Non-Euclidean 8-Sided Dice

So Saturday night, after my weekly roleplaying session, I posted this:



And of course, people didn't really understand what I was talking about. And it was one of those things where I sound like a right lunatic when I try to explain it, but if you can just SEE what I'm talking about you'll realize I'm not crazy.

Well, not crazy because of this, at any rate.

So I dug out my webcam and made a video so you could see for yourselves. You can SEE and UNDERSTAND.



[gibbers quietly in the corner]

GunBlog VarietyCast #162 - South Florida Knows How To Hurricane

That's "be prepared for a hurricane" and not "make a rum cocktail."

• Have you ever attended a Friends of the NRA Banquet? Are you curious about what it’s like? Beth shares her experience so you can decide if it’s something you’d like to do.
• A man is accused of robbing three Charlotte businesses, but Sean finds out that his conviction record isn't the worst part of the story.
• Barron is on assignment and will return soon.
• In any situation you’ll get groups of people who have different skills and levels of preparedness. How prepared was Coral Gables, Florida for the long term loss of electricity? They apparently had their lawyers on speed dial. Miguel tells you what he thinks.
• Our Main Topic is "Dry Fire Practice: Is It Boring?"
• Tiffany finishes her three-part segment on the NRA Carry Guard Expo by talking about the good things she encountered within the Expo itself, especially the programs made for “the laaadieeeez.”
• Back from her Evacu-cation, Erin has some tips and tricks for you to make your evacuation plans easier.
• Now that the Brady Campaign’s Dan Gross  has been fired, Weer’d bids a farewell to Dan in the best way he knows how.
• And our Plug of the Week is for the Pocket Pro II shot timer.

Thank you for downloading, listening, and subscribing. You are subscribed, right? We are available on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and Google Play Music!

Listen to the podcast here.

Read the show notes here.

Thanks to LuckyGunner and Remington for their sponsorship, and a special thanks to Firearms Policy Coalition for their support.

Blue Collar Prepping Transcript -

 Evacuation Tips and Tricks

This was the second year in a row that I evacuated for a hurricane, and I’d like to think that I’m pretty good at it. So let me share with you some tips and tricks that I’ve learned. 

1) Know the order in which you want to load your stuff
For me, this is pretty simple:

1. First I load my bug-out bag. Even if I can’t load anything else, that and the Get-Home bag I already have in my car will enable me to be a pretty comfortable refugee for several days. 
2. The next thing I load are my guns and just enough ammo for them to fit inside their cases. Now, most people are wondering why I don’t load clothes next, and there’s are multiple reasons for that:
• Clothes are cheap and easily replaced, while guns are expensive and a pain in the butt to replace. Besides, I already have changes of clothes in my bug out and get home bags. 
• I don’t want my guns to fall into the wrong hands if looters get to my house before I can return. As a gun owner, I feel that I have an ethical duty to make sure my firearms aren’t used by criminals. 
• In a worst-case scenario, I can trade a gun for something necessary, like food or shelter or transportation, because guns have intrinsic value. Clothes, not so much. 
3. Then I add whatever gear isn’t in my bug-out bag but which would be useful for an extended absence (like camping supplies) or for sorting through wreckage, (like tools or protective clothing). 
4. Next up are whatever portable electronic devices I can fit into a backpack, like my tablet computer and podcasting gear, along with recharging cables and docking stations. If I have the time, I’ll remove the hard drive from my desktop and put them into a protective waterproof box, like a Pelican Case.
5. All of these have been items which are expensive and difficult to replace, going in order form “most useful” to “least useful”. If you’re making a list of your own, this is where you should put valuable luxuries like expensive jewelry, or irreplaceable sentimental items like heirlooms. 
6. Then, and ONLY then, do I pack extra clothing. This is where your “nice to haves” go - things which would be nice to have with you but can be be replaced easily. 
7. The last thing to go into my car are snacks and drinks. 

