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Friday, September 15, 2017

Happy Paratus!

Today is Paratus! Our buddy commander zero was kind enough to give me something so of course I had to reply albeit last minute. 

If you don't exchange gifts with survivalist friends maybe try to help someone. A small pre made kit or a book like Patriots or One Second After is a good option. 
Posted by Theother Ryan at 6:10 AM 2 comments: Links to this post

Friday, September 8, 2017

F You Money, or Maybe Just I Quit Money

I am going to curse in this post. If that offends you I am sorry.

Our buddy Commander Zero brought this phrase into my vocabulary. Today I got bored and googled it. Basically Fuck You money is an amount of cash where you would never have to work again. Not do anything you want forever but live at a certain income level without needing to work.

Obviously what constitutes fuck you money is based on a multiplication of your desired annual income so it depends on the lifestyle a person wants to keep.  Fuck you money for a guy who lives in a trailer in the desert on 20k a year would be a lot less than for me in a fairly average middle class income. What would be F U money for me would be a kind of bad weekend at the tables for Dan Blizerian.

We could calculate this a couple of ways. One would be strait years X dollars but realistically unless you are pretty old we are talking about living off of interest. So you need a chunk of cash sufficient to pay interest at the level you would be planning to live at. We could debate this realistic interest number on a balanced portfolio (I have seen 8% a lot) but lets say .05 so some rolls over for inflation protection. Say you want to make 50K a year and figure your money can make .05% so  you would need an even million dollars. A smart person would realize inflation exists so to keep the same relative lifestyle it will obviously cost more in the future. So say you keep some interest rolling into the principle.Or if we want it to be 100k annual income we are talking like 2 mil.

Now 1-2 million dollars is a lot of money. It is not like crazy Warren Buffet/ Bill Gates money though. Not unrealistic if you have an OK income and a good savings plan or the ability to get a couple of big, but not insane, pay days.

That got me to thinking.

In Dave Chapelles recent comedy special on netflix, which you should check out if you like that kind of thing, Dave describes Kevin Hart as having "Shut the Fuck Up Money." Like he could tell a partner to STFU an they would deal with it because he is ridiculously rich. Dave then says that "he has please be quiet money at best."

So in this spirit I got to thinking about what would be a short term goal on the way to FU money? I realized I already knew the answer.

I quit money. Not a place where you can burn every bridge an never work again but one where you can decide you do not want to take the transfer to Los Angeles or that you are tired of putting up with a terrible boss and want to just find another job. Or maybe there is a major life event going on and you are going to take a month off, whether the boss likes it or not.

Then I realized this is simply a good emergency fund. The smart money people say 3-6 months expenses is a good emergency fund. Some in this market where people, especially upper middle class older people say 50+ can be unemployed for a long time, say 6-9 months. Obviously your individual situation matters. How vulnerable you think your situation is, how much back up you have (does the Mrs have a great job or is she a stay at home mom) an how easy it is to replace a job where you are all matter.

I think a fully funded emergency fund in cash (bank or safe) or items that can be immediately converted to cash like silver and gold gives you a lot of options. Also it is a reasonably attainable goal for most people with some savings and maybe increased earnings.

Preparedness and normal life event benefits aside being able to politely tell your boss you quit or not take that new client/ contract an know you have some wiggle room to find something else sounds pretty darn nice. Also this seems like a good motivator to save and earn to stash that cash.

 Got emergency fund?


Posted by Theother Ryan at 7:31 PM 7 comments: Links to this post
Labels: Commander Zero, emergency fund, money

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

I Can Haz Podcast?

Hey, Do you guys and gals listen to podcasts? If so where do you download/ stream them from?

Would you be interested in listening to a podcast if I were to produce one?

If so any thoughts/ ideas/ suggestions would be appreciated. If any of you are involved in a podcast please drop me an email so we can discuss some of that stuff.

No major decisions made yet but it seems like a newer format with more room for growth would be a good thing.

