Going Galt

Well, I'm getting out of the field and back into an office. This is a conscience choice on my part. It will mean a large cut in pay....but I will be home every night!!!

My reason for doing so is that I want to make an effort to cut down my tax burden and do just a bit to help starve the beast. I have taken the neccessary steps before hand. My wife and I have set up a nice little homestead and have expanded our garden, canning, and have even started our own flock of chickens.

I know deep down that this won't really make a difference, but it is something I have to do for myself. I really wanna see if we can depend upon ourselves and be sucessful. I even bought an old '85 Rabbit to make the work commute and am trying my hand at making black diesel.

Am I wierd for this???

Marconius wrote:
Am I wierd for this???

Dude, you know your audience here, you can't ask this question and not expect a "yes" answer, just because... :-P

Pay cuts can be a bitch, have done that several times now - once voluntarily, a few times not so voluntarily.... You get used to the new reality after a while, and after the last one I realised that I never really spent all that much money anyway (my main monthly expense apart from rent & bills was eating out, so we just started going to cheaper restaurants :-P)

So is your main reason for the office job move to be home every night, or to "starve the beast"? Good luck with it either way anyway - hope your wife doesn't end up killing you after being so used to you not being underfoot for so long!

Miles1 wrote:

Marconius wrote:
Am I wierd for this???

Dude, you know your audience here, you can't ask this question and not expect a "yes" answer, just because... :-P

Pay cuts can be a bitch, have done that several times now - once voluntarily, a few times not so voluntarily.... You get used to the new reality after a while, and after the last one I realised that I never really spent all that much money anyway (my main monthly expense apart from rent & bills was eating out, so we just started going to cheaper restaurants :-P)

So is your main reason for the office job move to be home every night, or to "starve the beast"? Good luck with it either way anyway - hope your wife doesn't end up killing you after being so used to you not being underfoot for so long!

To be honest, it is something I really wanna do. Do I really think I am gonna starve government??? Hell no. Did I do it to be home every night??? Not really. My wife and I have always been good......of course your point still stands so only time will tell if she can put up with my BS on a long term basis.

I guess I really, really wanna see if we can actually become somewhat self-sufficient. Look, the economy is in the crapper. We are a gnat's ass away from hyper-inflation. Even the government's own accountability office is predicting a dollar collapse before Pres Obama's 2nd term is up if we do not curtail both spending and the debt. If I take the steps now, we won't be affected as bad. Good news is if the upcoming depression is averted, well then at least I'm saving money and energy. Either way, I ain't a prepper. Just an old school southern country boy returning to his roots. Hell we may not even speak English on our property. How would that be for returning to my roots??? My Cajun has gotten very rusty........

Bottom line; it ain't nothing we aren't seeing in other countries who have fallen on rough economic times.

If it brings you happiness and ain't hurting anyone, go for it! I don't know how easy it'll be to do on your own, but I know there are areas (like the fairly remote Humboldt County/lost coast area of north-west California) where the communities still produce much of what they use.

You speak Cajun? Are there any formal structures in that language?

Bryant wrote:If it brings you happiness and ain't hurting anyone, go for it! I don't know how easy it'll be to do on your own, but I know there are areas (like the fairly remote Humboldt County/lost coast area of north-west California) where the communities still produce much of what they use.

You speak Cajun? Are there any formal structures in that language?

Yep, I speak it. English is actually my second language.

Little history:

My mother's family, the Moutons, came to Louisiana in 1765 with the bulk of the Acadians(my dad's dad was straight off the boat from Scotland, but he married a Cajun so even though I carry a Scottish last name, I am mostly Cajun). Her mother died in 1991 and did not know a lick of English. In fact when Standard Oil was doing business in southern LA, they got tired of hiring interpreters so they lobbied the state government. State government then made it illegal to speak anything but English in public. That one law did a lot to kill the Cajun heritage and language. Most people my age cannot speak it that well. Of course times have changed and Cajun is a big source of pride in my area. Street signs in Lafayette are all in Cajun, they teach the Cajun language in schools as well as Cajun history(both as electives). My son, who is 22, not only knows how to speak it, but read and write it as well(I was never taught to read or write anything but English, but can understand the basics of what I am reading). If you were a fly on the wall in my parents house, in Kerrville TX, you won't hear a lick of English spoken even today(unless a non-Cajun speaking person was visiting and is the only time I really get to speak it exclusively....my wife is not that good at it.....she has just begun to learn it).

