Tuyop: Troops in Trouble Two: Basil Butt Igloo

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tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

MagicCube posted:

I'm not sure where you got this information from, but it isn't entirely accurate. I released 4C after my injury and received all the benefits entitled to a 3B release through Veteran's Affairs. They told me upfront they would get me the benefits I deserved even though my release item wasn't 3B. (Long story).

Also, the CF stopped retroactively changing release items. It doesn't happen anymore and I was briefed pretty thoroughly on the process at the time of my release. I was clearly told that the release item would not be changed and there was no process in which to get it changed. Previously they used to change it, but not anymore. Either way, it's irrelevant because with proper documentation and legit medical issues 4C releases can get the exact same benefits as a 3B release.

And also to add, once you are released you can get really good health insurance through Veteran's Affairs until you hit 65.

Wow, thanks. I don't know what the ombudsman was talking about then. I'm meeting with VAC tomorrow morning as well, I'll bring this up!

# ¿ Feb 11, 2013 00:01

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 22:02

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

tuyop posted:

Wow, thanks. I don't know what the ombudsman was talking about then. I'm meeting with VAC tomorrow morning as well, I'll bring this up!

Well I have excellent news.

I met with Veteran Affairs (VAC) this morning, and according to the Canadian Forces Members and Veterans Re-establishment and Compensation Act, which I haven't read yet, Veteran Affairs provides basically the same benefits as a 3B release* for non-medically released members (so, voluntary releases) as long as your injury was caused by the CF and your injury is representing a barrier to successful transition to civilian life. The VAC case worker told me that I have a pretty good case and that I can probably get a BEd out of this because I have no transferable, job-specific skills. The subtext there being that somehow, if I'd gotten qualified and continued on without an injury I might have gotten transferable skills at some point. It's more risky than the medical release because you have to actually apply for this process, rather than it being an automatic program, but it also means that I can get on with my life this year, rather than the 14-20 months that we're looking at now.

It also turns out that I'm not stuck with my 28 dollar disability award, because a lot of the problems that I'm trying to fix now are probably connected to my injury and shitshow of a career. I started a consequential injury/illness claim. Who knows how that'll go.

* Except the 75% income top-up is not just two years, it's until your transition is complete. So the reeducation is paid for, I'll take home the same amount of pay until I'm reeducated, and the pay continues until I'm in a new job.

Also, if anyone knows about the Strong Interest Inventory, I scored 72 on risktaking, so uh... I guess I don't mind taking this risk.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2013 02:02

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

ripped0ff posted:

tuyop, slow down, think, run the numbers out for a ways into the future, and actually come up with a plan (not just an "idea" or "thought").

Have you actually sat down and seriously considered the following:

1. If you do a voluntary release, how long will it take the VAC benefits to be approved? You've already seen how difficult and slow the medical process can be, and now you're beaming over the idea of receiving VAC benefits in some ideal timeframe.

2. If you do a voluntary release, how will that affect your ability to fully document your medical condition and receive full compensation and medical assistance for it? This medical condition is likely to get worse over your lifetime; you need to take this opportunity to do everything you can possibly do to get yourself squared away with medical benefits and a medical pension. You don't want to be trying to do this while you're juggling a job and crippling pain.

3. Have you run the no-poo poo numbers on how much a voluntary release will actually cost you? I mean not just medical benefits and pension lost, I also mean the additional debt incurred, the loss of income while you're attending school, and the additional interest accrued as a result of inability to meet your debts until you get a job (possibly several months after you finish school). You keep throwing $20k out there as the cost of education, but it sounds much more likely that your total cost is over $200k.

4. You say that you're willing to move anywhere and do anything for better pay, but that's extremely unlikely for several reasons. First, Toeshoes has to complete the remainder of her term of enlistment. Secondly, your medical condition will preclude you from a number of the more physically taxing jobs or ones where Canadian-approved healthcare is unavailable. Maybe there are teaching jobs in Dubai that will pay $100k a year, but will the government still foot the bill for your healthcare over there? If not, how much are you likely to spend in personal healthcare?

5. Plan for the worst, reasonably-likely scenario when you do run the numbers for a voluntary release. What if you have to attend school for an extra semester (for instance, you have to go in for emergency surgery and miss a semester or drop out of your classes)? What if you can't find work for the first 6 months after school? What if you do find work but Toeshoes is being transferred to a new base too soon for you to accept that position and you have to wait until you move to begin working again? None of these are difficult to consider possibilities.

6. I don't know if this is true with the Canadian military, but in the US Army, we have a similar process for medically discharging people. It is long and painful, and it is supposed to be complete in no more than 270 days. In the event that it takes longer than that and superiors/medical staff miss any of their time hacks to move the process along in a timely manner, they are liable for explaining why and subject to a lot of screaming from the top. If one of my Soldiers was actually stuck in the medical discharge process for over a year, I would be getting endless amounts of poo poo over it, and if that Soldier went to the Inspector General's office and filed a complaint, my entire chain of command would get lit up. I imagine the Canadian military has some sort of analogue to the Inspector General, and also has some analogue for maximum processing times. Do your research into this and file a complaint. If this is supposed to have been completed over a year ago, then you need to start looking for means to address this outside of your standard chain of command. They have failed you.

More than anything else, it's apparent that you have tunnel vision. You have become so focused on your immediate problems and the one apparently-easy solution (voluntary release, reeducating yourself, and finding a sweet job) that you're not looking into the long-term problems or even looking for alternate solutions. Its as if you've set this personal ultimatum and now you're just waiting for it to trigger instead of genuinely pursuing other angles.

