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Good God, I've got the worst smell creeping out of my ass.  Never, EVER have Mexican for lunch and chili for dinner.

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Weapon Ideas

Fists of Fury - Hi-tech armored gloves that sprout knuckle spikes when you clench your fist.

Hi-Tech Stink Bombs - These paintball-like projectiles are fired by robotic compressed air canons at vehicles and pedestrians that trespass into your "Safety Zone".  The projectiles emit a caustic, disabling stink ONLY when in the Zone.

Masterkey Crossbow - This idea is growing on me. It's a small, hi-tech crossbow that mounts under the barrel of an M-4. It would fire a variety of small, silent darts that would variously function as radio beacons, infrared markers, explosive AP rounds, taser rounds, poison rounds, trip-wire fasteners,  remote-control cameras, sensor stations, etc.

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 Check out this really cool article HERE about the Open Source Ecology Project.  One of my favorite quotes ever is in this article:

"I believe that the heart of economic democracy is decentralized productive power spread throughout the populace."

- Yoonseo Kang from Mississauga, Ontario -

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Damn if I didn't have the coolest dream last night.  I was outside, trying to move an object with "chi" from my hand.  Next thing I know, my hand feels like it's super-pressurized, and some leaves on the pavement in front of me catch on fire.  I stamp them out, then aim my hand at them again, and concentrate.  That pressurized feeling again, and a thin, near-invisible ray comes out of my hand and hits the leaves, igniting them.  I stamp them out and keep practicing.  It was so real that I woke up thinking I could really do it.  Then I realized I hadn't lit my bed on fire in my sleep.

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I'm interested in guerrilla, do-it-yourself warfare, like the Pickup Truck Army in Libya or the Technicals in Somalia.  I guess I'm afraid that one day the good old United States might collapse, and, in its weakened condition, get invaded by foreign powers.  So I think to myself, what could regular people do to fight invaders, if they only had civilian armaments and supplies?  I'm no tradesman or craftsman, so I don't really know what anyone could do.  But I guarantee people would do a lot.  Look at what Charlie did in Viet Nam, and at what the militias did in Libya.  Then look at all the supplies, education, know-how, tools, manufacturing equipment and patriotic individuals we have in the Homeland, and you start to get the picture.  I wonder if PVC compressed air guns could have any battlefield applications, either as shotguns or launchers?  Or gas-ignited spud guns, or spring-powered guns?  Probably.  They'd be really quiet, too!

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OK, what about a whole slew of under-barrel attachments for the AR-15 platform?  Like, a survival kit stash tube, for instance.  Or, an ammo-storage tube.  Or, a small, functioning "Masterkey" crossbow.  Or a tiny, full-auto "Masterkey" submachine gun.  Or...a pistol mount.  Or...a .410 revolver shotgun - a modified snubby Taurus Judge, so-to-speak.  I could keep an aluminum tube attached to the under-barrel rail on my M-4.  It would be loaded with a survival kit.  If I ever had to GOOD or bug out, I could always remove the tube if necessary.  But it would make my bug out kit more compact.

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Some Cool Tools

The Japanese Hori-Hori garden knife: It cuts, it digs...it kills.

The Amish garden hoe: It is an outstanding, effective shape...and it's made in the USA.

The Craftsman Digging Shovel: It has a 14-gauge, serrated blade, a metal-reinforced fiberglass handle, wide "power steps" to facilitate cutting, and fer cryin' out loud, it's ALSO made in the USA!

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Today's bargains (above): 2 wine boxes and a crate from the East Bay Depot for Creative Re-Use, and a small but sturdy work table from Urban Ore.  Total cost: $35.00.  Not peanuts, but still a bargain.  Everything is in very good condition.  The table cleaned up nicely and the boxes will stain well.  The box on the right already has hinges on it as of an hour ago.

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Another low-rez camera photo, taken at "late dusk".  I love it, and: No cost whatsoever.

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Good evening, Frogs'n'Phillies.  So nice of you to stop by once again.  You'll be pleased to know that I just finished The Witch of Hebron, and it damn near made me cry, it was so good.  It filled me up the way good company fills me up.  And now, on with our adventure.

