wow, SNOW! lots of it. my wife called me during lunch yesterday and made (<!) me go out and get our girls' first sled - really just a plastic toboggan with high sides. looks like about 7-8" on the ground and roofs this morning. fun day! and it's still snowing!
the only downside is that i was supposed to see liberty bell today and that got cancelled. bummer.
i got a bonus check yesterday which was a rather pleasant surprise...i now think i will spend the weekend brushing my hair and pondering my good fortune
can't complain though. we just got back from day at zoo west of tokyo...is our 11th anniversary tomorrow and since we couldn't find babysitter my wife decided we should all just go to the zoo. was a brilliant day, perfectly comfortable with a sweater sort of thing...best of all the zoo is hooked up direct to the subway/train system, so we could travel by rail whole way...cross country travel can be fun, but sitting doing origami with daughters was quite nice. tokyo is just too kool, sometimes. the zoo itself was brilliant. we played with elephant pooh and watched super-kool leafcutter-ant ant farms and took ride through lion compound in jurassic park type of vehicle...
tomorrow we stay in to celebrate through family bakering...and absolutely not-quiet dinner together...still, i got my wife one of those necklaces that gehry designed for tiffany to mark ocassion...didn't plan to, but after looking at lots of stuff in city, it actually was nice value and plays on fringe of designed-oddity just a little, so even my wife can enjoy...hopefully.
Saturday....morning: got up late had breakfast (oatmeal) paid bills
going to shower go to post office then a client meeting at 11:00 pizza for lunch well maybe I should pass on the pizza but I know that is what the client will want to serve me since my client owns the pizza place....maybe I will just go for a meat ball grinder hold the cheese..
damn head colds.
happy saturday morning. i have news. i have been accepted to 2 ph.d. history/theory programs, michigan and mit. and i'm going to visit u michigan next weekend. and, while i'm there, i'm going to do a super fast visit to the grosse pointe public library, courtesy of archinecteur jafidler!
It's still snowing here. My street seems to have disappeared overnight. Only emergency vehicles allowed out on the streets now. Hmmm, I think it's time to bundle up and take a walk in this beautiful stuff.
Nothing but rain here, and lots of it. It began sometime yesterday afternoon, and still hasn't stopped yet. Looks like a good day to stick to indoor stuff.
LIG- I laughed heartily when I first saw that comic a while back. On that matter, anyone who is at all a geek should have http://xkcd.com/ in their list of daily bookmarks. (the title text for the image is usually pretty funny too)
So it's been like a month since I've posted. Bought a car, still getting adjusted to new job, having relationship troubles, blah blah.
I wish I had:
A) snow
B) rfuller's job. Why is it that all the multidisciplinary firms I talk to aren't interested in hiring multidisciplinary people?
because it's more profitable to have people who are specialists in one area each, and make them work together, instead of people who are each multidisciplinary. We like to think of multidisciplinary firms as somehow friendlier, but in the end they're all about the bottom line just like everyone else.
Whew - just finished shoveling my miniscual walkway and my driveway. I thought about waiting for the snow to end, butthat could potentially be after another 2" or 3" and that's a lot snow.
mana- if you'd like I could box some of it up and overnight it to you ;o) Hope the relationship issues blow over soon.
aml, that's amazing, congrats! We were just talking about those schools yesterday in a meeting that we were having about our newly approved PhD program that I was, ahem, participating in. And yes, I am considering it, but it would be not in the history/theory realm, but more like an extension of my own degree, which means building science. We were discussing the idea that at some point in the not-so-distant future, architects are going to have to have PhDs to be tenure-track faculty members, so we had better consider it if we want to teach. Do you agree with this?
i don't agree with the ph.d. requirement- i think schools need all sorts of faculty, and this type of requirement limits the range of tenure track faculty.
ps. but i have heard that rumour on the ph.d. requirement and although i'm doing a ph.d. because i really just want to, it is also because i know it will make me a stronger faculty candidate.
well, the key thing is that you need the same or higher degree as the one awarded by the program you teach. So schools who hire only Ph.D's will have the most flexibility in moving their faculty around and having them teach at any level. Otherwise they will have to juggle more variables with some faculty being qualified to teach only to a certain level.
