On This Thanksgiving Week Here in the United States....

We are "going dark" for the Week.  We wanted to share this courtesy of the team at the Story of Stuff that is a nice plea to all Ordinary Faces as we gear up for the Holiday Season--

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

 

However you celebrate, the holiday season provides an opportunity express gratitude for what we have and to spend time with the ones we love. But for years, retailers have been trying to write a new story for the holidays, one that puts presents before presence. Instead of expressing our love by doing stuff with our families, corporations want us to keep buying Stuff for them. 

But this consumer frenzy has serious consequences for the planet, and is turning the holidays into a time of stress and anxiety.

That's why we're sharing these tips for a simpler holiday season:

1. Participate in Buy Nothing Day on November 24. Take the pledge to avoid crowded malls on the busiest shopping day of the year, and invite your friends to do the same!
2. Start a conversation about Stuff. Talk with your friends and family about where our Stuff comes from and where it goes – and the impacts on people and the planet along the way. Sharing The Story of Stuff movie on social media is a great icebreaker!
3. Give a non-material gift like event tickets, membership to a local museum, or a charitable donation in someone's name. 
4. Gift something home-made or second-hand like baked goods, upcycled art, or quality used items.
5. Volunteer with a local charity or community organization – and bring your friends along, too.
6. Make a plan to relax. Holiday obligations and activities can leave us with little time to truly recharge. Set aside some time to get out into nature or to simply curl up with a good book.
7. Give the gift of an empty mailbox with Catalog Choice. This free website operated by The Story of Stuff Project can help you cancel unwanted catalogs and other junk mail. Sign up and get started now!

Check out hundreds more ideas for a simpler holiday season on our "Un-Stuff Your Holiday" Pinterest board. Or, read 15 commercial-free holiday tips for families from our friends at New Dream.

Notations From the Grid (Weekly Edition): Some "Food 4 Thought".....

As we prepare to go dark throughout our properties thru Thanksgiving here in the United States, please enjoy this "from the Grid" with notes for us all:

12 habits of lucky people:

1 hard working
2 highly optimistic
3 passionately teach others
4 consistently generous
5 show up on time
6 love to volunteer
7 stay teachable
8 show gratitude
9 unselfishly promote others
10 seek random collisions
11 welcoming and kind
12 trustworthy

— Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) November 12, 2017

..and we close with this lesson in leadership we picked up keeping tabs on our founder's personal Twitter Feed:

Right on @LinkedIn as CEO Takes Selfie At Employee's Desk. Here's Why It's Viral https://t.co/rMux5ROKwD

— Mike Pouraryan (@mikepouraryan) November 15, 2017

From our family to yours....Happy thanksgiving to all!!!

Notations On Our World (Weekly Edition): On #Ethics in Our World

As a week dawns,  we are pleased to feature this courtesy of the team at Transparency International in the aftermath of revelations due to the Paradise Papers:

