[Rune]

Peak oil was a scary story about 15 years ago.

The Party's Over now though. But there are still plenty of things to be scared about so welcome.

[ralfy]

The party was over almost four decades ago:

http://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/201 ... k-oil.html

The global population is starting to realize this only because of growing demand:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22956470

[onlooker]

Hi everyone:
I am from the US. I have over the last 5 years informed myself about various subjects which some refer to as "doom", though i prefer to think of as stark reality. I am here to read and also post in an engaging and mutually informative manner. I am enthusiastic as I consider this a worthwhile site and forum to read the viewpoints of others. Glad to be here.

[ROCKMAN]

"...stark reality..." I like that. An expression older than many of the folks on the site. I still occasional drop "ice box" myself. A little background from you would help to know what stereotype box to drop you in. LOL. We got all types here and we need to know which of our various fringe groups you'll be assigned to.

WELCOME!

[onlooker]

Well, thanks for the welcome Rockman, well you can assign me to the concerned human group , now I do not know if that is a fringe group , but I would say that is my group.

[lasseter]

As I sit here typing this tonight, I find myself alone again. A partner that had shared my life for 7 years has moved on and the home is empty. Another forum in another place, where I had tried to discuss the matters central to my existance has rejected me too. They didn't want to hear my doom and gloom as they put it. And I have separated from them as I separated from the girlfriend who believed as they believe. That's ok, I have a tough skin now. You have to develop one if you want to go against what 99.9% of what the population choose to believe.

My life changed forever in 2004. That was when I left the 99.9 I was trolling the internet and I landed on the wrong site, as you sometimes do. It was dieoff.org, and there I read for the first time the reality of where we were heading as a species. I read and read, day after day, consuming the data and the archived explanations of how our amazing techno world had been constructed on the coat tails of a century of cheap abundant oil. My amazement though quickly turned to fear as I learnt the consequences of what we had done. Fear then led to action, I had to be prepared for this, I had to find a path to future security.

Our instinct for security grows as we I age I found, just as our instinct for sex deminishes. I found the financial-sense website where they had multiple podcasts on peakoil, there I learnt more, and about money, the folly of the stockmarket, and about gold and silver. It became very obvious then what I needed to do. I began to save and pour money into secure assets, I began to plan to live away from the city, to become self sufficient.

As time passed I watched as the housing meltdown across the globe unfolded, just as I had read it would. I watched as the stock markets collapsed, saw the great recession grip the world, just as predicted. All the while I saved and planned and stored. Nothing had changed for me and in fact my finances got better, but the 99.9% took big hits, saw their future retirement plans devastated.

Years have passed since then and it seems that they have forgotton, at least around where I live in Australia. But I haven't forgotton, I see in the future what we experienced in the past, and no doubt many here see the same. So I am alone still, an outsider in a nation of hopefulls who don't want to hear a message of future doom. They want to believe in collective recovery instead, cheaper petrol, bigger retirement accounts. They want the future to unfold replete with highways full of electric cars and fields full of solar arrays. I would love to see that as well but I can't delude myself that it is even remotely possible now.

I have listened to too many political lies, corporate lies, and media lies and I no longer believe any of their hopeful prognostications. I trust only myself now, what my own eyes an ears tell me. There is little need to learn anymore either, I already know enough. All I lack is the understanding of how best to apply the knowledge to my own life, to ensure my future is secure.

This is a good forum btw, good natured people, and good moderation. Perhaps I'll find a home here where I can settle in. Thank you all for making the site possible.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lasseter', 'A')s I sit here typing this tonight, I find myself alone again.

[Subjectivist]

I have been divorced, and married, and I certainly hav been lonely, but I do not walk this Earth alone.

