Are We Moving Into A Dystopian World?

It has come to my attention that the British government as well as other works government's are talking about something which has been dubbed the "Vaccine Passport.

To put it into a nutshell this passport is proof that you have been vaccinated against Covid 19 and possibly it's variants. If you can show the paperwork to show that you have "had the jab" you will be allowed to travel outside of your area.

The government (when I use the term government I am mainly referring to the British prime minister Boris Johnson and the Health secretary Mat Hancock). The government has said that you may be able to leave your area and even the country if you can show up to date paper work showing that you have been vaccinated.

You will not need to show proof of vaccination to enter pubs, clubs and shops, instead it will be left to the discretion of that business owner as to whether they will need to se your vaccination paperwork before they allow you on their premises.

On the subject of businesses, some employers are already saying that it will be mandatory for their employees to be vaccinated, failure to do so could cause them to loose their jobs, they are also saying that prospective employees, will be asked if they have has the jab and be required to provide evidence that they have before they are even interviewed. This obviously does not take into consideration those who for one reason or another can not be vaccinated, people who are pregnant or who might be allergic to one or more of the ingredients.

When I first heard about this the first thing that came to mind was the movie Demolition Man, with Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock. Thinking about it, it's quite apt that this movie was the first thing I thought of.

The premise of the movie is Stallone has to go to the future to catch a criminal (Wesley Snipes) who has already gone there.

On his arrival he finds himself in a Dystopian World where everything seems to be peaceful, no violence, everyone is happy and content, the police and law enforcement are there just in case but, there is a second group of people who live underground, in the sewer systems and tunnels who are fighting for survival. The future that Stallone has gone to is a future of those with and those without.

The world in this movie is split into two societies, those who have the freedom to do what they want, go where they want and, well you get the picture.

Don't get me wrong, when it comes to the vaccine I am for it, in fact I had a call just this week asking if I would like to have it, my appointment to get my first dose is next week. My reasoning behind this is, I am asthmatic, my wife is diabetic and I have two kids DT 3 and DT 4 who are asthmatic. If I get corvid 19 then it sucks to be me but the last thing I want is to pass it on to anyone else, especially my family.

My point here is that with this "passport" as well as movement control and a database that is being created in Spain I believe, to show those who have not been vaccinated, well we are moving into an Orwellian world.

I was talking about this last night with a few people I work with and it was pointed out that, although taking the Covid 19 vaccine is not mandatory, it does look like the powers that be are putting plans into place to make life very difficult for those who do not or can not take the vaccine.

There are those who say that we have been heading to a dystopian future for a while now and this virus is just what the powers that be needed to push this agenda forward. Some even say that this virus is man made and was "accidentally" leaked from the labs in Wuhan, just a couple of mines away from the wet market where the first case was found. 

If I am honest I have to agree with the idea that we are entering a new Dystopian World as for the virus originating from a lab in Wuhan. I will hold my own council on that one.

To end I would like to leave you with this thought.

At the moment there is a huge push to get "everyone" vaccinated, no it's not mandatory but if you don't have the paperwork to show that you have had the jab, well life could be getting.. interesting..

But, when this outbreak first started the British prime minister was wanting to go with the Herd immunity strategy, with that in mind, if 80-90% of the UK population is vaccinated, surely the other 10-20% will become immune due to herd immunity.. yes?

I'd that is the case then the idea if a vaccine passport has just been rendered void as the virus as well as any variants would soon fade due to the lack of viable hosts.

Just a thought.

Until next time

Stay safe

Jim

10 Things About Me

 

On the 8th of March 2006 I logged into Google Blogger for the first time and created my first blog, since then my blog has had many names, starting with Noscere's World to today with Jim's World.

I still can't believe that it was nearly 15 years ago. It didn't take long, a couple of years or so, before I came up with the idea of adding audio to my posts so that people could listen to my blogs instead of just reading them, at the time technology didn't have the means for me to do this, the only possibly was old school podcasting and I didn't have the funds or knowledge to use this avenue.

Good or bad the only place where I could do make my idea reality was on YouTube, so I created my first channel and forgot all about my plans to add my voice to my blog, falling head over heals in love with the idea of video blogging.

Fast forward nearly 15 years and countless YouTube channels later, the need to blog hit me again and once again the idea of adding audio to my blog posts is at the forefront of my mind. This time I have the means and the knowledge to add to videos and audio via YouTube and my podcast.

With that in mind, there are a few old posts that I have made that really need to be brought up to date with one of the above. Some posts are about paganism, some about emergency preparedness, others could be about bushcraft or even the paranormal, but they all have one thing in common. They all play a big part in my world.

To start the ball rolling on my new, or old venture, which ever you want to see it, I thought it would be a good idea to tell you a little bit more about me, the me outside of being a Norse pagan.

And what better way to do this than in the age old YouTube 10 things about me format.

Starting at number 1

1. I am a huge horror movie fan. (In case you didn't already know).

When it comes to horror movies I admit it, I am very anal. I hate it when movie writers and producers change a character's lore and history just so that it fits in with their movie idea.

