missing some forum members

[libby]

I am not on here very much anymore but was wondering where Stella, Zoebird and llhamo have gotten to. Haven't seen them for quite some time one here.

[rosarugosa]

Hi Libby: I do see Zoebird on the Non-Consumer Advocate FB group (not under that name). She's pretty active there, so I'm guessing that site suits her better. I think Stella & Ilhamo have too much going on in their lives to be very active here right now, but they do pop in occasionally.
There are a lot of folks we haven't heard from for awhile unfortunately.

[Reyes]

I was thinking about some of these folks:

Sylvan
Diana in Wisconsin (do I remember this correctly?)
Sylvan
Matisse
Granola Girl
Mommy to B & G

Maybe some of the above are using a different name now?

[Kestra]

Lhamo is on the Mr. Money Mustache forums a lot. I miss Stella.

[pinkytoe]

I miss loosechickens and caralee from a long time ago. They always had sage advice IMO.

[catherine]

I miss all of the above.. I miss Mrs-M and redfox, and I'm bummed that they left angry. And I was thinking today about WJSimon. And I remember Chickadee and Billy Barebutt--they added a lot of color.

No matter what, what I personally value here is the diversity of thought and experience, bound by a common value. I don't want to lose any more of us!!

[pinkytoe]

bound by a common value
Especially because it is so very hard to find "hard copies" of simple livers out here in the real world...makes me appreciate everyone here.

[lhamo]

I lost my password in a computer software upgrade so I've just been reading for a few weeks, not posting. Finally figured out which one it was.

[Float On]

So glad you found your password lhamo!

[cx3]

Diane in Wisconsin and Billy Barebutt, now that brings back memories from way way back.
I only check in about once a month these days because there doesn't seem to be much going on here anymore.It seems like our forum is dying a slow death.Sad really,as this place was my first online home back in in late 90's.

[kib]

Were you cx3 back then?

I love the forum, after being gone for a few years it already feels like home again. But I do think that forums have a sort of life of their own ... after 20 years, the core members here are older and articulate and we/they have hashed out a lot of issues du jour already. Not that there's any agreement, ha ha, but everything from home made laundry detergent to handling death has been mined for wisdom and compassion.

I'm not sure about this, but I think the founding principles of simple living (whatever that might be) may not be as hot a topic for today's younger people who have grown up under the shadow of economic instability and have fallen into two camps: those who take simplicity for granted, and those who figure they might as well party on the grave of the world; those of us in the 45-65 ish age bracket experienced that massive prosperity bubble, whether or not we participated in it, and it took a lot of passion and energy to back down and regroup; some have moved on from there, some are here as friends, but the ... importance and urgency of simplifying isn't such a priority for the core members any more, and the scarcity of credit means there aren't as many new folks up to their eyeballs in overspending and debt looking for answers.

[iris lilies]

Were you cx3 back then?

...I'm not sure about this, but I think the founding principles of simple living (whatever that might be) may not be as hot a topic for today's younger people who have grown up under the shadow of economic instability and have fallen into two camps: those who take simplicity for granted, and those who figure they might as well party on the grave of the world; those of us in the 45-65 ish age bracket experienced that massive prosperity bubble, whether or not we participated in it, and it took a lot of passion and energy to back down and regroup; some have moved on from there, some are here as friends, but the ... importance and urgency of simplifying isn't such a priority for the core members any more, and the scarcity of credit means there aren't as many new folks up to their eyeballs in overspending and debt looking for answers...

I'm more of mindset that forums have a lifetime, they flow and ebb.

There are young people over on the Mr. Money Mustache site, and many of them have pretty high earnings. Their most recent poll showed a fair number of people earning over $85,000 with many over $100,000, and that's just a single income for a household. They are, as a group, very independent and are interested in frugality as a means to build a 'stache of money so as to retire early. It strikes me as a board where the typical member is male, age 35, in engineering or IT, probably IN-- on the Myers-Briggs test, and smart.

Now that said, I will go give my donation to this board, the one I pledged. I've got my credit card out, trying to give Ira Glass money to fund Serial podcast again, but the ##$$$$!!XX software he is using refuses to take my plastic. So never mind, I'll give to another web effort, the SL forums.

There are plenty of people 45 - 65 who will not recognize your "massive prosperity bubble" as reality, and some of them hang out here even though I do agree with that characterization. But then, what' been the run up in the stock market of the past 18 months if not a prosperity bubble? :~)

[pinkytoe]

It is kind of amazing that some of us still come here after so many years. That notion feels somewhat alien in the world I am seeing lately. More and more, I note the return of what it felt like before the recession. Very large and or expensive cars and homes, etc. Chic restaurants and over the top home remodeling. A sort of hedonist lifestyle among the younger generation - dd's camp anyway. Eating out a lot, partying, etc...

