I just received a couple physical books today. As I updated their status from e-book to DTF (dead-tree format; paper) on this website, I noticed the website was missing books. As in, a lot. I see them in the application I use to inventory them, just not where you can see them. A quick investigation revealed over three dozen books lacked a tag that makes them visible on the web page. This has now been fixed.

So I took a week away from my day job, and got many home projects that have piled up completed. One of them was to go through my personal library, of which I have five "branches." I have my physical books, ebooks scattered over three apps (iBooks, Amazon Kindle and Blink), plus a collection of PDF books.

I am trying to be somewhat comprehensive and consistent with what information I list for every book. I have already updated the library a lot, and I have still a long way to go. Another thing that really angers me is I found a second electronic book that has "gone missing." The first was Cardiac Arrest, which I wrote this review for, the second is Dave Grossman's On Killing, which I was in the process of reading. I stopped reading it not too long ago, and when I came back to it, poof. No record of purchase in either app. Probably no refund of my money either.

The result of this is, I am making sure I have DTF (Dead Tree Format, paper) copies of important books, especially those I would like to read if/when society collapses. Losing Cardiac Arrest didn't phase me, On Killing did. So On Killing and several other books will be on my doorstep tomorrow.

I am also writing a review on another book, one that I couldn't finish, it was so heartbreaking. I got through a quarter of it and had to stop. The lessons in that quarter must never be ignored again. You'll see.

I am still up to my earlobes in alligators. I have managed to put some work into here, as reflected with a couple new articles and a major update to another.

I have conducted a major overhaul of my Everyday Carry (EDC) backpack article, detailing my equipment changes to get me home if SHTF (Shit Hits The Fan) goes down.

I have tried to explain in a relatable and understandable way what Situational Awaress entails for all of you Armed Citizens out there.

Last, but not least, I managed to finish reading The Law of Self Defense, which is critical if you want to survive a gunfight AND stay out of prison. Here's my review.

Like I said, I am deeply involved with my other website and doing work for it. During one of my breaks, I wrote a review on my just finished book, The Price of Principle by Alan Dershowitz. This is a subject that weighs heavily on me personally.

I am also working on a minor redesign, namely getting rid of that scroller that's starting to irritate me. And a whole new deep dive section, once I get the last few things nailed down on it.

I couldn't say "Taking some time off," since I tell people, "I'm always at least a little off." ;-)

Due to the holidays and some projects, namely me organizing my library and trascribing it into my Alexandria Book Library module on here, I am taking a couple weeks away from the normal posting. You will see a Deep Dive or two pop up, as well as some changes to the web page itself.

Good news: This website is now running under the current CMS version and PHP.

Bad news: The links are way out of whack. They work now, but the website is writing the urls the way it wants to, and my CDO (that's OCD in alphabetical order, the way it should be) is having a great difficulty with it.

Good news: lots of content (including a new section, The Armed Citizen) is coming your way.

I started this website on Blogspot, in 2003. A few years later, I got this domain and ran it under a well-known CMS (Content Management System) program. I'm not mentioning which ones to piss off the script kiddies who like to hack websites. A couple years after that, I stayed on this domain and moved to a new CMS. And, yet again, I am upgrading that CMS.

I have managed to find a utility to move my content without losses and have successfully transferred my content to a sandbox (testing site, as opposed to Production, this site you're currently visiting). Now what I need is to get some software to maintain my search engine friendly URLs and install it.

For example, the SEO version of this post you normally see is https://www.theconservativezone.com/blog/moving-the-website-again.

The Non SEO friendly version is https://www.theconservativezone.com/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=101&catid=9&id=905&lang=en&view=article.

See what I mean Vern?

The good news is, as soon as I get the new website looking the way I like, I will transfer the Sandbox setup to Production. You'll know that happened when you see the layout change. Only slightly, as I am trying to keep the look as close as possible.

Giving you a fair warning, I am having to take a pause on posting. Not only am I working 60 hour weeks, This website is facing a forced shutdown. I'm running on an old version of PHP that will stop working soon. When I try to upgrade the PHP, it breaks the website. Add to that the CMS software itself has undergone a major revision that I must also upgrade to, with some of the modules I use not upgraded or I have to buy a whole new package. The look may change as well, as I may have to go to a new template. Hopefully not though.

So, all of my time normally allocated for posting is now forcefully allocated for doing these upgrades. Fair warning, you might come here one day and find a static webpage. Rest assured I am diligently working on making it through these trials and tribulations.

See you on the other side.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls!

After writing, rewriting, editing and double-checking, I finally got all of my articles on prepping completed (well, at least as I was going to get). So I posted them. I am not an expert, I am not the "be all and end all" well of knowledge on it or anything else. I wanted to get you some of my thoughts and a place to start if you wanted to prepare for the gathering storm.

I have decided to add a new category, this will give me some "fresh fodder" to chew on. I've been thrown off a FB page "Economic Left" because I dared express dissent to this writers oversimplified, worn-out and pedantic tropes. It's where I came up with the self-describing "Always Insulted, Never Refuted" tagline. This person also has a web page that I have now added to my linkroll. Don't worry, I'll bring you the most baseless, idiotic assertions and "conclusions" that website has to offer right here, along with the receipts. And if he's correct on a point (or agrees with me, not necessarily the same thing) I'll put that out there as well.

