1/25/08

Man… My OD plus subscription is expiring, and I don’t have ANY way of renewing it. Bank account: Overdrawn, Credit cards: Cancelled, Paypal: No bank account. Can we say ouch? Oh well, may be time to abandon OD anyway. I’m not necessarily "in love" with the service, and as everyone who knows me… I don’t keep it up very well, even though when I do come around, I’m prolific in my writings. However, I do have about 5-6 years of entries, dating back to just before I married Jerry, and somehow I managed to avoid the hacker attacks so I don’t seem to have lost significant portions of my diary. Well, I guess I’ll go back to Free OD, and see where it goes from there.

Now to the real reason I decided to do an entry. Mainly to help me "distill" my thoughts (been reading about making alcohol tonight, along with a whole BUNCH of other topics, lol, guess it’s rubbing off on me) Anyhow, when I went downstairs night after last, Jerry asked me if I wanted to watch this movie, Zeitgeist, so I agreed, and we watched it on his computer. It’s got 3 sections, Religion, Money, and Politics. All fascinating and very revealing…. after watching the video, it seems apparent that Jesus Christ was a total fraud. Not HIM, PERHAPS, but the whole "Christ mythology" is based on older, astrologically based myths, and the "story of Christ" parallels that of many other "deitites’ to come down through the ages. And that’s just the FIRST part. Here’s the link to the movie:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5547481422995115331&hl=en

Hopefully that’ll come up for you… I couldn’t add the link w/ OD… but I think my computer’s a bit "overwhelmed" right now, I’ve got about 12 tabs up, should probably shut some things down. Do a search on Financial collapse, you’ll get some interesting information. Don’t think it could happen here? Don’t bet on it. I’m starting on a list of things that I either need to buy, or need to happen, really in order to be prepared for ANYTHING that comes. I’ve been thinking along these lines for years, but I don’t know, things in my life lately have just been kind of "forcing" me to think about them some more.   I’m realizing that if nothing else, I must learn to grow my own crops for this family, so that IF things start falling like dominoes, I’ve already got the knowledge and EXPERIENCE, so I’m not starting from scratch at a time of crisis (like this isn’t a time of personal crisis?  But still… it could be worse…it could ALWAYS be worse)

I’ve done searches on Solar power, Wind power (which is a form of solar power)  There is a great web site out of Fort Collins, CO (near where I lived as a child) called otherpower.com which has a lot of neat information.  One thing I am trying to decide:  If we don’t destroy ourselves in the next few years… is Nature going to do it for us?  I mean, the natural disasters appear to be coming more frequently, more intensely… one has to wonder.  I’m not a HUGE proponent of "going green" but I can definitely see the benefits.  I also did searches on disaster preparedness, sustainable living, various trees I can buy (I looked at a bottle of syrup and realized that someday, I may not HAVE syrup… so I looked up Maple trees, and guess what?  They grow in California too!)  I found another great website, though this is MUCH more of a survivalist web site, http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php and they DO talk about guns.  This is actually the archived site, and there is a link to the new site, but the new site, you evidently MUST join to be able to see the message boards.
But there appears to be plenty of info on the old boards, and a really great thread of this one guy in Argentina who has been living through his country’s economic collapse, and what he would have done differently if he could have seen it coming.  Trust me, it’s seriously food for thought.  As you can see, I’ve been all over the board here.  I have kind of a semi formed plan in my head… but then of course, it’ll require money to put into place over the years. 

Which leads me to another line of thought I’ve been having:  I can’t help but feel I’ve been blocking the flow of money energy into this house.  I don’t know if it’s because things have gotten so tight, or because of other fears/problems, or even simply to force me into a situation where I MUST learn to grow our own food.  I’ve been trying to figure out the "lesson" for months now, and I’m not sure, but after the last couple of days, and kind of having some flashes of insight, I have to wonder….seriously wonder if part of our survival in coming days/times really must start NOW.  Well, of course it should.  But we are going to need money for some of the things I’m thinking, not just growing our own crops.  Ideally, I’d like to get onto a "farm" or ranch where we’d be able to raise crops, trees, and animals for food, build a house that is pretty much entirely self sufficient and perhaps "off the grid" LOL, then learn to make an income producing something or other… someone mentioned alcohol on the frugal squirrels web site which is what got me to thinking about that, and then the guy in Argentina said something about if he could have, he’d have bought little trinkets to bribe people with before the fact, and I got to thinking well, why not learn to make perfume, which IRONICALLY, also requires alcohol… but I guarantee that women who won’t be able to get perfume, are unlikely to be able to buy their own…so that might end up being either something to possibly market, or bribe with (you have to read that post, let me see if I can find it)  Here it is:
http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=044387;p=0
Maybe we wouldn’t come down to having to "bribe" officials, or who knows who else? (the guy IS from Argentina) but if things fall apart, I’d be willing to be anarchy will have its day in this country.  I’d much rather have some ‘arcane" knowledge with which to bargain with, than not.  If that makes any sense….   People are STILL going to want their liquor, and it may be something they just can’t get, or it’s so overpriced that a person could still make a good profit selling it on a "gray market" so to speak.  Of course, that might be something that’s dangerous to be "into" but still… (no pun intended, lol)  I guess it’s just more food for thought, and if nothing else, the knowledge of it is useful in theory.  I’m wondering if I should start to print some of this stuff out and put it in notebooks, or at least save some of it to my computer… I have no idea whatsoever if we’ll have an internet, and in that case, I would want hard copies, wouldn’t I?  Anyway, it’s just more food for thought.  I also looked into stockpiling food, though that MAY not be entirely necessary, and may also be something for the future anyway as I get into growing my own food and need to think about stockpiling… though it’s not unreasonable either to buy extra at the market (which I almost always do anyway, esp when things are on sale)  I would want/need a program to keep trackof it though, truthfully, because there is a certain time frame when things need to be used by…and a collapse of the entire system may not happen for years, though some predictions have it as soon as 2012, which is only 4 years off… and you can definitely buy canned food that will last much longer than that.  But again… MONEY.  I already "stockpile" in my own way because I’ve always sort of been afraid that I would be without, so I’ve always bought too much, though I tried to quit doing that so much with perishable foods… it’s much easier not to have things go rotten in a family of 6, than of 1 though…
I wish I could get a fruiting banana tree… and I’m wondering if there would be some way to do it with an "indoor" greenhouse and perhaps a dwarf tree.  Well, that might be a thought for the future, because right now I don’t have any way of building a house with an indoor greenhouse.  I was also thinking that a covered pool might work… they have these great covers that to me, would create kind of a greenhouse condition, but I’m not sure it would be tall enough…
Well, just did a quick search on that, and found trees 5-6 feet tall that can be grown inside near a window, and they produce fruit.  Cool!  I’ve got 10 foot ceilings, so no problem ;).

Okay, I’m going to wrap up.  It’s been quite a day, and I may have read too much to really absorb it… and of course, I need more action in addition to all this reading…a student has to go out and put their study to practice or it’s all just theory and therefore, not much use.