GUEST ARTICLE
3 Ways to Self-Sufficiency
Life treats some people kinder than others, and while the unlucky ones may gripe and complain, there’s not much use in either of these actions. The best thing to do when adversity strikes is to strike right back at it, and the only way to do this is by being self-sufficient. So how do you go about doing that?
• By earning an education: If there’s one asset that appreciates over time, it is education. The more you learn, the more you know. And the more you know, the easier it is to be self-sufficient. By education, I don’t mean just a degree. Education refers to your all-round development; it is the process that shapes your mind and intellect and develops your knowledge; and it is the edge you hold over the competition. Education can be practical or theoretical or both, and its value lies in how you apply it to life and the way you live it.
• By being financially independent: Money talks, and if anything else talks too, money drowns out its sound. Although it’s a hard truth to digest, you cannot get anywhere in this world without money. So while it may not buy you happiness, it does a pretty good job of improving your life and making you independent. When you have a job that you love, when you don’t blow away your paycheck on trivialities, when you use credit cards responsibly, and when you save a portion of your income – that’s when you become financially independent. Even if you get married or find a partner, it’s best not to give up your financial independence because you never know what the future holds.
• By not expecting anything from anyone: Expectation is the root cause of disappointment, so when you don’t expect anything from anyone, life becomes happier and more satisfactory. You minimize heartache and pain and you’re able to appreciate people more. You’re grateful for all that you have rather than being disappointed and bitter for what you expected but did not get. And this improves the overall quality of your life.
There are times when we’re bound to let down our guard and depend on other people, but if we get used to this, it could turn out to be the cause of our downfall. So no matter how good relationships are, no matter how long you expect them to last, it’s always best to completely trust and rely on no one but yourself.
By-line
This article is contributed by Susan White, who regularly writes on the subject of Radiology Technician Schools in New York. She invites your questions, comments at her email address: susan.white33@gmail.com.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
crash course
CRASH COURSE
Okay, I just have to say that this week has been pretty relaxing. I’ve been able to slow down my reading to where I can enjoy and retain rather than skim for ideas. And my writing has been more relaxed. I have enjoyed it quite a bit. My fiction, well, I have serious doubts a full size novel is going to be hatched. I’m pretty sure I can do short fiction much better. What is that? Easily amused but quickly bored. I’ve gotten past the short story length but it won’t make it from novelette to novella. Look at the bright side, you won’t have to buy any books. I’ve taken last years “Bisonia” ( go to http://www.bisonia.blogspot.com/ if you want to read the original ) and fleshed out the characters Top and the Captain and added some details to the narration. It's just to the first battle, so I’m not sure if I’ll end it or add more chapters in the future. I was going to take the whole thing and double it for the novel but like I said, I don’t think that is going to happen. And I can’t keep you all waiting too long or your fickle butts will wander off. Go to the new blog http://www.bisonfiction.blogspot.com/ for it.
*
A huge Thank You to a very loyal minion ( Gary ) for the six books he sent. They are all ones I didn’t have, except The Long Emergency, but that one is worth having an extra copy. And Paul, I got your very generous donation. Thanks to you as well. I’ll put that towards the solar units to be constructed soon.
*
Crash Course
was recommended to me by a minion, and I’m glad that he did. I had no idea it was out there. I got it on DVD, but if I recall correctly it is available on U-Tube. Also, you can go to http://www.chrismartenson.com/ . It is three hours, so I thought watching it on TV was worth the seven or eight bucks. In short ( although you know I’ll get into the long of it soon ), think of this course as teaching you the expediential growth chart. That’s right, the dreaded Gore Hockey Stick From Hell. Gore, may his bloated and putrid flesh be assigned to all of eternity to that location ( as Tom Robbins
asked recently, quite correctly in my opinion, is Hell a dry heat or a humid heat- because if you think about it that would make all the difference in whether you wished to sin or not ). If I were the expediential chart, all fuzzy and cute and giggled over by adoring fans for both my longevity and my last minute star performance, I would be embarrassed as all get out that I was associated with a scare mongering Gore Warming attempt. “Well, as you know, when I’m not throwing elections for fun and profit, I enjoy sitting in my twenty three room mansion and burning all the natural gas that could have gone to keeping young infants warm in winter so I can rest up and think of what other falsehoods I can dazzle you with. And it is a sweet gig, I hardly even have to work hard at it, you idiots that are public school educated have no chance at all of detecting my insincerity”.
*
Don’t run away crying in anger and soiling your Joe Camel
boxer shorts. This course does mention Peak Oil
, and environmental degradation, but mostly it is about economics
. He ties the three together nicely, but 80% of it is economics. I know most of you are bound and determined to ignore me on Peak Oil, and quickly dismiss my logical panic attacks, so be assured that this course takes it nice and easy and doesn’t make any claims to pessimism. Throughout, he is calm and optimistic. I think he is a dumbass for that, but I understand you can’t expect to stampede the sheep herd and stay a successful businessman. I would rather panic now and look foolish later. If I’m ever right, I’m covered. If they stay the course, keep calm and cool and take the incremental approach and then happen to be wrong, they are dead. But I bring up the tone of the course to assure you that your friends and family can watch it without thinking you are a nut job. By focusing on economics, they might actually listen. By Gum!, their SUV and McMansion ( and Trophy Whore ) are on the line here!
*
Back to the exponential growth charts. Population, 2% a year ( or whatever it was ), a flat line until suddenly within a century it zooms up. US debt- slow and steady and then up like a rocket. Same with oil use. Now, if oil is responsible for the growth on the other two charts, what happens when oil goes down? And add to that the resource depletion graphs. Copper ore
has an upside down hockey stick, where recently we have seen a crash in the percentage of ore in the tons of rock mined. It used to take dozens of pounds of rock to give out one pound of copper ( if a pure nugget wasn’t on the surface, which obviously happened in the past ) and now it can take several hundred. This requires more energy to process. And coal. The tons of coal mined has grown steadily for decade after decade. But, ten years ago the amount of energy from all our mined coal has peaked. Peak Coal BTU’s has already happened. Peak Uranium
is thirty years old, and it fell off a cliff rather than slid down a slop. The continental US Peak Oil is forty years old, and at half the level as our peak even when the Gulf and Alaska is added. Next we come to our net energy for oil and other fuels. This is getting fun!
*
In 1930, we used one barrel of oil to pump 99 barrels out of the ground. In 1970, our net energy on oil was 25-1. We got twenty five times the energy used. Not great like 100-1 but not too shabby. Today, the average new oil well delivers a mere 3-1 net energy. Tar sands are 2-1 and ethanol is only 1and ½ to 1 ( which explains our willingness to use it as it isn‘t much of a loss net energy over new oil ). We might be pumping more but we are getting less energy for our troubles. But, as I said, no need to panic. This course is mostly economic. If you take it just on economic merits, this course should scare the crap out of you. Plainly, patiently, indisputably teach you how we are so screwed. He won’t say it, but you can connect the dots easily enough. That is the great thing about this course. It boils it all down to basics. It doesn’t lose itself in hysterics like you get from reading my articles. It will inform the total layman about all these issues, and it will add further neurosis to seasoned vets of this kind of study. Highly recommended.
END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
*
Guest article tomorrow.
