<CSS improvements The Oil Drum Thursday Open Thread>

17 comments on A Birthday Thought

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Luis de Sousa on March 23, 2006 - 3:33am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
Hi HO it is time to celebrate indeed.

Hi just had this freaky idea that I'd like to share, even if it turns into nothing: what about a book on TOD? I can already picture it: "One year drumming" :-).

This is a crazy idea, but would sum up the amazing success TOD had in such a short time. In short the book would have three parts:

  1. What is Peak Oil;

  2. How TOD came to be and it's evolution from a blog to a highly visited website;

  3. A collection of landmarks posts, each with a sum up of pro and cons comments.

Tell me drummers, am I really crazy or is there a glimpse of sanity in this?
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Don Sailorman on March 23, 2006 - 8:21am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Do it!

Could be a best-seller if you put in the right mix of crazy/funny/despairing/hopeful/informative posts.

But--it is possible there are copyright issues. Do you have to get permission from everybody to use their stuff? Ugh. Best talk to a lawyer first. I've always looked at everything I post as being in the public domain--but the Devil only knows what He has cooked up in terms of "intellectual property" here.

Alternatively, you could do it in the form of a novel, with suspense being found as the identitities of various posters is revealed. For example, I want to deny right now the rumor that I am the bastard son of Indiana Jones and Professor Ravenwood's daughter.

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writerman on March 23, 2006 - 10:50am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Yes, we start with the Good book and then once we've got the holy text we can evolve into a religious/political movement. In all humility, I think I may have some of the artistic/rhetorical skills this project requires. But I do need a good editor! The above isn't meant to be taken too seriously by anyone. Though I do have a proven track record in the area of writing stuff - fiction and articles and the like. The novel, would, I think, have too be rather epic in scale, perhaps a bit like War and Peace. Maybe written in chunks by a small, insane and talented group. We could eventually share the profits with TOD and the writers. Is that fair. Think what TOD could do with a couple of million dollars - the mainstream here we come! We could perhaps call it War and Oil. Or War, Sex and Oil, then there would be something for everyone. If the rest of you have any good ideas for the title for a novel about Peak Oil get them out here!
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Don Sailorman on March 23, 2006 - 11:37am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I've done editing work for forty years. Be glad to offer my services. [for a share of royalties]

Do it.

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writerman on March 23, 2006 - 3:50pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Yes, Don, I was thinking about you only today. I thought you had obvious abilities too useful and too valuable not to call upon in ones hour of need. Only problem is, I'm into three other projects at the moment. Though you are at the very top of my list as a possible colaborator in crime. I'm sure we could agree terms without too much difficulty. I'm just not sure where I can pick up an extra lifetime on the cheep for all my projects. To be honest, I've been dozing for a couple of years, and now I'm fully awake once more, time is suddenly very scarce. My kids already think I spend too much time writing and babbling about storylines and characters. Now I only write things that amuse me personally, and stories that take-off and write themselves. I try not to get in the way too much. I let the Muses do the hard work.

I suppose one could just use War and Peace as a template and give the characters new names and spice it up a bit, and cut it down to size and exchange the French army for Marines and off we go! Cannibalize, edit and add some gratuitous sex and violence, ditch the Russian ruminations on love and life and... One could also choose the alternative route and do a Dune, but with even more oil/spice references, put the whole thing on a planet like Iraq. Given the extraordinary "characters" in the White House and Iraq, the thing vertually writes itself!

As a final thought I have been thinking about Dumas and his use of cardinal Richelieu pulling the strings behind a weak, lazy and gullible king. I could easily see Cheney morphing into Richelieu in a Peak Oil screenplay. I suppose one could change The Three Musketeers into three/four special forces and make one a woman like Lara Croft.

Actually I like the idea of me taking on the role of Dumas myself, all I need is a ficiton-factory of low-paid collaborators like he had and maybe I could churn out a novel every few months! I should add that I rather like colourful romance, grotesque drama and action. I'm not too good at plagerizing "art novels." I must have read too much Jane Austin! Do you remember what the "pitch" for Alien was, Jaws in Space!

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Don Sailorman on March 23, 2006 - 6:21pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
How about a comic novel that is a spoof of the thriller genre? The premise would be that TOD is actually a plot to manipulate the oil market for the benefit of unspecified but possibly sinister forces--Russian mafia, Japanese yakuza, or the reborn gnomes of Zurich, all acting in collaboration.

I can be myself, just a shadowy figure who changes costumes and pisses most everybody off from time to time, and we can have a love/suspense angle, e.g. will Matt Savinar find his soul mate before TSHTF.

In the final chapter, perhaps it will be revealed that TOD is actually one person with sever MPD, typing sleeplessly from within an Institution for the Criminally Insane.

But then on the last page it will be revealed that that scenario was a nightmare, and the truth is that benevolent aliens from outer space (perhaps the Green Lanterns) will save us all at the last minute.

Anyway, keep it fast, keep it fun, and be sure to throw in plenty of gratuitous sex and threats of violence.

I also am swamped with a huge (five volume) science-fiction project and a nonfiction book that is sure to make me rich and infamous;-)

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LevinK on March 23, 2006 - 7:24pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Actually I once encountered a site, claiming that PO is a world-wide conspiracy. By whom? By the Jews, of course! They seem to be the once that are responsible for all conspiracies ever by default. The story went on to state that the motive is to scare the world it's running out of oil so that we can accept things like Iraq and bring higher profits for the IOCs.

While the truth hidden by these evil b'stards is of course that oil is abiotic will never ever run out.

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LevinK on March 23, 2006 - 7:26pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
oops lapsus keyboardus... pls read:

They seem to be the ones that are responsible...

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Essex Land Rover Man on March 24, 2006 - 11:49am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I like the story of the Russian Jew in the Siberian forest, living in a dilapidated wooden hut. He was reading a newspaper denouncing that Jews were all powerfull in Mother Russia. When asked by a villager why he was reading the newspaper, he replied "It is nice to see how powerful I am".
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17 comments on A Birthday Thought

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