mermaidcamp
Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water
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Beware of HOA Fraud
May 29, 2013
I live in a small community of 30 town homes in Tucson. Our dues money has been spent to do as much damage as possible to our property value for over a decade. The board has run a charity scam in the home that has a common wall next to mine for about 10 years. They have solicited and collected donations, including truck loads of bread, stored them in the house that has never had pest service, or any basic maintenance. The mainline of the house has been leaking for months, but the board denies any responsibility to make this board member repair the leak. It has been flowing onto the roots of a mesquite tree and causing the ground to heave right next to the sewer out take, and my house. Left to swell and grow the roots are very likely to crack the foundation of my house, but there is no response from our HOA board. If an HOA board is out of control like this one your real estate value can be taken to zero. Black mold loves the conditions set up by donation collection and water leaks, and few insurance policies will cover a homeowner whose home is ruined by mold.
IRS and Non Profit Status
May 21, 2013
— 2 Comments
Food handling
food charity scam in action
charity scam
donation drop off
food handling
truck of used bread
food handling
unload and load
holiday traffic
The current uproar at the IRS highlights the much misunderstood function of granting tax exempt status and enforcing it. I have gone through the process of obtaining a 501C3 permit to run a non-profit corporation, and can tell you it is exhaustive and thorough. Like Medicare fraud, there must be pros who go about cheating and defrauding the system from within. Tax exempt status is given to legitimate corporations willing to go through strict accounting documentation to prove that they are satisfying the mission they stated in the original application. By submitting in good faith to this non-profit status scrutiny they are subject to a review of their activities constantly. Applying for the status is technical and rigorous, as it should be. Keeping it is equally serious in nature.
Going completely commando, soliciting donations from the public without any IRS permit or reporting of the donations whatsoever is the highly lucrative method that has been used in my neighborhood for many years. They have begged openly for donations of food, money, items, and labor. They ask for public support to store prepare food in a residential condo to be served randomly to presumably homeless people they find in parks. No laws are obeyed, from zoning, to health code, to revenue laws. They openly ask for donations on the internet, although multiple law enforcement agencies have been informed for many years of the crimes. This self-appointed charity does not feel the need to obey any laws because no laws are enforced. The lack of interest of the government agencies could be seen as negligence. You might believe, if you love conspiracy theory, that since these charity folks presumably vote liberal democratic tickets, they are allowed with the collusion of our local government, to break all these laws. That is too silly.
I don’t believe there is a conscious effort by government to allow crime to take over the neighborhood. My impression is that public servants feel resentful about serving the public. When opportunity arises to feel powerful through corruption, the loyalty of any public servant to act for the benefit of all concerned is questionable. This is where mental illness diagnosis is important. If only insane and or incompetent people are left to run the government, the government will continue to act against the citizens’ best interests. I do not think we have good or effective governance. I do not trust that the money collected by the IRS is well spent. I have always paid taxes, and benefit from no loopholes. I pay taxes knowing it must be done. Waste and corruption are not what I want to buy with my tax dollars, but they are all I see on the menu at the moment.
Athlete Archetype
May 20, 2013
— 2 Comments
At the crossroads of sports performance and fitness training is a special intersection of interest and comparison. We compete with ourselves in many sports. Team sports have an extra dynamic, but freestyle sports played or performed by individuals offer a chance to bend the meaning of sports and scoring. Winter and summer X games are good examples of these evolving sports and athletes. Tricks and styles evolve each year to new heights and dangers. Extreme sports involve heavy risks, so most folks prefer to watch as fans. Others find sponsors and spend all their time in training or competition. What is the healthiest blend of training, practice, participation, and admiration of others? What is the best way to avoid injury and stay fit while playing or competing?
I believe prehabilitaion is important, mentally and physically. Life requires variety, balance, flexibility, and range of motion. In a healthy athletic training routine personal willpower and strength of spirit are the qualities we admire and aspire to reflect. The athlete archetype is the symbol of transcending limits. Physical limits, including handicaps, are frequently overcome in Special Olympics and Senior Olympics through training and competition. Expectations that build esteem for the whole sport and all the players are the healthiest. Entitlement, either to cheat or misuse athletic ability for selfish ends, is the shadow aspect of this archetype. Winning at all costs, taking power over others, flexing strength beyond games and into inappropriate settings is the activity of the bully, shadow athlete. Football thugs in Europe display this kind of trashy sportsmanship. The false sense of invulnerability and entitlement that lives on the dark side of competition is the enemy of good health and balance. Games are played on and off the field and the clock. All or none, win or loose mentality does not belong in every aspect of life. Check your inner athlete, and how your games are played to learn more about your own beliefs about winning, loosing, and dedication.
