Why shouldn't someone...

[Mentor]

Ha, no offence taken! I really don't have anything constructive to offer in terms of self defence in the woods - which was what I said (albeit, with a bit of sarcasm) in my original post.

All the best,

- Mike

 

[Joezilla]

To shed some light on this I want you to post something about YOU personally that is a reason that someone should NOT listen to you.

Well thats easy. I like getting stung by honeybees, and enjoy Godzilla Movies and will pick eating bugs over eating a tomato. I hate tomatoes.

 

[Bushman5]

people shouldn't listen to me because i think outside the box, march to the beat of a different drummer, use gear that makes most people uncomfortable on the trails (chest rigs, drop leg holsters). People shouldn't listen to me because i think its perfectly normal to start a hike in rough terrain in the middle of the night and navigate by red lens light and a compass/map. People shouldn't listen to me because often i say it how it is, i'm not PC at all.

I could think of more but i just got up from last nights beer binge and haven't had my morning coffee yet.

 

[Nobody]

How about tomatoes with bugs in them?

I'm an advocate of listening to a wide variety of opinions within whatever time you have designated available to hear them. I don't want to listen to a complete buffoon unless it's for entertainment purposes. Time is the most limiting commodity in my life. Well money too, but money can be earned however time is a non-renewable resource so I have to spend it as wisely as I can. I most certainly don't agree with everyone in the world, but hearing other people's opinions and sometimes arguing/discussing competing opinions is usually constructive for me. I'll listen to what people are saying or teaching and take from it what I may find useful at any given time. Sometimes tidbits of info I've discarded as useless to me at one time have proven to be useful later on and I'm glad I listened. Some things that were once useful to me are less so now. When it comes down to it, I'm basically a knowledge whore.

 

[Joezilla]

time is a non-renewable resource

Love it! :thumbup:

 

[jw2n]

You should'nt listen to me because I confuse lemonade with yellow snow.

I have gotten my Polygrip and Prep-H mixed up.

I could care less how many girlfriends Tiger Woods has.

I despise the politicians who run this country.

And, I like seeing what other people use, as it may reveal a blind-spot that I am not aware of.

 

[Anrkst6973]

Dont listen to me...I eat bugs and small woods varmits...plants that I dont know the scientific name of..and most time use a 12 inch recurve chopper as a kitchen knife. Oh yea..I like good hard cold steel from the likes of Bryan Breeden and Ray L. so I MUST be loony as a jaybird!!

 

[Pritch]

Because I very well might miss the point of the thread the first time I respond. . .

FLIX

 

[Macclint]

i've reached the point in my skills set that i don't worry about anything. i don't need anything really, historically speaking, God always takes care of fools like me - there is so much junk in every wilderness that i have been to that you can make a city if you have to.

Amen.

 

[Wanderlust]

And, I like seeing what other people use, as it may reveal a blind-spot that I am not aware of.

This right here is why I listen to what others have to say and like everybody else has said, I use what works for me.

 

[ratamahatta]

Why shouldn't you listen to me...hmmm....

I drink. Not heavily, but I do like Guinness.

I eat a lot of fried foods.

I don't always whizz standing up.

I don't own any wool.

I've never taken a wuhdz course.

I was never in the military...which is kind of like a Phd in survival, I suppose.

I deer hunt with an SKS.

When I'm not hunting with a bow, which is pretty much the entire season...

I can't do all the nifty stuff with a map that some folks can.

Which is why you don't see me giving opinions on orienteering...

I've never spent a night in Canada, Alaska, the Arctic, the Antarctic, Brazil, Peru, Australia, The Mojave, Death Valley, the Deserts of America, or even Michigan for that matter.

So, I'm one step above poor white trash--what I like to call poor white clutter--sue me...

I've never tramped through a swamp, unless you count the little ones you sometimes encounter here. Nothing like the Everglades.

I'm afraid of snakes and I don't particularly care for spiders.

I use second rate and discount bin equipment.

I don't even know where to buy the latest Titanium crap.

I've never owned a camp stove.

I've only ever owned two propane lanterns.

I don't repell, go mountain climbing, or spelunking (so I don't like caves, bite me).



Feel free to not listen to me. As a matter of fact, ignore everything I say. I think I'm even going to start doing the opposite of everything I say.

:thumbup::thumbup:+++ same here, plus I like guinness......

 

[TreeChopper]

Nobody should listen to me because....

My definition of survival, preparedness and what constitutes an emergency will be vastly different from another person's. My idea of useful gear will be different. What I'm willing to carry on my back to alleviate some discomfort might be completely unnecessary to another person.

I've never been lost, spent a night in the woods injured, threatened by wild animals *except a pissed off doe* , buried in snow, nor forced to utilize the gear I was carrying to save my life.

I've never broken a bone, had to suture myself, used QuikClot, or had a sucking chest wound. Isn't QuikClot a tasty hot drink mix?

I have never soaked a shirt with sweat in my life. I could not relate to having sopping wet base layers unless I fell into water. I could mistakenly advise someone saying, "all fabrics wick equally well." Truth is, I don't sweat much but I overheat really well.

My feet don't sweat. Gore-tex boots are the best. :thumbup:

Real food is trail food. Emergency food is energy bars, trail mix, ramen noodles, candy bars, mac n cheese, etc.

