Gary Engstrom's Comments
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Jun 13, 2006 | rating: 10 | comments: 1
Gary Engstrom Jun 13, 2006, 10:23pm EDT
Once again, sorry, uploading the pictures is proving to be a challange.
Apr 17, 2006 | rating: 9.2 | comments: 56
Gary Engstrom Apr 18, 2006, 11:06pm EDT
Also, part of the problem is teenagers who have jobs but have no fininancial responsibilities. This often develops into several hundred dollars per month of discretionary spending. Then, when they leave home and get their first real job, the habit of discresionaray spending continues.
The best gift a parent can give their children is to make them responsible for at least a part of their cost of living - cloting, transportation, entertainment, and so on.
Apr 17, 2006 | rating: 9.2 | comments: 56
Gary Engstrom Apr 18, 2006, 11:02pm EDT
Spending more than one makes is not a matter of lack of education, but rather a matter of expectations - expectations of a prosperous society. There seems to be three things at play here. First is the desire to achieve greater success than our parents. In many other societies, the expectation is to achieve at least the success of parents, but in the US, the expectation is to achieve greater success. This leads to the notion that we should start at the same level of our parents and move forward. So, if you grew up in a new suburban home, your expectation is to move from your parents suburban home into your own new suburban home. To do otherwise would be to move backwards. Extend this to cars, clothing, and other stuff and you see the problem.

Second, growing up in prosperity, we have developed the expectation for instant gratification. If you want a new toy (or whatever), it is purchased. You observe your parents taking out the credit card at the store to meet this expectation. This is driven by your parents wanting you to have the best childhood possible. When you leave home you simply follow this pattern – and you can see the problem.

Third, consumerism has become a religion. In such a religion our rightness with God is measured by your financial prosperity – God's blessings. If you are right with God, God will bless you with material wealth. This translates into, "I go to church, etc., so therefore I deserve the materials things that I desire." Besides, "if I don't look prosperous – well, what will people think?"

As for education, you don't need to take a course to learn that if you spend more than you make, you will go into debt.

As for liberals vs conservatives, the residents of Red States are in deeper debt than residents of Blue States. The notion of being conservative meaning being thrifty has been long lost – look the conservative administration currently in office.

I suppose a fourth thing is that we have become too disconnected from the means of production. We no longer see the connection between effort and the concrete results of that effort. When you see the hours and hours of effort to turn a tree into a chair, you learn to value and charish the chair. When all you see is the swiping of a credit card for a chair the chair has little value to you and if something goes wrong with it, you throw it away.

No, we don't need to learn how to handle money - the math is really quite simple. What we need is an attitude adjustment. We have developed an attitude of entitlement, of immediate gratification, of waste.

And, by the way, most of the stuff people buy, is quite often not ever used. Shopping has become a form of recreation. We buy stuff we don't need, seldom use, and that requires bigger and bigger houses to store.

