HI LB!!! HI STEVEN!!! Have fun tomorrow. Keep up your awesomeness.

DubK - you TOTALLY should.

just remember that the stud's claim of size will be nominal and not actual...

Hi Steven/Liberty you guys rock! Keep moulding those mouldy minds. I think I'm going to be technology free for the next couple of weeks if this barrage of news about Michael Jackson doesn't stop.

but since he passed away i dont think we should bad mouth him. simply inappropriate

Yeah LB!!! You and Steven having fun?
We miss you....

toaster, it's not bad mouthing, it's truth telling and keeping both the public and private in perspective. no one talks about FLW without talking about his womanizing. same thing with Lou Kahn...

I feel bad for farrah, too. Poor girl. Documents her last days, and then WHAM! Michael Jackson has to go and die on her, and totally steal her spotlight. Bet they didnt see that coming.

I've got a big day planned. Making pizza - one with peperonni and mushroom, and one with a mushroom paste and cheese - meeting husband for lunch, cleaning the house, shopping for produce....man, the life of a housewife.

Louis Kahn wasn't a womaniser he just had commitment issues. BIG TIME!!

WWTCD - I'm filling out information for the school website and they are asking for publication information. I've already explanation that most of what I do currently is web-based, and that most of the written/printed was not written by me but about me/blog. I just don't know how to put that in the form. Help :-(

I think Michael Jackson is in a cryogenic chamber next to Walt Disney... didn't he buy a coffin-looking oxygen lung ages ago? The architecture of the weird - Anthony Vidler better get on and write that book

I take the LEED exam in about 4 hours.

I was looking at some sample questions and I hope the test is easier. These things are like riddles

If a woodchuck could chuck wood, how much wood can a woodchuck chuck to get 1 LEED point?

Slartibart- make sure you know which credits use SCAQD. ASHRAE 90.1 et al and the other standards behind each credit. Yes, it's a riddle - you'll be fine.

Melt, I get the feeling that LIG deals with more than just a few bad days/weeks/months. I think he's stated before that he deals with Depression, the medical form.

Like I said, I have many relatives who suffer from all five depression disorders, Whether its major, clinical, bipolar, disassociative, etc. they are all extremely serious medical conditions that deeply affect everyone around them. My mother has been dealing with major clinical depression for 14+ years now and I wouldn't dismiss it just becasue she's not as bad off as my aunt's who's extreme manic depressive bipolar

L'Oreal was just found guilty of racial discrimination.

Coincidence? My green energy stocks (solar and wind) in my portfolio are exploding today. "They" must know I'm taking the LEED exam today.

Can you still go swimming in Chicago on the 23 of September?

Dapper I'm sorry about your family but I think melt's comment was made out of frustration and surprised sadness with regards to her own family situation. I doubt she would feel so open to sharing in the future if she thought she was going to start a p*ssing match with every comment she made. Can we leave it alone now?

In other news, I think I've just been stood up. Oh well, I need to go back to packing anyway.

melt...I don't think it is a contest....My Sister one year older than me struggled for years with this condition. She wasn't a slacker, actually held a masters degree in psycology. Even with three successful kids everything became to much.....and well I blame alot of it on the medical profession in this country....sometimes I just think they don't give a shit. We have never been able to piece together what actually happened but she is in a better place. This I know because we were often thought of as twins.....having gone thru school from the 1st grade thru the 12th grade. I saw her at her highs and at her lows, but I was never able to save her, as she was her own being.

peeps i don't think melt was here when LiG has gone into detail about his depression.

I think it's time to bring out the TC motto again, what was that? Something about not comparing lives? yeah.

And my comment was made out of frustration as well and not as a comparison It's a sensitive issue to me because people with depression, up until fairly recently, are assumed to be having a bad spell or just lazy. We still deal with people who think she's faking. As I said before I truly feel for Melt and hope her brother takes a turn for the better very soon.

SH, no you can't swim in september, unless you like a chilly swim.

I'll have to bypass some of the comments in here. There is just nothing I can say that'll make it better.

So after all that whining about the LEED exam, I did pass. I was so hesitant about clicking that button to end the test.

Did y'all hear about the Energy and Climate Bill passed by the house? Obviously this had more impact on my green energy stocks than the world's anticipation of me passing my LEED exam.

archi, i put publications for peer reviewed journals, and publications about my work (written by others) in separate categories. i don't include web publications because in academia no one really gets that yet. in your case i think you should forget that point and put the web address and otherwise treat articles as you would journal publications. for your blog i would write it up as something like an op-ed continuous publication. ie, from 1996 to present, weekly publication (or however you want to present it) at xxx address.

the internet has really made things complicated.

