Watching the World Cup with Aldo made me acutely aware of the reasons why the average American has no idea that the world cup is even going on. In fact, The Onion had a hilarious satire about it, writing about how devistated the US was for thier loss, including rioting in the streets, businesses still closed three days after the game, and all the national monuments draped in black bunting.
For the uninitiated, the World Cup is a soccer (Futbol) tournament elayed every four years by the top 40 teams, more or less, from around the world. The US has been in the World Cup only in the last few times. In contrast to the World Series, this is truly a global event on the scale of the Olympics, with the notable exception of the far east, which is a whole other story.
Anyway, just comparing it to American football highlighted our differences from the rest of the world. Futball is amorphous, almost organic, constantly shifting, with as few interruptions as possible. If there's a fault by one of the players, they take possession of the ball and keep on playing in a blink of an eye. I get confused watching it because I'm still trying to keep track of which team has the ball. In contrast, Football is about precision, regulation, and operating within a rigid and meticuous framework. After every burst of running, passing, or kicking, the teams regroup, fall into cordinated positions, the system resets, and after everything is equal, the game resumes. We are a nation which lives by order, rules, and in a hierarchy of systems.
In Futbal, you can expect anyone to score a gol, and the players roles are not really fixed at all-save that of the goalie. In Football, there are players who block, players who throw, and players who run. Their roles are much more defined. Its part of a deeper cultural rift as well- our national sports are those which highlight the individual-we talk about the star quarterbacks like south americans talk about the entire Brazilian team. The Europeans and the South Americans communicate by touch, looks, body language, and the team is much more whole and organic. Today I saw the Mexican goalie giving a "calm down" sign to his team, and they listen to him and respect him, Aldo was explaining that he really acts as the heart of the team.
In Football, the players communicate in huddles; meetings where assignments are doled out to individual players. We pride ourselves on our individualism. Our other national pastime is also extremely organized, and evey player gets a single turn at bat and to run on his own. We're a much more analytical nation. The games on TV show every angle of a play, reconstructed, replayed, picked apart by the commentary, and much of what is great about American football is that so much of it is the strategy, the tension between plays, almost like a game of chess on a big field. Plays are analyzed, drawn on the screen, and scrutinized. The line of scrimmage is digitally highlighted. You never ever see that with Futbol.
Personally, I'm torn between them. It's not uncommon to watch Futbol games where no one ever scores, and it gets really boring because the game looks the same no matter the part its at. Football drags on and on with all of its interruptions and stops. If a ref calls a foul in Football, and its not clear what happened, the coaches and players will stop and argue with the ref. They'll stop play and let the refs look at the tapes. Americans get really agitated if they think something is not FAIR.
In Futbol, the ref's word is law. There's no looking at tapes, no arguing. So many times, I've seen on the TV faults make that the ref's don't catch, or players that take a dive after bumping into another player so they get a penalty shot. Other times, players are really hurt by the opposite team and the ref doesn't see it, so they get up and go on or off the field. It's NOT FAIR, truth be told, and frustrating to me as an American. Especially as the crowds began to chant "Asshole!" when someone is taking too long to get up or get off. At my high school football games, if someone on the team got hurt (even with all of our padding, helmets, etc.) everyone hushed and both sides of the team took a knee until the player heroically staggered off the field to applause.
It's interesting. To me anyway.
While we're on the subject, I worked late at work today, up until three PM instead of the usual 11:30 AM. We're finishing up the presentation. Talked to the project architect over lunch and he thinks that the result of fewer architects being licenced coupled with a demand which is soaring, that in the near future, there's never been a better time to be an architect. This has a few implications, he explained. 1) We're going to be better paid and better recognized. 2) As our fees increase, we'll work higher level jobs for bigger clients. 3) Subarchitects and developers will move in even more and dominate the fast food places, strip malls, etc, things which really only require slight modifications to a general standardized plan. 4) when the economy does eventually cycle back into the toilet, we'll really be in trouble because the niche for desinging Taco Bells has already been filled.
Sounds like a fun ride anyway.
Jun 16, 2006
Jun 15, 2006
The Commuter
Today I tried something new. The Phoenix metro bus service also offers an Express service. From several city centers to downtown, which is excellent. Tempe, unfortuantely, isn't one of them. However, the last stop on the Mesa Express before it hops on the freeway is about a mile and a half from my apartment. So I biked out this morning, locked my bike up near the bus stop, and waited about five minutes.
The driver told me that this was an express bus that went straight downtown. I'm surprised he felt compelled- I was dresssed like everyone else on the bus, collared shirts, slacks, nice shoes. It was an amazing contrast between the regular red line. People were predominantly white, many of them were reading (I never see people reading on the regular bus), and one guy was WORKING ON A LAPTOP. It was also silent as the tomb. It made me crack a smile as we all stared straight ahead, not speaking at all to one another. On the regular busses, there's always conversations going on, between random strangers, between groups of kids, and the infernal "we are approaching fifth street---with connections to---- line-- forty---seven" kicks on every few minutes.
Not that I'm complaining, I caught the express at 6:50 AM, it dropped me in front of the central library at 7:10, and I walked the rest of the way to work, another fifteen minutes up central. Next time, I'll bring my bike because these busses have the thing on the front you can load your bike on, and that will speed thing up even more.
Anyway, work is work. Picked up a dog at 7-11 and some chips for lunch. Still working on the ASU police presentation, but its all coming togather.
Going home, I'm too late to catch the outbound express, so I settle for the ol' bad line, straight, long, long, long shot back home. I actually get off early and take a different, smaller bus to get a stop right by the apartment. It's all free on my ASU bus pass. On the regualar bus in contrast to the more white collar class of the Express, I sat next to an absolutely appalling smelling couple with carts, and across from a man with an obvious mental disabilitiy who kept giggling and making faces at nobody in particular.
Picked up my bike in the minivan after I got home. Still there. Not thrilled to leave it out there on scottsdale road for so long, but if it was taken, $35 down the drain.
Also took another step towards the levittown house with the prefab family. I went in with Aldo to get the expanded cable, which is about a hundred channels including CNN, Nickelodeon, and a bunch of other stuff. With the $1o reduction in our internet bill for signing up for cable, we'll pay $40 a month each for high speed internet and cable TV, instead of just $25 each for the internet.
The driver told me that this was an express bus that went straight downtown. I'm surprised he felt compelled- I was dresssed like everyone else on the bus, collared shirts, slacks, nice shoes. It was an amazing contrast between the regular red line. People were predominantly white, many of them were reading (I never see people reading on the regular bus), and one guy was WORKING ON A LAPTOP. It was also silent as the tomb. It made me crack a smile as we all stared straight ahead, not speaking at all to one another. On the regular busses, there's always conversations going on, between random strangers, between groups of kids, and the infernal "we are approaching fifth street---with connections to---- line-- forty---seven" kicks on every few minutes.
Not that I'm complaining, I caught the express at 6:50 AM, it dropped me in front of the central library at 7:10, and I walked the rest of the way to work, another fifteen minutes up central. Next time, I'll bring my bike because these busses have the thing on the front you can load your bike on, and that will speed thing up even more.
Anyway, work is work. Picked up a dog at 7-11 and some chips for lunch. Still working on the ASU police presentation, but its all coming togather.
Going home, I'm too late to catch the outbound express, so I settle for the ol' bad line, straight, long, long, long shot back home. I actually get off early and take a different, smaller bus to get a stop right by the apartment. It's all free on my ASU bus pass. On the regualar bus in contrast to the more white collar class of the Express, I sat next to an absolutely appalling smelling couple with carts, and across from a man with an obvious mental disabilitiy who kept giggling and making faces at nobody in particular.
Picked up my bike in the minivan after I got home. Still there. Not thrilled to leave it out there on scottsdale road for so long, but if it was taken, $35 down the drain.
Also took another step towards the levittown house with the prefab family. I went in with Aldo to get the expanded cable, which is about a hundred channels including CNN, Nickelodeon, and a bunch of other stuff. With the $1o reduction in our internet bill for signing up for cable, we'll pay $40 a month each for high speed internet and cable TV, instead of just $25 each for the internet.
Jun 12, 2006
quickie
All my love to a family in transition.
Life goes on normally here, not too much to report. Saw Cars this weekend with Emily and Janelle. I'm finding myself making excuses to drive myself to work more often (but not tomorrow) and begining to think about how much caffffiifinfnnennneneeeeee and sugar I'm getting. I should start walking or something in the evenings when I get off of work.
Work is progressing smoothly. I'm still working on the ASU police project and juggling that with some other tasks. Last thursday I spent about two hours folding drawings for archiving. Today I sat through a painfully boring luncheon on the company's insurance changes and financial planners (I was just there for the free lunch, I dont get either one). If I'm ever as enthusiastic or bubbly as the presenters today even when talking about life insurance (or more acurately, death insurance) I'll have no problems at all presenting to clients.
I got a haircut over the weekend- an inch off all around. Very nice for the heat, but not so great in the looks department. I think I now resemble barney rubble sans the cowlick thing. In desparation I slicked it back with some gel. Reminded me of dad. One guy at the office actually confused me for a different person.
And things roll along. I'm working on my spanish with Aldo and filling out paperwork for the argentine visa. Need to get that done soon. My potential van buyer also touched base today- should hear back more on that shortly.
I'm excited about working- I love the weekends, but I've got a job which is challenging, interesting, somewhat suited to my abilities. I'm glad I work there. I look forward to it far more than the commute, either coming or going.
Been reading too- read a great book called The Alchemist which I found so easy to read and compelling enough to finish in five hours. I also picked up The Riverrun Trilogy, a book I've not read since at least junior high. I remember reading it on the boat to Singapore, coming back from that island off the coast of Malaysia. That was a cool trip. Wish they had islands like that around here.
Life goes on normally here, not too much to report. Saw Cars this weekend with Emily and Janelle. I'm finding myself making excuses to drive myself to work more often (but not tomorrow) and begining to think about how much caffffiifinfnnennneneeeeee and sugar I'm getting. I should start walking or something in the evenings when I get off of work.
Work is progressing smoothly. I'm still working on the ASU police project and juggling that with some other tasks. Last thursday I spent about two hours folding drawings for archiving. Today I sat through a painfully boring luncheon on the company's insurance changes and financial planners (I was just there for the free lunch, I dont get either one). If I'm ever as enthusiastic or bubbly as the presenters today even when talking about life insurance (or more acurately, death insurance) I'll have no problems at all presenting to clients.
I got a haircut over the weekend- an inch off all around. Very nice for the heat, but not so great in the looks department. I think I now resemble barney rubble sans the cowlick thing. In desparation I slicked it back with some gel. Reminded me of dad. One guy at the office actually confused me for a different person.
And things roll along. I'm working on my spanish with Aldo and filling out paperwork for the argentine visa. Need to get that done soon. My potential van buyer also touched base today- should hear back more on that shortly.
I'm excited about working- I love the weekends, but I've got a job which is challenging, interesting, somewhat suited to my abilities. I'm glad I work there. I look forward to it far more than the commute, either coming or going.
Been reading too- read a great book called The Alchemist which I found so easy to read and compelling enough to finish in five hours. I also picked up The Riverrun Trilogy, a book I've not read since at least junior high. I remember reading it on the boat to Singapore, coming back from that island off the coast of Malaysia. That was a cool trip. Wish they had islands like that around here.
Jun 3, 2006
Mas o menos
Last week was more of the same. Took the bus wednesday and my car for the next two days. On days that I ride the bus, I only have 4 hours of free time- and that includes the time to eat and get ready and the morning. I'm still working on the ASU police station in sketchUp. Have to finish the model next week for presentation. My boss doesnt' think we're going to be able to sell the condos I designed to the client- the rise in the costs of insurance that the firm has would have to be matched by the client and he doesn't think that's going to happen. Especially in light of the fact that the clients are trying to go as cheap as possible. So thats a bit dissapointing, but we'll see what's transpired monday.
Last night Aldo and I hit dos gringos and four peaks. Such a contrast. Dos is a real college dive and relishes its tacky, flip flops atmosphere with over the top christmas lights, cartoony mexican archcitecture, etc. When I think of ASU personified as a bar, I think of Dos. Huge student clientelle, mostly skewing younger, and everyone with tans and two $2 coronas. Equally crowded, and equally old establishment, Four Peaks is a definate step up. A little more pricy, everyone dresses a little better, looks a little older, and the handmade beer is amazing.
I've been having strange dreams last three nights. Can't remember specifics really, but the tone and setting seem to be the same, which makes me think they're all part of the same story. I'll see if I can remember tonight.
Last night Aldo and I hit dos gringos and four peaks. Such a contrast. Dos is a real college dive and relishes its tacky, flip flops atmosphere with over the top christmas lights, cartoony mexican archcitecture, etc. When I think of ASU personified as a bar, I think of Dos. Huge student clientelle, mostly skewing younger, and everyone with tans and two $2 coronas. Equally crowded, and equally old establishment, Four Peaks is a definate step up. A little more pricy, everyone dresses a little better, looks a little older, and the handmade beer is amazing.
I've been having strange dreams last three nights. Can't remember specifics really, but the tone and setting seem to be the same, which makes me think they're all part of the same story. I'll see if I can remember tonight.
May 30, 2006
Insomnia
It's midnight and I'm having trouble falling asleep. Today we almost went tubing on the salt river. I'd picked up some cervesaz, a bottle of suntan lotion, and a jug of water, and we set out around 9 AM. This is aldo, me, ivonek, two of his friends, his girlfriend, and a friend of hers. I went in Aldo's car, and everyone else went in Ivonek's. Trouble starts almost immediately. We stop at a gas station to pick up some snacks, and then Aldo's ignition freezes up and wont let him turn on the car, so we waste fifteen minutes with that. Then I take us up the wrong road out of town. Where we are its actually faster to keep going until we get to a juncture where the road we want to be on meets our road, so we hit that and arrive at ASU Wet. The parking lots are packed full, there are 20somethings all over the place, everyone with a beer, a cowboy hat, and sunglasses. We truck in in to the tube rental place. Massive lines. No sign of the other members of our group. We wait for awhile and then find out: they're still in a car line waiting to turn in to this place. It was actually faster to take a 30 mile detour and approach this place from the country direction than to go the short way and wait in line. So we wait some more, grab a beer, people watch, its fun. The lines thin and we get another call from Ivonek: they've stopped letting cars in because they're sold out of tubes. They're giving up and going back. When we hit the road back to town its about one thirty in the afternoon. Aldo and I hit an In-n-out burger than come back and jump in the pool at my apartments and we just chill there for awhile. It wasn't even a really hot day- just 90 as a high. Got a good starter tan. This evening, I helped Aldo move some stuff over from his apartment in the minivan. Thats about it for today, although I had a great evening with the Walkers over at Joes Real BBQ sunday night.
I think I may be able to fall asleep now. I have to get up at 6:30 AM tomorrow. And that luxury is only because I'm DRIVING to work. Suki is being weird again, chasing protons around the apartment again like the possessed and meowing loudly intermittantly.
I think I may be able to fall asleep now. I have to get up at 6:30 AM tomorrow. And that luxury is only because I'm DRIVING to work. Suki is being weird again, chasing protons around the apartment again like the possessed and meowing loudly intermittantly.
