Feeling self-discursive

[sen_no_ongaku]

I often find myself examining buildings in post-apocalyptic-survival terms.

Looking at a hotel resort and thinking about the difficulty of setting up a perimeter: noticing how close vegetation grows, and considering how much of it would need to be chopped down for a larger field of vision; noting how widely spaced buildings are and how difficult it would be to set up mutually supporting fields of fire; defensibility of points of entry; and so forth.

While tooling around at the grocery today, I found myself thinking it would make an excellent base of operations. The huge floor space is easily made into a barracks, with plenty of room for a mess hall, and dividable into smaller sections if need be for specialized use. Obviously, there is significant space for storage of weapons, supplies, and foodstuffs in the back. There are only a few entrances, which seem fairly easily defendable, particularly if made into funnels via shelf placement. There is a loading dock, which means the building is easy to supply. Other than at the entrances, its front has no windows, making it difficult to snipe and/or gain entrance through a non-door (though making it costly to light); it would probably be worth drilling small holes through which one could fire out; and its back faces down a hill (overlooking the Mass Pike). The parking lot that surrounds it makes it difficult to sneak up on the grocery, and is easy to cover with armed lookouts on the roof.

Anyway.

Comments

[shellaby.livejournal.com]

You're giving me a good idea of what kind of house to design for you...

[shgb.livejournal.com]

I sometimes do similar things, though more often it's in the context of "Oh, this area would make a good level for a FPS game."

[sylvantechie.livejournal.com]

I tend to consider longer post- and -term post-apocolypse scenarios with very limited firearms and more of an eye to survivability with out re-supply opportunities - e.g. clean water access, production/maintenance facilites (or place to create such), shelter usefulness sans utilities, food production possibilites, trade opportunities, etc. in addition to defensibility.

A fun pastime.

[magdalene1.livejournal.com]

When the apocalypse comes, I want both of you on my team.

My skills?
Paintball showed me that I'm quite a good sniper.
I can make delicious and nutritious meals out of cheap, easy-to-store ingredients.
I have excellent management and planning skills, especially personnel management - our compound would divide up the work and the watches most beautifully, and everyone would get a turn and feel valued.
I also tell funny stories that keep morale up.

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

the muzh and I play the "what skills do you have that make you valuable after the revolution/apocalypse" game.

Scary how little people actually KNOW about real-life survival.

[winterborne.livejournal.com]

Me too, though more along sylvantechie's lines.

[sal-sal.livejournal.com]

I do the same thing if I'm bored somewhere. When the zombies come (Appear? Arrive? Return?), we'll be prepared.

[anacrucis.livejournal.com]

And here I was feeling smug because my sourdough starter and I are all ready to set up a post-apocalyptic baking operation without access to commercial yeast.

Clearly I still have a lot of preparing to do for the end days.

[greenapple2004.livejournal.com]

There's actually a Stephen King novella (called "The Mist," I believe) where a scientific experiment in New England somewhere goes awry, releasing hideous creatures from some interdimensional portal into suburbia, and the main characters spend most of the book holed up in a supermarket. It totally creeped me out.

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

you're not alone. Here in DC we have metro maps that show you 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 mile radii around the stop. the Muzh and I think that they make wonderful fallout maps. This is a bit disturbing, but that's what happens when you work in our fields.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

These are the kinds of things my husband and I discuss over dinner sometimes...
That and various self-defense techniques.