Full-blown panic attack here. Guess that'll happen when you realize you're going to be homeless in 5 days... Nothing I can do but try to eat dinner and calm down at this point.

Oh DubK!!!! I am so sorry. I wish there were something I could so for you. I just tried to call you, but no answer. You know how to get a hold of me. :o(

Hang in there...

congrats on passing the LEED exam.for academia they are really only interested in peer reviewed work. but the online platform is becoming increasingly important.

wonder K if there is anyone who will do well in the end it is you! total faith in your ability to beat this economy all to shit and come out other side as guru to the famous and fantastic...just a matter of time.

congrats on passing LEED slarti. super coolio.

as a slight non-sequitir i spent a short while in my youth sleeping in parks and train station. i had a job, just not a place to live. very strange experience but i kind of enjoyed it cuz i was "safely" homeless and tend not to get down by such things anyway. i've been worse off than that.

jumpster have you heard of a writer named natsuo kirino? she wrote a book called out and a book called grotesque. a new friend of mine translated the latter from japanese to english. it deals with the rigid societal conventions of japan and is a psychological investigation into the female psyche and a classic work of noir fiction.

"a new friend"

I'm eager to hear more!

I've had three beers tonight. And lots of barbeque.

Congrats slartibart!

no vado. i am really bad with literature. can't stand thinking when i find time to take a break - read just pulp fiction SF if i can manage it.

my partner probably heard of it though. he is ridiculously well educated.

is it good book?

actualy for thos of you who are into the literary things, a girl recently wrote a novel that she sent out in installments as text messages. it was totally viral popular and became a movie last year. i had idea in head that she was high school student doing for fun, but that might be made up inside my head...

times she be achanging...

Thanks guys. I didn't think anyone would care at this point. If it feels like this to pass a LEED exam, I wonder what it'll feel like passing the ARE's.

How lame am I? I didn't go out tonight so I can go to a wedding tomorrow (I have to wake up at 5am and drive 5 hours). And I didn't fall asleep yet. Not good

Many congrats on the LEED AP status Slart. I knew you could do it.

i haven't read the book yet. but it is on my list. she also wrote a book about uno chiyo who was a writer and a fashion icon in japan before world war II.

sltbt LEED-AP !!! congrats. I found the LEED exam to have more difficult questions then the LARE, so would assume the same about the ARE... far fewer riddles and mind games.

ABSOLUTELY. (Sorry Dapper, we disagree on this one.) It takes about till August for the snowmelt in the lake to warm up, and by September you've actually hit the best possible conditions for swimming. I highly recommend! That's the best time of the year to swim here. I will say, however, that the beaches just around the bend in Michigan are much nicer than the Chicago beaches.

In fact, the weather in late September is generally gorgeous in Chicago. Beautiful sunshine and not too hot anymore (August is muggy).

Slart -congrats!!! doesn't it feel great to be done and passed? I wasn't even able to click the "I'm done" link, I literally sat there for 45 mins and went back over old answers until they just cut my session off at the 2 hour mark. It was much easier than the practice tests, huh?

I read Out, I LOVED it. One of the best noirs I've read. I should see if my library has Grotesque.

Husband si thinking of taking me to the races in Elkhart lake Wisconsin at the end of September. We are thinking of flying into Chicago, staying a day/night, and then driving to the track. I figure, if he can drag me to the races, I can drag him all over Chicago to see interesting things. Unfortuanly, it would only be a days worth of things, most of wich would probably be spent traveling between things I suspect. So what should I see...Milinium park? a museum? A bar full of Archinectors? I cant remember who lives there and who doesnt. Manta...you do, right? Chicago-ites, email me, will you? And I was asking about swimming mostly because the hotels dont seem to have pools, and I found that odd.

Techno, how do you make your mojitos? We made some last night, and they just didnt seem right. Our concoction was three mint leaves, 1.5 oz of rum, 2TBS of sugar and 1.5 limes. It tasted ok, but seemed to be a lot of limes for 1 drink. Of course, we put the club soda in, but I didnt measure that.

Sarah, the hotels here don't have much room, + pools are a tremendous upkeep up here (and can only be used a few months of the year if they're outdoor). A lot of the suburban hotels will have indoor pools, but if you stay in the suburbs you'll really miss out on the Chicago experience, and with so few days for site-seeing you'll waste a lot of time getting to the city. I HIGHLY recommend getting a hotwire deal for a downtown hotel and then just live it up! Some of the ritzier hotels downtown have rooftop pools, and (I hear) that's an experience not to be missed. You ain't seen a downtown till you've seen Chicago's downtown -- in terms of drama, I'm sorry but it puts NYC to shame.

