Category Archives: This ‘n’ That
Ventura College expands schedule, offers Saturday Classes
This January, Saturday classes return to the Ventura College schedule, as the college continues to give students new options to access learning conveniently, as increasing student access and attracting working adult students are priorities for the college.
“We are here to serve students and the community, so we’re delighted to offer Saturday classes as a way to give busy people a way to further their education and careers,” said Kim Hoffmans, Ed.D., vice president of academic affairs.
Most courses begin on January 16 and meet for 18 weeks. Course offerings include introductory classes in sociology, speech communications, United States history and guitar. Also offered are courses toward certified nurse assistant, for smog license update, in intermediate guitar and in cardio machine training.
Saturday classes are an especially great option for high school seniors who want to get a jump-start on their college requirements, Hoffmans noted. “Students can apply online and receive their acceptance instantly. Then they can enroll in the class online and just like that, they’ve launched their college education,” she said.
For more information and to register, visit www.venturacollege.edu, or call Ventura College at 289-6000.
Harvest Festival huge success
First United Methodist Church of Ventura hosted and co-sponsored a Harvest Festival with Happy Ventures Pre School, which is co-located on church grounds and was held on Oct.30. A complementary spaghetti supper, activities, face painting and games with prizes, set up in Trotter Hall were a big hit.
A Trunk or Treat passing out mountains of candy was available in the facility’s parking lot. To complete the package a Haunted House, decorated and staffed by the church’s youth group was presented.
The culmination of the event was a drawing for gift bags conducted by the church’s pastor, The Rev. Jane Hetherington-Rauth. This first annual Harvest Festival was the brainchild of Pastor Jane who is new to the Ventura area.
First United Methodist Church has two Sunday services, 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. You are encouraged to visit the church’s web site, www.fumcventura.org as well as the Happy Ventures Pre School web site, www.happyventurespreschool.com.
Harrison’s trash collection delayed one day for Thanksgiving
In observance of Thanksgiving Day, the employees of Harrison Industries are taking the day off on Thursday, Nov. 26. As a result, customers who normally have their trash and recyclables or green waste collected on Thursday or Friday will have it collected one day later than usual.
The Thanksgiving holiday will not affect customers who have their trash and recyclables or green waste collected on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. It also will not affect Ojai customers who have their trash collected on Monday.
The regular schedule for all customers will resume the following week.
For more information, call 647-1414.
How to pick the right printer
Tech Today with Ken May
Hopefully November is treating you all well! One item that folks often purchase during Black Friday is a new printer. Printers are often deeply discounted as a loss leader to get people in the store, but it may not be worth it, even at a heavy discount. Finding the right printer for your needs is critical, or you’ll just be wasting money, and not getting the service you need from it.
The first step is to understand what you will primarily be using it for. Are you a photographer? A teacher? A mechanical engineer? Different technologies come into play for each of these use cases. If you want something inexpensive, prints ok color, but only handles small amounts of printing, then an Inkjet printer is probably a good choice. If you want something portable, yes portable!! Then we have recently discovered portable printers (see here: https://brothermobilesolutions.com/products/mobile-printers/ruggedjet-series/) and we cannot wait to get our hands on one! For better photo picture quality, choose one with pigment based inks, such as those by Epson. If you need high volume, fast printing, definitely go with a laser printer. It might also be a good idea to consider copier lease professionals if you don’t want to own a professional printer but want to be able to use one regularly.
Costs for the printers themselves have come down quite a bit, but ink and toner is still very expensive. If color isn’t necessary, you may be best suited by an inexpensive black and white printer that uses toner. Toner doesn’t dry out so if you are printing infrequently, you aren’t wasting ink.
Make sure that your printer has all the necessary features you need. Many of the cheaper printers now have great business class features built in for no extra cost. Decide if you need to fax, copy, print double sided, have an automatic document feeder, and all the other features you need. If there is a printer that you are after, but is not compatiable with your computer when you firs connect it, you can always look into solutions like hp scan software so you can search for any updates for your printer, alongside looking at all the important details. Connectivity options are also critical these days. Networked printers make life a lot easier, however, we continue to see issues with Wi-Fi printers. Some brands are better than others, but even after all this time, they can be flaky. So, we recommend using a wired Ethernet connection for the best results. This may require additional cabling to be run, depending on where you will be placing it, so keep that in mind.
