Funny, how disasters sort of wake people up. What's happening in Japan right now is crazy, thousands dead, millions without power and water. A lot of people on the preparedness discussion alias have been talking about it, but what's funny, is how many of them are commenting that a lot of their friends and family are contacting them for preparedness advice since the quake hit. For instance, all local sources of the radiation pill are sold out, since the reactor shutdown that happened in Japan. One person even said they had an emergency neighborhood meeting around preparedness, where people were on the verge of panic.
I'm glad for things like this- not for the loss of life or well being, but that it opens peoples eyes, and makes them see what's important in life. Living day by day, status quo, seems good and feels good, but life gets interrupted all the time, and should be expected and planned for. The person too comfortable in their own little box in society is the person that will stand to lose the most when anything happens.
Do I live in fear? Absolutely not. That's why I have prepared, so I do not haveto. Same answer when people ask me why I carry a gun- am I scared? Nope, I'm not- because I'm carrying a gun. (duh)
Just like anything in life, resources are a tool. A means. They can be used for whatever you want- more TVs, cars, sound systems, and so on, or you can live a simpler life, and still have your happiness, while having some extra food in the garage and a few supplies stored away. After every major quake around the world, several very, very smart geologists come out of the woodworks and remind us that the pacific north west has it's very own fault line all to itself, and it's due for a magnitude 9+ earthquake any year now. People nod and go "yeah, pretty scary!" and continue on their day. Helllllooooo... pay attention folks. I know it's not fun to think about scary stuff, but there's pretty much zeroooo downside to being prepared. Oh, so you have an extra few hundred dollars of gear? Perfect for going camping! Too much food? Ha. Just eat it. :P
So, I am glad that a few people are waking up. CNN had a funny poll, which asked, do you trust the government's disaster response is good enough? and the response was pretty funny. 80% said no. Just why I can't expect a cop to be around every time a crime is committed, I carry a gun- I can't expect the government to protect me from everything in life. I am responsible for me and my family, and I will protect and care for them to the best of my abilities at all times.
Showing posts with label preparedness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label preparedness. Show all posts
Monday, March 14, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
My conservative day
Last friday, I took the day off from work to get a bunch of errands done that couldn't easily be done on a weekend. I set out at about 10 am, in a pretty good mood. Some of the things I had set out to do were things Rosemary and I had been thinking about doing for some time, so I was excited to finally get some of our goals taken care of.
First I went to BECU, and took out the money I would need for the next few stops in my trip. It was a pleasant experience. I gotta say, BECU is quite a bit better than chase, and I'm glad we switched- I was pulling out a large sum of money, and they didn't give me any troubles at all, like Chase always does. Quick and courteous, and the teller had a beautiful new engagement ring on. She glowed when I complemented her, and it's cool to see happy people that are good at their jobs. :)
Second, I went down to Federal Way, to Northwest Territorial Mint, and picked up a gold american eagle coin, and some silver coins. My dad has been pushing me pretty hard to get some precious metals to help hedge against inflation, due to the entire united states economy hanging by a thread of debt. (of course, my opinion is food and supplies first, money second) I was surprised by the huge number of people in the lobby of the mint, waiting to buy or sell precious metals. Seems sort of weird to me, because I didn't think buying and selling gold/silver was that popular to the common population, but I guess it's getting more popular. The sales lady that helped me with my metals purchases also had a beautiful engagement ring on, and she also glowed after I complimented her on it. Again, another great service experience overall.
Third, I went all the way down near mcchord air force base, to a really cool shop called Surplus Arms & Ammo. This place... was completely awesome, in a guy sort of way. The shop was small, but packed out with tons of cool gear. Not junky old surplus stuff, everything was new, wrapped, and super cheap. I managed to pick up all the ammunition I had on my list, at a significantly lower price than I had priced out originally from their website. Quite shocking, when the website pricing was already some of the best I'd ever seen. I even managed to pick up a rear sight for one of my weapons, and still stay several hundred dollars under budget. :) They had cheap magazines, ammo, reloaded ammo, guns, gun parts, and more. So cool, I could spend all day in that little place.
