Dome Home

Over at evylrobot's blog he was discussing dome homes... Since I grew up living in one, I thought I could contribute to the discussion. I did so to some degree, but I figured a few pictures would probably show things better than I could say them.

The front window catches a lot of sun, and because of the open interior cuts down on the heating bill.

Yeah, even our animals live in domes...

I probably could have taken better pictures to show how curved it is, but it does present a challenge in interior design sometimes.

The intention was to put actual walls up on both of these outside rooms, as with many ideas, life got in the way, the upside was that the rooms stayed warm, the downside was lack of privacy, although the setup with the quilt in the next picture was replicated on all of the banisters when kids were in the house.

Normally a stovepipe would be cutting through the center of this picture, my parents just remodeled and haven't gotten it back inside, we probably will about the time it warms up. =)

Triangles making up the ceiling, the kit my father bought included all the joints for all of those triangles to make the frame.

The view from above (note the snazzy new wood flooring and leather furniture, they wisely waited until their destructive children were out of the house before this remodel) The bright light is the window, it was very warm and very bright in there, despite it being late in the day.

There are probably a few things that looking back my father would have done differently... Like closing off those rooms, but overall the house has given my family thirty-some years of living space... and good stories to tell new co-workers and such.

Nanny State

New York is yet another example of the nanny state failing to actually provide for it's citizens. It's like small government liberty loving folks are right or something... I'm willing to bet that had that hurricane hit the "American Redoubt"(for lack of a better descriptive term) people would have been a lot more prepared.

It's really just common sense to prepare for whatever natural disasters could happen in your AO. Here in the state that starts with an M and ends in issouri that's basically tornadoes. Sure you might have to worry about flooding depending on how close you live to the Missouri River. If you live close to the bootheel you might be concerned about earthquakes, but I really don't include those in my list of possible disasters. So yeah, in the Tower(second floor apartment ftw =/) I'm ready for a tornado, assuming I don't get immediately blown away, I have the gear and tools to make sure that it doesn't force me to go crying to the government. I also have a community(family, friends, church) that would be able to step in and immediately help me out.

Everyone and their mom says this and they say it because it's true. The things you should prepare for are the boring ones like losing your job, and natural disasters. Preparing for the impending apocalypse is a good exercise, but ultimately if a Hurricane foils your preps because you starve to death while fending off a few looters with 25k rounds of 5.56 you've failed.

Tyranny

Tyranny has hardly been relegated to the pages of history. Whether it exists in the obviously repressed nations of Syria, Iran and North Korea, or the terrible and yet enticing power of the Communist state of China, tyranny still rears its head. The only proven defense against such encroachments of freedom is unceasingly and vigorously defending all of your rights, anything less means your children will grow up in a world less free than you did.

Every right enumerated in the Bill of Rights has a purpose, a significance to them. Taken separately, the rights don’t appear to be anything of great import. Yet when taken together they grant incredible power to resist tyranny at any and all levels of government. Freedom to speak against tyranny, freedom to write against tyranny, freedom to preach against tyranny, and finally power to resist tyranny with force. So individually the founding fathers gave us the necessary tools to prevent the government from overreaching. But they were even smarter than that. The final right in the Bill of rights is yet another safeguard against an tyrannical government. The government most easily influenced by the people, was set as a safeguard against a power hungry federal government.

It was, as many of our Founding Father’s ideas, genius. They had set multiple safeguards against Tyranny. The first was, quite obviously the constitution itself. The second was the ability for the states to have more control than the Federal government, because the states had more control, they were also the easiest for a citizen to influence. Prohibit freedom while in the state legislature, and you could easily be voted out of office, and a more liberty loving citizen would take your place. Finally, the citizen’s rights, all of those rights contained in those first amendments would be the last safeguard for liberty. Tyranny would have to march through all of those walls before it could corrupt and destroy America.

It has.

Our Courts no longer find that our Constitution is really all that relevant in today’s world. Constant “new interpretations” of the laws mean that they don’t mean what our Founding Fathers intended.

State’s rights were assaulted head on in the Civil War. The power of the Federal Government was not to be trifled with. In the decades following the war states slowly but surely began losing their ability to resist tyranny. The states possess some of their abilities, but in their ability to resist Tyranny, they’re obviously sorely lacking. 

We finally arrive at the citizen, the last stand against Tyranny. Those rights in the Constitution have been worn away by time, the citizens have grown fat and happy allowing a government to usurp their rights and responsibilities so they can lead more comfortable lives.

