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Flash: Not All Who Wander

Erin Penn 1 Comment

Image courtesy of the Internet Hive Mind

Today’s flash is based on a sign I saw while delivering mail today, “Not all who wander” and below it was a painting of a RV. And I thought to myself, “Not all who wander, leave home.”

***

Becca stood, leaning against the tree nearest the cliff’s edge, to watch the specular Aurora Polaris, doing her best to ignore the black hole in her field of vision on the left side stating the game simulation number, the companies involved in programming it, and all the other required matter so people never forget virtual reality is not actually reality. She could hack the credits spot to non-existence, but then she would spend another six months in rehabilitation without VR and there was no way she was going through that again just to get rid of the annoying spot.

She did have a list of things she was willing to get banned for, but not for simple credits. Getting rid of all credits … maybe, be people deserve to get paid. Especially – Becca glanced over to the credits space, expanding it for a moment – Northern Reaches, who developed the Northern Lights visuals. She snapped her eyes back to the green and blue curtains dancing across the sky.

“There you are.” Garret dropped on the ground next to her.

“Here I am.” She agreed, nodding at him.

“I just wanted to thank you for your help in the underground fortress.” The fighter, and leader of the gaming party who hired her character, plucked at the grass, not meeting her eyes and somehow shrugging down so his nearly seven-foot half-giant frame didn’t tower over her while he sat beside her. “Virgay and Daph wouldn’t have made it through without your healing.”

“De nada. You paid me well for that task.” Becca waved a green hand, the Aurora lights sparkling against her scales.

“I was…” Garret coughed to clear his throat, “I was wondering if you would like to join our band of adventurers.”

Startled, Becca made eye contact. “Um, well.”

“I mean, not to take you away from your normal group-“

She cut in. “I don’t have a normal group.” Rocking against the tree, she tried to decide what to say next. The last three days had been awesome, especially Garret. He made her laugh more than anyone had since, well, more than anyone ever. They talked late into the night. But that didn’t really change the reality side of her life. Better to bite the bullet now, because as idyllic as this episode had been, VR recreation time would end soon. “What I do have is a very unpredictable schedule. I mean I like you peeps well enough …” Becca switched the cutoff mid-stream. Her life had enough lemons, and Garret-time had made the normal lemons feel like a souffle these past few days. “and I really liked you. But I don’t know when-“

An internal alarm went off.

“You are kidding me.” Becca glanced over at her personal dashboard. “Already?”

“Becca?” Garret glanced in the direction of her stare.

“Garret I’m so sorry, I’m… will you shut off! I heard you the first time…about to have my Unplug Time.”

He stood to reach out to her, she could see the protest in his golden eyes.

“Look, I don’t know when my next…Turn Off!” Becca stabbed the air until the alarm stopped. “Look, I really like…Damn it, it’s pulling me out.”

Garret blinked as the dragon-kin cleric disappeared. Triple Zed. He really liked her. And his party was going to need another cleric soon. That had only been the third chapter of the adventure. The half-giant fighter meandered back to the rest of his party.

***

Becca carefully touched each finger on her right hand to her right thumb while waiting for the VR tube to open, then did the same with her left hand. Success. Every finger worked!

She waited for the medical bot to unhook vitals, help her swing her legs over the edge, and do the basic tests. Becca couldn’t feel her toes today as the bot checked. You win some, you lose some. Still an improvement over the state she was in before she started the most recent round of therapy. The new VR suite cost triple what a normal one would, but it pumped her full of medications and worked her muscles throughout her Hookup to the specific therapies her doctors recommended instead of just the standard maintenance of health. Before her degenerative nerve condition had her to the point of not even being able to move her head. Now she had motor control of her hands, arms, and shoulders.

“Did you have a nice time Becca?” The robot asked. Its base programming included minor companionship interaction. People didn’t react well to a tool moving them around.

“The rec time went well, thank you for asking R9.” Becca rocked with the robot as it transferred her to her mobile-chair. “What is on the program for today?”

The medical robot reviewed the two doctor visits for the day, as well the food orders and other basic maintenance normal Reals needed to do during their required Unplug day. While listening with half an ear, Becca did something she had never done before. She sent a Contact Card to Garret’s dashboard. He could now message her outside the game if he wanted.

