The Odyssey of Homer, translated by Lattimore. (Inspired to read it for the upcoming movie; had tried about 3-4 years ago and making much better progress this time, and even enjoying it!) Reading next to crashing waves of the ocean adds a cool sensa-round experience to Odysseus’s adventures!

Love this movie!! And for those in San Francisco Bay Area, it’s actually playing in a real theater June 17-21! stanfordtheatre.org

View from the Asilomar Coast Trail near Monterey CA, last Friday. Also lucky enough to see an otter playing in the surf!

Great news!! Highly recommend Maria Ressa’s book: “How to Stand up to a Dictator”. She reads the audio version, too. Key advice: Hold the line! Do not obey in advance.

Bay Area Protest Tour for #NoKings : Saratoga CA! (not to be confused with its namesake in NY). And it was Saratoga’s first local protest too!

Came here for this. Definitely read more for the vibe than fact

One was a salesman of smoking pipes. I still have some of his samples! My favorite has simple horizontal bands in front but from side becomes silhouette of Abraham Lincoln! During depression he lost his job but pretended to go to work for months before he could bring himself to tell my grandmother 😢

❄️ Survived Sierra Snowmageddon! ❄️ No internet for most of time which forced unplugging. Also read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (original 1818 version)—it seemed fitting with the Artic setting! (Sure, no trees in Artic, but still!)

I’m grateful for this book which introduced me to their legacy, and hopefully it will continue to do so for others during this shameful period of censoring history by National Park Service

Bay Area Protest Tour continues: Santa Clara!!

Screenshot from video since no thumbnail available. (They are so cute!)

Heard great things about The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown. (Full disclosure: I was on crew team at university so may be a little biased!)

Also the Maus tales by Art Spiegelman, about the Holocaust

How about graphically-illustrated history? Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, about growing up in Iran during the revolution. Excellent!

Why I ❤️ Pope Leo, Reason #3: Leo’s “on a mission from God,” (quote from the film The Blues Brothers) www.thetimes.com/world/europe...

Post-protest sunset walk along cliffs near Half Moon Bay CA 🙂

Mountain View CA shows up yet again!! 🪧🐸📣 #NoKings

I heard you! Did not feel in South Bay BTW

Forgetting sign left me hands-free to lend energy 👋 💪 to signs of family friends and former neighbors who came despite mobility issues and ~15 miles distance 🪧

And went back to see Emma, based on Jane Austen but with a few modern twists including breaking the fourth wall—charming and funny! Extra fun: besides being in a redwood glen—they did a book swap! But since the last weekend, no swapping necessary—just take a book! Picked up the Canterbury Tales ❤️📚

Final bow at Richard III with a production that flipped Shakespeare’s traditional all-male cast

Mountain View, California showing up for 17x17K rally on Labor Day along El Camino Real! Forgot my sign but at least had my new tote from #ResistanceSummerSchool #WeMove2025

Had a bit of summer night magic with SV Shakespeare. Words by a deceitful king eerily relatable, hundreds of years later: “… alas, I rather hate myself For hateful deeds committed by myself! …. I shall despair. There is no creature loves me; And if I die no soul will pity me” (Richard III)

So, now it’s turn it off?!? 🧐 But before it was turn it on? 🤷‍♀️ California has one of the most complex water systems in the world. 🤓 It’s actually quite a marvel! 💦 🌾

Recently stumbled across an intriguing exhibit—“Untold Histories / Hidden Truths” by Mildred Howard—at Fort Point National Historic Site in San Francisco: three larger-than-life, red-draped statues of historical slaver owners which were toppled in Golden Gate Park after the murder of George Floyd:

So what’s the good news out of DC? That violent crimes are at a 30-year low! (Data from Metropolitan Police as published in NYTimes; gift article: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/u...)

It was their 30th anniversary! (Been going since about 20th). And since “Pacific Islands” it’s more than Hawaii. Low-key, local, and love it! www.pica-org.org

Recharged to face the week thanks to spam musubi, cream-topped shave ice, and aloha spirit at the Bay Area Aloha Festival by the Pacific Islanders Cultural Association. (As close as one can get to the islands from the mainland, literally and figuratively!)

The cafe at the De Young Museum in San Francisco had desserts inspired by the current exhibit of paintings by Wayne Thiebaud. Life is often art! www.famsf.org/exhibitions/...