What is Happiness and How Can We Feel It?

We read in article on Monday called "Happiness Revisited" and the author talks about what happiness really is and why so many of us westerners think we achieve it, but really don't. Here are the reflection questions.

1. When do you feel most happy? 

    Well, that's a hard question to answer after reading this article. I'm currently recreating my schema for what happiness really is and what "leads" to it. The author of the book Happiness Revisited defined happiness as a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. It's how we interpret outside events. 

       So, with that said, I feel I am most happy whenever I am with my youth group. I always feel completely at ease whenever I'm around them, in part because I've known a good amount of them for a long time, but because the environment is just happy and well-meaning. It's a state I (usually) naturally enter without having to effort fully change my mindset. 

2. Reaction to article: 

Loved loved loved it. I'm very into Psychology and any state of being is interesting to read about. Sometimes I feel a little resistance to science telling us how we should react to things and what needs to happen to achieve a certain outcome. Sometimes things "should" be left to the unknown, the mystical. But I mainly think it's so cool to having a science dedicated to our brain and how we can live better lives!!! The answers can be so simple! (Simple sounding, that is). I love the distinction between optimal experience and happiness. Because so many of what us Americans' lives are like that s doing everything we can to achieve success and optimal experiences, which we think equate to happiness. 

3. Where are you on the flow chart?

I would currently say I'm in A2 (developing skills and bored) or A4 ( developing skills and good amount of challenges, which is the optimal zone), right now. There are some weeks when I'm doing enough that I feel very productive and not overwhelmed, but excited about what I'm doing. There are others when I feel very motivated to get things done and end up not doing much, anticipating that what I have to do will be boring/feel like work.

4. How has my flow chart zone changed throughout my project?

Whenever I set goals for myself and remind myself that it is imperative that I accomplish them, that's when I'm in the A4 zone. My first real experience with that was about three weeks ago. Whenever I blow things off, thinking I can do extra work later, that's when I enter the A2 zone. Feeling bored and unmotivated (and eventually, I drift into the A3 stage, which is stressed).

5. How can you achieve flow?

Like I said before, setting weekly goals for myself is the key to being and feeling successful and productive, and going with the flow.

Ecovillage

I finally got to tour Ecovillage!!! And let me say it's pretty freakin' awesome up there. I'll say again, that Arlene, a woman who goes to my church, lives up there, and so I contacted her and asked if she could give me a personal tour. It turned out the Thursday, the day I went, was also a community dinner night, so I got to eat some delicious free pesto pasta, root veggies, and salad.
I drove in on the main road and met her by one of the carports near TREE neighborhood  We walked to her house from there and she told me a bit about the history of the village and how it runs. Here is some of the information she gave me.

General:
-Started out as a 30 house neighborhood in 1996 (now, that neighborhood is called FROG, which stands for First Residential Group).
-They now have almost three neighborhoods: FROG, SONG (Second Neighborhood Group), and TREE (Third Residential Ecovillage Experience). TREE is still in the process of being built
-Neighborhood is set up as a cooperative. For example, if you're in New York City and you own share to your apartment building, that's what Ecovillage is like.
-There is a volunteer expectation of 2-4 hours per week. There are multiple teams you can join to meet these expectation, such as the cook team, the dish team, the gardening/landscaping team, the maintenance team, the finance team, and many others.
-All houses are connected to NYSEG still. If there is no solar gain, then they use natural gas for power.
-Two farms present: the West Haven Farm (organic vegetables) and a "you pick" berry farm
-After tree is fully built, there will be approximately 150 adults and 70 kids living in evovillage.
TREE:
-The 25 buildings built so far in TREE are LEED Platinum certified, which is the highest level of LEED certification.
-7 of these houses are Passivhaus certified. There are only about 150 of these in the U.S., and 7 of them are here in Ithaca! The Passivhaus focuses on low energy use, which usually means these houses must have a lot of solar gain from photovoltaics (solar panels). Also, they're all net zero!
-All houses are tightly insulated, but not so tight that mold grows or anything like that.
-There's fresh air ventilation provided by ERVs (Energy Recovery Ventilators).
-No central heating. Instead, there are HRVs (Heating Recovery Ventilators).

I also have a few pictures to show for my endeavors!

This first one is a picture of TREE, the neighborhood that's currently being built. You can see the two different kinds of solar panels that are on these houses. The smaller, darker ones are photovoltaics. The larger ones are solar thermal panels used to heat water.

 The second photo is a picture of part of SONG neighborhood, the second one that was built.

This is a picture of the deck of SONG'S common house. I love the tree ceiling (and without knowing it, they're incorporating TREE neighborhood into theirs!)

Here's a shot featuring all three neighborhoods. The house on the left is part of SONG, the houses in the middle are TREE, and the house on the right is FROG. This shows how close in proximity the neighborhoods really are to each other.