Okay, I just have to say that this week has been pretty relaxing. I’ve been able to slow down my reading to where I can enjoy and retain rather than skim for ideas. And my writing has been more relaxed. I have enjoyed it quite a bit. My fiction, well, I have serious doubts a full size novel is going to be hatched. I’m pretty sure I can do short fiction much better. What is that? Easily amused but quickly bored. I’ve gotten past the short story length but it won’t make it from novelette to novella. Look at the bright side, you won’t have to buy any books. I’ve taken last years “Bisonia” ( go to http://www.bisonia.blogspot.com/ if you want to read the original ) and fleshed out the characters Top and the Captain and added some details to the narration. It's just to the first battle, so I’m not sure if I’ll end it or add more chapters in the future. I was going to take the whole thing and double it for the novel but like I said, I don’t think that is going to happen. And I can’t keep you all waiting too long or your fickle butts will wander off. Go to the new blog http://www.bisonfiction.blogspot.com/ for it.
*
A huge Thank You to a very loyal minion ( Gary ) for the six books he sent. They are all ones I didn’t have, except The Long Emergency, but that one is worth having an extra copy. And Paul, I got your very generous donation. Thanks to you as well. I’ll put that towards the solar units to be constructed soon.
*
Crash Course
was recommended to me by a minion, and I’m glad that he did. I had no idea it was out there. I got it on DVD, but if I recall correctly it is available on U-Tube. Also, you can go to http://www.chrismartenson.com/ . It is three hours, so I thought watching it on TV was worth the seven or eight bucks. In short ( although you know I’ll get into the long of it soon ), think of this course as teaching you the expediential growth chart. That’s right, the dreaded Gore Hockey Stick From Hell. Gore, may his bloated and putrid flesh be assigned to all of eternity to that location ( as Tom Robbins asked recently, quite correctly in my opinion, is Hell a dry heat or a humid heat- because if you think about it that would make all the difference in whether you wished to sin or not ). If I were the expediential chart, all fuzzy and cute and giggled over by adoring fans for both my longevity and my last minute star performance, I would be embarrassed as all get out that I was associated with a scare mongering Gore Warming attempt. “Well, as you know, when I’m not throwing elections for fun and profit, I enjoy sitting in my twenty three room mansion and burning all the natural gas that could have gone to keeping young infants warm in winter so I can rest up and think of what other falsehoods I can dazzle you with. And it is a sweet gig, I hardly even have to work hard at it, you idiots that are public school educated have no chance at all of detecting my insincerity”.*
Don’t run away crying in anger and soiling your Joe Camel
boxer shorts. This course does mention Peak Oil, and environmental degradation, but mostly it is about economics. He ties the three together nicely, but 80% of it is economics. I know most of you are bound and determined to ignore me on Peak Oil, and quickly dismiss my logical panic attacks, so be assured that this course takes it nice and easy and doesn’t make any claims to pessimism. Throughout, he is calm and optimistic. I think he is a dumbass for that, but I understand you can’t expect to stampede the sheep herd and stay a successful businessman. I would rather panic now and look foolish later. If I’m ever right, I’m covered. If they stay the course, keep calm and cool and take the incremental approach and then happen to be wrong, they are dead. But I bring up the tone of the course to assure you that your friends and family can watch it without thinking you are a nut job. By focusing on economics, they might actually listen. By Gum!, their SUV and McMansion ( and Trophy Whore ) are on the line here! *
Back to the exponential growth charts. Population, 2% a year ( or whatever it was ), a flat line until suddenly within a century it zooms up. US debt- slow and steady and then up like a rocket. Same with oil use. Now, if oil is responsible for the growth on the other two charts, what happens when oil goes down? And add to that the resource depletion graphs. Copper ore
has an upside down hockey stick, where recently we have seen a crash in the percentage of ore in the tons of rock mined. It used to take dozens of pounds of rock to give out one pound of copper ( if a pure nugget wasn’t on the surface, which obviously happened in the past ) and now it can take several hundred. This requires more energy to process. And coal. The tons of coal mined has grown steadily for decade after decade. But, ten years ago the amount of energy from all our mined coal has peaked. Peak Coal BTU’s has already happened. Peak Uranium is thirty years old, and it fell off a cliff rather than slid down a slop. The continental US Peak Oil is forty years old, and at half the level as our peak even when the Gulf and Alaska is added. Next we come to our net energy for oil and other fuels. This is getting fun!*
In 1930, we used one barrel of oil to pump 99 barrels out of the ground. In 1970, our net energy on oil was 25-1. We got twenty five times the energy used. Not great like 100-1 but not too shabby. Today, the average new oil well delivers a mere 3-1 net energy. Tar sands are 2-1 and ethanol is only 1and ½ to 1 ( which explains our willingness to use it as it isn‘t much of a loss net energy over new oil ). We might be pumping more but we are getting less energy for our troubles. But, as I said, no need to panic. This course is mostly economic. If you take it just on economic merits, this course should scare the crap out of you. Plainly, patiently, indisputably teach you how we are so screwed. He won’t say it, but you can connect the dots easily enough. That is the great thing about this course. It boils it all down to basics. It doesn’t lose itself in hysterics like you get from reading my articles. It will inform the total layman about all these issues, and it will add further neurosis to seasoned vets of this kind of study. Highly recommended.
END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
*
Guest article tomorrow.
Monday, March 22, 2010
one thing after another
ONE THING AFTER ANOTHER
I recently got done reading a post-Apocalypse novel, “Life As We Knew It
”. Now, as this is young adult fiction, and written by a fem, it isn’t your standard collapse story. You have to keep that in mind. There are no zombie bikers besieging a town to gain control of nearby farmland or black helicopters aerosol spraying Swine Flu and certainly no Joe Bob’s Bar & Road Kill Grill & Nasty Ho Brothel. Which of course is very unfortunate. But as long as you don’t go in expecting that, you should enjoy this novel. If there are no boobs or machinegun fire or explosions, and it is still a good read, you’ve found a rare bird indeed. The problem I find with most female writers is that they want to explore feelings. Adult males are allowed to show one emotion and that is anger. Blood lust, plain lust, pretty much compatible anger emotions ( or so the feminists would have us believe ). Just think about it a second. Two cavemen are defending the village. Do they stop and talk about their feelings? How they are tired of the hate and can’t we all just get along? Of course not. Jeez, talk about an evolutionary
dead end. They get pissed off and go kill the bastards. And afterwards they aren’t going to sit around and share their feeling about how unfortunate it was that due to fear they soiled themselves and how later they wake up from nightmares about how afraid they were. You can share those things, but it must be over alcohol and you must disguise it with vulgar humor or something similar. You don’t need a head shrinker 
to have you share your Mommy issues. Have you ever tried to read “Interview With A Vampire
”? Page after page of absolute drivel about the feelings of the undead. Vampires are cool, if not done in teenager soap opera fashion. But unless they want to violate or kill something I could care less about what they are feeling. The above book isn’t nearly as bad as most female authors in the touchy feely department. But it does take the form of a teenage female writing in her diary.
