Story by Maribel Z K

The ZPOC will happen, but it won’t scare away your monthly visitor/gift/fiend/demon. No one seems to cover this need when talking about bug-out bags but you can’t really ignore this if you’re a woman. This video was in response to a question on the website about feminine hygiene. Our reader asked:

“I was hoping you could shed some light on female hygiene (specifically during that time of the month). I figure that we could stash a bunch but happens when they run out and going out and finding more isn’t possible?”

In summary, we cover 4 options:

1. Scavenge clean baby diapers and adult diapers as substitutes
2. Buy reuseable alternatives (pads, sponges, cups)
3. Make reuseable alternatives
4. Use items from nature

Watch the full youtube video for details on pros and cons, prices, tips and sources/vendors. Remember to LIKE us on FB, follow us on twitter, subscribe to our youtube channel, sign up for our email list and/or download our podcasts (see links above).

Some product links:
Menstrual Color Cotton Pads – 3 – Pack
Sckoon Organic Cloth Menstrual Pads – One Irregular Pad 60% Off
Glad Rags – The Keeper Menstrual Cup Size B
Jade and Pearl – Sea Sponge Tampon 2 Pieces – Sea Pearls Sea Sponge Tampons (Reusable)

Here's how (reusable) pads were used in the past

P.S.
Check out the Museum of Menstruation for trivia and information. Here’s another gem from there:

Story by Ray Dawg

Raymond ponders the pure awesomeness of the carbon steel Mora Knives Companion.

Who says you need a big, expensive, fancypants knife for the Zombie Apocalypse? Companies that make big, expensive, fancypants knives, that’s who.

In this video, resident guy-who-likes-to-play-with-sharp-things, Raymond, goes over the merits of the exceptional Mora Knives Companion, in carbon steel! Don’t be a dangus…watch the video, then go get you one of these fantastic, practical knives!

Continue reading “Mora Knives Companion: A must-have for the Zombie Apocalypse!” »

Story by Maribel Z K

Brains, brains, brains. That’s all people like to talk about! But what are your other options, what if you’re shorter, not as strong, lower to the ground, have a crappy weapon or no weapon? We gave this some thought and ranked these based on the ease of “execution” (effectiveness) and repetition (reliability – flub proof). Consider these!

Continue reading “Top 7 Other Targets for Self Defense During the Zombie Apocalypse” »

Story by Ray Dawg

You like knives?  Oh, we got some freakin’ knives over here, buddy.  In this video, Raymond discusses the SP-10 Marine Raider from Ontario Knife Co.  Frankly, it just kicks all sorts of ass.  (The knife.  The video is just okay.)

The SP-10 is a classic American Bowie style knife, rendered in modern, high impact materials,  weighing in at a whopping 1 lb. and 6 oz. , and it comes out of the box sharp enough to knock the head off a zombie like a big ugly champagne cork.

Continue reading “Ontario Spec Plus Marine Raider Bowie: A Top-Notch Zombie Decapitator!” »

Story by Maribel Z K

You shouldn’t carry tons of items in your bug-out / grab-n-go bag but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to organize them. In this video, I go over common household items that may have ended up in your trash that could be re-used or re-purposed as part of your zombie survival or prepper gear.

You don’t really need to spend a lot of money or time to compile basic survival gear. After all, the whole idea of survival gear is survival which means using whatever is available to meet your basic needs. You don’t have “tactical” needs, you need food, water, shelter, health and security/shelter. If there’s one skill you need to have, above all else, it’s improvisation (no, you don’t need to be Wayne Brady on Whose Line is it Anyway?, though I admit that would be highly entertaining).

To improvise = to invent, compose, or perform with little or no preparation. (Yes, I’m saying to prepare, you need to be able to invent/perform with little to no preparation – silly English language).

Learn more details from our youtube video below, and don’t forget to like our Facebook page.

A homework assignment:

Put a box next to your recycling and/or garbage can and label it “Survival items”. Then next time you’re about to throw out something, think about its possible uses in a survival scenario. Also, is it light, is it sturdy, water resistant, fire resistant, transparent, metallic, ergonomic, versatile? These are all good things. If they meet several of these characteristics, you should probably save it, at least until you come across something better. Other than a good sturdy knife (see our videos on various cutlery and John’s recent video on bug-out bag/grab-n-go bag necessities), food and certain medical supplies, you should be able get basic survival items from your everyday household  throw-aways. Happy viewing!