Example, vampires burn, they explode and die if they are exposed to sunlight, no they can not have this magical ring passed down through the ages that allows then to walk in day light and no, they do not sparkle a bit.

They explode and die. In gaming circles this is called God modding and is frowned on, what's more I don't like it at all, it's just lazy.

2. When it comes to horrors, I like post apocalyptic and zombie movies, I don't like the gore for the sake if gore movies, There has to be a story line preferably one which doesn't involve 5 or more teenagers on a spring break who go off to their uncles cabins in the woods, you know what I mean.

The only exception to this would have to be Evil Dead which is a classic

3. Ok, in the late 1990’s I was diagnosed with depression and what is now known as Generalised anxiety disorder. I am managing to keep both under control now by  spending less time around technology and more time out doors.

4. Now this one might come as a bit of a surprise to some of you but my all time favourite movie isn't a horror it's not even slightly apocalyptic. My favourite movie and book is The original Wuthering heights.

5. My first name is not Jim or James, my first name is actually Jodie. I started using James because in their wisdom either my Mom or my Dad spelled my name the girls way. Probably my Dad as he was the one who registered my birth.

Thanks Dad.. or Mom.

6. I am partially colour blind. I can see primary and secondary colours but after that, any other colour just looks like the dark or light version of a primary or secondary colour.

Some colours just look confusing, I just don't know what it is.

When we are decorating at home my wife picks the colour scheme and has to write on the paint tin lid where she wants that colour putting, you know.. walls, ceiling.

7. I work in a waist recycling plant, basically I stand by a conveyor belt and sort through all the recycled stuff you have thrown away. The job is dirty, fast paced and at times heavy. It's not unusual to have dead rats come down the line, which of course need to be put in the container for none recyclable, not all the rats that come down the line are dead though.

Even though my job is dirty and at times hard, I love my job and at the moment, I wouldn't change it.

8. I am married and have been for over 22 years, I have 7 children, though most you could not call children now, my eldest has 5 kids of her own and her eldest has recently became a Dad to his own daughter, making me a Great Grandfather.

Thanks George, totally appreciate that one.

9. Faith wise as well as being a Norse Pagan I am also an animist. Meaning that I believe that everything has a consciousness and a spirit attached to it, even rocks, plants and in time tables and, well everything.

I have had this belief since I was a small kid.

I remember times when I would accidentally knock into a table or chair and apologise to what ever it was. It's just something I do.

10. When I was in my early 20's I appeared in a movie with Sean Bean and Melanie Griffiths as an extra. 

That's me in the middle with Rob on my left and Andrea on my right. Damn but I look so young, it's hard to believe that I was in my 20's when that picture was taken.

We were paid £20 a day and had to sign a disclosure saying that we accept that our names were not going to be shown in the credits.

I have a few tales to tell about that day but I'm going to save those for another time.

11. This is a bonus one for those of you who have stuck around until the end.

So number 11. I don't watch TV, with the exception of a few movies I like to loose myself in from time to time, I don't like TV and avoid it. 

If I was given the choice I wouldn't have one in the house. But that's just me..

So there you have it, 10 things about me, and a bonus thing. Now that you know me a little bit better how about you tell me something about you..

Go on, I dare you.

Why I Have Rebranded

December of 2020 was not only the end of a difficult year for most of us, but the end of a chapter in my life.

Without going into details, I have found myself in a situation where I had to take a long hard look at myself, who I was and what I wanted.

I will be totally honest and say that I didn't like what I saw.

It was time for a change, time to be the person I wanted to be, you know the old saying.. "Be the change you want to see".

The Norse people of old put family first, then the ancestors, nature spirits and then, the gods.

I need to do the same, it is time for a complete change in who I am and what I am.

It is for this reason I decided to kill off iJim, I want to start a whole new chapter in my life.

I also came to realise that the name The Norse Way restricted me in the some of the subjects I wanted to talk about on my YouTube channel, and in my podcast.

See, Paganism is more than just the Norse faith and heathenry, a whole lot more, and if we were to disregard or ignore the other paths in the pagan faith we could be missing out on a world of knowledge.

To do that would be a crime in my opinion.

So, I chose to change all of my social media accounts to Jim's World, I was lucky enough to be able to buy Jimsworld.co.uk and get the Jimsworld extension on both my podcast and YouTube channel.

Now, with our new "brand" name (Jim's World) i am free to talk about all aspects of paganism, spirituality, how I am trying to reconnect with nature and my ancestors as well as what ever catches my attention at any point in time.

That being said, I do have a plan on how to do this, I want to start by concentrating on recording my podcasts on Anchor.fm/Jimsworld. These podcasts will be recorded in a controlled studio environment as well as outside, after all, what better place to be than out in nature.

At least that's the plan at least, but as we all know. It is not unusual for my plans to not go according to plan.

