Wow - I feel like I've missed a lot today being on site all day. Anyway, we just finished up the site survey today which makes me happy. No more tromping around a cold, dust, lead and asbestos laden building. My eyes feel like sandpaper and my throat is a little raw. Watch me get sick.
As I was driving to work this morning I noticed all the signs I diligently put up Wednesday evening had been ripped down. Made me absolutely livid. Who the hell would do something like that? Makes me think that perhaps someone has taken my little gray kitty for themselves. I called a friend to rant and she and her boyfriend will be over soon to help put up more signs.
@Atechno - thanks for the hugs and btw -that card is really cool.
Thanks everyone for the well wishes. It was quite funny as my friend's boyfriend probably used a thousand staples per sign tonight. Those babies aren't going anywhere. Afterward we went out for Indian (yummy)... I ate every single morsel on my plate and then some. I guess site surveying and worrying about a missing cat work up an appetite. Now I'm moving into the food coma portion of the evening.
LIG - I envy people like you that have strictly indoor cats. I've tried it with it with my cats, but have concluded I like having a non-torn up living space even more. I have no doubt every object in my house would either be broken or ripped to shreds if my cats were of the indoors only variety.
LiG- you got a good system. Tuna, there is a song about the cat that came back, and wouldn't go a way -so take heart that ms grey kitty will return. those cuddly felines have a way of re-appearing after you give up on them (unless you live in coyote territory).
tunamelt, i've had cats that have gotten lost for about 2-3 weeks, usually scared off by a bully cat and have lost their bearings. but they usually come back. do call her once in a while. she may not know her name, but she knows your voice.
so i'm sending more good vibes your way, and leelloo's way. go home, leelloo!
I'm so worried about that cat. I, like LIG, am thankful that WonderKitty is an indoor cat, and that she was declawed when I got her. Still cracks me up when she thinks she sharpening them though.
Epilogue: 2 days of thinking on it, and I've decided that I am probably going to turn down the part-time job offer. As much as the idea of making extra money that easily appeals to me, I'm much more emotionally vested in everything else that I am doing, and the full weight of all of my responsibilities was only really conveyed to me today. It's all too much and the thought of trying to do it all gives me an anxiety attack. So, frankly I just have to say no.
the end of a marathon week which i spent putting together a proposal for masterplanning 1400 acres (about 120 blocks) of redevelopment in the southwest part of downtown louisville. attended the opening of proposals yesterday afternoon and our team are BY FAR the smallest fish in the net. could work for us or against us i figure.
things that could work in our favor:
- we're the most local team, with lots of connections to the project area.
- we've got the former mayor, who was a respected economic development figure, on our team. (client reps are his former assistants.)
- we've got one of the biggest developers in town acting as our consultant.
-because we're so much smaller, our overhead costs are significantly lower so we can spend more time developing the project than the great big corporate firms and the 'star' planners/LAs. (some of these teams were pumped up with so much 'team' that i'm not sure how they're going to make the capped fee work and make anything.)
-in our proposal document i made a point of just answering what was asked. while ours was about 1/2" thick, the others were, without exception, over 1" - 1 1/4". the official who opened the proposals got frustrated flipping through them looking for qualifying info. i'm hoping the reviewers get equally exasperated trying to digest it all. the rfp specifically said no fancy stuff, no eyewash, no frills.
it's been an interesting experience, overall, whatever the result. the rfp was like none i had seen before and the project would involve a lot of things which seldom come together in one project.
exampe: a developer as a consultant was a required element of the proposals. the challenge: developers don't really WANT TO BE fixed-fee consultants. it means they're doing all the homework without the big payoff at the end. they have to be in it for what comes AFTER the master plan: the plan is a chance to make the conditions that make future projects more attractive. one developer sat with us for over an hour, listened to our pitch, reviewed our proposal strategy, only to tell us at the end of the meeting that he was already committed to another team. grrr.
on another subject entirely: our old house is so drafty and cold. our 10mo old (obviously very smart) has figured out all on her own that sitting on the heat registers is a very nice place to be.
just ran to the store cuz i was outta half and half. also picked up some wine for later. it didnt seem that bad out there, but it is prolly around zero. of course, some dumb people will prolly leave their sleeping infant in the car while they run in to buy smokes and a lottery ticket. this happens about once a cold wave here.