On another note, I'm always amused by the similarities that pop up between me and DubK... I was on curriculum committee when they were developing the BS Arch (aka the catchall for those who can't take the BArch), but developing the Ph.D program sounds much more fun! I feel like they were mentioning the Ph.D as a future possibility when I was there, but it wasn't in actual planning yet at the time.
manamana, I absolutely love my job. I'm glad someone else can see the potential in it.
Unfortunately Mrs. rfuller and I had our first scare in 4 years this week. Thankfully there are no little rfullers on the way after all. But it did make me think about how poorly positioned I am financially for that next life move. I'm afraid I'm going to have to start looking for a more standard 9-5 with decent benefits in the very near future. Mrs. rfuller graduates in December and then sometime in 2009 I think we're going to start trying to make little rfullers. I'm going to continue working this dream job for right now, but I also have to start looking for a way to make the rest of my life happen.
Well, I have to go work on my MBA application some more. I hope all you TC'ers have a great weekend.
boston is full of rednecks. when i lived there back in the day i held this opinion. over drinks with one of my louisville based coworkers, who also lived there recently, she wholeheartedly agreed that boston is full of boston rednecks.
thanks, guys! i'm afraid it's going to be a super-fast visit, because michigan is paying the bill. this means i have a very detailed, very tight schedule, and am just flying in and out. i'm not used to having my plane ticket paid so i felt bad about trying to fit in an extra trip somewhere else. so it's going to be a weird trip, south america to michigan and back for just a couple of days. hopefully i won't freeze [right now we're in the hottest season of the year down here].
[crossed posts] well, i'm not making any decisions right now since there are several other schools that haven't answered yet [although they may all say no!]. but yes, i'm very familiar with mit, and well aware of its merits... which is why i'm taking advantage of this trip to get to know michigan better and make a fair comparison.
architectuer profs at my uni are almost all phd (gotta be moren 80%), or famous so it didn't matter. they are all licenced and most have offices. they are all also pretty tired, but clearly know what they are talking about when they do crits...the rigorous qualifications makes certain profs know how to work, but not so sure if it brings in leading edge type of individuals...and it definitely doesn't lead to them being (collectively) better educators...so i think phd as requirement is maybe not all it is cracked up to be...
our profession is odd that most people have to choose practice or academia before thiking about phd. in most others the choice comes after the phd...
hey nam, that part of the visit was just after our presentation to chuck & cams. I had a moment with them as they were leaving. I was standing in an open doorway. Prince Charles walks up stops, followed by Camilla looking at me alone in the doorway. I am trying not to make eye contact. The local rep steps in front, and the royal couple ask what is this place. The Governor chimes in "its a night club"...Prince of Wales: "oh that's why he's dressed that way!"
geez thanks chuck!
but I was able to talk with them after which was nice, nothing important like architecture or anything. But he's not as weird looking as he seems in print.
I'm worn out this weekend, and I can't seem to sleep for any length of time either. I'm just tired I guess.
Oh and we didn't get either walk through - i'll explain that one when I've had a scotch or two
be careful tuna. the er's are often full of victims of snowblindness after going out on a sunny snowy day after being inside for prolonged periods of time.
Daylight Savings time cost me an hour this morning. I usually don't
have client meetings on Sunday Morning, but I did this morning. Woke up at the same time but an hour later. Wacked my head on
Ellie the Cow Bell hanging in the Kitchen, cause one of the dogs jumping around knocked me off balance. Went to the meeting anyhow with a gash aross the brow of my head, client was kind enough not to mention anything. Had a good meeting completing
the design phase of this small renovation project so on to production.
Big winds last night and today.....it is full to listen to the Wind Howling!
