As some of you may be aware, Saori and I are applying to graduate schools to finish our academic education in architecture. It's been a long time coming. Last year, I began the application process, originally intending to apply for fall 2009. That fell through, in part over my internal conflict as to what type of school to apply to, in part because I started late enough in the year that I told myself that I didn't have enough time to put together a good enough application package.
Speaking of which, there's a lot of components, and while there is some overlap in what college require, most of them have unique and specific applicaiton parts. Mom was telling me about her experience with applying to Law School was a lot more simple. You signed up on a central clearinghouse for law school applications, and filled out a form, and the system took care of the rest. WIth architecture, these are the standard application materials:
GRE scores- some schools impose a minimum, other schools are more lax about it. Some schools don't even require it.
Transcripts- most schools require official copies to be sent directly to them from the undergraduate university. Berkeley required you send a copy AND also to scan and upload an official copy.
Portfolio- this one is the standard. Every architecture graduate school requires a portfolio of work, and only one school I'm applying to has a digital submission. Every other school requires you have your portfolio printed and bound, and shipped direct. Length seems to vary widely. I started with around 30 pages and whittled it down to 25 including a table of contents/coversheet. Some I've seen online had as many as 60 pages, and some fewer than ten. I tried to keep the page count down to showcase the best projects while also showing a wide range of project types, scale, and representations.
Application- Most schools have switched over to online forms. These vary in complexity and depth. Berkeley's is a nightmare to figure out as theres no linear progression from page to page, and the applicaiton menu lists additional items and forms not required by the application. It takes many visits just to understand the layout and what to complete. Yale School of Architecture was incredibly simple and straightforward. Utah's application asks for your drivers licence and where your parents live. Most of the applications ask about work and educational history, ethnicity, grade reports, etc. Actually, I was surprised how often forms asked for information reported on standard forms you have to send in anyway, like official transcripts and GRE scores.
Statement of Purpose- This one is tricky. Every school wants to hear about your personal background, and your academic and professional interests. Sometimes they ask for three letters to express this, sometimes one or two, so it takes some carefull disection and stitching to get the essays ready to go. According to one academian, reviewers only look at the first paragraph anyway. By the "first paragraph" standard, I think I've got a pretty good short paper.
Dec 22, 2009
Oct 14, 2009
a night in jail
This blog post is posted out of sequence- it was actually written on Janurary 10th of 2014.
One night sitting with dad and Tay in his house in Houston a few weeks back, he told us this remarkable story about being jailed in the UAE.
He was living in Switzerland and making occasional business trips to the middle east in his position as a manager for Honeywell. One day, after a long flight into Dubai, he was passing through customs and immigration.
"Larry Perkins?"
Yes.
"You lived here on [such and such date]?"
Yes, that sounds about right.
"Come with me, please."
The customs officer led him to a secondary screening room where he had to surrender his passport and was held for several hours. Occasionally, various officers would come out, ask him a question or two, and refuse to answer any of his questions.
Finally, two police officers arrived, and formally arrested him without stating the charges. He was taken from the airport to the Dubai jail without an inkling of what he had done to incur the wrath of the middle eastern state.
He did however, have his cell phone, and through various calls to his office while waiting in different holding rooms, began to piece together what happened.
My father had continued to live in Abu Dhabi for a few months after he and my mother divorced. They had been living in an unbelievably huge 15th floor apartment with 14' ceilings, marble floors, and probably around 4000 square feet of living space including a maid's room. The rent on this place was astronomical, but it was heavily subsidized by Honeywell.
Dad moved to Switzerland with a few months still left on the official lease. The company had moved him to his new position, and dad had given responsibility of the apartment over to the Abu Dhabi office, so he thought that they would take care of the apartment. Actually, Honeywell stopped paying the rent on the apartment, either through a deliberate cost-cutting measure or sheer negligence.
The unpaid rent accumulated and the landlord attempted to collect from whoever it could to no avail, so the landlord sold the debt. The landlord sold the debt the UAE police, who apparently supplement their department's income as debt collectors. Besides, who you gonna call? Dad comes back to town, his name is flagged a criminal debtor in the government system, and they arrest him.
In Dubai, dad's thrown in the giant holding cell with all the other recently arrested people in Dubai. Apparently its a representational demographic: there's lots of foreigners and a few national Emirati. The other people in the cell try to help him, giving him advice on meals and where to sleep and how the system of the jail works.
In the course of his work, dad works with a lot of highly placed Emiratis. Honeywell gets in touch with him: don't pull those strings, he's warned. The company is in the middle of a very high-level, high-stakes business negotiation, and it could get awkward if dad starts trying to work on some officials to get him out of jail. Just hush and don't make a fuss, they tell him.
Dad convinces his jailors that some huge mistake has been made. They move him from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, and he is given a somewhat nicer jail cell. In Abu Dhabi, he meets with one of the jail negotiators. Just pay up 20,000 dihrams, he is told, and we'll consider the debt paid and let you go. In cash.
Dad's not in the habit of carrying large sums of money in cash and his carry-on isn't stuffed with the six grand. He calls up some other associates and friends in Abu Dhabi and they pool their resources to come up with the cash. That afternoon, the jailor comes back to dad, and says, Ok, you're paid, you can go, and dad walks free.
The Honeywell did eventually reimburse everyone for the money they'd raised to get dad out of jail. The purpose of business, after all, is business. If you have to burn a few people along the way, so be it. Dad was laid off a few years later, and had to fight hard to get Honeywell to move him back to US and not just abandon him in Europe like an old paperback.
It is also a reminder of some of the privileges we enjoy as Americans, and a reminder that the vast majority of the world still languishes under draconian, autocratic, and arbitrary judicial systems. I have been to the UAE several times and I see no reason to ever return.
One night sitting with dad and Tay in his house in Houston a few weeks back, he told us this remarkable story about being jailed in the UAE.
He was living in Switzerland and making occasional business trips to the middle east in his position as a manager for Honeywell. One day, after a long flight into Dubai, he was passing through customs and immigration.
"Larry Perkins?"
Yes.
"You lived here on [such and such date]?"
Yes, that sounds about right.
"Come with me, please."
The customs officer led him to a secondary screening room where he had to surrender his passport and was held for several hours. Occasionally, various officers would come out, ask him a question or two, and refuse to answer any of his questions.
Finally, two police officers arrived, and formally arrested him without stating the charges. He was taken from the airport to the Dubai jail without an inkling of what he had done to incur the wrath of the middle eastern state.
He did however, have his cell phone, and through various calls to his office while waiting in different holding rooms, began to piece together what happened.
My father had continued to live in Abu Dhabi for a few months after he and my mother divorced. They had been living in an unbelievably huge 15th floor apartment with 14' ceilings, marble floors, and probably around 4000 square feet of living space including a maid's room. The rent on this place was astronomical, but it was heavily subsidized by Honeywell.
Dad moved to Switzerland with a few months still left on the official lease. The company had moved him to his new position, and dad had given responsibility of the apartment over to the Abu Dhabi office, so he thought that they would take care of the apartment. Actually, Honeywell stopped paying the rent on the apartment, either through a deliberate cost-cutting measure or sheer negligence.
The unpaid rent accumulated and the landlord attempted to collect from whoever it could to no avail, so the landlord sold the debt. The landlord sold the debt the UAE police, who apparently supplement their department's income as debt collectors. Besides, who you gonna call? Dad comes back to town, his name is flagged a criminal debtor in the government system, and they arrest him.
In Dubai, dad's thrown in the giant holding cell with all the other recently arrested people in Dubai. Apparently its a representational demographic: there's lots of foreigners and a few national Emirati. The other people in the cell try to help him, giving him advice on meals and where to sleep and how the system of the jail works.
In the course of his work, dad works with a lot of highly placed Emiratis. Honeywell gets in touch with him: don't pull those strings, he's warned. The company is in the middle of a very high-level, high-stakes business negotiation, and it could get awkward if dad starts trying to work on some officials to get him out of jail. Just hush and don't make a fuss, they tell him.
Dad convinces his jailors that some huge mistake has been made. They move him from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, and he is given a somewhat nicer jail cell. In Abu Dhabi, he meets with one of the jail negotiators. Just pay up 20,000 dihrams, he is told, and we'll consider the debt paid and let you go. In cash.
Dad's not in the habit of carrying large sums of money in cash and his carry-on isn't stuffed with the six grand. He calls up some other associates and friends in Abu Dhabi and they pool their resources to come up with the cash. That afternoon, the jailor comes back to dad, and says, Ok, you're paid, you can go, and dad walks free.
The Honeywell did eventually reimburse everyone for the money they'd raised to get dad out of jail. The purpose of business, after all, is business. If you have to burn a few people along the way, so be it. Dad was laid off a few years later, and had to fight hard to get Honeywell to move him back to US and not just abandon him in Europe like an old paperback.
It is also a reminder of some of the privileges we enjoy as Americans, and a reminder that the vast majority of the world still languishes under draconian, autocratic, and arbitrary judicial systems. I have been to the UAE several times and I see no reason to ever return.
Sep 16, 2009
Sep 3, 2009
Worst Case Scenario
I recently read a paper published by the World Wildlife Fund, which discussed the current status and direction of the "green" movement. It was really disturbing. Basically, it said that the current approach of marketers of "small steps," like swapping out your incandescents for compact florescents, effectively adds up to not much.
1) Because most people will only go "green" if it doesn't inconvenience them too much
2) The small steps rarely progress to larger steps
3) There's a rebound effect, e.g. people leave thier lights on all the time since the bulb uses less energy. Or people buying more and disposing of more recycled products than they would have with non-recycled products
Fundamentally, the kinds of change that people are going to need to make in their lifestyles if there is to be any attempt at combat climate change, or to react to the collapse of life as we currently enjoy it, is so radical that we need a different mindset other than consumerism. We can't buy green ourselves out of this mess.
1) Because most people will only go "green" if it doesn't inconvenience them too much
2) The small steps rarely progress to larger steps
3) There's a rebound effect, e.g. people leave thier lights on all the time since the bulb uses less energy. Or people buying more and disposing of more recycled products than they would have with non-recycled products
Fundamentally, the kinds of change that people are going to need to make in their lifestyles if there is to be any attempt at combat climate change, or to react to the collapse of life as we currently enjoy it, is so radical that we need a different mindset other than consumerism. We can't buy green ourselves out of this mess.
Aug 27, 2009
Hives, Guitars, Saori, Canalscape
Let's see.... what's been going on lately....
Hives: I had an odd outbreak of hives about two weeks ago. I'd never had hives before, so I had no idea what was wrong with me. When I woke up, I had big angry wheals on my legs and arms. No other symptoms to speak of. I'd eaten some prepared roe from Japan the night before, so that's what I assumed set me off, although with a food allergy, it seemed like it should have struck me immediately after eating, although I didn't really react until the next morning. At any rate, I went to a TakeHealth clinic at a Walgreens, was saw immediately by a PA who diagnosed it as an allergic reaction and sent me home with some perscription steroids and directed me to aisle 1 to pick up some Wal-Dryl. A bit surreal. Anyway, that cleared my hives up after about a week. However, my hives have returned a bit over the two weeks, more irritating than serious, but patches of red itchy skin and small clusters of bumps that form and dissimilar. I really really really hope I'm not developing an allergy to cats. Or an autoimmune disease. Anyway, I've scheduled another visit to the doc (an actual MD this time) to try to figure this out.
Guitars: Among Saori's other musical instruments, she had a guitar that she never played. Apparently she got the guitar from a friend of hers who went back to Japan and understandably didn't want to lug the thing along. He got the guitar because he was taking a class in Scottsdale on guitar making, and he apparently bought a guitar for the express purpose of disassembling and re-assembling it. Saori got the guitar and it hung in our closet for awhile until I started playing around with it, and in one misguided attempt to tune it, I snapped a string, which were pretty old by that point anyhow. Anyway, I was driving around one saturday, when almost on a whim, I stopped in at Ziggy's music, a old brick music store on 3rd st and Osborne. I wanted to get the guitar fixed/ restrung whatever, and I saw a sign for guitar lessons. My weekends have been painfully free (see Saori's item below) so I went in thinking, what the hell, I've always wanted to play guitar.
Ziggy's music is a great little shop with accordions everywhere and guitars on the wall. Apparently, its one of the last places in Arizona where they can fix accordians. The few customers browse instruments, but mostly chat with Dionne, the woman behind the counter. Under the counter, more accordians, dusty CDs of music, and few black cats which prowl around the store. There's an old rack with "Guitar for beginners" from 20-50 years ago, along with boxes of guitar magazines. In a small room in the back, I see a guy playing an accordian.
I ask about lessons, and Dionne directs me to another gentleman, Raul. Raul looks strikingly like a laid back version of William Shatner, but he takes me back to his tiny office where there is room for just himself, and an empty chair for me. We sit down and talk about what I want out of lessons (the basics, to start with), when's a good time (30 minutes on Saturday works for me), and the cost (pay a month's lessons in advance, and its $15 a session. Fantastic cut rate), and I go ahead and commit to come in later the day for my first lesson.
I return early, bringing the guitar. Dionne helps me pick some new strings, cleans, and restrings my guitar for me while I take my lesson. The basics, you know, this-is-how-you-hold-a-guitar, this-is-how-you-hold-a-pick, and a few chords to start. C, Dm, Am, Em, F, G7.
