OK, gang! I'm looking to activate a "street team" for an event on August 18th in Flemington, NJ. I'm looking for 4-6 volunteers to hand out flyers, stickers, magnets, etc. from 10am to 6pm. You must be willing to participate in product and skills demos and have your photos/videos used by Black Bag Resources online and in print.
Members of the street team will receive: Free entry to the event (we'll work in shifts so you will have time to actually enjoy it) Lunch, beverages and snacks Black Bag Resources 24"x24" Bandana Black Bag Resources rubber bracelet If you are interested, email me at BlackBagResources@gmail.com! On July 13 our good friend TSgt Edilberto "Bert" "Suave" Malave was on the CV-22 that crashed. He is in recovery and doing well, but he obviously has a long road ahead of him. "Suave" is one of those guys who is always smiling, and I think he would get a big kick out of it if ALL you guys would send him a get well message. Send him a friend request or send him a private message and wish him well. His facebook page is linked here. Thanks, everyone!
That's right, the Black Bag Resources online store is LIVE. It is extremely small and under construction, but you can place an order. Look for updates and products in the coming weeks. Please keep in mind: I have no intention to run a full blown web store. I believe the heart of this business is direct consultation because it provides much better and more personal service. The store will be used to offer featured products and Black Bag Resources branded items (like T-shirts) to help support other aspects of the business. Credit card processing will be done through Square. As soon as I can set up discounts for our Facebook fans and regular customers, you will be able to take advantage of that feature as well. In the mean time, be sure to leave a note in the comment section of the order form.
I know it looks like I haven't been doing much lately, but I promise you- I have been busy.
Black Bag Resources now has: Upgraded Mobile Capabilities- I finally bit the bullet and got a smart phone, allowing me to get emails, phone calls, facebook updates, etc. all on the go. This is going to make for some fun "interactive activities" for you guys in the near future. Credit Card Processing- I know it's been a pain paying with cash/checks/money orders, and lots of folks have asked/begged/demanded for an upgrade. Hand in hand with the new smart phone, I've set up a Square account to not only process credit cards but do it anywhere and anytime you need it. Upgraded Shipping Capabilities- I still intend to use USPS for the majority of orders, but by utilizing Stamps.com Black Bag Resources will be able to process and ship out orders quicker. That translates to reduced lead times and means you get your products in your hands sooner. Upgraded Internet Access- Again, this integrates with the smart phone, because Optimum provides me with WiFi access and reduces operating costs on mobile data. You guys know I don't just jump into things blind, so it's been a lot of research before settling on these products and services. The good news is this: As of today it is all up and running, ready to serve you better! I had a blast at the Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Convention. I met a bunch of cool people, met some folks already familiar with Black Bag Resources, gave away some goodies and prizes, saw awesome costumes, bought a ton of neat stuff, and generally geeked out. I have a bunch of people to thank: My friend/customer/contributing writer/camera guy and first time Con wing-man Matt Bell League of Hot Geeks Tommy Castillo and Sammy Castillo Eric "The Smoke" Moran Dale "That Gears Guy" Harvey FUBAR ZQCostume The Gotham Sirens: Han Pan, Lucid Cosplay, and Victoria Centeno Alliance LARP: Scott and Dee Kondrk Miguel Melendez: Thank you for the photos and continued support! Zombie Survival Crew For more photos, follow us on Facebook by clicking the link! Sorry, gang. There's no blog post today. We're off to the Wizard World Comic Convention in Philadelphia. I plan on meeting celebrities, checking in with the Zombie Survival Crew, scoping out some amazing costumes and cos-players, buying some art and t-shirts, and maybe picking up a comic or two. In short, we'll be letting the geek flag fly and having a blast! If I'm really lucky, I might get to torment Jarret "The Diffuser" Crippen like I did last year at the costume contest. (You can check out the videos from The League of Hot Geeks aka GeekpinEnt on Youtube...)
