Is Your Home an Asset or Liability?

Is Your Home an Asset or Liability? It depends on some of the other things that you leverage about your home.

If all you do is use your home to sleep in and store a bunch of stuff you don't use in productive ways then yes a home is not all that good a deal compared to a rental.

We had to sell our home after piling up debt due to medical bills and loss of my job so we are renting again. The thing is we lost a number of things that we could do with our home we cannot do in an apartment.

The major thing is that we no longer have any capability to grow our food. We had a huge garden that was a major supplement to our grocery bill and tasted way better too.

Another thing was that we could process the food we grew or bought from the farmer's market. We helped my nephews family can about 6 bushels of apples at their house. We had a station for cleaning and cutting apples, another to cook them, another to process into applesauce and finally another to do the actual canning process for putting up. The kitchen in our apartment is so laughably small two people can't do anything together in there. Doing applesauce would have taken forever as only one person could do anything in our pathetic little kitchen.

While I never had a chance to do it we were planning on solar panels to go for energy independence and having a well for water independence.

By itself a home is not much of anything at all except four walls and a roof, but it depends on what you do with it. A home can be far more then a storage facility and if that is all you'll use it for then if makes no sense to buy. A small apartment will be a much smarter idea.

NASA - Giant Waves Over Iowa

NASA - Giant Waves Over Iowa: "'For one thing, we believe undular bores can amplify tornadoes.' He cites as an example an F5 tornado that struck the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama, in April 1998. 'At first the tornado was doing relatively little damage. But our research shows that, just before the tornado reached Birmingham, it was hit by an undular bore.' The wave spun up the twister, increasing its intensity and size; the tornado went on to wreck more than 1000 homes and business totaling $200 million in damage. Tornado-wave interactions are the subject of Coleman's PhD dissertation, which he is completing now under the direction of University of Alabama-Huntsville professor Kevin Knupp."

That is a cool bit of weather, but for some reason I was reminded of an Umgubular Slashkilter.

More alternative-energy innumeracy | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

More alternative-energy innumeracy | Tech news blog - CNET News.com: "The Windbelt idea won a 'Breakthrough Award' in the November issue of Popular Mechanics, but not because Windbelt is actually useful or innovative. It looks like the magazine was a bit too eager to jump on the alternative-energy bandwagon, so nobody bothered to run through the numbers"

Too bad, lots of things work on the small scale but fail at the large scale. Look at insects like bees and dragonflys and see how well ornithopters have done.

Michael Yon : Online Magazine � Blog Archive � Achievements of the Human Heart

Michael Yon : Online Magazine Blog Archive Achievements of the Human Heart: "Once abandoned streets are now filled with families and budding entrepreneurs who continue to open new small businesses every week. We have made available grants for small businesses in our area and they have become immensely popular as you can imagine. I cannot walk the streets without children asking me for a soccer ball and “chocolate” (meaning any kind of candy) and adults asking for a micro grant application or for the status of the one they already filled out. They use these grants to open new businesses or improve their existing one and it is working well. "

And we've supposed to be losing!?!?!?!?!!?

The pathetic ones are not in Iraq but in our own country.

from instapundit

Here they come.

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide: "The first Baby Boomer applied today for Social Security benefits, a milestone marking the approaching retirement of a generation of Americans whose eligibility for government payouts threatens to overwhelm the federal budget. Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, a retired Maryland teacher who was born at 12:00:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 1946, applied this afternoon for early retirement benefits. She'll become eligible to receive them in January when she turns 62."

Time flies when your having fun.

Westminster Hazard Assessment

The City of Westminster already has a list of possible disasters and their level of frequency and impact on the community. The Westminster Ward can use this information to implement a ward emergency plan. The primary focus of this plan is to insure the survival of the ward families with special needs: medical conditions, limited mobility, and those with limited reserves at home. By focusing on those with special needs as a primary factor the ward can react most quickly to support those at the highest risk during a disaster.