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By now you know me well enough to know that I admire survivors more than Jesus Himself.  And I admire innovation, re-use and thinking outside the box.  To that end, here are two photos exhibiting a bit of all these things combined:

Sheer genius, and probably the funnest pool table ever made.  It inspires me in many ways.  It's a freakin' work of art.

A keg-pisser, in case you can't figure it out.  I wish I had one in my apartment.  And was pissing in it right now.

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Want to learn how to make a beautiful, realistic rose out of tape and wire?  Check out this video!  This project is going on my crafty bucket list.  Gotta wait til I'm moved in to the new digs and get my new life ironed out, then I'll give it a try.

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Product review: The Biolite camp stove.  It's a twig-burner that generates electricity and powers gadgets via a USB port!  Check out a description of it HERE.  If I saw this at REI, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.  It would keep me warm, cook my food, boil my water AND charge my iPhone in a SHTF situation...or when camping.

Product review: The Backcountry Boiler.  It's also a twig burner -- or a chimney kettle as it were -- for boiling water.  Check it out HERE and HERE.  I own its predecessor, an aluminum Irish kettle that fires up with paper and scraps.  Very effective!  Can't wait to check these out up close once they hit the shelves.

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That's all for tonight, my fine-feathered Peeps.  The sun is down and the moon is up and I'm lit up like a Christmas tree inside.  My aura is lighting up the sky tonight.  Gotta go do all that silly stuff one does before one goes to bed, then hit the haystack and catch some Zs.  'Night!

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Fishing, Hunting, Fucking

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That's what the good guys in The Road Warrior spent the rest of their lives doing when they made it to the beach and became the Great Northern Tribe, after the movie ended.  That is very clear to me now.

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I want to recommend Howard Kunstler's two post-apocalyptic novels, A World Made By Hand, and The Witch of Hebron.  They both take place in the same post-oil, post-industrial America, where life has returned to pastoral rhythms.  Both novels share a wonderful and warm atmosphere that is rich and ripe with a simplicity our own society lost long ago.  Thumbs up.  Boners up, even!

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Do you remember John Titor?  No?  WTF?  Why not?  He rocked.  He was the time traveling soldier-from-the-future who appeared briefly in internet chat rooms around the turn of century.  He had a great story to tell.  You really should check him out, his predictions were trey cool.  Well, the good news is that someone is making a documentary about him, called How To Build A Time Machine.  I cannot wait til it comes out.  Real or not, his story is every survivalist's wet dream.

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So, if you are like me and like predictions and prophecies concerning the fate of humanity, check out this audio interview HERE.  This psychic chick is pretty cool.  She says she senses a hard economic downturn hitting planet earth this coming Spring or Summer, with a 3-to-6 month bottoming-out period.  All I can say is, that's interesting timing.  I'll be interested to see what happens.

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The Walking Dead.  It's a great zombie TV series with incredible cinematography and acting, and moments of pure brilliance.  And yet I talk endless shit about how it could be improved upon.  That said, once in awhile it comes thru in aces, like it did last Sunday.  Way to go Rick!  Finally.  I'm hooked again!

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Good night byatches everywhere.  It's been real.  Wait, one last thing: Tonight, for the first time ever, I felt so good that the only way I could describe it was to compare it to being on drugs.  In fact, I had ingested a homeopathic remedy.  It was, and is, astounding.  Perhaps I will illuminate that story more fully at a later date.

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Sunday Evening Post

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“The future of civilization depends on water. I beg you all to understand this.”
— Jacques Yves Cousteau, 1997

Oops, guess we fucked up!  Sorry, Jacques.

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There is a warm, fluffy creature sitting on top of my arms as I peck these words out on the keyboard, and this warm, fluffy creature is purring away.  She must love her Poppa very much to purr so loudly.

