[Shellie]

Hi BJ and Shorty!

OK, I'm in Austin too, and I was wondering WHAT our plan it, HOW we are going to implement, and WHO will be responsible for what? Ok, so a lot of people put up their email addresses... we need to start coordinating.

First of all, I propose we create a Yahoo group for collecting and sending information.

Second of all, we need to make a list of everyone's talents, knowledge, resources, and general philosophy of what is coming next and how to deal with it. Leave no talent or knowledge behind! For example:

I dropped out of 3rd year of environmental microbiology at Michigan State U, but went back and finished a degree in linguistics and Arabic (though I had a stroke and forgot the Arabic at the beginning of grad school!). Ok, so I have done limited water treatment and engineering lab work, know a crapload about compost piles and germs, know a lot about alternative medicine (though in the wild I would be helpless because I don't know what anything looks like). I can decode unknown languages and also manually code and decode simple crypts. I still speak English and French, and have a passive (75%) understanding of Spanish and Italian. I have lived in Saudi Arabia- I actually taught Islamic jurisprudence classes while there as well as ESL. I am also a cold weather hiker and survivalist, and feel uncomfortable in the nearly desert environment I am living in now.

I am flat broke and have two young children, but I also have a boyfriend who is worth his weight in gold when it comes to computer hardware and electronics. He is outdoorsy too, and a photographer. My car is a compact, it can't haul anything. We have accumulated some food for about 2 months. We don't have any medical problems or dependencies- for example, no one is diabetic, we don't drink and we don't smoke.

Third: We need to seriously think about going "tribal" and I mean that in the StClair sense. I have lived in tribal communities and there are a lot of really good things about them (some bad too, but that is dependent on the general culture). How far are willing to help each other? Are we willing to help with money, food, medical help, shelter, protection? Do we feel safe with each other? Would everyone feel safer with background checks? Are we going to stick it out in our individual locations, or will we develop a rendez-vous point, a homestead, survival retreat, etc? How much resources are we willing to put in even though we have no idea if anything WILL happen, WHAT it will be, etc.?

Fourth: If the internet goes down, how will we communicate?

Fifth: We need to be self-assured and secure. I can tell you, I can't stand whiners and they will definitely be a heavy weight to pull. Please, no co-dependents, control freaks, quitters, adult children, envious and jealous people, completely negative doom and gloom people (though the reality is that things are getting ugly for a short while) etc..

My own feeling, and this is my own so pipe up if you don't agree, is that the critical qualities each of us can have is flexibility, acceptance of change, cooperation, perseverance, and loyalty to each other and to our goals.

Please everyone, post your thoughts and let's get started!

99Boogies