GIS CAD WTF?

Our studio was broken up into groups to study an area of the city. Some groups got to study the history of the place, some focused on ethnographic and socioeconomic demographics, some groups looked at trees. One group is responsible for mapping the entire site, and is responsible for making a massive site model and also modeling the whole thing in 3D. Guess which group I'm in?

Since no one had a CAD file of the city handy, the loose idea was to trace over aerial photos. However, I thought that perhaps, in the entire history of the school, which happens to be in St.Louis, someone in the architecture program or urban planning or geography might, just might, have needed to map St.Louis. I got in contact with the top GIS (global information system) guy at the school and he directed a group of us to some very nice maps which included street edges, topography, and (praise be!) building outlines of every building in the city. This is really really cool. Since we figured we just saved a huge amount of time and energy.

Almost. There's issues with the data. The data used to map the city was done at different points in time which means that the coordinate systems they used do not exactly line up. Long story short, when we overlaid all the maps on top of each other, they didn't line up. Out of six maps, only two lined up. We spent about five hours to figure out first why they weren't lining up, and then finally how to export the data with a coordinate conversion in place. So finally at the end of the day (or around 6pm) we had a CAD file with streets, street edges, parcels, topography, and houses, all in reasonably the same spot. Except for parcels which had something odd with the data. So that was frustrating, but now we have a map that the entire class of 71 students will use as a base file.

We'll take that data and use it to build the physical wooden model and the digital 3D model, all of which, by the way, has to be done by next wednesday.

Also, by the way, Saori's mom is coming to visit from Japan this Saturday, and she'll be staying with us.

Tay-Tay

Every week or so, Saori, me, Tay, and Brit meet at mom's house for dinner and to play games or cards. Sometimes, Saori or Brit can't make it, but its a pretty regular thing.

Last night, we had a fourth of July dinner. I brought my white sangria, and made a salad, Tay made the fried chicken and mashed potatoes, Brit made the broccoli, and mom made some cloverleaf rolls and some chocolate melting cake. It was all pretty good and we stuffed ourselves. So it was kind of a comedown, when mom reminded us that this was our last time together for awhile. It hadn't really occurred to me, or Tay either, for that matter. 

Part of my brain knew that Tay was going to London and Egypt for a month, and another part of my brain knew that I was leaving Phoenix before the end of the month, but sometimes my inter-cranial meetings get cancelled. 

It really just snuck up on me. I suggested to Tay that we meet him at the airport in the morning for a pre-flight coffee. Saori was working Sunday night, and I knew she'd really want to see Tay again, I wasn't going into work today since its a company paid time off, and besides, you have to show up at the airport two hours before your flight anyway.

So that's what we did. Tay met us at the airport. With a huge goodbye gift. I felt kind of low, having nothing to give but a hug and a java chip frappuchino with whipped cream. Anyway, we plonked down in front of one of the airport Starbucks and chatted for awhile, until it was time for Tay to get going to his gate. I don't know when I'll get to see him again. Maybe in a few months. 

My brother is really a great guy, and I've been really lucky to have had the time with him here that I did. There's a view out there that luck is nothing but when opportunity meets preparedness, but there's no accounting for my family and friends. I've just been plain lucky to know and spend time with such wonderful people. Call it gifted, blessed, providence, whatever you want, I'm just unaccountably lucky.

Tay's off to Philadelphia first, then London, and the wide world beyond after. 

May the winds favor his plane, may the kindness of strangers safeguard his path, may his luggage meet him at his final destination. May his travels be easy, free from sickness or jet lag, and may he find the joy and beauty of the world. Traveler, I wish you well.

Photos from Arcosanti

new photos with a new camera

new camera shots

One Night at McPerkins

Saori and I both spent the night with family: Saori slept at her sister's host family's house, and I over at my parent's scottsdale condo (triple secured!). After working an extra two hours to get some more design stuff hashed out, I drove to Scottsdale and met mom and dad at Best Buy. We picked up Tay from his driving lesson (completely virtual) where the instructor told us that Tay needs to work on slowing down earlier for stop signs and lights, and that he needs to scan ahead more.

Of course, the simulator that he's working on, instead of a computer tracking where your eyes are looking, you have to push a button to indicate that you've done something. This is completely stupid and actually harmful. When tay actually starts driving, instead of using his eyes to scan, he's going to be feeling around the dashboard. There is no reason at all, other than the company's refusal to shell out the money, that the experiance of driving cannot be very closely simulated with high resolution, accellerated graphics, motion feedback systems to approximate the reaction of the car, and tracking cameras to look at where the eyes are pointing. All the tech exists, and has existed for at least the past 10 years.

Anyway, we played a family game when we got back to the apartment, an electronic game called catchphrase where you play in teams of two and have to get your partner to guess a word or phase without using that word or part of the word. Theres a timer that goes faster and faster on the unit, and the idea is that once your partner gets the word, you pass it off, like hot potato, and the guy with the thing when time runs out, the other team gets a point. It's fun, and pretty quick.

Mom and I went to pick up Havana Cafe takeout for dinner. Good stuff, lots of leftovers. After mom and dad had gone to bed, Tay and drove out to Blockbuster where I picked up Pan's Labyrinth and Casino Royale. We stayed up late watching Pan's Labyrinth.

sickness

Bleh, Friday afternoon started feeling ill, and I was sick all friday night, only getting to bed around 7 AM. At first I thought it was some kind of food poisoning, but as I heard about another classmate down with the same thing, I can only conclude it was some kind of stomach flu. All day yesterday I spent at home, resting, and Saori made me some vegetable congee. Feel a lot better today, no more nausea although I still have a headache from the fever and muscle aches.

I usually get a family phone call every Sunday morning my time, but today is kind of a unique situation for my family. I think we're all on a different continent. I'm in South America, Taylor is in the Middle East, Dad is either in the Middle East or Europe (I think he's actually in Belgium right now) and Mom is in Asia.

I can't believe how quickly my time here is coming to an end. I have a little over a month left, and I still have so much I want to do. I guess I'll just have to prioritize and work my list. Top of the list, of course, is a Boca Juniors football match. But for now, back to work. We have our final project due at the end of the month and our 15 page theory paper due shortly after that.