter there is hope of at least recognizing this individual’s hand writing. Perhaps, only by entire words or groups of letters, but, since it is repetitious grunt work and that is what computers excel at, it is possible someday.

        I know my grandfather did some work on these letters, too. Some of the large envelopes held groups of letters and he labeled the exterior “From Parents,” “While he was abroad,” etc. He labeled some pictures that would have gone nameless without his effort. And this transcription, which will prove to be the most valuable contribution of all. I have no doubt that there are elements of this project that will have to be handed down to the next generation, too. They’ll be able to use technology that is as foreign to me as an iPad was to my grandfather. But, since we have the letters, we’ll make the time.

Write a Letter!

Letters. Written ones. This will be a topic I will be using more often than I originally planned. I might have mentioned it, but I am organizing the family letters of several generations of Richerts. I am amazed at how often some wrote and ashamed at how little I write.

Part of my slow progress in organizing the family letters has been cause by curiosity. When I see a letter from my father to my grandfather, I want to stop and read it. It is very hard to resist reading, instead of sorting, the war years letters to and from my B-17 navigator great-uncle. The letters to my great-grandfather from my great-great- grandfather I can’t read; there in 19^th century German cursive. Going to need some technology on that one.

I am not going to suggest any correlation between frequency of correspondence to degree of affection. We all have friends and relatives whom we infrequently contact and are most precious to us. Conversely, there are people who communicate daily with us and if that communication were cut in half, it would still be too often.

 Now, there is no doubt that in the last generation methods of communication have become faster and more ephemeral. While the telephone was invented in the 19^th century (no way am I going to start a debate on its inventor) cost and network issues kept it from really impacting the use of mail until the second half of the 20^th century. We are all familiar with what email, text, and video chat have done to written correspondence. Like shopping at Walmart due to price and convenience, we are using these newer means of communication instead of letter writing.

        There are nuggets of history in the letters, but mostly insights to the family and day to day life. We’ll have more visual records of that for future generations, but I think the ability to hold, feel, and read a letter somehow convey additional import to the experience. An email just isn’t the same.

        As I admit, I certainly have been guilty of this and that is part of my shame. There was a time in my life where I let other considerations take priority and I now have a better grasp of the special ingredients that add to our life experience. A piece of paper with markings on it is certainly one of them. I will make a greater effort to write one to you. I hope you save it.

Rant:Leaf Blowers

        Today is a rant. It is a rant about leaf blowers. I do not like leaf blowers. I think they are bad. Achhh, enough. I thought by starting with simple sentences, I could control my emotions on the topic and not go into (pardon the pun) full blown rant and shrill mode. Not possible. If hell has a sound track, you won’t hear it because of the leaf blowers.

        Let’s start there, the sound make, or rather the soul-disturbing NOISE they generate. Isn’t it the epitome of irony that environments (gardens and landscaping) that are supposed to be peaceful and relaxing are maintained by devices seemingly created to elicit information form prisoners at Guantanamo Bay?

        Depending on where you live, it isn’t even a once a week distraction, but a siren call that comes at different times on different days. Apartment dwellers are often spared the multiple ear-drum piercings per week, but must suffer a lengthier torture session that is guaranteed to disrupt whatever one is attempting at the moment (late or overnight shift? Good luck at anything more than a couple hours of sleep.)

        It is a fact that the smaller engines that require a fuel-oil mixture are proportionally higher polluting than their larger cousins. Yet, we allow thousands of these smog-spewing creatures to breath in clean air and then spit out their stench. And it’s the not only crap that they produce, but embedded in their name is their function that further pollutes: blower.

        They don’t CLEAN anything. They move dirt and debris off of one property to another. Then, the next day, another will come along and blow it back onto your property. There is the rare occasion when they are actually used to blow leaves into a pile and then the pile is picked up. I challenge anyone to document that use on a large scale outside of fall, though.

        So we have something that causes noise pollution, air pollution, AND particulate pollution, but is somehow legal. You are banned from burning wood in your fireplace, but THESE things are OK? Anyplace below 4,000 feet in California is only going to have a limited period of time when they’ll actually WANT extra heat produced. In many parts of California, figure out how to live 24 hours a day in a pool and you’ll be a billionaire. But these contraptions are allowed every day, in every season, in every community.

        Just imagine how peaceful our offices and our homes would be without these machines. There are those that argue for their use due to labor and cost savings, but isn’t the improvement in our health and sanity worth a couple of bucks?

