Thinking Quote #1

When I am involved in a conflict physical fight or serious argument. I deal with the situation as if i am unarmed even if I am. Taking away power makes us think more evenly and clearly. Always use your head first...

Wild edibles site link01

My Family Survival Plan.com

52 Plants in the wild you can eat

I Really like this site this is a good intro to learning some good common edible plants with clear easily identifiable color pictures. Identifying edible plants is a great tool to have in your mental toolbox. perfecting it however can take a lifetime. So stop screwing around and have at it...

Sad Truth's

If he could only see us now.

Understanding Triage Following a Mass Casualty Event

Understanding Triage Following a Mass Casualty Event

A great informational read from a very informative well written site.

"I don’t care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching they are your family."

Jim Butcher

When it comes to true survival hatred only gets in they way.....

AR-15 Slide Fire Stock Review: Practical & Tactical Or A Cool Toy?

Steps to Surviving with Others (self discovery03)

In my last Self Discovery entry we touched upon figuring out who we are as far as our reactions to stressful situations are concerned. By now some you may be thinking "what the hell does it matter. I didn't visit this dam site for a counseling session. Well there is a point and that is achieving our goals as efficiently and safely as possible.

Here's the facts: trying to change other people can be a waist of time and precious energy and 99% of the time ends up in failure. Adapting our self to a situation and to other people will produce a much higher success rate. A large portion of society has serious control issues and feels threatened when their control is put in the line of fire. Someone who feels threatened can quickly turn from an ally to a possible vengeful enemy. Knowing were you fit in and the limitations of your abilities is more productive for you and the rest of your group and in turn my gain valuable allies or friendships.

In self discover part two we went over a simple math approach to figuring out what our average response is to stress. Now we have to learn when to engage and when to step back or adapt based upon this discovery.

Cool, now I get to tell a story..

Once upon a time a long time ago when I was just a young lad, lol, ok sorry I wont tell it fairy-tail style. I'm pretty confident your not my 7 year old son.

In the late 90's a friend and I started a private security company called shawnesee Security. Our company consisted of around 30 people: military, gang members, yes I said gang members and professional and non-professional martial artist. All different races, upbringings and financial statuses. Let me tell you we were a very non typical group of people back then.

Our company was for hire for anything from individual home protection to working riot and crowd control. So maybe your thinking were does the riot part come in. A large amount of our customers were and still are in the hardcore music venue, so pit control sometimes with very large crowds. For those of you who have never seen a mosh pit. Imagine a circle of a few hundred hyper and pissed off pre-adults. Some juiced up on alcohol, energy drinks and often many other drugs to top it off. Dancing full contact and throwing kicks and punches at the same time.To add to this ticking time bomb there were often groups / clicks and gangs present. Dealing with a bunch of hardened criminals was easier and considerably safer, trust me I've dealt with both.

Believe it or not there is a kind of respect of unwritten rules within these pits. Minor or unintentional injury is common place and totally acceptable. Intentional injury or major damage infliction however, is cause for a fight or worse. Sometimes bad people that know the rules are there deliberately to take an opportunity to inflict harm in the mist of chaos. This event just happens to be one of those times. Two guys both with groups of friend who had previous conflicts decided this would be a great time to do each other in.

Having such a variety of different skills and personality's seems like it would be a very problematic management issue.The training procedures for a new security member of our group lasted around 2 months. Sixty percent of which consisted of self awareness training. The other 30% was learning group awareness skills. Group awareness training pretty much consisted of us beating the crap out of each other. This was done respectfully after dinner and a few beers. That may sound bad but learning each others abilities is key to the success of this type of organised security.

Within the group of assigned personal there was a hierarchy of command. This is common place in the security business. This one however differed in that it was a rotating chain of command or tap out as we called it. Every one of our security personal was taught leadership skills. yet at any given event only one lead officer was calling the shots for any active confrontation or problem.

Here is an example of how this system worked.  Our team is hired to work a hardcore show. Its a good size crowd and the Pit or mosh pit has formed. We have eight officers assigned to the pit. Four in uniform on the outside (inactive) watching and listening for problems. Another four (active) in plain clothing within the pit itself. This group is what we call Leads. Their purpose is to help maintain stability of the pit area by action and distraction. The four inactive officers are the evac / safety group. Their job is to disperse the crowd and prevent unwanted exterior intervention.

 The four gentlemen that we had as pit leads were: Rob a former Skin Head, Jim a martial arts instructor and certified nut case, Dusty (USMC) and myself  at the time acting floor boss. Initially Rob spotted the two groups standing off (like a 12 o'clock showdown) and signaled to the the rest of us. In many security scenarios this signal would activate a group rush or show of force and intimidation. Not for us, Robs signal simply meant that he was going to intervene. At this point Rob became the acting lead officer. He calls the shots and just needs to find a distraction method to gain a point of entry. He has already sized up the two groups involved and is ready to make his move.

To be Continued.....Ah isn't that irritating.
If I finish the story and cover everything at once it will be a very long read. The average attention span on an individual internet site is around 10 minutes now (much longer for porn). You still have more to see on my blog.  Besides I want you to visit so much you feel at home. So Ill get the popcorn and drinks ready for; Steps to Surviving with Others (self discovery 03-II).

Here is a link to a great site Global Incident Map. I check this frequently. Personally I'm not sure how accurate it is so please don't hammer me with questions (as I find out more info i will update this post). The Site has links to disease outbreak maps, HAZMAT and Forestfires and others. This link will be at the bottom of my page permanently as well. Anyone who can attest to the validity of these maps please post a comment, or send me an email thanks.

I received a very informative email from Morgan Clements at Global Incident Map responding to this post and explaining their sources and tools. After speaking with Morgan I have a much better understanding of their services. This is a great company and I am looking forward to seeing what they in-store for the future.

The Email is listed below :

Hi Kyle,

Just a quick note to say thank you for mentioning us in your blog, and linking to us.

Your blog post asked about the validity of the maps. We are probably a bit biased J

However, the maps are primarily populated with data from open-source media, which in this case mostly means news reports. With each item on the maps we give credit to the originating author/publisher, and point the user to the actual article on the news website where they can go read it in full if desired.  It could be CNN, or Fox, Xinhua in China or BBC in the UK, or any other news media from anywhere in the world.  We are also a-political, with no particular agenda or any political advertising, we have no grants or other outside funding other than subscription revenue and ad revenue, with only one of our maps requiring a paid subscription and the rest being free public services.  Two of our maps bring in data from various governments, the earthquakes map and forest fires maps, in which case we are mostly populating the maps with that data that is provided by USGS or similar agencies throughout the world. We’ve been mapping terrorism events since 2006 and the other maps have been created somewhere along the way since. We also have quite a number of new maps planned for release within the next couple of months.

I don’t normally check out every blog that mentions us but the name of yours intrigued me. It looks like you are a bit of a prepper/survivalist, with an interest in psychology, and in those areas we share a common interest.

Feel free to keep in touch, thanks again for the mention and link, and best of luck to you.

Kindest regards,

Morgan Clements

Publisher GlobalIncidentMap.com

Steps to Surviving with Others (self discovery02)

In part two we will dive deeper into figuring out how we respond to different situations. This is the first part in a process of learning how to correctly use our abilities to solve problems that we may encounter.

Enemy of The State

Shoot out scene

In the above clip is a famous shootout scene were our hero (Will Smith) has set up a meeting with a Mob boss and the N.S.A. In this particular situation He used two on going problems and combined them to get explosive results. Of course in the end it works out in his favor (That's Hollywood for you!).

Just a mental note, I would not recommend this type of conflict resolution unless there was absolutely no other possibilities. Like i said, "that's Hollywood" and your actual chances of  walking away from that without collateral damages or fatality is 1 in 1000.

• Step 1: Just Who the Hell am I 

This is the most important and key step to figuring out what tools we have available inside our toolbox we call a brain. Everyone's toolbox is filled with different tools and accessories.  For some it may just be filled with a large lump of shit. That's ok, shit makes fertilizer and promotes growth when processed right.

How do I deal with stressful and intense situations? Do I become angry and aggressive or have a tendency to withdraw and become passive. we have all seen an action movie or two were the big climax scene is a standoff between good and evil. Often in films the fight comes to a breaking point. Sweat and tension builds both sides are tired and injured. Yet negotiations may start to be thrown out on the table.
We always called this the calm before the storm (back in the good old days).

