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Recently I was sent a ScanSnap device to review and basically kick its tires. Being that my core background is Graphic / Web Design I think they picked the right person to review this cute li'l compact desktop scanner. First off, it is very cute in size and if this thing comes in more colors than metallic grey... let's just say it now "double WOW".

Let's be frank. Jewelers are genius when it comes to making us believe that we should pay 5X mark-up. Being a business owner and entrepreneur I didn't want to just be a consumer when it came to the diamond buying process. I wanted to be educated, savvy and spendy!

Did you know that the term Indian Summer, which usually occurs in late-October to mid-November, is associated with warm temperatures exceeding 70 degrees ferinheight after the occurrence of a sharp cold frost? Fascinating!

On the San Francisco Peninsula and throughout the Bay Area we tend to always get an opportunity to enjoy a late rise in temperatures. Enjoying our outdoor living space is extended for at least another month and we don’t have to completely retire our outdoor furniture and B-B-Q. Fortunately enough, most of us on the Mid-Peninsula, near Redwood City, enjoy an awesome annual average temperature of 68 degrees ferinheight. Redwood City’s slogan is “Best by Government Test”. No, Redwood City is not referring to Area 51 type of testing, but an outcome of the beautiful average temperature that occurs year round in the heart of San Francisco Peninsula.

Most people don’t know the story of Redwood City being the working man’s back bone of San Francisco as the port shipped barges of milled redwood trees up the San Francisco Bay. The wood shipped on these barges is what helped build homes throughout San Francisco’s Richmond and Sunset Districts. Ironically enough, the homes in Menlo Park, Redwood City, Palo Alto and the surrounding cities were actually built as summer homes for wealthy San Franciscan’s and Orchard Farmers.

Those of who live on the San Francisco Peninsula are acutely aware of the micro climates and the need to have a wind breaker in the car at all times or a hooded sweatshirt at the very least. For those of who live in San Mateo, we know that the Indian Summer is a warm welcome. The marine fog layer that is accompanied by steady 30mph winds temporarily dissipates and the 80 lb. outdoor umbrella stand is of practically no use.

None the less the summer of 2011 has been delivered with strange weather and while most of us on the San Francisco Peninsula have been confused as to whether or not our outdoor furniture should stay uncovered. It’s suggested that you just stick with Hardwood Teak Outdoor furniture. This way no matter the season, your outdoor living space is ready for enjoyment all year round. Teak furniture is really affordable when you consider it’s life cycle. Wouldn’t you rather have a $300 hardwood teak outdoor chair for 25 years versus a $30 plastic resin chair (that shouldn’t be left out in the sun- UV rays make these chairs brittle) for 2 years.

Here is to the prospect and hope of a wonderful Indian Summer in 2011 and the opportunity to “Step outside and enjoy yourself” – Tom Haid.

Menlo Park CA  – Just weeks after the California Legislature passed a law requiring Amazon.com to start collecting sales tax on items shipped to the state, the corporation is attempting to negate the law via a statewide ballot measure.
 
Amazon dismissed all of its in-state affiliates that send traffic to Amazon in return for commissions, but the move is “purely a bullying tactic,” said Jeff Milchen, co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA). “The Amazon Corporation has facilities and employees in at least seven California cities, any one of which constitutes a physical presence and now obliges them to collect sales tax.”
 
AMIBA has gathered information (http://tinyurl.com/canexus) on Amazon’s wholly-owned subsidiaries in 19 states across the country (the corporation collects sales tax in five). In California, these include A9 in Palo Alto, A2Z and Alexa in San Francisco, and the Internet Movie Database in Los Angeles.
 
Amazon filed initial paperwork to pursue a ballot measure last week. While the company would easily spend more than $1 million just to gather the half-million valid signatures required to place an item on a statewide ballot, that may be a small price to pay for maintaining the 9% - 10% handicap it currently enjoys at the expense of brick and mortar businesses that long have collected sales tax on all in-state sales.
 
Amazon’s opponents range from mom and pop retailers to titans like Walmart Corporation -- no stranger to using initiatives to attempt reversing laws its executives don’t like. Milchen notes Walmart often has used ballot initiatives -- theoretically the purest form of democracy -- to serve its own corporate interests, such as defeating restrictions on big box development in California communities.
 
While independent businesses typically have little common interest with big box chains, they’ve become allies toward leveling the playing field when it comes to sales taxes. “All we seek is fair competition--something antithetical to Amazon’s business model,” said Clark Kepler, president on Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park.
 
“Victimizing web-based merchants who have invested in referring sales to Amazon is pure thuggery,” said Kepler. “For years, Amazon claimed they were helping many small businesses through offering referral fees, but now they’ve stabbed affiliates in the back in a failed attempt to intimidate California’s lawmakers.” Kepler noted many companies that willingly collect sales tax are ready to provide affiliation deals for the people Amazon dumped.
 
Incredibly, Amazon.com executives have cited jobs as a reason citizens should continue the effective subsidy for the world’s largest online retailer. “In fact,” noted Milchen, “storefront businesses employ many more people per sales dollar, meaning thousands of new jobs could be created in California by ending the Amazon sales tax exemption if fewer people purchase online once the playing field is leveled.”
 
See http://www.amiba.net/resources/news-archive/amazon-nexus-subsidiaries (shortcut: http://tinyurl.com/canexus) for a wide array of background resources, including documentation of jobs statistics by the National Retail Federation, scholarly articles, and more. Jeff Milchen has written at length on the remote sales tax dispute for Bloomberg-BusinessWeek.

