10 Survival Items to Have With You...Everywhere

Today as I was typing away on my latest project, the Anderson Cooper show came on in the background.  I usually don't pay much attention to what is on TV but when I heard the words "preparedness" and "survivalists" my ears perked up.  Of course I stopped and watched and was pleased that the show focused a couple of its segments on preparedness.  I was shocked, however, that when the host asked how many audience members had taken steps to be prepared only a few hands raised up!  I mean how hard is it to gather up a few things that could make your life a bit better in a survival situation?  So for those who need either a wake-up call or a refresher, here are ten items you need to put in your house, car, and in the desk in your office (yes, that means 10 things x 3 places so you will end up with a total of 30 items that you will package up and store away for an emergency):

1. Bottled water
2. Packaged, non-perishable food (granola bars, jerky, etc).
3. Cash (bills and coins)
4. Something to warm up in (jacket, blanket, emergency blanket, etc)
5. A whistle
6. A knife
7. Flashlight and extra batteries
8. Comfortable shoes you can walk (far) in
9. A portable radio
10. Matches or a lighter

Bonus item: three chargers for your cell phone, one at home, one for your car, and one for your office.

Those ten items will, surprisingly, take care of most of the problems you will face after a disaster.

Finally, as the Anderson Cooper show was wrapping up, he asked some ladies not related to the preparedness segment what they thought of the preppers and one responded "can you image how weird they would be to hang out with?" which shows she actually knows very little about preppers.  For many preppers, doing preparedness things isn't what they do 24/7.  In fact, many preppers do serious preparedness things only on occasion since once you are prepared, there is very little to do on a daily basis.  Of course their hobbies--shooting, hunting, growing a garden--are much more productive, useful, and entertaining than what many people do these days for entertainment, namely shopping or sitting on their couch watching TV.

5 More Things You Should Know

Here's some more useful info:

• Hurricane?  There's an app for that.
• Yes armed civilians can stop mass killings.
• No you aren't being paranoid, you are being spied on.
• Random shooter+police response+busy urban environment=disaster
• High meat prices? Here's an idea.

Added: When your covert op makes the front page you know it's gonna be a bad day.

This Week in the News (With Commentary, Of Course)

It's been a busy week in the news:

• A Navy SEAL wrote a book about the Bin Laden operation.  I'm all for freedom of the press, I'm appalled that a Navy SEAL would do such a thing.
• All of the innocent bystanders who were wounded in the Empire State Building shooting were hit by police.  Obviously shooting into a crowded area--by anyone--can lead to such an outcome.  Even worse is a crowded area with lots of hard surfaces for bullets to ricochet off of.  On the other hand, I know many more civilians who practice at the range MUCH more often than the law enforcement officers I know.  When lives depend on how well you can handle your firearm, you need to practice like your life depends on it because...it does. 
• Boy was killed in a flash flood in Vegas.  We had some pretty hairy weather these past couple of days.  Added to heavy rain and full flood channels were kids playing in the flood channels (not necessarily this kid in the story but there was news video of other kids floating down the raging water on an air mattress like they were at a park).  Note that high water+rushing water=death (usually).
• Tropical Storm Isaac will hit Florida soon.  This is where all of your prepping pays off.
• Syria is still....well...Syria.  Not much has changed recently but we should all still be aware of the situation.
• And an article on PTSD which more people should take note of.

Get Yourself Oriented to a New Environment: 15 Tips

Whether you are moving to a new location, heading off to college, traveling on holiday, or traveling for work, it is important to do a bit of recon concerning your new location.  Here are 15 things to do to orient yourself to your new location:

