Thursday, June 27, 2019

death of hard copy


DEATH OF HARD COPY
This article is vaguely related to the economic collapse and somewhat ties in with prepping ( entertainment to combat cabin fever ), but is also in large part more of a “by my whimsy” selection. Sometimes I like to detour slightly from frugal prepping or causes of collapse. Hell, once I wrote on why the original Star Wars was so popular ( I dislike the theory that the public needed cheering up. The same year, Smokey And The Bandit and Oh, God! Did as good or better per theater and they were happy movies. click here for box office numbers ).
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My basic contention here is that digital ( defined as online, since even some hard copy is technically digital. A better definition is, well, No Hard Copy ) killed off hard copy but now digital is VERY expensive. Since by and large hard copy is spit upon now by lazy bastards too incapacitated to get out of their padded chairs, you can and should rush to invest and stockpile everything Hard Copy. I'll cover the different media and give good reasons to fear Digital. And yes, some is Collapse orientated so I don't go completely off the rails.
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Most preppers are entirely too serious. Oooo, I simply MUST have a FLIR scope. I MUST have freeze dried unicorn gall bladder. If I don't have an AR-15 I'll never triumph over hordes of Walkers! Relax, Francis. Odds are good you aren't really prepared at the level of Avoiding crowds and storing enough food for the die-off. You're going to die anyway. Three more magazines or one more semi-auto isn't going to make a difference. You can afford to invest a little into entertainment. Not a LOT, obviously. Everything in moderation, except wheat, ammo and paranoia.
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If you do it right, hard copy entertainment will cost you very little. And, if done right, you'll need very little electrical capacity to power up your entertainment. Every evening after supper, and through large parts of winter, you will have down time. Our far future might be Sunday church, Friday night dances, listening to someone play an instrument and bible reading as our sole entertainment, but for now we can survive nicely off of the wreckage of our Oil Age “circus” equipment. As in, “bread and circuses”. Large amounts of investments are made to keep us cheaply entertained.
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The problem, lately, is that “cheaply” is only relative. As the collapse moves along, everything gets more expensive while producing far less value. Half the population is now priced out of a new car. I for one can't afford to get sick, at all. By most standards, my affordable house is actually a hovel. Folks are getting squeezed in a nickel and dime, death by a thousand cuts manner as everything becomes affordable only to the 9%. This trend will not reverse. Higher unemployment means fewer workers need to contribute more to keep the monopoly institutions profitable.
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Going to the theater was never cheap, per se. Renting a video was never THAT cheap. Life in Leave It To Beaver wasn't always inexpensive. But wages relative to costs was far better. Now, renting or buying a video IS cheap, compared to what it used to be. Unless you go digital, and then at its worst day Blockbuster Video was a screaming bargain in comparison. Who thinks renting a digital download for $12 is a good idea? At least before when you went to a video store you could bootleg a copy.
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Now, if you wait a bit you can own a copy legally for half the cost the rental just was. You can rent at Redbox for $2, if you get off your ass. Even the same movie streaming from Redbox versus its hard copy rental is twice to three times as expensive. Who actually thinks streaming rentals is a good idea? I'm flabbergasted, myself. And yes, I know you can watch pirated new release movies. I don't need the stress involved in that. Your mileage may vary. My point is that going digital, costs have gotten out of control for movie rentals. The less it cost them the more we pay.
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My stepdaughters family recently got rid of all their hard copy movies. It was “taking up too much room”. I was more than happy to take it off their hands. Good luck keeping your digital copy after Amazon goes bankrupt. Our house is smaller, and I still found room to stash the DVD's. One day, Netflix gets too expensive, goes Full Retard SJW, or goes broke making mediocre content to compete with the House Of Mouse. I'll have something to watch in the evenings ( broadcast TV BLOWS supreme bloody chunks with insane levels of commercials ).
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And yes, I remember our discussions on DVD's eventually degrading and becoming unwatchable. I'm hoping to mostly avoid that by death beforehand, old age or a bullet, whichever. Not a perfect plan, granted. But movies are a secondary entertainment anyway. Mostly I plan on having plenty of reading material. I already have up to two thousand reference books, at least a third unread, and Dog knows how many paperback novels. Here is the thing with books. Buying digital is now more expensive, also. You may be confused, with your $10 a month Kindle Unlimited. Allow me to explain.
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If you had unlimited access to college student films, and YouTube no budget films, or Public Access Cable channel films, would you say you had a decent library? Hell to the NO! They aren't worth watching. They are only films due the media, but certainly not a film by the definition of entertainment. They are drivel. Almost all Kindle books are WORSE than that. They never should have been written, let alone read. They are pure crap. Don't get me wrong, the New York City “professional” presses are all SJW and unreadable as well.
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Digital books are almost never a good bet. I find it is best to just use them to search for new authors, and as cheaply as possible. You won't find much. Those “free for today” books I point out to you? 99% total crap. I'm not a snob. Some people who otherwise wouldn't read like the pulp fiction stuff ( before, “Survivalist” or “Executioner”. Now, zombies and Super Ninja Tactical Operators ). I just simply cannot stand them myself. It is lowest common denominator fiction. That means, lowest level of writing, NOT lowest intelligence of the reader. My problem is, that is the ONLY kind of books you find now, digital or hard copy.
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All hard copy is now James Patterson drivel or SJW propaganda. I don't know when that went off the rails, perhaps the 2008 crash on. As a result, ONLY used books prior to that change are worthy of purchase. And if you buy those in the digital marketplace, you pay high shipping costs. Unless your town has an actually used bookstore, reading is no longer cheap ( Borders, Barns & Noble and etcetera in my opinion went out of business because of the content they provided, just as movie theaters are wounded by the crap they are stuck with ).
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So, Amazon screws you on Kindle, with crappy books, or it certainly does NOT pass on the savings of no retail space and screws you with shipping ( to be fair, the used books suffer from a dwindling supply, also, if you don't buy newer used books. Seriously, check out how even science fiction went SJW. I still don't know how that is even possible ). Okay, this is long enough for one day. I'll continue and conclude this tomorrow.
( .Y. )
( today's related Amazon link click here )
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note: free books for today.  EMP here
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note: I've re-enrolled in Kindle Unlimited ( for how long is anyone's guess ).  When I get a great book, I'll post it in the notes.  Of course, it is understood that the book is judged somewhat on the price.  You'll see something like "today's KU pick".  Today, the author of Daily Impact dot net and his PA novel here
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*** Pay your author-no one works for free. I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio* my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

