Experiences with Tobacco

I grew up disliking cigarettes. Then, I grew to not like tobacco and other drugs. I can't help, but frown or cough a bit when I notice a puff of smoke or cigarette package. I don't even like using drugs for medicinal purposes, which was probably why I got sick a lot and for a long time.

My disliking for cigarettes caused me to not want to be around it. I don't care who smokes: I don't want the person smoking near me, anybody else, or even that person to smoke. I remembered one time my grandpa was at my house and my grandpa is a smoker and he started to light the cigarettes in the our home. I got uncomfortable immediately. I don't remember all the details, but my grandpa ended up going outside and I locked him out because I didn't want him to come back and smoke. I got in trouble for doing that. I also got a strand of my hair cut off as punishment. That strand of hair took forever to grow out and it was so noticeable!

I don't like it when people litter the ground, especially with cigarettes or whatnot. I remembered one time I was with one of my cousins and at that time she was toddler. We were walking around a plaza and all of a sudden my toddler cousin grabbed a cigarette from the ground and put it in her mouth. I immediately took the cigarette out of her hand and made sure that she did not grab that cigarette again. I would hate for a child or anybody else to be exposed to cigarettes at such a young age, especially since its an addictive and harmful product.

I guess I was always wanted to do something about tobacco, so I became involved in Thumbs up! Thumbs Down!, which allows me to review movies based on tobacco content and portrayal. I like being involved in it because I know a lot of people say that hate something or whatever but not actually do anything about it, I don't want to be one of those people who never do anything about it.

I'd Like to Order the Same Thing

There are some people who dine in at restaurants regularly and except "the regular", which is usually the same thing they get and with no changes. I'm not one of those people who dine in at places regularly, but I do tend to order the same kind of items at certain restaurants.

I've grown to learn that although you always order your regular at restaurants, you might not always get your regular. It might be because the price raised to meet with the economy or the portions either got smaller or bigger. On the other hand, it might also mean that a side dish or ingredient is no longer included in the dish. For example, some restaurants that served foie gras as part of their menu had to make adjustments to the dishes that contain that ingredient since foie gras was banned in California in July 2012. In addition, shark fin has also been banned in California, which is a delicacy in some soups. Moreover, you can't always expect what you use to get because time, law, and preferences of the chef's/restaurant had changed. 

Recently, I went to one of my favorite French restaurants to get a Chicken Breast sandwich. But, I noticed that the sandwich was different than I remembered. When I took a look at a picture I have taken of the Chicken Breast on June 9, 2011 and August 16, 2012, the sandwich at the restaurant had changed. I originally planned on putting the two pictures together and adding some text in it as a jpeg or picture file, but couldn't really do that without Photoshop!

Chicken Breast Sandwich taken on June 9, 2011

The sandwich used to have tomatoes. It also seems like the lettuce they used to put on it was more green.

Chicken Breast Sandwich taken on August 16, 2012

The sandwich also changed since the chicken now has more toppings on it, which it didn't have before. I can go further on explaining, but I'm not really good describing the ingredients and such.


Although the sandwich changed, I still got to say that I enjoy the sandwich from that place. I got to say that it I will still go there for its sandwiches and other food items. Even though I didn't get what I expected, I did get what I had in my mind, which was a Chicken Breast sandwich that was not a "fast food style" kind of food.

Jelly Belly Factory Tours in Fairfield

The front of the Jelly Belly Factory

To the front, right side of the Jelly Belly Factory

One day, I was looking through some of my old papers. Among one of them was a list of food places in Sacramento and nearby places of what you can do. I was looking through the list and in the "attractions" section I found the Jelly Belly Factory tours, which is located in Fairfield. I immediately wanted to go since it sounded pretty fun and I always wanted to experience a factory tour. Budweiser also give factory tours and is 5 minutes for the Jelly Belly factory, but I didn't feel like paying $25 for a tour.

The line out of the door @ the left side of the Jelly Belly Building

The Jelly Belly Factory tours are free. The tours are once every 15 minutes. When we arrived, there was a line out of the door. We estimated that we would be able to go in by an hour. And, we almost did, except they only allowed a certain amount of people in and they didn't take my group in at that time, so we went in the tour 15 minutes later.

I believe we waited outside for about 20 minutes. Then, we were finally able to go inside. When we were inside, we noticed the cafe. The shop to the right. We also noticed the decorations. 

Jelly Belly beans hanging from the wall!!!

A mosaic of President Nixon because he really loved Jelly Beans. And, helped to make them more popular.

8 different clocks for 8 different cities around the world.

Some Jelly Belly beans are up on the wall and the Jelly Belly mascot.

Another decoration hanging from the wall.

The biggest decoration that I've seen hanging from the wall. I really like this one!

A Harry Potter mosaic in the waiting room before we started the tour. While we were in the waiting room, we got this white hat to wear and they said we must wear it during the tour.

I would post pictures of what the factory looked like on tour, but they didn't allow cameras at all. While we in line to go into the factory, the tour guide passed out the watermelon Jelly Belly since it was National Watermelon Day. Once the tour started we were able to see a few factory workers and some work on producing the Jelly Belly beans. However, most of the work we seen were either by the machines, putting the candy into the boxes, or seeing the Jelly Belly put into trays to cool. During the tour, there was a television that told us a story as we looked at the factory. We also 3 free samples while we were there, which was nice of them. I think the coolest thing about the factory tour was seeing one of the machines wave to us. Although mosaics of Jelly Belly candy were a nice sight to see in the factory tour, I would not expect it. I would expect the mosaics only as decorations before you enter the factory, but not as part of the tour.

As we toured the building, I noticed that we didn't really get to see a majority of the production. Just what the Jelly Belly company wanted us to see. I wanted to see how the factory chose the defected candies by picking them out or using a special machine. We saw the bags of cornstarch and bag of sugar, but we didn't get to see what they did with them, which made it seem like they just had the items there for display. Well, I guess they are putting their stuff for display for the general public, so they want to show enough without any risks, bad comments, and providing a certain image/perception of Jelly Belly.

We got this small candy bag once the tour was done. Some of the flavors are good. Some are not. Also, after the tour we waited in the sample bar to try three pieces of Jelly Belly beans. I got the Black Licorice Button, Strawberry Cheesecake, and Sunkist Orange.

My baby sister wanted the soda Jelly Belly candy that comes out the of dispensers. I was going to purchase them, except when I put in my $1, it did not allow me to press the button and get the candy. I was disappointed that I couldn't get the flavor she wanted, especially since there was still a lot of it left.