Okay, before I start today I have to blather about something else. In general, I usually have to stall for time as most of my flashes of brilliance are so butt simple I could just write up a single short paragraph and be done with it. Alas, I’ve kind of set a precedence for long windedness and can’t stop now. I abuse all my readers ( you are an idiot! Buy bolt action guns and junk land now! ), ask them to do the impossible ( divorce the trophy whore! Take ten percent of your obscene wages and buy preps! ), and talk incessantly about the same crap ( blah, blah, bolt guns, wheat, junk land, blah, blah, blah ) so at the very least I can entertain you for a few minutes so that your pathetic and sad lives ( oh, wait, that’s mine we’re talking about ) will be momentarily brightened. In short ( see what I mean about long winded? ), my only claim to fame is having the longest survival
blog every day.*
I’m at the library, doing my usual browsing for something in book form to distract me from life in general, getting online so I can abuse myself ( and not in a good way ) with moderating comments since if I wait the whole weekend I have a million of the bastards on Monday morning, and I happen upon the free magazine rack. People pay thirty bucks a year to get a magazine that is 93 pages of slick paper ads surrounding 7 pages of light fluffy articles that someone stole from a Wikipedia article ( evidently they need a college Bachelors degree in journalism
that costs forty grand so as to land a job paying ten bucks an hour-hell, I get free research there and I didn’t even go to college. I’ve saved forty grand, get paid almost as much and I still get to work for a corporation that will soon be bankrupt ), they feel guilty they spent it since that’s taking Twinkies away fromShamoo 
the spouse, they try to recycle it but there is too much clay content, and finally in desperation they put it in the free magazine rack at the library. Then, some idiot such as myself, basking nostalgically in the notion of a product that was actually a quality item ten years ago, make the mistake thinking it would make a good read. Then they are stuck with the worthless garbage, a vicious grown up version of Tag where the loser dies in a house fire caused by too many stacks of periodicals. *
The magazines were “Forbes
”, that rag which I’ve mentioned previously. It used to be great, or at least my perceptions used to be more clouded, and now they are a mouth piece for the Central Bankers
. In the latest issue, they are blaming small businesses for the lack of loans. It seems that now they are so lean and mean ( read: so many layoffs have occurred that they can’t but help being more efficient, which means the payroll is declining quicker than lost business until lack of employees results in such poor performance all business is lost and they go bankrupt. Before idiots went into debt to go to college to become educated idiots, there was a common sense phrase-cutting off your nose to spite your face ) that there is plenty of cash just sitting on top of the CEO’s desk and thus no need for loans. Hence, it is the blame of those getting laid off that banks are in trouble. Let’s just ignore the whole “laid off workers don’t buy spit, more businesses close, leading to more layoffs, etc” vicious cycle. It is all about businesses failing to get into more debt, endangering banker profit since a quadrillion bucks in derivatives started to get unprofitable. Forbes, where you go to see how convoluted the logic can get as Steve blows Berneke.*
Okay, I think I’m warmed up enough for the main event. Our local dollar store, which I thought was in trouble as the shelves stayed bare for nearly a month, has been having LED lights in stock. For some reason I had thought they were a three store chain, but in fact they have two dozen, mostly in Idaho. So they should be able to buy in bulk quite nicely ( the name is Honk’s, BTW ). I’m not taking back my News Year forecast that they will be bankrupt by the end of the year, but the odds are now looking poor in my favor. Anyway, I can’t buy socks anymore for stockpiling as they are out, but I’ve been stocking up on $1 LED lights. They are a seven LED lamp
type, the lights at the end of a flexible neck and the three AA batteries in the base. These fit in well with my longer term lighting based on the small solar chargers
and rechargeable batteries ( my short term lighting is the large 15w panels and 12v marine batteries ). Assuming an all out nuclear war on top of the middle east oil fields tomorrow, and hoping my marine batteries are just starting a very long life of maximum yield, I might get a decade out of my RV lighting ( also assuming no one steals a panel ). Then, I should get twenty years at a minimum with my small batteries and portable LED’s. Regardless, I will be dead of old age before I have to revert to tallow candles for light. Well, okay, we all know I’ll be in the stew pot before then, but it is nice to dream. *
Just like the dollar worth of disposable razors lasting three years with a shaver blade sharpener
( the mirror in the plastic base which sharpens the disposables so you use them at least thirty times ), a dollar LED lamp is a cheap way to stock up on needed items for the rest of your life, cheaply. I’m assuming a high rate of failure and damage, and I still have enough LED’s to last forever. You are silly if you don’t stock up, as candles suck for lighting. And they can burn they McMansion down.END
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*
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14 comments:
Sorry, I should have said "longest survival blog written by one person".