May 27, 2006
Weekend
Ben's completely moved out of the apartment. He'll come back tomorrow to do some last minute stuff, and theny he'll be gone. It's strange when I think about the evolution of our relationship. In the dorms, we were pretty much aquantainces, who sort of knew each other but weren't really friends. We helped each other move in, hung out with Jen and Amy upstairs and we all did stuff togather. We used to go walk to get dinner and it was usual for us to make dinner togather like a pot of spagetti or something. As my relationship with Jen progressed, it became a wedge bewteeen us, not because Ben liked Jen, but because she and I were spending a lot of time togather I know from experiance the jealously and discontent of not having a girlfriend while a relationship is blossoming in front of you. I began to hear complaints about me through Jen whom Ben held as a confidant and friend. I know that he hated Suki, disliked my messes, and disliked the way I'd open multiple boxes of cereal at once. All valid criticisms. I not messy person- I am actually a fastideously clean person who happens to procrastinate cleaning a whole lot. We never fought, we were usually considerate to each other and polite in conversation. We even still made dinner togather occationally. We'd share the basic cooking ingrediants and drink each other's beverages- asking permission first and not abusing the invitation. After Jen and I split, she became his friend again and took him to costco a few times. SIn any event, it's been a far more smooth roomateship than I could have asked for. Two years, no fighting or arguments, no utilities cut off because someone forgot the bill, no problems with theft, security, or safety. Good converstaions about war and history, both monty python fanatics.o we come to today, leaving each other as aquaintances once more. I wish I could have been a better roomate: Ben hated being by himself in the apartment, and I was always at studio. I can understand him now. Nothing to do, sitting alone at my computer, the horror of the uninterrupted silence for hours and hours.
So here we part. Two years ago, I was a freshman finished with my first year of college, and Ben ready to take on a major in history. Now I'm finished with my third year of college, working in architecture office, and Ben is starting anew at Savannah in furnature and set design. I boyfriended and broke up with Jen, she and her roomate Amy moved into a condo and then acrimoniously split up with Amy leaving mid-semester.
I think I know why I so uneasy lately. I've settled into a comfortable routine of living and I'm approaching some radical shifts. The routine, the coming home every night to the same bed, the wild busy days, that routine is home. When my routine shifts, it exposes the fact that I have no true home. It's the dark side of living internationally- when the world is your home, there's no one place thats really yours. I hate all my stuff but I can't part with individual items. I brought a massive load down to Goodwill today, including most of my VHS tapes that mom tried to get rid of before she moved. The waiting is the worst. I know I'm going to have a great time in Buenos Aires and a good final semester at ASU, but its so much blank tape its a little daunting.
So here we part. Two years ago, I was a freshman finished with my first year of college, and Ben ready to take on a major in history. Now I'm finished with my third year of college, working in architecture office, and Ben is starting anew at Savannah in furnature and set design. I boyfriended and broke up with Jen, she and her roomate Amy moved into a condo and then acrimoniously split up with Amy leaving mid-semester.
I think I know why I so uneasy lately. I've settled into a comfortable routine of living and I'm approaching some radical shifts. The routine, the coming home every night to the same bed, the wild busy days, that routine is home. When my routine shifts, it exposes the fact that I have no true home. It's the dark side of living internationally- when the world is your home, there's no one place thats really yours. I hate all my stuff but I can't part with individual items. I brought a massive load down to Goodwill today, including most of my VHS tapes that mom tried to get rid of before she moved. The waiting is the worst. I know I'm going to have a great time in Buenos Aires and a good final semester at ASU, but its so much blank tape its a little daunting.
May 26, 2006
Corrugated dreamship
Work is going well- last week Jeremy took me to a meeting at the Mesa Fine Arts Center and we had a meeting with a contractor and the Mesa arts board to finish a little project inside the theater. It was an interesting experiance seeing how all the team players come togather and interact, and how everything is made very very clear with communication as to the roles of each party. The firm had designed the arts center, so after the meeting, Jeremy gave me a tour. Pretty cool. I came up with a new design for the condos so that was sent to the city of scottsdale with one of Jeremy's schemes, so we should see some action on that fairly soon. Today in the gap of waiting to hear back, I wandered into another project designing a police station for ASU. They're pretty far along with only minor details in the design to change. But they need to create a massive collection of details and write up all the specificiations. Essentially the spec book is a super massive manual of what peices to use where. So next week I'm going to be preparing a sketchUp model and presentation to show the designated architecture guy at ASU.
Today was a busy day. I got off of work at 11:30 and came back home, got my paycheck from the library, deposited that with the hard cash I got from Aldo paying me back for the apartment in Buenos Aires deposit, and then I looped around to downtown Gilbert to pay the deposit on the electric bill and get it officially changed over to my name. Aldo will just pay me for utilities. While I waited for the APS people to get back from lunch, I had my own lunch, having skipped breakfast. This desertopolis is a serindipidous place- the part of Gilbert I was in was dominated by pickup trucks and victoriana. They're really playing it up in the old buildings. Gilbert was, and still is to an extent, a farming community, and its kept that feel to it, almost like Ponca city. Even the people seem a lot more country folky. Had lunch in a building which housed a safeway back in the 1920's. It's a barbeque place and I got a bbq brisket sandwich, sweet corn, and homemade rootbeer. Good bbq and tons of seating, inside, outside, and in the arizona room. Joes Real BBQ, is what it was called I beleive. None of that fake stuff here, no sir.
Anyway, got some more administrative stuff done and cleaned my room and the kitchen. Ben's dad and brother are here now, helping Ben pack his stuff up. I've already reconnected the net in my room. Strange days are upon us. I really have a ton of stuff. Even when I start consolodaitng, and getting rid of half of my books, I'm still left with an entire bookshelf of them.
I think work is taking its toll on me. It's ten o'clock and I'm ready to hit the sack. My ciccadian rhythms are going to go crazy. Right now its finally getting adjusted to going to bed at ten and getting up at six. After work is over and I around the world, I'll hit it with a dose of jet lag, and then in Buenos Aires, the nightlife don't even get going before 3 am. So we'll see. It, like all things, will be a test of my adaptability and resourcefulness.
Today was a busy day. I got off of work at 11:30 and came back home, got my paycheck from the library, deposited that with the hard cash I got from Aldo paying me back for the apartment in Buenos Aires deposit, and then I looped around to downtown Gilbert to pay the deposit on the electric bill and get it officially changed over to my name. Aldo will just pay me for utilities. While I waited for the APS people to get back from lunch, I had my own lunch, having skipped breakfast. This desertopolis is a serindipidous place- the part of Gilbert I was in was dominated by pickup trucks and victoriana. They're really playing it up in the old buildings. Gilbert was, and still is to an extent, a farming community, and its kept that feel to it, almost like Ponca city. Even the people seem a lot more country folky. Had lunch in a building which housed a safeway back in the 1920's. It's a barbeque place and I got a bbq brisket sandwich, sweet corn, and homemade rootbeer. Good bbq and tons of seating, inside, outside, and in the arizona room. Joes Real BBQ, is what it was called I beleive. None of that fake stuff here, no sir.
Anyway, got some more administrative stuff done and cleaned my room and the kitchen. Ben's dad and brother are here now, helping Ben pack his stuff up. I've already reconnected the net in my room. Strange days are upon us. I really have a ton of stuff. Even when I start consolodaitng, and getting rid of half of my books, I'm still left with an entire bookshelf of them.
I think work is taking its toll on me. It's ten o'clock and I'm ready to hit the sack. My ciccadian rhythms are going to go crazy. Right now its finally getting adjusted to going to bed at ten and getting up at six. After work is over and I around the world, I'll hit it with a dose of jet lag, and then in Buenos Aires, the nightlife don't even get going before 3 am. So we'll see. It, like all things, will be a test of my adaptability and resourcefulness.
May 25, 2006
status report
Alive, unhappy about going to bed at ten and getting up at six every morning.
Finished reading Snow Crash- its no Neuromancer, but its a wild fun time anyway.
Looks like Ben is moving out this weekend which works since Aldo is going to start moving HIS stuff over. Just transferred power bill over to my name. Bleh, glad its the weekend almost. I'm going to bed.
Finished reading Snow Crash- its no Neuromancer, but its a wild fun time anyway.
Looks like Ben is moving out this weekend which works since Aldo is going to start moving HIS stuff over. Just transferred power bill over to my name. Bleh, glad its the weekend almost. I'm going to bed.
May 21, 2006
the zen of traffic
people have said that "Life is the journey, not the destination." I've always found that a bit morbid, because it begs the question, if life is a journey, what IS the destination? Are we just journeying straight to our death? What kind of a destination is that?
Thinking about it just now, I realized there's another way to understand it.
Life is the challenges, opportunities, encounters, and boring bits where you listen to your iPod which make up a journey. The destination is up to you. I would even say that really, the destination IS you, because where you are going is what you are becoming, is part of what you are.
If you're heading to Starbucks for coffee for example, you know you want starbucks, its a clear destination in your mind, and you know of a Starbucks Coffee in certain place. So you hop in your car and you take off. You can't control the traffic, the delays, the roadblocks, the vehicle breakdowns, the idiots on thier cellphones who rear end you, or the psychotic guy with the rifle. Some days you may hit all greens, some days every light will be red. It's a beat of life that you fall into. The point is there are things you simply can't control about the drive.
The destination is yours. As long as you keep that vision of scalding hot supercafinated coffee clear in your mind, you will achieve it. Maybe you get pulled over for speeding, maybe they've closed the local Starbucks for renovation; all it means is you'll get there a little later. It's not like that was the only place in the universe where you can get starbucks.
But the journey can change you too. Maybe a microbus pulls up next to you and you see a hippie driving with a big "Stop Globalization" sign on the side. You might decide that Starbucks is too corporate and elitist, and decide to go find a local coffeehouse run by beat poets.
Or you hear a news story on NPR about the health benefits of tea over coffee and you might decide to not go to a coffeehouse at all. Or you might see an advertisement for a new Banana Caramel Frappuchino and begin to salivate. It really depends how badly you initially wanted that coffee, and what you're willing to do to get it.
I think that the key in life is learning to recognize the alternative routes, to roll with the delays and detours, to look for the key openings in traffic, and to understand that a lane ending in 500 feet is not the end of the road. And to be able to weight the value of that coffee versus the sacrifices you have make along the way. Is that coffee worth fighting rush hour traffic? how badly do you need it RIGHT NOW? Is it worth speeding for, worth a police chase and jailtime, worth even the three dollars? The important thing is to Think and decide for yourself.
It seems so easy to fall into a routine, doing the same thing, thinking in the same little circles, working in autopilot. Do you get coffee every day? Why? Habit? because your body has a chemical dependancy? Acknowlege it! How does the reason make you feel? It makes getting coffee a life-affirming experiance. It's coffee with a Purpose.
When I get coffee, it makes me think "what should I get?" (after "why's this stuff so expensive?") which makes me ask, "how do I feel? what sounds good? how late do I have to work tonight?" which begs the question "why am I artificially enhancing my system beyond its natural boundarys?" and "is the work i'm doing worth circumventing nature and losing this much sleep?" These are usually easy and simple questions to answer. If its anything relating to studio, the answer is yes. I mean, it's a coffee in relation to a college degree.
Ok I've rambled enough and I'm submitting to the bus tomorrow, so I will clamber down from my soap box and go to bed.
Thinking about it just now, I realized there's another way to understand it.
Life is the challenges, opportunities, encounters, and boring bits where you listen to your iPod which make up a journey. The destination is up to you. I would even say that really, the destination IS you, because where you are going is what you are becoming, is part of what you are.
If you're heading to Starbucks for coffee for example, you know you want starbucks, its a clear destination in your mind, and you know of a Starbucks Coffee in certain place. So you hop in your car and you take off. You can't control the traffic, the delays, the roadblocks, the vehicle breakdowns, the idiots on thier cellphones who rear end you, or the psychotic guy with the rifle. Some days you may hit all greens, some days every light will be red. It's a beat of life that you fall into. The point is there are things you simply can't control about the drive.
The destination is yours. As long as you keep that vision of scalding hot supercafinated coffee clear in your mind, you will achieve it. Maybe you get pulled over for speeding, maybe they've closed the local Starbucks for renovation; all it means is you'll get there a little later. It's not like that was the only place in the universe where you can get starbucks.
But the journey can change you too. Maybe a microbus pulls up next to you and you see a hippie driving with a big "Stop Globalization" sign on the side. You might decide that Starbucks is too corporate and elitist, and decide to go find a local coffeehouse run by beat poets.
Or you hear a news story on NPR about the health benefits of tea over coffee and you might decide to not go to a coffeehouse at all. Or you might see an advertisement for a new Banana Caramel Frappuchino and begin to salivate. It really depends how badly you initially wanted that coffee, and what you're willing to do to get it.
I think that the key in life is learning to recognize the alternative routes, to roll with the delays and detours, to look for the key openings in traffic, and to understand that a lane ending in 500 feet is not the end of the road. And to be able to weight the value of that coffee versus the sacrifices you have make along the way. Is that coffee worth fighting rush hour traffic? how badly do you need it RIGHT NOW? Is it worth speeding for, worth a police chase and jailtime, worth even the three dollars? The important thing is to Think and decide for yourself.
It seems so easy to fall into a routine, doing the same thing, thinking in the same little circles, working in autopilot. Do you get coffee every day? Why? Habit? because your body has a chemical dependancy? Acknowlege it! How does the reason make you feel? It makes getting coffee a life-affirming experiance. It's coffee with a Purpose.
When I get coffee, it makes me think "what should I get?" (after "why's this stuff so expensive?") which makes me ask, "how do I feel? what sounds good? how late do I have to work tonight?" which begs the question "why am I artificially enhancing my system beyond its natural boundarys?" and "is the work i'm doing worth circumventing nature and losing this much sleep?" These are usually easy and simple questions to answer. If its anything relating to studio, the answer is yes. I mean, it's a coffee in relation to a college degree.
Ok I've rambled enough and I'm submitting to the bus tomorrow, so I will clamber down from my soap box and go to bed.
May 20, 2006
Week in Review
MONDAY, continued. I hung out with Julie, Cassie, Sarah, and a few other friends, losing badly at thier video games, watching TV, and playing with Cassie's ferret. Ferrets are funky little creatures, and they seem more like little monkeys to me. Very excitable, aggitated, and agressive.
TUESDAY Cassie and Julie both worked at thier jobs, leaving Sarah and me behind. We had a very relaxing day, watching TV, making a grocery store run, and we went to see V for Vendetta at the discount theaters. Cool movie, but it felt a bit too long with too little action. Granted, its more cereberal, but they really belabored the point. The last half an hour is amazing. When Julie got of work we watched more TV at home and then picked up another friend for his birthday dinner. I drove everybody to dinner, which was at a small, but delicious Italian restaurant. The kind of place you half expect to see Vito Coreleone. We finished up there and I drove everyone home in time to catch Cassie coming back from her work around ten. I left tucson after saying goodbye to everyone, and drove back to Tempe, getting home around midnight.
WEDNESDAY was my first day of work. My tie was a bit dressy, but not by much. Most people were in business casual or better. I got a desk at a graphics station, and my mentor-cum-boss explained my first project to me. They have a client who wants some condos, but the design of the apartments is completely ridicoulous with one elevator serving two condos per floor. It's an optimization problem like a puzzle- how does one grant more automony and personality to each living unit while allowing the efficiant acess? Anyway, Mr. Jones let me just go at it alone to see what I can do. By the end of the work day, I'd drawn a property map in autocad, and did a basic site analysis with google earth maps and the city of scottsdale maps. Work hours are 7:30 to 5:30, with an hour for lunch. Wednedays, one of the hispanic employees gives a lesson in basic spanish to everyone over lunch. At this point, they're still learning things like Los Las El La, etc and Sala = room. The other cool thing is that they keep a fridge stocked with free sodas, and tea bags. Drove home that night.
THURSDAY I caught the bus (hour long to get there) into work and continued work, getting into Sketchup with the apartment units to start some 3d stacking work to see how the condos might go on the site. At lunch, Mr. Jones took me to the Design Review Board for Scottsdale, of which he is a chair member. He drove us to city hall and the kiva. We had catered lunch with the other board members in a meeting room. In this way I met Bob Littlefield, a city councilman, the city attourey, and other civic leaders. Then I sat down in the audience for the public sessions of the design review board hearings where various developers and archietcts presented thier projects for approval. It's basically a critique as the various members will cite problems with thier design from a aestetic, code, and design viewpoint. I have mixed feelings about the board, as on the one hand, it smacks of authoritiarian design controls and censorship, but on the other hand, it genereally improves the design of the buildings. I agreed with thier decisions at this meeting though. When I took the bus home, I had to wait 45 minutes for a bus which was supposed to run even 15 minutes. The ride home was terrible. Three people in wheelchairs came on and off during my ride, which means we had to wait five minutes for getting on and five minutes for getting off. Then this homeless man sat next me for about half an hour. I have nothing against the homeless, but this man stank. Like the worst smell I've smelled all year. Old cigarettes, stale body odor, fresh body oder, and absoultely covered in grime. I was nauseated. That night, I went to Nickee's and watched part of a movie with her and some of her friends. I gave her advice on how to pack and what to take for her trip to Europe. Went home around 10 so I could get some sleep.