2) Have duplicates of your toiletries
I don’t know about the rest of you, but having a repeatable, reliable bathroom routine goes a long way towards making me feel normal and comfortable.

I recommend against packing up your toiletries as part of the evacuation process, because this will slow you down and you will probably forget things, like your favorite loofah sponge in the shower.

Instead, build an “overnight bag” complete with duplicates of all the things you use when showering, brushing your teeth, etc, and then grab that bag along with others in step one. That’s one less step to worry about and one more thing on your list that’s already packed.

What’s more, you can use this for things other than evacuations. If you’re going on vacation, or need to take a business trip, you can grab your overnight bag instead of having to pack, then un-pack, then re-pack your toiletries for another trip.

3) Have wonderful friends
Both times that I’ve evacuated, I have been blessed to have really great people volunteer their homes for me to stay in.

This hospitality is amazing, because not only does it save me the cost of a hotel room, but it also means I get to meet great people in real life and enjoy their company.

I’ve said this before, and I will say it again: if you’re a prepper, you can’t do it alone. You need people to help you out. Friends, extended family, other preppers in your group - all of these people constitute your Tribe, and you should cultivate those relationships. Go out of your way to help people, and they’ll be more willing to go out of their way to help you when you need it. 

A Quick Update

Looking over the blog, it appears that I haven't posted anything for an entire week. That's terrible.

I have a pretty good explanation, though:

1. Last weekend, I received word that my part of Florida had the power restored, so I made plans to return home. 
2. Monday, the person I thought I was going to get to visit on the way home had to beg off on account of sick kids, so that changed my schedule and meant that I was probably leaving too late in the day to make it home in one trip. 
3. Fortunately, a lovely friend in Columbia, SC offered his guest room to me and I spent the night. So that's why there was no Monday post. 
4. Damn near the rest of Tuesday was spent driving, and by the time I arrive home I was flat-out brain-fried and only wanted to rest. So, no Tuesday post. 
5. Wednesday was spent unpacking. No, really. It seems to take me twice as long to unpack as it does to pack, because putting things where they belong (ordering them) takes a lot longer than putting them into suitcases (a mild form of disordering them) -- fighting entropy always takes effort. Plus I had to wash dirty clothes, remove the wrinkles from clean clothes that got mashed in the suitcase, etc. 
6. Thursday was a headache in the morning and then recording the podcast in the afternoon, so I did actually accomplish something visible that day... you just don't get to see the fruit of that effort until tonight, when the podcast drops. Then my internet went out until morning. 
7. Friday was just an utter cluster of everything that could go wrong actually going wrong. Most notable was when my keyboard stopped working for no apparent reason, and trying to get it fixed took up most of my time. Then I had to go shopping for a new one, and I didn't find one I liked, so I ended up ordering a new one on Amazon. 
8. Yesterday was Salem Saturday. 

And the sad irony of the situation is that next week I will have to start packing all over again, because Friday-Sunday is the Gun Rights Policy Conference in Dallas. I'm so freaking tired of travelling, y'all, and I'm going to do it again on Thursday.

Plus I have to finish my speech.

And I've been invited to model for a Concealed Carry Fashion Show at GRPC, which is 50% flattering and 50% terrifying.

So basically... I'm fine, my family is fine, my dogs are fine, my house is fine, but I'm probably going to be an Amazing Stress Bitch this next week, so please don't hold it against me if you don't hear back from me until October 2.

And many thanks for being my readers despite my flakiness. Much love to you all!

These Raptures Are Getting Tedious

By my count, I have now lived through three major (and countless minor) Raptures:

1. The Great Rapture of '88, which actually was delayed until 1989, inconveniencing nearly everyone. 
2. The Silent Rapture of 1994, predicted by Harold Camping, actually did happen despite what many naysayers claim, we just can't remember it. 
3. And now, today, as I'm trying to go about my daily routine, another Rapture happens.

