I can has blog?

Despite reading about, planning for, and blogging about today, I'm still in shock that it happened. News reports are still scattered, so we don't know the extent of what happened or much about what caused it. But now we do know one thing:

It happened.

I have to say, I'm glad it wasn't a more catastrophic loss of oil. $4 gas is pretty bad, but survivable. It'll probably get worse, but for right now we at least don't have any widespread chaos or anything. We still have electricity and the internet. That's something at least.

So... now what? I've been so focused on preparing for short term survival that I haven't thought about much else. I now have plenty of seeds, a radio, and a supply of water. But survival isn't enough. We've got to DO SOMETHING about this! But I can't for the life of me think what. I guess that's why we formed this group, right? So let's talk. What do we do now?

-Peter

There's been a lot of great how-to's and survival tips posted by various people, but it's not organized anywhere, so that's the purpose of this post. I'll try to keep it updated and relatively complete. Post anything you think I should add in the comments. Anything without credit listed is from my own research.

(Ok, I posted that before I gathered everything together, and there's a lot less than I thought. I'll be doing some of my own research, but link me up people!)

Hopefully I (or someone other industrious fellow) will go through all these links and pull out the best ones, but for now here's just the raw list:

redhatty's guides:

http://redhatty.livejournal.com/956.html - Survival kit (with links to other lists)

http://redhatty.livejournal.com/1050.html - Make your own ovens!

http://redhatty.livejournal.com/1298.html - Emergency power and water (lots of links)

http://redhatty.livejournal.com/1715.html - What should I stock?

http://redhatty.livejournal.com/3270.html - Gardening tips

http://redhatty.livejournal.com/3562.html - Gardening part 2

Other blogs:

http://cissmiace.livejournal.com/1172.html - cissmiace on gardening

http://nitefoll.livejournal.com/2904.html - nitefoll on fitness

http://cissmiace.livejournal.com/1493.html - cissmiaceon the essentials

http://staxnet.livejournal.com/4346.html - staxnet on bicycle care

http://wwoksg.livejournal.com/1482.html - wwoksg on late-season gardening

Individual Articles:

http://www.yoyow.com/alizard/ch5.html - Energy preparedness, specifically for Y2K but a lot of it applies.

http://www.yoyow.com/alizard/ch6.html - Communications, specifically for Y2K

Collections of articles/Disaster Preparedness websites:

http://www.72hours.org/ - Excellent all-around preparedness website! Based in San Fransisco.

http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/disasters/ - HUGE list of papers and articles on EVERYTHING (including Vacuum Freeze-Drying instructions for preserving water-damaged library papers...)

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Prepare.html - Lots of different articles on all sorts of stuff. Specifically for an oil crash! (Credit to chrisjill86)

http://www.survivingpeakoil.com/articles.php - A bunch of articles on surviving peak oil.

http://www.nhne.com/wild2k/lists.html - List of webpages related to surviving Y2K. A lot of it applies to this crisis as well.

http://www.prepare.org/basic/basic.htm - Basic disaster preparedness articles

http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/ - I know, I know, it's FEMA. But still a decent site.

http://www.ready.gov/ - Hard to figure out what they have here, but the checklist at least is a bit helpful.

Other/Misc

http://www.lehmans.com/ - Sells Amish goods, which obviously don't rely on oil. (Credit to rumpletoe)

I've been thinking that it would be a good idea to network with other WWO people before the crash. This would be especially good in the big cities, but even out here in the middle o' nowhere it couldn't hurt.

So here's my online info. Won't help if the power goes out, but otherwise it'll be useful. If you're near central IL, definitely message me and we can talk more.

AIM: gurrtin
email: poeticexplosion@gmail.com

These past few weeks have been really interesting. I've never been too concerned about oil, though I knew in the back of my head that it'd be a problem someday. Now, however, I've started to see how much we really depend on oil in our everyday life. Even if April 30th comes and goes with nothing happening, I'll have much more appreciation for our dependence on oil.

Nico could have been pulling their leg, or he might be wrong. The 8TSOC could be blowing this out of proportion, or even perpetrating a giant hoax. But what if they're not? What if, on April 30th, there's a catastrophic oil shock?