Do you ever get make fun of?

Sure they make fun of me. But I'll have the last laugh when the post EMP zombie uprising has all the sheeple rending their clothes and gnashing their teeth.
 
KEmSAT-Survival said:
Nope. But, at one point I was a pretty regular visitor. Pretty place and I really like Greensboro. I've given thought to moving down there once the Master's is finished.
I live in Kentucky, just about 5 hours north.

I just remember going through NC down to Havelocke and seeing the SHTF that was the Hurricane back in the late 90's and thinking: "Jesus Christ I'd hate to be hung out here without some kind of kit..."
I also remember watching the news on tv of NC having such a terrible time with the ice storms: cars sliding all over the place, traffic backed up for miles, people looking like downed penguins. Sometimes those things start out as rain and end up as hell frozen over -- the change taking place "right damn now". My wife's family from down in Goldsboro (I dig her aunt, she's a neat old gal) was telling me about all the people who were losing their minds.

There's a big difference between paranoid and prepared, you're right. I thought you meant carrying anything like that at anytime where it "isn't needed" was paranoia. I carry an Altoids tin with a few knicknacks in it sometimes.

There will only be one day when I carry a full kit to work (provided I don't start my vacation on the 21st!): 12/22/12. I ain't saying the day will be what folks are afraid of...but that doesn't mean it won't be, either. :D
Click to expand...

You really like Greensboro? Man, you need to see a bit more of the state. :)
 
I get the odd looks and comments at times, but I am asked lots of questions about outdoors, camping, hunting and where to get gear by the same people.
 
I showed my 80yr old Mother my latest knife purchase a few days ago. She doesnt get why I have so many. She said "Thats nice" next time your hungry...Eat your knife.
 
JW360,
It sounds like you are young, which is great. One mistake I made in my younger years was caring what other people thought or said about me. That goes away with age. Do what makes you happy and feel at peace. It is your God given right.
 
Guys at work pick on me all the time for it. I carry a pack with my lunch in it and a few other dodads. I always need something from it, they never know wut I will pull out next and I won't tell them, so they made a game betting on wut else I have in it. It is fun on both sides.
 
cj65 said:
JW360,
It sounds like you are young, which is great. One mistake I made in my younger years was caring what other people thought or said about me. That goes away with age. Do what makes you happy and feel at peace. It is your God given right.
Click to expand...

Thanks dude, I appreciate.
 
cj65 said:
JW360,
It sounds like you are young, which is great. One mistake I made in my younger years was caring what other people thought or said about me. That goes away with age. Do what makes you happy and feel at peace. It is your God given right.
Click to expand...

Very Good cj,, Ive found that to be true for sure.
 
mistwalker said:
So, there is some magical way of knowing where you will be when you will actually need some gear and supplies?

While occurrences like Andrew and Katrina do come with a warning...but that doesn't mean you'll be able to relocate, it depends on your circumstances...there was no warning on Sept. 11th, 2001, there was no warning when the Japanese Navy bombed Pearl Harbour, there was no warning when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. A lot of mechanical breakdowns come with no warning, as do a lot of medical emergencies.

One day when you're not using it, can I borrow that crystal ball of yours? I wouldn't mind a little advanced warning of the next time I'll actually need some things to deal with a specific situation. It would be nice to know in advance for a change.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this rubs me a little. If you have a kit and only choose "appropriate" times to carry it, you might as well never carry it. I've been around the block enough to know that regardless of where you are, crap happens and some critical EDC items and small PSK have or would have come in handy. Sure the need is probably low, but if anything, carrying a kit reinforces a positive habit of always being prepared. Situations can and have occurred…as Esav mentioned, planes crashing into or near you building was never really feared until 9.11; tornados can strand you in the back of a Wal Mart with no electricity; a severe gas leak, flood or freak forest fire and evacuate you from your business or neighborhood with no warning; with all the economical stress, a local, violent riot could easily mess up your lunch plans or drive home from work. Most “survival” situations happened during unexpected circumstances…if I could fit that crystal ball into my PSK, I’d being checking it everyday!:D

