Lars - I completely agree with you, it is very hypocritical. If it's anything to you I always try to pay, I just don't ever seem to have any luck in that dept. I am hoping for the best and I may turn out to have a great time, but when I gave him the responsibility to figure out where we would meet he chose a sports bar... where he is a regular. I fortunately was able to persuade him to meet elsewhere (my poor bronchial tubes cannot handle the cigarette smoke, as it is still permissable on the other side of the river). We'll see, maybe it would have been better just to cancel, but I like to give people a chance.
Vado's computer was down for a while, not sure now what it's condition is.
its funny, i was thinking about vado last night after seeing someone on the streets of philadelphia (hey, that's a song) that looked a little bit like him... and then i realized that he hasn't been around the 'nect in a while...
Haha jump mispelled signs while referring to signs with misspellings! Ahahaha
and my spaces are no where as cool as donna's. I think I have a hard time blending the style of the outside of the house with the inside; I hate when the outside says cabin and the inside says dwr threwup in here. I don't live in a cabin.
I hate when the outside says cabin and the inside says dwr threwup in here
LOL SH!!!
I hate having to wait for our MEP's to upload their stupid drawings to our ftp site just so I can make sure the cover sheet is correct in order to print. MEH!!!
BTW - I've concluded Michael Rotondi has a strong resemblence to my dad... very strange.
welcome back Vado - please don't change your name. Thanks.
So it's a public holiday here - the beauty of living in the Caribbean and the state claiming to have religious affiliations aside from greed and self worth.
I heard last night that the office I was working for in Montserrat has been scaled down significantly since my departure. Where they previously acted as the primary resource for architectural projects they've been downgraded (despite the addition of a few new architects) to handle much much much smaller projects. Again I think I left at the right time.
Sarah, the guest room looks great. I lreakky like the "framed" guitars.
I still haven't entered the dating cesspool as I'm pretty sure the stress would send me into a mental ward. So I am content to be either the cool jetsetting aunt or the crazy cat lady. I'm fine with either.
I really just needed accesible storage for the guitars, and came up with framing them. I was going to do one frame, but I couldn't find o e, and those were on sale for like 25 bucks each. I'm glad I went with two now!
When I was a kid we had a horse named PITA. My dad said we could name her either PITA or Emergency Rations. I was about 6 years old and asked him what does Emergency Rations mean? When he told me, I decided Pain In The Ass was a better name. My dad is hilarious.
I have to rant: taxes. I've worked my freaking ass off in 2009 trying to keep head above water, and I'm still going to owe well over 5 figures in taxes in a week. I didn't pay nearly enough quarterly, so part of it is my own fault, but my husband and I also both got substantial design-build work. So our income looks way higher than normal, but it's all money that is either already paid out or is already promised in payment to complete the contracts that will stretch into 2010 and 2011. Basically my accountant is being conservative and making us pay on the "income" that isn't really income now. So we'll benefit in the next two years, but all I can manage to feel, emotionally not logically, is like I don't want to pay a damn thing to a government that really isn't giving me all that much back. I'm not about to become a teabagger, but seriously: I'm paying for the levee that protects my house through required FEMA insurance. I'm paying for my own damn healthcare/insurance. My cars' suspension is getting beat to hell on potholes that are everywhere in my city and - no joke - often 10" deep. I haven't called the police in the entire 5 years I've lived here - I know, I benefit from their presence whether I call them or not, but it's not like they have to come calm drunken domestic disputes or neighbor wars for us every other week. I do use the library, infrequently, and I do have my son in a really really good public school - but it's such a good school because a high percentage of the parents are very active and involved there, including me.
I'm just pissy about it. You know how we all struggle every year with that AIA membership fee and wonder whether it's worth it? At tax time I tend to struggle with whether self-employment is worth it. Some days I just wish I drew a 9-5 paycheck and didn't have to think about anything. I'm my own corporation now*, though, so I can start paying my husband a salary, then lay him off and he'll get unemployment insurance (my conservative accountant actually told me that technically I can do this!). Watch me, I just might do it ;-)
Rant over. I just bought a bottle of cheap chardonnay, think I'll have some while the Easter eggs cook.
*More on that if anyone is interested, it's not that exciting, just a way to differently manage my relationship with my partner that should give us both tax benefits - ha! I'm also allowed to sell shares of myself now. Will have to consider that....
Liberty.....I feel your pain! This Tax Monster is something else. Seems like the bottom end of the spectrum take and the top end don'g give so they toss it on to us in the middle. Then there is a breakdown of the middle, those that work for themselves and those who work for someone (aka big ashe company). Us folk out on the rope well we are being hammered....and I mean hammered bad.
I write this as I have spent every weekend at the computer putting projects out the door, but realize that we are in trouble, but I'm not willing to except it. Mrs. has to go for surgery next month and our insurance (which is chasing our mortgage) will cover next to nothing and well it is tax time which I have pushed off to October. Hoping something looks better by then.
Think I'm going to go raise goats and make cheese because it is something I could do....wishful thought. Then I might just head for the wide open Wyoming country and herd sheep for some coporate rancher.
