mermaidcamp

mermaidcamp

Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water

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Native Seed S.E.A.R.C.H.

July 27, 2013 — 5 Comments

I am a member of a very special organization in Tucson. Native Seed S.E.A.R.C.H is a source for beans, garden seeds, education, and many local products.  I support the mission and benefit from the close proximity of the store.  We eat a wide variety of beans and chilies.  The store carries the basic ingredients we use all the time in our diet.  The seed preservation is the most important aspect of the mission.  Today I planted 5 new plants I bought at the monsoon plant sale: 3 new watermelon varieties, a bell pepper and a special cucumber.  They are all vigorous and healthy.  I expect them to thrive in the rainy season, which was the point of the sale.  We can grow many vegetables and fruits until  frost, and if we protect them even longer.  I have harvested giant crops of green tomatoes in December.  These plant varieties are from Arizona and New Mexico, so they are adapted to our climate.  I look forward to my Navaho red watermelon.  You don’t need to live here to join.  If you live in other parts of the country you can enjoy the benefits of membership which will keep your garden interesting.

Empire Avenue, Rich and Famous

July 25, 2013 — 6 Comments

Michael Q Todd

Michael Q Todd

I am surprised to tell the gentle readers how much I love Empire Avenue. Yesterday I read a blog post by @mqtodd about Empire Avenue as an analytics tool. I had not considered joining before, but his logic convinced me to take a look.  Overnight I am a bizillionaire, and my account keeps refilling with magic money to buy shares in my fellow members. What is not to like?  The other interesting aspect of the magic currency, sometimes mixed with real money, is the way you can spend it on missions.  I have only done a few since I am less than 24 hours into my Empire building, but they are fun. I voted for an Estonian lady to win the best floral balcony in her town, for which she may win a trip to Spain.  She gave me a giant payment in E bucks.  Her balcony was very nice, so I had no problem helping her win.

People create groups and missions that promote blog posts, pages, Pinterest follows, or floral balconies.  The mission creator offers a payment from his own E bank account to the members who complete the mission.  It is efficient and there is no need to participate if this does not call to you.  In the meantime, your own stock value is changing based on others buying into you.  You then have E bucks to buy stock in other individuals.  It works like the stock market and has charts that are similar to track shares.  These people have my number (pun intended).  I have never played a video game, and am not at all tempted to control an avi in an action scene.  However, giving me an imaginary stock portfolio and people who want to play stock market is bait that surely does turn me on all the way.  I hired a fiduciary to handle my real life investments last year because the election campaign freaked me out too much to continue to handle my own investments.  They short the markets, buy commodities, and all kinds of crazy stuff that I will not in my lifetime understand.  I am happy with their services and with the time I do NOT spend watching the markets now. I am free to do more fun activity ……like in vest in a pretend stock market.

I am non competitive at one level, but when I see a chart of my own performance I sincerely want to improve.  Since this is not real money and my financial welfare is not at risk I could see myself going deep into the time investment.  As with all things, balance and control are needed.  It is a bigger thrill to learn that your portfolio value has quadrupled than to hear that someone gave you a K in tea.  I do not suffer from the ubiquitous FOMO although I participate in many social networks. This one with charts and value presents some danger to this cozy neutral situation.  I am now on the market and people are buying into me..hmmm. This is essentially what the rest of social media is too, strangers buying into you.  Mike mentions the social aspect, which I have already begun to feel from my shareholders and group members. I have always admired him for his bright green wig, and now I am his shareholder.  I love it.

Color Wheel Love

July 24, 2013 — 3 Comments

A model exists to measure and quantify your style of love. Known as Color Wheel Model of Love, the theory posits that people with similar love styles form more lasting relationships.  All relationships are subject to mixing and morphing of styles;  it would be rare to find a single pure style in one person.

The primary styes are:

  • Eros-love as romantic ideal
  • Ludos-love as a game
  • Storge-love as friendship

Secondary styles are:

  • Pragma-practical choice
  • Agape-spiritual selfless love
  • Mania- dramatic ups and downs
color wheel love

color wheel love

Mixing the styles creates a full rainbow. Take this quiz if you are curious about your styes.  This idea was published by John Lee in his book, The Colors of Love , available on Amazon.  It makes sense to me.  Do you identify with one or more of these styles?

Color Magic

July 23, 2013 — 3 Comments

Color has magical qualities.  Color plays a role in ritual, in design, and in folk medicine around the world.  In Feng Shui customs, cures, and auspicious building sites are color coded.  Color and love are symbolically entwined, intrinsically related. Emotions are influenced by color. What do your colors say about you?

  • Do you wear the same colors all the time?
  • Do you decorate with the same hues?
  • Is your wardrobe organized, or randomly stored?
  • Do you have strong identification with one color?
  • Do you have intense dislike of any color?

Look around today to learn more about your sensitivity to your surroundings.  An interesting exercise to try is choosing one color, then noticing how you encounter it during the day. Notice if it is in your food, your work, or your fashion.  Pay attention to the way you feel when you run into this color.  Does it throw you off balance in some emotional way? Does it have meaning of a symbolic nature?