1. Write down the address and phone number of the place you are staying.  If you are in a foreign country, have someone write this information down in the local language.  Nothing like heading out to explore your new environs and forgetting how to get back… 
2. If you have a phone or other type of GPS device, mark the location on the device for future reference.
3. Pull out a map (or pull up a map on your computer) and orient yourself to your new location.  See where you are in relation to major landmarks, know what city/county/state/province/prefecture/barangay/arrondiseement/etc you are located in, and identify what surrounds you.
4. Research what natural disasters are common in the area as well as what to do before, during, and after such disasters (I had quite the surprise when we were in north Georgia last year and the tornado warnings kept coming up on the TV.  I didn’t know exactly where we were in relation to the warnings until my brother in law came home and told us a tornado “was fixin’ to come this way…y’all better get in the basement”.  Fortunately the tornado missed us, unfortunately it hit a town just north of us and it looked like a weed whacker had taken out half the town.
5. Research what man-made disasters could happen in the area.  Everything from chemical plants, to major freeways, to rail lines, to having a forest behind your new home that is popular with weekend shooters could pose a problem for you; know about these things ahead of time.
6. Don’t forget to find out about hazardous flora and fauna in the area.  I am still in the habit of making our garbage cans bear and raccoon tight since this was a problem in Washington…I’ve yet to see a bear, raccoon or even a stray cat wandering around here in Las Vegas.
7. Save the following numbers on your cell phone: local friend or relative, non-emergency police number, emergency number (if it is different than 911), local hospital, local pharmacy, local taxi, closest embassy, local media (TV news or newspaper), etc.  The number to any person or service that could help you out of a jam should be saved (and for double protection, you may want to laminate a list of these numbers/addresses and put it in your wallet in case your phone dies).
8. Walk or drive the local roads and look for two or more ways to exit the area in a hurry.  Also look for other things that could come in handy during an emergency (sources of water, sources of emergency food, sources of wood for heating, etc).
9. If you have a question—everything from the best auto shop to the best carry out Chinese food  place to what is that weird ______ question—ask someone.  Better to ask than to remain clueless.
10. Add local online resources to your web browser’s “favorites” list.  Mine include a half dozen local news sources, a link to the Department of Emergency Management for my local area, links to the Vegas and Las Vegas reddits (kind of like a giant bulletin board for nearly every large community on the planet), and another half dozen links to Vegas blogs and local websites that cover everything from updated entertainment options to continuously updated lowest airfares from my city reports.
11. Make yourself seen in your neighborhood.  You don’t need to necessarily make friends, but when people being to recognize you, whether from your daily walks around your neighborhood to your daily visits to your favorite new coffee shop, you begin to become part of the fabric of the community (this can come in handy in an emergency).
12. Find out what resources are available to you.  This list is huge and can include student discounts at local businesses, locals discounts for attractions and shows (quite common in Vegas), discounts on property taxes if you are a senior citizen, rebates and freebies from your utility company, gym passes if you are an enrolled student at a local college, free days each month at the museum, et al.
13. Find out what the local laws are.  My first concern is usually what the local concealed carry laws are in whatever location I happen to be in.  You also want to know if there are any laws that could adversely affect you (for example, in strict Muslim countries you don’t want to be hanging all over your SO even if you have been married for decades as there could be severe penalties for this).
14.  Find out what the local social customs are.  From my travels I have learned quite a few “unwritten” rules from the people I have visited including: you don’t disparage NASCAR or country music in the south, you do hang your laundry outside even if you live in a multi-million dollar house in Tokyo and have a brand new clothes dryer in your home, there is no such thing as orderly lines in the Philippines—you just kind of shuffle ahead until you get to where you need to be, Vegas is full of rude people and idiots (well not ALL of them but a surprisingly large number…), and New Jersey is full of people who sound rude but aren’t--that’s just the way they talk.
15. Try the local food.  And the local toothpaste.  And the local everything else.  Whether you are traveling and don’t want to spend an arm and a leg to get an American product that you have just run out of or you have moved to a new area permanently, realize that people have survived for years without (fill in the name of your favorite product here).  Just because you can’t easily come by your favorite product (in my case, Umpqua ice cream which I can’t find anywhere outside of the Pacific Northwest) it doesn’t mean you can’t find a local product that will meet your needs (well, except for in the case of this particular ice cream…although I don’t even miss Dicks burgers anymore because they have In N Out here but I digress…).