I got up today - a day like any other day - had my coffee and took my shower. I got dressed and forgot my wallet, so had to turn around and get it. I stopped in at Subway to get a good breakfast. Bacon, egg, and cheese on multigrain flatbread. Megan's a good Sandwich Artist, and always keeps a few eggs in the refrigerator for me, because she knows I'm terrible at waking up early. Unfortunately, when I got there, she'd already been Raptured, so there was nothing but a visor and a pile of clothes draped over the counter and no egg in the refrigerator.

Having to forego breakfast, I decided to pick up some groceries, so my next stop was Target. Target, unlike Wal-Mart, doesn't have door greeters, so I didn't notice anything amiss when I first passed through the automatic doors and walked past the Starbucks near the entrance. I thought the store was surprisingly empty, but it wasn't until I walked up to my usual checkout aisle that I noticed that Cheryl, the pretty older woman who always has a bit of an extra smile for me, was gone. Another frustratingly empty pile of clothes on the floor next to her register.

Unable to obtain groceries, I left the food spoiling in the cart at the registers and decided to go pick up a package from the post office. As you can imagine, this went as well as the rest of my visits - the entire post office had been Raptured. I'm not kidding. Every person in the place, customers included, was gone. In fact, the front windows, all of the packing materials, and an entire wall of PO boxes were gone as well, but whether that was from looting or some new kind of Rapture I'm not qualified to say.

I've now returned home, and I intend to spend the rest of the day fuming in frustration, watching Star Trek on Netflix and playing video games, as I apparently can't get anything done thanks to these annoying Rapt

[note: the preceding is all that exists of this article. The author cannot be located, but this was found in his home]

GunBlog VarietyCast #161 - We Are But Mad North-North-West

Erin's neighborhood was supposed to get its power restored this weekend. Now it's been pushed back until Tuesday next week.

• Beth says it's always the right time to talk to children about firearms, and the new book "Safety On" by Yehuda Remer can help you with that.
• A second suspect has been identified in a NW Charlotte homicide, and good news! He's not quite as awful as the suspect they have already charged!
• Barron is on assignment and will return soon.
• To be, or not to be: that is the question. Or perhaps the question is "to stay, or not to stay." And when the hurricane blows southerly, Miguel knows a hawk from a handsaw.
• Our Main Topic is the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showing that more Americans than ever have a gun in their homes.
• Tiffany covers a few of the Every Day Carry travel considerations that aren't usually discussed in the average concealed carry permit class.
• Erin left the hurricane behind. But she has preps in place, so why evacuate? She shares her thoughts on avoiding troubles as a valid prepping strategy.
• The Joyce Foundation Shell Group, States United, has cooked up a “Video Game” to oppose concealed carry Reciprocity, and gets the reaction from alleged Real People™. Weer'd has the audio.
• And our Plug of the Week is for the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program.

Thank you for downloading, listening, and subscribing. You are subscribed, right? We are available on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and Google Play Music!

Listen to the podcast here.

Read the show notes here.

Thanks to LuckyGunner and Remington for their sponsorship, and a special thanks to Firearms Policy Coalition for their support.

Blue Collar Prepping Transcript -

Why Evacuate When You Have Preps?

As I write this, I’m comfortably ensconced at Castello Sorrentino, enjoying the delightfully cool North Carolina weather. The reason I’m able to  enjoy it so much is because Hurricane Irma largely missed my part  of Florida, contenting herself with knocking down trees and power lines. This means I no longer have to worry about the safety of my family or the integrity of our house, and my evacuation has become a vacation. 

Despite all this, though. I’m still having trouble shaking the feeling that I am now 2 for 2 at being a gigantic pussy when it comes to hurricanes. After all, what kind of prepper am I if I chose not to reply upon those preps, but instead to run away at the first opportunity?

Friend of the show Josh made a great point last week when he posted this to the BCP Facebook group:

It occurs to me that training with a firearm and preparing for disasters are very similar.

