Prices Soaring in Canada; U.S. Next?

There is a good story on SHTF Plan regarding the collapse of Canada's currency being reflected in a rise in the prices of basic household goods like laundry detergent, pepper, and fresh vegetables. The collapse of the oil market has crippled Canada's economy and sent their currency into a dive in value. 

Because of this, prices of goods, especially imported goods (80 percent of the country's fresh vegetables are imported) have skyrocketed in a short time.   This is what a currency collapse looks like.

For Americans, this is a cautionary tale.   Our money supply has been expanded by the Federal Reserve to help spur the economic growth we do have.   Right now the world is in the process of dumping our dollar as the reserve currency for trade.  When that happens, the demand for our dollars drops, and the value of our money will drop as well, increasing prices the way things have gone in Canada. 

Stock up now on essential goods to try to hedge against the inflation that is looming in our economy like a shark circling a bleeding swimmer.

Fear the Walking Dead Gets Season 2 Premiere Date

Mr. Do the Right Thing and Mr. Do What It Takes.

Season 2 of Fear the Walking Dead will debut on AMC on April 10, 2016.  The season will be split into two sections, with seven episodes airing in the spring and the back eight airing sometime later in the year. 

As suspected, the survivors are going to get onto Strand's boat try to survive at sea.   I will be reviewing the episodes again this year, and hopefully the fresh setting will reveal a different take on surviving the Apocalypse.

Stay tuned!

Tracking Your Battery Inventory

Most of us rely on batteries every day to power our mobile devices, our remote controls, and other convenience items in our homes.  I purchased a home last year that contained battery powered window shades in two rooms and worked via remote control.  This required eight AA batteries on the shade itself, and then AAA batteries for the remote controls.  Likewise, one of the ceiling fans in our house is remotely operated and requires a small "camera-style" battery for power.

First world problems, right?

The good news is that I have already standardized most of my battery-powered products (flashlights, radios, etc.) to AA or AAA.   The only D cell items I use are a pair of Magpul LED flashlights I keep in our two primary vehicles and a Coleman battery-powered lantern.   By standardizing around a couple of common sizes I am able to optimize my budget without having to keep track of a bunch of different types of batteries.  It's all about simplicity.  If I need an Excel spreadsheet to  keep track of my battery inventory, I am doing something wrong.

I have been purchasing batteries in bulk from places like Sam's Club.  I prefer Duracell, as they have longer lifespans than Energizers in my experience.  Lately, however, I am now buying them online, and buying Duracell Procells.  While some people contend that the regular Duracells and the Procells are essentially the same performance-wise, I have found the Procells tend last 10-15 percent longer than the regular Duracells.  I like the packaging as well - cardboard boxes instead of hard plastic. 

Take a look at how you use batteries, and whether you can optimize them around one or two sizes.  If you can't you need to work toward that goal.   Select flashlights and other devices that can use those sizes.  There are even cell phone chargers that can be powered by AA batteries.  I have a couple that work well.   It also frees you from using a laptop or wall outlet to recharge the backup charger.

You can build your battery stockpile up slowly, staggering the expiration dates and rotating your stock as you use batteries in your home for various devices.  The biggest battery hog in any home with a video game system like the XBox series is the game controller.  These are powered by AA batteries and tend to go through them quickly.   If you have a teen in your house with such a gaming system, make sure you keep a watch on how quickly he or she is burning through your battery supply.   Rechargeable battery packs for XBox game controllers are available and would be a good investment to preserve your stockpile.

With a good reserve of batteries, you will be ready to light up the night.

Link: Nifty Article On Map Reading

It is amazing to me how many people cannot read a map - even a basic highway map.  We have become so dependent on Google Maps, GPS, and our smart phones that most people never bother learning how to read a map.

I grew up in the pre-GPS/smart phone era, and I learned to read maps.   My grandfather had an excellent sense of direction, and usually only had to read a map once to remember a route.  It was uncanny.   I travel through seven or eight counties in my home state regularly for my employer, and after a decade on the job I know at least two or three ways to get to my destination by memory.   I still keep a highway map and a topographic map with a compass in my car, just in case. 

There is a blog web site, Atlas and Boots, with a great basic post on how to read a map and compass. It's a good primer for those wishing to learn the skill.  Most of the time you will have GPS and phone service, but there are certain terrain types - an urban setting filled with high rise buildings, forests, or hilly, mountainous terrain - where cell phone and GPS signals can be blocked by line of sight hindrances.  Kills trump gear.  Grab a cheap compass and map of your local area and learn how to navigate.

Scientists: New E. Coli Strain Resistant to ALL Antibiotics

The new bacterial strain can pass on its resistance to other bacteria.

According to a news story from Australia, a new strain of e.coli has been detected that is resistant to every antibiotic that currently exists, prompting fears of a return to the pre-antibiotic era when even simple infections could have deadly consequences.

Chinese and British scientists identified the strain in a pig, then in raw pork meat and then in a small number of people. It was hoped that it could be contained there. It has now been found in animals in Malaysia, Germany, and in a man in Denmark who has never been outside that country.

What makes the bacteria unique is that is possesses a gene known as Mcr-1, which is thought to make it resistant to antibiotics.   The problem is that this strain of e. coli can also infect other bacteria and pass on this immunity.

Practically, it means that if left unchecked, scientists are concerned that common bacteria that cause most urinary, blood, and intestinal infections could become immune to every antibiotic.

Medical researchers are either going to have to devise a new class of antibiotic drugs or figure out how to switch off the gene in question.   The window for containment has passed.   That's the problem with biological threats; by the time you know you have a problem, it's often too late to contain it in any meaningful way.

For years, physicians have been limiting antibiotics prescribed to patients to attempt to hold off on antibiotic resistance.  The problem is that out food is laced with it, because it is used in pigs, chickens and cows to help them grow faster and bigger than they would without the drugs.   The article states that 80 percent of the antibiotics used in the United States are used in livestock.

Original story: LINK

National Review: The Politics of The Walking Dead

The National Review has published a neat look at the politics of The Walking Dead and how zombies are a stand-in for other natural and man-caused disasters:

“There are no zombies in the real world,” you might say. But the zombie apocalypse has lots of plausible functional equivalents. The Walking Dead isn’t even really about the walking dead. It’s about other people. It’s about the fact that hell, when it exists on earth, consists of other people.

The zombies serve only one ongoing function in the show: Having brought about the collapse of political society, their constant menace prevents the reconstitution of political society on any large scale. Survivors therefore have to figure out how to establish atomized communities large enough to save them from a precarious hunter-gatherer existence, but small enough to be manageable as safe, prosperous, and free communities. That proves a constant and often losing struggle in which little survives except our band of fellows and a little hope of a better world, which is why The Walking Dead keeps coming back.

You can find the rest of the article here.

Preparedness Review of The Walking Dead Episode 608: First to Last

SPOILER ALERT!!!



Episode 608: First to Last

Carl (to Ron):  I get it. I do. My dad killed your dad.  But you have to know something, Ron.  Your dad was an asshole.

