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For discussing anything related to a software developer's life but is not for programming questions. Got a programming question?

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GeneralRe: When was the last time you thunked? Pin
trønderen6-Jan-23 2:43
trønderen6-Jan-23 2:43 
GeneralRe: When was the last time you thunked? Pin
dandy726-Jan-23 2:24
dandy726-Jan-23 2:24 
GeneralRe: When was the last time you thunked? Pin
englebart6-Jan-23 16:15
professionalenglebart6-Jan-23 16:15 
GeneralTypical! Pin
OriginalGriff5-Jan-23 9:43
mveOriginalGriff5-Jan-23 9:43 
GeneralRe: Typical! Pin
pkfox5-Jan-23 9:55
professionalpkfox5-Jan-23 9:55 
GeneralRe: Typical! Pin
OriginalGriff5-Jan-23 10:01
mveOriginalGriff5-Jan-23 10:01 
GeneralRe: Typical! Pin
pkfox5-Jan-23 10:25
professionalpkfox5-Jan-23 10:25 
GeneralRe: Typical! Pin
trønderen5-Jan-23 11:08
trønderen5-Jan-23 11:08 
I will not address your situation in particular; my comments may not apply to you.

The most common case is that people are not prepared for exceptional events at all - they have no emergency light when power goes out, not even a flashlight or candles and matches. If they are snowed in so they can't get to the supermarket, they have very little of food supplies. If water supply fails, they have little or no water available. If fire breaks out, they do not have a fire hose or extinguisher. And so on. Some may have done a few preparations (e.g. here in Norway, you are by law required to have a fire extinguisher on every floor of your house), but the main rule is that people are completely unprepared.

The not-so-common case is that people have done some sort of preparation. You look at their emergency food store, noticing that the 'To be consumed before' date was five years ago. You see a gas mask still in its sealed package, and its owner tells that he has never ever tried to put a gas mask on and tried to make it fit his bearded face. The fire extinguisher has lost all pressure and the powder is clumped at the bottom. You have a fire hose, but have never felt the recoil when you open the nozzle, so it slips out of your hand when you need it. And so on.

Emergency aids are really valuable only when you use them, regularly. Sometimes, you need to drill it, like a fire drill - for that sake: Make a fire drill! Escape through the window. Lit a fire in your backyard, and put it out using your to-be-refilled fire extinguisher before refilling it, so you know how it feels to operate it. Try out your fire hose, and let your kids try it, too, to feel the thrust.

Close the main water valve to your house and see how long you can manage before you have to open it again. Switch off the main power fuses, to see how long you can manage without electricity. Keep power off for at least long enough for your smartphone batteries to go flat; next time around you add one day to that time. Pretend that you cannot get to the grocery store (or any other way of obtaining groceries) and see for how long you can manage with what you have got in your basement and pantry. In an ice cold winter: If your house is heated by oil, propane or wood: Imagine that you cannot obtain new supplies to burn. How long does it take before you are out of burning material? How will you then heat your home? If you are on electricity, and it goes out: How will you prepare your hot food? and keep your house warm? If you have an electric water heater: How will you get hot water for your daily shower (or its replacement, such as a basin and a washcloth)? Pretend that there is a fuel shortage; se how long you can manage without a car. Pretend that an excavator grabbed your internet cable connection, and the cable company tells you that they can't come to repair it for at least five days. (Maybe the cable was not for your house only, but uplink from a line concentrator, so your neighbors can't help you out.)

And so on. Do it for real; don't stop at a theoretical estimate of how long you can live on that long outdated emergency storage of canned food - eat it. (Or if you don't dare to, replace it with new stuff.) Don't just look at the window, judging how high up it is - climb out of it. Don't do it once, and for the next ten years say "I have done that!" - do it at least once a year. Make it routine.

One natural consequence is that next year, you have a larger stock of food that is not outdated. Flashlights have reasonably fresh batteries. Matches and candles are in place. Your oil/propane/wood store is more filled up. In your basement you have a filled up 25 liter water tank. Regarding food: You have learned to move the (not yet outdated) emergency food to your pantry, for everyday use, and filled up the emergency store with new, not-outdated foodstuff, so next year, it is not something tasteless, yucky stuff that you have to force down your throat.

Make water, electricity, fuel, food and internet outages a commonplace, everyday affair. If there is no real outage, pretend that there is, to force yourself to learn to handle it as an everyday affair. That is the only way to be truly prepared for it the day it is real.
GeneralRe: Typical! Pin
jmaida5-Jan-23 16:11
jmaida5-Jan-23 16:11 
GeneralRe: Typical! Pin
Choroid6-Jan-23 6:14
Choroid6-Jan-23 6:14 
GeneralRe: Typical! Pin
englebart6-Jan-23 16:21
professionalenglebart6-Jan-23 16:21 
GeneralRe: Typical! Pin
Phil J Pearson5-Jan-23 23:22
Phil J Pearson5-Jan-23 23:22 
GeneralRe: Typical! Pin
englebart6-Jan-23 16:25
professionalenglebart6-Jan-23 16:25 
GeneralRe: Typical! Pin
OriginalGriff6-Jan-23 19:28
mveOriginalGriff6-Jan-23 19:28 
JokeRe: Typical! Pin
englebart8-Jan-23 5:14
professionalenglebart8-Jan-23 5:14 
GeneralFree Game - Kerbal Space Program Pin
Jacquers5-Jan-23 5:14
Jacquers5-Jan-23 5:14 
GeneralRe: Free Game - Kerbal Space Program Pin
Mike Hankey5-Jan-23 6:18
mveMike Hankey5-Jan-23 6:18 
GeneralRe: Free Game - Kerbal Space Program Pin
jochance5-Jan-23 8:16
jochance5-Jan-23 8:16 
GeneralIf you're bored of Wordle... Pin
Greg Utas5-Jan-23 3:18
professionalGreg Utas5-Jan-23 3:18 
GeneralRe: If you're bored of Wordle... Pin
Richard MacCutchan5-Jan-23 3:32
mveRichard MacCutchan5-Jan-23 3:32 
GeneralRe: If you're bored of Wordle... Pin
jmaida5-Jan-23 15:59
jmaida5-Jan-23 15:59 
GeneralRe: If you're bored of Wordle... Pin
pkfox5-Jan-23 21:53
professionalpkfox5-Jan-23 21:53 
GeneralRe: If you're bored of Wordle... Pin
jmaida6-Jan-23 15:24
jmaida6-Jan-23 15:24 
GeneralRe: If you're bored of Wordle... Pin
Marc Clifton6-Jan-23 6:05
mvaMarc Clifton6-Jan-23 6:05 
GeneralRe: If you're bored of Wordle... Pin
Greg Utas6-Jan-23 6:11
professionalGreg Utas6-Jan-23 6:11 

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