So, inherently this is something that comes to my mind pretty often. The main proponents of this are Barb Chamberlain and James H Kunstler. As a result of Kunstler, Wal-Mart is also in this. Barb Chamberlain is a pretty involved individual in Spokane, Wa. and is dedicated to making places bicycle friendly, technologically green, and to borrow from Kunstler- to create a place "worth caring about." Amidst this a big push of Barb's efforts are related to biking (although I advocate longboarding), is to design, re-design, and build a city that is pedestrian and biking friendly. This would inherently have intense ripple effects and would impact every part of society. This could reduce obesity in the region, promote healthier environments (on the ground and air), and build a stronger sense of community. I don't believe the last one is as explicit as the others, however I believe as we strive to put people closer together, we are going to either have amazing communities that have positive impact or we will have more crime. I believe and would hope for thriving communities that could inherently build stronger interpersonal relationships with one another and by golly kids could actually play outside. Now the above things hinge on two aspects - how far away we live from our job and how well we design our cities. These are not and cannot exist outside of each other and because of that, for any of this to work would be contingent on one thing. People willing to set aside their selfish images, beliefs and take one for the team. For an example, with Kunstler in mind, if say a designer who works in the heart of downtown spokane says to himself, "I want a home that kind of has a suburb feel that has four bed rooms and two bathrooms, designed super modern," then he would potentially live 20-30 minutes away from the heart of downtown right? Now in perspective we deal with traffic, but this house location could be 20-30 miles away to reach a suburb or relatively country yet modern location to find and raise a family. However, for th example of Spokane, to get from river park square to the south east corner of the valley is about 12miles, 22+minute drive (without traffic). Now I'm n ot in the most awesome shape and due to my adverse relationship to bikes (I had a bad experience as a child), I would drive my 32mpg car. So every two days I would spend roughly $10 on gas. Please stay with me on this. That's close to $25 a week in gas just driving to work, a huge mortgage payment every month, headaches, and more construction in further areas because you might have 2+ kids who will want homes in 20 years. All of that just because you "wanted" and "needed" that house. You "beleived" that you had to attain an "image" and it was all about "you." Sounds pretty selfish eh? Now you might say you have no other option, the city doesn't provide that kind of housing. This is true. That's where the other hinge has to come into play and Kunstlers ideas come in. We must design better urban sprawls because well, it doesn't fit the current need and over-population doesn't help either. This is where Wal-mart parking lots could stay parking lots, but have structures that provide housing, or schools in an innovative format that is aesthetically pleasing. I may sound idealistic but how come we don't move closer to our jobs? Why don't we revamp River park mall as a giant condo community with stores on the bottom, condos on the top floor and use that whole middle space for a school? Oh you don't want to live that close to work? But what if you could walk 3minutes and have lunch with your son or daughter? Walk 5minutes and be home? Your first thought is, "But Adam, I want *insert desired noun or adjective*." That's nice, but when are you going to take one for t he team? Take one for your family, city, nation. When are you going to be willing to build a place "worth caring about?"
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
what is the church?
Recently was in the Seattle area and while hanging out with my friends, we went to their home church. It was a med-sized place, 4 sets of greeters before the sanctuary, open spaces and pretty modern. One of the greeters though said something that caught my attention for some odd reason, "Welcome to Church." Now they said that, but it was something that stuck with me as I entered. Stuck through worship. During offering they mentioned stuff about church related and it still stuck out. Then the sermon started. Sermon was extremely good. I thoroughly enjoyed it and there were some really awesome points, one of the best ones was that, we need to "scourge our schedules." As I was listening though, there was philosophical question that begged to be asked and answered. All the while during the sermon, he said that people will not be tired as you dedicate yourself to the church, that the church is a place of restoration, that the church was one of the most important pieces of our lives and if we just committed ourselves to regularly going to church our lives would be so much better. How is church being defined? In this example it almost seems as if church was apart of the trinity. I know that is not the heart motive of the pastor however, a clearly defined definition from the start would have helped. Are we talking about the actual service, physical building known as a church, or the body of Christ that is preparing itself for the Lord's return? For the comment section: how do you define "church" and how important do you think an actual building and service is?
Friday, May 27, 2011
thoughts while riding in a car
So today I spent 6 hours in a car going to seattle my best friend josiah. I spent it with 3 of my best female friends, including my amazingly awesome and cute girlfriend. We had thought provoking conversations that hit a great range of topics. it made me wonder a lot, why I don't see this kind of friendships in others. I know I'm probably blind to something, but it really struck me how really cool my female friends are. This realization came after most of the conversation died and I suggested we listen to a podcast. The podcast was of Mars Hill Michigan and was going verse by verse through 1st John. I bring this up because after 10minutes they suggested we listen to a book on cd called "Crazy Love." I am in no way stating the legitimacy of either audio within the car, however I do want to make the point that I definitely was more amazed by God in the verse by verse analysis of the Bible vs. an author basically saying all of the cool amazing and awesome things God is, does, and did. I bring this up because after listening to 5 minutes of "Crazy Love," I was extremely bored and wondered what was going in twitter-land. In this I realize how different God makes us and the elements of which we enjoy, relate and grow in God. Its cool to me to see that while we're so different we can have supremely profound discussion in other times relating to the majesty of God or how we relate to one another or church culture, etc. God has created us so different, yet so similar. We all share similar needs, wants, desires. We long for family interactions, deep friendships, loyalty, futures, dreams and goals. Yet its the details that have blended us to be such a tight-knit sub-set of friends. Proverbs 18:24 (amplified) "The man of many friends [a friend of all the world] will prove himself a bad friend, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." Although they are not blood or brothers, these are definitely my sisters and I am so blessed by God to have them in my life. As that stands, I can also sit through what I consider boring audio, because I know it blesses them and their hearts.
Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Real Estate category
So I just added a new blog category and some may wonder why I did. I actually have enjoyed real estate watching, renovations, design, wholesale, etc. for years and was recently re-inspired by my previous supervisor who is currently in Ohio. In a good neighborhood in youngstown , OH. a 3400sq foot 7bedroom, 3bath house went for $12,000. I'm not even joking. Its absolutely crazy but true and since I just bought a house in the pullman area, i'm definitely still enjoying real estate and watching how this all works. So join with me in learning and finding opportunities. Sign up for a mailing list with information and potential deals as I come accross them throughout the states.
Monday, May 16, 2011
one more test- click to read my setup though
So I just set up wordpress to crosspost to blogger, tumblr, twitter (which posts to facebook). why is this cool? Not sure but I wrote this post from my blackberry :)
Test-
Working on a multi-link synchronized setup. sounds fancy but its really just a bunch of plugins
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