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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Prepping - a duty or an extravagance?
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PilgrimVagrant
Shipmate
# 18442
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Posted
So, I'm a casual prepper.
The Mormons do prepping, as a religious duty. Then there are survivalists, who seem to really want the end of the world to happen, so they can exploit those who aren't prepped: the 'sheeple' who expect civilisation to meet their needs for the duration of their lives.
Seems to me, it's plain common sense to expand your resilience envelope, each month. Maybe that's buying a few candles, maybe some bottled water, maybe a few canned meals, maybe learning a new skill.
Preps fall into three distinct areas:
- Bug-in stuff. The kind of consumables and equipment that enable you to stay home (often the safest place) in emergencies.
- Bug-out stuff. The kind of consumables and equipment that facilitate your evacuation from home, when that is no longer the safest place to be.
- Everyday carry stuff. The kind of stuff that helps you deal with emergencies, should they arise, when you are away from home, and get you back to base safely, if your normal plans are compromised by events.
Try as I might, I can't see casual preparedness as a sin, just ordinary, think-ahead precaution. But I can see it becoming a sin, taken to the extreme. So, forum, where is the dividing line?
Cheers, PV.
[ 29. July 2015, 13:08: Message edited by: PilgrimVagrant ]
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Omnes Qui Errant Non Pereunt
Not all who wander are lost
Posts: 210 | From: In Contemplation | Registered: Jul 2015
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Along about Y2K, I knew a homeowner who decided that the electrical grid was going to collapse. He switched his entire house (an enormous one) to propane gas. This involved massively excavating the garden, to bury several gas tanks the size of a truck. I wonder if his wife has forgiven him yet.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
To some extent it depends where you live. If you live in a flood/fire/earthquake zone all this sounds very sensible.
Living where I do on a hill in Northern England, the only things I need to prepare for are (very) long traffic jams. The last one I was stationary in the car from 2:30pm to 11pm, no shops nearby, nothing. I was very grateful I had followed my Dad's advice to always have chocolate and water in the car! (I keep a blanket, shovel and grit too, but they were not needed as it was June)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
Two or 3 times a year we have systems failures at home. So we cook over wood or a camp stove. It is more often and longer at our cabin where it has been up to 4 days. Thosr are good days to read a book, have a nap, or do something active. Not viewing it as more than generally part of life. Generally being prepared and not complaining are things I learned in Boy Scouts.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
What's a prepper please?
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Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
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PilgrimVagrant
Shipmate
# 18442
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Posted
Sorry for the slang. A 'prepper' is someone who prepares for bad times. They might be individual bad-times, such as caused by unemployment, or the bankruptcy of one's pension provider, or communal bad times, such as caused by the economic mismanagement of the government, or natural disaster, or a nuclear attack.
Cheers, PV.
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Omnes Qui Errant Non Pereunt
Not all who wander are lost
Posts: 210 | From: In Contemplation | Registered: Jul 2015
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Fineline
Shipmate
# 12143
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Posted
I'm not sure if this counts, but it is a form of preparation. I don't prepare for big disasters, but I prepare for my own fluctuations in ability to organise myself (because of being on the autism spectrum - but I imagine this must apply to a variety of disabilities and mental health problems too). I make sure I have enough food in my freezer that I'd have enough to eat for a couple of weeks if I didn't manage to get to the shops. I make meals ahead of time so that if I feel overwhelmed and unable to organise myself, I will still have a meal to eat. I have arranged my life to be very simple, so that I need as little money as possible, so I can work part time and sometimes have time off. I have a list of strategies to help myself not get sensory overload. And I try to prepare myself emotionally by building emotional resilience.
I don't see it as either a duty or an extravagance - just a necessity for day-to-day functioning and being able to enjoy life. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Posts: 2375 | From: England | Registered: Dec 2006
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
There's certainly a range where NOT being prepared would be a sin, and also a range where being overly prepared becomes a sin.