I lacerated my shin with a pruning saw. A shaving- sharp hatchet has to be safer, right?

I'm better at sharpening convex and scandi grinds. They are the best.

A jacket w/o a hood is nearly worthless.

I don't care for snakes and ticks. :barf: I won't recommend a ground cloth because nobody should sleep on the bare ground in the first place.

I don't hunt and fish. Fish hooks are for decorative purposes, aren't they?

I've been winter camping. I was cold and shivery at night.

I've had uncontrollable shivering ..........in the summer.
Therefore, I have more than once failed the Cody Lundin Keep Your Ass Alive course called 98.6 Degrees for Dumbells.

Dark nights certainly require flashlights with 1000 lumens. Having night vision must mean complete and total illumination of everything.

I won't beat somebody up because he/she stole my pancakes. I guess I either don't know how to survive or I do. Depends how you look at it.

I've run out of water on a long summer hike. I had nothing with me to purify and drink the water I did see along the trail.

I've underestimated my caloric requirements on a multi-day bike ride. I was hungry.

I take risks when the fun factor overrides my common sense and silences that little voice telling me to wise up.

I've forgotten my scripts more than once.

I've forgotten some piece of gear too many times to count.

I enjoy making my own gear... maybe even more than using it.

I can some ID trees. I don't know wild, edible vegetative food from store-bought lettuce. It's green ain't it? Must be good for me.

My low count of close calls has more to do with luck and less to do with skill level and preparation.

I'm sure there's more. I've changed my ways over the past two years of reading this and other forums but still disappoint myself every month.

What do I know about anything, really? Don't listen to me.

 

[quietmike]

No one should listen to me about my survival choices because I died of hypothermia last week.

 

[srobin59]

Don't listen to me because my main piece of shelter is a USMC body bag. It is water proof and just in case I screw up. I have been known to screw up.

 

[Voltron]

Don't listen to me because I have yet to find a situation out in the woods where I really needed anything other then a slipjoint pocketknife. Don't listen to me because I see no need for the latest, most expensive, technologically advanced gear a person can hardly afford to have when people were making due without said gear, and doing perfectly fine, for thousands of years. Don't listen to me because I feel that using too much technology and making things TOO easy out and about keeps you from using the most important piece of gear you could possibly have: Your brain. And don't listen to me because I feel a little ingenuity is all you need.
But what do I know.

 

[Pritch]

Don't listen to me because I have yet to find a situation out in the woods where I really needed anything other then a slipjoint pocketknife. Don't listen to me because I see no need for the latest, most expensive, technologically advanced gear a person can hardly afford to have when people were making due without said gear, and doing perfectly fine, for thousands of years. Don't listen to me because I feel that using too much technology and making things TOO easy out and about keeps you from using the most important piece of gear you could possibly have: Your brain. And don't listen to me because I feel a little ingenuity is all you need.
But what do I know.

Welcome to WSS, oh wise one.

 

[Nobody]

Nobody should listen to me because.....

I did listen...

 

[kgd]

Personally, I think healthy debate and argument is good. It is bad when the debate turns into polarized view points with little or no real concession to different view points. Likewise, having a bunch of folks pat each other on the back telling each other how wonderful they are is equally useless.

Don't listen to me if I agree with you. Perhaps you should listen to me if I criticize you on the basis of a set of circumstances. I like W&SS because people here seem to have some faculty for understanding the debate process. Go outside of this place and you get either polarized view point or a lot of patting each other on the back.

Finally, I think you generate a certain respect for members who ostensibly demonstrate their skills through different threads, whether they are just the photodocumentation of their trips or attempts at instructional skills. Like Kevin's put up or shut up thread. Don't listen to people who suddenly pop up and claim to be experts. Usually you should completely avoid reading the text of anybody who starts off saying 'I am an expert in....'

So what are my biases?

I think guns in the wilderness are useful for hunting and nothing else. I see carrying a tent, sleeping bag and camp stove as a legitimate substitute for carrying a chopper. I think global climate change is actually happening. I think people should learn to get along with each other, whether circumstances are such that they happen to be neighbors or whether they meet each other on the trails. I think that when the SHTF (and it is going to happen), most people will generally prove their virtue and not behave like the scum of the earth. I think folding knives suck, unless it is a SAK and then it is okay. I think fiskers should replace the 'i' and 's' in their name with a 'u' and 'c'. <--- No I don't really think that but I thought it was funny. I have a really stupid sense of humour. I spell things with u after the o. I like to tell Don how violent he is and advise him on self defense. I think Hot Wheels and the manual race tracks were one of the 'best' kid toys of all times, second only to smash up derby zip cars. I don't own a single fixed blade knife that hasn't eaten its way through a block of wood in a batonning session. I think Rick's knives is pretty but Rick ain't yet his wife is awesome <--that is all really good news for his kids and their genetics, albeit some claim were actually fathered by Talfuchre.

 

[JCavSD]

Don't listen to me because I'm the ultimate untralite hiker...I do it in the nude. I've grown various toe nails out to perform specific tasks...chopper, spoon, shelter, food source (corn chips good...yum), etc.

 

[Bolt-action bultema]

Y'all shouldn't listen to me because I just called you "y'all"