15 Foot Surf for Seal Way

Seal Beach Lifeguards have projected surf as high as 15 feet for Sunday morning.

This just after the berm came down?

Fortunately the tides are not predicted to be very high.

Beach front residents will be watching closely.

Famous Cookbook Now In Belmont Shore

Long Beach, CA and Shenzhen, China – Last October, at its annual charity event, Captivating International launched the sale of its first published cookbook titled, “Our International Kitchen.”

100% of the proceeds benefit the Seng Girls’ Vocational Training School and Home (SGVTS) Project in Northern China. It supports and offers a new life for a girls’ school in China.

This bilingual book was initiated by a group of Captivating International volunteers in Shenzhen who, at the time, embraced China as their home.

The cookbook committee, made up of 6 ladies, includes Lynn Velez (nee Mutke), a Wilson High School and San Diego State University grad currently living in Shenzhen.

“This book is a testimony of their willingness to give back to a country that has given them and their families so much,” commented Valerie Kingsland and Lisa Sommerville of Apostrophe Books in Belmont Shore.”

“Our committee saw a need to create an English/Chinese cookbook, featuring recipes from all over the world, submitted by people in our immediate community” said Lynn Velez.  “It does take a village to raise a child and the ‘Shenzhen Village’ has exemplified this through the publication of the cookbook, which is now helping to support over 120 girls at SGVTS.”

For more than two years hundreds of people volunteered their time and expertise by translating and test-cooking recipes, photographing the cooked dishes (and the girls) …  and, diligently proofing the cookbook.  The book would not be the work of art it is today without the volunteer design team who turned it into a “coffee table book.” Print Ninja, a Columbia, MO – based printing company, is to thank, as well, for donating their services and covering the majority of the printing costs.

The Seng Girls’ Vocational Training School and Home is a place of safety and promise for girls from extremely disadvantaged circumstances.  Located in the southern part of China’s Qinghai Province, the SGVTS was established in 2005 by a family who had a passion to see girls from ‘at-risk’ circumstances given the chance to achieve their dreams. The SGVTS is a registered vocational training school and operates with the full cooperation of local and provincial governments of Qinghai.  It is central to the vision and dreams of a Chinese registered non-profit organization called LOVEQTRA.  Captivating International, www.captivating.org who partners with LOVEQTRA to see these impoverished girls reach out for a better tomorrow, fully funds the operating costs of this program and its strategic development.

Apostrophe Books www.apostrophebooks.net is located in the heart of Belmont Shore at 4712 E. 2^nd Street, Long Beach Ca 90803. Phone: 562-438-7950.

Lynn Velez Email: lvelez@whalenasia.com

(Editor’s apology: We were not able to upload the photo of the book. It’s beyond beautiful.  Go by Apostrophe to see it.)

New iPads Waiting in Seal Beach…why?

Well the headlines said that Apple has again scored big with the new iPad and CEO Tim Cook said over 3 million were sold just on Friday!  Similarly AT&T said that it was a single day record for IPad sales.

All that may be true and I believe it when they say ultimately there will be 150 million sold and several more Zillion dollars will be added to Apple’s overall company value.  However, when I went into the new Seal Beach store, “Mac-fusion”, at 304 Main Street (next to the Abbey) on Saturday they still had new iPads to sell and were expecting more to be delivered Saturday and Monday.

It seemed to me that more of the people were getting their existing Macs upgraded and/or serviced than were walking out with the new iPads.

I will admit that the one I saw being displayed had striking graphic performance.  Apple calls it the Retina display: like the one on the iPhone 4S, it’s a very, very sharp screen. It’s four times as sharp as the iPad 2 — in fact, it’s the sharpest ever on a mobile device. This screen has 3.1 million pixels, which is 1 million pixels more than on a high-definition TV set.

In principle, all those pixels and the color saturation means now photos, videos, maps and text should look unbelievably good — and the apps that have been rewritten for the new screen do. Apple’s own apps, like Photos, Maps and iBooks, are very sharp and clear.  So are Apple’s inexpensive, newly enhanced iPad apps — iMovie, GarageBand, the Numbers spreadsheet and the Pages word processor. Its hard to believe the difference it makes.

What else is new:

-A tiny microphone now appears on the on-screen keyboard. Tapping it lets you speak to type, exactly as on the iPhone 4S. The recognition is fast and accurate

–       A 5-megapixel back camera that takes far better photos than the iPad 2 did. You‘ll get1080p hi-def videos now, and a stabilization feature lends a hand when yours is shaky or moving.

In this reporter’s opinion nothing else compares with it.  Not really surprising….its an Apple product, after all.

In addition to the superior graphics it has a quad-core processor and those things alone I’m sure will trigger many millions of sales over the next few weeks.

Why are the new iPads available in Seal Beach?  Maybe some of the Apple fans haven’t found out about the neww Seal Beach store yet? (12 years experience but less than 30 days in Old Town)  Undoubtedly they will when they start calling and emailing to find out who has new iPads to sell and the only spot is in our town!

Let’s hope when they come to Seal they take the walk to the Pier and find out there’s more to “Mayberry by the Sea” than just Apple sales and service.

Although I will admit it’s a pretty snazzy store.