My Vision Of Students Today

Here I am, a senior in college, questioning the quality of my education and wondering if all the tests, papers and presentations have really prepared me for anything at all.

I shudder when thinking about how many hours have been spent sitting in musty classrooms over the last five years. Gross.

Advances in technology have certainly my made education a whole lot prettier. Teachers can now prepare boring PowerPoint presentations in replace of boring lectures. And students can check their emails and analyze their horoscopes in class, instead of taking notes.

But I’m not sure if technology has saved us from anything, or will, as the video, “A Vision Of Students Today” suggested at its end.

As students we will continue to pay for expensive classes that we don’t necessarily like, we will certainly continue to rack up more and more debt ever year. And we will buy books that we might not need.

But most of us will not drop classes because they are boring we will continue stick it out, attend class, to check our emails and the weather, and possibly take a note or two.

So the big question still remains.. Why do students still carry on and sign up for classes when some feel that they are a waste of their time ?

Maybe it’s because we are told from the beginning that college is the best route to take. A good option. It will make our family proud. We are told that it will prepare us for a good job in the future, give us an edge on our competition.

We are told that college can expand our knowledge on worldly affairs and enable us to take part in philosophical discussions on love and politics and history... but it doesn’t really seem to do that, does it?

“ A Vision Of student’s Today,” doesn’t suggest that it does.

But there is still hope.

For as many students who slack off in class, there are just as many who actually put in effort because they want to learn something new.

And Teachers who actually like what they do and have an ounce of passion for the subject that they teach, (although it can seem rare), can help to keep students on track and positive about their education.

A couple of fancy computers stacked up in a classroom (that don’t even print most of the time), can’t do that.

So when it all boils down to it maybe all the work is worth it.

Maybe the tests, research papers, and annoying presentations do teach us something. And when we do finally graduate we will have a better chance of landing that dream job, and we will make our families proud and we will have beat the odds... at least that is my own personal vision of students today.

Three Sisters

Three Sisters is a cute little Mexican restaurant in East Sacramento that is a great place to meet friends and sip margaritas.

A quaint outdoor patio leads into the dinning room that has bamboo ceilings, bright yellow walls and tiny chili pepper lights that hang in the rounded windows.

It was pretty quiet on Monday evening and Mexican music played soft in the background; the whole time I was there I was wishing there was a live mariachi band.. (But I wish that at every Mexican restaurant that I visit, and I’m not sure that Three Sisters has the space anyway.)

The chips and salsa, which are a defining part of Mexican dining, as I’m sure you know, were very good here. The salsa wasn’t too hot or too mild, and it wasn’t too chunky or runny. I would say that it was just right.

They have an extensive margarita menu, with flavors like peach and mango and although I was tempted, I stuck with the classic margarita on the rocks. It was the perfect amount of tequila, salt and sweetness. Before long my glass was just filled with ice and I had to order another one.

The pork tamales that I ordered were huge and were placed on a bright blue and yellow dish with rice and beans. The tamales had a lot of flavor and the mole sauce was done right. The rice and beans on the other hand were pretty disappointing. The rice was far from Spanish, bright white and large, it looked like it came from an Uncle Ben’s minute rice package. I would have liked a more traditional rice, and refried as opposed to pinto beans, but the pork tamales more than made up for it.

The service was all smiles. Our food came out not too long after we got our drinks, and although it did take a while to get our check, our server might have just noticed that were all having a good time and were in no hurry to pay, who knows?

Three sisters is a great central meeting place if you want to get together with your friends from Midtown or East Sac.

And the fun doesn’t have to stop there. Just a block away is SoCals, a neighborhood bar that lets the regulars serve up dinner on Monday nights between six and until it’s gone.

Last Monday they dished up baked ziti, green salad and bread roles for just $2.50 a person.
So if you feel more like a $2.50 bar dinner ( which is very good by the way) as opposed to a 12.99 tamale dinner, you only have a block to walk if you end up changing your mind.

All around Three sisters is a reasonable place for a decent dinner at decent price. I’ll be back to hang out on their patio, snack on some chips, have a few margaritas.

Three Sisters is located on 51st and Folsom blvd.
Hours of operation
Monday - Friday 11am - 10pm
Saturday 9am - 10pm
Sunday 8:30am - 9pm

Chirstmas Spirit

Christmas is just around the corner and Halloween will soon be a foggy memory.

A Gallup poll estimated that this year American’s will spend $900 dollars on Christmas gifts alone. But despite the fact that the holiday season can feel as though it was invented solely by retail businesses, there is still that ever present holiday spirit that seems to take over in December.

There is something about the cheesy songs, the smell of a freshly cut pine tree and sparkling lights on houses that keeps Christmas on my mind... All year round.

In the middle of July when temperatures are soaring into the hundreds and flip flops are the main attire, I dream of December. Gloves, jackets, and the creepiness of mall santas and fake snow slip into my inner thoughts as the heat soars.

The almost unbearable and uncompromising valley heat seems as if it will last forever and then all of a sudden, just when you think that you can’t take it anymore, store shelves are stocked with poinsettias, endless supplies of wrapping paper and everything red and green.

