As you can see we have another movie review to do today… This one will be a little different though, in that I wasn’t that impressed this time. I’ll admit to being a big fan of movies in general, them being my preferred way to waste a Saturday afternoon ever since I was kid. I don’t usually find myself paying to see one that I would really admit wasn’t worth seeing. However, this one comes close…

SPOILER ALERT – In my review of this movie today there will be details that might spoil the movie for you so read with that in mind. However, I will be doing my best to persuade you to choose another movie anyway so either way, you’ve been warned!

   When I first saw “The Grey” advertised during the previews at the theater several months back it caught my attention for a couple of reasons. First as a normal red blooded American male, I like action films and second it appeared to be a survival story… Yep, I’m a sucker for anything that looks like it might fit into my preferred genre. You know, “Waterworld”, “The Postman” and more recently, “The Road”… None of these were great but they were entertaining and worth the price of admission. I’ll even admit that “Waterworld” made it into my DVD collection and lets face it, it was a DUD!

   Now that you have a better understanding of where my survival movie tastes run, I’ll tell you exactly what I thought of “The Grey”… It sucked! You know the full 2 thumbs down kind of sucked! Mrs. Prepper went with me and she felt even stronger about its suckiness than I did…

   Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t misjudge the films potential… It just fell flat on its face! It was set in theAlaskawilderness with Liam Neeson playing a hunter/bodyguard for one of the big oil companies out ofPrudhoe Bay. His job was to keep wolves from attacking the oil workers when they were out working in the more remote areas of the already vast remoteness! Well, as the story unfolds we find our main character doing his job and successfully taking down a large wolf just a mere few feet from some distracted workers. I wish I could tell everyone what kind of gun he used but it all happened so fast that I really didn’t get a good look, sorry! The feel of the character is that of a mercenary hunter, Liam is just enough grizzled to pull the part off or could have with a better storyline to work with.

   The plot quickly turns to a group of oil workers, Liam included, getting on a plane bound for somewhere, I’m pretty sure it didn’t say but back to civilization of some sort. Well of course in a disaster movie the plane has to go down in the middle of nowhere. The short story on this is that the plane goes down in the middle of a blizzard and they mentioned the temperature at negative some such but Liam and a hand full of survivors are running around in a relatively small amount of clothing attempting to save as many folks as possible. Lots of time is wasted on such things as picking through pockets to save dead guys wallets for their families and even saying a few words over the dead… All fine and good except they would have all perished in short order from exposure, long before they had the opportunity to discuss the morality of stealing cash off of dead people, which of course happens and helped me decide how badly this film sucked!

   I can hear you all now… “Preppers just being all pissy, nitpicking the crap out of a relatively decent adventure film!” Nope, not this time it’s actually that bad. Shortly after the plane goes down the survivors discover that they aren’t the only living things in the area… What do you think they discover? I’ll give you 2 guesses – that’s right wolves! Now it isn’t that I dispute there could have been wolves out there, there probably could have been but not these wolves… These were the kind whose backs come up to a mans shoulder, you know the very realistic kind! Glowing eyes and everything, I mean come on… glowing eyes on GIANT wolves that actually are coordinating evil plots to kill the survivors. On several occasions the wolves killed the men, just to kill them, not eat them like the meat we actually are.

   I have heard the stories of wolves that will act aggressively toward men but not like this and I haven’t heard about wolves conducting pleasure killings like a pack of neighborhood dogs might but I digress! The plot follows the men as they move from one “lets break for the trees” then everyone would run through the thigh deep snow to stay ahead of the already nearly on them wolves.

   Since this is actually turning into more of rant against this movie then a fair minded critique… I’ll point out another ponderous moment. Before the men gather everything they can carry from the wrecked plane, which isn’t much, we see Liam find his hunting rifle. Of course the gun is damaged and he discards it but we see him bend down and pick up his ammunition case. That’s all fine and good but it’s clearly rifle ammunition, a short while later Liam hands out shotgun shells to make improvised weapons to use against the wolves… It’s just stuff like that that makes the movie go from just being not very good to bad and then to sucks…

   Another thing that was just over the top was the foul language. I can already hear some of you now… “Preppers a prude and is easily offended,” this however is not the case in the least. I wish I could claim to always have the cleanest mouth but fall short on many occasions in this area. This movie is about crass oil workers and I really wanted to defend the true to life portrayal of how those particular blue collar workers MIGHT actually speak but no, this movie would have even the worst of them blushing. It really was that gratuitous, not necessarily something that would push it to “sucks” category but it sure didn’t help!