Ugh, honestly, snook, I hear you. Brian and I are ready to drop out - start a farm and just sustain ourselves and get off the grid - disappear.
Hope Mrs. B's surgery is nothing major and goes well.
Maybe I'll go ahead and file for an extension - I should be able to make an extra $12k in the next six months if I work at it (harder even than 'm working now).
But to try to positive spin this: we'll get through it, as we always do. And I hope at some point in my lifetime we'll be able to designate what our taxes pay for. To be realistic, a certain portion would have to go to a general fund for those things that no one would pick, but if I could pick where my taxes go it would be mostly research, education, and culture.
So play along! Say 30% of your taxes go to a general fund, where would you designate the remaining 70%?
Mine:
10% scientific research into space exploration and disease eradication
10% peace-based diplomatic efforts
10% historic preservation-based infrastructure repair
10% public transit
10% primary years education
10% birth control and child rearing education
8% public art programs
2% pothole repair ;-)
that sucks lb. we did our taxes recently too. i was shocked that even though i made so little the govt wanted so much.
it is different here though. the top tax payers are put on tv, with a special segment on the entertainers who gave the most. it is seen as a matter of pride that they earned so much moolah they had to pay out extreme amounts of tax. i assume it is the govts way of making taxes seem cool. and by goodness them film stars pay a LOT of taxes. wooh doggie.
not sure if i want to work for someone again, myself. being the person to make decisions and being told decisions is a big thing. even for less pay than i could be getting in large office it is a strong motivation for remaining self-employed.
nice birdhouse sarah. my grandmother had one like that, though hers was a bungalow - pretty much a copy of her own home.
just saw in news the jobs are picking up again. fingers crossed for all you in USA that it means there will jobs for you soon and the economy continues to improve.
We have a skill set but we have other skills....maybe they need to be explored. I used to milk two cows morning and night and feed a couple of dozen bum lambs....but no pigs...then there were the chickens which I would shy away from....cause I'm not a big egg eater.
My brother just closed on 40 acres of irrigated land for less than 50 grand....so it did get me a thinking....Don't know if the Mrs would like to go back to slow internet or no paper sunday New York Times...damn we are spoiled.
I'm going to go drink some beer....all you folks who slip away over the weekend enjoy your self as Christ has Risen!
jump, i saw that model too. beautiful. The whole office was amazing, very humble, but very busy. We were given a presentation of the project from competition stage till its current stage. Truly a labor of love. He himself is very humble, we had a little discussion and it was very uplifting.
I'm so buying me some Liberty Bell shares when they become available!! Aside from my walk early this morning I haven't left the house - I feel like cobwebs are growing on me. I'm eyeing the bottle of sweet malbec maybe it could be my comfort tonight - that is if I don't fall asleep. Dull day of boredom
frank lloyd wright sold shares of his future earnings once, i think during the depression, but don't trust me on the timing. It was during a 10 year dry spell of some sort. Now that was a man who could sell an empty bag. Amazing. The book I read the story in didn't say if he every paid dividends but he certainly did do well so who knows...
that is very cool fays.panda. i have met hi a few times. he seems a nice man. kengo kuma is also pleasant to talk to. which is cool.
sounds like you are set snook. myself i found farming to be just a bit too much uncertainty for all the hard work to want to pursue it as an adult, but i sometimes do think it could be nice to live in the country again. maybe some day.
My Facebook friends saw this already, but I made a pork miscalculation. Sarah, I actually thought about emailing you with this question, because it seemed like something you would know about (is mightylittle still around? I could have asked on food central, too).
I found a recipe for Easter Ham with Meyer Lemon Glaze. So I took a fresh ham from our annual pig out of the freezer. Then I discovered that the recipe calls for a COOKED ham. Turns out fresh ham isn't actually ham, it's a roast.
So I have a big roast thawed, but it doesn't seem appropriate for an Easter morning brunch - I think brunch calls for ham, not roast (DubK, brunch is one of your areas of expertise too - thoughts?). So I'm going to go buy a ham, and in the meantime I'm doing the roast for dinner. Both recipes have a citrus glaze. It will be a pork-o-rama taste test this weekend, I guess!
Have a good weekend everyone. It's raining here, but I have high hopes for a sunny morning tomorrow, and two dozen colored eggs to hide!
Donna - I wish I could come over for brunch and stay until dinner - both sound fantastic!! I'm here chomping on some jerk pork and jerk chicken - although the Easter fare in Jamaica is to eat fish it was too much effort to find equally tasty food. And it was too hot out so I wanted to limit my time in the sun.
On a purely architectural theme roofs serve two important functions in the Caribbean - as shelter from the sun and shelter from the rain. These are not seasonal things as seconds usually separate the two - our weather, like our people are ones of extremes. The roofs usually have overhangs long enough to push water away from the foundations, and are high enough to prevent too much solar radiation to penetrate the rooms (since most roofs aren't insulated). And this concludes the lecture on Shelter in the Caribbean
PITA Hot Doctor! I love it! I am currently experiencing some eHarmony intrigue with The One Who I Got Matched With The Night I Met Him In Person. Did I tell you all that story? I can't remember, there are so many stories...
