11:30 – We ended up bagging Orange is the New Black. I don’t have any interest in a series set in a women’s prison, let alone one with with a whining, entitled bitch as the protagonist. We finished series one of Last Tango in Halifax last night, and started on series two. It’s a decent series, as is everything we’ve ever watched that stars Derek Jacobi (AKA Clavdivs and Cadfael). The entire cast is excellent, but Nicola Walker as Gillian stands out even among that group.
I finished Volume 4 of Bobby Andrews’ Prepper’s Crucible series. That didn’t take long. With only six normal-length chapters, this volume barely makes it into novella territory as far as I’m concerned. It’s listed as 115 pages on the Kindle, and totals less than 31,000 words. Still, it was something new to read. But it does highlight a disturbing trend, particularly in PA writing, of writing a third or a quarter of a novel and selling it at the price of a full novel.
I wish I had the time to follow OFD’s and Jen’s lead, and start work on a PA novel series myself. I’m pretty sure I could do a decent job on it, particularly given the generally weak competition. Just for relaxation, I may rough out an outline and a couple chapters to see how it goes. And, yes, I’m still working on the non-fiction prepping book, although the move and the science kit business don’t leave me much time to work on it recently.
13:25 – I just did something I haven’t done for probably 15 years or more: ordered a desktop computer. Our computing environment here is too fragile, and I just don’t have time to build a desktop.
So I ordered a Lenovo H50 desktop mini-tower with an Intel Core i7-4790, which is 25% to 50% faster than the Core i7-980X processor in my old, dead main desktop system. That’ll replace my current main system, so to speak, which is a low-end Dell Inspiron notebook that has only a Core i3 processor and 4 GB of memory. That notebook is simply not enough to handle the way I work, which is with a lot of windows open.
When I built i7-980X desktop several years ago, it was about $2,500 worth of system. The new desktop was $750, on sale for $650. Even with shipping and sales tax, it totaled only $727. I’ll leave it running Windows 10, because I need Windows to run the stamps.com software. I’ll disconnect the notebook, which is running Linux Mint, from the display, keyboard, and mouse, and start using it upstairs as my secondary system. At least I can get some work done on it, which I can’t on my Kindle Fire.
I would suggest that OFD and Jen edit each other’s books, except with the way life keeps happening to OFD, I think Jen will finish sooner than OFD. At the rate things are going, I think both will finish their novels before RBT finishes the prepping book.
I should probably be more aggressive about shutting down the life that keeps happening to me around here so I can focus, but I manage to scribble stuff down almost every day anyway. Just nothing so organized as to lend itself to outside review yet. Probably by springtime, when we start seeing the first buds on the trees and get a couple of days in a row of warm temps and sunny skies.
Things should be quiet in the house this week and next while Mrs. OFD is in MA and CA and the others are also gone, though. So maybe I can rip out some stuff to send in here and get some feedback.
Beeyooteeful today thus fah and looks like the thirties for the next ten days, with 40+ tomorrow; this means I gotta try to get some outdoor stuff done, too, while it’s warm enough to not numb my fingers and freeze my face off.
I think both will finish their novels before RBT finishes the prepping book.
Take that, slap, take that!
Lots of opportunity in the prepper / apocalypse novel genre. Most books I’ve read are drek. Am appalled at the minutia many (male) authors throw in including make and model of every prepper item (is this a catalog?) including firearms details down to bullet weight and ballistics. Do we really want to hear “He picked up his Rock River Arms Delta-CAR15 with a 30 rnd Magpul magazine of .556 and Red Dot night sight and turned to the door”? How about “He grabbed his rifle and turned to the door”? If the plot demands that the reader understand it’s an AR or .556 or has a Red Dot sight you can add it but in most cases the plot doesn’t care and neither do the readers. And I HATE how most fictional preppers have expensive country hide-aways, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in high end equipment and supplies stashed away. These are obsessed people who give up everything on the hope that someday all will go tits-up. Most of us are happy to have a cheapo AR and generic brand equipment because we aren’t rich and want to keep our wife’s happy with vacations and new dish washers. There are opportunities for sea-going prepper / apocalypse stories as that is an undeserved area in MHO. I have only seen one, not counting the Ringo series. Perhaps I am too picky, but the idea that within 24 hours of an Apocalypse event, all strangers have become violent aggressive thieves (maybe I am just reading the wrong books) strikes me as ridiculous. There are a couple of kindle series that handle apocalypse societal breakdown in an intelligent way, (one day after – one year after for example) but most assume immediate anarchy. How to live through such an event and what emerges on the other side can make for great fiction if handled well. BTW: Given the US is hit with an EMP, I expect the global consequences would be enormous (see John Birmingham’s After America) and would make for excellent stories. I have noticed that female (apocalypse / zombie) authors focus on relationships and can write some of the most gut wrenching horror scenes I have ever read.
“Most books I’ve read are drek.”
Andrews writes better than drek, but he is very weak on characterization, which is a pretty common flaw in the PA genre. After reading the first four volumes in his series, his characters are still pretty much just names to me.