Fourth- I went and got a burrito from Taco Time. A man's gotta eat, right?
Fifth- I dropped off some of the ammo at my parent's place, talked to my dad and Grandpa for a little bit. My dad tried to steal my new gold coin... and he denied all allegations. Liar.
Sixth- I went home and enjoyed spending the rest of the day with my lovely wife, and my son, who after seeing the gold coin, told me it was his, and that he was going to go put it in his piggy bank. I guess it technically is his- if it really does help us secure our future, it's all for him anyways.
I felt like I needed to bash Obama on facebook or something to round out my right wing crazy nutjob day. :) I refrained, of course, in good taste.
First I went to BECU, and took out the money I would need for the next few stops in my trip. It was a pleasant experience. I gotta say, BECU is quite a bit better than chase, and I'm glad we switched- I was pulling out a large sum of money, and they didn't give me any troubles at all, like Chase always does. Quick and courteous, and the teller had a beautiful new engagement ring on. She glowed when I complemented her, and it's cool to see happy people that are good at their jobs. :)
Second, I went down to Federal Way, to Northwest Territorial Mint, and picked up a gold american eagle coin, and some silver coins. My dad has been pushing me pretty hard to get some precious metals to help hedge against inflation, due to the entire united states economy hanging by a thread of debt. (of course, my opinion is food and supplies first, money second) I was surprised by the huge number of people in the lobby of the mint, waiting to buy or sell precious metals. Seems sort of weird to me, because I didn't think buying and selling gold/silver was that popular to the common population, but I guess it's getting more popular. The sales lady that helped me with my metals purchases also had a beautiful engagement ring on, and she also glowed after I complimented her on it. Again, another great service experience overall.
Third, I went all the way down near mcchord air force base, to a really cool shop called Surplus Arms & Ammo. This place... was completely awesome, in a guy sort of way. The shop was small, but packed out with tons of cool gear. Not junky old surplus stuff, everything was new, wrapped, and super cheap. I managed to pick up all the ammunition I had on my list, at a significantly lower price than I had priced out originally from their website. Quite shocking, when the website pricing was already some of the best I'd ever seen. I even managed to pick up a rear sight for one of my weapons, and still stay several hundred dollars under budget. :) They had cheap magazines, ammo, reloaded ammo, guns, gun parts, and more. So cool, I could spend all day in that little place.
Fourth- I went and got a burrito from Taco Time. A man's gotta eat, right?
Fifth- I dropped off some of the ammo at my parent's place, talked to my dad and Grandpa for a little bit. My dad tried to steal my new gold coin... and he denied all allegations. Liar.
Sixth- I went home and enjoyed spending the rest of the day with my lovely wife, and my son, who after seeing the gold coin, told me it was his, and that he was going to go put it in his piggy bank. I guess it technically is his- if it really does help us secure our future, it's all for him anyways.
I felt like I needed to bash Obama on facebook or something to round out my right wing crazy nutjob day. :) I refrained, of course, in good taste.
Monday, March 16, 2009
So, the rest of the layoffs at MS are still looming over everyone's head. It's unfortunate that the company is looking at layoffs just to apease investors, when we have 40billion+ in the bank and the stock price is already down 50% from 12 months ago. Ugh.
So kind of as an excercise, I wrote out what a quick plan would be if I got laid off (not that it's likely, but in the unlikely case).
