There Are 35 Post-Season NCAA Football Bowl Games: Here is the 2012-13 Lineup

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Here in Southern California we are home to the very first college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, played on January 1, 1902. The Rose Bowl was still the only major college football bowl in 1930, but that quickly changed. By 1940, there were 5 bowls, the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl. I loved the simplicity of the names back then, before the corporate sponsorships took over.

The number of bowls grew to 8 in 1950, 11 in 1970, 15 in 1980, 19 in 1990, 25 in 2000 and today, 2012, we have 35 of them. And amazingly, only a few of the games overlap, so even without recording the games, avid football fans could almost watch every single one of these 35 bowls live on TV.

Here is the current college football bowl schedule for 2012-2013, including game times in PST (be sure to check channel listings for changes/errors):

Gildan New Mexico Bowl 12/15/12 10am (Nevada vs Arizona)

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl 12/15/12 1:30pm (Toledo vs Utah State)

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl 12/20/12 5pm (BYU vs San Diego State)

Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl St. Petersburg 12/21/12 4:30pm (Ball State vs Central Florida)

R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl 12/22/12 9am (East Carolina vs Louisiana-Lafayette)

Maaco Bowl Las Vegas 12/22/12 12:30pm (Boise St vs Washington)

Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl 12/24/12 5pm (Southern Methodist vs Fresno State)

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl 12/26/12 4:30pm (Western Kentucky vs Central Michigan)

Military Bowl pres. by Northrop Grumman 12/27/12 Noon (San Jose St vs Bowling Green)

Belk Bowl 12/27/12 3:30pm (Duke vs Cincinnati)

Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl 12/27/12 6:45pm (Baylor vs UCLA)

Advocare V100 Independence Bowl 12/28/12 11am (Ohio vs Louisiana-Monroe)

Russell Athletic Bowl 12/28/12 2:30pm (Virginia Tech vs Rutgers)

Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas 12/28/12 6pm (Minnesota vs Texas Tech)

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl 12/29/12 8:45am (Rice vs Air Force)

New Era Pinstripe Bowl 12/29/12 12:15pm (Syracuse vs West Virginia)

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl 12/29/12 1pm (Arizona State vs Navy

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Facebook Rolls Out New Gift Giving Service On Your Friends' Timelines Today

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Facebook rolled out a new feature today that just kind of started appearing on friends' Facebook Walls today. This feature I believe is called "Facebook Gifts" and you pretty much can't help but notice it. Simply go to a friend's wall and you'll see where you can post a message, a photo, or now, wallah, now give them a gift!

So from there all you do is click the "Gift" icon to see what type of choices you have to give. You'll find everything from $5 Starbucks gift cards to flowers, candy, beef jerky, Star Wars USB storage devices, cupcakes, to, well, you name it! They have "recommended gifts" to help you out.

You choose a gift and the next screen gives you additional information about the selection.

The following screen allows you to select a card to accompany the gift. Choose the occasion (birthday, anniversary, etc.).

Then customize the card. In the next screen you decide whether to post the gift on your friend's Timeline or not. After your friend "opens" the wrapped gift on their timeline (or otherwise), they will be asked to provide shipping information (when applicable) and you will be asked to pay. Kind of interesting actually that you don't pay until they actually "open" the present on their Wall.

Here's a preview of how it looks on their wall (recipient's name removed to protect the innocent from false expectation of receiving a gift from a cheapskate like me).

This is actually pretty clever. What better venue to provide a quick and easy way of giving a gift to a friend than in Facebook! I believe this is Facebook's first mainstream foray into the eCommerce world. Given how ubiqutious Facebook birthday messages are, this could really become huge!

This rollout applies so far only to individuals in Facebook and not to Facebook Pages, such as the Conejo Valley Guide Facebook Page at facebook.com/ConejoValleyGuide (hint, hint, follow us there for fun daily tidbits). However, feel free to friend me at facebook.com/ConejoJoe if you happen to be in the mood to test this new Facebook Gifts service (hint, hint, again).

Simi Valley Residents Featured in 25th Anniversary Shark Week "Sharkzilla" Episode

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The last few years I've had several home remodeling projects managed by Sean Tohill of All Trades Ready Construction. Sean's a really nice guy and he and his team did some great work at my house.

