Restaurant Review

P.F. Chang's at a glance:

What: China bistro
Where: 7463 S.W. Bridgeport Rd Tigard, OR 97224
Hours: Sun. - Thurs. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.; Fri. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.
Phone: (503)-430-3020
Pros: Great dining enviornment
Cons: Should always come with 3 or more people.



If you enjoy dining with cute center pieces and in a classy and tasteful atmosphere you should definitely check out P.F. Chang's. This restaurant is conveniently located in the Bridgeport Village shopping center. Bridgeport is just off of I-5 north right off of the Lake Oswego/Durham exit. It is probably, for most, very different from your regular dining experiences being that it is a little more upscale than most. Their claim to fame seems to be their delicious lettuce wraps as well as how they take seemingly simple dishes and turn them in to something elegant, fun, and enticing.

When you first walk in you notice the dim lighting, quaint tables, and a tantalizing smell of steamed rice and sauteed meats. Some of the tables are pretty secluded while others are more out towards the center of the restaurant. With the way the tables are placed you'd think they are way to close and you will be able to over hear everyone's conversations. However, they are placed in a way that you may be a little close to other people but they have the lighting designed as if your in your own little bubble.

The staff is really polite and the atmosphere seems really informal, which is always nice when your trying to relax and have a good time with friends or family. The waiters treat you as if you've met before and will know the answers to most of your menu questions.The staff dress' in all black and the waiters are mostly in pants and loose fitting tee shirts while the hostess' dress in skirts and button up shirts. Everyone is really helpful and all have smiles on their faces when they are serving, taking orders, or helping you to your table.

They have a varied menu that has things from Mongolian beef to lemon honey chicken. They don't have a lot of single meals so it's easier if you go with a few people. The waiters bring each person a plate and your food and you dish up your own food, that way you can decide how much you want to eat which is a big help with those worried about portion control. The average meal consisting of 3 entrees, drinks, and dessert will run around $60. Which is a little on the expensive side but the portions are enough to feed about 3 or 4 people.

In addition their dessert menu has quite a few options including shot glass desserts and a six layer cake called the Great Wall of Chocolate. Instead of having a normal, boring, regular paper dessert menu, they bring out a dessert try which features all the desserts, made out of life like plastic, that show you in better detail how big the dessert is and what it's going to look like.

However, there are some cons about dining at this restaurant. One of which is the long wait to get in. Sometimes the wait to get a table is close to an hour, but their pagers work all though-out the mall that way you can put your name on the list and then go and get your shopping done. It's better to check the wait time, put your name down, and go out and shop.

Another con of the restaurant is that around dinner time the place can get pretty busy and very loud. It's not that you can't hear the other people at your table but there is a lot of background noise including music that could put a hinder on your hearing abilities.

Even though there are some cons, this is still an amazing place to eat and everyone should try it at least once in their lives.

Another close location is 124 Coburg Rd. Eugene, OR 97401.

Parking Problems

At A Glance

Who: LBCC students

What: Parking problems

Where: In LBCC lots

Why: LBCC overcrowding

As you’ve probably already encountered, there is a pretty big problem with the parking situation and Linn Benton. We are all aware that the reason for the parking problem is the fact that LB is reaching max capacity.

Most of the time you can barely find a spot, and when you finally do, it’s the spot all the way at the very end in the back corner. Then after spending all that time finding the spot you have to almost run to make it to class on time.

“It can take up to about 10 minutes to find a spot,” states Chris Osborne, a student at LB, “You just have to keep driving around until you find someone who is leaving.” For most students, its also a waste of gas. Osborne adds, “ There have been some days where I would rather just go home then wasting my time and gas waiting for a place to park.”

Still it seems that not all students seem to have this problem. Donna Chavez, another student at LB, remarked, “I have classes around the time that everyone starts leaving so it only takes me five minutes at most to find a spot to park.”

When asked how we can solve this problem, the response was unanimous. Leeanna Barton explained to me how she believes we need a new parking lot. “ We should either build another parking lot or make everyone have a certain areas where they are allowed to park.”

However, with these changes LB might run into more parking problems. For a quick fix to try to solve the problem Barton continues, “ I just try to make sure that I always get to school early so that I have time to look for a spot.”

For the time being, we are all just going to have to deal with the problem until LB decides to make it a priority for students to have more parking spaces.

Rewrite

As of February 1st, 2010, Linn-Benton Community College will have a new president. According to LBCC news, Gregory J. Hamann will take over for retiring president Rita Cavin.

Hamann has a very qualified background as far as his education. He has attended many schools including Gonzaga University where he got his doctorate in educational leadership, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he received his masters in counseling psychology, as well as University of Minnesota for a bachelor's in psychology and social studies.

He also has great qualifications from his previous jobs. His most recent job includes serving as the president of Clatsop Community College. In addition he was dean of admissions at Northwest College and worked for 12 years in student services and administration at Whitworth College.

In LBCC's search for a new president, members of LBCC Board of Educations Richard Running, Ron Mason, and others went to see Hamann at Clatsop Community College. They board is overjoyed that Hamann has decided to take the job.

Follow up stories: How is he doing as president? What changes has he made or will he be making in the future?

WHAM Meeting

Last week Marquis Spas had their monthly W.H.A.M meeting at the warehouse in Independence, Oregon. It was a meeting to go over What’s Happening At Marquis (WHAM). The meeting lasted about 30 minutes in which several members of Marquis talked about the different things that were going on. The meeting main objective is to get everyone in the factory on the same page.

Marquis has not been doing very well because of lack of sales since the economy went down hill. Also this is the off season for them and the company is just "trying to keep their heads above water until summer rolls around again." commented Mike Oravetz However, they are starting to bring their numbers back up and trying to conserve as much money and supplies as possible.

