The Big Short - A must watch movie

The Big Short

ANONYMOUS - Need your help

This is certainly a very unusual blog post for me, but something was done to me that I can not keep silent about. I was scammed, defrauded and taken for a $4,500 ride. So, besides filing a police report, I don't have a great deal of recourse to get my money back. But I do have the power of the internet, and if nothing else, if I can spare someone else from the same fate, that would be something good coming out of this.

So, I am going to publish all the relevant information I have in the hopes that somehow, one of the hackers from ANONYMOUS will come across this and be willing to put their awesome hacking skills to the use of a stranger's worthwhile cause.

If I could somehow get my $4,500 back, that would be a true Christmas miracle. If not, then just tracking them down and passing the information along to the police to aid in their efforts, would be an awesome holiday present as well. And listen, it doesn't have to be someone from ANONYMOUS, anyone who wants to take on this challenge is most welcome.

So, this is how the scam goes. They email you with a job proposition, in this case, because I am a personal assistant and do things like housekeeping, administration, etc.,  they approached me about cleaning an apartment that are moving into shortly. But first, they need to get the old furniture out and the new furniture in, so they have these local movers and you must pay them on their behalf, be the local "go to" person. So, they mailed me a bank draft, looked totally legit, and I deposited it. Yes, in retrospect, I should have waited for 5 business days to make sure it cleared, but being that I am honest, I tend to think like that and forwarded $4,000 of it to "the movers". There were phone calls and everything looked legit. So I e-transferred it, and yes, 2 days later, I get a phone call from my bank telling me that it was fraudulent and I am on the hook for the $4,500. WTF!?! I don't have that kind of money!! Of course emailed all concerned alerting them to this fact and asking that they rectify the situation, but no one is holding their breath that I will hear back from them. 

So, considering that one of the best ways these con artists have of staying in business, is that they rely on people being too embarrassed to say anything publicly for fear of ridicule or humiliation, well, I am way beyond public criticism and intend to expose these frauds. No doubt these email addresses have long since being discarded, but it's worth a try.

I have also kept all the emails, and there is probably a great deal of information from them that can be found by the right person (hacker) so if you are reading this and think you can/want to help, get in touch and I will provide you with all the emails.

So, the original email came from Ben Julius - benjulius6@gmail.com. The mover, Greg emailed from qualitymovingteam@outlook.com and the payment via e-transfer to them. This Greg also called, but it must be some kind of VOIP at 33751293922

I don't know if anything is going to come of this, but I can put it out there to the universe and let the fates decide. I am not greedy, nor do I want any punitive damages paid, I just want to return the $4,500 to my bank and put this learning experience to good use. If in the process I can help the authorities shut these people down and prevent any further hardship on anyone else, that would be the best possible outcome.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, whoever you are that happened to stumble across this unread blog. :)

We can live sustainably.

Over the course of the last five years, I have been practicing at downsizing, minimalist living and educating myself on my impact due to my living. So when I come across some good information, I like to share it, especially if it promotes low impact living.

To start with, please note that all references are typically American (I will attempt to provide Canadian links).

10 Steps To Get Ready For The Global Ecovillage Movement

Are you tired of stress, anxiety, unhealthy food, chlorinated water, traffic jams, air and noise pollution, paying rent, not having time to pursue your real interests and passions?

Do you want to live a life more in balance with nature? Are you looking for more meaning in your daily life? More real connections with people, time in nature, time to pursue your interests and dreams, fresh food straight from the ground around you, deep sleep at night, bubbling streams and cooing birds?

Living in an ecovillage may just be the antidote to many of the ills of modern urban life. Humans have lived in small settlements with close kin and extended tribal family in tandem with the cycles of nature for hundreds of thousands of years, and some psychologists say that current unprecedented levels of depression, stress, anxiety, drug addiction, and suicide are due to this fundamental disconnect from our past close relationships with each other and with nature.

An ecovillage is an intentional community committed to becoming more sustainable. In practice, this means that the resource inputs for the necessities of living come from local sources and are by and large derived directly from nature in a way that allows nature to perpetually replenish itself and continually supply the needed materials. Ecovillages are also designed using whole systems design principles, to maximize overall quality of life for humans. Check out this great article on ecovillages.

Here’s how to get started making the shift.

