Zombie Choices Glitch10/1/2020 This past year has been brutal.
About three months of the time I was laid off - having been deemed "non-essential" - and as a result, I spent the majority of my time writing. Zombie Choices: An Interactive Story was the end result of that. It took me much longer than three months, but that's when it started. After weeks' worth of editing and formatting what has proved to be the most difficult project of mine as of yet, I finally published on Amazon earlier this month. You can imagine my chagrin when at the end of Prepper Camp (where I had been selling the book all weekend) somebody pointed out to me that there was a glitch in the game at the very back. The glitch is at node 25B. If you order the book on Amazon, the glitch will have been fixed, but if you bought a book from me in person with the glitch in it, here is the patch below: 25B* You begin paddling out towards the island when the sudden sound of an airhorn to your right draws your attention. Both of you instinctively look, and find a small group of three people jumping up and down on the beach and waving trying to get your attention. You figure that if they’d wanted to kill you they would’ve shot you already, and curious, you turn your kayak around as Bruce follows behind you. Upon reaching the beach, you’re introduced to Rachel, Austin and Michael. They tell you about how they have a small group that’s been living along the coast here for quite some time, but one of their group members has come down with some sort of infection – not a zombie infection they assure you. A normal infection. Curious – and not aware of any better decisions – the two of you follow the trio back to their base camp, where you’re shown their quarters. The place has been shot to pieces, trash litters the ground, and inside a dark and musty room, you see a man laying on a cot – Tom – being tended to by another named Doc. Tom is unconscious as Doc introduces his self to you and fills you in on what the situation is. Things aren’t looking good, and the lack of proper medical supplies has only made things worse. Right now, it’s looking as if Tom will die. The group has effectively been laid under siege by the Fallen Angels on one side and a large group of zombie wasteland on the other. As a result they haven’t been able to expand their search for medication outside of the bounds of their current geography. However, seeing that you two have kayaks – the only form of water transportation anywhere nearby – they wonder if you wouldn’t be willing to let them borrow them so that they can search surrounding areas for a medicine called Cipro. You’re not too keen on the idea of being stranded in a siege zone, and so you counteroffer with going to look for the medicine yourself. The group is more than happy to acquiesce, and Doc suggests that you start your search at an island not too far from where you currently are. It’s about a mile out into the water, is relatively large, and is filled with vacation homes. There’s a very good chance that there’ll be some medicine there that’s readily accessible. You agree, and in a few moments more Bruce and you are back out to sea, paddling in the direction of the island just up ahead in the distance. As you approach the island, you’re startled to see somebody – a woman – come running out of the trees and onto the beach. “Oh, great,” you think to yourself, instantly assuming that this is just the first of many zombies that are coming to greet you. Your assumptions quickly disintegrate however, when the woman begins jumping up and down on the beach in an attempt to gain your attention. It’s as you get closer that you can see somebody come out of the dunes, limping slowly in her direction. You paddle the kayaks ashore onto the beach about a hundred yards from where the woman is standing. You’re pulling the kayaks further up onto the sand when she comes sprinting up to you and falls on her knees at your feet. She’s sobbing, and keeps saying “Oh help me, help me, please.” You’re staring at the 20-something year old woman hugging your calves and sobbing, trying to figure out what exactly you’re supposed to do, when you hear Bruce yell, “Somebody else is coming.” You look up to see the limping man coming your direction. The woman looks back and starts to grow even more hysterical. “Help me! Help me! Make him stop!” She’s screaming and hiding behind you, gripping both of your arms so hard that it hurts. “Let GO!” you yell as you yank yourself away, but she’s still sobbing and crawling towards you in the sand. “It’s a zombie!” Bruce yells, and sure enough, it’s close enough that you can tell that too. It’s a 20-something year old guy, crazy haired and with the same bloody and wild look to him that every other zombie you’ve seen has displayed. Bruce stands between you and the zombie, which is now about fifty yards away. “Oh please, oh please, oh please,” begs the girl between sobs as she latches on to your ankles again. “Will you STOP?” you yell, as you shake her away again. Bruce raises his shotgun and blows off the zombie's head. The body collapses back onto the sand. The woman lets out a loud shriek before collapsing in sobs again. She finally gets up off the ground and latches onto you in a hug and crying into your shoulder as Bruce guards the beach. You hug back as you look at Bruce. This is most certainly unexpected, but you understand that the world is filled with people of pain right now. About a half hour later, the girl is finally able to talk. She tells you that back when this all started, the people on the island believed that they’d be safe. There were no bridges to where they lived, only the ferry service, and the men made sure that the ferry did not dock there. Somehow or another though, the zombies made it to the island. She still wasn’t sure how – whether one washed up there, or what. It didn’t matter though. Within a matter of hours, the whole island had turned. Only she and her boyfriend - Seth - had managed to