Thanks in advance.
Posted by Theother Ryan at 3:19 PM 4 comments: Links to this post
Labels: admin, blog stuff, podcasts

Friday, September 1, 2017

Real World Bug Outs Continued

Yesterdays Real World Bug Outs post got a lengthy comment from Aesop that I wanted to discuss. I will post it and my comments will be in italics.

My bug-out prep would be for 5 minutes and 30 minutes, but with kids, I could see a 15 minute instead of 5 becoming necessary.

It always takes more time to parade the troops.

Anything not important enough to grab and load in 30 minutes isn't vital anyways.
BTW, That's 10 3-minute round trips.


I think we could talk in circles about what the right time amounts are. As I look at my list the initial 15 minute time hack is way longer than I would need to do what is on the list. 5 might be a bit optimistic (where are my darn keys right now, etc all) but I could certainly call it 10. It would be 15 at least with kids. 

For the long time I need to think about it a bit more.
So besides figuring what you're carrying, break down those ten (or whatever, your house may be shorter trips than mine) trips into what you grab with each one, based again on triaging priorities. That way, if things get worse, you still got the most important stuff first.



I like the list broken down by trip idea. That is neat. 
 
i.e. Notional trip List

1) Important stuff - briefcase and B.O.B.
2) comms, backups, maps, compass, GPS, etc.
3) Weapons & ammo
4) Water and filters
5) shelter - tent, sleeping bags, etc.
6) medical
7) tools, traps, & gear
8) food
9) more clothes, boots, etc.
10) more food, water, addl. supplies

(And don't forget the carrier(s) for Fido and Fluffy, their food, bowls, leashes, waste management supplies, etc.!)


This is where the real world part comes in. We aren't fleeing the zombie apocalypse to go camp in the woods or something. Thus a need for a tent and traps and a bunch of bulk food isn't present. I'll be living on a couch or in a cheap motel eating pizza or microwave food from the grocery store. So I do not need to waste time and space on that stuff. Having some capability, like a BOB makes sense but that time and vehicle space would be much more useful for Great Grandmas rocking chair or something. I suppose the specific event and your plan will ultimately dictate. I can see myself ending up with 2 lists, one for an event during normal times and another or the dreaded zombie apocalypse.

More trips?
Make a longer list, as appropriate.

Then print it out.
Then put a house plan map, with trip number items color-coded, circled, and pre-packed into appropriate bags/bundles, on the back side.
Then make several two-sided color copies.
Then laminate them, and put them in appropriate places.


You kind of lost me with the talk of color coding and circling. Pre packing stuff makes sense though. I am pretty much there. Concur about the list. My plan is to firm it up an then do just that.

Anything not hot/cold/time sensitive, as much as possible, should be pre-staged in the vehicle(s), which saves you needless trips.

Pre staging stuff in a risky situation (there is a fire nearby, not quite close enough to evacuate yet, etc) certainly makes sense. Having your normal vehicle loaded to bug out at all times sounds kind of problematic. A full set up ready to go in a dedicated vehicle would be cool if you have one and a relatively secure place to store it.


(cont.)
September 1, 2017 at 1:15 AM
Aesop said...
(cont.)
(Oh, and it should go without saying, your vehicle(s) should already have a list of items always in them 24/7/365 - tools, spares, flares, fluids, fire ext., first aid kit, etc., and a schematic of where they're stored, and what needs to be checked/replaced, at least twice a year. Just like the .Mil has done with jeeps, trucks, HMMWVs, MRAPs, APCs, and tanks since we stopped using horses. Doing this on the changes back/forth from Daylight Savings Time, which is always a Sunday, gives you winter/summer changeovers, along with swapping out stored batteries, rotating stored food, and changing active batteries in your smoke and CO2 detectors, and checking your household fire extinguisher(s). All of which people have, right? RIGHT?)


I concur with this and have more or less the same set up in my vehicle.

Kids bags being "too hard" is a cop out.

I am inclined to agree with you. The difference is you and I are fairly committed to all of this stuff. Normal folks aren't. So what is an acceptable level of hassle to you is not to them.

If they grow that fast, just put one full set of clothes into the bag once a week with laundry, and swap 'em out. You're gonna wash them and fold 'em anyways, so it ain't that tough. Or even once a month.

