Are you, at this very moment, ready to deal with the aftermath of something this catastrophic? If not, ask yourself what you can do to make it right.
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Are You Ready For This?
http://fox59.com/2016/08/24/photos-tornadoes-make-their-way-through-indiana/
Are you, at this very moment, ready to deal with the aftermath of something this catastrophic? If not, ask yourself what you can do to make it right.
Are you, at this very moment, ready to deal with the aftermath of something this catastrophic? If not, ask yourself what you can do to make it right.
Monday, August 22, 2016
Monday Morning Rambling
With the inevitable summer rush, I've been a bit remiss with my focusing skills. I've all but forgotten my carbine drills for some odd reason. My efforts with long range and pistol are still on point, but the poor carbine needs some work.
My last 2 classes have been a bust so I've kinda put it on the back burner. No reason to get all sharp unless I need to right? Wrong. I need to stay sharp all the time. It would only take me 60 rounds of drills to get the muscle memory back, but it's an issue that needs to be addressed. Losing any muscle memory from the tool box is a major loss.
It's hunting season where I live so I'm working on getting out during the week while the wifester is in the Lone Star State on business. Makes for a more easily dealt with planning stage. Work has gotten really slow the past month. I have some work scheduled but people are cancelling due to financial stability issues.
Ryan over at http://www.totalsurvivalist.com/ had a very good point that I always like to reiterate any time I see it. Plan for the most foreseeable danger, then work out from there. His entire life has been shuffled by a recent breakup and being as familiar as I am with bad breakups, I understand why he's focusing on the more important things in life until he can get his mind right. That's really important to remember as modern survivalists. There's no reason to stock 30 years of food if you're going to die of hypertension after 5 years working too hard to pay for it. It's the age old tortoise and hare story. Sustainable growth, sustainable life, and sustainable attention to detail is far more important than a flash in the pan.
Germany is telling it's citizens to stock at least 10 days worth of food in case of unrest. I believe that's a complete understatement of the severity of the issues currently facing the country. Our own is also in jeopardy with the current socio-political landscape. We are a single police action shooting away from full scale country wide riots.
Stay sharp, my friends.
My last 2 classes have been a bust so I've kinda put it on the back burner. No reason to get all sharp unless I need to right? Wrong. I need to stay sharp all the time. It would only take me 60 rounds of drills to get the muscle memory back, but it's an issue that needs to be addressed. Losing any muscle memory from the tool box is a major loss.
It's hunting season where I live so I'm working on getting out during the week while the wifester is in the Lone Star State on business. Makes for a more easily dealt with planning stage. Work has gotten really slow the past month. I have some work scheduled but people are cancelling due to financial stability issues.
Ryan over at http://www.totalsurvivalist.com/ had a very good point that I always like to reiterate any time I see it. Plan for the most foreseeable danger, then work out from there. His entire life has been shuffled by a recent breakup and being as familiar as I am with bad breakups, I understand why he's focusing on the more important things in life until he can get his mind right. That's really important to remember as modern survivalists. There's no reason to stock 30 years of food if you're going to die of hypertension after 5 years working too hard to pay for it. It's the age old tortoise and hare story. Sustainable growth, sustainable life, and sustainable attention to detail is far more important than a flash in the pan.
Germany is telling it's citizens to stock at least 10 days worth of food in case of unrest. I believe that's a complete understatement of the severity of the issues currently facing the country. Our own is also in jeopardy with the current socio-political landscape. We are a single police action shooting away from full scale country wide riots.
Stay sharp, my friends.
Monday, August 15, 2016
Always Strive To Learn.
I'm a student of human nature. Not in the clinical sense, but of those in stressful situations. Being an instructor for several hobbies that can be life threatening, I will share with you a few observations that I've found to be very telling.
Gods walk among us. There are a few people out there that are uniquely built to handle any emotional situation without any long term or short term issues. I've seen the meekest young lady become a warrior when things go bad. You would have never guessed it, but she handled her life threatening situation like a champ. She had been cornered by three bad guys in a parking lot. She was a waitress at a local pub that is almost always busy. She keeps a small 2 inch pocket knife in her apron to open boxes of straws and napkins with. She fought off three drunk thugs with that knife and walked 200 yards to a drug store to call the police when the thugs decided they were outclassed and left. She was covered in the blood of those thugs.
