I'm a hopeless romantic at heart. I blame the sugar-, and adrenaline-filled rush of distributing valentines out to my entire class, while carefully crafting the perfect one for the girl I admired at the time. Dreaming hopelessly about what might become if only she'd notice the extra attention I'd give her card.

(source; 2012 coffeewithanarchitect.com)

While other bloggers may be putting together clever or pun-filled cards and images to capture the mood today, I wanted to celebrate Valentine's day a little differently by acknowledging a couple of people who I have come to admire recently. They don't know me, and I don't know them. As far as I know, our paths have never crossed and we've never met, nor have we lost ourselves in each others' eyes, or laughed out loud at each others' witty remarks. 

However, I became an admirer because of a couple of things that were said among many excruciatingly boring and pointless posts on the NCARB ARE 5.0 Community forum. Specifically the thread that has become a dumping ground for random questions directly to NCARB employees who frankly have better things to do, and have answered these questions before. The questions themselves could easily be answered by simply reading a little bit and taking some responsibility for understanding the process behind getting one's license.

It worries me to see some of the questions people ask on the forum. These are our future architects, and sometimes it seems they wouldn't be able to tie their own shoes without first directly verifying with NCARB that it is necessary. However, these two gentleman have risen above the fray and have been able to capture what I'm sure many people are feeling, but are unwilling to say because they're too worried about being polite to other candidates going through the process of passing the ARE. 

Joshua, your post was very direct, and I'm sure you meant to say PDD instead of PDF at the end, but even then, you've been able to capture in just a few lines what I've screamed at my computer screen every time someone else asks if they take (blank) test on (blank) day, will they get the $100 gift card. It seems so simple, yet so many people don't understand how to figure this out.

(source)

Jared, while I can't agree with the way you capitalized your name on the forums, I can agree with the sentiment that figuring out information is not that hard if you can read and comprehend what you read. For someone who is trying to tackle the ARE, this is a skill that is essential. I never quite understood why people thought the ARE was so difficult, but I'm beginning to think it isn't the ARE ... it's the people. Also, kudos for extending a hand to Ryan. He seems to have a good attitude about everything and maybe it's because he is getting paid to babysit ARE candidates on the forum. Regardless, you strike me as a kind and empathetic person ... something this profession needs more of. 

(source)

Thank you Joshua Workman and Jared Basler ... will you be mine?