Create Your Own Fashion

July 22, 2013 — 4 Comments

For years I made most of my clothing and a lot of the items for my home, like curtains.  I have always had very specific fashion requirements that were fostered by my sewing mother.  She achieved greater skill and ability as a tailor, but I know I got the idea, and perhaps some talent, from her.  My parents went to conventions with petroleum engineers all over the world.  Months before the trip my mother would make outfits for the event that included matching hats and shoes.  She often looked like QEII with all the matchy-matchy.  She did have clothes from stores, but her best stuff in the 1950’s was made with her own hands.

Last year I started sewing again because I own a big stash of fabric and two machines.  I found that creating with fabric  makes me happier than ever.  I used to sew because it was a cheap and easy way to create my clothing; ironically, now supplies are much more expensive, making it much less of a bargain.  The satisfaction is in the choices at each step along the process.  I do not need to buy any fabric, but rather need to use all the leftovers I have collected.  This is like going through the fridge and deciding to make soup based on what you have. You decide what makes it delicious.  It will be exactly to your taste.

Color and pattern work together in creating a design.  My fabric stash offers many different weights and composition in fabric.  I selected them because they fit into a color palette that matches other items in my wardrobe. I have both woven and knit to use in my fall collection. I will start by making a wrap skirt to keep it simple.  I am not in the mood for zippers.  I am seeking fairly instant gratification. I also want to use  my stash without buying any more fabric or notions.  I own some great buttons, and should get them out to see what they might enhance. The creativity of working with fabric, notions, and design is endless.  Evolving hand made fashion is especially fulfilling to me.  I may take apart some old garments and reuse my favorite parts of them too. I admire all the upcycled fashion I see being used in new ways.  Even folks who don’t sew or have a machine can find really cool designs to create from knit fabric, like tee shirts. Join the fun for fashion that expresses the real you.

Alternatives to Dissapointment

July 21, 2013 — 7 Comments

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune are brutal.  If you find yourself in a world you never made looking for ways to avoid reality, you may be heading for the ultimate disappointment, the end of  your life.  You are heading in that direction with or without your own acknowledgement.  One of the important steps to take is facing mortality.  Your parents and all our relations have ,or will at some time, die.  Typically we never think of ourselves in this group.  The dead are like traffic; you consider yourself as separate from the activity even when you are in the middle of it.  Of course if you are reading this we think you are alive, but this is not a permanent state.  Eventually you will run out of time, no matter how you have spent it. You probably mind your financial accounts.  When will you begin to account for your time?

Time and responsibility are needed to create:

  • well being
  • strength
  • flexibility
  • humor
  • mental agility
  • strong constitution
  • social balance
  • family unity
  • community peace

Assbook, Social Media Platform for the Obtuse

July 20, 2013 — 10 Comments

vortex

vortex

energy

energy

ligth

ligth

I have heard much ado about civility online lately. I agree that there has been a lapse in good manners in the comments and discussions taking place.  I participate in many social media platforms happily now.  In the past I have connected with people who do not have the slightest interest in me, but would like to add me to the list of recipients of their highly ill-matched sales pitches.  It took me some time to figure out how to avoid them in the first place, but I removed the ability they had to communicate with me.  I have learned from experience how to detect and eliminate the one way, all selly-sell-sell relationships in the bud.  I have also learned by being the recipient how to offend and run off potential business with an obtuse view of how media works for everyone.  I was taught by the best to be a Trust Agent, but only after a few years of practice do I grasp what that means. Basically, to be trusted one can not be seen as a selfish ass.  To make sure you are not seen as an ass, refrain from all infantile negative activity on-line.  Everyone acts stupid with friends and family in person, in context, and frequently at home.  Let that be your only venue for assholic behavior. You will get you immediate retribution from those live folks in a fully appropriate karmic way that will not require the attention of the public….no need to tweet us about it….just keep it to yourselves.

I propose that those of you who insist that social media platforms exist to assist you in poisoning the water for everyone form your own social network.  Assboook could be a place for meaningless promotion and insincere influence credit.  To exchange +A with others will be a form of building and defining influence as an on line jerk.  Categories of influence, and groups aligned with these special interests will show Assbook members where to go to find the most meaning:

  • MLMs
  • Coaching
  • Social media experts
  • Narcissism
  • Bacon

The only reason to include bacon is that no social media platform could ever expect to be popular without at least a little #bacon.

Corporalita

July 19, 2013 — 2 Comments

Leonardo, the maestro, was guided by core principals. Cultivation of grace ambidexterity, fitness, and poise were central to Da Vincian thought. He viewed healing as “restoration of discordant elements” in a person. His copious notes on personal responsibility for our own health and well being were left for history. Many think of the Mona Lisa smile as his signature work, but probably the best known of all his art work is the anatomical range of motion dude in a circle and square known as Vitruvian Man.  His study of anatomy was accompanied by observation of his own body in relation to his wellness and fitness routine. His self portraits are studies in facial anatomy as well as in painting technique.