The Norse Pagan Awakening

Every journey starts with the first step and my journey along the path of the Norse Pagan is no different. Yes, at the time of writing this I am not ashamed to admit, I am relatively new to the Norse Pagan faith, though I am lucky in the respect that I have walked the pagan path for upwards of 30 years (saying that, I am by no means an expert in any of this).

How did I end up on the path I am on now?

Well, every year for the past 15 years or so, around the middle of September I feel a pull back to the old ways, it's like the Gods, the ancestors and the spirits of the lands become that bit more active, I like to call it "The Awakening".

This year (2020) was no different, well except for one thing, this year the pull I was feeling was coming from a different direction. Try as I might I could not figure out what was going on.

I could feel the old ones but I didn't recognise those who were reaching out to me, they just felt different.

Then, one day after a particularly hard night shift, I came home and went to bed as usual. I don't think I slept for any more to an an hour when I woke and sat, bolt upright in my bed.

The pull, I knew where it was coming from. It was Odin who was calling me and I could hear and feel the call.

After a couple of days of reading up on the Norse path I went outside and asked Odin to show me some kind of sign so that I knew I was right in my thinking. A couple of days later while sitting in the shed in my back garden I noticed a rune on the roof of a house a few doors away from me. (Pictured below).

I Quickly looked up the rune to find out that but was Ansuz, Odin's rune.

Honestly I could not believe it. I had the sign I asked for. 

This was not the only sign I have had, a few days earlier I, without reason became filled with joy while walking into town, I could feel the gods around me as I walked passed a lone of trees.

The last sign I had was at about 5 in the afternoon, sometime in October 2020, I was just going out side on my break while at work and a raven flew down and landed in the back of a large pick-up truck, not 10 feet away from me, it just stood there, eyeing me, then flew away to be joined by a second raven.

I haven't had any signs since then but I'm good with that, in my opinion I was given more than my fair share of signs.

Today, well now I am reading as much as I can about Norse Paganism, no books, not yet. I am getting my information from the Poetic Edda, the Havamal and from the mouths of other Norse pagans as well as the experiences I am having.

To end, this is a whole new journey for me and for the first time in years, I am excited. 

2020 New Year Resolutions

Fixing My Life

Even before I start writing this I cant help wonder how many blog posts are going to hit the internet in the next 24 hours with the same title.

Truth be told I am once again not making any resolutions for the next year/decade. The plans I have for the forthcoming 12 month I started on December 1st this year (2019),

My only resolution was to get in shape and 31 days later I am still sticking by it, I am eating a more healthy diet, no junk food at all, not even a sniff. I dont take sugar in my coffee now and have even cut the amount of that down as well.

On December 5th I started the 100 press ups a day for 30 days challenge and so far I have stuck to it.
I walk to work instead of taking the bus.

Instead of making more resolutions I am planning on upping the amount of press ups I am doing from 100 to 125 on the 7th January, I have a set of workouts I plan to start next month as well.

If anything I am drawing a lot of inspiration from a YouTube video I watched a few day ago were  guy called Joe Rogan talks about becoming the hero in your own movie.

There`s a line near the end which says something like 

"Pretend that you are the hero in your own movie, right now it is the beginning of the movie and you are a looser, you need to decide to stop being a looser"

Or something along those lines, When I heard those words, something connected in my head and I knew what needed to be done and that is what my plans are fr 2020.

That Sound Hurts

I am in actual, physical pain right now. I havnt had an accident or anything like that, I am in pain because of the noise that is going on at the moment, not the amount of noise but its pitch.

I lost about 80% of the hearing in my left ear in spring of this year, no idea how or why but I have. The thing is, the pitch of some sounds can cause me actual physical pain, kids screaming is a good one, shouting is another.

When there is a lot of noise going on at the same time I get what I can only describe as an audio over load, as my good ear tries to pick out and prioritise what I need to hear over the background hustle and bustle, sometimes my right ear just overloads and throws everything at me which basically deafens me, I am hearing almost nothing except white noise in my left ear and I am hearing every sound available in my other.

Anyway, we have workmen round at the moment removing the cavity wall insulation so we can get new (better) put in, its part of some kind of government scheme which we have qualified for, replacement insulation and a new boiler..

As you can imagine, there is lots of noise, there is a pump going, lots of drilling and banging and then there is Gizmo, our little Jack Russel who is barking, constantly barking, for the last hour.

Thing is, little Gizmo`s bark is one of those sounds which has a pitch that hurts, especially when he rolls out half a dozen barks, one after the other... Ouch..

I`m hoping that the workmen manage to get all the insulation out and the new back in today, better still, this morning, otherwise they say that they will have to come back tomorrow to put the new stuff in, which means, chances are that they will be here with their noise when I finish work.

On top of that, deep down I know that I am stressing out a bit about the damage that they will do to the new lawn I planted earlier this year. I am rather proud of it, but it is still in its infancy so is easily damaged.

Hang on, they have turned their pump down, they might be finished.

That`s it for this one, I`m going to make coffee and get some pain killers into me.

Keep Britain British.

How often have you heard people complaining about refugees and people from other countries settling in England?