I also get to pick out a guitar pick, which makes me kind of excited. For some reason it hammers in the point, I'm going to be a guitar player. I ask what kind to get, and Dionne asks Raul if I should get the $300 pick or the $400 pick. Raul suggests a medium pick, which ends up $0.25.
After the lesson, Dionne prods him into tuning my newly restrung guitar for me, and he does so, admonishing me to practice at least 30 minutes a day. And I have been. Saori's gotten into it too and we take turns playing, (it helps that she's very musically gifted and knows a lot more chords). She can actually play recognizable songs. At this point, I'm still struggling to connect the chords, but the callouses forming on my left fingertips indicate I'm closer to my goal.
Saori's new job: Saori got a new job, which is fantastic. She really likes the people she works with, the long hours go by quickly, the amount of time she spends running around and lifting makes the time go by, but she's also noticed shes slowly losing weight and gaining more muscle. Best of all, the people she works with and her coworkers adore her. She was going to be nominated as a company wide award winner except she didn't qualify for the short amount of time she'd been working. The major bummer of the job is the hours. She works very early in the morning to very late at night on both Saturday and Sunday, so I've been really missing her on the weekends. It's been hard as the weekends don't really feel like weekends without her. I know what she must have felt, the long months where I was at work and she at home during her job search.
Canalscape:
I got involved in a valley-wide design competition called Canalscape through some co-workers. Saori was also invited to join, and we made up a team of five (technically six) designers. The competition was to design a development at the intersection of a canal and a street that would 1) attract developers and 2) celebrate the canals of Phoenix. The driving force behind Canalscape is Nan Ellin, a woman who has spent years working with ASU and city officials to make more of the canals of Phoenix. To be fair, Phoenix's canals are seen as ugly, stinking, filthy infrastructure and we should be doing more to celebrate the near miracle of the water that makes the city exist. However, Nan's track seems to be "lets make Phoenix Venice, or Amsterdam." Last time I checked, California had not fallen off the map and flooded everything west of Apache Junction. We are in the middle of a desert, and to tell you the truth, Venice's canals ARE as bad as streets. Filthy and also ignored as much as possible, the canals of phoenix should aspire to more. I'll post a photo of the board we entered to the competition sometime. We didn't win, although we'll be in the newspaper this sunday (I think).
Hives: I had an odd outbreak of hives about two weeks ago. I'd never had hives before, so I had no idea what was wrong with me. When I woke up, I had big angry wheals on my legs and arms. No other symptoms to speak of. I'd eaten some prepared roe from Japan the night before, so that's what I assumed set me off, although with a food allergy, it seemed like it should have struck me immediately after eating, although I didn't really react until the next morning. At any rate, I went to a TakeHealth clinic at a Walgreens, was saw immediately by a PA who diagnosed it as an allergic reaction and sent me home with some perscription steroids and directed me to aisle 1 to pick up some Wal-Dryl. A bit surreal. Anyway, that cleared my hives up after about a week. However, my hives have returned a bit over the two weeks, more irritating than serious, but patches of red itchy skin and small clusters of bumps that form and dissimilar. I really really really hope I'm not developing an allergy to cats. Or an autoimmune disease. Anyway, I've scheduled another visit to the doc (an actual MD this time) to try to figure this out.
Guitars: Among Saori's other musical instruments, she had a guitar that she never played. Apparently she got the guitar from a friend of hers who went back to Japan and understandably didn't want to lug the thing along. He got the guitar because he was taking a class in Scottsdale on guitar making, and he apparently bought a guitar for the express purpose of disassembling and re-assembling it. Saori got the guitar and it hung in our closet for awhile until I started playing around with it, and in one misguided attempt to tune it, I snapped a string, which were pretty old by that point anyhow. Anyway, I was driving around one saturday, when almost on a whim, I stopped in at Ziggy's music, a old brick music store on 3rd st and Osborne. I wanted to get the guitar fixed/ restrung whatever, and I saw a sign for guitar lessons. My weekends have been painfully free (see Saori's item below) so I went in thinking, what the hell, I've always wanted to play guitar.
Ziggy's music is a great little shop with accordions everywhere and guitars on the wall. Apparently, its one of the last places in Arizona where they can fix accordians. The few customers browse instruments, but mostly chat with Dionne, the woman behind the counter. Under the counter, more accordians, dusty CDs of music, and few black cats which prowl around the store. There's an old rack with "Guitar for beginners" from 20-50 years ago, along with boxes of guitar magazines. In a small room in the back, I see a guy playing an accordian.
I ask about lessons, and Dionne directs me to another gentleman, Raul. Raul looks strikingly like a laid back version of William Shatner, but he takes me back to his tiny office where there is room for just himself, and an empty chair for me. We sit down and talk about what I want out of lessons (the basics, to start with), when's a good time (30 minutes on Saturday works for me), and the cost (pay a month's lessons in advance, and its $15 a session. Fantastic cut rate), and I go ahead and commit to come in later the day for my first lesson.
I return early, bringing the guitar. Dionne helps me pick some new strings, cleans, and restrings my guitar for me while I take my lesson. The basics, you know, this-is-how-you-hold-a-guitar, this-is-how-you-hold-a-pick, and a few chords to start. C, Dm, Am, Em, F, G7.
I also get to pick out a guitar pick, which makes me kind of excited. For some reason it hammers in the point, I'm going to be a guitar player. I ask what kind to get, and Dionne asks Raul if I should get the $300 pick or the $400 pick. Raul suggests a medium pick, which ends up $0.25.
After the lesson, Dionne prods him into tuning my newly restrung guitar for me, and he does so, admonishing me to practice at least 30 minutes a day. And I have been. Saori's gotten into it too and we take turns playing, (it helps that she's very musically gifted and knows a lot more chords). She can actually play recognizable songs. At this point, I'm still struggling to connect the chords, but the callouses forming on my left fingertips indicate I'm closer to my goal.
Saori's new job: Saori got a new job, which is fantastic. She really likes the people she works with, the long hours go by quickly, the amount of time she spends running around and lifting makes the time go by, but she's also noticed shes slowly losing weight and gaining more muscle. Best of all, the people she works with and her coworkers adore her. She was going to be nominated as a company wide award winner except she didn't qualify for the short amount of time she'd been working. The major bummer of the job is the hours. She works very early in the morning to very late at night on both Saturday and Sunday, so I've been really missing her on the weekends. It's been hard as the weekends don't really feel like weekends without her. I know what she must have felt, the long months where I was at work and she at home during her job search.
Canalscape:
I got involved in a valley-wide design competition called Canalscape through some co-workers. Saori was also invited to join, and we made up a team of five (technically six) designers. The competition was to design a development at the intersection of a canal and a street that would 1) attract developers and 2) celebrate the canals of Phoenix. The driving force behind Canalscape is Nan Ellin, a woman who has spent years working with ASU and city officials to make more of the canals of Phoenix. To be fair, Phoenix's canals are seen as ugly, stinking, filthy infrastructure and we should be doing more to celebrate the near miracle of the water that makes the city exist. However, Nan's track seems to be "lets make Phoenix Venice, or Amsterdam." Last time I checked, California had not fallen off the map and flooded everything west of Apache Junction. We are in the middle of a desert, and to tell you the truth, Venice's canals ARE as bad as streets. Filthy and also ignored as much as possible, the canals of phoenix should aspire to more. I'll post a photo of the board we entered to the competition sometime. We didn't win, although we'll be in the newspaper this sunday (I think).
May 2, 2009
LEED AP
It took awhile, but I passed the LEED AP test last thursday, so I can now officially call myself a LEED Accredited Professional. What does this mean?
1) I can add it to my business card, except for the fact that we just got issued new business cards with the company logo change, so it probably won't get changed unless I get title promotion or I run out of cards. Both a long way off.
2) I can work on LEED projects in the office, along with the other dozen or so LEED AP's already working in the firm.
3) It adds marketing appeal to my resume, and I can say I was officially working sustainably since I was 24.
4) With my LEED AP card, I get a 10% discount at Whole Foods. No, not really. There isn't even a LEED AP card. They mail you a certificate.
5) As a LEED AP, if I work on a LEED project, the project gets to add a point if there's no other LEED AP's already working on it.
6) One of my inital reasons to get accredited was to stay ahead of the curve of my peers, to keep myself abreast of the current trends in architecture. By the time I took the test, a large percentage of my graduating class were already LEED AP. I suppose, ultimately, that its a good thing.
That's about it. There were other advantages to the accrediation, such as it serves as a good course the relationships between client, architect, contractor, and consultant. Its also a general course in "sustainab;e" design for a variety of different fields- you have to study stormwater management (civil enginnering), lighting, building automation systems, landscaping, plumbing, finish materials, basically every aspect of designing and building a building.
I studied for about six weeks, a little bit at a time at first, steadily ramping up the intensity until the very end. I read the book, make a spreadsheet of all the credits, made flashcards, and took numerous practice exams. Saori helped me a lot in this as she was constantly studying as well, and we got to argue and quiz each other on LEED minutae, of which there are thousands. Incidently, Saori passed the test as well.
The other incentive to take the test is that they just changed over to LEED 3.0, which involves TWO tests to reach the LEED AP level, and is supposed to be a lot harder, so there was a big rush as the opportunity to take the test ends in May. At any rate, I'm glad to have it over with.
1) I can add it to my business card, except for the fact that we just got issued new business cards with the company logo change, so it probably won't get changed unless I get title promotion or I run out of cards. Both a long way off.
2) I can work on LEED projects in the office, along with the other dozen or so LEED AP's already working in the firm.
3) It adds marketing appeal to my resume, and I can say I was officially working sustainably since I was 24.
4) With my LEED AP card, I get a 10% discount at Whole Foods. No, not really. There isn't even a LEED AP card. They mail you a certificate.
5) As a LEED AP, if I work on a LEED project, the project gets to add a point if there's no other LEED AP's already working on it.
6) One of my inital reasons to get accredited was to stay ahead of the curve of my peers, to keep myself abreast of the current trends in architecture. By the time I took the test, a large percentage of my graduating class were already LEED AP. I suppose, ultimately, that its a good thing.
That's about it. There were other advantages to the accrediation, such as it serves as a good course the relationships between client, architect, contractor, and consultant. Its also a general course in "sustainab;e" design for a variety of different fields- you have to study stormwater management (civil enginnering), lighting, building automation systems, landscaping, plumbing, finish materials, basically every aspect of designing and building a building.
I studied for about six weeks, a little bit at a time at first, steadily ramping up the intensity until the very end. I read the book, make a spreadsheet of all the credits, made flashcards, and took numerous practice exams. Saori helped me a lot in this as she was constantly studying as well, and we got to argue and quiz each other on LEED minutae, of which there are thousands. Incidently, Saori passed the test as well.
The other incentive to take the test is that they just changed over to LEED 3.0, which involves TWO tests to reach the LEED AP level, and is supposed to be a lot harder, so there was a big rush as the opportunity to take the test ends in May. At any rate, I'm glad to have it over with.
Mar 27, 2009
Mar 13, 2009
Went to Build it Green convention and Expo today at the convention center downtown. A few good speakers, a lot of stuff I've already heard, mostly directed at developers. Didn't see too many architecture types out there. The first lecture was so-so. The second was interesting, more focused on green lab design, which is right up our alley. Its a shame we're really not incorporating any of the sustainable elements into this project. At least I'm getting better at understanding what we could do, and the technologies and techniques at the forefront of lab design.
Anyway, the third speaker was really good. A professor from Thunderbird School of Management, recently published in Harvard Business Journal, talking about the business side of sustainability. An odd lecture, he talked about the sweep of human history from hunter-gathers to agricultural societies to industrial, and the trade-offs we've made along the way. He used a stock portfolio analogy to describe the levels of productivity in these stages. Hunter-gathers, when the fish stocks are down, there are still deer to hunt = diversified. Agrarian states, which specialized in five grains, and three major animals to domesticate, specialized, and so stability was replaced by feasts followed by famine. Industrial societies specialized further, and so all the prehistoric knowledge of how to exist in the natural world diminished to practically nothing.
He made some other interesting points, but basically it came down to industry, in order to survive, must adopt the same rules which allowed the biosphere to exist since the advent of life on this planet. Namely, a radical simplification in the number of materials we use, which ties into his second rule, that everything must become cyclical, a value cycle instead of a value chain, where the consumer returns the product at the end of its commercial use to the producer who breaks it down and re-fabricates it. Lastly of course, is that these transformations must ultimately use solar power to do so. The lion dies and becomes food for the grass, the antelope eat the grass, the lions eat the antelope, etc. Circle of life as industrial model.
So that was fun. The expo was kind of slow. Mostly products for homeowners and developers. We got some silly putty, some recycled pencils and office supplies. And a green tote.
Anyway, the third speaker was really good. A professor from Thunderbird School of Management, recently published in Harvard Business Journal, talking about the business side of sustainability. An odd lecture, he talked about the sweep of human history from hunter-gathers to agricultural societies to industrial, and the trade-offs we've made along the way. He used a stock portfolio analogy to describe the levels of productivity in these stages. Hunter-gathers, when the fish stocks are down, there are still deer to hunt = diversified. Agrarian states, which specialized in five grains, and three major animals to domesticate, specialized, and so stability was replaced by feasts followed by famine. Industrial societies specialized further, and so all the prehistoric knowledge of how to exist in the natural world diminished to practically nothing.
