I always carry a USB stick in my backpack in case I need to install Linux.
Eh, I have a Yoda-looking USB stick with Slackware 14.1 written to it in times immemorial, as in high school.
I thought I lost it or someone stole it (looks nice), until I found it mutilated by mice (the rodent kind, not the input device kind) in one place I rarely visit.
I don't generally carry it with me, though. But when I did, it was the same.
I use Arch, how about you?
I too use Arch BTW
The death of ROMsites
I have been telling myself it is coming since 2006. So I have full sets for every console I can find.
Unemployment. Like many others, I keep an emergency fund with high yield that can keep food on the table for the fam while looking for a new job. Replenish as soon as I get a new job.
I have one plastic bag that is full of other, crumpled plastic bags.
If the world was to end tomorrow, I am prepared to end with it. 👉😎👉
I'm prepared to homestead if I could afford it, or live in town.
Nothing in between.
I fiddle with batteries and very small scale solar. My inverter should be able to handle running my fridge for a few hours.
I think I could survive a Prohibition for quite some time, and even homebrew and sell it or run a speakeasy.
Terfs
I have a trans pride flag and a baseball bat next to my front door
Remember to keep your bat dressed with a long sock, so if someone grabs it, their hold will just slip away along with the sock
I don't think a game of baseball will solve anything. :P
Well, it's a good thing OP is willing to try an innocent sports game, and not anything premeditated
There's a chance it could bore the attacker into leaving.
I keep a few things (museli bars, water, blankets first aid kit) in the car in case of getting stuck somewhere or needing basics suddenly.
At home I keep 'minimum levels' of things we use often, in case of a power outage or just so if anything were to happen we could get by for a couple of weeks. We are limited by space and try to keep organised.
I have a variety of blankets near my bed, of varying weight, warmth and texture. It's mostly because of autism related sensory preferences that vary across situations, but it's also great when hosting guests.
Sub-zero degree sleeping bag in the trunk of my car, plus a jug of water and some MRE-type food packs with water-activated food warmers. I grew up in a very rural area and got stuck on the side of the road in a blizzard for too long; I came out ok but it was terrifying. Now I live in a densely populated area that doesn't get blizzards but I still prep.
I used to let my toilet paper run nearly down to zero before I bought another pack. The pandemic lockdown months changed that. I used paper towels and liberated a couple rolls from work back in the day. Now I keep more on hand before triggering next buy. Never again.
I'm a good example of "we prep for our fears". I also do backcountry backpacking and everyone in that hobby does to some degree. I go out with a nurse sometimes and her first aid kit is nearly three pounds while mine is a couple bandaids and rubbing alcohol swaps.
You described equipment for pretty much climber. You don't have shops every corner in the mountains and sleeping overnight happens sometimes due to bad weather. Sub zero temperatures are the norm in the mountains
8 tb media back up. Most non essential shit ever lol.
Figure if we're without water I'm dead anyway.
Fellow media collector here. I get it! :D
FWIW storing a few extra gallons of water is a very easy prep
i wonder if theres a market for a residential water battery.. it would refresh itself as you use your house.
I got a solar panel and battery in case of power loss. Won't do much for heating, but as long as 4G stays up, it'll allow me to communicate. Or I could probably get around 30min of PC time out of it if necessary.
Well, I live 5 meters under sea level. The most realistic disaster to happen to me would involve a giant crushing wave of water, and there's not much you can do to get out of that.
But since I like backpack hiking, and buying in bulk is cheap, I have something like a month of food, some lifestraws, some water, extra cooking gear, etc.
Vaccines. I got my mpox shots because it works across a broad spectrum of pox viruses. The mpox vaccine is actually just the modern smallpox vaccine! Not terribly common, but in the past decade or so, someone found a frozen vial of smallpox in a university lab freezer.
While unlikely that mpox or smallpox will ever completely blow up into a huge pandemic, it is good to have.
Just all of my entertainment is stored locally, either on my NAS, or in the form of physical media (books, blu-rays, physical games), so I'm prepared for a long term internet outage. I can also run everything in the house from battery backups and a generator for about three days or possibly up to a week if I immediately turn off everything that's nonessential. Longer, if I'm in a position to get additional fuel for the generator.
I also live in an area that's prone to earthquakes so I have a total of two weeks worth of nonperishable food and water split between the bedroom, office, and main living area of the house. Along with first-aid kits, Tylenol, ibuprofen, emergency blankets, and spare cold weather clothes.
I'm generally pretty well prepared for the major emergencies that can happen in my region of the world. Those being prolonged internet/cell outages, power outages, and earthquakes.
question was for non preppers, you sound like a prepper.
Pretty sure the term "prepper" is just shorthand for "doomsday prepper" or something to that effect. People who think the collapse of civilisation is, if not imminent, a strong possibility within the next human lifetime and are preparing for that.