“I think both will finish their novels before RBT finishes the prepping book.”
What you guys have to remember is that I already know all this stuff, so I’m not writing for myself. I hope to provide some useful information to preppers and soon-to-be preppers, and maybe make a few bucks doing it. But I already know what needs to be done and how to do it.
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2016/February/40/2/magazine/article/10829941/
It is as I have said, many times here and in other places, for years now:
We live in a once-mighty but crumbling fortress, now surrounded by howling savage barbarian scum. In North Murka we’re somewhat protected by our giant moats, the Arctic ice and tundra, and our conventional and nuclear capabilities, for the time being. But our political and economic “leaders” and their enablers in media and academia for the past few decades, fatally infected by the Marxist virus…have opened the gates!
So now we have barbarian scum not only climbing up the siege ladders in front of us, but also our own ladders to our rear.
It may take longer, but they’re coming here, too. Our other fallback position is, of course, hordes of howling mad, savage Anglo-Saxons and Celts with rifles.
The current Point of the Spear:
http://weaponsman.com/?p=28975
RBT: I have put Andrews books “Prepper’s Crucible (Omnibus, Volumes 1-3): An EMP Tale” on my Kindle to get to later this week. Am working on “Land (Stranded Book 1)” by Theresa Shaver. This is a “survival at sea” book and she seems to know her nautical terminology. As with most female authors, she does not go into unnecessary details, but focuses more on how the situation affects human relationships. Not far enough in to give a thumbs up or down.
I’ve read Shaver’s entire Stranded Series. She’s not perfect by any means, but she’s a lot better than most new PA novelists.
“Microsoft Surface (Wrongly) Blamed for Failure During NFL Playoff Game”
https://www.petri.com/microsoft-surface-wrongly-blamed-for-failure-during-nfl-playoff-game
“The real irony here, of course, is that there was nothing wrong with the Surface tablets.”
“Our team on the field confirmed the issue was not related to the tablets themselves but rather an issue with the network,” a Microsoft statement notes. “We worked with our partners who manage the network to ensure the issue was resolved quickly.””
So, the newest way to mess with the opposing side in the NFL is to kill their networking?
Well, we’re the proud owners of a condo in Vegas. The VA finally came through.
“Penthouses are the life for me, goodbye prepper life…”
“So, the newest way to mess with the opposing side in the NFL is to kill their networking?”
The Pats have been accused of doing that for the last several years; anyone in the friggin’ stands could mess with the net if they know what they’re doing. Absurd. They’d pretty much have to cheat nowadays, anyway, thanks to the refs’ calls in this past season’s games; they get nailed for every little thing while the refs let the other guys skate, mostly. We suspect that the NFL, Goodell and ESPN have conspired to screw them since “DeflateGate.” Which was also absurd.
“The VA finally came through.”
Congrats, I think!
And no “goodbye prepper life” for you, either; just gotta finagle the new config, that’s all. Basic human needs plus defense in your new abode and the surrounding AO. With solid bug-out plans in place and somewhere to go.
Re: writing … I started writing a story about a year ago, and it is still not finished. Currently at 92K words, about 422 pages, and maybe half-way through it. Still the first draft, so have some trimming to do. And I am still not sure of what will happen next.
I saw another writer (Jeff Dunteman?) posit a writing environment theory: he decides on a start time each day, with a goal of xx xpages/words. During that time, he forces himself not to get distracted with anything on the interwebs or social media, not even checking email. Once he gets to his goal, he stops, and gets back to the ‘connected world’.
The key seems to be establishing a start time and a goal for each day. Dr. Pournelle also used that process, establishing a separate room in his hose – the “Monk’s Cell” – where there were no outside influences – including no network connection for his computer.
I have found that I can procrastinate getting started on the writing process, checking email, web sites, social media, until it gets to be too late to start for that day. I need to be better at that – if I want to finish the book, then I need to spend time doing it. And I need to force a ‘disconnect’ with external influences in order to concentrate on the writing process.
Still working on that … oh, look! FLASHLIGHTS!
That start/stop time is an idea I’ll try now, thanks.
The week in review:
http://takimag.com/article/the_week_that_perished_takimag_january_14_2016/print#axzz3yHz5Qt8U
Boycotting the Academy Awards charade:
http://takimag.com/article/the_silent_minority_jim_goad/print#axzz3yHz5Qt8U
Warning: controversial language and ideas, esp. in the following comments…
Oh no, the new financial bubble is people writing apocalyptic books …
I think both will finish their novels before RBT finishes the prepping book.
Take that, slap, take that!
My thought exactly.
Well, we’re the proud owners of a condo in Vegas. The VA finally came through.
Congrats, I’ll think of you when the wind is blowing. I used to work on the 25th floor of an office building in downtown Dallas. When the wind was blowing I could look out my windows and note that the building was swaying a couple of feet or more at my altitude. The people on the 48th floor, nasty!
