My friend recently shared this resource from the National Park Service, about ten essential items you should bring with you whenever you are hiking.
Can you prove you are a citizen?
Please go read this post by John Scalzi.
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/03/well-can-you-prove-youre-a-us-citizen/
Even if you think you’re not in the demographic being targeted here, you still need the ability to back up your citizenship if you are detained.
Along with calling your representative to oppose these kidnappings by masked men, you need to make sure your documents are someplace safe that a friend/ally/lawyer could access if you get picked up and accused of being from somewhere else.
There are things we cannot control, and things we can control. We can’t individually change public policy. But we can control our own behavior, and prepare for the worst case scenario.
I’m dead! Now what?
Having promised a few folks a blog post about this resource, I wanted to share this downloadable PDF with all of you.
This is the version I bought. You can get different versions, color or different paper size or similar.
As with many things in my life, I have satisficed with this activity. I haven’t fully completed every item in the document; but I’ve printed out several of the sections, and filled them out to the best of my current ability.
There is also a bound book format of this concept; I believe it has the exact title listed here. You can get it at any major retailer. I thought about getting that one, but I opted for a 3-ring binder, because it makes it easier to include printed-out sheets from my employer’s website and things of that nature.
One thing I did not anticipate in all this is having to shuffle the Friends/Contact Info page around. A close friend severed all ties with my social circle shortly after I started working on this book; crossing out her name on the page felt bad. But at the same time, it serves as a bit of a time capsule for my life at that point. I haven’t reprinted that page.
Some of the stuff here has overlap with the concept of a Butler’s Book: how to contact the utility company, etc. That’s fine. Redundancy is actually good, when you’re talking about critical systems, current zeitgeist notwithstanding.
That’s about all I’ve got for now. I’ll probably add a few more things over time as they occur to me, but this should do as far as summary blog posts go.
Preparedness!
If you know me in person, you know I (a) have anxiety and (b) like to be prepared for things, Just In Case.
A few years ago, I made this little Tumblr for building a basic go-bag for hurricanes or wildfires or whatever. I thought I’d share it here now, in case anyone is getting Analysis Paralysis about how to get started.
https://www.tumblr.com/unfuck-your-prepping
Be safe, everyone! Put on your own oxygen mask, etc.
The wellness to whackjob pipeline
Just wanted to share this Reddit post with some links about how some influencers on seemingly innocuous topics like homesteading etc. can wind up in an alt-right pipeline.
Emilybook 