For the sake of this plan we will focus on Frequency. The most common hazards are:
Hazardous Materials Spill: Highway
Utility Service Failure
Winter Storm
There are two major reactions to any disaster:
Evacuation aka Scoop and Run aka Flight
Shelter In Place aka Stay and Play aka Fight

A Hazardous Material Spill will often require a small scale evacuation around the site of the incident, often with a radius of 1-2 miles. If ward members who have limited mobility are in that area having evacuation assistance available would be highly increase their chances of survival.

A Utility Service Failure and Winter Storm can often be ridden out at home. A generator to keep the refrigerator or furnace running, a 72 hour kit and some food and water storage is often enough. But members that require life sustaining medical support like oxygen and dialysis will need additional help to get to their specific supplies or treatments.

The key to any successful plan is proper communication. Winter storms often leave people home bound for days. A communications plan is the key issue that needs to be dealt with. By already knowing who has special needs we can setup systems to make it easy to communicate with them and make sure they are well or what needs they may have that need to be fulfilled. Phones will work pretty often but are often overloaded during major disasters. It is often easier to call out-of-state then in-state or into-state. The stake and region is developing a ham radio network for such occasions. An alternative, dependent on the distribution of ward members and ham operators, is to do a quantity buy of Family Radio Service (FRS) radios within the ward to allow short range communications. By using Ham operators as block captains it would allow an alternative to the phone system for members without amateur radio licenses, this does require that block captains be centered in 1-2 mile radius blocks.

To successfully implement any plan there much be a clear and detailed line of command. This generally follows the priesthood authority, obviously the Bishop is the top person in the Ward. We merely need an up-to-date list of the leadership.

This plan should be reviewed and updated about every quarter.The City of Westminster Emergency Management Office http://www.ci.westminster.co.us/res/ps/em/emer.htm has evaluated which disasters could potentially strike our community. You may be aware of some of them; others may surprise you. The following is a summary of their Hazard Analysis. Each type of hazard is evaluated based upon frequency, and impact estimates, and an evaluation of the necessity of evacuation is added:
Frequency:
Low: 0 to 5 significant events in the past 25 years.
Medium: 5 to 10 significant events in the past 25 years.
High: 10 or more significant events in the past 25 years.

Impact:
Low: Exposures have been partially or fully mitigated or minimal risk exists. The threat to property or population is considered minimal.
Medium: Exposures have either not been or can't be mitigated. The threat to property or population is considered possible.
High: Exposures have not been mitigated. The threat to population, widespread property loss, and damage are considered highly likely.

Evacuation:
Low: Not very likely to need to evacuate. Specific areas may be required to evacuate, most areas are not affected.
Medium: Moderately likely to need to evacuate. Specific areas are required to evacuate, most areas should be prepared to Shelter-In-Place.
High: Very likely to need to evacuate. Large areas are recommended to evacuate.

Season:
Some potential disasters are seasonal and plans need to be adjusted for them.

The Threats

Aircraft Accident

Frequency:  Low
Impact:  Medium
Evacuation: Low
Season: Any
The volume of air traffic over the City is very high. Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport™ is one of the busiest airports in the region and Denver International Airport has holding patters over Westminster airspace.

Dam Failure

Frequency:  Low
Impact:  High
Evacuation: High
Season: Any
Failure of any of Westminster's five dams could cause property damage, injury or death within the flood plain areas of the City.

Earthquake
Frequency:  Low
Impact:  High
Evacuate: High
Season: Any
At least four major faults exist along the front range including the Jefferson County.  The Major earthquake faults are located west of Interstate 25.  Earthquakes are very unpredictable and will be unexpected by the majority of the population.

Flash Flood

Frequency:  Low
Impact:  Low
Evacuate: Medium
Season: Any
Waterways and gulches that are normally dry pose an extreme threat during heavy rains. High numbers of visitors and recreational enthusiasts may increase the number of people that may be affected and need warning and evacuation. Major drainage basins potentially at risk are Big Dry Creek, Little Dry Creek and Coal Creek.