I've been ribbed a few times at work, but it's never malicious. This is my hobby...do you know how many really weird hobbies people have? I've learned some very strange things about people at work...it would be really easy to scoff and rib them, but I keep it professional actually give them their due respect. For the most part, those that know me only make fun of the fact that if something is needed, go see "palmer" :D

CJ gave some great advice and as you get a little more independence you'll find the critics will be left behind or ignored. Learn to laugh with others at yourself and you'll soon find the humor loses its sting and will dissipate.

ROCK6
 
Esav Benyamin said:
What would you do if you were at work on a "normal day" and a ... couple of planes fly into the World Trade towers next to my old job site?

No place is safe. We are not paranoid. Other people are careless.
Click to expand...

+1

I carry a purpose built urban kit with me all the time when i am out and about it town and whatnot. if i am going to a shopping mall, i dont carry the kit, but i always have my H*E*S*T, a leatherman or SOG multitool and a lighter on my person.

if you dont want to be ridiculed or picked on, dont say anything about what you do. simple as that. People never like what they dont understand. If i am in a heated debate or conversation about bushcraft/survival i usually say that no one knows what the next hour or minuit in a day will bring, nobody knows the future and the only certain thing in life is death, BUT i will do my best to be certainly ready for whatever happens next.

people tend to leave you alone after saying somthing like that.
 
Yup - some folks have.

Nowadays i'm generally pretty light-hearted and can have a good laugh at myself. However, the affects of years of exercise/weight-lifting, teaching martial arts/competing provide me a certain amount of confidence that sorta shines through so i don't teased a whole lot. In any event, don't let one or two jibs get to you - it's all in good fun.

In my experience, most of the folks who learn about what i'm carrying have already heard/learned about me and generally don't push things too much. Usually they get a bit curious about what i carry and ask why as well as what i think about the various survival shows.

The malicious stuff is usually comes from the foolish and immature. A good solution for that is learning to make it all a big laugh. Fail that, good self-defense skills and proper, overwhelming assertion of those skills works everytime.
 
For the 25+ years I've been into preparedness, I've taken a lot of BS from folks. Most of those are know silent, after I gave them "house kits" for Xmass a few years ago, and then we were without most utilities for 4-6 days after the big storm in May 2008. :)

Turns out that kit of batteries, radios and water and stuff was suddenly appreciated.

Anything really major ever happens, and a lot of big mouths are gonna be told to keep walking..........
 
cj65 said:
JW360,
It sounds like you are young, which is great. One mistake I made in my younger years was caring what other people thought or said about me. That goes away with age. Do what makes you happy and feel at peace. It is your God given right.
Click to expand...

+100,

sage advice, going against the sheeple grain will serve you well...look at Nazi Germany as an extreme example...Some jews got out of there well before the situation deteriorated from public harassment & segregation to mass genocide. I sure some of thier relative who stayed ingermany though those that left were "extreme" or "weird"

I follow the scout motto...be prepared...in what ever iteration seems necesary for the day. Better to have and not need than need and not have...which certainly could be applied to conceal carry liscences. Just because 99% of sheeple decide to be unarmed...does that make it good to be unarmed? Remember Hitler was democratically elected...so the will of the majority is just that, the will of the majority...not necesarilly moral or good.

don't waste your life ...ask your self why you value the opinion of this person who has insulted your beliefs...?
 
This is a long thread and most of my own justifications were well reiterated by others. As it pertains to the OP, I think it is in interest to remind any modern day person that they already carry a PSK, its just that they have screwed up priorities in what they carry.