*
The story is about an asteroid hitting the moon and causing extreme weather on Earth. I hated the ending, which, after tsunamis and flooding hit the east coast still manage to have the Federales send relief food to the needy. Hereby saving the day. God, I almost vomited blood. It was just as bad as The Day After Tomorrow
. The whole continent suddenly freezes, but our super duper powerful and all knowing and benign central government that couldn’t save one ghettos worth of people in one hurricane suddenly sends a fleet of choppers to save a few kids and one low totem pole civil servant. That is about as realistic as a super model moving in with me and crapping in a bucket. Which is okay if it doesn’t happen since I’m not going to spend good money on food and then have some skinny ass bitch puke it up so it doesn’t go to her thighs. Newsflash
for husbands supporting trophy wives- the skinny ones are going to die first. And just think how nasty those fake boobs are going to look when the fool weigh 85 pounds. Anyway, despite all the negatives with this book, the one thing that I think made it worth reading ( and buying ) was that it did a masterful job of describing the process of one thing after another going wrong. One crisis hits, it is barely solved or adjusted for, and then something else goes wrong. Quite the roller coaster ride, and most likely a pretty realistic portrayal on your future.
*
The typical post-apocalypse
novel has the survivors battling to live, and then it seems that once that is done, they all live happily ever after. Somehow this doesn’t seem realistic. “Life…” was really good at describing the downwards staircase into doom and despair ( so perhaps it couldn’t have been written by a male since our typical response to a problem is to kill it ) as once one standard of living was abandoned and the adjustment for the worse was made, yet another worse problem came about. It was particularly good describing the long slow process of malnutrition 
as calories were slowly cut back continuously. Which made the ending all the more disappointing since it was unrealistic and a bit of a cop out. But, what can you do? I can’t say I could have done better. Is this the future we have in store for us? One problem after another, things never getting better but worse? One problem solved, not to our satisfaction but at least the full blown crisis averted and before long the process starts all over again? Hell, you should be getting a taste of that now as the Greatest Depression just gets slowly rolling faster and faster.
*
Your money buys less and less, so you are always adjusting downwards. You are a gerbil
running faster and faster on your wheel and the wheel goes slower and slower and you lose all your energy. But a fire is raging behind you and you have to run faster. Just like working for the modern corporation. Faster, quicker, now take a pay cut. Now give up your SUV, then your house. Oh, wait! You have junk land. No, just kidding. I know you are several months from living under a bridge in your Suburban. Sucker. But at least you have a wife and a flush toilet. Enjoy that while you can. Now, I’m not trying to undermine my waterfall theory of collapse. We are still going to tumble over violently soon enough. But it will be a downward adjustable journey there. And then afterwards. Have fun with that.
END
Next week: Review "Crash Course"
*
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
I recently got done reading a post-Apocalypse novel, “Life As We Knew It
”. Now, as this is young adult fiction, and written by a fem, it isn’t your standard collapse story. You have to keep that in mind. There are no zombie bikers besieging a town to gain control of nearby farmland or black helicopters aerosol spraying Swine Flu and certainly no Joe Bob’s Bar & Road Kill Grill & Nasty Ho Brothel. Which of course is very unfortunate. But as long as you don’t go in expecting that, you should enjoy this novel. If there are no boobs or machinegun fire or explosions, and it is still a good read, you’ve found a rare bird indeed. The problem I find with most female writers is that they want to explore feelings. Adult males are allowed to show one emotion and that is anger. Blood lust, plain lust, pretty much compatible anger emotions ( or so the feminists would have us believe ). Just think about it a second. Two cavemen are defending the village. Do they stop and talk about their feelings? How they are tired of the hate and can’t we all just get along? Of course not. Jeez, talk about an evolutionary dead end. They get pissed off and go kill the bastards. And afterwards they aren’t going to sit around and share their feeling about how unfortunate it was that due to fear they soiled themselves and how later they wake up from nightmares about how afraid they were. You can share those things, but it must be over alcohol and you must disguise it with vulgar humor or something similar. You don’t need a head shrinker to have you share your Mommy issues. Have you ever tried to read “Interview With A Vampire”? Page after page of absolute drivel about the feelings of the undead. Vampires are cool, if not done in teenager soap opera fashion. But unless they want to violate or kill something I could care less about what they are feeling. The above book isn’t nearly as bad as most female authors in the touchy feely department. But it does take the form of a teenage female writing in her diary.*
The story is about an asteroid hitting the moon and causing extreme weather on Earth. I hated the ending, which, after tsunamis and flooding hit the east coast still manage to have the Federales send relief food to the needy. Hereby saving the day. God, I almost vomited blood. It was just as bad as The Day After Tomorrow
. The whole continent suddenly freezes, but our super duper powerful and all knowing and benign central government that couldn’t save one ghettos worth of people in one hurricane suddenly sends a fleet of choppers to save a few kids and one low totem pole civil servant. That is about as realistic as a super model moving in with me and crapping in a bucket. Which is okay if it doesn’t happen since I’m not going to spend good money on food and then have some skinny ass bitch puke it up so it doesn’t go to her thighs. Newsflash for husbands supporting trophy wives- the skinny ones are going to die first. And just think how nasty those fake boobs are going to look when the fool weigh 85 pounds. Anyway, despite all the negatives with this book, the one thing that I think made it worth reading ( and buying ) was that it did a masterful job of describing the process of one thing after another going wrong. One crisis hits, it is barely solved or adjusted for, and then something else goes wrong. Quite the roller coaster ride, and most likely a pretty realistic portrayal on your future.*
The typical post-apocalypse
novel has the survivors battling to live, and then it seems that once that is done, they all live happily ever after. Somehow this doesn’t seem realistic. “Life…” was really good at describing the downwards staircase into doom and despair ( so perhaps it couldn’t have been written by a male since our typical response to a problem is to kill it ) as once one standard of living was abandoned and the adjustment for the worse was made, yet another worse problem came about. It was particularly good describing the long slow process of malnutrition as calories were slowly cut back continuously. Which made the ending all the more disappointing since it was unrealistic and a bit of a cop out. But, what can you do? I can’t say I could have done better. Is this the future we have in store for us? One problem after another, things never getting better but worse? One problem solved, not to our satisfaction but at least the full blown crisis averted and before long the process starts all over again? Hell, you should be getting a taste of that now as the Greatest Depression just gets slowly rolling faster and faster. *
Your money buys less and less, so you are always adjusting downwards. You are a gerbil
running faster and faster on your wheel and the wheel goes slower and slower and you lose all your energy. But a fire is raging behind you and you have to run faster. Just like working for the modern corporation. Faster, quicker, now take a pay cut. Now give up your SUV, then your house. Oh, wait! You have junk land. No, just kidding. I know you are several months from living under a bridge in your Suburban. Sucker. But at least you have a wife and a flush toilet. Enjoy that while you can. Now, I’m not trying to undermine my waterfall theory of collapse. We are still going to tumble over violently soon enough. But it will be a downward adjustable journey there. And then afterwards. Have fun with that.END
Next week: Review "Crash Course
"*
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
Friday, March 19, 2010
format change
FORMAT CHANGE
The Bison is going to a once a week format. There are many reasons for this, foremost among them that I’ve been rode hard
and put up wet. Three and a half years, over a thousand articles and over a million words if you include my e-books. It really chaps my ass with the grief I get for choosing to pursue an avocation rather than a paycheck, especially in light of the fact I’ve been putting in 70-80 hour workweeks almost that entire time. All for usually no more than $700 a month take home. I love writing, and I certainly won’t stop it. I’ll still write every day. I don’t know what form it will take. Hell, I don’t even know if I’ll stick to this once a week deal. I might go back to daily posts in a month or whatever. But it has taken over my life and I need to relax. Not because I work longer weeks than my critics. I don’t mind working. But for such a low paying activity I need to love what I’m doing.