He made some other interesting points, but basically it came down to industry, in order to survive, must adopt the same rules which allowed the biosphere to exist since the advent of life on this planet. Namely, a radical simplification in the number of materials we use, which ties into his second rule, that everything must become cyclical, a value cycle instead of a value chain, where the consumer returns the product at the end of its commercial use to the producer who breaks it down and re-fabricates it. Lastly of course, is that these transformations must ultimately use solar power to do so. The lion dies and becomes food for the grass, the antelope eat the grass, the lions eat the antelope, etc. Circle of life as industrial model.
So that was fun. The expo was kind of slow. Mostly products for homeowners and developers. We got some silly putty, some recycled pencils and office supplies. And a green tote.
Mar 3, 2009
Mar 1, 2009
Patios, Malls, and LEED
Here are a few of the things I've been up to lately:
Saori and I cleaned out the patio yesterday and went to world market where we picked up a bunch of small colored glass cubes for candles, and another hanging moroccan lantern to go with the lanterns I picked up in Abu Dhabi. At night, with all the candles, its very nice and relaxing, s we've been spending our evenings outside enjoying the light.
Today, we drove around, went to Buffalo exchange and PV mall. Paradise Valley Mall was pretty nice as I recall back ten years ago when I lived in Phoenix. Since I've been gone, its gone downhill, probably with Fashion Square and Kierland Commons taking the wind from its sails. It feels tired and weary, weakly fighting, even with a few higher end fashion stores. Fiesta Mall actually had more energy and vitality to it, and feels like its socially climbing. Metrocenter is hitting the bottom of the barrel with many storefronts vacant.
Work: a few bugs in the system. Basically our computer program makes work very easy and occationally very hard for us. Today and yesterday (saturday and sunday) I spent two hours a day working to fix a major glitch.
Revit is great but when things go bad things go real bad, especaially for our model. If you designed a cube in CAD software, you would draw a bunch of boxes on different sheets to show the different plans and sections. If you designed a cube in Revit, you create a 3D cube and the program slices and interprets it for you. If you screw up one drawing in CAD, you've only screwed up one sheet. If you screw up part of the cube, the error propegates itself through all the interpretations of the model on all the sheets.
The latest thing is that Revit lost all the dimentions between things and gridlines, which means we now have many hours of work ahead of us to make sure things tie back to the gridlines.
LEED accredation- I'm sure many of you have heard about "green" or "sustainable" buildings. In the United States, building construction and use is second only to industrial manufacturing in terms of energy and resource use. In an effort to set an industry standard of sustainability, the US Green Building Council (USGBC) set up a system of quantifying how green a building is based on a point system, called LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). There are four levels of LEED certification, Platinum, Gold, Silver, and certified, depending on how many points your building gets. Some points are very easy to get. If you are building on a site that used to have a building, you get a point because you're not despoiling new land, for example. LEED is actually pretty broadly encompasing- there are credits for making buildings that are easily accessible to bus or mass transportation routes, credits for improving air quality, efficiant water systems, etc etc. The tricky bit is where credits work against each other.
For example, there are a lot of credits based on reducing energy use, which is great. But there are also credits associated with indoor air quality. To improve air quality, you need to move more air around more frequently, which uses more energy. So you have find an appropriate balance.
Anyway, you also get a point if the project has a LEED accredited architect/designer associated with it. LEED accredited people can be anyone who passes the LEED test, a large portion of which is basic knowlege of how to use the LEED system. So it is a little self-serving. But with a lot of interest in green design and construction, individuals, universities, and municipalities have been pushed to mandate percentages of new buildings that have to be LEED certified. So, Saori and I are going to take the test and become certified to 1) increase our marketability, 2) so we can put LEED AP at the end of our buisness cards, 3) because sustainabilty and green design will become more of an issue in the future and not less so, and 4) because they're going to make the test harder later in the year.
Enough LEED for now.
Saori and I cleaned out the patio yesterday and went to world market where we picked up a bunch of small colored glass cubes for candles, and another hanging moroccan lantern to go with the lanterns I picked up in Abu Dhabi. At night, with all the candles, its very nice and relaxing, s we've been spending our evenings outside enjoying the light.
Today, we drove around, went to Buffalo exchange and PV mall. Paradise Valley Mall was pretty nice as I recall back ten years ago when I lived in Phoenix. Since I've been gone, its gone downhill, probably with Fashion Square and Kierland Commons taking the wind from its sails. It feels tired and weary, weakly fighting, even with a few higher end fashion stores. Fiesta Mall actually had more energy and vitality to it, and feels like its socially climbing. Metrocenter is hitting the bottom of the barrel with many storefronts vacant.
Work: a few bugs in the system. Basically our computer program makes work very easy and occationally very hard for us. Today and yesterday (saturday and sunday) I spent two hours a day working to fix a major glitch.
Revit is great but when things go bad things go real bad, especaially for our model. If you designed a cube in CAD software, you would draw a bunch of boxes on different sheets to show the different plans and sections. If you designed a cube in Revit, you create a 3D cube and the program slices and interprets it for you. If you screw up one drawing in CAD, you've only screwed up one sheet. If you screw up part of the cube, the error propegates itself through all the interpretations of the model on all the sheets.
The latest thing is that Revit lost all the dimentions between things and gridlines, which means we now have many hours of work ahead of us to make sure things tie back to the gridlines.
LEED accredation- I'm sure many of you have heard about "green" or "sustainable" buildings. In the United States, building construction and use is second only to industrial manufacturing in terms of energy and resource use. In an effort to set an industry standard of sustainability, the US Green Building Council (USGBC) set up a system of quantifying how green a building is based on a point system, called LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). There are four levels of LEED certification, Platinum, Gold, Silver, and certified, depending on how many points your building gets. Some points are very easy to get. If you are building on a site that used to have a building, you get a point because you're not despoiling new land, for example. LEED is actually pretty broadly encompasing- there are credits for making buildings that are easily accessible to bus or mass transportation routes, credits for improving air quality, efficiant water systems, etc etc. The tricky bit is where credits work against each other.
For example, there are a lot of credits based on reducing energy use, which is great. But there are also credits associated with indoor air quality. To improve air quality, you need to move more air around more frequently, which uses more energy. So you have find an appropriate balance.
Anyway, you also get a point if the project has a LEED accredited architect/designer associated with it. LEED accredited people can be anyone who passes the LEED test, a large portion of which is basic knowlege of how to use the LEED system. So it is a little self-serving. But with a lot of interest in green design and construction, individuals, universities, and municipalities have been pushed to mandate percentages of new buildings that have to be LEED certified. So, Saori and I are going to take the test and become certified to 1) increase our marketability, 2) so we can put LEED AP at the end of our buisness cards, 3) because sustainabilty and green design will become more of an issue in the future and not less so, and 4) because they're going to make the test harder later in the year.
Enough LEED for now.
Feb 19, 2009
merged images
Merged images from personal photos along themes- Arizona, Green, Japan, Architecture, etc.
Feb 15, 2009
Busy weekend
It's been a busy weekend. The rundown, counting back from
Thursday night, we met up with Mike and Ryan at the George and Dragon in central Phoenix. They were both classmates of mine and both working for the same small architecture firm. They both live downtown, which makes me start to wonder who else graduated from architecture school is living downtown. Ryan got married to a very nice woman, and it no longer feels strange to be hanging out with married couples my age. They've got enough work in their office to keep them employed at least for now, which is good to hear. We had a few drinks, and took the light rail home. George and Dragon is a nice place, a little expensive, long-standing British pub and a lot of the wait staff is either British or faking it well. Very good fish and chips.
Friday afternoon, we met a coworker of mine for lunch and he talked about working as an architect in his many years of working in AZ, which was mostly for Saori's benefit, but I enjoyed sitting in too. That evening, we went to mom's house to play bananagrams for a few hours, and left around 9 for Fiesta Mall.
For the past month, I've been part of a CANstruction committee at work. CANstruction was an event which is organized nationally by a design marking firm as raising awareness for local design, engineering, and construction firms and also to raise hunger awareness. Basically, firms compete to design large sculptures or scenes out of canned foods which are then donated to local food banks. This year, there were about a dozen firms participating in the valley, and ours raised about $5000 for cans. The committee, which was huge this year, voted to use Wall-E as a sculptural figure; not my first pick, but oh well, its for a good cause. We purchased a lot of cans and spent about a week working a few hours a day on a practice build, basically figuring out how we were going to lay it out and build it up. Last wednesday, we took it all down and loaded all the cases of cans into a truck and sent it to the food bank. The food bank, in turn, put all the cans on pallets, wrapped them, and shipped them to Fiesta Mall in Mesa for the event.
Friday, Saori and I arrived around 10 PM and jumped into canstruction. We worked for about four hours, stacking cans of butter beans, black beans, kidney beans, and baby potatoes. I was responsible for making the cubes of trash that Wall-E makes, so I make about five or six of them. Wall-E's body was created out of cans of spam ( rectangular AND yellow) so we had a spamular Wall-E. This entire project, the "Spam" song from monty python kept playing in my head. We taped together spagetti to form the treads and used coffee and large cans of beans for the wheels. The head was created from potted hams and two serendipitously black salmon cans. We piled random cans all around him to create a "trash" heap. It was pretty effective. While the entries from this year are better than last years, I think we still are in pretty good shape for most of the prizes. We went home extremely tired around 2:30 in the morning.
Saturday, I woke up late to discover Saori had already gotten me flowers, coffee, and made me breakfast. How have I deserved such a wonderful woman? She also prepared chocolate moouse and home made lava cake. After a liesurely breakfast, we went out shopping in Scottsdale, where we browsed American Apparel and laughed at the bleach blond, lamborgini lifestyles of the rich and tasteless who inhabit Skanksdale, sorry, Scottsdale.
I was white enough to walk to a nearby Urban Outfitters where I stumbled across a really cool jacket, marked way way down from $150, and Saori picked up a few nice things too.
We drove from Ghetto to ghetto, Scottsdale to Metrocenter, where we had great dinner at Fajitas. The last time I was there, if memory serves, I was 13 years old. After dinner, we spent the evening at Castles n' Coasters, playing a round of mini-golf and riding the rides. It was surprisingly fun, except for the numbly terrifying free-fall ride where its all you can do not to wet yourself as you drop twenty stories in about three seconds. But other than that, it was a blast.
Sunday, I made omeletes for breakfast and we hung out at home until we met Sal for coffee and he and Saori went to talk to a client. I wandered around downtown which was packed with pedestrians and sports fans who are all here for the NBA All-Star game tonight.
Now, I'm just relaxing on the couch with Saori and Suki, enjoying a warm and peaceful sunday night.
Thursday night, we met up with Mike and Ryan at the George and Dragon in central Phoenix. They were both classmates of mine and both working for the same small architecture firm. They both live downtown, which makes me start to wonder who else graduated from architecture school is living downtown. Ryan got married to a very nice woman, and it no longer feels strange to be hanging out with married couples my age. They've got enough work in their office to keep them employed at least for now, which is good to hear. We had a few drinks, and took the light rail home. George and Dragon is a nice place, a little expensive, long-standing British pub and a lot of the wait staff is either British or faking it well. Very good fish and chips.
Friday afternoon, we met a coworker of mine for lunch and he talked about working as an architect in his many years of working in AZ, which was mostly for Saori's benefit, but I enjoyed sitting in too. That evening, we went to mom's house to play bananagrams for a few hours, and left around 9 for Fiesta Mall.
For the past month, I've been part of a CANstruction committee at work. CANstruction was an event which is organized nationally by a design marking firm as raising awareness for local design, engineering, and construction firms and also to raise hunger awareness. Basically, firms compete to design large sculptures or scenes out of canned foods which are then donated to local food banks. This year, there were about a dozen firms participating in the valley, and ours raised about $5000 for cans. The committee, which was huge this year, voted to use Wall-E as a sculptural figure; not my first pick, but oh well, its for a good cause. We purchased a lot of cans and spent about a week working a few hours a day on a practice build, basically figuring out how we were going to lay it out and build it up. Last wednesday, we took it all down and loaded all the cases of cans into a truck and sent it to the food bank. The food bank, in turn, put all the cans on pallets, wrapped them, and shipped them to Fiesta Mall in Mesa for the event.
Friday, Saori and I arrived around 10 PM and jumped into canstruction. We worked for about four hours, stacking cans of butter beans, black beans, kidney beans, and baby potatoes. I was responsible for making the cubes of trash that Wall-E makes, so I make about five or six of them. Wall-E's body was created out of cans of spam ( rectangular AND yellow) so we had a spamular Wall-E. This entire project, the "Spam" song from monty python kept playing in my head. We taped together spagetti to form the treads and used coffee and large cans of beans for the wheels. The head was created from potted hams and two serendipitously black salmon cans. We piled random cans all around him to create a "trash" heap. It was pretty effective. While the entries from this year are better than last years, I think we still are in pretty good shape for most of the prizes. We went home extremely tired around 2:30 in the morning.
Saturday, I woke up late to discover Saori had already gotten me flowers, coffee, and made me breakfast. How have I deserved such a wonderful woman? She also prepared chocolate moouse and home made lava cake. After a liesurely breakfast, we went out shopping in Scottsdale, where we browsed American Apparel and laughed at the bleach blond, lamborgini lifestyles of the rich and tasteless who inhabit Skanksdale, sorry, Scottsdale.