So obviously what's really kickin' somebody's butt there is self-discipline.

Excuses are just wallpaper for a pile of crap.

The briefcase idea is always right, going back to the second Bond movie.

Having your passport/IDs, important stuff, emergency cash, and some handy weapons and gadgets in a Get Out Of Dodge case or carryall is Survival 101, going as far back as the WWI precursors to the OSS 100 years ago.


I use a small backpack so I can stuff it into my BOB if needed.

Go over each item on a monthly basis, i.e. one item per month.

E.g., on that list, in February, you'd put fresh road maps, topos, state gazeteers, etc. in your map case, put in fresh stored (NOT kept inside the devices) spare batts for your GPS and handhelds, make sure your personal CEOI (local freqs, buddies' freqs, cellphone, e-mail, and snail mail addys for family, friends, neighbors, important contacts - banks, utilities, credit card companies, insurance agents and companies, emergency resources - Poison control, doctors, hospitals, red cross, state and federal FEMA, and anything else you want/need/think is cool etc. is all up to date and current, laminated, duplicated, etc.

And everything should be in both paper copies, AND a bombproof/waterproof/disasterproof encrypted thumb drive or three. You should have some of those stored/buried/cached offsite in redundantly redundant places, with all your important records archived.

This is on my to do list.

You can also fit more photos than anyone should own on the newer high-cap drives, and save yourself toting cartons of albums of otherwise irreplaceable family pics.


Scanning photos is a great idea. I will add it to my to do list.

For one example, you can put one or more such drives in one of the cute anodized, o-ring sealed aluminum "pill carrier" tubes, go to a close relative's house outside your region, unscrew the center latch of an interior door like a closet, get a paddle bit, and put a suitable hole into the jamb. Deposit the tube, put the latch back in place, screw it down on most of the screws, and epoxy in a broken-off dummy screw head for the remaining hole(s), and unless their house burns down or washes away too, it'll be there until you need it, or get old enough to go senile and forget you put it there.



I would probably just ask them to hold onto said thumb drive for me.

If you have masonry bits and some camo skillz plus a glue gun, you can do this with a brick in a pile, a rock, a tree trunk or stump, a plug/switch box in conduit, or about 1000 other places. The places where you can stash stuff you might want, but don't want to carry are mainly only limited by your imagination.




This kind of thing definitely has some cool possibilities. I am certainly a fan of caches.

And the fatter aluminum tubes about 3" long hold 30+ quarter-sized coins. Imagine pre-65 silver, or 1/4 oz. gold Canadian Maple leaf coins, and each one is a stash of $90-9000 US dollars of actual money. Just saying.

September 1, 2017 at 1:16 AM
Posted by Theother Ryan at 2:47 PM 2 comments: Links to this post
Labels: B, bob, bug out, Joe Fox, Maggy

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Real World Bug Outs

My friends house almost burned down. There was a fire in the immediate area. It happened during the day when B was at work. Maggy was home with the kids. She realized it was time to get out of there. She had the kids (they are young) pack bags while she put some other stuff together. Thankfully the issue was localized so a friend was able to come over and help with the kids which gave her a lot more freedom of movement.


She mentioned that it was a good thing that it wasn't a real emergency because between their kids bags was "3 pair of underwear, 4 shorts, 8 shirts, and 28 pair of socks."



This got us talking about preparing. I mentioned maybe having some bags ready to go. She, somewhat correctly, said for little kids whose sizes change constantly that would be sort of a constant mess. After some consideration I got back to her and told her what I actually do.



For my kids I keep a kid sized backpack in the car with a full set of clothes, 2x underwear, shoes, a coat and a few small books/ toys. This is basically their bug out stuff. It sits in the vehicle because kids are messy and crazy. Also it keeps this stuff relevant because it fits a normal life role and is getting used somewhat often. 


Other things that came up from this conversation are lists and drills.