Of course it requires a ton of sacrifice to get the monthly bills down as much as possible. Gotta get rid of erroneous things like netflix, data plans on the cell phone, raise insurance deductibles, sell the car to get rid of the car payment (Thankfully we've got a good 9k or so in equity there) and sell off anything around the house we can. Probably my paintball gear, RC gear, bass, unfortunately, and so on. With all of this, if I was on unemployment, I'd still be around a thousand a month short on basic needs, such as house payment, homeowners dues, insurance, food, and whatnot. Our savings would cover us for a few months, but after that... we'd haveto start getting into debt to sustain us, which is a very dangerous prospect. I'm pretty sure either Rosemary or I could get any kind of job within a few months, so we'd probably be okay, as long as that job makes more than 1300 a month, until unemployment runs out, then we'd both need to be working again. But even then, our earning power adds up pretty well. She's worth a good 2k a month(more, actually), and I'm worth a substantial IT job, if we can find the right jobs.
This downturn is something funny. A few relatives and friends have lost their jobs. Houses are dirt cheap, and so are my house values. It leaves me in an uneasy place financially, where we are living off of one income right now, and don't have a ton of ability to save massive amounts of cash at a time like we have in the past. Our savings is okay, probably better than most, but one big event is all it would take to wipe that out. Say, broken transmission, or something like that. I can tell you though, if we weather the downturn well, have our savings intact, then we will come out on the other side very, very good. Good position to buy a new house, my 401k will rebound over time, no debt, etc, means we could be very agile with the resources we do have.
I guess I'm just kind of rambling about the general unease and strange situation that is the 08/09 recession. One of the things Rosie and I are turning a keen eye to lately is preparedness. It's no secret that the government is trying to repair bad spending habbits with more spending, and that the United States is slowly slipping in the eyes of the world, and sound economists. It's funny, that it's hard to prepare when you need to prepare, but easy of course when times are easy. It can be costly to prepare, between buying foods and water storage, heating units, investing in some precious metals, and so on, especially when you don't have a ton of extra. We'll just do the best we can, try to strike a balance between prepared and broke, and trust that God has got our backs. :)
It's just such a strange world. I mean, I guess I've only been living on my own for what, 3 years now, but I've gotten into the groove of getting used to providing for my family, budgeting out needs and wants, and finding a real good comfort zone. I can adapt just fine, but it sure makes me uneasy.
So kind of as an excercise, I wrote out what a quick plan would be if I got laid off (not that it's likely, but in the unlikely case).
Of course it requires a ton of sacrifice to get the monthly bills down as much as possible. Gotta get rid of erroneous things like netflix, data plans on the cell phone, raise insurance deductibles, sell the car to get rid of the car payment (Thankfully we've got a good 9k or so in equity there) and sell off anything around the house we can. Probably my paintball gear, RC gear, bass, unfortunately, and so on. With all of this, if I was on unemployment, I'd still be around a thousand a month short on basic needs, such as house payment, homeowners dues, insurance, food, and whatnot. Our savings would cover us for a few months, but after that... we'd haveto start getting into debt to sustain us, which is a very dangerous prospect. I'm pretty sure either Rosemary or I could get any kind of job within a few months, so we'd probably be okay, as long as that job makes more than 1300 a month, until unemployment runs out, then we'd both need to be working again. But even then, our earning power adds up pretty well. She's worth a good 2k a month(more, actually), and I'm worth a substantial IT job, if we can find the right jobs.
This downturn is something funny. A few relatives and friends have lost their jobs. Houses are dirt cheap, and so are my house values. It leaves me in an uneasy place financially, where we are living off of one income right now, and don't have a ton of ability to save massive amounts of cash at a time like we have in the past. Our savings is okay, probably better than most, but one big event is all it would take to wipe that out. Say, broken transmission, or something like that. I can tell you though, if we weather the downturn well, have our savings intact, then we will come out on the other side very, very good. Good position to buy a new house, my 401k will rebound over time, no debt, etc, means we could be very agile with the resources we do have.