Oh ya went to the store for the New York Times picked it up and it
seemed to be a bit on the thin side and really not as heavy as usual.
I just figured it was a light news week. I got home and damn if half of the sections were missing. So when I went to the client home I stopped back at the grocery store with paper in hand. I took a look
at the pile of papers and damn if they weren't all missing the same
sections. So I went to the service counter and complained to the teenager about the missing sections and she said well I guess that is all they sent us this week. I told her I paid $5.00 for a full New York Times not $5.00 for half of the New York Times. I told here all of the ones on display seemed to be missing the same sections so they should notify people before they bought the paper. She looked at me like I was nuts....so I guess there will be alot of unhappy people with half papers this weekend.
Came home from the client meeting and gave the dogs baths....
used some new oatmeal french bean scented forumla....so Now
I have two French Beans running around the house.
nice weather here in southland, which is part of the reason why it is so damn expensive to survive (note that i used 'survive' not 'live')here.
first day in a long time i don't feel like i have to do this or that except take daisy and rupi for a walk and check out couple of pretty lush modern architectural constructions slooowly going down the street. 4 times bigger and 3 times higher than the adjacent houses with all the expected details going on them, including acres of west exposure glass, butt jointed corner windows, additional volumes to break down the massing but instead even adding more, texture and material changes on the facade 10 times too many, and that abondoned construction site look since the real estate market coming down. there is no way these people will get their money back.
i will, after the walk, give the puppies (still pups after all those years) their first spring bath since it feels like spring with all the young birds chirping outside.
oh, i watched 'slaughterhouse five' this morning which i didn't for a long time. alex and i were just talking about dresden the other day, when paul took us out for lunch at a brazilian restaurant called wooden spoon in dowtown los angeles. i recommend the ws, specially pork burgers)
speaking of food, i have got some boneless chicken legs from japanese mitsuwa market down the street. i am going to turn them into thai mint chicken for dinner, tina says 'hi.'
thats what im talkin about! i am also lonely as my exgf/future wife is back at cambridge for a month to defend her phd, make any changes and pack the rest of her shtuff and she has no internets connection and we usually have long and supportive conversations on the weekend... oh and johnny rivers is really really really good.
how can something that big be green? maybe if ten families lived there, but it looks to be just an oversized fancy mcmansion for the typical 2.5 person rich west sider family.
it said, i think, marble architects. do you know who they are? i don't.
\i see so many of these around (or used to see before the market sank) i don't even look who the architect is anymore. they all read the same magazine. but if i verify it i'll post it.
of course that house is green...everythinh is these days as long as they spend an extra 20% on green carpet, green paint, etc...and if they finish on march 17 (st. Patrick's day) then extra green points for everybody! kermit frog was full of shit when he said that it wasn't easy being green.
Thread Central
wow, SNOW! lots of it. my wife called me during lunch yesterday and made (<!) me go out and get our girls' first sled - really just a plastic toboggan with high sides. looks like about 7-8" on the ground and roofs this morning. fun day! and it's still snowing!
the only downside is that i was supposed to see liberty bell today and that got cancelled. bummer.
i got a bonus check yesterday which was a rather pleasant surprise...i now think i will spend the weekend brushing my hair and pondering my good fortune
Steven your wife is brilliant. (Simply the fact that she married you proves that!) Have fun in the snow!
We only ended up with a couple inches here, enough to warrant staying inside and baking cookies.
snow sounds delish. cookies too.
can't complain though. we just got back from day at zoo west of tokyo...is our 11th anniversary tomorrow and since we couldn't find babysitter my wife decided we should all just go to the zoo. was a brilliant day, perfectly comfortable with a sweater sort of thing...best of all the zoo is hooked up direct to the subway/train system, so we could travel by rail whole way...cross country travel can be fun, but sitting doing origami with daughters was quite nice. tokyo is just too kool, sometimes. the zoo itself was brilliant. we played with elephant pooh and watched super-kool leafcutter-ant ant farms and took ride through lion compound in jurassic park type of vehicle...
tomorrow we stay in to celebrate through family bakering...and absolutely not-quiet dinner together...still, i got my wife one of those necklaces that gehry designed for tiffany to mark ocassion...didn't plan to, but after looking at lots of stuff in city, it actually was nice value and plays on fringe of designed-oddity just a little, so even my wife can enjoy...hopefully.