Not meet her. Never meet her. Who would want to deal with the medical trainwreck of her life? But … maybe … be a virtual friend?

(First published 2/27/2022; 879 words)

Other Blogs: Flaming Sun 4/19/2019

Erin Penn

As Tax Season begins to calm down, I started thinking about whether I want to participate in this year’s A to Z challenge. It makes me write more than normal, but the co-requirement of visiting other blogs is time-consuming. On one hand, I don’t have much time – on the other hand, I discover such gems as Flaming Sun. I loved this blog post she made in April 2019, discussing how she has a reoccurring character who has wormed his way into story after story.

I responded with:

Every writer should have one of THOSE characters. That character who, when you work on another book, strolls in and looks around, maybe leaving his/her imprint behind and then goes back where they come from. They never ask for their own story – they just want to meet everyone else. I have one – unfortunately he isn’t a detective, so I usually have to leave his visits on the editing floor. – Erin 

Do you have a reoccurring character who just won’t stay in their original creation but keeps showing up – crossing genres, timelines, and universes willy-nilly? Comment below on this question and/or if I should participate in the A-to-Z challenge. Is the time investment worth the production results?

Again the blog that made me think about this is: https://www.sundarivenkatraman.in/2019/04/a2z-april-challenge-2019-q-for-quirky.html?showComment=1555784793139#c7336481118263561866

And the link to the A-to-Z challenge is here: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

Writing Exercise: Spelling Games

Erin Penn

Image acquired from the Internet Hive Mind

I text with a sister every weekday morning. She homeschools and our little exchange gives her a bit of adult-time every day while letting me stay in touch with family. At the start of February 2022, she texted: “Good morning, we are trying to do a month of spelling for Feb. and to fix our sleeping patterns.”

As a writer and reader and tax preparer in the middle of tax season, sleeping patterns suggestions would be an exercise of speculative fiction on my part so decided my goal for the month would be to send her a spelling game every day we text. This means the goal was to find or create 20 spelling games. I decided the collected materials could make a good writing exercise – how to do spelling games to help your writing and vocabulary. Many of these games are available as small electronic apps and/or have teacher materials available online.

I’ve also gave suggestions of where these can cross-topics outside of the typical “English” subject, since that is important for teaching.

Twenty Spelling Games with Variations
1. Hangman – (See above illustration)

2. Pictionary – a great board game for the whole family. Where art and vocabulary meet.

3. One Letter at a Time – Change a three (or more) letter words to another word, but every in-between stage also must be a word. JUG-BUG-BOG-DOG
Variations: (a) Encourage the older kids to create base start and stop for the younger kids (my sister’s kids range from kindergarten to teens). (d) Another option is option is having a middle word they must go through, like LOG. (JUG – LUG – LOG – DOG) (c) Instead of an unspecified number of steps (with the goal of as few possible between the first and last word), have a fixed number of steps like 5, 10, or 20. (5 STEPS – JUG-BUG-LUG-LOG-DOG) (d) Fourth variation, have some of the steps have letters already filled in (PREFILL – JUG – _O_ – DOG)

4. Describe This – Take an item and write down the five senses, and each person going around gets to describe one thing (since this is spelling and not just vocabulary and art related, they have to spell the word). Can’t repeat senses until all five are used. At least three times around, so they start working on harder descriptions. Helps with art because you start to really LOOK at things. Can also help with panic attacks and sensory issues as a grounding exercise. In addition, it crosses with science in observation skills and describing an object.
Variations: (a) You might have the older kids be limited to scientific words and descriptions. (b) Other ways to make it harder for the older kids, their words must have a minimum number of letters and/or syllables. Ages 0-6 can have any number; 7-10 at least two, over 10 three or more. Or whatever age breaks work. (c) As a writing, instead of head-to-head, fold the paper into quarter length-wise, write the five senses, and fill in three columns. Then flip the paper over and write a paragraph of prose (or poetry) either with a creative writing description OR a scientific description. At least half the words on the front should be used in the paragraph. The prose paragraph could also be a product review, instead of a creative writing or scientific description, like for Amazon or a Google review. Writing reviews is a growing skill set many people are developing.

