I sure am clumsy lately, now I dropped my laptop (work computer!) and it won't turn on.
In other news, we have an autistic student and I have been given the go ahead to teach her Sketchup! I'm excited to see if she will be able to express ideas with it and improve her math skills by making numbers more meaningful.
Hey guys - Quick question...
Is there any essential reading out there for a person interested in building their own house? Im in an urban area if that makes any difference to your suggestions. Also, any suggestions about a place to read about the logistics and cost evaluation methods of such a task would be appreciated as well...
two of the guys at my old place kept their oversized bookshelves/workdesks clear so they could lie down for a nap after lunch and dinner every day at office. we shut the lights off at lunch so everyone could catch up on sleep too. it was kinda funny, but worked well. so i second the sleeping arrangements idea...
teaching starts in a month for me. am still putting together lectures on sustainable architecture and planning course. so much information out there and so much of it feels lightweight (i am surprised by this, i guess i shouldn't be). i keep thinking the course is going to have to be about preparing students to know the difference between green-washing and real green design.
but anyway, have fun with the lecture-ing archi and donna!
I agree with holz/melt - a private space to take a time-out/phone calls is a plus... I personally need down-time during the day in order to keep me from losing it in the afternoon, and unfortunately the insane people I've worked for seem to think that you need to be doing shit every f-ing second in order to be "productive."
moving teams around only works if the office has enough reference material available - I worked in one office where one of the principals would take the code books and not put them back... so people had to keep their own code books and a few other things at their desk, otherwise they would get lost into the abyss.
I also think that some people really need their own offices (or shared offices) - especially those who tend to be impulsive about yelling to people across the cubes. offices don't need to be on an outside wall, but they should have side-lights or glass doors...
also - another one of my pet-peeves is having one's back turned to public areas... I personally cannot concentrate when I feel like someone is watching me.
I 100% agree, about having your back to the public, who in the world, given the chose, would ever select that?
At one of my previous jobs I was in a cubicle space and I had a manager who had a habit of taking elaborate paths around all the over cubicles so that he would end up sneaking up right behind me, instead of approaching from my front, I couldn't stand it.
got week and a half till classes start and I'm starting to worry about all the unknowns. Not sweating the syllabus, lectures, or assignments - just the number of students, the logistics of getting to the classroom across campus, and silly stuff like that.
Jump, I can point you towards some resources if you want them. Best way to teach sustainability is to let the students figure it out themselves from all the variables that contradict each other. ie, an urban grid enables walkability yet increases the amount of impervious cover... which do you use?
its pretty amazing how many TC regulars are teaching these days... such a great resource...
i just had my first (adjunct) faculty meeting today and studio starts on monday... i'm still tweaking the syllabus, but its pretty much worked out... a little nervous, but really looking forward to it... since it is an options studio, i just hope that i'm a few people's first choice!
barry, et. al.: "Associate" does not exist at my office. There's the owner, then there are the "Directors" who manage departments, then the rest of us. Since I'm the only person of my discipline in the office, there is no corporate ladder for me to climb. So the best I can hope for is that at my annual I can bring that up as ammunition for when I say that I need more money and more control over my own time. And a good line on my resume.
that is pretty much what i plan to do barry. i usually have students do a mid-term presentation but i think this class i will make student research and presentations a weekly thing and have them find the good stuff for us - and then explain why its good. or bad.
that sounds funky coppertop. sounds too like you are in a good place. very nice.
so 1/2 way through the 2 day retreat. It's been good. I found out I am a n ENFP extravert-inuitive-feeling-perceptive and am in the 6% of the population and will continue to be good at my job if I like it and it challenges me. Segway got a compliment from my head of school saying I did a fantastic job last year... I was humbled.
So okay enough sappy stuff.
I am selling unique architectural supplies (like a 5.2mm koh-i-noor klutch pencil for making big fat creative strokes on paper). I'm selling to students mostly from the back of my trunk (sounds suggestive). But I need a name for this little venture. Suggestions.
