Christmas is a time for....

After seeing 2012 the other night, it made me think about the coming holiday. Even if the whole theory about the world ending in 2012 isn’t true, it still makes you want to spend time with your family.
The whole premise of the film is that the world is falling apart and is soon to be gone. It really makes you think about how precious time is. Even though the movie is not real it still brings up good points. In the film John Cusack’s character is divorced from his wife and barely spends anytime with his two children. As soon as the Earth’s destabilization starts he sees just how important his family is to him and how much he wants to be with them and an active part of their lives.

The thought that springs into my mind is the old adage of; you never know what is going to happen, as well as be prepared for anything to happen.
During this time of year we want to be around those we love and care about as much as possible.
As I mentioned in my Thanksgiving column, my grandmother is in a nursing home. Do to school I don’t get to see her as much as I would like to, especially with school. With the holiday season in full swing, it is hard to be away from family.
When I was younger the only time I saw my grandparents was during the holidays. They always worked and barely came up to see us. They only lived in Los Angeles, which at the time was only about two hours away from us, on a good traffic day.
I always have remembered that whenever it was Grandparents day, they were never there. I was always the only kid, who didn’t have her grandparents there with her. I went to a private school, so we always did something special. At the time I played piano, so I usually performed a song or two during chapel. Some of the other kids would “lend” me their grandparents for part of the day. The other grandparents were really generous about sharing their appreciation for all of the kids.
Once my grandparents retired, I hoped that the work excuse would no longer be there and that I would see them more often. Unfortunately I didn’t see them as often as I had hoped. Once we moved up to Northern California, not much changed either. We constantly tried to get them to move up here to be surrounded by family. My sisters both live up here, and my uncle is only a couple hours away. They still resisted coming up here though.

When my grandmother first became sick, the doctors tried to figure out what was wrong, but for months they could not come to a solid conclusion. Finally they found a mass on her lung. She went into surgery about a month later, and my mother went down to help. She stayed down there for two months helping with my grandmother’s recovery.
She was getting better.

About two months after, my mom came back home. Shortly after m grandmother started feeling ill again.

Once again the doctors poked and prodded at her.
She had scan after scan done, to see what was wrong.

They found that there was another mass on her adrenal gland.

It was inoperable.

My family started the long search of finding somewhere for her to go to be treated.
We found a doctor up here, and we made the decision to move her and my grandfather up to Grass Valley, and into our home.

Unfortunately treatment was not working for her, and she stopped.

Out of all the years I wanted to spend with my grandmother, this was not really what I had in mind.

Now all I want to do is spend as much time with her as possible.

This Christmas may be the last that I spend with her, and I want to make the most of it.

As Cusack found out in 2012, being with family is the only thing that matters.

Not so Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was a very different one.

It was the first Thanksgiving without my grandmother there.

She is still alive, but she is now in a care facility.

She has stage four, adrenal/lung cancer and for her own safety, due to a fall, and to lessen the stress on my grandfather, she went into one of the top of the line care facilities in Auburn. My sisters and uncles visited her during the day, but my mom and I stayed at home to prepare for the meal.

Naturally my grandfather didn’t come to Thanksgiving dinner. He stayed at the care facility with my grandmother and ate dinner with her. So Thanksgiving was short two people, leaving us with only thirteen at the table.

My mom had made a fabulous turkey and my sisters had made wonderful sides. It was great to see my family. My cousins I only see once a year, even though they only live in Minden, Nevada, which is like a two-three hour drive.

Not really that far.

Every Thanksgiving they come over to see us and stay for a couple days. Their dad comes with them, my mom’s brother, but their mother never comes. I would say that I haven’t seen her for a good seven, maybe eight years.

Being the youngest, I am still not quite clear on why she does not come. She used to come to Thanksgiving, but ceased to do so when they move to Minden. Though even when we lived in Solvang, my uncle would come all the way down with my cousin and spend time with us.
Apparently she stays home while they are gone and decorates the house for Christmas and has her “me” time. I find it to be very bazaar that she would not want to spend her Thanksgiving with her family.
I’ve heard that it’s because she does not like my Grandfather, which is understandable, since he isn’t the easiest to get along with.

He’s an Aries. Need I say more?

He likes to work the room, tell his jokes and be the center of attention. After awhile it really gets to be kind of old. Also it is near impossible to have a conversation with him. It’s very one-sided.

He talks.

You listen.

That’s it.