   The movie is almost 2 hours long, which is normally something I like but this dark plot just didn’t need to be that long. It starts out alright but everything from character development to story line falls flat. I wish that I could find something redeeming to say about the film but in my opinion, there isn’t anything nice to say!

   I’ve tried to leave enough surprises as not to completely ruin the experience for the hopefully few of you that decide to spend your hard earn cash on this piece of cutting room floor trash. If anyone does go see this, or possibly already has seen it, I welcome your thoughts in the comments section. I doubt there will be many that will stick up for this though. All I can say is “poor Liam”, this won’t do anything to help his career!

Submitted for your consideration!

Prepper

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Well, now you know what else I did over this past weekend… Actually, I went to see the movie on opening day. I’m a sucker for anything “Post-Apocalyptic” and when I saw the trailer for this film in November, I’d been counting the days until January 15th, so I could get a look at it!

I thought I would be one of the first to see and report back on this one but I was foiled at that attempt. I began to see reviews as early as Friday morning. I didn’t end up getting to go to the theater until a late showing Friday night and I invited a friend to come along… He met me there and never let on until we had our seats that he had indeed already seen the movie that morning. I guess I’m becoming slow on the draw or something, it can’t just be opening day but if you want to get the jump, it has to be the first showing… Anyway, my friend had already decided to see the film a second time and was happy to come along… Crazy! The price of the movies these days keeps me from going to things twice and I usually don’t even see something unless its really going to be worth the price. I’m getting cheap in my old age!

Well, what you’ve all been waiting for… YES, this one was worth the price, probably worth twice the price! It was obviously a big budget film, in so  much as it was done very well but the whole thing felt real grounded and the sci-fi elements were kept to a distinct minimum. Other than a few guns that went a little long on the ammo capacity, it was fairly realistic.

Our primary character, Denzel Washington, was quite believable and it was easy to identify with him. The world that we found him in wasn’t over played either. There weren’t any souped up motorcycles carrying gender confused skeletons wearing dirty loin clothes, sorry to disappoint all of you that were hoping for a preview of the new Mad Max film we’ve all been waiting for!

The disaster was described only as the “FLASH” and had occurred 30 years prior. Apparently mankind had blown a hole in the sky that allowed the suns rays to come through and cook most everything. As we followed the path of Denzel through this wasteland, everything was a virtual desert. The world was now short on food, water and all the usual accoutrements.

In the opening scenes, Denzel was show harvesting an emaciated feral cat that was attempting to feed on a recently deceased body. A bit on the grizzly side but true to the times. Everything was being recycled and a premium was offered at the trading post for chapstick. Denzel offered to trade some of his “Cat Oil”, we had seen him saving this from a recent meal, as this was just as good!

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I always like to see or read about the trading posts and barter fair scenarios. This movie had a couple of occurrences where our guy had the opportunity to do some trading. Once as he was attempting to get some fresh water and a second time at the trading post for the services of the owner in recharging a battery he carried. It appeared to be an old gel cell sealed battery that he used to power a distant cousin of an IPOD. We all know that tunes will be highly important in the post war future… I jest, a means of escape will probably be more important than any of us realize!

As per the formula to any action genre movie, we have to have a damsel! Our’s is played by Mila Kunis and she did a great job! Other than seeing her on “That 70′s Show” years ago, I have never seen her anywhere else. Obviously since I don’t watch a lot of TV, she may be everywhere these days but she was somewhat of a fresh face for me. I was surprised at the acting job she did, if this is any indicator of her capabilities than I’m sure we will be seeing more of her!

I’m sure you would all like to know about the “Book”… All I’m going to say is yes it is a bible and one that most of would recognise, not some strange bastardized version we might expect from Hollywood. Additionally, the religious element to this movie was fairly portrayed and I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t anything overtly done to be offensive to Christians. I’d say more but it could give away enough to be considered a spoiler!