[Pops]

Hello Lasseter,

DieOff - Jay Hansen also crystallized my vision (here is a snapshot from the wayback machine). I came to it in researching the causes of 9/11 (bin laden - not shadow.gov) and it fit right into my acceptance of "Limits" and the population growth problem "popularized" when I was a kid in the '60's & '70's. I'd been able to ignore all that and make payments on the American Dream for 20 years but by the time of 9/11 and certainly after the gov's reaction to it, I became more and more anxious and finally convinced my dear wife to make a move.

So 10 years ago we moved from the vicinity of masses of people on the US West Coast to the center of the country. The trade was one of earning less than in the population grinder out west but because of a lower cost of living, much less need, to earn so potentially more independence.

We've been very successful in earning less, LOL. But seriously it has been exactly what we planned, I earn a fraction of my previous income but have no debt and spend only a small amount of my time in "billable" work. We are much more resilient than I could ever have been living relatively close to some of the highest cost of living areas in the country.

Then 5 years ago I developed type I diabetes, which is not a big deal at 51 with modern drugs but does tend to put a damper on most survivalist fantasies, LOL. Don't get me wrong, I never went in for the running-gun-battles-with-starving-suburbanite-moms, race war, collapse of government variety of survival; more the permanent shrinking economy, asset erosion, stagflation type of financial survival.

So now, a dozen years later I find myself much more sanguine about the world and it's direction even though decline actually looks more real and imminent than ever.

I sympathize with your loneliness, I would miss my wife terribly (although I get along fine without most other folks, LOL). My loving wife however does become lonely down on the farm, even with my scintillating companionship, amazingly enough. And that has prompted us lately to begin rethinking our situation. I own what is for me the perfect homestead and I could never reproduce in the west if I were to lose my senses and decide to return and (I'd have a hard time replicating it here for that matter). But we're going to make some type of move soon I believe.

So yeah, things change and I've always worried about getting caught out. But I need to remember that if all I do is keep my ear to the ground, eye on the horizon, nose to the grindstone and finger in the wind, I'll be in no position to smell the roses.

Good luck and welcome.

[SeaGypsy]

Nice blurb Lasseter. Got some connection to the center?- I grew up in Alice, so the Lasseter's reef legend is part of my heritage. 7 year itch hey- I had one of those 7 years ago. Had a partner, step kids, a lot of things on the surface in common but some big fundamental flaws. Since then got married to someone who almost couldn't be more different on the surface, but with sound fundamentals. We live and learn.

There are a few of us here who use our own lives as fodder for our work here in sometimes intimate style, others choose to hold very dearly to anonymity not just in name but in steering completely away from the personal. After the number of years and numbers of posts by long term posters- I find the lack of personality in some posters writing restricts the quality and enjoyability of their work.

Good old dieoff.org hey! Join the club- pretty sure we are all well familiar here. A great one to refer the excessively cornucopian who show up from time to time. I guess you are familiar with the application of Kubler-Ross 5 stages of grief in application to peak oil, peak everything and the rest of the emerging and building calamity?- Where would you rate yourself at present I wonder? (your post suggests quite a mature perspective to my view)

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', ' ')My loving wife however does become lonely down on the farm, even with my scintillating companionship, amazingly enough. And that has prompted us lately to begin rethinking our situation. I own what is for me the perfect homestead and I could never reproduce in the west if I were to lose my senses and decide to return and (I'd have a hard time replicating it here for that matter). But we're going to make some type of move soon I believe.

[ROCKMAN]

L - Touching that you should share such personal thoughts. Unfortunately, depending on your age, you may not be as alone in the future. When the folks around you run headlong into that truly painful energy wall ahead of them you may find more company to share the pain. Denial is a powerful drug. And I don't necessarily condemn folks for using it to claim some piece of mind. You don't want to start each day contemplating your future death. OTOH you can't ignore the future either and expect to have a problem free existence. A while back I mentioned a philosophy some mentors in my misspent youth tried to drum into me: Don't be one of those folks who want to live forever. Some here didn't understand the point. If you focus too much on not dying you won't accomplish your mission. OTOH if you f*ck up and get wasted you won't get the job done either.

