From: Calvin from Simplero <calvin@simplero.com>
Subject: News from Simplero: Alignment, taxes, finger update, and other fun stuff

Hi Lovely Simplerista,

This has been another insane week, in a good way.

More singing, more mixing of drinks, way more jokes.

And tomorrow and Friday, we're going to be doing photo shoots for first me, then Phoebe, so the past few days we've been shopping for the perfect clothes for the shoots. Phoebe really liked me in this blue velvet suit.

And I really feel like sharing this:

When you feel that flow and intuition, and the Universe hands you an opportunity on a silver platter - take it. Don't hesitate. Take it. I always feel the fear, and that voice inside that says "ah, I'll do it another day". It's when I don't listen to it, when I feel the fear and do it anyway, that big magical things happen.

I can't share too many details right now, but suffice it to say that something that was way up there on my dream manifestation list has suddenly become a reality.

Update on the finger

You may remember that I almost cut the tip off of my left ring finger two weeks ago while chopping red bell pepper. Bad bad idea. Not recommended.

Thursday morning, the wound had opened back up, so I went back in to the hospital as they'd instructed me to. That was a ridiculous experience. They were almost berating me for coming, saying they couldn't stitch it back up now, it was too late. It reminded me of when I'd go to see the doctor with my kids. There were always only two options: Antibiotics, or no antibiotics. That's pretty much it. Here it was stitches or no stitches. They even managed to completely botch a simple dressing of the wound with steri-strips and gauze :)

Western medicine is so ridiculously limited, compared to the ancient systems of China and India. We have all this technology, and they're essentially expensive crutches, when we could just realize we have legs and start walking. We have everything we need to heal within us. Well-being is a matter of getting the life force to flow freely. Laughter, happiness, release, movement, feeling our feelings, intention, energy, those are the things that heal, and our intuitions guide us to the answers we need.

And yet, our medical system always reverts to just a handful of interventions, and basically don't know what they're doing. They even tried to prescribe me antibiotics "just in case".

This whole instance has just confirmed us in our decision not to get US health care. It would be about $7200 per year for the both of us, for the highest deductible, for a system that we simply cannot see any practical.

I'll get off of my soapbox now.

And say that I'm truly amazed at the healing power of the human body. It knows what it's doing, even if our medical system generally does not.

New Features in Simplero

The big new feature this week is a complete revamp of the way we handle taxes. Originally our tax logic was very EU-centric. The EU calls it VAT, andhas weird and complicated rules for when the VAT do and don't apply, and whether the VAT rate is based on your home country or your customers' home country. Most of the rest of the world don't work that way.

In many other countries, on the other hand, the tax rate does depend on the state, province, territory, or region within a country that your customer is in. That was something we weren't able to handle before, but now we are.

And finally, you're now able to name the tax yourself, so you can call it "GST" or "QST" or "sales tax" or "moms" or whatever is appropriate given the situation.

So if our lack of ability to properly handle taxes in your country has been a hindrance so far, it's time to give Simplero another shot.

This upgrade also makes us ready for the upcoming even-more-complicated changes to how EU VAT works. Go government bureaucracy!

Random links from around the interwebs

This article titled "Swimming Through Garbage" chronicles just how awful the situation in our oceans really is. Folks, what we've done to this planet in the past several decades really sucks.

John Oliver's coverage of the US drone program is funny, well-made, and terribly terribly frightening. John Oliver is one of the best comedians of the time. He's not afraid of taking up massively important, difficult, and controversial topics, and give us the truth with a good amount of humor thrown in. It's why I love comedy. Way back from the days of the court jester, comedians have been the ones that were able to speak the truth and get away with it. Most of the time at least.

Malcom Gladwell's story about how he ruined his best friend's wedding is hilarious. (I dined at the table next to him last week too - gotta love New York!) Hat tip to Lauren for the pointer.

With love,
-Calvin