To all who visit here

Sorry for not posting in a while. I have been rather busy working for "the man" and all that. Been doing other work on the side to earn a few bucks as well. I'm trying to pay off a small debt I foolishly took on about six months ago. It will be paid off soon thankfully so I can ease back on the slave labor and start working more for "me". I can start working once again towards my goal of leaving the rat race behind. Hopefully leaving it behind for good.

As most of you know this blog is primarily meant to be a chronicle of my journey in doing just that. A journey to free myself from the Matrix and from being just another cog in the wheel. Not a whole lot has been happening in that regard right now as most funds have been going toward personal debt elimination  

In fact I have not even been out to camp 420 in nearly two months.That is until the other day. Man let me tell you, mother nature sure has a way of reclaiming what is hers! When I pulled my $200 junk trailer out to my land it was so overgrown that I had to spend several days beforehand with a chainsaw a machete hacking out enough space to get it in. I continued to remove brush whenever I was there and even though there was still plenty more to do it actually started to look rather nice. 

Upon visiting the other day I hardly recognized the place. Vines were growing up everywhere-even on the trailer. Grass and thorns were so thick I could barely walk through them. Dead tree branches were scattered all over the place. Still it was really nice to be out there on my own "paid for" piece of land. I highly recommend it to anyone. 

With the summer heat now gone (and hopefully the west Nile mosquitoes along with it) I plan to start really working on the ole Zombie hideout in a serious way. I just purchased a good sleeping bag for the cool nights ahead and will be visiting the place on a regular basis once again. 

Thank you to everyone and stay tuned because this blog has only just begun!

Did the terrorist win or what?

Today is the eleventh anniversary of the tragic events that changed our nation forever. I think it’s time to ask some hard questions. The rubble was still smoldering at ground zero when everyone in the “mainstream” media began telling us not to hate the people responsible for this carnage. If we hate the rag-heads, they told us, the terrorist will have won! Really?

The truth of the matter is that the terrorist will have won when we let the powers that be turn this country into a virtual police state. A country with video surveillance cameras at nearly every intersection. A country that allows warrantless wiretaps of suspected “terrorist”. A country where any citizen can be detained indefinitely without due process of law.

The terrorist will have won when we have a government that uses aerial drones to spy on its own citizens. If we have TSA agents molesting travelers at every turn then the terrorist will have won. If we allow the government to track the emails, text messages, and internet usage of every single person in this country then the terrorist will have won. So I ask the question again. Did the terrorist win or what?

Avoiding Poverty

I met somebody once that hit the lottery and won over two million dollars! In less than ten years they were completely broke. I’ve also met a number of other people who came into a large amount of money through either an inheritance or an insurance settlement. Within a few years they burned through their money and were just as poverty stricken as before. I’m sure you’ve heard about such people. Why is this?

Why is it that some people in this world are able to fall into a big steamy pile of dung and come out smelling like roses while others can fall into a rose bush and come out smelling like crap? This is of course a hard question to answer but today I am going to take a shot at it. The short answer is that poverty is a state of mind!

I know that statement will raise the blood pressure of some people who read it. They just can’t fathom the possibility that money alone can’t always solve the problems we face in our world today. Let’s confiscate a few hundred billion dollars from people in the form of taxes and redistribute it to the more “needy” they proclaim and we can eliminate poverty in this country.

Since the so called “war on poverty” began in the 1960’s we’ve thrown trillions upon trillions of dollars at the problem with little to show for it. You’ve heard the parable “give a man a fish and feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and you feed him for life. With more people than ever before relying on some form of government welfare to survive, this has proven to be remarkably true. Do yourself and your family a favor and teach yourself how to fish.

If you learn to maximize your available resources right now and fix the problems of your most basic needs then you will be in a much better position to weather any economic storms in the future, be they recession, depression, or total collapse. Cut down on the waste in your life and you will probably see the equivalent of a 15 to 20 percent increase (if not more) in your purchasing power with the same amount of money you are spending right now!

Yes, there are poor starving children in third world rat holes who scavenge the local landfill every day collecting paper and cardboard just so they can afford a bowl of rice. This however is due to “mental poverty” on a national scale. Nearly all of the countries where you hear of this kind of behavior have an abundance of available resources. Look at Japan, a country with almost no natural resources at all. You never hear about people in that country resorting to such extremes to survive.

For me to say that “poverty is a state of mind” and leave it at that does not tell the whole story. I know this. But it certainly is one of the main factors in the overall equation. The United States has traditionally been a nation suffering little poverty, relatively speaking. We were a country of self-reliant individuals who knew not only how to survive, but how to survive well.

This is rapidly changing however due to incompetent individuals like Obama, Romney, and the other miscreants who are running this country into the damn ground.

But I believe we still have a little more time before we get to the point of a full blown depression. How much time is anyone’s guess but if you make a conscious effort to prepare for the inevitable right now then you will be ahead of the game.

Eliminate any debt as fast as you reasonably can. Find a place that you can call your own even if it’s just a small piece of land in the country with an old travel trailer on it. Stockpile essentials such as food, warm clothing, and a means to acquire safe drinking water.

