Congrats on home ownership, beta! When you left the closing location with keys in hand, did you secretly worry that you would get to the house and find the keys did not work, while meantime in the office you had just left the breakdown scene from "The Sting" was taking place? That was my fear. Which was irrational, as it turned out, of course.

Our temporary fix to our third floor floors in Philly was to sand them (rented sander) and paint them with porch paint. I'm not sure what you mean by a "wash", like a stain or whitewash? What about pickling them, I've never done that but my partner has?

For Steven: Because thinking people like you (and all of us on Archinect) cannot be reduced to simplistic couple-few letter acronyms.

Nice....

beta....congrats on the house! Awesome!

Steven, I applaud you for doing what you did. What a disgusting email. Sometimes people need to be told. I must say I am further delighted by the fact that it went directly back to the entire address book. It's emails like that that remind me of the time when I was actually afraid to discuss politics with anyone out of fear of being ridiculed for stances that I knew to be correct.

thanks tuna :oP

lb, that's the best thing I've seen all day.

people used to jokingly refer to me as a terrorist before 9/11. after that, it all got much more sinister. they just 'think' islam is the religion of terror, without saying a word about it to my face, secretly. much more dangerous and widely discriminating situation from my point of view. i don't know exactly who is in person plotting the defaming thoughts about me anymore, it all got plural.
i consider myself educated and somehow can raise above the ignorance, but very few think about how alieniating this can be in the minds of average muslims in other parts of the world. sometimes i think and wish there were no moses, jesus and muhammed of middle east and we were all non believers in facial hair and holy baloney with which they manipulate large numbers of people.

steven you represent the true spirit of what made america great. and your aunt is a victim of fox tv's relentless fanatical interests.

nice that the fam has considered how your aunt was belittling your views.... [/sarcasm]

In related news, I'm doing some political posters for my grad seminar. I have to search out quotes still, but the idea is to use the candidates own words to illustrate their differences and/or their utter sameness, whichever becomes more apparent when actual souce material gets sifted through. This may become something physical and actually gets put up and reacted to, which is exciting.

thanks lib and dubk. dubk happy b-day, did you party some more?

liberty, yeah i want to sand the floors and then apply a color just to give the floors an even tone and let the grain come through. pickling seems to be the right word and a exterior deck stain could give me that i am just wondering if that's the right way. i am using zero-voc paint in the interior of the home, so i am wondering if perhaps using another 0-voc watered down would give me the look?

the weird thing about the closing is how matter of fact it was, no problems, except that the closer was going through financials and i had to stop her and have my wife switch places, because i hate numbers and the shit she was telling me scared the hell out of me. oh, the cool thing was to get a check for 1600 back, our home cost us 700 out pocket, sweet. now we can get new gutters, galvanized half rounds, and still have money to pay of our wedding anniversary gift to ourselves - 50 in plasma...

so any tips on home ownership?

now tell me this doesn't rock, i love her work

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/10/09/dl0903.xml



the poignancy and her connection to the people is so remarkable. there is just something about a work that can be so high brow and yet connect to just about anyone that doesn't have a history or background in art...

Yay for galvanized half-rounds!!!! I used them on a client's hosue recently, they rock.

im at the office early to give our developer his boards for apresentation. after staying late of course. got a note on my chair from a principle thanking me for helping him yesterday and today we are not going to have water in our office from 9 until 3 wft? can't they do this kind of work on a saturday when businesses are closed???

So vado what if you have to pee? Although no water = no coffee = less peeing, I guess.

beta, I posted on the news item re: the Turbine Hall crack that I think it's beautifully, flawlessly executed, which it is (from what I can see in photos). In fact it looks so beautifully executed that I don't want to know what the artist's "message" is. What I read - that it's about racial divisiveness - actually diminishes the work, IMO.

we have permission to use a nearby restaurant that has running water. more coffee!

beta-

the arbor-assassin will be happy to provide a free consultation... back in a few apartments, I pulled up the carpeting of my 1920s apartment to discover the original horsehair underlay. the rough planking was a soft pine, not much use sanding them, but several coats of porch paint took care of the splinter factor. big thing is how wide are the gaps between planks and how soft is the wood? stains won't protect the wood from wear like a good epoxy coat or porch paint. (Home depotism has a nice dove gray porch paint...)