We go crazy decorating our homes, we shop, and bake cookies for people that we love. We mail out cute Christmas cards on time, (unlike our power bills) and we whisper to each other about our about our neighbors hideous light-up snowman ... It’s so much fun! It’s so much better than summer!

But what does the Christmas spirit really boil down to?

With our cute Christmas cards alone we produce , about “six million tons of extra waste nationwide. The 2.6 billion holiday cards sold each year in the United States could fill a football field 10 stories high,” according to GreenTreks Network, Inc

So what is it about Christmas, that still enchants me to send out cards and bake cookies?
And why doesn’t the so called Christmas spirit last all year long?

More people seem to donate to charities and volunteer their time to others who are in need during the holiday seasons.

Think of all that we could accomplish if we held on to that holiday spirit all year long. It is the one time of year that tends to bring out the best in people, maybe that’s why I dream about Christmas in the middle of July.

Second Saturday, Art Walk

You could meet a d.j. a glass blower, some one who wants to sell you a million dollar loft, a painter, a pillow maker, or a women who plays a stand up base made out of an old broom handle and an upside down steel bucket; all by wondering the streets of Midtown Sacramento... every second Saturday of the month.

Second Saturday is a great time to check out local artists and Midtown art galleries, bands set up on street corners and in front of hair salons within blocks of each other. Cute shops and boutiques that dot the grid keep their lights on and their doors open later than usual.

It’s a delight for those of us who love to people watch. So many different kinds of people wonder the streets of midtown looking for good music, good food and a good time; it has a way of compelling you to investigate places that you might not otherwise walk into everyday.

Lumens light and living shop on 21st and K has large glass windows that display chandeliers and modern light fixtures. If you live in midtown you drive by it all the time.. But if you were in no need to purchase a lamp or a $900 fan you might not necessarily walk in.

On second Saturday, it’s a different story, all the shops and boutiques, even a local light shop, seem to attract unlikely visitors.

Dog owners crowd the tiny Four Paws Pet Boutique searching through dozens of collars and t-shirts, and people watchers congregate at Tapas and near the patio at Tres Hermanas.

Although there are people that insist that you have to start at the Phoenix Gallery and work your way down, there is no real path that you have to take to get the most out of the night. You will be amazed at how much you can see when you don’t have a plan of where and what you want to see.

Its only draw back... It seems at times to be a little cliquey; the hipsters hang out near the d.j., the business executives congregate near the L Street loft sales studio on 19th st., and moms pushing strollers talk near La Petit Paris.

With so many types of art and music, you would think there would be more inter-mingling, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. People tend to stick to their corners of interest; When it seems the whole point of the Art Walk is to venture into different places.

Midtown is not the only area of Sacramento that celebrates second Saturday. Downtown Sacramento, East Sacramento and Uptown, (near Del Paso Boulevard) all support their local artists and businesses.

There is a little bit of something for everyone around all around Sacramento, every Second Saturday of the month.

YouTube, ITube, We AllTube

Some may argue that YouTube is changing the face of journalism. Anyone can become a citizen journalist these days just by taking a video, posting it and poof! Instant news, Instant information.

Instant... I don‘t think so.

After spending some time on the YouTube site searching through the categories of videos that range from politics to pets and places to people; the majority of videos have absolutely no journalistic sense at all.

But you already knew that, didn’t you?

YouTube is not the site most people turn to so they can watch ethical, truthful and journalistic videos. It’s a site that is more about keeping frat guys and their buddies entertained as they watch videos of half naked girls doing exercises.

People are not logging on to YouTube to watch videos of our current war situation, or the history of the genocide in Rwanda or the blackwater debacle. YouTube visitors are watching this and this and this

(I came to this conclusion after logging on to YouTube and taking note of the videos that were “currently being watched” at 3:00 on a Tuesday. Pretty sad.)

I’m not saying that videos that highlight current events are not on YouTube , because they are. I’m only saying that this video on the history of the Rwandan Genocide was posted on YouTube four months ago and has 38 views as compared to this video of a screaming Brittney Spears fan, that was posted three weeks ago week and has a total of 11,278,372 views!

That’s right 11,278,372 people have logged on to YouTube to watch that video. Some probably more than once.

So, it is either sheer genius that Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim founded
YouTube or absolute madness that we now have access to thousands and thousands of, well, senseless videos.

YouTube was awarded “best invention of the year” in 2006 by Time Magazine.

The YouTube invention, if that’s what you want to call it, came in ahead of a water-harvesting machine, that can turn air into 500 gal. of drinkable water per day, now that it quite amazing.

The video posting site also beat out a table saw blade that will shut down in a millisecond if it comes into contact with flesh. That millisecond could leave the potential user with a tiny cut instead of a four fingered hand.

Once again, an amazing invention, but YouTube took the number one spot in 2006.

YouTube is a great website to visit if you need a good laugh or need to cheer up a depressed friend with a dramatic hamster, or even to feel just a little bit better about yourself.

It is hardly a website that gives it’s users valuable and informative news.

But you already knew that, didn’t you?

