Posts for Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Question #47512 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

Q:

Regarding Board Question #47405,

The Lost & Found sale is part "mosh pit of insanity" and part auction type buying. People start lining up for the sale around 6am when the building opens. At 9am when the sale begins, there is a mad dash for the more coveted items, such as calculators and basketballs. Items out on the tables are sold on a "first come, first served" basis. People like to grab whatever they can get their hands on, then sort out what they actually want to buy (even though they're not supposed to do this!).

More expensive items, such as iPods, cameras, and palm pilots, are sold in the auction portion of the sale. The auction begins at 9:30am.

As one who has worked at three Lost & Found sales, let me assure you that you will definitely find some great bargains!

- L&F Employee #1

Question #47442 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

Entertainment - Television

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

Have there been any inside jokes/references between Dunder Mifflin and Primatech Paper?

- Office Hero

A: Dear "I am not a hero. I am a mere defender of the office. You know who's a real hero? Hiro, from Heroes. That's a hero. Also, Bono."

I love inside jokes! I'd love to be a part of one someday. I personally don't watch Heroes, but my sources say that there have not been any references between the two shows yet. Since the new seasons for both are only days away (squee!), perhaps this season there will be something?

Fun fact: Both Las Vegas and Friday Night Lights have mentioned The Office. Oh, and Lost has indirectly referenced the BBC version.

-Buttercup

Question #47441 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

BYU-I/Rexburg Community

BYU - Culture

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

I just stumbled across your discussion board while I was supposed to be doing homework. (Thank you for wasting 20 minutes of my time.) I started reading a very amusing response to a guy who asked about the "Star Child" soundtrack back in January, and I was so pleased with the sarcasm that I had to keep reading. And now I have a question for you myself.

I'm a student at BYU-Idaho, and up here in the frozen North we have this habit of hibernating inside our "Rexburg Bubble" and rarely, if ever, wandering into the outside world. We are therefore fairly uninformed when it comes to things in general. (As a side note, isn't it amazing how strongly the uninformed often fix their opinions?)

So here's my question: I know that we here at BYU-Idaho think about you there at BYU quite often (BYU football's a pretty hot topic), but do you ever think about us? We bear the same name, but I wonder how much we have in common? Just to satisfy my curiousity, please tell me the general opinion concerning BYU-I down there in the sunny south (if indeed there is one). You can be blunt.

- Amused

A: Dear amused,

A friend of mine put it this way: "There's three BYUs. BYU, BYU-Summer Vacation, and BYU For Dummies."

Other than that, you guys don't come up in conversation much. Sorry to disappoint.

-Cognoscente

A: Dear Cognoscente,

Ouch.

Dear Amused,

I honestly don't think about BYU–Idaho all that much, just like I don't think about Harvard or Ohio State or Arizona State very much—I just don't have a reason to. It's nothing against those schools, but they just don't really affect me. You guys do come up a little more, because you're another Church-owned school, but still not often. (Even the reason you said some people pay attention to BYU—sports—doesn't apply to BYU–Idaho.) I think most people have similar attitudes here. We have our own bubble, and it's alive and well.

Despite all that, I do think it's pretty cool the Church has a school up there, and I certainly like getting questions from you guys just as much as from anyone else!

—Laser Jock

A: Dear amused and most likely cold,

Just because the Board is a BYU-run service doesn't mean that there isn't a BYU-Idaho contingent! Namely, me. I don't miss the bubble, but I do miss Craigo's, Egin Lake, and President Clark. And while I respect BYU, I'm still glad I chose to get my degree from BYU-Idaho. (Yeah, I know this doesn't really answer your exact question, but I had to throw in my two cents.)

-Buttercup

A: Dear Amused,

My opinion is that it's cold, smaller, and somewhat more strict than the "big" BYU. Also, that the extended Ricks family was not happy with the name change.

- Katya, who should probably visit Idaho someday

Question #47440 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

Language & Linguistics - English Usage/Grammar

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

At my place of work, people write "Dinning Room" instead of "Dining Room" a surprisingly large percentage of the time. While 'dinning' is a word, it's not an alternate spelling for 'dining' in any dictionary I've seen. Is it a British spelling, or is something more sinister afoot?

