Best products from r/kansascity

I'm not sure what budget-friendly means to you, but I'd expect to pay $50-100 for cute, comfortable shoes. Your feet will thank you for going for comfortable over cute $15 flats from Target.

I'd suggest Clark's or Keen brand. I wear Clark's desert boots for my office-ish job (I'm a woman and walk/stand a lot) with inserts to make them even more comfortable. But they have tons of flats like this in lots of colors and styles. Keen is mostly known for athletic shoes, but they have a surprising number of cute flats that feel like you're wearing sneaks, like these.

I buy most of my shoes online, so I don't have good suggestions of stores. But Zappos and many of Amazon's shoes have free returns.

The machine does all the work, so go for the best equipment. Here is KUmed: http://www.kumc.edu/school-of-medicine/ophthalmology/patient-care/refractive-surgery.html

They do the sbk lasik that durrie vision uses and appears to actually use the same exact equipment in the in the same lab, but by allowing a resident to do it under supervision of a physician you can have it done for $3,400 instead of $5,500. (these were prices 3 years ago, so they may have come down)

I didn't know about it until after I already got lasik, so I wasn't able to use them. SBK supposedly cuts a thinner flap. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intralase_SBK

I ended up using http://www.grineyecare.com/?page=lasik. They do the actually procedure in a shared office used by other eye doctors off of 75th street in prairie village. And some eye doctors will use grin for the procedure itself, but have you come back to them for follow up checkups.

After 3 years, I have a very slight prescription, but not enough to make me want to do the procedure again and assume the same risks all over again. Another person I know has a perfect 20/25 using the same clinic.

I had a really dominant right eye which made the adjustment harder. It actually took the full 18 months for my vision to fully settle down and during the first 6 months reading anything close was harder due to the new imbalance(or balance) between my eyes. I used a lower resolution on my computer and a lot of zooming. I also couldn't even read the license plate of the car in front of me, but could read road signs that were further away. It was weird.

Overall, it was definitely worth it.

I do feel night vision is slightly worse but largely due to the slight prescription. There are no halos or starbursts, those went away within the first year. I don't think halos are as big of a concern with the bladeless lasik because they cut a larger flap so your dilated pupil doesn't cross the seem of the flap. In my last eye exam they diluted my pupils and that didn't even cause halos.

After about a year, eye dryness was back to normal. Also pick up a pair of motorcycle glasses like these: http://www.amazon.com/Motorcycle-Riding-Glasses-Smoke-Clear/dp/B000GD5FMY/ Not ones that form a hard seal around your eye like goggles.

For the first few days, having those clear motorcycle glasses on while working saved me a ton of money in eye drops as well as when you had to walk around or leave your house to get into your car. I also got sun glass versions for driving. Even with them, I you still will end up spending 100 bucks or even more on eye drops after the procedure. You have to use the one time use preservative free eye drop vials which are also the most expensive and the thicker ones which are even more expensive work best: http://www.amazon.com/Refresh-Celluvisc-Lubricant-Containers-Quantity/dp/B0064FKL4U/

I used drops like crazy because I didn't want to risk my eyes drying out. I also slept with the motor cycle glasses on for the first few weeks, it seemed to help a lot to reduce dry eye while sleeping. Put in eye drops, put on glasses, let them fog up due to the amount of moisture and sleep.

Even at home, you can put drops in, the glasses may fog up, just vent them a few times until you get the perfect balance of moisture locked in without fogging and you can wear them even at home watching tv to keep your eyes from drying out. You'll know when you don't need them anymore because your eye's won't get really dry without them.

Also, maybe you won't have as bad of dry eye right after the procedure, but I felt I had dryer eyes before getting it, so I used the glasses more as a precaution.

>JC Nichols / Plaza - first shopping center designed to accommodate automobiles. Also attributed with being a redline real estate developer that explains the demographic lines in KC.

