Not to be confused...

Here's a valuable lesson I learned just now:DO NOT confuse James Wesley Rawles' official SurvivalBlog with the less scrupulous commercial site with the suspiciously similar URL. The latter will try to sell you a very handy magnesium firestarter for $12.95. We already know you can get the same thing on amazon.com for $5.

I went looking for James Wesley Rawles' site again today because this past weekend, I was able to help my friend Dana while she moved into her new house. WELL...now that I said that, I don't know how much I helped...I'll say I visited her while she was moving in and ate a lot of her cookies.

The sun doesn't set in MiddleO'Nowhere, Michigan until about 9 p.m., so it must have been around 10 or 10:30, when the noise of the crickets surrounded us as we sat around the fire, that I made the comment, "Yeah, I'm going to die in the first phase. There's no way I could live out here in MiddleO'Nowhere." I was pretty scared just thanks to the darkness and the crickets.

Fear aside, I also thought that Dana's new crib would be a pretty sweet place to be in the apocalypse, so I thought I would compare her property to James Wesley Rawles' "Criteria for Choosing a Retreat Locale in the Continental United States." I will concentrate on the positive. If you'd like to see both sides, the negative and positive, I have hyperlinked it for you.

• There is a source of water in the back yard.
• Plenty of sunlight for gardening (and grapevines for making wine!)
• Low to low-moderate ranking on the natural hazards scale
• Not in the path of real estate developers
• Not near any nuclear power plants

Combine with these basics the fact that the surrounding area is relatively away from major highways and also fairly pro-gun, I do declare that Dana has made a very good choice of home vis-a-vis the potential end of the world. I don't think she will have any problems, but I do suggest that food storage be her next apocalypse priority. :)

I would post a photo, but I'll have to add it in the next two weeks, because my T-Mobile Sidekick (aka "Beezlebub") has decided to force me to practice living without my handheld electronic device.

I can still play Fruit Ninja, and at the end of the day, that's what really matters. But it won't read my SD card, and neither will this AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor that I'm working with, either. (I used big words for the sake of using big words, but really I have no idea whether the processor has anything to do with the card readers, and I'm guessing it probably doesn't).

7-Day Weekend?

I am taking the day off to read, knit and do other work.

I know, I know, I only post twice a week anyway, and how will you all live without my insight?

Luckily for you, I have not neglected your needs:

http://www.zombiegames.net/

Go here. It's like 1983 and 2012 got together and had a baby.

Hours of your life will be stolen.

You can thank me later.

More Lite Reading

In an attempt to glean what lessons I can from history for the purposes of preparing for a cataclysmic event that will force humanity basically back into prehistory, I've read what is called a "commodity history" for what I believe is the first time in my life. (Does Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond count? Maybe? oooooh, what's this book called Collapse? Onto the wish list it goes!) I finished Mark Kurlansky's Salt.
If I ever do succeed at learning how to fish, perhaps some of the recipes in the book will come in handy.

Salt chronicles the influence of everyone's favorite road-de-icer and table condiment in human history. It is amazing to think about the starring role taken by this seemingly innocent treat we all just leave sitting out in a container in our kitchens. Some of the starring roles might be a little stretch. I mean, I've seen holes in the earth dedicated to coal, silver, and gold, but the only salt mine I've ever seen (on my way past the honey stand to Joshua Tree National Park) was a creepy barren field with salt just laying there as far as the horizon.

If I were assigning importance to commodities, then, salt might not be at the top of my list. But thanks to this book, it is now at least ON that list. I particularly enjoyed the illustration of the Grand Hall in the Wieliczka salt mine circa 1867, which inspired me to resolve to someday visit Poland. I also enjoyed the stories about families in upstate New York winning cash prizes for getting the rooftops closed in the solar evaporators of the 19th century, the many markets of Dead Sea Salt, and, most especially, I loved Chapter 21, "Salt and the Great Soul."

It didn't always keep my attention, but I am glad that I read it.

I also just finished Cultivating Democracy: Civic Environments and Political Socialization in America. WHOA! Look at that price! I did NOT pay that much for this book. And it will NOT help you prepare for apocalypse. It will prepare you for a post-apocalypse status quo that is, to me, more terrifying than the aforementioned cataclysm. And then, it will only really prepare you if you are a social studies teacher. If you are interested in Cultivating Democracy, let me know, and we can talk about it. The book is, without a doubt, mmmmmm delicious. For teachers. NOT for zombie hunters.

Next up and started today: 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. I am optimistic about the learning contained in its pages, because it starts with an anecdote about heirloom tomatoes. It is also the textbook that my classes' Vicarious Voyage partners read as their textbook this past semester.

Speaking of optimism...here's a little something I've been meaning to share with y'all for a while:
(it's ripped off from who knows where. Don't tell anyone.)

And that's not all! But for further reviews and discussions, you will have to wait.

Hmm.

That's funny.

Now that I proofread this post, I realize that you could have known all of this information about my summer reading list just from following me on GoodReads.

Oh, well.

Hasta la proxima.

Art and Lies

This brief post exists to introduce you to some websites that feature post-apocalypse art.

The first is from the Creative Boom and comes from a tweet from that random geography guy that I follow on Twitter. The live exhibition of "Manchester Apocalypse" will only be available to my readers in the UK. The rest of us will just have to live vicariously through them.