I was white enough to walk to a nearby Urban Outfitters where I stumbled across a really cool jacket, marked way way down from $150, and Saori picked up a few nice things too.
We drove from Ghetto to ghetto, Scottsdale to Metrocenter, where we had great dinner at Fajitas. The last time I was there, if memory serves, I was 13 years old. After dinner, we spent the evening at Castles n' Coasters, playing a round of mini-golf and riding the rides. It was surprisingly fun, except for the numbly terrifying free-fall ride where its all you can do not to wet yourself as you drop twenty stories in about three seconds. But other than that, it was a blast.
Sunday, I made omeletes for breakfast and we hung out at home until we met Sal for coffee and he and Saori went to talk to a client. I wandered around downtown which was packed with pedestrians and sports fans who are all here for the NBA All-Star game tonight.
Now, I'm just relaxing on the couch with Saori and Suki, enjoying a warm and peaceful sunday night.
Jan 24, 2009
Phoenix Street Rail
Looks like I need to do a bit more research... or does it say something about me when I'm quick to jump to certain conclusions.
The story about Phoenix Street rail is a bit more complicated, as it turns out. Apparently there were actually two fires which burned the old rail cars, and it apparently the rails and infrastructure for the system were falling apart. This was all taking place amidst a time when people were getting away from the rail as it was no longer affordable, or riding a private bus line which ran through the city. Business, politics, and economics. So the decision was made to switch to busses and several companies were bought out and created. Goodyear probably just saw a golden opportunity and jumped on it.
Given Arizona stingy past, I should be happy that this city has had public transportation at all.
Speaking of which, light rail was packed this morning, which is a very good sign, hopefully someone is paying attention.
The story about Phoenix Street rail is a bit more complicated, as it turns out. Apparently there were actually two fires which burned the old rail cars, and it apparently the rails and infrastructure for the system were falling apart. This was all taking place amidst a time when people were getting away from the rail as it was no longer affordable, or riding a private bus line which ran through the city. Business, politics, and economics. So the decision was made to switch to busses and several companies were bought out and created. Goodyear probably just saw a golden opportunity and jumped on it.
Given Arizona stingy past, I should be happy that this city has had public transportation at all.
Speaking of which, light rail was packed this morning, which is a very good sign, hopefully someone is paying attention.
Jan 18, 2009
Light Rail, Again
Some people may be surprised to know that the light rail that opened at the end of 2008 was not the first in Phoenix, but the second. The phoenix street railway operated several extensive lines powered first by horses and then by electricity between the years 1887 and 1947. When a fire destroyed most of the trolly cars, the city decided to switch to busses. I have heard that the Goodyear Tire corporation, which was building up in the valley, approached the city and made a deal to supply tires to busses, which probably pushed the city to adopt a bus service instead of a rail line.
I don't know what a rail car cost, but I can't see it as being more expensive or requiring as much maintainence or energy (which may not have been a factor at the time) as a bus. If the rails and infrastructure, power lines, crossings, etc. were all intact, it would seem a better investment to simply buy new trollys instead of creating an entirely new public transportation system from scratch. Goodyear must have made them a hell of a deal on tires.
It makes me wonder what phoenix would have looked like if we had stayed with the light rail we had had.
I don't know what a rail car cost, but I can't see it as being more expensive or requiring as much maintainence or energy (which may not have been a factor at the time) as a bus. If the rails and infrastructure, power lines, crossings, etc. were all intact, it would seem a better investment to simply buy new trollys instead of creating an entirely new public transportation system from scratch. Goodyear must have made them a hell of a deal on tires.
It makes me wonder what phoenix would have looked like if we had stayed with the light rail we had had.
Jan 12, 2009
Dec 14, 2008
Who's buying?
Some observations on the state of north Tempe:
Six years ago, on the corner of Ash and University, there used to be a co-op grocery store called Gentle Strength Co-Op. To meet large outstanding debts, they sold their lot to a developer, and moved to a new location much farther from campus on Broadway. They failed less than a year later, after 36 years in the Mill ave location. The developer bought the rest of the block and planned a luxury high rise condominium. A Whole Foods, a national chain and competitor to Gentle Strength, will be located in the street level retail space.
But not anymore. University & Ash Llc, who are developing the lot, are attempting to file for bankruptcy. Who did they think was going to fill these condos, students? I've never understood any of it.
Le Meridian Hotel was going to go into the Hayden Ferry Lakeside development, but later pulled out. The mystery is the upscale appeal of Tempe. Mill avenue and the area have very nice pedestrian scale, good food, and a good dense mix of eateries, shops, and events. But its not Rodeo Drive by any stretch of the imagination. I don't lament the loss of public space on the caricature of a lake as much as I dislike the way they're shrouding Tempe Butte, a.k.a. A Mountain. City buttes are important landmarks, and surrounding it with high rises makes the city less distinctive, not more so.
Who is supposed to buy the luxury condos in Tempe? I'm not a real estate agent or even reasonably informed in the matter, I am genuinely curious. Is it a winter home for the upper middle class? Late 20s DINKs looking for an "authentic" small town downtown? LA Execs looking for a getaway? Saudi Prince cowboy wannabes?
Too bad Mill is at the front door of ASU, and there's all these poor ASU students hanging around.
What can be done with the masses of students who can't afford Abercrombie & Fitch or Urban Outfitters? First step, remove cheap entertainment.
The Harkins Theaters, which helped transition Mill from a college student street to a main street, closed its doors soon after the Harkins at Tempe Marketplace opened theirs, two miles from campus. The Borders bookstore (similar story, stifling a few independent booksellers when it opened) has followed suit, citing falling sales, and probably from increased competition from Barnes & Noble, also at Tempe Marketplace. The Tempe Orbit, ASU's unofficial transit system, conveniently reorganized and extended its routes to ferry students too and from there as soon as it opened.
Seizing all empty lots in Tempe and fencing them or turning them into paid parking also helps keep out the riff-raff.
Directly across the street from ASU, in a single story pedestrian complex called "the arches," most of the stores, which used to hold a subway and a pita pit, as well as a barber and an alphagraphics, is closed, with the buildings destroyed. The only tenant refusing to make a deal is the owner of Dave's Dog House, who claims he still has 5 years left on the lease and is refusing to budge. If not for Dave's, the site would be totally razed and construction could proceed on "University Square," which is a mid-rise complex consisting of a Westin hotel, offices, and of course, a condominium tower.
Another small complex on Terrace road which contained a laundromat, an Indian restaurant which serves the sizable Indian community in the neighborhood, and a few other small stores was bought by Avenue Communities Llc, a major developer in the Tempe area. They purchased the Mill which gave Mill ave it's name, a 100 year old structure, and are going to turn it into thier new corporate offices. I've seen the plans for the building, and while I applaud the fact they're going to build around it instead of demolishing it, the small Terrace complex owners are complaining that the company is letting the complex fall into decrepitude so it can be torn down to make room for a high rise. They have forbidden the sale of the tenant spaces to other vendors, told the tenants that the building was slated for destruction. The city of Tempe seems to be working towards that aim as well- Hungry Howie's Pizza was forced to take down a sale sign in the window as "graffiti" while the real graffiti scrawled on the walls of the sides of the complex go unchallenged and unchanged.
In this little rant/post I'm coming off as extremely anti-developer, which is more than a bit hypocritical given my chosen profession. I'm not against development- I'm against development which does not serve its community. I believe in architecture that benefits the people who use it, and who interact with it. I applaud the CVS pharmacy on the corner of University and Mill. If the Gateway project, currently dead in the water from lack of investor confidence, would rise, I think that would really be a big improvement as well. Turning everything in a mile radius of the ASU into high rise condos and luxury boutiques does NOT serve the best interest of the students. Even more fundamentally then that, it disgusts me to see this kind of quiet chicanery. People need to know what's going on in their communities, and it's wrong to take advantage of the four year collective memory of the students.
Six years ago, on the corner of Ash and University, there used to be a co-op grocery store called Gentle Strength Co-Op. To meet large outstanding debts, they sold their lot to a developer, and moved to a new location much farther from campus on Broadway. They failed less than a year later, after 36 years in the Mill ave location. The developer bought the rest of the block and planned a luxury high rise condominium. A Whole Foods, a national chain and competitor to Gentle Strength, will be located in the street level retail space.
But not anymore. University & Ash Llc, who are developing the lot, are attempting to file for bankruptcy. Who did they think was going to fill these condos, students? I've never understood any of it.
Le Meridian Hotel was going to go into the Hayden Ferry Lakeside development, but later pulled out. The mystery is the upscale appeal of Tempe. Mill avenue and the area have very nice pedestrian scale, good food, and a good dense mix of eateries, shops, and events. But its not Rodeo Drive by any stretch of the imagination. I don't lament the loss of public space on the caricature of a lake as much as I dislike the way they're shrouding Tempe Butte, a.k.a. A Mountain. City buttes are important landmarks, and surrounding it with high rises makes the city less distinctive, not more so.
Who is supposed to buy the luxury condos in Tempe? I'm not a real estate agent or even reasonably informed in the matter, I am genuinely curious. Is it a winter home for the upper middle class? Late 20s DINKs looking for an "authentic" small town downtown? LA Execs looking for a getaway? Saudi Prince cowboy wannabes?
Too bad Mill is at the front door of ASU, and there's all these poor ASU students hanging around.
What can be done with the masses of students who can't afford Abercrombie & Fitch or Urban Outfitters? First step, remove cheap entertainment.
The Harkins Theaters, which helped transition Mill from a college student street to a main street, closed its doors soon after the Harkins at Tempe Marketplace opened theirs, two miles from campus. The Borders bookstore (similar story, stifling a few independent booksellers when it opened) has followed suit, citing falling sales, and probably from increased competition from Barnes & Noble, also at Tempe Marketplace. The Tempe Orbit, ASU's unofficial transit system, conveniently reorganized and extended its routes to ferry students too and from there as soon as it opened.
Seizing all empty lots in Tempe and fencing them or turning them into paid parking also helps keep out the riff-raff.
Directly across the street from ASU, in a single story pedestrian complex called "the arches," most of the stores, which used to hold a subway and a pita pit, as well as a barber and an alphagraphics, is closed, with the buildings destroyed. The only tenant refusing to make a deal is the owner of Dave's Dog House, who claims he still has 5 years left on the lease and is refusing to budge. If not for Dave's, the site would be totally razed and construction could proceed on "University Square," which is a mid-rise complex consisting of a Westin hotel, offices, and of course, a condominium tower.
Another small complex on Terrace road which contained a laundromat, an Indian restaurant which serves the sizable Indian community in the neighborhood, and a few other small stores was bought by Avenue Communities Llc, a major developer in the Tempe area. They purchased the Mill which gave Mill ave it's name, a 100 year old structure, and are going to turn it into thier new corporate offices. I've seen the plans for the building, and while I applaud the fact they're going to build around it instead of demolishing it, the small Terrace complex owners are complaining that the company is letting the complex fall into decrepitude so it can be torn down to make room for a high rise. They have forbidden the sale of the tenant spaces to other vendors, told the tenants that the building was slated for destruction. The city of Tempe seems to be working towards that aim as well- Hungry Howie's Pizza was forced to take down a sale sign in the window as "graffiti" while the real graffiti scrawled on the walls of the sides of the complex go unchallenged and unchanged.
In this little rant/post I'm coming off as extremely anti-developer, which is more than a bit hypocritical given my chosen profession. I'm not against development- I'm against development which does not serve its community. I believe in architecture that benefits the people who use it, and who interact with it. I applaud the CVS pharmacy on the corner of University and Mill. If the Gateway project, currently dead in the water from lack of investor confidence, would rise, I think that would really be a big improvement as well. Turning everything in a mile radius of the ASU into high rise condos and luxury boutiques does NOT serve the best interest of the students. Even more fundamentally then that, it disgusts me to see this kind of quiet chicanery. People need to know what's going on in their communities, and it's wrong to take advantage of the four year collective memory of the students.
The Beaty's come to town
Saori's sister Ayumi and her husband Tim came to visit us for a few days while Tim inteviewed at one of the local hospitals.
We exchanged and opened presents on the first night; Tim and Ayumi got me a nice glass jar for tea, with a slate surface for writing in chalk. While they were here, we played a lot of Wii and bananagrams, and had a few really good dinners. Saori and Ayumi cooked us nabe which is a kind of Japanese hotpot, and then last night we had okonomi-yaki which is pronounced like "Economy"+ "yaki" which is like "teriyaki". It was pretty good stuff. The day after Tim's interview, the two of them borrowed Saori's car and drove up to the Grand Canyon for a night.
While they were gone friday, I went to the vet to pick up some more cat food, and then we hit the UPS store to send out some packages. Saori had a package she was sending to Japan, and the clerk told her that the lowest cost was about $140. "UPS doesn't actually do the international mailing," the clerk admitted, "we mark it up thirty to forty percent." We thanked the clerk for his candor, and decided to hit up the post office to send the Japanese package, although I still sent out a set of boxes for Salt Lake and also one to Oklahoma. That night, we drove to mom's house and grabbed burritos at the Ahwatukee Fillibertos before playing a few great rounds of Scattergories.