Sister texted: “The kids like that game idea, since it is similar to the group stories they write.”

5. Cyphers – Cyphers are the place where math and spelling met. Toss in history because the games (in newspapers) nearly always are quotes (which is also cultural indoctrination). After introducing the concept of cyphers, at the start of each history section, have a famous quote by a person in a cypher. I was thinking they read the opening chapter – you find a quote you like and make a cypher for it. Easy ones at first, where you just move each letter one or two spots in the alphabet. I bet a lot will be online, especially since this is a standard newspaper thing in the games section. A great time to introduce cyphers is WWII and/or discussing the Indigenous codetalkers (any code can be broken, so US used codetalkers from the Native nations including Navajo, Cherokee, and Comanche).

6. Scrabble – The most obvious board games for spelling is Scrabble.

7. Subtract One / Add One / Permutations – Start with a word and subtract a letter. Make a new work – you can jumble the letters to create a new word. If the remaining letters don’t form a word, then remove another until you get a word. Less points if you skip a level (Reverse for add one). Example: meant – name – man – am – a / (alternate path) meant – tame – mat – at – a. Starting words with common letters work best – I – in – tin – thin – hints. Math can be a related subject you call the game permutations, tying the concepts to matrix and multiplication.

8. Wheel of Fortune – Board game and video game. You can create your own if you want. Teaches common letters and the importance (and difference) vowels bring to the table. Cultural training in common phrases. Looking on Amazon (in Feb 2020), there is a board game, a mobile app, and a puzzle challenge book for the Wheel of Fortune. At the website, teacherspayteacher.com there are several Wheel-of-Fortune type games for free.

9. Word Jumbles – Where all the letters are there for several words. The solve area has circles for the jumble answer. A standard newspaper challenge.

10. Foreign Roots – This is more a research game (for people who like to go down rabbit holes). Take a word that breaks normal spelling or grammar rules and find out why. Things like goose becomes geese (from Proto-Germantic), but the plural of moose is moose because moose from the Algonquian language (the Innu people of Quebec Canada). This spelling game is very much tied with History.
Variations: (a) you can focus on Latin Roots to get a strong tie-in to science, especially biology and the naming of animal species.

11. Draw the word / Spell-Draw – Tree, running, red. Make the word into a picture. Where art and spelling meet. To create these pictures, the artist must concentrate on each letter.
Variations: (a) Nouns for the younger group, and verbs and adjectives for the elders. (b) If they get a vocabulary list each week, you could have them choose one word from it to spell-draw. (c) Use this concept to introduce concrete poetry (if unfamiliar with it, search for “concrete poetry examples” in the images part of an online search). Concrete poetry can describe the thing in poem, prose, phrase, or just writing the components parts. Like a tree could be Trunk, branch, life – OR green growing tall, hard rough brown, climbing reach sit – OR I never seen a thing as lovely as a tree (writing around the outline form of a tree.

12. Crosswords – They are available for all ages, and specialize in topics like history and science.

13. Boggle – Available in board and electronic game version.

Sister texted: “We like Boggle. They put it on the tables in the waiting room at the spelling bee.”

14. Tongue Twisters – Fox in Socks (by Dr. Seuss) is a book example. The fun part will be the kids creating their own after being introduced to the traditional examples.

15. Spelling Train – The last letter of the first word is the first letter of the next word. This concentrates on the first and last letters, which is how humans read. Zebra – armadillo – octopus – songbird – dog.
Variations: (a) theme (like animals); (b) number of syllables required and/or minimum or maximum number of letters in each word; (c) at least one (or more) words from this week’s vocabulary list before the train is complete; (d) a set number of words in the train (like 100 words required)

16. Word Roundups – A matrix of letters appears in a square, the object is to find the words from a list appearing below the square of letters. The words may appear forward, backward, going up, going down, or even diagonally. Newspapers often have a theme for the challenge, and the letters remaining un-circled will be the answer to the theme. This type of puzzle really concentrates on the letters of a word.