The first is what we call negligence--for example, the person living next door to the San Andreas fault who keeps a top-heavy wall unit right next to the baby's crib, without even securing it to the wall. It's hard to know where to draw the line, though--I carry earthquake insurance because I live by the New Madrid fault, which is due for another major quake, and which historically did a crapload of damage, created a lake, and caused the Mississippi to flow backwards. But most of my neighbors, well, earthquakes aren't even on their radar, because hey, that was 1811, back in dinosaur times. ![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif) But as for me, I know that when the big one hits, we're looking at another Katrina. We have freaking brick houses, for gosh sakes, and sewers, and ... It's going to look like a toddler crashed through his building blocks.
But I'm not sure I can really blame my neighbors for ordinary human shortsightedness. It's not like it happened in their lifetimes, or even in the lifetimes of their grandparents. And they probably don't read the science articles.
On the other hand, you get the over-preppers, who treat preparation as an idol. As Luther says,
quote:
A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the whole heart; as I have often said, the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol.
If your faith and trust be right, then is your god also true; and, on the other hand, if your trust be false and wrong, then you have not the true God; for these two belong together, faith and God. That now, I say, upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
Like with so many things, I think it depends on the attitude under which it's undertaken and how it is shaping your heart.
Living in earthquake country, I've taken sensible precautions to prep for that-- securing top heavy furniture, storing up supplies and water, etc. They've come in handy at other times as well-- when windstorm knocked down trees that blocked roads and knocked out power for weeks, etc. This doesn't feel particularly "religious" but just sensible-- not unlike having an IRA or other retirement savings or health insurance.
But sometimes all this preparing for future disasters becomes enmeshed in hyperbolic (and IMHO non biblical) end-times scenarios in ways that only feed paranoia-- and a particularly nasty us-v-them mentality that seems at odds with the gospel itself. I was once part of a team that was charged with making a plan for our church in the event a large-scale earthquake occurred during Sunday services. As we were coming up with our list of supplies to have on hand-- first aid kits, shovels, water, canned goods-- someone suggested a handgun (yes, this is America). When we questioned that, the congregant suggested that in a major disaster "outsiders" would come and want to use our water, canned goods, etc. and we'd need the gun to "defend" our stash. ![[brick wall]](graemlins/brick_wall.gif) Fortunately, the rest of the team decided that rather than buying a gun we should just store some extra water to share with our less-prepared neighbors.
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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Belle Ringer
Shipmate
# 13379
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Posted
Basic financial planning advice includes save enough money to live on for 6 months (maybe that should be a year in economies where finding a replacement job is slow). And save for predictable future needs like car repairs, roof repairs, old age.
That's financial prepping. I have heard preaching against it ("use the money to help others, don't hoard it"), and we've had discussions about how much financial prepping is too little or too much.
People have always prepped for winter by canning and preserving food, prepped for spring by saving seed to plant instead of eating or selling it all, but today a lot of prepping involves buying materials not used in daily life. Prepped for marriage with the hope chest, prepped for adult life by learning useful skills.
FEMA wants all Americans to have a two week supply of self sufficiency on hand but knows that high a goal will turn people off so they advertise 3 or 4 days. Most people aren't prepped for that.
Meanwhile, the majority of the population are on prescription drugs but having an extra month on hand is often prevented by doctors and insurance companies (in USA).
Be aware of your location and anticipate likely need. Try to find prep items you can use in real life too so it's not just hoarding stuff for a maybe never event.
The day I woke to that beautiful extra quiet when the power has gone off, my house guest discovered the flashlight beside her bed (every bed has one, makes getting up at night easier for those who want just a little light), we cheerfully made coffee and oatmeal on the sterno stove in my camping gear, and left town in the car (which of course had at least half a tank of gas) to go sightseeing elsewhere while the city spent most of the day without electricity.
A little prepping makes little glitches easy to deal with. A lot of prepping is expensive but if it's what you need to feel safe, cheaper than hiring a shrink.
Posts: 5830 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2008
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
FEMA wants all Americans to have a two week supply of self sufficiency on hand but knows that high a goal will turn people off so they advertise 3 or 4 days. Most people aren't prepped for that.
I always had a 3-4 day stash of supplies up until Katrina, that quickly had me increasing our stash to a 3 week supply.