[kib]

it's not that we all participated in the bubble, but it was the primary social model in the mid 80's - hippy is out, yuppie is in, so go buy stuff. Not that everyone agreed or could live this way, but it seems to me most everyone agreed this was a 'normal' mind set. How many movies did we watch in which 20 somethings were stock brokers, lawyers or instant business successes, or coffee baristas and column writers living in lovely 3 bedroom Manhattan digs? Then things started breaking off the edges, banks crashing, mortgages tumbling down, jobs disappearing. The up and coming generation of successful young people have a model of rise and mostly fall to contemplate, not just the stagnate then rise model of 70's-90's.

Off topic - did your CC work here? I tried donating last week and hit a wall because I didn't use pay pal.

[cx3]

Were you cx3 back then?



No, I went by c on the old boards. The new boards would not allow a one letter username, so I went with cx3.

[ApatheticNoMore]

It is kind of amazing that some of us still come here after so many years. That notion feels somewhat alien in the world I am seeing lately. More and more, I note the return of what it felt like before the recession. Very large and or expensive cars and homes, etc. Chic restaurants and over the top home remodeling. A sort of hedonist lifestyle among the younger generation - dd's camp anyway. Eating out a lot, partying, etc...

your problem is that you live in Austin. A recent news article said that housing prices are more out of line with median incomes in Austin than anywhere else in the nation (yes that includes places in California where everyone knows housing prices are ridiculously out of line with median incomes, I mean if you make California look affordable that's pretty crazy ...). This could be caused by extreme income inequality so that a small percentage of the population can drive housing prices. I do think a lot of that happens and that may be what you are seeing (around here though I've also never seen more homeless people - so it's extreme income inequality but on both ends - if one cares to look and wanders around a little there's homeless villages of great sophistication that speak to the permanence of homelessness). But it could also be somewhat of a credit fueled all hat no cattle phenomena (yea a bubble).

[iris lilies]

it's not that we all participated in the bubble, but it was the primary social model in the mid 80's - hippy is out, yuppie is in, so go buy stuff. Not that everyone agreed or could live this way, but it seems to me most everyone agreed this was a 'normal' mind set. How many movies did we watch in which 20 somethings were stock brokers, lawyers or instant business successes, or coffee baristas and column writers living in lovely 3 bedroom Manhattan digs? Then things started breaking off the edges, banks crashing, mortgages tumbling down, jobs disappearing. The up and coming generation of successful young people have a model of rise and mostly fall to contemplate, not just the stagnate then rise model of 70's-90's.

Off topic - did your CC work here? I tried donating last week and hit a wall because I didn't use pay pal.

I do have a Paypal account so yes, it worked.

[rosarugosa]

Does it make sense to currently make donations, since NRF is ceasing to exist and the Forums will no longer be hosted here? I was waiting to see what the next stage would be.

[iris lilies]

Does it make sense to currently make donations, since NRF is ceasing to exist and the Forums will no longer be hosted here? I was waiting to see what the next stage would be.

The forums ARE hosted here and will be here, the transition was seamless. Now Alan is keeping them running in the format you see today. That costs something.

[pinkytoe]

your problem is that you live in Austin.
Yeah it's a problem alright when you can no longer afford to live in your own damn town. We seem to be having a mass California migration, but I guess if your 3-2 home in CA is $1mil+, then 750K seems like a deal when you move here. But that same $750K house here was probably $325 just 2-3 years ago. Great time to sell, that's for sure.

[Alan]

Does it make sense to currently make donations, since NRF is ceasing to exist and the Forums will no longer be hosted here? I was waiting to see what the next stage would be.You're already seeing the next stage. The forums have always been hosted on a third party server and will continue to exist at the same place. Previously NRM fronted the associated expenses and hoped the members would contribute enough to fund the next round of expense. Now someone else is fronting the expense and hoping donations will balance the account. If annual donations should ever exceed annual expenses the excess will be set aside in an upgrade/maintenance fund.

As an FYI, our domain name expires in December. A one year renewal is just under $30. Our semi-annual hosting fees are also due December 1st, which is another $190 or so. I'm still not clear on the fees associated with our email host as the simplelivingforum.net address is lumped into another NRM account. I'll be looking at moving that soon.

So, in answer to your question "Does it make sense to currently make donations", the answer is Yes. All donations help ensure that the forums continue uninterrupted.

[kib]

I will try the donation again.

One person I think about occasionally was an artist on here. I can't put my finger on his name, it was something like David Yang? He was really walking the talk, living off grid I think and doing his artistic expression ... pottery maybe? It's vague now, but I was always wowed by the clarity (and success) of his chosen path when my own journey seemed so haphazard.

[Gardenarian]

Haven't seen fidgiegirl much either - busy with new baby I expect.

[shadowmoss]

I miss Gary. Even when he wasn't sparring with Spartana I enjoyed his posts.