Here's a picture FROG. It's so quaint and fairy tale like, isn't it?!

I would love to live in ecovillage, or a community similar to it. Maybe I'll find myself a little earthship community to reside in in my later years.

Micro Goals for this week 4/20-4/26

This is my briefest post ever, so get ready for 30 seconds of reading, tops.
Here are my goals for this week

-Have inside more formulated
-Visit ecovillage; write reflection
-Research and get proper design materials
-Start Drawing!!!!

There ya go!

Going With The Flow

I've done quite a bit of research on the exterior/basic systems of my house, so it was time to look at how I should design the interior.

For this, I've been using a couple of my mom's architecture books (pretty amazing that she had these lying around). They're called The Natural House Book,, by David Pearson, and The New Ecological Home, by Daniel D. Chiras. I'm really starting to learn how much of an art form architecture is, and I'm beginning to appreciate it. 

Before my junior year, I didn't know how integrative (green) architecture could be with the environment. I always thought that architecture led to these pretty buildings being built, but destroyed the beautiful land they were on in the process. Turns out, architecture doesn't have to be that way. If thoroughly thought out, buildings can be designed to work with the earth, maybe even give back to it, in beautiful ways. I'm thinking of the cradle-to-cradle design concept I learned about in AP Environmental Science last year (which is if we take from the earth, we give back to it in some way with the building). Now, I'm learning about the inside spaces. 

Any who, here's a little bit of what I've learned about designing the interior
-Think of rooms as spaces so everything doesn't seem as blocked off and separate. Also think of "processes" rather than "rooms". Make sure things flow
-Think of places I've been the most happy or the most comfortable and design based off those (from this, I'm planning to design an open floor plan. I've always felt at ease in open houses)
-Think of places I've been happy during my childhood (again, open spaces. Anything outdoors).
-In living space, I should have a focal point. Also, design based on what climate(s) I will mainly be in. I could even design two different living spaces if I want to

Looking forward to reading more!

Reevaluating Project Macro Goals

As I'm going along and doing research, I realize it's hard to stay focused and keep the big picture in mind because I don't have clear macro goals. Micro goals are usually formed at the start of each week, but I haven't been keeping in mind what my gradual improvements/activities should be. I've done some thinking--here's what I've got so far:

-Learn how people in Ithaca live a sustainable lifestyle, whether it be in a community setting (e.g. ecovillage) or on their own. Find at least two examples
-Be able to reflect on the beauty and artfulness of architecture. Consistently keep this in mind.
-Contact someone who lives in/has built an earthship (I already have someone in mind). Go outside comfort zone in that respect.
-Keep making micro goals and stick to them!!

I'm getting started on my first goal here-I'm planning to go to ecovillage on Thursday at 5:00 to meet with a church member who lives there. Maybe the next step I'll take is asking individuals how they live sustainably. It would be interesting to compare how people living in an ecologically conscious community live and how others live.

Why I struggle with Decisions.

I can't remember if I've written about this or not..but if I have, it will be a nice refresher.

Not only with this project is decision making hard for me, but for any other circumstance in my daily life. I want to look at ALL the possibilities before deciding on something, so I can make sure I'm extra sure. (For those of you who take/took psychology, at least I'm preventing myself from being prone to groupthink).

Also, there is this model of human personality called the enneagram. It's made up of nine general types of people (1: perfectionist, 2: healer, 3: achiever, 4: individualist, 5: investigator, 6: loyalist, 7: enthusiast, 8: challenger, 9: peacemaker). The reason probably not too many people (at least that I know) have heard of it is because it's taught usually in spiritual contexts. Both of my parents have taken the enneagram test (my mom is a nine, my dad is a four) and throughout high school, I've gotten to learn about it "determine" what I am (I put determine in quotes because I'm not ABSOLUTELY positive yet what my type is). At this point, I believe that I am a nine, like my mom.
Nines tend to not like conflict, shy away from assertion, and have a hard time making decisions, which is how I am!

I'm sure there are some other theories out there as to why decision making is not my jam, but I'm getting better at it. I really am. As a senior, I've held some roles that require me to make decisions without necessarily relying on others' opinions.

Here's a quick picture of the enneagram diagram for your own enjoyment!

This Week's Goals (4/13-4/19)

In contrast to my last post, this one's gonna be short and sweet-much like last night's sleep!

Here are this week's goals:
-watch and reflect on garbage warrior
-start researching basic design principles
-get an idea of what I want the interior of the house to look like
-research how to build into a hillside
-use source other than Internet.

The last goal was the only goal from last week that I didn't meet. I picked up some of my mom's design books, though, and I'm planning to read some of them throughout the week and when I go to NYC this weekend on the school music trip!!
'Twill be quite swell. 

