in doing so, i was making some charts and graph just to test the functionality and came across this (perhaps) surprising finding.
i asked where San Jose ranked in terms of home prices compared to other metro areas as defined by Redfin.
#1 - Edwards CO (where Vail is)
#2 - San Jose
#20 - Oakland!
technically ...The Oakland, CA metro area as tracked by Redfin typically encompasses the Oakland-Berkeley-Livermore portion of the East Bay, covering Alameda and Contra Costa counties. This includes cities like Oakland, Berkeley, Fremont, Hayward, Concord, and Livermore. It is part of the broader San Francisco Bay Area but is reported as a distinct metro unit.
San Jose must cover places like Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, etc. So that probably makes sense. I wonder where Hillsborough goes? SJ or SF?
There is a house down the street from me for sale. During Covid, a family, or a group, tore it down and started building it back up. It went on the market a little less than a year ago, for a little more than 50% more than just about all the rest of the houses in the neighborhood. Surprise! It's still on the market. It is a large 2 story house that is way out of character, for the most part, in the neighborhood of mostly ranch style houses. I walked by the other day and happened to see someone looking at it. And I don't think the price has gone down much.
A Virginia circuit court judge denied Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris' request for a preliminary injunction to play a seventh season on Thursday.
The 25-year-old quarterback sued the NCAA in Charlottesville Circuit Court in February in an attempt to return for one more season after his extension of eligibility waiver and appeal were denied by the NCAA earlier this year.
I got the wordle in 2 today, which was hella frustrating because we just ended a month-long wordle competition. This month is connections, so I'm directing all my sucking there.
The streak lives! 75 days as of today. I think this streak has successfully rewired my brain to accept that I can do Fridays and Saturdays. Before this streak, I'd go into those days thinking that I wouldn't be able to finish them, and if I did it was a fluke.
Now, I have confidence that it's possible, and that has made all the difference.
yes i agree there is a confidence factor that helps when you are stuck. also the confidence to rip up some "sure answers" and try new things.
before (6 mo ago) i would find Fri and Sat equally intimidating and i used to have huge blank areas and no hope of making progress. now i just stick with it and know that "it is not THAT hard"
BERKELEY – At the end of the first day of the Brutus Hamilton Invitational multi-events competition, California track & field redshirt junior Luke Buddie leads the decathletes with his highest Day 1 total ever after recording wins in three of his five events at Edwards Stadium on Thursday.
TEMPE, Ariz. – No. 14 California women's gymnastics punched its ticket to the NCAA regional finals after placing second in the Tempe Regional semifinals on Saturday night in Desert Financial Arena. The Golden Bears will take on No. 3 Florida, No. 6 Georgia and No. 11 Michigan State in the round of 16 on Saturday night at 5 p.m. PT. The top two finishers in Saturday's final will advance to NCAA Championships in Fort Worth, Texas.
BERKELEY.— The California baseball team was run-ruled by No. 3 Georgia Tech 17-2 in its series opener Thursday night at Stu Gordon Stadium in Berkeley.
SARATOGA – The California softball team defeated Louisville, 7-5, on Thursday afternoon at Viking Field. Madison Rey led the way with a game-high three hits and two RBI in the Bears' victory.
— Cal and Clemson have played just once, with the Tigers a 19-3 winner over the Golden Bears at Clemson last March 29. Emily Moes scored two of Cal's goals in the contest, while Avery Hoeft accounted for the other. Courtney Wong had a pair of assists, while Jane Middleton had one.
The California men's gymnastics team will host its last meet of the season at Haas Pavilion on Saturday, welcoming Oklahoma, Stanford and Air Force to Berkeley for the MPSF Championship at 4 p.m. PT. This will be the Golden Bears' fourth time meeting the Cardinal this year, as well as its third time facing the Sooners and its second time sharing the gym with the Falcons. A live stream from the meet will be available on Overnght, while live scores will be posted on Virtius. Admission for the MPSF Championship will be free.
BERKELEY – It will be a weekend of benchmarks this Friday and Saturday at the Cal Classic in Berkeley, as eight seniors will play the final home matches of their California beach volleyball careers while the program itself will say goodbye to the facility it's called home for the first 13 years of its existence.
Interesting - they're putting the new beach volleyball complex on the Edwards Stadium parking lot. I'm of the opinion that almost all surface parking (handicapped spots or NL tags aside) is an underutilization of scarce land. And the old courts on the Clark Kerr campus were pretty removed, so this is a real upgrade.
