school at any level is a place where your imagination gets crushed. good job!

lol. it isn't! it just seems that way (regards to paul simon).. some schools let you think too...

i have heard nothing but good about arizona universities, least for archi-tecture.

my elementry school was built underground, had few walls between classes and was stuccoed or painted cmu...light was to be found naturally only in library and hallways. in spite of blankness of walls and noise of adjacent classes it was a brilliant school. i don't think they have standardised tests in canada. maybe that is a sytemic issue that brings ed down in united states?

schools in japan are wicked. my daughter does regular drum circle practice in music class and is learning hip-hop dancing in gym class (i like dancin so am happy she is learning cool moves in adition to bach-a- rock). plus all the rest. kids stay after class when they don't exhibit comprehension either...fantasic teachers... hopefully it doesn't get all runny in junior high (private school is waaaay beyond my budget; order of several thousand dollars a MONTH. yikes.)

i am drunk on exhaustion and tired of being so. ah well.

congrats on car LGin! and on weight loss m. vado. very cool.

would be very nice of john came back.

i can't recall what he did that was offensive, but quite liked him.

what were the charges exactly?

Ms. Chia-turtle has become a Rastafarian.

schools without windows? The horror

we get these massive handbacks about day lighting in classrooms for the region, and they are backward compatible and enforced (particularly at the primary and secondary level). On average you are expected to have anywhere from 20 to 30% of your wall space to be windows (recently changed to exposed to nature)

Although the side effects are bad, my high school was in an urban environment and I spent a good time staring out the windows at the street and harbour, not to mention the shifting clouds - those were the days

Hello, just wanted to pimp the Professional and Educational Organizations from Around the World - WikiResearch thread. I know a lot of us are from other places (or are interested in other places) and would make the research easier.

Archinectors:

Please share with us the professional and educational organizations from your country (or any country of your choice), one entry per country should be enough. Where possible please also include a website and whatever other information you would like to share.

Thanks,

q

Rasta-turtle's looking pretty cute.

Yeah, window free schools were the norm in Phoenix. We had windows in elementary school, but that was private school and the buildings were converted from residential. After that, school meant a series of CMU boxes painted ugly colors.

i spent four years in a hell-hole high school without windows.

made me the freak i am today though, so no complaints i guess.

I apologize for using the word pimp above, someone used it here at TC earlier (and I thought it read funny) but when I see it written now I get uncomfortable.

why does it make you uncomfortable?

AP that chia turtle now has soul! Damn it grew!

ml™ using pimpin' is now a cultural word meaning improving something in an over-the-top manner. To pimp a thread is too close to the original use of the word, which I find disgusting.

sure...i hear you on the bling factor. not what you're going for. but it doesn't necessarily mean over-the-top. it's all in the context, imho.

i wasn't sure if that's what you meant, or if there was some political/societal overtones abut degradation, disrespect and what-not. which i would have disagreed with...

you're not looking for bling...just some love.

i like the evolution of the word pimp. it still resonates in a wide variety of social interactions. it can be at once sarcastic and ironic, or serious and actually about pimping in a literal sense.

especially, i enjoy words whose etymological development bellies their initial use. pimping is a good example. in it's current incarnation, i think it has much more positivity to it than in its contextual origin, albeit with the bling-y factor. though i would be sad if it were no longer in use because people couldn't get beyond it's primordial usage.

'nuff said. now go forth and 'flesh-out' or 'develop' the P&EO from ATW Thread. I imagine others will have more to say than me on the US of A.

I like using the word "pimp". I think it's funny. I think it's been normalized by modern culture to the point where it doesn't offend me at all.

I'm just stopping by to say hello, and I forgot how quickly the forum moves these days. Step away for a couple of hours and a thread you looked at once is at the bottom of the page! Yay for 'chinecting.

good luck with the move, WonderK.

it bugs me cuz pimps are bottom feeding fucks who beat and exploit women. maybe i'll start using the term wifebeater instead of pimp. im gonna wifebeat my ride. im wife beatin thread central. i guess i don't understand how people can on one hand complain about women's rights, income inequites etc and not see the connection.

I think the connection is there, but I think that it's a choice of people who don't believe in those things to appropriate that word for a more positive use, somewhat akin to black people who use the N word with each other. It's not a direct correlation, since it's not only pimps that are using the word now, but I feel like there's the same spirit behind it, if that makes any sense. Remember that "queer" used to be an insult as well and had very negative connotation, but the GLBT segment of society decided that they were going to start using it in a positive way and get rid of the old meaning of it. Now I never hear "queer" used as an insult the way it used to be. It's kind of a repurposing of words.

i was just going to bring up the appropriating of the word queer by the gay community in an effort to "take the power our of the word". Hell, i spent half a semester learning about Queer Theory as it related to architecture, space and philosophy. Though I'm not comfortable using the word, it has obviouly lost it's power.

the thing that worries me is that the word pimp has not been appropriated as a sense of empowerment, but has become so commonly used in a variation of its original intent (as Q referenced).

i think its a poor choice of words and language.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion ;o)

hi WK, you ran on my mind because I thought you were busy moving. How's that going? When's the actual date.

