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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-06-12

Misc

Oklahoma Tornadoes

News

English: A radar image of a supercell thunders...
A radar image of a supercell thunderstorm, which was producing tornado that was passing through Moore, Oklahoma at the time of the image. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My heart goes out to all of the victims of yesterday’s tornado in Moore, Oklahoma.

I couldn’t imagine hearing that my kids’ school was demolished around them.  Twenty or more dead children in any community is devastating.

On top of the sheer horror of dead children, the town is nearly wiped off of the map.  Will they rebuild or cut their losses?

I hope everyone in the town was well insured, but that’s never the case.  There will be many in the town that will have lost everything: their homes, their families, their jobs.   Family is irreplaceable, but so is your home, if you don’t have insurance.    To lose it all and not even have a place to mourn….

Have you checked your insurance policy to make sure you are covered in the event of whatever natural disaster is common in your area?

To help the victims, text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.  It’s the least you can do.

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Yakezie Challenge – I’m In

Misc

After watching the Yakezie Challenge progress for 6 months and reading the recap, I’ve decided to participate. Maybe I’m a jerk for waiting until I saw the value instead of immediately jumping in, but I hope not.

The goal for stage 1 was to get to Alexa rank 200,000.  I’m currently at 533,108.  Six months ago, I was at about 1.8 million, so I’ve improved quite a bit on my own, but I’ve still got a ways to go.

So, here I am.

”The

Be Prepared or Be Me

Finance, Life

Hail clouds often exhibit a characteristic gre...
Image via Wikipedia

We had some nasty storms roll through over the weekend. There was a lot of tornado-ish activity, 70 mile-an-hour gusts of wind, hail, and an electrical blackout.  For almost 24 hours, we were living in the stone age, with nothing but smartphones for internet, and high-lumen flashlights being used to see.   With no cartoons for the girls, we were forced to read them bed-time stories, while my son and his friends were forced to use their imaginations to entertain themselves.

Every time we called, the electric company added 12 hours to their estimated repair time.   Amazingly, they came in 7 hours ahead of schedule, if you don’t count the first two revisions.

By Saturday afternoon, we were out shopping for things we should have already had ready.

For years, we had discussed buying a generator.  For some reason, it never became a priority.  We have a large freezer and refrigerator full of food.   With no electricity, a generator was suddenly prioritized.   All of the places near us were sold out of budget-priced generators when we decided it was better to drop $400 on that than to lose $600 worth of food.   We did find one, eventually, but it would have been better to take it out of the garage than have to shop for it when we needed it.   Naturally, 10 minutes after we got it home, the power came on.  Do yourself a favor:  if you own a home and have a small corner available for storage, start shopping for a generator. Pick one up on sale instead of waiting until you have no real choice.

We have a ton of batteries.  It’s one of the things we stock up on when they are on sale.  Unfortunately, our broadest-beam flashlight takes a 6-volt battery, and we don’t keep a spare.   By the end of the night, it was getting pretty yellow and dim.  Another night would have killed it completely.   This wasn’t a widespread blackout, so there was no shortage of batteries, but it would have been nice to have the spare already at home.  Check your emergency supplies and make sure you have replacement batteries that fit everything you need.

The one thing that would have improved the night most is a good lantern.   We had our 5, plus two of my son’s friends all trying to play board games by flashlight.  A lantern could have been set on the entertainment center and lit most of the room.

For everything we were without due to the blackout, the one thing I truly missed was the air conditioner.  When the storm died, so did the wind.  Completely.   Opening all of the windows didn’t help at all.   Other than that, it was nice to have everyone forced to interact.   Nobody was whining about being bored and we were all having fun.

I want to schedule a pseudo-blackout more often.

Stealing Motivation

Finance

We go a bit overboard on Halloween.

Maybe more than a bit.   The yard in the video is mine.   As I write this, I’ve got 40 tombstones, more than 200 skulls, and half a dozen life-size props in my yard.   The coffin leaning against the tree was bought used on the secondhand coffin market.

I have a motion-activated monster whose eyes light up as his head turns to watch you as you walk past.   He just happens to be the exact size in all dimensions as my son was 4 years ago.

A few years ago, I built a beautiful zombie who–not so coincidentally–had the exact height and proportions as my wife.

Zombie Girl
Zombie Girl

Last year, a few days before Halloween, somebody came into my yard and stole my bride.   They also tried stealing the small coffin, but only managed to get away with the lid, leaving the coffin itself behind.

I hate thieves.

This year, I was at the Financial Bloggers Conference the weekend I traditionally set up for Halloween, so I was getting a late start.

Every time I’ve tried to get out and set up my yard, I just keep thinking about the irreplaceable pieces that were stolen.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a child-sized coffin lid dating back to 1863?  Or how impossible it is to get the 100 hours of my life I put into my zombie?

I think about how hurt I would be if somebody stole my son-sized animatronic ghoul or the demon who shares my measurements, but is two feet shorter.   I’ve spent hundreds of hours per year, over 10 years building my yard full of one-of-a-kind props, and someone felt it was acceptable to tear down a section of my skull fence, come into my yard, and steal a little piece of my life.

Motivation has been difficult this year.

Last night, while I was out arranging my much-reduced yard haunt, a neighbor came by to let me know that he was disappointed with the smaller production.   He wasn’t upset, but he–like the entire neighborhood–love watching the gore grow in my yard while anticipating the evening full of screams as the kids wander through every Halloween.

I can’t do it.

The thieving punks stole not just two of my favorite props, but a huge piece of my desire to scare the neighborhood kids.

Maybe I just need a year off, so I can come back with better ideas and a security plan more detailed than “my neighbors love this, none of them would steal anything!”

I would love to find the thieves.   Post-beating, I’d explain how stealing from anyone is stealing a small and irreplaceable part of their lives.  Stealing their handcrafted treasure is ripping out a piece of their soul.    Stealing their motivation is stealing  the memories for every visitor who would ever benefit from their craft, if the motivation is dead enough to kill the production.

I hope I’m not to that point, yet, but I can’t promise anything. Maybe next year.

Happy Halloween.