In both cases you are gathering the tools and knowledge to handle a situation if it gets bad. In both cases your education tells you to leave the area as soon as it seems likely things actually will go bad.

And I believe this with 100% conviction. Just like concealed carriers 

believe "You win every gunfight you avoid", we preppers believe that we survive every disaster we aren’t present for. Sure, you might be able to out-draw or out-shoot a bad guy, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get through the experience unscathed. You might get hurt anyway, or be arrested and tried for murder by an overzealous prosecutor, or be harassed by the media and hated by your community. 

Similarly, if you rely on your preps to get you through a disaster you could have avoided, at the very least you’ve consumed those preps and need to replace them. Progressing up the scale of awful, take a moment to realize that “surviving a disaster” and “surviving a disaster unscathed” are two completely different things. If you’re crippled, but you lived, then technically you’ve survived…

Now I understand that there are some situations where people cannot evacuate. Perhaps you have a family member who cannot be moved, and evacuating without them would be the same as abandoning them. Perhaps you don’t have a car or the funds required to get out. Perhaps you have a job as an emergency responder, and it’s your duty to help those who didn’t leave. In all of these cases, I understand why you didn’t go, and I don’t fault you for your choice. 

But what gets me are the people who have the ability to leave but choose not to evacuate -- like my parents, who say “We evacuated once back in 2003. We were stuck in traffic, and the dogs were hot, and we couldn’t find a hotel that would take us and our pets. We’re just going to stay behind.”  To me, this is like saying “We’d rather risk death than be inconvenienced by an evacuation.” I don’t get this. I just DON’T. It’s like hearing the anti-vaccine folks talk and realize that they’re saying “Having a dead child is preferable to having one with autism.”

So I just leave at the first sign of impending doom, because the best prep is not gear, not training, but the ability to get yourself out of dangerous situations - and the best way to get out of dangerous situations is not to get into them in the first place. 

This is why I’m up here in North Carolina, enjoying lovely weather and power and internet, while my family are sweltering in summer Florida heat without air conditioning. 

Yup. They really saved themselves some inconvenience, didn’t they?

Salem Watches Television: An Unexpected Discovery

Wooo that was a misleading title, wasn't it?

I love Star Trek. Not to the extent of my big three, which are Doctor Who, Red Dwarf, and Mystery Science Theater 3000, but in the eternal debate of Star Wars vs Star Trek, I'll always pick Trek. I remember seeing some of the movies when I was visiting my dad's family in Boston as a wee one, catching reruns in the afternoon, and staying up late to watch The Next Generation and Deep Space 9.

I still haven't (and most likely never will) finish watching Voyager. I keep meaning to watch the last two seasons of Enterprise, but can never find the time for it. I suppose this is for the best; those series will never reach the brilliance of story-telling that DS9 did, so I'll let them go.

I even enjoy the relaunch movies to an extent. Into Darkness was still visually pleasing despite being inferior to its inspiration, and it's a shame that nobody saw Beyond, because it was a lot of fun

What am I getting at with this nostalgic reminiscence? Well, Star Trek: Discovery will be coming out soon... I think. I say "I think" because I actually have no intention of watching it -  not from some misguided boycott or sense of betrayal or anything like that, but just out of a lack of interest. I've kept up with behind-the-scenes scuttlebutt on the series, and given the re-writing, re-casting, and overall mess that's been going on around it, I just don't see a reason to get invested.

I've seen public statements that have been comparing the Klingons in ST:D (and who thought that abbreviation was a good idea?) to both Muslims and "Trump's America", and which celebrated the gender and racial diversity of the main cast, but there has been absolutely no confidence shown whatsoever in the actual writing of the show.



ST:D (I'm not going to stop calling it that) just does not look interesting at all. Something which has caught my eye - though in a very surprising way - is The Orville.

That's... a nice ride.

