Graffiti SUXX: Believe it or Not There are People That Think That Graffiti Makes a Neighborhood Look Better! Photographs of the Ghost Train in Eureka!

King Salmon abandoned 

"Shipwreck" Roadside Attraction. 

Near Eureka, CA

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Murphy Ranch near Los Angeles

This one IS BETTER with Graffiti!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy_Ranch

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Photos of the Ghost Train in Eureka. 

The Railroad Tracks were removed but 

the Train Remained to be a Graffiti Magnet. 

                                                                                            

Once I was riding the Bus in San Jose when a Teenage Man decided to Spray Paint his Gang "Tag" on the INSIDE of the Bus... This created a Horrible Paint Smell and Many of Us Got Off the Bus at the Next Stop. Including a Lady with a Baby... 

For Some Unknown Reason, He Felt the Spray Painted Gang "Tag" was More Important than the Health of His Fellow Passengers... Idiot... 

I Moved Away from San Jose to Chico and then Eureka... Both of those Towns are Almost All White People and Do Not Have a Lot of Graffiti... The Worst Place I've seen is on the Amtrak Train Ride Thru Oakland, CA...

IMMIGRANTS MADE SILICON VALLEY... Sure, All the Famous Names in High Tech are White Men... BUT... Behind the Scenes... People From All Over The World Came Here... AND BUILT A MIRACLE.

Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniac, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, William Hewlett, David Packard, Gordon Moore, Andy Grove, Robert Noyce, Jack Kilby, Thomas Watson, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, William Shockley, Herman Hollerith, Alan Turing, John Von Neuman, Charles Babbage, Fibonacci, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell... 

 If You Don't Recognize any of These Names... Just Google Them! and be Thankful that Great White Men Created Electricity, Computers and the Internet!

HOWEVER... At INTEL... Tadashi Sasaki was a Japanese engineer who was influential in founding Busicom, driving the development of the Intel 4004 microprocessor... Engineers Vinod Dham and Rajeev Chandrasekhar were key figures on the core team that invented the 486 chip and later, Intel's signature Pentium chip.

I worked In Silicon Valley in 1976...

When I was working at System Industries in Santa Clara, California (1976) the owner of the company (Dr. Edwin Zschau) went to Japan to learn how to run a business.

They were doing very well in comparison to USA companies and there was a lot of interest in learning why. So we adopted many oriental concepts and implemented them in our business. One thing was that we had a company song. We had a birthday meeting every month and we would all sing the company song.

Lyrics:
"System, System Industries, Here we go, Hand in hand. Solving Data Mysteries for the betterment of man."

We had many people from foreign countries working there. Immigrants made our company better. That was a universal fact of life about Silicon Valley... The brightest engineers worldwide came here for work. I had a neighbor from Nicaragua who came to work at IBM. And another Engineer I knew came from Germany at the end of WW2 to work at Lockheed. Very Common.

In my office we had: Dan Aragaki, Steve Wakasuki, Jesus Del Real, Benjamin Aragaki, Ming Leon, Ben Yamada, Aman Kawaja... and ME... and Out on the Assembly Line it was all Oriental or Hispanic Women...

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So It Is Very Important to Allow Immigrants to Work and Study in the USA...





The only way the United States can remain the world's most prosperous, powerful country is by embracing immigration. That's the inescapable conclusion from a new study published on Tuesday in the Lancet that predicts the world's population will peak far sooner than anticipated, and start shrinking before the end of this century.

There is, however, no guarantee that the US will embrace immigration, even to save itself. Domestic politics, currently inflamed by divisive nativist leaders, have turned immigration into a contested topic. A country that rose to historic heights of influence and prosperity by welcoming immigrants, is now led by a President who has weaponized the issue with unfathomable cruelty.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/15/opinions/global-population-decline-study-us-immigration-ghitis/index.html

In reversal, federal government will allow international students to stay in the U.S. while taking only online classes. The repeal follows outspoken criticism from universities, legal experts and higher education advocates, who deemed the rules unfairly punitive for foreign students.

Federal officials agreed to reverse the policy earlier Tuesday, federal judge Allison Burroughs announced at the hearing for a lawsuit filed by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last week. National media outlets previously reported that the White House was considering scaling back the rule after blowback from dozens of universities across the country. https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/14/international-students-online-classes/

Meetings with Remarkable Men - In Silicon Valley. Dr Edwin Van Wyck Zschau - President of System Industries.
https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/meetings-with-remarkable-men-in-silicon.html

History of Silicon Valley: Almaden - IBM's Successful Utopia. Near San Jose, California IBM built an IDEAL WORLD, Later, Silicon Valley was Built and The Light Rail Connected Almaden to The Rest... All the Way to NASA/Lockheed.

Far out in the farmlands south of town, IBM built a disk drive factory in the early 60's. They wanted to attract the world's finest talent so the built nice houses, shopping centers, a golf course, tennis club and swimming pool. This self contained utopia had everything a family could want... It is still there and functioning beautifully. Come visit sometime... it's wonderful.