34 comments:

  1. Yes. We must understand that despite the tech proliferation, we as a human species animal actually live and function in the analog realm. Huh? The world around us that is the sensory inflows (sight, sound, and other senses) is indeed live and in technicolor, not ones and zeros digital data or electrified. A so called prepper worth their salt must he able to differentiate from the artificial or digital inputs and the real deal natural reception of information or entertainment via their senses. Again, for review; prepping involves the contingency of no electricity or no stored wattage to spare for superflous activities. No internet and/or metered and censored flow. No further press or publishing products. Radio and television wave broadcasting also metered, censored, or jammed. No traveling or gathering possible during collapsing and turmoils for assembelage in venues for entertainment, fellowships, meetings, social functions. As Master Jim points out the downtimes and recluse hermitage periods can be fulfilled by simplistic entertainment and enrichment methods via your own monastery type preparations and wise safeguarding of hard copy treasures. It will be actually funny trying to explain and describe the formally normal items we wallow in now to the future surviving generations that are only barely existing in a dark age of deprivations.

    Plan accordingly.

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  2. I've learned to do most of my book shopping at a Goodwill or Salvation Army. A buck for soft cover, two bucks for a hardcover and these books are better manufactured than the current 'print as you purchase' book. The latest books I've purchased - dang, I'm guessing by 5th re-reading, they will be falling apart.

    We have an extensive (CD) music and DVD (movie) collection. If they go Tango Uniform, at least you still have a product that can be used for something. Vs. paying for rental that you can never ever touch and can be gone in an instant.

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    1. Rental has its place-say, when copies cost 30X rental you could test run first. Now that they are 7X at best and 2X at worse, less and less.

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    2. Rent and Rip. I've done that to hundreds. No I don't feel guilty.

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    3. I don't see the harm, if you can't buy them anyway.

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  3. A couple points:

    a)
    Last evening, several vehicle wrecks turned Eugene Oregon (fUSA) into a vast parking lot, so I went into Barnes-and-Noble bookstore for a couple hours.

    Prominently displayed in a revolving rack with a flashing 'FICTION' above it, among obvious fiction by Brad Thor and Lee Child etc., was the official version of The Mueller Report.

    b)
    Last Saturday, I visited our local used bookstore Smith Family Books.

    A mountain of freshly-acquired books waited at the buyer counter. Stacks and piles of used books were everyplace because the shelves were jam-packed.

    Upstairs in the architecture section == the Eww has an architect school == I looked through probably three-thousand books about building and buildings.