“Penthouses are the life for me, goodbye prepper life…”
If I can prep, you can prep. Although, I’ve got a 3,500 ft2 one story house on a 1/3 acre lot. My problem is that I have to hide everything from the wife, otherwise I am worried that she will throw it out. In fact, I need to inventory my prepping supplies …
Just think about what it will take you to clear a stairwell going down out of your condo: guns, ammo, more ammo, backpacks, MREs, body armor, transportable water, …
I have to put things away all the time to get things done. I’m a single-tasker, and distractions are very bad for me. When I’m actually _doing_ something, I can usually bull through it. But things like Flashlights & Squirrels are, well, like Squirrels with flashlights.
Fred on the Pentagon’s success:
http://fredoneverything.org/emancipation-of-military-containing-the-citizenry/
OFD is pretty much in full agreement only a lot more bitter about it and his own stupidity.
“Just think about what it will take you to clear a stairwell going down out of your condo…”
I’ll slide on out and hep ’em clear them stairwells…be more fun than a barrel of monkeys…
Just think about what it will take you to clear a stairwell going down out of your condo: guns, ammo, more ammo, backpacks, MREs, body armor, transportable water, …
A sled for a pallet of water. You can use the sled as a stairwell clearing tool. I am assuming that your condo has the standard cinder block walls used for fire proofing.
Being in a condo, I would stash 100+ cases of water around the place. Maybe half in your garage on the 5th ??? floor (I cannot remember what level your garage is on).
I’ll be on the sled with a Ma Deuce and armor-piercing ammo. Behind me USAF Security Forces sentry dawgs. Nothin’ to worry about!
_Snow & Ash: An Endless Winter Novel_ (Volume 1) by Theresa Shaver
http://www.amazon.com/Snow-Ash-Endless-Winter-Volume/dp/0988003023/
Book number one of a two book young adult apocalyptic series. There will be more books in the series. This is a POD (print on demand) book using Amazon print technology. I have ordered the next book in the series.
Ok, this book scared the you know out of me. I have never really thought about nuclear winter actually killing more people than the nuclear bombs themselves. And with a full nuclear exchange of three thousand bombs, with four hundred in North America alone, what will the environment look like afterwards? Ms. Shaver postulates two weeks of heavy radiation followed by several years of not seeing the sun due to the clouds of ash in the atmosphere.
Do you have a safe bunker? Do you have seven years of food? Water? Weapons to defend yourself from other desperate survivors? The book covers seven years of two families lives after the bombs fell. Seven years of hell. Seven years of death.
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (142 reviews)
Condo is on the 4th floor (where storage are is located). Maybe I can park one of those PODS in the second space and prep out of it. I’m not telling MrsAtoz, though.
“Do you have a safe bunker? Do you have seven years of food? Water? Weapons to defend yourself from other desperate survivors?”
Who among us WOULD have this? Who could afford it all? As someone once said long ago, ‘the survivors will envy the dead.’
“Maybe I can park one of those PODS in the second space and prep out of it. I’m not telling MrsAtoz, though.”
Yo, sound like a plan, kemosabe. Go for it!
“Do you have a safe bunker? Do you have seven years of food? Water? Weapons to defend yourself from other desperate survivors?”
Who among us WOULD have this? Who could afford it all? As someone once said long ago, ‘the survivors will envy the dead.’
If Ms. Shaver is correct about the nuclear winter lasting seven years, 98% of us are hosed. Just finding a buttoned up facility to spend the initial two weeks is going to be tough. And, you will not have much notice of need, if at all.
^the survivors will envy the dead^the survivors will eat the dead
Fixed that for you.
Condo is on the 4th floor (where storage are is located). Maybe I can park one of those PODS in the second space and prep out of it.
For some reason, I thought that you were way up there. Are your parking spaces identified?
http://www.pods.com/portable-on-site-storage/portable-container-size.aspx
“7 foot container: 7’x7’x8′, typically holds 1 room*
12 foot container: 12’x8’x8′, typically holds 2-3 rooms
16 foot container: 16’x8’x8′, typically holds 3-4 rooms”
I doubt that you could get any of those up the garage ramps.
Regarding the style of ‘prepper’ books, they are in fact written as a manual. They have that level of detail, because that’s what the author consciously set out to provide. The narrative just gives them something to hang the catalog on. Add in that many are first time, or occasional authors, and you get massive info dumps. Bracken started out that way, but by the end of the first book it was much better, and by the end of the third, he was almost entirely focused on character, and I was left wanting more. Unfortunately his fourth lacked the focus and structure given by his overall theme in the trilogy.
This is different from ‘post apocalyptic’ fiction, which is often written by a pro writer with lots of experience, who just finds it convenient to destroy society so he can focus on rebuilding it in his image, or using it as a petri dish for ideas. Many of the PA novels suffer from the opposite problem- the techniques and gear are wrong, ineffective, or just plain ‘handwavium.’ Sometimes they don’t even bother with what killed the world. “No one knows what caused the moon to explode, but the result sure sucked for the humans on earth….”
