Every time I drive past the old train station I want to go in and explore it. Someone should buy that thing and renovate it(I wonder if the city would sell it?).
Just......amazing. I don't anything like this has ever happened in a large city in the United States before. It's also kind of symbolic in a way if you think about it. My take on whatever symbolism exists begins with the Industrial Revolution occurring and humanity began to start building a land of steel, asphalt, and smog atop nature at it's peak. Gone were all the natural plants (save trees and bushes) and gone were most of the animals to make way for a city. In the end, humanity destroyed itself and the once mighty empire lay dormant and allowed the hunted (nature) to become the hunter and reclaim the land it existed on oh so long ago.
In short, if that is what's supposed to happen, then that's the way things should be.
In the end, humanity destroyed itself and the once mighty empire lay dormant and allowed the hunted (nature) to become the hunter and reclaim the land it existed on oh so long ago.
In the end, humanity destroyed itself and the once mighty empire lay dormant and allowed the hunted (nature) to become the hunter and reclaim the land it existed on oh so long ago.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
Don't you mean "Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!". That was what was in Percy Bysshe Shelley's original text.
Don't you mean "Lookuponmy works, ye mighty, and despair!". That was what was in Percy Bysshe Shelley's original text.
It's the other way around, I believe. "Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!" has eleven syllables; an English sonnet has ten per line.
I just realized that Scott already made the reference anyway. I suppose It's a fairly obvious one, but I take any chance I can get to reference that particular poem.
There is a neat History Channel show called Life After People that discusses how very short a time it would really take for the remnants of civilization to just collapse and be reclaimed by the earth if all people disappeared. There's a video on the website about Detroit -- how 60 of its 137 square miles are already abandoned.
Life After People is awesome apocalypse porn. I've watched it a few times, and a friend of mine (who lives with I think five roommates) said it was on his TV basically nonstop for two weeks after he got the DVD.
Many of those houses would end up being the only inhabited house on a block if you bought one. They also almost all would have to be razed and rebuilt. ;^)
I'll help organize firearms training, we'll need it.
Agreed. I'd be glad to help out with the same. Mainly for my own amusement. Welcome to Firearms 101: Clean your gun, or I'll beat you with a cricket bat.
EDIT - Shit, there are some fine bloody houses there. Sure, Fixer-uppers if nothing else, but quite a few wouldn't be too hard to fix.
Hello geeks, look at your house, now back to this. Now back at your house, now back to this. Sadly, this isn't your house, but if you stopped living in a milk-toast suburban neighborhood it could be. Look down, back up where are you? You're in Detroit, where the housing possibilities are cheap and endless. What's in your hand? It's a key to the house your house could be. Look again you are now moving into a beautiful home filled with magic and wonder. Your house is a tree.
I know how to construct a very basic sustainable power grid, if GeekCommune comes to be. I learned the basics of tandem wind-solar (with homemade treadmill motor and PVC pipe turbines) for one house from MAKE and my uncle; now, I'm trying to figure out some Arduino stuff to boost efficiency.
I know how to construct a very basic sustainable power grid, if GeekCommune comes to be.
I'm not the world's greatest 'Lekky Herder, but I can run cables well enough. I can also do Masonry, Rendering, Painting, construction, carpentry, metal work, logistics, welding, concreting, fabrication, basic automation hardware, hang drywall, lay carpet, tiling, and basic plumbing(Pneumatic, air, and regular water/waste) for a start. And I can dig a mighty fine ditch, too. Suffice to say, if we ever do more than shit-talking on this project, I'd like in - seems like a fun little project, and hey, being shot at doesn't bother me that much, as long as I can brass up on whatever dickhead decides to give us a spray. I'm not entirely serious about the shooting people thing. I'd rather not. Come on, Detroit can't be THAT bad?
I actually do know some masonry and some basic painting, and I'm good with my hands. I could probably learn the rest. Also, onsite medical staff.
Most of it - well, basic stuff, some of it does take some time and effort - is pretty easy to learn. Everything I know links into something else, somewhere - for example, I learned some plumbing as a mechanic, some from helping friends do home renovation, I learned concreting and landscaping when I was a painter(As we were painting a school at one point as a bit of a "Helping out the community" project, and they needed some other stuff done, so we got stuck in and did it), and carpentry from scouting projects that grew bigger and bigger. Basic mechanics, welding, fabrication, and metalworking I've been doing since I was young, as my father was a Fitter and Turner, so I learned at his knee, so to speak. Firearms and explosives, some of it comes from being half farm-boy, and having a bit of a natural aptitude.
Basically, all this stuff is pretty easy to learn the basics of, especially if you have someone who at least knows how to explain it in a way that makes sense, or a good teacher - How easy? I think I could have Scott Rubin shooting decently enough to hit a target 9 times out of 10, as well as doing some basic concrete laying or carpentry/construction within about 24 hours. Someone like WUB who already has some basics, and is good with his hands, You'd have a choice between even more, or even faster - And in return, he can get me up to speed where I'm lacking in medicine - I'm good at what I know, but beyond advanced first aid - with some odd exceptions, like tracheotomies and intubation, NBC first aid - I'm somewhat adrift.
