Jacksonville's Mandarin Info Blog

Whats Your Favorite Part of Mandarin

jolenemacinjax — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 12:51:00 +0000

What is your favorite part of Mandarin? My favorite part of Mandarin would have to be the various parks we have in the area. Yes, all areas of Jacksonville has some great public parks but I think Mandarin Park next to Julington Creek offers a wide variety of things for the locals to do including walking the trails, playing on the playground, fishing off the dock or even putting in your boat into the river. The park’s equipment is fairly well maintained and the park is almost always clean. There are lots of trees that offer shade and there are several spots that you can sit by a pond and relax. Burnett Park is a great place to shoots some hoops, play some baseball or even bat around a tennis ball. There is a small kids playground, a concession stand and even a community center. This park is a favorite among Little Leaguers during the Spring and Fall baseball season. This an older park and there use to be a horse show area with bleachers, a ring and announcers tower but that was demolished to make room for more baseball diamonds. Now none of these things are really unique in Jacksonville but they are special to the local residence.

The other question I wanted to pose this time is; What do you think we can do to improve the area? Mandarin has been growing by leaps and bounds over the last 20 years and a lot of changes have been happening. But are they changes for the better or just giving way to urban sprawl? Just about every livable space in the Mandarin area is now occupied with either houses, apartments, assisted living facilities, churches and stores of one kind or another. Is this really progress? Even Greenland Road has been completely developed. What could or should we do about this? Think about it and if you have something constructive to add please feel free to comment below.

Start Your Own Thing

jolenemacinjax — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:06:40 +0000

We are all looking for something to supplement our income, a hobby that we enjoy that is relaxing, or even just something to break the monotony of our everyday lives. Yes, it would be great to find something that we can make money at and that we really enjoy doing. In these hard economic times we are searching for ways just to make ends meet. One of the things that I have discovered that I like to do, besides writing articles on blogs and creating websites, is to make jewelry and selling them on my online website. If you have a hobby that produces goods that you can sell, or if you are thinking of starting your spring cleaning early there are ways to advertise your stuff that doesn’t cost you any money. You can have a yardsale, which we do every other weekend, advertise on Craig’s List or you can try the website called Yardsellr.com

I have been using this service for a few months now and are very happy with the results. The way they work is you create a user id, click on “sell” button, create a description, upload pictures, and click on the mailing button. You can have the the buyer meet you at your house, if the item is too big or too expensive to ship. They also require that you send the items with a tracking number. Which cost about $2.00 per box at the U.S. Postal Service. They do not charge the seller for any items, however the buyers are charged a small fee. You can include shipping charges but most people just price their item just a little higher to cover the cost of shipping. This site allows you to add several pictures and you can sell as many items that you wish. You are encouraged to share your yardsale on your facebook, tweeter and Pin It accounts. This will increase your exposure and hopefully, your friends and relatives will share your yardsale with their friends and more relatives. This listings are for 30 days at a time but they allow you to re-list items at no additional charge.

If you have an invention, a book your are writing, a game you are creating, a movie you have created or a music DVD you want to produce for your band there is a GREAT website you can try for funding. The Kickstarter website This is a community website that has subscribers from all over the world. You read through the types of projects that interest you, read through the requirements, create your own project page and give it a try. This is a ALL or Nothing Funding Opportunity and you have to offer incentives to the benefactors that centers around your project. You never know you could have the next great thing in your garage or hobby room! Here is our Kickstarter project page to get you started:

Bead Show and Sale

jolenemacinjax — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:30:58 +0000

St. Augustine is just down the road from Mandarin and there are lots of great things to do in the coming weeks. One that is happening this weekend and it is the Bead Show and Sale at the Elks Lodge located at 1420 A1A South. The show is sponsored by THE DOWN THE STREET BEAD SHOW events coordinator. There will be beads, findings, jewelry and classes offered for sale. Classes includes wire wrapping, seed beading and much more. Go to the website and check out the class offerings, directions to the show and much more. You can even get a $1 off coupon on the site to go towards the $5 entrance fee. The event is Saturday, January 21 from 10am to 6pm and Sunday, January 22 from 10am to 5pm.

Granted this is not a Jacksonville Florida Mandarin event but like I said before St. Augustine is just down the road about 20 minutes or so and there really is no large venue in this area to hold such events. And crafting is a great hobby and potentially a great business opportunity. Give it a try this weekend.