So if that were the reason I would completely be on her side, and understand. I’ve also heard that it is because my uncle told my grandparents something embarrassing about her and her family.

Ok. That works, but after awhile you’ve got to get over it. It’s not like anyone is going to hold it
against you. Everyone’s got their own issues, so it doesn’t really matter.
But whatever the reason is, I think it’s kind of silly for her not to spend time with her family on Thanksgiving.

My cousin’s are six and twelve. The oldest is getting to an age where she has to be wondering why her mother doesn’t come, and knows that it probably isn’t because she has to get the house all ready for the next holiday.

That would be an interesting conversation to be a fly on the wall for.

Then we get to my other uncle and his new wife, wife number three. You know what they say, third time’s a charm. I swear they are absolutely perfect for each other.

Each perfectly giving the rest of the family the cold shoulder. Got to love a couple who are so perfectly matched.

For reasons that I won’t go into, since I am steadily approaching the word limit, he and my mom aren’t entirely getting along at the moment and the sentiment has stretched to the entire family.
He and his wife were very guarded the entire night and where among the first to leave, with my late arriving grandfather.


Everyone was out by nine, which was perfect since I had to be up at three, to go to work for the ever exciting Black Friday.

But that’s a story for another column.

You killed it....

Achmed, Bubba J, Walter, and Peanut.

All are dummies.

Well, dummies for the ventriloquist comedian, Jeff Dunham.

Jeff Dunham has an interesting routine for a standup comic.
It is hard to come up with new, funny jokes all the time, but it is even more difficult to do so with characters. You need to have jokes that fit the character’s personality. This is something that Dunham does well.
He has done many shows and various specials for comedy central. Clips from his routines are all over YouTube. His current venture is a half hour comedy show on Comedy Central.

The show opens with Dunham talking and then it moves on to one of his characters. He starts out with a standup style opening and then it goes to a skit of one the characters. They either go to the doctor, or some other event that works with the character’s personality.

It’s usually a five minuet short, with the characters by themselves without Dunham present.

In itself that’s kind of interesting, since they are puppets.

In an episode he has Achmed the dead terrorist, who is a skeleton with a turban on his head; try to become a U.S. citizen. He sits in the class and answers the U.S. history questions with his funny smart ass remarks. It gets so ridiculous that even though you try, you can’t help but laugh. Achmed’s signature line is “I kill you!” In the short he becomes fed up with the teacher and says “I kill you!” She then straight faced critiques him on how to properly say the phrase. By the end, the entire class was attempting to repeat the phrase with an appropriate American accent.
Horribly painful by the end, but so bad you had to laugh at the ridiculousness.

Most of his characters show up in every episode, even if it is for a brief moment. Though it is nice to see his whole cast of characters, the little throw-ins do not make any sense. Even worse, they are not even funny.

In one episode they had Walter giving advice to a couple. The segment is titled Walter’s relationship advice. In the segment Walter does not cover anything relationship related. He gives the guy advice on how to get a job. It wasn’t to particularly funny and subpar to what his normal routines are.

As much as I hate to agree with the critics, the show is not as good as his regular comedy. His normal routine is far superior to this show. I am not sure if it was because I was expecting it to be like his stand up, or if it is really just a crappy set up.

During his stand up, he does a bit with one of his characters and then movies on to another. Even when he is on another character’s routine he will still incorporate one of the others.
For example, if he was doing a skit with Achmed, you would hear comments from Walter. You would never see Walter, but you would hear him or his laugh from somewhere off stage.

Also Peanut and Jose did a whole segment together, and even though Dunham put Jose away he would still talk from the box, which added a lot of extra humor to the routine, though his puppets are hilarious by themselves.

It really is a shame that his comedy central show is not quite as good as his stand up. It has, though, gotten an enormous amount of ratings

One critic, Randee Dawn, pointed out that just because it is popular that doesn’t mean that it is good.
As much as I disliked the rest of what the critic said about the show, I have to agree.

Maybe if they can work out the kinks within the show, then maybe it will improve. But until then I wouldn’t recommend watching the show.

For more of Dawn's review http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/tv-reviews/the-jeff-dunham-show-tv-review-1004026350.story

It's the most stressful time, of the year

As fall 2009 semester is winding down, the students stress levels are winding up.

Projects and tests are moving into the forefront of professors agendas. Not to mention that they are trying to wrap up the semesters, on target. They take the last couple weeks to cram as much information into our brains in order to “teach” us all they had planned, and have us spew it back out on a test the following week, plus everything we learned at the beginning of the semester.