I look at prepper fiction with a different eye than mainstream PA fiction. And I’m willing to give a lot of benefit of doubt to first time authors. That said, there is something for a prepper to learn from ANYTHING, and a successful author writing a PA story will likely raise issues or scenarios you might not have considered.
As to the well stocked retreat, there are ways to do it for less money but it takes more time and effort. The storytelling aspects are greatly expanded, as well as the ability to catalog gear, if the characters have resources. Not much story there if ‘they arrived at their in-laws trailer home, found nothing to eat but sawdust, and died.’
There is also a tendency in many pursuits and or hobbies, to focus on the gear. How many golfers want the new driver or putter? The latest ball? How many shooters want a new light or rail covers or some other trinket? How many ‘urban survivalists’ have some sort of swisstech device on a keychain, or a ‘survival card’ in their wallet? or put together an altoids tin survival kit?
It’s easy to collect gear, easy to talk about it. Harder to think about eating your dog, or grass soup, or sucking dick to get thru a check point. Much easier to think about tac lights than what to do about the block captain reporting you to the resource control board.
nick
or sucking dick to get thru a check point.
No need to bring Mr. SteveF into this…
I forget how many floors the condo garage goes up, we have a spot on the 4th floor almost next to the entrance to our condo. The garage is guarded access. Everything but your front door is opened by a dongle(s) you get. The second parking spot is anywhere in the “open spots” in the garage. That small PODS might make it.
Here’s the digs:
http://www.theonelv.com/
I wonder if they’ll let me fly my drones in the big open areas?
Eh? But aren’t women’s prisons nothing but non-stop lesbian sex? And all the inmates look like models and strippers? Or are you saying all those movies are wrong?
That would likely work for beta reading, but proper editing is different than writing or reading. See http://www.novelpublicity.com/2011/11/finally-an-answer-heres-the-difference-between-line-copy-and-content-editing/ for an as-good-as-any discussion of different levels of editing.
OFD already has my offer to edit his book, if and when. Jen, drop me a line if you’d like me to look at yours, if and when.
Congrats. At long last.
Depends on the person and the circumstances. It’s a technique worth trying, to see if it works for you.
-sigh- Preach it, brother.
Hey! I will kick your ass! And not only that, I’ll take back the congrats from my earlier comment!
“…or sucking dick to get thru a check point.”
Boy, I bet if all them swarms of hadji bastids rolling up to those Euro border checkpoints had to do that, most of them would still be there! With lines backed up to Istanbul and Damascus!
“Here’s the digs:”
“Men’s and women’s locker room, with showers, sauna and lockers”
What about the trannies?
“Guard-gated community with 24-hour courtesy patrol”
Green cards? Black flag patches on their uniforms with funny writing on them?
“Climate controlled full-size storage units”
Algore Approved?
“NETWORK, our upgraded business center”
Running Windows and IIS? Local kindergarten kidz will be hacking it.
“Three bedroom homes available from the low $400’s”
Crikey, for that kinda dough I could get a lakeside frontage estate up here or a 160-acre horse farm out in East Bumfuck.
Reminds me of these buggers down in lovely Webster Square, Woostah, MA:
http://www.apartments.com/webster-square-towers-east-and-west-worcester-ma/9c46zt5/
Probably don’t have the masseuse on the premises, though. Or the tranny locker room.
“That would likely work for beta reading, but proper editing is different than writing or reading.”
Indeed. All I would expect from anyone is a beta reading, however critical and disparaging and insulting; I’m a big ol’ boy and can take it. Proper editing stuff much later.
Hey! I will kick your ass! And not only that, I’ll take back the congrats from my earlier comment!
lol! I’ll be up in my new Ivory Tower! Just kidding. Come on over and we’ll share the sauna together. 🙂
“Guard-gated community with 24-hour courtesy patrol”
WTF is a “courtesy patrol”? Doesn’t sound like it would be very effective. 😉
I came across this jpeg yesterday (checked for nasty imbeds), it really sums up Obola’s reign:
http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/3057/5156/original.jpg
WTF is a “courtesy patrol”? Doesn’t sound like it would be very effective.
See the above dick sucking exchange.
SO MANY THINGS YOU JUST CAN’T UNREAD.
My problem is that I have to hide everything from the wife
-sigh- Preach it, brother.
I’ve been trying that Jedi “these are not prepping supplies” thing lately. All I get is a roll of the eyes and sometimes a toss of the hair (she’s grown her hair back down below her shoulders again). Maybe some day …
get thru a check point
That is what God made RPGs for.
“Come on over and we’ll share the sauna together. :)”
Damn, I’d rather get my ass kicked!
“I came across this jpeg yesterday (checked for nasty imbeds), it really sums up Obola’s reign”
We can’t hang it all on Obola; this caper was in progress beginning with Pharaoh Roosevelt II and his commie administration.
“That is what God made RPGs for.”
That would be my most-desired weapon for ground-based SUT stuff if and when the S really splatters all over the fan. ARs, pistols, regular grenade launchers, machine guns and these babies. In fact, I’ll take them in favor of machine guns if I have to choose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBlVrqp3wzE
http://freedomoutpost.com/2016/01/and-we-sang-we-wont-get-fooled-again/
I forget how many floors the condo garage goes up, we have a spot on the 4th floor almost next to the entrance to our condo.
