hey, any scapers here have any experience with the USDA plants database? i am looking to download database of plants for my zone, so that i can sort by various categories...any thoughts or suggestions??
Please tell me I'm not the only one that GOOGLE'd whether it is Donna Downer or Debbie Downer. When I googled Donna Downer, I got results with real people and one result of a really weird comic...
Anyway, enjoy the New Year, folks! Its gotta be better than this one!
Tk, you're totally raining on my get rich quick schemes.
I haven't seen Avatar but I thought fern gully when I saw the previews. That sludge monster alwaysfreaked me out. And now that I think of it, could the save the planet stuff just be a phase? I mean we had fern gully and captain planet when I was a kid, and they went away.
Rationalist I hope it's easy.
So we got a new computer for our tv. I've been ripping music all day. Sounds easy, but I'm anal and want the albums and titles correct, and most of our music is of the mix cd variety from the napster pirating years.
I'm hoping to see Nine this week.
And while TaylorSwift isn't my cup of tea, she doeswrite her own stuff, and sing about age appropriate stuff. I can respect that.
Tk, I don't even know how to start a blog. And I'd just piss people off.
u.s. public certainly treated the earlier ecological/environmental movements as 'a phase', unfortunately. the consequences haven't changed, only our collective interest or concern.
i think that is cyclical, sarah: we cared in the 60s for a while, again during the 70s, but then during the heady go-go days of the 80s, we lost interest in anything that didn't encourage the gluttonous hedonistic behavior fuelled by a booming economy. when things are good, we don't like to worry. when it comes back around, we're in deeper shit than last time.
so, yeah, maybe we'll stick our heads in the sand again. "bring on the gas fumes and coal dust - there's money to be made, and our kids are sure to figure out how to fix it! right?!"
or maybe we can figure out ways to make sustainability not only a way of life but an attractive pursuit instead of something punitive and depressing. (a lot of designers, of course, are already working on this. i'll put more faith in positive holistic design approach to sustainability than in cap and trade or similar reactive measures any day.)
Sarah, I do appreciate that Taylor Swift writes her own music, that IS cool and uncommon these days, and jeez she's only 19!! In a way I feel bad that she's so famous so young, it rarely works out well. I guess I just don't like her music.
And on the green phase: it's definitely trendy, but the metric I've been using for this particular phase is: when I see that the majority of middle aged moms at my local Midwestern grocery store are bringing their own bags, I feel like at least some of the good ideas are going to stick this time.
My 5pm meeting with a quickly thrown together SU model went very well - so I went ahead and opened a bottle of sparkling tonight. Why not?
lb your down is higher than most, so i wouldn't worry!
that no insurance going to see eye doctor thing is scary rationalist. hope it is nothing and costs nothing too.
fern gully ! hah. could be. we are going to see avatar tomorrow and will decide then. am going with my wife and sister in law and oldest daughter. for those who have seen it is it safe for ridiculously advanced 9 year olds?
taylor swift is fine. like george strait, predictable safe and nice enough hooks if the genre suits ya to start with. often seriously bad lyrics which you have to refrain from cringing at, but occasionally something nice sneaks in. If i was going to choose young and talented but unadventurous musicians i would listen to hannah montanah, but that is just me. much prefer lady gaga. me i am still waiting for the modern version of nina simone or johnny cash, or hell even a souped up crimson king would be fine, but somehow musicality with real depth has dropped off the world lately. i blame it on george bush.
finally its last morning of work in office then off to catch a bullet train. wife is talking about skiing since her mum's place is 30 minutes from the slopes. i aint never gone skiing before being a prairie boy it just didn't come up...so i guess it is about time.
well I must have gotten some of those good vibes from jump. I started feeling better after I made the appointment (less swelling, can now blink without pain, though it's still not 100% back to normal) so I bailed on the appointment and will try another day worth of compresses to see if the improvement continues.
Happy new year jump!
Glad to see someone else felt that way Sarah. At least Avatar has less singing in it, so I'd say it's a better movie :)
It is interesting that we will have two full moons this month.....Kinda thinking New Years Could Set a Record for Crazies under the influence casting about on New Years under A Full Moon......Be careful....and don't do anything I wouldn't do....that gives you alot of lattitude....I only thought about this because I was out and about today and had like six police cruisers go screaming past me in a matter of minutes on my drive home. I told the Mrs...I think a bank was robbed today up the street from our house. So an hour later I have to run out to a project site to grab a couple of measurments and I see all the police vechiles lined up on the street and when I arrived home Mrs says, yep one of our local banks was robbed, and the guy escapeed on foot....now that is one fricking fool. You would think he would jump into his hydrofoil and wisk away hovering just above the pavement so that people would scurry away cause they think he is an alien.