DJ sleep areas sound good, even if it's just a tiny lounge - I would avoid shared hammocks because well folks may get stuck in them and can never get out. But suggest they use only re-used and recycled/upcycled furniture and finishes. That's the first step... the rest well should be fun.
Archi.....call them rocket pens....you know the kind of cartoon rocket with the lil....ball on a stick attached to the rocket ship. They should sell like hot cakes after you mark them up 100%.
tractors, cows, sheeps, horses, pigs, oh my! we did the state fair this morning to show a little country to the shrub. My it was fun to watch his reaction. the best part might have been not eating anything on a stick.
toasteroven - Hopefully! Portland is trying to do it too!
Techno, I think at last check I was an ENFP too. Go figure!
Thank you all for your helpful suggestions regarding office space! I am taking them all and putting them on my list - especially the sleeping area - and I will keep you posted as to what happens.
In other news, isn't Jesse's school/Afghanistan blog totally amazing? I feel like we are so lucky to be able to have him on here and telling us these things about the country. It's a revelation.
reminds me that most of what i am doing in daily life is just stupid stuff.
toasteroven, this year when we went to see family we learned the city had banned plastic bags. every store. we walked into grocery store unprepared and ended up being lent a cardboard box to carry things home in.
The cool thing is we were unprepared because nobody thought to tell us. That is, it was so normal to everyone that they forgot it was ever any different. it reminded me of my youth a bit - back in the days of paper bags and boxes at grocery store and butter and milk (in glass bottles!) on the doorstep.
not sure if plastic bags will change the world much or not, but i guess it is a good thing...
snook cool name. So I'm thinking maybe to use one of those funny words we use in architecture as the name of the store.
façade - worried that they may think it's a hoax piano nobil - am I sell musical equipement? arcade - hmmm board and batten - kinda sounds like a hardware store interstitial - makes me sound like a d****** insitu - could work (but do I spell it as one or two words?)
how about just calling it what it is? "pens and sh*t"? rolls right off the tongue doesn't it? and no one is gonna wonder what you selling (except for the folks looking for fertilizer, they might be surprised). ;-)
names are hard.
just watched the french news and then the german news over morning international news hour, and bloodyhell if glen beck was not in both, doing his best to make poor people poorer. I wonder what Europeans think of stuff like that? is it funny? sad? one of those things that only could happen in usa and thus kind of cool?
ha Straw, definitely not! I'm the only person with my job description, but I'm nominally in the department I do the most work for. Really I kind of float between the departments and am akin to the support staff in terms of possibilities for career growth there. You could never give the secretary a promotion—what would the be promoted to? I'm the same way.
techno, here's a naming exercise that I've found really helpful: First decide what sort of characteristics you want your identity to have (cool? dignified? quirky? helpful? you know, adjectives that describe the sort of vibe you're going for). Then brainstorm names that come from totally different vectors: your own name, the location of the store or product origin, things to do with the product/service category, names that make good acronyms, names that are metaphoric, some that are totally random seeming that you have an opportunity to re-associate for your purpose (you've got this category going strong already). Try to get as many as possible, you might find that an unexpected one really grows on you. Then when you've got a big list, evaluate them all in terms of the characteristics you decided you want your business to embody, plus pure 'it factor.'
thanks copper.... wow that really helped, and funny enough I came right back to In situ. The idea of it being "in place" at the school seems to work and every architect can identify with the words. Again TC is awesome... hit a impasse TC gets you through it
techno, the beaux arts has lots of specialized terms (mostly french) that have fallen out of general circulation: entasis, enfilide, poche, et cetera that might make a great pen name since they refer to the act of drawing/design...
damn... poche, et cetera would of been a great name. Perhaps I will change the name next summer. Alas.
Has anyone watched the movie Centurion? I would recommend it. Especially for those eager for a Roman era blood lust that cannot be filled until the season premier of Spartacus. The story has a few circles in it, but it makes for good interpretation.