Synopsis: Sam is playing in his room, while outside, walkers invade Alexandria through the breech in the wall.  Everyone heads inside to hide out, hoping they can figure out how to lure the walkers away.  Deanna, Rick, Michonne, Gabriel, Ron, Jessie, and Carl hide out with Judith in Jessie's how, where they discover Deanna has been bitten by a walker outside.   Carol trips while running down the street and injures herself.  Morgan carries her the the jailhouse.  Maggie escapes to the watchtower, and Eugene is rescued by Tara and Rosita after radioing Daryl for help with Rick's radio.   Carl and Ron tussle after Ron tries to kill him, resulting in walkers breaching the house.  The group grabs two walkers, kills them, and smother themselves in guts to escape.  Deanna stays behind and empties her gun at the oncoming horde.  Carol has been faking her wound and goes to the jail, where Denise has treated the Wolf held captive.  Morgan and Carol argue, and Morgan subdues Carol only to be incapacitated by the Wolf, who takes Denise hostage, steals guns from Rosita and Tara, and leaves with Denise as a hostage.  Carl takes Ron's gun, but covers for his actions.  Glenn and Enid search for a way inside, and spot Maggie on the lookout tower.   The group in Jessie's house maker their way to the armory in their meat robes, and things are going well when Sam starts talking.
 
Sam is playing in his room and listening to music.  He brushes an ant away from him, and the camera pans to see a half-eaten cookie being swarmed by ants and eaten, in the most blatantly overt example of symbolism this series has seen in a while.

It's a walker-palooza!

Outside, the church has collapsed into the wall, throwing everyone nearby into a mad scramble to get out of the way.   Walkers surge into the gap, and Rick orders everyone back into their houses to hide out.   He draws the herd's interest by firing his gun and killing a few, and Deanna tries to help, but falls onto a saw and is injured and about to be eaten when Rick saves her.  Carl comes up with Michonne in support, along with Ron, and the group retreats to Jessie's house with Father Gabriel as well.

Meanwhile, Carol trips while running to assist and injures her head on the sidewalk.   Morgan scoops her up and they retreat to the half-finished jailhouse.   Maggie, who was heading to the watch tower and has the only long gun out of the armory,  shoots several walkers and retreats to the guard tower, losing her ladder on the way.  She is now marooned.  Eugene is frozen in fear against a wall as walkers flow around him, and hears Daryl's voice on Rick's radio, which he drops in the confusion.  He transmits a single word, "Help!" The walkers close in on him, but he is rescued by Tara and Rosita, who have already helped Tobin get away.  They retreat to the garage turned into a school.

Outside the walls, Glenn and Enid look on in shock and horror.  Enid wants to leave, but Glenn insists they can get inside at the wall opposite the breach, as the walkers will leave it and follow the rest of the herd inside.   Glenn confides that Maggie is pregnant, and he is not leaving her.  This shocks Enid into action.

Tobin lives to fight another day.

Inside Jessie's house, they move Deanna upstairs, where they discover a bite just below the saw wound.  She is on a ticking clock.  Sam watches fearfully, and Jessie tells him that he has to pretend to be brave.  Rick and Jessie come up with a plan to run to the armory and draw the walkers away from Alexandria with flares.  Michonne tells Deanna she believes in her vision for Alexandria and its expansion, but Deanna asks what Michonne wants for herself.  Michonne cannot answer.

In the jailhouse, on the main floor, Carol refuses Morgan's offer of medical aid, while downstairs, Denise treats the wounded Wolf.  She gives him IV fluids and treats him for the infected gash.

Back at Jessie's house, Carl and Ron go into the garage.  Ron locks the door behind them and pulls a gun on Carl, but the latter disarms him.  They fight, and Ron accidentally breaks a window on the side door with a shovel.  The walkers are immediately drawn to the noise and threaten to break down the door.  Rick and Jessie hear this and cannot get the door open, so Rick is forced to demolish the lock with a hatchet to get the pair of teens out.   Carl covers for Ron and says they accidentally knocked over a shelf, but a moment later, gets Ron alone and disarms him at gunpoint.  Ron apologizes for his actions, and Carl tells him he sympathizes with him, but that his father was an "asshole."

That moment may be the redeeming gem in an otherwise unsatisfying episode.  Carl has shown the most growth of any of the characters on this show except possibly Carol, and has become genuinely likable.  He is a young adult now, and he is capable of killing when he has too, but he has a cooler head than his father.  Rick is just as likely to kill someone as not, but Carl is still capable of managing a complex situation with Ron without resorting to extremes.   The Season Three Carl would have killed Ron immediately, but the that time spent deprogramming his killer instinct at the prison had reaped the desired effect.

Rick hears Judith upstairs and finds Deanna leaning into her crib.  He is about to kill her when whe screams, "it's still me!"  She is very weak now, and she gives him notes for Maggie and Spencer and asks Rick to care for Spencer like he would one of his own people, because, as she says, they are all his people now.  This has been the problem with Rick since he arrived at Alexandria. It has always been Team Rick versus The Alexandrians.  It's about time someone called him on it.  Rick is not always right.  He's good, he understands the world he now inhabits, but he makes mistakes. The writers need to acknowledge that more often.

Carol and Morgan sitting' in makeshift jail ...

Carol is pretending to rest, and Morgan turns his back on her to stair down at the makeshift jail below.  Carol being Carol, she pushes him out of the way and races downstairs to find the Wolf tied up with Denise. Carol draws her knife to kill the Wolf but Morgan intervenes.  Carol argues that he has to be killed, but Morgan won't allow it.  She never draws her gun, which signifies that she doesn't want to hurt Morgan, but she is going to do what she has to to protect the group.  Apparently, Morgan was never told about her actions at the prison.  She will do what it takes to safeguard the community.  Morgan disarms her and knocks her unconscious, but he is knocked out by the Wolf, who then frees himself.

At its core, this internal debate is the crux of The Walking Dead.   How much can you take of this world before ultimately you become less than human?  All life should be precious, but how does that ideal stand up in the face of murderous humans and the walkers?  When the veneer of civilized society is ripped away, ultimately what do you become.  At what point does all life not become precious?  Maybe it already has, and we just don't recognize it yet. 

The walkers make it inside Jessie's house, and the group retreats upstairs, blocking the stairs with a
couch to slow the herd down to allow them to buy time to escape.  They kill two walkers, and dismember the corpses to apply to sheets they will wear to mask their smell so they can move through the herd to the armory.   While they are making preparations, Michonne tells Deanna they are preparing to leave and offers to kill her before she turns.  Deanna promises to do it to herself when the time comes.  Gabriel, showing more spine that he's shone the whole series, tells Rick he can count on him now. 

Rosita, Tara and Eugene make it into the jailhouse from the school house garage, and are confronted by the Wolf, who holds Denise at knifepoint.   He forces them to surrender their weapons and leaves, taking Denise with him.  Tara has a shot, but the woman who could shoot walkers in the head from the top of the wall in the last episode seemingly doesn't want to risk it now.

Glenn and Enid find a tree and climb it to gain a look inside the perimeter and see Maggie on top of the lookout post.

They looked like they robbed a gut wagon.

Rick's group, with each member covered in guts, goes downstairs, and calmly walks into  the herd without the zombies taking notice.  Judith is with Carl under a gut poncho in a carrier, and they hold hands to stay together.  The zombies do not notice them.  Upstairs, Deanna hears walkers in the hall, and instead of killing herself, empties her gun into the crowd, sacrificing herself to draw them into her room and away from the escaping group.

Rick and his group are now on the front porch, looking out into the herd that has now filled the streets.   They are still holding hands, and getting away unscathed, when Sam starts calling out his mom's name, risking all of their lives.  The screen fades to black, leaving their fates unresolved in one of the most unsatisfying cliffhangers in recent memory, ranking right up with the "Is this really Uncle Fester?" conundrum of the first Addams Family movie.

In retrospect, it was going to be hard for this finale to satisfy anyone.  For those unfamiliar with the comics, something happens to Carl that changes the entire course of his character when the walls come down at Alexandria.  I will leave it the reader to discover the nature of the event, but the fact that it did not happen after the buildup with Ron last week pointed that way smacks of the writers toying with the viewer just for the sake of toying with the viewer. Coming so soon after the delayed reveal of Glenn's fate sapped any anticipation out of the audience, at least for me.