Having a list of what you should take helps in stressful situations. Do the thinking when your mind is clear. Also this may well lead you to having things more organized. For example having your important papers in a folder or briefcase with your passports, documents, cash, spare keys, etc together in the safe makes it much easier than doing a scavenger hunt.


I broke my list into 15 minutes and 1 hour. To me much less than 15 is grab your wallet, BOB and run so no point in that. The other time of 1 hour seemed realistic for needing to leave soon but having more time.


Maybe you could do 4 hours and 24 but for me they seem to be getting less likely. Unless you have a bunch of guys to help and several large trailers you will see that the 1 hour plan has your vehicles pretty much packed up.


I am going to firm up my list a little and will publish it, or maybe a sanitized version of it, later.


Drills are important. Even relatively small kids can do stuff. Also if the kids are busy it lets parents be much more productive. Even something as simple as "Get dressed, pack a bag of toys, go to the bathroom and get into the car." would be a huge help. The kid drills are something I am kind of light on. I will have to take a look at Joe Foxs Book.


Anyway what are your thoughts on real world bug out's?



Posted by Theother Ryan at 7:51 PM 3 comments: Links to this post
Labels: B, bob, bug out, Joe Fox, Maggy

Sunday, August 27, 2017

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

I was gone for work most of the week so not  a ton happened. Did swing by Cabellas and get a handy little lock box with a cable for my jeep. It lets me store a handgun and or some cash in relative safety. While I was there I also grabbed 2x 100 round packs of CCI Mini Mags.

Got to play with a Century Arms C39V2. I really liked it and plan to buy one soon.

This coming week will be back to the grind of exercise and dry fire. Might but some ammo also. Over the long weekend I will probably go shooting.

What did you do to prepare this week?
Posted by Theother Ryan at 5:23 PM 6 comments: Links to this post
Labels: AK47, ammo, C39V2 life, preps

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Air Travel an Preparedness

I travel for work sometimes. I also travel to see my kids. Both are at least in the short term unavoidable. Also traveling for fun is nice.

Traveling by vehicle is easy for preparedness. Assuming you have some space in the vehicle you can just bring whatever. Also your ability to control your own travel means you can choose to leave right now. You can go a hundred miles the wrong way to avoid a big problem.

Air travel is more difficult. Still I think you can be reasonably prepared for most even semi likely events if not the end of the world.

The most restrictive set of stuff for air travel is if you are only using a carry on. It is also what you can have on your person on the plane. What can you have? Listed in rough order:
-Good footwear. You don't need hiking boots but shouldn't be wearing flip flops or heals either. A decent set of close toed shoes you can walk a few miles in can fit with most styles and are very prudent.
-Decent all around clothes. Not combat or hunting gear but some kind of reasonable clothes in case you need to do something or get stuck in them for awhile. Also reasonable outer wear for your area.
-CASH. Probably the biggest single problem solver in real world survival situations. 
-Credit Cards. Having a card with a big balance gives you options. Need a last minute ticket, OK. Heck if you need to buy a used car to drive out of a problem it is an option.
-Medications. Having a week or even better a month of medicines you need is very wise.
-OTC meds. Stuff for standard travel sickness like diarrhea, Tylenol, Benedryl, etc.
-First aid gear. Minus the needle I can't see why you wouldn't be able to have a full IFAK in a carry on bag.
-A water bottle.
-Compass.
-Maps. This is wonky as planes cover huge distances but even a state road map is better than nothing. Doubly so if you are not familiar with the area at all.

Now lets say you check a bag. For the sake of this a bag to anywhere. What can you add.
 -A good knife.
-A multi tool.

Checking guns. Obviously on a flight to most foreign countries this is not an option. However when it comes to traveling in most of the US it is not a big deal to fly with guns. I have done it a few times and the only one where it got any scrutiny was in Louisiana at a local airport where the guy just wanted to see what I had. Really flying with a gun isn't anywhere near as big a deal as people make it out to be.

That said if you travel to the same place often and can afford to do so it isn't a bad idea to consider an operational cache.