Let's keep making those decisions, Katie. 

And the Winner Is...

Disclaimer: This is going to be SUPER long because I'm posting all of my research notes on here.
But this will offer a comparison of five different sustainable home types all in one place.

I compared the sewage/water, electricity, and heating systems of 5 different types of green homes: strawbale homes, earthbags, earthships, tiny houses, and zerohouses. Without further waiting, here are my research notes. For some, I just focus on the heating/cooling, sewage, and electrical systems since those were my main deciding factors. For others, I name some other attributions.

Strawbale homes:

-Sewage treatment-most often uses the biotex sewage system (uses red worms and tiger worms to break down sewage). However, this occurs at a big operation plant. Not self-sustaining.

http://kuske.co.nz/straw/uncategorized/our-eco-friendly-biolytix-sewage-system/

Benefits of strawbale houses:

-Straw is a regular by-product of hay, so sustainable resource. Insulate well

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/construction/green/straw-bale-house1.htm

Earthbag homes

http://home.howstuffworks.com/earthbag-home.htm

-Construction materials: bags filled with “earthen” materials (or sand bags). Often used to make military bunkers, Barbed wire holds bags together.

-Relatively easy to build with little experience. Inexpensive

-Eliminates 95% of lumber used to build a stick frame house

-Work best in an area where the day and night temperatures are extreme-exhibit thermal flywheel effect (absorb heat during day, release it at night as walls start to cool).

-Adobe type home

http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/faqs/components.htm#electrical

-plumbing-sewage system drains into septic tank

Earthships:

http://earthship.com/

-Sewage: contains and reuses all sewage in indoor and outdoor treatment tanks. results in food production

-gray water is cleaned in an interior botanical cell

-Path of waste:

      1. Water used in bathtubs, sinks, then drained into interior gray water treatment systems

      2. That water used to flushed toilets

      3.Next, goes out to outdoor septic tank with a line to a conventional leach field. uses solar power

-Electricity: combination of photovoltaic energy and wind energy. One of the devices used (for wind) is a Vertical Axis Dynasphere Wind Module. It's quiet and durable for up to 20 years. Better than conventional wind turbine. 
-Electricity stored in batteries, then transferred to outlets.

-Electricity used for washing machine, computers, kitchen appliances, printers, etc. Not for heating and cooling.

-Heat: sun admitted through windows. stored in walls. Cool: 55 degree earth temperature brought up from earth through tubes

-difference between insulation and mass:

      Insulation: has millions of tiny air spaces. slows down passage of temperature from outside to inside

      Dense mass: collects and stores cold and heat. no tiny air spaces. good conduct for temperature.
-Earthships have dense mass

Tiny houses:

-http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/pages/utilities

-electricity: plug house into outside power source

-sewage: plumbed to be connected to public water and sewage systems, or public tank.

-less=more sustainable

Zerohouses:

http://zerohouse.net/wordpress/what-is-zerohouse

-similar to earthship in that it’s self sustaining.

-prefabricated house parts shipped-you assemble it yourself wherever you want to. Doesn’t require connection to sewage or water treatment plants.

-electricity: solar panels. stores it in batteries.

-waste: all waste goes below the house-made into compost that is taken out twice a year

Con: no creativity really involved

In conclusion, I am definitely going to go with designing an earthship because they offer the most self-sustaining way of life and the most ecologically sound, as well. Also, I can design my house to be imbedded into the hillside if I (still) want to :)

Also, in closing, I'd like to say that I rented Garbage Warrior and I'm going to watch it sometime next week!! I also got in contact with Arlene and we're going to set up a time for me to go tour Ecovillage in the following week or two. 

Update on Preset Goals

Just wanted to let y'all what's been going on the past couple days. I've been trying to figure out what water, sewage, heating, and energy systems to use, and, surprise surprise, they've led me back to...the earthship!

When I was first coming up with the project, I originally wanted to design my own earthship, but when I found out that there is a basic model for it (what is called the global model), I figured I couldn't design my own. But... I failed to question if there was any way I could design a custom model.

It turns out there are many different models of the earthship, including the vaulted model, simple survival, packaged model, custom designs (yay!), and community models.

All of the systems that sustain the earthship are 100% sustainable and that's always appealed to me. I've found some other systems that are ecologically sound, as well. But I need to do some more comparison and contrasting.

As of now, I am leaning towards designing my own earthship, which still encompasses the "unique" part of my project title. I'm not sure if I have enough time to put together techniques used in other models. But, I'm not done researching yet.

A very, VERY short term goal I have (meaning, tomorrow) is to post an entry comparing and contrasting at least the sewage, water, energy, and heating systems of a variety of sustainable house plans. I know I haven't gone in depth of the structural design of the earthship or other ideas I've had, so I'm going to do that tomorrow in a very loooong post. Be ready to read!