Later, the entire city of San Jose became interested in computers. Silicon Valley was born.
https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/almaden-ibms-successful-utopia.html

Great Movies: TRON and TRON Legacy. Science Fiction that takes us inside a computer to a Stunning Fantasy World. Computer Graphics Masterpiece... Partially filmed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at the Shiva Nuclear Fusion experiment.
https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/09/great-movies-tron-and-tron-legacy.html

Fear of copycat CEO killings as ‘Wanted’ posters appear in New York... Wanted posters hung up around Manhattan depicting company executives are among a string of incidents causing anxiety in the US business world since last week’s execution-style killing of a health insurance CEO.

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on a different subject...

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I Had a Dream! Jerry Garcia, Hot Tuna and about Dozen Drummers were playing for Free Outdoors at a Junior College ... It was one of those events that was just announced on the College Radio... "Hey Everybody! Come on down!" 

They played an old-timey blues song... On electric instruments... No lyrics... Just jamming for fun... For some reason I believe it was Cabrillo College... A place I've never been... And then about halfway through the song they stood up and started walking in a parade and everybody walked down the street... And then I woke up... I'm a very lucky fellow... Many people have nightmares or PTSD but I'm given a free concert!

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FREE ART! Peace Sign - feel free to Pirate these images and use it to decorate a Blog, website... Whatever... You can use it to make decorated gifts like I do at Zazzle Gregvan.

LINK: Peace sign button for sale

You can transfer the peace sign artwork to any gift

Insightful map... And pretty damn accurate... Except that now that marijuana is legal, the entire Humboldt weed culture is in the past... Can't make a profit... No reason to grow it for a business... Just look at the town of Garberville... It's a ghost town!

On a personal note... I went to many anti-war protests marches in Lafayette Park during the first Gulf War when George Bush the father was president... I Played the drums in a drum circle and was filmed for TV news: a man on the street interview... I Never saw it on TV but my neighbor did... She said I was babbling like a jackass... And I said thank you! I know if you're unhappy I did the right thing... 

I saw both Daniel Ellsberg and Dick Gregory at those marches... I was walking down 15th Street when I noticed that everyone was turning and looking at a man that was walking in front of me... So by the time I caught up with him I said: "Mr Gregory, I have a feeling that something is very wrong but I'm not sure what it is..." And he said: "Thank you for sharing that with me..." 

OK... Maybe that was not the most insightful thing I could have said at that time... But... That's History! That's what I said! 

A large crowd followed Daniel Ellsberg From the White House  to the Lincoln Memorial and many people sat down in the middle of the street... The protest had a parade permit and it expired at exactly 4:00 PM... Anyone that was in the street at 4:00 PM would be arrested and they had police buses lined up to put protesters in jail... I chose to stand on the sidewalk and not be arrested... I was high on LSD at the time and the choice seemed to be EPIC! Classic exaggeration of emotions caused by LSD. I do remember staring in the face of a Jack Booted Thug... The Police... They looked Very similar to the Blue Meanies in the movie Yellow Submarine...

Years later I have changed my mind... It seems that George Bush the father was correct in fighting a war defending Kuwait from Iraq... At the time I protested against the war... Loudly... But history is shown that it was a pretty good idea... 

George Bush the son was a freaking idiot for invading Iraq to punish Saudi Arabians for 9/11... Oops! Wrong Country! No WMD, no ties to Al Qaeda and nothing at all to do with 9/11... But it was safe to attack Iraq because we were certain they had no atomic bombs... And we certainly couldn't attack Saudi Arabia because they have the oil and we are addicted...

The main lesson to be learned from this whole mess is that helping Saddam Hussein become the president of Iraq was a really stupid move... Ronald Reagan and Donald Rumsfeld helped Saddam... At one point the USA was selling weapons to both Iraq and Iran because they were killing each other and the military industrial complex wanted to make a profit... And (supposedly) genocide in the Middle East is a great idea! At the end of the day fewer crazy people...

My father and I disagreed about the war in Iraq for years... He said: "If you spill milk, you ought to clean it up." He agreed that helping Saddam Hussein become president of Iraq was an bad move but... Once it was done... We had a duty to fix the problem that we caused... And he was right... As soon as Saddam was dead, conditions over there became much better. And as soon as Osama Bin Laden was dead he stopped doing crazy things!

I went to many anti-war protest marches in Eureka during the Iraq War... And one time, I had to go to my niece's wedding near Laguna Beach... And I could not attend the Eureka Peace March... But then I found that there was a Peace March in Laguna Beach too! I joined that!

And here we are in 2024 and they're still doing genocide... And the USA is still giving them money to buy more weapons... That's totally crazy! We ought to stop funding both Israel and Ukraine.