Whether you will be in your new location for days, weeks, or years, it pays to situate yourself as quickly as possible so that you will be comfortable—as well as safe—in your new place.

20 Things to do to Get Your Kids Ready for the New School Year

Our days of getting the kids ready for back to school are long past (thank goodness...these days some schools are requiring an iPad!), however here are some things to consider before the school year begins to get your kids ready to go back to school:

1. Get their vaccinations updated.
2. Get them a complete physical check up (including vision check and hearing check).
3. Sign them up for sports or after school clubs (better to keep the kids busy than allow them to wander around aimlessly after school...I recommend sports because nearly all kids need more exercise in their lives).
4. Buy enough school supplies for the year while the items are on sale now (shop sales and use coupons if possible to reduce prices on these items even more).
5. Practice going to and from school with them as safely as possible (this might mean riding a bike and discussing how to ride safely, walking to the school and talking about how to cross the street, etc).
6. Find out what your child's school emergency plans are (everything from what their active shooter plan is to how parents are informed about school emergencies and school closures).
7. Discuss all things tech related (what are the rules for cell phones at school, what are your own rules for their social media use, etc).
8. Put an "emergency pack" in each kid's backpack (this should include a written list of emergency numbers in case their cell phone dies or is inoperable, $20 for use in case of emergency, a granola bar, etc.  Sadly I am quite uninformed when it comes to school "emergency packs" and thus what would go into one...ideally I would include a pocket knife but I believe that schools frown on pocketknives these days).
9. Practice skills that would come in handy in an emergency (finding another route home, finding cover and concealment, how to call 911 and in what circumstances to do this, what to do about bullying, etc).
10. Set up a schedule of enrichment activities for the kids (from what I understand, many schools range from meh to appalling when it comes to education these days.  It's a parents responsibility to pick up where their child's education lacks so consider museum programs, library programs, music lessons, teaching your kids about everything from gardening to computer repair, etc).
11. Put together a Child Safety Kit.  Hopefully you will never need it, but in the unfortunate circumstance that you do, then at least you will have these necessary items.
12. Go camping or fishing or do some other end-of-summer activity with your kids before school starts.
13. Make up a new emergency code word with your kids.
14. Set the ground rules--everything from bed times to homework rules to dating and borrowing-the-car rules.
15. Encourage leadership and responsibility in your kids (this could range from getting a dog to them joining Boy Scouts or Student Council).
16. Be active in your child's school and education (this can range from reviewing homework every night to homeschooling them).
17. Encourage your kids to solve their own problems (helicopter parents create way more problems for their kids than they solve).
18. Make your kids earn some of their own money for things they want to buy.  This gives them life-long skills for earning money which, sadly, many kids don't have as they have always been given everything they want.
19. Keep an open line of communication with your kids so you will have some idea of what is going on in their lives (easier said than done...even more difficult between the ages of 12 and 17 if I remember correctly).
20. Don't be your kids "buddy" be the role model you want them to emulate.

10 Things to Do Before the End of Summer

Unfortunately in Las Vegas it is like one long, continual summer, but for many people, you only have a month or so of good weather left.  Here's ten things to do before it gets cold:

1. Winterize your home (this will make your home warmer in the winter and lower your utility bills).
2. Go camping/hiking/backpacking (you can never get enough outdoors!).
3. Revamp your BOB for the fall.
4. Start an exercise program (it's easier to start such a program in the summer than in the dead of winter).
5. Stock up on food!  Now that it is nearing harvest time, buy produce and meat while it is cheap and preserve it to use throughout the winter (this was quite common a century ago but hardly anyone does this now which is unfortunate).
6. Spend time with your kids or grandkids before school starts (never underestimate the long-term positive effects of interacting with your kids and grandkids--it will pay dividends over the coming years).
7. Clean up your yard and property--not only does this help prevent wildfires it makes your home look less attractive to a burglar. 
8. Go dumpster diving.  It is a seriously useful hobby (and yet another skill easier learned when it is still warm outside).
9. Get your car ready for winter (change the oil, possibly a tune up, check the tires, change the wiper blades, etc).
10. Get ready for the fall hunting season (new gear, sight your rifles in, stock up on ammo, etc).