Donna, I would also totally buy shares of you. Further more, you are correct, ham is more appropriate for brunch than a roast, and the citrus glaze sounds lovely. Accompanying dishes might include some sort of eggy-spinach-cheesy casserole, cinnamon rolls, or fruit salad.
I am going to an Easter Dinner tomorrow and I am responsible for bringing a veggie dish so I'm making brussel sprouts with bacon and pine nuts! I'm not sure how yet but I am certain the Internet will help me...
DJ, you told me, and now I'm super curious what's happened! I'm depressed about men at the moment... currently experiencing the hideously stereotypical divergence between the type of man I want to date and the type I'm actually attracted to. I don't know if it's better to keep dating in hopes that somehow it works itself out that way, or take time off to get my head on straight.
Also, on the brussel sprouts front, apple cider vinegar is the key.
DubK, I think Epicurious has a maple-syrup glazed bacon brussels sprout recipe. But be sure your guests who are vegetarians know it's not a veggie veggie dish!
Roast was awesome. techno, I'd love for you to come eat at our house and tell us more about the extremes of weather in the Caribbean.
school year begins tomorrow as well, so its back to teaching again after a nice break. it is nice to have lectures worked out already. Now am just making them better not making them from scratch, which is a nice place to be.
giving lectures for the second time is always so much easier/better... speaking of which, i gave the weekly "phd talk" on friday and it went swimmingly... it was the second time that i've given the talk and it was MUCH better this time... although, i still spent about 8 hours reworking it... anyways, packed the room with around 30 people, both phd and masters students (which is important to me since i really hate the typical separation between the two groups) and david leatherbarrow twice told me that i did a very good job afterward, which is about as much praise as i've ever seen him give... so, it was a very good tune up for the conference in maastricht next month...
also, happy easter for those of you who are so inclined...
Morning all. I drove to the beach yesterday and am a little pink today.
Am cooking brunch also. Yellow Grits, quiche and greens... Maybe something else too.
I love brussel sprouts and do agree that apple cider vinegar is key... Did they turn out?
Taxes suck..and as for dropping off/out an living on a farm. I know some people who plan on doing exactly that in Nor Cal (and i'd consider joining them) depending on how CA votes this November..
mr and I have scoped out several caves, cliffs and abandoned buildings throughout the west that we say we are going to go live in... Need to learn to shoot a gun first I suppose. I'll put it on the list of things to do.
there was <a href = "http://www.boston.com/yourtown/watertown/articles/2010/03/27/four_friends_are_pulling_up_stakes_and_heading_west_as_21st_century_pioneers/"> recent article<a/> in the Boston Globe on some 20-somethings heading out to west texas and living off the land... sounds like a fun adventure, but I don't think they'll last a year. definitely reminds me of stories from the 60s... although these guys don't seem as idealistic... just youthfully romantic.
beautiful day today - sitting out on my porch "working" on a research paper... happy easter!
They can probably get away with it if they end up in or on Indian Hot Springs or Bosque. But they'll be sharing those little river valleys with some not so nice neighbors.
And the rattlesnakes and the cougars... jesus!
I've been out in that country before. There is almost no foragable food 'cept for some lizards, the occasional road runner and rabbits.
But you can't eat mammals in that desert... they're all full of the plague, the hanta virus and some other nasty mind melting diseases.
oh jump, you just made me miss Seattle awfully. There's a double row of cherry trees in the quad outside the art building that are some specific breed there, that bloom later than all the rest in the city and are so old and beautiful that people (but especially the Japanese transplants) from all around the area come to see them. I miss sakura season.
No brunch nor Jesus of any sort for me today, just a ride to the beach. Unfortunately finished all my library books already so I need to find something to bring with as it's too cold to actually swim yet.
so it's Easter Sunday and I'm at school. Unlike jump I have to start some lectures from scratch and I don't have the use of my teaching assistant because she leaves for PR in the morning (reference previous conversation with Steven Ward about Kentucky). Having received a syllabus that fairly details what and why I'm supposed to teach I find myself being rather critical and detective like trying to figure out "what exactly" are students supposed to get out of my lectures. Needless to say I stick some other useful tidbits in there just cause, well shit they need to know that stuff, damnit!
Anyway the lecture I'm working on for Wednesday starts with a 30 minute lecture on Otto Wagner then jumps to Adolf Loos - and the ornament and crime... I'm considering using pictures of the students tattoos for the "markings of criminals" part - should be fun.
And I think I'm going to polish up this comment and post it in my near defunct school blog
Phillip, I'm so happy for you that your talk went well. As Steven Ward once answered to the question what makes you feel really, really good? "Knowing what I'm talking about." It's a rare joy in my world.
I'm with you David - I have a lecture to write this week too.