The freedom of speech has turned into freedom to speak certain things at certain times and certain places. Speak freely as long as you don’t say anything that could possibly be demeaning, hurtful. Speak anywhere as long as you aren’t near a Secret Service protected event.

Live secure in the knowledge that your government can’t hurt you, unless you’re suspected of aiding terrorists, then that noise you just heard might be a drone about to kill you.

Finally, live with the knowledge that “the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” actually means that they can restrict what kind of guns you can buy, how many of them you can purchase, and even when and where you can keep and bear them.

This world looks so blissful, society looks so free, until you take a step back to see how far we’ve fallen.

Government dependency amid economic collapse

I'm going to go ahead and throw a quick LINK in here, it's a long read... If you don't want to read it all, just look at the pretty pictures (graphs) they show a pretty alarming picture of what this country is coming to. It's not really news though, you hear about government dependency all the time. More and more people operate under the expectation that the government will provide for them and/or help them in their time of need. What's even more alarming is that we're at the highest rate of dependency since the Great Depression... What that means to people concerned for their survival, is absolutely nothing good.

Lets consider the kind of people alive during the Great Depression, if they lived on the western side of this great nation, things hadn't really become civilized until the 1890s and 1900s. Things to the east were much more civilized, but remember that it was just a few decades earlier that the Civil War was fought.

Laura Ingalls Wilder is a great example of a person who lived through the great turmoil and technological advancement of the change of the century. 1867-1957. She traveled in a covered wagon, heard about the Wright brothers, saw both world wars, the dropping of the atomic bomb, and then the start of the Cold War.

What I'm trying to get at here, is that the people that lived through the Great Depression were a different breed of people than what we have today. A man trying to raise his family in the 1930s had seen, heard, and experienced hardship. He probably knew about growing his own food, about hunting, about making do or doing without... To sum up, they were in better shape to deal with economic issues than we are now.

I'll use myself as an example. I've weeded a few gardens, but I've never had to have that garden succeed. I've taken a deer, but never because my family desperately needed it. I have a job as a bank teller, clearly a job that teaches me valuable practical skills. I don't know the first thing about irrigation, planting, digging a well, welding (I do actually know how, I'm just completely incapable of doing it well apparently), electricity.. etc. etc. My ability to survive when the system starts to fall apart isn't really all that high.

The scariest thing is that that's me, I'm not your average mid 20s male in America. I'm ahead of the curve.

I'm going to stereotype for a moment... We've got the 20 something young man who has knocked up his GF, got a kid, and is working at Wal-Mart to pay for diapers, and that kickass HDTV and surround sound system. Over there we have the boy that has switched college majors again so that his dad will keep paying for his partying. The young man who never graduated college, got a job as a mechanic... so he could buy the new mitsubaru WRX EVO 11(I do actually know cars, but I really wanted to mix those two names up) And finally the nerd who contentedly still sleeps down the hall from his mommy, at least he would if he went to sleep before dawn. World of Diablocraft XI: Modern Battlefield is much more fun than sleeping.

Geez this post is getting long... and I haven't even mentioned the women... In the interest of keeping this from becoming a book, I'll refrain...

The bottom line is that none of those young men is at all capable of fending for themselves (the exception is that possibly the mechanic could parlay that ability into a decent living)

This is in stark contrast to that young man in the 1930s... People rely so much on the system now, you can see people start to fail... and it hasn't even gotten bad yet.

It's a man's job...

I told ya'll this was going to be a two part post. Figured I might as well get this one written while it was on my mind.

At the end of the last post I mentioned that I had a theory on where that Tank piece of the puzzle went... The answer is that our culture has been systematically destroying that piece. While you can't really take a tank head on, if you come from behind, or from the inside. You can insidiously eliminate the Tank as a threat. Our culture has done just that.We've destroyed Men.

I have quite opinions on how men in this culture have been attacked, I really have no way to organize them. So I'll just put a few that directly relate to being Tanks on here. *NOTE* I haven't written anything like this from a woman's perspective, because I'm a dude. If you're a woman, and you want to write about society's terrible treatment of women, feel free... Just don't expect that here. =)

TV shows constantly portray the men as inadequate in someway, whether it's their inability to properly communicate anything to anyone in their family, or just the way they can't get the kids to school like mom can. Men in media are shown as inept and bumbling. That may even be partially the truth anymore. Men have been relegated to a background role in families, they work long hours to make ends meet, so their family can keep up with the Jones... And suddenly we have an absent father, no wonder he can't communicate with his family, he doesn't even know them. No wonder he can't get the kids to school on time, he's never taken them there before. We've identified men by their job for so long, that when a man loses his job, HE LOSES HIS IDENTITY. So a man wanders through his daily grind, managing director for superfluous operations at his company, it doesn't fulfill him... But he's been taught that's why he exists, to pay the bills and keep his family happy. A (mostly) selfless and yet completely empty man.