Steven, wasn't that an ethical breech for this developer to listen to your strategy THEN tell you he was ALREADY committed to another team?
<cough>weasel<cough>
There goes your strategy right into the ears of your competition, no?
LB's advice for the day: Even if you do up a great southern meal - pulled pork, slaw, hushpuppies, greens, the whole deal - and are trying to keep the Southern theme authentic: rum and RC is NOT a good idea. My head hurts today ;-)
good luck with the rfp steven... actually answering the questions that were asked is really important... a few months ago when i was still working for the city, i was on the consultant selection committee for the architecture continuing services contract... only 1 of the 12 finalists actually answered all of the questions that we asked them to address in their interview presentations... they ended up getting the highest rating... i hope that the same runs true for you...
steve- best wishes on kicking fO's and all those other hotshot's butts. After reading your description of your team and strategy, my office was not a good fit with the rest of your team and would have negated your insider status. we like to be the big fish. right now we're up against SOM & KPF for a 107 story building - that and we're already swimming with projects from existing clients.
Is there a link to the rfp?
Weather for Minneapolis, MN 9:32am
-14°F
Clear
Wind: W at 6 mph
Humidity: 71%
that is butt f*ing cold. I'm not leaving the house for nutting!
Steven - could you tell us more about the "opening of proposals" event? I've been on the submitting and receiving end of RFP's but never knew bid openings to be actual events. Is it a very systematic and dull process, or is there spectacle involved? Is there any discussion among the selection panel, or is it silent?
sort of a non-event, dca. for our metro gov't, proposals are treated just like bids, so it's sort of a bid opening. but, since there's no 'bid form' exactly, not much can be gleaned from proposals in this setting and with a limited amount of time. so the opener just sort of spouts out whatever info IS apparent by rifling through the documents.
in this case it wasn't much info at all. i mainly attended to see who the responders were and didn't really even get that much information. i was able to jot down the primary name on the submission in each case, but the opener didn't read off the full team listings. in some cases i heard who the developer team member was, in others the planner, others the la.....whoever sent the package. ours was the only one for which she read all participants because i had made up a special letterhead/stationary with all of our team-member's logos on it.
i've heard gasps. the one i remember most recently was when the roofing contractor realized he'd WAYYY underbid his bid package and would have to withdraw his bid before he left.
If any of you are wanting to give money to an organization this year and still aren't sure where, I highly recommend the ASPCA. I just had the most traumatizing experience at our local shelter. Fortunately/unfortunately she wasn't down there. Left pretty much in tears and am still really shaken up, but now I know where my charitable contribution for the year is going.
Steven - you'll definitely need to keep us posted on the whole thing. Just tried to look at the link, but unfortunately it's down for maintenance. I'll try back later I guess. I know nothing about bidding for a project so I'm very intrigued.
you are not limited to monetary donations to the spca, you can give clothing and food too. another thing for pet owners if your pets are outdoor/indoor types get them collared/micro chipped, spay and neuter them and don't de-claw your animals.
fortunately we were told not to go out, and frankly i figured the minnesota "nice" would have kept the doors sealed tighter than republican's wallet on tax day. so phone calling for everyone!
Thanks for the info, I'm going to have to look into micro-chipping at the SPCA for my other two "kids". They don't have them.
Good to hear didn't do any door-to-door stuff today beta, after seeing TK's weather report, I was concerned for you. It's balmy here compared to what you guys up north are having.
