it was very cool indeed. is first time for me to be the face of the office this time too, so was a nice experience all round. we were required to cut the rice with a ceremonial scythe and i led the toast with a small glass/bowl of sake (was delicious) at the end...
cute bike moment of the day: I was stopped at a red light on my way home, and hear someone nearby say in a patronizing talking-to-child voice "She's riding home from work." I turned my head and saw that a mom was explaining to her bewildered looking child of about 5 or so what an adult was doing on a bicycle in the middle of the road in their dress clothes. On one hand, it makes me sad that kids today are bewildered by such a sight in the first place, but on the other, I hope the kidlet will remember in ten or twenty years that a gainfully employed adult can actually choose to opt out of the whole car thing.
jump, i hope you do the project update blog, and if not a blog, at least a thread of your own, like Steven's exurban interim...in the meantime if you care to share anymore drawings/imagery/data on the project, i for one would be very interested in hearing more about it...
and, if anyone is interested, i just posted about my bike share experience from earlier today.
rationalist, I have to share my overheard-comment-while-on-a-bike story, then to bed for me. I've had an inordinately busy day (two new jobs) and the local property tax increase has me in a severely dangerous mood.
Stopped at a red light, in cold winter weather, I spit (loogied? how does one spell that?) between my handlebars. Right next to me I heard a sweet little girl's voice say "See?! Girls spit TOO, Daddy!"
I felt badly (between my peals of laughter) for this poor father, trying to raise a delicate little princess, whom I had just spoiled.
Random thoughts about Columbia GSAPP and other issues of the day:
1. I'm thinking about starting a drinking game, in which we take a shot each time we hear the word "emergence" being uttered in Avery Hall.
2. Quote of the day: "We wouldn't be sitting here on a theory panel if any of us had a normal relationship to practice."
3. I'll most likely cancel my interview with the Firm From Hell mentioned in my last post, considering I no intention of working in that sort of environment again, although part of me wouldn't mind showing up anyway and asking them lots of pointed questions about the issues raised above. But if it's anything like my last firm (which it seems to be in every detail), the partners most likely don't have any ability nor inclination to change a thing about the way they run the firm, and it would be a waste of time for everybody involved for me to even darken their door.
That comes down to a WWTCD moment: Should I simply tell them that I've decided to pursue another possibility and leave it at that, or should I be more candid with them and explain why I'm withdrawing my name from consideration? (I didn't read the insidearch.org stuff before I sent them my resume, although perhaps I should have.) Keep in mind I've been dealing with an admin assistant so far and not the principals themselves.
All that said, my portfolio is coming together nicely, and I'm confident that at least one of my other prospects will be fruitful.
4. Office tour of KPF first thing in the morning, and we're touring Polshek's office next week. There's actually a lot of office tours being offered as part of this Columbia program (Libeskind, OMA, Vinoly, Meier's model archive, and many others among them) but unfortunately we were only permitted to pick a maximum of two office tours per person. Should be interesting.
probably wouldn't say anything to them about insidearch, gin. i've heard of firms that, once they get wind of insidearch, will try to figure out ways to skew the reports/scoring. even to the point of suggesting to employees 'don't you want to make an entry? hmmm?'
leave insidearch's report on this firm as it is so that it can serve the warning function for any future potential employees that might be interested.
i don't think it would be a waste of YOUR time to interview with them, however. i've learned something - both about the firm and about me - in every interview in which i've participated.
Speaking of talking sh*t about people on internet forums, I have a quick story.....anybody else hear the bit on NPR this morning about Whole Foods trying to buy Wild Oats? Well apparently the CEO of Whole Foods has been on internet forums for a while, posing under an alias ("harobed" I think, it was his wife's name in reverse), and talking sh*t about Wild Oats. He's been claiming that it was run poorly and was going to go under any day now.....in addition to defending his haircut to those that made fun of it. (Quote: "I like it. I think he's cute")
Anyway, the Federal Trade Commission is now suing Whole Foods in response to the take-over I guess. Note to self when planning take-overs: should probably not resort to illegal subversion of rivals on public forums.
I just thought it was kind of funny, so I shared.
~~~~~
LIG, say hi to KPF for me! And don't touch the models, those bad boys cost more than your house!
having worked as a consultant at kpf an office tour of that
office is less than appealing...although wonderk is right in that
their models are quite often very expensive. i wonder if they'll
show you all five floors..or do they have more now?
so Lig you chose polshek and kpf over oma and libeskind? i'd
be kind of interested in how the latter two looked and were run.
does everyone have to wear black? that sort of thing.
ok thread central, here's your opportunity to push buttons (sorta)... i just got some new boots from zappos... i like them and my wife doesn't... she has requested a sartorial third opinion from you wonderful folks here at TC... they are silver/black boots from kenneth cole...
what do you think?
(a) they're great... you should definitely keep them!