How's everyone's Sunday going? Tomorrow I go on a diet to help moderate my cholesterol levels. It's not high but being romantically involved with a doctor means my health in whatever format is always moot point. So despite it all I'll be a dieting and exercising nut for 2 weeks (she would prefer I didn't but it's happening anyway). I suspect I'll be craving bread, something I don't normally care for, by Wednesday.
oh I check my cholesterol again in 2 weeks... it could of just been elevated because I was vacation and hell, I couldn't pronounce some of the things I was eating yummy!!
tomorrow (monday) afternoon i venture into teaching studio for the first time... i've just finished putting the final touches on my syllabus and the first assignment handout, as well as my 10 minute "pick me presentation" for the studio lottery... wish me luck!
fyi, it can take up to 3 months for cholesterol levels to respond to dietary changes. I'm with jump, diets are for the birds, because then most of us go right back to our previous eating habits when the diet is done.
Made a most delectable peach pie yesterday. Topped it with whipped cream that I whipped myself, some of it melted all over the warm pie - all was super yummy. Plate licking yummy. Pies are surprisingly simple and easy to make. Ate a full 1/4 of the pie last night, couldn't help it. Today, the hangover is terrible, not only a lump in the gut and a sluggish mood but a messy oven too from forgetting to put down a drip pan!
For anyone who is curious... I finished my two day, 100 mile cycling extravaganza successfully. Only slightly stiff and sore, but otherwise I feel great. Already have ideas of doing it again next year. Woo-hoo!!!
Going off Grid for a week....cause you can't find Cyber Cafes where were headed. Headed to the Great American Outback! Taking some time to refocus on life and what it tosses at us along the way. Going to visit my soul place "Matho Sapha", Bear Butte" to us Anglos, she has always been a touch point durning my life. Don't worry I'm not going off the edge of the earth, just some grand vacation time. Visiting Family, and old friends, be back in a week.
Have a sensational time....as my tomorrow starts at 3:30 am as were off to grab a plane flight.
Snook, i have been day dreaming about the deep west lately... Mainly because I am reading River-Horse: A Voyage Across America. Makes me long for the waters of my father's birth, The Missouri
jump - and everyone else - is wrong for me to want to be around friends and just feel like shit, crying into my proverbial beer? or, should i just go to the boundary waters for a week, and find my manhood again?
beta, friends I know who have gotten divorced really, really wanted to be around their friends talking, analyzing, recounting, over and over, what they were feeling/thinking/experiencing. Don't do it in a vacuum. Talking with friends will help you get perspective.
so my new name at work is plan B. Having been through the system I'm the first one they call whenever someone goes on academic leave, etc etc. Well the school was asked to submit an article to a publication produced by a prominent NY school (it's an easy guess), and at first they were going to ask one of those esteemed lecturers with loads of letters in front and behind their names but now fell on me. [spoiler]unchartered territory[/spoiler] - it's due on Friday and it's about Kingston. So I throw it out TC (ie. best source of answers for any problem, architectural or otherwise) what would you want to know about the city of Kingston in some architectural/urban context?
Thread Central
I sure am clumsy lately, now I dropped my laptop (work computer!) and it won't turn on.
In other news, we have an autistic student and I have been given the go ahead to teach her Sketchup! I'm excited to see if she will be able to express ideas with it and improve her math skills by making numbers more meaningful.
Hey guys - Quick question...
Is there any essential reading out there for a person interested in building their own house? Im in an urban area if that makes any difference to your suggestions. Also, any suggestions about a place to read about the logistics and cost evaluation methods of such a task would be appreciated as well...
Thanks friendos
two of the guys at my old place kept their oversized bookshelves/workdesks clear so they could lie down for a nap after lunch and dinner every day at office. we shut the lights off at lunch so everyone could catch up on sleep too. it was kinda funny, but worked well. so i second the sleeping arrangements idea...
teaching starts in a month for me. am still putting together lectures on sustainable architecture and planning course. so much information out there and so much of it feels lightweight (i am surprised by this, i guess i shouldn't be). i keep thinking the course is going to have to be about preparing students to know the difference between green-washing and real green design.
but anyway, have fun with the lecture-ing archi and donna!
