Why I Re-created This Blog

Originally I started this blog because I needed an outlet for what I felt about the way we live in the 21st Century. Or maybe just the way I live as it would be egotistical to believe that I am representative of the population at large.

I will probably continue with that sort of commentary, but in addition, for those who might be interested, I will be posting about something that has long been an avid interest of mine; Survival.

These days you can find an immense amount of information about every aspect of this subject: Urban Survival, Backwoods Survival, Surviving Natural and Man-Made Disasters, Surviving Terrorist Attacks, Surviving Off-Grid, Surviving On-Grid but Under the Radar and on and on and on!

I will probably wander around among all these genres, and then some, as I am as interested in skinning squirrels as I am in surviving a terrorist attack.

There has always been something in me that wants to be outside, under the trees, exploring, being self-sufficient. Maybe it started when I was a kid, heavily influenced by classic stories of Robin Hood, or immersed in a huge leather-bound book of Norse myths borrowed from a neighbour.

There just seemed something right about at least knowing how to live like they did, even though I actually inhabit a world where food comes from a store and shelter is a brick house made by someone else, and security comes in the form of a uniformed police officer.

Life wasn’t always like that, and it may not be like that again, some time in the future.

So for anyone interested, that is what I will be concentrating on in future posts.

For the uninitiated, my first introduction to the survival way of thinking came when I picked up a copy of  the SAS Survival Guide by John “Lofty” Wiseman. The link will take you to their website, but I found this illuminating tome long before the internet was public knowledge.

So anyway, stay tuned for more, if you are interested, or dismiss me as a loon and move on, if you are not.

Until next time, stay safe and be prepared.

Navigator 21 out.

Not prepared for Christmas

Tomorrow is December 24th and I just realized I have no gay apparel to don!

Do I dare brave the malls?

Judgement Day

Ebola has entered North America in an uncontrolled way. The carrier lied to get here, his family is quarantined by armed guards because they can not be trusted to stay in their dwelling. Eighty other people with whom the carrier came into contact are being trusted to quarantine themselves.

Do the math. How many people do you contact each day? And if you were infected? And how many did each of come into contact with? Like the old shampoo commercial, I told two friends, and she told two friends…

Do the math.

And then check the news. Are we experiencing airport shutdowns, border closures, enforced quarantine?

No.

We are getting platitudes, “we are confident that the spread will be minimal”.

What is minimal?

In a world with 6.5 billion people, wouldn’t the population of, say, Dallas, seem minimal?

I’m not trying to start a fire here, but people have to start thinking for themselves and stop trusting the easy lies.

N21 out for now

Notes on Cuba

These are the notes I made last month on our trip to Cuba, September 2014. I was very impressed, and will be posting more about this trip. At Pearson, 04:35, trying to get breakfast at a Tim Horton’s. Breakfast menu doesn’t start until 05:00 so no bagel belt. Ordered a bagel and black coffee. Staff asked how I would like my black coffee! Impossible to find good help! Saturday, arrived, got to our room, got our bearings, kind of. Sunday, explored the resort and the beach, got to know the place a little better. Monday, took the double decker bus in to Varadero, explored the tourist area a bit. Very hot. Stopped at a small tavern in the flea market for a beer. Very good, cold beer. Tuesday, took the tour to Cuba. Long day. On the bus at 07:45, back at the hotel at 20:00! Excellent tour. Wednesday we decided to take it easy, hanging out at the pool and the beach. Drank a little more than normal, stayed up late, causing us to wake late on Thursday. Thursday, got up late, had a sandwich at the bistro because we missed the breakfast buffet. Hung out at the pool for a while, then lunch, and now Anne is at the spa. Note: haven’t been online since we left Pesrson, and haven’t felt the need to be. Very nice to be here with Anne, no distractions, experiencing things together and getting away from all the crap we let into our lives back home. That has to change.

People:

Yadiel, our butler

Joel, the guide after getting picked up at the airport

Osmay, waiter in seafood rest.

