I bought nine of those Dog Fathers at the last Knob Creek, along with 16 Dumpster Mutts and Yard Keepers that were in never-before released colors. I was one of the first ones there on Friday; I'm not sure if anyone else bought Scrap Yard Blades in Arctic White, Bama Clay, or Moss, but I cleaned out what they had left, which was very little -- there was only one YK in white or clay, and none in moss.

I've been trying to curtail spending since then -- dropping $3600 in one day is a big hit on the CC. I've got money in savings to cover it, but I hate to dig too deep into that considering how uncertain the future is. Some people, including those in my own family, have suggested that I could carry it as a CC balance, but I refuse to do that if I've got any choice. If you think a retail price is high, take a look at how much it actually costs with a few months of interest payments piled on you'll probably rethink buying it in the first place. I saw the effects of money problems on my parents resulting from overextended credit while I was growing up -- it's not something I intend to allow to happen to me.

As far as uncertainty goes, I'm pretty sure my job is fairly secure. I think my company would have a very hard time without me (I believe I'm the only one who knows, or even wants to know, how many of the processes I've written programs to implement work), but I also know that nobody's indispensable, especially when management decisions are driven by short-term tactics rather than long-term strategy.

I don't think that I've posted to the "Death Chat" thread before today. I'd like to achieve JYD #60, but that means I need to get within striking distance soon. I've seen several fairly new folks who have been making LOTs of posts. However, most of what I'm seeing lately is like, "I've got my SoD order in -- wonder when it'll ship."

Maybe it's just my perception, but it seems that there's not as much energy on the Scrap Yard forum lately. I'm not sure how much of that is real and how much might be my own outlook. While, as I stated earlier, I believe my job is secure, I've lost nearly half of the value out of my retirement plan in the last year. While that value reached a peak last year about this time, I'd only broken even by the end of the year -- I'm looking back at that situation as "the good old days"; I didn't earn anything in 2007, but I didn't loose either.

After high school, I spent 8-1/2 years in the Navy, followed by several years in semi-skilled, non-union electrical manufacturing jobs, before going to college and earning a BS in Computer Science with a Business minor -- I graduated in Y2K at age 39. During much of that time, when I'd hear about the stock market taking a hit, I'd think something like, "It's about time those rich, privileged fat-cats who don't work for their money take a hit." Now, I'm seeing that many, if not most of the ones taking hits are those trying to put something away for retirement. Of course, the people managing the funds all say I should consider current conditions an opportunity to invest more while prices are low -- I'm reminded of a carnival huckster telling a rube buy another three balls -- he almost won that time and is sure to win the next.

It blows my mind that anybody could buy 17 Dogfathers and not take any out for an adventure. Just picking the beast up, you can feel it yearns to bite something!

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Anyway, back to where I was going on the last post -- I'm not sure if it's because I'm (personally) down about the economy that I'm feeling less energy on the Scrap Yard forum, or if that's really the case. Assuming that it really is less active, I'm wondering exactly why.

It could be that I'm not alone about the economy, which is what I'd guess is the dominant cause. Of course, I've already admitted that bothers me, so it's only natural that I'd tend to accept it as being an issue to others. That being said, I've communicated with more than one person who's looking for work, the Canadians have been posting that currency exchange rates are hurting them badly, and the sales Exchange forums are filled with people selling stuff at motivated prices, so I don't think it's all in my mind.

There's also the new business model: I'll readily admit that it makes knives easier to purchase, and that it should assist matching production with demand. However, I think that taking orders for a long time before the start of production and delivery simply DOES NOT generate the excitement of a 48-hour notice, followed by a 24-hour one, followed by knives only being available for something between a few minutes to a couple hours. Before, if you missed checking in for more than two days, you might entirely miss a release. Now, you only need check in once every couple months to be in the loop.

Of course, we're also heading into the holiday season. Perhaps folks are doing more family-oriented things rather than hanging out on an online forum. Maybe they're trying to conserve money and trying to avoid being tempted. I don't know the whole story (or even if there is a "whole story" since the behavior I'm speculating on will vary from one individual to the next) -- just making an observation and trying to figure out why things are as I see them.

Jim I think your abservations about the economy are dead on. While most are not panicking it still is very sobering to look at a 401K statement.

Well, I did have an opportunity when trying to help clean up storm damage at my Mom's house after Ike's winds rolled through -- she had a lot of tree damage. However, I also have more than two dozen Himalayan Imports khukris and I hadn't used any of them either either. so, I grabbed a Chiruwa AK that I'd bought used instead of "damaging" a mint Dog Father.

That khuk wasn't nearly as comfortable as a DF would have been, but I knew that ahead of time so I used leather gloves, and with them it wasn't too bad -- that HI was a chopping machine. I should have sharpened it first, but I didn't; even so, it cut through many branches in one swing and simply snapped off several others with impact.

I missed the nmfbm's... must have hit it just perfect too

Everything is definitely exchanging much closer to original prices. I'm only 30, so I can't really withdraw from my 401k for really really long time so it doesn't worry me nearly as much that it is down. I know it will be back up in time, way before I can get to it.

On the plus side, its a great time to grab some older stuff from the secondary market

It also puts the idea of replacing the guaranteed benefit that Social Security provides with self-managed, stock-market-based retirement accounts in a new light. Those ideas sounded a lot more attractive when the stock market was on a long-term upward trend -- it looked like a guaranteed payoff. However, it's not so hard to imagine what it would be like today if ALL you had was a 401K and you were at retirement age -- maybe you had built up to your goal (or maybe you were a little short, but still thought you could "get by"), but now you're down at half what you thought was available, with no Social Security "safety net". For someone in that position, retirement would simply disappear as an option.

I ordered 3 sods(2xLE+1xtan) and 2 of the NMSFNO's. I'm really excited about he SFNO's. at 14" and 0.25, it might be close enough to the INFI battlerat that I've always wanted but will never be made.

I got a jungle green/black and a sage/tan