I'm sipping a very needed shot of white label tonight. It's been one of those days between dealing with the missus recovering from h1n1 and going back to the doctor for the shrub's ear infection for more potent meds.
toaster - topophilia is love of the land/the picturesque (aka all those limo liberals who opposed the cape wind project like teddy kennedy).
sarah - go to wordpress.com and follow the steps. pissing people off is good thing in the land of blogs (and a path to becoming a professor)
Ah shit for the first nine years of the century! I'm hoping Architecture will get real coming into 2010. I'm so pissing tired of wanta be graphic bull...I want, "Architecture" not "Futurism" Maybe I'm alone on this one...but the feeling is strong.
i thought Cadillac Records was alright. What i didnt' like was when the Rolling Stones showed up and had these working class accents. Those guys were all college boys. and back then working class accents didnt go to the london school of economics. is this decade over yet?
The decade ends in 8 hours here. I liked the aughts though for all of it's bad parts. Beats being dead.
Will try posting at midnight if I don't fall asleep. Up all night working yesterday and totally knackered.
Right now standing on local train half way to on laws place. Middle of the mountains and the train is stopped on front of that pavilion mvrdv did our here a few years back. I always check it out. Trains are packed with people going home. Wasn't sure if I would make it or not so no reservation. In japan that means standing up wherever you can manage it when busy. At least the Internet is working and my I-phone is perfectly happy. I can't believe I didn't pick one of these buggers up when they first came out. Such an awesome machine.
Jump, I love skiing but have only been myself a couple of times. Once at Vail though (on a friend's father's dime) so I feel that counts for a couple of extra times.
Happy 2010~!!
I like Steven, et al hope that the green thing isn't just a phrase this time...
Otherwise we will have depressing shit like this happen all over again.
TK, maybe you should have had two of the White label sounds like a long day...
"somehow musicality with real depth has dropped off the world lately."
kings of convenience released album recently (declaration of dependence that is pretty good. and although a bit gimmicky, i've grown really fond of the bob dylan holiday album too, christmas in the heart.
the most interesting thing about music for me now is how i'm exposed to it. i have no tv/radio so have no idea who is popular these days. i download from itunes sometimes & once in a blue moon (today maybe?) will click on the "most popular/top ten" list on the itunes front page but i have too admit that everything i've ever heard there is total schlock (awful really). for me the best sources have been record label websites (often with free downloads too). i guess i entrust a curatorial role to these people. i don't have much allegiance to any particular musician anymore but i almost universally trust anything from my favored labels...ghostly international & moodgadget, type, fonal, etc.
anyhow, i think it's time to break out the champagne...
Wait, I started on the champagne before puddles did? Am I on crazy pills?
BTW, I don't like calling it champagne ever since seeing Wayne's World. So let me revise my statement to say I can't believe I broke out the sparkling before puddles did!
happy new year from the future. officially 2010 here!
susan boyle was on the 4 hour long live new year show this year. very funky. i think she was jet-lagged. i don't recall ever seeing a foreigner on the show before. the power of you-tube.
well, when you start with rum for breakfast...it takes a little while to get to the bubbly stuff.
which reminds me of my newest concoction, combination of rum & champagne that i've decided to call rumpagne!...sounds a bit onomatopoeic, doesn't it?...as in rumpagne sounds exactly like how i will be feeling in the morning...ugh
steven - did you catch the past couple issues of the harvard design magazine? sustainability + pleasure.
two whole issues trying to find ways of linking together sustainability and pleasure.
snook - I think I'm with you, although my aversion is to overly technologically-derived formalism and systems...
as for the new decade ( is this the end of a decade? I'm not sure when the next one starts - 2010, 2011?) - I sincerely hope more people will rediscover the joys of making things - that craft and art become more entrenched and valued in our culture - and that people will continue to think about and contribute more to their immediate physical and social environments.
i hadn't seen it, tk. honestly, i've never seen an issue of hdm that wasn't 100% brilliant. i should be a subscriber but never have brought myself to pay for it - nor do i have time for another subscription...
maybe someday when i'm retired and reading full time.
Holz. I was actually thinking about seriously pursuing a job with Harvard Univeristy Press a while back.
But then I learned that Harvard's publications are broken up and sprinkled throughout the Departments. I suppose more editorial freedom? But I think it hurts their ability to publish work in volume.
But 21 dollars for that? bwahaha.
It's gotta be what? 48 pages max?
I intentionally destroy my portfolio. It is no more.