This week, the Paradise Papers released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its partners, showed us how the rich and powerful are able to hide and hoard their wealth through complex and opaque financial structures. The sheer volume of the Paradise Papers documents (13.4 million in all) hints at a vast, secret parallel financial universe where the reporting requirements that the rest of us are subject to do not apply. Public figures, such as the Queen and US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, are shown to have hidden offshore investments, while companies involved include household names such as Apple, Nike and Uber. You might think: “So what? This isn’t necessarily illegal.” Well, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned. The documents show that even the compliance manager at offshore law firm Appleby found plenty to worry about, like large amounts of money that were “definitely tainted”, and proceeds of alleged corruption infiltrating the business. They reveal activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo by mining giant Glencore, which appears to have secured under-valued extraction licenses with the help of a powerful lobbyist that it loaned $45million to.   The documents also reveal how the company that manages Angola’s sovereign wealth fund used this money to finance its other projects. And how Kazakhstan’s former oil minister built up a vast personal fortune obscured behind a labyrinthine network of companies held by a corporation called Meridian. “This was possible, in part, thanks to Kazakhstan’s notorious corruption and weak rule of law,” write the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. “But it was the Meridian founders’ exploitation of the international financial system that enabled them to hide their riches from the eyes of their own people.” That’s the problem here, and that’s why we’re calling for tougher controls on the offshore financial markets. Secrecy can lead to corruption, and the kinds of structures exposed in the Paradise Papers are the tools of the trade that the corrupt use to launder their ill-gotten gains. News from Transparency International #Paradisepapers: Time to clean up the offshore financial havens  ‘Paradise Papers’ show how the rich and powerful around the world are able to avoid paying tax and keep their business dealings secret. The mechanisms they use can also benefit the corrupt, and must be made more transparent. Transparency International warns climate summit to demand accountability to prevent corruption In our latest report we analyse progress made by four key multilateral climate funds: Although progress has been made to increase transparency, accountability and integrity policies, there is still more to be done. Corruption in the news this week Latest Stories European Union: MEPs probing 'private' expenses oppose transparency EUobserver (11 November, TI mention)MEPs leading a probe into how members of the parliament spend millions of euros of taxpayers' money opposed transparency moves to make the same funds public and accountable. Saudi Arabia: How the Saudi Arabia corruption crackdown will play out The Guardian (10 November)On the face of it, nothing much in Saudi Arabia has changed as a result of the sweeping crackdown last weekend. But scratch the surface, and it soon becomes apparent that everything has changed for the kingdom’s business and economic elite, some of whom opposed the reform plans. Global: Ex-SBM executives plead guilty in U.S. to Petrobras bribe charges Reuters (9 November)Two former executives at Dutch oil services company SBM Offshore NV have pleaded guilty to U.S. charges that they participated in a scheme to bribe officials at three foreign state-run oil companies, including Brazil’s Petrobras. Israel: Police complete fifth questioning of PM Netanyahu in corruption probes The Jerusalem Post (9 November)Police questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the fifth time on Thursdayover his involvement in corruption cases 1000 and 2000. In Case 1000, the “gifts affair,” it is suspected that Netanyahu accepted expensive gifts from different businessmen. Focus on: Paradise Papers Global: What to know about the 'Paradise Papers' leak TIME (6 November) Global: Paradise Papers: Apple shifted billions offshore to avoid tax DW (7 November, TI mention) Blog/Opinion Global: Why aren't the streets full of protest about the Paradise Papers? The Guardian (10 November) USA: Commerce Secretary offshores his ethics Bloomberg (6 November)

On the Eve of #VeteransDay2017

Our hometown, Laguna Niguel, will honor Veterans Day on Saturday November 11 as our hometown honors all who have served:

One of our Community Leaders, Lt. Col Shep Bentley, USMC (Ret). reflected upon this day which will be read by the Scouts of Troop 772 on Saturday November 11:

VETERANS DAY 2017

Veterans Day is a U.S. legal holiday dedicated to American veterans of
all wars. 99 years ago, in 1918, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the
11th month, an armistice (“ARM-ISS- STISS”), or temporary end of the
fighting, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in
World War I, which at the time was called “the Great War.”
The Treaty of Versailles (“VUR-SEYE”) was signed on June 28, 1919,
marking the official end of World War I. Still, the armistice date of
November 11, 1918, was remembered as the date that marked the end
of the conflict, because that is when the bloodshed stopped.

One year later, in November 1919, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day.
The day’s observation included parades and public gatherings, as well
as a brief pause in business and school activities at 11 a.m.
On November 11, 1921, an unidentified American soldier killed in the
war was buried at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.
On the same day the previous year, unidentified soldiers were laid to
rest at Westminster Abbey in London, and at the Arc de Triomphe
(“TREE-OMFF”) in Paris.

On June 4, 1926, Congress passed a resolution that the “recurring
anniversary of November 11, 1918 should be commemorated with
thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace
through good will and mutual understanding between nations,” and that
the president should issue an annual proclamation calling for the
observance of Armistice Day.

By that time, 27 state legislatures had made November 11 a legal
holiday. An act approved May 13, 1938 made November 11 a legal
Federal holiday, “dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be
hereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day.'”
American effort during World War II saw the greatest mobilization of the
U.S. Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force in the nation’s history (more
than 16 million people), and nearly six million more served in
the Korean War.

In 1954, after lobbying efforts by veterans’ service organizations, the
83rd U.S. Congress amended the 1938 act that had made Armistice
Day a holiday, striking the word “Armistice” in favor of “Veterans.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the legislation on June 1, 1954.
From then on, November 11 became a day to honor American veterans
of all wars.