Wait, your condo opens to the garage? I would put a cross bar or three on that door immediately. Can I drive up to your door and push it open with an extension from my truck?
Of course, you can drive up to my front door and push it open with an extension from my truck. Across my front yard! My back doors (I’ve got three now with the game room addition), you’ve got to drive across the pool or through the back brick fence. Or through the garage.
Hey, my house addition is on google maps now! That was quick. Looks like the picture was taken around last July or so since there is a construction van in the driveway and building materials laying around everywhere.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/2007+Starlite+Field+Dr,+Sugar+Land,+TX+77479/@29.5506302,-95.6602015,234m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!1m3!4m2!1m0!1m0!3m1!1s0x8640e3930fe39797:0xc29953fdc237858!6m1!1e1
I’m wondering if the property tax people will notice the addition this year, I hope not.
My problem is that I have to hide everything from the wife
-sigh- Preach it, brother.
BTW, I want the wife to use our prepping supplies. I just want her to tell me when to replace them. I am up to 65 cases of 35 bottle 1/2 liter Ozarkas in the garage. She hates those with a passion and makes catty comments all the time.
She does like the LED lanterns that I have placed all over the house though. We had a 12 hour power outage last summer and I actually got an “attaboy” out of her. Speaking of, I really liked this article, “When the lights go out, how will you protect your OPSEC?”.
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/when-the-lights-go-out-how-will-you-protect-your-opsec/
We had a power outage about five years ago in the old house. Our neighbor saw all the LED lanterns through our wide open windows and came over. I ended up loaning him a LED lantern for the night.
http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-Family-Sized-Rugged-Lantern/dp/B006OW5GDE/
“We can’t hang it all on Obola; this caper was in progress beginning with Pharaoh Roosevelt II and his commie administration.”
I can’t disagree with that, but that is history that is no longer taught.
Right! The great FDR fed the hungry and fought the Just War and, um, made rain fall and end the drought or something. All hail FDR n shit!
Wait, your condo opens to the garage?
All the garage decks have an entrance to the elevators. I would *hate* to have to park on the 4th floor, take the garage elevator down to the lobby, then the inside elevator up to the 4th floor (same for the storage). It is secure enough to keep out the usual scum. If they can get through the dongle garage gate, dongle garage tower entrance (the elevators are dongled, also) and to my front door, they’ll get in anyway. There have been no B&Es in the location. Now I just have to bolt a potty seat over the balcony for the Zombie Stripper Barackalypse.
I heard a load noise last night. It even woke up the weiner dog. I guess could have been this. Wide load ahead!
“I can’t disagree with that, but that is history that is no longer taught.”
I loathe and despise the Incumbent p.o.s. at least as much as anyone else but I get tired of seeing all the blame dumped on his sorry half-black ass. It’s too easy; and it smacks of the Dem and libturd jerkoffs doing it with either Bush or Reagan. And I’ll even say one good thing, no make that two good things about him! He’s stood up to the Israeli sons of bitches (yeah, yeah, I know, they’re our bestest pals in the Sandbox, and the Jews and the Holocaust, and they vote with us in the UN, blah, blah, blah, plus the Battle of Armageddon will be there and when they all convert, the RAPTURE will happen, etc.). So, unlike anyone else, he didn’t back down from the Likud apparatchiks AND he’s the best ever firearms salesman in the history of the world.
“The great FDR fed the hungry and fought the Just War…”
And there he is on the U.S. dime coin, still. A spectre, haunting history, and his administration the first one that we should have taken out to a firing squad wall along with him before we ever got involved in the European war. The first administration where we could say “Our enemies are right there in Washington, D.C., not in Berlin or Tokyo…”
“Now I just have to bolt a potty seat over the balcony for the Zombie Stripper Barackalypse.”
Now why you wanna go and be like that, kemosabe? Bolt a jacuzzi/whirlpool thang out there and invite them hotties on up!
JLo got a boytoy, eh? Ain’t that her starring in the latest goofy tee-vee cop show with Ray Liotta, Blue something or other?
JLo got a boytoy, eh? Ain’t that her starring in the latest goofy tee-vee cop show with Ray Liotta, Blue something or other?
Yup, that’s her. More trash TV. They should just call it “Booty Call Blue”.
Trash tee-vee, yet tens of millions of Murkan derps sit entranced by it for many hours per day/night, truly amazing. It’s like pouring Zanax-brand corn syrup directly into their brains and nervous systems. No wonder they don’t read or comprehend anything beyond the pixels, which their kids and grandkids suck up, too, only different forms. Confronted with an original manuscript of Saint Augustine’s (which OFD has handled) or Milton’s, they’d probably blow their noses on it.
Then I look at my stacks and stacks of books I haven’t even opened yet, let alone read, and think to myself what a friggin’ hypocritical old s.o.b. I am, too.