Raul Javier, Porter.

Yuni, waitress in lobby bar who treated everyone so sweetly.

Vincent, doorman in buffet.

Jo-ell (?) our guide on the Habana Colonial Day Tour

Places: Varadero, kind of a beach town. Geared towards tourists, not real Cuba Habana. Get the feeling that the tour shows what they want you to see, but glimpses a block or two back of what they show seem like things are a little more run down. The law says they are not allowed to change building facades, and maybe that extends to what they allow tourists to see. Rest stops during the tour, washrooms a little sketchy. At the first one there was a woman sitting outside each of the men’s and ladies’ washrooms, after I used the facility, which had no urinals, just commodes with no seats, no running water and no towels I started to walk away and got called back to pay my peso! Anne got me a pair of headphones for my birthday, which is still almost a week away. Bose, top of the line noise cancelling buds. Absolutely fantastic! Right now sitting in the lobby bar, Anne at the spa. Got my headphones in and music on, because there are Canadians behind me talking, from the oil fields, it sounds like. Makes me embarrassed to be a Canadian because every second world is “fuck”. The hotel, a little tired, a little worn, but under renovation everywhere. Looking at the plans this place will be even more fantastic when they finish. All the staff are great here. In fact Cubans in general seem very thoughtful, intelligent people. Our guide was incredibly contemplative and genuinely a nice person. There are other people embarrassed at these hicks and their swearing. One couple has actually moved to another table. The guy on the bus which brought us to the hotel said there are no sharks or snakes in Cuba. He might have said “poisonous” snakes. Anyway, yesterday we went for a walk and I found a dead snake. So what does that say about sharks? Anyway, the ocean makes me nervous this time around. I wasn’t bad in Mexico last May but this time around is different for some reason. Piña colladas are good, but very heavy. Ernest Hemingway hung out at a bar in Habana called La Floridita. Pretty cool place. Still has an old iron frame elevator in the lobby. Apparently he had a rule…daiquiris had to have double rum and double ice, and he would drink no more than twelve in one day. Russians are insane. There’s a young group here, four or five guys and a couple of girls. The girls are bossy and not averse to doing shots. The guys are nuts, drinking and chain smoking. The first morning one of them had a broken leg, using an umbrella as a crutch. Saw him in the pool later, with Saran Wrap around his cast. Apparently he had jumped in the pool and hit bottom. By the way, Saran Wrap doesn’t for a waterproof seal. He was enjoying himself though, and doesn’t seem any worse for wear. Cubans all seem to have some performing talent, such as singing or playin an instrument. And the ones I’ve seen are amazing dancers. There was a band here the first night just jamming Cuban jazz, switching instruments, riffing on familiar songs in a new way. Really inspirational. I have to replace the high e string on my guitar, which I broke two Christmases ago. Mojitos are good, but over-hyped, I think. I had one, and I don’t need to have another necessarily. We went to the fort in Habana, and on the top terrace there’s a rum and cigar store. Very strange to walk into a store and seeing one of the employees smoking a cigarette. Civilization! Wonder how the quitting smoking will go when we get home. Impossible to do here; everyone smokes and you can do it practically anywhere. And smokes are cheap, a couple of bucks a pack in town, but slightly more at the hotel.

The Downside of Quitting Smoking

After thirty-plus years of regular smoking I’m on the road to quitting. I’ve gone from around thirty a day down to six or seven, and by next weekend I will be down to zero.

Psychologically though, I’m not saying that I have quit. After all, nobody likes a quitter. I figure that I’ll give myself permission to start up again when I hit ninety-five. That way it won’t seem like such a final decision.

It hasn’t been that hard, actually. And there have been some immediate benefits, such as an immediate reduction in heartbeats per minute, and drop in blood pressure.

But there is a definite downside; I have my sense of smell back.

