Self-Regulatory Mechanisms

Back in 1999, the specter of the endless dot.com boom was a recurring nightmare. I bought a house off the grid. The term off the grid or off-grid refers to living in a self-sufficient manner without reliance on one or more public utilities.
I had a sense of removing the huge weight of material concerns from my life.

Wabi-Sabi

Undeclared beauty that waits patiently to be discovered—the house. I found it online with a Goggle search “Homes for under 50K.” I didn’t have 50K and had a hard time getting a bank load. Fannie Mae informed me that 9 out of 10 people would find this house a dump. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/17/fannie-mae-freddie-mac-to_n_113497.html


A local bank http://www.jeffbank.com said yes to me as well my favorite local bookstore, Hamish & Henry. www.hamishandhenry.com>

The house was bought from a practitioner of Zen Buddhism.

He was the caretaker of the local Zendo
http://www.daibosatsu.org/
In Japan, there is a marked difference between a Thoreau-like wabibito (wabi person), who is free in his heart, and a makoto no hinjin, a more Dickensian character whose poor circumstances make him desperate and pitiful.

Wabi, Not Slobby

I spent the first year clearing trash from the property.

The first disappointment I had was from what I was told by the realtor was the “meditation tower.”

Behind the house was a two-story tower, which I found more beautiful than the actual house. Inside it was littered with beer tabs. I thought this odd for a mediation tower. I found out later by locals it was a shooting tower. It was used to take cover in order to kill deer.

"Wabi" is to be satisfied with a little hut, a room of two or three tatami mats, like the log cabin of Thoreau and with a dish of vegetables picked in the neighboring fields, and perhaps to be listening to the pattering of a gentle spring rainfall.

More about the rainfall later but to me that tower was a beautiful architectural element and started me reading.
architecturelink

While sweeping the beer tabs from the 2nd story of the tower I notice every tree sounding my property has a sign—Private Property. The signs had the name of the surrounding land owner with restrictions—a bunch of “No S”
I want to ask a relatively simple question—must these signs be on every tree?

Property/Intellectual Property

More Garbage. There is a cliff leading down to a stream—near my property but not my property—that had years of trash poured down on to it.

Mattress, cans, bottles, tires. I called the owner. He knew the situation. The Boys Scout were called to clean but refused the job. Too much and too difficult to remove.
http://www.scouting.org/

Regulation

Also in 1999 a consortium of executives from the main media and information technology industries established "The Global Business Dialogue." The consortium points to the inconsistent international regulation in cyberspace and argues that parliaments are challenging them to develop effective self-regulatory mechanisms. One of the areas, which the consortium addresses, is content regulation, led by Walt Disney. http://www.authorama.com/free-culture-1.html/