Granted, the evil of leaf blowers is a trivial issue to most of the world whose concerns are geared more towards obtaining the basic necessities of life: food, clothing, and shelter. This issue must be unfathomable those who can only imagine having the freedom to bitch about anything without the terror of a door smashing in. This really is a perfect example of a first world problem. Another reason to hate these demonic creations.

Check Yourself

     Without a doubt, this post is my most valuable one. Not in quality (surely, you've realized that by now.) Not in future worth like an early piece of a writing from Hemingway or Mark Twain (what will the blog entries of the next Faulkner be worth, anything? The computer he typed on?) But in value to you , the reader. For it could mean money, real cash.

     I am talking about the state unclaimed property database and begging you to search for yourself on it. You can search by name and city. Do it both ways as some will have a name but not a city. You can play the leprechaun, search for a friend, and then tell them about their pot of gold.

     What is this money? Perhaps a check from a deposit you were entitled to but never cashed. Settlements, refunds, something from an apartment you used to rent. Most amounts are not life changing. The vary in value from the price of a gumball machine to a nice dinner. Some are larger. But, in any case, it is YOUR money. Go get it.

Link to search in California.

Note: each state has this department so make sure to search every state you have lived in.

Restaurant Review: Casa Corona

This requires an introduction. First, it is a letter written several years ago and I had to pull it out to post it because I was running late and what I was writing for today was descending into real garbage as my brain went mushy due to the late hour.

The experience IS several years old, some current standards could be different, but I never received a response from management, had several similar type experiences before (I'll never publicly call out a restaurant on ONE meal; everyone has an off day) so I have no problem giving them a negative review.

Douglas Richert

doug.richert@gmail.com

June 13, 2011

General Manager

Casa Corona

7044 N. Cedar Ave.

Fresno, CA 93720

Dear General Manager:

On Wednesday, June 8 2011, I had a very disappointing dining experience at Casa Corona. It was a little after ten when I entered and sat myself at the bar. After years in the restaurant business in both the back and front of the house, I usually prefer the bar as the service is usually a notch above. Tonight was not the case.

I sat for several minutes before being approached by what I thought was the barback, as he was concentrated on breaking and cleaning the bar. When finally approached, I said I wanted a menu and “I’ll start (emphasis added) with water.” For the rest of the night, no one asked if I wanted anything else to drink or offered to refill the glass. This is also the first Mexican restaurant were I haven’t even been offered chips and salsa, let alone an upsell attempt on appetizer. In fact, the only interaction with the bartender was when he asked for the three ingredients I wanted in my combo plate burrito.

After the initial delay in approach and ordering, the food did arrive in a timely matter, but, with the exception of the refried beans, barely warm. If I had to guess, I would say the steam table had been broken down to be cleaned and the cook relied on the cheese melter to heat the food. He was not successful. Even, if hot, the food would only have been average. The chicken in the enchilada was flavorless and the burrito was so light in ingredients it tasted like a flour burrito instead of the ground beef I had ordered.

As I have mentioned, I have worked in the restaurant business and understand the need to clean up and get off the clock. I understand closing duties and the need to start them before end of service can lead to a different experience for the 10 pm guest than the 6 pm guest. But, if they are charged the same prices, shouldn’t they have the same experience? I feel that I was ignored by the bar staff who were busy cleaning and an afterthought to the kitchen. Since the late night priority seems to be closing the restaurant, I will do my part by not creating anymore work for the crew of Casa Corona.

Thank you for your time.

How Politicians Make Decisions

    For a laugh during this political season, here is my favorite scene from one of the greatest comedies. Both actors create such great humor just through their facial reactions. The remake will be hard pressed to get such a laugh. 

A Promise Not To

     It might seem that I procrastinated all day and am just now writing something of poor quality (like any of my other stuff is Pulitzer grade) just to make the goal of something new every day. It IS late and I AM writing to meet the goal, by the way, there is nothing wrong with wanting to meet a goal. But it WAS a busy day for me.

     Being honest, though, I was busy because I DID put stuff off. All the little errands I raced around completing today in Fresno could have been done in more bite-size pieces during the previous week. It would have made today better and my life calmer.

     Unfortunately, this has been one of my biggest faults and really traced back to homework I would finish on the bus to school. Staying up late could have been justified if it meant completing the short story due in the morning. Catching a first run of Charlie's Angels doesn't. It wouldn't be the same in today's technological age. It would be binge watching House of Cards. After the free internet porn, of course.