Another Mass Shooting? Really?

Another day, another mass shooting.  Unfortunately.  Today it was in Texas, tomorrow it may be in your town.  Are you prepared?
While there isn't a checklist that you can follow that will ensure with 100% accuracy that you will be able to thwart a mass shooter should you find yourself in his sights, here are some things you should definitely consider:

• Watch this video for some good pointers.  And this video.  And if you have time, check YouTube for similar videos.
• Carry a concealed firearm with you at all times.  Extreme? Yes. Effective in this sort of situation? Yes (obviously you want to be licensed to carry a firearm and WELL TRAINED to use it in tactical situations).
• If possible, work in a secure office/building. If that is not possible, hire a security expert to help you develop a security plan for your office.
• Research the topic.  You can start here, here, and here.  Also here.
• Carry a cell phone with you at all times to use it to report an active shooter situation.  Besides calling 911, see if your local law enforcement/dispatch agency has a way to text messages for help in the event that you need to remain silent while hiding.
• Hold mass shooter drills at your workplace.
• While in public, play the "what if" game with your family.  What if there is a mass shooter coming from twelve o'clock, what would you do?  Then discus various scenarios.

Unfortunately there is no way to definitively say "do this and you won't become a victim of a mass shooter" but you should take the time now to research the topic and consider ways to react should you find yourself in this unfortunate situation.  Ten skills that will help you, no matter what situation you find yourself in, are:

1. Be in good physical condition.  You may need to run to save your life.  You may need to hoist yourself up through a false ceiling.  You may need to climb over a fence or contort yourself under a desk.
2. Have a way to communicate for help (from the obvious such as a cell phone, to the creative such as using a marker and copy paper to write "call 911" and hang it on your office window, etc).
3. Be able to defend yourself.  Let's hope it doesn't come down to a physical confrontation but if it does, you want to be able to rise to the occasion.
4. Continually look for cover and concealment opportunities whether you are in your office, at your local coffee shop, at the airport, etc.
5. Know that there is no amount of preparation that will get you ready to have someone stick a gun in your face.  Your psychological and physiological response before, during, and after such a situation will be quite unusual compared to anything else you have ever experienced.
6. Always be aware of your surroundings and watch people--how they act, how they move, what they are doing, if they are carrying, etc.
7. Be consistently inconsistent.  Never arrive or leave at the same time, never take the same route every day, in other words, don't be the guy that others can set their watch by.
8. Whatever weapon you decide to carry--from a firearm to a tactical pen--practice with it and know how to use it.  Just carrying it will do no good if you can't use it effectively.
9. Be a leader and know how to work with others.  Know how to think on your feet and give commands in no uncertain terms.  Often times when you need to respond to a threat there may be others around but the difficulty comes from making a split-second decision and then garnering your "forces" to react effectively as a unit.
10. Escape, evasion, hiding, fighting, turning whatever is at hand into a weapon...basically the same tactics that worked a thousand years ago are still useful today...consider all options.

What's In Your Walk Away Bag?

You have a BOB and you are well aware of the implements necessary for EDC but do you have a walk away bag?  Judging by posts here, here, and here, the idea of simply walking away from your life is pretty popular.  In theory, walking away from your life sounds like a good answer to a variety of difficult situations.  In reality it is much more complicated than that (cutting off ALL contact with everyone you have ever known? Restarting your life from scratch?  It's easier said than done).
There are some situations, however, that may necessitate you having a walk away bag close at hand.  These situations don't include fraud (life insurance scams) or avoiding your responsibilities (skipping out on child support...in my book, you made the kid, you feed it).  But I have suggested having a walk away bag to a few people over the years (all were victims of domestic violence/stalking).  In cases where you need to leave town quickly and occasionally permanently and the possibility of hauling a BOB with you in the event you get a chance to escape would make it too obvious to whoever is following you, you will need a walk away bag.  Here's what to put in it:

• A bag (obviously).  It needs to look like a large purse, a school book bag, a briefcase, or a computer bag.  A full-sized backpack that you would use for your BOB won't work in this situation. 
• A thumb drive with all of your computer files regularly backed up on it.
• Cash.  And lots of it.
• A new pre-paid cell phone (purchased with cash) and a new SIM card (you don't want this phone to ever have been used and you don't want it associated with your name in any way).
• ATM/debit/credit card associated with an out of town bank.  Preferably the account has a lot of money in it.  Obviously you don't want whoever is following you to know you have this account set up.
• Original documents if possible (copies if this is not possible) of your birth certificate, passport, driver's license, etc.  
• Small jewelry or other pawnable items.

That's it.  It's pretty meager but you don't want it to look like you are moving.  You want it to look like you are going about your normal day, going to work or school or to visit your mother for a few hours...then you will disappear.  With a bit of cash you can stop by Walmart and buy some toiletries.  With a bit more cash you can stop by the Goodwill and buy a change of clothes. But first you need to leave and you need to have these few necessities in order to help you get away quickly.  A few other things:

• You want to carry this bag with you as part of your everyday habit.  Anything out of the ordinary (gee I wonder why she is carrying that big, stuffed bag today?) will draw unwanted attention to you.
• You want to stash the bag where you will be able to grab it and go but where the person who is after you won't find it (at work? in the crawl space? at your aunt's house?).
• You don't want to tell anyone where you are going.
• If you can pop the hard drive out of your computer and take it with you, do so.  If not, be sure you haven't left behind any information on it for someone who may be tracking you (erasing your browsing history won't cut it).
• Leave everything behind except what is in your walk away bag.  Leave your cell phone, your wallet full of loyalty cards, and your keys behind.
• Know the difference between walking away (legal) and faking your own death (not legal and tends to waste a lot of time and resources of various government agencies that are enlisted to search for you).
• You need your original documents to start over.  The days of finding a dead kid in a cemetery and assuming its identity are long gone.  You can use these documents to change your name legally and in some cases (generally stalking/domestic violence) to get a new social security number.  If you have reason to need a completely new identity I suggest either a government wit sec program or going to a third world country where you can hide out for a (long) while.
• The ability to do odd jobs, off the books, will be quite useful.
• If someone is determined enough or has enough money it's not if, but when, they will find you.
• Leaving a trail makes you easier to find: calling friends and family, hanging out at Starbucks just like you have always done, using your cell phone/car which could have a GPS tracking device on it, using the debit card from your regular checking account, etc.
• You must abandon every social media network you have ever used.  Ditto for email.
• Disappearing forever is extremely difficult...and lonely.

10 Reasons Why I Don't Own a Generator

When many people think about prepping for a disaster, buying a generator is usually at the top of their list.  I don't own a generator and don't plan to own one for these reasons:

1. It requires the initial outlay of money for purchase, then there is time and effort needed for maintenance and upkeep for a unit you may not use for years on end.
2. When you do use the generator during a power outage it will draw attention to what you have by the mass of have-nots (see reader's comment on the last post).
3. You can only reasonably store so much fuel which will very likely run out before the power is restored during a long-term disaster.
4. Having a generator makes people feel like they are prepared for anything--flip a switch and you can go back to living like you were before a disaster.  That is not necessarily true.  People are generally oblivious to the amount of power they use so a generator will probably not power your household as you think it will.
5. On a similar vein, putting so much reliance on a generator often keeps people from making other plans for things such as hot water heating, cooking, lighting their household, preserving their food without refrigeration, etc.  The skills required to live without electricity should be learned and practiced.
6. You know how many firearms/boxes of ammo you can buy with $5000?
7. An electromagnetic strike can render your unit useless.  
8. Generators can be dangerous.  People have been injured and even killed when improperly using their generators.  Everything from carbon monoxide poisoning from improper placement to getting zapped or toasting their breaker box from incorrectly connecting the unit.
9. 99% of the disasters you can expect to be involved in are short term and/or you will have better options (like bugging out to a hotel or secondary location).  Statistically a generator is unnecessary based upon where I live.
10. To date I have never had cause to use a generator.  While I am not saying there will never be a time when I could really use one, again, looking at the situation statistically, I don't need one.