Make sure that the printer is small enough to get the job done without being so large that you can’t move it easily around, if needed. Many times, the printers need to be moved or repositioned due to your office needs. This is why you may want to consider small desktop printers for each office versus one huge copy machine. Large copy machines make sense in a larger business environment, but not in a home. They also typically come with expensive service plans from the vendors, which greatly adds to their cost.
Lastly, if you’re just getting to know printer technology, start simple. Better to purchase a fancier, more advanced model later, rather than buying a top of the line model that doesn’t fit what your needs are.
Graduation of Leadership Ventura 2015
By Carol Leish
On November 18, at the Ventura city Hall, the graduation of the 2015 Ventura Leadership, through the Ventura Commerce & Education Foundation of the Ventura Chamber of Commerce, took place.
“Participants have gained responsibility in order to lead by example; to pass it on to others; and, to develop relationships,” according to Stephanie Calwell, CEO of the Ventura Chamber of Commerce. “Thanks to, Lola Herrera, for recruiting participants. She put her heart and soul into Leadership Ventura. Leadership will be a stepping stone for all of you.”
Thanks go to The Greek Mediterranean Steak and Seafood, at the Ventura Harbor, and to owners, Lynn and Mikelton, for hosting the event.
Mary Jarvis provided personal reflections of the Leadership Ventura program. She emphasized that, “The graduating leaders have been/will continue to be dedicated and passionate in their endeavors.”
During Leadership Ventura’s year of acquiring knowledge, Relly Nadir, showed participants the importance of being able to understand Emotional Intelligence in being able to learn about themselves, and to learn more about their relationships with others. He emphasized the importance of being, ‘smart,’ by showing others that, “We are all smart by gaining self-awareness; mastering the moment in order to become empowered; analyzing situations; recharging; and, teamwork.” Through giving the Myers Brigg test, Naidr enabled participants to learn more about their emotional intelligence by gaining depth about themselves and others.
Leadership Ventura took participants on various themed days once a month for a year. These included: government day; arts and culture day; media day; regional and commerce day; a health and human serves of Ventura County day; military and harbor day; education day; and, a government day.
Amber Stevens introduced the Leadership Class of 2015 and their team projects.
Team 1: City Transitional Living, director Jim Duran, for individuals needing a temporary living place and guidance due to personal circumstances, had, Deborah Lofthouse, Terry McBreen and Rick Jeffrey. The team did a family mural project with children at the site on a wall next to the playground.
Team 2: Tender Life Maternity Home had Jann Huling, Phil Chandler, and Fermin Cortez. “ASAP Painting helped us to repaint walls within the home,” according to Chandler. “We realized the importance of this place by providing a safe haven for pregnant women.” Tender Life Maternity Home, with director Karen Johnson, just celebrated their 30 year anniversary on September 30.
Congratulations to all Leadership Ventura 2015 participants for continuing to make a difference within the community. As the future continues to be in all of the team members hands, the 2015 graduating class, who all got impressive plaques, will be mentors for the 2016 Leadership Ventura group. To become involved in the upcoming class, please contact the Ventura Chamber of Commerce at 643-7222; or through their website at, www.venturachamber.com. Remember that the future is totally within our hands. We can all make a positive difference.
Chanukah
Every year between the end of November and the end of December, Jewish people around the world celebrate the holiday of Chanukah, the Festival of Lights. Chanukah begins on the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev, but the starting date on the western calendar varies from year to year. This year it starts on sundown on Dec.6.
In the land of Judea there was a mean (boo) Syrian king, Antiochus. The king ordered the Jewish people to reject their God, their religion, their customs and their beliefs and to worship the Greek gods. There were some who did as they were told, but many refused. One who refused was Judah Maccabee.
Judah and his four brothers formed an army and after 3 years of fighting, the Maccabees were finally successful in driving the Syrians out of Israel and reclaimed the Temple in Jerusalem.
When Judah and his followers finished cleaning the temple, they wanted to light the eternal light, known as the N’er Tamid, which is present in every Jewish house of worship.
Only a tiny jug of oil was found with only enough for a single day. The oil lamp was filled and lit. Then a miracle occurred as the tiny amount of oil stayed lit not for one day, but for 8 days
Jews celebrate Chanukah to mark the victory over the Syrians and the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple. The Festival of the Lights, Chanukah, lasts for eight days to commemorate the miracle of the oil.
The menorah candles are lit to celebrate the 8 days that the oil stayed lit.