(b) they're alright, but a bit too eccentric for my taste...
DubK I heard that story too - screw Whole Foods! Well not really, but honestly I just wish people would PLAY FAIR weren't we all taught to do so when we were children? What the hell happened?!?
Must now ponder where on Archinect I have personally failed to "play fair".
LiG I'm really enjoying your updates - please continue to share.
I think I would have to see them with pants, or whatever you chose to wear with them. I feel they would look tacky with shorts, but to each his own. I prefer low shoes on men, but thats me. Put me down as siding with your wife.
when I rode my bike around town where I used to live, a small conservative midwestern city, I got called all sorts of names, Lesbo and Freak came up often. Usually by teenagers. Drivers of cars would stare in bewilderment at me. Probably the only other bike riders in that town were the meth users and people who lost their license from DUI.
SH... i'll try to remember to take a pic with them on when i go home for lunch... they will primarily be worn with dark jeans... maybe occasionally with black dress pants or suit when i'm feeling chipper...
if anyone ever sees me (or anyone for that matter) wearing dress ankle boots with shorts please shoot me in the back of the head...
personal preference: i've never been a fan of the pointy shoe...
but i have a size 11 foot and i don't really like making my foot
look longer than it does... that and i just don't find them to be
comfortable..my toes like to frolic.
with that said i think you should keep them if you like them..as
long as it doesn't cause undue tension between you and the wife..
of course you could also let her purchase a pair of shoes that
you don't particularly like and then everything's square again
right?
Gin- I agree with Steven, keep insidearch our little secret. I've had a bad experience with a firm that knows I trashed them (completely deservedly) there.
Straw- I've been counting the other bike commuters every day. I see around one other biker per mile, depending on weather. But there's only one other rain-or-shine regular like myself that I encounter on my route. We smile and wave to each other each morning and it makes me feel a little more normal. I do not count homeless people or children in my count though, only adults who are obviously choosing this as a mode of transport. Those dressed as Lance Armstrong only count for half, as I can't tell if they're actually going anywhere or just training.
Children: 0 points
Homeless people: 0 points
"Lance Armstrong", hardcore types: 1/2 point
Bike commuters: 1 point
Do you add or subtract points for helmet or no?
Based on this scoring system, I got a 2.5 yesterday. Although I feel that the hardcore guy should get a .25 point additional, as he was traversing up the largest hill in the neighborhood.
PS. I don't think I've ever seen a homeless person with a bike. Shopping cart, sure, but one can hardly commute anywhere with that.
Good morning TC...is this whole moving across the country, starting school, more debt, scary big step... finally hitting anyone else? I had a major panic attack last night and couldn't sleep...I'm so damn anxious.
WonderK, out here they have bikes. Probably stolen from UCLA students. You can tell because they are carrying everything they own on the bike in plastic bags, as well as trash bags full of bottles and cans for recycling. And I mean no slight to the hardcore guys, you just never know whether they're using the bike for transport, or whether they're driving home from work and then hopping on their bikes.
WhatToDo- yeah, namby and I had our panic attacks a few pages back and formed the 2007 Existential Crisis Convention. Would you like to join?
I have, so far, avoided a panic attack. Which is remarkable considering how many I had in college. Really though, I've been mentally preparing and planning for this for months. I'm sure this won't stop me from being a bit weepy when I finally shove off.
W2D, your "my toes like to frolic" post was almost made by me this morning before you beat me to it - that's my favorite phrase of the day!! Thanks lars. I need some Birkenstocks.
Thread Central
haha techno....I almost chose that one, but knew someone else would!
damn you are fast w2d!
funny that's what I thought when I saw the road signs <- my usual pick for the page turnovers
I've been thinking about changing my name to WonderL to spite her leaving me for all you Calinecters....
we welcome WonderK to the west coast with open arms...
(and empty glasses, wink wink, hint hint!)
thanks orhan.
it was very cool indeed. is first time for me to be the face of the office this time too, so was a nice experience all round. we were required to cut the rice with a ceremonial scythe and i led the toast with a small glass/bowl of sake (was delicious) at the end...
rice in the concrete sounds perfect.
Well at least my name - with a K - is copyrighted.
WonderK: I tried to change my name to D©A a while back, but somehow, the copyright symbol doesn't look right on the main thread page...
No it doesn't, does it. Humph.
I wonder why the "TM" works but the copyright symbol does not.
'r' didn't work either.
So I just changed it to TM and it's not showing up on the main page either. I wonder if Big Head forces are at work here.
I am forever destined to be just "WonderK". Fair enough.
