survive the ending of this country and/or a world disaster

But i just felt like noting… the events / possibilities leading up to this disaster seem realer than ever. i’m really worried about the state of the union and the financial hardships this country is going through. Looking around at the movie theater last night, i had to wonder how many of the people there would survive if the USA completely collapsed. People don’t know how to take care of themselves anymore, how to make things from scratch and grow food for survival. It’s a scary thought.

My mother, aunt, and i are talking about starting a container garden soon. i’ve always had what i like to refer to as a black thumb… every plant that i touch dies (lol). i’m hoping to finally change the trend.

Trying really hard not to be scared… and wondering how i’m going to get to school or work if gas rises to $20 a gallon as hyperinflation would most likely cause.

So, i’ve now purchased a small tent, a battery powered lantern (i would have liked to go with the rechargeable batteries but it was beyond my budget… so i went with the cheap $.97 for two. i don’t know if they’ll last as long, but until i get a higher cash flow, they’ll have to do), an air mattress, and a fishing pole. All of this stuff can be used for camping, but most of it is good emergency gear, too. i don’t need an air mattress, but i can no longer comfortably sleep on the ground. A fishing pole is important if you need to catch your supper, but right now will be for recreational purposes. i think that it’s important to be able to live off the land if you need to. i meant to go camping last week into this week, but things didn’t work out, so now i’m working on “bond and title my car” this week instead of “learn how to fish”. Next purchases: a camp stove (unless my father has one i can have, which he might) and a new sleeping bag (my old one is not big enough and is well used).

They gave me a sweet deal on my snowboard because i was with my sister (Meg is a former employee) but man their camping equipment and swim gear seems beyond my budget.

i had to get the tires rotated and balanced at Wal-Mart Tuesday evening, so i perused the camping section once again (though this time at the other Wal-Mart in town). i priced lanterns: propane vs. gas vs. battery operated. The battery powered conveniently have info on the side of the box that says how long a lantern will last. Twenty-four hours is just about as good as it gets, but unfortunately this is with 8 D batteries: pricey, to say the least. 6 volts and propane are much more cost efficient i’d say. Hopefully i’ll be in a situation where i can begin stocking up soon, but i’m not holding my breath.

Last Thursday i had some free time so i headed over to Wal-Mart and browsed the camping supplies. In the case of the collapse of the government Wal-Mart is just about the first place i’d loot as most of the items i could aquire would be a matter of life and death. Even better, the relatively new inclusion of food in the Supercenters makes survival a whole lot easier. Definitely my first stop after the gas station.

Saw it for sale at Hot Topic last week! Go out and grab a copy if you haven’t already!

It randomly ocurred to me today as i was walking to archery that the borg are the sci fi equivalent to zombies: they walk around in a daze and as soon as they realize that you’re not one of them it’s assimilation time. This, of course, led me to wonder why Starfleet officers (when fighting off said menace) aim at the chest instead of the head, particularly because i recently rewatched an episode of Star Trek Voyager (“Imperfection”) in which Seven’s cortical node starts shutting down and Icheb has to heroically give up his own in order for her to survive. Seven was, of course, a member of the collective for twenty-some years and has now recovered from borgdom (which is totally impossible in zombiedom by any stretch of the imagination, as certain PTB discovered when producing 28 Days Later). All of this begs the question: why in the heck can’t Janeway and crew just destroy everyone’s cortical nodes instead of repeatedly phasering their chest-forcefields/shields??? i’d say one has a better chance of survival by running up to one of these drones and disabling their cortical node point blank than one has fighting zombies. Sure, there’s the whole nanoprobe tubule thing going on, but you can just cut those off, too, if need be. Drones are stupid, they wouldn’t even try to grab you like Zombies would… Stupid redshirts.

i’m currently listening to the Taking (by Dean Koontz) on tape at night before i go to bed and it is freaking me out! i want a machete, i want a handgun, i want stores of food, and i want them now! It just scares me that i know how to defend myself or have the bravery to at least try but i’m not equipped to do so. i feel so dumb because i’m so helpless but at the moment my budget just won’t handle anything. i must try to rectify this situation as soon as possible.

Did you know that there is even such a thing as a Pet Survival Kit?!? And what about this one, which only gives you one light stick? As soon as i get a trusty machete i need to look into making my own survival kit. I’m sure that visiting the local Military Surplus would help. Then i need to look into get a beat up but reliable form of transportation that gets 50 mpg so i can hot foot it to Mexico when all hell breaks loose. Better start saving…

i just recently watched Gladiator a couple of weeks ago for the first time in about three years. Phoenix is so creepy in it! Crowe is of course masterful as the Spaniard/Gladiator. It just got me thinking about the Roman empire and how huge it was. And then on Tuesday my Mythology teacher mentioned that he’s currently teaching a class about the Roman empire and how every time he reads about its fall he thinks of the United States of America and sees the warning signs here. This is nothing new to me, not that i know the details, but now i’m wondering about the details. What brought about the fall of Rome? Are we really on the brink of it here? And i still don’t have a machete…