[Sketch]

Greetings

(by way of introduction)

Survival, whether it be inner city, suburban or rural isolation will depend on one's ability to grow facial hair. I kid ye not. Think back to those dreadful news clips of starving 3rd World unfortunates, the blinkered will recall zylophonic acreages of ribs, spineoboes of vertebrae but not one unsightly beard. Because beardies are equipped to stave off the inner cannibal. As long as the beardy hasn't fallen foul of the table napkin, a hard habit to break for the First World beardy, he has a homegrown source for making soup, with water to hand or pushed, saliva. Taken to its logical assumption,
nose hairs, eyebrows and the oft disparaged ear sprouts are a forager's delight. It is time to replace the tired old maxim of `feed one's face' with `feed off one's face'.

Possessing facial hair also guarantees you will be one of the first in line to receive a weapon when those are dispensed, and if not a seat in the vehicle cab at least a place on the tray. Higher off the ground, travelling fast, better positioned to catch those wind-borne vitamins with your face. Which is why you are where you find yourself in the first place. It is all very, very circular.

Ladies, pluck an ye shall die. It isn't all doom and gloom on the way out, somewhere along the line you will be as thin as you've always wanted to be, but your `hurrahs' will be hollow.

On a personal level, my chances of surviving malnutrition are good, I have a goatee. Not any old run-of-the-mill goatee but a red (burgundy) goatee, flecked with several strands of ginger and distinguished silver. Minerals and herbs, folks, what others consider blight I call commodities. The wife, amid much handwringing and lamentation as the penny finally dropped, asked me what would become of us. I told her not to worry, the ruddy Van Dyke is now a burgeoning Van Gogh, there will be soup enough for both of us.

Onward apocalyptic soldiers:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=101858 (beware modem users)

Incredible pictures of the Projects in Brooklyn, I urge everyone to look at those buildings and consider possible outcomes. If the worst eventuates those people will be completely on their own and many won't survive, or you could posit they may be able to survive better than those in more salubrious surroundings because they are used to some sort of subsistence living, have less far to fall.

There be other dragons too. When it all comes out in the wash I imagine there will be many servicemen, recently experienced in methods of attrition, returning home and realising they were misled. I wouldn't want to be the ones responsible for misleading these men and women, especially if the societal fragment is rent asunder.

The U.S has over 2 million inmates, a high percentage of them incarcerated for violent crimes, who feeds them if there is no food or crippling food shortages? I heard an interview with a minister in Texas recently, he relayed farmers fears that they may not be able to plant crops due to drought and the rising costs of energy. The farmers were of the opinion food shelves in big city supermarkets might be empty in 18 months. Do you let the prisoners starve or do you let the prisoners go? Hollywood dramatic to be sure but the people declaiming the doom merchants are currently at least one stratum away from the seat of power, no matter the veracity of their cry to action.

I lean more toward Jay Hanson's vision of the future, I cite him because his body of work was the first grounding I had when I caught the Peak Oil bug about a month or so ago and little I've read since has given me much cause to think it can be otherwise. I lament this late wakeup call, I still don't understand how I managed to miss all the other related blogs and
websites because I've ardently read blogs concerning the current American mis-administration since the leadup to the last election, stunned he got back in, agog at unfolding events.

I only discovered this forum a few days ago, I must have spent at least 16 hours a day for over a month reading about Peak Oil, Global Warming, Gold/Silver, Survival and a truckload of related material, so I surely must've visited the front page of this website but neglected to see the `forum' link. I only half jest when I say these site admins should start using saucy and salacious meta tags to lure punters, I'd have probably discovered the entire movement a hell of a lot sooner, say 1996.

Had I familiarised myself sooner I'd have used the large sums of borrowed money spent renovating my two business on other things, like precious metals and goods I may eventually need. Btw, large is relative, I'm talking almost 6 figures. Honestly, the amount of grief one goes through to obtain `relatively' small sums makes me think those borrowing millions must be attuned to the sound of bankers undoing their flies.

Here's some random thoughts:

I've seen elements of gloom espoused by posters for the days ahead but each and every one of us is always an embolism/second away from destruction, if you heed and accept this fragility most everything else stands a good chance of smelling like a rose. Worrying about those we care for is a different matter, unavoidable and the stuff of nightmares, alas.

With much prodding by the media, we collectively pat ourselves on the back in reward for the labours and vision of a relatively small number of people and consider ourselves highly evolved. Individuals can touch greatness but the collective can only try and hang onto their coattails,
whether it be due to inherent limitations, a foot on the throat or any number of other reasons. Millions died today, some of them were likely damn good people, paragons of virtue and pillars in their community, but I feel no loss whatsoever because there was no connection, I didn't even know they existed. Until I post this nonsense not one of you knows I exist, I could wink out and you'd continue happily fossicking in that nostril. Btw, only pop that nasty in your mouth if you have a beard, otherwise best put it behind an ear for when times get tough. Talk of decimating the global populace to achieve sustainability doesn't faze me in the least. To be sure, if me or mine looked like we were getting sucked into the vortex my dander would be ruffled but I'll do all I can to avoid dancing that particular jig.

