Saturday news

Even though its currently Friday... I just have nothing to really post about this week, been drained from work and other life events, trying to follow world and local news is even some times a hassle.

for local news, I am not going to link to it but, McGuire nuclear power station was set offline for a few days because of fish getting caught in the water intake for cooling. This makes me so pleased about how close I live to this place.

The other news is what everyone is talking about right now, Egypt. Right now I am kinda surprised we are actually getting news reports from Egypt, here we have to consider total media black out for them really, internet gone, cellphones gone, and they are rioting, looting and going just bat shit insane attempting to get back some simple liberties, I know there are countries that are on peoples do not go list, well right now this is one.  No Pyramid visits for awhile because of this one. With this story there is not just one news report, there are several, it has taken over CNN, taken over every international news, in money news from this stocks are dropping, oil will be going back up perhaps higher. The world's economy as it is now is so unstable, one country faltering is effecting all others, when USA started, so did the rest of the world, I am sure this was seen .
Now with Egypt, they want freedom and its being taken from them, and all those with my mindset are just watching, waiting, all the while knowing it could happen here next, and all for the most part without anymore warning then what we are already getting, this warning we have flashing at us right now, that everyone is ignoring. just wait for it.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/28/egypt.color/index.html?hpt=T2
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/01/28/egypt.internet.shutdown/index.html?hpt=T2
http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/28/markets/oil_egypt/index.htm?hpt=T2
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/01/28/egypt.stranded.travelers/index.html?hpt=T2
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/28/egypt.protest.dissent/index.html?hpt=T2
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/28/egypt.protests.power.vacuum/index.html?hpt=T2
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/28/egypt.protests.u.s..response/index.html?hpt=T2

remember this has all happened, in just 4 days.

Poor Man is Poor

You better believe I am the poor man. Prepping for me consists of food, mostly what I get from a local food bank, the government says I make too much money at my job currently for food stamps, but I was receiving them, and at my job even in a manager position, I make minimum wage, federal minimum wage, seven dollars and twenty-five cents an hour. I work about 36 hours a week, kept from ever getting overtime, and do odd jobs for my bosses, and where ever I can find, including attempting to scrape money out of this blog and other writing ventures.

Perhaps saying I am poor is wrong, I pay all my bills on time, I am not behind on bills, I have a few credit cards between me and my wife, but we eat every night, have food on backlog, and I keep a roof over our head.

I get my food from a place called Christian ministries, do not know if they have them anywhere, being Christian isn't required. In our town, it is near the soup kitchen, I have not been in there. Perhaps it is wrong of me to obtain food from places like this, we consider I do have a job, I live paycheck to paycheck yes, but I also afford myself a few luxuries, like television, cellphones, internet. I will not and do not pay subscription internet games. 

I have many expenses at my house, laundry is one of the big oppressors considering  I do not have a washer and drier, I recall days long past with my mother going to a laundromat when the washer had broken and it being 50 cents or so to wash clothes, not with todays inflation.

The food I get, I keep, powered milk, canned soups, frozen meats, breads, not all are long lasting, but we use it.  

Speaking of the roof over our heads, I live in an apartment, not the first choice of course, I would love living out of this small city, out in the country, I miss my childhood home but I would not move there again because of how close it is to a nuclear power plant, and even closer to a steam power plant.

My apartment is full brick housing, small, one story, the entire complex is one story, and it is on high ground. I would take this apartment over any trailer double or single wide any day, beyond that the double-wide I was living in before was at the bottom of a hill and flooded out constantly. 

What I think I am trying to say is that even as someone on minimum wage, living paycheck to paycheck, if you swallow your pride, much like I had to, and ask for help from places like Christian ministries, or food stamps, you can be a prepper too, and if you get food stamps and use them wisely, they can stretch a long way. Buying pre-made food is quick and costly, buying supplies takes long to fix meals but is always cheaper, also another helpful hint, you can buy seeds, so vegetables, herbs, fruit, anything you can grow small, even in an apartment is more useful than not having any food.

QOTD: do you live paycheck to paycheck?

Saturday News

I have stuck with this haven't I? I still have not gotten to the part where I get on camera again... maybe soon.
 On my news block today some local news for me, then more talk on those dead birds, and other critters

This is something No one ever wants to have happen to them, and to most of us on the internet worry greatly about, when making online purchases. someone else getting our credit card number, and using it. Well this happened at a local semi local taco place, the credit card system got hacked, I can honestly see this happening at other places too. my work for example, is a food place, all the computer in the store can run credit cards, its all networked back into the office, from there it goes into a switch them the modem, then out the building. knowing how big of a mess of wires it is in there I could never hope to comprehend how it all works, But someone knows. It has to be rewired every time the company is switched. Honestly I don't like the paper trail of credit  cards, I don't like when I travel having to wait longer for purchases to go through, and it makes Christmas shopping so much easier to do it in cash.  Some people might like the convenience of a card, get a visa gift card.
http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13886812

Now on the birds, the government is actually trying to take the blame now for a flock of blackbirds, stating that they poisoned them because they were bothering farmers, then dropped while flying north. Really? okay you poisoned birds for farmers, when have you ever done something for Americas farmers? Beyond that, there are so many locations of dead animals now, you can not say its one poisoning, its several, something is happening there. I am still curious.
http://www.benzinga.com/11/01/799379/huge-numbers-of-dead-animals-dead-birds-and-dead-fish-%E2%80%93-what-in-the-world-is-happening-

This article mentions to other articles about several of the other dying animals.

health Care

I know I might be wrong about this bill, but from my understanding its a bill that forces you to get health care, and if you do not get it then you are required to pay a fine or tax for not getting health care. In my mind insurance in its whole is a rip off, honestly insurance is there for the person who isn't prepared, and yet now is a part of being prepared.

