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Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1992 16:43:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Jon C. Slenk" 
To: +dist+/afs/andrew/usr/js9b/Public/camc.dl@andrew.cmu.edu
Subject: Fwd: test
References: 
Fred: Is

Grn. Feel free to beat me up the next time you see me. I have been very
bad about keeping up to date with things recently...

-Jon.

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To: "Jon C. Slenk" 
Subject: Re: test
From: wce@hogbbs.scol.pa.us (Bill Eichman)
Comments: Validated
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Date: 	Wed, 7 Oct 1992 15:41:56 -0400
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Organization: The Heart of Gold BBS, Lemont PA

From: grigsby@occs.cs.oberlin.edu (Spiral Death Trap)

>I'm sort of in Accumulate Cash mode, having got a real nice job
>programming video games, and living in San Jose.

There are worse modes, for sure. It's a cliche, but if you can manage to
save money, rather than getting into debt, you're going to be a much
more powerful person a few years down the line.

Or invest in high quality equipment, and play with it till you're a
self-made expert. That way you get to be a consumer and producer
at the same time.

>So: I'm trying to find both: 1) space to live and play in, and
>2) people to help me get started/form some sort of community.
>I am purposely vague about the shape because  the living space
>we would get determines in a big way the shape of our tribe --
>and with property so FUCKING EXPENSIVE (sorry) around here we
>may have to snap up whatever bargain we can get.  Even a four-

Here's another place where some saved money could do you some good. If
you've got a thousand, two thousand dollars set aside, you'll have the
power to "clinch the deal" when that perfect property and lease comes
along.

Aside from saving money for a deposit, finding the people is naturally
going to be the biggest challenge.

This is something that all of us have to do-- find the people, the other
members of our immediate tribe, that we can work with on a local basis.

I write to this list, for instance, but it's the people I work with here
in the State College, Pa/PSU area that I'm expecting to buy land with
and live with in community. It's taken me quite a few years to find the
people I can trust and count on to stick with it.

I've found that the best way to find people is to be active, to send out
a signal, and count on interested people to home in on the signal. I've
taught classes, both for profit and through the auspices of the local
Free University, and those classes has brought me into contact with a
lot of people. And I attend other classes and events, and watch for
people with interesting qualities, and just sort've walk up to them and
begin asking them about themselves.

If you can find even one person who shares your ideals, the two of you
can form enough of a 'power base' to make a community house work pretty
well, and survive the coming and going of other members. If that person
turns out to be a mate, all the better... ;-)

>Ideally I'd like to snag a warehouse or other big yet cheaper
>space and do some rooftop planting, solar/wind/whatever is
>practical heating, cooling, electric generation, and etc.: but
>since San Jose hasn't been around long enough to have old
>warehouses that no one uses I can't find anything of the sort.

You might try to hunt down a few of those "Buy houses with
No-Money-Down" types of books in a used book store (don't pay full price
for them), which contains lots of tips on finding properties and making
deals.

What's your time line? Do you have an idea of when you'd like to start
such a project? How about your current housemates, and lease?

>So, to sum up: since I'm going to be in the area for several years,
>I'm looking for other people with the time, money, and will to
>do an urban experiment.  Actually, scratch experiment: this has
>been done before, so only the above resources are necessary.
>Who else dares to swing from the pipes, scavenge the ruins, form
>a tribe of primitive futurists willing to surf the apocalypse?
>Is your bookshelf of fiction better than your life?  Sick of
>having no place to practice drumming or mix explosives?  Then
>let's go.  Are we going to kiss butt, or kick it?

Fan-fucking-tastic. I'm glad to hear it, and will do everything I can to
help.

But, we have a somewhat limited audience here. What is needed is to take
the basic signal you broadcast above, and radiate it into a wider
audience, and especially into a san jose region audience, so that you
can find the two, three, four, or more right people to make the goal a
reality.

As with any network, we have to get a couple of 'nodes' of activity
started, and link them up so that each of them benefits from all the
information that all of the rest of them are receiving. If we can get a
couple of sites started, me here in pa, you in ca, and a few other's
wherever people happen to be, and link them with travelers and
computers, we may just get a critical mass process started.

>Anyone with pointers to information or people should share them with me.
>So how's your life? 

You might try writing Urban Ecology in berkeley and see if they can give
you any leads. They host an Ecocities conference every year. I'd suggest
asking about their newsletter, and wether they are hosting or participating
in any computer groups or bbs's, and including a couple of dollars. Am i
remembering the geography-- san jose is about 70 miles south of SF, right?
You might think of buying an account at the Well, and looking around the
groups in there for the connections and people that you need. (Urban
Ecology, P.O. Box 10144, Berkeley, Ca, 94709)

I'm sure you already know this, but basically there's no substitute for
just spending time getting familiar with your area. There are always
going to be alternative publications and events in an urban area, and a
person just has to track them down, meet people and deal with the social
thing, and hunt till you find the right people and the right situations.

Are there any big universities near your place of employment?
Universities are often a hotbed of possibilities, especially when you're
a free agent, and not a student or academe who must keep their nose
clean of controversy.

More power to ya.... Bill



----------------------------------------------------
Jon Slenk           angst+@cmu.edu     EVERYTHING is
Carnegie Mellon     Pittsburgh PA      Disclaimed

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