I read in the newspaper that Biden was buying the country of Ukraine landmines and long range missiles... I think it's safe to assume that as soon as Trump becomes president the war will be over and Russia will win... But here at the last 2 months... Biden is going to bury land mines all over the place... And fire rockets at Moscow... Why? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_Power_%28photograph%29

this reminds me of the famous book: Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer...

All about the anti-vietnam war protest at the Pentagon...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Armies_of_the_Night

Flower Power is the title of a photograph taken by American photographer Bernie Boston for the now-defunct newspaper The Washington Evening Star. Taken on October 21, 1967, during the March on the Pentagon by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, the photo shows protester George Harris placing a carnation into the barrel of an M14 rifle held by a soldier of the 503rd Military Police Battalion (Airborne).

I heard of the philosophy that states: It's impossible to do anything that is wrong or evil because if it was actually wrong or evil, God would make it impossible to do. Like sticking your elbow in your ear... You can't do it!

So I looked for years to find out the name of this philosophy... Thinking that it might be Nihilism or Aleister Crowley or something like that... but... I found out later... It's just the plot of a Teenage slasher movie!  The bad guy speaks this philosophy to justify his behavior... And to help him "get in the pants" of the girl... 

Name A movie you found so disturbing, you never want to watch it again...

The Wall by Pink Floyd... We went to see it at a very fancy movie theater with a giant screen and the sound system as loud as a rock concert... And when we left after the show was over... The entire world was very psychedelic... As if we had taken drugs... But we had not taken any drugs...

Jerry Garcia in front of the Grateful Dead's Infamous Wall of Sound...
The Wall of Sound was an enormous public address system designed specifically for the Grateful Dead’s live performances in 1974. It was the creation of audio engineer Owsley “Bear” Stanley. It Weighed over 70 tons, comprise dozens and then hundreds of amps, speakers, subwoofers, and tweeters, stands over three-stories tall and stretch nearly 100 feet wide. Its name could only be the “Wall of Sound”.

They used it at Winterland during the filming of the Grateful Dead movie... You can always tell when a clip is from the wall of sound because of the Dual microphones... One microphone was used for the person's vocals and the other was hooked up out of phase to delete background noise... I saw it twice... Once at the University of Reno football field... And it malfunctioned and they had to stop the concert early right in the middle of a song because something blew up... And I saw it at Winterland during the filming of the Grateful Dead movie... And it worked great that night! I saw people running around with movie cameras all over the place but they never pointed one at me... So I'm not in the movie...

I always wondered why dual microphones didn't become the industry standard... Wouldn't everyone want to eliminate background noise? And run away feedback...

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I have a remote control for my TV... I mute the sound whenever a jackass is talking... And I changed the channel whenever I see Trump... There are plenty of other shows... Have You ever watched William Shatner's UnXplained? It's great! I think it's funny that people are all of a sudden refusing to watch Morning Joe... I'm realized that Joe Scarborough had nothing of value to say months ago... But Mika has wisdom!

People far away from me are going to continue to do crazy stuff... Whether I observe them on TV or not... Did you know that there's a war going on in the Middle East? I think it's been going on for 3,000 years... No need for me to watch TV to find out the very latest... 

I see that once again the Dead and Company are playing at the sphere in Las Vegas... Starting March 20th... I guess they're assuming that we will still have a functioning economy after Trump takes over... And they think that people will have money to buy tickets... So they say we are not going to have a global economic collapse... 3 billion people are not going to starve to death due to the horrible mismanagement of Mad King Donald... Anyway... There are three members alive... Bob, Bill and Mickey... And a bunch of kids that learned how to play the songs!

I still think that the best way to see a show at the sphere is to not buy a ticket at all... dance in the parking lot next door... With the PO' Folk... just listen to the music that escapes... And admire the artwork on the glowing ball... FREE! The best time I ever had at the shoreline was Outdoors during a further Festival...

SOURCE: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/united-healthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-shooting-bullets-words-written-on-them/

Bullets that an unidentified gunman used to shoot and kill UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday morning had words written on them, CBS News has confirmed.

The words "deny," "defend" and "depose" appeared on shell casings recovered from the scene of the shooting in New York City, according to law enforcement officials. The officials said they are examining whether the words relate to a possible motive involving insurance companies and their responses to claims.

and Someone on FaceBorg Said:

Here's my spin on this: When people have nothing to lose they become the most dangerous of all. Capitalists aka fascists better start lining up some bodyguards and digging underground homes in Hawaii like Zuckerberg.