1. GROW YOUR COMMUNITY, YOUR CONNECTIONS, YOUR NETWORK.

Solidifying relationships with an extended community of like-minded people is going to pay you back in a multitude of ways, opening up endless possibilities. The more you see other people living out their dreams, the more you will realize that yours are possible. Community can inspire and support you to live your dreams.

2. JOIN THE PROJECT NUEVO MUNDO MOVEMENT!

• Connect with selected impact centers around the world matched to fit your interests and needs, and like-minded people on a search for transformation.
• Participate in the PNM by using the network to find ecovillages and impact centers for work-exchange, trainings and events. (available this winter)
• Attend a fundraising event to meet others in the network
  Re-Inhabiting the Village, November 2nd in Vista, CAEarth Odyssey Fundraiser –
• Engage with us through our Facebook and Twitter
• Supporting our IndieGoGo Campaign for Earth Odyssey 2013
• Contribute $1000 the highest reward to the campaign and we will be your committed support team to get ready for the global ecovillage movement.

Want to know more information? Reach out to us at contact(at)projectnuevomundo.org to find out how we will support your transition into the regenerative villages movement.

3. ACQUIRE THE SKILLS TO BECOME SELF-SUFFICIENT WHILE REDUCING YOUR LIVING COSTS AND TO MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL ON THE LAND.

• Get involved in the production of the food you eat: learn how to grow your own food by connecting to a local community garden or building your own, meet other local gardeners, and put in hours to get experience and vegetables. Check out national community garden databases like American Community Garden Association. Check out a San francisco urban garden map here or learn How to Share a Vegetable Garden.
• Go to local skill shares and connect to your local tool library. Check outhttp://www.skillshare.com/. Check Meetup’s Skill-sharing section. Wikipedia has a global list of tool libraries here to learn sustainable living skills or learn How to Start Your Own Skillshare or Tool Library.
• Experiment with making your own clothing and access opensource sewing onBurdastyle.com or trade clothes in a clothes swap.
• Attend a primitive skills gathering and acquire traditional indigenous skills. CheckMeetup’s Primitive Skils section, with over 30,000 members.
• Make your own bike or buy a used one, and eliminate gas-fueled transportation locally. A simple “DIY Bicycle” search will yield hundreds of results for interesting projects such as Bike Kitchens!
• Start working with your community by sharing resources.

4. START USING SHARING ECONOMY NETWORKS TO EXPAND YOUR PERSONAL NETWORK WITH OTHERS IN THE NEW PARADIGM ECONOMY

• Use Couchsurfing, Warm Showers (for cyclists), AirBnB when staying in new places. Use mealsharing platforms whenever possible, or share your left-overs.
• Use WWOOF, GrowFood, and soon Project Nuevo Mundo to exchange time for meaningful experiences, new skills, room and board.
• Use Dhamma, a Vipassana meditation network of globally linked centers and volunteers, to attend “pay-it-forward” ten-day long meditation courses that teach valuable techniques in understanding your fears, desires, and consumer impulses, and eliminating them by finding internal peace and satisfaction. After attending your first course, volunteer in selfless service for the next retreat.
• Sign up and trade with or create a local timebank or local currency. Exchanges use different websites and systems so search for your town’s name plus the keywords  timebank, time exchange, LETS, barter or local currency.

Create or join a gift circle. Start a Really Really Free Market.

5. IMAGINE YOUR DREAM VILLAGE.

What would it look like? Who would live there? How would you spend your day? Start talking to other people, and see if there are others out there who share a similar vision. Sustainable Ecovillages is a social network to bring people together who have similar visions for building communities and joining Facebook groups like Evolver and Visionary Culture can help you find others who share the same vision. Find a Meetup group near you that shares your interest like !

6. CONNECT TO YOUR LOCAL PERMACULTURE AND SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS, AND DIY/MAKER SPACES

• Use Wiser Earth to connect with local projects and Transition Network to check if your local community has a Transition Town movement, a community led response to climate change. If not, you can start one!
• Search the global database Makerspace and connect with local DIY projects. “Maker spaces are community-operated workspaces where people with common interests can meet, socialize and/or collaborate.” (Source: Wikipedia).
• Visit Permies.com and join a conversation about permaculture.

7. TAKE AT LEAST ONE MONTH TO LIVE IN A REMOTE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY

…or an ecovillage where local production and consumption is still the norm, and understand closed-loop living systems first-hand. Check out organizations like Ecuador’s Yanapuma.