survive, hiding in a pantry together with Seth’s single shot shotgun. When they emerged three days later, the entire island was empty. Not a soul remained. Everyone was just gone. From what she thought, the zombies must have swum back to the mainland in search of new prey. That’s what her boyfriend said anyway. They were out looking for people when Seth found a head laying in the sand beside one of the main roads. It was lying face down, but judging by the hair, he was afraid it might be his mom. So he reached down to rotate the thing, but when he did, he put his finger through a hidden hole in the cheek and into the mouth, and the thing bit him. It was a zombie head, and it was still alive. Seth lost his finger, and soon fell to the ground in the characteristic convulsions you’ve become all too familiar with. He soon turned. She had grabbed the shotgun when he fell, knowing what was coming, but as he stood back up, she had a hard time finding the heart to shoot him. He attacked her, and she managed to throw him off, and shot him in the shin in the process. She threw the gun in the sand so that she could run quicker, and the tide must’ve taken it away later. He’d been chasing her around the island ever since. Initially, she had a myriad of golf carts around the island that she could use to get away from him, but eventually, every last battery had died. She’d been riding a bicycle to get away from him for a stretch of about three hours at a time ever since then. That was how long it took Seth to limp across the entire island. That was about four days ago. “Please stay! Please, please, please stay! Don’t leave me alone again! I can’t be left all alone again!” the girl finishes with as she breaks down in tears once more. You answer…
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A Recent Observation10/20/2019 I recently had a conversation with an atheist who began asking me about Christian missions.
"Don't you think it's arrogant to go into a different culture, and then try to conform them to yours?" I doubt most missionaries go to actually change the culture. They go to play a role in the change of hearts. Yeah, if cannibalism is taking place, then that part of the culture needs to change. That's not what I want to talk about though. What I find interesting is how it is thought that moving to a place and deliberately trying to change the culture is arrogant, yet how many liberals move from the state that they have helped to destroy to someplace more conservative, bringing their politics with them? The culture is set, yet they come and then rail against it, claiming every other part of the culture that they have moved to is evil. Then they do everything in their power to change their new home back to their old destroyed one, criticizing and shaming those who do not agree with their own opinions. Does anybody else see the hypocrisy in this? Thoughts on Today10/13/2019 Another batch of my commentary of what's been happening in the news of late...
Chinese organ harvesting www.theblaze.com/news/tribunal-reports-that-china-is-killing-prisoners-to-harvest-their-organs Honestly, does this really surprise anyone? This is communism taken to its logical conclusion. If you exist solely for the state's good, then isn't this a duty? Really, I think it's interesting to see people at work/on the media try to proclaim the benefits of the Chinese system, of "socialized democracy", yet refuse to acknowledge that this is an outcome of their beloved system. Colorado/Oklahoma "alliance" www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/colorado-city-removes-topless-ban-in-win-for-free-the-nipple-movement In case you didn't see, Colorado officially made it so that women can walk around topless, since it's "discrimination" that men can do so and women can't. What does this do for groping? Somebody touches a man's chest, no big deal. What about if somebody touches a woman's in Colorado now? This is lib-thought at work. That's wicked enough, but to further add to the problem, people in Oklahoma are now having to put up with their kids seeing naked women walking down their streets as well. Apparently, Colorado and Oklahoma have some form of alliance where if Colorado passes something, it instantly passes in Oklahoma as well. This is beyond me. You've go two different states, two different people groups, two different cultures. Why would you ever forsake your sovereignty and independence to be chained to the stupid decisions of a people not your own? SD card murder www.theblaze.com/news/sd-card-leads-to-murderer-being-caught My main thing here is twofold: 1) How stupid of a murderer do you have to be to videotape yourself committing the act? 2) Who finds a strange SD card laying on the road and thinks, "I need to put this in my laptop."? California HAM ban offgridsurvival.com/california-officials-declare-ham-radio-no-longer-a-benefit/ California has elected to no longer allow repeaters to operate on public lands without paying substantial rent fees. So we've got a part of the country that's prone to earthquakes, wildfires, landslides, riots, and power outages and the public officials decide that punishing the group of volunteers who help with disaster relief communications in such situations is the route they need to go. California doesn't pay for these repeaters; the HAMS do, out of their own pocket, because it's a hobby that they enjoy, and can use to save lives. But no longer. Man dies from California power outage www.foxnews.com/us/oxygen-dependent-man-dies-12-minutes-after-pge-cuts-power-to-his-home So because of lib-though, California is going down the toilet. Their infrastructure can no longer even withstand a 20-30 mph wind storm. The natural decision? "Well, let's just shut down the power for a month. That'll make things better!" This is just the first of many deaths to come from this stupid decision, I guarantee it. One Way to Lower Medical Costs9/20/2019 Have you ever heard of a Certificate of Public Need (COPN)?