Story by Maribel Z K

(…or 7 Habits of Highly Effective ZPN Teams)

There’s nothing more annoying than surviving mayhem, near dehydration and starvation, and relentless undead hordes, than to have deal with group drama or a pissing contest with your group’s (self-appointed) alpha (esp. for girls cuz aiming is not as easy).

In every group, there will be some good, some bad and surely some ugliness. Each person will have strengths and weaknesses and you may have limited choices about what group you join and who is part of it. Here are 7 habits/issues to consider to help your awkward team from pre-emptively killing each other before anyone actually gets bitten. How your team handles these issues could very well affect how long your team / you stay alive and how AWESOME ZA life will be.

1. COMMUNICATION
Yes, even though office departments, sports teams, sororities, and political action committees have all gone the way of the rotten flesh, you’re not going to get away from having to “communicate effectively” (apologies for the profanity). Why? Cuz it’s how you’re going to get anything done! You’ll need to discuss plans, goals, interpersonal issues, contingencies, risks, logistics etc. Some people completely miss the whole awesomeness of ZA and stress or freak out — both of which can impair their hearing, memory, logic and cognitive skills and not to mention, tempt you to consider target practice on them. While we can’t help you with your drama king/queen/doosh’s intelligence (or lack thereof), we can help you tolerate them by doing the following when you talk to them:

1. Listen without interrupting (don’t sit there rapidly going through all the things you want to respond with while nodding condescendingly)
2. Confirm your understanding of what was said (e.g. what I think you’re saying is… did I get that right?)*
3. Ask clarifying questions, ask for examples (e.g. so what do you mean by “bat sh!t crazy?”)*
4. FINALLY, think about your response and then share it as objectively as possible (well I agree with X/Y/Z of what you said, but I think…. )*

*this is also a good time to start lowering your voice and speaking slower. Deepening your voice helps too and lean back or step back. By (re)setting the volume and pace of the conversation and changing your body position, you can bring the drama down a notch. It also helps keep you from smacking them upside the head (usually/hopefully).

2. GOALS

Staying alive is a good one to start with (lightbulb!). If this (hopefully) extends to each group member, then certain aspects have to be maintained and shared (e.g. security, food/water, peace). While this goal seems quite obvious, it can easily be overshadowed by petty rivalries if its not continually and explicitly reinforced (usually the job of the leader).  In a mildly stressful situation such as, you know, the Zombie APOCALYPSE, it’s easy for a person to despair/panic, get distracted, and think life is not worth living (clearly someone who forgot that the ZA is going to be AWESOME!). Having a group goal and having the group see progress towards that goal can motivate these whiney, cry-baby, runts… um, I mean, sensitive types to keep going, stay engaged, and most importantly, stay useful and alive. People are usually more willing to give up on themselves more easily than they are to let down others.

It is also important to have individual goals and to know each other’s, in order to motivate yourself and  so each of you can remind each other of them when you’re feeling like your whole world has come to an end (which it has, of course, but the ZA is AWESOME!).

3. WORK/ROUTINE

Do some.  Divide the work. Yes, while we all will rejoice the freedom from 9-to-5 drudgery, it doesn’t mean there ain’t work to be done. Think of it as getting to “work remotely” or “work from home”.

Understand people’s skills and weaknesses and, where you can, divide the work based on people’s strengths. This sounds obvious but remember that you may not get to pick your ideal ZA team and end up stuck with a mixture of primadonas, spoiled brats, know-it-alls, and yes-men. You should also take into account personality strengths/tendencies. Some people are natural planners and organizers, others are relationship builders/keep the peace sorts of people.  There are ways to observe people’s behavior and determine what kind of person they are and their social style (also handy for communication). One I find particularly interesting is a model by Merrill and Reid; read up on a summary here (they also published a book).

Having roles, responsibilities and accountability to each other give people a sense of purpose and worth, which helps if they start to forget the AWESOMENESS that is the Zombie Apocalypse. It conveniently also gets SH!T done and helps  keep the drama in check.

4. PLAY/SPACE

Since you’re not getting paid for the work you put in to the ZA team, you better live it up as well. All work and no play… as the saying says. Of course, ZA play time will be better than the office-sanctioned “Happy Hour”, baseball game shindig or ice cream social, because you can run amuck and not get arrested. Get silly, have a food fight, hit a zombie pinata, go streakin’ (but carry a weapon at all times)… remind yourself of the AWESOMENESS of life, otherwise wtf do you get to be alive when the ZSHTF?

If you’re not in the mood for shenanigans, get some space. Climb a tree, go float in the middle of a lake (alive). Everyone, eventually, is going to want some private/quiet time (make sure you have a way to signal others though) to meditate on AWESOMENESS. Don’t waste your time keeping yourself alive just to be dead inside. It’s like being a zombie without neck-down “invincibility”. In a word, lame.