How serious about all of this should you be? I suppose it depends. Primarily in my mind it depends on the risk level of where you are going. If I was flying into Northern Iraq or Pakistan or Indonesia would have things locked down. Thousands in cash a full on BOB, an as many weapons as you can get in and carry would be prudent. On the other hand if you were flying to a few hundred miles from home and it isn't to a place with a high threat then some cash, decent clothes, a compass and a map an your not doing bad at all. Toss in a good folding knife and a gun or two and its a good set up for a relaxed area.

Thoughts?
Posted by Theother Ryan at 6:41 PM 2 comments: Links to this post
Labels: air travel, armed travel, flying, life

Sunday, August 20, 2017

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week? Ammo Cans and BOB Reorganization

It was a pretty good week here in preparedness. Jiu Jitsu, PT and dry fire were good.

I got a deal on a bunch of ammo cans I have been sorely needing. Had a couple cases of 5.56 and some various other ammo that needed to get properly stored in cans. I had to dig around to find it all. Still fairly certain there is a case or two floating around somewhere that needs to go into cans but oh well.

Today I reorganized my bug out bag and assault pack. I worked on this recently. The resulting bag was good but the overall plan somewhat lacking. For most of my local situations I do not need a full up BOB. Having a full up 40 LB ish BOB to get me a few miles home is unnecessary and even counter productive. I need some of that stuff though.

Often survivalists end up with 2 totally separate systems. A get home bag and a bug out bag. I wasn't in love with this idea. Basically it leaves you with 2 really redundant systems. Also the BOB really needs an assault pack anyway.

The idea I had was to shift items between the BOB and Assault Bag to make it so each is useful on its own. We want redundancy in essential items anyway right? So putting one item in one bag and another in the other leaves you with 2 relatively useful kits.

I rebalanced my BOB to 2 bags. Both come in around 20 pounds so 40 total. I will likely add a few things to the BOB since it has space now but the whole thing staying well under 50 total is very realistic.

There is some playing to do between them still and I can use a few more things. Specifically I can use another sawyer water filter, a flashlight and another poncho (my last one went into a cache). Also I wish I could find my darn Ontario Rat 3 knife an the pouch it is on.

Generally I am happy with this set up. Once I get it fully sorted out maybe I'll take pictures and do an inventory. Fundamentally though I think the plan is a winner.

What did you do to prepare this week?
Posted by Theother Ryan at 7:49 PM 2 comments: Links to this post
Labels: ammo, ammo cans, bob, ghb, level 2.5, Level 3, preps

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Summer Complacency

 
Todays topic was inspired by our buddy Commander Zero. He wrote about summer complacency recently and I have been meaning to do a post on the matter.
First and foremost I think having our life focus be on something other than preparedness is a good thing. We should prepare to have peace of mind and protect what is important, not to have it dominate our lives. As I look at my journey in preparedness the times it was the biggest thing in my life I either had a void to fill or was focusing on preparedness to avoid unpleasant realities such as an unhappy failing marriage.
Preparedness is a long term journey for most people. Like finances or fitness it is a slow cooker concept. Excluding very rare people who come in with a lot of fairly uncommon skills and A WHOLE LOT OF MONEY getting to an intermediate level of preparedness to comfortable ride out a major regional disaster is going to be a multi year process.  
Additionally the really prepared people I know got that way not by short term sprints but by long term consistent effort. Check out Commonalities of survivalist lifestyles and finances. They may have had some sprints in there (a friend got a whole semi truck full of food before Y2K) but it was generally modest consistent effort. So I don’t worry too much about the time you take a week or two or a month off.
Much of the advice here will also work in times when you are busy or distracted or whatever.
That said the discussion I want to have is how to manage and thrive through complacency in the context of preparedness so……..
The biggest thing I would say about successfully navigating times where you have less interest or time to put into preparedness is to MAINTAIN. Rotate the food and fuel you need to rotate to keep supplies fresh. Replace the ammo you shoot on the family range day. Keep kits organized and don’t raid them to borrow socks or beef jerky or whatever.
Second is to keep as many of the automated/ automatic things you have going on in place as is practical. If you have an automated savings or precious metals purchase plan going keep it. If you always get $20 in storage food on the weekly shopping trip keep that up. These programs should be easy to keep in place.
The last piece of advice I have for people dealing with complacency is to find something you want to do that is preparedness related and do it. One of the cool things about preparedness is that it is a very broad subject. People spend hours a week practicing on one of the dozens of subjects that fall under the umbrella of preparedness. Fitness, martial arts, shooting, tactics, food storage, cooking with food storage, gardening, fishing, hunting, hiking, camping, ham radio, short wave radio, machine repair, sewing, leather working, weaving, rock climbing, knot tying, and too much more to list.
Find a new thing you want to do (or one you used to do) and get started.
For those who are busy or broke or have whatever other reason that is stalling their preparedness efforts. Think less about what you cannot do and more about what you can do. Oh your broke, it happens. PT is free, dry fire is free, organizing your gear is free, doing inventories is free. Lastly to the “I’m broke” thing we have to be honest. Are you legitimately broke or are you making other choices with your money? If you can’t afford to put back some canned goods but smoke 2 packs a day and drink 2 cases of beer a week then it isn’t that you are broke but instead that you are making other choices. Smoke/ drink less, skip a meal out, have a night in instead of a bar night, etc.
Oh your busy, it happens. Do things that require minimal time. Or maybe consider how much time you waste reading on some internet forum or mindlessly watching Netflix/ youtube. Relaxation is important and we need it but if you are doing that stuff for multiple hours every day you have time to get some stuff done.
I hope this helps some of you.
Posted by Theother Ryan at 2:54 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: 15 minutes of fame, Commander Zero, life, preps