Best tune in turn on drop out story I've ever read was the T.C. Boyle one about Alaska - what was it called? Drop City. Best tune in turn on drop out song I've ever heard is Cracker's Tune In Turn On Drop Out With Me. Either way, it's something a lot of people try, and a lot of them fail. I know myself (and my husband) well enough to know if I committed to it I would probably succeed, but the chances of me truly committing to it are about zero.
Successful, fun and long, lazy Easter Sunday brunch today. I'm ready for a nap.
i am going to home depot to get a weedwacker, does anybody need anything?
tina broke her hand 10 days ago and wearing a purple cast on the right wrist and i have to do every significant amount of detail work around this situation, like cleaning coffee grinds from the maker, opening medicine caps, i was even tying her pajama belts which she now got used to doing herself. the list goes on obviously and endlessly.
we are doing elementary school design at cal poly as same project last year with a different urban site. i have assigned my students to look into tezuka architects' tokyo elementary, jan duiker's open air school in amsterdam, neutra experimental school in los angeles which over the years became one of those chain linked and asphalt covered security entrance public schools with additional trailer like buildings built and buried the original design of neutra's and his project maneger at the time, gregory ain. and, koning eizenberg's santa monica 'plural school #1' oddly going as PS#1..
not at school, but working on the final assignment for my 176 peeps. They will get to design a park! so why does it take 9 pages to describe the program and deliverables? Guess cause this is an intro to environmental design, and everything needs to be spelled out to the Nth degree so there is uniformity in the grading process for my TAs.
this week will be a race to finish everything that has to get done, before we head to NYC for the great 2010 landscape safari. The day after I get back, I have to deliver a lecture on design process to introduce that park exercise - not as thrilling a topic as Ornament and Crime. Then I get to wallow in stormwater BMPs and greenroofs for a week or two.
Anybody have favorite quotes about design that is worth sharing?
Was supposed to rain today, but it's been hot-n-sunny for a minnesota spring day. Spent a few minutes out in the garden weeding and tending to my seedlings. Might have killed a few when I transplanted them - sigh.
DJ dubK, might be a little late, but my fav preparation for brussel sprouts is to roast them with a lil' garlic, salt-n-pepper, and olive oil - bacon fat could be a great modification.
orhan - there are several seminal schools out in columbus indiana - not very socal, but worth looking into. Also make sure they students look at CHPS.
David, for my grad seminar last winter we had to do a pecha kucha per week (in lieu of reaction papers) and one week we were reading all about identity so I brought up ornament and crime and did my week's PK on different reasons for marking oneself (or others). I was totally into it, it all fit into place so well, found some great images... and the questions at the end mostly added up to "so what tattoos do you have?" I was extremely put out.
sorry about the broken hand, orhan. give our best. every now and then i think of something happening to my hand(s) and it gives me a cold chill. i don't know why, but i'm really freaked out by the thought, more than other things i could freak out about.
spent the day at my mother-in-law's farm in eastern ky. perfect spring weather. very pleasant day, with dinner outside and the girls playing in the mountain stream in their easter dresses, racing sticks down the stream, swinging on the tree swing, searching for eggs up and down the hills, and singing at the tops of their lungs in the car on the way there.
thanks barry. CHPS site is great. they have these great web lectures in slideshow section. i e mailed the link to the class.
i want them to develop their work on these kind of information as well as other relevant knowledge. i already told them if they want to show me a school that just landed from a distant galaxy, i want to see the background for it.
i just got out from home depot when earthquake hit so cal. i would freak out if i saw those high shelves closing in and out over my head. i was in a small produce market where it felt like riding the tide in its rolling effect. i felt like i was dizzy and having low blood pressure attack until cashier warned everybody that we were having an earthquake. i don't like earthquakes and experienced some major ones in my life...
i tell you, being an architect can be a useful thing since my first reaction was to examine the structure of the space in a split second and analyze where would be the safest spot in the store..
Happy Easter everyone!!! Hope everyone's day turned out to be a good one. My friends and I partook in our second annual Feaster celebration. None of us is religious, in fact the group tonight there were four hindus, and one Jew, but we all love to gather together and cook and eat great food... hence FEASTer.
Tonight I finally hooked my laptop up to my surround sound system. Have only been meaning to do it for like a year now and have actually had the wires for about two months, but what's the hurry.
Anyhoo- after so much food I am now practically in a food coma so I think I am going to head off to bed to read.
Orhan sorry about Tina hope she recovers
*melt sounds like a fun night FEASTer - sounds like a new tradition could be started there gives new meaning to "breaking bread"
melt i used to do that too but now have i phone so hook that up instead. i do watch tv shows through computer on the tv though. only way i'll get the daily show on the tele. works brilliant.
Thread Central
Lars - I completely agree with you, it is very hypocritical. If it's anything to you I always try to pay, I just don't ever seem to have any luck in that dept. I am hoping for the best and I may turn out to have a great time, but when I gave him the responsibility to figure out where we would meet he chose a sports bar... where he is a regular. I fortunately was able to persuade him to meet elsewhere (my poor bronchial tubes cannot handle the cigarette smoke, as it is still permissable on the other side of the river). We'll see, maybe it would have been better just to cancel, but I like to give people a chance.
