A Century of Roses
Sept. 5
Reviewing the past 100 years in rose-related events. Dr. Tommy Cairns, an internationally known rose expert and exhibitor, is scheduled to attend. 7:30 p.m. Westminster Senior Center, 8200 Westminster Blvd., Westminster, Calif. Information: (949) 362-2710 or [email protected]

‘Spider’s Web’
Sept. 13-28
A murder takes place in the drawing room and the murderer is suspected to be the stepdaughter of the artist. Play is written by Agatha Christie and directed by Jeff Lowe. $20 general admission, $18 seniors, $10 children and students. 8 p.m. Westminster Community Theatre, 7272 Maple St., Westminster, Calif. Information: http://www.wctstage.org/Flyers/13SeasonFlyer.pdf

Oktoberfest
Sept. 13-Oct. 27
German food, beer and ambiance. Adults $5. 18 and under and active duty are free. 6 p.m.-midnight. Phoenix Club, 1340 S. Sanderson Ave., Anaheim, Calif. Information: http://www.thephoenixclub.com/oktoberfest/

Beef and Beer Celebration
Sept. 21
Kent County Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 850 will host the annual Beef and Beer Celebration. Food proceeds will help fund the chapter’s activities and outreach community. A DJ will provide entertainment. $20. 6-11 p.m. Leipsic Fire Hall, 318 Main St., Dover, Del. Information: (302) 242-8708 or (302) 678-0850.

LA County Fair
Through Sept. 29
Carnival games and rides, food and shopping. Concerts are at additional costs. Weekdays: Adults, $12, children 6-12, $8, seniors, $10. Weekends: Adults, $19, children 6-12, $12, seniors, $15. Wednesdays noon-10 p.m.; Thursdays noon-11 p.m.; Fridays noon-midnight; Saturdays 10 a.m.-midnight; Sundays 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Fairplex, 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona, Calif. Information: http://www.lacountyfair.com/2013/index.asp

OC International Auto Show
Oct. 3-6
Hundreds of cars will be display. Check out the newest rides and sit in the driver seat and check the latest in-car technology. Adults $12, seniors $8, children 12 and under free. Oct. 3, 4-10 p.m., Oct. 4, noon-10 p.m., Oct. 5, 9 a.m.-10 p.m., and Oct. 6, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W. Katella Ave., Anaheim, Calif. Information: www.AutoShowOC.com

Basic Computer Class
Tuesdays through Dec. 17
Learn the basics on how to use a computer. Vietnamese tutors are available upon request. Free. 6:30 p.m. Tully Community Branch Library, 880 Tully Road, San Jose, Calif. Information: (408) 808-3030.

Calligraphy in Vietnamese
Mondays through Dec. 30
Learn the calligraphy technique. Students are to provide class material. Free. 3-5 p.m. Tully Community Branch Library, 880 Tully Road, San Jose, Calif. Information: (408) 808-3030.

Reading to the Children in Vietnamese
Saturdays through Dec. 28
Volunteer readers will read in the children’s area. Children have one-on-one interactions with the readers and choose which stories to be read. Free. 10:30 a.m. Bascom Library and Community Center, 1000 S. Bascom Ave., San Jose, Calif. Information: (408) 808-3077.

‘Reduce, Reuse, Re-imagine’
Through Feb. 2, 2014
In this art exhibit, viewers can see how artists transform unwanted items into a masterpiece work of art. Free. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. De Saisset Museum, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, Calif. Information: http://www.scu.edu/desaisset/exhibitions/Reduce.cfm

Grief Support Group
Thursdays
The Grief Share Support Group is for mothers who have lost children of any age. The group meets every Thursday evening. 12831 Olive St., Garden Grove, Calif. Information: (714) 892-1520 or (714) 343-7516.

Farmers Market
Sundays
Vendors sell fresh produce and other food items. 9 am.-2 pm. Free. Main Street between Garden Grove Boulevard and Acacia Parkway, Garden Grove, Calif. Information: Lee at (562) 498-6048 or (562) 499-9299.

By VIJI SUNDARAM, New America Media

 Hundreds of fast food workers from about 60 cities nationwide went on strike at their workplaces last week, demanding a minimum wage of $15 an hour and union privileges. Oakland, Calif., resident Saru Jayaraman, co-founder of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, said labor-rights leaders are going to continue maintaining the pressure on restaurant owners until their employees are given a living wage. She spoke to NAM health editor Viji Sundaram after the strike.

Photo from New America Media

NAM: Were you satisfied with the turnout? And have you heard of any retaliatory action against those who struck work?

Saru Jayaraman: It was a great turnout, and no, we haven’t heard of any retaliatory action so far.

NAM: What is the mission of your organization, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-U) and why did you start it?