Great post, thanks. And MagicCube answered most of it. VAC isn't the medical system, so my experience so far doesn't really relate to how things could go with them.

A lot of this will be answered when I do a release forecast on the 26th. That'll tell me how much I'll actually get on release, since there's a severance package and pension buyout to consider. When I did a little bit of checking in October, it seemed like the amount of those two was around 20k, which will keep me going for a couple of weeks until VAC's benefits kick in. But, I'll know exactly how much it'll be on the 26th.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2013 11:29

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Nether Postlude posted:

Learning will help you be a better teacher. You can't truly develop your own style of teaching until you really see how others do it. And I don't just mean from when you were in high school. So here, take some free courses. They'll help you be a better, more rounded person too:

http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
https://www.coursera.org/
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
http://www.academicearth.org/

Also here's a tumblr just of Nunavut food sticker shock: http://nunavutfoodprice.tumblr.com/ Makes living in NYC look like it's 1950.

edit from that tumblr page:

These links are really cool, but do any of these courses give you certificates or is it just resume fodder? I'm not opposed to resume fodder, I've just been looking through them and it looks more like they're free auditing sort of "courses". iTunes U kind of stuff.

Also, I had to cancel my appointment because I'm giving a briefing, but I found out that the base surgeon expedited my file. They're saying that it'll be about four months until we hear back from Ottawa now. So, I guess I don't have to pull the trigger on anything for a little while. In the meantime I'm taking a Teaching and Training Adults course at the local college in April. 877 dollar course for free once they pay me back!

# ¿ Feb 17, 2013 15:53

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

CuddleChunks posted:

Congrats on getting more stuff moving with your disability. Am I reading the above sentence correctly in inferring that you have laid out $877 for the course and will get reimbursed in the future?

Yes I just paid 877 (with a credit card for the pointzzz), I'll give them the receipt and they'll cut me a cheque. This is how education payments have always been done for me (I've received like 20k in reimbursements this way). The only problem is that I may have clicked the wrong link during registration since I probably have the Teaching and Training Adults qualification equivalency from training. I really wouldn't mind doing the whole course again though, it's not like registering the equivalency will save me money or anything, just a couple of Saturdays.

miryei posted:

The edX courses here are run by MIT and Harvard and give certificates. It's actual online courses versus just giving you access to the course materials like in the other MIT link above. However, they don't give the same kind of certificate as if you were attending the university in question and took the course, and I'm unsure how widely accepted the edX certificates are by other universities, as it's a relatively new thing.

Ok that looks awesome! I registered for Human Health and Environmental Change. I think any little bit will help, since my resume is pretty limited at this point.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2013 02:08

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

/\/\ Actually, it's after I pass the course. So I'm out 877 until the beginning of May, at which point I'll be reimbursed 100%. I mixed up the reimbursement types.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2013 23:15

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

My reading has cycled back around to nonfiction -> personal finance, so I'm reading Ramit Sethi's I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

He seems to think that I should have a retirement account opened and that I should be contributing some pittance to it each month.

I quickly looked at the long term investing thread and didn't see any info for Canadians in the OP. I'm assuming that I want an online bank's RRSP Index Fund, if that's even a thing.

Achieva seems to be top notch WRT interest rates but it looks like it's seriously limited to 3%, unless it's an RRSP Savings Account which is not what I want...

TD has "Mutual Fund RSP" and "Self-Directed RSP" accounts. Is that what I'm looking for?

Or would it be better just to go with a straight up mutual fund or tax free mutual fund account from ING? http://ingdirect.ca/en/mutualfunds/learningcentre/tfmf/index.html http://ingdirect.ca/en/mutualfunds/indexinvesting/index.html

# ¿ Feb 21, 2013 23:46

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

I should rephrase. I know that an RRSP isn't actually an account, but right now I don't have any accounts classified as RRSPs and this book says I should start one or something like it. I'm wondering what company to go with and what account to get, if any.

Fraternite posted:

Edit: Do you know what a "mutual fund" is? Or an ETF? Or a "money market fund"? Or what "self-directed" means? Or what a "dividend" is? I have no idea what level of sophistication you have with this sort of stuff, so getting answers to basic stuff like that is probably a good starting place for us if you want advice.

Yes, I guess I'll just define those terms off the top of my head to give you an idea:

Mutual Fund: a collection of stocks and bonds that is managed by a company to try to produce money.
ETF: I don't know this one. (wikipedia says Exchange-traded fund, but I don't really know what the difference is between these and other stuff is because I don't understand most of the wikipedia article)
Money Market Fund: A mutual fund that consists of more bonds and stuff and is mostly secure. Like a step up from a savings account.
Self-Directed: Managed by you rather than a manager. I imagine you can use a self-directed account to buy normal mutual funds as well as passively managed index funds and stuff though, so I don't really get it.
Dividend: A percentage of an investment paid by a company to its shareholders. Corporations can distribute profits as dividends sometimes.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2013 01:57

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Fraternite posted:

Okay, not bad. You know more than most people already.

What's your risk tolerance? What's your time horizon? Do you have any debt yet to pay off? Will you need this money for a down payment some day? What tax bracket are you going to be in for the next 5 years? And after that? What about retirement? What are your return goals? Do you want to beat the market and risk underperforming the market, or are you happy tracking the market? What about your spouse? Are you likely to inherit anything?