And thus the challenge: balance. No...you can't go running thru life with your eyes closed. But you can't curl up into a fetal position in the bottom of a hole either. We all have an expiration date. Might come later than we expect...sometimes sooner. None of us can escape the future whether we correctly see what's coming or if we ignore it. But the difficulty arises between folks when it comes to preparing for the future one anticipates. And IMHO it doesn't matter in our current lives which future actually develops in: we live in the now...not the future. By the time the poof of your expectations are proven correct or not it won't matter. All any of us have is the satisfaction of believing we're on the right path. By the time you get to the end of the path it will be too late to make a course correction.

If you are satisfied where you are today then good for you. But is your life close to perfection? If you're like the vast majority of us then it isn't. Personally I don't live my life with expectations that it will ever be perfect. Nor that I'll live forever. Something else those mentors tried to teach me: when you find yourself in the sh*t just keep your mouth shut. That way you won't swallow so much. LOL. IOW I also live in a world of nonbelievers be it PO or climate change. Seldom do I try to point out their misconceptions. For the same reason I don't try to teach pigs to roller-skate: it would just frustrate me and piss off the pigs. So me and the pigs get along OK.

[lasseter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'N')ice blurb Lasseter. Got some connection to the center?- I grew up in Alice,

Good old dieoff.org hey! Join the club- pretty sure we are all well familiar here. A great one to refer the excessively cornucopian who show up from time to time.

I guess you are familiar with the application of Kubler-Ross 5 stages of grief in application to peak oil, (your post suggests quite a mature perspective to my view)

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', ' '). . .If either of my daughters has a child (If you read the OP on advising millenials you know I am advising them not to) I fear my wife will be on the next plane to be with them. In the end this might be the solution, that she divides her time between here and with our daughters.

Anyway, thanks for your post, my wife felt a digital sisterhood with your wife...... let her know that....

[SeaGypsy]

Congrats Pops!

My little punk girls about a year ago.
(7 years ago if I was asked- no way would I have more kids, having a son in a broken family already, having been burned too many times)

[Ibon]

Congratulations Pops, hopefully your grandchild arrives at your doorstep soon.
Hmmm, now I understand better your last post. Nobody wants to be 1500 miles away from their grandchild especially if you are in a rural area. Good luck in finding a compromise. There is one if you don't mind spending some time alone.

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . . Truly moving. This is quite an amazing website to evoke such emotion.

Cheers.

[lasseter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', '
')
So 10 years ago we moved from the vicinity of masses of people on the US West Coast to the center of the country. The trade was one of earning less than in the population grinder out west but because of a lower cost of living, much less need, to earn so potentially more independence.

Then 5 years ago I developed type I diabetes, which is not a big deal at 51 with modern drugs
So now, a dozen years later I find myself much more sanguine about the world and it's direction even though decline actually looks more real and imminent than ever. ..

I sympathize with your loneliness, I would miss my wife terribly (although I get along fine without most other folks, LOL). ..
So yeah, things change and I've always worried about getting caught out. But I need to remember that if all I do is keep my ear to the ground, eye on the horizon, nose to the grindstone and finger in the wind, I'll be in no position to smell the roses.

Good luck and welcome.

[mburrow]

You should not break yourself due the pettiness or attitude of a former spouse, lover or friend. It is abundantly clear that alone is all we are - even in the presence of others. So chin up and eyes open for there are plenty of fish upon which to dine...







Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. - Al Einstein

[sparky]

.
For the non Aussie, the Lasseter reef is about this old prospector
who came from the nowhere ( pretty much most of the outback ) with gold bearing rocks
claiming he had found this incredible reef ( hard rock gold seam )
he got a bit of cash went back out there and never came out again
looking for Lasseter reef became a bit of a treasure hunt and a great legend to yarn about
while sinking a few cold ones .

Cheer up mate ,life is a loosing battle , just enjoy the view while you are here
and remember the bushy eternal word of wisdom ,
" women are a weird cattle "