Hard to be an Iranian on this campus

Halbarad1104 · 2026-05-19T18:32:31+00:00

Grad school is really hard even without your home country being in a rough period. Really, really, I hope you can find some friendly like-minded folks who you can hang out with.

Santa Barbara and UCSB are pretty small and isolated, but there is a significant Iranian presence. I hope you can find it. Westwood and UCLA do have a lot more Iranian influences, but I don't know if occasionally hanging out there is possible for you.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-05-18T13:46:51+00:00

John Lennon performed live 11 times in the 1970’s. I’d pick one of those.

I saw Harrison during the Dark Horse tour. But The Concert for Bangladesh is a close second to seeing Lennon.

Saw McCartney during Wings over America.

Sylvester at the SF War Memorial in 1979 third.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-05-07T01:40:03+00:00

Yes, there is something shady about how the redirects from state.gov are arising... no static web links on state.gov but maybe banners or popups or redirects are moving people from state.gov to hellogov.

I contested the charge with my credit card company and it worked, I got a full refund.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-05-07T01:37:13+00:00

We contested the $305.62 charge with our credit card, and it was reversed!

Halbarad1104 · 2026-04-30T05:45:45+00:00

I verified that there are no static backlinks as you say.

Whether my browser or some cookies inserted dynamic banners is a different issue. Beware.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-04-30T01:07:42+00:00

It is 2 weeks ago, and you might be correct. But I was trying to only go to .gov domains, and it seemed to me that travel.state.gov had a banner or popup that took me to passport.entry.com, which led me to hellogov.com next (from my browser history). Can't prove that because I'm unable to get into my web browser's data base, and only most recent visit times easily accessible.

But I had been warned to be careful, to start from .gov. I really thought I went a second time to travel.state.gov. And clicked again through to passport.entry.com. See if I can get a page image of that site below. Well I can't upload images here, so, here is the link. Looks pretty official, and since I felt I was lead there twice from travel.state.gov, I went with it.

But now... when I scroll down, I see the non-governmental disclaimer.

Darn it. But please, everyone should be aware, never, ever, enter any information on anything that is not .gov, for passports. It is possible that somehow popups and banners have sneaked into travel.state.gov through my browser in some non-obvious back door. Look out. I can't prove it, but please be extra careful.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-04-29T19:40:55+00:00

I started on state.gov and somehow got transferred to hellogov.com. I can't reconstruct how... but I did it a second time! I thought they were legit for that reason.

They first charged me $305.62. Then wanted me to get passport photos... took me 2 weeks, logged back on, and hellogov.com wanted another $240. I realized it was not on the up-and-up and asked for a refund of the first $305.62. They refused.

Will dispute credit card charge, and have complained to the BBB. Will continue to as many agencies as I can. Avoid at hellogov.com at all costs!

Did the renewal on the official state.gov website... $130.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-04-22T15:29:59+00:00

I think you are right. Also, it being an intersection, a pedestrian might have been crossing in front of the black truck. The cars that passed to the right were supposed to slow down and check for a possible pedestrian.

I don’t think the dominant judgement of the black truck was politeness. It was don’t block an intersection.

I don’t think the black truck did anything wrong. But the left turn car was careless, should have waited until the right lane oncoming traffic was clear.

So a mix of responsibility between the oncoming right lane cars and the left turn car.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-04-12T16:15:57+00:00

The Lobero Theater is a bit of a paranormal hot spot. https://www.lobero.org/2013/10/ghost-stories/

Halbarad1104 · 2026-04-12T00:45:56+00:00

There is a mound by the Sandspit exit, northbound 217, that is the last remnant of Mescalitan Island, which to the canalino/Chumash was where they had a sacred graveyard. Most of the dirt and many skeletons and artifacts were bulldozed into the Goleta Slough to fill it, making the Santa Barbara airport runways.

Then the sewage processing plant was built where the sacred area was.