I am definitely not that. I just take precautions against the specific emergencies that occur where I live with a level of regularity.
Blizzards knock out power for hours sometimes into a day or two once or twice a year. We have multiple earthquakes a day, typically in the M1 to M3 range, but M7+ are once a decade events, M9+ are once are century events. Being ready for reasonable natural disasters isn't prepping, it's just smart
Where do you draw the line? I don’t even live somewhere where it would be reasonable to expect a major disaster, yet I’ve got some water and non perishables set aside “just in case” alongside a crank powered radio and that sort of stuff. It wasn’t that big of an investment, but if there’s some mega blizzard or whatever I’ll be much better off.
Used to live in an earthquake zone right in front of the ocean, so tsunamis were always a risk.
So I kept a bug off bag with water, clothes, blanket, cereal bars, lights and a battery pack ready to go by my bike.
I did use it once and skipped all over the traffic going to the shelter. Fortunately the water didn't rise enough to be a threat, but I thanks to the peace of mind the bag brought, I didn't even stress during the evacuation
Like… where do you draw the line?
I’ve got water, a purchased “bug out bag”, camping gear, extra clothes and water in the car, batteries, ham radio, and a crowbar.
I’m not a prepper but I consider myself somewhat prepared
I feel like the difference is what you're preparing for, when I think of a prepper I'm thinking of people who are planning for an enormous society ending disaster.
I've also got a bug out bag, but it's just for general emergencies if I need to leave my place in a hurry very unexpectedly.
A water outage lol.
Last Christmas eve, my meter froze and the water company didn't consider it an emergency since it wasn't a geyser. I didn't have water for 3 days until it thawed.
Now, I keep several days of water jugs in the basement just in case. Also, my water company sucks.
Can't live without water. Our guidelines are to be prepared to be self-sufficient for up to three days in an an emergency.
I used to have a 20l jug of water on standby, and I've had to resort to it twice in eight years because of one planned and one unplanned outage. For the unplanned one my municipality eventually showed up with a water truck on our street so we could refill.
Now I keep 50 litres and I have a well with my neighbours which I use mostly for watering the garden, but it's potable. In a prolonged power outage situation I might have to scurry over to the neighbour with a battery and an inverter to keep the pump going.
Yeah, I've got four 55-gallon rain barrels I use for watering outside (and I guess flushing if it comes to it). Unfortunately, this summer was a full-on drought and they were kinda useless (though my area did get several days of drizzle during Helene and they finally got filled up).
I live in the 'burbs so can't drill a well, unfortunately.
Well, it's more than one thing but I don't consider myself as a prepper.
- I have a few months' worth of food both frozen and canned/dried/long lasting.
- I have enough of flour to bake a bread for a year.
- I have enough toilet paper, toothpaste, shower gel, soap, cleaning supplies, etc. to use it for 6ish months.
- I grow my own veggies. Between October and May I don't buy any veggies and for the whole year I don't buy spring onion, radishes and herbs.
- I know how to fix things.
- I know how to cook.
- I have several flashlights and radios with a crank (no battery needed).
- I'm about to install solar panels, wind turbine and rain water collector.
.
I have a usb thumb drive
A bit different than others, but every time I ride my bike, I have the equipment to patch a tire with me.
I live in the upper Midwest so I pretty much always have supplies in case we get snowed in. When there's a big storm on the radar we get specific meals for 2+ days. It never really keeps us trapped instead for more than a few hours
On solo outdoors-y trips I pack twice as much food and water as I need, a rescue whistle and I inform a trusted relative before and after a remote trip who can get in touch with emergency services if I don't call back by the morning after.
At home I honestly would be screwed by an earthquake or major catastrophe... at least I have an up-to-date fire extinguisher and first aid kit in a readily accessible area.
But fire extinguishers expire 🤦♂️. After I got frustrated by my attempts at preparation always being expired, I discovered fire blankets (I think that’s what they’re called. Now I have them on a hook next to my stove so I can easily smother any fire …best of all, they never expire!
I grew up with food insecurity being a regular thing. Even though my wife and I are, fortunately, both doing reasonably well professionally and have no trouble affording or obtaining groceries, my wife has been very kind about my ingrained need to make sure our well-stocked pantry still contains the big packs of dried rice and dried beans I've been conditioned to always have on hand in case things get That Bad again.
I have a generator and several heaters, as I live in Canada and own a contracting business. I also have neighbours who prep and have urban chickens, and since I have guns and they do not and am also much stronger than them they are my doomsday back up plan.
House fire.
(That's a lie, I'm not and I live in an apartment, but I plan on prepping for it)
Had a gas can inexplicably catch fire in my yard but close enough to the house to scorch and melt siding. Was able to put it out on the third attempt just before the fire dept showed up. I now have a variety of sizes and types of fire extinguishing apparatus around my house.