OK, tomorrow: back to online courses, firewood stacking, learning the various radios here, and finishing some firearms mods. Serious reading time tomorrow night; I have a three-book recommendation list I’m ginning up to stick here, that might interest regulars and lurkers who wanna know WTF happened to this country.
“I just did something I haven’t done for probably 15 years or more: ordered a desktop computer…”
I’ve had three desktop systems here for quite a while, changing the o.s. on two of them off and on but now it’s kinda permanent: this Windows 8.1 box, which I wanna eventually move to Linux; the RHEL 7 server that I’m playing with toward the unending battle for certs in it; and currently on the bench, so to speak, and awaiting activation for the upstairs attic workshop, my Fedora machine. I’ll put ham radio apps on that and use it also for Toob vids for firearms and radio/electronics projects up there.
And we’ve got a mix of laptops and netbooks here, all running Linux except for wife’s netbook running Windoze 7, which she takes to her work sites. I’ve been very happy with my Kindle Fire HDX or whatever it is, and have a big library of books on it; also takes good pics and vids, and the browser works A-OK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqRNe_qTx7Y
I want mine back.
On the other hand, I’d take this new one, too.
http://www.vdare.com/articles/the-rejection-election-and-the-crisis-of-the-regime
Yeah, this next year could be a hum-dingah! Patrick has been around the political and “journalist” scene for a very long time and knows whereof he speaketh.
Thanks Mr Lynn for the review. “Snow & Ash” is next on my reading list. In fact it might even be tonight if I give up on this SF mess I’m reading atm..
Congrats to MrAtoz on the condo.. Looks nice, and there is a pub well within staggering.. er.. walking distance. 🙂
Currently in the land of sand it’s a pleasant 30C (86F) and the seabreeze is in…
I’m wondering if the property tax people will notice the addition this year, I hope not.
If any building permits were filed, they know.
Allow me to digress, before I get to my point…
I read Scott Adams’ book “How to fail at almost everything…”, and found one of his points quite helpful: Use systems, not goals. You shouldn’t set yourself goals (“I’m going to lose 50 pounds by Christmas”). Life happens, things interfere, you miss your goal, get depressed, and stop trying.
Instead, he advocates for a system (“jogging every Mon/Wed/Fri at 08:00). Systems are more robust. So what if you miss a day? You set up your life so that it mostly works, and then just live day-to-day. Using this idea, I’ve finally gotten myself into a workout program that seems to be sticking. Occasionally, I just don’t feel like it, or I don’t have time, but way over 90% of the time it works.
Finally, my point, @OFD: I can imagine this applying to writing. Identify a time and place that you could block off for writing, inform your family, and then do it. Most days it should work. If there’s the occasional disruption, no big deal, it’ll work again tomorrow.
FWIW, the second big thesis in Scott’s book is to treat your brain as a “moist computer” with a crappy programming interface. He has some odd ways of approaching this, but his point is well taken: damn it, it’s my brain, and I’m going to get it to do what I want. Less useful, but something I’ve thought, often enough…
My old place in Canberra is still using the December 2009 Google street level photograph. I wonder if the new owners have extended it, demolished it, whatever?
Lynn wrote:
“My problem is that I have to hide everything from the wife, otherwise I am worried that she will throw it out.”
Stash it in your den, put a deadlock on the door and don’t give her a copy of the key.
And let her know that you’ll turf 1/3 0f her clothes, shoes and makeup each time she transgresses. (Yes, I remember the time you tried to sneak some of the ladies’ stash out to the bin, and the caterwauling that resulted.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk_0q08Mwrc
MrAtoz wrote:
“I heard a load noise last night. It even woke up the weiner dog. I guess could have been this. Wide load ahead!”
(sigh) If only it had been Sandra Bullock.
@lynn, time to rent a storage unit close to home. Mr AtoZ can do the same.
Rent the smallest unit (the size of a closet) and stack it high with plastic bins. Don’t let them see you are putting food in there.
Make sure there is 24hr access, and a way past the gate even if the power is off, and you are good to go.
I’m thinking very seriously about doing this outside the natural cordon line for my neighborhood. Best would be a loaded vehicle outside that point, but I’m not made out of money….
nick
Go Denmark!
Godwin’s Law in action…
The plan has “a particularly bitter connotation in Europe, where the Nazis confiscated large amounts of gold and other valuables from Jews and others,” The Washington Post wrote.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-26/danish-parliament-to-vote-on-controversial-migrant-bill/7115990
One difference is the muslim scum can just stay home.
Although I’m not sure how this would help legitimate immigrants. Unless you are a socialist state, and you need everyone to be dependent on you, THEN this makes excellent sense. And as a deterrent to scum, it makes sense. But as a tactic with legit refugees? Nope.
Unfortunately for them, this won’t deter the invaders, and they’ll just become more dependent and a bigger drain.