Oh, please feel free to email him, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and send him links to my articles about his articles.

Greetings all! I finally got enough time to sit down and sort through all of my notes and articles in progress queue. It turns out I have four posts to go up on this feed (the first is right below this post), and they will be coming out for the next several Mondays. I also have eight articles on "prepping" that will go into their own Deep Dive section. AND I have another 3-4 that I've transcribed to myself so those will be transcribed and edited forthwith. And I think there's a couple more that I haven't found yet.

Okay folks, thank you for sticking with me this far. As we move into 2022, I wanted to do a little housekeeping.

First off, I have updated my Markisms in a major update and I now have about 3,400 of them. Please, download and enjoy.

Next, likewise my Ringtones have been significantly added to and there are now 373 of them.

I have also added several various deep dives (in no particular order), namely Soviet Jokes, Self-defense is a Right, Centralized Gun control, The process is the punishment and Price vs. Cost.

And the biggest news of all... I have decided to start a video channel next year. I plan to put it on both YouTube and Locals. While the YT channel will likely be banned in short order, I'll be using it to drive viewers to the Locals page. Of course, I'm still in the process of researching, grokking, then actually setting things up. I'll let you know when.

Right now I am recording some recent subjects and various evergreen Deep Dives. "Evergreen" means the subject doesn't "get old," because they are about general issues and not specific events. What was relevant when I wrote it then is still relevant today. And it won't be me blandly rereading (ala Ben Stein) what I've already posted, but more like Jordan B. Peterson, who works through his thoughts during the presentation.

What this will do is generate a couple months worth of content and a foundation of who I am and what I think and believe. I'll be using those to develop the back-end process to easily and consistently post content. Just as a reminder, I have two jobs, a family, a house and a hobby going on as well that take priority.

I have several articles/deep dives I am working on, but this one popped the stack and was flagged as important, so here it is.

Five reasons why you can't "do a Hollywood" and shoot the bad guy in the leg to stop them. Shooting the leg.

In my copious free time I have managed to complete a couple of deep dives, What Are Laws? and What is Capitalism?. Enjoy.

Greetings all [Insert obligatory "I'm not dead yet!" comment here].

In case you didn't know, It really takes me several days to make a post. Once my subconscious selects what I'm going to write about, I must do research and Grok on it until fullness is achieved. Only then do I get to sit down and actually start hitting the keyboard.

The main issue is I have been writing more for a book I publish on my other site, and working on the next version of the application for that same site. That and home maintenance, day job, family time and more have prevented me from doing the Groking necessary to make me happy and proud of a post.

The other issue is this extremely polarized political environment. I have lost several friends over the differences of our political stances, and my time on Facebook has left me angrier than ever. In response, for my own mental health, I have stepped back from FB. I have stopped following all my friends (even those whom I agree with) and my feed is now only game-related.

I have decided to step back from here as well, knock some major projects IRL out and regain my center. I will be back, timetable unknown. I won't even speculate because something could change and destroy that schedule. As I like to say IRL, "I'm always here except when I'm not." If I can post, I will. But keeping to a set schedule is impossible for me right now.

Hey All,

I changed jobs last month that got me away from being worked to death (basically, one week in three was second shift, either 8 or 10 days straight). Now that I'm back to an 8-5, M-F schedule, I have more time to write, and boy howdy have I been writing! Also, a programming project which has consumed most of my keyboard time has likewise been completed and will clear my calendar for more writing and research time.

I have managed to write/complete six articles, at least two and maybe a third to be deep dives. The post below popped up over the weekend and I had to write about it. Anyway, I will be working as best as I can to post regularly again. When I started this blog, it was a knee-jerk commentary on multiple news stories a day. It has now evolved (18 years now!) to a more philosophical and social commentary type blog. I hope you continue to enjoy.

I know I have been absent for a while, due to me writing a book and an app for a game I play. The book is done, The app is in it's final stages. I am also starting a new job at the beginning of 2020, and I will be in training for a couple of weeks, this will give me some time to work on the various articles I have been sporadically working on over the past couple months.

I have also updated my Markisms and ringtones.

Hopefully I can start posting weekly again, I'll know by February.

Let's not get too excited here.

Yes, I am considering doing a podcast. I am still researching and exploring the costs of equipment, stock production (theme music, voice overs, etc.) and a hundred other logistical issues that need to be solved before I can sit down and hit "record." I am planning on this being a "finite run", i.e. a somewhat small number of episodes. That's because I don't want to add my opinion to the 3,871 other podcasts already doing exactly that. I am not going in any way give people like Tim Pool, Dan Bongino, The Young Turks, Ben Shapiro, etc., a run for their money. I can't differentiate myself from them by doing what they do.