I think your questions are rhetorical and the point is that this thread is totally not the right place to be asking about savings, but:

What's your risk tolerance?
I'd say that my risk tolerance is high. I have decades of life to mitigate risk.

What's your time horizon?
Not counting debt repayment, which consumes close to $3000 per month for the next 13 months or so (here's a sneak peak into the Feb update). The three large savings goals we've developed are:
1. Wedding (6 Months) $2000 of which we have ~1200.
2. 25% Downpayment (5.5 years) $35 000 - $50 000.
3. Financial Independence (10+ years) $450 000 - $600 000.

Do you have any debt yet to pay off?
Yes, around 40k including car payment.

Will you need this money for a down payment some day?
Yes.

What tax bracket are you going to be in for the next 5 years?
Not sure, but let's assume that our family income will be around $100k gross for the next five years. We would pay anywhere from 36% to 44% taxes based on this calculator.

And after that?
I don't think our incomes are likely to go much higher than $130k combined unless we start a business or I write a book or something.

Other than that, I don't have any rich uncles waiting to die (but I think toeshoes does...), I'd rather just track the market and minimize fees, toeshoes and I share these goals.

One of us is likely to have a pension depending on how things go, but I'm reluctant to count on that.

What's a return goal?

# ¿ Feb 23, 2013 13:33

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

I had a phone interview with Jesse Mecham, the creator of YNAB. I told him about finding out about YNAB through SA, so he gave me a bunch of t-shirts for goons. I already PM'd a few people, especially ones who mentioned YNAB in the GBS thread, but here are the rest.

1. https://get.printfection.com/ynab-gift/g2716/zwpjzdbpdx

2. https://get.printfection.com/ynab-gift/g2716/bcmbczdqrb

3. https://get.printfection.com/ynab-gift/g2716/myhprnbydf

He also gave me 50 bucks in amazon moneys but I'm spending that on books about composting my own feces so nyah.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2013 23:51

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Me in Reverse posted:

"interview"?

Also, I claimed the 3rd one, thank you! (I'm a paying YNAB lover, feel free to PM me also if you have any questions about it).

Yeah there was a facebook post offering swag in return for a marketing/research phone interview with Jesse himself. It was cool talking to him (he has 5 kids!), and he just asked about how toeshoes and I were using it to combine finances and what our goals were and stuff. It was a thirty minute conversation, really.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2013 00:04

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

I'm pretty sure, from what I've read so far, that using human waste as fertilizer is this simple:

Get some sawdust.
Get a bucket.
Attach a toilet seat to the bucket.
poo poo and piss in the bucket, every time you use the bucket, cover your leavings with some sawdust.
When the bucket is full, pour it into your compost pile along with all of your other organic waste.
Wait a year or so.
Use the composted human manure as you would normal compost.

I'm not talking about taking a big steaming dump onto some tomato plants and chucking some soil onto it like a cat, microorganisms in the compost pile neutralize any pathogens in the waste through heat and competition. If you leave the pile to "cure" for a whole season after the decomposition is complete, it is literally impossible for any of the nasties from the poo poo itself to survive. You still wouldn't want to eat the compost itself, because it's full of amoebas and nematodes and a bunch of fungus and stuff, but plants love it and it's safe.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2013 02:46

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

My family has used a slightly more sophisticated method for the toilet at the cottage for years now. It's really not gross at all.

Also, I'm not going to get rich from recycling my own poop, it's just a way to live more sustainably. And it's an 11 dollar book. Really not going to break the bank here by spending 11 dollars in gift money on a book.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2013 12:14

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Guys, I'm really not in a manic phase right now. I've set up a tracking sheet for various feelings and behaviours that indicate manic stuff, and toeshoes has been on the lookout.

For instance, I've found that when I'm manic I spend an average of $450 more in a month than normal. I also eat about 500 calories less food per day and work out for an extra two or three sessions per week. In terms of feeling, I don't feel like I need sleep, I don't feel like eating, and I drink a fuckton more coffee if it's available. None of those things have happened. I've felt really balanced all month.

I've been eyeing the humanure handbook for awhile now, I read all that I could without actually buying the thing, and it's useful as a reference so :filez:

isn't really the best solution.

asmallrabbit posted:

At what point do you ever step back and think about the things you are considering. Seriously, making GBS threads and pissing in a bucket? Who is gonna clean this bucket everytime you need to empty it? How are you going to explain this to anyone that comes over? What about the SMELL? Do you have any idea how much waste the average human produces? Assuming it even works, what the hell are you going to do with that much "compost" material? Are you going to start buying sawdust and all that stuff that you need? What. The. gently caress.

Have fun cleaning that when it inevitably spills in your house.

I don't know! That's why I bought the manual.

But practically, this is quite a long way away. I want the manual so that we can start planning. We'll at least need a yard and a residence for a couple of years for it to make sense at all.

Philosophically, the idea here is to minimize negative externalities. Disposing of your waste by flushing it "away" with two or three gallons of pure water only makes sense if you're insulated from the cost of whatever happens "away", it's actually a fantastically irrational and expensive operation that could be improved significantly. The same goes for garbage, food, fuel and all of the other products that enter and leave our lives. It would be cool to live in a completely contained, circular system for at least a little while.

At this point in human history, it behooves us to move from our ridiculous, wasteful, linear system and try hard to be honest about living within our means so that we can emancipate ourselves from the addiction that we have on exterior inputs to produce a cheap facsimile of happiness that just poisons our relationships and planet.

/buys a book from a vendor 2000 kilometers away.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2013 23:30

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Guys, come on now.