Kind of like the french king who would eliminate rivals by coming to visit. By the time he left, the rival was broke and no longer a rival.
nick
Bob, I’m glad you are writing the book, and I’ll be buying a copy as soon as you are selling it. I realize that the science kit business comes first and that there are only so many hours in a day. I’m sure the prepping novels your readers have in the works will also be worth reading. The book I really want to read is your prepping book, and I will impatiently wait until it is out.
RE: “time to rent a storage unit close to home. Mr AtoZ can do the same.
Rent the smallest unit (the size of a closet) and stack it high with plastic bins. Don’t let them see you are putting food in there.”
Great Idea. I own self-storage and this is another sales pitch I can use.
As for hiding it from the wife … my Sister-in-law has a prepper mentality but has to hide everything from her husband who thinks that being prepared is, and I quote, “A STUPID WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY”. Now understand they live in Royal Oak Michigan, on the edge of Detroit (think armed locusts) and regularly loose power several times a year due to weather and broken infrastructure. Her husband thinks getting a generator is EXPENSIVE & STUPID till the power goes out, then he can’t find any, then the power comes back and it’s EXPENSIVE AND STUPID again. This woman, who grew up hating guns, has recently gotten a .22 rifle “just in case” as home break-ins were happening only one block away. Yes, I know, .22 LR rifle is not the best home defense gun but it’s what she was comfortable with so it’s the best for her. I keep telling her to move away from Detroit but her husband just retired and he can’t imagine leaving the house he paid for. Sigh …
“Make sure there is 24hr access, and a way past the gate even if the power is off, and you are good to go.”
This seems like a pretty good idea, and not to throw cold wotta on it, but the storage places up here have high chain-link fences around them, sometimes with barbed wire on top, plus electronic gates and cameras all over the place. I suspect the owners are concerned not only about thieves, but also drug activity. If the juice cuts out, I don’t know how you’d get your stuff short of cutting holes through the fence. And loading/unloading stuff at 03:00 could also attract unwanted attention from neighbors and the local huckleberry cop cruising by.
Obviously, in a true SHTF scenario, we’d cut holes in fences, etc., and get our things outta there. Another option for us up here is to buy an acre or two up in the woods/hills and bury caches of stuff out there, with no neighbor residences or other buildings anywhere near. We certainly don’t have the ability to do that now, but one or the other of these solutions could be a future project.
Denmark is thinking of confiscating migrants property? Switzerland already does; I didn’t even realize this, until the Denmark issue came up.
Migrants can keep money and valuables to a maximum of Fr. 1000; anything else is taken. The justification is simple: Each one of them is going to cost the country tens or hundreds of thousands of francs. They should pay what they can to defray those costs. They are also required to pay 10% of any money they earn during the first 10 years they live here (assuming they are able to find a job).
It is important to note that it really is about paying some of the costs that they cause. The limit is set at Fr. 15,000. When that amount has been paid, anything else is returned to the person. So, no, it’s not like the Jews and WWII. Also, the Jews were already living there; in this case, we are talking about migrants who want to come here.
In which vein: it is telling that the migrants aren’t struggling to get into countries much closer to home: Where are the lines of people demanding entry into Saudia Arabia? Iran? Egypt? These people are not just fleeing a war, they are seeking prosperity and a particular way of life. If they don’t like the terms in Europe, they are free to go elsewhere.
Wait, your condo opens to the garage?
All the garage decks have an entrance to the elevators. I would *hate* to have to park on the 4th floor, take the garage elevator down to the lobby, then the inside elevator up to the 4th floor (same for the storage). It is secure enough to keep out the usual scum. If they can get through the dongle garage gate, dongle garage tower entrance (the elevators are dongled, also) and to my front door, they’ll get in anyway.
Good, way more security than I thought.
BTW, that is a lot of dongles. I wonder if they will still work when the power goes out for more than a day.
They want to go to first world countries with nice welfare. Greece, Malaysia, Indonesia aren’t good enough for them, but Australia, Germany, the US, Canukistan, even New Zealand are…
Thanks Mr Lynn for the review. “Snow & Ash” is next on my reading list. In fact it might even be tonight if I give up on this SF mess I’m reading atm..
You are welcome. I hope that you like it! Please report back when complete, it is a quick read due to shortness and font size.
@lynn, time to rent a storage unit close to home. Mr AtoZ can do the same.
Rent the smallest unit (the size of a closet) and stack it high with plastic bins. Don’t let them see you are putting food in there.
Make sure there is 24hr access, and a way past the gate even if the power is off, and you are good to go.
I’m thinking very seriously about doing this outside the natural cordon line for my neighborhood. Best would be a loaded vehicle outside that point, but I’m not made out of money….
I own a 450 ft2 storage unit just four miles away from the house. One half mile away if you can ford the bayou. The wife stored all of the Christmas stuff there last Sunday.
There are varmints aplenty in the space though. I would not store food in there that was not securely protected. My son runs his gun business out of that building. It even has a bathroom and an a/c unit that I do not run.
I’ve got four person-months of food in the house pantry. And twelve person-months of food in the master closet (she is unhappy about that but ignores it). At two cases of water per week per person, I’ve got eight person-months of water in the garage. I’ve been thinking about storing more at work where we currently have forty cases of water. Maybe some in my office cabinets, there is nothing else in there.