What I am planning on doing is explaining what a Conservative is. We are all for or against certain things (gay rights, abortion, open borders, you name it), but 99 people out of 100 could not explain why they believe in whatever, or how they got to that belief. I hope to change that by holding "extended musings" about my principles on the subject. I have not begun to significantly codify the subjects, but these will be broad subjects like "freedom,"  "government," "drugs," "abortion" and so on. I hope it will be an introspective journey for both of us, as my main goal is to induce a similar contemplation in the listener.

No matter what, this will be at least a couple of months into the future. Most of my time is still being prioritized for family, home and hearth, then in my copious free time I am (still) writing an application to be a game aid for a game I play. I am also continuing to write and edit articles for here that I hope to publish before too long. I also fully anticipate these upcoming articles will be the subjects of podcast episodes.

As the guy said in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, "I'm not dead yet!" (Yes, I know I published something two days ago. I've been working on it for 3-4 weeks)

Despite many things I want to write about on here, my primary focus over the past weeks (and the foreseeable future) is my family, my home and my job, all of which have been running me ragged. On top of that (and most of what is taking time away from here) is that I am writing an application for my favorite miniature wargame. Reacquainting myself with the programming mindset while simultaneously learning a new language (Python, my first Object Oriented Programming language) is no easy task.

I write a few lines of code every day, try to get a new function completed every week or two. Of course, after the application is finished, there are about 4,500 lines in the database for it that I have to add information to, so the application can do it's job properly.

I have been working on a few articles here and there, all "pinned" stuff that go into the specialty areas just under the header. But then again, after you've written in Python (or any programming language), it's hard to write in English afterwards, for a while at least.

I am sorry to say that multiple factors have come together to demand enough of my time to force me to put my posting here on hold.

I will be continuing my efforts to add a "CIO" section and maybe get some book reviews out, but I cannot promise a schedule or timeline for these.

Thank for reading, keep checking back.

Just a bit of clean-up behind the scenes. No post this week due to hectic swing shifts over the weekend. I promise multiple articles next week.

My "Memes to Consider" over there to the right has grown to almost 200 items. I was feeling bad that you might not be seeing all of them, so I have set it up so a smaller group of about 30 memes for each weekday and another 30 for the weekends.

I will also update my linkroll with some more podcasts, stand by to stand by!

I have been overly busy on multiple fronts the past week. I have been working on a deep dive article, but because it's heavy with math I'm trying to write it so it's not a "TL;DR" kind of article. Please keep visiting and remember, this is a one-man operation in his spare time.

If you have been frantically waiting for a new post from me, my apologies. Between working 50+ hour weeks, family and home stuff, I have been taking night classes to upgrade my skill set. That will be over soon and I'm (slowly) working on several deep dives as well.

Sorry to make you wait, I should be posting new content soon after Christmas.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Have I got some news for you!

First, I have finally compiled my personal library, it is #5 of the banner rotation. Please take a gander at what I am reading and my reviews. If you click through to Amazon and buy it, supposedly I get a small commission. I'm not betting my house payment on it though.

Second, I have added to the link roll to the right Civics 101. A "short form" (10 minutes) podcast from New Hampshire Public Radio, each episode gives an easy-to-understand explanation of the subject at hand. It is wonderfully well-balanced, being totally apolitical with each subject. I was actually shocked while listening to #125 about the police. The SME (Subject Matter Expert) started talking about Ferguson and he started commenting on how the police were ticketing citizens for BS stuff to generate city revenue, like I said when it first happened.

I am currently working my way through all of them, I'm getting in 8-10 a day. I am enjoying them immensely.

Growing up, I was a voracious reader. I read sci-if by the ream. A book a week? HA! I was averaging almost a book a day. Lensman, Venus Equilateral, Gor, The Destroyer and more. I had a bookshelf filled with just anthologies of short stories. The visions of Asimov, Bradbury, Burroughs, Heinlein, LeGuin and more filled my head at night.

As an adult I transitioned to technical books, learning to better apply myself to my craft. I also started enriching myself with the history, ship specifications and tactics of the Navy and our potential adversaries. This was the time of the “techno-thrillers” like “The Hunt for Red October.” Clancy and Cussler dominated my nightstand. This is when my taste for Sun Tzu, Jomini, Mayan, Clausewitz and more also found room in front of my eyes.

When I became a life member of the NRA and started carrying a weapon, my attention turned not only books about firearms in general, but how to properly and effectively apply the craft of armed self-defense and to research about the political fight surrounding firearms.

Then, sadly, my in-depth reading dried up. My illness limited my ability to read and comprehend like I had before. Not only because of mental bandwidth, but also spending most of my time just to survive. Once I started this blog, I was reading again, however it was all on-line news and opinion articles with research into what I was writing about.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been managing to sit down long enough here and there to read again. Some DTF (Dead Tree Format, actual books), some digital. But I am reading again. Like when King Arthur said in Excalibur after drinking from the Holy Grail, “I did not realize how empty was my soul until it was filled.”

I am currently (in my copious free time) working on adding a sub page that will join the rotation under the main banner and list my library, with my reviews on those books. I have to apply some coding tricks to make the list do what I want and I want to have 4-6 reviews "on the hook" before I let you see them.