The Conejo Valley Guide "Welcome" blog covers a wide range of topics, local information, highlights of local things to do, compilations and other items. Focus is on information relevant to Ventura County and surrounding areas, including Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Newbury Park, Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Malibu, Simi Valley, Camarillo, Moorpark, Somis, Fillmore, Santa Paula, Ojai, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Santa Barbara and Moorpark.
The Conejo Valley Guide® "Welcome" blog covers a wide range of topics, local information, local things to do, holiday event compilations, announcements and more.
My talented photographer friend in China has supplied us with a fresh set of pictures from Huangshan (literally Yellow Mountain) and Hongcun, a village near the southwest slope of Huangshan. Hongcun was made popular in 2000, with the release of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language winner (and Best Picture nominee) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that was filmed there.
As I type this post on a windy Columbus Day holiday in Ventura County, the stock market is up over 11%, thanks in part to an announcement that the U.S. Treasury may buy some bank stocks! Talk about a volatile market! Stocks were down 18% last week, 24% over the last 2 weeks and 40% over the last year!
What prompted me to write this was that my wife mentioned we have a savings account at Washington Mutual. There have been so many banking changes that I couldn't even remember who now owns WaMu (it is now JP Morgan Chase)! So here's a high level compilation of some of the major events of the year...so far!
10/13/08 (today): The Federal Reserve approved Wells Fargo's purchase of Wachovia. This deal is expected to close by the end of the year. Wachovia is (soon to be was) the 4th largest bank in America. Originally Citigroup tried to buy Wachovia but Wells Fargo offered more $$.
10/3/08: FDIC deposit insurance limits are temporarily raised from $100K to $250K per account until 12/31/09. Now if they could just tell me where I can get this much money fso I can utilize these limits.
9/25/08: Washington Mutual is shut down by the Office of Thrift Supervision and FDIC (the largest bank failure in U.S. history), only to be immediately sold to JP Morgan Chase that same day. JP Morgan Chase now claims to be the largest U.S. bank.
9/16/08: Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch for $50 billion (way to go, B of A!). The deal will close sometime in Q1 2009.
9/15/08: Lehman Brothers files Chapter 11. Sorry guys, no bailout for you! But the next day, Barclay's Bank bought Lehman's businesses and assets. So Lehman is still around.
9/7/08: The Government takes over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Maybe they should upgrade their names to something like Angelina and Brad or other more popular names.
9/6/08: The Government steps in and saves AIG from its liquidity issues by taking the equivalent of an 80% stake in the company.
7/11/08: IndyMac, with local branches in Thousand Oaks, Camarillo and Ventura, is the 2nd largest bank failure in history (now the 3rd largest, thanks to WaMu). But that's o.k., they are now owned and operated by the Feds and all's fine. Anyone wanna buy a bank? How about McDonald's? Rename it BigMac bank and pay interest in french fries??
7/1/08: Countrywide officially becomes owned by Bank of America. So now the big question is...when are they gonna change it to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza's "Bank of America Performing Arts Plaza"??
5/31/08: JP Morgan Chase bought Bear Stearns. They opted against calling the new entity JP Morgan Chases Bears.
Well let's all hope that we are headed in the right direction!
BikeSafe is a new bicycle safety campaign launched in April 2008 designed to educate the Thousand Oaks community about good riding and driving practices that help keep everyone safe on the road. The campaign focuses on youth and adult cyclists, with an emphasis on the importance of riding with the traffic not against it.
BikeSafe has tips for local bicyclists and drivers, a great local area bike map, bicycling brochures for adults and children (in both English and Spanish), links to other bicycling website, information about local events and other information.
Check it out at www.toaks.org/bike or call the Thousand Oaks Public Works Department at 805.449.2400 for more information.
The location of these pictures is Mount Huang (also known as Huangshan, which literally means "yellow mountain" in Chinese), located in eastern China. This is one of the most popular tourist destinations in China, known for scenery, sunsets, granite peaks, pine trees and views of the clouds. My friend who took the pictures tells me Huangshan is the Chinese equivalent of Yosemite.
We're all stressed out with this economic mess and worried about making ends meet as we watch our retirement funds evaporate. So we're all working hard. Here's something to help us keep some perspective during these trying times. This one hits home with me.
A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door.
SON: 'Daddy, may I ask you a question?'
DAD: 'Yeah sure, what it is?' replied the man.
SON: 'Daddy, how much do you make an hour?'
DAD: 'That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?' the man said angrily.
SON: 'I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?'
DAD: 'If you must know, I make $50 an hour.'
SON: 'Oh,' the little boy replied, with his head down.
SON: 'Daddy, may I please borrow $25?'
The father was furious, 'If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I don't work hard everyday for such childish frivolities.'
The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.
From the good intentions, questionable impact department. Our Governor signed into law Senate Bill 1420 yesterday, which will require restaurant chains with 20 or more locations to publish the calorie content of their food beginning on 1/1/11.
The goal was to ensure that we, the ravenous masses, know how many calories we are inhaling so that perhaps we make wiser food choices. I suppose it may make some of us think twice. For example, when I see that a Big Mac has 120 calories more than a Quarter Pounder clear as day on that menu, maybe I'll grab the Quarter Pounder. Yeah, that's it! I'll go on a Quarter Pounder diet!
The law doesn't apply to chains of 19 or less locations, farmers' markets, grocery stores, commissaries and school cafeterias. So Mastro's Steakhouse will be at a major advantage as they will not have to tell me I'm eating 3 billion calories in my meal!
The law says that after 1/1/11, "every food facility that uses an indoor menu board shall disclose calorie content information for a standard menu item next to the item on the menu board in a size and typeface that is clear and conspicuous." All right you brilliant lawmakers, take a look at this Taco Bell menu and tell me how you're gonna fit "clear and conspicuous" calorie information on there! I already have a hard enough time reading these cluttered menus!
Perhaps the real goal here is to make menus so incomprehensible that people get fed up and start eating at home! I heard LensCrafters was a big supporter of this law.
But let's zero in their definition of "standard menu item." SB 1420 defines this as a food or beverage that is on the menu at least 180 days per calendar year and excludes special orders, alcohol, salad bars and buffets. Souplantation, you're off the hook!
Loophole Alert! Hey all they have to do is change the menu every 179 days and the law doesn't apply! I can see it now. Carl's Jr., Wendy's and Burger King strike an agreement to swap menus every 179 days just to get around this law.
The law goes on to say that if a menu item is a combination of 2 or more other menu items, then you must show the minimum/maximum calorie counts based on all possible combinations. El Pollo Loco was shaking in its boots at this one. Imagine...the kids meal combo has 11 different sides and 3 entrees. That's 33 different combinations, ignoring beverages! Uggghhh!
They are letting drive-thru menus off the hook, kind of. Instead of publishing calories on the drive-thru menu, they can provide a brochure with the calorie counts. "Hi, I'd like a Double Double and Strawberry Shake please. But hold on, I would like to review your calorie content brochure prior to placing my order. Thank you."
Violation of this law will be an infraction, punishable by a fine of $50 to $500. Watch out for those Calorie Cops!!
A friend of mine who grew up in the Southland has lived in Asia for the last 15 years with his family. His day job involves finance and accounting but his true passion and calling in my opinion is photography. His family recently visited Langkawi, a cluster of 99 islands off the coast of Malaysia. Langkawi means "Eagle Island," as eagles are in abundance there as you will see below. Enjoy the following or click here for a slideshow view.
Conejo Valley Guide covers events, activities and things to do throughout Ventura County and surrounding areas.
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