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I was thinking that every hippie survivalist should have a few weapons for personal defense and food procurement.  Everyone has  their own needs, desires, predilections and ideas, but what do I recommend?  I like Close Quarter Battle (CQB) weapons, which tend to be compact and designed for short-range, indoor or urban environments.  The M4 with a .22 LR drop-in converter is a lightweight, proven assault rifle combo that solves two issues with one weapon.  .40 or .45 semi-auto pistols are compact, EDC man-stoppers.  12 gauge pump riot guns are very powerful, very loud and universally recognized and feared.  Also, they are inexpensive and their ammo is cheap.

Let us not forget low-tech weapons such as daggers, tomahawks and Spetsnatz fighting shovels.  Yes, hippie survivalists should consider traditional hand-held weapons as well as firearms, because bullets may not always exist and machines don't last forever.

One last thing -- I am preferential to a few black powder muzzle-loaders: the Howdah Hunter, the LeMat and the blunderbuss.  The Howdah Hunter is a double-barreled, 20-gauge, percussion pistol shotgun, with operating twin hammers.  The LeMat is a double-barreled revolver that holds 9 pistol rounds and a 20 gauge round.  The blunderbuss is a short, horn-barreled weapon meant for short-range defense.  All are devastating at close range.  Any one of them would be a fine home defense weapon or a perfect, compact companion to a modern firearm.

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A nice long list of books that contain compilations of collected prophecies can be found HERE, at the dreamscape.com website.  It's the most comprehensive list I have ever come across, and most of the titles are new to me.

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Some cool dude made an 11-minute Mad Max "fan" film called Mad Max Renegade.  The preview can be found on the website HERE.  This movie really captures the atmosphere and visual quality of the original Mad Max.  I think the budget was $1,000.  Kudos!

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The Vermin Have Inherited the Earth

A Few More Words By Meher Baba

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If memory serves me correctly, Meher Baba said that we live in the Kali Yuga, or the Fourth and Final Age, which is a time of universal pain and darkness.  It is the Darkest Hour of the Night, the time when Truth wanes, and Illusion reigns.  He called this Kali Yuga THE AGE OF MACHINES, and said that it would be characterized by SPEED.  His advice to humanity was "DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY".

Wow, do those last words scare the pee-pee out of me.  But I appreciate them.  They make no attempt to sugar-coat reality, and they leave the choice up to us: We can be worry-free and happy if we want to, no matter what happens to us or around us.  WE DON'T HAVE TO BE ATTACHED TO EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCE.

By Jove, that's a tall order, though!  It's a challenge, really, cuz becoming detached requires great effort.  The upside of the Kali Yuga is that it is a time of great growth, as Humanity struggles to overcome its own limitations and births a new, higher consciousness.  The brief and dark Kali Yuga is followed by an Age of Peace, which is heavenly and seems to last for an eternity.

Above: Avatar Meher Baba as a young man.  Those liquid eyes are filled with great longing.  I once dreamed I was standing on one of them!  I was small and that eye was huge.  Then, I was me again and Meher Baba hugged me, and my heart grew and grew til it seemed to explode, and I screamed out loud!  And He laughed and said, "It can be a bit overwhelming at times, can't it?"

How many lives still to go, Baba?

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Fury Road Fan Trailer

CLICK HERE

Me Again!

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Good Lord, I'm back again.  Third blog entry in one day...one very trying day that has reduced me to a low & burnt-out state.  Here goes:

I believe that in my last life I was a German officer on the Eastern Front in World War II, and that I had a hard, desperate run across Battlefield Russia.  I blew a lot of shit up along the way, and also suffered the soul-fracture that all battle-hardened soldiers suffer.  That said, I am perfectly willing to admit that I may be completely full of shit.  Reincarnation may not exist, and/or I may be fantasizing.  It doesn't really matter, because I carry the story of this wasted man within me, whether it is metaphorical or literal, from this life or another.

But this story/memory/fantasy is why I am a survivalist.  I have no illusions about the evil, violence and destruction that man -- even good men! -- can wreak upon humanity and the earth.  All men are capable of the same rotten things -- rape, torture, wanton destruction, murder, looting, mayhem, massacres, etc. -- given the right circumstances.  Never, ever, ever forget that civilization is a thin veneer which is quickly and easily wiped away.  Because that is the truth, and if you don't believe it, then you are a fucking idiot.

