Book Review: "Survive!" by Les Stroud

You may have seen Les Stroud as TV's "Survivorman" on the Discovery Channel networks.  His shows revolve around going into the wilderness, by himself, and surviving for 7-10 days while getting his own food, his own water, and filming it all himself.  For my mind, it's the most authentic "survivor" show on TV.  He also makes the viewer feel like they're right there with him due to his humble and no-nonsense approach.

In "Survive!"  Les brings his considerable skills, patience, and down to earth mannerisms to the survival book/manual genre.  He covers all the basics that you'd expect from a book such as supplies, food, water, shelter, clothing, first aid, and travel/navigation.  He also includes a chapter on some basic things you'll need to keep in mind when you're trying to survive when a disaster strikes at home.  You don't always see this in these kind of books that often tend to dwell on "bugging out" when things get hairy.  Les encourages everyone to to assess their surroundings and possible destinations whether they're trying to survive in a wilderness or urban setting.  For him, preparation and research are key.

There are also a couple of things that you won't find in this book that I believe are significant.  First off, Les doesn't spend time griping about modern life, advocating living off the grid, or bitching about governments.  He just wants to prepare you for various circumstances, minus the value judgments.  The other thing that's missing is the huge lists of the gear that some experts think you "need" to have on hand to survive.  Les provides some basic lists and some instruction on how the things on the lists might help you survive, but he isn't out schilling for outdoor supply stores.  In fact, he often talks about how simple and traditional methods and tools can be better than the modern high tech gadgets, especially when you consider that humans have been surviving with these methods for thousands of years.

In the end the book was very will written and I enjoyed it a lot.  Les provides a lot of good, basic survival knowledge that can help folks in many different circumstances.  I do wish he would have gone into a bit more detail with some of the aspects that he discussed, but it works as a general overview, especially if you pair it with his excellent tv show.  It's probably not gonna thrill the survival nutjobs or the gear junkies, but it's a fantastic tool for the rest of us who just might get stuck in a sticky situation someday.

Tropical Storm Bertha Grazes The Caribbean

A surfer wades into high waves in Puerto Rico on Sunday (AP Photo)

I have an interest in all things weather, especially severe weather.  The power of nature truly fascinates me. It's not even just a base desire to gawk at disaster.  I honestly like to learn about how weather and severe weather work and it drives our planet's climate.

So needless to say hurricane season is always a fascinating time for me.  For years I listened to "The Barometer Bob Show" podcast on the internet.  The host, Robert Brookens, unfortunately had to shut his show down due to health issues, but every hurricane season he took to the internet to help educate folks on how these monster storms work and how to be prepared for them.

Of course, attention on these storms has been renewed in the last 10 years after several huge storms like Katrina, Rita, and Sandy have hit the USA.  Of course a few weeks back Hurricane Arthur struck the outer banks of North Carolina and caused some flooding and damage, but didn't turn out to be any kind of real disaster.

Luckily the storm currently in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Bertha, doesn't seem like it's going to be too much of a bother to anyone.  This weekend Bertha grazed parts of the Caribbean, passing over the Dominican Republic and taking a swipe at the Turks and Caicos Islands.   Some folks in these locations were evacuated, but it doesn't look like there has been any significant damage done as of Sunday night.  In fact, Bertha brought the area some much needed rain and created some high waves for surfers like the man pictured above.

As of this writing Bertha has max sustained winds of 65 mph and is starting to pull away from the Southern Bahamas.  She is forecast to become a hurricane in the coming days, but the National Hurricane Center forecasts the storm to stay well east of the US mainland and also to miss Bermuda.

There is perhaps a bit of warning here though.  Even though this has been forecast to be a fairly slow hurricane season, it only takes one to mess up the lives of folks in coastal areas, and we're getting to the point from mid-August to mid-September when the climate is most favorable for hurricanes to develop.  So if you're on the coast, heads up, but you already know that.  For the rest of us, don't forget to have your own emergency supplies on hand and be prepared for other hazards like wildfires, tornadoes, or earthquakes.

Welcome, and Why Are You Here Again?

Arrgh mateys, Tis Video game Blackbeard!!!!

I like to write.  What can I say?  I like to write about stuff, and things.  This is where I write about both.  Now, maybe you follow me on twitter or you're one of the few that I think will still like me if I let you into my life to the extent that you are friends with me on the Facebooks.  Maybe you follow my marginally successful soccer blog at Puddle on the Pitch or maybe you've caught my blog on things related to Christianity and religion at My Life Less Ordinary huh?  Well this little blog isn't going to be about footy or religion.  This is where I'm going to come to have some fun.and to tell you about some of the things I have fun doing.  This may or may not excite you, to each their own.  I'm gonna try to keep it low key and fun, no politics, no religion, hopefully nothing that's going to piss anybody off.  Well, if you hate Assassin's Creed, I'll probably piss you off.

Here's some of the various things you can expect to read my ever so important thoughts on:

--Video Games

--TV Shows

--Movies

--Nerd Stuff

--Books

--Sports other than soccer, which is the most important sport.

--Fishing, or how I'm really horrible at it.

--Music

--Food

--Craft Beer.  #Yum

--The ever expanding world of social media

--Sharknado

--Sharknado 2: The Second One.

--Hopefully Sharknado 3.

--Weather/Severe Weather

--Emergency Preparedness (somewhat of an obsession of mine)

--General life ramblings.

--Stuff

--Things

If you choose to check any of this stuff out, that's cool.  Let me know how you feel about the same subjects. Again, I'm doing it mainly because I like to write, and if you feel like actually reading it, well I'll be pretty stoked.

So enjoy, yeah?  Blackbeard is strongly suggesting that you do.