Invest in fire safety. Lives are at stake.
Earthquake (California). I have a good supply of bottled water in a closet. I hope to never need it.
Battery power on the go.
I have a ~400W power station in the car that charges off the accessory circuit. I have a small solar charging power station in the car. A small crank generator in the car. Two cigarette-lighter-to-USB-PD adapters.
I carry a 100Wh power station, a smaller power station, a wall-power-to-USB-PD adapter, and have three computing devices that can provide USB power with me at pretty much all times.
My parents made their house self-sufficient. They have a water pump, filters, and a photovoltaic on the roof that can power the whole house and an EV. They’re planning on using the car‘s battery for the house once it’s too weak to drive. They also installed a wooden stovetop which heats the whole ground floor. As for food, my dad‘s a hunter and inherited way too much ammo for a single lifetime when my grandad passed.
Nothing anymore, or perhaps just that I buy my TP by the case from Costco, LoL
A couple weeks ago I found some unexpected puddles in my basement, and tracked it to my emergency water supply. A couple plastic jugs that expired in 2010 spontaneously started leaking.
I understand that’s not a good long term solution to water, but also prepping apparently takes more going maintenance than I’m motivated for.
I think being aware of the ongoing maintenance (and one's ability to do it) still feels productive in a prepping sense. It's sort of like meta-prepping? Like, I'd expect that in a disaster, your knowledge would be helpful in organising within your community. Certainly you'd fare better than me, as someone who has been fortunate enough to never have to consider emergency supplies.
We prep based on whats happened or likely to happen.
The most common thing where I live is a power outage. Usually only lasts a half day. Once it was out for 3 days. We have a generator and the gas station isn't too far away.
As for a water outage. Usually, we get a letter stating when the water will be out but not always. We have buckets to fill. A couple of times I've gone to the store and brought home a couple of water cooler jugs.
We always keep extra food on hand.
I mostly prep for digital disasters. Data loss, identity theft, internet outage.
I keep my car's gas tank half full, at least, at all times. Any disaster in my region (except something cataclysmic) I think I'd be able to get far enough away from to protect our lives.
5x 5 gallon jugs of water. A few weeks worth of canned goods. A stack of fire wood. Solar panels and a few batteries to charge small devices like radios. A couple of GMRS radios and a couple of HAM radios. Propane tanks and propane heaters.
This but 2600 gal water, enough solar and battery to run all but my air con, plus an abnormal amount of bullets due to an amazing deal on Russian ammo proves a decade ago.
Also vehicles that can survive an emp.
I dont consider myself a prepper but my hobbies seem to put me in that side of the chart.
I keep a backpack in my car with at least two changes of clothes, allergy pills, ibuprofen, sunscreen, and deodorant, toothbrush, and first aid. Worst case I'm ready when shit hits the fan. Best case I'm always ready for a surprise slumber party.
I just like to be prepared for if I get stranded during a storm or my car breaks down
it's a good idea to keep some drinking water in your car as well if you don't already.
I would say fire, flood and no tap water for three days.
Those are the most probable things that people are not ready for and should be. If you leave in a city near a river, chances are high that the general population (you included) underestimate vastly the risk of flooding. I learnt it this year with the heavy rains in my area.
“General population” is probably what we’re not prepared for. Where I live has a low chance of disaster and I always naively thought that I have credit cards and enough charge on my EV to get 100+ more miles inland and find a hotel. That probably doesn’t work as well when everyone wants to do it at the same time
I do home-brewing as a hobby so I guess I have cider and wine to enjoy the collapse of society and the end of the world as we know it tipsy enough to take the edge off.
I'm from an area where the power will go down reliably for several days, up to a week due to either a hurricane or an ice storm. I keep enough pantry food such as rice, lintels, canned soup etc. to get through it, and I have a 72 hour bag I can just grab on my way out to the car should there be a need to evacuate.
I'm bought into the Craftsman V20 cordless tool system, I have a number of batteries and among the tools I have for that set is a chainsaw, a reciprocating saw, and an inverter. I have several different ways of cooking without electricity and 9 ways to start a fire.
I'm ready to wait for Duke Energy to fix what the storm broke.
Another pandemic lockdown.
For me it's having a basic lay of the land / sense of direction to know where everything is incase of a total GPS blackout one of these days ( I live in the city, not a rural area )
If I ever need to make fire, but have no conventional means, I have a ferro rod, I have a Freznel lens, and I have a USB rechargeable electric arc lighter.
The Freznel lens fits in my wallet, along with a credit card sized folding pocket knife, which both stay with me at all times (yes, even when I sleep).
Tomorrow.
Food distribution breakdown. I have 30 days of non-perishable food stored in the basement.
Also 4000 rounds of .223 and 3000 rounds of 7.62x39 in sealed ammo cans in the basement in case that isn't enough food.