Wellness Account
April 3, 2013
Paying attention is the first step to wellness. Our individual health is like a bank account. We deposit good constitution and healthy habits such as whole fresh food and solid rest. When things go wrong it is impossible to tell which check has overdrawn the account. If you take out more than you put in this will always be the result. Rather that be too crazy about diagnosis and specific remedies, a good overview can help sort out the most crucial from the unimportant. How and why do you use your own resources to damage your health?
Our bodies consist of an advanced bundle of cells and energy connected to create this network of life, feeling and emotion. We are a conduit to something fantastic and sometimes unimaginable; a Responsive Universe…. Our bodies are our best friends. We need to listen to our bodies signals – wellness is the only true focus. Are you listening?
Please check out my latest article published at MindBodyGreen which focuses on listening to our bodies and how we can positively respond to those signals…
Do You Listen To Your Body’s Signals?
John C. Bader
About the Book: www.responsiveuniverse.com
Now Available: Amazon Barnes & Noble
Process Addictions
March 18, 2013
— 7 Comments
Americans are going deeper into process addictions daily. The repetition of compulsive behavior as a substitute for involvement and enjoyment in life is a growing national disaster. Our national diabetes and obesity problems are highly related to the indoctrination created by the food industry. If people are vulnerable and advertising is unquestionably absorbed by the public, where is the ethical line of common sense? I heard that one in every four health care dollars in the US is spent on diabetic patients. Our nation is not in control of our health or our advertising. Compulsion rather than appreciation is promoted at every level.
Professionals are being trained to recognize the symptoms and help patients who suffer. The behavior repeated may be socially acceptable, making it hard to distinguish from healthy behavior. Eating disorders are a common variety of process addiction. Eating itself, working itself, sex itself, and even gambling itself ,are not the real problems with the process addicted person. The overwhelming need to repeat and continue to seek reward in a behavior as the thrill diminishes is the hallmark of process addiction. Joy is drained away from the person who stays in a deep rut of compulsive habits. The remedy is similar to substance abuse treatment, since the same brain centers are involved. To evolve and escape the tyranny of habit is everyone’s job. To make better choices, the first step is to be present and aware. If most of your choices are made by default, this is a good time to begin to choose more deliberately.
@Pontifex Francis
March 18, 2013
— 1 Comment
Pope Francis has the twitter handle of the Vatican now, and this is his first tweet:
“Dear friends, I thank you from my heart and I ask you to continue to pray for me. Pope Francis.”
His style is matter of fact. He keeps asking for the people to pray for him. He breaks out and kisses babies. I think he is a very smart and astute cookie. The Jesuits are big into discernment as a key to practice. The order teaches ways to recognize the activities of the spirits in action in everyday life. They devote a good deal of time and effort into understanding the emotions and the spiritual meaning in the details. They listen for the voice of God. It is most tempting for the human ego to impersonate the Creator, rather than deeply search for divine guidance.
The Catholic church needs now to both listen to the membership and discern what is spiritually best for the world. A closed, authoritarian, dogmatic institution has the need for a live wire to bring it back to awareness. The first deliberate steps taken by Pope Francis (who I believe is named for both Francis of Assisi and Francis Xavier) signal a new direction. I am neither Catholic nor a fan of any church, but I do appreciate discernment. He seems ready willing and able to bring fresh discernment to a troubled institution. He has already changed the vibe.
Saving Tucson’s Environment
March 17, 2013
— 3 Comments
This week I had the opportunity to take a workshop with Watershed Management Group. I am concerned about the use and abuse of our water resources in Tucson, so I was curious to learn what this group is teaching. I found the format to be very effective. Our 2 day workshop took place at the Ward 1 City of Tucson office near the Santa Cruz River. A grant has been secured to improve the environment around the office. The water harvesting techniques we learned to retrofit neighborhoods with green infrastructure are needed in all parts of the Tucson valley in order to preserve and repair our water table. The city of Tucson Water, and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality sponsor and fund some of these storm water harvesting projects. Others are created by neighborhoods and cities. Lake Havasu City has been an active client, as is the city of Sierra Vista.