~~~~~
Sorry about that mess folks, we now return to your regularly scheduled randomness....
i had to steal mightylittle's 'tm' when i did it. using one from my computer's symbols didn't work out either.
cute bike moment of the day: I was stopped at a red light on my way home, and hear someone nearby say in a patronizing talking-to-child voice "She's riding home from work." I turned my head and saw that a mom was explaining to her bewildered looking child of about 5 or so what an adult was doing on a bicycle in the middle of the road in their dress clothes. On one hand, it makes me sad that kids today are bewildered by such a sight in the first place, but on the other, I hope the kidlet will remember in ten or twenty years that a gainfully employed adult can actually choose to opt out of the whole car thing.
dubK whether you are copyrighted or not, you are still fabYOUlous
is the word for the day, 7-11-2007.
jump, i hope you do the project update blog, and if not a blog, at least a thread of your own, like Steven's exurban interim...in the meantime if you care to share anymore drawings/imagery/data on the project, i for one would be very interested in hearing more about it...
and, if anyone is interested, i just posted about my bike share experience from earlier today.
rationalist, I have to share my overheard-comment-while-on-a-bike story, then to bed for me. I've had an inordinately busy day (two new jobs) and the local property tax increase has me in a severely dangerous mood.
Stopped at a red light, in cold winter weather, I spit (loogied? how does one spell that?) between my handlebars. Right next to me I heard a sweet little girl's voice say "See?! Girls spit TOO, Daddy!"
I felt badly (between my peals of laughter) for this poor father, trying to raise a delicate little princess, whom I had just spoiled.
Goodnight friends.
Random thoughts about Columbia GSAPP and other issues of the day:
1. I'm thinking about starting a drinking game, in which we take a shot each time we hear the word "emergence" being uttered in Avery Hall.
2. Quote of the day: "We wouldn't be sitting here on a theory panel if any of us had a normal relationship to practice."
3. I'll most likely cancel my interview with the Firm From Hell mentioned in my last post, considering I no intention of working in that sort of environment again, although part of me wouldn't mind showing up anyway and asking them lots of pointed questions about the issues raised above. But if it's anything like my last firm (which it seems to be in every detail), the partners most likely don't have any ability nor inclination to change a thing about the way they run the firm, and it would be a waste of time for everybody involved for me to even darken their door.
That comes down to a WWTCD moment: Should I simply tell them that I've decided to pursue another possibility and leave it at that, or should I be more candid with them and explain why I'm withdrawing my name from consideration? (I didn't read the insidearch.org stuff before I sent them my resume, although perhaps I should have.) Keep in mind I've been dealing with an admin assistant so far and not the principals themselves.
All that said, my portfolio is coming together nicely, and I'm confident that at least one of my other prospects will be fruitful.
4. Office tour of KPF first thing in the morning, and we're touring Polshek's office next week. There's actually a lot of office tours being offered as part of this Columbia program (Libeskind, OMA, Vinoly, Meier's model archive, and many others among them) but unfortunately we were only permitted to pick a maximum of two office tours per person. Should be interesting.
probably wouldn't say anything to them about insidearch, gin. i've heard of firms that, once they get wind of insidearch, will try to figure out ways to skew the reports/scoring. even to the point of suggesting to employees 'don't you want to make an entry? hmmm?'
leave insidearch's report on this firm as it is so that it can serve the warning function for any future potential employees that might be interested.
i don't think it would be a waste of YOUR time to interview with them, however. i've learned something - both about the firm and about me - in every interview in which i've participated.
lb, that little girl NEEDED to learn the lesson you taught her!
just call em and cancel, you have no obligation beyond that. and the time for working for assholes has come to an end.
Interview canceled. Vado is right: I don't need to waste any more of my career working for jackasses.
spitting women make me salivate :P
Speaking of talking sh*t about people on internet forums, I have a quick story.....anybody else hear the bit on NPR this morning about Whole Foods trying to buy Wild Oats? Well apparently the CEO of Whole Foods has been on internet forums for a while, posing under an alias ("harobed" I think, it was his wife's name in reverse), and talking sh*t about Wild Oats. He's been claiming that it was run poorly and was going to go under any day now.....in addition to defending his haircut to those that made fun of it. (Quote: "I like it. I think he's cute")
Anyway, the Federal Trade Commission is now suing Whole Foods in response to the take-over I guess. Note to self when planning take-overs: should probably not resort to illegal subversion of rivals on public forums.
I just thought it was kind of funny, so I shared.
~~~~~
LIG, say hi to KPF for me! And don't touch the models, those bad boys cost more than your house!
having worked as a consultant at kpf an office tour of that
office is less than appealing...although wonderk is right in that
their models are quite often very expensive. i wonder if they'll
show you all five floors..or do they have more now?
so Lig you chose polshek and kpf over oma and libeskind? i'd
be kind of interested in how the latter two looked and were run.
does everyone have to wear black? that sort of thing.
i have a friend at polshek! so say hi randomly and maybe you'll say hi to her.
ok thread central, here's your opportunity to push buttons (sorta)... i just got some new boots from zappos... i like them and my wife doesn't... she has requested a sartorial third opinion from you wonderful folks here at TC... they are silver/black boots from kenneth cole...
what do you think?