Hazardous Materials Spill: Business

Frequency:  Low
Impact:  Medium
Evacuate: Medium
Season: Any
Businesses that operate 24 hours a day, such as gas stations may expose a risk at any time. Less than five businesses have reported significant hazardous chemical inventories to the City.  Examples of businesses that may utilize hazardous materials include Rocky Flats, water treatment plants, swimming pools and gas stations.

Hazardous Materials Spill: Highway

Frequency:  Medium
Impact:  Low
Evacuate: Medium
Season: Any
I-25 is a designated transportation route for hazardous materials, radioactive materials, and nuclear weapons. Hazardous materials may be transported on any road while being delivered to local businesses. Radioactive materials and nuclear weapon components have been transported for more than a decade.

Hazardous Materials Spill: Railroad

Frequency:  Low
Impact:  High
Evacuate: Medium
Season: Any
Fifteen to 30 trains a day cross many major thoroughfares and commercial and residential areas of the City. The majority of cargo is coal. However, shipping records indicate a daily presence of hazardous materials being carried in bulk by rail.

Mass Casualty Incident

Frequency:  Low
Impact:  Medium
Evacuate: Low
Season: Any
City roadways are the greatest threat for a mass casualty incident. High speeds, foul weather and the sheer volume of vehicles provide a setting for an accident capable of injuring many people. Airplane crashes and rail related incidents also provide risk for mass casualty incidents.

Terrorist Incident

Frequency:  No Record
Impact:  Medium
Evacuate: Low
Season: Any
No area in the United States is immune. The City has few areas that are considered potential targets. The threat to the City would most likely come indirectly on an attack in the Denver metropolitan area.

Tornado
Frequency:  Low
Impact:  High
Evacuate: Medium
Season: Summer
Although tornados typically occur between April and June they are possible during other months of the year. According to the National Weather Service, the north metro area has averaged one confirmed tornado each year since 1950. Most tornados occur to the east of Westminster.

Utility Service Failure

Frequency:  Medium
Impact:  Low
Evacuate: Low
Season: Any
A reliance on utilities has produced a life safety threat should any services be disrupted. Extended outages cause problems with food storage, communications, warmth, and travel. Disruption of service may include electric utilities, natural gas, and telephone services.  Disruption of communication systems may impact ability to warn of other hazards or pass vital information to the public.

Open Space Fire

Frequency:  Low
Impact:  Low
Evacuate: Medium
Season: Summer
Open space and undeveloped property pose a threat for brush fires throughout the year. Most are contained immediately. Drought conditions, periods of low humidity, lack of precipitation, and high winds provide ideal conditions and increase the potential for these fires.


Winter Storm
Frequency:  Medium
Impact:  Medium
Evacuate: Medium
Season: Winter
Heavy snowfalls can seriously disrupt transportation, communications, and complicate emergency response. Although not an annual event, the City is extremely susceptible to heavy snowfalls.

Family Emergency Communications Plan

Most families are dispersed over a large area during the day. Parents are at work and kids are at school. Having everyones telephone number in one place will allow you to more easily contact each other during a disaster.

Phones tend to be jammed during a major incident. It is often possible to make long-distance calls out of an affected area, so even having prepaid calling cards in everyones wallets is a good idea with a common out-of-state phone number printed on it.

Finding alternative means of communications are recommended. Ham Radio, CB, GMRS, and FRS are all alternatives to the telephone system. Create a family band plan of 3-4 frequencies/channels to attempt to communicate on.
Don't forget Am/FM radios too. Your city should have a Primary and secondary Emergency Alert Stations.

The internet is also a good communications medium. By setting up a family blog now on a free service like Blogger and giving everyone the URL, they can leave comments there, if everyone is separated, to let everyone know they are okay. During Hurricane Katrina many families were separated and this is an easy way to contact each other to come together again.

