08/08/19: Married 11 Years Today!

Although we have been boyfriends since 1991 and living together since 1994, domestic partners since 1999, and civilly united (in Vermont) since 2000, we were only married in California on August 8, 2008 (Roger Federer's 27th birthday!) before Proposition 8 passed and after the California Supreme Court legalized marriage equality in the Golden State with the In Re Marriage Cases decision and upheld my marriage (and 18,000 others!) in Strauss v. Horton.

The above pictures were taken on our latest vacation in Valencia, Spain in July 2019.

Happy anniversary, hubby!

01/12/19: 28th Anniversary In Mexico City

Today is the 28th anniversary of the first date with my future husband. This time we are spending it in Mexico City, Mexico. This is in front of the Palacio de Bellas Artes on January 12, 2019!

2019 Vacation: Mexico City, Mexico (Jan. 7-13)

I'll be on vacation from January 7-13, 2019, visiting Mexico City, Mexico to celebrate my 28th anniversary. Mexico City which is in the most populous metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere (approximately 21 million people). Posting on the blog will be relatively light, but you can see more of my adventures on Twitter (@madprofessah) and Instagram (@ronbuckmire).

08/08/18: My 10th Wedding Anniversary Is Today!

Today is 08/08/18, the tenth anniversary of my wedding day on 08/08/08. Here are some rare pictures of MadProfessah with The Other Half, taken on our recent trip to Reykyavik (Iceland) and Paris (France) in summer 2018. (See my Instagram feed for more images from our trip, and lots of pictures of my the outfit I wear every day!)

Coincidentally, August 8 is a famous tennis birthdate: (Roger Federer is 37 and Felix Auger-Aliassime is 18)

2018 Vacation: Reykjavik, Iceland and Paris, France (May 18-30)

I'll be on vacation from May 18th through May 30th as I celebrate my birthday. The Other Half and I will be traveling to Reykjavik, Iceland (6 days) and Paris, France (5 days). On this trip I will be attending the 2018 French Open!

Posting on the blog will be light, but I invite you to follow me on Instagram (@ronbuckmire) and Twiiter (@madprofessah)

#vacay2017: Kauai, Hawaii (01.11.2017-01.18.2017)

The Other Half and I are leaving Kauai today after spending 7 days and nights on the oldest Hawaiian island. See my feeds on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for more information on what we have been up to.

The vacation continues (in Hawaii); we are returning to the Big Island of Hawaii for the next three days or so.

Saturday Politics: Race For CA-34 U.S. House Seat (Not Yet) Crowded

Cue the musical chairs! Last week California Governor Jerry Brown announced his intention to appoint U.S. Representative Xavier Becerra to replace U.S. Senator-elect Kamala Harris as California Attorney General. Becerra, 58, is currently my congressman, representing California's 34th congressional district; he would become the first Latino attorney general in the history of the state (in 2016!)

Becerra had been a rumored candidate in the race to replace Barbara Boxer that Kamala Harris ultimately won over another Latino candidate, Loretta Sanchez. Within hours of the announcement that a rare safely Democratic Los Angeles-area Congressional seat was open, former Speaker of the House John Perez announced his candidacy for the race. Soon after that, my state Assemblyman, Jimmie Gomez, also announced his intention to run for the seat. Activist Wendy Carillo has also declared she is interested. Surprisingly, my City Council person Jose Huizar has so far declined to enter the race to replace Becerra, as has fellow Councilperson Gil Cedillo. For the special election, you just need to be a resident of California (and a U.S. Citizen and over age 25).

Today comes the surprising news that Perez is withdrawing from the race, citing an unnamed health condition which is serious enough that it will prevent him from running a rigorous race in the 2017 special election, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Citing a recent diagnosis of a serious health problem, former California Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez said Saturday he is dropping out of the race to replace U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles).
"I've got to focus on my health right now," Pérez said in an interview. "But it was a very hard decision."
The 47-year-old Democrat declined to offer specifics about his condition, citing a desire to keep it private. But he said it was serious enough that it would keep him from waging a vigorous political campaign in 2017.
"The treatment is one that doesn’t lend itself to the intensity of a campaign that the community deserves," he said.

Almost certainly there will be other prominent (and not so prominent) Los Angeles area politicos joining the race. MadProfessah will keep you posted, since it is literally happening in my back yard!

MadProfessah And Albert Einstein (in DC!)

