I need to loosen up!

I make it a habit to carry my PSK at all times, even though it is geared to wilderness use and other gear is in abundance. This past week I forgot it once and mislaid it twice. Last night in a dream I was standing next to Tom Hanks on an island. With calm demeaner and manly pose I extracted the PSK from my pocket and opened it. It was full of ALTOID MINTS AND THEY WERE CINNAMON! I don't even like the cinnamon! <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

LOL... I need not say more!

How do you guys fit these things into Altoid cans? Mine takes up an entire rucksack! <img src="images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Vacuum sealer! <img src="images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Chris

A whole lot of fiddling, wasted money, and trial and error. It can be quite a fun and frustrating task!

My wife carries an Altoids tin of cinnamon, too. I don't like cinnamon altoids. They leave a funny taste in your mouth.

I think I have to loosen up, as well. I was talking with my sister and got to talking about 9/11 (which is a bit of an issue with me). Her views are completey contrary to mine. She thinks, oh well, if it's your time to go, what are you gonna do? Why worry?

Me, I worry. My views tend more toward worrying, scanning every area I enter for people who look like terrorists, carrying a kit everywhere I go, and half-wishing our country had the rocks to take the Enola Gay out of mothballs and kick some SERIOUS ass. Screw this coalition nonsense. Do it the way Harry Truman would have. Get Fatman and Little Boy and bomb the bad guys back into the stone age.

My sister looked at me with widened eyes, and said, you need to chill out.

After thinking it over, I really have to agree.

Does anyone here know how to chill out?

I need some hints.

I always use my 100 year rule. When I find myself getting my psyche all tangled up in something HORRIBLY IMPORTANT, I ask myself"self, will this matter in a hundred years?." Few things do and it helps to clarify what will.

I don't use an Altoids tin. I use a zippered cosmetics bag that does not look overly femine.

I agree completely. That said, what really kills is that when I mentioned the Enola Gay to my sister, she asked me, "What's that?"

That is very, very, sad.

Just what in the hell are they teaching kids in school these days?

Just enjoy your life. Taking chances is a vital part of living, so try to take some.
It took me some time to realize that trying to be prepared for just about anything makes your life miserable. Constantly trying to find one more scenario to be prepared for does it even more.
There´s no real need to worry about things you can´t influence anyway. When your time has come you´ll have to go. There won´t be any bargaining. I see no need to hurry it though.

BTW:
I´m for being reasonably prepared and I have several kits. Those kits are adapted for different occasions. And I don´t leave home without one.

So what kit would you take if you knew you would get wanded and spreadeagled?

Sorry, but am still a kid <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Enola Gay???

BTW, to loosen up, I either close my bedroom door, turn uo the volume really loud, and listen to songs such as "Life is too short - Kai Tracid". Or, I take a walk, by myself. I find that being alone in a "dream-world" lets me de-stress. But, what works for me might not work for others.

The Enola Gay is the plane that dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima in Japan. You'd be amazed how many people don't know that, or think we deserved Pearl Harber because "we were being mean" to the Japanese.

Whilst we're at it - How many americans on the forum remember what was the "shot heard around the world" and where it took place?

My guess is, the first shot of the Civil War. I think at Fort Sumter.

Nope, American Revolution, when a militia group skirmished with british regulars. The first American casualty was a black freeman. Lest we sink into a brit bashing session here, let me make a few points. The colonists were exercising rights and values held by englishmen back home. Many officers resigned their commissions in protest of what they saw. The british king, and the Hessian mercenaries were german. Mel Gibson did not win the war for us <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />.

historical innacuracies of hollywood aside, That event and the subsequent successful outcome of American independance was certainly a pivotal point in recent history of civilization and many are ignorant of the event by name though they are still cognizant of the overall significance of the rise of an independant power that balanced and eventually overshadowed the continental powers of the time. The political significance is more important than the pivitol event. But it is sad that few of my fellow Ameircans remember that event even so.

You mean ... everything we see on the big screen isn't TRUE? AAAAuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a kit without blades in a small tobacco tin. The tin has the original paint and a lighter strapped to it.
But when I know that I would get wanded and spreadeagled I will most likely pass on this event and spend my money somewhere else.
I´ve been as paramedic volunteer at events where the security staff spreadeagled the mayor and VIP guests but me and my partner got in with a 4" folder in plain view, hauling so much equipment that we had to walk twice. Noone even bothered to ask about any kind of ID or a quick look in our bags. Experience like this convinced me that all that fuss does little but humiliate the victim. I don´t need that to enjoy my life.

You can either adapt to security procedures that are unevenly enforced by inadequately trained "guards," or chose to not attend any events that have such security.

For me, part of the intellectual challenge is to be able to pass through a security checkpoint while still being reasonably well equipped. That may include being bladeless, but that is the sorry state of the union at this time.