FRIDAY I slept in a little extra and drove to work. Friday's are casual. "Not grubby," Mr. Jones, admonished me Thursday, so I wore clean jeans and a polo shirt. The other thing about friday's are that working hours are from 5:30 AM to 11:30 AM, so we get the afternoon off. I met with one of the other guys who worked through some of the condo configuration problems with me. He was actually one of the guys who reviewed my pool project at an early stage, and he asked about how my project turned out. I'll bring my boards in monday I think to show him. Friday afternoon, I ran last minute errands with Nickee. She's leaving today (saturday) and is terrified. Late friday afternoon, I picked up my letters from the schools for the argentine visa, so I can proceed with that now. After that, I was picked up by my future roomate Aldo and another friend Ivonek and we hit the mall to kill some time before we went to see DaVinci Code. I went in with very, very low expectations and a wry grin, and the movie satisfied my expections. It was long, and took itself way way to seriously, but it had a few fun moments. I'm glad I knew what to expect with the book. My friends felt let down by it, and there was a massive line for the ten pm showing. We headed over to Applebys for happy hour and had appetizers and beers for a bit chatting and enjoying ourselves. Afterwards, we came back to my apartment and we watched the Godfather.
Hey, its the summer, I'm taking it easy.
TUESDAY Cassie and Julie both worked at thier jobs, leaving Sarah and me behind. We had a very relaxing day, watching TV, making a grocery store run, and we went to see V for Vendetta at the discount theaters. Cool movie, but it felt a bit too long with too little action. Granted, its more cereberal, but they really belabored the point. The last half an hour is amazing. When Julie got of work we watched more TV at home and then picked up another friend for his birthday dinner. I drove everybody to dinner, which was at a small, but delicious Italian restaurant. The kind of place you half expect to see Vito Coreleone. We finished up there and I drove everyone home in time to catch Cassie coming back from her work around ten. I left tucson after saying goodbye to everyone, and drove back to Tempe, getting home around midnight.
WEDNESDAY was my first day of work. My tie was a bit dressy, but not by much. Most people were in business casual or better. I got a desk at a graphics station, and my mentor-cum-boss explained my first project to me. They have a client who wants some condos, but the design of the apartments is completely ridicoulous with one elevator serving two condos per floor. It's an optimization problem like a puzzle- how does one grant more automony and personality to each living unit while allowing the efficiant acess? Anyway, Mr. Jones let me just go at it alone to see what I can do. By the end of the work day, I'd drawn a property map in autocad, and did a basic site analysis with google earth maps and the city of scottsdale maps. Work hours are 7:30 to 5:30, with an hour for lunch. Wednedays, one of the hispanic employees gives a lesson in basic spanish to everyone over lunch. At this point, they're still learning things like Los Las El La, etc and Sala = room. The other cool thing is that they keep a fridge stocked with free sodas, and tea bags. Drove home that night.
THURSDAY I caught the bus (hour long to get there) into work and continued work, getting into Sketchup with the apartment units to start some 3d stacking work to see how the condos might go on the site. At lunch, Mr. Jones took me to the Design Review Board for Scottsdale, of which he is a chair member. He drove us to city hall and the kiva. We had catered lunch with the other board members in a meeting room. In this way I met Bob Littlefield, a city councilman, the city attourey, and other civic leaders. Then I sat down in the audience for the public sessions of the design review board hearings where various developers and archietcts presented thier projects for approval. It's basically a critique as the various members will cite problems with thier design from a aestetic, code, and design viewpoint. I have mixed feelings about the board, as on the one hand, it smacks of authoritiarian design controls and censorship, but on the other hand, it genereally improves the design of the buildings. I agreed with thier decisions at this meeting though. When I took the bus home, I had to wait 45 minutes for a bus which was supposed to run even 15 minutes. The ride home was terrible. Three people in wheelchairs came on and off during my ride, which means we had to wait five minutes for getting on and five minutes for getting off. Then this homeless man sat next me for about half an hour. I have nothing against the homeless, but this man stank. Like the worst smell I've smelled all year. Old cigarettes, stale body odor, fresh body oder, and absoultely covered in grime. I was nauseated. That night, I went to Nickee's and watched part of a movie with her and some of her friends. I gave her advice on how to pack and what to take for her trip to Europe. Went home around 10 so I could get some sleep.
FRIDAY I slept in a little extra and drove to work. Friday's are casual. "Not grubby," Mr. Jones, admonished me Thursday, so I wore clean jeans and a polo shirt. The other thing about friday's are that working hours are from 5:30 AM to 11:30 AM, so we get the afternoon off. I met with one of the other guys who worked through some of the condo configuration problems with me. He was actually one of the guys who reviewed my pool project at an early stage, and he asked about how my project turned out. I'll bring my boards in monday I think to show him. Friday afternoon, I ran last minute errands with Nickee. She's leaving today (saturday) and is terrified. Late friday afternoon, I picked up my letters from the schools for the argentine visa, so I can proceed with that now. After that, I was picked up by my future roomate Aldo and another friend Ivonek and we hit the mall to kill some time before we went to see DaVinci Code. I went in with very, very low expectations and a wry grin, and the movie satisfied my expections. It was long, and took itself way way to seriously, but it had a few fun moments. I'm glad I knew what to expect with the book. My friends felt let down by it, and there was a massive line for the ten pm showing. We headed over to Applebys for happy hour and had appetizers and beers for a bit chatting and enjoying ourselves. Afterwards, we came back to my apartment and we watched the Godfather.
Hey, its the summer, I'm taking it easy.
May 17, 2006
Workin' Man
Today I rose and showered before 7 AM. I wore pleated pants and a belt. In my minivan, I fought the morning traffic to downtown. I wore a tie. I sat in a cubicle and attended an office meeting. I drove home through rushour traffic, in a minivan.
These are new things to me.
Quick recap because I'm too tired to go into details, although I'll probably post some pics soon.
Where was I? Ah yes, the Badlands of Utah.
FRIDAY we drove to the san rafael reef. The hiking is pretty flat except for sudden dryfalls which take some climbing to do. The canyon is amazing, many parts of it so narrow that my pack scraped both sides of the wall simultanously. These slot canyons are carved by water and refined by wind and sand. It's really amazing to be in there, with both walls shooting up over your head like you're walking on the bottom of a cravasse. This area is incredibly dry. The sand flows through your fingers like in an hourglass. We brought our own water since there was none to be had. Our route was to take us up one canyon, around the base of the uplift, and down another canyon. Roundtrip its 8.8 miles. We made it up the first canyon, stopped under a tree in the exposed uplift zone around noon for lunch and rest, and then pressed on as the uplift zone was pretty barren and open. We entered the other canyon looking for a good campsite to spend the night. We thought we'd found one on the topo maps that Uncle David had brought, and we were hiking towards it when we realized that we were at the fork in the trail where we had split off that morning. The cars were literally ten minutes away. We were still looking to camp, so we headed back and I scouted around, eventually finding an amazing spot atop the swell separating the two canyons. We had great weather, a small fire, and a constant breeze.
SATURDAY we packed up and were back at the car in twenty minutes. We drove back to Salt Lake city, admiring the strange and barren landscape, which was the source of most of the alien planets in Calvin and Hobbes. Got back to town around noon. Brenda and Carrie had already left for the day and so we got showered, cleaned up, and hit the town again as it was mother's day. We started at the department store first, then headed over to Centerpoint i.e. Little Scottsdale. Found a nice shirt at the Gap and talked Uncle David into keeping his aviator glasses instead of buying some new ones. Then we hit deserert industries, which is essentially a Penny's made of thrift donations. Lots of high quality clothes in good condition. I grabbed a linen blend cream sportcoat from Nordstroms and a more classic Haggar cord jacket. Afterwards, hit the State Wine Store and picked up a bottle of wine. After dinner we went out for ice cream.
SUNDAY I took a bike ride up the canyon behind thier house. Five miles, a mild incline all the way up. At the end of the bike raod, there were patches of snow on the ground and pine forrest. Five miles, I zoomed down in about twenty minutes, hardly pedaling at all. Nearly clipped a rattlesnake while I was at it. For dinner, my last one in town, we went out for barbeque.
MONDAY Uncle David drove me to the airport and I flew home. I realized that even with the waiting in line and the hassle, I get a high out of traveling through airports. Especailly with the ipod providing a suitably cool soundtrack. Sally and Gabriel met me at the airport and took me home. I'm looking forward to dinner with them Sunday. After I got home, I unpacked my gear and took a nap. Paid some attention to Suki, gave her a brush, took a shower, Then I drove down to Tuscon. I got down there in the early evening and hunted down Rick Joy's studio. Rick joy is an architect who does a lot of work with rammed earth, and I'd gone through a Rick Joy adolation phase. I found his studio down a dirt alley in a barrio near the downtown. I parked by a crumbling adobe warehouse. The gate to the studio was open, so I walked in. The studio has a large glass wall which looks right out to the courtyard, so two young architects looked up at me when I came in the courtyard. Feeling slightly awkward, I tried the glass door and poked my head in. I told them I was an archtiecture student and if I could look around a bit. One of the guys gave a kind of resigned sigh and got up, and gave me a great tour of the studio, showing me everything from the bathrooms, to the rental apartments around the back, answeing my questions and talking about the architecture. It was very surreal as he had an Austrian accent and was a good six inches taller than me, showing me around distinctive critical regionalism architecture in Tucson. Told me he'd met Rick Joy while he was teaching at Harvard. After the tour, I thanked him and continued on to Cassie's apartment. Cassie was still at work, but Julie and some of her friends were there watching the season finale of Gray's Anatomy.
This is really dragging, and I'm still only on MONDAY. I sincerely apologize to you, my dear reader. Myself, I'm going to bed because I have to get up at 6 AM tomorrow for work.
These are new things to me.
Quick recap because I'm too tired to go into details, although I'll probably post some pics soon.
Where was I? Ah yes, the Badlands of Utah.
FRIDAY we drove to the san rafael reef. The hiking is pretty flat except for sudden dryfalls which take some climbing to do. The canyon is amazing, many parts of it so narrow that my pack scraped both sides of the wall simultanously. These slot canyons are carved by water and refined by wind and sand. It's really amazing to be in there, with both walls shooting up over your head like you're walking on the bottom of a cravasse. This area is incredibly dry. The sand flows through your fingers like in an hourglass. We brought our own water since there was none to be had. Our route was to take us up one canyon, around the base of the uplift, and down another canyon. Roundtrip its 8.8 miles. We made it up the first canyon, stopped under a tree in the exposed uplift zone around noon for lunch and rest, and then pressed on as the uplift zone was pretty barren and open. We entered the other canyon looking for a good campsite to spend the night. We thought we'd found one on the topo maps that Uncle David had brought, and we were hiking towards it when we realized that we were at the fork in the trail where we had split off that morning. The cars were literally ten minutes away. We were still looking to camp, so we headed back and I scouted around, eventually finding an amazing spot atop the swell separating the two canyons. We had great weather, a small fire, and a constant breeze.
SATURDAY we packed up and were back at the car in twenty minutes. We drove back to Salt Lake city, admiring the strange and barren landscape, which was the source of most of the alien planets in Calvin and Hobbes. Got back to town around noon. Brenda and Carrie had already left for the day and so we got showered, cleaned up, and hit the town again as it was mother's day. We started at the department store first, then headed over to Centerpoint i.e. Little Scottsdale. Found a nice shirt at the Gap and talked Uncle David into keeping his aviator glasses instead of buying some new ones. Then we hit deserert industries, which is essentially a Penny's made of thrift donations. Lots of high quality clothes in good condition. I grabbed a linen blend cream sportcoat from Nordstroms and a more classic Haggar cord jacket. Afterwards, hit the State Wine Store and picked up a bottle of wine. After dinner we went out for ice cream.
SUNDAY I took a bike ride up the canyon behind thier house. Five miles, a mild incline all the way up. At the end of the bike raod, there were patches of snow on the ground and pine forrest. Five miles, I zoomed down in about twenty minutes, hardly pedaling at all. Nearly clipped a rattlesnake while I was at it. For dinner, my last one in town, we went out for barbeque.
MONDAY Uncle David drove me to the airport and I flew home. I realized that even with the waiting in line and the hassle, I get a high out of traveling through airports. Especailly with the ipod providing a suitably cool soundtrack. Sally and Gabriel met me at the airport and took me home. I'm looking forward to dinner with them Sunday. After I got home, I unpacked my gear and took a nap. Paid some attention to Suki, gave her a brush, took a shower, Then I drove down to Tuscon. I got down there in the early evening and hunted down Rick Joy's studio. Rick joy is an architect who does a lot of work with rammed earth, and I'd gone through a Rick Joy adolation phase. I found his studio down a dirt alley in a barrio near the downtown. I parked by a crumbling adobe warehouse. The gate to the studio was open, so I walked in. The studio has a large glass wall which looks right out to the courtyard, so two young architects looked up at me when I came in the courtyard. Feeling slightly awkward, I tried the glass door and poked my head in. I told them I was an archtiecture student and if I could look around a bit. One of the guys gave a kind of resigned sigh and got up, and gave me a great tour of the studio, showing me everything from the bathrooms, to the rental apartments around the back, answeing my questions and talking about the architecture. It was very surreal as he had an Austrian accent and was a good six inches taller than me, showing me around distinctive critical regionalism architecture in Tucson. Told me he'd met Rick Joy while he was teaching at Harvard. After the tour, I thanked him and continued on to Cassie's apartment. Cassie was still at work, but Julie and some of her friends were there watching the season finale of Gray's Anatomy.
This is really dragging, and I'm still only on MONDAY. I sincerely apologize to you, my dear reader. Myself, I'm going to bed because I have to get up at 6 AM tomorrow for work.
May 13, 2006
Shooting Goblins
I'm sitting at the dining table overlooking Salt Lake City at night. Just got back from camping this afternoon. But we're going to Tarintino it up. Cut to
Alec scrambling for quarters in his apartment. His emergency load of laundry is in the dryer after one cycle, and still incredibly damp. I am still two quarters short. The landry room at my apartment sucks and its now around midnight. I string up a clothesline across my room and hang some of my clothes to dry. The others, well, they'll just have to be washed again. I finish packing around 1 AM.
Alarm clock radio starts. 6:45 AM. Sally calls me, asks what I want from Sonic for breakfast. I meet her outside my apartment a little later with both kiddos in tow. Gabriel hands me a momento from Legoland. They bought me a really cool little AT-AT walker with a storm trooper mini figure. It's way cool. I'm lucky to have such good friends.
Flight short and direct, an hour and a half and I land at the airport with snow-capped peaks on both sides. Aunt Brenda picks me up outside in her hybrid and we take off. First stop is gyros for lunch at a very popular little Greek fast fooderie, then we hit the camping goods store and I pick up a bottle of fuel for my campstove, since if I tried to take it on the plane, they'd probably encase my pack in lead, call me up to the check in counter, and special operations agents would rush in and beat me senseless with truncheons. So I decided to leave my cannister at home, and suck up the three dollars. Also picked up a few other assorted things. Then we drove up to the University, and Aunt Brenda showed me around and then had a few meetings with people.
Wednesday night, we had grilled pork loin, which was really good.
Thursday morning, I slept in until 10 AM, which was ok since uncle David was really busy, rushing around to submit drawings to the city for a residential project. After he'd come back from the government offices, we both packed, had lunch, hit the grocery store, and hit the map store, it was around 3 o clock in the afternoon.
