Life

I don’t anticipate writing many political posts – and I’m not quite sure I would classify this as a political post. I heard someone say in passing (one way or another) something to the extent of “Let North Korea try to launch an attack on us, we’ll just bomb the hell out of them”. I cringe when I hear this, because I actually have family in South Korea, in fact the entirety of my Mother’s side of my family resides in South Korea (aside from my mother, who may be the black sheep of the family by living in America).

Back in 2001 (way back when Kim Jong Il was still alive) I was lucky enough to visit South Korea with my mother and my sister. We traveled around the country from the capital, Seoul, to Ilsan, Cheonju and to Busan visiting family and seeing some cultural sites.

On one of the outings during the trip, I’ll  never forget this, we were at a Buddhist temple tourism site. It was quite a climb to get to the site and on the way back down to the parking lot, we heard a siren and a person talking on what seemed like loudspeakers coming from every direction. This was a drill siren, and my mother told me that they do these drills every month in case the North decided to invade. It was quite astonishing, because I was just used to what we here in the states refer to the “This is a test, this is only a test” drill on the radio.

The drill in Korea seemed a bit more menacing to me. The entire country of South Korea seemed to essentially freeze and listen to the messages coming from every car radio and loudspeaker around. It was as if something terrible had happened (from an outsiders perspective) and the entire city just decided to stop moving. My family wasn’t very concerned and these drills had been part of the country’s monthly life. This was back in 2001, before North Korea had any nuclear capability that would be able to hit the US. It’s a completely different story today, with North Korea’s nuclear ability increasing and even their cyber-warfare capability increasing as well.

So let’s say we decided to “bomb the hell out of North Korea”, either by pre-preemptive strike or even something retaliatory… what happens next? Well from what I’ve read up on, North Korea would then retaliate against South Korea with it’s conventional weapons, and with Seoul only being about 35 miles away from the DMZ, those conventional weapons – rockets, artillery, etc… will wreak havoc on the 10 million or so citizens in Seoul.

Then you have to worry about the 1.2 million soldiers and some 4 – 7 million reservists North Korea has (that survived our initial attacks). This will inevitably lead to one bloody mess. Mostly from both the Koreas, but also the United States as well – as more troops and reservists are drawn into the conflict. Both sides of the political spectrum view a war with North Korea to be long and drawn out and disastrous at best. Here are a few articles with more detail: What Would War With North Korea Look Like and A War With North Korea Would Be Hell…

There’s a lot of posturing going on with both sides – the United States and North Korea. South Korea (due to it’s geographical location) is caught in the middle. I’m not commenting on reunification or peace or anything like that, but it would be nice if there was an alternative way to resolve this conflicted area. I truly believe one of the best way to resolve the crisis in North Korea is an economical solution. Once a people get a hold of a capitalistic economy, old and dated political ideologies seem to fade. Case in point take a look at Vietnam and China. They slowly adopted capitalism and privatization and both their political situation and economic situations have improved. I’m not saying it’s perfect – China still deals with government corruption and issues with civil rights – the same with Vietnam, but it’s far from the political, economical, and emotional oppression faced in the North.

If you would like to find out more about North Korea I recommend these documentaries: Under the Sun, The Propaganda Game, Kim Jong Un: The Unauthorized Biography, and Crossing the Line. The last one is particularly interesting as it is about an American who defected to North Korea in the 60s.

Thanks,

Cryptids, if you didn’t know are creatures that have not been “substantiated” by science and for some weird reason, I have an obsession with them. Some famous examples include Big Foot, The Moth Man, and the Loch Ness monster, however these are just a few of many hundreds of cryptids that may exist.

I don’t believe these are fanciful creatures from fairy tales, but rather mysterious creatures that remain hidden among our world. There are still unexplored places around the world, especially in the oceans. I’ve heard some crazy statistic that stated that only 10% of the Ocean has been fully explored… that’s still a lot of Ocean out there. There are even some famous cryptids found and confirmed to be real in the ocean including the giant squid and the ancient Coelacanth – a fish with “legs” that was thought to be extinct.

At one time creatures that we know to be real were once thought fake, including the Platypus – which was first thought to be basically a prank when a stuffed specimen was brought back to the Europe from Australia and the infamous “Beast of Indonesia” which turned out to be the now known Komodo Dragon.

More recently the combination of giraffe, zebra, unicorn animal was discovered to be real. We now know this creature as the Okapi. Another recent discovery was the Hoan Kiem Turtle, thought to be a legend or religious myth in Vietnam. However there were specimens of this turtle discovered in Vietnam in the late 90s.