Some Long Overdue Goals

I would like to apologize to the world and myself for not making enough short term goals. The world because it's probably not entirely interesting tor read a stream of thoughts all the time, and myself for not giving my project enough direction.

Without further a do, heeeeeeere are this week's goals!

-Contact Arlene Hewitt, a woman who goes to my church and lives in Ecovillage. I would at least like to hear what it's like to live up there, and possibly get a tour.
 -Determine:
               -Sewer system
               -Water system
               -Heating system
               -Electricity system
-Use a source other then the internet to help me figure the above goals out.
-Take notes while researching

I would LOVE to get this much done this week. The basis of my house would be all figured out, then I could determine the exterior design.

I need to get out of dreamy, idealistic-y, green-y land and start getting down to business. Time to make some decisions, as Ms. Zaryski would say.

Gleaming From The Past-Sustainable Living

Marcel Gremaud-if there is ANY way in heaven you are reading this post (which I'm sorta thinking there isn't), I just wanna say you are one heck of a blogger. And a thinker. And a researcher. And a comedian. And an all around awesome writer. Your project has been making me think and reflect quite a bit, and it was truly a treat to read your blog posts and research commentary and narrative write-ups.

Here's some background on that last paragraph: We had an assignment (for WISE, of course), to read and grade a previous WISEer's blog entries and I read over Marcel Gremaud's. His project's macro goal was to live more sustainably, which is, like, the mother from which my project was born. SUPER interesting to read about, because I've been interested in living sustainably since the beginning of high school and I've only recently wanted to look into building a sustainable house.

Here's a list of things I liked about Marcel's blogging:

1. His wittiness: His posts constantly reflected his comedic character
2. His reflectiveness: He always had so many thoughts about the articles he read, the people he interviewed, and the facts he learned. I was very engaged.
3. He used Calvin and Hobbes comics, which just takes the cake right there. Some of his posts were about really serious topics and were very depressing (like how the pharmaceutical industry is one of the most unsustainable industries in the U.S.!!) and those comics helped bring those posts to a nice ending.

Here are some things Marcel struggled with a bit:

1. Consistently blogging 3 times a week. What I saw was that he'd post consecutively for two or three days, then wait five or six days to post again.
2. Post pictures. Though the Calvin and Hobbes comics could've counted as pictures, it would've been cool to see some pictures of the comparison between local and non local foods, etc. He posted one set of pictures at the end similar to the example I just gave, but pictures throughout the process would've been a nice addition.

Here are some things I would like to borrow from Marcel:
1. His occasional lists of goals for the week. I recently realized I really have not been setting too many goals for myself…and it's always clear when he makes a goal because it's always in list form. It works for him as well as for the readers.
2. His comics. One of my favorite comics is The Peanuts ("C'mon Charlie Brown, I'll hold the football and you can run and kick it!" Yeah right…), so maybe I can find one that relates to my project/feelings.

West Virginia Observations and Thanks

Howdy y'all! Can you guess where I am?? (Hint: Look at my title).

WEST VIRGINIA!!

My church youth group and I (St. Paul's Narwhals) are here in Oak Hill, WV on a mission trip. So far, it has been tons of fun and really fulfilling. Also, I had no idea how much fun power tools are…

Any who, it's really interesting how we've adapted to living here for the time being. We are currently staying in the Oak Hill United Methodist Community Center. It is a very high quality facility! There are nice, working showers, clean toilets, a big, shiny, stainless steel commercial kitchen, and a gym where we can play all the basketball and frisbee we want! Pretty incredible that we are staying here while there are several hundred people in this city that barely have power, running water, food, and a safe space to dwell in.
I am so blessed to be living in a warm, high quality house back home in a city that conserves its natural beauty. Actually...TWO houses. I live in TWO houses while some people have zero. How can I ever express my thanks for this?

That being said, I am extra thankful that I have the opportunity to design this house. My own, perfect (hopefully…), dream house. Because  a good handful of people don't have that. They don't get a chance to think about their dreams, their perfect home, a perfect life.
So…THANK YOU WISE!

Now to take this post in the direction I originally intended…I was primarily going to write about a very interesting, amazing observation we've all had here. There is NO RECYCLING AND COMPOST in the state of West Virginia. NONE! How crazy is that?? Our whole group finds this is weird that we have to separate all of our food scraps, paper scraps, trash, etc. into different bins, even if in the end we can't end up disposing of our waste in the proper ways.

I hope that the progressive movement/energy that flows through Ithaca can come down to West Virginia. I realize that many of the people here have to focus on meeting their basic needs. That's why third-world countries aren't very environmentally conscious in general. But maybe I can help with that in the future.