• Decide what kind of skills you would like to learn, and do your own research to find indigenous communities where those skills are prevalent (example: traditional healing with medicinal plants, crafting, hunting). There is currently no single database of indigenous communities that accept homestay, but Project Nuevo Mundo is working on one!
• Explore Living Routes, a program to “Study Abroad in Sustainable Communities

8. FOCUS ON A TRADE OR MASTER CRAFT.

Discover your passion in life. What makes you energized and enthusiastic? What brings out your creative burst? Gain experience by doing, and by apprenticing with a master or teacher who has successfully based their livelihood on the craft you desire to master, preferably something a community might need or want.

9. LEARN AND PRACTICE COMMUNICATION SKILLS.

• Practice “holding space” – The idea is to allow someone to express themselves without the pressures of being judged or being told that they need to ‘improve’. This might run contrary to the labels we give to the ‘conscious’ or ‘sharing’ movement– we often believe that we need to ‘change’ people in order to bring them into the movement.
• Set aside our personal desires and our need to ‘improve’ those around us. We may find ourselves guided by our collective purpose.
• Holocracy or Non-Violent Communication provide structures for good communication. Check out Holocracy.org’s post on “Differentiating Organization & Tribe”,
• Trying to focus on the collective purpose rather than individual needs allows a circle “to be more driven by its own unique purpose in life, like a child developing its own identity and goals beyond those of its parents.”
• Find a local circle to participate in that brings intention to communication– non-violent communication circles, gifting circles,
• Identifying yourself as an impartial ‘facilitator’ during a house meeting with your roommates.

Read more about collective decision making – “How to Make Better Decisions Together.”

10. CHECK OUT PNM’S RECOMMENDED READING LIST, AND DIVE IN!

• Permaculture: An Introduction to Permaculture, Bill Mollison.Gaia’s Garden, Toby Hemenway. The Backyard Homestead, Carleen Madigan.
• Natural Building: The Hand-Sculpted House, Ianto Evans. Earthbag Building, Kaki Hunter & Donald Kiffmeyer.
• Ecological Economics: Small is Beautiful, EF Schumacher. The Steady State Economy, Herman Daly. Natural Capitalism, Amory Lovins. Sacred Economics, Charles Eisenstein.
• The Fifth Sacred Thing, Starhawk.
• Always Coming Home, Ursula K. Le Guin.
• Ishmael, Daniel Quinn.

Written by Marty of www.valhallamovement.com

Time to put it into action - T.H.O.W. build

Well, it's time to put things into action. Not sure how, now sure about a great many things, but I know that once I put it out into the universe it will come together. With that in mind, it has been decided that it's time to start putting together the resources to build our Tiny Home On Wheels (T.H.O.W.)

These T.H.O.W. are the property of their rightful owners, I am merely using the images for those readers that might be unfamiliar with the T.H.O.W concept.

We haven't settled on a floor plan yet, need to get other things in place first. Like securing a build site. We have the property to place it on when completed, but living in the city and shipping resources 4 hours away, isn't feasible. We want to re-purpose and reuse and be as carbon negative as possible. The THOW will be completely off grid, and made from as much of the 3 R's as possible. 

First we need a space big enough and as far removed from residential areas as possible. Like the back parking lot of a suburban hardware big box store.

Then a flat bed trailer and separately a shipping container to place the materials needed.

Then gather the needed resources and start assembling.

I have no idea how long all this will take. Or how much it will cost. I have seen nice THOW that are roughly 8ft wide x 15ft long, or some that are around 175 sq/ft and they range in price from a few thousand dollars to 15-20 thousand and up. Most of the cost is dependent on how much the owner can do themselves and how much of the material they can reuse and recycle and so on.

We would rather take it slower and gather good quality materials that will be built to last, rather than slap together something half properly done. This THOW will be living in northern Ontario where winters are no small matter and will have to last a few years until we gather the resources to build our Earthship.

So, having taken the weekend long workshop on THOW building with Tumbleweed Homes, having seen countless examples of how it can be done, it is now time to start putting it together.

Stay tuned for updates and related news. The movement is reaching critical mass.

If you'd like to contribute to our fundraising campaign - T.H.O.W. Fundraising

Capitalism is just a story

Freedom - Are you a Freedom Seeker? (Full Movie)

My awesome friend, Lawrence!

Tool Libraries: We Are Richer When We Share | Law…: http://youtu.be/A8_pWKSn0cI