Lee.org

I’ve been switching plans trying to find the best at Madera Elementary School. Cricket (AT&T MNVO), Mint (T-Mobile MVNO), and Redpocket (using their AT&T MVNO) all offered terrible service in the past year, which is to say that phone calls and texts rarely connect. Right now I have Visible (Verizon MVNO) and service is “less terrible”, which is to say phone calls and texts connect about 1/2 the time. But I’m frustrated with Visible at my home on Potrero, SMS sometimes take 30 minutes to arrive and 1/2 my incoming calls go straight to voicemail instead of ringing. Argh!!

The Madera “BYOD” wifi apparently blocks all messaging services like Signal and Whatsapp and wifi calling. It’s actually worse to turn my wifi on because then my phone thinks “ah, the wifi must be better than the cell service” but it is not! Hey, if anyone has found a messaging app that works on the Madera wifi, please tell us!

I’m thinking of switching to Redpocket and using their Verizon MVNO (Redpocket offers both AT&T and Verizon MVNO service), or switching to Verizon, but paying $70/month instead of $25/month is a bother for only getting “less terrible” service!

The geography, flora, and fauna of El Cerrito and the East Bay is fascinating and here’s a big glimpse into it! Read (or maybe browse!) this 264 page, encompassing report:

Hillside Natural Fire Resilience and Forest Conservation Management Plan- El Cerrito, December 2024 Draft

Backstory: the city of El Cerrito commissioned a report on maintaining and cleaning up the Hillside Natural Area (HNA) as part of the Hillside Natural Area Plan. In it, they offer all manner of details about the area, what could be cleaned up and how it would be done.

Some parts I found interesting:

• The Quarry Hill eucalyptus grove was planted around 1910 by the quarry operator to minimize slippage of quarry overburden. The report mentions that removing those giant, highly flammable, invasive trees will be hugely expensive ($100k at least)

• 

  Arlington Park / Hayward fault

• The Hayward fault runs some 1,000 feet east of HNA. That puts it 500 east of my daughter’s elementary school! Apparently it runs right through one of our local parks, I’ll have to check that out!
• Geologist nerds will know what this means, I hope! “The HNA’s geology is a complex assemblage of metamorphic rock (blueschist, Tiburon melange, Angel Island nappe, and Alcatraz nappe), overlaid in areas by the Northbrae rhyolite, a lava layer.”

I often think about how native and non-native species of plants in the area and whether I could help make a native area thrive. Well, according to the report, the hillside is a crazy mix of native and non-native:

“Ruderal/Non-Native Grassland (33.47 acres, 31.2 percent of the HNA) consists primarily of nonnative annual grassland species, with patches of perennial grassland and ruderal plant species. Grassland vegetation consists primarily of introduced annuals such as wild oats (Avena spp.), soft chess (Bromus mollis), ripgut brome, (Bromus diandrus), Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum), and foxtail barley (Hordeum leporinum)…”

Though the natives have a time of it, all is not lost. The native plants have found their niches.

“Native Grasslands consist of small, dispersed patches of native graminoids, including perennial bunchgrasses. These are generally rare but fairly common in certain areas, such as El Cerrito Memorial Grove and the Julian Fuel Break, which supports a healthy stand of purple needlegrass. Needlegrass grassland within the HNA is dominated by native perennial bunchgrasses such as purple needlegrass, foothill needlegrass (Stipa lepida)…”

The report covers a lot more!

Sometimes I think about how lucky I am.

In 2007, I was there at Burning Man as The Man was burned early by a prankster, Paul Addis.

In 2010, I got to meet the man who did it. You may be able to tell in those photos that I appreciated this particular man’s free spirit, showing up to an event, years later, wearing face paint idolizing him!

In 2012, he jumped in front of a subway train. Not so merry, after-all.

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote about Paul Addis after his passing:

Addis served nearly two years in prison in Nevada after the August 2007 stunt in Black Rock Desert in which he set the 40-foot-tall man-statue ablaze ahead of schedule. He told The Chronicle after his arrest on arson and other charges that Burning Man had become too suburban and needed spontaneity.

“This was not an act of vengeance, it was one of love,” Addis said. “A love of the ethos that is fading at Burning Man. There’s no sense of spontaneity. No sense of ‘F- it. Let’s burn this down.’ “

Tonight at Juku’s monthly gaming night, I played The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine, a rather fun trick-taking game!

Moreso, Abigail came and really enjoyed playing with the other kids there!

It was a win of a night!

I sent this letter to Unilever today on their website.

I hear that Unilever recently fired the CEO of Ben and Jerry’s due to social mission disagreements and has blocked many of the social mission outreaches that the Ben and Jerry’s Independent Board has approved of.

When you bought Ben and Jerry’s in 2000, you bought their social mission too. It is in the contract.

If you abandon Ben and Jerry’s social mission, I will stop purchasing your product and strongly suggest to my friends the same. Please uphold your end the agreement.

A response would be appreciated. Thank you,
Lee Sonko

Reference: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/03/19/ben-jerrys-ceo-unilever/

Yesterday I was out with the family at a restaurant and when it came time to pay, the server asked if I wanted to pay “with Apple Pay”. I was just a tiny bit bothered since I use Google Wallet. I asked “why didn’t you call it “Tap to Pay” or something?” What he said surprised me!

“In a day, I might have 50 people tap and 49 of them will use an iPhone!”

Wow, I had no idea! I thought the split was in the realm of 50-50 iPhone vs Android users!

I did some googling and browsing Reddit threads and there’s no consistency to who uses what, so I’ll assume that it really is a fairly even split but there are geographic and social pockets of each system. Weird!

I invited 12 friends to that Tiger Trials thing, after stressing and failing to invite 2 families (which is how many spaces there are), and then failing to get any takers at all after posting on Facebook, a local Facebook school group, Mastadon, and my blog. I included this important message in my invite:

I’m tired of social media not helping to create community, but instead creating a feeling of isolation. So I’m going to try emailing more often. I hope it’s a welcome shift. Telephone and texting are still welcome, but email seems like the right middle-ground to invite a group of friends to an event where there is less of an expectation to attend. That said, feel free to not respond to this email! I might check in with you if it seems you didn’t get my message, they sometimes fall into spam holes!

At Monday gaming I played Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game for the first time. It felt like I was almost entirely playing my own game of building and only occasionally interacting with the other players. The cards and dice and such are fun, with nice quality images and such. It felt like there was a bit of slightly clunky artifice built into the game, scoring points for various things, but still it was fun learning the game. And it was certainly fun playing with friends.

I heard about Tiger Trials on Berkeley Family Friends Facebook Group. It’s an Amazing Race-like challenge happening near the Berkeley Marina on March 23rd 9am-1pm. It’s a fundraiser for Longfellow Middle School, but more importantly, it’s being written by a writer for the TV show Survivor, and sounds like a blast. Would you like to form a team with my family?  https://runsignup.com/Race/CA/Berkeley/TigerTrials

I just yesterday went to my local (El Cerrito) Honda dealer for 4 tires (they were worn, at 2/32″, and one had a slow leak), alignment, and oil change. $1325. I’m very happy with the service and price. I’ll return. I’m happily surprised that “the dealer” had a competitive price, and still offered “dealer” service! I had multiple “Ok, I guess.” experiences at Adams Autoworx in El Cerrito.

An important part of the experience is feeling like the service manager is “on your side”. I didn’t feel like Ronnie at Adams was my ally, but Guillermo at the dealership has got my back!