Rounding out the top five threads - just got back from running errands, poured a glass of the bubbly I opened last night, and made a quick flurry of comments. Off to start dinner.
for those without $21 for a magazine (seriously, is anybody that broke?), hdm does offer some free material online, some of which is only available online.
now to get my special rumpagne recipe...that will cost you.
It started one hour and fourteen minutes ago for me.....that is 2010....now off to bed....Hope the Dogs realize we want to sleep in the morning...Happy Happy Everyone!
happy new years all. Flying to Miami in the am. Have I told you all that I love you?? Well I do I think you are all awesome every last one of you. And this is not drunk speak rather the words of wisdom. For those that I met this year *m and K that you for enriching that experience. Now on to 2010!!!
I hadn't heard about kazys before the resurrection of the 2009 predictions and the recent news item - but this interview on the fall of societies based on "complexity" (via planetizen) seems interesting to me.
toaster, K will occasionally read specific threads but doesn't post. he's too busy posting to his own blog, teaching, or writing his latest book these days (or so he said).
Thread Central
hey, any scapers here have any experience with the USDA plants database? i am looking to download database of plants for my zone, so that i can sort by various categories...any thoughts or suggestions??
just looked up "fern gully" since I hadn't heard of it. you guys are young.
tk - what's topophilia?
lb, that is a classic.
Toast, yep I am just under 30...
Please tell me I'm not the only one that GOOGLE'd whether it is Donna Downer or Debbie Downer. When I googled Donna Downer, I got results with real people and one result of a really weird comic...
Anyway, enjoy the New Year, folks! Its gotta be better than this one!
OK, I realize there is another day before the year is over. But yeah.
Donna Downer - ha!
Tk, you're totally raining on my get rich quick schemes.
I haven't seen Avatar but I thought fern gully when I saw the previews. That sludge monster alwaysfreaked me out. And now that I think of it, could the save the planet stuff just be a phase? I mean we had fern gully and captain planet when I was a kid, and they went away.
Rationalist I hope it's easy.
So we got a new computer for our tv. I've been ripping music all day. Sounds easy, but I'm anal and want the albums and titles correct, and most of our music is of the mix cd variety from the napster pirating years.
I'm hoping to see Nine this week.
And while TaylorSwift isn't my cup of tea, she doeswrite her own stuff, and sing about age appropriate stuff. I can respect that.
Tk, I don't even know how to start a blog. And I'd just piss people off.
u.s. public certainly treated the earlier ecological/environmental movements as 'a phase', unfortunately. the consequences haven't changed, only our collective interest or concern.
i think that is cyclical, sarah: we cared in the 60s for a while, again during the 70s, but then during the heady go-go days of the 80s, we lost interest in anything that didn't encourage the gluttonous hedonistic behavior fuelled by a booming economy. when things are good, we don't like to worry. when it comes back around, we're in deeper shit than last time.
so, yeah, maybe we'll stick our heads in the sand again. "bring on the gas fumes and coal dust - there's money to be made, and our kids are sure to figure out how to fix it! right?!"
or maybe we can figure out ways to make sustainability not only a way of life but an attractive pursuit instead of something punitive and depressing. (a lot of designers, of course, are already working on this. i'll put more faith in positive holistic design approach to sustainability than in cap and trade or similar reactive measures any day.)
Sarah, I do appreciate that Taylor Swift writes her own music, that IS cool and uncommon these days, and jeez she's only 19!! In a way I feel bad that she's so famous so young, it rarely works out well. I guess I just don't like her music.
And on the green phase: it's definitely trendy, but the metric I've been using for this particular phase is: when I see that the majority of middle aged moms at my local Midwestern grocery store are bringing their own bags, I feel like at least some of the good ideas are going to stick this time.
My 5pm meeting with a quickly thrown together SU model went very well - so I went ahead and opened a bottle of sparkling tonight. Why not?
lb your down is higher than most, so i wouldn't worry!
that no insurance going to see eye doctor thing is scary rationalist. hope it is nothing and costs nothing too.
fern gully ! hah. could be. we are going to see avatar tomorrow and will decide then. am going with my wife and sister in law and oldest daughter. for those who have seen it is it safe for ridiculously advanced 9 year olds?
taylor swift is fine. like george strait, predictable safe and nice enough hooks if the genre suits ya to start with. often seriously bad lyrics which you have to refrain from cringing at, but occasionally something nice sneaks in. If i was going to choose young and talented but unadventurous musicians i would listen to hannah montanah, but that is just me. much prefer lady gaga. me i am still waiting for the modern version of nina simone or johnny cash, or hell even a souped up crimson king would be fine, but somehow musicality with real depth has dropped off the world lately. i blame it on george bush.
finally its last morning of work in office then off to catch a bullet train. wife is talking about skiing since her mum's place is 30 minutes from the slopes. i aint never gone skiing before being a prairie boy it just didn't come up...so i guess it is about time.
new year tonight here in japan-land.
happy happy to you all!
jump, post here when you're in 2010 and we can all say Wow look how futuristic our friend jump is!
well I must have gotten some of those good vibes from jump. I started feeling better after I made the appointment (less swelling, can now blink without pain, though it's still not 100% back to normal) so I bailed on the appointment and will try another day worth of compresses to see if the improvement continues.
