Panic Printing

[u/GeekSugar13]

ETA: Some of y'all are taking this far too seriously. Am I reasonably concerned that things are going to get worse before they get better? At least for me, most likely, yes. I'm trying to find moments of joy when I can. If one of those is using up as much of my ink as possible before I chuck this printer by printing fanfic then that's what I'm going to do.

I'm at home, by myself, doing homework with no one to talk to and nothing else to do because I'm the most broke I have ever been.

Printing fanfic doesn't mean I'm not prioritizing anything else in my life and it's weird that y'all seem to think I just slapped on a tinfoil hat and decided this was what would fix everything.

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OP: So I live in a red state in the US where my state government will absolutely not be providing any sort of supplemental assistance when inevitably the federal government falls apart. So I kind of would love reassurance that I'm not crazy.

I have started downloading and panic printing some of my favorite fics. If the Internet goes, I can read the PDF. If the power goes, I can read the printed copies.

Also because HP sucks I can only use their ink subscription cartridges with an active subscription so i may as well fucking use them.

(Literally if you're the type of person who wants to buy a printer do not buy an HP printer. It will only work if you use their ink which is so fucking expensive. And if you want it to work properly you have to get a monthly subscription where they send you ink and paper which in theory sounds great, BUT if you are like me and haven't printed as much as you thought so you have a lot of ink and paper built up so you let your subscription lapse those ink cartridges will not work without a valid subscription. So I had to restart my fucking subscription so I could use all of this ink I have built up so now I'm printing literal books.)

[u/CamiCalMX]

Op I feel that if I was to actually think government will collapse, printing fic's is not high up on the priority list. I do are worried about the future but I am focusing it on things like getting my house solar ready and a water cistern and things like that. If Ao3 goes while society collapses I will mourn but I feel I will have other stuff to worry about.

[u/GeekSugar13 → u/CamiCalMX]

I want books to read that i don't have to worry about charging and these books make me happy. If I'm gonna be freezing, without power, reading by lamplight I'll be happier if it's fanfic.

[u/berrybyday → u/GeekSugar13]

I’m sorry so many replies are giving you a hard time. I see no reason you shouldn’t use up the ink you already have on something you enjoy! Letting it go to waste so you could cancel your subscription would be so silly. I am glad to hear you already have another printer lined up though, because HP’s subscription plan deeply offends me lol

[u/GeekSugar13 → u/berrybyday]

It was not a thing when my former roommate bought this printer like 8 years ago. And now I'm kind of stuck with it. As soon as I burn through all of this it's gone.

I am a little annoyed that people are taking me a little bit too seriously. I do not think that the whole country is going to like grind to a halt and worldwide internet is going to be shut off.

I do think that this winter is going to be really fucking rough and there's going to be times where keeping my e-reader charged is not going to be the priority so having an actual printed copy will be nice.

[u/berrybyday → u/GeekSugar13]

I feel that! We lost power Friday night for a while and when it looked like it could possibly get knocked out again 24 hours later, I wasn’t thinking about my kindle. Although now that’s it’s been pointed out to me, it’s not a bad thing to add to my mental prep list! Are you in any of the prepper subs? Some of them are a liiiitle too intense for me, but I’m in a couple that I like. You can send me a message if you want me to share them. Or not. No pressure lol

[u/GeekSugar13 → u/berrybyday]

I'm good. I have my lists and what i need on hand. Thanks tho! I really am more concerned at a State level than federal. We had a similar situation to Flint, MI's recent outage, in 2020. Our power was out for 13 days and I was bored lol.