Ever Get the Feeling...

that the whole world is sort of holding its breath right now?

Waiting to see what is going to happen next?  Wondering when, exactly, the other shoe will drop?

There is just so much going on across the globe that one can hardly keep up.  Naturally, MSM is failing to put the most important things at the top of the reporting list but that is nothing new.  Throw a bit of celebrity gossip at the masses and bury the stuff that will (rather: should) get the masses riled.  The ones that are waking up are edgy, angry that they've been kept (allowed themselves to be kept) in the dark for so long...but not angry enough yet to act.

The whole thing is just a tinderbox waiting to go up in flames.

Watching CNN...

International (of course)...not so much controlled, imo.

I don't know what's top news there, but here the headlines are insane. Israel, Egypt, Gaza, the Koreas, China, Japan, the Euro and the German Presidental resignation and of course, BP and the Gulf...I'm exhausted just trying to keep up with that. Throw two little wild men into the mix along with school work (papers, presentations, etc) and the house...yeah, I'm tired.

But enough of my exhaustion...I want to know how your gardens grow? As I have no yard, no balcony and no place but some fairly narrow window sills in which to grow veggies, I am having garden withdrawals. I could totally grow tomatoes or something in the window sills, but the weather around here has been so freakish that I don't know how well they'd do. Very wet and pretty doggone cold for late May-going into June. So the sills are filled with petunias (bonus of having a ground floor).

Of course, all this really means is that I won't be canning this year unless the fruit/veg at the local market is so spectacular that I simply cannot pass up buying bushels of it (I have yet to be impressed but know I could be so if I took the trip to Frankfurt). Okay, fine...give me more time to explore the local locale and get to know the locals better, lol.

So, go on...brag on your gardens!

First Impressions

On “The Colony”…so far so good. BUT (you knew it was coming) I naturally have a few critiques.

Why the need for electricity ASAP? Personally, I could think of other things that would occupy my mind. I understand the need for light at night, but I think I might have worried more about the fact that there was only enough food for 9 days…just a personal preference and all…that need for feed.

I do have to give them props for making a water filtration system first off, then they improved on it by making it bigger…then (wow, I’m really impressed) they figured out that grabbing rain water was quicker than hauling ass to the river everyday. Impressive, really it was…all in the first couple of days.

As for the players of this little game, no real impressions yet other than on one by the name of Mike. So far he shows promise as a bit of a tyranical, male chauvinistic ass. I could be wrong but when he gains pleasure from the division of chores into man (anything tool related) and woman (anything household related)…well, it kinda rubs me the wrong way. I know, I know…the world is full of them. But seriously, he is a bit of a control freak that’s a bit bitchy…so far. We’ll see as the weeks roll by.

If you aren’t watching it, go ahead and do it. Tuesday nights at 9c on Discovery…we can compare notes. Yes, I’m encouraging brain numbing…but only in the interest of possibly learning something or maybe seeing something that in all of our prepping we may have overlooked. Sure, sure…you got it all covered. I know.

The Colony....

so I was numbing the brain (aka watching TV) last night after wrestling with a particularly ugly assignment (really four attachments explaining the difference between an academic paper and a business memo...four?) when a commercial for Discovery Channel's newest show, "The Colony", popped up. Looks interesting, but....(you knew there was a but coming, didn't you?)

The premise is pretty simple...follow a group of ten survivors of a major global catastrophe and watch them rebuild. Sounds cool, huh? I was intrigued, really I still am. Even though I know deep down that there will be some MAJOR leaps made. Really, one of the first things you want to do is a solar panel? Okay. Yeah, I know...it's just on the commercial, they may actually make something good of this. I'm going to watch anyway, just to see what "they" think surviving and rebuilding should entail. (Quick, find the nearest Mickey D's and fire up the grills!! I need a Big Mac....sorry bub, hunt ya something, literally...hahaha)

It's interesting to see that the folks in charge of airing on the boob tube have taken a shine to the survivor thing at least (I'm not talking Survivorman or Man vs. Wild either...though I love both when I can catch them). Should be even more interesting to see where they take the whole thing, ya think?

Believe it or not...

there are other things going on in the world. MSM would have you believe that the universe is coming to a crashing end because of the death of one man...um, no sorry.

Yep, you got it...this is a rant. A rant about how I've not seen a decent news story about anything since Thursday. Okay...he died, it was sudden, it was tragic...and the Earth still went on turning and things continued on. Now can you, MSM, please continue on as well.

I would most sincerely like to be able to see what is going on in other places in the world and get my local news/weather without hearing about Michael Jackson. Don't get me wrong, I do occassionally break out into a rousing rendention of "Thriller" complete with dance moves...but seriously now.

A family friend put it this way..."You'd think Jesus had died all over again." I had to laugh and agree...it sure seems that way with all the coverage. MJ was no Jesus though, let's face it.

I'm just flat out tired of not getting to watch the news...I can't possibly be alone in this...can I?

More TV to lay on ya....

in the form of a somewhat survivalist mindset...of course.

Out of the Wild : The Alaska Experiment

Have you watched any of this? Just curious what your take on it is. I giggled during the first episode at the decision to take everything offered to them in a pile of 'junk' (I mean please, a ukulele...the strings, yes but the whole thing, no)...in the end they ended up paying for that decision by having way more than they could carry for any decent length...wore them out, made them use up energy that they couldn't spare. Then the decision to take a 'shortcut' over a mountain...um, can we say dumb?

All in all it's been a pretty interesting show so far. A few things that I personally would have done differently (see above for two big ones). If you haven't been watching it, the basis is pretty simple. Nine people get dropped off in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness at the end of fall (ie winter is coming on) and have to hike 60 miles out. Each one has a GPS that they can push to have a helicopter come pick them up when they feel like they've had enough (nice, can I have one of those for TEOTWAWKI?), they were given three days of bush training...blah, blah...basically it's a bunch of city slickers (for the most part) dropped into the super cold Alaskan 'outback'. I've found it a nice study in psychology thus far.

I don't often praise TV shows, but this one I will...let's you get a bit of a different perspective on others ideals of survival, what they are willing to put up with (ie hunger, cold, tiredness, etc), makes you think about what you would do differently and in my case, makes me see areas that I could use some brushing up on, like snares.

Anyway, is there anyone else out there watching it? Has it pointed out anything to you that you didn't realize you weren't trained up on or thinking of?