Does anyone else use Architizer? Is it me or has the site kind of lost is fizz? I liked the social aspect part but I noticed that it has slowed down to a crawl over the last few months.

i knew you were behind it rusty ! 

J. James you mean like ever since 3.0 went live? :p

I might be working today but at least I have sun and Mon off. Happy 4th y'all

Oh and I have wanted a pair of these for a long time...

Jump, prince William and Kate went to Canada. The canadians through them a big circus show complete with drum-playing-hockey-jersey guy. It was all over the news in the US. Nam, I like those shoes. I couldn't pull them off, though, I'd lookalikaman. And Donna, it sounds so hillbilly redneck when you write it that way.

I have drafting to do tonight and OMG every one of the last two weeks worth of Fresh Air are incredibly depressing topics!

Donna, if you need something to listen to that isn't depressing but hilarious (mostly because of Zizek little tics) listen to Amy Goodman Hosts a Discussion With WikiLeaks Editor-In-Chief Julian Assange and Slovenian Philosopher Slavoj Žižek from Democracy Now....

i listened to it last night during cooking dinner

ah i see sarah.  sorry i didn't catch that.  been a bit out of touch with the motherland lately.  i was somehow thinking you meant japan.

but yeah for many canadians the royals are a big deal.  certainly my gandma is into them.  but she remembers when canada joined WWI as part of the british military -  grandpa was in the highlander regiment cuz he was of scottish descent.  somehow that service makes royalty more important to her.  not sure what i think of it myself.  i guess it is cool.

Ugh, lost two more chickens last night - raccoon.  Dammit.

Raccoons eat chickens? Wait, raccoons catch and kill their food?! Since when? Sucks, though, Donna.

Damn.. that sucks Donna... sorry to hear that.  Last week when it was slow I watched/listened to various discussions from the Aspen Ideas Festival 2010.  They've already got stuff up from this year's festival that you might like too.

Hope everyone's weekend was fab.

I had a local AIA member come talk to my students today who basically took this talk as an opportunity to bitch and whine to high heaven about what a shitty profession architecture is. You never get paid, when you do get paid it's not as much as a lawyer, you're constantly battling with contractors, you spend 5% of your time in an office actually doing all the fun stuff you do in school, you never get respect, blah blah wah wah wah.  I had to literally interrupt him to say we're out of time - my poor starry-eyed 16 year old students were looking terrified - they could tell this person just had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed today.  Or perhaps, graduated on the wrong side of the bed, it seems.  I love architecture but I often lose patience with architects.  'course, I'm sure they lose patience with me, too.

Rough day.  I'm going to go do some design work - which is more than 5% of MY job, thank you very much! - to calm myself.

that sucks donna... i'm guessing that he won't be invited back... was this someone that you knew ahead of time?

I think we're all that person from time to time - especially if we haven't come to terms with our own weaknesses as designers.  I know I get that way after a rough day.

but you know - I think i'd have more sense to talk to a bunch of HS kids that way... the only thing kids need to hear about money is that they shouldn't go into any career thinking they're going to get rich.

i'll come back tomorrow, donna, and re-introduce the starry-eyes! 

now you've got me curious who it was....

Steven, we had our first hospital visit by an architecture student ever - yep, Exacto slice.  Poor kid, in true arch student fashion, he was apologizing to ME for having to leave his work (due today) to go get stitches!!

Mornign all, why do they short week always seem like the longest?

Nam, you're right!  Short weeks always seem long.

Boy am I tired.  And I see the OP is back on the unlicensed architect and frankly I'm afraid he's mad and offended so I'm scared to go read it.

Oh no!  I hope your student is okay Donna.  Sorry to hear about the crappy presenter.  Even on a bad day, I feel like one should always at least try to put their best foot forward when making a presentation, especially to a bunch of young students.  Crossing fingers today is better.

where'd that unlicensed architect thread go?

Donna: well ... mwood doesn't address you by name ... but it does seem clear that s/he showed up on archinect without a clear understanding of 'archinect rules' ... seems a little taken aback by how we play here on the forum.

i still see that unlicensed architect thread, but perhaps the illegal posts were deleted?  What happened?

Dangit, hiding out in TC all the time keeps my out of all the controversy.  Wonder if I can still find it...

Donna, that kid is going to make a fine arch student some day.

