Monday, April 6, 2015

book review grid down v2p3 & one other article


 
 
 
 
 
Cc:
– Down
BOOK REVIEW: GRID DOWN V.2, P3 & ONE OTHER ARTICLE

We have talked at length here before about Bruce Buckshot Hemming and
his books ( NUG alert-I like them enough to recommend them all.  Yes, a smidge stilted in style, and somewhat predictable.  HOWEVER…this is not some idiot with a keyboard and a Kindle account trying to make a fast buck by entertaining you with Hollywood level hokum.  This guy is far to the realism, teachable moment spectrum rather than the lowest
common denominator one.  Now, I’m entertained when I read them.  They just aren’t mindlessly slick.  They have flaws.  Whose writing
doesn’t?  You won’t just be bedazzled and distracted as with most Apocalypse stories.  You will be entertained enough to happily get
through them, THEN you will also have learned something ).  Here is #4 of his series, “Grid Down Perceptions Of Reality Volume 2 Part 3”.
With this one, a different turn is taken.  It took me by surprise, pleasantly.  I don’t really want to give a spoiler here, but the book
practically hinges on just this one aspect.  Wild life from a refuge has escaped and is depopulating the area ( I can attest to the
realistic nature of this theme, knowing a donation pick-up driver to a nearby refuge ) as they must turn to humans for food ( for some
reason, cries of “soylent green is people” are going through my mind here ).  Oh, there are other events, one of which was a satanic cult
kidnapping the young nubile sacrifices to be.  I kind of thought it would have been really cool if the Satan dudes psi-controlled a murder
of crows ( or several ) to attack the rescuing group, but alas, me and author were of different minds on that because nothing close happened.
Look, if you are going to have Satan worshipers in hoods chanting Latin, why not throw in some of Lucifer’s Minions helping the brothers
out?  Crows are cool- they should be in every post-Apocalypse story. Perhaps next time.

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Bruce is coming along on the human interaction thing.  Yes, still a bit stilted in narrative flow ( right, like I really know what I’m
talking about given my fiction-I’m just saying some writing styles seem more like an outsider looking in rather than you feeling close to
the characters ), but the romantic attraction thing seems a little less forced this time, a bit more realistic.  And, I read this whole
book in one setting, which made dinner late and one should NOT eat chili when bedtime is only an hour away.  Is that entertaining enough
for you?  This series keeps going on with no quality sacrifices, and with moderate improvements each time.  If you liked the other ones, you will definitely like this one.  Personally, I would recommend the
paper version.  If all you can afford in Kindle, you will want to take notes.  This one is like the others, full of tidbits of instruction on
wilderness survival and how-to shortcuts.  You know, for those not saving all those U-Tube videos.  And even then, paper is timeless,
baring a fire or crows attacking you at your library.

END-more below

CONDENSED LAUNDRY SOAP

When the Internet groaned under the weight of a metric short butt ton of U-Tube videos and blog articles on making your own laundry soap for forty cents a gallon, I read and watched with mild interest but didn’t give it a lot of thought initially.  Okay, my gallon of liquid soap I buy at Dollar Tree pencils out to around $2, each jug being half a gallon.  But that is still cheaper than most so I was content just stocking up every time I went down to visit the parental units back west ( we have stupid crap stores like Dress Barn,  bitches clothes, even a friggin Yuppie Make Your Own frozen yogurt, but can we get our own Dollar Tree!?  NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!  You would think I would have been happy once Jack In The Box showed up, but now they have disillusioned me.  My last taco order tasted “off”, not as in fresh but in taste,  and that night they cleared out my intestines.  I’m over those bastards ).  But then, my last few remaining brain cells woke up, yawned, looked around, fired electronically and came up with the long delayed but obvious observation I had ignored before.  It isn’t just that the homemade soap is oh so very much cheaper, it is the fact that it is condensed.  As in, oh so much nicer for stockpiling.  Just as powdered bleach let us store water disinfectant in a small space, replacing bulky gallons of bleach, now we can store condensed liquid laundry soap in dry form.

