I have never answered this question honestly. My concern over the apocalypse forces me into a state of constant paranoia and readyness. Even typing this update, I am aware of three ways out of my house; where the nearest weapon is; where the nearest armour is and the best place to go for initial shelter. It’s time to be honest.
Category: Preparedness
Apocalypse preschool: Developing a survival-based curriculum
In child development, the time between infancy and kindergarten is one of the most important. During this time, children learn the basics, like the alphabet and numbers. It’s also when they learn basic (but important) life skills, like how to go to the bathroom in a place other than their pants.
This won’t change after the apocalypse. Those crucial early years will remain just as crucial, though the education system will probably change. I imagine it’d be a little tricky to send little Johnny off to school when he’s living the nomadic survivor lifestyle with the rest of his survivor group (or survivor band, or survivor tribe, or whatever you want to call it—personally, I like tribe).
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How Do You Know If Your Friend Is Going To Turn Zombie?
Usually a zombie is clearly a zombie. But sometimes you’re not sure if it’s paranoia cocking your gun and pointing it at your friend’s head or logical detachment.
He has a wound and it’s bloody. No one, not even him or the zombie whose attack he just survived can be sure he hasn’t been exposed. How do you know he won’t turn? What if he’s the one zombie who turns and still walks and talks normally while picking individuals in the group off one by one when no one is looking? Some kind of serial killer predator zombie…
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End of The World Mega Mix
Today I discovered, I can put “90s” into Pandora and it’ll generate a 90s pop or 90s alternative station. Best day of my life. (Sorry, Husband.) It’s like listening to the 90s music channel on cable but I don’t have to be in my living room monopolizing the TV and being laughed at for listening to the cable music channel.
My 90s station got me thinking about my dearly missed mixed tapes I use to make by recording songs off the radio using the mind-boggling technology of a boom-box.
Back in the day we didn’t have have luxury of toting every song ever in our music collection. If you wanted some SWV, you’d have to cut out some Ace of Base.
In the future all these multi-functional music devices will be more useful as compasses and cameras, edible plant finders and generally for their survival apps. Your space for music will be rationed like a can of fruit cocktail.
How nerdy pursuits could save your life.
Recently I spent a good proportion of a day in a dark, smoky room, confused by loud noise while other people snuck around and tried to shoot me. What on earth was I doing? I was playing Quasar with some friends, and it struck me that this was remarkably good practice for the end times. Hear me out. It sounds weird, but in a country where guns and assault courses are only really available for the military or over-priced stag weekends, what better? And that made me think about other nerdy or weird pursuits and how they may help with your survival choices.
"Zombie" Ants Found With New Mind-Control Fungi
Check this National Geographic article out and speculate with fear:
The fungus species can infect an ant, take over its brain, and then kill the insect once it moves to a location ideal for the fungi to grow and spread their spores.
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All four known fungi species live in Brazil’s Atlantic rain forest, which is rapidly changing due to climate change and deforestation, said study leader David Hughes, an entomologist at Penn State University.
Hughes and colleagues made the discovery after noticing a wide diversity of fungal growths emerging from ant victims, according to the March 2 study in the journal PLoS ONE.
“It is tempting to speculate that each species of fungus has its own ant species that it is best adapted to attack,” Hughes said.
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Post-apocalyptic Fashion: Resident Evil – Alice
When roving the desert cities that were once California or the untamed wilderness in Western Mass, what will you wear?
Some examples of post-apocalyptic outfit options from Resident Evil’s Alice.
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Post-apocalyptic beauty tips
With Tavia being concerned about where to get her hair done, and me being the vainest creature on two legs, this is a genuine concern for me. And people look strangely at you when you admit that, when you tell them that among the normal concerns about post-apocalyptic living you are also worried about how to keep your skin from shrinking in on itself like a moldy apple.
So I’ve put a lot of thought into this- usually while lounging in a hot bath and applying one of a dozen quirkily named expensive products to myself. And I have decided that after initial concerns have passed that the first thing I’m going to do is raid the beauty section of the department store.
But what about when that stuff’s gone? What will I do? I will make my own cosmetics, with readily available ingredients.
Shelter, and how to choose it.
The MOST important thing for your survival is shelter, both short term and long term. The right shelter could keep you not only alive, but content and successful. The wrong shelter could leave you diseased, injured or dead.
I thought that a list of shelter types, with pros and cons would be the most helpful.
exploiting your friends for better survival.
I’ll level with you: In recent years my friendships have been based on a complex calculation that is deciding only two things- how likely the person is to survive an apocalypse and how useful they’ll be in the aftermath. And if that sounds harsh and cold-hearted to you, you just aren’t invested enough in your survival to make this work.
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