I love flashlights. Like pocket knives, they are a tool that when you need it, you really need it. I used to carry around a “Mini” MagLite and the MagLite Solitaire but those were too big for pockets and I hated wearing a flashlight on my belt. Fast forward several years and I started buying LED flashlights for the house. They were still too big for my tastes until I stumbled upon the 9-LED flashlight from Harbor Freight Tools (see my review).

Even with such a small design, I sometimes forgot the flashlight or left it at home. I was walking through Harbor Freight not too long ago and found a single LED keychain flashlight for $0.99. I had avoided these before because they always seemed too underpowered to be of much use. However, I figured for a buck it was worth it. Cheap Gibberish entry, at least.

Then I found TEN similiar LED keychain lights on Meritline.com for $5.99 (they are now $5.39 as of this writing). That’s including shipping! I had to wait about a week for my order to arrive.

All of a sudden we went from a quirky one-off review to a full-on cheap ass key chain flashlight shootout.
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If you want to see me fly way off the handle, harm a child. The AMBER Alert is a system used to notify the citizenry in the case of a child abduction. Typical information includes the child’s name, physical description, and supporting information (if available) such as a description of the abductor(s), any vehicle used in the abduction, etc.

In the United States, AMBER Alerts can be sent to your mobile phone in the form of a text message free of charge. I am a Verizon Wireless customer, and I stumbled upon this functionality due to curiosity. It’s free and easy to do. Here’s how.
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Keeping your loved ones safe sometimes means holding down a steady job and saving money. Sometimes that means learning to defend yourself effectively and legally. Sometimes that means staying out of sketchy areas, or keeping your temper in check behind the wheel of a car.

Sometimes keeping your loved ones safe means protecting them from themselves.

If you have knives, firearms, ammunition, or other potentially dangerous items in the home, you need to do the responsible thing and lock them up.

The model 91006 electronic digital safe made by Bunker Hill and imported by Harbor Freight is an inexpensive way to keep curious fingers away from your belongings.
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Sometimes you get what you pay for. Sometimes you need high quality gear that won’t fail on you when you need it the most.

And sometimes you can get by with the bare minimum because something is better than nothing at all.

The 9 LED flash light from Harbor Freight Tools is cheap, inexpensive, and pretty damn useful. Oh yeah, it can be had for as little as $3.99 for a pair.
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I’ve had an ADT alarm on the house for over five years. The main reason I got it was for the fire and smoke monitoring. I wanted to make sure someone would come if the house lit up while I was away. I don’t really care about the things inside the house, I just want someone to rescue my three dogs.

Over that five year period, I’ve had a few false police alarms. Those were mostly caused by pet or house sitters, and ADT called every time to see what was the matter. It was never a big deal.

However, I inadvertently triggered the fire alarm over Easter weekend, in possibly the lamest way imaginable.

Here’s why user interfaces and usability are important in all facets of our lives, and not just software and Web sites.
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You’ve probably been there before: maybe you had a flat tire on a dark night. Maybe the power went out. Maybe you heard something bumping around downstairs. You grabbed your flashlight and tried to turn it on — but nothing happened. Perhaps a sad little click click click as you hammered the switch. The batteries were dead.

I try to check my flashlights every year at Daylight Saving Time. I waited a bit this year, but the concept is the same: periodically inspect your flashlights to make sure they work when you need them.

We had eleven out of twelve working torches. In addition to finding a dead lamp, I also discovered that I didn’t have any flashlights in my personal go-bag. I added two from my reserves and was good to go.

Take a trip around your house and cars right now — how many lights do you have, and how many were working?

We had another snow storm here in Virginia last weekend. I lived in Utah during my high school years, and while it snows much much less in Virginia, Utah was well-equipped to handle routine and heavy deathflakes. Virginia, especially where I live, doesn’t get enough snow to really justify a fleet of trucks and stockpiles of de-icing goodies like sand and salt.

As such, people start to get nervous whenever the forecast calls for snow. This is our second “heavy” snowfall this year, and normally we escape the winter months without so much as a flake. We got about nine or ten inches of snow at the house, and some of my friends got as much as thirteen inches. The storm took place over an eighteen hour period, and my buddy Stilts was visiting for the weekend.

We wound up staying inside the house for three days, and local roads are still iced over quite a bit. Here’s what we did, and what I might change before the next snow or ice storm.
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One of the reasons I like zombie movies is that they are conversation starters for disaster preparedness. “What would you do if there was a zombie apocalypse” is a nice science-fiction way of saying, “what would you do if the world went crazy for awhile?” I credit Romero’s Night of the Living Dead for starting my interest in disaster preparedness and how to comfortably survive a disruption of service.

Out here in Virginia, the only things we have to worry about are ice storms, hurricanes, and maybe an odd flood or two. There are “bug out bags” in the house, but the central strategy here is to wait out a disruption of services of up to two weeks. During the first time I lived in Virginia, one of my co-workers went two weeks without power. Her family wound up staying in a hotel, but it was not uncommon for folks to be out of juice for multiple days. When you live in a house powered by all electric appliances, that is a big deal.

So it was with anticipation that I started reading “Apocalypse Chow: How to Eat Well When the Power Goes Out,” by Jon and Robin Robertson. I had hoped that it was the cookbook equivalent of Night of the Living Dead, and that the book would help me evaluate my current food stores and how I prepare them.

Unfortunately, the recipes are too complex and are made up of things an average American house probably doesn’t have. The book violates a few rules of thumb in the preparedness community, and as such Apocalypse Chow has limited usefulness in your preparedness library.
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I recently built two “bug-out” bags (BoB), and did some of my shopping at Wal-Mart. I had plenty of supplies here at the house, but I needed a few odds and ends. I happened to see a three-pack of dry sacks by Outdoor Products. They might come in handy, especially for things I really really didn’t want to get wet.

At $9.99 I was skeptical that the bags could keep anything dry in crappy conditions, but I figured at least it would make a good Gibberish entry. I put the trio of bags in my cart and started thinking about how to test the dry sacks.
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Let’s face it. Motorcycling is a dangerous activity. If you have training, gear, and experience motorcycling might be less dangerous than if you have none of these, but the fact of the matter is you never know when something unexpected is going to happen. A truck could run a red light and smash you to bits. That lady eating with both hands and steering with her knees might drift into your lane too fast. Hell, you might even get hit in the face by a bird and go down on an isolated stretch of highway. And let’s not even get started on forest rats — I mean — deer.

You can do one of two things: continue riding as if nothing can touch you and forgive any preparations, or do the most you can to mitigate your risks and prepare your a potentially serious or fatal accident.

I’m a “preps” kind of guy. I try to find a balance between doing the things I want to do and being as ready as possible for unfortunate circumstances. On one hand, you can’t be crippled by fear and not do the things you want, but on the other hand you have to a plan.

Here are some of things I do to prepare for the worst.
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