Its quite funny when your online and real life collide. I find more and more I'm having difficulty seperating the two. It doesn't make me feel so far away from the action i guess.

it's like when white people don't get why using the word nigger or nigga is not appropriate - ever - and why it's part of an acceptable lexicon in the african-american community...

...that's why when referring to it above, I still felt the need to call it "the N word". Even when talking about the evolution of language, I can't bring myself to use that word.

I'm still not comfortable with that word. but then again I have issues with things like stone arcades, diamonds, sugar, gold and a host of other things because they inately echo slavery -

scientology is an creepy word that makes my skin crawl. just found a post by somebody named after the most famous member of that cult. Anyways, I pulled out my chainsaw and did a tarantino on him - just couldn't stop myself - may XENU strike me down if I have offended it.

so if you are in rogers park in chicago at the liquor store and four black dudes are droppin the n bomb all over, i should be okay with it? i havent heard a white person use that word since the 60's and i'm from the sticks man.

Okay, so last Thursday I took the money I got from selling my car and deposited it into my checking account via an ATM machine. Smart thing to do, right? Now it's five days later and Chase Bank has no record of the transaction... It's as if the money disappeared into thin air.

Meanwhile, I have a huge final model to buy supplies for, and I'm flat-broke. If I don't buy these supplies today, there's no way in hell this model will be done by the end of the week.

I'm pretty fucking pissed right now....

Sorry to hear that, LiG. Fingers crossed that it turns up.

For what it's worth, I've had my own issues with incompetence at two different banks lately. I think that it might be time to just start hiding it under the mattress.

every month or so the 'what does the aia do for me?' or 'aia is a joke' thread comes up. and i weigh in with my normal 'aia IS its members' answer. in between, we get the moaning threads like 'why don't architects get more money/respect?' and requests for information like [url=http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=60628_0_42_50_C]'anybody want to give me that aia research document?'.

in an attempt to illustrate one of the strengths of the aia and its communications, yesterday i posted a thread announcing a current aia effort to make sure that the new 'architect of the capitol' is ACTUALLY going to be an architect: 'next architect of the capitol NOT an architect?!'. this may not really matter to most of the world but it SHOULD matter to architects who are worried about the standing of their profession and the respect that it gets among the general public. and that's why the aia is going after it: it's one of the things that all of you naysayers have said is among their roles, right? after producing a crack set of contract forms and raising your salary, that is.

this is something that the aia can only let us know about. they have gathered a lot of information and made it available. they've even helped make up letters that we only have to edit, if that's how we want to approach notifying our congresspeople. but they can't BE THE GROUNDSWELL of concern. that requires architects to act. they've got lobbying people on it, but they need a grassroots uproar to back up the lobbyists.

the aia's position is simple. this job was made for an architect. while it has many secondary tasks that would need to be delegated to administrative staff, the core of the job is that of an architect. while an administrative type could oversee all the managerial aspects of the position - possibly better than an architect - there are some roles, the ones that require decisions about architecture and its value, that shouldn't be treated as management tasks.

the u.s. has a surgeon general who must be a doctor, an attorney general who must be an attorney. you want the architecture profession to gain respect? don't let this notable nationally positioned presidentially-appointed role for an architect to go to a non-architect administrator. this issue has symbolic effect, sure, but also has the potential to have REAL effect: respect = paychecks. turning over more of what architects do to administrators = well.....

now where's my lapel pin?

for the broken link: 'anybody want to give me that aia research document?'.

tru'dat steven...

i'll agree with TK too... scientology is a four letter word to me... their east coast headquarters is down here in the tampa bay area (clearwater)... also, an architect that i once interviewed with sold the building that he owned and had his office in downtown to the "church" and now they have one of their "life improvement centers" there... it creeps me out everytime that i walk by and they try to give me a "stress test"...

ain't cha got a deposit slip gin?

LIG that sucks! That's so scary! I bet it was a lot of money too. I try to avoid depositing to ATMs for that very reason. Also, Chase Bank is crappy, in my opinion. I trust my bank (US Bank) and maybe one other, but the rest have some really poor business practices.

Steven, valiant effort. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

Anybody ever seen the Scientology episode of South Park? Genius.

That is super-scary, Gin. I have always had to make deposits via ATM because my credit union doesn't have a branch nearby. Happily, I'm in the process of switching banks right now, so it'll be nice to actually be able to do that sort of thing in person.





I not only made it up the big hill on the way to work this morning, without stopping for air at the top, I did it while having a conversation. Note to other riders, though: if you see a heftier person on a bike heading for a hill, this is not the best time to engage them in conversation, as it's probably all they can do to make it up that hill in the first place. Bike Commuter Index for the morning is a perfect 1: 3.5 riders (mr. armstrong-wannabe was the chatty one)/3.5 miles.

Well, at the time, depositing the money via the nearest Chase ATM seemed safer than carrying $2000 in cash around downtown Newark late at night. But of course, the ATM didn't give me a receipt. I've never had problems depositing money via ATMs in the past, so I figured no worries.