Many students tend to put things off a little bit, which never helps. This is the time of the semester were people have to buckle down and focus on school, while still trying to maintain a reasonable social life, as well as their work schedule. If you work in retail, you know this is the biggest and busiest season, with Christmas coming and all.


Walking into the mall is a reminder of that. However pretty the decorations are, you always wonder, why can’t they wait until after Thanksgiving?
Though there are plenty of reasons for them to start the decorations and visits with Santa early. Ok how about waiting until after Halloween?


The decorations go up overnight anyways. There’s a thought, you never see half finished decorations in the mall. It’s not there one day, and boom! It’s all decked out the next.
So getting back to how this affects school, and the students. If you work in retail, the stores start staying open later and later the closer it gets to Christmas.

Our favorite is when the stores are open until midnight. In Grass Valley, no one is out at midnight. No one is even out past nine o’ clock. You maybe get a few people until ten, but past that, is pushing it.

So we poor associates have to stand around and do absolutely nothing. Sure we have to straighten and do go backs and make the stores look presentable for the next day.


That was done around seven thirty, and due to lack of traffic, hasn’t changed much.

In the back of your mind you find yourself thinking, there was a test that I could be preparing for, or I need to do my part of our groups power point presentation.


But no, we have to be there, in case someone wants to come shopping.

The other thing that is adding to the stress this year is planning for next year’s classes. This week they just released the new sign up dates for spring 2010. For me, the spring semester will be my last. So, of course, I submitted my graduation application last spring so I would be all set.


I wonder that if when they took in all of our graduation applications, if they knew that half of the classes we put down on the sheet wouldn’t be offered for the spring.

Sure the mock up of the schedule that was posted on My Sac State, said the classes would be offered, leading us into a false sense of security that everything would be fine and all we would have to do is sign up on our registration date.

Ah, but then we get down to our little budget crisis. Now half of the classes that are listed on my graduation application are not being offered anymore, and another one is moved to a different day.

A class being moved to a different day is a huge deal for me, because I drive in from Grass Valley every day. Well, every day I go to school that is.


It’s a bonus for me to get all my classes on two days so that I won’t have to use as much gas, and spend as much time driving.

Not to mention keep my work schedule, semi-normal.

So now, on top of projects and tests, I have to worry about if I am going to be able to get all my classes, including the substitute ones, so I can actually graduate in the spring.

This truly is the most stressful time of the year.

Pole-Dancing Cat

“You should carry it around with you, then you can do a little pole dance.”

Ahh…A kind customer’s suggestion for an improvement to my Halloween costume.

A few moments before, my well-meaning customer, came to me looking for a hook to get a workout top down from one of the face outs. (Face outs: metal bars protruding from the wall, where retailers put merchandise high up out of the average customers reach, to torment them, of course.)

First, she complimented me on my outfit saying that I looked “cute” and then proceeded to ask if I knew where the “pole that is used to get things down with” is, aka a hook. During the hunt for the elusive hook, slyly hidden on the opposite wall from the shirt she wanted down, came her good natured suggestion.

Ah the costume.

At my work, we are allowed to dress up for Halloween, as long as the costume does not interfere with our ability to do our job and as long as it is within dress code.
Check. Check.

Mine, consisted of an animal print dress with a six inch band of fur across the bottom. Faux fur, of course. It also had a layer of faux fur around the neck and attached to the back was a black tail. The dress wasn’t that short, but to prevent any situations arising, I added black leggings. Also in order to keep the outfit appropriate, I added a shrug to the top just in case people thought the cut of the shoulders was too revealing.

With black boots, and black gloves, I was almost all set. I painted on a nose and whiskers and made ears with silver pipe cleaners. For whatever reason, the outfit also included a blonde wig. As a brunette, I thought this could be kind of a fun experience, being blonde for a day.

I pinned the ears onto my blonde wig and I was set.

A blonde cat. It was Halloween, so it worked.

My co-workers got a kick out of the blonde wig, and the outfit in general. Most of the customers did as well. Plenty of “Oh my gosh! That is so cute!”’s were thrown my way. I was the only cat out of all the associated in the store, followed by a witch, a “shot in the dark”, and I’m assuming the other associate was a, putting it nicely, lady of the night. Though she was referred to, multiple times, as our bosses, “ho.”

Overall we were a pretty creative and eclectic bunch. The only other person that did not approve of the outfit was in fact not a person at all.


