Nothing but the Truth!

By Will Power

January
23, 2009 (San Diego's East County) — Arnold “Terminator” Swartzenegger,
the cinema millionaire, thinks it is amusing to cut payments to the elderly,
the poor and the disabled. To the Terminator, these folks are just props in
a California comedy that has degenerated from melodrama to tragedy as the state
approaches bankruptcy.

Trouble keeping resolutions?

By Penelope Young Andrade

February 1, 2009 (San Diego) — Are you having trouble keeping your New Year's
Resolutions? For many, February finds you slinking back to old habits. You
hate and berate yourself for being ˜weak willed" but can't find a way to resist
temptation. The problem, typically, is not that you're weak willed, but rather
that you haven't found a way to use your will skillfully.

By Penelope Andrade

January, 2009 (San Diego) — Is your past getting in the way of your future? Like
most of us you've probably based your notions of the future on what has happened
to you in the past. That's human nature. Your subconscious mind is designed
to operate that way. That's how you learned to avoid hot stoves or angry dogs
even if you weren't aware that's what you were learning. However, if
you want to transform your life now, you'll need to open up to a future free
of the past. Fortunately, as an evolving human, you have tools for this. You
have a potential for consciousness bigger than any sub or unconscious programming.
You also have the will to move your awareness wherever you choose--as long
as you practice!

(Leon Thompson)

4090 Adams Avenue
Kensington, CA 92116
619-255-4167
www.blueboheme.com

January 10, 2009 (Kensington) — Is there life east of I-15? Oui, and great food too. I've shown you world-class Mexican food, neighborhood sushi, continental cuisine in Alpine. Now the crème-de-la-creme: fabulous French food in an unpretentious casual restaurant called Bleu Bohème!

The atmosphere transports you to a long-ago French countryside. The feeling is like being in an ancient limestone and wood-beamed roadhouse filled with great food and grog for the long distance traveler. The banquet room conjures images of wine and revelry. At least that's my take on the place. I kept expecting a huge roasted pig with an apple in its mouth served on a platter. But then I have a vivid imagination.

Top 5 IT Mistakes Small Businesses Make

By Michael Natter

It
is deceptively easy to see what the five top small business mistakes in IT
are. They are pervasive, recurring and everywhere!

Typical small businesses mistakes include:

Your guide to profitable and socially responsible investing

By Judith L. Seid, CFP ®

By now you've probably heard about the $50 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard Madoff, a New York City broker, former head of the NASDAQ stock exchange. 

 

What did he do?  He allegedly collected money to invest from clients, made up false statements to show that they were doing well, and used new clients' money to pay interest and withdrawals to existing clients.  This is known as a Ponzi scheme and is estimated to involve more than a $50 billion loss for his investors.  This is one of several recent high-profile cases of advisors and/or managers absconding with funds entrusted to them by their clients.  Maddof held his clients' assets, managed them, and priced them, too.  See the conflicts of interest?  Investment performance can look better if the prices reported to clients are manipulated, which is allegedly how Madoff showed winning year after winning year despite market turmoil. 

By Janelle Eckardt

January
1, 2008 (San Diego) —  There is no denying that the oversaturation
of bright lights, holiday music, and the overabundance of sales successfully
lures us into shopping every year for that one special thing we may have written
off as excessive two months ago, but that is suddenly now budding into a necessity.
And while that glorious gadget that will simultaneously style your hair and
reorganize your PDA is still out-of-stock in January, you may consider marrying
your urge to boost the economy with the interest to provide a true necessity
for someone special in your life. Whether you're shopping for someone you know
or for yourself this year, it pays to be on top of all the new and exciting
adaptive technology coming out daily. So look out Burp-Me-Elmo, I'm highlighting
some of the best sources and products sure to bring lasting smiles long after
the holiday season.

Nothing but the Truth!

By Will Power

December
4, 2008 (San Diego) — The profitable is the enemy of the good. Nowhere
is this more true than in U.S. health care.  I’ve spent the last
two days on the phone with my Senators, Congressmen, the NIH and the FDA. I'm
rattling some cages!

By Sylvia Hampton

As I write this, my daughter’s relative by marriage and close friend
is in a Los Angeles hospital intensive care unit fighting for her life at age
46. The family told my daughter the following story:

“Peggy” (not her real name) had been feeling ill for some time
with abdominal pain that her doctor thought was from the uterine fibroids they
knew she had. The doctor was considering a hysterectomy to correct the problem.
When her pain and complaints worsened she was told to take ibuprofen. This
did not help and when she later could not get a call-back from the doctor,
in frustration, she increased the dose herself to a dangerous level. The pain
got so bad after a day or two that she ended up in the emergency room where
she was diagnosed with diverticulitis, an inflammation of the colon, which
was missed during the earlier office visit. Did she have an elevated temperature?
Was that checked?

Nothing but the Truth!

By Will Power

December
1, 2008 (San Diego) — When I was about five years old, my father
was a US Air Force Officer. He was involved in a Court-Martial in Wichita ,
Kansas. It seemed a considerable number of US Army blankets went missing, and
several airmen were charged with stealing the blankets and selling them off
the base. I don't even remember the disposition, though I recollect nobody
was found guilty.

Gratitude for Hard Times

By Penelope Young Andrade LCSW

Are you grateful for hard times?  Although you may welcome reminders to be grateful, you probably don’t strive to be grateful FOR hard times themselves.  If you’re like most of us, hard times are something you wish would pass as fast as possible. The problem is that hard times are usually your best teachers and provide profound gifts. Giving thanks for dark times is often a prerequisite for receiving these blessings.

By Richard Noel

Orfila employee Dolores Castaneda pours a generous taste for Shari Zollo (right) of Vista, who enjoyed the festivities with Barbara Deuel and Drea Zollo Bush (both of Oceanside).

“Oh yes, it’s Eighties night!”

For all those who still wear their sunglasses at night, you could have worn
them to Orfila Vineyards’ tasting room as the crew kept the doors open
late on October 23rd for a special evening of uncorked fun.  With a 1980s
music theme, wine club members and other visitors enjoyed listening to blasts
from the past while sipping the Escondido winery’s latest hits.  Tasting
room manager Benjamin Wier put together what may be the first of many more
late-night events to come, and pulled it off with the flair of a high school
reunion. 

VOTER’S WATCHDOG - Be a Good Citizen: Vote!

By Penelope Young Andrade, LCSW, guest columnist

Are you ready to be a good citizen? Like many of us, you may have some trouble
naming your Congressperson, or knowing the number of your Congressional district.
No blame. It’s easy to get caught in demands at home or work and forget
that one of your most important relationships is with your government – community,
city, state, and national.

By Billie Jo Jannen

Once upon a time, our power in many parts east of the line, was provided by
a cooperative formed, as many were in the wake of the New Deal, using both
local resources and a loan from the Rural Electrification Administration.

Between 1935 and the early 1970s, Mountain Empire Rural Electric Cooperative
built over 1,000 miles of power lines to serve remote places east of populated
areas then served by the growing for-profit company, San Diego Gas and Electric.