Wednesdays and Fridays are better with Mark Morford

If there was an award for a columnist who receives the most hate mail, Mark Morford who writes for the San Francisco Chronicle, would defiantly need to prepare an acceptance speech.


For as many people who are obsessed with his columns, there are twice as many people who absolutely loathe him, but they just can’t seem to stop reading ...


Here is a peek at some of his hate mail, that he published in one of his articles:


“Maggot, bottom feeding swill sucker..” - Charles G


“I despise liberal values, your cowardice and blind stupidity. We will finish you off. You are a danger to the country and with the help of talk radio we will destroy you. You are cockroaches, nothing else. Reading your newspaper is like paying the cops to beat you, then thanking them.” - Steven S, Lincoln, Calif.


“You are a filthy liar...” -Michael


Oh, and I can’t leave out my favorite,


“Your article made me puke. If I could e-mail that puke to you, you'd have a very messy lap right now..” - Rob O


Now if that doesn’t want to make you read Morford’s stuff, than I don’t know what will.


Morford started writing for the Chronicle full time in 2001, he writes about love, politics, God, sex, Brittany Spears, Karl Rove, war, deep sea things, commercials and so much more!

When interviewed by Steve Outing in 2003, and asked about his column Morford said,
“My column is an odd mutation, a sly serendipitous Frankensteinian thing I invented from scratch. And thanks to very tolerant bosses and another terrific mentor at SFGate in its early days, I was allowed to experiment, to develop a voice.”

Morford also described his column as, “In short, writing that is (hopefully) wry and sexy and fun and incendiary and thoughtful and winking and open-thighed and highly literate and well-informed and self-deprecating and well-lubricated and happy to buy you a drink.
I aim to be a writer first and journalist, well, about 27th, right after idea-monger and trickster and contrarian and satirist and pro-sex advocate and wine enthusiast and dog lover and book fan and clothes junkie and yoga teacher and tattoo advocate and spiritual deviant and did I mention the part about the sex? Boring writing makes my soul curdle.”

Morford can make you laugh and cry, and look up words in the dictionary. He can depress the hell out of you, and then fill you with hope, all the while informing you on important current events, and that’s what a great column should be about.


Check him out here!



(Morford received first place for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists for best online columnist in 2003 )

Morford’s Notes and Errata column appears every Wednesday and Friday on Sfgate.com, and in the date book section of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Crocker Art Museum

On the second floor of the Crocker Art Museum an oil painting hangs on a plum colored wall. It’s not your typical, dull piece of art. It is over 300 years old, and it is so detailed, so incredible, so real, that time itself begins to slow and your mind begins to slow down along with it. And that is a very refreshing feeling.


The Crocker Art Museum in nestled near the heart of downtown Sacramento, it is stuffed with thousands of pieces of art that are just waiting to inspire you.


The Crocker has been in operation since the late 1800’s and has an extensive collection of Art from all over the world.


Asian Art, Contemporary art, Sculpture and European Art are some of the permanent collections that the museum has to offer. The Crocker also, “Hosts 15 changing exhibitions annually, highlighting a variety of media, time periods and cultures,” according to their website.


Each gallery has a different feeling and it’s own unique vibe.


In the California gallery, paintings are crammed next to each other from the floor up to the ceiling in no particular arrangement. The larger paintings steal your attention at eye level, while smaller detailed paintings seem lost and too close to the ceiling to be appreciated.


The Friedman, Ose and Tsakopoulos galleries display their art in a friendlier way. Pieces are spaced apart and aren’t overcrowded or hung too high to see. These galleries make viewing the pieces of art a bit easier.


One of the best parts of the Crocker Museum is the rotation of the exhibitions, these exhibitions continue to draw people in from all over California.

The current exhibition at the Crocker is “Grandma Moses: Mother to the Nation” According to the Crocker Art Museum guide, Anna Mary Robertson also known as, Grandma Moses produced work that, “celebrates family community and the idyllic rituals accompanying changing seasons and holidays.”


The Guide also suggests that Robertson’s work, “Reveals much about the profound change in identity Americans experienced following the Great Depression, World War II and post-war prosperity.”


At first glance these paintings seem simple, in one of her paintings, a pair of characters stand amongst a snowy hill, they wear pink skin faces and black dots for eyes.


But the deeper you look the more you will see. Brown dots turn into cows and green paint turns into a pasture sprinkled with wildflowers.

Looking at things deeper is what viewing art is all about, it forces you to observe and analyze.


Maybe you won’t see that Robertson’s painting, “celebrates family community and the idyllic rituals accompanying changing seasons and holidays.”


Most of the time, what the artist intends for you to see and what you actually see are two completely different things, and that is perfectly fine.


Sometimes Art can be less about figuring out what it the meaning is and more about how it makes you feel.


At the moment there is some construction around the museum.

The Crocker, “ Is planning a 125,000-square-foot expantion scheduled to open in 2010 that will triple its size, improve visitor amenities, quadruple changing exhibition space and allow more of the permanent collection to be on view,” their website stated.


But a few orange cones and a little dirt on the sidewalk shouldn’t keep you from exploring the unfamiliar parts of your city, you might just be inspired.