No? Don't worry, you're not alone. But just because you're not familiar with the term, most certainly doesn't mean that it doesn't affect you. The concept was initiated in New York in 1964, which honestly, I don't find surprising. The idea is that healthcare providers must provide government officials with proof that they actually have a need for particular hospital expansions or medical equipment purchases before they can actually make those improvements. The theory behind COPNs is that when there is too much competition among healthcare providers, prices will continue to drop and drop until all of the healthcare providers in a particular area will lose money/go bankrupt. This in turn would lead to less healthcare availability in areas than there was before. So, in other words, if I was just some random dude who wanted to start up "Aden's Mobile MRI Team", offering MRI scans for $100 a pop, I would have to first get a certificate of public need. The proper officials could then decide that, no, there's already one MRI machine in my town, and that there's no need for more. Therefore, my request could be denied, and my community would be denied my services. The one remaining MRI machine, at the local hospital, would then be able to safely charge $5000 per scan. Do you see the problem here? The free market has been withdrawn, the state gets to decide who can do business, and competition has been killed. Prices can then be set exorbitantly by the victor, as they now have a virtual monopoly over their geographic region. Are you a hospital administrator who wants to expand your emergency department's number of beds? Constantly getting overloaded on Saturdays? Welp, you better hope that your COPN gets approved, and that the proper officials do in fact deem that you do deserve those extra beds. So then what happens? A) Patients are shifted to empty floors on the hospital, where they are going to be cared for by staff that is not necessarily trained to care for their particular conditions. This in turn leads to a higher risk of medical accidents. If you have cancer, would you rather be treated by a oncology nurse, or by a diabetic-renal nurse? B) There's the potential to be turned away from a hospital. What if you show up to a ER that's booked? Odds are you'll be redirected to the nearest hospital with available ER rooms. You better hope that you're heart attack can wait that long to be treated. So do you see what I mean? Is there any benefit that is gained whatsoever from state intervention in a free market? I'll leave you to decide that for yourself in this case. Thoughts on Today9/20/2019 There's been a ton of noteworthy events hitting the news the past week. Here's my thoughts on what's been going on:
Colt stops making AR-15s www.foxnews.com/us/colt-suspending-production-of-ar-15-for-civilians I was blown away to hear this. I think that Colt's really shot themselves in the foot here (no pun intended). They're claiming that it's due to market demand. That because there are so many AR-15s out there right now, that they really don't have any market incentive to produce more. I'm not really sure if I buy that or not. For starters, they're still making them for law enforcement and the military. Why is it that only civilian models are no longer being made? I've been told the reason they aren't making civilian models anymore is because they priced themselves out of a market. Maybe there is something to that. I've always found Colt firearms to be prohibitively expensive. Regardless though, doesn't brand loyalty really play a factor? And AR-15s have been flying off the shelves the past several years. Why does nobody else seem to be having a problem? That's why it makes me wonder if there isn't more to this; if it's a bowing to some sort of political pressure. I think that there's going to be a whole lot of others out there with similar suspicions, and I think they're going to start boycotting other Colt firearms as a result. I really don't think this was a wise decision for Colt. Hezbollah Spy Caught Scouting NYC foxnews.com/us/suspected-hezbollah-spy-targets-new-york-city This is the making of every other spy movie ever. A sleeper cell agent that's been operating within the US for 10 years, scouting potential targets and gathering information the entire time. He received explosive training, potentially attempted to assassinate a suspected Israeli spy. He showed up in the US in 2000. All the Blackface Scandals www.theblaze.com/news/justin-trudeau-blackface-scandal-grows-with-new-video Am I the only one out there who doesn't really think this matters? If somebody wants to paint their body a different color, who cares? How many movies have revolved around this (e.g. White Chicks, Tropic Thunder, etc.) I fail to see how this is in any way derogatory or racist to anybody. What I do think is interesting is how the Left finally has to tear themselves apart on this one. "Oh yeah, some of our guys have done that too." Somehow, major media seems to make it ok when they do it though. Siberian Smallpox Explosion https://www.foxnews.com/world/russian-lab-smallpox-explosion Russia seems to have a knack for accidental events of this kind. Remember the 2016 anthrax outbreak among Siberian reindeer? www.foxnews.com/health/anthrax-outbreak-in-russia-kills-child-sends-dozens-to-hospital Biological warfare is creepy. If you really want to delve more into the history behind current biological warfare and germ agents, I highly recommend reading Ken Alibeck or Richard Preston. Animals Matter Most foxnews.com/us/colorado-woman-places-wild-bobcat-in-backseat-just-feet-away-from-son-3-this-could-have-been-tragic Further proof that modern society views animals on the same level, if not above human life. What good mother would place a vicious animal right beside their 3 year old son? I really agree with Joel Salatin on this one. We've become so separated from the land - from how real life works - that we've developed a twisted view on animal life. When most peoples' daily interactions with animals only revolve around pets that are stuck in an apartment all day long, they think that every other wild animal out there is just the same as their precious Fifi. My last post I tackled a bit of what you can do to avoid putting money into Big Grocer's (BG) pockets, if their politics make you sick to your stomach. You gotta eat, so boycotting them completely may seem out of the question, but I'll continue the alternatives here.
