Cuba: It will fall like the Soviet Union.

When the Soviet Union fell, there were many factors that went into it. The democratic revolutions had started in 1989, but they had been going on underground long before that. Czechoslovakia had always been a problem for the USSR along with Yugoslavia. The Balkans have always been a troubled place just like the rest of Europe.

But the biggest problem was the aging Soviet guard. Gorbachev realized that the leadership was aging and that young people were not seeing things the same as the older generation. They wanted change. They wanted to be like the West.

I see the same thing eventually happening in Cuba. Fidel Castro's brother, Raul, recently implemented a major reform in Cuba, allowing people to buy and sell property for the first time since 1959.

Sure a reform like this could mean nothing, but I see one of two outcomes for Cuba in the next fifteen years.

1. When the old order dies out, Cubans will take back their country and have a democratic revolution that will open the country. My ninth grade history teacher predicted that Cuba would eventually become a democratic nation and would open itself to tourism from the United States.

 or...

2. Cuba becomes the mirror of China. I like to call the Chinese "pseudo-Communists." While they still call themselves Communists, Marx and Lenin would never recognize Chinese Communism as it is today. They are more concerned with crushing the United States through economics than anything else. I can see Cuba taking this path.

How will Cuba play out? I can't wait to see.

Wait... what?

That's what you're gonna being saying after you read this post.

When I introduced my boyfriend to Fallout 3 over a year ago he asked me why everything looked like crap in the game. Not the game itself, I mean the landscape of the game.

Boyfriend: What's wrong with the roads?

Me: There was a nuclear apocalypse over two-hundred years ago. That's what's wrong with the roads.

Boyfriend: Why haven't they fixed them? Why hasn't anyone cleaned up?

Me *bad poker face*: Well isn't it obvious?

Boyfriend: ...

Me: ...

Seriously, why hasn't anyone cleaned up or worked to make things better if the war took place over two-hundred years ago? The radiation levels are low enough in most parts of the Wasteland to enable people to safely start rebuilding. Manufacturing could have started up again by this time.

And you know what? Just because the world died in fire doesn't mean that someone can't pick up a broom and sweep up a little every now and then.

And this is where you say "Wait... what?"

The End.

My life is super nerd- I mean country...

I recently bought a subscription to Netflix online. I have to say that so far it has been worth it. I really miss having a video store to rent movies and video games from right around the corner, but there seems to not be a single one left in the state of Pennsylvania. Sure, there's Red Box but I cannot get older movies like I could when there was a Blockbuster around the corner. And most of the time what you want to see is already checked out by someone else and you have no idea when it's going to be brought back. Frustrating...

Anyway, I love Stephen King books and movies. I decided that the first thing that I would watch would be the tv miniseries "The Stand" about a super flu that wipes out everyone. In the movie they have a fascination with an old black lady in a corn field in Nebraska. The time period that this starts is mid-June.

Now there's nothing wrong with an old black lady in a cornfield in Nebraska, but do me a favor and keep the corn's growth cycle accurate.

You: Oh Wolf why do you say that?

Me: Well because in mid-June the corn in this movie is already fully grown and tasseled out. FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!

This wouldn't bother any normal person, but it has to bother me. I have lived nearly my whole life in Lancaster County, PA and we grow A LOT of corn there. Until I moved to Pittsburgh, I never realized how much I relied of the state of the fields to give me clues about how the seasons were progressing. I've watched to corn go through its growth cycle for nearly my entire life and I feel really guilty about something as simple as corn "growing" in a movie bothering me. I feel entirely too country here...

In mid-June the corn is usually about halfway up my shin and by July it's at my thigh. So when I saw this, I died a little inside. The corn doesn't normally tassel out until the end of July or sometimes as late as mid-August. And corn pollen is a HORRENDOUS allergen. It leaves a kind of orange dust on everything and it makes you itch and sneeze like crazy. My late Jack Russell Terrier was terribly allergic to corn pollen to the point that she would lick her feet until they bled in the late summer and fall.

Anyway, now that I have shown you how much of a country bumpkin I am, I'm going to get back to work... FML

The "Cult" of Fallout

Yesterday I was able to meet some of the people who I have classes with online. I do have a friend among these people and we usually help each other out on assignments so I was excited to meet him yesterday.

During our evening class our task was to meet with our group members and fill out a special worksheet. Once the worksheet was finished, we had about an hour. So my friend and I started talking about Fallout New Vegas. The other group members looked at us like we were crazy.