Others may need to know your status and having their numbers are important too; like work and church leaders.

Make a list in a Word Processor and print out copies for everyone.

Make a list of everyones phone numbers, and addresses that can be useful. Include everything:
Home
Cellphone
Pager
Work direct
Work main
Work Fax
School main
School Fax
Church

The add things like:
Local police/fire/ambulance/hospital
Doctor/Ask-A-Nurse
Dentist
Pediatrician
Utility companies
Insurance companies
Apartment owner/HOA president
Bank
Car dealer
Real Estate Agent
Airport/Airlines
Taxi/Bus companies
Poison Control
Hazmat
Road Conditions/Weather
Funeral Home

If you don't know where you are going it doesn't matter which road you take.

The 5 Secrets to Success | Nubbytwiglet.com: "The easiest way to begin the process is to make a list of goals and achievements. It sounds terribly cliche, but it works! "

I am re-evaluating what I am doing with my life. After loosing an good engineering job and ending up in a call center where it was so awful I couldn't remember what I had done all day. I guess my mind was just trying to protect itself for the horror of the job. There are a few memories of that place that have stuck but they are mostly in the lunch room or some office and not the floor. It was too horrible to return to after a week in the hospital.

Now it is time to try it again. I have had enough of interim or temporary or "just get a" jobs. I am tired of moving backward.

I want to move forward. To change myself and the world. I want to alter the very structure of reality itself. That statement all by itself empowers me, I feel the coals in my heart blaze a little bit.

For a long time I was scared that the fire of my soul had gone out. It wasn't, just buried under a pile of ash. I just needed time to gather fuel and build a new firepit.

Your Outboard Brain Knows All

Your Outboard Brain Knows All : "My point is that the cyborg future is here. Almost without noticing it, we've outsourced important peripheral brain functions to the silicon around us."

This has been an issue for a long time. Heck the ancient Greeks were decrying writing as the youth were noticed to not remember as much as their illiterate forbearers. But then without writing we would never have found this. I love the internet and all but I still save a lot of stuff I feel as important to my harddrive as .pdf files so I have access for al those times I don't have access.

I often go to the local library for some time away from the desk and their internet access is not very good but I still have plenty of material with me as well as all the books around me. It is a good sized library but it is limited and I have a lot of stuff on my computer they just don't have in or at all.

It is funny though, in college my dorm room had 6 of us in science and engineering and we constantly had people coming over for topical help. I remember one person telling us that "You've forgotten more math then I've ever learned."

Now the Internet is a Knowledge Multiplier that is just amazing. My biggest issue is that it is too easy to get lost in the fun.

How to Continually Sharpen Your Skills

How to Continually Sharpen Your Skills Freelance Switch: "Whether it’s 30 minutes a day, or an hour a week, it’s important that you set aside a regular block of time to learn about your profession."

I know I am constantly learning about what I do and what I want to do. Spending on books is one of the few things we don't hold too much back on. It only has to wait until the ones we have have been read which is nicely self-limiting, but at 2000 wpm it doesn't take all that long to read a book anyway.

I was wondering what others had to say about how much you should spend on self-improvement and so after some searching hit on this guideline.

"Invest three percent of your income in yourself (self-development) in order to guarantee your future."
-- Brian Tracy, Author

Brian Tracy is a motivational and business speaker and writer, he studies successful people and explains how they did it. So I think his guideline sounded pretty good. I ran some quick numbers to see how much that would turn out to be. If you're making $30,000/yr you should spend about $900/yr making sure you are getting better at what you are doing.

We've been stretching that by going to the library or buying books cheaply on the net rather then full price at a local store. But really I don't think I've spent that much on self-improvement and that needs to change.