I also believe that I have been a monk in past lives, and studied Eastern esoteric traditions.  Oh, I know, that's even more bullshit than the soldier BS above!  But again, it doesn't matter if it's the biggest, blackest crock of shit ever spouted by mortal man, or a fantasy, or a downright lie, or the truth, BECAUSE...I carry a monk inside me.

And this is why I am a hippie: Because I believe that we evolve as souls, thru the experience of living.  Even the bad stuff assists with our growth.  It's a very long journey -- 8.5 million human lifetimes alone if I remember correctly! -- and that's not even counting the near-eternal journey from single particle up thru the realms of mineral, plant, animal to human.  Describing it is enough to almost make me weep.  It sucks.  Sucks so bad I just wish it weren't true.  But I think it is.  God is constantly spawning and re-absorbing an infinite number of universes, in order to experience himself.  Every particle in every universe is God, seeking knowledge of Himself.  We are advanced particles, if you will.

Oh, Lord.  It's all too much to contemplate.  It almost makes me sick.  But it's there.  There it is.  Do me a favor.  Go smoke a cigarette, or have a shot of Jack, or sniff a little something good, cuz I can't any more.  It's not in my cards.  I gotta somehow get my shit together while I still can, so when the Shit Goes Down I have the wherewithal to help others help themselves.

It's all so depressing I could sleep forever.

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Blog Comments

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Well, Jeez Louise.  I didn't even know there were some reader comments on this blog til I happened upon them by chance today while navigating the new Blogger format.  Thanks for the support, advice and ideas, everyone!  It's great to hear from all of you, on all topics.

I would like to make special mention of a link left by Ray Banister: www.gunadapters.com.  Wow!  These guys are selling quality sub caliber adapters/inserts for shotguns, including a rifled 9mm insert and a .22 Short/LR insert.  Check their stuff out!

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Just one more thing to say, and it has nothing to do with anything written above: I hope God has a sense of humor.  Really.  Wouldn't that be great?  After my miserable life is over, I'd be able to have a good laugh at the whole desperate, fucked-up experience.  Sometimes, I despair.  I truly, fucking despair.  Perhaps that is the plight of all Hippie Survivalists?  MAYBE WE ARE ALL EAGLES THAT ARE TOO FAT TO FLY.

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Mad Max 4 Fury Road

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Rumor has it that filming will begin in April, in Namibia, and that another trilogy -- "a re-imagining of the Mad Max world" -- is on the boards.  Here are some rather sketchy photos of some of the vehicles for the new movie(s):

 

Some of these vehicles appeal to me, some don't.  I like the squared-off lines and the heavy duty road tires.  The trucks themselves look cool enough, but the car bodies perched on top of them veer dangerously close to monster truck/Bat Man territory.  The dune buggies DEFINITELY float my boat.

Below we have an original Mad Max Interceptor that looks as if it might make it into the new movie:

And below we have two Mad Max concept vehicles...I'm not quite sure what purpose they serve if they are not for the new movie:

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Sick, Dirty Thoughts

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From The Dream Report, issued for free by John L Peterson at The Arlington Institute:

Grandmother came in a dream: “There is no more money left in the United States. It’s all overseas. It’s all gone. The big stores are closing. They are empty and dark. The trucks don’t run. People are hungry and upset. They don’t understand what happened to the money. This is worse than the Depression. Be careful, there may be Army in the streets. Lie low. Honey, people are growing gardens in their yards to eat. You need to know how to do this. Chickens and rabbits. You need to prepare. The money is gone.”