The film was rated “R” and it could only have been for the action scenes. There was plenty of gun play to keep it interesting and a slightly different twist on the whole cannibalism element, not graphically though. I noticed a little language but nothing in the way of overt sexual content or even gratuitous violence. I wouldn’t categorise this as a family friendly film but depending on your younger teenagers interests, I wouldn’t rule it out just because of the “R” rating!

If you’re prone to spending your hard earned money in such a frivelous way, it’s alright I am too, then go see this movie! Many movies over the years have been a big let down when they finally come out and I get a chance to see them. This one wasn’t, I got my moneys worth and I’m sure you will too!

Prepper

Book Review

   Well, we have another book review today… You can see from the title that it’s sticking with the whole frugal living theme that I consistently preach here. It’s really not as much about just being frugal so much as it is just being conscience of were our money is going. I have always worked hard and had money in my pocket, always will if I have anything to say about it. It’s easy to miss those vicious little drags on our prosperity if we aren’t keeping track. I’ve found time and again that the it’s the little things that add up to the BIG things quickly.

   With this in mind, I bring you the “Living Well on Practically Nothing” guide. This book is from the nether regions of my book shelf. It was copyright in 1992 and published by an old favorite, Paladin Press. Knowing that this too is an older book, you can see that my interest in leading a sustainable life has been surging through my veins for many years.

   The author, Edward H. Romney, had been working in the corporate world for many years prior to making this move to volunteer simplicity. He is famous for quotes about poverty being a state of being rather than an economic condition. He spends an entire chapter explaining how to reduce your income without losing your self respect. It’s interesting the way he describes how our peers view of us is often tied to our economic state. Sad, but I think pretty true. I would even have to say that I ‘m guilty of drawing conclusions based off of how things look at the surface, far to often…

   As I re-read these books to find those that are worth sharing with all of you, I’m reminded of how they have each impacted my life, or not… Some I don’t even remember the content in the book and others like this one come right back as if I had read it only months ago.

  I particularly liked the chapter on repairing items rather than replacing them. The author writes about the many examples from his own life. Things that he learned from his grandparents and many things that he has discovered on his own as he has led a life of volunteer simplicity.

  I think that this book is very good at getting the old wheels turning on ways that we could all cut back and or even do without. Written from the man that is actually doing this stuff to this day. I however, won’t go to the lengths he has and will continue my luxuries for as long as possible. I don’t personally like to sit in a cold room and just add additional layers of clothing to stay warm… It’s not that I don’t agree with him theoretically, I just would make these type of cuts as a last resort rather than to shave another 10 bucks off the electric bill.

   This book is a real toolbox of information that will spin off new perspectives for each of your own specific situations. What will work for one of us won’t even apply to someone else but when we see what others are willing to take on, I whole heartedly believe it empowers us to go further in our own pursuits… The following is a quote from the conclusion of this book that spoke to me –

“People are not just reactive creatures responding to stimuli. They also create and control their environment. There is poverty, but the real poverty, as Martin Flavin points out, is poverty of soul. There is a message in this book beyond hardware and technique, and that message is for people to reach out and take hold and rise up and build and grow and create for themselves a better life. By doing so, it encourages others to do likewise, and that builds a better world.”

   Most of the actual information in the book is still viable even though it was written in the 90′s. There are things surrounding personal computers and the like that just don’t apply anymore but if you’re willing to over look these details, you’ll still enjoy reading about the efforts that the author and his family have made to live cheaply.

   In this particular economic time of history that we find ourselves living in now, it seemed that this book might be timely for many of us. I think that we should all be exercising our minds on ways to streamline our lifestyles and make ourselves as self sufficient and reliant as possible!

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   As we have been doing with all the recent book reviews – I’ll be giving my copy of this book to a “Prepper” Nation email subscriber. I haven’t been harping about making sure to subscribe, most everyone seems to be finding the sign up area on there own… I would like to ask you all to continue sharing the site withanyone you might know that likes the kind of things we discuss here… I appreciate the word of mouth support!

For this book giveaway, I’ll take the 18th email requesting the copy! Have a great day and I’ll see you all again tomorrow!