*
I love writing about doom and gloom
, but I’m not sure if I’m keeping it fresh in the daily blog format. Do I go back to books? Will I be able to concentrate on fiction without the daily grind of the blog? I don’t know. I want to try something a little different. I feel like I’m writing The Simpson’s 
after twenty years and it is far from what it used to be. But I keep churning them out for the money. I don’t want to be that guy. The money isn’t even reliant on my talent but on the disposable income of my readers. I lost 60% of my monthly average income the last time the economy went into free fall. So even though I’m doing great right now, as soon as we attack Iran or mandatory health care goes in effect, my writing income takes a big squishy dump again. So why stick around just because ad revenues are currently high? In the long run it won’t help, and if I quit now and change things maybe it will strengthen in the future. Of course that is a crap shoot
, but as my legions of troll can tell you since I live in Nevada I love to gamble and molest sheep.
*
I want to go to fiction, because if we are honest with ourselves we will admit even with a tight budget we will still seek escapism
. That is more assured of an income than writing non-fiction telling people they are going to die. But if I’m not happy writing fiction, I won’t do it. First and foremost this must be me doing what I enjoy. If I do that, the work is higher quality and the reader benefits. It’s all up in the air right now, I have to grope around a bit. I will stop posting comments that are nothing more than personal attacks. But I’ll also stop posting those that tell me what I wonderful person I am. Comment on the subject matter at hand, please. And I make no guarantees that a once a week article is going to be any longer or better than what I’ve been churning out. The whole point here is to free up my time for other writing. This coming Monday’s was already written and I don’t think it is all that good. It is a thousand words of drivel, I claim nothing more.
*
Why don’t I just stop the blog altogether? Because if I do that everyone drifts away and forgets about me. Then I have no readers for any future work. And I think that if I refocus on something that will once again interest me, that will once again kindle that spark, that I wake up excited about instead of having mixed feelings of dread along with the thrill of writing, then you will get a better product. So please stick with me, keep tuning in Monday mornings as I keep you informed of progress. I know 90% of you are true loyal minions, and I am sorry when the minority of trolls
put me in a foul mood and you suffered. That was my fault for letting it get to me. Hey, I might be close to perfect but I’m still not there yet.
END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
The Bison is going to a once a week format. There are many reasons for this, foremost among them that I’ve been rode hard
and put up wet. Three and a half years, over a thousand articles and over a million words if you include my e-books. It really chaps my ass with the grief I get for choosing to pursue an avocation rather than a paycheck, especially in light of the fact I’ve been putting in 70-80 hour workweeks almost that entire time. All for usually no more than $700 a month take home. I love writing, and I certainly won’t stop it. I’ll still write every day. I don’t know what form it will take. Hell, I don’t even know if I’ll stick to this once a week deal. I might go back to daily posts in a month or whatever. But it has taken over my life and I need to relax. Not because I work longer weeks than my critics. I don’t mind working. But for such a low paying activity I need to love what I’m doing. *
I love writing about doom and gloom
, but I’m not sure if I’m keeping it fresh in the daily blog format. Do I go back to books? Will I be able to concentrate on fiction without the daily grind of the blog? I don’t know. I want to try something a little different. I feel like I’m writing The Simpson’s after twenty years and it is far from what it used to be. But I keep churning them out for the money. I don’t want to be that guy. The money isn’t even reliant on my talent but on the disposable income of my readers. I lost 60% of my monthly average income the last time the economy went into free fall. So even though I’m doing great right now, as soon as we attack Iran or mandatory health care goes in effect, my writing income takes a big squishy dump again. So why stick around just because ad revenues are currently high? In the long run it won’t help, and if I quit now and change things maybe it will strengthen in the future. Of course that is a crap shoot, but as my legions of troll can tell you since I live in Nevada I love to gamble and molest sheep. *
I want to go to fiction, because if we are honest with ourselves we will admit even with a tight budget we will still seek escapism
. That is more assured of an income than writing non-fiction telling people they are going to die. But if I’m not happy writing fiction, I won’t do it. First and foremost this must be me doing what I enjoy. If I do that, the work is higher quality and the reader benefits. It’s all up in the air right now, I have to grope around a bit. I will stop posting comments that are nothing more than personal attacks. But I’ll also stop posting those that tell me what I wonderful person I am. Comment on the subject matter at hand, please. And I make no guarantees that a once a week article is going to be any longer or better than what I’ve been churning out. The whole point here is to free up my time for other writing. This coming Monday’s was already written and I don’t think it is all that good. It is a thousand words of drivel, I claim nothing more.*
Why don’t I just stop the blog altogether? Because if I do that everyone drifts away and forgets about me. Then I have no readers for any future work. And I think that if I refocus on something that will once again interest me, that will once again kindle that spark, that I wake up excited about instead of having mixed feelings of dread along with the thrill of writing, then you will get a better product. So please stick with me, keep tuning in Monday mornings as I keep you informed of progress. I know 90% of you are true loyal minions, and I am sorry when the minority of trolls
put me in a foul mood and you suffered. That was my fault for letting it get to me. Hey, I might be close to perfect but I’m still not there yet. END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
here for my health
HERE FOR MY HEALTH
Before we start today I have to apologize profusely, fall to my knees and plead and whine for forgiveness. You know I won’t sleep tonight if you deny me. As you know, whenever someone tries to pressure me and wants a timeline for collapse
, the only answer I have for them is that the first payday after my child support is finished the economy will collapse completely. The reason for this is surely quite evident. The Gods are not satisfied that I should ever fully enjoy the fruits of my labors
. I’m not talking about taxation. Just keeping 80% would feel like a victory to me. But I understand. How am I expected to have the fully developed character necessary to slay the vast legions of marauding Californians if I spend my life wallowing in luxury, wealth and decadence
? Anyway, I had given the wrong date for the event, I believe August. That was my bad and I apologize. My sons birthday is in August but he will graduate the first week of June, 2012. So expect the collapse right around mid June of that year. You have been warned.
*
Generally when a loyal minion leaves an incredible comment, so utterly astounding that for a second my heart stops and I gaze at it with sightless eyes, the moisture drying due to lack of blinking, I feel a bit bad for them and while that doesn’t stop me from being all snide and hurtful I at least just paraphrase them and try to save them embarrassment from everyone else in the classroom. Well, it is Monday and I’m not feeling that nice, so here is the quote, “So what do you want us to do? Run screaming down the street crying. I’m for the idea that some smart person well come up with something to replace oil. Desperate times breed innovation. RW” Okay, I actually don’t intend any disrespect here. It isn’t exactly a stupid statement. Modern history does reinforce it. But it does provide today’s article, for which I am grateful. Okay, granted, the statement does seem a little odd on a survivalist
blog. Aren’t we supposed to panic about everything, then take steps to limit our exposure to it? Isn’t that what survivalism/prepping is all about? So I think it is just saying, why worry about Peak Oil if some other energy comes along? Let’s worry about Yellowstone or Great Depression Two or whatever. I can understand that since we all have our favorite Doomsday
scenario. My favorite is of course Peak Oil
. But I could be wrong. I don’t mind being wrong. In fact I would welcome it. It doesn’t matter if I’m wrong because your preps won’t go to waste. If you plan for total grid down and nothing happens, you are still prepared for economic collapse or space alien invasion. If you have enough grain for civilization collapsing and all we get is an outbreak of UG99 wheat rust
, you still come out ahead of the game. Look, I’m not here for my health. I’m writing because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that being prepared is an absolute necessity. The form of collapse or calamity is secondary. Granted, you need direction for your planning which can only be provided by affixing the proper lens to your outlook, but being right isn’t necessary as long as you are prepared for the unexpected.