I was at the National Academy of Science this week and took the opportunity to have my picture taken with this famous statue of Albert Einstein.

FOOD REVIEW: Providence (Melrose District, Los Angeles, CA)

The Other Half and I celebrate January 12th as the anniversary of the beginning of our relationship. Since we met in 1991 this year it was our 25th anniversary so we decided to splurge and made a dinner reservation at Providence, which is widely recognized as the best restaurant in Los Angeles. We then planned a trip to Maui (Hawaii) for the rest of the week to continue the celebration.

Here is a short photo essay on our Providence experience.

Amuse Bouche: nasturtium leaf with sushi rice and 

Amuse Bouche: wagyu beef masquerading as cigars or fancy Slim Jims

Even the bread, with butter and salt, was exemplary

maine lobster, orient charm eggplant, smoked sesame, miso

new bedford scallop, cauliflower, vadouvan

A5 Wagyu Beef (sweet potato, aged vinegar, parmesan)

troll-caught salmon, sunchoke, peas, black truffle

Dessert: Ganache chocolate with lemon paste and
glazed, roasted hazelnuts

Dessert: coconut/lemon drop, macaroon,
mexican chocolate with marshmallow

For our twenty-fifth anniversary, the Other Half and I wanted to do something special, so we made a reservation at Providence, widely regarded as the best restaurant in Los Angeles. Surprisingly, we realized it must have been well over five years since we had last eaten here.

Providence is famous for its 2 Michelin stars and its eleven-course and seven-course prix fixe menus, with exquisite wine pairings. The full eleven-course menu takes at least 3 hours to complete, but there is a 7-course version for $180 per person ($265 with wine pairing) while the four-course menu is $115 ($160 with wine pairing).

We decided that both of us would try the 7-course menu with one of us getting the wine pairing and the other not. The service was exceptional, and even the bread (brioche, sourdough or white) was memorable. The meal started with a comically long sequence of amuse bouches (there were five!) Particularly good were the wagyu beef cigars (pictured above) and the smoked salmon with potato crisp.

Among the courses, we decided to pay extra and upgrade the wagyu beef entree but although it is the highest cut of this beef available, it is really an acquired taste, one which I don't think I have acquired.

The favorite thing we ate that night in my opinion was the scallop, closely followed by the wagyu beef cigar and the chocolate dessert.

Overall, the dining experience was a memorable one, but with an overall cost of roughly three times the price of an evening at other excellent places like Union, Ledlow and Baco Mercat  think I would rather go to each of those once before I go to Providence again. However, I would strongly recommend it to commemorate an extremely memorable occasion, which it was for us.

Name: Providence.

Location: 5955 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90038.

Contact: 323-460-4170.

Visit: January 12, 2016.

AMBIANCE: A.

SERVICE: A+.

VALUE: B+.

FOOD: A+. 

OVERALL: A (4.0/4.0)

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! #MLKDay2016

Today the United States celebrates a federal holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr! MLK was a leader in the civil rights movement of the 60s which resulted in massive improvements in conditions for African-Americans and other non-white people as the United States was forced to recognize that it was not living up to the idea of "equal justice under law." This struggle continues today, in various ways.

MadProfessah Is On Vacation (Maui, Hawaii)

I'm on a quick vacation before the beginning of  the Spring semester, celebrating my 25th(!) anniversary with The Other Half. We're on the Hawaii island of Maui, staying in the Ka'anapali section of the island until Monday January 19. Blogging will be light! (But look for my activity on Instagram, Twitter, Yelp, and Facebook)

Merry X-Mas!

This is a fun (mathematical) way to wish everyone Merry X-Mas!

2015 US OPEN: Order of Play For Labor Day Visit (Halep, Murray, Berdych, Kvitova, Federer)

Well, I have a ticket for Louis Armstrong and a grounds pass so these are matches I will be able to see today. I'll try and do more updates today but I doubt I'll have as good seats today as I did yesterday, when I was courtside on Grandstand!

After 21 Year Gap, United States Places First In International Mathematics Olympiad

For the first time in 21 years, the United States has placed first in the prestigious International Mathematics Olympiad. National Public Radio reported:

This week, the top-ranked math students from high schools around the country went head-to-head with competitors from more than 100 countries at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Chiang Mai, Thailand. And, for the first time in more than two decades, they won. 