CRY ME A RIVER

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12 Facts You Didn’t Know About San Jose, California 

0. Birthplace of Gregory Vanderlaan. ME!

1. San Jose is the oldest civilian settlement in California, founded in 1777 as 'El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe', predating San Francisco and Los Angeles.
2. The Winchester Mystery House, one of San Jose’s most famous landmarks, contains staircases leading to nowhere and doors that open into walls, a result of Sarah Winchester’s belief in warding off ghosts.
3. San Jose was briefly the first state capital of California, but lawmakers moved it after just two years due to complaints about its small size and inadequate facilities.
4. The IBM Building in San Jose, built in 1943, is home to the invention of the RAMAC, the world’s first hard disk drive, laying the groundwork for modern computing.
5. San Jose has more patents per capita than any other U.S. city, earning it the nickname “The Capital of Silicon Valley.”
6. The Peralta Adobe, built in 1797, is the oldest building in San Jose and offers a glimpse into the city’s Spanish colonial past.
7. San Jose is home to the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam, with the city hosting vibrant cultural celebrations like Tet Festival every year.
8. San Jose is one of the few cities in the world with its own electric light tower, which was built in 1881 and once stood taller than the Statue of Liberty before collapsing in a storm.
9. The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose houses the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts on the West Coast, including authentic mummies and tomb replicas.
10. San Jose is a zero-discharge city, meaning 100% of its wastewater is treated and recycled, an impressive feat for a city of its size.
11. The city’s Japantown is one of the last three remaining historic Japantowns in the United States, featuring authentic Japanese restaurants, shops and festivals.

Great movie: The Ghost and the Darkness. About lions and building a railroad in Africa. Mostly lions.

I see in the news that President Biden is spending taxpayer dollars to build a railroad in Africa... I'm not making this up... During his last month in office he decided that this... This thing... Was the most important thing in the world... To me it seems insane...

I'd rather we spend that money on fire fighting helicopters that could dump water on the forest fires that are burning the Western United States... And now New Jersey and New York State... 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116409/

Anyway... The British wanted to build a massive Railroad in Africa... And this movie tells the story of two lions that kept on eating the employees that were building a bridge... Starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas... Very emotional...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_and_the_Darkness

Val Kilmer is also famous for playing Jim Morrison in the movie The Doors...
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101761/?ref_=nm_flmg_knf_t_1

Michael Douglas was the star of the movie Wall Street...
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094291/?ref_=nm_flmg_knf_t_2
his character is Loosely based on Ivan Boeski and Michael Milken... Real world Insider Traders and junk bond salesman... And Pure Evil! "Greed is Good!"

The main problem I see coming is Trump causing a global economic collapse... That's his real claim to fame! declaring bankruptcy... What if he declares the entire USA bankrupt? Then he won't have to make payments on the national debt... And all of a sudden the yen becomes the main unit of currency

worldwide... Or the freaking Bitcoin! Or Dodge Coin! That way he Dodges the payments!!!

History of Silicon Valley: Almaden - IBM's Successful Utopia. Near San Jose, California IBM built an IDEAL WORLD in 1956, Later, the entire city of San Jose became interested in computers. Silicon Valley was born.

Far out in the farmlands south of town, IBM built a disk drive factory in the Late 50s. In order to attract the world's finest talent they built nice houses, shopping centers, a golf course, tennis club and swimming pool. This self contained utopia had everything a family could want... It is still there and functioning beautifully. Come visit sometime... it's wonderful.

Satellite Photo of Almaden. 

Many Houses have backyards on the golf course.

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Some thoughts on Almaden: [Written by my Father]

     When the white men came to this area,  Spaniards primarily, they discovered that the local indians had colorful paint on their skins.  This was traced to the Almaden Valley, up in the hills, where mines of red substance was discovered.  When gold was discovered in the Sierras it was determined that the colorful material in the Almaden foothills was mercury.  Mercury had the capability of extracting gold from the rocks, so was greatly used in gold mining.  This led to miners living in the Almaden valley, and the nearby valley floor.

     The Valley floor was mainly developed into ranches, orchards and vineyards, as well as  strawberry fields from 1850 to after World War 2.  T hen The Santa Clara valley became the home of manufacturing of mechanical and electronic equipment, and then "Sillicon Valley", with the coming of IBM to the south Valley. During my working life here, the valley floor was slowly developed into housing tracts, Shopping centers, schools, etc. Lots of work!

     This ultimately extended into the Almaden Valley.  I worked as a surveyor and at a Title Company during this period, and it still continues; but not at that frantic pace.  Japanese farmers would buy a parcel of land in the outskirts of Willow Glen.  Plant strawberries, for 5 years, when the soil was over-used.  Sell the 20 acres to a homebuilder, at a big profit, move 5 miles further south, and repeat the process.  How fortunes were made in those days.  Marguerite and I were also able to buy a small parcel here and there, which enabled us to build this house.  Van [J. D. Vanderlaan]

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I [Gregory] remember swimming at Almaden when our team, The Los Gatos Swim & Racquet competed with theirs. The Polol was Up on a Hill with a Great View of the Orchards and The City of San Jose in the Distance. I believe my father sold some land to build a shopping center in Almaden. Oakridge? Almaden Fashion Plaza? I worked as a Bagboy at a P&W Super in that area also. Dad sold that land. On some days in the Summer the Air Pollution was so bad that I could not see Mount Umunhum... about 5 miles distant... They Leaded Gas was Outlawed and the Smog got a lot better. 