.....I've been buying the $3 solar sidewalk lights; you can charge batteries for other purposes, or use them for indoor lighting when needed...
Bison: I lurk because you are a hoot and a half. I like the attitude. By the way, what is the forecast for meltdown? A week, a month, a year, a decade. Since I'm nearly 60 years old, I can't wait forever for the world to collapse.
Down here in south Texas, Dollar Generals and Family Dollars have greatly expanded their presence, but they don't sell such 'economy priced' items much anymore, maybe undercutting Wally World by 10%. Green Tree is our only remaining true dollar store, where items are truly $1, at least mostly.
Believe it or not, hard up against the Mexican border, the drug cartel violence is having an impact on our side. Spring Breakers, used to going to South Padre Island and visiting Mexico, are staying away, not all, but substantially. City economic councils too are hearing concerns about the violence, worried if building a business and moving down will eventually make them targets.
Some of our border cities post LEOs near the bridge ports of entry, and their presence there not only costs extra $$$, it reduces their presence on their usual beats, increasing burglarys and other petty crimes.
Those LEDs sound like a good deal - I need to get some of those solar lawn lights for eventual interior lighting if (when?) grid goes down.
And I forgot to add above, candles do suck for lighting, but at least can warm SMALL spaces in winter and can even heat small amounts of water for cooking. It kicks a$$ over LEDs in those regards.
You forgot to mention the most important accessory for a 15watt solar panel: a semi-automatic weapon to prevent it from being stolen ;D
Oh NO! Not another Bison LED blah blah blah. Your obsession with LED lighting is just plain sad.
Nyctophobia is treatable.Don't let fear rule your life,get help.
How about a film review? You haven't reviewed The Blue Lagoon yet.
How's the weather in Africa?
Many "civilizations share a sharp curve of decline. Indeed, a society's demise may begin only a decade or two after it reaches its peak population, wealth and power."
Now, Harvard's Niall Ferguson, one of the world's leading financial historians, echoes Diamond's warning: "Imperial collapse may come much more suddenly than many historians imagine. A combination of fiscal deficits and military overstretch suggests that the United States may be the next empire on the precipice."
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-rise-and-certain-fall-of-the-american-empire-2010-03-09
I picked up a 100 pack of tea light candles for $4 and a few holders for them that would be hard to burn the château down while using, total cost around $10.
They do suck for lighting, but by putting 4 on the desk in my bedroom I can raise the temp in my bedroom a few degrees before going to bed and they add a nice feel to things. I've noticed that when the world turns shitty I do like my little comforts. If the world turns REALLY SHITTY I plan to have more than a few little comforts stashed around.
Jim, what are the better styles of solar battery chargers? I still need to pickup one (or two) of those.
Ah shaving, a trick I use, that allows 40 to 50 shaves is to use hand soap, don't use shaving cream it "gums-up" the razor, liquid hand soap works the best.
The small chargers, for AA and D batts, I would just go with whatever brand. All made in Asia. The large 12v panels-crystal is better than thin film, but any is better than none. I've already told you the time line for the collapse- the first paycheck after my child support payments are done. Look for the world to end the end of august 2012 ( the Mayans were off by a few months ).
For AA battery solar battery charger, I'd give the Brunton Solarport 4 a look. More expensive I'll grant you, but as important as these will become, I think worth the price. If I HAD to bug out and leave the house for good, I'd want the heavy duty dude, rather than the cheap bulk item, but its your call. Look around the net, the price I paid for mine was about $50 less than Brunton's listed price. Free shipping too, as I recall.
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