Good morning all.

SH et al is short for the latin phrase et alii, and literally means and others...
It is a way of alluding to other items, names etc in a list without actually listing them. (i studied Latin as part of my graduate studies although it has been a few years since i don't ever really use it now).

As far as juicy details fo....As i said there was some chemistry and i did get a birthday kiss, or two...

We will see what develops over the next few. I am hoping something.

Nam, since we are all interested in your love life, you should write a nice halequine for us all - and if any of its made up, don't tell us.

wK- I'll keep my tot away ;-)

I've always viewed TC as the meta thread- a place to discuss the memes and underlying dynamics of the archinect. Plus this is our town square, so an occasional soap box is enjoyed.


WWTCD - my boss asked to join my linkedin network. With my plan to bail in 6 months (an use of linkedin for the jobsearch), I'm not comfortable accepting the invite - yet. So how can I stall him if he asks me directly?

tk, my boss requested to join mine several months ago, and i accepted. i am planning to bail as well...soon enough...but i only have a rather minimal presence on linkedin, so i didn't think much of it...what's the worst that could happen if you accept, and move on in 6 months? [not a rhetorical question, i'm actually wondering!]

I can imagine your discomfort with that one, but remain calm and professional. Take your time, if he asks you tell him you rarely use linkedin (note at this point you will not have much time to stall). If asks why you are using it just say its for "professional networking." No one knows you are bailing (assides from everyone in the townsquare) so act accordingly.

Sarah I'd love to come to the party. What shall bring - some TC punch (aka whiskey)?

And Nam its the mouthstache...gets them everytime. Happy for you.

tunamelt, thanks for the complement on the urban farm entry... i'm trying to find some time to work on a more substantive entry about urban farming for my other blog... i'll post a link once it's up...

Techno, you should bring something I can't get here, so definatly something cultural.

I'm just angry. I have been for a few weeks. I'm not sure why. It's not an anger directed at anyone here, it's just a general anger at the world. You all know I like you. It's hard to explain, but I'm sure some of it has to do with politics, and more specifically, the politically incorrect members of my family. I'm trying hard to keep it out of my blog(s) though. I think I'm doing OK, so far.

I'm happy for nam though. And I do like your children. I just find it awkward trying to coo over them virtually.

Regarding the moustache and it's effects on the ladies. So i have been told. Although, i have also been compared by friends to Flanders....

Architphil, urban farming is a real interest of mine. Not so much in the actual growing but more the urban design/planning/policy perspective.
I am actually currently reading a real interesting book titiled CPULS on the subject.
http://www.archinect.com/schoolblog/entry.php?id=79245_0_39_0_C

WonderK I hope things get more cheery for you...

DubK, I have been angry at the world lately too. Part of me just wants the damn election to be over already and who cares what the result is!! because it's the not knowing that is stressing me out so much.

It's like I felt three weeks before my wedding, when I was sick to death of worrying and planning and thinking and just wanted the whole damn event behind me. That's how I'm feeling, x1,000.

Or, in another analogy, I don't watch sports because I get too stressed out about who is going to win and the loser being sad. I'm a freakin' wimp.

i'll look into that book nam... i'm just starting to get interested in urban farming as a small part of my larger interest in infrastructures... particularly my as yet unfounded, but intuitive thought that distributed networks of infrastructure can be much more efficient than centralized ones...

Totally agree with this intuition, phil.

Archit,
Yeah i think that concept is one of the basic ideas underlying landscape and infrastructural urbanism theory. Also it is more redundant and disaster ready, which is why you see it the deafult mode in IT and network infrastructures..

Is this like those renegade gardeners that garden on empty plots of land, or medians?

that isn't an intuition, but engineering truth - the transmission losses of centralized power generation are around 30% versus almost 0 for local use. Small engineering works tend to be more efficient then large - ie window ACs are have an EERE rating of 8 or 9, while large central plants are lucky to break 5 or 6 - its all those extra pumps, fans, friction and complexity of control.

SH- that is guerrilla gardening as our very own Heather Ring partakes in. Infrastructural urbanism creating urban conditions through the use of infrastructure - like transit oriented development. landscape urbanism is the use of landscape to generate urban conditions - central park in NYC is a prime example where the presence of the park defined the adjacent density. The other new urbanism is network urbanism, where access to the network creates the urban conditions (ie starbuck wifi spots) and is a variant of infrastructural urbanism.

well.... that is a preview of my seminar this spring. I gotta figure out how cerebral/theoretical versus pragmatic/applied formulas. I'd love to teach the students how to estimate solar energy generation for a project or amount of rainwater available to be harvested while reading Corner, Vernalis, Waldheim, and Mohsen Mostafavi.

