Dude, what's with the blog name?

Weltanschauung.

I was introduced to the word by a a history professor at Ball State my freshman year. He liked to use the word because he did not feel there was an English equivalant, and hey, anyone semi-familiar with German knows they have a lot of long compound words - remember farvergneugen from the 80's, Volkswagen fans?

Weltanschauung loosely translates to "world view", but it goes much further. The word specifically points to the world view of an individual, based on that person's specific life experiences - gender, socioeconomic status, race, relationships, careers, etc.

So in this blog I intend to write my thoughts primarily about architecture, with an understanding of the world I come from. A 44 year old white male who grew up in Kokomo, Indiana, a factory town where my parents didn't work in the factory; the oldest of three children with two younger sisters, who traveled very little growing up but got and took the opportunity to make up for it in college; married to another architecture graduate and parents of twin daughters who are now 13.