I agree with holz/melt - a private space to take a time-out/phone calls is a plus... I personally need down-time during the day in order to keep me from losing it in the afternoon, and unfortunately the insane people I've worked for seem to think that you need to be doing shit every f-ing second in order to be "productive."
moving teams around only works if the office has enough reference material available - I worked in one office where one of the principals would take the code books and not put them back... so people had to keep their own code books and a few other things at their desk, otherwise they would get lost into the abyss.
I also think that some people really need their own offices (or shared offices) - especially those who tend to be impulsive about yelling to people across the cubes. offices don't need to be on an outside wall, but they should have side-lights or glass doors...
also - another one of my pet-peeves is having one's back turned to public areas... I personally cannot concentrate when I feel like someone is watching me.
toasteroven,
I 100% agree, about having your back to the public, who in the world, given the chose, would ever select that?
At one of my previous jobs I was in a cubicle space and I had a manager who had a habit of taking elaborate paths around all the over cubicles so that he would end up sneaking up right behind me, instead of approaching from my front, I couldn't stand it.
got week and a half till classes start and I'm starting to worry about all the unknowns. Not sweating the syllabus, lectures, or assignments - just the number of students, the logistics of getting to the classroom across campus, and silly stuff like that.
Jump, I can point you towards some resources if you want them. Best way to teach sustainability is to let the students figure it out themselves from all the variables that contradict each other. ie, an urban grid enables walkability yet increases the amount of impervious cover... which do you use?
Raised, perforated sidewalks sounds like a good answer, Barry.
Barry, in addition to impervious surfaces... there's also size of roofs and parking.
In many cases when you minimize the road grid, you also tend to have larger roofs and larger parking lots.
A favorite concept of mine is that a Wal-Mart and the Empire State Building produce roughly the same amount of impervious surface...
Yet it could house somehwere between 25-30 Wal-Marts inside of it.
its pretty amazing how many TC regulars are teaching these days... such a great resource...
i just had my first (adjunct) faculty meeting today and studio starts on monday... i'm still tweaking the syllabus, but its pretty much worked out... a little nervous, but really looking forward to it... since it is an options studio, i just hope that i'm a few people's first choice!
barry, et. al.: "Associate" does not exist at my office. There's the owner, then there are the "Directors" who manage departments, then the rest of us. Since I'm the only person of my discipline in the office, there is no corporate ladder for me to climb. So the best I can hope for is that at my annual I can bring that up as ammunition for when I say that I need more money and more control over my own time. And a good line on my resume.
I can't believe I finally joined facebook. Ugh.
welcome to the darkside sarah!
hi all. hope everyone is doing well. i:m in Japan and sweating my face off right now.
jump, i:m about to send you an email!
cool n! it has been a hot hot summer so far.
that is pretty much what i plan to do barry. i usually have students do a mid-term presentation but i think this class i will make student research and presentations a weekly thing and have them find the good stuff for us - and then explain why its good. or bad.
that sounds funky coppertop. sounds too like you are in a good place. very nice.
to west coast TCers - is california really going to ban plastic bags?
so 1/2 way through the 2 day retreat. It's been good. I found out I am a n ENFP extravert-inuitive-feeling-perceptive and am in the 6% of the population and will continue to be good at my job if I like it and it challenges me. Segway got a compliment from my head of school saying I did a fantastic job last year... I was humbled.
So okay enough sappy stuff.
I am selling unique architectural supplies (like a 5.2mm koh-i-noor klutch pencil for making big fat creative strokes on paper). I'm selling to students mostly from the back of my trunk (sounds suggestive). But I need a name for this little venture. Suggestions.
DJ sleep areas sound good, even if it's just a tiny lounge - I would avoid shared hammocks because well folks may get stuck in them and can never get out. But suggest they use only re-used and recycled/upcycled furniture and finishes. That's the first step... the rest well should be fun.
It was inevitable Sarah welcome to facebook...
Morning all....