I did see the empty lot when I walked back from the last baseball game. I think the lot used to be the old ATO building and other stuff. Was wondering what they were going to put there. Didn't look like enough room for 5 courts and locker rooms and stuff.
Though at this point I think any problems are mostly with ownership: they want to be "good enough" so fans will still show up but don't really care about winning big.
I share this perspective. Ownership does have an effect on results, it cannot be denied.
Pursuing a "good enough" approach is toxic, anathema to building a culture where the fans get excited every year for the season about to unfold and to carry that excitement into September and beyond.
Winning big should be on the list of goals each and every year. Granted, you have to learn to walk before you can run, but this franchise should have resources available to it that small market teams can only dream about.
Going to try to go to one or two Sharks games next week. During the week, tickets are reasonable. nosebleed seats for $35-40. I want to go see the young kids, Celebrini and the Fresh Prince.
grumpy-old-man complaints about teaching math and kids these days (among other things)
i was visiting my niece (4th grade) last week and she had some HW on subtracting mixed fractions. things like 2 3/8 - 3/4. i'll also add that as kids go she is probably on the extremely gifted end of the spectrum.
i quickly glanced over her HW and realized that she had done all of them wrong. when i looked at her work it was clear that she missed one key step in the "algorithm" they were taught and applied that consistent (incorrectly).
so i tried to point this out to her and she really didnt want to hear it. she said that "parents are not supposed help or correct HW that way the teacher knows where we are"
i get this somewhat. it is good for the teacher to know what is working and what is not. still, i was a little surprised at how adamant she was about not even wanting to know what she did wrong, even if she didnt redo the whole page. it was as if, "i did my math HW for 20 min and that is all you get out of me"
no doubt, she will get her mistake corrected and be taking Calculus in HS someday. still, it was mostly interesting that she didnt have a "commitment to learning" and following some set of rules was more important to her.
i am not her parent, so i just let it go. that's not how things would go down w/ my kids.
"so i tried to point this out to her and she really didnt want to hear it. she said that "parents are not supposed help or correct HW that way the teacher knows where we are""
This is the kind of thing that drives me insane. Let me back up.
When my kids were in grade school, Mrs Slug asked me to help Double D with his math homework. This was either 2nd grade or 3rd grade stuff. I think multiplication was involved.
Anyhow, we got a bunch of pennies out and we walked it through two or three times. This helped him tremendously because he wasn't getting what the teacher was trying to teach. Point being, I helped him understand a concept he wasn't getting based on what was being taught.
I think that there is a constant tug of war within public school academia about teaching methodology, especially with reading and math. If a parent understands the subject and can effectively teach their own child without damaging the teacher's credibility or methods, where's the harm?
Is she a rules follower? I bet her teacher told her to try to do it herself.
I tried to help No 2 with some of his CS homework (I think) and he said profs told them they were supposed to do the work themselves. So he didn't ask for help.
You can watch the mission live. Right now they’re going 3,936 mph, so you can see the miles from earth and distance to the moon number change by more than a mile per second.
i actually have a very good lifelong friend where we mutually agree that the initial basis for friendship was knowing that the other person read and liked Dostoevsky.
How does this protect the mirror? Are they taking just the glass or the whole assembly? I Would think this wouldn't prevent the whole assembly from being taken.
They only take the mirror glass assembly. Apparently on many cars (Honda is most popular) you can just pop the mirror off with a screwdriver, and clip a couple wires.
Modern mirrors can have electronic darkening, heating, and blind spot warning, so all those things make them Expen$ive.
Home prices
i am helping a friend w/ his fledgling home price analysis website
https://home-economics.us/
in doing so, i was making some charts and graph just to test the functionality and came across this (perhaps) surprising finding.
i asked where San Jose ranked in terms of home prices compared to other metro areas as defined by Redfin.
#1 - Edwards CO (where Vail is)
#2 - San Jose
#20 - Oakland!
technically ...The Oakland, CA metro area as tracked by Redfin typically encompasses the Oakland-Berkeley-Livermore portion of the East Bay, covering Alameda and Contra Costa counties. This includes cities like Oakland, Berkeley, Fremont, Hayward, Concord, and Livermore. It is part of the broader San Francisco Bay Area but is reported as a distinct metro unit.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/eQrtNRRoie81FG1x8
San Jose must cover places like Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, etc. So that probably makes sense. I wonder where Hillsborough goes? SJ or SF?
my fancy AI-powered home price explorer says
> Hillsborough, CA is in the San Francisco, CA metro area.
these are median prices so hopefully a few insanely priced homes dont make too much difference.