I realized that loving Fallout is like being part of a cult. But this cult doesn't drink Kool Aid and think that there is a space ship following a comet. Some of us may think that latter but still it's like being part of a strange cult. We have our own culture and when we meet in public, people outside of the cult have a hard time understanding our "special" language. For example:

"I have the Bloody Mess perk so when I go home from class angry, I like to put in FNV and shoot people in the leg and feel better when they blow up."

or

"So the other day I decided that I would give the Fat Man a workout on some Super Mutants and Night Kin."

or

"Aw man I was playing three the other day and I discovered Vault 106. I will never feel the same about the color purple again!"

If you understand the above, then welcome to the cult. But remember, it's just a game.

What Fallout can teach us about civil defense.

I was a history major as an undergrad and for my senior thesis I wrote about historic civil defense practices against thermonuclear war. My inspiration: the Fallout franchise of course! ... Well actually that was the final deciding factor in it all. There were a number of influences through out my life leading up to my decision on my thesis.

But I have decided to ask a very important question today: What can Fallout teach us about civil defense?

I would argue that civil defense in relation to thermonuclear war is practically dead in this country. Since the end of shelter surveys in 1993 after the official end of the Cold War, people have been very passive about preparing for nuclear disaster. Only since the disaster at the Fukushima-Daichi power plant in Japan has anyone really paid attention to this issue in the last ten years. Although people have been paying attention to the exclusion zone around Chernobyl quite recently but that's besides the point... 

 By the way ^THAT'S the exclusion zone. It's currently a thriving refuge for wildlife, especially my beloved wolves.

Anyway, what can Fallout teach us about civil defense.

1. Be prepared.

Now yes I know that the vaults were not meant to really SAVE anyone. They were more or less meant to be social experiments, but those that did not cause their occupants to go absolutely fucking insane with killing sprees did end up saving their inhabitants from the initial blast and the years of high yield radiation caused by the massive amounts of fallout spreading across the nation and the world.

Recently the state of Pennsylvania has been running commercials telling its residents to be prepared at all times for natural disasters. As a long time resident of the state, I know first hand how much of a problem flooding can cause in the state. But, for most of my life, I have lived within the danger zone of Three Mile Island. As I got older, I started to worry a bit about the possibility of TMI going Chernobyl. I kept asking in school about what we were supposed to do if that happened. I never got a straight answer. My mother joked that if it went we would never know because it would come so fast.

As a senior in college, I was finally able to get my hands on my former school district's disaster plans for TMI. They did not instill a lot of confidence in me. "Inadequate" doesn't even begin to describe these "plans." The "plans" suggested that teachers close all doors and windows and then wait for further instructions. Translation: "We don't know what to do. Good luck."

I thought for sure that the schools had been equipped with special shelters for the children. If this was historically the case, I was never able to find out. Honestly, I tried to dig at them, but the district office was bothered by my digging, so I stopped.

So when I started playing Fallout, I realized how important it was to be prepared for the possibility of nuclear disaster. Let's build a vault!

2. Learn how to protect yourself from people who want to kill you and take your stuff.

I introduced my boyfriend to Fallout 3 about six months ago. At first he refused to shoot anyone who was shooting at him. "As long as I don't confront them and cause conflict the whole thing will resolve itself" was kind of the gist of what he told me.

Me: -_-

Boyfriend: What? Am I doing it wrong?

Me: People are SHOOTING at you. You also have a gun. Don't you think you should kill them? They're not going to be like "hey this guy is not shooting back. Maybe he's cool. Let's leave him alone and be friends."

Boyfriend: Well why not?

Me: *grabs controller* Gimme that! I'll show you how it's done. *kills all the raiders* There. That's how you do it. When people shoot at you, you shoot back and kill them before they kill you.

Boyfriend: ........ I am slightly bothered by this.

Me: This is the whole game. Get used to it.

Now I am not saying that this is a good idea for everyday life. In real life you have to wait until someone shoots at you before you are justified in shooting back. And in the case of nuclear apocalypse... Well there will no longer be any order in the world, so do what you have to to survive.

3. Water is precious.

Almost the entire focus of Fallout 3 was clean water for all. And some of the first things that you read in old civil defense pamphlets are about having enough water on hand in a shelter. I remember during the Y2K panic, people were hoarding bottled water like crazy. Well, I honestly see no reason against hoarding clean water. Our bodies are primarily made of water, so in an unfortunate disaster where our water supplies have been compromised, water will be a bargaining chip for other goods and services. If you have the water, all the more power to you. If you want to hoard water, that's great! One up to you in surviving the apocalypse.

Not too long ago, however, I asked the question of whether or not there are currently water filtration systems on the market that would be efficient tools in purifying irradiated water sources. Evidently, a Reverse Osmosis system would be effective, but this depends on how heavy the radiation is. Also, I don't think your Brita water filter is going to be able to handle this stuff.

So the lesson here: hoard water.

If you have any other suggestions for lessons that Fallout can teach us about civil defense, do not hesitate to post them in the comments section!