i used porter's version of light gray porch paint on our old kitchen floor for the same reasons, tk. the floor wasn't worth staining, but the porch paint looked great and got rid of the splinter-factor. a lot cheaper than flooring! we loved it.

liberty, you have to see more of her work, it's remarkable. she gives voice to those that have been "erased."

beta - congrats on the house. My suggestion after the sanding would be linseed oil about 4 coats. You can lightly tint it as well with a little dye...works nicely and leaves a fantastic smell.

My office is finally moving downstairs into a much bigger space- yippeeee. the computers move on friday which means that I'll have a window seat for posting on tc then!!! huge desks, original steel sashes, views of the park and sculpture gardens, and no more overhearing cell phone conversations in 6 different languages (I'll only be able to hear two languages at my new spot!!!)

my new pod mates will be the son of the owner (IT guru), his wife (the lunch mom, and one of the marketing dudes. Unless somebody higher up wants to swap with me -then I may have a cozy semi-private office (with similar view).

loring park? that would be awesome. where is your office?

We're in the old leonard parker office building, just a block from the walker.

just got back from Green Drinks... I think I need to become better adapted to meeting complete strangers to enjoy those things. When I think of approaching someone and talking to them, frankly the low self-esteem kicks in and I just think, "but why would they give a damn about me?" Must try again at a later date, possibly when I know nobody there so that I won't have the urge to hide safely with talking to people I already know.

Got to get to writing an exam for the undergrad kidlets.... Thank GOD I have all the answers!

it has been 10 days since moving to the new office. this is pretty much my portion of the small office which i totally enjoy. different scale and more friendly proportions with a little bit of privacy. noise from aamco transmissions is no more.
new linoleum tile floors, couple of openings enlarged from 30" to 60" giving the space a more open feeling instead of 1 bedroom courtyard apartments the property originally was built for. there are nice 50's modern touches like three windows to the floor with louver upper parts etc. oh the dsl connection was finally established today after almost two weeks of fuck ups by verizon.
i am really liking this new space and change was refreshing after 8 years in the other more industrial space.
congratulations on the house beta. nice thing about owning a house, you can do whatever you want to do with it. take your time. you will.;.)

out of the loop.....but I celebrated my Birthday in Quebec City....this past weekend. Just returned home from a long train ride from Monteral. Border Crossings can be a pain in the ass....two hours with sniffing dogs and lots of questions for the Students From Bard College. Seems like last week someone discovered a meth lab in a student dorm so they suspended school till tomorrow. So they all headed for Canada. So of course they had to bring out the dog to be sure those students weren't bringing anything back into the country.

Orhan, your new space is so nice and clean. Looks great!

Happy birthday, snooker. What day was it? Mine was yesterday (Monday). We are fellow Libras, yes?

I just smashed the hell out of my mouse clicking/typing finger, but I have business to attend to so I'm plodding ahead.....but not without pain every time I type an N, H, Y, U, or J.

So a classmate of mine asked me to do a competition with him. It's a fairly prestigious competition, with a very generous award to the winner. The team will actually consist of 5 people eventually and he recruited me first. I appreciate it, and I like the guy personally.....but I worked with him the first four weeks of the semester and I vowed never to work with him again. Maybe it's because I was so used to running projects that I've forgotten how to work in teams equally, but this guy was seriously hard to communicate with, argumentative, and arrogant. A couple of times he didn't like the way we did something so he changed it when we walked away. He thinks he's right so often that he's taken to picking fights with one of our instructors in front of the class, when sometimes it's just a language thing that he's missing (English is not his native language). So, I don't know what to do. I'd like to do the competition but I also don't want to poke my eye out with a stick.

.....Perhaps I should actually go to bed and sleep on it. But I was getting so much done!

don't do it.

See, beta, that's what I'm thinking. Good thing you are up! LOL.

i am beginning to think that if there are more reason con than pro, no matter how attractive the pro's are, the cons are going to win out and i'll have less headaches.

