Chinese Culture Camp, Round 4

The fourth year of Chinese Culture Camp. Same as usual, with the addition of female lion dancers and a new buiding available for classes. Unlike other years, I was only present in the morning, so I didn't make the end of camp slideshow.

I feel like the camp needs to be longer (both time-wise and length-wise), as 40 mins seems a bit short, and no Lion Dance classes past Beginner level are taught... there are repeat students. And they should also raise the grade level up a bit (right now it's K-6), because there's more counselors (Grade 7+) than campers, they could offer more advanced courses, and those lions are... quite heavy.

No article about this year's camp on The Record, though it was mentioned a month prior.

San Diego Model Railroad Museum

The San Diego Model Railroad Museum is imo one of the more interesting exhibits in Balboa Park for its cost ($3 for students, and up to $8 for others). The exhibits are actually pretty large and detailed, considering it takes around a minute to walk from one end of the train exhibit to another. And there's six of them...

There's a second floor that is accessible on busier days, when more volunteers are around. It wasn't open when I was there, though.

April's Fool

One of the many whiteboard graphics on this whiteboard that appear in the Goleman Library. The other whiteboard, however, has a simple notice (that changes from time to time) about the fact that whiteboard markers are no longer issued to tutors. They're just for these boards, I guess. (And updating the tutor availability board)

Goleman Library + Quad

Just another day this semester where I do tutoring sessions three days a week in the morning related to Computer Science. It's 8am and it's about to open... except it's cloudy, I see this view, and took this image after giving it a second thought.

(The original Goleman Library's entrace was in this direction, the new one seen here is on the left side)

Lunar New Year 2014

The sign celebrating Chinese New Year at Red Hawk. I'm a day late on saying this, since it occurred yesterday, but I couldn't make it to the Thunder Valley one, which occurred on a Friday. The lion dance was quite short but there were three performances that day (with some slight differences between each of them).

Also, there was no greeter at the entrance, contrary to what it said online.

Note: The lion dance group is different from the one that performs in Thunder Valley / Cache Creek this year.

Sacramento Holiday Classic

As the last run of the year (for me), it's back up to Sacramento, donating a toy in the process and a free 5K run through a mostly flat trail. It was a bit over two years ago since I last walked part of it on foot.

Yes, I know it's pretty cold during this run, but at least it's not below freezing temperatures as it was the past week, which made practice runs impossible due to the black ice from water sprinklers spilling out onto the sidewalk.

Note: The train is not guaranteed to pass by while you're running under the bridge.

Horizon Christmas Lights

At Lake Tahoe, the Horizon might not be somewhere worth going into, as it looks a bit empty inside except for a movie theater, however the display outside is worth looking at, esepecially when it's timed to music (various Christmas songs, incluing Wizards in Winter).

Now, if only the Montbleu animated their lights as well...

Costco Pizza

There can never be too much pizza to order at Costco.

I don't know whether they're empty or full boxes there, but either way they're still making pizzas and putting them in new boxes. I doubt they're actually full boxes because the sheer weight of each pizza could crush the boxes below.

(at Costco - Sacramento near Elk Grove)

One Cent Book at Fry's

I don't think I need to explain this further.

At first I'm like 'there's gotta be some strings attached', like the other software in the discount pile scattered around Roseville Fry's claiming a total cost of zero dollars... after the mail in rebates. There's that discount label on the book, so it's legit. No tax on this either.

Meanwhile, there girl's dolls in areas where books would normally go, and men's cologne products in the children's book aisle.

Delta College Book Swap

Hosted by the Writers' Guild of SJDC, at Danner Hall today.

Thought it was going to be a look-only as the flyer seemed like you need to trade in books in order to obtain others, but apparently this was not the case - all of the books were free, and they were hauling in more boxes of used books every few minutes. There weren't any ebooks around though at the time I visited.

I decided to grab a few books related to the CS area, especially those focusing on the (new obsolete) certification tests, as they might be useful later.

Returning to the Stateline... again

A year ago, I was doing film work for GSKA. However this year they did things a bit differently; my position to film is no longer required, so I was free to explore for the day. But I was prepared for that. Couldn't make it to either the beach or mountains, but I'll find another time for that.

Notes:

• If going in October, the gondolas (or the ski hills, for that matter) will not be available.
• Restaurants in the Stateline area are quite expensive, but at least try them once. Recommended: Base Camp Pizza (they are $12 for 8", $17 for 12", and $25 for 16").
• The Nestle Tollhouse Cafe's cookie prices are too high; you'd probably find something better at the nearby Raley's.
• At Harvey's at the arcade you can trade 1 token = 20 tickets, this is actually better than any arcade game that dispenses tickets there on average. (It works vice versa, so if you can find a way to make more than 20 tickets per game, you can use that to your advantage)
• The Heavenly Shop at Harvey's doesn't accept comp money. Neither does Cinnabon and the food court items at Harrah's (although it's more obvious).
• There's a car show during this time at Heavenly Village.

Bubble Lady @ Troke Library

While working as a tutor for MathSmart, I knew from the intercoms that there was going to be a show at 6:30pm, but I didn't expect it to be so loud and so busy when I came out to look after my shift had ended.

It was quite a crowd there.

The New Exploratorium

Multicolored lighting is not from spotlights, it's from the above windows.

Finally got a chance to see the new Exploratorium on Pier 15 since its reopening in April. It looks just as spacious, with more windows, and a lot more exhibits than I remember it having previously (I always thought it occupied the entire building at the Palace of Fine Arts, but it doesn't appear to be the case).

Even though some of this exhibits remains the same (as of almost ten years ago when I last visited), there's plenty of new stuff to see; even some of the benches outside are exhibits in its own right*.

Notable Exhibits here (in my opinion):

• A Pac-Man game, with a twist: Four players, and each person has one button corresponding to a certain direction. (The button may not always be responsive)
• Exhibit: The Changing Face of What is Normal
• A Smorgasbord of Signs and Symbols
• Museum of Wear and Tear
• A lot of the exhibits in the sight and sound section
• Rolling Through the Bay (it's temporarily over here)
• Transparent Pinball Machine (an analog one, prior to any led screens, etc.)

In the Forum: One Click at a Time: Was only on August 24th, and consisted of a variety of stop motion clips. Was playing the following:

• Western Spaghetti
• Dot
• MUTO
• Neighbors