Comments by Darin Boville
January 13, 2007
To all Coastsiders and visitors: It looks like it will be clear tonight (Saturday)--I'm planning on viewing the comet again in the paved parking lot above Montara State Beach (across from 3rd street). If anyone hasn't seen the comet yet feel free to stop by--I'll have various scopes and binoculars to share--but feel free to bring your own binoculars, if you have them. Come see the comet! (Weather permitting...) Viewing should start right around 5:15 and will be over by 5:45. Dress warm! Hope to see…
January 13, 2007
If you missed it, keep trying. Start right around 5:15--I was out tonight at Moss Beach and the people I was with were able to spot it without my help with the naked eye--we also had binoculars, cameras, a spotting scope, and a telescope! The view in the telescope was wonderful. Keep in mind that my directions are only approximate and that the comet will "set" very quickly. The best thing is to use are binoculars and scan a broad area to the right and below Venus. You'll see it, weather permitting.…
January 06, 2007
Of course it made a sound, says God...
--Darin
December 29, 2006
I've been using Callvantage (just like Vonage) for well over a year now. Very happy except when Comcast is down. An extra benefit is for people like me with many out of town relatives you can share the benefits with them: for $5 I have a local number (local to our out of town relatives) that they can call toll free to reach us--no long distance charges for us or them. Saves hundreds a month, counting all sides. As for high-def programming, I don't really care. I've also had a large-screen TV for…
December 05, 2006
I support family farming on the coast. Which reminds me of something a friend said to me yesterday. If I understand it correctly, preventing the Wavecrest owners from building on their property then that may constitute a "taking." That's one point of view, at least. But now assuming the owners are sincere about making this a for-profit farm (rather than just a dodge on the way to building a big development) haven't the owners sort of shot themselves in the foot? If this is viable farmland could we…
December 01, 2006
Hi Mary, Your description of farming here on the coast sounds just like farming elsewhere in the country, such as in Ohio where I grew up, or in Maryland where I lived just prior to moving to California. It can be tough to be a small farmer. It can also be tough to be a major San Mateo County land investment firm, such as Concar Enterprises, the more aggressive of the trio of owners of the Wavecrest properties (the other two are institutional owners). Doing a quick Google search shows the Larry and…
November 30, 2006
There are real questions here, but not about the identity of an anonymous source (an age-old and accepted journalistic practice) nor about those seeking the identity (they are, quite transparently, trying to change the topic and shoot the messenger at the same time). The real question here is in what way does the disking and seeding of the land at Wavecrest represent a legitimate use of the land versus an attempt to circumvent the law? As we all recall, many of the questions from the Coastal Commission…
November 02, 2006
>or even Darin Boville’s crude parable a few days ago in Town Hall, where he execrably portrays his political opponents as taking out their male members and urinating on a political discussion. Incredibly, Darin’s diatribe is delivered as a blinkered lament at the loss of public decorum!
October 27, 2006
Brian, I am fascinated by this most recent post of yours for many of the same reasons that I am fascinated by your other posts. Your posts seem to have a penchant for crude rhetorical devices (e.g. making accusatory statements and then hiding behind the sham claim "Just a question") overlaying a background of paranoia (e.g. suggesting that lack of support for a thing is evidence for that support). They make my head spin! I would suggest that they might be made more compelling by the inclusion of…
October 21, 2006
Hey, very cool. I live very near where this party/concert took place--that's my fence you see in the upper left of the image! I remember it well--the band sounded great. I thought that they had hired some high-priced professional band for the party (and maybe they are--I usually only hear them practicing, muffled and distorted by the closed garage door). Whatever happened to the idea of a block party to celebrate the Slde's opening? Or the idea of holding fireworks? Sigh. At least I got to hear the…
October 18, 2006
Leonard's nor kidding about the SAMCAR request to allow 28' houses on the Burnham Strip. The fun thing about video is you can see for yourself--look at the second of the public comment videos, just after the forty minute mark: SAMCAR is talking about 28' tall houses of not more than 6200 sq. feet of living space.
Can you imagine?
I was embarrassed for them.
--Darin
October 07, 2006
Mike, While I understand your impulse to be more inclusive it still remains true that Ocean Colony is the only neighborhood on the Coastside that I have never been to--I'm prevented from going there by a high metal fence, a large metal gate, and a guard, all provided for by my neighbors in Ocean Colony. This in a region with a crime rate approaching zero. I know long-time residents who leave their cars and houses unlocked, day and night. I've never lived in such a low-crime area. So you can appreciate…
October 05, 2006
Last I checked Ocean Colony was a gated community with a guard booth.
Do any of the artworks feature the gate or the high fence?
--Darin
October 04, 2006
Hi Terry, I'm not sure if I'm one of your canaries that you write so much about. I certainly carry a camera (both video and still) but I'm certainly not anonymous. I don't buy your view that activist citizens here on the coast represent some sort of oppressive "big brother." What we really have here is beautiful coastal area where the land values have skyrocketed--lots of money to be made by building houses. It is, deep down, raw capitalism, not some sort of Soviet Socialism. As for being neighborly...you…
September 25, 2006
Hi Terry, Speaking of GIS, I actually put together an idea along those lines about year ago, but it is dormant for lack of funding. The basic idea was to photograph all the empty lots, substandard lots, etc--all those places that are topics of conversation here--and put the photographs and some basic info on the properties into an online database. The motivation was the simple need to make some of these arguements less abstract--I thought it would be good to see a given parcel and know a little about…
September 04, 2006
Hi Leonard, Before you embark on you floppy conversion project have a look at your Quicktime controls at the bottom of the video. Is there a downward-pointing triangle on the right? There is a "Save As..." command there--it might be available only on the "Pro" version of Quicktime--a mere $29. There are probably freeware solutions available. Of course, keep in mind that these videos are copyrighted (note: this is different from the rest of Coastsider which is protected under a Creative Commons License--see…
September 04, 2006
John and Leonard, Thanks for the interesting discussion of Flash and other video formats. As you know, there is quite a bit of debate on the question of the proper video format for web display. There are, as you suggest, a large number of factors to consider, from quality, size, download speed issues, to the need to install additional software, to long-term viewability. It's a complicated question with no clear answer. But it seems that both of you are able to view the videos--if so then my goal…
June 08, 2006
Hi Linda, Thanks for the comment on my video. For the record, I did, in fact, visit roadside businesses in Montara and Moss Beach (I'm a resident of Montara and see every day the light traffic on Highway 1). For example, I visited both Sweet Pea's and Cafe Lucca in Montara but the employees at each were unwilling to go on-camera. Coastside Market, the first interview on the video, is located in Moss Beach. Other businesses represented in the video, such as Ebb Tide Cafe and the HMB Board Shop, I…
April 20, 2006
Is it possible that temporary busing be implemented through the rest of the year (and maybe the beginning of the next school year) based upon the availability of funds made available via the various declarations of emergency (especially if Bush signs the federal proposal)? If people get used to having busing and decide that they like it might it not strengthen the case to raise taxes to make busing permanent once state (and federal?) funds go away? In any event there would be traffic relief during…
March 23, 2006
Here's an interesting article: Would you define these students, who have so far failed to pass the graduation test, as drop-outs? I don't think that I what I had in mind but I believe they would show up in the above numbers as drop-outs. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/14134500.htm I'm not sure what else these is to say--few facts have been presented to support the case of an alarmingly high drop-out rate--I think the burden is on those making such claims to define their terms and…
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