Vado's computer was down for a while, not sure now what it's condition is.
those sines are funny. sad also.
nicely done sarah. like the plates on the wall.
its funny, i was thinking about vado last night after seeing someone on the streets of philadelphia (hey, that's a song) that looked a little bit like him... and then i realized that he hasn't been around the 'nect in a while...
Yeah, I miss him too. LB, where did he go?!
Haha jump mispelled signs while referring to signs with misspellings! Ahahaha
and my spaces are no where as cool as donna's. I think I have a hard time blending the style of the outside of the house with the inside; I hate when the outside says cabin and the inside says dwr threwup in here. I don't live in a cabin.
LOL SH!!!
I hate having to wait for our MEP's to upload their stupid drawings to our ftp site just so I can make sure the cover sheet is correct in order to print. MEH!!!
BTW - I've concluded Michael Rotondi has a strong resemblence to my dad... very strange.
ok, I waited to click the link til I was home... "teabaggers" sounded NSFW.
Hi Guys.
Vado! You're back. Have you been here all along, or what? You have some esplainin to do.
welcome back Vado - please don't change your name. Thanks.
So it's a public holiday here - the beauty of living in the Caribbean and the state claiming to have religious affiliations aside from greed and self worth.
I heard last night that the office I was working for in Montserrat has been scaled down significantly since my departure. Where they previously acted as the primary resource for architectural projects they've been downgraded (despite the addition of a few new architects) to handle much much much smaller projects. Again I think I left at the right time.
anyway time for a nap
Sarah, the guest room looks great. I lreakky like the "framed" guitars.
I still haven't entered the dating cesspool as I'm pretty sure the stress would send me into a mental ward. So I am content to be either the cool jetsetting aunt or the crazy cat lady. I'm fine with either.
The eharmony commercials do get to me sometimes, though I'm sure I'll never get matched to a PITA hot doctor like some famous DJ's do.
PITA?
pain in the ass
I really just needed accesible storage for the guitars, and came up with framing them. I was going to do one frame, but I couldn't find o e, and those were on sale for like 25 bucks each. I'm glad I went with two now!
When I was a kid we had a horse named PITA. My dad said we could name her either PITA or Emergency Rations. I was about 6 years old and asked him what does Emergency Rations mean? When he told me, I decided Pain In The Ass was a better name. My dad is hilarious.
I have to rant: taxes. I've worked my freaking ass off in 2009 trying to keep head above water, and I'm still going to owe well over 5 figures in taxes in a week. I didn't pay nearly enough quarterly, so part of it is my own fault, but my husband and I also both got substantial design-build work. So our income looks way higher than normal, but it's all money that is either already paid out or is already promised in payment to complete the contracts that will stretch into 2010 and 2011. Basically my accountant is being conservative and making us pay on the "income" that isn't really income now. So we'll benefit in the next two years, but all I can manage to feel, emotionally not logically, is like I don't want to pay a damn thing to a government that really isn't giving me all that much back. I'm not about to become a teabagger, but seriously: I'm paying for the levee that protects my house through required FEMA insurance. I'm paying for my own damn healthcare/insurance. My cars' suspension is getting beat to hell on potholes that are everywhere in my city and - no joke - often 10" deep. I haven't called the police in the entire 5 years I've lived here - I know, I benefit from their presence whether I call them or not, but it's not like they have to come calm drunken domestic disputes or neighbor wars for us every other week. I do use the library, infrequently, and I do have my son in a really really good public school - but it's such a good school because a high percentage of the parents are very active and involved there, including me.
I'm just pissy about it. You know how we all struggle every year with that AIA membership fee and wonder whether it's worth it? At tax time I tend to struggle with whether self-employment is worth it. Some days I just wish I drew a 9-5 paycheck and didn't have to think about anything. I'm my own corporation now*, though, so I can start paying my husband a salary, then lay him off and he'll get unemployment insurance (my conservative accountant actually told me that technically I can do this!). Watch me, I just might do it ;-)
Rant over. I just bought a bottle of cheap chardonnay, think I'll have some while the Easter eggs cook.
*More on that if anyone is interested, it's not that exciting, just a way to differently manage my relationship with my partner that should give us both tax benefits - ha! I'm also allowed to sell shares of myself now. Will have to consider that....
Liberty.....I feel your pain! This Tax Monster is something else. Seems like the bottom end of the spectrum take and the top end don'g give so they toss it on to us in the middle. Then there is a breakdown of the middle, those that work for themselves and those who work for someone (aka big ashe company). Us folk out on the rope well we are being hammered....and I mean hammered bad.
I write this as I have spent every weekend at the computer putting projects out the door, but realize that we are in trouble, but I'm not willing to except it. Mrs. has to go for surgery next month and our insurance (which is chasing our mortgage) will cover next to nothing and well it is tax time which I have pushed off to October. Hoping something looks better by then.
Think I'm going to go raise goats and make cheese because it is something I could do....wishful thought. Then I might just head for the wide open Wyoming country and herd sheep for some coporate rancher.
