The Apocalypse of the Mind

Surviving the Apocalypse will probably be the most stressful thing you ever do. Considering that many of us (your fair writer included) already have mental health issues when we live in a developed country with clean water, regular food access, and life-saving medicine, what on earth are we to do when everything is on fire and the zombies are at the gate?

Well, the standard advice for managing mental health issues is even more important when everyone you love has died in front of you.

Talk about it:

Reach out to whatever community you have around you, whether that be your fellow mutants, your pet radioactive cats, or actual people (lucky!). Talk about your feelings, good and bad, and work out ways to manage them – together. A therapist or counsellor would be excellent, but since they’re all dead consider drawing a face on a sack of live rats and talking to that instead.

Eat healthy:

Alright, so you’re probably pretty limited on your diet right now, but do your best. Don’t just eat the canned beans – add some freeze-dried fruit and some mysterious green stuff from the cave walls to your diet, too. Your brain needs a balanced diet!

Try journalling:

There’s nothing like twenty pages of ‘Kill them all’ to express your feelings of furious, broken rage. If you don’t have paper, write it on walls in the blood of your enemies. Bonus: It scares off FUTURE enemies!

Get some exercise: 

Death fights in the cage will increase your adrenaline and help your poor tormented mind pump out serotonin. Plus, the rush that comes with surviving another day might block out all those terrible memories for an hour or two.

Don’t be ashamed to try medication:

Ok, so you might not have access to a psychiatrist or even a GP any more, but that glowing stuff that grows by the wasted river has to have some kind of effect, right? Right?

Meditation works wonders:

Block out the noise of screaming and gunfire and take deep breaths, imagining yourself in a peaceful natural scene that no longer exists anywhere.

Learn to self-soothe:

Lying under a bed with your fingers in your ears chanting ‘everything’s fine, everything’s fine’ might not be the healthiest activity but whatever keeps you going.

Practice self-care:

Self care means taking the time to look after your body, mind, and spirit. Whether it’s organising all your weapons by most kills, going to regular machine-god sacrifices,  or decorating your trophy skulls, be sure to set aside some time and avoid burnout.

 

We hope this helps you with your deteriorating mental state and keeps you alive and with it enough to grimly and stubbornly claw your way through another day.

(please note, this is not actual advice for mental health conditions. Please see your doctor if you feel like you may be depressed, anxious or otherwise mentally unwell. If you are considering suicide, reach out to someone on this list of crisis aids. This article is a work of humor)

So I did end up knitting

Some time ago, back when we updated regularly, I promised I would learn to knit. Knitting, I proclaimed, was an excellent post-apocalyptic skill, and one that would also make me some post-apocalyptic money.

(not real world money. No-one is willing to pay what it’s worth).

Well, I learned. I’m at a reasonable level of skill now. I’ve made a jumper and a vest, and I can do lace and cables.  And I still maintain that knitting is an excellent post-apocalyptic skill to gain.

But tell you what. So are all the other fibrecrafts.

Spinning, with a drop spindle or a wheel. You can make your own yarn, out of pretty much any animal fibre. Even plant fibres

Drop spindle with wool
Drop spindle with wool (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

including nettles. Meaning as long as you have some sheep, maybe a goat or two, and some nettle patches around your compound, you won’t have to rely on your scavengers finding the last good wool. I can spin using a drop spindle and am slowly making less awful looking yarn.

Weaving. Faster than knitting, and creates different kinds of fabrics. Great, wonderful. Can’t do this yet, but I am looking into learning.

Crochet. Like knitting but done with a hook instead. Better for larger projects like blankets and stuff. I’m not any good at this, so I plan to befriend at least one crocheter so I can force them into post-apocalyptic blanket-based slavery.

See, currently my plan is to basically have a super-defended fabric and clothing store. Oh, it sounds silly, but remember how flimsy and useless modern clothing is made to be. It’ll tear, wear out, rot. And then I’ll be there. With lovely, season-appropriate, knitted or woven goods.

And I’ll take all your valuables in exchange, thanks.

So, if you want to survive, maybe learn to knit, or crochet, or weave, or spin, or any number of old-fashioned life skills that are now hobbies. I can’t promise anything, but if you’re quick by the time the apocalypse comes you could have a place with me.

 

The dangers of exhaustion

One of the biggest dangers to you come the post-apocalypse will be your own body and its needs. You are not a computer game character, or a movie character, able to go days, maybe weeks with only a morsel of food and an hour of sleep on a filthy mattress. You need more than that. And exhaustion may be your killer.

Continue reading “The dangers of exhaustion”

I'm a Nineworlds panelist!

I can confirm that I will be speaking on not one, but TWO apocalyptic panels at Nineworlds Geekfest in London.

Nineworlds geekfest is a fan convention dedicated to inclusivity and accessibility, and I have been wanting to go since it started up, so this is a great thing for me to be doing.

online pharmacy buy phenergan with best prices today in the USA

On the saturday I will be talking about apocalyptic survival plans, and on the sunday I will be talking about disability in the post-apocalypse.

online pharmacy buy symbicort with best prices today in the USA

Both subjects are of a great interest to me, and I look forward to discussing them with my other panelists and our audience.