I hate Family Guy. I viscerally hate it. I don't think I've ever enjoyed something that's had the creative hand of Seth MacFarlane on it; there's just something about his humour that doesn't click with me. So when I heard he was making something of a comedic tribute to Star Trek, I decided I was going to just stick to ST:D and be done with it.

Except for two things:

1. ST:D is going to be on CBS All-Access, and I can't really think of anything else on CBS I want to watch, so I don't really want to pay for a subscription service for one show. I have a feeling this is going to be a fairly common sentiment as well, so a large portion of ST:D's audience is going to be torrenters, downloaders, and pirates. 
2. The Orville is... actually pretty good. 

That last one was a shocker to me. I wasn't going to watch The Orville, but given how many people on my timeline were singing its praises, I gave it a shot. The effects aren't bad (a plus, given how it will save on budget with its minimalist style and slightly cheap CGI); the writing isn't over-the-top inexplicable Family Guy humour; the acting is serviceable; and most importantly, it's got heart.

While I feel that ST:D is going to be a lot of super-serious people pulling super-serious faces while bashing us over the head with a Trump-hammer painted in a vaguely Klingon-esque manner, The Orville promises a light-hearted space adventure somewhere between TNG and Galaxy Quest. And really, I think that's what I want right now. I think that's what a lot of people want right now, if the ratings are any indication. 

"Are they right? Am I out of touch? No... it's the viewers."

Here's to you, Seth. While Trek may be lost to heavy-handed message fiction, you've earned a chance. Don't waste it. 

An Even Five

I am convinced that the number 5 is even.

Not mathematically even, mind you, but conceptually even because humans have 5 fingers per hand , thus a "whole hand" is an even value.

If you want proof, think of it like this:

• The number 4 is indisputably even. 
• So is the number 6. 
• But 7 is indisputably odd. 
• So if you are given the sequence 4, 5, 6, 7 and told to eliminate the number which doesn't belong (or doesn't "feel right"), which one do you cross out?

You could pick "5, 6, 7" and not be wrong (because there's no wrong answer to this), but I'd wager that most people will pick "4, 5, 6" . This is because 5 both "feels" even and is right in the middle where it "ought" to be (because 5 is half -- right in the middle -- of Base 10). "4, 5, 6" just feels like a string of three even numbers that other sequences don't give.

Five is the "even" number that belongs in the middle. (Or at the end, which is why we love counting in units of five. Again, Half of Base 10.)

Post-Irma Erin

An update on how my family and I are doing can be found over at Blue Collar Prepping.

GunBlog VarietyCast #160 - Round and Round

Blood going round and round: Good.

Hurricanes going round and round: Bad.

• Beth is on assignment and will return next week.
• What kind of sicko breaks into rehab facilities and sexually assaults the patients? Sean takes a closer look.
• Barron is on assignment and will return soon.
• What do you do when a Category Five hurricane is barreling down on you? If you’re Miguel, you fret that you don’t have enough propane, because you’ve already used yours to smoke ribs and brisket.
• Our Special Guest this week is Kelly Grayson, the Ambulance Driver, here to explain what lifesaving medical equipment lay rescuers should have in their kits… and more importantly, what they shouldn't have.
• Tiffany’s back with her first after-action report on NRA’s Carry Guard Expo in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. You’re going to love her off-the-cuff interview with her Uber driver.
• Unlike Miguel, Erin is evacuating Florida before Hurricane Irma arrives. On the eve of her departure, she gives us her thoughts on the bug-out process.
• Weer'd talks about the Kellermann Study in nearly every episode. This week he finally gives that piece of anti-gun “Scientific” research the Patented Weer'd Fisk Treatment that it so richly deserves.
• And our Plug of the Week is for Smuggler's Notch Litigation Wheat Whiskey.

Thank you for downloading, listening, and subscribing. You are subscribed, right? We are available on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and Google Play Music!

Listen to the podcast here.

Read the show notes here.