Saturday, we had a late start to the day, but we drove around looking for ski pants since they're pretty essential gear for skiing. We waded through the masses of people at Christown mall to the Big 5 sports before I could tackle a sales rep as he sprinted down the asile. "Ski pants? We didn't get a shipment this year."
Listening to our stomachs, we continued to Carls Jr. Burger, for a change, and were pleasantly surprised. They've been reworking the menu and the restaurant concept- all the burgers are charbroiled now, the fries are better, and apparently they've been trying to beat their competitors for customer service. Overall a very good experience.
We decided to go straight to the source, and hit Ski Pro, where the selection is as high as the prices. There were a few good deals going on, after about two hours of trying on pants, looking at features, quality, price, etc. we both found a pair. I was really happy with mine- nondescript black ski pants from Columbia for about $60, down from $100. They're going to last me a long time.
Tim and Ayumi came back that night, and we played more Wii games and bananagrams.
It was a pretty quick trip, we drove them to the airport this morning before hitting the nearest available waffle house. I'm not sure if its in "stuff white people like" (it may fall under the breakfast restaurants category) but they do serve up a good quick breakfast without much pretense, and good friendly service.
Dec 8, 2008
bathtub philosopher
Just ramblings to fill the bathtub of the web:
First I was an idealist.
As I got older, I was troubled to see patches of rust beneath a shining reality.
The harder I looked, within and without, the more I saw the taint of corruption and failure.
The idealist became a pessimist, which is really what you call a disgruntled idealist.
But when I realized that there is nothing that is absolutely pure, the corollary is that there is nothing absolutely corrupt either.
At this moment, you can see the glass is also half-full.
It a you-call-it kind of world, so I choose optimist.
Also, other things floating around in my head- Who affects the course of history more: radicals or moderates? I suppose you could say that radicals are sparks and moderates are firewood. Where would the world be today without Jesus? Equally, would he have been invisible from history without his apostles and the evangelists? Perhaps they stabilize each other, too many radicals and not enough moderates would either engulf the world in flame or violently flare out, and too many moderates and not enough radicals willing to start fires would lead to an unchanging state of inertia. Martin Luther King, Jr. condemned the moderates as smothering his cause for black rights. In his view, the people who said "Brother, I agree with your cause, but be patient and don't make big waves" were more harmful to their cause than the racists.
Progress is only achieved through discomfort, as any student or athlete will tell you. In business, reward comes primarily though risk. Society hates radicals because successful radicals light fires.
First I was an idealist.
As I got older, I was troubled to see patches of rust beneath a shining reality.
The harder I looked, within and without, the more I saw the taint of corruption and failure.
The idealist became a pessimist, which is really what you call a disgruntled idealist.
But when I realized that there is nothing that is absolutely pure, the corollary is that there is nothing absolutely corrupt either.
At this moment, you can see the glass is also half-full.
It a you-call-it kind of world, so I choose optimist.
Also, other things floating around in my head- Who affects the course of history more: radicals or moderates? I suppose you could say that radicals are sparks and moderates are firewood. Where would the world be today without Jesus? Equally, would he have been invisible from history without his apostles and the evangelists? Perhaps they stabilize each other, too many radicals and not enough moderates would either engulf the world in flame or violently flare out, and too many moderates and not enough radicals willing to start fires would lead to an unchanging state of inertia. Martin Luther King, Jr. condemned the moderates as smothering his cause for black rights. In his view, the people who said "Brother, I agree with your cause, but be patient and don't make big waves" were more harmful to their cause than the racists.
Progress is only achieved through discomfort, as any student or athlete will tell you. In business, reward comes primarily though risk. Society hates radicals because successful radicals light fires.
Dec 7, 2008
Lecture
Saori and I went to a really interesting public lecture at the library this Saturday on the topic of sustainable growth in Arizona. They had four Voices:
The Voice of Nature- a famous natural photographer for Arizona Highways Magazine, who talked about the beauty of the desert and the Southwest, and quietly lamented the disappearing vistas, and the developments in front of natural arches.
The Voice of Reason- A noted professor, John Meunier, presented several compact desert cities in the middle east, Africa, and India, and discussed what elements of urbanism could be adopted and adapted from them.
The Voice of Idealism- the venerated and ancient Mr. Arcosanti himself, Paolo Soleri, although he didn't actually talk much, he left his lecture in the hands of his translator and another architect from Arcosanti. His talk focused on high density linear city in the desert, a kind of city/wall/energy platform.
The Voice of Pragmatism- The head of Arizona Departmet of Motor Vehicles's rail division ended the conference with a discussion on the evolution of transporation in the southwest, and the potential for light rail in the valley, along with a discussion of public funding.
Short lectures, geared to the general public, under two hours long total, good event.
The Voice of Nature- a famous natural photographer for Arizona Highways Magazine, who talked about the beauty of the desert and the Southwest, and quietly lamented the disappearing vistas, and the developments in front of natural arches.
The Voice of Reason- A noted professor, John Meunier, presented several compact desert cities in the middle east, Africa, and India, and discussed what elements of urbanism could be adopted and adapted from them.
The Voice of Idealism- the venerated and ancient Mr. Arcosanti himself, Paolo Soleri, although he didn't actually talk much, he left his lecture in the hands of his translator and another architect from Arcosanti. His talk focused on high density linear city in the desert, a kind of city/wall/energy platform.
The Voice of Pragmatism- The head of Arizona Departmet of Motor Vehicles's rail division ended the conference with a discussion on the evolution of transporation in the southwest, and the potential for light rail in the valley, along with a discussion of public funding.
Short lectures, geared to the general public, under two hours long total, good event.
Dec 6, 2008
stuff on my table
I can't believe they're re-releasing The Dark Knight six months after it's initial release. It's really not that good, although it probably looks like "Bridge over the River Kwai" compared to the rest of the Christmas releases this year. I should be happy they're not producing (yet) "Scary Movies: A Retrospective."
I'm glad president-elect Obama is calling for massive infrastructural investments by the government. Construction work is good news for my industry and industries related to mine.
We got a live tree this year, only a few feet tall and planted in a galvanized bucket. We've already decorated it with lights and ornaments from last year, including peruvian finger puppets, middle eastern carved wooden camels, a fake cockaroach, a silver prius hotwheel, candy canes, and other decorations.
They've put a tree up at work and a tiny tree on the conference room table. Goodies have begun trickling in from our contractors and consultants, mostly in the form of Tri-flavored popcorn buckets, and boxes of Russel Stovers. Happy holidy cards have also started appearing. Saori was telling me that in Japan, all the Christmas cards are delivered Christmas day, so people have to send them out at the beginning of the month to give the postal service time to get all the cards togather and sorted and distributed to the local post offices. Companies will recieve giant boxes of the most elegent (and probably expensive) Christmas cards of any country.
We're back into the four-seasons-a-day swing of Phoenix in winter. Its winter when I get up to walk to work, spring by mid-morning, a warm summer day for lunch, and I walk home in the cool fall air.
Last night, I was in a driving mood, so we drove down to Awhatukee and surprised mom and Tay with bananagrams and cards. Mom ordered a pizza and we played games for a few hours until Tay had to leave for work. Afterwards, I decided to take the scenic route back, and drove around the mountain the other way, which took about twice the normal amount of time it takes to get to mom's house. It was nice, quiet deserted desert roads.
Today we slept in until 10, and then got donuts and coffee. We ate them while watching a Nova special on mountaineering. A very indulgent morning.
I'm glad president-elect Obama is calling for massive infrastructural investments by the government. Construction work is good news for my industry and industries related to mine.
We got a live tree this year, only a few feet tall and planted in a galvanized bucket. We've already decorated it with lights and ornaments from last year, including peruvian finger puppets, middle eastern carved wooden camels, a fake cockaroach, a silver prius hotwheel, candy canes, and other decorations.
They've put a tree up at work and a tiny tree on the conference room table. Goodies have begun trickling in from our contractors and consultants, mostly in the form of Tri-flavored popcorn buckets, and boxes of Russel Stovers. Happy holidy cards have also started appearing. Saori was telling me that in Japan, all the Christmas cards are delivered Christmas day, so people have to send them out at the beginning of the month to give the postal service time to get all the cards togather and sorted and distributed to the local post offices. Companies will recieve giant boxes of the most elegent (and probably expensive) Christmas cards of any country.
We're back into the four-seasons-a-day swing of Phoenix in winter. Its winter when I get up to walk to work, spring by mid-morning, a warm summer day for lunch, and I walk home in the cool fall air.
Last night, I was in a driving mood, so we drove down to Awhatukee and surprised mom and Tay with bananagrams and cards. Mom ordered a pizza and we played games for a few hours until Tay had to leave for work. Afterwards, I decided to take the scenic route back, and drove around the mountain the other way, which took about twice the normal amount of time it takes to get to mom's house. It was nice, quiet deserted desert roads.
Today we slept in until 10, and then got donuts and coffee. We ate them while watching a Nova special on mountaineering. A very indulgent morning.
Nov 30, 2008
Thanksgiving weekend
Hmmm it's been awhile since I've blogged.
Work has been really really busy. The project I've been working on the last six months had its first really hard deadline last wednesday. We put together a package of drawings as part of an application for a building permit, a major part of getting a building built. So that was pretty much 9 hour days, three weeks in a row, with the addition of working weekends. At least we were done for Thanksgiving.
Mom hosted this year; she made rolls and mallow pie, my personal favorite,and Tay whipped us up some mashed potatoes. I made oyster stuffing, AND mushroom and sausage stuffing, and Saori cooked up two really good Japanese appetizers, Okonomiyaki and pork skewers with ginger sauce. Sally and Jonathan provided the bird, one of the best I've had, plus some delicious cranberry sauce. Mai, one of Saori and my friends, came along and brought some Japanese curry to the table. Afterwards, we played a variety of board games, which was really fun.
Friday, Saori and I cleaned house and then went out with Tay to see the new 007 movie. Good, but not as good as Casino Royale. We played some cards at mom's for a bit afterwards, which was also fun.
Saturday, we went to dinner at a co-worker's house in Tempe. She is also Japanese and made us hot pot that we at under the traditional Japanese kotatsu.
Today, Saori and I drove up to the lava river cave north of Flagstaff and nearly made it. The forrest road disintigrated into mud pools with the thawing snow in the early afternoon, and the Prius was having some difficulty with it. So we parked the car and started to walk, since my info showed the cavern less than a mile down the road. At the clearing a mile later, we came to a sign indicating the lava tubes were an additional two miles away. We decided that we would just enjoy the walk though the woods back to the car. And that was nice. The air was crisp and cold, there were small patches of snow on the ground, and there was the smell of pine trees.
We drove back to Flagstaff and walked around the old downtown, which was nice and compact. Stopped for a burger and later for some coffee before heading back to Phoenix.
Work has been really really busy. The project I've been working on the last six months had its first really hard deadline last wednesday. We put together a package of drawings as part of an application for a building permit, a major part of getting a building built. So that was pretty much 9 hour days, three weeks in a row, with the addition of working weekends. At least we were done for Thanksgiving.
Mom hosted this year; she made rolls and mallow pie, my personal favorite,and Tay whipped us up some mashed potatoes. I made oyster stuffing, AND mushroom and sausage stuffing, and Saori cooked up two really good Japanese appetizers, Okonomiyaki and pork skewers with ginger sauce. Sally and Jonathan provided the bird, one of the best I've had, plus some delicious cranberry sauce. Mai, one of Saori and my friends, came along and brought some Japanese curry to the table. Afterwards, we played a variety of board games, which was really fun.
Friday, Saori and I cleaned house and then went out with Tay to see the new 007 movie. Good, but not as good as Casino Royale. We played some cards at mom's for a bit afterwards, which was also fun.
Saturday, we went to dinner at a co-worker's house in Tempe. She is also Japanese and made us hot pot that we at under the traditional Japanese kotatsu.
Today, Saori and I drove up to the lava river cave north of Flagstaff and nearly made it. The forrest road disintigrated into mud pools with the thawing snow in the early afternoon, and the Prius was having some difficulty with it. So we parked the car and started to walk, since my info showed the cavern less than a mile down the road. At the clearing a mile later, we came to a sign indicating the lava tubes were an additional two miles away. We decided that we would just enjoy the walk though the woods back to the car. And that was nice. The air was crisp and cold, there were small patches of snow on the ground, and there was the smell of pine trees.
We drove back to Flagstaff and walked around the old downtown, which was nice and compact. Stopped for a burger and later for some coffee before heading back to Phoenix.
Oct 31, 2008
Oct 4, 2008
links
I always enjoy finding strange links which tie things together. In this case, I was reading a story online about Gov. Palin accusing Sen. Obama of chumming with terrorists, and apparently, Obama was a passing aquaintance of a Mr. Ayers who was a leader in the radical militant student group Weather Underground out of Michigan, where Obama first became politically active. Apparently, the weather news service"Weather Underground" was a tongue in cheek referance to the group, as the network and service orginated from the same Michigan college as the terrorist group. The student group adopted the name from a Bob Dylan song whose lyrics ran "you dont need to be a weatherman to see which way the wind blows". So, indirectly, Bob Dylan named a global weather service provider.
