Fresh off Jarhead’s Is the Apocalypse Upon Us? post, according to Newsweek, the answer is YES – Apocalypse NOW!
“Tsunamis. Earthquakes. Nuclear Meltdowns. Revolutions. Economies on the Brink. What the #@%! is Next?”
Seriously, Newsweek? Inferred profanity on the cover? C’mon, people expect that #@%!ing trash on ghetto sites like this , but on the cover of a news magazine!? Scroll back up the cover of your magazine and ask yourself that question – “How Ignorant Are You?”
But anyway, forget their lowering themselves to profanity – it’s an issue of gloom, doom and fear mongering – I love it! Well, kinda.
I play to fear at times, but my motives for prepping have always been dual purpose – prepping because we’re so dependent on a fragile system, and because the lifestyle has positive side effects. When I prep I pursue self-reliance, financial sense, organic gardening, simple living, etc.
The SHTF Blog writing experience over the years has been interesting. My prepping experience has grown with the blog. I started writing posts for self and friends’ interest and humor. Originally, writing mostly to fear, these were the two rotating headers I used:
Fear! Threats! Look out – zombies are coming! As time went on I burnt out on fear and doom and quit blogging for about a year. When I came back revived and refreshed, I dropped the second header image and kicked the mushroom cloud to the curb. Peak oil, I figured, was less fearful and more realistic than mushroom clouds … maybe … anyway, it felt less in-your-face and loud:
I also noticed that I was getting more female readers commenting and sending me emails, so I started writing to that audience as well, to keep prepping less macho. It took a while for me to realize that the half-naked rifle babe sitting in the site’s sidebar from the beginning, should probably go, too. Goodbye half-naked rifle babe. You have been replaced with a more family friendly mother/daughter image.
It is now time for a new header image. I was looking for a design that seemed less militaristic and presented a bit more hope, something that would speak to the other side of prepping – simple living and self-reliance. The gas mask guy that I’ve used as my avatar in comments is now gone, so are the dawn/dusk marching soldiers, etc. Here is today’s header:
Yes, the forest fire and oil dependence on one end doesn’t scream “hope and happiness,” but these are legitimate reasons we prep. But they now flow toward images that remind readers (and myself) that difficult times are not necessarily hopeless times.
What do you think?
– RM
23 comments
First off, this is my first visit to your site. Prepping is a new thing for our household (we started in January) and I’m loving what I see here so far. Love the new bar at the top ~ it literally changed while I was reading the Well Balance Prepper article. Thanks for all the useful info, it is very overwhelming for a beginner, but I think we’re doing pretty well. There are so many things to learn, and with the things we see on the news every single day it makes me wish that we had started this well before now, but better late than never I guess.
Anyway, your site is great. Great info, but not too overwhelming for a newbie.
And I must say that I do appreciate your taking the care to take down the half naked gun chick and writing with the knowledge that there are women on your board as well. I would like to believe that i have more to offer our prepping than just tending the garden and learning how to can and dehydrate~so I appreciate your respectful approach to the female readers.
Thanks again, I look forward to being a regular visitor here!
Preppermomof2
I like it. I does remind us better of why most preppers prep. It’s not about the gloom and doom, mad max kind of thing that other blogs cater too. It’s more about taking care of your own and if the mad max kind of thing happens, then we’re that much more better off than people who don’t prep, or who have a Mossberg and a case of MREs. Keep on being real.
As long as the blue barrels are full of
1) ammo
2) junk silver, fractional gold, and silver bullion
3) more ammo
then it’s all good. All kidding aside, keep up the good work, it’s too easy to get burnt out with all of the negativity in the world. And hey, if a mushroom cloud really is the last thing we see, it’s not like you see one of those everyday either right? LOL
What I find interesting is Gerald Celente predicted survivalist information would go mainstream – sure seems to be in alignment.
i do like the mom/daughter thing.keep up the good work. it feels weird out here.
As a long time reader I really preferred gun girl and doom n gloom. But I suppose you should adapt to reader base and changing times.
China
III
I like the hurricane on there. A lot of people can relate to that. If a little of the doom and gloom fear mongering gets someone started or prepping a little more you will have done them a huge favor.
I wonder if you could rebrand the acronym SHTF? S could be sustainable possibly. I’m at a loss on HTF lol.
Sustainable
Help
Towards (the)
Future
Dang.. I bet you’re a kick ass Scrabble player.
Seriously? I’ve had a few people comment that they dislike the “SHTF” in the site’s title, specifically because of the “S.” I think that’s a little harder to change at this stage than simply swapping out a header image, though. Thoughts on that? Would changing “SHTF” to something more friendly be prudent or would it go too far toward nicey nicey?
I vote to leave the name as is.
I’m with 357chaos.
I think it’s better to change our thinking in this case than to change the name. How could anyone object to “something hit the fan”.
Personally, I like the use of SHTF and what you have going currently. I was just throwing out the idea of changing the meaning of the acronym if you’re looking to throttle back on the doom some more and maybe appeal to a larger demographic since the header is the first thing they’ll see before making the decision to continue reading.
I guess I was thinking along the lines of changing the slug line “preppers, pandemics, …” to something similar to what Jason suggested if you were going to make that change.
Stay away from unicorns and rainbows though :-)
I’ve never paid much attention to the header images on your blog. I read it because I like the blog. But, since you have brought it to my attention and after looking at the previous images, the newer header has better balance between disaster and hope. I like it.
I kinda like the “sweet 16” girl! But the pictures aren’t nearly as important as the subject matter!
I just noticed the picture that replaced the “gun=girl”, all I can say is nice… nice…
You should fix it so if someone clicks on the image, it takes them to the “Weapons for Slaying Zombies When TSHTF”, or something similar!
Good idea.
Love the new header. Honestly for me, prepping is less doom and gloom and more about common sense and real life skills and simple living. Awareness that the world is unstable and preparing is something I was getting grief about from my suburban Mom friends and my husband. Now with so many of these topics in the news and on people’s minds, it has actually opened up intelligent conversation and I wonder if some of the *ladies who I lunch with* have actually headed over to read your blog which I am always referring to when sharing prepper info.
But please never change the title “SHTF” of your blog. Regardless of what pictures you have featured I can’t imagine anything that would deter me from reading it. :-)
Actually, I would vote on keeping the title as “shtfblog”, especially since it would just waste your money registering a new website name, in addition to breaking links to the various pages of interest! “Shit” really isn’t that dirty of a word, and it’s not like your blog has an emblazoned header of:
“Blank hits the fan!”
However, I like that you removed the “rifle babe”, as I found it rather annoying.
I miss the half nekkid chick. I liked to pretend she was winking at me.
But I’m not exactly vanilla, so don’t mind me.
I like the chicken! Mmm tasty pollo… I’m gonna eat ya..
I really have nothing meaningful to say, just wanted to chime in. Maybe I”ll mention that mostly I’m here for the writing, I’ve enjoyed the additions of Chefbear and Jarhead. :-)
Thank you, your compliment is greatly appreciated!