To be honest (it's just an opening phrase, I was raised to always tell the truth - which makes living in our current age more difficult, but with age I've learned to share the truths with others more judiciously) I simply don't have the time to start blogging properly, with a prologue, introduction, and so forth. So I've decided to jump right into it, start broadcasting my information stream out into the virtual world. Given the amount of junk out there, I hope to post mostly useful bits and pieces, not undertaking the monumental task of straightening out every lie and misconception, but just adding a little more weight to the side of common sense, reason, and fact.
I also feel the need to preface that again the downside of the modern digital age is a precipitous loss of privacy ( and innocence, but that's a separate post). Therefore I would prefer to keep as much of anonimity as Google will allow :)
Having said that, I will divulge that I currently reside in the San Fernando Valley, which is a part of Los Angeles. The western end of the valley in particular offers a nice compromise between purely suburban lifestyle and hustle-n-bustle of a metropolis. Let me explain. Warner Center in Woodland Hills is a master-planned community which features it's own mini-downtown with a few skyscraper-wannabee office buildings, a couple of shopping malls, lots of condos and apartment buildings - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Center,_Los_Angeles . The city of Woodland Hills hosts the excellent Summer Movie/Concert Series - http://valleycultural.org/ Some of the top LAUSD schools are in the area. Elementary schools - Woodland Hills, Welby Way, and Pomelo. Nearby Las Virgenes schools are all great. Middle school- Hale. High school - El Camino Real - multiple winners of the national academic decathlon competition. For more info:
http://www.mywhes.com/
http://www.welbyway.org/
http://teacherweb.com/CA/PomeloDriveElementary/SchoolHomePage/SDHP1.stm
http://www.halemiddleschool.com/
http://ecrhs.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Camino_Real_High_School
http://www.greatschools.org/
For earlier education opportunities I can only wholeheartedly recommend one family childcare/daycare, which my kids attended, and received unequaled love, care, and education.
It's located in Woodland Hills, and the obligatory link:
http://www.happychildhooddaycare.com
For higher education opportunities, there are 2 great local schools - Pierce community college in Woodland Hills and California State University in Northridge. A little further away are Pepperdine University in Malibu, and, of course, the best public university in Southern California - UCLA in Westwood. Going even further, Los Angeles area boasts other world-class universities and research centers such as USC in downtown and Caltech in Pasadena. Links again are below:
http://www.piercecollege.edu/
http://www.csun.edu/
http://www.ucla.edu/
http://www.usc.edu/
http://www.caltech.edu/
To sum up my first rambling on my current location, which I hope might prove useful to people considering moving to my environs, I really enjoy the combination of quaint family life with good schools, levels of public safety, proximity to cultural venues, the beaches, Southern California attractions, the weather, as well as educational and job opportunities given Los Angeles status as powerhouse of research and many industries. Just wish I had a tad more free time to take advantage of and enjoy it all :)