The solution to the problem is to SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY!!!
Mar 7, 2006 | rating: 9 | comments: 23
Gary Engstrom Mar 7, 2006, 2:08pm EST
In the bible it says that God created humans in his image. The reality is that people create God in the image of themselves. God becomes something (a tool) that is used to control others through fear and intimidation. People all too often respond to these religious mongers through complete thoughtless compliance - thus in turn becoming tools of fear and intemidation. I agree, religion often becomes a tool of oppression. The very same thing that Jesus fought so hard against - and in the end died for. Any "religion" that does not speak out for peace and justice is a false religion. This truth is found throughout the Jewish and Christian bibles.
Fear based religions are always looking for the scape goat. Throughout history humanity has use differences in mental ability, differences in physical ability, differences in skin color, differences in cultural traditions, differences in dress, and differences in sexuality as an excuse to vent their anger (after all if God is angery at them, they have to be angry at someone - right?). Anti-discrimination laws have been written for all but one of these. This is why they are so ardent to keep discrimination an option on at least one difference.
If God is an angry God - they we need to have someone to be angry at in turn. But if God is a loving God - then we are challenged to be loving also. It is much easier to be hateful than to be loving. Jesus even raises that bar when he said - It is easy to love someone who loves you in return. I say, love your enemies, love those who hate you.
Jonathan - believe in God or not - the God I believe in loves you just the way you are. And, there are many Christians that believe as I do. We just don't own the news media, and our perspective does not attract a lot of money for political races or ad campains. But we do care and we are fighting along with you as best we can.
Jan 14, 2006 | rating: 8.8 | comments: 16
Gary Engstrom Feb 27, 2006, 3:58pm EST
AH: I don't want to speak for Kare, but friendships and the opportunity to share both joys and sadness is a therapeutic way of dealing with stress. People who are alone too much of the time, do not have healthy ways of stress management and often turn to unhealthy behaviors. Shyness, of course is not the only reason why people become isolated, but that certainly is one reason.
Jan 14, 2006 | rating: 8.8 | comments: 16
Gary Engstrom Feb 27, 2006, 2:15pm EST
As someone who suffered debilitating shyness growing up, I really appreciate your article. It wasn't untill I was well into my 20s that I was able to break through the shell of shyness. My son was also very shy, but fortunately his teachers very early on recognized this and were able to work with him. When I was growing up, my shyness was seen as complience and it was rewarded. Now when I tell people that I suffered from shyness, they are quite surprised. However, I still fall back into the shell once in a while. Thanks for bring up the topic.
Feb 25, 2006 | rating: 9.9 | comments: 21
Gary Engstrom Feb 27, 2006, 11:04am EST
Some of my fondest childhood memories are running between the sunlit sheets hanging on the close line in the back yard. As I am reading your poem, I can smell the fresh laundry. As we ran between the sheets, we would shout "between the sheets" sayings and laughing hysterically – while not knowing at all the sexual implications of what we were saying. It wasn't until I was an adult, reading fortune cookie messages that the significance of the humor came to me: "You will find great adventure" – between the sheets.
Feb 26, 2006 | rating: 10 | comments: 11
Gary Engstrom Feb 27, 2006, 10:05am EST
You are probably right - at least for now. However, I think that there is a future for corporations where leadership is a real partnership between men and women. A really short lesson: At one time our ancestors were in nomadic hunting and gathering communities where strict male/female roles were adhered to. Men – hunting and defense. Women – gathering and nurturing. Then when forced to stay in one place our ancestors became farmers, roles were blurred. The hunter no longer simply killed game, but had to nurture livestock. The gatherer no longer simply gathered fruit and vegetables, but had to defend the garden from invading animals. Once we lost our agricultural focus, we reverted to many of our traditional male/female roles – with men in a competitive role and women in a nurturing or cooperative role. However, business is heading in a direction where competition and cooperation are both essential leadership skills. Some men have both; some women have both. But, the successful businesses of the future will require leadership teams made up of both men and women, where both competitiveness and cooperation are equally valued.
Feb 23, 2006 | rating: 9.8 | comments: 10
Gary Engstrom Feb 23, 2006, 11:27am EST
First question, why 40? Why do we become so introspective at age 40? Why not 39?, or 41? It's that zero! Numbers that end with zero freak us out! We give special homage to that zero. Remember little kids being able to count to 10 the first time? – realizing that that's the number of fingers we (well most of us) have. Second question, why become introspective at age 40? We don't become introspective at age 20, or 30. Some say it's because we have reached middle age. But, wait a minute. Not that long ago life expectancy was only 45. Maybe it's more like – Hay!, I made it! Now what do I do? We aren't supposed to live this long – there's no reliable road map. And, as for success, "You are only as good as the love you have for other people." Congratulations on becoming 40. Take it from someone who has passed two more milestones – life starts at 40.!
Feb 22, 2006 | rating: 10 | comments: 4
Gary Engstrom Feb 23, 2006, 11:08am EST
I know that in Canada, they are steaming oil out of sand; in other places they are steaming oil out of shale. These have to be very inefficient methods. There is also high-energy transportation of oil – not to mention the need to protect those transportation routs. A good percentage of our military budget is dedicated to petroleum security. I'm not sure that it is a negative return – but certainly as we move forward it will. Some economists are saying the known oil reserves will peak in about 6 to 8 years.
Feb 22, 2006 | rating: 10 | comments: 4
Gary Engstrom Feb 22, 2006, 1:58pm EST
My priorities are: (1) Don't use it; (2) capture it directly from the sun; (3) capture it indirectly from the sun; amd (4) use it efficiently. We are building a house (dig the hole in March) using this approach. (1) Don't use it: Build using the best energy efficient materials and design; (2) Capture directly from the sun: design for active and passive solar; (3) capture indirectly from the sun: use a geothermal heat pump (in this case the heat pump recovers solar heat stored in the earth); (4) use it efficiently: we are using in-floor radiant heat, insulating concrete forms (icf) and so on. If you are interested, click on my "name" and check out what we are doing. We should be able to heat and cool our (good-sized) house for $200-300 per year.
Feb 21, 2006 | rating: 9.8 | comments: 26
Gary Engstrom Feb 22, 2006, 1:41pm EST
George: I agree. And, there needs to be some suggestions or guidelines. For example, there are currently three (at least) tags being used for poetry: poetry, poem, and poems. If everyone publishing a poem use (say) poetry, it would be much easier to find. One thing that could help would be if groups, like a poetry group, were to agree on a tagging system. Then, even people not part of the group could copy what they are doing.
Feb 20, 2006 | rating: 8.4 | comments: 145
Gary Engstrom Feb 22, 2006, 1:29pm EST
I was named after Gary Cooper. In fact a lot of us were. If you know a Gary - he is probably around my age. I ran into a web site once where you put in a name and it created a graph of popularity over several decades. It was kind of fun to see the naming trends.
Feb 21, 2006 | rating: 9.8 | comments: 26
Gary Engstrom Feb 22, 2006, 8:53am EST
Once I realized the new approach, I went back to my previously published articles and re-tagged them. I had become used to "browsing by topic" and am becoming more comfortable with "browsing by tag." I think that once people become used to the new method, I will become more streamlined and easer to do. One of the things I did when re-tagging was to include some of the top tags that related to my articles. As people become aware of each other's tagging habits, and what works for others, things will become more standardized. When tagging, we need to learn to think about what others might be looking for and include those tags. When tagging you need to strike a balance between common topics people might search for "general browsing" and tags that people might search for "special interest" browsing. My articles, for example, are focused on sustainable housing. So, I include specific tags like sustainability, or geothermal heat pumps. But I also include general interest tags like home and family.
Feb 9, 2006 | rating: 9.4 | comments: 30
Gary Engstrom Feb 21, 2006, 2:41pm EST
It happened when someone defined business as "It's all about the bottom line." The purpose of business is to make money. There was a time when business was about finding a public need to be filled and a willingness to take a risk to fill that need. The reward was profit. When a business only focuses on the "bottom line" they forget about what happens above the line. A sustainable business must put into balance: the customer, the investor, the communities touched by the business, and the employees. Whenever any one of these thing is out of balance, the business, and those who depend on it are at risk. As our great country was founded on "checks and balance" so must our commercial enterprises. I, fortunately, work for a company that strives to balance customer, community, investor, and employee.
Jan 31, 2006 | rating: 9.5 | comments: 3
Gary Engstrom Feb 1, 2006, 9:00am EST
Dominic: Please do not apologize for your comments. All thoughts and comments are welcome. Your comments may reflect my inadequacy in describing the project as much as the inadequacies of the project itself.