*
Let’s just say for a second that something like the mining of natural gas hydrates comes along to save us from Peak Oil. I don’t know enough about it to say one way or another. I do know it causes quite a bit of concern amongst the Gaia
Huggers. Something about the process getting away from us and releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gases which inject a nitro blast of fuel into the Gore 
Warming process. Of course, even if that is true which you can’t say for certain since the idiots have fouled their own nest by continuously over hyping dangers of everything from aerosol cans to cow crap, that won’t stop the powers that be from using the fuel. They have too much ridding on the status quo
, namely their own comfort and bank account. If a few billion people die they will think nothing of it. Better for them, so they can go back to dinning on seafood without worrying about Somali pirates catching their fair share to avoid protein deficiencies. But lets assume the hydrates are successfully captured and we don’t all die in the process ( frankly, I can’t think of anything else that will replace oil and still stay close to providing our current level of comfort or riches ). Even then, there are still plenty of threats to us from overpopulation, asteroid impact
, super volcanoes
. Or, just assume the current economic collapse
never stops. Surely we can agree that this is all reality and no apocalypse fantasy.
*
There is every reason to think bad times are just ahead. It doesn’t have to be Peak Oil. But by assuming Peak Oil is a reality and preparing for no cars or electric power, you are prepared for other calamities such as being reduced to living in a crime ridden Third World country. Being right doesn’t matter as much as being prepared for…whatever.
END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
Before we start today I have to apologize profusely, fall to my knees and plead and whine for forgiveness. You know I won’t sleep tonight if you deny me. As you know, whenever someone tries to pressure me and wants a timeline for collapse
, the only answer I have for them is that the first payday after my child support is finished the economy will collapse completely. The reason for this is surely quite evident. The Gods are not satisfied that I should ever fully enjoy the fruits of my labors. I’m not talking about taxation. Just keeping 80% would feel like a victory to me. But I understand. How am I expected to have the fully developed character necessary to slay the vast legions of marauding Californians if I spend my life wallowing in luxury, wealth and decadence? Anyway, I had given the wrong date for the event, I believe August. That was my bad and I apologize. My sons birthday is in August but he will graduate the first week of June, 2012. So expect the collapse right around mid June of that year. You have been warned.*
Generally when a loyal minion leaves an incredible comment, so utterly astounding that for a second my heart stops and I gaze at it with sightless eyes, the moisture drying due to lack of blinking, I feel a bit bad for them and while that doesn’t stop me from being all snide and hurtful I at least just paraphrase them and try to save them embarrassment from everyone else in the classroom. Well, it is Monday and I’m not feeling that nice, so here is the quote, “So what do you want us to do? Run screaming down the street crying. I’m for the idea that some smart person well come up with something to replace oil. Desperate times breed innovation. RW” Okay, I actually don’t intend any disrespect here. It isn’t exactly a stupid statement. Modern history does reinforce it. But it does provide today’s article, for which I am grateful. Okay, granted, the statement does seem a little odd on a survivalist
blog. Aren’t we supposed to panic about everything, then take steps to limit our exposure to it? Isn’t that what survivalism/prepping is all about? So I think it is just saying, why worry about Peak Oil if some other energy comes along? Let’s worry about Yellowstone or Great Depression Two or whatever. I can understand that since we all have our favorite Doomsday scenario. My favorite is of course Peak Oil. But I could be wrong. I don’t mind being wrong. In fact I would welcome it. It doesn’t matter if I’m wrong because your preps won’t go to waste. If you plan for total grid down and nothing happens, you are still prepared for economic collapse or space alien invasion. If you have enough grain for civilization collapsing and all we get is an outbreak of UG99 wheat rust, you still come out ahead of the game. Look, I’m not here for my health. I’m writing because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that being prepared is an absolute necessity. The form of collapse or calamity is secondary. Granted, you need direction for your planning which can only be provided by affixing the proper lens to your outlook, but being right isn’t necessary as long as you are prepared for the unexpected. *
Let’s just say for a second that something like the mining of natural gas hydrates comes along to save us from Peak Oil. I don’t know enough about it to say one way or another. I do know it causes quite a bit of concern amongst the Gaia
Huggers. Something about the process getting away from us and releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gases which inject a nitro blast of fuel into the Gore Warming process. Of course, even if that is true which you can’t say for certain since the idiots have fouled their own nest by continuously over hyping dangers of everything from aerosol cans to cow crap, that won’t stop the powers that be from using the fuel. They have too much ridding on the status quo, namely their own comfort and bank account. If a few billion people die they will think nothing of it. Better for them, so they can go back to dinning on seafood without worrying about Somali pirates catching their fair share to avoid protein deficiencies. But lets assume the hydrates are successfully captured and we don’t all die in the process ( frankly, I can’t think of anything else that will replace oil and still stay close to providing our current level of comfort or riches ). Even then, there are still plenty of threats to us from overpopulation, asteroid impact, super volcanoes. Or, just assume the current economic collapse never stops. Surely we can agree that this is all reality and no apocalypse fantasy. *
There is every reason to think bad times are just ahead. It doesn’t have to be Peak Oil. But by assuming Peak Oil is a reality and preparing for no cars or electric power, you are prepared for other calamities such as being reduced to living in a crime ridden Third World country. Being right doesn’t matter as much as being prepared for…whatever.
END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
dakota hole
DAKOTA HOLE
I would like to thank Vlad, a long time loyal minion who’s been with me since I was squatting in the middle of the primordial ooze
of Florida desperately swatting at my keyboard trying to sound as wise and grand as I now am, for bringing up the concept of the Dakota Hole. It is so friggin simple and wonderful that it fits right in with all the other butt simple ideas I’ve been assembling at the Bison Compound
, laboring mightily day and night to provide you with all the tools you need to inexpensively survive being put into the stewpot. Vlad, I stand before you humbled for not embracing the well known concept before. Thank you for bringing it up, as it solves yet another otherwise expensive problem. You see, this is what I’m talking about. When you get as ancient and decrepit as Vlad, practically older than dirt, as long as your mind is still being exercised you are a valuable asset to society. Okay, I don’t care as long as you are a valued asset to Bison, but society can get a free ride. I don’t hate old people. Hell, I’m not that far off from being one. I have parents I love dearly, and let me tell you they are pretty damn old. No, I just hate Old People Welfare. I’m not saying that they were not mislead and lied to, essentially believing they were doing no harm by counting and planning on Social Security. I don’t see why they should get a free ride and that younger generations must be continually screwed to provide that. I’m all for means testing so that the truly needful ones get assistance and the ones using tax money to golf in Arizona have to give it up. But all that doesn’t matter because the entire welfare system is going to crash, from starving seniors that have no other means of income to quadriplegics from Iraq that deserve our support for fighting ( it doesn’t really matter that the cause is unjust, the individual sacrifice must be acknowledged ) to outright lazy undeserving double or triple dippers that never worked an honest job in their lives. Good and bad, deserving or cheats, they are all going to lose government assistance. That is 100% guaranteed, and you can hate me for hating the system and blame me for not working three jobs to pay 90% taxes to support you, or you can take steps now to insulate yourself.