We drove south to the Canyonlands, towards Moab, taking smaller and worse roads down to Goblin Valley State Park. Very cool place. The goblins are basically very stumpy hoodoos, which tend to look like mutant mushrooms. There's this huge basin, which is filled with them. As they are 6-20 feet tall, its very surreal walking amongst them. There's absolutely no water anywhere around, so there was very little vegitation down there. It actually reminded me of the topography of the surface of that planet they find in the movie ALIEN. There were a few other people there, but we didn't encounter any of them. We got there just as the sun was at a beautiful angle, and then after we'd walked around down in the basin enough, we had a beer and watched the sun set over the hoodoo'd ridge behind the basin.
We camped in a nearby campsite which had 22 sites, most of whihc were already reserved for RVs. Each site had a concrete pad, a perf steel clad pavaillion, and a patch of dirt clearly designated for the tent, and each one of these these sites located 30 feet from the neighbor. We took a short hike and pitched our tent amongst the goblins.
Pictures to follow, soon.
Alec scrambling for quarters in his apartment. His emergency load of laundry is in the dryer after one cycle, and still incredibly damp. I am still two quarters short. The landry room at my apartment sucks and its now around midnight. I string up a clothesline across my room and hang some of my clothes to dry. The others, well, they'll just have to be washed again. I finish packing around 1 AM.
Alarm clock radio starts. 6:45 AM. Sally calls me, asks what I want from Sonic for breakfast. I meet her outside my apartment a little later with both kiddos in tow. Gabriel hands me a momento from Legoland. They bought me a really cool little AT-AT walker with a storm trooper mini figure. It's way cool. I'm lucky to have such good friends.
Flight short and direct, an hour and a half and I land at the airport with snow-capped peaks on both sides. Aunt Brenda picks me up outside in her hybrid and we take off. First stop is gyros for lunch at a very popular little Greek fast fooderie, then we hit the camping goods store and I pick up a bottle of fuel for my campstove, since if I tried to take it on the plane, they'd probably encase my pack in lead, call me up to the check in counter, and special operations agents would rush in and beat me senseless with truncheons. So I decided to leave my cannister at home, and suck up the three dollars. Also picked up a few other assorted things. Then we drove up to the University, and Aunt Brenda showed me around and then had a few meetings with people.
Wednesday night, we had grilled pork loin, which was really good.
Thursday morning, I slept in until 10 AM, which was ok since uncle David was really busy, rushing around to submit drawings to the city for a residential project. After he'd come back from the government offices, we both packed, had lunch, hit the grocery store, and hit the map store, it was around 3 o clock in the afternoon.
We drove south to the Canyonlands, towards Moab, taking smaller and worse roads down to Goblin Valley State Park. Very cool place. The goblins are basically very stumpy hoodoos, which tend to look like mutant mushrooms. There's this huge basin, which is filled with them. As they are 6-20 feet tall, its very surreal walking amongst them. There's absolutely no water anywhere around, so there was very little vegitation down there. It actually reminded me of the topography of the surface of that planet they find in the movie ALIEN. There were a few other people there, but we didn't encounter any of them. We got there just as the sun was at a beautiful angle, and then after we'd walked around down in the basin enough, we had a beer and watched the sun set over the hoodoo'd ridge behind the basin.
We camped in a nearby campsite which had 22 sites, most of whihc were already reserved for RVs. Each site had a concrete pad, a perf steel clad pavaillion, and a patch of dirt clearly designated for the tent, and each one of these these sites located 30 feet from the neighbor. We took a short hike and pitched our tent amongst the goblins.
Pictures to follow, soon.
May 9, 2006
Insert Two Tokens
Busy last few days, even though things are winding down. I spent most of the weekend working on my paper for latin American Design. Saturday night, I had dinner with Nickee and we saw Mission Impossible: III. It was very unintentionally funny, actually, although it was much more enjoyable than Mission Impossible: II. The only thing was that it had a lot more Friends moments in it than I would have preferred. I like my uberaction films unadultrated with housewarming parties. Nickee is going to Europe for a few weeks next month, so she's very excited/scared right now. I gave her what little advice I knew about backpacking through Europe.
Finished writing my paper Sunday and made final revisions and citations to it yesterday before turning it in at noon. I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out. I'm used to writing 5 page papers, and 12 pages is a lot- I dont think I kept it as coherant as it could have been, but today when I checked my final grade for that class, I saw the professor had given me an A for the semester. So happy surprise there. I dropped by studio as I was in the building, and realized that we had our exit interviews set for that day.
I noted my time, went home, and laid out my semester portfolio of work, doccumentation of what we did that semester. It's our last studio assignment. After a few hours of that, I went back to school for my exit interview, slotted for 15 minutes. S---- hauled out a flow chart of the steps were supposed to follow from conception through final presentation/materials and went over how I did on it. He said I was the best writer in the class, one of the strongest students, and that the ideas and concepts were grea. He said I was professional, hardworking, self motivated, and a bunch of other nice things. The problem area, he said, was in the final stage, taking the idea that final step with the clearest expresssion of it in the design, in the presentation, and in the graphic representation of the idea. All fair criticism. I didn't tell him that the reason I didn't make that last hurdle was my heart wasn't in the last two weeks of work. The project was pretty much dead to me at that point. In terms of a grade, he said I was betwen an A and a B, so I'm pretty much getting a B+. But I think I've earned it.
This is very bad, and egotistical of me. I'm going to spend the a lot of my professional life defending, and selling projects that I feel are subpar, and I'm going to need to come to terms with doing high quality, representitive work on bad projects. If I only marginally liked my pool, how am I going to feel about working on somebody else's medicore project. Maybe it stemmed from personal dissapointment.
This is the one chance I will ever have in my life to go completely wild with design, to push the limits of even marginal possiblity in terms of material, form, and budget. My pool is about as wild and imaginative as a dead pidgeon. Words cannot describe how frustrated I feel with myself and the semester. Partially directed towards S---- for his "guidance", but mostly towards myself for my weakness. What happened to the crack? It was filled in and buried under a steaming pile of mediocrity.
Anyway, after that, I biked back home and finished my doccumentation and printed it out and cut it before going into work at the library where I studied for my structures exam. Got to leave an hour early, so I spent it in an impromtu study group up in studio. After I got home I ate some leftover pizza for dinner. Ben came home, sat down across from me, and said " I want some candy." I realized I was dying for candy. So we hopped into the minivan and made a late ngirun to Safeway for twizzlers, milk duds, gummy bears, recees peanut butter cups, etc. Then Ian joined us and we talked for awhile.
This morning I took my doccumentation to be bound at Alphagraphics. Came back to school a few hours before our final and dropped it off, then studied, chatted, meditated, and relaxed. After the disasterous mideterm (more than half the class failed it), we were a bit neverous. Needlessly so, though. Far easier and shorter than the last one. In conferring with classmates, I think I got an A on it, which would be great for my GPA. So feeling good about that.
And... I'm done. With the semester. No finals to take, no more projects to do. I'm sitting here alone at the library working my last shift, probably forever, typing a blog and IMing family and friends.
The whirlwind keeps blowing, however. Tonight I have to do an emergency load of clothes and finish packing all my gear for a 9 am plane flight to Utah tomorrow morning for a few days of camping and relaxing.
Finished writing my paper Sunday and made final revisions and citations to it yesterday before turning it in at noon. I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out. I'm used to writing 5 page papers, and 12 pages is a lot- I dont think I kept it as coherant as it could have been, but today when I checked my final grade for that class, I saw the professor had given me an A for the semester. So happy surprise there. I dropped by studio as I was in the building, and realized that we had our exit interviews set for that day.
I noted my time, went home, and laid out my semester portfolio of work, doccumentation of what we did that semester. It's our last studio assignment. After a few hours of that, I went back to school for my exit interview, slotted for 15 minutes. S---- hauled out a flow chart of the steps were supposed to follow from conception through final presentation/materials and went over how I did on it. He said I was the best writer in the class, one of the strongest students, and that the ideas and concepts were grea. He said I was professional, hardworking, self motivated, and a bunch of other nice things. The problem area, he said, was in the final stage, taking the idea that final step with the clearest expresssion of it in the design, in the presentation, and in the graphic representation of the idea. All fair criticism. I didn't tell him that the reason I didn't make that last hurdle was my heart wasn't in the last two weeks of work. The project was pretty much dead to me at that point. In terms of a grade, he said I was betwen an A and a B, so I'm pretty much getting a B+. But I think I've earned it.
This is very bad, and egotistical of me. I'm going to spend the a lot of my professional life defending, and selling projects that I feel are subpar, and I'm going to need to come to terms with doing high quality, representitive work on bad projects. If I only marginally liked my pool, how am I going to feel about working on somebody else's medicore project. Maybe it stemmed from personal dissapointment.
This is the one chance I will ever have in my life to go completely wild with design, to push the limits of even marginal possiblity in terms of material, form, and budget. My pool is about as wild and imaginative as a dead pidgeon. Words cannot describe how frustrated I feel with myself and the semester. Partially directed towards S---- for his "guidance", but mostly towards myself for my weakness. What happened to the crack? It was filled in and buried under a steaming pile of mediocrity.
Anyway, after that, I biked back home and finished my doccumentation and printed it out and cut it before going into work at the library where I studied for my structures exam. Got to leave an hour early, so I spent it in an impromtu study group up in studio. After I got home I ate some leftover pizza for dinner. Ben came home, sat down across from me, and said " I want some candy." I realized I was dying for candy. So we hopped into the minivan and made a late ngirun to Safeway for twizzlers, milk duds, gummy bears, recees peanut butter cups, etc. Then Ian joined us and we talked for awhile.
This morning I took my doccumentation to be bound at Alphagraphics. Came back to school a few hours before our final and dropped it off, then studied, chatted, meditated, and relaxed. After the disasterous mideterm (more than half the class failed it), we were a bit neverous. Needlessly so, though. Far easier and shorter than the last one. In conferring with classmates, I think I got an A on it, which would be great for my GPA. So feeling good about that.
And... I'm done. With the semester. No finals to take, no more projects to do. I'm sitting here alone at the library working my last shift, probably forever, typing a blog and IMing family and friends.
The whirlwind keeps blowing, however. Tonight I have to do an emergency load of clothes and finish packing all my gear for a 9 am plane flight to Utah tomorrow morning for a few days of camping and relaxing.
May 6, 2006
Cinco de Mayo!
You know what that means! Yup, tomorrow is Sies de Mayo! Today I worked on my paper on Rogelio Salmona. Right now I stand at approximately 1500 words, or about 42% the way there for raw material. My plan is to get to at least 56% tonight, and write the other 1500 words tomorrow, so I can edit and organize my paper sunday. I know I'm may not be able to make those deadlines, but if I need to, I can finish writing Sunday and edit/organize it Monday before it's due at noon. I may have found some friends who can watch Suki although they want me to pay the extra pet rent. They're doing me a big favor, and I am delighted to have close friends of mine watching my favorite cat.
Here are just two pictures I took recently, randomly. I liked how they turned out.
Here are just two pictures I took recently, randomly. I liked how they turned out.
May 4, 2006
The End of History
Had a pretty good day so far. Worked in the morning while I did more last minute cramming, had a great talk with dad in Abu Dhabi while drinking a chai tea latte out on the Charlie's Cafe patio. I think I did reasonably well on the exam. I think I'm definately in good shape for a solid A in that class, especially as we got our papers back today. Another A. Very happy with that. Now, I'm back at home for a few hours to begin my paper on Rogelio Salmona before trotting back to work to work on it some more.
I'm going to fly out and visit uncle David and Aunt Brenda next week after my finals are over for a few days. I need something resembling a vacation first of all, and I also want to talk to them about grad school etc. I also just need to get away for a bit before starting my internship, maybe do some camping up there.
Oh! finaly got around to shrinking my boards so I can post them. Here they are above^
click on each board for full view.
May 2, 2006
Last day of school
Today was the last day of school.
Today I got to school early after running some errands and gravitated up to studio. Found some classmates up there. It's kind of funny, even though we're done with that class, we still go there just to hang out and see each other. It's just a common place. Anyway, we still have to clean our stuff out, take last pictures of models, etc. I really love my bridge model and I think I could transform it into a hangable CD rack, but on the other hand, I should just trash it so it doesnt become part of the debries of my life. Letters for summer internships were finally handed out. They didn't email us or announce it- it was just spread by word of mouth, and we had a lot of fun asking about where everyone is going to going to be working this summer and looking up various firms online. I'm very glad that I was able to circumvent the lottery, as I'd never heard of ANY of the firms people were being sent to. There were firms which did customized McMansions, firms which specialized in landscape design (that student was really ticked off when he was looking at thier projects), and a variety of other firms ranging in size from 9 people onwards. Everyone was very jealous to hear that I'd landed DWL.
Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity. I think I've been such a lucky person in life since I've tried to prepare myself so extensively, and because I've had so many opportunities and known so many wonderful people who lead to these opportunities.
Anyway, we had our last history of architecture lecture, with the likes of Libeskind, Calatrava, Gerhy, Rem Koolhaas, and an as yet unbuilt project by Zaha Hadid. This is pretty much a lineup of the most famous cutting edge western architects. We closed with an image of a Calatrava museum, as Dr. Morton loves alliteration in his subnaming his courses: Caves (of Lescaux) to Calatrava, or approximately 52,000 years of human architecture.
One thing I forgot to mention was that me and two guys from studio were cracking each other up during the reviews yesterday catalouging the various movements that reviewers do while reviewing. While losing something without the hilarious accompanying sketches, here is a basic rundown:
the "Steeple n' Nod"- steeple fingers togather while leaning forward and nod head rhythmically, constantly.
the "Six-inch stand" or the "Smell"- stand six inches away from massive presentation boards and stare at it intently in the middle of the presentation.
the "Step n' Slide"- for a reviewer shifting from the "six inch stand" position, the correct motion is to step back with one foot to the side around the model, and SLIIIIIIDE the other foot around.
the "Pick n' Peek" -reviewer lifts model, peeks into it, turns it around, peeks some more.
the "half-stand and point" - reviewers assume a half-standing, half-sitting posture with the body bent and the arm and forefinger extended to indicate some interruptive point.
the "Squat n' Squint" -reviewer squats down to view the model from eye level, squinting with one eyebrow raised.
the "Mute Lean" -reviewer leans back in chair with hand placed thoughtfully on chin or over mouth, says nothing.
the "Ping-Pong" -reviewer looks back and forth between project and boards or student and boards quickly and regularly. A variant is the up-and-down.
These may be too much of in-jokes, but anyone who'se ever been in architecture school will immediately recognize these. My last day at this job will be next Tuesday.
Today I got to school early after running some errands and gravitated up to studio. Found some classmates up there. It's kind of funny, even though we're done with that class, we still go there just to hang out and see each other. It's just a common place. Anyway, we still have to clean our stuff out, take last pictures of models, etc. I really love my bridge model and I think I could transform it into a hangable CD rack, but on the other hand, I should just trash it so it doesnt become part of the debries of my life. Letters for summer internships were finally handed out. They didn't email us or announce it- it was just spread by word of mouth, and we had a lot of fun asking about where everyone is going to going to be working this summer and looking up various firms online. I'm very glad that I was able to circumvent the lottery, as I'd never heard of ANY of the firms people were being sent to. There were firms which did customized McMansions, firms which specialized in landscape design (that student was really ticked off when he was looking at thier projects), and a variety of other firms ranging in size from 9 people onwards. Everyone was very jealous to hear that I'd landed DWL.
Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity. I think I've been such a lucky person in life since I've tried to prepare myself so extensively, and because I've had so many opportunities and known so many wonderful people who lead to these opportunities.
Anyway, we had our last history of architecture lecture, with the likes of Libeskind, Calatrava, Gerhy, Rem Koolhaas, and an as yet unbuilt project by Zaha Hadid. This is pretty much a lineup of the most famous cutting edge western architects. We closed with an image of a Calatrava museum, as Dr. Morton loves alliteration in his subnaming his courses: Caves (of Lescaux) to Calatrava, or approximately 52,000 years of human architecture.