How often have you read a comment or heard someone saying "Keep Britain British"!, "Keep the foreigners out of England, England is for the English"!?

You have probably heard a lot more of this of late, more so over the last few years. I know I have.

The problem is that, what most people fail to realise is that the "British" people are of mixed race, each and every one of us.. We are an island of mutts, there is not a single 100% pure British person in this country, hell even the Queen of England is German.

The average resident of the UK is, at best 60.5% European a large percentage of this being Irish, and around 36% Anglo Saxon Source  (the Saxons hail from Northern Germany, The Netherlands and Denmark) with the remaining 3.5% or there about hailing from where ever people can hail from.

As a British person, you have an almost global gene pool, so when I hear people commenting about Keeping Britain British.. ehem.. but we are, we are a global country, so when people from other countries settle in England, they, and I know this is going to hit those of you with Neo Nazi beliefs the hardest, but people from other countries, are not muddying our gene pool, they are not diluting this great nation and making it "Less British", chances are their ancestors came here centuries ago and added to the "Average" UK residents DNA.

Pyjama Mamma`s

What is this skulduggery?! Two posts in less than a week? Someone has hacked into iJim`s blog! Quick someone call who ever deals with this.

Nah, everything is ok, no one has hacked my blog, I had the need, the want to have a short rant.

Pyjama Mamma`s, people, usually female (sorry) who spend their days in their PJ`s.. Dont get me wrong, PJ days are OK, spending the day in front of the TV in Your pyjamas is fine, I have no problems with that.

I do however have problems with people who "just nip out to the shop" in their jammies, but whats worse than that is the people who take a trip into town and do a full shop in their pyjamas. If you are one of these people, someone who does a full shop around town in your night ware I have two words for you.

1: Why?!

2: Dignity (Get some)!!

So, why the mini rant? I can hear you think. Well boys, girls and those of you of mixed or no gender, I have had a bit of a bee in my bonnet about people just nipping to the shop in their pyjamas for a while now, it all came to a head yesterday, in case you didn't know, I work in a shop, a large store in town.

Yesterday, at about 4 in the afternoon two young lady's came into the shop I work in to get a few bits in, no problem, except.. they were both still in their pyjamas.

I'm actually shaking my head as I write this bit. Not because these two "lady's" decided to not bother putting clothes on but because the pyjamas they were wearing were dirty and by dirty I mean huge stains on them that had obviously been there for longer than a day.

Come on, is it so much work to throw on a pair of jeans and some shoes? Show some class..

Anywhere, any time.

When I first started writing a blog 13 years ago (March 8th 2006 to be exact) I had to sit in front of my computer to do it. If I wanted to add a photo to my post I would have to take the picture on a digital camera, upload that picture to my computer and then add it to my post.

Why am I telling you all this?

At the time of writing this post I am stood at the bus stop on my way to work. It's cold 1°c and my fingers are starting to get rather cold, making it rather hard to type this. If I want to add some audio to this post I can easily record it, upload it to a podcast host and add it to my post, pictures? Yeah, easy. I can take a photo using my phone and just insert it, Just like the one below

13 years ago I would have loved this kind of freedom, I can post what I want, when I want, where ever I am. 

My First Official Lesson As A Cadet Instructor

So, after nearly a year in the Army cadets, a mountain of paperwork, five assessments and over four months of training, everything I had been working up to came into place last night.

While the cadets in my detachment paraded down stairs I was up stairs setting up a classroom for my first official lesson as a Sergeant Instructor in the ACF. I am not going to lie, my heart was pounding and I was more nervous for this one than I was for both the lessons I had to prep and deliver while I was on my AIC (Advanced Instructors Course). Once I was et up and ready I went down stairs and joined in with the end of the parade, telling the new cadets which classroom they were in.

This is it, there was no going back. I walked into the room to find around 10 cadets waiting for me.
If I am honest the lesson went rather well, bearing in mind that if your cadets sense fear or if they pick up on a mistake you have made they will tear you to bits, I have seen this happen. Now I personally could have picked up a number of faults with it but when I asked the cadets for their feedback, explaining that this was my first official lesson as an instructor, the only criticism they gave was that, at times I was talking a bit too fast for them.

The second lesson went a lot better than the first I thought, but even then “I” noticed a few faults and things that I could have done better.

At the moment I am taking a break from my lesson plans to make this post, I have organised the lesson schedule for the rest of this month and part of next month, once these have been done I will be working on individual lesson plans for each of the scheduled lessons.

If I am honest the only pressure I'm feeling now with regards to my lessons is.. I need to make sure that the stuff that I am teaching is right and makes sense to cadets aged 12 to 16 years, if I get it wrong or pass on wrong information my recruits (Basics) wont pass their tests and move on to the next level of training.





Yeah No pressure lol

The Day I Met The Reason I Started Blogging

It's weird where inspiration comes from sometimes. Like today, it just jumps out and punches you right you in the face and all you can think about for the rest of that day is that hit.

Well, that was me today, I was at work cleaning the shop floor and someone I used to work with years ago walked into the shop, to this day I know him under his internet name "Scribbler".