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It's a poor photo, it's an ugly white trash fix, but I feel obligated to promote any DIY, creative initiative that I come across in this materialistic, throw-away society.  Why?  Because one day when the strip malls are burning and money is what we all wipe our unwashed asses with, we may have to improvise to survive. So here you have it, the free & effective bicycle fender made from a 2-liter bottle and tape:

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 I am probably a survivalist because I have a fractured & destroyed inner self, and I am projecting my own desolate inner landscape onto the external world around me.  But in spite of that, I do not find life in today's world particularly satisfying.  It seems downright dangerous, living the way we do, dependent on money alone to provide us with all we need.  I would much rather have my own mini-farm and be self-reliant, than slog thru my days as a wage-slave.  How satisfying and fulfilling it would be to be in touch with my own survival, my own livelihood!  All I really want are a few acres in the woods for my hippie homestead, and some spiritual, capable, well-armed friends.  And I would also like to learn to turn into a bird, but that is beside the point.

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The Wasteland Weekend looks kind of silly, but kind of fun.  It's a Mad Max-themed weekend in the SoCal desert.  Costumes are required and participants are encouraged to Max-out their vehicles, too, so-to-speak.  Honestly, it looks more fun than Burning Man.  Sometimes a man needs to get his truck out in the sand and wear black and party and pretend he's fighting for gasoline, and that's that.  Even hippies have this need.  FFS, if my friends don't bail I'm going in September.  I'll tell you how it went.

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The End of the World As We Know It

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I'm not too happy with the last few blog entries. They don't seem very complete. But I needed to say what I needed to say. I've really been scouring the internet in the last day or two, for prophecies and visions of the future, particularly those that concern the fate of the United States. It's difficult wading through the christian/religious prophecies because they are so couched in bible-speak and references to things I don't even believe in, like Satan, the Rapture, etc. But two things strike me about prophetic visions: A) Most of the time they don't come true, and B) Thank God, because they are REALLY GRIM. I mean, they are blood-soaked. Cannibalism, rape, looting, lawless gangs, total economic and political collapse, epic earthquakes that radically alter coast lines, famine, looting, plague, pestilence, soul-crushing fear, it's all there. I mean, the prophecies that have arisen from NDEs are literally about the violent death of America.

Now, here's the interesting part. Again and again, prophetic visions spell out that these cataclysmic changes, which MAY come about if we don't alter our behaviors on a global scale, are a purifying process. It seems that they will be accompanied by a spiritual uplift, and what will remain after the cataclysm is a spiritually uplifted humanity. Of course, most everyone will be killed in the upheaval, so there will be very few people left in the New World. BUT, I guess what I am trying to say is that if we really truly want to survive this coming century, we'd better consider our spiritual growth/life as part of the equation. Because it really appears to come right down to the fact that in the end, only a few good people will survive, and yes, I mean "good" people.  Let me repeat that: Whoever survives the coming hardships facing humanity will be "good".

That's it. Another really unsatisfying and incomplete blog entry that only partially addresses an emerging realization. Here's another go at it:

THE PLANETARY TRAVAILS OF THE 21ST CENTURY WILL PRESENT HUMANKIND WITH THE OPPORTUNITY FOR SPIRITUAL UPLIFT. THOSE WHO SURVIVE THE ORDEAL WILL EMERGE INTO THE NEW WORLD WITH A HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS, ONE THAT IS THE RESULT OF THE TRAVAILS THEY HAVE EXPERIENCED.

The New World will be completely different from the world we now know. Technology may indeed die completely. Governments will disintegrate the world over. Cities will crumble, never to reappear. Capitalism will die. Money and commerce as we know it will disappear. All of the materialistic indulgences we spend our days reveling in will be gone: No more restaurants, movies, cars, dance clubs, bars, shopping centers, vacations...or 9-to-5 jobs. It will all be swept away, never to reappear. Plague, warfare, starvation, natural disasters and pollution will kill most of humanity.

In the place of all these things that make up our current world will be: Universal love among humans, a return to a lifestyle that does not harm the planet, an acceptance of Humanity's place in the world and the Universe, lasting internal and external peace, an appreciation of nature, and lives that are governed by spiritual law and growth. When this next stage of civilization is finally complete, there will be so few people left on the planet, and these survivors will have experienced so much trial and tribulation, that all humans will greet each other with open arms at all times.

We have much to look forward to.

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