There is a house down the street from me for sale. During Covid, a family, or a group, tore it down and started building it back up. It went on the market a little less than a year ago, for a little more than 50% more than just about all the rest of the houses in the neighborhood. Surprise! It's still on the market. It is a large 2 story house that is way out of character, for the most part, in the neighborhood of mostly ranch style houses. I walked by the other day and happened to see someone looking at it. And I don't think the price has gone down much.
Other Colleges
Virginia QB Morris has injunction request denied by judge (for a 7th year)
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/48381387/virginia-qb-morris-injunction-request-denied-judge
A Virginia circuit court judge denied Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris' request for a preliminary injunction to play a seventh season on Thursday.
The 25-year-old quarterback sued the NCAA in Charlottesville Circuit Court in February in an attempt to return for one more season after his extension of eligibility waiver and appeal were denied by the NCAA earlier this year.
Must be a crazy feeling to know that for the rest of your life, you'll never make as much money as you did when you were in college
@luckily, college kids are known for making sober long-term decisions with their resources@
Seriously, it's time to go. Dude is like Jeremy Piven's character in PCU talking about his third sophomore year.
Word(le) Games
I got the wordle in 2 today, which was hella frustrating because we just ended a month-long wordle competition. This month is connections, so I'm directing all my sucking there.
For a long time I sucked at connections. But I recently had a 28 day streak and am now on a 16 day streak so there is some hope.
i hope your NYT crossword streak is still intact. it seems to have been quite manageable last 2 weeks. i am up to a 18 day streak.
and the sucking in Connections is using up the sucking karma
The streak lives! 75 days as of today. I think this streak has successfully rewired my brain to accept that I can do Fridays and Saturdays. Before this streak, I'd go into those days thinking that I wouldn't be able to finish them, and if I did it was a fluke.
Now, I have confidence that it's possible, and that has made all the difference.
yes i agree there is a confidence factor that helps when you are stuck. also the confidence to rip up some "sure answers" and try new things.
before (6 mo ago) i would find Fri and Sat equally intimidating and i used to have huge blank areas and no hope of making progress. now i just stick with it and know that "it is not THAT hard"
Wordle 1,749 5/6*
🟩⬛⬛⬛🟩
🟩⬛⬛⬛🟩
🟩🟨🟨⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
3 today starting w/ one of the WordleBot words. probably my final guess was a bit lucky since there were plenty of words that were still possible
Wordle 1,749 3/6*
⬛⬛⬛🟨🟩
🟩🟨🟨⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
or not. WordleBot says there was only one possibility after my 2nd guess. it would have been impossible NOT to get it!!
Wordle 1,749 4/6
🟩⬜⬜⬜🟩
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Not bad, not particularly good, either.
Wordle 1,749 4/6
🟩⬜⬜⬜🟩
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
WordleBot
Skill 99/99
Luck 55/99
great skill, crappy luck
Cal
[T&F} Buddie Leads Decathlon Field After Day 1
https://calbears.com/news/2026/4/2/track-field-buddie-leads-decathlon-field-after-day-1.aspx
BERKELEY – At the end of the first day of the Brutus Hamilton Invitational multi-events competition, California track & field redshirt junior Luke Buddie leads the decathletes with his highest Day 1 total ever after recording wins in three of his five events at Edwards Stadium on Thursday.
[WGYM] Bears Punch Ticket To NCAA Regional Final
https://calbears.com/news/2026/4/2/womens-gymnastics-bears-punch-ticket-to-ncaa-regional-final.aspx
TEMPE, Ariz. – No. 14 California women's gymnastics punched its ticket to the NCAA regional finals after placing second in the Tempe Regional semifinals on Saturday night in Desert Financial Arena. The Golden Bears will take on No. 3 Florida, No. 6 Georgia and No. 11 Michigan State in the round of 16 on Saturday night at 5 p.m. PT. The top two finishers in Saturday's final will advance to NCAA Championships in Fort Worth, Texas.
[BASE] Cal Humbled By No. 3 Georgia Tech
https://calbears.com/news/2026/4/2/baseball-cal-humbled-by-no-3-georgia-tech.aspx
BERKELEY.— The California baseball team was run-ruled by No. 3 Georgia Tech 17-2 in its series opener Thursday night at Stu Gordon Stadium in Berkeley.
[SB] Cal Takes Series Opener Over Louisville
https://calbears.com/news/2026/4/2/softball-cal-takes-series-opener-over-louisville.aspx
SARATOGA – The California softball team defeated Louisville, 7-5, on Thursday afternoon at Viking Field. Madison Rey led the way with a game-high three hits and two RBI in the Bears' victory.
