maybe you don't care ... then stop reading

in conversation with my thesis chair (or adviser if you prefer) he was telling my that the first paragraph of my introduction was more appropriate for a preface. basically what he was trying to say was that it was way to casual and conversational and not academic and professional enough to be put into the "official" thesis document. i had edited down something i had written a few weeks ago about my journey to writing my thesis for that opening paragraph and now i am a bit sad that no one will get to read the original document it came from ...

never fear ... that is what the blog and you people are for! i have decided to post it in installments ... short parts to help you see my thought process for why i went back to school, why Oregon, why historic buildings, why sustainability, so-on-and-so-forth.

like the title says - stop reading if you don't care (don't worry I will never know because I don't look at my viewing stats ... it won't hurt my feelings in any way ... its only my life's work thus far ... no big deal.)

let us begin.

the (working) title of my thesis is currently (I have changed it three times already):

Historic Preservation and Sustainability in Portland, Oregon: Evaluation of the Sustainable Reuse of Historic Buildings

pretty boring title ... I know... but its not a book ... its an academic thesis. its not about being glamorous and sexy ... its about calling it what it is so that some poor graduate student doing research in the future will know if they need to read parts of it for their research paper or not. i always appreciate those books and articles that have apt titles reflecting what they are ACTUALLY talking about.

that being said ... let us really begin.

PART I:

"I have had a very basic feeling for quite sometime that the past has much more insight into the present and future than society often cares to acknowledge. Therefore, the concept of keeping historic buildings in use as a response to the sustainability movement made sense to me on a lot of levels long before I began to study this interface. Growing up in the mid-Eighties and becoming cognizant of the world in the nineties (1989 is the first year I realized what a year was … I was 6 years old and it probably had to do with being in kindergarten) it was an era of “recycle, reduce, re-use” (“and close the loop” – is how the saying went). While the emphasis of environmentalism of my suburban world was on recycling of newspaper and aluminum cans at home and not much place else in the small scope of my life, the impression of the three R’s was profoundly made on me. So much so, that as a member of the yearbook staff for my middle school in 1997 I suggested the brilliant theme* of “97% Recycled, 3% Attitude.” I was not so much expressing my zeal for saving the planet as I was making commentary on the social and pop-culture phenomenon of the 60s and 70s fashion and music coming back into vogue. I was raiding my parent’s closets for clothing they wore in high school and combing thrift and vintage stores for bell-bottoms and hippie shirts** after all – even I couldn’t help but notice how much we were recycling the culture of the past."

* note ... this is sarcasm and will be explained in the next paragraph to come
** note ... if i had pictures of the year book or of middle school i would post them, but they are stored away in california at my parents place ... sigh ... that would have been good.