If you’ve not got your Nineworlds tickets yet, you can order them here. It’s not just me you’ll get to see – the program hasn’t been released yet but I can promise a lot of fun stuff.

online pharmacy buy stendra with best prices today in the USA

Hope to see you there!

Nineworlds runs from the 7-9th of August this year.

online pharmacy buy xifaxan with best prices today in the USA

E3 Bethesda showcase did NOT answer the most important Fallout 4 questions.

Sure, the showcase told us a lot. Fallout 4 is in a lot of ways a completely different game from 3 and NV. The wasteland is wide and varied, the crafting has been completely overhauled to create a hopefully satisfying and robust experience, and I personally will have a chance to build my own post-apocalyptic settlement, which is basically all I’ve ever wanted to do since I was a small child.

Also, you get a super-cool pipboy – yes AN ACTUAL PIPBOY – if you preorder the special edition of Fallout4.

Oh, and Fallout 4 comes out nine days before my 30th birthday, so this is basically the best year ever.

But I was watching that showcase like a hawk, and unless I missed something our most important question about Fallout 4 was not answered.

Continue reading “E3 Bethesda showcase did NOT answer the most important Fallout 4 questions.”

A slightly unhinged letter to Bethesda, regarding Fallout 4

Here are some random thoughts, theories, desires and wishes relating to Fallout 4, in no particular order.

  • OK, we get a dog right? The video shows a dog. If I don’t actually get a dog in game I will be sad.
  • Do we actually get to visit that house in the announcement video? It looks like it had some loot in it. I like loot.
  • OK, so, like, that flying ship. Do we get to fly it? Or is it cut scene set dressing or something? I want to fly it, or at least loot it.
  • Related to the dog, can the dog die? I won’t take it with me if the dog can die. In F03 I never took anyone but Fawkes because they were so fragile. I liked NV a lot more because if you are a wuss like me and play it on lower difficulties the followers don’t die they just pass out.
  • How robust is the looting? How much random wasteland crap can I fit into my backpack? Can I make the dog carry it all?
  • I really really want there to be a ton of easter eggs and references. Can you do that, Bethesda? Can you?
  • will you please stop putting shitty loot in high level locked rooms and safes. In like, all your games, forever.
  • If you haven’t already got the hint my main priorities are taking everything that’s not nailed down and having a dog friend.
  • It’s in Boston, yeah? I don’t know anything about Boston. Does Boston get snow? I think it does. WILL WE HAVE SNOW IS WHAT I AM ASKING I KINDA WANT RADIOACTIVE SNOW except I don’t because it sounds terrible for looting
  • please don’t fuck this up i love these games
  • FALLOUT 4 FALLOUT 4 FALLOUT 4 OMG
  • I am glad no-one was there to see me watching the video because I squealed and actually threw my arms up and cheered when we got to dun duuuh DUUUUH
  • LOOK, ok, I know it’s never gonna happen but I kind of want a fallout set in England and I have some good ideas to float if you want to hit me up
  • WHAT IS THE PLOT
  • can you please release a stripped-down version of the character generator on your website so that I can play with it a bit I don’t think you understand how important it is that I spend 2 hours creating the perfect character face for someone I will only see in VATS and killcams
  • RELEASE DATE PLEASE

  • dog

    DOOOOGGGG

Signed: a fan

FALLOUT 4! War, War never changes.

So, it’s time. No more hoaxing, no more lying, just this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnn2rJpjar4

Fallout 4 has been officially announced for next gen consoles and PC. We’ve been waiting for this for what seems like forever (7 years since Fallout 3, about 4 or 5 since New Vegas), and now we have actual confirmation from Bethesda.

My rule of ‘Don’t trust ANYTHING til you see it on Bethesda’s official sites’ paid off.

Now, we know very little about Fallout 4 from this time, but here’s what your writer has guessed from the video.

  • Fallout 4 is set in Boston, as fans previously speculated
  • The tech level is higher, with flying ships and awesome robots
  • Graphically, the design of a lot of the stuff is more similar to 1 and 2
  • You get a dog
  • DOG DOG DOG

Now, readers, why not guess wildly in the comments. It’s a safe place for all your theories, no matter how canon-unfriendly.

Just remember, keep your expectations a tiny bit lower than that. No game will EVER live up to the one in your head.

And from now on, this blog is All Fallout, All the time. Except when it’s not.

The Worst place for a Post-Apocalyptic Home

Post-apocalypse you’re going to need somewhere to live. You’ll want somewhere fairly secure, with access to land where you can grow food, and a lot of space for your growing community. But what you don’t want is one of these death traps.

 

Here are the worst places to try and build your new post-apocalyptic home.

 

Continue reading “The Worst place for a Post-Apocalyptic Home”