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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PilgrimVagrant
Shipmate
# 18442
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Fineline:
I'm not sure if this counts, but it is a form of preparation. I don't prepare for big disasters, but I prepare for my own fluctuations in ability to organise myself (because of being on the autism spectrum - but I imagine this must apply to a variety of disabilities and mental health problems too). I make sure I have enough food in my freezer that I'd have enough to eat for a couple of weeks if I didn't manage to get to the shops. I make meals ahead of time so that if I feel overwhelmed and unable to organise myself, I will still have a meal to eat. I have arranged my life to be very simple, so that I need as little money as possible, so I can work part time and sometimes have time off. I have a list of strategies to help myself not get sensory overload. And I try to prepare myself emotionally by building emotional resilience.
I don't see it as either a duty or an extravagance - just a necessity for day-to-day functioning and being able to enjoy life.
Fineline, I really appreciate your reply. I am schizophrenic, on medication that keeps me mostly sane, and understand where you're coming from. I, too, keep my life as simple as I am able. The stress, for example, of a romantic relationship, or ordinary employment, is more than I can manage. But, simple as it is, I love my life, and want to sustain my lifestyle as far as I am able, which is why I prep; just to exercise a little independence in my life.
Cheers, PV.
[ 29. July 2015, 15:59: Message edited by: PilgrimVagrant ]
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Omnes Qui Errant Non Pereunt
Not all who wander are lost
Posts: 210 | From: In Contemplation | Registered: Jul 2015
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PilgrimVagrant
Shipmate
# 18442
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
There's certainly a range where NOT being prepared would be a sin, and also a range where being overly prepared becomes a sin.
Yeah, I think your post has it about right. To my mind, prepping is insurance. But it's insurance where you get to decide, month by month, how much you want to pay, and get to keep whatever goodies you buy with that premium.
Cheers, PV.
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Omnes Qui Errant Non Pereunt
Not all who wander are lost
Posts: 210 | From: In Contemplation | Registered: Jul 2015
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PilgrimVagrant
Shipmate
# 18442
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
Meanwhile, the majority of the population are on prescription drugs but having an extra month on hand is often prevented by doctors and insurance companies (in USA).
Yes, this is an issue for me. I'm on 4 tablets daily, prescribed and collected every 60 days, entirely free of charge to me, given the UK National Health Service. I'd like to build up my supplies to around 90 days independency, but I don't want to abuse the privilege the NHS represents. So, medications remain a weak spot in my prepping plans.
Cheers, PV.
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Omnes Qui Errant Non Pereunt
Not all who wander are lost
Posts: 210 | From: In Contemplation | Registered: Jul 2015
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Ad Orientem
Shipmate
# 17574
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Posted
From what I've seen on National Geographic preppers are quite mad and nearly always gun nuts. I hate hoarding and hoarding is the prepper's cornerstone, so that's another reason why I could never be one.
Posts: 2606 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2013
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Ad Orientem
Shipmate
# 17574
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ad Orientem:
From what I've seen on National Geographic preppers are quite mad and nearly always gun nuts. I hate hoarding and hoarding is the prepper's cornerstone, so that's another reason why I could never be one.
But there was this one group in the programme, basically a bunch of hippies and part of their ethos was no weapons. They were pretty cool.
Posts: 2606 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2013
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PilgrimVagrant
Shipmate
# 18442
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ad Orientem:
From what I've seen on National Geographic preppers are quite mad and nearly always gun nuts. I hate hoarding and hoarding is the prepper's cornerstone, so that's another reason why I could never be one.
Yes, I am aware of this criticism, which is why I posted the thread. Should we really hoard while others starve? Nevertheless, I am not really hoarding, just storing. I just buy 3 months in advance of my needs, so I am 3 months resilient. And I don't do guns, at all.
Cheers, PV.
[ 29. July 2015, 18:29: Message edited by: PilgrimVagrant ]
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Omnes Qui Errant Non Pereunt
Not all who wander are lost
Posts: 210 | From: In Contemplation | Registered: Jul 2015
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Ad Orientem
Shipmate
# 17574
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by PilgrimVagrant:
quote:
Originally posted by Ad Orientem:
From what I've seen on National Geographic preppers are quite mad and nearly always gun nuts. I hate hoarding and hoarding is the prepper's cornerstone, so that's another reason why I could never be one.