It was my tortoise shell cat, Kaci.

She happened to be in the front yard when I was on my way out. The look that cat gave me said it all.
“What is wrong with you?, What have you done?, and Why?,” were combined all into one, and followed swiftly by a disapproving “meow” and a shake of her little head.

With that she turned away and as if to prove that a real cat was the only cool cat, she gave me a sassy swish of her tail.

With that reaction, I guess I should have known better than to actually go out in public.

Carroling Along

“Those Romantic Islets of Langerhans.”

Not a typical title for a column on diabetes, especially since the author has type II diabetes himself.

For Jon Carroll this is just another one of his daily columns for the San Francisco Chronicle. This particular one was from February1999, part of his “greatest hits” collection that is linked to his biography, on the Chronicles website.

Carroll was born in Los Angeles and raised by his mother in Pasadena. He attended University of California, majoring in experimental chemistry and biology. Interestingly enough it was in a non-classroom setting, but he left after a year and a half.

He started out at the Chronicle editing the crossword puzzle and also wrote summaries of TV movies. In 1970 he was the assistant editor of Rolling stone. In 1971 he was the editor of Rags. In 1972 he was the editor of Oui and in 1974 he was the West coast editor of Village Voice. He also was a consulting editor for WomensSports magazine and in 1978 he was the editor of New West magazine. He won the national Magazine Award in 1979.

He started writing his column at the Chronicle in 1982. He has been writing columns there for fifteen years, on a daily basis.

Most of his columns seem to discuss what is going on in life and in the country, and many have to do with things in his own life. The best quality of Carroll’s columns is that they all have a humor aspect to them. Some are funnier than others, but even the straighter, less humorous ones have that line, or two that make you stop and laugh.

Getting humor into a story and making it truly funny is a very hard thing to do, but Carroll seems to do it well. Even his biography on the SFGate has a humorous quality to it. It reads almost like a product description. It even ends with, “store in a warm, dry place. Rapier wit sold separately.”


He always puts a little bit of himself into his columns, where you learn little facts about him that are interesting, strange, or just plain amusing. One of his recent columns was entitled “Bad house Guest.” In this column you learn a lot about Carroll and his perspective on things. Though part two of the column was much more amusing than part one. You can almost picture this guy sneaking out of a party back to his house for awhile and then sneaking back in, hoping to do so unnoticed, worked the first time, but not the second. Even in part one, you can picture him sitting on the bed in someone’s guest room perusing a book off their book shelf, until he decides he wants to come back out again.

It’s interesting that he puts a lot of first person into his columns, but when he really makes a point he uses “one” instead of, “I.” For example in his column, “Semi-coherent babblings,” he was talking about the Bay Bridge breaking. He used “I” in a lot of the column, but in one portion he said, “One hates to say, ‘shoddy workmanship’, but one is thinking that, and then he puts it back out to the readers. It is a very clever way to pose a question and give your answer at the same time.

Carroll has greatest hits of his columns over the years linked to his biography page, as well as his Mondegreens columns.

Columns on misheard lyrics and phrases.

Not only are they hilarious by themselves but there are marvelously set up within the column.

Mexican on a budget

Walking into the quant, but colorful restaurant you are not certain what to expect. At Taqueria on J Street, you walk right up to the counter to order your meal. There is a large white board across the back wall with black writing that contains the menu. There is also a physical menu on the counter, just in case you want to sit down and look it over. The restaurant overall is very informal and a great place to get together with friends and just hang out. They have an HD TV in the corner with a sports game playing.



On one of the orangey yellow walls there is even a Sac state Hornets flag. On the counter there is a tip jar with the words “Good Karma” written on the outside. This is very clever and an inventive way to ask for tips. Ordering was very easy once I weighed through the choices. A chicken burrito was the final decision. Taquiera has a chip bar where you can go and get some chips and of course unlimited refills, as well as multiple salsas’s to pair with the chips.
Ordering did not take very long and it also did not take very long to find a seat. It looked like we came at the right time though. After we all took a seat a line of 6 or so people formed to order.


Despite that the food came rather quickly. My burrito was bigger than I expected it to be, which made it a good deal for the $5.10 that is was. The chicken was tender and nicely flavored and the beans and rice in the burrito with it were also very tasty. The only thing was that the burrito kind of wanted to fall apart every time I tried to pick it up. I had to eat part of it with a fork and then pick up the other part and eat it, which wasn’t that big of a deal. To drink I had a soda out of the soda fountain. I had a regular Coke, but it tasted a lot like a diet Coke, so I am not sure what happened there. It was too bad though. I am not a big fan of diet drinks in generally, so having my Coke taste like a diet was fairly disappointing.