“They want to go to first world countries with nice welfare.”
+1
Obviously, and the skids are greased for them by fugly pig commies like Merkel and Cankles. Who probably would adore being submissive to swarthy, bearded hadji scum. Plus, they always seem to have thousands in cash on them, and it cost them thousands to even get in a boat or get other passage out of their shit-hole disaster countries. The other musloid countries clearly don’t want them and would enthusiastically gun them down if they tried to get in. So much for musloid “brotherhood” and comrades in the long struggle to build a worldwide Caliphate. And it suits their purposes to confound the supposedly Christian West.
I’m wondering if the property tax people will notice the addition this year, I hope not.
If any building permits were filed, they know.
Nope, we live out in Fort Bend County in a LID (levee improvement district). No building permits were necessary since we are in a non-flood area. We got a general permission letter from our HOA is all.
But, the FBCAD does an aerial analysis of all buildings in Fort Bend County using satellite photos. I know this for a fact since I could have sued them for fraud last year. I finally figured out that they were calling a fenced in area of 300 ft by 100 ft a warehouse on my commercial property. They charged me property taxes on this for years before I figured it out when they upped the valuation from $100K to $250K.
This is called fraud by government here in Texas and is actionable. I signed a legal no sue document with them and got back my county and school property taxes for that particular “building” for the previous three years. I will be examining my commercial property evaluation this year like a hawk.
“I will be examining my commercial property evaluation this year like a hawk.”
So here’s Mr. Lynn, an upstanding businessman who runs a company, employs people, pays his taxes, meets a payroll, good family man and active Christian, patriotic American citizen, and they try to screw him every chance they get.
Like the late Murray Rothbard used to say, “the state is a band of thieves writ large.”
@Lynn
Sixteen person-months for how many people? That’s a decent start for the three of you. If it were me, I’d spend $1,500 at your nearest LDS HSC on another two or three person-years of bulk staples and store them at your business. Then order a couple grand worth of Augason Farms #10 cans of meal extenders, oil, salt, spices, sauces, mixes, and canned meats from walmart.com and have it delivered to your business. You’ll probably be surprised how little storage space all that requires.
You have a pool, right? Enough bottled water for now. Order a Sawyer PointZeroTwo filter and you’re set for water.
And don’t forget the ammo, Mr. Lynn…
You have a pool, right? Enough bottled water for now. Order a Sawyer PointZeroTwo filter and you’re set for water.
I’ve got three of the Sawyer mini filters and two Lifestraws:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FA2RLX2/
Or are you talking about the bucket model?
http://www.amazon.com/Sawyer-Products-SP191-Purifier-Assembly/dp/B0051HHNJ8/
You would be fascinated how fast the pool can get an algae bloom in it when it is warm. I think that the workmen were peeing in it last summer. I can just imagine what the pool would look like without the pump and filter running ten hours per day. Probably just like my two half acre ponds at the office. But without all the snapping turtles.
Sixteen person-months for how many people?
Hopefully four including the former USMC son. He lives 17 miles away from us in Houston, just outside the inner ring in what I affectionately call “the war zone”. The cops call it that too, the area between I-610 and Beltway 8. He has several cops living in his subdivision since it is so new and close in.
And don’t forget the ammo, Mr. Lynn…
I would have well over 20,000 rounds but somehow it all got lost in the Brazos River … Sounds like I need a black rifle.
Sixteen person-months for how many people? That’s a decent start for the three of you. If it were me, I’d spend $1,500 at your nearest LDS HSC on another two or three person-years of bulk staples and store them at your business. Then order a couple grand worth of Augason Farms #10 cans of meal extenders, oil, salt, spices, sauces, mixes, and canned meats from walmart.com and have it delivered to your business. You’ll probably be surprised how little storage space all that requires.
Can I count the twelve deer living on my 14 acres at the office? Seven bucks and five does. The lead buck is a 12 pointer and looks as big as a small elk.
Sure, if you’ve already shot them and canned the meat. Otherwise, no.
See Jackie Clay at Backwoods Home magazine for canning game meat. Or any meat. Or anything at all.
Having backup at the office is a good idea, nudge, nudge.
One only has to look at photos of tornado damage to see that putting all your dried eggs in one basket is a bad idea. One water filter too. Store the food in buckets, and you can dump it out and use the buckets if SHTF. (if it’s packaged food)
Lots of bad things can happen. Hurricane, tornado, brushfire, house fire, chemical spill… all hit here in Houston at some point.
You may not have a proper bug out, but you need stuff offsite.
WRT critters, metal trash cans, or Knack boxes (jobsite boxes.) Metal filing cabinets are cheap. Heck a chest freezer is pretty cheap, and it’s a big metal box….
nick
Having backup at the office is a good idea, nudge, nudge.
I’ve got over $2,000 of Augasons and MREs in the closet already. Actually, the wife would like for me to move some of it to the office.