Some Great Projects for 2012

jolenemacinjax — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:02:33 +0000

Happy Post Holidays, fellow Mandarinites! We have made it through the major holidays once again and have headed back to school and work or will be soon. With the post holiday blues and having to pay off all that credit card debt (for those lucky enough to have credit cards) we are looking for ways to make some money. One of our local small business is sponsoring a Contemporary Limericks Contest. Jolene’s Books and More, a local online business that sells electronic books and handcrafted goods, has created a website to encourage new writers by offering a monthly cash prize for the best and funniest limerick. Anyone over the age of 18 can submit 1 to 5 of their best limericks for consideration for the low price of $5 per person. All you need is a PAYPAL account, some imagination, and compose up to 5 limericks. These can be about your friends, family, work, neighborhood, a local hangout or even your hobbies or favorite characters in a book. Go wild! Visit the website and go to the Contest Page for official rules and the application. http://all-about-limericks.jolenesbooksandmore.com

On the other hand there is a great special project that is seeking donations from a great organization called Kickstarter. They sponsor artists of all kinds with a vehicle to get financing for getting their books published, their album published, or their project launched or finished. They have hundreds of worthwhile projects but we are looking at a wildlife photographer that is going to be traveling up the State of Florida taking pictures of our local wildlife and their habitats. He needs help getting that project under way and for producing his book at the end. He is trying to bring more awareness of the plight of our endangered species. It is a completely worthwhile project that has less than 2 weeks to go. At least view the video:

Save Our Parks

jolenemacinjax — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:47:11 +0000

If you haven’t been to a city, state or federal park lately you should put together a little picnic, gather the kids and/or some friends and visit one this weekend. There are a wide variety of parks and recreational areas available to us now but they are on the budgetary chopping block and may not be very soon. Most of the city parks are free or have very low-cost services for the residents of the area. They are being maintained by the government and some volunteers. I cannot tell you how many times I have taken my kids to the various parks around town to spend the morning, afternoon or the whole day just being in a natural setting away from home. We never really have any extra money so these places are where we go to have some fun and spend some time away from the distractions of TV, gaming consoles, etc. Recently, I was looking for a new park here in Mandarin that I could take my granddaughter to while she was on spring break and found one off of San Jose Boulevard called the Chuck Rogers Park. It is near the Southeast Mandarin Library the west side of San Jose Boulevard. It is mainly a soccer park with large field areas, covered picnic tables, a large grill and bathrooms. The children’s play area has two sets of playground equipment one for the smaller ones like 5 and under and a larger one for those 5 and over. There is one swing set that has 2 baby style swings and two kid sized swings. All of this under cover of some pretty huge old oak trees. So there is lots of shade. The park benches need some work though so be careful when sitting on them.

public_schools

The other park that I wanted to remind you about is Burnett Park. This is a pretty great park as well but is usually only known to the immediate residents in the area and those who have kids that play baseball. During spring break I was also looking for something for my youngest child, a teenager, to do this summer. We homeschool her and she needs some physical activities and social time with her peers. Burnett Park was offering a homeschooling time for fitness during the regular school hours but attendance dropped off after Christmas and they no longer have it. I talked to the director and she is willing to bring it back again if we can get some participation going. Burnett Park is the only park in the Mandarin Area that offers structured programs for our kids a little to no cost and the city has put out a Summer 2011 Activities Booklet. Take a look at it and PARTICIPATE with something in there. Call or visit Burnett Park and talk to the director about getting your teenager, homeschooled child or other children involved:

Burnett Center
3740 Burnett Park Road
Jacksonville, Fl 32257
(904) 268-7510

Call, write, email as many city officials as you can think of the tell them we must save our parks. They are practically the only FREE natural resource we have left that we can enjoy with our children and our friends every single day. We need parks and the services that are offered. Don’t let them be taken away from us, our children and our grandchildren!

Whats New at the Library

jolenemacinjax — Sat, 01 May 2010 13:00:14 +0000

One of the best forms of FREE entertainment is at our local branches of the public library. Mandarin is blessed with two branches. The original one off of Kori Road is just called the Mandarin Branch and the other on San Jose Boulevard and Orange Picker Road called South Mandarin. Both libraries have a wealth of knowledge to offer in the form of books, videos, music and other programs for kids and adults alike. Of course, each of the branches offers internet service either through one of the public computers or bring in your own laptop and enjoy FREE wireless internet. You can watch movies for FREE as well as hold a meeting in one of their meeting rooms. They have study rooms as well that can be used for your research team, homework help and tutoring or just by yourself for some added privacy.

For a listing of the services offered and the times that these branches are open you can visit the main libraries web pages for these branches: Mandarin and South Mandarin. You can even sign up for a “feed” service so that you will be sent a message when their calendar of events is updated by going to this address:
http://jpl.coj.net/res/rssfeeds/index.html There FEEDS program uses some of the more popular feeds readers such as Google Reader (Windows), NetNewsWire (Mac) and Bloglines (Web).

Both facilities have nice helpful people at each of the service desks, clean bathrooms, a quiet atmosphere (of course) and will be happy to get any materials you wish to read, view or listen to by sending for it from the Main library if it is not already at their branch. All of this and much more just for signing up for a library card.

Palmetto Leaves South

jolenemacinjax — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 04:11:42 +0000

The Palmetto Leaves Park has two entrances. One is on Greenland Road and is called the North Entrance and has a kids playground, picnic tables, paved walking trails and baseball diamonds. We will get more pictures and video of that park very soon. Today we went to the South entrance on St Augustine Road that only has one picnic table with Bar B Q grill, a bathroom and small floating dock to put in your canoes or kayaks. We took some pictures of the park about a year and a half ago and today we took some video of the park for you to enjoy. You can fish from the dock and my nephew says there are some bream and catfish to catch.