I get to spend the next two days removing wallpaper.  I hate my life sometimes.  Especially when it's soggy.

oh - I see that thread again - it's been very enlightening.

so...i've been working on independent projects lately, but have stayed in touch with a staffing firm for the occasional freelance/temp project...fills the gaps, helps pay the big NYC bills, and helps me keep up a standard for the projects i do decide to take on my own.

anyway, the staffing firm called today to see if i'd be interested in going after a permanent gig.  it's at a super-corporate, international conglomerate-type place...a subsidiary of a major international corporation.  to be honest, i'm not really that interested, and not desperate, but if the salary made it worth my while, i would consider it...it's basically the type of place you'd only go to for the money, not the excitement, even though they do call themselves a 'design' firm...

so the recruiter asks about my salary expectation...i gave her a number, and she was pretty blunt about telling me i was probably pricing myself out.  now, i'm a licensed architect with 10 yrs. experience at big firms, an almost-viable independent practice, and believe me, my number was nowhere close to 6 figures...if anything, i thought i was underselling myself the way i usually do (just read an article about how women tend to do that.)

sigh...how demoralizing.

reading about x-acto slices makes me feel the pain all over again...ouch.

i left something out--the big draw for me in a job like this would be the health insurance...we're thinking of having a baby and recently found out my husband's plan (pretty good and still 100% employer-covered) would charge us $480/month to add me...how crazy is that?

if anyone has a lead on inexpensive insurance options for sole proprietors, i would appreciate it.....

i could use a lead on insurance options too...

I've done a lot of the research on insurance for self-employed people that want to have a baby. and am willing to share what I know thus far. First, if you have individual insurance, check to see if maternity care is covered. 12 states mandate that it be covered, I live in a state that does not. Group insurance is the best for maternity coverage, such as that offered by your husband's employment, so don't rule that out as an option. I'm not so lucky as my husband is self-employed too, no group plan for us. :(

I'm happy with my bcbs insurance - 250 or 350 a month to cover me and Abe, but there's no maternity coverage. There is coverage in case something goes wrong during labor, that endangers myself. So I guess I could get pregnant, and then do a home birth for free, and if I almost die the insurance will pay to keep me alive. Strange, I know. Otherwise, it's decent insurance.

bec--my quick and unscientific google search seems to show that NY does mandate maternity coverage...i wonder if this means my husband's insurance would cover it under his policy....i know they do cover his children, just not their mother...

elinor, I would think that it would cover you, have to read the fine print in the policy to sure, look for riders, limits on coverage and high deductibles because that is where they stick it to you. Usually, group insurance does cover maternity care. I understood from what you said that you are not in that group plan now, so I assume you have individual insurance, which usually doesn't cover maternity care because it cannot be underwritten (although it sounds like you live in a state where the laws are different than here.) Otherwise, group employer plans usually have a premium for employee (often paid for by the employer as compensation) employee+spouse, or employee+family (including spouse) where the company may pay for the employee's coverage, but not his family, that is why it is expensive because you are paying the full premium. Not sure how your husband's insurance could cover the kids and not you unless that is an option they offer and you take it. Like Sarah's, my insurance policy would cover medical complications arising out of pregnancy, but none of the pre-natal, delivery or post natal care. Sarah, is your plan a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP)?

elinor: on average the cost of pre-natal care will run in the neighborhod of $2,000, plus the cost of an uncomplicated deliver is likely to run between $6,000 and $8,000. The cost of a complicated delivery can be double that - or more. In some geographical areas these figures can be much higher.

To me it seems a no-brainer to jump on your  husband's policy. However, be sure to research whether you must be on the policy for any specific period of time before you can start to make claims related to a pregnancy.

Insurance companies may be many things, but they're not entirely stupid. They recognize that most pregnancies are discretionary (or voluntary) and they have an obvious reluctance to put themselves in a situation where they collect a few thousand dollars in premiums, only to shell out several times that in claims.

elinor, don't have a baby! Those things eat like pigs, and are generally a poor investment. You may get back pennies on the dollar but only if you get them busking on the F train early on. Age 3 or sooner. 

well, we can't afford it.  we would have to either use up all our savings (tied up for other things at the moment), or move out of town.  right now, i'm uninsured...have been ever since i left my corporate job. 

and quiz--if i pay $8000-$10000 for the actual medical care, or $6000/yr. to be on my husband's plan for a couple of years while i may or may not get pregnant, how much of a difference is that, really?  i'm paying through the nose either way.  i'm afraid i need a better option, even if it means i have to go back to corporate work, or dusting off the old european passport...

i know you're speaking from the insurer's view, and understand the actuarial logic of your point, but to call human reproduction 'discretionary' is a bit cynical, no?  ;) i might even call it downright inhuman...

thanks for all the help, everyone.  i need to do a lot more research.  if i find anything interesting and new, i'll let you know...

:

haha rusty---yes, they're ungrateful little money pits, aren't they?   don't worry, we plan to use them as our unpaid interns as soon as they can walk and talk...

and ps, the firm didn't balk at my salary request...they want to interview me tomorrow...

I'd highly suggest temporarily exposing your reproductive organs to high levels of gamma radiation. Two things will happen: children will never be an option or you'll give birth to tiny little Incredible Hulks you can sell to government agencies of your choice.