Is it any wonder men turn to porn and video games to fill the void? The poison is all too easy... He may be a managing director at work, but that doesn't compare to being EPIC HERO the Kingslayer in World of Warcraft. His work identity just can't compare to this virtual identity he's crafted. It only gets worse if he loses his job. He's lost his life, and all that's left is that incredibly enticing world, where he actually matters.

Porn operates in a similar way, couples may have screwed like rabbits early in the relationship, yet so many couples lose that fire, that passion. The relationship may work on a functional level, but if the wife is no longer interested in sex, the man will begin to look elsewhere, and all it takes is that one taste. The appearance of a woman enjoying sex is all it takes for the man to begin to lose interest in his own wife. Porn is so insidious in that it requires zero effort on the man's part, sex between two loving partners is a two way street, it requires effort from both parties. With porn the man doesn't have to work, it's always there, waiting for him. Then it simply becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, the wife may not have been interested in sex, but now the man is getting sated elsewhere, and what little passion was left, disappears.

There's dozens more examples I could give, but I hate bringing up problems without bringing up solutions.

#1 solution for everyone. PRAY YOUR BUTTS OFF! No amount of the rest of my suggestions below compares to this solution, praying doesn't mean you can slack off elsewhere, but do this first, and always. Pray about this issue, it's here, it's real, and it's killing the family, and the Church. 

Men- FIND YOUR IDENTITY OUTSIDE OF WORK OR YOUR VIDEO GAMES! That identity should probably be something like "husband" or "father" or perhaps, if you're not married "child of God". If you aren't getting enough from your wife, tell her you want more, despite the Church painting sex in such a negative light... Scripture says that sex is part of the reason to get married. Just remember it's a two way street, it's supposed to be fun for both the man and the woman =p

Women- You can make a man finding his identity much easier. HELP HIM find that role. Help him find that husband inside him. Make sure he knows he's a husband first, and a managing director dead last. Secondly, if your sex life is less than it used to be, your man probably isn't getting enough. Understand that in a way, you're competing with all of those half naked women that the media slathers everywhere. There's no need to suddenly go all porn star in the bedroom, but being ready and willing is more than enough to help your husband out.

I'm not offering excuses for either gender here, or putting either one at fault. Your behavior is unilateral. You can (and should) be a husband to a wife that's not helping you find that identity, and you can keep your mind clean even if she's not sexing you up. You can (and should) be a wife to a husband even if he's not really accepting that identity or responsibility, and you can try and help him become a husband and father. You can even be ready and willing, even if he's not.

A man's job has always been to fight for his family... If you take the man out of the picture, the punishment the world dishes out starts hitting the delicate family behind him. The family splinters, and the fragments spread. Soon after it starts effecting communities, cities, states, and then the nation.

We've lost our warriors, our Tanks.


If you want them back, you're going to have to fight for them, so they can protect you again.

The need for more Tanks.

I was prompted to write this post by the last few sermons my pastor has given, as well as a late night conversation with a friend...

Our nation's morals have steadily declined post WWII, a few bright spots notwithstanding. I'll leave the politics out of this particular issue, but the enemy has most certainly unleashed termites on the structure of America. You look at every important institution in America, and you see nothing but death and decay.

The Church is failing, we're hemorrhaging young people at a frightening rate (somewhere between 75-90%)

Marriages are failing, and regardless of how you feel about that particular institution, it's proven to be the best way to raise children, and an incredibly economically efficient lifestyle. It's capable of creating wealth at a faster rate than any other group of people, as well as using fewer resources.

Schools are steadily losing ground in comparison to every other industrialized nation. We're managing to spend inordinate amounts of money on education that no longer adequately prepares our youth for the job force. Heck, that doesn't even include the brainwashing that occurs in the classrooms, never before have our students faced such pure propaganda and drivel.

Our political institution is filled with worthless cowards, who are there purely for power and personal gains, and this occurs on both sides of the aisle. The idea of a public servant, or temporary politician is a lost idea for most. There are a few honorable men on both sides, men who I can admire regardless of personal view, because they are truly trying for what they think is best for this nation. But in the end, we've become a nation where majority rules, right or wrong. Constitutionally allowable or no, the will of the people is done.