We recognised each other straight away and why shouldn't we? It was this person who started me writing blogs way back in the days when you had to be sat in front of your computer to write a post, you had to have a digital camera if you wanted to take a photo for said post and podcasts were only for those with a degree in geek and enough money to set up a small radio studio.

Dead bedouins podcast studio

We talked about the old days, how he was and how I was, you know, the usual stuff people talk about when they haven't seen each other in a while. Then he asked me out if the blue if I was still blogging, to which I sheepishly replied,
"Sometimes, you know, I'll write a post saying that I have been very busy and will try to post more..and then don't post for too long, only to write another post with the same excuse".

I have to admit I was surprised when he said he did the same, except for how he intends to write a blog about what he got up to on that day, only to stay in bed until 1.00 in the afternoon.

We talked bout how we used to have a race to see which one of us could get a photograph of the first snow of the year up on our blogs, me or scribbler on his blog Mercury vapours (I don't know if Scribblers blog is still on line so it's up to you if you want to check) and if you're interested I think he is or was winning the snow post by 7 years to 4. 

After talking for about 15 minutes Scribbler continued into the store I work in and I returned to sweeping the floors, I have to admit, all I wanted to do was sit down and start to write a blog post about our meeting.

Points to note: it's nearly 8.00 in the evening and after 5-6 attempts, I have wrote the post I needed to write earlier today.

Now The Hard Work Begins

In case you hadn't noticed I have not made a post on my blog in quite a few month, thing is I have been crazy busy so far this year.

For one I have a new job working in a department store, it might only be part time but when my early start means I need to be up at 5 in the morning, early nights will become plenty. On top of this I have been in training, I`m sure I have mentioned this before but I have been training to become an instructor in the Army cadets.

As well as obligatory weekends away from home I had to go to the ACF County training wing two times a week, minimum.

Anyway, getting to the point, two weeks ago I had to go to the ACF training centre for 7 days to finish my training and be assessed to see if I was "competent" and knew enough, was compitent and was confident enough to be able to stand in front of a room full of 12 to 17 year olds and teach them military based subjects as per the ACF manual.

The good news is, I am, I passed the course and was graded as competent and highly competent.

Next week I have to go back to the training wing to return my issued field kit and officially be promoted from PI (Probationary Instructor) to Sergeant. In 2 weeks time I am able to return to my detachment to take up the roll of SI (Sergeant Instructor) and start teaching the Basics and One Star cadets (Basic cadets are the new recruits and one star cadets are junior cadets).

Hasn't been easy

I`m not going to lie, the past few month has had its low points and moments when I honestly thought about quitting.

One of those times was when I had to give a 15 minute lesson on "Why Things Are Seen" a field craft lesson taught to basic cadets.

I stood in front of the Training Sergeant Major and my mind went blank, I couldn't remember a thing, litterally it was possibly the worst 15 minutes I have had in a very long time.
I recorded a video about it the next day. I think that moment was one of the main times I honestly thought about quitting.

Obviously I didnt quit and I`m so happy that I didnt, the amount of confidence I gained from doing my final week long course was huge. I know where I went wrong and have learned and had time to practice planning and taking lessons and had my lessons critiqued by my peers and regular soldiers.

One of my work colleagues from the store I work in saw some of the photographs which were taken while I was on my course and told me today that I looked so comfortable and at home when I was in the field, soaking wet and tired and that this was definitely my calling.

When all is said and done, now that my training has finished, the work has only just begun and boy and I looking forward to it. 

I am not Unfocused

Good morning world,

So I thought it might be a good idea to update you guys on what I have been up to blog wise. When I first started this blog I had the idea of writing stuff about horror movies and how to survive should your fav horror flick come to life, tomorrow.

Thing is, believe it or not but, although I am a stupidly huge fan of post apocalyptic movies there are other things that I enjoy or get me way to excited for a bloke my age should get.

Yes, there is Bushcraft and urban/wilderness survival but there is more still, I happen to have a big interest in the paranormal and ufology, I like to think that I am a spiritual person even though I prefer not to align to any specific religious doctrine and no, before you say it (and one of you will say it, or at least think it), I am not unfocused, I am multifaceted, I have more than one interest and I want to share those interests here.

For this reason I have deleted what I liked to call my archive blog, where I kept all the posts I have ever made, going right back to March 2006. I dont want to write a blog about horror movies and the apocalypse, not when there is all sorts of things I want to write about.

So there you have it, have a look around, Im sure that there will be something here which catches your eye.

Regards Jim

Plans For 2019

It's coming to the end of the 3rd week of January already and I'm wondering how many of us are still going strong with our New Year Resolutions, or have they kind of fallen by the way side a little bit?

I didn't make any resolutions this year, I haven't for a few years now, I think that to call something a "resolution" can set you up for a fail from the start. Instead I set some goals, things I want to achieve this year.

Getting my sergeant stripes and becoming a cadet instructor is way up there but, after a meeting with the company commander and the other instructors of A coy ACF I plan to be trained as an expedition instructor helping to teach army cadets wilderness survival and bushcrafting skills, I would honestly love to do this.