My fellow students came from as far away as Buffalo, New York. There were several New Mexicans. All were professionals in the fields of landscape design, civil engineering, architecture, permaculture, and real estate management. I attended out of my general interest in water quality and health. I have a specific interest in stopping the rape of the environment in my neighborhood by my own HOA board. There is an insistence on as much water waste and plant destruction as possible, which has left us with a more and more barren urban heat island. The value of our property as well as the quality of life around us has been destroyed, along with wildlife habitat, by simply following worst environmental practices for more than a decade. If no steps are taken to stop the destructive practices we can expect our value to continue to drop and our crime rate to continue to rise. Environment and greenery have a very direct effect on crime rates.
I learned more than enough to convince some of my neighbors to join me in turning the tide of waste and ghetto creation in our hood. I look forward to participating in more projects with Watershed Management Group.
Benefits and techniques
Costs
Healthy snacks
we assess the site
checking all deets
Parking lot project
polenta pizza
beets, greens, salad
greens
I am a huge fan of the entire process, about which I will tell you much more, gentle reader. Let it suffice to say that taking courses in watershed management will get you into the best lunch you have ever tasted. Incredibly tasty local ingredients were catered for us picnic style. A good time was had by all. The learning was fine, but the camaraderie and gourmet enjoyment put this experience over the top in my book.
Health of our Wealth
March 7, 2013
— 8 Comments
If you ask a group of Americans to raise their hands if they consider themselves to be middle class, almost all of them will raise them. The economic sophistication of our citizens is not adequate to survive. Lingering debt, choking all hopes of prosperity, is a driving force in most households in the United States, and yet concern is focused on government debt and misconduct. There are some fundamentals that are not at all understood, such as how money works and where it goes. If we were better educated I wonder if we would have a different outcome. The rose colored glasses are much rosier than we previously believed.
Congress Hoist with Own Petard
March 1, 2013
— 1 Comment
If only the congressional lemmings were left to their own devices I believe we could be rid of them. Their herd has lost all healthy instincts, all survival skills. If we did not support them they would not survive on their own. They appear to be determined to do anything to blame somebody else for reality. They have all this lobby/campaign money and ethic that leads them directly away from the people’s work. They are transparent as they fatten up every piece of greasy legislation with porky-hambone-chops. The have no shame about their intentions, which are to be sent back to live the life in the nation’s capitol at our expense. They have gone on a long weekend break, having been exhausted by non stop refusal to cooperate. Why are we overpaying toddlers to fight with each other? Why are these reckless petardiers still loose on the town with our money?
Hoist with their own petard, they run home to whine to voters about the contents of this mess. Is there anyone who does not wish the Congress would just stop bickering and start working? The whole thing looks like a cartoon each night on the news. In dreams the Roadrunner deals with their crazed, inflated-ego selves, as he does with the delusional Wylie Coyote.
Civilized Dining Near Death
February 27, 2013
seasonal food
“The preparation of good food is merely another expression of art, one of the joys of civilized living…” Dione Lucas
Survival depends on finding a source of nutrition. Today there is a trend to look to restaurants for food service. In the distant past the household was challenged to grow, kill, store, and otherwise provide the food for a family. Now by driving through, it is possible to leave the drudgery of dietary delicacy decision making to the folks at Dairy Queen. Restaurants now exist in giant chains with processed ingredients provided by the central supplier. This has given rise to a slew of cooking shows and networks, and celebrities. These celebrities enjoy food and know how to prepare it. That is why they are out of the ordinary in 2013. They remember, or have been trained, to eat and enjoy a variety of seasonal foods. They may have even visited a farm. No wonder we regard them as very special beings.
The McRib is not a seasonal food, although Americans believe it is. The pumpkin spice latte is not either. Pumpkins themselves are seasonal, growing outside in fields and needing to be picked at a certain time. Latte flavoring is forever. It is possible it will remain in your organs forever also. How is it possible that America is so far removed from grow it, kill it, eat it, that they have no idea where their food has been, or by whom it has been handled? I am not a stuffy or a picky eater, which might be challenged, since I am a vegetarian. What I want when I pay another entity to feed me is attention to detail, each and every detail. I want to feel the careful work that has been done to please my palette every time I put a bite into my mouth. When I cook that is what I hope to achieve. Of course, I do not always succeed, but there is never a doubt that I have made the effort. I would rather fail royally in my own kitchen than to be fed by the careless.