Ugh, honestly, snook, I hear you. Brian and I are ready to drop out - start a farm and just sustain ourselves and get off the grid - disappear.
Hope Mrs. B's surgery is nothing major and goes well.
Maybe I'll go ahead and file for an extension - I should be able to make an extra $12k in the next six months if I work at it (harder even than 'm working now).
But to try to positive spin this: we'll get through it, as we always do. And I hope at some point in my lifetime we'll be able to designate what our taxes pay for. To be realistic, a certain portion would have to go to a general fund for those things that no one would pick, but if I could pick where my taxes go it would be mostly research, education, and culture.
So play along! Say 30% of your taxes go to a general fund, where would you designate the remaining 70%?
Mine:
10% scientific research into space exploration and disease eradication
10% peace-based diplomatic efforts
10% historic preservation-based infrastructure repair
10% public transit
10% primary years education
10% birth control and child rearing education
8% public art programs
2% pothole repair ;-)
This just cracked me up, and I had to share. I must say, I've never even thought of doing such a thing.
I'd buy a share of the liberty bell!
that sucks lb. we did our taxes recently too. i was shocked that even though i made so little the govt wanted so much.
it is different here though. the top tax payers are put on tv, with a special segment on the entertainers who gave the most. it is seen as a matter of pride that they earned so much moolah they had to pay out extreme amounts of tax. i assume it is the govts way of making taxes seem cool. and by goodness them film stars pay a LOT of taxes. wooh doggie.
not sure if i want to work for someone again, myself. being the person to make decisions and being told decisions is a big thing. even for less pay than i could be getting in large office it is a strong motivation for remaining self-employed.
nice birdhouse sarah. my grandmother had one like that, though hers was a bungalow - pretty much a copy of her own home.
just saw in news the jobs are picking up again. fingers crossed for all you in USA that it means there will jobs for you soon and the economy continues to improve.
We have a skill set but we have other skills....maybe they need to be explored. I used to milk two cows morning and night and feed a couple of dozen bum lambs....but no pigs...then there were the chickens which I would shy away from....cause I'm not a big egg eater.
My brother just closed on 40 acres of irrigated land for less than 50 grand....so it did get me a thinking....Don't know if the Mrs would like to go back to slow internet or no paper sunday New York Times...damn we are spoiled.
I'm going to go drink some beer....all you folks who slip away over the weekend enjoy your self as Christ has Risen!
jump, i saw that model too. beautiful. The whole office was amazing, very humble, but very busy. We were given a presentation of the project from competition stage till its current stage. Truly a labor of love. He himself is very humble, we had a little discussion and it was very uplifting.
I'm so buying me some Liberty Bell shares when they become available!! Aside from my walk early this morning I haven't left the house - I feel like cobwebs are growing on me. I'm eyeing the bottle of sweet malbec maybe it could be my comfort tonight - that is if I don't fall asleep. Dull day of boredom
frank lloyd wright sold shares of his future earnings once, i think during the depression, but don't trust me on the timing. It was during a 10 year dry spell of some sort. Now that was a man who could sell an empty bag. Amazing. The book I read the story in didn't say if he every paid dividends but he certainly did do well so who knows...
that is very cool fays.panda. i have met hi a few times. he seems a nice man. kengo kuma is also pleasant to talk to. which is cool.
sounds like you are set snook. myself i found farming to be just a bit too much uncertainty for all the hard work to want to pursue it as an adult, but i sometimes do think it could be nice to live in the country again. maybe some day.
My Facebook friends saw this already, but I made a pork miscalculation. Sarah, I actually thought about emailing you with this question, because it seemed like something you would know about (is mightylittle still around? I could have asked on food central, too).
I found a recipe for Easter Ham with Meyer Lemon Glaze. So I took a fresh ham from our annual pig out of the freezer. Then I discovered that the recipe calls for a COOKED ham. Turns out fresh ham isn't actually ham, it's a roast.
So I have a big roast thawed, but it doesn't seem appropriate for an Easter morning brunch - I think brunch calls for ham, not roast (DubK, brunch is one of your areas of expertise too - thoughts?). So I'm going to go buy a ham, and in the meantime I'm doing the roast for dinner. Both recipes have a citrus glaze. It will be a pork-o-rama taste test this weekend, I guess!
Have a good weekend everyone. It's raining here, but I have high hopes for a sunny morning tomorrow, and two dozen colored eggs to hide!
Donna - I wish I could come over for brunch and stay until dinner - both sound fantastic!! I'm here chomping on some jerk pork and jerk chicken - although the Easter fare in Jamaica is to eat fish it was too much effort to find equally tasty food. And it was too hot out so I wanted to limit my time in the sun.
On a purely architectural theme roofs serve two important functions in the Caribbean - as shelter from the sun and shelter from the rain. These are not seasonal things as seconds usually separate the two - our weather, like our people are ones of extremes. The roofs usually have overhangs long enough to push water away from the foundations, and are high enough to prevent too much solar radiation to penetrate the rooms (since most roofs aren't insulated). And this concludes the lecture on Shelter in the Caribbean
PITA Hot Doctor! I love it! I am currently experiencing some eHarmony intrigue with The One Who I Got Matched With The Night I Met Him In Person. Did I tell you all that story? I can't remember, there are so many stories...
