[Antimatter]

Sorry darling

[realeyz]

I had a 1992 Nissan 300Zx Twin Turbo that I barely ever drove - only had 47k miles on it - bought it in 1999 for $20k - sold it last month for $18.5k

Bought a Honda Insight
Started a backyard veggie garden
Started saving lots of containers for water
Started stockpiling canned food
Use AC much less if at all possible
Changed PGE bill to maximum renewables
Started composting

Still lots more to do, but this is a start.

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('realeyz', 'I') had a 1992 Nissan 300Zx Twin Turbo that I barely ever drove - only had 47k miles on it - bought it in 1999 for $20k - sold it last month for $18.5k

Bought a Honda Insight
Started a backyard veggie garden
Started saving lots of containers for water
Started stockpiling canned food
Use AC much less if at all possible
Changed PGE bill to maximum renewables
Started composting

Still lots more to do, but this is a start.

[EnemyCombatant]

Am I the only one here who has decided to gpo out with a big party. I have only stepped up my pleasure activities. I want to enjoy while it's still here.

I suggest you guys do the same.

[rallyman]

WTF? Give up on activities???? If anything, I go at it harder than ever.....put a microtuner (on demand HP up to about 550 and torque to about 700lb-ft) on the Exxon Valdez (the lifted diesel Ford Excursion). Punched out the XR400 dirtbike another 30cc for more HP and torque....As I am fond of saying when I drive the ol' Bronco - 300hp and 9 mpg---> just doing my part to hasten the Peak!

Hmmmm lets see what else.....Oh there is one thing I have changed.....I've stopped trying to cheer up Jato! I figger he's perpetually distressed, depressed, and sorting the facts to figger the EXACT day and second that the Peak arrives, and there's no point in me trying to get him to relax anymore....well one of us has to have a good time and one of us has to worry.... sheez, it's almost like being married!

[bentstrider]

I haven't really changed anything over myself.
Since I've only had a drivers license for 2 years now, I never really got much driving experience in at all.
The only major driving I did was when I upgraded my California Class C to a Class A CDL. Drove a truck for about three months, 4500 miles in all, but I bugged out because of all the scrutiny and hatred you get from everyone else.
Now I work security and own two vehicles.
My 6 speed beach cruiser and my '87 Bronco II.
The only time I ever use the Bronco is when I need to get a bulky load, or drive the dreaded Cajon Pass to pick up or drop vital paperwork.
I'm never getting rid of it, it's there when it's needed, or when my bicycle gets jacked.

[dolphinlady]

Yeah, when I first heard Agent Smith refer to humans as a virus, I didn't want to believe it, but he was right!!! I knew he was right even before I knew about PO.
Anyways responding to Red Pill's post: I certainly found it easier to talk about PO once I had integrated the knowledge more and wasn't so freaked out. Not to say I still don't get anxious, etc... But it certainly helped me finding this website so I could start getting proactive with things to do, and I recently told someone else who knows about PO about the section "Planning for the Future" on this website. There are some great recommended books to get for your personal library (also I found some great suggestions for books to get on the Surviving Peak Oil website-under library), and also a list of 100 survival things to get (another topic in planning for the future). Tools, things to stockpile, learn a skill(s).
And remember you're not alone, you've got these forums!!!

[elizabethlea]

I've been feeling the same way lately, thanks for this thread.

I go between totally depressed, to hopeful (maybe this won't be so bad?), to depressed and scared again.

I most often feel helpless, especially in the face of global warming. I get afraid that we have stuffed ourselves so badly that nothing will survive beyond the hardy 'roach.

Aaargh! I want to do something to help... but don't know what... am going a little nuts.

The advice given already s great, but what about the possible flesh eatng zombies, bird flu, dengue fever, natural disasters and wars??

I think I just answered my own question - don't think so much.

Resolution of today: Some things are out of my control, others are not. Do my best at what I can, leave the rest alone to prevent paranoia.

That's my ramble for the day

[Guest]

In the words of one great fictional character -- LIFE IS LIKE A BOX CHOCOLATES

[medicvet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')ere's food for thought: I have begun to think of things that I will enjoy watch disappearing over the next few years. First on the list: demise of professional sports. We have wasted so much on watching stupid games that have no point on the real meaning of life. Second of the list: all golf courses grass turning brown b/c we can't afford to water it. Golf is one of the worst inventions created by man: it alone can account for tremendous depletion of land resources all over the world.

[HarvKilljoy]

I stop by here very occasionally to check things out, see what others' responses are to finding out about peak oil, that sort of thing...