The spellings of Chanukah has caused some confusion. Part of the reason for this confusion may be due to the fact there is no exact English translation of the Hebrew word for Chanukah. So to help clear up some of the confusion here are just a few of the different spellings one might encounter.
Chanukah, Chanukkah, Hanuka, Hanukah , Hannukah ,Hanukkah.
While in the United States it is most common to use the spelling Chanukah. Rest assured that they are all the same celebration
More comments on the proposed Regent’s 55-unit development
Gathered by Richard Lieberman
I am an outspoken opponent of the proposed Regent Properties development on the Ventura hillside. If you visit our Facebook Page www.facebook.com/VenturaHillsideNeighbors you will see more than 8,400 followers. It is the largest community Facebook page in the City indicating widespread community concern for this issue. There you will find thousands of comments. Yes, some are a bit mindless as you would expect. But, many, if not most, are very well spoken and some are surprisingly insightful. Nick Bonge
City council: the Hillside Management program is a well thought out, hard worked, program. Your tenure in city govt is very short lived. Please consider carefully your position in this issue. What are your motivations? Please do not obliterate a very well formulated plan that took many years of negotiating and hard work.
Ron Van Rossum
Ventura City Council must deny the Regents proposal…there is no need to place luxury homes in our community
Debra Myrent
Burke Hazards Report: Let me begin with Mr. Burke’s report. It appears to be put together from readily available public information that speaks to potentialities, not actualities. I’m no expert, but it seems to me that this type of work should be performed based on actual studies of the soils on the property.
J. Boomer Butler CPA
55 homes is not 300 multi-units and to simply take the position of “nothing” is acceptable or workable is unrealistic and begs for a future of lawsuits.”
Greg Daniels
As a resident of Ventura, I utilize social media quite a bit to monitor local issues. I have been watching the Facebook page and online petition from the group; Neighbors for the Ventura Hillside. I’m no expert but it’s clear to me that the neighbors who oppose the proposed executive house project are trying to make it seem like there are a lot more people against this development than there really are.
Terry Davis
I have heard some people say that “we shouldn’t develop the hillsides any further.” I disagree with those people. This project will actually define the boundary, where no further building can be done.
Phil Foster Ranger
A project like this would not only provide homes for a neglected market, but would also generate revenues to help balance the city budget and could even provide enhanced services to our residents.
Don Henniger
This property has been zoned residential for many years and I believe the owners have a right to develop their own property.
Bill Kracht
I am a native Venturan and a business owner in Ventura for 16 years. I am completely in favor of the La Viera development and I am so pleased that Regent Properties has stayed the course in trying to bring this well planned project to our city despite the loud opposition of a relatively small group of neighbors.”
Melody Oleary-Namikas
Submersible dive expedition in the Channel Islands
This boat has been seen in the Ventura Harbor, we asked John Higgins to explain what it is.
“Deep Sub LLC (the cat owner) and the Undersea Voyager Project (owner of a two man submersible) have partnered with The Nature Conservancy and the University of Oregon to accomplish a submersible dive expedition in the Channel Islands. The trip is based out of Ventura Harbor to explore the waters around Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands below 150’. Fantastically, during the ice age 15,000 years ago sea level was 200’ lower, so the islands were bigger and connected by a land bridge. Presumably, the Indians would have moved down to live at the water’s edge; the trip will be using the sub to look for evidence of those Indian encampments. Because the study area is below 150’, the sub is better suited to the mission than scuba divers. Besides looking for Indian history, the sub will be used to explore the undersea geology of the land bridge and historic oil seeps around the islands. The expedition is very grateful for the support of the Ventura Harbor Patrol, Harbormaster and Port.”
John Higgins, Harbormaster
Local Ventura author teaches self-acceptance and courage in new children’s picture book
A recently released new children’s picture book from Tate Publishing is titled, ‘Rory The Little ‘Dragon’ Lizard’, by a local Ventura author L.D. Lewis. It is a fun children’s story with guiding and teaching morals. The book also teaches our young children to be careful with slang in their speech, to accept who they are, and to tell the truth even if they are scared. More importantly, Rory The Little ‘Dragon’ Lizard teaches children to find courage in themselves.
Lewis believes that learning should be fun and has created lesson filled stories for her own child, who dearly loved them and always begged for more.
Lewis who has already done several book signings is once again extending a personal invitation for a ‘special story time’ reading and book signing event on Saturday, Nov.21 at the Bank of Books Bookstore located downtown Ventura at 748 E. Main street. The event will start at 3p.m., so put it on your calendar.