    Although I reside in an ExpeditionVehicle-slash-TinyHomeOnWheels, I always seem to find room for picture-books about Arts-and-Crafts, Stickley and Mission furniture, bungalows, Hearst Castle. And 'art deco'. And gypsy vardo. And full-time live-aboard messing about on boats.

    c)
    The matchmaking site OKCupid has multiple-choice questions to help fine-tune my search for my next SignificantOther. One question asks:
    "Would somebody going through your belongings be shocked at anything they find?"

    I hope they see the ratio between digital Kindle and real live printed books. And if you volunteer for such duty after my demise, the 'reward chocolates' are not hooked to batteries... ZAP!

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    1. "Would somebody going through your belongings...". That's disturbing-I keep flashing back to the penis pump gag in Austin Powers. :)

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  4. A few thoughts on books:

    · Get `em in the physical form now, while they're still available and relatively inexpensive. Estate sales, library sales, and fundraiser sales are your best bet because they generally have have at least hundreds, and more often thousands, to choose from. Often, on the last day of a sale, you can fill a paper grocery sack for $5. Goodwill and Salvation Army stores are the next best option.

    · Lord Bison is correct that most "writing" published now is shit. Collect books pre-1980. For me, I mostly only collect books pre-1970. The writing was better, the authors far more intelligent, the paper of better quality, and the binding much superior.

    · I have many thousands of books, but a person needs to be discriminating when first gathering a collection. My rule is that I would judge the book to still be interesting/useful/relevant 40 years from now. Avoid all self-help, latest political memoirs, diet books, and especially James Patterson. Don't just get a book for the sake of having more books that you will end up hauling to the landfill later. Ask me how I know.

    · Most serious book collectors (hoarders) will run out of room eventually. When you have twice as many books as bookshelf space, a good solution is to replace your standard 9 inch wide bookshelf with an 18 inch wide one and have a row in front and back. Yes, it's a hassle to have a row behind another, but at least they're on a bookshelf and not packed in boxes and stacked in a corner. And you hardly lose any square footage from the room. The 18 inch bookshelf will obviously call for heavy duty metal brackets screwed securely into a wall stud.

    · If you do end up with an "excess" of books that you have to store in boxes, make sure they are stored in a low humidity location to prevent mildew. This could mean investing in a dehumidifier, assuming you are on-grid. It's a shame to have to dispose of books you love because they weren't stored properly. Again, ask me how I know.

    · Last piece of advice: get a few magnifying glasses in case you live to old age. This is how my grandmother read her bible the last 20 years of her life. The Gen Xers and those younger will likely have vision trouble later in life from staring at computer screens and other forms of LED lighting. You don't want to end up like the guy on the Twilight Zone episode who was left all by his lonesome with all those books to read, but broke his reading glasses.

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    1. Its okay to get books that are crap, as long as they are cheap enough. If not a lending library, then cheap TP ( my library has such a hard time getting rid of books they are fifty cents or a buck, per bag, when they have the sales. I have a lot of duplicates of early Tom Clancy for the above reason ( and because I can't remember what I already have ). Good idea on the double bookcase-that never would have occurred to me.

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    2. Correct on all of the above. I have a dusty older house/dusty area, (Vegas, funky dust and polutants and often windy) use old sheets to cover bookshelfs or items. Looks dorky but no one is visiting or coming into my inner sanctum anyway. This keeps that dust accumalation off of the top of pages/binders of the more prized and reference manual type books. FWIW.

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    3. I have a few $30 books. That is about my max for the most treasured, rare items. I just can't see paying more. I used to pamper them, too. Now? Not so much. The other books didn't like it, thinking I was playing favorites.

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    4. "And you hardly lose any square footage from the room."

      Depends on how much square footage you have already invested in book collecting, but overall, you will have lost twice as much. Maybe lost isn't the right word. Spent is probably more appropriate. Either way, it can't be used in any other way. In boxes or on shelves books take up space. Space that must be heated, humidity controlled, etc. The unlikeliness of ever reading them is why I got rid of so many. Still have hundreds. Have thousands of ebooks and several brand new Windows XP machines loaded up with the proper programs, ereaders, etc., then boxed up with all accessories. Couple solar panels and batteries and I'm in business. Depending on your current age, the end is closer than you think. Plan accordingly.

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    5. Even when a company screws up the order and sends me some stupid book I'd never read, I can't seem to get rid of it. From about 1978 to 2008, I was always getting rid of books. Now that I'm rooted, I can't seem to part with them. Compensation for thirty years of having to say goodbye.

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    6. Get books printed on acid free paper if you want your great grandchildren to have a chance to read them. The paper in books published before your grandmother was a child are likely to be free of acid.

