Sixth Annual Busker Festival - Today and Tomorrow!

Don't forget to go to the Busker Festival today! It's right down in Seaport Village.

The celebration brings colorful street performers like sword swallowers, jugglers on unicycles, escape artists and comedic stuntmen to the cobblestone streets of downtown’s Seaport Village. The extraordinary and bizarre talents at this year’s festival will provide outdoor amusement for all unlike any other festival in the region.

Shops, restaurants and eateries will add to Seaport’s Spring Busker Festival flair with special sales. Enjoy two hours of parking in the Seaport Village lot for only $1 with any purchase and pay only $4 per hour thereafter. In addition, a complimentary shuttle will be provided from the County Administration Building (1600 Pacific Highway). Parking is $10 for the day and shuttles will run every 15 minutes from 12:00 - 6:00 pm. 

The event runs March 24 and 25, 2012, from 12:00 - 5:00 pm with Buskers After Dark on March 24 from 6:00 - 10:00 pm. All shops, restaurants and eateries will be open for shopping and dining from 10:00 am - 9:00 pm. While the Spring Busker Festival is free of charge, all buskers will be accepting tips.

Read more here and here. 

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GO GREEN: Vista, San Diego host St. Patrick's Day parades, festivals

It’s almost St. Patrick’s Day!! How will you be celebrating?

San Diego's 32nd annual St. Patrick's Day celebration will have some North County competition this year, when the Vista Village Business Association hosts its inaugural St. Patrick's Day Parade & Fetival on Saturday.

For 32 years, the Irish Congress of Southern California has staged a St. Patrick's Day event in Balboa Park. But this year, North County residents can save a few dollars on gas and head instead to downtown Vista, where local civic groups, businesses and community organizations will go green on Saturday.

Vista's celebration begins at 10 a.m. with a flag ceremony at the corner of South Citrus Avenue and East Broadway featuring the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and a Marine Corps Color Guard. Immediately afterward, local Celtic fiddler Patric Petrie will serve as grand marshal for the parade, which will begin at Citrus and Broadway and will have 30 to 35 floats, according to event spokesman Gumaro Escarcega.

From 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., South Indiana Street in front of Hennessey's Tavern will be blocked off for a community festival. Besides vendor and food booths, there will be children's contests for "Most Freckles" and "Cutest Red Hair." A scavenger hunt ---- with the prize a gold coin valued at $250 ----  is planned (hunt entry fee is $10). There will be a beer garden sponsored by Mother Earth Brew Co. and California Fruit Wine, live Irish music by Patric Petrie at noon and music by Steelin' Tin from 2 to 4 p.m.

The Village Idiots poet society will host a free Limerick Writing and Reading Fest from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at Gallery 204 on Main Street. And aspiring artists can decorate the downtown streets at a chalk art festival.

Visit northcountystpatricksdayparade.com or call 760-414-9391 .

Meanwhile, down in San Diego, the 32nd annual San Diego St. Patrick's Day Parade and Festival returns Saturday to Balboa Park.

As many as 3,000 people turn out for the annual event ---- billed as the third largest St. Patrick's-themed parade in the country ---- this year based at Sixth Avenue and Balboa Drive between Quince and Laurel streets.

While the parade is a big attraction for most festivalgoers, Irish Catholics will start the day early with a pre-parade Mass at 7 a.m. at the Imperial House Restaurant, 505 Kalmia St. The Mass is hosted by the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians.

The festival grounds open at 9 a.m., with a flag-raising at 10 a.m. in the Balboa Park festival area. The parade gets under way at 10:30 a.m. at Sixth Avenue and Juniper Street. Its more than 150 entries will include marching bands, floats, police and fire department units, the Emerald Societies, border patrol units, Scout troops, clowns, equestrian entries, bagpipe contingents, dance groups, drill teams, roller skaters, Shriners, antique cars, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, representatives from Ireland and the reigning Miss Colleen and Smiling Irishman.

The festival runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. This year's fest features vendor booths, carnival rides, a kids' zone, two beer gardens and live entertainment on two stages by Neck & Neck, Country Rockin Rebels, Bill Cardinal and his Canyon Band, Stoney B Blues Band, the San Diego Firefighters Emerald Society Pipes & Drums, Tony Cummins, Eamon Carroll and George Rubsamen, Tim Foley & the Random Folk and the Shamrockers. There will also be a Celtic Village that re-creates the sights and sounds of Ireland in the 1600s.

Because parking can be scarce, festivalgoers are advised to park in the old Navy Hospital parking lot on Park Boulevard and board a free shuttle to the festival grounds. The shuttle will run every 15 minutes from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Visit www.stpatsparade.org or call 858-268-9111 .

Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/entertainment/attractions/go-green-vista-san-diego-host-st-patrick-s-day/article_e0cebcd1-3377-5511-a83f-74ca94f7e1ce.html#ixzz1pDTnQ5DG

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San Diego Voted #9 in Trip Advisor’s Top U.S. Beach Destinations

What? Why only #9? I think we should have had #1! What do you think?