You also piss in the bucket.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 17:16

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

haplesscardsharp posted:

Really? Now you're considering using a bucket as a toilet? Grow the gently caress up! For fucks sake, stop making stupid decisions! That's why you're even in this mess. Do you know why we have indoor plumbing, or really any of the convenient things that you think people don't "need to use"? It's because a life without them is terrible! Just focus on not setting fire to all of your money. When you're fiscally responsible, then by all means do all this hosed up poo poo. But until then, stop doing and/or thinking about doing stupid things!

I'm going to give you the best life advice I can think of for you: grow the gently caress up and stop thinking about ~~living in a tent~~ ~~growing basil~~ ~~living in a yurt~~ making GBS threads in a bucket! If you really can't do that, start talking to your therapist more, or find another one.

No, YOU stop thinking about things that I disapprove of!

Seriously, gently caress off, I can think about whatever I want. What decision have I made other than to read about something? I bought a book (that my library doesn't have), using a gift card (and Amazon doesn't ship many of its other stuff to Canada so whatever) about something that I think is pretty cool that you guys obviously know nothing about. I haven't done anything yet, and frankly can't do anything for quite awhile, probably until we're both out of the military. The fact that composting human waste is just so unsanitary and icky that it causes a reaction like this is really a sign that it's our society that is hosed up, not people who are interested in novel solutions to real problems. I also bought a book on recycling graywater, tell me how eccentric and dangerous it is to run lightly used water through a manufactured wetland and then onto a garden instead of just pouring it into the sewer system like everyone else!

Really, it's like nobody here has been in a building that uses a composting toilet before. All composting toilets are just more or less complex versions of a bucket of poo poo and piss mixed with some innocuous carbon (like sawdust or leaf-fall) and sometimes bacterial inoculation and dumped into a larger pile to let nature deal with it. You all must be a joy at the cottage.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 21:52

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

asmallrabbit posted:

All computers are just complex machines dealing with 1's and 0's, really we should go back to punching out holes in paper. You ever stop and think that maybe there is a good reason people don't use buckets for toilets unless they don't have a choice like at the cottage or elsewhere? People aren't taking issue with composting human waste, people are taking issue with using a god drat bucket for a toilet in the 21st century. How is it a novel solution to a real problem to have people use a bucket for a toilet? Please tell me.

If everyone in a city started doing that what would they do with the ever increasing amount of composting material being produced? You would need to transport it somewhere and store it, then have to transport it again after it was processed to use it, assuming there you coulse even use it all, and there were no health risks associated with dealing with all of that. So you would want to keep it away from people as much as possible. How about using a system of pipes from the bucket so you dont have to empty it yourself and store it in your backyard, patio etc while you wait to be able to do anything with it. Then it could just be moved to some facility that would look after that for you.

If there's no obvious way for everyone to do something, nobody should do it? How did we ever start this whole plumbing thing, or clean drinking water? I'm not a city planner, or a sanitation engineer, or a public health authority. I'm just one dude who's interested in some day composting my poo poo and piss and feeding that compost to my vegetables. However, I can think of a few places where a large influx of organic, nitrogen-rich fertilizer could be put to use. There might even be a business in that!

Also, I think the bucket is really just the most simple form of composting toilet that I used to explain that it isn't difficult to compost human waste. There are more elegant solutions where you poop into a drum, chuck some sawdust onto it, then rotate the drum so that it empties onto the compost pile which is either in the base of the toilet (this is what we've had at my family cottage for years, there is no odour) or like a floor below for large volume situations. The pile is ventilated either passively or using an actual fan. Once a season or so, you wheel out the pile to cure in the back yard where you throw all your other organic waste. A year passes and then you have some excellent new food for your plants.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 22:29

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

February Update :siren:

To get back on topic:

Things are back to being easily understood now. All the balance transfers are done and my CC debt APR went from 9.5% to 0.99% until January 2014.

We sold our iPhones for $700, toeshoes has to cancel her plan for about $400 though, and then our phone bill will go from 140/month to 60/month.

My debt is now below $40 000! :woop:

In February we spent $1700 less than we made. $877 can be added to that because I paid tuition for a "Teaching and Training Adults" course at the local college that will be reimbursed in May. So May will have an artificially nice net income graph.

Here's where it all went, car and home are tied at 30%, I hid the reimbursable education expense for this graph because it just fucks up the categories.

Some New Info

I went and did a release forecast so that I could look at what my finances would be like if I just voluntarily release in August. I just wanted information. Here's how it looks.

My pension will be worth 46 796.03 15 August 2013. If I release at that point, it can be split in the following ways:

$25 686.68 must be transferred to a locked-in RRSP (or taken as a differed annuity, which seems like a bit of a silly thing to do).

$21 109.35 can be taken as cash (with tax consequences), or put into an RRSP (if you have the room), or divided between those two options.

Plus

$3 645.60 in severance pay. The severance pay is taxed at about 10% before it reaches me, and taxed as income after I get it. I can also have it dumped into an RRSP to avoid taxes, IIRC.

Does this mean that I have positive net worth?

So I have to get an RRSP account in the next year or so, whether I medically release or voluntarily release. I think in that case I would just go with an ING Direct RSP, for simplicity's sake, and since you can transfer between RSPs at any point with no penalty, so if I want to invest it at some point, I'll be able to.

I have a very loose grasp that there are significant tax consequences to this, I think when the time comes I'll have to talk to a financial planner to look at reducing the tax bill when I release.

