Recently I just finished Appalachia North by Matthew Ferrence. In it, he recounts the complex relationship he still has with the land as a Northern Appalachian. Typically when I finish a book I write a Literature Appetizer to get people a taste of what they will find. Since his book is such a personal journey, I would not do it justice by recounting his life.
Many of his experiences reflect my own experience growing up in Western PA. So instead of condensing his journey, I thought I would condense mine.
The Hero’s Journey is a common literary structure where the hero of the story departs home to do a great act, and then returns victorious. My Northern Appalachian Journey is a bit different, but has a similar structure of three parts; Living in Water, Succeeding by Leaving, and The Mountains are Calling.
The very first day of classes down river in Bellingham, our professor Kate Darby started off by stating "Impostor syndrome is a serious mindset that people often have not only in grad school, but in many aspects of their lives. If you are ever feeling like you don't belong here, you are wrong."
If you have never heard of impostor syndrome, Wikipedia describes it as
Tonight I introduced one of my favorite 'lite' games to my family: Blueprints. In this game each person is an architect trying to build according to the blueprints you have been assigned. It is a ton of fun while also causing phrases like "You took the piece I needed!?!" Family bonding is always best when there is frustration involved.
One of the key elements in the game is the resource pool in the middle. At the beginning of the game a large number of dice are rolled. Then on your turn you take a piece and replace it with something else. While this seems calm, players have to think about what piece they can take now to best set them up for success in the future.
Unlike other mountains I have covered in this series, the complicated history of this mountain shows through before even getting into the post. My intention, as always, is to inspire people to get outside with providing some tidbits to get them excited. With this one, however, I also hope to spark conversation with how our language can be hurtful and oppressive, even with the best intention. Before getting into the history of people, lets dig into what has existed for millions of years; the rocks!
In Seattle, on a clear day, you can always see Tacoma mountain. Even at 65 miles away, it is hard to miss a pile of rock scaling over 14,000 feet! It becomes a point of comfort, a point of stability. Skylines are the same way.
On my first day in the Fab Lab, I created a t-shirt with the Pittsburgh skyline. Even though I just recently moved back, I recognized some of the buildings. It helped give me a sense of place, a point of stability.
When we search other planets for life, we first look for water. There have been movements to rename our planet Ocean since it is mostly covered in it. Agua is used in countless imagery around the world and throughout time. We never think about how much we use it until it is gone.
When I lived in the mountains a few of my peers argued that the three dams on the Skagit should be taken down. "The river is being held hostage." "We must break it of its chains." "Once free it could return to what it once was!" Being from coal country myself, I could never imagine someone thinking hydro-electricity has damaging. It is renewable! But yesterday I tasted just a bit of that feeling when I saw Girty's Run.
One of the main reasons I picked this year to study architecture is because of the City of Bridges: Pittsburgh. While most cities around the globe have them, Pittsburgh has the most at over 400! With this book I wanted to, as the title says, understand more about these amazing structure.
But I can't lie, even though it doesn't have too much "architecture jargon," this book is quite dry. Short, but dry. While there were plenty of cool tidbits, one made me look at bridges in an entirely different light.
A few days ago I had no more excuses. I was settled into my new job, had mostly everything unpacked in my apartment, and the holidays were over; I had to go for a run.
I'm not one of those millennials who enjoy running. The only thing dragging me out of my place that day to do it was my body saying "No more excuses! You need to go for a run!" The problem with this is as soon as I'm on a run, my body seems to break down. Everything from short of breath, ankles throbbing, and heart pounding. Again, I know it is the right thing to do, but I sure do hate doing it.
To help distract myself from all of the complications listed above, I thought I would explore my new neighborhood while exercising. Not ten minutes in did I stumble upon this sign below:
Plagiarism is terrible, every time. We should never use an idea and claim it as our own. But engineers, makers, and architects are often told to study others' work to get inspired for your own design. It can be as simple as asking the person next to you to designing the David L Lawrence Convention Center off of the Pittsburgh Bridges.
But if we are counting how much research and development all of humanity has done, it pales in comparison to the millennia to experimentation that life overall has had. This idea of mimicking life and our greater ecosystems, or biomimicry, is best explained by Vox and 99% Invisible below.
One of the reasons why I was drawn to Allegheny College was the Distribution requirement. Basically all departments were divided into three divisions:
To graduate, I needed to have my major in one field (social science w/Environmental Education), minor in another (humanities w/Music Theory) and take two classes in the third (geology, forest management, etc). This meant that I didn't have "general elective classes" that I was forced to take but I still was able to experience a wealth of human knowledge that is key to a liberal arts education.
Last December I made a commitment to write one blog post a month about chemistry for the year of 2017. It was a way facilitate life long learning while also diving deeper into a subject I just never got around to. Looking back on those posts now shares not only my exploration of chemistry, but the journey of 2017 in general.
My start of 2017 was pretty stable. In my last months in Bellingham, WA I had time and energy to ponder the big questions. While I didn't quite know what my next step was going to be, I explored topics like metallic hydrogen and using chemistry to make the best popcorn! All the while enjoying the unique chemistry of Pure Bliss desserts.
