When you finally die and I know your not eager to, the world will certainly go on. You might be so lucky to have someone cry at your funeral. Regardless of how important you thought you were, your death will not be as special to the world or to yourself. You will be dead like the billions of animals and species before you. After a week, maybe two, life here on planet earth will be the same as before you died. Most, if not all, will not miss you in the caring ways that you would want to believe. Like many, you didn’t have a say coming in this world, and you won’t have a say leaving this world. I and most of the people in the world would like to live, this life, without the need for suffering. When your time comes, time will take you out of this life. You will not escape this certainty. There are a million ways to go. Nobody knows how it happens, until it does. I think it and wait for it to appear. Not knowing when, is the greatest mystery. It could be in a second or a hundred years. It will come. The law of death is simple. All living things shall perish. The containment of your life force energy and/or soul is part of the law of thermodynamics, the transformation of energy.
Imagine, if you will, a tree full of leaves that has fallen to the ground. The energy it took for the leaves to fall gently is the same amount of energy to rake them up. Just displayed differently. A second instance of energy transformation is a 300 pound man losing 100 pounds. His weight was lost because he used it as energy. One third of him is gone forever in a different form–somewhat painless.
Another instance of thermodynamics is a bottle of propane ignited under a small stove heating water. The propane turns to fire transferring to heat energy thus boiling the water. The water then changes to steam. The steam evaporates into the air and/or atmosphere. The vapor then gets absorbed or diminishes and turns to rain or condensation, consumed by a living creature or living organism then used as energy
again and made whole to earth once more. (This is another transformation of energy.)
Life is quite simple in living terms. Energy can’t be created nor destroyed. Just transferred to different forms.. I’m not saying your death will be painless but I am telling you that your pain, if any, will only last a short time compared to time of existence. Some great writers have written that death is as easy as stepping out of your body. The smarter you are, the easier it will be to guide yourself through your one and only [mortal] life. I hope you read, learn, teach and guide, through the different and strange times which lay ahead. The one thing I have learned about emergency preparation is don’t waste time trying to convince anyone of their needs that don’t want convincing. No matter how much you love or care for somebody, prepare for your own immediate survival should be your top priority! You must take care of yourself in order to help take care of others.
To help keep you alive, I’ll focus on one key preparedness step:
“Prepare a laptop inside a Faraday Box”
You should store the following references on your laptop hard drive [or on memory sticks, CD-ROMs & DVDs that you can access with your laptop]:
Barter:
To include valuable information on what people will need for survival trades and efficiency, for day to day living wants and needs.
Boots and Clothing:
How to repair boots and clothing, to include various sewing techniques, glues, patches, laces, buttons, zippers, sew kits, Velcro and items needed or stored.
Civil Defense:
Technical operation and/or procedures on how the civil authority will lead. Establish and support an authority figure during the crisis, which may mean you.
Combat Skills:
Various skills to lead and teach realistic offensive tactics and defensive tactics and positions. Don’t overlook weapons training and weapons repair manuals. [JWR Adds: There are now some excellent training videos available on DVD, such as The Art of the Tactical Carbine, but of course they are no substitute for hands-on training and the hours of practice needed to create muscle memory. For some free assembly/disassembly manuals in PDF, see the manufacturer web sites, as well as Steve’s Pages. (BTW, you’ll also find a lot of useful military manuals at Steve’s Pages, such as FM 3-105 Survivability. )
Command:
How to organize, maintain and discipline as a leader, how to give orders and create and maintain a disciplined organizational structure. See the military organizational manuals that describe Unity of Command and related topics.
Communication:
Various types of radios, CB, Morse code [HF ham radio], American Sign Language (ASL). Also to include antenna fabrication and/or makeshift communications devices.
Computer Programs:
In addition to backups of operating system and word processing/spreadsheets, include specialized programs related to radio communications, propagation, ballistics calculations, and others.
Construction:
Information on how to: Shelter building, carpentry, plumbing, electrical, welding, mold making and casting of raw materials.
Dental:
How to maintain good teeth and dentistry with the correct tools when need be.
Dictionary: You must be knowledgeable and have key references.
Economics and References:
What brought us to this economic crisis and who are the money masters? How long has the monetary system been around? You could download thousand of pages and help teach the truth. Store your own economic data. [JWR Adds: References on the standard weight and composition of various silver and gold might be crucial.]
Encyclopedia Britannica:
The entire world at your finger tips such as, science, discovery, arts, crafts, math, English, videos, writings, and so much more.
FEMA:
Federal Emergency Management Agency- procedures, operations, expectations and what to expect for various disaster assistance.
Food:
MRE, freeze dried, dehydrated, stored foods, canned foods, canning, bottling, cooking, preparation, recipes, gardening, raising animals, making your own bread, sprouts, cookware, medical care with [soft] foods.
Games:
Various games to keep you [and your children] happy and keep morale up.
Health And Fitness:
Exercising, fitness, eating correctly, not being lazy – work, work, work.
Herb and Vitamin Cures:
Store massive amounts of data on herb and vitamin cures and personal treatments for all types of ailments. Don’t forget your vitamins.
Hygiene:
Making your own soaps, bleach, laundry soaps. Learning to use household remedies. Toiletries, solutions, disease fighting techniques, and sanitary solutions to include corpse handling/burial.
Items Wanted/ Needed:
Keep notes and massive data on you need, not want, no matter how long it is. [JWR Adds: The Alpha Strategy by John Pugsley is a great starting point. The book is out of print, but a PDF is available for free download.]
