Listen To or Read Thousands of Free Public Domain Audio Books, eBooks at LoyalBooks.com

There are thousands of books, music and other works that are in the public domain of the United States, meaning, they are available to anyone for free as they their copyright no long applies. 

Copyright laws have changed frequently over the years; here are some examples. Works created prior to 1923 are in the public domain. Works copyrighted between 1923 through 1963 expire 95 years after publication date of the copyright was renewed. For works created after 2002, they become part of the public domain 70 years after the death of the author. More details at copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm.

That said loyalbooks.com provides over 7,000 books free to the public that have become part of the public domain, both in eBook and audio book format. Books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Moby Dick, Great Expectations, Treasure Island, The Odyssey, Gulliver's Travels, War and Peace, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Bill Nye's Comic History of the United States and so many more.

The site also has books in foreign languages, including Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese and others. Visit www.loyalbooks.com to access books immediately and without registration requirements.

Aerial View of Central Thousand Oaks, Including Tarantula Hill, in 1957

Walt Dibblee opened his commercial studio in Ventura in 1949 and as Ventura County grew, the demand for aerial photography expanded. Walt bought a plane, learned to fly and for the next three decades photographed the cities of Ventura County from above.

The 1957 aerial shot above took place on a foggy day and captured Tarantula Hill on the right and what is now Conejo Community Park and the prominent Conejo Valley Botanic Garden hill in the foreground.

While we don't have an aerial shot of this scene from today, here's a look from the Los Robles Trail.

More recent view of Tarantula Hill from the Los Robles Trail East; The Oaks Mall in the foreground.

Walt's son Steve continues the tradition today with over 30 years of professional experience. Steve has shared some of Walt's work from the mid 1950s to the late 1960s at VenturaViews.com.

See other scenes from the smaller hill near Lynn Road and Gainsborough Road southwest of Tarantula Hill looking east and looking west.

Views in 1957 Looking West From Lynn and Gainsborough Roads in Thousand Oaks

In another post we showed a photo taken by Walt Dibblee from the mountain ridge at the northwest corner of what is now Lynn Road and Gainsborough Road in Thousand Oaks in 1957 facing east. This one faces the west, towards the Conejo Grade.

Gainsborough Road west of Lynn Road is Camino Dos Rios, which it appears the road in the photo above could possibly be, but is hard to tell. What is clear however is that back in 1957 there wasn't a lot of development in Thousand Oaks. Below is a photo taken from the same spot on a bit of a gloomy day in the Conejo Valley in February 2015. While the background scenery looks so much different, I felt a chill in my spine as I stood at the top of that hill on the same dirt, rock formations and vegetation, not to mention mountains in the distance, as Walt Diblee experienced 58 years ago.

See more of Dibblee's photographs from the mid 1950s to the late 1960s at VenturaViews.com where you also have the option of acquiring high-resolution prints of these blasts to the past. Thanks to Steve Dibblee for sharing some of his late father's work with us here on Conejo Valley Guide and at www.facebook.com/ConejoValleyGuide.

The Parent Project® Training Program for Parents of Adolescent Children - Upcoming Ventura County Classes Available

The Parent Project® was created for parents with difficult or out-of-control adolescents between the ages 11 and 19. Parents learn and practice specific prevention and intervention strategies for destructive behaviors - truancy, alcohol and other drug use, gangs and other criminal behavior, running away, violence and suicide. Parents are self-referred or can be referred to Parent Project classes by officers in the field, juvenile detectives, diversion programs, court systems, mental health professionals and school officials.

This program is available locally in various Ventura County locations.  Many programs are free or charge only a small fee for a Parent Project workbook. Sessions generally are 10 weeks.

Some upcoming local Parent Project classes as of January 2016 are below. Providers and costs vary. Click the link above to register online for most classes, or call the phone numbers below.