If San Diego is known for one thing, it would be for our gorgeous beaches. And Trip Advisor agrees! San Diego was included in their list of top 10 Beach Destinations in the U.S. Sure enough, 70 miles of pristine coastline and legendary weather, you can enjoy the surf and sand almost any day of the year.


From expansive sandy beaches, rocky cliffs, reefs, tide pools and everything in between, the beaches in San Diego are as varied as the beach communities that were built around them. And there are so many kinds of beaches to discover: ones perfect for families and dogs; ones coveted by the world’s top surfers; even some that you can enjoy in the buff (although nude sunbathing is illegal!)


Whether digging your toes in the white mica sands of Coronado, roasting s’mores by the fire, playing an intense game of beach volleyball, exploring sea critters in tide pools, or simply relaxing as you’re lulled by the sounds of crashing waves, one thing’s for sure: On any given day at any beach in San Diego, you’ll find a front row seat to a magnificent display of the western sky as the sun descents into the Pacific.


So grab your beach towels, slather on the sunscreen, and get out to explore some of the finest beaches in the U.S.!


Tell us in the comments below, what’s your favorite beach in San Diego?


Read more at blog.sandiego.org.

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How To Prepare For Google's Privacy Changes

Do you use any Google products - Google maps, Gmail, YouTube? Then you need to read this. The changes already went into effect but you can still adjust your privacy settings if you want to.

On Thursday, Google's much-discussed new privacy policy goes into effect.


To say that the change has stirred concern on the Web would be an understatement. Public officials and Web watchdogs in the United States and elsewhere have expressed fears that it will mean less privacy for users of the Web giant's multitude of products, from search to Gmail to YouTube to Google Maps to smartphones powered by the Android operating system.


Google points out that the products won't be collecting any more data about users than they were before. And, in fairness, the company has gone out of its way to prominently announce the product across all of its platforms for weeks.


The major change is that, instead of profiling users separately on each of its sites and products, Google will now pull all of that information together into one single profile, similar to what's found on Google's dashboard page.


The result encapsulates perhaps the most basic conundrum of the modern Web. More information means better service (and potentially, more targeted advertisements). But that service (in this case more accurate search results, more interesting ads and new features that work across multiple sites) requires you to give up some of your privacy in return.


Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz has called it "a somewhat brutal choice."


Google, not surprisingly, takes a different tack: The payoff for the company collecting your data is cool new services. For example, they could push cooking videos to you on YouTube if you'd been looking for recipes through Google search, privacy director Alma Whitten wrote in an editorial for the Sacramento Bee.


"We just want to use the information you already trust us with to make your experience better," she wrote. "If you don't think information sharing will improve your experience, you don't need to sign in to use services like Search, Maps and YouTube.


"If you are signed in, you can use our many privacy tools to do things like edit or turn off your search history, control the way Google tailors ads to your interests and browse the Web 'incognito' using Chrome."


Wednesday is the last day for people to tweak those Google settings before the new policy begins, although they can change them afterward as well.


Here are a few tips on how to keep your data a little more private on some of Google's most popular features.


Don't sign in


This is the easiest and most effective tip.


Many of Google's services -- most notably search, YouTube and Maps -- don't require you to sign in to use them. If you're not logged in, via Gmail or Google+, for example, Google doesn't know who you are and can't add data to your profile.


But to take a little more direct action ...


Removing your Google search history


Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation has compiled a step-by-step guide to deleting and disabling your Web History, which includes the searches you've done and sites you've visited.


It's pretty quick and easy:


-- Sign in to your Google account
-- Go to www.google.com/history
-- Click "Remove all Web History"
-- Click "OK"


As the EFF notes, deleting your history will not prevent Google from using the information internally. But it will limit the amount of time that it's fully accessible. After 18 months, the data will become anonymous again and won't be used as part of your profile.


Clearing your YouTube history


Similarly, users may want to remove their history on YouTube. That's also pretty quick and easy.


-- Sign in on Google's main page
-- Click on "YouTube" in the toolbar at the top of the page
-- On the right of the page, click your user name and select "Video Manager"
-- Click "History" on the left of the page and then "Clear Viewing History"
-- Refresh the page and then click "Pause Viewing History"
-- You can clear your searches on YouTube by going back and choosing "Clear Search History" and doing the same steps.


Gmail Chat


When you start a chat with someone, you can make the conversation "off the record." Off-the-record chats will not be stored in your chat history or the history of the person with whom you're talking. All chats with that person will remain off the record until you change the status. To go off the record:


-- Click the "Actions" link at the top right of the chat window
-- Scroll down to "Go off the record." Both you and your chat partner will see that the chat has been taken off the record.


Read more http://www.thedenverchannel.com/money/30567007/detail.html

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