The (Verizon) Casio G'zOne "ROCK."

The (Verizon) Casio G'zOne "ROCK."

The features I happen to like:

Mil-Spec on shock and vibration resistance, water and dust resistance, immersion in water, exposure to salt fog and extremes of altitude, high and low temperatures and solar radiation.

Bluetooth compatible
Camera
Music/MP3 Player
Removable Memory / Micro SD Card
Speakerphone w/ dedicated speakerphone key
Mil-Spec requirements for exposure to the elements and abuse
Emergency Flashlight
Earth Compass
Walking (Pace) Counter
Thermometer
Tides
Sunrise and Sunset
Astro Calendar
Speech recognition w/dedicated voice dial key & Voice commands
Alarm clock
calculator
calendar
stop watch
Phonebook / 500 entries with multiple contacts
Battery and Data/Charging Port Covers have gaskets!

The Casio ROCK is a clamshell/flip phone that also has Push To Talk (PTT) capability...which I have absolutely no desire to have!

Interesting though, Casio is a cool company and they did something really neat with that PTT button if you do not have the PTT service on the phone. Most companies would just have that button there, doing nothing. Casio did it right, you can assign that red PTT button as a hot key to some other feature on the phone of your choice. This is wonderful as I have the MP3 Player on tap via this red hot key so the Black Sabbath is only a touch away.

Being a clamshell/flip phone/communicator, this one has a neat switchblade feature. There is a coil spring in the internal area of the hinge and when you push a silver button on the side of the hinge, VOILA! it opens right up for you!

It can also be opened manually in typical drone mode.

Another hot key on the bottom of the phone is for all of the Casio G'zOne G'zGear features such as the Earth Compass and Thermometer, etc.

I am quite pleased with it so far. It is my first departure from Motorola. My first phone was a Motorola E815 and then after two years I "upgraded" to a Motorola Razor...some would say that was a step down...even though I have stepped away from the Razor, I still cannot decide if I ever really liked that phone.

This Casio Rock Thing? Yes...it is to be enjoyed...so far.

The MP3 Player, playing it with the speakerphone on is actually a cool little device!

Survival Kit Contents from Salvaged Aircraft

A friend of mine works for an aircraft salvage company. He was kind enough to send me a few items that were still in good condition in an otherwise ruined survival kit from an aeroplane.

The compass is an all-but-exact copy of a Brunton Trailbuster compass.

The whistle is very flat and suitably annoying to be acceptable as a survival whistle.

The snare wire is quite stiff. It's as stiff as steel but appears to be anodized aluminum...

The pencil is...well, it's a pencil!

A small instruction sheet for the compass and a decent little pamphlet of survival instructions and "mirror" inserts in the center of the book that appear to be Mylar, used as an improvised signal mirror.

The cord on the whistle appears to be quite tough and could serve other purposes.

The pocketknife is quite a find! It's basically a small version of the classic "Hobo" Knife. Folding Hobo Knives are generally quite large, this one is a great little pocketknife made by Colonial.

Knife blade, can opener, fork and spoon, great little knife! Not quite the quality of Victorinox...

New Survival Food - Emergency Ration Bar

They taste pretty good, too! Very Earthy and wholesome tasting. Here is The Bible Bar next to a full-size MetRx Bar, Blueberry Crisp Clif Bar and a package of Raspberry Gel Blasts from PowerBar...just for size comparison.

"There's something about a train that's magic..."

Old AMTRAK commercial! What a jingle!

This entry is about freights and not passenger trains. It is also about O.T.T. which stands for, "Old Time Tough."

Enjoy.

There is a massive amount of information to be found on the "North Bank Fred" website. You can find it here.

Mainstay Rations

This is a very simple review indeed. The question is, if you had to eat this type of "Survival Ration," would it be an unpleasant experience for you and your family? The second part of that question is, how about young children who are picky eaters?

This ration is almost too good to be true. The Mainstay Survival Rations actually taste good, they taste great, actually. I think they taste like a slightly weakened Archway Lemon Frosted Cookie, my Wife does not think they even taste that "lemony" but she considers the individual portions to be large, shortbread cookies, after reading the ingredients information on the package and tasting them.

In an emergency, anyone can suffer from more than a little anxiety, especially children. Having something tasty to eat instead of lightly-flavored cardboard should pick up even the most dour person's spirits for at least a few minutes, right?

True to the company's claims, they do not make you thirsty, another thing that amazed me.

These rations are well worth the price. They are an incredible value.

The manufacturer sells these packs of Mainstay 3600 bars, each package has 9 individual bars in it and each bar is 400 calories. A case is ten (10) of these packs. They sell them for just under $50.00 per case. It doesn't take a mathematical genius to arrive at "$5.00 per pack."

