September = National Preparedness Month

Basic information can be found at Ready.gov, including making a preparedness kit.


Unofficial nudges from me (not the .gov):

• Have your important documents copied or scanned and backed up? I carry mine (encrypted) on one of those flash drive dongles, but that might be overkill for Normals.
  
• Have a bit of water on hand in case we get into a no-water situation as happened in a nearby town this year?
• Have a bit of food in the pantry in case a distribution infrastructure problem prevents the local supermarket from getting restocked? (note: many grocery stores are an extreme case of Just In Time and have about 3 days of inventory at any given moment).
• Have a way to cook if your power/gas goes out unexpectedly? Or at least have a few meals that require no cooking?
• Have a plan to prevent spoilage in your freezer/fridge if the power goes out for a couple of hours? Days?


• Have an agreed-upon plan for housefires and tornado?
  

My most recent preparedness efforts included making a Get Home Bag (GHB) to stay in the trunk of my car. I picked up a serviceable, used Jansport daypack for $2 at a garage sale in Heights this summer and it goaded me into action.

Note that a GHB doesn't have to be all 'tacticool' or $$$; do the best you can with what you've got. You probably have all the items already, or can find them at garage sales or dollar stores. Something is better than nothing. Build one, then build another for your mate's car, kids' cars, etc. Hopefully you'll never need it.

No more apartments at Brick Row

Word is that the developers (Winston Cap?) are going to ask COR to let them skew the existing 300 condos / 500 "luxury apartments" agreement toward more apartments units at a lower price point.

DART Rail + cheap apartments = bad news. Listen to a scanner and see how often RPD is dispatched to the rail station. There is already graffiti on the upper deck, and broken glass panels. DART PD is MIA. Maybe the new radio tower will encourage them to show up in Richardson from time to time?

Anecdotal, but interesting: my last two experiences on that DART rail platform have been unpleasant. This Tuesday I rode the DART down to the VA hospital for a dr's appointment. While I was buying a ticket at the Spring Valley station ticket kiosk I was approached ("Hey, dawg...") with an offer to participate in an activity specifically prohibited on the ticket. I will note that getting approached with a "Hey, dawg" when you have your wallet in your hand bumps up the threat level from yellow to orange pretty fast. My right hand settled down to the Spyderco Endura clipped to my pocket.

The time before that I called 911 when it appeared my wife and I were in physical danger. Yay, DART.

Got a little sidetracked there. What was I saying? Oh yeah, NO to more apartments in Brick Row.

Dallas Green Festival, Sept 18th

I'm more of a "primitive skills" guy than a treehugger green if that distinction makes any sense. I recycle fairly rigorously, mainly because it seems wasteful and pointless to pay someone to bury a bunch of stuff that could be repurposed. I don't do it because a Wolf spirit guide (be sure to read the reviews) appeared to me in a dream and told me to "get back in sync with Mother Nature, man."

Anyhow. I haven't attended DGF before but will go this year to take a look around.

Dallas Green Festival 2010
Texas Discovery Gardens • Fair Park Dallas

The third annual Dallas Green Festival will be held at the beautiful Texas Discovery Gardens, Saturday September 18, 2010 from 9:00 until 2:30.

Join us for a day of family fun and environmental stewardship including...

• Monarch butterfly tagging • outdoor recreation zone • recycled arts and crafts • lifestyle demonstrations • food and live music • door prizes and give-aways

• mass butterfly release • children’s area • face painting • classes for adults and kids • vendors and artisans ...and much more!

I. Did not. Have. Postal relations. WIth that mailer.

[the formatting is a little weird. This started out as a comment but was too big for blogger.com to accept. D'oh!]

A commenter (Mark) identifying himself as Mr. Harcrow has taken issue with the content of my [original] post. Since he deleted the comment I will not repost it to comment on it.

I will try to summarize and address his concerns. I hope to do so fairly.


1. I have the facts wrong.

My response: I look forward to correction in any factual errors I have made.


2. Misrepresenting oneself as the VA is wrong.

My response: Well, I agree. I will point out that I did not claim SMI was misrepresenting themselves as the VA. Readers can make their own judgement about that. The scan of the actual mailer, with the Seal of the United States, the words "Verterans Affairs" and "Official notice", combined with a total absence of a business name does not seem purpose-built for transparency or clarity.

BTW, it is not entirely clear to me that the Seal is lawfully usable in that manner:

TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 33 > § 713
§ 713. Use of likenesses of the great seal of the United States, the seals of the President and Vice President, the seal of the United States Senate, the seal of the United States House of Representatives, and the seal of the United States Congress
(a) Whoever knowingly displays any printed or other likeness of the great seal of the United States, or of the seals of the President or the Vice President of the United States, or the seal of the United States Senate, or the seal of the United States House of Representatives, or the seal of the United States Congress, or any facsimile thereof, in, or in connection with, any advertisement, poster, circular, book, pamphlet, or other publication, public meeting, play, motion picture, telecast, or other production, or on any building, monument, or stationery, for the purpose of conveying, or in a manner reasonably calculated to convey, a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States or by any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

3. I (Mark) have not sent any email or mailer advertising a rate reduction.

My response: I didn't say you did, nor did I say you generated the mailer at all. The mailer itself has the words "rate reduction" on it. The readers may decide for themselves whether or not an advertisement with the words emblazoned with the words "rate reduction" is, _prima facie_, an advertisement for rate reduction. The rate reduction aspect seems to be the smallest of the problems of this mailer, anyhow.


