First day of school. Again.

Monday was the first day I sat down for classes although technically, school had yet to start. I signed up for a short workshop on the basics of using GIS software. GIS (don't make the same mistake I did and pronouce it "jiss" which has gotten me into trouble more than once, spell it out G-I-S) stands for something like global information system. It's a way of looking at data as it relates to a geographic basis. Basically, tying various geographic pieces of information together. So you could load, say, a street map of St.Louis, add in block populations, and land use, and then selectively look at the relationship between housing density and grocery store locations. It's pretty powerful stuff.

Anyway, that was monday. Monday night, I went down to a friend's house in the historic and gentrified Tower Grove area and enjoyed some drinks out on the patio while her friends played an incredibly lengthy and convoluted game of croquet on her tiny, uneven plot of grass below.

Tuesday was our first day of classes. Bright and early 8:30 AM Advanced Building Systems, which is supposed to bring together all the systems we've studied so far, incuding lighting, acoustics, site, HVAC, and structural systems. Taught by a professor with a very very strong Massachusets accent (and a licenced "Ahhhkitect"). Actually, I'm finding myself liking him. He's coming from a very Corbusian background and he's totally negating any kind of architecture that is not an enclosed space, but I think it should still be interesting.

Then in the afternoon, I had Urban Books. Urban books is a class mostly made of architecture students and taught by an urban planner and an artist. They teach us bookmaking, and the subject of our books is going to be St.Louis. I'm excited for this class as I love stuff done with my hands, the crafty side of things, and there's a lot of potential for the subject matter. It's pretty wide open. And Dew is in the class, which makes things more fun too. Our final books will go into the special collections library at the Olin library (our campus library). The idea is that the books document the city in some way. Sketches, photographs, maps, etc. Making books is actually a a really good way to get into curating my own work, or at least saving it and presenting it and disseminating it.

That night, I went over to another friend's house to play some cards. (Cahds). I've been craving a game of dihinmen, which is the japanese version of asshole a.k.a. president a.k.a. scum a.k.a. big 2 a.k.a too many other names and variations. The way my east coast/ midwest friends play it is much more like egyptian rat screw. There's no Jokers, for one thing, people can slap down cards whenever they feel like it, and you can go out with 2s and 8s still in your hand which you give away to other people who fight over them. No revolutions, any number of 2s will take a set. It's more frenetic, less graceful, and probably less strategic than dihimen. I'll have to teach them sometime. I suppose its not too surprising that the Japanese version is more reserved and polite with everyone playing in turns.

Summer is still here. It gets hotter and cooler. Today is beautiful and sunny and hot. The campus is verdantly green. Filled with students lounging on the grass under trees, strolling with their bicycles, and enthusiastically walking to get thier coffee drinks. Everywhere you look, its like a shot from the Wash U recruitment magazine.

Anyway, I'm off to pick studios this semester. More on that later. I'll find out tonight (9:30PM, what a stupid time to pick desks).