Jia Lin’s Weblog

Why California has the biggest deficit of all?

In Los Angeles, I do not get as many parking tickets as I used to have in Pittsburgh, but certainly I have to spend much more time here to appeal (for poor people, time is less precious than money). In Pittsburgh, you go to the assigned court any weekday night and the judge made the decision (sometimesplus a joke) in less than 45 seconds (o yes, I counted, I had been there more than five times), then you pay or not pay, everything is settled. The fine is more than 3 times higher in LA, and the whole procedure felt like a felony trial rather than just a parking citation. First scene is the same overwhelming: �what?.. A ticket? ..$50?!.. What?! The sign was saying parking is permitted in Sunday� wait, wait� damn, there is another sign saying permit needed. Damn, it�s confusing..three cars in a row got the tickets. Zeze, Ok, let�s get it waived, we’ve got good reasons.�

Wait, it is not easy to get it waived, even you have good reasons. First, you have to plea in writing for an administrative review and send it in together with your �evidence�. Well, you have learnt to bring digital camera around and shoot everything for future dispute, so the picture with two confusing signs along the street should be enough, you assumed. Two weeks later, you received a letter telling you that �a field investigation of the location� finds that �the ticket citation is properly posted� (What?! Do you really look at the photo evidence?!). Sure you are entitled to bring your dispute to the court, but not before you pay the fine first, which is said to be refunded if the judge later decides to waive it. Again, you have to request in writing for a hearing, and then you will be informed by mail of your appointment. Hearing ain�t the last stop, you would not hear the judge�s decision at court in the first place, instead the decision will be mailed to you later. (What?! Aren�t all judges verdict at court?)

It doesn�t need high IQ to infer that the city makes it hard for parking violators to have money back, but how much more personals and how much more work have to be involved in this big �money-making industry�? Compared to Pittsburgh where only police officer, judge and cashier handle parking citation, Los Angeles traffic court needs much more cumbersome organization: staff to deal with three or four turns of correspondence if a driver determined to have money back- open and seal mails, file and print out mails; judge�s secretaries to acknowledge judges� decision by mail; cashiers to process payments and later refund the money�Are all these really necessary? It boiled down to the fact that is taxpayer�s money feeding bureaucracies and running in this bureaucratic procedure. While governors (now and then) have been busy on cutting budget on medical care and public education, why not consider cut off this big fat bureaucracy?

Me, Starbucks and Blah blah…

Starbucks seems a place that I could not run away and eventually, I don�t know where else to write and read. While I was in Buffalo, there was a Starbucks in the same building as Bin�s office. I loved to study at Bin�s office, bright, spacial, and has a big window with pleasant view. Plus I could talk when I like. However, Bin often threw me out since I was a too annoying distraction to his research. So I end up downstairs to Starbucks. I did my school work there more than at any other place of campus. I had a fixed table by a big window, outside of which is a maple tree, whose size is just enough to make you feel you are hiding behind but see clearly everything outside without trying. By fixed seat, I mean if it is taken, I would strategically sat as near as possible and move my stuff over at moment the taker stood up and ready to leave. It is a popular seat anyway. From the second year I was at school, I could connect to Internet from that Starbucks,which is about 50 feet from Student Union which was equipped with wireless point of access. I swear there�s nothing felt more like Bohemian intellectual of 21st century, than sitting and writing my blog, by the window in snowy day, with the window frame and tree all decorated with falling white. Not only romantic, practical needs could be met too. If I need to pee or go out for fresh air, I would email Bin and he would come down in 2 minutes to watch my notebook.

Then I moved to Los Angeles. In Westwood, Starbucks could be seen every two or three blocks, so as Coffee bean & Tea leaf. Most of Starbucks in this are tiny, with very few or no tables at all, which is more for chatting instead of sitting down doing work. But lucky me, the one two blocks away from my home has four small round table and two square desks. My strategic seat changes to the one at the very end of the hall which leads to narrow passage to restroom, since Bin could not come to watch my notebook anymore. But the seat is still by the window for sure. Here, I see more diversified people come and go, more diversified dogs than ever, more women in casual but expensive active wears and sneakers, more men with babies on stroller or toddlers by side. Well, you start to understand why Jane Jacobs had to sit in coffee shops in Greenwich Village to see and talk to people and were able to write her widely-cited book.