5. REDUNDANCY (CROSS-TRAINING)

Not to be redundant, but you should be redundant.

You know all that work you divvied up based on strengths/skills/personalities? More than one person should be able to do the same task/work. While it might be tempting and convenient to have people specialize (doctor does medical, soldier does killing), this can bite you in the butt (or the arm, the neck, the belly, anywhere flesh like). To use what will be a ZSHTF ancient phrase, “cross-training” will make your team more agile. The doc got hurt, no worries I can cauterize that wound for you… Daryl Dixon (aka AWESOME) is gone, no worries, I have my own home-made cross bow and arrows. The more cross-trained everyone is, the more options you have for scouting, heists, security, zombie ambushes, raves in former government buildings. It also keeps people learning and interacting; they’ll stay sharp. The division of work will also be more fair cuz no one’s necessarily stuck doing one thing. It might seem cool now to be THE katana guy/girl, but if that’s all you do… all the time… it could get old. (Ok, bad example… that would never get old. Maybe something like cutting wood?)

6. STRUCTURE

Have one. This is related to the whole idea of divided responsibilities. Chaos is fun and all but ya gotta eat sometime and someone’s gotta be on watch at the crow’s nest. In addition to having clear roles/jobs, there should be a structure, which is really the essence of civilization. Your team is bound to have differences and arguments, so you should have an agreed-upon way to settle it (before it happens and definitely before they just shoot each other… unless that’s your way of arbitration). How are you going to decide on a plan?  When should someone be kicked out of the team cuz they’re dangerous and un-awesome? (Shane *cough*) Besides, it’s so much more awesome to go kill zombies than bicker about who gets to shake the big stick how many times.

Your team structure should be rigid but flexible enough to adjust to changing times. Majority vote is good and all, but if the zombie horde is 20 feet away, whoever makes the call, makes the call… or you can vote/abstain and be bait/Otis. I’m not saying this will be easy to establish but it’s something all teams should shoot for. It saves your brain cells for things like target practice and make them future gourmet fare for the discerning zombie

7. INDEPENDENCE

This might seem out of place in an article about teamwork but it’s important and it goes hand in hand with redundancy. If you can do what everyone else in the team can do, that helps the team. You know that whole, “you’re only as strong as your weakest… ” One might say this is what turns a team into an army. If you end up needing to lead, you can. You are essentially your own team, a microcosm of ZPNness. You are independent. And what’s awesome about that is… you level up to BAD ASS and if your team starts to fall apart or you get tired of the drama, you get out of Dodge and find yourself a better one and take your pick. In the mean time, your spirit quest will be AWESOME!

P.S. any of these factors actually have use in the pre-apocalyptic days, when the sh!t is in someone’s hand and not yet in the fan. Practice it on the office zombies, it works there too. Did we mention the Zombie Apocalypse is going to be AWESOME?

Story by Ray Dawg

Time to Get Totally Pumped!

While it is abundantly clear that  Zombie Armageddon will certainly happen, it is apparently not clear to everyone that it will also be totally awesome. I’m here to help. Reducing stress is essential to your health and wellness. What good does it do to worry about things you can’t control? In this article, I’ll lay out some of the highlights of the impending Z.A., so that you can sleep well at night, secure in the knowledge that when the world as we know it is overrun with flesh-eating undead hordes, we are going to have the time of our lives!

Awesome Fact #1: There will be absolute lawlessness.

Law and order might sound nice, but let’s face it: It’s boring. Our social structure will experience an abrupt reboot, and the survivors will be given a blank, (albeit dangerous and cannibalistic), slate to work with. “No Smoking” areas? Gone. No turn on red? How about Turn Wherever the Hell You Want! Consider these gems:

Everywhere will be “dog friendly”
Dress codes: non-existent.
No more lines at the DMV.
Everyone will be licensed to carry by default. No matter how you feel about guns now, trust me, you’ll like them when the ZSHTF.
Last Call is at never o’clock.

Awesome Fact #2: You can wear any kind of hat you want.

We all have a hat that we purchased on a whim, that we’re too afraid to actually wear for fear of being ridiculed. Well, like everything else, fashion sense is getting a fresh start in Year One, Anno Zomini! No longer does that bowler derby need to languish in sheepish obscurity deep in the confines of your closet. You can wear a top hat, fedora, cowboy hat, fez, or Kaiser helmet for all anyone cares. No one’s going to judge. You know why? Because of…

Awesome Fact #3: No more hipsters.