Happy new year jump!
Glad to see someone else felt that way Sarah. At least Avatar has less singing in it, so I'd say it's a better movie :)
gaga, gaga.
It is interesting that we will have two full moons this month.....Kinda thinking New Years Could Set a Record for Crazies under the influence casting about on New Years under A Full Moon......Be careful....and don't do anything I wouldn't do....that gives you alot of lattitude....I only thought about this because I was out and about today and had like six police cruisers go screaming past me in a matter of minutes on my drive home. I told the Mrs...I think a bank was robbed today up the street from our house. So an hour later I have to run out to a project site to grab a couple of measurments and I see all the police vechiles lined up on the street and when I arrived home Mrs says, yep one of our local banks was robbed, and the guy escapeed on foot....now that is one fricking fool. You would think he would jump into his hydrofoil and wisk away hovering just above the pavement so that people would scurry away cause they think he is an alien.
I'm sipping a very needed shot of white label tonight. It's been one of those days between dealing with the missus recovering from h1n1 and going back to the doctor for the shrub's ear infection for more potent meds.
toaster - topophilia is love of the land/the picturesque (aka all those limo liberals who opposed the cape wind project like teddy kennedy).
sarah - go to wordpress.com and follow the steps. pissing people off is good thing in the land of blogs (and a path to becoming a professor)
Ah shit for the first nine years of the century! I'm hoping Architecture will get real coming into 2010. I'm so pissing tired of wanta be graphic bull...I want, "Architecture" not "Futurism" Maybe I'm alone on this one...but the feeling is strong.
ugh. nine - really? why not just appreciate the original for the work of art that it is.
LB, to cheer you up, i found some more pepparkakshus, er - gingerbread goodness
i really need to start my own blog... but then again, it'd probably get 2 visitors a month and i'd forget to ever post on the 'nect.
holz those are awesome! And so self-evident! (That's the funny Google-english translation).
Just watched Cadillac Records, which was only a fair movie, but reminded me of how awesome that music is.
i thought Cadillac Records was alright. What i didnt' like was when the Rolling Stones showed up and had these working class accents. Those guys were all college boys. and back then working class accents didnt go to the london school of economics. is this decade over yet?
The decade ends in 8 hours here. I liked the aughts though for all of it's bad parts. Beats being dead.
Will try posting at midnight if I don't fall asleep. Up all night working yesterday and totally knackered.
Right now standing on local train half way to on laws place. Middle of the mountains and the train is stopped on front of that pavilion mvrdv did our here a few years back. I always check it out. Trains are packed with people going home. Wasn't sure if I would make it or not so no reservation. In japan that means standing up wherever you can manage it when busy. At least the Internet is working and my I-phone is perfectly happy. I can't believe I didn't pick one of these buggers up when they first came out. Such an awesome machine.
Jump, I love skiing but have only been myself a couple of times. Once at Vail though (on a friend's father's dime) so I feel that counts for a couple of extra times.
Happy 2010~!!
I like Steven, et al hope that the green thing isn't just a phrase this time...
Otherwise we will have depressing shit like this happen all over again.
TK, maybe you should have had two of the White label sounds like a long day...
Can you believe the decade is over... I can't.
kings of convenience released album recently (declaration of dependence that is pretty good. and although a bit gimmicky, i've grown really fond of the bob dylan holiday album too, christmas in the heart.
the most interesting thing about music for me now is how i'm exposed to it. i have no tv/radio so have no idea who is popular these days. i download from itunes sometimes & once in a blue moon (today maybe?) will click on the "most popular/top ten" list on the itunes front page but i have too admit that everything i've ever heard there is total schlock (awful really). for me the best sources have been record label websites (often with free downloads too). i guess i entrust a curatorial role to these people. i don't have much allegiance to any particular musician anymore but i almost universally trust anything from my favored labels...ghostly international & moodgadget, type, fonal, etc.
anyhow, i think it's time to break out the champagne...
Wait, I started on the champagne before puddles did? Am I on crazy pills?
BTW, I don't like calling it champagne ever since seeing Wayne's World. So let me revise my statement to say I can't believe I broke out the sparkling before puddles did!