*
I have had more than one person ask me why I haven’t started raising livestock to prepare for herding and a nomadic existence. Perhaps it escapes their notice that it gets pretty friggin cold here in the Great Basin
, five thousand feet elevation, and other than a few weeks when it scrapes up against the forties mark it pretty much stays winter here for six months. Keeping animals in place means shelter ( since you can’t take them to a warmer area ) and since they don’t move you need to buy them feed. And then you have to haul in water. So they’ve obviously not been listening too well as I moan and complain about paying the Ex-Wife Welfare Tax. My kids aren’t starving. I put the dear thing through school to be a pilot and she makes thirty grand a year. And the new husband provided the house so there is no rent to pay. But, since I am a male and have been cursed from birth by having a penis I am suspect and guilty and must be made to suffer, so I pay the Ex-Wife Tariff. I know you don’t care. The guys are saying, well, gee, I keep my trophy wife
and just sign over my check to her and the ladies are saying, gee, it is never the females fault for getting pregnant because who ever heard of birth control so you are guilty and deserve to pay up to 65% of your gross income you gross disgusting penis person. I won’t argue with you. Let’s just say for the sake of argument that I am an asshole and deserve punishment. But that still does not change the fact that I am bringing home very little money. Yes, I choose to earn less both because I want to focus on writing rather than a paycheck and because I think I’ve had enough stress over work in my life. Quality of life is important, and those dollars you make aren’t worth very much anyway. And, let’s not forget that the more I make on paper the less I take home in pay. I’ve made almost twenty grand a year and brought home four hundred dollars a month. I’ve done the math, so please keep your knee jerk reactions
to yourself. You benefit directly because I am forced to do everything frugally, so just be thankful for that. I’m an asshole, fine, but one who can teach you a thing or two about living on very little.
*
I’ve also had people ask me when I’m going to build a rocket stove
. Granted, I’ve been in little hurry. I’ve always been one to brood over problems for quite some time. The more I think on a problem the better solution I come up with. By the time I figured out it was time to move off grid I had most of the problems figured out and theory to practice went very smoothly. Every time I make a decision too hastily I spend too much money. I keep telling people I don’t work well under pressure, but they ignore me and pretend that all forceful and unquestioned decisions are proper and just. Isn’t it the Marines who say, even if it’s wrong do something? On the battlefield, that probably works great. At work, it presents the illusion of power and greatness but I think in the end it can also waste a lot of money. Not all ways of doing things are the proper tool for the job. Some things are better with quick and decisive action and others require more thought. I’ll stick to more thought. That works much better for me. Do you think the Jim Washer was easy to come up with? Or the improvised French press coffee maker? I’ve been brooding over improvised heat
for a time, as I’ve been unwilling to spend money on the problem. The rocket stove
is simple enough, easy enough and inexpensive enough. Just Google it to find dozens of designs, a lot of them from Third World peasants that spend less in a month than you do at one stop to Starbucks. The problem is that shoring up the floor for the weight, putting in fireproofing and installing a chimney are the expensive parts.
*
I knew I needed a stove. I might have little wood here other than sage brush, but you need to cook and take off the edge in your shelter after its been cloudy and twenty degrees for a week. But I didn’t want to waste too much money. Well, I know that the Dakota Hole has been brought up before but it never meet my needs at the time. Now it has fallen on fertile ground. If I’m going to construct an underground shelter
the Dakota Hole is perfect. Just dig two holes in the floor ( like such [ / , feeding the sticks into the / with the pot on top of the [ slightly elevated by stones or a iron grate to draw the air through ). No cost, other than a smoke hole and an air intake pipe. Not that I'll use it regularly until propane is unavailable, but it will be a viable option. I’ve been in this particular trailer for three years now and it fits like a worn in shoe. But it is still cold in here. It’s Sunday afternoon and thirty eight outside. For the first time in four days the sun is out so at least it is fifty eight inside. But I started out at thirty two on the inside so I’m still wearing two sweaters, two caps and a robe. And even with two wool socks
my feet are still cold. I don’t want to stay this cold six months a year too much longer. A twenty year old might have the metabolism and circulation to deal with that but it grows weary on me in middle age. By not being willing to spend the money on a stove for the trailer, this will force my hand into moving out of it. My feet will stay warm. You see, great things happen when you are such a tight wad that you don’t buy the “necessities”. You improvise, overcome and do without. I’ve been doing without and overcoming. Time to improvise a stove.
END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
I would like to thank Vlad, a long time loyal minion who’s been with me since I was squatting in the middle of the primordial ooze
of Florida desperately swatting at my keyboard trying to sound as wise and grand as I now am, for bringing up the concept of the Dakota Hole. It is so friggin simple and wonderful that it fits right in with all the other butt simple ideas I’ve been assembling at the Bison Compound, laboring mightily day and night to provide you with all the tools you need to inexpensively survive being put into the stewpot. Vlad, I stand before you humbled for not embracing the well known concept before. Thank you for bringing it up, as it solves yet another otherwise expensive problem. You see, this is what I’m talking about. When you get as ancient and decrepit as Vlad, practically older than dirt, as long as your mind is still being exercised you are a valuable asset to society. Okay, I don’t care as long as you are a valued asset to Bison, but society can get a free ride. I don’t hate old people. Hell, I’m not that far off from being one. I have parents I love dearly, and let me tell you they are pretty damn old. No, I just hate Old People Welfare. I’m not saying that they were not mislead and lied to, essentially believing they were doing no harm by counting and planning on Social Security. I don’t see why they should get a free ride and that younger generations must be continually screwed to provide that. I’m all for means testing so that the truly needful ones get assistance and the ones using tax money to golf in Arizona have to give it up. But all that doesn’t matter because the entire welfare system is going to crash, from starving seniors that have no other means of income to quadriplegics from Iraq that deserve our support for fighting ( it doesn’t really matter that the cause is unjust, the individual sacrifice must be acknowledged ) to outright lazy undeserving double or triple dippers that never worked an honest job in their lives. Good and bad, deserving or cheats, they are all going to lose government assistance. That is 100% guaranteed, and you can hate me for hating the system and blame me for not working three jobs to pay 90% taxes to support you, or you can take steps now to insulate yourself. *
I have had more than one person ask me why I haven’t started raising livestock to prepare for herding and a nomadic existence. Perhaps it escapes their notice that it gets pretty friggin cold here in the Great Basin
, five thousand feet elevation, and other than a few weeks when it scrapes up against the forties mark it pretty much stays winter here for six months. Keeping animals in place means shelter ( since you can’t take them to a warmer area ) and since they don’t move you need to buy them feed. And then you have to haul in water. So they’ve obviously not been listening too well as I moan and complain about paying the Ex-Wife Welfare Tax. My kids aren’t starving. I put the dear thing through school to be a pilot and she makes thirty grand a year. And the new husband provided the house so there is no rent to pay. But, since I am a male and have been cursed from birth by having a penis I am suspect and guilty and must be made to suffer, so I pay the Ex-Wife Tariff. I know you don’t care. The guys are saying, well, gee, I keep my trophy wife and just sign over my check to her and the ladies are saying, gee, it is never the females fault for getting pregnant because who ever heard of birth control so you are guilty and deserve to pay up to 65% of your gross income you gross disgusting penis person. I won’t argue with you. Let’s just say for the sake of argument that I am an asshole and deserve punishment. But that still does not change the fact that I am bringing home very little money. Yes, I choose to earn less both because I want to focus on writing rather than a paycheck and because I think I’ve had enough stress over work in my life. Quality of life is important, and those dollars you make aren’t worth very much anyway. And, let’s not forget that the more I make on paper the less I take home in pay. I’ve made almost twenty grand a year and brought home four hundred dollars a month. I’ve done the math, so please keep your knee jerk reactions to yourself. You benefit directly because I am forced to do everything frugally, so just be thankful for that. I’m an asshole, fine, but one who can teach you a thing or two about living on very little.*
