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June 4, 2020

Notary shuts down biz because he cares more about lives than money

Filed under: General Stories — Tags: , , — admin @ 6:22 am

A Notary on Twitter claims that he shut down his notary business due to the Covid-19 virus. He claims that he did this because he cares more about saving lives than about making money.

But, if everyone stopped going to work to save lives, the supermarkets would be closed. The hospitals would all shut down. And all over services would not be available. What if someone would die because they could not reach a notary in time. Would you still be saving lives?

And you need to still make a living even if there is a disease going around. You can’t just stop living unless you are definitely infected — and in that case stay home for 14 days or so.

This notary was virtue signalling himself and patting himself on the back in a self-righteous way. But, he criticized me for being an immoral person for suggesting that he stay open. Later on he revealed that he hardly does any notary work anyway.

The moral of this story is that stopping functioning will not make this disease go away. Staying away from places where people are densely populated with poor ventilation might help. And social distancing might help too.

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May 2, 2020

Can you ask a borrower if they have been out of the country?

Is it legal, ethical, or advisable to ask borrowers if they have been to a highly infected area recently such as Italy, Iran, China, South Korea, etc? Someone asked me this today. The answer is that you might get lenders mad at you.

The rate of infection in these countries is measured in infections per million and they are generally between 50 and 200 cases per million. So, being in these countries presents a very minuscule risk to the notary.

On the other hand, if a borrower exhibits Covid 19 type symptoms such as a dry cough, trouble breathing, etc., then you might be advised to stay away. I cannot advise on this as much of the transmission of Covid 19 happens with people who exhibit no symptoms.

Disinfecting the signing table, pens, cell phones, etc., makes a lot of sense. Having the signers wash hands thoroughly immediately before the signing is also a good idea. If they were a mask, that would be the icing on the cake.

I don’t know what you can ask or should ask without upsetting lenders and title companies. So, it might make sense to ask them.

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March 22, 2020

10 things for a Notary to do while under quarantine

During these precarious times, it is possible that some of us will be quarantined, and a lot more likely that our cities will be shut down. People are so insane these days, that they will shut down a metropolitan city completely because there are 40 cases. If you get rid of those 40 cases by quarantining them or quarantining the entire city, the minute you let people from other cities come in, you will get those 40 cases back within days. So, the NYC shut down is very wasteful and damaging to society and accomplishes nothing.

Meanwhile as of March 13, 2020 New Mexico is closing schools. New Mexico has zero recorded cases of the disease, so they are stopping a non-existent transmission of the disease at the expense of hundreds of thousands of children. And what are the parents of these kids supposed to do with their kids at home, especially if they don’t have enough food to feed them? I don’t think local governments are intellectually astute enough to figure this out.

If cases in a particular area are low, testing and quarantining individuals makes a lot of sense. You shouldn’t shut down an entire city or country if there are only a few cases.

But, what are you going to do if you get shut down or quarantined. Here are my suggestions:

1. Study up on Notary knowledge. Read blogs, certification courses, and Notary Public 101 on our blog which is a very popular free course.

2. Re-ink your seal. It’s over due for an inking anyway.

3. Do some stretching. Your hamstrings will thank you. But, what if you are vegan? Would you still have ham strings, or would you have gluten strings? What a perplexing issue.

4. Call clients who you haven’t heard from in a while. Let me know you still exist.

5. Go from supermarket to supermarket to see if anyone has any bottled water.

6. Eat something with garlic, ginger and spices to boost your immune system and to show solidarity with those in Italy.

7. Watch sports matches on television — oops, you can’t because they have all been canceled. Maybe netflix will have them.

8. Take a long walk.

9. Meditate

10. Take cough medicine — unless you don’t need to.

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March 20, 2020

Covid19, Panicking, and the Notary Industry

Filed under: Drama & Tragedy — Tags: , — admin @ 8:17 pm

It seems that the Covid 19 virus is hitting America. The numbers keep changing fast as we are testing more people. Honestly, America had two and a half months to prepare for this outbreak and moved slowly. The President downplayed the danger of the disease as well which is dangerous in itself. Now that the disease is off the leash in America, we are starting to realize that perhaps we should learn from particular Asian countries on how to get a handle on this problem. Testing likely suspects in mass is a big part of it. But, what about Notaries, what should your concerns and actions be?

Be Prepared
It is a problem that people are panicking. This results in unstable business decisions. It also results in stores being sold out of face masks (not a problem in my area yet), hand sanitizer, paper towels, bottled water, and water filters. It makes sense to have a supply at home because these items sell out quickly. I was lucky and got some paper towels and water today which is March 10th although I might not publish this article for a while.

The Stock Market
Stocks are plummeting in value. I understand that cruise and airline stocks should lose some intrinsic value due to this disease. But, banks should not be too affected by this problem, yet their stocks are dipping just as badly as airlines. Even Coca Cola which is a very stable company has lost a lot of ground and they are one of the most stable stocks that exist.

Your Behavior
I heard that the refinance marked spiked and then the phones stopped ringing in the last few days. Interest rates are low and could get lower as the global economy is slowing down due to the disease and due to the trade war between the USA and China. This means more refinances. However, if people are afraid to go to work or leave the house, that means there might not be any business for Notaries. Very few people are infected in America at this point and it does not make sense to avoid leaving the house at this stage. Once we get into late April or May then it might be a much more serious situation and you might face immediate risk.

The 18 Month Rule
Some people have decided to shut down schools or not go to work. Newsflash – pandemics like the Spanish Flu, Swine Flu, and Covid 19 typically last 18 months or longer. So, if you have decided that shutting down your school or playing hookey on work makes sense, ask yourself if you can afford to continue that behavior for 18 months. Sure, if there is an acute outbreak in your particular area, then cancelling school makes sense. But, now, there are only three areas in the USA where it makes sense to cancel school.

