Hi everyone. How are you? I'm doing ok. I spent the summer working at the University of Illinois Extension office in Galesburg. I worked on setting up this public-participation urban design project for Main Street. But it turns out that the project isn't going to happen. The project was supposed to be a collaboration between extension, galesburg, and the department of urban planning... but the department cut the program and pretty much fired the professor who ran it. Three months of work right out the window.

Oh well, i learned something important. I really, really don't like working in offices. So right now, i am back to carpentry. I am working on the University of Illinois' Solar Decathlon House. The Solar Decathlon is an international competition among universities who build completely solar powered houses. Check it out: http://www.solardecathlon.org/ We are trying to build this house by the end of September so that we can take it apart, put it on a truck and ship it to Washington D.C. All of the teams will set up a "solar village" on the National Mall which will be on display for a week. I get to go set up and take down, so i'll probably be in D.C. for three weeks or so!

I am not taking any classes this semester, but i am enrolled in six credits, the purpose of which is to finish my masters' project so i can graduate in December. For my research, i will be continuing to work on my sustainability model for the "South Farms," U of I's research farm in Champaign-Urbana.
In other news, i have a new girlfriend (a senior at Knox named Rachel), new roomates (i miss Michael already), i am now liscensed by the state of Illinois to drive a motorcycle, and i am the proud owner of a 1981 Honda CX500 rust-bucket cruise-mobile whose name is yet to be determined. Yeah. Crazy.

How are you all?