RuneScape Forum Archive | Story and Roleplay Chat Thread

Gunslinger Z

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Yeah, I'm not exactly loaded either. I make about 500 every two weeks which is enough for me I guess. Most of it goes to bills, rent or back into the house/mower/car to make sure shit's running right and functional. I've been in poverty most of my life. Started working when I was 11 years old to help with bills and stuff around the house. Last year I was doing pretty well but I wasted most of my money back then or spent it unwisely. I was working management at Wal-Mart and I was basically the dock boss/backroom manager. Made 15.30 an hour and usually 1200-1300 every two weeks. Got involved with a dumb broad and spent a hell of a lot of money on her and her stupid ideas, wasted the rest on alcohol, tobacco, marijuana or cocaine. It pretty much sucked. Then the last few months of 2017 I finally started to get my shit together after I lost my job. It's helped me realize that I can actually live on close to nothing. I think growing up poor is underrated. Builds character and humility, makes you frugal, and around my house, very little is wasted and I fix stuff instead of throwing it away and replacing it. As a young'un it was instilled in me that if you didn't fix it, you'd just have to do without it because there was no money to hire a repair man or replace it. Taught me a lot really.

I'd like to own a good sized stretch of land out in the middle of nowhere. Build a homestead and be mostly self-sufficient. Grow, fish, hunt and gather my own food. Get power from solar panels. Get a pack of dogs and a bunch of barn cats and a couple of horses. That's my main goal. Then I can sit around, hike, play my banjo, go fishing and write in uninterrupted peace and shoot my guns.

A lot of younger guys [especially those from backgrounds of wealth] don't know jack shit and they're not very well-adjusted. They get out on their own and immediately realize how little they know. School nowadays does an even worse job of preparing one for adulthood than it did when we were young.

18-Aug-2018 04:15:55

Gunslinger Z

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Likewise, I think a lot of city people aren't too well adjusted either. People that never saw a natural forest or body of water. It's ridiculous really. And should society collapse, which I think it will, they'll be pretty much doomed unless us 'dumb hicks' want to help them out. I suppose I would as long as they don't get me killed. I'm a generous guy but it's often to a fault.

18-Aug-2018 04:18:11

Westenev

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Perhaps bushcraft and poverty would be great skills if the world were blown back into the stone ages, but lighting fires by rubbing two sticks together and catching deer with your bare hands won't feed a family in a world where big brother has the authority to tell you that you don't deserve to eat or live in a house.

Greed is both a virtue and a sin; in the same way it hinders us, it’s also a great motivator to create some really cool shit. Stuff that we simply couldn't do if everyone was content to wear furs and sharpen stone spears.

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18-Aug-2018 04:41:10

Azi Demonica

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Gun,
That’s quite the story, Gun. You’ve had some pretty hard times, but glad that you got out of the drugs, alcohol and bad woman problems. You made good money as a Walmart manager, tho, at least compared to me. I worked for fourteen dollars an hour in a lumber mill, basically doing a two-man job on my own for three months, thus screwed up the tendons in my left arm. Still in constant pain since July 28th. Over twenty days of constant pain has really taken a toll on me, I have to nap almost every day.
But yes, you can live a decent life without spending much, it’s a very good skill to know, one that us losers know very well! I also do my own carpentry, and repair my own replica medieval weapons.

Homesteading is also a dream of mine. Too bad I don’t know anything about it. So far, I’ve only been able to plant a little crop in my greenhouse which is about two metres square big. I’ve also replanted five pine saplings around my trailer. Overall, not impressive, but, better than nothing, I suppose.

Yup, rich kids are basically useless without civilization. However, they are smart, educated, and often successful. Yeah, and with a worsening education system, rich kids are pretty vulnerable. They're just so, well, domesticated.

Bleh, I’d die living in a city. Can’t handle cities, I need to see rivers and forests. But yes, city peeps are gonna die first if a global collapse occurs. However, I think we’re still a few decades away from that, unless we get into a nuclear war.

West,
Indeed, bushcrafting and poverty are great skills. I can do bow drill friction fire! Hm, you’d need agriculture mixed with permaculture and cattle to truly survive with family. Living in a community of ranchers would be even better. Villages can survive a global collapse, a city cannot.

Yeah, greed can do both cool things and bad things. Just one aspect of human nature that we can’t ever let go of.

18-Aug-2018 04:52:28

Gunslinger Z

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That's really only the start of it to be honest. I could write a few volumes about the hard times. Particularly the Christmas me and my mom had when she was undergoing cancer treatment and we ate cheese and crackers and some canned turkey meat for Christmas dinner. That was probably the worst year of my life. I was 12 or 13 at the time I think. I've gone off the deep end with drugs and women quite a number of times, got involved with people, places and things that could have had me doing ten years or more up river in the federal prison. It was good money back there but the stress just wasn't worth it. Trying to micro-manage [because they wanted me to] a team of twenty, work around insane delivery schedules, bust ass to defeat the insane expectations they had of me, all through it was pure manual labor and some mental too. It burned me out, burned my stomach out and probably caused the worsening of my alcoholism and everything else. I stepped down and got fired because I got pneumonia and missed a few days. I have no doubt though that your job at the lumber mill was probably tougher. Those lumber yard guys are some tough sons of bitches. I've met quite a few. I don't know if I could do it honestly. I'm familiar with work-related injuries. Almost lost two fingers, busted my back up, screwed my left shoulder, broke three toes on my left foot that never healed right. Tore down my knees pretty good as well. It's tough. Working yourself into the ground like that and eventually you might not even be able to work or provide because of it. Now I got a job at the local hardware store and it's pretty good. Doesn't pay much but I work with a lot of good dudes, customers are pretty cool and I get to learn a lot about various trades, DIY and assembling lawn equipment and what-not. I'd rather take a lower paying job that I don't hate any day I guess. Planning on getting my CDL and going out trucking here in a year or so. Might get into welding.