One thing I forgot to mention was that me and two guys from studio were cracking each other up during the reviews yesterday catalouging the various movements that reviewers do while reviewing. While losing something without the hilarious accompanying sketches, here is a basic rundown:
the "Steeple n' Nod"- steeple fingers togather while leaning forward and nod head rhythmically, constantly.
the "Six-inch stand" or the "Smell"- stand six inches away from massive presentation boards and stare at it intently in the middle of the presentation.
the "Step n' Slide"- for a reviewer shifting from the "six inch stand" position, the correct motion is to step back with one foot to the side around the model, and SLIIIIIIDE the other foot around.
the "Pick n' Peek" -reviewer lifts model, peeks into it, turns it around, peeks some more.
the "half-stand and point" - reviewers assume a half-standing, half-sitting posture with the body bent and the arm and forefinger extended to indicate some interruptive point.
the "Squat n' Squint" -reviewer squats down to view the model from eye level, squinting with one eyebrow raised.
the "Mute Lean" -reviewer leans back in chair with hand placed thoughtfully on chin or over mouth, says nothing.
the "Ping-Pong" -reviewer looks back and forth between project and boards or student and boards quickly and regularly. A variant is the up-and-down.
These may be too much of in-jokes, but anyone who'se ever been in architecture school will immediately recognize these. My last day at this job will be next Tuesday.
May 1, 2006
economic and non-innovative
Review went as expected, athough the head of the department was a no-show (so sorry, S----). They told me everything I knew: good economy and thoughtfullness of construction and materials, an economy of gestures, very feasable, but totally lacking in openness to the outside and completely non-innovative in my structure. I had probably one of the best reviews in the class according to my classmates. Flipping through my notebook, I tried to discern where the project began to die. I'm not going to go into it now, its too soon after the review and I need some distance before I really get into the plus/deltas. All in all, I'd say this entire 8 week project has been a failed opportunity.
Is it pride to be dissatisfied with my project, while others regard it as superior to thier own? It is wrong to have your ego such that you hold yourself to a higher standard? Or to assume that you hold yourself to a higher standard?
I finished my model last night at 2 am and got 4.5 hours of sleep. Felt fine after popping a chocolate covered expresso bean. We have our final exam in history in three days, so I'm going to study tonight.
Is it pride to be dissatisfied with my project, while others regard it as superior to thier own? It is wrong to have your ego such that you hold yourself to a higher standard? Or to assume that you hold yourself to a higher standard?
I finished my model last night at 2 am and got 4.5 hours of sleep. Felt fine after popping a chocolate covered expresso bean. We have our final exam in history in three days, so I'm going to study tonight.
Apr 30, 2006
Break
Last night after a failed attempt a nap in studio, I started working on the final model. I'm making it out of my old study model since it involves a considerable amount of cardboard in the base. After looking at the other people's boards in studio, I felt ashamed of my boards, both in the quality of the computer renderings and in the sophistication of the layout. Looking at the boards, it really depressed me of where my project ended up. I think I had a really interesting conceptual framework which I didn't defend as strongly as I should have, and I think I lost a significiant opportunity. I feel very frustrated because this project had the potential to be something really sublime, and I didn't have the strength or the ability to really bring it to its fullest potential. The floorplan is workable, the main gesture is strong, but the details and how it interfaces the fence- the core of the the project concept- is BORING and CONVENTIONAL and TRITE. My peers think I'm not giving myself enough credit, and they say they like my boards. It's probably significant that I'm presenting first- my presentation is usually confident and professional- I'm the employee of the month in S----'s Architecture Office of Architecture Students. I realized today that he's running this class like a mini firm.
This paradigm has several significant implications- first off, he sees himself as the prinicpal rather than the instructor, and thus views our work in terms of his office, pushing his designs on our work. He's also going to be viewing our work from a very practical standpoint rather than theoretical. I think its much more important for students to focus on concept and idea. We'll get plenty of mundane reality in our internships and jobs. I also learned today that that head of of architecture division will be one of the reviewers for the first group. No wonder S---- has his favorites presenting first.
Anyway, back to last night, all this stuff is going through my head, I'm very tired, irrtiable, and dissapointed. I decide to call it a night, as soon I'm worried that I'll begin to take it out on the model. (who wants to work on something they hate? natural quality comes from working on something you love.) So I went home, showered, grabbed a bowl of chili and a beer, and plopped on the couch and watched a little tube. Afterwards, I went to bed, planning on getting 6 hours of sleep. Six hours later, I reset my alarm for another sleep cycle. At the end of that one, I got up and set again. So I got 9 hours of sleep last night. Woke up feeling better about my project, thinking about all the positive things about it, the really cool views you get, etc. Came back to studio and been working on my model and the BS boards we have to do (OUR studio was assigned two extra 30x40 boards to do). So now those are all printed out, and now all that remains is the model.
Dr. Morton brought us a big carton of strawberries and grapes from the big faculty gathering today. We've really been fortunate to have this guy teach us. I've never had a professor bring food to people in studio.
Studio is very tense and edgy right now. People are frustrated, extremely sleep deprived, humorless, absolutely stressed out to the max. People are quick to take offence and our studio is especially pissed off at our instructor for the BS work we have to do. Too many people are still laying out thier boards on the computer. The school printer opens at 8 AM tomorrow and reviews start at 9 AM. Anyway, I havn't though at all about what I'm going to say at my review. I'll have to meditate on it tonight. Back to the model.
Once more, I can't believe its been a year. A year ago, I was getting ready to go to Europe with Chase. A year of such intensity and experiance, exhileranting, and crushing. What will I think when I look back on it in twenty years time? Relief to have a more stable life? Nostalgia for the studio and the architecture student life? Regret for opportunities missed? Longing for simpler, less stressful times?
Anyway, back to model making.
This paradigm has several significant implications- first off, he sees himself as the prinicpal rather than the instructor, and thus views our work in terms of his office, pushing his designs on our work. He's also going to be viewing our work from a very practical standpoint rather than theoretical. I think its much more important for students to focus on concept and idea. We'll get plenty of mundane reality in our internships and jobs. I also learned today that that head of of architecture division will be one of the reviewers for the first group. No wonder S---- has his favorites presenting first.
Anyway, back to last night, all this stuff is going through my head, I'm very tired, irrtiable, and dissapointed. I decide to call it a night, as soon I'm worried that I'll begin to take it out on the model. (who wants to work on something they hate? natural quality comes from working on something you love.) So I went home, showered, grabbed a bowl of chili and a beer, and plopped on the couch and watched a little tube. Afterwards, I went to bed, planning on getting 6 hours of sleep. Six hours later, I reset my alarm for another sleep cycle. At the end of that one, I got up and set again. So I got 9 hours of sleep last night. Woke up feeling better about my project, thinking about all the positive things about it, the really cool views you get, etc. Came back to studio and been working on my model and the BS boards we have to do (OUR studio was assigned two extra 30x40 boards to do). So now those are all printed out, and now all that remains is the model.
Dr. Morton brought us a big carton of strawberries and grapes from the big faculty gathering today. We've really been fortunate to have this guy teach us. I've never had a professor bring food to people in studio.
Studio is very tense and edgy right now. People are frustrated, extremely sleep deprived, humorless, absolutely stressed out to the max. People are quick to take offence and our studio is especially pissed off at our instructor for the BS work we have to do. Too many people are still laying out thier boards on the computer. The school printer opens at 8 AM tomorrow and reviews start at 9 AM. Anyway, I havn't though at all about what I'm going to say at my review. I'll have to meditate on it tonight. Back to the model.
Once more, I can't believe its been a year. A year ago, I was getting ready to go to Europe with Chase. A year of such intensity and experiance, exhileranting, and crushing. What will I think when I look back on it in twenty years time? Relief to have a more stable life? Nostalgia for the studio and the architecture student life? Regret for opportunities missed? Longing for simpler, less stressful times?
Anyway, back to model making.
Apr 29, 2006
24
Last night, I ended up stopping work on studio stuff at 6 AM. A full 24 hours before that I got up to go meet my mentor. I hate going to bed when its begining to get light, it just feels wrong. Anyway, got up at 9 AM again and went in to studio. It's around 5:30 PM right now, and I'm having my 4 20"x 20" boards printed upstairs in the print lab. We're all walking zombies around here, its not even funny. We all talk slowly because we need the time to formulate what we're trying to say. I'm actually relatively ahead of the game as most people are still laying out thier boards. I need to pick up some foamcore to mount my posters, but I may wait until monday to do that. I still have a model to make and the other two boards to do. The model shouldn;t be too bad. I'm just going to do a massing model from an earlier iteration that I have out of cardboard and chipboard. I might do the steel out of basswood though, which shouldn't be too bad. The other two boards we have to do I can fill with gratiuitous sections, plans, site plan, etc. It's a gratuitious requirement that none of the other studios have to fulfill. I'll print that off tomorrow I think or later tonight.
While I'm on the topic, our studio instructor gave us the list of presentation order for monday. Before he handed it out, he talked about the need for us to pin up our class site analysis work and emphasized that he'd help us pin it up. I got the distinct impression that he views this class as his office, and himself as the principal. He was very interested in making a good impression on the reviewers. My suspicions were confirmed with the presentation order. Out of the first group of five to present, four are his favorite students with projects he really likes. And I'm the first in line. On the one hand, its a bigger challenge as I have to do a good job of conveying the site and circumstances to the reviewers. The positive is that I get it out of the way first and can spend the next 8 hours relaxing, listening, and sketching other students.
While I'm on the topic, our studio instructor gave us the list of presentation order for monday. Before he handed it out, he talked about the need for us to pin up our class site analysis work and emphasized that he'd help us pin it up. I got the distinct impression that he views this class as his office, and himself as the principal. He was very interested in making a good impression on the reviewers. My suspicions were confirmed with the presentation order. Out of the first group of five to present, four are his favorite students with projects he really likes. And I'm the first in line. On the one hand, its a bigger challenge as I have to do a good job of conveying the site and circumstances to the reviewers. The positive is that I get it out of the way first and can spend the next 8 hours relaxing, listening, and sketching other students.
Apr 28, 2006
Apr 27, 2006
Use the Force, Mr. Sulu
I'm working in the library, letting my laptop run comptuer renderings for my final boards due monday. The library has a reading room which has a glass wall overlooking the basement gathering area known as red square. I walked to this window and peered down. Several gay and lesbian organizations had set up tables and booths with a few staffers sitting and talking. I immediately notice one person is wearing very hairy pants, and it takes me a moment to realize that its a person in a Chewbacca costume with a dress shirt and tie. And then Darth Vader walks into my field of view.
There was apparently a lecture downstairs and I checked back again when I heard people coming out after the lecture ended. I look down onto a long line of people. There is a flash of light, and someone has just taken a picture of two people, both holding up the "Live Long and Prosper" sign. It's the guy who used to play Mr. Sulu on Star Trek, signing autographs and taking pictures with fans.
Otherwise it's a quiet evening here in the library. Today's edible benefits are a large stack of oreos in the breakroom/workroom. I eat a few. They're good for some quick energy, but I've never regained my taste for them after a friend compared the filling to crisco with sugar.
The Project is in the rendering stage. I'm trying to capture the best shots of my project in the computer model so that translates to a lot of rendering. The software is great at rendering- my water looks amazing- but the complex calculations of rays, incident light, shadow calculations, etc. chews up a ton of processing. I wish I had one of those high end gaming latops. They're specially designed to process graphics quickly and crunch those radiosity numbers. After I get a few more images, its on to revising my boards.
For the school, we're required to have 4 20"x20" posters on posterboard. And a model. And 2 30"x40" boards with our plans and sections on them. So this means I'll be spending some money this weekend. On top of that, I need to study for my history final this upcoming thursday. And structures is shortly after that.
Today I picked up a student bus pass. As an ASU student I can ride free all over the Phoenix metro area. The only downside is I have to ride the bus. Tomorrow I'm going to go on a test ride out to my mentor's office. There's a direct route which picks up a block from the apartment and drops me pretty much right at thier door. The only catch is that it takes about an hour. I can drive there myself in half that time, but with morning traffic on the freeway, it may be up to 45 minutes to downtown Phoenix. Plus, if I'm going to be doing this all summer, that adds up to a lot of gas and ASU doesn't have "fill up free" cards. It would also be nice to do something for the enviornment. Anyway, going to see how this works out, so I may present my findings via videoblog.
I've discovered that for me there is a direct correlation between feelings of parionia and how much sleep I get at night. I'm getting enough, but I can definately sense the change when I'm cutting back hours. Tonight will be a late/early night too, as I want to get a new set of boards laid out for my mentor to critique before I get them printed.
I may have found someone to watch Suki- a classmate of mine is recently married and they're going to be here next semester. They just have to look into the pet policy of whatever place they're going to move.
But back to work.
There was apparently a lecture downstairs and I checked back again when I heard people coming out after the lecture ended. I look down onto a long line of people. There is a flash of light, and someone has just taken a picture of two people, both holding up the "Live Long and Prosper" sign. It's the guy who used to play Mr. Sulu on Star Trek, signing autographs and taking pictures with fans.
Otherwise it's a quiet evening here in the library. Today's edible benefits are a large stack of oreos in the breakroom/workroom. I eat a few. They're good for some quick energy, but I've never regained my taste for them after a friend compared the filling to crisco with sugar.
The Project is in the rendering stage. I'm trying to capture the best shots of my project in the computer model so that translates to a lot of rendering. The software is great at rendering- my water looks amazing- but the complex calculations of rays, incident light, shadow calculations, etc. chews up a ton of processing. I wish I had one of those high end gaming latops. They're specially designed to process graphics quickly and crunch those radiosity numbers. After I get a few more images, its on to revising my boards.
For the school, we're required to have 4 20"x20" posters on posterboard. And a model. And 2 30"x40" boards with our plans and sections on them. So this means I'll be spending some money this weekend. On top of that, I need to study for my history final this upcoming thursday. And structures is shortly after that.
Today I picked up a student bus pass. As an ASU student I can ride free all over the Phoenix metro area. The only downside is I have to ride the bus. Tomorrow I'm going to go on a test ride out to my mentor's office. There's a direct route which picks up a block from the apartment and drops me pretty much right at thier door. The only catch is that it takes about an hour. I can drive there myself in half that time, but with morning traffic on the freeway, it may be up to 45 minutes to downtown Phoenix. Plus, if I'm going to be doing this all summer, that adds up to a lot of gas and ASU doesn't have "fill up free" cards. It would also be nice to do something for the enviornment. Anyway, going to see how this works out, so I may present my findings via videoblog.
I've discovered that for me there is a direct correlation between feelings of parionia and how much sleep I get at night. I'm getting enough, but I can definately sense the change when I'm cutting back hours. Tonight will be a late/early night too, as I want to get a new set of boards laid out for my mentor to critique before I get them printed.
I may have found someone to watch Suki- a classmate of mine is recently married and they're going to be here next semester. They just have to look into the pet policy of whatever place they're going to move.
But back to work.
Apr 26, 2006
"We're all in the same boat, but mine is sinking"
Busy morning. Ran over to the International program office and dropped off some paperwork and a photocopy of my passport. Then went to the bank to see if the Western Mutual people had released the hold on the money I tried to send through thier website. They hadn't so I still need to call them since it was cancelled. Presented my material on Rogelio Salmona in class today, presentation went fairly well. This was only a sort of demonstration of where you are on the material and the approach you're taking on the 16 page paper due may 8th (Yikes! got some interesting research but nothing on paper yet!) Perhaps I should get started on that. Like really really soon. We had a short class today since our Argentinean professor was selected to give a presentation to a visiting delegation of Chinese from a Chinese Institute of Science and Arts. I told him to say "Ni Hao". He was really nervous about it too since HE still needed to work out his introductory remarks. The above quote is his. English is his second language, and he's thoughly enjoying playing with it.
Anyway, in architecture hist we're finally catching up to the present- opening with Renzo Piano's work in Paris with the Centre Pompidou and Robert Venturi. He asked if anyone had been to visit it, and I raised my hand and told the class about how Chase and I were wandering around and stumbled on it past midnight. Anyway, last class is thursday and then the final exam is one week from that day.