3) Learn to can and preserve your own food As I mentioned in my last post, farmer's markets are often a big source of deals when it comes to buying in bulk. Buying a truckload of green beans though is not something that makes a whole lot of sense though if you don't know how to preserve that food. Learning how to can and preserve your own food helps to bring freedom. And I mean that in the sense that you won't be dependent upon somebody else's food supply during winter if you have preserved your summer harvest. I'm a huge fan of Joel Salatin's books. You should check his work out. (Probably Joel's two best books are Folks, This Ain't Normal and The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer. You can find them here amzn.to/32JQG8k and here amzn.to/300mdVS, respectively.) One of the things that Salatin consistently points out is that the knowledge of food preservation was something that pretty much all of mankind was familiar with until the past 100 years. On top of that, having a full larder, root cellar, or at least a winter's worth of food stored in their house was also something that pretty much everybody did until the last 100 years or so (potentially a little less time). Now, having more than a week's food supply stored in one's house is not only incredibly rare, but viewed as strange in today's society. "But Aden! You're advocating for me to be a weirdo to my friends!" Nope, not at all. What I am advocating is being food independent, improving your food security through food storage, and potentially saving food money by canning your own food (Ben Falk points out how inflation affects food prices in his excellent book The Resilient Farm and Homestead. I recommend everybody with an interest in gardening/food security/homesteading read it. You can get it here: amzn.to/2Lwo8ZX) And on top of all that, who says your friends have to know? How often do they come over rooting through your pantry? 4) Contact BG Management Money talks. I absolutely agree with that, and if you incorporate my above thoughts, BG is going to take a serious financial hit. But sometime talking helps too, just so there's no confusion as to why sales seem to be slipping. Emails and snail-mail letters are my two methods of choice here. I don't have the desire to spend an hour on hold on the phone. I can write a letter though and send it off real quick. The Left has been vocal, and that's why we're seeing the results that we're seeing with BG. Why can't we do the same? 5) Negative Social Media I know that social media isn't very popular among most of my readers. Most of us prefer avoiding being monitored. But if you do engage in social media, why not use it for good? It seems that negative publicity is one of the main things that mega-corporations respond to, so why not plaster them with it if they're being ridiculous? 6) Find Alternative Big Grocers Simple enough, right? You don't like what X has stated publicly? Then start shopping at Y, which hasn't stated anything against American freedom. Not much else to say right here. In Conclusion Odds are you're not going to be able to break away from BG completely. Particularly if they're the only grocer in your vicinity. But, by just enacting a few of these options, you'll help to voice your opinion, increase your food security, and probably eat more healthier food as well. And if you don't do something, have you really any right to complain? I boycott businesses that have come out publicly to be distinctly anti-American, or anti-freedom. If they voice those opinions, then they've lost this American's business, and I imagine I'm not alone in this self-imposed boycott. I can always find a similar retailer with similar goods that isn't politically naive.