First things first though, I need to get past an interview with the company 2IC and finish my instructors training before I start on my Ex-ped training, as far as I am aware I should finish my instructors training by October this year.

Not My Detachment.

In the mean time I plan to work on my fitness, I need to build up my stamina and strength so that I can walk for longer while carrying everything I need for, say a week in the wilderness. I have no plans on joining a gym, instead I want to work on my fitness the old fashioned way by putting on a backpack and getting out there and just doing it. No fancy running trainers, just a pair of ild 1980`s army issue jungle boots, my thinking is.. I almost always wear boots so if something were to happen where I had to run, I am not going to be able to just pop my trainers on and start running, so being used to running in boots seems to be a no brainer.

I also plan to work on my bushcrafting and wilderness survival skills, including tree identification, wild foods, shelter construction and much more. I also want to become a dead shot with my slingshot, not for hunting. I still go by the rules that if I dont need to eat it as a matter of survival I will not kill it, so targets it is.

A couple of years ago my lifestyle and the things I did was impacted by my health, I am determined not to let that happen this year, I want to spend as much time as I can out doors practising my survival skills, saying that, at the moment everything is kind of stalled because of family things which are going on, which are stopping me from doing much of what I want to do. These things do happen..

Finally, I plan to turn part of my garden into a veg patch and start growing basic veggies, potatoes, carrots and the like.

Why I want to learn how to pick locks

Not that long ago in a galaxy far, far away I made a tweet where I said that there are three ways to acquire things that you either want or need, I have expanded on what I meant in the tweet below.
Legally: You save your money and buy the item by legal means
Illegally: You just take what you want, get it by any means.
Make it: You look at what you want/need and try to make it

As you can see in the above picture I ended the tweet by saying that I was planning on making myself a half decent lock picking set. I do have my reasons for wanting to learn how to pick locks and you will be happy to hear that my reasons are 100% legal and above board, the way I am looking at this skill is the same as my goal at becoming a dead shot with a slingshot, just because I can take out a small animal with a slingshot does not mean that I am going to, in fact I hope that I never have to. The same thought applies to being able to pick locks, just because I can does not mean that I am going to.

It was the above comment that prompted me to write this post. Sometimes 260 characters is not enough to fully explain your intentions.
As some of you will know, I am training to become an adult instructor in the Army cadet force, this year I will be attending weekend camps and exercises as a PI (Probationary Instructor), some of these camps will have upwards of 200 plus cadets attending and you can almost guarantee that on more than one of these camps at least one cadet is going to lock there locker key inside there locker, and as luck will have it, they either didn't bring a spare key or, the spare key is still attached to the other one.
Yeah, in life only three things are certain, death, taxes and that one cadet who locks there keys in their locker. This is why I want to learn how to pick locks, if I can open the lock without breaking it then we can get the keys and the above mentioned cadet can continue to safely lock their gear away for the rest of the camp.

Where Have I Been?

I guess I should start by thanking CrazyRocky for tweeting me yesterday to ask why I havnt been making any updates of late, if he hadn't have messaged me I would probably not be writing this.

So, where have I been? In short, at home.. At the moment my wife and I have a lot going on in one way or another, these things are taking a lot of our time, and that is all I am willing to say at the moment, except to say that as well as the above my laptop decided that it wanted to stop doing anything, and I mean "anything", if I had more than one thing running it would lock up and stay like that.
It has taken me the better part of 5 days to get it working again, at one point I even installed Ubuntu on it so that I could at least have an operating system that worked. Unfortunately the only video editor that was willing to run on it kept crashing.

I only had 2 choices...
Wait until January and see if I could find a new computer in the sales or..
Do everything in my power to get Windows working on it again.

It has taken nearly double figures in attempts to get Windows installed and finally, finally, today I succeeded. Right up until the very last minute, I was hoping, praying that it would work, I didnt dare assume that everything was OK after spending days seeing an error message pop up at the very last minute, but this time, it worked.

So, plans. As you no doubt have noticed, it is the holiday season, the season of spend too much and eat, drink even more, yes its Excessmas.

I do plan to write more blog posts, record videos and podcasts over the holidays but I dont plan to start to publish or upload them regularly until the new year, its only 11 days away so its not too bad.

I still have a lot of work to do here at home as well as on my sites so bear with me and enjoy your holidays.

regards

iJim

Taking It To The Next Level

The thing is, when you start to go deep in to prepping for an emergency situation, you're always thinking about the next possible situation where you might need to draw on your preparedness skills,
It can get to a point where you start to look at everything you see in the news as a possible SHTF situation, your view of people can change as well, you can start to see them, not as people but as potential threats and instead of enjoying the outdoors you're too busy looking for exit routes and places to duck and cover.

Don't get me wrong, everyone should have an emergency plan and a backup plan, as well as a decent size stockpile of food, water, medications you and your family take and a good size first aid kit, not forgetting a means to cook said food and water.