Now there are a few situations when I think people should, without question, HAVE a generator:

• Some people must have electricity for medical needs (ie: someone in the home is on a ventilator and will die if there is any interruption to their electricity service).  
• I have friends who live in a very remote section of Washington state and even though they are on the power grid, they know, without a doubt, that their electricity will be down for a week or so at a time, multiple times, during each winter.  For them it just makes sense to not have their lives so often disrupted and to hook up a good sized generator to their homes.
• In another case, I know people who are building homes in remote locations and a generator is a necessity.  While they eventually plan to have solar power or be hooked up to the grid, during building they have no other source of power and building a house with hand tools is unreasonable.

Should You Broadcast Your Penchant for Prepping?

There are people on both sides of this issue.  In one camp you have the die-hard preppers who will talk about the subject to any and all who will listen.  They will gladly show you their year's supply of food and break out their cache of weapons at the drop of a hat (much to the shock/dismay/glee of the people watching) while on the other side are the preppers who look like, well, someone so average you would probably overlook them unless you needed a good accountant (yet they too have a well-stocked, well-hidden supply of survival supplies that would make REI look like a corner store).
Deciding whether or not to talk about prepping for a disaster/zombie apocalypse/TEOTWAWKI is a personal decision.  I can understand how some people are so intently focused on the topic that they can't help but talk about it (along with liberal doses of show and tell).  These same people are also usually interested in sharing their knowledge so that others will benefit and do their best to encourage others to prepare so that they will be ready in the event of a disaster.
I, on the other hand, am just the opposite.  Besides sharing information in a relatively private way on this blog, there is no way that someone will notice that I am prepared as well as I am unless they take a full inventory of the things I do (nearly impossible although a few people have noted that I have an odd collection of hobbies and others have wondered what exactly I do for a living...to which they don't receive a reply).  The reasons that I believe people should keep their prepping under wraps are numerous and include:

• You don't want your neighbors/your family/the government to be concerned about your collection of weapons and ammo.
• You don't want thieves to know that you could rival Costco in the amount of survival/preparedness supplies/food you have on hand (it makes you a fairly large target for burglary/robbery).
• You don't want people to think that they don't need to prepare since their brother/neighbor/best friend just happens to be extraordinarily prepared and supplied so their bug out plan is to wind up on your door step.
• You don't want to be taken advantage of whether in good times or bad.
• You don't want "your business" broadcast far and wide (I learned this from my grandfather who was quite private and rarely told anyone more than his name).
• You don't want to become a target after the fact (when people are desperate, even knowing about a friend of a friend of a friend who has food/water/medical skills/etc will cause people to seek you out, and not in a good way).
• You don't want to be labeled (unfortunately a few people who were termed "survivalist" have made the evening news--again, not in a good way--and this tends to paint all people concerned with preparedness as everything from a bit off to certifiably insane). 

So while the choice is yours, when discussing your prepping plans, consider what the long term effects of these discussions may be.

What's in Your EDC Pack?

We all have certain things that we carry everyday, whether by circumstance or habit.  I always find it interesting to see what others consider necessary to have with them every day.  Since each person's EDC items are different, it won't be much help for me to make you a list and say "carry these" but my EDC items tend to run towards the minimal (.380, ammo, wallet, smartphone, pocket knife, thumb drive...the basics).  Here's some other ideas:

• Reddit EDC
• EDC forums
• USA Carry EDC forum
• Lifehacker What's In Your Bag
• Lifehacker WIYB Part 2