A Bruce Ave, Los Gatos neighbor remembers...  Mark Diaz said That His Father worked at IBM. Mark went on the day that Nikita Khrushchev visited. I can understand that the president of the USSR wanted to be taken to the most advanced computer factory in the world... as an example of the success of capitalism... Interesting to Realize that IBM Searched the World for Talented People. Mr Diaz Came from Nicaragua. 

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IBM PLANT. San Jose. 1959.

The IBM disk drive memory plant and research center on Cottle Rd. The hydro gyro sculpture is now in pieces on the ground in an abandoned site.
In 1956, IBM broke ground on a 190-acre parcel of land that would become their award-winning Cottle Road campus. The main plant facility, consisted of five connected buildings, constructed using steel, concrete, and glass. The buildings were accented with brick and multi-colored tiles – the tile pattern said to mimic an IBM punch card.
In an effort to create a pleasant working environment for IBM employees (a novel concept at the time), architect John Savage Bolles collaborated with landscape architect Douglas Baylis to incorporate gardens, patios, and reflection ponds into the plant’s overall design. The campus was further enhanced by a collection of modern art including sculptures by Bay Area artists Bob Howard and Gurdon Woods.
The central core of the former IBM campus is now vacant, behind chain link fence. Several former IBM buildings are currently in use by Hitachi. Former property of IBM Research building (Building #25) was used for the construction of a Lowe’s home improvement store in 2008, following a suspicious fire.

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Milestones of Invention:

1956 - FIRST MAGNETIC HARD DISK. IBM introduces the world's first magnetic hard disk for data storage. RAMAC (or Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) offers unprecedented performance by permitting random access to any of the million characters distributed over both sides of 50 two-foot-diameter disks. Produced in San Jose, California, IBM's first hard disk stored about 2,000 bits of data per square inch and had a purchase price of about $10,000 per megabyte. By 1997, the cost of storing a megabyte had dropped to around ten cents.

1970 - RELATIONAL DATABASES. IBM scientist Ted Codd published a paper introducing the concept of relational databases. It calls for information stored within a computer to be arranged in easy-to-interpret tables so that nontechnical users can access and manage large amounts of data. Today as we approach the new millennium, nearly all database structures are based on the IBM concept of relational databases.
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Almaden Wine is famous worldwide. No longer grown in Almaden, it's grown and bottled in the central valley of California... We cut down all the vineyards to build houses.
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Sources:

http://www.research.ibm.com/about/past_history.shtml

http://www.research.ibm.com/labs/almaden/
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/history/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Almaden_Research_Center

Official Website of the Almaden Swim and Racquet Club: http://www.asrc.org/index.html
Official Website of the Almaden Golf and Country Club: http://www.almadengcc.org/

Lightrail Service:
Commuter Trains run from Almaden to San Jose, Santa Clara all the way to Mountain View.
http://www.vta.org/services/light_rail_services.html

List of interesting things to do in Silicon Valley: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attractions_in_Silicon_Valley



When I was working at System Industries in Santa Clara, California (1976) the owner of the company (Dr. Edwin Zschau) went to Japan to learn how to run a business.




They were doing very well in comparison to USA companies and there was a lot of interest in learning why. So we adopted many oriental concepts and implemented them in our business. One thing was that we had a company song. We had a birthday meeting every month and we would all sing the company song.

Lyrics:
"System, System Industries, Here we go, Hand in hand.
Solving Data Mysteries for the betterment of man."

Another thing we did was take a two hour lunch so we could exercise. I swam at the Santa Clara International Swim center with my wife. She was working the Graveyard shift at National Semi-conductor so we met twice a day. Lunch and evenings.
We had many people from foreign countries working there. When Dr. Zschau went to Japan he hired many Japanese people. Immigrants made our company better. That was a universal fact of life about Silicon Valley... The brightest engineers worldwide came here for work. I had a neighbor from Nicaragua who came to work at IBM. And another Engineer I knew came from Germany at the end of WW2 to work at Lockheed. Very Common.

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Another time in Santa Clara we participated in a "Car Rally". Everyone would meet at a starting location then we were given a series of clues as to where to go next. One clue was "Go to a street named for a part time orchestra leader." We were supposed to figure out the puzzle and navagate to checkpoints. The answer to that clue was "Semi-conductor Blvd"... semi meaning part time and conductor is the leader of an orchestra. This was all part of the California Car Culture.

Read more of my Auto-Biography at: http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/03/growing-up-in-los-gatos-california-in.html

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A discussion on our Facebook Page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/105559162879359/
I said:


Almaden: IBM's Successful Utopia. I remember competing with the LG Swim and Raquet Club against the Almaden Swim and Raquet Club. I worked in Almaden as a bag boy at P&W Super and in the 1990's lived in one of the original Homes built for Employees of the Disk Drive Factory. Do you remember Almaden?