[rosarugosa]

Thanks, Alan. I'm amazed by the seamless transition and will make my donation soon!

[Teacher Terry]

I really enjoyed Redfox's posts & it was sad that she left mad.

[Spartana]

I miss Gary. Even when he wasn't sparring with Spartana I enjoyed his posts.Ha! Gary and I spar via e-mail now. He just sent me a bunch of photos from his latest trip to Hawaii. Can you say "paybacks?" I knew you could :-)!

[KayLR]

I think of Kitten often and wish she'd report in.

[Simplygib]

I miss Gary. Even when he wasn't sparring with Spartana I enjoyed his posts.

Thanks Paula. And sorry to hear about your troubles in PHX. Hope that all gets cleared up soon (if it hasn't been already).

This site played a big part in my journey to FI3. I stopped visiting regularly after I got there, mostly because I got busy with other things, and honestly I got tired of the bickering and the few trolls who incessantly suck energy out of good sites like this one. It's unfortunate, but at some point it just seems to add too much negativity to be worth my time any more. I've found that since retiring 7 years ago I have very little tolerance for things that bring negativity to my life. I am happier than I have ever been, mostly due to being FI3 and finally being with the "right" woman for me, and find that all this happiness leads me to want to block out anything that would jeopardize that, at least those things that I can control. There are lots of people here I miss (you among them) - those who always had something positive to add and especially those who made a valiant effort to "walk the walk," not just "talk the talk." That was one thing that drew me to Spartana in the early days - she had already achieved that which I craved - early retirement - and our online friendship grew out of my jealousy and her playful way of taunting me about it. And of course we still have a lot of fun jabbing at each other electronically.

Wish I would have known you were in PHX. I was in Quartzsite a few weeks ago and maybe we could have met up. Back up in Oregon now though.

[shadowmoss]

Gary, Let me know anytime you are south of Las Vegas and I'll scurry over to meet with you. I was going to try to make the Q this year, but didn't. There was a bloggers get-together that I wanted to make as I read a lot of the folks' blogs that were there, but since I work weekends it just wasn't possible. Pop in here occasionally and let me know what you are up to. I miss hearing all about you and She-Ra's goings on.

[Simplygib]

Gary, Let me know anytime you are south of Las Vegas and I'll scurry over to meet with you. I was going to try to make the Q this year, but didn't. There was a bloggers get-together that I wanted to make as I read a lot of the folks' blogs that were there, but since I work weekends it just wasn't possible. Pop in here occasionally and let me know what you are up to. I miss hearing all about you and She-Ra's goings on.

Will do. I usually head down south every winter with a buddy or two for at least a month in my truck camper. This year we spent about 10 days at Lake Havasu, 4 or 5 days at Parker (visiting Q during that time), and the rest of the time at Anza Borrego, my favorite place. The photo below is our three rigs (mine is at the far right) at sunset. There are AWESOME sunsets out there. That would be great if we could meet up at some point next year, and maybe we can even talk Spartana into joining us (but I won't hold my breath on that one - she is quite the elusive one!).

This site confuses me a bit now. This topic shows up in the "Open" forum but I can only find it by doing a search. It doesn't show up in the regular forum listings. It's as though the Open forum exists still, but it's hidden from the main page. Oh well.

Gary

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z310/simplygib/DSC_0038-RigsatSunset-Small_zps642c0fa3.jpg

[Yossarian]

This topic shows up in the "Open" forum but I can only find it by doing a search. It doesn't show up in the regular forum listings. It's as though the Open forum exists still, but it's hidden from the main page. Oh well.



Not sure where you are in the tree but if you click on the "Simple Living forums" thingy in the upper left corner it should show them all. Or at least it does for me.

See http://www.simplelivingforum.net/forum.php

[Simplygib]

Thanks Yossarian. Maybe it's a case of "not enough caffeine yet." I see now that it's listed under the Special Use Forums. Somehow I just wasn't seeing it before.

[catherine]

That was one thing that drew me to Spartana in the early days - she had already achieved that which I craved - early retirement - and our online friendship grew out of my jealousy and her playful way of taunting me about it. And of course we still have a lot of fun jabbing at each other electronically.


Yeah, I always thought you guys were married, or were ex's or something until she set me straight. You definitely sounded like an old married couple! Good to hear from you, Gary! Looks like you're doing really well-congrats!

[Spartana]

Yeah, I always thought you guys were married, or were ex's or something until she set me straight. You definitely sounded like an old married couple! Good to hear from you, Gary! Looks like you're doing really well-congrats!

Ha Ha!! I don't think I'd ever subject dear Gary to being married to evil me - but I do like to tease him about things and he's a great sport to put up with it all. Now it's all turned around on me and he has a lovely early retired life and is living the dream. Not that I don't tease him still :-)!