Alright, welcome to season four of Inside My Canoe Head. I came in podcasts about individual emergency preparedness, rocking an incredible life, and learning to do the things to make yourself more self-reliant in a chaotic world. Sit back, grab a beverage, and take charge of your life. Welcome back to the Ottawa Studios of Inside My Canoe Head.
Listen, this is really funny. This morning, getting up, getting in my cup of coffee, trying to figure out life, the universe, and everything. You know, you unbleep yourself in the first thing that you do in the morning. And of course, everybody's got a different day than a routine, right?
So I get up, I get my coffee, I wipe the sweet out of my eyes, all that stuff, sit down, and my first task normally is, I get myself about a half an hour to enjoy that first cup of coffee, and I check my social media feeds, right? It's what a lot of us normally do. Well, I woke up this morning, and there was no internet. There's no internet on the phone, there's no internet on my computer, and by the way, the cell phone signals are down.
I can't text anybody, and basically, my little computer in my hand, AKA my smartphone, is now a paperweight. What does your world look like when you lose the internet? Let's talk. Yeah, so there you are.
You have no internet. Something, and it's really funny because this is, I mean, we talk about it in preparedness all the time, right? So it's called, in the army, it's called contingency planning. They do the same thing in emergency management.
You have a whole bunch of plans that are on the books for various different things. But so in the individual emergency preparedness world, you, in your daily mode of come of life, and how you challenge yourself and what you do, you have or should have, and we always recommend it on here on Inside Mike. And the new head is that you have these plans and strategies for when you lose important supports to your normal life. So we talk about what's your plan when the power goes out, right?
And that's a normal plan in today's world. But what about what do you intend to do when the internet's not available, right? In all seriousness, like the internet is down right now, in Canada, and it'll probably be up in a couple of hours. But it's just a little bit of a hint.
It's a little bit of a family and personal exercise as to what your world looks like when you don't have access to the internet. And we know the internet is so important. It originally was created by the US military as a way of having distributed communications ability in case of a nuclear attack. So they wanted the ability to be able to continue to have communications and operations and ability for all of their computer network to continually talk to each other in this distributed web mesh network, if you will, so that different Soviet strikes, depending on key nodes, could not take down the ability of the US military to exchange information and communicate.
Like all of the majority of our technologies in the modern world, it all comes out of some military research organization. And so here we have now it's grown through its decades to what we know it now and what we use it for now. But we use it in all aspects of our lives. So today we're going to talk about the personal, business, and the gig economy.
So first on your personal side, no internet. You probably communicate with the vast majority of human beings that you're interested in knowing about over the internet. So your social media platforms, you send text messages. So remember, today we're talking about the disruption of two distinct things.
One is the cellular network and one is the wired network. So if one is down, a lot of times you can go to the other one. So if the cell network is down, so the cell tower is down near you. For whatever reason, you can't access the internet with your smartphone.
If you're fortunate enough to have a desktop or a laptop, you can hop on that, stick in the ethernet, can able to join your own Wi-Fi because it's wired through some type of fiber or a cable optic. And you get access to the internet. And you're just a little bit frustrating. You have to use a computer and not your phone, but your life will carry on.
Today I'm talking about when both are gone. When you simply can't access the internet, you can't conduct your normal social operations. You can't chat with your friends. You can't chat with family.
It's hilarious because you have a lot of plans. Maybe you're a social animal and you have a whole bunch of plans to go out. And you're like, well, hold on a second here. I can't confirm I'm going or somebody can't confirm that they're going or we can't decide that we're going to cancel it because I literally can't talk to each other.
Because remember, I'm one of them. Some 15 years ago, I cut the cord with a home phone, right? When it's hardwired to a bell here in Canada, phone line. So when this system goes down, I can't pick up a phone and call anybody.
So if I had plans to meet somebody somewhere, I have no way of telling them whether I'm coming or not. Another interesting thing is that it's affecting the POS, the point of sales systems, which means all your electronic ability to tap, use Apple Pay, interact, credit cards, anything like that, it's not going to function as well. The point of sale machines on a lot of computers, at your retail stores or even at grocery stores, are connected to the internet because they talk. There's a whole background system there on their own logistics and supply chain management, right?
So the store doesn't know that you picked up a loaf of bread off of the shelf, right? So it still thinks that loaf of bread is there available ready for sale. When you ring it through the point of sale, that interacts with the logistics system to tell the store that, oops, we're down one loaf of bread. And at a certain level, it has a reorder buy.
Now with some commodities like bread, they're normally just brought in with regular amounts on contract, but a lot of other products are on a reorder buy or a rob. So when the stock level gets to a certain point falls down, it then triggers a purchase of a fixed amount of number. So when the sardine cans get to 20 on the total inventory at the store, it kicks a buy of 60, for example. And so when the internet's down, they can't do that.
And because a lot of the systems are connected to servers that run the corporate stores, basically you take the whole system offline. So I can't talk to anybody, but I also can't, unless I have cash, go out and buy. But a lot of times, they can't even accept cash because their point of sale system requires internet connection to work. So you can see very quickly from a personal perspective, you kind of feel a bit lost.
