Fire Alarms

Brendan and I are well trained to respond to fire alarms. I won’t speak for Brendan, but my experience started in earnest during my four years at University. I shared a building with 47 other people, and my building was directly adjacent to many others just like it. During exam time, we inevitably had people up at [...]

The French are Planning a Run on the Banks

. We’ve all seen the protests against austerity measures that are happening all over Europe. The French seem to be particularly passionate about protesting against the Government and big banks who they see as having caused the financial crisis. The country known for it’s bloody and violent revolution at the end of the 18th century [...]

Self-Sufficiency and Resilience – Plans upon Returning to Australia

  Back in January of this year I wrote a post about Self Sufficiency, Independence and Lifestyle Planning . In it, I explained how I wanted to become less reliant on the current industrial system and to take more control of my own life. I’ve achieved a lot since then, but knowing that we were moving back to Australia [...]

On Building Lifeboats #2

On my last post On Building Lifeboats, there was a comment that I wanted to address, and then my reply became so long I figured I’d just make a new post. More gloom and doom. Sorry, but I just don’t buy it. And I don’t think the way to convince people that change is needed [...]

On Building Lifeboats

Power went out at work yesterday and the computer servers are still down today. I’m not sure how many people have been affected by this. It’s certainly hundreds, maybe thousands. There has been so much lost productivity this year due to such events. I don’t bother complaining about how the systems seem to be becoming [...]

Earthquake in Southern California – Our first 7.2

This afternoon here in San Diego we experienced our first major Earthquake. At 7.2 on the Richter Scale, it was bigger than Haiti. Thankfully building codes in Southern California are set up for this type of thing. We were about 100 miles from the epicenter and because the quake was 10 miles underground, apparently much of [...]

Short-Term Emergency Preparedness Kit: What to include

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post called Are You Prepared? Short Term Planning. I provided some questions to think about in preparation for any disasters which might occur in your area, whether they be a common house fire or a natural disaster such as earthquake, tornado, hurricane/cyclone, flood or bushfire/wildfire. I also provided [...]

Are You Prepared? Short Term Planning

There have been many severe natural disasters in recent months. We’ve witnessed the utter destruction of the horrific earthquake in Haiti and then just this weekend a massive earthquake occurs off the coast of Chile, spurring fears of Tsunamis all across the Pacific Rim. Hawaii woke residents with sirens, alerting them to the waves. A [...]

The journey of 100 posts starts with a single line!

Today marks a milestone. 100 posts! I thought I should celebrate with a little look back at my journey since last July, when I started this blog. This blog was conceived because I had a mind full of thoughts that needed writing down. I’ve found the process cathartic and illuminating at the same time. Usually, as I go about my [...]

I wish I was Boy Scout – I want to Earn these Merit Badges

Last week I mentioned that I want to learn more skills. A number of coincident events got me to thinking about the Scout’s and how great it is for teaching young people worthwhile skills. Since we are never too old to learn new things, I’ve decided to focus on gaining some new skills this year. Using [...]