Monday, August 14, 2017

I'm Baaccck

Hey Folks, I think my technological issues are fixed. I nuked my laptop deleting everything and just starting over. It seems to be working normally now. Expect more regular posting (say 3 posts a week) to commence forth with.
Posted by Theother Ryan at 4:35 PM 3 comments: Links to this post
Labels: admin

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Book Review: The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun

The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun by Matthew Bracken
Today I will be reviewing this book by Matthew Bracken. I will try to keep big spoilers to a minimum as it relates to this book but inevitably a review gives away some stuff. I will also compare and contrast with Matt Brackens other books so there may be some spoilers there. Also for the sake of full disclosure I paid full price for this book and do not have any relationship with Matthew Bracken. To the best of my recollection I have never interacted with the guy. That said I do like his stuff and have all his books. Getting started.
Brief Overview: “Dan Kilmer is a former Marine sniper in his late thirties. Fifteen years earlier, he returned home from military service in the Middle East and gave college a try, but his combat experiences prevented him from fitting into campus life. In a South Florida boatyard, his uncle was attempting to refurbish an old cargo schooner, and Dan left college to help him finish the flagging project. After two years of work but before the sixty-foot boat was relaunched, his uncle fell from a scaffold and died. While still in his mid-twenties, Dan inherited the schooner Rebel Yell, but not the means to maintain it or to afford the cruising lifestyle. Soon after, he left the United States to embark on a series of voyages, mostly in pursuit of beautiful women and good times. The action in this new novel takes place a few years after his adventures in Castigo Cay, the first Dan Kilmer novel. In The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun, Dan's trading schooner is located in southwest Ireland, where he is attempting to sell 96 drums of diesel fuel salvaged from an abandoned NATO base in Greenland. The global financial system has collapsed, and both paper and digital currency have no value, but diesel fuel and gold still do. While waiting to sell his remaining thirty barrels, Dan is approached by a retired SAS colonel and asked to transport a dozen former special operations commandos 1,400 miles south to the Canary Islands, where they will be transported by a landing craft to Morocco in order to conduct a rescue operation. Two months earlier, nearly seventy Irish and English girls had been kidnapped by pirates from their elite Irish boarding academy and taken to Port Zerhoun, which is under the control of a cartel of modern corsairs. The young schoolgirls will be sold at auction as sex slaves, unless a ragtag team of former commandos can liberate them in time.”
The Good:
-This books collapse scenario is plausible. Particularly the scenario Matt lays out of a violent, economically depressed world is vivid and realistic. Things in many areas have fallen apart but more in a “there is very little fuel and the electricity doesn’t work much” than a cataclysmic typical survivalist scenario where civilization as we know it falls apart and the world descends into murdering rapist cannibal gangs. Manufacture of most complicated modern goods is seriously limited and the supply of them as well as fossil fuels are highly prized/ rare/ expensive. This is probably the most realistic portrayal I have seen.
-The geo politics in the book are current and valid. They didn’t dust off the same scrolling paragraph at the beginning of red dawn kind of start scenario. Too many books in this realm start with “the stock market crashed or the lights went out” then go into their plot. This book takes a real quality look both at current situations (portrayed as past since the book is in the near future) and realistic future ones based on the current trajectory.