High of 61 d. today - finally, mid-October, today is the day I break out my cold weather unifrom: jean,s boots, turtleneck, leather jacket, perhaps even a scarf.

Fall is good.

Also: yesterday my computer was acting squirrelly and I got a blue screen - so I quickly backed up a bunch of stuff then took it to the tech place. In the meantime, since my partner has both a Vaio laptop and a MacBookpro, I've been using his mac with Parallels, and I am highly, highly impressed. It seems seamless.

So I called my accountant and asked what the status of my tax return is. If I get money back, even $5, I'm going out and buying myself a Mac.

treekiller. i remember where leonard parker was. cool place.

just up the row from the loring cafe used to be a great breakfast place in one of those storefronts. 'ruby's', maybe? it was always a favorite. course i was last there some time in '94. [...feeling old...]

i used to love loring park. part of my daily walk home. at least one of my daily paths, anyway.

I hear ya.... If all goes well, I'll be able to get a Mac after only three more paychecks. I'm counting down the days until I have a shiny new Mac sitting on my desk.

lb, will you still talk to me when you become a mac-person?

i hear ya liberty, i made a pact with the wife that the next computer we get is an apple, our pc's - laptops and desktop - are fine, but we want something more.

broke out my suede jacket this morning and drove to work with the roof open and the heater on.

great space orhan! congrats


happy birthday snookers. time to listen to my old school which is a song about bard.

oh, yeah. beautiful space, orhan. isn't it great how an architect's NEW office is so orderly and not piled with paper?

one thing don't sit in the chair shirtless with your back to the sun.

I want to work with Orhan, great office!

My office is moving as well, so I'm trying to figure out how to wrangle another window seat. My view is currently of some new multi-use, urban wannabe shopping center construction, but still it's a window.

DubK, don't do it. Argumentative and arrogant people are constant stress and if it's not ncessary, I'd avoid the extra stress.

Oh, Vado, they're in California. They could pass it off as that cleansing technique where they use the heated glass jars. Hijamma I think its called?

wk-
say yes with conditions to neutralize his boorish behavior. he'll most likely say no, but you've taught him something that he should have learned in kindergarten.

steven, we're the otherside from where the loring cafe used to be, ruby's is no more... so when are you coming to visit and help beta with his renovations?

here's your sign, I think you hit the nail on the head. tk, I just don't think it's worth the effort. He's going to argue with me when I tell him I
"can't" anyway, so I have to come up with a rock solid excuse.

lb, I love my MacBook Pro. I actually just got new memory for it from Crucial, which I am scared to put in. But it is fast to begin with, so it should fly when I'm done.

just gave a presentation at Microsoft on Open Source design while presenting on my trusty Mac... felt good.

Heh.... Nice.

I can't believe TC has over 89,000 views.

That's intense.

Funny thing is, apparently Interstate 152 doesn't even exist.

Is that 'bathrooms' or is there another translation?

Good story, LiG, and yet another opportunity for me to speculate that the DOT in Michigan was having a good old giggle when they made sure that Big Beaver Road was designated "Exit 69".

Bad news: I owe money on taxes. But significantly less than I expected to, so maybe I can twist my rationale to go ahead and buy the Mac? We'll see...

Orhan: Your office looks lovely, and clean and light and peaceful. Despite not missing the sounds of Aamco, do you think you'll miss the people? perhaps that's what the latest entry on abracadabra, faia is about...I better go read...

FYI - for all the shoe lovers out there. Speaking of, where's Tumbles?

ShoeDiscount!

Liberty Bell - Is the laptop for work purposes? Can it be considered tax deductible because it's a work expense for your firm? Can it benefit you when you file taxes next year?

I'm just trying to help twist your rationale because, you know, I DO THAT ALL THE TIME.

LB: Are you still teaching? If so, you should be able to take advantage of Apple's educational discounts. They vary by product, but can sometimes be fairly substantial.

Also, consider ordering a refurbished Mac. They come with the same warranty and support as brand-new products, but at a significant savings. Several people I know swear by them.

Which Mac are you thinking about getting?