Sean frequently mentioned his wife, Lisa, had a passion for unearthing fossils out in Bakersfield and that they spent many a weekend up there. But we never talked about it in detail as cabinetry, mirrors, tiles and bath fixtures represented the main topic at hand.

Two weeks ago he told me, "Make sure to watch 'Sharkzilla' on the Discovery Channel's 25th Anniversary Shark Week! You and the kids will get a kick out of it!" The Sharkzilla episode first aired this past Monday night. I recorded it and watched it the next day. HOLY MEGALADON! He didn't tell me that he and Lisa would be PROMINENTLY FEATURED in the show! They were great!

Shark Week 25th Anniversary sign and massive 6 foot tall megaladon fin temporarily on display at the Tohill residence in Wood Ranch!

Sharkzilla features the cast of Mythbusters and a team that constructed a MASSIVE 52 foot long megaladon shark that lived 15 million years ago. This gigantic creature wiith 8 foot wide mechanical jaws was brought to the sand next to the Ventura Pier to a cheering crowd.

So, where did Sean and Lisa Tohill come in? The Mythbusters team learned that the Tohills own an 85 acre White Whale Quarry in Bakersfield. Yes, 12 to 15 million years

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What's Not to Love About the Ventura County Fair!? 137th Edition Now in Session!

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The 137th Ventura County Fair is off and running! This year's theme is "Rides, Ribbons and Rodeos" and visitors will certainly find plenty of that...and much more!  Some of the things you'll find here...games, rides, contests, music, rodeo, motor sports, mariachi, pony rides, goats, bunnies, chickens, vendors, kids' crafts, gems and minerals, agricultural exhibits, educational exhibits, every type of fair food you could imagine, photo opps and everything in between! Visit www.venturacountyfair.org for a complete event lineup!

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How To Make a General Donation to the United States Government

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For those of you who have done well in the stock market (the S&P 500 has nearly doubled in the last 3 years), won the lotto or lucky enough to be an original investor in Facebook stock, we know you've been wondering how to give back to all of us. Right!?

Well, the Financial Management Service (FMS), a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury, is here to help out. They outlined how citizens an make a donation to the U.S. government!

From www.fms.treas.gov/faq/moretopics_gifts.html:

Gifts to the United States Government

How do I make a contribution to the U.S. government?

Citizens who wish to make a general donation to the U.S. government may send contributions to a specific account called "Gifts to the United States." This account was established in 1843 to accept gifts, such as bequests, from individuals wishing to express their patriotism to the United States. Money deposited into this account is for general use by the federal government and can be available for budget needs. These contributions are considered an unconditional gift to the

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Presidential Elections - Can I Buy a Vowel? Obama, Adams, Eisenhower, Oh My!

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Conejo Valley Guide generally does not cover politics as we like to focus on things to do throughout  Ventura County and adjacent areas. And this post really is not political in nature. It is more along the lines of "useless yet potentially amusing information."

Barack Obama is running for re-election in 2012. If he loses, this would be the first time since 1828 that a President whose last name starts with a vowel loses a re-election. After one term in office, John Quincy Adams (like Obama, a Harvard graduate) lost to Andrew Jackson, considered the first Democratic President. Also notable (ok maybe not) is that Obama honored another Quincy...Quincy Jones, with a National Medal of Arts in 2010. The Obama/Quincy connection.

If Obama wins his re-election, he'll follow in the footsteps of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956, who demolished Adlai Stevenson with 86% of the electoral vote. Obama also has something in common with Eisenhower. He received his bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1983 whereas Eisenhower was President of Columbia from 1948 to 1953.

Truth be told, there have not been a lot of Presidential candidates whose last names begin with a vowel. In fact, while 19% of the letters in the alphabet are vowels, less than 10% of thos

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12 Alternative Ways of Getting to Google, Facebook and Yahoo

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According to Internet traffic measurement company Quantcast, three of the top five visited websites are Google, Facebook and Yahoo (YouTube and Twitter are the other two. The typical way most of us get to these sites are Google.com, Facebook.com and Yahoo.com.

The ever inquiring minds here at ConejoValleyGuide.com, after a recent typographical experience, discovered that there are numerous ways of getting to these sites. Now while most of us have the sites either bookmarked or memorized in our browser history, here are some alternative ways of getting to them:

Google

Facebook

Yahoo

Yessir, come to Conejo Valley Guide where you will find uniquely and marginally useful information!