Donna, I would also totally buy shares of you. Further more, you are correct, ham is more appropriate for brunch than a roast, and the citrus glaze sounds lovely. Accompanying dishes might include some sort of eggy-spinach-cheesy casserole, cinnamon rolls, or fruit salad.
I am going to an Easter Dinner tomorrow and I am responsible for bringing a veggie dish so I'm making brussel sprouts with bacon and pine nuts! I'm not sure how yet but I am certain the Internet will help me...
DJ, you told me, and now I'm super curious what's happened! I'm depressed about men at the moment... currently experiencing the hideously stereotypical divergence between the type of man I want to date and the type I'm actually attracted to. I don't know if it's better to keep dating in hopes that somehow it works itself out that way, or take time off to get my head on straight.
Also, on the brussel sprouts front, apple cider vinegar is the key.
DubK, I think Epicurious has a maple-syrup glazed bacon brussels sprout recipe. But be sure your guests who are vegetarians know it's not a veggie veggie dish!
Roast was awesome. techno, I'd love for you to come eat at our house and tell us more about the extremes of weather in the Caribbean.
Donna, I found the recipe but it doesn't include bacon, but I will add it anyway because IT SOUNDS DELICIOUS.
copper I am just going to email you. I don't want to bore these folks :o)
sakura season here. no easter.
school year begins tomorrow as well, so its back to teaching again after a nice break. it is nice to have lectures worked out already. Now am just making them better not making them from scratch, which is a nice place to be.
happy holidays all!
giving lectures for the second time is always so much easier/better... speaking of which, i gave the weekly "phd talk" on friday and it went swimmingly... it was the second time that i've given the talk and it was MUCH better this time... although, i still spent about 8 hours reworking it... anyways, packed the room with around 30 people, both phd and masters students (which is important to me since i really hate the typical separation between the two groups) and david leatherbarrow twice told me that i did a very good job afterward, which is about as much praise as i've ever seen him give... so, it was a very good tune up for the conference in maastricht next month...
also, happy easter for those of you who are so inclined...
Morning all. I drove to the beach yesterday and am a little pink today.
Am cooking brunch also. Yellow Grits, quiche and greens... Maybe something else too.
I love brussel sprouts and do agree that apple cider vinegar is key... Did they turn out?
Taxes suck..and as for dropping off/out an living on a farm. I know some people who plan on doing exactly that in Nor Cal (and i'd consider joining them) depending on how CA votes this November..
Hey phil!
oh and happy easter all.
mr and I have scoped out several caves, cliffs and abandoned buildings throughout the west that we say we are going to go live in... Need to learn to shoot a gun first I suppose. I'll put it on the list of things to do.
there was <a href = "http://www.boston.com/yourtown/watertown/articles/2010/03/27/four_friends_are_pulling_up_stakes_and_heading_west_as_21st_century_pioneers/"> recent article<a/> in the Boston Globe on some 20-somethings heading out to west texas and living off the land... sounds like a fun adventure, but I don't think they'll last a year. definitely reminds me of stories from the 60s... although these guys don't seem as idealistic... just youthfully romantic.
beautiful day today - sitting out on my porch "working" on a research paper... happy easter!
Omigod, those people are retarded.
They can probably get away with it if they end up in or on Indian Hot Springs or Bosque. But they'll be sharing those little river valleys with some not so nice neighbors.
And the rattlesnakes and the cougars... jesus!
I've been out in that country before. There is almost no foragable food 'cept for some lizards, the occasional road runner and rabbits.
But you can't eat mammals in that desert... they're all full of the plague, the hanta virus and some other nasty mind melting diseases.
oh jump, you just made me miss Seattle awfully. There's a double row of cherry trees in the quad outside the art building that are some specific breed there, that bloom later than all the rest in the city and are so old and beautiful that people (but especially the Japanese transplants) from all around the area come to see them. I miss sakura season.
No brunch nor Jesus of any sort for me today, just a ride to the beach. Unfortunately finished all my library books already so I need to find something to bring with as it's too cold to actually swim yet.
so it's Easter Sunday and I'm at school. Unlike jump I have to start some lectures from scratch and I don't have the use of my teaching assistant because she leaves for PR in the morning (reference previous conversation with Steven Ward about Kentucky). Having received a syllabus that fairly details what and why I'm supposed to teach I find myself being rather critical and detective like trying to figure out "what exactly" are students supposed to get out of my lectures. Needless to say I stick some other useful tidbits in there just cause, well shit they need to know that stuff, damnit!
Anyway the lecture I'm working on for Wednesday starts with a 30 minute lecture on Otto Wagner then jumps to Adolf Loos - and the ornament and crime... I'm considering using pictures of the students tattoos for the "markings of criminals" part - should be fun.
And I think I'm going to polish up this comment and post it in my near defunct school blog
Phillip, I'm so happy for you that your talk went well. As Steven Ward once answered to the question what makes you feel really, really good? "Knowing what I'm talking about." It's a rare joy in my world.
