Well first of all, I am back from China. I got back six days ago–last Friday, but between getting caught up and getting over jet lag and watching two weeks worth of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, I’ve been a little delayed in getting a blog post up and out. But now is probably the best time, so here goes.
Continue reading »

Tags: beer, Beijing, Boys State, California, China, concert, earthquake, Great Wall, illness, itinerary, mock, Sichuan Province, state government, tour, trip

It’s April, and for California public schools, that means STAR Testing time. This thing called “Standardized Testing And Reporting” means nothing more than two weeks of craziness as different grades are given tests in different subjects requiring a bunch of confusing schedule changes even though there’s still six weeks of classes left in the year. Crazy? You bet. Welcome to California.

Tomorrow (4/8) will be the California Language Arts Standards Test, which mostly boils down to reading stuff and answering questions about it, and then correcting badly written “student drafts.” Wednesday (4/9) will be the California Mathematics Standards Test, which is a bunch of math problems written by people who obviously AREN’T mathematicians or people having ANYTHING to do with math because of the idiotic way that at least 10-25% of their questions are written. (As someone who excels in math, when I say that the questions are worded stupidly, I know what I’m talking about.) Thursday will be the California Social Studies Standards Test (aka U.S. History), which probably is the most topical of all the tests on the plate. And then, finally, next Tuesday (4/16) will be the final STAR test: the California Science Standards Test, which is again mostly a drill & grill of science subjects. Woop dee do. And then, I get a super-late start on Wednesday (4/17) because that’s a Sophomores-only test.

The crazy thing about these tests is twofold. First of all, they really don’t say much about me, but about my school. As in, if there aren’t enough kids proficient in these tests (or even if not enough kids are there for these tests), the school gets burned on this magic number called the API. But worse, by the year 2014, if 100% of all students in the school aren’t proficient, then the school gets marked for Program Improvement (PI), a very scary thing which eventually spells doom for the future of public schools. And can you realistically expect that 100% of all students will be proficient? No. Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to the #1 flaw of No Child Left Behind.

The second problem is that as an assessment of my personal academic performance, these tests STINK! Math is my best subject, I got a 710 on the Math section of the SAT, and yet on the STAR tests, Math has been my lowest score for the past four years. Why? I can tell you why–all those math questions are worded so darned strangely that a good portion of them are near impossible to figure out what they’re trying to get across! I swear, there is something VERY WRONG with those tests.

Luckily, next Tuesday, I will be able to celebrate. As an eleventh grader. this is the LAST YEAR I HAVE TO TAKE THE STAR TESTS!!! After taking these tests yearly for the last ten years, I will be done with these wastes of partially-recycled paper forever! And yes, I am excited about that, and not just so that I’ll be able to get even with those rub-their-nose-in-your-face seniors who get to sleep in for five days while the rest of us are stuck with the tests.

So, here we go with a few strange days at school…

Tags: California, education, rant, schedules, School, standards, STAR, tests

You don’t see me bragging very often about being a United States citizen, mostly because I’m not a big fan of many of the things that the United States is doing these days. But, man, I can’t stop bragging about being a Californian, because California is flat out awesome. (Yes, there are a number of things that California has problems with, but we’re much more awesome than the feds at this time.)

One of the ways that California has been awesome is that in California, it is illegal for merchants to set expiration dates on gift certificates/gift cards, or to charge fees on them. Now, granted, some merchants have found loopholes to get around that limitation slightly, but they still mean that when you give someone a gift card, it’s much more difficult for that merchant to count it as extra money for their pockets.

Well, for whatever unusual reason, I was watching our local news on TV tonight (something that I almost never do), and they had a special report on a new law that went to effect in California on January 1, 2008 dealing with the issue of low-balance gift cards.

Have you ever had a case where you didn’t fully utilize a gift card, and didn’t feel the urge to keep spending with it because of how little was left? Consumer Reports recently found that merchants last year made $8 billion from unused gift card value. Well, the new law states that any gift certificate/gift card with a cash value of less than $10 can be redeemed for cash equivalent to its cash value, and that merchants are required to give you cash back if you ask for it. Again, this is only a California law, but this is absolutely sweet.

However, there isn’t a lot of teeth on this law, and most merchants won’t offer it to you. The news station apparently went under cover to try to get cash back at a number of stores, and a number of these stores refused to give cash back. So if you’re a Californian, you have a right to get your cash back, but you should probably be sure to inform them that it is California state law. My news station made a special gift card with the law on it that you can keep with you.

What if that still doesn’t convince them? Well, I did some Google searching for some answers. Apparently, the recommendation is to try to call or e-mail the merchant’s corporate offices to inform them of the law and what happened. But, if that still doesn’t work, you can apparently contact the state Attorney General at the following address:

Attorney General’s Office
California Department of Justice
Attn: Public Inquiry Unit
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550

Or you can call (916) 322-3360, or the toll-free number (in California): (800) 952-5225.

Know your rights, and take advantage of them, so that you don’t let merchants take advantage of you! (And yes, be glad that you’re a Californian and have this right!)

Tags: Attorney General, California, cash back, gift cards, gift certificates, law, merchants, rights, stores

A big high-five to my home state of California. The announcement came today that the state is suing the Environmental Protection Agency, because the EPA is refusing to give California a waiver on federal emissions standards. California wants to make these environmental standards stricter in our state, and the federal government is refusing to allow them to do so.

This should be particularly important, given the recent significant oil spill which happened in the San Francisco Bay a month or two ago. I would say without a doubt that the majority of us Californians want stricter environmental standards.

Isn’t this ironic? Most waivers are usually applied for by folks who want to make the standards looser. Here, California wants to make them stricter, and are being denied permission. So, hats off to California for suing over this ridiculous denial, and the best of luck.

I never thought I’d say this, but way to go Arnie.

Tags: Bay Area, California, environment, EPA, lawsuit, oil, spill, standards