Tired more than ranting

[oldhippychick]

While I can rave, I'm more weary of the religious nuts, the gullible, the not very bright (which I know a person can't help, but still, I don't like it), those who are both terribly ill educated and yet somehow proud of it. How ignorance became a source of pride over my lifetime, I don't know and can't explain. For my parents' generation, getting your kids into college and well-educated was the end-all of life. But when Bill Clinton ran for President, one of the worst things his enemies could say about him to their voting base was "he was a Rhodes Scholar." Oooh, booga booga. Go figger.

I quit my job five years back, bought a small RV, and live in it full time, camping for free on federal lands in the US. I live on solar DC power only, have no phone, no running water, and I live quite simply. I make so little money I pay no taxes. I do own a computer and, from time to time, find an open wireless broadcast. I live a very solitary life, and the people I tend to run into accidentally tend not to be my kind of folks--thus, I'm looking for forums to find likeminded people.

I think of myself as a 19th century amateur natural scientists with a few 21st century dodads and in many ways a 1960's mentality. I have an 8-inch Dob telescope and so many reference books my RV lists to the left. Otherwise, I read novels, hike, and on bright-moon or cloudy nights, watch educational DVDs or MST3K episodes on a little DVD player.

I won't post often, but I appreciate the forum being here.

[Professor Chaos]

Fascinating intro, hippychick, welcome to our humble forums! I do hope you stick around!

(Didja notice that college became something for "nerds" right around the same time the Cons were taking away all the free secondary education and making it unaffordable for the common folk?) :eh:

[nkb]

Isn't oldhippychick's lifestyle sort of what Kate was contemplating a while back?

Welcome, hippychick.

[Kate]

Not "was contemplating." "Is planning". :D

[Professor Chaos]

Not "was contemplating." "Is planning". :D

So your life will be a constant road trip? Does that mean I can count on you for every Steelers/Browns game at Heinz Field?

[nkb]

Well, now you have someone to get some pointers from.

[Choobus]

like, spread your books out evenly

[Kate]

Yeah, but I'm getting a yurt.

[Mr. Wimpy]

Yeah, but I'm getting a yurt.

If you get one with wheels you will also need a brace of Oxen. :D

[Kate]

Dogs. I'm going to have dogs.

[oldhippychick]

Choobuslike, spread your books out evenly

Aha! great idea! now, if only you designed motor home interiors.... I too would have put equal storage on both sides. I think that the designers rightly assume you won't be using the storage for books. It really doesn't list--that was my idea of joke--but the tires wear unevenly. I get "book squish" on the treads.

kate, yurts are great, too--with wheels you can chase the sun angle (crucial for solar)/good weather, but with yurts you can live outside the petroleum world, which is admirable. I do have to put gas into this thing once a month in order to do the required move at least 30 miles (the federal govt's rule for people like me) once every 14 days.

[Smellyoldgit]

OK I'm sad - - I had to look up "yurt" :(

[Mr. Wimpy]

http://www.woodlandyurts.co.uk/images/gerCart.gif

[Professor Chaos]

OK I'm sad - - I had to look up "yurt" :(

You're not alone.

[Sternwallow]

Yeah, but I'm getting a yurt.
How many MPG in a yurt?

[ubs]

Welcome hippychick.

I stayed in a Yurt once. It was pretty palatial. Very Arabian Nights.

[Rat Bastard]

Welcome, oldhippychick! Do you own a TV? If not, marry me! j/k, it sounds like a good life, and believe it or not, I didn't have a TV until I got married. TV s.u.c.k.s. for the most part. That willful prideful ignorance stems from the programming on there, I think, to some extent.

[CycloneRanger]

Interesting. Might I ask what you did before buying the RV?

[Eva]

wonderful to have you here, hippychick!
welcome to our humble forum....


(i thought yurt was something the tibetans made from yak milk...)

[Rat Bastard]

wonderful to have you here, hippychick!
welcome to our humble forum....


(i thought yurt was something the tibetans made from yak milk...)

Pah! To quote the infamous Ghengis Khan, "Your yurt is MY yurt!". End of story. Now, you want to talk assholes (or other holes), that Khanster was one of teh worst.

[Eva]

so, you thought yurt was something the mongolians made out of mare's milk, rat???

the thought also crossed my mind...but since tibetans are hipper than mongols...dalai lama and richard gere and edmund hillary notwhithstanding...

[Rat Bastard]

Nah, I know my yogurt from my yurt- one goes inside, the other stays outside.

[Eva]

huh....i always thought they were the same, but yurt was just the californian pronunciation..

[oldhippychick]

thanks, all. try saying "yurt" ten times in a row. Odd, eh?

I'm a retired professor/instructor/lecturer, but I'm not terribly proud of that. I call myself "a recovering academic."

And no, I don't own a TV. I can't swear I'm entirely anti-TV because of the MST3000 jones, but I'm pretty darned anti-TV. If you don't see daily what you're "supposed" to own, and instead assess your real needs, you end up not needing to own much at all. Funny, that.

[Professor Chaos]

Loaded and personal question (feel free to ignore):

Are you happy?

[mmfwmc]

Pah! To quote the infamous Ghengis Khan, "Your yurt is MY yurt!". End of story. Now, you want to talk assholes (or other holes), that Khanster was one of teh worst.

It must have been a gaping one, because he fucked over almost everyone.

[oldhippychick]

Professor C, actually, 99% of the time I'm contented or happy or downright joyous. The other bit of time I'm not, there's often some damned thing going wrong, generally some new thing breaking on my RV that I'm trying to learn to fix, learning which I've never been able to sustain a positive attitude about (like, oh gee, isn't this fun to have the opportunity to learn to repair a broken sewage tank!)

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I believe this happiness comes not only from chosing a life that appeals to me, but from staying away from other human beings for weeks at a time. No TV, no pop culture, no religion, no other people saying insulting crap to me or working out their unresolved childhood emotional traumas on me (a fair definition of the experience of teaching, I think). My mind stays very clear in these circumstances of being a hermit. It isn't that I don't theoretically like humanity or wish the best for other people. I just wish the best for 99.999% of them while they are hundreds of kilometers away from me.

Without all that noise, including quietly and internally arguing back against theists (no sense in doing it F2F, for you only get dirty and the pig has all the fun) or racists or sexists or whatever...I have a lot more time to act positively for myself and out of my true nature. As I said, I spend a good chunk of that time studying nature. Last night, I spent a half hour sketching Saturn at 200x. It's a peaceful, joyous existence doing such things. When I tire of one thing, I move on to the next.


Anyhoo, I'm back to the wilderness in a couple hours, so this'll be my last post until next I happen upon a wireless connection.

Thanks all for the welcome, moments of pleasure and thought. It's bookmarked...and I'll be back.

[balder]

Welcome to the forum old hippy chick.Ithink that the Mongol drink from fermented mares milk is called Kavas?or some like spelling