Yes, I am aware of this criticism, which is why I posted the thread. Should we really hoard while others starve? Nevertheless, I am not really hoarding, just storing. I just buy 3 months in advance of my needs, so I am 3 months resilient. And I don't do guns, at all.
Cheers, PV.
If you don't do guns you're alright with me, not that you need my approval, of course.
May I ask what you're preppeing for? Do you have a specific scenario in mind?
Posts: 2606 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2013
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PilgrimVagrant
Shipmate
# 18442
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Posted
Yeah. The main scenario I prep against is a cut in my income. If the government attacked the benefit disbursement to the mentally ill, which, given it's track record, is not at all unlikely, I would have a few weeks grace to adjust. Other than that, it's just normal stuff, so floods, fires, and such. But at the same time, I am protecting against less likely threats; terrorism, civil disorder, total war, zombie attack, that kind of thing.
Cheers PV.
[ 29. July 2015, 18:45: Message edited by: PilgrimVagrant ]
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Omnes Qui Errant Non Pereunt
Not all who wander are lost
Posts: 210 | From: In Contemplation | Registered: Jul 2015
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Ad Orientem
Shipmate
# 17574
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Posted
I understand the medicine thing. Although something completely different, I have asthma (which fortunately has got better as I've got older), but I like to have a good supply of medicine just in case I lose some or my condition gets worse. It requires some planning ahead. I appreciate that. Doctors and pharmacists ask questions if you order medicines too frequently, which can make it difficult.
I've never really worried about food though. I only do two days shopping at the most. Even if I'm short of money I know I can go a few days without food (not that it's ever come to that) and I know how to hunt (there are lots of hares and pheasants round my way).
Posts: 2606 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2013
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
I prep by filling my home with useful stuff from the skip at work. Come the zombie apocalypse, I guess I must picture myself pulling my best A-team moves and making a desalination plant from random items of obsolescent laboratory apparatus.
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
quote:
I'm on 4 tablets daily, prescribed and collected every 60 days, entirely free of charge to me, given the UK National Health Service. I'd like to build up my supplies to around 90 days independency, but I don't want to abuse the privilege the NHS represents.
My mate is bipolar. New 'prescription direct from doctor to pharmacy' cockups just gave him a month with no meds - except that luckily he was a month in advance due to a previous mess-up. He only just broke even.
quote:
If the government attacked the benefit disbursement to the mentally ill, which, given it's track record, is not at all unlikely, I would have a few weeks grace to adjust.
Yes- council just wrote to the same mate saying 'your light-support housing service for those with long-term mental health issues is being withdrawn. You will need to log on to **** and bid (!) for housing using central council housing services...'.
Well, amongst those he lives with, he's lucky. He can read, is sober and intelligent, and solvent. The other five men will presumably end up very ill, or dead.
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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Doc Tor
Deepest Red
# 9748
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Posted
Hoarding is pointless unless you're willing to kill someone who wants to take your hoard.
Being prepared - the actual acquiring of skills useful in the event of an emergency - is far more valuable to both you and your community. If you consider yourself a prepper, and you haven't done a first aid course, a butchery course, a self-defence course, learnt how to hunt, fish, build a fire, built a shelter, navigate using a map and a compass, or find/make potable water, then you're not a prepper, you're kidding yourself.
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Forward the New Republic
Posts: 9131 | From: Ultima Thule | Registered: Jul 2005
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Martin60
Shipmate
# 368
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Posted
I passed a survivalist test with flying colours. The determining factor is how soon you go cannibal.
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Love wins
Posts: 17586 | From: Never Dobunni after all. Corieltauvi after all. Just moved to the capital. | Registered: Jun 2001
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Doc Tor:
Hoarding is pointless unless you're willing to kill someone who wants to take your hoard.
Yes, you sound just like the good Christian in my narrative above who wanted our church supplies to include a handgun for that reason.
