mbelcher Management , ,

Hi, I’m Michael Belcher and I do a lot of stuff.

For the past few years I seem to have made a habit of finding jobs that have centered around helping companies redesign their websites into responsive, mobile friendly sites. Before that I lived in Dublin, Ireland for a while working as a freelance writer and finishing up a masters degree in mass communications.

I currently work in a front-end developer role with an in-house marketing group, using analytics and solid UX/UI design to increase lead generation and sales for a multi-billion dollar, multi-national company. I’m also the project manager for the larger marketing undertakings including company rebrands, site redesigns, and implementing new CRM systems. Since we’re a small department everyone does a little bit of everything from copy editing and writing, to social media management, to graphic design and video and audio production.

Some hidden benefits of a Bucket of Doom

mbelcher Garden ,
Some hidden benefits of a Bucket of Doom

This was originally written for the Bellevue Neighborhood Planting Project, a program I run to give out free native trees and shrubs to people in Nashville. I decided to post it here as well.

A couple of years back author and naturalist Jo Brichetto developed the Mosquito Bucket of Doom, based off of an idea she saw in a Doug Tallamy video. It’s a simple mosquito honeypot that requires little upkeep and theoretically cuts down on the number of mosquitos in your yard. The idea behind the Bucket is that if you make something that looks like a great place for mosquitos to lay their eggs, then they will lay their eggs there. When you add in a mosquito dunk (which contains the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, or Bti) you effectively neutralize the mosquito’s life cycle.

This is the second year we’ve used a Bucket of Doom in the garden, and I wanted to document some of the stacked functions that can happen with the buckets.

The first is a constant water source for wildlife.

On one of the smaller buckets we added a small platform to the bucket. It’s a bit sturdier than the escape stick that Jo suggests, but it allows birds and squirrels a chance to get a drink during the dry summer months.

The second is far more exciting: FROGS.

A Cope's Gray Tree Frog sits in a Bucket of Doom watching hundreds of small tadpoles.
A Cope’s Gray Tree Frog sits in a Bucket of Doom watching hundreds of small tadpoles.

Frogs everywhere. A cacophony of croaks at night. We already had a large population of frogs due to our habitat pond, but they quickly spawned in the Buckets. The adult in the picture is a Cope’s Grey Tree Frog (Hyla chrysoscelis) but there’s no telling what species the tadpoles are. This picture was from early in the summer, and the buckets are still full of frogspawn and tadpoles.

Not all of these tadpoles will grow up to be frogs, but some will. And not all those small frogs will survive long enough to lay more eggs, but some will.

And once those tadpoles grow legs each of them will start eating insects, like mosquitos, further adding to the anti-mosquito properties of the Bucket of Doom.

The abundance of tadpoles opens up avenues of other things to learn.

We scooped some out of the bucket and built a small habitat in an unused fish bowl. Over the next several weeks the kid and I fed them greens and lettuce, since they are vegetarians at the start of their lifecycle, feeding on algae and leaves. The kid learned about the life cycles of both frogs and snails, as we had some stowaways on the aquatic plants we added to the bowl.

A dark green tadpole with all four legs stares out of a fishbowl with aquatic plants floating in the background.
This tadpole is about to be taken out of the fishbowl and placed in the outside habitat pond.

One day, suddenly, they started growing back legs. And then just as quickly they grew font legs,and we knew it was time to take them to the pond. Once they grow out all their legs they need to be eating protein (insects) to grow.

Another great benefit of the frogs is that they’re always a pleasant surprise when you find one in the garden.

A small green tree frog sits on some basil leaves.

You can be cutting flowers, pulling off tomatoes, or harvesting basil and notice you have a passenger along for the ride.

They’ll eat more than just mosquitos, too. A garden with an abundance of frogs has an abundance of pest control, for everything from biting flies to crop-eating caterpillars.

The setup for the bucket is easy and can bring so much life to your outdoor space, and a big package of BTi dunks are cheap at any hardware store. I’d encourage anyone to make one and reap the benefits of having a tiny static pond in their garden, even if it’s just for the spring and summer months.

Prepping for the Heat Dome Emergency

mbelcher Community-Prepping , ,

We’re currently under a Heat Dome in Tennessee, and the temps aren’t going to drop until next week. This is just a part of the Long Emergency everyone is going to have to deal with now.