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  5. I guess I am a simple Luddite holdout, surounded by tech infiltration that has limited interest or usefulness to me. Kinda like an old geezer stuck in the past century ways and habits. My typing here on an older smarty phone and basic plan is about as far as I desire to be probed by the alien overlords. No cable bill , no wired telephone to the house, no other internet connection i.e. alexa-siri, no satelite radio in vehicle, no way on movie theaters (public place w/strangers=NOT!) Rental movies are wasteful of precious budget money while on shopping forays with no tangible residual benefits. My hard copy books and dvd hand me downs are very ample to occupy my down time. There is plenty of chores and prep related piddling to do that one should not have an excess amount of leisure time anyway to wallow in digi stimulation all day every day anyhow. I am gonna get board games, etc for social engagement with others. I want to program the orphan kids to yell: "YAHTZEE!" whenever their looting or foraging hits pay dirt results during post collapse scrounging excursions outside the wire.

    Stay frosty.

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    1. Did you see Lind's latest, part of the Retro movement? Might be going more mainstream.

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    2. Yeah, there is a kinda casting off movement of the modernity things that are detrimental to individual's health and well being, society at large, and really has no redeeming value. What's old is new again. Thinking it over, for those of us that are old enough to know the differences, it is refreshing to just keep it simple. My created realm of simplicity is easy peasy, low stress, and relaxingly restful. Winning!

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    3. So, I can make fun of the multispeed bicycles now? :)

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    4. Yes. Single speed, coaster brakes, comfy saddle is authorized. Just no Pee Wee Herman suit or silly giggling whilst riding around.

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    5. I'm not fond of those restrictions, but okay-fair enough :)

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  6. My loss of interest in electronic books happened when I tried to re-read books I’d bought years ago. About half of them had “expired” and would not open. I thought I had bought them, but somewhere in the lawyer language I had bought access, and that access can expire if they lose the rights to the book. Get ebooks from the library. Everything else is better to buy hard copies.

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    1. And, now, the censorship issue...

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    2. The only interest I have in digital content now is if it's cheap (read free) & if it's for convenience. Bolshevik Tech feels free to remove digital content you paid for if it's a Tuesday and they identify as a dragon

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    3. Be nice, it isn't easy being the elites bitch. :)

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  7. Got too many books, waaay too many. I think they self propagate and about every 10 years I have to lemming their asses. The past couple weeks I've been loading up 3 of those little libraries that are out there. Had 2 big boxes in the back of my Blazer and everytime I had to go anywhere I'd maneuver past one of the libraries and stuff it full. This time around I even got rid of all my Rand stuff. Little chance I'll ever read that stuff again. I don't do much fiction so most of the books I got up off were factual stuff. Lot's of woodworking, self reliance, etc. I have lots of stuff to do in the winters so reading is pretty far down on the list. Wood and stone carving, for example, take up a fair amount of time, are enjoyable, and there's the possibility of using them for barter or just plain using them. Those are just 2 basic ways to use raw materials found everywhere and throguh entertainment possibly make some income. Lots of options when you think about it. Reading? Bah. Doesn't provide much in return. I need more than that. Lot's more.

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    1. Well, in my case, reading pays indirectly. A good job if you can get it. Now, granted, sometimes it does feel like working. But that is just White People Problems.

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  8. As, jeez!

    Somebody mentioned Australian-style boonie hats, so natch, Amazon sends me links to a dozen venders of the dang things. I I I feel so cared for.

    Fu-crissakes.

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  9. It's freeze-dried unicorn spleen. Only newbies buy the gall bladder.

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  10. I agree that there are a lot of "free" books that are not worth the cost. However, of the 8,000+ free books I have downloaded there are a few nuggets. And carrying an "e-reader" gives me more options on what t'm reading. The other books are stored on tablets in metal boxes.

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    1. But isn't that the problem? Having to wade through those thousands to find a few good ones?

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  11. Most of you muthas aint gonna have time to read. Excepting our fine host who will do the hermit thang in the high, cold desert of N.Nevada during the reset.
    Rest of us will be too busy avoiding zombies, gathering fuel, water and eventually food (when stores deplete).

    Despite my admonition I'm keeping all my Patrick O'Brien books. A self styled Capt. Aubrey, I sail my own vessel. Dodging drunk weakend powerboaters and hotdogging 20 y/o "personal watercrafterers" is mini-training for the Apocalypse. It's all about mindset. Disciplining my inner Pirate.

    Let fly your spinnaker.

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    1. Aye, aye matey! Hoist the Jolly Roger and crack open the rum.
      Lol!

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