But the rest of us seemed to think there was some benefit to "hoarding" or storing up enough supplies to care for both our own needs and at least some of our less-prepared neighbors w/o resorting to violence.
Haven't had to go thru a zombie apocalypse so far, nor the left-behind version, but the couple of major earthquakes I lived thru here in SoCal seemed to bring out the best of my neighbors, not the least. Southern Californians tend to be an independent lot-- most of us don't know our next-door neighbor's names, even when they're close enough for us to track every toilet flush. But when the ground starts shaking we do seem to come together, check on one another, and share what we have, be they generators or an extra roll of TP.
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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Belle Ringer
Shipmate
# 13379
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ad Orientem:
May I ask what you're preppeing for? Do you have a specific scenario in mind?
I know people who prep (for a month or two) because we in USA cities are so vulnerable to disruption in the food supply. Most of what we eat is non-local, trucked in every night; grocery stores no longer have warehouses but only a day or two supply of food. A truck strike, we'd be in big trouble real soon.
In hurricane territory, any time the news says a hurricane might hit, shelves are quickly bare, stripped. If you weren't among the first to get to the store, what will you feed your kids tonight? Prepped, not an issue.
I have met (on line) people who prep partly for economic reasons, buy lots of cans of beans or extra rice to store when they go on sale. If finances get tight you not only have food on hand, you got it more cheaply than if you had to buy it today. It's assurance, "I can eat not only tonight but for a few weeks." Anxiety reducing for some. (Others dislike the clutter of all that extra stuff.)
Posts: 5830 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2008
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Arabella Purity Winterbottom
Trumpeting hope
# 3434
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Posted
Anyone who lives in NZ and hasn't done some prep for a disaster is perhaps a bit foolish. Every time we have an earthquake it jogs my memory to check our stored water.
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Hell is full of the talented and Heaven is full of the energetic. St Jane Frances de Chantal
Posts: 3702 | From: Aotearoa, New Zealand | Registered: Oct 2002
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
We're basically just talking about risk assessment. Risks need to be measured in 2 ways - the likelihood of the event happening, and the consequences if it does happen.
I don't have the slightest problem with anyone preparing for risks, so long as the preparation doesn't become severely disproportionate to the actual risk and overtake their life.
(I'd be useless in most natural disasters because of the unlikelihood of them happening where I live.)
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
The best preparation for a zombie apocalypse - but an expensive one is to have teenage kids. They know what to do. They've seen the movies. They have it off pat so we don't need to prepare for that one until they leave home.
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
A former work colleague had the t-shirt: "In case of zombie apocalypse, follow me".
I never enquired deeply as to whether her qualifications extended beyond having bought the t-shirt.
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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Doc Tor
Deepest Red
# 9748
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:
quote:
Originally posted by Doc Tor:
Hoarding is pointless unless you're willing to kill someone who wants to take your hoard.
Yes, you sound just like the good Christian in my narrative above who wanted our church supplies to include a handgun for that reason.
I didn't say it was a good thing. It's just the inevitable and relatively swiftly-reached end-point when the shit really hits the fan.
You'd probably do better as a church to publicise the benefits of holding stored water, food and fuel to your wider community, in cooperation with whatever local government organisations you have. That way, if everyone is a little bit prepared (say, 3 days to a week), everyone has 3 days to a week before they go feral. If your emergency can be ameliorated in that time, and order reimposed, you come out looking competent and sensible.
If it isn't, you're better getting the hell out of Dodge anyway. No piece of real estate is worth a single life.
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Forward the New Republic
Posts: 9131 | From: Ultima Thule | Registered: Jul 2005
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
If the zombie apocalypse happens in Western Europe, we’re all in big trouble. High population density, low firearms ownership, nowhere we can really run away to. If you really want to protect against getting your brains eaten, your first step should be moving to North America or Australia which have much bigger uninhabited areas. If you’re intent on staying in Blighty, best easily available, legal weapon is a hammer or cricket bat ![[Biased]](wink.gif) .
