The Chinatown Mall Culture Fair is coming to Sacramento on Sept. 27 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Honoring the legacy of California's early Chinese pioneers who came to California for gold and faced prejudice in addition to the harsh environment of the West.
The event will feature live entertainment, food, renowned authors, filmmakers and historians. Last year this event brought 3,000 visitors from throughout Northern California. Numerous cultural organizations have come together to help celebrate Sacramento's rich Chinese heritage, culture, and arts. Watch performances and stage entertainment such as the "Lion Dance," Chinese martial arts and a Chinese fashion show.
Demonstration booths featuring calligraphy, Mahjong, Tai Chi, origami and more will be there for spectators and interested participants.
Sacramento Chinatown Mall is located between 3rd- 5th streets and I- J streets.
For more information visit www.yeefow.org/culturefair
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Rent-A-Text program at Sac State helps students scrimp
For college students, buying textbooks is a major expense of college, costing hundreds of dollars each semester or quarter.
Sacramento State's University Enterprises, Inc. and Follett Higher Education Group announced an alternative to buying textbooks. This fall a new program called Rent-A-Text will allow students the option of renting one of 500 titles at more than 55 percent of the retail price.
For example, a title that retails for $100 new and $75 used will be available to rent for just $42.50.
"I think our students will appreciate the diversification and choose which program is right for them," says Pam Parsons, director of the Hornet Bookstore. "Now students will have more options when they go to purchase textbooks: new, used, electronic books and rentals."
The Hornet Bookstore is one of seven Follett-managed bookstores in the country to pilot a full program which offers students the ability to rent textbooks.
Students interested in the Rent-A-Text program can visit the Hornet Bookstore to view a complete listing of titles. www.hornetbookstore.com.
Sacramento State's University Enterprises, Inc. and Follett Higher Education Group announced an alternative to buying textbooks. This fall a new program called Rent-A-Text will allow students the option of renting one of 500 titles at more than 55 percent of the retail price.
For example, a title that retails for $100 new and $75 used will be available to rent for just $42.50.
"I think our students will appreciate the diversification and choose which program is right for them," says Pam Parsons, director of the Hornet Bookstore. "Now students will have more options when they go to purchase textbooks: new, used, electronic books and rentals."
The Hornet Bookstore is one of seven Follett-managed bookstores in the country to pilot a full program which offers students the ability to rent textbooks.
Students interested in the Rent-A-Text program can visit the Hornet Bookstore to view a complete listing of titles. www.hornetbookstore.com.
Monday, August 24, 2009
In The Land of Nod
Daydreams are fun, but our brains really need the nocturnal kind.
A column I wrote about sleep will appear in the Elk Grove Citizen on Wednesday, Aug. 26.
There is so much information by scientists, physicians and laymen about sleep. Why we need it, what happens if we don't get it and how to get more.
We all need different amounts of sleep and NO ONE is excluded from needing it. Even if you can pull an all-nighter by drinking three Red Bulls or a gallon of coffee, by the next night your body will need more sleep to make up for the missed hours.
I started writing my weekly column about sleep because, well, I was tired. But fortunately, as an adult, I can help myself to a cup or tea or coffee to perk up. Children on the other hand cannot.
The most fatigued I've ever been was in junior high school. I woke up about the same time I do now- 6 a.m. But I was a growing teen then. I had a full schedule of extra curricular activities and after school activities too. Of course, I had fewer responsibilities than I do now. And I still have a packed schedule. But I think that extra hour or two would really help growing young adults.
A New York Times article titled “Snooze or Lose” focused on overscheduled, extremely ambitious children missing out on sleep. According to experts in the article, students now sleep one hour less than children did 30 years ago.
“It has been documented in a handful of major studies that children, from elementary school through high school, get about an hour less sleep each night than they did 30 years ago. While parents obsess over babies’ sleep, this concern falls off the priority list after preschool. Even kindergartners get 30 minutes less a night than they used to,” according to the article.
Stress may be part of the lack-of-sleep problems experienced by students, but I think schools start too early for many young kids.
I know this is so students’ schedules match-up with their parents’ work schedules. But ensuring students, especially children, get adequate sleep is essential to their success. “One study found that REM sleep affects learning of certain mental skills. People taught a skill and then deprived of non-REM sleep could recall what they had learned after sleeping, while people deprived of REM sleep could not,” according to the National Institute of Health Web site.
A column I wrote about sleep will appear in the Elk Grove Citizen on Wednesday, Aug. 26.
There is so much information by scientists, physicians and laymen about sleep. Why we need it, what happens if we don't get it and how to get more.
We all need different amounts of sleep and NO ONE is excluded from needing it. Even if you can pull an all-nighter by drinking three Red Bulls or a gallon of coffee, by the next night your body will need more sleep to make up for the missed hours.
I started writing my weekly column about sleep because, well, I was tired. But fortunately, as an adult, I can help myself to a cup or tea or coffee to perk up. Children on the other hand cannot.
The most fatigued I've ever been was in junior high school. I woke up about the same time I do now- 6 a.m. But I was a growing teen then. I had a full schedule of extra curricular activities and after school activities too. Of course, I had fewer responsibilities than I do now. And I still have a packed schedule. But I think that extra hour or two would really help growing young adults.
A New York Times article titled “Snooze or Lose” focused on overscheduled, extremely ambitious children missing out on sleep. According to experts in the article, students now sleep one hour less than children did 30 years ago.
“It has been documented in a handful of major studies that children, from elementary school through high school, get about an hour less sleep each night than they did 30 years ago. While parents obsess over babies’ sleep, this concern falls off the priority list after preschool. Even kindergartners get 30 minutes less a night than they used to,” according to the article.
Stress may be part of the lack-of-sleep problems experienced by students, but I think schools start too early for many young kids.
I know this is so students’ schedules match-up with their parents’ work schedules. But ensuring students, especially children, get adequate sleep is essential to their success. “One study found that REM sleep affects learning of certain mental skills. People taught a skill and then deprived of non-REM sleep could recall what they had learned after sleeping, while people deprived of REM sleep could not,” according to the National Institute of Health Web site.
Elk Grove Celebrity Psychic Reads My Mind
I’m skeptical when it comes to psychics. But I do believe there are things in this world we don’t understand, or have not yet discovered- both spiritual and scientific.
Having said that, I’m always open to new information- whether I disagree with it or not.
I met Celebrity Psychic and Elk Grove resident Belinda Bentley at a local Starbucks a few months ago. She’s been on national TV programs, and is the personal psychic for celebrities Dave Navarro and Margaret Cho.
She’s not a one-trick psychic. Bentley can read tarots, read palms and perform energy healing. She even does exorcisms on body parts.
“I’ve worked with people who thought different body parts were haunted,” she said. “It’s not that uncommon.”
Recently, a television network contacted Bentley and asked her to work with celebrities in a reality-type TV show.
Bentley is only 30 years old, but has already experienced so much in her life. She grew up in a conservative household in Los Angeles where spirits were considered demonic, she said. However, Bentley frequently felt spirits in her childhood home. Bentley said cabinets in the kitchen would open without anyone there and other strange phenomena would occur.
When she was a teenager, a friend jokingly suggested she was psychic. The friend’s boyfriend tested Bentley’s psychic skills by asking her a specific question, to the effect of “what did I do on a certain night a few years back?” He mentioned a specific date. Bentley guessed based on what she could see in her mind and was dead-on right. From that point on she decided to foster her psychic abilities. She moved to New Zealand for one year at age 20. More psychic experiences ensued.
While on a New Zealand beach, Bentley reached down to pick up a seashell. She felt a hand on her back. Bentley turned around to present the seashell to the person touching her, who she assumed was her daughter. She was shocked that no one was there- her daughter was on a hill in front of her.
Bentley has many stories about answering her past clients’ questions accurately, and knowing information that no one, or very few people could know about the person.
Psychic readings allow her to help people one-on-one, which is rewarding, she said.
But when people don’t listen to her advice Bentley said her job can be frustrating.
“There’s been times when people don’t listen and their life is hell,” she said. Then Bentley has to hear a sad story, which could have been prevented.
