camping trip gone bad.

Well it turned out nothing of how I wanted, I shot no video, reviewed nothing, beyond just using them, the shelter wasn't made how it needed to be to keep us any kind of warm, I should have left the two I camped with gone off and made my own personal shelter. one person was dictated into not being able to come by his mother, the only under 18 person in the group, and the other two, well one kept leaving camp to go back home since the woods we were in was part of his families property, the idea was to sleep in shifts, and I let him have the first shift since he didn't dress properly and crawled into his sleeping bag first. but then after 6 am, his time to get up and someone else's time to sleep he decides to go get plastic to work on the shelter more,  which the shelter it's self needs to be remade it was rushed by a bit of rain that came through early the first day. he leaves for 3 hours, he went back home and went back to bed, and left me and knight out there cold and tired, and I will have to rethink my thoughts on cold weather camping, I was wearing clothes I normally wearing out into the snow, and I was cold to the bone.
the night the experience didn't work how I wanted, I will probably have to wait for another camping trip, this time not with knight or berzk cause knight also ruined it by running out of the shelter in the middle of the night and taking a dump about 10 feet away from camp, that ruined the site and we would have had to move the site well away from that nastiness. it wasn't the best experience.
the knife I made before the trip worked perfectly, it kept an edge, even after cutting through my hand, it could fell trees quite easily, cut through everything I needed.

one of the things I used while I was out there, a eno hammock- hammocks are not made for winter time, doing this with pads under you will keep air from flowing up under you but it doesn't make it warm, hammock would be good perhaps in the summer and to keep you off the ground from the bugs, something you don't have to worry about in the winter. I paid 70 dollars for this and I haven't used it much, but whats bad after getting it, looking at the design I should be able to make one myself, ill attempt it eventually, I did not buy the straps, bug net, or rain fly, I made a tarp from garbage bags, and I used truck tie down straps for hanging it up.

http://www.eaglesnestoutfittersinc.com/




the other main thing I was gonna test, is an Eton flashlight, this flashlight worked pretty well as a flashlight but the fact that I was using it as a weather radio too showed its flaws, it only lasted about 2 minutes on a few minutes of cranking, it was night so it wasn't easily charged from the solar panel, it also advertises it charging a cell phone from a usb port in the back of the flash light, its apparent this wasn't meant for my iphone the solar panel does not charge the cellphone at all, so if thats what you were wanting spend your 30 bucks on a solar panel charger. the crank is iffy at best for charging a phone, you can tell when you are charging the device or your phone because of the resistance it has when you are charging something but otherwise its a rather free flowing crank. the light worked as long as I needed and worked even after the radio would cut off. also the weather radio apparently uses more power than fm/am. when I bought this it was on special and I got a free blackout buddy flashlight with it. haven't needed it yet but I like that one too.
http://www.etoncorp.com/product_card/?p_ProductDbId=914953

another day of news

Ok this first article hits home for me, when I first moved out of my parents house into this appartment my first course of action was replacing every bulb in the apartment to cfls perhaps I am just a fan of Tesla, but I do not know if this action has saved me money, but I have not had to change a bulb since. not to mention that most of these bulbs were free from my local energy company, and got another box of them from the energy company, after I had gotten the coupons, so they bought them, not me.  this next article not only talks about cfl but newer and well, more expensive led bulbs.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20023357-54.html

I did have more articles but. I believe that is all for tonight since its already 3:30 am, I had to help the SO write a paper for school. and camping starts in the morning, I am so looking forward to it.