I’ve also had people ask me when I’m going to build a rocket stove
. Granted, I’ve been in little hurry. I’ve always been one to brood over problems for quite some time. The more I think on a problem the better solution I come up with. By the time I figured out it was time to move off grid I had most of the problems figured out and theory to practice went very smoothly. Every time I make a decision too hastily I spend too much money. I keep telling people I don’t work well under pressure, but they ignore me and pretend that all forceful and unquestioned decisions are proper and just. Isn’t it the Marines who say, even if it’s wrong do something? On the battlefield, that probably works great. At work, it presents the illusion of power and greatness but I think in the end it can also waste a lot of money. Not all ways of doing things are the proper tool for the job. Some things are better with quick and decisive action and others require more thought. I’ll stick to more thought. That works much better for me. Do you think the Jim Washer was easy to come up with? Or the improvised French press coffee maker? I’ve been brooding over improvised heat for a time, as I’ve been unwilling to spend money on the problem. The rocket stove is simple enough, easy enough and inexpensive enough. Just Google it to find dozens of designs, a lot of them from Third World peasants that spend less in a month than you do at one stop to Starbucks. The problem is that shoring up the floor for the weight, putting in fireproofing and installing a chimney are the expensive parts. *
I knew I needed a stove. I might have little wood here other than sage brush, but you need to cook and take off the edge in your shelter after its been cloudy and twenty degrees for a week. But I didn’t want to waste too much money. Well, I know that the Dakota Hole has been brought up before but it never meet my needs at the time. Now it has fallen on fertile ground. If I’m going to construct an underground shelter
the Dakota Hole is perfect. Just dig two holes in the floor ( like such [ / , feeding the sticks into the / with the pot on top of the [ slightly elevated by stones or a iron grate to draw the air through ). No cost, other than a smoke hole and an air intake pipe. Not that I'll use it regularly until propane is unavailable, but it will be a viable option. I’ve been in this particular trailer for three years now and it fits like a worn in shoe. But it is still cold in here. It’s Sunday afternoon and thirty eight outside. For the first time in four days the sun is out so at least it is fifty eight inside. But I started out at thirty two on the inside so I’m still wearing two sweaters, two caps and a robe. And even with two wool socks my feet are still cold. I don’t want to stay this cold six months a year too much longer. A twenty year old might have the metabolism and circulation to deal with that but it grows weary on me in middle age. By not being willing to spend the money on a stove for the trailer, this will force my hand into moving out of it. My feet will stay warm. You see, great things happen when you are such a tight wad that you don’t buy the “necessities”. You improvise, overcome and do without. I’ve been doing without and overcoming. Time to improvise a stove. END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
consuming hope
CONSUMING HOPE
Some people spend the time between the last of winter when Mother Nature
, who I have repeatedly stipulated is a syphilitic whore, perhaps not quite satisfied that all of us have emerged into another season without the loss of more digits to frostbite, gives us one last big storm to remember her by and the time when we finally dry out and the mold doesn’t freeze and small biting insects start trying to burrow into our skin, dreaming of how they are going to plant their garden. Me, I don’t think buying a big water tank for my truck and hauling water into a garden or spending at least three grand on drilling a well, and another thousand in a generator or more panels is that great of an idea. So I use the last of the winter to dream about constructing the first of my solar projects. And speaking of winter, it snows today and tonight we are setting the clocks ahead already? Was it Bush Junior, the retarded flamer, that thought this was a great idea? Anyway, I plan on building a few cookers and a water heater, perhaps a dryer. I don’t think it will cost but twenty or thirty bucks each, and that is with new glass and insulation. But my big project is going to be my Hobbit
Hovel. A covered pit, basically ( I plan on propane disappearing next winter, but I’ll be pleasantly surprised when/if it doesn’t ). So I’m at Home Depot looking at the poly sheet prices. I figure, okay, I’ve always avoided these kinds of places so let me turn a new leaf and wander around and browse rather than get out as quick as possible. I found a good deal on LED flashlights
which of course I had to buy. Not that I’ll ever have enough. And I noticed the prices on their five gallon buckets.
*
Now, pardon the crap out of me if I’m not telling you anything new here. Like I said, I hardly ever go into Gum And Glue Mortgage Monstrosity Patch Kit Stores. Where the truly hopeless spend all of MasterCard’s money trying to recover from an underwater home equity
. But, not to rub too much salt into your wound even though I told you years before the bubble burst that mortgages were a very bad idea, this is about the low cost of Home Depot five gallon buckets. Less than half the cost of the Wal-Mart paint buckets with lid. Over seven bucks at Wal-Mart and three and a third at Home Depot. Three for ten bucks. So instead of spending $20 per hundred pounds of grain for storage you only need to spend $10. If you are putting 400 pounds of wheat by, you have just saved yourself enough to buy almost half a sardine can of Russian ammo for your bolt gun. Now, you are asking about toxic plastic. As I wrote about as one of my first articles in this blog, I contacted the maker of the buckets from the Wal-Mart paint section and was assured it was food grade. Rawles assures us there is still a minor amount of off gassing of toxins. I don’t disagree with him, I just think that the odds of starving are greater than the odds of cancer. If you are poor, and this is all you can afford, I would still go with the paint buckets. The Home Depot brand is another maker, but it does have the proper symbol on the bottom. I myself am a bit leery of putting food into an orange bucket. Even if it is supposed to be food grade. But logically I can’t say it is any worse than a white bucket. If you want a bit more protection, how about just lining the bucket with a trash bag? That might not be any less toxic, but being white rather than orange does reassure me anyway. One last thought on toxic plastic. Are you sure that the Gamma Lids
aren’t the same plastic? They come in bright colors and have the exact same symbol that the Home Depot buckets do. Your call, it’s your health.
*
Later on in the day, tooling around with my new LED’s and three buckets, then after buying a can of beef for a great price at Family Dollar and the new issue of Backwoodsman
( not to mention the $1 thermal underwear I told you about already ), I got to thinking that while I am a super frugal shopping stud, I am still a bit of a moron when it comes to being a consumer. I get a thrill out of finding these great post-Apocalypse 
bargains, but from the consumer economies point of view, am I really any different than a gaggle of clucking women swarming Payless Shoes as they open the first day of the Buy One Get One sale? I don’t think so. I’m just as guilty as they are, spending my last dollar on bargains. Not that I care about supporting my evil banker masters or the corporations that chain five year olds to Nike assembly lines or put the same toxins from orange five gallon buckets into the water supply or bribe governments to conduct three A.M. raids on chemo patients smoking weed so they can choke down enough food to survive. I don’t care if I support them because they are throwing me a bone and it is all I can do to survive. Yet, if I didn’t have to consume, I wouldn’t need their deals. I wouldn’t need to support them. But what is the alternative?