[LAX] Cal Returns Home To Host No. 11 Clemson
https://calbears.com/news/2026/4/2/lacrosse-cal-returns-home-to-host-no-11-clemson.aspx
CALIFORNIA-CLEMSON LACROSSE HISTORY
— Cal and Clemson have played just once, with the Tigers a 19-3 winner over the Golden Bears at Clemson last March 29. Emily Moes scored two of Cal's goals in the contest, while Avery Hoeft accounted for the other. Courtney Wong had a pair of assists, while Jane Middleton had one.
[MGYM] Cal Men’s Gymnastics Hosts MPSF Championship
https://calbears.com/news/2026/4/2/mens-gymnastics-cal-mens-gymnastics-hosts-mpsf-championship.aspx
The California men's gymnastics team will host its last meet of the season at Haas Pavilion on Saturday, welcoming Oklahoma, Stanford and Air Force to Berkeley for the MPSF Championship at 4 p.m. PT. This will be the Golden Bears' fourth time meeting the Cardinal this year, as well as its third time facing the Sooners and its second time sharing the gym with the Falcons. A live stream from the meet will be available on Overnght, while live scores will be posted on Virtius. Admission for the MPSF Championship will be free.
[BVB] No. 9 Cal To Send Off Seniors, Clark Kerr Courts
https://calbears.com/news/2026/4/2/beach-volleyball-no-9-cal-to-send-off-seniors-clark-kerr-courts.aspx
BERKELEY – It will be a weekend of benchmarks this Friday and Saturday at the Cal Classic in Berkeley, as eight seniors will play the final home matches of their California beach volleyball careers while the program itself will say goodbye to the facility it's called home for the first 13 years of its existence.
Interesting - they're putting the new beach volleyball complex on the Edwards Stadium parking lot. I'm of the opinion that almost all surface parking (handicapped spots or NL tags aside) is an underutilization of scarce land. And the old courts on the Clark Kerr campus were pretty removed, so this is a real upgrade.
I did see the empty lot when I walked back from the last baseball game. I think the lot used to be the old ATO building and other stuff. Was wondering what they were going to put there. Didn't look like enough room for 5 courts and locker rooms and stuff.
I thought the same thing. Here's the best image I found of what the layout will be:
https://www.overaa.com/projects/university-of-california-berkeley-cal-beach-volleyball-complex/
Hmm...OK I guess it would work. Maybe it's bigger than I remember. Doesn't seem like there is enough room at the endlines to chase down balls.
PRO
Giants beat the Mets, 7-2.
Giants might be just good enough to unreasonably elevate hopes and forestall total frustration until pretty late in the season.
i was also hoping the Mets would be in that category since it is more fun to go when they are in contention
They now have Cal alum Marcus Semien, my favorite player, so I’ll be watching the Mets more now via MLB.com.
They will wind up around .500 as usual.
Yeah. I'm not sure that Posey is all that good as an executive. But he might still grow into the role.
Too early to know if he's any good or not.
Though at this point I think any problems are mostly with ownership: they want to be "good enough" so fans will still show up but don't really care about winning big.
I share this perspective. Ownership does have an effect on results, it cannot be denied.
Pursuing a "good enough" approach is toxic, anathema to building a culture where the fans get excited every year for the season about to unfold and to carry that excitement into September and beyond.
Winning big should be on the list of goals each and every year. Granted, you have to learn to walk before you can run, but this franchise should have resources available to it that small market teams can only dream about.
OKC crushed LA. they made it seem like the top 2 teams were going to put on a good show.
OKC was up by 30 midway thru 2nd q. they scored > 80 pts in the first half.
i only watched about 10 min of the Warriors game. figured there was not much chance. they have a short lead in the 4th it seems
Game 77 wrap: Deep Bench Dubs lose in last minute to Cavs; Always Close Enough To Hurt™
https://dubnationhq.com/p/game-77-wrap-no-spoiler-title
Sharks beat the Maple Leafs, 4-1.
Going to try to go to one or two Sharks games next week. During the week, tickets are reasonable. nosebleed seats for $35-40. I want to go see the young kids, Celebrini and the Fresh Prince.
Man, I thought their playoff hopes were cooked after that losing streak but now they've flipped it!
Oh wow I hadn't looked at the standings. I also thought for sure they were done. Tied for the 2nd WC spot with a game in hand.