late in the day

well I have a few stories to talk about, reading the news last night showed me the stories I wanted to write about today, and unfortunately I am not getting to this writing until nearly 3 am the next day, the first story is speaking about the tsa and all these privacy intrusions we are now just witnessing because of all the terrorist thoughts through out the flight around the world. now I wonder if a full body scanner or groping I mean pat downs would even be helpful to how those planes were apparently high jacked, not with bombs, with box cutters, and with box cutters I honestly do not see any plane full of american people being scared of one or two people on a plane, there has to be some facts wrong about those statements. please come see me in 50 years when the documents are released. right now we are dealing with this invasion of privacy because we are allowing it, we allowed the patriot act to come into play and let it slip by us letting the government avoid completely the 4th amendment, a law that has been in place since the birth of this country. a government agency can bug your house while your away, no search warrant, no court order, no reasonable suspicion no urgent circumstance. the entire  4th amendment was put in place to protect persons places and things for your privacy. knowing this, the statement given by the tsa is that a person, a reasonable person would have no expectation of privacy in an airport, well this is a statement I know we all believe, we all, the american people, have a reasonable expectation of privacy by wearing clothes we assume in our no wrong doing, there should be no reason to see what is under our clothes, nor should a random check by an employee give the reason for a pad down, the pad down, a terry stop, the first pad down, means you have to have reasonable suspicion for a pat down, the only person I see having the ability to judge this is a trained police officer, not a hired tsa employee.

the other story I marked in my book to write about was this http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-11-20-new-orleans-water_N.htm?csp=usat.me  

these guys cant get a break can they? move maybe? ok with katrina, hurricane after hurricane, and the oil spill, its almost surprising to find people still wanting to live in this place, but ok I understand its home and a way of life. they are going through another problem, a power outage? hmm these have happened in new york and they never told them to boil water, which gene pool are they trying to thin...  I joke.

On both of these stories, I have flown on a few planes, after 9/11 mind you I was 16 then, 25 now. even got stopped once cause I attempted to walk through with some hotel shampoo, I let them keep that, I didn't like taking off my shoes or understanding why an xray machine can see inside my laptop, and my bag, but not inside my laptop while its in my bag. on the other story, I have been through hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters. hugo was the worse one I remember, I was 4. most of the time these things happened I was in rather safe locations inside brick structures, so I have been lucky, and I was taught by my parents to have plenty of things, like batteries or things that work but don't require batteries on hand in those times, and I do love the invention of hand crank powered devices.

tomorrow, or this morning is Monday, I am sending off my laptop later today, and then work till midnight, doing my next blog then, then then then going camping for a few days, ill be attempting to film while I am out there and I hope I get a lot of the product reviews I wanted to go over, done with while out there.

when it comes down to it

How bad does the world have to get for people to see it? I can see quite clear how much the world is controlled by well not even the governments but by one non federal, Private bank, called the federal reserve. this is the one bank in the united states that prints our money, then loans the money from the bank to the government, with interest. so from the first dollar printed by this bank we the country had debt. its called centralized banking and this is the second time our country had one, the first one, one of our presidents abolished. ( look it up ) as long as the US has this system the country will be in debt and its because of this debt, that we have to pay so many taxes, does no one else think it is so wrong that we pay taxes three times on some items? pay to buy it, pay to keep it, then pay to sell it. beyond that your paying taxes to make the money you need just to spend it? with all that wouldn't the government have an abundance of money from us? no because they are and will always be in debt. 

beyond all this dept too the only people making real money are the ones making the laws keeping this bank in business and the other companies that profit through this messed up system, credit cards, banks, loan agencies, and our current biggest rip off fad, gold buyers. they make money based on the idea that we will have debt. its like insurance, its a system based on the fact that you pay money for something you might need, not something you will, but might need. so if we want to continue to talk about the coming downfall of the economy it really fell before it was up, because the debt was always there, theres no way to pay it back. now I look at my useless bills I pay, cable, insurance, power, credit cards. I wish I had never used a credit card, and whats bad is I will have to use them again. car insurance I never use, I always pay cash to a lawyer to get me out of anything. cable? I pay for my internet and its overpriced for what I use it for. and power, well wouldn't it be nice to have the money I would save paying a power bill to invest in solar panels.

this goes back to my want to live off the grid, something I probably wont get to do just because of how my life has been so far, very sheltered, but some people who aren't as lucky as me to have good credit, or have even the job I do to afford this apartment live in tents, and they have a life with it, some do. like the rennies I made friends with at the renn faire when I worked there, I loved that life, and they lived quite well. well heres another example of tent living, though slightly more urban area. 