I had a chuckle at your description, Red_Pill, of feeling like something's wrong since you were a kid- I too share that same feeling- never knew quite what it was, but even back then I knew something was amok, just didn't quite know what.

Now, I still don't know, but I'm narrowing it down a smidge. I figure we could be wiped out in a bright flash of nuclear fire, blown away by some "terrorist" plot (I say that cuz I've read Michael Ruppert's "Crossing the Rubicon" and I can't shake the notion that he's absolutely right), or wind up sucumbing to a strain of flu...

Or my personal favorite, hit by that wayward bus-out-of-control on our way to our entirely mundane, wholly unnecessary McJob.

Upon finding out about Peak Oil, and studying it enough to satiate my appetite for learning, I took it upon myself, against my wife's wishes, to get a vasectomy (reducing the population one sperm cell at a time!) and inviting a friend of mine to move in and work together on preparing for the future we know is coming.

I learned how to compost humanure- the sh*t from our arses works just as well as cow manure for fertilizing our fields, and the key to making it hygenic is composting- thermophylic reactions in the compost pile kill the pathogens that are so prevalent in poorer Asian nations who spread the stuff raw on their fields. Compost it and kill the pathogens- get over it- crapping in a bucket and composting it is far more sane and "normal" than doing the deed into a bowl of pure drinking water and flushing it.

I marked off a thousand-odd square feet of my large in-town yard for a garden, and I've been struggling for two years now to get it all tilled and prepped for growing food- not that it takes that long to do, but in my life as it is right now, with the estranged (I made 'er that way, believe me!) wife, it's not easy...

It came to the point where my change of habits and behaviors in response to peak oil were the straw that broke the camel's back- my wife and I had it out in an argument, and she phoned police, accused me of things I didn't do... I spent three days in jail over it...

But yeah... water under the bridge, so they say. We're still together, she still rejects the notion that anything bad is going to happen when the world finds out it can't suck oil out of the ground fast enough to keep us Americans in McDriveThru's and McMansions (damn that Kunstler bugger, gettin' me to use that McWordage... lol) in Fat-and-Happy-Land...

And I'm still trying to keep the garden project going, I've taught my two young daughters to use the composting toilet- a simple five-gallon pail with a toilet seat mounted on top, with some sawdust on hand for coverage- go read the Humanure Handbook and learn! Ok- got to plug for that book, it's a load of crap, literally! It's AWESOME!

Now then... ramblings... musings... I finally gave up on my regular job. I am collecting unemployment and my thoughts, pulling myself together over this whole mess that is learning about peak oil, realizing I'm not just one lone bugger out there pluggin' away at a dead American Dream. I could never bring myself to buy into going to work for forty hours a week at a job I didn't really think was all that great, making shit wages, drinking cheap beer, watching pro sports like they're the hottest thing since sliced bread... and being "happy" with it.

Methinks though that you're on the right track- getting your head out of your third point of contact as much of America has, wipin' the sh*t from your eyes, and cleanin' out your ears, and realizing that we're all in for a big change in the near future. You're well on your way to accepting the real world, not the Disneyland-Hollywood-American version of it...

Welcome aboard!

HARV

[the_red_pill]

Hello POers,
It's now been seven months since I have swallowed the red pill and discovered the real truth behind the matrix. Having knowledge can be a very powerful thing, but a most depressing one too.

We have spent the past few months adjusting to this knowledge and making some preparations and adjustments in our lives, but I only think most of it may be futile. We have greatly reduced our energy consumption. I have stopped nearly 60% of my driving. I have tried to spread the word by talking to family/friends about this but I think they just don't want to know. I have heard excuses about being too busy or "I can't do anything about it." They want to stay in the matrix and be blissfully unaware of what is coming. They don't want the burden of knowledge that I carry.

Sometimes I cannot blame them. I have found this burden to be the most painfully difficult thing I have ever borne in my life and I realize that according to many doomers, that is cake compared to what is coming. They may be right.

I have thought about what to do next with my life and there aren't any answers that really make sense to me. To become one with the land and raise crops and be self sufficient is fine and all, but only until some one who didn't prepare but did buy a gun comes along and shoots us dead for it. I don't see how doing all that work, sacrificing the joy of the last days of the easy oil party, is worth it if one gunshot will take it all away from us.

My wife/I's strategy right now is to simply save every dollar we can, buy alot of gold and wait. We are trying to enjoy our lives while the party winds down and make adjustments to the upcoming reality. Will having gold really help in the long term? Probably not, but it may allow us to eat for a little longer than others who didn't save anything before coming to face the maker.