Remember to check in with your neighbors, especially the elderly ones. I know mine like it hot, but a heat like this can quickly put them in danger.

Planning ahead for a time when either this heat dome or the next take out the power grid is something I do, but this time I’m putting my back-of-the-napkin ideas out there for others to use.

There’s going to be a couple different sections to this covering different things someone could do to keep the inside of a building at a livable temperature.

  • Things to do to the building
  • Running a small AC to keep a room cool
  • Keeping people cool
  • Going somewhere else

Building modifications

It sounds silly to put it this way, but keeping the sun from directly shining on the house will make it cooler.

When I worked on Rx fires two decades ago it was always amazing to see the fire line die down as a cloud rolled overhead. It would immediately lower the temperature and raise the humidity.

The walls of modern building should be fairly insulated, but windows and doors can warm up and transfer heat into the house. Blackout curtains on windows will keep out some of the direct sunlight, and shade cloths or shudders on the outside will keep the heat from hitting the windows.

If you’re looking for ways to use things that you may already own moving a patio umbrella to where it shades some windows will help. Blankets can be used a curtains indoors and sun shades outside to add shade to the side of the house.

The Cool Room

This involves spending money if you don’t already have the items, but the items can be used for other things until the heat dome brings the grid down.

You need an AC window unit and a backup battery (like an ecoflow or jackey) that can run it. While you’re already spending the money, it would be a good idea to pick up some solar panels that will work with the battery. The panels will help recharge the battery during the day when you’ll need the AC the most, adding a bit of run time to the setup.

While the power’s still on you can run the AC to keep one room a little cooler than the rest of the house, helping out your stressed HVAC system. The battery pack you can keep around to use in case of a non-heat related power outage the rest of the year, and the solar panels can help you keep it charged for free.

Keep your body cool

Drink water! If you think you’ve had enough then drink some more. If the power goes out

Sit in front of a fan. Airflow will help your body’s sweat evaporate, even if the air is warm. You can also place moist bandannas or towels around your neck; this lets the water in the bandana evaporate without your body losing moisture. There are cheap, USB powered fans that can be run off of one of those small battery packs they sell to recharge phones.

If you feel yourself getting overheated, get some ice packs and place them under your arms to cool down quickly.

Evacuating

Have a plan to go somewhere you know will be cooler than your house or apartment. If the power goes out and you don’t have the ability to make a “cool room” or you think the power will not be back on anytime soon you will need a place to go.

Controlled brownouts will be focused on residential areas more than commercial areas (and we all know the reason why). Public libraries will probably still be powered during a brownout, as will community centers and park buildings. You could also pay to see a matinee or work at a coffee shop. Waffle House still has bottomless cups of coffee 24/7.

These are just ideas that can be turned into plans of action if the need arises. The world isn’t going to get any cooler anytime soon, and the Long Emergency, as author Adam Greenfield names it, is here.

Again, remember to check in with your neighbors. We can get through this, but it would be much easier to get through this together.

Building Your Own Off-Grid-Internet Hotspot for Cheaper

mbelcher Community-Prepping ,

Author of the great book Lifehouse: Taking Care of Ourselves in a World on Fire, Adam Greenfield, posted this today on Mastodon:

And it links to this brief but good 404Media article: “Sales of Hard Drives for the End of the World Boom Under Trump“

And now I feel the need to hammer out this quick post.

YOU CAN BUILD THIS YOURSELF or
YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO CAN BUILD THIS FOR YOU.

As someone who has spent the last decade on the sales side of the prepping community, and as a guy who like computers and tech, I’ve been getting ads for these things for a couple years now.

And they’ve always really, really hacked me off, too.

Each of these products that I’ve seen; SurvivalNet, PrepperDisk, GridbasePocket to name a few; are filled almost entirely with free, publicly available software and information.



Each runs the Kiwix software and related ZIM files, sometimes with the branding scrubbed off. They all run off of some version of a Raspberry Pi single board computer. Some of them may run more advanced software from the educational nonprofit Internet-In-A-Box to host things like maps (again with the branding replaced with TacticoolPrepperWords).

All the info is free, and the hardware to run it is very cheap.

