Black Friday is looming its ugly head over our wallets and our inner materialist. I, for one, love shopping. But what I hate is the guilt I feel after thinking about all the damage I did to the world (and my bank account!) after my splurge of purchases. I’m talking about the receipt paper, the plastic and paper shopping bags, the wrapping paper and the driving. Oh and not to mention the energy and CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere… Read more

With just a few weeks left in the semester, I have decided to write the remaining A.S. blogs in an informal way to move away from a rigid reporting style to a more conversational tone. As readers, I think you deserve to have your information given to you differently on blogs from time to time. So, with that said, let’s talk about what happened at Tuesday’s A.S. meeting. Library presentation Pop quiz: Name at least three services provided by the… Read more

The following are some cars I came across from Clean Air Choice, which list the 2010 cars that are at the top of clean air cars by having a low Carbon Footprint. The rating of the Carbon Footprint on the cars is based on the cars driven about 15,000 miles per year. (visit fueleconomy.gov for info) Some, if not all, of the cars I list can be seen in the Los Angeles Auto Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center… Read more

Student-parents at CSUN, Finals are near and so is Thanksgiving break.  It’s a perfect time to catch up on some studying and to prepare for those tests, but it’s just as important to take time out for yourself.  Going to school and taking care of little one’s can take up 150 percent of your time, but finding time to do things for yourself will help not to end up in burn out, or even worse in depressed mode. Don’t be… Read more

The California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to approve a two-step tuition increase equaling 15 percent and adopted the 2011-12 budget requesting financial support from the governor and legislature in a boost of $379 million. Students will pay an additional $105 (5 percent) for the Winter/Spring terms and $444 (10 percent) for the 2011-12 school year. Jack O’Connell, superintendent of public instruction for the CSU, said the 10 percent tuition increase would entitle 30,000 plus students to… Read more

I came across Green America, a nonprofit organization who’s mission is “to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society,” early in September at the Fair Trade Futures Conference in Quincy, Mass. and really liked what they are all about. Basically, Green America is all about being socially and environmentally responsible by promoting, educating and working with ‘green’ businesses and people. I recently received their packet and came across CREDO Mobile, one of the greenest cell phone services out there…. Read more

Student-parents at CSUN, For the last couple  months, I’ve experienced something new with my 2 year old that I haven’t experienced much with my older boys, and that’s getting angry.  She’s recently learned how to express the emotion of anger.  At first I though it was sort of comical, but after she started to using this method as a form of trying to get me to do what she wanted, I realized that this could become a real problem. This… Read more

When I heard about the release of the MacBook Air a couple of weeks ago, my first thought was ‘here we go again.’ With technological advancements almost every other week,  it can be overwhelming trying to keep up. Yesterday,  I saw Apple’s commercial on the MacBook Air for the first time and I was simply enamoured. This is coming from a girl who’s used a Dell PC  for the last 4 1/2 years. The MacBook Air is very sleek. Available… Read more