Our architecture projects final review is this monday. Yes, you heard me right, its due in five days. I'm really not that thrilled with how its turned out. I've got some interesting gestures, but its very conventional construction, and the big selling point is that it breaks the fence between the school and the park, but it does't do it that well. I should have stuck with the canyon idea, and blow off whatever the studio instructor said.
I had one teacher who as a studnet would work on two projects concurrently- one to distract the teacher and one of his own radical invention to be shown at the presentation. Wish I had that kind of time.
The housing issue is coming togather, I think Aldo Estrada, one of my Buenos Aire roomies, may come to live with me at the apartment here after Ben moves out at the end of May. I'll assume Ben's rent and the electric and Aldo will just pay me. Still no takers on Suki yet. Worried about that.
This semester has been like a master juggler throwing up dozens up plates high into the air: now they're all coming down and I have to be manuverable and plan well enough to break as few as possible trying to catch them all and bring this thing to a close.
Got really good feedback on the video. Maybe I'll make that a weekend update kind of thing. Maybe I can play with the quality of output on my end so it actually looks I'm talking in this one. Maybe suki will have an on screen cameow.
(groans all around).
Anyway, in architecture hist we're finally catching up to the present- opening with Renzo Piano's work in Paris with the Centre Pompidou and Robert Venturi. He asked if anyone had been to visit it, and I raised my hand and told the class about how Chase and I were wandering around and stumbled on it past midnight. Anyway, last class is thursday and then the final exam is one week from that day.
Our architecture projects final review is this monday. Yes, you heard me right, its due in five days. I'm really not that thrilled with how its turned out. I've got some interesting gestures, but its very conventional construction, and the big selling point is that it breaks the fence between the school and the park, but it does't do it that well. I should have stuck with the canyon idea, and blow off whatever the studio instructor said.
I had one teacher who as a studnet would work on two projects concurrently- one to distract the teacher and one of his own radical invention to be shown at the presentation. Wish I had that kind of time.
The housing issue is coming togather, I think Aldo Estrada, one of my Buenos Aire roomies, may come to live with me at the apartment here after Ben moves out at the end of May. I'll assume Ben's rent and the electric and Aldo will just pay me. Still no takers on Suki yet. Worried about that.
This semester has been like a master juggler throwing up dozens up plates high into the air: now they're all coming down and I have to be manuverable and plan well enough to break as few as possible trying to catch them all and bring this thing to a close.
Got really good feedback on the video. Maybe I'll make that a weekend update kind of thing. Maybe I can play with the quality of output on my end so it actually looks I'm talking in this one. Maybe suki will have an on screen cameow.
(groans all around).
Apr 24, 2006
Apr 23, 2006
Apr 19, 2006
checking in
Got up after three hours of sleep and decided that I needed an extra sleep cycle. Went back down for another hour and a half before getting up and getting back to work with the computer model. Got some more interior shots and decided to call it good as studio came closer. Did a quick layout of my 4 20"x20" boards and took my laptop to school to print them out on our class plotter. It was broken. And so was the printer in the computer lab. Ended up printing a half sized version on a friends printer he'd brougt into class and just pinning that up. Our studio had a pretty pathetic pin up for this first round. We've just had no time for anything. Our final final final review is May 1st. Anyway, I ditched studio after talking with Steve and went home to eat something at five. Biked back to school at six for the Glenn Murcutt lecture. Murcutt is an Pritzker Prize-winning architect (the most prestigious award in architecture) from Australia who is about 7o years old. He runs his office out of his basement and his coworker is his wife. They do EVERYTHING from site surveying down to the electrical plans and gutter detailing for the design. And they do it all BY HAND. His works are heavily influenced by the designs of Mies van der Rohe, but combine them with a planar sensibility and organicism of Wright. Prett cool stuff actually. The only thing is that since its just him and his wife, he takes YEARS to finish designs. He's an interesting and especially provokative lecturer, criticizing everything from Starchitects to LEED certificiation. Very compelling ideologically, with definately strong social progressive overtones. Maybe I've just been too accustomed to american conservativism. Anyway, he lectured for three hours without break so there were no questions at the end.
It was fun before the thing started, as the lecture hall was packed with a varitable who's who of Phoenix Architects including Will Bruder and a bunch of other architects I've seen at major architecture functions. Of course all my archtiecture professors, past and present were also in attendance. Every seat was filled.
Afterwards, I went home, had some of Sally's leftovers, and watched part of Alien3 before begining this blog. I still have so much research to do for next tuesday, and our studio teacher wants another print out of our 20 x 20 boards for monday.
Even items on my list have thier own lists now.
Time for bed. I can't even think clearly anymore.
It was fun before the thing started, as the lecture hall was packed with a varitable who's who of Phoenix Architects including Will Bruder and a bunch of other architects I've seen at major architecture functions. Of course all my archtiecture professors, past and present were also in attendance. Every seat was filled.
Afterwards, I went home, had some of Sally's leftovers, and watched part of Alien3 before begining this blog. I still have so much research to do for next tuesday, and our studio teacher wants another print out of our 20 x 20 boards for monday.
Even items on my list have thier own lists now.
Time for bed. I can't even think clearly anymore.
Wednesday, Either Way too Late or Way too early.
Sunday night got three hours of sleep, monday night I got 4.5 hours, tonight I'm getting 3 hours. All comptuer modeling. We have to have 4 20x20 boards for tomorrow's class which I hanv't even started. Plan it out in the morning I guess before studio. There's a special tutoring session I really need to go to at 10:30 AM tomorrow before studio too that I really should go to, regardless of what I have done for studio. I've never been this unprepared for studio in the past semesters. Thank God Steve loves my work and ideas. Bleh. At least I'll be able to recoup some sleep deficit tonight.
Apr 18, 2006
Blazing Sun: The Music Issue
Been listening to a lof new music lately. Some recommended by friends, some just from exploration on my own. A friend told me about a website called Pandora. Pandora is an extention of the Music Genome Project which undertook to analyze music by tonality, beat, charactersitics, vocals, etc. Basically, you start by entering the name of a song or artist you like, and then it begins playing either that song or artist at first, followed by songs or bands similar to the one you selected based on those internal characteristics. It saves your "stations" and as you either give it thumbs up or down, learns your musical preferances. It's completely free, runs right off the webpage, and seems to stream music of pretty high quality. I find it works best to use only one artist/track as the "source."
I recently rediscovered Bush and have been trying to get my hands on more of thier music. Maybe its the grungy vocals and harsh guitars.
At school, everyone on the building network who is using iTunes simultaneously can see and play each other's music. I've browsed a bit, listening to more indie artists like Yo La Tengo, and Death Cab for Cutie. I like the latter one better, although its very quiet music. I was lucky to find someone had the music from Triplets of Belleville, with its french jazz.
Also enjoying some Norah Jones and early Alicia Keys. Found a ton of Enya, which is nice for a change of pace. All this new age and jazz- must be the stress.
A friend introduced me to Imogen Heap who have some unsual distorted electronic vocals in their "Hide and Seek."
Beck is also pretty cool. Especially thier Guero album. Kind of reminds me of Pedro The Lion with a little harder sound with the electric guitars and a hint of Mexico.
Speaking of which, the Colombian artist Juanes has some good music, especially "La Camisa Negra" and "A Dios le pido."
Other music I'm listening to: Muse, Aphex Twin, Franz Ferdinand's new album, New Order (Crystal is a great track), Steven Lynch, and other assorted trip-hop, electronica, alternative, and grunge.
I recently rediscovered Bush and have been trying to get my hands on more of thier music. Maybe its the grungy vocals and harsh guitars.
At school, everyone on the building network who is using iTunes simultaneously can see and play each other's music. I've browsed a bit, listening to more indie artists like Yo La Tengo, and Death Cab for Cutie. I like the latter one better, although its very quiet music. I was lucky to find someone had the music from Triplets of Belleville, with its french jazz.
Also enjoying some Norah Jones and early Alicia Keys. Found a ton of Enya, which is nice for a change of pace. All this new age and jazz- must be the stress.
A friend introduced me to Imogen Heap who have some unsual distorted electronic vocals in their "Hide and Seek."
Beck is also pretty cool. Especially thier Guero album. Kind of reminds me of Pedro The Lion with a little harder sound with the electric guitars and a hint of Mexico.
Speaking of which, the Colombian artist Juanes has some good music, especially "La Camisa Negra" and "A Dios le pido."
Other music I'm listening to: Muse, Aphex Twin, Franz Ferdinand's new album, New Order (Crystal is a great track), Steven Lynch, and other assorted trip-hop, electronica, alternative, and grunge.
Apr 17, 2006
SNAFU
Last few days same as usual.
Strange, wonderful, frustrating, and busy. I can't even remember what I did friday. The entire day is blank slate to me. Maybe I'll remember by the end of the post. Saturday afternoon I went to the the Arizona Science Center. For my history of architecture class, we have to write a paper for monday between 4-6 pages. The subject is unusual, not sure if I've mentioned it before. We have have to write as a famous old architect about a more contemporary work, using thier opinions and eyes to analyze it.
Took me awhile to figure out what to do with it, as its a glaringly open topic. I decided to become Sir Christopher Wren, London's most famous architect of old (designed st.Pauls), critiquing Predock's Arizona Science Center. The tie is that Wren was one of the last Renaissance men, who was the Chair of Astronomy at Oxford, invented blood transfusions, documented the anatomy of the eye and the phsyiological features of optics, and was the first to draw microorganisms with the help of his friend Robert Hooke. I figured it would be fun to have a foundng member of the Royal Society critiquing a center to promote interest in science.
Predock, the architect, has a background as a painter, and so its also interesting to see how they would react to each other, neither architects by primary means or education, the painter and the scientist.
Anyway, the paper's taking forever to write. Got a good bit out this afternoon at work, but its slow going as I'm trying to capture the essence and language of the time. Here's a bit from the beginning. I decided to structure it as a letter to Robert Hooke from Wren:
This twenty-first Centurie is a Miraculous one indeed! I am still becoming accustomed to these small letterd Buttons from which this Text appears as if Magick. I trust you are well in Paris. I long to visit this Pasteur Institute, but they would think me mad if I told them that I was the first to doccument their tiny Animacules. I am greatly releaved to find the City much the same as I left it, its Grand Architecture still whole over these Years.
And so on.
Anyway, the forward-thinking people got it mostly finished before the weekend so they would be able focus on the assignment for today in studio. We were to have 4 taboid spreads mocking up presentation boards, with views of a 3d model. The Science center took a few hours to get through and doccument (althogh my camera wont read or recognize cards anymore, so I need to take it in ASAP and get it fixed) so I did some sketches and took a lot of notes in the character of Wren. Not as much fun as I remember it being when I went a long time ago when we lived in Phoenix. So didn't get much done on paper that day.
Sunday, Sally and Jonathan invited me over for Easter dinner with more of thier family. Had some really great ham and I left totally stuffed. But not empty handed. Sally saddled me up with four grocery sacks of food to take home, including several complete bag dinners, cheesecake, cherry filling, artichoke dip, crackers, a big bag of rolls and fresh homemade strawberry jam. I brought over a bottle of wine, and some easter eggs filled with Jelly beans for Sara and Gabriel. Wore my pastel striped dress shirt. Havn't worn it since Easter with Jen's folks a year ago. Feels like a lot longer than a year has passed.
Anyway, so the long and short of it was that I gave up on my paper at three pages, only about one of which is really useful as information. I sat down at my computer to begin modeling at 7 PM Sunday night.
Ah yes, Friday, I went grocery shopping with Ben because we were out of food again, and then all afternoon and evening I spend studying and cleaning and organizing my room and stuff. I've started a goodwill pile with is slowly growing. That evening after Ben went out with friends to the bar, Ian, a friend of ours from 4th year dropped by looking for them. We talked for a bit, and he told me that in 4th year people were being called for using Sketchup for doing thier final renderings. It's great for concept and development, but it really does look cartoony, so FormZ it was. FormZ has a great rendering engine, but its uncomfortably halfway between AutoCad and Sketchup. My copy also keeps crashing on me. It must have a Catch-22 bug. I save often to avoid losing my latest work but saving sometimes causes the program to crash and when it crashes while saving, the entire file is wiped clean. I ended up just making tons of copies using Save As. Saving twice in a row so if it crashed and wiped at the next save I'd have a secondary backup. Anyway, that was very frustraing to say the least and I eneded up making the same set of trusses at least four times.
Ended up working until 4 AM, or nine hours straight. Went to bed for three hours of sleep and got up to continue work at 7 AM. Went into studio since I needed to reprint some autocad site plans and worked from there. That morning, i took images from the model and from the floorplans and converted them to formats I could use in my boards. Got four boards laid out and exported to PDFs for printing at 1: 10 PM, and walked out to the computer lab next door. Printer was broken so I walked back and noticed that in the last five minutes someone had posted a sign.
Studio had been cancelled for today. Nobody believed it. We all waited another five minutes and then EVERYONE split, probably to finish their history of architecture papers. I spent a few hours working some more on my computer model and then went to work down in the library. In the library I got another page or two pounded out on my paper.
Got a call from my supervisor asking me to ask a coworker to give more notice when she can't make her shifts. My supervisor can no longer get doctors appointments because he's had to cancel so often due to people being sick at work. He's up to six cancellations I believe. Not sure why he called me to ask her. Usually he's pretty direct and up front. My guess is he's feeling a lot of pressure right now and just had to do something. He wasn't unpleasnant, and commended me for my good track record of letting him know when I can't make it, but he just seemd really irate in general.
Anyway, here I am at 11:37 PM. I knew I'd remember my Friday night, although it was hardly memorable.
Strange, wonderful, frustrating, and busy. I can't even remember what I did friday. The entire day is blank slate to me. Maybe I'll remember by the end of the post. Saturday afternoon I went to the the Arizona Science Center. For my history of architecture class, we have to write a paper for monday between 4-6 pages. The subject is unusual, not sure if I've mentioned it before. We have have to write as a famous old architect about a more contemporary work, using thier opinions and eyes to analyze it.
Took me awhile to figure out what to do with it, as its a glaringly open topic. I decided to become Sir Christopher Wren, London's most famous architect of old (designed st.Pauls), critiquing Predock's Arizona Science Center. The tie is that Wren was one of the last Renaissance men, who was the Chair of Astronomy at Oxford, invented blood transfusions, documented the anatomy of the eye and the phsyiological features of optics, and was the first to draw microorganisms with the help of his friend Robert Hooke. I figured it would be fun to have a foundng member of the Royal Society critiquing a center to promote interest in science.
Predock, the architect, has a background as a painter, and so its also interesting to see how they would react to each other, neither architects by primary means or education, the painter and the scientist.
Anyway, the paper's taking forever to write. Got a good bit out this afternoon at work, but its slow going as I'm trying to capture the essence and language of the time. Here's a bit from the beginning. I decided to structure it as a letter to Robert Hooke from Wren:
This twenty-first Centurie is a Miraculous one indeed! I am still becoming accustomed to these small letterd Buttons from which this Text appears as if Magick. I trust you are well in Paris. I long to visit this Pasteur Institute, but they would think me mad if I told them that I was the first to doccument their tiny Animacules. I am greatly releaved to find the City much the same as I left it, its Grand Architecture still whole over these Years.
And so on.
Anyway, the forward-thinking people got it mostly finished before the weekend so they would be able focus on the assignment for today in studio. We were to have 4 taboid spreads mocking up presentation boards, with views of a 3d model. The Science center took a few hours to get through and doccument (althogh my camera wont read or recognize cards anymore, so I need to take it in ASAP and get it fixed) so I did some sketches and took a lot of notes in the character of Wren. Not as much fun as I remember it being when I went a long time ago when we lived in Phoenix. So didn't get much done on paper that day.
