It's been a couple of weeks since the WTC attack, and the world has shifted to a much more serious, tension filled, atmosphere. Things are different...everywhere. The feelings of safety, of trust, of freedom have all been tightened to the point of snapping.

Everyday events have taken on a tinge of "is THIS another terrorist attack?", such as the Greyhound bus incident in Tennessee. Little things that were always taken for granted, aren't.

Personally, this paradigm shift has turned surreal for me. As happened with Y2k, I am getting several inquiries a week from reporters for newspapers, magazines, and news agencies....all looking for a unique perspective on current events, and how PREPAREDNESS and SURVIVAL afficianodoes are changing their habits and lives to take in the REAL threat of another terrorist attack on US soil. Last week was an interview in the largest newspaper in the state of Wyoming. Two days ago was a phone interview with a reporter with the CBS affiliate in Phoenix, Arizona. Yesterday were two emails from newspaper reporters, one in Canada and one in London.

All asking for thoughts on what normal, everyday people should do ...just in case. I've shared my feelings and my ideas as I have published on my website the past couple of years. I have also spent quite a bit of time thinking on what *I* can personally do to get the word out EVEN MORE than I have yet.

I've added a few new features to my website, the SurvivalRing. A custom BBS program is now online, as well as several Chem/Bio preparedness files, yet to be linked to, but ready to download. I have many other things in the works, all offering greatly enhanced features that make it that much easier to find REAL survival info for these trying times.

It is so wierd to be at the position that I am....seemingly the center of the survivalist/preparedness crossroads, helping people worldwide, connecting folks with like interests, offering info I spent YEARS collecting and studying.....all just to try to make a difference and save a few real human lives in times of disaster, by simply showing how to prepare for LIFE and its follies.

I feel good about what I am doing, and only rarely do the infantile minds rise from the dung heap of life to make salacious remarks and idle threats to me because of their inability to comprehend my work. The lack of sleep, the precious funds spent supporting the infrastructure and hardware, the constance barrage of email questions on details that come to the minds of visitors to my sites wanted MORE info yet...yes, they are ALL worthwhile.

I wake in the middle of the night, like this morning, my mind cranking away deep in thought of the mechanics and needs of NEW things to add, new ideas to reseach, and new functions to create or add to KEEP building my dream and website. Sometimes I can shut it down, and get back to sleep and precious rest...other times, like today, I get up after two hours of restless sleep and start writing, searching, and programming new things to make available.

I truly feel it is a calling....a commandment to me almost...to do these things....

Not many people will, or can, do these things I am doing right now. Even less would ever want to. But I do. Because I can....because I want to, and because there is global need for these things.

Maybe I feel more secure in my life because I spend so much time on and offline, thinking these thoughts of what to prepare for, how to prepare for, and where to go for whatever, and know that I can communicate on an incredibly planet wide scale...a mind-boggling thought at times.

Finding such tools as this weblog you are reading right now, and being able to have my thoughts online in mere moments of hitting the key of my laptop, instead of an hour or more of multiple program usage, ftp uploads, and page verifications....make it all the more important to KEEP thinking the way I am, of HELPING others in every thought and action.

Folks, the times are definitely changing. The world in a much more worrisome place than it was just a few short weeks ago. Civilization and society are absolutely going into a new paradigm of thought and action...and of consequence. War, possibly global again, is around the corner. tens of thousands of lives may evaporate in the next few weeks or months...in many lands...because of the WTC attack.

It is all we can do to keep our eyes open, our lips silent, and our prayers earnest. It is a time of introspection and deep concentration...and by God a time for preparing for the worst. In my lifetime of 41 short but full years, I have NEVER feared death...and still don't. However, I do fear for the future of the world if things get out of hand.

Why? Well, let us think for a moment. Nuclear weapons are a reality. What is NOT common knowledge is the fact that all those tactical nukes that the US had deployed over the past few decades, and were called HOME by Clinton during his time in office, have in fact, been redeployed out in the field, in small numbers, but deployed just the same. It is very possible that the manhunt for Bin Laden, and other terrorist factions may well see the use of nukes on earth ....again.

Escalation? Inevitable. Preparation? Required. Consequences? Dire.

People, if you don't think it can get any worse then the past few weeks, just wait. Stuff will surprise you more than you could ever imagine.

Just two words for you here and now......BE PREPARED. PLEASE.

Until the next update,
Yours in preparedness,
Richard