-fatuglyperson

A: Dear beautiful on the inside,

dinning:
intransitive verb: to make a loud noise
transitive verb 1 : to assail with loud continued noise
2 : to impress by insistent repetition —often used with into (lessons dinned into us as children)

There is nothing more sinister going on here than further examples of America's anxious willingness to put up with bad spelling on public signs. Don't get me wrong though, I am also entirely willing to go along as well because they can be so gosh darn entertaining. (Notice the fifth entry down on the first link.)

- Rating Pending (whose willig too mispell words as offen as is funny)

Question #47439 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

Telephones

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

So my lack of technological knowledge is super embarrassing. Thank goodness for anonymity! Anyway, like many BYU students, I have a cell phone. And I text. However, I have noticed that some people text really fast because part of the word pops up and they can choose which one they want. My phone doesn't do that. I have to type each letter and it's a pain. My question is this: is it my phone (Verizon LG silver something...) or an extra fee I need to pay to enables this? If you could help me figure this out, I would be most grateful.

- should probably stick with rotary phones...

A: Dear Ethel,

The ability for your phone to predict what you want to write is called "predictive texting" (also abbreviated as T9). Unfortunately your phone doesn't seem to come with the ability so you'd need to buy a new phone in order to have it. But the good news is that almost all phones now come with it, so it shouldn't be hard to find a new phone you like with that ability when the time comes.

-Polly Esther

Question #47438 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

LDS - Doctrine

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

At what point in a child's life does their parent stop receiving revelation for them (if ever)?

- wonders if her parent's "strong feeling that [she] should do this or that" is legitimate

A: Dear wonders~

At the point in time at which the parent stops being the child's parent.

However, I'm assuming by your 'nym that you seem to disagree with you mother's "strong feeling", so allow me to offer some clarification of how I think family revelation works.

First of all: Strictly speaking, your father is your Priesthood leader, but since father and mother are supposed to work in concert, that's essentially a moot point.

In discussing such leadership, however, the Lord makes clear in the Doctrine and Covenants that a good leader is the one who persuades people to follow werf through patience, longsuffering, love unfeigned, etc. In my experience, a lot of Mormons use abstract phrases like "a strong feeling" or the everpresent phrase "I feel/felt impressed to..." all too often. These phrases should not be used to manipulate someone, never never never.

So, I don't doubt that your mother is capable of receiving revelation for how she can be the mother her family needs, and how best to offer counsel and guidance. However, assuming you are a worthy Latter-day Saint above the age of 8, you are authorized to receive revelation for yourself.

So take this dispute with your mother, figure out what you think the best course of action to take is, and go pray to ask God which course, if either, He wants you to take. He will not give conflicting revelations to you and your mother, so if you receive an answer that you must take a different path, you'll know your mother's "feeling" is just that.

A good general rule, however, is that your parents are usually right. That makes a good default.

Proceed cautiously.

~Hobbes

A: Dear wondering,

I found a highly pertinent quote by Dallin H. Oaks:

First, we should understand what can be called the principle of “responsibility in revelation.” Our Heavenly Father’s house is a house of order, where his servants are commanded to “act in the office in which [they are] appointed” (D&C 107:99). This principle applies to revelation. Only the President of the Church receives revelation to guide the entire Church. Only the stake president receives revelation for the special guidance of the stake. The person who receives revelation for the ward is the bishop. For a family, it is the priesthood leadership of the family. Leaders receive revelation for their own areas of responsibility. Individuals can receive revelation to guide their own lives. But when one person purports to receive revelation for another person outside his or her own area of responsibility—such as a Church member who claims to have revelation to guide the entire Church or a person who claims to have a revelation to guide another person over whom he or she has no presiding authority according to the order of the Church—you can be sure that such revelations are not from the Lord. . . .

If a revelation is outside the limits of your specific responsibility, you know it is not from the Lord and you are not bound by it. I have heard of cases where a young man told a young woman she should marry him because he had received a revelation that she was to be his eternal companion. If this is a true revelation, it will be confirmed directly to the woman if she seeks to know. In the meantime, she is under no obligation to heed it. She should seek her own guidance and make up her own mind. The man can receive revelation to guide his own actions, but he cannot properly receive revelation to direct hers. She is outside his jurisdiction.

The situation of a mother receiving revelation for a child is a rather tricky one. On the one hand, she doesn't "preside" over you in a traditional sense of a priesthood leader presiding over some group, but on the other hand, we have been told that fathers preside over families and that mothers and fathers are to work together as equals.

