In Fab, the writer was talking about the PF (personal fabrication) of things. Things, ranging from a defensive dress to a machine that silences a scream and can then later reproduce that same scream, were created in a class said to 'Make (almost) Anything'. Its objects like these that are the productions of random people with often silly (sometimes very serious) thoughts of what they personally want. Its the program that allowed them to create such things that empowered the students to create anything they wanted, which then often times produced individual need/want, rather than the needs of a community. Perhaps they could have figured out a very cheap way to filter and purify water, but instead they chose to make something irrelevant to the needs of others. While each side has their pluses and minuses, the side for the greater good of all seems to end up being a tad more practical, though sometimes not. Its these ideas for the good of ones self, rather than good for a whole, that make material gain so worthlessly taken for granted.

If we used and created more objects that easily and effectively solved problems, we could feel good about what we've done and still get done what we needed to do. These are the inventions that are hard to come by, but when they do, they become life-changing. While having fun is important and creating what you want has its advantages, like the write said, all these people came in to the course wanting to create whatever they wanted, rather than doing it for research or for their thesis. I think it would almost be appropriate to create a course that also aims to creating beneficial things for the community, along with keeping the original course. That way, you have people aiming at both goals, rather than specifically choosing their own benefit for their project. Its still possible to have fun in creating solutions for community problems.

Monopoly, split up Mono and poly, deals with a market being run by a single dominate company. When we split up the word Technopoly, the idea seems to come to "many technologies" or even possibly playing a commonality with the term Monopoly, which then it would mean more closely to "a single available technology".

Dealing with my first idea, the idea of it being "many technologies", brings along the ideas of our acceptance of new and numerous technologies all the time without looking at possible problems with that certain technology. This seems to go more hand in hand with what we were to read for our blog than my second possible idea of what a technopoly meant.

Continuing with my first idea, the one which seems to look more correct, and understanding how it relates with technology as an order of nature, technology is a great tool in assisting people to do things quicker and better, but sometimes at a cost. This cost is what we have to weight to decide whether its worth using the technological advancement or not. This is where morals comes in, and people begin disagreeing.

The problem here becomes that which technology begins to try and solve other problems caused by technology, and that new technology creates a new problem, sometimes worse than the original problem.

Its before this happens that we have to think about these problems in advance, and how quickly we can correct them if they were to occur, and at what cost. Unfortunately, in our society we tend to do now, and think later, because otherwise, someone else will have already done it first.

All of this becomes a giant problem, and things end up getting solved as we progress along accepting these new technologies right away. Whether this is the best way to handle things or not, many people disagree, but as long as our society stays the way it is, I dont think it will change very much as long as the rewards are there.

(Unfortunately, no pictures today. I guess I couldnt figure out how to turn these thoughts into visual form.)

After moving into the city Ive noticed something which seems to hamper how and where things get built. Its the limit of space available to build. This opposition deals more with the inner city obviously, but also deals with how much of the trees and wildlife you want to leave within the city, for parks and other decoration. There seems to be two common approaches to this opposition of space. Situation A: You find a place with old buildings, and just buy out the current owners, destroy whats currently there, and build over it. Or more often, it ends up being situation B: Find a smaller plot of land thats open or an abandoned building that you can destroy, and build upward. Constructing your building upward instead of outward due to lack of area available on the ground. This idea usually seems more common as the citys population changes over time, because buildings tend to get old and go unused. This opposition is definately that you either eliminate the opposition or you allow the opposition to sculpt the form of you building, in this case, being upward.

Another opposition, which ties in with the last one, happens to be ideal location. Generally for more business, it makes sense to place your building in the city, rather than somewhere on the outskirts. Plus, you get more people looking at your business, which in itself is advertising. Certain roadways, and the local competition often helps dictate where you would like to be situated. The way this is resolved would be finding a good location in the place of something else that has went out of business, or if theres an open plot of land (which generally doesnt happen unless theres a good reason for it in the cities). Often times you find a McDonalds not too far off from a Burger King, or even another burger joint, for the simple fact that if they werent around, they may be losing business. You wont however (with a few exceptions Im sure) find a McDonalds be neighbors with a Burger King on the street. Ideally, you just dont want to be that close to the competition. Instead, you find a location, which may or may not be better situated on the roads than your competition, and move in there.