At a point though, it begins to feel impossible. What do you do when it seems the majority of large companies you shop at have decided they no longer support the Bill of Rights? Particularly, what do you do when your grocer decides such? I mean, you have to eat! So, what do you do? If you don't agree with your grocer politically, are you pretty much just screwed? I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I've come to several conclusions that work. 1) Grow your own food This is the low hanging fruit here (no pun intended). If you don't like what your grocer is doing, growing your own food is the first, and most visible choice that you can turn to. Odds are if you're reading my work, you have more of a self-reliance mindset. Growing your own food is not only one of the first things that you can do to improve your independence, but it'll provide you with plenty of healthy, organic food that is not only locally sourced, but cheap as well. I've kept very accurate tabs on all the money I've put into my gardens every year, as well as all of the produce that has come out of my gardens every year. Even despite the cost of tools, lumber (I use raised beds), seeds, and soil, I always come out ahead by the end of the season when I look at how much grocery money my gardens have saved me. Everything I grow is completely organic. No sprays or fertilizers of any kind (other than homemade compost). I record every egg, every chicken, every tomato, and every pound of lettuce that I get. I've gone to the grocery store to learn what the price would be of a gallon of organic greens, a dozen free range eggs, and a pound of raw honey. Last year, I grew a little over $1100 worth of food. That's a dramatic amount of money, that required maybe 5 hours of work a week. And I don't even consider it work either. It's just fun physical activity that I get to tool around with at the end of a hectic work day. Now imagine the punch to the pocketbook that could be achieved if everybody out there removed $1100/year from Big Grocer's hands. I totally understand that not everybody has the space or ability to work a garden, but even if you grew a few potted tomato plants, a potted herb garden, or whatever else, that's still a sizable fist of money that you're keeping from your grocer. You wanna learn more about gardening? I highly recommend reading these books... Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew amzn.to/2ZZxqH2 Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway amzn.to/2O26VJD The Resilient Farm and Homestead by Ben Falk amzn.to/2Lwo8ZX 2) Start utilizing local farmer markets There's a number of reasons I like farmer's markets. The food you'll find there is local, meaning you're helping your local economy, eating food that most likely wasn't spray painted to look pretty after being trucked cross country, and the food probably wasn't grown overseas somewhere (there's potential health reasons there) [1]. Most likely you visit your Big Grocer once a week. Thankfully, farmer's markets are often open once a week (typically Saturdays) as well. So as far as number of visits, there really isn't any disadvantage there other than the forced time frame. Is there as large of a variety of foods to choose from at your local farmer's market compared to BG? By no means, but that'll cause one of two things: you'll eat healthier; or you'll still drastically diminish the amount of your cash that flows into BG's pockets. Most likely it'll be both. Farmers rock. You can often score major deals at farmer's markets when you buy in bulk. Buy a bushel of corn, and odds are the farmer will financially thank you (in the way of a discount) for not making him have to take that bushel back home at the end of the day. What do you do with a bushel of corn? Well, that brings me to my next point, which I'll tackle in a future post. In the meantime, if you'd like to find a farmer's market near you, I highly recommend using one of these sites (particularly if your search engine isn't showing anything): https://www.ams.usda.gov/local-food-directories/farmersmarkets https://www.localharvest.org/farmers-markets/ localfarmmarkets.org https://agrimarketadvisor.com/farmers-market-near-me/ References 1. www.foodpoisonjournal.com/foodborne-illness-outbreaks/fda-weighs-in-on-tropical-smoothie-hepatitis-a-outbreak-egyptian-strawberries-under-scrutiny/ Remembering 9/119/13/2019 Sometimes I feel like I'm one of the few that remember.
About what that day was like. About what they did to us. About the pain they caused, the lives forever changed - ripped apart by death. Never forget. New Controversial Post9/13/2019 So I just had another piece published over at survivalblog.com, which judging by the comments, seems to be rather divisive.
The topic? Ways to make your smartphone to work for you harder in a disaster situation. The piece is basically a list of apps that could greatly enhance your ability to get out of a sticky situation. I totally get that smartphones are the primary source of people tracking out there, and I am by no means a proponent of that. BUT, I would still argue that the majority of people out there are going to have a smartphone on them at all times, even despite this knowledge, and that as a result we should make it work for us as hard as possible. I'd argue that the majority of the population still uses a smartphone for the camera, GPS, social media marketing, work, and other related activities. Not everyone is willing to commit to having a steady stash of burners available at all times. And that's the point I'm driving home. Yeah, being tracked is a bad thing, but if the majority of the population isn't going to get rid of their smartphones, why not get them to download apps that could potentially save their life in a disaster? If you want to read the article for yourself, check it out at: survivalblog.com/preppers-smartphone-aden-tate/ No More Ammo? Cigs are OK Though.9/8/2019 A number of large chains have recently announced that they're going to either quit selling particular types of ammo/rifles, or that they're no longer allowing US citizens to open carry within their stores.
I've noticed that they still carry cigarettes, dip, alcohol, prescription medications, OTC medications, spray paint, junk food, XXXL clothing, and forks though. Interesting how one particular inanimate object is evil and an endorsement of evil, but other inanimate objects with no free will of their own aren't, isn't it? More stores to add to my "Do not shop" list. My question is this: if I'm a stockholder at such a company, don't I have a right to be upset that the business is doing things to harm their sales? AuthorWriter. News junkie. Personal Trainer. Farmer. Archives
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