Prepper

Ragnar’s Guide to the Underground Economy

   Welcome back… I thought we would start the week out with that book review I’ve been promising. As you can see I wasn’t kidding when I said we would be seeing a lot of this author in the book review section. I just can’t help myself, I love this guy’s writing. It’s far from eloquent but it makes up for that by being incredibly thought provoking and this book is no exception. 

   Today, I want to bring you – “Ragnar’s Guide to the Underground Economy”. In this book Uncle Ragnar will introduce the reader to what is referred to by many different names… “The Underground Economy”, “The Gray Market”, “Off the books” or the ever popular and timeless, “CASH”… Most of us have probably encountered this market and possibly even participated in it to some level.

   Lately, we’ve been conducting a number of “Thought Exercises” here on the blog and this book seems to fit right into this theme. As American’s I believe we would all agree that our government is running amok. Our representatives are failing to represent their constituents and continue to be caught with their hand in our cookie jar. This behavior doesn’t seem to show any signs of letting up, it actually appears to be on the increase. There’s very little that we NORMAL, little people can do to hold these characters to account. This is the premise of today’s post and book review…

   As hard working people we find ourselves in a dilemma, often a moral dilemma. I’m not going to try to convince my readers that either course of action is the right one to take but only bring the information to you to make up your own mind. Currently, the tax burden on honest hard working people that are playing by the rules, can be in excess of 50% of our gross income. I can only think you would agree with me that this is excessive and punitive in this, the land of the free… As more and more American’s become disillusioned with their government, I think we will see a sharp increase in this business sub-culture.

   As is the authors characteristic writing style this book is chock full of interesting ideas and anecdotal examples of the “Gray Market” at work! Cover to cover we are introduced to ideas that might seem odd at first glance. Ragnar takes us on a tour that winds through every corner of the cash economy, firewood cutters to mushroom pickers. You the reader will be introduced to crazy backwoods folk and possibly even your own attorney or CPA. That’s right these under-grounders, as they often call themselves, are working in almost every imaginable field.

   The evidence is in – the less tax you pay the government, the more money you keep in your pocket. Ragnar stays true to his reputation and brings both the pros and cons in this book. It doesn’t take much to imagine the financial upside that not paying taxes would have but there’s always a trade off. That will be discussed in detail when you read this book.

   The book itself is nearly 150 pages and is a 1999 copyright. The fact that the book was published 10 years ago doesn’t effect its readability in the least. A few of the examples are out of date, such as the information about computer related work… This is not a large detractor in my opinion and I highly recommend this book. Whether you operate your own business or are currently working for someone else’s business, this book will enlighten you with new possibilities.

   Let me make myself clear that I am not advocating you take the leap and start working outside the legal tax system. I do encourage everyone to stay informed of what others around them are doing. This book is primarily about the tax avoidance sub-culture, that is going on all around us, everyday. However, there is another benefit that I personally received from reading the book. Creative money making ideas… Page after page of thought provoking ideas on how to make additional income, taxed or not! I first read this book shortly after it was published and then again in the last few weeks, it is as good today as it was in the late 90′s.

   Possibly you have been considering starting a business of your own or maybe branching out from your existing one. The information that Ragnar provides goes much further than just the primary theories the title suggests. There are plenty of business cost breakdowns that will aid the reader in making the needed calculations to determine the profit potential of any number of enterprises. This book is written in Ragnars familiar down to earth style that makes for an easy read, even when the topic is rather heavy. Armed with the ideas that this book will cause your mind to process, you can go on to examine how you feel about this concept, overall. I can’t recommend a book that you should read any more than I do this one. Do yourselves a favor and find a copy and spend a couple hours exercising your mind on this subject!

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As promised, I’ll be giving my copy to one of the “Prepper” Nation subscribers… If you’re interested in reading this book, I hope you are, send an email to me at prepper@preppernation.com and I’ll mail the 15th emailer the book.

See ya tomorrow,

Prepper 

   Let me start off today with another apology… The posts are looking kind of funky, I’m aware of this but the technical problems are slow in getting worked out. When I add the photos it seems to open up the large spacing and I’m not 100% on how to fix this issue yet. So, again be patient with me, I think I’m seeing the same thing you are and I’ll get the wrinkles out given some time.

