Good riddance.  Some of us can live without that crap. The rest of you can get out of our way or into our smokehouses.

I have no sympathy for people who construct their personalities with consumption rather than behavior.

Of course, I will miss the candy bars and chocolate chip cookies I retrieve from dumpsters... 'Cause I'm not spending money on that crap.

ptah13 wrote:

Wow! We have our very own bum on High Street!

This RULES!

I always knew PC's in the public library was a good thing!

HELL YES THEY ARE!  Too bad I have to use the free  laptop I scavenged because I'm not up for getting crabs by sitting down at our public library.  I currently only strongly aspire to true indigence -- I am merely extra-ordinarily thrifty and able to tinker, fix, and coerce.  When my current relationship goes dark and or my cats can seduce someone to care for them better than I do, Ima pull out all of my own teeth and hit the rails.

exdwarf wrote:

ptah13 wrote:

Wow! We have our very own bum on High Street!

This RULES!

I always knew PC's in the public library was a good thing!

HELL YES THEY ARE!  Too bad I have to use the free  laptop I scavenged because I'm not up for getting crabs by sitting down at our public library.  I currently only strongly aspire to true indigence -- I am merely extra-ordinarily thrifty and able to tinker, fix, and coerce.  When my current relationship goes dark and or my cats can seduce someone to care for them better than I do, Ima pull out all of my own teeth and hit the rails.

Dude, If you're being even remotely serious, I dig your sense of being. I fully respect an "off the grid" existence that is void of dependence on material things. Sadly, I'm too in need of my "toys" to totally Kaczynski-out (in the sense of how he lived, not the violent deal).

Plus, you're pretty fucking funny, too.

I don't often say this but, hey, you should post more often.

When I first saw exdwarf's post, I thought it was by brother. Your real name isn't Juan is it?

I was raised as a "trasher" as well. My brother is more into the food angle, I am more into the "repair and reuse" angle. In 30 years our family has never had to buy a lawn mower, a fridge, washer, dryer, stereo, weed eater, bed frame, garden hose, shovels and rakes and other implements of destruction, nuts, bolts, screws, pipe, etc, etc, etc. I make good money and have my own business, but I still get the swivel neck whenever I pass a tasty pile.

The "recycling" lobby has done a good job about assuaging middle-class guilt about throwing away their disposable lives, but it's the "reduce" and "reuse" that I glom onto. Any part of my trash stream that gets to the recycle phase has earned its rest.

Sofie, this post gave me a stiffy.

What?  I'm a healthy young messiah.  It's not like they drove a fucking nail through THAT, is it?

opsec wrote:

THAT gave me a stiffie.  Let me know when the teeth are gone, we'll hook up!

You got it!

I'm in a bit of an "existential mood" to-day.  No time for beds or bath - Could you, please, direct me to the be-yond department?

Decadence wrote:

I'm in a bit of an "existential mood" to-day.  No time for beds or bath - Could you, please, direct me to the be-yond department?

Last edited by exdwarf (2009-06-10 21:07:03)

square wrote:

GooberMcNutly wrote:

I was raised as a "trasher" as well.

Our family never really considered trash as a resource, probably because we never throw anything away.  If anyone has a need for a black-and-white television, there are several in my parents' basement in various states of repair, along with the sectional with the groovy 70's upholstery (re-upholstered from the original '60s fabric, natch).

But food?  Seriously?

Yes. Food.

Confession time.

We have a store that was near my old house (and they're building a new one near my new apartment). It's called Fresh and Easy, and it's Tesco (a British chain) in America. They have WRAPPED PERFECTLY GOOD FOOD in the dumpsters. They seal everything in poly bags.

I have three desert tortoises (babies, the size of tennis balls) who eat a goodly amount of produce. I flirted shamelessly with the manager (and got him stoned when he came over to see them), so I could get unlimited access to the dumpster.

If you think I fed all that bitchin' food just to my tortoises, you're high. They're teensy. I salvaged crates of food. My neighbors loved me.

In America, stores throw out food that would be sold as first quality anywhere else. This food was so fresh (did I forget to mention it was wrapped?), it was a criminal shame to waste it.

I haven't gone back there since I moved, but you can bet your ass I will do the same thing once the new one near me now is built. I feed A LOT of people, and they all knew of my shenanigans. No one ever got sick. I held dinner parties with garbage food. Everyone laughed and demanded I teach them how to do it too.

Check this out. I'm not the only one!!

Emmeran wrote:

sofaking wrote:

We have a store that was near my old house (and they're building a new one near my new apartment). It's called Fresh and Easy, and it's Tesco (a British chain) in America. They have WRAPPED PERFECTLY GOOD FOOD in the dumpsters. They seal everything in poly bags.

Fresh & Easy/Tesco blows - horrible food.  I go to the mexican supermarkets instead.

Some of their prepared food is a little weird, but I took mostly raw ingredients (as I was supposedly taking the stuff for the tortioses). Also, I never took stuff that spoiled easily (like fish or hummus).

It is better to pull this right when they put it out, and in the winter, when it's already freezing outside. The bad thing is that the best time to pull this is when all the good shit is out of season, and the little fuckers are hibernating.

Dmtdust wrote:

Soficita Sed: "In America, stores throw out food that would be sold as first quality anywhere else. This food was so fresh (did I forget to mention it was wrapped?), it was a criminal shame to waste it."

It will come back to haunt us.

It already is.

Capitalism has some downsides that we're just now starting to address.

Did I ever mention that I never use personal credit?

If I can't afford it or find it in a repoed car or at Savers or on eBay for cheaper or on craigslist...I don't buy it.

I think this is an extension of my fear of commitment.

I mean, I have equipment for my business on credit, but that's all.

It's part of why I used to distribute "Herbalife". It was for spending money, because I don't use plastic for what amounts to unnecessary crap. I like nice things, but I don't like them enough to be paying on them for decades.

I have a friend who got her tits on credit. Her tits.

sofaking wrote:

I have a friend who got her tits on credit. Her tits.

Did Mr. Sofie get it on credit last night or did you put it on lay away?

Like I said, food isn't my thing, but I have seen my brother pull up to my house with a trunk full of fully wrapped and boxed snack food and other packaged crackers, tea, etc. that came from a single dumpster and was just 1 or 2 days over its "best by" date. Most of that snack food has a life span measured in presidential administrations, an extra week isn't going to change it.

When it comes to produce, the immigrant stores are the worst. They almost never throw away produce before it's around the bend. The high-end groceries (Giant, Harris Teeter, etc.) will throw away a whole flat of strawberries if 5% of them show brown spots.

But it's the compactor that has really killed the "second harvest". It's tough to find a grocery that doesn't use one of those constantly.

But for street-finds: It would amaze me that people who wouldn't ever touch something on a trash pile would pay $3 to buy it at my garage sale.

GooberMcNutly wrote:

But it's the compactor that has really killed the "second harvest". It's tough to find a grocery that doesn't use one of those constantly.

Hear, hear. I am saddened every time a new shopping center goes up, because they install those fuckers regularly now.