Yesterdays post was on gear to support electronics. Today, I boot up my laptop to find it with serious problems. Windows boots to a black screen...cursor visible and can be moved around, but nothing else. Great.
Low-tech alternatives saved the day. A piece of paper doesn't crash on you.
Laptop is getting looked at and under warranty if it's anything major. But a good reminder against relying too much on technology.
Showing posts with label misc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label misc. Show all posts
9/28/10
9/11/10
Paintball Sentry Gun
Reader Wesley passed this product along. Sentry paintball guns. This firing PepperBalls - pepper spray filled paint balls - would be a nasty surprise on your perimeter, post-TEOTWAWKI.
8/23/10
NATO Watch Strap
I have had the same every-day watch since, oh, 2004 or so. A titanium Seiko perpetual calendar model, military-esque looking. Nice enough watch, but nothing fancy. I had the band sized-down after purchase and have subsequently misplaced the leftover links. I've been working on pushups lately, and have noticed that my wrists have been getting just a little bit thicker. Nothing drastic, but enough to the point where the ol' Seiko was getting uncomfortable to wear for extended periods. Sad.
I dig some of the Nato/Zulu band watches I've seen out there and decided, hey, for the $20 or so dollars, it's worth it. A lot cheaper than buying a new watch. I did some searching and found Military Watch Resource to come highly recommended.
They shipped quickly and the price was good, so thumbs up from me.
The strap is not entirely intuitive to install, but I dug up this helpful how-to that gives a clear walkthrough and features a drool inducing Rolex. I need to see if Rolex would like to send me one for trial and evaluation...But, anyways, the instructions are simple enough to follow. I used an eyeglass screw driver to pop out the springbars and remove the old strap, then followed the tutorial step by step. Actually turned out to be a lot easier than I though.
So, directions followed and I've got the watch strap on. Old watch looks and feels like a whole new watch. Pretty cool looking, to boot. Very comfortable...about a billion times better than the too-small band from before, and it makes the watch even lighter on the wrist--no small feat as the watch band from before was titanium. The band itself is fairly indestructible in build; I think it would hold up through years of hard use.
I'll post up pictures when I dig out the camera later this week.
If you've got a watch that needs a new band or one that you're just bored of, pick up a zulu/nato and give your watch a new and much more tactical lease on life.
I dig some of the Nato/Zulu band watches I've seen out there and decided, hey, for the $20 or so dollars, it's worth it. A lot cheaper than buying a new watch. I did some searching and found Military Watch Resource to come highly recommended.
They shipped quickly and the price was good, so thumbs up from me.
The strap is not entirely intuitive to install, but I dug up this helpful how-to that gives a clear walkthrough and features a drool inducing Rolex. I need to see if Rolex would like to send me one for trial and evaluation...But, anyways, the instructions are simple enough to follow. I used an eyeglass screw driver to pop out the springbars and remove the old strap, then followed the tutorial step by step. Actually turned out to be a lot easier than I though.
So, directions followed and I've got the watch strap on. Old watch looks and feels like a whole new watch. Pretty cool looking, to boot. Very comfortable...about a billion times better than the too-small band from before, and it makes the watch even lighter on the wrist--no small feat as the watch band from before was titanium. The band itself is fairly indestructible in build; I think it would hold up through years of hard use.
I'll post up pictures when I dig out the camera later this week.
8/20/10
Working on projects...
Blog's been a little slow the past few days; my apologies! I'm working on several projects and waiting for things to reach a 'finished' place before posting. They should get there next week-ish. Here's what's in the pipeline:
- Guest-post from the wife on advice r.e. getting used to having firearms in the home (she grew up with the "guns are dangerous/evil/scary" stigma). Should be a good post to pass along to anyone intimidated or concerned about guns.
- My take on an Urban Pocket Survival Kit; there's lots of wilderness survival altoid/pocket kits out there, I wanted to do something different! Been spending way too much time trying to make this relevant and useful - getting close!
- A post on my completed First Aid Kit (waiting for some components in the mail).
- Maybe some complaining about how stupid the cast of The Colony is this season (short version: they're morons).
- And hopefully some other cool stuff.
8/16/10
Thoughts on things.
Survivalists and preppers usually end up with a lot of things. Partly due to our "ant" mentality of gathering in and storing items for the coming winter, partly due to our gear-head nature. Thousands of rounds of ammo, months or years of food, big gunsafes loaded to the gills, closets full of camping and bug out gear. Our pockets are usually stuffed with a variety of gear- lights, knives, guns, whatever.
I don't even have a ton of stuff - pretty reasonable by most standards. My wife has more stuff than I do - wives are often good at that. Piles of old shoes, ancients clothes and books that will never be read again. I have a small closet, a few drawers full of stuff, and a few bins and boxes in the garage.