I'm with you David - I have a lecture to write this week too.
Best tune in turn on drop out story I've ever read was the T.C. Boyle one about Alaska - what was it called? Drop City. Best tune in turn on drop out song I've ever heard is Cracker's Tune In Turn On Drop Out With Me. Either way, it's something a lot of people try, and a lot of them fail. I know myself (and my husband) well enough to know if I committed to it I would probably succeed, but the chances of me truly committing to it are about zero.
Successful, fun and long, lazy Easter Sunday brunch today. I'm ready for a nap.
happy easter!
i am going to home depot to get a weedwacker, does anybody need anything?
tina broke her hand 10 days ago and wearing a purple cast on the right wrist and i have to do every significant amount of detail work around this situation, like cleaning coffee grinds from the maker, opening medicine caps, i was even tying her pajama belts which she now got used to doing herself. the list goes on obviously and endlessly.
we are doing elementary school design at cal poly as same project last year with a different urban site. i have assigned my students to look into tezuka architects' tokyo elementary, jan duiker's open air school in amsterdam, neutra experimental school in los angeles which over the years became one of those chain linked and asphalt covered security entrance public schools with additional trailer like buildings built and buried the original design of neutra's and his project maneger at the time, gregory ain. and, koning eizenberg's santa monica 'plural school #1' oddly going as PS#1..
happy pagan fertility holiday TC!
not at school, but working on the final assignment for my 176 peeps. They will get to design a park! so why does it take 9 pages to describe the program and deliverables? Guess cause this is an intro to environmental design, and everything needs to be spelled out to the Nth degree so there is uniformity in the grading process for my TAs.
this week will be a race to finish everything that has to get done, before we head to NYC for the great 2010 landscape safari. The day after I get back, I have to deliver a lecture on design process to introduce that park exercise - not as thrilling a topic as Ornament and Crime. Then I get to wallow in stormwater BMPs and greenroofs for a week or two.
Anybody have favorite quotes about design that is worth sharing?
Was supposed to rain today, but it's been hot-n-sunny for a minnesota spring day. Spent a few minutes out in the garden weeding and tending to my seedlings. Might have killed a few when I transplanted them - sigh.
DJ dubK, might be a little late, but my fav preparation for brussel sprouts is to roast them with a lil' garlic, salt-n-pepper, and olive oil - bacon fat could be a great modification.
orhan - there are several seminal schools out in columbus indiana - not very socal, but worth looking into. Also make sure they students look at CHPS.
David, for my grad seminar last winter we had to do a pecha kucha per week (in lieu of reaction papers) and one week we were reading all about identity so I brought up ornament and crime and did my week's PK on different reasons for marking oneself (or others). I was totally into it, it all fit into place so well, found some great images... and the questions at the end mostly added up to "so what tattoos do you have?" I was extremely put out.
nite all. Bocce and brunching.
sorry about the broken hand, orhan. give our best. every now and then i think of something happening to my hand(s) and it gives me a cold chill. i don't know why, but i'm really freaked out by the thought, more than other things i could freak out about.
spent the day at my mother-in-law's farm in eastern ky. perfect spring weather. very pleasant day, with dinner outside and the girls playing in the mountain stream in their easter dresses, racing sticks down the stream, swinging on the tree swing, searching for eggs up and down the hills, and singing at the tops of their lungs in the car on the way there.
thanks barry. CHPS site is great. they have these great web lectures in slideshow section. i e mailed the link to the class.
i want them to develop their work on these kind of information as well as other relevant knowledge. i already told them if they want to show me a school that just landed from a distant galaxy, i want to see the background for it.
i just got out from home depot when earthquake hit so cal. i would freak out if i saw those high shelves closing in and out over my head. i was in a small produce market where it felt like riding the tide in its rolling effect. i felt like i was dizzy and having low blood pressure attack until cashier warned everybody that we were having an earthquake. i don't like earthquakes and experienced some major ones in my life...
i tell you, being an architect can be a useful thing since my first reaction was to examine the structure of the space in a split second and analyze where would be the safest spot in the store..
Happy Easter everyone!!! Hope everyone's day turned out to be a good one. My friends and I partook in our second annual Feaster celebration. None of us is religious, in fact the group tonight there were four hindus, and one Jew, but we all love to gather together and cook and eat great food... hence FEASTer.
Tonight I finally hooked my laptop up to my surround sound system. Have only been meaning to do it for like a year now and have actually had the wires for about two months, but what's the hurry.
Anyhoo- after so much food I am now practically in a food coma so I think I am going to head off to bed to read.
Nite all-
Orhan - hope Tina heals nicely and soon.
Orhan sorry about Tina hope she recovers
*melt sounds like a fun night FEASTer - sounds like a new tradition could be started there gives new meaning to "breaking bread"
for my OH peeps
melt i used to do that too but now have i phone so hook that up instead. i do watch tv shows through computer on the tv though. only way i'll get the daily show on the tele. works brilliant.
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