What does all this mean to you? I usually give away a few goodies at events like this. So if you're going to the Wizard World Comic Convention in Philadelphia on Saturday, here's what you'll need to do: Find the guy in the Black Bag Resources "Who's Watching Your Back?" T-shirt and introduce yourself! Just to see who is really paying attention- If you're one of the first 4 people to tell me, "Blue Shemaghs are cooler than any other color!" I'll hand one over on the spot. See you there! During a recent conversation with a gentleman I consider not just a client but also a friend, we turned to the topic of "prepping" or preparing for disasters. He's a smart guy, his family is on board with the process and he has a lot of his bases covered: a 3 month food supply, stored water, first aid and medical training, military experience, weapons and ammo and solid skills to use them, and more. I was surprised when he told me how worried he was about his family's situation and began describing what he felt were deficiencies in his preps and his plans. I'm going to paraphrase and elaborate on some of what I told him.
You must maintain a positive outlook. Do it now. Do it when things go bad. Understand that you can do it. Everyone involved in prepping does some war-gaming -a mental exercising of working your way through a disaster or other scenario- from time to time. If you do it often enough, you will eventually come up with a situation you are not ready for. (Let's see, I know if the power goes out for the night I have flashlights ready with fresh batteries I change every 6 months. If the power goes out for a week I have a plan to go stay with so-and-so because we've already discussed it. If the power goes out for a year and aliens invade with armies of radiation babies... What will I do?) It's the nature of the beast, you can't possibly be ready for every imaginable scenario. War-gaming is a good and fun exercise, but you need to focus on Threat Assessment- the reality of how likely you are to encounter a specific scenario- and prepare accordingly. (I know my area floods every few years and that knocks out power for up to a week. I'm going to set myself up for that. The flooding also has a habit of contaminating the water supply, so we'd better put back some stored water, too.) Don't get upset about the things you don't have or the skills you haven't learned. There are all kinds of cliche quotes that fit here: " Rome wasn't built in a day" or "The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." Here's my philosophy: Your preps should always make you feel better about your situation- not worse. If just today you came to the realization that you need to be better prepared for a situation, congratulations, you are doing better than you were yesterday. If you went out and bought a simple $1 first aid kit to keep handy, congratulations, you are doing better than you were yesterday. If you spent last Sunday learning how to make fire without matches, congratulations, you are doing better than you were and you should feel good about yourself! The process is continual. It's great to continue down that path and learn more and be ready for more situations. You'll also learn along the way that situations can and do overlap, and something you prepared for a year ago set you up pretty well for another scenario you're working on now. What you'll need to avoid is the paranoia of writers trying to sell books and retailers pushing the latest gizmo. They use fear to motivate you to part with your money. (Now before anyone throws a penalty flag at me: Yes, Black Bag Resources, LLC does retail merchandise. However, I will never pressure anyone to buy anything. I simply tell you what works for me- if you'd like to use the same item, I try to make it available to you.) You do need to re-examine your skills and preps from time to time. It's good to have someone else take a look, too. They may find something you missed. However, this is only good to the extent that it shows you what areas need improvement. When you identify them, work on them, but do not loose your positive attitude regarding your situation or your preps. Remember: Your preps should always make you feel better about your situation- not worse. We've been working on the company logo for a while and it hasn't quite come together. We're proud to announce that we have the nice folks from Hold Fast Stickers working on it and we expect to have a real logo within a few weeks. Obviously, Hold Fast Stickers will also fill our order for several different sized stickers once they finish the logo, so look for those to be added free to your upcoming orders.
We've held off on the 2012 Black Bag Resources T-shirts because we want them to have the new logo. We'll also be offering some other great products bearing our logo at very reasonable prices. In the mean time, we still have several 2011 Black Bag Resources T-shirts remaining in sizes Medium, Large and Extra-Large. (Sorry! Small, and XXL are all gone!) Thanks again to Hold Fast Stickers- We can't wait! (Click on their name or photo below to check them out!) Black Bag Resources received the first shipment from PALight today. We currently have Survival models in stock with black bodies and white LEDs. The first 6 orders will also include one red "signal cone" at no extra charge!
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Black Bag Resources Blog
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