Also, following my read of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, I automated my finances like this:

All the debt payments are automated for March and April, and the stuff in the lower right is automatically paid from the CC when it's due. If it works, it will be nice and effective and elegant and I can stop checking Mint four times a day.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 23:15

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

haplesscardsharp posted:

Dear tuyop,

It has come to my attention that you need to seriously think about what I said. Most adults would simply consider my advice (which I admit is harshly worded, but for great reason: you have a thick skull) and reflect upon the decisions that have brought them to their respective points in life. Instead of doing this, you try to escape your situation through denial, and wish to have everything in your life change without truly making commitments about being more responsible. I don't expect you to change over night, I don't expect you to be a perfect human being, but I do expect you to stop being so immature. Do yourself a favor and grow up, because from reading this thread, all you want is enabling. You keep saying you want advice, but what you really want is someone to wipe your rear end with precious baby wipes and say "No tuyop, you're doing everything right, and the world just hurts you for fun. Poor baby". No sane adult will tell you that, because it's not true. YOU need to make changes in your life to be better off financially. YOU need to consider what others say, and not just deem your own opinions correct. I'm not telling you to give up on your dreams, I'm telling you to be an adult. I'm not telling you to never build a poo poo-bucket (I lied; don't do it!), I'm telling you to put your stupid ideas on hold until you have a better hold on your life.
You need to seriously think about what I said.

YNTSTAWIS,
haplesscardsharp

P.S. Admit to your mistakes, don't just make excuses.

I seriously don't know what you're talking about! What, specifically, about bringing up pooping in a bucket strikes you as immature when considered at the same time as my progress toward paying down debt and living within my means for the past 24 months (since March 2011 I've spent on average, $684 less than I've earned)?

I'm interested in how I can admit to my mistakes more than I already have!

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 23:26

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

cstine posted:

I think the bigger thing people are getting at is he's talking about pooping in a bucket while living in an apartment in the middle of some sort of human civilization (presumably, anyway). Septic systems and outhouses and pooping in bushes is fine - but not when you're in cramped quarters, talking about getting a roommate, and living in something not owned by you.

I'm almost as crazy as Tyuop, in that I really do intend to buy some land and put up a yurt and live something much less complicated and crazy, albeit I'm thinking Northern California, or Oregon rather than Nunavut.

Except I'm also aware of what you give up by going somewhere rural enough to do that (internet, cable tv, cellphones, shopping anywhere but the local walmart, driving 3 hours to find a movie theater, etc.) as well as how much that costs ($250-300k for enough land, $75-100k to build out a livable sustainable yurt, plus solar panels, plus a well, plus utilities for when it's NOT sunny, plus plus plus.). I'm saving to do this in cash, and figure it'll be a good 5 or 10 years AT BEST until I have enough money to buy the land, build the land out how I want, then live on it. And my income is somewhat more substantial than Tuyop's (although not as guaranteed).

Tyuop seems to come in, go HEY GUYS YURT or HEY GUYS POOPBUCKET without any real thought attached to WHAT he's going to do to get there - he wants a tiny house on some land? Great! How are you going to get the funding to do that, furthermore, do you know HOW much it'll cost to get there?

Humanure for your garden? Great! What garden? Does everyone involved care if you poop in a bucket? making GBS threads in a hole in the ground smells - human waste DOES NOT smell remotely nice like horse or cow - and those are pretty stinky. The landlord will be pissed, his neighbors will be pissed, and rightly so.

Amusingly, BASIL might have been the most sane idea he's had in the last few months.

This is exactly what I had in mind when I post things like that.

I think we're slowly making progress toward that other stuff. I'm pretty handy with a car and toeshoes is literally an apprentice mechanic. I'm currently on vacation until the 19th, so I'll be looking for fun, free stuff to occupy us for the next few weeks.

So, we've stopped buying and eating meat that isn't local, organic, and free-range/pastured. We actually went out and met the cows. The change means that we just eat meat two-four times a week instead of 2+ times a day. We still buy cheap, miserable eggs because six dollars a carton is a bit much right now, and our produce is all typical. These are areas for improvement over the next two years. My main concern is with causing suffering, so the eggs weigh on my conscience harder than the broccoli from Mexico.

We started an apartment garden in January using a T5 fluorescent grow light on the counter, organic beans, lettuce, carrots, a dwarf banana tree, rosemary, basil, oregano, thyme, nasturtiums (edible flowers). It hasn't produced anything yet and our zucchini doesn't even have flowers, but the plants are nice decorations!

I think the best way to get sustainable is to really bear down and pay off the debt, which will free up more than half of our income for whatever we want. We could save for land, save for a down payment, eventually start a suburban permacultured food forest with an apple and chestnut guild in our back yard, or whatever. It's all pie in the sky bullshit until the debt is gone, though.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2013 00:53

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

No Wave posted:

If I could give Tuyop advice, I'd tell him to try to figure out exactly what skills he plans on developing post-military and what he can do to develop those skills. That can actually contribute to improving his quality of life.

You're right, my goal is to teach after the military, so: I volunteer as a literacy and math tutor (the math stuff is particularly hilarious, but the students are pretty "normal" so I like it), I'm taking courses with the military next week in education and training management and resume writing, and I've signed up at the local community college for Teaching and Training Adults, which is the closest thing I could get to education in the area. I also try to get any public speaking/presenting duties at work that come up (I gave a briefing to 225 people two weeks ago, it was great). What else should I do that: (a) shows ability and interest in education for my resume, and (b) actually helps to improve my skills for my next career?

