Author: CoolDMZ

"X-ray vision to see in between / Where's my kimono and my time machine?"

STAR test results show slow growth

The 2010 California Standardized Testing and Reporting results were released Monday, and overall the picture continues to be grim, though there are mild improvements over last year:

Fifty-two percent of the students are proficient in English, while 48 percent are proficient in math – an increase of two percentage points in each over last year.

Results in Sac City Unified are basically flat, with 1-3% improvements over last year’s summary scores. The “Science End-of-Course” scores went up by 5%, which is a welcome sight for people concerned with the state of science education these days.

Free admission at the zoo today


Creative Commons License photo credit: larry&flo

If your kids are not starting school today and you’re looking for some fun activities, remember that admission to the Sacramento Zoo is free today and next Monday, courtesy of your friends at Target Brands, Inc.

And remember that if you’re there at 11:45am or 2pm you can pay $3 to feed a giraffe. I believe they reimburse you the $3 if the giraffes are not hungry.

Speaking of Target, I was inordinately excited to see the big bullseye logos up on the new super store on 65th last week. I can’t be the only one…

Zocalo head chef a Food Network/YouTube star

Ryan Rose, the 28 year old head chef at Zocalo, is one of the 15 finalists in the Food Network’s “The Next Food Network Star” YouTube contest. Guy Fieri is a previous winner of the broadcast version of the contest (Rose is a contestant in the YouTube offshoot), but let’s not hold that against Rose.

I’ve had the birria at Zocalo and that dish alone should make Rose eligible for a Nobel, much less reality competition success. Good luck, local boy!

Here is a link to Rose’s video entry, “Ryan’s Paella.” Upvote and bring home a victory for local eats!

Local schools win Big Lots grant money

Novels
For some reason I want to read a Skippyjon Jones book. Creative Commons License photo credit: amsd2dth

Congratulations to Elk Grove Unified’s Franklin Elementary School and Sheldon High School and Robla School District’s Taylor Street Elementary School, who were 3 of the 45 schools to win “Big Lots Lots2Give” prize money. From the contest website:

We asked participating schools to put their creativity to the test by submitting a short video and brief essay explaining why their school is in need of financial support. Then we turned to the public to select the winners by voting for their favorite video. Cash prizes include one $10,000 grand prize and forty-five $2,000 first prizes.

I know that cynicism gets old, but I am cynical about these big corporate “charity” social networking programs. In addition to Big Lots you’ve got the Pepsi Refresh Project and more locally the Raley’s Reach grants. My skepticism only goes so far, because at the end of the day these are actual charity programs and various groups are actually benefiting from them. Charities that fund public school projects in particular are doing great work, as governments consistently fail these schools. But these programs all leave a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to methodology.

Continue reading “Local schools win Big Lots grant money”

Destination: Bend, Oregon

I took the family up to Bend, Oregon for our annual all-American family vacation funfest. We seem to have an affinity or the Beaver State, having been to Ashland 2 years ago. What can we say? The call of the beautiful trees, lack of sales tax, and not having to get out of your car to pump gas is too powerful.

Bend is a splendid city, with a river running through it much like our own fair town, but making much more public use of it than we are ever likely to see. Though it is cliche to say it, the town does have a friendly, laid-back attitude that makes for a great vacation spot. Especially if you are into drinking awesome beer.

Continue reading “Destination: Bend, Oregon”

New eats in Tahoe Park: Cafe Lumiere

Now open at Broadway & 57th in Tahoe Park is Cafe Lumiere, offering breakfast and lunch and Java City coffee (and beer and wine, if I’m not mistaken)! I have yet to try it but we took a gander at the menu and it looked awesome: standard cafe fare, sandwiches, salads, full breakfasts. Check back here for a full review probably after this weekend, where I may sample the breakfast.

This answers supersonic30’s question from over 2 years ago, and so far it does not appear there will be room for a cigarette shop on that block, though there is one across the street.

TP is small enough that all of us who live there know where I’m talking about, but here is what the block looked like about a month ago:

St. Francis Elem. School to move to Tahoe Park

Sac Bee reports that earthquake retrofit rules will force the St. Francis of Assisi Elementary School to relocate… to the former site of John Paul II School in Tahoe Park.

[St. Francis Principal Laurie] Power said estimates for the retrofitting have come in between $3 million to $5 million.

“We obviously don’t have that kind of money lying around in our checkbooks,” Power said. “It will take a lot of planning.”

Funny, the only reason there is an empty site is that the diocese didn’t have a dime to save John Paul II. I am happy though that the site in Tahoe Park won’t go unused.

CoolDMZ declares Independence

This is where I live now:

The land mass on the left is a small (football field-size) island off the edge of Scotts Flat Lake in Nevada County, and it is where I spent by Fourth (a few blissful hours of it, anyway). (Here it is on Google Maps.) It was kind of like Tom Sawyer’s Island, the Disney attraction, but with 100% fewer pirate corpses.

We didn’t attend the parade this year but the weather was perfect.

Domino’s pizza asking for SSN?

If you’re ordering a Domino’s pizza, that’s your first mistake, but beware the following, via Consumerist:

[Consumerist reader Brent says] the Domino’s dude wouldn’t let him pay with a credit card unless he offered up his Social Security Number or driver’s license number. Since Brent was smart enough to know you only give such information to Girl Scouts and those guys who go to door-to-door selling magazine subscriptions, he checked it out with his local Domino’s, which told him the nosyness is store policy.

I’m not sure if there is a problem with giving the DL#, and this is not confirmed to be happening here in Sacto, but still, caveat eator.

City pools open today

James McClatchy Park pool, c.1918. Ralph Congdon Collection

For what it’s worth. Five pools are closed this year for recreational swimming, and those that are open are typically open a grand total of 12 hours per week. The schedule is wack, as the kids would say. All pools that are still open are open from 2-4pm, and one assumes the bright spot was supposed to be that they are all open 6 days a week, but any way you slice it, gone are the days of killing time by the pool.

Obviously they are in dire straits to keep the doors open at all. Since these are permanent assets they basically have to keep them open. I’m not sure whether they considered closing a few of them permanently, keeping the larger pools open for longer periods. I’m also not sure why they didn’t consider staggered schedules (T/Th or M/W/F) as they used to do. It seems like either of those schedules would be more convenient for patrons.

Not to mention: how do they find trained lifeguards willing to work a grand total of 12 hours per week?