This Day In History: Oct 4, 1957 Sputnik I

The start of the space was only 50 years ago. The Russians launched a little satellite with a Ham Radio transmitter in it. The fun thing was to help make it easy to find they set the transmitter to just above the National Reference Frequency so it was easy for Ham Radio Operators to listen for it.

Now there are Ham Radio satellites up there you can link with.

Some major milestones in space history:
Sputnik the first artificial satellite was launched in 1957
2001: A Space Odyssey came out in 1968
Apollo 11 landed men on the Moon in 1969
Apollo 17 the last manned mission to the Moon was in 1972
Voyager 1 and 2 were launched in 1977 the same year as Star Wars came out and are still transmitting

A lot of investment was made back then but somehow things have gone astray. Where are the giant wheel space stations and lunar cities? Taking the long view it is unwise to leave all our eggs on one basket. We really do need to have some of our species off of this world, just in case.

There is plenty of hope left. The space X-price was just won and they are working on something better. God-speed.

Oct. 1, 1908: A Basic Car for the Great Unwashed

Oct. 1, 1908: A Basic Car for the Great Unwashed : "The Model T was the first mass-produced automobile in history; approximately 15 million were built during a period lasting nearly 20 years. It achieved exactly what Henry Ford set out to do: to 'build a motorcar for the great multitude.'"

One of the most important changes in our society was the introduction of cheap and easy transportation. Not to say we have completely mastered the technology of the car but we are getting better at it.

The problems we have with the car aren't the cars but the designs of our cities. Cities changes slowly but there are buildings and whole sections of major cities that have stood since before the introduction of the car.

There has to be smething to be said about how much things changed when Ford used technology to reduce the assembly time of a car from 12 hours to 24 seconds.

from Wired.

Underground "terrorists" with a mission to save city%u2019s neglected heritage - Times Online

Underground %u2018terrorists%u2019 with a mission to save city%u2019s neglected heritage - Times Online : "From time to time, however, she whispered into Mr Kunstmann%u2019s ear and he relayed the message. %u201CWe are the counterpoint to an era where everything is slow and complicated,%u201D he said. %u201CIt%u2019s very difficult to get anything done through official channels. If you want to do it, you have to be clandestine.%u201D"

As an engineer I grew up dreaming of making science fiction, fact. But this is something out of Brazil.

"Why do we always get the DARK version of Science Fiction as OUR future? I want that OTHER worlds' future, the one over THERE with the giant wheel space stations and Luna City! "

Go Bag: Documents Kit

Your Go Bag needs lots of little subkits. One of the least obvious but possibly most important is the Documents Kit.
Lots of list will say to take copies of your "important" documents but never call out what they are.

These are all Important documents and having copies on hand will make rebuilding your life after a major disaster much, much easier. You may need these documents to file insurance claims, pay bills, help injured family members get proper care, or even manage the affairs of a death.

What Documents You Need
• Birth certificate: The big one. If you have to replace a Drivers License or Social Security card you need not a noterized copy of an offical original copy, which they only limit you to 7 of now. This needs special care. You may not want a copy in you Go Bag but rather in a remote location. A locked box in an energency bag at a family members house or in a safety deposit box, but remember the Hurricane Katrina destroyed whole cities so it should be quite a ways away from your home.

• Drivers License: You should have this on your person all the time so should not be a problem to have handy.

• Deeds, Mortgages, or Rental Agreements: To show where you live and what you own.

• Insurance policies (life, health, disability, long-term care, auto, homeowners, renters)

• Medical records, including prescription information: Very important if you need medicines to survive.

• Marriage certificate

• Licenses, recommends and certificates related to things you can do. For example, commercial driver, medical, legal or amateur radio licenses.

• Will

• Power of attorney

• Living will or other medical powers

• Trust documents

• Social Security card/records

• Military records

• Checking and savings account statements

• Retirement account records

• Other investment statements

• Pay stubs

• Tax returns

• Car titles and registrations

• Warranties and receipts for major purchases

• Credit card records

• Other loan records

• Safe deposit box information (location and key)

• Copies of your utility bills: mainly you are looking for the company contact information (address, phone number & website) and your account number so you can make arraignments while things recover.