If that fails, just take some vitamins in the morning and punch a gypsy. Gypsies can't exact their revenge on you with you being dead or gravely-ill. Naturally, the gypsy will have to work some magic to keep you alive and in tiptop shape in order to hunt you down mercilessly, cast a curse on you and then consume you soul.

I will soon be the no. 1 provider of gypsy-based curse-supportive healthcare in the greater Tri-State area.

james, gypsies are pure healthcare magic.  a gypsy hag saved my life with her folk medicine when i was very ill as a child and the doctors in the horrible country where i was born had already given up.  if you can bottle that stuff, you'd make a killing.

elinor: I don't wish to be cynical, inhuman, or overly inquisitive. But, if you cannot afford $485 / month for health insurance, how are you going to afford the cost of raising a child?

I've raised two to adulthood and I can tell you they're damned expensive after their born.

well, that's tricky.  we're taking a bit of a risk at the moment...husband holding down the steady job while i try to start a practice.  it's paying for itself and a moderate salary for me, but less than what i' d make at a firm.  the problem is the usual one...if i took a well-paying job, i'd have insurance and more money, but less flexibility in my schedule and the need for full-time childcare.  which is expensive.  so basically, if we kept it going as we are, we more or less break even, and at least have some hope of building something of our own (a colleauge at my previous job paid $30k a year to her nanny, had a hell of a time getting out of work every day at 5 or 6, and was still passed over at promotion time...) we meet our expenses and have savings for contingencies, but don't spend much on luxuries. that 480 would buy my groceries for 2 months! so that's the question--go out on a limb and give it a shot, or take the 'safe' job, with the insurance and the paycheck...or to take the job for a year or two, have the kids, then regroup and revisit our options...WHAT IS UP WITH THE ARCHINECT-FIREFOX GLITCH?? 

.

don't spend much on luxuries

also, cost of living is hugely expensive here--rent, real estate, child care, and schools are a problem...but it's 'home', so it is very hard for me to leave....

 your country amazes me elinor.  and not just cuz that perry fellow thinks endangering americans is a good thing for his career.

i live in tokyo, just outside the centre and love it here too.   the cost of living can be way crazy too, probs same as NY.  We have 2 kids in spite of rusty's warnings and i gotta say we spend well over your extra insurance costs just on groceries in a month.  about twice that actually.  which is crazy.  kids can eat like you would not believe.

that said, we have never felt cash strapped as a result.  somehow it all works out.  it's very strange.  kind of like deadlines. 

quiz, so you are saying that baby making operations are a luxury of the rich only? Good luck with that one. That kind of an attitude (the 'I got mine' type) eventually ends up with you paying for other people's unrealistic expenses anyways. Through taxes.

For the record, $5K+/year premium on health insurance for a child is quite expensive. Unreasonable, actually. 

"I've raised two to adulthood and I can tell you they're damned expensive after their born."

*they're

Hope you didn't homeschool them :)

quiz, you are from a different generation. You had it easy. Things are beyond fucked up for new kids on the block :)

Things are indeed fucked up beyond belief, as rusty says, yet when it comes to raising kids  things somehow seem to work out, as the wise one,  jump, says.

JJames, re: gamma radiation in pregnancy: have you read Geek Love?  You must. In my top 5 for sure, though reading Matt Ruff's Bad Monkeys recently jiggled my top 5 a bit.

I'm drunk.  I love bourbon, and I'm somewhat impressed that my typing skills are possibly better after drinking than when sober.

rusty, let's proceed.  I'll try to email you tomorrow (if I survive my 7am wake up meeting), but the gist is the stainless steel post mounts are a go.

Is Geek Love the book where a circus family makes their own freak show by consuming large amounts of crystal meth laced with polonium? Because I think I have read half of it.

I was uncomfortably trapped one time in I swear to God the filthiest person's room I've ever been in and it was the only thing that probably wasn't covered in a combination of dust bunnies, semen and pizza grease amongst a few other books.

I put it down in order to "read" an anthology of Far Side because we had finally just gotten a sack of weed we waited on for hours to get. You want to know the hilarious thing? The kid we bought the weed from I actually knew and he literally lived across the street from me on the other side of town.

So, we had to drive like an hour to get there and I had to wade around in that filth for an additional 3 hours to get something from this "magic hookup" that I could have done in 3 minutes in my underwear.

Double post: I really need to create an anonymous account.

Oh, fun! Business talk on archifacebook! We can figure out which actual option 'SS steel post mounts' is tomorrow :) I'll be in transit all day tomorrow (flying on the cheap makes the fun last forever!!), so expect a response on Sat.

Good brandy > good bourbon.

That is all.

James. You are loosing your shit again. Perhaps being told so can help you in figuring out stuff.

And not just that last post. It got weird not too long ago. 

Loosing my shit? I did drink quite a bit of apple juice today.