Sunday, Sally and Jonathan invited me over for Easter dinner with more of thier family. Had some really great ham and I left totally stuffed. But not empty handed. Sally saddled me up with four grocery sacks of food to take home, including several complete bag dinners, cheesecake, cherry filling, artichoke dip, crackers, a big bag of rolls and fresh homemade strawberry jam. I brought over a bottle of wine, and some easter eggs filled with Jelly beans for Sara and Gabriel. Wore my pastel striped dress shirt. Havn't worn it since Easter with Jen's folks a year ago. Feels like a lot longer than a year has passed.
Anyway, so the long and short of it was that I gave up on my paper at three pages, only about one of which is really useful as information. I sat down at my computer to begin modeling at 7 PM Sunday night.
Ah yes, Friday, I went grocery shopping with Ben because we were out of food again, and then all afternoon and evening I spend studying and cleaning and organizing my room and stuff. I've started a goodwill pile with is slowly growing. That evening after Ben went out with friends to the bar, Ian, a friend of ours from 4th year dropped by looking for them. We talked for a bit, and he told me that in 4th year people were being called for using Sketchup for doing thier final renderings. It's great for concept and development, but it really does look cartoony, so FormZ it was. FormZ has a great rendering engine, but its uncomfortably halfway between AutoCad and Sketchup. My copy also keeps crashing on me. It must have a Catch-22 bug. I save often to avoid losing my latest work but saving sometimes causes the program to crash and when it crashes while saving, the entire file is wiped clean. I ended up just making tons of copies using Save As. Saving twice in a row so if it crashed and wiped at the next save I'd have a secondary backup. Anyway, that was very frustraing to say the least and I eneded up making the same set of trusses at least four times.
Ended up working until 4 AM, or nine hours straight. Went to bed for three hours of sleep and got up to continue work at 7 AM. Went into studio since I needed to reprint some autocad site plans and worked from there. That morning, i took images from the model and from the floorplans and converted them to formats I could use in my boards. Got four boards laid out and exported to PDFs for printing at 1: 10 PM, and walked out to the computer lab next door. Printer was broken so I walked back and noticed that in the last five minutes someone had posted a sign.
Studio had been cancelled for today. Nobody believed it. We all waited another five minutes and then EVERYONE split, probably to finish their history of architecture papers. I spent a few hours working some more on my computer model and then went to work down in the library. In the library I got another page or two pounded out on my paper.
Got a call from my supervisor asking me to ask a coworker to give more notice when she can't make her shifts. My supervisor can no longer get doctors appointments because he's had to cancel so often due to people being sick at work. He's up to six cancellations I believe. Not sure why he called me to ask her. Usually he's pretty direct and up front. My guess is he's feeling a lot of pressure right now and just had to do something. He wasn't unpleasnant, and commended me for my good track record of letting him know when I can't make it, but he just seemd really irate in general.
Anyway, here I am at 11:37 PM. I knew I'd remember my Friday night, although it was hardly memorable.
Apr 13, 2006
Hola, Buenos Aires
Today was the announcement of the winner of the $3000 travel scholarship. I guessed before we even had our interviews that Jamie would win, and I was right. So I will not be going to Japan this fall. However, before announcng the winner, last years winner gave a presentation on what he did. The four of us were all sitting togather, and each one us had really selfish proposals benefiting only our education. This guy went to South Africa to design and build shelters. For childeren and people suffering of HIV/AIDS. Had a really interesting presentation with lots of good pictures, some of which were difficult to look at due to the graphic nature of the reality of daily life down there. Anyway, Jamie won - she's going to use the money to take excoursions from Barcelona during her internship there with Enric Miralles studio. No hard feelings, I was actualy not sure what I'd do if I won as it comes right between internship and Buenos Aires. She's coming to BA, too, literally right after her intership in Barcelona. I don't envy her schedule. We're going to be roomates in Buenos Aires along with our friend Aldo (actually pretty much everyone is friends or aquaintances in this program). Jamie was in my stuido last semester, and Aldo sits across from me in studio now. Aldo grew up in Mexico city, and Jamie is minoring in it, so I've good language resources living with me.
Tonight after the presentation, we looked at apartments online. Our program coordinator talked to a leasing agency there and got us some great deals on apartments near the school. We looked them over and pickd this one as our top choice. On the sheet he gave us, he listed the price as $940 a month, considering how long we'll be there. It's only 2 bedroom, but its 1125 sq ft, and an amazing balcony and location. The price also includes weekly maid service, all our utilities, furnature, etc. Here's the listing.
Tonight I sent an email asking our contact there to hold the place for us if it is truly $940 a month. If not, there's a slightly smaller apartment for about the same price as our second choice. Anyway, I'm gettng really excited about this whole thing. The part of town this is near the historic center, the really trendy old town with the cutting edge clubs and stores, and this area is noted for its internaitonal cuisine, apparently the food center of the city, with the most parks. Oh man. Just got to get everything in order here.
Tonight after the presentation, we looked at apartments online. Our program coordinator talked to a leasing agency there and got us some great deals on apartments near the school. We looked them over and pickd this one as our top choice. On the sheet he gave us, he listed the price as $940 a month, considering how long we'll be there. It's only 2 bedroom, but its 1125 sq ft, and an amazing balcony and location. The price also includes weekly maid service, all our utilities, furnature, etc. Here's the listing.
Tonight I sent an email asking our contact there to hold the place for us if it is truly $940 a month. If not, there's a slightly smaller apartment for about the same price as our second choice. Anyway, I'm gettng really excited about this whole thing. The part of town this is near the historic center, the really trendy old town with the cutting edge clubs and stores, and this area is noted for its internaitonal cuisine, apparently the food center of the city, with the most parks. Oh man. Just got to get everything in order here.
Apr 11, 2006
Pylon (it's a long post, get it?)
Feeling a little more upbeat last two days. I abandoned my research topic in Latin American design which was getting me nowhere and so now I'm researching a Colombian architect by the name of R. Salmona. A lot more material and a lot more interesting. So decided that monday. After fighting with the CAD program for hours over the weekend and struggling to get my plan and sections printed on the big sheets, my studio instructor pulled out my hand-inked wall section to show the class the level of detail we were supposed to be working at. Poster boy Alec once again. I feel like Vanna White. Anyway, he's really enthused about the direction I'm working in and I think I've got a pretty good handle on it. Should be able to fine tune it with the 3d computer model I'm building in sketchup and a bit more cleaning up the plan. Monday night was also Molly's 21st birthday, so after work Ben and I walked to the Irish pub Rula Bula at midnight. We met a few of our friends from studio there and then Molly showed up with her party entourage along with David, the constant DD. There were at least 20 people there, mostly friends from studio and from thier house, and the only one who didn't enjoy himself was the bartender who (although he sold quite a few Irish car bombs and many pints of Guiness) had been expecting a quiet evening. Ben and I took off about 1, the same time Molly called it quits for the evening, and I got to bed around 2 walking back.
At 7:40 my mentor woke me up because he explained that he had to talk to some laywers at the office when I'd emailed him planning on coming in. I got up and told him I'd be there at 9. Shower, Corn Pops, collared shirt, slacks, belt, Suki, keys. Also drawings I'd picked up passing studio on the way home from the pub the night before. Traffic was bad, so it took me 45 minutes to get to the office, so I arrived right on schedule. I showed my mentor my floorplan, and sketched out the concept. He gave me some advice on materials and acoustics, like the scheme I'd developed, and recommended some projects to take a look at for further reference and inspiration.
Drove back home, hopped on my bike and hit the library to see what I could find on Salmona. The answer is not much, but enough for a decent paper, especailly after I found an entire book on his projects and work. I sailed through the architectual periodical incidies and found the bound periodicals I needed with no trouble. There are some definate advantages to working at the library. Only problem was some of the best periodical articles were MIA so I may have to try to find them online. There's really not a whole lot of American writing on him as he's a Colombian architect, and assumably its difficult for Americans to tavel to Colombia and evaluate his projects, so I tend to rely on spanish, german, and italian articles with thier english translations.
Another gorgeous day today. Not sure if there's anyplace nicer to be in the early spring than the valley. Just a hint of the heat at a high of 83 today. It will probably be an unusually infernal summer with the radical weather changes lately. All the paloverde trees are in full bloom with thier brilliant gold explosions. For some reason, my camera keeps getting card read errors so I cant take pictures. I'll have to look into that. Hopefully it will go away as its happened to it before.
I have a five page paper due next tuesday for history of architecture I've read five pages for, and the latin american design paper is due a week after that. Finals begins the 4th, although the only final I have to worry about is structures, and we're doing nothing but review for the final from here on in. Then there's the architecture project. Our studio instructor wants us to be essentially done designing and ready to begin presentation materials and setting up our presentation boards next monday. I need to start blocking in hours I'm going to spend of each of these things on my calender. There are the two papers, and then all the visa stuff for Argentina. The good news on that is that a friend of mine called the consulate in LA and they said the requiremnts I'd listed were for a year stay: the semester stay is much abridged, not requiring the psychohealth check or the non-criminal record statement. May still require a trip to LA though. Time to get that going, too. What's happened to this semester? I have literally three weeks of school left. Just when you think time can't speed up any more...
We looked at buildings in Paris today in history of architecture, and it made me smile and think about all the good times I had with my family and walking everywhere with Chase. Ah, Paris. I'm so spoiled. I've been there three times, but my nation's capital? Never.
Speaking of family, definately check out my mom's blog- she's got some amazing pictures from Abu Dabhi. There's something so photogenic about the sand dune desert against the sky, something so minimal that it provides a poetic backdrop for the action of even something as mundane as sandboarding.
At 7:40 my mentor woke me up because he explained that he had to talk to some laywers at the office when I'd emailed him planning on coming in. I got up and told him I'd be there at 9. Shower, Corn Pops, collared shirt, slacks, belt, Suki, keys. Also drawings I'd picked up passing studio on the way home from the pub the night before. Traffic was bad, so it took me 45 minutes to get to the office, so I arrived right on schedule. I showed my mentor my floorplan, and sketched out the concept. He gave me some advice on materials and acoustics, like the scheme I'd developed, and recommended some projects to take a look at for further reference and inspiration.
Drove back home, hopped on my bike and hit the library to see what I could find on Salmona. The answer is not much, but enough for a decent paper, especailly after I found an entire book on his projects and work. I sailed through the architectual periodical incidies and found the bound periodicals I needed with no trouble. There are some definate advantages to working at the library. Only problem was some of the best periodical articles were MIA so I may have to try to find them online. There's really not a whole lot of American writing on him as he's a Colombian architect, and assumably its difficult for Americans to tavel to Colombia and evaluate his projects, so I tend to rely on spanish, german, and italian articles with thier english translations.
Another gorgeous day today. Not sure if there's anyplace nicer to be in the early spring than the valley. Just a hint of the heat at a high of 83 today. It will probably be an unusually infernal summer with the radical weather changes lately. All the paloverde trees are in full bloom with thier brilliant gold explosions. For some reason, my camera keeps getting card read errors so I cant take pictures. I'll have to look into that. Hopefully it will go away as its happened to it before.
I have a five page paper due next tuesday for history of architecture I've read five pages for, and the latin american design paper is due a week after that. Finals begins the 4th, although the only final I have to worry about is structures, and we're doing nothing but review for the final from here on in. Then there's the architecture project. Our studio instructor wants us to be essentially done designing and ready to begin presentation materials and setting up our presentation boards next monday. I need to start blocking in hours I'm going to spend of each of these things on my calender. There are the two papers, and then all the visa stuff for Argentina. The good news on that is that a friend of mine called the consulate in LA and they said the requiremnts I'd listed were for a year stay: the semester stay is much abridged, not requiring the psychohealth check or the non-criminal record statement. May still require a trip to LA though. Time to get that going, too. What's happened to this semester? I have literally three weeks of school left. Just when you think time can't speed up any more...
We looked at buildings in Paris today in history of architecture, and it made me smile and think about all the good times I had with my family and walking everywhere with Chase. Ah, Paris. I'm so spoiled. I've been there three times, but my nation's capital? Never.
Speaking of family, definately check out my mom's blog- she's got some amazing pictures from Abu Dabhi. There's something so photogenic about the sand dune desert against the sky, something so minimal that it provides a poetic backdrop for the action of even something as mundane as sandboarding.
Apr 8, 2006
Weekend with the architects
Friday I couldn't focus on anything- my mind was elsewhere all day. I did catch Eddie Jones lecturing a group of mostly interior students. He displayed a bunch of his works and talked about it, which is the best way to begin to understand where the architect was coming from- hearing the architect himself describing it. Eddie Jones is probably second only to Will Bruder in terms of recognizability in Phoenix. His clients are extremely high end, so he does a lot of houses for people who want thier house to really stand out and be "architectural". So they throw vast sums of money at him and he comes up with some really interesting houses involving zinc titanium cladding, stacked glass, etc. He also designed the Lattie Coor building for ASU. Got some good points about design from him too.
Around 7 o clock, I was hungry and frustrated from such an unproductive day, so I went home and split a pizza with Ben. I asked a friend of mine who usualy knows where the parties were what she was up to, and she told me to come over and go to First Fridays. First Friday's is an extremely local event in downtown phoenix the first friday of every month starting around 7 and lasting until around 10. There's an artist community down there in the old urban neighborhoods, and they all open thier galleries to the public. These galleries range from the downstairs of thier houses to professional architect's office spaces. In addition, there are garage bands which play, tons of craft vendors selling thier art on the side, street performers, and even a band playing from the back of a moving pickup truck. There was also this kid, looked about 10 years old, playing the drum section live from recorded songs. He was playing a full set, in his socks, from this stoop of an old house, and he was literally rocking out. And he was amazing. This kid has a future as a studio musician for sure. So anyway, Molly and the rest of the group drive down there and we meet a few people from my studio while we're down there. There's always tons of people and the galleries are always packed. Everyone who even thinks about art, fashion, and design is down there. Matrons wearing original jewellry, moms pushing strollers, hipsters, punks, rebellious artists, graphic designers, and anyone and everyone who picks out stylish glasses. So that's a cool time. Anyway, afterwards I come back home and crash.
Today I went into studio early again and got a lot of work done in a short amount of time, bringing my floorplan into CAD. It was another phenomenally beautiful day. Around five, I got ready for the college of design alumni dinner party. There was an email circulated asking for 12 college of design students who wanted to go to dinner with the alums. I jumped on it. Anyway, after gettng the confirmation invite, a student organized a carpool so I said sure and took three students in my van. It was a strange feeling, driving students who were all older than me in a minivan no less. There was only one girl I knew that came, a crazy double masters in arch and planning that I always see in the library. There was a friend of hers in planning, an older landscape student, a few industrial designers, and an extremely nervous looking freshman.
Anyway, the house was way out in south mountain foothills in a gated community, one of the architect's houses, so it was like a nice community of scottsdale. The whole thing was very informal, with eveyone getting tagged by nametags at the beginning. We mingled and chatted for awhile and I talked to my old friend Michelle, the one I met as a senior in HS who organized that first masonry challenge thing. She;s got her own firm now and I got her advice on licensure, grad school, etc. One thing I heard from one of the dinner guests was that graduate programs you need to apply in the fall of your senior year- in other words, when I'd be in Argentina. I need to cooroborate this, but it may mean that I need to get the ball well on its way this summer. The house was very nice, and there were these two tiny white fluffly dogs which were constantly running around underfoot, and an electric koi which swam slow circles in the pool. There were appetisers, beer, wine, and then they served dinner buffet style and we all sat down at a series of tables outside. Dinner was this delicious chicken and vegitables and they served home made green tea ice cream for dessert, which was interesting but tasty. Most of the architects were really young, like people who graduated in the last five years or so. I sat across from this young couple who were recently married. The wife graduated from the bachelor program last year at ASU and was AIAS president while I was a member. Her husband looked a bit older, but he was in the first gradating class of desert mountain and knew John Prather really well. He is actually getting ready to teach an AP english class of his own and we talked a bit about what worked in Prather's class and I recommended Bourges and Neuromancer as summer reading.