So it piques my curiosity when there are sightings of legendary animals – maybe these are sightings of rare and hidden species on the planet. Big Foot sightings could be some other creature that we have yet identified by science (not really an ape like creature, but maybe something else). It makes me think about what other creatures are hidden (possibly in plain sight) in society.

Sources: http://cryptidz.wikia.com/wiki/Top_Ten_Former_Cryptids and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cryptids

Thanks for reading!

There’s a growing hobby/movement that’s been becoming popularized, primarily through YouTube, but also through outdoor hobby channels. This movement is called bushcraft and is something I’ve grown an interest in lately. The hobby, movement, activity, or whatever you want to classify it as encapsulates a feeling of returning to wilderness and nature.

Bushcraft involves, but is not limited to, primitive camping (sorry no glamping here), historical outdoors techniques – typically from the 1700s or 1800s, and primitive survival skills. There are several channels on YouTube dedicated to this craft. It could be as simple as spending a day out in nature with nothing but a water bottle, tarp, and knife or even extended to week long trips with all the accouterments one would need to live off the land (traps, rifles, pots and pans, etc…).

What it boils down to is enjoying nature and the serenity that nature provides. There’s a power that God has imbued in nature,  healing and calming power. There is even scientific evidence that suggests that microbes in the soil can make you physically healthier and happier. You can read more about it here. I couldn’t find a unified definition of bushcraft – everyone has their own take, but it appears everyone has the same reason for enjoying buschraft – which is to get out and enjoy nature.

Learning about bushcraft taught me about the value of respecting nature as well as other survival techniques that may be useful for me in the future, from purifying water, to making traps, it’s overall a great hobby to be enjoyed by all. Nature is a bit of a double edged sword, it can be kind and serene, but also deadly and unpredictable. Studying and practicing bushcraft (and I don’t mean to sound overly philosophical woo woo), will help you be in harmony with nature, be a part of nature instead of struggling against it. Do you enjoy nature? If you don’t know, why don’t you go out to your local park and take a walk on one of the nature trails, then analyze how you feel afterwards. Getting away from the hustle and bustle of the daily grind will be a great reprieve and may even help you be healthier and happier.

Thanks

Blogtober Update

I started the Blogtober challenge back on October 1st and have posted everyday since. I’m about at the half way point of the challenge and I wanted to reflect on what I learned so far.

To call it a challenge is definitely an understatement. Coming up with interesting (or at least what I think is interesting) things to write about is tough. On some nights ideas came to me so easily that all I had to do is type them out. On other nights I had scoured the internet with search terms like “What to write about”, “blog prompts”, and “blog topics”. I found some great ideas and not so great ideas.

What I ultimately learned is that I enjoy writing, but I find that if I want to continue blogging I need to narrow my focus. The topics I enjoy the most are Prepping and Photography. I’ve watched hundreds of hours of youtube videos, analyzing different strategies for prepping and read just as many articles on the topic. I also have done the same for Photography – and managed to earn some “side” cash from it. I think these two topics are the most valuable of what I write. I am by no means an expert at either subject, but I definitely have a unique perspective. In any case I’m thinking about branching out and having separate blogs for those topics and ultimately use this blog platform for musings and life thoughts.

It’s finally getting cooler in Georgia, so I might be writing about more outdoor activities while I experience them. One hobby I would like to eventually pursue is blacksmithing. My father-in-law left my wife some tools, including many files, that could be turned into knives or other smithed tools and I recently came accross an Anvil and Vice. I am missing one key ingredient (well maybe a couple) which include a forge (which I’m thinking about converting my old bbq grill into, and a blacksmithing hammer and tongs (which I think I can get off the internet). I’m a “learn by seeing” AND a “learn by doing kind of guy”.

What hobbies or activities are you trying out? Are you getting out of your comfort zone and trying something new? If not, I highly recommend it. It will help you grow and discover passions you didn’t know existed.

Short post! Thanks for reading all!

As a new parent, I’ve been thinking about what type of education I want my daughter to have. She’s only 3 years old, but I think about her education a lot, because I know how hard it is to find employment without a good education. It will be harder still, for her generation, to find employment as many service, manufacturing, and even analyst jobs (think financial sector, banking, insurance, etc..) will be replaced with automation.

People still think that all of the well paid manufacturing jobs in the United States have been outsourced to China, India, Mexico, or some other foreign country. However, the cold hard truth is that jobs have slowly been replaced by technology and automation since the dawn of the industrial revolution. Think about it, why pay someone who can only work 8 hours a day to do a job, pay for their benefits, worry about their productivity, when they can be replaced by a machine that needs little to no supervision and that can run 24 hours a day without breaks. Whether you like it or not, automation is a reality that our children’s generation will have to face head on.

Emphasis on technology and adapting to technological changes should be core curriculum in schools. Teaching kids not only the basics of learning, but on HOW to learn should be the core of any education system. Teaching practical life skills should also be taught.