The rest of your post is spot-on. The way I see it, and I discussed this with my psychologist, is that I feel really really guilty when I do something that doesn't follow my morals. My job really doesn't follow my morals, and there's nothing that I can do, for the most part, to fix that other than release RIGHT NOW. In the past I've just kind of felt really bad about that, been miserable, and taken pills and gotten drunk to stop thinking about it.

With help, I see now that there are only two things that I have control over with regards to moral behavior: how I spend my money and how I spend my time. So I'm trying to fix what I can to line up my monetary expenses with my morals (start a garden instead of buying a TV, eat meat that is less morally suspect, purchase entertainment from locally owned businesses when possible), and my time with my morals (volunteer, plan for a "better" life) while understanding that I can't reasonably quit my job RIGHT NOW - which is my largest expenditure of time - and feel morally good about the effect that will have on my family.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2013 12:10

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

I just saw Silver Linings Playbook and I think it's a pretty good portrayal of what it's like to be bipolar, maybe a little bit more severe than I am right now, but in the past I've definitely been very manic. (In 2008 I did so many situps and other things that I almost died, I was in the hospital with rhabdomyolysis for a week, for instance)

haplesscardsharp posted:

Again, it's not just the newest idea that's upsetting. He constantly has bad ideas, and without this thread, I feel like he would be living in a tent growing basil and making GBS threads over said basil to make it grow better. He needs to learn how to research whether his ideas are good or not by himself, he can't just use this forum as a substitute for good decision making. He's doing a good job, but he still needs to tackle his impulse, because it's the thing that hosed him in the first place. I'm rooting for him, I really am, but I know if he solves his financial problem without solving his impulsive problem, he'll eventually end up in the same place. Trust me, part of being responsible financially is being responsible in the rest of life's categories.

One of the things that's a little scary for me is the fact that, at the end of May, toeshoes and I will be separated again because she'll be posted and I'll go back to New Brunswick until (and if) they can find me a job at her new base. That could be really dangerous for me.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2013 00:43

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Leperflesh posted:

But feel free to completely ignore what I'm saying. I only have to work with it pretty much on a daily basis.

Oh wise sage of sewage, it sounds like you've dealt a lot with sewers, but not so much with compost and composting toilets.

I have, in fact, emptied - and been around while it's being emptied - my family's two composting toilets. The best way that I can think of to describe what comes out of those toilets is "dirt". It smells like dirt, looks like dirt, and when you move it to the pile, people don't even see it because it's so apparently dirt.

This may be because those toilets are only used for 1 to 3/5ths of the year by friends and family and so they have a lot of rest time, or it may just be a characteristic of composting toilets.

Dusseldorf posted:

I'm mainly confused how this can be construed as an environmental decision.

http://www.sun-mar.com/tech_envi.html

# ¿ Mar 5, 2013 13:07

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

miryei posted:

But each person isn't producing 600L of poo poo per day; I assume that includes water and such.

A quick google search did not return a number for how much poo poo a person produces, but I did find that the average American eats about 2200 lbs of food per year. Assuming that you're not gaining too much weight, most of that's gotta come out, so I'm willing to assume that the average American produces 2200 lbs of bodily waste per year. It's probably similar for Canadians.

edit: This works out to about 6 lbs/day.

A significant amount of your food is turned into heat and energy. Don't make me weigh my poop with a luggage scale and a bucket for 30 days in order to get an average per day waste weight...

In Halifax, where I'm from, nearly 500 000 people poop directly into the harbour. I lived like 900m away from one of the outlets, seagulls love that poo poo.

It was a long, expensive process, but we managed to get it all treated with plants before we dumped it a few years ago.

Then the power went out and one of the main treatment plants for Dartmouth filled up with sludge and had to be gutted, IIRC.

Baloogan posted:

I drink Coca-Cola for the environmental and social justice benefit it has. Check out their website!

OK, I made a couple of flowcharts because I'm weird like that and I have the day off, and a man can only JO and nap so much.

This is the current, totally excellent hydraulic waste management system. Notice that it is linear and requires inputs from the environment (dirt/dirt substitutes and chemicals) to keep functioning.

This is the proposed, totally disgusting and inconceivably retarded waste management system. Notice that the only input is sunlight.

I mean, you'd have to be RETARDED to compost your waste, right?

Edit: And I don't think producing too much fertilizer is a legitimate complaint. I mean seriously, you're talking about the best problem ever, where the solution is to literally produce more food. If you can't eat all the food, and everyone you know can't eat it either, put it in the pile with everything else and feed it to next years' vegetables.

tuyop fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Mar 5, 2013

# ¿ Mar 5, 2013 15:45

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

HipGnosis posted:

Yeah, I always wonder if there's a reason we invented our way out of composting our poo poo. Is it the Plumbing Industrial Complex coercing us though?

I wondered this awhile ago as well, and... I HAVE A THEORY.

Way way back, and for most of human history (prehistory?), we were hunter-gatherers. We probably just poo poo in the woods and bushes with the bears and stuff. We probably also sometimes died of intestinal diseases or other nasties from animals dying in water or something. These risks were mitigated by the fact that we could simply pick up and move once an environment became too foul. Hundreds of thousands of years passed this way.

