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 received Zombie Fluxx as part of my 2009 Ars Technica Sekrit Santa gift. I had some limited, prior exposure to the original Fluxx game several years ago when I worked in Maryland and remember not liking it. I wasn’t entirely sure why I didn’t like it, and in fact I don’t remember if I played it or just watched it being played. However, I think it had something to do with all of the rules and that it seemed confusing.

Now, we all like zombies out here, and most of us like games, so I thought Zombie Fluxx would be worth a try, despite my reservations. We gave it a shot on the tail end of Christmas break, and have run it a few times since with different groups of gamers. Here’s what we thought.
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Okay, here’s a fun game I played with my friends and family this holiday.

You’re in the middle of a major world crisis. Zombie apocalypse. World War Three. Super deadly strain of Hamthrax breaks out. Hockey gets canceled. Whatever the reason, you’ve got to leave wherever you are, and get to some place “safe.” The “safe place” isn’t important; what’s important is that you only have time to take one of each of these things with you when you bug out.

You have to have the item in your possession, either in your domicile or in storage less than 15 minutes away by vehicle.

You can only take one item from each category. Not two. Just one.
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Every year, I am impressed at the thoughtfulness of the gifts I receive from my Sekrit Santa. The amount of consideration from my Sekrit Santa this year is matched only by my embarrassment at not posting sooner. We’ve been preparing the house for holiday visitors, and between the painting and the unexpected kitchen sink explosion I have been very bad at not saying thank you.

Here’s how my Ars Sekrit Santa did a fantastic job this year.
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Longtime Gibberish readers may have noticed how much I like zombies. Zombie fiction is an easy way for audiences to address otherwise unwieldy topics like disaster preparedness and materialism. It is also an easy way to convey the concept that sometimes the real monsters are people, and that human nature may be to step on any number of other people to look out for yourself. While often light-hearted, the recent Zombieland film covers all of those bases and pushes all the right buttons.
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The H1N1 pig flu got a lot of attention in the media and at the office water cooler. Whether you believe it’s a big deal or not, situations like this are helpful for reflecting on your level of preparedness. It’s like a zombie movie: the chances of facing an undead horde are small, but it triggers the preparedness thought process just the same.

Some cities put up a quarantine to deal with the spread of H1N1. If you were in a disaster area or in a quarantined city, how long could you comfortably stay in your home? To make it easier, let’s assume you have your normal utilities (power, water, etc).
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Left4Dead is a co-operative, multi-player shooting game set in a zombie apocalypse. It will be available for Windows and the Xbox360 on November 18, 2008. I have anxiously watched the game’s progress. My love for the zombie genre is well documented, and the concept of blasting the undead with three of my friends seems too good to be true.

Thanks to a tip from Ars Technica member and Gibberish reader Agreschn, I was able to get early access to the game’s demo. I debated playing the game after getting my access key for two days. I was disappointed by the 360′s zombie breakout hit Dead Rising, and the fear of disliking Left4Dead was almost greater than my interest in playing the demo ahead of everyone else.

I also had two competing objectives when I played the demo: I wanted to write as much as possible about the game, but I didn’t want to spoil the experience. Some demos are just a tutorial, some are a random chapter of the game, or is a special-made level. Left4Dead starts you off at the beginning of the storyline: you are one of four humans trying to escape a city overrun by zombies. A helicopter passes by, loudspeakers blaring the location of an evacuation point. I played the first level a few times and the second level once. My initial observations may change once I play the full game, but here they are so far.
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I saw this on TeamXbox today. A new iteration of Call of Duty, a first person shooter video game franchise, is due out later this year. This particular version of the game is set in World War II.

Question: Given the glut of WWII-themed games, how do you keep the excitement level high?

Answer: Zombies.

Bonus points: Nazi zombies.
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I loved taking my expensive LEGO theme sets I was given as a kid and jumbling all of the blocks into a giant wooden box. I had the most fun building whatever I thought was cool instead of what the directions said. Sure, I’d build the set once, but after that it was into the box.

The spirit of a child (or a child at heart) crafting something out of imagination and a bunch of plastic widgets has crossed over to another one of my favorite things: zombies.
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A really awesome interactive movie entitled “The Outbreak” puts you in a starring role against an advancing zombie horde. It’s part choose-your-own-adventure, and part Night of the Living Dead.

Warning: not safe at the average workplace due to language, violence, and gore.

Play the movie once (or whatever) and then read the rest of my entry.
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