Friday, I met mom for coffee in Tempe, and then we met up with Tay for some Vietnamese food. Afterwards, we came back to my apartment in Phoenix and played Wii for awhile until it was time for First Friday in Phoenix. We walked around for about two hours, looking at mostly bad art, but its always forgivable, given all the people who come together in the city, walking around, giving demonstrations, playing music, and drinking coffee. Its bohemian, its fun.
Friday, I met mom for coffee in Tempe, and then we met up with Tay for some Vietnamese food. Afterwards, we came back to my apartment in Phoenix and played Wii for awhile until it was time for First Friday in Phoenix. We walked around for about two hours, looking at mostly bad art, but its always forgivable, given all the people who come together in the city, walking around, giving demonstrations, playing music, and drinking coffee. Its bohemian, its fun.
Sep 27, 2008
cats
The last time I needed to give Suki antibiotics, I had to drive out to the end of Phoenix in Sun City to get a suspension made up so I could inject it in a fluid form into Suki's mouth. This serum which she fought long and hard against, I would inject into her cheek pouch and then she would smack her lips and foam and try to drool it all out, mostly on her shaggy mane and on the couch.
This time, I opted for a solid pill, as it was cheaper than the suspension, and it couldn't be worse then the suspension I had to inject twice daily. In blatent violation of reader expectations, I was correct- Suki takes the pulls much more readily than the squirted liquid. No, she's not happy about it, but she takes it with a kind of loathing resignation. She knows now when I'm getting ready to give it to her. First, I take out a paper towel. Then I get out the butter, and cut a very small crumb of it and coat half of a tiny pill. I wipe my hands on the paper towel to minimize the amount of butter on my hand. I advance on Suki, who does not try to flee but kind of hunkers down on the ground. I go behind her and squat on my heels so she can't back up to escape. I carefully grab the front of her face, and pull it so she's looking up and pry her jaws open. Then, with my other hand, I carefully plop the pill on the back of her tongue. Usually, she manages to tongue it out at least once, but finally, she'll swallow it, and I let her go. The ordeal lasts less than a minute, and she's not terribly angry at me afterwards, either.
Teruko-San, a friend of Saori's, has two cats who are ancient old men by cat standards, 16 years old. A sci-fi fan, one is named Data, and the other is Newt, of Aliens. Data is the blackest of the black cats I've ever seen. When he has his pale green eyes closed, it becomes a cat-shaped void in the universe. Its the kind of cat the defense department spends billions of dollars developing. Even in direct light, the only way the eyes can resolve it is a kind of glossy sheen on highlights of a moving darkness.
Sep 21, 2008
Sep 13, 2008
Banzai
last night our friend sal came over and we watched the movie "Buckaroo Banzai" which was actually a lot of fun. Even though the premise was kind of dumb, the over the topness of of all, including some of the campiest dialogue, plus a punchy timing, made the movie very watchable. The us president prepares to fill out "the declaration of war: the short form" for example. John lithgow as an evil alien possessing the body of a mad scientist with a horrible fake Italian accent. They built a jet car which can fly though matter and break the sound barrier out of a pickup truck with a rear stabilizer fin. The title character is a race car driver, neurosurgeon, and rock star. Occasionally he uses Japanese phrases. The whole thing is ludicrous, but it moves fast enough to keep you off balance and entertained. I don't think I would sit through it again.
Sal was wondering how we found this movie, I think it was recommended by netflix after I did a search for the movie "earth girls are easy" which is pretty similar in camp and feel.
Dad gave me an ipod touch for my birthday. Its actually petty cool. Its the size of an iPhone, about half as thick, but it uses solid state memory so it only has 8 gig. Its still doubles my old iPod nano which I got several years ago. The wifi is really cool, I set it up to sync with my google calender online, so I can use it as a schedule book. My friend Raun at work set it up that I can check work emails at home too, if I want. With the wifi it also becomes a chat device, although the keyboard takes some getting used to. I am actually using it right now to type this post.
Sal was wondering how we found this movie, I think it was recommended by netflix after I did a search for the movie "earth girls are easy" which is pretty similar in camp and feel.
Dad gave me an ipod touch for my birthday. Its actually petty cool. Its the size of an iPhone, about half as thick, but it uses solid state memory so it only has 8 gig. Its still doubles my old iPod nano which I got several years ago. The wifi is really cool, I set it up to sync with my google calender online, so I can use it as a schedule book. My friend Raun at work set it up that I can check work emails at home too, if I want. With the wifi it also becomes a chat device, although the keyboard takes some getting used to. I am actually using it right now to type this post.
Sep 7, 2008
Hidden Between the Seconds
Reader: if you have come across this bottle and manuscript upon the fair and firm sandy shore; rejoice. However, if your ears are still full of the murderous murmuring of the waves, if your horizon is the horror of black empty leagues, or if you are otherwise adrift in an abysmal coffin,take heed. Sailor, merchant, fisherman; flee the treacherous main, which hide the blackest horrors of the abysmal deep, creatures leaked from the gibbering mind of an alien god...
My name is Jonathan LaForge, and a fortnight before, I would, like you, dear reader, have dismissed these warnings as the ravings of a madman. To true, what I have seen has shaken me to such an extent that I would deem myself mad, if not for the photographs. Of course, I have shewn them to no other mortal. The sea-water has ruined them all now. Small mercies indeed, I shudder to think the panic they would have unleashed upon the world.
I had no desire to sail, indeed, the farthest from it! I was content to cower in my laboratory for several weeks upon my discovery, but they have forced my hand, and I could not remain. Mine being an island country, all regions within fifty miles of the shore, I had no choice but to pray to God and entrust myself to a ship bound for the continent. I had arranged, though hasty and vague correspondence, lodging in Zurich, quite far from the oceans. Alas, it was not to be.
In the crossing, there was a storm of the like no sailor had seen before. The sky was cloudless, deep and blue, but the sea, the sea rose and fell with such uncanny and supernatural fury, that several sailors dropped to their knees to beg mercy from the Lord. The first mate disappeared, and we lost seven sailors. The rest of the crew all edges that they were washed overboard, albeit, in waves and circumstances which could not possibly overpower such men.
Now, we are crippled. Mastless, and without a rudder, there is nothing to do but write and wait, and the sea stirs yet.
I am a photographer, or rather, I consider myself a photographic engineer. My expertise, the culmination of my career, was the development of specially designed cameras which could, through an elaborate engine of mirrors and switches, capture images in a highly rapid sequence. I have made several studies of the motion of the flapping of the wings of a hummingbird, for instance, and photographed events which are much to rapid for the human eye to comprehend. The feat is not difficult to achieve. Optical science has determined the human eye can comprehend an image which lasts longer than 1/15 of a second. I have pushed my camera to capture images separated by a mere 1/100 of a second!
Word spread of my achievement, and I was shortly contacted by a group of naturalists to photograph an usual phenomenon on the isolated shoreline west of the capital. That was three weeks ago.
The beach was nothing out of the ordinary, high white cliffs surrounding a pebble beach where huge walrus were known to sunbathe. These walruses, I learned, had an unusual behavior of leaping to the sea, an event I secreted myself away in nearby bushes to observe. I spent several rather boring hours until I saw what the naturalist had spoken of. One of the largest bullwalruses of the several dozen lounging on the beach suddenly lifted itself in a very erect manner, and turned quite rapidly and unnaturally. This all occur ed very quickly, and the surrounding animals because rather startled and spooked, barking loudly. Then the bull walrus abruptly leaped into the sea. This was no ordinary leap. From a stationary pose, this massive animal gave a great shudder and shot out, perhaps fifteen feet, to fall into the water. It was so astounding a feat, I dropped my small traveling camera. I failed to notice, at the time, the unusual churning of the water by that particular spot of beach.
I returned the following day with my full rapid-capture camera, and set up the device, rigged to a shutter and with enough film to capture the entire sequence. The event repeated itself- this time with different walrus, one slightly smaller than the one I had observed the day before. After the spectacle, I packed my equipment and returned to the studio immediately, eager to develop the film.
Methodically, I carefully separated the film, cutting the moments before and after, and concentrating only on the second that the leap took place. Trimming, developing, treating with the various chemicals and washes of my trade. Finally, satisfied that my work was up to the standards of Science, I trained my ocular enlarger on the first frame, and shouted in shock and alarm, instinctively flinging myself away from the cursed prints.
There was something there on that beach. In front of me. An indescribable, alien horror. There are no words to describe such a thing in a language which has never guessed at the obscene and insane dimensions from which this hellish thing must have slithered. It was horribly strangling the walrus with something not quite tentacles, and not unlike mucous white rope. What had been mistaken as leap, as it became horrifyingly clear, was actually the monstrosity yanking the walrus off the beach into a gaping maw of putrescence, fetid with hundereds of squirming little polyps so terrible I dared look no closer.
The worst was yet to come- in the last three frames. It clearly shewed three of them slithing onto the shore.
I have serveral conjectures as to why they are invisble to the human eye- perhaps, like certain newly discovered types of particles, they regualarly phase in and out of existance, and it only cosmic folly, or mercy, that they phase at a rate which is perfectly out of synchronization with our own, that they exist between the infantessimal moments which comprise the seconds, that they hide between the seconds of the day. In such a way, my camera could discern the unholy thing my eye could not.
But then, as the sun burns down upon my head, making my vision swim, perhaps it more to do with mercy after all. They say that when Columbus landed upon the west indies, that the natives could not actually see his ships, their being so simple that such an alien construction was simply uncomprehendable to the eye, rendering them invisible.
The boat shakes again, and the small waves rocking the boat claim sailor after sailor. I shall not be long for this world, but as I curse my existance and my fate, harken to my final word: flee.
Sep 6, 2008
Birthday
Thursday was a really boring workday. The only thing special I did was have a coke with lunch (as I've given up sweets at work). The only person at work to wish me a happy birthday was the woman in charge of posting that months birthdays up at the kitchen.
My real birthday started when I got home. Saori had left work early, and she bought me a bouquet of flowers, and prepared a bag of presents for me. We played wii for awhile, and then we dressed up and she drove us to Scottsdale to Trader Vic's restaurant.
There's something special about this Trader Vic's. Other Trader Vic's I've heard about just aren't on the level, and while they're fun, they're nothing that special. Maybe its because this one was here back when the Valley Ho was in its original heyday during the 50s. It could also be because the decor and design and theme fits perfectly with the Phoenix of the 1950's, in its own playful version of the Palm Springs Modern.
It was really quiet at the restaurant, only a few other tables occupied. I ordered a Trader's Sling, which was a really good drink, just the right amount of strength. We ordered Beef Cho Cho, and fried prawns for starters and I got the bacon wrapped scallops from the wood fired oven. They were delicious.
I opened my presents at the table. For my birthday, Saori got us tickets for the Arizona Opera production of Verdi's Rigoletto. If that wasn't a big enough gift, she also gave me a Wii arcade shooting game. Including dinner, it was a huge amount of presents.
I'm 24 now, which feels a lot older than 23.
Aug 31, 2008
Rio Rico
Friday night we had a party for Joyce, Saori's old roommate, who is going back to Taiwan. The next morning, we all went to Waffle House and there we decided to go with Sal and Joyce to visit Rio Rico again.
So, we packed up and headed down south. It was a really nice drive, chasing the rain and following the rainbow. South of Tucson, the area has seen so much rain that it turned all the mountains unusually green. In Rio Rico, we were greeted by Sal's family, and we had great Tinga and hot tortillas for dinner.
After dinner, we played SuperScrabble, which is identical to regular scrabble except that it is almost 50% larger with quadruple score squares, and a lot more tiles. While the quadruple score tiles and increased number of triple score spaces are fun, it makes a somewhat tedious game SuperTedious, and we called it a game after a few hours.
Chilequiles for breakfast, and we spent the morning relaxing and reading and playing more games. We left around 2 for the titan missle museum. The museum was a nice place to revisit- Saori and Joyce both liked it, I got some good photos, and the tour guide had Saori sit in the command seat and turn the key which launched the nuclear missle. In the gift shop, she picked up a mug, and I picked up an old 1955 "emergency drinking water" can, with water still in it. They were stockpiled in fallout shelters, and I thought it was an interesting symbol of the times.
The drive back to Phoenix was uneventful, although there were a lot of police on the road.
So, we packed up and headed down south. It was a really nice drive, chasing the rain and following the rainbow. South of Tucson, the area has seen so much rain that it turned all the mountains unusually green. In Rio Rico, we were greeted by Sal's family, and we had great Tinga and hot tortillas for dinner.
After dinner, we played SuperScrabble, which is identical to regular scrabble except that it is almost 50% larger with quadruple score squares, and a lot more tiles. While the quadruple score tiles and increased number of triple score spaces are fun, it makes a somewhat tedious game SuperTedious, and we called it a game after a few hours.
Chilequiles for breakfast, and we spent the morning relaxing and reading and playing more games. We left around 2 for the titan missle museum. The museum was a nice place to revisit- Saori and Joyce both liked it, I got some good photos, and the tour guide had Saori sit in the command seat and turn the key which launched the nuclear missle. In the gift shop, she picked up a mug, and I picked up an old 1955 "emergency drinking water" can, with water still in it. They were stockpiled in fallout shelters, and I thought it was an interesting symbol of the times.
The drive back to Phoenix was uneventful, although there were a lot of police on the road.