I know I'm not alone on this but it's still super embarrassing to realize as a grown ass adult that I had been taught such a simplistic view of why things are the way the are. I'm still learning racial history things at least monthly that I had no idea about. Some of the most "holy shit" moments was reading "Some of my best friends are black" - it's stories about integration. It has a couple chapters about KC, including JC Nichols, specifically how he was an innovator in many ways, including adding a racial covenant in deeds that could only be removed every 25 years, if 100% of homeowners voted to remove it 3 years in advance. (something like that, that made it technically possible but pretty much impossible to remove.)

/u/tacitus and /u/pineappleofdespair have recommended it and also /u/kcjhawker:


>Some of the best neighborhoods east of Troost are from 49th to 63rd street. There was a very strong neighborhood association that went from 49-63 and Oak (?) to the Paseo that was key in fighting much of the blockbusting and other activities that drive white neighbors from their homes. Here's an amazing read on what went down in KC (the other two main stories are about other cities and school districts, but still an awesome read): Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143123637/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_4dUyzbZ3KVFST


/u/thisisforkscity and /u/celiactears did you ever read it?

I'm in Lenexa and use this antenna: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000GIT002/ I am able to get every OTA station in KC without any issues. There are ultimately three issues that can cause poor reception. The first is being outside the range of the towers...which we know isn't the issue. The second is line of sight. The best TV antennas are directional, like the one above, so it needs to be pointed in the direction of the tower, with nothing between the antenna and the tower, and as high above the ground as possible. This also helps with issue number three, which is multipathing. This might be unavoidable if you live in a densely populated area, or near high rises. The TV signal from the tower bounces off of objects before getting to your antenna. But, the antenna also receives the original signal. It sends the reflected signals as well as the original signal to the tuner, which goes, "what the fuck?" As ATSC standards have matured, more recent generations of tuners better handle multipathing issues. TLDR: Buy this antenna, put it outside, point it toward the towers, enjoy free TV, and then figure out why and how it works. It's pretty fucking interesting. :)

You are on the right track. Get your A+ cert, prof. messer has great videos that helped me:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG49S3nxzAnnmMVTdd4v4ryJ7_qoQCrF4
and this book:
http://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-220-801-220-802-Exam-Edition/dp/0789749718

With your A+ cert you can go to sites like justanswers.com and register as a professional to help people on there for experience. Also guru.com and other freelance work will help when it comes to the next part.

Work on your resume, taking your work experience and molding it to show off your IT experience. For example: you said you worked retail, so take your customer support and your interaction with the POS (assuming it was computer based) and put something like: maintained point of sale computer, various printers, payment processing terminals, and peripheral devices. Basically anything even remotely IT related, make it relevant, and apparent that you have extensive knowledge with it.

I personally would NOT go for a "school" like centriq or ITT or any of that crap. You can get into entry level positions with certs and work your way up far faster and cheaper. Get on linkedIn and create a profile if you don't already have one. This will help you network, and search for jobs. Depending on what you can get, you might have to start with a help desk type position to get more experience. The idea entry level IT job for you to aim for (that you can work your way up with) would be a technical support analyst doing tier 1 work.

You can do this, and if you have any questions or anything feel free to hit me up.

The concept is pretty simple -- you dig a trench, line it with filter fabric, and fill the bottom couple inches up with gravel. Then you set your pipe in, establishing a 1° slope towards where it exits, and fill it the rest of the way up with gravel. Fold the end of the filter fabric over the top of the gravel trench, and then cover the top with whatever decorative landscaping you like. In my case I made a rock garden over the part of it, and a flagstone path over the other portion. This write-up on WikiHow is a good primer.

Some things to note:

• Some people will tell you to put your pipe in with the perforations facing up. Those people are wrong. Water will fill the gravel trench until it enters the drain pipe through the perforations, and the lower they are the better a job your drain will do of de-watering the soil above it.
  
