Slow Recovery

Between work, coughing (hubby is sick too) and being glued to reports of the dire events in Japan, Libya and elsewhere, I haven't been posting.  I'm finally having a whole weekend off, and hope to get some urgent projects started at least.

I finally got one of the jar sealers for the Foodsaver that I order so I can start vacuum sealing my jars of dry goods (vegetable flakes, soup makings of various kinds, etc), and I have a couple of kilograms of blueberries cleaned and ready to go in the freezer that needs to be made into jam, and some herbs to get started in the window for hubby.  As he keeps tell me, a great chef like himself needs his own herb garden in the kitchen windowsill.  I believe it was wisdom on my part not to giggle at him.  I figure if he keeps practicing his culinary skills, he'll get better.  I hope.

My heart goes out to the folks in Japan.  For those most directly affected, the events of the last few weeks (has it really been that long?) will be with them for the rest of their lives and they are living through the kind of thing that a lot of us prepping for and hope will never happen.  I have family living outside of Tokyo, and it's a real worry to me.  As you can imagine, it's difficult to sleep sometimes.  Are they really okay?  Knowing that they were not directly harmed by the earthquake and that the tsunami didn't reach their neighbourhood is reassuring only to a point.  Reading that the tap water in Tokyo is contaminated, and unsafe for children, is truly frightening.

We haven't heard a whole lot about Haiti recently beyond the news that a devasting cholera epidemic has set in.  Innocent civilians are being killed as war heats up in Libya.  People are still trying to rebuild after the earthquakes in Chile and New Zealand, and the floods in Australia.  Truly, we have entered an age of catastrophe.

Living on the Pacific ring of fire as I do, earthquakes, volcanic activity and resultant tsunamis are actually some of the things I have to prep for.  So among my weekend projects is going to have to be revamping the BOBs and the EDC. 

New Border Vision

Over at Advanced Survival Guide, Justus discovered an article from the National Post about a proposed Canada/U.S./Mexico security perimeter that made him nervous.  I can appreciate his point of view as an American.  From the Mexican and Canadian points of view, it is also a move that does not make one feel warm and cozy.

And yet, what fuels this effort?  There are hundreds of mini-Hitlers out there fomenting hatred based on religion (both so-called Muslims and so-called Christians are guilty here) and many young inexperienced people are falling prey to this kind of charismatic bullshit.  Yet, Hitler had an agenda that was based on greed and a desire for power.  Religion was one of the tools he used to achieve his own goals: personal power folded into the goal of empowering and enriching his country, but only on his terms. 

Will this proposed "security perimeter" come into being?  Who stands to gain the most from this proposal?  Who stands to lose the most from this proposal?  Draw your own conclusions!

What You Can Learn from Playing Video Games

I had an interesting conversation with a fellow at work yesterday about what you can learn from video games.  Now, I've always thought video games are great for teaching eye-hand coordination.  It worked well with my youngest who had real problems in that area.  But apparently, there is more that you can learn.

One thing my young friend mentioned is that you learn not to panic.  Suddenly, a raptor jumps you from out of nowhere; what do you do!  Apparently, long time gamers learn to not panic.  Another skill is to anticipate possible scenarios and plan for them, or planning strategies.  Thirdly, another skill is to learn to deal with tedium as in "grinding out rep", and "farming".  So, my friend thinks that all that time spent playing World of Warcraft is good survival training.

I can see the value in learning to not panic, but strategic thinking is best developed in handling real world events.  In real life, your strategy cannot include running through your opponent, and rezzing if things don't go as planned.  Indeed, if your main skills are game related, and you are a computer potato, you are not going to be physically prepared.

It's possible that in a bad situation where you need to direct younger folk who are clueless about real life, drawing upon gaming analogies can at least help them understand the situation, and why you need them to follow a certain strategy.  For example, you can tell them it's like doing a boss raid where you have to do everything just right, or the raid will wipe.  And if they complain that you don't trust them, let them know that all the tedious little jobs you are giving them to do is "grinding rep" with your faction, or they are "farming" for mats.

If you have kids that spend all their leisure time in the cyber world, you may need to offer them a "quest" and help them apply their "skills" in the real world.