Nian's Blog

"What is good" Andy,I just finished reading your interesting Post Peak Adaptive skills, and I find these ideas significant and thoughtful but I can't imagine myself growing potatoes in my apartment. We require large amounts of organic fertilizer and water to nurture our potatoes. In order for us to create organic fertilizer we need to research more about the worms that farmers used in Cuba that made these fertilzers, and ways to ensure a healthy life for the crops. New York City's weather isn't the greatest place to be planting crops, due to the air, cold seasons, and probably hungry insects or mice. Also, if we just imagine ourselves in the Peak Oil situation, there would probably be no faucet water, and we would have to haul our tired bodies to the east rive with the "swimming dolphins," and try to get water from there. As we bring back the reeking smell of East River water, this is where learning to build a fire without gasoline comes in handy when facing a Peak Oil situation. I believe this is the first crutial thing we all should learn when Peak Oil does happen. Fire is a source of energy, we can use it to boil water, cook food, or even scare away hungry coyotes in the forest. I find it hard starting all these exercises like entering the wood and learn how to wipe my buttocks with a leaf instead of toliet paper, or take care of myself with nothing but a two rocks that spark everytime I strike them together or learning another language when I'm struggling to eloquently fashion my English speaking and writing skills. I have a question for you Andy. Maybe you feel the same way as me. Like we talked about in class, when we were laughing at the comments in class, we all looked at each other to see other people's reaction. Right now, I think everyone is aware that this serious, life or death situation is going to happen but their reaction and implementations I see is more like, "wow this is really going to happen, but everythings going so smoothly. We learn that oil is being depleted in an overwhelmingly rate and the consequences of rising prices on oil pumps. But our friends are still driving and hanging out blasting their music, we see people drinking wine dining on the outside of little italy. New movies are coming out, like X-men Three, and The Omen (06/06/06) and it gives people the impression that we are still "moving on," we're still growing as a civilization, sorta providing us the message to live on with our lives, screw the thought of peak oil. Get high off this last drop of oil before you disappear on this earth entirely. But again, the messages from these movies can also give us a negative message that we aren't really looking at as closely. For X-men 3, the movie makers call this "THE LAST STAND", giving the message about our civilization (the mutants) struggling to survive life after peak oil (angry humans who's temper has reached its peak) where as in THE OMEN, evil is born, and people start dying because of this "uncontrollable" evil threat that walks the earth.As long as everything continues to grow, and people's lives continue without change in the way they live, then everyone's going to have the expression where life is good. Lets get bent drinking at bars, lets make love with your loved ones, lets sip on champagne on our oil powered cruise boat. I believe it's good practice to destroy our daily routine in life and see how it feels like not to depend on the power structures that shape our life. But there's consequences that we wouldn't like to face. If I decide not to use my computer or any type of electricty in the household, then I guess I wouldn't be able to type 2000 words by midnight, as well find my way to the bathroom and aim correctly at the toliet bowl.