You will EASILY be able to pack a ton into one day of site-seeing downtown. The city is actually pretty centralized and extremely easy to get around. It's not big and sprawling like Paris (with the Eiffel Tower on one end of town and Sacre Coeur at the other) or hard to get around like Rome (congestion). There's LOTS to see and do and it makes for a great 1 day trip (but of course, more days are always better if you have time). You can get a pretty good feel for the "Chicagoness" of Chicago in just 1 day. (By contrast, I usually tell people that 3 days is the absolute minimum for Paris. As far as I'm concerned, you can't even claim you've been there unless it was for 3 days min.) Anyway, digression... email me for further info. I'd of course be happy to meet up for a drink, I already know I would enjoy speaking with you in person.

The museums & millenium park and all that are all right on the SAME street. Plus, for an architect, seeing stuff in Chicago is insanely easy -- you literally walk down one single street and in 5 blocks you will see 10 buildings you studied in school. It's crazy fun. I love it love it love it. Ask WK she likes it too! So does Vado, he needs to move (back) here.

Now, off to the beach with the kite & the book on 747 design!

I do love Chicago. I still meet people out here in our profession who have never been, and I'm like, you call yourself an architect?!?

Did someone say Archinector meet up in Chi-town? I might be down for that... if I haven't been laid off by then.

SH - How did the pizza turn out? Any more news on the Church project? Please excuse I've been a little out of it as of late.

They are finishing up re-surfacing my street today which means it's not all that great to hang out outside, so alas I'm stuck inside listening to the loud machines. Oh well, it's hot and humid anyway... perhaps I'll go read instead.

Sarah, I'll second the Millennium Park and the Art Institute recommendation. On our recent visit to Chicago we spent 2+ hours in Renzo Piano's recently completed Modern Wing of the AIC, and felt like we could've spent another hour or two there without experiencing museum fatigue. The galleries are really well done (architecturally and curatorially), and all of the diffused natural light, views to the exterior, and calming 'pause' spaces make the experience less taxing than many museums.

Also, the Chicago Architecture Foundation (which is across the street from the AIC) has a variety of guided tours (45 minute tours of single buildings, typically at lunch time, and 2 hour walking or boat tours that are organized around specific themes). Highly recommended.

Have fun! Oh! And bring a change of clothes for Abe so he can run around in the fountain with all of the other kids at Millennium Park (if it's warm enough):

I agree, mantaray. The skyline of NYC certainly has its sublime moments, and a huge cultural status to go with it. But in terms of just jaw-droppingly gorgeous drama, the Chicago skyline is phenomenal. I think it's the contrast of the huge empty space of the lake combined with the roads going the other direction endlessly to the horizon. Two very different kinds of flat, smashed together at their edges to make the skyline.

Steven and I are headed to a bar, um, I mean, scoping a site for the students to use, along a road that has a bar at one end. Later!

sigh, my 7-y.o. G4 died in it's sleep this afternoon. good news is the drive is fine, so I haven't lost any files. seems I can get a replacement for about $200. Guess I have to spend more time in the garden for a few days till we get the new machine...

Sorry to hear about your loss TK. What's a G4 anyway?

Apple product... it's either a desktop or a powerbook.



It was (and still is) one of the <chauvinistic>sexiest</chauvinistic> desktops ever designed.

And the computer was a slut... she'd open her chassis with the flick of a finger.

question for the best and the brightest.

any of you know the name of the town or area where a roman coliseum was transformed into a street with the buildings on the street literally following the contour of the original building, but inversed (building became street, street became building). is famous but hell if i can remember it right now...

Did the coliseum actually exist? Because all I can think about is the Bath Circus which is based on an inversed coliseum.

The only other one I can think of is Piazza Anfiteatro.

Piazza Anfiteatro. that's it. cheers mate!

h&r - RIP my quicksilver, dual 1ghz. not the wind tunnel you pictured. Not sure if I'm going to chase after a faster machine that will run leopard, or just keep the cpu spec's the same. The RAM and other cards are still good, just have a problem with the bus that connects to the drive. Don't feel like taking the effort to swap motherboards, though that is 20% the price of a machine. I'd love to upgrade to tiger, but I'd loose all my adobe products and more. Guess I'm stuck with leopard for a while longer.

To all those enjoying the pride parades today, have fun and keep those chaps on!

ooh, thanks for the reminder, tk. Going to check where Seattle's is at so that I don't bump into it unexpectedly. I hate when you plan to go somewhere only to find out that a parade or charity run or some such thing has taken up streets and screwed traffic for miles. Not that gay pride and rights aren't worth parading, just that it's best to be aware of where the parade will occur...