Sounds like everyone is busy, busy, busy
Archi.....call them rocket pens....you know the kind of cartoon rocket with the lil....ball on a stick attached to the rocket ship. They should sell like hot cakes after you mark them up 100%.
tractors, cows, sheeps, horses, pigs, oh my! we did the state fair this morning to show a little country to the shrub. My it was fun to watch his reaction. the best part might have been not eating anything on a stick.
toasteroven - Hopefully! Portland is trying to do it too!
Techno, I think at last check I was an ENFP too. Go figure!
Thank you all for your helpful suggestions regarding office space! I am taking them all and putting them on my list - especially the sleeping area - and I will keep you posted as to what happens.
In other news, isn't Jesse's school/Afghanistan blog totally amazing? I feel like we are so lucky to be able to have him on here and telling us these things about the country. It's a revelation.
agreed about jesse's blog
reminds me that most of what i am doing in daily life is just stupid stuff.
toasteroven, this year when we went to see family we learned the city had banned plastic bags. every store. we walked into grocery store unprepared and ended up being lent a cardboard box to carry things home in.
The cool thing is we were unprepared because nobody thought to tell us. That is, it was so normal to everyone that they forgot it was ever any different. it reminded me of my youth a bit - back in the days of paper bags and boxes at grocery store and butter and milk (in glass bottles!) on the doorstep.
not sure if plastic bags will change the world much or not, but i guess it is a good thing...
copper top, I would take it that you are director of your department then, being that you are the only one in your department?
ha strawbeary good one.....
I too am totally digging Jesse's blog...
Barry My it was fun to watch his reaction. the best part might have been not eating anything on a stick.
Fair food especially on a stick or fried is one of my fav parts...
Hi all one day left till the last year of my twenties...
snook cool name. So I'm thinking maybe to use one of those funny words we use in architecture as the name of the store.
façade - worried that they may think it's a hoax
piano nobil - am I sell musical equipement?
arcade - hmmm
board and batten - kinda sounds like a hardware store
interstitial - makes me sound like a d******
insitu - could work (but do I spell it as one or two words?)
how about just calling it what it is? "pens and sh*t"? rolls right off the tongue doesn't it? and no one is gonna wonder what you selling (except for the folks looking for fertilizer, they might be surprised). ;-)
names are hard.
just watched the french news and then the german news over morning international news hour, and bloodyhell if glen beck was not in both, doing his best to make poor people poorer. I wonder what Europeans think of stuff like that? is it funny? sad? one of those things that only could happen in usa and thus kind of cool?
ha Straw, definitely not! I'm the only person with my job description, but I'm nominally in the department I do the most work for. Really I kind of float between the departments and am akin to the support staff in terms of possibilities for career growth there. You could never give the secretary a promotion—what would the be promoted to? I'm the same way.
techno, here's a naming exercise that I've found really helpful: First decide what sort of characteristics you want your identity to have (cool? dignified? quirky? helpful? you know, adjectives that describe the sort of vibe you're going for). Then brainstorm names that come from totally different vectors: your own name, the location of the store or product origin, things to do with the product/service category, names that make good acronyms, names that are metaphoric, some that are totally random seeming that you have an opportunity to re-associate for your purpose (you've got this category going strong already). Try to get as many as possible, you might find that an unexpected one really grows on you. Then when you've got a big list, evaluate them all in terms of the characteristics you decided you want your business to embody, plus pure 'it factor.'
thanks copper.... wow that really helped, and funny enough I came right back to In situ. The idea of it being "in place" at the school seems to work and every architect can identify with the words. Again TC is awesome... hit a impasse TC gets you through it
and happy birthday Nam
techno, the beaux arts has lots of specialized terms (mostly french) that have fallen out of general circulation: entasis, enfilide, poche, et cetera that might make a great pen name since they refer to the act of drawing/design...
happy b-day nam!
thanks guys, i am trying to be earthstrong... archi.
going out to take some photos for my second attempt at getting into Gainesville Pecha Kucha Volume 2 now.
damn... poche, et cetera would of been a great name. Perhaps I will change the name next summer. Alas.
Has anyone watched the movie Centurion? I would recommend it. Especially for those eager for a Roman era blood lust that cannot be filled until the season premier of Spartacus. The story has a few circles in it, but it makes for good interpretation.