The whole cold open scene with Sam's cookie was goofy.  We know what is going to happen as the walkers pour inside.   You don't need to telegraph it with that scene.  Likewise, the death of Deanna, while dignified, cuts short another voice of reason in this insane world.  Anyone who opposes Rick's hard case mode of doing things has to die, apparently.  Deanna already was ready to turn over command of the settlement to him, and that character had so much more story left, but I guess the writers had to kill someone.  Frankly, Tovah Felshuh elevated every scene she was in, and the show will not be the same without her gravitas.

As it stands, First to Last is a muddled, unsatisfying mess of an episode that tries to be greater than the sum of its parts, but cannot make it over the hurdle.   The few little gems we get -- room-to-room fighting in Jessie's house, the gut smearing routine, Carl's coming out as a force to be reckoned with, and some really great lines -- are lost because there is no real unifying center to hold the episode together.

Preparedness Discussion

 Let's start with the security situation inside the walls.  No one has anything other than a sidearm except Maggie, who is swiftly overrun.  Not that more long guns would have made much difference against a herd this size, but it would have been nice to at least taken a few more down from a distance to trip the ones behind them and buy everyone some time.   Likewise, all the weapons and ammunition are still stored in one location in the armory, effectively putting the community's offensive weapon eggs in one basket.

This goes hat in hand with having no passive defenses inside the perimeter.  The houses are not prepped with barricaded windows.  If nothing else, a core area around the armory and infirmary should be fenced off and guarded by watch towers as a keep, or last resort holdout, for the community.  Everyone could have retreated to that location where the food, guns and medical supplies were located and held out for a while.  As it is, the members of the community are scattered all over the compound, hiding in houses that are easily breached.  I hope someone had the presence of mind to put some food and water up on that guard tower, or things are going to go south for Maggie quickly.

Finally, there comes the issue of the handling of the prisoner Wolf.  These people are dangerous, and there should have been a gun pointed at him the whole time.   The fact that Morgan couldn't trust anyone enough to tell them he held a prisoner shows that he has a long way to go to integrate into this community, and now once his secret is out, assuming they survive the walker incursion, how is anyone supposed to trust him?

Preparedness Lessons for Episode 608:

• Never assume your perimeter is foolproof.   Have an internal security plan.  Replace flimsy hollow core doors with more sturdy wooden ones.  Make sure they can lock.  An internal deadbolt would be a good security measure to create a temporary safe room.
• Practice securing the inside of the house if an intruder makes it inside.  Ensure each member of the family knows where to go and what to do.  If your plan includes using firearms for self defense, make sure you are properly trained and include use of that firearm when considering home defense plans.  For instance, plan for everyone to go to their bedrooms and lock the door, so that as you clear the house, you know where everyone is if you have to fire your weapon.
• If you do have a home invasion or burglary, and you apprehend the perpetrator, have someone else call the authorities while you stand guard.  If you have some strong zip ties, bind their hands, even if they are wounded.   Remember, this person defined your relationship by invading your home.  Keep a constant watch on the person and make sure, if you can do so safely, that they are disarmed.  
• Make sure your weapons are secured but easily accessible by you in case of an emergency. Consider taking advanced handgun tactical courses to increase your firearms proficiency.

During the hiatus:  I am going to write a first half retrospective in a couple of weeks.   Have a great winter break and keep following the blog for more preparedness information!

Preparedness Review of The Walking Dead Episode 607: Heads Up

SPOILER ALERT!!!



Episode 607: Heads Up

Glen:

Synopsis: Glenn, who has been missing, shows up alive after crawling under Nicholas' body and under the dumpster.   He gets out, and is helped by Enid, who does not want to go back to Alexandria because she doesn't want to see it fall.   Rick and Morgan talk briefly about the need to talk, and Rick keeps inspecting the wall for weak spots.  Maggie is still on watch looking for Glenn.  He proposes figuring out how to lure the walkers away.  Glenn stabs zombie David and retrieves the farewell note that was dropped.  Gabriel tries to organize a prayer meeting, but Rick tears down the signs.  Gabriel replaces them.   Rick and Carl teach Ron how to shoot, but do not give him ammunition or let him fire live rounds.  Morgan, Michonne and Carol confront Morgan about his refusal to kill Wolves during the attack.  Rick and Michonne come up with a way to lure the walkers away from Alexandria, but Rick is hesitant to involve the Alexandrians.   Deanna reveals plans for the town's future.  Rosita offers machete lessons to people but is harsh on Eugene when he does not take to it.   Glen and Enid make their way back toward Alexandria, and find the green balloons used for signalling during the walker roundup.   Meanwhile Rick and Tobin reinforce a weak section of the wall.  Ron steals some live rounds from the pantry area and sneaks up on Carl, seemingly to shoot him.   Spencer tries to get over the wall via rope in an attempt to go get a car and lure the herd away, but nearly dies in the attempt.  Carol discovers Morgan is keeping a Wolf alive in the locked house, just as Maggie spots the green balloons Glenn and Enid launch to let everyone know they are alive.   The church outside the wall damaged by the truck used by the Wolves collapses into the wall, creating a huge hole for walkers to pour through.

You should be dead, Glenn.

Heads Up quickly resolves the cliffhanger set up in Thank You and reveals that Glenn, who was knocked off a dumpster surrounded by walkers when Nicholas shot himself, landed under the man's body, and as the zombies were eating Nicholas, he wriggles out from under the corpse and hides under the dumpster, killing the few undead who notice and try to get at him.   The way the storyline was dropped for three weeks was gimmicky. It reminds me of the movie War of the Worlds (the Tom Cruise version) in which the rebellious son who charges ahead to help the Army battle the invincible aliens somehow survives the military slaughter and shows up safe at the end of the movie.  This is called the "Spielburgian" ending.  It would have been a bolder move to leave him dead, with no resolution for Maggie. 


Okay.  Glenn is alive ... in the most improbable way. The character is one of the last in this world that has managed to hang on to his humanity, and the show needs that, but this is just cheesy.  For this reason, I dropped one star from what would have been a four-star rating.

Days pass, and the herd loses interest and move one.  Glenn finally risks climbing out from under his hiding place, and is surprised when Enid, who escaped Alexandria during the Wolf attack, tosses him a bottle of water from the roof, which bursts on impact.   He chases after her, and realizes she is moving from rooftop to rooftop. She has placed another bottle of water on the second floor for him, which he guzzles down.  Enid hides from him, while Glen asks what happened at Alexandria when the air horns sounded.   She wont respond, and disappears out a window.  She hides in a diner, waiting for a few passing walkers to clear out, when Glen surprises her and disarms her when she pulls a gun.  He will not leave her behind. 

Back at Alexandria, Rick is checking the walls for weak spots while Morgan practices with his staff.  Rick says they need to talk at some point, and Morgan agrees, but it's a strained, tense exchange.   He checks on Maggie, who is on watch at the top of the lookout tower in the direction Glenn should be coming from if he is still alive.  He encourages her by saying that Glenn, Abraham and Sasha will return.  He wants to get the rest of Team Rick together and figure out how to lure away the walkers so that the returning trio can get to the gates.   Maggie tells Rick Judith is starting to look like Lori - which is good, since she's probably Shane's baby anyway.

That's some high quality H20 right there.

Glenn finds David, the guy bitten at the fence when Michonne's group was cornered, and kills him as his walker form stirs to attack.  He finds the note he wrote to his wife and retrieves it to take back before moving on to find Enid.  While he is doing this, Father Gabriel is back in Alexandria posting signs for a prayer meeting, which Rick tears down despite Carl's protests.  Garbriel replaces them.