Saturday....morning: got up late had breakfast (oatmeal) paid bills
going to shower go to post office then a client meeting at 11:00 pizza for lunch well maybe I should pass on the pizza but I know that is what the client will want to serve me since my client owns the pizza place....maybe I will just go for a meat ball grinder hold the cheese..
damn head colds.
dear tc,
happy saturday morning. i have news. i have been accepted to 2 ph.d. history/theory programs, michigan and mit. and i'm going to visit u michigan next weekend. and, while i'm there, i'm going to do a super fast visit to the grosse pointe public library, courtesy of archinecteur jafidler!
enjoy your coffee!
Yay aml!!! Congratulations!
It's still snowing here. My street seems to have disappeared overnight. Only emergency vehicles allowed out on the streets now. Hmmm, I think it's time to bundle up and take a walk in this beautiful stuff.
Nothing but rain here, and lots of it. It began sometime yesterday afternoon, and still hasn't stopped yet. Looks like a good day to stick to indoor stuff.
LIG- I laughed heartily when I first saw that comic a while back. On that matter, anyone who is at all a geek should have http://xkcd.com/ in their list of daily bookmarks. (the title text for the image is usually pretty funny too)
So it's been like a month since I've posted. Bought a car, still getting adjusted to new job, having relationship troubles, blah blah.
I wish I had:
A) snow
B) rfuller's job. Why is it that all the multidisciplinary firms I talk to aren't interested in hiring multidisciplinary people?
because it's more profitable to have people who are specialists in one area each, and make them work together, instead of people who are each multidisciplinary. We like to think of multidisciplinary firms as somehow friendlier, but in the end they're all about the bottom line just like everyone else.
Whew - just finished shoveling my miniscual walkway and my driveway. I thought about waiting for the snow to end, butthat could potentially be after another 2" or 3" and that's a lot snow.
mana- if you'd like I could box some of it up and overnight it to you ;o) Hope the relationship issues blow over soon.
mana, welcome back!
aml, that's amazing, congrats! We were just talking about those schools yesterday in a meeting that we were having about our newly approved PhD program that I was, ahem, participating in. And yes, I am considering it, but it would be not in the history/theory realm, but more like an extension of my own degree, which means building science. We were discussing the idea that at some point in the not-so-distant future, architects are going to have to have PhDs to be tenure-track faculty members, so we had better consider it if we want to teach. Do you agree with this?
thanks, tunamelt and Wk!
i don't agree with the ph.d. requirement- i think schools need all sorts of faculty, and this type of requirement limits the range of tenure track faculty.
ps. but i have heard that rumour on the ph.d. requirement and although i'm doing a ph.d. because i really just want to, it is also because i know it will make me a stronger faculty candidate.
well, the key thing is that you need the same or higher degree as the one awarded by the program you teach. So schools who hire only Ph.D's will have the most flexibility in moving their faculty around and having them teach at any level. Otherwise they will have to juggle more variables with some faculty being qualified to teach only to a certain level.
On another note, I'm always amused by the similarities that pop up between me and DubK... I was on curriculum committee when they were developing the BS Arch (aka the catchall for those who can't take the BArch), but developing the Ph.D program sounds much more fun! I feel like they were mentioning the Ph.D as a future possibility when I was there, but it wasn't in actual planning yet at the time.
It seems to me that the BS Arch is a difficult degree to plan. It has a tendency to be described by what it isn't rather than what it is.
manamana, I absolutely love my job. I'm glad someone else can see the potential in it.
