If you were me: A Complete Newbie Guide to Survial

[zenbudda]

Preface:
I tend to "try to be" witty and humorous to mix up the day (I don't know if I'm successful or not...i'll let you be the judge) so the title of this thread may be a little misleading at a glance, but it does provide a search capability for others like me looking for information and preparedness training.

So, bear with me as I describe what it is I am hoping to get out of this thread. if you were me, and I were you, and you came looking to acquire knowledge and experience from me regarding SHTF and general "disaster preparedness" scenarios, i would tell you to first start.....

Another way to put this is if you guys were to set up a bootcamp to teach what you know in terms of self defence, survival training, etc, what would you teach? What books, or online resources, or people would you suggest I take guidance from? this is coming from someone who does not own a gun, camping gear, how to field dress fresh kill, how to cook fresh kill, how to purify water, or have friends that know how to do these things. i honestly make good money but instead of investing that money in a potentially failing economy, i'd rather invest it in knowledge and prepardness.

I hope this makes sense and I hope I'm not offending anyone by asking this. I understand that a lot of you have worked your tail off to acquire your knowledge and experience you have. By no means would I want to belittle that hard work by summarizing it on the web. I want to "earn my badges" so to speak. I'd like nothing more than to spend my spare time learning to do the basics (whatever that is). I have considered the possibility that maybe by giving out this knowledge, you guys have to consider "who" is asking. Am I a commie or a nazi?

Anyway, for what it's worth, I'm interested in learning about all of these things. Anything. Everything. If all of these answers are on this bulletin board somewhere, I am doing my best to search through all of the threads. I appreciate all of your hard work and effort into maintaining these boards and posting what you know and how you feel/think about the world. A lot of this information is overwhelming.

Anyway, if there is a "path" that you suggest, I would be grateful to hear it.

PS. As a gesture of "glass half full" faith, if everything does work out here in the States i will have a new and valuable hobby.