I don't wish ill upon anyone living in the Gulf of Mexico, Tornado Alley or drought stricken parts of Texas but I literally can't stop refreshing the following pages:

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=42003 (getting warmer)
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/
http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/
http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

If it helps to alleviate any anger I also can't help checking on the price of gold and silver and I lacked the wherewithal to climb aboard that particular train.

Mankind has been on the slippery slope since the industrial age for numerous reasons, one being the lack of time available for contemplation..actually I'll leave that one hanging or I'll never get this finished.

I recently read a very interesting article on Bangladesh.

http://www.bdesh.info/info/ (Make or Break, by Jeff Kemp)

If you weren't already aware of it, check out some of the picture links first to add flesh to Kemp's bones. It is definitely worth reading that article, due to converging events we may soon emulate an impoverished Bangladeshi life while watching their country inundated.

Now I'd appreciate it if you American posters didn't go welcoming me to the forum because I like checking those climatic links with unfettered expectation

Later

p.s sorry about the jumbled nature of this post but it resembles my thought patterns of late. Our new neighbours recently bought a puppy, a barking puppy. As well as trying to assimilate all the information I've been reading I also have to contemplate whether I strangle the puppy, hope society crashes and the neighbours eat the puppy or the seas rise and drown the puppy. I should steal the puppy, sell it to an idiot and buy a couple of ounces of silver.

[Chaparral]

FOOL! YOU KNOW NOT OF WHAT YE SPEAK! by growing facial hair you only make yourself more palatable to mutant biker zombies (MBZ) hordes of which are expected to roam across the planet reaping the produce of unprotected ecovillages. Y'see, in the absence of Chianti and fava beans, zombies use facial hair as garnishment and roughage. Apparently brains, while being their preferred foodstuff have a uhh, rather constipating effect on them.






Seriously tho, welcome aboard. There's a number of us skyscraper junkies here from ssp. I've tried to lightly broach the subject over there but to no avail. That guy from Seattle simply trusts the Saudi and USGS numbers before he trusts reason and logic.

[Sketch]

Hello Chaparral

Speaking of zombies...after reading many articles and riffling through the mental tea leaves I rapidly began to bombard my wife with dire prognostications of impending voodoo. Fierce were her looks in my direction as I constantly interrupted whatever pap she was watching on the tube. I was oddly gratified to find this forum and discover that my situation wasn't isolated, that I wasn't the only one struggling to get the message across.

In the short space of a couple of weeks we probably shared more cross words than we have in the 18 years we've been together. I'd snort and huff that if she didn't heed my warnings we'd end up under a bridge nibbling cabbage leaves, if we were lucky. My urgings were having no effect so I struck her where she lives and she lives in front of the tv. I hooked up my computer to the telly and showed her some of the videos I've been watching (9/11 seedy goings-on and Robert Newman's History of Oil) and she has finally jumped aboard the good ship Woe!

She thinks I'm overdoing it if, when we are out for a walk, I point out houses with no fences and tell her the owner will succumb quickly to the ravening zombies. I only do it to keep her on her toes. If one did show up she'd probably have to save me because I'd just stand there mumbling `awesome!' and forget I was in danger.

Here's an excellent online zombie trilogy, btw.

http://www.brokentype.com/nation/

That skyscraper forum is excellent. I've often searched for certain pictures and somehow managed to miss finding that resource, I think I ended up there after seeing a link posted in TOD. I'd recently spent time elsewhere looking at pictures of urban decay in Detroit, it is stunning how so many nice buildings have been left to go to seed. You could almost accept it if the country was a lesser developed nation but the glitz of Vegas and the grit of Detroit existing under the same flag is remarkable.

Before reading your reply I'd perused a couple of the newer threads and was mildly mortified to see some posters talking about the drought they are facing in their region. To even the score it is only fair to admit I live in the environs of Wellington, New Zealand. Now they can rub their hands in glee if they hear our ground has begun to shift. We are due a big one, and every single morning, between 3am and 4.30am, a nearby goods train rumbles through the region and I clench my buttocks and brace for the shaking to start. If the big one does hit I hope my house falls over to the left so it crushes that puppy.

[wildilocks]

Yea verrily, and in Movember shall be revealed the true plans as survivalists worldwide come clean: their cover as charity fundraisers for years having been in reality a training program for the hard years ahead.




Hello!

[Wednesday]

I think your suggestion has made me slightly nauseous.