Yeah this win basically moved them back into the playoffs if the season ended now.
Dodgers win the off-day
Fractions
grumpy-old-man complaints about teaching math and kids these days (among other things)
i was visiting my niece (4th grade) last week and she had some HW on subtracting mixed fractions. things like 2 3/8 - 3/4. i'll also add that as kids go she is probably on the extremely gifted end of the spectrum.
i quickly glanced over her HW and realized that she had done all of them wrong. when i looked at her work it was clear that she missed one key step in the "algorithm" they were taught and applied that consistent (incorrectly).
so i tried to point this out to her and she really didnt want to hear it. she said that "parents are not supposed help or correct HW that way the teacher knows where we are"
i get this somewhat. it is good for the teacher to know what is working and what is not. still, i was a little surprised at how adamant she was about not even wanting to know what she did wrong, even if she didnt redo the whole page. it was as if, "i did my math HW for 20 min and that is all you get out of me"
no doubt, she will get her mistake corrected and be taking Calculus in HS someday. still, it was mostly interesting that she didnt have a "commitment to learning" and following some set of rules was more important to her.
i am not her parent, so i just let it go. that's not how things would go down w/ my kids.
"so i tried to point this out to her and she really didnt want to hear it. she said that "parents are not supposed help or correct HW that way the teacher knows where we are""
This is the kind of thing that drives me insane. Let me back up.
When my kids were in grade school, Mrs Slug asked me to help Double D with his math homework. This was either 2nd grade or 3rd grade stuff. I think multiplication was involved.
Anyhow, we got a bunch of pennies out and we walked it through two or three times. This helped him tremendously because he wasn't getting what the teacher was trying to teach. Point being, I helped him understand a concept he wasn't getting based on what was being taught.
I think that there is a constant tug of war within public school academia about teaching methodology, especially with reading and math. If a parent understands the subject and can effectively teach their own child without damaging the teacher's credibility or methods, where's the harm?
And yet people seem surprised and distressed over poor math scores and skills.
i am distressed. at least now i have a better idea of why.
Is she a rules follower? I bet her teacher told her to try to do it herself.
I tried to help No 2 with some of his CS homework (I think) and he said profs told them they were supposed to do the work themselves. So he didn't ask for help.
she says she is rule follower when it suits her purposes. she certainly doesnt listen to me. parents are somewhat optional too!
I do remember her being very bright and very head strong. So I could see her following only when it suits her purposes.
Cheers for being capable of helping kids with their homework. Unless it's just reading flashcards, my kids know to ask their mother.
Artemis II
Hadn’t seen a good launch is so long!
You can watch the mission live. Right now they’re going 3,936 mph, so you can see the miles from earth and distance to the moon number change by more than a mile per second.
I used to always watch the SpaceX launches becuase I thought it was amazing they could get the rockets to land back on earth.
Crime
DUN. DUN.
I just saw a Law and Order short
_ and Punishment
this one on a very long list of books that i want to read. i read The Bros Karamazov in my younger days. it still has a lasting impression.
The whole reason I became fluent in Russian is to read Fyodor Dostoevsky as it was intended.
(OK, none of that is true. But my daughters both take Russian, so they have a secret language my wife and I can't understand.)
i actually have a very good lifelong friend where we mutually agree that the initial basis for friendship was knowing that the other person read and liked Dostoevsky.
I feel like this is the kind of thing that would be part of the backstory of the guy in the Dos Equis commercials.
i am mildly interesting. not THAT interesting
Not too late to catch up!
Учись усердно и учись быстро!
I've had my car side mirrors stolen TWICE in the past year, while parked on the street in SF. After the first time, I moved it off a busy street.
I don't hear about this happening much, yet there are products to help prevent it:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=car+side+mirror+anti+theft+guard&adgrpid=1342506079910715&hvadid=83906902986257&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=87416&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-83907663875522%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=19166_13612286&mcid=99819bbd3ea737cb8dbcc25cf01c2c57&msclkid=4b2010c94f7d1dbfc632790684902f12&tag=mh0b-20&ref=pd_sl_1750e9z2kh_e
How does this protect the mirror? Are they taking just the glass or the whole assembly? I Would think this wouldn't prevent the whole assembly from being taken.
They only take the mirror glass assembly. Apparently on many cars (Honda is most popular) you can just pop the mirror off with a screwdriver, and clip a couple wires.
Modern mirrors can have electronic darkening, heating, and blind spot warning, so all those things make them Expen$ive.
Oh that makes sense. Guess that's the benefit of having older cars.