At this point I'm convinced peak oil won't be the problem for the US in the short term, five year period. I think it is time for the US to pay the piper and that will be a doozy of an economic crash. We've shipped all of our manufacturing overseas, mortgaged everything we own and sold off all of value to keep buying SUVs, Ralph Lauren sweaters and Ipods. Easy Al has made credit too easy and houses, American's new ATM machines, have grown to near stratospheric levels in value. But it is all funny money that is financing this!

I think this crash will happen very soon, probably this year or next and that will slow down the world economy (if not tank it) and depress the oil demand. It will probably slide the peak oil effects a decade or more, who knows. I think between having no M3 money supply published, the govt being completely bankrupt (they are raising the debt ceiling again), the Iranian oil bourse, the fiasco in Iraq, the Venezeulan whacko and the Nigerian oil wars, the writing is pretty much on the wall. Can anyone remember in history where all this screwed-up stuff was happening all at once?

What do you think our grandparents must have felt in the 1920s just before the stock market crashed? Was there anyone then getting out of the matrix and seeing the truth? There were very obvious signs that most ignored, just as today.

I recently pulled most of my money from the stock market having argued with my stockbroker. She was telling me that I'm over-reacting but I think that she is paid to keep people in. The government, brokers, traders, they all want you stay in and go down together!! If we all pulled out our money at the same time, what do you think would happen? A huge crash! The DOW is so out of touch with reality AGAIN, much like 1929 or even more recently, 1999/2000.

Sometimes I think I'm so smart because I have read and have seen around the government's lies and manipulation of the populace and the economic data. Unemployment is really 10% or more, my friends and inflation is nearly 8%! The government is cooking books like Enron does....why? To keep from paying out more to social security!

But sometimes I think dumb and happy sounds so much better!

At this point, I am considering moving to a lower cost of living area and taking another job that pays more money....not so I can buy more stuff but so we can save more and be prepared to weather out the storm as long as possible, but in the end, who the hell knows?

Mankind I believe is doomed. We have taught our children that the pursuit of happiness is the pursuit of weath and the accumulation of things. That real pleasure is derived from consuming with no thought of re-use, the environment, conservation or to share with others who don't have as much as we do. We have been convinced that a disposable lifestyle is easy and okay. That is okay to throw away perfectly good shoes, DVD players, wireless routers and a even a case of beer (all of which I have found in one week of my regular treasure hunting in my apt).

Knowing the future now I'm convinced would be a damnation, not a blessing as most people will not believe you....

Can someone plug me back into the matrix?

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('the_red_pill', '.')..Can someone plug me back into the matrix?

[Cran]

Too Late...

[NeoPeasant]

I expect to be jobless and carless, but with a paid off house and enough money to meet my families needs for food, water, heat, and cooking fuel. I'll have a few good bikes and the traffic will be reduced to where it will be safe to actually use them.
I do not fear an economic depression. I've learned to stop wanting stuff I don't need.I look forward to the free time and lack of responsibility unemployment would bring. I can use the time to do things that matter like community building and hanging out with my family.

[aldente]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', '
')There will be an upside to all this. Threadbear, BO, and I talk about it at the bottom of page 2 of this thread:
http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic18044-0-asc-0.html

[AmericanEmpire]

You don't really want to take the blue pill man. Knowing about it lets you move past the grieving phase now into the acceptance stage before the fact.

Trust me it gets better after a while. I was depressed and even had suicidal thoughts for a long time. But I've decided if I'm gonna go down its best to go down fighting.

Ignorance is not bliss. Wouldn't it be far worse to be one of the people who are gonna be shocked when everything comes tumbling down? I'd rather know whether it does me any good surviving or not.

[JoeCoal]

Welcome to the desert of the real.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('the_red_pill', 'T')o become one with the land and raise crops and be self sufficient is fine and all, but only until some one who didn't prepare but did buy a gun comes along and shoots us dead for it. I don't see how doing all that work, sacrificing the joy of the last days of the easy oil party, is worth it if one gunshot will take it all away from us.

[Jellric]

When you compare the lifestyle of the average Westerner over the last hundred years it's a cakewalk compared to the conditions humanity has endured historically both from nature and himself!

Even after any crash we will still have access to the stored knowledge of mankind to make things better than they would be otherwise. Think of it as a challenge. Will you shrink from the knowledge that has been granted to you or rise to the occasion?

There is no going back. You have been changed forever by this knowledge. Use it to make the lives of you and yours better.

[aldente]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jellric', ' ')You have been changed forever by this knowledge.