(a) they're great... you should definitely keep them!
(b) they're alright, but a bit too eccentric for my taste...
(c) really? silver boots? what are you thinking?
DubK I heard that story too - screw Whole Foods! Well not really, but honestly I just wish people would PLAY FAIR weren't we all taught to do so when we were children? What the hell happened?!?
Must now ponder where on Archinect I have personally failed to "play fair".
LiG I'm really enjoying your updates - please continue to share.
architphil, they rock! Wait, where's the silver?
p.s. they're a little more silver in person than they appear in the picture above...
also, you can see additional views here
architphil > a). Definitely.
I think I would have to see them with pants, or whatever you chose to wear with them. I feel they would look tacky with shorts, but to each his own. I prefer low shoes on men, but thats me. Put me down as siding with your wife.
when I rode my bike around town where I used to live, a small conservative midwestern city, I got called all sorts of names, Lesbo and Freak came up often. Usually by teenagers. Drivers of cars would stare in bewilderment at me. Probably the only other bike riders in that town were the meth users and people who lost their license from DUI.
SH... i'll try to remember to take a pic with them on when i go home for lunch... they will primarily be worn with dark jeans... maybe occasionally with black dress pants or suit when i'm feeling chipper...
if anyone ever sees me (or anyone for that matter) wearing dress ankle boots with shorts please shoot me in the back of the head...
personal preference: i've never been a fan of the pointy shoe...
but i have a size 11 foot and i don't really like making my foot
look longer than it does... that and i just don't find them to be
comfortable..my toes like to frolic.
with that said i think you should keep them if you like them..as
long as it doesn't cause undue tension between you and the wife..
of course you could also let her purchase a pair of shoes that
you don't particularly like and then everything's square again
right?
archtiphil, need a better picture. i can't tell. can you post a picture?
in advance of a lunchtime picture of them actually on my feet, here's an approximation simpsons style...
That's frickin' hilarious!
Gin- I agree with Steven, keep insidearch our little secret. I've had a bad experience with a firm that knows I trashed them (completely deservedly) there.
Straw- I've been counting the other bike commuters every day. I see around one other biker per mile, depending on weather. But there's only one other rain-or-shine regular like myself that I encounter on my route. We smile and wave to each other each morning and it makes me feel a little more normal. I do not count homeless people or children in my count though, only adults who are obviously choosing this as a mode of transport. Those dressed as Lance Armstrong only count for half, as I can't tell if they're actually going anywhere or just training.
rationalist's biker counting system:
Children: 0 points
Homeless people: 0 points
"Lance Armstrong", hardcore types: 1/2 point
Bike commuters: 1 point
Do you add or subtract points for helmet or no?
Based on this scoring system, I got a 2.5 yesterday. Although I feel that the hardcore guy should get a .25 point additional, as he was traversing up the largest hill in the neighborhood.
PS. I don't think I've ever seen a homeless person with a bike. Shopping cart, sure, but one can hardly commute anywhere with that.
does the silver part look - um - distressed, archtiphil? if so, i vote no. good shape, though.
They look a bit disco-esque in that cartoon.
TC Quote of the day and it's only 8:40am:
larslarson
Total Entries: 3
Total Comments: 1376
07/12/07 7:13
my toes like to frolic.
Lars, thank you for that.
Good morning TC...is this whole moving across the country, starting school, more debt, scary big step... finally hitting anyone else? I had a major panic attack last night and couldn't sleep...I'm so damn anxious.
WonderK, out here they have bikes. Probably stolen from UCLA students. You can tell because they are carrying everything they own on the bike in plastic bags, as well as trash bags full of bottles and cans for recycling. And I mean no slight to the hardcore guys, you just never know whether they're using the bike for transport, or whether they're driving home from work and then hopping on their bikes.
WhatToDo- yeah, namby and I had our panic attacks a few pages back and formed the 2007 Existential Crisis Convention. Would you like to join?
I have, so far, avoided a panic attack. Which is remarkable considering how many I had in college. Really though, I've been mentally preparing and planning for this for months. I'm sure this won't stop me from being a bit weepy when I finally shove off.
Can I still join the ECC?
W2D, your "my toes like to frolic" post was almost made by me this morning before you beat me to it - that's my favorite phrase of the day!! Thanks lars. I need some Birkenstocks.
Lunchtime!
ok... here are the real live pictures of the boots on my feet...
WonderK- any of the grad school commiserators are automatically eligible to join the ECC! It's just what comes next, after the application anxiety.
BTW, I am incredibly impressed that people are actually reading our 60-something page panic attack from earlier this year. WOW.
Definitely keepers, Architphil. Maybe take the wife to pick up her own new pair of shoes.
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