Thanks to LuckyGunner and Remington for their sponsorship, and a special thanks to Firearms Policy Coalition for their support.

There is no Blue Collar Prepping Transcript this week because Erin recorded her segment extemporaneously and so there are no notes to transcribe. 

I Hate To Say I Told You So

Ah, who am I kidding?

• Clinton vs Sanders.
• Trump vs Clinton. 
• Battfleck. 
• The Fall of The House of Whedon.
• Antifa is not your friend

I keep predicting these things, and I keep getting them right, and nobody listens. I'm starting to get a Cassandra Complex over here.

In the mid 1960's, UC Berkeley was home to the one of the biggest acts of mass civil disobedience, led by students demanding the campus lift restrictions against political speech on the campus, it was dubbed "the home of the free speech movement." Decades later, it was the catalyst point when professional troll Milo Yannapoulis arrived to give a speech and on the same night Antifa decided he shouldn't, and the casualties against the "racist, fascist KKK" (according to the chants) were ATMs, Starbucks windows, and various trash bins.

And the times, they are a-changin'

A month or so before, Alt-Right poster boy (and, I suspect, controlled opposition) Richard Spencer was punched by somebody in a mask and black hoodie. That YouTube video has over 3 million views and spawned the frankly annoying #PunchANazi meme. I can't help but think of the stock response to the strawman MRA argument of "why can't I punch women if they punch me first?" that I always hear: Stop punching people. Why do you want to go around punching people?

 And in the months before even this, during the election, there were scrawny black-clad figures attacking people at political rallies. And they haven't stopped. The sad thing is you can't disavow them or their actions without the inevitable cries of "Oh so you support the Nazis huh?" As if it's somehow impossible to dislike Nazis while also disliking LARPing Anarcho-communist kids with silver spoons in their mouth and bike locks and pepper spray in their hands.

A few months ago, Snopes debunked the claim that Antifa had been declared by the DHS a terrorist organization. You'll have to take my word for it, as I can't even find an archive of that now, and that article is gone from their internal search engine, but just a weeks ago, it happened very publicly and since then the media narrative has started to shift. A petition first started circulating through the internet over at whitehouse.gov to formally recognize Antifa as a terrorist organization. It now has almost 350 thousand signatures and still another week before it closes. Just this last week it was revealed that a joint task force between the FBI and DHS classified their activities as domestic terrorism and had been doing so since early 2016... before Trump was even elected.

So again, I really hate to say I told you so (I don't, I really don't), but I called it once again, Left. I called it and instead of listening, you all just went out and hashtag-punched-a-Nazi. Or anyone on the Right. Or someone who looked like a Nazi. Or someone who disagreed with you. Or someone who disagreed with punching a Nazi. Or someone on your own side who also wanted to punch Nazis.

Video of the man who punched him pic.twitter.com/cZKfZhW5h8

— /r/The_Donald (@thedonaldreddit) August 23, 2017

VIDEO: Feral Antifa punches another Antifa on accident because he thought he looked like a Nazi via @FusionNews pic.twitter.com/ljzNWwlZzk

— /r/The_Donald (@thedonaldreddit) August 23, 2017

Before last week, you'd normally only see only conservative sites like The Daily Caller or Conservative Review pushing for this designation. Now you have The Daily Beast, The Hill, and Bustle weighing in on it. Only Salon has remained strangely silent, offering up a feeble piece about how Antifa is helping in aid for Hurricane Harvey (yet doesn't seem to cover any actual Antifa groups in the article). The Democratic Party has been distancing themselves, with even the Mayor of Berkeley (once tied to the group "By Any Means Necessary" and infamous for directing the police not to engage rioters in Berkeley) and House Majority leader Nancy Pelosi denouncing them. There's blood in the water, metaphorically this time.

I tried to warn you, Left. I really did.

Due to evacuating from Hurricane Irma, our esteemed editor is not available to proofreed my article this week. Any missed opportunities for fancy editing or typographical errors are entirely my fault. We wish you well, Erin. 