David Gee: I started out on stage in Old Almaden at a venerable place called "The Opry House". I love that part of Northern Cal.

Greg Vanderlaan: I went to a show at that house but cannot find any mention of it on Google. Is it still there? I went with Mom and Dad to see a stage play or musical.

David Gee: I'm not sure, Greg. I was contacted about a re-union last year -one I couldn't attend -and it was being held in San Jose so, my guess is, it's probably gone.

Greg Vanderlaan: Now that David Gee tells me the Name, The Opry House, it's easy to find on Google: http://www.newalmaden.org/AQSPark/newalmmus.html

Mark C. Rodell: The novel Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner is, in part, set in Almaden. A very fine novel. http://www.amazon.com/Repose-Penguin-Classics-Wallace-Stegner/dp/0141185473 Perhaps no American writer knew the West as well as Stegner, not excepting his student Edward Abbey. An inveterate hiker and explorer, he camped or walked nearly every area in the West. He wrote innumerable books about the West and took time to visit every spot he wrote about.

Barbara Lynn: My mom (Nancy Lynn) was in many a melodrama at the Opry House in Old Almaden. Run for many years by Clyde (or is it Clive? ) & Gilda Dayton. After The Opry House, the Daytons had a melodrama theater on the wharf in Monterey. Might still be there.

Debi Thompson-Boring: Is that the place where they encouraged throwing popcorn?

Barbara Lynn: Yep!

Debi Thompson-Boring: LOVED going there!

Debi Thompson-Boring: (so I probably saw your mom LOL)

Barbara Lynn: Kinda hard to NOT notice my mom! She was meant for melodramas!

David Gee: I think it was Cleeve Dayton, Barbara. A wonderful guy. There also was Lanny Huck and Linda Nantell. Man, them was some good times.

Barbara Lynn: Yes....Cleeve! Son, Keed (I think)...What years were you involved, David?

David Gee: I've been in touch with Keed here on Facebook. He went to LG High. I started underage in '73 and played there until I left for college in '75.

Barbara Lynn: Oh.....way after my mom. She was there in the mid-late 60's. I think I was even in one, one summer. Theater is always a family affair. My dad, being an engineer, did sound. Mom moved on to the Haunted Woods...But she had always been involved in local community...she's still trying to get me to find her "one last play" to be in. (She's 88) Old drama majors don't "go into the night" easily!

David Gee "Driving Miss Nancy "?

Barbara Lynn Well.....it WOULD be all about HER! That's my mom!
Oops....I might be getting myself in trouble!

Holly Russ Smelt: Debi Thompson-Boring- might you be thinking of the gaslight theater in Campbell? They encouraged throwing of popcorn during the melodramas they staged

Barbara Lynn: Yes, they did, but I think it started at the Opry House...or maybe they're just blending together...my mother finally gave a lot of her costumes to the one in Campbell. That's gone, now, too.

Jackie Hinds Barbara Lynn: I'm in your Mom's age group so guess I saw her at the Opry House. fyi my uncle Gene Allen owned the mines during WWll. He had a horse ranch on what is now the Country Club and sub divisions. Almost like a different world back then.

Terry Zimbelman Titus: @ Greg- I remember Almaden- I worked in the Almaden Fashion Plaza at the Joseph Magnin's store! 1971-1972 ish

Robert R Roche: and he's still a bag boy !

Greg Vanderlaan: Dear Jackie Hinds, I am interested in hearing more about what it was like before the IBM Factory was built.

Greg Vanderlaan: I see that there was a tradition of Chinese Pottery dyed red with cinnabar (mercury). Barry Hill and I did a science project in "Senior Lab" studying the effect of mercury poisoning on brine shrimp. It Kills them. It must be poisonous to eat out of a bowl or teacup.

Holly Russ Smelt: My brothers were friends with Barry and Allen Hill.

David Gee Greg, I vaguely remember a field trip we took out of Fisher or LGHS to Almaden where we were introduced to an ancient native tribe of the area that used cinnabar in its rituals.
15 hours ago via mobile · Edited · Like · 1

Greg Vanderlaan: My dad says it is dangerous to swim in the Almaden Reservoir... But both Mom and Dad swam there... for decades... Mom lived in Willow Glen as a Child and Dad lived in Los Gatos... We shouldn't really worry to much about danger when it's a hot day... I swam there too.

Dan LeCount: I remember swimming in Almaden and fishing for crawdads,very muddy

Dennis Fleming: There was an old woman who had built and run a tiny museum out there. I intereviewed her once in college. Very eccentric, but very cool. Wonder what ever happened to all that stuff.

Barbara Lynn: The museum has been expanded, and is a great place for 3rd & 4th grade field trips. A wonderful source of local history.

Ginny Lenoir Smith: old almaden out by the mercury mines was cool... my dad worked for ibm, we always pretended that meant i poop.....