Unfortunately Mrs. rfuller and I had our first scare in 4 years this week. Thankfully there are no little rfullers on the way after all. But it did make me think about how poorly positioned I am financially for that next life move. I'm afraid I'm going to have to start looking for a more standard 9-5 with decent benefits in the very near future. Mrs. rfuller graduates in December and then sometime in 2009 I think we're going to start trying to make little rfullers. I'm going to continue working this dream job for right now, but I also have to start looking for a way to make the rest of my life happen.
Well, I have to go work on my MBA application some more. I hope all you TC'ers have a great weekend.
Manta, as someone with a BS Arch, I couldn't agree more.
congrats aml! ann arbor aint that far from indianastan!
Congrats, aml! I hope you like Ann Arbor. it is a fun little college town, and remember Cranbrook is only an hour away!
congrats aml!
boston, ahem, cambridge is a better college town. mit is an underappreciated school in architecture. and the weather is better.
boston is full of rednecks. when i lived there back in the day i held this opinion. over drinks with one of my louisville based coworkers, who also lived there recently, she wholeheartedly agreed that boston is full of boston rednecks.
anyway aml already knows this having gone to hahvahd.
thanks, guys! i'm afraid it's going to be a super-fast visit, because michigan is paying the bill. this means i have a very detailed, very tight schedule, and am just flying in and out. i'm not used to having my plane ticket paid so i felt bad about trying to fit in an extra trip somewhere else. so it's going to be a weird trip, south america to michigan and back for just a couple of days. hopefully i won't freeze [right now we're in the hottest season of the year down here].
[crossed posts] well, i'm not making any decisions right now since there are several other schools that haven't answered yet [although they may all say no!]. but yes, i'm very familiar with mit, and well aware of its merits... which is why i'm taking advantage of this trip to get to know michigan better and make a fair comparison.
way kool, aml! well done.
architectuer profs at my uni are almost all phd (gotta be moren 80%), or famous so it didn't matter. they are all licenced and most have offices. they are all also pretty tired, but clearly know what they are talking about when they do crits...the rigorous qualifications makes certain profs know how to work, but not so sure if it brings in leading edge type of individuals...and it definitely doesn't lead to them being (collectively) better educators...so i think phd as requirement is maybe not all it is cracked up to be...
our profession is odd that most people have to choose practice or academia before thiking about phd. in most others the choice comes after the phd...
good luck with other places aml!
Huzzah AML...
Also, Architechno, saw this and thought of you.
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have come face to face with the devastating sight of a modern day Pompeii during the latest leg of their royal tour of the Caribbean.
I'm just posting here right now because I don't think anyone else is awake. Maybe beta. Hi beta!
I dislike daylight savings time in March. :o(
I'm back from an 8 day trip to Ireland. I have much archinect catching up to do.
I am also now obsessed with Irish sheep. Oh and damn the euro.
welllcommmme baaa-aaa-ck
hey nam, that part of the visit was just after our presentation to chuck & cams. I had a moment with them as they were leaving. I was standing in an open doorway. Prince Charles walks up stops, followed by Camilla looking at me alone in the doorway. I am trying not to make eye contact. The local rep steps in front, and the royal couple ask what is this place. The Governor chimes in "its a night club"...Prince of Wales: "oh that's why he's dressed that way!"
geez thanks chuck!
but I was able to talk with them after which was nice, nothing important like architecture or anything. But he's not as weird looking as he seems in print.
I'm worn out this weekend, and I can't seem to sleep for any length of time either. I'm just tired I guess.
Oh and we didn't get either walk through - i'll explain that one when I've had a scotch or two
The sun is finally out. YAY!! Stupid snow emergencies have fallen by the wayside, so I can finally leave my house.
Atechno - funny story. Just what WERE you wearing to get that kind of comment? ;o)
be careful tuna. the er's are often full of victims of snowblindness after going out on a sunny snowy day after being inside for prolonged periods of time.
vado, I just l'ed. o. l. Thanks.
tuna it was what I wasn't wearing
Atechno - Your Architecture Sucks t-shirt? ;oD I'm guessing a jacket and tie.