Rick and Carl begin giving Ron shooting lessons. Carl and Rick explain that when he has to use the gun, he is going to be scared, and shows him how to aim down the sight before firing.  Ron is allowed to carry the empty gun to get used to it, but is not allowed ammunition.  Later, he distracts the pantry volunteer and sneaks into the armory to steal some rounds.  This is going to be bad news.  Ron is playing a waiting game.  He still holds a grudge against Rick, no matter what he says, and he hates Carl for "stealing" Enid.  Carl and Enid have been out there, in the blood and guts, and Ron hasn't.  Enid and Carl get each other, and Ron is a spoiled kid who hasn't had to fight for anything.

Morgan starts to enter the infirmary but starts to walk away when Denise opens the door.   He tells her he is fine, and Rick asks to talk.  He, Michonne and Carol -- the Brain Trust of Team Rick -- want to discuss the fact that he let several Wolves escape during the attach.  Rick explains that those Wolves attacked him in the RV and destroyed his chances of luring off the herd now surrounding them.   He points out that Rick didn't kill him back in King County, and Rick replies that he knew who Morgan was. Morgan replied that he would have killed Rick had he had the chance, but that he doesn't want to kill anymore, repeating Eastman's "all life is precious" mantra and explaining it is what saved him and restored his sanity. Michonne asks if he thinks its really that easy, and Morgan says it isn't easy.  Rick tells him he cannot survive without getting blood on his hands.  Morgan is unsure whether his decision were right or wrong, but he knows he does not want to kill.

Walkers continue to pile against the walls.  Rick and Michonne work on a plan to draw the walkers away, but Rick wants to keep the plan to just Team Rick.  Michonne tells him he needs to involve the others.   Deanna approaches with blueprints for the community's expansion, and tells him she knows there are pressing matters, but that they have to start planning for the future.

Rosita is teaching Eugene and some Alexandrians how to use the machete, and Eugene is not doing well.   Rosita begins treating him harshly, and he admits he is afraid of dying.  Rosita tells him dying is easy, but that surviving after others die, especially if he doesn't do anything to help them, is the hard part.

Spencer is really, really dumb.

Enid waits in an abandoned diner for Glenn to leave and for a few random walkers to clear out, after writing "JSS" on a meal ticket.   She tries to leave, but there are still walkers outside, and Glenn grabs her from behind.  She draws a gun, but he disarms her.  He wants to get back to Alexandria because half the herd is heading that way.

Rick is working on reinforcing a weak spot, and Tobin approaches to help.   They notice blood coming through the walls.  Tobin tells Rick everyone was scared of him when he first arrived, and he looked around like he saw things they couldn't see; the man says it turns out he did see things they couldn't.  Tobin says things moved slow in Alexandria before, then once Rick arrived, everything moved very fast.  He tells Rick not to give up on the native Alexandrians.

Enid puts down a walker on the road back to Alexandria, and the arrive at Checkpoint Green, with its green balloons still inflated.  They retrieve the balloons and some extras, plus a helium tank, and inflate more.  The plan is to use the balloons to distract the walkers with them.    He asks who she stays with back home, and she says Olivia, but that it wasn't really her home. She was orphaned by walkers.  Glenn says he probably was as well, and that they have to go on living to honor the dead, because they cannot.  They arrive at the safe zone, and find it surrounded by walkers.   She tells him the world is trying to die and they should let it.  Glenn convinces her to try to get inside.

Rick and Tobin spot Deanna's son Spencer trying to use a rope to get past the walkers with a pack and AK-47 on his back.   Eugene and Tara watch from the other guard tower.   The rope begins to slip and Spencer almost falls.  The rope then gives way and Spencer falls into the walkers.  Tara begins firing into the undead to give him cover, while Tobin, Rick and Morgan pull him back up.  He asks Spencer what he was doing, and Spencer says he was trying to get past them, get to the cars at the barricade down the road, and use one of them to lead off the herd.  Rick asks if he has ever tried a climb like that before, already knowing the answer, and tells him never to try anything like that again without running it by him first.   He then berates Tara for risking herself for Spencer.   Tara, ever the diplomat, flips him off.

Lady MacBeth has issues with Kung Fu Morgan.

Morgan enters the infirmary and discusses Denise's cheat sheets next to a sleeping Scott, who is still recovering from his gunshot wound.   He tells her that he has because he chooses to, and has faith in her.  He asks how the antibiotic supplies are holding up, and Denise says they have plenty to go around.  Morgan is asking for some antibiotics, but not for him.  It's for the Wolf he is holding captive.  He doesn't want to involve Denise, but she agrees to come take a look at the prisoner.

As they leave separately to attempt to keep suspicion to a minimum, they are spotted by Carol, who decides to follow them.  She asks Jessie to take Judith, ostensibly so she can go on watch.  Sam calls out for Carol and asks what happens if he can't live with what happened.   She tells him, "it eats you up."  He asks how people turn into monsters:  is it the killing?  She replies that the killing keeps you from becoming a monster.  She exits, and tracks Morgan to the prison house where she confronts him about who is inside.

Carl walks down the street, unaware that a now armed and dangerous Ron is following him, while Michonne looks a Deanna's expansion plan.

Ron's motto:  an eye for an eye.

Rick and Tobin are still reinforcing the wall when Tara walks by, looking for Denise.  Rick apologizes for his remarks earlier and tells her she could have died.   Tara said she wasn't thinking about that and had to help.   Deanna then thanks him for saving Spencer.   Rick tells her Spence was stupid, and explains she could've used him being eaten as a distraction to hop down, escape, and grab a car to lure the herd away, but says he didn't because he is Deanna's son.  She tells him,  "wrong answer."  He saved Spencer because it was the right thing to do.

The community, including Maggie, spot the green balloons that Glenn and Enid have released to let them know they are alive.  The hope is fleeting however, because at that moment, the small church outside the wall which was damaged by the truck in the Wolf attack collapses onto the perimeter, destroying a large section of the wall where it was weakest.

Preparedness Discussion

Let's talk about the elephant in the room.  I'm not talking about Glenn.  Let's discuss how the Alexandrians have done nothing to clear their perimeter of obstructions like the church that falls on the fence and opens it up for the walkers. Once their perimeter was secure, they sat back, sent out scouting parties, and counted on everything going well.   The committed the sin of assumption.   They assumed everything was going to be okay, that the wall was all they needed, and did nothing else to improve their security situation.   When Team Rick arrived, there were no guard towers, and without a clear perimeter no fields of fire.   They were ripe for the picking.  No wonder the Wolves had such an easy time making it inside.

What does this mean for us as preppers?  Make sure your landscape is free of obstructions that will allow you to see potential threats.   Use a home security system to secure the perimeter of your home.  Then, make sure you use it.  You would be surprised how often a security system remains unarmed, even though it is a huge deterrent to home invasion and burglary.

Then there are the internal threats.   Ron is a problem.  It is great that everyone is becoming familiar with firearms and self defense, but Ron is a loose cannon that has a big grudge against Rick and Carl.   He is clearly being duplicitous in his desire to get a gun, and Rick and Carl do not pick up on it.  Teaching people to use firearms safely is a good thing, but it can get you safely killed if your student has screw loose.  In every mass shooting in this country since the turn of the century, the killers all had something in common:  mental health issues. Take good stock of your preparedness group and ensure you really know each person.