I personally subscribe to Paul Collier's (and others) theory of civilization. The theory goes something like this: people have always been scared of other groups of people, which makes sense in a hunter-gatherer economy because you're really only one bad encounter away from a horrible death at the hands of another group of humans, or they'll just steal your furs and rape/kidnap your women and you will be upset. So, over time the most successful groups were the groups that dedicated a portion of their productive energy to training and maintaining a portion of the population whose job was to simply do violence against other humans. The alternative being, of course, to work at diplomacy and try to understand other groups of people and share with each other for our collective betterment. Unfortunately, training and maintaining violent people among you is a mimetic hazard. Groups who did not invest in this ad hoc class division were easily and quickly disposed of by groups who had.

As more and more groups pick up this class division in order to survive, it becomes necessary to increase the size of your groups to maintain protection and dominance, and organize the whole operation somehow. A class of rulers emerges which has a further vested interest in organizing the labour of the farmers/hunters and gatherers and keeping the warriors occupied, while at the same time depending on the products of everyone else for their continued existence. In order for this class to succeed, we needed predictable, consistent returns and so we started farming intensively. Unfortunately, now we can't leave an area once it becomes too foul, so waste management becomes necessary.

As the size of our population grows, we have to produce more warriors and more rulers and keep everyone busy making war and organizing and making sure that the farmers know that it's really necessary that we keep going on this way to stay safe from "them". One of the contradictions of this critical, industrial mass, is that we create an environment that cannot support life without a lot of inputs from the environment. We need food, water, materials from "away" and all the garbage and poo poo that that mass of humanity produces has to go "away" somehow without killing all of us. Things really came to a head with industrialization when cities really exploded, and we figured out the most efficient ways to take stuff from "away", use it, make it useless and then literally flush it "away", like railroads, refrigeration, and hydraulic sewage.

But I don't really think we can keep living that way indefinitely without some major changes in transporting, storing, using, and disposing of all of the stuff that our economy needs to keep us all going. I also think that the whole raison d'etre of our economy should be critically examined by anyone with a brain, but that's really beside the point of making GBS threads in a bucket and putting it in your backyard.

Tl;dr: modern sewage systems are the ultimate manifestation of the destruction of, and alienation from, the environment and human dignity and brotherhood in order to endlessly enrich a few shortsighted, pitiful members of our species.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2013 19:42

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

FrozenVent posted:

Does anybody have a link to that thread about the guy who lived in a tent with his sick wife and ate rotten meat?

I don't know why, this feels relevant.

I read that thread!

I remember thinking that that guy was really messed up.

:ohdear:

# ¿ Mar 5, 2013 20:20

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

ANYWAY,

I forgot to mention.

:siren:

March is: Buy Nothing New Month :siren:

Anything we buy in March must either:

a) be directly consumable, like gasoline or food, or

b) directly replace something that is sold or donated.

I bought the Humanure Handbook in February.

So far, we have not bought:

A cookbook (with a Chapters gift card I found from a couple of years ago): $36

And we sold:

An iPhone: $300

A pico projector that was a Christmas present: $70

Then bought an LG flip phone: $0

Also, we've made progress toward reducing:

Cell phone: $175/month > 50.85/month
Credit Card Finance charges: $199/month > $88/month (woop, balance transfers!)

Things on the chopping block:

Car insurance: $222, This will go down, hopefully to $0 this summer, but I got a quote for $67/month in Alberta in case we don't get rid of the car, which is where we'll probably be moving.
Internet: $56, hoping to share this once we move and get it down below $30/month. I'd like to try getting rid of it completely, though.
Rent: $800, looking at apartments for June, it seems like we can room with someone for around $600.

Other than getting rid of our "fun money", I think that's the only discretionary stuff that we have.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2013 20:57

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Devious_05 posted:

I'm rather curious what else you expected him to buy with an Amazon gift card? Someone mentined it earlier, but isn't Amazon just books and dvds etc in the majority of countries? (thats all I know it as in Australia), so the only thing he could buy is "fun stuff"?

On an earlier thread note, Tuyop I'm all for the no soap thing, its bad for your skin anyway, BUT you must bathe frequently and use body spray etc to pull it off in modern society

What actually happened is, I was on the phone with Jesse Mecham, the founder of YNAB himself, and he told me that he was giving Amazon gift cards so that people wouldn't have to worry about budgeting whatever they bought.

I was just following the word of Jesse Mecham hisself. :qq:

Speaking of which, would it be ok if I posted the $6 off referral link that I got when I bought the program?

# ¿ Mar 6, 2013 00:56

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Adar posted:

Their financial progress came at the cost of a $0 fun budget. It's unsustainable, just like his mania.

That's for THIS month. And "consumable" things include entertainment. We went to see a movie and had thai food on the weekend. Both of those things are in the budget for fun money.

A cookbook is not a "consumable" thing, and since we get on fine without one to sell or donate, obviously we won't die if we don't buy one for March.

However, if I wear out my last pair of totally excellent underwear, for instance (my underwears are in top shape, don't worry!), then we can buy another pair of underwear because it will not be a new thing in our lives, and will be replacing something that broke, got sold, or got donated.

Last month we spent nearly $400 on fun things (I'm away from the budget so I'm not sure on the exact numbers). I get $40 for fun stuff, we have a common entertainment budget of $30-50, and toeshoes gets $100 because she didn't make the debt but she's contributing to paying it off because she's awesome.

That fun money is not including other discretionary poo poo that we buy, like potting soil or walmart pizza or meat.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2013 20:50

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Buy-nothing-new March update!

Of course, this month the following items break:

Can opener

Towel rack/shelf in bathroom

We replaced the shelf with a beach bag that matches our bathroom theme: $3

And the can opener will be shopped for today, but we'll probably get a nice one for around $10.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2013 17:19

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Leperflesh posted:

Because you should own one of the latter, rather than the former.