Am off to have dinner with some new friends. Keep warm, everyone in the cold weather regions.
is rc short for royal crown? is that similar to coca cola? because when i was a teenager we used to drink lots of rum and coke = cuba libre [free cuba]. it just tasted sweet and we were dum.
a guy across the street from my place used to roast his own beans. he had a range of beans to choose from, layed out in baskets. then he roasted and ground (or not) the beans while you waited. lovely. just lovely.
of course this being a working class neighbourhood his shop barely lasted a year. now its a fast food sushi joint (fast food in japan is actually pretty healthy and tasty) and i buy my coffee at the supermarket like everyone else. pobre mio.
we spent the day looking for cool things to view under the microsope in the park then trying to figure out how to make slides out of the found objects. the park was FILLED with people playing in the cold. some kind of olympic related event going on in the track and field so we watched that for awhile and went home. we were all freezing by the time we got there cuz is very chilly lately (might even snow tonight. our annual day of snow in tokyo i think) but my lovely wife baked us a very very lovely apple stroodle...how much better can a sunday afternoon be?
Damn! All this talk of apple strudel and coffee is making me hungry, and I just ate breakfast. I think french pressed coffee is by far the tastiest coffee I've ever had. I had some killer apple and cranberry crisp last night. The girl who made it said it was really easy to make and pretty healthy too. Perhaps I'll make my way to the grocery store and make my own. Maybe not... after all it's 7 degrees here.
@ tumbles... hope you feel better soon. Nothing worse than having the flu.
tuna- I would rather have seven degrees then this:
Weather for Minneapolis, MN
-12°F
Clear
Wind: W at 5 mph
Humidity: 64%
at least its bright and sunny!
yesterday, I added my high school to my facebook profile. Its nice that I only remember the good things about those folks. I never knew that the dad of one of my classmates was the founder of the utne reader. We've (mostly) grown up and become interesting folks - though half never left the boston area. The funniest picture is of a gay friend holding a baby- wtf is that supposed to mean? (he's the last person I'd expect to become a dad).
This morning I clicked on the Archinect banner ad for Gravity Free 2008. Has anyone gone to this in the past? It's a multidisciplinary design innovation conference in Chicago that brings together the worlds most diverse designers. It looks like Cameron was a speaker last year.
They have a really good registration incentive... They send you books from every speaker, as they line up the speakers. The earlier you register, the more books you are guaranteed to get. The only thing is that registration is $1650. Yikes.
It looks like a really great conference, just too expensive for most architects.
TK small world I went to school with the mother of your classmate. Actually they live in Minnesota these days, so your old classmate be kicking around in your woods.
listening to a tragic story about the argentine junta and their propensity of murdering mothers after giving birth to their babies and giving them to childless junta/military members. i wonder how much money we gave to them while they were disappearing tens of thousands of their citizens.
Thread Central
to find out about cheap new modeling software, or to tell me your experiences, go here. this is not a solicitation but in inquiry of curiosity.
Wow - I feel like I've missed a lot today being on site all day. Anyway, we just finished up the site survey today which makes me happy. No more tromping around a cold, dust, lead and asbestos laden building. My eyes feel like sandpaper and my throat is a little raw. Watch me get sick.
As I was driving to work this morning I noticed all the signs I diligently put up Wednesday evening had been ripped down. Made me absolutely livid. Who the hell would do something like that? Makes me think that perhaps someone has taken my little gray kitty for themselves. I called a friend to rant and she and her boyfriend will be over soon to help put up more signs.
@Atechno - thanks for the hugs and btw -that card is really cool.
Gotta run.
Wow, that must be nerve-wracking as hell... Makes me appreciate the fact that my cat is strictly an indoor cat. I hope the kitty is found soon.
Thanks everyone for the well wishes. It was quite funny as my friend's boyfriend probably used a thousand staples per sign tonight. Those babies aren't going anywhere. Afterward we went out for Indian (yummy)... I ate every single morsel on my plate and then some. I guess site surveying and worrying about a missing cat work up an appetite. Now I'm moving into the food coma portion of the evening.