But to make matters worse, these “Off-Grid Computer” companies didn’t even come up with an original idea: Kiwix already sells a “Prepper” Raspberry Pi Hotspot image you can buy ($25, with proceeds going back to the Kiwix non-profit), alongside ones for Wikidpeida and Medical info. You can also pay a bit more (and support the non-profit that built the software) for a whole pre-built Raspberry Pi kit.

Build one yourself with an old phone

Kiwix can run off of pretty much any old phone! Yes, even that two year old iphone 11 in your junk drawer.

You can get the Kiwix app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, and all the featured “prepper info” items, from offline Wikipedia to every English-language book on Project Gutenberg to “Military Manuals” and “Survival Guides” are available to download, for free, to your phone’s storage (if you have the space).

Special Android features

Due to some limitations found in iPhones and iPads, Kiwix has some special features found only on Android.

Storage settings

After you download and install the Kiwix app go to the app settings and switch the Storage to External so it uses the microSD card. This keeps the Kiwix files, which can be very large, off your main internal storage and on your swappable microSD card.

Wifi Hotspot

To make what you’ve downloaded available to others, just open the sidebar in Kiwix and click “create hotspot”. Follow the prompts and once it’s running there will be a URL at the top of the Kiwix screen starting with http://192.168… This is the URL other devices will use to access the Kiwix hotspot.

Don’t Give These Folks Your Money

These types of products may be helpful in the future. The ability to look up how to filter water, how to prepare food for lots of people, and how to build makeshift shelters is (sadly) valuable. The ability to share that information with people is maybe even more valuable.

I saw this by talking to friends in Western NC after Hurricane Helene; potable water was hard to come by, and folks gathered together to eat.

But what’s helpful right now is the money in your pocket. There’s no need to give these people $300 if all you need to do is dig out an old android phone and spend $20 on a 256gb microSD card. You can much more cheaply DIY this setup for yourself, your friends and your family, probably with stuff you already own.

And once you get it set up Show Your Friends. Call them up and talk to them about what’s going on, and see if they need anything.

If I Had A Million Dollars…

mbelcher Management ,

[Warning, I’m not a lawyer or accountant. Contact someone in one of both these professions before setting up a trust for anything.]

Over the past few weeks I’ve had a similar conversation with a few different people all floating around the topic of what we would do with a large sum of money. There is usually no a specific dollar amount named; it’s almost always in a vague ” when I get rich” sort of amount. We all have different ideas. Several Texans have said they would open up a Whataburger in Nashville.

I don’t think any of us have any real belief that we will ever get to that undefined “when I get rich” amount, but it got me thinking of how I can get my kids there.

So I’ve come up with a plan: the retirement reimbursement trust.

We are at the point in our society that individuals have to take responsibility for their own retirement. Pension funds are pretty much nonexistent, and even when they are still around, like teachers retirement funds, they are usually underfunded by state partners.

The idea of the trust is to encourage family members to save for retirement by reimbursing them however much they save in their retirement funds every year.

It starts out as seed money to start young people’s retirement funds as soon as possible. The kid works a summer job that qualifies them for an IRA? The parents put that amount in a ROTH IRA for them.

Once they get to be adults and get “real jobs” the trust moves into the reimbursement phase. Whatever the kid puts into their retirement funds, whether it be a 401(k) or 403(b) though work or even a Simple IRA, the trust cuts them a check for that amount after the kid files their income tax forms.*

This really helps the kid in two ways – it encourages them to save for retirement, and lets them live comfortably throughout their life, no matter what they choose to do.

A lot of careers that do good, important work like teaching, the ministry, and non-profits never seem to get paid as much as they should. With a retirement reimbursement trust no one would have to pass on a career because they would never be able to afford a house, or kids, or anything newer than a three year old Camry. The trust lets them use their entire salary to live, while still ensuring their retirement is comfortable.

Brass Tacks

Lets go over some numbers that might help illustrate my point. Even though these numbers change every year, I will use 2015 amounts to keep things simple.

Lets assume C and G are both working the same job, at the same level and get paid the same amount.

C is part of a retirement reimbursement trust, but G is on his own with retirement.