While oppositions are often solved with simple solutions, some oppositions take a little bit of manuvering and comprimise.

Every time I think about the war in Iraq, the only reason I can justify that we really went over there is to try to get oil cheaper, because our country has grown so dependant on it. The cost of war is high; we pay for all the expenses of it, which is starting to close in on a shockingly half a trillion dollars, and the cost of oil has only gone up. While we cant take back the money we have already spent being over there, we can eliminate future costs by getting done what needs to get done, and getting out of there.

If you look at one of the main reasons we dont look into alternative fuels, or the reason why they havent been researched as much, its because of lack of money. No one wants to spend loads of money on trying to come up with new solutions, when our current situation isnt "that bad" in some peoples eyes. However, if the real reason for this war comes down to being Oil, I would have much rather spent our countries money and time on alternative energy instead. Something that we dont have to go overseas to get and that we can depend on ourselves to make.

I think that we need to end this war for oil over in Iraq, and spend the rest of that money on an alternative fuel for vehicles. While it finally seems that we are starting to come up with some solutions, the government seems more focused on pumping money into a war that continues on making us dependant on other countries, instead of using that money to be inventing a new low cost energy that will make us independant.

PS: After looking a typing in 'Iraq war costs' into a google seach, this site was the first to pop up. Its a site which is calculating the current costs of us being at war in Iraq. http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
Its worth taking a look at. Then think about how we could have spent that money otherwise. If, like me, you believe we are only in Iraq for the oil, could you see the possibilities of new cheaper energy?
Its currently at.... $317,172,270,000. Feel free to leave me a comment saying where its at now. It would be interesting to see how much it will rise in a few days.

Finally reaching a parking space, I couldnt help but to feel belittled by the size of the building alone. Its old looking exterior seemed to have met its fair share of weathering, but as I breached the walls, I was immeadiately shown a different inside. Through the doors, I walked in and found a nicely painted, very friendly looking area welcoming vistors. Several signs directed people, including myself, to their desired location.

Finally, I turned into the market, unsure of what to expect, but soon found it was a gathering of many backgrounds, many of which, stood proudly by their products. Then another sense hit; the scent. It was the smell of many foods all being prepared for what would most likely be another busy day. Many of the stands seemed to either be up and ready for the afternoon rush, or, like the produce section, which appeared to be just finishing their final touches.

The idea of so many restaraunt type fixtures in the building had led me to believe I had come earlier than the actual rush itself. A business needs money to survive, and money seems to only come in the pockets of people. With all these restaraunts around, I couldnt help but to think that there must be a large flow of people that come through here daily. A flow, which I ended up being too early for, but I was kind of thankful I had the extra time to look around instead of being pushed along.

A low flow of people seemed to have already trickled in while I was there though. Mostly grandparents, along with other adults, and even young children as well. A gathering of many generations, who all probably enjoyed the environment as well.

The place overall seemed very friendly, and enjoyable, but inevidably made me hungry. This outting had made me more aware of not only the energy about a place, but the energy that fuels us, gets us around, and makes that energy about a place possible.

Well, I guess we can continue with a little bit more about myself. Im currently 19 years old. I plan on applying to make my major Architecture here sometime soon in the Winter. This is my third year in college, with two years previous at Anoka Ramsey Community College. I find it easier to express myself in front of a keyboard rather than in front of a classroom, so hopefully this project will be a useful tool in expressing my own ideas.

I have yet to locate the building Im suppose to describe for our first assignment, so Im sure Ill have a post up about it here within the next few days.

Unrelated unknown fact about myself: I tend to see apostrophes as useless in the English language hence the absence of them in my writing. I believe writing is easily understood without them, except for some rare occasions. Fortunately, I do use most other pieces of the language, so hopefully I can still provide my thoughts and ideas in a clear manner.

And with that, Ill leave you until next time.

Short Edit: Apparently things worked out better than expected, and the template I wanted did work. Well, at least its not as plain as I expected my first post to be.