SJ: We started it after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when some 72 employees of the Windows on the World restaurant, housed in the World Trade Center, lost their lives and many were displaced.

NAM: The SEUI organized yesterday’s strike, even though less than 1 percent of restaurant workers are unionized. Will it help employees achieve what they are trying to get by joining a union?

SJ: Unions are not the only way to organize. My organization, ROC-U is trying to improve working conditions for restaurant workers. We have 10,000 members in 30 cities and around 100 employer partners, and several consumer members, and we have led and won 13 major campaigns against exploitation in high-profile restaurant companies.

NAM: The U.S. restaurant industry employs around 10 million people. How many of them are from communities of color?

SJ: I wouldn’t know how many of the employees are from communities of color. I can only guess that it is about half.

 But here’s what I do know: The restaurant industry is the largest employer of minimum-wage employees, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The median age of a worker is in the mid-30s, and one in four of them is a parent. Most of them earn as little as $7.25 an hour, and 90 percent of them get no health insurance or paid sick leave. If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation, the worker should be paid at least $15 an hour. That’s what we are asking for.

NAM: What was the impetus for this recent strike?

SJ: The Occupy Movement (in 2011) started the conversation about the 1 percent owning everything, and 99 percent owning little or nothing. The Wal-mart strike earlier this year for better wages and living conditions influenced fast-food workers, among whom pressure had been building for a long time, to say enough is enough.

NAM: So what now?

SJ: We are going to continue to build momentum around wages. Consumers are beginning to join in the struggle. We think the protests will grow from fast-food restaurant employees to those in full-service restaurants. This is going to be a huge issue in the mid-term elections.

 College students have offers of quick credit and school loans thrown at them daily, leaving American college students with an average debt of more than $35,000 on graduation day. With the easy money in hand, students need to make sure not to spend a penny more than they need for tuition and books.

Budgeting skills need to be learned before college, says Ric Romero in his story for KABC Los Angeles.

Photo from Techyville

By Andrew Lam

While on assignment in Vietnam a few years ago, I turned into a smoker, at least temporarily. I resisted at first, but my new acquaintances thought I was standoffish. My interviews didn’t work very well. So I gave in.

Photo from The Austin Times

 I took cigarettes offered and, in fact, bought some for others. Voila, the conversation began to flow. Soon, I’d come home reeking of tobacco smoke.

 Taking and offering cigarettes is how friends and associates greet each other. It’s like a handshake. If you don’t shake hands, don’t expect the natives to be friendly. Which is perhaps why it’s an epidemic in Asia.

 According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than one in four people light up regularly. Vietnam’s Health Education and Communication Center estimates that smoking kills 40,000 people in Vietnam each year and if no measures are taken, nearly 10 percent of the Vietnamese population will have died from smoking-related diseases by 2030. It’s an epidemic.

 “If you don’t smoke, people will think you’re a sissy,” said one young man. Another, an upwardly mobile account executive for a fashion magazine told me, “My job demands the ability to drink and smoke. My business is done in bars and restaurants. You got to smoke.”

 So I pretend to as well. Don’t get me wrong. With a degree in biochemistry and two uncles who died from cigarette smoking, I’m very aware of the habit’s deleterious effects. I puff but, like former President Clinton, I don’t ever inhale.

 I try, when possible, in one polite way or another tell friends and new acquaintances about the deleterious effects of the practice. But most just laughed. “We all have to die at some point” is the general answer.

 Statistics show that nicotine addiction is more prevalent in Asia than anywhere else. Asian males consume virtually half of the world’s cigarettes. Vietnamese men, of course, contribute to the trend, with the highest smoking prevalence rate for men in the world. But Vietnam is still behind China, where 30 percent of the population smokes, according to the latest Gallup poll, and that’s around 320 million people.

 Lately the Vietnamese government has stepped up its anti-smoking campaigns. The State Movie Bureau, for instance, declared that it will edit out any smoking scenes in local films, with the exception of “indispensable smoking scenes,” such as war scenes, where soldiers share a smoke. But the anti-smoking campaign so far is largely cosmetic.

 Ironically, it’s in California where many Vietnamese immigrants quit smoking. One of the most effective anti-smoking campaigns ever waged among Southeast Asian refugees in California was done by Suc Khoe La Vang, the Vietnamese Community Health Promotion Project out of University of California in San Francisco.

 “Up to 50 percent of the participants quit in the first year,” one doctor in San Jose told me. He showed films, charts and documents on how smoking affects one’s health and, more important, the health of one’s family. One man cried and said he didn’t know secondary smoke was killing his kids, or at least making them less smart, the doctor reported.

 “He found the strength to quit,” the doctor said, “not for himself, but for his children’s future.”