Car insurance, my father told me of days long past where this was an optional beast, now its required to even drive a car, and obtain a license when you are of age.
homeowners insurance, required insuring all the things you own and the home for a set amount of money.
and theres a list, renters insurance is optional and since I live in an apartment and rent, no I am not paying for it.

tornado insurance
flood insurance
hurricane insurance
earthquake insurance
fire insurance
volcano insurance
all mother nature problems, uncontrollable things wheres asteroid insurance, and alien abduction insurance, perhaps thats covered in health insurance if you are probed.

now I wont say that some or all of these could be necessary, they are not where I live, but in California I would have earth quake insurance, and in Kansas I would have tornado insurance, or my form of insurance, not live in a place where that shit happens, because even after the insurance, you still have to rebuild and buy new stuff.

The big part of all of these, the fact that they are NOT required, and health insurance should be my choice, I understand car insurance honestly, driving is the most dangerous thing we do, ever, and we do it every single day. That means every single day people age ranging from 15 to 90 could be driving, flinging near 1 ton vehicles toward you at 20-70 miles an hour and your only protection is your own pile of meta l(God help motorcycles ).
But health insurance, its quite my choice to avoid the doctor at all costs, and with that I avoid the cost of the doctor, now I am being wanted to pay you the government to go to a doctor, or my own avoidance of.  Honestly these are private practice doctors they went to school just as I did, if I do not want to use their services I do not and do not pay for it. If I were to avoid using a lawyer's services and accepted a speeding ticket, not one complaint would I receive,
I do not endorse a political party, nor pay much attention, however I do hope this health bill is revoked, denounced. and please for dear God, lets not repeat the cycle of 8 year terms. 

Work, Product Fail, and News Disappears

Today was a busy day for me, I went to work, did a job interview, then went home and promptly passed out, there for getting nothing else done for the day accept to wake up at about midnight unable to sleep again. now its nearly 3 am. 

previously I reviewed the power dome, http://sdsurvival.blogspot.com/2011/01/review-power-dome.html

now the thing seems to not be holding a charge, I have had it about a year now, my mother got more use  out of it than me, and at its current state, it does not hold at charge long enough to pump up my tire. I do not know what other reviewers would  say towards this, however it seems to be a failing product. Considering I enjoyed the concept of this device I will eventually have to obtain another one, though at this point I do not know what brand I will go with next. 

Also, What happed to the birds and fish? The news reports stopped, is this a government hush now? In our lives rush we forget about events so quickly, we also ignore the trials that other countries are going through and events that do not revolve around our country. How about you find out how many major earth quakes happened last year? Compare it to the year before, and the year before that? Is there a trend of escalation? 

I also am waiting for the new Zeitgeist movie, the 29th is when the download begins, I would pay to see it, if I were closer to a showing, if not for the movie, but to see how many other people would be interested in watching it, how many other people know the movement.  

Zombie Survival Guide

I read the back of the book first, humor was the section it claimed to be in. honestly I found the book amusing and hard to put down until I got to the last part referring to " real life zombie events " then the book just became boring.
Honestly I thought the book held some decent tips for an end of the world scenario for zombies or any other mass chemical spread infecting many people, basically stating to stay home hold up in your house as long as you have supplies for. This goes hand in hand with prepper mentality, so I liked it, also stating where zombies can not climb I thought was amusing so destroying your stairwells and running to the second floor seemed to me like a good idea.
In many places in the book it relates to the fact that it does not contain all the knowledge needed to survive for long periods of time and that the person should own many survival guides, I think this is sound advice.

For a comedy book, after watching the walking dead series, zombie land, dawn of the dead, or 28 days later I think it is a needed read to put your mind at ease, and give you some ideas for your own post apocalyptic zombie prepping.
http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/zombiesurvivalguide/index2.html

Saturday News

Only about, this phrase stands out above all others in this article, Only about 18,000 people. What is it about Only about? Well to this writer Only about 18,000 people died from swine flu. Now I am sure more people die every day, every second or so on and so forth, But I dislike it being put in that context. Just to say only, that word belittles a number, it is used to preceve that it is not that much, there could have been more. This is true more people could have died, and its also a statement of unknowing, only about 18,000 people died.
http://io9.com/5730895/swine-flu-gives-its-survivors-supercharged-immunity-could-create-universal-flu-vaccine

I know that is not what the article was speaking about, but its just what struck my cord. It could be interesting how much of a boost to the immune system the vaccine gives people, however I never have gotten a flu vaccine for anything, the last person in my family that I knew to get them was my grandmother, and to me I saw he get sick after every one of them.

and more reporting to my hate of that phrase... no one will ever say " only about 3000 people died on 9/11 "