     

     I actually have started to work on this a little. I've taken advantage of the scheduling feature of blogs to get ahead, one day, on the Richert Letters blog. Obviously, I didn't on this one. Over the course of time, I will. I plan to write book reviews of the books I've read and use those for days when I need a little help. Like today.

     

The Richert Archives

I have been working on what I call the “Richert Archives.” The majority of the collections consists of family letters. The bulk of that consists of letters between my great-grandfather and his contemporaries and his children. The children take over the bulk of the letters after his death in 1938. We are not talking just a few, not dozens, but complete sent and received correspondence between some individuals.

The letters were stored at my grandfather’s house. What appeared to have happen, is when a sibling passed away, grandpa had the garage to store the personal effects and thus the letters stockpiled at his house. When we had to clean out his house, I took possession of the Archives (whoops, forgot to mention the four banker boxes of other printed memorabilia and photos.)  My great-uncle Robert recently passed away and his correspondence passed to me.

After having possession of the Archives for a dozen years and only piecemeal poking at the contents, I am making the concentrated effort to organize them. I won’t bore you with the technical details, but I’m down to two banker boxes to sort and actually realize that I might be in a tunnel. I don’t see any light, but at least I don’t feel I’m in the middle of an endless void.

I’ve finally trained myself to stop reading letters as I sort. It is sooooo tempting to stall and read some correspondence that confirms a family story or brings a new facet of it to life, like a letter drawn by my dad that I recently posted. But then five minutes are lost reading. Except for the German letters.

I did take several years of German in high school and like most Americans, didn’t continue to practice it. Today, the internet and computers make it easier to retain and improve foreign language competency, but it’s ridiculous for me to suggest that not being able to Skype with a native speaker is the reason the only German I can speak is to ask for another beer, (Noch einmal Bier, Bitte?)

But even if I had been an exchange student, moved to Germany, married a German women and had raised dozens of bilingual children, for all the fluency I would have obtained, some of these letters might as well have been written on an Enigma machine. Especially, the 19^th century ones from my great-grandfather’s family. Here, take a look.

I think it will take someone who learned German as their first language, who learned cursive writing, who is ALSO familiar with the older German script to translate these letters. Probably won’t find that on Fiverr. I do hold hope for translating the typewritten German. Perhaps some crowdsourcing project. All those serious science projects have to get boring, a bunch of Germans writing about wheat prices is certainly more exciting.

But, in case YOU find such mundane tidbits exciting, or have already looked at the Reddit front page and need a new way to kill 5 minutes, here is a link to a blog that postsa letter from the Richert Archives. I try to pick something written on that date, but will stretch it to the postmark and sometimes just the same week/month. In that effort, as in this, I am trying to post something daily. And you will see, in that, as well as this, I’m not always successful. But it beats having to actually write a letter.

Song for the Day (night)

Yes, I'm cheating by positing a video link and not writing a real post. I'm probably breaking some copyright, too. But I can't take a day off, because it becomes two and then three and then a week and then a month and then...

I am committed to not skipping a day; I'll confess to doing this again in the future. I apologize if you feel I'm pulling a bait and switch. But, at least you get to hear the greatest rock band do one of their songs instead of trying to justify reading anything I wrote.

A Different Lens

We are used to seeing pictures like the one below. We have nieces/nephews, sons/daughters that bring home and give us this type of artwork. Our parents can surely bring out one of OUR similar masterpieces from their scrapbook. To the untrained eye, it is often impossible to differentiate it from a piece of modern art selling for six figures at auction.

The twist on this child's artwork is that it belongs to my father. He was five and a half and mailed this to his Aunt Lydia. Of course, my grandmother addressed the envelope. 

It is often very difficult to place your parents in anything, but the adult-in-control paradigm (just as they can have difficultly in truly seeing you as an independent adult). It is such a rare treat to be given a reminder that they were also once a child.

Bad Day

    Today is going to be a rough day for me. Mayor Swearengin will have a large ground breaking ceremony and party on the Fulton Mall. For the past few years, I have worked with the Downtown Fresno Coalition to protect and save the Fulton Mall. (We never advocated for the status quo, but a fully restored and renovated mall.)

        This post is not a rehashing of the Fulton Mall argument. I have inflicted enough of my viewpoint on many of my friends. My purpose is more of a venting and confessional about my feelings, rather than an op-ed arguing a particular point of view.