*
I can’t keep a mate now, crapping in a bucket in a forty five degree trailer. And you want me to move to a cave and trap squirrels and shoot at revenuers
with a black powder shotgun? Actually, a cave would be warmer, my diet improved as well as my aim. But it isn’t very realistic, is it? Dropping out of the consumer economy. Is that why I can’t make myself feel guilty, or is that just justification? All very fine and dandy to gaze at our navel here. Contemplate the meaning of life on Walden’s Pond ( I can guarantee you Thoreau 
wouldn’t have been so defiant if there were Ninja SWAT Teams back then, ready for that pre-dawn raid to punish dissent ) some other time. The cards we are dwelt are what we are playing. Saying that, however, also recognize that we are programmed to shop. It is a survival need in today’s economy as well as a pleasure program. No one is allowed to be independent. Even the bums living under the railroad bridge can’t get any aid without an ID card. And they are forever on the run or at least watching over their shoulder for persecution. Come Oil Down/Shopping Mall Down, you will go through withdrawals. You must be aware of this and safeguard against harmful substitutions. Such as poor bargains at the new BarterTowns
. If the wife tries trading food for a new dress or shoes, I would think about selling her. If not into slavery because she is fat, than find the nearest band of cannibals. And of course guys are just as bad, buying three hundred dollars in power tools because they might need one some day to save five dollars on a home built project.
*
We are all idiots lining up at the cash register. Just accept it. But when the time comes, you must change your behavior. In the meantime, it would be silly to not take advantage of the death dance of our economy and pick up great tools to help you survive the collapse.
END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
Some people spend the time between the last of winter when Mother Nature
, who I have repeatedly stipulated is a syphilitic whore, perhaps not quite satisfied that all of us have emerged into another season without the loss of more digits to frostbite, gives us one last big storm to remember her by and the time when we finally dry out and the mold doesn’t freeze and small biting insects start trying to burrow into our skin, dreaming of how they are going to plant their garden. Me, I don’t think buying a big water tank for my truck and hauling water into a garden or spending at least three grand on drilling a well, and another thousand in a generator or more panels is that great of an idea. So I use the last of the winter to dream about constructing the first of my solar projects. And speaking of winter, it snows today and tonight we are setting the clocks ahead already? Was it Bush Junior, the retarded flamer, that thought this was a great idea? Anyway, I plan on building a few cookers and a water heater, perhaps a dryer. I don’t think it will cost but twenty or thirty bucks each, and that is with new glass and insulation. But my big project is going to be my Hobbit Hovel. A covered pit, basically ( I plan on propane disappearing next winter, but I’ll be pleasantly surprised when/if it doesn’t ). So I’m at Home Depot looking at the poly sheet prices. I figure, okay, I’ve always avoided these kinds of places so let me turn a new leaf and wander around and browse rather than get out as quick as possible. I found a good deal on LED flashlights which of course I had to buy. Not that I’ll ever have enough. And I noticed the prices on their five gallon buckets.*
Now, pardon the crap out of me if I’m not telling you anything new here. Like I said, I hardly ever go into Gum And Glue Mortgage Monstrosity Patch Kit Stores. Where the truly hopeless spend all of MasterCard’s money trying to recover from an underwater home equity
. But, not to rub too much salt into your wound even though I told you years before the bubble burst that mortgages were a very bad idea, this is about the low cost of Home Depot five gallon buckets. Less than half the cost of the Wal-Mart paint buckets with lid. Over seven bucks at Wal-Mart and three and a third at Home Depot. Three for ten bucks. So instead of spending $20 per hundred pounds of grain for storage you only need to spend $10. If you are putting 400 pounds of wheat by, you have just saved yourself enough to buy almost half a sardine can of Russian ammo for your bolt gun. Now, you are asking about toxic plastic. As I wrote about as one of my first articles in this blog, I contacted the maker of the buckets from the Wal-Mart paint section and was assured it was food grade. Rawles assures us there is still a minor amount of off gassing of toxins. I don’t disagree with him, I just think that the odds of starving are greater than the odds of cancer. If you are poor, and this is all you can afford, I would still go with the paint buckets. The Home Depot brand is another maker, but it does have the proper symbol on the bottom. I myself am a bit leery of putting food into an orange bucket. Even if it is supposed to be food grade. But logically I can’t say it is any worse than a white bucket. If you want a bit more protection, how about just lining the bucket with a trash bag? That might not be any less toxic, but being white rather than orange does reassure me anyway. One last thought on toxic plastic. Are you sure that the Gamma Lids aren’t the same plastic? They come in bright colors and have the exact same symbol that the Home Depot buckets do. Your call, it’s your health.*
Later on in the day, tooling around with my new LED’s and three buckets, then after buying a can of beef for a great price at Family Dollar and the new issue of Backwoodsman
( not to mention the $1 thermal underwear I told you about already ), I got to thinking that while I am a super frugal shopping stud, I am still a bit of a moron when it comes to being a consumer. I get a thrill out of finding these great post-Apocalypse bargains, but from the consumer economies point of view, am I really any different than a gaggle of clucking women swarming Payless Shoes as they open the first day of the Buy One Get One sale? I don’t think so. I’m just as guilty as they are, spending my last dollar on bargains. Not that I care about supporting my evil banker masters or the corporations that chain five year olds to Nike assembly lines or put the same toxins from orange five gallon buckets into the water supply or bribe governments to conduct three A.M. raids on chemo patients smoking weed so they can choke down enough food to survive. I don’t care if I support them because they are throwing me a bone and it is all I can do to survive. Yet, if I didn’t have to consume, I wouldn’t need their deals. I wouldn’t need to support them. But what is the alternative?*
I can’t keep a mate now, crapping in a bucket in a forty five degree trailer. And you want me to move to a cave and trap squirrels and shoot at revenuers
with a black powder shotgun? Actually, a cave would be warmer, my diet improved as well as my aim. But it isn’t very realistic, is it? Dropping out of the consumer economy. Is that why I can’t make myself feel guilty, or is that just justification? All very fine and dandy to gaze at our navel here. Contemplate the meaning of life on Walden’s Pond ( I can guarantee you Thoreau wouldn’t have been so defiant if there were Ninja SWAT Teams back then, ready for that pre-dawn raid to punish dissent ) some other time. The cards we are dwelt are what we are playing. Saying that, however, also recognize that we are programmed to shop. It is a survival need in today’s economy as well as a pleasure program. No one is allowed to be independent. Even the bums living under the railroad bridge can’t get any aid without an ID card. And they are forever on the run or at least watching over their shoulder for persecution. Come Oil Down/Shopping Mall Down, you will go through withdrawals. You must be aware of this and safeguard against harmful substitutions. Such as poor bargains at the new BarterTowns. If the wife tries trading food for a new dress or shoes, I would think about selling her. If not into slavery because she is fat, than find the nearest band of cannibals. And of course guys are just as bad, buying three hundred dollars in power tools because they might need one some day to save five dollars on a home built project. *
We are all idiots lining up at the cash register. Just accept it. But when the time comes, you must change your behavior. In the meantime, it would be silly to not take advantage of the death dance of our economy and pick up great tools to help you survive the collapse.
END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
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