• Copies of pictures or documents of semtimental or family value, such as journals and diaries.

• A video or pictures of all your stuff for insurance purposes. Just lay a drawer full of stuff on your bed and take a picture of it.

How to Store Your Important Documents

This is the interesting part. On the one hand you want it to be pretty easy to get to during an emergency, but you don't want it to be too easy for a burglar to take if they break in. If you are storing them at home or a family members house make sure that it is also in a media safe fire box so it can survive a fire.

In many cases the most important part of the documents you really want are the contact information to the companies you're doing business with. You want to be able to call the electric company to tell them your homes been destroyed and you need to turn off the power and make that last payment on the account. You'll need the account number and the number you should call.

You can scan these things onto you computer too. If you don't have scanner a digital camera will work fine if instead of using the flash put it on the desk with some lamps on both sides. The flash will overexpose the center of the document making it unreadable.

You can copy all of that onto a piece of paper or a word processing document and keep it in your wallet as well. or on a keychain flash drive or on your iPod, password protecting the electronic documents would be a good idea. You could even make them contacts on you mobile phone, but you might want to make them less obvious so if you lost your phone it is hard to steal that information.

There Are Only Two Kinds of Disasters

Those you have to run from and those you can sit tight for.

You have to run from wild fires, floods and large hurricanes. You can sit out blizzards, small hurricanes and the like.

Okay, there are plenty like tornados and earthquakes that are come as you are, and you figure out afterwards if you have to leave or can stay, depending on damage to your home.

So what do you do to get ready?
You need a couple of kits: An evacuation kit and a shelter in place kit.

An Evacuation Kit is a 72 hour kit optimized for getting out of Dodge.
A couple of liters of water and some lightweight food, I like GORP myself as that has plenty to energy to keep you going for 3 days.
A simple first aid kit, just bandaids and some elestic wrap. Good for a cut or sprained ankle.
A good map to get you to your evacuation point.
A multitool and flashlight.
And copies of important papers.

A Shelter in Place kit can be much bulkier as it and you aren't going anywhere.
2 weeks of food and water. This can be regualr stuff you eat preferably canned as it doesn't need to be kept cool and about 14 gallons of water per person.
A battery operated radio but you can use the one if the car.
A tool kit to repair the house if it gets damaged.
You can add plastic sheeting and duct tape, but don't forget to cover the furnace intake vents and all the other vents into your home.
An extensive first aid kit.
Flashlights and extra batteries. Candles and matches but be careful and don't burn your house down.

This is just and overview. I'll be fleshing this stuff out over time.

On Food Preservation

"Food Preservation

Jim wrote:

"..My son has been raised to an urban lifestyle; we planted a few tomato plants a couple of times with variable success, but haven't done significant gardening. I've recently had cause to reflect that he knows nothing about food preservation (and the opportunity that he had to learn something about the subject passed unheeded)."

While farming is a complex skill best learned at the knee of an expert, canning and freezing can be quickly learned by an absolute novice with a copy of Joy of Cooking or, I believe, Fannie Farmer. I know this because the results were delicious and safe, often on the first try. Don't despair.

-Tim Herbst
"

I would also recommend the Ball Blue Book of Canning. We've used that any number of times and the results are great.

Alton Brown on Good Eats did several shows on canning, jamming and pickling. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has canneries scattered around the world that are wonderful resources too.There are other community canning groups as well so look around food is a great way to make friends.

We're Hams

My wife and I passed our Amateur Radio exams. She made technician and I made General, I missed the Amateur Extra by one question. I was too tired to try any more but there is another test next week.

