"Twenty Twelve" Piece by Chuck Trunks in Tribute to Mayan 2012 Doomsday Prophecy

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The end is almost here!

December 21, 2012 is a date that signals the cataclysmic end of a 5,125 year cycle in the Mayan calendar when our sun aligns with the Milky Way galaxy. We’ve been able to read the Mayan calendar for over 100 years and the corresponding hieroglyphics have been completely deciphered for about 30 years. What does this all mean? 

Camarillo pop artist Chuck Trunks believes it means nothing more than hitting a giant, cosmic reset button.

“Twenty Twelve” is Trunks' tribute to this historic date. While the temples and dragons in the piece offer a nod toward the Mayan culture, the sundials and Stonehenge refer to the cleverness of those ancient civilizations that linked celestial movements to time. As for the magic eight balls and surfer dudes...even though 12/21/12 will pique the interest of the spiritual and scientific, it is still just another random day to do what you love and to share it with those around you. 

Visit trunksart.com for more of Chuck's signature work.

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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Tonight, Tuesday, December 4, 2012 is Quite a Foggy Night in the Conejo Valley

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Darts Promoter L. David Irete provided this neat shot of the Conejo Valley engulfed in fog tonight. There's no fog indoors tonight, which makes it an optimal night for darts, so check out the Ventura County Darts Association website at www.vcda.org. Or how about some of these other unique and interesting local clubs in Ventura County you may not be aware of.

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).

Former NBA Greats Pippen, Rodman, Grant and Others Played in Taiwan on Sunday

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A buddy of mine surprised me with these great photos from an exhibition game played in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. NBA legends Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, along with other popular retirees including Horace Grant, Jason Williams, Mitch Richmond and others, put on a show against the Taiwanese All-Star team this past Sunday, July 21st.

This team of old-timers looked great! The NBA Alumni team beat the locals by a score of 104 to 89 and the crowd thoroughly enjoyed the show! Rodman, who is now 51, played with gusto, according to my friend. In fact, he dove for a loose ball and ended up in some courtside seats. His effort was impressive. And of course, as you'll see below, he was as photogenic as ever.

Ventura County Schools in U.S. News 2012 Ranking of Nation's Top High Schools

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In May 2012, U.S. News & World Report published its 4th ranking of the nation's best public high schools. The study covered nearly 22,000 public high schools across the country.

Schools were ranked based on the following factors measured 2009-2010: (1) how well students tested on reading and math proficiency assessments at the state level, factoring in disadvantaged students, who tend to score lower on tests; and (2) college readiness, based on how well schools prepare students for college-level work via Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) programs.

The median college readiness, measured on a scale of 0 to 100, was 16.3. A readiness index of 100 means that all 12th graders took and passed at least 1 AP or IB test. (More on the methodology)

There were 2,407 California high schools, 87,682 full-time teachers and 1,999,202 students enrolled during the survey period. To be ranked in California, schools must receive either a gold (top 500 nationally) or silver (top 501 to 2008 nationally) medal. 276 Callifornia schools received gold or silver medals.

We checked out local high schools in the Conejo Valley, Ventura County and adjacent areas and summarized the information below. There were 12 local schools that received gold/silver medal status and thus were ranked nationally and in California.

Malibu High School ranked 52nd in the state, with the highest local "college readiness" level. The top academic scoring school locally was Oak Park High School. Thousand Oaks High School

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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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