He advised people to dine, not eat. One of his many specialities was preparing vast feasts and party catering for wealthy Florentines.  He collected knowledge about food and nutrition, recording recipes.  He was known about town as having “more than infinite grace in every action”.  His cultivation of effortless poise and ambidexterity in his own body made him famous in a rock star way.  Florentines would come out on the street for the thrill of seeing Leonardo walking. His notebooks reflect a focus on balance, posture, and centering.

His favorite metaphor was the human body.  It is also my own.  If you consider any entity it will have a head, a heart, a circulatory system, consumption, and processing of waste.  It will have dynamic balance and movement.  It will present itself as open or closed, happy or sad.  It will have chronic maladies and moods, a backbone, and sharp or weak senses. Often the right hand will not know what the left hand is doing.  Next time you need to analyze an institution or business use this metaphor to create a picture in your mind.  Ponder one of the maestro’s most famous observations, “every part is disposed to unite with the whole, that it may thereby escape from its own incompleteness.”  At this moment, gentle reader, can you see how this applies to you?

Vitruvian Man

Vitruvian Man

The Catalyst is not Consumed

July 16, 2013 — 3 Comments

The catalyst archetype is rare  in human personalities. Intuition plays a key role in the transformative power of this person.  Intense scrutiny and focus is the special realm of the human catalyst.   Rebels can be catalysts, but there are a few different kinds. The American Heritage Dictionary defines the word:

  1. Chemistry. A substance, usually used in small amounts relative to the reactants, that modifies and increases the rate of a reaction without being consumed in the process.
  2. One that precipitates a process or event, especially without being involved in or changed by the consequences: “A free press … has remained … a vital catalyst to an informed and responsible electorate” (Robert O’Neal).

To modify or increase rate of reaction without being consumed is no small feat. Most folks who go out intentionally to make big change in the world burn out and are consumed in the process.  I am not such a person.  I am a true catalyst.  My view is basically not in line with the views of those who surround me; often it is diametrically opposed.  Infiltration is the key to changing anything.  The only time I sincerely burned out and quit as an agent of change was when I infiltrated the VA as a volunteer to improve health care for vets.  That was just too much for me.  My specialty as a catalyst is as a mendacity meter. People lie all the time, and I am very sensitive to the common practice.  I am gifted with a very accurate sensor that detects dishonesty of all kinds. This is neither a blessing nor a curse.   It is my unique talent that I am somehow obligated to use for the betterment of mankind.  We catalysts have a moral obligation to avoid snark because, tempting as it may be, outing people is not usually beneficial to anyone.

People lie for many reasons. I find that usually they fail to tell the truth because they have no knowledge or training in the truth. If brainwashing works, then the victim believes what has been inculcated.  As I review my life I clearly notice a strong tendency to spy/rebel/teach, as a cycle.  I love infiltration for no reason:I enjoy the feeling of being a foreign object in a strange culture, incognito…I almost never go for status quo ….and I fill my teaching with subversive messages I hope will be released into the students’ brains as a constant reminder to do due diligence and individuate. I have a mission to tell the truth, but in a helpful way.  Not everything that is true needs to be said, but when it does I am ready to say it.  This blog is my channel to put this gift to the highest and best use.  Thanks to all the gentle readers who give me this opportunity.

Ruby Taylor on Racism

July 14, 2013

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members, a heart of grace, and a soul generated by love.”
Coretta Scott King

I know a very special woman through social media named Ruby Taylor.  She lives in Lancaster, PA, a town I knew well because I spent a year going to boarding school in Lititz, PA.  She has a wonderful attitude, but the reason she caught my attention is that my mother’s name is Ruby Taylor.  I study my ancestors to learn about ethical will and history.  This week I thought about slavery in terms of my slave owning ancestor who ran away to Florida with her slaves in order to be in Spain in the 1700’s.  She actually bought and sold slaves in Florida.  This is heavy, and I can picture the whole crazy trip. Meanwhile the Zimmerman verdict was delivered in Florida.  Much ado…

The most profoundly wise statement of the day came from Ruby Taylor:

“Truth the prosecutor did a poor job preparing the case and in his closing statement proved the case for the defense.Next we need to be just as vocal when people in the inner cities kill black children no matter the race.My brother Daniel Tyrone Taylor was shot in the head and murdered by a black boy at the age of 16 years old. So, to me murder is murder no matter the race.We have a justice system and whether you agree or not justice was served. Justice does not mean the verdict is what we want. Justice mean the case was heard in court and the jury made a decision based on the evidence.My view and my truth.Be mad at violence and the lost of life not just because the person holding the gun was white.The family can bring a wrongful death lawsuit against Zimmerman and the proof and evidence is much less.I just do not want justice for Trayvon I want justice for every child black, white, and/or hispanic who is murdered. Justice and protection for all children.Good Night!”
Word!
Being mad at violence is the only rational reaction.  Ruby Taylor of Lancaster, I sincerely hope we are blood relatives.  Ruby Lee Taylor of Humble, TX changed her middle name to Lea because she didn’t really want to be named for Robert E., but you can never change your ancestry or the part your family played in history.  You can learn from their mistakes which was the entire purpose of the mistakes.  Justice and violence don’t mix, gentle readers. Let us all find ways to reduce violence in the world.  Ruby says smiling counts, and I am absolutely sure that she is right about that.