Still, with that limited "stuff," I often have the desire to reduce or at least figure out my 'essentials' - the things that I can't part with. The things that I would take with me if I could only have a carload of stuff, a few suitcases of stuff, etc.
I guess it's a desire to get things down to their bare minimums, to minimalize. Modern man has a lot of useless crap - our ancestors usually had only a few essentials, and they made it just fine (usually). Today, we place a lot of value on things that aren't really of much use. Eli, from the Book of Eli put it well; talking about our time:
People had more than they needed. We had no idea what was precious and what wasn't. We threw away things people kill each other for now.
What do you need? What's your minimums? Take inventory of your gear, your possessions and do some thinking.
This guy has decided to actually get rid of most of his stuff; probably a little extreme, but I think this is a worthy mental exercise for anyone - and especially so for us survivalists.
Which preps do you really need? Which are dead weight, clogging up your living space and your life? If you have stuff that you're not using, sell it, barter it - turn it into something else. Or give it to someone who needs it and will use it. If you're going to make a purchase, think hard about whether or not it will be a dust-collector. Take the same approach to your EDC gear, your bag, everything. It's got to be useful, it's got to be a must-have.
Also, at least as I mentally go through my belongings, it's the high-quality items that end up on the "must haves." The cheap crap? Not so much. Much better to have one quality item than 10 crappy ones. Buy good stuff.
Here are a few of my personal must-haves; if I had to reduce my belongings down to their bare minimums, this would be a start of the list.
- Laptop
- EDC bag (Camelbak Urban Assault) & contents
- Leatherman Charge xTi
- One pocket knife (P'kal would be my choice right now)
- Blackhawk Falcata flashlight
- Keys and wallet
- Guns: Glock, AR-15. Two ammo cans o' ammo n' mags.
- iPhone
- Headphones
- Becker BK-7
- one pair of sunglasses (Oakleys)
- one watch (Seiko)
- Scriptures
- Camping gear: Sleeping bag, one camp chair, air mattress, two tarps. Paracord. Two 5-gallon water jugs.
- One pillow, pillowcase, blanket, fitted sheet.
- A towel, small dopp kit.
- Could reduce my clothes down to fit into one large-ish suitcase.
- One small-ish toolbox of tools, parts and cleaning kits
- One good frying pan, a medium sized pot, a large pot, one baking sheet, one spatula, one wooden spoon, one can opener, one spoon, fork, butter knife, steak knife, one good kitchen knife. One large cup, one mug, one bowl. A few ziplock containers.
- Furniture: If I had to choose between a bed and my couch, I'd choose my couch (big, overstuffed and comfy). Would need a small table/trunk combo to rest and store stuff.
- My pickup.
- A shoebox sized container of mementos, documents and personal items.
- One pen, one pencil, one Sharpie and a notebook.
- Camelbak water bottle
And that's a pretty good start--and leaves me with a lot of stuff I could get rid of.
What about you guys? What are some of your must-have things? How much excess stuff do you have?
I don't even have a ton of stuff - pretty reasonable by most standards. My wife has more stuff than I do - wives are often good at that. Piles of old shoes, ancients clothes and books that will never be read again. I have a small closet, a few drawers full of stuff, and a few bins and boxes in the garage.
Still, with that limited "stuff," I often have the desire to reduce or at least figure out my 'essentials' - the things that I can't part with. The things that I would take with me if I could only have a carload of stuff, a few suitcases of stuff, etc.
I guess it's a desire to get things down to their bare minimums, to minimalize. Modern man has a lot of useless crap - our ancestors usually had only a few essentials, and they made it just fine (usually). Today, we place a lot of value on things that aren't really of much use. Eli, from the Book of Eli put it well; talking about our time:
People had more than they needed. We had no idea what was precious and what wasn't. We threw away things people kill each other for now.
What do you need? What's your minimums? Take inventory of your gear, your possessions and do some thinking.
This guy has decided to actually get rid of most of his stuff; probably a little extreme, but I think this is a worthy mental exercise for anyone - and especially so for us survivalists.
Which preps do you really need? Which are dead weight, clogging up your living space and your life? If you have stuff that you're not using, sell it, barter it - turn it into something else. Or give it to someone who needs it and will use it. If you're going to make a purchase, think hard about whether or not it will be a dust-collector. Take the same approach to your EDC gear, your bag, everything. It's got to be useful, it's got to be a must-have.
Also, at least as I mentally go through my belongings, it's the high-quality items that end up on the "must haves." The cheap crap? Not so much. Much better to have one quality item than 10 crappy ones. Buy good stuff.
Here are a few of my personal must-haves; if I had to reduce my belongings down to their bare minimums, this would be a start of the list.
- Laptop
- EDC bag (Camelbak Urban Assault) & contents
- Leatherman Charge xTi
- One pocket knife (P'kal would be my choice right now)
- Blackhawk Falcata flashlight
- Keys and wallet
- Guns: Glock, AR-15. Two ammo cans o' ammo n' mags.