Bandwidth Hogs may just have a Worm

"Some customers are unaware they are using so much capacity, sometimes because neighbors are covertly connecting through unsecured wireless routers. ... Others, however, may be running bandwidth-hungry servers intended for small businesses from their homes, which can bog down a network serving a neighborhood." - MSNBC

"We've seen spikes where the owner is experimenting with something and those spikes are usually five to 10 times what we normally see," he said, noting he suspects the botnet could be as large as 50 million computers." - ITNews

I wonder if they might consider that their customers might not be in control of their own computers. We just got Comcast, because there is no other choice.

I've helped a lot of people clean up their computers and it is usually a terrible sight. Sure I know you should update your computer and finally so does Microsoft but there are plenty of computers that are still not patched and that is where these worms thrive.

Someone is running new underground cable past our apartment complex but we don't know who or if it will be for internet but we can always hope.

Computer Consultant Resume

Profile:
A systems administrator with 7+ years experience in large and small networks. 
Expert with Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh and UNIX. 
With 5+ years writing and documentation experience and experience creating and maintaining business systems.

Skills:
Network Management
Business Systems
Troubleshooting
Windows, Macintosh, UNIX
User Training Fast Learning
Technical Writing
Documentation
Electronics Engineering
System Maintenance
Network Equipment
Team Player

Experience:
Customer Service Director, Mr. Fixit, 2006-Present, Denver, CO
Reduced operating cost by more then 60% by migrating the Customer Relations Management system from Salesforce.com to Salesboom.com.
Documented business processes and procedures for the training of new hires, enabling them to be productive within two days.
Created business processes and data handling procedures to maximize customer satisfaction with only 3 complaints last year out of more then 1000 transactions.
Managed and grew the Customer Service Representative group, the IT department, web master and database administrator enabling them go from handling less then 500 transactions to over 1000 transactions.

Columnist, iProng.com, 2005-present, Fort Collins, CO
Write the Monday flagship column analyzing the iPod and music markets.
Wrote the ebook: So You Wanna Learn How To Podcast.

Writer/Publisher, Ziggurat Math, 2002-2005, Fort Collins, CO
Wrote the book: How to Teach Your Child Numbers and Counting.
Embedded System Engineer, Decatur Tech. LLC, 2001-2002, Fort Collins, CO
Provided ISO 9000 documentation for engineering design procedures which enabled successful re-certification.
Addressed the shortcomings of the in-car video products documentation by adding pictures.
Redesigned handheld radar unit for European safety certification enabling the company to more then double their market space.
Created an installation video for the in car video product used by the documentation team which significantly improved documentation.

Volunteer Experience:
Instructed a men’s self-improvement group for 40 minutes twice a month.
Youth group assistant leader.
Managed the membership of a non-profit group.

Education:
B.S. Electronics Engineering Technology — Brigham Young University

The Interesting Life

"May You Live In Interesting Times." -old Chinese Curse

It certainly got interesting around here. We've moved our family into a new apartment and finally got internet access to it. My work moved from an office space into a house, then was put on retainer (because the computers actually work now and don't need me fulltime) so I need to find a new job and my wife and I are taking a amateur radio class I was called to be the Emergency Preparation Specialist at church.

I've been big on emergency preparation for sometime. I've got loads on information and I link to it from time to time. So really this is a dream calling for me. I am going to be putting together the manual for the church so there is a plan in place for helping our families and other around us during a disaster.

Taking the ham class was more for us. My sister, brother in law and some of her kids have their licenses and this would be a good way to keep in touch.We often hear about ham radio operators helping out in emergencies, it is actually a lot more extensive then that so this will be a lot of fun. You can actually experiment in the ham bands building antennas and radios and interfaces to other services. Hams can connect to the Internet already, but I wonder if they can do Twitter. Lots of Hams also look at those big balloons at car dealerships and wonder if they are any good for floating an antenna to boost the range. It will be fun to build radios again. As I'm digging through out stuff I am finding all kinds of neat old things I can use to rebuild a work bench.The only real problem is I don't have any place to put one.

It won't be boring for a while.