Melva Gifford

Years ago I was helping writing a book on home construction. It was a college project. I found one of my taped interviews of my cousin a home builder by the name Jerry Eaves. He builds homes as a business. I will be doing a variant of that book by myself in the future. Until then, here ae some of my notes

• Are you financially ready to buy a home? If not then need to talk to the find out how loan officer.
• Warn customers of environmental conditions prior to building a home such as high groundwater. If you have ground water deeper than 6 feet you can usually build a basement
• Types of mortgages loans: fixed rate = same interest thorug0ut term. Adjustable rate= low interest in the beginning that can increase. There used to be no caps. Now there is. If be in a home for short term then adjustment rate is good as a starting point.
• Graduated payment not much used much now.
• FHA insurance loans are used for high loan value =
• Response time on paperwork: VA = can borrow 100% of loan. Can get a “yes he will qualify” but work will need to be done. Response time for initial approval is about two weeks. FHA = can often be processed in a week. Conventional load /preapproved loan= 24 hours. Then you need to verify each of the things they said. Usually advise 3 weeks. There are two types of preapproved loan: Long term financing and construction financing. A buyer comes to the home builder. I’m preapproved. So the builder goes to the bank to get money to build the house. It takes about five months to build the home.  Home builder pays off the construction loan. If the homeowner gets construction loan they can get points for it.
• Building lot selection will influence the type of house. Like to face south to have sun melt the snow.
• Check surrounding homes for settling and history such as flood zone etc.
• When you put water in cement, this is the point the cracks occur. That is why people put expansions cuts into poured cement to permit expansion. Rebar in  the house cures more slowly and helps prevent cracking.
• Ranch floor plan means no stairs.
• Signs of quality constructing of a home: begins at the foundation. Make sure both read the same. Put some responsibility on the homeowner. This builder will buy two levels and make sure they match. One is used by the builder; the second is used by the homeowner. Have the homeowner use their level to also check ceilings etc. besides just the builder. That way nothing is missed prior to the drywall. Get them as involved as they can.
• Quality begins at the footings. 3 rebar instead of two. And city inspectors make sure things are in code.
• Everything you need to have done needs to be written. If it’s not written down it won’t get done.
• For everything that is done, there is a charge, nothing is free. If people pay for something it is respected more. Time and materials cost.

Do you have something to add? Please do so in the comment section of this blog.

These are the notes taken from a Book of Mormon conference I attended this spring. One of the panels was on LDS church history and discussed Joseph Smith’s sword. The presentation talked about the famous speech where Joseph raised the sword and made a proclamation. Any misinformation presented is the fault of the note taker.

• In 18 €42 Smith and walking down the street and they saw a sword in the sky. They learned there will be wars tsunamis and floods.
• September 22, 1827 Moron I gave plates to Joseph Smith elsewhere Brigham Young heard a great sound and great wind smoke and great light. It was very bright even though there was no moon. He saw great armies marching across the sky. At the same time he received Campbell saw a great army all marched in synchrony and he could hear the armies fighting in the sky and could hear their weapons hitting each other with great clashes.
• June 17, 1877 there was a special conference in rock chapel (in a town in northern Utah) Brigham Young gave a sermon and talked about Joseph Smith and Oliver Calgary. Brigham told about how the two men went into the helical more to adore underground and they saw a room with a table they placed the plates on the table and underneath the table were piles and piles of gold plates. The sort of Laban was hanging on a wall. The two men came back days later to see the sort of Laban had been placed over the plates now resting on the table in that room.
• King Benjamin use the sort of Laban in a battle
• On June 17, 1877 Joseph Smith addressed another Legion and assembled Saints for about 2 ½ hours. Near the end of the speech he withdrew his sword and raised the sky. He said that if one drop of blood from his body is dropped then this sword should never be she’s until Christ returns.
• At the conference we saw a glass-enclosed display with the sword the had the sword still achieve. Beside the sword was a walking stick. The walking stick represents one of the 12 sticks that was created from the lid of the casket that Emma Smith asked to be created and given as gifts to the bodyguards of Joseph Smith.

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Bad:    catasterphey

Good: catastrophe

Here is an idea. A catastrophe is when a major terrible event occurs. It’s worse than the average mishaps, so it’s takes the TROPHy of bad. Remember the sound of trophy and spell the last of the word TROPHe.
Do you have a better way to remember this word? Please feel free to share.

One of the nice things about Toastmasters is I get to listen to a variety of topics as people give different types of speeches. Tonight one of the members gave recommendations about how to avoid identity theft.

• You don’t want to have identity thieves get access to your driver’s license, the Social Security, or your date of birth
• 13% of crime is identity theft.
• 25% of bank customers have had issues with identity theft 2.5 million accounts of identity theft and one year.
• To recover from identity theft can cost thousands of dollars and take a long time.
• The two forms of medical identity theft is
• When doctors try to scan insurance companies and
• When individuals try to use your services for themselves. Their misuse of your account can cause your insurance premiums to go up

Ways to avoid identity theft

• Don’t carry your social security card and insurance card at the same time
• Keep an eye out for scammer devices such as when you’re feeling your car.
• Don’t fall for fishing schemes such as responding to an unknown email.
• Be careful of links on the Internet. When someone offers some for free click on this link and a can go to the wrong area. Links can make their site look like an official site but it’s actually is not. And when you try to login you give them your account information. These type of deceptive websites are called honeypots
• Avoid using self-serve bank machines. And if you do hide your codes when typing in the end because there may be survey technology watch what you do.
• Purchase identity theft protection

Do you have something to add? Please do so in the comment section of this blog.