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/11/19/couwels.homeless.camp.slideshow.cnn?hpt=C2

  

holidays are upon us

I know all next week will be thoughts of turkey day, well ill be in the woods filming, going through the shelter we build, and doing some product reviews of things I have while I'm out there. my idea of holidays are to avoid the shopping craze completely by being out in the middle of the woods. it seems like I will now be out there from Tuesday to Friday, then I have to be back at work on Saturday, the weather report is looking annoying for me, raining on two of the days out there, and it seems like a few of the people will probably be leaving in the middle of it for thanksgiving stuff, which is fine, but I am not leaving. and I know one person wont be leaving because I am driving them there, there I can hopefully ignore the rest of the world right before my wedding, thats my kind of party. main piece of tech ill have out there is my cell phone, the iphone, I have a flashlight with a charger, though I thought the solar panel charged the cellphone too, but it doesn't so thats points against it when I review the item. I should have bought a solar charger for it, I will eventually, I found one for only 30 dollars, on a tech site.

anyway I know I skipped yesterday it was boring, I worked, it was hard for me to work really with my thumb, the superglue I put on made my thumb swell, so I was able to peal it off, then I let it get air for all of last night after wrapping it up while at work. it is looking better now. also ill be sending off my computer for a few days on Monday, the LCD screen cracked.

first aid kit, and a reason to have one in your car

Well I said I was going to post my first aid kit and I did, I posted a video of it a few minutes ago, and now heres the list, but I also wanted to say, I was playing while at work, being stupid showing off the knife I made to my boss and cut my thumb, cut it rather deep, I should have had stitches, however I am cheap so its super glued shut which will work fine, ill also post a picture, but needless to say there wasn't a proper first aid kit at my work, my boss needs to restock, I had him go get my car kit, which I knew had proper things in my first aid kit. clean pads and such. so I stopped the bleeding, cleaned it out and my boss and I glued my skin together, then he went home for me to be closing manager like normal. just another day.

aspirin
antacid
clean wipes/ wet wipes
hand lotion
safety pins
buttons
band aids
sterile saline solution
toilet paper
hair band/ rubber band
small ink pen
nail file
mirror
latex gloves
sterile unopened syringe
stretch bandaging
non stick bandage pads
wire
hand sanitizer
small swiss army knife
anti itch cream
medications- benadryl, claritin, immodium

Packing list

I have a few different lists here of things, we are taking between three people, the main thing we are leaving behind is a tent, thats all the luxury we are forfeiting right now
 General stuff-
toilet paper
canteens
cups, one per person metal for boiling ability if needed
camp knife, general purpose fixed blade knife, knight and I are taking the ones we made.
sleeping bags
5 gallon water container, it collapses, we aren't taking water, I know there is a stream out there we will be boiling water.
trash bags, really large ones
camp shovel, or as we have been saying a shit digger.
cooking pots, all modded to where I can use them with a tripod over a fire, were made for a camp stove.
flash lights, one of them being one with a radio/ weather radio/ cellphone charger.
rope, lots of rope.
first aid kit. ill go over this kit tomorrow
tarps, this is gonna be the main water proofing of the shelter we are making, just a general one I've seen on ray mear's shows, I do know I should practice before use, but I live in an apartment and my mother lives in a rental area too.

bleach, more water purification
peroxide, good for any possible wounds
alcohol
lighter
matches
magnesium fire lighting stick
machetes
hatchet, people have differnt preferences which is more useful, I like them both, hatchet is a lot better as a hammer too.
 jute twine
a simple .22 rifle
canvas- this is from where my mother worked making boat covers and this will be good ground cloth
bandannas
hand sanitizer


Clothes-  we are going over thanksgiving in the foothills of NC so 40 degrees F is what the average is.
long underware, thermals,
thermal socks
blue jeans
t shirt, for me at least
belt
boots with laces, always with laces
insulated suit
ear muffs
toboggan
face mask, for the cold and my identity hidden from the camera  Hah
gloves, I have two pair one fingerless and one thicket and full gloves
and a change of socks and underwear.

for Our food its mainly gonna be soups and canned food while out there.

  this is the shelter we are going to use Ray mears video we are just adding tarps for more rain proofing.