Vado - LOL!!!!! How true, how true. don't worry I have my snazzy anti-snow blindness sunglasses ready and waiting.
Daylight Savings time cost me an hour this morning. I usually don't
have client meetings on Sunday Morning, but I did this morning. Woke up at the same time but an hour later. Wacked my head on
Ellie the Cow Bell hanging in the Kitchen, cause one of the dogs jumping around knocked me off balance. Went to the meeting anyhow with a gash aross the brow of my head, client was kind enough not to mention anything. Had a good meeting completing
the design phase of this small renovation project so on to production.
Big winds last night and today.....it is full to listen to the Wind Howling!
Oh ya went to the store for the New York Times picked it up and it
seemed to be a bit on the thin side and really not as heavy as usual.
I just figured it was a light news week. I got home and damn if half of the sections were missing. So when I went to the client home I stopped back at the grocery store with paper in hand. I took a look
at the pile of papers and damn if they weren't all missing the same
sections. So I went to the service counter and complained to the teenager about the missing sections and she said well I guess that is all they sent us this week. I told her I paid $5.00 for a full New York Times not $5.00 for half of the New York Times. I told here all of the ones on display seemed to be missing the same sections so they should notify people before they bought the paper. She looked at me like I was nuts....so I guess there will be alot of unhappy people with half papers this weekend.
Came home from the client meeting and gave the dogs baths....
used some new oatmeal french bean scented forumla....so Now
I have two French Beans running around the house.
indianapolis is boring and i am going to move somewherez else...
i've spent all day working on my tan...but it's still work...i'm definitely taking next sunday off to relax
nice weather here in southland, which is part of the reason why it is so damn expensive to survive (note that i used 'survive' not 'live')here.
first day in a long time i don't feel like i have to do this or that except take daisy and rupi for a walk and check out couple of pretty lush modern architectural constructions slooowly going down the street. 4 times bigger and 3 times higher than the adjacent houses with all the expected details going on them, including acres of west exposure glass, butt jointed corner windows, additional volumes to break down the massing but instead even adding more, texture and material changes on the facade 10 times too many, and that abondoned construction site look since the real estate market coming down. there is no way these people will get their money back.
i will, after the walk, give the puppies (still pups after all those years) their first spring bath since it feels like spring with all the young birds chirping outside.
oh, i watched 'slaughterhouse five' this morning which i didn't for a long time. alex and i were just talking about dresden the other day, when paul took us out for lunch at a brazilian restaurant called wooden spoon in dowtown los angeles. i recommend the ws, specially pork burgers)
speaking of food, i have got some boneless chicken legs from japanese mitsuwa market down the street. i am going to turn them into thai mint chicken for dinner, tina says 'hi.'
thats what im talkin about! i am also lonely as my exgf/future wife is back at cambridge for a month to defend her phd, make any changes and pack the rest of her shtuff and she has no internets connection and we usually have long and supportive conversations on the weekend... oh and johnny rivers is really really really good.
everything house that says it is green. this is the one i was talking about.
how can something that big be green? maybe if ten families lived there, but it looks to be just an oversized fancy mcmansion for the typical 2.5 person rich west sider family.
may I ask who the architect is on that? The style seems familiar...
it said, i think, marble architects. do you know who they are? i don't.
\i see so many of these around (or used to see before the market sank) i don't even look who the architect is anymore. they all read the same magazine. but if i verify it i'll post it.
no, I don't know them. I was thinking it looked like KAA, except for that one diagonal form.
of course that house is green...everythinh is these days as long as they spend an extra 20% on green carpet, green paint, etc...and if they finish on march 17 (st. Patrick's day) then extra green points for everybody! kermit frog was full of shit when he said that it wasn't easy being green.
Is that seriously a 1 family house, Orhan? It does look rather large.
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