Local Government Readiness:
It’s wise to be prepared. The government is a small number of people. Governments like to dictate how to, but you should learn how to, without the government. It’s a never ending battle of learning to live and to expect the unexpected. Remember, what can go wrong will go wrong. Often, it will be something you would have never of thought of.
Maps (Road and Street), U.S. and Canada:
Collect massive amounts of data on streets and/or other geographical data for your region, to include railroads, bus systems, sewers, drains, taxi depots, bus depots. Getting lost is no fun.
Medical:
Collect references on home remedies, medical and human anatomy. There are plenty of downloads out there. [JWR Adds: Start with a free download of Where There is No Doctor,and Where There is No Dentist, from The Hesperian Foundation.]
Monthly Checklist:
Include chores from every day to every month, month to month, year to year maintenance and up keep on grounds, machinery, equipment, tools, weapons and/or perimeter establishment and grounds.
Nuclear Biological Chemical (NBC):
What to do in the attack scenario for nuclear, biological, and/or chemical attack or mishap. How to recover from the NBC situation. Recovery is your only option. There are lots of references on the Internet. I urge you to figure out what works best for you. Download it now and store it. You can always read more later. You must be able to retrieve data if the power grid is down, so plan ahead for alternate power source , inverters, and DC-to-DC adapters for your laptop. [Nuclear War Survival Skills by Cresson H. Kearney is available for free download.]
Outdoor Survival: How can you survive in the woods, desert, jungle, sea, ocean, lake, mountains, brush, bush. How will you gather water and food? Get videos and download as much info as you can because you will never know where you could end up.
Pests:
How to get rid of particular bugs, pests, rodents. How to attract them for your advantage and how to use them as bait.
Pets: Store food, water, medical, shelter, for your pets. Download veterinary guides to fix your pet’s problems. Get antibiotics now and store them..
Pictures and Videos:
Store photos, pictures, movies and videos to look at and watch later. You will be surprised at just how much entertainment is out there. [JWR Adds: Instructional videos can also be stored–even ones found on YouTube.]
Power Heat Fuel:
How are you going to keep warm? How are you going to create power? Candle making, bio-fuel, liquor, wood, heat rocks, make a tent inside your home? Create electricity, solar, wind, hydro, Sterno, generators, steam power, Sterling engine power, making batteries, inverters, charge controllers, drawings, diagrams, schematics.
Protocols:
State the exact protocol or direction on how to handle the situation that just arose. Rule of thumb is to stay where you are for as long as you can safely.
Reading Materials:
Download books you might think you will like in the future. You may want to start downloading survival books, medical, nutritional, gardening, recipes, how to manuals, et cetera.
Religion:
Download various Bible translations for future reference. The Grim Reaper may approach you sooner than you think. Laugh now but tomorrow may be another story. You will want the hands of God to guide you, even if you are presently a little skeptical.
Security Intelligence:
Who, what, when, why, where, how many, what are your intentions, weapons, who is the leader? What are you facing? The biggest threat are your neighbors and/or neighborhood. Where are the hideouts in your area? Is it the church or the stream bed? The best defense is a great offense.
Shelter:
Download various shelter building techniques– underground shelters, bunkers, domes, ICF block construction, wood construction, adobe, rammed earth, straw bale and anything else you can get your hands on.
Tactics:
Invisibility is a great benefactor, ghillie suits are great, but if your opponent has thermal night vision gear, you are screwed. The best enemies are ones that will fight themselves. Camouflage is the greatest tactic.
Terrorism:
Nuclear, biological, chemical, accidental, rail collisions, confusion, what to do and how to do it.
Transportation:
Buses, taxis, planes, trains, automobiles, animals, skateboard, foot/feet, bicycle, mini bike, moped, motor bike, electric skateboard, ski’s, camper, motor home, class A, B, &C, recreational vehicles, military vehicles, gyrocopter, helicopter, hot wiring, and so on.
Water:
Water filters, distilling, bleach, containers, pills, can you purify sea water? Do you know what to do if water is contaminated with nuclear fallout? How can you kill pathogens and bacteria? Water is the most vital information of all. Don’t take it for granted. What will you do if the tap stops working?
Weapons:
Manuals, drawings, spare parts, directions, tools needed for repairing weapons, oils, lubrications, cleaning supplies, gun safes, holsters, sights, extra ammo, extra magazines, and such.
Weather:
Information and understanding of earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, summer’s extreme heat, winter’s extreme cold, fall, spring, ice storms, volcanoes, wind-driven wild fires, heavy snowfall, landslides, tsunami, thunderstorms, floods, droughts, severe climate shifts and wind storms. Are you ready for all of these?
Conclusion
Personally, I’m not as prepared as I should be, or would like to be. Many people that I have spoken to feel the same way. Money is presently very tight, and most people in reality are living week to week if not day to day.
Information in the United States or the World Wide Web thankfully costs nearly nothing. For me, knowledge right now seems to be the most important way I can prepare because it is free. I can help guide and teach people through their situations. Which to some may be more important than having worldly possessions.
If I had more money I would love to buy weapons, a month’s worth of food, a piece of property, a house or a smile on someone else’s face.
For now I can only try to prepare by gathering the knowledge others never thought of, but may someday need.
JWR Adds: See the SurvivalBlog archives for a wealth of information (more than 8,000 archived posts) that will be useful in disaster situations. In addition to making digital archives as Dakota Diamond has suggested, I strongly recommend printing out or purchasing commercially printed hard copies of the most crucial references. (See my Bookshelf page, for some suggested “must” reference books.) Hard copy is the only sure way to have references at your fingertips, when the Schumer hits the fan.