There were a few tough pieces of chicken in my burrito, but they were easy enough to take out and continue on eating.



The restaurant had an authentic Mexican feel to it. It had a wide selection of food, from quesadillas to nachos to tacos and burritos. If you like Mexican food it is definitely a great, reasonably priced place to go and eat. Location wise it is in a great place. It is close to campus and to the 80. The only problem with its location is the lack of parking. Taquieria has a very small parking lot with maybe ten spaces in it. In this case you would have to park on the street.

If you are lucky you can get a space in the parking lot or right in front of the restaurant, but if you are not you may have to park further away and walk to the restaurant.




Overall it was a great place to eat with reasonable prices and good food. I would recommend going there to have a laid back meal with friends.

Dress Your Best

Jeans, tank top, and flip flops are not the kind of attire you would expect from someone going in for an interview.

It does not scream professional.

Even if you are going in to just put in your application you should have a well put together outfit on.
Being in retail for four years, I have seen many people come and go like a perpetual revolving door. With Some, the amount of time they were there fit in with my initial impression of them.


A few I saw and remembered from when they were submitting an application. I was shocked at how they were dressed. Many of them dressed a little nicer for their interviews, but not much.

These days it is all about the first impression. If you look like you are serious, then people will take you seriously.

In high school we were always told to “dress for success.” A great deal of emphasis was put on looking your best so that you can do your best. It is interesting to see that when you Google, “What to wear to an interview,” you see that phrase come up quiet often.

Many websites offer numerous suggestions for interview attire. Monster has an article by Peter Vogt, which details what the possible options are for an interview outfit.
His main source, Amy Glass, says that you are marketing yourself as a product to the company you are interviewing for. She said that a conservative suit for a man would be appropriate, and a conservative suit as a woman as well.


Most people really want to show off their personalities through their clothes, but in an interview situation it is not entirely appropriate, though it depends on what you are interviewing for.


Glass said that it is better to be overdressed then underdressed. Her advice is to get one good suit and then change it up from time to time with different shirts and accessories.

It is easy to find suits, since most retailers have them and you do not have to spend a lot of money on them.


Personally I think that have suit pieces that can be easily mixed and matched is another great way to go. If you have repeat interviews, they will not know that you are wearing one of the pieces you wore before, and it is a way to have more fun with the suit.


Many store juniors sections have nice suits that are not overly trendy, but are appropriate for the age range and can be mixed and matched. Even some of the suiting separates in stores can be mixed and matched.


If you are not sure what shirt to pair with an outfit, you can always go to the stores website, or catalogue and look up the suit. You can see what they paired with it and get some idea from there.

Or you could ask someone else for advice. In an interview you want to look as sharp as you can and market the best “you.”

Will I be a Phoenix???

With the state’s budget woes sinking further, would something like selling off the CSU system to a private education provider be that farfetched?


William Tierney’s idea that the state sell off the CSU system for billions of dollars, may seem like a good one on the outside. But is it really?


It would save the state money to look into having someone else take the CSU’s off of its hands.

Tierney probably does not mean for people to take the University of Phoenix as the one end all option here. It’s an idea, an idea that has gotten a lot of glances. It’s interesting to scroll through the comments that have been left on Tierney’s seemingly out there piece. Some have pointed out the fact that he works for a for-profit university, which would seemingly be in his best interest to push something like a private institution taking over the education system.

For a long time the private education system has been seen to be far superior to the public one as well as far more expensive.

There has to be a better way to get small classes, excellent teachers, and work-force ready students without breaking the bank.

Maybe the answer lies in the professors, or maybe in the drive of the students, or maybe, just maybe it goes back even further than that into high school and grammar school.


When was it that the public school system first started failing us?

I would argue day one.

There are many dedicated teachers in within the public school system but they can only do so much against the people who hold the money. I sometimes wonder if the teachers give up and just become complacent. Meanwhile forgetting all the things they wanted to see happen, and year after year turn out mediocre students that will scramble their way up through the rest of the public schools and onward into college.

To be fair, I spent most of my school years in the private sector of education. After seeing how education had gone, my parents decided that they would rather me go into a private school from the beginning, saying that they wished they had kept my sister in a private school instead of sending her to a public one. They always believed that she would have excelled further and done better if they been able to put her through a private school like mine.