In many cases we are lead to believe that everything will work out peacefully....but then. Here comes that guy or girl: the one who lost all the money, had a bad day at work, caught his wife with the neighbor or just had a bad fucking week. He or she has their own agenda and comes out guns blazing and gets everyone killed in the process, except for the hero of course.

So which one are you; the smart cunning hero, the angry its all about me guy, the I want to run the other way person or none of the above.

This is what we have to discover. One of the best ways that has worked for me is to take mental notes. when I get involved in a conflict at work or with a family member. Going back over the situation when the feelings involved have passed and breaking it down step by step. By doing this it enables me to get a better understanding of what was going through my mind at the time. I always remember that feelings have a direct and often bad impact on achieving my goal. Even for the well educated and trained person self reflection is ongoing and can and should last a lifetime.

This breakdown method can be used in all aspects of life. Not just in the climactic shoot out scene which hopefully most of us will never encounter.


Once enough incidents have happened over a period of time then its time to do the math. No I'm not going to throw a major college level trigonometry problem at you (I fucking hate math). Just a simple equation of figuring out the Mean / average of how I respond in stressful encounters. For this purpose we have to relate our feelings to responses. Here is a picture of a feelings wheel that is a great reference for relationships between feelings.

Tumblr blog 

Anger=aggressive response, Fear=withdraw or escape and passive aggressive=intellectual or problem solving.

This is just my personal choice, you create these feeling relationships how ever you see fit.I can already hear the tough guys now "I don't feel fear!". Uuum, bullshit, if you don't  feel fear than your an N.B.C or sociopath and you should seek help (fear hides itself within anger sometimes).

 I tried to make this as simple as possible for my needs. The more variables you add the more complicated the math of course.

Ok so, by using our average  basically out of 10 stress related incidents I responded: aggressively 6 times, passive aggressively 3 times and withdrew once.  My results 60% / 30% / 10%, So I'm pretty much an asshole most of the time, lol. Some of your results may surprise you or maybe you knew them already. Remember the object is to figure out how to funnel our individual skills correctly. This is just a step its not meant for judgement. Every good survivalist knows that everything has its use for something. That's the purpose of this Self Discovery series.

Next: Self Discovery Part 3 (Turning shit into shineola)

In part 3 we will talk about our average responses and learning to target them accurately within a conflict. 

Code Name Insight: Survival Skill #2 Procuring Water (Part 2 of 10)

Code Name Insight: Survival Skill #2 Procuring Water (Part 2 of 10)

Steps to Surviving With Others (Self Discovery01)

A fight for dominance

Throughout our lives we all go through our battles. Some of them are necessary conflicts and some are not. The hard part is determining which ones are productive and non destructive. or can result in a loss or fatality in your behalf. I have chosen this picture of a kangaroo mating battle because it is a great representation of a battle for survival. Two animals fighting (sometimes to the death) for the ability to insure that their genetics remain prevalent. This for their species is a part of the natural process of reproduction. 

Ok so lets change focus to us, I mean humans. I'm assuming if your reading this you are one (this is the fun part). Most of the time we fight for the dumbest and most un-productive shit imaginable. The really stupid thing is that at the time we may believe it is the right thing to do. Why do we feel its right at the time? Its because we are usually: angry, pissed off, enraged, scared, desperate or hurt. 

These feelings are part of our self preserving nature and are great. If they are used correctly that is. If they are abused or not understood they can cause disaster.  Feelings interfere with logic and greatly change the way we interact with our surroundings. In any survival situation this can mean the difference between success or failure. 

It is up to you to figure out different ways to deal with your feelings. It takes training and a lot of self awareness to hone in on the proper use of feelings. Here is a link to a simple article about dealing with conflict (How to diffuse an argument).

In part 2 of Self Discovery I will dig further into different ways to figure out just who we are as individuals and methods to start utilizing our individual talents.

     

Development of Massive Licences Plate Database

Homeland Security Seeking To Develop Massive License Plate Database

Survivalist News Network

Im sure this has been in process for a long time...