That said, I think it's possible to honor your parents by giving due weight to their counsel and advice, but still recognize that, as an adult, you have the right and responsibility to receive your own revelation or confirmation on personal matters.

- Katya

Question #47437 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

BYU - Campus (physical) - Buildings

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

Why is the James E. Talmage building referred to as the TMCB? Seriously, we need to work on our acronyms/initialisms. TMCB is not convenient or fun to say like "SWKT" or "Wilk" or "MARB." It is the "Tee Emm See Bee." Lame.

I have been thinking that a better acronym for the Talmage building would be "JETB." What do you think?

It has the coolness of a jet, with the....b of a building. JETB - could be the most bestest acronym on campus.

- Addicted to Chocolate Milk

A: Dear Addicted

It is called the TMCB because it is officially the James E. Talmage Mathematics and Computer Science Building. I concur with your assessment that TMCB is a bit clunky, and the JET-B would meet with my approval if it were to become adopted into BYU student vernacular.

-Humble Master

A: Dear Chocoholic:

The "JET" is soooo 2006.

---Portia

Question #47435 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

Food & Drink

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

My dad served his mission in the Netherlands and we'd occasionally buy a Dutch food called 'hagel' that is little sugar or chocolate sprinkles. It used to be available in the BYU bookstore but that was ages ago. Does anyone know where I can find it in the Provo/Orem/Salt Lake City area?

- it's great on PB sandwiches

A: Dear and also on bread for breakfast,

Hagel is indeed available in Provo! Just head down to Many Lands on the west side of 500 West and Bulldog. You'll be able to find many yummy Dutch treats as well as treats from all over the world. There is a store in Salt Lake called the Old Dutch Store. I personally have never been there but an old mission companion of Disgruntled's (they served in the Netherlands) gave us some stuff from there. I get the feeling from the website a lot of what's there (at least the cheese) needs to be ordered (which for cheese is totally worth it). We have just decided that we're going up there sometime in the very near future.

- steen, who has chocoladehagel, vruchten hagel, and XL hagel in her pantry (as well as chocoladevlokken and pindakaas).

Question #47434 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

Famous People

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

So, what's the deal with Clay Aiken? Is he gay or what?

-Your Mamacita

A: Dear Your

Clay Aiken has said that he is not gay:

Aiken said, "One thing I've found of people in the public eye, either you're a womanizer or you've got to be gay. Since I'm neither one of those, people are completely concerned about me."

Apparently that didn't put rumors to rest, so he also had this to say:

On whether he's gay: "What do you say (to that question)? … It's like when I was 8. I remember something would get broken in the house, and Mom and Dad would call me in and say, 'Did you do this?' Well, it didn't matter what I said. The only thing they would believe was yes. … People are going to believe what they want."

I'm inclined to trust his statements that he is not gay, since he knows better than anyone.

Also, he had a child in August, if that alters your opinion.

-Humble Master

Question #47433 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

Computers - Internet (general)

Music

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

What are your thoughts on Pandora? I'm kind of a huge fan. i'm always trying to find new music and this is the best way i've found to do so. Do any of you know of better sites than this?

most sincerely
~
falcon sister

A: Dear falcon sister,

I like Pandora quite a bit too; it does a pretty good job of matching the artists or individual songs that I select. I've discovered a fair amount of new music I like that way.

If you want to listen to something more specific, and don't need the automatic matching, I recommend imeem. It has a very large (legal) collection of music uploaded by individual users. (imeem has a licensing agreement with the four major record labels.) You can upload your own music as well; if what you upload isn't from one of the big four labels, you'll still be able to listen to the whole thing yourself, but anyone else will only get to hear a 30-second clip. I like imeem for when I discover a new group or song (on Pandora) and want to hear more of their music. You do have to register on their site to be able to listen to a lot of the music, but it's free and fairly easy.

—Laser Jock

A: Dear Ethel,

I love Pandora. I have a few playlists that are perfected for my various moods and I rarely have to thumbs down a song any more, so I don't use much else. Unfortunately I keep wanting to buy the songs and have spent an embarrassing amount on iTunes these past few months. Oh well.

However, I thought I'd try a few new things to give you variety. Right now I'm trying last.fm and it's doing really well so far. I really like that I can pick one artist and get just songs from that artist (for when I don't want to discover new people, but bask in the love I already have for something). It's not meant to be a player, though, so I have to keep pushing play for the next song to play since it stops after each one when I'm doing it by artist (but I did find new songs by a favorite artist, and that rocked). I wasn't a fan of the music they gave me based on what I liked and didn't want to spend the time to perfect the system.