LIG - I envy people like you that have strictly indoor cats. I've tried it with it with my cats, but have concluded I like having a non-torn up living space even more. I have no doubt every object in my house would either be broken or ripped to shreds if my cats were of the indoors only variety.
A lot of my stuff is still in storage, so Spong mainly tears up my roommate's stuff. :)
NICE!
LiG- you got a good system. Tuna, there is a song about the cat that came back, and wouldn't go a way -so take heart that ms grey kitty will return. those cuddly felines have a way of re-appearing after you give up on them (unless you live in coyote territory).
Awwww TK, Thanks. I'm trying not to give up hope, but it's hard. Perhaps a photo would help.
Here she is. My gray kitty, Leelloo.
hi tc,
tunamelt, i've had cats that have gotten lost for about 2-3 weeks, usually scared off by a bully cat and have lost their bearings. but they usually come back. do call her once in a while. she may not know her name, but she knows your voice.
so i'm sending more good vibes your way, and leelloo's way. go home, leelloo!
I'm so worried about that cat. I, like LIG, am thankful that WonderKitty is an indoor cat, and that she was declawed when I got her. Still cracks me up when she thinks she sharpening them though.
Epilogue: 2 days of thinking on it, and I've decided that I am probably going to turn down the part-time job offer. As much as the idea of making extra money that easily appeals to me, I'm much more emotionally vested in everything else that I am doing, and the full weight of all of my responsibilities was only really conveyed to me today. It's all too much and the thought of trying to do it all gives me an anxiety attack. So, frankly I just have to say no.
"No. I can't. I'm sorry."
It doesn't seem that hard.
werd you have the rest of your life to work...
the end of a marathon week which i spent putting together a proposal for masterplanning 1400 acres (about 120 blocks) of redevelopment in the southwest part of downtown louisville. attended the opening of proposals yesterday afternoon and our team are BY FAR the smallest fish in the net. could work for us or against us i figure.
things that could work in our favor:
- we're the most local team, with lots of connections to the project area.
- we've got the former mayor, who was a respected economic development figure, on our team. (client reps are his former assistants.)
- we've got one of the biggest developers in town acting as our consultant.
-because we're so much smaller, our overhead costs are significantly lower so we can spend more time developing the project than the great big corporate firms and the 'star' planners/LAs. (some of these teams were pumped up with so much 'team' that i'm not sure how they're going to make the capped fee work and make anything.)
-in our proposal document i made a point of just answering what was asked. while ours was about 1/2" thick, the others were, without exception, over 1" - 1 1/4". the official who opened the proposals got frustrated flipping through them looking for qualifying info. i'm hoping the reviewers get equally exasperated trying to digest it all. the rfp specifically said no fancy stuff, no eyewash, no frills.
it's been an interesting experience, overall, whatever the result. the rfp was like none i had seen before and the project would involve a lot of things which seldom come together in one project.
exampe: a developer as a consultant was a required element of the proposals. the challenge: developers don't really WANT TO BE fixed-fee consultants. it means they're doing all the homework without the big payoff at the end. they have to be in it for what comes AFTER the master plan: the plan is a chance to make the conditions that make future projects more attractive. one developer sat with us for over an hour, listened to our pitch, reviewed our proposal strategy, only to tell us at the end of the meeting that he was already committed to another team. grrr.
hello weekend!
on another subject entirely: our old house is so drafty and cold. our 10mo old (obviously very smart) has figured out all on her own that sitting on the heat registers is a very nice place to be.
just ran to the store cuz i was outta half and half. also picked up some wine for later. it didnt seem that bad out there, but it is prolly around zero. of course, some dumb people will prolly leave their sleeping infant in the car while they run in to buy smokes and a lottery ticket. this happens about once a cold wave here.
Steven, wasn't that an ethical breech for this developer to listen to your strategy THEN tell you he was ALREADY committed to another team?
<cough>weasel<cough>
There goes your strategy right into the ears of your competition, no?