Excellent price! You can really afford to put in a lot of these into your emergency food supply!

A word of caution now. At the risk of being considered a "liberal" or a "communist" or "anti-capitalist" or "anti - free market," I have to warn you that there are companies out there selling a case of ten of these packages for almost $150.00 Yes, you are reading that correctly.

I'm sorry if I offend some of my readers by saying this, but these people are scum. They take advantage of people, it's incredible.

The packaging is quite tough and should protect the rations for a long, long time. Also, when you open the rations, you can use the package for other survival tasks like carrying water or wild edibles like wild onions, garlic, black berries or mulberries.

Here is the generic description/information you can find out about Mainstay Rations online, on various websites that sell them.




Mainstay 3600

5 year Shelf Life

Non-Thirst Provoking

Withstands Temperatures of -40° F to 300°F (-40°C to 149°C)

Ready to Eat: Each package contains 9 pre-measured 400 calorie meals.

Individualized Portions eliminate the messy breaking-up that occurs with other bars

Allows for on-land emergency consumption in a high-stress active situation.

Contains no cholesterol or tropical oils.

Meets the US Coast Guard standards (160.046/23/0). It's new modern packaging even meets the stringent guidelines set by the Department of Defense (SOLAS 74/83).

Enriched with vitamins and minerals exceeding the RDA requirements.

Pleasant lemon flavor which appeals to everyone.

Mainstay™ is Kosher and it meets the dictates for Halal.

When disaster strikes, you will know where...

A most interesting website. Breaking, worldwide news on disasters...

Rite-in-the-Rain Paper, does it really work?

Yes it does! It's marvelous!

So, I decided to try a few different writing instruments.

A PILOT Razor Point - total failure. It did not want to stick to this paper and when I placed the paper under the bathroom faucet, it washed the ink off as if it were dirt on the paper.

A PILOT G2 Gel Ink Pen, which happens to be my favorite pen when I have to do a lot of writing. It did not want to write on this paper but as you can see from the photographs, it did not wash off the paper as the other PILOT brand pen ink did.

Pencil was, as expected, just fine.

Sanford Sharpies are just great markers. The top-most text in black and blue Sharpie was five to six minutes old (dried), approximately, when placed in the sink. The lower black and blue text was under two minutes old when placed under the water.

I could not believe it! It is the paper because Sanford Sharpies will smudge on a host of papers and boxes, etc. Not on this stuff!

Then I deliberately tried to smudge the ink on the paper with my thumb, it didn't smear.

This excellent product line can be found here: Rite-In-The-Rain.

Huevos Rancheros Uno

My El Cheapo-Norte Americano Huevos Rancheros

However many eggs you wish to cook and however you wish to cook them. I prefer scrambled.

One (1) can of Mild, Original or Extra Hot - RO-TEL.

Three (3) cans of Del Monte sliced (pre cooked) potatoes or Hanover (whole, small) New Potatoes.

One (1) Chorizo per person.

Find a can opener or you will thtarve!

You desperately need a can opener to open the RO-TEL and canned potatoes.

If you don't have the can opener, you will thtarve...errah, you'll starve.

Or you will have to pound the can on the ground or perhaps use an axe or hatchet to open the can.

It's easier to use a P-38 Can Opener or a Camillus "Demo" Knife or Cub/Boy/Girl Scout (Camillus) Knife.

Or, you could make a deal with the mouse, see if that works. It usually doesn't work and results in being electrocuted when you stick your hand in the wall through the mousehole or all of your hair being blasted off of you when you try to blow the mouse up. If you are a duck, you will usually have your bill spun around or have to pick it up.

Huevos Rancheros Dos

Scramble your eggs.

Fry the potatoes and add black pepper, garlic powder and onion powder to taste. Just use a little bit of butter.

Fry the Chorizo.

On the plate, add Ken's Cajun Seasoning. Oh, you don't have any, do you? That's a shame!

Survival Product

I picked up a container of this Instant Chicken Soup, very good!

If I remember correctly, it was about $5.99 and the container lists 67 servings.

Drawbacks? It has MSG in it, so if you are sensitive to that chemical, you need to avoid this or use it minimally.

If I eat at the wrong Chinese Food Carryout, my ears will look like they are ready to burst into flames, some people end up in the emergency room over MSG.

I had one cup of this instant soup last night and a cup about 15 minutes ago, don't feel bad at all. I guess the Chinese Food Carryouts really pile the MSG on...

