First 2011 Chevy Volt Ordered in Ventura County Arrives at the Murphy Auto Museum on January 7th

/

The Murphy Auto Museum finally received the 2011 Chevy Volt ordered by Museum Director Dr. Dan Murphy.  It was the first order placed in Ventura County.  Dr. Murphy was able to take delivery last Friday, January 7th, at Paradise Chevrolet in Ventura. (Note from Conejo Joe: I believe Volt pricing starts in the $41,000 range). Volt is not cheap, but certainly interesting. It'll take you 35 miles gas free, then gas kicks in for another 340 miles, or a total range of 375 miles.

Awesome Christmas Story - Two Brothers Surprise Father by Restoring His 1969 Norton Commando

/

This 15 minute video is worth the watch. Priceless. This is what the holidays are all about. Two brothers "steal" their father's 1969 Norton Commando motorcycle from his basement in September 2009 and have it restored for him for Christmas.

Resolving to Say "NO" by Gail Small

/

A vignette by Gail Small, co-author of "Joyful Volunteering: Making a Difference." This one is called "NO" and is timely as we approach yet another new year!

NO by Gail Small

It was a warm winter day and I remember wearing a short-sleeved red checkered blouse with my favorite blue skirt. Suddenly though, I felt a chill and I froze.

It was at a community meeting of women. I was comfortable as we visited and shared stories. And then, it happened. The hostess handed us each a paper and pencil and asked us to write down our New Year's resolution.

My pencil wouldn't write. Those around me smiled and wrote non-stop. I knew my friend to my left was writing about the new diet she was going to go on the first of the year. My friend to the right had to be writing about making more money in her job, as that was always her primary focus. Someone across the room was chuckling out loud as she described the man of her dreams who she was determined to find in the coming year.

I was blank. Blank and confused. I thought about my everyday life. I am content. Sometimes I am really tired and often wish there were more minutes in a day. But, don't most of us think those things? I am happy in my relationships. I love my job and my family and friends. I work out and feel fit. I volunteer in the schools, in the community and for many organizations. I am always there when someone needs me for carpool, an emergency, or to run an errand. Wow! What to do?

Others were folding their resolutions in half once and then again. The crackly sound of the paper folding annoyed me as my page was still empty. Everyone smiled as they placed their well-chosen words into a

Read More

This Biochemist Who Discovered EPO Has Had a Tremendous Impact on Thousand Oaks

/
Goldwasserr.jpg

Last Friday, Eugene Goldwasser died at his home in Chicago at the age of 88. While Eugene Goldwasser is not exactly well known by the general public, his greatest accomplishment changed the course of the biotech industry and the world in 1977 when he isolated the human protein erythropoietin "EPO."

EPO stimulates the production of red blood cells. It is a blockbuster product with over $5 billion in annual revenues for local Amgen because it has changed the lives of millions of dialysis patients and others suffering anemia due to the effects of other diseases. Without Eugene Goldwasser, Thousand Oaks and Ventura County most likely would be much different today, as Amgen employs roughly 10,000 people locally in 4 million square feet of office space! Amgen is the largest private employer in Ventura County today!

It took Goldwasser 20 years to isolate EPO, starting in 1957, when he discovered EPO in minute quantities of anemic rats (now that sounds like fun).

Then by 1971 his lab purified six millionths of an ounce of EPO from 125 gallons of plasma from anemic sheep.

In 1973 a Japanese anemia doctor collected 673 gallons of urine from his anemic patients. (I think someone should have told Mike Rowe, The Dirty Jobs guy, but he was only 11 years old at the time.) From that pee, Goldwasser's team isolated eight milligrams of EPO and perked up anemic rats like a charm!

Seeing the huge unmet need of EPO, the next step was to clone the gene and produce it in enough quantities to create a drug. Local Amgen scientist Fu-Kuen Lin and his lab figured this out in two years and the rest is history. Amgen figured out how to manufacture the drug by propagating the cells in a fermentation process (Kirin Brewery helped them on this!) and starting selling it under brand name Epogen in 1989.  It was Amgen's first drug and it was and still is a blockbuster.

Why Are There No Ventura County Cities on MONEY Magazine's America's 100 Best Small Cities List?

/

The August 2010 issue of MONEY Magazine published its annual list of "100 Best Places to Live in America." I have subscribed to MONEY for years and each year my wife reviews the list and tells me 3 other places she would like to consider moving to. To which I reply:

I LIKE IT WHERE WE LIVE!

Curious, I reviewed MONEY's 2010 list and there was not a single Ventura County city on it.