Po-Shen Loh, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and head coach for Team USA, says the competition is held over the course of two days. Students work on three math problems each. 

[...] 

The U.S. team last won the Olympiad in 1994. Reports in recent years have raised concerns that American math students are falling behind those in the rest of the world. But, Loh says, "At least in this case with the Olympiads, we've been able to prove that our top Americans are certainly at the level of the top people from the other countries." 

Concerns have also been raised over the years about a persistent gender gap in U.S. math achievement. All six members of this year's winning team are boys. "That is actually something that one hopes will change," Loh says. "The top 12 people in the country on the United States Math Olympiad happen to have two girls in it. One might say, 'Only 2 out of 12, that's terrible.' But I should say in many years, it was, unfortunately, zero." 

Loh says it's important to teach math as more than mere memorization and formulas. He says this is one reason, perhaps, that the subject hasn't attracted as many American students as it could.

I think there are other reasons why mathematics doesn't attract students: there is this overwhelming belief that mathematical ability is some inherent essence that you either have or you don't AND there is no cultural stigma about "being bad at math."

Facebook's Rainbow Pride Filter Goes Viral

First the White House, now 26 million Facebook users! A pride filter initially created by two interns during a Facebook hackathon allows users to modify their profile pictures to include a rainbow filter in recognition of LGBT Pride. Apparently 26 million of Facebook users have since done so.

Mashable analyzed the viral phenomenon:

According to the company, the rainbow filter was built by two interns during an internal hackathon the rainbow filter was built by two interns during an internal hackathon recently. After it became a hit within the company, the interns worked with a larger team to add the tool to the site before Pride weekend and the SCOTUS ruling. 

The tool was added to the site just as Facebook shared for the first time that more than 6 million of its U.S. members identify themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or gender non-conforming. Meanwhile, nearly 1 million have joined a Facebook group in support of the LGBTQ community.

I  liked the idea so much I joined the movement myself, as you can see at the top of this post. If you want to change your Facebook profile picture, just go to facebook.com/celebratepride

Happy Π Day

It's an epic Pi Day today: 3/14/15, which are the first 5 digits of Π, 3.14159.

GRAPHIC: Age Gap In Same-Sex Couples Generally Greater Than Straight Couples'

Five Thirty Eight did an analysis of the average gap in ages between couples, and included male-male and female-female pairs in their data set (which was taken from Facebook). The results are interesting, because there is a significant difference:

Using anonymized data from U.S. users who say they are in relationships, Facebook found that the average age difference in gay couples tends to get bigger the older people get. Those in their early 20s have an average age difference in their relationships of about two to three years, but once people get into their 40s, that average age gap increases to about seven years. The age difference increases for older male-female couples, too (shown in red below), though not by as much. (Remember, this is self-reported data from people who make their relationship status public on Facebook.)

Any thoughts about why this age gap among gay and lesbian couples increases with age? The age gap between me and my Other Half is 37 months (just over 3 years), but we are in our forties so we are clearly outliers.

Happy Valentine's Day (Weekend)!

My 10th Blogiversary: A Decade Of Blogging!

Now that the 2015 Australian Open is starting I realize that it has been almost exactly 10 years since I started blogging regularly. My very first post was in 2003 but I didn't start posting updates regularly (basically every day) until January 14, 2005. So, consider this my decadal blogiversary post.

As I think about starting my eleventh year of blogging I am pretty sure I will not be blogging as frequently as I have in the past (i.e. more than 2 posts per day on average), but it will be my goal to average out to 1 post per day (30 or so per month or roughly 300-350 per year). There may be times when there are more posts (i.e. around Grand Slam tennis tournaments) and there may be times when there are fewer (like when I'm on vacation or busy with my day job). Very many of my peers have stopped posting regularly (like Craig Hickman, who is know an elected Maine State Representative and Pam Spaulding, primarily for health reasons) but I think my blog is still useful and I enjoy doing it. I have also become more active on Twitter, like Andres Duque of Blabbeando, who has also stopped blogging regularly.

I hope my readers will still read what I have to say, and provide feedback. I really appreciate every and all comments.

Thanks!

MadProfessah On Vacation January 4-12

This may be the last regular post for awhile as I and The Other Half will be on vacation for the next 8 days on the Big Island of Hawai'i! I will probably post some pictures of our adventures either here, or (more likely) on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Merry Xmas. Happy Holidays!