- iPhone
- Headphones
- Becker BK-7
- one pair of sunglasses (Oakleys)
- one watch (Seiko)
- Scriptures
- Camping gear: Sleeping bag, one camp chair, air mattress, two tarps. Paracord. Two 5-gallon water jugs.
- One pillow, pillowcase, blanket, fitted sheet.
- A towel, small dopp kit.
- Could reduce my clothes down to fit into one large-ish suitcase.
- One small-ish toolbox of tools, parts and cleaning kits
- One good frying pan, a medium sized pot, a large pot, one baking sheet, one spatula, one wooden spoon, one can opener, one spoon, fork, butter knife, steak knife, one good kitchen knife. One large cup, one mug, one bowl. A few ziplock containers.
- Furniture: If I had to choose between a bed and my couch, I'd choose my couch (big, overstuffed and comfy). Would need a small table/trunk combo to rest and store stuff.
- My pickup.
- A shoebox sized container of mementos, documents and personal items.
- One pen, one pencil, one Sharpie and a notebook.
- Camelbak water bottle
And that's a pretty good start--and leaves me with a lot of stuff I could get rid of.
What about you guys? What are some of your must-have things? How much excess stuff do you have?
8/6/07
Attack of the Misc!
Spread the word about TEOTWAWKI Blog to your fellow preppers and apocalypse entertainment fans! If anyone has survival related websites they would like reviewed and linked, just send me an e-mail.
If you have any prep-related questions you'd like answered or movies/books/whatever reviewed, just drop me a line and I'll do my best to cover it!
We've added a Google search functionality to the blog--use the power of Google wisely, my friends.
Also, if you scroll down to the waaay bottom, you will also see a link to the SurvivalRing. I'm not super-familiar with them, so we'll see how it goes.
I watched the end of Red Dawn yet again over the weekend. Classic "survivalist" movie if there ever was one...a group of American teens battling against Commie invaders, with young Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen--what more could you want??? Not exactly an Oscar-caliber film, but a thoroughly entertaining end-of-the-world action flick! I'll write a more lengthy review at some point in the future, but suffice it to say that if you haven't seen it, you must! If you have seen it, then you'll definiately appreciate this t-shirt I stumbled on a while back.
Wolverines!
Silver was down a bit, bounced up a bit at the end of last week, and looks like it has dropped 12 cents as of today. Seems to be lots of questions out there on buying silver. If you're looking for a "where to buy", if local coin shops fail, it's sad to say that E-Bay has a good selection, but frequently inflated prices on American Silver Eagles, Canadian Silver Maples, etc. As for "when": silver is high right now, but it seems like it may be a good time to invest due to economic fears...perhaps wait for the next "dip" to make your purchase. At the same time, I'd be more concerned with laying up a good store of water, food, ammo, and even cash before sinking funds into silver. Silver is good at retaining value despite economic collapse, but if your starved, shot corpse is dead on the side of the road, it's not going to do you much good. Personally, I'm watching for a good deal on a small quantity of silver to supplement our stores of "on-hand" wealth, but it's not a top priority. Coinflation.com is my personal favorite for tracking silver values.
If you have any prep-related questions you'd like answered or movies/books/whatever reviewed, just drop me a line and I'll do my best to cover it!
We've added a Google search functionality to the blog--use the power of Google wisely, my friends.
Also, if you scroll down to the waaay bottom, you will also see a link to the SurvivalRing. I'm not super-familiar with them, so we'll see how it goes.
I watched the end of Red Dawn yet again over the weekend. Classic "survivalist" movie if there ever was one...a group of American teens battling against Commie invaders, with young Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen--what more could you want??? Not exactly an Oscar-caliber film, but a thoroughly entertaining end-of-the-world action flick! I'll write a more lengthy review at some point in the future, but suffice it to say that if you haven't seen it, you must! If you have seen it, then you'll definiately appreciate this t-shirt I stumbled on a while back.
Wolverines!
Silver was down a bit, bounced up a bit at the end of last week, and looks like it has dropped 12 cents as of today. Seems to be lots of questions out there on buying silver. If you're looking for a "where to buy", if local coin shops fail, it's sad to say that E-Bay has a good selection, but frequently inflated prices on American Silver Eagles, Canadian Silver Maples, etc. As for "when": silver is high right now, but it seems like it may be a good time to invest due to economic fears...perhaps wait for the next "dip" to make your purchase. At the same time, I'd be more concerned with laying up a good store of water, food, ammo, and even cash before sinking funds into silver. Silver is good at retaining value despite economic collapse, but if your starved, shot corpse is dead on the side of the road, it's not going to do you much good. Personally, I'm watching for a good deal on a small quantity of silver to supplement our stores of "on-hand" wealth, but it's not a top priority. Coinflation.com is my personal favorite for tracking silver values.
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