[1attice]

So, for starters, you're going to need a place to live. It needs to be defensible, and it needs a water supply. Ideally, it needs a stockpile of food, for you and every member of your household.

This means that you're probably looking at buying land. As an alternative, consider a camper van, modulo certain upgrades to security, or even a boat.

Get a ham radio operator's license and get comfortable with the relevant tech stack. Critically, buy or make an antenna, as big and as high-up as possible. (Note: consider this if/when evaluating land)

Now, get some solar panels, a nice good old fashioned gas genny, and, since you're throwing down money, a fancy big-ass battery pack, all to support your radio gear.

Boom. Now you've got a thing that's socially useful that you can do (comms), which should allow you to exchange labor for food (say).

You relay messages from survivors to their loved ones and announcements from any remaining governing body. You help coordinate rescues and play a role in reducing human suffering, although of course, by this point, you're so numbed by the endless grind of monotonically-increasing misery that this sort of consideration seems to date from another era entirely, back when you felt good about eating vegan and sorting your recycling. But those years are gone.

Imagine worrying about what it is good to do. The luxury. The sotted luxury.

[windowshopping]

cy·no·sure /ˈsīnəˌSHo͝or/

noun - a person or thing that is the center of attention or admiration.

---

had to google that one

[thrownawaydad]

Definition 2 is interesting as well:

1. An object that serves as a focal point of attention and admiration.

2. Something that serves to guide. [French, Ursa Minor (which contains the guiding star Polaris), from Latin cynosūra, from Greek kunosoura, dog's tail, Ursa Minor : kunos, genitive of kuōn, dog; see kwon- in Indo-European roots + ourā, tail; see ors- in Indo-European roots.]

(from thefreedictionary.com)

Personally, I love learning the occasional new word. "sinecure" is useful, as is "copacetic".

[1attice]

now I feel bad about editing it away :D

That's the problem with 'fun', obscure words. No matter how good they sound, the piece overall sounds better without them --- an instance (by no means the only) of the well-worn truism 'kill your darlings'.

Thinking about this specific instance carefully. There's a sort of tipping point and if words are on the too-fancy side of it, they (as it were) cost too much to bring in a good return-on-investment.

Better to sort of moneyball the smaller words, getting them 'cheap', and in quantity, to produce whatever overall effect you like. Don't carve boulders, shape concrete.