Welcome to my thought-stream

Well, look at that. I happen to have a blog.

Great idea that Blogger makes it 3 or so steps, max, to set one of these up. It makes it tempting to do them on a whim.

That is not, of course, to say that I'm doing on this on a whim. In the past I've been a horrible blogger, actually. I've kept a number of blogs at various addresses in various states of disrepair and lacking-of-updates. However, writing consistently has always been a staple of my life, and while blogging has never, at least in the past, fit into my typical pattern, I have a bit of (gasp!) intent in creating this little corner of the internet.

There are the obvious things—I tend to have a number of personal projects going, including novels, paintings, new websites I'm creating, books I'm reading or philosophies I'm considering. Due to the fact that I am working from home now and no longer in school (and more or less stranded in suburbia), I'm doing this so people can "keep track of me" and what I'm doing.

Like I said though, these are the obvious things. Most blogs seem to function around an original intent that inspires them—an event, a project, or an issue—that the blog becomes a running feed of. That might be the secret to creating a "healthy" blog, even though it seems that most blogs actually outlive these original inspirations and come into their own after that fact. This one is no different.

I intend to make this blog a chronicle of the experiences I will have at Arcosanti, an alternative living community or "Urban Laboratory" in the Arizona Desert. That experience will be a 5-week workshop where I will be living on their premises, helping out in… well, whatever I end up helping with (it could be anything from agriculture to construction—quite a change of pace for me, a 120 lb.-or-less pale blonde who rarely leaves the computer screen). I encourage you to take a look at their website to get an idea of what the place actually is. However, out of courtesy, I'll provide the TLDR (too long, didn't read) version here:

Less of a commune than it is a living experiment in ecologically friendly architecture, I visited Arcosanti for the first time when I was about twelve years old. It's been in my mind ever since. It was designed by Paolo Soleri, an Italian architect that originally studied under Frank Lloyd Wright. Soleri's architecture is just about as radical as his architectural theories, which center around melding ecology with architecture, thus coining the term "Arcology"—or, to put it in a more understandable way—a theory of architecture, perhaps even of lifestyle itself, that redesigns the city as a completely unified, passive entity in its local environment. This is a bit more than just putting solar panels on a house—it's more like redesigning the house itself so that solar panels become a redundant (and ugly) addition. In fact, it's even more than that—it would be more like redesigning the entire city into a single building that is, in essence, a giant solar panel.

Yeah, it's a bit like science fiction—and Arcology as a term is probably used more in video games and novels than architectural circles, I'm sure to Soleri's chagrin—but science fiction theories have an odd habit of coming true. And beyond the theory, the learning experience to be gained from living and working in a place like Arcosanti for me, personally speaking, is a great opportunity, and for relatively little cost. Simply as a location, Arcosanti is unique, and it will be a great thing to be steeped in that environment for a month and more.

To see exactly what I'm talking about, take a look at my DeviantArt page which has photos of Arcosanti from one of my previous visits.

This 5-week workshop will be starting April 12, and while I hope to be updating this blog once or twice a week up to then, I will be doing my best to chronicle my experience during the workshop while I am there.

So I have a lot to look forward to. But I won't bore you to tears until then—I'll be looking forward to writing here again. ;)