Lastly, let's address the issue of hope in the role of survival.  The job of survival is in many ways a mental one.  Some survival experts have gone so far to say that survival is mostly an exercise in mental toughness:  the ability not to panic, to think things through, and use the resources at hand to enhance your chances of living.   Glenn is full of hope, despite the death of Nicholas.   He needs to get home to Maggie.   Likewise, Gabriel, who has finally found a way to forgive himself for his actions, is trying to build hope by building a community of faith inside the walls.   Morgan hopes he can turn the Wolf the way he was turned back to the light by Eastman. 

In contrast, we see the fatalistic Enid ("The world is trying to die; we should let it") and the pragmatic Carol and Rick confronting Gabriel and Morgan.    Hope is needed.  It is essential to survival.   Humanity's aspiration to be better than its former self has been and will continue to be one of the key drivers of innovation and creativity. That has been taken away by the walkers.  If it cannot be rekindled in the residents of Alexandria, what is the use of surviving?

Preparedness Lessons for Episode 607:

• Clear your perimeter and secure your home with an alarm system.
• Be sure of who your friends are and be wary of those that display tendencies that might make them a liability or threat.
• Hope is the most important mental aspect of survival.

 Next week:  The series finale is here, and we get to see what happens when a horde hits the town.

Chinese Yuan Expected To Be Added By IMF

From the Guardian:

China’s efforts to make the yuan an international currency on a par with the US dollar are to receive a fillip with the International Monetary Fund widely expected to add it to a special basket of global currencies.
Analysts say the shareholders in the Washington-based IMF will vote on Monday to include the yuan, also known as the renminbi, as the fifth member of its special drawing rights currency basket alongside the dollar, the Japanese yen, sterling and the euro.

China has been lobbying for the IMF to add the yuan to its basket of reserve currencies, which it uses to lend to sovereign borrowers. A vote to include the currency in the SDR basket would mark a significant milestone for Beijing, according to experts.

“The direct impact won’t be felt in the near term, not least because implementation of the new basket won’t be until Q3 2016. However the symbolic importance cannot be overlooked,” said Andrew Malcolm, Asia head of capital markets at law firm Linklaters.

“By effectively endorsing the renminbi as a freely useable currency, it sends a strong signal about China’s importance in the global financial markets.”

This is BAD news for the United States.   The Chinese have been working for years, playing the long game, to replace the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of the world.  Basically after World War II, we became the world's global bank.   Everyone buys goods with U.S. dollars.  If the country of Georgia wants Russian oil, they would convert their money to dollars, buy the oil from Russia, and Russia would either hold onto the the dollars in an account or convert it to the Russian ruble.

Because our Federal Reserve has engaged in bad monetary policy to prop up our economy -- printing money, monetizing our debt by buying our treasury bonds with U.S. dollars, which is essentially like paying off one credit card with another -- and because we have ballooned our debt in the last 12 years (and yes, the GOP is to blame as well, the rest of the world is looking to dump the U.S. dollar.

We have flooded the world with U.S. dollars, and now the world is looking to ditch them.   What happens when you have a very large supply of a commodity that suddenly no one wants?  The value of that commodity plummets.   This is called inflation.   The price of goods is not going up; the value of the money used to purchase the goods is going down.

Inflation is already creeping into the price structure at the retail level -- look at the cost of meat, bread, eggs, and milk compared to 12 years ago.

If the U.S. dollar is dropped as the world reserve currency, we can expect hyperinflation and an economic crash that is going to make the last recession and the Great Depression look like minor market corrections.

Many countries already have agreements to trade in the yuan instead of the dollar, like Australia and Russia.  Essentially, I think the world has come to the conclusion that the United States cannot get its fiscal house in order, and that until we do, they are not going to be tied to a currency that is rapidly depreciating into worthlessness due to our high deficit spending trend and the inability to live within our means.   It's what banks do.  If they have a customer they consider to be a bad risk, they do not approve the mortgage, credit card, etc.  

Most people in the U.S. think the federal government will never run out of money. The truth is we ran out of money $19 trillion  ago, and now the consequences of our actions are having systemic, economy threatening repercussions.

The sad fact is that China has its own economic issues and was forced to devalue its currency in August as its stock market crashed.  The yuan is far from a sure bet, but at this point a lot of the world may be playing the odds and judging that the dollar is more vulnerable in the long term.

Preparedness Review of The Walking Dead Episode 606: Always Accountable

SPOILER ALERT!!!



Episode 606: Always Accountable

 Daryl: It's the principle of the thing.

Synopsis:  Daryl, Sasha and Abraham reach the 20-mile mark and leave the herd behind, but come under attack and are forced to separate.   Abraham and Sasha lose their car but win the gunfight, and Daryl hides in some burned forest land, where he encounters a trio or survivors on the run. They disarm him and tie him up, thinking he is one of the attackers looking for them.  The encampment they fled is not a great place to be, and they go to find someone called Patty, which turns out to be a truck.   Tina has diabetes and faints, and Daryl makes off with the pack with his gear in it, but finds Tina's insulin and returns it.  They hide from the search party.  Meanwhile, Sasha and Abraham realize their attackers were looking for someone else, and hide in an office waiting for Daryl to find them.   Abraham finds an abandoned Humvee with some RPG rounds and a box of cigars, and secures the launcher from a soldier who has turned.  Abraham makes a move to widen his relationship with Sasha, but she demurs. Daryl's party comes upon the bodies of two people his companions knew, but when one of the women lays flowers next to them, they revive and kill her.   The other pair steal his bike and crossbow, then ride off.  Daryl finds the fuel truck and uses it to pick Abraham and Sasha.

Always Accountable is yet another one of those fallout episodes that tend to tumble out from the season's opening action.  The advantage to this style of serialized storytelling is that you can build a coherent narrative theme over the course of several episodes.  The Walking Dead is more like a novel than a TV show at this point, and I have no problem with that;  I think the writers do a much better job of this than, say, Lost, which really re-popularized the serialized story concept for the mainstream.  Let's face it, I still have tons of unanswered questions about Lost whereas this show does a pretty good job of weaving in plot points and the A-B story resolution.

Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham arrive at the 20-mile mark and leave the herd behind.   They accelerate away, but are confronted by armed men who attack them without provocation.   Daryl wipes out on his bike, losing contact with the other car as they attempt to break contact with the ambush.  Sasha and Abraham crash their car but kill their attackers, and are forced to flee when reinforcements arrive.

Daryl, meanwhile, hides in a patch of burned out forest land.   He tries to reach the others, but he is hurt, either from contact with the pavement or a bullet graze on his arm.  As he checks his wounds, he hears something moving and hides his bike under some debris, but finds two sisters, Tina and Honey, who surrender.  Just then, though, a man knocks him unconscious.  The man, who is referred to as D, wakes Daryl the next morning and tells him they are not going back to the camp.  Daryl tries to tell him he is not with the others, but D is not listening.

The four move out, with Daryl's hands tied, because they are looking for "Patty" so they can be on their way.  Dee tells Daryl he and Honey burned the forest to kill all the walkers, and state he thought that was what everyone was doing -- fighting walkers and rebuilding society.  He found out they were wrong.  They arrive at a fenced-in lot full of walkers, and the three holding Daryl panic because Patty is not there.  Tina faints, and in the confusion Daryl grabs their bag and runs away.  He frees himself, and tries the radio again, but no one answers.   He finds his gear in the bag, but also finds a cooler full of insulin.  Tina is a diabetic, and she fainted for this reason.

Daryl is a good guy. Too bad she dies anyway.

