California

Album listing:

1. Sweet Charity
2. None Of Them Knew They Were Robots
3. Retrovertigo
4. The Air-Conditioned Nightmare
5. Ars Moriendi
6. Pink Cigarette
7. Golem II: The Bionic Vapour Boy
8. The Holy Filament
9. Vanity Fair
10. Goodbye Sober Day

California has a population of approximately 34,871,648 (2000 Census), with 217,753 legal immigrants entering in 2000 from Mexico, People's Republic of China, the Philippines, India, and Vietnam (the 5 leading countries, making up 39 percent of all immigrants in 2000). The unemployment rate has increased, rather significantly, since that whole fiasco in Silicon Valley (though I'm sure there are plenty of jobs in the military! Go! Protect Your Country! Anyway, What do all of these immigrants do?

Many do the jobs that are looked down upon by our society, that are the backbone of the Californian economy (no, they do NOT patrol beaches in little red swimsuits!):

• Crops~Within the USA, the following crops are commericially produced only in California: almonds, artichokes, dates, figs, kiwifruit, olives, persimmons, pistachios, pomegranates, prunes, raisins, and walnuts.
• Animals~Familiar with that advertisement "It's the Cheese" which pits Californian cheese against Wisconsonian(!) cheese? Well, we have more than 1,469,000 dairy cows--(methane!! Valuble land space!! Grr!!)--which provides us with billions of dollars, which we then invest in education.
  By the way, we also have a whole mess of bee colonies-over 500,000, valued at over $16 million. Pretty crazy, eh?
• Farms~ There are 87,000 farms and ranches in California, and more than 97 percent of the farms are family farms or partnerships. The average farm size is 318 acres, and the main commodities include: milk and cream, grapes, nursery products, cattle and calves, tomatoes, strawberries, flowers and foliage, timber, and hay. Most of which is grown in the state soil-- the San Joaquin series! See Cesar Chavez, migrant workers for more info...

California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom
www.agclassroom.org/ca

The California CTA station (known informally as the California El Station) is about halfway between the O'Hare station and the Loop on the Blue Line in Chicago. It, along with the Western and Damen stations, are the only three elevated stations on the Blue Line before the Blue Line splits into the 54/Cermak and Forest Park branches.

It is a rather plain station (though about 300,000 people used that station in one year). It has one exit, which leads onto California Street (at about 3000 west). Inside the station proper is a small convinence mart, which usually isn't open. After paying for the fare and going through the turnstiles, there is a choice of heading up one of two staircases; one leads to the side where O'Hare trains arrive, the other to where ]54/Cermak and Forest Park trains arrive.

The actual station is equally plain: two open-air platforms facing each other with a mess of tracks between them. The barriers on the sides of the platforms (to prevent people from falling off) are painted white. There are lights to illuminate the station at night (they are yellow lights, and do a good job of covering anything under them yellow). There are usually two sheltered areas on each platform, and one set of heat-lamps. From that vantage point, you can see the Chicago skyline (parts of it, anyway), a Subway, and various other restaurants.

All-in-all, the California station is a rather useful station. I've enjoyed using it for the last seven years. I recognize the people who have shops around the area, and it's not a bad neighborhood. It's a good place.