the new science and math

more and more i'm beginning to think that being a nerd in high school is not enough. being good at science and math is no longer the ticket into a good college and future. parents, sending your kid to science summer camp? making them do research projects? making them practice math competitions? not enough. the new math and science whiz is entrepreneurship.

NFTE launch teaches kids to bring products to market in 4 days

Used to be we'd look up to the kids with high SAT scores. (In my geeky world, that is.) and those who were good at "extracurriculars" would get into the ivys. But that might not even matter anymore if your kid really knows how to think, and make their ideas real. instead of just memorizing the right answers, they create the right answers out of nothing.

and that's why my poor children are going to have to bear piano lessons, tennis lessons, math and science competitions, as well as learn business savvy.

San Francisco

Flew in on JetBlue on Friday, and Christine and I spent the night at Conor's house, which has an awesome floor to ceiling bay window view from the 27th floor. His pull out couch/bed was surprisingly comfortable, and might even convince me to actually buy a pull out sofa for my basement instead of using a futon.

We went to Off the Grid for dessert after some sushi in the city. I have a ton of pictures but they are all on my iPhone app which saves photos but doesn't make them available to your normal phone, so i'll just have to describe them: creme brulees, banana fritters, spicy mini tacos, a local IPA. And apparently this happens EVERY WEEK.

We had breakfast at Tartine, which was crowded as usual, but Conor took us to a nice picnic spot on the Missions commons somewhere, and we sat on his very useful waterproof picnic blanket. He has a knack for picking out places with views and nice grassy areas. The night before, we drove straight to the Twin Peaks where there was an amazing panoramic view of the city, from the waterfront to the mountains. It was dark though so I didn't get any pictures. And it was a warm SF night, so we only left shivering a little bit when the fog rolled in.

On Sunday, Christine and I went spontaneous house hunting when we saw a sign for some availability near the pier. We looked at two units, each priced about $650k which was surprisingly cheap for an area like that. The first one was amazing and had a private roofdeck, and basically screamed bachelor pad and private entertainment. We were able to take some photos from the second one because the realtor, understanding that we weren't really able to buy his houses, was happy to let us just wander and look at the unit ourselves.




Later, we went to the area around Fisherman's Wharf, and then to Ghiradelli Square, because I was insistent on revisiting my favorite spots from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. We had bread bowl soup at Boudin, then delicious mocha from Ghiradelli. The best thing of all was finding parking right at the entrance of the square at the base of the hill, with 1 hour still left on it. That's usually what makes my day at any given touristy spot, in addition to the rest of the attractions.