MONEY's methodology was to start out with the 746 U.S. cities with a population of 50,000 to 300,000*, remove median incomes greater than 200% or below 85% of the state median, retirement communities, large job losses and poor education scores, then rank the remaining cities based on housing affordability, education, arts/leisure, health care, safety and other factors. *This methodology eliminates fine cities like Agoura and Moorpark from consideration.

Then they whittle down the list based on economic factors and visit 30 of the cities to select the winner.

Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Camarillo and Oxnard, all cities between 50,000 and 300,000, are nowhere to be found on the list.

I looked back at MONEY's Top 100 lists going back to 2005 and only once, Simi Valley in 2006 (#35), has a Ventura County city been included on this list. Something ain't right here!

Well it should be noted that Newbury Park, albeit not officially a city (it is part of Thousand Oaks), made it to #71 on the 2005 list. But that was 5 years ago!

Why is it that cities like Piscataway, NJ, Centreville, VA, Roswell, GA and Stillwater, OK made the list but not a single city from Ventura County has made the list  going back to 2006!?

MONEY, are you reading this? Come visit Ventura County why doncha and check out what we have to offer! Yah, all right, it is still a bit pricey to live here, but we have hundreds of things to do and all sorts of local events year round,  kids' activities and plenty more!

No offense, but I'm not leaving the Conejo Valley for Owensboro, KY, Gilbert, AZ, O'Fallon, MO or Millcreek, PA any time soon. I'm staying put right here in America's #1 county, Ventura County! :>

For the record though, here are the top 10 cities on the 2010 list: Eden Prairie, MN, Columbia/Ellicott City, MD, Newton, MA, Bellevue, WA, McKinney, TX, Fort Collins, CO, Overland Park, KS, Fishers, IN, Ames, IA and Rogers, AZ.

An Angel Watching Over

/

Guest post from one of my favorite local bloggers, Leslie Rosenthal, who grew up in Agoura and now resides in the San Fernando Valley. She is a single mom who writes in a way that I think any parent can really relate to.  Check out her blog at www.leslierosenthal.wordpress.com.

There’s a line in the movie Rocky V where Rocky talks about Mickey being an angel watching over his shoulder and  there is a flashback scene where Mickey says, “If you ever get hurt and you feel that you’re goin’ down this little angel is gonna whisper in your ear. It’s gonna say, ‘Get up you son of a bitch ‘cause Mickey loves you.’ “

I know this because I have seen every Rocky movie  about a zillion times and if you know me, you know that I am a hard-core Rocky addict.

The movie series Rocky is a classic underdog tale where incredible people come into Rocky’s life and make a difference forever.  Mickey, Apollo, Adrian….to name a few.  Perhaps that is why I like it so much. The notion of people making a difference in one’s life.

As you all know, my daughter and Coach Wooden had a special relationship which I have chronicled here before.   It would give me great joy to think that perhaps he is whispering in her ear his infinite wisdom on a daily basis; “Be quick, but don’t hurry.”  Or perhaps he is just reminding her how to tie her shoe laces the right way…or his way.

Today, I think that angel of Coach Wooden might have been present.

I took Shayna out to an unexpected lunch today to where else…yes, our favorite neighborhood coffee shop, VIP’s.  Also known as Coach Wooden’s favorite coffee shop.

It was quiet there and we had the place almost to ourselves. Karen, our favorite server was there and she knew right away what Shayna would want because it was after 12 noon, which is Shayna’s cut off time from cheese eggs and turns into time for a Patty Melt.

When the yummy Patty Melt arrived on rye bread, I had a feeling something might happen. Something big. Something that would make this meal one we would never forget. Shayna just might lose that loose tooth – which would be her first tooth ever.

A few bites in, it happened. Just like I thought. I looked over and the tooth was officially “snaggled” and there was some blood in her mouth. I didn’t say a word to her. I waited. Quietly. Patiently as she chewed on that meat.  And then it happened!

“MOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!”  I turned casually to her as she screamed,  “MY

Read More

Halloween is Near, Black Cat Has No Fear!

/

I came across these really neat photos via a friend in Facebook. Los Angeles based digital special effects designer David Ridlen was outside his home a few weeks ago and noticed his neighbor's cat Lucy was perched on top of their chimney. And the moon floated directly above the fearless feline. Amazed at what a great image that was, David scrambled and grabbed his HD video camera and snapped these still shots.  Though the resolution of the shots is not high, it certainly turned out some really cool shots for this home stretch into Halloween! I love these pics!!

 

 

For nearly 40 things to do through Halloween weekend, CLICK HERE!