OSEM Chicken Consomme / Instant Soup

Ingredients: Salt, Corn Starch, Sugar, Dextrose, Spices, Flavor Enhancers (Monosodium Glutamate, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate), Maltodextrin, Hydrogenated Palm Oil, Dehydrated Onions, Yeast Extract.

Now, say you have your little alcohol stove made from a soda or beer can, you have you some HEET (Methyl Alcohol) and you have your steel cup and some water and a package of this instant chicken soup. You're cold and you're trying to get warm...and this will go a long way towards making that a reality.

Gerald Celente's Article on Neo-Survivalism

Posted with the permission of Gerald Celente: Trends Research - Gerald Celente - Neo-Survivalism PDF - Click here to download or view.

Listerine

I'm always on the lookout for multiple use items, I guess we will have to stock up on Listerine at Casa de Rariko.

Six Alternate Uses for Listerine

The Mayo Clinic's "Essentials for Disaster"

Survival kit: Stock up on essentials for a disaster...

I'm impressed, in this day and age of lawyers who specialize in trying to push stupid agendas, they even have "knife" on the list.

A most interesting blog...

The Economic Collapse Blog...

Gerald Celente - Trend Prediction for 2010 - "NEO-SURVIVALISM"

Read article here...

Explore over 100 years of Popular Science Magazine...

Over 100 Years of Popular Science Magazine right here!

There should be a wealth of info there...

Cheaper RV Living Website

This morning I was reading this good website which focuses on Cheap RV Living, "Vandwelling," etc.

This goes back to my blog entry on The New Homeless as well as "Vanning" and "Stealth Camping" and much more.


If I didn't have a child, I can see my wife and I doing this.

Someone Else's "Urban Survival Kit"

Some would refer to this as "EDC Items" (Every Day Carry) or perhaps even "Snivel Gear."

This is an interesting little article, light fare on a Sunday morning.

The person that wrote it is actually pretty funny and sarcastic and that always helps.

Someone Else's Idea of an Urban Survival Kit

Eureka! USMC Combat Tent

Pretty good tent! It's a bit larger than it might appear in these pictures. Speaking of the pictures, they were taken with my Motorola Razor cell phone so that's why they are not so good.

It's great for three people, especially in the cold! The material held the body heat very, very well. It got down to 42 degrees early one morning and it was quite warm.

The rain fly is off of it in these pictures.

The concrete fire ring is BLAH...I don't particularly like established campgrounds that you have to pay for, etc. But that's what I have to do around here to go camping locally. That's why I also gather discarded lumber at work, I'll burn anything I can find...within reason...and except to cook over.

That was a lovely weekender in Oktober. I wish I had the money to do it a couple weekends out of every month or had a place to go camp locally that didn't cost nothing...or cost less than $60.00 a day for a tent spot.

Cabela's GoreTex Bivy, Snugpak Merlin 3 and Katadyn Hiker Microfilter

Some important stuff, to say the least.

Look at how small the stuff is! That Snugpak Merlin is a bit fatter than a regular loaf of bread but shorter! The orange bag contains the Cabela's Bivy Shelter which has its own zippered pouch and can be folded and compressed much, much smaller but I have not mastered the tricky ways of the Cabela's Bivy folding, rolling and smashing procedure.

The Snugpak Merlin is rated down to 32 Degrees Fahrenheit. If I stick that into the Cabela's Bivy and add a Therm-a-Rest sleeping pad, which I am going to do, I'm fairly certain I am going to be able to survive all but arctic conditions...along with some common sense and perhaps a few other, simple things...

The green and khaki sheet is the rainfly to my Eureka! USMC Combat Tent and can serve as a ground sheet, the rolled up British DPM material is a Basha from Britain and the open pack is T.H.E. Pack from SpecOps Brand with the orange bag in view with the Cabela's GoreTex Bivy in that sack.

SpecOps Brand T.H.E. Pack

"T.H.E." stands for, "Tactical Holds Everything."

Well now, it might not hold "everything" but it sure does hold A LOT and it's an excellent pack. Discussing it casually with Kenneth yesterday, he remarked that having a waistbelt was good but the fact that it was not padded was not so good. Maybe so, maybe so. Since I am rather used to the torture of using packs without such niceties as chest straps and belts of any kind, perhaps I am more lenient of the lack of padding on the belt.

More posts coming later today.

The Grundig Radio is for scale.

Excellent pack, quite comfortable to me and holds essential gear and maybe a good bit more if you put some MOLLE pouches on it as I intend to do.

I like Olive Drab (O.D.) Green. If you need it camouflaged, all you have to do is roll it around in the dirt for a couple of minutes and it's camouflaged.

Bushman's New Fatwood Blog...