I guess I'm just kind of rambling about the general unease and strange situation that is the 08/09 recession. One of the things Rosie and I are turning a keen eye to lately is preparedness. It's no secret that the government is trying to repair bad spending habbits with more spending, and that the United States is slowly slipping in the eyes of the world, and sound economists. It's funny, that it's hard to prepare when you need to prepare, but easy of course when times are easy. It can be costly to prepare, between buying foods and water storage, heating units, investing in some precious metals, and so on, especially when you don't have a ton of extra. We'll just do the best we can, try to strike a balance between prepared and broke, and trust that God has got our backs. :)
It's just such a strange world. I mean, I guess I've only been living on my own for what, 3 years now, but I've gotten into the groove of getting used to providing for my family, budgeting out needs and wants, and finding a real good comfort zone. I can adapt just fine, but it sure makes me uneasy.
Monday, November 24, 2008
For those of you that don't know, there was a shooting down the street from my house, at Southcenter Mall on saturday night.
This evokes quite a bit of interesting thought in me. Especially with an Obama presidency, where the ability to protect yourself in public places will be revoked, as he has promised (ban of all concealed carrying nationwide).
I've kind of been thinking about preparedness lately. My belief system tells me that man is a flawed creature, that our nature is to sin and cause destruction. Some of the greatest minds alive today have questioned how we will indeed survive the next 100 years. Even non-Christians believe in this. Part of my recreational reading has showed me some interesting ideas that the founding fathers had about Democracy- how it is flawed, and it was only designed to work if righteous men held the positions on our congress. Well I think we've fallen far below that now, and the decline is only accelerating. Leaders who call for no accountability for their actions, and congressmen who are so good at hiding their fraudulent "gifts" from "friends" and anti-american agendas.
Well I think it's time for me and my family to start preparing a disaster kit. Our culture relies so heavily on this government provided infrastructure system set up, the vast majority of Americans would be out of food and necessities like heat, energy, clean water, and so on within a week... meaning, we would need the rescue of our government, or God forbid a different government. I bet half of the citizens wouldn't even know what to do with all the free time they would have if the entire US power grid shut down. Jeeze, no jay leno... what the heck do I do now? haha...
I would like to be able to be a safe haven for my friends and family if need be. I'd like to be prepared not just with food and water, but prepared to defend my rights- the last time a large portion of our country's infrastructure went down, cops went door to door unlawfully taking people's guns away from them... while there were armed looters on the loose. Great...
Things have changed greatly since I had a kid. I'd do anything to ensure his future is healthy and safe.
This evokes quite a bit of interesting thought in me. Especially with an Obama presidency, where the ability to protect yourself in public places will be revoked, as he has promised (ban of all concealed carrying nationwide).
I've kind of been thinking about preparedness lately. My belief system tells me that man is a flawed creature, that our nature is to sin and cause destruction. Some of the greatest minds alive today have questioned how we will indeed survive the next 100 years. Even non-Christians believe in this. Part of my recreational reading has showed me some interesting ideas that the founding fathers had about Democracy- how it is flawed, and it was only designed to work if righteous men held the positions on our congress. Well I think we've fallen far below that now, and the decline is only accelerating. Leaders who call for no accountability for their actions, and congressmen who are so good at hiding their fraudulent "gifts" from "friends" and anti-american agendas.
Well I think it's time for me and my family to start preparing a disaster kit. Our culture relies so heavily on this government provided infrastructure system set up, the vast majority of Americans would be out of food and necessities like heat, energy, clean water, and so on within a week... meaning, we would need the rescue of our government, or God forbid a different government. I bet half of the citizens wouldn't even know what to do with all the free time they would have if the entire US power grid shut down. Jeeze, no jay leno... what the heck do I do now? haha...
I would like to be able to be a safe haven for my friends and family if need be. I'd like to be prepared not just with food and water, but prepared to defend my rights- the last time a large portion of our country's infrastructure went down, cops went door to door unlawfully taking people's guns away from them... while there were armed looters on the loose. Great...
Things have changed greatly since I had a kid. I'd do anything to ensure his future is healthy and safe.