FOW Archive: Spotting Storms and Fighting Fears

This article was originally published in the Dolphin Talk Newspaper out of Seadrift, Texas in March of 2012. 

I’m not really too sure of exactly when I became phobic of severe weather, but I do know that it is something that has shaped my life deeply over the last two years. Imagine watching weather reports days in advance, letting the weather severely impact your daily activities and also being embarrassed that you hold this overwhelming fear of something that most people would find silly.

While the truth is that the problem is one that affects a far larger number of people than is reported; there are ways to fight it as well. Besides trying to raise awareness of the problem online and starting a support group, I have found that one of the best ways to fight the phobia is to learn as much as I can about severe weather and what causes it.

It was with that in mind that over the last year or so I endeavored to become a Skywarn spotter for the National Weather Service. I figured it was a chance to get information on severe weather as well as to help others impacted by severe weather events. I wanted to know even more about what I was looking for in the skies and on the radar, I wanted to be able to trust myself as a source for when the weather got too dangerous.

FOW Archives: 419 Scams

I have written for the Dolphin Talk Newspaper out of Seadrift, Texas since 2012. These are the articles I have written in this time as it went from a bi-weekly publication to a monthly. This article is from the twenty-third of February 2012 and can also be found here. 

419 Scams:

Have you ever checked your email and found a letter from a poor refugee who is suffering in another country and needs assistance? Ever received a letter stating that an American soldier serving in the Middle East has a trunk stuffed with cash from a terrorist compound and he needs your help to get it into the United States? Or how about a letter stating that you have won the United Kingdom Lottery drawing, even though you never entered?

Chances are if you have a public email, such as a Gmail or Hotmail account, that the answer is most likely yes. These letters are called 419 scams, named after the part of Nigerian code that governs such criminal activity in that country and they have been around for over twenty years.

Survivalist Memes… (Valentine’s Day & Other Void-Scapes)

People suck.

They do, they really do.

Some try not to suck, they do the right things, follow the unwritten social rules and strive to see every person as an individual.