But if you keep up with current events at all, you've heard about all this, or you've even seen it's effects on your children, or your town, or your church. I read the The Harbinger with a skeptical eye. I've never been a big believer in sweeping prophecy, or prophecy bound up in little symbols. I find it far too easy to find a pattern if you're actively searching for one. But right or wrong, the book caused me to look at my family, my church, and America, in a different light. I've always thought that we've had the time to get things turned around. Time to fix our problems and then turn back into that City on a Hill. If you believe what The Harbinger says, then you'll probably think we've got till 2015 before the next catastrophe hits. If you don't then you might see a different time table for the collapse of the world that we've known. Whether you think it will be a complete collapse, or merely the reduction of America into a second tier nation. I don't think anyone can look at our nation objectively and not see that we're declining.

So after that explanation, I bring out my request, for more tanks. Let it be formally known, I'm a gaming nerd. I love playing video games with my friends, much of my life has been spent playing World of Warcraft. The game has three basic types of characters you can play. Damage, Healer, and Tanks.

I'm most certainly stretching this example. But I firmly believe that our nation, our churches, and our families have the ability to play the damage role, and take the fight to the enemy, and take back our land. We have the healers, the people gifted with the ability to restore people after this world breaks them... to heal the land after it's been won back.  

WE LACK TANKS. We lack people willing to stand up, take the hits, and buy our nation/church/family time to repent. You have a responsibility to intercede on behalf of your nation, your church, and your family. To stand in between God's wrath, and the wicked behind you, and beg for mercy and time for the sinners behind you.

I have another post coming up, that delves into where I believe all those Tanks went. But regardless of the role that you've been given, or the gifts or callings you have on your life, anyone can step up, stand in the gap, and Tank for the people behind them.

What it's going to look like...

Lotta theories out there about the end of the world or what will feel like the end of the world anyways... Peak Oil, global climate change(whether natural or manmade, or simply a large object from outer space causing massive weather changes) economy crashing, class/race riots, nukes, EMPs, pandemics, and my personal favorite, the return of dinosaurs(I admit, I made that up, but thousands of t-rexes(rexs?) would certainly cause panic in the streets)

People obviously tend to prepare for the thing they believe will happen, rather than all of the above, because quite frankly, preparing for peak oil crash, global climate change, and a pandemic, with a side of t-rexes is a fairly complicated arrangement. (thoughts on stopping a t-rex?) Regardless, my own personal flavor of doom and gloom consists of hyperinflation followed by the economy crashing, followed by race and class riots.

My supreme hope is to get the hell out of these apartments and lock in a decent rate on a loan, in preparation for hyperinflation. Really the only thing that could really kill me if I went that route was deflation, but I don't really see that happening. I'd love to be able to plop cash down on a house, but I think the best deal is to snag something in this buyer's market, rather than waiting for the ability to buy in cash, which might never happen in this economy. But I'm not completely off the wall about this stuff, despite my wife's thoughts on the matter. I don't own a massive armory, I have no intentions of building an underground bunker, no matter how cool that would be, and operational security takes a second place to hosting fun things at the house...

So what's my happy medium between burying my head in the sand and building a place that's completely self-sufficient and also devours my entire life?

I want a good guard dog.
I want a garden that's varied enough that I don't have to worry about buying much in the way of produce.
I want fruit trees, and bushes.
I want a decent sized workshop area to work on all those awesome projects I have.
I want a house that's mostly invisible from the road.
I want a place that's far enough out of town and away from all those city slickers that want the "country life" that my fusillade of fire into my private range doesn't warrant 911 calls.
I want enough land that I can hunt on it if I so desire.


But the best part of all those things, they have a lovely purpose outside of the end of the world...

Dogs are man's best friend.
Gardens with lots of produce mean I spend less money at the grocery story.
Fruit trees are the same as above.
Workshop means I get a place to put my future kid's toys back together, to heck with my end of the world toys.
House that is invisible from the road means trees! Shady to reduce my heat bill.
Away from city slickers really just means I don't have to deal with moronic neighbors, no matter what the issue is...
Land enough to hunt means that my kids can wander around in the woods and I don't have to worry about them... Of course my guard dog would be down there with them =p

The bottom line is that from the articles that I read online... sometimes it seems like people get lost in the act of preparing for something that may never happen. As much as it's a good idea to prepare for the bad things in life, don't get lost in that black hole. The best preps are the ones that fulfill a role in both your current life, and the apocalypse.