And I did this morning a bit like, well, what do I do? This is my morning routine. I am nowhere near awake enough to dive into one of my favorite books. Let's just go outside and enjoy some what now.
Let's do a podcast on what this looks like when your internet is down. Because it's a bit shocking. It really, really is. Because I'm sitting here recording this on a computer that is just basically a big box.
I mean, it turns on, but I can't connect to anything. So on your personal side, basically, you can't talk to any other human beings. How do you intend to move forward with that? In a bit of a serious note, think about this.
This is a great opportunity for you to reflect. How do you intend to continue communications with important people in your life when you no longer have access to the internet through wired or cellular services? Now, because of the value of it to society and it being one of the key parts of critical infrastructure, they'll get it up pretty soon and running. And because it's run by, thankfully, corporate Canada and not the government, there are three different companies.
So, somebody suggested this to me, and I thought it was brilliant. I didn't even think of this. So I'll give credit where credit is due. They have a family plan for their cell, but they have one member of their family whose plan is on a different company.
And this was their preparedness idea that if, like, I'm with Rogers, so this is a Rogers outlet, right? So Rogers is down, I can't do anything. Somebody, this individual who didn't want to be named, they have a separate phone on Bell, which means when Rogers goes down like today, one member of their family in their household still has access to the internet and the external world and can conduct communication. So that was one of their plans that they took forward in times of disruption that's run by corporations is to make sure that your family to the extent that you have the ability to do that has multiple corporate connections when it comes to your communications platform and your communications network.
Other than that, really, what's your plan? I mean, I have an in-reach satellite device that I use for backcountry camping. I don't keep it active and I can't activate it. I need the internet to activate it.
It's basic plan is $20 a month. So that would allow me for $20 a month to have all intents and purposes, satellite communications in my home 24-7. And so in the greatest extent of an emergency, I would be able to send text messages of 160 characters or so to people who are already predetermined on my phone list. So I would have to pay for it, sure, it's money, but I would have for $20 a month, I'd be able to have that permanent service.
Now it requires you to buy a $500 device. So trust me, this is not a frugal plan, but it is just another idea. So these are the ideas that on a personal side, I think you should take some time to think about, but in reality, let's be honest. The internet's going to come back.
Rogers is going to get it back up and running. If it was a hacked denial of service, you have other companies, but this is a small disruption, but it can be catastrophic. So let's talk about business. I run a small business from home on my computer.
Right now it's not working. I'm not posting to social media. I'm not answering clients questions. If I have an email from somebody looking to have a preparedness conversation, I don't know.
I mean, I just have to let that slide. And for a couple of hours disruptions, maybe it's a great time to have a cup of tea or a cup of coffee with your better half and to have an honest conversation about something. But when you run a business, this is catastrophic. You're offline.
You're offline due to know nothing you've done, but through circumstances beyond your control. And it's very difficult to set up a business network and then have it fed by two different internet companies. So you have redundancy. That's difficult to do.
So again, this is where my friend's idea works into the business where you have your business plan with a company, your internet landline for your company, and then you have your cell phone business plan with a different company. Again, it builds redundancy into your small business. It allows you to continue communications in some form when you have business disruptions. And if you have a business that relies on good, solid relationships with your clients, I mean, they're going to understand when the internet's down.
But if you're somebody who can fight through that and when everybody else is down, you're available to access and you can be there for your customer, that helps out your business profile a lot. So a lot of that is based upon the communications. But again, if you run a business that is like mine, 100% online has literally next to know if zero face to face or bricks and mortar presence, you have to build into your preparedness plan for your business business continuity plan, how you continue to access these services when your internet service provider is no longer available for use. Now we can yell and scream at what the different companies are.
And I know in the States, it's constant fight against Verizon and people, uh, hackling their different internet providers, but they're not available. So, so what are you going to do? I mean, this is the big question of preparedness. What is your plan when the internet's down for running your internet based business?
Now that can be, I'm just going to sit out and wait, but that's an active decision. Remember, deciding to do nothing and waiting it out is a decision. It is a course of action that has pros and cons. So as long your responsibility in situations like this is to simply have an answer to that question.
I can't tell you what the right answer is. I'm going to go. I'm in the process of switching over one of the phones in the house like my, uh, my friend, the brilliant individual came up with, uh, of having redundancy in service providers within your own close bonded social capital circle. So that's an important thing.
Now, you know, what if you work from home? What if you run a business from home that has a whole bunch of other things? And in, for example, um, you might have an office that you started working from home for your business, um, for, or for a corporation, shall we say, when the pandemic started and you've now come up with a really great relationship with your, with your corporate employer that allows you to work from home. Uh, now you can't work from home.
Well, that's probably good for you at bad for them. Uh, they'll understand it's a business access. You're going to be available whenever it pops up. That's your key to just make sure if Rogers comes back online at three o'clock in the afternoon that you're ready, willing and able to go at a gangbusters when that happens in the interim.