If he never makes another entry, his blog would still be a great guide to finding Fatwood and how easy it is to use.

Look over to your right in the links listing for Bushman's FATWOOD Blog.

The Subivor entry from last October gets a comment...

Go back and read the comments...

The Original Subivor Post, October 2009

One Backpack and One Shoulder Bag, what goes in and what is this game all about?

I feel like I am finally entering the era of modern hiking and camping gear.

In a couple of trades over the last two weeks, I have landed the following equipment:

1. A Katadyn Hiker Model Water Filter, very small and very nice.

2. A Cabela's GoreTex Bivy Sack which is a very, very thin zip up bag that is more of an emergency shelter than a traditional sleeping bag... In it's self-storing pocket, it is just incredibly small and just about as large as the Katadyn water filter in its zippered storage bag.

3. A Snugpak Softie Merlin 3 Sleeping Bag which is just a tiny bit larger in diameter than a loaf of bread and about 8 slices shorter than a loaf of bread - now, that's really small for a sleeping bag rated down to 32 degrees Fahrenheit! You know, FREEZING!

4. SpecOps Brand - T.H.E. Pack in the much cherished Olive Drab Green. You need it to be camouflaged? Just roll it around in the dirt for two and a half minutes and it will be nicely camouflaged!

I can put the first three items in the fourth item and along with some other choice items, fill up item four and go disappear if I have to. That's a good thing. (Between two guys named Spencer and Steve, I traded for these great items...and thank you guys if you read this.)

I know I have probably said it somewhere on this very young blog and I am positive that I have said it in a few different places on forums dedicated to survival gear - but this is "THE GAME." This is how I like to "game stuff out," for lack of a better phrase...

If you can arrive at your own combination of gear and carrying system and achieve this goal, you will have a great chance of surviving just about anything.

I'm not going to discuss firearms because it's simply beyond the scope of the discussion and laws and personal philosophies are so varied it would be pointless to do so. Obviously, you should have some type of firearm and be skilled with it or your ideas of "surviving" might not be all they are cracked up to be.

That having been said.

You have a really good pack, backpack, ruck, rucksack, whatever you want to call it. You're packing your life in it, what you need to survive, so it better be big enough and tough enough to take a beating. Also, for the purpose of this exercise, you should have an equally good shoulder bag. It might be a Maxpedition Fatboy, Fatboy Jumbo, Collossus - all "Versipacs" from that company. Or something like a Timbuk2 Messenger Bag, your choice.

I have sort of modified this from the original exercise of just having ONE BACKPACK. So, now you get a shoulder bag as well. Just remember, you have to be able to carry this stuff through a variety of terrain and until you are absolutely bone tired and cannot go any farther. For some, that might be five miles and others maybe forty miles.

What do you put in that backpack and shoulder bag in order to survive the greatest number of possible situations?

This is the rest of "THE GAME." You take your backpack and the shoulder bag and you throw that in the trunk of your car, the bed of the pickup or back of the van or Jeep and you drive to a predetermined place and you pull the car off of the side of the road and you unload your two packs and you walk into the woods and you never come back.

Don't ask yourself the following type of question: "Why would I do that? What sort of situation would warrant that type of action?" That doesn't matter! That's not what the exercise is all about. The exercise is about choosing equipment to save your life.

Also, do not get into the trap of thinking like The Ultralight folks and start to mutate the exercise into: "I would not even need two bags..." Or, "I would not even need a large backpack..." Or...anything else like that at all! No, you take from the Ultralight folks, their awesome discoveries in gear, the innovations, and you take that and you exploit that to your safety and benefit.

On the other hand, you don't load the backpack and the shoulder bag so heavy that you need to be a bodybuilder to hump it through the woods. You have to strike a balance.

Because that's what a truly intelligent human being does in any endeavor, right? You don't necessarily embrace the extremes, you strike the balance and then you get on with it.

That's enough for today's "sermon." I really didn't mean to sound so preachy, just came out that way I guess. Ultimately, you can take what you read here and just go play with it and you might arrive at totally different conclusions and that's all right too, that's perfectly good because that is what any good blog or website is, a teaching vehicle and not Jonestown.

Tomorrow or the next day, some pictures of this stuff and a little bit more.

I am sorry!

Didn't mean to take so long, became caught up in the holidays and work and everything else in life and neglected this blog. Writing is a discipline and it's hard to be disciplined about something that doesn't pay the bills and you have to be disciplined about that!

I'm recovering now after two back-to-back blizzards.

Become a "follower" of the blog - even though I am not the biggest fan of the term "follower." E-mail, leave comments, this will inevitably motivate me to write more. The best motivator is exchanges and input, at times.

- Don