on march 23, 2010, barack obama signed the patient protection and affordable care act into law. a lot of people got mad about it, and at barack obama, its champion. in this, they erred. obamacare is my fault.

in my entire berkeley high tenure i only recall one instance of anyone getting bullied for good academic performance. it was by a teacher.

one of the many cultural coronal mass ejections from the internet in the early aughts was the "pirates versus ninjas" "debate". (that wikipedia page is wrong to place it in the "late 2000s" - it was in full swing by 2004 at the latest.) it was an excuse to have goofy, zero-stakes arguments with peers, and therefore catnip for dumb teenagers. you could do more than have mock arguments, though. you could get even stupider with it.

i have decided that no writing about my berkeley high experience could explain it better than just watching the music video for "frontier psychiatrist" by the avalanches. we listened to that song a lot in high school, and it captures the bhs vibe better than any prose could.

berkeley high had two advanced placement chemistry teachers. one of them, mr. brand, drew the adoration of his students by being an enthusiastic and capable educator. he'd put on goofy costumes to do dumb skits, take them to the park across the street to blow stuff up, and generally be a fun, lovable dork. his students absolutely loved him.

the other teacher was mr. glimme. he mocked students to our faces and spent most class time on his computer ignoring us. we loved him more than mr. brand.