Abraham and Sasha realize their attackers were looking for someone else, and decide to lay low in a nearby abandoned town and wait for Daryl to find them.  They write the name "DIXON" on the door of their hide, which will mean nothing to anyone but Daryl, and take refuge in an office.  Abraham stands watch while Sasha tries to sleep.  He wants to kill a walker locked in a conference room, but Sasha tells him that would be reckless, and he needs to be accountable for that story.

The next morning, Abraham finds an abandoned Humvee containing rocket-propelled grenade rounds and a box of cigars.   He sees a soldier-walker impaled on a piece of pole handing off the bridge with the launcher, and manages to reach out far enough to almost reach his prize, but can't get there.  He retreats to the Humvee, where he watches the walker while smoking a cigar.  Suddenly, the riled up walker's should gives way and it falls, leaving the launcher behind on the pole.   He retreats to the office, where he says Sasha is right about his recklessness, and that he wants to get to know her better.   Sasha tells him he has some baggage to unload first.

Daryl cannot catch a break.

Daryl's group comes upon a pair of bodies encased int melted glass in a burned greenhouse.  As Tina kneels to lay flowers beside them, the corpses come alive and kill her.  Daryl kills the walkers, and the group buries Tina.   Daryl asks D the three questions:  how many walkers had he killed, how many people has he killed, and why.   Daryl invites them to Alexandria, but instead they rob him of his motorcycle and crossbow.  Later, Daryl finds a fuel truck with the license plate PATTY.  He kills a walker inside it then picks up Abraham and Sasha.  They try to reach Alexandria by radio, but another voice comes of the speaker, and says, "Help."

Preparedness Discussion

As the saying goes, all politics is local, and these locals play hard ball.   Rick's crew has been in the Alexandria area only for a few weeks at best.   They have butted heads with the Wolves, the Alexandrians who took them in, and now with another rogue group.  They people Daryl wants to help rob him instead.  Oh yeah, and then there are walkers.   It's a bad, bad world out there.

Daryl, Sasha and Abraham's two vehicle convoy is hit with an ambush, while accelerating away from the herd.  There rate of speed was a bit shocking, considering they could have hit random walkers, abandoned cars, and other potential hazards.  How many crashes occur every day because a driver expects for the road to be clear, rounds a curve, and plows into the back of a car stopped due to road work or some other delay?   EMS and fire crews would respond in the real world, but in the reality of The Walking Dead, you are your own backup.  There isn't going to be a helicopter to fly you to a trauma center. 

Convoy operations have very specific tactics and considerations, and the U.S. military learned some hard lessons on the subject in Iraq and Afghanistan.   There are procedures for approaching choke points, and even cresting a hill.  If you are planning for a crisis situation, and you think you might be forced to move as a convoy of vehicles with your group, it would pay to download the manual hyperlinked above for your review. You won't have air support for backup, but the security procedures for convoy movement are valuable tips that can help keep you safe. James Price, founder of Death Valley Magazine and a private military contractor for several years in the Middle East, runs a mobile scout school that teaches convoy tactics and procedures.  There are other schools out there as well, but this one has come highly recommended by the guys at the In The Rabbit Hole podcast.  You can check out that episode here.  For that matter, just practicing good defensive driving helps.

This point plays into Abraham's recklessness, and underscores Sasha's point:  he plays way too fast and loose with his own safety.  His actions in pushing to get the rocket launcher from its precarious spot could have resulted in him face planting on the pavement below.  Sure ,the rocket launcher is a good find, but it's still not worth your life, even in the walker-filled world of the show.  (Editor's Note:  the launcher in question is an RPG of the kind used by Russian forces and third world guerrilla forces around the world against our troops.  While the U.S. Army is testing an Americanized version of the weapon, no such launchers are standard in the U.S. inventory, nor were there any when the TV show world ended in and around 2010-2011.  I have no idea why the producers didn't choose a few AT-4 rockets or even a Carl Gustav, which was first adopted by the United States Marine Corps but has seen use with the Army.)

Sasha may be just the person to rein him in for his own good, but how will Rosita handle it?  She obviously was not up to the challenge.  She was too young, and it took her putting a hand on her gun to stop him.   How will that shake out?  Group dynamics rears its ugly head again.

Lastly, I a) how does insulin still exist several years into the Apocalypse, and b) how can an insulin dependent diabetic still be alive this long into the Apocalypse? Finally, what are the odds of the truck starting?  I guess the trio Daryl ran into maintained it before they fell in with the bad guys.  That makes sense.  If the insulin stayed refrigerated, it could remain good after its expiration date, but that is an awful big leap.  They cannot even find antibiotics anymore without going to a vet clinic, so unless the group managed to secure a stockpile early and kept it cold, Tina should have been dead long ago.   If you are dependent upon a long term maintenance medication for your health, you need to keep a stockpile on hand.  Find out the earliest possible date you can refill a prescription, and get the refill well before you run out.  After a few times, you could have an extra 30 day supply on hand or better.

What do you want to bet it's Glenn on the radio?

Preparedness Lessons for Episode 606:

• Learn good defensive driving techniques, and practice them.  Take note of potential choke points and blind curves in your area and remember to approach them with caution. 
• In a survival situation, you have no backup.   Treat your body as indispensable, because it is.
• Make sure you have a good stockpile of prescriptions and over the counter medications and rotate them frequently.

Next week:  Morgan and Rick have a talk.  This should be interesting.

Preparedness Review of The Walking Dead Episode 605: Now

SPOILER ALERT!!!



Episode 605: Now

 Jessie: This is what life looks like now. We have to see it. We have to fight it.

Synospis: Alexandria is recovering from the Wolf attack, and Michonne is breaking the news to Maggie about Glenn, when Rick comes running with a huge zombie horde on his tail.  He gets inside just in time, as the half of the the quarry herd that got pulled off the road by the horn surrounds the wall.  Rick tells the survivor Sasha, Abraham and Daryl will return soon and use their cars to lure the horde away, but until that time, they have to hunker down, conserve food, and try not to draw attention to themselves.   Some of the residents try to raid the pantry, but Spencer stops them, only to raid it himself.  Deanna is trying to make sense of everything, but still can't kill a walker without help.  Aaron and Maggie try to sneak out to find Glenn, but cannot get through the horde.  Maggie reveals she is pregnant.  Carl and Ron get into a scuffle over Enid, and Ron later parlays it into a bonding moment with Rick, who shows him how to shoot.  Denise and Tara grow closer, and Jessie mobilizes the rest of the Alexandrians by telling them they need to stop sticking their heads in the sand.  Jessie and Rick kiss, but the episode ends with blood dripping down the walls near the lookout tower.

Now is the aftermath episode that seems to me should have happened directly after Thank You, but hey, I'll take it as it comes.   The hour ends with no resolution to the Glenn cliffhanger, but with lots of little character moments that flesh out just how traumatized the residents of Alexandria are following the attack of the Wolves and the onslaught of the dead.

The episode begins with Deanna on the wall, watching in a daze as the survivors collect the dead from the Wolf attack while Michonne tells Maggie that Glenn and Nicholas got cut off but that Glenn promised to signal if they could.  No signal was detected.

Rick yells for them to open the gate and sprints through a gauntlet of walkers to safety just as the half-sized horde surrounds the settlement.   Rick assures everyone that the walls will hold, but that they have to keep noise and light to a minimum until Daryl, Abraham and Sasha return with vehicles to draw them off.  Aaron confesses that the Wolves found them because he dropped his pack at the cannery, but that Rick's plan drew half of them off and away from the camp.  Later, Jessie attempts to bury a dead Wolf, but Rick reminds her that they don't bury killers inside the walls.  He says they'll have to wait until the herd goes away.

