Tree House

The Wookiees have their act together, what with those tree houses and all. If you aren't so into heights, might I recommend a Hobbit hole? You may even be able to plant a garden on top of it.

So I've been sitting around wondering what on Earth I'm going to do with my life. I'm sure I've spewed a litany of reasons why I'm not loving teaching to the few of you who actually read this silly thing. A lot of those reasons are lame excuses for me not really wanting to get off my duff and do some work. I think I've finally narrowed it down, though -- as it turns out, teachers just don't get to hang out with people on their own terms. I could try to put it more eloquently. You know, a bunch of paternalistic this, bureaucracy that, and standardized tests are unjust what have you. All sorts of good bile on why the education system (notice I didn't say the teachers) is failing our students. I really think it's pretty simple for me, though.

There's a kid who keeps quizzing me about Star Wars, and there's the two over in the corner debating whether or not marijuana is chemically addictive, and there's the teachers in the lounge that positively light up when I ask what politicians I should be writing about No Child Left Behind. There are signs of life all around me at school, and instead of addressing them, I have to get everybody back on track so that we can finish talking about Social Darwinism or succession struggles in the Ottoman Empire.

The ways I spend most of my time procrastinating are talking to friends, playing guitar with Nick, Jonathan, and Eleanor, reading the news, playing Super Mario with Aaron, and cooking (always enough for everyone -- whoever that happens to be). I can't say no to sitting on boards -- they're boring and torturous and stupid, but they make me feel useful, and I'm generally pretty good at setting the tone at them. Furthermore, there's a little file in My Documents that keeps taunting me. It's named "sustainability ideas." Every now and then, I open it up and add something.

Here's my list so far:

Microfarming/community gardens/home gardens

Acquire nearby land with explicit purpose of agriculture

Skills library and volunteer tutors

Storage infrastructure, i.e. cellars and silos

Community woodshop

Community metalshop

Sewing/knitting/weaving shop

Neighborhood composting

Demolish (or at least lower) backyard walls

Veggie Oil buses

Enough alternative energy to run heaters, refrigerators, the hospital, and police and fire services. (Solar, wind, Paul Morgan’s geothermal plan?)

More rain barrels

Apartment space above new businesses

Building size restrictions

Forest thinning waste should be used for heating

I think there’s a good chance all of this points to something, and I’m hoping that something has nothing to do with Bloom’s Taxonomy or with giving kids bad grades.

Oh, yeah, and if you've got any ideas for me to add to that list, I'd greatly appreciate it. Those are all pretty rudimentary -- I know full well it's nothing remarkable, and I know that you're all full of remarkable ideas.