Monsoon
Thursday night, we were hit by an amazing monsoon which knocked out our power until 5 am, splintered trees and uprooted an ancient pine tree which sent it blocking three lanes of traffic.
Arizona is lucky to have its monsoons. Tornadoes are insane vandals, burning a circuitous path of chaos, death, and destruction. Earthquakes are irritated shakes which unblinkingly flatten communities as a soccer ball will roll over a blade of grass. Tidal waves bring a slow horror and destruction, and linger over the land like a plague. Hurricanes last for days and wipe out cities like an alien warship. An Arizona monsoon is almost like a poem. Yes, they cause millions of dollars of destruction, but not on the same kind of scale of hurricane or other natural disasters.
You can watch it creep towards the city, massive, crackling with incessant lighting, even as the sun shines where you stand. The wind cools, becomes moist and you can smell the rain in the distance. Clouds build. The pyrotechnics start, lighting snaking across the sky and lighting up the blue gray clouds. There is no miserable pissant drizzling, or mists, or sprinkles here. The first drops that hit are massive, smacking into windshields and sidewalks. Then the downpour begins as though someone had upended a bucket of water. The wind picks up further, turning the torrential deluge sideways, thrashing the trees and slashing at the ground. Anyone outside becomes drenched within seconds. The wind and rain and lighting increases steadily, and holds. Rain beats on the windows, the wind pounds on the door, and your garbage cans go for a run. You find them later a few streets down. The trees and bushes thrash and writhe and finally the rain lets up. Ten minutes later. There is only a bit of lightning in the distance.
Arizona is lucky to have its monsoons. Tornadoes are insane vandals, burning a circuitous path of chaos, death, and destruction. Earthquakes are irritated shakes which unblinkingly flatten communities as a soccer ball will roll over a blade of grass. Tidal waves bring a slow horror and destruction, and linger over the land like a plague. Hurricanes last for days and wipe out cities like an alien warship. An Arizona monsoon is almost like a poem. Yes, they cause millions of dollars of destruction, but not on the same kind of scale of hurricane or other natural disasters.
You can watch it creep towards the city, massive, crackling with incessant lighting, even as the sun shines where you stand. The wind cools, becomes moist and you can smell the rain in the distance. Clouds build. The pyrotechnics start, lighting snaking across the sky and lighting up the blue gray clouds. There is no miserable pissant drizzling, or mists, or sprinkles here. The first drops that hit are massive, smacking into windshields and sidewalks. Then the downpour begins as though someone had upended a bucket of water. The wind picks up further, turning the torrential deluge sideways, thrashing the trees and slashing at the ground. Anyone outside becomes drenched within seconds. The wind and rain and lighting increases steadily, and holds. Rain beats on the windows, the wind pounds on the door, and your garbage cans go for a run. You find them later a few streets down. The trees and bushes thrash and writhe and finally the rain lets up. Ten minutes later. There is only a bit of lightning in the distance.
Aug 29, 2008
Aug 26, 2008
4 years of work
Here is the first draft of my architecture portfolio. Comments are very welcome. The images will flick through fairly quickly, but then its probably going to be read the same way by the first admissions officer who picks it up. Enjoy!
Aug 25, 2008
Vista del Luxury
Had a really busy weekend, beginning saturday with moving Tay into the Vista del Luxury apartments at ASU. He didn't bring that much stuff, but the real pains, the ones requiring Sally and Jonathan's van, was his huge TV and leather executive chair. Everything else could easily have fit in my Prius.
Anyway, I owed him the favor for helping me move before, and he's family so I was happy to do it. It was still miserably hot, and had to lug all his stuff in the heat past the huge swimming pool filled with young college students who were all splashing around in the shade of palm trees.
After returning the van to Mesa, I stopped by a GameStop and picked up a nintendo Wii and an extra game. These are really fun. We pretty much played all the rest of Saturday, and most of Sunday afternoon too with Sal. So today I have a few minor 'wiinjuries' but nothing too bad.
Photos from Tay's ASU student apartments and a different dorm downtown:
Anyway, I owed him the favor for helping me move before, and he's family so I was happy to do it. It was still miserably hot, and had to lug all his stuff in the heat past the huge swimming pool filled with young college students who were all splashing around in the shade of palm trees.
After returning the van to Mesa, I stopped by a GameStop and picked up a nintendo Wii and an extra game. These are really fun. We pretty much played all the rest of Saturday, and most of Sunday afternoon too with Sal. So today I have a few minor 'wiinjuries' but nothing too bad.
Photos from Tay's ASU student apartments and a different dorm downtown:
Aug 20, 2008
Poe vs Lovecraft
Watching the very eerie trailer for "Cthulu" the other day made me want to read Lovecraft. I've never read his work before, although I had a feeling I would really enjoy it. So I picked up "The Call of Cthulu and Other Weird Stories," and I've been going through those. Lovecraft came after Poe and Beirce, so his works are influenced by both authors.
The main thing I feel from Lovecraft's work is his technical expertise with the short story. Like an expert saucier, he knows exactly what words and more importantly, thier flavors, to use to achieve a definate mood. The way his stories jump around from more macabre to demonic to abstract, it seems as though he enjoys wearing different hats while he writes. Lovecraft imagines himself to be a madman when writing about deranged scientists, while Poe was a madman. That's the wonderful thing about Poe, when you read his work, you see the world through his eyes as bleak and nihilistic, and the truly dark things in life are what is found within. Lovecraft portrays a world which hides true evil at its core, where unmentionable darkness lurks within the walls.
Its that kind of suspense which makes Lovecraft really fun for me- its like he's peeling back the corners of the world and hinting at a parallel reality of dark mechanisms and powerful alien forces at play. Lovecraft writes about the monster under the bed, Poe writes about the monster under the covers. Lovecraft also loves his craft, he's a book man's book man. His characters come across and puzzle over other stories; his books are filled with other books, some real and others figments of his imagination. Poe's stories gain authenticity and depth from his own tragically warped mind, while Lovecraft goes in the opposite direction, inventing books and legends to support his stories.
The main thing I feel from Lovecraft's work is his technical expertise with the short story. Like an expert saucier, he knows exactly what words and more importantly, thier flavors, to use to achieve a definate mood. The way his stories jump around from more macabre to demonic to abstract, it seems as though he enjoys wearing different hats while he writes. Lovecraft imagines himself to be a madman when writing about deranged scientists, while Poe was a madman. That's the wonderful thing about Poe, when you read his work, you see the world through his eyes as bleak and nihilistic, and the truly dark things in life are what is found within. Lovecraft portrays a world which hides true evil at its core, where unmentionable darkness lurks within the walls.
Its that kind of suspense which makes Lovecraft really fun for me- its like he's peeling back the corners of the world and hinting at a parallel reality of dark mechanisms and powerful alien forces at play. Lovecraft writes about the monster under the bed, Poe writes about the monster under the covers. Lovecraft also loves his craft, he's a book man's book man. His characters come across and puzzle over other stories; his books are filled with other books, some real and others figments of his imagination. Poe's stories gain authenticity and depth from his own tragically warped mind, while Lovecraft goes in the opposite direction, inventing books and legends to support his stories.
Aug 10, 2008
Favorite Moments from Peru
As my mom is doing a wonderful job of narrating our trip to Peru so far, I will take the easy route and relate my most memorable moments, good and bad.
Feelings of dread in Atlanta, reading about all the cancelled and severely delayed flights, wondering if we were going to make it to Lima on time, and if Saori (on a separate flight) was going to make it too.
Overwhelming relief in Lima to find Saori at baggage claim just as planned.
The long nervous wait to talk to the baggage rep about Tay's lost bag.
Saori's and my first view of Lima, which is like many other Latin American capitals; crowded, dense, grimy, with bad traffic and gray skies, ringed for miles by impoverished slums.
Drinking coffee at the bus terminal, watching Lima go by outside, our first real rest since leaving home.
Frenzied excitement of boarding the bus for Cuzco, with people checking bags, security forces videotaping us as we got on, and of course, trying to verify in Spanish that we were, in fact, on the bus to Cuzco and not, say Bogota.
I'm glad we took the bus from Lima to Cuzco. We both were looking for a little adventure beyond the pale of what mom and tay would accept as reasonable (although they were surprisingly game for other local bus adventures later), and becasuse we wanted to see more of Peru with our time there. We effectively lost a day, but as I heard later, mom and Tay spent thier time sleeping and acclimating to the altitude while they waited for us. The ride of 20 hours went surprisingly quickly. They served two hot meals, our seats reclined with leg supports, and they showed a constant stream of bad American movies from drop down screens.
As we left Lima behind, pushing through thinning favelas, we entered the arid wastelands south of the city and extending for hundreds of miles south into Chile. This area is the driest place on earth, despite being by the ocean. I've seen the Empty Quarter of the Arabian desert, which, at least had an occational stunted weed, or camel herd in the valleys between the dunes. The landscape we drove through was as barren as the moon. Rocky dunes which flattened and ran into the pounding sea. We passed occational shacks and small seemingly abandoned seafront villages, and also a heavily defended LNG operation. After a few hours of following that martian coast, we headed inland, towards the mountains, but we still had another desert to cross.
As the sun began to set, we crossed the Atacama desert, more picturesque, but equally devoid of life, I think I saw part of a Nasca line out there. After dark, we both fell asleep. When we awoke, we were in the mountains. Outside the windows was pitch black. The only way we could tell was the feeling of going steadily upwards, coupled with the regular tight turns that signify switchbacks. Reading the guidebook in the bus, they strongly recommended against night busses in the mountains because sometimes drunk bus drivers are a problem, the roads are not lighted, there are lots and lots of hairpin turns, and in the Andes, its a long way to the bottom. The only indication of how high we were was the headlights, far below of other trucks and busses taking the same switchbacks. I was not too concerned as the bus we were taking was one of the biggest bus line companies in Peru with a modern fleet tracked by GPS, and it was too dark outside to see the danger.
We crossed the ridge of the Andes at dawn, the morning rays making the clouds glow bright orange around us. My hands were tingling like they'd fallen asleep.
In Cuzco, relief at seeing Tay's head popped out of the window and our first taste of coca tea as we visited with the Ochoa family, the owners of the hostel.
Our first visit to the Plaza de Armas, the main square, and sitting down at one of the balconies overlooking the square for more coca tea.
Feelings of dread in Atlanta, reading about all the cancelled and severely delayed flights, wondering if we were going to make it to Lima on time, and if Saori (on a separate flight) was going to make it too.
Overwhelming relief in Lima to find Saori at baggage claim just as planned.
The long nervous wait to talk to the baggage rep about Tay's lost bag.
Saori's and my first view of Lima, which is like many other Latin American capitals; crowded, dense, grimy, with bad traffic and gray skies, ringed for miles by impoverished slums.
Drinking coffee at the bus terminal, watching Lima go by outside, our first real rest since leaving home.
Frenzied excitement of boarding the bus for Cuzco, with people checking bags, security forces videotaping us as we got on, and of course, trying to verify in Spanish that we were, in fact, on the bus to Cuzco and not, say Bogota.
I'm glad we took the bus from Lima to Cuzco. We both were looking for a little adventure beyond the pale of what mom and tay would accept as reasonable (although they were surprisingly game for other local bus adventures later), and becasuse we wanted to see more of Peru with our time there. We effectively lost a day, but as I heard later, mom and Tay spent thier time sleeping and acclimating to the altitude while they waited for us. The ride of 20 hours went surprisingly quickly. They served two hot meals, our seats reclined with leg supports, and they showed a constant stream of bad American movies from drop down screens.
As we left Lima behind, pushing through thinning favelas, we entered the arid wastelands south of the city and extending for hundreds of miles south into Chile. This area is the driest place on earth, despite being by the ocean. I've seen the Empty Quarter of the Arabian desert, which, at least had an occational stunted weed, or camel herd in the valleys between the dunes. The landscape we drove through was as barren as the moon. Rocky dunes which flattened and ran into the pounding sea. We passed occational shacks and small seemingly abandoned seafront villages, and also a heavily defended LNG operation. After a few hours of following that martian coast, we headed inland, towards the mountains, but we still had another desert to cross.
As the sun began to set, we crossed the Atacama desert, more picturesque, but equally devoid of life, I think I saw part of a Nasca line out there. After dark, we both fell asleep. When we awoke, we were in the mountains. Outside the windows was pitch black. The only way we could tell was the feeling of going steadily upwards, coupled with the regular tight turns that signify switchbacks. Reading the guidebook in the bus, they strongly recommended against night busses in the mountains because sometimes drunk bus drivers are a problem, the roads are not lighted, there are lots and lots of hairpin turns, and in the Andes, its a long way to the bottom. The only indication of how high we were was the headlights, far below of other trucks and busses taking the same switchbacks. I was not too concerned as the bus we were taking was one of the biggest bus line companies in Peru with a modern fleet tracked by GPS, and it was too dark outside to see the danger.
We crossed the ridge of the Andes at dawn, the morning rays making the clouds glow bright orange around us. My hands were tingling like they'd fallen asleep.
In Cuzco, relief at seeing Tay's head popped out of the window and our first taste of coca tea as we visited with the Ochoa family, the owners of the hostel.
Our first visit to the Plaza de Armas, the main square, and sitting down at one of the balconies overlooking the square for more coca tea.