How's everyone's Sunday going? Tomorrow I go on a diet to help moderate my cholesterol levels. It's not high but being romantically involved with a doctor means my health in whatever format is always moot point. So despite it all I'll be a dieting and exercising nut for 2 weeks (she would prefer I didn't but it's happening anyway). I suspect I'll be craving bread, something I don't normally care for, by Wednesday.
Techno, I was beginning to think Husband and I were the only ones who loves Spartacus. I can't beleive we have to wait till 2011 for the next season!
forgive me for asking but why 2 weeks, archi?
isn't it better to modify diet permanently? also, behaviour (exercise etc)?
good luck with the shop!
oh I check my cholesterol again in 2 weeks... it could of just been elevated because I was vacation and hell, I couldn't pronounce some of the things I was eating yummy!!
tomorrow (monday) afternoon i venture into teaching studio for the first time... i've just finished putting the final touches on my syllabus and the first assignment handout, as well as my 10 minute "pick me presentation" for the studio lottery... wish me luck!
fyi, it can take up to 3 months for cholesterol levels to respond to dietary changes. I'm with jump, diets are for the birds, because then most of us go right back to our previous eating habits when the diet is done.
Good luck Phil!
architecture - art - design in contemporary and vintage Venice:
link
Good luck with back to school everyone!
Made a most delectable peach pie yesterday. Topped it with whipped cream that I whipped myself, some of it melted all over the warm pie - all was super yummy. Plate licking yummy. Pies are surprisingly simple and easy to make. Ate a full 1/4 of the pie last night, couldn't help it. Today, the hangover is terrible, not only a lump in the gut and a sluggish mood but a messy oven too from forgetting to put down a drip pan!
Straw, peaches go great with bourbon. next time whip a little bourbon right into the whipped cream - heaven.
Hey, Ball Nogues *might* be coming to my house this week to see my fireplace!
I poured a little rum in the peach filling mixture, it was what I had on hand. :)
Hi Donna,
Sounds exciting!!
For anyone who is curious... I finished my two day, 100 mile cycling extravaganza successfully. Only slightly stiff and sore, but otherwise I feel great. Already have ideas of doing it again next year. Woo-hoo!!!
Going off Grid for a week....cause you can't find Cyber Cafes where were headed. Headed to the Great American Outback! Taking some time to refocus on life and what it tosses at us along the way. Going to visit my soul place "Matho Sapha", Bear Butte" to us Anglos, she has always been a touch point durning my life. Don't worry I'm not going off the edge of the earth, just some grand vacation time. Visiting Family, and old friends, be back in a week.
Have a sensational time....as my tomorrow starts at 3:30 am as were off to grab a plane flight.
Congrats melt, and have fun snook!
That is a lot of miles melt...
Snook, i have been day dreaming about the deep west lately... Mainly because I am reading River-Horse: A Voyage Across America. Makes me long for the waters of my father's birth, The Missouri
Night all.
Good job, melt!
Have fun and be safe, snook!
I've had an all around shitty day. The kind of shittiness that you know totally won't be solved by having a drink, so I'm working instead.
jump - and everyone else - is wrong for me to want to be around friends and just feel like shit, crying into my proverbial beer? or, should i just go to the boundary waters for a week, and find my manhood again?
beta, friends I know who have gotten divorced really, really wanted to be around their friends talking, analyzing, recounting, over and over, what they were feeling/thinking/experiencing. Don't do it in a vacuum. Talking with friends will help you get perspective.
so my new name at work is plan B. Having been through the system I'm the first one they call whenever someone goes on academic leave, etc etc. Well the school was asked to submit an article to a publication produced by a prominent NY school (it's an easy guess), and at first they were going to ask one of those esteemed lecturers with loads of letters in front and behind their names but now fell on me. [spoiler]unchartered territory[/spoiler] - it's due on Friday and it's about Kingston. So I throw it out TC (ie. best source of answers for any problem, architectural or otherwise) what would you want to know about the city of Kingston in some architectural/urban context?
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