17. Rhymes With – Concentrates on words rhyming. Start with a word and see how many words you can come up which rhyme with it. Can be fun to discover words which rhyme which don’t look the same when spelled; and words which look the same when spelled and don’t rhyme. Overlapping this game with studying Shakespeare or historical poetry, can show where changes in pronunciation have happened in language drift.

18. Bananagrams – A spelling game available for sale.

19. Overenunciation – When speaking, concentrate on saying every pronounced consonant within the word. This is a speech therapy as well as a singing exercise, and helps clean up many accents. It also helps with spelling since the speaker, when writing the word, can hear all the letters in their head. When singing (and in many accents), the end letters are dropped. “Go(d) is goo…(holding ooo).” “I lo(ooo) yoooo. You R beau-i-fu.” Better singers include the closing consonants, making the song have clearer meaning. As a game, it is fun to use this when reading songs, poetry, or even plays. “I aM GoING ouT To THe SToRe.” Be prepared for the kids to use this as a teasing method for several days after the game happens – Overenunciation is a habit which is easy to develop.

20. Head Pop – This is a word association game. Come with a stack of words – the word is read and the group has to come up with an immediate response … and spell it. Apple – Red. Mouse – Cheese. You can have each child take a turn reading them with all responding or have each child respond in turn. The challenge is the words popping into the head might not be the easiest to spell – usually they are simpler words during quick association, but not always.
Variations: (a) Synonym – the word has to mean the same somehow. Apple – Fruit, would work, but Red would not. (b) Antonym – opposite meaning. Mouse – Elephant.

WRITING EXERCISE: Play a spelling or vocabulary game today. You can choose one of the above, hit the word puzzle section of the newspaper, or play a word app on your phone. Comment below on what game you played, and if you learned anything new playing it.

Flash: Naked Truth

Erin Penn
115111183 © creativecommonsstockphotos | Dreamstime.com (Color Adjusted by Erin Penn)
Rating Mature

Work dragged all day. Every single customer it seemed needed to be the absolute worst humanity could be. Bryan forces the door to his room completely closed. He would have a devil of a time opening the ill-hung door later, but right now he has some privacy to rant.

“I don’t know why my debit card isn’t working.” … “I don’t know, maybe because it has no money.” He strips his vest and throws it in the dirty pile in the crack of space between his bed and the wall. Stocking the meats had been an entirely different disaster. He’ll have to go through the pile later and see if any were wearable for tomorrow since he didn’t have the time to get to the laundromat today.

“I need to talk to your manager.” … “No, you need to shut the fuck up.” The shirt didn’t pass the sniff test; it joins the vest. Bryan eyes scans the pile of clean laundry just inside the front door. One work shirt left. The pants were fraying at the hem but serviceable. He just needed a clean-enough vest.

His full-size mattress was only a little smaller than his entire bedroom, but at least the room had a door. He had to “pay” his mom extra to get the oversized closet by himself, but whatever.

“It’s a service dog.” … “It’s a rat that peed on the cart and the floor.” Bryan turns in the small space and leans against the wall to step out of his jeans and underwear. He needed to put another notch in the belt; even on the fast food only diet, he kept losing weight.

“Did you get the money?”

“Fuck!” Bryan screams, jumping around to find a glowing naked woman on his rumpled bed. “Daffney?”

“In the flesh,” the brunette smiles up at him. “Well, not really, but as close as it gets now.”

“You’re a ghost,” he says grabbing his flannel jacket off the wall hook to hold it in front of him.

“Yes.”

“And naked.”

“Obviously,” She shook her generous top assets, the glow bouncing from pale blue to a brighter red, really bringing out the color of her nipples. “The zombies stripped me before eating. I think the rule is you appear in the clothes you die in. Enjoy!”

Bryan backs until he hit the door. Not a long trip. He schools his face to the normal retail dead reaction he spends most of his days displaying. “Thanks,” he deadpans, trying hard to not to enjoy. Those jugs though, damn.

“You did get the money, right?”