Tree,
Sounds like you are more than ready for your students.
I imagien they are going to have a blast and learn alot.

I still need the go ahead from admin and a signed contract before I start blogging.

i like sarah's depiction better.
renegade gardeners that garden on empty plots of land

and, i am the only person on archinect wears a tie?

Sarah, sorry I previously gave you the wrong link. If you go to the school blogs I'm the only one listed under Other. But here is also [/url=http://www.archinect.com/schoolblog/blog.php?id=C0_482_39]a direct link[/url]

okallay doke-ally Nam

tk... at this point i'm calling it an intuition simply because i haven't started the research to back it up yet... so if someone called bullshit on me, i wouldn't really have any specific support for that position...

oA-

When I meet with folks more important then me, I wear a tie to show that I'm part of the establishment and can be trusted.

i wear ties...but i tend to forget to wear the pants part of the suit

I second TK,
Also when i am up for a eval/raise...

ties are much more fun as soon as you don't have to wear them

Architphil- it's a commonly know piece of electrical engineering and part of why the grid uses high voltage - cause there is the same voltage drop over a distance independent of the actual voltage. If you start adding in the transformers, the scrubbers & cooling towers at a typical remote power plant, they end up with less then 40% generation efficiency - prior to any transmission loss. If you can capture the 'waste heat' with cogeneration (simple to do in distributed generation), then you're up about 80% efficiency.

So a solar panel that gets 8% efficiency, just means that 8% of the 150w/m of solar energy gets converted into electricity - but you don't have the voltage drop/transformers that comes along with remote generation. Also solar PV panels have few of no moving parts and so have very low maintenance - just wash the panels off every now and then.

puddles- do you ever just wear a tie and socks?

why are people still talking about the 2008 us presidential election?

the writing has been on the wall for over a year now and it's obvious that obama will win a landslide. the more fun question is to start speculating on who will succeed president obama in 2016.

anybody think hillary will still be in the mix then? will jeb be ready to restore the bush dynasty by then? will palin take another shot at it? will mccain? will detroit's hip hop mayor kwame kilpatrick consider a run (he should be out of jail by then & looking for work)?

should be fun...i can hardly wait...should i start a thread now?

don't post links when you are sleepy

TK you can by all means teach me how to estimate solar energy generation, and...(checks the landscape urbanism bullshit generator) cultivate geographic methodologies But I'm not wearing a tie. I wear ties to funerals...actually I wear a suit to funerals. But only because I live in the tropics and think its inhumane to wear more than what is needed. I have a wedding in October (peak humidity) and am worried what to wear - full black says i'm architect but when I pass out from heat stroke what then?

Oh and I'm re-watching one of the videos we presented yesterday at school. Anyone familiar with Amelia? Its a modern ballet, that I would decribe as ballet meets the matrix

Wow!!! One busy day at work and you miss a lot. Let me see...

DubK and LB - I echo your sentiments completely. I have been moody for the past few weeks and am now completely on edge since the announcement of Sarah Palin as VP. I think it's partly b/c I feel so completely NOT in control of everything going on around me. That I must trust the judgement of others and quite frankly I don't trust the average American voter to make a decision. I am scared

TK - can I come sit at the back of your class? Sounds really intertesting. FUnny yuou should use the whole power generator example. My friend's father designs these grids and we were discussing the whole issue of loss of effectiveness/power the further you go out from the source. Seems like a rather duh-ism to me.

Atechno - didn't see anything wrong with your link. I'm confused

OA - if memory serves me right, our very own Vado Retro is a very dapper dresser and likes to wear suits often. I would only assume this includes a tie as well.

Architphil - urban farming. urban farming, urban farming. The phrase just excites me. Don't know why. I think it it partly has to do with the awesome idea bringing organic, healthy foods to the masses, but partly b/c the whole concept to me seems to be a great opportunity for communal growth. One of the main problems I think our society has is that we do not really know their neighbors. There is always this underlying attitude of mistrust of others amongst urban city dwellers and I cannot think of a better way to get to know one's neighbor but to cultivate of the same plot of land together. But that's just me.

Atechno - that video is amazing. I've always had a fascination with dance though. I can see where you get the matrix reference from. The only difference is is that the woman is actually holding those poses. It's not a freeze frame thing (slight twitches prove it), which I find even more impressive b/c my quads, hamstrings and toes scream just watching it.