Yes there are formal structures. Basically Cajun is about 96% old, maritime influenced French(our phrase for "turn around" is the same as "turn about" in French) that isn't really spoken any more anywhere but here. It is different than French and French/Canadian. The other 4% is a mixture of African, Spanish and Native(mostly Attakapa). I can about 1/2 of what the French are saying and understand just a tad bit more than 50% of what a French/Canadian is saying. Of course since we have been isolated from other French speaking people since 1765, we do use English terms for things that did not exist back then....like TV's(although strangely we do have a word for car.....basically the same as carriage). I really want to go to New Hampshire and see what the Cajuns there are like(yes Cajuns also settled New Hampshire after being kicked outta Acadia....to be Cajun, one MUST be able to directly trace his/her lineage directly back to Acadia).

Marconius wrote:
Yep, I speak it. English is actually my second language.

......

my wife is not that good at it.....she has just begun to learn it).

That's handy, if you ever say anything that pisses her off, you can pass it off as a translation error :-P

Well, starting my third week in this office hell hole. How the hell do y'all do it??? I can't stand it. Gimme the natural sun, the wind, the dirt, the bugs.......gimme anything but this sterile, florescent lit, hell of a workplace.

This whole idea may fall apart in four weeks. I told my employer, this morning, that he has four weeks left for me to learn to like this. He asked, "why four weeks?" I said, "there are only four more episodes of 'The Walking Dead'."

Marconius wrote:Well, starting my third week in this office hell hole. How the hell do y'all do it??? I can't stand it. Gimme the natural sun, the wind, the dirt, the bugs.......gimme anything but this sterile, florescent lit, hell of a workplace.

You just need to wait for the Numbing to kick in...



:-P

This whole idea may fall apart in four weeks. I told my employer, this morning, that he has four weeks left for me to learn to like this. He asked, "why four weeks?" I said, "there are only four more episodes of 'The Walking Dead'."

Is that the 2nd half of series 3? Shit, hasn't hit TV over here yet. Off to the internet I go so!

Miles1 wrote:

Marconius wrote:Well, starting my third week in this office hell hole. How the hell do y'all do it??? I can't stand it. Gimme the natural sun, the wind, the dirt, the bugs.......gimme anything but this sterile, florescent lit, hell of a workplace.

You just need to wait for the Numbing to kick in...



:-P

Funny. I can feel it starting to take hold.

Yep, the 2nd half started a couple of weeks ago. The 2nd episode actually has a "zombie bomb". you have to watch it to see what I mean.

Have you ever read the comic??? I am disappointed in the TV's version of the Governor.

Marconius wrote:

Funny. I can feel it starting to take hold.

Yep, the 2nd half started a couple of weeks ago. The 2nd episode actually has a "zombie bomb". you have to watch it to see what I mean.

Have you ever read the comic??? I am disappointed in the TV's version of the Governor.

That's quick, normally tales a few months. Then again, it depends on what you were used to before I guess...

No, never got the comics over here - Ireland doesn't really get all that much in the way of graphic novels, I can think of 4, maybe 5 shops in the country that specialize in them.

You know that the Governor is actually British? As in, the actor I mean? So is Rick - you could never tell by the accents could you?

Miles1 wrote:

Marconius wrote:

Funny. I can feel it starting to take hold.

Yep, the 2nd half started a couple of weeks ago. The 2nd episode actually has a "zombie bomb". you have to watch it to see what I mean.

Have you ever read the comic??? I am disappointed in the TV's version of the Governor.

That's quick, normally tales a few months. Then again, it depends on what you were used to before I guess...

No, never got the comics over here - Ireland doesn't really get all that much in the way of graphic novels, I can think of 4, maybe 5 shops in the country that specialize in them.

You know that the Governor is actually British? As in, the actor I mean? So is Rick - you could never tell by the accents could you?

I worked in an office back in the mid-90's. Since approx 95 or 96, I have been out in the field. Since I love to spend all my off time outside, I have always loved working in the field. I guess now that I am in my mid-40's(no old guy jokes please), I should learn to love this office stuff, but I am still in good shape physically so I kinda feel like I just put myself out to pasture. There is also no teaching here. I really loved taking green hands and showing them the right way of doing things(just because I have a masters doesn't mean I don't know fitting and welding). Now all I do is look at NDE(non-destructive examination, I went from a consultation firm to an inspection firm) project data to ensure correctness. For the first time in years, my fingernails are clean(except on weekends when I am under the hood of a car or working in the yard).

I knew Rick wasn't American, but for some reason I thought he was an Aussie. His Georgia accent is fine. The Gov. on the other hand has a horrible southern accent. He tries to hard.