But when people do take-up Bentley on her advice, they’ll send her an e-mail saying she changed their life.
“I remember one woman, she tape recorded our hour session and she said ‘everything in that reading has come true,’ she said ‘every last detail,’ and I’m like ‘that’s 100 percent, that’s unheard of, even for me!’”
I’ve never encountered a psychic who is so shocked at her own abilities.
“We’re not taught that this is normal, but it is,” she said. “Everybody has a psychic connection.
“There are so many people who say they wish they came with a manual so they would know how to live life and a lot of people think that’s the Bible. I personally think it’s our intuition.”
She said people should listen to their intuition.
“You want a manual, and you don’t think you have one,” she said. “It makes no sense when you’re getting hints.”
To enhance or get in touch with your intuition, Bentley suggests meditating.
“Developing you intuition is about listening to yourself,” she said.
After our chat, Bentley gave me a reading.
I’ve had readings before and I’ve rarely liked them. I used to work at a retirement facility where one resident had been a psychic in NYC’s Hell’s Kitchen for 50 years. She gave me a reading and said I would go to graduate school (yeah!) but I would be low income for the rest of my life and only have one or two children (I want four.)
Another psychic once told me my heart is closed and it will be at least 8 year before I find love. Good thing that reading was free at a Farmer’s Market!
Even if the readings were good, I’d like to think we control our own futures.
Bentley had good predictions for my future. But one thing she said stuck out in my mind. It wasn’t something of great importance, but I can’t figure out how she could have known this fact.
Bentley said she felt like there was something else she had to tell me. After a long pause, she asked me if I’m going through a name change. “I’m am!” I replied. My friends and family call me Kate, but I’ve always applied to jobs with my full name, Katie. I mentioned to my mom that I might go by Kate at work too. Bentley said this would greatly help my career and my outlook on myself in my future career.
This wasn’t earth shattering, but I can figure out how she knew this. Maybe a lot of people are transitioning from their full name to a nickname? Or, Maybe Bentley saw a vision of the conversation I had with my mom in her mind?…
Having said that, I’m always open to new information- whether I disagree with it or not.
I met Celebrity Psychic and Elk Grove resident Belinda Bentley at a local Starbucks a few months ago. She’s been on national TV programs, and is the personal psychic for celebrities Dave Navarro and Margaret Cho.
She’s not a one-trick psychic. Bentley can read tarots, read palms and perform energy healing. She even does exorcisms on body parts.
“I’ve worked with people who thought different body parts were haunted,” she said. “It’s not that uncommon.”
Recently, a television network contacted Bentley and asked her to work with celebrities in a reality-type TV show.
Bentley is only 30 years old, but has already experienced so much in her life. She grew up in a conservative household in Los Angeles where spirits were considered demonic, she said. However, Bentley frequently felt spirits in her childhood home. Bentley said cabinets in the kitchen would open without anyone there and other strange phenomena would occur.
When she was a teenager, a friend jokingly suggested she was psychic. The friend’s boyfriend tested Bentley’s psychic skills by asking her a specific question, to the effect of “what did I do on a certain night a few years back?” He mentioned a specific date. Bentley guessed based on what she could see in her mind and was dead-on right. From that point on she decided to foster her psychic abilities. She moved to New Zealand for one year at age 20. More psychic experiences ensued.
While on a New Zealand beach, Bentley reached down to pick up a seashell. She felt a hand on her back. Bentley turned around to present the seashell to the person touching her, who she assumed was her daughter. She was shocked that no one was there- her daughter was on a hill in front of her.
Bentley has many stories about answering her past clients’ questions accurately, and knowing information that no one, or very few people could know about the person.
Psychic readings allow her to help people one-on-one, which is rewarding, she said.
But when people don’t listen to her advice Bentley said her job can be frustrating.
“There’s been times when people don’t listen and their life is hell,” she said. Then Bentley has to hear a sad story, which could have been prevented.
But when people do take-up Bentley on her advice, they’ll send her an e-mail saying she changed their life.
“I remember one woman, she tape recorded our hour session and she said ‘everything in that reading has come true,’ she said ‘every last detail,’ and I’m like ‘that’s 100 percent, that’s unheard of, even for me!’”