Gods walk among us. There are a few people out there that are uniquely built to handle any emotional situation without any long term or short term issues. I've seen the meekest young lady become a warrior when things go bad. You would have never guessed it, but she handled her life threatening situation like a champ. She had been cornered by three bad guys in a parking lot. She was a waitress at a local pub that is almost always busy. She keeps a small 2 inch pocket knife in her apron to open boxes of straws and napkins with. She fought off three drunk thugs with that knife and walked 200 yards to a drug store to call the police when the thugs decided they were outclassed and left. She was covered in the blood of those thugs.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Extremely Relevent Post by JWR at Survivalblog.
I don't get over to survivalblog very often anymore. They were the first to post any of my writing and for that I will forever be grateful. It kick started this blog and my writing at other avenues and some more "seditionist" pages I've penned for. I try to keep it on an even keel here, but it's a very well known fact that I believe, and have believed for the past 20+ years that Her Highness Killary is the devil incarnate. If you believe the way I do and expect to see a civil war if she becomes president, read this article in its entirety.
https://survivalblog.com/madame-clintons-coming-war-on-the-blogosphere-and-your-countermeasures/
I have a plan. I've done the research. Many of the things on this have already been done my me, including buying prepaid phones 700+ miles from my AO with cash. Clean operations equipment, clean infomatics, clean pseudonyms with street cred are helpful.
I've been blessed to have made the acquaintance of many who have worked within the government leviathan. It's truly amazing what they will talk about when you shut up and listen. Equipment capabilities, standard procedures, contract personnel requirements, maintenance intervals, team tactics, observation capabilities and most importantly, who they look for. The above post at survivalblog will help you realize your exposure to action. Be aware and ever vigilant.
https://survivalblog.com/madame-clintons-coming-war-on-the-blogosphere-and-your-countermeasures/
I have a plan. I've done the research. Many of the things on this have already been done my me, including buying prepaid phones 700+ miles from my AO with cash. Clean operations equipment, clean infomatics, clean pseudonyms with street cred are helpful.
I've been blessed to have made the acquaintance of many who have worked within the government leviathan. It's truly amazing what they will talk about when you shut up and listen. Equipment capabilities, standard procedures, contract personnel requirements, maintenance intervals, team tactics, observation capabilities and most importantly, who they look for. The above post at survivalblog will help you realize your exposure to action. Be aware and ever vigilant.
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Training issues/ Student issues.
The situation within the training industry today is rather sad. I've been teaching some skill or certification from the time I was 23 years old. It was motorcycle racing and track days, then it was SCUBA diving and new electricians, now it's survival/primitive skills and firearms as well. Over this time I've had some really great students. They didn't have to be the best at what they did to be good students, they just needed to have a good outlook and the will to stick with it. Today things are changing. They want instant professional grade acumen and zero effort to boot. It's driving me absolutely batty.
Another issue is cost. They want a budget class with high end training. I really wish I could do that. Let's break it down. Rent the range at a premium training facility that will let you shoot a 3 dimensional class. 20 per student/per hour for an 8 hour class. 5 students- $800 before I even get out of my truck. Now lets get into paper targets, balloons, rope and cones, steel targets and wear and tear. Call it 300 per class for that. Now factor in my time and that of the other instructor. 16 hours classroom and range time total times 2. At twenty bucks an hour we cost 320 bucks. Range ammo we use to demonstrate skills and run through the gauntlet confidence drills is about 140 bucks per instructor so 280. Let's total that all up
800 + 300 + 320 +280 =1700
5 students =340 bucks cost.
We charge 350 for the above cost associated carbine course coming up next weekend.
Every prospective student says it's too expensive. After costs, he and I can't take the profits and buy a lunch at McDonalds. I make 3x this hourly rate at work.
Here we are, an NRA trained instructor and a 22 years Special Forces vet that worked Special Operations CIF for quite a few years, then attended the police academy upon retiring from the military at an E8. The wealth of knowledge on 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation warfare sloshing around in his head is staggering. You literally cannot buy that knowledge anywhere. You must live it. Yet we can't get 5 students who want to learn carbine use and drills for advance and break contact from a guy that's taught the special forces from more countries than he has fingers and toes. Frustrating isn't descriptive enough.