Preparing for a possible emergency is a no brainer everyone should do it as a matter of course, but being constantly on the look out for that emergency situation can become unhealthy.

On a slightly different subject, but not different if you know what I mean Every prepper knows or should know at least the basics of Bushcraft or wilderness survival, but not every bushcrafter or woodsman needs to be a prepper.

I am still making sure that my family and I have enough food, water and meds just on case something happens, but lately I have found my self avoiding Prepping videos and discussions on the internet about emergency preparedness and the like, instead I have found that I am doing more and more  Bushcraft, wild camping and out doors related stuff, I am fascinated by it.



Even now, while I am writing this, I have what I hope is two tins of char cloth cooling down in the kitchen, so I can start making up and adding to my fire starting kit, I say hope because the last time I tried to make charcloth I ended up with a tin full of ash.

Moving on, recently I took my interest in Bushcraft and the wilderness to what I consider to be the next level and I joined the army cadets as an adult instructor.

See, I was born into the army, when I was a kid I was a member of the cadets and I have spent a few years as an Infantry reserve, so the training I have to do isn't going to be that much of  a steep learning curve, its more of a refresher I think, I hope..

I have about 10 month to learn and to be able to teach what it takes a cadet 3 and a half years to learn. No pressure there…

The good news is, it will broaden my skill set and give me the chance to pass on my knowledge of the military, as well as being able to share some tips and tricks I have learned in my study of Bushcraft onto the cadets as they learn about field craft and surviving out in the wilds.



At the moment all I can do is observe as I am not yet allowed to teach without supervision until I have my uniform and my paperwork and police checks come back and the paperwork wont be getting sent off until I have been observed, passed my first assessment and been interviewed by the company commander, which should be next week with any luck.

The way I am looking on it is, as well as going by the cadet ideals of giving kids  life skills that they can use in the future, helping make memories that they will never forget, build their confidence and help to make them good people, If just one kid finds a use for the tips and tricks I pass on or is inspired to take up Bushcraft and get out into the out doors more often, instead of sitting over a computer playing games or living on one or more social media platform.. I will be happy

My YouTube Channel is Two Years Old

I started uploading videos to YouTube in March of 2012, about a month or so before YouTube opened the doors to its partner program, so that anyone could join. Since then I have had three channels, my current one iJimUK being my third channel, and my last.. I hope..

Since my first upload way back in 2012 I have only ever had two strikes for copyright on any of my videos, the second one was a few weeks back on my Video Noscere`s Call to Action, because I used a clip from the move The Matrix.

So when another email from YouTube hit my inbox this week, my first thought was "oh bugger, someone else is claiming copyright infringement but I was wrong, instead it was an email wishing my channel a happy 2nd Birthday.

With everything I have going on at home at the moment and yet another change to my channels format I didn't even realize it had been up for so long. Hard to believe that two years ago I had this idea of making a channel dedicated to the way I see the world, a kind of guerilla journalism channel, which in time changed to a commentary channel where I hid my face, then I decided not to hide my face, to what it is now, a channel about Prepping, Bushcraft and horror movies, where I hide my face.

I am choosing not to celebrate iJimUK`s 2nd birthday because I am not 100% happy with it yet, I still hadn't gotten into the swing of everything yet, maybe by the time it is three years old, we will have to wait and see…

Knowledge is Key

A few posts ago we talked about how you and your body is your first and best weapon in a SHTF scenario, I want to justify that statement by adding the will to live and knowledge to the mix.
It is no good having the best gear available if you don't know how to use it. Knowing how to survive in an off grid urban environment or wilderness setting is paramount, second only to having a good level of fitness and stamina and neither of the above are of any use at all if you do not have the will and drive to stay alive as the world as we know it crumbles around you.

With all the will in the world and all the best Prepper tech available, if you had to grab your bug out bag and move to one of your bug out locations, the only thing you will be able to rely on will be your fitness, your will to live and what you know. How to light a fire when it's cold, windy or raining, how to make a shelter, get water and purify it when your out of those little tablets and you cant find your life straw, what wild foods you can and can't eat, how to snare and hunt animals for food and everything else that goes with having to live in the wilderness.


This is where Bushcraft comes in. Bushcraft in my opinion is an umbrella term for being able to survive in a sort of comfort in the wilderness, being as comfortable as possible and at home in the wilds, knowing what I can and can't eat and being able to find and/or make some kind of shelter.
If you were to ask 500 people who are knowledgeable in bushcraft, what bushcraft is, you will get 500 different answers. Some will say it's wilderness survival, others might say it's being able to know the wilds or have knowledge of the wilderness and how to best use it.

Either way, what ever your answer is, knowledge of bushcraft is paramount if you are going to survive in a SHTF situation. After all, what are you going to do if you have ran out of food, your in the middle of a wood, surrounded by spruce trees, have no water and your bug out bag floated off down a stream two days ago, the only things that you have on you is what ever you had attached to your belt, a knife, a torch and some string..