I also spent some time on musicovery. I didn't like it as much. It was too chaotic for me (but I think imeem is chaotic as well). I did like pushing all the buttons to find music that matched my mood, though.

Hopefully you'll be able to find something new that you enjoy from the suggestions.

-Polly Esther

Question #47431 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

Health - Hygiene

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

Why does the conditioner ALWAYS run out before the shampoo? The containers hold the same amount of liquid and it's not like I always use conditioner every time I wash my hair. Also, I use about the same amount of shampoo as I do conditioner. Wouldn't you think that the shampoo will run out first?

- Practically Perfect

A: Dear Practically Perfect,

I have never had my conditioner run out before my shampoo. It's always the shampoo that goes first. In fact, I can usually go through about two bottles of shampoo before I need to buy more conditioner. The only way that you could be running out of conditioner faster than shampoo is if you use more conditioner than shampoo, even if you don't use it every time you wash your hair. Pay attention to how much conditioner you are using - you really don't need to use very much; in fact, using too much conditioner can make your hair heavy and difficult to manage.

~Hermia

A: Dear Practically

There's a Calvin and Hobbes strip where Calvin is sitting in the tub shaking out the contents of a bottle into his hand while complaining to Hobbes that this shampoo isn't sudsy enough. In the next panel Calvin's dad is in the shower yelling to his wife that they're out of conditioner again.

Perhaps a similar situation is occurring in your shower. Not that I'd know. I've never been there.

-Humble Master

A: Dear Mary:

Like Hermia, I go through shampoo much more quickly. Maybe something you haven't thought about is maybe you didn't start using shampoo bottle X and conditioner bottle Y on the same exact date: unless that's the case, you can't draw conclusions about the rate at which you use X or Y.

---Portia

Question #47429 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

Health

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

I worked the dreaded graveyard shift full time (11 pm-7 am) for over a year and a half and just recently started a full time day job like a normal person. My body obviously became very accustomed to that ridiculously unhealthy stay-up-all-night-sleep-during-the-day schedule because I find it near impossible to not feel lethargic all day at work even if I get 8 hours of sleep the night before (for some reason, it's no longer hard to fall asleep at night).

Luckily, due to the nature of my job, this fatigue usually does not interfere with my performance at work. The problem occurs when I come home from work feeling so exhausted that I have no energy to do anything else the rest of the evening. All I want to do is curl up on the couch and watch tv, even though I should be cleaning or cooking dinner for my harder-working husband.

So I guess I have a couple questions about this problem of mine.
- Is my schedule change completely to blame for my constant fatigue or am I just more lazy than the average person with similar responsibilities?
- How long is it going to take for my body to adjust to a normal schedule? (I've had this new job for 3 weeks if that helps at all.)
- And most importantly, is there anything specific I can do/eat to make myself feel energetic when I get home from work?

You'd think a nap would be the solution, but no matter how tired I am, I can't seem to fall asleep that late in the day. Any other suggestions? Any solutions in which chocolate could be incorporated would be especially appreciated!

- Tired 24/7

A: Dear Ethel,

The fatigue from a schedule change as drastic as this shouldn't last longer than 2 weeks. So if it persists it's probably not completely the schedule change. Hopefully things will be picking up for you soon.

As for getting extra energy, you can try being very consistent in your sleeping patterns. Going to bed and waking up within the same 30 minute window every night/morning should get your body used to the change in your schedule.

This may not help you, but when I come home from work or school totally exhausted, as long as I don't allow myself to sit down I can be productive for awhile. Once I'm down, I don't have the motivation to get back up again for awhile. Try that and see if you can push out some productivity through sheer momentum.

-Polly Esther

Question #47426 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

Travel - International

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

I'm potentially taking a trip to Europe in the near future, and one of the big things that will play into whether or not this trip actually happens is cost. Of those of you who have been to Europe, what cities did you go to, and how expensive were they? I'm of course planning on doing the whole hostel thing to save money on lodging, but I've never stayed in a hostel before. If you've done so, did you feel safe? Can you recommend any good hostels or give me tips on what to avoid? Any other tips for traveling in Europe on a budget?