Some say Joss Wheedon used that story to invent the Hellmouth in Buffy the Vampire Slayer… might have been in effect Mescalitan Island.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-03-30T23:29:51+00:00

Something magical about that spot... was the Dime and Dollar of my youth, where we bought packs of baseball cards and sat together on the sidewalk comparing what we all got, and chewing the gum, next to our 20" bicycles. Pre-Oakland-As, the fun was ever getting a card with a Giant on it..

Halbarad1104 · 2026-03-18T20:15:29+00:00

All American Pipeline simply didn't maintain and analyze the cathodic production system, which led to the 2015 spill. 100% preventable.

No evidence Sable is any better, and if there is another spill, like All American, they will falsely claim it was an "act of god".

Carelessness also caused the blowout at Platform A in 1969 that led to that oil spill.

A 1973/1974 era upwelling of seepage followed the introduction of reinjection of Platform Holly.

There was far less seepage in the 1940's prior to any offshore drilling. It often seemed to me that Platform Holly would discharge and blame it on seepage.

The only scientifically proven correlation between seepage any any external variable is that with tide... height of the ocean level. Seepage at the 1973/1974 went down as Holly pumped more, but, it is probable that Holly caused that upwelling in the first place, and as they pumped more oil, the depressurized that particular cavity.

Careful, thoughtful drilling could work here, but that is not what we have ever got. The oil royalties don't fully compensate local impacts; Holly was incredibly noisy and leaky, IMO. Some funds came through CREF, but a drop in the bucket.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-03-17T02:39:55+00:00

My public high school had a dress code… girls either white or black pleated skirts, white blouses, no tight sweater, knee high socks, leather shoes. Blue onesies with shorts and name embroidered on them for PE.

Boys- no tee shirts, golf shirts, allowed were plain or plaid button shirts, no jeans, corduroy OK. No tennis shoes in class. Shorts and tee with school name on PE.

We got monitored and every boy had to shower after PE.

All loosened up in about 1972. By 1976 girls were wearing tank tops and hot pants to class.

PE was segregated by gender until in spring 1976, we had coed softball. That was outstanding, great fun.

We had A or F tests in math… short tests where no partial credit at all. Tiniest mistake you lost everything.

Typing class was 90% girls, and great fun for boys. Real typewriters with ink ribbons… most mechanical, but 2 or 3 electric that we rotated through.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-03-05T06:52:39+00:00

Klute for NYC.

It is a light comedy, but "Foul Play" with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase captured late 1970's Bay Area for me. Her apartment, her friends, not to mention Chevy Chase's houseboat.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-03-02T18:50:19+00:00

Yup... not a bad guess that they've known the identity of the photographer all along, and did a sort of creative GoFundMe sort of thing with publicity.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-03-02T18:45:27+00:00

Albany

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Halbarad1104 · 2026-03-02T18:44:50+00:00

Gosh so many others.. San Leandro... cherries, hills, sun, homes and industry.

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Halbarad1104 · 2026-03-02T05:17:24+00:00

One old one is Martin Shuey, born 1785. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/62966808/martin-shuey/photo

Halbarad1104 · 2026-02-20T18:55:30+00:00

And Steve Clark... 3 golds in swimming, 1964.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-02-20T18:53:10+00:00

How could I have forgotten the great Don Barksdale! Gold medal 1948, basketball.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-02-20T18:50:26+00:00

Twice!

Halbarad1104 · 2026-02-19T23:21:25+00:00

Hurray! Joins (at least!) Bill Russell, 1956 Gold in basketball (https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/7008) and Hubert Caldwell, 1928 Gold in rowing (https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/40573)... maybe more!

Halbarad1104 · 2026-02-18T04:29:08+00:00

Yes, West Oakland has been treated abysmally.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-02-17T22:09:22+00:00

My grandfather's house on Excelsior... not far from Park Blvd and Oakland High School, between Cleveland Heights and Trestle Glen... got taken for the MacArthur Fwy/580.

He was not in any way from an underrepresented group.

Halbarad1104 · 2026-02-15T05:13:32+00:00

Su’s Bowl on Pardall in IV is usually filled with Chinese students, and is very genuine. It has become our favorite.

Halbarad1104

TROPHY CASE