I spent the better part of this morning on the phone with various people at Chase, and they've opened a claim and are investigating. Their records indicate that “an attempt was made” at a deposit at the time and date indicated, but nothing more. It turns out that ATMs located at Chase branches are stocked and maintained by the employees of that particular branch bank, and hence, have a more thorough paper trail. However, maintenance of stand-alone Chase ATMs is contracted out to some third-party outfit with seemingly no accountability. Guess which type of ATM I happened to make my deposit at...

Luckily I get my first paycheck tomorrow, and luckily I never got around to closing the checking account I had with Bank of America when I switched to Chase... In the meantime I'll write a check to myself and cash it at a Bank of America ATM so that I can at least buy a Metrocard and some model supplies today, and hopefully I'll have more money available tomorrow.

Lessons learned the hard way:

1) If possible, make a deposit with a live teller at a branch location during business hours, especially when dealing with cash transactions.
2) If that’s not possible, make a deposit at an ATM located at a branch location, as opposed to a stand-alone ATM on some street corner.
3) In all cases, get a fucking receipt for your deposit, no matter how many successful deposits you’ve made in the past.

Steven, agree with you 100% The easiest way to change an organization is from within, and since there is no real alternative we have to make the AIA better.

have to repost wK's news from GTC-
at my leaving party last night, despite the fact that I was fairly inebriated, I spent a good deal of time separating the recyclables out from the trash. We consumed roughly 5 green bins worth of beer!


i witnessed the dark side of scientology back when I was in hollywood. they have no problem sending thugs after their critics and destroying those who try to leave. no religion has the right to act like this.

WWTCD?: Work during grad school on top of TA job/training fiasco, never sleep, but come out with the bare bones amount of loans you possibly can, OR not work beyond TAship and devote some serious time to making the schoolwork be above and beyond the best thing you possibly could and entering competitions and submitting for scholarships in hope that you'd get a bit of cash tossed your way for the hard work, but still possibly/probably coming out of it with larger loans, and getting closer to a normal sleep schedule?

r- a part time job with a firm for 8 hours/week was a good balance for me. it should pay $12-$15/hour compared to TA/workstudy that paid $8-$11/hour at penn. the pocket cash is nice. you'll still need loans, and still not get enough sleep - but you'll be forced to work smartly and efficiently.

The first year will be the toughest to find the time, following years should be ok.

TAship is wierd: the "TA Intern" quarter pays me nothing, I just get 3 credits for it, but it takes 20 hours a week. However, that makes me eligible for my full TAship in the spring, which pays tuition, health insurance, and a stipend that's plenty to live off of for the quarter, and makes me eligible for at least one quarter of TAship the following year as well. So it opens up a whole wide world of possibilities for spring quarter and at least part of the following year, but screws me time-wise for finding a job while I'm training and not getting paid.

I didn't imagine that TA "training" would be so time consuming....my instinct tells me to go with the second option, because life is too short to not sleep and be stressed out, but part of me thinks that TA training won't be that challenging so you may not be as stressed with an additional job as you would think. So I think I agree with tk.

I didn't think that it would be so time consuming either, but I talked with my advisor yesterday, and she said that the "TA Intern" quarter is exactly like being a TA, but without the pay. I still have to dedicate my entire friday to running quiz sections for the kidlets, I still have to grade papers, the whole deal. It's just that they want you to really, really get the hang of it before they start paying you. That's what threw my plans for a loop. I'd thought I'd just be sitting in on the course to see what role the TA's played, but apparent that was a major misconception on my part.

That's lame. When I TAed, I just did it. And got paid for it. And I was in undergrad! Ah well.

That's how it was at my undergrad, too, but then the TA's got paid more on the order of what treekiller outlines above: no tuition waivers, no health insurance, much less per hour. They also had less responsibility --- it was mentioned that TAs at UW sometimes run a lecture for the main class, as well as having complete supervision of discussion or quiz sections. So it seems like a whole different way of doing it.

bummer gin Maybe they have you on camera...? You could always ask. Hopefully you didn't make a deposit at the Bada Bing ATM.

I think Scientology has replaced Kabala as the new weird star religion...funny how many people on the big/small screen all prescribe to this crap/way of life.

let that soak in next time you are watching my name is Earl.

Scientology religious centers are all over LA and it's really annoying. I've met so many people who are in a "world of mouth" types of business and who become Scientologists. Designers, makeup artists, hair stylists, mublicists, wanna-be actors...they join to make connections and it's sick. PLUS, there's those great big freakin' Scientology "Celebrity Centre's" that looks like Fort Knox- they couldn't be any more elitist.

I have problems with any religion that shrouds itself in secrecy and intimidates / bullies its critics... And there's plenty of mainstream religions that are guilty of that as well. A curse on all their houses.

Chase Bank has temporarily credited my account with the missing dollar amount, pending the outcome of their investigation. My employer was also kind enough to give me an advance on my first paycheck today, so I was able to pick up my needed model supplies, pay my subway fare, and get some food.

Hopefully Chase will get to the bottom of this mess soon. And if they don't refund all the overdraft fees I've been hit with over the past couple days, I'll be closing my accounts there and looking for a new bank.

LiG- sorry to hear about your troubles- don't they have a security cam?