I’ve never encountered a psychic who is so shocked at her own abilities.
“We’re not taught that this is normal, but it is,” she said. “Everybody has a psychic connection.
“There are so many people who say they wish they came with a manual so they would know how to live life and a lot of people think that’s the Bible. I personally think it’s our intuition.”
She said people should listen to their intuition.
“You want a manual, and you don’t think you have one,” she said. “It makes no sense when you’re getting hints.”
To enhance or get in touch with your intuition, Bentley suggests meditating.
“Developing you intuition is about listening to yourself,” she said.
After our chat, Bentley gave me a reading.
I’ve had readings before and I’ve rarely liked them. I used to work at a retirement facility where one resident had been a psychic in NYC’s Hell’s Kitchen for 50 years. She gave me a reading and said I would go to graduate school (yeah!) but I would be low income for the rest of my life and only have one or two children (I want four.)
Another psychic once told me my heart is closed and it will be at least 8 year before I find love. Good thing that reading was free at a Farmer’s Market!
Even if the readings were good, I’d like to think we control our own futures.
Bentley had good predictions for my future. But one thing she said stuck out in my mind. It wasn’t something of great importance, but I can’t figure out how she could have known this fact.
Bentley said she felt like there was something else she had to tell me. After a long pause, she asked me if I’m going through a name change. “I’m am!” I replied. My friends and family call me Kate, but I’ve always applied to jobs with my full name, Katie. I mentioned to my mom that I might go by Kate at work too. Bentley said this would greatly help my career and my outlook on myself in my future career.
This wasn’t earth shattering, but I can figure out how she knew this. Maybe a lot of people are transitioning from their full name to a nickname? Or, Maybe Bentley saw a vision of the conversation I had with my mom in her mind?…
Yet another helpful app for the iPhone
The iPhone can help you if you’re lost, recommend a good restaurant within your budget, and now, fix a flat tire.
On Aug. 14, AAA announced a “Roadside application” for the iPhone to AAA members.
The free app is available for download on the iTunes App Store.
“When used, the app quickly sends a member’s vehicle location, description, specific vehicle problem and other detailed information directly to AAA for roadside assistance,” according to the press release.
Of course, a call can be made too.
Whether an AAA member calls Roadside Assitance or uses the app, AAA will contact the member to let them know their information was received.
The app also includes a “While You Are Waiting” feature. This allows members to search for nearby AAA Approved Auto Repair shops, Hertz rental locations offering AAA discounts, AAA approved accommodations, AAA offices and retail locations.
AAA Roadside is available for free from the iTunes App Store via an iPhone, or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.
AAA’s first app, AAA Discounts, launched in April 2009 and has been downloaded more than half a million times from the App Store.
For more information visit www.aaa.com
On Aug. 14, AAA announced a “Roadside application” for the iPhone to AAA members.
The free app is available for download on the iTunes App Store.
“When used, the app quickly sends a member’s vehicle location, description, specific vehicle problem and other detailed information directly to AAA for roadside assistance,” according to the press release.
Of course, a call can be made too.
Whether an AAA member calls Roadside Assitance or uses the app, AAA will contact the member to let them know their information was received.
The app also includes a “While You Are Waiting” feature. This allows members to search for nearby AAA Approved Auto Repair shops, Hertz rental locations offering AAA discounts, AAA approved accommodations, AAA offices and retail locations.
AAA Roadside is available for free from the iTunes App Store via an iPhone, or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.
AAA’s first app, AAA Discounts, launched in April 2009 and has been downloaded more than half a million times from the App Store.
For more information visit www.aaa.com
Monday, August 17, 2009
Yet another helpful app for the iPhone
The iPhone can help you if you’re lost, recommend a good restaurant within your budget, and now, fix a flat tire.
On Aug. 14, AAA announced a “Roadside application” for the iPhone to AAA members.
The free app is available for download on the iTunes App Store.
“When used, the app quickly sends a member’s vehicle location, description, specific vehicle problem and other detailed information directly to AAA for roadside assistance,” according to the press release.
