Meeting notes for festival of the arts food booths: July 9, 2009

The 2009 Fremont Festival of the Arts will take place Aug 1 & 2 this year. This year, around 40 different non-profit organizations will participate in the festival by selling food at different food booths. The meeting, held at the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, was held to review City and County guidelines for food safety and environmental clean up.

Attendees to the Fremont Festival of the Arts often cite the great food as a key part of what makes their day at the Festival memorable. They look forward to the linguisa or the funnel cakes – or whatever food indulgence they don’t allow themselves to eat most of the time! But what they may not realize is that only non-profit organizations are allowed to sell food at the Festival. 

Many of the non-profit organizations that operate food booths name the Fremont Festival of the Arts as their single largest fundraiser of the year. It is estimated that over the 26 years of the Festival, these non-profit organizations have raised over $8,000,000. The non-profits return that money to the community through a variety of significant services, creating improved quality of life for area residents. 

Please support these organizations in their endeavors by indulging at the Festival. If your non-profit would like to operate a food booth, please contact Nina Moore at (510) 795-2244. 
Here’s a list of the 2009 food booth participants:

2009 FOOD BOOTHS at the Fremont Festival of the Arts

American High School (Band Parents Organization)
Ice Cream
Benefits American High School Music Program

Boy Scouts Troop 199
Root Beer Floats
Benefits troop activities and programs
 
Bridges Intervention Services
Teriyaki Chicken
Benefits at-risk teens and young adults in the Tri-City area
 
Centerville National Little League
Garlic Fries & Chili Fries
Benefits youth sports programs
 
Fremont American Little League
Hot Dogs
Benefits youth sports programs

Fremont Rotary Club
Iced coffee & Biscotti
Benefits community service programs
 
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
Nachos
Benefits community service organizations and programs

Irvington High School
Ice Cream
Benefits the productions and programs of Irvington High School

Kilohana Outrigger Canoe Club
Hawaiian BBQ Plate Lunch
Benefits club training programs and equipment.
 
Kiwanis Club of Fremont
Pizza & Cookies
Benefits youth, families and senior citizens in the Tri-City area

Knights of Columbus – Council 2692
Linguica Sandwich
Benefits educational, charitable, religious, social welfare, ware relief, and public relief programs
 
Leadership Fremont
Ice Cream
Benefits Leadership Fremont program and scholarships
 
Milpitas Host Lions Club
Bar-B-Que Ribs & Nachos
Benefits Milpitas Food Pantry, Lions Blind Center of Santa Clara County and other community programs

Mission San Jose High School (Parents of Universal Performers)
Ice Cream
Benefits the Performing Arts Department of Mission San Jose High School

Mission Valley Elite Cougars Youth Basketball
Carne Asada Tacos
Benefits the Mission Valley Elite Cougars Youth Basketball program
 
Ohlone College Men’s Basketball
Hamburgers & Corn-on-the-Cob
Benefits the men’s basketball program

Our Lady of Guadalupe School
Funnel Cake
Benefits the school’s financial assistance program.
 
Resurrection Greek Orthodox Church
Gyros
Benefits authentic Greek dance troupe

Rotary Club of Fremont Sunrise
Tri-Tip Sandwich
Benefits Kennedy High School attendance area and a variety of community service organizations.
 
Rotary Club of Mission San Jose
Linguica Sandwich & Yogurt & Fruit Parfait
Benefits Rotary’s worldwide humanitarian projects.

S.O.Y., Inc. (Saving Our Youth)
Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches
Benefits education for at-promise youth in our community

St. Joseph School
Chinese Chicken Salad & Spring Rolls
Benefits St. Joseph School scholarship program

Stage 1 Theatre
Kettlecorn
Benefits Stage 1 Theatre’s productions and operational costs.
 
Sunol Glen School
Ice Cream
Benefits a variety of school activities and field trips
 
Tri-City Ecology Center
Lemonade
Benefits children’s ecological education.

Warm Spring Business Association
Burritos / Nachos
Benefits Warm Springs Christmas Tree Lighting and other community events

www.fremontfestival.net

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Zero tolerance for illegal fireworks

From a brochure handed out at the stand:

“If it goes up in the air, darts across the ground, or explodes, it’s dangerous and illegal.

Only safe and sane fireworks, purchased from authorized non-profit fireworks stands, are allowed in Union City”

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

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Only a Dozen Cities to Allow Fireworks | NBC Bay Area

via nbcbayarea.com

The cities that allow the sale and use of “safe and sane” fireworks are Dublin, Newark, Union City, Pacifica, San Bruno, Rio Vista, Cloverdale, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Sebastopol, and St. Helena.

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Visible Tweets – Twitter Visualisations. Now with added prettiness!

via visibletweets.com

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Kristi Yamaguchi’s Always Dream Foundation Playpark groundbreaking ceremony

Olympic gold medalist, Dancing With the Stars champion and Fremont native Kristi Yamaguchi and her Always Dream Foundation is building a playground in Fremont where kids of all abilities can play. On May 21, 2009 she conducted a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the park.