• Camarillo: Camarillo Police Department is offering Monday night sessions 3/14/16 to 5/23/16. No charge for sessions. Workbook $20. Call 805.388-5155
• Moorpark: Moorpark USD is offering Spanish language classes 1/5/16 to 4/26/16 on Tuesday nights from 6:15-9:15PM
• Oxnard: Free Spanish language classes 3/3/16 to 5/12/16 from 6-9PM at Channel Islands High School and 2/2/16 to 4/12/16 at Pacifica High School (both Spanish and English)

Additionally, Loving Solutions is a program designed for parents of 5-10 year olds with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD) offered locally from time to time.

Previous sessions have also been offered in Simi Valley, Ojai, Thousand Oaks, Ventura and Westlake Village. For more details about the Parent Project program, visit www.parentproject.com.

Conejo Valley Guide Followers Resolve to Pay it Forward and Get Healthy in the New Year

In a random drawing today on the Conejo Valley Guide Facebook page, CVG Facebook fans were asked for a new year's resolution for the fast-approach year 2016.

Tied for first place in the drawing, far ahead of the other responses, was to get healthy and to "pay it forward." 

Giving back, or paying it forward, was a popular choice, with responses like "give back to the community and volunteer," "perform at least one pay it forward moment each month," "look for an opportunity each day to help someone," "put a smile on someone's face every day" and "do more random acts of kindness."  I like that!

After getting healthy/healthier and paying it forward were the following resolutions (in order of number of mentions): Exercise/Play Sports,  Be Happy, Explore New Places, More Family Time, Get Positive, Bet a Better Job and Be a Better Me.

Some other motivational responses:

"Spread the happiness, peace and love this world so dearly needs"

"Be grateful every day for what I have and spend more time with loved ones"

"Smile more and have a more positive attitude"

"Be happy, less stressed and live in the moment"

"Live each day as if it's the last, with much happiness"

"Let the little stuff go and handle the big stuff with grace and deep thought"

"Eat healthier, purge negativity and see the library"

and last but not least, "Stop spending so much time on Facebook."

Tips For Using Public Wi-Fi Networks From the Federal Trade Commission

The Federal Trade Commission notes that wi-fi hotspots in public places like coffee shops, libraries, universities and so on, while convenient, are often unsecured, which means the information you send when you're logged in to these hotspots can be seen by others.

Short of simply not using public wi-fi hotspots, there are things you can do to protect yourself.

1. Try to confine your use of unsecured public wi-fi hotspots to web browsing rather than logging in to websites and apps that require personal information.

2. If you do need to sign in to websites using login and password information, try to only use sites that are encrypted, or that basically scramble the information submitted so that others can't see it. How do you know if it is encrypted? If there is an "s" after http at the beginning of the web address, that means it's secure. But make sure the https shows up on every page you visit, not just the page you sign in.

The good news is that many sites requiring login are consistently using https these days, like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, not to mention banking and financial sites. You may notice when you go to a site like Amazon.com, initially you'll see www.Amazon.com in the browser, but a secure web address once you click the sign in page.

As you can see, Yahoo mail uses https

3. The FTC notes that mobile apps don't have a visible indicator like https and that many mobile apps don't properly encrypt information. So if you have that $100 birthday check form Aunt Hattie and want to deposit it to your Chase account using your mobile app while enjoying your Frappuccino at Starbucks, use your phone's 4G or 3G data network, not the free wi-fi.

The Federal Trade Commission has more useful tips for using public wi-fi hotspots at www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0014-tips-using-public-wi-fi-networks.

County of Ventura's VC SafeDiner App Provides Convenient Access to Inspection Results

Ventura County Environmental Health launched the VC SafeDiner app for Apple and Android devices in early 2015.

VC SafeDiner is a quick and easy way to view the latest inspection results for food facilities in Ventura County. The app allows you to search by name, address or city; and also provides a map feature allowing you to view food facilities within a radius of your current location. Full inspection results for the last year are displayed, including recorded violations and inspector comments. 

I've tried it and it works great, replicating the searchable database on the County website at www.decadeonline.com/main.phtml?agency=VEN.