A century ago today, American forces were still battling against vast
numbers of the enemy in the First World War. Alive with us today are
veterans of the Second World War, Korea, Viet Nam, the Cold War, the
Gulf Wars and the War on Terror.

In Laguna Niguel, we observe Veterans Day as a tribute to our citizens
that have stepped up to defend our nation and its way of life by serving
in the Armed Forces of the United States of America. Please help us as
the Boy Scouts to carry forward this tradition and to salute them today!

In Honor of this day, we will be "dark" through this Veterans Day Week-End with only daily updates available on our Twitter Feed.

Happy Veterans Day!!!

Out & About in our Community....

Members of our team were around town over the weekend as we supported the Annual Scouting For Food Campaign sponsored by the Orange County Council of the Boy Scouts of America.  Our team produced a Visual Essay on this day of service:







Over 41,000 Lbs were raised in support of the work done by the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County.

We leave you with this from Teddy Roosevelt as we hope all enjoy all the Notations released for the week:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man (or woman) stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man (or woman) who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself (or herself) in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he (or she) fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his (or her) place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

View of the Week (Weekly Edition): On An Alternative View on the Trump Presidency

This is a sampling of the latest on  how Ordinary Faces are resisting the Trump Presidency courtesy of the Guardian of London from the President's Twitter Account being shut down to other protests as the President travels in Asia was interesting.  Please note what the Woman Cyclist did was quite poignant:

The Resistance Now: Twitter worker who turned off Trump hailed as hero

The president’s account went dark for 11 hushed minutes, but experts say the rogue worker could face prosecution. Plus: Trump’s forthcoming tour of Asia met with protests in Seoul

Trump’s Twitter account: bye bye Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Mark Oliver and Amanda Holpuch in New York

Resistor of the week Will the rogue Twitter worker who disabled Trump’s account face hacking charges? For 11 hushed minutes on Thursday, many got to read the words they had waited to see since last November: “@realDonaldTrump does not exist”.

He’s back already, but I’m saving this picture as a reminder of the one good minute of 2017 pic.twitter.com/S7Sm1VVTAX — David Pierce (@pierce) November 2, 2017

It wasn’t fake news. It wasn’t even a glitch. A rogue worker, who was reportedly a contractor, at Twitter pulled the plug on the hyperactive president on Thursday evening on his or her last day of work. The internet erupted with social media users hailing the departing staffer as a hero – but the incident has raised new concerns about security at Twitter, and legal experts have begun speculating that the rogue worker could be prosecuted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. However, this area of law is messy, with courts around the country coming up with contradictory rulings. Read more at The Hill. You don’t need to speak Korean to understand this protest sign

South Korean protesters in Seoul stage a rally to oppose a planned visit by Donald Trump. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP

Protesters held up signs outside the US embassy in Seoul this week, ahead of Donald Trump’s tour of Asia which will take him through Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. Amid the nuclear warfare tensions with North Korea, it may be some relief to his hosts, and the world at large, that Trump has eschewed the trip to the the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) because it is “a cliche”.

Korean American leaders caution Trump: be the adult to Kim's wayward child Read more

Trump will, though, meet the South’s left-leaning president, Moon Jae-in, who has – according to our correspondents in the region – “attempted to make good on a campaign pledge in May to seize the diplomatic initiative on North Korea from Washington”. Read more analysis of the country-by country scenarios facing Trump on his tour in this guide by Justin McCurry in Tokyo, Tom Phillips in Beijing and Oliver Holmes in Bangkok

Hail to the chief: cyclist gives Trump the middle finger

A woman on a bike gestures with her middle finger as Trump’s motorcade drives by. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

As The Guardian’s David Smith put it in his dispatch last Saturday: The president of the United States is used to being saluted, but a cyclist in Virginia put her own particular slant on the tradition on Saturday when she was overtaken by Donald Trump’s motorcade. The woman on her bike was photographed raising her middle finger when Trump’s vehicles passed her on their way out from the Trump National Golf Club on the banks of the Potomac river, on the outskirts of Washington DC. She repeated the gesture when she caught up with the motorcade.  Micah White, one of the co-creators of Occupy Wall Street, wrote about learning that a Russian private intelligence firm exploited him in propaganda. Then, White said, the American media wanted him to play the victim and hush his revolution message.

Thought For the Week