I will also admit that I was a tremendous fan of my K-8 experience and when I got into high school I was able to go into all the AP courses at the public high school. The only regret I have is letting them talk me into taking a lower Spanish course then I should have. I should have stood up and said, “No I am going to take Spanish 2, because I know I can do it. I know I can handle it.”

But no. I let administration, the teachers, and my parents tell me that, maybe it was better that I start in at Spanish 1. It would be a great refresher course, and then I would be all set for Spanish 2 the next year.

It was a miserable experience.

I was bored out of my mind. With a huge class size, my teacher didn’t see that I was bored and was able to do so much better. He failed as a teacher, my parents failed to believe in me, worst of all, I failed to stand up for myself.

Teachers get so used to dealing with mediocre students that nothing fazes them and onyl being able to do so much because of the all to commonly blamed "budget problems."

Students should learn to stand up for themselves and demand more from their education system.

Demand that they be taught so that they will be prepared for the workforce. Take pride in their education.

Something needs to light a fire under students so they see that something, something needs to be done with the CSU system, before there is just a moneyless skeleton of a half-way decent education system. Something to get them to take charge of their education, and future generation’s education.


Maybe Tierney’s column will do just that.

Education: Our future?

In Germany students are required to learn multiple languages while they are in school. Some are required to start learning English by the 3rd- 5th grade.

Some even start learning a second language as young as the first grade.

In high school, we had a foreign exchange student from Germany who could speak multiple languages. I remembered being amazed that she knew more than just English and German. She also knew French and Spanish.

And it wasn’t just some key phrases here and there- she was fluent in all four.

That definitely trumped our measly language and a half. Half- being the Spanish we were “learning” but used so infrequently that we did not retain what we had learned the day before. Not to mention the program as a whole was not up to snuff and wasn’t set up to be taken seriously.

At the moment the school system in the U.S. is not up to par with other countries, and not just when it comes to foreign language.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development did a study in 2007 that ranked countries on how well 15-year-olds were doing in science.

The U.S. came in 29th out of the 57 countries that were surveyed, Finland being at the top. Math as well as science is measured in the survey, but they focused mostly on the science aspect in the 2007 study.

Science is a big contender in the world. It can create jobs with new breakthroughs, and bring cures to such things as cancer.

Wouldn’t it make sense for one of the top countries in the world to have students who were competent in the math and science categories?

Really, science has gotten us very far. From Edison with his light bulb, to NASA coming up with the technology that allowed for the MRI machine to be built.

We have had many scientific breakthroughs and discoveries, but it seems like we are slowing down. Could this have something to do with the U.S. score of only 489 on the science survey? A considerably low score and below the average of 500.

The question is: how do we get American’s serious about education?

President Obama wants to lengthen the school days as well as the school year. An idea that may be less than popular with many children, since they just want to get out as fast as possible. Not to mention it would put an even further strain on the city budgets.

On the White House’s Website it goes in depth into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which shows changes to all level of education including higher education.



One point it makes is that Obama “will push to end the use of ineffective, "off-the-shelf" tests, and support new, state-of-the-art assessment and accountability systems that provide timely and useful information about the learning and progress of individual students.”
Here is a good point. Many “off-the-shelf” tests are not designed to really measure how the individual student is actually doing.

Tests like the SAT.

Another great point it makes is the emphasis it puts on just how important teachers are to the learning process. The International Review of curriculum and Assessment of Frameworks put emphasis on this as well.

An interesting point that was made is that in Germany the curriculum is managed by the teachers and it is there full responsibility. The only thing the government controls is what subjects are to be taught, important things like history, math, science, art, foreign language, and even sport.
Maybe going back to the basics would be helpful to getting students interested in school again and tailoring curriculums to subjects that will serve them well in the future

A whole new level of Multi-tasking

Next to me, there is a woman talking on her phone. She was recounting her day to her friend, talking all of the oddities in her life. Sure, you think, we all do that.

She was talking, in the bathroom.

Everyone has their cell phones with them at every minute of every day, but talking in the bathroom? Is that really completely necessary?

The last thing you want to hear is the person in the next stall talking on the phone to her friend about whether or not she and her boyfriend are a good fit.

I have seen people do many things while talking on the cell phones. They shop, drive, and apparently now visit the restroom too!
Last week there was a gal in the rest room in Mendocino Hall pacing back and forth in front of the sinks because she was on the phone and talking with a friend. Their conversation didn’t seem to be worthy of being taken into the actual stall.
But apparently it was the pace in front of the sink worthy type of conversation. The difference? Who knows?