It's very strange, I was probably one of the more gregarious students there. Maybe because I knew Michelle from before, or just because I have more experiance with dinner parties I was able to converse much more easily than the other students. Anyway, when I looked over and saw a really quiet and awkward table of students sitting with a landscape architect, I slid over and started some conversation and then realized they were all aching to get back to studio. It was almost 10 by this point, and we are working students, so I got up and we started the process of thanking everyone and last minute pictures were taken.
Dropped everyone off back at school and now I'm at home, enjoying a glass of chardonnay, (not nearly as good as the stuff at the house). I'll probably head to bed soon, as I want to get up early to see the start of the ironman triathalon at tempe town lake. The race starts with the athletes throwing themseves in the water for the 2 mile swim.
Around 7 o clock, I was hungry and frustrated from such an unproductive day, so I went home and split a pizza with Ben. I asked a friend of mine who usualy knows where the parties were what she was up to, and she told me to come over and go to First Fridays. First Friday's is an extremely local event in downtown phoenix the first friday of every month starting around 7 and lasting until around 10. There's an artist community down there in the old urban neighborhoods, and they all open thier galleries to the public. These galleries range from the downstairs of thier houses to professional architect's office spaces. In addition, there are garage bands which play, tons of craft vendors selling thier art on the side, street performers, and even a band playing from the back of a moving pickup truck. There was also this kid, looked about 10 years old, playing the drum section live from recorded songs. He was playing a full set, in his socks, from this stoop of an old house, and he was literally rocking out. And he was amazing. This kid has a future as a studio musician for sure. So anyway, Molly and the rest of the group drive down there and we meet a few people from my studio while we're down there. There's always tons of people and the galleries are always packed. Everyone who even thinks about art, fashion, and design is down there. Matrons wearing original jewellry, moms pushing strollers, hipsters, punks, rebellious artists, graphic designers, and anyone and everyone who picks out stylish glasses. So that's a cool time. Anyway, afterwards I come back home and crash.
Today I went into studio early again and got a lot of work done in a short amount of time, bringing my floorplan into CAD. It was another phenomenally beautiful day. Around five, I got ready for the college of design alumni dinner party. There was an email circulated asking for 12 college of design students who wanted to go to dinner with the alums. I jumped on it. Anyway, after gettng the confirmation invite, a student organized a carpool so I said sure and took three students in my van. It was a strange feeling, driving students who were all older than me in a minivan no less. There was only one girl I knew that came, a crazy double masters in arch and planning that I always see in the library. There was a friend of hers in planning, an older landscape student, a few industrial designers, and an extremely nervous looking freshman.
Anyway, the house was way out in south mountain foothills in a gated community, one of the architect's houses, so it was like a nice community of scottsdale. The whole thing was very informal, with eveyone getting tagged by nametags at the beginning. We mingled and chatted for awhile and I talked to my old friend Michelle, the one I met as a senior in HS who organized that first masonry challenge thing. She;s got her own firm now and I got her advice on licensure, grad school, etc. One thing I heard from one of the dinner guests was that graduate programs you need to apply in the fall of your senior year- in other words, when I'd be in Argentina. I need to cooroborate this, but it may mean that I need to get the ball well on its way this summer. The house was very nice, and there were these two tiny white fluffly dogs which were constantly running around underfoot, and an electric koi which swam slow circles in the pool. There were appetisers, beer, wine, and then they served dinner buffet style and we all sat down at a series of tables outside. Dinner was this delicious chicken and vegitables and they served home made green tea ice cream for dessert, which was interesting but tasty. Most of the architects were really young, like people who graduated in the last five years or so. I sat across from this young couple who were recently married. The wife graduated from the bachelor program last year at ASU and was AIAS president while I was a member. Her husband looked a bit older, but he was in the first gradating class of desert mountain and knew John Prather really well. He is actually getting ready to teach an AP english class of his own and we talked a bit about what worked in Prather's class and I recommended Bourges and Neuromancer as summer reading.
It's very strange, I was probably one of the more gregarious students there. Maybe because I knew Michelle from before, or just because I have more experiance with dinner parties I was able to converse much more easily than the other students. Anyway, when I looked over and saw a really quiet and awkward table of students sitting with a landscape architect, I slid over and started some conversation and then realized they were all aching to get back to studio. It was almost 10 by this point, and we are working students, so I got up and we started the process of thanking everyone and last minute pictures were taken.
Dropped everyone off back at school and now I'm at home, enjoying a glass of chardonnay, (not nearly as good as the stuff at the house). I'll probably head to bed soon, as I want to get up early to see the start of the ironman triathalon at tempe town lake. The race starts with the athletes throwing themseves in the water for the 2 mile swim.
Apr 6, 2006
Lost in Spring
Today was a tragically beautiful spring day. Tragic, as I had a major history of architecture exam in the middle of it. Doubly tragic, as the pleasant breezes and bird song will dissapear in a few short weeks when the pleasant breeze turns to a furnace blast and the birds spontaneously combust on the wing. But for today, I staked out the secret garden and studied there in the morning, went to class for the test, and dozed there again afterwards in the afternoon. The test went fine although I missed a few dates. I just dont have a head for detached figures like that, and my time is better spent studying the structure itself than trying to drill a meaningless figure into my head. Plus, it was a gorgeous day out, and the trees in the secret garden were in bloom.
The so-called secret garden is one my favorite spaces at ASU. It's a courtyard of an old girls dorm which is now a school for social work. It's built of whitewashed brick and block and two stories tall. The courtyard itself if beautifully proportioned to the two storied building: small enough to feel private, yet large enough to seem to give everyone their own personal space. The surrounding building blocks any noise from outside, and the space is mostly surrounded by wide planters holding a variety of old trees and plants which shade the area. The whole thing is coverd in grass, except for an old concrete landing which has a fireplace set into the side of the building. The "secret" of the secret garden is that there's two rather inconspicuous entrances from the outside, one of which is in a narrow alley between two buildings. One must actually decend a ramp and pass beneath the building to come up into the courtyard. Anyway, spent a bit of time there today, watching the sun on the trees, listening to my music, and watching hummingbirds chase each other.
But on to reality. Tomorrow it's back to cranking out a fully realized design for my pool project, with some minimum requirements to have for monday. Should be a pretty cool building if I can pull it all togather. Saturday night I signed up for a dinner with the College of Design alumni along with 11 other students from the COD. It's a dinner party, so time to break out the Ms. Manners guide.
Also got some exciting news back from my mentor- since he contributed to the college of design certificiation process, they're letting him pick a student for summer internship, and he asked me if I was still interested in working for DWL this summer. I responded enthusiastically that I'd much rather work for them than play russian roulette with the valley design firms. So that should be really cool.
The so-called secret garden is one my favorite spaces at ASU. It's a courtyard of an old girls dorm which is now a school for social work. It's built of whitewashed brick and block and two stories tall. The courtyard itself if beautifully proportioned to the two storied building: small enough to feel private, yet large enough to seem to give everyone their own personal space. The surrounding building blocks any noise from outside, and the space is mostly surrounded by wide planters holding a variety of old trees and plants which shade the area. The whole thing is coverd in grass, except for an old concrete landing which has a fireplace set into the side of the building. The "secret" of the secret garden is that there's two rather inconspicuous entrances from the outside, one of which is in a narrow alley between two buildings. One must actually decend a ramp and pass beneath the building to come up into the courtyard. Anyway, spent a bit of time there today, watching the sun on the trees, listening to my music, and watching hummingbirds chase each other.
But on to reality. Tomorrow it's back to cranking out a fully realized design for my pool project, with some minimum requirements to have for monday. Should be a pretty cool building if I can pull it all togather. Saturday night I signed up for a dinner with the College of Design alumni along with 11 other students from the COD. It's a dinner party, so time to break out the Ms. Manners guide.
Also got some exciting news back from my mentor- since he contributed to the college of design certificiation process, they're letting him pick a student for summer internship, and he asked me if I was still interested in working for DWL this summer. I responded enthusiastically that I'd much rather work for them than play russian roulette with the valley design firms. So that should be really cool.
Apr 5, 2006
Dear Taylor
It sounds corny, but I can't believe you're 17. I know, I'm 4.5 years older than you and when I work the math it helps. The world has moved on so much faster since I moved away from home, so even though you're rearing to get out, appreciate not having to worry about feeding yourself, doing your laundry, or paying bills. I'm sure you've noticed time speeding up in your later years of high school. In college, it goes a lot quicker. I still can't believe I'm coming to the end of my third year here. So preachy lesson #1: don't live faster than you need to.
I've always been amazed at your range of talents. You are a wellspring of charisma, people just like to be around you. Your strength and stubborness will serve you well in life. And I've always been floored by the way you beat me hands down in a variety of athletics from ice skating to tennis to ping pong (although I can catch food with my mouth better than you ha ha). And the acting took me completely by surprise, although with your charisma and intuitive quick thinking, it shouldn't have. Watching you in Guys and Dolls was the highlight of my Moscow trip. When you want something, when you love doing something, you get it done.
I've missed you down here in Tempe. You've changed so much since you've been gone, the natural result of high school, intensified by your life over there. But when we hang out I still catch glimses of an younger Taylor, a Taylor who once used to make me snack when I got home from school and who loved macaroni and cheese. Keep letting your big heart guide you and never lose that kindness.
I hope you're enjoying Abu Dhabi, but I know it must feel strange and alienating knowing that you'll be coming back there and leaving your friends behind. I know what thats like, but I never had as many friends as you. Hopefully, you'll all be able to stay in touch through blogs, myspace, etc. And I know that you'll make new friends in Abu Dhabi, which is a small consolation. At any rate, its good experiance for the feelings of dislocation and change you'll find when you come to college. But you'll quickly get over those, swept up whats going on around you.
Anyway, I wish I was there to wish you a happy birthday in person, and to buy you a cold stone chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream cake (some things never change), hit Zara for the latest men's fashion, or just hang out and watch old episodes of Family Guy and the Simpsons.
Love always,
Your brother
"Strength and Honor"
I've always been amazed at your range of talents. You are a wellspring of charisma, people just like to be around you. Your strength and stubborness will serve you well in life. And I've always been floored by the way you beat me hands down in a variety of athletics from ice skating to tennis to ping pong (although I can catch food with my mouth better than you ha ha). And the acting took me completely by surprise, although with your charisma and intuitive quick thinking, it shouldn't have. Watching you in Guys and Dolls was the highlight of my Moscow trip. When you want something, when you love doing something, you get it done.
I've missed you down here in Tempe. You've changed so much since you've been gone, the natural result of high school, intensified by your life over there. But when we hang out I still catch glimses of an younger Taylor, a Taylor who once used to make me snack when I got home from school and who loved macaroni and cheese. Keep letting your big heart guide you and never lose that kindness.
I hope you're enjoying Abu Dhabi, but I know it must feel strange and alienating knowing that you'll be coming back there and leaving your friends behind. I know what thats like, but I never had as many friends as you. Hopefully, you'll all be able to stay in touch through blogs, myspace, etc. And I know that you'll make new friends in Abu Dhabi, which is a small consolation. At any rate, its good experiance for the feelings of dislocation and change you'll find when you come to college. But you'll quickly get over those, swept up whats going on around you.
Anyway, I wish I was there to wish you a happy birthday in person, and to buy you a cold stone chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream cake (some things never change), hit Zara for the latest men's fashion, or just hang out and watch old episodes of Family Guy and the Simpsons.
Love always,
Your brother
"Strength and Honor"
Apr 4, 2006
Ah, the heady rush of publication!
Today when I came into work, Molly brought in a copy of Zombie, the new student run newsletter from the college of design. In the 8 page newsletter, an entire spread was devoted to entries from my satirical "Student Encyclopedia," thankfully the best ones, although the entry on the AIAS was NOT included, which although it was a scream, did not have a good chance of making it in as the main editors were AIAS officers. The rest of the newsletter, as the title indicates, carried this sarcastic tone through several other articles. I felt honor bound to place it among the better known journals of architecture in our reader room in the library.
In other news, student dissatisfaction with our structures professor has risen to such crisis levels that the director of the college personally interviened and set up saturday sessions with a TA to give remedial tutoring on top of the regular class.
Just as a thought of the day, maybe the problems we have in modernity arise becasue we struggle with a paradoxical existance which arises from a much more complex lifestyle. Why didn't midieval pig farmers struggle with existentialism? Because they were simple pig farmers who raised pigs to survive and that was the majority of thier identity. They weren't pig farmers AND pork belly speculators AND government agrarian inspectors. There was no real contradiction in thier lives.
Modernity is about paradoxes. As Americans, we're the hardest workers and are paid the best, but we have no time to enjoy that success. After the fall of the Roman empire, the human being was divided into the spirit and the flesh, two entities which divided, unhappily jostle for control. The places I've been and things I've seen would satisfy lifetimes in the old days, yet I am still too young to rent a car. I forget where I'm going with this, and too much unfocused rambling drives down readership anyway.
In other news, student dissatisfaction with our structures professor has risen to such crisis levels that the director of the college personally interviened and set up saturday sessions with a TA to give remedial tutoring on top of the regular class.
Just as a thought of the day, maybe the problems we have in modernity arise becasue we struggle with a paradoxical existance which arises from a much more complex lifestyle. Why didn't midieval pig farmers struggle with existentialism? Because they were simple pig farmers who raised pigs to survive and that was the majority of thier identity. They weren't pig farmers AND pork belly speculators AND government agrarian inspectors. There was no real contradiction in thier lives.
Modernity is about paradoxes. As Americans, we're the hardest workers and are paid the best, but we have no time to enjoy that success. After the fall of the Roman empire, the human being was divided into the spirit and the flesh, two entities which divided, unhappily jostle for control. The places I've been and things I've seen would satisfy lifetimes in the old days, yet I am still too young to rent a car. I forget where I'm going with this, and too much unfocused rambling drives down readership anyway.
Apr 3, 2006
10,000 hoops to Argentina
Busy weekend, mostly spent working on my studio project. We had a pin up review today in studio. I took it easy, and made myself go home at midnight. Got at least 8 hours of sleep before getting up today and going to our small group meeting for the Argentina Exchange Program at 11. Got the dates of the program- the professor wants us down there for a immersive language program and is officially starting the program August 4th. This spanish program is $120 and lasts 4 hours a day for three weeks. However, our actually semester will not start until August 21st. At this point, I'm not sure what to do. While it would be nice to start the program with about half of the other students, and get my bearings in Argentina while brushing up on Spanish, it would effectively kill any time to spend with my family this summer. That's also assuming I don't get the travel scholarship to Japan, which I'll find out this wednesday.
Anyway, in the small group we spent some time going over student visa requirements. One can travel in Argentina for 90 days without a visa, but for longer than that, a student visa is required. Apparently, the US has such heinously complicated and difficult student visa requirements that Argentina felt compelled to make thiers equally difficult. Items I'll need to compile:
Anyway, in the small group we spent some time going over student visa requirements. One can travel in Argentina for 90 days without a visa, but for longer than that, a student visa is required. Apparently, the US has such heinously complicated and difficult student visa requirements that Argentina felt compelled to make thiers equally difficult. Items I'll need to compile:
- Passport
- visa application form
- original enrollment letter from the Argentine school (our program is procuring those for us)
- Proof of medical insurance and sufficiant funds
- police certificate of non-criminal-record (which I can get from the Tempe Police) with the signature of the issuing officer notarized and then legalized by the county clerk's office.
- Health and psycho-health evaluation certificiate signed by a doctor and a verification of the doctor's licence by the corresponding medical board
- Two passport photos, one of which 3/4 right profile.
- Consular Fees of $280
And it gets better: All documents in English must be translated into Spanish and signed by an authorized translator or notary public. The translators signature must be notarized. In all cases, the the Notary Public's signature must be legalized by the County Clerk's Office.
Then you take your heavily notarized, translated, re-notarized and legalized documents and you have to physically take them to the consulate for processing and interview in "personal interview". As there are no Argentine consulates in Arizona, this means I actually have to drive to Los Angeles and get to the consulate at 6 AM in order to make sure that I can actually see a consular officer during thier working hours of 9-noon.
This kind of load of beauocracy makes the Russians look Swiss in comparison.
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