***** (~);-} *****

I remember Going to West Valley Junior College in Saratoga, CA and Learning Electronics Drafting. After Studying for One Year I Was Able to Get a Job at System Industries...

I have always loved to Draw and EARNING A LIVING doing something you love to do is BLISS... I Remember occasions when the Sun was Shining in the Window and I was Designing a Printed Circuit Board and AT THAT MOMENT I Attained True Enlightenment (or Something)... What the Buddhists Call Right Livelihood...

However, "They" invented Computer Assisted Design and The Companies I worked for could hire people for HALF MY RATE OF PAY... and so I switched to SALES... But It Was Fun While It Lasted...

NOW, as a Retired Person I spend a Lot of Time drawing my FREE COLORING BOOK... Black and White drawing that people May Print out and Color using Felt Pens, Pencils or Crayons... You can find more art at Google Image Search Keywords "gvan42 Free Coloring Book"

Meetings with Remarkable Men - In Silicon Valley. Dr Edwin Van Wyck Zschau - President of System Industries

I started working for Dr Zschau in 1975 and we built Disc Drive Controller Cards. We had a company Song that we Sang at Staff Meetings... Lyrics: 'System, System Industries... Here we go... Hand in Hand... Solving Data Mysteries... For the Betterment of Man.' He also worked at IBM and represented California's 12th District in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 1987.


On Family Day at the Factory, Mom and Dad took a Personal Guided tour with Dr. Zschau. The three of them had a fine time as my parents had never been in a room with a dozen disc drives spinning. Each one the size of a Washing Machine. It sounded like the Generator Room at Hoover Dam, but quieter.


Control Data Corporation Disc Drive
The reason we had a Company Song is that Dr Zschau had just gone to Japan and he wanted to Incorporate their Business Practices in our Company. First, he hired 20 People from Japan and brought them over to Run the Silonix Division. Then he instituted 'recommended' exercise lunches of two hour duration. I often went swimming at the Santa Clara International Swim Center with my First Ex-Wife who worked the Graveyard Shift at National Semiconductor.

In the Machine Shop there were two Boxing Punching Bags. If anyone felt stress at work, they could go punch the bags.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My Immediate Supervisor was Dan Aragaki, a Harley Davidson Riding, Martial Artist. Yes, I Simply Did what Dan told me to do Instantly Because... Not only was his Advice Correct, but I was Scared of the Man. (Or maybe that was Respect)

Ben Yamada made Elegant Clay Sculptures of the Ink Jet Printer Silonix was Inventing.

Aman Kawaja supervised the Assembly Line and Inspired the Ladies to Work Faster with Giant Charts on the Wall Tracking Production. 100% of the Assemblers were Female in 1975. They were better at hand eye coordination and manipulation of tiny objects than men.

David Yamada created Printed Circuit Board Artwork on Mylar using Black Chartpak Tape. He also liked to go Helicopter Skiing in Canada. A Helicopter flew him to the Top of the Mountain in Banff, and David Skied Down.

Steve Wakasuki Refused to be Hurried at Work. He also created PCB Artwork also and no matter how much pressure Middle Management put on him to finish the drawings Quickly, he simply ignored them. Quality First.

Jesus Del Real was the Draftsman who sat next to me and did most of my training. I learned How to Draw the Drawings associated with PCB Manufacture from Jesus. When I moved to Washington DC the next year, my portfolio got me two job offers in one day. Thank You, Jesus!

I accepted the Job Offer from Major Paul Jones USAF and worked at Analytic Communications Systems for six years. Project TEMPEST.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Title of this Blog Post was Pirated from the Book by G. I. Gurdjieff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meetings_with_Remarkable_Men
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another Autobiography by a Co-worker Ray:
http://whiteworld.com/cyreenikland/books/surfing/surf-03e.htm

Newspaper Articles:
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-06-29/news/mn-381_1_system-industries

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/21/business/business-people-a-son-of-silicon-valley-back-from-capitol-hill.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/1993-05-09/ed-zschau-doesnt-fit-big-blues-mold-and-thats-the-point

Alumni Page Princeton:
http://www.princeton.edu/paw/archive_new/PAW04-05/09-0223/features3.html
Professor Ed Zschau ’61 serves as guru to budding entrepreneurs
By Jordan Paul Amadio ’05

It is the last day of class before winter break, and 65 seniors are mesmerized by a professor in a Bugs Bunny tie. For the past hour, he has been recounting the details of his autobiography — studying physics and philosophy at Princeton, running a $6 billion division of IBM, founding two technology companies, winning a congressional seat in California. Suddenly, the lecturer pauses. Smiling to himself, he continues an end-of-semester tradition inaugurated four decades earlier, when he was Stanford Business School’s 24-year-old faculty wunderkind. Without warning, professor Ed Zschau ’61 begins to sing.