4. I assume you searched for the mortgage company, found my name, and thought I sent the mailer to you.

My response: Close. Since no business name was given I searched for the address, found the company at that address (SMI), found another page related to SMI (http://www.vamortgageconnection.com/contact.php) by address and email, which had Mr. Harcrow's SMI email address on it.

To be fair, the site referenced above no longer gives the 4230 LBJ address and no longer lists the SMI email address. This, combined with some of the content of Mr. Harcrow's removed comment, suggest he has moved on to greener pastures. I accept this, even though the SMI page still lists him as a staff member:
http://www.smimortgage.net/StaffProfiles.aspx?ID=308844

I did not claim you sent the mailer. I did claim:
* the mailer claimed to come from the 4230 LBJ address
* where SMI claims to reside,
* where your company/site VA Mortgage Connection claimed to reside (now changed)
* and on the VAMC site MH's SMI-based email address was given.

That is the sum total of my claims directly or tangentially related to Mr. Harcrow.

5. Deceptive practices are wrong; slander in this type of forum is wrong.

My response: Deceptive practices are disagreeable and ultimately unproductive. Slander is illegal, which is why I didn't do it. The phrase Truth is an absolute defense come to mind. If you believe any of the facts in my post are incorrect, point out the counterfactual information and I will correct it. The approach you are taking appears to be "You claim I did this. I didn't do this, the other people in my office did it." Fine with me. I never claimed you personally did it. I claimed your email address was on a VA-related website related to SMI.

BTW, the TDSML complaint link on your contact page is STILL broken. Specfically, it's missing the http:// prefix so it looks like a relative URL to the server. Your webmaster will know what this means.

Free VIN etching Sept 9

Richardson Police Department | 140 N. Greenville Ave.

The Richardson Police Department in partnership with the North Texas Auto Theft Task Force and UTD, will be offering free VIN etchings and conducting H.E.A.T. registrations on Friday, September 10, 2010. This is a pre‐National Night Out 2010 event.

Bring your car to UTD at 800 W. Campbell Rd. in Richardson, between 10am and 2pm to have your car’s VIN etched into each window. VIN etching is used to deter auto theft. Car thieves who steal cars for re‐sale or for parts will tend to avoid vehicles that have the glass etched with a VIN. VIN etching reduces the criminal’s profit, associated with replacing a vehicle’s windows and the windows themselves becoming worthless for resale.

The H.E.A.T. (Help End Auto Theft) registration program places a sticker on your vehicle and registers it in a statewide database used by
law enforcement in Texas. H.E.A.T. registration allows Police to stop the vehicle if it is operating between the hours of 1:00am and 5:00am to determine if the driver is the owner. The event is conducted on a first come first serve basis and only takes minutes to complete and is free of charge.

The Richardson Police Department will also be collecting canned food donations for the Network of Community Ministries. If it should rain, the event will be rescheduled and details will be published at a later time.

Contact the Richardson Police Department, Crime Prevention Unit for additional information at 972‐744‐4955.

State Fair 2010

The official site is bigtex.com.

Opening Day: Sep 24.
Senior Citizens days: Thursdays. Highly recommended. Calm, uncrowded.
DISD day for secondary: Oct 8. Accidentally did this once; never again.
RISD Day: Oct 11. Have fun!
Closing Day: Oct 17

Here's the livestock schedule.

Richardsonians (?) should be able to ride the Red line DART train, xfer to the Green line and step off at Fair Park if the Green line opens on Sep 17th as planned. Looks like any station between Pearl and West End will allow transfer between the lines, but do your own homework.

Note: if applicable, have your CHL/DL visible before the Fairgrounds guard wands you. I usually hold them up, splayed, by my face at eye level so the guard can immediately grasp the scenario; no ambiguity. Sometimes they will wave you through. Sometimes they will direct you over to DPD who waves you through or makes small talk. No drama. Security has already been briefed to some degree, but handling it this way will make everyone's life easier.

RPL email newsletters

I attended one of the recent RPL focus groups. My tablemates indicated that the RPL had a rather extensive list of broadcast email lists.

Hmmmm. Hadn't seen those before.

Turns out they are called Bookletters on the main RPL page. The only other link to the email list page is on the left menu of the Calendar of Events page where they are called newsletters. I wonder if the lists would see more subscribers if they were called something more intuitive.

So I selected the ones I wanted and subbed. Each list sent its own "welcome" msg without requiring an opt-in. A bit sloppy, but better than nothing. I think email lists are an effective and cheap way to reach the residents.