Transportation is an area you should put serious thought into. How will you get from here to there? Will you walk, ride a bicycle, small scooter or motorcycle?  If you plan to use a car or truck for your transportation needs do you feel like you will be able to maintain it and put fuel in the tank when times are tuff. What about when fuel prices double? These are all important points to consider.

Don’t forget your heating and lighting needs either. How will you deal with these issues? How about communication? Do you have a cell phone you can afford to keep turned on when you have very little money? Do you have a radio with enough rechargeable batteries (and a way to recharge them) to keep you informed about the latest news and weather and to supply a little entertainment from time to time? And last but not least, do you have a means of defense to protect what’s yours?

Plan now for what’s coming and you’ll be quite well off in when multitudes of people are getting evicted from tent cities and herded into FEMA camps for their “own good”. Take advantage of the relatively good times now and in the future you may not ever have to scavenge all day at the local dump for paper and other crap just to buy a single bowl of rice!

Cheap-Ass Chinese motorcycles and scooters (Part 2)

When considering whether or not you should purchase a cheap “generic” scooter or motorcycle from China be sure you know full well what you are getting into. I’ve been looking into these things for several months and will probably continue to do so for a few more before I decide whether or not to purchase one.

I can tell you this however. The more I read up on these things the more convinced I become that a Chinese motorcycle or scooter is a really good deal. I know some of you will want to throw the ole “you get what you pay for” line at me so I’ll address that right now.

You can spend a thousand bucks (give or take a couple hundred) and buy a 25 to 30 year old Japanese machine or you can spend the same amount of money and have a brand new bike from our good friends over in communist China. There will be certain issues you need to deal with regarding the new Chinese bikes of course but there are also issues you will be dealing with if you buy a Jap bike that’s two or three decades old!

While it’s really hard to predict what sort of troubles you may encounter with something 25 to 30 years old, with a new Chinese piece of crap you can look at all the information available on the internet, study it till your blue in the face, and pretty soon a pattern will begin to emerge. You can see the big picture for what it really is.

90 percent of the bad reviews I’ve read deal mostly with little stuff like cheap plastic panels that don’t exactly fit as they should, Speedometer cables having to be replaced, lights and blinkers that quit working because of a poor quality bulb or a wire that came loose. Most reviewers of these infernal machines suggest that you tighten every single nut and bolt when first purchased. It also seems that the poorest quality batteries and spark plugs are installed before they’re shipped from the factory. All miner stuff that can be easily dealt with.

As far as the other 10 percent of negative crap I’ve read about these bikes; most of it was by people who never owned one but were only parroting all the bad crap they had heard. I haven’t read one thing yet about some cheap-ass P.O.S. Chinese scooter that had the motor blow up a few months after it was purchased. I haven’t read anything about the frame on one of these things snapping in half on some collage punk coming home from a frat party!

Everything I’ve read about these machines suggest that you can have a fairly decent and reliable means of transportation (after the initial break in period) for about 20 percent of what you would pay for a brand new Japanese bike. There is a certain amount of maintenance that is required every so often such as cleaning the carburetor and adjusting the valves but so what? Every motorcycle or scooter will require some maintenance to keep it in good running order. If you aren’t willing to do that then you shouldn’t even consider buying a motorcycle or scooter, be it Chinese, Japanese, or whatever.

Now let’s look at some of the different types of bikes you can buy. You’ll see numerous “name brands” such as Tank, Jonway, TaoTao, Roketa, Lafan and a host of others but generally speaking this doesn’t mean much. These are generic bikes and you should keep that in mind. The individual bike you purchase is more important than the name on it. So if at all possible avoid buying one of these online. Make your purchase from a local dealer so you can inspect it beforehand. Also make sure the dealer carries spare parts or can easily order parts for the model you purchase.

50cc Scooters-Some of these are manufactured for kids and are generally too small for adult riders but you’ll have no trouble finding plenty of scooters in this class that a full grown person can comfortably ride. These things start around $500 and can get upwards of 100 miles to the gallon! Unfortunately you won’t be able to do much more than about 35 miles per hour. You might get one up to 40 if you’re going down a steep hill and you have a strong wind at your back. This might suit your transportation needs, depending on your individual circumstances, but for the most part these are just big toys.

150cc Scooters-Now we’re getting into the “big boy” bikes. These scooters start at around $700 and go up. They get around 80 miles to the gallon and can reach speeds of 55 to 60 miles per hour. Not something you want to take out on the freeway but certainly adequate for most day to day use. The engines in these and the 50cc scooters are often referred to as “Honda clones” but are in fact a Chinese design known as the GY-6. From what I can tell these things are pretty reliable so long as they are properly maintained! There’s a really good article you can read about these engines HERE!

250cc scooters-These are much more expensive than the 150cc scooters starting at about $1500. Many of these come with water cooled engines which adds to the cost and complexity of the bike. These things can go up to 80 miles per hour and get about 70 miles to the gallon. This class of scooter should probably be avoided unless you can find a used one in decent shape for a good price.