And I'm not even that good of a teacher - My method tends more towards "Explain it, and let them try in a supervised way." There are people who are better than me at this.
GeekCommune has the propensity potential for Menlo Park levels of awesome if it ever happens. [edited for wording gaffe]
Hell, I'd live there.
EDIT - I just realized - I'm oddly enthusiastic about the idea of this project. I'd really like for something like this to happen, in some form. Not only is it fun, I think there is some money to possibly be made here.
EDIT - I just realized - I'm oddly enthusiastic about the idea of this project. I'd really like for something like this to happen, in some form. Not only is it fun, I think there is some money to possibly be made here.
A community made through the hard work of ones own hands and friends is indeed strangely rousing.
If I was fresh out of college, suddenly unemployed, etc. I might consider it, but I'm already all set in NYC, so no reason to downgrade.
Despite using you for an example - You're handy for that, in this case - I don't think anyone would expect you to - You're set and making a decent coin, in a career that you went through a few years of college/uni/whatever you call it along with your working experience, to get to. It's natural to me, I've already got an established history of walking the land, so to speak, but for you, I'd be asking what the fuck you're thinking. You honestly wouldn't be as useful at the early stages of such a project as you would be in the later stages, and many of the things you'd be useful for wouldn't require you to move to Detroit, you could easily do them remotely.
A community made through the hard work of ones own hands and friends is indeed strangely rousing.
Shit yeah. Give me a choice between a Manhattan penthouse and a small, decent house I'd rebuilt with my own hands, in a community of like-minded people if not explicitly friends, and the latter is the go every time.
Even if I was a doc working a steady city gig raking in huge cash, I'd still work on something like this in my free time. It's like having a country estate, except the estate is a community of like-minded friends chilling in a bunch of reclaimed homes. Basically, a live-in HackSpace.
EDIT: Actually, I'm planning on being an interventional neuroradiologist. Which means I will be able to spend any time I'm not doing procedures, and just doing film and image readings, off-site, wherever the fuck I like. Which in TURN means that something like this is very interesting indeed.
I'm a jack of all trades, so I can pretty much anything that needs doin. *wink wink ya know what I mean* Plumbing, carpentry, mechanics, home electrics; None of it is hard if you've got half an ounce of common sense, can read, and can do basic maths.
A community made through the hard work of ones own hands and friends is indeed strangely rousing.
Shit yeah. Give me a choice between a Manhattan penthouse and a small, decent house I'd rebuilt with my own hands, in a community of like-minded people if not explicitly friends, and the latter is the go every time.
Indeed. The potential is endless, provided we all stick together. Though I wouldn't mid the penthouse, personally.
This is like real life Minecraft.
The city planner might take issue with my sky-fort designs (that and physics).
Comments
In short, if that is what's supposed to happen, then that's the way things should be.
I just realized that Scott already made the reference anyway. I suppose It's a fairly obvious one, but I take any chance I can get to reference that particular poem.
EDIT - Shit, there are some fine bloody houses there. Sure, Fixer-uppers if nothing else, but quite a few wouldn't be too hard to fix.
Holy shit, no it doesn't - There's a fucking castle.
Now back at your house, now back to this.
Sadly, this isn't your house,
but if you stopped living in a milk-toast suburban neighborhood it could be.
Look down, back up where are you?
You're in Detroit, where the housing possibilities are cheap and endless.
What's in your hand? It's a key to the house your house could be.
Look again you are now moving into a beautiful home filled with magic and wonder.
Your house is a tree.
I'm not entirely serious about the shooting people thing. I'd rather not. Come on, Detroit can't be THAT bad?
GeekCommune has the propensity potential for Menlo Park levels of awesome if it ever happens. [edited for wording gaffe]
Basically, all this stuff is pretty easy to learn the basics of, especially if you have someone who at least knows how to explain it in a way that makes sense, or a good teacher - How easy? I think I could have Scott Rubin shooting decently enough to hit a target 9 times out of 10, as well as doing some basic concrete laying or carpentry/construction within about 24 hours. Someone like WUB who already has some basics, and is good with his hands, You'd have a choice between even more, or even faster - And in return, he can get me up to speed where I'm lacking in medicine - I'm good at what I know, but beyond advanced first aid - with some odd exceptions, like tracheotomies and intubation, NBC first aid - I'm somewhat adrift.
And I'm not even that good of a teacher - My method tends more towards "Explain it, and let them try in a supervised way." There are people who are better than me at this. Hell, I'd live there.
EDIT - I just realized - I'm oddly enthusiastic about the idea of this project. I'd really like for something like this to happen, in some form. Not only is it fun, I think there is some money to possibly be made here.
EDIT: Actually, I'm planning on being an interventional neuroradiologist. Which means I will be able to spend any time I'm not doing procedures, and just doing film and image readings, off-site, wherever the fuck I like. Which in TURN means that something like this is very interesting indeed.