 If Vietnam wants to really change its bad habit, it should do more than edit local films. The key is to educate the population on the effects of secondhand smoke. A Vietnamese won’t give up for himself, but for his family, it’s another matter.

 Meanwhile, I too have a new resolve. I’m prepared to say “No” next time someone offers me a cigarette when I’m back in Vietnam, even at the risk of being seen as standoffish, or yes, even a sissy.

 Andrew Lam is an editor at New America Media and the author of “Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora,” “East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres,” and his latest, “Birds of Paradise Lost,” a collection of stories about Vietnamese refugees in the Bay Area. 

 A Vietnamese Australian woman honored with a select invitation to attend a convention to celebrate the accomplishments of people with autism has declined the invitation because she can’t afford it. Ana Nguyen, just one of four Australians selected to go to the International Naturally Autistic People Awards Convention and Festival in Canada, said she hopes to have a chance to go next year.

Read the story from the Fairfield Champion.

Shining bright: Fairfield resident Ana Nguyen misses out on her chance to represent Australia. Picture: Simon Bennett

 Students scored an average of 1498 on SAT tests in 2012, down from 1518 in 2006 – with ethnic groups falling 22 points. The exception: Asian American students, who have seen their scores rise 41 percent.

Read the full story from College News.

Photo from College News

Members of the Pham family of Houston, owners of an area health salon, know they were able to fulfill their American dream, thanks to American servicemen and women. As thanks, they will be giving free haircuts on certain days this month to members of the military, veterans and public safety officials in their community.

Read the story of how they rebuilt their lives as refugees from Bryan Kirk of the Houston Chronicle.

All the stylists at Visage Salon are offering Marine Corps veteran Bryan Kirk and all veterans free haircuts three days a week in September at Visage Salon Friday 8/16/13.

By Katie Szymanski, Her Campus

College is an exciting journey—a time of self-discovery, relationship building, and decision-making. Pre-collegiettes, we hope you are ready! But when you finally arrive on campus, we just ask one thing: don’t be that freshman. Ask any upperclassman, and nine times out of 10 they can point out the newbies—the students walking to class in herds (and getting there 20 minutes early), wearing their Sunday best, sporting an oh-so fashionable lanyard, and giving their parents a play-by-play of their day over the phone. We don’t expect you to look and act like a senior on your first day, but there are ways to avoid becoming the stereotypical freshie.

Photo from Her Campus

1. Toss the Lanyards
We hate to break it to you: lanyards aren’t cute accessories. Nothing screams “freshman” more than wearing one around your neck wherever you go. Yes, getting your new school ID is super exciting. But trust us, it will be perfectly safe in your backpack, wallet, or pocket! If you want to keep your ID readily accessible, Vera Bradley’s Zip ID case ($12 at verabradley.com) and Merona’s Hard Case Wallet ($12.99 at target.com) are great options to try.

2. Upgrade to College Gear
Don’t make the mistake of wearing your high school Class of 2013 shirt around campus (do you want everyone to know you’re a freshman? The answer is no). Once you move on to college, the only socially acceptable time to wear your high school gear is while sleeping or exercising (it’s a proven fact). Now that you’re in the big leagues, it’s time to start dressing like it! If you can’t seem to let go of your old tees, don’t worry. You can turn them into a fancy T-shirt quilt for your dorm.

Before classes start, you should pick up your university shirts, sweaters, hats, jewelry, and anything else your heart desires. But beware: only freshmen wear it all day, every day. It’s okay to show school spirit, but do it in small doses! Instead of getting your entire wardrobe from the campus store, there are always ways to rep your school spirit in a unique way. 

3. Use a Mobile Map
Trying to find your classes on the first day of school is the worst. But you know what’s even worse? Looking like a lost freshman, hauling around a giant map of campus. If you need directions, start by using a map on your phone to avoid any judgmental stares from upperclassmen. You should check to see if your school has an app; many university apps include a campus map for your convenience! If you have time before the first day of classes, why not scope out the area? Walking to each of your class buildings will help make the route more familiar, and you can also estimate how long it will take to get around campus. Don’t be that freshman running to class… just don’t.

4. Get to Class on Time (NOT Early!)
There’s nothing wrong with going to class early, but camping outside of the classroom for 20 minutes is definitely a freshman move. If you’re worried about being late, leave your dorm 15 minutes earlier than necessary and find a spot near your class (not immediately outside the door) to relax if you get there before class starts. This is the perfect time to prepare for the day by reading over the syllabus and any other materials the professor provided. Also, make sure you know what time the class officially starts. At some universities, classes will technically start 10 minutes later than posted on the schedules. It’s always super awkward walking in at the wrong time, so double check beforehand!