99.99% of men carry a wallet, which might be a historical reference to the old medicine pouch or fire-purse. Instead of survival related stuff, they carry credit cards and driver's license maybe a gnarly 15 year old condom that is as leakproof as a drunk after his 8th beer. Likewise, women carry this huge handbag/purses strapped over their shoulders. They carry id., enough make-up to start a clown school and emergency padding to save their white pants - in case of an emergency. Actually, it took very little convincing to get my wife to put in a LED light, some first aid and drugs into her purse. She's already stated that the number of times the lights in the John are kicked off while she's in the stall has made it worth its weight.

As for men - most are conditioned to think that money or credit cards, debit cards etc. are actually gear. They haven't thought quite so far that the infrastructure can shut down really fast. How many times today do you find yourself in a store where the staff are totally incapacitated because 'the computers are down'. You want to buy the product, but they won't sell it to you because it will screw-up their automated inventory system etc.

I think it is easy to point to anybody teasing you that they are already carrying things on their person in case of emergency. You have just expanded your tools to include a broader array of tools that are of immediate access. Knowing a drug store is 5 km away doesn't help you went your throat is swollen and you need an epi-pen now.

Besides, when people tease you about things like this, they are just trying to exert social pressure on you to conform to their simplistic world view of things. Feeling a need to cater to such pressure is natural, but don't actually feel you need to give into it.
 
kgd your posts always make me lol esp the old condom part! :)

i get crap sometimes from people...and i only carry a keychain kit (firesteel,whistle,550 cobra knot,green photon). and i always have a SAK....in fact its so glued to me when i flew from oakland to hawaii i totally forgot about it and had to give it up to TSA :( (i replaced it of course).

the BS people give you is poppycock...dont listen to the haters.

hell i carry a machete in my car...ok im lying i carry about 3-4 :)
 
dingobubba said:
LOL... Well the wife is a city girl. She's starting to get into the outdoor thing. My 17 year old daughter is more into clothes, hair and going out with her friends. My 3 year old son loves going out with me. He gets a kick out of animal spotting and exploring. Whenever he sees one of my knives he says "That's mine when I'm a big boy right dada?" Lets just say he has a nice collection when I'm done.
Click to expand...

hah thats a spitting image of me when I was younger.
 
as an Archer who prefers moving targets to bales of cardboard, i've had a few snide comments slung my way.

i used to cop a bit of crap at work for carrying a Leatherman with me all the time. then they noticed how many useful little things i'd fixed up or repaired around the office with my Leatherman and they all shut up.

nowadays i live in the Outback. if you're not "prepared" around here, you're in the minority and subject to ridicule if something goes awry.
 
kgd said:
Likewise, women carry this huge handbag/purses strapped over their shoulders. They carry id., enough make-up to start a clown school and emergency padding to save their white pants - in case of an emergency.
Click to expand...

That's a perfect way of putting it. Next time my g/f gives me crap about buying a knife or related survival gear I'm going to remind her about the 100 dollars a month she spends on sephora.

As far as to what you said about men's wallets, I do carry a rudimentary kit it that I never thought of it as such. It consists of a condom, duct tape wrapped around an old credit card, small razor blade (use it all the time at work) and a small magnifying glass. That coupled with the stuff hanging from my keychain makes a pretty basic kit IMHO.
 
BTW, historically, up until maybe the beginning of the 20th century, MEN carried the purse. Most "classic style" women's purses look like old-timey shell bags or possibles bags, because as men had to start traveling longer to get to work, and had to go to the world wars for years, the women started having to go out and perform all of the family duties. The change purse hidden in the folds of her dress didn't cut it any more, so they took their husband's, father's or whoever's shell and possibles bags and used them themselves.

So actually, going out with the survival kit in your "possibles bag" was a distinctly male thing until fairly recently. It still is in Europe -- you almost always see men walking about over there with shoulder bags.
 
Excellent post KGD.

In fact that's how I personally see my 'survival' gear, it's an extension of average EDC.

The whole PSK thing seemed really reasonable to me when I first heard of it, because years previously I had started to find it infernally annoying to have to look for a pen, or flashlight, or knife or lighter whenever I needed one, so i just started bringing them with me all the time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top