-Along these lines technology available to our happy go lucky group of adventurers and mercenaries reflected the overall scenario of the book and is downright plausible. A decade into a collapse scenario most of the wiz bang electronics people have now will have stopped working.
This was a sharp contrast with the first Dan Kilmer book where he had all kinds of cool toys: night vision, lasers, a small UAV, etc. In this book they were navigating by sextant and rocking iron sights on their rifles. This brings up an excellent point. Gear fails and the most vulnerable/ fragile gear is by far electronics. Having a plan/ gear set up that uses modern gear but can easily fall back to older durable gear is prudent. So relying solely on a red dot sight is a bad plan.
-The book portrays people and social situations in realistic ways. Characters had faults and a person who is great in one way may be a jerk in another. How they are motivated in different ways (economics, morality, etc) or combinations of ways is so good. How sex is portrayed is realistic for normal society and straddles a fine line between ignoring the matter entirely like some books written by very socially conservative Christian types or randomly being fairly dirty like Unintended Consequences. Ditto various realistic but very unpleasant events like rape and slavery.
-Things went wrong. Missions fail. Small missions relying on single points of failure can come apart if a vehicle doesn’t work or a rope breaks or whatever. In a collapse scenario where gear is decades old and questionably maintained things will go wrong even more often.
-Piracy. While the resurgence of Islamic raiding of Europe to steal slaves is a “what if” the relationship between lack of global stability and piracy is quite solid. We are seeing it now in Somalia. Piracy based out of the the Med and NW Africa if Europes stability starts to crack is absolutely realistic.
-Dan finally got his shit together and bought a Glock 19.
The Bad:
-Depending on their stance on Islam, the Arab world and North Africans someone could be really offended by this book. Someone could also say that Matthew Bracken is speaking the politically incorrect truth. I will let you judge that one for yourself.
-There was one moment where a main character made a total mental 180 on a huge decision in a way that was pretty ‘the writer had a deadline and couldn’t figure out a good way to do it facing a tight deadline’ ish. Just didn’t seem plausible at all.
-Like many books there were times the good guys got really, really lucky.
The Ugly:
-Matt Bracken takes a long time between books. I wish he could get one out every year or so.
General Thoughts:
-The items characters in this books really valued (aside from the obvious boats, gold, etc) were durable, common and readily fixable. Think Glock 9mm pistols, Toyota trucks, strait razors, etc. Looking at Glocks and Toyotas they tend to just work for a really long time. They also are so widely available odds are high you can find a broken one to snag parts out of. You can’t say that about a CZ PO7 Duty or a Land rover.
-There was a shift from Matts other books such as Castigo Cay (and doubly his first 2 Enemies books) where the economy is seriously damaged and there are localized problems but mostly we have the same landscape as today. Less electronic stuff and the ability to replace things easily decreases.
Overall Impression: An excellent book. Buy and read it.
Posted by Theother Ryan at 2:48 PM 3 comments: Links to this post
Labels: book review, matthew bracken

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Realistic Emergencies- Money not Guns and Gear and Buckets O Food

Recently I had an emergency. I didn't need my pocket rocket .380 or my trusty AR. Did not need buckets of rice and beans or body armor or night vision. Know what I needed, MONEY!