I mean, really, there's probably not a lot you can do. Sit back and join your couple hours off. Uh, read, uh, Peter Zion's book, the disunited nations and his new one, the end of the world is just the beginning so that you'll understand what the world looks like or, you know, you can, uh, wait till, um, end August when the, um, fast and frugal book comes out. That's my first book.
Uh, we're in the process of writing it right now. It is on fast and furious guide to preparedness. I think that's the title. It'll be something limited to that.
A short e-book, probably about 5,000 words, a couple of quick chapters. It's just basically about all the very rapid things that you can do with little to no money to switch your family around and preparedness. It's going to be out on both my Buy Me a Coffee website and Kobo reader. Uh, and the last thing I want to talk about is the gig economy.
So a lot of people work on the gig economy. I'm actually a huge fan of the gig economy. Uh, that's basically where you work contract to contract doing different thing. You go out and find customers and clients and you provide a service over the internet.
Uh, you have no guaranteed income other than your ability to secure and source contracts. Uh, it's a feast or famine world and it all requires internet access and a functioning computer. The reason I'm throwing the functioning computer is in right now, we're on week two of, uh, the gaming computer in my house, not working. So it's been a catastrophic system of failures from, uh, the blue screen of death with windows, the black screen of death of windows.
I've had it into two different computer shops. I'm now paying a guy a hundred bucks an hour to come to my house to try it to figure out what is wrong. Am I facing a hardware problem? Like it's a graphics card that's died or it's a motherboard that's died or am I facing a software problem that windows really is that bad?
Yes, I've tried the windows update. Yes, I have tried to reinstall windows from scratch, but when I reinstall windows from scratch, it has the very same set of errors. When I fix an error, I get a new error and I have spent days and days on end of lost productivity, sitting at a gaming computer, fixing each new blue screen of death. And every time I reinstall windows, it's a different set of issues.
So I have no idea what's wrong with it. Um, my computer dude is desperately trying to figure out what's wrong with the computer and is very looking close, like the junk pile, but it just tells you how much we have moved from the analog lifestyle that was prominent in the eighties and nineties. And just in 30 years, what humanity has done and moved on to the internet and the power of the internet and what it facilitates for humanity and for all of us to do. And if you're a gig economy worker, you know, if you're anywhere near capable on the internet, it's 60 grand a year, almost guaranteed income working from your coach.
And there's 150 series out there. I'm doing a YouTube video coming up in a week or so about how to start a business for free online and just to let it run with like two to three hours a day of social media marketing and about five hours and about five hours for somebody who really doesn't know anything to start it up online. So that video is going to come out all announce it when it does track our social medias. Uh, but basically, you know, we're in the gig economy to some degree or another, you, you're for your business in summit, your business requires you more than likely to use the internet.
I mean, even if you run a construction company that's nothing but a bunch of manual labor and machinery, it's all enabled and facilitated by masterful planning charts and processes and procedures that are backed up by CPAs and MBAs who have detailed computer programming and throw and try to build a skyscraper, uh, sorry, a skyscraper without the internet. It just doesn't happen. Right? So this thing is everything about our world now.
And so again, I'm going to leave you with this on this week's podcast, a 20 minute or so episode here today. What does your world look like without the internet? So if you lose the internet for a couple of hours, a couple of days, what's your plan? Do you even need a plan and a lot of people will say, I get the garden and read.
And that's great. But for a lot of other people, their ability to pay their daily bills is up to their need to access the internet. So is, is a great idea to have phone, you know, at least one phone in your family on an alternate source. If you need to get ahold of people at a moment's notice, maybe a landline is a good idea.
Um, there's all kinds of these different ideas out there. Think it's true. Come up with a plan for your family. I think it's an important thing.
It's part of our 12 step plan at Inside My New Head and a preparedness labs incorporated. That is the, in the second book, the first one we're writing is on fast and frugal. The second one is detailed and methodical. So it's going to be a much longer book and a much more detailed in depth, uh, family preparedness planning guide.
Uh, that's not coming out until probably November. Uh, I think the publisher and I think about November or December. But anyhow, that being said, that's, uh, that'll come up in the fullness of time. So take the time, figure out a plan for your, uh, family without the internet, you know, it's pretty interesting.
So thanks for joining us this week on, uh, Inside My New Head. Uh, we appreciate your ongoing support. Please go over and visit the website inside my canoe head.ca. Sign up for the newsletter.
We send it out every Saturday or Sunday morning. And it basically sums up what I want for the week. Some, uh, I tried to put some interesting ideas in there. Some interesting thoughts that you may not see on the mainstream and then talks about what's coming up in the following week from, uh, inside my canoe head and our parent company, uh, preparedness labs incorporated.
Um, thank you very much again to all the supporters. Feel free if you think this content is worth a little coffee, go over to buy me a coffee slash I am canoe head and, uh, and drop three bucks and buy me a coffee. I'd appreciate it. Listen, thank you very much.
Have yourself a great day. And for all those out there in Canada, I hope you're in it. It comes back soon. When it goes down again, I hope that preparedness plan you prepared is ready to go.
Take care, stay safe and enjoy the summer. As Jen Gerson says, this is probably going to be the last good one for some time.