Obligatory, 3.27.20

How to meet the emergency? You may debate it one way or down the other, but one thing is sure. If

folks don't get a grip, things are gonna go down the crapper. If it ain't a true emergency, it can become one.

What to do to keep it from turning into a bigger problem? Let's brainstorm some solutions, shall we?

Starting with toilet paper, for one. Take each of these problems and find a solution for them.

What to substitute for toilet paper? There are plenty of things on the market, but if the market

takes a dump, then what? Why, this place here is brimming with paper. It may not be "Charmin",

but it might do in a pinch.

Letting my imagination wander a bit brings in a few possibilities that could be improvements.

As for my own situation, I figure that I can do with what I got for an indefinite period.

Once everyone gets their poop back together again, then maybe this shortage can be flushed.

Gotta go. Buh, bye!

Hmm. Formatting sucked on this one. Gotta fix that.

Obligatory, 3.25.20

No news headlines today. The news does not seem particularly helpful these days. This is true even from my usual sources.

So, I kept busy doing other things. One thing that I am doing lately is to review some of my info sources for my off-grid project. I found a book about survival, which seems especially pertinent to today's news.

Are we in a survival situation? Rather than to attempt to answer that question, I will note a few things that I merely glossed over in my first reading of the book.

Fear is a terrible enemy. One thing to be avoided is to succumb to that emotion. It can literally make a person stupid.

Then how do you avoid falling into that sort of a trap? One thing is to keep busy at what you can do. A byproduct of fear is that it can be paralyzing. People may give up. Those who do may very well die, if it is truly a survival situation. You have to keep trying. Not only that, you have to have what I will refer here as something of a happy warrior attitude. Fear is a type of physiological thing that reduces us to an animal state. The higher functions seem to go away, and the animal instincts will take over. A happy warrior will relish the fight. Fear does not help. Humor and courage can go a long way.

There will be more about the book later. It seems enough to mention for now that fear is just not a good thing right now. Whatever can be done to alleviate the emotion can be helpful.

That is all.

Update:

More about the book at the off-grid site.

Clippings, 3.24.20

Clippings, 3.23.20

Obligatory, 3.22.20

There's two blogs, and both of them are neglected. I can go into a litany of excuses, but never mind. So here's something for today.

As usual these days, it is about the Wuhan thing. One could wonder why play along? For an old dude, it is an actual threat. For someone already sick with something, it is a threat. Otherwise, you are likely to be at a low-risk for this thing. It is a problem for a small subset of the country. But the reaction to it will affect everyone. That's two reasons for me to play along.

By playing along, I mean that I will track the virus. However, I will not listen to the media hype this thing. Even from the media, there is some useful info out there. I use the NY Times to track the spread of the virus. I'll listen to Bongino show, too. I'll read the headlines from my usual news sources, and that is about it.

Even for a guy like Bongino, it is getting to be too much in the sense that he seems beholden to respond to everything that the media spews out. My reaction is to just about write off the media. Aside from the Times as mentioned, I won't listen to these people. The result is that I feel a whole lot better about everything. Even the spread of the virus doesn't seem so bad. Yeah, I heard something by word of mouth today that sounds pretty bad. However, if it doesn't break the mold of what I heard about this thing, then it doesn't change what I just wrote. If you are old and so forth, you may have something to worry about. But the point is, even for someone like me, it just isn't worth it to worry oneself sick about it. If it is going to get you, then it will get you.

Not that I am fatalistic about it. I am taking as many precautions as possible. But aside from living in a cave and eating worms, what are you going to do that will giving you complete assurance that you won't get it? Obviously, everything you do entails some type of risk. And there you are.

It's like a lot of things. You take your chances. Even if you live in a cave, you might have to deal with natural threats. There is no escape from risk.