The Oil Drum

Let celebrate by sending a get well card to Daniel Yergin. He must be getting sick of getting every prediction wrong.

Yes, congratulations indeed.

And much thanks for giving me the idea to take google adwords and advertisements on LATOC. That has helped so much and I don't know if I would have thought of it had I not seen the ads here.

Part of the reason I'm so happy about the advertisements is I have enough saved to take a scouting trip to a corner of the world I think has a shot of missing the worst of what I see coming. (I could be wrong of course.) Heck I just got glasses yesterday as I will be doing a good bit of driving during my visit and those cost $500!

Should I decide to relocate I am thinking of using LATOC as a way to finance something akin to a walled, off-grid biosolar community compound with "citizen Earth Marines". By "Citizen Earth Marines" I'm thinking something along the lines of the Founding Father's idea of citizen-soldier-militias but with solar panels and six-shooters.

Unfortunately I only have about $15,000 at my disposal which only enough to build a yurt in an unincorporated/outlaw part of where I'm considering going, buy a 100 watt solar panel, and put up a lifesize cardboard cutout of The Terminator as my "compound's" defense grid. Maybe get a trusty dog too.

Then I figured "well perhaps I should sell LATOC . . ." and use that money to finance my biosolar community compound. A site like LATOC is worth its most in the 2-to-5 years prior to real chaos and economic collapse taking place, a time I think we're entering. The time where fuel and food is available for most westerners just at increasingly high prices. The period where intelligent and informed people can still perform enough mental gymnastics to be able to say with a straight face "it's still too early to see how this will play out . . . after all a magical fleet of hybrid cars piloted by venture capitalists may ride to our rescue . . ." But even in the best case scenario I don't know that I could get enough for it so I've dismissed that idea for now.

So then I figured "well why not tap into my readership?" I mean there must be a few well-to-do people who might be willing to finance the place in exchange for a spot in such a community. In other words I don't have the money to do what I'd like to do but I may be able to leverage my site as a tool to get what I really want which is an off-grid biosolar compound with Citizen Earth Marines. Thus far that is the best idea I've been able to come up with.

I'm curious if the proprietors of TOD have considered doing likewise? As great as TOD is, it is (like all PO Blogs) wholly dependent on an underlying functioning petroluem and electricity based economy. (the irony of this I'm sure is not lost) Once it comes undone, this blog will disappear into the night like most of the non-essential internet.

At the very least the readership would severly contract as more and more of us upper middle class types have to get theri hands dirty in the game of survival. Will Stuart, for instance, have time to dig through reports of KSA's production when he and/or his wife loose their non-essential jobs? Similarly, would I have time to read his analysis of the reports should I no longer be able to procure my food and energy with FRNs people give me in exchange for copies of "The End of Suburbia" and "Crude Impact", products which are excellent but in the big picture completely non-essential?

So I guess my question to the TOD Overlords is: do you folks have any plans in the works for your own survival? And do you forsee leveraging TOD be it for financing, contacts, whatever, to implement your lifeboat strategy?