Honestly, this is mostly an article of faith for me, I’m not precisely sure how it’s going to happen. Partly because hipsters can’t really move quickly under any circumstance, partly because fixed gear bikes are hard to ride uphill…and there’s a good chance many of them will get bitten deliberately to be ironic. There is the slim chance that some will blend in with the Zombie hordes with their torn, filthy clothing, vacant expressions and a habit of wandering slowly in groups. This is evolution, folks, it’s a gradual process.

Awesome Fact #4: Everyone’s inner badass will be unleashed.

Droning away at a soul-sucking 9 to 5 every day does nothing to inspire achievement. It only keeps you slavishly devoted to an endless list of menial tasks done to appease uninteresting people who drive bland automobiles. Unless you’re Richard Branson, you need a good fire lit under your ass once in a while to reach your full potential.  The sense of urgency created by the constant threat of being torn limb from limb will make a Tony Robbins seminar seem like doing bong hits in your Mom’s basement at age 30.

Awesome Fact #5: Prejudices will be greatly diminished.

I’m not so delusional as to believe that bigotry will disappear magically overnight, I’m still amazed at the tenacity with which some people will cling to their petty prejudices. Like roaches, these vermin will likely survive any calamity, it’s just in their nature. Being an optimist however, I believe that many prejudices are rooted in a simple lack of understanding from having led a sheltered life.

Once the zombie hordes are roaming the land looking for their next meal, the differences we notice between us now are going to pale in comparison to the differences between us and them. Any skin color is going to be just fine, so long as it’s not gray and rotting. When the ZSHTF, we’re all gonna be on the same team, like it or not. If you don’t want to be around other people because of their race, religion, or what they do with their genitals, fine.  Have fun fighting off the flesh-eaters all by your special little self.  It’ll just make me feel better about caving your squishy green head in after you’ve been cornered and turned by the hordes.

Awesome Fact #6: Pottery Barn is Having a Sale!

(So is everyone else, if you get my drift.)

Awesome Fact #7 : No More Junk Mail.

Or spam, or Mafia Wars, or Farmville, or sales calls, or status updates about your friend’s workout. In general, useless or unsolicited information will be gone. Anyone who tries to bring it back will be thrown to the horde, smothered in bacon fat.

Awesome Fact #8: No More Justin Bieber.

If, by some act of Satan, he does survive, I think an outdoor concert is in order. Just Biebs himself. In an open field. Tied to a post. You see where I’m going with this…

Awesome Fact #9: Thursdays are Vegan Potluck Night.

(My girlfriend made me promise to include this item. Don’t worry, I’m not holding anyone to this. In fact, I’m pretty sure being vegan will no longer be an option at that point, but I have to stay in her good graces for now, so bear with me.)

Awesome Fact #10:  (wait for it…)

Chuck Norris is on our side.

Story by John Moore

After the zombie uprising, the ability to navigate to safety or to find resources is going to be a key to survival. Getting lost in the woods on the way to loot a WalMart is a quick way to die.

So, you might be saying to yourself, “I’ll just use my trusty GPS system to get around – that never fails me.”

And you’d be DEAD wrong.

Continue reading “Can I Rely On GPS After The Apocalypse?” »

Story by John Moore

In the US, May has been declared National Zombie Awareness Month. We here at ZPN would like to take the opportunity to spread zombie apocalypse (ZA) awareness and to remind people to prepare.

The ZA is going to be awesome, but much more fun if you and your family live through it. Preparing for the horde also means you’ll be better prepared to face other emergencies and natural disasters.

For survival purposes, consider the magic number 4:

Continue reading “May is National Zombie Awareness Month” »

Story by John Moore

when planning for your survival during the upcoming zombie apocalypse, it’s important to try to choose items that are multipurpose. The Mag Lite LED 3 D-Cell flashlight is just such an item.

Fairly lightweight yet tough, milled from aircraft aluminum, this flashlight serves double duty as a zombie skull-crushing weapon. In a pinch you might use it to hammer in a tent peg.

Continue reading “Mag Lite LED 3-D Cell Zombie Apocalypse Review” »

Story by John Moore

Zombie Apocalypse Survival Weapon

Hey there zombie survivors!. This is our first ever product review. Today, we’re reviewing the Bear Grylls Survival Series Parang. A parang is a type of machete, and this carbon-steel beauty is made by Gerber. It retails for about $30 and is a nice tool for lopping off undead heads, or clearing brush.

In the video I use it to hack my frustrations out on a rather large tree-branch.

Continue reading “Bear Grylls Survival Series Parang” »