The Elderly
If you are 60 or over, or have a lung condition it makes sense not to get on an airplane, cruise ship, go to the movies, go to a convention, or be anywhere where you will be in close proximity to large quantities of humans, especially if the ventilation is anything other than clean air.

My recommendations
I am not a doctor, but I think stocking up on some food and supplies makes sense at this point because the shelves at your supermarket could end up stripped bare at some point. It makes sense to wash your hands regularly with soap and disinfect surfaces in your house regularly. It makes sense to avoid crowds if you can. But, you need to go to work unless there is some pressing reason why you wouldn’t. If you are sick, elderly, or there is an outbreak in your city you might stop going to work for a while. If you are able to work from home that is great and recommended. But, if you have to work at an office, take some vitamin C and hope for the best. You can’t just end your life before it is over.

Loan Signings
Don’t be afraid to do loan signings. There is a chance that the signers could be infected, but a very small chance at this point. Stay six feet away from them and make sure they don’t sneeze on you. Disinfect the table with wipes or lysol. You might check with the borrowers by phone to see if they are coughing or sneezing. Take some vitamin C and garlic and hope for the best. We cannot just shut down society at this point because there is a tiny risk of exposure.

What should the government do?
We should test all those with symptoms in a very efficient way. We should test all that have come into contact with diagnosed individuals. It might also make sense to test all who live in areas with high rates of infections. There is a pecking order for who should be tested. Because if we don’t identify individuals who have the disease, we will eventually have to quarantine all of society at least in particular areas which will be devastating for the economy.

Summary
It is unclear how this disease will affect the notary industry. Personally, I think it will help us with loan signings, and I think the danger to Notaries doing signings is minuscule. Even if your a borrower from time to time has the disease, you are not likely to get it if you take precautions. Continue living your life and take necessary precautions unless you are elderly or have lung issues in which case — alter your life now!

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March 17, 2020

Coronavirus – how it affected me and my recommendations

Filed under: General Stories — Tags: , , — admin @ 6:10 am

Since I work from home and have savings, I don’t think I will personally be too badly affected by the Coronavirus.

But, today, I was subjected to a rude awakening. Public schools, universities, bars, clubs, restaurants, etc., have all been closed other than for restaurant take out. The restaurants were functioning at 10% of capacity when they were allowed to have dine in guests. However, in other parts of California the restaurants are still open based on a conversation I had using my fluent Mandarin Chinese (thank you, thank you, you may applaud… okay, that’s enough applauding.).

At Whole Foods, they were out of almost everything I normally get. I had to get chocolate flavored hazelnut milk rather than my usual vanilla almond milk. Unfortunately I use the milk with cereal and juice and was not sure how the chocolate would mix. It mixed well with Cherry juice which is one of the things the supermarket actually had in good quantity.

I invented the term Frankenstonian that is kind of like Draconian, but involves more “experiments” done with a German accent and the announcement, “It’s alive— ya!”

I got to see what other supermarkets are like in my quest to find toilet paper and wound up finding a far superior brand of pumpkin pie.

But, I was so sad walking around thinking of all the laid off bar tenders, waiters, and airlines staff that I actually almost started to cry. I was so depressed.

So, it hasn’t been all bad. But, here is my view on the policies.

COVID-19 is like a tsunami.
The “experts” say they are trying to reduce the height of the tsunami of infections by introducing draconian measures to create social distancing. I agree with social distancing if it can be done in a way that doesn’t cripple the economy which will have a domino effect and could land us in a depression or broke as a nation. The reason we are in this problem is that most countries including the USA do not have enough ICU rooms or ventilators. Why are we realizing this now? In my opinion, wars, earthquakes and disease outbreaks happen on a regular basis and therefor we should have locations for makeshift hospitals and RESERVE WORKERS for hospitals just like the military has. America is always ready for war, but never ready to take care of its citizens.

So, the strategy is to do permanent damage to children by hampering their education. Kids are dumb enough as it is with school, imagine how dumb they will be missing an entire year. We are taking two weeks off as a precautionary move. But, two weeks later nothing will improve, but lots of damage to the economy and lots of frustrated people, and lots of dumb kids. The tsunami is still coming, delayed perhaps by a few days, and its height will be far above our capacity to deal with it even if we delay it.

The damage from the tsunami is bad enough on its own, but now we will triple the damage by ruining our robust economy because we can’t control a tiny little virus with all of our technology and medical knowledge. Unbelievable. Am I supposed to put my faith in science after all of this nonsense?

My Recommendations for “dealing” with Covid-19
1. Have manufacturing plants for respirators, masks and Purell working 48 hours per day (if that’s possible)
2. Use prefab buildings and create a makeshift hospital near an airport or on a military base.
3. Create an army of reserve medical staff who are somewhat skilled in handling emergencies.
4. Let it rip – then we will have the mechanism to treat the ill and all of these quarantines will no longer be necessary.

I think at some point we need to let nature take its course. The angels want to do a cleanup of some of the negative spiritual forces in the planet, and outbreaks are one of the ways they do it. Personally I think they should use bolts of lightning. But, in a candid interview with an angel recently mentioning the lightning, the angel replied, “Nah, that’s old school, we prefer infectious diseases — that’s what’s in now. Thousands of people get infected, but we decide who will die. With lightning, it’s too hard to aim, plus you can only use it when people are outside in thudnderstorm.”

In the mean time, back to my chocolate hazelnut milk. That stuff is so good, that I am not minding this emergency of epidemic proportions as much.

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