Them, and the internet. Of course when I read the article about "Manchester Apocalypse," I thought, "I've seen something like this somewhere before." Maybe in movies or in my art history class. What I love most about the second website is that you can rate the slides from "hellish" to "heavenly" on the side. The hyperlinks are the results of my google search, which you can just as easily do yourself.

On that somewhat bored note, I bid you adieu, loyal readers. :)

I'll Eat for a Day...

I did not intend for today's post to continue with my fishing theme, but then on Sunday my mother went to JJ's and brought me home some filets of lake perch. Whilst I finished inhaling huge mouthfulls of the chewy fish, I noticed my mom stacking up a pile of miniscule fishing bones next to her plate. She, too, was eating lake perch. "Don't worry," she said, "If you ate a fish bone, you'd know it!" I doubted this pronouncement simply due to the enthusiastic gusto with which I was stuffing the perch into my mouth. I thought that surely a fishbone had flown down my throat at just the right angle to hide out and later stab one of my internal organs.

I googled, "perch bones in intestines" and eventually found my way to today's tip. Since most people (according to James Wesley Rawles) live near bodies of water (that doesn't include me), we may be relying on a fish diet after the apocalypse.

Add "marshmallows" to your apocalypse kit, because if you accidentally swallow a fish bone, you are supposed to wash it down with a mouthful of marshmallows.

There it is, something to help you stay alive a little bit longer than you otherwise might have. :)

Teach Me To Fish...

During my annual week-long excursion to the Tittabawassee River to hang out with some of my favorite people on the planet, I decided that this year would be the year when I would test my ability to feed myself post-apocalypse using that most classic tool, the fishing pole.

Many thanks to Dale Hendershot and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for making this experiment possible.

You will see from the images that compose the bulk of this post that I was unsuccessful catching protein sources, but highly successful catching salads on my fishing line. At one point, Alex said, "The river must know you're a vegetarian."


Here's a nice shot of Alex driving the pontoon.

Salad #1

Salad #2

Salad #3

And now for the piece de resistance...the salad to top all salads...

Dale says that the seaweed-like plant I kept catching is actually not tasty to eat, but that in a survival situation, it might work.

I had a tremendously awesome time trying, and I resolve that one day I will become skilled, but in the meantime I leave you with a parting shot of Dave working on untangling my final catch of the day: his fishing line!

Happy fishing, loyal readers!

All Dressed Up...

To think, I was worried that my extended summer vacation would result in a lack of things to blog about. Lucky for all of us, the Northwest Indiana Visitor's Center is currently hosting a "trashion fashion" exhibit. As soon as I saw it, I thought to myself, "Aha! We'll have to make clothes like THESE in the apocalypse!" There were skirts and vests made of neckties! Flip-flops made of drink wrappers! Shirts made from pet food bags! And other clothing items made from such ingredients as...

romance novels,

negatives,

shower curtains,

and my personal favorite:

POP TART WRAPPERS!

I never would have even considered what to wear after the apocalypse, figuring my brilliant plan for looting and just continuing to wear my favorite t-shirts would work. Now, I have something new to think about when preparing for DOOM.

Hopefully, I've given you something to think about, too...

If not, well...

What about this guy?

I have no idea what he's wearing on his head or what it's made from, but I think the kids today would use just one word to describe it: Swag. 

Footnotes from the museum

this post, composed entirely on my t mobile sidekick, apparently with no punctuation, is to tie up some of the loose ends from my trip to the museum of science and industry with blair hendrix. hmm, i donlt seem to be able to capitalize either.

be that as it may

also in the mythbusters exhibit, i learned that i have no upper body strength, since i was only able to hang from the nice wide novice ledge for four seconds without falling off.

and finally 9i think9, i learned that my reaction time is very slow, because it takes me 0.7 seconds to dodge a bullet. in this case, the bullet was a light flash. after the light flash, a device measures how long it takes you to jump out of the way.

so for now, i know i need to work on upper body strength and reaction time.

if i think of any other fabulous reasons why you should tour chicago with your family and see the last great piece of architecture left over from the worldls fair, i will update again.

until then, loyal readers1

Experimental Post

If you are able to read this on the day that I intend you to, July 5, 2012, first: I hope you had a happy U.S. Independence Day! Secondly, it means that a signal has FINALLY followed my phone into the wilds of Michigan for the first time ever.

Since summer is here, I just wanted you to know that if we are trapped on a desert island and a case of duct tape washes to shore, we CAN in fact build a canoe out of duct tape and escape from the island.

This is according to the Mythbusters exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, which I recently visited with my lovely cousin Blair.

Thick N Quick

"Thick N Quick" is the name of the type of giant yarn with which I learned to make a knit stitch using giant needles.

It also refers to the fact that it took me exactly 34 minutes to reach the "create new post" button on my blog after starting this Dell Inspirion 5315 desktop, so I'll make this fast before it self-destructs.

In short: I have grown very tired of zombies.

I vow not to mention zombies for a few posts. After that last sentence, that is, heheh.

WELL, for my birthday back in May, Jodi sent me a box of "skinny yarn" from Indiana. So...I'm currently working on my first "real" project, a scarf.

Knitting on #9 needles with tiny, tiny thread is a whole different experience than Thick N Quick.

It kind of makes you wonder why anyone would have such a time-consuming, expensive and frustrating hobby.

 Part of my frustration comes from the fact that these particular #9 needles are metal, not plastic.

I will keep you posted on the project's progress.