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Here is the article I found:


Obviously, this isn’t rocket science.  The main thing is that since the ingredients all come in different size packages, you are going to have to noodle out how many of each will in the end equal the same amount of inputs.  The borax come in an 80 ounce box, but the Arm & Hammer is 70 ounces ( if memory serves ) and you need one bar of soap for every one cup each of the powders.  So in the end, they don’t all add up.  You can’t buy one of each every shopping trip, but rather dozens of soap bars per box of powder, and for every ten boxes of borax you buy nine of the A&H ( or something similar-I haven’t actually done the math ).   Hey, this shouldn’t be a big deal.  Somebody measure out how many cups of powder come in each box, then the math becomes pretty easy.  I’m at work, with the Internet down, AGAIN, so my research abilities approach zero.  And, yes, I’m aware they make powdered laundry soap already, smart ass.  But liquid works better in cold water (  which might be all you get later on ), AND you should be able to also use liquid laundry soap as a substitution for dish soap and hand soap and even body gel.  I don’t know if it is as effective, but it certainly can’t hurt and will certainly help.  Post-collapse, soap is your best friend for keeping healthy and vermin free.

END
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18 comments:

  1. Some of the dollar stores are shutting down around here. Went to 3 yesterday before we found one that wasn't boarded up. 2 months ago all 3 were functioning. Seems to be more people in them these days too, buying stuff. 2 years ago it was normal for me to be the only customer, everytime I went in there. Now, I have to maneuver around the obese old ladies and younger ones too, in motorized chairs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With such increased demand, how do the $ stores close? I know Dollar General built way too close together. And the Habeeb $ stores were always crap. Are the closing stores one of those?

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    2. To tell you the truth I could never keep the names of the dollar stores straight, and now the signs are gone so I don't know which ones closed. My wife told me last night that a couple of them have consolidated/merged.

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    3. You know, now I'm thinking I heard something about Tree and General merging. I could be wrong. No. Family and General. That's it. The first would make no sense as only one is a true $ store. So, closing stores would then make sense.

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  2. re your comment today:

    "My last taco order tasted “off”, not as in fresh but in taste, and that night they cleared out my intestines. I’m over those bastards"

    I feel exactly the same way about Toxic Bell.

    The last couple of times I order a simple freaking bean burrito from them, the night's sleep time was less than pleasant for me.

    I may be slow sometimes, but I ain't terminally stupid.

    Never again will I buy anything to eat from that crappy chain.

    I think that hairless rat-looking little chihuahua that used to spout out "Yo quiero Toxic Bell" on the commercials likely shits in their food.

    Blah.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Holy crap! They didn't stop the commercials with the dog because of the Latino protests, they stopped it because the dog was turned into taco meat!!!!

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    2. Well what do you expect? Look at the quality of people they hire there. Last time I was in there, couple years ago, the ho at the counter looked like an honest to gaw krak ho I shit you not. Tattoo's and piercings everywhere even in her face, ripped up colored hair, skinny as as hell and looked like she was rode hard and put up wet. Takes a lot to make me step back but step back I did. jeezis kryst, I wouldn't let any of em mow my yard let alone touch my grub. fukemded

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    3. Do you know if she was single?

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    4. Let her get a look at the stack of crisp new bills in your wallet while getting out a $5 FRN, and she's single after this shift ends.

      And look at that hair on the old man!

      Consider the biological warfare and personal safety implications of picking up at ToxicBell, as well as the psychic damage that you get to share from pole-smoking-tramp-stamped methmom.

      pdxr13

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  3. Borax and Laundry soda are both VERY useful for themselves- Borax is a good pesticide, Laundry soda can be used for a variety of purposes. IIRC Both can store for indefinite periods if kept dry (air tight and cool would be a bonus too) it is the Naphtha Soap that doesn't store so well... But there is no reason that you can use store bought Tide now while putting a few years back of this stuff to make your own when Tide can no longer be bought at a price you can afford...

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    Replies
    1. You can afford Tide? Are is that a wife command? Always seemed yuppie high dollar to me.

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    2. Nah, we COULD afford Tide, barely, and the spouse considers it the gold standard, but we usually use a cheaper brand that works good enough.

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  4. If you leave the scents out, you get clean clothes that will not alarm game and attract attackers. Good tip fair haired one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But without the scents, your butt smell will be more noticeable. Just saying.

      Delete
  5. Hate to tell you but this recipe has been around for ages. One problem is whites end up dingy looking. My recommendation to correct this is to add baking soda to the mix when washing whites.
    I read a blog post once that said to stock up on one soap only that will do everything. Castile soap liquid and Dove soap bars were given as examples. You can wash anything with either of these, from body and hair to dishes and floors. Castile soap can be bought in bars as well and doesn't have to bough as liquid.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bursting my darn bubble. Okay, FINE! New to me. :)

      Delete
    2. I solved that problem by not buying/wearing white stuff. Done.

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    3. My whitey-tighties are more like grayee-tighties due to all one load wash

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