Several residents try to raid the pantry, feeling it's futile to try to stretch the food supplies, but Spencer stops them and tells them that if they do this, they will destroy the community.  Later, he confronts Deanna while drunk after raiding the pantry for himself and says that all of this is her fault for making them think they were safe.

Let's face it:  Aaron's seen better days.

Aaron finds Maggie at the armory gearing up to go find Glenn.  She is planning to distract the walkers with flashlights and create a path, but he knows a better way -- an old sewer tunnel from a preexisting neighborhood that was torn down to create Alexandria.  They proceed down the tunnel and battle badly decomposed walkers, but are dismayed to find that the herd is too big and has swamped the sewer entrance.   They can't get past the gate.   Maggie confesses that she is pregnant and that they can't go forward and chance it, because she has to think about the baby now.

Carl asks Ron to come outside the wall to help him find Enid, but Ron refuses and they fight.   Ron tells him that if Carl tries to leave he will tell Rick, and Rick will go looking for him, and might get hurt.  This persuades Carl to stay inside.

Denise is in the infirmary, trying to figure out how to treat Scott, who came back with Michonne from the quarry mission with a wounded leg that is now infected.   She is in way over her head, and confesses so to Tara.  She wants to leave the infirmary to someone else, but she is the sole surviving person with medical training.  Later, she finally finds a a way to drain his leg and stabilize his condition.  She finds Tara, and as they talk, she kisses Tara, telling her she doesn't want to waste any more time.

Heavens to Betsy, Jessie.

Jessie walks by a house and discovers a walker inside (this is Betsy, by the way, who slashed her own wrists after hearing that her husband died on the quarry mission) and kills her.   Other Alexandrians are horrified, but Jessie tells them that this is the way the world is, and they have to see it and deal with it.  She later tries to get her younger son, Sam, to come downstairs, but he refuses to, because of the violence perpetrated on the first floor.

Ron shares with Rick that he stopped Carl from going after Enid, and tells Rick he wants to learn how to shoot.  Rick has him fire some rounds into the herd below for practice.

That night, Deanna is walking when a Wolf that Carol shot earlier in the day attacks, having succumbed to his wounds and turned.  She stabs him repeatedly with a broken bottle until Rick arrives to kill it.   She asks Rick if her original vision was just a child's fantasy, and he tells her no.  Later Rosita is relieved by Spencer on the wall, where he drunkenly eats some crackers and stares at the horde.

Jessie and Rick discuss all the events that have happened, and Rick confesses he thought that the others would be back by now.  They kiss.

In the final scene, Deanna is walking around the perimeter again, steeling herself for what lies ahead.  She slaps the gate, taking out her frustration by striking at the walkers out of reach just beyond, but as she walks away, drops of blood can be seen on the wall next to the lookout tower.

Preparedness Discussion

The crew of Alexandria is in a tight spot.  They have suffered grievous losses at the hands of the walker herd and the Wolves, the herd has them surrounded, and their best, most experienced hands are missing in action.

Rick's orders to maintain light and noise discipline are the right move, but telling the residents in a loud voice next to the wall with a pack of walkers on the other side was stupid.  Likewise, maintaining a watch on top of the guard towers where the walkers could see the sentries ostensibly to watch for the returning members of the team is another bad move.   Sasha, Glenn, Abraham, and Daryl have radios, and they should be expected to call in when they get close to home.  Don't call for light and noise discipline if you aren't going to maintain it yourself.

We have so much background noise around us at any given time, we hardly recognize what quiet is anymore.  Turn off everything in your house, kills all the lights, and even turn off the heating system so that your house is completely quiet one night.  Shut your eyes and listen.  That's what noise discipline sounds like. Conversations should be in a whisper.  Go outside with all the lights off and have a family member move through the house with a flashlight to check and see if any light leaks around curtains, etc.

The benefit of noise and light discipline is that it gives you an advantage if you don't want anyone to know if you're around, and especially if you think your home or bugout retreat is being observed by someone or if you want to prevent someone from finding your bugoug location in the dark.   It's a passive security measure. While in most situations, you want a potential criminal to know you are there so they don't attempt to rob your house, there are some instances where staying quiet during a bug-in or at your bugout location would be advantageous. 

While Here's Not Here showcases the need for a group in a long-term survival situation, New highlights the risks.   Group morale and cohesion are breaking down.   The "native" Alexandrians have gone from a relatively secure, placid existence to one where their very lives are at stake, and they are not dealing with it well.  Even Spencer, who calls out everyone else for raiding the pantry, is teetering on the edge.   Things are not going to be always rosy in a long term survival.  There are going to be peaks and valleys.   If you cannot maintain morale and individual trust in the community, things can break down in short order.

Finally, let's talk about rationing and how the group is maintaining its stockpile of food.  It is not a very good idea to keep all the food in one place.  I have stated before, this group seems to have zero fire-fighting capability, and decentralizing makes a lot of sense.   Practicing the same methods can pay off in your own preparations.  See my previous entry on the storage totes you put under beds with extra supplies in them. Not only will this protect you from losing your supplies, to say, a kitchen fire, it can also help preserve them from thieves.  After all, who puts groceries under the bed?

If you have a secure spot off site, like a trusted family member's house, and there is some extra room in their closets, drop  a couple of changes of clothes, some toiletry supplies, and some food there as well, with their permission, along with perhaps an encrypted thumb drive with your important information saved to it.  That way, if there is a fire and you escape with only the clothes on your back, you at least have your important documents and a few days worth of supplies at another location.

Preparedness Lessons for Episode 605:

• Noise and light discipline can be a powerful passive protection device in certain situations.
• Think about how your group might deal with losses or adversity.  It's important to maintain optimism, but understand that not everything is going to go your way.  Plan for contingencies, and work to make sure group morale doesn't suffer.
• De-centralize your supplies.   This provides redundancy and security.

Next week: Daryl, Abraham and Sasha get their gun on when they are attacked by unknown assailants, and we'll see if Sasha decides to get on board the A-Train.

Preparedness Review of The Walking Dead Episode 604: Here's Not Here

SPOILER ALERT!!!


Episode 604:  Here's Not Here



Eastman:  That's the thing, Morgan.  Here's not here.

Synopsis: The Walking Dead takes a big detour into a super-sized flashback that tells Morgan's backstory.  The story begins with Morgan still at his compound in the town where he and Rick met, and he is ranting maniacally to himself. He accidentally burns down his abode, and ends up in a patch of woods, killing walkers and burning them.  He also kills any humans he comes across.  He finds a cabin owned by a man named Eastman one day, and is knocked out when he tries to kill the man.  Gradually, Eastman, who is a counselor, nurses him back to good mental health, but a final breakdown results in Eastman getting bitten and infected.   Morgan decides to leave and find Rick.   It was an essential piece to the character's story, but is told in an hour and a half and feels a little indulgent on the part of the writers.  Lenny James (Morgan) and John Carrol Lynch (Eastman) are very talented actors, but it all seems just a little bit overwrought.  Less is more.

He has to clear.

The episode opens with Morgan recounting his journey to the Wolf he captured in Alexandria's makeshift prison.   The action flashes back to King County, Georgia, where Morgan is ranting to himself in his makeshift safe house last seen in Season Three's Clear.  He topples a kerosene lantern, burning his house down.   He relocates to a makeshift camp in the woods, and clears the walkers in the immediate vicinity by killing and burning them.   He erects sharpened wooden stakes around the area to keep out the walkers while he is sleeping, and uses walker blood to scrawl messages on the boulders strewn about the forest floor.  One day in the woods, he finds himself pursued by a pair of men, who he ambushes and kills in cold blood.  His actions, give him pause, but he continues on his path of action.  It's as if he wants to change, but doesn't know the way out of the way he is now.