And quite honestly, most of what’s out there in the world doesn’t smell that great! It would be ironic if I increase my lung capacity only to choke iqon the foul odour of someone’s garlic breath!

The “Dr. Who Lesbian Kiss” Outrage

The world is outraged because apparently in one of the recent episodes of Dr. Who there is a scene showing a female ally of the Doctor, who happens to be a lizard, kissing her wife, who happens to be a human.

Why is the world outraged at two women kissing, when they should be outraged at the implied bestiality inherent in portraying a mixed species relationship?

Of course, this type of licentious behaviour is to be expected of the “Doctor”.

Who can trust a so-called “Time Lord” who has two hearts, continually changes his appearance in order to avoid detection, and swans around time and space cohabiting a blue box with a rotating harem of female “companions”?

How is it society hasn’t realized the poisonous nature of a television show that coincidentally premiered around the same time as the cultural breakdown of the sixties, resulting in free sex, free speech, lack of respect for authority and the general disintegration of all the repressive values we should hold dear?

It’s obvious, the state of the world today is the sole responsibility of Dr. Who!

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/aug/28/doctor-who-lesbian-lizard-kiss-peter-capaldi

Don’t RIP Robin Williams

He irritated the shit out of me, but he was a genius. It makes me sad that he did this, but how close are any of us?

You left too soon, but life is what it is.

Please don’t RIP…please stick around and inspire the rest of us who need to question the status quo and make others sit up and take notice.

All the best, Navigator21

Trust

After my world adventures I ended up in Bloor West Village, waiting for Mrs. N while she got a haircut T one of the salons on that stretch.

I ended up getting a coffee at Timothy’s, on the northeast end of the village. I went out on the patio which was inhabited by one fellow smoker. We sat one table apart. He had his bag of stuff sitting on one chair, and sundry personal items on the table, as did I. One table divided us.

Several minutes passed and he asked me if I was going to be there for a few minutes. I told him I was. He said he was just going up to the library to get a book and would be back in five minutes, could I watch his stuff.

Of course I would, but WHAT? Have you seen my face? Not the most reputable look in town!

Nevertheless, he trusted me, and I did not let him down.

Btw, before he went to the library he was having his coffee and reading the Koran.

Don’t let the media tell you what to believe.

Wearing black isn’t always for Satanists

Although sometimes that can work in your favour. I’ve been dressing all black since before Mary Shelley even thought of Goths ( or they thought of her).

People ask me why.

Well, it doesn’t show the blood of the sacrificial goats.

Also, as the embodiment of the arch soul-stealer should I be I wearing pink?

Or basically I’m just a lazy bastard, and in the morning I can reach in my closet, pull out a Hudson Room fitted shirt and a pair of Levis’s 501s, throw on my Luchese boots and I’m done.

Plus, if I ever have the spur-of-the-moment impulse to go to a funeral, I’m ready.

N21—out

Airports, planes and disease

I’ve spent a lot of time in airports and planes recently, and have come to realize that people have no concept of boarding by seat row. Apparently their ability to put numbers in a sequential order goes out the window as soon as they pass the metal detectors. Luckily I have also learned that if you are in a foreign country and they announce the order of boarding in their foreign accent you can usually just keep walking if you say “no comprendey” enough times.

This slight disregard for the rules is a necessary trick of airport survival that ensures you always get room in the overhead for your one bag which meets airline regulation, and the space isn’t lost to the douche who thinks it’s fair game to call three duffel bags and a backpack his carryon luggage.

Overall I’m pretty tolerant of the people I encounter, but it drives me nuts when people get to their seat and kick off their shoes and socks. It’s bad enough that for the duration of a flight the air is becoming more and more saturated with the humid lung-waste of total strangers which I then have to breath in, but add the heady aroma of Limburger to that, and you have an experience that really stays with you. In the form of a communicable disease usually.

Also, don’t try to talk to me. Fate didn’t put us together to become friends, you are a random seat assignment, so act like one.

I certainly will do the same for you.