The man coughs, sliding the jacket higher, before speaking. Eyes up on those black pools. Weren’t they blue before? “Yes, all $3,248 of it.” A sad commentary that her 23 years of life ended with only that much saved. Even sadder that it was over double what he had managed to squirrel away. “Thanks.” How does one politely look at a glowing naked woman? Bouncing. Why is she bouncing? How is she bouncing? The mattress didn’t have any spring. Fuck. “You seem happy.”

“All part of that state-you-die-in I think.” Daffney tosses her longish hair over a shoulder. “Doc Woods had me on happy pills, then the zombie drugged me before eating, and, you know, that relief of finally getting out of my home. I’m feeling very positive, even with the whole being dead thing.”

Bryan nods. “Good. That is good, right?”

“Wonderful!” Daffney rises to kneeing, the thread-worn blankets previously tangling her legs and hiding her choochie passing through her as she moves to pool below her body.

Damn, that woman was all that. Some rippling on the thighs, a few rolls across the stomach, but it just made her even bigger than life with her glow.

She frowns, considering. “It’s a bit of a downer, not having people see me other than other dead. And it isn’t even the undead, so I can’t haunt the zombies who ate me. Not that I should, they only did what we agreed to.” Daffney rises to stand on the lumpy mattress. “The biggest slap is I can’t mess with Beth or hurt Curry. I tried to punch him several times and nothing.”

“Now that would suck.” Bryan comments on autopilot, while arguing with himself. This is Daffney. Stop thinking about her that way Little Bryan. Don’t you dare. The glow rocks, says the less sane part of his head. Fuck, says the sane part realizing that it is losing the battle. The jacket fortunately hid most sins, like it did back in high school when they escaped to his room.

“Yeah. The only people who see me are other ghosts, and they don’t do much.” She stops her bounce-walking around on his mattress. “Wait … you can see me! That is so cool.”

“Fuck, my charm!” Bryan focuses on where he had kicked his jeans off. Was it in there or his wallet?

Daffney’s head tilts to the side, her black curls cascading. “Why do you need a charm, Bryan?” her voice deepening, echoing, as she asks the question.

“Um.”

“Are you a naughty boy?”

“No?”

“No?” The ghost of his only high school friend closed the space between them. “You were always good in school for some craziness but scared to go out at night.” Daffney drags a finger down his slim chest. “Now why is that?”

“Fuck.” Bryan reaches behind him to jiggle the door.

“What are you hiding?” she whispered, pressing closer, her breast flattening against his chest.

“Fuck.” the young man sighs as Daffney grips his hands to remove his jacket and tossing it behind her. It landed in the mostly clean pile.

“Well, that is definitely something that shouldn’t be hidden.” Her eyes turn completely black staring down on his dick.

He had been teased for a lot of things in the locker room but not his dick once puberty hit. Daffney gently grabs a hold of hardening member and pulls. Her touch goes beyond cool to downright icy, but his dick has never minded the cold before. In fact, her touch makes it harder than he had ever been before with anyone.

Looking up again to meet his eyes in wonder as she continued to stroke his dick, driving his lust to try to break up the debate between his sane and not-sane parts. “I can touch you. Isn’t that interesting?”

“Ye…muph” his response drowns when Daffney grabs his head with her other hand and pulls him down for a kiss.

After a few moments, he opens his mouth for her questing tongue and closes his eyes against her glow. It was everything he dreamed about during high school and never acted on, only better, because both of them knew what they were actually doing. He moves his hands to her broad hips and up to her thick waist, the right hand traveling further to find her heavy breast and starts kneading it. Daffney moans in approval. Bryan takes a moment for a deep breath before plunging back in.

She’s a ghost, the sane part of Bryan’s brain pokes in. You’re kissing a ghost.

“Shut up.” Bryan mutters as he spins Daffney around and presses her against the door.

A threshold. The not-sane part of his mind notes. The one he normally tells to shut up. The one that started talking to him when he turned sixteen. That is going to be solid for her, not like the wall. Keep her here.

Will do.

“No way,” the woman moans as Bryan lifts Daffney up to nibble at the blushing nipples. “Not if you keep that up.”

He didn’t know what she was talking about but took her words for approval, working harder at the task, sucking with his mouth on one nipple, plucking the other one with his free hand. His sanity wondered how he was holding this big woman up with one hand so easily, then she wraps her legs around him, freeing up both hands.