Bin could not understand how could I study somewhere with music, sound of blending and evaporating, people coming and going. I guess I�m a little weird. What I need is a kind of concentration under a non-involving chaos. Being in a crowd but with no obligation to socialize put me in a most comfortable environment. I could not concentrate in an absolute quietness and isolation. No, I could not even concentrate in a relative quietness like in library or home alone. I would start day dreaming, sometime in sleep sometime with eyes open. So I need something other than studying materials to keep me focused. It sounds so contradict; I guessed I�m so used to do multiple things together and my mind can�t help wandering away when it supposed to stayed focus only on one thing. Actually, I never do one thing at one time. My college roommate wrote to me a while a ago saying when she read something about Clinton�s ability of dealing mutli-tasks at the same time, she thought of me instantly. The old me, who prepared for exam at bed while listening to music and chatting with her. I took it as compliment, but I am afraid I really have no ability to stay focused in all my life. If I stay home alone, I could go to reorganize the room or apply for another credit card. I have to run away to avoid wasting time on some nonsense at home. But music in the air (not through earphone) is a necessity for reading and writing. So I end up addicted to Starbucks.

Did I forget to mention the drinks in Starbucks? That seems to be what makes it what it is. I learn all those strange word about coffee from Starbucks. I never tasted any desert as good as caramel source on top of whipped cream until I tried caramel frappuccino at Starbucks. And I never found better caramel anywhere else. But a grande cup of caramel frappuccino everyday is certainly much beyond my spending capacity. Half-coffee-half-decaf and Zen hot tea are the most frequent alternatives for their affordability. But surely from time to time, I reward myself or force bin to reward me a nice treat. Somehow caramel frappuccino became an incentive for a hardworking day.

Thanks to our horrendous relocating expense, my Chase Muster card reward me $100 of gift cards, which I could choose from some big-name merchants. Without too much deliberation, I pick $50 for Gap and $50 for Starbucks, both are my survival package. I felt guilty every time I heard about the protesting against exploitation and greed of big corporate like GAP. But, thinking about Gap save my time on looking for comfortable fashion and Starbucks makes my study a fun thing to do, I could not complain too much. I do love gap and Starbucks, Please don�t stone me.

Lost in paradise

If LA is a paradise, it is first a paradise for movie. And of course it is paradise for shopping. Before I move over and settled down, I thought I would be in haven because I happend to be big junkie of these two things. Within five miles radius of our home, there are more than 20 cinemas, 5 big shopping malls and numerous fasion stores. But surprisingly, I did not watch any movie or go for mall shopping for once since I moved here. oh, no, I did one mall shopping, not in Los Angeles, but in Scottsdale where Bin participated a conference, and the fashion mall is next to the hotel.

Since last time I was in cinema for Pirates of Carribean, which was almost six months ago, I’ve survived my curiosity on big hit like “Kill Bill”, “Once upon a time in Mexico”, “Matrix III”, “Gothyca” or “Last samuri” and numerous small independent movies like “Mystic river”, “Lost in translation” or “American splender”, which are abundently available around my area. I think maybe just because LA has to much more other fun than just sitting in cinema or strolling in all similar shopping malls. And of course, the expense is beyond my expectation.

I haven’t mentioned several theaters in Westwood are the frequent sites for big movie premiere. Last Sunday, when we passed Broxton ave. we found the street was blocked and there are red carpet and stuff in the middle. And we were told Nicole Kidman was inside the “Landmark Regent” for the premire of “Cold Mountain”. We did not wait till see her coming out and signing autograph, but I guess I will go to see this movie. I love Minghella’s “English Patient” and I think he will be good in “Cold Mountain” too since he is a master in dealing with war and love. I will not be able to neither miss “return of king” and “girl with a pearl earing”. I might also go to watch “lost in translation”,”mystic river” and “21 grams” since they sound really different from those big hit.