Any bushcrafter will say that if you have a good knife on your side, you have everything you need to survive. I myself have joked a few times with my kids when they ask me what I have in my bag and I tell them,

"Everything".

They used to reply with something like "What, you have a house, or a billboard in your bag?"

To which I would reply, "I have a knife and some string so technically, yes, I do have a house and a billboard in my bag, all I need to do is find some wood and make them"


The picture above is not my bushcraft gear,, though I wish it was and admittedly the house would be more of a lean to among some trees and the billboard would be what ever I wrote on a wall of cliff face with a chunk of burnt wood I took from the last fire I made, but you get where I am going with this.

I am new to bushcraft and everything that goes with it but I have a decent size bag with enough in it to start me off, I have a good hunting knife, I have a bigger 120 litre bag with everything else I need in it (or it will have by the time I have finished) and most of all I have the will to learn.
I know that I am going to make mistakes and fail at almost everything I try but failure is part of the learning process and it is better to get it wrong now, than when the lives of my family and my self depend on me getting it right.

Up until this year I would say that I was almost 100% connected to the grid, I depended on it for just about everything, food, water, warmth, security and everything else that comes with society as we have come to know it. I don't want to be that person any more, which is why I have cut down my time connected to the grid via my computer, the TV and my phone by almost half. I hardly ever watch TV now and only use my computer for making these blog posts, recording and editing my podcasts and research.

Instead I am outside in the garden or going for walks, every time I go out, even if it is just to the shops I grab my day bag on my way out and I have to say, I do feel better for it both physically and mentally.

It has been and will be quite the journey I am taking and I want to take you along with me, through my successes and my failures.
That being said, lets grab a rucksack and get out there..

If The Grid Went Down

If we were to be told that our water was contaminated and undrinkable or for what ever reason food deliveries had to be stopped, it would take a couple days for it to sink in for most people, then, once it has hit home people would start to panic, they would head out to the super markets and "panic buying" filling their shopping carts to the point of overflowing, emptying shelves of water, food and everything else in a matter of hours.

However, if the electricity were to go out the effects would be immediately felt, after the initial confusion we would pull out the candles and after explaining to our kids why you can't get the WiFi back on, we would sit and patiently wait for the power to be reconnected.

But what if it didn't come back on? What if we found our selves in a long term Grid Down situation? No ETA as to when we would get power back, it just stayed off... Even if we are well prepared for it with candles, solar lanterns and torches, it wont take long before the water stops or becomes undrinkable as the water filtration systems failed due to the lack of power, deliveries of food to our local stores will stop and because these days our stores get deliveries on a "nearly out of stock basis" their shelves will be empty within a matter of days, if not hours, even if deliveries were to get through, perishable foods will defrost and go bad in a matter of hours in the summer, a day or so in the winter because our grocery stores would have no power to run their freezers. Then what?

 With no electricity to run our telephone lines and mobile networks, the communication system would stop, everything that runs in electricity, would stop. Even generators would have a finite life span as fuel starts to run out.

This is where the panic will set in, and scared people can become dangerous people. Society as we know it would totally collapse in a matter of days as the police loose control of our towns and cities and concentrate instead on the safety of their own families and loved ones.

It is at this point our only hope would be Martial law taking control of our towns and cities and even then, the best that we could hope for would be check points to control the movement of people around the country, as whole areas of cities would become no go zones, now under the control of gangs and marauders. This is the part of a SHTF scenario that fills me with dread, it would be bad enough trying to steer my family through a SHTF landscape to our bug out safe place, if we decided to make that move, without having to deal with the criminal element, now given free reign to do what ever they want.

Alistair Reynolds said that we are only three hot meals away from anarchy at any point in time.

When people become hungry and thirsty or when they realise that they can only live for three days without water before severe dehydration sets in, shops will be the first to be looted, once our super markets are empty the next step would be gangs going door to door looking for food and water, it won't matter if there are families with children in a house, if they have food they will become a target.

With no law enforcement in place, no consequences to pay for your actions, some people will have free reign to do what ever they want.

With any luck those in the know will have seen the signs and bugged out, leaving the city before society broke down, if they are lucky.

We have seen it so many times where the mob mentally takes hold almost over night, a good example would be London Riots of August 2011 when businesses, even small ones were looted and then destroyed, even innocent people walking down a street became a target as gangs walked the streets, taking whatever they wanted, "Shopping For Free" were the new buzz words.

Of course the riots and looting will only last so long, after a week or so there will be nothing left to take or destroy. With no water sanitation, garbage collection and the other unseen pest control companies that go unseen no longer there, disease will take hold, there will be no hospitals or doctors available, hospitals will have already been looted and destroyed, the people who staffed them gone to be with their lives ones, the old, the disabled and those addicted to drugs will be first to go, followed by those who depend on medication so that they can live a relatively normal life, compounding an already disease infested country.

It won't always be like this though, at some point people will come together and form small communities through common goals, the main one being survival. In the end, people will always group together, its what we do.

It has taken nearly 2,000 years for our civilisation to get where it is today, but it could take only one day, one single day to undo everything we have built up.