LB's advice for the day: Even if you do up a great southern meal - pulled pork, slaw, hushpuppies, greens, the whole deal - and are trying to keep the Southern theme authentic: rum and RC is NOT a good idea. My head hurts today ;-)
good luck with the rfp steven... actually answering the questions that were asked is really important... a few months ago when i was still working for the city, i was on the consultant selection committee for the architecture continuing services contract... only 1 of the 12 finalists actually answered all of the questions that we asked them to address in their interview presentations... they ended up getting the highest rating... i hope that the same runs true for you...
steve- best wishes on kicking fO's and all those other hotshot's butts. After reading your description of your team and strategy, my office was not a good fit with the rest of your team and would have negated your insider status. we like to be the big fish. right now we're up against SOM & KPF for a 107 story building - that and we're already swimming with projects from existing clients.
Is there a link to the rfp?
Weather for Minneapolis, MN 9:32am
-14°F
Clear
Wind: W at 6 mph
Humidity: 71%
that is butt f*ing cold. I'm not leaving the house for nutting!
rum and rc? yikes! I can't say i've had one of those... but everything else on your menu sounds delish.
Good luck Steven on the project. How long will it be until you hear anything?
short list has to be ready for them to hear oral presentations on the 30th so: soon!
tk, i'll look for the rfp in a public place. i only know that it's on demandstar for which you have to be a subscriber to get the full doc.
thanks, all.
yep, only via demandstar. but there's a summary on this site. just cntrl f 'louisville'. http://www.planning.org/rfp-rfq/
Steven - could you tell us more about the "opening of proposals" event? I've been on the submitting and receiving end of RFP's but never knew bid openings to be actual events. Is it a very systematic and dull process, or is there spectacle involved? Is there any discussion among the selection panel, or is it silent?
i like rc cola cuz my initials are rc. i like rum too. but not in the winter.
sort of a non-event, dca. for our metro gov't, proposals are treated just like bids, so it's sort of a bid opening. but, since there's no 'bid form' exactly, not much can be gleaned from proposals in this setting and with a limited amount of time. so the opener just sort of spouts out whatever info IS apparent by rifling through the documents.
in this case it wasn't much info at all. i mainly attended to see who the responders were and didn't really even get that much information. i was able to jot down the primary name on the submission in each case, but the opener didn't read off the full team listings. in some cases i heard who the developer team member was, in others the planner, others the la.....whoever sent the package. ours was the only one for which she read all participants because i had made up a special letterhead/stationary with all of our team-member's logos on it.
gotcha, Steven. I wonder if there ever was a dramatic bid opening event, with people gasping and crying. You know, the stuff for the movies.
i've heard gasps. the one i remember most recently was when the roofing contractor realized he'd WAYYY underbid his bid package and would have to withdraw his bid before he left.
If any of you are wanting to give money to an organization this year and still aren't sure where, I highly recommend the ASPCA. I just had the most traumatizing experience at our local shelter. Fortunately/unfortunately she wasn't down there. Left pretty much in tears and am still really shaken up, but now I know where my charitable contribution for the year is going.
Steven - you'll definitely need to keep us posted on the whole thing. Just tried to look at the link, but unfortunately it's down for maintenance. I'll try back later I guess. I know nothing about bidding for a project so I'm very intrigued.
you are not limited to monetary donations to the spca, you can give clothing and food too. another thing for pet owners if your pets are outdoor/indoor types get them collared/micro chipped, spay and neuter them and don't de-claw your animals.
don't ever de-claw your pets, ever.
beta-
you're sounding like bob barker. Did you loose any toes or fingers to frost bite today?
fortunately we were told not to go out, and frankly i figured the minnesota "nice" would have kept the doors sealed tighter than republican's wallet on tax day. so phone calling for everyone!
Thanks for the info, I'm going to have to look into micro-chipping at the SPCA for my other two "kids". They don't have them.
Good to hear didn't do any door-to-door stuff today beta, after seeing TK's weather report, I was concerned for you. It's balmy here compared to what you guys up north are having.
