Yup, definitely a friendly crowd here. Well, I guess a self-intro is in order at this point:


My intro, or "How did this guy end up HERE?"

Let's see, going on 55, widower, one cat, no kids, living in San Diego, CA. Although I've been "in the wild" a few times (6th Grade camp, Scout Camp twice, a week hiking and camping with a couple of friends all when I was younger, and a few weekends/overnights in formal campgrounds), I'm not nearly the outdoorsy type most of you seem to be. I'm more of stereotypical computer geek (thus the handle choice), being into reading and watching Sci-Fi, and playing board and computer games.

So why am I here? Well, a few weeks ago the weekly "Game-and-Gab" session turned to "Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse", and we talked about how we'd do it, what we'd do to survive. It was a fun subject to toss around, but a couple days later I flashed on how Zombies aren't all that likely in reality, but I live in Southern California, and earthquakes most definitely ARE. Plus, we had bad wildfires here not that long ago, and one of them came surprisingly deep into the city proper. And there's always the possibility of a building fire, etc. That's when I decided to quit saying "I should put together some kind of disaster preparedness kit", and actually do it.

I did a lot of reading and research (man, I love the web!), found several good sites, and looked at several forums, hoping to find one where I could ask my inevitable stupid questions. And the ETS Forums repeatedly struck me as the most level-headed, friendliest, and, frankly, the least fanatical of them all. This is the only one where I felt I'd be welcome, even though I'm not an outdoorsman, nor any kind of "first responder".

So you all are stuck with me, at least for a while.