What I mean by practical life skills are consider basic knowledge for any adult. For example – balancing a checkbook (do people still use checkbooks?) – at least balancing a budget. Learning how to change a tire and basic vehicle maintenance, shopping for insurance, learning about financial independence and savings. How to write and build a resume and negotiate. The importance of self learning is also included in this.

None of these things were really taught in the suburban education I received, and my parents really did not have time to teach me things, I just had to sort of learn them as life went… and I made several mistakes – huge avoidable mistakes – that, had I known better, could have saved me time and money. If you had parents to teach you these things, or the foresight to learn them yourself, before going out on your own, consider yourself lucky.

Anyways, I plan to teach my daughter these practical life skills and hopefully along the way she’ll figure out what kind of career she would like to dive into.

What do you all think? Should practical life skills be taught in schools?

Thanks,

When I was younger, I was really into martial arts. I practiced and studied a Korean style called Tang Soo Do, eventually after years of literal blood, sweat, and tears I earned my black belt. It wasn’t an easy undertaking, but if you think about it, anything worth obtaining shouldn’t come too easily, otherwise what’s the value? Anyways I was in awe of our grand master, who happened to be an 8th degree black belt and I asked my instructor how he became such a high rank. What he told me surprised me.

I naively thought that the grand master was the most talented in his class and with his skills he surpassed his peers. (I was thinking more like some type of Game of Death scene where he had to face his rivals and ended up being on the top, but that was my over active 16 year old imagination). In reality, nothing could be further from what I thought. When the grand master first started he wasn’t the worst in his class, but he was far from the best. Several of his peers surpassed him in both skill and talent. They could jump higher, their kicks were faster, and their punches more powerful. And for the past two or three decades, he had seen some of the most skilled and best martial artists of his time come and go.

The grand master persisted in training and slowly life happened, his peers would either quit, or move on to other endeavors. The grand master focused on training and honing his skills. a decade or more passed, and he reached a grand master rank. He had stated that it wasn’t his skill or talent that was used to earn his rank, but rather his determination and perseverance. The more talented martial artists could have surpassed him, but they didn’t because they did not stick with it. This was an important lesson for me, because it drove me to continue down the road to eventually earn my black belt. You see I wasn’t the best, but I also wasn’t the worst and I persisted until I met my goal.

Years later I found this same concept in a book called “The Greatest Salesman In the World”. –

“I will persist until I succeed. Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult… I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.” – Og Mandino

This was a life lesson that has stuck with me when things get hard and I’m discouraged. I just remember… “I will persist until I succeed” and remember the story about how the mediocre student, became an inspiring grand master.

Thanks all,

As a hobby I enjoy learning about the bushcraft community as well as overall preparedness. One of the sayings in these communities, that I’ve come across that really resonated with me is “Two is one and one is none. In bushcraft this refers to the kit that you carry, but this concept can apply to many aspects of life in general.

The general meaning of this saying boils down to having redundancies, “back up plans”, if you will, even a plan C or plan D when plan A and plan B fail. One example that I personally promote is having an emergency fund. You should have at least a $1000.00 emergency fund for when life happens to hit you hard. I would even say you should have an emergency fund that amounts to at least 3 to 6 months of expensive in case anything catastrophic happens. And typically with life, stuff happens.

Another simple, yet practical example, is to have more than one route to your job. Let’s say an accident happened on your normal route to work. Are you trapped in traffic until the wreck is cleared? Or have you planned out multiple contingency routes in case something like that happens so you aren’t late for work. So in this case, having one route to work is a kin to having all your eggs in one basket. Having multiple routes gives you options.

In business having a “two is one and one is none” mentality is paramount to survival. Let’s say you sell a certain type of widget and the widget is sourced from a single manufacturer. This is your most popular widget. Well if that manufacturer suddenly closes down (for any number of reasons – natural disaster, government overthrow, bankruptcy), what are you going to do? What if you had 3 or 4 different manufactures that you could source this widget from. Would that not make you sleep better as a business owner? Let me give you a prime example where a company only had “one”, which essentially meant they had nothing… which eventually happened. The Kodak company hedged it’s bet on film. They freaking invented the digital camera in 1975… and basically said to the inventor, cool story bro, but we’re going to stick with film. Had Kodak capitalized and seen the potential of the digital disruptive invention it had built, and had it diversified a little, it would not have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012.

I hope these examples helped to unpack the saying, two is one and one is none. In the woods you should always carry two knives, one as your primary and one as a backup. In life you should always have income set aside for emergency while living off your primary income. In business you should always have a back up strategy, in case your main strategy fails.

Thanks for tagging along,