Happy New Decade, jump! (I think you just arrived, right?)
happy new year from the future. officially 2010 here!
susan boyle was on the 4 hour long live new year show this year. very funky. i think she was jet-lagged. i don't recall ever seeing a foreigner on the show before. the power of you-tube.
i'm off to sleep in 2010 now.
what is the future like?
well, when you start with rum for breakfast...it takes a little while to get to the bubbly stuff.
which reminds me of my newest concoction, combination of rum & champagne that i've decided to call rumpagne!...sounds a bit onomatopoeic, doesn't it?...as in rumpagne sounds exactly like how i will be feeling in the morning...ugh
tk - ah... interesting...
steven - did you catch the past couple issues of the harvard design magazine? sustainability + pleasure.
two whole issues trying to find ways of linking together sustainability and pleasure.
snook - I think I'm with you, although my aversion is to overly technologically-derived formalism and systems...
as for the new decade ( is this the end of a decade? I'm not sure when the next one starts - 2010, 2011?) - I sincerely hope more people will rediscover the joys of making things - that craft and art become more entrenched and valued in our culture - and that people will continue to think about and contribute more to their immediate physical and social environments.
i hadn't seen it, tk. honestly, i've never seen an issue of hdm that wasn't 100% brilliant. i should be a subscriber but never have brought myself to pay for it - nor do i have time for another subscription...
maybe someday when i'm retired and reading full time.
hdm @ $21+ per issue is hella pricey for not so many fancy graphics...
that's more than detail!
Holz. I was actually thinking about seriously pursuing a job with Harvard Univeristy Press a while back.
But then I learned that Harvard's publications are broken up and sprinkled throughout the Departments. I suppose more editorial freedom? But I think it hurts their ability to publish work in volume.
But 21 dollars for that? bwahaha.
It's gotta be what? 48 pages max?
I intentionally destroy my portfolio. It is no more.
"Ah shit for the first nine years of the century!"
Ok, let's all count together with our fingers, starting at New Year's Day 2000:
2000 to 2001
2001 to 2002
2002 to 2003
2003 to 2004
2004 to 2005
2005 to 2006
2006 to 2007
2007 to 2008
2008 to 2009
2009 to 2010
ok, class, how many fingers is that? Ten, that's right.
Happy New Year and Decade, everyone.
oe, is that the New Year Smurf?
Rounding out the top five threads - just got back from running errands, poured a glass of the bubbly I opened last night, and made a quick flurry of comments. Off to start dinner.
Nope! I was just being a fucking pedant to note the millennium started in 01'. :p
This is the new years smurf:
ten years...tonight is end of decade...agreed.
for those without $21 for a magazine (seriously, is anybody that broke?), hdm does offer some free material online, some of which is only available online.
now to get my special rumpagne recipe...that will cost you.
that's why you work with/for alumni - they get HDM for free.
happy new year everyone!
No kid tonight, time to party!!! Oh, what? It's New Years eve? Even better!!
It started one hour and fourteen minutes ago for me.....that is 2010....now off to bed....Hope the Dogs realize we want to sleep in the morning...Happy Happy Everyone!
Happy New Year TC!!!! Hope this year is better than the last. Now time to pass out in my bed. Woo boy those tasting menus with wine pairings.
happy new years all. Flying to Miami in the am. Have I told you all that I love you?? Well I do I think you are all awesome every last one of you. And this is not drunk speak rather the words of wisdom. For those that I met this year *m and K that you for enriching that experience. Now on to 2010!!!
Happy New Year all. Been a bit of a strange one so far... we'll see how it goes going forward.
I sware I wasn't drunk when I did this to my car!
happy new year tc! I love you too!
my wife and me at 11:59:50: "10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...hap-"
my 4yo: "BLAST OFF to outer SPACE!"
happy new year everyone! blast off.
ooh look, I did post last night! I wasn't sure whether that actually happened or not.
Very curious, rationalist, how "strange" your year could have been when it was only a few hours old....please tell?
I had a dream about getting my hair compuslively cut and coloring it orange.
I'm taking that as a hint.
I hadn't heard about kazys before the resurrection of the 2009 predictions and the recent news item - but this interview on the fall of societies based on "complexity" (via planetizen) seems interesting to me.
does he hang around archinect?
toaster, K will occasionally read specific threads but doesn't post. he's too busy posting to his own blog, teaching, or writing his latest book these days (or so he said).
was this the link you meant?
let me know if you want his contact info.
he's my friend. on facebook anyway.
i had a dream last night that i was at Malcom X's last meeting, trying to, in vain, let him know about the plot to assassinate him.
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