I drive past the strip malls and big box stores, the parking lots and car dealerships, office buildings and subdevelopments, each building a model of cost-efficiency, and I marvel: “After 5,000 years of architectural development, we’ve ended up with this?” Here we see the physical expression of the ideology of science: only the measurable is real. We have maximised our production of the measurable – the square feet, the productivity per labour unit – at the expense of everything qualitative: sacredness, intimacy, love, beauty and play. How much of the ugly does it take to substitute for a lack of the beautiful? How many adventure films does it take to compensate for a lack of adventure? How many superhero movies must one watch to compensate for the atrophied expression of one’s greatness? How much pornography to meet the need for intimacy? How much entertainment to substitute for missing play? It takes an infinite amount. That’s good news for economic growth, but bad news for the planet. Fortunately, our planet isn’t allowing much more of it, nor is our ravaged social fabric.

• Charles Eisenstein

Every time I go home to visit my family I get bombarded by consooming bullshit. Why do we have to watch some random boring capeshit movie every night after dinner; why does every conversation have to be about some new movie or TV show or one of the thirty niche conventions you go to every year? I just want to be able to have a conversation with my aging parents that I get to see twice per year, and my siblings that I see even less.

I get that this is a little rant-y but I needed to say it somewhere.

Let's be honest. I doubt any of you was the school popular kid. So tell me your story.

I can remember there was a religious kid in high school that once the teacher asked him why there is no cure for AIDS, instead of answering by scientific method that why we cannot defy its genome, he just said "Because God wanted to punish the deviant".

Three years have been passed and i cannot disagree.

I haven't had a decent streak in a while, and I'm not fucking it up now. But I'm at that point where the urges are distracting me from other things. Lend me a hand, Kings. Get some shame in here to keep me on the good path.

I've been pursuing my own way, which has aligned mostly with what is going on in here, for a very long time. My goal when I went to work was not to find a career but to make money so that I could OWN things that make money. My goal in family life was to build a family and a legacy -- the only thing that matters. I have tried to keep my spending low, I don't consume for vanity but for things that will make my life better.

For years now I have been seriously considering leaving the city / suburbs and embracing a rural lifestyle. My wife grew up on a farm, so she is quite hesitant to get back to that lifestyle, since she knows it's a lot of work and it doesn't pay well.

My thinking is that by embracing agriculture on a homestead or a more serious operation, I will be using my body each day, strengthening core muscles, improving my cardiovascular system, while getting "paid" to do it. In addition, any improvements I make on my land will increase my wealth, especially generational wealth. Even if I only learn a few skills, I can pass those skills on to my kids knowing that those skills will translate to food on the table in desperate times.

My outline for what I think I want to achieve is the following:

• 10 acres of decent farmland. Most of it is used for grazing cattle, sheep, pigs, goats using the high-density grazing techniques that Greg Judy outlines.
• 1 acre or so for a home garden. I will grow seasonal vegetables as well as "root" vegetables that keep throughout winter.
• A home with a root cellar, a cold / refrigerator room (I need a lot of refrigerator space to process meats) and significant freezer storage.
• Location should be in a very rural area, well away from suburbs or cities, so that the laws will be more amenable to homesteading and farming / ranching.
• Building a network of friends and associates in the community for political and economic purposes.
• Devout and sincere connection with a good church.

I'm thinking with all of the above, I should be able to feed my family without any money or farm inputs. The high-density grazing techniques doesn't require silage or much hay (except maybe in winter, and perhaps I can make my own.) It will require tons of labor but not so much in capital investments.

Are there any things I am missing that I'd need to have a truly self-sustaining homestead?

I sometimes worry about clothing and other things like machinery, but I figure these things are just about as cheap as they can be, so it's pointless to try and compete with those industries at this time. Food, however, isn't as secure as people think, and it's much more critical.

I did not get my dick sucked at the door but I got fucked either way. I delivered the pizza about 15 miles from store on edge of area and apparently customer moved. They put the old address in online. Everything is fine as long as I get my $7. Get back to store after telling manager about this and they cancelled the order. Asked about the $7. Was told I don't get it. Rage Quit. Manager calls and offers to give me the money anyways. Already pissed off.

I can see how maybe I was in the wrong for not just accepting the money and coming back but man I'm not a fucking robot. Opinions.