Book Two and Stuff

I'm finishing up the last proofing of my second book in the End of Days series (trilogy).

Is it me, or does every novelist discover themselves in the story?  Maybe because the main character in Journey North is a woman and she is dealing with the Post Grid Down situation on her own, I'm feeling the personal need for more gun practice.

A survivalist would need to be strong, decisive, and not give into emotions. That can be challenging!

But, back in the real world, we are already inundated with Republican candidates for the presidency bid next year. Each candidate takes his / her turn leading in the poles, whereby the media has enough time to trash them out, uncovering plenty of stuff to raise eyebrows. Little things, stupid things, but enough that someone else emerges as front runner. Sort of like a pack of bikers in a road race, each taking their turn  to lead so others can draft and regain their strength.

Anyways, my mountain garden is nearly done for the year. A few volunteer onions and the over achieving tomato plants are making their last stand. So far no frost, lots of good drenching rain.

Gas prices have dropped to $3.16. This seems like a bargain. But wait, thats just the mind game these oil potentates have played with us for years. Reduce consumption, that's my moto.

Things are good at the homestead, hope all is well at your's.

I Love This

This is exactly what I had in mind when I posted my blog on August 19, 2011. I wrote about using the same frame work to enable wind and solar collection at every location.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/10/hybrid-wind-solar-power.php#ch01

Combining wind-solar capturing devices and funneling them into the same power station makes sense.

I love it!

This creates tons of jobs for Americans and gets us off the oil tit.

Random Thoughts and Tunnel Explanation

Every morning I take a good walk in the woods. The colors are beautiful, changing a bit earlier this year. I find myself thinking all sorts of random stuff, analogies for the current world mess.

My last post about the tunnel may have raised eyebrows, What the hell is she talking about?
No doubt you've heard of that proverbial tunnel, that there is a light at the end of it? All the troubles we go through, but there's hope just around the bend? That sort of thing.

Well, economists are now forecasting years into the future of the same old mess, maybe worse than what we are now experiencing. All these federal programs to create jobs are turning out to be flops. Flops, absolute debt raising, false hope-dependency creating, flops.
Of course there are also major scandals, but as one Harvard professor put it, nothing illegal. Immoral, certainly, but all legal maneuvers by top corporations and banks to enrich themselves.

So I thought about the analogy of a solar panel when all you have is rain. Not going to work. The solar panel will work once the rain is gone.
Just like all this national debt from gluttony of wars, dependence on foreign oil, roller coaster stock market, regulations for mandatory health care, and out of control consumerism without resources to pay for it. Its holding back the light. We have to get these things solved.

The people Occupying Wall Street, camping out in Atlanta, and all across the country? Before you start a protest, figure out what you're protesting. Protesting Greed? How is banging a bunch of bongo drums, dancing with balloons on your head,  and marching with signs asking "Where's the Love" going to make any CEO do anything? Greed is not illegal. Neither is not hiring your ass.

So, get you a torch, make something happen, start a business, prepare like  survivalists are doing. Get a realistic list of goals, a mission statement. Are we wanting socialism? Firing every congress person and revamping the entire thing?

I don't have the answers. Not sure I even have the right questions.
 
My bottom line is there is no functioning light at the end of this economic world wide mess. No one knows when things will turn around. There are jobs for those willing or able to relocate, to learn new skills, become self employed. Its hard, but while we're under a capitalistic system, business owners and CEOs have the right to not create any jobs.

Anyways, that's my excuse for yesterday's post and I'm sticking to it.

Light at End of Tunnel Replaced by Solar Panel

The light at the end of the tunnel has been replaced by a solar panel.

We've been having a ton of rain lately.

If you listen to the forcast, one station will try to tell you its just drizzle, another will claim its just cloudy. Go outside, its pouring pretty good in these parts.

Some folks are bitching and whining cause no one gave them a flashlight, while others want the government to aim a heat lamp at the panel.

Seems like we're gonna have to go through the rain and pray the sun reappears.

In the meantime, I'm using a torch. Look around, you probably have something to make one with, too.

Wall Street Types Stockpile Food and Ammunition for Armageddon

" U.S. government securities are revered in the financial world as the risk free asset. They are the modern equivalent of gold; they are the safe haven in times of trouble.  Indeed, when Lehman imploded, capital flooded out of privte debt markets and into Treasuries, similarly after the 9/11 attacks. Treasuries rallied briskly. But if China were to engineer an inverse crisis, in which the customary life boat became the source of the storm, a different order of panic might ensue. There would be nowhere to hide, nobody would trust anybody. When you hear that sober Wall Street types have stockpiled food and ammunition in hideouts in the deep woods, this is the Armageddon they imagine."-- Time Magazine, May 11, 2011 written by Sebastian Mallaby  

Mallaby directs the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomics Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. The fact Time printed this article gives it some mainstream credibility.

I read this paragraph four times, then read it aloud to my life partner. He thought it was revealing as well, and notable to the long term survivalist who now see "sober" wall street types making preparations.

The name of the article, which begins on page 34 is, You Are What You Owe: Why power built on debt is no power at all.

We all know of faux multi-millionaires, who carry on in a huge pretense of wealth, yet underneath are one tiny step from total bankruptcy. Hell, the "banks too large to fail" did just that.

This 3 page article details the historical precedent of the rise and fall of several nations. Is ours next? Its no secret that China holds a vast amount of our debt. A calculated sell off of Treasuries would put our country in economic Armageddon.

The characteristic downplay of such a scenario is that we are such an important force in their economy we are safe from such an objective. Yet, as the author so aptly puts it: ... states inevitably inflict losses on themselves when they get into fights, if they calculate that the losses suffered by their adversaries will be more severe...

It is good to remember that we are only as strong as our independence. Why would we imagine a benevolent creditor on an international level when that doesn't even happen on the local level.

A very good article which spells out the disaster of this ever growing debt-cancer in our midst.

Let me go buy some more food and ammunition.

Special Quotes from Steve Jobs-A Great Man

Steve Jobs, CEO and genius has passed away at the early age of 56.

His photo is haunting. Behind those eyes you wonder what he might have accomplished had he lived to a ripe old age.

He leaves a legacy, and no matter what a person thinks of Wall Street Greed at this point in time, his innovations have changed the world. It can be good or bad, depending on what we do with it.

Like guns, its the people behind those tools that make them evil or good. I'm thankful for the good citizens who own firearms to thwart criminals. Self defense if the god given right of every living thing.

Below are some profound statements I read last night, and wanted to share with you.

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life," Jobs said during a Stanford commencement ceremony in 2005.

"Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." (Reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Gary Hill

I, Caveman, Back to The Stone-New Series Review

Its obvious some folks will do anything to be on T-V. I could have slapped Manu, a female bounty hunter who whined and complained how cold she was. Her feet got wet and she refused to sit by the fire.
I know mountains cool off at night, but there was not a sign of fall weather, it looks like mid July. Please.

She could have removed the wet foot gear, and propped her feet by the fire. A guy would probably have massaged them if she hadn't been such a bitch. I could have slapped her several times.
See I don't get it. Didn't they screen these 10 people to eliminate the cry babies? I guess that keeps it interesting.

The Discovery Channel new series involves 9 men and women with a dude named Morgan Spinlock who take on 10 days of survival in a lush verdant valley, mountains in the distance, elk roaming in herds, stream filled with trout and frogs. They trade all clothing for skins and hides replicated to be exactly as stone age people would have had. They must work together, fashioning a shelter, creating fire via spindle and block, and get food and water.
After a while, some guys get tired of feeding some laying around women, and they whined and complained about a tribal vote to move 3 miles. Picking and choosing among the bountiful stack of hides and weapons they've created, they carry all on their backs.
See, I don't get it. Have they never heard of travois, where these hides are tied between two lodge poles, laden with goods and drug those three easy miles. They weren't crossing through any forests that I could see.
So, I'm sorry, but between all the commercials for beer, cars and what more (I use the time to surf channels) and all the complaining, its hard to watch. I love learning new things. Watching them fish in the cold stream, using hands to slip around the trout bodies and fling onto the banks was nice. Creating the sling spear and launching practice was cool.

Can the directors give us more substance and less emotional crisis? We who watch such shows know about short tempers and illogical decisions due to physical stress. It shouldn't comprise 90% of the content. The question posed by the creator of the series: does modern man have what it takes to survive with as cavemen did. Number one, cavemen were raised with the knowledge, not snatched off New York streets, from lunch at Applebees.

Thats enough rant for one day, And here's my vote for better substantive programing.

Lets have more like Dual Survival, I love those guys.