- Wisteria

A: Dear Wisteria~

St. Petersburg and Moscow both probably would have been expensive if I didn't have Russian skills and a few connections, but as it was, they were tolerable.

The only other European city I've been to is Paris, which was absurdly expensive. The hotel I stayed in came to well over 100 US a night, the metro ride to the Eiffel Tower was ~20 US, and the pastries were all several dollars. I think a lot of this stemmed from the fact that my French is terrible at best and I didn't have time to make any connections there. (I was only there for one day.)

If you're looking for cost-effective, however, I would recommend either finding someone who's willing to pay you to go there, or go with some volunteer program. I don't think that's what you want, though.

Since I assume you just want to play tourist, you're going to just have to accept that tourism hurts financially. That said, find the missionaries in the area, because I know of few people who are more, um, frugal than Mormon missionaries. They should be able to point you to the holes in the wall where you can save money. For this plan to work, you'll want to plan on visiting just a few cities and staying there for several days, because finding missionaries takes time.

I stayed in a hostel in Finland, and I felt safe for a couple reasons:

1. I'm male
2. The Church had flooded that hostel with members (I was there for a temple dedication)
3. I shared a room with a scrawny Japanese guy, and our door had a lock on it

So, there's my advice, for whatever it's worth. I've never actually been a tourist in Europe, per se, so hopefully one of the other writers can help you out a bit better.

~Hobbes

A: Dear Wisteria,

I have also been to St. Petersburg and Paris, and can definitely agree with what Hobbes has said. I don't recall St. Petersburg being extremely expensive, but Paris was pretty hard on my wallet. Still, even Paris was better than London - their prices seem to be the same (they ask four pounds for something that would cost around four dollars here), but the exchange rate is horrible for Americans. Be prepared to pay about twice as much for everything in London. In fact, be prepared to suffer financially anywhere that uses the euro or the pound.

As far as hostels go, I stayed in a few in England and Scotland. Both times I felt quite safe, as I was traveling with friends and booked a bed in a girls-only room. I would look into hostels that are with the Youth Hostel Association. These hostels are more likely to offer gender-segregated rooms and are generally more reputable. I don't have any specific recommendations as to what to avoid, other than the obvious "go with your gut." Don't stay anywhere if you feel unsafe. It's also a good idea to book in advance, especially if you are traveling during peak summer-tourist season. You don't want to have to settle for something shady because you're desperate.

As for tips on traveling on a budget, I'm afraid I don't have too many, as the majority of my European travels have involved following a pre-paid group schedule. However, from the week I spent on my own, I highly recommend buying groceries instead of eating out all the time. Many hostels have kitchen areas that you can use.

Hope this helps!

~Hermia

Question #47412 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

Computers - Operating Systems - Linux

Computers - Operating Systems - Windows

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

For starters, you guys (and gals, of course), do a great job. Thanks for your kind service.

On to my question -- I know that I can get alot of these answers from a quick Google search, but I am hoping for a bit more anecdotal assistance.

In the next few days I am going to format my hard drive entirely. I plan to run a XP/Ubuntu environment using some form of dual booting (as opposed to VM). Have you ever done this? Do you have any what not to do (or what TO do) tips? I'm mostly concerned about the bootloader and MBR pieces of it all.

Another related question - what would you recommend for a Linux Outlook equivalent. I've read a bit about Evolution, but wasn't sure if there were others. I'd prefer to have all Exchange functionality instead of using IMAP or POP.

Any and all help is much appreciated!

- Asus Man

A: Dear Ethel,

I asked my amazing friend who has done dual booting (where I haven't tried it yet) your question and he said:

I set up my own box to dual boot. Here are some of the things I suggest.

Partition your drive into 4 sections: 100mb on the first (for the Linux /boot), then cut the rest in half (or divide as you like, XP will be on the 2nd). Leave about twice your memory (but probably not exceeding 4gb) for Linux swap space.

I like to use a boot disk with gParted to edit my partitions prior to installation. Create ext3 (or your favorite FS) for Linux and NTFS for windows. And lastly use the Linux-swap for your last partition.

Install XP first, onto the second partition. I install XP first because I like to use GRUB to boot (though you can use windows to boot, that's far more finicky). And if you install XP second it will trash your GRUB...