Sanity gives up the argument when Daffney guides his dick into her channel.

The not-sane shudders, giving way to emotion, feeling, and non-thought.

Need. Want. Moist. Cold – make warm. Ah, warm. She so warm. Good. Deeper. Push. More. Stabilize. Door. Press in harder, harder. She is screaming. Good. Come on. Come on. Go over girl. YES! More. More.

Mine, the not-sane claims. They fall on the mattress together as the second organism hits them both.

(Words 1,409; first published 2/27/2022)

Series – No Regrets, All Dead

  1. Prepping a Meal (Zombie Version) – Link to 1/25/2022
  2. You Have Mail – Link to 2/6/2022
  3. Naked Truth – Link to 2/20/2022

Geeking Science: Concrete Structure

Erin Penn

Photo by Pascal Meier on Unsplash 

Normally when I start talking about concrete on this blog, I discussing concrete nouns – nouns which can be identified through one of the five senses (taste, touch, sight, hearing, or smell). Things like concrete, seawater, cement, 3D-printers for houses, and chemical reactions. (And if you need to know more about concrete nouns vs. abstract nouns, check out the grammarly blog listed in the bibliography below).

But for today’s Geeking Science, I am going to fangirl over real concrete.

I know, you are going, ReaLLY? Concrete is something to be excited over? Oh, there are SOOOO many Geeking Science reasons to be excited over concrete. Just you wait.

First, though, I need to explain the difference between Cement and Concrete. Many people consider these terms to be interchangeable, and they are not. Cement is an INGREDIENT of Concrete. Concrete is the combination of aggregates and paste – rock and rock-like substances and something to hold it together. (Concrete Alberta) Cement is the binding agent, but concrete is stronger than cement because of the solid chunks. 

Most modern concrete has Portland Cement as a base structure, about 10 to 15 percent. The rocky bits are sand, gravel, and crushed stone. The pastey bits is the Portland cement and water. The water has to be first mixed-in correctly and then dehydrated-out in a control manner as the cement-paste hardens.

Geeking Science cool bits. While living in Texas, I discovered there are the “cement” construction months – which is not “summer”, very much not summer. In the North, summer is the construction month. Texas, at least where I lived in Waco, could get so hot and dry during the summer, concrete and cement would start hardening as it was poured. Even during the spring and fall months, sprinklers would run over the concrete slabs for days to create a controlled drying process. I expect other hot, dry climates need similar mitigation techniques.

But the results of careful drying is important, because during the hardening process, concrete gets stronger. And rewetting and redrying after the initial hardening, continues this process for years. The older the concrete, the stronger – except for a couple weaknesses inherent in modern concrete.

One is the blessing and curse of rebar enforced concrete. Creating a metal cage as additional support allows the amazing shapes and features Frank Lloyd Wright and modern skyscraper architects explore. But the metal expands and contracts differently than the concrete, plus can rust over time. The expansion/contraction cycle leads to cracks and the rust leads to failure of support. Modern concrete has about a century lifespan because of these limitations.

(Notice in the picture the patching done on the concrete apartment building.)

Another reason for the short lifespan (though much longer than many other materials, such as road asphalt – cement is the MUCH better material for making roads, but that long drying time means it is the bottom layer, not the replacement layer once the road is in use) is modern thought is to make the cement as non-chemically reactive as possible. Once the concrete has set, it stops changing for the most part. Some hardening continues, but it doesn’t chemical rebond or anything strange. This makes it brittle. The reinforced nature makes modern concrete flexible – the combination of brittle and flexible means cracking.

Not like Roman Concrete. Oh, boy – this is exciting. So Roman Concrete used volcanic ash, lime, and seawater for the paste instead of Portland cement. Volcanic ash does this cement thing on its own, at least the ash available in Italy. The result is a Concrete which doesn’t last for 100 years … more like 2,000 years! The chemical difference of the ash, interacting with seawater creates new chemical bonds linking the paste to the rocks – binding everything together in one unit.