I once put together an article for using the numbers one through ten to remember the Ten Commandments. The notes below were some ideas, someone shared with me.

1. No god before me because God is #1

2. Idols because the number 2 looks like a snake idol (use imagination)

3. Lords name in vain. Number 3 looks like lower lip and chin.

4. Sabbath day holy = upside down church

5. Honor parents because dad is a Square (top of 5) and Mom is round (bottom of 5)

6. Don’t kill, six is a gun

7. Adultery, Seven is part of an A for adultery.

8. Don’t steal. Eight is a par of handcuffs 8

9. Lying, (don’t bare false witness) 9 is art of the tree trunk with a bear. Put tow paws here.

10. Don’t covet. 10 is beginning of covet 10vet.

Do you have a trick or mnemonic to remember something? Please feel free to share.

Got this from a website.

#1 Cast Away

#2 The Martian

#3 Into the White

#4 Scenic Route

#5 Eight Below

#6 The Grey

#7 Rescue Dawn

#8 Rabbit-Proof Fence

#9 The Way Back

#10 The Finest Hours

#11 The Wave

#12 Unbroken

#13 Flight of the Phoenix

#14 The Edge

#15 Lord of the Flies

#16 Alive

#17 127 Hours

#18 Into the Wild

#19 The Day

#20 The Hunger Games

#21 10 Cloverfield Lane

#22 The Divide

#23 As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me

#24 Wrecked

24 Movies That Will Teach You a Lot About Survival

StalaCtites are formed by water dripping from the cave ceiling. 6th character is C = ceiling

stalaGmites, which form on the ground/floor of the cave r. 6th character is G = ground.

A second idea, I envision StalagMITes the mites standing on the ground with their arms bent at the elbow to create muscles to show they are MIT-ty/mighty.

Have a better idea? Please share in the comment section of this blog.

The following notes are directly from the CERT book. Any inaccuracies are the fault of the note taker.

What professional responders will do:

There were several measures that you can expect professional responders to take when they arrive at the scene of a terrorist incident.

The first step that the professional responders will take when they arrived at the scene is to conduct a thorough size up. They will follow steps similar to those that CERT takes to determine:

• What is going on?
• How bad the situation is and how much worse it could get
• What measures can be taken to control the incident safely
• What resources will be needed?

CERTs can expect professional responders to treat terrorist incidents must the same as hazardous material incident. As such, the next step that they will take is to establish three incident zones to minimize the risk of spreading contamination from the incident site.

• The hot zone includes the incident scene and the contaminated area around the scene. If the incident is outdoors, the hot zone will spread downward, taking wind speed into consideration.
• The warm zone upwind (and upstream if the contaminant is waterborne) from the hot zone and is used to isolate victims during decontamination. It is called the warm zone because the evacuees can carry or spread of containment into this area. Professional responders will hold those who require decontamination in the warm zone and tell decontamination is complete so that the contaminants do not spread.
• The cold zone is located upwind and beyond the warm zone. Those who are not contaminated or who have been decontaminated will be evacuated to the call zone and kept there until the professional responders authorize them to leave.

Unit summary:

Terrorism may be perpetrated by foreign and domestic individuals or groups. Terrorist attack to:

• Intimidate the government of civilian population
• Further their objectives

When terrorist attack, their goals are to: create mass casualties

• Disrupt critical resources, vital services, and the economy
• Cause fear

The acronym CBRNE comes to remember the types of weapons that terrorists might be expected to use: chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, high – yield explosives.

There are a range of environmental and physical indicators of terrorist attacks. Paying attention to what is not present in the environment that should be as important as what is present and should not be.

CERT members should treat possible terrorist incidents as saying they would hazmat incidents – as a stop sign. If they observe indicators of a possible terrorist attack they should:

• Not touch it!
• Move away from the object or area
• Report to the authorities immediately

Cert help limit their exposure to the harmful effects of terrorist weapons by:

• Moving quickly to limit their exposure time
• Evacuating the area as quickly as possible; be sure to move perpendicular to the upwind of an airborne flow, and upstream if contaminates are waterborne.
• Is protection of the sturdy building and shielding, going inside his containment is outside and going outside if containment is inside. If the event includes retroactive fallout, is important to go quickly deep inside the building for protection.
• Safely decontaminating themselves when necessary
• CERT members should take immediate action to protect themselves and, if exposed, follow basic decontamination procedures immediately. Because the safety of CERT members is the number one priority, certain members should not attempt to treat anyone who has been contaminated or before the decontamination procedures for the terrorist incident scenes are also crime scenes. Certain members should avoid taking any action that may disturb potential evidence.