After XP is installed, install Ubuntu. You can just skip Ubuntu's auto repartitioner since you've already partitioned it. Point the /boot folder at your 100mb partition and the rest at the 3rd partition. It's just generally a good practice to have your boot folder on a separate partition. (Some people claim that putting your home folder on a separate partition as well is helpful during reinstalls and upgrades, but I don't care so much.) Then point your / folder to the third partition. Finally, add your swap as the last partition.

Finally you will need to modify your /boot/grub/menu.1st file to include the windows XP install (unless Ubuntu does it automatically now - you can read about doing this here.)

Anyway, your other option is to just install windows first and then let Ubuntu do the partition resizing for you. I've never used this but I hear it works rather well these days. I just happen to like being more in control of my system.

Hopefully that will help!

-Polly Esther

A: Dear Asus,

By far the easiest way to achieve this is to install Windows first, and during installation give it whatever partition size you were planning on using. If you've got a plenty big drive, then just something that will plenty suffice like 40 gb.

Once Windows is installed pop in the most recent Ubuntu install disk and let it take care of the rest for you. It will automatically find the Windows install and the remaining space on the drive and ask how you want to handle it (there should an option to use the remaining drive space for Ubuntu, and dualboot with Windows).

And, voilà, you're done.

If you want to get trickier then you can do some more messing with the partitions to arrange things more particularly to your liking, but if you're unfamiliar with the benefits of partition scheming then I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Do NOT, however, install Ubuntu, and then install Windows. Windows does not play nicely with other operating systems by default and you will cause yourself a headache.

-Curious Physics Minor, Veteran Dual-booter

Question #47338 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

Medical/Body - Products

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

What's that green junk around my eyes when I wake up? My family always just called it 'eye boogers' but I'm pretty sure that's not what it is.

- Eye Boogers

A: Dear Diome, Witch of the Night,

I grew up calling it "sleepy dust," but "eye boogers" is actually probably more accurate.

From funtrivia.com

The lacrimal glands, or tear glands, help keep the eye moist. They are located under the upper eyelids and extend inward from the outer corners of the eye. At night the eye is closed so the involuntary eye movements in sleep help to move the secretions toward the inner canthus or corner of the eye. Since the secretions sit there for a time, they no longer appear clear, and contain debris. They can even dry out, making the characteristic plug in the corner of the eye.

For more information on the anatomy of the human eye, check out this link.

-Azriel

Question #47191 posted on 09/17/2008 3:01 a.m.

LDS

Sports

Health - Wellness/Exercise

Q:

Dear 100 Hour Board,

Are there any gyms near Elk Grove or Sacto CA that allow gymnasts to compete if they refuse to compete on the sabbath?

- Been kicked out of 2 gyms for religious beliefs

A: Dear sorry about that,

This is way a Yellow Pages question, if you were wondering, and let me explain why. First, I've contacted my friend who was pretty serious in gymnastics all growing up, and a lot of what she has to say may not be news to you, but these were her comments:

It depends on what level they compete - Level 4 generally competes on Sundays, 5-6 are more Fridays and Saturdays. The way we did it in my family, I never competed Sundays unless it was a qualifying meet - like state to get me to regionals, regionals to get me to nationals, or nationals. That was only when I was an upper level gymnast and looking for scholarships, and it helped me to walk onto BYU's team. It's a personal choice, there was one gymnast at BYU from California and she never competed on Sundays. She also never went to any big meets, but because of her skills she was able to walk on. I never had to deal with it because I just skipped it and the gym was fine with it. If the gymnast is good enough, they're going to work with him/her. If they won't, it's time to look for a new gym.

--

Which it appears is what you're doing, but she offered to call you and tell you her experience with things if you want (shoot me an e-mail at stillsbyolympus at gmail dot com). In any case, it sounds like this could be not a black and white issue for each gym you'd call. Me, calling to say, "Do you require Sunday competition? ...OK, thanks, bye." will probably always get a "Yes." You, calling to say, "Hi, I'm a level x and I'm moving into your area, I'm looking for a gym and here's my situation, can I come show you what I can do and we can talk about it?" might get a totally different answer.

I didn't want to make you wait longer for this question, so I'll let it post, but if I get the contact information for the gymnast from California or more information in general I'll post it as a comment.

Here are my resources, feel free:

Google's hits.

(To get you started, the first hit requires Sunday competition.)

Super Pages' hits.

IAF.net's hits.

Those are some good beginnings for Elk Grove. I think you could use the same tactics for Sacto.

-Olympus