18-Aug-2018 05:15:30

Gunslinger Z

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I live a relatively decent life I guess. Fairly isolated but I like it that way. Not too much bullshit or drama going on. I don't know terribly much about homesteading. I mean I've put in crops, done a little farm work, a little hunting and quite a bit of fishing. I know how to forage a bit too. Not sure if I'd be able to subsist on nature alone but I'd make a good stand at it. And hell, you're way ahead of the city boys in terms of that. Least you can work with your hands and grow some produce. I'd like to get into woodworking and canning. Those would be pretty useful.

I've run into a lot of wet-behind-the-ears rich/sheltered kids and worked with them. Most of the time they're useless. Might be book smart but anything else, they don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. Living in a small town, I watched a lot of my old friends go to college and come back with a superiority complex, a big ego and it's like they get politically brainwashed. I guess I get it though. College just wasn't for me though. I suck at math and I don't care for academia. High school was enough of a pain in the ass and I would be damned if I was gonna sign up for four or so more years of it. Couldn't leave my mom hangin' either though. She's getting up there in years and I gotta do a lot of the finances, house work, cooking and repair work. She wouldn't have been able to keep up with it had I moved away for college.

I can spend maybe two or three weeks in a city but eventually I gotta get back to the open spaces. I usually just check out what the city has to offer, go to some events, eat some good food, meet some new folks and then I go back to my meager ass-end-of-Ohio existence. I haven't been out of the US yet but I'm sorta planning a trip to the UK next year. Maybe, if I can square away some money.

18-Aug-2018 05:21:50

Azi Demonica

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Oh my, cheese, crackers and canned turkey for Christmas dinner, while mom has cancer treatment, that’s very depressing. Glad you made it out of the darker street stuff, that’s usually a road to prison, it’s not worth it. Better to be poor and free than rich and a slave to crime. Ouch, getting fired because you got pneumonia; what is it with jobs nowadays? Seems like everyone treats you as a slave; I got fired from Q-Ply because I didn’t let retard supervisors or the plant manager yell at me.

Lumber will work is hard, and at worse, you catch and throw tree stumps all day, definitely not something I can do anymore. But yes, there are laborers who are very tough, they’re like trees, but I was never that solid or physically powerful (I naturally have a narrow waist so I lack width), but I did have endurance and stamina.

Ouch, you endured quite a lot of injuries, hunh? Much worse than me. I did feel quite a lot of pain here and there, but was lucky enough to never break a bone. But yes, overwork yourself, and you might permanently ruin your body, especially the knees; knee problems are common and quite serious.

Exactly! A low-paying job you like, that doesn’t kill you, is better than a good paying job that brings ruination. As for trucking, be careful, lots of guys have ruined their life doing trucking. My older brother works ten hour shifts at least as a trucker, he’s always sleeping, and barely has any time for his family. Lots of truckers, at least up here in British Columbia, die in accidents.
My Texan friend’s older brother is also a trucker, and his family life is ruined. Apparently, truckers commonly have bad family lives. As for welding, well, you increase the chance for cancer by quite a lot. Basically, every job can kill you.

18-Aug-2018 06:31:19 - Last edited on 18-Aug-2018 06:32:58 by Azi Demonica

Azi Demonica

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I also live a rather isolated life, but it’s better, just for the reasons you pointed out: no BS, no drama. I never had the patient or energy to deal with that. You seem more qualified for homesteading than me, that’s for sure! I also did some hobby forging, never finished a serious project, though. I’m currently growing carrots, beets, and a few kinds of herbs, did some weeding the other day. Ah yes, canning, never thought of that, but it’s a great skill to know.

Bleh, colleges and universities seem to be political brainwashing centers now. I never finished my post-secondary education, but I stopped going right before this SJW crap became widespread. It ruins people. Basically, schooling is indoctrination and conformity, so that you can only do one thing. I also suck at math. Ah, you help a parent, kind soul. I’m living with my dad for the time being, he looks young for his age but, as a cancer survivor, he’s getting closer to kicking the bucket, and I want to make sure he doesn’t get killed by a bear or end up abused in a senior’s home. You’re a very good son if you do all that for your ma! It’s rare for kids to look after their parents, but minimizing the population of senior homes is way cheaper for taxpayers in the long run.

Never been to Ohio. I did drive through the middle of USA to meet my Texan friend last year, which was quite a fun road trip. American roads are straighter and smoother than Canadian ones, and vastly better made. The USD is pretty good, but the UK is quite expensive, as is Australia. You could consider having a trip to Poland, it’s quite cheap over there and has excellent food, and Poles like Americans, and more and more Poles speak English.

18-Aug-2018 06:31:28