Here is a video of the park we took today around 5:00pm. The movie is a little shaky and the video shots are kind of streaky as I don’t have a filter on my little digital camera but the sun is shining. There is a slight breeze and the place is peaceful. There is only one other car there in the park at that time of day. It is a very small park but is an oasis in the middle of the suburbs well worth a little trip.

palmettoleaves

Palmetto Leaves South Park

This browser does not support flash! You can download the video instead.

Mandarin Area Weather

jolenemacinjax — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:06:29 +0000

I don’t if you noticed or not but it is really cold out there. At least it’s cold for Jacksonville, Florida. But I think we are lucky to live in the Mandarin area as we seem to be isolated from the more harsh weather. Our little neighborhood off St. Augustine Road between I-295 and I-95 is probably one of the best spots to live in. Most of our area is in the Category 5 hurricane ratings area and we are sheltered from some of the worse that most storm fronts have to offer. You can check your hurricane ratings for your address with the Duval County Property Appraiser’s Website at: http://apps.coj.net/pao_propertySearch/Basic/Search.aspx
If you own your home or are paying for it from the bank (like most people) you just put your name in the search box. If you are renting a home or apartment just put in the address and hit search. The website gives you the basic information listed about the property including what you want to click on is the JaxGIS map icon to look at the property and it will give you the option of checking if you address is in a “FLOOD ZONE” you can click on those words and it will give you a definition of your particular area. Fascinating information and good to know as well. The City of Jacksonville through the Fire and Rescue Department also has an evacuation map that you can copy and print out. This is very helpful if you plan on moving to Jacksonville or to a different area: http://www.coj.net/Departments/Fire+and+Rescue/Emergency+Preparedness/Preparedness/Evacuation+Zones+Map.htm

Now is the time to start thinking about the upcoming Hurricane season and of course the rainy season of late February and March. Don’t get me wrong we always need the rain but if we are getting too much then we really need to get prepared or just stay prepared for bad weather. Know your neighborhood and the various ways of getting into and out of the neighborhood quickly. You cannot always depend on the major highways. When you get a chance drive through different parts of you neighborhood every couple of weeks. As much as Duval County is adding, changing, repairing roads these days it pays to be informed!

Mandarin Newsline

jolenemacinjax — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:00:56 +0000

If you haven’t had a chance to read the Mandarin newspaper you should give it a chance. The are online as well at: www.mandarinnewsline.com The newspaper is free and is delivered to addresses in 32223 and 32258. They now have a digital edition of the newspaper online that is a great idea. it is an exact duplicate of newspaper. Going green is a great idea and if you don’t live within these two zip codes you can still read about what is happening in the Mandarin Area. The newspaper has quite a few advertisements within the pages but the stories are quite interesting and they do keep you appraised on whats going on. This month’s issue features a write up of the new Principal at Mandarin High School, Loretto Elementary’s Student Council and Mandarin Community Club meetings coming up next month.

For me the most interesting article is “The Sheriff Reports” about an online service being offered by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s office. The article is on page 6 of the newspaper. Check out their website at: www.jaxsheriff.org You can report crimes, view crime news, and much more. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is meeting a need for all citizens in the Jacksonville Area to have online access to the police and their services.

We have also updated the Retirement Communities page with information about the Jacksonville Mandarin Area Nursing Homes. Go to that page for a Nursing Homes listing and where to get more information about their reports by the State of Florida and the Agency for Healthcare Administration.

Mandarin Community Club

jolenemacinjax — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:51:20 +0000

Here is a fun and fairly inexpensive event you might want to check out sponsored by the Mandarin Community Club:

3rd Annual Holiday Trolley Tour of Lights

Hosted and sponsored by the Mandarin Community Club. Trolleys depart from Mandarin Presbyterian Church @ corner of Mandarin Road & Loretto Road.

Sunday, December 13 – 6 til 9 pm
Last trolley departs 8:30 p.m. from church parking lot.

Tour the holiday lights & decorations of Mandarin neighborhoods on a JTA trolley & enjoy holiday caroling (booklets provided).

Visit with Santa (photo charges apply)
Live Nativity on Church grounds (12001 Mandarin Road)
Bake Sale *
Refreshments
Holiday Music

Visit with Santa, buy your goodies at the Bake Sale, then climb aboard the trolley to enjoy a tour of the holiday lights along sections of Mandarin Road, Loretto Road, Brady Road and several neighborhoods along the route. Cast your vote for the best decorated and the winner receives $100 cash prize!

And the Club will be collecting critically needed non perishable donations for the Mandarin Food Bank. Please help those in need this holiday season.

Neighbors, brighten the night in Mandarin with your luminaries!

Contact the Mandarin Community Club reservation line at 268-1622 to leave your name, phone # and number of guests in your party. Reservations are required and limited to first come, first served basis.*
Trolley ride is $2 per adult, $1 ages 5 to 12 years, under 5 free.

*MCC Club members have reservation priority.
* Please help support the Mandarin Community Club in our fundraising efforts by donating your favorite holiday cookies, cakes, or candies for the Bake Sale to be held during the Holiday Tour of Lights event. We ask that you wrap and label all items (non- refrigerated, please) for safety. Call 268-1622 for details on dropping off your donated goodies!