<takes tongue out of cheek> More seriously, stockpiling stuff requires a fairly big home. Our apartment is 50m² and considered fairly spacious by Parisian standards. We never have more than a few days’ supplies of anything because we don’t have the space. Except for wine, now I think of it. We have enough of that for at least a couple of weeks. Hic.
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Doc Tor
Deepest Red
# 9748
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Posted
With regards to zombies, everything depends on whether they're slow or fast. Any competent adult armed with something heavy and/or sharp should be able to crack at least two skulls before succumbing to the shambling horrors. You'd see an exponential decline in the number of zombies from then on.
I have a turfing iron and a metre-long crowbar just for such occasions.
Fast zombies? We're all going to die, and there's little point in trying to survive. Sorry.
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Forward the New Republic
Posts: 9131 | From: Ultima Thule | Registered: Jul 2005
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IngoB
Sentire cum Ecclesia
# 8700
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Posted
Fast zombies are nonsense. Well, zombies are nonsense, but fast zombies are physically impossible. One cannot sustain that kind of power output for long just by metabolising biological materials. There's a reason why cheetahs are mostly just lying around vegging. A fast zombie apocalypse would be pretty easy to handle. Just snipe them one by one with a rifle while they rest exhaustedly from their last bout of high speed hunting.
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They’ll have me whipp’d for speaking true; thou’lt have me whipp’d for lying; and sometimes I am whipp’d for holding my peace. - The Fool in King Lear
Posts: 12010 | From: Gone fishing | Registered: Oct 2004
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
But we don't have rifles here in the UK ...
But we do have cricket bats.
Perhaps it's time to bring back 2nd Lieutenant Bill Wilson - The Wolf of Kabul - and his faithful oriental side-kick, Chung.
Armed with a brass-bound cricket bat - which he called 'clicky-ba', Chung was more than a match for the enemies of the Raj ...
The zombies would stand no chance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_of_Kabul
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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IngoB
Sentire cum Ecclesia
# 8700
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Posted
If you don't have a rifle, then get into your car and run over them. See if they can outrun a ton of steel hurtling at them... The idiocy of the whole zombie idea is that people dead due to organ failure not only perform some action steered by a decaying central nervous system (yeah, right) but run a highly coordinated guerrilla attack campaign while surviving damage like a healthy, young marine in full combat gear.
The monsters we scare ourselves with are so silly. If its not the undead apparently running on nuclear power with a hive mind, then it will be skyscraper size giants or an alien collection of fangs and claws with acid blood. What is however most likely to kill humanity is some micro-organism. And if aliens will drive us to extinction, then probably not because they are some scary beasts. We aren't, and we are on the top of the food chain of this planet. They will kill us off because they can outsmart and out-organise us. That's how we kill any animal that gets in our way...
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They’ll have me whipp’d for speaking true; thou’lt have me whipp’d for lying; and sometimes I am whipp’d for holding my peace. - The Fool in King Lear
Posts: 12010 | From: Gone fishing | Registered: Oct 2004
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by IngoB:
Fast zombies are nonsense. Well, zombies are nonsense, but fast zombies are physically impossible. One cannot sustain that kind of power output for long just by metabolising biological materials. There's a reason why cheetahs are mostly just lying around vegging. A fast zombie apocalypse would be pretty easy to handle. Just snipe them one by one with a rifle while they rest exhaustedly from their last bout of high speed hunting.
The real absurdity with fast zombies is that I simply can't believe I'll be better at getting exercise when I'm dead than I am now. Anyway, I have a friend who works in a mortuary. She's agreed to be my zombie apocalypse early warning. The text message will read "OMG zombies LOL". (Did you know mortuary fridge doors have handles on the inside? Freaked me out when I first heard that.)
Anyway, what were we talking about? Oh yes, prepping. As usual, Jesus isn't to be taken too literally:
quote:
Jesus: Go into the city and make preparations for the feast.
Peter: We can't, we've got no money.
Jesus: Why not?
Peter: You told us to have no thought for the morrow.
Jesus: *facepalm*
I'd say that you should probably make sufficient preparation so that in any crisis you can reasonably think of, you at least won't be a burden on, or a danger to, anyone else. And keep a cool head - the worst thing to lose in a crisis is your soul.
