okay...

as usual, Nelle has busted me for neglecting my blog. sometimes, i get all happy about posting more than once in a day and then go and get too lazy to add more. really though, i had been thinking about blogging all week. getting off my ass to do something about it was just a WHOLE 'nother issue...

so, regardless of the brainfartwritersblockblogfuck, here goes...

finally put the bookcase in place that i let sit around while i pondered its future location. yesterday, i was in a "move everything around because i'm tired of looking at it" mood. unfortunately, that means cleaning up the shit that's there and even more cleaning behind/underneath it because it has sat there for so long.

it wasn't a feng shui thing though. i'm sure that a consultant would have a seizure if he/she saw my new arrangement. who cares if this room says death and impotence, it works for me! now get out...you flake ;)

of course, with another bookcase, that means more room for buying. as usual, i hit the bargains at Barnes & Noble and Tattered. and bookcloseouts.com gets my business a few times a year. i haven't perused the nearby Goodwill and ARC though. hopefully, i'll make a trip out to the Salvation Army that Danelle haunts for books, which is a few blocks from my eldest sister's house. still, at $2 a bag, it sounds like a dangerous prospect - i may lose control if i find some goodies!

funny, you guys think i neglect this blog? sheeyit! you should see the stacks of books that i haven't touched in months!

one book, in particular, that i have been trying to finish is: Gaviotas - A Village to Reinvent the World. i gave it to lois a couple years ago and decided to read it myself. the book recounts how a group of scientists and visionaries turned a small Colombian village, Gaviotas, into a model of self-sustaining efficiency.

the village is located in the llanos, which are the desolate grasslands in eastern Colombia. there's no lushness, no rolling plains...just a lotta sky and depressing flatness. think Nevada with less heat and more rain.

anyway, in Gaviotas, which means seagull in Spanish, they use wind turbines that convert breezes into energy, solar collectors that work in the rain, soil-free systems in raising edible and medicinal crops, and ultra-efficient pumps which tap deep aquifiers. in fact, those pumps are so easy to operate that they're ingeniously powered by children's see saws!!!

it's really a fascinating book. it gives us a look into alternative forms of energy and self-sustanence. granted, this model will probably never make it into communities with well-established infrastructures (i.e., metropolitan areas...megalopoli), but it seems like a good fit for areas that are deemed 'uninhabitable' or marginal. i wonder how feasible this is for the more desolate parts of Colorado and New Mexico...

oh yeah, Gaviotas is not a new concept by any stretch of the imagination. the people did their homework, laid the groundwork, and had it all up and running in 1971. now, that's cool.