Click here to download:

alwaysDreamSign (359 KB)

Click here to download:

parkPlans (605 KB)

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podium (576 KB)

Click here to download:

serious (371 KB)

Click here to download:

laughing (345 KB)

Click here to download:

hardhats (434 KB)

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shoveling (597 KB)

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BrentHedican (471 KB)

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KristiYamaguchi (659 KB)

Click here to download:

me-and-kristi (404 KB)

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I went in for a cup of coffee and stumbled into a chamber mixer

Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely. [from wikipedia]

This morning I wanted my rocket shot (4 shots of espresso in a 20 oz mocha) from @paddyscoffee. I went in and the place was packed with UC chamber members who were busy networking.

It was nice to finally meet my Twitter friend @genesarmiento in the flesh. Gene actually saw me first: “P0_P0, right?” I also found out that Bruce Davis [@daviscomputing] is on twitter. I know Bruce from his involvement with the Fremont and Union City chambers. I also met Don, from Southern Wine & Spirits. They provide the Fremont Festival with hundreds of bottles of wine for our annual festival. A few Facebook friends were there as well. All in all, a serendipitous way to meet people.

These shots are of Paddy and his awesome baristas. Next time, I’ll bring my G9 so I won’t have to use my phone’s camera.

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Mailana: What does your social network look like?

Here’s another Twitter app for the ecosystem: Mailana

Who do you talk to most often on Twitter?
Who are your closest friends?
What does your social network look like?

You can:
See your conversations.
See your town’s social network.
See people who talk about.

Put your Twitter @ in the box and go. You’ll get a cool visualization of who you talk to most often on Twitter. It’ll show how your friends connect to each other. (See the red highlight on IreneKoehler). You even get a list of your Twitter BFFs.

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Initial impression of Google Voice

I’ve been a Grand Central user since before Google bought them. But it seemed that GC users were left behind because there were no new features added and GC never went out of beta. Now that Google has finally rolled out several major upgrades and changed the name to Google Voice, I’m excited. Here are my first impressions:

Upgrade experience

I had to wait for the message that told me that my account was ready to be upgraded. In the meantime, I just logged into Grand Central as usual. When the upgrade message appeared on my inbox page, I clicked through.

The upgrade process was easy enough, you’ll get the chance to link your Google Voice account with your Google account. You also have to agree to their TOS and read the privacy policy.

What’s transferred, what’s left behind

Google Voice will migrate your Grand Central number, PIN, forwarding phone info.

Google Voice doesn’t keep your Grand Central call logs and voicemail. If you have any groups or individual greetings in Grand Central, you’ll need to recreate them.

You can still log into www.grandcentral.com to get them.

Export your Grand Central address book

When I logged in to my newly upgraded Google Voice account, I was shocked that my address book didn’t show up. My initial reaction was wtf? But a quick scan provided me with the instructions to export from Grand Central.

Voicemail transcription

One of the coolest features (I think) is the one that transcribes incoming voicemail to text. I called my Grand Central Google Voice number and left myself a message. There are caveats to the transcription: “Results will vary due to background noise, accent or speed of the message.” I think my voice was a little low to be effectively transcribed. Google Voice transcribed 91% of the words in my voicemail correctly. But then again, I kept my voice lowered on purpose – what crazy person leaves himself a voicemail? Some words that didn’t transcribe: seller’s became sellis; worth became worse; place became please. GV may have a tough time with speech impediments, like lisps and stuttering in addition to strong accents.

More info to come

I shall update this post as I use more of the new features. Stay tuned!

My Google Voice upgrade is finally here

I’ve been using Grand Central (GC) since before Google bought them. After GC was bought, silence on the features and development from Google. Finally, Google has rolled out new features:

• SMS: Anyone can send an SMS to your Google Voice number and the message will be forwarded to your mobile phone(s). You can also reply to or send SMS straight from your inbox.
• Voicemail Transcripts: Fully automated transcription service (not perfect) that gives you a text preview of what the voicemail is about and allows searching for voicemails based on this text.
• Conference Calling: If you have call waiting, when you’re on a call and a new call comes in to your Google number, you’ll have the option to “conference the caller with your existing call,” which will add this call to your existing call.
• Quick Call & Quick SMS: You can easily call or SMS anyone by just typing a name (if that person is in your Contacts list) or any number. We’ll connect the call from the phone you specify. This allows you to display your Google Voice number as caller ID.
• International Calling: For free calls within the US and great rates on international calls, just call your own Google number and press 2 to connect. Once you get the dial tone, enter the number you would like to call. And remember to add 011 for international calls.
• Goog411: Access directory assistance through Goog411 by calling your own Google number and pressing 4. From there you can speak the name of a business and location and get connected directly for free.

I’m looking forward to checking these out, especially voicemail transcripts and international calling.

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Tenets of web design 2.0

When I first took a web design class, we learned html using text edit, then Dreamweaver. I was in the sorry state of being the only one who had a copy of GoLive Studio. Adobe stopped development on GoLive soon after they bought Macromedia, the creator of Dreamweaver. I was stuck with legacy software – again. I suppose an entire computer OS as legacy software is a bit much, but I really liked my Amiga 2000 and AmigaDOS. But back to my web design class: it was fine though, because I think it gave me a better understanding of html itself, rather than an understanding of how to use a specific html editor.

Things that were taught: proximity, alignment, repetition, contrast, how to use dreamweaver

Things that weren’t taught in my original web design class: css, javascript, search engine optimization in the design phase of a site

Designers now need to separate content, presentation (css), and behavior (javascript).