First to speak was Oravetz, and he just welcomed everyone and said what the meeting was going to be about. Next was Wes Prindel who discussed the financial numbers and showed how the company was doing as a whole with selling spas. Tony Gonzales went over the quality control and congratulated everyone on "having half as many defects as they did last month." Next birthdays and anniversary reminders were presented by Dave Leclerc.

Lastly Cheryl Porter told everyone about the Marquis sponsorships. "We are going to be having a tree with about 50 kid’s names on it that won’t be able to have Christmas this year." She asked that whom ever has a little extra money to buy a gift for a child. Also she talked about the office Christmas party and what everyone needed to bring.

The meeting was really important for all the people at the company. It helped to point out what the company needed to work on both as a whole and individually. I believe that having it all laid out and compared to prior months helps show everyone how the company is doing. The meeting wasn’t really formal just a little something in the middle of the workday. Everyone in the office and warehouse attended and helped with input.

"Smoke 'em if you got 'em"

Legalizing marijuana? Is it closer than we think? According to last weeks Commuter story "Smoke 'em if you got 'em" by Adam LaMascus, the California legislature are having meetings debating whether or not to legalize marijuana. In this story you will find that it helps point out different drug topics that are being discussed in other states.

While reading this story, there were a lot of easy to follow money facts. One of which was "Tax officials estimate legalizing and taxing cannabis could bring in an additional $1.4 billion in revenues to the financially cramping state. I say go for it, and I don't even smoke." It's in plain English that everyone can understand.

Also, the LaMascus states that while in college he has seen the effects of both cannabis and alcohol. He points out that alcohol causes accidents and alters judgments, which some legalization prohibitionists believe marijuana will do as well. However if alcohol, which we know has those effects, is legal then why isn't cannabis when we don't know the exact effects it will have on citizens?

LaMascus also brings up Harry J. Anslinger who opposes the legalization of marijuana. Anslinger says that cannabis will cause accidents and make people under the influence become angry. I really like the fact that the story tells little bits of each side. It gives the reader a chance to decide for themselves whether or not to go with the choices of legalization.

I really enjoyed reading this article because it helps to show you the facts on legalization and what both sides are thinking and fighting about rather than just showing to pros and it gives everyone the chance to make their own choice about which side to be on. LaMascus uses money facts and the topics that are still being debated to help give the reader information on legalization. Also all the facts about the presidents and marijuana use from the past lets you in on the fact that not everyone has been against it and not everyone will be against it.

News Reporting

When I first came into the news reporting class, I didn’t really know what to think. However, after the first few days I knew it would be one of my favorite classes. It’s taught by Rob Priewe, and he really lets you be yourself. So if you’re into writing this is a great class to take.

So far in the class I’ve learned that there are so many different ways of writing a story. You don’t have to stick with one specific style. You can choose one that fits your story best. I’ve also learned that not everyone is going to cover a news story the same way. It’s okay to do things your own way as long as you get the coverage that you need. One of the other things that I learned was on one of the first days of class. Less is more. This is probably one of the best rules I learned. Its helps to cut the rambling and just makes your stories easier to read.

I like the fact that Rob really allows us to talk about what we think about the stories and he actually takes in what we think. It’s really nice to be able to express what I have to say and also listen to what other people are thinking as well. Everyone in the class gets the chance to express their own individual writing styles and give feedback to you and show you something you may have never noticed before. The only reason I really took this class was to just get a feel for reporting stories, and I never thought I’d learn so much. News reporting has really helped me grow as a writer and that then helped me in some of my other classes.

Tara Lee Profile

Has there ever been someone in your life that really influenced you? Maybe more than you realized at the time? Well for me, that person was Tara Lee. She really helped me grow as a person and, in some ways, prepared me for college.

She is 33 years old and a theater teacher at Sprague High School. Lee started out at George Fox as a pre-law pre-med major but switched to majoring in education after she realized that her true love was, and always had been for education. Lee started out as an elementary school teacher and then moved around from grade to grade.

One day she was counseling at a church camp when she got an unusual call for a job offer from the Salem-Kiezer school district to be the new high school theater teacher at Sprague. Lee asked, “are you sure? I’m just an elementary school teacher.” Even though she thought she would be unqualified, she went to the interview.

During the interview she was telling a story about one of her students and the principal started to cry because of the way Lee descirbed her connection with her students. As she left the interview office, she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to get the job. Once they called her back, she was a little skeptical but decided to take the job. “It was so weird and out of the ordinary I knew that I had to pay attention to it.”

Now that Lee is the theater director at Sprague she handles all of the productions. Her favorite thing about directing is the progression and growth and seeing all of it come together right in front of her.

In addition, she doesn’t like that she’s always flying solo. She doesn’t want to bring any parents into it because “they muddy the water.” The stress is also a problem when it comes to directing by yourself. Mainly because it’s all on you, if you mess up everyone looks at you. Also, It's hard to be so close to your students and not be able to have all of them in your show.

One of the things I enjoyed most about having Lee as a teacher, was the way she connected with her students. She’s really passionate about them and even though she’s never had kids, she feels like she’s had hundreds. “I’ve learned a lot from just watching and observing.”

One of her former students, Brent Duford, commented "I liked how she could be official, and disciplinary like a good teacher, but also be so very casual and conversational at the same time." While she's directing she actually gets on stage to help you understand what she's asking you to do.

Her teaching styles are very hands on and I believe that helps her connect with her students because they are shown what to do rather than just told. Another student of Lee's, Dani Potter, shared "she is so willing to help us. Like if we have a problem with anything, she is super helpful. from school to the future."

The next production the Lee is directing is Diviners and it is showing at Sprague High School November 12th - 14th and 19th – 21st at 7pm.