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Heavenly Anarchist
Shipmate
# 13313
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Posted
Surely what you need in the event of a zombie apocalypse is a vegetable patch?
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'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' Douglas Adams
Dog Activity Monitor
My shop
Posts: 2831 | From: Trumpington | Registered: Jan 2008
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Erroneous Monk
Shipmate
# 10858
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Posted
This is the best thread ever.
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And I shot a man in Tesco, just to watch him die.
Posts: 2950 | From: I cannot tell you, for you are not a friar | Registered: Jan 2006
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by IngoB:
If you don't have a rifle, then get into your car and run over them. See if they can outrun a ton of steel hurtling at them... The idiocy of the whole zombie idea is that people dead due to organ failure not only perform some action steered by a decaying central nervous system (yeah, right) but run a highly coordinated guerrilla attack campaign while surviving damage like a healthy, young marine in full combat gear.
You are the one who believes in the supernatural
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
What happens if a zombie bites a vampire or the other way around? Re the quick and undead, do you then have to use a silver bullet on the zombie, whether the fast or slow variety?
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
Have you noticed that the thing about zombies - and with mummies in older horror films - is that however slowly they move, they still manage to catch up with you ...?
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
hosting/
Given the turn this thread has taken, it's being sent to Heaven. Anyone left behind here is, well Left Behind™ and had better get prepping quick.
/hosting
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I have to say that heretofore I have only heard 'prepping' used on cookery shows by chefy types to mean 'chopping up a lot of vegetables'.
A quick glance at my freezer/kitchen cupboards/wine rack suggests that I am indeed expecting the siege of Stalingrad rerun any day now.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
Wine?
Now you are talking!
We are well prepared, with 50 bottles of good red in the rack ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gamaliel:
Have you noticed that the thing about zombies - and with mummies in older horror films - is that however slowly they move, they still manage to catch up with you ...?
I remember a comedian from the '90s who used to say, if you get caught by the Mummy, you deserve to die.
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
Wine?
Now you are talking!
We are well prepared, with 50 bottles of good red in the rack
Any home brewing forum (and I'm sure home wine making forum) has at least one person a week come along to start the "if the apocalypse happened tomorrow, how much beer could you make?" thread. I'd be out of luck on that one, but I have often told my wife that if we are ever stranded on a deserted island with a bunch of folks "Lost" style, I'm going to ingratiate myself to folks by making jailhouse wine out of whatever fruit I can get my hands on.
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Err, surely this is what used to be known as keeping a store cupboard?
If you had a glut of anything you either bottled or canned the produce; and you made sure that your pantry had sufficient variety to enable you to rustle-up a meal if necessity demanded.
Along with this, you made sure there were candles and matches on top of the fuse-box, plus a couple of spare torches and batteries for same.
You can give it all the fancy labels you want - although Prepper makes me think of small boys dragging their feet over schoolwork - but it really just is common-or-garden prudence and good housekeeping.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Doc Tor
Deepest Red
# 9748
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Posted
Proper preppers expect to survive the apocalypse and live the rest of their days in a sparsely populated libertarian eutopia.
They're welcome to it.
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Forward the New Republic
Posts: 9131 | From: Ultima Thule | Registered: Jul 2005
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SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
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Posted
A couple of weeks ago I happened to attend a book launch held to promote a novel about prepping. Not normally my kind of thing, but the author and setting were both local to me, rather than being American, which seems to be far more common.
I haven't read the book yet, but the middle class English gentlemen in the narrative do appear to have guns and a willingness to use them....
Posts: 6668 | From: UK | Registered: Feb 2012
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
Don't consider myself a 'prepper' by any stretch of the imagination, BUT on hand there is ALWAYS peanut butter, chocolate, and gin (for the warm months) and either Scotch or Irish single malt (preferably both) (for cooler times).
And always lots of B**ks, both read and unread. Candles in case the power goes, and lots of quilts to pile on the bed.
The above got me through a 4-day city-wide snow shutdown a few years ago. (Fortunately I had plenty of dog and cat food.)
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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