The interesting thing about this, is that it is not just young college age twenty-something’s doing this either-- grown adults do it too!

A while back I was in a department store and went to use the rest room and low and behold this woman walks in and she is talking. This is something that it not uncommon, since women generally visit the bathroom in pairs.

I realized she was on the phone when no one replied back after she paused. If that wasn’t enough she went into the stall, did what she had to do, flushed the toilet, and came back out, all while carrying on a conversation with her friend, about when they want to plan for dinner and when everyone should come over to her house…

A conversation about food. In a bathroom. On a cell phone?


This really takes going to the bathroom in pairs to a whole new level.

According to the US Census 2004-2005 Statistical Abstract of the United States, cell phone use is up over 300 percent and in 2003 159 million people had cell phones. By now we are probably up to somewhere around 255 million, maybe more.

That is a lot of cell phones out there to be used at various times. People literally are on their cell phones every minute of the day. I brought this up to my boyfriend, because I was so shocked when this first occurred. I wasn’t sure whether I should laugh, or feel just a little bit violated. I had to know. Do men do this too?

The look he gave me said it all, but he followed it up with an emphatic, “No!” So now, I am curious.

Is this more of a woman’s thing because we have an obsession with multi-tasking? Do we feel that by talking on the phone and using the restroom we are saving time somehow?


Hopefully the multi-tasking takes itself a step further and the women wash their hands!

Multi-Tasking Goes to a New Level

Next to me, there is a woman talking on her phone. I can hear all about her day and her personal issues. Now many of you may wonder, why this is worthy of a column topic?

She was talking, in the bathroom.

Everyone has their cell phones with them at every minute of every day, but talking in the bathroom? Is that really completely necessary?

The last thing you want to hear is the person in the next stall talking on the phone to her friend about whether or not she and her boyfriend are a good fit.

I have seen people do many things while talking on the cell phones. They shop, drive, and apparently now visit the restroom too!

Last week there was a gal in the restroom in Mendocino Hall pacing back and forth in front of the sinks because she was on the phone and talking with a friend. Their conversation didn’t seem to be worthy of being taken into the bathroom, at least to a bystander. But apparently it was only the sink worthy type of conversation as opposed the actually go in and use the bathroom worthy.

The interesting thing about this, is that it is not just young college age twenty-something’s doing this either. Awhile back I was in a department store and went to use the rest room and low and behold this woman walks in and she is talking. This is something that it not uncommon, since women generally visit the bathroom in pairs.

I realized she was on the phone when no one replied back after she paused. If that wasn’t enough she went into the stall, did what she had to do, flushed the toilet, and came back out, all while carrying on a conversation with her friend, about when they want to plan for dinner and when everyone should come over to her house…

A conversation about food. In a bathroom. On a cell phone?

This really takes going to the bathroom in pairs to a new level.

According to the US Census 2004-2005 Statistical Abstract of the United States, cell phone use is up over 300 percent and in 2003 159 million people had cell phones. By now we are probably up to somewhere around 255 million, maybe more.

That is a lot of cell phones out there to be used at various times. People literally are on their cell phones every minute of the day. I brought this up to my boyfriend, because I was so shocked when this first occurred. I wasn’t sure whether I should laugh, or feel just a little bit violated. I had to know. Do men do this too?

The look he gave me said it all, but he followed it up with an emphatic, “No!” So now, I am curious. Is this more of a woman’s thing because we have an obsession with multi-tasking? Do we feel that by talking on the phone and using the restroom we are saving time somehow?

Hopefully the multi-tasking takes itself a step further and the women all wash their hands!

Wondering What to Wear to Fall Weddings? Here are a few options.

September is the fourth largest month for weddings. According to the Association for Wedding Professionals International, 213,000 people were married September of 2008. September is a tricky month for finding the appropriate wedding attire. It is still warm enough to have an outdoor wedding, though the weather is unpredictable and can turn at any moment.

With that said the question that pops into most people’s minds is “What am I going to wear especially in this season?” This is a question that contrary to popular belief plagues both men and women. (Mostly it is because women are usually pestering the men for ideas on what to wear to the afore mentioned weddings.)

All joking aside it is a matter that most people take very seriously. Many brides think about what the guests are going to wear even in the planning of the wedding. Many sites have cheat sheets for guests so that they can plan what they are going to wear based off of the littlest detail, like what the wedding invitation looks like.