That one of course, though I could use one of those electric ones to match my catheter and bed pan for maximum convenience. But yeah, it broke. We bought it only about six months ago but I've broken several can openers in my adult life, probably because they were only like a buck each.

So this time we bought a totally supreme can opener for $15. No more broken can openers for me!

By the way, this is also budgeted for under "household supplies" which covers consumables like cleaners and, apparently, replacement can openers. Before anyone bites my head off for "splurging" on a nice can opener.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2013 02:39

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

CuddleChunks posted:

A good Swing-a-way can opener costs about ten bucks US so buying a quality tool that should outlast and outperform all your lovely cheap openers is a good value. No one should gripe about that. On the other hand, kitchen gadgets are a black hole where you can easily waste a ton of money. There is a thread over in GWS that's a great place to check before buying bigger ticket items.

Yeah we just did up our registry with all sorts of gucci stuff. It would be pretty sweet to get a vitamix or a ninja food processor, but it would be hard to justify those expenses.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2013 03:05

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

moana posted:

I got my t-shirt! Thanks tuyop

Me too! But I was all shaky from the gym and accidentally cut the shirt while I was taking it out of the package. I wonder if I should send them an email and beg for another. :ohdear:

I also think this means that I have to dispose of another t-shirt now. As per the rules of Buy Nothing New Month.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2013 23:53

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

ToeShoes posted:

We normally give our clothes away to the Salvation Army, but it's usually mostly my clothes

Yeah mine are usually rags by the time I'm done with them anyway.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2013 11:00

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Well guys, I just finished The Humanure Handbook and am now fully prepared to make a mega-post about how making GBS threads in a bucket will save the world. If there's interest.

dreesemonkey posted:

How's the no-buy month going so far tuyop?

Fine, it's not a big deal really. We kind of realized that we would have bought a ton of plant pots and probably another grow light. Instead, we just saved more money for the wedding.

Toeshoes also got a $520 tax return and I got $85, so that's our return flight for the wedding right there as well.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2013 22:22

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

FrozenVent posted:

Is it BASIL time?

No that's going to have to wait until we move. Then we'll have vermiculture, poo poo buckets and all the BASIL that we can sell!

# ¿ Mar 22, 2013 01:29

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Hey it's one of the best times of the year, the time when I don't pay car insurance because last year I paid two months in advance or something! Woo!

I really don't want to pay $2700 again next year. :ohdear:

I would do some shopping around now, but I'm not sure where I'll be living in the next couple of months so it's kind of pointless. But a quick stop a kanetix makes it look like I might be able to pay $700 next year if I move to Alberta!

# ¿ Mar 23, 2013 02:38

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

We've got a $55 car maintenance bill coming due in the next couple of weeks as well. Replacement air filter, brake fluid flush, and I want to replace my glove compartment lightbulb. :catstare:

I'm pretty pleased about this because the shop wanted to charge like $170 for those same items. I think we're going to do as much of the work as possible using only our middle fingers.

Only problem is that I'm thinking of selling the car soon, so I'm not sure if there's any point in flushing the brake fluid, but it's definitely overdue!

# ¿ Mar 24, 2013 16:55

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

DoctorTristan posted:

A man who put his car into a lake is not a man who should be loving around with brake maintenance.

poo poo son, I've done tons of brake work. It's like, the single worse thing to have done at a shop if you have disc brakes.

My record is fourteen minutes for a caliper, wheel off to wheel on. :smug:

# ¿ Mar 24, 2013 23:16

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 22:02

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

Ninpo posted:

Tuyop are you still on some ridiculously low number of calories a day? That plus the constant working out/exercise would give little wonder your back is still bothering you/getting worse.

I generally eat 1800 calories a day, give or take 150 calories depending on if I lift that day or not. I weigh 179 pounds.

However, if I start feeling a bit low, that creeps up to 2300-2500 very quickly, and that's historically been about 1/4 of the time. Since I've been feeling so level, I'm slowly making my way into <10% bodyfat territory!

But yeah, my back has been doing really well but I carried a sandbag full of rope on Saturday for a couple dozen metres and hurt it again. So it goes I guess.

Leperflesh posted:

Most people who don't know anything about auto maintenance go "OMG brakes are so important, get someone to do them right for you!"

What they don't realize is that brakes are generally the simplest and most robust system on a car. They're stupid-easy to maintain and if you have a jack and a few hand tools, you never need to pay someone to do anything on them. And if you defer maintenance on them they'll keep working pretty well for a very long time. Far more common (and significantly more dangerous) is a lack of maintenance on tires, suspension components, and steering components, all of which are as important as brakes in preventing an accident.

Brake fluid flush is one thing I like to have someone else do, just because it can be messy if you spill brake fluid all over the place, but really flushing brakes is fuckin' easy too. An air filter should take you ten minutes and you may not even need a single tool to do it. The glovebox light bulb should be similarly ridiculously easy.

If you don't have a floor jack and some stands, maybe get the mechanic to do the brake fluid. Do the filter and bulb yourself.

Toeshoes' class regularly practices stuff on its students' cars, so I think we could maybe get the flush done that way, rather than our driveway where we could contaminate EVERYTHING.

tuyop fucked around with this message at 10:58 on Mar 25, 2013

# ¿ Mar 25, 2013 10:56

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > The Goodmine > Tuyop: Troops in Trouble Two: Basil Butt Igloo

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