San Jose School Records

San José is an old city for the west coast of the USA, beginning as the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe in 1777. It’s largest school district, San José Unified School District, began as the San Jose City School District in 1863 and still has its written records from the late eighteen hundreds.

SJSU Elevator Mural

Mural by Richard Moore in a San Jose State University science building depicting his interpretation of PUGWUS, a deity of the sea to the Tlingit tribe in Washington state. Richard Moore was a SJSU student and painted this mural around the elevator in 1974.

Santa Clara County Fair

Santa Clara County Fair

This new mural is up at the Santa Clara County Fair Grounds to celebrate the fair’s 80 years. Mural by @1984.yo.

This year’s fair, going on now, has rides, pig races, fighting robots, and lots of farm animals. I enjoyed the displays of handmade items by county residents of all ages like blankets, jams, artworks, clothing and more. And the geology exhibit and reptile exhibits had friendly people from whom I learned new things.

There was also this art gallery exhibit with lots to appreciate.

Santa Clara County Fair
Santa Clara County Fair
Santa Clara County Fair

Out and about, some other things you may see are at the fair are…

Santa Clara County Fair

Krazy George riding around in an old San Jose fire truck! That is Krazy George, inventor of The Wave that you see at sporting events, in the red shirt on back of the truck.

Santa Clara County Fair

Bike tricks that were super impressive and which photos do not capture well…

Santa Clara County Fair

And more art like this one by AugieWK (https://www.thejamsbrand.com/augiewk).

SLAC – Longest Linear Accelerator

SLAC

Looking down the hall of the 2 mile long straight building at Stanford’s linear accelerator. Straight, not level. The guide said if it was level it would follow the Earth’s curve and at 2 miles long it would then be about 12 inches off of straight at the end. This building was designed to be straight because a couple of stories below ground, under this support equipment that the building is housing, is a long tube that is designed to accelerate particles very near the speed of light. And those particles go straight. You don’t get too many opportunities to look down so perfect an example of a diminishing perspective through distance.

SLAC

This is the outside of the building, looking down the exact same stretch as seen in the inside photo above it. You can see highway 280 going over the linear accelerator as a bridge not too far ahead in the photo.

SLAC

Our tour guide took us to a newer building added down the end of the accelerator where x-rays generated by the accelerated particles are used for modern research. The accelerator was running throughout this whole visit, and does so through most hours of most days of the year. And so, behind the tour guide in the above photo, here a few stories under ground, x-rays are flying through the labs in a horizontal tube that I pointed out with the added blue arrow. These x-rays are used in the various experiments going on in the numerous rooms of SLAC.

There is something wonderful about humans working together on huge ambitious projects to advance our understanding of the universe. And it is pretty great to get to look at these projects and to consider what they do and how they do it.

SLAC

Coming back up to the surface, surrounded by California.

Live Painted Murals at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds

These murals were painted live in front of the community while enjoying the 2023 County Fair.

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Hector Covarrubias (https://www.instagram.com/cova____/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Dee-meh (https://www.instagram.com/ladimeuna/), Priscilla Marquez (https://instagram.com/priscillasarte/reels/), and Yazmin Shi Shi Madriz (https://www.instagram.com/shishi.madriz/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Driftin (https://driftin.one/produce).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Arsenio Baca (https://www.abacaart.com/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Jessica (https://www.instagram.com/jcaoart/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Eddie Ramirez (https://www.eddieramirezart.com/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Demetris BAMR Washington (https://www.bamrtheartist.com/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Ricardo Richey – APEXER (https://theapexer.com/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Robert Nexus-Nexx Ortiz (https://www.instagram.com/og_nexus_408/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Jesse Hernandez – Urban Aztec (http://www.jessehernandez.net/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

Norman Chuck – Vogue (https://www.voguesworld.com/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Raiz (https://www.pablosomething.com/) and Pancho Pescador (https://www.instagram.com/panchopescador/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

By Elba Raquel (https://www.elbaraquel.com/).

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural

Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Mural