He is drawn deeper into the woods by the sound of a bleating goat, and finds a remote cabin that looks inhabited.  A man's voice calls out to him, asking him to leave the goat alone.  Morgan fires blindly then attempts to gain entry to the cabin, but is knocked unconscious.   He awakens in a cell with metal bars inside the cabin.   The man who has captured him introduces himself as Eastman, and Morgan pleads with him to kill him.  Instead, Eastman tosses him a book, The Art of Peace.  He feeds Morgan, and keeps him in the cell until slowly, Morgan begins to return to sanity.  

That's some appreciation there, Morgan.

You see, Eastman was a forensic psychiatrist in the old world, and his job was to examine people who had committed heinous crimes for their rehabilitation potential.   He sees something in Morgan that gives him hope.  Eastman runs outside to kill a walker with his staff, and drags the body into the woods.  Days pass.  Morgan still talks to himself, but he is intrigued by the martial arts practice outside.    Eastman finally tells him the cell door is unlocked, and he is welcome to crash on the couch.  Morgan attacks him, breaking a piece of drywall with a child's drawing hanging on the wall.  Eastman grabs the artwork and leaves the house.  Morgan returns to his cell voluntarily, knowing he is not yet ready to walk through the door.

Eastman explains that due to the nature of his work, he turned to Aikido, a Japanese martial art, for peace and solitude that eluded him.  He received a flyer on Aikido the day after his daughter gave him a rabbit's foot for luck, and he claims it gave him peace.

The next day, Eastman asks Morgan to watch over Tabitha, the goat, while he takes care of some things.  Some walkers attack her, and Morgan, with no other choice, handles the situation.  Eastman thanks him, but tells him he has to repair the fence he has broken, and shows him what he does with the bodies.  Each one gets a proper burial and wooden cross.  He uses their identification to make the signs.   

It's a buck and a quarter quarter staff.

Morgan is given his own staff, and the two practice Aikido together.  It's all so very zen, but there is something Eastman is hiding.  He tells Morgan that one of the prisoners he interviewed, Crighton Dallas Wilton, who he recognized as a true psychopath.  Wilton snapped and tried to kill him, and Eastman fought him off with Aikido.   Eastman recommended he be turned down for parole, and Wilton escaped long enough to go to Eastman's house and kill his whole family, then turned himself in.  The cell in the cabin was for Wilton, as Eastman had formulated a plan to kidnap the kill from a work detail and watch him starve to death in the cage.   When Morgan asks if he follows though, Eastman replies "I have come to believe that all life is precious."  Morgan tells him he is good at deflecting his Aikido opponents and the conversation.

Eastman decides they should leave to find more people.  He wants to scavenge some supplies, and Morgan leads him back to his camp, where he retrieves the supplies he took from the two dead men.  Sensing that Morgan is having trouble, that this spot represents where he was, Eastman orders him to practice Aikido with him.   A walker approaches, and as Morgan goes to kill it, he realizes it is one of the men he choked to death earlier.   He freezes, and as Eastman is pulling him away the walker bites Morgan's mentor.   Eastman kills the walker, but Morgan, enraged, tells him he shouldn't have interfered and attacks him.  The bigger, more experienced man subdues him, then carts his final body off to the burial ground.  Morgan eventually follows, but runs across a starving young couple.  He lets them live, finally having the breakthrough Eastman was trying to provide:  all life is precious.

Morgan backtracks to the cabin to find Tabitha being devoured by walkers.  He kills them and takes them and Tabitha to the graveyard.   As he is digging graves for Eastman, who is now feverish and weak, he sees a marker for Crighton Dallas Wilton.  Eastman confesses he followed through on his plan, and it took 47 days for the convict to starve to death.  Afterwards, Eastman went back to Atlanta to turn himself in, only to find the world had ended.  The artwork Morgan broke was from a wall on his house where his daughter had used a part of it for a canvas. Eastman cut it out of the wall and brought it all the way back to the cabin to remember her.

He tells Morgan he could stay at the cabin, but he really shouldn't be alone.   Morgan leaves following Eastman's death, and tracks down Rick.

Back in the present, the Wolf asks Morgan if he thinks that could work form him.  Morgan says yes, but the Wolf tells him that he is going to get out and kill everyone.  Morgan, frustrated, leaves him tied up in time to hear someone yelling to open the gate.

Preparedness Discussion

So after the bloody, shocking and all out pace of the first three episodes, after all this time traveling from Georgia to Virginia, after the show seemingly kills off one of the original characters from Atlanta, the beloved Glenn, we ... go back to Georgia?

Sigh.   I love the character of Morgan, as well as the actor who plays him, Lennie James.   He was a main star in another genre series called Jericho, which is one of the initial items which got me interested in prepping and threat assessment.  It was through reading about that show that I learned about a book called Lights Out, about an electromagnetic pulse attack on the United States, that led me to some prepper forums, and to where I am today.  

I also admired the job John Carroll Lynch, who plays Eastman, does in this episode.   He has tons of expository dialogue -- I mean, Shakespearean soliloquy level -- and he handles it effortlessly, delivering it with a sort of affected meh matter-of-fact attitude that feels authentic, like you are at a mid-America diner having coffee and talking about small town politics.   

It pains me to not like this episode.  I wanted to like it.  I know we had to have it to serve the story.   It just seems indulgent to spend an extended episode telling it.  Morgan is a fan favorite, but after the roller coaster of the previous three episodes this kind of pause feels forced.  That's the primary reason for Here's Not Here's rating of only three stars.

Let's get on with the preparedness discussion.   Eastman has a great retreat set up, with solar power, a water source, and stored and grown food.  He is a vegetarian, putting into practice his convictions regarding the sanctity of life.   The only thing it's missing is people.   He is alone, and the solitude is taking its toll, just as it did with Morgan.  Whereas Morgan is haunted by the guilt of his responsibility for his son's death, Eastman has forgiven himself and moved on to the business of survival.   Morgan is the worst possible result of the mental deterioration that occurs when afflicted with long term isolation.   Humans are social creatures, and lone wolf survivalism is simply not an effective strategy.  I might work in the short term, but the shear mountain of tasks that must be accomplished in a survival situation will lead to stress, exhaustion, and mental distress in the long run.   Preparedness is best approached as a group activity with like-minded people.

I like the idea of using something besides a gun to subdue walkers.   Eastman has mastered the art of self defense with a simple wooden staff.   It doesn't need reloading, won't rust, and if you break it, you simply go out into the woods and find another one.  It's also very quiet.  We've seen this before, with Michonne's katana and Daryl's crossbow.  All three require a great deal of practice and skill.   Skills trump gear again.  With proper skill, an ordinary piece of wood becomes a deadly weapon.

Finally, every prepper should look into growing their own food if they can do so.   It can be as simple as container gardening with a few tomato plants in flower pots, but doing something to provide food for yourself will be beneficial.  Learning to garden takes time.  Start small, experiment, and grow what you like.

Preparedness Lessons for Episode 604:

• Humans are social creatures, and preparedness is a group activity.  Find a group of like-minded, trustworthy people with complimentary skills and work together to make things better for all involved.
• Investigate ways to practice self-defense without a firearm.  Martial arts, pepper spray, and other defensive weapons are options, if you practice their use.  Always check with local laws regarding possession of such items.  You can't prep in a jail cell.
• Figure out a food you can grow, and start small with container gardening.   You will be taking responsibility for feeding yourself, and it will feel great!

Next week:  Alexandria endures a siege of the dead, and Maggie reveals something to Aaron.   Oh, and the new doc kisses Tara.