Aug 6, 2008
Aug 5, 2008
Aug 1, 2008
Jul 26, 2008
seguro
Hola muchachos,
We are all safe in Cuzco Peru right now. I´m in a small internet booth off of the main square. Our hostel is really nice, and the food here is great. Cuzco is kind of a cross between SanteFe and Florence. We just got tickets to Machu Pichu at the train station and we´ll be heading out there monday.
Ciao!
We are all safe in Cuzco Peru right now. I´m in a small internet booth off of the main square. Our hostel is really nice, and the food here is great. Cuzco is kind of a cross between SanteFe and Florence. We just got tickets to Machu Pichu at the train station and we´ll be heading out there monday.
Ciao!
Jun 29, 2008
Back to the Tucson
Friday afternoon after lunch with Saorichan, I drove down to Tucson to see Kevin off. Kevin was recently accepted to a graduate program in Microbiology at UC Davis, and he was leaving Saturday, so I after I arrived, I spent the afternoon helping load up a U haul with his dad. Cassie was also moving out, into an apartment closer to the campus with two other roommates. And a dog, seven puppies, and her cat. One of her roommates is a foster parent for the puppies for a rescue mission, so the puppies will all hopefully get adopted away before too long. The smell was really intense.
Friday night, Kevin's dad treated us to a pretty good Italian restaurant, Elle Wine Country. The first time I heard it, I was really doubtful about the place because I heard it as "El Wine Country" which would be like "Pho Pizza" or "Taco Yurt." Actually, it was very good food, decent calimari and a very good gnocci with smoked salmon and roma tomatoes. For dessert, we went to a gelato place where I had a small but rich cup of straberry champaigne gelato.
In the morning, we all went to a local coffee place for a lengthy coffee break before I headed back to phoenix. Gas prices were down, and so I filled up my Prius with $3.85 gas. The drive down and back, I ended up averaging 49 miles to the gallon, typically cruising along at 75 mph. I'm not sure I totally trust the Prius mpg meter as it doesn't seem to add up. It gives me my average as 48 miles to the gallon, and I have an 11 gallon tank. At that rate, I should be getting 528 miles per tank. What I actually get is closer to 400 miles, but for 11 gallons of gas, I'm not complaining. The digital tank meter also seems to be off. It shows 11 bars as a full tank, which one would think equals 1 gal per bar. However, the first bar didn't drop until I'd traveled about 120 miles, and I know I wasn't getting 120 miles to the gallon. Who knows.
Lots of travel in my future. Wednesday, Saori and I are flying out to Oklahoma to visit my grandparents for the 4th of the July, and then at the end of July me, mom, tay, and Soari and all going to Peru for a week and a half. Last week, mom called me up and asked me if I wanted to go to Maccu Picchu in 4 weeks. I had to clear it with my boss at work, but its one of those things you just have to do. As mom likes to put it, if you wait to travel until its convienent or cheap, you'll never travel.
Friday night, Kevin's dad treated us to a pretty good Italian restaurant, Elle Wine Country. The first time I heard it, I was really doubtful about the place because I heard it as "El Wine Country" which would be like "Pho Pizza" or "Taco Yurt." Actually, it was very good food, decent calimari and a very good gnocci with smoked salmon and roma tomatoes. For dessert, we went to a gelato place where I had a small but rich cup of straberry champaigne gelato.
In the morning, we all went to a local coffee place for a lengthy coffee break before I headed back to phoenix. Gas prices were down, and so I filled up my Prius with $3.85 gas. The drive down and back, I ended up averaging 49 miles to the gallon, typically cruising along at 75 mph. I'm not sure I totally trust the Prius mpg meter as it doesn't seem to add up. It gives me my average as 48 miles to the gallon, and I have an 11 gallon tank. At that rate, I should be getting 528 miles per tank. What I actually get is closer to 400 miles, but for 11 gallons of gas, I'm not complaining. The digital tank meter also seems to be off. It shows 11 bars as a full tank, which one would think equals 1 gal per bar. However, the first bar didn't drop until I'd traveled about 120 miles, and I know I wasn't getting 120 miles to the gallon. Who knows.
Lots of travel in my future. Wednesday, Saori and I are flying out to Oklahoma to visit my grandparents for the 4th of the July, and then at the end of July me, mom, tay, and Soari and all going to Peru for a week and a half. Last week, mom called me up and asked me if I wanted to go to Maccu Picchu in 4 weeks. I had to clear it with my boss at work, but its one of those things you just have to do. As mom likes to put it, if you wait to travel until its convienent or cheap, you'll never travel.
Jun 25, 2008
Thinking about dad
A few weekends ago, dad came out to visit me and Tay for a few days. We actually got to spend the weekend together, although dad's jet lag did tend to knock him out a bit in the afternoon. Friday, we went to go see Speed Racer at the IMAX and then the following evening we saw The Hulk with Saori at the Cine Capri. Afterwards, we grabbed a bite of Sushi at a Crazy Fish, a sushi bar that was pretty deserted at that time of night. It was cool though, we got a table in the back, it was quiet, and we got some pretty good sushi. Dad kept hounding us for decent Mexican food, so he went to La Parilla Suiza when he got the chance.
Tuesday, after work, I drove down to Tempe and we grabbed a beer at FourPeaks. Good beer, my favorite watering hole, but really crowded and noisy with the basketball playoffs. We split an order of beer fries which whetted our appetites, so we drove down to Joe's Real BBQ in Gilbert. Dad picked up a new gps gadget from BestBuy while he was here- its pretty cool. Loaded up with the US maps, it knew where we were and (mostly) how to get where we were going.
After dinner he dropped me off back where my Prius was parked in front of Four Peaks, and we said our goodbyes. It will be awhile before I see him again at Christmastime. Anyway, he was off for a few days of training in New York before continuing on his work and travels.
When I turned sixteen, instead of buying me a used car (I was definately not into driving at the time), he took me to a really good audio store in Scottsdale, and bought me a set of high-end speakers and a Yamaha receiver. When we got home, he passed on his Denon CD-player which he picked up before I was born. That CD player is the best-enduring peice of high technology I've ever seen. The only thing it doesn't do is play MP3s, which were about 15 years after its time. So, instead of wheels, I got music. Loud, rich, music. This set up has been the centerpeice of my living spaces ever since, and I use it nearly every day.
Tuesday, after work, I drove down to Tempe and we grabbed a beer at FourPeaks. Good beer, my favorite watering hole, but really crowded and noisy with the basketball playoffs. We split an order of beer fries which whetted our appetites, so we drove down to Joe's Real BBQ in Gilbert. Dad picked up a new gps gadget from BestBuy while he was here- its pretty cool. Loaded up with the US maps, it knew where we were and (mostly) how to get where we were going.
After dinner he dropped me off back where my Prius was parked in front of Four Peaks, and we said our goodbyes. It will be awhile before I see him again at Christmastime. Anyway, he was off for a few days of training in New York before continuing on his work and travels.
When I turned sixteen, instead of buying me a used car (I was definately not into driving at the time), he took me to a really good audio store in Scottsdale, and bought me a set of high-end speakers and a Yamaha receiver. When we got home, he passed on his Denon CD-player which he picked up before I was born. That CD player is the best-enduring peice of high technology I've ever seen. The only thing it doesn't do is play MP3s, which were about 15 years after its time. So, instead of wheels, I got music. Loud, rich, music. This set up has been the centerpeice of my living spaces ever since, and I use it nearly every day.
Jun 12, 2008
Subcommittee Chair
The architecture company I work for is turning 60 next march, so it was a general consensus that a year long series of events should take place to commemorate it. There's not a ton of excitement surrounding the events, it seems to be proceeding more like a campaign to raise recycling awareness: its something staff in general agree should be done, but no one's jumping up and down. Anyway, I attend the biweekly Marketing Committee meetings, where we brainstorm a bunch of ideas to market the company, and then submit a formal report to one of the principals who probably passes the recommendations on to the officers. Or he uses it to clean up spilled coffee. I see it as kind of moot anyway since probably 5% or fewer of the projects we get we get through word of mouth or advertising. However, I usually attend anyway since (1) there's usually some good info on how the industry works (2) its an hour away from my desk, and (3) there's typically donuts involved. It was natural, then, that this marketing committee would temporarily become the 60th anniversary planning committee.
At the first official meeting of this committee, subcommittee chairs were offered to any sucker who would take them. When the chair for the subcommittee to display old work came up, I stepped up to the plate. At any rate, it seemed a lot easier than chairing the banquet dinner subcommittee. Actually, I see it as a great chance to explore the company's architectural history, as, truth be told, I really prefer the older more modernist works. A colleague at the table also immediately jumped on board, so now we are a subcommittee of two.
At the first official meeting of this committee, subcommittee chairs were offered to any sucker who would take them. When the chair for the subcommittee to display old work came up, I stepped up to the plate. At any rate, it seemed a lot easier than chairing the banquet dinner subcommittee. Actually, I see it as a great chance to explore the company's architectural history, as, truth be told, I really prefer the older more modernist works. A colleague at the table also immediately jumped on board, so now we are a subcommittee of two.
Jun 7, 2008
weekly news highlights
Well, last weekend, Saori, I, Sal, and Joyce drove down to Rio Rico again to enjoy the weekend. Drove down friday night after grabbing a bite of Vietnamese, and got into Rio Rico around 10. It's almost 20 degrees cooler down there, believe it or not, so it is a nice bit of an escape for all of us. This trip, we spent Saturday mostly driving around and visiting old mining encampments in the hills close to the border, poking around old abandoned structures, and taking pictures. There's a small ghost town called Lochiel, literally on the border. Used to be an old international border, but its all fence now. Two countries in one neighborhood. One house is Mexican, the other, American, not 20' away, separated by just a steel car barrier and some fencing. I was surprised by how beautiful it was, rolling hills covered with tall grass, and patches of trees with old windmills and cattle. And in the distance, the INS blimp which tracks people on foot trying to cross the valley.
It's been a busier week at work, we ran into some fire protection issues when we realized that the town in which we were building had ammendments that halved the allowable distance that a fire hose could be used, since apparently their fire fighters can't lug hoses over 100' long up stairs. That caused us no small consternation considering the fact the city refused to give us an exemption or appeal, and that it appeared that we would have to introduce not one but two more stairs, at added expense and would also seriously undermine the floorplans we had laid out. However, we are very close now to a good solution.
This morning I went out to a job site where my cubicle neighbor designed an addition for a public high school. The addition was about six or seven new large classrooms, plus a set of bathrooms. School design is facinating, since the design is so severely constrained by the two factors of cost and durability/vandalism resistance. My coworker is maybe one to two years more experienced than I am now, and he basically worked the entire project from design to construction administration. The result is great, spaces filled with light and color while still constrained to the inherent guidelines of the project and district. I am actually very jealous, not only in his ability as an architect, but his assertiveness to essentially take command of the project through all phases, with no prior buildings to his name, and also the autonomy he was given in the design. I put some photos up on my flickr site.
The other thing I like about Flickr is its geotagging ability, so if you visit my Flickr page, you can click on my map and find an interactive map of where I'm shooting these photos.
Que mas? Today I visited Tay and mom. We hit Havana Cafe for tapas around 2, and then played some games at home before tay went off to grab a nap before work tongiht. Night shift hours may agree with Tay, but I am not a night owl by any stretch of the word.
It's been a busier week at work, we ran into some fire protection issues when we realized that the town in which we were building had ammendments that halved the allowable distance that a fire hose could be used, since apparently their fire fighters can't lug hoses over 100' long up stairs. That caused us no small consternation considering the fact the city refused to give us an exemption or appeal, and that it appeared that we would have to introduce not one but two more stairs, at added expense and would also seriously undermine the floorplans we had laid out. However, we are very close now to a good solution.
This morning I went out to a job site where my cubicle neighbor designed an addition for a public high school. The addition was about six or seven new large classrooms, plus a set of bathrooms. School design is facinating, since the design is so severely constrained by the two factors of cost and durability/vandalism resistance. My coworker is maybe one to two years more experienced than I am now, and he basically worked the entire project from design to construction administration. The result is great, spaces filled with light and color while still constrained to the inherent guidelines of the project and district. I am actually very jealous, not only in his ability as an architect, but his assertiveness to essentially take command of the project through all phases, with no prior buildings to his name, and also the autonomy he was given in the design. I put some photos up on my flickr site.
The other thing I like about Flickr is its geotagging ability, so if you visit my Flickr page, you can click on my map and find an interactive map of where I'm shooting these photos.
Que mas? Today I visited Tay and mom. We hit Havana Cafe for tapas around 2, and then played some games at home before tay went off to grab a nap before work tongiht. Night shift hours may agree with Tay, but I am not a night owl by any stretch of the word.
Jun 5, 2008
New Photo website
I've decided to switch over to Flickr for my photo hosting, since they run a much cleaner, easier operation. The downside, of course, is that they don't seem to allow me to run slideshows in my blog or add posted items to Facebook. But thats ok. Check out my photos now and in the future at http://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcrow/
Jun 2, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
I’ve been seriously hungover before, so I was very happy to roll out of bed (still early) with little worse than grogginess, a slight heada...
-
I really enjoyed watching Dune, and it's such a cheesy movie, it made me wonder why I enjoyed it so much. I think what set it apart for ...
-
Saori and I started looking at wedding rings in Stuttgart and didn't get too far. For one, we could see the dollar signs accumulating in...