Comment 1: Here, I apologize. The drawing you reference is of the upper level. The visitor arrives at the main level below. The drawing of the main level will come with the next article.

Comment 2: I agree that hallways are wasted space. It is ideal to have a functional room that feeds the other spaces. However, this house is on a long and narrow lot (0.26 acres), which makes this difficult to do. In this case, as you climb the second string of stairs, to your left is the Tropic Room. This room has glass walls, which provide visual relief. As you continue up the stairs, again looking left, you will see through the glass walls all the way into the Sunspace. So, the hallway will have more of an open feeling than the drawing might imply. Also, across from the Tropic Room is the laundry area, making the hallway quite functional there. Otherwise, the hallway provides access to the two bedrooms and bath by just a few strides – even a functional room that distributes to other rooms would have that much wasted space.

Comment 3: Yes, the closet is an afterthought – it was place there with a lot of afterthought. From the overhead drawing it look clunky. But, closets are closets. For the casual visitor, it will be a door off the bedroom and well – it will look like a closet. This solution is much better than the any of the other solutions.

And then finally: Part of the vision is that the house blend in with the older part of Cannon Falls – like an old farm house. Because of this, we realize that spaces will not necessarily "flow into each other" as they do with a more modern design. And, actually, we prefer the better defined spaces of an older home.
Jan 16, 2006 | rating: 9.8 | comments: 8
Gary Engstrom Feb 1, 2006, 8:30am EST
Beryl: I put in a rain garden in our present home and it is not only nourishing of the earth, but is a really fun garden. There are plenty of rain garden resources on the web, if any one is interested.
Jan 3, 2006 | rating: 9.3 | comments: 15
Gary Engstrom Jan 19, 2006, 9:08am EST
Dominic V.: Yes, I am a lay person with no building experience, other than general handy man work around older homes. Although, professionally, planning is something I do a great deal of on the job, and my wife is a Chemical Engineer. So, far I've enjoyed the planning process and my wife keeps me grounded.
Jan 16, 2006 | rating: 9.8 | comments: 8
Gary Engstrom Jan 18, 2006, 8:01am EST
Monica: Thanks for the input. Ideas are always welcome.
Jan 3, 2006 | rating: 9.3 | comments: 15
Gary Engstrom Jan 16, 2006, 8:30am EST
Dominic V.: Yes, we have engaged an architect. I will be introducing the architect and the architect role when I start discussing the design phase.
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Gary Engstrom
Minneapolis, MN
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