I used to take the light rail train (MAX) from the east side into downtown Portland. It went past these long embankments at the side of the right of way in a less-well-off part of town that was heavily populated by Vietnamese immigrants. In the first few years of MAX's operation, you could see little garden plots all along the length of this embankment. In the intervening 20 years, that neighborhood has become fairly affluent, and *poof* the gardens are all gone. I loved the idea that they were eeking out a little extra free and fresh food on these leftover bits of land in the infrastructure.

Similarly, in Philly, old Chinese women would harvest the horrid-smelling ginkgo fruits as they fell off he street trees in fall. I've eaten stewed ginkgos; it was the second-worst-tasting thing I've ever put in my mouth.

stupid question probably for Wonder K or Tunamelt. I am a bit of trainspotter (rather difficult here since we don't have a working rail for the public); and was hoping when in OH to take a train ride (preferably with cab so I take a day or two journey). Is this a pipe dream? Will I likely be riding Amtrak in circles? I would be happy with a subway too... perhaps why the cities I love to visit all have great, smelly underground rails (Boston, London, NYC...)

Um, techno....you might be riding Amtrak in circles. There aren't too many rails in Ohio, except Amtrak between big cities and they are highly impractical. Please don't hold it against us, we're trying to do better :o(

techno... we have lots of trains, a subway, an el, and trolleys in philly! :)

WonderK is right. Not really all that many passenger trains here in Ohio. East Coast is where you want to be for that kind of stuff. Sorry.

for TeChNo!

the small scale powerstation thing is very timely. amazon just sent me book ad by e-mail cuz they thought i might be interested in this one. i am still thinking on it cuz i spent my book allowance getting books for the kids this month...

i do think there is a future in the idea though. understand why we have centralised power, historically. but maybe not necessary any more.

in the early 90's i was totally into living machines to clean waste as well so the infrastructure of cities would be freed from geography. my profs sooooo hated the idea back then, but the idea still lingers. some day. some day. we will ALL drink old toilet water.

and like it.

i have a dream....


i wore a tie last month. there was a suit involved too. i look good in a suit but feel like a doorknob. so jeans and nice shirt it is.

I'm doing a schoolmarm look today: black cigarette skirt, grey crewneck sweater, grey pearls, black hornrims. I'm not sure what this look says today.

Ties...I'm not a tie guy at heart. I did work with a guy who collected ties. He had a full array of wild crazy ties. I don't think I ever saw him wear the same tie twice. I have another friend who collects and wears bowties, again his collection has grown over the years. He got into it when his father-in law. A major mover and Shaker in the political world retired and put on his last Bow-tie, and gave them all to my friend. So since that day he has been wearing fricking Bow-ties, and damn he does look good in them. Kind of imagine John Lennon in a Boe Tie....and you have my friend. I have an ole Bolo-Tie of my dads which I keep around for conversation, but I never wear it. It is strangling a cermic pot in our living room, and people always ask about it because Bolo-ties aren't a big East Coast Thing.

jump-
we are all drinking dinosaur piss.

i just got out of my first class in 5 years... it was kinda strange to be back in the classroom as a student and not as a guest lecturer or critic... the class is a 700-level landscape architecture theory course w/ anita berrizbeitia... but it's crosslisted with a 400-level architecture course, so there were undergrads in the class which made it even stranger... it made me feel old...

liberty, you should give me a ring-a-ding today...i am out at 130

I never ride the trains when I was in Philly, I tried to catch one to/fro DC but we ended up taking a bus which sucked. Wonder K, Tunamelt if I can go between the major cities its not so bad (unless the journey is just through a scrap yard) - I take its not a long ride either but sometimes beggers can't be choosers.

for the SchooMarm!

Beta, I was afraid you were one of the ones locked up for protesting in St Paul. Glad to see you're free.

architphil- are you in LARP or dual degreed? Hmmm, so JDH isn't teaching landscape history this semester - does this mean he's retired? I heard that JC may be stepping down - or is this confused with penndesign getting a new dean?

free, for the moment.

Today I'm wearing my favorite dress. A flattering brown wrap number. Funny what happens when you actually dress up. A few people have asked why I'm so dressed up, if there is something special going on, Client meeting? Job interview? The receptionist and I asked, that why did it have to be something along the professional line? Why not a hot date? The assumption being that wouldn't I go home first to change? Not necessarily we both remarked. So now I think the wheels are turning. I find it all so entertaining. Keep them guessing I say.