Tuesday, July 22, 2008

It's been awhile (again), but I have good news

It's been awhile because I've been very busy. I started an overnight job around 3 weeks ago, and last week, I was hired as an assistant for a community land trust (I will explain the concept in a later post, but for now, it basically promotes affordable housing). I start next week, and I am currently researching it whenever I have time. I also start school next month, in what will hopefully be my final semester. My online class is finished. So, I'll have 2 jobs, be going to school full-time, and have been approved for a federal work study, in which case I will have to work an additional 10 to 15 hours either at my college or in some other public service.



So, I'll be a busy boy. But I was very excited when I was invited to the office last week and told that I had the job. I had a really good feeling about it from the moment I applied and received the letter inviting me to the interview. I read about CLT's, thought they were a novel and unique concept whose time, I feel, will be coming (in light of our real estate market, as well as other problems in our society) and I'm glad that I got the job. I even saw the piece of office space that's reserved for me; for someone who's spent most of their working life lifting cases and doing other kinds of menial labor (not that I look down on it, it paid my bills and you always have to do what you can to survive), it's nice to have a position in which I can use my brain.



Another big part of my life has been continuing to read about peak oil. Lately, I've been reading about survivalism. While most of what I knew about survivalism to this point came from pop culture (in which they're largely marginalized as being religious extremists, I find), from the little I've researched, most of them just seem to have a "be prepared" mentality. Over the past few weeks, I've been thinking of starting a new organization, one tentatively named The Peak Oil Society. I believe that community-based solutions to PO will be much more effective than all of us going it alone. My goal, if this gets off the ground, will be to initally educate whoever wishes to take part (perhaps by showing them the documentary "The End of Suburbia") and then try to invite guests and speakers who can teach us about survival skills, ranging from being able to grow our own food, medical training, self-defense, and other methods.

No comments: