The Zombie-Apocalpse Survival Project

I have a thing - obsession? maybe* - for zombies. That's not to say I love any awful zombie movie that comes along, but I think there are a lot of amazing stories out there in the genre. My absolute favorites though aren't movies, they're books by Max Brooks: The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. The guide is a little dry (it is basically a manual), but World War Z takes the familiar pandemic story in an interesting, smart direction. This isn't a book review blog so I won't go much further than to say just read it!

Anyway, there's a passage in World War Z that's been on my mind lately. Later in the book- spoiler alert, I guess?- once people have regained enough control to start rebuilding society, they realize most of the population has no useful skills. They had office jobs or retail jobs, sat at computers for 40 hrs a week and in front of the tv for the rest of the time. Even if they worked in manufacturing it was with complex machinery that is probably broken, or it was with some small part of the process- not the big picture.

I've been thinking more and more that while I do craft and make and create, I'm not that skilled in many basic, useful things. Like making my own clothes. Or really, cooking. I can get by but come on, I can't even make bread!

So I'm announcing my new project: The Zombie-Apocalypse Survival Project! (ZASP!) which will be broken down into a few sub-projects. For now, let's start with two:

• The Bread Project
  
• The Clothing Project
  

Look for future posts to delineate the specifics of each though you can get the picture by the names alone I'm sure. I wanted to include a The Garden Project, but it's not feasible in my current apartment situation.

ZASP! in general though isn't just really about zombie apocalypses, though that's probably what will motivate me most (kidding...maybe?). My job requires me to sit in front a computer for 40 hrs a week working on something fleeting, that appears on screens around the country but has no physical form. Crafting gets me working with my hands, but I often feel my projects are a little...impractical. That's not to say I'm going to stop making bottle cap earrings or other ridiculous things, but if I could balance those with something useful I'd feel better.

So what do you think? I'm kind of a novice in both of my projects so any suggestions or resources to start out with would be appreciated!

*...probably...definitely