 

A Japanese Webpage Selling Stuff Online Using Copied and Pasted Data from Wikipedia as Clickbait... They Fool the Google Search Engine into thinking that this webpage is worthy, then advertise all kinds of 'wonderful' but useless products:

 

But they had a Great Photo for me to Pirate.

 

Picture of a PDP-11. Our Cards served as an Interface between Mini Computers and Disc Drives.

The Ultimate Goal was to Store Medical Information about Patients on Computers so it could be Easily Distributed between Doctor's Offices and Hospitals.

Sadly, HIPPA Regulation Prevents the Easy Distribution of Medical Information.

****** (~);-] ******

Planned Cities are vastly better than unplanned cities. The Joy of Columbia Maryland, Almaden and Scotia, CA and Reston, VA

I have had the joy of living in Columbia, Maryland and Almaden, California. I worked in Reston, Virginia and have visited Scotia, California.

Columbia is an example of a truly outstanding design. It is based on small "pods" of homes and businesses that are interconnected by bike trails and roads. Every home is within walking distance of stores that sell basic necessities. This becomes crucial during snowstorms when all the roads are undriveable. Designed by James Rouse. It is home to the Merriweather Post Pavilion concert venue in Symphony Woods. Across the street is a Shopping Mall and Lake Kittamaqundi... sail boats and canoes for rent. Columbia is home to Howard Community College and Hobbit's Glen golf course. Yes, he planned for everything... and it's all within biking distance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia,_Maryland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rouse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Kittamaqundi
http://www.merriweathermusic.com/

Almaden: During the 1960s IBM built a disk drive factory in the rural farmland near San Jose, California. Then they build homes for the employees, a golf course and a swim and racquet club. They believed that they could attract a higher quality employee if the living conditions were ideal. It worked. The concept of a the database was invented there. One of those truly epic ideas...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaden_Valley,_San_Jose,_California



Reston was a city built by Robert E Simon. Note his initials in the name of the city. Located near Dulles Airport it is a popular location for corporations. It is easy to fly into Dulles and take a taxi to a meeting. Having an airport close by was convenient for shipping our finished products to the customers. I worked for a defense subcontractor and Reston is close to the Pentagon and Washington, DC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reston,_Virginia

Scotia was built for the employees of The Pacific Lumber Company. Their plan was to harvest 1% of the trees every year and plant a new tree for every one harvested. That "100 year plan" was designed to ensure that there would be work for the mill employees forever. In a hundred years, the new trees would have grown up and be big enough to harvest again. Sadly, Charles Hurwitz used junk bonds to do a hostile takeover of the company, cut down all the profitable trees, looted the pension fund, hid the money in Texas and then declared bankruptcy. Now the company has been purchased by the Fischer family and they have returned to sustainable logging.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotia,_California
http://www.jailhurwitz.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Fisher

There is a lovely coloring book of The Headwaters Forest.
Link: http://www.jailhurwitz.com/pdfs/hfcb_cover.html

On a personal note: If you and your friends drive over Blossom Hill Road from Los Gatos, California at night and you put Pink Floyd's "Division Bell" CD in the stereo... when you crest the hill and can look down on the sparkling lights of the city of Almaden... the band sings...


The grass was greener
The light was brighter
With friends surrounded
The nights of wonder
it's all true and a really emotional experience...
You see, it appears that the lyrics describe what is actually happening... Cosmic...

I had the blessing of attending many rock concerts at Merriweather Post Pavillion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merriweather_Post_Pavilion
The Grateful Dead played there Six times while I was living on the east coast and I went to all six shows.
One night there was a thunder and lightning storm at dusk. Torrential downpour... all the power went out and we were treated to a drum duet played by Bill K and Mickey Hart. It appeared that they were incorporation the thunder into their music. A traditional tom-tom fill is "da da da, de de de, du du du, boom". They used the flash of lightning to predict when the thunders boom would sound...

As a special blessing, half the audience on the lawn area went home... That solved the overcrowding problem. The rest of us stayed and danced in the mud.

Sadly, the audience forced management to prohibit the Grateful Dead from playing there. One time there was a concert near July Fourth and the members of the audience set off too many fireworks after the concert. Since it is possible to buy rockets that fly up into the sky and explode in South Carolina (not too far away), that year there was a danger of setting Symphony Woods on fire. Oh Well... it all worked out because about that time the Grateful Dead became really popular and needed RFK Stadium to satisfy the demand for tickets.

CITY OF THE FUTURE!(lyrics)

we are living in the city of the future

all of us have hi-tech jobs...

we don't give a dam about unemployment

that only happens to low tech slobs

be a nurd!

be a nurd!

I'm a high-tech wizard

BE A NURD!

They used to laugh @ me

when I was in high school

the social in set was so very proud

but now when those people

are searching thru the want ads

they say "I want to be one of the 

computer crowd

be a nurd

be a nurd

be a high-tech wizard

BE A NURD!

a song I wrote... after seeing the movie "Starstruck" a silly Australian Musical... 

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