Huntington Beach CA: The latest Agenda 21 town

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.

I honestly lived in the fantasy world that once residents of Huntington Beach wisely got rid of Keith Bohr, that his Agenda 21 revolution to take over the City would go with him. 

Sadly, this was evidently wishful thinking on my part. The "live, eat, drink, work" debacle over at Bella Terra was a pet project, as of course, was his "microchip and spay/neuter every dog and cat in the city or go to jail" law he tried to get passed. 

A while ago, the city proposed implementing a ban on plastic and brown paper bags. You just have to wonder how many of the City Council are stuck on stupid. I thought the citizenry had gotten this law tossed (or at least kept it from being implemented), but no. I was in Ralphs' today where a huge sign let us know that our wonderful, progressive, we'll do the thinking for you, because you the Huntington Beach taxpayer, is too stupid to think for yourself, City Council implemented a ban on plastic AND paper bags in the City.

Effective November 1. 

You won't be able to get a plastic bag in town (does that mean they are banned at the swap meet too??) and you'll have to PAY 10cents a paper bag which goes to the city's coffers.

I hope it makes up for the decrease in revenue which the city will see. Like DUH. You don't even have to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Do they think we are TOO STUPID to cross the street (literally) and shop in Fountain Valley?  Or even more logical: are you likely to buy MORE or LESS, if you have to worry about whether or not it is going to fit in your reusable bags?

Los Angeles county has had a ban in place for nearly two years, but not in every city. 

What have been the results?

In the towns where the ban is in place, revenue has decreased 5.7 percent, while in towns where the ban is NOT in effect, sales have increased 6-9 percent.*

In towns where the ban IS in place, EVERY STORE had to terminate some of its staff, lowering their staff count by 10 percent. In the towns where the ban was NOT in place, not only did they NOT let people go, they increased their staff count by 2.4 percent.*

So if those stats hold true for Huntington Beach, sales (or more importantly for the City, sales tax) will be down what, $1 million, $2 million a year, and about 200 people will be out of work?

GREAT TRADEOFF <sarcasm dripping>, "just so we can be green."

But of course, we should all be reducing our carbon footprint right? Minimizing our impact on the earth? Everyone would likely agree with that statement, but it is a FALSE premise. 

Did you know for the average household grocery burden*:

Plastic bags produce 15.5 pounds of waste(d) material
Paper bags produce 75 pounds of waste(d) material

Reusable bags are the worst offenders of all: they have to be used at least 104 times to be less wasteful in terms of material, off gases and waste. That means you would have to use them twice a week for a year (driving there twice a week mind you!), or used once a week for two years just to break even on the carbon footprint. 

On average? A reusable bag gets used 52 times before it is thrown away.

So exactly WHERE is it we are "going green?"

There must be a lot of "green" going in to our city council's pocketbooks. Or else they are trying to take more "green" out of your pocketbook, so you will be more dependent on them.

Which is exactly the agenda of Agenda 21.

Rise up Huntington Beach. Take back your town.

*National Center for Policy Analysis, A Survey on the Economic Effects of Los Angeles County's Plastic Bag Ban, Pamela Villereal and Baruch Feigenbaum, Policy Report No. 340, August 2012. http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st340

THE BEST (CLOUD) DEAL EVER !!!!

OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH !!!!!

Maybe a lot of you already know this, but I just discovered that I can use the FREE cloud service on Google Docs as my hard drive back up. You can too if you have a gmail account. Honestly, get one, even if you name it Johnsbackup@gmail.com  (ok, there's probably a nomenclature restriction, but you get the point.)

ANYWAY. 15Gb of cloud storage. Free.

So what you say? For one thing it's Free. My C****** (famous name brand) backup subscription just expired, and given our current circumstances, I just could not justify spending $60 on a year's subscription. (I know, it's really awful leaving it to chance, even worse because I used to do Computer Disaster Prevention and Recovery for a living.)

 I happen to be watching a YouTube tutorial on GoogleDocs (hey, it was better than sitting outside tonight in the cold, watching a ballet performance, outdoors, at Long Beach State.) It's by Anson Alexander and he's done a lot of them. This is the one I was watching, it's a basics one: http://youtu.be/lMqdex3KDQM.

Anyway, he got to the part about uploading a document. I thought, I wonder if I can upload more than just word or spreadsheet documents? 

So I uploaded one of my PAF (genealogy) files. Then I went over to my husband's computer and went on to GoogleDocs and downloaded that file. Then I went to PAF/Ancestral Quest and OPENED that file. Intact. No problems. All the data there!!!

I WAS SO STOKED !! (Can you tell?)

So then I went and uploaded my entire genealogy folder. Next I'm going to upload my entire Homeschooling and other important folders. Then I'm going to make my kids upload their folders (they all have their own gmail accounts) so I can delete them off my hard drive.

But what I am really looking forward to, is moving all my genealogy files into Google Drive. Moving them in to Google Drive means that any time I change one of them (adding data etc.), it will automatically sync them up on my cloud space. That is really really really cool. You may not think so, but I've lived through numerous computer hard drive crashes. To be able to easily restore/download a single file, or multiple files, rather than having to restore the entire system, is a really big deal. (Might not help you on the .exe files; this might be a clear advantage to the C***** name brand back up service.)

