CWMIYWTL

Personal Food Security

(Photo by: TowerGirl)

We live in interesting and uncertain times, and there may come a day in the not-too-distant future when food security is an issue even in developed Western nations. Yes, one day, circumstances might cure your obesity issues, just like they do in Africa, and other regions where we in the West export starvation.

Why? There are many reasons that can cause this. Take your pick. You can pick several. Economic stagnation, peak oil, declining food stocks, topsoil erosion, ocean acidification, the zombie apocalypse, interplanetary spacewars, MacGyver marathons on cable and several other things, many that are happening now, getting more intense, and it's worth to note that these issues are not isolated. In fact they are interconnected, they affect and exacerbate eachother. And no, exacerbate is not the same as masturbate.

I won't take the time to explain these issues in this post, hell I could write several books on them. But if you're interested, click on the terms mentioned above to find out more, and obviously you can use Google. There are also other small scale things that can affect your ability to get food, like becoming unemployed, a blizzard, hurricane, earthquake, floods and several other scenarios that are more likely to happen.

I don't know about you, but I consider it my responsibility to look after my own food security, and if something does happen, I don't want to stand in a bread line somewhere begging for food. Especially since I'm allergic to bread, and milk, and I hate fish. Damn fish. Also, if you do have your own food supply, the government will be able to feed one more poor schmuck who didn't prepare. Good for Mr. Schmuck.

So let's get to the point. The first thing I did when I started to build my food storage system, was what everybody else would do, the stupid thing. I went and bought lots of canned food, which I don't even like, most of which is unhealthy because it has so much salt and preservatives, and which only lasts a couple years. What a waste of time and money! Make sure you eat what you store.

But after about a year or so of planning, thinking and reading the interwebs, I finally figured out a decent system that is both economical and flexible. It's a two tier food storage system, and is one of the best out there, if I do say so myself.

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How To Improve Vitamin D Uptake

(Photo by: gusuval)

This will be a very short post. I assume you know the vast benefits of vitamin D, but incase you're wondering, click here. And yes you do get it from the sun, but some people still need supplements for various reasons, like during winter when the sun doesn't shine as much.

Anyway, to the point. Vitamin D is fat soluble, meaning it needs fat to break down properly, so take your supplements when you eat most fat, or if you also take fish oil supplements, take your vitamin D at the same time. Calcium and magnesium also have a symbiotic relationship with vitamin D, they all help the body absorb eachother. For proper vitamin D absorption and utilization, make sure you get enough calcium and magnesium, either through diet or with supplements.

MacGyver VPN with PuTTY

Good morning trolls!

So let’s say you’re traveling and you bring your laptop with you, and you go to some coffee shop to surf the web. Guess what? Most coffee shop WiFi’s are not secured although the bastards charge for them. This means crackers and other digital ruffians have an easier time sniffing the wireless traffic for passwords, credit card numbers or whatever personal data people decide to put out there. Reason enough to somehow secure your connection, right?

I’m in Hong Kong right now, so another reason I want my connection secured is obviously the Chinese government. What if I accidentally click on a link about Tianamen Square, will they rendition me to some secret dungeon and harvest my organs? Probably not, but I still don’t trust them, and to add to that my serviced apartment WiFi is poorly secured with basic WEP, and the key is VERY easy to guess. Also, I’ve recently fallen in love with coffee shops and I do like to go to them to troll around on my laptop and drink some hot coco. The Hot Chocolate Paradise at Pacific Coffee Company is AWESOME by the way, although Starbucks is none too shabby. Aaaaanyway.

Here’s what I’ve jerry-rigged as I don’t have access to a virtual private network, and I don’t want to use public proxies, I mean who really knows who runs them and if they can be trusted.

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