All small businesses are having a heck of a time in this economic climate. Trying to remain relevant to our customers is amongst our most important goals. That feels especially true when the product or service you offer can be digitized and sold for less on the internet. Where our competitors often do not collect state sales tax, giving them nearly a 10% pricing advantage from the get-go.

So what to do? Innovate. Try new things to earn revenue. We've done something at my business, Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, that we hope will improve our sales and may be of special interest to PS members as well. Recently, we carved out an events area in the back of the store where the kids section used to be. We are holding almost all of our author events there, offering a more intimate and nicer experience for attendees and speaker alike. We ask that the attendees purchase a $10 gift card for entry which they can redeem that day towards the purchase of the author’s book, or for anything else any other time in the future. Entry remains free to our Literary Circle members. We are calling this space The Roy Kepler Pavilion, named for my father and Kepler's founder.

We are also making the Pavilion available to small businesses and local organizations as an inexpensive venue for their meetings, trainings, events, seminars etc. The space accommodates very small groups as well as groups up to 100 people.

Call me if you're interested!

Clark Kepler

Kepler's Books

(650) 462-5506 ext 208

So the news is big right?

Some may ask, what news are you exactly talking about. I am talking about it all. If it weren't for gossip, news and information this world would practically be silent. Just a few hawks screeching in the sky and a band of bongos banging in the background of the near by village. Let's face it, most of the news we hear, create or "enjoy" is actually propaganda designed to stimulate interest in a cause, person, product or commodity. To put it metaphorically, the wind doesn't make a sound without any disruptive elements.

Let's examine this blog piece for example. I love being heard and letting people know that I am a smart person. Writing publicly is more than a simple intention to venting my emotions about why we are fools or sheep being led by the herd. Shameless possibly, self righteous considerably, independent thinker.. ABSOLUTELY.  This post really is designed to promote myself and build traffic to my website so that people may actually employ my services as a professional marketing consultant and / or graphic web designer. So what if my grammar isn't always correct and my insight may be slightly delusional, you're still reading this post aren't you?

Another example of propaganda was the capture/murder of Mr. Bin Laden. The White House Decided to interrupt my Sunday evening watching of CBS television 60 minutes. I was enjoying learning about the most beautiful horse on the Planet Zenyatta and BAM .... "President Obama will be making an important announcement". I knew it was war related, but really the death of Obama Bin Laden... oooops wait sorry I am not Fox News. Let me restate. The death of Osama Bin Laden made world headlines sunday night, but you wanna know what I think? I think Osama was actually dead for many years. Like 8 years, when G Dubyah Bush stated "mission accomplished". Why else would you wait so long to kill him other than propaganda. It was after all exactly 8 years after G Dubyah's "mission accomplished" announcement.

As you can see, I just created news out of nothing all in the name of self-promotion and keeping myself alive. Promoting myself is after all what keeps me alive. How else do you expect me to pay my bills and enjoy Taco Trucks in Redwood City.

As a self proclaimed foodie and creative soul – I am a nature photographer as well as a wife, Mom and adoption coach, I have noticed an odd trend in some of the pairings showing up.

The incongruity of some of the things that have shown up in my life as of late. Take for example the mail today, as I sifted through the envelopes, magazines and packages – there arrived both yet another invitation to join AARP and also my 6 year old daughter’s Highlights magazine.

A few days ago, I was also noticing how odd it was that the shopping cart held both a new pair of reading glasses for me and toys for Ariel.

It almost feels as if I am leading two lives – that of a middle aged woman creeping ever so slowly into the transitional time of menopause. And then the every day reality of being the Mom to a first grader. How do those two life stages match up?

I am also sorting out how it feels to have my insides, my passionate, energetic, silly me inside not always be reflected by what I see in the mirror. I know I “look good for my age” and yet the effects of living for 51-1/2 years have begun to show in the softening of the skin of my neck, little brown spots I cannot really convince myself are freckles on the back of my hands. The soft lines outlining the outsides of my eyes grown there from many happy smiles over the years.

So all this to say I have as many questions as answers. I am figuring out this life one day at a time as I guess all of us are.

We adopted our beautiful daughter at birth a little over six years ago.  I have also worked in the adoption field as an Adoption Coach/Mentor and have read numerous books on the subject of adoption and parenting. 

While I am forever deeply grateful to Ariel's birth mother for her selfless and loving gift of the child we are blessed to raise, most days I go about my days being just "her mommy".

It was recently when Ariel had some mild medical issues that needed addressing that I realized that there are some differences in parenting Ariel that I had not really thought about day to day. First of all, in accessing what was wrong, I needed to contact her birth family (we have an open adoption so that was not a problem) and ask if any other members of the family had had the issues we were dealing with.

Then I realized that I was trying to over parent, be Super Woman, Super Mommy - not just for my daughter but to quiet this inner voice within me that I had to do MORE because this child was mine due to the sacrifices of others.  This soon created a lot of panic and anxiety on my part.

If not due to a long standing meditation and mindfulness practice, I may have really burnt myself out with my over zealousness.  I was sick for the past week - the one benefit of being forced to be quiet and still was that I had a chance to get off the usual never ending go, go, go of life and see what was happening.  And to make a choice to calm myself and know from a deep place that I was enough and that I was doing the right things for my girl.

Last night during Hometown Peninsula's monthly meeting, the topic of a meaning place was discussed.