13 skills plan of attack in 2013

Ran across the 13 Skills Website courtesy ofhttp://lifehacker.com/skills Lifehacker.

What an excellent concept, you choose 12 skills you want to learn in 2013, sign up for the website then track your progress.

Blade Sharpening, Languages, Entrepreneurial skills etc

Then complete the self directed course of study and post your accomplishments.

The genius behind the concept is the vastness of the internet means there is a host of ways to learn various subjects, but no single place to help one to focus on actually obtaining results rather than just surfing the web and posting random stuff on various forums.


I have my strategy, low cost educational opportunities married to drive and unique ways of learning, if a skill does not meet this standard then it is not in an Economic Guerrilla's purview. The idea is maximize time for results not to spend huge sums of money for an esoteric education.

I've chosen:

Container Gardening, this skill works in the city or the country, it maximizes personal space for productivity
Entrepreneur, it is all fine to see opportunities, without the toolbox to act on them one is wasting ones time
Foreign Languages: Low cost learning that is portable.
Social Media: Great tool in the toolbox, all "free".
Tracking: pure fun, makes a hike in the woods more exciting
Herbal Remedies: where there is no doctor
Cryptography: an Economic Guerrilla guards their communications about important matters
Bartering: Wonderful use of the communication tools we have available to us
Accounting: Someone has to do the books
Organizational Skills: Herding cats without herding them, helps to gain insights.
Sprouting: High quality food for very low cost, can be done anywhere
Blade Sharpening: Great skill to have because lower cost foods tend to need more processing. And if a blade is carried for self defense, make sure it is sharp

Should make for a fun 2013

Winter blues are opportunities/Ghosts in Asheville

Asheville is very much a March through mid November town.

This is a simple reality of a mountain city with a tourist/fresh food economy.

Typically the days are gray and drab, the night comes early etc.

Ah, but the bones of Asheville are ripe, the parks, the rivers, the road ways are nearly abandoned of vehicular traffic.

These are all opportunities to better ones skills and creative capacities. The quiet of night allows for learning with not distractions. Languages, Philosophy both Western and Eastern, Computer Programming and Repair. Even "lesser" skills such as becoming a public notary or becoming certified in things such a Time Management or learning new ways of Marketing, all there without distractions simply for the Guerrilla who is willing to put in the effort.

These are the possibilities, then physically with empty road ways bike commuting becomes far easier. And healthier as the cold, dense mountain air causes the lungs to become stronger. Such work always bares fruit as mentally and physically one will be peaking when the weather turns warm and Asheville becomes the sort of "New Orleans lite" that is sort of is.

Only Asheville is an odd town, we are #2 in Pabst Blue Ribbon consumption, and have more breweries per capita, there is an underlying intellectualism that permeates the town, Amateur intellectualism of course, still it is there. In Asheville is nothing to chat about Miyamoto Musashi or St Augustine or Kant in even a tiki bar like the Yacht Club.

I suspect when Tourists visit they assume the accommodating that happens is a product of a sort of innate shyness or "southern hospitality"'. Not so, more as the Villages in Southeast Asia saw American soldiers, mere ghosts passing through the landscape, pay them no mind but do be nice.

Who wishes to anger a ghost?

What is an Economic Guerrilla?

Economic Guerrilla:

And adventure in pro active living with understanding of the world from an economic sense in a very real, practical way.

What an Economic Guerrilla is:
-Realistic, there are few free lunches and even the ones that are free contain strings.
-Proactive, the world wants your money and your time one has to consciously avoid wasting either resource unless one chooses to do so.
-Happy, life in economic terms holds no anxiety, the EG (Economic Guerrilla) knows how to prosper on their own terms and is quite happy to do so.

What an Economic Guerrilla is not:
-A skin flint/cheap skate, why bother? the EG (Economic Guerrilla) simply does not engage in some action to please the crowd, or the circle of family or friends who are more than happy to waste time and money on that which does not matter. The EG simply rejects the activity or product outright rather than descend into spurious behavior.
-Unethical, there is no reason to engage in poor ethics to save either time or money, being honest and rejecting engaging means ones own ethics are actualized.
-Lazy, time is precious and there is little of it to waste on mainstream nonsense. This is a world where self improvement and health are the coin of the realm laziness is a sort of fire that eats both things.

Think of being an Economic Guerrilla as swimming in a sea of apathy and laziness while all the while being quite aware of how both life, and manipulation via media effects those around them in a profound, and negative way. This is quite eye opening and bestows a sort of perception of how roles and products are foisted upon those around them. This perception allows for a rather enjoyable, if vicarious, ride as economic blunders are made and how they effect people in a very real, if sad, manner.

Ao Ji!