200cc to 250cc duel sport bikes-In my opinion these bikes will give you the most bang for the buck. For not much more than $1000 you can have an on/off road bike that will give you 70+ miles to the gallon. These “enduros” to use the old school term will reach Highway speeds and can be ridden on public roadways or on back wood trails. Because of the duel nature of these bikes they are constructed much tougher than a scooter and (from everything I’ve read so far) have much fewer problems than the cheap-ass Chinese scooters. This is the kind of bike I am currently leaning towards.

Having said all of that let state once again that if you can find a good running, used Japanese bike at a reasonable price then you should go that route. In my location however you can’t find anything 10 years old or less for much under $2000. Believe me, I’ve been looking and they are hard to find.

Whether you choose either cheap Chinese crap or old Japanese crap a small scooter or motorcycle makes too much sense. With gasoline prices headed back up towards the four dollar a gallon mark it will take the average SUV owner close to a hundred dollars to fill up. What will you do when it reaches eight dollars a gallon? Don’t think it can’t happen anytime soon. With the Government soon to be more than twenty trillion dollars in debt and no way to pay it other than inflating the money supply and with the possibility of peak oil just on the horizon-well who knows?

If you don’t choose a scooter or small motorcycle as your primary means of transportation then you should still consider one as your “plan B” strategy. And if you’ve done your homework well you can get a lot of bike for a little bit of money. Google Chinese motorcycles and scooters to start you search. Good luck

Cheap-Ass Chinese motorcycles and scooters (Part 1)

My goal over the last year or so has been to work toward leaving the rat race and all the crap that goes along with it. The hardest part in doing this is of course finding a place to live. I bought a small patch of dirt for $400 and found an old junk travel trailer for another $200 and pulled it out to my land. It’s a crappy little shack but it solves the question of where to lay my head for the night. With a little work it should be quite comfortable.

The next “major” problem to be solved is of course transportation. A bicycle would certainly be the best option as far as cheap transportation is concerned. No gas to buy, no insurance needed, and it would provide daily exercise to help maintain good health. If I were going to be living in town (or even a few miles from town) this would definitely be the way to go-no pun intended.

My “zombie hideout” is 18 miles from the nearest population center however and almost 9 miles to the nearest convenience store! It would take two hours to get into town on a bicycle and another two hours to get back. For once a month trips this might work but for day to day needs this is impractical. I need a cheap-ass means of transportation that’ll get me where I need to go in minutes not hours. A small fuel efficient scooter or motorcycle should do the trick and over the last several months I have be looking into this option.

Relying on a motorcycle or scooter as your primary means of transportation does have  its downsides of course. You can’t ride in inclement weather. It’s pretty dangerous in heavy traffic and even in areas where traffic is light you still need to practice defensive driving techniques much more so than you would in a car or truck. But I think the benefits outweigh those negatives. At least they do for me as I will not be living in a major population center and if I’m no longer whoring myself out to “the man” for slave wages then I’ll just stay put when it rains.

Now let’s look at some of the benefits of using a small scooter or motorcycle to get your ass from point A to point B. They’re cheap on gas, getting between 50 and 100 miles to the gallon (or more) depending on several factors like size of the bike, how you ride it, the weight of the rider, etc. Basic liability insurance is much cheaper than an automobile, costing just a few dollars per month depending on your driving record and who you are insured with. Finding a place to park is usually pretty easy and you can go places on a bike that you wouldn’t even dream of with a car or truck.

Clearly a small scooter or motorcycle is one of the best options you can choose for transportation if you are living on a small amount of money. A good used Japanese bike is certainly your best bet but finding one at a reasonable price now days is next to impossible. Time to look at the dreaded cheap-ass generic China bikes. 

These things are produced by the millions every single year at numerous factories in China under a multitude of different brand names. Some factories produce these generic bikes with no "brand" on it at all allowing the importer to put their own stamp on the bike.When I first started looking into the option of buying a motorcycle or motor scooter for transportation it was for the simple reason that I'm a broke bastard who rarely has much money so naturally I began looking at the cheapest crap I could find.

Again let me state that if you are lucky enough to find a good used Japanese bike at a reasonable price then you shouldn't even consider anything else. Especially if a motorcycle or scooter fits into your personal zombie survival strategy. For those who aren't lucky enough to find a good deal on a Jap bike however a china bike could be a good choice if you are willing to do the homework before you purchase one.

Keep in mind that even the best Chinese motorcycle or scooter is going to require more maintenance and repairs than the worst Japanese machines. But at 20 to 25 percent of the cost what do you expect. If you have very little money to live on and you don't mind doing a little work on your bike from time to time then you might be able to make this strategy work for you.

 In part two I will go over some of the different sized bikes that are available and discuss some of the problems you can expect to encounter when you purchase one of these Cheap-Ass machines. I'll discuss in more detail why you should consider buying one even if you don't plan to use it as your primary means of transportation. And as always I'll try to provide you with plenty of food for thought about the subject.