I’m Back
Yep, I’ve been lax for a while.
Something happened a while back and I seem to have lost some posts. At the same time, the old index.htm file showed up in the home directory and blocked off direct access to this blog.
I took this as a sign to back off for a bit (that or I was just lazy, you choose) and didn’t post for a while.
Well, I just fixed the issue and I am going to try to start posting again.
Security Camera Catches Ding Dong
A bored FedEx worker chucked Ding Dongs into a laundromat’s dryers.
The security camera convicted him, but it did not prevent the problem. This is something I have to constantly remind people about. A security camera may deter theft, but only diligent people can prevent it.
Rechargeable Stun Pen / Flashlight
This looks like a good combination for both defense from people and the occasional ambushing mountain lion common to church parking lots. It is a rechargeable 950 KV stun pen and flashlight. The extra nice addition is the safety pin attached to the strap that makes it harder to be used against you when the mountain lion disarms you.
Price: About $50
KineticChurch Pleads for Stolen Trailer
When you are with a church without a permanent residence, your security situation is very different than a church meeting in its own building. For nearly 2 years, our satellite campus lived out of trailers and storage rooms. All equipment was accompanied by wheels or was hauled in from homes and our other campus each week. In college I had wwhat we referred to as “the children’s program in the trunk” as we hauled most everything needed for leading Sunday School and Children’s Church in the back of my Saturn.
But, what happens when your church trailer gets stolen? This happened to KineticChurch (requires Flash and disabled pop-up blockers to use their site) last month, and they are responding with pleas for the equipment to be returned. David Milam, their church planter, has posted about what they are doing to try to recover the trailer and its contents. The campaign includes billboards and YouTube videos emphasizing forgiveness and the importance of the trailer to their ministry. You can see the importance placed on this trailer in their other YouTube videos and in a blog post from August 2007 about raising funds to purchase it.
With one month already past and the Bibles and communion equipment found dumped I doubt anything else is coming back. I’ll say that this is a clever campaign, and it may draw attention that will lead to more evangelism (though I personally wouldn’t be attracted to a church doing this campaign), but prevention is the only way to deal with this.
Tongue locks, thick chains, heavy duty padlocks, a responsible person making sure it is properly secured, and a good parking location will make a huge difference when your property is portable.
Motion Activated Solar LED Floodlight
This item looks to be very “set it and forget it,” and useful for areas without convenient electricity. Motion activated lighting is both a safety and security feature, but some of the places where it can be most helpful are not the places where you there is already electricity.
I have several solar powered single LED landscaping lights. They look great, give that little bit of extra light to our front sidewalk, they can be easily pulled out of the ground to make mowing easier, but by morning they are dark. Nice, but not quite security lights.
It gives off the same amount of light as a 10 Watt halogen, so it isn’t really blindingly bright. In fact, I wonder if this item may need to brighten before it is really ready.