I could also mark a file as "shared", and share with someone, rather than emailing it as an attachment.

I'm not exactly sure yet how large the shared or uploaded file can be. In glancing through the web, I did see a blurb about not being able to view a file if it's 25Gb. Are you kidding? 25 GIGABYTES? (A far cry from the Apple-Lisa days of 256k!) Just kind of interesting, because I can't gmail a file if it's larger than 10Mb, so being about to share one of my larger PAF files without having to .zip it would be really nice.

Watch Anson's YT videos. They are really informative and easy to understand. Then start backing up your STUFF !!

GARDENING UPDATE

Wasn't satisfied with the way I'd set up the varmint fencing (check out the gardening page) --made it a bit too tight of a work space.

AND the FREE WOOD CHIP mulch arrived this morning. So we re-routed the fencing to reach all the way to the house 

and laid down the wood chips (of course, it arrived after I planted seedlings...)

The broccoli is going to be coming out soon to be replace by quinoa. I'll get that started soon, but with the 4 inches of mulch we just put down, I'll have to transplant the baby sprouts into taller seeding containers to give them a better start. Quinoa starts off really spindle-y, then if you shore it up (bury it) in the stalks up to the leaves, the stalks will thicken up.

It's great to grow grain. And heirloom quinoa just keeps going and growing.

FOOD STORAGE, Organized

I taught my class on organizing your home storage last night. I've done better. My food saver for some reason, was having an attitude and wouldn't vacuum seal things properly...and I let it throw me. But notwithstanding, people seemed to have a good time.

I handed out plans for rotational shelving systems as well as showed off the inexpensive cardboard ones from CanOrganizer which you can purchase through the Cool Stuff page. 

Really, the key is listing everything and knowing where everything is. Grouping like items together. USING your home storage.

Time For Learning !!

(This post appears on the Homeschooling page as well.)


I've mentioned before: I have been very pleased with the curriculum and our experience at http://www.time4learning.com. I found out about it the middle of last year from a friend of mine.

As you may know, we are a homeschooling family following a Classical Education methodology. My son has dyscalculia, and we've found Math-U-See works well for him. The math component at T4L is great, but he responds better with MUS. Although we use IEW for writing and some grammar, I wanted something a little "more" for him in Language Arts. We found it at Time4Learning.

Time4Learning teaches all the basic curriculum (math, science, history, language arts, art)  in a fun, engaging, and animated way. It breaks down each lesson in small bites. The first time my son went on it, he spent 4 hours solid. In Language Arts. Learning english GRAMMAR for heaven's sake. My son was having so much fun, he didn't even realize he was learning. When he took his "state standardized tests" at his Charter (he asked to, don't get me started), he came home from the LA test and told me "he remembered learning that" in Time4Learning. Time4Learning, by the way, has an online State Standardized testing simulation for those who wish to "test" their kids.

My only regret was that it didn't have a high school program. This year, they added that component, and it looks just as exciting and engaging. We plan on using it for everything except math. It is literature based for Language Arts, so we are finishing up the grammar components from "last year" before we move on to high school. Having done other "online" programs, I really appreciate a curriculum which truly runs at the student's pace, rather than the online-school pace. 

I do wish that the site was easier to navigate and allowed you to print out sample work. This would have been a big help last year, when my son was working as part of a charter and we had to bring in "proof of work." Maybe it does let you, but I couldn't figure it out, so I had to create my own, and have him do it, just to check it off the charter school's list. I also wish it was Apple product friendly. You can access it through Photon, but T4L is a Flash technology, so...need I say more?

The cost for this wonderful program is ridiculously low. You'll spend more in a single meal for your family at a fast food place than you will spend for an entire month's fees at Time4Learning. One low fee. No need for textbooks et cetera. If your child leans to a visual and audio learning style, you will love this program. In a world where most kids have grown up in an "animated" TV environment, Time4Learning has captivated this reality and turned it into a learning advantage.

And now, a small disclaimer: As a member of Time4Learning, I have been asked to review their online education program and share my experiences. While I was compensated, this review was not written or edited by Time4Learning and my opinion is entirely my own. Write your own curriculum review or learn how to use their curriculum for homeschool, after school study or summer learning.

ORGANIZING YOUR FOOD STORAGE

If you're in the southern California, Orange county area, you might be interested to know I will be teaching a class on ORGANIZING YOUR FOOD STORAGE in Huntington Beach. It's on September 19th, 7pm on 8702 Atlanta Avenue (Atlanta and Newland.)  This one is being hosted by the women's auxiliary of the LDS Church which meets in that building.

ASK ME !! I would love to come to your Church or home or school group and show you how to organize your home storage !!

I am VERY EXCITED by a brand new product I just found to organize your canned goods. It's durable, it's lightweight, it comes in three different lengths...and best of all... IT'S INEXPENSIVE !!

I just bought some, and I applied to become an affiliate of theirs. I'm hoping I get approved so I can tell you ALL about it !!

Look for updates on the Prepping page. Once my product arrives, you can bet I will be showing off all the different ways to store your food !!