Am off to have dinner with some new friends. Keep warm, everyone in the cold weather regions.
sounds cool, steven. hope your team comes out ahead.
rum and rc would kill me. anything stronger than wine lately just makes me sick...i blame it all on my mis-spent youth.
is rc short for royal crown? is that similar to coca cola? because when i was a teenager we used to drink lots of rum and coke = cuba libre [free cuba]. it just tasted sweet and we were dum.
a guy across the street from my place used to roast his own beans. he had a range of beans to choose from, layed out in baskets. then he roasted and ground (or not) the beans while you waited. lovely. just lovely.
of course this being a working class neighbourhood his shop barely lasted a year. now its a fast food sushi joint (fast food in japan is actually pretty healthy and tasty) and i buy my coffee at the supermarket like everyone else. pobre mio.
we spent the day looking for cool things to view under the microsope in the park then trying to figure out how to make slides out of the found objects. the park was FILLED with people playing in the cold. some kind of olympic related event going on in the track and field so we watched that for awhile and went home. we were all freezing by the time we got there cuz is very chilly lately (might even snow tonight. our annual day of snow in tokyo i think) but my lovely wife baked us a very very lovely apple stroodle...how much better can a sunday afternoon be?
i went to youtube to find professor longhair's version of 'rum and coke' which, despite not having dancing girls, would be much better.
too bad, didn't find it.
but, along the way, i DID find this, which is....well, inexplicable:
fess vs waylon
Damn! All this talk of apple strudel and coffee is making me hungry, and I just ate breakfast. I think french pressed coffee is by far the tastiest coffee I've ever had. I had some killer apple and cranberry crisp last night. The girl who made it said it was really easy to make and pretty healthy too. Perhaps I'll make my way to the grocery store and make my own. Maybe not... after all it's 7 degrees here.
@ tumbles... hope you feel better soon. Nothing worse than having the flu.
Time to watch the next installment of Archinect Travels
Nearly had a panic attack b/c the link I posted above got an error. Go here instead.
tuna- I would rather have seven degrees then this:
Weather for Minneapolis, MN
-12°F
Clear
Wind: W at 5 mph
Humidity: 64%
at least its bright and sunny!
yesterday, I added my high school to my facebook profile. Its nice that I only remember the good things about those folks. I never knew that the dad of one of my classmates was the founder of the utne reader. We've (mostly) grown up and become interesting folks - though half never left the boston area. The funniest picture is of a gay friend holding a baby- wtf is that supposed to mean? (he's the last person I'd expect to become a dad).
take the skyway. its got bums when its cold like anyother place.
vado - even the skyways are freezing. they don't got no heat between the buildings!
This morning I clicked on the Archinect banner ad for Gravity Free 2008. Has anyone gone to this in the past? It's a multidisciplinary design innovation conference in Chicago that brings together the worlds most diverse designers. It looks like Cameron was a speaker last year.
They have a really good registration incentive... They send you books from every speaker, as they line up the speakers. The earlier you register, the more books you are guaranteed to get. The only thing is that registration is $1650. Yikes.
It looks like a really great conference, just too expensive for most architects.
TK small world I went to school with the mother of your classmate. Actually they live in Minnesota these days, so your old classmate be kicking around in your woods.
DCA, thank you for posting that...Probably too expensive, but looks awesome.
anybody want to try for an archinect press pass for Gravity Free 2008? send paul an email...
listening to a tragic story about the argentine junta and their propensity of murdering mothers after giving birth to their babies and giving them to childless junta/military members. i wonder how much money we gave to them while they were disappearing tens of thousands of their citizens.
Antipode = 180
well only 30 or so million a year until the congress cut it off. until raygun got elected of course.fucking fascists.
One of my cronies turned 30 yesterday. We threw him a Talking Heads/Le Tigre dance party. I finally got in bed a few hours ago.
Body. So. Sore. Never. Drinking. Again.
press pass? hmmm. i've never written an article before, sounds interesting...
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