Then tonight I had a SCUBA class for the first rating, Open Water. One of the students couldn't make the first class, no big deal. He let me know and we can make up the work if he misses one. Tonight, same douche nugget forgets his books. Now let me drop the hammer on the whole deal. These people are in a hurry to get certed before they go to Florida in 2 weeks. Yep, in a hurry but don't care that they must take responsibility for getting it done. I'm so sick of it. There's no money in training, we do it out of love for the things we do. We think it's important to teach people how to properly do things. I'm teaching people with ZERO skills how to stay safe in a foreign environment that you can't breathe in. You'd think they would consider it important!
You're paying not just for training, but to learn the tips and tricks that others, including myself have spent tens of thousands of dollars to experience and test the ideas we teach. Literally decades of training and putting rounds down range, thousands of dives up to 300+ feet in underwater caves and wrecks, dragging a knee on a racetrack at triple digit speeds, and last year alone I spent 70+ nights in the field under the stars. But it's still too expensive to pay to learn what would have taken you literally years of experience to figure out on your own. Go ahead, be my guest.
The Firearms market is back in flux due to the elections and everyone is stockpiling weapons and ammo, but if they have to fight to keep them, a 10 year old with a Ruger 10/22 can swiss cheese these turd blossoms before they figure out how to charge their weapon and turn off the safety. Forget about their gun having a good repeatable zero because they can't remember their cheek weld or body position, or their optic's battery is dead. They have no damn clue. If that's you..... Get your life sorted. You owe it to your country and your family to get your stuff squared away.
That is all. Carry on.
Another issue is cost. They want a budget class with high end training. I really wish I could do that. Let's break it down. Rent the range at a premium training facility that will let you shoot a 3 dimensional class. 20 per student/per hour for an 8 hour class. 5 students- $800 before I even get out of my truck. Now lets get into paper targets, balloons, rope and cones, steel targets and wear and tear. Call it 300 per class for that. Now factor in my time and that of the other instructor. 16 hours classroom and range time total times 2. At twenty bucks an hour we cost 320 bucks. Range ammo we use to demonstrate skills and run through the gauntlet confidence drills is about 140 bucks per instructor so 280. Let's total that all up
800 + 300 + 320 +280 =1700
5 students =340 bucks cost.
We charge 350 for the above cost associated carbine course coming up next weekend.
Every prospective student says it's too expensive. After costs, he and I can't take the profits and buy a lunch at McDonalds. I make 3x this hourly rate at work.
Here we are, an NRA trained instructor and a 22 years Special Forces vet that worked Special Operations CIF for quite a few years, then attended the police academy upon retiring from the military at an E8. The wealth of knowledge on 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation warfare sloshing around in his head is staggering. You literally cannot buy that knowledge anywhere. You must live it. Yet we can't get 5 students who want to learn carbine use and drills for advance and break contact from a guy that's taught the special forces from more countries than he has fingers and toes. Frustrating isn't descriptive enough.
Then tonight I had a SCUBA class for the first rating, Open Water. One of the students couldn't make the first class, no big deal. He let me know and we can make up the work if he misses one. Tonight, same douche nugget forgets his books. Now let me drop the hammer on the whole deal. These people are in a hurry to get certed before they go to Florida in 2 weeks. Yep, in a hurry but don't care that they must take responsibility for getting it done. I'm so sick of it. There's no money in training, we do it out of love for the things we do. We think it's important to teach people how to properly do things. I'm teaching people with ZERO skills how to stay safe in a foreign environment that you can't breathe in. You'd think they would consider it important!
You're paying not just for training, but to learn the tips and tricks that others, including myself have spent tens of thousands of dollars to experience and test the ideas we teach. Literally decades of training and putting rounds down range, thousands of dives up to 300+ feet in underwater caves and wrecks, dragging a knee on a racetrack at triple digit speeds, and last year alone I spent 70+ nights in the field under the stars. But it's still too expensive to pay to learn what would have taken you literally years of experience to figure out on your own. Go ahead, be my guest.
The Firearms market is back in flux due to the elections and everyone is stockpiling weapons and ammo, but if they have to fight to keep them, a 10 year old with a Ruger 10/22 can swiss cheese these turd blossoms before they figure out how to charge their weapon and turn off the safety. Forget about their gun having a good repeatable zero because they can't remember their cheek weld or body position, or their optic's battery is dead. They have no damn clue. If that's you..... Get your life sorted. You owe it to your country and your family to get your stuff squared away.
That is all. Carry on.
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