5. Be Modest
You should be proud of your accomplishments; after all, you made it to college!  However, we don’t recommend sharing your ACT/SAT scores and high school GPA over small talk.  Nobody likes the girl who spends 99 percent of the conversation bragging about herself (seriously, stop talking). You may have worked really hard in high school, but now everyone is at an equal playing field.  Even though you might be totally amazing, try getting to know where your peers are from and what they’re studying instead!  This will show you’re open to meeting new people, and hey, you might make a friend or two. 

6. Stay Classy at Parties
Now that you’re free from parents and curfews, you are your own boss! With the much-deserved freedom, some collegiettes go a little overboard. You may really want to impress the cute guy on the dance floor, but pounding back the shots won’t help you gain confidence. And if your favorite song comes on, it’s cool to show it—but please avoid dancing on tables and other potentially unstable objects.

Unless you want to be the star of the next “I’m Shmacked” video (a YouTube series that features crazy parties on college campuses) remember to stay in control of your drinking. There are several ways to do so:

Eat Dinner
First, start your night by eating a proper, carbohydrate-filled dinner. It’s never a good idea to drink on an empty stomach, because you will become intoxicated very quickly. Having a full stomach helps absorb the alcohol, slowing it from entering the bloodstream too quickly. 

Know Your Limits
To learn your limits when it comes to alcohol, you definitely should keep track of what you’re drinking. Mobile apps such as DrinkBuddy ($3.99 on iTunes) can make the job easier for you so that you can enjoy the night and stay safe at the same time! You can also have a sober friend help keep you accountable. If you aren’t used to drinking alcohol, try setting a drink limit at the beginning of the night and stick to it! You will learn what your body can handle and what’s too much.

Drink Water
If you plan to have more than one drink, start alternating between alcoholic beverages and water. Drinking alcohol dehydrates your body, so it’s important to get water back into your system during a long night of partying.

7. Distance Yourself From Home
After spending the first few days on campus, it’s completely normal to feel homesick. Unlike high school, you are on your own! However, this doesn’t mean that you should call Mom and Dad whenever you have the chance.  And, unless you sincerely want to make enemies with your roommate, don’t spend the entire night locked up in your room, chatting away with your BFF or boyfriend.  An occasional Skype date will ease the homesickness without overdoing it! If you’re constantly on the phone, you’ll miss out on potential roommate and dorm bonding, a crucial part of freshman year. 

Going from high school to college is a big transition, and it’s normal to feel anxious!  You’ll be in a new setting with unfamiliar people and classes unlike anything before.  Just breathe! As the weeks go by, you’ll start feeling more comfortable. While it’s important to do well in class, don’t let homework consume your life. And please, don’t stress over an A-.  Once you find your perfect study habits, it’ll be smooth sailing.  You have four years to figure out college, so it’s okay to have some “typical freshman” tendencies at first!  You might not be the coolest, most put-together person on campus yet—but with these tips, you’ll have a head start.

By Jackson Mariotti, The Huffington Post

There are two ways to spend your summer vacation: a fun way and a helpful way. Most people spend the summer doing close to nothing, relaxing the entire day. I, on the other hand, spent my break working 8-hour days at a medical research company. Although I did envy my friends who got to spend their summer by the pool, I was able to learn some very important life lessons.

Photo from The Huffington Post

1. Be punctual

Whether it is finishing an assignment for the deadline or just meeting a friend or coworker for a meal, punctuality is key. People will respect someone who can keep track of time and progress. It is an essential trait to have, because it will improve both an individual’s social life and their career path.

2. Treat everyone with respect

No matter to whom you are talking to, be respectful. One never can be sure who they will need for help some day so be nice to everyone. One day, it could pay off. It would be a shame if the one person who could help you was someone you disrespected and were mean to.

3. Do not be afraid to make mistakes and ask questions

Everyone makes mistakes and has to ask questions. That is what makes people human. The most important part is to make sure you do not have to do it again. If you mess up, or don’t know what to do, accept you made a mistake and learn from it. The smartest people are not the ones who make the least amount of errors, but they are the ones who learn the most from them.

4. Finish one project before starting another

At my internship, I worked for two separate groups. Each group would give me an assignment of work that needed to be done. One time I started one and then switched over to the other project. Needless to say, both were not with the best quality that they should have been done with and neither were finished in time. After that, I learned to always work on one project at a time, and only start something new once I finished. That applies to all areas of life, not just work. One should finish what they are working on before starting something new.

5. Work hard no matter what you’re doing

No matter what aspect of your life you are doing, always work hard in it. Even if it something small and unimportant still work hard. It will help build good work ethic and improve the activity you’re doing. People will notice the effort that you always put in and you will be cast in a good light.

No, I did not have the craziest summer, but I learned these five lessons, so it was a valuable summer. Following these rules could one day lead me to a successful life, as anyone else who chooses to follow them also. I’m glad that I was able to have the opportunity to work long days during my vacation.