Our friend commander zero talked about this recently, well more or less. 

http://www.commanderzero.com/?p=4234

From losing jobs to surprise car repairs or medical problems or legal issues that require a lawyer the common denominator is these problems cost money. The way to solve them is with cash. Yes a bunch of food stashed is a good thing and can displace some expenses but good luck sending your landlord or bank 200 pounds of rice as payment!

One of the blind failures in survivalism and its hipper more politically correct brother preparedness is focusing too much on unlikely or outright fantasy (the classic grid down collapse apocalypse porn stuff) at the expense of failing to adequately prepare for much more likely real life events. 

Got Emergency Fund?
Posted by Theother Ryan at 3:40 PM 2 comments: Links to this post
Labels: emergency fund, life, money

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Link Dump

https://jacobitemag.com/2017/06/14/political-violence-is-a-game-the-right-cant-win/

https://mountainguerrilla.wordpress.com/2017/07/05/establishing-hard-standards/
Posted by Theother Ryan at 9:05 PM 1 comment: Links to this post

Friday, July 21, 2017

Still Kicking

Hey Folks, Wanted to let you know that I'm still alive. It has been a crazy month. Unfortunately more bad than good. Hopefully everything turns out ok and the down sides are minimal. Should have a full post coming at you soon and a general return to normalish blogging. 
Posted by Theother Ryan at 2:28 PM 1 comment: Links to this post

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Bug Out Bag Repacking

For the sake of simplicity I try to have a minimal amount of systems. EDC, my fighting load which is layered and somewhat modular and my bug out bag. The heavy bug out set up is not really formed into a system per se. That is on my to do list.

My bug out bag lives in the back of my jeep. That does a few things for me. First it removes the need for an additional 'get home bag' which would be yet another system to fill with redundant gear and keep track of. Second and maybe more importantly it gets my BOB out of the house so I have some redundancy there. Third if I had to haul butt what I would do is jump in the jeep and go anyway so why have another thing to load. 

I should probably further define my goals from this bag. My goal is to be able to sustain and move through an urban or small town environment in order to get home or out of danger. What it is not: some kind of wilderness survival bag or military ruck sack aka sustainment load. Why? Well I'm not going to run off into the woods to try to make a cabin an eat squirrels n stuff. I'm either going to be trying to get home, hold up till I can get home or get safely out of some sort of danger. If getting out of danger I'll most likely end up in a Motel 6 a town or a couple hundred miles away depending on the event. Also my bag isn't especially like an infantrymens sustainment load (though there are commonalities) because in my civilian capacity being realistic I am unlikely to do anything like that.

It weights in at 32 pounds with 1 quart of water so 30 dry. Has a full change of clothes, sleep stuff (one module is my impromptu overnight kit aka hoe bag), couple days of food, medical, water filtration, etc.

A downside of it living in my car is I won't keep really high value stuff like cash, pms, my NOD, etc in it. That stuff is packed in a small book bag in the safe. Unless I get a much more secure way of storing stuff in my car like a truck vault which at $1,500 isn't happening soon, or the risk on a oven day goes up it will stay in the safe. Not perfect but such is life.

Notes for myself.

Need to add but couldn't readily find in my place:
-10 meter roll of 550 cord/ duct tape

Need to buy, realistically doable:
- Poncho (I'm on the fence about this)
- Kansas and Missouri state maps
- Burner phone x 2
- Phone charger cord
- Encrypted thumb drive
- Water purification tablets

Wish list aka too expensive to just go get or illegal:
- Lots and lots of cash
- Several fake ids with drivers license, SSN card, passport, etc.
- 9mm silencer
- Dedicated Glock 19 and a folding stock AK. ( AK because with a folding stock I can slip it in a small bag like a cheapo collapsible chair bag and strap it on the side of my BOB). Cost and security are issues here.
- NOD dedicated to BOB
- FLIR
- Small battery charger for above
- Fake mustaches

What's in your BOB? What creative ideas have you used to solve problems with finances and legal limitations?

Posted by Theother Ryan at 1:13 PM 6 comments: Links to this post
Labels: bob, ghb, level 2.5, Level 3, systems
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