The knot.com is one site in particular that has a guest dress cheat sheet. In theirs they go through what would be deemed appropriate based on what the invite says. For example if the wedding invite says black tie. The knot.com suggests you should wear a cocktail dress or something very “chic” and of course a tuxedo for a guy. This is the most formal type of attire and will most likely be a rare one for college students and recent graduates.

Dressy casual and casual are most likely the top two choices for weddings. For example a friend had an outdoor wedding on Sunday. The guests had a large range of clothing choices, some more casual than others. Of course the wedding party was dressed to the nines with pinstripe tuxedos on the gentleman and long black and white gowns on the ladies. Yet some of the guests showed up in jeans and shorts.

Now the location was definitely suitable for jeans, since it was a rural farm area with a nice grassy knoll and pond, and the wedding invitation did not specify what to wear. But why ruin the natural and romantic location by not dressing appropriately. The knot.com says jeans are not appropriate for the most casual of weddings. They actually suggest that you should go business casual in order to be on the “safe side.”

Many people may ask, “What is business casual?” Gentlemen this would mean a nice pair of slacks with a nice shirt and polo, preferably tucked in so that you look presentable. For the ladies this could be a whole array of options. The knot.com suggests a skirt with a blouse or a nice summer sundress. If it is getting towards cooler weather you may want to wear a nice casual dress or pair your sundress with a nice shrug in case the weather turns on you, especially with an outdoor wedding. Even if the wedding does not specify what styling is appropriate you can generally go with the standby of what time of day it is. Morning weddings are more casual, afternoon wedding can go from dressy casual to slightly formal, and evening weddings are generally more of formal attire.

Shorts, on the other hand, go into the jean and tank top category as probably not wedding wear appropriate. Guys you can suffer through a couple hours of wearing pants and a nice shirt. Also if you are single, looking well put together may help attract the equally well put together ladies.

Rally Held to Protest Fee Increases

Wednesday, students, faculty, and members of the community all came together to protest the budget cuts and the fee increases that are being followed by teacher furlough’s in University classes.
The rally opened with a song written by David Bradfield, and revised by Peter Baird for the rally, called the Furlough Blues.
The song got everyone in the mood for listening to speakers from various parts of the campus and the community. Students, teachers and ASI leaders all spoke on their feelings about the budget cuts and the now teacher furloughs.
Many were very passionate about the cause and gave moving speeches that they crowd was very wrapped up in. Some in the crowd went on and on with the lead mantra of “when they say cut back, we say fight back.” Some were so enthused by the mantra that they kept going even after the speaker who started it was done. Some in the crowd even started into the mantra themselves, even without the speakers help.
One of the other mantra’s was a little troubling though, and many in the crowd were so wrapped up in the chanting that they most likely did not stop to think about the implications of what they were saying.
They started chanting, “Tax oil, not students.” While at face value this looks like a wonderful thing, until you actually stop and think about what you are saying. Three people in the crowd actually did stop and think about what the chant implied. Three, out of the 200 hundred or so that were in the audience. That is an awfully low number especially for a crowd in a higher education arena.
Let’s break down what is being said here, “tax oil, not students.” Sacramento State is known for being a commuter college. So that means that many of the students drive their cars into campus from 5, 10, 15, and up to 50 miles away, some maybe even farther. Now, what fuels those cars? Gas, which comes from oil refineries. Every student needs gas to fuel their cars. If you end up taxing oil, the tax will automatically pass itself down to the end consumer, in this case the students, not to mention the teachers, and everyone else who drives cars. It is a nice idea, but not a very productive one. You end up taxing the students no matter what.
One of the community members put it in the terms of taxing the oil tycoons that have exorbitant amounts of money do to success in the oil industry. He said that we should charge them for the oil they have taken out of the California soil. Nice thought, but the cost will still transfer to everyone who buys gas.
While the idea behind the rally was solid, the focus was on stopping the budget cuts.
A question that comes to mind is how we are going to stop the budget cuts. Here is a concept that was not introduced at the rally.
Sure they said they want to stop the cuts, but they do not want fees increased. Rally organizers handed out the numbers of the Chancellor, and of President Gonzalez so that students and teachers can complain to them about the fees and furloughs. Complaining only gets you so far though. Eventually you have to come up with alternative solutions.
How are we going to stop fee increases and budget cuts if the State is still spending money like they actually have it?