[lawnchair]

Pets seem like a pretty natural extension of the human condition. Don't know for myself.

Computers? Dunno. The internet is pretty damned addictive. But, I don't see the likelihood I'd need to *buy* computers any time soon. I could get what I need (message boards like this) on a resurrected 486, running Linux or DOS with the text-based Lynx browser. Anything fancier (like the seven year old laptop I'm sitting at now) is gravy.

ICE? Not as a vehicle. No. In limited applications? Probably. For the amount of work I get out of a gallon of gasoline in my old Ariens rototiller? I'd surely pay $30 a gallon, probably more. Eventually, it'd be a call between the ICE and a draft animal. But, if the community went in together on a bigger scale moonshine/ethyl distillery, the ICE would surely be around in certain roles.

Condoms is the interesting question. We first-worlders have gotten used to birth control. Notice that Japan and Russia have fallen to very low birth rates with just relatively mild economic hardship. In a true SHTF scenario, I'd expect people would demand condoms/BC pills/abortion more than ever (dude, I totally can't afford a kid now). Would birth rates plummet like never before?

[jasonraymondson]

Unless there is no electricty, I play to still own a bloody computer and I will own the highest end model, I can afford.

In case the internet crashes world wide, I have the talents and skill necessary to recreate the internet in my image.

All will behold for I am the word and all shall tremble before I

[bodigami]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lawnchair', '
')(...)
Computers? Dunno. The internet is pretty damned addictive. But, I don't see the likelihood I'd need to *buy* computers any time soon. I could get what I need (message boards like this) on a resurrected 486, running Linux or DOS with the text-based Lynx browser. Anything fancier (like the seven year old laptop I'm sitting at now) is gravy.

[Hagakure_Leofman]

Regarding the question : Has the shit hit the fan?

Doesn't anyone recall the footage of the asian tsunami, where people were casually standing around on the beach, point at the incoming wave like it was a strange curiosity, but nothing that they should be concerned about?

Then they all got washed away screaming.

Captain Calamity says enjoy your dinner!

[Ainan]

Remember reading many of the animals started moving inshore 24 hours before it hit? Humans think they are so intelligent, but we are the ones who looked death in the face while our mind went blank.

[SpringCreekFarm]

Those of us that are preparing are akin to those animals running in from shore before the tsunami hit.

The cornucopias are on the beach along with the doomers that refuse to prepare.

The rest of us are in the PFTF hut up on the hill.

[Hagakure_Leofman]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ainan', 'R')emember reading many of the animals started moving inshore 24 hours before it hit? Humans think they are so intelligent, but we are the ones who looked death in the face while our mind went blank.

[HEADER_RACK]

I have always been very competitve in my work life. I've always shown initiative in new projects and have taken the lead when I could. Some would have called me a workaholic with an undying devotion and loyalty to my company.
As of late that has all but disappeared. Now I just go through the motions never opting to do more than what is expected of me. I have lost all zeal for my job.
Instead my mind and focus is on prepping myself for TSHTF.My work life has taken a backseat. While to me this is a good thing, for in the end my prepping will ultimately do more for me than my job. I just thought it was a little strange on how a persons ingrained habits could do a complete turn around so fast and was wondering if this was happening to others besides myself.

[BigTex]

Yes.

[eastbay]

HH,
About a year after joining this website, and about two years after figuring out PO, I started planning and then made huge life changes (work, home, location, everything...) directed at managing this disaster in a more survivable fashion for my family.

There's still so much more to do, and there are ups and downs, but it feels nice to be trying and we're in a much better situation than before.
You're not alone with this realization.

[Ludi]

I'm pretty darn lazy. I put in a few hours a day working for money, and a few hours a day working in the garden, on construction projects, etc. Spend a lot of time resting, and usually take a nap in the afternoon (not always).

[Cashmere]

Yes.

[like_the_dinosaurs]

My partner. brother and I all moved out of a large city to a small town with our parents to prep. It took about a year of trying to find an answer before we arrived at this point.

I just could't apply myself at work anymore, watching the cars drive past while i was on my lunch breaks, i almost just drove off a few times.

I still work but only casual. That feeling will pass with time. I work well again because i know when the shtf the best workers will go last and the money is like being sponsored. lol

Perfectly normal.

[Chaparral]

I used to be what I'd now describe as pathologically competitive. Id slit throats and eat babies to get overtime or another research project or acquire another property but since 2005 all that simply evaporated. Now I'll take siestas, pace myself, read for the fun of it and just slow down to a slow walk instead of sprinting through things. I sort of view whats coming as a 1000 mile marathon and the only way to survive will to sort of lean forward and trudge slowly.

[Roy]

[frankthetank]

No change here. I was more interested in biking, hiking, gardening, fishing, smelling the flowers long before PO. I grew up valueing free time so working was just making enough to be able to afford to do the things i really love.

[FoolYap]

For me it's some combination of:

1. Peak Oil

2. Getting older

3. Normal cynicism as I see how today's corporate crises become tomorrow's "who cares", and how "comp time" "earned" by responding to the former usually evaporates in the pressure to respond to the new crises du jour

4. Extreme cynicism as I see how most large corporations treat their [s]chattel[/s] employees in the zeal to slice pennies and maximize executive perks

It's just really hard to take the job too seriously any more. I try to treat it seriously enough to stay employable if the status quo holds for awhile longer but the current gig offshores the last of our jobs. But I'd rather be prepping. Need the job to pay for the prepping though.

--Steve

[jlw61]

I telecommute and work only hard enough to keep the paychecks coming, so that means I'm only doing twice as much as some of my peers.

I find that I'm no longer interested in putting in one minute more than 40 hours a week, punctuated with a lunch break on the latest prep project each day. Sometimes I find myself working on my prep spreadsheet instead of my work load. If my boss ever found out how unmotivated I am and still pumping out more work than two thirds of the crew, she'd spit out her teeth.

[HEADER_RACK]

Yes, some of us work to pay for our preps. Wouldn't it stand to reason though that the harder you worked the more money you make the more preps you should be able to do. Why then has my competive edge my will to strive to excell deminished in the work place. If anything it should drive me harder.
Like Roy though, I would rather be out preping instead of pushing papers at an office. Even though both serve as a means to an end.
Maybe I do not have the skills to multitask on two major aspects of my life. Preping for TSHTF which is monumental to say the least and at the same time trying to move foward in the work force.
Maybe it's that survival mechanism thats inside all of us is unable to focus on two totaly seperate paths that for most of us are at opposite ends of the spectrum that causes conflict within itself.
Who Knows?

[BigTex]

I've thought about approaching my job as if I were an actor in a TV show or movie and I was playing that role.

I think that's what a lot of people are doing and they don't even realize it.