• You can use corrugated pipe or PVC to build your drain. Each has pros and cons, but the upshot is that corrugated is cheaper, quicker, and easier to install. Some versions even come with a large-diameter filter sock packed full of styrofoam peanuts already wrapping them, so all you have to do is dig your trench and chuck it in. Rigid PVC pipe is harder to install, since you have to dig perfectly straight trenches and cut it to length and attach fittings at every turn. However, it will be easier to set a slope with it, it will last longer (smooth pipe walls mean that sediment can't find an easy niche to collect in) and if it does clog, you can snake it clean without it getting shredded like corrugated would.
  
• Setting the pipe at a slope is important for longevity of the system. You can install it flat, but it will silt up faster if you do. It's also something you can't really eyeball, and traditional methods for setting a slope are a PITA. I rigged up a cheap and simple method to ensure I was getting the right slope by purchasing one of these trailer leveling gauges and attached it to my level in order to get a precise slope measurement.
  
• If you're using PVC, be sure to include a cleanout somewhere so you can maintain and repair the system. Depending on how you build it (corrugated vs. PVC, slope, filter fabric installation) the drain can last from 10 to 30 years before it silts up and stops working, but with a cleanout you can extend that lifespan further.
  
• Sketch out the routing for your drain and use your measurements to figure out how much material you'll need. If the drain close to your foundation, you can also measure the amount of grade change you have to work with by measuring from the ground to the top of your foundation or the first course of siding. On a flat lot, you may not be able to get 1° of slope all the way through.
  
• You're going to need a lot of gravel. If you're hand-digging the trench, figure that it's going to end up about a foot wide. That means that for every foot of depth, you need two 50-lb bags per foot of length. I ended up putting about 2000 lbs of gravel in mine, and that was before I added the rock garden on top. If you have a truck, you can save some money here by buying in bulk from a landscape supply house rather than in bags.
  
• You're also going to have a lot of extra dirt afterwards. If you need to regrade around the house to establish positive drainage, now is the time. If you don't have a place to put fill dirt, you'll need to have it hauled away. In my case, my neighbor needed all the fill I could give him for his own landscaping projects, so I didn't have to worry about it.

Seersucker was invented in India because the way it's woven, it stands out a little from the body and lets a little breeze in. Consider men's seersucker clothing if you're female and can't find any loose-fitting seersucker.

Also consider a men's guayabera -- these are what men wear in Latin America, untucked, with lots of pockets, lots of room for cooling breezes, and looks dressy enough to go anywhere.

If you get desperate you can upend a canteen of water over your head and your seersucker or guayabera too. Just remove electronics first.

Here is the kind of hat everyone wears in Arizona and New Mexico. It has a mesh cutout so a little breeze can get in. https://www.amazon.com/Side-Mesh-Talson-Bucket-Hat/dp/B0080I9OYW If you have long hair, that chin tie can be fixed to keep the hair up off your neck.

As others have suggested, I like khaki cargo shorts, but if you can find any seersucker shorts great.

I also wear men's Hawaiian shirts--again, cotton (sometimes silk), big and breezy and look good untucked.

I can't say enough good about Duofold Varitec. I have to check to make sure I'm even wearing a shirt when I go out in this fabric. Again, it's been easier for me to find them in Men's.

Edited to add: I prefer athletic sandals (again, I buy men's because I can't find a single pair in women's that aren't all kinds of crazy turquoise and orange colors) https://www.kohls.com/product/prd-2721482/croft-barrow-mens-bungee-fisherman-sandals.jsp?ci_mcc=ci&utm_campaign=MENS%20DRESS/CAS%20SHOES&utm_medium=CSE&utm_source=google&utm_product=73525577&CID=shopping15&utm_campaignid=196833692&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp-bw3Iyl1QIVU1YNCh3--ws4EAQYBSABEgJd4fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=COPwouCMpdUCFY0PgQodsFEB4w

In Arizona they advise against any kind of sandal, but it's not hot enough in KC to burn your sandals up like it is in Phoenix. Not kidding, in Phoenix my sneaker bottoms melted to the asphalt and came off. Anyway I have found athletic sandals with good arch support to stand up to the heat and walking just fine.