Instead of the constant chipping and crushing seen in modern concrete, Roman concrete just bonded stronger and stronger. Romans used it for everything – bathhouses, stairs, government buildings, piers, and warehouses. All of which have examples still standing. Plus, instead of seawater corroding the metal rebar and destroying the concrete overtime, the deposits left by the seawater created stronger and stronger concrete. (Unews, 2017)

We’ve lost the tech for this, but researchers are trying to rediscover it.

Why?

Well, tidal energy is a renewal resource since it is created by the rise and fall of tides because of the gravitational interaction between the Earth, sun, and moon. (Pacific Northwest) But to access it, structures will need to be built in the very chemically reactive seawater. Getting the Roman form of concrete back will allow concrete piers and platforms to capture tidal energy without falling apart before they make back their investment.

Another Geeking Science moment for concrete is where it overlaps with one of my faves of modern tech, the growing industry of 3D printing. Small computer printing uses a fluid it can pour out to create a structure. With a really BIG 3D printer, houses can be built using concrete. I may have lost a day or two in the youtube rabbit hole watching all the ways 3D printing is revolutionizing housing. Foundation and walls made out of concrete built by a machine with four people in two days. 

I love all the pluses of the concrete houses. They don’t have to be boxes, but curves and fantastical shapes will create a new Renaissance for architecture just like the reinforced (rebar) concrete flexibility did during its day. The houses take months less time to create, allowing quick building of houses. Having only a few people involved makes construction possible even during pandemic limitations. Less travel of material. Oh, and no waste! Just like with all 3D printing, construction will only need to use the materials to build the house instead of cutting away the extra. Everything is custom-made. The 3D printed houses are proving well-insulated, earthquake-resistant level flexibility, and wind-resistant weight and anchorage – meeting multiple construction requirements around the nation. (Chang 2021, Tech Machine 2022)

But what really, really, really has me totally Geeking Out is NASA is working on making the 3D printing for housing work for space. (Focal Point 2019) Humanity’s first homes in the stars will be built by robots sent out to print the homes before the colonists arrive, using the materials onsite. Another reason to figure out how that super-duper Roman concrete works. Reinforced concrete won’t be an option in space – metal requires too much industry. But concrete, humanity has been doing that long before the industrial age (like 10,000 BC!). Mixing stone and paste together doesn’t need a huge tech base to build or maintain.

So much Concrete goodness! From the past, the present, and into the future, concrete has a lot to Geek Out about.

Bibliography

Change, Brittany. “Habitat for Humanity created a 3D-printed concrete home for a family in Virgina – see what it’s like inside.” Insider. 2021 December 29. https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-3d-printed-home-habitat-for-humanity-zero-interest-2021-7 (last viewed 4/8/2022)

Concrete Alberta. “The difference between cement and concrete.” (last viewed 4/8/2022 – link no longer working as of 2/24/2023)

Focal Point. “NASA’s Challenge to 3D Print Future Habitats on Mars.” 2019 August 25. https://youtu.be/XWJ-sE08ASg (last viewed 4/8/2022)

grammarly. “Concrete Noun vs. Abstract Nouns.” https://www.grammarly.com/blog/concrete-vs-abstract-nouns/ (last viewed 4/8/2022)

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “What is Tidal Energy?” https://www.pnnl.gov/explainer-articles/tidal-energy (last viewed 4/8/2022)

Tech Machine. “The Real Cost of a 3D Printed House.” 2022 January 21. https://youtu.be/ddesl3HDDe0 (last viewed 4/8/2022 – note: the voice on this makes several pronunciation mistakes like it is a machine instead of a human reading and the script has a repeat at one point. Lots of good information, but lacks a bit on presentation – 3.5 star instead of 5 star. The Focal Point video is much more fun to view.)

Unews. “How Seawater Strengthens Ancient Roman Concrete.” The University of Utah. 2017 July 03. https://unews.utah.edu/roman-concrete/ (last viewed 4/8/2022)

Van Mead, Nick. “A brief history of concrete: from 10,000 BC to 3D printed houses.” The Guardian. 2019 Feb 25. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/feb/25/a-brief-history-of-concrete-from-10000bc-to-3d-printed-houses (last viewed 4/8/2022)