   I appreciate all the feed back I got last week surrounding the “Revolution Anyone” Post. In response to a large volume of email, I will publicly make this announcement. I DO believe this idea would work and very possibly could be the thing many folks have been looking for to strike back at a government gone bad. “Our” government gone bad… I will remind you that this is only one concept and I’m passing the idea along merely as a thought exercise and for informational purposes only! If anyone were to proceed with acting on this idea, I suggest you do so only after much thought and certainly after checking the legalities of said strategy.

Proceed at your own risk with your creative, “ American Economic Revolution”

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REMINDER – Be sure you subscribe to the email updates today, if you haven’t already. I’ll have another “Book Review” for you later in the week.

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   On with the show… Mrs. Prepper and I went and caught the newly released 2012 movie last night. Not bad, not bad at all. It was very entertaining! From what I had seen on a few previews I was expecting a little more in the scientific areas but I guess that is just wishful thinking from a mainstream Hollywood film. Actually in hindsight, the movie probably was better without trying to add in much factual evidence from the Mayans and so forth…

   On a purely entertainment level, I would highly recommend this movie! It started out set in late 2009… Touching on a few dates between then and 2012, when the real action starts to pick up. Within 5-10 minutes, you start on the roller coaster of action and it doesn’t stop for 2 1/2 hours. You get your moneys worth in this one.

   I wouldn’t count on this movie becoming a cult classic for the followers of our genre but it is going to do well in the capitalistic sense. I VERY rarely see a movie in the theatre twice but might consider this one if I happen to be with someone that hadn’t seen it yet. Prepper Juniorette wasn’t with us and since like most fathers, I’m a bit of a push over for my little girl, she could possibly convince me to take her one evening.

   I was tempted to say it was an all star cast but I guess that wouldn’t be accurate. It was full of big name actors though for sure. Danny Glover plays the President of the United States. John Cusak was the leading man, he did a tremendous job. Woody Harrelson, played the role of the low budget Art Bell type radio doom broadcaster. His character helped pull all the conspiracy type content together. Generally, I find the LIB politics of an actor to be hard to look past on the big screen but I have to say Woody did an awesome job with this role. You will find no shortage of familiar faces and I would go blue in the face trying to remember all of their names.

   This was a BIG budget film and it will go down in the history books for the special effects. That said, many of these were fun to watch but had an over the top Hollywood feel that just felt a bit off. You couldn’t possibly get bored with the story line or the varied geography though. Obviously this was done on staged sets but it was a ride of its own to cover so much ground.

   The directors did a good job of addressing the various conspiracy theories. I haven’t been a follower of them as of late so I’m sure I even missed the context on a few. There was polar shift, planet alignment, solar activity, California sliding off into the Pacific and a few others that a true conspiracy doomer would have been able to catch. All of this sprinkled with Government cover up and the associated assassinations to go along with it.

   I think that I’m fairly typical in that I have my eyes peeled to catch a new concept that could possibly be applied to my DOOMER prepping activities, even when I’m at the movies. Well, if that’s something you’ll be watching for, you’re out of luck! Nothing note worthy in this one, just an edge of your seat disaster movie… The scenes in California as our leading cast are trying to make their way out had a strong resemblance to the way that I imagined the early stages in the book “Lucifer’s Hammer”.

   They even threw in a little twist toward the end of the movie. Now, I kind of pride myself with being able to stay ahead of the script and eliminate to many surprises. They got me this time, it isn’t a big twist but enough to keep it interesting though.

   So, there you have it. I recommend this movie to all of you, go drop your $10 bucks and be entertained for the afternoon. I would say that 90% of you will enjoy this one, there’s always that one guy in a crowd that fashions himself the movie critic. You know who you are, just bite your lip and go along with it for once!

   Oh, before I forget, this one is fairly family friendly too. Some tense scenes and lots of destruction but nothing to be overly concerned about for the younger ones. Might have been a little foul language, I didn’t notice and Mrs. Prepper didn’t point it out so I’m guessing it was minimal.

   Get your chores done and then take the family to the movies this weekend. Go early as the crowds were large for this one, all the shows last night were “SOLD OUT”. I’m still amazed at how many folks are going out still but then again I was there too? 10%+ unemployment won’t kill Hollywood, I guess… Enjoy!

Prepper