Using the modem supplied by google is fine as the front-line router handling any wired connections. But do NOT use it's wifi, you need a separate router because that modems wifi is terrible.

I am personally a fan of ASUS wireless routers, but there's nothing wrong with the usual big names like Netgear or Linksys or whoever. All are easy to use and fine for typical home use.

I use an older version of this:
https://www.amazon.com/RT-ACRH13-Dual-Band-AC1300-4-port-Gigabit/dp/B01LXL1AR8

And it works great

All you really have to do is set your google fiber modem's wifi to OFF in the web-based settings. Then you just run an ethernet cable from the google modem(any ethernet port) to your new wifi router.

Now, the instructions for your wifi router will typically tell you to use the 1 designated ethernet port that is labeled as "uplink" or "internet", but I actually had issues with that on several different routers and just plugged straight into a standard ethernet port(your wireless router will likely have 4+ ports to choose from) and it worked much, much better.

That was the one small quirk compared to how I used to have my Time Warner service setup, using a wireless routers uplink port always worked flawlessly using cable, but not so much with Google Fiber, just use a standard ethernet port for chaining the 2 boxes together.

I won't, but I will give you several sites and subreddits you should check out.

/r/urbanplanning

/r/urbandesign

/r/urbantransport

/r/highspeedrail

/r/transit

Congress for the New Urbanism

Congress for the New Urbanism's YouTube Channel

Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (planning firm)

Smart Growth Online

NewUrbanism.org

Strong Towns YouTube Channel

Notre Dame School of Architecture YouTube Channel

_____

Here are also some good book recommendations (links to Amazon pages), many you could probably find at a local library:

A Better Place to Live: Reshaping the American Suburb by Philip Langdon

The Architecture of Community by Leon Krier

Architecture: Choice or Fate by Leon Krier

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch

The Smart Growth Manual by Andres Duany and Jeff Speck with Mike Lydon

Sprawl Repair Manual by Galina Tachieva

Retrofitting Suburbia by Ellen Dunham-Jones

Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream by Andres Duany

History of Urban Form Before the Industrial Revolutions by A.E.J. Morris

The Language of Towns & Cities: A Visual Dictionary by Dhiru A. Thadani

The hiking around here isn't awesome, but there's a good book called Hiking in Kansas City that should take care of everything for you.

Of course, Lake of the Ozarks is our getaway place, about two hours drive, and the further southeast in Missouri you go the better the hills get, so there's some good weekend camping options. I also recommend hiking in Prairie State Park about 2hrs straight south of KC - big open fields of nothing but 4 ft tall grass.

Some of the best neighborhoods east of Troost are from 49th to 63rd street. There was a very strong neighborhood association that went from 49-63 and Oak (?) to the Paseo that was key in fighting much of the blockbusting and other activities that drive white neighbors from their homes. Here's an amazing read on what went down in KC (the other two main stories are about other cities and school districts, but still an awesome read): Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143123637/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_4dUyzbZ3KVFST

You might be interested in one of the local meetups:

1. Hiking - http://www.meetup.com/hiking-198/
   
2. Adventure club - http://www.meetup.com/Kansas-City-Adventure-Club/
   
   At the very least, check out their events; that'll give you some ideas for hikes! You might also get this book - http://www.amazon.com/Hiking-Kansas-City-William-Eddy/dp/1891708325 It details hikes all around the metro area and even in surrounding areas that are a little farther away (like Weston).

Hiking Kansas City is a great resource.

Unfortunately "just get the permits" is pretty complicated. The food must be prepared in a kitchen designated for distribution (not used for any other purpose). The food must then be transported in temperature control (both hot and cold). The temperature must be maintained at the service location as well.

Kitchen space can be rented

http://olathe.k-state.edu/research/centers-institutes/food-programs/food-innovation-accelerator.html

http://thecitymarket.org/farm-to-table-kitchen/overview

Transportation equipment would need to be bought and stored or rented.

https://www.amazon.com/Carlisle-PC300N03-Cateraide-End-Loading-Insulated/dp/B00SYFR6L4

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