Hurricane Irma Update

Things aren't looking good for my part of the state.

More here.

Hurricane Irma Predictions & Bug Out Mobility

People have been asking me, and if I'm worried about Irma, and if I've started to evacuate or not. I've written a detailed post about that over at Blue Collar Prepping.

Also, because I forgot to mention it here, on Saturday I wrote a post about my new mobility option for bugging out with gear. Here's the article, if for some reason you also aren't subscribed to my prepping blog.

GunBlog VarietyCast #159 - We Agree With Nancy Pelosi. Yes, We're As Surprised As You Are.

"Lickspittle" is an excellent pejorative that deserves more usage.

• Beth taught a USCCA class in Connecticut this past weekend, where apparently the state wants to make it as difficult as possible for people to get CCW permits or firearms, with blocks at every turn! Where's reciprocity when you need it?!?!
• What kind of person robs a bank and murders 2 tellers in the process? The story quotes the FBI report, but Sean reads the criminal record.
• Barron is on assignment and will return soon.
• Do you know a loved one's most important medical details when they need to be taken to the ER? Stuff that will be needed RIGHT THIS MOMENT? Miguel has some suggestions for us.
• Our Main Topic is The End of Antifa. Their left wing allies are telling them to knock it off. It's a cynical Sister Souljah moment by the establishment.
• Tiffany is on assignment and will return soon.
• You survived the hurricane - now you have to survive the flooding. Erin gives prepping advice based on what she's seen in Houston.
• Former Bloomberg lickspittle Mark Glaze goes out on his own, and now he’s out for blood! Weer’d looks at Glaze’s talking points through the ages.
• And our Plug of the Week is for the Wondery podcast, "Tides of History."

Thank you for downloading, listening, and subscribing. You are subscribed, right? We are available on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and Google Play Music!

Listen to the podcast here.

Read the show notes here.

Thanks to LuckyGunner and Remington for their sponsorship, and a special thanks to Firearms Policy Coalition for their support.

Blue Collar Prepping Transcript -

Flood Preps

Back in episode 51, when Tampa was flooded, I discussed what to do if your car was caught in floodwaters. Given the situation in Houston, it seems timely and relevant to discuss what to do if your home is flooded. The most important piece of advice I can give you is something that I’ve echoed many times before: If you know a disaster is coming and you have the ability to get out, do so.

I know the mayor of Houston told people not to evacuate, and I can sort of see his reasoning for it: the Houston interstate system is also its flood control system, with the water designed to follow the roads until it lets out into the Gulf - and the last time Houstonians evacuated, which was in 2005 for Hurricane Rita, the roads quickly became jammed because Houston is the 4th largest city in America. A combination of gridlock and a heatwave resulted in up to 118 deaths before the storm even arrived, as opposed to only 113 deaths caused by Rita itself.

So from a logistical point of view, I can see why Mayor Turner didn’t demand mandatory evacuation. But the key word there is “demand”; just because you don’t have to go doesn’t mean you shouldn't go. From my point of view, evacuation not being mandatory just means I have an easier time getting out of town! But let’s say you’ve decided not to evacuate for whatever reason. You’ve stockpiled food, water, batteries, and medical supplies, and your house made it through the storm in one piece - but now you have to deal with flooding.

Ideally, you live on high ground, which means your house isn’t flooded. But even if that’s the case, you are likely without power and running water, and you may need to leave your house to get supplies. If you aren’t on high ground, you definitely need to move so that you can get a warm, dry place to sleep, because floodwaters cause hypothermia, structural damage to houses, and disease with them. Your three biggest needs are waterproofing your preps, communication, and transport. 

Waterproofing is a subject that I discussed in its own segment in episode 29. I won’t repeat all of that here, just add that if you’re going to go to the trouble of making preps, you need to keep them dry and keep them from floating away. Having food in a waterproof box does you no good if that box has floated off in the floodwaters! So lash your preps your something strong. 

