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The Survival Game

  • Dec. 24th, 2006 at 12:25 PM
survival
a while ago, I had this idea that I should start accumulating a survival kit in my basement "just in case". and then of course I totally forgot about it, until last week's windstorm. now of course there are obvious things: water, non-perishable food, first aid kit, but it's more fun to make a game of it. e.g., S and I had this exchange:

me: what about a phrasebook?
her: what would you need that for?
me: well, what if we're invaded by the russians or something, it'd be good to have a phrasebook
her: uh huh
me: but which languages, I wonder. russian? chinese? jewish?

or like a toolkit. which tools provide the best tradeoff of utility vs space/weight? monkey wrench? wire cutters? okay canned food, but campbells soup or wolfgang puck gourmet? beef jerky? how long do power bars last, and which flavor would be least gross if you had to eat it every day while fighting off the mutant C.H.U.D.s?

so anyway yeah, I'm starting a survival kit. your suggestions, serious and less-so, welcome.

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[info]runehog wrote:
Dec. 24th, 2006 09:41 pm (UTC)
gold bars?
high-octane gasoline?
ammo?
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[info]optic wrote:
Dec. 24th, 2006 09:49 pm (UTC)
instead of gold bars i was thinking smaller units of gold, silver, or some other valuable metal, in case the money system breaks down. small units of aluminum?
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[info]elkay wrote:
Dec. 25th, 2006 02:12 pm (UTC)
During its heyday in the 19th century as a new and exotic substance, aluminum was nearly used to cover the Washington Monument (I hope I have the building right), as a symbol of how rich and classy America had become.

(source: Bill Bryson's _Short History of Nearly Everything_)
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[info]_silent_star_ wrote:
Dec. 24th, 2006 09:42 pm (UTC)
Do you live in the city? suburbia? An apartment? your own house? I'd recommend different things depending on those.

I have a lot of emergency supplies, but I live in a mountain wilderness area, so I actually use a lot of "emergency" stuff just for daily living.



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[info]optic wrote:
Dec. 24th, 2006 09:54 pm (UTC)
urban, semi-urban. I have a house with plenty of basement space.
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[info]elkay wrote:
Dec. 25th, 2006 02:09 pm (UTC)
Check out this thread-- http://idyll23.livejournal.com/291597.html

More car-focussed, but a lot of those things would apply to a house kit as well. I particularly like the peanut butter suggestion, that's genius. You should have a car kit as well anyway :)
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[info]optic wrote:
Dec. 25th, 2006 07:21 pm (UTC)
thanks for the link. I'd vaguely planned on having two sub-kits in my survival kit, one for the car and one backpack-sized. but that's more to put in the car if I need to flee the radiation cloud or something. I do keep some of that stuff in my car though. and I'd planned on peanut butter for my kit too :)
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[info]dieszy wrote:
Dec. 26th, 2006 07:34 pm (UTC)
These may not sound practical, but I'm just passing on what's helped either people I've known in disaster areas or myself. Items to add: two ways to charge a cell phone (car charger and electrical charger), a water purifier, and two kinds of camp stoves.
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[info]toastednut wrote:
Dec. 27th, 2006 02:08 am (UTC)
you need a wii and a backup wii. and a generator with fuel and/or hamster-power adaptor(s). no, you don't need a screen or monitor -- that's just silly.
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