Of course, a call can be made too.
Whether an AAA member calls Roadside Assitance or uses the app, AAA will contact the member to let them know their information was received.
The app also includes a “While You Are Waiting” feature. This allows members to search for nearby AAA Approved Auto Repair shops, Hertz rental locations offering AAA discounts, AAA approved accommodations, AAA offices and retail locations.
AAA Roadside is available for free from the iTunes App Store via an iPhone, or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.
AAA’s first app, AAA Discounts, launched in April 2009 and has been downloaded more than half a million times from the App Store.
For more information visit www.aaa.com
On Aug. 14, AAA announced a “Roadside application” for the iPhone to AAA members.
The free app is available for download on the iTunes App Store.
“When used, the app quickly sends a member’s vehicle location, description, specific vehicle problem and other detailed information directly to AAA for roadside assistance,” according to the press release.
Of course, a call can be made too.
Whether an AAA member calls Roadside Assitance or uses the app, AAA will contact the member to let them know their information was received.
The app also includes a “While You Are Waiting” feature. This allows members to search for nearby AAA Approved Auto Repair shops, Hertz rental locations offering AAA discounts, AAA approved accommodations, AAA offices and retail locations.
AAA Roadside is available for free from the iTunes App Store via an iPhone, or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.
AAA’s first app, AAA Discounts, launched in April 2009 and has been downloaded more than half a million times from the App Store.
For more information visit www.aaa.com
Yet another helpful app for the iPhone
The iPhone can help you if you’re lost, recommend a good restaurant within your budget, and now, fix a flat tire.
On Aug. 14, AAA announced a “Roadside application” for the iPhone to AAA members.
The free app is available for download on the iTunes App Store.
“When used, the app quickly sends a member’s vehicle location, description, specific vehicle problem and other detailed information directly to AAA for roadside assistance,” according to the press release.
Of course, a call can be made too.
Whether an AAA member calls Roadside Assitance or uses the app, AAA will contact the member to let them know their information was received.
The app also includes a “While You Are Waiting” feature. This allows members to search for nearby AAA Approved Auto Repair shops, Hertz rental locations offering AAA discounts, AAA approved accommodations, AAA offices and retail locations.
AAA Roadside is available for free from the iTunes App Store via an iPhone, or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.
AAA’s first app, AAA Discounts, launched in April 2009 and has been downloaded more than half a million times from the App Store.
For more information visit www.aaa.com
On Aug. 14, AAA announced a “Roadside application” for the iPhone to AAA members.
The free app is available for download on the iTunes App Store.
“When used, the app quickly sends a member’s vehicle location, description, specific vehicle problem and other detailed information directly to AAA for roadside assistance,” according to the press release.
Of course, a call can be made too.
Whether an AAA member calls Roadside Assitance or uses the app, AAA will contact the member to let them know their information was received.
The app also includes a “While You Are Waiting” feature. This allows members to search for nearby AAA Approved Auto Repair shops, Hertz rental locations offering AAA discounts, AAA approved accommodations, AAA offices and retail locations.
AAA Roadside is available for free from the iTunes App Store via an iPhone, or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.
AAA’s first app, AAA Discounts, launched in April 2009 and has been downloaded more than half a million times from the App Store.
For more information visit www.aaa.com
Monday, August 10, 2009
Find Local College Classes
Education never hurt anyone.
A new Web site, Courseopedia.com, locates local classes in your area of interest. Click on the subject you’d like to study, then type in your zip code.
The site is launching with listings for California schools and will gradually expand to create a nationwide source of information on personal enrichment, vocational and career advancement courses – including those offered by private instructors.
Courseopedia currently lists 30,000 courses from 17 California city and community colleges.
http://www.courseopedia.com
A new Web site, Courseopedia.com, locates local classes in your area of interest. Click on the subject you’d like to study, then type in your zip code.
The site is launching with listings for California schools and will gradually expand to create a nationwide source of information on personal enrichment, vocational and career advancement courses – including those offered by private instructors.
Courseopedia currently lists 30,000 courses from 17 California city and community colleges.
http://www.courseopedia.com
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