GREETINGS!

Hello there everyone! So here it goes. It’s my first blog, so I apologize in advance for any kind of mishaps that may occur with technology and any other things, such as grammar. After all, I am learning this as we go, so please don’t be too hard on me. I promise, I will get better. And without further ado, I’d like to explain a bit about who I am and why I started this blog/project.

WHO AM I?

I guess the answer to that question is that I really don’t know. But, it all depends on how you look at it. It could be good or it could be bad. I prefer to look at this concept in a positive light. Not really knowing who you are often translates into simply, “what do you want?” So I understand that it’s not really who I am that’s the question, but “What do I want out of life? That is the big question a lot of us are striving to get answered.

Having said that, I don’t want this new blog to be solely about me posting up my goals and accomplishments for everyone in the world to see, but rather what I want people to see is how my goals are to bring about change and enrich other people’s lives. I have goals in mind that deal with an eclectic mixture of my skillsets, culture, health, hobbies, writing, art, and architecture. I hope that the material I present over the course of this blog will be helpful and insightful. I will start by posting information once a week to see if I enjoy it. And, if I like it enough to keep going, I will start posting twice per week, eventually adding more content.

A BIT ABOUT ME

I was born and raised on the outskirts of a rural town in South Louisiana, and from there I became very interested in the outdoors and the environment. My father would often take me on camping trips that involved hunting wild animals, and on boating excursions where he taught me the ways of the rod and reel. With such a naturalistic upbringing and being exposed to the beauty of the earth at a young age, I often dreamed about incorporating nature into my life’s work.

Today, I am a 33 year old man with a constant search on how to get more out of life. I currently live with my beautiful significant other, and up until recent events I was working as a registered architect in the State of Texas. I have worked in the architectural industry for about ten years. Upon graduation from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, I moved to Houston to pursue a career in the architecture, and I’ve been here ever since.

While it may sound like a good thing that I’ve been successful in my architecture career, I had often sat at my cubicle wondering, “Isn’t there more to life than this?” I often asked myself, “What could I do to help others, and what could I do to make the world a better place?” I obviously wasn’t getting my questions answered sitting in a cubicle helping my boss get richer, so one day at work I got up from my desk and walked out of the building. I quit. I won’t say that I hate architecture or anything like that, and that I’ll never return to it because I’m still very much interested in it. It’s just that, I want to be interested in it on my own terms, and not on someone else’s. And definitely not for the sake of making money.

MY GOALS (THE GOAL FOR THIS BLOG)

In about my third year of architecture school, I once had this wise professor explain what architecture is. “Buildings are my hobby, but architecture is my profession,” he said. I knew exactly what his statement meant at the time, which was why I got my architecture degree in the first place. But, in school, we were allowed to dream and design. We were allowed to take the profession where we wanted and experiment. Budgets and politics were a non-issue. Somewhere in 10 years, I missed that. I feel that it’s high time to for me to bring it back, which leads me to the next obvious question: Why would you name a blog “Conservative Survival” if all you’re going to do is talk about architecture?

Well the answer is, buildings are my hobby, and architecture is just my profession. I don’t plan to talk about architecture, well, not all the time anyway. What I keep coming back to in my life is the need for peace in this world, the need for harmony, the need for true-self and the need for all of this to converge. The need for ultimate freedom. By convergence, I mean that this should be a place where what my beliefs and what I’m interested in come together in such a way that help others. And, in turn, I’m hoping will help the environment. I don’t plan to solely talk about survival skills or how to do certain things in a wilderness setting, but I want to show those things in such a way that is not destructive.

What do I mean by destructive? There are so many ways to be destructive, and there are so many examples out there that are just absurd. I will cover some of those examples in later articles, but for right now, for the sake of writing, I will just make the argument here. There are so many television programs and books written about survival that for the most part teach people to be destructive when they are in a survival situation. There is one episode of “Dual Survival” where I specifically remember the survivalist saying to the camera, “To survive, you have to kick Mother Nature in Her ass.” I said to myself, “Really? You sound like a winner (*sarcasm).”

Other examples of survival blogs and TV programs out there try to convey or pressure a sense of fear into people. One in particular is called “Doomsday Preppers.” Sometimes I just shake my head and say to myself, “Seriously, get a f***ing grip. We’re not paranoid much, are we? (*more sarcasm).” On the other hand, I think the show does have a few good tips on how to prepare for a disaster, but I’m guessing just for the sake of ratings, National Geographic has to put some drama in it to make it into a typical reality show.

So the point I’m trying to make is this: My goal with this blog is to teach people survival skills, but how to handle nature and the environment in a more positive way. I don’t wish to convey a sense of doom and gloom, but to show people that they too can become one with nature in a harmonious sort of way. We never take too much, and we always give back more. In other words, we give back more than what we take. I believe that our great Earth Mother will take care of us if we take care of Her. Therefore, we must treat Her with respect and gratitude. This site is about survival for “Life.”

IT DOESN’T END WITH SURVIVAL SKILLS

At first, when I thought of this blog, I thought that this project should only be about survival skills, but as I’ve been listening, watching, and reading from various sources, I felt it should be about so much more. At the end of the day, I didn’t just want to be good at survival. I wanted to help others and make the world a better place.

As I mentioned above, I quit my architecture job because I felt I had no purpose and that my job was the anti-me. I felt like I was just making a small living to make millionaires more millions. Most of the profession of architecture consists of building buildings, which, let’s face it, are for the most part destructive. Contractors are hired to cut down trees, move earth, and pour concrete onto what once was hallowed earth. How insensitive is that? And coupled with the fact that I’m living in Houston, the capital of oil and the automobile, boy did I pick the wrong place to settle.

But despite the destructive nature and dysfunctional consciousness of the city, there are still people here that are open to new ideas and innovative approaches. But my goal is to not only reach the people of Houston, TX, but to extend that reach to faraway places in the world, such as Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and parts of rural Asia. I name those places because there seems to be a need for architectural harmony in those parts of the world, and there is also much to be learned from them.

I wish to learn more and grow this little blog into an experience that will lead me to help others around the world experience free electricity, hot and cold running water, passive lighting, passive heating and cooling, and to enjoy the concept of totally sustainable architecture in their habitat. I want to study, visit, and acclimatize to these places in a life-long project that will not only teach you and I survival skills but will help others around the world live comfortable within their own ecosystems.

In conclusion to this message, I want to provide my readers with a short list to sum up and quantify the goals of this project. I plan to accomplish what I call “Conservative Survival” through a number of different delivery methods.

1. I will study survival skills simply because I love nature and Mother Earth, and I will teach it to other people who want to read and learn about how to make peace with their environment.
2. I will study the indigenous architecture of different cultures around the world, and show/demonstrate how their methods can be utilized or combined with traditional methods of sustainability in architecture.
3. I will convey the message of harmony and equilibrium with our environment through artwork, photography, crafts, travel experiences, and other skills/adventures.
4. I will share my ideas about health, fitness, and spirituality with those who are interested in what it takes to thrive in their ecosystem.

FINAL THOUGHTS

What I want to get out of this blog is to ultimately find a way to help people around the world. To help them find ways to build and create for a better future, for our children and the human race to come. A future that is not bent on destruction and dysfunction. A world that brings life, freedom, value, and happiness.

Perhaps, with this little drop in an ocean of blogs, I will start a charity to reach other people in need. Who knows what will come of it, but what I do know is that I am going to learn a little bit and have a hell of a lot of fun doing it.

Stay tuned, until next time!

Please add any comments you have below, and I will try to respond to them as often as I can. Thank you!