And I do mean strong. Two feet of water can pick up and move trucks, so don’t think that lashing your boxes to a 100 pound shelf is going to do you any good. I mean strong as in a structural support or part of the foundation.

Where you put them is also a bit of a gamble. You don’t want you preps on the ground floor if you’re expecting floods, so many preppers store theirs in the attic - which is great, except for the fact that hurricane-force winds have a distressing tendency to peel roofs off. 

The best advice I can give is to keep your preps with you wherever you shelter, so keep them portable, and have a variety of places where you can secure them. Make sure they are visible, with bright colors on the lids and sides, so you can find them if they are covered by dark water. 

Communication sounds difficult because the best kind in a situation like this is a HAM radio. Most people think this requires a lot of expensive gear and a large antenna, but they’re wrong. For the low price of around $25 you can get the Baofeng UV5RA, a handheld HAM radio that looks like a thick walkie-talkie. This means that they’re not only portable, but that you can also keep them in waterproof containers until needed. 

Best of all, not only can the Baofeng listen to FM and weather bands, but there are also local repeaters nearly everywhere. You can set your radio up to link into these repeaters, and the repeaters then send your signal out at a significantly stronger and more efficient range. This means that your inexpensive handheld 2-5 watts radio can communicate up to several hundred miles if you get into a linked repeater system.

The drawback to these is that you need a HAM license in order to broadcast on them. But from my point of view, if it’s a survival situation, you use what you have to call for help and to paraphrase Ellen Ripley from Aliens, “The FCC can bill me later.”

Transportation is where it gets expensive, because I’ve been told that the owner’s definition of “a boat” is “a hole in the water into which you throw money”. But if you have a fishing boat, a flat-bottom utility boat, or even a rowboat, you’re doing well -- assuming, of course, it didn’t get floated away.

If you don’t own a boat, the cheapest option would be to buy an inflatable raft of some kind and store it along with your preps. Right now, the best kind I can find is an Intex Excursion 5-person inflatable raft with oars for $115 on eBay.

If you go this route, make sure you have the following accessories with it:

• A tow line for securing it
• Life vests for everyone who will use it, including pets
• Extra oars - if you have 5 people, then 4 should be paddling and 1 should be steering
• Repair kits, in case debris in the water pokes a hole in it
• Some way to get it and yourself out of the attic, such as a fire ax, if that’s where you keep the raft. 

A raised inflatable mattress, like the kind you get from Serta, can also serve as a makeshift cargo barge. The twin version is rated to support 250 pounds or more, and the queen size ought to be at least double that. A cargo net, or one made from paracord, would not only secure what’s on it but also give you tie-downs for towing and securing it. Check out the video in the show notes.

Stay strong and stay dry, Texas.

• Baofeng UV5RA Ham Two Way Radio - http://amzn.to/2jHuHge
• Intex Excusion 5 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intex-Excursion-5-Inflatable-Rafting-Fishing-Dinghy-Boat-Set-Open-Box/292143666582
• How to Make a Net for Bushcraft Purposes - https://youtu.be/y4HjzuKqy18

Gays and Guns: The Rise of LGBTQ+ Gun Use in America

Back in June, I had the pleasure to speak with several young social media professionals from the UK about what it's like to be LGBTQ and pro-gun. I did my best, but I wasn't sure how good that was; the format was far more back-and-forth than a presentation, and that threw me off balance for a bit. When I was finished, I told myself "Well, now you know what you did wrong, and how to fix it. When you have to give another presentation like this, you'll do better because you'll know what to expect."

One of those young professionals (in fact, the gent in this picture) posted a video about his experience in the US talking to Americans about guns and gun rights. I encourage you all to give it a watch; he's very fair about the presentation and comes to some interesting conclusions at the end.

Personally, I'm just pleased that he has a smile on his face after shooting a pistol for the first time. Winning!