        In addition to the depressing effect of seeing so many take such joy at destroying the Mall, I am overwhelmed with the self-doubt of what else could have been done. Was there one more email I could have sent, one more letter I could have written, one more person I could have talked to? It’s really hard not to think so, when put in those terms.

        To assuage such guilt, I do remind myself that my opponents had the support of numerous paid staff members both in and out of city hall. The area PBID that was formed and its primary purpose was to advocate for a street on Fulton. It’s hard for a volunteer group to fight opponents who have a full time staff. That the city made NO effort to find funding for our option is just the cherry on top.

        I have raced off at every opportunity to give my sound bit to any interested media. Again, it is hard to compete with an opponent that has a professional communications department and has told the false narrative enough times for people to assume its truth. I know I’ve reached a few people. When one of my friends compliments a recent appearance, I always have to make a quick decision whether they want to hear more of my viewpoint or are just paying me a compliment. In either case, I appreciate it.

        I honestly believe this wasn’t a lost cause from the start. The road proponents ran a brilliant campaign, but the result, initially, wasn’t a forgone conclusion. There is only a percentage of Fresnans that actually care about downtown and we were fighting over that same percentage. Many in that demographic would normally be adverse to a decrease in pedestrian and bicycle space, but the split hurt our side and our opponents did a better job of organizing.

        Where do I go from here? Well, first, I will attend their Nuremburg event and try to provide a sound bite to someone. We will continue our legal challenges, even more than an NFL game, you can never be sure of the outcome (OJ case, anyone?) I will hold the city accountable for the promised amenities and artwork restoration. I will continue to go downtown and do fun stuff, like I always have.

        Today will be bad, but tomorrow won’t be the same.

Apple is Right

        In the showdown between Apple and the FBI, the slippery slope of decoding one encrypted phone is taking center place. Apple insists that by writing the code to get the data out of one terrorist’s phone, ALL phones will be put in danger. The FBI insists it is just ONE phone and that security for the entire public demands it.

        This has triggered the debate between individual liberties versus the safety of society as a whole. Some argue that any freedom lost is too high a price to pay for personal security, while others argue that if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide and the danger from terrorists is greater than any privacy you might lose. But I believe there is an additional component to this dispute that is just as troubling: requiring private individual’s labor to create criminal evidence.

        Since create and fabricate are synonyms, let’s be clear that I am not talking about manufacturing false or fake evidence. I am also not talking about gathering existing evidence. It is not uncommon for a court to order a firm to turn over records to a party in a court proceeding. In this case, of course, there will be private individuals making copies, boxing up and delivering the requested material to demanding party. This is merely gathering evidence, a task that can be completed by anyone.

        Now specific civilians do work for law enforcement. Obviously, there are forensic technicians, clerical workers, dispatchers, etc., that are not sworn officers who do specific work for their department. And many mundane services can be contracted out like janitorial, vehicle maintenance, etc. One might argue that what is being demanded of Apple is no different than a civilian getting wired and doing something undercover. But, even in that case, it is often someone trading their cooperation for consideration for their own misbehavior and they have a choice to not cooperate and face the consequences.

        What Apple is being asked to do is far different. To comply with the FBI demand, Apple must require its employees, who have done nothing wrong and are not part of any criminal activity, to create a product (the decryption code) from their own skill set. This puts both the employer and the employee in a very difficult position. Does the employee have a right to refuse the work order for law enforcement? If an employee were being asked questions, they would have a right to an attorney and to refuse to answer. But can they be forced to do actual work? Can the employer force the employee to complete the work or be fired? Would the employer be exposed to an employee lawsuit? Would the employee be compensated if the employer is not?

        What of the precedent? The phone security for all phones is the first consideration in the slippery slope argument, but what of requiring labor? Suppose next time it is not a decryption code, but something genetically grown to help the FBI? A medical procedure? An Implant? What about just general labor for the common good? Not a paid CCC like during the depression, but a military style draft for anything and everything the government needed.

        Far-fetched? Most slippery slope arguments do take it to the extreme example for the biggest impact. And, in our capitalistic market society, the pressure to prevent the loss of all private government contracts would certainly be a prohibitive factor in such a scenario. But, imagine a very small, specialized business that produces something the FBI or some other agency finds itself needing in a modified form. Would they have the resources to fight an order in court? Would they survive a customer revolt because of the cooperation or non-cooperation? Probably not.

        Apple is a multi-billion dollar company with the resources to fight the government on this issue. Their fight is about more than just the security of the device we carry in our pocket, but what we do with our very lives. For all of us, they must win.