We’re starting with the Metro Nashville Public School starting salary of 42,082.10.**

They have both 401(k) and 403(b) options that top out at $18,000, and workers can contribute to their own IRAs, which top out at $5,500.

401(k)/403(b) 18,000
IRA/ROTH IRA 5,500
Total retirement contributions possible 23,500

If G went by the traditional adage of saving 20% of their income he would put aside $8,416. That’s not an insignificant sum of money, and would be orders of magnitude more than what many people save for retirement. This amount would be enough to max out an IRA or Roth IRA, and probably max out any 401(k) matching offered. G, for the most part, is doing pretty good.

If C went by the same rule of thumb and also saved $8,416, she would be $8,416 better than G, and would now have a nice tidy sum that can help her pay down student loans, put a down payment on a car, or – if she banked it for a couple of years – a down payment on a nice house.
C can also start saving more for retirement without affecting her quality of life. She can slowly, over a few years, add to the retirement percentage until it reaches that $23,500 a year limit. C would be saving half of her annual salary in retirement, potentially letting her retire much, much earlier than G, while still being able to use her entire salary.

Taxes

(remember, only using 2015 numbers)

There’s two that come into play here: annual gift tax exclusion amount and the lifetime gift exemption amount.
Annual gift tax exclusion amount: Each year someone can receive up to $14,000 from an individual.
Lifetime gift exemption amount: Over someone’s lifetime they can receive $5.43 million.
The trust would cut a check for, at most, $23,500 a year.

Retirement $23,500
Annual gift tax exclusion amount: $14,000
Amount over exclusion amount: $9,500

Each year the trust would update the IRS on how much they give over the $14,000, and they would take that off the top off the lifetime exemption amount. There’s no chance of ever reaching that $5.43 million limit this way.

Variations on the Theme

Depending on how much is in the trust, or how many people are pulling from the trust, there may not be enough money for the full $23,500 per person per year. It’s really a mater of sustainability over the long term. This is where an accountant, tax attorney, or financial planner comes in handy.

So here hare some ideas:

  • Max out the reimbursement of 20% of the salary.
  • Cover IRA/Roth IRA contributions
  • Cover up to $14,000, or the max tax-free gift allowed


* For simplicity sake this plan doesn’t cover 401(k) matches, company stock plans, etc. For the sake of this plan all those are simply considered bonuses.

** Side note: this salary, for a certified teacher with a bachelors degree, is the same for those with zero years of experience, to those with EIGHT years of experience. What other industry does fresh-from-college worker get paid the same as someone with eight years of experience?)

On On-Boarding New Hires

mbelcher Leadership, Management , ,

Every company has a system to help new hires integrate into the company and team. Our current on-boarding process involves the new hire sitting down for one-on-ones with every new teammate. It teaches the new hire what everyone does, and how that work pertains what the new hire will be doing. It’s a community effort to get the new hire up to speed and ready for their job, but there’s a problem with this system:
We haven’t done their job before.

Read more

Graphics! Visual design! Layout!

mbelcher Marketing , ,

Websites are a visual medium, and need to look good when they do your selling for you. But the internet is a constantly changing space, and what looks good today will look old and stale tomorrow. With the incessant pushing of innovation – the constant developing of new standards for the web – future proofing a website is difficult.
So how do you keep ahead of (or at least in step with) the changes? Two ways:

  1. Watch the big boys.
    Each major company in the software buissness has design guidelines. Apple, Google, Microsoft each have design guidelines. Pay attention to the most forward-pushing one of your choice.
    Which one do you pick? Make a judgment call. You can switch in a year or two when that design gets long in the tooth.
  2. Push the boundaries yourself.
    Someone somewhere, outside of Google or Apple, came up with the initial “flat” look that both companies use. That graphics or web designer started a trend that, when it got big enough, was eventually co-opted by some of the largest companies in the world. That designer was ahead of the curve. They were a trend setter and pushed the entire internet a little bit forward.
    But watch out – for every trend setting awesomesauce there are designs that don’t work out over the long term. They solved the immediate problem that was presented to them and probably doesn’t work well for anything else.

Personally, I go with a combination of 1 and 2. Using Google and Apple’s guidelines as just that – guidelines – they are a starting point for great design. They can also serve as the course corrector when a design idea gets too far afield from the intended purpose.